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Does "Assad' Mean "Krenz" in Arabic?
Assad as in Bashar as in Krenz, as in 'Egon Krenz'
I know that things are happening by what the news is at the top of the hour.
This hour:
Michael Jackson Coughed During Trial
Oscar Review
People unsatisfied with jobs.
Oh yeah - Lebanons Syrian puppet government resigns.
ho hum, another monday....
Update I: Rioting kills one in Lebanese hometown of newly resigned PM . Remember, this could go either way...
Update II: Syria hands back land to Jordan.
Abdullah? Yeah, its me Assad, you know, the kid who lives next door. I know you and the other kids at the madrassa dont like to play with me but I was wondering if you could do me a favor?, could you please just pretend to be my friend? I mean all the other kids in school keep beating me up and stuff, look man, I'll give you my dinosaur collection?, I'll let you play my video games? come on!!, phhuuuleeeesss...
Posted @ February 28, 2005 10:49 AM | Current Affairs | Comments (0)
How fast are things changing?
Jerusalem Post: Feb. 22, 2005
No Israel visit for King Abdullah in near future
Five Days Later....
Jerusalem Post: Feb. 27, 2005
Jordanian king to visit Israel
Good thing I didnt go on vacation in the past week, I'd come back and find the whole place turned upside down. Hell at this rate, if you give it a month and Eisner could have a Disney facility planned on the Red Sea.
It sure as hell looks like somebodys talking to somebody, and somebody is picking up the phone too. Funny how all the heads of state in the middle east have suddenly got ants in their pants. Secretary of State Rice cancells her trip to Egypt, because shes "disappointed". 24 hours later Hosni Mubarak does a 180 so fast that its got everyone in the chiropractors office. Now he says "Elections! heck yeah, we got elections Us folks down here in the land of pharohs dont let a little thing like the constitution get in the way, I'll get that fixed for you right away little lady. We'll have an election once a week if thats what it takes, you just let us know. Whatever it takes to make you happy"...
Why? My guess is that it might have something to do with the several BILLION dollars in aid that we pay the Egyptian government every year as a result of the Camp David peace accords. It might also have to do with a President and a Secretary of State that says what they mean and means what they say.
A two months ago, you had to remind me where Lebanon was. Now it looks like they are going to toss the Syrians out. just-like-that...
So, 'Baby Assad' is going to let his port facilities and their inherant smuggling activities and the cash that it generates fall away just-like-that?
Not unless he has to.
Does he have to? Well, I dont think he would have turned over Saddams Half-brother and 29 of his Baathist cronies and all the cash and Jewels they could carry to the Iraqi government if he didnt have to.
Now wait, didnt 'Baby Assad' just sign a "Mutual assistance treaty with Iran"?
Iran. Golly. Let's see, whats the Iranian track record with war fightin? They fought Iraq for 10 years, lost hundreds of thousands of men, gained no territory. Yeah, that works.
Oh, and while he's at it he's going to stop by the Russkie Army-Navy Surplus store and pick up some of them "Anti-Aircraft" weapons he's been hearing so much about. Yeah, that'll work out just fine. They worked so well saving Saddam, why look at all those Yankee Imperialist Aircraft Iraq shot down over Bagdhad.
Now, The last time the F-15 fought anything in the air it was when Iraq had an airforce that wasn't buried in the sand, back in Gulf War I. How did that go? Oh yeah, they all ran to Iran.
But there was another time that American equipment went up against Soviet equipment. Thats right, Bekaa valley- Syrian Owned Soviet designed Anti-Aircraft against American Designed Israeli Flown F-15's. How'd that go?
72-to-none kill ratio for the Eagle and the IDF. And that was 1983. I'm sure things havent changed much since 1983 in air warfare, right?
So, does "Baby Assad' have to? My guess is yeah, He does.
Now our little friends in Hezbollah and Islamic Jihad decided this would be a perfect time to blow up another Israeli Disco.
Why not? Its not like our host state of Lebanon or Syria is about to do anything about us, right?
When it happened, I had this little thought. "What if..."
"...Sharon woke up the day after and said - "Hey, what if I decide to treat the Palestinians as allies, and Islamic Jihad and Hezbollah as separate from the PA? Wow, that would really screw with their heads wouldnt it?"
So now what do the geniuses in Islamic Jihad go and do, Why, They admit it!, of course!
So what does Israel get to do, without bringing the Palestinians into the game?
Why of course!, this would be a perfect time to let the IDF go flying around looking for targets of opportunity.
Man, when I said this was going to be a wild ride of a year, I had no idea it was going to get this exciting this fast.
Posted @ February 27, 2005 09:02 PM | Current Affairs | Comments (0)
I, The Jury
Jeff Jarvis at Buzzmachine is engaged in a little battle with the political idealogues. Heres my two bits...
In this country, there are two dominant parties of almost equal size and scope. Both parties work in the political sphere as the District Attorneys and the Defense Attorneys do in a court of law. The citizens of this democracy are called to sit in the jury box at each election and judge who makes the better case at that time and place.
We have an adversarial political system in this country, but as a member of the jury, I do not "belong" to either of them, nor do I "belong" to any third politcal party. If I am to be a good citizen and fulfill my function in the jury box, I must listen to the case the Attorneys from either side put into evidence in the court to make their case.
For this moment in time, the Republicans are making a better case to the majority of the jury. This is not an indictment of the people who belong to the Democrat party or a prize to those in the Republican party, it is simply an indication of how well their lead attorneys on each side are doing translating the evidence of daily life into information that the jury can use to make its decision at the polls.
In our roles as members of the jury, it is essential that we judge each side with healthy skepticism and try to avoid our personal feelings in the matter before us in the court as much as possible.
What I see from over here in the jury box is a Defense Attorney being ill served by a set of loud mouth hectoring spectators in the back of the courtroom, who rather than helping the Defense Attorney make his case are about to make 'Good Judge Jarvis' bring the gavel down on the whole sad spectacle.
Whenever someone says that the success of their party matters more to them than the functioning of the court itself, then we can judge them as having stepped beyonds the bounds that the oath they gave when they became an 'officer of the court'. Several members of the Defense Attorneys firm are, in my opinion, violating their oaths. Rather, Jordan, Mapes, Markos and Rall have stepped beyond their charters and it is my opinion, that they should be ignored. The longer the Defense Attorney associates with their like the more difficult the Defense Attorney will find it to make his case with the members of the jury.
Judge Jarvis is a smart honest man and I trust his judgement. I also know on occaison he has been known to play a game of golf with the members of the Defense Attorneys Firm. I do wish they would listen to his advice when he gives it, its free, and frankly he's more right than wrong on most occasions.
Another wise old retired judge once told me that he could generally tell who had the better case by how much "gorilla dust" was tossed into the air during the presentation of their case.
The Liberal wing of the Democrat Party is now tossing so much "gorilla dust" into the air that the streetlights have come on even though it is mid day.
Posted @ February 27, 2005 12:35 PM | Current Affairs | Comments (0)
Global Flyer Update: GO FOR MONDAY!!!!!
Mission Status:Condition GREEN Monday, February 28
Conditions look good enough on Monday to make the mission status green. This means that a take off is highly likely between 2pm and 6pm local time (20:00UTC and 00:00UTC) on that day.
All remaining project personnel not in Salina should now report to Mission Control.
More details can be found here. Godspeed Steve.
Posted @ February 26, 2005 03:04 PM | Current Affairs | Comments (0)
Six Degrees of Separation
Q: What do Secretary of State Donald Rumsfeld, The father of modern Turkey Kemal Ataturk and the late great Ray Charles all have in common?
Click Here to find out...
Posted @ February 25, 2005 08:28 PM | Current Events | Comments (0)
Dear Santa...
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Aero Telemetry also developed the large scale models for "the Aviator". The picture is of the Hughes XF-11 used in the movie.
On a side note, If you ever want to visit Brentwood California for a reason other than to try to see Nicole Simpson Death Scene, Take a look at this.
It sits within.... The Beverly Hills Triangle!
Posted @ February 25, 2005 03:40 PM | Current Affairs | Comments (1)
1989: A Pivot Of History
1989 was the year the Berlin Wall fell. I remember exactly where I was when I saw it happen. I had been following the story for a month, of the various changes in the East German Government, and the sudden “vacations” that more and more East Germans were taking in Hungary, who had announced earlier that year that they were no longer guarding their border. I was riding home on BART one night in November of that year when I read that line and thought to myself “If they aren’t guarding the border, then there is no border”. I said it to myself and understood what I meant, and yet, I simply could not accept that the world had changed. You see, “the wall” had always been a part of my life; I was born shortly after it was created. I always thought the wall would go on forever, and that the first signs of World War III would be the Soviet tanks driving through it. The wall marked the beginning of “enemy territory” both as a border and as a way of doing things. They needed the wall to keep people in, not keep people out, its what defined our two sides.
As I walked home that night, November 9th, that thought kept going through my head “ there is no border anymore, how can that be? Surely the Soviets will clamp down on this like they did in Hungary in the 1950’s”. When I made it home, I found my wife sitting in front of the TV, crying.
“Look – Look at what is happening!!!”. She said pointing to the scene on TV. There they were, thousands of Berliners, East and West; crawling over ‘no mans land’, standing on top of the wall with sledgehammers and Champaign breaking it down in full view of and sometimes with the help of the people who once shot you just for trying to cross that same section of land.
“The war is over” I said almost without thinking. “The war is finally over”, and then I broke down and cried. Not the Cold War, Not World War II, but all of it from the beginning of World War I. The “Great European War” that made up the majority of the 20th century was over. My whole life had been spent not only in the shadow of the wall, but in the shadow of a war that started in 1914 and had never quiet finished. It had been the key event in the lives of both my father and my grandfather, and up till that point that war that started in August 1914 had been the historical event that served as the core of my life, but it was to be no more. I felt in just that instant of understanding that a thousand pound weight had been lifted from my shoulders. The burden of the never-ending fight between civilizations had been lifted.
