Sickening
Via Boing Boing comes links to three videos from Iraq:
The first, soldiers video tape young boys as they desperately run after their vehicle in the hope the soldier will throw them a bottle of water.
The second, an amped up gang of knuckle-dragging, mouth-breathing tankers harrass some "looters," shoot their car up, and then crush it with their ~$3 million, 70 ton M1 Abrams Battle Tank. The guy was a taxi driver. Ok, a wood-looting taxi driver. Seems like an appropriate response.
The third, a soldier plays soccer with a group of Iraqi children.
While I understand why this third video was posted, in an attempt to somehow balance the ugliness and just downright disgusting and disturbing behavior in the previous two, I ain't buying it. Congratulations, you mingled with the locals. You tried to make nice, to build bridges.
To paraphrase Chris Rock, "You're SUPPOSED to take care of the people!"
The other day, a friend of mine emailed around a photo of a soldier who became a comfort blanket to an Iraqi girl who had lost her family. She couldn't be comforted by anyone else. It's a feelgood Sunday night movie on Lifetime waiting to happen. The gist of the email was that because this soldier had become a source of comfort to this girl, he needed to get a bunch of media coverage, because he certainly would if he had done something "bad." Uh, alright.
Anyone that wants to take comfort in these little nuggets of humanity amongst the ever-downward spiral into soul-crushing violence and civil war swirling in Iraq, have at it. I don't have the stomach for it. You know what? They shouldn't be there in the first place. And to try to point to these moments as some sort of justification for why we're there, and the "good" we're doing, well, it's fucking horseshit. And don't go telling me I'm not supporting the troops because I don't appreciate them playing soccer with the kiddies. They shouldn't be there, and they shouldn't be dying there.
Where is Richard Nixon now that we finally need him?
Hunter S. Thompson chimes in with his take on the current presidential election, and asks the question burning in everyone's mind... "Where is Richard Nixon now that we finally need him?"
He does endorse John Kerry, and goes on to call Cheney the "cruel and sinister uberboss of Halliburton", and that "Halliburton Inc. controls all three branches of our federal government today"
Read it all here.
YOU ARE A CRACKHEAD. WHY DON'T YOU OWN A CRACKPIPE?
via neoflux
TSA: Thousands Standing Around
Latest entry to the Shit List: The Transportation Security Act fuckos who broke our luggage on our way to Mexico last month.
Why do you bother even having a lost/damaged report to fill out if your Bureaucrat Drone Bosses have absolved everyone of any liability?
Their Auto-Generated Response Fuck Off Email at least states that the TSA certainly "apologize[s] for any difficulties you may have experienced." You bet! I pay your fucking salary asshole, and now you owe me a suitcase.
Related: US Aviation Safety "smoke and mirrors"
Why your Moveable Type blog must die
Gil passes along this classic rant on blogging and MT. The section titles alone are worth it.
Now can we please get back to talking about ourselves, politics, blogging and open source software? My latte is getting cold.
Texas: "since the general feeling was people were offended, we decided to change it..."
ooooooooops
general feeling, ie "some of us racist jackasses down here didn't mind seeing that in it's full glory once again"
I am betting that they repainted the doors so no one would notice their FOUR ton 10 commandments display.
A great idea, poorly executed
Distributed computing projects have always been of interest to me. You really have to wonder what all those incredibly over-powered computers out there, for the most part, doing nothing, could actually do if they were put to use in a common cause. SETI@Home is probably the most well-known application. Cool? Check. Uber-geeky? Check. Really important and timely? Uhhh....
I'm currently running Folding@home's screen saver, which helps to understand how protein folding affects major diseases.
So along comes a really, really, really great idea: use the now fairly well established dist computing community to help find promising candidates for SARS drugs. (If the link times out, don't be surprised.)
Unfortunately, their web servers do not appear to be up to the task of getting slashdotted, boingboinged, etc. etc., and talked about on the news. You gotta really want this thing. We're talking over an hour (or longer!) for 10 MB over a T1! WTF!?! Has anyone heard of a mirror site over there?
It also appears that their Mac OS X client doesn't work reliably. I think I've installed it, but nothing would indicate that. I'm in the process of downloading the WinXP client, which I may have downloaded by this afternoon.
I know it's just a show
I've been kind of busy pondering grad school options. While I wasn't looking, Emily seems to have been voted off MTV's Real Word / Road Rules Battle of the Sexes. Can it be true?
I feel completely irrational levels of hatred for this cold, despicable b*tch. I hate her the way Andrew hates the French.
Why is the US-led coalition spouting what amounts to stamping their feet and whining "Not Fair! Harrumph!" I truly do not understand this. It's a FUCKING WAR. Of COURSE the Iraqi regime are a bunch of evil bastards, and are going to use every tactic possible to harm, disrupt and delay coalition forces. The nerve! How dare Iraqis use "modified commerical vehicles" to move troops around? (Um, what's that yer riding in Mr. Coalition Guy, A HUMVEE!)
