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4月30日 Colbert was outstanding!Stephen Colbert of the Colbert Report attended the White House Correspondents dinner. It was the best thing I have ever seen.
Ok, filelodge sucks. So, I found the Colbert performance on YouTube. It is in three installments. Please watch, you can't miss it.
I am also putting up a sample of his work from his show, The Colbert Report, on my media player for those of you who haven't seen it. Classic stuff.
Also, check out the responses on this website:
4月29日 Hookers and illegal drugs4月28日 Neil Young Neil Young's new album is online. I sat down and listened to most of it, and it is really good. Don't forget, if you like it, go buy a copy. Enjoy! 4月27日 Pop goes the housing bubbleI know no one cares about economics, but I'm going to keep trying to get it through that this stuff is important.
Rates on 30-year mortgages rose for the fifth consecutive week, hitting their highest level in nearly four years.
The rise in mortgage rates was attributed to last week’s surge in oil prices, which saw crude oil futures hit a record of $75.17 last Friday, and signs this week of stronger economic growth. Both of those developments raised worries about rising inflationary pressures. However, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke opened the door to taking a pause in the Fed’s nearly two-year long campaign of raising interest rates. [This is that part that really confuses me. Bernanke spews some bullshit and tries to make it sound important.] He told Congress on Thursday that at some point in the future the Fed “may decide to take no action at one or more meetings” to give policy-makers time to assess the rate hikes that have already occurred.
So, what he's saying is that in the last 18 consecutive meetings of the Fed where they have raised the interest rate about a quarter point each time, no one ever stopped to assess the effects of these hikes. That means that no one, not even the top economists, know what they are doing to our economy. They are just playing games with numbers that affect everyone's lives through cost of goods, value of the dollar, cost of loans for houses, cars, credit cards, student loans, etc. Let me tell you what the goal of the Fed is, as far as I can see it. His job is to fiddle with the interest rate on treasury bonds so that yields meet the expectations of investors. That means he is trying to get people or banks or governments to keep buying part of our national debt. As long as there is an assurance from the government that we are capable of paying off that debt at some point in the future and that buying them and holding them is profitable, then people will continue giving our government the money it needs in order to function. That is his primary concern. If the value of the dollar falls compared to other currencies, and the yield on the T-bonds gets too low, then international investors (China and Korea, for example) will stop buying them because it would count as a loss. So the Fed raises the prime interest rate, which directly affects bond yields and purchase prices, so that the Chinese will keep funding our government's daily operations. If this system hiccups in a significant way, and investors drop bonds like hot cakes, then the interest rate will shoot up to try to goad people into keeping a bad investment (can you say 18 straight meetings with an interest rate increase?). This leads to the rising mortgage rates, rising credit card rates, rising cost of food, rising cost of everything, that we are seeing right now.
For some reason, "inflation" has held at a steady rate for years, but the cost of goods and services has gone up exponentially in the last few years. Does that make sense? Are you making so much more money now than you were four years ago that you can reasonably afford a 150% increase in the cost of your children's education or a 200% increase in gasoline or a 100% increase in the cost of a gallon of milk? Does that sound like a 2-3% rate of inflation to you?
When enough people realize that the investment will not ever improve, regardless of the rising interest rates, they will dump them anyway. Then we have no more influx of foreign money into our system. Then we have no more salaries for federal employees, no more war money, no more welfare, no more social security checks for your old sick grandmother, no more money to improve highways and train tracks, etc. The American system as we know it will change into something we are not used to.
If you listen to the great philosophers, once the people of a democracy have emptied the coffers of the government, the next step is dictatorship in an effort to supress the uproar of the people who have lost the way of life they are used to. What part of that process are we in right now? 4月26日 U.S. to Free 141 Terror SuspectsFrom the LA Times:
By Carol J. Williams, Times Staff Writer
April 25, 2006 "GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL STATION, Cuba — The Pentagon plans to release nearly a third of those held at the prison for terrorism suspects here because they pose no threat to U.S. security, an official of the war crimes tribunal said Monday.
