Posted 1/3/2003 08:37:33 PM

The Seattle Times: America's new voice sounds a tad imperialist

Here is the new voice of America:

"The United States must defend liberty and justice because these principles are right and true for all people everywhere. No nation owns these aspirations, and no nation is exempt from them." (From the National Security Strategy of the President.)

And this, from the same source: "America must stand firmly for the nonnegotiable demands of human dignity: the rule of law; limits on the absolute power of the state; free speech; freedom of worship; equal justice; respect for women; religious and ethnic tolerance; and respect for private property."

Demanded by whom?

By the United States.

Why? Because our ideas are "right and true for all people everywhere."
Our ideas are the product of our experience and our culture, a Western culture in a North American setting. They suit us tolerably well. Would they suit Iraqis? Afghans? Why would we presume to decide for them?

Posted 1/3/2003 08:22:59 PM

::word of the day year::

jingoism
Extreme nationalism characterized especially by a belligerent foreign policy;
chauvinistic patriotism.

Posted 1/3/2003 10:51:06 AM

the Economist published this interesting chart.

the Values x,y-axes suggest broad, but interesting contexts of motivation. i question whether Canada falls below the 0 point into the traditional values zone.

my last comment below seems to fall squarely in the Self-Expression Values quadrant, though i wonder if i am below or above the y-axis 0 point line.

Posted 1/3/2003 10:21:28 AM
if you are not being "who you are" someone is being manipulated.

Posted 1/3/2003 09:41:57 AM

Scientists Say Orangutans Exhibit 'Culture'

the presumption that "culture" is created only by the human animal is an absurd relegation to robotic "instinct" of all other species. it is difficult to believe that this view held dominance for so long.

a community of sentient beings creates patterns of life along the agreements and tensions of the group in the environment which it exists within. created patterns are lost, innovated upon and are, in some way, by definition unique to the group. this ongoing act of shared living is culture.

Posted 1/3/2003 12:32:56 AM

Costing The Earth

Alcoa wants to build an gigantic Aluminium smelting operation off of the eastern coastline of Iceland. to do so Iceland will have to create a massive complex of dams for hydroelectric power. despite the foreseeable ecological impact of the project in this pristine wilderness the unknown cultural impact is, perhaps, even more dire.

Alcoa is in this for one reason: cheap labor and a motivated Icelandic minister who will stop at nothing to see this project underway (even overruling a planning commission's ruling that the project's impact was unacceptable and could not continue).

how does one introduce this level of change into a traditional, provincial society without gouging the very soul of the people? is progress, as defined by more factory jobs and a rising consumer class, something that should be pandered to? what people/special interests are making money on this deal and who is shouldering the risk?

this seems to be one more political-multinational gang rape.

What You Can Do

related: Bjork scorns 'crazy' Iceland smelter plan

Posted 1/3/2003 12:05:22 AM

Israel and the Palestinians

if the current Palestine situation is a mystery to you this simple, visual overview of what has transpired since ~1880 is a great way to begin to frame this complex debacle.

Posted 1/2/2003 04:16:09 AM

Posted 1/1/2003 01:54:09 PM

when you hear
of wars and rumors of wars,
do not be alarmed;

this must take place,
but the end is not yet.

nation will rise against nation,
and kingdom against kingdom;
there will be earthquakes;
there will be famines;
this is but the beginning...
http://Mark.13.4-8

Posted 1/1/2003 01:27:46 PM

Dan's Random Two Thousand Two Picks

*only items that came up/out in 2002 were considered for this, get it? don't send me an email saying, "'Thriller' was the best album of all time!" if this should happen i will abuse you without end.

heroes and the injustice that tried to silence them in 2002

• Egyptian-American civil rights activist, Saad Eddin Ibrahim: a prisoner of conscience in 2002
  
• Leyla Zana, a Kurdish Turk elected to the Turkish Parliament: a prisoner of conscience in 2002
  
• Hashem Aghajari, Iranian journalist, and the students of Iran who support him: prisoners of conscience in 2002

big names that didn't shame us in 2002

• Hamid Karzai: western political bitch? not when you know your head is being served up by the opposition.
  