I never expected that it would end that way. I fully expected like millions of other people did, that the great battle between Communism and Capitalism could only end in the deaths of millions, if not billions of people, and with it all life on earth. It was just a matter of time, each day was a gift, and at any moment, it could all end because of a simple misunderstanding or because someone thought for just a second that they could get the advantage over the other. In the twinkling of an eye, a far off civilization in space would see only a wiggle on the face of their telescopic instruments as the bombs fell around our globe and what had once been life on this planet would be gone forever.
In the years before 1989 I watched the two different TV miniseries that gave us a view of what life would be like if the great nuclear exchange ever occurred, or what would it be like to live under Soviet domination in the United States. It was a set of images that none of us needed to see on TV, we knew it already. I knew it because we lived at the edge of a SAC base, and I knew what it meant when the bombers and tankers were scrambled late in the night. Each time it happened, I lay in bed and wondered if there would be a world wake up to.
But when I saw the people on the wall, I knew it was over. I didn’t just see people topping a monument of oppression; I saw a vision of a future I could never before have even hoped to imagine. The nightmare had ended. No one came out and said "The Soviet Union is gone", that Communism had just folded its cards and went home. But we knew. We all knew. They knew.
1989 was an amazing year, but at the time we really didn’t know it. Looking back, we wonder why none of us could then see it for what it was. In June of 1989, We watched an “insurgency” take on a dictatorial militaristic power. I watched unfold, not quite sure what it was I was watching at the time. History is funny that way, you don’t really know its history when it’s happening, it isn’t till you look back that you see it for what it was.
This “insurgency” was in another Communist country. It was in China. It was Tiananmen Square. That year, I watched a man stand in defiance of a row of tanks, with nothing but determination in his heart and a handful of grocery bags. He dared them to run him over. They blinked. I watched the people of China make “the goddess of liberty” and she looked to me a whole lot like the big green French woman who lives in New York Harbor. The message wasn’t for us, but I got the message anyway. These people wanted to be free. They wanted to be human beings, rather than the furniture like property of the communist state. I didn’t have to think twice who’s side I was on or why.
I was in San Francisco at the time. I remember talking to people about what I was seeing in Tiananmen Square. To me, it was all the things the left was talking about. People taking charge of their lives people trying to be free. That was what the people I worked with talked about all the time.
I was wrong. When I said that Tiananmen Square showed that the Chinese government wasn’t really a “peoples revolution” but just another dictatorial power, what I got back was “Tiananmen Square is just like Kent State, look what the US did when it was threatened, were just as bad as they are, who are we to talk”.
My head spun around like the head of a Warner brothers cartoon character would.
I asked them if they honestly thought that the people who ran over civilians with tanks was anything like what happened at Kent State, and they said “yes, of course it was”. I asked them if they thought if the Chinese people who ran over civilians with tanks would be put on trial or get medals and they called me a "right wing crazed fascist sympathizer" and quickly changed the subject, a pattern I would see repeated even today.
You see, I was on the side of the people protesting the abuse of power, willing to putting their lives on the line to make their point, but my colleagues were just on the other side. To them, the “revolution wasn’t the man in front of the tank, it was the state represented by the uniform of the men driving the tanks” that mattered to them.
However, In 1989, Tiananmen happened in June, exposing Communist China not as a people paradise, but just another dictatorship gulag, then the Berlin Wall fell in November; and finally the 'hammer and sickle' came down over the Kremlin a few months later.
That had to have been a real tough year to be a Socialist. I worked with and went to school with a great number of people who really and truly believed in the socialist vision of the world. At lunch, we would discuss the obvious deficiencies of capitalism against what they felt was the righteousness of Socialism; I would even read the “Socialist Worker Daily” as it was sold in newspaper stands throughout San Francisco, and the irony of "buying" the Socialist Daily Worker was never lost on me. To me, “Socialist Worker Daily” was funnier than The Onion but to my leftist friends, it was an authority like the friggin New York Times (which they actually thought of as “right wing”, so it just goes to show you…).
1989 was the year I finally figured out I was playing on a different team. I was obsessed with that picture of the man in front of the tanks at Tiananmen. I had it cut out and put into my desk at work. My leftist coworkers just sneered, but there was a truth in that picture that I could never quite see before. That people will go to extreme ends and take risks just to be as free as I am.
Today, some people think the Iraqi insurgents are like the guy in front of the Chinese tanks. I think they are wrong, I think the insurgents are like the people driving the Chinese tanks in 1989. The insurgents want to enslave their people as if it were a divine right; the Iraqi people just want to live in freedom as I do. When the Iraqis went to the polls in defiance of the insurgents; that was on a par with the man who stood in front of the tanks, only to me it was like 8 million people standing in front of Saddam’s tanks. The Iraqi people dared the insurgents to kill them. And they blinked, and today, the insurgents are negotiating through back channels their terms of surrender.
Because of 1989, I know whose side I’m on and why, but I often wonder if the left really understands whose side they are on or what the cost is in real human terms for their thinking that way. They always make a fetish of “standing up for the little man”, but all to often the left stands for today is tyranny and dictatorship. The left loves a strongman and its no accident all the worlds remaining dynastic dictators are all Socialists.
I also wonder what they will say in 10 years time about the events of 2004. Today, we all, left and right think of the events of 1989 as “a good thing”, but at the time the socialists around the world were pretty dour about the whole thing. I suspect in 10 years we will all look back at 2004 and think of it was a turning point and a “good thing” the left will agree, and go so far as to say it was their idea all along and Bush was really being bi-partisan by following their ideals but that he had to be dragged kicking and screaming into being a “liberator”.
But I know better.
Posted @ February 24, 2005 09:40 PM | History file | Comments (3)
Japan To North Korea : Yes, We Have No Bananas...
Well, Melons that is.
There comes a point where you just can't make this stuff up. If there really was a SMERSH organization, Kim Il Jong would be tossed out. I actually think there is better than a good chance that Kim has actually said " I just want some sharks with fricken lazer beams, is that so hard? Throw me a bone people..."
I know he's a murderous thug and he's not really funny, but at some point you just have to shake your head and wonder.
Melons. fer-gods-sake. What kind of crazed dictator likes melons?
Nazi's, now they were clearly muderous thugs who were also crazy as bedbugs but at least you felt like they were menacing. It was all that 'deaths heads' paraphenalia and the black uniforms I guess. All I can conjure when I see North Koreans uniforms in the kind of contemptuous reaction that Indian Jones had when he shot the guy instead of using his whip. You just want to shake your head and feel sorry for the poor deluded fools.
And one more thing, why did the AP decide this story just had to include a picture of the USS Pueblo? Whats the connection?
Posted @ February 24, 2005 06:40 PM | Current Affairs | Comments (0)
Question for the Day.
Q: Is China buying oil and using it, or buying oil and sitting on it?
China shows a 41% increase in the amount of oil consumned over last year. That is a huge jump for one year add to it the 31% increase the previous year and you get a 72% over two years increase in consumption. That would mean that the Chinese werent using hardly any oil in 2002 but now they are using so much its flipped the oil markets upside down because of the markets lack of capacity to keep up with Chinas sudden demand.
I see the faucet has been turned to full but I dont see a 41% increase of goods coming out the other end of the hose.
So, is it possible for China to buy oil beyond its capacity to use and just store it?
Posted @ February 23, 2005 09:04 AM | Current Affairs | Comments (7)
China: A little piece....
( from Springtime for Hitler)
I just want a little "piece"
A little piece of poland, a little piece of france.....
From: China and Japan: The coming conflict
Excerpt:
"...In the early morning of Feb. 9, 2005, Tokyo took an unexpectedly bold action and informed the Chinese that Japan will take formal possession of a tiny archipelago in the Pacific waters -- the Senkaku Islands. Effective immediately, Tokyo announced, the Senkaku would be administered by the Japanese coast guard. "It is time Japan began protecting what is ours," says Makoto Yamazaki, director of the Japan Youth Association, "If our sovereignty is being threatened, we have a right to defend ourselves."
Why did Japan take this action? Apparently the Chinese have been been shopping for real estate in the Pacific. I quickly checked to see whats up with the forever disputed Spratly Islands, and got this:
Vietnam affirms sovereignty over Paracel, Spratly archipelagoes
It appears that the Chinese have built a concrete structure on one of the Spratlys and killed a number of Viet fisherman. For those of you playing the "Pacific Hegemony Home Game" The Viets hate the Chinese, The Chinese hate the Japanese and China doesnt care.
Latest Gulf of Tonkin Incident Reveals China's Imperialist Designs
From Jan 24th:
Vietnam Accuses China of Violating Law After Shooting
Why all the hubub? You know the answer, its all about the ooooiilll....
Oil Fuels G-7 Focus on China, India
Excerpt:
"All this explains why CNOOC Ltd., China's biggest offshore oil and gas company, is pursuing a full takeover of Unocal Corp. It would vault CNOOC above rival PetroChina Co., the nation's biggest oil producer, in efforts to expand production overseas to meet rising demand. Other Chinese companies also have been busily buying up oil-producing assets."
and the kicker....
"G-7 members also know Asia's thirst for oil could get ugly. Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, for example, has said ``energy security'' in his nation is second only to food security. Observers, meanwhile, are watching territorial disputes between China and Japan over a group of allegedly oil-rich islands. For similar reasons, China and some Southeast Asian nations are bumping heads over the Spratly Islands in the South China Sea."
It now appears the Chinese Dragon is now an oil fueled beast with an unquenchible thirst and their neighbors have started to take notice.
ed: I need to get to work on the book on Homesourcing, it might not be an option for much longer...