This is akin to the British complaining that US Revolutionaries weren't adhering to the conventions of warfare by resorting to guerrilla warfare before there was such a term, instead of lining up in rows and firing muskets at one another until enough were dead to determine a winner.
And as for all you out there thinking we were gonna just roll up to the front door and ask Saddam to come out and play, get a grip. War sucks. People die. They knew that when they signed up, and I am in awe of those that would put themselves knowingly in such a position.
What's the alternative? I'm not smart enough to know, and would never claim to be. I do know this: the UN certainly doesn't know the answer, either.
TrueMajority was founded by Ben Cohen, of Ben and JerryÕs. From the website, "It is a grassroots education and advocacy project of Priorities, Inc., a non-profit, non-partisan, tax-deductible, 501(c)(3) corporation."
The Virtual March is described on the website as follows: "We will hold your free faxes and send them on February 26th to your Senators telling them that tough inspections can work, war won't. By filling out this form you will be joining over 100,000 people who will be filling the fax machines, email boxes, and phone lines of our Senators reminding them that their constituents back home want to find a peaceful solution to the problems in Iraq."
Send a fax if you feel that Bush is very wrong in alienating the U.S. from the rest of the world with his nonsensical warmongering...
via Icky, my brother
An open letter to Time/AOL
Dear Time.com
I am writing because I just finished reading one of the articles that I linked to from The netscape start page that is the default page when I open my browser. The article in question was, "Ready To Move In: U.S. forces could be primed to start fighting Iraq again in short order" By MARK THOMPSON/WASHINGTON.
This is perhaps one of the most irresponsible and inflamatory articles that I have recently had the opportunity to read. The article, while mentioning nothing of the fact that Iraq has so far complied with inspections (although unwillingly), or the report submitted by Iraq detailing their programs, it gleefully extols the virtues of how our military advances could provide us with a new war just in time for Christmas. While this may be true, it clearly belies that fact that mass marketing journalism and Time in particular has no taste for thoughtful reporting, but tends strongly towards sensationalist tabloid journalism and irresponsible pro-war propaganda. Although Time magazine presents itself as a legitimate source of news, this is clearly not so.
While attempting to read another of your articles to see if in fact, your publication does give fair voice to both sides of the issues, I was confronted not with an article, but a synopsis of an article and a prompt to subscribe for a fee to read the full story. I feel compelled to let you know that the model of paying for news content on the internet is an idea whose time has not come, and will, with any luck, signal the demise of your publication and its sister in mediocrity, AOL.
I will be changing my default browser page from your partner, Netscape, to a more reputable news source, and will be letting them know why.
Thank you,
John Fuller
I tried to find some cleverly worded way to express my disgust with your "Women in Rock" issue, but what i have to say is really quite simple: You guys are completely retarded.
By RS standards, Rock is no longer a style of music but a trendy costume to be whipped up by expensive stylists and slapped onto the latest pop tart barbie doll. Give a girl some tight pants and a spiky bracelet and POOF! She ROCKS!
China: It's All Just Homoerotica
Hah!
via Ryan D.
Do not read if you're the type of person to get all bent out of shape about spoilers.
Let me preface this with the following:
I liked Attack of the Clones. It entertained me. Was it good? No. Would I watch it again? Yes, but I'd fast forward to where Anakin starts killing things.
Having said that...
Portman seems to have mixed up "acting" and "looking up from under lowered eyelids" in her mind.
Hah!
It is unfortunate that Lucas somehow thinks that casting unknowns in major roles and knowns in minor ones (WTF was Jimmy Smits doing in this film???) equals "Box-Office Magic." I think he got lucky, or maybe it was just that people weren't looking as closely at Episodes 4-6.
Hayden Christensen blows huge chunks in this movie, but only a little less so than the tripe he's required to speak. I kept waiting for him to break into a temper tantrum, spinning around on the floor yelling, " want to be a Jedi Master! Stupid Obi Wan!"
On the bright side, I think Lucas got lucky getting Ewan McGregor to play Obi Wan. He manages to take a least some of the crap dialog and make it somewhat palatable.
The battle sequence at the end is worth the price of admission alone. If you don't want to waste your time, just go about an hour or so late. You won't miss anything.
Oh, and go read the Tomato Nation review. It's classic.
via Evhead
At least one journalist is going off about what Harry Potter mania really means:
"America, your kids have become major dweebs. It's as if the entire nation poured itself a glass of milk and went down to the basement to play Dungeons & Dragons. Where are the kids who are supposed to be beating up the kids who like Harry Potter?"
long!
funny...
