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Thursday, September 30, 2004

Goodnight Mr. Kerry

"...I've never wilted in my life!"

Those lines drew laughter at my home. Loud and long laughter. When Mr. Kerry delivered them I thought how Bush had him on the defensive for much of the debate and this ludicrous and hysterical off-the-cuff response exemplified how well Bush kept Kerry on the ropes, when it was clearly Kerry's debate to attack Bush.

Mr. Kerry made quite clear he is the candidate most European leaders who dislike Americans would like to vote for if they could.

Bush also made several things quite clear:

1. Kerry has no moral center - he flip flops

2. Kerry talks diplomacy, yet insulted Allawi, omits Poland and discounts the contributions of 30 other nations.

3. Kerry would be a dismal failure at curbing North Korea nuclear weapon programs.

4. Kerry is not the leader America needs in these perilous times.


These points pounded home the failure of the Kerry candidacy and the major media will now do their darnedest to convince America that Kerry somehow presented something new to the table to make up for the polls which show otherwise.

When Kerry said he will hunt down terrorists it had no believability. It was delivered in that Swiss finishing school voice that one orders butlers around with or the voice one tells one's dog to get one's slippers:

"I want you to hunt down my slippers Ginger."
"I will hunt down terrorists."

Sure he will hunt them down. After he consults with Chirac and Schroeder and gets permission from Kofi Annan and George Soros.

I got my feeds from the major media and listened to the talking points. "One can be certain and wrong" were harped on by Peter Jennings and George Stephanopoulos as one of Kerry's strongest points. That this was all they had showed how truly weak Kerry's performance was.


Kerry did bring new clarity to the "certainty" and "wrong" issue:

I am most certain that to secure peace around the world or lead America into the 21st century that he is the wrong choice for President. In almost all his beliefs, from joining the ICC or engaging in bilateral talks with North Korea,Kerry is most certainly wrong.

(crossposted at Redstate.org)



Wednesday, September 29, 2004

The Kidnapping Market and the Media

Shares just went up in the kidnapping trade. Italy has reportedly paid a million US dollars for the release of two girls in Iraq. Clearly everyone who has struggled for a living is in the wrong trade. Kidnapping and ransoming nearly any westerner in Iraq has great potential to bring a lifestyle fit for a king. Italians now better avoid Iraq altogether--as their government's actions have insured that Italian's are worth roughly $500,000 apiece.

In 3rd world countries where law and order don't exist and where corruption reigns supreme, westerners have always had to be fearful. Mexico and Columbia are kidnapping havens. Kidnapping corporate figures and ransoming them for money is a business much like hauling illegals over US borders. Naturally as long as they get paid, the cycle will repeat. Yet at the same time politicians don't want to be blamed for some citizen's death and so their instinct is to capitulate. That this capitulation just ensures more deaths and kidnapping is completely ignored. A pleading family is a politicians worst nightmare. When the media gives coverage to this family's pleas--they aid and abet terrorists and killers. Laws should be enacted in all nations which forbid the media from interviewing or airing these pleas as they can only aid the terrorists and convince them that the media will be their accomplice. The media is only too willing to exploit kidnapping videos or tearful pleas for ratings. The media are often soulless whores who are just a notch above the kidnappers themselves. The kidnappers and the media both expect the public to respond to the terror. Both want and get attention and in this instance both want cash rewards for using terror to exploit the public.

Look at this shameless political exploitation of this above linked article:


"Let's remember Iraq, which is always in my heart," Pari said. She urged people to "try to change the very ugly reality there.

When a reporter shouted if that meant pulling out troops, she replied, "Yes, also withdrawing troops."

Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini has sharply denied that any ransom was paid.

"We cashed in on the credit which Italy enjoys with Arab nations," he told Italian state radio. Frattini was not referring to money but to international ties.

Selva, the parliament member, however, suggested that the government had to deny paying a ransom in order to save face. With more than a score of other hostages from various nations still in Iraq, the issue of ransom has practical and ethical ramifications.
(Theage.com.au)


The message: If we remove troops kidnappings will stop. Notice the question was asked by a member of the media...not the hostage. The media is actively exploiting terror and creating conditions which try to influence political decisions to suit their own political ideology. The other media, always seeking attention getting ($) news repeat the message.

This should not be permitted. Exploiting and exonerating terrorists, as this article clearly attempts to do, is revolting and repulsive. Hey they got a free Koran! Why these terrorist are just great guys! Let's hope they kidnap more folks so that everyone can get a Koran for a million dollars and barrels of blood!

Spread the word. Write to media outlets. Write to representatives in your government. Just sharing a link to this article can help to spread the word. The media is getting off scot-free and must be held accountable. The blogosphere is about pro-active engagement and we don't have the same cash-reward motivations that drive media to exploit terror.

Sunday, September 26, 2004

Driving Down the Freeway Naked.

I wake up. It's still dark outside but dawn approaches. It's just a dream, but it sounds sort of exciting, doesn't it? What the heck does it mean? Psychologists analyze dreams and this one was a duesie. Either it predicts me moving to a clothing optional zone such as the beaches on the south of France or it is symbolic of 'vulnerability' in a 'fast moving modern world' or perhaps it 'implies revealing that which is normally covered up.' I'll ignore the Freudian interpretation, which would likely have an even more exciting hidden meaning, for another day.

Dreams like this are quite unusual for me. Yes, I've heard about people who dream about returning to their schools, are all late for class or the big test and arrive... naked. Hearing these commonplace dreams always made me think that there exists a Dream Rental place like Blockbuster (Dreambuster?)that all folks go to when they sleep. Apparently they have a very limited selection: Horror, Romance, Salvador Dali and Back to School. Commonplace dreams such as returning to school for the big test naked always seemed somehow plebian to me, and yet now I find myself with a naked-in-public dream of my own--how gouche...how embarrassing. After a few minutes wrestling with the dream I finally understood its symbolism and meaning.

On this blog I have developed something of a motto, "lifting the curtains" which describes sharing information that is normally beneath the surface of society and which is revealed to the masses on this blog. I have determined that the freeway is the internet...the information superhighway and my practice of revealing what is normally concealed was symbolized by me being naked. Pretty good, huh? Well that's my interpetation and I'm sticking with it. Naturally I expect to be inundated with e-mails from psychologists who will tell me I'm way off base and that for only $400 every two weeks they'll get to the bottom of the mystery.

I hope you all appreciate what I'm doing here...driving naked down the information superhighway revealing that which is normally concealed. And if you do not..well I hope it shocks and offends you, you Swiss finishing school prudes!

Friday, September 24, 2004

Is There in Truth No Beauty?

Star Trek was an inspiring bit of television. (Note: If you have to use letters like TOS to identify which Star Trek I'm discussing then you probably missed it) Why bring this up? Well Lileks ubergeeked himself today with his Bleats column and went on about the music of Star Trek. It's classic Lileks and worth the read. What was most inspiring about it wasn't the technology or the music, it was the human relationships portrayed. Star Trek was about friendship, duty and exploring the unknown together. We all are doing that and we all have relationships which mirrored Star Trek's. Most of us have had the "Janice Rand" moment with a fellow employee. That awkward tension when mutual personal attraction must be downplayed due to professionalism. Whether she be a subordinate or superior is irrelevant. Most of us have friends who have done something for us, made a sacrifice of some sort at some time. The Kirk-Spock-Bones triangle is one of friendship. The laughter and human emotions were the real soundtrack to Star Trek. Successful TV shows and films play emotion. Human emotion can be influenced by music-various frequency wave forms which trigger various responses. Suspense, drama, longing, sadness, joy, triumph, fear & love all can be triggered by wave forms of the proper frequency and wave length. Filmmakers exploit human emotion to sell product. Star Trek's success had less to do with science fiction and more to do with the successful portrayal of human emotions.

It is for this reason that subsequent reincarnations of Star Trek never lived up to the original series (if you disagree...leave NOW--this blog is targeting a different audience!) and why emphasis on special effects or thousands of dollars in ridiculous prosthetics can't replace the realistic portrayal of a good, honest emotion.

People like to read things where they can feel the humanity of the writer. Good writers can convey some of their humanity through their writings and trigger emotional response. The shared disgust of the peaceful Organians by Kirk and his Klingon rival is an emotional appeal. Yes, the peaceful Organians, who had evolved far beyond physical anatomies, were compelling to contemplate, but the story is the human reaction to this unknown and unfathomable people and their pacifist response to all violence. When Kirk fights the Gorn it is not about the battle between alien races, but rather the show is a string of emotions: curiosity, then fear and finally the realization that all things wish to survive. A successful story conveys and triggers emotions.

A good blog conveys useful or entertaining information. If Lileks is the somewhat over-emotional Bones, I'm the analytical and seemingly aloof Spock. Appealing to reason over emotions, because in the end it is the reason which governs the emotional response and assigns varying values to them. Love, inspiration, caring and joy are more desirable than hate, jealousy, fear or the competitive drive to prove superiority.

