Actually A Response
Mark Bernstein links to and quotes some crappy stuff about the United States army occupying Iraq, he comments as well.#
Now, make all the allowances you want for partisanship, for anti-Americanism, for whatever: this is bad news. The first time I visited London, I was struck by the lasting bitterness that's still commemorated on plaques all over the City. "Built by Christopher Wren. Destroyed by the barbarians, 1942."
Julie Leung is passionate about bloggers.#
Another reason I'm going to BloggerCon is my passion for blogging and bloggers. Although I've only been at this for nine months, I am grateful for what I've gained in my interactions with others. What people have written in posts, comments and emails has changed how I see and live my life. It might sound silly perhaps, to say this hypertext could have such effect, but I think it is true. Blogs - both mine and others - have been an oasis for me at times, places of inspiration and information, humor and encouragement, a place to laugh or get a much-needed distraction for a moment - but also places where I've been challenged or changed. I've stretched myself. I feel I've found many friends. A few have familiar faces but many I might not recognize. I'm grateful for everyone reading, commenting and linking here. Some have been dialoguing with me for a while and others stopped by here recently for the first time. Thanks for the conversations. Thank you for blessing me through blogging.
A writer at Kuro5hin.org wonders about Jesus Chainsaw Massacre.#
Which is the whole crux of my problem with this movie. If "The Passion of the Christ" is the great paean to the beauty of Christianity, then all I can conclude is that spiritual beauty is somehow directly rooted in extreme violence.
If someone took this movie to an isolated village on the Amazon whose inhabitants knew nothing of Christianity, and they showed the Jesus Chainsaw Massacre to them, then all the villagers would wonder is what exactly this snuff film had to do with anything. If said movie were shown to them by a missionary, I am sure the isolated villagers would wonder why this odd person who was obsessed with violence wanted them to join a sadomasochistic blood cult.
Philip Greenspun discusses the difficulties of offering the rights of the Constitution to non-Americans.#
The Ancient Greeks took the rules of hospitality, xenia, very seriously. Certainly running off with your host's wife was out of the question and thus the abduction of Helen was a sufficiently serious breach to warrant the Trojan War. Most of our recent troubles with terrorism stem from Arab guests in or immigrants to the United States. So far the government's response seems to be an attempt to reduce the number of guests and/or screen them more thoroughly for existing connections to terrorist organizations. In the long run, however, this seems doomed to fail. You can't expect someone to abandon his beliefs simply because he is visiting the United States or has immigrated here, even if one of those beliefs is hatred of American society. My prediction: within the next five years there will be calls to restrict constitutional rights to citizens. It will be noted that in 1787 everyone in the U.S. was either a citizen, the property of a citizen (slaves), or expected to become a citizen. It will be argued that times have changed. Thanks to commercial airlines millions of people land on our soil every year with no intention of joining the society. Thus a distinction should be made between U.S. citizens and guests. The counterargument will be that the rights of the Constitution are universal and should not only be extended to guests on our shores but also to human beings anywhere on the planet. We shouldn't be supporting dictators in poor countries if they won't guarantee U.S.-style rights to all of their citizens and certainly we should not be engaging in extrajudicial assassination of our enemies.
The Black Saint wonders about FHM and Maxim.#
I'll never understand what possesses any woman to pose for FHM, Stuff, Maxim, and their ilk. The common defense given is that they want to show their "sexy" side. "Most viewers think of me as the impossibly hot assistant district attorney on Law & Order, so I just wanted to prove that I've had breast enlargement surgery just like everyone else at the Pamela Anderson Acting School and Self-Serve Salad Bar."
The "interviews" in these "lad mags" are especially pathetic. "Like, you're so hot and you're like talking to me and stuff... did you know that you're who I think about when I'm having sex with my girlfriend? Well, I don't really have a girlfriend but in my fantasies in which I'm having sex with my girlfriend, you're her."