And what does the world look like in Chinas eyes?
"According to the Chinese government, the U.S. is worried about Chinese economic and political growth, and thus is trying to encircle it with bases and alliances. Chinese nationalists point to its recent support of India (because China has been giving blueprints for nuclear arms to Pakistan), its recognition of Vietnam, its sales of F-16 fighter jets to Taiwan, its support of Japan as an economic powerhouse, and its support of a unified Korea under Seoul. Likewise, U.S. bases in Afghanistan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan gives them evidence to support their cause against Western dominance, according to one Tsinghua University professor."
UPDATE: On this day in 1942: A Japanese submarine shelled an oil refinery near Santa Barbara, California. Coincidence? I think not...
Posted @ February 22, 2005 10:58 AM | Current Events | Comments (0)
Kim Meets Mr. Winston Wolf.
North Korea's Kim says nuclear talks can resume 'if conditions met'
Hmmmmm. "What If..." Winston Wolf - A Character from Quentin Tarantino's Pulp Fiction, (a part played perfectly by Harvey Kietel) joined the State Department? I believe it would go something like this...
Kim: A please would be nice.
The Wolf: What?
Kim: I said a please would be nice.
The Wolf: Get it straight, gentlemen: I'm not here to say please, I'm here to tell you what to do. And if self-preservation is an instinct that you possess, you'd better do it and do it quick. If my help's not appreciated, lots of luck, gentlemen.
Chinese Delegate: No, Mr. Wolf, it ain't like that...
Kim: I don't mean any disrespect, I just don't like people barking orders at me.
The Wolf: If I'm curt with you, it's because time is a factor here. I think fast, I talk fast, and I need you guys to act fast if you want to get out of this. So, pretty please, with sugar on top, get back to the bargaining table and let's cut a deal, shall we?
Oh yeah and just to get the 'Dear Leaders' attention, we apparently ran anti-sub drills against North Korea after the "We Got Nukes" announcement.
Posted @ February 21, 2005 04:45 PM | Current Affairs | Comments (0)
Aviation Blogging: Fossett set for flight this weekend
Steve " Living for the rest of us" Fossett is set to launch his around the world flight this weekend. Click Here for details from the Wichita Eagle. Mr. Fossett is going to launch his flight from Salina Kansas. Although the aircraft was designed by Burt Rutan, this aircraft is designed to fly solo and looks to be a vast improvement on the original groundbreaking Voyager design.
I've seen the Voyager in the Air and Space Museum. I find it hard to believe this aircraft went around the patch at the local airport, much less around the world. It was truly inspiring when Dick and Jenna did their flight and I have no doubt that Steve Fossetts flight will also be an inspiration.
Keep an eye on the mission website at www.globalflyer.com for details
Good luck Steve...
UPDATE: No flight on the 25th. From Globalflyer:
"Take off on the 25th no longer looks possible due to a tail wind that increases the take off distance too greatly. We are currently evaluating the days after the 25th for other opportunities."
Posted @ February 21, 2005 11:22 AM | Current Affairs | Comments (0)
Weekend Movie: One, Two Three.
Caught a cold this weekend. It gave me a chance to catch up on movies.
This weekend, Its One,Two,Three.
Very Funny. And thats not just the nyquil talking.
It's Billy Wilder and James Cagney! Why havent I heard of this before.
More later after I've finished it.
Posted @ February 20, 2005 08:24 PM | Current Affairs | Comments (2)
Ready For Your Close Up?
Were living in a time of great transition. The human world is changing before our eyes in ways our grandfathers could never have imagined. Some of us adjust and sit back and marvel at the majesty of it all, while others cling to a hopeful return to the righteousness of the past like a wet cat locked inside a running shower stall loudly craves a return to dryness.
I’ve been through technology transitions before, so this is nothing new. To me, all technology has the life span of a green banana. It doesn’t surprise me to see change anymore. In fact I’m so jaded that I’m only surprised when I don’t see change. I like change. Most of the time, it works out pretty good. I do have my issues with cell phones, but that’s a rant for another time.
Like I said, things are changing, and changing big. I really hesitated writing this piece because it involves picking on a soft and easy target. This target is a person, but she’s actually more of a totem for a lifestyle that is dying before my eyes.
That lifestyle is “Activist Journalism”, and it’s fading into the past fast and with it fades the career of a particular baby-boomer-Pulitzer-prize-winning-columnist.
Once, long ago, to be a journalist meant having the same prestige as a used car salesman. Respectable men didn’t work as “reporters”, just scam artists and men just this side of the law. Sure, there were a few “writers” as such, but as a rule, kids didn’t go to college saying they wanted to go into the “news” business. It was a knuckle-busting, hard drinking, make no money, all for a little bit of ego stroke kind of business. It was a man’s business, specifically an old mans business a two fisted drinking, smoking, whoring mans business.
She wondered what to do with yourself.
A few years go by. Then one day, a couple of kids just like her who worked at the Washington Post exposed a popular and powerful President in a crime. They became famous. They became more important than the stories they covered. They mattered.
People of her generation began to talk of their role of “Speaking Truth to Power”, exposing corruption and “making to world a better place”. It became intoxicating. She could become famous she told herself, just by writing a few little stories.
She could become an “authority”. She could change government policy, all because you could get hired by a newspaper to write stories. There was no competition; she had the consumer and the publisher right where she wanted them.
She used to march in protests in college, she wanted to change the world, now through the new found world of “Activist Journalism”, she could.
Now she mattered. Now she were important. The world listened to her. They watched her breathlessly help make policy on Sunday morning Political Shows, where the “old men” asked her to appear to give your opinion. She was “speaking truth to power”.
People bought her books. She made up cute names about important people and they had to take it, because she worked for a newspaper, and they didn’t. It was sweet revenge for all the wrongs against her and all of the agrieved "sisterhood".
The people she worked for paid her well, because just by her being associated with them, they made money. It was a great little system they had.
Once upon a time, A person could go to the best schools, get the connections, take a journalism class or two, get out of college, go to work for a newspaper, write a few articles and become famous.
And powerful. That was the best part, Power. In your own hands...
Once upon a time way back when, a person could join a profession who had as one of its goals “Changing the world” and you could. And she did!
She lives in a din of Champaign bubbles, camera lights and the loud hum of stereo speakers at parties. It dulls her to the sound of little feet. The little feet of competition, scuttling across the floor of her finely ordered world where she sits safely at the top.
Once, while she was busy entertaining at a posh party in the Hampton’s, someone across the room said a word she didn’t understand in a sentence she couldn’t comprehend.
“ I read it in a blog…” They said about something that she couldn’t care less about because it wasn’t about her, so how important could it be... she thought to yourself. She kept hearing how your friends were on the “Internet”, but she resisted, it was all so pedestrian. Her admin assistant could do that for her at work, why should she get into the dirty side of it all.
“It gets in the way of my writing”; she said whenever someone asked. Her favorite politcal candidate in the election started to make money off all the little people on this thing called “the internet”. She decided that whatever it was, it was a good thing, but basically, she ignored it.
Her newspaper started an “online edition”. They set up an email so your readers could correspond with her on a story. As long as the checks came in, she didn’t care. She had no more idea what “internet edition” was any more than what the letters “WIC” meant in the milk section of the grocery store. She never checked her email, she had people to do that for her.
Then she heard it again, that little “blog” word. She thought it so passé, but there it was again. Then one day, her editor lost his job because of the effect of this little word she didn’t understand. Apparently, some "blog" caught her boss in a little lie, and told everyone. How could they? and who were they anyway? “This must be the work of the corporate power brokers”. She decided to investigate this "internet thing". She asked her admin about the email account that the paper had set up for her.
“You wont like it” said the admin.
“How can that be? I am loved by one and all!” The admin then explained how readers wrote to tell how often she, the writer, the reporter, the journalist were wrong on so many issues. The admin explained that her fine crafted pieces of journalism were often linked on websites all over the world.
“Well, see, I told you they like me” she said with glee. The admin looked across the top of her glasses at you with a sour persimmon look and shook her face from side to side.
“You don’t understand, they don’t like you, they hate you, they make fun of you every chance they get, and you don’t help with some of the pieces you write, all those cutesy names, its so infantile”.
“Well, it’s the right wing talk radio whackos, of course they hate me!” she said back in angry retort with balled up fists.
“No, its pretty much everyone. I hate to tell you this, but on the Internet, you are a considered a sad joke”.
There, right in the office on that day, she realized something for the first time. She wasn't driving the fastest car in the race, she had just been lapped. The world had passed her by. She were living her life thinking she was Katherine Hepburn, but it turns out, she was really just Norma Desmond.
Joe Gillis: You're Norma Desmond. You used to be in silent pictures. You used to be big.
Norma Desmond: I am big. It's the pictures that got small.
In the end, it wasn’t about journalism, it wasn’t about the writing, it was all about her. All that mattered was the satisfaction of her ego. That was her morphine, and when she heard the word "blog" the first time, that was the end of her fix, only she didnt know it at the time.
Like Nora Desmond, Main Stream Media is living in a sad reflective world that no longer exists. They live in the narcotic haze of nostalgia, “for the days gone by” when the world rotated around what they thought. Now, they will start the “death rattle” that occurs when all former authorities and celebrities feel their grip on power falling away from them like a drug addict who cant quite keep their buzz going.
They will sue, berate, belittle, crack and claw. it will get mean and petty. And claw though they might, they will lose, for they have lost already. Main Stream Media can no more hold onto their non-existent authority than the cardinals of Europe could maintain their place after Gutenberg made the press. The world has changed. It's conspired against them. The bill has come due.