Charges are pending against about two dozen of the remaining prisoners, the chief prosecutor said. But he left unclear why the rest face neither imminent freedom nor a day in court after as many as four years in custody. Only 10 of the roughly 490 alleged "enemy combatants" currently detained at the facility have been charged; none has been charged with a capital offense.
That leaves the majority of the U.S. government's prisoners from the war on terrorism in limbo and its war crimes tribunal exposed to allegations by international human rights advocates that it is illegitimate and abusive. The decision to release 141 detainees — the largest group to be reclassified and moved off the island — follows a yearlong review of their cases in which interrogators also determined that they could provide no further intelligence. It was unclear when or where the detainees would be released. About 250 detainees have been released since the prison camps were established in 2002."... Many people, including Human Rights Advocates, have been saying this for years. But the hardline Bush supporters in this country have said over and over that the only people in Gtmo are terrorists. But a third of the people that are being held are in the process of being released and 250 people have been released since 2002! I hope that the suffering these innocent people and their families have endured wears on the consciences of all of those who opposed the groups that wouldn't give up until the people being held at Gtmo were given a fair trial. These are PEOPLE. They have families and friends and lives. We should all be ashamed that our government held them in that hell for many years without any rights, without the ability to contact their loved ones, and without the ability to clear their names and go on with their lives. Now, we must all make sure the others being held see the same justice. Out of 490 detainees that are being held as enemy combatants, only 10 have been charged with anything. We have to keep fighting to make sure there are no innocent people left to rot in that hell hole. 4月25日 From the International Herald Tribune:Zbigniew Brzezinski TMSI
TUESDAY, APRIL 25, 2006
"Iran's announcement that it has enriched a minute amount of uranium has unleashed urgent calls for a preventive U.S. air strike by the same sources that earlier urged war on Iraq.
If there is another terrorist attack in the United States, you can bet your bottom dollar that there will be also immediate charges that Iran was responsible in order to generate public hysteria in favor of military action. But there are four compelling reasons against a preventive air attack on Iranian nuclear facilities: 1. In the absence of an imminent threat (with the Iranians at least several years away from having a nuclear arsenal), the attack would be a unilateral act of war. If undertaken without formal Congressional declaration, it would be unconstitutional and merit the impeachment of the President. Similarly, if undertaken without the sanction of the UN Security Council either alone by the United States or in complicity with Israel, it would stamp the perpetrator(s) as an international outlaw(s). 2. Likely Iranian reactions would significantly compound ongoing U.S. difficulties in Iraq and in Afghanistan, perhaps precipitate new violence by Hezbollah in Lebanon, and in all probability cause the United States to become bogged down in regional violence for a decade or more to come. Iran is a country of some 70 million people and a conflict with it would make the misadventure in Iraq look trivial. 3. Oil prices would climb steeply, especially if the Iranians cut their production and seek to disrupt the flow of oil from the nearby Saudi oil fields. The world economy would be severely impacted, with America blamed for it. Note that oil prices have already shot above $70 per barrel, in part because of fears of a U.S./Iran clash. 4. America would become an even more likely target of terrorism, with much of the world concluding that America's support for Israel is itself a major cause of the rise in terrorism. America would become more isolated and thus more vulnerable while prospects for an eventual regional accommodation between Israel and its neighbors would be ever more remote."....(More here) Cyborgs? Already?I wasn't expecting cyborgs for another couple of hundred years. It looks like DARPA, that smartest organization you've never heard of, and a reasearch team headed up by Johns Hopkins will be getting together to build a prosthetic arm that responds to neural impulses and has approximately a full range of motion and normal strength and dexterity levels. Sounds like science fiction, but it's here already. The idea is to get a prosthetic arm so good, that an amputee can return to normal life, doing everyday things like bowling and playing piano, for example. One researcher said that "We want [amputees] to be able to play the piano," Ling said. "Not chopsticks, but a classical piece, like Brahms." The idea is that getting the new arm to respond to nervous system signals will be more efficient and provide more fine motor controls than the current method of response to muscular signals.
