e-Claire

2003-06-01T15:42:00.000-07:00

I said: e-Claire.us. Thank you.

2003-06-01T15:36:00.000-07:00

It IS THAT BAD

I was awaiting Ms Electric's go-ahead to Move to The New Home but even I cannot wait for my own page to download from blogspot.

Come see me at my new home:

e-Claire.us

Joni, if this screws things up for ya, I'll bake ya (real) cookies and wash your (virtual) car!!

2003-06-01T15:15:00.000-07:00

....Can't....help....self.. . must...take. ...quiz...

Actually it's a rather good one. It describes how I used to make a living:

You are 46% geek
You are a geek liaison, which means you go both ways. You can hang out with normal people or you can hang out with geeks which means you often have geeks as friends and/or have a job where you have to mediate between geeks and normal people. This is an important role and one of which you should be proud. In fact, you can make a good deal of money as a translator.
Normal: Tell our geek we need him to work this weekend.
You [to Geek]: We need more than that, Scotty. You'll have to stay until you can squeeze more outta them engines!
Geek [to You]: I'm givin' her all she's got, Captain, but we need more dilithium crystals!
You [to Normal]: He wants to know if he gets overtime.

You'll note that this is a cut/paste job, not a real coding link. See? Accurate.

2003-05-31T17:32:00.000-07:00

My Thesaurus Fails Me

I cannot relay the range of feelings that come over me upon reading Iranian Girl's, 5.31, second down post. (Hey, it's blogspot, whaddayawannn) I want to tell her everything from "Go for it!" to "Hide under your chador until the bad mullahs go away."

2003-05-31T17:12:00.000-07:00

Having Fun Today

Avoiding rtfm on MT... Go see Chasing Daisy and help get her off blogspot!

2003-05-31T16:55:00.000-07:00

BTW

Does *someone* need an intervention?

2003-05-31T16:52:00.000-07:00

Gratuitous Linkage

2003-05-31T15:54:00.000-07:00

When will a Ranger be not a Ranger?

Maj. Gen. Paul Eaton is a twit. He runs Fort Benning and, in that capacity, he was whined to by a bunch of Ranger-wannabes that their training was "too hard" and that they got yelled at, sworn at, and actually asked to perform their jobs. So Maj. Gen. Eaton assembled his Ranger Instructors and had himself a good ol' fashioned cranky attack. Now, the students are to be treated like the Queens of Whineland. No one is allowed to cuss at 'em, or keep 'em up past their bed time, or even make 'em wear Army Boots. (ferdog'ssake)

So the next time we (US) are in a tough spot and need some titanium-tough, smart and resourceful Rangers to get our ass out of a jam - we'll hafta call the Scots.

Whose side is this guy on anyway? Keeripe.

ThanQ! to Acidman.

2003-05-31T14:27:00.000-07:00

If it works with Texans . . .

This is a small quote from a piece by the Feces Flinging Monkey about how the concealed carry law has worked out in Tejas.
Well worth the read.

...serious crime in Texas has dropped 50 percent faster than for the nation as a whole.

"An armed society is a polite society." Robert A. Heinlein

2003-05-31T14:08:00.000-07:00

Movin' on Up . . .

Yep, she's got MT and Bloghosts, and she's gonna be dangerous!

And on top of all that, She's somehow enticed Joni of WebJones to do the brainy bits.

She's so happy she's actually talking about herslef in the third person. *Sheesh*

2003-05-31T13:55:00.000-07:00

They're doing it Again!

How Many Times must this mistake be repeated?

"The most foolish mistake we could possibly make would be to allow the subject races to possess arms. History shows that all conquerors who have allowed their subject races to carry arms have prepared their own downfall by so doing." - Hitler's Secret Conversations, trans. Norman Cameron and R. H. Stevens (New York: Signet Books, 1961), 403
"A system of licensing and registration is the perfect device to deny gun ownership to the bourgeoisie." - Vladimir Ilyich Lenin

ThanQ! to Rachel Lucas

2003-05-31T10:39:00.000-07:00

The True Fashion Police

I knew it all along - it's our outfits that are the cause of America being the Great Satan. Not you men, you guys can wear whatever you like. Wear your auntie's feather boa and cowboy boots; it's all good.

No, apparently it is when we women wear pants that the world goes to hell on a rollerskate...

"The Bible says curse be unto a woman who wears pants ...That is why the world is in such a state today,"

Here's a clue:

Mswati, ruler of the impoverished feudal nation of about one million, said [the above] late on Thursday.

Mswati, quit worrying about fashion and educate your dam people so they can throw your tight ass out and govern themselves! Although it seems that "the last absolute monarch" in Africa does not upset his subjects too much:

Women on the streets of capital Mbabane were not impressed.
"The king says I am the cause of the world's problems because of my outfit. Never mind terrorism, government corruption, poverty and disease, it's me and my pants. I reject that," said Thob'sile Dlamini.

I think Thob'sile Dlamini should get a blog for herself. Here's another clue:

Mswati is ...currently married to nine wives, with a wedding pending for wife number 10, and has chosen an additional fiancee after reviewing videos of topless maidens performing a traditional Reed Dance ceremony.

Now I geddit. It's OK to go topless (it's traditional) but not while wearing pants. Interesting he's not even willing to meet the women before affiancing them... Personable guy. Third clue:

"What rights? God created people, and He gave them their roles in society. You cannot change what God has created. This is an abomination before God." [Mswati, again]

Now it's clear. It's God who's a twit, not Mswati. Hokay-fiiine.

ThanQ! to Kate at Electric Venom who is apparently blogging in a sarong today. Now that's fashion.

Cultural Artifacts.

2003-05-29T19:40:00.000-07:00

Ranom linking . . .

Fun Toys!

All the more reason to Blog!

What is this crap? And so what if there wasn't any Republican Guard resistance at the hospital at the time? How did it get to be such a big deal for professionals to have followed a procedure that has proven to keep both rescuers and rescued safe in this type of situation? Is it that the easily startled yoghurt-knitters are frightened of the big bad Marines? Well, they should be. [a little more perspective]

This is what would make it a double murder. period.

Swear to dogs! It is high time for these people to come out of the closet and wear their big floppy shoes and red rubber noses in public. We see you anyway - quit hiding. [And here are some fellow travelers. Is it those big rainbow wigs that get in the way of connecting Dot A and Dot B?

And following logically: When public school grads try to run public skoolz. Not to mention the country. . .

Brilliant!

Irony intended?

And the pendulum swings.

New Perspective on a new al-Qaida. And *someones* wants to takes away my nice, warm gun. HA!

2003-05-29T12:11:00.000-07:00

Comments are now Out. . . .and Blogspot seems completely frelled, phuqued, and crappy

It seems like this blog is sinking fast - and this little rat is scrabbling as quickly as her tiny (painted) toenails can go to get off this blighted scow and into a bright, new MT powered site at Bloghosts.

