Zip, zip, zoom! - 26 February 2008

Getting off the ground running, I can sympathize with the Agents in Mobile Desktop, as I’ve hauled my rig back and forth between various things before, and it’s not easy to pull off. Although, I do kind of miss those parties, now that I’m several states away.

The United States Defense Secretary has apparently failed to grasp the significance of his statements with regard to the PKK situation - Mr. Gates says that a military solution is insufficient to solve the problem. Yet the Bush Administration continues to try and use a military solution that ended up putting only 8,000 more troops on the ground net since the "surge" started, and continues to want to delay the drawing down of military forces. If the political and economic options arent’ forthcoming, then throwing more troops and money at it militarily isn’t going to work, Mr. Gates. You said so yourself.

Iran has dismissed as forgeries new documents that claim the country clandestinely restarted a nuclear weapons program after stopping in 2003. These documents no doubt have American conservatives salivating at the chance to prove that the National Intelligence Estimate’s conclusions were wrong.

Unable to build an actual fence at the border, a "virtual fence" that uses cameras and radar to catch those crossing the Arizona border has been approved. Which makes border hawks happy. Just don’t show them that immigrants, legal or illegal, are less likely to commit crime in California than the natives.

Of interest to our political radar, after a CBS affiliate censored part of a 60 minutes broadcast, and then blamed the matter falsely on transmission problems, Harper's Magazine has an in-depth look at the political motivations behind the prosecution of former Alabama Governor Don Siegelman . Brought on bad charges, with false evidence, and withholding acquittal evidence, the whole thing looks like it was a political hatchet job from the beginning, hatched from Karl Rove’s turd blossom.

In the matters of the general election in November, the Republican Party is disseminating messages to its members to avoid saying things that could be considered racist or sexist. This does not mean that opinions will take issue with Senator Obama, raising spectres of the past. Linda Chavez believes that liberals are misguided in their definition of patriotism. Chavez says patriotism is unconditional love for one’s country, whether your party or the opposition occupies it. Liberals, she alleges, see patriotism as something to be earned when the country is, in their opinion, doing the right thing. My guess is that she sees conservative patriotism as “My way, my country, right or wrong.” and liberal patriotism as, “I have the right to be disappointed in my country if it is in the wrong.”, and that being disappointed in the country is somehow sacrilege. Sound familiar? Yeah, it’s old rhetoric from the post 11 September period to the beginning of the Iraq War.

Speaking of old rhetoric, in OpinionJournal today the GOP talking points resurfaced on the FISA renewal expiration, contending that our telecoms need to have immunity from lawsuits so they can help the government spy on people without a warrant. And besides, they contend, they’re terrorists, not people, so we don’t have to give them our Constitutional protections on their communications. It’s the same sort of disregard for the Constitution and the rule of law that brought much of the surveillance and “unitary executive” bullshit onto the law books. If the Constitution can be ignored or shelved when inconvenient, then it really has become just a goddamned piece of paper, and the populace should be ready to invoke Dr. Guillotine’s point about those who break their oaths to defend the Constitution.

Reality check time. An opinion in USA Today runs down the costs of the two Democratic candidate's plans, and remarks that they are “costly”. For perspective, the sum total of both candidates plans, by my armchair figures, is less than the supplemental budget request from President Bush to fund his sandbox games. Costly? No more so than a semester of war. And rather than being all at once, it’s spread across some years. Admittedly, the costs of entitlement programs are going to go up over the next few years, but the monies not spent on guns and bombs might be able to help with the cushion there or in setting up a program that works and doesn’t cost quite so much.

Continuing in the theme of things that should be said to draw people back into reality, a young crossdresser was gunned down in Fort Lauderdale. The police are unsure whether the boy’s sexual orientation or crossdressing had something to do with his death, but it’s still tragic. And as Anthony B. Robinson says, Ridiculing gay men is a bad pillar to base an organization, or a society on. It’s such a problem when you think that at the very least, the Westboro Baptist Church would be proud that the world was rid of another abomination to God. If we can’t get past tribalism, or at least expand the concept of the tribe to include all humans on a fundamental level, I think our development as a species will stagnate.

In technology news, Nokia unveiled a concept video for Morph, a way of using nanotechnology in various applications and flexible, adaptable designs. It looks pretty neat - of course, if we had that kind of technology now, it would be pretty cool to watch it at work, assuming we didn’t turn ourselves into grey goo.


