Why do I feel like I’m in a life-long struggle with email.

With all the possibilities of technology, email applications just aren’t very smart. It seems like once a year, whatever application I use, it takes a poop on my hard drive and I have to reinstall. What are those account passwords again?

So what’s the best email application? I’m not talking about Gmail either. I’m talking pop3.

Outlook
Outlook Express
The Bat!
Thunderbird
Eudora

You tell me.

He’s standing in front of me talking, but I’m having trouble hearing what he is saying.

He is tragically hip. Likes to be seen, but won’t be remembered.

Simply, the best guitar music I’ve ever heard. All acoustic.

Get to iTunes and check it out. You’ll thank me.

I’m not really going to go on about Tookie Williams. He was found guilty of crimes he still says he did not commit, and he may not have actually founded the Crips, as he claims.

What I found interesting was the impossible place Gov. Arnie found himself in last week when weighting clemency options.

If there is one issue I have no clear opinion on, it’s the death penalty. I don’t think it acts as an effective deterrent, but I think there are crimes that command the ultimate punishment. In other words, a member of the Crips may shoot someone regardless of if the death penalty. And while I think that few crimes should get the death penalty, someone should plug Andrea Yates into the nearest wall outlet right away.

But I’m getting away from my point. Last week pundits on both sides of the issue argued about what Gov. Arnie needed to do.

Boy was he stuck.

I tried to think about what I would do if I was in that position. If I was holding a pen in my hand, and I knew I could use that pen to stop a man from dying, I’d want to do it. Despite the crime, I’d likely sign the paper to convert the sentence to life in jail. (How perfectly liberal of me, eh?)

But then it dawned on me how disrespectful of the Justice system that would be. What gives the Governor the right to undo years of Justice system review? Years of trials, juries, appeals, Supreme Court reviews… and the Governor can just toss that aside and change the punishment. To me, that strikes as being disrespectful all the Judges and juries that heard the case.

I’m going to guess that Gov. Arnie didn’t know who Tookie Williams was until last week. Yet he held the history of the case in his hands.

What an awesome and troubling thing it must be to know you have that power, with the stroke of a pen.

This month President Bush sent out 1.4 million happy “holiday season” cards to his close friends and supporters.

While some enjoy a card from the President, the Christian right is outraged.

“This clearly demonstrates that the Bush administration has suffered a loss of will and that they have capitulated to the worst elements in our culture,” said William A. Donohue, president of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights.

“…capitulated to the worst elements in our culture.” What elements are those? Jews? Muslims? Anyone who isn’t a Christian?

I’m really sick and tired of the (supposedly) loving, charitable Christian religion showing utter intolerance for anyone that isn’t exactly like them.

When the video iPod was first launched, I thought it would be a good idea for iTunes to add some programming from the SciFi channel, especially Battlestar Galactica. I thought it would provide just the perfect niche audience of early adopters.

Apple has now done just that. They have made a new deal with NBC, bring many new shows online for download, including Battlestar Galactica.

Thus the metric system did not really catch on in the States, unless you count the increasing popularity of the nine-millimeter bullet.

– Dave Barry

Does this picture illustrate the effect of global warming, or just demonstrate that we now have more room to drill for oil?

So it’s gifting time. Time to track down gifts for friends, family, kids, and my wife.

Do I buy the safe things? The stuff she’s been dropping hints about over the past two weeks?

Or do I go daring and get something from Adam and Eve or MyPleasure? Obviously a gift from one of those two places can’t be given with family around.

Imagine that scene. Sitting around with in-laws opening gifts, her mom leans over and says, “What did Mark get you? Oh, a jelly vibrator… leather straps… how… thoughtful…”