Archive for February, 2002

Toddler Terrorists

Tuesday, February 26th, 2002

Perhaps if he had a Pokemon backpack, this wouldn’t have happened, since we all know Scooby-Doo is subversive

God Hates Flags

Thursday, February 21st, 2002

“If you don’t start burning flags, I am so going to destroy your villages! So sayeth your LORD.” Apparently, god also hates figs too.

Budget Goes All Powerpoint

Tuesday, February 19th, 2002

I’m a bit slow to cover this, but apparently, the new budget is the first to include pictures. It also has an American Flag on the cover. Sounds like the MS PowerPoint agents have infiltrated the highest levels of government.

And even better, apparently Bush awards green, yellow and red dots to agencies based on performance. And he awards the Pentagon five red dots.

There’s a great quote I found.. “If we’re an arrogant nation, they’ll resent us. If we’re a humble nation, but strong, they’ll respect us.” That was George W. Bush, and I’m adding it to the cookie file.

Philip K. Dick Shorties

Tuesday, February 19th, 2002

Just finished A Scanner Darkly By Philip K. Dick. Like most of his stories, it’s interesting philosophy, unfortunately mixed with bullshit folk-psychology ramblings about split-brain research. Also, in a spate of synchronicity (a favorite of those folk psychologists) I found a link to this R. Crumb interpretation of Dick’s experience.

I’m also reading Hero with a Thousand Faces for the first time. If I didn’t know better, I’d think it was humor. His reliance upon those same folk-psychologists and psychoanalysts to relate the mythological elements to our everyday life definitely dates the work. Would have been enough to identify the common patterns in stories, that alone is interesting.

It’s also interesting noting the number of SF writers who have deeply religious rebirths, or end up creating their own religions.

New “Fuck ElcomSoft” Movement

Tuesday, February 19th, 2002

So, thanks to a posting on Slashdot, I found out that ElcomSoft, the employer of Dmitry Sklyarov, creates spamming tools. Not only bulk e-mail programs, but also spiders to harvest the web for e-mail addresses and maintain current lists of good e-mail addresses. So, we all know that the DMCA is bad, but maybe this is a case of Karma coming around to engage in some much deserved ass kicking.

Duck and Cover

Tuesday, February 19th, 2002

Duck and Cover

Our Bipolar Military

Monday, February 18th, 2002

I hate you! No, I love you! Wait, we’re out of money! Give us more.

I definitely have to hand it to the Bush propaganda crew.

United We Stand

Monday, February 18th, 2002

This advertisement is a great example of the growing rift between the “right” and “left” in this country. You can also see great examples of this by scanning Slashdot comments. In the following comments are a few modified versions if anybody needs translation.

Great Coverage of the Olympics

Monday, February 18th, 2002

“I’m not a security threat: I’m Canadian”

Offshore Tax Havens and Other Unpatriotic Behavior

Monday, February 18th, 2002

According to The New York Times, companies are increasingly incorporating in offshore countries like Bermuda to lower taxes.