Our News of the Weird says that it’s a potentially slow news day at Faux, as they have an article about a talking Elmo doll that is supposedly issuing death threats. “All your friends are laughing behind your back... kill them.” We knew that the fuzzball offed Snuffy to get top billing on Sesame Street. This just proves it. Further Weird Stuff comes from theweaselking as one of the eggs is not like the others. And last out of this Weird segment, three couples all got married at a White Castle in Ohio.

Health news says antidepressants don't work any better than placebo on most people who are depressed. Diagnostics for mental disorders may have gotten better - a blood test might be able to tell you if you're bipolar, but running tests like that on blood drawn raises some ethical questions about how much poking around should be done when it comes to the health of the brain. For some, finding out that the man who randomly stabbed two people during a horror movie screening was unstable before the stabbing would have been nice. (Also, they restarted the movie afterward? I would have thought seeing that would sour everyone in the theater on finishing out the movie.)

geek_chorus gives us advice for critiquers and editors on how to get your critiques listened to. These are significantly useful for when storied happen to be offensive to the editor.

Listmania for tonight before the quiz result thing - How to Exercise an Open Mind, which is basically a list of things that you can do that are new experiences. Pretty neat. There’s also the top ten best post-apocalyptic survival vehicles. And then, one very Weird List - David Horowitz will do interesting things if you give him specific amounts of money. Some cheap, some not so cheap, but all of them promises.

Because I’m a sucker for Bill Watterson’s creation, the following Quizilla result:

Your Score: Bit Of Both - You are 60% Calvin and 40% Hobbes.



Calvin & Hobbes, like a scruffy yin and yang, are in perfect balance within you. Like Calvin, you’re weird, a bit insecure, and can be a trouble-maker. But like Hobbes, you’re down to earth and sensitive. It’s a risk to say it here, after just a ten question test, but I’ll bet you’re smarter than most. Both Calvin and Hobbes are crafty, clever characters, and any one made from equal parts of each is a force to be reckoned with.

The Calvin Or Hobbes Test

At the tail end for tonight, five years after being jailed for "moral crimes", in Morocco, heavy metal continues to rock on. That’s obviously worth some devil horns, yo. I’m headed to bed.

It's only Wednesday, isn't it? - 27 February 2008

Wow. This week is only half-over, and it’s still going to be fun before we’re all done. I’m fighting off the panic impulse, just because it’s stupid to panic over something that will take thirty minutes at most to finish. I am not the Barbie over the boiling water because of this. I have all day tomorrow to fix it. So there. Onward to the news.

Power has been restored to the areas affected by a blackout occurring when a nuclear power plant shut down automatically. Officially, there were no safety concerns for the power plant, but the fluctuation of the power grid triggered an automatic shutdown process.

In the matter of Iraq, the Republicans in Congress are permitting a bill to cut Iraq war funding to advance, believing it will be an excellent opportunity to speak about the wonders of Iraq and debate the issue. Of course, they also know that the White House will veto the bill, and no override vote would ever succeed. So rather than doing actual work, the Republicans are planning on some grandstanding. Despite the myth of the surge.

Elsewhere in the world, a report from the U.N. Human Rights Council says that Palestinian attacks are an inevitable consequence of Israeli occupation. The attacks are still bad, but it looks like the UN is ready to advance the idea of a two-state solution and say that Israel is behaving like an occupying force. This has Israel rather hot under the collar.

A small earthquake struck the United Kingdom. Damage was mostly due to things not built for earthquakes showing they were not built for earthquakes. No reported deaths or serious injuries.

Walter E. Williams would like the world to do less in giving African governments more money, and as such, for the world to reduce government-to-government aid to the countries where the governments are corrupted. Aid to the people that will help them out, I would think, is still perfectly good. Which might mean, say, paying more to the UN World Food Programme, maybe? Dr. Williams suggests that lowered trade barriers would help to get money to those Africans that really need it.

Domestically, with regard to the general election, yet more on how Senator Obama hates America. Ben Shapiro thinks that the Seantor's "change" message is a weakness, because it implies he hates America the way it is. For most of the people who would be voting for the Senator, they’re not too fond of the way the country is now themselves, and especially not so after eight years of the Bush administration. The Washington Times is doing its part to try and create no confidence in the Senator’s inexperience by claiming that military commanders are unsure about his experience, with the implication that the Senator would leave the country vulnerable to more attacks if elected. The Tennessee Republican Party climbs on, stating that they believe Israel's future is in danger if Barack Obama is elected. Looks like the line from the Republican Party will be “Elect our guy, he’s served, he’ll continue the fight, and we’ll be safe! Honest!”

