Akablog

2004-06-01T11:21:00.000-04:00

This blog is dormant. For more information, see What is Flig?

2003-04-17T09:49:00.000-04:00

X2

This article from Aint it Cool News is ostensibly about a dispute between Sony and Marvel over the licensing rights to Spider-Man. But it appears to actually be an excuse to hide a bunch of links to clips of X2. This one looks even better than the first, from a fanboy perspective, at least. The brief shots of Kitty Pride and Colossus are so damn cool. I'm really looking forward to this one. (And Hulk, and Amazing Spider Man, and... OK, not to Ghost Rider starring Nicholas Cage.)

2003-04-15T13:27:00.000-04:00

Cribs

I'd pay good money to see an episode of MTV's Cribs where we get to tour Saddam, Uday, and Qusay's palaces and love nests.

Saddam's seems to be old-school: Hefner. Warren Beaty in Shampoo, shag carpet and fur bedclothes.

Uday's seems to be a porn palace and workout shack. (And exotic animal zoo!) Very West Coast Gangsta. I would lay good money that he's got a framed Scarface poster somewhere.

I haven't heard anything specific about any of Qusay's palaces. I'm guessing nerd/high tech - exposed brick and ductwork,
amazing sound system, huge collection of Star Wars action figures. And the MOAB - Mother of All Bongs.

2003-04-15T11:53:00.000-04:00

It's all in the Cards

Here's a .pdf of the playing cards being distributed with pictures of the Iraqi leadership.

Do you think these guys are complaining about where they ranked? And why is there no picture of the Queen of Hearts? Couldn't they find some Ba'athist Babe for that card? One of Hussein's Hotties?

UPDATE: Now you can buy a deck of the cards here.

2003-04-11T21:14:00.000-04:00

If you can read this, you're not using Internet Explorer on Windows.

2003-04-11T16:47:00.000-04:00

Pretty Vacant

Many thanks to Sasha Castel-Dodge for my beautiful new template.
Now if I only had something to say.

2003-04-11T12:02:00.000-04:00

test post please please work

Yes, It worked Sasha! Thanks for the groovy new template.

2003-04-07T21:56:00.000-04:00

For Great Justice

All your base are belong to us! 2003 Shock and Awe remix.

Launch every Zig!

2003-04-07T15:57:00.000-04:00

Optical Illusions

A site at MIT with some amazing optical illusions.

(Requires Flash)

2003-04-07T13:12:00.000-04:00

Looks like I was right!

Via Aint It Cool News:

From FilmJerk.com:

On the currently untitled final episode of this fourth season, Wolfram and Hart has rebuilt, and they are sending a few recruiters out after the Angel crew. A former Watcher goes after Wes, a sexy but science nerdy guy tries to pull Fred in, a hottie seduces Gunn and a talent scout wants more than singing from Lorne. Can they entice the heroes over to the dark side? Tim Minear writes and directs this one, which begins shooting Monday.

2003-04-03T16:08:00.000-05:00

Interesting Resource

Centcom's Operation Iraqi Freedom website.

Lots of pictures, a number of videos, and transcripts of the Centcom briefings.

They even have lists of what leaflets they dropped on what day, and copies of all the leaflets.

2003-04-02T10:30:00.000-05:00

Tar Heels to sever ties with coach Doherty

Click for appropriate reaction:

2003-04-02T09:54:00.000-05:00

Bad News

The premiere date for Lord of the Rings: Return of the King has been delayed until May 12, 2004.

Now I feel stupid for getting on line last week.

2003-04-01T21:28:00.000-05:00

Anti-Woofing

So, how much anyone want to bet that tonight isn't the "final push" to Baghdad. We'll wipe out most of this division of Republican Guard but delay moving into Baghdad, and it'll be declared a "failure".

2003-04-01T15:58:00.000-05:00

Ratings Bonanza!

Vodkapundit has some reasons why Saddam didn't appear on TV today as promised.

2003-03-31T21:44:00.000-05:00

Advice for Saddam

This is an oldie, but a goody:

The Top 100 Things I'd Do If I Ever Became An Evil Overlord

Highlights include:

2. My ventilation ducts will be too small to crawl through

7. When I've captured my adversary and he says, "Look, before you kill me, will you at least tell me what this is all about?" I'll say, "No." and shoot him. No, on second thought I'll shoot him then say "No."

15. I will never employ any device with a digital countdown. If I find that such a device is absolutely unavoidable, I will set it to activate when the counter reaches 117 and the hero is just putting his plan into operation.

