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.

Comments are closed for this post due to comment spam.

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.

And water-resistant. How can you lose?

I'd Rather Hunt With Dick Cheney >Bumper Sticker.

Heh.

J.

The Top Ten Sci-Fi Films That Never Existed

So the news came out that the Half Life movie directed by Quentin Tarantino is destined to join the list of the greatest science fiction movies that were never actually filmed. It has damned good company...

Man, it's horrible.

And what they could have done with Doom... I always wondered why they DIDN'T go for the gut-twists that Carpenter put into his version of "The Thing."

Go. Read. And think about the movies that might have been.

J.

Depends on your point of view. It's decidedly true that anything positive out of Iraq isn't going to get any air time. After all, good news doesn't get the viewers the way something like Abu Ghraib does. Yet is it the whole story? Is the media even INTERESTED in telling the whole story?

THIS WILL MAKE YOU PROUD

Accounts of American valor are dismissed by the press as propaganda, yet accounts of American difficulties are heralded as objectivity. It makes you wonder if the role of the media is to inform or to depress - to report or to deride. To tell the truth, or to feed us lies.

As with the Danish cartoons, more and more the media is ommitting what doesn't fit and emphasizing things that are possibly damaging. You won't see CNN put up the cartoons because they don't want to inflame the situation (because if they did, the cartoons would be seen as very tame by Western standards, leading people to possibly conclude "WTF are they so riled up about?" which wouldn't have the desired effect of creating a preferred victim status for the Islamic protestors) - yet Abu Ghraib's something that needed to be on 24/7, and rumors in TIME of a flushed Koran sparked deadly riots.

The propaganda? US bad, everyone else good and justifiably aggreived against the US.

Personally, I'm getting a bit tired of it.

J.

FARK.com: (1898359) Theme: Sitcom situations for Mohammed

Go. Be inflamed.

J.

In that on occasion you get a better look into someone's head than you really expect... or want. For instance, over on Radio Blogger Hugh Hewett is interviewing Jonathan Chait, who has penned (I originally had 'peened' there, which was a mistake but appropriate in a way - but decidedly obscure in meaning) several editorial columns of interest. His attitude, to me, is emblematic of the editorial left. (Sorry, Jason...) He knows, without any possibility of doubt, without any hesitation, that what HE wants is what's best for everyone.

Yeah, that's a common failing with editorialists, isn't it? On the right, it's rather visibly self-correcting - you get folks like Ann Coulter with her 'raghead' comment, and people look at her and go "Lady, what's your damn problem?" Limbaugh and Boortz - they tell you right up front that they're entertainers, and NOT to take what they say as true without researching the thing for yourself. On the left? Not so much. There seems to be a tacit silence in a lot of cases.

But you get someone like this, and I'm reminded of a certain passage from a favorite song of mine...

And I waked in and sat down and they gave me a piece of paper, said, "Kid, see the phsychiatrist, room 604."

And I went up there, I said, "Shrink, I want to kill. I mean, I wanna, I
wanna kill. Kill. I wanna, I wanna see, I wanna see blood and gore and
guts and veins in my teeth. Eat dead burnt bodies. I mean kill, Kill,
KILL, KILL." And I started jumpin up and down yelling, "KILL, KILL," and
he started jumpin up and down with me and we was both jumping up and down yelling, "KILL, KILL." And the sargent came over, pinned a medal on me, sent me down the hall, said, "You're our boy."

Naturally, the certainty, the self-assurance, the cheerleading HAS to come with the job when you write editorials, no matter which point of the political spectrum you're sitting at. That's what you're getting paid for, after all. And when you get folks jumping up and down with you and saying the same things, you're getting reinforcement that YOUR way is the RIGHT way. (Well, correct...) And for your audience - it is.

But what if it isn't? Are there doubts? Are there uncertainties? Is there any cognitive dissonance when you look at what's going on in the real world and try to make what you see fit what you believe? Is it possible to judge objectively, when you've staked out an editorial position and are determined that you'll defend it, no matter what might come along to refute it? (I see that in the AJC - if a position is taken that isn't tenable, the opinion or position just ... disappears... and is never mentioned again.) Or once you establish your thoughts and opinions, are you never to re-examine them or embellish them? Never to take additional info on a decision and go from "Okay, Items 1, 2 and 3 are primary" to "Okay, Items 1 and 2 are de-emphasized and 3's gone, but 4, 5, 6, and 7 support it"?

The world is not a static place. Some of the things I believed and felt when I was 15 were not what I thought when I was thirty, and are barely rememberable as I approach 50. (God. Time passes way too fast.) Part of it is watching what's gone on and realizing that some of what I thought was fact, wasn't - part of it is watching and realizing that some of what I thought false, wasn't. So I cast my net wide, and examine a lot of information. Admittedly I have filters as to what I'll accept - and mine may not be yours. But I examine my beliefs, test them against reality, knowledge, and personal experience and observation. When they fit, they're kept. When they don't - they aren't.

Examine your preconceptions - because the only thing constant is change.

J.

And you ought to see the picture that sparked THIS. Naturally, some folks took offense. (Then again, more and more it's seeming like the RoP adherants are hardwired to "Offended". My caremeter is just barely twitching at this point.*) (As soon as I get a picture of the current level, I'll put it up.)

The Volokh Conspiracy - -#1139785395

So I guess it's not just that we aren't supposed to draw pictures of Mohammed as terrorist, or of Mohammed at all; we aren't even supposed to draw pictures that are obviously not of Mohammed, and that are meant to mock the inability to draw pictures of Mohammed.

Well, I have to admit: The folks who are offended by this have a First Amendment right to be offended. They should feel entirely free to be offended.

The rest of us should feel entirely free, as a matter of civility as well as of law, to say: Your decision to be offended by this particular cartoon gives you no rights (again, as a matter of civility as well as of law) to tell us to stop printing it.

J.

(* - Could be worse - it could be pegged to the left.)

J.

The MSM observed...

