President George W. Bush (news - web sites) carries a platter of turkey and fixings as he visits U.S. troops for Thanksgiving at Baghdad International Airport, November 27, 2003.
I hope everybody had a nice Thanksgiving. I force-fed my german friends with turkey, cornbread, mashed potatoes, green beans, and apple pie for dessert. It was god-damned beautiful. And I wish I wasn't a vegetarian sometimes, because there's some turkey sandwiches-in-the-making sitting in my kitchen right now.
Leftovers, anyone?
Spam Rage
An interesting story at Yahoo! News! Service!. It's not quite illegal yet to send spam. Well, ok, it is illegal, but it's not enforceable. There you have a situation where the government cannot take care of its citizens. The problem is, even though people are breaking the law, the consequences of the crime are insufficiently bad to warrant significant retaliation. In the end, it's just annoying, not dangerous. So, in comes the question, how do you keep yourself from being annoyed? One man has an answer:
Booher threatened to send a "package full of Anthrax spores" to the company, to "disable" an employee with a bullet and torture him with a power drill and ice pick; and to hunt down and castrate the employees unless they removed him from their e-mail list, prosecutors said.
There's a lesson here. It is, indeed, a free country (depending on where you live, of course), but it still isn't a good idea going around acting like a dick. Somebody, somewhere, is eventually going to take exception, no matter how much you whine and complain that what you're doing is legal. That's what the answer to any litigiously unsolvable problem is. You simply make the creation of the annoyance a) not worth the effort, or b) too dangerous. Maybe spammers will one day become the subject of personal retaliation, not litigation.
Contrary to appearances, just because a company produces devices to enhance the already-impressive penis, doesn't mean they send spam. The money quote:
[Albion Medical's Mackay] said his firm does not send spam but blamed a rival firm which he said routes much of their unsolicited bulk e-mail through Russia and eastern Europe. Mackay said such firms gave a bad name to the penis enhancement business.
(Links via Drudge)
Enlightened europeans look to geniuses like Michael Moore for moral guidance, and news from the colonies. Why? Michael Moore reinforces their stereotypes of americans and America in general. He's an obnoxious, fat loudmouth who drones on incessantly about things he really doesn't understand; he is an unscrupulous capitalist, lying, libelling, and slandering people who have actually made a stand for something in their lives, all the while raking in millions, and all the while playing the part of Working-Class Hero. And, he hates the US so much he can't stand it, scoring another point with the morally anchorless EU crowd.
He was actually in my home town here this week, and of course, the crowds were out in full force. I haven't seen any reports in the news of his appearance, but I can only imagine it was the usual lefty circle-jerk: America sucks, Bush is Hitler, we're all doomed, more paté?
Of course, it's a good feeling to sit around talking about how bad things are "over there". It lets you ignore just how bad it is where you live. People here would love to have our news programming! Ok, 450 hurt in a bombing in Turkey, but first, the Kobe Jackson Peterson Tapes! Here, they talk about crushing of dissent, and how Bush is ruling the United States with an iron fist, instead of the truly krank economy, or the utter hopelessness of the social welfare state.
Iron fist? How's this for size: In Italy, a comedy show has been cut because they criticized the italian president. In Germany, it's illegal to display a swastika, among other "Verbotene Symbole", even in art. In France, it's illegal to have too many advertisements or too much music in any language other than French. Perhaps in all of Europe, but at least in Germany, you're not tried by a jury of your peers, you're tried by a jury of government employees.
If you read through the U.S. Bill of Rights, there's precious little that you'll find in common with everyday european life. And yet, with that kind oppression, it's comforting to think of how very oppressive this cowboy Bush must be, closing down newspapers left and right, pulling critical television shows off the air, and silencing artists who speak out against him!
Could somebody send me some links for those? I'm at a loss.
Students camp out for poverty awareness - University of Wisconsin-Madison
This is just too good to be true.
I've often been accused of being a liberal. But that was in my college days, when I would make sweeping generalizations like, "Blacks are being oppressed", without thinking about the fact that many blacks like Desmond Tutu, Jesse Jackson, and Dizzy Gillespie could buy and sell my honky ass. But that's the cornerstone of liberalism: Make generalizations about demographics you know nothing about, reducing them to helpless, retarded, unwashed masses, offer them money, and let them know that you understand they can't help it they weren't born rich, good-looking, and white.
Look at the fuckers in this picture. This is a "camp-in for poverty awareness". Huh? Let's take a look at poverty awareness. What's the most important aspect of poverty? Is it camping? Is it being outdoors? Or is it not having money? Revolutionary, I know, but never let a spout of logic spoil your camp-in. "Awareness" isn't what you're engendering here. It should be called, "camp-in for poverty trivialization", or maybe, "Camp-in for trigonometry-studying avoidance". What would a bunch of rich little fuckers like these possibly understand about poverty? Oh, and let me guess: They all voted for Gore.
