Thursday, April 17, 2003 06:19 p.m. This is Brilliant
From the Shirt's Off list:
With the anti-war movement in Milwaukee lacking a significant and
consistent showing, when the Milwaukee police department tickets
motorists who drive by anti-war rally's and honk in support of the protesters, in a time when the war is televised like a sporting
event, a small group of Milwaukee artists, musicians, and outcasts
decided to stage a mock pro-war rally to subvert the right!
The street theater action was committed on April 4th in near
blizzard conditions when 20 "fanatical pro-war" supporters occupied
the opposite side of the downtown street to rally in support of the
war and oppose of the peace activists who gather every Friday for
the weekly peace vigils.
The 20 "pro-war" supporters dressed in suits, waved American Flags,
chanted slogans in fierce support of war, death, and killing. Rush
hour traffic drove by and honked in approval to the flags and signs
that read: "Freedom Is The Enemy", "Get A Brain Morans", "Iraq Out
Of Iraq", "Draft My Child", "Send Our Infants", "Soccer Moms For
Blood", "War Is Peace", "I'm Pro-Life And Pro-Death", "Stop
Reporting The Facts", "Peace Is For Pussies", "Bush Is The Savior",
"This Is No Time For Thinking", "Pro-Bush Lesbian", and "Ask Me
About My Baby Killing Honor Student" among other slogans.
Before the event the local media were called and told about the
"Clear Channel" sponsored pro-war rally. The reporters failed to
get an interview from the pro-war fanatics because every time they
approached the demonstrators they chanted "Boycott The Liberal
Media!". The riot cops were very confused by the heartfelt chants
of "We Love The Police State!". And the anti-war protesters were perplexed by the "All We Are Saying Is Give Death A Chance" chorus.
A few on-lookers with their jaws dropped may indeed never visit Milwaukee again, but all told the "Pro-War" reaction was a smashing success that demonstrates the kind of gung-ho patriotism that would make George W. proud.
Thursday, April 17, 2003 01:36 p.m.
They Would Be Cute Together
It turns out, Uday Hussein had photos of the Bush twins pinned to the walls inside his "Playboy Mansion"
Thursday, April 17, 2003 01:20 p.m.
DNA Creep
That this is going unnoticed is just another footnote to Crisis and Leviathan. DNA profiles from juvenile offenders and from adults who have been arrested but not convicted are going in the FBI's national DNA database. Under current law, only DNA from adults convicted of crimes can be placed in the national database.
"It's only a matter of time before the government gets its hands on those DNA samples and starts playing around with our genetic codes," says Barry Steinhardt, privacy specialist for the American Civil Liberties Union's national office in New York City. "They say they don't want to do that, but not too long ago they were saying they'd only take DNA profiles from rapists and murderers and now they want juveniles ... We're not just on a slippery slope, we're halfway down it."
The Bush Administration announced last month, a plan to spend about $1 billion over five years to improve the national database.
Thursday, April 17, 2003 01:07 p.m.
Playing Chess With a Domino Set Lew Rockwell has another math-y article. This one compares the Iraq war to Chaos Theory.
Wednesday, April 16, 2003 11:27 p.m.
My Manhood is Threatened By Thin Liberalism
I’ve met my thousandth professional acquaintance to explain to me that he is anti-war, but (with stentorian delivery,) “By barely! It took me a looong time to decide.”
Fair enough. Until the al-Quada link theory fell apart in August, there was a compelling argument on the right. But that was back in August. So what’s with the post-script so late in the game? Who cares? Doubting the government has never suggested an insufficiency of virility, but noting the “difficulty” of your decision does hint at an inferiority complex.
Look, theoretically the government can provide peace just like it can provide public schools and “low income housing.” Libertarians should be smart enough and confident enough to be the skeptics. We should always look first for alternative solutions to bureaucracy Government waste is government waste, even when in comes in sexy packages like the MOAB or BUA.
Terror and Liberalism
Bernard Lewis is speaking at Politics and Prose on Friday, but the event to hit is Paul Berman on Friday, April 25. Unfortunatly I'll be out of town, but "Terror and Liberalism" is the book to read this spring.
Here's a selection in the Post, and another in the The Boston Globe.
Wednesday, April 16, 2003 07:12 p.m.
More Paul Theroux
"When a love affair ends, you might get a chance to nail her again. When a friendship ends, the trust is gone," He says of V.S. Naipaul.
Wednesday, April 16, 2003 06:34 p.m.
Smart Snowflakes
The new Atlantic (not yet online) has a very good article "Euphorias of Hatred," digressing from a look at Gogol's Taras Bulba to examine America's "rationalist" empire and also the dynamics of mobs or dissident packs. But this line set me off:
The more advanced a civilization, the more cerebral and subtley conformist it is likely to be -- and consequently, the more extreme the pent-up frustration and the more spectacular the violence it fuels.