34. I will not turn into a snake. It never helps.

75. I will instruct my Legions of Terror to attack the hero en masse, instead of standing around waiting while members break off and attack one or two at a time.

86. I will make sure that my doomsday device is up to code and properly grounded.

87. My vats of hazardous chemicals will be covered when not in use. Also, I will not construct walkways above them.

2003-03-31T11:28:00.000-05:00

Passover Recipes

This weekend I scanned my mother's hand-written Pesach recipes into the computer. My mother was an excellent cook, and the Pesach seder was in many ways the highlight of her year. Her specialty was Pesach baking- cakes, cookies, desserts. Given the stricutres of Pesach ingredients, this was not an easy task, and called for experimentation and inventiveness.

She passed away this August, after an 18 month fight against cancer.

Here is her wine cake recipe, with the stains of many cups of wine upon it.

Click this image to display a full-size version.

2003-03-31T11:14:00.000-05:00

Nigerian Scam Emails

Scam o Rama collects stories of "Scam Baiters", folks responding to Nigerian e-mail scam artists in order to confuse, torture and annoy them.

Also see Quatloos! particularly the Brad Christensen Exhibit. They also have documentation on a number of other scams, including some of the nastier Multi-Level-Marketing schemes.

2003-03-31T09:49:00.000-05:00

Saddistan

Nick Denton comes up with a plan (and a map) I was contemplating in the shower this morning- partition Iraq, cutting off Saddam's central Iraq strongholds from the oil in the north and south, and letting the Kurds and Shiites have their own states. It's not a perfect idea, and it risks the Israel-retreating-from-Lebanon syndrome I alluded to below, but it may be a better deal than trying to invade Baghdad and flatten Tikrit.

2003-03-30T19:57:00.000-05:00

Post-war Worries

I'm beginning to think that post-war we're in a no-win situation. If we stay one minute after Saddam's confimed dead, we're building an Empire. If we leave while there's still 25 guys with AK-47s occaisionally taking pot-shots at us, then we're turning tail and running from the brave jihadi martyrs.

2003-03-29T22:00:00.000-05:00

Road Map

When politicians start talking about a "Mideast Road Map" I laugh.

The Palestinians couldn't find peace with a AAA TripTik and a GPS receiver.

2003-03-29T21:56:00.000-05:00

The other day I saw a commercial for the Beavis and Butthead DVD collection. I found myself wondering "What ever happened to those guys?"

Sometimes I worry myself.

2003-03-28T14:54:00.000-05:00

More thoughts on Tikrit

While I initially agreed with Andrew's post on why we don't appear to be attacking Tikrit yet, I've come up with another idea.

Perhaps Tikrit is so tribal, so closed, and so filled with those loyal to and afraid of Saddam that our Special Forces ops can't get any traction there. If that were true, we might not have enough intelligence to select targets and spare civilians.

Hopefully as the regime collapses, it will be easier to operate within Tikrit, and while the city will probably take more civilian casualties than Bagdhad, maybe we can take the city without too massive a loss of life.

2003-03-28T14:45:00.000-05:00

Understanding the Republican Guard

From IMAO

Excerpts:

FUN FACTS ABOUT THE IRAQI REPUBLICAN GUARD

* The Republican Guard are so well trained, that, in a one on one fight with U.S. ground troops, they can last into the tens of seconds.

* In a fight between the Republican Guard and Aquaman, the Republican Guard would win... unless Aquaman could somehow trick them into following him into the sea.

* Though many Republican Guards dress up in burkas in the privacy of their own tents, that doesn't make them gay.

* In the first Gulf War, a confused group of Republican Guards accidentally surrendered to some monkeys. The monkeys then bit them (violating the Geneva Convention rules on handling P.O.W.'s) and stole their vehicles and weapons. Legend has it that they still roam the deserts today, reeking havoc as only monkeys do.

Do not taunt Happy Fun Republican Guard!

2003-03-27T21:25:00.000-05:00

Hans Blix to Retire

Hans Blix in retirement: "Honey, have you seen my glasses? I swear, I can't find anything around here."

2003-03-27T20:32:00.000-05:00

Tikrit

Over on the Command Post Ian Andrew Castel-Dodge posts speculation, which I've shared in, as to why Coalition forces haven't made any move to attack Tikrit, Saddam's home city. It's not pretty.

