A preoccupation with symbols and empty gestures

Neither Spel-ChekR® nor I know how to spel tryptich, which is why I didn't include a similarly themed pic of McCain demonstrating hubris. I imagine lots will become available at the GOP convention.

Micah Holmquist:

Tim Russert was the only hope we had in this Road Warrioresque landscape. Without him, we are doomed.

Arvin Hill:

Saying "bring it on," kind of tough talk, you know, that sent the wrong signal to people. I learned some lessons about expressing myself maybe in a little more sophisticated manner -- you know, "wanted dead or alive," that kind of talk. I think in certain parts of the world it was misinterpreted, and so I learned from that.
~George W. Bush to The Times of London

Arvin: The Boy King regrets not being a more accomplished liar.

No one could have foreseen such vanity.

Michael Cortese(aka Mykeru):

the recession seems to have turned the decades long game of “let’s make a buck with China” into, and I couldn’t believe it even as I watched, Lou Dobbs on TV the other night warning people about the growing threat of cheap coat hangers from China.

Thanks Lou. See that big building over there? That’s a Wal-Mart. Apparently there’s a whole lot of that going on in there. You’ll go in there fighting, and you’ll come out with golf clubs.

Alison Kilkenny: Jesus Arm-Wrestled Dinosaurs

Who is IOZ? Why, the king of the one-liners, that's who-

IOZ, "The Food bad, the portions small": Jesus Lord A-Mighty, buy some fucking bicycles, you whiny little bitches.

and, "McLame": John McCain is so old that creationists are actually forced to deny he exists.

an interesting new(well, new to me) site: Troubling Information http://www.troubling.info/

Rachael Ray hates you for your freedom

She also feels you are insufficiently perky. Have you heard about this? I hate to admit I find it amusing, just as I find it amusing that some people want to have a boycott because they caved to the crazies. Who cares about wars and secret prisons and the pump and dump of the mortgage market? Let's boycott Dunkin' Donuts! (Actually I'm already boycotting Dunkin' Donuts, but just because I'm too damn fat.)

Kim Novak and one of the Mirisches

I'll be away for a while. Then I'll be back.

Tiny little dots and other points of interest

Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe calls UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown "a little tiny dot on this world",

Alexander Cockburn, Counterpunch:Did the Elites Want MLK Dead

via the Christian Science Monitor: Abdullahi Ahmed an-Naim:The Islamic state is a dead end.
I don't know too much about this guy, but he seems more serious than, say, Irshad Manji who, in her eagerness to cozy up to characters like Glenn Beck, often strikes me as a sort of Muslim Uncle Tom.

also: Turkish scholars aim to modernize Islam's Hadith


Avedon Carol: "Back in 1967, someone named Arthur Miller (no relation) wrote an article on the dangers of giant national data bases to personal privacy, published in The Atlantic. It was a real find for a poster at Modern Mechanix - as Cory Doctorow agrees, it got everything right, and could easily have been written today."

Think Progress:"Pentagon employee erases mention of homosexuality on dead soldier’s Wikipedia page."

(Andrew Sullivan writes: “I can see why outing someone who is alive and closeted is unethical; inning someone who is dead and was out is a function of utterly misplaced sensitivity, rooted in well-intentioned but incontrovertible homophobia.”)

Mitch Ratcliffe, ZD Net: Creeping totalitarianism: The NSA, personal data and you


And, oh yeah: Bush insists he wasn't out of the loop viz-a-viz approving the torture memos.

"As nightfall does not come all at once, neither does oppression. In both instances, there is a twilight when everything remains seemingly unchanged."
-- Justice William O. Douglas, Supreme Court justice

Staring at the sun

Apparently a sundog, or a parhelic circle, is an "atmospheric optical phenomenon primarily associated with the reflection or refraction of sunlight by small ice crystals."
AP photo taken in Kerala, India by S. K. Mohan



And this is a Dragon blood tree, found on the "virtually untouched Yemeni Island of Socotra, a site of global importance for biodiversity conservation, located in the Indian Ocean."
AFP photo by Khaled Fazaa.

Friday 11 Jan 2008

Plan 9 From Outer Space is in the public domain. So Now you know.

the ides of October

photo:punknews.org

skimble:"we are not better off today",

...For American voters who want a better economy, there is no other choice. The Democratic Party is now the party of business — they have won the title by default.

Mary Jo Foley,ZDNet: "Why are Windows machines automatically updating themselves?"

The mystery continues. After Patch Tuesday last week, some Vista users noticed that Windows Update had changed their Automatic Update settings and rebooted their machines without their consent. A Microsoft spokesman says the company has no idea what happened and is asking for help.

By John Dickerson, in Slate:"Rudy's Debating Secret: Why Giuliani keeps trouncing his opponents when they go head to head"

(summary: the secret appears to be-- he knows his facts, he thinks quickly on his feet, and he often seems to make a point to obscure the afore-mentioned facts in ways that are easy to miss in the to-and-fro of a debate.)

xymphora discusses the ever-powerful Armenian lobby

Dang it:the illustration the New Republic refused to run,meant to accompany an article about cursing. Via cursor.( no, really...)

briefly

Psychological warfare, according to Paul Linebarger of the School of Advanced International Studies, is a continuous process not controlled by laws, usages, and customs of war — covert, often disguised as the voice of institutions and media — a non-violent persuasion waged before, during, and after war.

Most countries, notes Linebarger, suffer from ideological confusion—an instability of basic beliefs. “In states anxious to promote a fixed mentality, the entire population lives under conditions approximating the psychological side of war. Allegiance in war is a matter of ideology, not of opinion.” Coordinated propaganda machines, he observes, include psywar, public relations, general news, and public education. “Psywar,” he warns, “has in private media facilities, in an open society, a constantly refreshed source of new material that, when selectively censored, can prevent non-governmental materials from circulating.”

As Kalle Lasn, publisher of Adbusters Magazine said when interviewed in the July 2001 issue of The Sun, “It’s impossible to live a free authentic life in America today …Our emotions, personalities, and core values have become programmed.” Lasn, a former advertising executive for thirty years, understands the power of propaganda as advertising. He also understands the keys to undermining this corrupting influence—persistent ridicule, and appeals to conscience.

from "Principles of Psywar," Jay Taber




I've wanted to discuss Ahmedinejad's recent reception at Texas A&M Columbia University, but Rob, John Caruso, and Dennis Perrin("Booga Booga") already do so pretty well.

Mark Kleiman, champion pithmonger

the always useful Mark Kleiman is on a roll this week; it's enough to make you believe in biorhythms or something:


"McCain is clearly the most unfit of the three leading Republican candidates for President: until you think about the other two. Then it's harder to say."


"more than half of the registered voters[polled] say they haven't heard enough about Mitt Romney to form an opinion. I, on the other hand, have already heard more about Mitt Romney than I ever wanted to, and we're still 16 months from Election Day."

on Lou Dobbs:"A somewhat flexible relationship with reality"
(actually David Leonhardt of the NYT said it, but Dr. K found it.)


on US Foreign policy:
"Not only has the Bush Administration failed to figure out what it can't get away with any more in domestic politics, it's making the same mistake internationally. Now that the Iraq adventure has gone sour, decreasing the leverage we have over other governments and increasing their leverage on us, playing the arrogant hegemon isn't just rude, it's stupid."


less pithy, but important:

Prediction: The infoUSA/Clinton connection, which goes to the heart of the way corporations buy protection from regulation, will be a one-day event, while John Edwards's haircut will live in infamy.


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