The Zoo

BPCP Update (and More!)

2006-02-15T10:54:00.000-05:00

The Blogosphere Political Compass Project has been updated. Go to the BPCP permalink page for a complete list of participants and links to their sites.

New to the BPCP in February 2006

286 Xyba of Once More Into the Breach (7.3, 0.8)
287 Nehring of Nehring the Edge (1.3, -0.6)
288 Patrick of Born Again Redneck (5.6, 1.7)
289 eyerocker of eye'm off my rocker (3.9, 2.4)
290 Gary of Easter Lemming Liberal News Digest (-5.1, -5)
291 David of Dave's Not Here (3.4, -6.4)
292 Kiril of Sneakeasy's Joint (0.6, -0.2)
293 DR. Zubov of Banter in Atlanter (4.3, 1)
294 Laura of Survival Theory (3.5, 0.9)
295 Niall of Plain of Pillars (-7, -5)
296 Aaron of Aaron Kinney's Weblog (-3.8, 1.9)
297 Err0r of Mind of an Err0r (-0.4, -2.3)
298 FrauBudgie of Red Hot Cuppa Politics (-0.1, 0.2)
299 Sisyphos of Le Mont De Sisyphe (4.5, -2.8)

Sorry that one took so long to get posted. I just haven't had much enthusiasm for all this lately. But I said I'd keep up with BPCP submissions even if I quit blogging altogether, and I intend to keep my word.

In other news, some more interesting discussions over at BookTalk:

Oh the Horror!

and

Where Should We Go from Here?

I still encourage those who enjoyed discussing politics, science, and geek culture stuff here at The Zoo to join BookTalk and contribute to our little community. The cold blasts of liberalism are quite bracing!

S

Conversations With Smart People

2006-02-09T14:42:00.000-05:00

For any readers that are still stopping by, here are some of the current discussions I'm participating in over at BookTalk:

On Ingratitude

Do You Believe Life Exists on Other Planets?

and

Climate Change

I post there under my real name (Greg) and I'm a moderator. So you're welcome to come by and join in those (or any other) discussions, but the same rules apply there as here. In fact, the site owner is probably a little more adamant about civility than I am.

Anyway, that's what I've been writing lately. Hope everyone is well.

S

Moving On

2006-01-05T08:16:00.000-05:00

Readership is down, apathay is up. There's probably a connection there.

I've decided to quit blogging. Instead, I'm going to write a biweekly or monthly column for Chris O'Connor's BookTalk web community. The only activity here will be continuing updates to the Blogosphere Political Compass Project; eventually I'll change the name of the blog itself from "The Zoo" to "The BPCP". Archives and links will remain as they are for the time being, but they'll probably change at some point, too.

I'll post a link here when I start writing for BookTalk. Peace.

S

Plain of Pillars

2005-12-21T09:02:00.000-05:00

Before I started blogging I used to post to BBSs (online "forums") with some regularity. I still do from time to time. At each of the three that became hangouts for me, there was inevitably a poster who I disagreed with but came to respect; one can recognize an intelligent and fair-minded opponent even if one believes they’re usually dead wrong. Over at The Neutral Zone it was a guy named Demiurge, who with one well-made argument changed my position on National Missile Defense forever. In EverQuest’s NGD Forum it was Pravus; he and I were constant allies over there as long as the conversation didn’t turn to politics.

In my friend Chris O’Connor’s BookTalk forums, the role is increasingly filled by Niall. The guy is something of a liberal – which isn’t entirely his fault, being Foreignian and all – but he makes clear, civil arguments and is actually quite thoughtful. Some of his positions remind me a bit of Christopher Hitchens (which will probably appall him, but there it is). Anyway, Niall has started blogging: Plain of Pillars is his site, and it comes to you with The Zoo’s official stamp of approval … and a "Warning: Liberal Contents" label.

Go visit Niall’s site. Those who found our discussion on WP interesting will find more of his thoughts on the subject in this post. And I urge my more conservative readers to be civil if they visit Plain of Pillars; what you say there reflects on The Zoo as well as on yourself.

S

Likud and Labor Leaders Join Kadima

2005-12-12T12:11:00.000-05:00

Just a quick update today on last week's post concerning moderate politics in the US and Israel. For those who are foggy on Israeli politics, the major parties are Labor (liberal), Likud (conservative), and now Kadima (centrist). There is a wide scattering of smaller parties, representing everyone from communists to theocrats to greens, but the three mentioned above are the biggies.

Less than two weeks after long-time Labor leader and former Prime Minister Shimon Peres joined Kadima, Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz has left Likud to do the same. Says Mofaz:

"The Likud party ... is growing away from me and, to my sorrow, is moving in the direction of what we call the right-wing extremists of the political map," Mofaz said. "When it became clear that the Likud movement was becoming an extremist party, I decided that this was not my way."

Current estimates have Kadima winning about 40 of 120 parliment seats in Israel's March elections. The way momentum is swinging right now, I wouldn't be surprised to see it actually be as high as 60 (and 61 would give them an outright majority). Exciting stuff, if your an extremeist-hating political geek.

S

50,000

2005-12-09T08:46:00.000-05:00

At 6:13 am today The Zoo had it's 50,000th visitor! Horray! Said visitor is a comcast.net user and viewed two pages.

The numbers average out to 2,300 visitors a month - or 84 per day - over the last 20 months. Not bad, considering that The Zoo is more of an "online journal" than a competively visitor-seeking blog. In the past I've toyed with the idea of joining Blogcritics to make this site more visible, but it's a time commitment I'm not sure I'm willing to take on right now.

Anyway, thanks to everyone who has visited and commented over the past year and a half! Your time and effort are appreciated, and I sincerely hope you've found what you read here to be entertaining and valuable.

S

The American Moderate Party

2005-12-07T13:28:00.000-05:00

Let's chop up political parties, shall we?

The Far Right (the "rightmost" 1/3 of Republicans and The Constitution Party; think Bill Frist)

The Center-Right (the central 1/3 of Republicans, many Libertarians, and some Independents; think President Bush)

The Moderate Right (the "leftmost" 1/3 of Republicans, some Libertarians, and many Independents; think Rudy Giuliani)

The Moderate Left (the "rightmost" 1/3 of Democrats, a few Libertarians, and many Independents; think Joe Lieberman)

The Center-Left (the central 1/3 of Democrats, some Independents, and a few Greens; think Hillary Clinton)

The Far Left (the "leftmost" 1/3 of Democrats, most Greens, and The Socialist Party; think Howard Dean)

Several times in the past, reader Puppy Pincher and I discussed what it might be like if the US had a strong third party. A party made up of The Moderate Right, The Moderate Left, much of the Center-Right, and at least some of the Center-Left. I'd estimate that about 65% of American voters would belong to such a party (ideologically, at least). I wonder if we'd ever be able to bring something like that together ... and if people would actually have the wherewithal to cross party lines and vote for its candidates.

John Avlon writes an interesting article for FNC's Views section today about how Ariel Sharon is doing something very much like what I've described to Israeli politics. Money quote:

Despite the risks, Sharon’s political strategy seems solid: initial polls after the announcement show “Forward” winning a hypothetical 33 seats in the upcoming March elections, supported by 14 moderate members of Labor and Likud including former Jerusalem Mayor and current Deputy Prime Minister Ehud Olhmert. Likud would unceremoniously drop from 40 seats to a paltry 15, indicating the relative balance of power even within Likud between its centrist and right-wing members.

Sharon’s insight is that while moderate Likud and Labor Party members may have been less organized and influential within their own parties, they constituted a majority within the electorate as a whole — especially if led by a popular national political leader.

But all this is happening a half a world away — what relevance does Sharon’s move have for U.S. politics? Plenty.

Current polls show centrists leading the 2008 presidential pack, most notably Rudy Giuliani and John McCain. Between them, they possess more than 50 percent of the Republican primary voter support, despite the fact that these two men are strenuously opposed by certain factions on the far right.

I watch Israeli politics because, well, lets face it: It's the frickin' wild west over there and I want to see who they're going to pin the star on next. But this one looks like it might be different. Can Sharon really pull the carpet out from beneath the extreme left and the extreme right? If the voters give Kadima an actual mandate - something seldom seen in Israeli politics - what will that do the Likud and Labor hardliners? And given the growing frustration with professional partisans here in America, what might it mean for our own elections coming in 2008?

Stay tuned.

S

“Peanut Butter Jelly Time” Explained

2005-12-01T11:12:00.000-05:00

So I’m watching Adult Swim last night as I’m falling asleep; my usual routine has me in bed around 11 pm with the TV programmed to turn itself off at midnight, and I rarely stay awake long enough to see whichever show is starting at 11:30. But last night I got to bed late because I was playing Civilization IV (just one more turn!) and I caught the funniest frickin’ commercial I’ve ever seen: Brian from Family Guy in a banana costume doing a rendition of The Buckwheat Boy’s “Peanut Butter Jelly Time”. I damn near peed my pants.

Kevin of THEORY.ISTHEREASON has an explanation of how all this started; the whole “dancing banana set to Peanut Butter Jelly Time” thing was apparently a big Internet culture phenomenon a few years back. Yeah, I missed that one too, but here is a link to the original video from eBaum’s World.

Brian’s interpretation (or Seth Green’s, if your nitpicky) is way better. He, you know, captures the very soul of the thing. I’m gonna have to get a little Peanut Butter Jelly Brian to use as my online avatar. Yep.

S

Khaaaaan!

2005-11-21T13:09:00.000-05:00

America's most important allies:

1) Britain

2) Australia

3) Japan

4) South Korea

and

5) The Mongolian Hordes!

At last, we shall crush our enemies, see them driven before us, and hear the lamentation of their women!

In all seriousness, President Bush visited Mongolia earlier today to thank them for their contribution to the War on Terror. Per capita, Mongolia has the third-largest contingent in Iraq, and two of their soldiers recently killed a suicide car-bomber before he could carry out his attack. It's just not very often that you see a US President, you know ... shaking hands with a Mongolian horseman.

What a photo.

S

Mean Old Willy Pete

2005-11-16T14:10:00.000-05:00

It’s a testament to the intelligence level of pacifists and other assorted anti-victory simpletons: They’re now trying to pass off white phosphorus (termed “WP” or “Willy Pete” in military jargon) as a chemical weapon. And they’re trying to say we used it intentionally against civilians. It’s the ultimate charge the insurgents and their sympathizers could ever make, because it makes President Bush out to be every bit as evil as Saddam.

All the better to slander America with, my dear.

White phosphorus is not a chemical weapon (Wikipedia article here). It is an incendiary, and it has been used in conventional warfare since before WW II, most prevalently during the Viet Nam conflict. The United States of America is a signatory to no treaties banning its use – and never has been – but our military uses it primarily for smoke screens and target-marking, anyway. When it is used against enemy combatants, it is almost always to flush them out of a fortified position that normal high-explosive (HE) rounds are unable to penetrate.

The charge that chemical weapons were used in the battle of Fallujah is as opportunistic as it is ludicrous. It’s a propaganda attack by the insurgents, and a political one by the pacifist left here at home. If WP is a chemical weapon, so is gunpowder (sulphur + carbon + potassium nitrate), my pocket knife (iron + carbon + zinc), and the water balloon I hit my mother with when I was eight (hydrogen + oxygen). Everything in the universe is made of chemicals; when Sister Suzanne smacked my knuckles with a ruler in the second grade, one could say that she attacked me with a complicated arrangement of carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen (plus some trace elements). Shall we charge her with war crimes, too?

Chemical weapons are not simply “weapons with chemicals in them”. They are a specific classification of device that kills indiscriminately over a wide area, almost always by poisoning on contact (sarin gas) or upon inhalation (mustard gas). Had we really wanted to use chemical agents in Fallujah, we could have air-bursted a couple canisters of sarin over the city and then walked in the following week without loosing a single soldier. But we didn’t. Those brave Marines fought the insurgents house to house, precisely to spare the civilian population as much harm as possible. If and when WP was used, it was used because our troops determined that a particular entrenched target wasn’t worth losing two dozen Marines over. I support such tactics completely.

But do you want to know how all the death in Fallujah could have been completely avoided? How 50 American soldiers, 1,200 Islamist insurgents, and an unknown number of Iraqi civilians could have been saved?

By the terrorists putting down their guns and picking up their voter IDs.

The Sunni and Islamist insurgents want to stop getting killed by American AR-15s, laser-guided bombs, and yes, white phosphorus shells? Fine. Great. Awesome. We want to stop killing them. All they need to do is disarm and join the political process (or, in the case of foreign fighters, go home). The war would be over tomorrow and American troops would begin leaving next year.

Democracy is coming to the Middle East. They’ve made huge leaps and bounds forward over there. But there will be bloodshed for as long as al-Zarqwai and his terrorists continue to wage their war on a democratic Iraq. And we’ll continue to use WP (and other) weapons on them when necessary. Not because we want to, but because they’ve chosen to fight a dirty and unnecessary war.

This war, like every other war, absolutely sucks. I hate it. But there it is anyway, like reality television, AIDS, and Dennis Rader. I wish there was a way to end it that brought democracy to Iraq without anyone else getting hurt … and as I’ve already mentioned, there actually is. But doing it is up to the insurgents, not to me.

S

Boo Jolie, Yay Aniston

2005-11-15T14:35:00.000-05:00

I'm not one for popular culture, especially television. I couldn't tell you who's winning on Survivor this week or what city The Real World is in this season. Truth is, I don't know and I don't care.

However, people often do fascinate me ... even TV people.

I've kept half an eye on Angelia Jolie's career for years, because I find her interesting. Yes, she's really hot, but it's more than that (Hollywood, after all, is filled with beautiful women). Jolie always struck me as different; agressive, outspoken, and unafraid, not to mention tattooed and into knives. I never thought it was weird that she kept a vial of her lover's blood on a necklace, nor was I ever scandalized by her frank sexual openness. Those things are cool, I like them. Strong, unique women are sexy.

Jennifer Aniston, on the other hand, was someone I cared little for. Once again, yes, she is easy on the eyes ... and once again, so is just about every woman in the entertainment industry. She was always just "the hot one from Friends" - a show I've seen maybe two dozen times, and most of those back in college - and the chick who married Brad Pitt. Other than her recent divorce, I can't think of a single time Aniston has made it onto my radar in the last five years.

But the aforementioned divorce did cause a blip. That's because Jolie was involved, though to what extent I'm leery of hazarding a guess. Did she intentionally pursue Pitt on the set of Mr. and Mrs. Smith? Or did she just befriend him while he happened to be falling out of love with Aniston? Knowing Jolie's media face, it's hard not to assume the former; one doubts there is anything accidental about her relationships. There's little evidence to support such a speculation - well, little that isn't purely circumstantial - but it feels correct.

My head tells me no one knows but the three of them. But my gut tells me Jolie saw something she wanted and took it. And I can't help but be dissapointed in that; I believe that loyalty and honesty are among the highest human virtues, and it sucks that someone I'd always crushed on a little has no regard for them. I'm trying hard to reserve judgement because Jolie really might not have done anything wrong ... I guess no one may ever know for sure.

But in any case, GQ has named Jennifer Antiston their "Man of the Year" because "she exhibited a lot of poise, unbelievable amount of grace and good humor this year." It's the first time in a decade that they've so honored a woman, and I think she does deserve it. And for precisely the reason mentioned: Grace and good humor in the face of great personal adversity. Kudos to Miss Aniston.

S

BPCP Update

2005-11-10T10:27:00.000-05:00

The Blogosphere Political Compass Project has been updated. Go to the BPCP permalink page for a complete list of participants and links to their sites.

New to the BPCP in October 2005:

281 Robert of Immature With No Conscience (0.4, -0.9)
282 Dane Bramage of Dane Bramage (4.1, 3.5)
283 Lost of Lost … in Lima Ohio (4, 4.1)
284 Peter Porcupine of Peter Porcupine (3.1, 1.1)
285 ir8-n8 of The Irate Nation (4.5, 2.5)

Small class last month; I'm wondering if it has anything to do with the fact that the BPCP link has been moved closer to the bottom of the sidebar. In any case, it's more important now than ever for participants to link back to the project. Just a quick post is all it takes!

And lest we forget: Happy Birthday to the United States Marine Corps!

S

The Right to Remain Ignorant

2005-11-09T08:30:00.000-05:00

As it did in 1999, the Kansas State Board of Education has voted (6-4) to incorporate anti-evolution teachings into science classrooms. Its actually gone even further this time, redefining science to allow for the inclusion of supernatural phenomena as explainations for natural events. Hands down, this is the worst blow to American scientific education in the last 50 years.

Here's a balanced roundup of what's being said about the decision:

John Rennie of Scientific American is unremittingly hostile to the new science standards, particularly over their redefinition of science.

It wasn't enough for them to undermine the teaching of biology by falsifying a scientific controversy over evolution. No, the Board of Education went as far as to redefine what science is: it's no longer just a search for natural explanations for natural phenomena. Now it's a search for... well, that's a bit hard to say. Any sort of explanation, apparently. Pixies, ghosts, telekinesis, auras, ancient astronauts, excesses of choleric humor, they all seem to be fair game in the interest of "academic freedom." Oh, and God, of course. The Board might not say that because it could get them into trouble with the Supreme Court, but can anyone say with a straight face that getting God into the science classes isn't the goal of the people who pushed for these changes?

AP reporter John Hanna is more objective, taking quotes from both sides of the debate and trying for a more even-handed presentation.

"This is a sad day. We're becoming a laughingstock of not only the nation, but of the world, and I hate that," said board member Janet Waugh, a Democrat.

Supporters of the new standards said they will promote academic freedom. "It gets rid of a lot of dogma that's being taught in the classroom today," said board member John Bacon.

And finally, Robert Crowther of Evolution News & Views (a website run by and for the pro-ID Discovery Institute) lauds the decision and believes it will lead to a greater diversity of ideas in the classroom.

“This is a big victory for the students of Kansas, providing them with full-disclosure of the scientific debate about Darwinism going on between scientists and in the scientific literature, so we’re very pleased” said Casey Luskin, program officer for public policy and legal affairs with Discovery Institute’s Center for Science & Culture.

I think most of my readers know that I am a staunch evolutionist. It has nothing whatsoever to do with "belief" (since belief indicates faith) but rather with the fact that I am convinced of evolution's validity by the evidence presented thus far. I've studied anthropology, astronomy, and biology all of my life; I'm aware of the questions that evolution cannot answer as yet (dramatically touted as "gaps" and "controversies" by the Intelligent Design camp nowadays). I am also aware of the far, far larger set of questions that it can answer.

My position has always been that a proper understanding of evolution takes years of dedicated study, and you have to aquire such an understanding in order to genuinely trust the theory. Most people who don't believe in evolution simply don't understand evoltion; "God did it" (which is what both Creationism and Intelligent Design eventually boil down to) is a much simpler, easier, and more comfortable answer.

The thing is, we don't have the right to force Kansans to accept a more complex answer (even if it obviously has far more validity than what they want to believe). I wish that their school board had made a different decision, but at least the one they did make was arrived at through transparent democracy. Wrong or not, the members of that school board voted as they believe their constituents would want them to; the people of Kansas have a right to remain ignorant.

Now, of course, their new scientific standards will have to compete in the marketplace of ideas. Given the public ridicule being heaped upon them already, I don't think they're going to do very well. Kansas is going to be a laughingstock, it's going to lose jobs and investment, and students from the state are going to lag behind in science education. This was a terrible decision, but one that, in a free country, Kansans had every right to make.

S

Update: Looks like the voters in Dover, PA feel differently. Not that I particularly like to see Democrats win elections, but in light of the Republican incumbents' anti-science position I'm glad they were ousted.

Sidebar Changes

2005-11-08T11:04:00.000-05:00

Just a quick notification about a couple changes to The Zoo's sidebar:

1) One of the "Five Great Causes" links is a floater; this year it has variously been for tsunami relief, hurricane relief, and earthquake relief. Now that the holiday season has rolled around, it will link to Tycho and Gabe's Child's Play Charity web site for the duration. You can count on that happening every year around this time.

2) Four blogs have been replaced on the blogroll: Arthur Chrenkoff quit blogging, as did Michelle of A Small Victory. Shane Moore of Liberty Dog has posted only once in the last five months, and the Freudian Slippers blog has disapeared completely. Replacing them are BlameBush! (satire), Conservative Punk (perhaps the blogosphere's best nonliberal punk site), Homocon (conservatism from a homosexual's perspective), and Iraq the Model (yes, I'm long overdue linking them).

BPCP update later today or tomorrow.

S

Sex and Violence

2005-11-07T14:44:00.000-05:00

Not a hell of a lot more to say on this one: NFL cheerleaders party in Tampa. NFL cheerleaders get really drunk. NFL cheerleaders get frisky in the bathroom. NFL cheerleaders go to jail. Actually, it’s not even the sex that lead to the arrest; getting it on in a bathroom stall isn’t illegal here in Tampa. However, punching other bar patrons is.

Carolina Panthers cheerleaders Angela Keathley and Renee Thomas apparently couldn’t wait to get back to their hotel for some quality time together, so they locked themselves in a bathroom stall at Banana Joe’s (that’s in the Channelside District for those of you familiar with Tampa). Their attempt at a quickie wasn’t quick enough, however; other ladies waiting to use the bathroom got a little irritated at having to stand around for over 15 minutes, and a fight ensued. Thomas gave one of the complainers a knuckle sandwich, which subsequently brought a crowd, bar management, and police to the scene.

Now I have no problem at all with a little public naughtiness; sex should be adventurous sometimes. However, if you’re going to get up to such mischief, you must be big enough to laugh off the shock and anger you generate in others. Keathley and Thomas should have both straightened their skirts, touched up their lip gloss, and walked straight out of the stall into the bar, grinning the entire way. Indignant looks are easy to ignore, especially when you just got some.

Instead, our little hotheaded hotties threw punches at other bar patrons and gave the police a hard time when they arrived. The result: A media circus for the Panther’s cheerleading squad and lots of embarrassing publicity for the two of them to return home to.

Look for the Panthers to handle this quickly and without mercy, especially after the Viking's recent "party boat" scandle.

S

Update: Even though the alleged sex had nothing to do with the charges filed against Thomas or Keathley, the former is now denying that there was any sex. I suppose it is quite possible that two drunk girls in a bathroom stall, one of them perhaps getting sick, could look like sex to witnesses who couldn't really see what was happening. Either way, I thought her denial was worth an update.

BREAKING: Scientists Discover "Warm Ice"

2005-11-05T16:43:00.000-05:00

Well, you have to read between the lines, but that's got to be the only explanation for the Icesheet in Greenland growing, right?

I'm just snarking of course. There are all sorts of carefully-crafted computer models predicting just this sort of occurence should there be Global Warming. Of course, they have carefully-crafted computer models to account for any possible variation in support of one fundamental dogma. That's the great thing about computer models: They are malleable and easily discardable to suit the latest trend. Not much difference between computer and human models in that regard, come to think of it.

Here's a nice summary of the problems with computer modeling from Canada Free Press.

When I'm really concerned about global temperature, I like going to the guys that have the best wide-angle-view of it all. NASA.

They live in caves, don't they?

2005-11-03T08:10:00.000-05:00

Tossing aside decades of actual research and proven results, the environmental left argue that harvesting dead trees after catastrophic events are bad for the environment.

No, Really!

By God, if caves are good enough for them, they are good enough for us all! They do live in caves don't they? And don't use paper products. Right?

Riiiggghhht.

