"History doesn't repeat itself, but it does rhyme." - Mark Twain.

Fred On Everything:

"Oh lord. Oh lord. I can’t stand it. Somebody get me a drink.

Recently I saw an interview with General McChrystal...

The guy was Westy, I thought. They’ve dug him up and added animatronics. He had the same statistics, drew the same comforting graphs showing the same progress in pacification, the same decline in Bad Things and rise in Good Things. Yes, he thought, we really should stop killing so many civilians, but we would stop. We were going to help the Afghans...

So now we are invading Marjah, a city, to build schools and hospitals. Schools and hospitals are characteristically built with heavy artillery. As soon as we have destroyed the place, they will love us and see the virtues of the American Way. (The first thing we did was to blow up a house, killing twelve civilians including the mandatory contingent of children. If that’s not a hearts-and-minds move, I can’t imagine what could be...)

The strategy makes perfect sense, really. I mean, if Afghans killed your tyke, wouldn’t that make you want to adopt their form of government, and let them improve your life? It would me.

All of this is so eerily familiar. Westmoreland, the Ghost of McChrystal Past, was also a pacifier of hamlets. Kill their kids, give them five hundred bucks and a lollipop in compensation. Explain voting. What a plan.

Sez me, officers should not be allowed to try to think...

Protestant Reader’s Digestism doesn’t transfer to Kandahar. “We’re here to help you” suggests to most of the world, “run like hell.” The sense of righteousness among field-grade officers is strong. They are doing God’s work. It doesn’t occur to them—can’t occur to them—that devout Moslems don’t want any Christians at all in their country, much less Christians who kick in doors and humiliate their women. The colonels think they are trying to extirpate evil, and that six robotic-looking alien troops hand-cuffing a man in front of his family is a small price to pay for democracy...

What McMoreland doesn’t get is that people just don’t like being invaded. Yes, yes, it’s for their own good. We, of course, will determine what constitutes their own good.

Such is the ingratitude of these people, and their lack of respect for borders, that we find ourselves forced to expand the war into Cambod—Pakistan, I meant. Pakistan. And so the Predators fly..."

Things used to be better; magical.

Via Whisky toothpaste - Boing Boing

An international organization that systematically covers up sexual abuse.

The Catholic Church.

In any sane world, they'd be about as respectable as the Mafia. Less even.

The entire Speigel article is lengthy, but worth reading.

Shame and Fear: Inside Germany's Catholic Sexual Abuse Scandal - SPIEGEL ONLINE - News - International:

"...now the wall of silence is coming down here in Germany. It started when Berlin's Canisius College, an elite Jesuit high school, recently disclosed the sordid past of a number of members of the order, who had abused students at the school in the 1970s and 1980s. After that, new victims began coming forward on a daily basis. By last Friday, at least 40 of them had accused three Jesuit priests of molesting children and adolescents, first in Berlin and later at the St. Ansgar School in Hamburg, the St. Blasien College in the Black Forest and in several parishes in the northern German state of Lower Saxony.

...As shocking as the revelations were, they are merely "the tip of the iceberg," says the current director of Canisius College, Father Klaus Mertes, who made public the sexual abuse of students.

For decades, German bishops tried to look the other way when their pastors engaged in sexual abuse, as well as to downplay the problem by characterizing it as isolated incidents. Now they are finally revealing their own figures, though hesitantly. According to a SPIEGEL survey of Germany's 27 dioceses conducted last week, at least 94 priests and members of the laity in Germany are suspected or have been suspected of abusing countless children and adolescents since 1995. A total of 24 of the 27 dioceses responded to SPIEGEL's questions.

A group called the Round Table for Care in Children's Homes recently published an interim report which contains dramatic findings. The report deals with the wrongs committed since the 1950s against children and adolescents living in homes, almost half of which were run by the Catholic Church.

According to the report, more than 150 victims of sexual abuse have come forward with their stories in recent months..."