Those of you wishing to comment, please MAIL IT HERE - (hey, it's blogger and there is only so much I can do...)

Please feel free to use it for insightful commentary, enthusiastic encouragement, and offers of professional writing positions. Hell, just troll me - I'm a newly converted Apatheist anyway. (I have to be - or by now my head would have exploded)

I will post a busy day's worth of posts which Blogger ate ASAP. *sigh*

2003-05-29T00:47:00.000-07:00

COMMENT HERE

2003-05-29T00:06:00.000-07:00

Every time I touch the template the whole thing explodes on me. And this is simple >text changes< mind you. Bloggggrrrrrrrrr

2003-05-28T23:57:00.000-07:00

Comments are now Out. . . . . . .

It seems like this blog is sinking fast - and this little rat is scrabbling as fast as her tiny (painted) toenails can go to get off this sinking scow and into a bright, new MT powered site at Bloghosts.

Those of you wishing to comment, please note the comments email "button" - (hey, it's blogger and there is only so much I can do...) Please feel free to use it for insightful commentary, enthusiastic encouragement, and offers of professional writing positions. Hell, just troll me - I'm a newly converted Apatheist anyway.

2003-05-28T22:55:00.000-07:00

Yeaaa I don' care

I would self-refer, here, to my earlier rant about religion but - hey, it's bloooog*spot. Whaddyawan'.

In this month's Atlantic is contained the term for which I have sought e'er these many years. Described is Apatheism.

Apatheism concerns not what you believe but how. ...apatheists: people who feel at ease with religion even if they are irreligious; people who may themselves be members of religious communities, but who are neither controlled by godly passions nor concerned about the (nonviolent, noncoercive) religious beliefs of others. ...[Their] example will be a source of strength, not weakness, in a world still beset by fanatical religiosity (al Qaeda) and tyrannical secularism (China).

About time to go on a crusade of conversion, a jihad of metanoia -- We'll beat them into apathy. We'll bomb them into dispassion. Get the MOAB! uh, wait... Isn't that what American Idol and Everybody Loves Raymond are for? Let Romano earn those big bux.

ThanQ! to The Greeblies.

2003-05-28T16:31:00.000-07:00

How to Inspire Loyalty

It's just 1001 Tales - all contradictory. Psyops and Bond got nuttin' on these boys for a plot within a plan within a scheme.

Saddam Hussein was betrayed by three of his cousins, senior military officers, and a former cabinet minister, in moves that allowed the fall of Baghdad, ex regime officials have said.
According to these former officials Saddam's cousins ordered troops not to fight against the US-led coalition and issued reports saying that the Iraqi leader was dead.

The guy who spread the (dis?) information is now living in an Undisclosed European City courtesy of Uncle.

So. Knowing that he's been finked out, Saddam set up his personal guards for that al-Mansur district bomb on 4.7, and out the back he slipped!

Slick, but, (for the car, the boat, and the Turtle Wax...), who do you get to spy on your closest of closest most-est trusted personal guard? Kelley Girl? Bob from Accounting? Pinkertons?? The French?!? The Pope!?!

[head swirling...must lie down] Saddam -- ephemeral They just don't go together.

2003-05-28T16:09:00.000-07:00

Data or Dada. It's all Art

The InfoCanvas system displays an electronic scene—a desert, window view, aquarium, beach, or mountain camp—that uses movable elements to represent categories of information. The elements shift as information changes.
Elements like birds, sailboats and beach towels can appear or disappear, change form, move along a path, scale up or down, rotate, or populate an area according to changes in associated data. News headlines and images can appear towed by an airplane, or on a billboard.
Because the display uses abstract elements that can be customized, users can monitor sensitive information, like bank balances, without revealing the information to everyone who enters the office.

2003-05-28T15:44:00.000-07:00

Is it SPAM?

Middle East Online received a letter from Saddam. 5.28.03

The statement said the so-called "General Command of the Iraqi Armed, Resistance and Liberation Forces" claimed responsibility for an ambush which was confirmed to have killed two US soldiers and wounded nine others in the Iraqi city of Fallujah earlier in the day.
The statement said the attack was carried out by "special forces, al-Faruq Brigades, and members of the Baath Party"
The authenticity of the letter and statement, which Middle East Online had received by fax, could not be confirmed.

uh, yeah.

This letter is "attributed to Saddam and dubbed his "fourth handwritten letter" since he was ousted." The other three were went to London based Arabic Daily al-Quds al-Arabi.

Look closely. Maybe there is a 'situations wanted' ad in there from Uday.

***
Position Wanted: Salary negotiable. Benefits must include private room with shag rugs and mirrors, plastic shredder, electricity paid. Proximity to girl's school desirable. Have own staff. Wheelchair accessibility nec.
***

2003-05-28T15:13:00.000-07:00

Blogger ... ... ...

Has now taken to adding random colors to my site. On top of taking an aeon to load....

Cute.

Oh, and making me post repeeeatedly before being able to publish.

Bloghosts is prompt, helpful, and just plain nice.

Wish me luck - I'm needing it.

2003-05-28T14:46:00.000-07:00

It's Still America - at least in California...

Librarians in Palo Alto (a very pretty part of ~~Silly~~ Silicon Valley) are purging their records of information on who borrowed what six days after every book is returned. In my book, that puts Librarians right up there with Marines, et al, as defenders of Freedom.

Palo Alto's police chief is supporting a resolution before the Cicty [sic] Council next week that would prohibit her department from aiding the FBI in Patriot Act searches, interviews or surveillance without evidence that a crime has been committed.
"We take an oath to uphold the Constitution and that's the bottom line for us"
...A report released last week by the Justice Department showed that FBI agents have obtained records from 50 libraries throughout the country.

I wonder what they're after. These days, how many Al Qaida members are checking out books on How to Build a Pocket Nuke?

And for all of you who have just finished cleaning the bathroom, a-gain: a Practice Unit (complete with practice unit!) Watch the video - worth the wait.

From the "You've Had That Thing HOW Long and You Still Can't Aim It?!?!?" Dept.

2003-05-27T20:19:00.000-07:00

TechnoBabble

B' bye United, American and bad peanuts; hello Jane Jetson. I'm So IN! Also investing: Moller International in Davis, CA, Urban Aeronautics in Israel and about "a dozen" other US companies

Tired of that cranky keyboard always falling off your lap? I know I am. Getting carpal thumb-al syndrome? Unrecognizable handwriting? Get a new toy. (Can't be too bad, look who's selling them: VKB of Jerusalem, Israel, Canesta of San Jose, CA, and Virtual Devices of Pittsburgh, PA "...because we thought it was cool..." "...focus group participants adjust to flat typing in about 15 minutes...")

