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Military Officers Criticize Rumsfeld. What a Surprise.

USATODAY.com – Retired military officers criticize Rumsfeld at Democratic hearing

It is good to remember the above USA Today article from September because John McCain decided to remember his military roots today. Yes, after being civil toward Donald Rumsefeld–the petty bureaucrat who singlehandedly assured failure in Iraq by micromanaging the war–for many years, McCain finally remembers that it was the micromanagement of stupid men like Rumsfeld that made a war hero of McCain, and McCain decided to unleash on Rumsfeld, finally.

It took no less than an army of political advisors to remind McCain of the need for wars to be conducted by warriors. Forget about memory enhancing pills. If you want to remember who you are, hire consultants who will remind you of who you are at the most opportune moment. Unlike McCain, the rest of us might wish to have this reminder right before intercourse. Or, right after.

McCain’s belated fury proves that his “maverick” ways are ultimately part of a political persona constructed meticulously by campaign advisors. In as much, this calculated outburst proves that the campaign consultants that run our political system are as lacking in imagination as the screen writers that churn out the tasteless Hollywood blockbuster movies.

There is, therefore, no wonder that people have become as numb to politics as they have become numb to the Hollywood blockbusters for which they can no longer shell $15 out. Like the last five Bruce Willis movies, the political plot has become bland, predictable and needlessly loud.

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First Official Record Uptime

Uptime on February 15, 2007Over 22 days may well be the current record. My lovely 12″ 867 MHz Powerbook has now served me faithfully (even though the factory hard drive did not) for three and one-half years. I cannot justify buying a new Mac because save for occasional speed problems, this baby stays up and running without reboot no matter how much punishment I dish out: working with 20 megabyte data files, compiling hundreds of megabytes of software, closing opening and closing and opening applications over and over, having Microsoft programs (and Apple programs on occasion) crash, installing new software and moving daily between a wired and a wireless networking environment. Never a hitch, never a hickup.

On this day in February 1997, the streak had to end because new operating system updates required a reboot. 🙁

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Microsoft, in Its Own Words

Software Notebook: Fun reading in Microsoft’s Iowa lawsuit

On the eve of the commercial release of Micro$oft Vista, it is good to learn how Microsoft admittedly arrived at Vista. They copied Apple’s OS X. They even say as much internal documents. Read the article linked above.

Microsoft does not sell cigarettes, but it does borrow the tobacco industry’s penchant for publicly denying the transgressions to which it openly confesses internally. And, in this case, the court documents show everything. Microsoft copied Apple’s Mac OS X. Shamelessly. Just like Steve Jobs said.

So, why bother with Vista, when you can get the original, genuine article, OS X, for less?

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Exploding Whale


BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | Whale explodes in Taiwanese city

January 29 was the anniversary of this very bizarre event. The rotting flesh of a dead sperm whale generated so much gas that the beast exploded on the streets of Taiwan while the carcass was being transported to an academic laboratory for the purposes of scientific inquiry.

Yes, as they say always, truth is far stranger than fiction. The Taiwanese who were covered with whale blood, meat and blubber after the explosion will testify to the truthfulness (and even “truthiness”) of the adage.

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Of “Have”s and “Have-not”s

A Look at the Numbers: How the Rich Get Richer

The most distasteful thing about the spending habits of the most affluent in our country (enumerated in the article above) is the inordinate amount of preaching that emanates from that class. Preaching with regards to morality, morality in politics, morality in business, morality in life in general. The Bible is always prominent in these sermons, as is the character of one Jesus Christ, but the notions of charity that are codified in the writings that are attributed to Jesus are always conspicuously absent from these sermons. It’s almost as if He was another self-made man–the self-made carpenter–whose demise was doubly aggravated by Rome’s undue taxation and ultimate destruction of His woodworking business.

The Resurrection refers to Jesus’ physical return from the dead. His spiritual revival is, apparently, something for which we have to wait. It is awfully disheartening to know that so many are waiting for Armageddon to behave “morally”, most prominently the wealthy. It must be the case that the wealth will sway God on the Day of Judgment, or that God does not exist, and all the preaching is just a ploy to control the masses for the sole purpose of accumulating wealth.

Yes, sinners are those who cannot live within the confines of a $12000 annual income, and saints are those who cannot live within the confines of 39% income tax and estate taxes imposed on sums of millions of dollars.

The morality play is, apparently, a farce.

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Groveling for Dollars

Telegraph | News | US is only country to oppose UN arms trade treaty

The British profited from the slave trade for decades after they had outlawed the notion in England. This hypocrisy, however, was committed nearly two centuries ago. As this news story nicely demonstrates, the former imperial powers have grown rich enough and moral enough to be willing to refuse to grow rich by dealing in human misery, indignity and death.