Brian Cox teaching Hamlet to a two year old = Genius.

Hilariously awesome + cute. Win.

Via Teaching Shakespeare to a toddler Boing Boing

Yeah, wrong... but way funny.

Texts From Last Night:

"(949): Babe, the 4 years we've been together have been amazing. Will you marry me?

(1-949): are you seriously doing this over text message

(949): hahaha no, but i am dumping you."

Again, it's almost like I work for a living...

Almost.
Thanks to Akemi for the pics...

Living in Japan, didn't watch the Superbowl.

...This made up for it.

Witness! The amazing hypocrisy!

Not. To. Be. Trusted. Ever.

Anyone care to explain how "professional courtesy" isn't corruption or a crime?

Law Enforcement and DWI | The Agitator:

"A quick roundup of recent stories on law enforcement officials and DWI laws…

• Ten police officers in Westchester County, New York admit to local newspaper that they routinely let other officers off after catching them driving drunk off duty.
• Off-duty, possibly drunk South Carolina officer pulled over after a chase demands “professional courtesy” she says is customarily granted to other officers. She was charged with reckless driving and disorderly conduct, but wasn’t arrested or given a breath test, and was allowed to go home.
• Chicago police officer shown to have faked dozens of DWI arrests won’t face criminal charges.
• Off-duty Massachusetts state police lieutenant crashes into pickup truck, causing the truck to flip several times. Officer admitted drinking earlier in the day and two open beer cans were found in his car. Other officers don’t administer field sobriety test for 2 1/2 hours, after allowing him to talk to his attorney. He was also never given breath or blood tests. He did get a $20 traffic ticket.
• From last year, DWI charges dropped against Nevada DA who caused two crashes within six hours while in California, and tested over the legal limit after the second. He was allowed to plead to reckless driving."

There really are no words...

Joshua Tabor Accused of Waterboarding Young Daughter - ABC News:

"An Army sergeant who served in Iraq for 15 months has been restricted to his Washington military base after being accused of waterboarding his 4-year-old daughter because she refused to recite her ABCs...

Both the girl and the father admitted to the torture, even detailing how Tabor would sit the girl on the edge of the bathroom sink and hold her head down until it was nearly submerged in water, dunking her if she refused to recite the alphabet, said Stancil."

Rick Steves speaks wise - "...a society has to make a choice: tolerate alternative lifestyles...or build more prisons."

Rick Steves' Travel as a Political Act Blog - The Prohibition of Our Age:

"...a society has to make a choice: tolerate alternative lifestyles...or build more prisons. The Netherlands has made its choice. We're still building more prisons. (My Dutch friends needle me with the fact that only the USA and Russia lock up more than one percent of their citizens, while the average per capita incarceration rate in Europe is only a tenth the US rate.)

Travel teaches us a respect for history. And when it comes to drug policy, I hope we can learn from our own prohibitionist past. Back in the 1920s, America's biggest drug problem was alcohol. To combat it, we made booze illegal and instituted Prohibition. By any sober assessment, all that Prohibition produced was grief. By criminalizing a soft drug that people refused to stop enjoying, Prohibition created the mob (Al Capone and company), filled our prisons, and cost our society a lot of money. It was big government at its worst.

In the 1930s, when it was becoming clear that America's Prohibition on alcohol wasn't working, New York Mayor LaGuardia said that if a society has a law on the books that it doesn't intend to enforce, it erodes respect for all laws in general. More and more courageous citizens stood up and said the laws against alcohol were causing more problems than the alcohol itself. When Prohibition was repealed in 1933, nobody was saying “booze is good.” Society just realized that the laws were counterproductive and impossible to enforce.

In our own age, many lawyers, police officers, judges, and other concerned citizens are coming to the same conclusion about the current US government-sponsored prohibition against marijuana."

XKCD's "We Love the Internet" by the Internet All Stars.

What the internets does best. Funny, quirky, geeky, cool. Via the mighty Boing.