2003-03-27T09:47:00.000-05:00

Sometimes the Spirit Just Moves You

Gospel, Fury, and Babylon 5

2003-03-27T08:34:00.000-05:00

Angel Hints

I read this quote from David Greenwalt, co-creator of Angel, on the future direction of the series, if there is a future:

David Boreanaz stars in "Angel" as a vampire with a soul, who has been battling evil in Los Angeles after leaving the Sunnydale setting of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," currently airing on UPN. With "Buffy" coming to an end after seven seasons this May, Greenwalt sees even more possibilities. For one, he plans to move beyond the vintage hotel that currently houses Angel and his crew.

"I'm not sure we're going to blow up the hotel," he says, "but the notion is of them going to a place that is more like an advertising agency, lots of glass and light. It's going to be great -- visitors from the 'Buffy'-verse, including a possible regular from the 'Buffy'-verse."

"I think these ideas are so strong that it could run two years. It would be a whole new show. We'd put the characters in a new situation, both financially and physically. It's all about us saying, 'OK, you've been on the Greenpeace ship saying, " Hey, Shell Oil is bad." What happens if you actually have to go work for Shell Oil? What happens if you had to be on the inside, grow up, get a real job?' I'm really excited about it."

What this says to me is that the Angel Investigations crew is going to take over the shattered husk of Wolfram and Hart, which I think would be very cool. It's not like they've paid any attention to the detective aspects of the series this year, anyway.

2003-03-26T22:53:00.000-05:00

How do you spell "JDAM"?

The Associated Press has published their style sheet with spelling and pronunication guidelines for the war. From InsideVC's WarBlog.

2003-03-26T21:18:00.000-05:00

Vodkapundit has a good piece on the tactical mistake made by sending out Saddam's Suicide olumn. Be on the lookout for Highway of Death II: JDAM Boogaloo!

2003-03-26T21:02:00.000-05:00

Brutal, Nick, Brutal

Nick Denton writes of the Arab Press' reaction to casualies:

Hell, 15 dead: that's a quiet day in the Arab world. Even imagining the United States was targeting civilians, its efforts are laughable compared with Saddam -- 5,000 dead in the chemical attack on Halabja in one day -- or Assad -- 30,000 shelled to death in Hama -- or pretty much any other Arab ruler. Arab governments -- and their press and public -- should first practice moral judgment on themselves and each other, before turning their outrage on the United States.

2003-03-26T16:11:00.000-05:00

Oh yeah?

(Welcome to the Amish Tech Support Blog A Day Tour!)

A group of French vandals attacked a copy of the Statue of Liberty in Bordeaux.

I dare you cheese-eating surrender-monkeys to try that with the real thing.

If Americans wanted to twist the Eiffel Tower into a metal pretzel, we wouldn't settle for going down to King's Island in Cincinnati or to the Paris Hotel in Las Vegas for some bogus wussy symbolic gesture. We'd send in whatever engineers and demolition experts to Paris in the morning, open up a can of whup-ass on the real deal by noon, and we'd make you pick up our tab for the wine and hotel rooms.

2003-03-26T15:31:00.000-05:00

Just wondering.

Can I send illegal campaign contributions to the Ba'ath party? I want to spend the night in the Saladin bedroom.

Once the palace is rebuilt.

2003-03-26T14:33:00.000-05:00

Republican Guard Coordination

It seems like the Republican Guard, and possibly the Fedayeen are acting with a lot more coordination the last 2-3 days. This brings to mind a couple of possibilites:

Saddam has re-established communicaitons, and is directing movements.
Individual RG commanders deciding that things are desperate enough that initiative will not be punished, are maneuvering their own units, possibly with limited coordination between units.
Qusay was not in the bunker last week and has been coordinating things all along.
Some other leader has emerged.

My money's on # 2 or 3. We never heard any report about Qusay that I can remember. It would merely be a matter of establishing secure communications for him to be coordinating the RG. And that could be done by a guy on a motorcycle, given the sandstorm-related slowdown.

Whatever the truth is, they're not acting like chickens with their heads cut off. For now.

2003-03-26T12:40:00.000-05:00

Interesting article at Strategy Page: Top Ten Myths About the War in Iraq

I think it would be more useful if they included links or at least citations. As it is, it's mostly just assertions of information, which probably won't have any persuasive effect, even on those whose minds are open enough to be persuaded.

2003-03-26T09:47:00.000-05:00

Go Ecco!

Now the coalition of the willing isn't just multinational, it's multi-species.