Sure, the ol' Slime Seeking Tactical Pocket Nuke. "What good is a technology unless it benefits mankind or some segment of mankind. If governments can have nuclear weapons, tanks, or machines guns, assault rifles or pistols, the only way to offset the imbalance of power is to equip the average guy with tactical nuclear weapons." ...it's all about respect, man.

< !--Insert Monty Python SPAM Routine Here -- >

I think I'm gonna need that DSL for this. But visual cues, only, please.

Did I mention, !!! 4 Days to DSL !!! ? Oh, I did? OK.

Hal, don't call your office just yet.

See? Rummy needs an aircar.

Hell, ~~SOL~~ AOL has trouble learning Apple.

2003-05-27T07:34:00.000-07:00

Countdown to DSL: 4 days (!!)

Countdown to MT: only just until the place where I registered my domain name scrapes its shit into one sock and re-points the nameservers. (4 days and waiting, so far) *sigh* Is it really that hard? You obstinate poops!

2003-05-27T07:30:00.000-07:00

A photo essay:

Before and After the Iranian Revloution.

Where did I read just recently a well turned phrase about not being able to rest until the last dictator is strangled with the entrails of the last mullah?

No, really. Do you remember? Please tell me so I can credit it.

courtesy of Iranian Girl. Thank you, ma'm.

2003-05-27T07:24:00.000-07:00

Personal Note to Iranian Girl

I find myself often moved to email you in response to your posts but I am aware that, in these difficult times, emails from the Satan-USofA might be unwise. In case you stumble upon this blog, I want you to know that there are many women out here keeping en eye on you and holding you in our hearts. You have shown yourself smart and humorous, courageous and clever - also, please, keep yourself safe and well.

Claire

2003-05-27T07:12:00.000-07:00

Control Your Own Horses In the Street

First the Internet, now the Women. The Mullahs are cracking down on women who wear headscarves and long pants topped by a light colored, knee length coat. In summer. In Tehran. *sigh*

Iranian Girl reports:

...you know, I heard from some of my friends that in some streets of Tehran like Jordan, the government has started arresting the girls who wear white of light colored clothes! & they are also going to do it in other parts of Tehran...that really is the most foolish thing they can do, arresting girls not even for the model but for the color of their clothes!

Some women even wear belts that pinch their clothes at the waist, defining the line of their bodies in a way that is suggestive to males - and [therefore] against the law. Under Iran's strict Islamic law, women are required to dress in loose-fitting, ankle-length clothes and cover their hair and neck with headscarves [hejab.] Violators risk being fined or lashed.NB Now that's the fashion police... (emph. mine, all mine. ed.)

Iranian Girl comments further: "And I also heard that the reason is the last speech of Reza Pahlavi (Son of the last king of Iran) that he has said to Iranian people to be happy & take off their dark clothes, because the freedom is coming soon. ...just wish that God helps Iranian girls in the coming hot summer with those fuckin clothes!" I think she is picking up the language well.

This was written on March 16, 2K3; the day before the beginning of the War on Saddam.

Iranian women are bursting out of the long black cloaks imposed by the Islamic state after the 1979 revolution and turning to a fledging fashion magazine [Lotus] for tips on brightening up their wardrobe. ...The law still requires women to dress from head to wrist and heel in a long black garment, called a hejab, which literally translates as "black tent" in Farsi. A billowing length of cloth, it slips over the head and has to be held in place with the hands or even sometimes the teeth. [Also described as 'wearing a big black tablecloth over your head.']
...Mahla Zamani, the editor of Lotus, is dismissive of the officially-sanctioned cloak. "Black is the colour for mourning and grieving," said Ms Zamani, a former bank manager in her fifties. "I believe that Iranian women feel depressed simply because of the dark colours they wear. Women generally like dressing elegantly and Iranian women are no exception.
"I have used lots of beautiful colours in my designs to give a fresh psychological and spiritual boost to women."

And that is the heart of the matter. If a woman's wrists are seen, men might be tempted. At the turn of the last century in the US, the same was true of a woman's ankle; men might be tempted. Certainly presumes a very low opinion of men and their ability to behave like adults. How can a civilized society possibly expect a person to participate in a government, be trusted with international diplomacy, run a multinational corporation, or even be allowed in the streets, if that person cannot control himself at the sight of a woman's wrist? (Gawd/Allah/Yaweh forbid he should be assaulted with the sight of boobage.)

It is men's disomfiture at these feelings within themselves that mutates into rage turned outwards towards women. The requirement to wear black is not based on any religiously inspired mourning for Mohammad - it is simple hostility. The custom of stoning an adulterous woman but not the man with whom she committed the trnsgression is more acting out of frustration within the men's character. It is a restatement of the ancient cannard that women are responsible for men's behavior and choices.

A heads-up to Men from the Women of the world: I am NOT your Mommy. Your erection is none of my business. It is attached to you and therefore is your problem. Simply because your thoughts about me may have caused said erection, don't try to blame it on me or make me do something about it. I remind you - check and see to whom the damthing is attached.

So perhaps it is time for Iranian women, and all women who find themselves is a similar position, to take over the important functions of diplomatic, business and governmental life until such time that the men can prove that they are constitutionally capable of self-control. The idea of maintaining religious and secular laws to allow men to continue such praetorian self indulgence is ludicrous.

2003-05-26T14:57:00.000-07:00

More Projective Testing

What does this say about me? (!?!!??!)

PS My best score was only 20%. How well did you do?

2003-05-26T11:04:00.000-07:00

Your Expectations Create Your World

To quote a Buddist I once knew, "It is not the world what gives us trouble, but our expectations of the world." MBA grads are having a tough time finding jobs upon graduation this year.* They are sorely disappointed about it; worried about their massive student loans, and expecting that this degree, with the superior knowledge it is expected to [carry] entitles them high paying jobs. They want to partake in Americas new dream - being yuppies. (Nuttin' wrong with that...) They want it now. (That's the sticky point...)

But, wait. Aren't these newly matriculated MBAs just the people we (and economists) count on to create new wealth? Having some small knowledge of Masters programs, I think of them as trade school for the professions. A good Masters program provides an advanced set of skills in a particular area.

So why are these MBA grads bemoaning the lack of immediate employment? Why aren't they raring to go to create jobs for themselves, and for others, in new businesses? After all, they have rigorous training in what makes the business world and the economy go.

It is almost as if there is a sense of entitlement that there should be pret-au-porter jobs awaiting them. I think the commonness of giant corporations has created an expectation, almost Japanese in nature, that there will be a *place* for one, if only one is willing to shape one's knowledge/skill base to it's requirements.

