Month: October 2007

As Cartman would say, why the fuck not?

John Cole has some:

1.) "Would you have sex with a man to stop a terrorist attack?"

2.) "If lowering taxes results in increased revenues then would lowering taxes to zero result in infinite revenues?"

3.) "If you had a time machine, would you travel back in time and abort Bin Laden?"

4.) "Would you torture and kill Jesus to ensure mankind’s salvation? And how does that work?"

Just beat Jesus repeatedly and put him in a stress-position for several hours. That’s not torture, according to John Yoo. Oh, wait …

The Bush administration may not have meant this (yes, I know, the benefit of the doubt again) but it comes with the territory when you’re funding abstinence-only programs in Uganda. Ed Brayton comments here.

And it took the "Bowling Alone" Internet, of course:

“This finding was both novel and unexpected,” says Denise Anthony, associate professor of sociology. “In traditional laboratory studies of collective goods, we don’t include Good Samaritans, those people who just happen to pass by and contribute, because those carefully designed studies don’t allow for outside actors. It took a real-life situation for us to recognize and appreciate the contributions of Good Samaritans to web content.”

A new front in the semantic wars:

Not all Islamophobes are fanatics. Most, on the contrary, are decent people who just want to live in peace. Islamophobia forms only part of their identity. They grew up fearing Islam, and they still worry about it from time to time, especially during holidays and on certain anniversaries; but many would confess to doubt about just how Islamophobic they feel deep down inside. They may find themselves wondering, for example, if the Koran is really that much more bloodthirsty than the Jewish scriptures (Joshua 6 is plenty murderous) or the Christian (Matthew 10:34 is not exactly comforting).

Unfortunately a handful of troublemakers thrive among them, parasitically.

They spew out hatred through Web sites. They seek to silence their critics, and to recruit impressionable young people. Perhaps it is unfair to confuse matters through calling the moderates and the militants by the same name. It would be more fitting to say that the latter are really Islamophobofascists.

Some might find the expression offensive. That is too bad. If we don’t resist Islamophobofascism now, its intolerance can only spread. And we all know who benefits from that. One name in particular comes to mind. It belongs to a fellow who is now presumably living in a cave, drawing up long-term plans for a clash of civilizations…

A reader writes:

I read your blurb on Africom this morning. I was in Mali (in the desert town of Timbuktu – lo, it exists!) last month, and saw a bunch of very clean-cut Army types riding around in SUVs and reading novels in the airport lounge. My Tuareg friend told me they were part of the new US counterterrorism initiative in the region, still in its embryonic stage. I think the Examiner piece was unfortunate in its wording about the Sahel situation, though, because it makes Tuaregs generally look like extremist Muslim militants. They are not and are very much a part of what is unique and intangible (to Westerners) about the Sahel’s deep rooted and nomadic culture. They are loyal to no one.

There is a Tuareg faction in the north that is working w Al Qaeda and has always caused trouble, especially in Mali.

They are looking for new playfriends to cause trouble with and as we all know AQ are always looking for opportunities to latch on –like a lamprey– to the downtrodden or pissed off. The Tuaregs in Timbuktu, and the southern Sahel, for that matter, would be happy to take this faction out themselves if they could. This kind of militant behavior, especially linked to AQ, will do nothing but damage the welfare and reputation of the vast majority Tuaregs who coexist peacefully with their countrymen and Westerners.  If Africom is going to be operating in the Sahel, I hope they are more strategic than this Examiner article implies about dealing with the Tuaregs, who could be their best bet in gaining invaluable humintel and navigating the barely-navigable Sahara.

Here is a better overview from CFR, in case you are interested.

The culture-war season starts earlier every year.

The department of Fatherland Security already knows a huge amount you – and what your travel plans are. Here’s an easy way to get access to the unclassified parts of the government’s files on you.

They’re getting more and more sophisticated:

She looked at me with her motion detectors as I rubbed the piezoelectric sensor between her thighs. Then I spun the potentiometers that jutted out from her chest like nipples. But it wasn’t until I stroked the piezosensor on the back of her neck that she began to moan, first quietly and then loudly, like a thousand women reaching orgasm together.

3.7 million viewings – and not on YouTube: