Check out this post over at Pam’s House Blend, the latest flap coming out of the Army whose leaders appear to publicly endorse the kind of homophobia captured in that post.
As you may recall, Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said last week that he supports the Pentagon’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” ban on gays serving in the military because homosexual acts “are immoral,” akin to a member of the armed forces conducting an adulterous affair with the spouse of another service member.
In contrast, I have to offer up this post by one of my company’s leaders as an example of inclusion and valuing every employee’s contribution.
Check out the latest visitor to our back porch, who decided to help himself to what he thought were doggie leftovers.
Oh, and the other photos in the series of shooing him off the porch are pretty funny.
Bush, key senator still backing Gonzales
By LARA JAKES JORDAN, Associated Press Writer 36 minutes ago
WASHINGTON – The White House and a key Republican senator reaffirmed support Saturday for Attorney General Alberto Gonzales even as Democrats questioned his credibility for apparently misrepresenting his role in firing eight federal prosecutors.
Critics said the latest document disclosure — more than 280 pages of e-mails, calendar notations and other documents sent to Congress late Friday — bolstered their case for Gonzales’ ouster.
Yahoo News
Color him Gone-zales
That’s what the Limousine Bus narrative said about why you shouldn’t use your cell phone on the bus on the way back to Narita last week. Can you imagine how annoying it would be to have Mr. (or Ms.) loud cell phone talker on the horn during your next flight?
Well, according to this article, the FCC boss is opposed to cell phones in the air.
Fri Mar 23, 10:24 AM ET
WASHINGTON – You’re not allowed to use cell phones on airplanes, and the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission would like to keep it that way.
FCC Chair Kevin Martin said Thursday that the agency is considering dropping a proposal that would have lifted the ban on in-flight cell phone use.
The commission began considering removal of the ban in late 2004.
Martin told reporters after a board meeting that the wireless telecommunications industry indicated in recent comments to the FCC that mobile phone calls in flying planes would interfere with their networks on the ground.
It seems kind of early to me, but with the temperatures and humidity both climbing lately, I think it’s time to turn it on.
I’ve been in Tokyo this week for the ACM ICPC World Finals and have made some great contacts for IBM recruiting, as well as ACM. I met with the IBM Japan HR Diversity manager with a colleague from Austin. I also helped make some job connections for ACM finalists from Calgary, Canada for summer internship opportunities. One of the ACM finalists here is also a finalist in the Extreme Blue US candidate pool. I also made a great contact for recruiting at ACM contests in Asia and will be working with her to make sure we cover regional competitions across this geography.
There’s a live scoreboard of the contest results. I’m sure they’ll shut it off before the contest ends so they keep the results secret until the awards ceremony, but it’ll be up for a little longer. You can see pictures from the competition at the ICPC Digital Media web site.
I got an updated beta of Notes 8, and installed it on a Vista tablet PC…
Notes 8 web site
I’ve been on a travel binge, with literally hours at home between flights for what will wind up being nearly three weeks before it’s over.
I had a recruiting trip to UIUC on the 27th and 28th of February, where I participated in an IBM Information Session with other IBM managers on the 27th, and a career fair on the 28. I also attended a UIUC Pride meeting on the 28th to talk about the workplace climate at IBM for GLBT people.
After a long miserable day of travelling back home on March 1st, with weather related traffic delays in Champaign and Chicago, I finally made it home by around 11:00 PM, just in time to do some laundry and pack for my next trip out on March 2nd.
The good news is that the next trip was a snowboarding vacation to Banff and Lake Louise in Alberta, Canada. We met up with our friends from Toronto and Montreal, and had an awesome week of snowboarding. Nhut has all the pictures organized on his site, and I’m sure I’ll get around to that on my gallery eventually.
I think I was home for about 6 hours betwen flights, again, just long enough to unpack, do some laundry and pack again before heading off to Tokyo for the ACM ICPC World Finals. I’ll have one free day before work for some sightseeing and sushi 
.
I got an email from my sister-in-law this morning…
We went to a political function a few weeks back and a woman was walking around getting signatures for a petition something to do with rights of gay partners. Harry out loud made a comment his brother was gay and he could not sign or support their cause. It was so cool Steve. I was proud of him. I know it’s not a big deal but to me it was.
Thanks Harry.
Thu Mar 1, 5:12 PM ET
DALLAS – There’s one seat in first class that American Airlines is opening to coach passengers — the lavatory.
Coach passengers can now use the front lavatory on American once again after the airline restricted its use to first-class fliers. The change applies to domestic flights and to international flights leaving the U.S., said American spokesman John Hotard.
Under a rule added following the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, only first-class passengers could use that section’s lavatory on flights en route to the United States. American decided to apply the rule to all flights, Hotard said.
The airline was the only carrier with such a rule on all flights, so it opted to change the policy, Hotard said.
Yahoo News