 They want to put several of these things in the interface between man and machine to read nervous signals and transmit them to a small computer in a fanny pack that controls the arm. Then sensors on the arm would send a message back through the computer, into these devices, which would couple the electrical signals back to the nerves and let the brain know how the task went.
A Look to the Future
I see the next step in this process moving towards something like the old Bionic Commando video game where the hero had all sorts of crazy grappling hook and weaponry features in his bionic arm. And I don't know how many of you watch Ghost in the Shell, but this is kind of how it started. Eventually, in that future, prosthetics become so advanced that you could go full body prosthetic and store your "ghost" in your cyber brain in your new body. In some lines of work, being human was a liability. You know, for a society that won't allow stem cell research to potentially save lives and cure horrible diseases on the grounds that it would be too much like playing god, we sure do allow all sorts of crazy god-like things in the name of science. I'm not sure where the moral distinction is between genetically engineering plants vs. people or cloning your favorite pet dog vs. cloning your brother or putting a bioninc arm on an amputee vs. growing someone a new liver in a jar. It seems to me that morally, there cannot be any distinction between these things. If the argument is that some of them are like playing god, then would not all of them be in the same catagory? But you will never hear anyone complain about high yeild variants of soybeans or robot arms for soldiers. Why is that? Are we to assume that in those cases, god gave humanity to ability to acquire that knowledge, and it is therefore ok for us to use it? Why not then in the other situations I mentioned? If god did not want humans to acquire the knowledge of cloning or genetic screening or stem cells, wouldn't he have stopped us from learning it? If I recall, god does seem to like putting a stop to technological advances he disapproves of (see Tower of Babel). I'm not saying I approve or disapprove of any of these techniques, just that religion and science are seperate fields that need to be addressed seperately if we are to properly discuss the merits or risks of any of them.
ref:
4月24日 Better late than neverSpecter suggests 'windfall' tax on oil
"Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said a windfall-profits tax, along with measures to stem concentration of market power among a few select oil companies, could offer eventual relief to consumers hurting at the gas pump.
"I believe that we have allowed too many companies to get together to reduce competition," Mr. Specter said. "They get together, reduce the supply of oil, and that drives up prices," he said. "In the short run, it's hard to deal with it for tomorrow. But I think windfall profits, eliminating the antitrust exemption, considering the excessive concentration of power are all items we ought to be addressing." Mr. Specter is backing legislation that would strengthen antitrust laws on oil company mergers after his committee held a hearing last month examining the growing consolidation of the oil industry." Maybe it's just me, but I remember Sen. Dorgan saying the exact same thing not 6 months ago. Back then, everyone called him crazy, protectionist, anti-capitalist, state-regulating, etc... the cry from the right was along the lines of "But making profit is what America is all about!" But, you see, when the big guy from Exxon gives himself a $400million severance pay after paying himself a billion in salary over his tenure as CEO, while the company profits $40 billion in one year, it looks bad because we've been paying for a 100-150% increase in the cost of the product they sell. If I understand capitalism correctly, the cost to the consumer should go up when the cost to the provider goes up. If the cost to the consumer goes up while the profit margin goes up, then there is something shady going on and we're getting fucked. Even Sen. Spector, assbag though he may be, understands that we are all sitting here getting royally fucked by five large companies. If someone had listened to Dorgan last year and taken him seriously, maybe oil would still be around $50 a barrel and gas would still be around $1.50 a gallon. Wouldn't that be nice? Now economists are predicting that America's increased usage over the summer could push costs past $85 a barrel or higher. That's fantastic. Remember that when you go on your summer vacation. I would recommend going sooner rather than later. If you can swing it, fly to Europe and drive around there. Gas spikes there are being mitigated to a large degree by the weakening of the dollar. Apparently, while oil has been increasing by 150%, the dollar has slipped over 30% against the Euro. so all of those interest rate hikes by the Fed and those massive trade deficits and the growing national debt