• Scandinavians - amidst all the hubris of the Western world what are the Scandinavians known for? NGOs, saunas, compassionate civil law and technological acumen. to Scandinavia!
  
• Mina Sherzoy: The Afghan Mother Theresa
  
• Jimmy Carter: Peacemaking, Nobel Prize winning, Habitat for Humanity building, all around privileged white man that we don't have to be ashamed of.
  
• Bono - yeah, a choice that is trendy and uncool all at the same time. my apologies to those too hip to utter his name. he has done well. to Paul, cheers!

the 2002 weenie award

• Jerry, Pat and Franklin
  
• Ashcroft, Poindexter and the rest of that crew
  
• Everyone who thinks that safety is more important than liberty

a few films of 2002 that i will see again

Bowling for Columbine
Amelie (i know! this is not 2002... i saw it in Dec '01... close)
LOTR: The Two Towers
Harry Potter II
Life as a House
Possession


a few books from 2002 worth looking at

Mark C. Taylor, The Moment of Complexity
Jean Baudrillard, The Spirit of Terrorism
Howard Rheingold, Smart Mobs: The Next Social Revolution
{... too many others, and i'm getting bored already... all else will have to wait until next year}

Posted 12/31/2002 03:40:42 PM

Benny Hinn Takes In $100 million A Year

Benny is the quintessential CEO pastor. his ministry is raising money and expanding his celebrity. what fascinates me most about him is not his capacity to hawk jesus-snake-oil, but the duplicity of the millions who not only hang on his every word, but who wheelbarrow money into his crusades to place in the Kentucky Fried Chicken buckets that pass through the aisles before his healing power is unleashed. there should be management books written about this guy. the machiavelli of television evangelism is a sight to behold. i laughed when i read that he only comes out on stage when "How Great Thou Art" is playing. how telling...

Posted 12/31/2002 03:15:57 PM

Economist.com | iN pRAISE oF cLUTTER via bloggedy blog

People spread paper over their desks not because they are too lazy to file it, but because it is a physical representation of what is going on in their heads.

Posted 12/31/2002 12:14:55 PM

DSL goes bye-bye today.

Posted 12/31/2002 01:38:47 AM

New Tolkien book discovered (December 30, 2002)

Professor Drout, who reads Anglo-Saxon prose to his two-year-old daughter at bedtime, said: "I was sitting there going through the transcripts when I saw these four bound volumes at the bottom of the box.

"I started looking through, and realised I had found an entire book of material that had never seen the light of day. As I turned the page, there was Tolkien's fingerprint in a smudge of ink."

Posted 12/31/2002 01:32:56 AM

note to self: useful? www.phrack.org - GPS Jammer

Posted 12/31/2002 01:28:06 AM

Desert Storm soldier becomes "human shield" against U.S. aggression in Iraq.

Posted 12/30/2002 09:19:54 PM
current mp3:
nullsoft::lama.whipping.intro

Posted 12/30/2002 08:48:08 PM

while reading Newsweek at a sweet Barnes & Noble just down the street this past Saturday evening my mind was blown by the description of a Wachowski brother's FX invention (could not find the specific article online so you will have to go brick and mortar to read this one). they are calling it "virtual cinematography." basically, as i remember it, they take an object, organic or inanimate and run it through a series of movements that five digital cameras capture. they then feed this footage into a computer that runs these sequences through algorithms that actually create all possible motions of said object not "captured on film."

basically, this means that any scene can be created without the visible traces of a computer-constructed scene. things like this were done before using blue screen, but virtual cinematography is revolutionary in how it can ultimately disintermediate actual character actors in the creation of scenes.

beyond the technical coolness of this capability it also underscores the less than absolute nature of our "common sense" physical evidence standards in the practice of law. as this capacity continues down the inevitable trickle down path that all tech eventually takes it is conceivable that one could be made to look like they carried out crime or were party to some great humanitarian act despite the fact that their carbon based existence had nothing to do with the purported event.

how does this impact evidence guidelines? how does this impact identity and reputation management? how could this help provide compelling deniability to those seeking to eschew actual events they were party to? to what end will this be used by the propoganda machines that already spin reality for political contestants and wealthy public figures?

who knows? i just hope it kicks my butt when i go to see Reloaded in May.

