Haditha May 31, 2006
Posted by danjeffers in The World Outside the Beltway.add a comment
We don't know, yet, exactly what happened in Haditha. We do know that Pentagon is prepping congress for the possibility that events are really as bad as has been reported, that Marines went on a rampage killing innocents, old men, women, children. And the evidence indicates there was a cover-up.
Knowing just this, there are things that can be said. Such as:
This was inevitable. Part of the cost of war is that, as purpose lags and leadership decays, monstrous acts happen. Even among the "good guys." You have nineteen-year-old kids with awesome firepower, in a foreign country where you can't tell who your friends are. And every once in a while some unseen group kills your buddies. The amazing thing is that so many servicemen manage to stay disciplined and professional.
However, that doesn't excuse a murder rampage. Saying, "oh, they were under a lot of pressure," insults all the other servicemen who handled the same kinds of pressure without losing their humanity.
In any case, we've lost. This opens up every other suspect death to question. Denials will no longer have any weight. If the participants are not convicted, America will be seen as monstrous. If they are convicted, it will be assumed that they are just the scape-goats for some higher-up who is getting away with it. If higher-ups are convicted, the same assumption will merely be moved up one level.
In one of the homes, the men were separated from the family, and killed. A nine-year-old boy witnessed his father's death by American troops. He is quoted:
Nine-year-old Khalid was in the house.
“This is my father!” he screams. "God will take my revenge!"
Perhaps Khalid will become a terrorist, perhaps just live in rage. Maybe he will become a journalist. Whatever he does will always be informed by that hate, though. A hate that is growing with every action we take.
The Game within the Game May 25, 2006
Posted by danjeffers in Uncategorized.add a comment
Shakespear was noted for, among many other things, sticking a play inside his plays. Thus, we have Pyramus and Thisbe working out their tragic, comic fate while the "real" play is The Midsummer Night's Dream. The story of Pyramus and Thisbe also makes fun of another Shakespear play, Romeo and Juliet.
Movies often have different levels of truth and story-telling, as characters either flash back or make stuff up. We see these alternate, less-true stories portrayed on-screen, usually with different colors or film-stock to let us know which story thread is, for the purpose of the movie, real.
Then comes the online world. Giant collaborative video games, really. One of the big ones, Second Life, has spawned an internal game of its own. Wired just ran an article on it, the conclusion of which is ironic. (really).
In essence, it was classic libel against video games: That they encourage isolation, with each player staring glassy-eyed at the evil, hypnotic screen. The irony here, of course, is that these complaints were coming from players who themselves were spending hours staring at their own computer screens while they played Second Life. Dig it: People were complaining that a game was ruining the quality of virtual life inside a game.
Malvo vs. Muhammed May 25, 2006
Posted by danjeffers in Death Penalty, Washington DC.add a comment
I'm conflicted. I still think the DA's office, especially Horan, made a poor choice in deciding to prosecute John Muhammed since he has already been convicted with the death penalty and will certainly never be free again. It seems political, perhaps even a little personal, as the decision to prosecute Muhammed in Virginia was made at the federal level, cutting Horan out of the loop.
Still, it's very compelling to read about Malvo's testimony. The boy, though he did monstrous things, was obviously also a victim of Muhammed's megalamaniacal vision. Perhaps Malvo is the only person who could confront the psychopathic Muhammed and say "You did this, you are a monster," and have it mean anything to Muhammed. Without Malvo's gripping testimony, Horan's office adds absolutely nothing. Ironically, during Malvo's trial, Horan's office tried to paint Malvo as an independently responsible person who should have also received the death penalty.
Malvo’s Testimony May 22, 2006
Posted by danjeffers in Death Penalty, Washington DC.add a comment
I have to admit, I'm fascinated too. Malvo will, supposedly, reveal a lot of the backstory during his testimony in the trial of John Muhammad. It is a benefit for a trial that otherwise seems pointless and political. As one attorney in the Post Article puts it:
"If it goes right," Richard A. Finci, a lawyer who is not involved in the case, said of Malvo's testimony, "it's what Montgomery County really wanted out of this case. The whole story will come out."
