the cow says hello.

more stories.

Goe, linking.

question my patriotism?

apparently, you should.

Goe, puzzled.

Strange things

You'd think that given a choice, people would prefer to be free and prosperous instead of living under a vicious tyrannical government. You would be wrong.

Goe, wonders why we're still over there.

Censorship

Jim Hansen is a nasa scientist who writes about global warming. He claims every time he does an interview or writes an article that the government is trying to censor him. apparently in his little world, a large budget, large paycheck, and free access to every media organization on the planet is censorship. it annoys me when people see themselves in such a way that they have to define everything around them as it relates to their self-perception and then try to force those definitions on the rest of us.

Goe, can think of some people who would like to be thusly censored.

linkspam ii

it used to be that almost every time i posted something, there'd be several hits within a couple of minutes, and both would be spamlinks. the referrals listing on sitemeter would point to blogs that exist solely to house advertisements. this was a bit offputting at first, but i got used to it (after turning on the weird code thing to block the comment spam that was coming with them). now these referral spams are coming at random. i haven't been posting much, but i still get three or four of those a day, plus a couple real visitors. i haven't been posting much not because i'm burned out, but because there's nothing to talk about. the most intersting thing i've learned in the past month that i didn't link to on here at the time is that harry potter seems to be a third cousin or so of draco malfoy.

Goe, doesn't read that much.

Google terms

there's froogle and i'm sure many other terms for googling things. but what about this idiot? a pro-censorship law student a few years behind the times. apparently not only does he support censorship (as long as it's done secretly, so the government doesn't know who is trying to get censored information), he doesn't know that the 'asshole' thing was the result of a deliberate attempt to trick google into giving the results a bunch of lefties wanted. since google is very supportive of oppressive, unelected dictatorships, it's not too hard to trick them into bashing who is trying to spread democracy and freedom in other countries.

Goe, doesn't play googlewhack.

QDR

Glanced through the QDR, is mostly a lot of rhetoric about the importance of change and flexibility. not a lot of real solutions for real problems, like soldiers running out of bullets, but plenty of new spots for senior officers to look busy until retirement.

Goe, against it still.

Duldrums

I just can't bring myself to care about the olympics. this, however, is a different matter.

Goe, glad he didn't go there.

Stories

another storylbogging carnival.

Goe, some reading there.

Commies

I've been putting some thought into fisking the communist manifesto... opinions?

Goe, unsure.

Blogoverse

I don't read many blogs. I rarely read my own, although I visit frequently to use the links on the side over there --> to get places that I visit a lot. I did start reading a website that has a listing of the newest posts from local blogs. They general give me the creeps. Today, I was doing some perusing around looking for current events, got bored, and looked at the local blogs.

There are many such emergent threats today. The WTO. China. Our own neo-conservative movement. Al Queda is an after school club compared to these.

What can I say? I'm an American. I'm an Anarchist.

These are from the same post. These people are so fucking detached from reality it's no wonder that murderous dictators are seen as good guys.

Goe, against commies, even if they call themselves anarchists.

Acts of War

It used to be countries fought wars when an act of war was conducted by another country against them. now everyone sits and talks about misunderstandings and the importance of dialogue, even as more acts of war are committed. are we becoming invertebrate?

Goe, all substance, no style.

ack

was adamantly told today that margaritaville is a country western song.

Goe, still sort of stunned.