DRUDGE REPORT FLASH 2006?

Gregory asked White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan about the Cheney hunting accident.

'David, hold on, the cameras aren't on right now,' McClellan replied. 'You can do this later.'

'Don't accuse me of trying to pose to the cameras,' Gregory said, voice rising. 'Don't be a jerk to me personally when I'm asking you a serious question.'

'You don't have to yell,' McClellan said.

'I will yell,'' said Gregory, pointing a finger at McCellan at his dais. 'If you want to use that podium to try to take shots at me personally, which I don't appreciate, then I will raise my voice, because that's wrong.'

'Calm down, Dave, calm down,' said McClellan.

'I'll calm down when I feel like calming down,' Gregory said. 'You answer the question.'

'I have answered the question,' said McClellan, who had maintained that the vice president's office was in charge of getting the information out and worked with the ranch owner to do that. 'I'm sorry you're getting all riled up about.'

'I am riled up,' Gregory said, 'because you're not answering the question.'"

Someone pull the Jolt colas and espresso machines out of the press pool room and put in "Taster's Choice" decaf, please? A high-strung media is great for a circus - but lousy when it comes to reporting.

J.

Notably, I'd say.

Michael J. Totten: Iraq Without a Gun

ERBIL, IRAQ – Until just a few months ago, Iraq was one of the last places in the world a normal person would want to fly into. Baghdad had the only international airport in the country, and you risked your life just taking a taxi to the kinda-sorta half-way “safe” Green Zone from the terminal. Today you can fly directly to Erbil (known as Hawler in Kurdish), the capital of Iraqi Kurdistan in the north, where the war is already over.

J.

I've been getting DVDs of 'Stargate SG1' and 'Stargate Atlantis', and a couple of 'Enterprise'. My impressions are as follows.

1. SG1's team goes in and explores cautiously - tries to avoid trouble. Doesn't always succeed, tries hard to resolve it. Geek scientist occasionally causes problems, but more often than not doesn't. Working my way through the 4th season, looking forward to 6 more to go.

2. Atlantis team goes out cautiously, expecting trouble, sometimes finds it, has made enemies. Geek scientist is showing remarkable growth, might end up being darn near an action hero. I look forward to the second season on DVD.

3. Enterprise crew goes out looking for adventure, with spandexed Vulcan complete with obligatory water balloons. Compared to SG1 crews, they've got all the caution and self-preservation skills of a dodo. They should all be wearing red shirts. (Update: Going through another episode - "Terra Nova" - damn, but the crew's stupid. Maybe I'm just getting to be a cautious old fart, but sending two guys into an unmapped cavern with an unknown number of possibly hostile entities in it strikes me as pushing hard for a Darwin award.)

I know that Enterprise has a lot of back story to live down to... but come ON, folks! Vulcans come from a hot (supposedly) planet - you mean to tell me one would sit around on the bridge of the Enterprise in little more than underwear? Oh, right, it's a 'thermal garment'. Right. It's really an excuse to get some "Seven of Nine" eye candy into the series, hypertrophied mammary glands and all. (Not that there anything WRONG with that, but come on - eye candy isn't an excuse for bad acting!)

And is it just me, or is it becoming de rigeur to put the 'exotic' aliens into skintight spandex? With water balloons strategically located? Come on, folks, let's go for an alien look - make 'em vertical instead of horizontal! Or maybe two pair of them? How about a bit of variety?

At least with SG1 and Atlantis the aliens are ALIEN. The Go'auld use human hosts (humanity being apparently ubiquitous) and humanity's pretty heavily seeded throughout the Pegasus galaxy - but Enterprise? You've got Klingons, and folks in rubber suits. Klingons aren't alien any more, they're just perpetually pissed off.

Oh, well. Enough of the rant. Hope you enjoy your Valentine's Day! (And James - you DID get Linda something other than a new house, right? (grin!))

J.

DoD News: Press Briefing on Overview of Operation Restoring Rights in Tall Afar, Iraq

So the enemy moved into here to establish this support base and safe haven. They also moved into this area because there's very dense urban terrain in the city of Tall Afar. It's difficult for our forces, organized as we are as a mechanized force, primarily, to access these areas. And so the enemy went into this safe haven and used it not only to access sources of external support, but they also used this area to train, organize, and equip their forces for employment not only locally here in Tall Afar, but without (sic) the region and potentially throughout the country. So it was very important for us to deny the enemy the ability to use this safe haven and to terrorize this population.

To protect themselves here, what the enemy did is they waged the most brutal and murderous campaign against the people of Tall Afar.

I'd like just to briefly characterize the enemy, describe who we're fighting here. This is an enemy, who when they came in, they removed all the imams from the mosques, and they replaced them with Islamic extremist laymen. They removed all the teachers from the schools and replaced them with people who had a fifth-grade education and who preached hatred and intolerance. They murdered people. In each of their cells that they have within the city has a direct action cell of about 100 or so fighters. They have a kidnapping and murder cell; they have a propaganda cell, a mortar cell, a sniper cell -- a very high degree of organization here. And what the enemy did is to keep the population from performing other activities. To keep the population afraid, they kidnapped and murdered large numbers of the people here, and it was across the spectrum. A Sunni Turkmen imam was kidnapped and murdered. A very fine man, a city councilman, Councilman Suliman (sp), was pulled out of his car in front of his children and his wife and gunned down with about 30 gunshot wounds to his head. The enemy conducted indiscriminate mortar attacks against populated areas and wounded scores of children and killed many others. The enemy here did just the most horrible things you can imagine, in one case murdering a child, placing a booby trap within the child's body and waiting for the parent to come recover the body of their child and exploding it to kill the parents. Beheadings and so forth.

So the enemy's grip over this population to maintain the safe haven was based on fear, coercion, and these sort of heinous acts. And not only were they targeting civilians, brutally murdering them, torturing them, but they were also kidnapping the youth of the city and brainwashing them and trying to turn them into hate-filled murderers.