Analyzing one's emotions and mastering them seems insane to some. However, replacing hate with love and depression with joy is not done haphazardly or left to chance. One does not learn quantum chemistry by awaiting for events to share this wisdom unto you or somehow plop it into your lap and the same is true for your emotional well being. One has to work for it, analyze it and adjust one's actions and refine one's thinking. Each person needs to become their own psychologist and analyze their own responses to their life.

At this moment, the title from the episode, Is there in truth, no beauty?, should have greater meaning, for beauty is created by truth. What's more, to appreciate the greatest beauty requires truth. Think about it.

Wednesday, September 22, 2004

News and opinions...

Man Dies at Universal Studios Mummy Ride

3 hours. That's all they waited before restarting the ride. That's sick, even by greedy corporate standards. Was the blood even dry?


Twinkies & Wonder Bread Maker Files for Bankruptcy Blames Atkins Diet

This was to be expected. The secret is now out. I explain the conspiracy here. Those companies that didn't have fallback products to bring to market are much like the tobacco companies, clinging to an unhealthy product and biding time. A savvy analyst would have advised them to churn out low-carb bread and sweets replacements over a year ago. The bread council's efforts and monies spent to discredit Atkins has had no effect and were wasted. That money should've gone into new product development. If one knows how many folks Interstate Bakeries have fattened up over the years...this should not be a tearful event. It's like Philip Morris or RJ Reynolds announcing bankruptcy.


Mutant Poppy, Norman, makes safer drugs

Nature's own genetic engineering--balanced at the quantum level. Someone grab some seeds from these and spread them around poppy fields in Afghanistan and the orient please. They seem made to order. Then they can sell the poppies to pharmaceutical companies instead of drug dealers. On the plus side and with the price of pharmaceuticals what they are, the poppy growers will still have high profit returns, though they will still be dealing with cut-throat business practices and folks who don't care much about people's health.

Quantum entanglement cryptography

This is very promising for commercial applications of quantum entanglement. I find it somewhat ironic that the banks are the first to use this technology, considering they have not been the friends of quantum research. Maybe this will make banks finance quantum research just a bit more instead of rolling thier eyes and saying, "Science is fine but what is the project's commercial application and value?"

On another topic, I think the news media should put a self-implemented moratorium on beheading videos. They are effectively acting as a propaganda mouthpiece for terrorists and showing the footage is already like replaying fatal traffic accidents in slow motion--it's morally reprehensible.

Friday, September 17, 2004

North Korea's Bungled Underground Nuclear Detonation

I'm going to go out on a limb and be the first to say that North Korea indeed tested a nuclear weapon. Using non-classified imagery I will explain to you what I think happened. North Korea wanted to test a nuclear weapon clandestinely. They have almost no experience in doing so and so likely collected information based upon previous tests of the US, Russia and China that were readily available. I believe they conducted an underground test of a 10 kiloton (give or take a few kilotons)weapon.


Click on image for full size

In 1970, the US tested a 10 kiloton weapon in Yucca Flats. The device was buried 900 feet down in a shaft, but it was not deep enough. A cloud of radioactive dust and debris was sent upwards--a cloud almost identical to that of the one visible from satellite imagery in the North Korean incident. Several of the people nearby observing were poisoned by the radioactive dust and debris.

North Korea looks like they have experienced exactly the same thing. This means anyone in that immediate vicinity could likely have received a fatal dose of radiation. The behavior of the North Koreans, including allowing unprecedented inspections --and then being led to a false site is already enough to know something happened. They are just awaiting the release of this. I guess I'll be the first to declare publicly what most good analysts probably already know--North Korea tested a nuke underground. They botched the test and it released a small cloud of radioactive debris. North Korea is now a nuclear power.

Just lifting the curtain, yet again...


UPDATE: South Korea has their own explanation

This is getting pretty funny. South Korea says it was a natural seismic event and the cloud was just a natural formation. North Korea says it was not natural but part of a hydro-electric project.

I want to remind readers that we did not detect the three nuclear tests conducted by India in 1998. They announced it to the world and later it was determined nothing unusual could be identified. No seismic "signatures" were identified. No radiation was identified. The whole world simply had to take their word for it. North Korea will not announce their detonations. They will lie and cover-up any such detonations. The weak explanation offered indicates that is exactly what we are observing.

Ambassadors, who had been led to a site 60km away from the actual seismic epicenter, were told by NK that more explosions would be forthcoming. Obviously there are many mountains that need demolition work. Or perhaps it is just more "natural" seismic activity and the North Koreans are only imagining they are building a hydro-electric project to increase their imagined prestige? Any weird mushroom clouds observed at these same times will just be coincidental natural weather formations.

Why cover it up? Amazingly, at this time no one really benefits by catching NK testing nukes. Seoul is enriching their own uranium and obviously preparing for the worst and don't want to bring more attention to their own nuclear activities. That is why they are so quick to give "natural" explanations that conflict even with North Korea's own contrived explanations.

Why lie? Because the US has indicated it might soon remove many of our forces which have recently been viewed unfavorably by a left-leaning populace. They clearly want to buy some time to catch up. By not pressing the issue and making their own excuse for it, they hope to keep Kim Jong il's government pacified and unprovoked. They realize the US isn't going to be able to destroy NK's nuclear weaponry anyway--it's already too late for that. Our troops would not be of much use if North Korea uses nuclear weapons on Seoul. Already their presence is superfluous. The leadership obviously realizes that a nuclear détente is now the only true defense against a nuclear North Korea--and what's more, I'd be inclined to agree with them.

So this will be explained away and covered up by both the west and the east--most likely until such a time as South Korea has nuclear weapons of its own.

Welcome to the bizarre world of dealing with threats to one's national security.

News Round Up

Not that I would ever be mistaken for Matt Drudge, today I wanted to post some news links that you might have missed and which have been kept quiet:

French Hostages - One month later

The media has put this story on the backburner. Why? Because it demonstrates the French inability to deal with the Islamofascist threat. Yet, we are supposed to believe the French and the UN are the ultimate negotiators and can resolve things through diplomacy? It is also a reminder that the Islamofascist terrorists that kidnap westerners are not going to make distinctions for those who have verbally "supported" them or "defied America." The west will always be in the crosshairs of these folks. Their inhumanity and lack of concern for other people make them folks that can't be negotiated with.

Russia opposes US taking Iranian nuclear issue to the UN

That's what I like to call excellent customer service!

And the foregone conclusion when money is at stake...
Germany, France & Russia thwart US and defend Iran

The world should be furious that Iran's rogue nuclear program is not monitored and that they are being protected by the major suppliers of Iran's components and materials. Fostering global instability for national gain? Indeed.

Ambassadors visit North Korean Explosion Site...well almost

This is quite disturbing. That something is being concealed is obvious. This just justifies our worst suspicions.

The denial of the explosion that Seoul, South Korea later issued is even more disturbing and indicative of the cowering leadership that won in the last election. There is a very good chance that it was an underground nuclear blast that was not buried deep enough. The radiation counters and satellites are obviously being deployed to try and ascertain the truth. However, an underground explosion would suppress a large portion of the radiation. The mushroom cloud was the disturbing detail but has now been declared a natural formation. Does this look natural to you:

Image source: English.Chosun.com

It certainly doesn't to me. I've seen a lot of storm clouds in satellite photos I've also seen a lot of explosion clouds and this looks like an explosion cloud. The telltale signs are those very dark marks on the edges of the various parts of the cloud. These are huge quantities of dust and dirt. Taking that into consideration alongside the rest of the clouds visible and you have to assume that is imaging a blast of some sort.

Well that's it for now...




Thursday, September 16, 2004

Creating Perception out of Whole Cloth

"US intelligence pessimistic on Iraq"

After the CBS fiasco, I hope the nation has learned the true value of "unnamed sources." Here an unnamed official says they have received an analysis of Iraq from the NIC "it would be fair" to describe the document as "pessimistic."

Let's set some background up. The NIC could be described as the showboat sector of the CIA. Headed by Ambassador Robert Hutchings, and filled up with primarily a group of educators/authors, these are the folks who generally like to hear the sound of their own voices bounce off of the hallowed halls of DC and repeated by the hollow heads of the media. Seeing their names on glossy book jackets is their endgame. They can be considered the political arm of analysis, funded by the CIA. To be even more honest their reports don't carry that much weight within the intelligence sector.

I haven't read any serious report on Iraq that doesn't project downsides. Civil war as an outcome was projected before the conflict ever started, right alongside 10,000 initial estimated US casualties to remove the Republican Guard and take Saddam. Downsides have been projected before, during and after the ousting of the Baathist regime. Therefore ALL good intelligence analysis is "pessimistic" in nature. It is also optimistic as well, demonstrating best possible scenarios to any given conflicts or issue resolutions.

