Rusted Sky

Aargh. Why didn't I back everything up, including making copies of my templates?

Short answer - I was a dumbass.

Long answer - I didn't figure swapping out the file system would necessitate a complete revamping of the whole thing. Too much fun!

But then again... let me try some things...

J.

Is this thing on?

Update - comments seem to be broken. What a surprise! Still working on things...

J.

Always helps to RTFM, doesn't it? (Grin)

Hey, the path LOOKED like it was in accordance with the examples...

J.

John Scalsi's got it pegged.

Whatever: Early Oscar Thoughts, 2006 Edition

Just how uncommercial is this crop of nominees? Consider this: a nominee for Best Documentary -- March of the Penguins -- has made more money than any of the Best Picture nominees. I guarantee you that has never happened before, ever. When Hollywood's best films can't compete with chilled, aquatic birds, there's something going on.

J.

The Straight Dope: Did a French vaudeville star once specialize in trained flatulence?

I'm sure this is something you've always wondered about.

J.

Western Union Telegrams | Send a Telegram | Birthday Telegrams | Sympathy Telegrams | Get Well Telegrams

Effective January 27, 2006, Western Union will discontinue all Telegram and Commercial Messaging services. We regret any inconvenience this may cause you, and we thank you for your loyal patronage.

J.

Movable Type Random Styler

Click on that, and tell me what you think. Got any opinions? I'd like to hear them. I don't do much aside from copying bits and pieces and modding what other folks have written - this looks like a good template...

So, if you've got the time and inclination, I'd appreciate your suggestions and comments on site styling...

J.

We'll see if it holds...

The American Enterprise: Facts vs. Fiction: A Report from the Front

Yet, a quiet tide is rippling up the Tigris and Euphrates. The November 2005 study by Oxford Research found that when Iraqis are asked what form of political system will work best in their nation for the future, 64 percent now say “a democratic government with a chance for the leader to be replaced from time to time.” Only 18 percent choose “a government headed by one strong leader for life,” and just 12 percent pick “an Islamic state where politicians rule according to religious principles.” This surge toward representative toleration—which did not enjoy majority support in Iraq as recently as early 2004—ought not to be taken for granted. It is an historic groundswell.

Realistically, the status quo wasn't supportable. The sanctions were as solid as gauze, and about to be pulled down by Iraq's trading partners. Soemthing had to give. We could either have left things as they were, or worked to change things. I think it would have been worse (especially for the Iraqi people) to have waited.

It is. Defanging the Middle East is a vast undertaking. But again, wars have never been easy or antiseptic. Even after the hostilities of World War II were over, the U.S. occupied Japan for seven years of stabilization and reconstruction, and West Germany for four years (the first year, the Germans nearly starved).

And a guerilla war like we face in Iraq generally requires even more stamina. Eliminating a terror insurgency has historically taken a decade or two. It’s like eradicating smallpox; you must squeeze and squeeze and squeeze, and show great patience. Our occupation of the Philippines after the Spanish-American War is a closer example of what we face in Iraq; we fought an extensive insurgency there for years, then remained in the country for nearly a century, with very positive eventual results.

Interestingly, our soldiers appear to better understand the incremental nature of this war than many reporters, pundits, and politicians. “Americans seem to kind of want this McDonald’s war, where you drive up, you order it, you pay for it, you go to the next window and get a democracy. That’s not the way it works,” cautioned Army reservist Scott Southworth recently. “It takes a lot of effort; it takes a lot of time.”

So, Jason, what sort of time frame do you want to put on that bet?

J.

That's impressive. Blown up by an IED, the guy gives the insurgents the finger as he WALKS to his Medevac chopper. You just plain don't mess with a guy like that.

Urban Legends Reference Pages: Photo Gallery (Michael Burghardt)

While Sgt. Burghardt spent over three weeks recuperating at his unit's headquarters — days he described as "among the most difficult of his career" — he proclaimed that despite his injuries, he was not looking for a ticket out of the country — the incident occurred during his third deployment to Iraq, and he stated that he planned to see plenty more action: "I don't want a ticket out. I want to stay here so we can take as many people home as possible. I'll do 30 years, as long as I'm having fun. Unless I die."

The Omaha World-Herald photograph of Sgt. Burghardt displayed above — taken in the aftermath of the bomb blast and showing him "standing on his own two feet, pants cut off, legs bandaged and directing a single-digit salute of defiance at his attackers" — appeared in that newspaper five days later and quickly became one of the most popular iconic images of the Iraq War.

Damn. Tough dude. I'm glad he's on our side.
J.

Ben Stein: Pelosi's Hot Air Can't Power My Car

"I don't blame Exxon for making the profits ... it's a busines; it's owned by pensioners and widows and retirees. It's fine if they get the money because it's going back to the American stockholders."

So said Ben Stein, Economist, author of "Yes, You Can Become a Successful Income Investor! Reaching for Yield in Today's Market," actor and former Nixon speechwriter on "Your World with Neil Cavuto."

"The amount of profit on each gallon of gasoline is between six and eight cents. If you cut out all the profit so that Exxon/Mobil went out of business, and Conoco went out of business next year, you'd only save a few cents per gallon.

"It's just nonsense that they're bleeding America white. They don't set the price - the price is set on world markets. It's good if they make a profit becuase then they can have more money to explore for more oil and more energy sources.

"I just am sick of people knocking the oil companies," Stein said.
For good measure, he added, "I've never been able to power my car with envy, or with the hot air out of Nancy Pelosi or Harry Reid."

