New York Tripreport*
Wednesday, January 18, 4:00pm. Mark calls to let me know he’s going to be late. The plan is for him to arrive at 4:30, but he doesn’t make it until nearly 6. He’s already got Stef, and, after a quick stop at an ATM, we’re on our way to New York.
We’re going there to perform Wandering Rom Players‘ ‘Masque of the Red Death’, as part of Metropolitan Playhouse’s ‘Poe-Fest’. Mark drives like there’s a pack of rabid piranhas chasing him, so we make the Philly - NYC trip in about 20 minutes. Well, not that fast, but fast.
Arrival at the hotel at a little before 8pm. We park in the garage across the street, lug our stuff up to the 8th floor, and meet up with the rest of the group, who made the trip via the Chinatown bus ($5!). We leave the hotel about a half-hour later and head down to the East Village, to acquaint ourselves with the theatre. It’s tiny, and has very few lights and the smallest booth I’ve ever seen.
We’re out of there by 10:30pm, with plans to return the next day at noon to begin teching the show. Back to the hotel, with a stop at the (24-hour, naturally) deli across the street for beer sweet beer. There are ten of us stuffed into two hotel rooms. One is the designated smoking room, so that’s where we’re destined to spend most of our hotel time in the coming days. Everyone’s tired, from the trip, and from whatever they’d spent the rest of the day doing, so tonight’s an early night. Four six-packs, and one round of the bowl and it’s bedtime.
Ten people divided by four beds = lots of snuggling (also lots of people having to deal with my freight-train-esque snoring, but apparently I behaved myself). Our room is set up with Mark and I in one bed, Adam and Steph in the other, and Nathaniel on the Aerobed that Robert was smart enough to bring. After taking advantage of the hotel’s limitless supply of high-pressure hot water, I hit the sack around 3AM.
Thursday. Up at 9:30, and another decadent shower. I’m ready to leave by ten, way ahead of the others, so I decide to set off on my own. It’s about a half-hour walk to the theatre, and not too terribly cold out. In search of coffee, I wander over to a neighborhood I’ve worked in before, 4th St. between 2nd and 3rd. I see a coffee shop which looks promising, and sit down with a coffee and muffin. The rest of the customers in the place, as it turns out, are also theatre people. We’re across the street from La MaMa E.T.C., and next door to New York Theatre Workshop - the best possible location to establish a coffee shop. I participate in the shop-talk going among the customers, and am invited to stop in NYTW and take a look at the place. *Very* nice space - it used to be a garage/warehouse, so it’s basically a big open box. Very flexible.
From there, I walk over to the theatre. I’m still early, so nobody’s there yet, so I hang out outside until Austin, the guy who’s handling our tech support, shows up.
And then there’s good news!
From the Philadelphia Inquirer:
HARRISBURG - A federal judge today declared the teaching of intelligent design in Dover Area School District unconstitutional, saying an “ill-informed faction on a school board” adopted a policy that violated the separation of church and state.
In a far-reaching decision, Judge John E. Jones 3d concluded that intelligent design is not science.
“In making this determination, we have addressed the seminal question of whether ID is science,” Jones wrote. “We have concluded that it is not, and moreover that ID cannot uncouple itself from its creationist, and thus religious, antecedents.”
He scolded the board’s majority for requiring teachers to read a statement to high school biology students that noted “gaps” in Darwin’s theory of evolution and directed them to a book on intelligent design in the school library.
“The breathtaking inanity of the board’s decision is evident when considered against the factual backdrop which has now been fully revealed through this trial,” Jones said in a 139-page decision. “The students, parents, and teachers of the Dover Area School District deserved better than to be dragged into this legal maelstrom, with its resulting utter waste of monetary and personal resources.”
From Cryptome
To: cryptography[at]metzdowd.com
Subject: A small editorial about recent events.
From: “Perry E. Metzger”
A small editorial from your moderator. I rarely use this list to express a strong political opinion — you will forgive me in this instance.
This mailing list is putatively about cryptography and cryptography politics, though we do tend to stray quite a bit into security issues of all sorts, and sometimes into the activities of the agency with the biggest crypto and sigint budget in the world, the NSA.
As you may all be aware, the New York Times has reported, and the administration has admitted, that President of the United States apparently ordered the NSA to conduct surveillance operations against US citizens without prior permission of the secret court known as the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (the “FISC”). This is in clear contravention of 50 USC 1801 - 50 USC 1811, a portion of the US code that provides for clear criminal penalties for violations. See:
http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/html/uscode50/usc_sup_01_50_10_36_20_I.html
The President claims he has the prerogative to order such surveillance. The law unambiguously disagrees with him.
There are minor exceptions in the law, but they clearly do not apply in this case. They cover only the 15 days after a declaration of war by Congress, a period of 72 hours prior to seeking court authorization (which was never sought), and similar exceptions that clearly are not germane.
There is no room for doubt or question about whether the President has the prerogative to order surveillance without asking the FISC — even if the FISC is a toothless organization that never turns down requests, it is a federal crime, punishable by up to five years imprisonment, to conduct electronic surveillance against US citizens without court authorization.
