Month: October 2006

what will the chickenhawks say about this?

What gives you the right to f*** with our lives: VII:

The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom.

Staff Sgt. Ronald L. Paulsen, 53, of Vancouver, Wash., died on Oct. 17 in Tarmiya, Iraq, from injuries sustained when an improvised explosive device detonated near his vehicle. Paulsen was assigned to the Army Reserve’s 414th Civil Affairs Battalion, Utica, N.Y.

53 years old. This isn’t some kid who couldn’t make up his mind what to do with himself. Not that I think anyone should over there dying to defend the delusions of Dear Leader, but for some kid, drunk on entitlement, to cheer for a war he won’t fight is sad. To be willing to have someone his father’s age die in his place is pathetic.

not so easy as that

Racism North and South:

One always gets in trouble making simple observations about regional differences about anything, though I think the difference in the race-baiting tactics in the Tennessee senate race and the Mass. governor’s race offer up a wee lesson on the differences in regional racist thinking.

In the Northeast the appeal to racism involves a general association between being black and urban criminality.

In the South it apparently involves the notion that black men are jungle animals who are going to sleep with all “your” white women, who will all be overcome by their animal magnetism.

Actually, in the more modern cities, you see a lot more of the former than the latter: in Atlanta, for example, plans to increase the reach of transit to the white suburbs were always defeated by the residents of those suburbs because “transit equals crime.” I rode MARTA a lot, bus and train, and I never once saw anyone carry a TV or bag of jewelry onboard. I always figured thieves used cars that same as everyone else — to gain some control over their mobility and schedule. Nothing worse than ripping off some rich white folks and then getting busted at the bus stop.

how did your electeds do?

Who Supports The Troops? Democrats, As It Turns Out…
The Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America took a look at 324 legislative votes in the last five years which affected American troops and veterans. Legislative proposals included veterans’ benefits, healthcare, and medical research dedicated towards injured soldiers (head injuries, etc.) Based on these votes, IAVA calculated which senators and congressmen had a history of supporting the troops, and which didn’t, and graded them on a curve.

IAVA – Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America – Full Ratings List:

Washington
Rep. Brian Baird B
Senator Maria Cantwell A-
Rep. Norman D. Dicks A-
Rep. Doc Hastings C
Rep. Jay Inslee B+
Rep. Rick Larsen A
Rep. Jim McDermott C-
Rep. Cathy McMorris D
Senator Patty Murray A-
Rep. Dave Reichert D+
Rep. Adam Smith A-

Is it any surprise that three of the four lowest performing members, the only ones to get a C or below — Hastings, McMorris, and Reichert — are Republicans? I think this kind of scorecard could be pretty powerful.
[updated, thanks to a commentor without a reading comprehension problem.] So how did McDermott end up with a C-?

links for 2006-10-25

links for 2006-10-24

is America really a Christian nation? Richard Dawkins suggests it never was.

Worth readin: comments seems kinda dumb, skip ’em if you agree.

The Blog | Richard Dawkins: Why There Almost Certainly Is No God | The Huffington Post:

America, founded in secularism as a beacon of eighteenth century enlightenment, is becoming the victim of religious politics, a circumstance that would have horrified the Founding Fathers. The political ascendancy today values embryonic cells over adult people. It obsesses about gay marriage, ahead of genuinely important issues that actually make a difference to the world. It gains crucial electoral support from a religious constituency whose grip on reality is so tenuous that they expect to be ‘raptured’ up to heaven, leaving their clothes as empty as their minds. More extreme specimens actually long for a world war, which they identify as the ‘Armageddon’ that is to presage the Second Coming. Sam Harris, in his new short book, Letter to a Christian Nation, hits the bull’s-eye as usual:

It is, therefore, not an exaggeration to say that if the city of New York were suddenly replaced by a ball of fire, some significant percentage of the American population would see a silver-lining in the subsequent mushroom cloud, as it would suggest to them that the best thing that is ever going to happen was about to happen: the return of Christ . . . Imagine the consequences if any significant component of the U.S. government actually believed that the world was about to end and that its ending would be glorious. The fact that nearly half of the American population apparently believes this, purely on the basis of religious dogma, should be considered a moral and intellectual emergency.

Does Bush check the Rapture Index daily, as Reagan did his stars? We don’t know, but would anyone be surprised?

from a comment I left at some warhead/chickenhawk hideout

The wiggling they go through to avoid admitting they’re willing to hide behind their career, their education, whatever it takes, if it keeps them out of harm’s way.

Fmragtops Spews » Blog Archive » Troll Challlenge, Part 2:

I wonder how many of the 82nd Chairborne/101st Fighting Keyboarders are even registered with Selective Service, in the unlikely event there is a draft.
And [to] clarify: the epithet “chickenhawk” does not mean that one has to have served to have an opinion on the war or policy. What it does mean is that anyone who does support it and is eligible to serve in a war they support, that they claim to want to win at all costs, should be actively fighting in it, not climbing the corporate ladder or polishing their GPA. To claim to support the war but to have “other priorities” is to send someone else to die for you. If you’re OK with that, I hope you never realize how evil and depraved a position that i[s].

I do wonder how many of them are signed up for the draft — it’s still the law — and how many are willing to take their 1A status and report. Or will we have a raft of trick knees and anal cysts?

A few more notable gutless wonders can be found here.

don’t say you weren’t warned.

Andart: Warning Signs for Tomorrow:

Andart Archives Images Warning4

Memetic hazards: a black lightbulb to represent really bad ideas. Compare with the Science Related Memetic Disorder in A Miracle of Science. Of course, the line between preventing viral bad ideas from spreading and censorship is a fine one.

Motivation hazards: as we learn to affect our brains better there is an increased risk for addictions, gain pleasure from something harmful or that we edit ourselves to like our current state no matter what. The poppy represents such motivation traps.

Exactly whatother kinds of hazards could occur with mature cognotechnologies is hard to imagine. The staircase sign represents a general hazard, perhaps the induction of inconsistent beliefs, infinite loops or mistaken perception.

Finally, a catch-all sign for things you really don’t want to mess with – existential risks implies threats to the future of humanity as a whole.

[via]

elective cinema

The New Yorker: The Talk of the Town:

[I]n the cyclorama you’d have to choose which section of the screen to watch. Ross pointed to the parapet of the Belvedere Castle, a couple of hundred yards away, and said, “Imagine if you could go over there and see, say, a murder, or two people falling in love—or have multiple narratives going on at once.”

This is one of the things that attracts me to pinhole photography or any kind of photography with extreme depth of field: the idea of everything in the frame being in focus, edge to edge, top to bottom, allows the viewer to choose what they want to focus their attention on, rather than the photographer choosing it for them. It has its own limitations, of course, but with the right subject it can a great way to communicate.