Someone give K-Dog a big bucket of fish!

2003-03-26T09:18:00.000-05:00

I've started using Newsdesk to read blogs that have an RSS or XML feed. I highly recommend it. Some blogs (Sgt. Stryker, I'm looking at you) come across a little flaky, but it's a great way to find out who has new content, and keep up with a large number of blogs.

It's a free download at http://www.wildgrape.net/.

And if you're using Movable Type, or some other software that makes an XML or RSS feed easy, please set it up and include a link on your site.
Of course, in this case, I don't practice what I preach, because as Bob said, I'm not the kind of person I preach to.

2003-03-26T09:11:00.000-05:00

Support the Troops

Sgt. Stryker has a list of organizations you can donate to or contact to support the troops in various ways.

2003-03-26T09:03:00.000-05:00

"Yes, My Lord"

I've been seeing pictures of the Fedayeen marching in parade formation in those white cowl and robe uniforms, and I finally figured out what they look like-

The Imperial Guard from Return of the Jedi. You know, the guys in red robes with some kind of staff who never actually fight?

Maybe the Fedayeen could learn a lesson from them.

2003-03-25T22:28:00.000-05:00

Here's a page that has copies of the leaflets we've been dropping Iraq. I think the photoshop possibilites are endless.
http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/ops/iraq_art-of-war.htm

2003-01-09T10:27:00.000-05:00

I frequently give Tzedaka (charity) to Magen David Adom, the Israeli Red Cross. They recently sent me an email with casualty figures from September through December of 2001. Here is an excerpt:

Between Friday, September 29, 2000 at 07:15 hours, and January 1, 2003 at

8:00:00 hours, UPDATED numbers:



MDA took care of 4939 casualties as detailed below:



611 fatalities, 433 severely injured, 613 moderately and 3282 lightly injured,

among them 11 MDA staff members.



The MDA regions which have been involved:



Gilboa  411 wounded                    

Asher   77 wounded

Yarden   75 wounded                    

Yarkon   608

wounded

Sharon    715 wounded                              

Carmel    202  wounded 

Jerusalem 1943 wounded                         

Dan      368   wounded 

Ayalon

162   wounded                 

Negev  306    wounded

Lachish 72    wounded



80 damaged vehicles – 11 MICUs, 67 standard ambulances and one landrover jeep

and 1 blood mobile.



Stolen vehicles: 2 blood mobiles and 4 standard ambulances

Broken in: 5 standard

ambulances

2 Armored ambulances from the Negev region were hit by bullets and damaged –

front shield and side window.

This was during a so-called "downturn in the violence." It does not include the Tel Aviv double-bombing from earlier this week.

(And I just have to ask- who steals a blood mobile? Besides vampires, that is.)

2003-01-03T13:33:00.000-05:00

Once More With Feeling

The script and sheet music for Once More With Feeling, the musical episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, has just been published, and I picked up a copy yesterday. I do recommend it for any huge fans of the episode (like me) but the text accompanying the script reads like an eighth grade research project. It does include some nice tidbits, and a look behind the scenes.

It'll do until the DVD is released. I really wish they would release a DVD of just this episode with commentary and the behind-the-scenes footage, and not make me buy the rest of Season 7 just to get it.

2003-01-03T13:15:00.000-05:00

Arab intellectuals will appeal for Sammy to depart...

(Hat tip to Rantburg.)

I tell you, this is all going to end with Saddam sharing an apartment with Idi Amin.

"IDI! Did you drink the blood I had in the fridge? I was saving that to write a copy of the Koran!"
"Sorry Sammy, I was hungy."

2002-12-30T11:34:00.000-05:00

The Breadth of Jewish Practice

On Kesher Talk Rami Genauer discusses Shinui, a relatively new Israeli political party, running on a single issue of anti-Haredism. I'm no expert in Israeli politics, but it does speak to an issue I've given some thought to.

What's at stake with the Haredi issue in Israel isn't just the question of government money. It's the question of authentic Judaism. For the last two centuries, the dominant idea within Judaism has been that the more restrictive the interpretation of Halacha (jewish law,) the more authentic. I hate to use lefty academic jargon, but the Orthodox have captured the narrative of Judaism and convinced the (%90) non-Orthodox that in the (mythical, rose-colored ) past all Jews were as observant as the the Orthodox.