Chapter Three

They moved slowly along the road. The two Goon brothers strolled alongside Selfless as if they were his bodyguards. If Dandy noticed, he did not seem to mind. Amiable and Noreach walked with Dandy, who seemed to know their destination even as he fumbled around Amiable's questions. Adolescent stumbled along behind them, staring blankly at his own feet. Cleans trailed along behind, and from time to time the Goon brothers looked back to make sure he hadn't deserted their cause.
They walked some distance down Cross Street, until the corner of Cross and Bisecting. Dandy only took three steps into the intersection before stopping and pointing out a large building ahead and to the left. The building was four stories tall, with large colonnades thicker than a dwarf is tall rising it's full height. The bricks of it's walls were each painted a different color, none of which were harmless to the human eye. Each window appeared to have been smashed out and glued back together on a wooden backing, and the colonnades were covered with intricately carved figures of animals in suggestive attire.
“It was either this or Flood Control Dam Number Three,” said Dandy, shaking his head so that his hair would better catch the stuffiness that passed for a breeze. They stood silently in the intersection, trying to not notice the building or the many wagons whose path they were blocking.
“Let's go in now, shall we?” asked Selfless, barely above the din of the screaming teamsters. He led the group across the street and past black doors so pale they bordered on obscene. They entered a small hallway, where everything was beige except for the blue sign welcoming them to Chapter Three of the Sedai Conspiracy.
“I thought they were all dead.” said Noreach, waving his axe awkwardly at the sign.
“They are.” said Selfless. “We're just using the hall.”
“Pardon me, did I miss something?” asked Dandy, smiling congenially at Noreach as he tilted slightly to his right.
“The Sedai were evil. Nothing was safe from their meddling.” said Noreach, vociferously. “Nothing.”
“The Sedai wanted to make the world a better place.” said Selfless calmly. “But others suspected them of doing evil and they began to believe it themselves. Before long, everything they did became a plot to purge the Sedai of plotters, and they were enveloped in so much secrecy that they couldn't even trust each other. The last Sedai died years ago, positive to the end that everyone else was evil.”
“They told the Dwarves Union to require bathing!” shouted Noreach, who was losing control of his temper.
“That was very evil of them.” said Cleans, swaying as if drunk.
“Why is it evil if the dwarves don't stink all the time?” asked Dandy. “I use up seven types of perfumed soap myself, depending on the occasion, of course.”
“It's an important part of being a dwarf!” snarled Noreach. He took a step towards Dandy only to stop when Amiable reached out to put a hand on his shoulder. He threw Amiable a relieved glance before turning his ire back towards Dandy. “To be a registered Dwarf one must be no taller than five foot nine, one must have a beard one foot or more in length, one must have a high tolerance for alcohol and low tolerance for damn fool Elves, and most importantly, one must smell like a Dwarf. They don't hand out Dwarving permits to just any malodorous drunken midget that stumbles in!”
The Goon brothers finally noticed his tone and stepped between Noreach and Dandy. Dandy was pleasantly surprised that his bodyguards remembered for whom they worked and beamed at the pair of them.
“The Sedai weren't evil.” said Selfless. “Just a waste of time. Making up secrets just to hide them, denying everything so that nobody could take anything they said seriously, giving out advice they know won't be followed, and hiding from anyone who actually wanted their advice. Not evil, just a waste of time.”
“If they were so paranoid, how come they made the building so ... obvious?” asked Adolescent.
“They didn't,” said Selfless, smiling bemusedly at the question. “Even in death they try to be enigmatic. Chapter Three is actually in Another City. This building was mostly storerooms for Chapter Nine and a Chapter Four meeting hall, which is where we're going. The 'art' you saw was part of a city beautification program. It was either repaint this building or pave Dirt Road, which the city could never bring itself to do. The others are waiting for us inside the conference room.” Selfless pointed at one of the beige doors and waited until Idiot had opened it and passed through before lowering his arm.

Goe, only 45976 words to go!

Marx, Karl, the least funny brother

a week or so ago i thought that i should actually read the communist manifesto so that i can better rub commie's noses in their own crap. while trying to refind the place i was reading it at before i opened up a page to marxism.org. It's a collection of mailing lists, the most prominant of one requires "Determination • Humility • Militancy • Maturity". At least those people realize that they're fascist fucktards and being able to fight is important to fascist fucktards.