This expectation is a recent one. I guess it is an artifact of the frontier perspective, here among us country folk out west, but the (old ?) idea goes like this: if one wants something, one just has to make it up from scratch or kludge it together from bits found in the barn. This understanding of the world presupposes an independence of approach that I think is a part of what made America the super-power it is today.

*[Heard the story on the ABC news radio this am; am finding no similar story on the net.]

2003-05-25T21:43:00.000-07:00

The Good and the Bad/Ugly

The Good is Shanti and Ashwini's blog Real Women Online. Go check 'em out -- they talk about real things. They even have an offer out to host an Iraqi woman blogger! Good on 'em.

The Ugly/Bad is contained in this Dallas Obsserver article. To call a child feeding "sexual conduct and sexual performance" says more about the culture and mores of Richardson TX, and America, than about the Fernandez'. It is apparent whose "sexual desire" is being stimulated, here.

I think the class issue here is an unconscious one. I don't think that the officers, the grand jury, and the rest are intentionally "going after easy marks." I think they were blinded by their own sexual issues and there was no trigger to say, wait a minute, these people could fight back, as there would have been "if these pictures [had been] on their way back to some big home in Highland Park."

[Also written in the comment section on this article.]

2003-05-25T18:57:00.000-07:00

Emergency 'Sap' Infusion Needed - STAT!

Lionel and Shell are up to evil and vile tricks again. They propose that Acidman needs a little de-basing in light of his recent uh, rants .

Their suggested action? [drum roll, please]

Operation: Warm and Fuzzies to Georgia

Indeed.

So go to your fave treacly e-card site and send him globbules of glee, ardent applets of approval, fervent felicitations, rhapsodic regards, gooey greetings, moist mantras of motivation, all stating your cloying concerns for his mental and emotional health. That'll show him.

His email addy is acidman at alltel.net. Go. Now. A man's mental health is at stake!

2003-05-25T17:57:00.000-07:00

New Jewelry Trend for Baghdadi Moms

[Uday] believes a US jail would be a safer option than being found by Iraqi civilians who would probably kill him.

Himself remarked this am that there would probably be a large number of fathers willing to *take care of* Uday.

True enough, but I have a better solution: give that sick f*cker to the mothers. Soon there will be thousands of women in Baghdad wearing beautiful lockets, each containing a gobbet of Uday.

Sounds just to me...

2003-05-25T12:13:00.000-07:00

Countdown to DSL: 6 days

2003-05-25T11:59:00.000-07:00

[...can't ...help ...self...Must ...Link ....]

Canadian Humour, eh?

2003-05-24T19:47:00.000-07:00

More Unfounded:

Truth about dog ~~owners~~ companions, speaking as one, myself.

Essay on what it takes to want to Govern.

PS Blogger's *true* password = "godDAMmit ! "

2003-05-24T17:54:00.000-07:00

Unfounded Linkage

So that's what it's called. . . SPoD (then what I need is an iSPoD?)

Skunked, again! SARS came "from civet cats, which are considered a delicacy by many people in southern China." uh, eewww

I know we're not children, but how is this helpful?

And, as a service woman is expected to kick the enemy's ass, how come she didn't kick these guys' asses?

Time to kick some sorry, timid bureaucrat ass! But hard !

This outta make Kate happy - and happier.

Don't get Mad at Canada.

And the beat goes on...

Disney (may they rot in a treacly, bird-singing, elf-driven hell,) makes land fill.

Not the Dorian Grey I knew... "'Personally I cannot think of anything more macabre than being buried six feet under and eaten by worms,' he said. "

Oh, Tommy, Mr Titchmarsh is on the phone and Charlie is throwing a snit.

"Good Night, sleep tight, don't let the Bed Bugs bite..."

2003-05-23T23:59:00.000-07:00

Countdwn to DSL -- 7 Days

Signed up with a new ISP for the DSL and took them up on their offer of free back-up dial-up as ~~SOL~~ AOL does not support iMac. They say they do but I think 28K is a little silly. Guess ya get whatcha pay fer... It says it is working at 31K. Seems more like 300baud. *sigh* So, In deference to those with ancient dialups - and my own sanity - I have been archiving my old posts Blogger style; which is to say cut-and-paste into a text editor and save on the hard drive. Yes, I know you are all anxiously clamoring to read them, but you will have to wait til I get settled in the new digs. Maybe this behemoth will load in under 3 minutes, now. Tho I have noticed that other blogspot pages are slow today, too. Must be their spiffy-brand-new upgraded code. Swell.

2003-05-23T23:50:00.000-07:00

Updates

Very much looking forward to having this transition over with. I am enjoying all that I am learning: it's really quite satisfying to have a piece of html do what was intended. I am discovering an extremely organized alter ego who is taking great satisfaction in the intricate, nay, nit-picky order of nested tags. Who knew?!?

BTW, Blogger. . . I'll say it when I'm safely ensconced in the next server. . . but you know what you are . . .

I found the best tutorial on html today. I will but up a permalink to him later, but for anyone who is beginning html, go to Dave's Site Right Now! Go on. I'll leave a trail of cookie crumbs for you.

A day at Dave's seems to have made me a little dingey - but I now understand frames enough to recognize them. HA! Tomorrow, CSS; next week, MT and the world!

2003-05-23T14:29:00.000-07:00

What IS the deal with Blogger, today ?!!?!?!?

2003-05-23T02:28:00.000-07:00

Passing it On

here is the World's Most Annoying Webpage. Truly it is. But if you're feeling particularly juvenile and relaxed and in the mood, go ahead - push the link. I warned you. . .

2003-05-23T01:21:00.000-07:00

Update:

Hosed Again

Blogger ate the rest of this sorry post about quibbling domain names and servernames *sigh* -- but I saved the important part - to wit:

I was quite heartened and encouraged upon scoring a 95% on this test. Although the kid in the story is only a sophomore and therefore got 3 out of 18 right, I did beat Acidman by 1 (one) question ending up with a 95%. A acomlishment of which I feel quite proud. So there.

2003-05-21T01:50:00.000-07:00

Can't Keep Them Aussies Down, eh mate?

"Australian actress Nicole Kidman has raised the ire of anti-smoking groups by lighting up a cigarette during her press conference at the Cannes Film Festival. The Oscar-winning actress was immediately admonished by the film's Danish director Lars Von Trier, but Kidman shrugged her shoulders and kept smoking."

Some seem to have a sense of self-determination. . .

2003-05-21T01:12:00.000-07:00

"Iraq's Scarlet Pimpernel of Bloggers"

More from Salam Pax. There are alot of pictures in this entry which didn't all load for me. The site is mirrored here where the pix come up well. [Heavy Content Slant Alert - This mirror site is published by Voices in the Wilderness and Electronic Intifada]

[*Real* or not, the guy takes some good snaps. . .]