and deficit have all combined to help your European friends continue to afford their gas. Aren't you proud of the Republican version of philanthropy? Their shitty economic policies at home are making things better abroad, in a round-a-bout sort of way. Well, at least things aren't as shitty there as they are here. 4月21日 No, we're not colonizingU.S. Building Massive Embassy in Baghdad "BAGHDAD, Iraq - The fortress-like compound rising beside the Tigris River here will be the largest of its kind in the world, the size of Vatican City, with the population of a small town, its own defense force, self-contained power and water, and a precarious perch at the heart of Iraq's turbulent future." "The embassy complex — 21 buildings on 104 acres, according to a U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee report — is taking shape on riverside parkland in the fortified "Green Zone," just east of al-Samoud, a former palace of Saddam Hussein's, and across the road from the building where the ex-dictator is now on trial.""This huge American contingent at the center of power has drawn criticism. "The presence of a massive U.S. embassy — by far the largest in the world — co-located in the Green Zone with the Iraqi government is seen by Iraqis as an indication of who actually exercises power in their country," the International Crisis Group, a European-based research group, said in one of its periodic reports on Iraq." "Iraq's interim government transferred the land to U.S. ownership in October 2004, under an agreement whose terms were not disclosed. "Embassy Baghdad" will dwarf new U.S. embassies elsewhere, projects that typically cover 10 acres. The embassy's 104 acres is six times larger than the United Nations compound in New York, and two-thirds the acreage of Washington's National Mall."
Problem: You promised that you were not going to stay around for too long and that you definitely weren't going to build permanent bases in Iraq. Solution: Acquire land from the Iraqi interim government that was not elected by the Iraqi people, and build the biggest Embassy in the world. Then you can base, I mean house, several thousand troops, uh, I mean security forces there. Problem solved. Centipede I found one of these things in my house last night! This picture is not to scale. The one that was crawling across my livingroom floor was at least twice as big. To say the least, I freaked out. And I am not one of those kinds of people that are super scared of bugs. But, when your first contact ever with a particular bug is late at night and you don't know what the hell it is, it tends to creep you out. I have had the occasional spider and even flying cockroach get in my house, but this is my first experience with house centipedes. When I was chasing it to try to kill it, it crawled into my husbands PT clothes he had left on the floor. I had to wrangle it out of there, which further creeped me out b/c now I know that any clothes that are left on the floor might have a centipede in them! YUCK!!
One of the worst things about moving all over is that you get to experience new bugs everywhere you go. 4月19日 Sir, No SirWe have all heard the stories of the hippies and the peace protestors of the Vietnam era. We have all heard the lies of the soldiers getting spit on. But most of us have not heard is the other story. There is an interesting film coming out about the Vietnam War protest movement, but it is not one of the typical 'college campus' movies. It is the story of where the protests began. It is the story of the suppressed GI movement of the Vietnam War. Go here to view the trailer, read the story, and find out where the nearest screening will be.
4月18日 VicariousThe song you hear now is the first single off of the upcoming Tool album that came out today. It is, in my opinion, fantastic. It's been 10 years since a song with this combination of power, grace, beauty, and anger was written. It is an enveloping experience listening to it. I'm glad Maynard and co. seem to have returned to a musical philosophy that rocketed them to fame in the first place. Perhaps the most disturbing thing in the world is to hear someone say they love Tool, but have never even heard any of the songs they did before Lateralus. That album didn't even touch their previous body of work. I was concerned that this album would follow suit, but if the first song is any indication, Tool is officially back. Listen. Enjoy.
Mr. Wehlia Rumsfeld and the GeneralsFrom Pen and Sword:Much Ado About RummyCalling for Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's resignation is becoming something of an alternative national pastime. Neoconservative icon Bill Kristol, founder of the Project for the New American Century (PNAC) of which Rumsfeld was a key member, was advocating giving Dandy Don the boot clear back in July of 2001, prior to the 9/11 attacks. Between then and now, almost everyone from the left, right and center whom the press will cover has demanded that Rummy be given the ax.