Two American citizens, rescued earlier this month after being detained four months in Afghanistan, returned to the United States on Sunday. Heather Mercer and Dayna Curry thanked God for their freedom and said they would repeat the experience if given the chance.
"It's a wonderful story about prayer, about the faith that can sustain people in good times and in bad times," Bush said
This story really bugs the hell out of me. Here we are attacking an Islamic nation but the whole time we have our president thanking god. What about the muslims and buddhists and the satanists who live here too? No wonder they want a jihad.
Happened upon this "anti teen pop slut" site while... uh... never mind. But where else can you read rants about Mariah's abbhorent appearance on Ally McBeal and Britney's tendency to be photographed with Coca-cola products? Morons!
Censorship not welcome at The Onion
Bush Sr. Apologizes To Son For Funding Bin Laden In '80s
MIDLAND, TXÑ Former president George Bush issued an apology to his son Monday for advocating the CIA's mid-'80s funding of Osama bin Laden, who at the time was resisting the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. "I'm sorry, son," Bush told President George W. Bush. "We thought it was a good idea at the time because he was part of a group fighting communism in Central Asia. We called them 'freedom fighters' back then. I know it sounds weird. You sort of had to be there." Bush is still deliberating over whether to tell his son about the whole supporting-Saddam Hussein-against-Iran thing.
Comments: This chicken-shit was interviewed on CNN Friday. When asked why he didn't eliminate Saddam Hussein a decade ago, he audaciously suggested that no one was asking that then. (!!!) Everyone was asking that then. It was the single most controversial issue of that war. The interview smiled emptily and continued. A friend at CNN tells me that when an interview like this goes down, Bush's press secretary is in the control room with his hands on the feed cable. If CNN had pursued this issue, the feed would have been unplugged!!!
Ah America... where people came to be free from censorship once...
On a somewhat related note, they want to cancel "Politically Incorrect" because of Bill Mahers comments last week. Here's a petition to keep it on. If you want to slow the decline of independent thought in in the U.S. you should sign it. Here's Ariana Huffington's column on the brou-haha. Think of this next time a CIA drone runs for office.
Ugh!
My patience is growing thin...
Thought: The media focus on returning the aggression prevents us from getting angry at the politicans and corporations culpable for the selfish decisions that put us here.
The peace movement - Let's get up to speed: Ex-hippies made friends with capitalism in the eighties, and became lousy parents shortly thereafter but haven't moved beyond their outdated ideas about war. "We can't kill innocent people." in the face of those who have no such compunction. "I don't want my son to go to war. He's only nineteen." Yes it's much better to sit here passively and wait to be hit again. I watch these people and begin to think we deserve what's going to happen.
Democracy achieves nothing quickly. The terrorists must be laughing at us hobbled by diplomacy, as we debate the bill of rights and while Reuters considers whether "terrorist" is an inflamatory term. Forget fiddling while Rome burns, this is basically jacking off during a nuclear explosion. Our opponent is desperate but our politicians are all thumbing through the index to Roberts Rules of Order.
Prediction: We will undergo a second wave of terrorism before we get our response together. The same beauracrats who brought you the first wave are helping to insure a second.
Get Real People!
Other thoughts on WTC
As usual you (Andrew) have thoughtful level-headed points to make. I didn't mean to come off as a bomb-loving nitwit. For the benefit of bloggers who haven't met me yet I'm more of a dove than a hawk.
There are so many things I'm angry about here. I am stunned that the Taleban was just playing a PR game when they issued a "Don't bomb us, we're really poor" statement then followed it in 2 days with "You'll be sorry if you bomb us." (!) When a country allows an extremist to come to power, they may have to pay with a few innocent victims. (I believe we just did...) Cultural evolution sometimes kills off your countries brand of idiocy.
Every belief system is not equally valid and does not deserve consideration. A thinking Islamic culture might have taken the following steps. (Step 1) Appeal to people about fundamentalism on it's own merits (Step 2) Fail miserably and bomb us. Instead their complete thought sequence was: "Our restricitve ideology has no merit, let's just kill Americans." That's some foreign policy! What kind of arrogance does it take to look at your miserable failed wasteland of a country, and decide that the rest of the world would benefit from the same arrangement? I don't think the U.S. is blameless on the world stage but consider where the world would be if Afghanistan were the remaining super power. It's an imperfect world.
Sometimes countries get punished for having bad ideas.
Sometimes thousands have to die to save millions.
Sometimes you have to run with your best theory (even with inconclusive evidence) to prevent a clandestine enemies next strike. A painstakingly considered ideal response will have fewer supporters if we get hit again. You cannot assume we have the luxury of time. Remember... they're terrorists.