The truth, from what I can see, is more complicated. I think there's always been a spectrum of Halachic practice. But when there's one shul in the shtetl, you go to that shul. When the butcher is Jewish, you buy kosher meat. If no-one is looking in your window, who's to say what time that candle was lit on Friday night? Reform and Conservative Judaism did not come into existance without fulfilling a need in the community.

But prior to the existance of Reform, the less observant didn't become Rabbis, and therefore didn't write about their Jewish lives.

I think Shinui is a symptom of Israeli Jews getting tired of being told that the're not Jewish enough, that in the past, people who lived like them wouldn't have the temerity to call themselves Jews, especially by those who don't put their lives on the line to defend the Jewish state.

2002-12-30T10:50:00.000-05:00

Am I still here?

Testing, Testing? I can get into edit mode for Akablog, but I can't view it. Maybe posting and publishing will remind Blogger that it exists.

2002-03-20T10:48:00.000-05:00

Where Bush Rewards Terror (washingtonpost.com) Where Bush Rewards Terror

Boy, I hate agreeing with Bill Bennett!

2002-03-18T15:08:00.000-05:00

One Step into the Circle

Yeterday, Julie and I saw two local friends who are quite pregnant. Another, cross-country friend went into labor late last night (She's been sent home, however.) We also learned that a third local couple are pregnant after trying for a while.
Today, Julie started work, and Mitchell started Day Care.

There's a story often told in the Temenos/Pathways Basic Workshop, about a tribe, probably in Bali, where Jodi and Carole (the workshop conductors) witnessed a ritual dance of some sort. The men in the tribe were in concentric circles, with the oldest on the inside, and the youngest on the outside. Each circle performed its own role in the dance. The younger tribe members learned their role in the dance by watching the next circle, and when it was clear that they beloned there, they joined it, with new, younger men always filling in the outer circles.

It feels like Mitchell just moved in one circle. I suppose I did too.

2001-11-05T16:32:00.000-05:00

The Sunday Times: Terrorism A British paper suggests that Bin Laden is simply an extreme example of a Trust Fund Baby.

2001-11-02T14:56:00.000-05:00

Article about a young Muslim from England who went to join the Taleban, and found himself in an Islamic Catch 22.

2001-11-01T15:11:00.000-05:00

Newish Humor Site

The Daily Probe is a very funny "Onion" style news humor site.
Not as good as The Onion yet, but quite enjoyable.

2001-10-30T14:11:00.000-05:00

One more reason to mistrust the Saudis

This isn't news, it's just something I was reminded of today:
They harbor Idi Amin.

From a 1999 interview with "Big Daddy:"

He also goes swimming and fishing in the Red Sea shores near the Saudi/Yemen border and watches TV. With his hefty monthly stipend from the Saudi government, the ex-field marshal proudly talks about the five satellite dishes installed at his new house. (Emphasis mine.)

Saudi Arabia: Millions for cannibals, but not one cent to track down Al-Quaeda.

2001-10-30T14:00:00.000-05:00

Not Novel Enough?
I've been feeling lately like my life is a bad novel- one by a novice author with no self control or a good editor. Any two of the three main threads in my life - The War, Julie's pregnancy, my Mother's cancer, would be good symbolism, with counterpoint, irony, life versus death, the personal commenting on the political. Throw them all into the same chapter, however, and what you've got is a mess- too complex to get any insight into the author, not funny enough and with too few grace notes to be truly absurdist.
I'm not even expressing enough angst to make it Existentialist.

2001-10-30T13:52:00.000-05:00

Joe Bob on Humanitarian Relief

Joe Bob Briggs talks about the Food Drops over Afghanistan.
He goes into more detail about the procedure and pilots than
I've seen anywhere else in the media - in fact, given how
little press the drops have gotten in the last two weeks,
one might be excused from thinking that we had ended them
based on the criticism from Doctors Without Borders and other
aid groups. But we haven't. Just one more front where we're
losing the propaganda war...

2001-10-25T16:08:00.000-04:00

Slate has a new redesign, and for my money its Crap. The old slate had a fairly streamlined look. The new one looks "puffy." Good thing the writing is still excellent. Today's candy review and Idea of the Day are both very funny.

Note: I hardly even read Salon anymore. Even the free articles. They seem to be looking to the extremes (Talbot and Horowitz) to drum up controversy, throwing in some PG-13 sex angle when they can, and hoping folks will pay $30 a year.

2001-10-24T10:11:00.000-04:00

Andrew Sullivan (I can't believe some of the ideological company I'm keeping these days...) makes the point that by putting together a piecemeal biological attack, the terrorists avoid the kind of blowback they invited with the Sept. 11th attacks, and that the Government has avoided talking about any kind of response.