Now six retired generals have joined the chorus. A fat lot of good that's going to do, even if Rummy actually resigns this time. Which he won't. Rummy deserves a lot more than getting run out of the Pentagon in a rail and feathers ceremony. He deserves a special room in the McNamara suite at the LBJ Hilton in hell. But sending him there tomorrow won't fix the disaster he's helped create. (Read more here) Rummy is on thin ice. He deserves to be kicked to the corner, but I agree with the above author that it will not solve the problem. If you want to solve it, you have to get to the root of the problem. Rummy is just a pawn, a small player in the bigger picture that is the shit storm we call our national government. Our current foreign policy and Iraq fiasco is the result of years of planning. The only way to fix this now is to have a national move towards a different foreign policy strategy. At this point, only changing the players won't change the game. We need to change the game. 4月17日 Well that makes senseMedia Bias: Major News Networks Fare Poorly Across Party Lines - Dems Like CNN & PBS, Reps Love Fox
Brought to you by Polling Point 4月15日 Remember, it's all just a gameAlthough the Pentagon initially focused on aircraft, such as the Predator drone, now new ground- and sea-based robots are being developed and tested, military records show. For example: • The Mobile Detection Assessment Response System, an unmanned vehicle intended to patrol around domestic bases. The Army plans to start using it next year. • Self-driving convoy trucks. Some variants follow preplanned routes or the vehicle in front. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency has held a competition among advanced, satellite-guided versions that plan their own routes and maneuver around roadblocks. The Army is testing driverless versions of its Stryker armored personnel carrier.... The military also is responding to some creative tinkering by the troops, who have modified their robots to carry grenades and other weapons into buildings or other potentially unsafe targets. “Soldiers and Marines are very innovative and ... have figured out how to do that,” Griffin says. As a result, the Pentagon is testing a new version of the Talon robot that carries a remote-control M-240 machine gun. Meanwhile, much larger and more ambitious robot weapons are in testing, including a tank-like, 1,600-pound vehicle called the Gladiator, which can fire a variety of guns, tear gas or almost anything else that fits. It also has loudspeakers to “shout” instructions, such as those to calm a mob. Those armed robots are like the Predator, which fires only with a human command. The next step - robots that decide themselves when to fire - is much harder. Robots will become more independent, but having them fight without human control is “not a technology issue, so much as it’s a safety issue,” says Scott Myers, president of General Dynamics Robotic Systems. A robot can find a human with its sensors and kill the person, but “we don’t want to shoot our own people or children,” Myers says. It’s hard enough for a human to distinguish between friend and foe, and for machines, “we’re a long way from being there.” The goal now is helping troops in the field as quickly as possible, says Col. Gregory Tubbs, head of the Army’s Rapid Equipping Force. In the long term, Tubbs says, the Gladiator and other robots will be transitional, as the military shifts to “game changing” robotic technologies that will revolutionize warfare.
So robots will change the nature of the "game"? An old friend of my husband's flew UAV's for the Navy, and for training, they made him log 30 or 40 hours a week on Microsoft Flight Simulator. Another Army Times article calls readers to check out the military equipment of the future by playing the new Ghost Recon game for X-Box. What's next? Are we to start seeing people playing as the AT-AT's in some Star Wars game for target practice before they go sit in an office in South Dakota to drive the Gladiator around some foreign battle field killing enemy (human) soldiers?
Captain, why aren't those ewoks fuzzy? They were always fuzzy in practice....You mean this isn't a simulator anymore?!?!
For another take on this matter, please read Ender's Game, available in your local book store. Educate yourselfThe Union of Concerned Scientists created an animation to explain to people why using nuclear bunker busters are a very bad idea. I was going to try to explain it, but it is easier understood in this animation. Watch it.