So, really, there could be no better enemy for our soldiers and Iraqi army soldiers to pursue and defeat and deny the enemy the safe haven in this area.

So I just want to quickly summarize what's occurred here, and then talk about some of the reasons for the success we've had thus far. The regiment began operating here on the 1st of May with our lead squadron, 2nd Squadron. They partnered with the unit that was doing a very effective job at disrupting the enemy here and reinforced their efforts. That was the 1st of the 14th Cavalry.

They began to conduct aggressive offensive operations and reconnaissance operations in the city. The enemy noticed that we're challenging this support base, a base that they desperately wanted to hold onto, so they began to attack our forces in large numbers. And we had stand-up conventional fights against the enemy in this dense urban terrain, where up to 200 of the enemy were attacking our troopers as they conducted operations in this urban area.

The result of those operations were that Iraqi security forces and armed forces killed large numbers of the enemy in those engagements, 30 to 40 of the enemy at a time. So the enemy realized this tactic isn't working, so they went back into harassment attacks -- IEDs, roadside bombs, mortar attacks, sniper attacks against our forces, and attempted to do sort of hit-and-run operations against us.

But our troopers were very aggressive in maintaining contact with the enemy. We have an air/ground team here, so our aerial scouts were able to maintain contact with the enemy as they tried to move into the interior of the city. So we pursued them very effectively.

And we were able to gain access to intelligence here by a very good relationship with the people, who recognized this enemy for who they are and were very forthcoming with human intelligence. In one raid in the beginning of June, for example, we were able to capture 26 targeted individuals, some of the worst people here in Tall Afar, within a 30-minute period. And the enemy began to realize this isn't working either, they can't hide in plain sight anymore.

So what the enemy did in response -- and this was part of this continuous interaction we've had with them since our arrival in this area -- is they intensified their campaign of intimidation over the people. They conducted more sniper attacks against innocent civilians, more mortar attacks.

And in response, we targeted their mortar teams. We killed four of their mortar teams and captured two. We killed about 12 of their sniper teams. And we relentlessly pursued the enemy until the enemy realized that a lot of our power was building now toward Tall Afar because we wanted -- as we were figuring this enemy out, we were preparing for operations to destroy their safe haven in a particular neighborhood of the city.

So as the specter of coalition operations became apparent to the enemy, as we isolated the city, as we improved the effectiveness of our traffic control points to limit their movement, as we continued to pursue the enemy, the enemy responded by sending their fighters, many of them, into the outlying communities to hide in the outlying communities until the operation was over.

But what we did is we conducted effective operations in the outlying areas. Simultaneous with our operations in Tall Afar, we were establishing a permanent security capability along the Syrian border in Rabiya, south of Sinjar Mountain and the town of Sinjar. We took over the town of Bosh (phonetic) from the insurgents and established -- reestablished the police force and the Iraqi army there. We went to the town of Afgani (phonetic) about 12 kilometers north of here. We captured, just out of that one town, one small town of Afgani (phonetic), about 116 of the enemy in three separate operations.

One operation -- that was the most effective -- was an Iraqi army exclusive operation, and then that we established two Iraqi companies and recruited police. The police are done training and now there's a permanent security presence there. The enemy is denied that area. We operated in other outlying communities and captured many more of the enemy. So now, the enemy had that option taken away from them, and they resolved then to defend this safe haven in Sarai. I had a chance to walk downtown today and found a lot of their propaganda in their abandoned fighting positions. And this propaganda was: we cannot afford to lose Tall Afar; we're going to defeat, you know, the coalition forces and Iraqi security forces here. It was exhorting their forces to defend Tall Afar at all costs.

So the enemy then -- as we continue to concentrate our efforts on Tall Afar, we've brought in some very capable Iraqi security forces to help us. The 3rd Iraqi Army Division, which is our partnership unit -- which over the past four months has gained a tremendous amount of capability -- integrated them into our operations completely, and then, we also brought in some additional Iraqi army battalions as well some Iraqi police formations. And the enemy then moved into some of these outlying neighborhoods outside of their support base, and they wanted to take the fight there to divert our attention. They also tried some diplomatic efforts to call off attacks for a couple of weeks and to act as if the problem was solved -- again, a desperate attempt to avoid the removal of this safe haven in Tall Afar.

This would have been news (if only peripherally) if nothing were being done. Like the statues the Taliban destroyed in Afghanistan, it'd be news in a "Well, it's a shame but there's nothing we can do about it" sort of way.

But the Army went in. It killed and captured terrorists. There was almost no loss of life TO the terrorists. By the measures of any previous conflicts (previous to OIF, that is) this was a smashing success. This is stuff that warplanners for the next fifty years are going to be studying as how to do it RIGHT.

And it doesn't rate a mention on CNN. Not enough US casualties.

Q: Colonel, Charlie Aldinger with Reuters. A couple of brief questions. First of all, what does the "H. R." stand for? What name do you go by besides your initials?

COL. MCMASTER: I can't tell you. It's -- I go by H. R., really, but it's Herbert Raymond. So -- and my mom named me H. R., you know? So everybody calls me H. R.

Q: You've painted an extremely rosy picture of your campaign so far. Have you taken and secured Tall Afar, and are you going to be able to hold it and keep it?

COL. MCMASTER: Yeah. Those are great questions. Nothing's rosy in Iraq, okay? So I don't want to give you an unrealistic perspective here. What I tried to describe with you was a continuous interaction with the enemy that we've had since our arrival, but an interaction that has been in our favor. We've maintained the initiative over this enemy.

So is Tall Afar secure? No, it's not secure. Is the enemy on the run in Tall Afar? Yes, the enemy's on the run. And we're going to conduct some follow-on operations in the next week or so to relentlessly pursue the enemy across the city.

