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Archive for May, 2003

May 24th, 2003 by Sho

Website Difficulties

Since Tuesday, our website host has been under a Denial of Service attack. That is why OC Online has been up and down over the past few days. We hope that our host will be able to resolve the issue soon. Apparently a number of Internet Service Providers have been targeted and many other websites have also been affected.

From what I can tell, DoS attacks aren’t really that hard to create and they usually aren’t included in the antics of ‘real’ hackers. A hacker will usually conduct an electronic version of breaking and entering, like vandalizing a company’s website or stealing personal information from a secure computer. A DoS attack is basically the equivalent of repetitive prank calls which keeps a business from answering legitimate phone calls.

Updates to the progress of combating this attack can be found here.

May 24th, 2003 by Timothy

God Hates New Jersey

Damn Devils…three Stanley Cup Finals in four years…grumble.

In Russia Today, Ol’ Vlad Putin has decreed that there will be no rain on his parade. Now, if only he could order the Russian economy into line….

May 22nd, 2003 by Bret

Derbyshire takes a bit “I Told You So” swing at the notion of respectable American journalism in his latest column. Classic line about American journalism schools:

The main effect of all that education, of course, is to dull the mind and fill up its empty spaces with left-wing flapdoodle. Newspaper reporting isn’t difficult work; an intelligent person can pick up the essentials in a few weeks on the job.

Has Derby been here and met Bybee? It sure seems like it.

UPDATE: No shit, Pygmies are begging the UN for help because they are being hunted down like animals and cannibalized

May 22nd, 2003 by Timothy

Well, I Didn’t Do Anything!

But, there are still a few items of good news: Ottawa beat New Jersey. Which makes me happy, because given the choice, I’d like to see an Anaheim/Ottawa play for the cup. Rooting for Jersey is like rooting for the Yankees, IE “Yankees seek elusive 27th pennant,” and I just can’t bring myself to root for a sports team from California. That leaves Ottawa. Even if it is near Quebec. *Corrected* Near, in, they’re all prepositions to me.

Item Two: Spurs beat Mavs. My folks live in San Antonio, so I’ve some compulsion to root for the Spurs…and I can still remember the Mavs being the worst team in the NBA.

Lastly, as not to be entirely sports related and cause the universe to implode, A Very Large Man is America’s new idol. Woo, or something.

May 21st, 2003 by pete

Posts Galore!

Look, I’m really not that interested in anything Bill Clinton related. But that said, I truly enjoyed Andrew Sullivan’s Sidney Blumenthal bitch slap. It was all the funnier after watching Sidney on Charlie Rose last night, and seeing his face as Rose read him portions of the review. How do these people advance in the world? He’s clearly not a journalist… so how did he join the ranks of the New Republic, the New Yorker and the Washington Post? He doesn’t appear to be much an original thinker… yet he was a senior advisor? It just seems strange… how can you advance without qualifications? Sure, the world needs “yes” men just as we need fry cooks, but we don’t take Phil Peterman from Denny’s and put him to work crafting foreign policy. Or do we?

Granted, I’m mostly echoing Sullivan’s sentiments, and as I said, I’m just not that interested in the finer details of Whitewater. But, it is a concern to me if people from the ranks of “College Democrats” are advancing in the world.

Who’s letting this happen? I want to know.

Plus: It’s Snapper Season over at the Exile.

And has anyone ever seen the movie “Gummo.” Liked it, didn’t like… throw me some feedback.

May 20th, 2003 by Sho

OC on NRO

I did a quick search of “Oregon Commentator” in Google and came upon a brief mention of the OC on National Review Online. Pretty neat.

May 20th, 2003 by Bret

WE HAVE BEEN EVICTED

I won’t discuss this matter on the blog, but those wishing to find out more should come by our office for further details …

In other news, somebody stuck Olly and me with some of their bar tab last night. Weak.

On the whole conservatism and gay-friendliness, Sullivan quotes Horowitz bashing the religious right. Even though Olly doesn’t have a great deal of love for M Horowitz, they’re on the same side here. Ha Ha, sucker! And Goldberg continues his discussions on neconservatives.

May 19th, 2003 by pete

As are my experiences with most John Derbyshire pieces, I’m not sure what to make of this. But I absolutely love the beginning of this sentence:

The “homeless” have “rights” that must be respected — the right to crap in public fountains, for instance, the right to shoot themselves up with deadly drugs in public squares, the right to shriek gibberish at passers-by, and the right to expose themselves to female office workers heading for the subway station.

If that doesn’t rev you up, how about this little diddy from the NYT:

It is almost too perfect that Las Vegas, the city where Tupac Shakur was murdered in 1996, would be the undoing of William Bennett.

At long last, the 2Pac/ B. Double connection is revealed. You’ve been warned.

May 18th, 2003 by pete

When I read the lead story in The Diamondback (‘Former finalist chosen as new dean,’ Feb. 10), I was at first confused by the poor grammar in the first sentence. Then, when I looked at the by-line and saw the article was written by Jayson T. Blair, the editor in chief of The Diamondback, I was appalled!

I found this while digging through the archives of the University of Maryland’s student paper, the Diamondback, where the infamous Mr. Blair worked as a staff writer and editor.

According to the Newsweek story, “[Blair’s] tenure as editor was marked by strife, allegations of racism, problematic stories and fantastical tales.”

And, apparently, grammatical inconsistencies.

May 17th, 2003 by Bret

You can learn a lot when wasting time. For one, the ODE’s Jan Montry might be more favored by the American right than is Olly Ruff. (At least judging by the headlines.)

May 17th, 2003 by Bret

I think I can quickly sum up what Pete and I won’t be writing in our farewell pieces this year. What a loser.

May 16th, 2003 by Bret

Sidney Blumenthal is back in the news with a book re-hashing the entire 1990’s. I’d rather move on, and so would arch-Clinton-defender Susan Estrich, who argues from the left that the Clintons should get off the presidential stage. Interesting stuff.

Also interesting is the fact that France may boycott Colorado products: the French embassy is now threatening an economic boycott of his state because of the snub, in an incident that is quickly coming to resemble France’s behavior in the notorious XYZ Affair of 1798. That may have been a notorious affair, but not as bad as the one Pete’s having with vodka … seriously, does he have a problem or what?

May 16th, 2003 by pete

A Quick Post on The Matrix Reloaded

Great movie. Went in with high expectations, was not disappointed. Critics went way overboard in bashing the plot. Was it perfect? No, far from it. But I was enthralled for two-and-a half-hours. (Then again, you put me in front of a lava lamp and I’m pretty content.)

And Monica Bellucci? Sweet God! Maybe I’ll go and see Tears of the Sun after all.

After you watch the film, have a laugh over this review from all 400 pounds of Harry Knowles. This guy is the biggest jack-ass… what the hell does Last Action Hero have to do with anything? This from the man who loved The Phantom Menace and gushed over Daredevil.

May 15th, 2003 by pete

Finally…

Better Living Through Chemistry, anyone?

May 15th, 2003 by pete

Late Night Reading Part Deux

Jubilant Crowd Dismantles Statue of Bush. Only in Berkeley.

On the other hand: Why not put up a “gold” statue of Bush in Baghdad? (Insert leftist “fountains of oil” joke here)

And whatever happened to the proposed Ken Kesey statue for downtown Eugene? I’d like to see it go up just to topple it. Two good books and thirty years of acid do not a legacy make. See also HST.