Day: November 22, 2005

Well, almost…

via Jerry Pournelle’s mail (again):

“Friday, November 18: Richard Stallman Gets in Trouble with UN Security for Wearing a Tin-Foil Hat” (There’s no permalink to the article, so just page down.)

It seems Stallman, who is-to say the least!-an outspoken proponent of privacy and a strong opponent of privacy invasion of any kind, was detained by U.N. security personnel after he spoke, as a U.N. delegate at a conference in Tunisia last week. Seems he had wrapped his RFID-embedded ID badge in tin foil so they couldn’t track his whereabouts without his permission (which he’d never give, anyway).

“During his keynote speech at our panel today, Richard gave a moment’s talk about the RF ID issue, and passed his roll of aluminum foil around the room for others to use. A number of people in the overcrowded-to-the-max standing-room-only meeting room obligingly shielded their own passes. UN Security was in the room, not only to protect us but because of the crowd issue, and was bound to notice. Richard and I delivered our keynotes, followed by shorter talks by the rest of the panel and then open discussion.”

And then…

“…I was busy with the press for two solid hours. So, I didn’t see what happened with Richard. But a whole lot of the people in the room did, and stayed with Richard for the entire process.

Apparently, UN Security would not allow Richard to leave the room.”

They let him in, all right. Well, he let them scan his ID before entering. But even though he was there as a U.N. rep, carrying a U.N. delgate badge at a U.N. sponsored meeting, apparently because he had thwarted the security guys’ measures that would allow them to track him everywhere, they had to act like TSA goons.

Well, duh. Of course they did. As Pournelle is fond of quoting,

“When a stupid man does something he knows is wrong, he always claims it is his duty.”

heh

From Jerry Pournelle… of course. 🙂

In response to a comment “from the symposium” as it were (his email correspondants):

“Our Cultural Weapons of Mass Destruction will indeed bring down militant Islam; but what they do to us first is a matter of concern. If our schools were what they were when I was young I would not be so concerned. A republic needs citizens with a certain level of understanding, and salable skills so they depend on themselves and not the government. Is the trend in that direction now? I wish I had more cheerful news. But it is not yet too late.”

In. Deed.

But N.Z. Bear calls them SPAM… (Does N.Z. Bear know what SPAM is?)

Don Surber has the poop. (Yes, I said “poop” and I meant “poop”. Ya wanna make something of it? 🙂

Track yourself right on back to THIS post, ‘K?

hat tip to Stop the ACLU and a tip o’ the hat to Mr. Big at The Crazy Rants of Samantha Burns

Hey, folks! Did you know that Technoratti counts ALL your links? And it has analogs to the N.Z. Bear “communities” and more info about who’s linking to you than you can shake a stick at. Tried Technoratti tags? Easy as pie, and useful, too. TTLB doesn’t “do” Technoratti-style tags.

I wonder how N.Z. Bear would rank in his own ecosystem if everyone took the TTLB script and links off their pages? heh Who really links his posts, anyway?

Just thinkin’ out loud, here…

🙂

Wants to call legitimate posts “spam”? Maybe this will get around his “spam” filters:

Meanwhile, at Stop the ACLU, NZ Bear Killing the Trac*k*back Parties
“Looks like NZ Bear wants to dampen the fun. Don Surber has the details. “

Big Dog’s Weblog says, No Slack For Trac*k*back Open Trac*k*back Party
“Looks like NZ Bear at TTLB has decided that he will filter out tra*ckb*acks so that the links will not count as part of the ecosystem statistics.”

Diane’s stuff is Hosting Wednesday Weekly Open Tra*ckb*ack Alliance Fest, anyway.“There are other Alliance members holding open tra*ckb*ack posts today, you can find them listed on the blogroll as well.”

The Tra*ckb*ack Parties Will Continue “Don Surber has word that Truth Laid Bear is going to start cracking down on Open Trackback parties and not counting those links towards the TLLB ecosystem standings,” according to Adam.