The "NOTHING GETS FIXED TILL IT BREAKS DOWN COMPLETELY" Department. There's no shortage of culprits on this side of the ocean that you can thank for the situation we're in:
CORPORATE GREED
Mary Schiavo is the former Inspector General for the US Dept. of Transportation. She is still an outspoken whistle-blower who appears as a commentator on FAA-related news stories. She can indentify a shitty security policy in seconds. She has been sounding the wake-up call for almost a decade about criminal flaws in our air industry that would not be addressed (just as she predicted) until the body bags stacked up. The worst crime here - The whole tragedy could have been avoided if the greedy airlines (with Congress' support) hadn't been allowed to dismiss her conclusions as cost-prohibitive. This left a hole the enemy could use to do this.
Wanna get angry?
The first appeal to hit the floor of Congress since the disaster? Even before relief bills were introduced, the FAA went to Congress to be absolved of negligence/responsibility and to ask for a bailout. These greedy fuckers have some major cojones!
Now Schiavo's conclusions will be pulled out of the files where they've sat ignored. Her name will be scratched out and some asshole will get credit for her a brilliant new policy. Instead Schiavo should be given a position of the highest authority within the DOT. But that would involve acknowledging political complicty and kickbacks.
PRESIDENT BUSH (THE FIRST)
The previous President Bushs reputation should take a major hit for his bewildering decision to end the Gulf War without eradicating the figure who brought it on. Saddam Hussein should have been captured or killed when we were in Kuwait 9 years ago. Bush can take a big slice of credit for this genocide.
FOREIGN POLICY? WHAT FOREIGN POLICY?
An investigation of the U.S.'s duplicitous and greedy foreign policy. Our policy should not be changing every 4 years with each new administration. We should be building the relationships we want diplomatically not ones developed because we need that countries resources. Why do we stay in bed with Israel, no matter where their leadership is ideologically? The US funded college of the Americas trained both these despots (Hussein, bin Ladin).
CONAN THE REPUBLICAN!
In the U.S. movies with gunplay, explosions and wall-to-wall killings get PG ratings, but films with sexual situations get R ratings. (?) These screwy priorities have lasting effects on our culture. Take a hard look at our violent entertainment. This mess was orchestrated to get the attention of a culture numbed by film and tv violence. Hope everybody enjoyed those Willis Schwartzeneggar Stallone bomb-fests...
While this disaster has angles on spouses, parents, & arab victims and footage of people plumetting to their deaths, here's something we still have to be protected from...
...Mark Bingham is one of the passengers whose cell phone calls from the Pittsburgh flight indicate that he was probably one of the people who selflessly brought the plane down short of its intended target (D.C.). Did you know he was gay? Of course not! Only this gay site would mention it. With personal boundaries dropping everywhere to reach out to others, apparenty it's still very important to suppress this aspect of someones life. Practices like this leave closeted young adults with no visible role models. Can a homo can also be a selfless hero? Not in the mass media with their hidden agenda. It makes me angry and sad.
Sorry that my first post since leaving ixl, and my first post about the WTC disaster sounds angry and self-centered.
If ever a company deserved extinction... Back in the 80's Kodak issued their own line of Instant Cameras and surpassed Polaroid in just a few years. Rather than compete Polaroid sued for patent infringement and put Kodak Instant out of business in 86. Then they reverted to the lazy monopoly they had always been. Bye bye Polaorid
This is probably not of general interest, but what the hell is up with this outfit that Gwen Stefani is wearing? Gwen, I'm all for "theme-dressing" but your little Fred Astaire / Ginger Rogers thing is way lame. Everyone knows that your collaboration with Eve is just a cross-genre marketing ploy anyway, even if the song is damn catchy.
Here she is in a ridiculous sailor frock. Looks like she's busting out showtunes. (Gwen: What's that smell?)
Boo Hoo! - Jack Lemmon is dead
One of my least favorite actors. Two of his "comedies" are indistinguishable from torture. No one may speak to me about how mean I am, until they sit through both of these crimes against entertainment.
Prisoner of 2nd Avenue
The Out-of Towners
There's no telling what would happen if you tried to watch them both in a single sitting. I suspect your autonomic nervous system would shut off circulation to your limbs in order to save itself.
Q agrees with me.
Chris Kaminski provides the most complete and well documented report on Smart Tags to date. After reading this, there is no doubt in my mind that this is most definitely a case of technology gone horribly wrong.
There's already something devised to provide your audience with context, further information and assistance. It's called a hyperlink. Beyond that, there are companies, products and methods for providing these same things outside of a web environment. With Smart Tags, Microsoft is attempting to implement a 30 pound sledgehammer solution to a "problem" (read: "another opportunity to incorporate their smug asses into everyone's life.") I'm fairly certain they'll get away with it, too. And then they will have added yet another layer of complexity onto an already daunting (for many people) and very powerful communication technology, without bothering to really ask anyone.
Fuckers.