Next up, organic farming disrupts the natural balance by truamatizing corn. "Rows of corn are just another method the Man uses to force conformity on the natural world."

Dogs and Cats Living Together

2005-10-28T10:10:00.000-04:00

There’s unexpected, and then there’s unexpected. It’s one thing for the Devil to, say, allow an occasional cool breeze … but it’s quite another for him to actually distribute sno-cones to the damned. No less shocking than Satan handing out frozen treats is a sane, reasoned editorial from the WaPo about Iran.

It’s like Condi Rice showed up and dashed an editor with a bucket of ice water, rousing him from his liberal stupor long enough to write something other than an anti-Bush screed.

Money quote:

"But the crudeness of Mr. Ahmadinejad, and his already evident failure to deliver on his populist promises to raise Iranian living standards, ought to open the way to a different approach. Unlike their president, most young Iranians would like to live in a prosperous and democratic society that enjoys good relations with the West. The West should stand up for that Iran; it can do so by rejecting and isolating the hateful ideologue who would drag the country in the opposite direction."

Easy there, let me get you a chair. The cognitive dissonance created by reading something like that and knowing it came from the WaPo can cause extreme disorientation and dizziness. The piece even criticizes Europe’s appeasement-oriented approach to Iran and alludes to the idea that Israel and the Bush Administration may have been right all along.

Here, breathe into this paper bag.

Unlike the WaPo editorial, Ahmadinejad’s stance comes as absolutely no surprise to me; I have long argued that Iran is the real powder keg of central Asia. The government is a noxious mixture of religious fundamentalism and police-state politics, and all real power is concentrated in an unelected judiciary of rapacious theocrats. There are many states that exhibit one of these ills (or something quite similar), but none are as simultaneously repressive, dysfunctional, and belligerent as Iran. Even Saudi Arabia, with its reactionary monarchy and religious fundamentalism, understands the value of sane diplomacy and good relations with the west.

In Iran, genocide is not merely the desire of an Islamofascist minority. It is state policy. The greatest danger from Saddam was that he would sell nuclear technology to terrorists; the Iranians will use that technology themselves, as a matter of course. The danger is just as real and ten times more direct.

Unless there is a near-miraculous, pro-western revolution inside Iran sometime soon, I fear war is inevitable. Either the Iranians will try to make good on their threat to “wipe Israel off the map”, or the Israelis will tire of sitting on their thumbs while Ahmadinejad plots to vaporize Tel Aviv. I hope that the democratization of Iraq will spread to Iran, as it is already starting to do to most other nations in the Middle East. But I’m not counting on it.

Democratic influence, no matter how honest and pervasive, might well be futile in the face of such well-entrenched hatred and lunacy.

S

Two months away from Blogging, and I have to follow hot chicks in revealing Costumes

2005-10-26T21:16:00.000-04:00

Ain't no way I can follow that. Best I can do is mention porn in here, but if you're looking for smokin' ladies, scroll down to the last post.

I can say "ain't" now because I live in the South again. South Carolina to specify. Spent the last two months moving, living in a hotel, buying a house and finally, FINALLY getting internet hooked up in said house.

Gotta say, it's been great not having interet. Well, except for the dearth of porn. Read a couple books. Got into a workout routine again. Traveled! Up to Virginia a couple times. Down to Savannah a couple of times. Over to Road Atlanta to watch my Uncle Larry and Cousin Cindy race vintage race cars. (bug-eye Sprite & Astin Mini if you're wondering.) I didn't miss reading news. I missed my blog reading a bit, but the bickering had gotten old, the jokes a little stale. Missed being able to email without worrying that work was monitoring some of my less delicate moments. In the end of course, the Porn Must Flow, so here I am, online and easy-news enabled.

What do I find in the first news story I click on at home? Well of course, a story about Bush getting blamed for another natural disaster.

Now, call me crazy (crazy - ed.)but I happen to agree with Gov. Bush when he states:

"People had ample time to prepare. It isn't that hard to get 72 hours worth of food and water," said Bush, repeating the advice that officials had given days before Wilma hit.

In the real world (as viewed through the hip shades of the media,) Ms. Shaw's three hours of procrastination induced headache certainly trumps 72 hours of warnings:

"This is like the Third World," said Claudia Shaw, who spent several hours in a gas line. "We live in a state where we suffer from these storms every year. Where is the planning?"

Yeah. Just like those Ethiopians we are, eh Ms. Shaw? Why, if I had a nickel for every Ethiopian that had to wait 3 hours to fill his Honda... well I still wouldn't be able to pay a meter. So I'd probably find a non-metered site and walk an extra block or two to the watering hole. Not that I'm laughing. Much.

I did have to laugh at what the press deemed superlative efforts by individuals affected by the storm, with tales of such heroism as these two gems:

Storm-savvy Floridians resorted to their ingenuity. At one Wal-Mart, 30 people sat on the sidewalk while they used the store's outside electrical outlets to recharge their cell phones.

Yeah! A nod to the Noble Savage(tm) philosophy with a contemporary flair on the "hunter-gatherer" concept. AND sticking it to the man by stealing his electricity. These guys are the new cool.

At one gas station, a man went car-to-car selling fuel from a 10-gallon plastic tank. The price was $20 for about a gallon, and people happily paid.

I gotta know... exactly what do you need a gallon of gasoline so damned bad for that you're willing to pay 20 bucks for it? Wow. 20 bucks for what, 30 miles if you're lucky? With 20 bucks I could pay the cover and have a close encounter with 10 hot women. That's 20 nekkid breastseses for those who keep count. Hell, with 20 bucks and a 72 hour headstart, I could have bought that gallon of gas, a case of beer, a roll of paper towels and a bottle of aspirin. There's worlds of possiblities in that Andrew Jackson my friends. With a little personal responsibility and imagination, you could have spent that three hours you blew in line watching other people freak out while you sit back and mellow out.

In the end however, Gov Bush takes responsibility when none else will. Just how often do you see a local politician say something like this:

"Don't blame FEMA. This is our responsibility," Bush said at a news conference in Tallahassee with federal Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, who oversees the agency.

Nice try Governor, but it ain't gonna work. We all know it's your brother's fault.

Ten Photos from DragonCon

2005-10-25T14:34:00.000-04:00

Yes, this is late. DragonCon was almost two months ago and I’m just now getting the photo essay posted. I offer two weak excuses: I was waiting for the various picture-takers in our group to send me more photos, and I hate working with Bloggerbot™ (Bloggerbot™ is the tool that Blogger™ uses to post pictures). Johnathan and Tim told me that I now have all of their best shots, and Reannan (who you can see in last year’s photo essay here) recently let me know that it will still be awhile before I get hers. So, onward we forge with what we have.

DragonCon took place the weekend after Katrina hit the New Orleans-Biloxi-Mobile area, and had over 20,000 attendees this year. Stationed in the main concourse of the Marriot – which is as central as anything gets at Con – was a “Red Cross Trooper” from the 501st Legion. They managed to collect thousands of dollars for hurricane relief, all of which went directly to the Red Cross. Well done, folks.

Just as you enter the Hyatt from the smoking deck – almost certainly the busiest mingling spot at DragonCon – The Cruxshadows always have their music and merchandise on display. Said display comes complete with their latest CD playing at full volume; I never feel like I’ve really arrived at Con until I’m hit with a blast of darkwave while climbing the stairs towards the Hyatt. My buddy Tim is posed here with two of them, though I’m not sure if those are musicians or dancers (The Cruxshadows have both … and either way, yum).

Another shot of The Cruxshadows girls. These outfits are amazing, though I find the wire hoop-skirt things to be a bit unnecessary and distracting. But the overall look is really hot, so the photo is presented here for all of you fine readers to appreciate (those of you not sophisticated enough to appreciate may merely ogle).

Space Ghost! Space Ghost! I’m in a picture with Space Ghost! That’s me up front; my buddy Todd is in back.

Unlike kids today, Space Ghost is not Coast-to-Coast for me. In fact, he has nothing to do with Cartoon Network at all. Space Ghost was a Saturday morning cartoon when I was a kid, to be watched – along with The Herculoids and Thundar the Barbarian – while munching sugary cereal and waiting for Creature Feature to start at noon. Space Ghost rocks.

We met Jewel Staite and Paul McGillion at the Hyatt Bar on Friday night. Jewel plays Kaylie Frye in Joss Whedon’s Firefly television series and its film spin-off, Serenity (recently blogged about by yours truly here and here). Paul is Dr. Carson Beckett on Stargate: Atlantis. On the far left is Jewel’s husband, a hell of a nice guy who insisted on splitting the bar tab with me … and after I saw it I was glad he did. Next to him is Tim. Notice the formula here: If cute chick in picture, then Tim.

Saturday night we went out to Hard Rock Café for dinner. It sucked. It was way too loud – and this is coming from someone who loves loud music – and the food was just awful. I think this was the last time we were all together at the con; after Saturday dinner I hung out with the lovely Reannan for pretty much the rest of the weekend. Greg and Tim played some LARPs, Johnathan went to panel discussions, and Todd shopped and went to The Cruxshadows shows.

Anyway, note to con goers: Skip Hard Rock in 2006. There’s a Roadhouse right across the street and a Steak & Ale about a block away.

Before I went to DragonCon for the first time I had no idea what Dawn was. Reannan explained to me at some point that it was a comic with a huge cult following; up till then I was pretty baffled by all the redheads in lingerie toting swords around. And that’s what I find most impressive about the whole Dawn thing: The costumes. I mean these women go all out. There are so many – and they are so well done – that DragonCon has a separate costume contest just for them. The other 5,000 or so people who dress up all have to compete in the general contest. Chumps.

An awesome Stewie Griffin costume. I have no trouble admitting to being a fan of Family Guy; like The Simpsons, it’s low-brow humor that is nonetheless much smarter and more relevant than anything the ivory tower elites are writing. A lot of work went into that headpiece, you can bet.

Okay, you need to open up your perceptions here just a bit. What is in this photo? Look closely, and intuit what the combination of images means.

Those, my friends, are Pimpaloompas. Simply brilliant.

Finally, we have Tim with (once again) a pretty girl. I think her costume might actually be another of the Dawns; maybe she just didn’t have the time or patience for the "left eye tears" makeup. Regardless, she’s hot and she has swords, so into the photo essay she goes.

That’s it for this year, kids. Next year I’m going to bring my own camera and make sure to get plenty of my own photos. Relying on others, while it appeals to my general laziness, is unfair and generally nets me fewer pictures for The Zoo. I’ll just have to make it a point to reserve a couple non-drinking hours each day for picture taking at the 2006 Con.

Can’t hardly wait!

S

Update: I had an e-mail from Reannan waiting for me this morning. It seems I have committed that penultimate geek faux pas ... misidentifying sexy animated women. The costumed lass in the 10th DragonCon photo is not Dawn; she is dressed as Bloodrayne, Playboy's first animated centerfold (NSFW). My appologies to Dawn, Bloodrayne, the person in the photo, and geekdom in general!

Meter Maids and Pterodactyls

2005-10-20T14:21:00.000-04:00

So the other weekend was my birthday. No, no, don't bother to send presents; I'm perfectly happy with my meager possessions. Anyway, the best presents are the intangibles.

Intangibles like irony.

I met a few friends for drinks to celebrate that weekend, you see. We met up at Palm Pavilion on Clearwater Beach. It is an area that has metered parking during the day, but everyone - everyone - knows that you can park wherever the hell you want after dark. So while we're sitting in the bar, my buddy Ed turns to me and says "Hey, did you put money in the meter?"

"Don't need to, it's dark." I sagely respond.

"Uh-uh, you have to feed the meters now. Seriously."

"Really?" Says I. "Crap. You got any quaters?"

"No." Ed replies, unhelpfully.

"Well, shit. Lemme go get some from the bartender."

At which point Ed and his brother Chris start laughing at me. "We're just messing with you, dude. You don't have to put money in the meters after dark."

"Assholes." I say, laughing with them.

A couple happy, buzzed hours later we wander out to the parking lot. We get in our cars. "Shit!" I hear from a few parking spots over ... just as I notice the ticket on my windshield. Turns out that you do have to feed those damned meters after dark, and the meter maid nailed us both. They even posted a sign announcing the new rules, we just didn't see it.

Sandor and Ed ... and Tickets

But I'm willing to pay the $20 to see Ed get bitten in the ass by irony, anyway. Hey, you take your amusement where you can get it (especially when it's at the expense of someone you've known for almost 30 years).

It has also occured to me recently that if I knew a cute girl with a tame pterodactyl, I'd be willing to buy her a fur bikini and a big-ass club.

I Bet They Both Bite

I'd take her camping in the Georgia mountains, where we'd attend obscure beer festivals during the day and snuggle up next to a warm campfire at night. I'd drive eight hours each way to do it, too ... at night after work if necessary. And it wouldn't be just for sex, either (though rumor has it that sex with wild pterodactyl-taming women is amazing, especially on Sundays). It'd be because she's funny and smart and awesome, and just getting to spend time with her is worth ten times the drive in ten times the dark.

That's if I knew a cute girl with a tame pterodactyl.

Peace ya'll. Have a deviant weekend.

S

Don't Drop the Soap, Gabe

2005-10-19T14:29:00.000-04:00

Longtime readers will know that I’m a big fan of the Penny Arcade web comic; there is a link on my sidebar, after all. Reading that strip every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday is something of a treat for me, seeing as I spend most of each work week researching and writing some pretty dry material. After several hours of copywriting dullness, Tycho and Gabe (the avatars of Penny Arcade’s creators, Jerry Holkins and Mike Krahulik) are always a welcome relief of gaming-related smartassery.

This is not to say that I agree with everything they do or say; from what I hear, Tycho is something of a Chomskyite liberal. Were you to lock he and I together in a room with, say, an adorable puppy, one of us would probably end up beating the other to death with it (I bet the guy in charge of locking-political-opposites-in-rooms-together goes through pallets of puppies that way). But I do agree with him on at least one real-world issue: Jack Thompson is an asshole.

Penny Arcade, 15Oct05

Wikipedia has a huge article on Thompson here. Those interested in such details may go bask in its extraordinary comprehensiveness; for our immediate purposes it is enough to know that the old coot is a censorship advocate of the most extreme sort. Tycho and Gabe have been poking fun at him for months, but a few days ago the confrontation seems to have taken a more serious turn. My understanding of the situation is this: Thompson recently offered to donate $10,000 to charity in the name of anyone who created a game in which the makers of violent video games are themselves the victims. Several enterprising game designers went and did it - gee, never saw that coming - after which Thompson promptly backed out, claiming his offer was "satire". Yesterday Tycho and Gabe went ahead and donated the $10,000 to the ESA Foundation in his name, noting that "Thompson now claims that his repellent suggestion was 'satire', and we must conclude that his financial offer was also satire, some new breed of satire apparently that I'm sure is just hilarious to people in need."

Humiliated, Thompson has now threatened legal action. Apparently he's even faxed the Seattle police department, demanding that the infamous PA duo be arrested. I wonder ... which prison gang do you think is in charge of raping skinny gamers in the shower? Maybe they, you know, take turns.

Penny Arcade, 19Oct05

For the record, I, like Gabe, do not think children should play exceedingly violent or sexual video games. But it is their parent’s job to monitor what they play, not the government’s, and certainly not Jack Thompson’s. Warning labels are fine – they tell parents what is inside without infringing on free speech – but outright censorship is an evil that free societies rightly shun. Even the culturally conservative National Institute on Media and the Family (NIMF) recently distanced itself from Thompson, issuing an open letter “condemning his use of biased and vitriolic tactics and asking him to refrain from implying that the Institute supports him and his work in any way”.

So there you have it; an interesting tidbit from the culture wars, care of your friends here at The Zoo. Oh, and on a side note: I’ve completely lost interest in EverQuest II … yes, I’m a fickle mushhead (though eight months on the same video game is actually pretty good for me). I’ve pre-ordered Civilization IV, however, which will likely return me to the bosom of turn-based strategy games. I've been longing for that ol' lover of mine anyway.

S

BPCP Update

2005-10-12T10:31:00.000-04:00

The Blogosphere Political Compass Project has been updated. Go to the BPCP permalink page for a complete list of participants and links to their sites.

BPCP Chart for September 2005

New to the BPCP in September 2005:

272 Abe of Don't Let Me Stop You (7.6, -1.8)
273 fmragtops of Fmragtops Spews (5.3, 1)
274 Pete of iHillary (4.3, 0.5)
275 The Artist of The Art of the Blog (8.1, 0.3)
276 Tad Babbert of Chronicles of the Knights Simplar (6.5, 0.5)
277 Pamela of Atlas Shrugs (8, -1.2)
278 Tommy of Striving for Average (0.6, -0.4)
279 Everyman of Everyman Chronicles (5, 3.6)
280 Katelyn Sills of Stand Up and Speak Out (1.3, 1.1)

Sorry for getting to this so late, but the first week of October was really busy. Anyway, all caught up now.

Peace, yo. *Flashes gang sign*

S

Crusade or Introspection?

2005-10-07T15:02:00.000-04:00

For me, the only thing more interesting than a conversation about politics or religion is a conversation about politics and religion. Well, thanks to President Bush's haphazard speaking style and the far left's eagerness to label him a crusader, I've got myself a good one here.

An acquaintance from the EverQuest II forums e-mailed me this morning, asking what I thought of this "God told me to invade Iraq" business. Below is my response:

[Opening social plesantries omitted]

As for the recent "quote" by the President, I'm taking a wait-and-see approach. To me, it seems likely that he was misinterpreted by a non-native English speaker (former Palestinian PM Mahmoud Abbas). President Bush's actual words were "God would tell me ...", which to me indicates he is extrapolating what he believes God would tell him to do, based on his understanding of his own faith. It's a semantic argument, but I think it's an important one (I can firmly say that Carl Sagan would tell me to support the space program, but that doesn't mean I actually hear Dr. Sagan whispering supernatural messages to me). I think it's also important to understand that when a born-again Christian says something along the lines of "God is speaking to me", he probably doesn't mean a literal voice in his head. He most likely means he has prayed about his problem - as a Buddhist might meditate on it, or a scientist apply Occam's Razor - and subsequently come to a decision.

But beyond the "crazy man talking to God" question, there is the idea that, regardless of semantics, the decision to go to war was at least partly based on religion. My first response to this is, of course, that religious wars are an unmitigated evil ... and in this case, precisely antithetical to what we're actually trying to accomplish (establish secular democracy in the Middle East). I once said that I would withdraw my support for the war in Iraq - and for the larger war on terror - if I came to believe it was a religious crusade instead of the strategic, secular reformation of the Muslim world. I stand by that assessment.

However, all of us listen to that little "inner voice" we have, [name omitted]. As agnostics, you and I would probably refer to it as our conscience, or our subconscious. Theists usually call it the voice of God. Either way, it is the same thing: The clear, quiet, thoughtful part of ourselves that we consult when vexed by a troubling moral question. It's the part that knows right from wrong in an absolute sense. It doesn't matter so much what one calls it, only that we dutifully listen to it on occasion. The people who worry me most are those who lack such an inner voice, for what they actually lack is the ability to introspect. That way lies arrogance at best (and sociopathy at worst).

So my position here is this: If President Bush meant that he prayed about going to war, and introspected deeply on the question, then I have no problem with it. I don't care if he calls it "God speaking to him" (on the contrary, that's exactly what I would expect a Christian to call it). However, if he means that he literally believes that God is giving him direct orders to go to war, then I exaggerate not at all when I say the man should be impeached. Personally, I'm pretty sure it's the former, but I guess it could be the latter ... as I said, I'm taking a wait-and-see approach at this point.

[Closing social plesantries omitted]

Now some of you are certainly wondering if I, a pretty darned adamant supporter of the War on Terror since day one, would really do an about-face if I believed it was a religious crusade. The answer is yes, absolutely. It doesn't matter that I believe the cause is just; the ends cannot justify the means, especially not in something as deadly as war. In fact, if this war is a crusade then President Bush and I are not looking for the same ends at all; I have no desire to convert the Middle East. On the contrary, my goal is to see secular democracy do to Islam what it did to Christianity during the 18th and 19th Centuries: Strip it of its temporal power and remove its influence on government.

As I stated in my response, I'm waiting to see how this one develops. My suspicion is that the President's statements were 1) misunderstood by the Palestinian envoys, and 2) seized upon for political gain by the leftist media. I'm keeping an open mind here ... the liberals will jump to enough conclusions for all of us.

More to come, almost certainly.

S

Can't Stop the Buzz

2005-09-30T10:36:00.000-04:00

It's Serenity day! Wheee!

The Internet buzz on this film is the strongest I've seen in quite awhile ... which is precisely what creator Joss Whedon and company intended when they started their Can't Stop the Signal "viral advertising" campaign (ed. note: The Can't Stop the Signal web site now redirects visitors to the "Serenity" moive site; I have no idea if that's a temorary or permanent thing). I've collected some of what's being said below.

From around the blogosphere:

"I went to a sneak-preview of Serenity tonight. You know how you see the trailers for a movie, and think, "hey, that looks really cool", and anticipate seeing it, then when it finally comes out you go see it and are left feeling empty and disappointed? Well, enough about the Revenge of the Sith.

Serenity was nothing like that. Where Sith was fast food that left you feeling nothing but gas, Serenity was a seven-course meal. Serenity is shiny."

- robot guy, from "take me out into the black"

"Do I recommend this movie? Well, yeah. Will there be people who don't understand the appeal? Certainly. There are people who read Marcel Proust for fun, after all. If you've seen and loved the series Firefly, it's a definite yes. If you haven't seen the series, that's okay— I was watching carefully and Whedon laid the background well. You can go into it with no more idea than that the movie sounds good and understand everything. Even the one or two careful inside jokes that refer to things in the series can be taken two ways, both appropriate."

- booklore, from "Serenity II"

"Now you should understand that I've never watched a single episode of Firefly, nor am I someone who waited each week for every episode of Whedon's other TV series, Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel. I was able to walk into Serenity with a fresh set of eyes and a shortage of expectations.

Serenity is the best space opera film that I've seen since the original Star Wars came out over 25 years ago. It's bright, and funny, and upbeat, and occasionally deadly serious. There's plenty of action, but nothing that will overly traumatize your teenagers and nothing so revolting that you have to look away from the screen."

- Bill Roper, from "I Say it's Space Opera!"

And from the MSM:

"There are two sorts of people in the world: those who believe Joss Whedon is a genius and those who are wrong. And even if Whedon's first feature film Serenity doesn't quite match the dark, witty brilliance of his TV creations Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel, it's still a lot more sweaty fun than the last three overhyped, sterile, for-dorks-only Star Wars cartoons."

- Connie Ogle, from "A Sci-Fi Tale for the Rest of Us"

"The result is "Serenity," a boisterous, semi-comic action thriller that more closely resembles a condensed season of a television drama than a three-act feature. But it is enriched by Whedon's typically bracing yet sensitive dialogue and appealing, misfit characters."

- Tom Keogh, from "'Serenity': TV's 'Firefly' takes wing"

"Serenity is the un-Star Trek: no aliens with prosthetic ears, no super-tidy spaceship filled with dedicated professionals, no ray guns and certainly no high-minded ideals like a Prime Directive. It's closer to Star Wars, with a twist of the Old West."

- Louis B. Parks, from "Dose of Serenity is easy to take"

And of course, in the interest of fair-mindedness, the obligitory bad review:

"It is based on the short-lived Fox TV show Firefly, which attracted a cult following, and writer/director Joss Whedon squeezes out a few clever moments. But the characters are generally uninteresting and one-dimensional, and the futuristic Western-style plot grows tedious."

