Wednesday, February 2nd, 2005
LIMITED ACCESS, NOT LIMITED ENERGY
My ISP problems continue apace. I will try to get them resolved tonight so I can get some posts up. Sorry for the delays.
Archive for February, 2005
Wednesday, February 2nd, 2005
QUOTE OF THE WEEK
“I find it telling that the man who has lamented such great concern for the kite-flying, tea-sipping Iraqi people featured in ‘Fahrenheit 9/11’ can’t be bothered to string together a few words of admiration for those same people who braved the threat of death to cast their votes this past weekend….It seems Moore only admires the Iraqi people when they validate his agenda of hating George Bush.”
Tuesday, February 1st, 2005
REVERE THE EMPEROR !
“When an antiquated and undemocratic regime falls quickly, those who follow it often do so with little firm idea what they want or how they will achieve it. Slogans — “progress,” “prosperity,” “catching up with the rest of the world,” “freedom” — and a sense that there are places in the world where life is better — though those societies threaten the sovereignty of a nation in flux, while they inspire its inchoate leadership — are all the plan that really exists. Or perhaps it would be more accurate to suggest that there are many plans, for there are many individuals, each with a distinct (and sometimes small) constituency, who wish to speak to and for the nation. The old regime collapsed quickly but not entirely cleanly (some loyalists will fight on for months; anti-reform insurgencies and assassinations will continue sporadically for a decade), and there are social and legal and cultural obstacles to development, including clan leaders, hereditary classes, and a complete lack of traditions of democracy , civil discourse or universal rights. Sound familiar?
It should: Japan, 1868.”
Jonathan Dresener on the rise of Meiji Japan. Go read it.
Tuesday, February 1st, 2005
SENSIBLE
SOCOM troops receive direct authority to recruit agents and make expenditures. Not that they were given a bushel of cash to play with but it hardly makes sense for the guys who make the vital ” first contact” with potential, unconventional, friendlies in remote locales to look like cloutless flunkies wiring home to Mom for some cash. Trust-building gestures work best when done in the moment and not 24 -48 hours later. Or never.
Or for that matter having to pay for emergency supplies out of pocket that the USG should have given them in the first place.
Tuesday, February 1st, 2005
ZENPUNDIT PLAGUED BY ISP BASTARDS
Earthlink appears to be monkeying around with their connection configurations on a semi-regular basis to disrupt home networks so that subscribers, rather than setting up their own, must add a service they don’t actually need. It also appears that this particular off-line interruption is resisting the usual trouble-shooting manuvers to reconnect ( hence my blogging from the inconevenient alternate location).
It may be time to go Comcast. Or wireless.