But let's make something really clear. The world media is hoping for failure in Iraq. They would love nothing more than to see civil war erupt and a Balkanized situation emerge. Part of making dreams reality is public perception. Why does Dan Rather ridiculously assert his forgeries are authentic? He has told many, many lies as a reporter. He knows that if you repeat something long enough you can get a certain number of folks to believe it is truth. In America we have tragic accidents everyday. Car accidents, pile-ups, plane crashes, train wrecks, countless fires etc. Imagine how the world media could hype this up every day. "Hundreds of structure fires!" unnamed analysts could declare "The US is falling apart!" and it is "seriously unsafe!" to live in America. Every day there would be new fodder for these type of news reports. Every single day they could build the hysteria and keep a death toll which would rise into the thousands in just a week or two. They could list hundreds of thousands of deaths after a year. Finally they would achieve a breaking point where the masses would have been led into this negative, fearful and yes, pessimistic attitude about the safety of living life in the US. Mass hysteria engineered by the media.

That said, the EXACT same thing is being done by the media right now about conditions in Iraq. Every death, every small or large gun fight that occurs is being used as fodder for a sense of failure and desperation. The endgame is to get folks to give up on Iraq, encourage rebels to keep killing Americans and basically to discredit George Bush and the ousting of Saddam Hussein.

It's accentuate the negative, obscure and never report the positive. That's the media of today. And that's why you can't believe a word they say anymore.

The AP quotes an unnamed, unranked official. For all we know it was the courier who took copies of the report and who sneaked a peak at it against regulations and then called up the AP. However, it is even more likely that it was a showboating member of the NIC itself calling up the media anonymously and trying to get attention to their report before anyone has even read it. That's the way these things work. The media naturally are desperately seeking bad news on Iraq and that's how this press release was sold to the media:

Here are excerpts of a hypothetical reporter/"unnamed source" conversation:

AP reporter: "Does the report have bad news for Bush?"

Unnamed NIC:"Not bad news. It just points out possibilities, trends and potential outcomes."

AP reporter: "Would it be fair to describe the document as pessimistic?"

Unnamed NIC: "Well it includes negative potential outcomes, so yes it would be fair to say that it has those aspects built in."

AP reporter: "Thanks. We've got all we need."

AP WORKING TITLE: "U.S. intelligence pessimistic on Iraq future"

You see how it works now? You see how the left (and right too) can twist reality to suit their own agenda? I hope you do. Once you understand the nature of this twisting of reality, the less you will take things at face value. Even when you read this blog, I hope and expect you do so with a critical eye. Never become trusting of anything you are fed. Always try to look closely and analyze it yourself. That way in the future you will have developed the ability to discern, you will eventually have an intuitive sixth sense that can smell falsehoods, exagerration and false reporting.

Wednesday, September 15, 2004

The Carb Conspiracy

As usual here you get more glimpses behind the curtains. Today, I am going to explain the great carbohydrate conspiracy and exactly how America has been fattened up. Innocent and noble motivations were soon twisted to wreak havoc with America's health.

The history of the carbohydrate conspiracy and the fattening of America goes back to the depression and the meat shortage. The meals of America used to be meat-centric. When the depression came, the soup line and the scrawny, starving kids created a new need - cheap calories. Ovaltine, Chocolate powder with sugar to mix with milk were ways guaranteed to add "a pound a day." After the second world war the shortages just reinforced this style of eating and the power of the sugar industry. Candy bars and many sweets had their start in the depression. Due to the increased blood sugar of eating carbohydrates it creates a craving for food and processes fat faster.

Now with the Atkins popularity and enough folks actually losing substantial amounts of weight on meat-centric diets, the sugar industry has felt the pinch. The bread council has also churned out low carb grain products as fast as possible to make up for the lost sales of bread. Sadly, America bloated up on mega-carbohydrate diets filled with low-fat carbohydrate products. The result was much like the ads for the malnourished depression era kids promised--a pound a day. How many kids in America start off slim only to be fattened up by the time they reach the fifth grade on a typical carb-rich diet?

Don't believe me? Is that SDAI-Tech1 pulling the wool over my eyes? Take a look at this Hershey's candy bar wrapper from the early 1930's:



"More sustaining than meat" Hmmmm. You don't see that on Hershey bars today. I wonder why? Sustaining meant survival. "You poor parents have no meat and you and your family are starving--it's time to pack on the sugar pounds, it'll keep you alive until the meat is plentiful!" That was the message candymakers sold to families in America during the depression and again during the World War. It was a double whammy and it stuck. It was almost as sly as Camel cigarettes advertising that cigarettes aided digestion after a meal!

And so they did eat it. Thousands of new candy products that could be made cheaply in factories emerged in the two decades between 1930 and 1950. Most all of the sweet things you find at your local liquor store or gas station' mini-market had their origins in sustaining people after the great depression and during WWII. Sugar filled gum became popular during this time. Hostess twinkies and sugar filled products created an addiction much like nicotine--the blood sugar high.

The sales these product made were astounding. Kids wanted sugar cereal for breakfast and by the sixties, the sugar cereal had replaced the grapefruit, egg and bacon that used to be the staples for children. Yet cereal, too, had been designed as a substitute for meat and vitamins and yet in the land of plenty a whole isle in the supermarkets is devoted to the endless array of sugar cereals for kids to fatten up on. They drank Ovaltine instead of water or just plain milk. The sugar aids in processing the fat in that milk and putting on weight.

During the depression and again during the war, when food was scarce, this was understandable, but after the war was won the nations' kids were already sugar addicts.

So now, half a century later, we have a nation of complete sugar-addicts. Addicts seeking new highs in sugar consumption. Mix cookie dough into the ice cream, because regular ice cream isn't sweet enough! Better yet, mix caramel syrup and M&M's into the mix as well! A pound a day? Child's stuff! The products of today can be sure to put on several pounds in a day without even trying!

Yet we see these nutritionists and various doctors say the Atkins diet is dangerous. All that fat! All that fat passes right through one if one doesn't have an elevated blood sugar to process it. And, indeed, the Atkin's diet gives the body a chance to really break down the fat already processed and stored away by years of excessive sugar consumption. So why do they say it's dangerous. Why do they try to sabotage folks from losing weight and try to confuse folks with talk endlessly about the value of failed low-fat diets? Well, they make money off of selling the low fat approach. When someone tries Atkins or a similar low carb approach and lose 50 pounds after years of failed nutritionists suggestions and carefully planned diets - how many do you think go back to nutritionists? Zip. Losing perpetually fat customers is not in the interest of the bottom line.

Meat is good. Lean meat is best. Going low-carb should be done in a high-protein, minimized fat manner that emphasizes turkey, chicken, tuna, etc. The portrayal of the low-carb diet as a bunch of folks sucking animal fat out of the grease pan is a bit ridiculous. For those of us who never strayed from the old ways - meat for dinner with a small side of vegetables, we don't have to worry. We were doing Atkins long before it became an "official" diet. In 1900 all America was doing Atkins---they called it eating and it didn't involve massive sweets, sweet snacks or ever increasing sugar consumption alongside an ever growing calorie intake.

Another important note cavities can only form in carbohydrate residue. Folks eating low carb diets don't get as many cavities. CREST and all the kid-oriented toothpaste got a foothold in the marketplace because of the kids high sugar consumption and all these endless products. Don't believe me? This was discovered already way back in 1961:




(If you can't read it. Copy it to your computer and open full size)

Aha! So sugar is for all intents and purposes the sole culprit in tooth decay. No sugar--no cavities. So why don't we hear more often about that? The Dentists would go out of business! Certain tribes in Africa have sparkling white teeth and no cavity but they also have no toothbrushes. So what gives? Well...they also ate meat and milk and almost no sugars. They also have almost no heart attacks. All that meat surely should've been the end of them right? Click here to read their story. Yes, this stuff is old news among the most informed, but it is what is kept behind the curtains so you and others are kept in the dark.

Just another look behind the curtain. The sugar as a substitute for meat era should have ended sixty years ago. Just like nicotine, sugar is addictive. The blood sugar level excites the appetite and as a nation, the US has to stop the sugar madness cold-turkey. The sugar industry won't like me for saying it, but that's just the way it goes.

Monday, September 13, 2004

Accentuate the Positive - A Discussion of the Mind.

You'll notice that at the top of this blog it mentions human culture. Today, I thought I'd address some topics that normally don't get addressed.

Accentuate the positive. Life is filled with experiences that are generally negative in nature. Disappointment, frustration and exhaustion are often the staples of an average day. It is very important to see all these things that one dislikes and find a positive in them. A mean boss, a dead-end job, a messed up relationship--all these things have hidden positives. By finding these positives you can carry a positive bias through out your day. I know what you're thinking. "Yes, but this..." When I said all things...I meant all things.

Some of these think-tanks are engaged in some very fascinating studies. Studies which will very likely shape the science of tomorrow. One study which is analyzing the human mind and its functions has come up with a very fascinating working hypothesis as to how the human consciousness works.