The Quik-Trip near our house almost always has cars at the pump.Figure a thousand cars a day (might be high, but they've got 14 pumps and they're nearly always busy) at 15 gallons (average) - that's 15 thousand gallons times .07 (average) - that's $1050 in profit for the gas supplier. Don't know what the retail markup on gas is - but it's pretty clear that Quik-Trip isn't losing money.

A business that isn't making money can't stay in business. And until something better comes along, someone's got to drill for, pump out, store, ship, refine, pump, and transport to gas stations the literal lifeblood of our economy. They need to make money at it - or we won't get it.

J.

Editor fired after publication of Islam cartoons - Europe - MSNBC.com

The publication by French Soir drew a stern reaction from the French Foreign Ministry.

Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy told reporters that press freedom could not be called into question but urged restraint: “The principle of freedom should be exercised in a spirit of tolerance, respect of beliefs, respect of religions, which is the very basis of secularism of our country.”

I applaude the papers showing the cartoons. Tolerance is something which has to run both ways, and the marked lack of it from the islamic militants is something that needs to be addressed. So it's fatwas and death threats over newspaper editorials? Guess it's one thing to die a martyr, but you don't get any virgins if you get made fun of.

J.

And how a quick fix may be pretty expensive in the long run...

IEEE Spectrum: Re-engineering Iraq

J.

But this is a rather exhausive, well researched look at the comparison of test scores between Kerry and Bush.

VDARE.com: 10/21/04 - This Just In—Kerry's IQ Likely Lower than Bush's!

The subtle difference between Bush and Kerry in two words: Bush is competitive and Kerry is ambitious.

J.

However, it's in Australia!

Flying car captured on Google Earth | The Register

J.

What happens to your e-mail when you die? - Forbes.com - MSNBC.com

"My father had a niche Internet business," he says. "When he died last year at 71, he left no provision for the business. I couldn't access his accounts or pay suppliers, and I couldn't shut the business down. People run their lives through Outlook, but I couldn’t access that either, so I couldn’t reach his customers to inform them that he'd died."

(And you're a fool if you've got a bank savings account - they pay at most 1% - PayPal is paying 4.3% interest.)

J.

It's odd, but I haven't gotten a single spam trackback or comment since the meltdown. I wonder why? Everything's back where it was, same .cgi scripts in the same places, comments and trackbacks are enable - yet there's nothing.

Yeah, I know - be grateful for small favors, right? Still, it's puzzling and anomalous behavior. Guess I'm getting to like predictability too much...

J.

tomatopatch.com : "Sleepless In Seattle" Trailer Recut

Wow. You can do a lot with the proper editing.

J.

Neal Boortz has some statements, and questions about what's offensive.

boortz.com: Nealz Nuze Today's Nuze

Muslim outrage huh. OK ... let's do a little historical review. Just some lowlights:

Muslims fly commercial airliners into buildings in New York City. No Muslim outrage.
Muslim officials block the exit where school girls are trying to escape a burning building because their faces were exposed. No Muslim outrage.
Muslims cut off the heads of three teenaged girls on their way to school in Indonesia. A Christian school. No Muslim outrage.
Muslims murder teachers trying to teach Muslim children in Iraq. No Muslim outrage.
Muslims murder over 80 tourists with car bombs outside cafes and hotels in Egypt. No Muslim outrage.
A Muslim attacks a missionary children's school in India. Kills six. No Muslim outrage.
Muslims slaughter hundreds of children and teachers in Beslan, Russia. Muslims shoot children in the back. No Muslim outrage.
Let's go way back. Muslims kidnap and kill athletes at the Munich Summer Olympics. No Muslim outrage.
Muslims fire rocket-propelled grenades into schools full of children in Israel. No Muslim outrage.
Muslims murder more than 50 commuters in attacks on London subways and busses. Over 700 are injured. No Muslim outrage.
Muslims massacre dozens of innocents at a Passover Seder. No Muslim outrage.
Muslims murder innocent vacationers in Bali. No Muslim outrage.
Muslim newspapers publish anti-Semitic cartoons. No Muslim outrage
Muslims are involved, on one side or the other, in almost every one of the 125+ shooting wars around the world. No Muslim outrage.
Muslims beat the charred bodies of Western civilians with their shoes, then hang them from a bridge. No Muslim outrage.
Newspapers in Denmark and Norway publish cartoons depicting Mohammed. Muslims are outraged.

Dead children. Dead tourists. Dead teachers. Dead doctors and nurses. Death, destruction and mayhem around the world at the hands of Muslims .. no Muslim outrage ... but publish a cartoon depicting Mohammed with a bomb in his turban and all hell breaks loose.

Come on, is this really about cartoons? They're rampaging and burning flags. They're looking for Europeans to kidnap. They're threatening innkeepers and generally raising holy Muslim hell not because of any outrage over a cartoon. They're outraged because it is part of the Islamic jihadist culture to be outraged. You don't really need a reason. You just need an excuse. Wandering around, destroying property, murdering children, firing guns into the air and feigning outrage over the slightest perceived insult is to a jihadist what tailgating is to a Steeler's fan.

I know and understand that these bloodthirsty murderers do not represent the majority of the world's Muslims. When, though, do they become outraged? When do they take to the streets to express their outrage at the radicals who are making their religion the object of worldwide hatred and ridicule? Islamic writer Salman Rushdie wrote of these silent Muslims in a New York Times article three years ago. "As their ancient, deeply civilized culture of love, art and philosophical reflection is hijacked by paranoiacs, racists, liars, male supremacists, tyrants, fanatics and violence junkies, why are they not screaming?"

Indeed. Why not?

Powerloafing Weblog, the blog of "The World's Smallest Sitcom".

Definitely check out "2 Boldly Loaf"!

J.

I've done been ThinkGeeked! I sent in an action shot - and it's up on their web site!

