In the most recent incident the Boston PD attempted to diffuse what they thought to be a bomb but was actually a traffic monitoring device that had been placed there by the city. A few weeks ago the Boston area was “terrorized” by a mooninite invasion. I don’t know who is more at fault, the Boston PD or the citizens of Boston who called the police.
More mooninite coverage.
This video gives a great explanation and what is at stake. I consider myself very knowledgeable about technology, but until I saw this video I didn’t fully understand the issues or the consequences.
Via lessig.orgÂ
From TownHall.com 
Democracy or Liberty
By Walter E. Williams
In Federalist Paper No. 10, James Madison wrote, “Measures are too often decided, not according to the rules of justice and the rights of the minor party, but by the superior force of an interested and overbearing majority.” That’s another way of saying that one of the primary dangers of majority rule is that it confers an aura of legitimacy and respectability on acts that would otherwise be deemed tyrannical. Liberty and democracy are not synonymous and could actually be opposites.
Dr. Williams serves on the faculty of George Mason University as John M. Olin Distinguished Professor of Economics and is the author of More Liberty Means Less Government: Our Founders Knew This Well
This kind of moral courage in a politician gives me a small sliver of hope for the republic.
From: Politico.com
Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman of Connecticut told the Politico on Thursday that he has no immediate plans to switch parties but suggested that Democratic opposition to funding the war in Iraq might change his mind.
Lieberman, a self-styled independent who caucuses with the Democrats, has been among the strongest supporters of the war and President Bush’s plan to send an additional 21,500 combat troops into Iraq to help quell the violence there.
Bob Drogin of the L. A. Times outs 3 CIA pilots involved in extraordinary rendition operations where suspected terrorists are transferred to countries other than the United States for imprisonment and interrogation.
I just found this awesome site that ranks the characters of “24”. The rankings vary according to what happens during each episode. If you love “24”, you will love this site.
The Washington Post has a great site where they keep track of every vote in the House of Representatives and the Senate. The site even has an RSS feed for each member of congress.
I had nothing but disdain for Molly Ivins and this below articulates better than I could, why. She made Rush Limbaugh seem like a voice of moderate reason and I was fairly certain that her incessant colloquialisms were just plain made-up shit.
This from our friend Britt.
“After the death of Molly Ivins, the Star Telegram went nuts over her passing. Every day there were anywhere from one to literally six pages (yes, one day there were six pages) of adulations over her life, works and contributions to society and how great of a woman she was. I have never seen so many articles and so many square inches of print devoted to any one subject.
Yesterday, the below appeared in the Letters to the Editor section.”
“After seeing the paeans to the late Molly Ivins on your opinion pages, I realize this letter has about as much chance of being published as a meatball has of getting past Luciano Pavarotti, but here goes.
It’s clear that Ivins was a hero to liberals because she captured and personified the left-wing mentality in her writing and represented the quintessential far-left position of “Always pander; never listen.”
Her columns pimped and catered, producing sounds that only a fellow left-winger could hear. But that was her audience, because that was her rice bowl. Like many professional liberals — Bill Moyers, Bill Maher and Jon Stewart come to mind — Ivins learned early that a livelihood could be had by slavishly procuring applause from the left.
She prided herself on her writing — basically a mealy, watery brand of aw-shucks invective mingled with childish attempts at country-fried pseudo-endearments that rarely made sense and were often idiotic and silly (“mad as a peach orchard boar”).
The fact is, she lived her life in a state of perpetual tantrum, hands clamped tightly over her ears, all traffic outgoing, nothing resembling intellectual or reasonable discourse allowed in.
Trying to reason with Ivins was like X-raying lead. Once she had established herself in her own mind as Will Rogers’ evil twin and got paid for it, she was immovable, dense and impenetrable. Never swayed by logic, undeterred by reason or facts, she played strictly to her liberal audience for the sweet sound of unconditional approval and, of course, was never disappointed.â€
John Stevens, Perrin
By George F. Will
Newsweek
… Over the millennia, the planet has warmed and cooled for reasons that are unclear but clearly were unrelated to SUVs. Was life better when ice a mile thick covered Chicago? Was it worse when Greenland was so warm that Vikings farmed there? Are we sure the climate at this particular moment is exactly right, and that it must be preserved, no matter the cost?
What is one to do when an electronic form of a government document is laden with DRM? Jerry Brito at the TLF has some great commentary on the subject when DRM restricted him from copy a portion of the 9/11 Commission Report of all things. It is almost too much to take, but I will continue to fight it.
Today, LG shipped it’s first batch of HD-DVD/Blu-ray Disc players to stores across the country. Although it costs, twelve hundred dollars, it is a step in favor of the consumer. Hopefully, this will start a trend that will benefit consumers on both sides in the long run.
According to the Justice Department the 9/11 Commission cannot be sure they had all relevant documents because former National Security Advisor Sandy Berger stole documents from the National Archive.
