Mind Bullets

I don't think I've ever had such an intense meditation session. This is what I get for incorporating sigils into my focus. I'm dizzy, sweating, and strangely empowered but relaxed. Like a lion lounging. I've never been able to stop seeing with my eyes but this time I was able to. The effort it took for me to see with my mind instead of my eyes was surprising. I think I can kill with my mind now.

First Position

Rethinking The War, Ctd - Andrew Sullivan

The reader here makes a good point relating to Sullivan's original premise of the war on terror. What I'm more concerned with is not an attack using any sort of mass destruction weapon but one that relies on relatively low-tech elements. There is enough potential among the chemical and industrial infrastructure in America to create a devastating attack. All it takes is the clever use of simple tools. It's what I call 'Oak Cliff engineering' in that you take simple parts and assemble them into a working whole through inventive use. This is what modern terrorism is amazingly good at. While we do need to maintain our efforts to keep WMDs out of the hands of terrorist groups, I think we would be remiss if we ignored the surprisingly simple ways in which an attack could occur. What this requires is getting into the minds of the terrorist, not necessarily outthinking them but looking at things the way they would. Beyond that all we can do is maintain a degree of vigilance.

No CD for You!

Used CDs? - Ars Technica

This is absolutely ridiculous. I frequently sell back old cds that I won't listen to anymore and are taking up space in my collection. It isn't that I necessarily want the cash, although that is a perk of the deal, but I want to put that music back into circulation for someone else to buy it. The used cd store is also a place to find cds that have long gone out of print and won't see another pressing for the foreseeable future. But what these states here have done is anathema to such pleasantries. Just makes me sick.

Slow Motion Sexual Relief

Please Stop Doing That to the Cat - Second Life Sketches, Warren Ellis

I had forgotten that Ellis was writing a column for Reuters but now I have found it and blissful happiness abounds. I do like the points he makes about how the sex in Second Life will eventually get the whole things in trouble (if you don't believe me then talk to the Belgian police). Ellis is no prude but he is looking out for the online community by noting the dangers of acting without any regard for propriety whatsoever.

Barak the Magic Negro

Classy Obama - Eve Fairbanks

While complete wrong in many many ways, I must admit that I'm happy something like this can go on in America. Still, how long before Sharpton finally gets someone like Limbaugh off the air for good? That would be a blessing.

Clitorial Lovin'

Sex Toy = Military Threat - The Danger Room

Wow, I'm amazed on many levels by this.

It's In the Array

DARPA Studies Launching Satellites in Pieces - DefenseNews.com

What I find interesting in a proposal like this is the potential for space terrorism. Say you have a satellite array in orbit and all someone needs is a booster that will deliver a small package into space. The package doesn't have to weigh that much since whatever you are launching is not intended to do a great deal of work. The launch occurs but what can anyone do about it at that point? The package logs itself into the satellite array and starts broadcasting video or attempts to hack into government systems (scary thought, hack into nuclear agencies). You, as the operator of the array, are left with few choices such as shutting down the array, reprogramming the whole damn thing or taking potshots with missiles or lasers at the array in hope of hitting the viral component. No matter what you do, it will take some time and any video broadcast will have aired. All a space terrorist would need is a few minutes to broadcast or gain access into whatever network it wanted. I see future movies about this.

Condoms for Everyone!

Marital Sex Biggest HIV Risk for Women Around the World - Science Blog

This actually strikes me as not all that surprising. The biggest problem with HIV in Africa isn't that women are sleeping with multiple partners but that husbands are. The issue is marital infidelity and how men in much more macho cultures are given tacit permission to seek sex outside of marriage. So in one report you have the conjoining of both women's rights and health issues. On top of that you have the renewal of the call for men to use condoms. It's an interesting issue where you can either have a culture that accepts infidelity but promotes the use of condoms or you promote women's rights and ditch the condoms. Personally, I prefer both as men need to learn some sexual responsibility while women should have greater rights to go out and divorce the cheating bastard if they see fit.

A Little Phobia for You

Chicken-eating Spider - Boing Boing

Okay, this just freak my shit right the fuck out. Do not like spiders.

The Alcoholic's War

Re-Thinking the War I - Andrew Sullivan

This is a good piece of re-evaluation, or at least the start of it. But in reading it I was reminded of something I concluded not long after all the pundit-speak about giving the surge a chance. I could only think of it as an alcoholic's promise. That one last chance the alcoholic begs for, even though we know the promise, while well intentioned, is false. To the alcoholic, there will always be that one more chance. Not to say that the alcoholic should simply give up, or that we should simply give up, but the chances of success are mighty slim and putting too much stock in such a promise is almost foolhardy. Until the alcoholic changes the way he looks at things, until we change the way we look at the war, we will not succeed. The problems we created will not be solved with the same mindset that created the problems in the first place. We are not superheroes, we cannot simply 'will' our way to victory. While having a strong will is important, will alone will not conjure up victory. It only gives us the strength to do the hard work necessary.