Technorati : Open Trackbacks, SPAM, The Truth Laid Bear Ecosystem

Yeh, yeh: big stinking deal.

I think perhaps I under-react. heh Don Surber has some interesting observations. (I commented with a conflation of two memes. heh. Mind like a steel trap. Rusted a bit… )

Conservative Cat has typically apt comment and points to a few others’ posts, as well.

Dan Riehl hasthe best-possibly the definitive-roundup of comments and resources I’ve seen. Plan on spending some time clicking through and absorbing the thoughts of others.

My take (unscrambling the conflated memes)? OSM~great plan for making $$:

* Step one: Steal underpants
* Step two: ????????????
* Step three: Profit.

OK, maybe it’s a tad more involved. From all indications so far, step 2 apparently involves lots of infighting, appropriating someone else’s registered “trademark” (or “service mark”) and all other kindsa sophomoric stunts.

It’s the wave of the future, kiddies.

Linked at TMH’s Bacon Bits, The Busniess of America is Business

I haven’t featured a “snark for today” post in a while.

James Lileks Screedblog post yesterday is just toooo inspiring to neglect, though… hop on over and spike his bandwidth usage. Here’s a sample:

I never “got into” Vonnegut, or “dug” his work like my “buds,” several of whom pronounced his work as “intense,” so I am not particularly bothered to find he applauds suicide bombers, and thinks they experience “an amazing high.” In the literal sense, perhaps; it’s possible that skull fragments may reach the third floor before they carom off a balcony and patter back to earth.

“…it’s possible that skull fragments may reach the third floor before they carom off a balcony and patter back to earth…”

Well, since I share his view of Vonnegut (James Joyce Lite, as I was wont to label him in my long ago college days), this has me grinning already. And that’s just his leadoff pitch.

Pure gold. Hit it now.

Linked at: Outside the Beltway, Jo’s Cafe, Basil’s Picnic Lunch, bRight and Early

Technorati : James Lileks, Kurt Vonnegut, snark, suicide bombers
Del.icio.us : James Lileks, Kurt Vonnegut, snark, suicide bombers

Further discussion of IE/TWC issues and progress toward accomodating folks who like using the least secure, non-standards-compliant browser here.

Actually, MIA could be overstating the case. Haven’t seen any real action on this one, yet!

What we know:

John Kerry’s service in Vietnam lasted 4 months and 12 days, beginning in November 1968 when he reported to Cam Ranh Bay for a month of training. His abbreviated combat tour ended shortly after he requested a transfer out of Vietnam on March 17, 1969, citing Navy instruction 1300.39 permitting personnel with three Purple Hearts to request reassignment. So far as we are able to determine, Kerry was the only Swift sailor ever to leave Vietnam without completing the standard one-year tour of duty, other than those who were seriously wounded or killed.

It is clear that at least one of Kerry’s Purple Heart awards was the result of his own negligence, not enemy fire, and that Kerry went to unusual lengths to obtain the award after being turned down by his own commanding officer. _1_

And of course, there are Kerry’s post Vietnam activities that are a matter of public record, including his attendance (disputed by him, but confirmed by FBI reports and eyewitnesses) at a VVAW meeting that discussed assassination of American political figures, consorting with the enemy during time of war and his infamous slander of those he left behind in Vietnam before the Senate select committee.

What we do not have yet is information that fills in the holes and gaps in his service record:

Constructing a complete picture of Kerry’s service is difficult due to gaps in the Naval records provided by the Kerry campaign. These gaps include missing and incomplete fitness reports, missing medical records and missing records related to his medal awards._1_

Supposedly, the Boston Globe, the LA Times and Kerry’s biographer have the complete records, but they aren’t releasing them.

Why?

From Cao’s Blog:

***************************

Join the blogbursts to help FREE Kerry’s 180 every Tuesday!