The standard for success for us here is to ensure that the enemy can no longer wage an effective campaign of intimidation over the population of Tall Afar. And to get to your question, in terms of can we permanently secure it, the answer is, yes, and we're taking all measures to do that. In fact, it's the most complicated part of the mission, is how we provide permanent security. We're introducing Iraqi security forces into the center of the city. Iraqi army will have access to the population. They'll be in patrol bases in the interior of the city.

One of the main local grievances here is that the police force is not representative of the population. In fact, although the Sunni- Turkmen population is 75 percent of the city's population, there are virtually no policemen who are Sunni-Turkmen, and the reason is, if they had joined the police force, their families would have been murdered. So now that we've lifted this ball of fear from the people, we're recruiting police right now. They're going to go to school here in the next couple weeks. We're going to introduce them into Tall Afar with Iraqi army and coalition force backup. So building the capability of the security forces, introducing them into the city, controlling the return of civilians, developing sources within the communities to make sure that we have early warning of these terrorists if they come back -- these are all things that are very much on all of our leaders' minds as we continue to set conditions for permanent security for the people of Tall Afar.

So is it done, yet? No. Will it happen? Yes. It's going to happen. And this operation is setting the conditions for establishing that kind of security, so these people -- these good people in Tall Afar no longer have to suffer. I mean, there are the most beautiful children I've ever seen in my life in this city. I mean, there's Turkmen kids in these multicolored dresses. They've suffered for way too long, and all of us, the Iraqi soldiers, the Iraqi police, our forces are committed to make sure they don't have to suffer anymore. And these terrorists will not come back. They won't come back to Tall Afar.

J.

Sci Fi Wire -- The News Service of the Sci Fi Channel

Andreas Katsulas, the character actor known to SF fans as G'Kar on Babylon 5 and a familiar face from Star Trek and other SF&F TV shows, died Feb. 13 of lung cancer in Los Angeles, his agent, Donna Massetti, confirmed to SCI FI Wire. He was 59.

J.

There comes a point in pretty much any process when the likelyhood of failure dramatically declines. And in the Kurd-controlled areas of Iraq, in in the city of Erbil, it looks like they're well past that point.

It's good to see.

Michael J. Totten: The Dream City of the Kurds

It goes without saying that none of this was possible when Saddam Hussein did everything he could, with the fourth largest army in the world, to destroy these people. Even though Kurdistan has been free of Saddam since the Kurdish uprising drove out him and the Baath in 1991, real reconstruction wasn’t possible until 2003. When the embargo was lifted, and when everyone knew that the bastard could never come back, the Kurds finally had the nerve to build their dream country in earnest.

We're winning.

J.

Maybe I WILL be able to see the earth from orbit...

New Scientist SPACE - Breaking News - Space-elevator tether climbs a mile high

A slim cable for a space elevator has been built stretching a mile into the sky, enabling robots to scrabble some way up and down the line.

LiftPort Group, a private US company on a quest to build a space elevator by April 2018, stretched the strong carbon ribbon 1 mile (1.6 km) into the sky from the Arizona desert outside Phoenix in January tests, it announced on Monday.

J.

Pics of Nissan Terranaut reveal vehicle perfect for Picard and his crew - Autoblog

But white is just SO hard to keep clean!

Heh. Enjoy!

J.

Pics of Nissan Terranaut reveal vehicle perfect for Picard and his crew

Man, how'd they ever get put over THERE?

Seriously - and WMD aren't much of a laughing matter - things are coming to light that are disquieting, to say the least. But you know something? The most important thing in the media is going to be Cheney's accident. Either that, or some poor family's going to get the Natalie Holloway treatment when their pretty daughter goes missing and the MSM needs something to divert attention from this, and from the Democratic party deciding that maybe the NSA stuff's okay after all.

So go read this, and follow the links. It's only slightly convoluted, and connects the dots.

Iraq's WMD: What Would You Have Done? (UPDATED TO HIGHLIGHT ANDREW SULLIVAN'S NOT-TO-BE-QUESTIONED CONSERVATISM)

J.

Woot : One Day, One Deal

don't know if you're familiar with Woot.com - they have good deals on interesting stuff. One day, one deal, with $5 shipping. (Saw a projection TV, big thing - $5 shipping.)

Every so often, I guess they roto-rooter their supply lines and get a flood of stuff in. And then they do what's called a Woot-Off - they sell an item until it's gone, and then immediately put up a new one.

Naturally, they made a song about it.

Go. Woot. Enjoy!

J.

When a Cub Scout Den Mother calls up and asks what the recipie is for your peanut butter cookies...

(It's hideously complex, BTW.)

1 cup peanut butter.
1 cup sugar.
1 egg.

Mix it all together, form out cookies on sheets. Preheat oven to 350 degrees, and bake for 8-10 minutes.

Stuff 'em down some Cub Scout throats, and watch the fun begin.

J.

FOXNews.com - U.S. & World News - U.N. Report Urges Gitmo Shutdown

The report, summarizing an investigation by five U.N. experts, called on the U.S. government "to close down the Guantanamo Bay detention center and to refrain from any practice amounting to torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment."

The report's findings were based on interviews with former detainees, public documents, media reports, lawyers and a questionnaire filled out by the U.S. government.

The United States is holding about 500 men at the U.S. naval base on the southeastern tip of Cuba. The detainees are accused of having links to Afghanistan's ousted Taliban regime or the Al Qaeda terror group, though only 10 have been charged since the detention camp opened in January 2001.

In a response included at the end of the report, the U.S. ambassador to the U.N. offices in Geneva said investigators had taken little account of evidence against the abuse allegations provided by the United States and rejected an invitation to visit Guantanamo.

"It is particularly unfortunate that the special rapporteurs rejected the invitation and that their unedited report does not reflect the direct, personal knowledge that this visit would have provided," ambassador Kevin Moley wrote.

I hate to be unsympathetic to the UN, but I've got a problem with the current expansion of the definition of the word 'torture' to include eerything that the prisoner might find objectionable. And I'm sure that the UN took into account that the stories they got might have been a bit, um, 'exaggerated' for effect?