The smart ones will adapt. The dumb ones will fade sadly into obscurity, dimly holding out hope for better times,colliding with the sharp corners of reality on the way down the cold cement staircase of life. Some will go sad and pathetically like Walter Winchell did in his last days,after no one would hire him, handing out “newsletters” for 10 cents a piece at Manhattan bars,basking in the reflective glory that was his past or like Nora Desmond, acting only to a room full of shadows as the world has cast its gaze somewhere else.
Joe Gillis: There's nothing tragic about being fifty. Not unless you're trying to be twenty-five.
So true.
Oh but Weep not fellow blogger for the fading baby-boomer-Pulitzer-prize-winning-columnist who once mattered, but does no longer. For someday, in the not too distant future, we too will meet our ego-doom at the hands of an unseen competitive force who is even now scuttling across our floors unheard through the din of our current excitement. Meet it with grace and dignity, because has history has clearly shown us, it happens to everyone.
It will happen to us. Just wait and see.
Be ready for your close up. It will be over before you know it.
Posted @ February 17, 2005 09:52 PM | Current Events | Comments (1)
North Korea: A story of mutual betrayal
A very good take on the situation can be found here.
Excerpt:
"South Korea's ambassador to Beijing, Kim Ha-joong, has called on China to apply subtle but effective measures. The North draws almost all of its imports across the border with China.
"What kind of situation could arise, if China, citing maintenance work, were to close just three of its roads simultaneously?" the ambassador was quoted as saying by the South Korean news agency Yonhap."
What kind of situation? I think it was called "The Berlin Crisis - 1949".
Posted @ February 17, 2005 12:08 PM | Current Events | Comments (0)
This Just In...
My buddy Jeff calls Lobsters "The cockroach of the sea", it always makes me laugh, but Apparently Lobsters Feel No Pain!
In addition to that, they actually like being bathed in drawn butter, cracked wide open and being eaten buffet style at Red Lobster.
Whodathunkit?
( Someone, not me, decided that this piece of scientific information just had to be looked into. Someone went to work every day, working diligently and burning many calories on the "Great Lobster Pain Controversy that will rip the lid off the whole shellfish industry". I honestly dont know why, they just did. For the record, I dont care if they do feel pain as they are likely to be dead in a few minutes just the same. But I'm a cruel heartless meat eating bastard.)
Next up, Do Gay Pengiuns Taste Like Chicken?
Posted @ February 15, 2005 08:14 AM | Current Affairs | Comments (0)
North Korea: Asias Little Indian Casino On the Yalu
BEIJING (Reuters) - China arrested a government official on Sunday who had fled after losing 3.5 million yuan ($423,000) in public funds and borrowed money to gambling at a casino in a North Korea border area, state media reported.
The arrest of Cai Haowen followed a high-profile manhunt and the closure of the Hong Kong-built Emperor Hotel and Casino in a free trade zone of North Korea, across the river from China's Jiling province, where Cai is reported to have gambled.
Let me get this straight. Hong Kong Built hotels on the Yalu River? Free Trade Zones? Gambling? Did North Korea become an Indian Reservation? Can we expect to see cigarettes,rubber tomahawks and hand made jewelry being sold from road side stands at low,low prices?
Oops, spoke to soon.
" In Guam, the Secret Service in July uncovered a network selling bogus North Korean-made pharmaceuticals, cigarettes, and $100 bills. In June, French customs seized more than 11,000 fake parts for Nokia Corp. (NOK ) cell phones -- batteries, covers, and more."
Man, that place is like the nexus of the weird. Barstow-on-the-yalu.
Posted @ February 14, 2005 09:02 PM | Current Events | Comments (0)
Gaddafi: " I will go to North Korea"
More details can be found here.
"Listen Kim, as one lunatic despotic dictator to another, can I tell you a well known secret? Those laser guided weapons? Those stealth airplanes? Those GPS guidance devices?, you know, the ones WE DONT HAVE BUT THEY DO? - THEY WORK!! They flattened my ass in the 1980's for one little disco bombing and I have oil fer-gods-sake, by comparison to you, these guys LIKE me. They-dont-like-like-you. Hell, The South Koreans dont like you, Russia doesnt like you, Japan doesnt like you and from what I hear around the campfire, China doesnt like you.
China MADE you!
Get a clue buddy, this is not a good time to do the equivalent of stuffing hamburger in your pockets, putting A-1 sauce in your hair and go running through the grizzly bear cage. ".
Posted @ February 14, 2005 10:31 AM | Current Affairs | Comments (0)
North Korea - Taiwan Connection
A Nice article on "what China may be thinking" can be found here
Abstracted Juicy Bits:
"...It is becoming clear that China is not ready to make the same sacrifice again for a communist ally that has become a political embarrassment and a threat to the stability on which economic progress depends".
Ok, so China is back in our speed dial. Thats good. Everyone repeat after me, "Thank you President Nixon"
"...New urgency has been injected by a US intelligence report, conveyed to President Hu in a letter last week from US President George Bush, that North Korea has been exporting uranium in a form ready for enrichment".
Again, This supports the "timing" problem.
"...In the eyes of many people in China, had there not been the Korean War and China's forced involvement, there would not have existed a Taiwan question today," said Xiao Ren, of the Shanghai Institute for International Studies, in a paper read to Western scholars in December."
I wonder how the phrase "horse trading" translates into mandarin...
"...As North Korea withdrew from the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty and started bomb-making efforts, Beijing canvassed many options. One was a pre-emptive strike to halt any North Korean attack on the South. The Chinese military reported they could not reach the Demilitarised Zone quickly enough."
Sometimes, its just the thought that counts.
Posted @ February 13, 2005 03:43 PM | Current Affairs | Comments (0)
Kim Watch: Day 4.
Here are Four scenarios that have been put forth for the sudden announcement from North Korea that they have "nukes".
Theory 1: Brinkmanship
Theory 2: Heat from the US
Theory 3: Lack of concessions
Theory 4: Pressure on Kim
Details can be found here.
Im intrigued By Theory 2 and Theory 4.
Theory 4 Brings up the rather hard to believe idea of dissent in North Korea coming to a head. I would dismiss it out of hand, except thre was the rather odd explosion in Yongbon railyard soon after the "Dear Leader" passed through. Then there was word that the large portait pictures of the "Dear Leader" throught Pyongyang had been removed or possibly defaced. Just this week there is word that he has publically announced the line of succession goes to his son and grandson.
Why now? and was there any doubt? There wasnt to me.
For support of Theory2 , there is this pice from the Boston Globe.
Key Points found within:
NORTH KOREA sold uranium in gaseous form to Libya in 2002, US officials just told Japan, South Korea, and China.
The latest turn in the nuclear crisis came after experts at the Oak Ridge laboratory reportedly concluded that uranium gas found in Libya came from North Korea.
North Korea began acquiring the means to enrich uranium from Pakistan in 1998 after the Clinton administration failed to live up to its commitments in the 1994 Agreed Framework.
In the immortal words of Science Officer Spock:
"Fascinating"
There is something that has only just occured to me. I've always been thinking that each country would be working on their own to accomplish the task of building atomic weapons. A friend of mine was channelling Enrico Fermi one day when he posed this question:
"If the theory of atomic energy is so well understood and the materials to develop them are at readily at hand, why are there not more of them ?"
The answer is either that there are more of them than we know of ( very possible) or that even if the theory is well understood it still takes a great deal of technology(read: "money")to accomplish the task.
Be let's "just suppose" this. While no one country in the 'axis of evil' can accomplish the task on their own due to limitations on each of their parts(not enough money, not enough talent, not enough land, not secure enough), perhaps, they decided to cooperate to accomplish the job and share the results? This would also allow the overall project to continue even if any one country was removed from the equation by forces outside of their control.
They would need one country with a ready supply of untraceable uranium. North Korea fits the bill nicely. They would need another with a healthy supply of ready cash. Iraq or Libya fit the bill. They would need a large area in which to test, Iran fits the bill. Perhaps Cuba also provided intelligence to see the task accomplised, as they are also a dynastic dictatorship, in danger of being overthrown without the atomic security blanket that was pulled off when the Soviet Union went away. My guess is that Castro wants it back very badly. Perhaps Venezuela is being courted as the new replacement for the badly needed cash component for this project.
And then there's Pakistan. Pakistan is probably the source of much of the talent that is driving the project. My suspicion is that A.Q. Khan developed the Pakistan project with one hand, while simultaneously handing off the data to the "other players" with the other hand.
Tie them all together with any number of newly available and unemployed atomic scientists and technical staff from the former Soviet Union, working as "consultants" and you can start to see where this theory takes us.
Two key components have been removed, Libyan and Iraqi cash, and another has been neutralized - Pakistani leadership. Now it seems that the raw materials may be our new priority.
Oh yeah, and Kims Birthday is in four days. Let's see how that goes.
Posted @ February 13, 2005 12:30 AM | Current Events | Comments (2)
02/13/45 - Dresden Germany: Maximum Effort.
Posted @ February 12, 2005 11:10 AM | History file | Comments (1)
The Sweet Smell of Success
...or the smell of rotting timbers below the water line at the good ship Microsoft?
Click here and see what Michael S. Malone has to say.
I have no particular dog in this fight. I have always taken the agnostic approach. I am a mercenary in the business, I go where the market drives me. All but one of my systems at home are in fact, Linux. I only have one system that remains on Windows XP. However, if it wasnt for the inability to find working drivers and add on software for my ATI HDTV video board on anything BUT Windows XP, I would have dumped the one remaining Windows system I have like a hot rock.
A "look you right in the face and demand 200-freakin-dollars for an operating system that requires almost daily upgrades to stay running" hot rock.
No, Im not bitter. Not at all...
Posted @ February 12, 2005 10:49 AM | Comments (1)
And I was in such a good mood too...