Former Attorney General John Ashcroft will be testifying before Congress about a no-bid contract his firm acquired from the Justice Department. Amazing how those contracts seem to find themselves into the hands of those who helped or served this administration.

The White House continues to try and spin things so that we should believe warrantless wiretapping is a good thing for us. The White House spokesperson admits to not being a lawyer, and dodges more questions about why Mr. Bush is unwilling to accept an extension bill if it’s so important to him, while claiming his opponents are playing politics. Instead, more fearmongering and attempts to convince the populace that warrants are unnecessary.

Mike Huckabee continues to be consistent on his antichoice, antifamily positions, this time lending his support to a proposed Colorado state constitution amendment that would define life as beginning at conception and extend all the associated protections to that fertilized egg. No doubt he would like to have Michelle Malkin's commentary on a woman who committed suicide out of regret from her abortion to help him convince the populace that most women who have abortions regret them. Perhaps they can travel in the "No Sex Policy" van, which is festooned with quite a few unnecessary quotation marks.

Cal Thomas pins the blame for the credit crunch squarely on the populace that wants more than they can afford. Yes, people spending too much are partially to blame for the problem. But there’s also the people who gave them the credit, despite probably having a good idea that some of these people were big credit risks. On the other side of the spectrum, Bank of America has apparently instituted caps on how much someone can debit from their accounts per day. This was not necessarily disclosed until someone tried to buy a big-ticket item which would have put them over the limit. For others, banks are instruments for oppression of the lower classes, apparently deserving of bricks and notes with bold proclamations.

A Darwin Award should be sent to Markus Groh, who died when sharks baited with chum savaged him. The shark-diving company he paid did not use steel cages for protection of the divers, and they baited the water with blood. At some point, someone was going to get hurt, and now it happened. I suspect the proprietor of that establishment will not be doing business very soon. Not quite as deadly, but also potentially dangerous, Senator Larry Craig's office is looking for interns. There’s probably a Bill Clinton joke here for those that want to make it, or avoid making one about a “wide stance”.

A federal judge has permitted lawsuits against NBC's "To Catch A Predator" program to proceed, permitting a jury to hear whether the program’s enticement, confrontation, and arrest of would-be child molesters crosses a line from journalism into law enforcement. Besides, it seems like every other day there’s another pedophile clergyman or something of the like. There’s enough in the reporting aspect to keep someone interested solely in sex stories in business. Seriously.

After all of that stuff going wrong, I have to give Michael Medved praise - he understands that declaring Islam to be the enemy of the United States is a stupid, futile, very foolish decision that will lead to an endless war. Considering the progress of the current unending war, I think Medved understands that continuing that process, changing out “terrorism” for “Islam” will only result in failure and doom. Not to mention, in Turkey, a reinterpretation of the Hadith will help to create a more modern, less violent Islam. So by not declaring a war on Islam, we can give the more tolerant branches a chance to take root and become the norm.

Also worth keeping an eye on is the description of The Ultimate Project, a 1000-year project that intends to build a big spaceship and send it out into the cosmos to a habitable world nearby. Or other stars that can have colonies built.

Not that it will necessarily help the product, on the 26th of February, every Starbucks closed for three hours to retrain the staff on how to make coffee. So for those who are addicted to their product, has there been any improvement?

Besides, we’d rather go about drinking Super Mario Brothers-themed alcoholic drinks, really. How many times will you have the opportunity to say that you drank enough of Princess Peach to get hammered?

Svalbard's seed vault is ready, and is also attempting to be a comprehensive collection of the world's seed crops . In the freezing temperature, the seeds are unlikely to grow, which is good from a refrigeration standpoint, but probably pretty bad if we ever need to access it and there’s not sufficient tech to spread the seeds where they need to go.

Last for tonight, to give us food for thought, Wired looks at why free is the new wave of business. It’s good to be a consumer, with so much there for free, but remember that those sandwiches and chicken wings came at the cost of a pint. If that’s not your thing, then maybe some analysis on maze design will lead you to a good and thoughtful end. I will be studying from the insides of my eyelids.