ThinkGeek :: TIX Led Clock :: Action Shots

Yeah, I know it's pretty lame - but fun nonetheless!

J.

Updated - with pictures of pigs! (No relation to Mohammed, but singing pigs are singing pigs.)

If I put up enough of the images of Mohammed, maybe I'll get a fatwa against Milblog. If so, then I'll get all sorts of folks coming to take a look - and then I could be rolling in the dough from Google Blogads! So, here we go with HUMAN EVENTS ONLINE - Muhammad Cartoon Gallery --. After that, we go to TBIFOC: Let's ask Mohammed about bounties on the heads of infidel cartoonists. Then, A quick visit to Jesus and Mo.

Then there's - the Amazing Retecool -, primarily in Danish - which has some VERY uncomplimentary images of Mohammad.

And then we'll end up at the Mohammed Image Archive.

Guess I'm a bit tired of folks demanding tolerance of their intolerance - with the threat of violence if we don't self-censor anything that might offend them.

J.

When I was a kid, I loved SF movies like 2001 - not so much for the messages but for the special effects. One of the things that always struck me about the future was that it was supposed to be BRIGHT. Lit up, clean, shiny - and going to Disneyland at an early age (and wanting to live in Tomorrowland) reinforced that impression considerably.

Then the 70's hit, and all of a sudden the future dimmed considerably. And as our energy woes increased, you saw a significant number of dystopian SF flicks come down the pipeline - and the future wasn't lit up, clean, or shiny. (Except for the closing scenes in Star Wars - everyone got cleaned up and they waxed the floor of the hall everyone got awards in.)

'Silent Running', 'Bladerunner' and the like continued the trend - the future would be dark, depressing, dismal. And I wonder at times just how much our vision of the future is reflective of the times we find ourselves in.... though it'd be hard to argue that the late 60's would be a time that would inspire bright and shiny dreams of the future.

And you take a look at the success of a series like "Firefly" (Well, on DVD at least) and look at the culture there. It's all over the map, from folks living at the bare edge of 1800's subsistence to the highest of high-tech. What's that the equivalent of - pick your own future?

Well, I don't know about ouy, but I'd pick a future filled with light myself. (Which may explain my liking for odd halogen lamps and LED lighting from IKEA, and why I worked so hard to install halogen undercabinet lighting in the kitchen....)

J.

Down a tenth? And it's a big shrug...

Latest Business News and Financial Information | Reuters.com

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. unemployment rate fell to its lowest level in 4-1/2 years in January as employers hired 193,000 new workers, the government said on Friday in a report revising up job growth for the preceding five months.

The jobless rate dropped to 4.7 percent from 4.9 percent in December, the Labor Department said.

The closely watched report reflected a relatively vigorous labor market and fanned concerns that interest rates were headed higher to keep inflation in check.

Federal Reserve policy-makers raised short-term rates for a 14th straight time on Tuesday, bringing the federal funds rate to 4.5 percent, but the jobs report left analysts convinced the U.S. central bank was not yet finished.

Or, it oculd be folks are just giving up looking for work of any kind... which wouldn't explain the help wanted signs...

Hmmm. Maybe the economy's not doing badly?

J.

This makes me a bit nervous. Though it's not really a secret that they were working on SRBMs...

The Australian: Iran launched 'secret' rocket test [February 04, 2006]

IRAN secretly tested a new surface-to-surface missile (SSM) on January 17, seeking to establish the measurements needed for long-range missiles, the German daily Die Welt reported in its issue to appear today.

The test, conducted by members of the Revolutionary Guard led by Yahya Rahim Safavi, was successful, according to Western diplomats cited by the newspaper, which did not indicate the location where the test took place.

On January 28, Safavi said that Iran would use its ballistic missiles if it was attacked.

"Iran has a ballistic missile with a range of 2,000 kilometres," he said on Iranian public television.

1. The warhead. The early atomic bombs were heavy things, and the payload of a Shaheed is about 2000 lbs max. Bio or chem weapons are a possibility - but chem & bio weapon fusing would be iffy - too high and things disperse too much to be effective, too low and you stand the risk of burial before explosion. (the V-2s used by Germany in WW2 tended to bury themselves before they could explode, limiting the damage they could do) Simply put, the lighter the warhead the longer the range, but the lighter the warhead the less destruction. Sure, you can send the equivalent of a thousand-pound bomb downrange, but if you miss you just sent an expensive noisemaker. And that brings me to the second factor...

2. Targeting. If you don't hit what you're aiming for, what's the point? A CEP of 190m (which is what the Shahab-3 is listed as) isn't bad with a fair-sized nuke - but an explosive warhead? Eh. Better fire it into a large city - you'll stand a chance of hitting something. Of course, if you're changing the missiles' diameter or length, or engine, you'd need to change the software in the guidance section. I doubt it'll get more accurate.

So - worrisome, but not REALLY threatening yet.

Emphasis on... 'Yet'.

J.

Over on PowerLine, there's an interesting article called Power Line: Blowing the Whistle on the CRS - which shows that the Congressional Research Service,

which was chartered to be..

What is the Congressional Research Service

The Congressional Research Service is the public policy research arm of the United States Congress. As a legislative branch agency within the Library of Congress, CRS works exclusively and directly for Members of Congress, their Committees and staff on a confidential, nonpartisan basis.

Read the whole thing, including the linked letter signed by Peter Hoekstra, the Chairman of the Permanet Select Committee on Intelligence. And pay special attention to the footnote on page three.

I note with interest that you responded to this item with a Letter to the Editor on January 27, 2006, but have not yet responded to my January 9 letter. In the future, I hope that press coverage will not be a higher priority for CRS than members of Congress.