The International Committee of the Red Cross has been allowed to visit Guantanamo's detainees, but the organization keeps its findings confidential, reporting them solely to U.S. authorities. Some reports have been leaked by what the organization calls third parties.

Although the investigators did not visit Guantanamo, they said photographic evidence and the testimonies of former prisoners showed detainees were shackled, chained, hooded and forced to wear earphones and goggles. They said prisoners were beaten if they resisted.

"Such treatment amounts to torture," the report said.

Some interrogation techniques — particularly the use of dogs, exposure to extreme temperatures, sleep deprivation for several consecutive days and prolonged isolation — caused extreme suffering, the report said.

I remember seeing the prisoners shackled (as they do in transporting potentially violent prisoners in the US) hooded, and wearing ear muffs, not headphones. This is when they were being transported to the US via the cargo compartments of military airlift. The back ends of C-130s, C-5s and C-17's aren't the quietest places in the world, nor are they places you want prisoners to get loose.

Hate to say it, but I think the UN proved their bias when they wouldn't even visit the facility to see for themselves what it was like. So this one rates... just barely caring. Sorry about that.

J.

Power Line: Shut up, they explained

I can't even find a good excerpt out of this. The whole thing... man. I'm near speechless.

J.

Nope. 'Cause, you know, these are the actions of the good guys in this conflict. At least, as far as the MSM are concerned.

The Jawa Report: Exclusive: Prisoner Abuse Photos from Iraq that MSM Won't Show You

J.

Um, remember how Apple users have been so pleased with themselves because they don't have virus problems?

Not any more.

Internet News Article | Reuters.com

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - A malicious computer worm has been found that targets Apple Computer Inc.'s Mac OS X operating system, believed to be the first such virus aimed specifically at the Mac platform.

The worm is called OSX/Leap-A, according to a posting on the Web site of antivirus software company Sophos, which said the worm is spread via instant messaging programs.

J.

Captain Ed over at Captain's Quarters has an interesting article on the dismantling of Canada's gun control program. The article referenced has some rather startling figures.

True cost of gun registry will be upsetting, warns public security minister

OTTAWA -- Canadians will be shocked by the true cost of the federal government's ill-fated gun registry, says new Public Security Minister Stockwell Day.

Day told The Canadian Press that figures bureaucrats have shown him during briefings for his new portfolio are much higher than previously thought. He would not divulge what the tab is, but said it's upsetting.

"Some of these numbers, when we get out all the numbers and when the auditor general releases them all very soon, eyebrows are going to go up," he said Thursday.

"People are going to be upset and they're going to have a right to be upset."

When the Liberals added the registry to the federal gun control program in 1995, they said it would cost taxpayers no more than $2 million. But the most recent estimates put the figure in the hundreds of millions of dollars, bringing the total cost of the gun program to more than $1 billion.

While Dan Dugas at the Canadian Press includes quotes from incoming officials of the new Tory government that talk about freeing resources for actual law enforcement with the savings, he misses one subtle but important point. The RCMP did not get the full funding necessary for the registration program, in part because the Liberals kept insisting that it didn't cost as much as it did. In order to run the registry, the RCMP had to eat up internal resources to keep up with the registry's mandate. This has been an issue that Newsbeat1 has followed for several months.

Why is that so significant? Americans may not relate to this, but in Canada's parliamentary system, the government only gets checked by the Commons and the RCMP, which has the power and resources to investigate government malfeasance -- under normal circumstances. However, the government exists because it controls either a majority of seats or the support of a coalition of parties that comprise a majority. Unless and until that majority decides that the government has acted so egregiously that MPs are willing to throw their own party or coalition out of power, the only political check comes at mandated election times.

The RCMP, as the national law-enforcement agency, can act independently to investigate corruption and malfeasance. However, it needs the time and resources to do that. A government that wanted to avoid having the RCMP looking into its actions -- say in Adscam or other hidden scandals -- could handicap the agency by burdening it with a populist but massive new program, selling it as a low-cost civic safety program, and then underfunding it so that it ate up all of the agency's resources. That would leave the agency with no time and no people for other efforts, including political investigations.

Makes me wonder if Australia's looking at their gun programs also...

And really, if nothing else the entertaiment value of the descriptions is worth a look. I mean, it's pretty hard to resist something described as:

The Appliance From Beyond The Universe
A toaster. A slicer. Two appliances from different worlds, stranded together on a distant asteroid, the only survivors of a massive spaceship crash. At first, they eyed each other warily, in shock from the accident, threatened by the other's strangeness - but slowly, they adjusted. They survived. They built some kind of life for themselves on that forlorn rock hurtling through space. They fell in love.

And the Westinghouse SlicerToaster was born.

So go. Woot. Enjoy. You need a laugh today, right?

Woot : One Day, One Deal

J.

Emote and posture - and in the end, what happens? The Senate overwhelmingly backs Patriot Act.

What a surprise.

J.

Remember - they respect the soldiers. As long as they stay in their place. And that place doesn't include politics, apparently.

Backroom Battles

J.

The main drive in Big Blue has gone to that great bit-bucket in the sky. None of the usual warnign signs were noted - no bearing squeal, no click-click of constant resets, none of the usual sounds of a drive in distress. I noticed that system response was slow - and thought I needed to reboot.

And when I did - disk error reading the boot drive.

Foo. Or words to that effect. Well, I was thinking it was about time to get a new main drive - but figured I could hold it off a few more months. Looks like I was wrong.

So, it'll be a quiet weekend. Ignore the cussing from upstairs...

J.

HCTZ or chocolate to control blood pressure... man, that's a tough choice!

Healthy chocolate a dream come true? - Food Inc. - MSNBC.com

ALBANY, Ga. - It’s every chocolate lover’s wish that their favorite indulgence could somehow be healthy for them. Now, chocolate makers claim they have granted that wish.

Mars Inc., maker of Milky Way, Snickers and M&M’s candies, next month plans to launch nationwide a new line of products made with a dark chocolate the company claims has health benefits.