Are we getting more conformist, albeit "subtely"? I don't think so. Society is getting more intelligent. Now, there are those classicalists that believe genius died after the Renaissance and the world will never produce another Plato or Goethe. That's just nostalgia. First of all, we're healthier and we're only getting heathier. Gene-selection and (fingers-crossed for this,)eugenics might mean baby Platos in every preschool class.
And intellectuals-- meaning of those with "ideas" rather than "plug-and-chuggers" -- tend be naturally nonconformist. I was taking a memory-inventory the other day of close friends and people I've dated, and marvelled at the disparity. None have anything in common with each other except that each is exceptionally intelligent. People with conformist, common personaes simply lack the facilities to push themselves beyond prescribed character limitations. You're not going to find many geniuses at Sign of the Whale, or lining up outside Abercrombie and Fitch for their year-end sweater sales.
Similarly, the modern age provides for greater opportunities to develop unique characteristics. No longer are you confinded to the interests and subjects local to you. To go any further with this would require more Robert Putnam-bashing and a rehash of plenty of arguments y'all have heard already. Part of the reason people confuse intellect and conformism, is they confuse the "plug-and-chuggers" with intellectuals. There are plenty of "smart" people that have nothing upstairs but a remarkable memory. They're not the ones making a difference.
Wednesday, April 16, 2003 11:41 a.m.
Robot Blood
OMFG, this is the coolest thing ever. NASA has something on its site about "Amazing Magnetic Fluids" that may, get this, be used as blood for future robots. "The nervous systems of future robots might use MR fluids to move joints and limbs in lifelike fashion." Now, it goes over a lot of other stuff that MR fluid can be used for, but that, that just made my day.
I got this off Science/Tech Daily, a site you all should be reading. They also linked to this reivew of Daniel Dennett's new book and The Village Voice on "Shell Shock and Awe" among other good things.
Wednesday, April 16, 2003 11:25 a.m.
Nano-Pottery
Purdue researchers have developed a nanometer-sized clay. To get an idea how small it is, "being able to see one of these layers is equivalent to standing on Earth and being able to see footprints on the moon." 70,000 of these layers are equal in thickness to a human hair. There's so much they can do with this, it's unbelievable. First, it can serve as structural support to molecular material. It also makes it easier to develop lighter and stronger plastic materials. It's a single layer of clay, jeez, they can do anything with it
Private Regulators "Staking Claims," in the new Scientific American mentions a patent Jeremy Rifkin and Stewart Newman filed in 1997 over a method to combine different embryos to develop half-human, half-animal chimeras. They filed for this patent so such a being may never be developed.
A patent permits someone to exclude others from making, using or selling an invention. If their application were granted, Rifkin and Newman could use their patent rights to become private regulators of chimera technology, which could be of interest to researchers engaged in creating replacement organs for human transplants. The two men would, in effect, have the power to ban chimeras for the term of the patent, the better part of 20 years.
Although their application has been rejected several times, SA comments it demonstrates how patents give individuals the power to create their own laws
Tuesday, April 15, 2003 10:32 a.m.
The Road to Damascus
Just two years ago, Dennison and I had planned to take up a student travel center's offer on a round-trip flight to Damascus (from Prague) for $100. We were lazy and ended up rejecting the idea at the last minute, but up until then I was really excited to go. The Lonely Planet guide says this
The Syrian government may not be among the world's most benevolent, but the Syrian people are renowned for their friendliness and hospitality. Once you get used to the general weirdness of being in another culture, you'll probably feel safer in Syria than you do at home as long as you keep abreast of world events that may increase tensions and avoid demonstrations and political gatherings.
And that's the post-9/11 update. The one thing they do warn is the tension Syria has with its neighbor. No one with an Israel stamp in his passport is granted a Visa. Let's hope the "friendly" and "hospitable" people aren't smacked with sanctions
Tuesday, April 15, 2003 10:15 a.m.
The Repete Button Was Made for Me
Cat Power's new song "He War" is good the first thirty times you hear it, but it gets really good the 300th time (in a row.)
Tuesday, April 15, 2003 09:20 a.m. Washington's Finest Libertarian News
Nice. The Washington Times has an anti-drug war editorial in the guise of a review of Ted Galen Carpenter's new book (Alina did some of its editing, btw.)
Monday, April 14, 2003 10:39 p.m.
Virtual Insanity Zoe linked to the article on Baudrillard in Spiked that I was just about to. Go read it.
Monday, April 14, 2003 10:31 p.m.
Deus Ex Mousetrapa
The Guardian has a good article on how the logically-challenged pose a serious threat to science research. I still can't believe they have the gall to call it "Intelligent Design Theory" like it's something modern and scientific.
Ugh. Just listen to this shit:
ID holds that the living cell is "irreducibly complex", like a mousetrap. Remove the spring from a mousetrap and it isn't just an inferior mousetrap; it isn't a mousetrap at all. It had to have been created by an intelligent designer. It was the same, they said, for cells, and so life must have been designed by some kind of intelligence.