- Claudia Puig, from "'Serenity' has moments, not much else"

I am being completely honest when I say that I had to sift through two dozen glowing reviews to find one that pooh-poohed Serenity. And Claudia can kiss my shiny white ass in any case; she's probably just mad at the world over having such a ridiculous last name. "Puig" sounds like something one does in a toilet the morning after drinking too much cheap tequila.

There is some discussion starting about the politics of the Firefly universe. My personal suspicion is that Whedon is trying to remain largely apolitical, even though his work has been overwhelmingly (and sometimes surprisingly) well-recieved among conservatives of all stripes. But if forced to expound on political undertones to his recent work, I'd guess that the man is libertarian-minded. The Alliance is a near-perfect similie for big government, and the reavers for unrelenting barbarism. Caught in the middle are the independents, who just want to be left alone and make an occasional buck. Anyway, I bet we're going to see more discussion along these lines as more bloggers see the film over the weekend.

Okay kids, our goal is an $80 million opening weekend. That means you must go see Serenity at least once. Yes, you!

S

Easily Entertained

2005-09-29T15:50:00.000-04:00

Ex-roommate and good friend Alec the Mad (more commonly known around here as Puppy Pincher) has started blogging. Go visit Easily Entertained for ideas both funnier and odder than mine. Leave a comment chastising him for his poor punctuation; he loves that.

Oh, and hat tip to Alec for linking the I Am Pro-Victory post over at A North American Patriot. Good work, my young blogwan.

S

Now That's Entertainment!

2005-09-26T12:18:00.000-04:00

So it ended up being a great weekend for entertainment here in Tampa; I didn't so much as turn on my computer until Sunday evening. That's kind of a big deal when you game, blog, post to several different forums, and get most of your news online. I usually spend half my weekend within five feet of my PC, but this time I totally forgot it existed. Which is a good thing.

Friday night I spent at my favorite Tampa dive bar, The Brass Mug. It's out near the university - the place has been a fixture there since at least the late 80s - and usually plays host to local punk, metal, and alternative bands. On Friday I went there with good friends Cartagia, Faust, and Jen, and we were lucky enough to catch a performance by Berwick.

Berwick rocks. Their sound is far more original that what I've come to expect from Tampa's music scene. If forced to draw a comparison I'd say that there might be some Sleater-Kinney influence there; frontwoman-songwriter Jaqui Midnight and bassist Dayna Titus have a strong, clean post-punk sound that made me think of The Hot Rock at least a couple times. Ben "The Chef" Danielle is an obviously skilled drummer and quite the stage personality ... he had everyone's hands in the air for a quick rendition of Eminem's Lose Yourself, which actually sounded pretty good played live on guitar and drums. Highlight of the evening (at least for this 80s kid): Their cover of The Outfield's Your Love. The oldest of the trio might have been about seven when that song was popular, so they've either researched their 80s music or they're fans of The Butchies. Cool either way.

Ben, Jaqui, Sandor, Jen, and Dayna at The Brass Mug

Later this week I’ll see if Jaqui can send me a schedule of their next few gigs, so you Tampa readers who like good rock & roll can come out and give them a listen. I’ll probably show up myself a couple times. Oh, and I’m sorry for the crappiness of this photo; Faust’s cell takes pictures about as well as my 35mm camera makes phone calls. But better than nuthin, as they say.

Moving right along, on Saturday my roommate and I watched some movies. I don’t expect much out of Hollywood these days, mostly because what they seem interested in giving us is a mildly toxic mixture of remakes, liberal propaganda, and style-over-substance effects films. So imagine my surprise when I got to see Paul Haggis’ Crash; 20 minutes into it I thought “This might well be the best movie I’ve seen since The Return of the King”. It was. I recommend films warily … I’ve given an unqualified “Go see it” to only three in the past decade or so (The Boondock Saints, The Sixth Sense, and the Lord of the Rings trilogy). Well, Crash makes four. Go rent it ASAP, and be prepared for some very uncomfortable moments that are worth every cringing second.

Finally, Sunday was football and my Bucs won. It looks like my fantasy football team did good too; unless Faust’s kicker plays an exceedingly stellar game tonight – like stellar to the point of singlehandedly racking up a 15-0 win – my Paris Capitulators should beat his Tallahassee Reavers. Here’s to having Tom Brady, Terrell Owens, Carnell Williams, and the entire Buccaneer Defense on the same team!

Happy Monday all. More Serenity stuff this week, you can bet on it.

S

Serenity Press Pass!

2005-09-22T11:19:00.000-04:00

Some of you might know I’m a huge Joss Whedon fan. Serenity, which is a big-screen continuation of the story he began telling in the canceled Firefly television series, opens next weekend. I caught a preview of it back in April; reader and good friend Cartagia managed to secure us tickets to a screening of the then-unfinished film by obsessively lurking around Whedon’s Can’t Stop the Signal web site.

Mal (Nathan Fillion) and Jayne (Adam Baldwin)

Well, other reader and good friend Puppy Pincher – never to be outdone by the likes of Cartagia – e-mailed me a townhall.com story announcing press passes for bloggers to the more-traditional media screening to take place a few days before release. I applied and managed to get on the list, so it looks like I’ll get to see (and review) the completed film next Wednesday. The last time I had press credentials I was in college, working for The St. Petersburg Times as a News Clerk; my job required it for access to events, government buildings, and our own oft-bomb threatened offices. I just can’t wait to breeze by a horde of you non-credentialed civillians again … no waiting in line like a sucker for me!

Anyway, me and my giant ego will still be going to see Serenity on opening night and at least once more (probably on its second weekend). I advise – nay, implore – all you fans of Firefly, Whedon, or just good sci-fi to do the same. It’s a great movie, but it will need some help to earn enough for Universal to greenlight the two sequals Joss has planned. Go once on opening weekend, and then go again the following weekend to help keep those numbers up.

I’ll be right there with you, even if I have to wait in line.

S

Into the Black

2005-09-19T15:28:00.000-04:00

For me, NASA is like a collection of mean older siblings; they tease me relentlessly with promises of mankind’s bright future in space, then spitefully dash my wide-eyed hopes upon the rocks of bureaucracy and failure. Seriously, I’m starting to wonder when Administrator Michael Griffin is going to show up at my house to give me an atomic wedgie. But like a good little brother I’m gullible and I love them no matter what, so when they tell me we’re landing four astronauts on the moon by 2018 I believe them. Completely. Wholeheartedly. I’m 35 now, and I’ll be almost 50 when it happens, but I grin like a kid when I think about it. Astronauts back on the moon!

Is it 2018 yet?

No?

Okay, how about now?

Maybe I’ll just sit in the back of Dr. Griffin’s car for the next 13 years and go “Are we there yet? Are we there yet? Are we there yet?” If I’m going to get teased like a little brother, I might as well be annoying.

Anyway, that is NASA's plan: Finish building an abbreviated version of the International Space Station by 2010, at which time we’ll retire the shuttles. Construct a new launch system and new Crew Exploration Vehicle (CEV) to begin testing by 2012 … manned flights by 2014. 2018 we go to the moon. Ten or fifteen years after that, Mars. I believe them. I have to. It’s what little brothers do.

Of course we have the usual collection of luddites and skinflints who think $100 billion spent over a dozen years is too high a price to begin the human colonization of space; amazing how the very same people never oppose the gigadollars given by the federal government to fund pork-barrel projects in their home states. And then there’s my favorite: The “We Should Learn to Live Peacefully Here On Earth Before We Venture Into Space” crowd. Yes, so true, because 8 billion, then 12 billion, then 20 billion of us all competing for the same limited resources is going to make humanity more peaceful in the coming centuries.

*Rolls eyes*

Actually, Dr. Griffin had something interesting to say on that general subject:

The announcement comes as NASA works to resume operations at vital shuttle facilities affected by Hurricane Katrina, as well as solve external tank foam shedding problems to increase launch safety. But those problems are short-term compared to NASA’s exploration plan, Griffin said.

He said the costs of reconstruction in Katrina's wake should not derail the 13-year plan.

“The space program is a long-term investment in our future,” Griffin said. “We must deal with our short-term problems while not sacrificing our long-term investments. When we have a hurricane, we don’t cancel the Air Force. We don’t cancel the Navy. And we’re not going to cancel NASA.”

The cost of science is often high. But the cost of no science is much, much higher; just ask the dinosaurs.

And on a related note, it’s looking like there are by-God shorelines on Saturn’s moon Titan:

Titan Shoreline

Of course the temperature is -270 degrees, the sand and rocks are mostly ice, and the ocean is an oily mixture of ethane, methane, and gooey hydrocarbons. It’s still the only body in the solar system besides Earth that shows the kind of weathering we see here: Bays, shores, deltas, rivers, and tributaries. There might even be volcanoes that erupt a syrupy mixture of ammonia and water that flows like lava and builds topography. Chemistry almost certainly happens too slowly in such an environment for life to ever evolve, but still … a world where the geology is based on ice and the oceans are made of something that closely resembles automobile fuel has got to be worth studying.

Lastly, I’m hoping to get the rest of the DragonCon pictures from certain individuals this week. If I do I should have my second annual DragonCon photo essay up by Friday.

Peace y’all.

S

BPCP Update

2005-09-08T14:49:00.000-04:00

The Blogosphere Political Compass Project has been updated. Go to the BPCP permalink page for a complete list of participants and links to their sites.

BPCP Graph for August 2005

New to the BPCP in August 2005:

257 TJ of NIF (5.3, 3.4)
258 Cranky of Balance Sheet (4, 4.1)
259 Merri of Merri Musings (5.4, 3.2)
260 David Farrar of David Farrar (10, -6.2)
261 Pierre Legrand of The Pink Flamingo Bar & Grill (9.8, -1)
262 rightwingprof of RightWingNation (8.1, 1.7)
263 Kevin W. of The Kevin Show (1.8, 2.2)
264 Michael Holtum of Raven's Realm News Feed (2.4, 4.4)
265 Funky Dung of Ales Rarus (-4.8, -1.4)
266 DLW of The Anti-Manicheist (-5.5, -2.9)
267 Rob Carr of Unspace (-2.8, -5.4)
268 George Dienhart of The Catholic Conservative (6.3, 3.7)
269 Fitch of Fitch is Always Right (5.1, -1)
270 DJ Waletzky of Casual Asides (-9.4, -6.9)
271 David of DavidAndLara (2.5, 3.1)

And an item of interest: David Farrar (linked above) pointed me to a New Zealand version of the BPCP, strictly for NZ bloggers. New Zealand, for those of you who are not sci-fi / fantasy geeks, is actually Middle Earth. It is populated by hobbits and elves and orcs, regardless of what New Zealand Telecom says when you call and ask them to connect you with Arwen Evenstar of Rivendell.

S

That Darned Rumor-Mill

2005-09-08T12:45:00.000-04:00

See Sandor. See Sandor with egg on his face.

It turns out that my post concerning the "To Kill an American" piece was somewhat innaccurate; it was not written by an Australian dentist. Reader Tracy was kind enough to send me links to the correct information: It was written by Peter Ferrara, an associate professor of law at the George Mason University School of Law. He is an American, and his original essay ran on NRO back in 2001.

Here is the snopes article that I somehow missed. Guess I should have done a more complete search ... or maybe I should have never trusted that evil Jim Hake in the first place!

*Shakes fist in Jim Hake's general direction*

Anyway, I admit to my shoddy research on this one; put me in the stocks next to Dan Rather and throw a few tomatoes. I deserve it.

BPCP update later today.

S

Score one for Judicial Common Sense

2005-08-18T13:47:00.000-04:00

The Illinois Supreme Court in a 6-0 decision (one recusal) tosses out a class action decision against State Farm Insurance.

Lawyers had argued that the insured were defrauded when OEM parts weren't used in repairs, calling them "inferior generic replacement parts."

The justices found two reasons to reverse the lower court's decision. Damages were unproven:

McMorrow added that State Farm's use of non-original parts did not give rise to a fraud claim "based on the assertion that State Farm breached its promise to restore plaintiffs' vehicles to their 'pre-loss condition' or that State Farm breached its promise to repair plaintiffs' vehicles using parts of 'like kind and quality."

...and the Class had been improperly expanded to include out-of-state participants:

She also said the Illinois Consumer Fraud Act does not apply outside the state. "The only putative class that can exist in this case under the (Illinois) Consumer Fraud Act is a class consisting of policyholders whose vehicles were assessed and repaired in Illinois," she said.

It is of passing interest the slant some in the media choose to give the story. The Reuters article is surprising even-handed, giving quotes from both parties.

ABC & the Chicago Sun Times however, find quoting the Chief Justice in her opinion to be unnecessary, instead relying only on quotes from the plaintiff's lawyers:

"It is a total pity for the consumer that somehow the court system would find that State Farm's cheating isn't uniform enough to be actionable," she said.

I would imagine a Chief Justice could comment on a class-action lawyer's "cheating" in expanding the class beyond the limits of state statutes.

Said one lawyer for the plaintiffs:

"It's an empty day for automobile insureds in Illinois, and across the country," he said. "This can create a Balkanization in class-action cases."

Cry me a river.

So, In summary, Illinois' supreme court throws out a class action lawsuit.

Reuter's writes an even-handed report on it.

What's next? Dogs & cats living together?

Could I get a lump of reality with your Pacifism please?

2005-08-17T01:51:00.000-04:00

A close and very dear friend forwarded this to me. She is a pacifist and her blind idealism breaks my heart at times. I felt it worth responding to:

Your Primary Responsibility

by Alan Cohen

A friend confided in me that he was struggling to understand his responsibility in a world obsessed with war. I told him the answer is simple: choose peace.

While you cannot control the attitudes or actions of politicians or others, you have total control over the thoughts, feelings, and energy you are exuding. If you are steeped in fear, anger, a sense of victimization, or separateness, you are contributing to the darkness.

If you hold a sense of peace, wholeness, compassion, kindness, and the presence of love, you are contributing to healing. As Kipling nobly penned, "If you can hold your head when all about you are losing theirs."

Mother Teresa was once asked to speak at an anti-war rally, and she refused. "If it were a pro-peace rally, I would attend," she explained. "But fighting against war, like fighting against anything, is just another form of war."

Ram Dass recounted that on his altar he has pictures of Christ, Buddha, and many other spiritual masters. He has recently added a photo of George W. Bush. Why? As Ram Dass explains, "Until I can find the same divinity in George W. Bush as I find in other holy beings, I am stuck. When I can see and honor his soul, then I am in a position to protest. Until then, I am ineffective."

The power of prayer and intention goes a long, long way. At any given moment the world situation is a precise expression of the consciousness of all the people who live here. As you shift your consciousness in the direction of peace, wholeness, and faith, you tip the balance in that direction. You literally become the tipping point for the world you would like to create.

Be less concerned with what you are doing and more concerned with how you are doing it. Actions that spring from fear or hatred, no matter how nobly clothed, create only more of the same. Actions that issue from faith and love, no matter how humbly clothed, create only more of the same.

