I read an article on cnn.com yesterday about a former US Navy Seal who is suing Donald Rumsfeld for unlawful detention in Iraq, after he went there to make a documentary on Cyrus the Great. I thought the following was interesting, although I note that no source for the information was cited:
“Human rights monitors note that the vast majority of the over 15,000 detainees in U.S. military custody in Iraq have never been charged, tried, provided counsel, or allowed to challenge their detention in court, and over one-fifth of them have been detained for over a year in this manner,” the suit states.
It troubles me (assuming the above is true) that the US Government does not believe that the rights afforded to American citizens within the US apply universally regardless of geographic location.
Ok, this is again mainly a note for myself about my computer. The Show Desktop icon disappeared from my Quick Launch toolbar a few days ago – a problem that I’ve had before, but I couldn’t remember what I did last time to fix it. Google turned up a solution here. All that is required is to create a text file, named “Show Desktop.scf” containing the following:
[Shell]
Command=2
IconFile=explorer.exe,3
[Taskbar]
Command=ToggleDesktop
and then copy the file to C:\Documents and Settings\Username\Application Data\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch, which can be done by just dragging the file icon onto the Quick Launch toolbar.
A couple of interesting news items crossed my path this week that argue for the economic benefit of free markets…
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This is mainly a note for myself in case I need to remember this if I upgrade Firefox at some point in the future…
I discovered this morning that I couldn’t play video on cnn.com from Firefox. It’s always been a bit flaky – it usually says it can’t tell if I have Windows Meda Player installed, but this morning it claimed that it could tell that I didn’t have it installed. A little googling turned up the explanation – cnn apparently uses something called ActiveX, a Microsoft technology that is supported in Internet Explorer but not Firefox 1.5, and I had upgraded to 1.5 just a few days ago. The solution, which I found here, was to install a Firefox ActiveX plugin, which I found here. However the plugin is specific to the Firefox version. So if I upgrade Firefox in the future, I may have to repeat this process.
Just a little humour from Scuttlebutt –
I used to be schizophrenic, but we’re ok now.
Interesting interview (.mp3 file) on PBS with the author of a book “American Gospel”. A few points that he makes -
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The NZ dollar has fallen by a full cent against the US dollar (about 1.5%) in the past 6 hours. Yet there is nothing on nzherald.co.nz or stuff.co.nz to suggest that anyone there thinks it’s newsworthy. There have been a couple of reports about flat January retail sales, but nothing specifically on the currency.
A bit odd I would have thought. Presumably someone there will wake up eventually.
Just watched the Johnny Cash movie tonight. There’s something I always liked about Johnny Cash. I’m not sure that I know why. I think my Dad may have been a fan way back and maybe I picked up on that when I was young. The movie started out feeling a bit slow, and for a while I wasn’t sure whether I wanted to see it right to the end in a single sitting. And I never enjoy seeing other people suffering, especially from their own mistakes. So the depiction of Cash getting messed up on drugs and losing his marriage wasn’t really a fun way to spend an evening. But in the end I enjoyed the movie.
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Just for NZ readers…I’m listening to NewstalkZB online, and there’s some discussion going on about who the new Governor-General should be. Personally I think a great choice would be Mike Moore (the NZ one, not the American film maker). Not only do his many years of public service, both in government and overseas, make him very well qualified, there would also be a wonderful irony in him becoming Helen’s “boss”.
But I also had to laugh at the woman who called in and suggested Judy Bailey – after all she is the “Mother of the Nation”. The caller suggested that if she got too busy, Judy could share the job with Richard. 
I flew into Tampa last night for a standards meeting in Clearwater. I’ve only been here once before, about 10 years ago transiting to West Palm Beach, a trip that was notable mainly for the fact that United lost my luggage.
Anyhow, what’s worth mentioning about this place on this occasion is that they have (a) free wireless internet in the airport, and (b) Christian music playing on the public address. Well one song at least – Here With Me by Mercy Me. And it’s possibly the least crowded terminal I’ve been in in a long time.