We’ve formed a blogburst group and here are the bloggers who are contributing so far. If you want to join the blogroll for Free Kerry’s 180, click here to email me, include the url for your blog. The blogburst is every Tuesday, so don’t forget to blog about it. All you have to do is encourage Kerry to set his 180 FREE, I’ll send you the code for the blogroll.

***************************

Linked at Cao’s, Adam’s Blog, Those Bastards!, TMH’s Bacon Bits, The Political Teen, Don Surber, Choose Life!, Euphoric Reality, MacStansbury, Right Wing Nation, Committees of Correspondence, NIF, Stop the ACLU, Is It just Me?

Open post. You know the drill. If not, check the foot of this post.

Fred, again. *sigh* Man, when will you ever learn: a prophet is not loved in his own country? Oh. That’s why you live south of the border, now. Good thing, cos that’s probably the only thing keeping you safe from the object of this article. heh(Thanks, Hugh, for the reminder to check Fred’s site.)

Woody (Woody’s News and Views) does good blog on a regular basis. I semi-featured this post late yesterday, but it needs to be brought “above the fold” as it were: Chris Matthews, Dhimmi Of The Week, at Woody’s News and Views.

Another snippet from Jerry Pournelle’s site, this time from his hand,

“Frances Fukuyama thought that with the fall of the USSR we had reached The End of History, and all that was left was to chronicle the spread and consolidation of liberal democracy — even as liberal democracy was collapsing in the United States, becoming a persecuting religion in the schools and universities, and thus losing its soul. Once liberals read John Stuart Mill and loved freedom. N0w they read Rawls (actually at two generations removed; Rawls is well nigh unreadable by those unconvinced) and deny tenure to anyone who doesn’t subscribe to the politically correct version of events.”

Do take the time to read it all. It’s a response to an email correspondent in yesterday’s Chaos Manor Mail. (Note: Pournelle’s “Day Book” format is arranged exactly opposite of most blogs, so paging DOWN brings current info into view.)

If you have not yet read The English Guy’s post here yesterday, stop, CLICK HERE and read. Click to sign the petition if you care about national security.

I hope you didn’t miss this trackback to Clark Mountain Musings, yesterday. I disagree with the post in only one regard: I think the situation is humorous, even if it isn’t belly-laugh funny. heh. Oh, irony, thy personification is French… Clark Mountain Musings is new to me yesterday (found ’em in my open trackbacks, folks), and I’m already a tad upset with the blog cos I have only so many hours in a day, and even speedreading via a broadband connection isn’t enough to let me keep track of all the good reads! And here’s another one! *sheesh!* 🙂

Kender Learns to Love Me 😉 *ducking*

Well, I’ll add more later, I’m sure, but now, on to…

OK, adding this lil random piece of fun: Mr. Magoo’s Christmas Carol. Haven’t seen this one in a while? Get one-a yer own! This one’s mine! 🙂

*********************************

OPEN TRACKBACKS!

Today is an Open Post Day, all day. In fact, Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Fridays (Friday’s post open all weekend) are Open Trackback Post days.

Open Post info: Edit a post (or posts 🙂 of your own that you want to have featured here to include a link to this post. Trackback to my trackback URI (just right-click on “trackback” at the foot of this post and select “copy link” or “copy link location”–however your browser indicates). If your blog software can’t send trackback pings you can use Wizbang’s Standalone Trackback Pinger. If you have trouble, please leave a comment. I’ll try to help. Be sure to reference the Open Trackback Alliance blogroll and the Open Trackback Provider blogroll in my left sidebar. The more you play, the more folks will see your posts!

Linked at: Adam’s Blog, Those Bastards!, TMH’s Bacon Bits, The Political Teen, Don Surber, Choose Life!, Euphoric Reality, MacStansbury, Right Wing Nation, Committees of Correspondence, NIF, Stop the ACLU, Is it Just Me?