Called CocoaVia, the products are made with a kind of dark chocolate high in flavanols, an antioxidant found in cocoa beans that is thought to have a blood-thinning effect similar to aspirin and may even lower blood pressure. The snacks also are enriched with vitamins and injected with cholesterol-lowering plant sterols from soy.

I guess I'll just have to do a taste test. (grin)

J.

Under the categories of "No good deed goes unpunished" and "We're only getting half of the story..." we finf the following auction on EBay motors in the UK.

eBay.co.uk: JAGUAR X-TYPE SE D BLUE 2004 - DAMAGED/SALVAGE

Man, I'll bet the insurance company had a fit on this one...

J.

As more and more info leaks out on McDonald’s French Fries - we will find that they haven't bought a single potato since 1983...

Fat, wheat, milk - where's the tater?!?

J.

The old 80 GB Maxtor that was the primary drive on Big Blue was getting pretty flakey, and causing problems with normal operations. You should see the event log - red Xs all over the place. That's never good news. In fact, it looked like this:

When you get something like this in the system log under Event Viewer, you know you've got problems. I was able (thanks to Seagate's DiskWizard) to get the contents transferred to a new 160 GB Barracuda drive. (And that sucker's warranteed until 2010 - we'll see how it lasts.) The change in speed is remarkable. What was taking fifteen, twenty seconds to do before is much faster now. The start menu (delay on that is set to 0, BTW) was decidedly hesitant about opening - now it's right up.

So if your system's got a bit of age on the hard drive (I think the old 80 was about three, four years old, maybe a bit more) and it's been slow, it might be a good idea to check your event viewer under Administrative Tools. There might be a physical reason for the slowdown (aside from normal WinXP cussedness, that is.)

I also tried putting some silver thermal paste between the heat sink pad and the CPU - it dropped the core temperature down about 4 degrees, to 135 F, when the thing's fully loaded up and running at 100%. I'm of the opinion that max cpu core temperatures are something that should be seen as a redline, not a normal operational level, and I'm glad to get a bit more leeway to play with. (I'm also noticing that I'm not getting the fits and starts that I'd kind of gotten used to while typing - there's no hesitations, even if I've got a DVD playing with Seti@home running in the background. It used to be I had to disable Seti when playing a DVD. What a difference a properly operating drive can make...)

J.

Messy Site.

The New Frontier

It rather reminds me of a Dr. Bronner's bottle. For some reason I'm tempted to go search out a health foods store and buy a bottle of the Eucalyptus soap. OK!

J.

And the cliffhanger's a good one. The hero's about to kamakazi a Wraith hive ship with a makeshift nuke, Atlantis is being infested with Wraith - all in all it looks like everyone's going to die or get et.

Man, I might have to invest in a TIVO unit after all.

J.

MiamiHerald.com | 02/21/2006 | Carter backs Bush's stand on seaport-operations deal

Former President Jimmy Carter downplayed criticism of White House support of an Arab-owned company's purchase of a major seaport-operations firm.

Actually, on this whole thing, my meter barely twitched until Carter spoke up. And even now...

J.

PJ WMD Files: Video Interviews from the Intel Summit

Three interviews. I've watched the first two of them - and I think they'd be worth your time.

J.

As those who read this blog regularly know, I've been watching episodes of Stargate: SG1, Stargate: Atlantis, and Enterprise. And in all honesty, the Enterprise episodes just ain't cutting it.

Technically, they're well done. Props and special effects, costumes and makeup - they're about what we've come to expect from the ST producers. The scripts... well, they're a trifle thin in content, and the situations that are contrived are REALLY feeling contrived. That said, it's the first season and they're still trying to get the franchise built, and they've got a lot of backstory to fill in for the fanboy base. When you add in the obligatory eye candy (Really, now, no self-respecting Vulcan would be caught dead in public in spandex undies ... grin) you're left with the feeling that something's going on, but you're really not too sure what.

And then there's the background music. From the opening through to the end, it's like they tried to do it on the cheap. No orchestral scores, no background musical textures that really add depth to what we're seeing - it just feels like someone went "Oh, yeah, we need a sound track. Pete, can you whip one up by Thursday?" The first couple of times you hear the opening number, it pulls at you - then it gets annoying. (It actually sounds better at 1.5x speed.) The music feels like it was an afterthought.

Music and science fiction films (heck, movies in general) have always had a relationship - from Forbidden Planets use of the theremin to the opening trumpet fanfare in Star Wars IV, music's been used to set background, signal character feelings, foreshadow events. (Remember the way it was used in JAWS? Hey, there's a big and impossibly strong shark, I'm gonna classify it as honorary SF for the time being. (grin)) Take Star Wars, strip out the music - and it'd lose a good half of it's impact. Darth Vader becomes some guy in a cape and helmet. The Death Star battle in the trenches - almost boring. Rip out the sound track, and you've got a mediocre effort. (Not that some folks haven't called Star Wars mediocre in the first place...)

Then you take Stargate SG1 and Stargate: Atlantis - right from the start you have an orchestral score, in minor keys, kind of portentous and imposing - and then it swings into the themes for the individuals and action... and again the music adds a good 50% to the experience. It sets the stage, it generates excitement.

Done right, I'm thinking that a good score can salvage a bad movie. But a bad score can make even a good movie mediocre. Music's a part of the experience, overall. And it's clear when the music for a movie or series is an afterthought.

J.

I like the beat, you can dance to it...

glumbert.com | media | Muslim Rave Party Sensation

Anyone know the composer/DJ for the tune, though?

J.

His explanation, over at The Anchoress, makes a lot of sense. And it would explain the stubborness that Bush is showing on this issue.

Naturally, it'll be hard for folks to examine this impartially - but it goes a long way toward explaining something that's seemed pretty inexplicable to me.