XKCD's "We Love the Internet" reenacted with Lessig, Gaiman, Nielsen Haydens, Schneier, and many others! Boing Boing:

"The incomparable Olga Nunes has released the latest and greatest iteration of the net's appreciation for Discovery Channel's 'Boom-De-Yadda' commercial, reinacting the XKCD version with 'Neil Gaiman, Wil Wheaton, Cory Doctorow, Lawrence Lessig, Bruce Schneier, Jason Kottke, Google Zurich, Hank Green, MC Frontalot, Patrick & Teresa Nielsen Hayden, Mr. Toast, Miss Cellania, Team Genius, Phil Plait, Allan Amato, Maddy Gaiman, Charissa Gilreath, Belinda Casas, Chuck Martinez, Jeremy James, Joanna Gaunder, Lee Israel & Octavio Coleman Esq. of The Jejune Institute.'"

The XKCD comic -


The original Discovery Channel commercial...

Wife battles Blizzard 2010.

In northern VA.

Urban farming.

Lengthy [12m or so] but fascinating.

"Avatar (in 20 Seconds)."

Haven't seen Avatar... but this is still funny.

Watched - TV this week.

NCIS, Modern Family, Stossel, Batman: The Brave and The Bold, SNL, Iron Chef America Super Chef Battle, The Daily Show, The Colbert Report, House, Human Target, 30 Rock, Community, The Office, Parks and Recreation, Bill Moyers Journal, Burn Notice, The Mentalist, Archer, Smallville, Leverage, The Middle, Strikeforce Miami

Best of the week -

Iron Chef America Super Chef Battle! Featuring the White House Executive Chef and veg from the White House garden. Which was cool, since, you know, I've been there. Plus, living in Japan, it's rare that Iron Chef America shows up on those special places on the Internets where I can watch. Missed the show. You know, given my personal menu is composed only of things I can generally make with one fry pan within 10 minutes, why I love this show is beyond me. But it is awesome.

Strikeforce Miami - Nick Niaz is a phenom, Herschel Walker is an inspiration.

Bill Moyers Journal featured Nick Gillespie of Reason.com and Reason.TV Lawrence Lessig on the Supreme Court's Citizens United decision. I love Lessig's work with the Electronic Frontier Foundation and on copyright, but am more in line with Gillespie's position. But a great, reasoned discussion - something missing all too often from the political sphere.

Link to watch the video here - http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/02052010/watch2.html

Finally, the 2hr Smallville Absolute Justice telefilm. I could pick little things apart like a true nerd, but overall, it was geektastic. Too bad the show can't always be that good, instead of devolving into bad soap opera and ennui. They laid some nice Checkmate foundation though. That might be interesting.

Choices.

What... Now...

...Bitches?

Heh.

"I am convinced that there are genuine and valid levels of perception available with cannabis (and probably with other drugs) which are, through the defects of our society and our educational system, un-available to us without such drugs." - Carl Sagan

Why is Ron Paul the only politician I can stand?

Okay, maybe Dennis Kucinich too. Put Kucinich in charge of domestic affairs, Paul in charge of of foreign, and all would be right with world. Or flip that. Either way.

Here Paul talks of the Obama administration's latest claims that they can assassinate American citizens abroad if designated "enemy combatants" without due process or trial.

Baptists steal Haitian children -- you can't make this stuff up.

10 Americans in Haiti Are Charged With Abduction - NYTimes.com:

"PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — Ten Americans who tried to take 33 Haitian children out the country last week without the government’s consent have been charged with child abduction and criminal conspiracy, as Haitian officials sought to reassert judicial control after the Jan. 12 earthquake.

The Americans, most of them members of a Baptist congregation from Idaho, had said they intended to rescue Haitian children left parentless in the quake and take them to what they described as an orphanage across the border in the Dominican Republic. But they acknowledged failing to seek approval to remove the children from Haiti, and several of the children had at least one living parent."