Wednesday, October 10, 2007
Shifting Kraal (and mixing metaphors)
Sunday, September 30, 2007
American Lesbian in Space
I get the nicest rejection letters
Really I do. Must mean something. I'll keep plugging along, but I think it's necessary to set goals.
Set Goals:
- Get syndicated
- Get halfway through my Masters
- Learn basic Swahili
- Publish short story (3)
Molecular Rights Management
Funny enough, this sits at the heart of one of my short stories and one novel I’ve been working on.
I find the near future far more interesting than the far future. The chances that I’ll be living there approach 100%.
Iran and my self-interest
Convince me that a terrorist employing, nuclear armed mullah-ocracy is in my self interest, and maybe I’ll be willing to “give peace a chance.” Until then, I’m going to read articles like this and grin:
"Everyone in the government and military can only talk of one thing,' he reports. 'No matter who I talked to, all they could do was ask me, over and over again, 'Do you think the Americans will attack us?' 'When will the Americans attack us?' 'Will the Americans attack us in a joint operation with the Israelis?' How massive will the attack be?' on and on, endlessly. The Iranians are in a state of total panic.'
Muddy boots and Pinstripe Suits IXXXII
Austin Bay on a much needed “Revolution in Diplomatic Affairs:”
Even the State Department's chardonnay and brie brigade suspects we have entered a new era of grimy, street-level foreign policy. It's an era where effective diplomacy starts with long days in bad neighborhoods, as culturally-savvy diplomats identify the hopes, fears and trends that seed future crises, and -- preferably -- create American-influenced opportunities to positively shape events.
In the past year or so, the phrase “Diplomatic Surge” came into vogue. I’ve always thought to myself, “yeah, you and what diplomatic corps?” At the end of the day, we’re left with a Corps of Diplomats more focused on their Foggy Bottoms than the national interest. More interested in leaking, undercutting, waiting out L’Enfant Terrible, and representing tout le monde to America than they are in advancing America’s interest, aggressively, to the rest of the world.
Short version: we’d have to blow less shit up if the diplomats did their jobs. Not strike deals, but advance America interest.
I kind of passed on this article saying that AFRICOM would be based outside of Africa. My reading, the decision is not made. But placing AFRICOM in the environs of Northern Virginia automatically piths any argument for standing up the command in the first place. If you wish to influence a region, go there. Putting it in Northern Virginia merely opens up another comfy career glide for the diplomatic corps.
Look, in general, the DoS (not all, there are a few bright spots) is the weak sister in this fight. A CIA without all the “sex appeal.”
Mood: Slightly Irritated
Monday, September 24, 2007
The P-Funk Mothership has landed
China, Inc and the value of stuff
Samsung was impressed by the efficiency of the cloners, so much so that the company offered them jobs. The cloners said no. Earning about $1.25 per phone, the cloners said, they found it easier and more profitable to make fakes. The only known result of the investigation? Samsung now takes care to release products in China shortly after they come out in Korea. Its only defense is to give cloners a smaller window of opportunity.
Sure, the cars they put out now are death traps, and China industry in general, with lead toys, tainted food, etc, is going through an annus horribillis, but here's tome betting that they will only get better.
Someone should shrink China down, and stick it on a desktop.
Oh, wait:
The desktopfactory. Priced out at 5,000 dracma and heading south.
The sweet spot is going to be when the desire to make, move and create meet the means to do so. When the value of stuff drops relative to the value of ideas.
Airstrip One to launch Droneship One
British-based BAE Systems is proposing a sea-going mother ship for unmanned vehicles (UXV) of various types.
The future might not be now, but it can't be more than a few minutes away.
Fraying at the center
I love it when a party, any party, loses discipline. Refreshing.
Via IP
Saturday, September 22, 2007
La Contessa
Who’s afraid of Naomi Wolf?
Look, let me be the first to say I look forward to the end of the Bush Administration. If only because those who have made a living off of doom mongering will be forced to board the S.S. STFU and set sail for oblivion. Or reinvention.
Art and fashion critic Naomi Wolf is out with a book titled “The End of America, A Letter of Warning to a Young Patriot.” In it, she outlines the ten easy bake steps to fascism. Boing Boing has the link over here.
I’m constantly amazed, when pearl diving through the internet, how those who fear the government the most are the same ones calling for its growth. Bush’s Evil Surveillance State would be improved with universal health care, mandatory psyche screenings, fewer guns and less Bush. Right.
What they really want is to execute a capitated regime change while growing the rest.
Her list reads like the half remembered meanderings of a self absorbed literati. Without even reading the book, let me try and see if I can guess Naomi’s pathologies:
1. Invoke a terrifying internal and external enemy. (Jihad? What Jihad? Seen those swank new burginis?)
2. Create a gulag. (GITMOGITMOGITMOGITMO)
3. Develop a thug caste . (BLACKWATER!!!!!)
4. Set up an internal surveillance system. (That thing Poindexter wuz working on!!)
5. Harass citizens' groups. (Bitchslapping Moveon)
6. Engage in arbitrary detention and release. (I think she’s talking a fishing here).
7. Target key individuals. (People I know who’ve been inconvenienced at check in counters on the way to Vail).
8. Control the press.( FOX)
9. Dissent equals treason. (She talking about Zombies?)
10. Suspend the rule of law. (FLORIDAFLORIDAFLORIDA)
Whatever.
If you want to understand how totalitarianism develops, you only have to read three books:
If you want to watch it develop in real time, I mean see nuttiness really develop, then set your google alerts to “Venezuela, Chavez."