The President is on the Radio

And holy crap, he just lied and badmouthed the press, trying to tag them all as "opposing democracy".

He said (approximately) "There was a period of reporting where people were saying things like 'Democracy won't work for these people, what was he thinking?'"

While there may be a few people who said that, that's NEVER been the main criticism of his Iraq plan. The real criticisms have been of the lies and the incompetence involved in it. So now the President is up there defaming the press at a press conference, and lying to do so. Wow. Just wow.

Tags: Politics

About that press conference.

It turns out the reason Bush was on TV was a press conference announcing John Negroponte as the new National Intelligence Director.

The same John Negroponte who was involved in Iran Contra and death squads in Nicaragua. The same John Negroponte who staffed the US embassy in Iraq with partisan hacks rather than people hired for their skills.

I mean, hell. Is there anyone left in the administration who wasn't involve in Iran Contra and wasn't like sixteen when it happened? They really don't care any more, do they?

Tags: Politics

Harry Potter

Why DO the wizards in Harry Potter go to such lengths to stay out of sight to Muggles? I mean, seriously, WTF? You've got MAGIC, you can stop pollution, cure diseases, work with people to discover new things! Why all the skulking about behind secret cover, for the good guys AND the bad guys? Blah blah blah persecution, blah blah blah fear, I mean seriously, WTF? They work with the government to cover up the existence of magic and not actually, y'know, provide anything for anybody. There's no point to that.

Tags: Mindscribbles

A quote

"Science fiction is the genre that posits the slim possibility that children might -- sometimes -- be capable of learning from the mistakes of their parents. That people may someday be better than us, even partly on account of our efforts.

They may no longer need kings. They may, each of them, be capable of rising up and being heroes." - David Brin

Tags: Mindscribbles, Quotes

I feel stupid posting a link from boingboing, but whatcha gonna do?

Cory Doctorow has a new short story, I, Robot. It's good. You should read it.

And while I was reading it, it kept reminding me of A Miracle of Science, mainly because of the semi-similarity of the settings and the characters. A cop, in a sci-fi world, and with Mars standing in for Eurasia. And A Miracle of Science is a good webcomic, I suggest reading it too.

They're just superficial "looks like" similarities, mostly, but still. They're both good, so there you go.

Tags: Links, Mindscribbles

This shit is insane

Okay, seriously. Sane conservatives, I know there's a few of you out there, this has to stop. The whole "with us or against us" crock has gotten to the point where idiots are accusing Jimmy Carter of being "on the other side". Matt Yglesias has an update here, I'm not going to link to the original post that sparked it, because I don't want to bump them up Google. Though maybe I should help googlebomb them with something unflattering.

Seriously, this isn't new. Rush Limbaugh's been doing it for years. Ann Coulter, Sean Hannity, and Bill O'Reilly have all ridden this to bestsellers. These people are ignorant, foaming at the mouth, shitheads. If there's any sane conservatives out there, by not speaking against these things, by letting these people get into the positions they are, by apologizing for Rush Limbaugh's, Michael Savage's, and Fox News's hate and lie spewing, you've aided and abetted them. So they're on "your side". BFD. They're liars, hatemongers, and propagandists of the worst stripe. They are the mouth of the GOP now. And if you want to say "We're not like that," or "we're different, or anything like that, it's exposed as the lie it is. The right hauls up powerless fringe characters like Ward Churchill, and then says all liberals are like them.

I'm not taking this shit any more. America was not founded in hate-spewing and propaganda. Those aren't our values. If you ever want to start acting like rational people again, maybe we'll talk, but for now, you're all the enemy, because you won't stop them. Not even when the President, the VP, and the rest of the Administration lie about weapons, lie about people, and uses proxies of vicious slander like the Swift Boat Veterans.

If somebody wants to provide actual evidence of anything that could be considered trafficing with enemies, feel free. Things like, oh, I dunno, selling arms to terrorists, or drugs to other terrorists, or weapons to dictators, or that kind of thing. (No, I'm not thinking of anybody in particular, who, me?)

Tags: Politics

A note to the people who made Lain

There's other methods of storytelling than having characters sit and tell each other all sorts of philosophical jibber-jabber.

Also, a quiz! Slow pacing for effect, or for using less animation cells?

Tags: Mindscribbles

A random thought

If we weren't all buying useless shit we don't need, the American economy would fall completely apart.

Tags: Mindscribbles

This is not my beautiful house

I think I'm living in an alternate dimension. Things got crossed up somewhere along the way. I distinctly remember the Internet that was going to be a great virtual space, where we'd all be flying around as disembodied brains or characters from TRON, and also be living on the moon with flying cars. Who do I go to to complain? Somebody gave me a ticket to the wrong future.

Tags: Mindscribbles