On the Bleeding Edge

New Ideas - Matt Yglesias

I don't necessarily support John Edwards as a president but, as Yglesias points out, he does have a decent grasp of what we need to do to tackle poverty. But the bigger issue for me here is not Edward's ideas on poverty but the point that Yglesias makes on the different between new ideas and good ideas. While the newest, freshest ideas make for great campaign promises, they rarely prove workable. What Edwards has done here is take some ideas that have shown promise in the past, or have actually worked in the past, and built an anti-poverty platform around them. This is good planning and thought on the part of the Edwards campaign. There's nothing wrong with picking up on old ideas so long as the ideas work. Just the same, there isn't anything wrong with new ideas either, so long as they work as well. Good governance doesn't have to rely on being first among ideas but being the best among ideas.

The New French Revolution

Sarkozy Takes French Presidency - BBC

This is just sad, really. Royal was my political girlfriend. I was going to have her babies. Lots and lots of little socialist babies.

28%

Newsweek Poll, 5 May, 2007 - MSNBC

It's only one poll and Pollster's rating average has President Bush at 34% and rising, but this still is an amazing number to consider. What happens when a president loses all support from the general public beyond the hardline base? As Josh Marshall likes to point out constantly, the public is not behind the president despite the attempts by the media to play it the other way.

You're a Woman, I'm a Machine

Virtual Rape is Traumatic, but is it a Crime? - Wired

I'm coming from a male perspective so the issue of rape is more of an abstract thing that a potential reality for me (although I do know that rape can happen to men too). So for me the issue is more about civil liberties and personal dignity than anything else. What the idea of online rape represents for me is another example of the anonymity of the internet allowing people to act in ways they never would have in public. Yet, the psychological effects are very real and with the deep psychological scars that rape causes it is too much of a stretch to say that online rape is just as traumatic as physical rape? If so, then shouldn't the laws extend to criminalize online rape in the same way as physical rape?

DIY Process

Just a Part of the Network - WaPo

I think what is so interesting in the transformation of the PC into a tech hub is the atomization of the computer itself. I've built and rebuilt my own computer multiple times over the last seven years. The selling point for me is the ability to upgrade only what I need for the tech devices I need. Need more USB hubs? Buy a USB card. Need a better graphics card for photos? Buy the new card. The key for me is the motherboard/cpu/memory platform. You can't buy one generally without buying all the rest. What I pivot my decision on is whether the platform will serve my tech needs for the next few years. More to the point, I have to decide what kind of tech I will want for my desktop. CD burning, DVD burning, music, Ipods, cellphones, photos, whatever. The whole point is maintaining my ability to fully utilize whatever comes along on the internet or in the general tech world.

When Funny isn't Funny

Naked Man Superglued to Exercise Bike - Reuters

When I first saw the headline I was prepared to for something hilarious but this is actually pretty sad.

Doth-iness

A Blog Doth Not a Journalist Make - The Inquirer

In the debate between blogging and journalism it is sentiments like this one that I give a good deal of credence to. The greatest obstacle to genuinely good blogging is the lack of editorial and economic pressures on any blog writer. While the free-wheeling nature of blogging has its own natural high, the considered, calculated articles and op-ed pieces one reads in proper journalism has far more longevity. This is the core of the debate. Blogs are by nature of-the-moment. Newspapers need something that will stand the test of time and a quickly written piece with little authorial control does not do the job. Even this blog doesn't stand up to the journalistic standards of a George Will or Frank Rich piece. And it's not supposed to. While I may argue that I have some sense of objectivity it's not crucial to anything that I might write. A blog is simply the opinion of someone, usually someone you don't know, who is accountable to no one and nothing. While that makes for some fun for the blogger, it usually doesn't lead to the best journalism out there.

Reaganomics

Even Think Tank People Play Debate Drinking Games - Wonkette

Absolutely brilliant. After reading all the articles on how the GOP is looking for the next Reagan to save them and how much such sentiments mirror the Democrats efforts to find the next JFK, it's refreshing to hear someone make light of it all. “'If this debate were a drinking game, and you had to imbibe every time you hear the word ‘Reagan,’ you would pass out before the closing remarks,' predicted Bill Whalen, a research fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University." This is exactly what is wrong with the GOP right now. If they have to go looking for the next great president in the mold of some past president then they won't find it. Reagan wasn't Reagan until he became president.

Attorneygate, Category 2

Monica Gooding's Lawyers - TPM

So it's tidbits like this that drive the whole Attorneygate storyline. Gooding is being smacked with a Justice department investigation while receiving immunity for any incriminating testimony she might give to the House Judiciary committee. It's a perfect moment for the whole damn storm of a story to come blowing in. Pay attention people, it only gets better from here on.

Golem

I Want It All - Spencer Ackerman

What's notable about Ackerman's post here is the growing pressure inside Iraq to impose a quasi-strongman. The idea of 'reconciliation' is a bit laughable if you didn't have to look past so many bodies. Still, any effort for reconciliation will have to deal with the fact that the man who can get the Shiites to calm down will only infuriate the Sunnis, and vise versa. What we may need is a Kurd who won't instantly split Kurdistan off from the rest of the country. Either way, reconciliation at this point is going to come with a body count, what matters morally is how high of a body count we are prepared to deal with to get what we want out of Iraq.