So, How do I know with absolute certainty that any alien civilization that is quietly observing us from afar is not likely to visit us anytime soon?
Because when I go to Google news and look up the top stories I see this:
The number 1 story according to Google is that Charles Windsor, the “Prince of Wales’ is about to marry the woman of his dreams. Luckily for the human gene pool he’s marrying a 60-ish dowager so there’s no chance of his producing more goofy eared offspring, so we can thank our lucky stars for that. Dianas boys seem fine to me and if Harry were to "accidentally" push his Dad down the stairs one rainy evening, I dont think anyone would be too upset....
So if that’s the number 1 most important story according to Google. What could possibly be Number 2?
The Number 2 story is that North Korea just flipped the stink finger up at the rest of the world, putting us all in a genuinely dangerous situation. North Korea said, “ Hey everybody! We already got Nukes So what is there to talk about?”. They actually used the word “Nukes” in their official transmission, making everyone, myself included scratch their head and wonder just what the hell is going on.
Just so were all on the same page of sheet music, North Korea has Inter-Continental Ballistic Missiles, and now they just said that they actually have Nuclear weapons, and to make everything just that much more interesting, they said they weren’t going to talk to any of their neighbors about them.
This is bad. Really, really bad.
I hate it when you’re playing poker and you’re only holding a pair and someone calls your bluff and that’s just what happened. We’ve been warning of “dire consequences” for the last four years. We told them to get into 6 part talks with China, Russia, Japan, South Korea and the US, “or else”.
And now the North Koreans just said “Or else what?”
So, if we do nothing, the world gets more dangerous because there are only two things to do with nuclear weapons, use them or sell them. Who they gonna sell them to? Take a guess? Who’s left since we eliminated their ready-made markets in Iraq, Libya and Pakistan?
That’s right, our pals in Iran.
And if we “do something” what’s that going to be? North Korea is not Iraq. North Koreas population can best be thought of this way:
People in North Korea exist for no other purpose than to serve the state. There is no free will, only sacrifice to the Dear Leader.
If that’s not bad enough it gets worse. North Korea has shamed its closest partner, China. China by the way is the group who brought us North Korea in the first place, but frankly the North Koreans have long since worn out their welcome. North Korea has always told China that they didn’t have nuclear weapons. But now it turns out that they do. China has lost face. This is a very bad thing for someone to do. Its especially bad when its your best friend and pal who did it.
Let’s kick it up a notch. North Korea has basically put the economic stability of China at risk. Chinas biggest trading partner is the US. There is almost nothing that North Korea can do from here on out that will not have a deep negative impact on that relationship. It will be tough on us if that trade with China were to stop, but it will be devastating to China. Wait let me be clear, it will be devastating on the party bosses who are growing rich on the development of trade in their country. A Chinese government that craves order above all other things is not going to want to have this problem on its horizon at all. North Korea cannot oppose the US without impacting the ability for China to sell things in the US. Without the influx of cash in to the Chinese economy, it will be in chaos.
So far this evening, I have seen official word from both China and Russia to the North Koreans telling them to get back to the negotiating table. I suspect that the South Koreans and Japanese will have made statements overnight to the same effect.
But let’s be serious here. What is there left to talk about? North Korea has now admitted to having nuclear weapons. Does anyone think that they will give them up just by our all sitting around a table and talking to them? These guys are still officially at war with us. If they haven’t resolved that in both fact and deed, what chance do we have to remove the manhood from this little bastard? Is it at all possible that we will we just look the other way? Hardly. North Korea will surely try to sell them to our enemies, if they haven’t done so already.
We’ve crossed into very dark territory here. It reminds me of what we did in the 1940s with Japan with the oil embargo. We tried to force Japan to leave China by taking their oil away. Don’t get me wrong, in my opinion it was the right thing to do. Where we went wrong was not recognizing that the Japanese would NEVER back down and as a result, by setting the embargo in place, it was only a matter of time before we went to war. We should not have been surprised. We were, and as a result, millions of people died.
It is my opinion, at 1:00 PST On February 11 2005, The War Clock has been wound up and is now ticking away.
There is still some doubt in my mind on which country it will be that first crosses into North Korea, The US or the Chinese. It is my opinion at this point that this can only go one way. North Korea, more specifically the person of Kim Jong Il will have to be removed.
China may have a chance to decapitate the North Korean government since they still have easy access and human assets in place. We have none of those options. There is literally only one thing we can do.
That one thing is something very dreadful indeed.
This is not a case of a simple sniper bullet on a premium target. Kim Jong Il is more like a religious leader, on the model of Emperor Hirohito than a simple head of state. If you kill him, the religion goes on. You still have 22 million people who exist only to serve the state to deal with. And in my opinion they will fight to the death the way the Imperial Japanese did 60 years ago. Only this time, they have Nukes too.
Someday in the future we will get to read the true story of what went on behind the scenes in the “War on Terror”. But we can get a glimpse now at what appears to be going on behind the scenes.
“Pritchard and Einhorn said the North Korean statement may have less to do with Bush administration behavior on the nuclear issue — which has been relatively moderate and diplomatic — than with a trip to Asia last week by a senior National Security Council official, Michael Green, bearing a presidential letter whose contents have not been disclosed.
Green is reported to have presented evidence to Beijing, Seoul and Tokyo that North Korean uranium hexafluoride, or UF6, a chemical used to enrich uranium for nuclear weapons use, was found in Libya.
According to U.S. officials and others, the outside of a cylinder of UF6 gas found during inspection of Libya's nuclear facilities turned out to be contaminated with plutonium that matched the profile of plutonium from North Korea's Yongbyon plant.
U.S. officials have long suspected that North Korea may have one or more secret uranium enrichment facilities, perhaps hidden in caves. One official said the intelligence experts who analyzed the UF6 were "pretty certain" of their conclusions and that "our experts are really careful after previous mistakes" — a reference to intelligence failures concerning the Iraqi weapons program.
A delegation of senior Chinese negotiators was scheduled to visit North Korea shortly after Wednesday's Lunar New Year and might have been preparing to confront Pyongyang with the evidence that they had exported gas whose only purpose would be to enrich uranium for nuclear weapons.
The North Koreans may have thought that "the noose is going to close on us, we better act now," Einhorn said.”
So now it seems the victory over Libya counts more than we may have realized. And you remember the name Yongbyon don’t you? That’s where the mysterious train explosion involving Kim Jong Il happened a while back. Coincidence? Maybe.
So far, we’ve been pretty lucky. Let us all pray that our luck holds out a little bit longer.
Posted @ February 11, 2005 01:26 AM | Comments (3)
Michael Crichton on CSPAN
I wrote my review on his book in this post.
Now, the man himself is going on CSPAN to discuss. I hope he brings his flak vest and helmet.
Posted @ February 10, 2005 11:50 AM | Current Affairs | Comments (2)
Changing the world - One cable modem at a time.
Once while watching TV and seeing a Dodge Ram pickup commercial, my brother-in-law began to opine about the obvious fuel inefficiency of Dodge pickups and what a fool anyone would be to buy one. He offered that anyone who didn’t buy a Honda was an idiot, as only Hondas could get decent gas mileage, and thus were the only cars “good for the environment”. I then reminded him of something he knew, that I owned a Dodge pickup and that he had parked right next to it in the driveway. After he acknowledged that I then told him something he didn’t want to hear.
“My Dakota is more efficient than you Honda”, I said.
He laughed back and said to me in mid guffaw that there was no way that could possibly be true. The poor bastard didn’t know he was being set up.
“When was the last time you bought gas?” I asked him. He said he bought gas on a weekly basis, and a tank of gas is 12 gallons. I told him I had not bought gas in 8 weeks, and my tank held 18 gallons and as a result, it was clear that My V-8, 5 speed manual transmission Dodge Dakota was more efficient than was his Honda. .
You see, My Brother-in-law used his Honda to go to work. His work was 40 miles from home and it took him 90 minutes and two bridge crossings to get from where he lived to where he worked.
He traveled all that way to sit in a standard office cubicle farm, where he would have a networked company PC and telephone. He worked with no one at that office, as most of his contacts were actually other companies and other employees around the globe. His management team was actually in London.
My manager is based on the east coast. His manager is in another state. The Vice President of our division is not an American. Our customer base is globally and in every country except North Korea, Libya and Iran. I work at home. My commute is exactly 14 steps down my stairs into my office. I rarely drive a car for work, unless I’m going to the airport for a trip out of town, which is becoming more and more rare as remote access technology advances with the times.
Am I Efficient? You bet your ass, and I don’t need a Honda or a big expensive public transportation system to be that way.
I need three things.
I can do this type of work because networking infrastructure companies like Cisco invested and developed VPN (Virtual Private Network) technology, which allows me to use public networks to access internal corporate networks as if I were inside the office.
I can do this because the company I work for wants to remain competitive on a global basis, and wants to be as cost efficient and effective as it can be.
Most of all, I can do this because the city I live in made the decision back in the 1970’s to use the then advanced technology of fiber optics not just for business offices, but for all residential telephone access. When they put it in, no one could foresee the existence of home computers, much less the existence of the Internet. Today, the local phone company not only offers phone services, but it also offers high speed broadband and ‘video on demand’ services, all on a single pipeline to the consumer. This was a hell of a good investment on the part of the city owned utility.
I am not unique in my situation. In my neighborhood over the past 5 years I have seen a number of people do the same. In my cul-de-sac, half of the 8 homes in it now have people working from home during the day, all for different companies, all former “cube farmers” like myself.
Think of it that for a minute; 8 homes – on average driving an hour and 20 minutes each day, just for work. Now, with no law passed, with no dictate from “the central committee” our little neighborhood cut the total miles driven by the people in this one cul-de-sac in half.
