QOTD

"Republicans should move to Massachusetts and marry the flag already. They've been fucking it for years."

via To the People

Couldn't have said it better

I could quote Radley Balko all day long, but this gem is a great followup to these recent events.

This is in response to the recent SCOTUS Hudson case, where Scalia said [pdf] that police are more professional and better trained now.

"They're better trained at treating civilians like enemy combatants, not at treating them as citizens wih constitutional rights."

Right on.

[Update -- this is what I get for reading out of chronological order. Balko is cited in the Hudson dissent.]

Wakarusa Action Blog

Someone setup this new blog to track issues stemming from the Wakarusa Festival 2006.

They quote my letter to the editor.

Link.

Hey, I Wrote this Thing! (mostly)

Link.

Ooo, someone agrees with me, by name.

Link.

Apologies for the Waybacks reference in the title.

topic whiplash:

Perhaps I should have used the False Identity Generator. That's a great idea, but judging from his My Ideal Mate page, I am not sure the Great Lord would approve.

Do we need Tivo for voicemail?

Is is really necessary to advertise what your company does before letting someone contact you?

I've been spending a lot of time on the phone lately. A lot of voicemail. I read some voicemail advice linked from Lifehacker a couple of months back that more people need to follow. Specifically,

• When you have to leave a voicemail, give your name, number, and reason at the beginning of the message, to avoid making the user fast forward or listen to the whole message again if they need to just get your number.
• Mention also at the beginning what the voicemail is briefly pertaining to.
  

I would now have to add one other point of voicemail etiquette

The main number for you company should not make the caller listen to a mission statement, advertising or any other description of what your company does before they can enter a menu tree or extension number.

In other words, don't do this:

Thank you for calling WidgetRUs. We are the leader in Widget technology and provide scalable solutions to customers worldwide. It is our mission to synergistically simplify principle-centered deliverables in order to proactively provide access to inexpensive information. If you know your party's extension, you may enter it at any time.

On my work voicemail, my name is the first thing announced, and then immediately following is "press 1 to bypass this message and leave your own."

also props to dilbert's mission statement generator.