Posted 12/30/2002 08:45:50 PM
current mp3:
the.crystal.method::keep.hope.alive

Posted 12/30/2002 04:30:45 PM

On September 11, 2002 Verso released three short essay books in response to the events that took place in Manhattan a year earlier. These books are fascinating accounts of a distinctively European reaction to the grand, horrific, symbolic events that took place on that day.

The first and, soon to be, best known of the three books is Jean Baudrillard's, The Spirit of Terrorism. The book itself is an enchantingly small, rectangular package that in form reminds us of the key place architecture held in this drama. The architecture of the global capital embodied in New York, but also the architecture of the Western story. In the slow metamorphosis to and through the ideals of the Socratic West the narrative of inevitable progress has variously waxed and waned through the exuberance and tragedy of humankind's dealings with itself and the existence it has come to speak of.

Baudrillard suggests in the first essay, and namesake, of this book that the events of 9/11 set humanity on the course of the Fourth World War. His fascinating thesis is that World War III took place in the political intrigue and military brinkmanship of the Cold War and that the advent of World War IV on 09/11/01 has humankind thrown headlong into the internal breach within globalization itself--the fissure of the inevitable suicide of any hegemonic world order. WWI saw the demise of European supremacy, WWII the demise of national fascism, WWIII the political end of state communism and WWIV the suicidal tendencies of globalization itself.

"The Fourth World War... haunts every world order, all hegemonic domination--if Islam dominated the world, terrorism would rise against Islam, for it is the world, the globe itself, which resists globalization." (TSoT, 12)

Jean takes us back beyond Good and Evil and suggests that the very notion of Good's triumph over Evil breaks down when taken to the dominating extreme--for only with acts that undermine the very definitive distinction between this pair can Good overcome Evil. The movement of Good and Evil then are in tandem and often times one assumes the character of the other as the balance of power and the historicizing perspective shifts.

"There is," writes Baudrillard, "no remedy to this extreme situation." As a response to it, conventional warfare is a nonstarter, a non-event. It is merely "the continuation of an absence of politics by other means." (34)

The analysis and, sometimes shocking, propositions of this well regarded French writer are something to consider carefully. His wrapping the events of September 11th in the analytical garb of the symbolic, the singular and the suicidal is frightening and enlightening to ponder. The only critique that I will dare level at this time is that the potential despair that one is left in when "no remedy" is one's considered conclusion is not itself a singular event. I realize that this hopelessness is not, necessarily, Baudrillard's per se. That the lack of a solution is the connundrum of all fissured political oligarchies, all inherently disassembling hegemonies. Nevertheless, the interpretive stance that stops at the moment of despair, as this analysis seems prone to, is but one lived credulity among, seemingly, infinite nuanced possibilities.

I would suggest that the very subversion of system by the inner aparatus of system points to something other. Without venturing into the unfortuneate arena of apologetics or the marketing posture of the "god of the gaps" I will suggest that this always already internal subversion, of which the Fourth World War is but one instance, is in fact that which where cannot contain. That haunting presumption of every-where we know through. The very traces of the other kingdom.

The beauty, portability and patronage that buying a book entails should nudge any interested parties to the bookstore to pick this title up. That said, should one desire to read a rough translation it is available here.

Posted 12/30/2002 09:51:36 AM

overnight i received two of the dumbest script kiddy email viruses that i have ever seen. everybody wants to be Onel de Guzman.

wannabe anarchist hackers everywhere: create something original and let there be a point to it. your current pursuits suck. one other thing: ESL email social engineering doesn't cut it... you just sound stupid.

that is all.

Posted 12/29/2002 10:18:39 AM

Coffee, Tea, or Should We Feel Your Pregnant Wife’s Breasts Before Throwing You in a Cell at the Airport and Then Lying About Why We Put You There?

by Nicholas Monahan
____________

power without honor is tyranny.
the first rule of project mayhem is: you do not talk about project mayhem.

Posted 12/29/2002 10:01:18 AM

Best radical life change plan for 2004 if 2003 turns out to suck

Join the French Foreign Leagion?