5 days a week, times 80 minutes for 8 homes = 53 hours a week.
5 days a week, times 80 minutes for 4 homes = 26 hours a week.
Half.
Think of it from a fuel ‘supply and demand’ basis, we dramatically dropped demand and use of fuel in our little cul-de-sac. Which would do what to the price of gas?
Exactly.
Do you think a Toyota Prius could do that? No. How ‘bout a neat Hydrogen Car? No.
Now, I’m not saying that everyone can or should try working remotely. I am saying that a very high percentage of people today can and should do it. It will never be 100% and that’s just fine, the impact is the same whether you go into work or not. What is stopping most people from doing it is more of an ingrained cultural habit than not the lack of infrastructure. We are raised to “go to work”. No one stops and asks “ what am I doing when I get there that I cannot do from home”( and as I often say – What is there left that I can not do BETTER from home?).
The next time you are driving to work, try this exercise. Count four cars, now on the fourth car, imagine that it’s gone, that it’s not on the road. Keep repeating that until you get to where you are going. That’s what a 25% drop in traffic would be like.
Now, what do we need to make this revolution happen? Do we need years of expensive ‘Research and Development’ with only the hope of a “maybe” at the end of it all? This is what is being proposed with Hydrogen Car technology, its possible, but its still a maybe and even if it worked and worked well tomorrow, it would take a great deal of time and money to roll out the technology.
In the case of “working remote” it’s already happening. There’s even a name for it, its called “Homesourcing”. Rather than companies “outsourcing” their work to far off parts of the world, they are learning that it’s often just as cheap if not cheaper to allow their employees to work remotely rather than coming to an office. The company doesn’t require as much office space (and thus real estate) and employees get a tremendous benefit of being able to work without the added cost of commuting. As I’ve illustrated with my little part of the world, it’s a trend that is already underway without government edicts. The market itself has forced companies to be as competitive as they can be, and the same technology and systems that allow US companies to outsource to India can also be used to let you work in your pajamas from your ancestral home in Mt. Airy North Carolina instead of the inner city hell you once had to settle for because thats where the work was.
I say this with total command of my faculties that fully 25% of the US workforce could start working remotely within 90 days.
Again, 25% of the manhours and miles driven (and thus gallons of gas saved) spent driving to and from work could be eliminated within 90 days.
This is achievable. Today.
Imagine what would happen to the world fuel markets if there were anything like a 25% drop in demand for fuel. Just a 5% change would have dramatic effect. I didn’t choose 25% because it’s the ceiling either, I just picked it because I think its doable today, with little or no effort on the part of companies or the government. I say this because I watched it happen once before.
In 1989 I was a part of a vast experiment in forced “homesourcing”. Like 3 million other people, I was working in an office in San Francisco when the Loma Prieta earthquake occurred. The loss of the Bay Bridge and the damage to streets and offices in the city itself put a severe cramp in the ability of people to get to and from San Francisco to work.
Did they stop working? Did the form an office worker ‘trail of tears’ and migrate to other climes where the hunting and gathering was better? Did they die of starvation at the side of the road?
No. They took their new office PC’s home and began to work out of their homes, coming into the city only when it was absolutely necessary. PC’s had only just arrived, but they made a world of difference in the ability to distrbute work. Now, in 1989, Corporate data networks were still kind of primitive, there was no Internet and frankly there was no broadband, but you could get your email and you could certainly write you documents and send them to others. It worked. Processing power was now portable; you no longer had to be at the office to get something done.
Your work was where you were, rather than the other way around.
Most people came out of that experience saying that while they could not work at home every day, it was sure nice to not have to commute, and they were all shocked at how productive they were because everyone expected that productivity would go down with the disruption. It didnt, to everyones surprise, it went up. Six months after the quake, things were back to normal in the city, but people continued to work at home at least one day a week. 1989 was the start of “work at home’ Fridays, a part of modern corporate life that we’ve all learned to accept today as normal, but it wasn’t always so.
Now I loathe discussing the idea of the government stepping in and “doing something”. The worst political disease I know of is the “Do Something” disease. I see it happen all the time, and I see it in the Presidents proposed Budget with the R&D dollars for Hydrogen technology. I also see it on the left with the knee jerk reactions about “the need for more dollars for AMTRACK. When I see it I just want to scream:” THE WORLD HAS CHANGED – GET WITH THE PICTURE!!”
We don’t live in tenements at the edge of cities. We don’t work in factories powered by the wheel at the old millstream. We live in cities that are a mix of work and suburb. The “Age of Hierarchy” is over; this is “the Distributed Age”. We all work in the global market, and many more of us every day are working with people we will never meet as a normal part of our daily work.
So, why are we still going to an office? If I want to talk to coworkers in India, I pick up the phone, I can do that anywhere. If I need to correspond, I send an email, again I can do that anywhere. If we are working together on a particular problem, we use desktop collaboration software so that they can watch as I demonstrate the situation from my desktop, just as if they were sitting in the same cubicle with me, again I can do that anywhere.
So, why are we still going to an office? Our coworkers arent there, Our customers arent there, our bosses arent there! For far too many people who work in offices, it is done for no other reason than its always been done that way, and for me, that is the absolute worst reason to do anything.
For the left and all its talk about wanting to "save the environment", it’s just talk. They are more interested in the power that comes with the extortion dollars they get scaring the hell out of businesses. If you really want to save the environment, do something to encourage homesourcing. You see, unlike all the other solutions for “saving the environment” or “making the US less dependent on foreign oil” “homesourcing” is largely a cultural problem, not a technology problem. Homesourcing can be put into practice and have an immediate and dramatic effect - TODAY. And the effect would be staggering.
If everyone who could do it worked remotely for just one day a week, the impact to fuel demand in the US would be amazing. People don’t need to buy new fuel efficient cars, and we don’t need exotic new fuels, we just need to drive less. Until recently, driving less meant a dramatic decrease in productivity. However, with the advent of the internet, there is no longer any loss of productivity just because you don’t go anywhere. In the 1970’s if you could not get to work, you were screwed and that was it. In the 1980s, it was better, you could at least use a PC at home if you had to, but it was still less than what would be optimum. But since the 1990s with the full availability of goods and services via the Internet, you no longer suffer if you are not in a particular place.
The work is now where you are, rather than the other way around.
Everyday, in every city more and more people have access to broadband network facilities. If I were to get the government to do anything, it would be to accelerate the expansion of broadband networks in the US, but it isn’t necessary, it would just be nice. If I were to get the government to do anything it would be to encourage more homesourcing, but it isn’t necessary, it would just be nice.
If you are a small town and you want to become more competitive as an economic base, there is no better way to do it than to ensure that you have broadband facilities in your town. Once upon a time, the Federal government devised a program called “Rural Electrification” that brought electric power to farms and ranches. It also brought paved roads, which helped bring goods out of the hinterlands and into the markets. The result was an order of magnitude improvement in efficiency for farming and ranching in the US. Rural Electrification was a huge project, The Tennessee Valley Authority, and the Hoover, Bonneville and Grand Coulee Dams were all a part of it. It changed the face of America and it was a damn good investment.
For my money, I would prefer to see the President propose “Rural Internet-ification” to take the place of the “Rural Electrification” project. I would prefer this as opposed to the boondoggle of “Hydrogen powered cars”. If Democrats were more interested in helping people than proving to themselves that “Bush is an Idiot” then they would begin to propose programs like “Rural Internetification” to actually help people in general and help the "red states" become Democratic again.
Let’s see the Democrats propose a program that actually makes American business more competitive on a global basis like widespread access to broadband to employees to make Homesourcing a reality for more people. Let’s see Democrats propose a program that could actually improve the lives of people, rather than just increase the power of politicians over their lives.
While they are doing that, I will be working with my neighbors, quietly and without fanfare transforming the world in which we live, one cable modem at a time.
Clarification: I'm not "blaming Democrats" for anything that I'm not also "blaming Republicans". Both parties are reacting to budget priorities in terms of what helps their parties maintain and achieve power, rather than what is actually effective and helpful in peoples lives.
It's just that Democrats say that they are "for the people" so I expect more of them in that area as a result. When people discuss the problem of "what are we going to do about fossil fuels" I would like to hear some other answer except " let's put everyone on a train". My essay should have provided you with another direction to take the conversation.
also - I have no intention of ever getting a Prius. In the world I live in you are free to buy whatever the hell you want for whatever reason that suits you without fear of retribution from the thought police.
I hope the world you live in is also liberated from the tyranny of the mob.
(UPDATE:) Reason #24 for why there is a Second Amendment to the Constitution can be found here at Vodkapundit.
Posted @ February 10, 2005 01:10 AM | Current Events | Comments (12)
Dawn Eden Gets Fired.
One of the BEST writers I have ever come across since joining the blogosphere is Dawn Eden.
I wrote this about her after reading one of her posts. I still laugh when I read it.
It now seems that she's crossed up her employer and no longer works for the New York Post. The New York Observer graciously gave her a chance to respond.
Let's be clear here.
She worked for the New York Post NOT the New York Times.
She was apparently accused of "weaving her own views into a story".
Ahem...I'll say it again, "weaving her own views into a story".
Oh Holy Saints above! Oh puhlease Mr. Editor and Publisher save us from the possibility that reporters might be weaving their own persepective into stories. Oh my! what will we have next, 95% of all reporters belonging to a single political party? How will our Democracy survive...
Shes got my full support. If she gets a 'Tip Jar' contribute heavily.
You can burn calories chasing "Easons fables" or you can support one of the very best in the business. it's your call.
Posted @ February 09, 2005 04:23 PM | Comments (0)
Notice
David Corn is asking for critique on the Budget put forth by the President.
Let's just say, "I'm working on it".
If you want to see a preview of where I'm going, visit David St. Lawrence and see a post he has been leading that I have been participating in and check this out.