Seriously, I'm wondering if the permanent folks in Washington (the non-elected, that is) aren't attempting to set themselves up as the real powers behind the throne (so to speak). They certainly seem to be doing subtle sabotage to things that they shouldn't be touching. When the CRS comes out, speculating on classified intellegence gathering that they don't have access to in the first place, it's hard to come to the conclusion that they're doing it for the good of the country. It seems very self-serving and a grab for attention - especially from an organization that's supposed to provide "comprehensive and reliable analysis, research and information services that are timely, objective, nonpartisan, and confidential, thereby contributing to an informed national legislature."

And it's odd that they're leaking like a sieve - it must be some odd definition of confidential that I'm not aware of.

J.

The cartoon flap is getting pretty interesting. First you have mobs burning the Danish and Norwegian embassies, over the cartoons. Now, this seems a bit like an overreaction to me, but if you look at it from a political standpoint it makes perfect sense. The radical Islamists are staking out their territory, marking the lines so to speak. "Publish a cartoon we don't like, and we'll burn your embassy." A fine bit of intimidation, that, which sets the stage nicely for further blackmail down the line.

You think not? Well, you've got more faith in the goodwill of the radicals than I have at this point. I think they're feeling out just how far they can push things playing the outraged victims of a heinous crime perpetrated on them by the evil West.

You might be interested in the following two links - the writer points out how the acceptance in the west by a good number of academia and policy makers of the concept that identity politics trump all and cultural relativism was the only way to go has gone far in precipitating the current crisis. (I think it's fair to call what's going on a crisis - it's difficult to tell just what's going to happen next and the alternatives all look rather bloody...) He mentions the following...

Unsurprisingly, this whole philosophical movement—insofar as it was based first on essentialism and then, once the group could be defined down through blood, to the excommunication of apostates to that essentialist narrative after the battle over defining the official ethnic and political narrative was internally decided—was destined to end in a will to power. Which is what happens when universalism—even in its softest and most agreed upon form (for instance, it could simply be a contractual, contingent universalism, to satisfy the sensibilities of post modernists)—is discarded in favor of the notion that individualism (the base point at which human universalism as an ideal is at its strongest, the point that Bush has cleverly made over and over again in his speeches) is to be surrendered to collectivism (the point at which the will of the most powerful within the group is always ascendant, and where apostacy, which we might call disagreement, is a legitimate offense), comes to mimic a kind of individualism by united front: “The Arab Street.” “The Jihadist.” Etc. These are types taken as individuals.

The way to fight back against such an historical drift toward a postmodern conception of a world defined by warring narratives vying for itinerate temporary ascendency (what is commonly called relativism, though the concept is not by nature evil) is to discredit the underlying mechanisms that allow them to form, take root, and aquire justification through intellectual means (be those means the academic acceptance and defense of the underlying premises, or the political and public policy adoption of the lessons offered by such defenses).

Identity Politics, Free Speech, and the Future of worldwide Liberalism, 2: a follow-up

Short form - liberalism as constructed presently is doomed. The 'melting pot' ideal of assimilation works much better than a 'patchwork quilt' version, and the insistance on identity politics isn't viable long-term...

Indeed, it may well be fatal for the body which implements it.

J.

First, you get something on the group you want to blackmail. Then, you release a little of it and present your demands. You infer what'll happen if the demands aren't met. Make the demand small - because you want to ge them to accept the demand as valid and too big a payoff will make the mark balk. Once the original demand is met, you ratchet things up and get more as time goes on. But if that original demand isn't met - you escalate things. A few threats, a bit of violence... Sooner or later, the mark will give in and pay off, or suffer serious damage.

But what if the mark goes "No - it's a free speech issue and it's not gonna happen."? Then, a little coordinated action is required.

Telegraph | Opinion | If you get rid of the Danes, you'll have to keep paying the Danegeld

It's some time since I visited Palestine, so I may be out of date, but I don't remember seeing many Danish flags on sale there. Not much demand, I suppose. I raise the question because, as soon as the row about the cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed in Jyllands-Posten broke, angry Muslims popped up in Gaza City, and many other places, well supplied with Danish flags ready to burn. (In doing so, by the way, they offered a mortal insult to the most sacred symbol of my own religion, Christianity, since the Danish flag has a cross on it, but let that pass.)

Why were those Danish flags to hand? Who built up the stockpile so that they could be quickly dragged out right across the Muslim world and burnt where television cameras would come and look? The more you study this story of "spontaneous" Muslim rage, the odder it seems.

The complained-of cartoons first appeared in October; they have provoked such fury only now. As reported in this newspaper yesterday, it turns out that a group of Danish imams circulated the images to brethren in Muslim countries. When they did so, they included in their package three other, much more offensive cartoons which had not appeared in Jyllands-Posten but were lumped together so that many thought they had.

It rather looks as if the anger with which all Muslims are said to be burning needed some pretty determined stoking. Peter Mandelson, who seems to think that his job as European Trade Commissioner entitles him to pronounce on matters of faith and morals, accuses the papers that republished the cartoons of "adding fuel to the flames"; but those flames were lit (literally, as well as figuratively) by well-organised, radical Muslims who wanted other Muslims to get furious. How this network has operated would make a cracking piece of investigative journalism.

Over on DU, looks like they know who the culprits are. I leave it to you to read and decide on the validity of the opining there. One thing I did notice in subsequent comments..

What all fundamentalists have in common is an aversion to progress. This is not so much of a "clash of civilizations" as it is a war against progress and modernity. In my opinion, the Abrahamic religions no longer have a place in the modern world and we are seeing thier death throes. It make take hundreds of years, but eventually I think they will go the way of the Greco-Roman pantheons, the Druids, etc.