Here's how its going to play out: we will discover that the Anthrax was sent by a lone nut, probably Caucaisan and unrelated to the September 11th bombings and al-Quaeda. The Anthrax itself will be tracked down to the Soviet wastepile in Uzbekistan that we have already committed to destroying. Any further attacks will be blamed on al-Quaeda and response will be folded into the attacks on Afghanistan.

2001-10-23T15:45:00.000-04:00

Israel

Sometimes I feel towards Israel like I would towards an alcoholic brother. "I love you, I want to help you, but I really can't support what you're doing to yourself and the people around you, and I'm running out of patience."

I'm not an expert on Israeli history, or on the current situation on the ground. But I know that many of Israel's actions over the last year are wrong, are indefensible, and are making the situation worse. You can probably substitute "since 1982" for "over the last year" in that sentence, but again, I'm not an expert on Israeli history.

In some ways, it seems almost inevitable. Just as an abused child usually grows up to be an abuser, so too the deep scars produced by the Holocaust would seem to predispose Israel towards violence, towards horror, towards a final solution of its own. And I'm not arguing that Palestinian refugee camps are Death Camps. I would maintain no moral equivalency between Gaza and Auswitz, as some would.
But they could become such. It's far less unthinkable than most Israelis (or Jews) want to admit.

I still think the best solution is pretty close to the Camp David proposal, but getting there will likely be uglier now. Fences, border patrols, perhaps a UN protectorate of the Temple Mount.

But Israel has to solve its problems itself - the first rule of any kind of self-improvement work; you can't expect other people to change. As long as you see your problems as being all "out there" nothing improves.

This doesn't mean the Palestinians are right. But Israel can't keep acting as though a rational discussion of grievances or powerful shows of force will make the problems go away.

There are so many things Israel does right. They have, to use the cliche, made the deserts bloom. They have a vigorous and vibrant democracy. Human rights are (theoretically) constitutionally guaranteed. The Jews gained Israel, both Biblically and Historically, in part because their high moral and ethical practices made them "a light unto the nations." The Jewish people have built up a tremendous amount of moral capital over the past millenia. And I fear in 20 years we've squandered nearly all of it.

2001-10-22T15:02:00.000-04:00

John Bloom (better known as Joe Bob Briggs) gives a concise history of Ground Zero. He portrays it as a history of America in miniature.

2001-10-19T16:28:00.000-04:00

From correspondance between Rob Clough and myself:

> Proposed: a one-pager in which Captain America defeats Osama bin Laden with
> a Hostess Fruit Pie.
>
> Sample dialog: "How can a culture that produces such a delicious confection
> be Evil?"
> "Truly every bite of the flaky crust and fruit filling is filled with praise
> to Allah!"

I can actually SEE the ad. It must be
drawn by Sal Buscema, first of all. It opens with Bin Laden standing
triumphantly in the WTC ruins, with the typical Buscema gritted teeth of
a triumphant villain, hands in clenched fists. Cap realizes that a
direct assault won't work because of the delicate nature of the ruins,
and turns to fruity goodness.

2001-10-19T16:09:00.000-04:00

Science Fiction, Politcal Fact
In this article How Will It Play Out? Slate takes a look at best and worst case scenarios for the War's endgame. What strikes me as interesting is that while they do list "We all die" as a possible outcome, they don't give any plausible chain of events to cause that outcome. Compare this to the Worst Case Scenario we were looking at during the Cold War, (and how plausible a chain of events leading to Global Thermonuclear War appeared.) It seems that our nightmares have gotten smaller, perhaps in proportion with our dreams.

Once, in a discussion of Science Fiction during the early '90s, I noted that post-Apocalypse scenarios were out of favor and had pretty much been replaced by Cyberpunk. A friend noted that the theme of Cyberpunk is that the Apocalypse hjas already happened and no-one noticed.

Steven Hawking has recently said that given the possibility of a superbug that could wipe out the entire human race, we should resume efforts towards space colonization as a way to preserve the species. While in the grander scheme of things, I've never been sure that the preservation of Homo Sapiens was absolutely necessary, I'm rather fond of the monkeys. Besides, growing up, I always thought I'd get to emigrate off-planet during my lifetime.

