DirectTV problems finally solved

There was a lot of "left hand didn't know what right hand was doing", mostly for technical reasons.  The company that makes their dishes and LNBs (the actual receiving part of the dish) keeps changing their equipment in ways that though "standards-compliant" to the receivers (which are, of course, made by a completely different company or set of companies), they aren't compatible with different versions of their own stuff.

Thus, the dish that was installed was, in fact, the wrong dish for the LNB signal receivers connected to it.  Now, whether that was negligence in not knowing on the part of the first guys who installed it, a simple mistake, or inability to see from trying to work in the dark, I don't know.  Why the second guy who came over didn't spot it, I've no idea, but this third guy was VERY technically aware of the equipment he had compared to the other two servicemen.

To show how new this stuff was, the service guys on the phone at DTV-national actually didn't know this new equipment was available and being used by the guys in the field.

At any rate, this should be the last time I have to stay home for this.

I'm liking this Ellison fellow!

Amy Argetsinger and Roxanne Roberts - But It's Thomas Jefferson's Koran! - washingtonpost.com:

Rep.-elect Keith Ellison, the first Muslim elected to Congress, found himself under attack last month when he announced he'd take his oath of office on the Koran -- especially from Virginia Rep. Virgil Goode, who called it a threat to American values.

Yet the holy book at tomorrow's ceremony has an unassailably all-American provenance. We've learned that the new congressman -- in a savvy bit of political symbolism -- will hold the personal copy once owned by Thomas Jefferson.

The right-wing nutballs who seem to think that Article VI was meant for, well, Christians only, can go shove it.

Granted, it remains to be seen if he'll actually do good for the country legislatively, as opposed to just making the right wing reveal its obvious to most of us bigotry.

grokked from Dispatches.

today is the day i remind myself...

...just how damned incredible the Beatles were.

In Tower's disappearance, I picked up the classic Red and Blue compilations (plus the 2nd volume of the Capitol Albums box, which I also got for my dad).

Now, aside from Sgt Pepper, Magical Mystery, and Abbey Road, the Red was the only Beatles my father had (on LP, of course) when I was a kid.  Yes, at age 5 I actively put the Red on rather consistently (along with Wish You Were Here, Ommadawn, Close to the Edge, Relayer, Seventh Sojourn, and a Seals and Croft album), so the Red is THE "old" Beatles to me.  Yeah there were other songs (a LOT of them given that they put out 8 albums from Meet the Beatles to Rubber Soul that are on that compilation) but those simply don't have the "always there" presence in my life as those on the Red.

The Beatles always stop and make me think about the "always there" factor.

As a kid, there was never a time that the Beatles didn't exist.  More importantly, there was never a time of knowing there is a Beatles album still coming.  EVERY Beatles album was out, and as such, all of the sounds of them, all the progress they made from Love Me Do to Hey Jude, all the variety, it's all just THERE.  I can't just listen in order and hear Rubber Soul without knowing in my head the Abbey Road and White Album that will come from it.

Of course, the fact that I've put the 4 cds on "random" doesn't exactly help that... :)

blaming the victim, still around, still wrong.

Mike the Mad Biologist : Hemlines Don't Rape People, Rapists Do:

Until we stop asking women, "Why did you get raped", and start asking men, "Why did you rape someone", we still have a very long way to go.