Yes there are still millions of adherents and believers, most of them kept that way out of ignorance. I believe that if we do not act now to stop the tide of rising religious fundamentalism, then human society had no chance.

The Guardian article closes with the following:

Right now, at the fashionable White Cube Gallery in Hoxton, you can see the latest work of Gilbert and George, mainly devoted, it is reported, to attacks on the Catholic Church. The show is called Sonofagod Pictures and it features the head of Christ on the Cross replaced with that of a primitive deity. One picture includes the slogan "God loves F***ing".

Like most Christians, I find this offensive, but I think I must live with the offence in the interests of freedom. If I find, however, that people who threaten violence do have the power to suppress what they dislike, why should I bother to defend freedom any more? Why shouldn't I ring up the Hon Jay Jopling, the proprietor, and tell him that I shall burn down the White Cube Gallery unless he tears Gilbert and George off the walls? I won't, I promise, but how much longer before some Christians do? The Islamist example shows that it works.

There is a great deal of talk about responsible journalism, gratuitous offence, multicultural sensitivities and so on. Jack Straw gibbers about the irresponsibility of the cartoons, but says nothing against the Muslims threatening death in response to them. I wish someone would mention the word that dominates Western culture in the face of militant Islam - fear. And then I wish someone would face it down.

It's an interesting time we find ourselves in. And a perilous one, too. It almost makes me long for the certainties of the Cold War.

J.

Iran's basically given the finger to the IAEA, and is going up before the UN Security Council.

Care to guess what country is going to be chairing the Security Council when this reaches it? Here's a couple of hints....

Blackmail.

Blackmail, Part 2.

Yep. Denmark. (Go down a bit for the calender for 2006.)

It's also interesting that Denmark was, in 2005, elected to chair the UN Counter Terrorist Committee. It makes me wonder - would we be seeing this level of hatred over the cartoons if the upcoming chairmanship was going anywhere else?

J.

Sensitivity to other cultures isn't a bad idea, in the abstract. It's kind of like salt when you're cooking. A little bit makes the food taste better, get flavors to blend in ways they wouldn't otherwise. Too much, though, can very easily ruin the dish.

And when you're cooking up something new, figuring out how much fits the dish can be a trial&error proposition. The problem is compounded when you've got a comittee of cooks trying to fight it out to get the dish to what they individually think it should be - and you don't have a say in it. And even if the dish is something you can't hardly stand you don't have the option of scrapping it. Instead, you've got to choke it down the best you can until it's finished. And then you've got to figure where it went wrong in the seasoning.

Firing the cooks is always an option - you see that at times here in the US when political parties go out of power or disappear completely, academic fashions change, social mores and influences change - but it's a long, long process changing how things are added and blended int he great American melting pot. We've spent 20, 30 or more years developing a cultural process which has made 'tolerance' the overwhelming seasoning in the stew - without any acknowledgement that the concept could be poisonous. (As long as I'm continuing the cooking metaphor, consider nutmeg. A very useful seasoning - yet poisonous in large quantities. Okay, I'm done with cooking metaphors.)

Now it seems our sensitivity is being used against us.

'Sensitivity' can have brutal consequences

Very few societies are genuinely multicultural. Most are bicultural: On the one hand, there are folks who are black, white, gay, straight, pre-op transsexual, Catholic, Protestant, Buddhist, worshippers of global-warming doom-mongers, and they rub along as best they can. And on the other hand are folks who do not accept the give-and-take, the rough-and-tumble of a "diverse" "tolerant" society, and, when one gently raises the matter of their intolerance, they threaten to kill you, which makes the question somewhat moot.

One day the British foreign secretary will wake up and discover that, in practice, there's very little difference between living under Exquisitely Refined Multicultural Sensitivity and Sharia. As a famously sensitive Dane once put it, "To be or not to be, that is the question."

When a country doesn't want to fight, it's not wise to press the issue. Bin Laden thought the US weak, figured he could attack - and look what happened to the Taliban who supported him, and Iraq. The 'warrior society' clashed with a society that didn't want to fight, but realized that there was no choice. (Let's just postulate that a strongly worded letter to the UN post 9/11 and a couple of dozen cruise missiles wouldn't have done the job, 'k?)

Now it looks like the RoP is trying to start a cultural clash that'll hopefully leave them the victors. I think they've overestimated just how much slack they're going to get by playing on our tolerance and sensitivity for their bruised feelings....

J.

The Danish Embassy torched in Damascus and Lebanon. Suicide Bomber (hopefully a fake one) in London. And you're getting such tolerant suggestions as these from the folks who are 'upset' by the cartoons...

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/graphics/2006/02/04/ucartoon.jpg
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/graphics/2006/02/05/nflag05.jpg
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/graphics/2006/02/05/nflag05b.jpg

You've got a lot to worry about, culture-wise.

I find it really interesting, as well as saddening, that there's such an outcry on this issue. The thing is - the freedom of speech that the protestors are using is something that they'd deny those they disagree with - to the point where they advocate killing those they disagree with. In other words, free speech is a great concept and they're all for it - as long as they get to use it as a club to shut the other guy up through threats and intimidations.

Beheadings. Killings. Firebombs into embassies. Over the cartoons shown here. You know what I want to see on CNN and MSNBC?

Pictures of the burned embassies, next to the cartoons. In fact, I may do that later. And you know something? If you're Muslim and you're offended - my give-a-shit meter's pegging to the left.

J.

Yep, I can see why they're threatening death here. Feel free to copy this image, and post it wherever you might like. 3 cartoons, three pictures of the protests. That seems balanced, doesn't it? The pictures are from the BBC, by the way, and the cartoons from Human Events Online. Sorry the paste-up doesn't quite fit my formatting - but them's the breaks. Try clicking right here for an uncluttered copy. And if you find my pasteup offensive, I refer you to the following meter showing just how much I care.

