I am definitely checking back on christmas day just to ensure of its validity. Anyway - a bit of christmas fun:) I love how subtle it is...

And now....time for christmas antics...

Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul made history Sunday by raising $6 million in online contributions in 24 hours, breaking the record for the most money raised by a national candidate in a single day, and potentially putting Paul on track to surpass the fourth quarter fund raising of all of his competitors in both parties.

The $6 million number beats the 2004 record set by Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry...

"What he has done is establish himself as a major candidate, and he's no longer a fringe voice," says Corrado.

"One of the most important things Ron Paul does, which I think is a service to all of us, is to bring back on the table a lot of ideas that the MSM and most candidates treat as off the table," says Zephyr Teachout, a visiting assistant law professor at Duke University who directed internet organizing for Howard Dean's 2004 presidential campaign.

This datapoint is simply further evidence that Ron Paul is this season's Howard Dean. As we get further into the primary season there will be a concerted effort by the establishment to shut this down. If he makes it into March he'll be in uncharted waters.

His candidacy, as Dean's before it, represents the power of grass roots media to make opinions, but in the early days of broadcast media in the 1930's an inexperienced culture created a cult of personality around politicians like Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini. I fear that this case is similar. His campaign's success is a combination of anti-immigration xenophobia and nationalistic fevor (painted with imagry of the founding fathers and the overuse of the word freedom without real meaning).

Mother Jones published an excellent ven diagram which illustrates the difference between Ron Paul's positions and Libertarian thought. Ironically they drew their diagram such that Ron Paul's name appears exactly where libertarians put Hilter in their own political diagrams.

Now, I'm not saying that Ron Paul is going to start overfunding the military and running death camps, but if you don't beleive in the doctrine of incorporation, you're sure as hell not a libertarian.

Ron Paul Supporters Make History with $6 Million Online Haul -- Updated | Threat Level from Wired.com

A veterinary's arm dripping in a crocodile's mouth in southern Taiwan, China, April 11, 2007. The veterinary's arm was bitten off while he was treating the injured crocodile.

Many of the others are almost as disturbing...

Best AFP photos 2007_English_Xinhua

By STEPHEN S. ROACH
Published: December 16, 2007

This recession will be deeper than the shallow contraction earlier in this decade.

You Can Almost Hear It Pop - New York Times

w1ld wrote:
Good message, but why does Jim have to yell so much??

Everyone in the Wallstreet media yells. They yell on CNBC too. I guess they are trying to sound like traders. It is annoying.

Flynn23 recently asked me what the impact of the Ron Paul campaign would be. Could the impact be the idea that it becomes more acceptable to criticise the federal reserve system? It strikes me that the "open process" that Cramer seems to desire is FAR less radical than Paul's objective.

YouTube - Ron Paul on Mad Money with Jim Cramer 12-14-07

"It's only when the markets are perceived to have exhausted themselves on the downside that they turn," he said. "Trying to prevent them from going down just merely prolongs the agony."

Taken as a general principal that argument is anarchocapitalist.

Greenspan sees early signs of U.S. stagflation: Reuters Business News - MSN Money

Adel Hamad was a teacher of elementary school orphans, a hospital worker, and someone who coordinated the delivery of food, medicine and blankets to refugees. He has been imprisoned for 5 years and classified as an enemy combatant, despite the lack of any allegations or evidence that he ever acted against the U.S. or its allies, or even had political sympathies for those who did. His friends and colleagues describe him as a funny, apolitical man who loved charity work and ping-pong. One of the U.S. Army Majors at his Tribunal called his detention unconscionable.

The reason we have to deny process to people in Guantanimo is that we're trying to hold people like this that we have no reason to hold. This person was released today, after being held for 5 years.

Project Hamad

JazzMutant's Lemur is clearly the most enhanced and innovative controller device ever created for musicians, sound designers and sound engineers, composers, video and multi-media artists, djs and show control operators. Innovative concept, unique and pioneering multitouch sensor technology, multi target networking plus high performance value combined with ease of use are some but few features that place this next-generation controller in a league of its own.

This is definately the year for ultra cool midi interfaces. This one is a completely user programmable touch screen that can pretty much do whatever you imagine. Lots of videos in Youtube of it's operation.

For a third of the price you can also buy the Tenori-on, which is a less configurable but still very cool interface.

Matrixes of LED buttons cover the front and back surfaces and light up as you touch them, so you can visualize the music while you're composing.

JazzMutant Lemur

Now, under traditional FISA rules and the Restore Act, the NSA can listen in on phone calls of foreigners outside the country without a warrant. They can also wiretap internet fiber optic cables outside the United States without a warrant. They can bribe a foreign ISP to help them read foreigners' emails without a warrant. After much back and forth, Hoekstra's spokesman admitted as much.

So how could Hoekstra defend Klein's writing that the Restore Act "would require the surveillance of every foreign-terrorist target's call to be approved by the FISA Court."

Well, Hoekstra (and the National Review) didn't tell you that they weren't using the dictionary definition of surveillance. They aren't using the term as you and I and the rest of the country (excepting a handful of D.C. lawyers) understand it.

Instead, Hoekstra was using FISA's definition of surveillance, which, as one of the law's oddities, says that listening in on foreigners' phone calls from taps outside the country or wiretapping the internet in a foreign country isn't surveillance.

Surveillance Doesn't Mean What You Think It Means | Threat Level from Wired.com

Read the following with a British accent for full effect:

Today is the fourth day of ownership of my pen, and I have to say I'm starting to treat it like an old friend. I walk around the office with it clipped in to my shirt pocket and someone in the accounts department actually asked to borrow it while we were both standing at the photocopier. Would you believe it, they actually tried to walk away with my pen! They were very embarrassed when I called after them as they walked down the corridor and asked for it back. You will be happy to know that it is now back, safe and sound in my top pocket, ready and waiting to start writing again.

I highly recommend you read the first two reviews at least. Who knew a simple bic pen could open a gateway to hell!

Amazon.co.uk: Bic Crystal ballpoint pen, medium point, black, EACH: Electronics & Photo