A visionary thrives under all circumstances, for he or she sees beyond the obvious. At this time the world needs good visionaries. If you would save the world, begin with your own consciousness.

~~~~~~~~~~

Only Love Prevails. Be the change you want to see. "In the end, only kindness matters" Peace-it begins with me!

"Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow."

Would you really condemn millions to the horror of Sharia?

Do you really believe this can be reasoned with, when their very religion promotes lies, and they issue blatantly toothless "fatwas"
against violence?

Clint Eastwood perhaps put the current actions of the U.S. best, in describing his role as Harry Callahan:

"It's not about a man who stands for violence, it's about a man who can't understand society tolerating violence."

The actions of the U.S. at the direction of George Bush are not about an obsession with violence. They are about a fundamental acceptance of an existential threat to the liberties we all too often take for granted. President Bush probably cannot understand the parodoxical position the world's leftists have taken abhorring any actions we take in defense of those liberties, while at the same time tolerating the violence comitted by a totalitarian death cult that has not progressed ideologically since the 7th century. It is to his eternal credit that he perserveres despite the slings and arrows of his detractors.

If you cannot make the distinction between the violent actions of Islamofascists and the necessarily violent reaction in defense of the liberty we as a race have fought and died and sacrificed for ten thousand years to achieve, then you approach a willful ignorance of reality. You should count yourself the luckiest of all, for having been born into a society that will defend your liberties, despite the protestations from a segment of society so lost in it's own quasi-intellectual disdain for a man who dares speak in absolutes like "good and evil". It is not lost on the young men and women fighting to bring liberty to oppressed millions that their sacrifice is not to be done "in your name."

If you had your way, you would be the death of Western Civilization and would chain us in Dhimmitude. Certainly it wouldn't be your intent, but the spread of Islam in Afghanistan, Nigeria, the Sudan, Somalia, and Malaysia, and the resulting death of liberties and life, the subjugation of women and Kafir, the despotism that seems to inevitably follow an existence under Sharia... all these demonstrate clearly that Islam is not a forgiving or tolerant religion by todays standards, and that it despises and punishes pacifism with a particular glee.

And still your tolerance of its barbarous teachings and actions would condemn us all.

Peace is rarely won by words alone. Mahatma Ghandi was the exception that made the rule. His peace was not won in a vaccuum, but instead under the judgemental eyes of the Western world that promised isolation for totalinarianism, and inclusion for peace and democracy. Stating that violence or the threat of violence never brought peace is to turn one's back on history. The Cold War, World Wars I & II, VietNam, The Korean War, The Civil War, the War for American Independence. All were Just wars. All with the exception of VietNam brought greater good to the regions affected, and all with the exception of VietNam and WWI brough greater peace to the world. VietNam was a failure not of the military, but of the politicians. The price of pacifism in that conflict was over 2 million South Vietnamese and Cambodians executed at the hands of the Viet Cong and Pol Pot. WWI's peace was sabotaged by the usurious demands of the French on the Germans, and was finally destroyed by the pacifism of Neville Chamberlain. Even WWII was tainted by a pacifism bred by years of conflict, resulting in a Communist China and an expansionist U.S.S.R., and the consequent deaths of as many as 130 million people.

The evolution of Society along the path of least resistance is not towards liberty and longevity, but towards failure, death and servitude. This is absolute, as exemplified by all great Societies in our history. Peace and liberty are not some default state of being, but must be ever defended, and if necessary, fought for.

In the end, Pacifism is nothing more than the gateway ideology to Nihilism: it is a small step from saying nothing is worth fighting for to saying there are no objective truths worth defending, and no moral gradients between a George Bush and an Osama bin Laden.

Finally, and in direct response to Mr Cohen: why should I take
seriously a man who charges for his platitudes on selflessness?

Honestly, could the stench of hypocrisy be any more rank?

I would open your eyes to the evil you ignore, but for the innocence that action would necessarily destroy. Truly, the images I could show you would scatter your thoughts in despair for humanity and haunt your dreams until your idealism fell starved from its delicate perch.

To Kill an American

2005-08-15T10:25:00.000-04:00

I got an e-mail this morning from Jim Hake over at Spirit of America. He's in Jordan right now - heaven only knows what tireless, dangerous work he's doing there to promote greater stability and freedom - but he came across something he wanted to share with his donors. It's one of those often-annoying "forward this to everyone you know" e-mails, but thankfully it doesn't claim to be written by someone famous or warn of intestinal parasites should you fail to pass it on. It simply says it's the work of an Austrailan dentist and gives an opinion supported by a few historical facts. Given that the population of imposter Austrailan dentists is probably rather small, I see no reason not to take this one at face value:

To Kill an American

You probably missed it in the rush of news last week, but there was actually a report that someone in Pakistan had published in a newspaper an offer of a reward to anyone who killed an American, any American.

So an Australian dentist wrote the following to let everyone know what an American is... so they would know when they found one. (Good on ya, mate!!!!)

An American is English, or French, or Italian, Irish, German, Spanish, Polish, Russian or Greek.

An American may also be Canadian, Mexican, African, Indian, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Australian, Iranian, Asian, or Arab, or Pakistani, or Afghan.

An American may also be a Cherokee, Osage, Blackfoot, Navaho, Apache, Seminole or one of the many other tribes known as native Americans.

An American is Christian, or he could be Jewish, or Buddhist, or Muslim.

In fact, there are more Muslims in America than in Afghanistan. The only difference is that in America they are free to worship as each of them chooses.

An American is also free to believe in no religion. For that he will answer only to God, not to the government, or to armed thugs claiming to speak for the government and for God.

An American lives in the most prosperous land in the history of the world.

The root of that prosperity can be found in the Declaration of Independence, which recognizes the God given right of each person to the pursuit of happiness.

An American is generous. Americans have helped out just about every other nation in the world in their time of need.

When the Soviet army overran Afghanistan 20 years ago, Americans came with arms and supplies to enable the people to win back their country!

As of the morning of September 11, Americans had given more than any other nation to the poor in Afghanistan.

Americans welcome the best, the best products, the best books, the best music, the best food, the best athletes. But they also welcome the least!

The national symbol of America, The Statue of Liberty, welcomes your tired and your poor, the wretched refuse of your teeming shores, the homeless, tempest tossed. These in fact are the people who built America.

Some of them were working in the Twin Towers the morning of September 11, 2001, earning a better life for their families. I've been told that the World Trade Center victims were from at least 30 other countries, cultures, and first languages, including those that aided and abetted the terrorists.

So you can try to kill an American if you must.

Hitler did.

So did General Tojo, and Stalin, and Mao Tse-Tung, and every bloodthirsty tyrant in the history of the world.

But, in doing so you would just be killing yourself. Because Americans are not a particular people from a particular place. They are the embodiment of the human spirit of freedom. Everyone who holds to that spirit, everywhere, is an American.

Author unknown

I presently see nothing on snopes.com that addresses this particular piece of internet lore. But I'll check back in a few days and update this post if I find something.

S

Speaking From Experience

2005-08-10T15:53:00.000-04:00

FOX news recently put together an article of collected opinions from military personnel and veterans about staying the course in Iraq. These are not the words of politicians, special interest groups, or the media. These are soldiers who have served in this war (or in another) and simply volunteered a response to the question posed.

I think this quote sums up a lot of what is on these soldier's minds (and does so really well):

“I am a veteran returned from Iraq, and I believe we should stay the course. I spent a year-plus running a security crew for convoys, both with armor and without it on our Humvees. If the media would report on the improvements there instead of just the attacks, injuries, and casualties, I think the country would be behind the troops and the president a lot more than they are. The problem is the average person doesn’t get the whole story. They look at the headlines and take it for what it is without knowing there has been a huge decrease in the number and type of attacks. They see that there was another attack. That point alone would help the American people see the progress that U.S. soldiers have and they’d stand behind it more. People need to be patient, look at how long we occupied Germany after WWII, and we are still there. The same thing is true for Korea. Rebuilding a nation does not happen overnight, but the chance for hope does, and the Iraqi’s now have a chance.” — Stephen (SFC, Army National Guard – Columbus, OH)

I don't know how many times I've heard something very similar from other soldiers, either in an e-mail, a comment to this blog, or an interview given to a mainstream media outlet. "The media reports the bad news and ignores the good news. They do it all the time. They are hurting the war effort and breaking morale". It's hard to find an Iraq war veteran who doesn't say that. One begins to wonder if it's mere sensationalism on the media's part, or if it really is something darker and more purposeful.

Anyway, read the opinions in the article. All are quite interesting.

S

BPCP Update

2005-08-02T10:35:00.000-04:00

The Blogosphere Political Compass Project has been updated. Go to the BPCP permalink page for a complete list of participants and links to their sites.

BPCP Graph for July 2005

New to the BPCP in July 2005:

252 mattfast1 of The Random Ramblings of mattfast1 (3.1, -1.6)
253 Steve of Steve the Pirate (6.9, 5.6)
254 Joe of Joe Missionary (0.6, 0.9)
255 Jacqueline Passey of Jacqueline Mackie Paisley Passey (7.5, -4.9)
256 David of Kaufmanet (5.6, -2.4)

S

The EQ II Seven

2005-07-21T13:50:00.000-04:00

I'm really just trying out some photoblogging hijinks here; those uninterested in EQ II or my friends can safely ignore this post.

The EverQuest II Seven

For those interested, this is my group of real-world friends that I play online games with. All of us are into EQ II now; we hang out online nowadays far more than we actually meet in person. We are in a guild with a few dozen other players, all of whom are great people.

Couldn't ask for a better gaming experience than I'm having with all these folks.

S

Some scribblings I enjoyed today

2005-07-21T01:08:00.000-04:00

Eve Gerrard posits on Root Causes, and essentially tells us what our parents told us innumerable times: Life isn't fair. (H/T RogerSimon)

Ace moves me to tears in his Farewell to Scotty: Elegy For A Chief Engineer

Ace was on a serious roll today with the funny. Scroll through the whole day for great observations like

Good Heavens, the guy is a sexual Superman. I can only hope that ten of the fifteen minutes is just foreplay-- you know, stuff like making character sheets for each other and rolling your saving throws against sexual dysfunction. Normal sort of sex-play like that.

and

Rumors are flying in DC that when the kid sees a cookie, "he goes absolutely ape-shit." Seriously, he's worse than pre-diet Cookie Monster. I'm telling you, I wouldn't want to be between that kid and a Fig Newton; you'd be taking your life into your hands. He's like a pre-pubescent Teddy Kennedy-- someone's going to wind up dead because of this kid's killer-crazy Newton habit.

You think you got bad luck?

2005-07-18T11:24:00.000-04:00

Just how badly do you have to piss off your deity to have this happen:

On the GROIN no less!

I'm sure he was crying "Why Me?!" after this, but let's face it, when something like this happens to you, you probably know why, you naughty little monkey!

Thanks to Rug for the link.

Miscellaneous

2005-07-13T11:48:00.000-04:00

These two sequential business headlines from this morning courtesy of Reuters caught my attention:

Stocks flat, oil data offsets trade - 29 minutes ago
Oil falls near $60 as stocks rise - 30 minutes ago

Hard to be wrong when you cover all the angles.

A tip of the ol' Geek Hat to Freed for Spells not worth memorizing.

On that site I also found 100 Reasons Kirk is better than Picard

I particularly liked number 67 for some reason:

If Kirk ever met a Ferengi, he would rip off its head and shit down its neck.

Finally, a word to the wise: In the land with no balls, the one-testicled man will be king.

On root causes, and solutions thereof

2005-07-11T01:30:00.000-04:00

I was struck by a story from my home state in which a man whose mother lay dead a few feet away and was being chewed on by their dogs, ate a pan of fried eggs unfazed by the situation. There is truly a thin veil between what we consider civilization and our baser human behaviors.

When death is not particularly foreign, life becomes a cheap commodity and the door is open to all sorts of horrifying actions. Add in a moral underpinning that dictates persecution of those whose very existence is an insult to your religion, and it becomes easy to rationalize the taking of lives.

People outside this framework are horrified by the actions of these zealots, and ask about root causes, and some even wonder if the Soviet Union didn't have it right its attempt to kill God.

"Maybe we should just outlaw all religion" goes the plaintive, or often hostile, secularist.

As heartfelt the desire is to find a magic bullet that would end all strife though, the bottom line is that there is no simple answer. Or rather, the only simple answer is far too horrifying to consider: Isolate, imprison or kill all those who participate in "dangerous" activities.

"Religion is a crutch for the ignorant" goes another saying. And to a certain extent that is true in my opinion. However, I know a great many highly intelligent people of faith, who are comfortable in that faith as well as with things like liberal democracies and modern science.

"More wars have been caused by religion..." goes the battle cry of the secular pacifist.

Yes, religion is a very effective lever by which to manipulate the ignorant into action against perceived threats. A religion like Islam, which is essentially unchanged from its primeval roots both in understanding of the physical world and in its practices, provides a ruthless tool with which to prompt terrible action.

It is natural and indeed, it is commendable to look for reasons why one is hated and to try to fix the problem peacably. However, it is childish to look for a solution while denying the base reality. Reducing the cause of war to Religious imperative is not logically sound. If one is an Athiest, one cannot at the same time deny the existence of God, then blame God for war. More steps are required in the analysis of violence.

If you want to get to root causes we eventually are faced with a nut we cannot crack, because if we are to be completely honest with ourselves we must acknowledge that the root cause of violence is as old and inescapable as that which provided impetus for the first caveman who bashed his neighbor's brains out for a share of food or a mate: greed.

And the foundation of greed is nothing more than the instinctual understanding that survival favors those with the most stuff.

The antidote to this is not isolationism, or outlawing religion, or endless appeals to the better nature of despots and their adherents. The fully distilled cause of their violence is not treatable, because it is part of what makes us human.

And the more sophisticated causes fomented by manipulative religious zealots have been ingrained in the pliable youth of their culture for the past 40 years. They have been trained from their earliest days to see violence as a justifiable and sacred right. There is no easy and peaceful answer to the threat of Islamic fascism.

Because as long as a group of people has an easy and familiar relationship with Death, both its inevitability and its use as a tool, they will use that tool against those who cling more desperately to life than they.

Because, the products of extreme Mosques and Madrassas proclaim "You love life and we love death"

Because Muslim who were born in U.K. have been molded into extremists with promises of glory and earthly and heavenly reward:

"When Allah said in the Koran 'kill and be killed', that's what I want. I want a martyr operation, where I kill my enemy." and "The mosques say one thing to the public, and something else to us. Let's just say that the face you see and the face we see are two different faces," says Abdul Haq. "Believe me," adds Musa, "behind closed doors, there are no moderate Muslims."

At some point, we have to accept these extremists of the Islamic faith at their word. The Koran divides the world in two: Dar al Islam and Dar al Harb. Literally the "house of Islam" in which lives the true believers; and the "house of War" in which lives the "kuffar" or infidels. The word of Allah demands Islam's spread to bring the rest of the world within Dar al Islam. And the permissable evangelical methods explicitly include violence and murder.

There is no treating with such a fascist ideology. Christopher Hitchins outlines some of their published grievances brilliantly:

The grievance of seeing unveiled women. The grievance of the existence, not of the State of Israel, but of the Jewish people. The grievance of the heresy of democracy, which impedes the imposition of sharia law. The grievance of a work of fiction written by an Indian living in London. The grievance of the existence of black African Muslim farmers, who won't abandon lands in Darfur. The grievance of the existence of homosexuals. The grievance of music, and of most representational art. The grievance of the existence of Hinduism. The grievance of East Timor's liberation from Indonesian rule. All of these have been proclaimed as a licence to kill infidels or apostates, or anyone who just gets in the way.

For those adherents to an extreme brand of Islam, we who struggle outside their faith have only one viable solution: We must deliver them to their God while aquiescing to none of their demands. We cannot allow for any corporeal profit to be realized by those using terrorism as a means to an end against societies that hold sacred the ideals of tolerance, (classic) liberalism and democracy.

Meanwhile, as Israpundit suggests in the "You love life..." link above, we must treat with the moderates of that religion, and hope for a reformation that will marginalize those fundamentalists who would have us all submit to the yoke. As challenging an ideal this may seem, there is hope that Islam can learn tolerance and moderation.

PedoBusters

2005-07-10T11:48:00.000-04:00

I forget how I stumbled on this site.

How often do you see a website that has a chance in hell of making a real difference and saving lives though?

Basically it's a group of people lurking in chat rooms trying to get information on potential sexual predators. They play the role of under-age kids, and using the same sort of techniques as the cops, get these creeps to initiate sexual conversations, send personal information including web-cam pictures, and set up meetings.

They then post the chatlogs, names and pictures of the potential pedophiles and forward the information to the local authorties.

There's some sick stuff in the weblogs, but it's a real education into just how widespread the problem is.

Check it out here.

Check out their "Help Us" link... they are looking for volunteers.

Cheering economic news

2005-07-08T20:19:00.000-04:00

Jayson @ PoliPundit breaks down the worst economy since Herbert Hoover vis-a-vis Clinton's boom years. (hat tip Ace)

This strikes me as particularly interesting given the continuing negative spin in economic headlines. Today from Reuters: U.S. job growth tepid, jobless rate drops

The amazing thing about these numbers is that while Clinton had a technology bubble driving his numbers, the Bush administration has achieved parity under extreme conditions.

Of course, in the end the policies of a particular administration don't fully explain the workings of the economy. Credit evil corporate America with the willingness to rein in the extravagant costs of the late 90's. One can't help but wonder where the economy might be today if more of the largesse from the 90's had been spent on R&D and other CAPEX instead of so much fluff.

For that matter, imagine a world where the government could exercise such spending restraint.

Even so, John F Kennedy's economic wisdom continues to prove greater than that of his nominal (in every sense of the word) party. CBO: Budget deficit shrinks

Two Dogs

2005-07-08T10:08:00.000-04:00

These links go straight to vids that are safe for work (and frick'n hilarious), but the sites do contain some adult content, so fair warning.

One disturbed,

And one relatively relaxed.

Status of the Zoo

2005-07-06T09:53:00.000-04:00

This is just an update about what's going on with The Zoo; I thought it'd be good to go ahead and mention the elephant in the room.

Since the elections back in November my heart really hasn't been into keeping up with a blog. They are a lot of work - more than most people think - and if you're not getting paid for it you need some other sort of motivation. When I started The Zoo that motivation was to do my meager best to counter some of the shrill leftist nonsense we were hearing about The War on Terror, and about Iraq in particular. It was also to help show that there are Classical Liberals ("libertarians") who were voting for President Bush, and to try and sway other moderate and independent types to support his candidacy.

Well, President Bush won. After the elections I found that I just didn't have a lot to say; it was nice to not have to care what Michael Moore was braying about anymore. I tried to shift focus, to make The Zoo more about games, movies, science, and other tidbits of geek culture, but I've since discovered that I'm only moved so far towards writing on such topics. More often than not, I simply don't care enough about the new FPS game from EA to spend a couple hours writing a review. Posting has now fallen off to an average of about once a week, not counting BPCP updates and whatever krakatoa submits. I don't see this changing for the forseeable future.

My purpose in posting this is simply to acknowledge that The Zoo is no longer a daily (or even a three-times-a-week) blog. It is now weekly or even semi-weekly. That is simply the amount of time and effort I'm willing to commit to it right now.

I can tell you for certain that:

1) BPCP updates will continue. Even if I don't feel like writing at all and nothing else gets posted all month, there will be a BPCP update on or around the 15th. I think the project is interesting and valuable, so I fully intend to keep up with it.

2) The Zoo will never be abandoned altogether. I enjoy writing it as an online journal if nothing else, so you will always find a few new posts here each month. Sometimes it might be two or three in the same week ... other times several weeks might pass between posts. It will be random overall, but will probably average out to one post a week, plus BPCP updates, plus anything krakatoa happens to write for us.

3) When the 2006 election season starts winding up, you can bet I'll start posting more.

So, there it is. It's not really anything you guys didn't know, but I thought explicitly stating where I'm at would be the right thing to do. As always, I encourage those who need a blog fix to visit those listed on my sidebar ... even if posting is thin here during the political off-season, there's plenty going on over at the neighbor's place.

S

Ogling Miss Daisy

2005-06-24T12:43:00.000-04:00

Not to steal Libertydog's "Girl Friday" schtick or anything, but I happened across a photo from the cover of this month's GQ:

Jessica Simpson on GQ (GQ Photo)

Let's be perfectly honest here: Jessica Simpson is sheltered, naive, and a bit dense. But she has surprisingly good comedic timing, she loves her country, and she's just about the hottest hottie that ever hottied. So the new Daisy Duke is thus immortalized here at The Zoo.

In other news, the controversy over Karl Rove's recent (and largely accurate) statement about liberal appologists seems to have stirred my hibernating political animal. Might he come out of his wintery den to maul a few tiny and frightened leftists? Could be.

Could be.

S

BPCP Update

2005-06-21T10:12:00.000-04:00

The Blogosphere Political Compass Project has been updated. Go to the BPCP permalink page for a complete list of participants and links to their sites.

BPCP Graph for June 2005

New to the project in June 2005:

238 Buckley F. Williams of The Nose on Your Face (6, 1.5)
239 Carol Lee Susman of For the Curious (-0.8, -1.1)
240 Some Soldier's Mom of Some Soldier's Mom (-0.6, -2.3)
241 Two Dogs of Mean Ol' Meany (8.1, 2.6)
242 rjschwarz or rjschwarz.com (5, -0.9)
243 David Aitken of Life's Better Ideas (5.6, -2.7)
244 David of Third World Country (2.1, 0.1)
245 Cerebus of The Gates of Hell (-2.9, 0.4)
246 rgcombs of Combs Spouts Off (8.9, -2.7)
247 C. Diddy of Intermittent Stream (2.1, 1.9)
248 GoNavy25 of The Underscore (3, 2.3)
249 Jim Hartline of Dr. Hartline (7.5, 2.7)
250 Sarah Beth of Reclaim Your Brain (6.6, -2.7)
251 Lil Bobo of Bastard Art and Commerce (5.5, -7.5)

S

Moving On

2005-06-15T10:32:00.000-04:00

I'm always skeptical when I hear NASA talking about how they're "moving forward" with this project or that. They are a government agency plagued with bureaucracy (as most are), on-schedule with promises but late and over-budget with delivery. Don't get me wrong, they have done great things in the past and have come up with an occasional wonder in the present. But NASA's manned spaceflight program has been more than a little anemic and frustrating for as long as I can remember. The last moon landing happened when I was three, and nothing very exciting (besides two horrible disasters) has happened since.

Maybe that's changing. Discovery Channel today reports that NASA is expiditing the design competition for the new Crew Exploration Vehicle (CEV); they're looking to award the contract in 2006 as opposed to 2008, which should have the actual spacecraft flying by 2012 or so. Not too bad if they follow through.

Early Lockheed-Martin CEV Design

For those who want the quick-and-dirty explanation: The new CEV will serve as a base model for at least three new spacecraft. One design will ferry crews to and from the International Space Station. Another will return Americans (and multinational crews sooner or later, one presumes) to the moon between 2015 and 2020. And yet another will eventually bring people to Mars ... though I imagine that craft will be very different from the other two.

Geek stuff for sure. But cool geek stuff.

S

Who's Dumb Now, Smart Guy?

2005-06-07T12:07:00.000-04:00

Here's a CNN article detailing John Kerry's recently-released college grades, along with President Bush's. It's obvious now why Kerry didn't want them made public during the election: They show that, grades-wise, he is no smarter than George W. Bush. For someone who basically ran his campaign on an "I'm not the dumb redneck" platform, maintaining airs of intellectual superiority was critical. But it turns out that he, like the president, was an average student (although both were students at a notoriously tough university ... being "average" at Yale would probably put you on the honor roll at most state schools).

Anyway, one more liberal myth laid to rest. Either President Bush isn't quite the dummy they like to make him out to be, or Senator Kerry is. One or the other, kids ... you can't have it both ways. The truth is that neither are dumb - you don't get into Yale at all if you are - but I look forward to watching the hardline Bush-haters now try to justify their support of a candidate no brighter than the man they loathe so much. The facts here were obvious to many of us from the very beginning; it's the ethical contortions of the willfully ignorant that have been and will continue to be interesting.

S

On Embryonic Stem Cell Research

2005-05-29T22:23:00.000-04:00

Bill @ INDC journal is for government funding, and seems to be arguing the ethics of the research instead of what I believe is the more fundamental issue of the limits of federal government.

I very simply yet strenuously disagree that taxpayer dollars should be spent on pharmaceutical research, especially considering there is a thriving market of private researchers working with stem cells.

I find it to be disingenous and highly hypocritical, not to mention quite rank with the stench of political opportunism, for so many to spend so much lobbying for this, instead of spending their money on pure research of their choosing.