The modern labourer, on the contrary, instead of rising with the process of industry, sinks deeper and deeper below the conditions of existence of his own class. He becomes a pauper, and pauperism develops more rapidly than population and wealth. And here it becomes evident, that the bourgeoisie is unfit any longer to be the ruling class in society, and to impose its conditions of existence upon society as an over-riding law. It is unfit to rule because it is incompetent to assure an existence to its slave within his slavery, because it cannot help letting him sink into such a state, that it has to feed him, instead of being fed by him. Society can no longer live under this bourgeoisie, in other words, its existence is no longer compatible with society.

Is it just me or is Marx claiming that welfare is proof that the welfare state should be destroyed?

Goe, cause it's good to hate commies and the french.

More Stories

Up over at Back of the Envelope.

Goe, linking to the festival n stuff.

The Army of One

The army reserves are not a "broken force" according to the army, but they still need stop loss to keep strength up, and creative headcounting to make it look like they've got everyone they're supposed to.

Goe, cause the army of one has no reinforcements.

Local blogs

I read some local blogs. There's a website that lists a bunch of them, and links the most recent x many articles. Sometimes I look over the list, but most of the articles on any given day are about how much they hate Bush. Very few have anything to say about local stuff, and some aren't local at all but listed to drive up their traffic. The only thing I've done to drive up traffic is participate in the Storyblogging festivals, but even those only bring in a few people each story. Granted, the stories are probably better than most of my non-story posts =-]

Goe, pointing out a little smiley thingie up there in case you didn't notice.

News R Them

Watched ABC news this evening. The host person kept asking one of their 'reporters' about what the public wants from evil robot overlords (a.k.a. Disney). the 'reporter' started every sentence with "we want" like the 'reporter' was part of the public and wants to buy new stuff every other week because steve jobs decided an upgrade was necessary and the host person was some alien planet where people don't replace their gadgets until the gadgets stop working. why can't the media find people with intelligent opinions who aren't either repeating press releases or conspiracy theories.

Goe, finds it hard to take the media seriously.

Giving the bastards more!

Because apparently Czechoslovakia isn't enough.

Goe, can't go along with appeasement.

Spaceships

Why do sci-fi stories have so many spaceships named after sci-fi writers? I don't think anybody's got a ship named after Shakespeare.

Goe, thinks incestuous literary references are overdone.

Libertarians

Libertarians have been bothering me lately. Not in person, more in concept. I used to vote for libertarians in local elections, and seriously considered voting for their 2004 presidential candidate. I didn't because their presidential candidate thought that we should pretend the WTC attacks didn't happen and ignore the rest of the world. Isolationism only works as a foreign policy when you've got nothing anybody else wants, and people want our land, our money, and our stuff.

It's been bothering me more and more that very few libertarians can't discuss their philosophy without pushing either drug legalization or 'free love'. I'm being left with an impression that is growing ever stronger, that libertarians are nothing more than hippies who bathe.

Goe, supports killing bad guys.

It turns out...

Overall, the average literacy of college students is significantly higher than that of adults across the nation. Study leaders said that was encouraging but not surprising, given that the spectrum of adults includes those with much less education.

College students aren't as stupid as everyone else.

Nearing a diploma, most college students cannot handle many complex but common tasks, from understanding credit card offers to comparing the cost per ounce of food.

But it's a low standard to beat.

Meanwhile, people in the Ivory Coast have figured out that France and the United Nations are wrong. Not wrong on any specific issue, but just wrong in being.

I doubt frogs are hopping around Paris yelling 'No Blood for Chocolate!'

Goe, been reading.

festivus

storyblogging festival is up.

Goe, prefers them with descriptions.

Reading and Writing

I normally don't read muc aside from online news stories. The most recent exception being the Wheel of Time series, of which I read every book this last December. Publishers are having trouble getting people to buy books, blaming the multitude of other forms of entertainment for stealing away their audiences. It turns out that even die-hard book fans aren't getting what they used to.

Goe, sees many opportunities that he can't exploit.