What’s even cooler is if you open the map and use the “Add to Home Screen” option, it essentially functions as an app, but since it’s still just a link to the map, it will automatically be updated whenever new places are added.

In case anyone else is interested in this little trick, here’s the URL for the map: http://g.co/maps/25ntj.

News. Truth. Common Sense. Inspiration.

If you can’t stand mainstream media sources (I’m talking to you ABC/BBC/CBS/CNN/Fox/MSNBC/NBC/NPR/NYT) that never talk about the real issues and never give real solutions, check these out:

1. Free Talk Live

   “This show is about Liberty with a capital L.”

2. Survival Podcast

   “Helping you live the life you want, if times get tough, or even if they dont.”

3. Wall St. Unspun with Peter Schiff

   Weekly market news broadcast in support of sound money, limited government, and free market capitalism.

Old media is dead. Independent news is our only hope.

Thanks to my friend Tim for pointing me to 2 of these!

They’re exposing their users to only 2 out of 6 candidates which means they’re only giving us 30% of our options! This is not acceptable.

• Where is Chuck Baldwin?
• Where is Ralph Nader?
• Where is Cynthia McKinney?
• Where is Bob Barr?

Here’s the quick and easy way to take action:

• Email them via this contact form. Be sure to point out that they’re including only 2 out of 6 candidates, and they owe it to their members to include ALL candidates on the ballot, including the Constitution Party, Green Party, Libertarian Party, and Independent candidates.
• Pass this on!

We all have issues with Myspace, I know, but the fact remains that millions of voters look at this page and may otherwise have no idea there are 4 other options.

DEMAND that ALL candidates be included!

“The argument that the two parties should represent opposed ideals and policies, one, perhaps, of the Right and the other of the Left, is a foolish idea acceptable only to doctrinaire and academic thinkers. Instead, the two parties should be almost identical, so that the American people can ‘throw the rascals out’ at any election without leading to any profound or extensive shifts in policy.”

- Carroll Quigley from “Tragedy and Hope: A History of the World in our Time”

I used to view this issue as one of absolute necessity and importance. Something MUST be done, or else we’re left with this in our future:

That’s definitely no good.

While part of me is secretly glad that Comcast was punished for their questionable business practices, one must keep in mind that the FCC is a federal agency and Comcast is a publicly-owned company. The U.S. Constitution says nothing about the federal government meddling in the affairs of businesses (it also says nothing about using these companies to spy on Americans, but that’s a whole other matter.)

Of course I don’t agree with their business practices and I’m very glad they aren’t my ISP. However — in a Free Market we wouldn’t need government intervention to deal with this sort of problem, we would simply leave them as a customer. Alas, we quite obviously do NOT live in a Free Market society and telecommunications monopolies are a bitter reality. In my apartment complex, for example, the only cable/internet option is Time Warner. Which means either I pay their outlandish price every month or I get static.

The issue of Net Neutrality is a perfect example of how the Free Market could be used to solve consumer problems instead of asking the government for help. Instead of being forced to put up with whatever sketchy access Comcast decided to give its customers, people could simple choose another ISP. Another bonus– the Free Market doesn’t eat up our tax dollars.

“…the more I am around this generation of college students, the more I am both baffled and impressed.

I am impressed because they are so much more optimistic and idealistic than they should be. I am baffled because they are so much less radical and politically engaged than they need to be.”

My first thought — I wish he would address the effectiveness of this “traditional” activism that so many, including Friedman, seem to desire.

After reading about electronic civil disobedience (ECD), I started taking into account the decentralization of power and the need to adapt activist strategies accordingly. We no longer take to the streets like people did en masse in the 60′s, that’s quite obvious. Okay, sometimes we do. On the weekends. After weeks of planning. Wow, what spontaneous and effective actions those are, look what we’ve changed! But even if we did drop everything, walk out from our day jobs, and storm onto the streets like we see happening in our dreams of revolution, do those that have the power to make important changes even care? Are we really taking away their power by occupying the streets anymore, and isn’t that the whole idea? From my basic research and reading, the idea of ECD is that the streets no longer stand for what they used to. We still have ominous marble structures and riot-gear clad police officers looming around that symbolize power, but they are only facades. The real power is running through the underground channels, between banks, behind closed doors, through the phone lines. We are no longer interrupting the status quo like we used to by filling the streets with signs and chants. It is this very reason I’m no longer convinced that getting a million people in DC will mean anything anymore. It’s a sad realization and I would love for someone to convince me otherwise.

“The Iraq war may be a mess, but I noticed at Auburn and Ole Miss more than a few young men and women proudly wearing their R.O.T.C. uniforms. Many of those not going abroad have channeled their national service impulses into increasingly popular programs at home like “Teach for America,” which has become to this generation what the Peace Corps was to mine.