Monday, April 14, 2003 09:55 p.m.
School of Assasins
This evening I watched a powerful documentary on the School of the Americas at the Visions Lounge, "Hidden in Plain Sight." It's an appropriate title. As Christopher Hitchens notes in the films, the fact our government trains Latin American soldiers how to tortue should be no more than a conspiracy theory, but instead SOA arrogatly exists in the public sphere. Some of you may be thinking this is all irrelevant as SOA was closed three years ago. It was, and the very same day Congress voted to open The Western Hemisphere Institute for Security in Fort Benning.
The interviews with Sister Dianna Ortiz were the most difficult to hear. Ortiz, an American citizen, was abducted from her missionary post teaching Mayan children how to read in Antigua. The details of her torture are too horrifying to repete here. The general found guilty of the crime was one of the hundreds of SOA grads that went on to demonize the people of Latin America. His accomplice, the leader of her abuse, is a still unidentified American.
I'll take time out later in the week to further illustrate this idea, but while I watched the film I had no doubt in my mind which side of the political spectrum is more damaging to the world. Sure the left (liberal left, not the communists) will tax us and misallocate out money, but the right, as they continue the status quo interventionist foreign policy, are pepetuating and facilitating torture, rapes, deaths ... you tell me, what's worse?
Monday, April 14, 2003 10:07 a.m.
That's, Ummm, "False"
I frequently read the lefty economic books to keep me on my toes, but Joel Gray's "False Dawn" is too easy. First he alleges that failures of Margaret Thatcher's administration are evidence of free-market's limitations. This is forgeting the fact she was leading a mostly Labour parliment and, well, had a lot of difficulty passing the leglation she wanted. Then he comes up with this:
The Continental social market that spawned German post-war prosperity will be among the most notable casualties of global free markets
"Philosophically, Historically, Opened and Cut up"
You know, if I ever get around to reading Robert Burton's Anatomy of Melancholy, I'll make sure to allude to it at ever chance I get. I'll even read the footnotes to the Latin tags just to say I did
Sunday, April 13, 2003 08:20 p.m.
They're "Compatable"
Solaris and Linux are courting. Both parties are taking things "slow," trying to feel each other out.
Zurich is Stained
Disabled persons in Zurich are now elligable for sexual services offered by the non-profit "Pro Infirmis." Similar projects exist in Germany, Denmark and the Netherlands. I'm warning you in advance about the link's picture and caption.
Friday, April 11, 2003 09:14 a.m.
Don't Place Any Bets
My guess on Syria: The Bush Administration is hyping this place, while preparing to back out. Then it will seem like they are "conservative" about who to go to war with. They're our enemies friends, sure, but Syria's just a one-horse town. "Shock and awe" on Damascas is overkill. Or maybe I'm wrong and this is WWIII.
Friday, April 11, 2003 08:41 a.m.
Barcoddeled Salon links to this parody of Priceline called Re-Code. The site lets you "recode your own price" by designing barcodes ... to place over real barcodes. Unsurprisingly, Walmart is up in arms over this technologically savy way to cheat the market.
Now, the sixteen year old anarchist in me wants to say that that just means Walmart et al must do their part to create barcodes that can't be replicated. Let technology fight technology laissez-faire-style, baby. The less tolerant crotchety side of me is fed up with these jokers and their "social commentary." It's hard enough trying to make case the IP is bad-- and be taken seriously--, without these attacks on "consumerism" to "comment on the war in Iraq." No, barcodes apparently are not intellectual propererty, but an event like this gets lumped into the debate all the same
Friday, April 11, 2003 12:08 a.m.
The World, It Turns
Paul Theroux talked at Politics and Prose last night. His voice wavers in and out of several ambiguously European-sounding accents, and is immediately analogous to the complex and contradictory protagonist in all of his books, fiction and non.
He’s traveled since joining the Peace Corp out of college. That’s almost forty years around the world. He lives the life I would like to: world traveler, master seducer, and with an exhaustive oevre. He’s James Bond as a lanky, eccentric Midwesterner that go to the roughshod Third World over say, Monte Carlo.
Theroux identified travelers as people with these traits:
1. Depressed Optimists – People who like to wallow and be alone, and yet, expect only the best: “Maybe something brilliant will happen. Maybe I’ll met interesting people. This will be interesting...” cohabitating with a generally impatient and easily irritable demeanor
2. Passive Aggressive - This was interesting. He says travelers go abroad to avoid problems, avoid the daily grid without condemning any of it. “Hey, I’d like to help you out but I’m in Sierra Leone next week...”
3. Deeply Curious - self-explainitory
It’s all too true. Theroux also talked about “preparing” for a travel. It’s what I’m doing now. I couldn’t make it abroad this year, but its inevitable in the next.