David Deming, an associate professor at the University of Oklahoma claims “the public has been vastly misinformed” about global warming in his statement to the Senate.
According to Teamxbox.com, a disgruntled owner of an Xbox 360 has filed a class-action lawsuit against Microsoft after the mandatory Fall update caused his/her system to crash. Honestly, if Microsoft is forcing this gamer and others to pay for repairs I think it would be helpful to make Microsoft realize their mistake in actual dollars. It would help, however, if the plaintiff’s gamertag weren’t REDRUM6622. Just a thought.
Microsoft just aired this trailer for Halo 3 on Monday Night Football. It’s live action and CG , but that doesn’t mean it’s not filled with hints about the story or game play. Enjoy!
There has been much talk on Liberal Blogs about Kerry’s recent gaff and how it was an honest and simple mistake. This is a cogent response to that from Donald Sensing
Since the 2004 election, I decided to avoid posting about partisan politics, that is, issues attached to candidates or holders of office. I decided to discuss issues as before, but without discussing the personalities behind those issues except, as far as possible, in a non-partisan way.
Until today.In about 30 minutes I wll leave to attend the funeral of Marine Lance Cpl. Richard Buerstetta, killed in action in Iraq two weekends ago. He was a 2004 graduate of Franklin High School, where both my sons knew him. He and my eldest son were actually scheduled to go to boot camp at Parris Island, SC, the same day, but a change by their recruiter sent them on different days. Lance Cpl. Buerstetta was a Marine reservist, enrolled in college at Middle Tennessee State University, when his callup came. Without a flicker of hesitation at being yanked from his college courses, he shouldered his seabags and went off to war. “His bags stayed packed,†according to a family member. He died about a month after arriving in Iraq.
Got that? High school graduate. College student. US Marine. Iraq.
From: Review-Journal
“Marine Lance Cpl. Nicholas H. Anderson was killed on Nov. 12, 2004, in Iraq.
Photo by The Associated Press
From: Best of the Web
‘That Guy Is a (Expletive)’
The Las Vegas Review-Journal reports on a Nevada Senate candidate’s botched effort to use the crippled-vet ploy:
Hoping to generate attention for his boss late in an underdog campaign, an aide to Democrat Jack Carter solicited the mother of an Iraq war casualty to appear alongside the Senate candidate at a rally or news conference last week.
But if it was looking for a willing ally, the Carter camp evidently picked the wrong mother.
Eleanor Dachtler of Las Vegas said she was insulted by the overture, which was made in a blind letter that began: “I hope I have reached the right Eleanor Dachtler and that you are the mother of Nick Anderson. If not, please disregard this letter.”
The letter asked if Dachtler would appear with Carter at an event where the candidate would be criticizing the Iraq policy of President Bush and Republican incumbent John Ensign.
Dachtler’s participation could help draw media coverage, she was told. . . .
“I read the letter, and I thought, ‘This guy is a (expletive),’ ” said Dachtler, whose 18-year old son, Nicholas, was killed on Nov. 12, 2004, in the Anbar province. . . .
She said she kept her annoyance to herself until she saw Carter on television with paraplegics at an event to promote stem cell research, similar to the idea his aides had pitched her on Iraq.
“It was almost like he was exploiting these people,” she said.
“Almost like”? Mrs. Dachtler, you have a gift for understatement! Jack Carter, by the way, is the son of the worst president of the latter half of the 20th century.
There’s something especially revolting about the attempt to exploit American servicemen by painting them as victims rather than heroes, a political technique pioneered by John “Botched Joke” Kerry, who told a Senate committee in 1971:
“I called the media. . . . I said, ‘If I take some crippled veterans down to the White House and we chain ourselves to the gates, will we get coverage?’ ‘Oh, yes, we will cover that.’ “
Micheal Scheuer is an ex-CIA agent who recently wrote an op-ed stating that a vote for a Democrat is a vote against security. Scheuer has not been a fan of the president by any means but he realizes that many of the Democrats once elected will be all talk and no action. I have seen Scheuer speak on many occasions including on 60minutes, Fox News and C-SPAN and I believe that he tells it like it is whether it’s what you want to hear or not. It is obvious that he is genuinely concerned about the security of the nation.
Demonstrators took to the streets of the capital of Venezuela to support Chavez’s opponent. Elections will be held on December 3rd in that country.
From: Yahoo
SAN ANTONIO - Texas has started broadcasting live images of the U.S. border on the Internet in a security program that asks the public to report signs of illegal immigration or drug crimes.
A test Web site went live Thursday at texasborderwatch.com with views from eight cameras and ways for viewers to e-mail reports of suspicious activity. Previously, the images had only been available to law enforcement and landowners where the cameras are located.
"There is only one way to test it, and that's open it up for business," said Texas Homeland Security Director Steve McCraw.
