SECOND QUARTERLY ESTIMATED TAX DUE
Just a reminder: it must be postmarked by tonight.
FIGHT THE SMEARS
Whatever your political
leaning, I know you to be a person who values the truth.
Maybe you preferred
Bush v. Gore – but I hope it wasn’t because you thought Gore claimed to have
invented the Internet (he didn’t) or did something wrong at “the Buddhist
temple” (he didn’t) or any of the rest of it.
Maybe you
preferred Bush v. Kerry – but I hope it wasn’t because you thought Kerry
purposely shot himself in order to get a medal. (Or because, like a majority of Bush voters,
you thought Iraq
had a hand in attacking us on September 11.)
So please bookmark this site: fightthesmears.com
. It may prove to be the most important
site of the campaign.
Let’s not make
the mistake again of electing the wrong guy based on misinformation.
SO SAYETH THE REPUBLICAN-APPOINTED CHIEF
JUSTICE
Excerpts:
California Chief Justice Ronald
George is prepared for the voters' verdict on his ruling legalizing same-sex
marriages - but whatever comes this autumn, he says it
won't be long before most Californians accept equal rights for gays and lesbians
as a matter of course.
In an interview about the court's
May 15 decision overturning the state's marriage law, George drew comparisons
to another historic 4-3 ruling 60 years earlier that struck down California's ban on
interracial marriage.
That ruling is no longer
controversial, but it was a different story then. The 1948 court was far ahead
of public opinion both nationally and in California,
where 16 years later the voters amended
their Constitution to authorize racial discrimination in real estate sales.
Both the state's
and the nation's high courts later ruled that initiative unconstitutional.
"I suspect it will not take as long for the public to adjust to the
idea of gay marriage as it did to racial equality," George
said. One reason, he said, is California's
increasing diversity.
"When people count among their friends, as I do, gay individuals, and
have friends who have gay children, and mix with a number of ethnic groups, I
think it's much harder to demonize in one's mind any kind of minority," he
said. . . .
TRIPLETS
Bob Fyfe: “[Per
your question
last week], the probability of at least
three people sharing the same birthday in a room of 23 people is approximately
1.3%. To have greater than 50% probability,
you need 88 people in the room.”
F I was all set to write back and ask how
Bob did the math, but then I saw that he is with Texas Instruments (maker of
those amazing calculators),
so I’m just going to take his word for it.
(But if you do want the math – trust me, you do not – click here.)
TELEPRESENCE
Ken Hoerner: “I was day dreaming the other day [before
reading last
week’s clip of two guys talking face to face on a California stage,
except one was actually in India] and maybe this is the technology to make it
happen. I picture myself at a ‘live
performance’ of say Bruce Springsteen at Giants Stadium, but instead of a
miniscule figure on a stage with large video screens off to the sides, I see a ‘Telepresence figure’ of Bruce and we could make him 30 or
40 feet tall for all to see.”
F Great idea. And he wouldn't even have to be there. He could play a year-long world tour all in
one night.
GO VIRAL
So how about
sending fightthesmears.com to 10
friends and asking them to do likewise? Who runs the country, and thus, in no
insignificant measure, the world, turns out to matter. It would be nice if the electorate made a
well-informed decision.