I personally find the ethical slope involved with embryonic stem cell research to be quite slippery indeed, and worthy of its own debate; but I can say with a clean conscience that that bias does not inform my motivation to limit the scope of the government, particularly when such an endeavor fundamentally is at odds with the free-market success story that is the U.S.

UPDATE:

Bill, in what has increasingly become his style, responds to my and other's responses with thinly veiled insults and references to his own superiority.

Suffice it to say, your deep ignorance on the topic of how scientific research is conducted and funded is showing.

More grumpy, strictly reactionary conservative bs.

What is wrong with you people? Why is this so hard for you to understand?

It's like banging my head against a wall; I keep addressing these points with logic and sourcing (like funding percentages)...

In short, you have absolutely no idea what you're talking about.

Which is sad, as he is obviously intelligent enough to carry on a debate rationally, but chooses not to.

Ah well, the blogosphere is vast and replete with excellent analysis and opinion. I shall not miss INDC, and I am sure Bill will not miss me.

To be completely fair, I left my own dig. I can't really work up any feelings of remorse for stooping to his level. Sometimes it is cathartic to return a little steam:

Not without one parting shot however, just to indulge my own ego, and since you opened the door to such lowbrow response.

I said: "This seems like a simple enough debate that doesn't really
require a lot of deep thought."

To which you replied:

Wrong and unintentionally hilarious.

The fact that you consider a simple cost-benefit analysis on the virtues of taxpayer funded research (in a science that has run into a dead end so far) to be a deep and complex issue speaks far more of your own lack of comprehension than mine.

Chris Hanson Responds

2005-05-23T00:41:00.000-04:00

To my email, the details of it are here.

My follow-up responses, thus far unanswered, follow his italicized comments. Mr. Hanson graciously gave me permission to publish his response.

In it he seems to be acknowledging that parts of the journalistic process are broken. Unfortunately, it seems to me that he is unwilling to accept the possibility that those parts are broken because of the ideological filter through which most MSM stories must pass.

On Rathergate:

"RATHER AND CBS HAD NO BUSINESS DOCUMENTS THEY COULD
NOT DETERMINE WERE AUTHENTIC, ESPECIALLY CONSIDERING THE RED FLAGS
FROM THEIR OWN EXPERTS THAT YOU MENTIONED. IT IS LIKELY TO ME THAT
THE DOCUMENTS ARE FRAUDULENT, BUT THE BEST WAY TO DETERMINE THAT WOULD
BE TO FIND OUT WHO WAS PUSHING THEM. THAT ASPECT OF THE STORY GOT
LOST. THE RATHER MAPES RECKLESSNESS ALSO MADE THE QUESTION ABOUT
BUSH'S GUARD SERVICE GO BYE-BYE, WHICH IS UNFORTUNATE."

Right. You agree that it was bad reporting. So do the research. Based on all accounts, can you really say there is any story there? I suppose if you are willing to discount anything Bush's superior officers and contemporaries said, and at the same time assume the very worst, you would come to the conclusion that maybe there is some nefarious aspect to his service. This however, falls into the realm of reporting from and ideological framework, rather than objective one. Now granted, this is not something you are reporting, rather making a personal observation of, but so many journalists have indeed reported questions about Bush's Guard service for years, and have yet to dig up any incriminating evidence of wrong-doing.

To your larger point however, I completely agree. It is a similar problem I have with reference to Global Warming. Do I believe that we are looking at a catastrophe. No. Do I believe Global Temeratures are increasing? Yes. Do I believe human activity can influence global weather? Yes. My problem is that journalists have focused on what is increasingly shown to be bad science predicting catastrophic climate change in order to raise interest and get eyes on their broadcasts. As more of the drastic predctions pass us by like so many tabloid prophesies of the Rapture, the real and incredibly more interesting story of what humans can do to adjust the climate is lost, as is the level of seriousness with which a public takes its presumably responsible press.

Journalism today seems to be all about raising consciousness about the cause du jour. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, but it certainly doesn't help things when at the same time they are lowering the level of debate to a "he said-she said" strata of reporting. There do exist objective facts, and journalists really owe it to their watchers and readers to dig up those facts, deadlines be damned.

On Easongate:

"THE VARIATIONS
IN THE ACCOUNTS HAD A LOT TO DO WITH THE GIVE AND TAKE AFTER FRANK
REACTED. GERGEN CONCLUDED THAT JORDAN REALIZED HE HAD SAID MORE THAN
HE SHOULD HAVE OR MEANT TO SAY, THEN WALKED BACK TO THE POSITION THAT
SOLDIERS HAD RECKLESSLY BUT ACCIDENTLY SHOT JOURNALISTS. BLOGGERS ON
THE QUEST TO OUST AN EVIL LIBERAL FOCUSED ON THE 'DELIBERATELY
TARGETED' REPORTS. A TRANSCRIPT WOULD GIVE US MORE CHANCE OF FIGURING
OUT WHAT ACTUALLY HAPPENED. I BELIEVE THAT THE RECORDING WAS IN THE
POSSESS OF THE ORGANIZATION THAT SPONSORED THE CONFERENCE UNDER
RIDICULOUS RULES AGAINST QUOTING ANYONE. JORDAN SHOULD HAVE INSISTED
THAT THE TAPE BE RELEASED. HIS REFUSAL TO DO SO IS HYPOCRITICAL, GIVEN
HIS ROLE AS A JOURNALIST. BUT MY POINT STANDS. DEBATE MOVED ON QUICKLY
AND THE MATTER OF THE TAPE WAS QUICKLY FORGOTTEN."

I guess it depends on your defintion of "quickly"

Eason's comments in Davos were first revealed on Jan 28th, 2005.
Eason's resignation was Feb 11.

That is 2 full weeks in which CNN and Eason could have cleared the air. Debate online was unfortunately constrained to what he had been known to allege in the past as well as what had been reported of his most recent statements by various sources, all of which seemed to agree that, badly worded or not, Eason's claims were unsubstantiated and inflammatory.

Eason and CNN brought this on themselves, as you correctly point out. I have to disagree though that the debate was unfairly carried on by anyone. We did the best we could with the information we had.

In case you are interested, a timeline is here, including instances of his past statements showing a pattern in willful misrepresentation of the American and Israeli military and their treatment of journalists:

http://billroggio.com/easongate/archives/2005/02/an_eason_jordan.php

Let's face it. Further debate on this issue would have made Eason Jordan a pariah in his own country, had his previous statements recieved broad play. It wasn't hypocrisy that was at play in deciding to not release the tapes. It was self-preservation.

And on an inconsistency in my initial letter:

"THEN HOW DID YOU SEE MY ARTICLE?"

Excellent question. I spoke too broadly. I don't make a practice of turning to the MSM for my information, and when I do, I take it with a grain of salt until I have substantiated what is being reported. I followed a link to your piece from a blog (http://ace.mu.nu/) that disagreed with your representation of the Rather/Mapes conclusion. I don't watch any of the news broadcasts, network or cable, unless they happen to be on at work. I don't subscribe to newspapers. I do follow links to MSM reports that catch my eye, as this one did.

A note to an Apologist

2005-05-21T17:40:00.000-04:00

Chris Hanson, professor of journalism @ the University of Maryland tries to explain the genesis of what is now bad reporting in his WaPo editorial "The 'Scoop' Heard 'Round the World. Sadly."

Sadly indeed, I believe he misses the point. Here is my response.

Mr. Hanson,

You say "Conservative bloggers pounced quickly to discredit the documents then-CBS anchor Dan Rather relied on last fall in his infamous report about President Bush's National Guard performance. Cyber-debate then moved on briskly to other things. Many people think the documents were proven to be forgeries and the gist of the report false. But in reality, no one has demonstrated conclusively whether the documents are fake, or whether or not Bush disobeyed orders to shirk flight status as alleged."

There are none so blind as those unwilling to see, sir.

If the various and sundry experts hired by CBS themselves conclude that they either cannot prove the documents real, or indeed conclude they are fraudulent... if independent experts unanimously declare they are without a doubt fraudulent... what exactly do you hold as a standard for proof? Sure, you can always find one or two ideological crackpots willing to sully their reputation and proclaim them real, but to ignore the obvious contortions they have gone through to show a theoretical possibility against all probability makes a mockery of the field of "investigative journalism". Yes, it's worth noting that some few disagree with a consensus of rigid analysis. But to weight them equally is absurd.

You say on the Eason Jordan affair "But outrage spread so quickly over the net that Jordan resigned -- and the top story moved on -- before anyone could verify exactly what he had said. There were plenty of eyewitnesses with different versions of what he said, but there was no transcript, and to this day the issue remains murky."

CNN had ample opportunity to set the record straight. They had the recording. They ignored the story and sat on the evidence. Conflicting reports? I'm sorry, but when Barny Frank and other such luminaries of the left verify the central theme of Jordan's remarks were as inflammatory as reported I think we can put aside the question of whether indeed he said what he was accused of saying. Put that with the fact that Jordan has shown a history of making similar accusations and I think it's fair to say a pattern of unfounded accusations against the U.S. military exists.

Mainstream Media has a responsibility to get the story out. But they also have a responsibility to get the story right, and to show some transparency in their fact checking. Simply saying "verified by two sources" means nothing when those two sources are annonymous. I have not read or watched the MSM for over a year now. Frankly I find I am far more informed by getting my news online. I take the responsibility that so many journalists have decided is unnecessary: I do my own fact-checking. I read multiple and varied sources. I weigh the liklihood of a story's veracity given the specific situation before I start to accept it as truth.

And I never, EVER believe an annonymous source. The U.S. has very strict whistle-blower laws, and no lack of means to make a very nice living if indeed one forfeits their job to out the dirty laundry of one's ideological opponent.

There are no excuses, Mr. Hanson, for the shoddy and partisan reporting by the likes of Jordan, Rather, Mapes & Newsweek in the examples you cite. Your attempt to explain them away diverts from the real issue, being that the surest way to the corruption of journalistic values is to allow and even condone reporting from an ideological framework, rather than an objective one.

The MSM has gone a long way down the road of that corruption. Do they have the courage and the dedication to their craft to come back?

HT to Ace O'Spades

Update:

Other responses from Powerline, Tapscott, and The Cliffs of Insanity.

Some things are Priceless

2005-05-20T13:50:00.000-04:00

Life.

Love.

Honor.

Pride. Well, strike that one. My pride can be had apparently for about 26/hr.

A silicone testicular implant (slightly used), however, came in at significantly less than priceless. A steal at 62 bucks.

Scroll down to the seller's description though, for some priceless memories like the following:

I remember visiting my older brother shortly after the surgery. When we shook hands I slipped the old implant into his hand. He looked at it in disgust and I said "I knew you'd have my nuts in your hand before the night was over." Good times.

Goood times.

They Love Him in Georgia

2005-05-18T10:16:00.000-04:00

I am donning my armor against terrible disappointment. I am girding my loins – girding my loins, I tell you – to once again do battle with the simpering, whimpering enemy of sane and reasoned political thought: Hollywood liberalism. Yes, I am getting ready to face nothing less than the leftist, anti-war venom that George Lucas has apparently injected into Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith.

As I do, I can’t help but recall the scene in Tbilisi last week:

Georgians Greet President Bush (AP Photo)

You see all those hundreds of thousands of people? They are non-Americans, and they are cheering President George W. Bush. On the surface it seems strange: In Eastern Europe, predominantly peopled by our Cold War-era enemies, President Bush and his policies are far more popular than in Western Europe (which is presumably peopled by our allies). In France, a nation we rescued from the vilest regime the planet has ever known, they burn him in effigy. In Georgia, a country sworn to America’s destruction just a couple decades ago, they turn out by the thousands to shower adulation upon him (aside from someone who seems to have a weak arm and shitty explosives). What’s up with that?

Here’s the Earth-shattering secret: The Georgians know what real tyranny is like.

Unlike France, or West Germany, or the rest of Europe that we saved from the Nazis, Georgia actually lived under the boot of oppression for the better part of a century. Gulags and bread lines and jackbooted thugs knocking on doors at 3 am are still fresh in the Georgian collective mind. They remember murderous sociopaths like Joseph Stalin and stone-hearted dictators like Nikita Kruschev, so accusations of tyranny aimed at democratically-elected leaders like President Bush fall kind of flat. They’ve actually lived in a police state, so Noam Chomsky and Gore Vidal will have a hard time selling them the illusion of one here in the US.

They love George W. Bush in Georgia because they know, despite all the seething vitriol the left keeps spewing, that he is anything but a dictator. But in Hollywood, where style is king and substance has been forgotten by everyone except Joss Whedon, they love pretending they have an evil empire to fight. So Lucas chops quotes from early post-9/11 speeches and peppers them, entirely out of context, into the dialog of his archetypical tyrant. It’s one of the most limp-wristed swings the Hollywood left has taken at the President yet: You won the election, you’re making the decisions that matter, and you’re the one history will remember as a man of honor and determination. But I’ll criticize you good in my movie!

I’m going to try very hard to enjoy Revenge of the Sith despite Lucas’ messy attempt at a political statement. If nothing else, I’m sure it’ll be fun on the level of lightsaber duels and Natalie Portman in midriff-bearing outfits; those things rescued The Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones, after all. Hell, just watching Hayden Christensen getting kicked into a volcano will be worth the eight bucks. And when I leave the theater, President Bush will still be in charge of things here in the real world – much to the delight of both myself and the good citizens of Georgia – while the once-admired creator of Star Wars exercises political control over only his make-believe universe.

Oh, and one last, unrelated thought for George "Jar Jar Binks is a brilliant character!" Lucas: Han shot first, you jackass.

S

Ethics and the FPS

2005-05-15T01:25:00.000-04:00

FPS being First Person Shooters of course.

I'll let David Wong explain:

(warning: adult language)

Halo 2 and the Criminal Mind

...So, dismissing Popular Media Conventional Wisdom for the noisy mental fart that it is, it's time to really ask how these games are changing the world. Thus began my expedition into the world of Halo 2 and into the minds of the people who play it. What I would find would shock me.

Whenever I'm feeling kind of down on the world, I let Pointless Waste of Time wash my woes away in a bloodbath of violence and penis jokes.

BPCP Update

2005-05-12T11:30:00.000-04:00

The Blogosphere Political Compass Project has been updated. Go to the BPCP permalink page for a complete list of participants and links to their sites.

BPCP Graph for May 2005

From now on, new participants will be listed here in the update posts in addition to the main page. Thusly:

226 Richard of Highway 290 Revisited (-6.8, -5)
227 Larry of Blog Inside Larry's Head (3.5, -1.8)
228 Travis Benning of Metaphysically Wrinkle-Free (7.4, 0.8)
229 Brian of Psychopolotik (4.8, -3.8)
230 MichelleB of Elshell (5.9, 0.8)
231 ButterflyLane of Butterfly's Flutterbys (-6, -1)
232 Ray of Shared Daily (1.4, -0.5)
233 Mustang 23 of Assumption of Command (0.1, 0.7)
234 Shamalama of Common Folk Using Common Sense (3.6, -1.1)
235 Gun-Toting Liberal of A Gun-Toting Liberal (-5.4, -4)
236 Mike of Grendel's Dragon (6.5, 2.3)
237 Pwyll of Carnal Reason (4.9, -2.9)

S

Oh Boy

2005-05-06T15:12:00.000-04:00

Such were the semi-famous words of Quantum Leap's Dr. Samuel Beckett, uttered whenever he "leapt" into a new time. Folks at MIT should keep their ears open this weekend.

S

Slate Online Accused of Journalism

2005-05-04T12:43:00.000-04:00

I’m not one for passing up an opportunity to shine a little light into the darker recesses of the far left, even if that light comes from an unexpected source. Today I ran across this article from Slate Online, which gives us a good look beneath one of the rocks Michael Moore was living under last summer. Remember all that “Disney is censoring me!” fuss around Fahrenheit 9/11? Turns out that there was a little more to Disney’s decision not to distribute the film than Moore and his sleezy Hollywood agent would like us to believe:

On May 5, 2004, the New York Times ran a front-page article headlined "Disney Is Blocking Distribution of Film That Criticizes Bush." The story included the sensational charge that Eisner "expressed particular concern that [choosing to distribute Fahrenheit 9/11] would endanger tax breaks Disney receives for its theme park, hotels and other ventures in Florida, where Mr. Bush's brother, Jeb, is governor." The source for this allegation was Moore's agent, Ari Emanuel. Two days later, Moore claimed on his Web site that Disney's board of directors rejected Fahrenheit 9/11 "last week." In fact, the Disney board had not made such a decision in 2004 - the project had been vetoed in 2003.

Remember that Slate is fairly notorious for attacking the right. Their coorespondents and editors are usually supportive of the left – most especially the Hollywood left – so "Paranoia for Fun and Profit" comes as something of a surprise. Is it just a random jab at someone who is now considered a large enough target (pun very much intended) for everyone to pick on? Or might we have discovered, in Edward Jay Epstein, a Slate reporter who actually values honesty?

The Zoo shall dispatch an Agent or two to investigate, post-haste.

S

The Poetry of Wolves

2005-05-02T12:07:00.000-04:00

An online aquaintence of mine has recently started her own blog; Wolvespirit Productions is where Moonie (known to some of us better as Howlingmoon) will be posting her poetry and other thoughts. The woman certainly loves her wolves, so I thought I'd post a picture to welcome her to the blogosphere:

Four Wolves in Winter

These four seem like particularly robust and powerful examples of the breed. If I had to guess, I'd say that the two larger, darker-colored individuals in the rear are males while the slightly smaller ones in front are females. When looking at a photo like this, it is interesting to remember that wolves are the ancestors of modern dogs. Yes, even your aunt's annoying teacup poodle is only about 20,000 years removed from the original canis stock. Strange but true.

Persoanlly, I think wolves are rather interesting and beautiful beasts. That is probably why I prefer dogs that resemble their more feral forbearers; German Shepards, Siberian Huskies, and Akitas are probably my favorites as far as dog breed goes. One day, when I have my own place with a decent-sized yard, I will have a Shepard.

Anyway, those of you who like poetry should go pay Moonie a visit. She has links to all sorts of funny gaming-related webcomics, too, making it doubly worth your time.

S

On Ethics and EverQuest

2005-04-28T09:08:00.000-04:00

There is a new trend developing in the online gaming world: The sanctioned buying and selling of in-game items for real-world money. It was perhaps initiated by Microsoft’s announcement that “microtransactions” will soon be available for the XBox2; gamers can upgrade the gear they use in XBox2 games via the purchasing power of their credit cards. Sony Online Entertainment (SOE) – creator of my beloved EverQuest II – has recently decided to follow suit, albeit only on a few select EQ II servers.

Riding a Griffon By the Qeynos Aquaduct

Now, let’s be perfectly clear: There has always been a “black market” for EQII coin, items, and characters. There’s an entire company called IGE that is based around acquiring and then selling this in-game loot, and there are hundreds of private individuals who sell virtual gold pieces or high-level characters on eBay. But SOE has always opposed this practice, even going so far as to ban the accounts of players found participating in this “secondary market”. Over 700 of the very worst offenders were banned from EQ II just a couple weeks ago, in fact.

So why the sudden about-face?

Well, in SOE’s defense, they are facing a nearly impossible task trying to stop the sale of virtual goods for real cash. As an enthusiastic player of the game I can tell you first hand that it is very, very difficult to track the movements of in-game coin and items, and harder yet to prove that an illegal sale has taken place when such things are transferred between characters (people give each other items and money in-game all the time, and most of it is perfectly legitimate). But by setting up servers where this kind of play is legal, SOE hopes to control it: Those who want to buy and sell virtual coin, items, and characters will find it cheaper and easier to simply play on one of the Station Exchange servers rather than make illegal transactions with IGE or an eBayer on a regular server. Or that’s how the theory works, anyway.

I remain unconvinced it’s a good idea.

A Quest NPC in Nektulos Forest

My problem with it isn’t that SOE wants a new revenue source, or that they are trying to beat IGE at their own game. I’m fine with both of those things. It’s the ethical aspect of all this that bothers me. On the EQ II forums discussion about all this has been, shall we say, spirited, and one poster asked what were the exact objections (both ethical and practical). I answered thusly:

Purchasing in-game items, coin, and characters with out-of-game money lowers the value of those things. A 50th level character is no longer someone who spent months mastering his class and learning about the world of Norrath; now he is just as likely to be someone who knows little or nothing about the game but had an extra $500 in his wallet. People who do not have that kind of money to spend - college students, those on disability, people supporting a family, whatever - can't compete. The game stops being about who devotes time and energy to it. It stops being about who is skilled and dedicated. It stops being about community and adventure and fun.

It instead becomes about who has the most RL cash to spend. It becomes about the things one has instead of the adventures and fun one had getting them.

As the game is now, when I see a 45th level Warden with the "Lore Seeker" title I know there's a serious, dedicated player on the other end of that character. Someone I might go to for advice, someone who I respect for their ability to play well and advance. But if characters and equipment and money can be purchased, that's no longer true. I'd be just as likely to be looking at an ignorant newbie who happens to have a high-limit credit card.

Those are the concrete reasons. The abstract ones are a little harder to explain - especially to someone who doesn't seem to see them at all - but I'll try:

Sportsmanship matters. What would football be like if anyone off the street could buy magic pads and cleats that made them run and hit better than Tyrell Owens? What would chess be like if you could purchase skill on eBay to surpass Bobby Fischer's? What would baseball be like if starting as pitcher for the Yankees was a matter of cash-on-hand instead of talent and dedication? Would any of those games even be the same? Would they be exciting to play or entertaining to watch? Not for me they wouldn't, and not for millions of others.

Tyrell Owens is amazing because of what he can do, and because his ability is the result of superb talent and long years of hard work. 1000 carbon copies of Tyrell Owens who simply purchased their skills would be far less impressive. They would, in fact, totally cheapen something that had been pretty awesome.

I'm not sure if this kind of thing can be taught. By early adulthood, one has either developed a sense sportsmanship, a love of the game, a sense of fair play, and a desire for honorable competition or one has not; if you don't see acquiring in-game advantages with out-of-game money as cheating then I doubt all the explanations in the world will sway your opinion. You're not a gamer, you're just someone who likes blowing shit up on your computer screen.

I think that purchasing coin and items and characters is flat-out cheating, and if it ever expands beyond the specified cheating-allowed servers I'll leave. Instantly and without looking back. I have no desire at all to play in a world where wealth trumps dedication and talent and hard-won skill (and for the record, I myself have plenty of money with which I could purchase characters or items). It's just not any fun that way, and the kind of people such gaming would attract are not the type I want to play with.

The ethics here are pretty simple; if you have difficulty grasping them I'm fairly certain the problem is with your ability to understand and not our ability to explain.

As it stands now, SOE is going to limit Station Exchange to one or two new servers that will be going online in June. As long as it stays there I have no complaints; if others want to buy their way through the game (essentially paying someone else to play part or most of the game for them) they’re welcome to do so as long as they do it over there. It’s none of my business what people choose to do in the privacy of their own homes … or their own servers.

A Minotaur in the Crypt of Betrayal

If it starts to spread to existing servers, however, I’ll find a new game to play. EverQuest II has some serious competition coming out in the next couple years from Vanguard and Dungeons & Dragons Online. I love EQ II and would loathe having to leave, but if it becomes a choice between personal ethics and my favorite game, ethics will win out.

I hope it doesn’t come to that.

Note: I had originally stated that microtransactions were coming for the PS2; that was in error. They will be a feature of the Xbox2.

S

(All screen shots courtesy of guild Britannic Lore, Oggok server)

Earth First! Then Prison.

2005-04-19T12:56:00.000-04:00

William Cottrell was sentenced to over eight years in prison today for his part in the firebombing of SUV dealerships in California. I’m really, really happy about this one; I despise left-wing fanatics like Cottrell every bit as much as I despise right-wing fanatics like Eric Rudolph. Of course Rudolph’s crimes are much more serious – luckily no one died in the SUV bombings – and thusly Cottrell’s punishment is considerably less.

Firebombed SUVs (AP Photo)

But eight years is still a goodly chunk of one’s life, especially in federal prison. He will suffer there; it is a place unlikely to be friendly to a soft young man who studies physics at Caltech. And with federal crimes you serve the entire sentence … there is no early parole or time off for good behavior.

Perhaps it might seem strange coming from me, but I think there are some good arguments against SUVs. They are gas-greedy and unnecessary for the average person; owning one is usually more of a status symbol or image thing (“Look at me, I’m ready for anything in this!”) than it is a matter of practicality. I don’t think they should be outlawed or anything, I’m just saying that some of the environmental arguments against them have merit. If you need one for the safety of your kids or because you really do drive off-road a lot, then fine. But if you have one just because it’s trendy I believe you are on shaky ethical ground (gas prices being what they are, your financial ground probably ain’t too solid either). And no one who owns one should dare call themselves an environmentalist; those who pontificate about how we must “protect the planet” while driving themselves or their family around in an SUV are guilty of rank hypocrisy. I find their position laughable at best.

In any case, justice was served today with the handing down of Cottrell’s sentence. Like Eric Rudolph, he will pay the price for his fanaticism and the misery it brought to many lives. A lesson here, I think: Radicals are the enemy of us all – be they from the left, right, or any other political extreme – and we do well to deal with them harshly.

S

Friday Caption Contest

2005-04-15T10:42:00.000-04:00

Every Friday I'm going to post a funny, weird, or surprising picture. Feel free to think of an amusing caption and leave it in the comments.

"Now all I need are 12 giant slices of rye bread and a big jar of mustard."

And for those who might misconstrue what's actually happening here, that tiger was raised with piglets. They're not actually food, so all you Smiths fans can put away your "Meat is Murder!" signs.

S

Liberty Dog

2005-04-13T16:40:00.000-04:00

Shane Moore is blogging again, with a brand-spankin' new site called Liberty Dog. Note that he doesn't call himself Shane Moore, he calls himself S. Michael Moore ... but every time I write Michael Moore I'm filled with the urge to strangle every member of the National Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences, so we're going with Shane here at The Zoo.

Anyway, go give Liberty Dog a look-see. The "Blogs of Note" section on the sidebar needs to be updated anyway, so I'll probably have a permalink to his site by the end of the week.