Sorry Mr. Corn, but your side is going to take a beating in this piece as well. (I'm an equal opprtunity shin basher... )It's not enough to say " we dont like it" you have to have some ideas of your own. I'm about to give you a few, for free, because thats just the kind of guy I am...
Posted @ February 09, 2005 01:06 PM | Current Affairs | Comments (0)
What would you say?
Apparently General Mattis said something this week that the Washington Press corp considered to be "offensive".
Allow me to put his comments into historical perspective:
Admiral William Halsey - US 7th Fleet.
“Before we are through with them, the Japanese language will only be spoken in hell.”
General Curtis Lemay - Strategic Air Command
"You've got to kill people, and when you've killed enough they stop fighting."
Ulysses S. Grant - General of the Army and President.
"I have never advocated war except as a means of peace."
General George S. Patton.
"I want you boys to hurry up and whip these Germans so we can get out to the Pacific to kick the shit out of the purple-pissing Japanese, before the Goddamned MARINES get all the credit!"
And finally, my favorite General says all that needs to be said to the idiots in the press:
General William Tecumseh Sherman
"War is cruelty. There's no use trying to reform it, the crueler it is the sooner it will be over."
And in the best retort ever against the "nattering nabobs" in the press, a full 150 years before the advent of modern "advocacy journalism", he said this:
"I hate newspapermen. They come into camp and pick up their camp
rumors and print them as facts. I regard them as spies, which, in truth, they are. If I killed them all this evening they would be reporting news from Hell before breakfast. "
General Mattis can say whatever the hell he wants as loud as he wants as far as I'm concerned. Just keep fighting and keep winning, all the rest is just words.
I Thank God for men like General Mattis. I find his statements mild by comparison to his historical peers and quite understandable in context of which he was speaking. It took me all of 15 minutes to google-yahoo up these comparitive quotes and had the press taken the same effort, the shock and revulsion they have expressed might have been somewhat lowered. Had they also bothered to listen to his entire speech , that also might have helped, but hey, theres parties to attend and caviar to be eaten, so I guess they have their priorities.
The only people offended by General Mattis are people that are prejudiced and bigoted against members of the military. I'm not sure I care too much about the opinions of bigots...
Update: Welcome L-Dotters and Vodkapundit-eers.
Posted @ February 05, 2005 12:14 PM | Current Affairs | Comments (14)
New Blog: Vietpundit
I found this blog the other day on Roger L. Simon, but apparently the author has been a visitor for some time.
It is a small world, aint it?
The Viet national anthem:
"Citizens, our nation must become free"
"With one same heart, let's sacrifice ourselves"
"For our future let's brave all dangers"
"To secure our land no and forever"
"Though die we may on the field"
"Our blodd we will spill for the land"
"And when our race need to be saved"
"We shall always respond in time"
"And fight with great mind till the day when"
"Vietnam becomes a shining light "
"Citizens, let's step forward now"
"Citizens, rally the flags now"
"And save our land"
"Make its name shine"
"Forever worthy of our race"
Welcome aboard my friend, I look forward to your views!
Posted @ February 04, 2005 09:13 PM | Current Affairs | Comments (1)
Weekend Movie Club
Play Dirty(1968)
Directed by
André De Toth
Cast
Michael Caine .... Capt. Douglas
Nigel Davenport .... Capt. Cyril Leech
Nigel Green .... Col. Masters
Harry Andrews .... Brig. Blore
Patrick Jordan .... Maj. Alan Watkins
“War is a criminal enterprise, I fight it with criminals”.
Nigel Green as Col. Masters
Every move made by the characters in this movie and every line of dialog uttered by the actors is in support of an act of betrayal. At every turn, characters in this movie shoot each other in the back and betray each other with such rapidity that you quickly can lose your way in this plot. It’s set in a war, but its not about war. This is not a history lesson, it’s a visit to the therapist.
Set in the World War II North African campaign, Nigel Green and his band of irregulars, who are made up almost exclusively of prisoners seconded from a backwater hell hole prison behind the British lines. They are made up from stone cold killers, Mutinous ship captains, homosexual Arabs they are men so bad the men of the “dirty dozen” would have sat at another table in the cafeteria. Following the pattern of the British Long Range Desert Group, this team wears enemy uniforms and equipment to sow chaos behind the lines of the enemy. At least that’s the idea.
But who is the enemy? In this movie, it’s hard to tell. The opening scene sets the tone as Nigel Davenport is driving along the desert with a small armored Jeep with a mix of weapons both allied and axis, with his radio tuned to a German Army radio station belting out “Lili Marlene” as they did often in those days. At his side sits another soldier, though clearly he is dead. You wonder what are you watching, a German about to be bumped off in an ambush? As he approaches a desert road checkpoint, He switches his service cap to that of a British officer, and switches the radio station, to a more appropriate English tune and the transformation is complete. Now he’s on our side.
Or is he?
Is he a German pretending to be English or is he an English who was pretending to be German? At each step in the movie, it becomes clear that the only side anyone is on is the side of their own survival.
Michael Caine, plays his comfortable role as a young British officer, who is seconded to the British Army from his civilian role as a petroleum engineer for British Petroleum in pre-war Libya. He is seconded to this team as a way for the British Army to try to take control of this band of miscreants and bandits. He and his team are betrayed and sacrificed by the British as a decoy for another more officially sanctioned British team. They are all in pursuit of a German fuel depot. Watch and listen closely, there is a surprise behind every line and every twist is twisted back on itself. Is it murder or is it killing? What is betrayal or loyalty? What is Humanity or Inhumanity, it’s all investigated in this tight little “B” movie from 1968.
I liked this movie a lot, its rarely seen on Cable Channels and I don’t think there is a DVD, but it is in rotation this week on Showtime. Catch it if you can, you won’t be disappointed.
Ice Cold at Alex(1958)
Directed by
J. Lee Thompson
John Mills .... Capt. Anson
Sylvia Syms .... Sister Diana Murdoch
Anthony Quayle .... Capt. van der Poel/Hauptman Otto Lutz
Harry Andrews .... MSM Tom Pugh
Following a theme for this weekend, this film is also set in World War II North Africa. In this film, a doctor and two nurses are separated from the allies and find themselves far behind German lines. Much like Lawrence of Arabia, a main character in this film is the desert itself, however this film is in black and white it does not have the impact it would in full Cinerama color.
This is a quiet film, with barely any musical background soundtrack, something I found added greatly to the film itself. They don’t do that very much anymore, you are always given music to help you along in the story. The result is the stories offered are often weak, and the soundtrack is used as a way to cover that up.
What makes this film fun to watch is how the characters survive two of the very worst situations, War and deprivation. While they can cope with the hazards of war, it’s the desert that gives the more menacing challenge. John Mills plays the captain of this medical team, but he is a flawed man on the way down. It falls to him to keep this group together but he is doing everything to keep himself together. Mills portrays an alcoholic at a time when alcoholism is rarely discussed. More importantly, He uses the promise of a beer in Alexandria as a way to keep his fading team motivated to do what they need to do to survive. This is the basis of the title, and when the beer is revealed, you will be amazed at your reaction, and it is at point that you realize how deep into the story you have gone. Filmed In Black and white, with hardly any soundtrack it’s simply character study that is done with great expertise.
One scene that sticks in my mind even today is when at one point they are required to haul their ambulance up the side of a wall of sand. It’s handled quietly, and with great care by the director and it is a tribute to what a great director can do without special effects to add to the emotional basis of the story.
This movie is a classic. I absolutely loved this movie when I first saw it in the 1970's, I went through a great deal of trouble to get it on DVD, but it is out there and if you can get a copy, I highly recommend this film.
Posted @ February 04, 2005 03:29 PM | Movie Reviews | Comments (0)
John Has A Long Moustache
President Bush received a mandate at the completion of the election. Not the one in November, but the one that happened three days ago. Once again, President Bush is using his own script, rather than the one prepared for him, and those who are still reading their version of the script are mystified at how he operates.
After 9/11, the European and American left mindset said we should look into our hearts and see that it was in fact our own fault. It was our support of Israel that caused the violence; it was our capitalist system that resulted in our own deaths.
President Bush decided to do something else. President Bush decided to set different parameters for the game in which all presidents since Carter had stepped into and failed to resolve. Sure, the left gave us our blood lust for Afghanistan, but only on the condition that we “get Osama Bin Laden”. Despite the actions of the Taliban and their horrible track record with human rights, the left insisted that we leave them alone, insisting that any atrocities that occurred in Afghanistan were only carried out in our name by warlords that we controlled.
The left and their puppet media outlets told the world that we were in a “Vietnam-like quagmire, three weeks into the war. They told us the Arab street would rise up and we would be slaughtered in the hills of Afghanistan. They told us not to attack during Ramadan, as it was a holy time, and that Masar-al-Sharif was a holy city and we could not attack it or enter it.
After we were successful in routing the Taliban, they then told us we could never pacify the Afghans. They told us it would degrade into a “civil war” and that only Kabul was under control and that drug warlords really ran the country, and they, of course, were controlled by the CIA.
They told the world we would never support an independent government, that President Karzai and his government were simply “puppets”, doing what they were told.
Then, elections came. People stood in line in defiance of all the threats of violence, all the predictions of low turnout, all the racist claptrap that said, “Islamic people don’t want to vote”. They did it without the help of ex-president Carter, and his merry band of UN observers.
And with the reality of elections in one of the most backwards places in the world, a place that has ground up empire after empire, the media packed up its camera bags and ran out of there so fast they quickly forgot about all of their predictions of disaster. There would be no “mea culpa” from those who had predicted disaster. No bad news is not good news to the media, its simply news that hasn’t happened yet. They still wait today for the “civil war” that never came. They still wait for the refugee disaster that never happened.