My early political beliefs were patterned rather more strongly after Star Trek than I'd like to admit. I can still recall vividly at age 16 reading a letter to the editor disparaging the idea of a unified world government. I was shocked. It was the first time I ever discovered that there were people who didn't think it was a natural evolution of the United States and United Nations, wholly desirable, and virtually inevitable. I'm still not against the idea, per se, though I wouldn't want to see it based on the UN as currently constituted.

2001-10-18T15:46:00.000-04:00

Spectacular Branding Opportunity

In a number of reports on the Humanitarian Rations being dropped on Afghanistan, one of the components, the "Fruit Pastry" (or in military parlance would that be "Pastry, Fruit"?) has been described as being "like a Pop-Tart." Well, why isn't it a Pop-Tart™? I know that these were pre-prepared and sitting around for a while, but I'm sure the Army is in rapid production of more (hopefully with writing in a language understood by most literate Afghans.) Why don't we get American corporations to donate pre-packaged food in exchange for including their labels on the packets? They could even include coupons good for whenever Afghanistan gets a supermarket. Rice-a-Roni™, Dole™ fruits, Ritz™ crackers. All being exposed to a nearly untapped market. 60 years on, and Hawaiians still think Spam™ isn't disgusting, because they were flooded with the stuff during WWII. I think we've got a win-win-win situation here.

2001-10-18T09:58:00.000-04:00

The Power of Negative Thinking by William Saletan I think he gets it. I don't like the wording of his central premise (Negativism is going to be taken the wrong way very quickly) but the ideas and limits he points out make a lot of sense to me.

2001-10-17T17:15:00.000-04:00

InstaPundit.Com has his six questions for Bin Laden up:
AT OSAMA BIN LADEN'S REQUEST, CNN HAS ASKED HIM SIX QUESTIONS. You can click on the link and see the ones CNN asked. Here are mine:

1. Are the rumors that you are a Jewish Mossad agent true?

2. Were your agents behind the 1998 stampede that killed hundreds in Mecca?

3. Why do Muslims always die by the thousands in any country where you're holed up?

4. Speaking of "holed up," what's this business with you and Bert?

5. Did you send anthrax to the National Enquirer because they said you have a tiny penis?

6. Do you, in fact, have a tiny penis?

2001-10-16T16:09:00.000-04:00

One of the threads of Psywar I think we've been too reluctant to take advantage of is to start looking as belligerent and arrogant as the Ladenites accuse us of being. While continuing to avoid civillian casualties wherever possible, we should stop apologising for them when they do happen. Mea Culpas are for historians and diplomats. Soldiers should fight.

The Marshall Plan worked wonders in Europe, and the rebuilding of Japan was miraculous. But before that happened, those nations had to submit to Unconditional Surrender. al-Quaeda and the rest of the Moslem world should understand that the United States does also have experience at fighting a continual low-level conflict over decades with a technologically inferior, tribally organized, geographically dispersed enemy.

That would be the Native Americans. And we feel just awful about what we did to them. I'm sure we'd feel just awful if the same thing happened in the Islamic world.

Now, I'm not at all suggesting a policy of genocide. I'm just saying that the Taliban, al-Quaeda, and their supporters should be reminded that its not as far outside of our national character as they probably think.

2001-10-16T15:43:00.000-04:00

One line TV review - 10/15/01 Angel

Prelude to a Kiss-Off.

2001-10-16T14:48:00.000-04:00

An article that pretty well puts it all together about the Saudis.

2001-10-15T17:10:00.000-04:00

Last week, after a (fairly positive) review of Mulholland Drive, All Things Considered played a snippet of "Falling" from the Twin Peaks soundtrack. Nothing can transport me more quickly and completely to the Early 90s. The dreamy sounds take me to a time both fuzzy in affect and razor-sharp. It seemed that Nothing was Forbidden and Everything was True. Reality was elastic, and could bend at the whim of a shaman. And everyone was one.

The Revolution was coming, and no -one would even notice when it hit. If you knew how to use email, you were very cool. .edu addresses were desireable. .com addresses were not. And maybe someday Compserve would stop using those damn 12-digit addresses with the comma in the middle that made mailservers choke. (We were only a year or two past bang-paths.)

Magazines like Boing-Boing and Reality Hackers whispered of Smart Drugs coming down the pike, and behind them, life-extension technologies. Fully immersive computer generated realities were being researched, their purpose being to provide new modes of experience, new ways of viewing the masses of data that tomorrows computers could hold. Not video games.

