$50 Citizenship

Some American Indian tribes have starting selling tribal papers to illegal immigrants for $50 or more. Of course the papers offer no real claim to citizenship and the tribes involved have been investigated in the past for similar scams. But still I love the irony of Native Americans selling American citizenship for twice what they got for Manhattan.

Link

The Kids Don't Like It

I have seen a huge rash of bulletins on Myspace lately all talking about questioning the current government and political activism. I usually cringe at these sort of posts. They typically are very one sided, under researched if not borderline conspiracy, and very often do little more than fire off insults at the Bush administration. But these have been a little different. More like rallying calls to our generation to start looking around and really participating in the democratic process. I also know some of the posters well enough to trust their intentions and judgement on these topics more than the next guy. I hope this is a trend that continues to grow amongst the younger generation. Heck, maybe someday it will even be cool to be into politics.

WikiScanner

There is a Reuters article (here) about Wikipedia topics being edited by people using CIA and FBI computers.

People using CIA and FBI computers have edited entries in the online encyclopedia Wikipedia on topics including the Iraq war and the Guantanamo prison, according to a new tracing program.

According to the article the changes where found using WikiScanner. The program allows people to track the computers that were used to make changes to Wikipedia. The changes seem to be fairly harmless. Mostly expanding on provided information and not removing info or censoring entries. But I am always a little suspicious of government agencies mucking with information and the media. Not to mention that this more than likely violates Wikipedia's rules on contributing to entries where a conflict-of-interest may occur.

I am torn on how bad this really is. I think most people would admit that the government has at least some control over mass media. And I think more Americans are going to get their information from Fox or CNN than Wikipedia. While Wikipedia may have more clout being billed as an encyclopedia. I would say the people who would take a wiki as gospel would believe the same information from a TV program or news paper. In the end it is in the hands of each individual to filter and double check the information we are being feed each and every day.

Is That Your Bach Or Maybach?

I perform some basic desktop and network support for Mercedes-Benz on Wednesdays. Not the most exciting contract I have ever been on but there are some perks. Hot Pockets in the lunch room, use of the executive bathroom, and the occasional chance to drive a fancy car. Today I got to drive a 2007 Maybach 62. Now, I am no car guy by any stretch but this was a pretty cool car. It had all the fancy features you would expect in a high end luxury car. By far my favorite were the curtains in the rear windows and the voice recognition system. You can do almost everything just by talking to this car. It drove real nice and starting at $390,000 I am thinking of getting one once my Toyota Matrix dies...ha!! Also they had 12 of these at the warehouse I was at.

No More Free Italian Sausage

Today my wife did what most of us can only dream about, she quit her job! Cathy left her job as Assistant Administrator at a local Italian restaurant to work for herself. She is going to be home to start work on the snake business, Charm City Snakes, and will be running her own business selling Jafra skin care products. She would play down the importance of the latter but I think this should be a point of pride. Even with all the advances in woman's rights it is still harder out there for a female entrepreneur than it is for a man. But in a matter of months she has grown her business and become self employed. So here is a big congrats and good luck to Cathy in all of her future business ventures. She will need it, after all I have convinced her selling snakes with me is a good idea! I love you and I am very proud of you!