J.

sounds like things'll cancel each other out.

United Press International - NewsTrack - Scientist predicts 'mini Ice Age'

ST. PETERSBURG, Russia, Feb. 7 (UPI) -- A Russian astronomer has predicted that Earth will experience a "mini Ice Age" in the middle of this century, caused by low solar activity.
Khabibullo Abdusamatov of the Pulkovo Astronomic Observatory in St. Petersburg said Monday that temperatures will begin falling six or seven years from now, when global warming caused by increased solar activity in the 20th century reaches its peak, RIA Novosti reported.
The coldest period will occur 15 to 20 years after a major solar output decline between 2035 and 2045, Abdusamatov said.
Dramatic changes in the earth's surface temperatures are an ordinary phenomenon, not an anomaly, he said, and result from variations in the sun's energy output and ultraviolet radiation.
The Northern Hemisphere's most recent cool-down period occurred between 1645 and 1705. The resulting period, known as the Little Ice Age, left canals in the Netherlands frozen solid and forced people in Greenland to abandon their houses to glaciers, the scientist said.

But anyway, it'll be interesting to see if this mini-Ice Age theory bears out - and what our reaction will be to it. Wait a sec... (counts on fingers...) Dang. Well, maybe I'll live to see it if I make it to my 90s...

J.

and probably fatwa inducing, but what the heck.

Urban Legends Reference Pages: Automobiles (Pink Lady)

Quick! Someone slap a burqa on that woman, lest a Muslim be offended!

J.

I've been going through the Stargate: Atlantis set from Netflix, and I'm starting to get a bit disgusted. Oh, the production values and special effects are great, and I LIKE the actors involved - but the plots are getting just a bit... wierd - and I'm finding the values contradictory.

In one episode, for example, you run up against a culture that's been dedicated to finding a blood-borne protein complex that the Wraith (vampiric energy/bloodsuckers that they are) can't tolerate. (How dedicated? During the last periodic culling, or harvesting, by the Wraith, 10,000 soldiers fought to the death to buy a few more hours for the researchers to finish experiments and hide their data. At least, according to the script writers.) The theory is that if they can immunize their population with this, the Wraith will feed elsewhere.

This is seen as a noble and laudible goal by our heros, and they help out and get this stuff into production when it turns out it works, (though with worries that it's not been tested enough) and they find out as a side benefit this stuff kills a Wraith that tries to feed on an immunized person. This brings up severe concerns by Our Heros - apparently it's okay to shoot and blow up the Wraith, but it's not okay to disrupt their biochemistry. (Hey, after finding out this protein's poisionous, I'd start dipping hollow-point ammo in the stuff and passing it out as fast as I could to folks who might have Wraith contact.)

Then the real twist kicks in, and we find that this stuff ruins lung function in half the population. (Which is still less that they lose in a Wraith culling, apparently.) A vote is taken by the population, and 96% want to continue with the immunization program - despite the 50% fatality rate. Our Heros depart immediately afterward, seemingly determined to cut all contact with this society. They're abandoning a potent weapon and grateful allies, because the allies don't have a problem with losing half their population NOW if it means no more Wraith attacks LATER.

This just strikes me as... wrong. It doesn't seem to fit.

There's another episode I'm mulling over that I don't like the way OH acted. Seems to me like they're expecting the societies they encounter to have a value structure unaffected by millenia of Wraith activity - and I just don't expect to see that. OH, apparently, do. And it's starting to affect enjoyment of the series.

J.

And it's in an alternative weekly. Not surprising, that. If there's not freedom to print the offensive, there's no freedom to decide what's benign.

The New York Observer Politicker: NY Press Kills Cartoons; Staff Walks Out

The editorial staff of the alternative weekly New York Press walked out today, en masse, after the paper's publishers backed down from printing the Danish cartoons that have become the center of a global free-speech fight.

Editor-in-Chief Harry Siegel emails, on behalf of the editorial staff:

New York Press, like so many other publications, has suborned its own professed principles. For all the talk of freedom of speech, only the New York Sun locally and two other papers nationally have mustered the minimal courage needed to print simple and not especially offensive editorial cartoons that have been used as a pretext for great and greatly menacing violence directed against journalists, cartoonists, humanitarian aid workers, diplomats and others who represent the basic values and obligations of Western civilization. Having been ordered at the 11th hour to pull the now-infamous Danish cartoons from an issue dedicated to them, the editorial group—consisting of myself, managing editor Tim Marchman, arts editorJonathan Leaf and one-man city hall bureau Azi Paybarah, chose instead to resign our positions.

We have no desire to be free speech martyrs, but it would have been nakedly hypocritical to avoid the same cartoons we'd criticized others for not running, cartoons that however absurdly have inspired arson, kidnapping and murder and forced cartoonists in at least two continents to go into hiding. Editors have already been forced to leave papers in Jordan and France for having run these cartoons. We have no illusions about the power of the Press (NY Press, we mean), but even on the far margins of the world-historical stage, we are not willing to side with the enemies of the values we hold dear, a free press not least among them.

This was not an easy decision. I've been reading the Press since 1988 and have dreamed of running it for nearly as long. The paper's editorial staff has worked impossibly hard hours and has come quite a ways in only a few months towards restoring the paper's tarnished editorial reputation and credibility. I'm proud of the work we've
done, and wish we'd had time to finish the job. I wish the Press all the best, and hope that under new ownership and leadership it can again be an invaluable read for all good Gothamites.

J.