They simply rolled up their microphones and video equipment and their hackneyed half assed reporting and encamped in Kuwait, to report the story of Americas next great attempt at empire building, Iraq.
The “Arab Street” however, could not be reached for comment.
Iraq, it was said was the home of the vaunted Iraqi Republican Guard. It was said that Saddam controlled great and powerful military that could cause America to become bogged down “just like Vietnam”.
7 days into the invasion, Media pundits began to use the word ‘Vietnam-like quagmire” to describe how the US military had become slowed by the terrain of Iraq. They said we could expect the defense of Baghdad to resemble the defense of Stalingrad by the Russians in World War II.
They winced when American flags were seen waving from tanks. They gasped at the sight of Iraqi citizens began to welcome in no uncertain terms Americans into cities and towns all across Iraq.
In a state of near panic, the left and their puppet media began to change the story from liberation and freedom for the Iraqi people to one of imposed degradation of the poor 3rd world people of Iraq under American occupation. America and her illegal invasion caused the looting; America caused the lack of electricity, caused the lack of water. America itself was responsible for the insurgency that was growing. Before Americas invasion, Iraq was like a pastoral exhibit in Disney’s EPCOT; all happy people living under the aegis of the benign sovereign leader, the beloved Saddam, who opposed America, and thus, was wholly virtuous in the eyes of the left.
They said we would never give up control of the 2nd largest oil reserve in the world. They said we would never ever allow free elections that may elect an Iranian friendly government.
We did. We never blinked; we just went ahead with what we had always planned to do, what we always said we would do. And that was the most shocking thing to some people, that the government of the United States meant what it said, and said what it meant, upsetting thousands of years of international behavioral understanding between states.
The people of Iraq responded, braving bullets and bombs and voted to form the government that will make its own constitution. A government formed by the will of the people and based, not on heredity or title or revolution, but law, formed on a written constitution. The people of Iraq by taking this simple act now understand that there might be a few terrorists, but there are far more people who are on their side.
And yet once again, the “Arab Street” could not be reached for comment.
But quietly in the souks and backstreets of the Islamic world, the “Arab street” is noticing. Europe chooses to look the other way, or to openly mock the United States, but the Arab and Islamic world is beginning to take notice.
What they understand is this, President Bush says what he means and means what he says.
Tonight, President Bush said something that is ringing like “a fire bell in the night” across the dinner tables of the Arab world. I had to read it in the transcript three times to be sure that what I thought I heard was real. He said:
The government of Saudi Arabia can demonstrate its leadership in the region by expanding the role of its people in determining their future. And the great and proud nation of Egypt, which showed the way toward peace in the Middle East, can now show the way toward democracy in the Middle East.
This is the equivalent of the Babe Ruth “called shot”, and yeah, President Bush did hit it out of the ball park, because he then said this:
And to the Iranian people, I say tonight: As you stand for your own liberty, America stands with you.
Ka-Blam, right out over the fence and into the parking lot. My god, do you realize what this has to sound like to the ears of the Shia in Iran? Let’s understand something, they just heard the man who leads the United States say “if you rebel against your masters – we will support you”. That may not have been the message that the President sent, but that is sure as hell the one that was delivered to the people of Iran.
Iran shares its borders with two countries that have been liberated by America. Iran is a country run by a mullah-cracy that established its power by attacking the US in its institutions and its culture. Unfortunately for the mullahs of Iran, but fortunately for us, the country with the largest expatriate Iranian population is, The United States of America. Now that very same country has decided to call openly for their overthrow. Poor Mullahs, they are soon to be out of a job..."Great Satan" indeed...
If that is the message he wanted to send, we had all better get ready for one hell of a busy spring. If you think that things are going to calm down for awhile, I got news for you, its my guess that the next four years are going to make the first four years look like the heady days of the Coolidge administration all over again.
Terrorism is at its heart, a system of extortion. In Dune, Frank Herbert described it this way “ He who can destroy a thing, controls a thing”. Terrorists have been using extortion against their host governments as a way to generate revenue. For a given amount of money each year, the terror groups would aim their organizations away from the host governments. The host governments could use the terror groups as an effective “cutout” by which they could impact the foreign policy of other countries, which would normally not give them the time of day without any possibility of retaliation.
President Bush has discovered the one thing that terrorists live in fear of, not death or defeat at the hands of the infidels, but the removal of friendly host governments, both as a source of revenue, and as a way to receive safe passage. Democracy, far from being shunned by Arabs is apparently all the rage. If Arabs will brave death to place a simple vote, in places as far apart and different as both Afghanistan and Iraq, who can say that Islam doesn’t really support Democracy.
President Bush has retrained the Islamic “dogs of war”, and sent them after their masters.
In the past year, we’ve all been speculating if it was going to be Iran or Syria next on the Presidents agenda. I think the Presidents answer to that question is a clear one word answer:
“Yes”.
I suspect Syria will negotiate, but watch Iran. I’ve got a feeling it’s about to explode. I think President Bush just lit the fuse with tonight’s speech.
Posted @ February 02, 2005 10:42 PM | Current Affairs | Comments (4)
Noodling The SOTU
I've just finished the State of the Union. Im not much on speeches and talk, I have to be ordered to attend simple 'team meetings' at my work.
But when I give presentations, I'm always aware of the audience when I decide what I want to say, and how I want to say it. I need to think about this some more before I write about it, but it occurs to me that the President just lit a fuse in the Middle East, bigger than anything he has done since the days of "shock and awe".
I've also got this feeling that The President is suckering the Democrats on Social Security. They are petrified of any move on their territory, and as a result, Bush seems to be "flooding the zone" on lots of other issues. While they spend every dime to defeat him on his feignt towards that issue, he will likely be making serious inroads on other areas. One thing is for sure, he has a HUGE negotiation point with the other side.
Let's be clear about this, President Bush is playing major league ball here. I'm not sure the opposition wants to admit it, but the man came to play and they still seem to be playing catch-up ball.
I need to think about this for a minute, but I think the old man just did something more than what we saw appearing on the screen to a US audience, I have to think about my persian friends and what they might have just seen.
Back in a few...
and oh one more thing, I know the response is a tough gig, but do you have to make it sound like a mid afternoon legal infomercial?
Pelosi and Reid - Well take your personal injury case for 29.99...
Dr. Dean, first thing on your agenda, Might I suggest....
Posted @ February 02, 2005 07:46 PM | Current Affairs | Comments (0)
My Present to The Jr. Senator From New York
A big pair of pliers to pull that bug out of her rear end. I know shes got the flu, but dear god, I havent seen a sullen face like that since my wifes mother met me for the first time.
You'd think she had a low pair in a game where all the other players had a flush or better.
Posted @ February 02, 2005 06:20 PM | Current Affairs | Comments (0)
Reuters: Insurgent Video Shows Downing of US Aircraft.
Well what can I say? It might be a fake, but it's based on truth.
Free Sgt. Cody and Major Matt Mason, Bring the toy troops Home NOW...
( Bloggers note: Can you get any more impotent than this? Toys? Who are they kidding? Did they think no one would notice? It has to be a bad week to be an islamic teenage terrorist, first old women and young girls laugh at you and vote, despite everything you told them, now in your bold attempt to get some publicity, someone in your cell decides to use his G.I. Joe collection to convince the Americans to leave Iraq.
I would say that no one could be this dumb, then I remembered Mohammed Salameh. He was the guy who wanted to get his deposit back from the rental agency after using it to bomb the WTC. I thought to myself that people must eat a lot of lead paint chips in the Middle East...
Perhaps the real reason we havent seen Osama is that CIA operatives infiltrated his team and convinced him to go out on a snipe hunt, or sent him to try to find a metric cresent wrench or just perhaps a spool of flightline. For all we know, the Al Queda morons that made the Sgt. Cody video think that he really is a US soldier.
...Tricky infidel devils, you cant trust them, they just might have shrunk down to small size to invade our homes and mosques secretly and this infidel, "Sgt. Cody" is just playing dead so we will leave him alone, I know I saw the imperialists do it on teevee once in an episode of "I Dream of Jeanie" (or was it Green Acres?, I can't remember, all infidel teevee shows look the same). Oh look Achmed!, that infidel 'Road Runner' is on, it must be the "Warner Brothers Hour" on Al Jazzeera. Someday, God willing, the Coyote will catch that Zionist Road Runner and then God will have his revenge I tell you... What does your "secret decoder ring" say Achmed? Drink More Ovaltine? What does that mean? What is Ovaltine? Is this some impure drink for the devil infidel unbelievers? Go check on the hostage "Sgt. Cody" Achmed. Let's see how he withstands the dreaded "magnifing glass of doom" Bwhahahahahaha!!!! Shhhh, quiet! "Warner Brothers Hour" is starting... )
UPDATE: In creepy parallel, the name given by the Al queda idiots of the captured toy soldier is "John Adam". The name of the guy who wrote the article on Mohammed salameh? James Adam.
UPDATE: The Beacon of Truth and Honesty in the UK, The Guardian, is acting like the story is true, making me wonder if they even bothered to look at the picture. Well why would they?, since its the insurgents saying it, it just has to be true.
Posted @ February 02, 2005 12:01 AM | Current Affairs | Comments (1)
Notice
Thanks to the efforts of "The Great Stacy Tabb" of Sekimori Designs, Comments and Trackbacks have been returned to function at Varifrank.
The Blog rules I established earlier on this post, still apply, so please behave my lefty compatriots.
You may resume calling me such things as a "toffee toothed knuckle dragging fascist of the very extreme right wing", and I shall resume banning your IP. It's a tight little food chain we have here at Varifrank, but it works.
Posted @ February 01, 2005 09:05 PM | Current Events | Comments (1)