The mind appears to be an integrator. Each thought we have is an integrated equation. It follows both external and internal stimuli. Our external environment as perceived through our senses is translated into electrical wave forms. This includes all things we see, touch, hear, smell, etcetera. Our bodies translate all this data into signals. The screen you read these words on is viewed by your eyes and transferred by the rods and cones in the retina into electrical impulses along the optic nerve and into the brain. Your brain stores all these countless incoming signals, which have a unique specific frequency and wavelength, in fields.

The brain cells do not store this data in the brain cells, but rather, it is believed that these cells each resonate with specific signals in stored fields. Current thoughts are quickly stored away and the conscious mind is really limited to a thought at a time. To think and analyze responses to our environment or to make sense of words on a screen require the processing and integration of all sorts of wave forms. Each letter is stored with a wave. Each word has a wave train associated with it. When we read a sentence a complex process of wave integration occurs and it occurs automatically. If we encounter a foreign word or a word for which we have not yet stored a signal, the brain, as an integrator, will try to plug in the most acceptable replacement based on these signals it can identify. Just reading this paragraph, because it contains unfamiliar information, will require perhaps a re-reading or two because of the unusual wave frequencies it generates within your consciousness.

What is good and bad? Taken further, these thoughts and their various wave forms associated with them have various frequencies. Higher frequency thoughts store more data in the same wave length. Naturally, the highest frequency thoughts would be some of the most complex and conversely the lowest frequency thoughts would be the most simple. Human intellect is the result of wave form data stored and the ability to integrate it into daily thoughts and actions. Good and bad suddenly exist on a relative scale. One person's notion of good can be completely different from another individual's perception. The same is true with what is bad or evil.

This is why suicide bombers can do what they do. These individuals really do not see these acts as bad or evil. Their stored wave forms are lacking certain key signals which others have absorbed and utilize in determining moral action. A whole set of signals have been stored which put a positive bias on martyrdom.

Put into present context we can see that Islamofascists do not believe in any way that they are wrong or immoral. Their wave structures are set up in exactly the opposite manner. Indeed, to these folks, the west is evil. It is in defiance of all that is good. To them, the west appears as genuinely evil as their violent, inhumane actions appear to us.

One can free folks from a tyrant, but it is harder to free them from their perspective on life. Religious indoctrination from the earliest ages, indoctrination which is reinforced daily by their actions and observations of those who immediately surround them, is very hard to offset. Every day that a Muslim prays to his god or a Christian to his, creates a set of wave forms. The Muslim faith with their several times a day prayer is even stronger reinforced as a wave train than is the Christian's. It is safe to assume that indeed these humans are more devoted to their faith because they have set up these stronger, indelible wave trains of devotion. They have put much more of their consciousness to the religion they adhere to. Few religions can compete with Islamic compulsory daily rituals.

From a psychological point of view, one can say the religious masses are brainwashed. They have absorbed signals and stored them in such a manner that logic and emotional responses are first filtered through this storehouse of religious signals. Good and evil is then determined on a completely different basis for each individual. Each action is weighed on the basis of the integration it receives within individual consciousness.

Naturally, discussions like this tax the signal integration of your own consciousness. It's somewhat like thinking about moving your hand when your mind does so automatically and one doesn't have to think about it. Making sense of it requires a certain number of stored signals. If one doesn't speak English, one will immediately see these words and have no comprehension of them. A child might see the words and have a very hard time following the train of thought. Somewhere along the way the signal would be lost. For those who have followed this discussion to this point--congratulations--this means you have stored within your consciousness (these fields of energy), enough wave form data to make sense of and assimilate these thoughts. What is more, you will not soon forget them as you see your life, and the events of the world which happen around you, in this new, more precise, scientific perspective.

Saturday, September 11, 2004

DUI - Democratic Underground Ignorance

Right Wing News Shines Light on another DUI

This is the sort of thing one would expect evil right-wingers to create if they were parodying the elitist "blue state" condescension. But it is all too real:


Joanne98: "Since tomorrow is the anniversary of the "excuse" the cowboy uses to attack anybody he wants to. I'm bracing myself for the ongoing images of people in small red state towns exploiting the victims of 9/11.

CNN is already showing people in small town Texas CRYING over New York City's loses. Well, you know what. You never liked New Yorkers. You hated New Yorkers remember. If you really cared about the victims of 9/11 you would vote for John Kerry because that's the only thing they want you to do. But NO! Instead you brought the Bush bastard's convention to ground Zero and thought NYC would be glad to see you.

Instead of getting flowers and candy you got protesters, a half a million of them that said. GO HOME. Do you remember the Evita song...DON'T CRY FOR ME DIRTSVILLE TEXAS..........

Let's get this straight, Dirtsville, IT DIDN'T HAPPEN TO YOU and it never will because no self respecting terra-rist would ever attack something so unimportant. It would be like the USA attacking Goatsgrave Yemen. It's never going to happen.

The bottom line is, you don't care about NYC or the pain, all you care about is getting Boosh re-elected and fighting a Holy pissing contest with the darkie Muslims. All in the name of Jesus which you're sure is coming back the day after tomorrow.

Nobody needs this sh*t, especially the people of NYC who still watch airplanes when they fly overhead. The people in big cities are in more danger than ever thanks to the cowboy's invasion of Iraq. But that's something the good people of Dirtsville don't have to worry about.

So take your flags, your prayers, your rodeos and your country music and stick it. You're waging war because you want too, because you like it and you're not fooling anybody. You're only happy when you have an enemy, if it wasn't 9/11 it would be something else. Like "libruls". At least have the decency to admit that.

Put on your public grieving shows tomorrow because you already have them planned but spare us the DRAMA next year. It didn't happen to you. Get over it.

I know this is harsh and I know not all people in small rural towns are Republicans but they ARE voting for Bush, who is only making big cities more dangerous. This is how I feel about it. Flame away."



It's such a juicy example of ignorance it's hard to pass up passing it on as an example of what the left stands for these days: Anti-American elitists, living in their own little world.

Liberals these days are often the victims of many and varied mental illnesses, most commonly manic-depression. Elation then a rant to tear down the house. They ride the highs and lows of Kerry's failing candidacy and have no control over their intellects. Maybe it's brought on by that "big city" lifestyle and smog.

It's like seeing a rabid dog foaming at the mouth, the poor bitch is in agony. Some filthy rat or squirrel probably bit her and she's barking her fool head off.

Most of us out here in the "unimportant" boot wearing west just feel compassion when we see things like that.

A quick demonstration of media bias

Check out this headline:MSNBC Bias


A Week's Worth of bad news for Bush
foes


I took my Lapham-drive time machine for a spin to see exactly what went on behind the scenes before that was posted:

MSNBC EDITOR: "Kerry is sinking. It's all falling apart! I'm so depressed! We have to do something! You've got to come up with a headline that sounds bad for Bush!"

Tom Curry: "I've got it, 'A week's worth of bad news for Bush...foes.' How's that?"

MSNBC EDITOR: "Great! And better yet...let's put the "foes" part on the second line no matter what the screen resolution so that it always reads 'A Week's Worth of bad news for Bush!'"

Tom Curry: "Wow! That's awesome."

In tribute to these undoubtedly biased, but creative MSNBC folks I've come up with one of my own:

MSNBC Makes up the News
Reports.


(crossposted at Redstate.org)


UPDATE 9-14-2004: It's been reformatted to fit on one line. "Foes" now fits on the same line. I guess the major media pay attention to some of the guys in pajamas? For what it's worth - thanks guys.

Thursday, September 09, 2004

Poking some fun at Lileks.

Lileks and I are both conservatives and usually he gets his flak from folks on the far left. I have listened to people on the left go into a deep discussions and berate him for his discourse to one of those young girls who George Soros paid to canvass for Kerry. You know the ones--the ones which inform folks about the evils of the GOP. Yes, Lileks comments often about how both left and right are never satisfied with his political views. Today, I read his blog and he spent the whole thing rambling on about architecture and the 1939 New York World's Fair. The line that caught me however as Lileks rambled on was that he says he would give a year of his life to spend a day at the 1939 New York World's Fair. Is he nuts? Well, don't answer that. He's just on another flight of fancy:





Flights of fancy are disconnected from reality. They are emotional needs seeking fulfillment. Let me explain:

Look at that picture above. I'll break down for you what is so compelling about these retro-advertisements in a scientific manner. Look at the colors. The warm browns and gold convey security, hearth and home. Do you see the cat near the window? It's sleeping or dozing in a relaxed manner. Everything's so very peaceful. The barber is a good old chap and is certainly not a "hair stylist." The Dad tells him about the kids, whom he knows by name, and the wife who are going shopping there on main street while dad and grandfather get their hair cut. Tomorrow is Sunday and they'll all be safely tucked into that church you can see outside the window and down the street. Why it's the coziest, safest, sweetest town on earth. Heck, I want to go there! Sadly, such a town just doesn't exist.

