Stupid is as Stupid Does

I had no idea what to title this post. It is too funny, sad, pathetic, and above all- STOOPID! This is the first time in the history of rap music that rap has actually saved the lives of cops! it reminds me a scene in a Punisher comic where the Punisher gets caught undergunned by a bunch of thugs, but wins anyway. The final pane in the scene is a close up of the barrel of the Punisher's .45 held corrrectly as he tells the last thug to get killed, "They put the sights on the top for a reason."

A simple fact that went unnoticed by this idiot who jammed his Mac 10 knock-off by shooting it sideways. Man's gotta look good when he's getting gunned down.

Signs of Leadership are starting to develop

I have listened and read a lot of different opinions about the President's speech and Afghan strategy last night, but so far noe of them have mentioned explicitly that this was the first real sign of leadership and sacrifive we have seen from him. For me at least, he started earning back some of the respect that he had completely lost by June.

Because it was very gutsy and showed that he does have the ability to make the type of hard, unpopular decisions Bush made. For that I give him credit and hope to see more of this spine and backbone in the future. Yes, it took too long to make, but he has already been criticized by his most ardent supporters for giving in and doing it in the presence of "the enemy." Chris Matthews has somehow managed to suddenly leave Olberman in the dust...

But I digress. Obama actually did the right thing and listened to his generals rather than to his base. This is the first real bipartisan moment of his presidency. Yes, he made the strategic blunder Chris Matthews rightly identified of telling the REAL enemy (get a clue Chris) when they can expect us to pack up and leave. But Obama also left the door open to staying.

The worst criticism came from Der Spiegel (I thought Obama was popular in Europe?). To be sure, Gabor Steingart delivers the beatdown in a way the would make Krauthammer proud. But most of the substantial criticism is strategic and realpolitik stuff I agree with. There is also the incredible dishonesty of blaming Bush, shifting blame, and then implementing the same Bush surge that he voted against! Talk about low and despicable... But at least he is doing it. For 18 months. The student body president made his first baby steps towards being the real President.

Stoopid, Very Stoopid

Well now we know gamers and lawyers have something in common! What kind of idiot sues WoW?

Climate Research Unit scandal getting worse

Because I am not a scientist I don't like weighing in on the "scandal" surrounding the hacked emails from the Climate Research Unit at University of East Anglia. Primarily because a number of the explanations provided by the pro Global Warming crowd seemed reasonable. But that was until someone who follows and believes in Global Warming as a significant threat made a rare assessment of how damning the hacked emails actually are. Yes, he still affirms his core beliefs and attacks skeptics, but he admits that the emails are very dangerous and distressing. I would love to know what he would say now that the story had become even uglier, as the CRU has admitted all the original data its research was based on was destroyed, so we can't scientifically verify their conclusions. Unfrikkin believable.

Disconnect between Elite and People in Europe too?

This is a fascinating article because it suggests that Europeans- at least the nonelite ones- are facing a similar disconnect between them and their leaders.

Too Funny not to Post

The Language is a bit spicy, but this little incident is hilarious:

more Signs of Cultural Upheaval

The Video Game Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 has broken every sales record for an entertainment property. We are not talking about video games only, but movies, music, and everything else in the entertainment world. A video game has blown away the competition during a global recession.

This little fact will go largely undigested in mainstream culture. This is after games sales fell dramatically last October from the previous year. Now I have managed to squeeze in a few hours on Modern Warfare 2 between work, the immanent birth of my first child, skating, and applying for a doctoral program. In a nutshell: It Rocks. And pushes the envelope in a way no other game has. The crude ethical problems of games like Grand Theft Auto have nothing on the Russian Airport scene. Discussing it with my hardcore gamer students have resulted in similar impressions. All of us were a bit disturbed by playing an undercover CIA character who has to massacre innocent civilians in an airport in order to protect his cover. Some of us even tried to figure out ways around it, to no avail.

This is extremely disturbing. So disturbing that the developers actually allow you to set up campaign mode with a bypass of the airport massacre. But it got me thinking. More than any other game this game can break long held double standards of our culture just as easily as it breaks sales records.