The United States, however, seems to have not learned this lesson. It is shameful that a country so rich and so powerful insists on profiting from the misery of the wretched, on deferring to the greed and animosity of warmongers for a modest profit (nationally), and on accepting and encouraging the ignorance of barbarians for the sake of a handful of immoral companies.

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Bush More Dangerous than Kim Jong Il

British believe Bush more dangerous than Kim Jong-il | Special reports | Guardian Unlimited

It would seem as though our brethren across the Atlantic are endowed with a far more realistic assessment of George W Bush’s capability for calamity than the Americans who defied logic by reelecting him. For all of his madness, Kim Jong Il’s havoc has so far afflicted North Koreans primarily. Kim Jong Il’s sphere of evil is decidedly more limited in size (though not magnitude) than the sphere of ignorance in which George W Bush happily resides.

Why am I writing this stuff? Will this madness end?

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Drug Abuse Declines in Teens, Booms in Baby Boomers

Illicit drug use declines in US teens, but increases in baby boomers

What do you call a generation of people who received free education, who grew up in the opulence of postwar America, who profited from America’s economic domination of the world, and elected to hoard all of the wealth and addle the three generations that follow them with crushing debt? You would call them the worst generation, of course. Discussions of their political and economic enslavement of the generations that followed them will come later. For now, let’s focus on this generation’s unabashed self-aggrandizement, which manifests itself in persistent drug abuse.

The results are from the most recent authoritative National Survey on Drug Use and Health. Two quotes from the article say it all.


David Murray, special assistant to the director for the Office of National Drug Control Policy said the findings were surprising from the baby boomers point of view, “Rarely have we seen a story like this where this is such an obvious contrast as one generation goes off stage right, and entering stage left is a generation that learned a lesson somehow and they’re doing something very different,” he said.

…the peak of drug use among youth in the United States occurred in the late 1970s. “And they brought it with them like baggage when they hit 50 and 60. So they have rates of use that are starting to stand out as persistent.

In other words, the generation that was telling my generation, the gen-Xers of the 80s, to “just say no” is still having problems saying no. This hypocrisy would have been excusable were it not for the fact that the baby boomers insist on extending it to the financial sector, as well. It was ok for them to get free education and good healthcare, but not for us. It was ok for them to build businesses, but not for us. It was ok for them to become media moguls, but not for us.

Thus, those of us who are aware of the grotesque malice of the baby boomers continue to fume as we toil to live in substandard housing, to drive on abominable roads, and to drink, to climb rocks and to play video games in order to numb our brains out of the bland misery to which baby boomers have reduced American life and culture. Those not sufficiently numbed and not utterly exhausted by the boring life attempt suicide, move to another country or get trapped into the inanity of the Iraqi “War”. Others maintain a blog. The vast majority, the vanquished, eat, get fat, and watch TV.

And, so reap the baby boomers what they sowed long ago. All too happily, while they drive their SUVs and implicitly encourage wars that feed the SUVs.

What a wonderful world…

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Bush Is for Oil…And, That’s about All

Suits Say U.S. Impeded Audits for Oil Leases – New York Times

Memorable quote from page 3 of the article:

“From 1989 through 2001, according to a report by the Congressional Budget Office, auditing and other enforcement efforts generated an average of $176 million a year. But from 2002 through 2005, according to numbers that the department provided lawmakers last May, those collections averaged only $46 million.

In another clash, frustrated federal auditors have complained that the Interior Department no longer allows them to subpoena documents from oil companies.”

It leaves one to wonder what “conservatism” means anymore if a purportedly conservative government insists on subsidizing the most profitable industry in the world. If conservatism implies that governments should not interfere in markets, then why on earth would conservative people give a handout to an industry that needs no more economic advantage, an industry that dominates energy totally? If subsidizing solar cells is wrong, then why is subsidizing oil companies right?

It also causes despair to those who think about policy and responsibility on the part of the government. What aspect of this energy policy is responsible? This approach is tantamount to subsidizing the AT&T monopoly 30 years ago, instead of investing in the development of the internet. Now the internet is challenging the phone system as a viable new means of communication. Instead of being at the mercy of phone companies, consumers have some recourse. The servile Bush energy policy explicitly extends and strengthens the oil monopoly at a time when supply is scarce. It subjugates the needs of businesses to the profit motive (not imperative) of the oil industry at a time when the industry could not possibly reap greater profits. It is an energy policy that serves no need, no national purpose and no economic imperative.

Fortunately, impeachment is now a possibility.

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Americans Buy Crap That Others Won’t

U.S. Rules Allow the Sale of Products Others Ban – Los Angeles Times

The familiar refrain is “America is number one”. Stories like the one above ought to make one wonder “in what?” Concentration of wealth? Perhaps. Distribution of wealth? Not so. And, now, it seems not so when it comes to having safe products, either.

And, surely, many Americans will take pride in this ranking, for self respect and self worth are commodities that are present in scarce quantities in a land where just about everything is present in abundant quantities.