Illustrators, like Andrew Loomis, were so good in those days that they had a science to each illustration. The could compose a picture so that the shapes and the lines were completely compelling. Far better actually than many ads today. They were selling things and they were so good they still seem to hold Lileks (and many of his readers) entranced. They knew shapes triggered various emotions. Rectangles and squares conveyed security. So the picture above is framed in a rectangle. Since this was originally an airplane ad security was an important pitch. Since going far away meant leaving the home town, the artist attempted to convey that the home town didn't mind if you got on a flight to Timbuktu and, in fact, everyone was excited to see you leave on a shiny airplane!

Ovals convey femininity. Whirlpools convey wonder. Jagged lines uncertainty--insurance companies used this a lot. Globes floating conveyed immensity. Symmetry is used to convey integrity and solemnity--just look at how many blogs and news sites use the center column surrounded by twin pillars of navigation buttons or ads, etc. The golden ratio is used when shaping rectangles because it is the most appealing to the eye. Here on this blog, the white space and the globe convey the abstract. The excessive white space also conveys honesty and integrity. It's all a big psychological game that advertisers and web design folks play. And it is a science.

Lileks gets a lot of psychological run off from those old ads and I'm sure he knows it. It's a gimmick, but it's a very good one. If the ads convey security, family and he's talking about Gnat--why everyone feels like they're Lileks' neighbor and shed a tear with him when the trees outside his house fall low to Dutch Elm disease. In some ways having Lileks on the blogosphere is like having our own little Mayberry and main street we can come to visit.

But the reality is Mayberry never existed. Main street towns were often backwater burgs where ignorance and prejudice marched hand in hand. Where gossip was potent and could ruin a person's reputation so that they would be exiled from the small burg to start life in the big city.

As for the 1939 NYWF--the worlds fair was a precursor to Disneyland and a chance for farmers to see some flesh. It was big on semi-nude sun-worshippers and topless 'magazine covers.' Yes, it heralded television and had it's own version of Marlin Perkins known as Frank Buck. The past is not a panacea to the present. They were complaining about the hectic hubbub of modern life back then, lamenting the motor car at the same time they heralded it. These folks also worshipped the past. They longed for the days when bands would play in the parks in the evenings and girls wore corsets and music came from a Victorola. In fifty years there will be some folks looking back on the early days of the web and the home computer with reverence. It will have assumed a Holy sanctity and dignity in these folks eyes, a sanctity which those living now certainly know it does not possess.

So I hope Lileks recants his wish. Traveling to a sticky, dirty fairgrounds filled with Plaster of Paris statues and garish murals in exchange for a year of his life is not worth it. And Lileks certainly doesn't have to take my word for it...he just has to ask Gnat.

The Fake CBS Bush Document

The blogosphere exerts its power to self-correct the major media once again. The document trying to slander Bush that 60 minutes acquired is the worst US document forgery I've ever seen in my life. It's so bad that over at the HabitableZone several folks suspect that pro-Bush folks were baiting the vitriolic anti-Bush 'reporters' at CBS with blatant forgeries.

However, it is much more likely that the Kerry kiddies were playing with photoshop and thought that one level of blur over a computer generated document was good enough to look "old typewriter-ish."

The real story here isn't who created it. The real story is that CBS ran with it without even a cursory inspection. All this seems to have nicely coincided with the media's celebration of the 1000th US casualty in Iraq and the National Guard talking points all coinciding at the major media outlets as if the planets all came into alignment.

First we have Susan Estrich coming out of the media closet and saying it's time for dirty tricks because the left should learn the lesson of "President Dukakis."

Here's the background context most are missing. The polling data that has been coming in has been absolutely horrible. Bush has a complete lock on the election. Folks like Zogby, who have come right out and say they support the Kerry candidacy, are not reliable measures of the poll data that's being collected. America hates Theresa Heinz Kerry. She has absolutely no positives. Kerry as a rich, white bread, career politician with a sense of entitlement to the White House and a bit--y, billionaire, sugar-mama wife bankrolling him, is just not a very compelling figure for African-Americans, hispanic voters or the working poor. And what's more the polls show it. Insurmountable 15 point Bush leads exist now in states like Arizona which were a toss-up only two months ago.

The result. Total desperation! Media panic! The media is experiencing their "OMG Kerry is going to lose this thing even after all the Bush-Bashing we have done for the past year" moments. So Susan Estrich comes unhinged and reveals her anti-Bush vitriol which is not even masked anymore, CBS forwards patently fake news stories as if they have been bought by TASS.

The major media is discovering they can't rig this thing like they did in '92 and '96. No more George Stephanopoulos phone calls coming into Larry King talking about a nonexistent "smoking gun." Those days are over. Dan Rather, Peter Jennings and Tom Brokaw are now just liberal artifacts fit for an television museum--their exorbitant salaries, and sardonic facial grimaces as they mock impartiality are obsolete in the internet era. 60 minutes is no longer a show-it is a throwback. The internet news cycle is realtime and the blogosphere can catch the deception faster than the media outlets can respond.

I suspect the forgery was done by someone who wasn't alive in the 1970s. Anyone who was would NEVER have thought that passed for a 1970's typewritten note.

The story here:

CBS and 60 minutes were likely fooled by a kid. Whatever the reason, they aren't qualified to deliver or report news anymore. The television broadcasters should stick with reality television and soap operas.





Wednesday, September 08, 2004

The Tale of Dorian Kerry (Apologies to Oscar Wilde)

Setting: America, 21st century
Principal Characters:
Dorian Kerry: a vain, ambitious man.
Susan Ostrich: An evil influence on Dorian Kerry.
Julia Vane: The woman Dorian had once been married to.
Basil Botox: The magical, yet cynical, portrait painter.
Lord Kennedy: An old friend and evil influence on Dorian Kerry.
McAuliffe: One of Kerry's servants.
Garafalo: Kerry's maid.

_______________________________________________
Plot synopsis: Dorian Kerry a vain, ambitious man
seeks political office. When he was a young man he posed for a portrait painted by Basil Botox. The portrait is magic and keeps its subject appearing young and innocent while all his wicked acts and age are recorded in the portrait. Despising the truth, Kerry conceals the portrait from all as it is the only record of his true depravity.
_______________________________________________

Finale


It was a lovely night, so warm that he threw his coat over his arm and did not even put his silk scarf round his throat. As he strolled home, smoking his cigarette, two young men in evening dress passed him. He heard one of them whisper to the other,

"That is Dorian Kerry."

He remembered how pleased he used to be when he was pointed out, or stared at, or talked about. He was tired of hearing his own name now. Half the charm of the political campaign where he had traveled so often lately was that no one knew who he truly was. He had often told his first wife, in order to make her love him, that he was good, and she had believed him.

He had told her just once early on that he was very wicked, and she had laughed at him and answered that wicked people were always very old and very ugly. What a laugh she had!--just like a thrush singing. And how pretty she had been in her cotton dresses and her large hats! She knew nothing, but she had everything that he had lost.

When he reached home, he found his servants waiting up for him. He sent them to bed, and threw himself down on the sofa in the library, and began to think over some of the things that Lord Kennedy had said to him.

Was it really true that one could never change? He felt a wild longing for the unstained purity of his boyhood-- his rose-white boyhood, as Lord Kennedy had once called it.

He knew that he had tarnished himself, filled his mind with corruption and given horror to his fancy; that he had been an evil influence to others, and had experienced a terrible joy in being so; and that of the lives that had crossed his own, it had been the fairest and the most full of promise that he had brought to shame. But was it all irretrievable? Was there no hope for him?

Ah! In what a monstrous moment of pride and passion he had prayed that the portrait should bear the burden of his days, and he keep the unsullied splendour of eternal youth! All his failure had been due to that.

Better for him that each sin of his life had brought its sure swift penalty along with it. There was purification in punishment.

Not "Forgive us our sins" but "Smite us for our iniquities" should be the prayer of man to a most just God.

The curiously carved mirror that Lord Kennedy had given to him, so many years ago now, was standing on the table, and the white-limbed Cupids laughed round it as of old. He took it up, as he had done on that night of horror when be had first noted the change in the fatal picture, and with wild, tear-dimmed eyes looked into its polished shield.

Once, some one who had terribly loved him had written to him a mad letter, ending with these idolatrous words:

"The world is changed because you have the most perfect hair. The curves of your lips rewrite history."

The phrases came back to his memory, and he repeated them over and over to himself. Then he loathed his own beauty, and flinging the mirror on the floor, crushed it into silver splinters beneath his heel.

It was his beauty that had ruined him, his beauty and the hair that he had prayed for. But for those two things, his life might have been free from stain. His beauty had been to him but a mask, his youth but a mockery. What was youth at best? A green, an unripe time, a time of shallow moods, and sickly thoughts. Why had he worn its livery? Youth had spoiled him.

It was better not to think of the past. Nothing could alter that. It was of himself, and of his own future, that he had to think. The truth was hidden in a nameless file cabinet in a DOD archives and 20 years of votes on the Senate floor, archived, but forgotten by most.