Why is it ok for actors, and movie makers, writers, and musicians to engage is such flights of fancy, but not the rest of us? In western culture we have long allowed certain exceptions for "artists" because there is a purpose to their work. That's why a child rapist like Polanski should not be prosecuted. Yet he will sneer down at us plebeians for engaging in even a virtual version of violent and unethical behavior. As I walked through the airport slowly killing civilians in a scene perfectly orchestrated to highlight the terror and horror such an event would surely create, coolly shooting down a desperate civilian crawling for safety (the scene even has slow mo moments perfectly copied from Hollywood) it occurred to me that this truly is unhealthy for society and is probably one of the psychological sources of the extreme degrees of privilege and hypocrisy in Hollywood and the Entertainment industry. Actors go one step beyond what I was doing and actually point a real gun and shoot blanks and other live people who reenact these same types of scenes every year for "art." I don't think I will ever play the level again, unless its necessary for the Ethics class we are trying to embed the game in...

But Hollywood is better, more humanitarian. I mean, for gosh sakes, they bleed compassion. They are more human than the rest of us and so its ok for them. One of Tom Friedman's only good ideas in The World is Flat was the equalizing effect technology has on society. Look, we know its not his idea, but its still true. And Modern Warfare 2 is taking this equalizing into its next natural step. Now we can all engage in the same kind of visceral play acting movie stars call "avant garde." How much you wanna bet Rock Star is going to incorporate rape, or something equally ugly into the next iteration of Grand Theft? Because if its ok for Hollywood to simulate rape and other heinous acts then its certainly ok for the rest of us.

Oh Brave new world that has such people in it.

Jedi mind Tricks

So far in all the justifiable outrage over our Establishment's total failure to recognize the Fort Hood killer as nothing more than an Islamic extremist no one has brought up the case of Scott Roeder who killed abortion doctor George Tiller less than a year ago. Remember that incident? Our courageous leaders in the Media were willing to talk religion then. Because, you know, since Roe V Wade became law Christians have killed less people than one Islamic extremist managed to kill in one day at Ft Hood.

There were no discussions about how Scott Roeder's worldview (religion) taught him that since abortion became legal America has seen a holocaust of millions of innocent deaths. Imagine what Major Hasan would do if that were floating around in his mind. He might want to build a nuclear weapon and wipe out his enemies... Nah. Remember the IEA told us two years ago the Iranians weren't trying to build a bomb. Whoops. Little oversight there.

The most perverse aspect of human nature is its ability to lie to itself. When the Jedi mind trick is on yourself, you are sick.

Ereaders are taking over fast

No better proof that ereaders will soon be as ubiquitous as video games than how many are in development. Even tire maker Goodyear is working on one.

Funny

Scary stuff

This is really scary. Especially because there are no solutions offered anywhere. make sure you run AdAware at least once a week, and have something like Avast that will get rid of Trojans quick. At least its not happening in the states. Maybe people really will start burying their money in the backyard again...

Pirates reach new shores

The Pirate Party is almost ready to board Australia! Gotta admire their tenacity and energy.

Journalistic Bias from a tech's perspective

I have written at length about the disconnect between conservative thinking and the tech community and how much opportunity there is for conservative thinking to engage the tech community. This post from techdirt perfectly illustrates the ambiguity techies have about journalism and bias.

One one hand it easy to dismiss the writer as clueless- I mean, why not come out and just admit that bias is journalism and it's all about supporting leftist ideology. The writer never does. He even suggests that it's ok for journalist to have an opinion, which almost seems to come off in the typical lefty apologist approach, but if you have been reading techdirt for any length of time you know that their writers are extremely sceptical of establishment thinking and journalism. They are simply coming at it from a different angle than conservative activists, journalist, and intellectuals.

Which is why conservatives should be reaching out on an intellectual level to the tech community. They have far more in common with them than they would imagine, and our foundational principles are more often than not the same.

Imagine (no apologies to Lennon)

Imagine the following scenario: A couple of young leftwing activists travel the country visiting NRA offices pretending to be illegal weapons dealers looking to start shipping illegal guns from Mexico into the city and need some help figuring out the logistics. What the NRA offices don't know is that they are phonies and everything is being taped with hidden cameras and will systematically be exposed to the public once the investigation is complete.

Imagine what would happen if those videos showed NRA staff members offering to help with those illegal activities. Imagine how those two young activist journalists would have their careers made at this point. Imagine them all over the cable and network shows, the interviews, book opportunities, movie offers. Careers made, right?

Imagine.

You may say that I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one.

Racism concept map (Click to enlarge)

Now we can all see if we are racists with this handy concept map!