Welcome back, Shane.

S

Jim Hake Goes to Lebanon

2005-04-06T15:56:00.000-04:00

I got an e-mail this morning from Jim Hake – as did, I’m assuming, all the bloggers who support Spirit of America – asking for help with their mission in Lebanon:

I'm in Beirut, Lebanon to kick off a project to support the
pro-democracy demonstrators at the "tent city" in Martyrs' Square. Their goals are independence (i.e., Syria out of Lebanon) and free and fair elections. The tent city demonstrators are the center of gravity for Lebanon's pro-democracy movement. They are leading the charge. They put together the massive demonstrations 3 weeks ago. As they go, so goes Lebanon's independence. And so goes a great opportunity for democratic transformation of the Middle East and Arab world.

They need our help to sustain their struggle. Our project is raising
support for them (food, shelter, water, etc.) While I'm here we're
looking into other things to help (e.g., Internet access at tent city)
People can go here to help:

SoA Lebanon Project

100% of all donations go directly to the things that will help the pro-democracy demonstrators.

Syria is publicly acting like it is playing nice and withdrawing.
Behind the scenes they are destabilizing the country, delaying the
elections and intimidating the opposition. The good guys in Lebanon need our support.

Please blog and help get the word out. This message is posted on our blog at:

SoA Blog

Thanks,

Jim

Like the Iraqis and the Afganis, the Lebanese are going to have to work to build their Democracy. But we can help with advice, and with money and materials when they are needed and deserved. I’m going to give Jim’s new program in Lebanon a few bucks out of my wallet … I urge you to do the same.

All of the recent anti-Syrian activity in Lebanon has me thinking: Is it premature to say that President Bush’s strategy seems to be working? That after free elections in Afganistan and Iraq, the citizens of other Middle Eastern nations are now waking up to the fact that they don’t have to live under the thumb of dictators? Many right-leaning organizations are saying exactly that; the prediction that removing the region's two worst regimes (Saddam and the Taliban) is now leading to popular uprisings in nearby nations against similar tyrannies.

It might be a little early yet to make such a claim, but I certainly like the way things are going. The overall situation is definitely changing for the better, and I doubt that the Lebanease would have had the courage to stand up to Syria if they hadn’t just watched the Afganis and the Iraqis vote (and if they hadn’t seen a thug much tougher than Assad humbled before all the world).

Raise a glass to the people of Lebanon next time you’re at the dinner table or your favorite bar. And if you’ve got a extra $10, $20, or $50 bill in your wallet, send it to Jim Hake.

S

Camping Photos!

2005-04-01T10:08:00.000-05:00

Back in February we had our fifth annual cold-weather camping trip to Ginney Springs, FL. The people I take this vacation with I've known for a very long time ... some of them for more than 25 years. When I talk about my friends, these are not the people I mean. The people I met in college and the ones I game with are my firends; the folks in these photos are family.

Here is our camp site. Note the preponderance of pick-ups and SUVs. We hate the Earth!

The Campsite

By the time we got to high school, this group had three Chris's, a Greg, and a Craig. Thusly we started calling each other by out last names - a habit that continues to this day - or simply by the universally acceptable "Hey, asshole." Here is a picture of Chris T (6'6", 240+ lbs, nicest guy you'll ever meet) and me (5'8", 175 lbs, rapacious smartass). Chris B (5'10", 190 lbs, likes to shoot animals with guns and hang their heads on his wall) is shown between us as an example of a more normally-sized male human.

Chris T, Chris B, and Sandor

We did a funny face series of photos, but the girls wouldn't participate. Here is a picture of them looking cute instead. Courtney is Ed's wife, Tina is Chris O's girlfriend, Tara is Matt's wife, and Jen is Chris B's fiancee. I figure the lot of us guys must have winning personalities for such lovely women to tolerate our hideous, troll-like appearances.

Courtney, Tina, Tara, and Jen

Chris B's funny face picture. The safety glasses and trucker cap really sell it.

Funny Face Chris B

Ed managed to roll his eyes back into his head for his attempt, which deserves a commendation for effort. We usually have to hit him over the head with something heavy to get that effect.

Funny Face Ed

Matt got his fingers involved. I shudder to think what those grubby little nose-pickers of his had been touching all day. We probably should have given him a tetanus shot.

Funny Face Matt

A minimal effort from Chris O. He's just not passionate about making funny faces for the camera. I don't know what's wrong with him.

Funny Face Chris O

And lastly me. I would like to assure all of my younger readers that your Mom is not lying; my face got stuck like this forever. Now hideously disfigured, I must roam the Earth lamenting my foolhardy face-making. Always listen to your Mom!

Funny Face Sandor

On Monday I'll have a post with some really neat historical photos (which are of a much more serious nature). Have a fun weekend, all, and stay safe.

S

BPCP Update

2005-03-29T14:50:00.000-05:00

The Blogosphere Political Compass Project has been updated. Go to the BPCP permalink page for a complete list of participants and links to their sites.

BPCP Graph for March 2005

As everyone can see - especially if you look at the main BPCP page - this update was huge. The biggest one we've had, ever. Part of the reason I haven't been posting is because I've been spending my blogging time updating the spreadsheet and chart for the BPCP ... the other is that we've been very busy at work opening a new training center, and I just haven't had time during the day to pop in and post stuff like I used to. We're just about finished over there, though, so I hope to get back to posting two or three times a week pretty soon. Thank heavens karakatoa has been so loquacious recently; he's just about been running the place by himself all month and deserves a pat on the back.

*Pats krakatoa on the back*

Okay then. Hope all is well with you fine readers, and by next week you should be seeing more of me.

S

Who's the bigger Fool...

2005-03-28T09:06:00.000-05:00

...The fool, or the fool that loses (and loses badly) an argument with him?

From Jay Reding reporting on the latest rumblings in Iraq:

Force[s] in Iraq are seeking an exit strategy after months of deadly attacks have utterly sapped morale, shrunk the pool of new recruits, and left the movement rudderless and isolated among a large group of utterly unsympathetic people who have firmly rejected them.

That group is the Iraqi “insurgency”.

I can completely understand a principled argument against war. Indeed, I think you'd easily find that most people are anti-war. It's just that some of us accept that sometimes, war really is the answer.

What I cannot understand is the head-in-the-sand approach to arguing against the Bush doctrine on the basis of believing the very worst of President Bush and the vilified neocons and the very best of our fascist enemies.

I'd like to believe our politicians are more responsible than all that. Those like Kennedy, Kerry and Dean make it hard to hold that belief.

It's not that it's just a difference of opinion where you can agree to disagree. It's a total separation from reality. I suspect it comes from the abdication of moral principles in the pursuit of power.

Post-modern thought and the moral-relativism it advocates has wrought this. It is a remarkable theory, but what most liberals seem incapable of realizing is that, like quantum mechanics, moral-relativism works nicely at a micro (individual) level, but simply does not apply at a macro (societal) level.

Jay ends with an observation that is becoming cliched in that it seems to occur regularly:

It appears that the vision and will of the “idiot” from Texas was far greater than the narrowmindedness of his critics.

It's not Immigration, so much as Assimilation

2005-03-27T22:17:00.000-05:00

Ruth from Freudian Slippers left a link in the comments on the previous entry, and I think it's worth a read.

The verbiage of war is a bit strong for my tastes, but perhaps it is exactly the prism through which we should view this problem, if for nothing else than to highlight the seriousness of the issue.

Mexico’s Undeclared War on America by Alan Caruba, writing on The Autonomist.

In it, Mr. Caruba reports the following statistics:

US Border Patrol Agents, according to a January 10 article in The Washington Times, “apprehended 1.15 million illegal aliens last year trying to sneak into the United States between the nation’s land ports of entry, more than 3,100 a day—a 24 percent increase over the year before.” Among them, 23,000 people with criminal records were identified and arrested. They included 84 murder suspects, 37 suspected kidnappers, 151 who were wanted on charges of sexual assault, 313 robbery suspects, and 2,630 others implicated in drug-related charges.

“There were 8,577 drug seizures that confiscated 1.4 million pounds of illegal narcotics with an estimated street value of $1.62 billion,” according to the Times article by Jerry Seper. In all, the US Customs and Border Protection agency’s inspectors and officers processed 428 million passengers and pedestrians, including 262 million aliens, “denying entry to more than 643,000 aliens under US law.” They were in addition to those trying to steal across the border illegally.

He goes on to note that despite the openly illegal nature of border crossings, the Mexican Foreign Ministry published "The Guide for the Mexican Immigrant.”

The Command Post did a great round-up of articles on this booklet back in January here.

Politicians seem to think this is a complicated issue.

It is not at all. The issue is whether we obey the laws of our land or we do not. If the laws we have written are to be ignored at whim based purely on an ethnic basis, what business do we have calling ourselves civilized?

When you look at the growing threat to civilization in Europe by a large population of unassimilated Muslim immigrants, you are drawn irretrievably to the position that allowing a society to evolve within and yet so fundamentally apart from the existing society is simply a powderkeg waiting for a spark.

The murder of Theo Van Gogh, and the subsequent withdrawal of his movie from a film festival, shows that Europe is terribly resistant to the lesson of un-checked immigration the Dutch learned, and to their credit, have apparently learned relatively quickly.

With respect to Mr. Caruba, I disagree with calling illegal immigration an act of War by Mexico. In my estimation, Mexico's motives are less hostile than economic. I think it is accurate however to wrap it up into the context of a War on Terror.

We either need to enforce the laws as they exist, and get serious about stopping illegals, or we need to legally allow more immigration. Either way, we need to ensure these immigrants, legal or otherwise, are assimilated into the U.S. culture. This should be home for them, not a means to an end.

Illegal Immigration: The Next BIG THING

2005-03-25T16:47:00.000-05:00

Some pundits have suggested the Terri Schiavo controversy will drive a wedge into the Conservative movement.

I agree with Jay Reding's opinion. I don't think the Schiavo case is a deal-breaker by any means. It is a focal point for high passion, but I don't see it creating any real and lasting breaks in the disparate groups who have voted for Bush's policies.

I think Bush's policies on immigration could have that effect though.

I am as amazed as any that we haven't had a terrorist attack within America since 9/11, and have no problem crediting Bush with a lot of that by his taking the battle to the enemy.

If we do have another attack, and it is done by terrorists who have crossed our borders illegally, the backlash against the current Republican commitment to loose borders will be enough for them to lose control of the White House and Congress.

All it will take is for Democrat challengers to make the case for strong defense abroad AND on our borders, incidentally a position Hillary has been moving towards, and the Conservative resurgence will be broken.

And Rightfully so. I simply cannot understand President Bush's blindness on this issue. His characterization of the Minuteman Project in Arizona as vigilantism is so far off the mark of their stated goals and procedures as to descend into the realm of demagoguery for the sake of pandering to Hispanics.

I'm no fan of Bill O'Reilly, but he has put together an online petition on this issue. Please sign up here.

I think a comment from Strangelove on the topic at Little Green Footballs puts it at its succinct best:

If we are attacked again, and it is proven they slipped in through Mexico (most likely due to racial characteristics)..Bush will be looking at serious impeachment threats from both sides of the aisle, and rightly so.

We re-elected you George, now do your goddamned job.

Turtle gets Mark of Satan

2005-03-18T16:46:00.000-05:00

He said the turtle is not possessed but is very tame.

Obviously this poor fool hasn't seen any horror movies in his life, which are widely accepted as definitive source material on all things evil. He should call a priest ASAP before the inevitable occurs.

Behold: the bloody carnage of evil unleashed in the form of reptile on the half-shell.

Senators Gone Wild

2005-03-18T06:01:00.000-05:00

I can't believe I'm not seeing this on any conservative blogs.

This is, to me anyway, yet another breach of faith to go along with the border issue, and I'm only going to call out the Republicans, because if they had any balls, they'd have made the case to their constituents that spending must be reigned in.

The President and the House (barely) have shown the courage to cinch their belts.

Enough Republican senators have shown once again their single-minded resolve to loot the public coffers. I expect better of the people I hire.

The Islamic Reformation

2005-03-15T13:40:00.000-05:00

Jack Risco @ Dinocrat has a very nice summation of the history and future of extreme fundamentalist Religiosity versus Empirical rationalism.

He makes many fine points I do agree with on the way to a conclusion that I think is debatable.

Philosophy retreats along the border advanced by science. So does theology, as Copernicus and Galileo have shown.

The idea that man’s observations and logic can discern God’s rational and mathematical design of the universe, as does revelation, is ultimately very subversive: what happens when the two disagree?

...Islam began its Reformation on January 30, 2005, with the Iraq vote.

...religious reform takes centuries, even for relatively straightforward matters. Moreover, it take centuries even if the intellectual groundwork has been carefully laid...

We should expect no better of the Islamic Reformation.

I may quibble with that last one, his conclusion. Given the fact that communications today is near-instantaneous, the ability for an idea to gain traction across large swaths of people has risen exponentially in comparison to the pamphleteer methods of Martin Luther.

What we will see is the competition of ideas across these new mediums of internet and satellite television. It is going to be of endless fascination to me to note which ideas win over the hearts and minds of people who have lived so long in the dark cave of theocratic and patriarchical oppression.

It may indeed take centuries for a true liberal reformation to mature, but there is reason to hope it could happen much quicker.

Petition for the First Amendment

2005-03-11T18:41:00.000-05:00

It is sad that I've seen this coming for a long while now.

McCain/Feingold is an abomination, and it will only get worse.

This petition requests a direct ruling by the courts on the status of online commentary vis-a-vis political contributions banned by McCain/Feingold.

Captain Ed is all over this.

Morality as a Determinitive Force

2005-03-07T16:10:00.001-05:00

Following up on Can Morals Matter?, I'd like to extend on the idea of morality as a determinitive force.

I think that Morals do more than just create the guidelines for how we act individually. Indeed, I believe they are the framework by which we as a species have separated ourselves from the beasts. Morals provide us the rationale for doing things that may seem counter-intuitive at the time.

I submit the following premises:

A: All morals can be distilled down to one fundamental principle.

B: That principle is so important, that it trumps all other moral principles that may conflict with it.

C: That principle is, simply, Preservation of the Species.

The driving influence to my moral framework is simply a recognition of that penultimate moral imperative: Humanity must survive.

Where are we going? As a species, as a sentient, diverse, introspective, inquisitive, and yes contentious animal, what is our destiny? As is often the case, it helps to look back and see where we've come from.

***

It is estimated, under the weight of geological evidence, that this planet suffered a catastrophe some 75,000 years ago. A super volcano we call Toba exploded in the area that would later be Sumatra. This event brought the world to its knees. Mitochondrial DNA evidence further supports this estimation, in concluding that about the same time frame, the people of the world numbered between two and ten thousand.

As little as 75,000 years ago, humanity almost went extinct from the global effects on our climate of a volcanic eruption most experts agree was smaller than what will happen when Yellowstone pops sometime within a 200,000 year window that started, give or take a few millennia, 20,000 years ago.

From a population of ten thousand people, we have the world today, in all its glory and its horror. Incredibly, we have an opportunity to immunize our species against those things that almost destroyed us entirely, and that did wipe out a succession of dominant species on the planet in its past. We have the resources and we have the technology. Fortuitously, we have these during a window of relative world peace in which to pursue that immunization.

Can we afford to put that off and instead spend our resources and time on pursuing the root causes of every dysfunctional human mechanism on this planet? Can we afford to put humanity at risk on the bet that our enemies aren't serious about imposing Sharia? Can we risk putting off taking the extinction vaccine another fifty or a hundred or a thousand years until humanity finds the way to allow Sharia and Secular societies to live in peace?

I say No. I say that we should have our eyes on the Ultimate prize of humanity's survival past the bounds of this Earth. If from a do-over consisting of no more than a few thousand individuals we humans still found a way to tyrannize each other, then I say that this propensity for violence and domination is hard-wired into our systems and it will likely be a struggle against our baser instincts until the Universe whimpers out its last rattling breath.

There are those among us, indeed one of my dearest friends is fairly adamant on this point, who believe that humanity does not deserve to survive. That if we visit such horror upon the world with such unrepentant regularity, we have failed the test to be worthy of continued existence. They are horrified at the idea we could spread such constant conflict outside of the cosmic quarantine delineated by this globe we treat like romper room, and we so many ADD children of priveledge. I can deeply and sincerely empathise with this point of view, and indeed, at one time in my past, I shared it.

But I learned to love humanity despite all its faults. Because as evil as we can be, as backwards and as inhumane our actions sometimes are, we are equally capable of the sublime. I believe that as long as a human being exists with the ability to be stunned by a sunset, to smile unconsciously at the antics of a child, or to just simply act on the hope for a better tomorrow, that humanity has a chance to transcend our violent tendencies.

Do we not owe it to ourselves, our ancestors and our progeny to permit that chance to exist?

***

In my mind, we have two ultimate destinies.

One is to suffer inaction in the face of conflicting ideologies and the uncertain results that paralysis may bring. The most likely end in my estimation being a never ending cycle of tyrannies imposing an absolute roof on the advancement of the species.

The other is that humanity breaks the inertia of endless debate as well as the bonds of gravity and leaves it's nest, taking wing in the broader skies of our universe.

Many idealists argue that eventually, and despite the aggressive tendencies of despots, the meek would indeed inherit the Earth and, united in our peaceful intentions, our advancement would then be assured. I find this to be uncertain at best.

I propose, quite bluntly, to grab this world by the balls, and drag it kicking and screaming into a far more certain end; to give it a chance at survival if the worst, which is inevitable, occurs. We don't have to give up any of our precious freedoms to achieve this. We do have to take action however. I shudder to think the last environmental impact study we may ever see is the one that stymies the first launch of a seed-ship just prior to a global catastrophe.

See, in the end, all the arguments about methods and all the pleas for endless talks to resolve differences become irrelevant in the face of one very hard and very certain fact: This planet is a dead man walking. Be it tomorrow in the eruption of Yellowstone or a disease we can't cure fast enough or a planet buster impacting Earth; or be it 3 or 4 billion years from now when the Sun uses the last of it's hydrogen, starts eating it's helium, and expands until Earth is burned to a crisp, This Planet Is Doomed.

I am an idealist just like my brethren on the left. I believe the people of the world can live in peace and prosperity, and that we can achieve great things, and that yes, indeed, the human spirit can overcome any obstacle and survive any indignity. We have proven that throughout our colorful history.

But I am also a pragmatist. Being so demands action when faced with problems. Being so recognizes that actively participating in solutions is far a more expedient and efficient practice than patiently waiting for organic fixes, especially when there is no organic fix within the realm of understood physics that fixes the problem of Yellowstone, of a Planet Buster, or of an Expanding Sun.

Before our November election, I said we face a turning point. The choices we faced were far larger than the narrow focus of turning back the rise of 7th century barbarism. Indeed, the choice we took highlighted that there is a place for Morals as a determinative force for the betterment of humanity.

This whole exercise started on the moral underpinnings of the Bush Doctrine, but President Bush's vision is far bigger than world peace. He aims to not only help the world find peace, but to also help the world find a higher purpose.

The next line I'm about to say is heresy to today's Democrat: President Bush is far more a man in the mold of John F. Kennedy than any popular democrat today.

Fiscally, the comparisons are inevitable. There is a direct link from Kennedy to Reagan to Bush II on the issue of taxation.

There exists the same link on the issue of the American Military, and its use in America's foreign policy.

And there is the same link on those transcendental visions of what America's destiny is.

Kennedy faced down Kruschev in the Cuban Missile Crisis and took us to the moon. Reagan funded the Space Shuttle and led the world in ending the Cold War.

George W. Bush, in his turn, has led the world in challenging terrorism, and voiced the goal of putting human beings on Mars. Just like Kennedy and Reagan, he has championed the idea that we can achieve great things simply by setting our sights high enough.

And in the end, it really doesn't matter if you believe Bush can achieve this, or even whether it's really what he wants. All that matters is that we Americans dare to make such goals our own. The power still resides in we, The People. If we decide that we want to become more than simply Earthlings, and if we voice that desire steadfastly, Our votes will accomplish the rest.

I want humanity to survive independent of Earth's destiny. I dream of High Flight. We are This Close to achieving that goal.

Staring into the Abyss

2005-03-07T15:48:00.000-05:00

Bill @ INDC noted in a series of posts that the Religious Right (as opposed to the Secular Right or those on the Right whose faith isn't the driving force behind their politic) does possess the capacity to short-circuit the Conservative movement, beginning here, then following up here and here. If you have the time, read the comments for lively and often eloquent debate.

I have to say, I definitely find the attitude by many of the Religious Right to be bordering on the exclusivist "my way or the highway" approach that is in ascendancy on the Left. Witness the echo-chamber atomosphere of the Daily Kos or the Democratic Underground.

I sincerely hope that they are in a distinct minority with no real power to manipulate policy, because what Brent Bozell has just written is nothing less than a fundamentalist's call-to-arms against non-believers entitled NBC flushes the sacred.

"Not just Catholics, not just Christians, but anyone who reveres God should be outraged"

Very nice. So now it's Us against Them, with Us being anyone who believes in the Christian god (and yes, as an agnostic, I use the small-g often), and Them being anyone who does not.

"Mocking God isn't funny. It's evil."

Thank you so very much Mr. Bozell, for neatly labeling people such as myself as evil. You have just put yourself on the same plane as Howard "it's a battle between good and evil, and we're the good" Dean. Granted, it's not quite as far as Islamofascists sawing off the heads of infidels. But how big a step is it really, from labeling someone as an evil-doer, and acting against those offenders who don't share your beliefs.

The sad thing is, Brent Bozell has served a useful purpose in highlighting the bias in Media. He has taken that hard-earned capital, and used it up completely (as far as my continued reading of his column goes anyway) with this extremist screed against a sit-com.

That's right. A sit-com. A freaking show on tv that by definition is NOT a reflection of real life. A farce. A satire.

I haven't seen the show in question. I don't watch much tv anymore. But I suspect that I would have been amused by the episode.

To the stocks for me, eh Mr. Bozell?

We are witnessing the demise of the Democratic Party. It has been overcome by a determined minority of intolerant purists.

The Republican Party could soon follow if people like Brent Bozell are given undue influence.

Being a conservative means in part being resistant to change, which I often am. If something is working reasonably well, I do like the precictability of the existing system and I have over the years come to believe our 2-party system is the best thing going. If both parties are overtaken by extremists, the survival of the U.S. as a nation united could well depend upon a strong third party.

The Ugly Italian

2005-03-07T10:47:00.000-05:00

After reading the latest Associated Press article about the death of Nicola Calipari and the release of hostage Giuliana Sgrena, I had to remind myself of something: No matter how vile and baseless the accusation, the opinion of one person is not representative of an entire country. It saved four boxes of Bertoli pasta and a good bottle of Malvasia di Bosa from getting flushed down the toilet. Sgrena, you see, is now speculating that American soldiers intentionally fired on her car because “the happy ending to the negotiations must have been irksome” to US officials. Since we’re against negotiating with terrorist hostage-takers our troops are, according to her, perfectly willing to murder innocent people to see that others don’t do it either.

Must … not … flush … expensive … wine.

Sgrena Giuliana (AP Photo)

First of all, I’ll say that the accidental killing of Mr. Calipari is an unmitigated catastrophe. A brave guy died needlessly, the coalition is up in arms over it, and the US military looks woefully quick-triggered at best. There’s no upside here; the situation just sucks all around. I cringe when I think about it, and I feel awful for Mr. Calipari’s family. For whatever it’s worth, they have my condolences.

But let’s get two items out of the way real quick. They’ll help us understand from whence the accusations of intentional murder come:

1) Giuliana Sgrena is a communist. I know, I know, it sounds almost laughably like an attempt at cold war-era political slander, but it’s actually true. The “newspaper” she writes for – which is really little more than a mouthpiece for Italy’s far, far, far left – is called Il Manifesto. Its owners and editors are self-avowed communists, as are most of the staff. They are no friends of capitalist, democratic America and our achievement-oriented culture.

A quick look at archived Il Manifesto articles – Sgrena’s in particular – reveals a rabidly vitriolic hatred of US policy and an outright paranoid view of our motives. I exaggerate not at all when I say that reading this woman’s work gives one the impression that the US went to Iraq specifically to murder innocent people and increase the amount of general suffering in the world. She doesn’t even bother with the tired, disproven “It’s all about oil!” nonsense like her counterparts here in the US; to Sgrena, America is simply evil incarnate and we need no reason or excuse for our war of predation in Iraq.

Honestly, I find it hard to consider people who believe such things sane, much less responsible or impartial.