The excitement, such as it was, over Basil Botox's disappearance would soon pass away. It was already waning. He was perfectly safe there. Nor, indeed, was it the hiding away of Basil Botox that weighed most upon his mind. It was the living death of his own soul that troubled him.

Basil had painted the portrait that had marred his life. He could not forgive him that. It was the portrait that had done everything. Basil had said things to him that were unbearable, and that he had yet borne with patience. His visit to Basil had been simply the madness of a moment. As for Swiftboat veterans, their defamation had been his own act. He had chosen to do it. It was nothing to him.

A new life and a new past! That was what he wanted. That was what he was waiting for. Surely he had begun it already. If he could spare some innocent troops, at any rate. He would never again wage war on terror. He would obey the UN.

As he thought of pulling the troops out of Iraq, he began to wonder if the portrait in the locked room had changed. Surely it was not still so horrible as it had been? Perhaps if his life became pure, he would be able to expel every sign of evil passion from the face. Perhaps the signs of evil had already gone away. He would go and look.

He took the lamp from the table and crept upstairs. As he unbarred the door, a smile of joy flitted across his strangely austere-looking face and lingered for a moment about his tiny lips. Yes, he would be good, and the hideous thing that he had hidden away would no longer be a terror to him. He felt as if the load had been lifted from him already.

He went in quietly, locking the door behind him, as was his custom, and dragged the purple hanging from the portrait. A cry of pain and indignation broke from him. He could see no change, save that in the eyes there was a look of cunning and in the mouth the curved wrinkle of the hypocrite.

The thing was still loathsome--more loathsome, if possible, than before--and the sneer that flexed the nostril seemed stronger, and more like contempt of all mankind. Then he trembled. Had it been merely vanity that had made him think this policy was some good deed? Or the desire to atone his past actions, as Lord Kennedy had hinted, with his mocking laugh?

Or that passion, that sometimes makes us think finer of ourselves than we are truly? Or, perhaps, all these? And why were the shadows of past dalliances clearer than they had been? They seemed to have crept like a horrible disease nearer the wrinkled fingers. Confess? Did it mean that he was to confess?

To confess his affairs and lose the election? He laughed. He felt that the idea was monstrous. Besides, even if he did confess, why should he? There was no trace of the relationships anywhere. Everything regarding them had been destroyed. He himself had burned letters and photos.

Susan Ostrich would personally shut him up if he persisted in his story. . . . Yet it was his duty to confess, to suffer public shame, and to make public atonement. There was a God who called upon men to tell their sins to earth as well as to heaven. Nothing that he could do would cleanse him till he had told his own sin. His sin? He shrugged his shoulders. The Basil Botox and his painting seemed abominable to him!

When he had been away, he had been filled with terror lest other eyes should look upon it. It had brought melancholy across his passions. Its mere memory had marred many moments of joy. It had been like conscience to him. Yes, it had been conscience. He would destroy it.

He looked round and saw the brush that had been used by Basil Botox. He had washed it many times, till there was no paint left upon it. It was soft, and supple with a carved ivory handle. As it had been used by the painter, so it could destroy the painter's work, and all that that meant.

It would kill the past, and when that was dead, he would be free. It would kill this monstrous soul-life, and without its hideous warnings, he would be at peace. He seized the brush turned its hard ivory handle around in his hands, and with its pointed end stabbed the picture with it.

There was a cry heard, and a crash. The cry was so horrible in its agony that the frightened servants woke and crept out of their rooms. Two gentlemen, who were passing in the square below, stopped and looked up at the great house.

They walked on till they met a policeman and brought him back. The man rang the bell several times, but there was no answer. Except for a light in one of the top windows, the house was all dark. After a time, he went away and stood in an adjoining portico and watched.


"Whose house is that, officer?"
asked the elder of the two gentlemen.
"Mr. Dorian Kerry's, sir,"
answered the policeman. They looked at each other, as they walked away, and sneered. They had been two Vietnam veterans.

Inside, in the servants' part of the house, the half-clad domestics were talking in low whispers to each other. Old Mrs. Garafalo was crying and wringing her hands. McAuliffe was as pale as death.

After about a quarter of an hour, he got the chaffeur and one of the butlers and crept upstairs. They knocked, but there was no reply. They called out. Everything was still. Finally, after vainly trying to force the door, they got on the roof and dropped down on to the balcony. The windows yielded easily--their bolts were old.

When they entered, they found hanging upon the wall a splendid portrait of their master as they had last seen him, in all the wonder of his exquisite nobility and beauty. Lying on the floor was a politically dead man, in evening dress, weeping softly with a brush in his hand. He was withered, wrinkled, and loathsome of visage. It was not till they looked at his hair that they recognized who it was.


Monday, September 06, 2004

The Great Blog Debate!

What happens when the top bloggers of the blogging world get together for a debate? As regular readers know I have access to a Lapham-drive time machine but what they don't know is that I purchased Calvin's dusty transmogrifier from Bill Watterson at a garage sale. With a bit of help from the Special Activities Tech folks, we have a full fledged Bloggerfier--capable of reproducing a simulacrum of various bloggers.

The result?

The Great Blog Debate!

The participants created by our Bloggerfier are:
Glenn Reynolds from Instapundit
James Lileks of The Bleat
Atrios (Mr.Black) from Atrios Eschaton
Andrew Sullivan
Markos Zuniga of the Daily Kos
Michelle Malkin
Charles from LGF
Wretchard from the Belmont Club
Tacitus from Redstate & Tacitus
Jane Galt from Asymmetrical Information

All have been asked to debate about the coming anniversary of 9-11-2001 and whether or not America is more secure now.

Without further ado I present...the Great Blog Debate:

Wretchard: "I'd like to begin and say that this is not exactly unprecedented. Historically, the blog as a medium of communication is infinitesimally small in measure. However, in the University of Goethe-Rhein Universitat in Germany a small experiment was conducted in pseudo personalities and artificial intelligence. In this complicated project various computers were programmed and assigned to emulate famous orators in the performance of a debate. The project required extensive archiving of the speeches and orations and was considered a successful achievement in the application of artificial intelligence. The thoughtful rendition of this same concept of this to the blogging world compels me to recount a passage of my favorite book, The Brothers Karamazov, by Fyodor Dostoevsky:

'But all his life, as a matter of fact, Fyodor Pavlovich was fond of play-acting, of suddenly taking up some unexpected role right in front of you, often when there was no need for it, and even to his own real disadvantage, as, for instance, in the present case. This trait, however, is characteristic of a great many people, even rather intelligent ones, and not only of Fyodor Pavlovich.'

Yes, I think this debate draws enigmatic parallels to and can't be discounted as a valid form of communication in the 21st century."

Tacitus: "I agree with Wretchard. Read on."

Charles: "What exactly did he say? Was he reading War and Peace? I thought this debate was about 9-11 and the Islamofascists who smashed planes into the WTC causing 3000 horrific deaths and the way the world ignores the continuing threat of Islamofascists?"

Zuniga: "That's pure bullshit. Islamofascism doesn't exist. Some folks get tired of imperialist intruders and stand up to fight them. I call those folks patriots and freedom fighters. To those who think otherwise I have two words--screw you!"

Zell Miller: "Screw me! Screw you! I know I wasn't invited to this debate, but I have two pages of votes here. It's all here! I know you don't want to let me speak and over talk me, but I won't shut up. I only wish I was there in person so I could get in your face! It's all there! It's all there!"

Michelle Malkin: "You're a true gentleman Zell. You tell him!"

Zuniga: "Tell me what...that he's out of his mind? Get him a hearing aid. This debate is supposedly about 9-11 and domestic security and how Bush has screwed up both badly. It certainly isn't about John Kerry, a man I regretfully support for the good and unity of the Democratic party.

Lileks: "And folks wonder why I don't promote other bloggers? I think Gnat has a better attention span than the folks here. She can sit through the Little Engine that Could very patiently (the 1946 edition put out by Olive Beaupre Miller naturally)and could recount the plot completely. I think I hear a home improvement project calling me or perhaps its the stumps of trees now vanished awaiting a stump-grinder.

Sullivan: While Bush is clearly the better candidate and his response to 9-11 has been very effective and he has obviously a far better grasp of the things required to deal with terror effectively in the future which is important if we want to save possibly millions of lives from future terror attacks, I just can't justify supporting him when he promotes sexual bigotry. Yes he would be a better President and Kerry wont do anything to promote sexual tolerance either, but I must hope against all odds that Kerry can come through and foster tolerance and sexual freedom."

Charles: "Now that we've heard from Johnny one-note, can we get back to the Islamofascist debate please?"

Tacitus: "If we put it in its proper context. Your harsh critiques of Islam put the wrong face on the conservative movement. Your rhetoric and actions lose us more supporters than it gains."

Charles: "Yada yada yada, tell that to the 3000 folks who perished on 9-11."