Twin Peaks lapsed into self-parody. Smart drugs didn't do much for anyone without Alzheimers. VR gave people headaches (and any money for it got sucked into the dot-com vortex.)

The shamans, in the end, could bend reality only so far. Some of them decided to learn to appreciate the world as it is.

2001-10-15T14:31:00.000-04:00

One line review: Iron Monkey

Charming Chop-socky. Bonus points for pretending you knew who Yuen wo-Ping was before the Matrix. Double Bonus Points for teasing out a critique of the Chinese takeover of Hong Kong from the storyline.

2001-10-14T21:41:00.000-04:00

Instapundit has set up a page for Psywar ideas to use against the Taliban, Al Quaeda, and their supporters. You can find it at
http://psywarupdate.blogspot.com/. I have a few humble ideas up - add your own by mailing them to PsywarUpdate@Yahoo.Com .

2001-10-14T21:38:00.000-04:00

Thoughts on The War

Every time I turn on the radio, or the TV, I hold my breath for about three seconds until I determine whether the station is presenting normal programming or a "Special Report." And there's this little twinge of disappointment when its regular programming.

Among the mix of emotions on September 11, along with the anger and the horror and the sadness and the fear, was a rush - a sense of excitement. Part of it was the absolute knowlege that I was living through History (that's with a capital H.) Part of it was, I'm sure, sheer denial that any of this was real.

And part of it was, perhaps, something that I think may be expressed when people say "Everything's different now." Sometimes in that now-cliched statement I hear a wistfulness, a hope, that yes, everything's different now, but that doesn't mean that its worse.

I think the culture/collective consciousness/national psyche call it what you will, is using, or desperately wants to use, September 11 as an excuse to exorcise some of the characteristics we've come to like least when we look in the mirror. Things like rampant consumerism, isolation from suffering elsewhere in the world, the degree to which frivolity and silliness had become the national religion. The alliances and battle lines in the culture wars have been redrawn, and we've called at least a temporary cease-fire (or perhaps a mere reduction of hostilities).

Amidst the rampant WWII fetishism of the last couple of years, there's been a lot of regret over the lack of a defining, unifying moment to bring people together since then. Well, we've had it now. We have a chance to be a new Greatest Generation. The sacrifices that will be required, and the services that must be performed may be different, and I can't articulate what they might be, but the opportunity is there to stand shoulder to shoulder and perform deeds as admirable as were undertaken in those wonderful, horrible years.

I hope we don't waste it.

2001-10-13T22:19:00.000-04:00

One line Movie Review: Bandits

Go back to Baltimore, Barry. (Memo to Billy Bob Thornton: Every minute you spent making that lame film was a minute you could have spent having sex with Angelina Jolie. Think about that. And Cate Blanchet: your agent called. "The Tori Amos Story" is a go.)

The movie had the feel of a script that started out interesting and got blanded out once a name director or actor got attached to the project.

2001-10-13T22:12:00.000-04:00

It's interesting that with the common refrain of "Being afraid means the terrorists win" the news media, for the most part, still seem to be trying to make us as afraid as possible. One person has died from Anthrax so far - this is a total failure as a method of mass murder. More people have died in the last week from choking on chicken wings. But most news outlets would have us stockpiling Cipro and shooting the mailman before he can deliver any letters that might have a mysterious substance in them.

Another story I think they're getting wrong is the level of protest in the Islamic world. While riots in a few cities on the Pakistani-Afghan border make good video, most of the rest of the "Arab Street" has been relatively quiet. Most of these countries have greater civil unrest when their team looses a World Cup match. Or wins one for that matter.

And one of the top stories all day has been "4 Civilians killed In a War Zone" this may be the biggest non-story since "Gary Condit lies about affair." (Obviously not to the friends and families of those killed. Compassion for innocents, every life is sacred, yadda yadda yadda.)

2001-10-12T16:49:00.000-04:00

What am I doing here? Good question. Basically I've been reading a number of different weblogs over the last few weeks, and I decided to start my own.

Why?

Because I can. (Cause this is America, dammit!)

Some of my favorite logs are : TVBARN, Virginia Postrel, Instapundit, and Kausfiles.

I'm hoping to offer opinion, commentary, criticism, and ponderings on The War, TV, Media, and what ever else crosses my path. I'll also be journalling about my lovely wife's pregnancy and my thoughts on becoming a father for the first time.

I have a history of starting projects like this and going nowhere with them. Let's see if this is different...

2001-10-12T15:38:00.000-04:00

Testing, testing, is anybody out there?