2) Even if she weren’t a lifelong America-hater, Giuliana Sgrena is undoubtedly experiencing Stockholm syndrome to one degree or another. After more than a month in captivity she has come to identify with her kidnappers and their cause (given that she was friendlier to their cause than to ours all along, I doubt seeing the terrorists as heroes was too far a leap for her to make anyway). They took her hostage at gunpoint. They held her prisoner under threat of death. They absconded with who knows how much money, which they demanded in exchange for her life (and I suspect the only reason she was released at all is because the terrorists realized what an excellent anti-US mouthpiece she was).

But in her mind, they’re the good guys. The ones who pointed AK-47s at her head for a month or so. The appropriate reaction, I think, is a mixture of annoyance and pity … I feel the same way when I think about Patty Hearst.

So, keeping in mind Sgrena’s extreme left ideology, her hatred of the US and US policy, and the tendency for kidnap victims to become sympathetic to their captors, her latest ravings of paranoid anti-Americanism aren’t really so surprising. They are, however, utterly baseless speculations being made by someone who admittedly despises the US. And she has not the slightest shred of evidence to support them.

You know what? I can speculate like that, too:

Perhaps the kidnapping of Giuliana Sgrena has been a sham from the very start. Maybe she was contacted by and became friendly with members of the insurgency during her work in Iraq. Maybe, being sympathetic to their opposition to anything the US wants, she furthermore agreed to help them. With the understanding that neither she nor her bodyguards would be harmed, Sgrena agreed to become a “hostage” in order to win ransom money for the insurgency and embarrassment for the coalition.

Sgrena was never in any danger; she was cooperating with the kidnappers all along. Even the video of her pleading for her life was an act designed to hasten the payout to the insurgents and further demoralize those working to bring democracy to Iraq. Then, when the appeasers and apologists in Italy finally won out and secured a ransom for her release – a ransom which, by the way, will fund more kidnappings and a variety of other mayhem – she and her cohorts had one last mission: Provoke the Americans into an act of violence that would turn public opinion in Italy further against the occupation of Iraq.

The Italian communists made sure that one of their people was driving the vehicle; both he and Sgrena knew the plan. He’d speed towards a checkpoint, refusing orders to stop and ignoring warning shots, and the two of them would duck down while the other occupants of the car were vulnerable to fire from US forces. It was risky, but she was willing to take chances to help her friends in the insurgency and further the goal of seeing Italian troops leave Iraq. And if someone in the vehicle got hurt – someone innocent who was just trying to help win the release of a woman he believed to be an innocent hostage – well, you’ve got to break a few eggs, you know. All for the greater good. And their plan worked perfectly.

Now, do I believe any of that? Nope, not a bit. But it’s no less plausible than the idea that the US administration was so enraged by a ransom payoff that they ordered American troops to kill the released hostage and everyone in the car with her (or that American soldiers would obey such an order if it were given). Both stories are entirely speculative and pretty nearly absurd. But the difference here is that we are not making the ridiculous claim that I outlined above; its pure fiction that I simply made up. Sgrena and her leftist supporters, however, are actually saying that their ludicrous story is true.

The official position of US authorities in Iraq is that the shooting was an accident. Either our soldiers or her driver – or maybe both – screwed up. They have said repeatedly that there will be a full investigation. On our end, the response has been sober, thoughtful, and contrite. On theirs it has been recklessly speculative and accusatory. When weighing the facts to formulate your opinion on this matter, I would ask you to consider that very salient fact.

S

The Book Meme (Blogger’s Redux)

2005-03-03T16:31:00.000-05:00

From a post at Misplaced Keys, via News From the Great Beyond, comes a blogger’s version of the book meme:

Instructions:

1. Grab the nearest book.

2. Open the book to page 123.

3. Find the fifth sentence.

4. Post the text of the next 3 sentences on your blog along with these instructions.

5. Don’t you dare dig for that “cool” or “intellectual” book in your closet! I know you were thinking about it! Just pick up whatever is closest.

“The editor, by selecting and arranging the contributions included in the work, adds another layer of authorship. As author of the collective work, the book as a whole, he or she should sign an agreement similar to the standard author agreement described above. In dealing with the chapter contributors, a publisher may in some circumstances use an agreement of the same type, especially if the contributors are to recieve royalty shares.”

- From The Chicago Manual of Style, 15th Edition

Give me a break, I’m at work. Feel free to do your own "book meme" entry in the comments.

S

Unlike me lately, These guys have NOT been procrastinating.

2005-03-01T05:23:00.000-05:00

I tell ya. Pictures like these just fill me with pride.

Is this a great time to be an American, or what?

(Link found on Ace o'Spades.)

The Little War God

2005-02-28T10:20:00.000-05:00

Mars has a problem: It’s too small. Weighing in at about a tenth of Earth’s mass and about half our planet’s diameter, Mars simply couldn’t hold onto enough of its atmosphere to stay warm. Had it been the size of, say, Venus, its greater gravity would have kept a tighter hold on its air. That air would have trapped more solar radiation (what we call “The Greenhouse Effect”) and equatorial temperatures would probably remain closer to its present day high (around 60° F) instead of its present-day average (about -70° F). Though it’d still be a cold planet with huge polar caps, there’d be lots of liquid water too. And liquid water + basic elements + stable planetary environment + sunlight = life.

But, alas, that is not the case. Little Mars and its weak gravity allowed the majority of the atmosphere to slip slowly away into space, and over billions of years all that’s left is the thin envelope of carbon dioxide we see today. It’s less than 1 / 100 the thickness of our atmosphere; as far as complex life like plants and animals and people are concerned it might as well not even be there. Exposure to Mars’ surface conditions means a fast, painful, gasping death for Earthlings. And for those who still held visions of Burroughs’s Barsoomian Mars, there is insult to injury as well: Mars isn’t even red. It’s more of a mottled dun color … the really red pictures of Mars you’ve seen are either false-colorized images or artists conceptions. The real-color images of Mars have always been around for people to see, but magazines generally don’t print them because they’re boring:

[photo removed]

However, recent discoveries show huge underground water reserves on Mars. They are largely frozen, but in some places there is sub-surface pack ice the size and volume of the North Sea; Mars has plenty of water, it’s just currently more solid than solvent. It wasn’t always so: In ages past, when Mars’ atmosphere was thicker, water ran freely across the surface. There were almost certainly large salty seas, if not outright oceans. Depending on how long this wet phase of Mars lasted, there might have been life as well. In fact, recent discoveries show that methane – which on Earth is a gaseous byproduct of decomposing organic material and a sure sign that life is present – exists close to the Martian surface in some areas. And it’s being continuously replenished somehow.

A Frozen, Buried Martian Sea (ESA Photo)

No one is saying – yet – that this methane seepage around Mars’ icy areas is caused by living things; we can’t be sure what’s causing it. There could be some weird Martian chemical process taking place, or Mars might for some reason have vast underground reservoirs of methane. We either need to send a very advanced rover, or, far better, some people. They need to dig around in that cold Martian soil, scrape up some of that ancient ice, and test it for hardy little Martian critters that might have adapted to life on a cold, dry, thin-aired world. Life on Earth has itself adapted to some rather extreme conditions, so there is no reason to assume that simple Martian organisms could not have evolved strategies to cope with the drying of the planet and the rarifying of its atmosphere. Mars was wet for a significant part of its history. The water is still there, albeit frozen solid and buried. It would not surprise me – though it’d certainly thrill me to no end – if 10 or 20 years down the road we find the Martian equivalent of bacteria or algae.

Just another small step towards an understanding of our place in the universe, but a giant leap away from the juvinile mythology of a human-centered one. There are those who believe our species is not ready to accept such a thing. I think they are wrong, but that knowledge will come regardless; one day soon we will have to come to grips with the fact that it's not all about us. Better sooner, in my opinion, than later.

I’ve been working on the latest BPCP update, which is huge. I’m two dozen new entries into it and I think I might have just passed the halfway point, so it’ll take another couple lunch hours to finish up. I’ll have it posted before the end of the week though. Maybe even tomorrow or Wednesday.

Have a good week, dear readers.

S

Too Graphic for the MSM

2005-02-15T11:14:00.000-05:00

Okay, the blogosphere is all abuzz this week with discussion of the Eason Jordan business. That’s all well and good; as a blogger, I’m glad it was one (or several) of us that brought down another biased news executive. The only concern I have is that this kind of thing must not go to people’s heads … remember that blogs aren’t some sort of holy, inerrant medium that is utterly free from sin. We all have, do, and will continue to make occasional mistakes. If we forget that – if we allow the thrill of taking out slanted MSM bigwigs to become more important than the reasons why they need to be taken out – well, then, we’re no better than Rather and Jordan.

Okay, enough cautionary rhetoric from Sandor's soapbox.

My Dad sent me an e-mail over the weekend. It was one of those “Forward This to 10 People if You Agree” e-mails, but this one actually had an interesting point. It contained five photographs and was entitled “Shocking Pictures From Iraq”. Of course I instantly thought of prison abuse, leveled buildings in Fallujah, and mangled corpses of women and kids.

Here are the pictures from the e-mail:

Iraq 1

Iraq 2

Iraq 3

Iraq 4

Iraq 5

Now here’s the point: Why haven’t we seen these on the news? I see dozens of photographs and video clips from Iraq every day, if not more. Why is it that the MSM so loves to show us insurgents with AK-47s, bleeding bomb victims, and pyramids of naked Iraqi prisoners, but they never – never – show us just one like those posted above?

This is real, folks. Those pictures are not fakes, and the events they depict are not illusions. You see the third and fourth pictures down? I myself participate in the program that provides those school kits for Iraqi kids. I get e-mails every couple weeks from Jim Hake, the man who organizes it. Our soldiers do stuff like this, all day, every day. This stuff is far more representative of the work we’re doing there than the pictures of dead civilians and burning humvees, but we never see it on the news.

And that is why bloggers are having so much success taking down these media hotshots and their slanted stories. Dan Rather was so impatient to get his anti-Bush piece onto 60 Minutes that he got sloppy with his fact-checking, and Power Line nailed his ass to the wall for it. Eason Jordan, so eager to make the US military look bad, accused American soldiers of intentionally killing reporters. He got dogpiled by dozens, then hundreds, of bloggers who knew he was lying through his teeth.

The reaction from the MSM has largely been “Why are you doing this to us!?!” Well folks, look at the news you report to us, and then look at those pictures I posted above. See a disparity there?

That’s why we’re doing it to you.

S

Diagramming Bias with Professor Dinocrat

2005-02-12T17:41:00.000-05:00

Click the quote.

Bauder’s piece reveals the low standards and bias of the Associated Press. It may also illustrate the emergence of a “blogosphere vendetta” template in stories chronicling the fall of Old Media figures, such as Dan Rather and Eason Jordan. If so, the Old Media, in their blindness, still have a long way to fall.

Next week, the good professor will make a phone out of a coconut and seaweed.

Climate debate: How to achieve a "Consensus"...

2005-02-10T21:42:00.000-05:00

Easy! Just conveniently leave out of the debate those who disagree with you.

Environment Canada scientist Henry Hengeveld said Patterson is commenting on matters outside his field.

Hengeveld goes on to say for a paleoclimatologist to opine on the climate is like a "dermatologist comenting on the diagnosis of a neurologist...and really being out of his depth."

Not only is this contemptuous remark beyond the pale in terms of ego, it also happens to be, well, incredibly stupid.

I can see this is the guy that misses all the trick questions on the SAT.

Paleoclimatology is to climate as
A: Cosmology is to astronomy
B: Geology is to rocks
C: All the above
D: Bushitlerchimp is eeeevil.

So let me get this straight oh wise one. The study of the historical ebb and flow of climate change isn't significant to determining the effects and causes of contemporary climate variances?

This is post-modernism in action. Forget yesterday. It doesn't matter. They only thing that's real is how I interepret the world today.

At least he unwittingly admits his own weak position: Hengeveld said climate science is a complex area with thousands of papers being produced, and it is easy to "cherry-pick" the papers that support a particular view.

Amen, brother.

Now, call me crazy, but what exactly is it that heats this place anyway?

Anyone?

The Sun maybe?

What's this crazy Dane gibbering about here: Climate changes over the past century coincide with Solar Activity.

Oh, right.

D: Bushitlerchimp is eeeevil.

Link found on Lucianne.

Prisoner Exchange

2005-02-09T10:54:00.000-05:00

From snopes.com’s internet rumor file comes this e-mail. It is currently making the rounds into all of our inboxes, and snopes verifies it as having actually been written by the German businessman - one Mathias Döpfner - it's attributed to:

A few days ago Henry Broder wrote in Welt am Sonntag, "Europe — your family name is appeasement." It's a phrase you can't get out of your head because it's so terribly true.

Appeasement cost millions of Jews and non-Jews their lives as England and France, allies at the time, negotiated and hesitated too long before they noticed that Hitler had to be fought, not bound to toothless agreements.

Appeasement legitimized and stabilized Communism in the Soviet Union, then East Germany, then all the rest of Eastern Europe where for decades, inhuman, suppressive, murderous governments were glorified as the ideologically correct alternative to all other possibilities.

Appeasement crippled Europe when genocide ran rampant in Kosovo, and, even though we had absolute proof of ongoing mass-murder, we Europeans debated and debated and debated, and were still debating when finally the Americans had to come from halfway around the world, into Europe yet again, and do our work for us.

Rather than protecting democracy in the Middle East, European appeasement, camouflaged behind the fuzzy word "equidistance," now countenances suicide bombings in Israel by fundamentalist Palestinians.

Appeasement generates a mentality that allows Europe to ignore nearly 500,000 victims of Saddam's torture and murder machinery and, motivated by the self-righteousness of the peace-movement, has the gall to issue bad grades to George Bush... Even as it is uncovered that the loudest critics of the American action in Iraq made illicit billions, no, TENS of billions, in the corrupt U. N. Oil-for-Food program.

And now we are faced with a particularly grotesque form of appeasement. How is Germany reacting to the escalating violence by Islamic fundamentalists in Holland and elsewhere? By suggesting that we really should have a "Muslim Holiday" in Germany.

I wish I were joking, but I am not. A substantial fraction of our (German) Government, and if the polls are to be believed, the German people, actually believe that creating an Official State "Muslim Holiday" will somehow spare us from the wrath of the fanatical Islamists.

One cannot help but recall Britain's Neville Chamberlain waving the laughable treaty signed by Adolph Hitler, and declaring European "Peace in our time".

What else has to happen before the European public and its political leadership get it? There is a sort of crusade underway, an especially perfidious crusade consisting of systematic attacks by fanatic Muslims, focused on civilians, directed against our free, open Western societies, and intent upon Western Civilization's utter destruction.

It is a conflict that will most likely last longer than any of the great military conflicts of the last century - a conflict conducted by an enemy that cannot be tamed by "tolerance" and "accommodation" but is actually spurred on by such gestures, which have proven to be, and will always be taken by the Islamists for signs of weakness.

Only two recent American Presidents had the courage needed for anti-appeasement: Reagan and Bush.

His American critics may quibble over the details, but we Europeans know the truth. We saw it first hand: Ronald Reagan ended the Cold War, freeing half of the German people from nearly 50 years of terror and virtual slavery. And Bush, supported only by the Social Democrat Blair, acting on moral conviction, recognized the danger in the Islamic War against democracy. His place in history will have to be evaluated after a number of years have passed.

In the meantime, Europe sits back with charismatic self-confidence in the multicultural corner, instead of defending liberal society's values and being an attractive center of power on the same playing field as the true great powers, America and China.

On the contrary, we Europeans present ourselves, in contrast to those "arrogant Americans", as the World Champions of "tolerance", which even Otto Schily justifiably criticizes.

Why?

Because we're so moral? I fear it's more because we're so materialistic, so devoid of a moral compass.

For his policies, Bush risks the fall of the dollar, huge amounts of additional national debt, and a massive and persistent burden on the American economy, because unlike almost all of Europe, Bush realizes what is at stake — literally everything.

While we criticize the "capitalistic robber barons" of America because they seem too sure of their priorities, we timidly defend our Social Welfare systems. Stay out of it! It could get expensive! We'd rather discuss reducing our 35-hour workweek or our dental coverage, or our 4 weeks of paid vacation, or listen to TV pastors preach about the need to "Reach out to terrorists, to understand and forgive".

These days, Europe reminds me of an old woman who, with shaking hands, frantically hides her last pieces of jewelry when she notices a robber breaking into a neighbor's house.

Appeasement? Europe, thy name is Cowardice.

So it seems that another American has, unfortunately, been born and raised overseas. Frankly, I think the Europeans should be required to send any children that show signs of moral courage to America early on, so that they can be raised among their peers. It’d be better for everyone; Europe wouldn’t suffer the awkwardness of having to occasionally deal with a genuinely potent human being, and we wouldn’t have to waste valuable time granting green cards to people who belong here anyway.

But that still leaves the problem of folks like the above-mentioned Mathias Döpfner … bright, brave Gullivers presently standing among Europe’s throngs of pacifist Lilliputians. I recommend something akin to a prisoner exchange: For each Döpfner they send us, we’ll give them ten of our best free-range liberal elite. They can’t just take whoever they want, though, because then Hollywood would be emptied immediately but we’d still be left with universities full of self-righteous intellectual fakes like Ward Churchill and Noam Chomsky. We’ll have to arrange a system where they can pick nine from “List A” (seething socialist college professors, grad students who haven’t showered since Jerry Garcia died, and other assorted leftist muckadoos), and one from “List B” (liberal Hollywood and Washington elites). The moderate Democrats aren’t on the table; we’re still hoping to turn them into a loyal opposition some day.

This is a good plan. Michael Moore will almost certainly be among their first “List B” picks, and I find the idea of that cholesterol-slurping blubbercake living in a country with socialized medicine amusing:

“Arrgh! My heart! Aorta … clogged with … pork fat.”

“Oh, not to worry Monsieur Moore; our team of fifth-rate cardiologists will see you next month!”

Ah, there's my deep and abiding dislike of left-wing pasifists and socialists! Allow me to bask in the warm glowing glow of that philosophical emnity ... I missed it so while off camping (some funny / beautiful photos of that later in the week, by the way). Ciao for niao, good readers.

S

Correlation and Causation

2005-02-07T21:19:00.000-05:00

So Ruth likes words.

I do too, but I also like me some numbers.

Here's a nice page subtitled Misuse and Misconception of Statistical Facts

The bit on Perrier is great. Who knew John Maynard Keynes had a sense of humor? "in the long run, we are all dead".

These are Patriots?

2005-02-06T22:20:00.000-05:00

Not everybody is prepared to live their political values, but these are people who are," said Jason Mogus, an Internet entrepreneur in Vancouver whose communicopia.net offers marketing services for progressive companies and nonprofit groups, and whose canadianalternative.com is often the first stop for Americans eager to learn about moving north.

Wrong Mr. Mogus.

Most people in this country absolutely do live according to their political values. Not values so narrowly and divisively defined by the labels Democrat or Republican. Rather, those broad and encompassing values as outlined by the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. Those values that made the citizens of the United States of America unique in the concept that We the People are ultimately responsible not only for our own lives, but also for the direction our country moves.

In order to retain the awesome responsibility of self-determination, you have to be willing to live up to it. You do that by participating in our great society: We continue to work our jobs even when we disagree with our current administration so that we can fund our society with the taxes we pay. We recognize the rule of law which provides the structure by which our society maintains its stability.

And YES, we live according to our political values in that we vote regularly to ratify or reject the people who have the brass to throw their lives into the arena of elected office and then, win or lose, we continue to set our goals high and refine our message.

These people, these very few naifs who leave for more sympathetic habitats north of the border, have decided to abdicate their responsibility to their country simply because the rest of us, the majority of us, refuse to subjugate our broad value set to the pet causes they pursue with intractable obsessiveness.

Please. This is hardly the stuff of patriotic legend. Ok, maybe in a an effete, emotional, and pathetically impotent way; French Canada will certainly approve. But come on, it is hardly representative of the finer ideals we Americans have a rich history of embodying. Love or Hate him, compared to these self-made martyrs, Michael Moore is truly a fine example of a citizen. At least he is sticking around to fight the good fight in the marketplace of ideas, unarmed though he may be.

So really, it's perfectly fine by me if these delinquents want to take their balls and go home. Quite frankly, We the People of America don't need them.

We have a healthy set of our own.

Eek! I've Got Worms!

2005-02-03T08:21:00.000-05:00

Krakatoa got an e-mail from my sandor.atz gmail account that was infected with a virus - the "bagel" worm, to be precise. It's sort of a mystery as to how it happened, because I never opened an e-mail matching the bagel profile (I can't say for sure that I never received one, because I get lots of stuff in my spam bin that gets deleted without my ever seeing it). But I certainly don't open unfamiliar attachments in any case, so the situation really is kinda bizarre.

Anyhoo, if other folks in my address book got a copy of that one from me, please let me know here in the comments ... I'd like to get to the bottom of this. I'm going camping this weekend - our annual cold-weather camping trip to Ginnie Springs in North Florida - but a dogged pursuit of these worm culprits shall ensue early next week.

Have a good weekend all.

S

Proof of Netherland's Crimes against Humanity

2005-02-03T06:03:00.000-05:00

From my inbox:

I do not intend to take your time unduly as this is
not a financial plea.I am the son to the late
foreign affairs minister of the Federal Republic
Of Zaire, Dr. Pinga Kasenda.

.
.
.

Please,keep confidential as I am presently in the refugee camp in
the Netherlands,with routine restriction on my movement.
I can easily be contacted for details/documents at; wanami@cheerful.com.

Thanks in anticipation.
Wanami Kasenda

This poor dispossessed soul is stuck in a brutal Netherland refugee camp. I wonder if I should tip the MSM?

What Jack said...

2005-02-02T23:00:00.000-05:00

Jack Risco @ Dinocrat on the strange bedfellows thrown together in their shared revilement of the U.S.

Choosing to see yourself as a victim is profoundly wrong, both psychologically and morally. You abdicate moral responsibility by doing so, and are able to justify any abuse you inflict on others.

I couldn't agree more.

Two Sickening Stories

2005-02-02T09:08:00.000-05:00

First up today: More about my new favorite moonbat! Ward Churchill is now under much-deserved fire from Governor Bill Owens of Colorado, who sent a letter to UC requesting Churchill’s resignation. A World Net Daily article quotes Gov. Owens thusly:

"Not only are [Churchill's] writings outrageous and insupportable, they are at odds with the facts of history. The thousands of innocent people – and innocent they were – who were murdered on September 11 were murdered by evil cowards. Indeed, if anyone could possibly be compared to the evildoers of Nazi Germany, it is the terrorists of the 21st century who have an equally repugnant disregard for innocent human life.

"No one wants to infringe on Mr. Churchill's right to express himself. But we are not compelled to accept his pro-terrorist views at state taxpayer subsidy nor under the banner of the University of Colorado."

Excellently stated, I’m in complete agreement. And on a side note, we have a new picture of this armchair revolutionary:

Ward: Warrior of the People

Rockynogin pointed out that his glasses in the previous photo I published weren’t particularly revolutionary-looking. Well, Che Churchill certainly seems to have solved that one here; if those shades don't scream “socialist uprising” I don't know what does. Even the beret is pure Guevara, and the AK-47 lets you know he’s serious, damnit.

I wonder how many pictures that poor, sycophantic grad student had to take before getting it just right (“No, no, look off into the distance as if you can see the Marxist revolution marching over the horizon. And remember to point the barrel away from you this time.”).

Next, from the Shoulda Hada Gun category: Twenty-eight year old actress Nicole duFresne stood up to the dull-witted thugs who tried to rob her last Thursday. That’s awesome, I applaud her courage and pit-bull attitude. Unfortunately the thugs had a gun – thugs tend not to care about restrictive liberal gun laws, you know – and one of them shot her dead. If Miss duFresne had been carrying, say, a snub-nosed .357 in her purse she wouldn’t have had to use harsh language and attitude to defend herself. She could have – should have – simply gunned down the bastards right there in the street (yes, even the 14 year-old, who cold-bloodedly stole the phone from Nicole’s purse as she lay bleeding to death on the ground).

The Brave Nicole duFresne

Thanks largely to the anti-gun crowd, however, it was once again the criminals who were armed and the honest citizen who was defenseless. The result: A good and courageous life cut short, and a band of thugs that will either roam free to kill again or cost all of us $30,000 a year to keep in prison.

Would you care to explain to me again how that’s a fair trade, you simpering gun-control nutjobs?

S

"Mother Killer Not Guilty"

2005-02-01T23:52:00.000-05:00

So goes the incendiary title at The Corner

So, I read something like this, and I can't help a feeling of outrage. And yet, I do believe in such a thing as temporary insanity as a valid defense. I think mostly I am concerned that these days, you can find a board-certified psychologist who will testify to almost anything.

I can't help but think how easy the defense is. But yes, killing one's children does indicate a pretty serious break from reality.

Understanding that a psychotic break is truly not representative of a person's normal actions, what is the correct resolution considering the often conflicting demands of justice, mercy and public safety?

On Patriots and Moonbats

2005-02-01T13:19:00.000-05:00

Fellow blogger Chris Ness of FlashBang arrived at the MCRD in San Diego about 10 days ago, and started Boot Camp last week; you can find his farewell post here, and updates from his girlfriend here, here, and here. It sounds like things are moving along smoothly for Chris – aka Metallica Rat – and that he is well on his way to becoming a Marine. Normally I change out anyone on my blogroll who quits posting for more than a couple weeks, but in this case I’m perfectly willing to make an exception. FlashBang will continue to be updated – however irregularly – by Krystal anyway, so there will usually be something to read on the other end of the link.