Buster actually brought a different perspective to it this afternoon while we were driving (my ear infection has me reeling so he was at the wheel with his learner’s permit). “Why is everyone freaking out?” he asked. I explained what I knew of the circumstances and Buster listened, thought about it for a second and said, “well, Bush is just being consistant. He’s spent the last few years trying to convince the world that - Islamofascist extremists aside - the Muslim world is one that can be compatible with democracy and with business. He’s being consistant and basically sending the same message he has always sent: Arabs have a place at the table, but they’ve got to get their rowdies under control. He’s showing the SANE Muslims how deeply the world has come to distrust ALL of them because of the actions of the nuts. Money talks, right? Hit them in the pocketbook (let them see how the behavior of the extremists are complicating things) and maybe they’ll finally start taking these gangs in hand.”

I thought it was an interesting take on it, and told him so. “I look at it this way,” Buster said. “He’s gotta have a reason for backing this, and I can’t for a second believe that his reasonings are for anything but America’s good. The problem is, as usual, he absolutely STINKS at making things clear. People are screaming that they don’t understand what he’s doing…all he’s doing is being consistant. People used to love him for that. Also, I think he’s showing off who the racists are. Do you realize, that this is ONE MORE THING Bush has done that - really - the left should be approving of? Just like liberating women in Afghanistan, just like closing down the rape rooms in Iraq, this is one more thing the left would approve of if only someone else were president, because it precludes the racist element. But of course, they’ll hate him for it, too.”

I'm still a bit concerned - Carter backed this, so am I knee-jerking in the wrong direction because of that? After all, a stopped clock is still right twice a day. (Once a day if it's a 24 hour clock...)

J.

It is on teh intranets. It cannot be fake.

CollegeHumor Movie: The Flying Spaghetti monster is real, and he walks among us.

Worship his saucy goodness, and hope to be touched by his noodly appendage.

(grin)

J.

Power Line: The story so far

In Minnesota the Democratic Party has undertaken a campaign to suppress two television advertisements giving voice to the sentiments of Iraq war veterans and Gold Star Families who support the war. Brian Melendez is the chairman of the Minnesota Democratic Party. This past Thursday Melendez called a press conference and condemned the first of the two advertisements -- the one featuring the veterans -- as "un-American, untruthful and a lie."

The two advertisements can be viewed here. The first of the two ads is devoted to the Iraq war veterans; the second to the Gold Star Families, featuring Merrilee Carlson of St. Paul. Mrs. Carlson's son Michael was killed in Iraq last year; the Wall Street Journal published Michael's "credo" this past Memorial Day.Minnesota politics seem... interesting.

J.

You usually fall.

TKS on National Review Online

My fellow bloggers… we’ve been snookered.

J.

I've been cautiously optimistic on Iraq - but this... this doesn't look good.

The Huge Event of the Week, February, 20-25

The point of blowing up the Mosque in Samarra was clearly political. The sacrilegious blast was meant to destroy any chance of a new democratic government from forming in Iraq. It was meant to precipitate immense passionate reactions, and counter reactions—in short, civil war. A huge, bloody civil war. In Iraq.

Almost immediately—did you notice?—the government of Iran announced that this horrible blast was an act of foreign intelligence: Israeli and American. The speed of Iran’s governmental campaign to spread this message suggested that some in Iran had advance warning, perhaps only to the extent that this sort of dramatic terror was coming any day. The next day, people were burning American and Israeli flags in the streets.

Who knows? Events might necessitate the intervention of Shia Iran into Iraq – that is, even more overt intervention that is already under way every day.

I myself connect this deed to the hard work by politicized imams from Denmark and all through the Middle East since early last autumn to awaken violent outbursts, almost on cue, all around the Muslim world against four-month old cartoons published in an obscure paper in Denmark. I am absolutely no expert in these matters. But I cannot help noticing what my eyes see.

Damn. I was thinking that the Sunnis realized that it was in their best interest to play nice and cooperate and build the country up - instead, perhaps due to outside 'help' from Iran, it looks like some of the factions may be making a grab for whatever they get.

Great. Well, Jason, that's reserving a sixpack for you...

J.

But it's getting closer to breakeven. A couple more decades... and who knows?

S&TR | September 2005: A Dynamo of a Plasma

CRANK up the electrical current, mix in a magnetic field, add a puff of hydrogen, and—if conditions are just right—you will have the kind of magnetized plasmas that the Sun and other celestial bodies are generating perpetually. Huge solar flares are magnetized plasmas that separate from the Sun and bombard the Earth and other planets with a magnetic field large enough to interfere with communication systems. The magnetized plasmas in Lawrence Livermore’s Sustained Spheromak Physics Experiment (SSPX) are much smaller and far shorter-lived than their celestial cousins, but the two varieties, nevertheless, share many of the same properties.

J>

Starting with swapping out Big Blue's power supply for a different one (with a larger fan), then cleaning up after a sick little guy in the middle of the night, and then trying to get various other household chores done, and prep for painting the kitchen. Now I'm noticing some pretty interesting CPU core temperatures, that lead me to think I didn't update:get enough goop in the right place when I reseated the CPU heat sink. I'll shut things down now and clean it up. I really don't like seeing 160 degree core temps.

Update: Another wonderful example of trying to fix things and making the problem a bit worse. I cleaned off the CPU grease, noticed the posts that supported the heat sink had come a bit loose (and thus weren't allowing the heat sink to sqush down close enough to the CPU) so after tightening them and putting everything back together... I'm looking at about 155.

At this point, I'm about ready to block off the secondary fan (There's a fan blowing THROUGH the power supply, as well as the 120mm fan blowing INTO it) and try letting the main one be the only fan. I've clearly (I think) got airflow problems through the heat sink radiator - I'm just not sure of the best solution for it.

Fun and games! I should have been happy with 139...

Update 2 - I'm seeing peak temperatures all over the map. I've got the CPU loaded up at 100%, and I'm seeing a range of temperatures from 127 to 155. Can't seem to tie the temperature changes to any particular event or running process either. I might have to find a temperature logging ultility and see if there's any particular cycle.