Jorrit Wiersma wants to record sound on OS X. I recommend he check out the free version of Apple's Quicktime Broadcaster, which can be configured to "broadcast" to disk and only record sound.#
Lance Arthur publishes the second part of his body care guide.#
The last thing most people (and not just guys) think about is their feet. But here's my thing which I shall share with you as if you are a bosom chum and not some random reader bored with the usual who ended up here by accident after doing a Google on the term "sewage workers, cow inseminators and gynecologists." I do not enjoy feet, particularly, but I enjoy giving foot massages. Feet, I think, are the ugliest part of the body. Perhaps this is why I love shoes so much—they protect me from having to look at feet.
Be that as it may be, when you reach down and (shudder) touch your own feet, you're likely to discover all sorts of weird, hard, crusty places. Not to mention the fact that you haven't clipped your toenails in weeks and where the hell did all that hair on the toe knuckles come from.
Bruce Schneier writes that a National ID system is bad because it won't work.#
But my primary objection isn't the totalitarian potential of national IDs, nor the likelihood that they'll create a whole immense new class of social and economic dislocations. Nor is it the opportunities they will create for colossal boondoggles by government contractors. My objection to the national ID card, at least for the purposes of this essay, is much simpler.
It won't work. It won't make us more secure.
In fact, everything I've learned about security over the last 20 years tells me that once it is put in place, a national ID card program will actually make us less secure.
My argument may not be obvious, but it's not hard to follow, either. It centers around the notion that security must be evaluated not based on how it works, but on how it fails.
Ted Leung posts the schedule for DaddyCon.#
Jozef Imrich, Esq. seems to like the tagline.#
Jeremy Blachman rejects the BloggerCon Kool-Aid™.#
don't think I buy this.
And here's why. It's very clear to me why having a weblog is rewarding. It's very clear to me why someone might want to make money with one. But to jump from there directly to trying to form a trade organization (which was one idea that got a bunch of talk), or trying to standardize ad sizes, or counters, or get group health insurance -- it seems to ignore the crucial question. What are blogs providing that people would legitimately want to pay for? In business, I imagine they're a hindrance more than a help. Reading and writing takes time. As a replacement for an internal message board, fine. As a new consumer helpline, fine. But these aren't new paradigms, they're just a new form for old stuff and not providing any huge new killer value. Not in business, it's a substitute, in most cases, for specialized magazines and newspapers. There was talk in one session about "competing" with old media, like the New York Times and ABC News. Come on. Those organizations have infrastructure, have capital, and -- I think most important -- have credibility. Blogs -- not even the biggest ones -- aren't competing with the New York Times. They're competing with fringe magazines and journals for people's "extra" attention -- maybe. Like I might read some weblogs instead of reading the Utne Reader (I have never read the Utne Reader, but my 11th grade English teacher did, and so I assume it's some high-brow literary publication -- if it's not, and if it's offensive in some way to anyone, I apologize, and please sub in "The Weekly Standard" instead, which may actually be offensive to more people), if I find weblogs that are good enough. Maybe. Maybe that's the attention base.
Seth Finkelstein uses a post of mine to demonstrate the difference in linking between an A-Lister and a non-A-Lister. Interesting bit of controversy. (Disclosure: I'm a big fan of Seth.)#
Werner Vogels posts some pictures from BloggerCon II. Some are very alluring.#
Chip Gibbons writes about George Bush's Mental Illness.#
Sanity occurs when the mind is in touch with reality. Insanity is a state where the mind is out of touch with reality.
It is generally accepted that when a person sees things that aren't there or talks to people who aren't there that he/she is suffering from some form of mental illness that includes delusions and/or psychosis.
People make exceptions when it comes to religion, however.
In the world of religion, it is perfectly acceptable to hold beliefs that cannot be supported with evidence, to hear the voices of higher beings, and to talk to Gods that nobody can see or engage in conversations that nobody else can witness.