One thing I will add is that, when tested, the nuclear bunker busters have failed to penetrate more than 20-25 feet, and it would have to penetrate a lot further to keep nuclear radiation from escaping into the air. 4月11日 What is wrong with humanity?Why is humanity so opposed to peaceful means of living. It has become more and more apparent that people in the US are becoming more and more violent and murder prone. There are several examples. One example is that there is a whole (small, I hope) element of American culture that calls for the extermination of all Muslims. Two, there is also an element of society that calls for the murder of "illegal" immigrants in this country. There is definitly an overlap of those two segments, but there are people who are for either one seperately.
Meanwhile, in reality, my husband attended a 'kill brief' (yes, it means what you think) recently, and was briefed on the psychology of killing. The Marine officer talked about his experience in Iraq and how his unit acidentally killed four civilians. He got all choked up when he was speaking of this incident. He talked about how hard it is on guys over there who kill civilians by accident and how they need psychological help. But, he also talked about how a small portion of the military is racist and over-excited to kill 'Hajii's'. He says that those people should be KICKED OUT OF THE MILITARY. You heard me right. A high ranking Marine officer said that. He also said that the majority of Iraqis are wonderful people. So, those of you ARMCHAIR generals who think your so fucking smart need to get a clue. The military doesn't want xenophobic racist bastards, and if we had more high ranking officers like the one that gave the brief, then things like Abu Ghraib might have been avoided.
The last time a group of people called for the extermination of a whole group of peoples based on religion, we had the Holocaust. Now, it seems that some people in this country are calling for a new Holocaust, but this time they are calling for the extermination of Muslims. They see the strife over there in the Middle East and their solution is to kill indiscriminately. But, the way I see it, if we did that then we would be bigger terrorists than they could ever be. We have the ability to wipe entire countries off the face of the planet, they do not. I will never completely understand the bloodlust of some Americans nor will I ever understand the hipocrisy. What I do understand is that massive killing and slaughtering of an entire religious people is not the answer.
I have been called a traitor for my views, but is it really traitorous to care about human life? If so, then so be it. Because I will never be a cold-hearted murderer. I will never call for the extermination of an entire race, religion, culture, etc. If my only crime is to want a better place where Americans are not just a bunch of blood-thirsty, war-mongering monsters, then I am guilty. I happen to have a big heart. To see death is hard for me. To see indiscriminate killing of innocent life is excruciating, no matter what color their skin or what religion they follow. If I am hated by a few lunatics on the right for holding these views, then so be it. It will not make me lose sleep to know that people calling for the murder of billions of people hate me. I could care less. What makes me sad is that it seems that America has lost something that it may never get back.
It's humanity. 4月9日 It is official, the selling of the Iran War beginsU.S. seen stepping up war plans for Iran: White House mulls military solutions for nuclear standoff, sources sayThis is an article from MSNBC on the MSN homepage. The Iran conflict has finally made it to the main stream media. This only means one thing, the propaganda has begun. From now on, I am expecting plenty of coverage on news and radio talk shows, pundits everywhere vying for the loudest message, and the war drums to start beating the loudest they have been beaten since the run-up to Iraq. It is going to happen. This is what Bush thinks about Iran: "Bush views Tehran as a serious menace that must be dealt with before his presidency ends, aides said." I would love to say "I TOLD YOU SO!!!", but it is not like I wanted to be right. For all the people who kept telling me that it is not going to happen, I hope you realize that I have been trying to warn of this for almost a year. And for those of you who are still skeptical even with the war drums already reaching a deafening roar, consider this statement: ""The Bush team is looking at the viability of airstrikes simply because many think airstrikes are the only real option ahead," said Kurt Campbell, a former Pentagon policy official." Of course, if we go in, we will NUKE them! ""The targeteers honestly keep coming back and saying it will require nuclear penetrator munitions to take out those tunnels," said Kenneth M. Pollack, a former CIA analyst." If you want to know more, read my previous article on Iran, the one below this one. Also, if you are interested here is what Rep. Ron Paul of Texas said before the House of Representatives: |
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