Changed what? Changed the meter. I kept looking at it, and realized it wasn't getting the point across the way I wanted. So instead of a Give-A-Shit meter, it's now a 'CARE' meter. Darn thing still pegs to the left, though. Dang.

Might have to see about getting one that's not busted one of these days.

J.

Power Line: Inside the Finsbury Park mosque

Let's see. CBW suits, gas mask, stolen and forged passports and identity documents, hunting knives, handcuffs, stun guns, CS spray, laminating equipment, credit cards and checkbooks.

Hmm. Let's see. I've got a CBW suit and gas mask in the basement. (leftovers from my military time.) I can see a church/mosque having a checkbook and credit cards for operating expenses... but these were hidden under rugs and above ceilings. Wouldn't a locked box or a safe have been simpler?

Kind of looks like these folks weren't so benign as they tried to make themselves appear....

J.

LILEKS (James) the bleat

Heard an interesting conversation on the Hewitt show today ‘twixt HH, Joe Carter, Medved, and Prager re: the Dreaded Cartoons, and whether or not newspapers should continue to drape them in a burqua lest they enflame. I side with the “print ‘em” side, not to cause offense, but because they’re news. (Asked a few comrades at the paper today what they thought, and, good newspapermen all, they said “print’ em.” They’re news.) Later I thought: there are three belief systems that the media won’t ridicule: Islam, Scientology, and Astrology.

I doubt whether Muslims would enjoy the company.

Huh. You learn something new every day.

J.

Barry Manilow Tops US Chart

Barry Manilow is back in a big way. The 70s crooner, whose hits started to dry up two decades ago, is this week having the biggest comeback since Rod Stewart and doing it the same way. His new album ‘Love Songs of the 50’s’ is a sure bet to debut at number one in the USA this week.

Manilow is expected to selling more than 140,000 units this week and push out Il Divo, Mary J. Blige and Jamie Foxx.

It is a marvelous feat for Manilow whose last major hit, coincidentally also a cover, was ‘Let’s Hang On’ back in 1981.

Nah, probably not.

J.

DactylFractyl.

J.

DEMO.com : The Premier Launchpad for Emerging Technologies

So little time. Enjoy!

J.

24th Century Interior Design

I am officially impressed. And he did this in an APARTMENT. Man, unless 'apartment' in the UK is the equivalent of 'condo' in the US, when his lease is up he's going to lose his damage deposit.

Makes what I did look pretty paltry in comparison. If I won the lottery, I'd give this guy a call - I've got ideas about a home theater setup... which isn't going to happen unless I win the lottery. Dang. Better go buy a ticket.

J.

Bush told to ‘shut up’ over cartoons - Mideast/N. Africa - MSNBC.com

BEIRUT, Lebanon - Hundreds of thousands of Shiite Muslims transformed a religious ceremony in Lebanon on Thursday into an emotional but peaceful protest against cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad.

“Defending the prophet should continue worldwide,” Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Hezbollah, told the crowd. “Let (U.S. Secretary of State) Condoleezza Rice, (President) Bush and all the tyrants shut up: We are a nation that can’t forgive, be silent or ease up when they insult our prophet and our sacred values.”

“Today, we are defending the dignity of our prophet with a word, a demonstration but let George Bush and the arrogant world know that if we have to ... we will defend our prophet with our blood, not our voices,” Nasrallah added.

In order for Hamas and Hezbollah to maintain their grip on the people - a grip they see threatened by the introduction of democratic values in the ME, threatened by the possibility of being voted out of power instead of keeping their stranglehold on the people by custom and intimidation, they've got to keep this boiling.

The problem I see is that if we (that is to say the West) backs down on the issue of free speech then it won't be long until they DEMAND that something else they're offended by be censored or silenced. Today, there's riots over cartoons that were printed last October. What's occurred since then that they might find offensive?

For instance, take a look at this. Take it by itself - divorced from the context of religion. Would this be worth rioting over? Killing people? Add in the context of a damnably intolerant religion - and then would it be?

It's getting clearer that SOME in Islam are demanding a tolerance that they're unwilling to give the rest of the world. And that I, for one, won't agree to.

J.

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Copies of Koran found lying in a drain in Pak

Lahore, February 8: At least 3,000 protesters enraged by the alleged desecration of the Koran clashed with police and torched two cinemas in Pakistan's second largest city Lahore, police said on Wednesday.

The city, was tense after the mob rampaged through a poor neighbourhood overnight and also smashed up dozens of vehicles, local police officer Mohammad Abbas said.

The trouble erupted late on Tuesday when copies of the Muslim holy book were found lying in a drain in the Bhatta chowk area on the fringes of the sprawling city.

J.

Ye olde heatsink fan in Big Blue was developing a rather unpleasant sound. So after looking at the various possibilities re heatsink/fan combos, I decided to try a non-fan solution. (Hey, what the heck. It's only a CPU, right? What's the worst that could happen?)

I got this particular one over at MicroCenter. The installation wasn't bad, the documentation was pretty clear, and this gave me the chance to get some of the cables and wires tucked away a bit better.

However, the only orientation I could arrange with my case setup was to have the radiator system flat against the bottom of the power supply. Yep, we're talkin' no air flow here. At all. Then I remembered - there was a fan in the top of the power supply, as well as out the back.

Please note, when I talk about 'top' of the power supply, it's the only way the power supply would properly fit in the case, and have 4 screws hold it down so it wouldn't move. I thought about it a while, (like about ten seconds) and realized that the radiator HAD to have airflow through it somehow. And if that meant flipping the power supply, then so be it. (Well, the case was a cheap one. Guess instead of cutting corners they just plain inverted one. I don't see any reasonable way to redo the holes, unfortunately.)