Update:Note the green chairs in the third pic down. Aren't those the same damchairs we find at Longs and Yardbirds in the US? Truly ubiquitous are the Chinese imports.

2003-05-21T00:12:00.000-07:00

I Feel Much Better

DARPA told Congress the Total Information Awareness program will now be called the Terrorism Information Awareness program.

TIA = TIA.

hokay-fiiine . . .

2003-05-20T17:16:00.000-07:00

Greg Egan, please call your avatar...

Where I want to go on vacation!

- a detailed online model of Earth. Now Telstra is funding development of the virtual planet in the hope that broadband users will populate its countries, build cities and travel through time to key places in history. ...Unlike most online communities, creators will have the ability to explore three - and four - dimensions. ... A timeline will allow them to view locations through time and see how the world's most famous ruins looked in their heyday.

2003-05-20T14:55:00.000-07:00

It Is Your Choice

Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they're not watching you.

The embryonic LifeLog program would dump everything an individual does into a giant database: every e-mail sent or received, every picture taken, every Web page surfed, every phone call made, every TV show watched, every magazine read. All of this -- and more -- would combine with information gleaned from a variety of sources: a GPS transmitter to keep tabs on where that person went, audio-visual sensors to capture what he or she sees or says, and biomedical monitors to keep track of the individual's health.

Our only hope lies in bureaucratic incompetence.

There are opposing forces. Cory Doctorow's outfit, Electronic Frontier Foundation ("Because being able to share information and ideas freely is the whole reason the Web was created in the first place!") is working "to support the essential human right of free speech, a fundamental building block of free society, affirmed by the U.S. Bill of Rights in 1791 and by the U.N. Declaration of Human Rights in 1948." (gif here.)

Steve Mann, who has been studying the interface between human and electronic technology from an particularly personal POV sums it up thus:

Wisely designed technology... need not be about external control. In fact, the 'killer app' of wearable computing may very well be the personal empowerment of the individual. Wearable computing will allow us to explore the full potential of many modern technologies and ideas without requiring us to sacrifice our freedom or privacy. Instead of the current vision of "smart floors", "smart lightswitches", and "smart toilets" that watch us and respond to our actions, what we will witness is the emergence of "smart people".

(BTW, those super-cool shades he's wearing in the foto are actually his cybernetic interface with the world. No, seriously. Dr. Mann has been perceiving the world through increasingly sophisticated electronic interfaces since 1980. Cheggitout.)

The point is, still, that it is not increasingly complex technology that gets us in these jams. It is how we choose to use it. (WE: you, me, us, I.)

A pencil is a piece of technology. You can write me a sonnet with it; or you can stab me in the eye. It is your choice.

2003-05-19T20:22:00.000-07:00

Words; we need more words!

We have a term for " over-weight '. We have a term for "under-weight." What is the term for the third alternative, "weight?" "Just right?" -- too Goldielocks.

I propose that the reason there is no term is that there's no one looking for such a term. I mean, how many people do you know who would say, "Hey, gimme another piece o' pie. It's OK, I'm 'weight.'"

2003-05-19T17:43:00.000-07:00

The Personal, the Political, and the Economic

A Small Victory has quite a discussion about WalMart vs Target. Here is my take cross posted in her comments:

I just can't go to WalMart. I saw a business documentary on PBS (can't find it now) some years ago that told a glowing story about Sam's "brilliant marketing plan." It involved putting in a WalMart every 10 miles or so along an interurban highway and then, when every Mom and Pop hardware store, dress store, grocer, shoe store, etc. went out of business, selling the WalMarts off 'til there was only one every 50 or so miles.

Wow, I thought. That's just wrong. Who would do such a thing? And who would let some PBS types make a documentary about it for everyone to see? Can't be right... Or *right*...

Then I watched them do it right here in NoCal. Repetedly.

I've made a few friends going only to local stores. And I feel a part of a community, even tho this is just a "bedroom community" lately. And in the long run, things are not more expensive because the relationships I have with the local merchants seem to include a "friend discount." I rarely pay the price marked on the shelf. It just comes up cheaper when I check out.

Victory also has a poll about male vs female bloggers. Something to contemplate.

2003-05-19T17:36:00.000-07:00

He Can Dish it Out but He Can't Take It

Today Shell at Across the Atlantic wrote a good, stern Fisking for members of the "Dark and Sinister Crushing of Dissent in Hollywood" brigade.

A-swan! I cain't not hardly believe that people don't get the difference between *free speech* and speech that has no consequences. I think the only way to avoid the consequences of speaking is to retire to a darkened closet and speak vewy, vewy quietly. Otherwise, there'll always be someone with something to say.

(Besides, doesn't Glover's stance indicate his presupposition that the entire country disagrees with him and can therefore put MCI out of business by the sheer, crushing weight of numbers with its boycott. Cry-man-nee, who cares enough about a spokespuppet's off camera views to go through all that effort!?)

(Odd, though, that he supports Castro's jailing of dissident journalists with that letter he signed, and on the other hand thinks people objecting to his views is "dark and sinister crushing of dissent." Pick one, Mack. Either you're a commie fascist represser, or you like free speech and all that it takes to create it. I notice where he lives, though.)

Thank you, Shell. I feel better, now.

2003-05-18T19:02:00.000-07:00

Help! Save Me from Those Who Want to Help People

After studying, for nearly 40 years, the health of 35,500 people married to smokers, US researchers found that they face no significant extra risk of lung cancer or heart disease. ...other people's cigarette smoke will not kill you.

The demise of a supposed major risk to public health might be expected to prompt celebration among medical experts and campaigners. Instead, they scrambled to condemn the study, its authors, its conclusions, and the journal that published them. The reaction came as no surprise to those who have tried to uncover the facts about passive smoking. More than any other health debate, the question of whether smokers kill others as well as themselves is engulfed in a smog of political correctness and dubious science. [emph. mine] [..all emph. mine]

So they try to monkey with the data in the same ol' ways that gave rise to that saying about lies, damned lies, and statistics. That's okay, but there's a lot of difficult number crunching and data masaging involved. The technique of choice is changing: "One technique is anything but abstruse, however. It involves simply ignoring results that do not fit." [Enstrom] Tired, but true methodology. Well... *true*, anyway.

After the BMJ [That's the British Medical Journal, the one with the really good reputation] published it last week, [the author] has been subjected to a barrage of criticism: "The whole process has been aggressive, vitriolic hate," he says. The scientific evidence [...that the person puffing away next to you is not merely making your eyes water, but killing you as well...] is just not there, says Prof Enstrom. "But maybe we've gone past the point where anyone cares about the facts."

*sigh*

And, yes, the study is American, done right here in smoke-free California; yet they had to go all the way to Britain to be published. Despite the quality of their work, no one here would publish it. It is against the commonly accepted *wisdom*.