Glenn: "I've listened to this so far and I think it's safe to say group blogs just don't work. This debate is going nowhere fast and I've got a guitar to play and things to do."

Zuniga: "Yeah like get back that 25% drop in readership, eh Glenn?"

Glenn: "Ah, spoken like the only blogger who can screw up running an ad for John Kerry."

Jane Galt: "It may not be the perfect time to bring this up, but has anyone here noticed the subtle prejudice in calling 'employment figures', 'jobless numbers?' Measuring the negative ratio when one can measure a positive creates a negative association with the reader. The war on terror can't be discussed properly without considering the economical cost in jobs and productivity. With that many folks overseas it has depressed the statistical income data."

Lileks: "Here's my answer to that:"



Zuniga: "Like what...are you like eBay's best customer? You must have piles of that old sh-- lying around the house. What's up with that anyway?"

Wretchard: "Historical references are useful tools for educating the mind and putting the history we all are now part of in a greater context. To ignore the past means you have no sense of continuity and cannot pursue the levels of comprehension that help shape and form more valuable insights on current affairs."

Tacitus: "Well said Wretchard."

Michelle Malkin: "While we're here debating and this blog is getting all sorts of traffic can we repeat once again that Chris Matthews is a neanderthal nincompoop and the sleaziest, least informed media personality on television?"

Atrios: "Get over it. You made a fool of yourself and if you can't handle the heat, then get out of the kitchen. You're a hate-filled Ann Coulter minus the thick skin. The world is changing and imperialist exploiters like you are a dime a dozen."

Charles: "Atrios are you channeling George Soros or are those inane remarks really your views?"

Atrios: "This debate is a farce. 9-11 is the payback for decades of imperialist adventuring and suppression of the free individual. Terrorism is the only response these oppressed masses have to make their voices heard. Bush has only strengthened the resistance as he fights for international corporations! Soros is right! You are all fools! Poppism will set man free!"

Glenn: "You know 'Atrios', I kept your secret all these years, but you know what? I think you're just completely losing it. Seriously. Lighten up."

Michelle Malkin: "Thanks Glenn. It's nice to see another gentleman exists in the world."

SDAI-Tech1: I hate to interrupt this love-fest, but I think It is time to end this experiment early. The Bloggerfier is getting pretty toasty and I don't want to break it the first time I use it. Thank you all for joining us and observing this great blogger debate & experiment.

(Note: This is a parody. All text is Bloggerfied and any similarity to views of actual bloggers is purely coincidental.)














The World Report

Saddam's number two man has been captured. This is very good news. After a fierce gunbattle outside a health clinic near Tikrit, he was taken into custody.

Now the world is seeing what our intense public assessments (IPA) already revealed. Kerry will not replace George Bush as President of the United States. Articles and journalists are hitting their keyboards with stories about the failing Kerry candidacy even as you read these words. In a few days, or less, new post-convention poll numbers will be released that show Bush up even further. Our own IPA shows a fifteen percentage point spread in a two way race between Bush and Kerry. (58%-43%)

This is good. The sooner Bush can show dominance, the quicker our foreign allies and enemies will pay attention to our policies and requests. It's no secret that the EU has worked against the President at every chance, protecting their own investments in the Middle East. Schroeder, of Germany, has his own disaster. The Christian Democrats are back in power in the Saar state after winning 47.5 percent. They are Germany's conservative party. Last Monday 70,000 people protested Schroeder's policies throughout Germany, many in the eastern portion which is particularly struggling. This is good news for Bush. Schroeder ran on re-election on a Bush-bashing platform that ensured the US received no support from one of our, supposedly, closest allies. It's payback time for Schroeder. It couldn't have happened to a more self-serving politician.

Anyone wondering why there was a run on cement in the world, causing delays and building materials shortages here in parts of the US? Look no further than the Israeli security wall as well as China. The wall is made of concrete and is 30 feet tall. The length of the wall is roughly 725 kilometers and the wall is several feet wide and even wider at the base. That's a LOT of concrete. It's certainly not the great wall of China but it tries. China's building boom is equally responsible for diverting cement imports as they modernize an enormous nation with the profits from all those happy meal toys. The third world has been pretty busy building, which is a good sign for the global economy.

I now have another reason not to watch Steven Spielberg's films. French President Chirac, in a move so blatantly calculated that it makes me wither to think how unsophisticated the French President's PR people are, made Steven Spielberg a knight in the French Legion of Honour on Sunday. So instead of policies that reduce antisemitism in France, they give the producer of Schindler's List an award. That will surely stop those synagogue burnings and Jewish school children beatings! In 2007 Chirac can either step down or run for re-election. Most think he will be replaced by this chap. No one will miss Chirac. He has certainly been a self-serving, force for bad in global politics.

China has been hit by fierce storms taking over 76 lives. It has been a nasty month for the world in storms. These storms are the byproduct of increased spikes in particular types of solar radiation. I fear we will be seeing more storms like Charlie, Frances and Ivan. New technology is needed to tap that solar energy as it impacts the atmosphere or to disrupt the coherency of the atmospheric vortex which is formed. Someday these tools will be at the world's disposal. Talented folks are working on these and other wonders so that future generations won't have to fear the weather.

Surely for the folks in China and Florida that day can't come too soon.

Saturday, September 04, 2004

"I'm Too Sexy..."

Bush has received a 13 point poll boost from the convention and is polling above 53% to 42%--an 11 percent lead over John Kerry. (Which by the way makes me 3 for 3 in the Nostradamus department)

The word in the blogosphere is that the GOP is simply more SEXY. The GOP convention was a collection of the beautiful people, starting with the Bush daughters over the Kerry daughters. One of the songs that was playing at the after-party party for the GOP elites at one swanky New York restaurant was I'm too sexy by Rightsaidfred.

Only those still present at the President's banquet hall at 3am were able to see the true highlight of the evening. -- President Bush climb up on top of the tables, tearing off his blue tie and opening his shirt, to sing along with the song--and adding his own lyrics:


"I'm too sexy for Kerry , too sexy for Kerry
Folks 'r going to believe me

And I'm too sexy for your party
Too sexy for your party
No way I'm DNC dancing

I'm a President you know what I mean
And I do my little speech on the catwalk
Yeah on the catwalk on the catwalk yeah
I do my little speech on the catwalk"

The image was 'seared' into my brain. "How can Kerry compete with that?", I thought to myself as I sat among the 'beautiful' people of America, "How the heck can 'Reporting for duty' Kerry even come close to 'I'm too sexy' Bush?" I knew then and there that this election was going to be a landslide victory for Bush.

As I flew back home, I knew exactly what my post convention angle was going to be and after a little research discovered that this 'GOP is more sexy' thing is actually being documented by some folks, I even found GOP pin ups.

GOP pin ups? Yes. GOP pin ups.

And this 'GOP is more sexy' thing isn't exactly a new phenomenon either. Whenever the DNC faithful parade at their convention they have always had a severe deficit of 'sexy' folks. Sure the left has the Hollywood advocates, but the rank and file of the DNC have been somewhat "sexy-challenged" for quite some time. Make-up free female anti-Bush protestors don't help increase the DNC sexy-factor. The last sexy Democrat President was Kennedy. In this age of mega-television exposure, half hour news cycles and plastic surgery, the sexy-factor is now more of an election issue than ever. Kerry's botox injections and the DNC's attempt to sell Edwards' juvenile persona are the DNC's admission that they know the unsexy factor is hurting Kerry.

So expect more photo-ops of Kerry snowboarding, cycling and trying to look sexy--and expect the polls to keep building for Bush and his "too sexy" GOP party.

Wednesday, September 01, 2004

The Bush / Kerry Debate - Lapham style

Leftist journalists have a time machine by which they can travel to the future, it's called a Lapham-drive and one sits on the ground floor of the Harper's magazine offices while the other is in the sub-basement of the NY Times. On occasion I have visited the offices and see a long line of journalists waiting their turn to get a head start on an article or beat a tough deadline. Conservative commentators haven't had access to such technology, but thanks to the Special Activities Centre at Langley the conservatives will now have access to a Lapham-drive time machine. It hasn't been named yet, but sits forlornly underneath the Vice-President's residence at the Naval Observatory where its noisy construction caused the VP's neighbors no little consternation.

I've been given the distinct honor of being the first conservative blogger to travel in time to the future and I have chosen the occasion of the first Bush/Kerry debate. I'll admit that I get sea-sick, airsick and car-sick and hope there is no motion involved. In some ways I feel a bit like a red shirt in a Star Trek episode. However, strange and wonderful conservative and media technologies are at work here and I can't miss such an opportunity. Wish me luck.

Posted by SDAI-Tech1 1:30 AM

I have returned! Traveling through time was completely painless! The debate was (will be?) unbelievable - beyond description. I've got a recording of the event which is being transcribed even as I type these words.

