Jay Maynard

This past Sunday night, under cover of darkness, Chicago Mayor Richard Daley had bulldozers protected by armed police officers destroy the runway at Meigs Field. Meigs is best known, these days, as the airport that people starting out in Microsoft Flight Simulator fly out of. The Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association has several stories on the destruction at their web site.

Here's the letter I sent to Mayor Daley's office:

Your destruction of Meigs Field under cover of darkness on a Sunday night is despicable. If you were truly concerned about it, you would not have agreed to keep the airport open in 2001; you would not have accepted federal airport funds to keep the airport open and improve it; and you certainly would not have hidden your actions in this cowardly manner. I can only believe that you continue to be reelected to the Chicago mayor's office because the Chicago political machine that was notorious for keeping your father in office is working as strongly as ever.

I hope that the City of Chicago loses large lawsuits to the people whose aircraft you have stranded at Meigs, and that Boeing - who cited Meigs' presence as one big reason for moving to Chicago in the first place - changes their plans and moves to a city that's friendly to aviation.

I realize that you don't care much what someone from Fairmont, Minnesota thinks of you or your city. I'll be surprised if this email is actually read by the mayor instead of a staff flunky. Nevertheless, I couldn't let my outrage at this cowardly action go unremarked on.

I've been trying to update my information with Salomon Smith Barney so I can have the 9 shares of Hewlett-Packard I own through the stock purchase plan transferred to my name. I faxed in a change-of-address form two Fridays ago. I called today to verify that it had been received. I don't know if it was or not...because, last night, HP sent in a file of addresses for its employees, and included me - at my old address. ARGH!

They suggested I set up a brokerage account somewhere and transfer the shares directly to that account, in my name, which could be done 1) for free and 2) in 5 days, without waiting once again for the address update cycle. Since one goal of this is to trade a share of HPQ for some small number of shares in XM Satellite Radio, I'll see if I can accomplish that. Once that's done, then I'll get the shares issued as a stock certificate, just so I can hold it in my hand.

In the meantime, I called HP and got my address updated with them. They couldn't tell me why they were still sending my name and address to the plan administrators two years after I'd left the company, though.

Forwarded from alt.books.tom-clancy:

SAN JOSE, Calif. - With his sister carrying his duffel bag and his mother holding his hand, a 20-year-old Marine reservist surrendered to the military Tuesday and declared himself a conscientious objector.

Wearing camouflage fatigues, Lance Cpl. Stephen Funk turned himself in at the locked gates of the Marine Corps reserve center where he was assigned, weeks after refusing to report when called up to active duty.

"They don't really advertise that they kill people," Funk said. "I didn't really realize the full implications of what I was doing and what it really meant to be in the service as a reservist."


I'm speechless.

From this story at ZDnet UK:

Cindy Cohn, an attorney with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, which submitted a brief on behalf of Hamidi, said the case threatens Internet communications of all types.

"If the court upholds the ruling, I think in some way we have broken the Internet," she said. "It will create an Internet in which your attempt to communicate with people is dependent on their consent."

Duh! If it's not consensual email, IT'S SPAM!

This is why I refuse to support the EFF. Until they realize that spam is destroying the usefulness of email far more than their bogeymen ever hope to, and stop opposing effective measures to stop it, they wont' see a dime of my money.