What it actually is, is draconian paternalism aimed at provoking people into becoming reactive children so that they can then be dismissed. Who, even a New Yorker, has the big brass ones to stand up and say "Get off my back! You don't like it, you go outside."

The key here is contained in Enstrom's statement, "...aggressive, vitriolic hate." The question is why does this particular issue inspire people get on their high, righteous horses? If someone is whistling, a habit I detest, I don't go over and screech at him to quit because he is searing my nerves. I leave. If someone is being generally creepy, I won't run at him with sneers and accusations. I go elsewhere. What other noxious personal habit provokes this kind of venom? Even spitting in the street, (eww) which can actually kill, now, with SARS, is barely noticed by passersby.

So what's the *real* deal? What real issues are getting projected onto this straw man -- the straw smoker?

Is all the vitriol and aggression focused on the smoker because he is the absolute last person you can get away with hating? Is he therefore the focus of all the hidden, saved-up vitriol that used to be spread around more broadly on the multiple bases of race, gender, class, and religion? In fact, you can discriminate against him, act it out in public, and it makes you a *good person.* "I'm trying to help him."

File under things that make me say, "Eeewww."

2003-05-18T18:37:00.000-07:00

Making the leap

Well, it's about time I came into this century... So I will be moving on up to MT. Just as soon as I get it figgered out. (~~Hay~~ Hey! I'm just a simple tootsie from the country, ya know.)

Recommendations, suggestions, warnings, hints, overtones, undertones, undertoads, cues, clues, inklings, notions, promptings, and inspirations welcomed. I'll take care of my own insinuating, thank yew veddy much.

2003-05-18T18:31:00.000-07:00

He's Baaaack

Buzz Machine has provided for our enlightenment a translation of the Austrian mag. interview with Salam Pax. Thank you, sir.

Mmmm. More fodder. < rubs hands gleefully >

2003-05-17T16:17:00.000-07:00

Stretching the Worldview

Al-Muhajabah's Islamic Blogs, what I first met as veilled4allah is now a triple threat with three, three, three blogs in one! She is a paralegal with a quick mind, a fair approach, and a clear commitment to Islam. She discusses Islamic law and relates it to questions of the day. Personal thoughts on being a muslim woman and news of interest are there, too. She also has a blog dedicated to translation of and commentary on the Quran

Good stuff well done. Go see her on her 30th birthday!

Kewl Toys

In my peregrinations to improve this blog I found:

Colors!

and a html test LAB

2003-05-17T13:00:00.000-07:00

Take that House of Saud!

Or: How I Learned to Stop Hating My Species and Make More Pies

Remember the name Paul Baskis: he has invented a process utilizing "old as the hills" technology that can turn just about anything into good fuel oil.

Brian Appel, [is] chairman and CEO of Changing World Technologies, the company that built this pilot plant and has just completed its first industrial-size installation in Missouri.
...The process is designed to handle almost any waste product imaginable, including turkey offal, tires, plastic bottles, harbor-dredged muck, old computers, municipal garbage, cornstalks, paper-pulp effluent, infectious medical waste, oil-refinery residues, even biological weapons such as anthrax spores.(take that Al Quaida, et al)
"The longest carbon chains are C-18 or so," says Appel, admiring the liquid. "That's a very light oil. It is essentially the same as a mix of half fuel oil, half gasoline." "We will be able to make oil for $8 to $12 a barrel," says Paul Baskis, the inventor of the process. "We are going to be able to switch to a carbohydrate economy."

Why it might actually happen:

"We've got a lot of confidence in this," Buffett says. (...Howard Buffett, son of billionaire investor Warren Buffett) "I represent ConAgra's investment. We wouldn't be doing this if we didn't anticipate success."

The potential fly in the fruit salad:

Buffett isn't alone. Appel has lined up federal grant money to help build demonstration plants to process chicken offal and manure in Alabama and crop residuals and grease in Nevada.

On the other hand, why it won't be squashed:

...[According to] John Riordan, president and CEO of the Gas Technology Institute, an industry research organization. Experiments at the Philadelphia thermal depolymerization plant have converted heavy crude oil, shale, and tar sands into light oils, gases, and graphite-type carbon. "When you refine petroleum, you end up with a heavy solid-waste product that's a big problem," Riordan says. "This technology will convert these waste materials into natural gas, oil, and carbon. It will fit right into the existing infrastructure.(emph. mine)

Although this sure pulls the rug out from under the economies of Iraq and other mid-eastern nations, I think with a little foresight disaster can be averted. The fertile valley between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers can feed quite a lot of people, and other economic options are available.

But, more important, this story exemplifies what I believe to be the whole point of technology: to make More Pies. From time immemorial humans have been fighting over limited resources. Stone and wood tools were the first step toward making more resources available, and more people possible. Each succeeding step in the advance of human knowledge has made more resources available to more people. Yeah, we've made some messes; but look around. Every time attention and energy have been focused on cleaning up those messes, it has worked. Lake Erie. The Monongahela River. The Hudson River. The air in LA. Yucca Mountain - still working, but that's the point. Working at it.

If we can stay away from chest beating and concentrate on solving the problems that are an inevitable byproduct of trial and error learning (the only kind I've found) there is nothing we cannot do. But if we allow ourselves to be mired down by guilt-ridden self-accusations of evil-doing -- we're sunk. To be able to be competent stewards and managers of our planet and our species, and maybe soon our local neighborhood, the Solar system, we must be able to trust ourselves. We are not victims. We are not evil-doers. If we muster the will, we have the ability to do a worthy job and respect ourselves at the end of the day.

The first generation of depolymerization centers will be up and running in 2005.

Source: Discover online.

More info on the Company. Great Logo!

More info on the natural carbon cycle which is relevant because that's where the depolymerization process (beneficially) impacts the environment.

2003-05-16T17:08:00.000-07:00

Is It Art or Is It Virtual Mirroring?

Or: How I Learned to Stop Checking Under the Bed and Love Pinoccio.

Boy! Talk about a projective test; the flummery about Salam Pax rages on, and on, and on, and on, and on, and on.

I remember clearly first running across Where is Raed? I was struck first by the dark nature of the life this man/boy was living - not feeling his work to be significant, longing for something, and trying to find it in friends and night life. He reminded me of friends I had when I was twenty-something and urban; that leaving-home-yet-seeking-home feeling. I began to dig thru his archives and found references to the loss of someone very important to him, but could find no further details of this person's disappearance. Then I began to get clues that it was a *disappearance.* Oh.

I read on and found very few references to women other than his Mother and relatives - normal in a segregated society. Then I *got* the other key - that other piece that had rung so familiar to me; he's gay. Ah. That explained the sense of not fitting, of loss, of going nowhere-you-know.