J.

Micro Center Online BYOPC Specific Product Information - Chameleon Fan

The fan blades change color depending on the temperature of the air passing through. Color changes at 26C from Blue to Pink Orange and at 33C and above the color completely changes. The fan blades for the Chameleon have been coated with a substance that changes color as the temperature changes.

J.

Signs of hope?

Gateway Pundit: Unity Protests Break Out in Basra, Mosul, Hillah, Al Kut, Karbala...

The following is a translation by Iraqi-American Haider Ajina of a headline and news published by the Iraqi Arabic newspaper Al-Raa’I on February 26th:

Iraqis demonstrate calling for Shiite & Sunni unity
Many Iraqi cities witnessed large demonstrations after Friday prayers (yesterday). These demonstrations were calling for national unity, not being pulled into civil war after attacks on Sunni mosques as retaliation to the bombing of the samara Shiite shrine.

In Mousul 500 people demonstrated in Bartila (north west of the city). The demonstrations were lead by Sunni & Shiite leaders to condemn all bombings and call for a unified line and not be pulled into a sectarian war. Another demonstration started from the offices of the high council for Islamic revolution (Shiite). The demonstration was lead by Sunni and Shiite religious leaders. Banners condemned attacks on mosques, shrines and churches the banners also condemned terror also no to Saddam yes to Islam.

I've wondered whether Iraq would be able to coalesce into a functioning whole - and I've been discouraged at times by how it seems like each faction was determined to try to grab it all. But, maybe like the jolt from a defibrillator can start a heart beating in it's proper rythem, this event has started something that the folks who blew up the mosque never intended - the heart of the people of Iraq, which had been stilled under Saddam.

J.

New Scientist 3D plasma shapes created in thin air - Breaking News

The night sky could soon be lit up with gigantic three-dimensional adverts, thanks to a Japanese laser display that creates glowing images in thin air.Yep. From the Land of Giant Robots...

It'll be interesting to see what comes of it - whether this will be a commercially viable advertizing medium or not. After the novelty values wears off... well, it might just be a 'flash' in the pan.

(Now if they could do color, that'd be something different.

J.

LCoS Display Technology Shoot-Out, Part D

This is the final article in a four-part series examining Liquid Crystal on Silicon—LCoS—a relatively new and obscure display technology that is now making its grand entrance into the HDTV marketplace. Here in Part D we'll start with an overall assessment of LCoS technology, followed by detailed technical performance comparisons with all of the other major display technologies: CRT, LCD, Plasma and DLP. We'll finish with a discussion of the most exciting new developments in display technology, which will be the subject of future articles in this series.

J.

It might not be such a good idea.

WSJ.com - Who's Going to Want Grandma's Hoard Of Antique Gnomes?

Man, am I ever going to have a mess to clean up when it's time.

J.

Okay - I gave up on the system monitoring utility that came with my system board, and downloaded (and installed) Motherboard Monitor 5. I haven't had any wierd readings, and I'm bopping along at about 150 degrees at full CPU load. That's a bit higher than I'd like, but it's tolerable. (I've got to about 165 before I need to start worrying.)

I wish I'd had MM5 installed before I swapped out the power supply. Guess I could put the old one back in again, but I'm reluctant to do so, since I don't like taking that whopping heat sink/radiator off and replacing it any more than I have to.

We'll see how it runs. 150's not bad.

Update - I've touched the copper block heat sink - and it's cool to the touch. So are the heat pipes to the radiator, and the radiator itself. Taking the load off the CPU drops the temperature down to 123 degrees in a couple of seconds - so I'd say the heat sink/radiator are doing a good enough job and I don't see any way I can get things much cooler even if I slapped fans on the radiator instead of depending on the power supply pulling air through it.

Specs for a Celeron (don't snicker - it was cheap...) at 2.80 Ghz...

Normal - 68.4c - 155f
Max - 75.0c - 167f

Yeah, I've got a little leeway there...

J.

You gotta feel for the Cubans. You get the feeling that even if we had trade, Castro would figure out some way to mess it up for them, in the interest of the People's Revolution.

The Real Cuba: Since the days of Pierre Trudeau, Canadians have idealized Cuba as a beleaguered socialist utopia. As this insider shows, the truth is very different

HAVANA - Over the past 10 years I've crossed Cuba many times -- by train, bus, motorcycle and '57 Chevy, transported on the backs of produce wagons and horse-drawn carts, standing in peso trucks shoulder-to-shoulder with locals, and squeezed atop water carriers.

Along the central motorway, down dusty trails that pass obscure rural villages, through seemingly impassible roads after torrents of rain, my drivers took a foreigner aboard, even if it was forbidden. Some even took me into their homes and allowed me to witness their lives.

Their kindness will stay with me always. So will their terrible plight.

There is a feeling in the air these days that I can't put my finger on -- tension, unease and sadness all at once. Three years ago, I saw hope on the faces in the streets of Havana. Now, I see none.

With the support of Chavez and Morales, Castro has been emboldened. He has sought to re-entrench the chasm between Cuban people and foreign visitors. In addition, he's announced a ban on all off-market commercial activities and satellite communication systems.

Young people have been hired as "social workers." They enter every Cuban home and inspect the number of electrical goods and determine the salary of the owner to see whether there is a discrepancy. Then they test any electrical fans. If the fan works, it is taken outside, smashed, and tossed into a truck. The person then receives a chit entitling them to buy a low-wattage Chinese fan for several weeks' pay.

The same routine occurred with light bulbs, with youth squads breaking up the good ones and replacing them with low-voltage Chinese versions. The stress from these personal assaults in one's home was run very high, especially among my elderly friends. People stood astonished on street corners as their goods were destroyed.

Has Castro gone insane? Or is there some principle of socialism here that's perfectly obvious to someone who's more familiar with it than I am?

Could it be that, like Hitler, Castro has no intention of seeing Cuba survive his death?

J.