2012 archive
Fiction Imitates Truth 1
It would seem that the TV show Person of Interest, positing a giant surveillance computer tracking us all, is not all that far off the mark. The computer, though, is not called “Sibilance,” it’s called “Stellar Wind”:
From Raw Story:
The gigantic building is set to cost $2bn and be up and running by 2013.
It is being designed to store huge amounts of accessible web information – such as social media updates – but also information in the “deep web” behind passwords and other firewalls that keep it away from the public.
As an example of Stellar Wind’s power, Binney believes it is hoovering up virtually every email sent by every American and perhaps a good deal of the people of the rest of the world, too.
“I didn’t expect it from my government. I thought we were the good guys. We wear white hats, right?” he said.
Read the rest.
Sauce for the Goose 0
At the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Reg Henry considers Mitt the Flip’s foray into the birther nonsense. A nugget:
Last month, Mitt Romney, the Republican candidate for president, revived the giddy romance of the birthers’ obsession by making a little joke while visiting his home state of Michigan with his wife Ann. “No one’s ever asked to see my birth certificate. They know that this is the place that we were born and raised.”
That is true. However, it raises another thought: What the American people don’t know is not his birthplace but where some of Mr. Romney’s money was born and raised.
Filthy Lucre 0
Almost all the money was recovered.
The story describes the recovery process in far more detail than necessary.
How To Get Arrested for Stealing Your Own Truck 0
It’s called a “mechanics lien.” You have to pay for the repair.
Delaware police say they were called early Friday to the Stop-N-Go in New Castle after a 1999 Chevrolet Silverado pickup went missing. Surveillance tapes showed a front end loader with fork lifts attached driving away with the vehicle.
If you don’t pay, the mechanic gets to lean on you.
QOTD 0
H. L. Mencken, from the Quotemaster (subscribe here):
Evil is that which one believes of others. It is a sin to believe evil of others, but it is seldom a mistake.
No Good Deed Goes Unpunished 0
It is distasteful that America’s Torquemadas have not been called to account–distasteful, but understandable, for, were they to be called to account, the persons who set them their tasks, the Pope and Vatican Council to their Torquemada–George Bush, Dick Cheney, John Yoo, Paul Wolfewitz, and their dupes, symps, and fellow travelers–would also have to be called to account.
Frankly, not a chance.
But this–well, words fail me.
Peter Van Buren reports at Asia Times:
And of course, he didn’t torture anyone.
(snip)
Many observers believe however that the real “offense” in the eyes of the Obama administration was quite different. In 2007, Kiriakou became a whistleblower. He went on record as the first (albeit by then, former) CIA official to confirm the use of waterboarding of al-Qaeda prisoners as an interrogation technique, and then to condemn it as torture.
Oh Noes 0
Chauncey Devega has managed to tick off Fox News.
Birds of a Feather 0
One Pissed Off Veteran sees the kinship:
Blaming the Victims 0
Much agony and many strategies to victimize public (and private) employees are expended on the cost of pensions.
At the Sacramento Bee, David Crane reminds us of who’s to blame–the politicians (and, in private firms, executives) whose words were most decidedly not their bond:
But few of those papers make clear that this crisis was not caused by the public employees on the receiving end of those benefits. Instead, the crisis was caused by politicians and pension fund boards that made retirement promises without setting aside sufficient funding to meet those promises.
(snip)
Neither public employees nor their unions forced governments to underfund promises. It was Stockton’s (California–ed.) politicians who didn’t set aside money to meet promises for post- retirement health care costs, and it was the pension fund board overseeing Stockton’s pension that forecast what Warren Buffett refers to as “Alice-in-Wonderland” investment returns.
And the victims get to be punished, forced to live on pittances and in penury, because they had the absolute, unmitigated gall to live to retirement age.
Twits on Twitter, NoDU Dept. 0
No twits on the Old Dominion University football team:
He called a team meeting.
“I laid it all out,” Wilder said. “I told them that nobody in this room, including me, should have 1,000 followers on Twitter. We haven’t done anything yet.
They are still allowed to frolic on Facebook; an assistant coach is on Facebook playground duty.
Mitt the Flip Truth out the Window 0
Dick Polman devoted two articles to Mitt the Flip’s foreign affairs chops (as in “chop shops”) this week. Both are worth a close reading.
Here’s a bit from the one on the Libya situation, which expresses Polman’s awe at Mitt’s flipping skills:
It takes a special talent to weave multiple lies into a single sentence, all while rushing to judgment in the midst of a fast-moving tragedy, but Romney pulled it off.
And here’s one illustrating that Mitt is still fighting the Cold War (which, in Republican revisionist history, was single-handedly slain by Saint Ronaldus and his magickal microphone over two decades ago):
So when you bluster in ignorance at an important semi-ally, and when you then double down by blustering anew in a radio interview (as Romney did earlier this week), you risk screwing things up for the nation you aspire to lead. Here’s how:
NATO, led by America, is engaged in a sensitive minuet with Russia over NATO’s plans for a missile defense shield in Europe. We’ve told Russia repeatedly that the shield is intended to deter Iran, not Russia. But Russia is wary of the project, in part because the most hawkish factions within the government oppose it – suspecting that it’s American trick to put a cap on Russian power.
So here comes Romney, again, pounding away about how Russia is public enemy number one …and guess what: his rhetoric has strengthened Russia’s resolve to oppose the missile shield.
Do you want this man’s finger on the red button?
QOTD 0
Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach, from the Quotemaster (subscribe here):
To be satisfied with little is hard, to be satisfied with a lot, impossible.