I began to marvel at how alike he is to the young men I used to know who were in similar situations. Even though the culture is so different... Wait a minute... Are *urban*, *twenty-something*, *gay* all really so universal as to cross such disparate cultures? I doubt there would such a familiar feel from a rural writer who had never left the country, but Salam shares an apartment in Vienna with someone whose email address he gives. (Update: and who has interviewed him for an Austrian mag.) He has significant urban european in his cultural background. And in urban-euro, American pop culture and lingo is *hip*.

David Warren seems to have an investment in his premise that Salam is some sort of plant job on the side of Saddam's regime (see title) and set out to find data to support it. He did poorly. This para is the only bit I could find that is sort of on target: "[Salam] refers casually to pseudonymous friends, who are also children of the deposed Baathist elect. They all know their way around but, unlike their parents, have never carried the weight of responsibility. They were of a class, but not yet fully in it -- products of a very luxurious bubble." The snarky tone is not indicative of an objective reporter. Obviously, Salam is from a well placed family and he still lives at home - the custom in Iraq until, and often after, marriage. He works for a satellite phone co, Thuraya which gives us some insight into his geek-abilities. Salam is a hi-tech, well educated, westernized fella from a good family. Warren seems to be a twit with an ax to grind. I wonder what it is...

The long and the short of it is that I fail to see what the nefarious sting of this purported con could be. Perhaps Salam has not told us all, or has told us some outright BS. So what? He has never purported to be the Baghdad Insider. Seems to me to be another case of setting up an icon only for the pleasure of knocking it down again. Same ol', same ol'.

I still think the important facts and feel hang together sufficiently for me to say that Salam Pax is a *real boy*.

2003-05-15T17:03:00.000-07:00

What Is Art?

It's always been one of my favourite questions. "Is that art?" "Yeah, but is it Art?"

The boundaries are being explored again by "Marco Evaristti, the Chilean-born bad boy of the Danish art scene." (It was on the internet, now it is in the museum.) Goldfish in a blender. Do you push the button?

My contention is that it is Art. Particularly relevant and timely Art. It gives the opportunity to the visitor to examine in realtime what comes up when he is presented with this event potential. Have you ever come face to face with that dark part that says, "Go ahead, push the button. They're only goldfish"? Is what first rises the feeling of protection for the fish? "Gimme that baggie out of your purse! I'm takin' these fish home." It gives opportunity for the viewer to gain further insight into Self. That is (part of) the definition of Art.

As expectable, "Friends of Animals filed a complaint against the artist as well as the director of the museum, Peter S. Meyer, for cruelty to animals." The organization got an injunction "to cut the blenders' electricity so that visitors would not be tempted to kill the goldfish." What do I hear in that view? That the Friends of Animals assumes that the visitors would be tempted to kill. And that the organizations first objective was to keep people from being tempted. They didn't get an injunction to make the museum take the fish out of the blender. They didn't get an injunction to abolish the exhibit. They just didn't want people to feel that feeling of being tempted which they knew people would feel.

Interesting. Now we know how it brought those people closer to Self.

My partner maintains that the piece is unfinished. He suggests that,were someone to push the button, a Big Hand ought to slap 'em on the back of the head and a Big Voice say "You knew what was gonna happen! Cheeze'n'rice, what's wrong with you?!?" I like it. It's a different piece, but I like it.

The difference lies in the actuality of having to look at the result of "transform[ing] the fish into a runny liquid." And deal with that. And perhaps dealing with the reactions of other visitors in the room. Maybe it should be in a one-person-at-a-time room. I wonder if that would change the number of times the button is pushed...

Photo (no button has been pushed) suitable for PhotoShop-ing or, perhaps for Industrial Signage?

Article including standard artist's protestations. (Stop talking and stick to the Art, Marco.)

2003-05-15T14:26:00.000-07:00

Signs and Portents

Tonight, May 15-16 there will be a full eclipse of the moon. Best viewed from more Atlantic longitudes, I am sure it will be sufficient to get the natives in an uproar here.

Beauty is vital.

2003-05-15T13:52:00.000-07:00

Update on Blogs as Mirrors

Or: How I Learned to Stop Fearing My Virtual Personae Fragment and Love the Blog...

Persian Blogger Chronicles has moved. Today, Alireza Doostdar is discussing the question of anonymous or nom de plumed bloggers.

Whether the constructed identity closely resembles the blogger's real-life self, is only one aspect of the self, or is a completely different self, might vary by blogger, but the important thing is that the online persona is a persona, not a complete non-entity.

It's not just about Persians. . .

2003-05-14T20:06:00.000-07:00

Yes, Virginia, the world is a frellin' dangerous place.

And from the News That Makes You Feel Creepy file comes this report on our vulnerabilities from the CSM.

Al Qaeda terrorists proved with the attacks in Saudi Arabia this week that they are still capable of staging simultaneous bombings. And they did so at the same time that the US is carrying out its largest public drill to test the preparedness for such an attack at home.(emph. mine)

[ And what's the secret to comedy, kids?

TIMING!!!! ]

... Al Qaeda has been known to raise money by arms smuggling and the modern version of human slavery...(emph., again,mine)

Just how does that vary from the *ancient* version?

They called last week's exercise "Impending Storm" ?!?

<*squirm*>

The article goes on to describe various obvious-when-you-think-about-them ways in which someone who reaallly wanted to could do damage with a ship, large or small. Only thing - I hadn't really stopped to think of them and to see them in print. . .

<*squirm*>

It's gonna be a long, hot summer, kids.

2003-05-14T18:14:00.000-07:00

ENETATION is my Hero!

With the kind and talented help of Jonathan Whitby of Enetation, my comments are finally working!

Please feel free to indulge yourselves.

2003-05-13T18:09:00.000-07:00

Testing... Testing...

Lack o' substance alert!

Go see HappyFunPundit.

2003-05-13T02:13:00.000-07:00

Oh. Ouch. Har. Howl...

It's late and I haven't laughed so hard in 2too long...
Go see Kate

2003-05-13T00:42:00.000-07:00

And while we’re at it…

Let’s discuss {cue Perky Voice} “Will it soon be illegal to give Oreos to children in California? Story at noon.” [KGO radio]

Oh Puh Leeze .

Some bozo is suing to Ban the Oreo Cookie because it contains trans fats which are ‘unhealthy.’

He filed the suit in Moron County, just north of San Francisco, thereby giving us in NoCal an even loonier public face. (although I don’t know why he feels that the children in the rest of the country, nay, the world, are either immune or not worth saving…) He claims that his suit has merit under “California civil code that holds manufacturers liable for common products if not ‘known to be unsafe by the ordinary consumer. (ital. mine, ed.)’”

