I was reading a news article yesterday and came across the following comment:

“The best way to save the Republican Party now is to destroy it. In the marketplace of ideas, social conservatism is a viral infection contaminating the GOP. It represents an evolutionary dead-end whose logical conclusion is fascism if not outright totalitarianism. Is it not obvious that the imposition of the evangelical ideology–any fundamentalist ideology for that matter–lies in direct opposition to a free people in a democratic land? Our Constitution, specifically the separation of church and state, no longer serves as a bulwark against the morality police, who seek to impose faith-based notions such as creationism upon those of us with rational minds. Social conservatives aim to constrain freedom of thought, freedom of choice, freedom to pursue happiness. These freedoms live at the heart of an entrepreneurial and economically strong America. No doubt, the diktat the social conservative movement wishes to impose upon ALL us Americans is antithetical to a free market system, and therefore exists as hypocrisy within the Republican platform. Privatize profits, socialize losses, and make religion the opiate of the masses. Indeed, this has been a dark eight years of Orwellian doubletalk. Enough! I’m a Reagan Republican and I’m voting for Libertarian Bob Barr.”

I really agree with Mr. Smart American and I thought I’d share.

I found this picture last night on MyConfinedSpace.com and laughed pretty hard. Being a lolcat and Cthulhu fan, I just found it hilarious.

Holy shit do I love seeing the number 666. Not only does it instill fear in the hearts of mindless idiots who subscribe to organized superstition, but it’s such a cool number! Ah, the endless numerological possibilities. Anyway, today I noticed that the NASDAQ was down $6.66 so I thought I’d capture the moment.

I’ve been in Boston for the 6th Annual eBay Developer’s Convention. This is the fifth year I’ve attended. It’s always a pleasure to hobnob with people in my industry and generally hang out with people smarter than myself. Tonite was the traditional private event. Last year was at the top of the Mandalay Bay on the outside patio. The usual, open bar, flowing hors d’oeuvres and the chatter. Tonite’s was at the LTK — Legal Test Kitchen. It’s a great little place down at the seaport of Boston. The food was great.

It’s great how the evening starts where everyone talks about their web site or application and how it works. Sure, some are guarded with secrets and what not as we are mostly competitors. But down deep, we’re all geeks. And geeks like to “geek out”. And, if you pour a little liquor into that mix, well, things turn away from work to more traditional (and non-traditional) conversation. That’s my favorite. I’m tired of talking about work, my company, our technology, why we’re better, yada, yada, yada. Everyone needs to use our system, we’re the best, period. OK?

Anyway, I met some cool folks tonite. One was Alex Barnett from Bungee Labs. They’ve developed a way-cool browser based, drag and drop IDE for developing applications that utilize the eBay API. You can build widgets/plug-ins/components in their tool that you can license to other tool users on a pay-per-use basis. Very interesting stuff.

Also talked with the usual suspects from eBay. Most notably is Alan Lewis who is an eBay Evangelist. He’s heading up the San Dimas project. This is a tool built in Adobe’s new Apollo system. I think they’ve actually renamed Apollo to AIR, but I’m not sure.

Long time colleague at PayPal, Patrick Breitenbach and his fiancee joined us for a while.

Finally I talked mostly with Garry Heath from DealTree. They do logistics management and private marketplaces. Very interesting dude, had lots to talk about.

I found this blog post pretty entertaining. A woman who works in a bar posts on her blog pictures of fake IDs which she confiscates. Apparently she received a letter from her web host that she was violating the DMCA and had to remove the photo. Read about it here.

I read that headline today regarding MSN. I thought while funny, it was quite apropos.

I’ve felt for a few years now that Microsoft would join forces with a search engine conglomerate to bolster their media hold. I did honestly feel that Google would make a better merger and an unstoppable combination. But I guess the antitrust lawyers would have a field day with that and it would cost a fortune in legal fees. So Yahoo is the next logical choice.

This merger, should it go through, is step one in the giant battle of Internet Armageddon. Step two is when Google and eBay merge. Then the two giants fight to the death. There can be only one…