The FISC may be worthless at defending civil liberties, but in its arrogant disregard for even the fig leaf of the FISC, the administration has actually crossed the line into a crystal clear felony. The government could have legally conducted such wiretaps at any time, but the President chose not to do it legally.
Ours is a government of laws, not of men. That means if the President disagrees with a law or feels that it is insufficient, he still must obey it. Ignoring the law is illegal, even for the President. The President may ask Congress to change the law, but meanwhile he must follow it.
Our President has chosen to declare himself above the law, a dangerous precedent that could do great harm to our country. However, without substantial effort on the part of you, and I mean you, every person reading this, nothing much is going to happen. The rule of law will continue to decay in our country. Future Presidents will claim even greater extralegal authority, and our nation will fall into despotism. I mean that sincerely. For the sake of yourself, your children and your children’s children, you cannot allow this to stand.
Call your Senators and your Congressman. Demand a full investigation, both by Congress and by a special prosecutor, of the actions of the Administration and the NSA. Say that the rule of law is all that stands between us and barbarism. Say that we live in a democracy, not a kingdom, and that our elected officials are not above the law. The President is not a King. Even the President cannot participate in a felony and get away with it. Demand that even the President must obey the law.
Tell your friends to do the same. Tell them to tell their friends to do the same. Then, call back next week and the week after and the week after that until something happens. Mark it in your calendar so you don’t forget about it. Politicians have short memories, and Congress is about to recess for Christmas, so you must not allow this to be forgotten. Keep at them until something happens.
Perry
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At the ballet
One of the fringe benefits of being in the entertainment industry is that I can get in to see most anything I want. ‘Tis the season for the Nutcracker, so I asked my friend who works at the Ballet if he could snag me a couple tickets, intending to take Brenna. She seemed fairly enthusiastic about it until this morning, when she said she couldn’t go, so I need to find someone else who’d like to go.
Really, I didn’t think it’d be this hard to find a date for the ballet! I guess the benefit of being able to get free tickets to things is balanced out by the fact that most people I know are working at shows of their own. Add in the sheer number of friends I’ve managed to piss off recently, and that means a dateless me. *sigh*.
Toasts
I need to memorize these. Might need one or two soon, in an effort to smooth things over with my friends who are pissed at me for being pissed at them.
- The first glass for my friends, the second for myself, the third for good humor, and the fourth for mine enemies.
- Here’s to every man here, may he be what he thinks himself to be.
- My heart is as full as my glass, when I drink to you, my friends.
- Here’s to a friend. He knows you well..and likes you anyway!
- May we kiss whom we please, and please whom we kiss.
- May the roof above us never fall in, and may we friends gathered below never fall out.
SMS Phishing
I got an odd text message this afternoon. It asked me to “Please call Verizon Wireless at 1-800-something-something regarding your account. You can also hit ‘Send’ now. This is a free text message.” I thought it was odd, as I’m paid up and everything, so I decided to ignore it for the time being. A few hours later I was thinking about it, and I realized that the sender of the message had been a 1-900 number, and that hitting ’send’ would have called it.
The moral of the story is that sometimes if you avoid the problem, it *does* go away. :)
Bill Maher
“Mr. President, this job can’t be fun for you any more. There’s no more
money to spend–you used up all of that. You can’t start another war because
you used up the army. And now, darn the luck, the rest of your term has
become the Bush family nightmare: helping poor people. Listen to your Mom.
The cupboard’s bare, the credit cards maxed out. No one’s speaking to you.
Mission accomplished.
“Now it’s time to do what you’ve always done best: lose interest and walk
away. Like you did with your military service and the oil company and the
baseball team. It’s time. Time to move on and try the next fantasy job. How
about cowboy or space man? Now I know what you’re saying: there’s so many
other things that you as President could involve yourself in. Please don’t.
I know, I know. There’s a lot left to do. There’s a war with Venezuela.
Eliminating the sales tax on yachts. Turning the space program over to the
church. And Social Security to Fannie Mae. Giving embryos the vote.
“But, Sir, none of that is going to happen now. Why? Because you govern like
Billy Joel drives. You’ve performed so poorly I’m surprised that you haven’t
given yourself a medal. You’re a catastrophe that walks like a man. Herbert
Hoover was a shitty president, but even he never conceded an entire city to
rising water and snakes.
“On your watch, we’ve lost almost all of our allies, the surplus, four
airliners, two trade centers, a piece of the Pentagon and the City of New
Orleans. Maybe you’re just not lucky. I’m not saying you don’t love this
country. I’m just wondering how much worse it could be if you were on the
other side.
“So, yes, God does speak to you. What he is saying is: ‘Take a hint.’ “
I can do anything with Lee 200.
My Cousin, The Bride
My cousin Stacey, at her wedding reception.
October 30, 2004
We’re grownups. Really.
On the way back from Pittsburgh, we stopped at a state park and frolicked in the river for a bit. This is Dominic and I behaving with a great deal of maturity.
July 14, 2004
Mo
My sister Maureen, tormenting the dog with a laser pointer.
November 25, 2004