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Today's Fortune: |
   
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Saturday, August 17, 2002
Yeah, I noticed that a couple of months ago, too, when I was checking up on site traffic. I asked shawn about it. It's some friend of a friend who wants to start a "consulting" firm one day. I figured that explained the assertion "vision is self-actualized." sigh. Anyway, shawn was a little embarrased about the whole thing, so I don't think less of him for it.
Chinese beauracracy is like 1880's style capitalism. I'm pretty sure that's ironic. Although I wasn't ever a liberal arts major, so i guess it's not my place to determine that.
.: posted by Jeremy 8/17/2002
What is this?
.: posted by andy 8/17/2002
.: posted by andy 8/17/2002
What do you call a leper in a bathtub?
.: posted by Bill 8/17/2002
Did anybody else know that Dave Barry wrote a novel?
.: posted by Bill 8/17/2002
Friday, August 16, 2002
The Reparationist movement is a front for totalitarian communists.
From my perspective, the reparations movement is a sick byproduct of the welfare state and the culture of entitlement. Some background.
Conrad W. Worril is right up there with stalin and Pol Pot.
.: posted by Jeremy 8/16/2002
Very few public figures advocate a war with Iraq (except for Tony Blair and the Israelis) as the situation currently stands. Nevertheless, Bush says the decision whether to go to war is his. Too bad we don't have some kind of group of elected representatives that could block the president from acting unilaterally...
.: posted by andy 8/16/2002
The United States is cutting aid to Egypt in a token protest against Egypt's human rights record. In the meantime, Congress is trying to give even more money to Israel.
.: posted by andy 8/16/2002
Why is this happening? I just don't see what is to be gained by a war on Iraq. Some days we act like it's all about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction, but if that were the case, shouldn't we use the UN? Some days we act like it's all about the rights of Iraqi minorities like the Shiites and the Kurds, but we didn't support them before--why should we care now? Iraq isn't really a major player in the world oil scene. They've been embargoed for 11 years and oil prices have pretty much gone up and down at OPEC's volition. Iraq isn't that strategically located. We're great friends with Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and Jordan, all in the region and all bordering Iraq. Saddam Hussein isn't a realistic threat to the United States, and our government has previously said, when openly confronted, that there is no evidence Iraq has participated in anti-American terrorism.
Why does Bush want to put us on a permanent wartime footing?
.: posted by andy 8/16/2002
That's funny, Devin, because yesterday when Jeremy wondered where you were, I was going to say you were being held as an unlawful combatant. I think I'm in a much better position to be a TIPster than you are, since I'm a maintenance man with access to over a thousand college dormrooms, while you work on an assembly line where your job gives you infrequent contact with the other employees. I guess what I'm trying to say is watch your ass, you suspicious-looking bastard. If anyone crosses me, I'll sic Ashcroft on him, and it won't be pretty.
Maybe soon we can have state-sanctioned torture, like Israel does. Israeli torture articles 1, 2 (by Alexander Cockburn...), 3.
I think the Bush Administration is pretty impressed with Israel's procedures for dealing with threats to national security. I think we've already seen many of those procedures implemented: targeted killings, indefinite detentions, and refusal of accountability. I guess we'll just have to wait and see how this all turns out. I'm curious to see if the rule of law even really applies. What happens if the legislative branch orders Hamdi released, but the executive branch just says "no." What happens when the gloves come off and we realize that in truth, the government answers to no one and all of our rights are a sham?
.: posted by andy 8/16/2002
Thursday, August 15, 2002
When the court issues the subpoenas to the supporters of the terrorists, the Navy SEALs can go along and just kill them on the spot. And they wonder why everyone thinks our society is too lawyer-centric.
Oh, I just wanted to warn you Andy that I intend on joining the TIPS program, reporting you for unamerican behavior, and having you stripped of all of your rights and thrown into a military prison without a trial or access to a lawyer. I hope I get to wear an armband.
.: posted by Grand Inquisitor Fnord Moco 8/15/2002
That's just a weird number. 116 trillion? That's over 10 times the U.S. GDP. I wonder if that's greater than the total annual global economic output? Is there even a name for that number? Gross Global Product?
.: posted by Jeremy 8/15/2002
Are these people heroes?
.: posted by andy 8/15/2002
Iraq's UN ambassador says a lot of stuff. Almost all of it is not interesting, except for this quote:
"When our soldiers retreated [after the Gulf War], they were attacked and killed, and this is very well known, even in American films. We will present our file to international courts one day. We will not forget that. Everything was well documented. These are war crimes."
Since when is it a war crime to kill retreating soldiers? Notice he didn't say they were surrendering. I'd really like to know how somebody could claim that killing soldiers that are trying to regroup(retreating) is a warcrime. I guess you could say it was a warcrime if you take the parenthesis inserted by the editor into account. But where does the editor get off inserting THAT in a parenthesis? How does the editor know that this iraqi ambassador meant "after the gulf war". My understanding is that the "highway of death" occurred during iraq's retreat from kuwait, before iraq signed the cease fire. Nevermind that this is another quote from the same interview:
"War is war. Everything is permitted in the war."
.: posted by Jeremy 8/15/2002
The navy is considering changing Scott Speicher's status from MIA/KIA to "captured". Why do I feel like this is just a PR stunt by the pentagon to get the war drums beating louder.
And another thing. This whole FBI investigation of Steven Hatfill is sickening. The FBI has produced no results in the anthrax investigation, so after hatfill claims he is innocent and brings the limelight back on to the FBIs sorry investigation, the FBI announces that hatfill is "a person of interest." What the hell does that mean? I think that's just a way to scare people into keeping their mouths closed while they are being investigated by the FBI or risk their careers being destroyed by being declared a "person of interest". I guess you shouldn't judge a person by appearances, but this guy doesn't really make me think of Ted Kasinsky, which is probably the profile that the FBI is really looking for.
.: posted by Jeremy 8/15/2002
Hooters is gonna buy vanguard airlines. Misogyny returns to the skies.
where has devin been?
.: posted by Jeremy 8/15/2002
Tuesday, August 13, 2002
Things to look at when I get home from work:
DJ Shadow's site, which looks cool. But I don't have speakers or a soundcard, so for all I know the music is bad.
Modding my computer, so that it looks cooler.
Upgrading our computer, so it goes faster. And so it will recognize that a Gig of RAM is a Gig, not half a Gig.
.: posted by andy 8/13/2002
High speed chases and the Missouri Department of Corrections production of Hamlet.
.: posted by Bill 8/13/2002
Monday, August 12, 2002
Quicktime clip of a man playing a Theremin, accompanied by a pianist.
.: posted by andy 8/12/2002
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