Best of luck to Chris. Godspeed, brother.

Of course, for every brave young person willing to put his life on the line for his country, there is also a dumbass moonbat college professor willing to spit on the graves of the fallen. It seems that Ward Churchill – who compared the 9/11 victims to Nazi Adolph Eichmann while praising the terrorist’s “gallant sacrifice” – has quit his post at the University of Colorado. He cites “the current political climate” as his reason; it’s all the evil Republikkkans fault. Gee Ward, it wouldn’t have anything to do with the fact that your crackpot ideology is vomitously repulsive to nine out of ten people who aren’t a radical Islamist, would it?

Actually, you know what? That’s fine. Blame it on the political climate. If said climate is noncondusive to calling innocent victims “Eichmanns” and terrorists “gallant”, that’s just 100% okey-dokey with me. I’m happy to have helped vote that climate into power, in fact. I also think it’s great that we let terminally foolish, morally bankrupt jackasses like Churchill say whatever they like; the far left are revealed as liars whenever we show our respect for dissent (even if it’s dumb-as-a-bag-of-hammers dissent). And it never hurts to know exactly which campuses guys like this are creeping around on anyway, so we can all make sure not to send our kids there.

Churchill. Note the hip revolutionary hair! (AP photo)

Keep talking, Ward. I’m sure Michael Moore is on his way to make a movie about you already … I hear he had lots of film left over from his “policing the voting irregularities” piece last November.

And hey, traffic on this site has jumped by about 120% over the last couple weeks. Anyone know what’s up with that? Did someone semi-popular blogroll us? Or has everyone just finally realized how smart me and Krakatoa (but mostly me) are?

S

Condi in '08?

2005-02-01T04:30:00.000-05:00

From Glen Reynolds, a link to Draft Condi Rice for the Prez nomination in 08.

I particularly like reason number 6:

6. She would also be the first unmarried President in over a century. All the supermarket mags could speculate as to whom she's dating now. (Okay, they could do it with Bill Clinton, too, but this would have a lot more decorum). Stolen glances at Prince Charles? Why did she appoint a 27 year old as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff? Paparazzi could pursue her as she sneaked away with a Marine guard. The Secret Service could detain the paparazi and "accidentally" drop them off the 14th Street Bridge. This gets better by the minute.

John Hawkins has his doubts, but I can't help but think Condi has all the tools for the job. And be honest, who doesn't want to see her debate Hillary?

A day for Celebration in Iraq AND the Allied Nations

2005-01-30T18:28:00.000-05:00

John Kerry: "no one in the United States should try to overhype this election."

Ok. With absolutely no due respect, this is exactly what we should do.

We should proclaim this event so loudly that even the dead inciters of terrorists past stir and wonder, what is this thing that can reach us across the veil?

We should hold everyday Iraqis up high on our shoulders and yell, "These are Heroes!"

We should rejoice, and beam images and sounds of this triumph to the darkest corners of the globe, so that every person toiling under the hard boot of despotism may know something of an alternative to base existence at the whim of tyrants.

In 1991, we shamed ourselves when we listened to the will of the international community. We accepted the line they drew in the sands of Iraq, and did not finish Saddam. We made, or at least implied, promises to the Shia and Kurds of Iraq, that if they would revolt, we would support them. Then, as thousands upon thousands of those brave people died in hopeless uprisings and subsequent massacres to serve as examples, we whined that our hands were tied by the Arab community and the U.N.

Yesterday, watching the various news channels as Iraq men and women voted, I actually felt giddy. We did this for them. We, through the procecution of war, gave all these millions of people something that decades of diplomacy and U.N. sanctions could not. We gave them their freedom.

In doing so, we redeemed ourselves at the expense of the stale ambivalence of the world "community" and the U.N., and I cannot help but feel immense relief mixed with the jubilation. Principle has overcome pride in this case, an occurrance that happens all to rarely in this world.

More importantly than what we did, the Iraqi people, slowly, cautiously, began to hope again, and began to act on that hope.

One can not be surprised that their words and actions have been guarded in light of so many factors: The loss of trust after the '91 debacle. Our own recent elections, where the opposition party would give no assurances of seeing Iraq through to liberty against the region's tyrants. Indeed, many of our opposition vowing we would leave Iraq to its fate alone if Kerry won. Europe, led by France and Germany, constantly preaching the refrain that removing Saddam was a mistake. The Arab community, full of intrigue and violent resolve, financing, arming and even manning the terrorist militias. And tying it all together, the world Press, ignoring 10 positive stories to sieze on 1 setback, painting the prospect of free elections in Iraq as merely the neo-con pipe dream of a simple-minded Cowboy.

Despite this litany of negativity, and helped in great measure by the actions of the U.S. military that the press refuses to report, the people of Iraq learned what it is again to have power over one's destiny. The people of Iraq began to join the fight against their oppressors. The terrorist organizations are losing their cohesiveness against the growing will of Iraqi citizens who are finding their voice, and in their way, proclaiming that "This will not stand".

I actually envy them. They have birthed a democracy against the most formidable of odds. Every single person who voted is a Patrick Henry. The terrorists warned them: if you participate, you will die. And millions upon millions, preliminary reports indicate as much as 72% of the voting population, acted out Patrick Henry's declaration. They chose Liberty over Life. Yes, the violence will continue and more Iraqis will die yet in this pursuit, but the tide has most definitely turned. In making their choice, the vast majority of Iraqis will have both Liberty AND Life. And they get to tell their kids, and grandkids, and great grandkids "I was there, and I played a part in the creation of this great nation." This is legendary stuff. Myth in the making.

And America and her true allies can stand proud. We gave them the opportunity and they ran with it. Hell, even those in this country who were so against any and all of Bush's policies can be proud, because their example cannot have failed to impress. The American Model cannot have failed to register on Iraqis, that if we could have those such as Michael Moore spew so much vitriol, freely and without loss of liberty, and indeed he has profited from his dissent; why, then, maybe this is a Model worth looking into. So yes, even those of the Moore and Dean crowd can take their bows. For or against the resumption of the Iraq war, your voice was heard, and in your own way, you gave the people of Iraq reason to hope for the ideal of Democracy.

We all did this, and we have much to be proud of. Kennedy and Kerry be damned, let us take a few days to celebrate our new brothers and sisters in democracy. If you know an Iraqi ex-pat, embrace them into the community of Liberty with a grin, a hug, a whoop, flash them their victory sign... whatever strikes your fancy. Throw a party for them, or get yourself invited to one of theirs, and try to catch a second-hand buzz from the true opiate of the masses: Freedom.

Triumphalism? Hype? You are damned straight, and give me more of it!

A few links:

By way of a great piece @ Right WingNuthouse: Iraq, the Model comments on election day.

Election Day photos @ Powerline.

Larry Kudlow, on the triumph of Freedom over Cynicism represented by this election. (via Real Clear Politics)

Via Mudville Gazette, quotes from Iraqis on this great day.

And this one, courtesy of Adam Keiper (by way of Lucianne), this just about sums it all up: A stirring montage for freedom, set to Aaron Copland's "Fanfare for the Common Man."

Thank you Adam.

Star Power

2005-01-29T06:48:00.000-05:00

Forget politics. Forget "message" films and oh-so-solemn commercials.

Here is celebrity being put to practical use. If media stars would find more ways to do this sort of thing, they just might come to the realization that true change is realized by the actions of people, not governments.

My hat is off to you Sharon Stone.

Sitrep on Mom and Blogging

2005-01-26T14:35:00.000-05:00

Well, they moved Mom from the hospital to a rehabilitation facility - a really good one this time - yesterday afternoon. I won't be driving back and forth to the hospital every other day and trying to squeeze all my other reponsibilities in between, so I should have more time to write now ... at least a couple posts a week.

Many thanks to everyone who's continued to visit during yet another necessary hitatus, and thanks also to Krakatoa for a much-needed and very eloquent post.

For now, I found another blog run by an EQ II gamer: Anticipate. Lots of stuff about technology, and she's a Whittle fan to boot! Go check it out.

S

Can Morals Matter?

2005-01-24T22:47:00.000-05:00

I started this and it turned out huge. I found my thrust was wandering a bit, Whittleresque, so I've separated it into at least two distinct parts.

I think an inquiry into Morals is a good thing, and especially topical, given the importance they apparently played with voters in November. I've already given my argument for the end to the cease-fire in Iraq here.

In the following, I just wanted to talk about the counter-arguments briefly, at least as I have witnessed, and start to introduce the concept of Morality as something upon which to base decisive action.

Given Bush's innaugural address, this seems particularly appropriate.

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The arguments against the Bush Doctrine seem to be twofold, each with it's own subsets.

The first Wing's argument is simply stated as, Violence is Never the Answer. It has, so far as I can tell, two groups of people espousing the position.

One group proclaims that 2 wrongs do not make a right, and again breaks into two factions:

The first faction, the one that I have no argument for, is peopled by those who subscribe to the principle that violence should be avoided categorically. This is a philosophical absolute that true believers are willing to die, but not fight, for. I can respect this because these people do not waver in their convictions and they offer an ideal to which humanity can truly hope to achieve. Its great failing in my estimation is that there are far more hedonists than altruists in the world. I'd say it's probably at least a ratio of a million to one.

The second faction, which I strenuously disagree with, is peopled by those who would apply a measure of moral equivalency to the violence committed by both sides of the current conflict. The Michael Moores, the Howard Deans, the Noam Chomskys, the BBCs and Reuters who subscribe to the platitude "One man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter". They push the "circle of violence" meme as if there were no morally discernible ground between Palestinians who stalk school children, and the Israelis who target terrorists. The difference between Sharia culture and Secular Democratic culture is as stark as it is bloody. Moral relativism against the backdrop of beheadings and the purposeful targeting of children is the last refuge of those too insecure to make adult decisions.

The other subset of the Violence is never the ANSWER crowd is peopled by those hypocrites for whom violence is an answer sometimes, but only when it is authorized by a president with the correct letter denoting party affiliation or a country pursuing the correct ideology, usually a derivation of Marx or Voltaire. These people receive my contempt for their intellectual and moral dishonesty. One cannot hope to actively rationalize or tacitly approve of Kennedy's war in Viet Nam or Clinton's actions in the Balkans or France's in Angola or the Sandinista's in Central America as somehow being fundamentally moral, then hysterically protest America's "Imperialism" and decry the Korean War, Nixon's Viet Nam, and the military actions in Grenada, Kuwait, Afghanistan and Iraq as morally bankrupt.

The other major wing of the anti-Bush Doctrine, the one that most Democrats in politics seem to have settled on, brings an argument to the table that can essentially be summed up as an agreement that the War on Terror must be fought, but fighting the war on the Enemy's territory is so HARD and the potential for disaster so broad. This crowd argues long and hard against whatever it is that the current administration proposes and carries out, but offers nothing in the way of another solution.

The defense here is simple: Bush has never said the military solution is going to be quick or easy and that missteps won't be made. Successive administrations will follow different tactics. Such is the effect of presidential term limits in a democratic society. Regardless, that conclusion is moot in the face of the higher moral argument for bringing democracy to the world. If the right thing is to engage our enemy militarily, it is made no less right as the level of difficulty increases. Hard work ennobles almost any pursuit.

The question that adults must answer is NOT whether or not people around the world agree with us. The question is, quite simply, WHAT is the right thing to do? So any arguments that our enemies hate our actions (which is a given no matter what our action) or that our allies disagree with our methods are irrelevant.

The great failing of the left in regards to the debate on what to do with terrorism is that while it does a fairly adequate job of pointing out worst-case scenarios under a Republican administration's plans, no practicable counter-solution is ever offered. If you refuse to offer me a way to save both my house and the tree that threatens to fall on it in the coming hurricane, you'll just have to pardon me while I gas up my chainsaw and start cutting. I'll listen to you complain in the dry comfort of my living room after the hurricane has passed. Maybe you'll have some good suggestions on where to plant a new tree.

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The American people are unique in the world, with a unique history and therefore a unique perspective on the world. We diverged from the dominant global perspective some 230 years ago, and embarked on the greatest and most revolutionary governmental and social experiment the world has ever known.

Yes, we had innate advantages that European countries did not have. We didn't have to defend our borders constantly from people with whom thousands of years of intense rivalries had been developed. We had ample resources with which to sustain ourselves without needing to accept often grossly unfair trading practices with other nations.

But we also granted ourselves advantages. A Constitution and a Bill of Rights guaranteeing that the common man had the ultimate power over it's government through an inviolable schedule of elections. A refusal to get involved militarily with petty European squabbles. An industrial national spirit based on free-market principles. We achieved a united nation from coast to coast, thus insulating ourselves from outside forces that might wish us harm.

Yes, we achieved much of this with the occasional use of questionable means. Slavery, the Mexican/American war, and the subjugation of Native American cultures are black marks on our history. While the bleeding-heart left is paralyzed by the guilt of it's fathers, Realists such as myself understand that there is no honor to be attained in going back; the best way to rectify past wrongs is to improve the way of life of ALL Americans in a non-discriminatory way.

The 20th century saw the United States achieve something unique in the history of the world: We achieved greatness and indeed world dominance not by subjugating it's own citizens or those of other nations, but instead by freeing them from the tyranny of their oppressors.

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Now we find ourselves at the absolute height of our power. We are a veritable juggernaut Militarily, but more importantly, Economically and Socially. Everyone appears to agree that it is incumbent upon us to wield our power wisely.

Many on the left agree with this in principle, but then never seem to find a way to use that power at all, rather seem intent on giving power away under the misguided theory that if only all people are equally poor, the impetus for violence will be removed and Altruism will become a universal trait.

Conversely, I believe that power ignored is opportunity lost. 50 million people in Afghanistan and Iraq might never have known free elections if not for the principle that a measured use of power can bring great good to the world.

History will be the ultimate judge of the Bush Doctrine. His re-election guaranteed its pursuit for another 4 years, and this President is not shy about pursuing his foreign policy goals. His boldness, to the horror of the so-called intellectual class, and to the relief of the rest of us, is a product of his moral certitude that free people are inherently more peaceful and prosperous than those under the hard boot of a despot.

His morality demands action.

BPCP Update

2005-01-18T14:37:00.000-05:00

The Blogosphere Political Compass Project has been updated. Go to the BPCP permalink page for a complete list of participants and links to their sites.

BPCP Graph for January 2005

My Mom is back in the hospital; there have been some complications with her recovery (which, before last week, was going very well) and another surgery was required. Blogging will be light until she returns home, hopefully sometime next week.

S

Touchdown

2005-01-14T11:21:00.000-05:00

The crowd goes wild. I guess we should let the ESA do their end zone dance for this one; Huygens scored big. Let's just hope they don't pretend to ... uh, moon the fans, because I don't think they can afford the $10,000 fine.

Artist's Concept of Huygens' Descent

This is the last time we'll need an artist's concept to visualize Titan. In a few hours, we'll have pictures - pictures! - from the surface. Astronomy geek heaven, I assure you.

Let's just hope we didn't teach a bunch of methane-breathing Titanian Brain-Suckers how to build interplanetary spacecraft. Because if so they'll be here in a matter of hours and their invasion will be unstoppable. Unstoppable, I say!

More as events develop.

S

A Liberal’s Revolution

2005-01-13T11:19:00.000-05:00

The Painkiller review will have to wait; this story is just too good to put off (and I could use another hour or so of playtime to finish all of the game’s demo material anyway).

As we all know, President Bush will be inaugurated next Thursday, January 20th, 2005. The President was re-elected last November – when he handily won the Presidential race by three million popular and 35 electoral votes – so this inauguration is seen as a bit anti-climactic by a lot of Bush supporters (we won our battle a couple months ago; everything else is just mop-up). I’m not saying we won’t be happy and that we won’t cheer, because we are and we will. But the relief and euphoria wore off for us around mid-November, and it’s been back to business ever since.

The loony left, however, sees the inauguration as one final chance to bleat meaninglessly at us before retiring to four more years of political obscurity. Ordinarily I’d say fine, let them throw a few eggs at Bush posters and whine long, loud, and clear about their civil liberties being taken away (and completely miss the irony in it, too). But then I read this article off the AP wire.

It seems that some of the real left-wingnuts, those masters of cardboard-sign revolution, are going to once again do what they do best: Organize protests. David Livingstone, a Detroit Democrat who is putting together a no-buy, no-work nonobservance on Inauguration Day says "I view the inauguration of Bush as a black Thursday for this country." Buddy Spell of New Orleans calls it "The Death of Democracy", and he’s organizing a mock funeral procession. These activities and others are supported by a number of groups across the US who "hope to see several million people eating brown-bag lunches and dinners on Inauguration Day".

Okay, let me get this straight: "Black Thursday" is upon us and your defense against this incoming nightmare regime is to take a day off of work and refrain from using your Visa card? It’s the "Death of Democracy" – the end of America as we know it, if my definitions of those words are correct – and the best Mr. Spell and his brave band of leftists can manage is a mock funeral? These people are honestly telling us that freedom is gone, American democracy is dead, and tyrants occupy all the seats of power in Washington - and the liberal counterattack is to eat out of a brown bag instead of stopping off at Tiffany’s for grapes and baked brie?

Pardon my vulgarity, but are you fucking kidding me?

Thank God, YHWH, Allah, Vishnu, Buddha, and Zoroaster we won last November. Thank Zeus, Amon, and the Goddess that these latte-sipping bean curd nibblers aren’t the ones protecting us against real tyrants. Praise Luna and Sol and Gaia for defending us from these socialist, transnationalist, elitist intellectual cowards. I swear on all that’s sacred, three million votes was too close.

Time for a reality check from Uncle Sandor: American democracy has never been move vigorous. If it were really dead, liberals wouldn’t have voted – and subsequently lost – on November 2nd. They would have been too busy in the Texas Work Camps, pumping oil to make Halliburton richer. If America was an actual police state (instead of a nation with broad and well-functioning civil liberties protections) Mr. Livingston wouldn’t be running his propaganda web site and deciding if it’s going to be Mochachino or Espresso this afternoon. He’d be rotting away in the Detroit Gulag, home to all Mid-Westerners who dare to dissent against Emperor George Bush II.

These people are goddamned lucky their rhetoric is just that and nothing more. If the best you can muster up when faced with the death of democracy is to take a sick day and not buy any new Yanni CDs, then dissidents lined up along the roadway waiting for a bullet to the back of the head is surely just around the corner. If it really is Black Thursday and all you do to stop it is keep your credit card in your wallet, chances are excellent someone will be in a concentration camp very, very soon. If tyranny comes to America in the dark of night and you do nothing to stand in its way but march in a pathetic mock funeral, you will be as guilty for the result as if you had held the door open for the jackbooted thugs yourself.

Thankfully there’s not much reason to worry about all that here in the real world (at least not for the time being). And do you know why? It's not because of the David Livingstones and Buddy Spells. It's not because of the Michael Moores or Noam Chomskys or Barbara Striesands either.

It’s because of us.

It’s because if American democracy were really dying, if tyranny had actually come to this great nation, the Pat Tillmans and Bill Whittles would be doing something about it. There’d be folks like Mike and Joe running underground high commands in Raleigh and Wichita and Eugene. There’d be Moxies and Jonah Goldbergs flying upside-down American flags and marching in the streets day and night. There’d be Serenities and Rockynogins raiding National Guard armories for weapons and ammunition (and most of the National Guardsmen would help them do it, too). And there’d eventually be a hundred million Kim Du Toits encircling Washington DC, demanding that the halls of power be emptied of tyrants and the Constitution of the United States of America be restored.

You're not sticking up for democracy, David. We are. And you and the rest of the far left are nothing but a damned millstone around our neck.

Livingstone and Spell are jokes. Living, breathing parodies of everything that is broken and weak in liberalism. At best they are akin to spoiled children, pouty-lipped and shouting how they’re going to take their ball and go home because they lost again (fine, take your deflated pigskin and beat it - we’ve got plenty of balls over here on the right). At worst, these guys lack any shred of moral courage and don’t very much believe in what they’re saying ... my guess is it'd be more of the latter than the former, but either way I’ve never been happier that George W. Bush will be our President for four more years.

Next Thursday I'm going to go fill up my tank with gas, stop by the grocery store, buy a couple books from Amazon, make my monthly donation to Spirit of America, and pick up a new compact stereo from Best Buy. It’ll be an orgy of consumption, and I’m going to dedicate it to David Livingstone and his simpering gang of crybaby leftists. I encourage all you good readers to do the same.

Congratulations, President Bush. Go get’em.

S

Well-Deserved Recognition

2005-01-10T13:41:00.000-05:00

Last February I found myself in complete agreement with The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for the very first time: The Return of the King was the best film of 2003. The Academy doesn’t give awards to DVDs, but if they did, Return should win “Best DVD” too. In fact, the third installment of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings trilogy easily deserves to be awarded the “Best Fantasy Film of All Time” trophy; both the storytelling and visual effects are beyond extraordinary, and there isn’t at dull moment even with a running time of over four hours.

LOTR Arwen Poster

Now before my fantasy and film geek comrades jump on me about the “The Lord of the Rings is one complete work, not three separate films!” thing, let me assure you folks: I know. I first read the books when I was 14 – holy jeeze, that’s 21 years ago now – and I’ve always agreed that The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers, and The Return of the King should be viewed as a single continuous work instead of an original and its two sequels. But like the books, the films came out in three separate parts anyway, mostly because no one wants to read a 1400-page book or sit through a 12-hour movie. As such I feel it’s fair to pick one of them as my favorite fantasy film, and the extended version of The Return of the King is it.

Beware, spoilers below.

What, however, is better about the extended version on the new DVD? Well, there are three particularly notable scenes:

1) The confrontation with Saruman and Wyrmtounge. In the books, these two villains escape Isengard and raze The Shire – home to the Hobbits – and really aren’t defeated until the very end of the story. In the theatrical movie version they are left imprisoned in the tower for the Ents to deal with. But in the extended DVD edition, Gandalf, Aragorn, Legolas, Gimli, and the Hobbits confront the two as they stand atop Isengard; the end result is a shamed and horrified Wyrmtounge who literally stabs Saruman in the back. Wyrmtounge is simultaneously shot by an arrow from Legolas – who, like the others, wants Saruman taken alive – but it comes too late: Saruman plummets hundreds of feet to his death upon the crushed and jagged rocks below.

It’s the biggest liberty that Peter Jackson takes with Tolkien’s original story, and it works well enough. Though it’ll never seem right that mighty Saruman is killed before taking his revenge on Frodo, the added scene does tie up a loose end. And it’s proof that no matter how subtle the wizard, a knife in his back will severely cramp his style.

2) Gandalf battles the Witch-King on the ramparts of Gondor. This is a great scene, if only because it shows just how powerful the leader of the Nazgul really his: He bests Gandalf after about 20 or 30 seconds of battle. Only the threat of the approaching Rohirrim saves old Greyhem from a real whuppin; when Theodin’s army attacks the Witch-King must rally his orcs, so Gandalf catches a break. As it is he’s flat on his ass and his staff has been destroyed … not a position the most powerful wizard in the world usually finds himself in.

3) The Mouth of Sauron. This is the scene that finally sold me on the “Best Fantasy Film Ever” thing. Never before have I actually been repulsed by a movie character in the same way a real-life villain like Ted Bundy or Saddam Hussein repulses me. But this one did it.

The Mouth of Sauron

The mouth of Sauron projected such malice – in addition to being physically revolting – that I actually shrank back from the screen; you’d have gotten the same reaction from me if you held out a plate of rotting, maggot-ridden pork and said “Here! Have a bite!”. It was a scene that was both horrible and fascinating at the same time, and I don’t believe the concepts of mouth and corruption could have possibly been married together any better. Not since Marion Silver (Jennifer Connelly) whored herself out for heroin in Requiem for a Dream – probably the only time in my life that two women having sex has made want to turn away from the TV – has a fictional scene stuck with me so awfully.

It was great.

There is lots more in the extended DVD as well: A touching scene between Eowyn (who rivals Legolas as my favorite LOTR character) and Aragorn. Lots of little 20 or 30-second extensions to scenes already in the theatrical version, and some important information about Arwen and her relationship with Aragorn. Oh, and a bunch of pirates getting killed by ghosts, which is, of course, cool by definition.

Wednesday (or thereabouts) will be my review of the Painkiller demo I downloaded last week, and Friday will see the next BPCP update. Happy Monday all.

S