I flipped the pwoer supply over, got one screw into it to hold it in place - and the second fan intake is right against the radiator. When the system's at idle (IE I don't have any CPU intensive processes running in the background like SETI@Home) it's hanging right around 105 degrees or so. Fully loaded, I see the temperature rise to 135. This is within the limits established by Intel - I need to keep it under 155 or so. (What'll happen when the ambient temperature's about 80 instead of 67 remains to be seen.) I've got three other fans pumping air into the case, so I think, for the time being, I've got enough cooling going. But you know, it sure looks wierd depending on something like this for cooling.

J.

When you've got a good hate on, you don't see it. It's hard to step back and see things as they really are. Once when I was griping about Clinton (back around '92 or so) one of my co-workers said "Man, you really hate him!" And I thought about it... and realized I didn't hate him so much as I was vastly disappointed by him.

But hate makes you see things as they aren't. And it's easy to believe the wildest things. Take a look. The guy takes one thing, spins it into something entirely unrelated... and sees it at completely plausible and reasonable.

(Me - I see it other ways. Bush might not make it out of office. Bird flu pandemic, nuke in a boat on the Potomac, air to air missiles aimed at Air Force One on short final, a suicide bomber getting through security, a John Hinkley jr. clone with better aim - being President means wearing a big whopping target on your back. Leave the end date open - it could be sooner than we all think.)

Hate is corrosive. Hate is addictive. Hate feels real damn good. Hate's energizing, stimulating, and soothing all at the same time. You don't even have to be rational in your hate... all you have to do is...

Hate.

J.

You've seen them, I've sure. OpEd cartoons creating the printed equivalent of a frothing rant, spittle flying against Bush&Co, and Cheny, and anyone who dares say that the ideas of the right aren't wrong. (Ted Rall, Mike Lukovitch are two that come to mind right off. But take a look in your major metro paper - you'll see examples of others..) Naturally some are going to see them as being a brave example of self-expression, some are going to look on it as 'speaking truth to power' - (a fatuous and grandstanding statement if ever there was one) - and some will just look at them, shrug, and go on to the comics section.

You also see it a lot from the 'beautiful people' in Hollywood. The folks who figure that by virtue of their having learned to fake everything (even sincerity) for the camera that they're somehow entitled to make pronouncements about everything that they find politically offensive. Somehow, by taking the opposite tack from the goverment they're being brave, rebellious, and they get folks who support them to reinforce their visions of themselves as being incredibly wise and all-knowing.

But is it really courage and bravery when you won't take on the targets that WILL strike back? Who WILL kill you in a heartbeat for taking the wrong view? Over at "Kesher Talk: The measure of artistic risk" the idea of 'speaking truth to power' is exposed as meaningless if 'power' doesn't care what you say - and the silence of the media and comics on extremeist Islam is very telling.

For instance, the concept of bravery as it pertains to the arts is now redefined.

Courage, when considered of an artist, can mean one of several things, but it is the sense of risk that defines it.

It can mean a willingness to try what has not been done before. A chef may display courage, and risks the possibility that diners may gag on some brave new creation.

It can mean a willingness to risk the sacrifice of one's own career, like a pop musician being drawn to some other genre of music.

But it can no longer mean merely being offensive, engaging in political or social mockery, save in the case of a few certain targets, because now we all know where the risk is.

There is no risk in mocking politicians, now matter how intensively the abuse is served. There is no risk in mocking any establishements of American or Western culture- no harm will ensue. Performing the "Vagina Monologues" isn't an act of bravery, unless one does it in Saudi Arabia, perhaps. Every artist alive today now knows the limits: you can do this, which is as brave as taunting a stuffed teddy bear, or you can do that, which amounts to taunting a very hungry very uncaged bear.

Bravery, to an artist, is now an all or nothing thing. Leave the repressive regimes alone, and all your efforts, no matter how avante garde, provocative, or just plain offensive your work is, and you are just pretending at courage. Cross the line and say something about Islam, and your life is one the line.

All the gray areas have vanished in a week. It's as if mountaineers were to suddenly be faced with only two choices: Everest, or the plastic rock climbing wall. Long after this dies in the news, its going to echo in the heads of every writer, poet, standup comedian and performance artist- go after any target but the big one, and you're only faking it, playing it safe. It doesn't matter whether they admit it or not, whether they rewrite their material or not, it will be there, in their minds, and it will affect things. Even Margaret Cho knows she can curse Bush all she wants, but she'd better keep her mouth shut about you-know-who if whe doesn't want to bleed to death in the street. Speaking Truth to Power is only a heroic act if Power chooses to make an issue of it.

No, you won't, because they aren't happening. There's been no death camps, no punishment squads, no newspapers closed, no officers in the copy rooms of radio and television stations, no risk to folks who speak against Bush. You see on some sites all sorts of wild speculation - and that sort of speculation will not be censored by any government agency. (Sometimes the site owner or moderator will dump a comment that's not in accordance with the slant of the site, or even goes too far for them.) But 'speak truth to power'? Heck, you can do that all day long and nothing will come of it. And as far as censorship goes - the only censoring going on is strictly voluntary.. and it's done to avoid offending the radical Islamists.

Because they know they can't speak 'truth to power' about Islam, without facing a backlash. And they'll only attack targets that won't fight back.

J.

Woke up with a pounding headache & mild nausea - went back and slept from about 10 to 3. Felt like leftovers all day... not sure what did it. It's rare (and unpleasant) when that happens.

Thinking about some of the things going on - you've probably seen bits about Gore's speech, and the Mars Rovers (Hmmm, wouldn't that be a good name for a singing group?) and of course, two guys who dared counterprotest a Muslim hate-rally.

Ah, isn't the world just such an interesting place these days?

J.