Sensenbrenner proposes ‘666′ law May 16, 2006
Posted by danjeffers in Culture and Subversion, Philosophy and Religion.add a comment
James Sensenbrenner (R-WI) has proposed a '666' law. This is a law so intrusive, so stunningly close to the Revelations 'Number of the Beast' that it may as well require that all internet users register themselves with the Universal Dark Lord of Data with a '666' prefix. All in the name of the obviously overblown threat of child pornography. When child pornography was sent around by mail, did we consider registering every letter sent or received by every person? Of course not. Back then, conservatives were some of the strongest protectors of individual liberties. Now people like Sensenbrenner just want everyone to be an extension of the giant government database which is so obviously out of Revelations its a wonder Fox hasn't picked up on it.
Google/Skynet adds more stuff May 11, 2006
Posted by danjeffers in search engine optimization.add a comment
The ironic thing about Google's new enhancements is that it totally loops back to early days. Once upon a time, webmasters tried to tell search engines what type of content was on their sites using meta-tags. The spamsters got tricky, adding content to meta-tags that was nowhere on the site, so that people searching for: "Britney Spears Naked" found themselves at a website selling kitchen knives. They also crammed the meta-tags with repeated keywords. So the major search engines gave up and stopped looking at meta-tags. Then other tagging services became popular, such as Technorati. And smaller engines experimented with having users tag sites for each other's benefit. Now Google Labs is rolling out their coop feature, allowing sites to be tagged for relevance to particular topics. No doubt Google has already built in some measures to control spamming, but I know a lot of spamsters are sitting around trying to figure out how to exploit this new feature.
Instead of Blocking One exit, Block Two May 9, 2006
Posted by danjeffers in Things not to do while walking in DC, Washington DC.add a comment
The metro system in DC has these lovely fare-gates. If someone is having a problem processing their card, and you are a sympathetic bystander, please DON'T stand in the next faregate over, thus blocking off two gates instead of just one.
Hell Can Wait for Moussaoui May 4, 2006
Posted by danjeffers in Death Penalty.add a comment
The jury decided that Moussaoui will spend the rest of his life wrapped up in a little cell with nothing to keep him company but his own hate. Death will come eventually, it comes to everyone. He'll just get a lot of time to think about it. This is the best outcome for several reasons:
- He is a crazed megalomaniac who wants to be a martyr.
- The connection between his actions and the 9/11 terrorist strike is tennuous.
- True punishment can only occur when he wakes up and realizes he's evil. This won't happen any time soon.
But, the most important aspect is this: He isn't the one we want to punish. We want to kill Moussaoui because 19 other guys did something really evil and he's a lot closer. There are people to be hunted, Osama Bin Laden, for instance. But killing Moussaoui knowing he's just a stand-in for those others is a moral compromise that, once made, permanently takes us down the same road.
Microsoft takes on Google/Skynet May 4, 2006
Posted by danjeffers in search engine optimization.add a comment
Google Adsense rules much of the known universe. Almost everything you can do for free, online, is mostly done through some Google product and comes with their Ad-words campaign pasted in it somewhere. MSN has been trolling along with the only real competition, Overture. Now, they are bringing their own product to bear, MSN Adcenter.
Supposedly, AdCenter has better targeting tools so you can pitch your product to a well-specified demographic. Except, MSN only reaches 11% of whatever demographic you want. Google/Skynet reaches everything.
Honor and The Constitution May 19, 2006
Posted by danjeffers in Pithy Comments to get quoted in Express.add a comment
The Constitution is not a sacred document, but it's as close is it gets in a secular society. It's a starting point for agreement among people who are united by little else. It has been distorted, abused, falsely frozen into worship, and rarely, amended. The amendment process is slow, difficult, and normally marks a fundamental change in basic social values. Like abolishing slavery. Now there is a trend in which politicians, instead of doing actual work, promote constitutional amendments. Since these rarely have any chance of being implement, this seems harmless enough. However, I believe that each token proposal tends to devalue the basic social document of our system. If we want to honor it, we should require some ritual of honor be made before any attempt to mend it is made. It should be way harder to amend the constitution than, say, join the Yakuza. Ergo:
Before proposing a constitutional amendment, the proposing politician should, in a show of honor and courage, cut off his/her little finger. This may sound extreme, but it is fully in line with the gravity of such proposals.