Smile

Yes, liberals, you won the culture war

“In case you didn’t notice, America’s 20th century “culture war” ended yesterday. Liberalism won. This sweet victory over unreason and sexual prejudice now pushes to front and center stage our venerable struggle over political democracy, which is in crisis today over corporate power, money dominance and the weakening right to participate and vote.

Justice Kennedy’s magisterial opinion for the Supreme Court striking down anti-sodomy laws in Lawrence v. Texas will come to mark the end of 30 years of political strife fueled by right-wing rage against sexual modernity. Liberalism has won the final battle.”

Now let’s win the political war…

No Comments »

Mandela slams Bush

“Former South African President Nelson Mandela kept up his verbal onslaught against George W. Bush on Friday and implied he would not meet the U.S. president when he makes his first visit to Africa next month.

Mandela condemned Bush for launching the war against Iraq, saying he was wrong to bypass the United Nations and overthrow Iraqi President Saddam Hussein by force.

“Since the creation of the United Nations there has not been a World War since 1945. Therefore, for anybody, especially the leader of a superstate, to act outside the United Nations is something that must be condemned by everybody who wants peace,” Mandela said.”

No Comments »

I support a constitutional amendment banning Bill Frist

“Senate majority leader, Bill Frist, said today that he would ‘absolutely’ support a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage in the United States”.

No Comments »

Brass knuckles in Britain over Iraq ‘evidence’

Ministers knew war papers were forged, says diplomat

“A high-ranking American official who investigated claims for the CIA that Iraq was seeking uranium to restart its nuclear programme last night accused Britain and the US of deliberately ignoring his findings to make the case for war against Saddam Hussein.”

BBC set to sue Minister over Iraq ‘lies’ claim

“The unprecedented row between the Government and the BBC took a dramatic twist last night when Andrew Gilligan, the reporter at the centre of claims that Number 10 deliberately ’sexed up’ evidence against Saddam Hussein, announced he was ready to sue a serving Minister.”

No Comments »

Google + wireless = God?

“Says Alan Cohen, a V.P. of Airespace, a new Wi-Fi provider: “If I can operate Google, I can find anything. And with wireless, it means I will be able to find anything, anywhere, anytime. Which is why I say that Google, combined with Wi-Fi, is a little bit like God.

God is wireless, God is everywhere and God sees and knows everything. Throughout history, people connected to God without wires. Now, for many questions in the world, you ask Google, and increasingly, you can do it without wires, too.”

Wireless Google shows you how to connect using a cell phone, Palm, etc.

No Comments »

What did they expect?

“Facing a marked increase in the frequency and brazenness of attacks on U.S.-led forces in Iraq in the last two weeks, military officials are for the first time speaking more openly about the potential for a long-term fight to quell the resistance to the American presence.

Although the term is rarely used at the Pentagon, from every description by military officials, what U.S. troops face on the ground in Iraq has all the markings of a guerrilla war — albeit one in which there are multiple opposition groups rather than a single movement.”

Perhaps the Iraqi troops vanishing in face of the US invasion was a deliberate strategy. Retreating in the face of overwhelming force, after all, is a classic guerilla warfare tactic. All those Iraqi troops, armament, and weapons went somewhere…

The US may make the mistake of thinking the Iraq opposition is centrally commanded and has a head that can be chopped off. This is almost certainly not true. Instead, this is a classic case of asymmetric warfare, with many groups, maybe in loose contact, maybe not, determined to drive the US out.

In other words, good morning Vietnam…

No Comments »

Wikis

The definition of ‘asymmetric warfare’ in the above post comes from Wikipedia, ‘the free encyclopedia’.

Wikis are blogs that anyone can post to. More importantly, anyone can update or add to an existing page. Thus the definition of ‘asymmetric warfare’ gets added to over time by multiple authors, who enhance and enlarge it.

This is open software as applied to information and web pages! Wikis are focused on a specific topic or interest, with many topics being comprehensible only to computer geeks. However the idea is fast expanding to non computer topics, like the excellent Wikipedia.

Lists of wikis

No Comments »