Posted by SDAI-Tech1 1:45 AM



TRANSCRIPT: BUSH / KERRY DEBATE
MODERATOR: JIM LEHRER

LEHRER: "Welcome to the first of three presidential debates. I'm your moderator for this event and Tom Brokaw isn't. (Applause)

The Daughters of the American Revolution, an organization you only hear about every four years and which has no other purpose, so far as anyone has been able to ascertain, has sponsored this debate. The candidates will not directly answer each other's questions and are not really required to really answer mine definitively either. The rules have been set up and agreed upon in advance that each candidate will have five minute blocks to score as many points with voters as possible.

The audience is composed of socialites and neophytes favorable to both candidates and those so inclined may spend time ascertaining who's who and what pecking order they have within the respective political parties of the candidates. Let us begin.

Senator Kerry, you won the coin toss backstage and you will get to hear the first question this one is from a reporter in San Diego.

'If you are elected President, how soon will you repeal the Patriot Act and bring our boys home from Iraq? Many want to vote for you but want your assurance that you will not continue US imperialist doctrines.'

You have five minutes."

John Kerry: "That's a very good question and one I have hoped to be able to address. We need not go it alone. There are lots of people out there who share my views, folks who live in all corners of the world and who live under many types of governments. The US is not an island. I'm a new type of soldier and I'm reporting for duty. I will not lead us recklessly into wars on the basis of false intelligence and will always consult the global community so that we need not do anything unilaterally...we should do things U.N.-ilaterally" (applause)

Lehrer: "So to repeat the question how soon will the Patriot Act be repealed and how soon would you bring the armed forces, presently in Iraq, home?"

John Kerry: "I support a stronger homeland. A land where everyone can work if they have to. I am tough on terror. Tough! We need a Stronger America. But we need not go it alone. As you may know, I have been endorsed by the leaders of many foreign nations, including Chirac of France, Schroeder of Germany and George Soros, the leader, by proxy, of a large number of third world nations. I also am endorsed by Syria, Iran and North Korea which will help me bring peace to the Middle East and negotiate with North Korea. Bringing home the troops is a goal I support and if we don't go it alone the troops will be able to come home much faster. So to reiterate: don't go it alone anymore; Tough, stronger and supported by Soros and the international community of nations. I'm a big supporter of Soros idea to form a third world G8 to end the wests strangle-hold on capital. The US doesn't need to be the big boy on the block. Soros and I have chatted and let me tell you, that man has a lot of good ideas, the repealing of the Patriot Act has been discussed. Soros would surely place prominently in my administration."

Lehrer: "Time, Senator."

John Kerry: "Thank you."

Lehrer: "Mr. President here is your first question. It is from a reporter in New York.

'Why did you lie to the American people about Weapons of Mass Destruction in Iraq, encourage torture at Abu Ghraib and invade and terrorize an innocent people in the largest imperialist land grab of the twenty-first century, defying the will of the global village, creating hatred of America unlike anything ever seen in our two hundred twenty nine year history and do all this while conceding defeat on the so-called 'war on terror' to Matt Lauer?'

You have five minutes."

President Bush: "Well...I didn't lie, our intelligence indicated that Iraq was still concealing stockpiles which had gone unaccounted for. No one in my administration endorsed what took place in the Abu Ghraib and the facts bear that out. I don't really care what other people in other nations think about the US or my job performance because I work for the American people and not for the peoples of these other nations. I never conceded defeat on the war on terror, I simply tried to explain it was not a conventional war with a winner and a loser. Terror never dies, but rather it dies out. We can make it less acceptable and take away the rewards that other nations-

Lehrer: "Time Mr. President."

President Bush: "--grant when they capitulate to demands of terrorists."

Lehrer: "Senator Kerry, your next question comes from a reporter in Miami Florida.

'What were your feelings when George Bush was appointed to the position of President by the Supreme Court and how will your campaign team prevent the intimidation of voters by incredibly complex computer machines which frighten Floridian seniors and discriminate against voters who haven't the ability to operate computers?'

John Kerry: "I was deeply disappointed as were many people that tragic day. Having been sent into Cambodia in 1968 to intimidate locals with complex weaponry for the US government I think I can sympathize with those Floridian seniors who will be oppressed by complex computer machinery. When I have toured Florida, in Dade County I saw the same haunting and incomprehensible looks in the eyes of residents as I saw when I was in Cambodia on Christmas eve committing war crimes for Uncle Sam--so I can fully sympathize with these voters. If I become President I would sign a bill to outlaw these new-fangled contraptions and make fair paper balloting a compulsory standard throughout all the states."

Lehrer: "President Bush, the next question is from a reporter in Seattle.

'In your four years you have presided over an endless destruction and raping of our environment, supervised and instituted national policies that ensure global warming, ridiculed scientific predictions and poisoned mother nature herself as if she were gagging and begging for mercy while you strangle her. My question is this--how bad does doing these evil, evil things make you feel and have you no shame whatsoever?'

President Bush: "Jim, is this a real question or are you just having fun with me?"

Lehrer: "The question is very real Mr. President. You still have 4 minutes and 40 seconds to respond."

President Bush: "I deny all those charges and I don't feel bad at all about my record in regards to the environment. We instituted reform which helped promote cleaner industries while others could purchase pollution-

Lehrer: "Time, Mr. President."

President Bush: "You've got to be kidding me."

Lehrer: "No, by my watch 5 minutes has elapsed. Mr. Kerry the next question comes from a reporter in Los Angeles.

'If you could pick a favorite season and color what would they be? I'm certain they would be better than those of President Bush, but I would like to hear in your own words what your favorites are.'

John Kerry: "I was born in the 'west wing' when I was just a baby. During the fall season of my very first year, I watched, from my crib, as the green disappeared from the leaves which turned orange, red and the few which turned purple, and it was then that I knew that I was destined to be President. As a result, I have always loved the fall season and am partial to both green and purple. First green was my all-time favorite color and then purple."

Lehrer: "This is the final question and is for President Bush from a reporter in Boston.

'When exactly did you plan the 9-11 attacks to facilitate the looting of Iraqi oil and is it true you destroyed records which demonstrate you are descended from the Hitler bloodline?"

President Bush: "This is ridiculous. We did not plan the 9-11 attacks and I have no relation to Adolf Hitler and there never were such records."

Lehrer: "Thank you both for participating. My name is Jim Lehrer and I wish everyone a good night." (applause)




NOTE: This is a Laphamized article. Time-space continuum distortions may provide each reader with a slightly different reality.

Andrew Sullivan's Hamlet

Andrew Sullivan in his long drawnout conversion from Bush supporter to Kerry supporter in ten long acts has now come to a close. Please enjoy this translation of the Shakespearean classic, Hamlet--starring, you guessed it, the blogosphere's greatest thespian and melodramatic blogger, Andrew Sullivan:

HAMLLIVAN




HAMLLIVAN: O woe that this too, too sullied GOP, should reveal itself as wicked and untrue, casting same-sex marriage hopelessly askew,

Or that the Bush daughters should speak of Sex and city, their speech was self slaughter. O God, God, how weary, stale, flat and unprofitable seem to me all the uses of this party!

Fie on't, ah, fie, 'tis an unweeded garden that grows to seed. Things rank and gross in nature such as a cross-dressing ex-mayor, a dissident Californian and an unelected ex-librarian are now hateful to me.

True thoughts possess me. That it should come to this, but five months I have debated, and found so excellent this man Kerry, that he is to Bush as Hyperion to a satyr, so loving to my agenda that the winds of heaven shall not keep me from embracing Kerry too firmly.

Must I remember Bush? Why, should I hang on to him if he spurns the issues that burn in my soul? Let me not think on GOP heterodoxy.

In but few months, these eyes are old with hurt from which I followed my poor agenda's demise. Tears, why it, even they --

O GOP, a beast that wants discourse without reason, would they have only debated longer -- married my agenda or halted from doing it harm, but 'stead I watched it expire at the hands of the faithless.

The salt of most righteous tears has left me spent.

It is not nor it cannot come to good. But break. I have broken my heart, for I have held my tongue.

No more say I! No more!

O, Kerry, Kerry come forth with most wicked speed, to avenge me my hurt! Smite down this false King Bush and this orgiast bodybuilder who speaks for him. He has not thine worth' to be King!




Yes, for Andrew Sullivan, the long drawn out act and slow fake conversion to Kerry's camp is at last over.

;-) SDAI-Tech1

UPDATE:
Mr. Sullivan has been so kind to link to the performance and as it turns out he did play Hamlet in Grad school. The Muses must laugh at we mortals who hear their whispers from time to time. Just one of those eerie Kerryesque 'Blogs imitate life therefore bloggers are the heart and soul of America' moments.

UPDATE 2: Mr. Sullivan has now (a day later) declared that he cannot support Bush in November. I hope I didn't blog him over the edge. That makes two for two. I just wanted to announce that I will now be giving 'psychic readings' and 'blog your future' for $1000 per consultation. For another $10,000 I'll use the new Lapham-drive time machine which I've already tested. ;-)