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June 26, 2002

CNN: Pledge of Allegiance ruled

CNN: Pledge of Allegiance ruled unconstitutional

Bush has already come out against this ruling and the Republicans will probably turn it into an election issue. Here's my take:

Most Americans would disagree with the ruling. Politicians will follow the money and the majority - against the court. This is why we have the court system.

The courts are responsible for interpreting the Constitution. The courts protect the minority from the majority when the executive and legislative branches will not do so.

And in this case the minority has a point. We cannot pretend to have true separation of church and state if public school students are assumed to believe in a monotheistic god. And who are we to claim that ours is a Nation "under God"?

Posted by sam at 11:13 PM

WorldCom Inflated Cash Flow by

WorldCom Inflated Cash Flow by 3.8 billion

Can you guess who was their auditor?

Who needs Al Qaeda? Arthur Andersen is going to bring down Western civilization all by themselves.

Posted by sam at 02:58 PM

June 25, 2002

Breean sent me an article

Breean sent me an article from the NY Times called The Reality Thing.

For the distinctive feature of all the programs the administration has pushed in response to real problems is that they do little or nothing to address those problems.

Problems are there to be used to pursue the vision. And a problem that won't serve that purpose, whether it's the collapse of confidence in corporate governance or the chaos in the Middle East, is treated as an annoyance to be ignored if possible, or at best addressed with purely cosmetic measures.

It's worth a read.

Posted by sam at 07:03 PM

June 21, 2002

PwC Consulting changes its name

PwC Consulting changes its name to 'Monday'. 'Scuse me?

I hope nobody got paid in actual US dollars to come up with that. Costa Rican colones, maybe, but not real money. Monday? Does it have any positive connotations? Who likes Mondays?

Oh well. They'll probably go bankrupt in a few years anyway.

Posted by sam at 05:27 PM

June 20, 2002

Now back to your regularly

Now back to your regularly scheduled programming...

From the NY Times: Ernst & Young tells rich clients how to avoid paying taxes.

Is this a surprise? Didn't everyone see The Firm?

Posted by sam at 04:48 PM

Happy Birthday to me! Can

Happy Birthday to me!

Can you believe it? I'm even late wishing myself a happy birthday. Thanks for all great cards and gifts.

For the record, I decided that I would turn 24 again this year.

Posted by sam at 04:00 PM

June 10, 2002

A company called Etherlinx wants

A company called Etherlinx wants to "blanket entire urban regions" with high-speed wireless Ethernet.

Is anyone concerned about the health dangers? There's no way to 'opt out' of the blanket of electromagnetic radiation now covering our cities. Do we really know if it poses a threat? How could we? We don't even know if cell phone usage is bad for the brain.

We need to ask if this is really worth the risk. Personally, I don't want my child growing up in this environment.

Posted by sam at 05:13 PM

June 05, 2002

Palo Alto is turning into

Palo Alto is turning into a third-world country:

"A water disruption on Page Mill Road water main is affecting everything west of foothill expressway. Repairs are anticipated to be complete between 8:00 -10:00 pm."
[see my earlier post when an city power transformer went down]

Posted by sam at 05:53 PM

June 04, 2002

Pyramid Scheme Dot Com: How

Pyramid Scheme Dot Com: How I Realized The Internet Bubble Was A Pyramid Scheme

This guy worked for two years as an analyst at the Technology Group at CSFB. Overall it's a great read. He loses my respect at the end though, when he says that in future articles he'll tell you how "to time a bubble on the way up and the way down" [his emphasis]. Is it still a bubble if everyone knows it's a bubble? Of course.

Posted by sam at 06:24 PM

June 03, 2002

A recent article in the

A recent article in the New Yorker claims that Samurai Jack is the most subversive, compelling cartoon on TV today. I haven't seen it.

Oh Matt, how could you let this happen to The Simpsons?

Posted by sam at 01:02 PM

June 02, 2002

My house was sold -

My house was sold - gotta move by June 23rd. A studio or 1 BR in Palo Alto/Mountain View/Los Altos would be ideal. Please let me know of anything!

Posted by sam at 08:12 PM