This screaming ninny did not know that eating too many cookies is bad for ya !? Cheeze, my frelling grandmother told me that when I was six.

Someone with waaay too much time on his hands interviewed the twit [yes, sorry Lionel, he’s a Brit] and recorded this gem:

"I am probably full of hydrogenated fat [yer full of something, mate…] because until two years ago I didn't know about it."

[OK. Now, many may not realize that Moron/Marin County is the nesting place of the PC, health-is-all, knit your own yogurt crowd. If this cretin can fail to discern the down-the-nose, tut-tut, glares of superior disapproval he gets in the market while buying these corporate manufactured discs of death, surely he cannot have failed to note that he has to go entirely out of the county to find the damthings.]

(He twit-ters on;) "I resent the fact that I have been eating that stuff all my life."

This takes the cake (--the one made with real butter). Wake up you brain frozen, morally challenged excuse for a sentient being. Your expectations of a cuddle-soft, warm-n-fuzzy, Disney-creature world have entirely outstripped reality. The rest of us have noticed that even too much arugula can kill.

Darwin awards! Send in the second string! I gotta go.

{Exit, stage left, muttering}
…this guy could loose even a Darwin award … he resents it… like Kraft is out to get him… yeh, they stay up allll night just to . . . . . . . . .

2003-05-13T00:39:00.000-07:00

Articulate, ain’t he?

If anyone asks me why I feel so strongly about my right to own firearms, I usually reply, “Varmints.” Justice Kozinski puts a finer point on it:

Justice Alex Kozinski, on the Ninth Circuit's latest decision: SILVEIRA v. LOCKYER

from Volokh via Feces Flinging Monkey Thank you, gentlemen.

Judges know very well how to read the Constitution broadly when they are sympathetic to the right being asserted. … When a particular right comports especially well with our notions of good social policy, we build magnificent legal edifices on elliptical constitutional phrases—or even the white spaces between lines of constitutional text. …But, as the panel amply demonstrates, when we’re none too keen on a particular constitutional guarantee, we can be equally ingenious in burying language that is incontrovertibly there. ...It is wrong to use some constitutional provisions as springboards for major social change while treating others like senile relatives to be cooped up in a nursing home until they quit annoying us. As guardians of the Constitution, we must be consistent in interpreting its provisions.
…Had they brought the same generous approach to the Second Amendment that they routinely bring to the First, Fourth and selected portions of the Fifth, they would have had no trouble finding an individual right to bear arms.
…The majority falls prey to the delusion—popular in some circles—that ordinary people are too careless and stupid to own guns, and we would be far better off leaving all weapons in the hands of professionals on the government payroll. But the simple truth—born of experience—is that tyranny thrives best where government need not fear the wrath of an armed people. Our own sorry history bears this out: Disarmament was the tool of choice for subjugating both slaves and free blacks in the South. In Florida, patrols searched blacks’ homes for weapons, confiscated those found and punished their owners without judicial process.
…In the North, by contrast, blacks exercised their right to bear arms to defend against racial mob violence. ...As Chief Justice Taney well appreciated, the institution of slavery required a class of people who lacked the means to resist (finding black citizenship unthinkable because it would give blacks the right to “keep and carry arms wherever they went”)
…All too many of the other great tragedies of history— Stalin’s atrocities, the killing fields of Cambodia, the Holocaust, to name but a few—were perpetrated by armed troops against unarmed populations. Many could well have been avoided or mitigated, had the perpetrators known their intended victims were equipped with a rifle and twenty bullets apiece, as the Militia Act required here.
If a few hundred Jewish fighters in the Warsaw Ghetto could hold off the Wehrmacht for almost a month with only a handful of weapons, six million Jews armed with rifles could not so easily have been herded into cattle cars.
My excellent colleagues have forgotten these bitter lessons of history. The prospect of tyranny may not grab the headlines the way vivid stories of gun crime routinely do. But few saw the Third Reich coming until it was too late. The Second Amendment is a doomsday provision, one designed for those exceptionally rare circumstances where all other rights have failed—where the government refuses to stand for reelection and silences those who protest; where courts have lost the courage to oppose, or can find no one to enforce their decrees. However improbable these contingencies may seem today, facing them unprepared is a mistake a free people get to make only once.
Fortunately, the Framers were wise enough to entrench the right of the people to keep and bear arms within our constitutional structure. The purpose and importance of that right was still fresh in their minds, and they spelled it out clearly so it would not be forgotten. Despite the panel’s mighty struggle to erase these words, they remain, and the people themselves can read what they say plainly enough:
A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.
The sheer ponderousness of the panel’s opinion—the mountain of verbiage it must deploy to explain away these fourteen short words of constitutional text—refutes its thesis far more convincingly than anything I might say.

2003-05-11T19:18:00.000-07:00

Selections from a Survey

In light of the ban on Internet sites by the Iranian government today, here are selections from what I read while looking at bitz of the (English written) Iranian blogosphere.

Hooman's Scribbles

Perspective... ...I look at it as a doomed attempt as it was doomed elsewhere too. On the bright side, Iranians will always find a way to get around it. It is our name. Everything that has banned in Iran, has always found its way to the Iranian households too. Weren’t video-set banned in Iran 20 years ago? Weren’t alcoholic drinks banned in Iran? Wasn’t mingling of boys and girls in public banned in Iran? Didn't the number of breaches of those bans skyrocket? So I look at this restriction as a boost for the Internet in Iran , not in short term though.
snip
Internet? While Iranians have hard time dealing with more serious issues? While the world faces more serious issues that indirectly affects Iranians in way that the Internet doesn’t? Give me a break.

Steppenwolf

Free Sina Motallebi
but wait a second!
Free me too!
And free millions of others to whom free information is banned in Iran!

Iranian Girl

...anyways, I'm thinking of the time that I can come here & write about a free Iran & explain about every little changes with enthusiasm! What if that day is too far that I can never reach & what if...

2003-05-11T17:14:00.000-07:00

Most interesting...

In looking around to assess the situation in the Iranian Blogosphere today, I came across Persian Blogger Chronicles. For those of you who have an academic bent (and, having one, myself, I do mean bent...) this is the blog of an ethnographer who is apparently Iranian and clearly a grad student. (He also has an English blog, a Farsi blog, a design research project, a wife and a 6 month old baby. Definitely a grad student.)

His focus is on the "transformations that take place in the 'psychodynamics of mind' in a society, once the primary medium of comminication and intellectual production in that society changes," likening the Internet boom, with blogging as a sub-set, to the changes in western culture around Gutenberg's little machine. It is "bringing about another shift in the use of communication media: this time from literacy to 'cybercy.'"

Very kewl.

I cite in particular his analysis of blogs as an evolution of toilet graffiti. (HA! He's Right!)

("it's all about the caves and the ink..." see comments section)