There are two sorts of people in the information-age elite, spreadsheet people and paragraph people.

This is cute, but not particularly rigorous. It's really a set-up for the letters that would surely follow -- and they did.

As expected, the spreadsheet people rush in to nitpick the column, pointing out problems with the data, citing counterexamples, and more. By comparison, the paragraph people argue that the framework itself is flawed, or that blue is really red.

Ruling Class War

] Amendment supporters contend the flag deserves special
] protection as an important national symbol, while
] opponents, including Kerry, have argued that flag
] desecration can be punished under criminal statutes
] without tampering with the Constitution.

In other words, no one is interested in the idea that flag desecration is protected speech.

] The flag proposal, which would empower Congress to
] ban desecration of the U.S. flag, would be the second
] GOP-sponsored constitutional amendment to come to a vote
] in the Senate this year.

Except this one has passed the house, and has support from all 50 state legislatures. We are literally within a handful of Senate votes of flushing the first amendment down the toilet.

Think about it this way. These same people who don't have the basic intellectual capacity to parse their way through the implications of a flag amendment are making all of the important decisions concerning our foreign policy in the middle east, decisions which if made incorrectly will easily plunge the entire world into total war.

To me this is amendment is a symbol. It symbolizes the fact that our society does not know right from wrong. It we can pass it, we can do anything.

Kerry, Edwards and Daschle May Face Vote on Flag (washingtonpost.com)

] A television journalist was shot dead as he made a live
] broadcast from Baghdad yesterday when United States
] helicopters fired on a crowd that had gathered round the
] burning wreckage of an American armoured vehicle.

BBC footage of this was floating around yesterday which shows US helicopters straifing a crowd in the street that had gathered around a burning US armored vehicle. (See DrudgeReport) A very unfriendly area, but its clear that there were civilians in the crowd.

Telegraph | News | TV reporter killed by US fire during live Baghdad broadcast

] Whether it did or did not, the fact that the U.S. did not
] criticize or in any way express disagreement with the
] pardons conflicts with, and in fact undercuts, the U.S.
] position against terrorism. President Bush has said over
] and over again that anyone who supports a terrorist,
] anyone who harbors a terrorist, is a terrorist.

Bush family shows its double standard: South Florida Sun-Sentinel

] There is something terribly wrong when the United States,
] after Sept. 11, fails to condemn the pardoning of
] terrorists and instead allows them to walk free on U.S.
] streets.

Moral Misstep (washingtonpost.com)

] Venezuelan condemned the United States for providing
] asylum to at least three Cuban dissidents accused of
] terror acts, El Universal newspaper reports.

Venezuelan slams the U.S. on asylum - (United Press International)

] For a small but powerful minority in the Cuban American
] community, the Posada gang are freedom fighters. But
] Sept. 11 taught the rest of us about the danger of
] political fanatics who seek to rationalize their
] violence. To uphold his oft-stated principle that no
] nation can be neutral in the war on terrorism, shouldn't
] President Bush have condemned Moscoso's decision to
] release these terrorists? To protect the sanctity of U.S.
] borders and the security of Americans, shouldn't the
] administration have taken all available steps to keep
] known terrorists out of the United States?

There seems to be some meat to this story. Two weeks ago Panama suddenly pardoned four men who apparently have very long, violent terrorist rap sheets. Three of them were happily admitted into the US. No problem.

Regardless of what you think of Castro, it must go without saying that blowing up airplanes and an attempted assasination by blowing up a meeting with college students are not acceptable, legal means of warfare, and those responsible for that kind of violence should not be protected by this country. What the fuck!?

LATimes via Daily Kos :: Amid Cheers, Terrorists Have Landed in the U.S.

] Those with money and power are approaching Hari
] Seldonesque abilities, gradually steering public opinion
] using knowledge of how groups think, and I only see that
] trend increasing as basic human instincts are
] incorporated into more realistic game theory models.
] Individuals, on the other hand, often don't have the time
] and/or inclination to dig into any particular issue for
] themselves - meaning that many people will tend to
] make decisions using the very instincts that are most
] easily manipulated.

John Shirley asks several scifi authors about the future.

Locus Online: John Shirley: Global to Local

Safer, more family-friendly, environmentally conscious and orderly, Black Rock City has evolved into a lovely place to live.

Burning man is a family oriented event? McDonald's cannot be far behind.

The Taming of the Burn

The libertarian party's platform.

Pros: I think his comments on civil liberties, the draft, the rights of the accused, and other social issues resonate with me more strongly then what I'm hearing from other candidates. There are some interesting ideas in here about criminal justice.

Cons: The emphasis on Gun Control is totally out of place. That is not the most important issue on the table today. Furthermore, he shares the blind faith in privately funded institutions being "always better" then government organizations that the republicans have. In some cases this is very true. In others, there are problems. Show me someone who operates a private charity and thinks welfare would work as a private charity. I'll show you someone who should go ahead and start a privately funded welfare program. There is nothing stopping you, and if its effective people might adopt it. It would reduce the need for the government programs gradually. Fact is it won't be effective, and that cuts to the heart of the problem with the libertarian philosophy.

The libertarians let their ideas override reality. People know that some of this stuff won't work, and so the whole party comes off as a bunch of kooky radicals rather then a serious alternative. The fact is that most people in this country don't like either the fundies or the socialists. If the libertarians were willing to start from the middle and push things out in their direction based on practical experience.... If they were willing to operate government programs until alternatives are proven... If they could provide a truly moderate presidential candidate.... If...

Michael Badnarik - Libertarian for President