The Binary Circumstance

My site has been down most of the day.

It took Dreamhost six hours to respond to my tech support e-mail and then they said they couldn’t see what the problem was.

I just got an e-mail from them saying that they had reconfigured my MySQL database and everything was OK.

And it looks like it is, for the time being…

When I asked what they thought caused the problem the tech said she didn’t know but the problem was with the MySQL installation on my shared-server.

I made some changes to the database for this blog that will update a lot of the old links that were updated in TypePad format. There should be less 404 (page not found) errors.

To make a long story short, I downloaded the contents of the wp_posts table and then did a global find/replace to change the old domain name to the new one.

Then I reimported the records.

The links won’t be precise because old TypePad URLs don’t contain enough information to create links in my current WordPress URL format.

Newsweek reports on a person I think I might like:

Brian Flemming’s most famous project was 2001’s “Bat Boy: The Musical,” an off-Broadway show based on the tabloid-created bat child. Now he’s turned his attention to a figure he claims is equally fictional: Jesus Christ. His new documentary, “The God Who Wasn’t There,” irreverently lays out the case that Jesus Christ never existed. (One segment’s title: “The Bashin’ of the Christ.”) It played in five states last weekend. Flemming, a Christian fundamentalist turned atheist, plans to take it to 1 million people by the end of the year.

With religion increasingly influencing American politics, the goal is to encourage a movement of atheist activism. “I think that the United States is heading in the direction of theocracy,” says Flemming. “The problem is that we let religious people say stunningly false things and we consider it rude to question those beliefs. But we should be shunning those people.” If that sounds intolerant, that’s the point. Flemming says, “I’m not tolerant of suspending reason.”

Anybody who’s read my blog has heard me say the same thing many times.

In order to be rational, one is required to discriminate agains the irrational.

In order to accept the truth that 2+2=4, we must reject the fallacy that 2+2= anything other than 4.

Under the guise of religion, you can say that your faith leads you to believe in higher powers that can make 2+2 equal to anything you want. You can say that God is anything that you want it to be.

Call yourself a person of faith and others feel required to let you say “stunningly false things.” They feel obligated to defend your “right” to do so, which amounts to defending a nonexistent right to say things that are untrue, a right to be irrational.

Brian Flemming has a blog.

According to the San Francisco Chronicle, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has made some big promises and produced very little results.

Schwarzenegger has made bold promises that have often been scaled back or abandoned:

Federal funding: The governor declared that he would be known as the “Collectinator” for securing more federal funds for California, saying there is “more than $50 billion they are not giving us.” Schwarzenegger administration officials say they have won about $1 billion from the feds.

Tribal casinos: While campaigning for governor, he said Indian tribes operating casinos owed the state about $2 billion and pledged to make the tribes pay their fair share. After signing compacts with five tribes, he said the deals would bring the state $150 million to $200 million. Administration officials say the compacts have actually generated about $18 million.

Prison reform: The governor has pushed to reorganize the state prison system to put new emphasis on rehabilitating inmates. The system will change its name to the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation on Friday, but Schwarzenegger has proposed cutting more than $40 million from inmate rehabilitative programs.

Deficit spending: As a candidate, he blasted budgets signed by former Gov. Gray Davis, saying the state must “end the crazy deficit spending” and “ensure that California government lives within its means.” The governor asked voters last year to support a bond measure that would borrow money to pay off debt.