It’s for all these reasons that I’ve been calling them “Generation Q” — the Quiet Americans, in the best sense of that term, quietly pursuing their idealism, at home and abroad.”

I think he “misunderestimates” the power of the change in perspective which is illustrated by the growing number of people doing national service.

Yes this is particularly close to me since I did AmeriCorps. But devoting years of your life to national service is not a “quiet” undertaking whatsoever. It is not passive, it is not ineffective, it is not easy. Indeed, it was the most eye-opening thing I’d ever done at that point in my life. It allowed me to see and experience first-hand what our government’s policies do to the infrastructure of our country. It allowed me to develop myself so I could do what little I could to help the children that are having their lives fu—ed over by endless war and corruption, with no money and no focus left over for their future after we’ve paid for all our bombs. The fact that so many college students are doing Teach for America and Peace Corps is HUGE. It’s a first step in realizing there’s a whole world out there and we are all connected. Doesn’t he realize what that shift in perspective means? For students to be opening their eyes to that? Yes, maybe some just do it for their resumes and because it’s safer than going to war. The point is, they’re doing it. They can control their motivation for going in, but I firmly believe they can’t control the way service affects them and the way their lives are changed on their way out.

“America needs a jolt of the idealism, activism and outrage (it must be in there) of Generation Q. That’s what twentysomethings are for — to light a fire under the country. But they can’t e-mail it in, and an online petition or a mouse click for carbon neutrality won’t cut it. They have to get organized in a way that will force politicians to pay attention rather than just patronize them.

Martin Luther King and Bobby Kennedy didn’t change the world by asking people to join their Facebook crusades or to download their platforms. Activism can only be uploaded, the old-fashioned way — by young voters speaking truth to power, face to face, in big numbers, on campuses or the Washington Mall. Virtual politics is just that — virtual.”

Yes, we are the Q Generation. Correct, Facebook is not going to stop Global Warming. But there is vast power in the technology that such pseudo-actions are built on, it just needs to be realized.

There is a line by Ani DiFranco that I love, “every tool is a weapon, if you hold it right.” Well, to me that’s what technology is. Right now it’s very empowering, I mean look at how much information we have thrown at us. But information alone is not enough. And it’s to our detriment in many senses because it creates another layer of separation. We can read as many articles about melting ice caps and genocide as we want, but despite how well-written and true-to-life these articles may be, in the end they are still just pixels on a screen. They are not felt— breathed— touched— REAL to us. We don’t smell the smoke from the burning villages. We don’t hear the cries of children pierce the after-bomb silence. We don’t stand in the puddles of melting glaciers. These stories are only as palpable as the ones about OJ or Paris and therefore they’re just as easily tossed aside and forgotten. What Friedman is missing in his article is the next step. How to take this environment of energy and technology that Generation Q is living in — and make it REAL? Then, I believe, people will act.

Also worth noting, I think, is the fact that the way our children are raised these days, with such sick emphasis given to higher education.. no wonder they can only be concerned with their collegiate bubble!

All kids hear about is doing well in school… so they can get into a good college… so they can get a good job… so they can, so they can, so they can, on and on! Though it’s disappointing, the lack of motivation is understandable to me. It seems as early as kindergarten kids are thrown into this culture of competition in the ultimate quest for the almighty dollar and “the good life” where self-worth is only attained upon graduation. We are foolish to act surprised by the end result.

To end on a good note, I think Friedman has the foundation of the argument right, because most importantly— Generation Q GIVES A DAMN, and that is not something to be taken lightly.

That is the crucial foundation on which to build. But that’s the key word: “build.” Effective activism in 2007 is something that still needs to be cultivated and realized. Whether that’s utilizing effective practices from the 60′s, growing/inventing something entirely new, or creating a diverse mix of practices, old and new — it’s obvious that something is needed to fill the void.

In the end, of course, this is just another collection of easily dismissed thoughts and pixels, the opinion of a 20-something quiet activist web geek, and there is every possibility I’ve missed his point entirely because I’m one of those he is writing about.

Here’s my personal scenerio: I have a RiseUp.net account, and though I have nothing but love for them and their support of progressive activism, their webmail understandably doesn’t come close to Gmail. I also have two email accounts for Columbus911Truth.org (using GoDaddy’s email server), and again— its webmail doesn’t even compare. And I have another account for work— and, you guessed it, the webmail interface can’t compete. But now they don’t have to feel inferior because they’re all together in Gmail!

It was a little overwhelming and disorganized at first as it imported all the Inbox messages from the newly added accounts (something to pay close attention to, I suggest making sure the “Leave a copy of retrieved message on the server.” box is checked until you’re positive you want to make the switch, that way none of your messages are permanently moved from the original account.) After I got everything sorted out, marked as “read”, etc., I set up filters so that only emails sent to my actual Gmail address go to the Inbox. Everything else skips the Inbox and goes to its corresponding folder (“label” in Gmail-speak.) So for example, when I’m at work I just click on the work label and it only shows those messages. It really is possible to have 5 emails accounts totally organized and living together peacefully!

Something worth mentioning, when you send emails from the newly added accounts, it actually sends it through that email’s SMTP server, so it’s not just masking the “From:” address. (So they say anyway, but I tested it and it sure looked real to me!)

Gmail Notifier is another bonus. I didn’t have that option for any of my other accounts, but this way it covers them all.

A couple things to watch out for: make sure you understand the “leave copy of message on server” setting, and make sure you have the right POP settings. Gmail will try to guess what the settings are based on the address you enter, but it’s not psychic so you may need to do some Googling to get the right server address and port number. And it has to be POP, no support for IMAP yet. “Yet”, I hope, is the key word. :-)

To sum up: Gmail rules. And I have reaffirmed my geekiness by how excited I was about this today. Oh— there’s a prize for whoever counts how many times I said “Gmail” in this post. That last one doesn’t count.

I’d like to pose a question to my readers in the hopes they can shed some light on my confusion. I get about 40 spam comments every day to peacechicken.com but because I moderate all submissions, you lovely people never have to see them. However, 80% of them go something like this (an actual comment I received today):

Name: ambien without prescription
URI: http://ambienq.czytajto.pl/excerpt=news
IP: 64.202.165.132
Body: ambien without prescription…

My question is… if I were to approve this comment and someone were to stumble upon it, would they actually think “Hey check it out! I can buy prescription medication from some sketchy internet site that makes its business by spamming people!”

I just don’t get how spammers ever get anything out of all the effort they put into it. Whether it’s spam blog comments or spam emails. I get the logic of the phishing ones, the stock “tips”, and the whole “I’m a Prince from Guatemala and you won a $200,000,000 UK lottery but first you must send me $500” because unfortunately there are a lot of stupid people out there with no business touching a computer. But this whole comment spam thing and really just spam in general, I don’t get it!!! Who is falling for it and making the spammers enough money to keep going! I really thought by 2007 this junk would kill itself off but that doesn’t seem to be happening.

On that note, I’m off to find/install a new anti-spam WordPress plugin and afterwards try to find a cheap source of Xanax!

From the Associated Press: “Federal regulators warn that combining rivals Sirius Satellite and XM Satellite Radio will be a tough process, since there’s already a provision barring both satellite radio licenses from being owned by the same company.”

As an XM subscriber, I’m not sure how I feel about this yet. Since when did the FCC actually stand up against market monopolization? Telecommunications Act of 1996 anyone?

Worth noting: Kevin Martin, the chairman of the FCC, has quite a history before the FCC, including being a hugely successful telecommunications lobbyist. He is also a BIG opponent of Net Neutrality, he did everything in his power to approve the recent merger of AT&T and BellSouth (which created the world’s largest telecommunications company.) He didn’t see any reason to include net neutrality provisions in the deal. Awful trusting of him!

SO— even though I’m obviously against more corporate media consolidation, my gut instinct is telling me that Martin (AND the gov’t. AND his business buddies) must stand to lose something if XM and Sirius merge. Not the customers. And since what the gov’t. wants is usually what I don’t want (and vice versa) I’m thinking I may actually want the merge. Which would be strange. Time will tell I guess.

There’s also a new viewing mode called “Cover Flow” which allows you to flip through the cover art of your library like you would flip through a book of CDs. The idea behind it is cool but pointless for me since 99% of my imported music comes from burned CDs and therefore have no associated cover art. Only about 3 out of 1,000 songs in my library had covers (see 2 of them below.) But perhaps I’m an exception and other people don’t have this problem?

The main thing I noticed is a change of interface appearance and grouping of sidebar items, but nothing drastic. It’s a little darker than before, more slate blue, less sky blue. I welcome the slight change of appearance since iTunes doesn’t have skins, it’s nice to look at something new. Which brings up a long-standing question, the Mac world touts customization right, so why not iTunes?

All in all, for me 7.0 doesn’t bring anything all that fabulous. What I’d really like to see is a customizable interface. Even if all that meant was a skin color palatte to choose from. And I’d REALLY love if CDs burned through iTunes actually had the song information burned with it. So many times I’ve brought a burned CD into work and had to type in all the song information again before importing it into my libary. Perhaps 8.0 will fulfill these remaining wishes…