] A new book by the senior Central Intelligence Agency
] officer who headed a special office to track Osama bin
] Laden and his followers warns that the United States is
] losing the war against radical Islam and that the
] invasion of Iraq has only played into the enemy's hands.

The New York Times - Intelligence Insider: Book by C.I.A. Officer Says U.S. Is Losing Fight Against Terror

Seeing as I'm sitting here reading Supreme Court decisions I figured I ought to read this Hiibel decision. IMHO, the majority opinion is non-sentical. Basically they say that its constitutional for a state to have a law which requires you to provide your name, unless providing your name could incriminate you, in which case they'd be happy to hear you argument.

I think we ought to have a standard which says that laws are either constitutional or they are not. I don't think its reasonable to say that the law is constitutional unless circumstances prove otherwise, in which case I guess the government isn't supposed to apply it. How would this work in practice?

If I'm being interrogated by a police officer and my name is incriminating information, and I refuse it, and they charge me with failure to provide my name, how am I to challenge the constitutionality of their requirement unless I demonstrate that my name is, in fact, incriminating (and therefore incriminate myself)?

] In Boston the liberty of the press is now completely
] abolished; and hence all other privileges and rights
] of the people will in a short time be destroyed.

Justice Thomas's concurrence on this case provides an interesting history lesson on anonymous speech in the early days of the nation.

McIntyre v. Ohio Elections Commission Opinion(Concurrence, Justice Thomas)

] Shocked, awed, and appalled. Thats the only way
] that I can express how I felt when I read PFIR's
] Statement on Access to WHOIS Data.

I anyone is interested, I just publicly flamed Lauren Weinstien, Peter Neumann, and Dave Farber. Please direct hatemail to my memebox.

If anyone is interested...

George Orwell:

] The majority of pacifists either belong to obscure
] religious sects or are simply humanitarians who object to
] taking life and prefer not to follow their thoughts
] beyond that point. But there is a minority of
] intellectual pacifists, whose real though unacknowledged
] motive appears to be hatred of western democracy and
] admiration for totalitarianism. Pacifist propaganda
] usually boils down to saying that one side is as bad as
] the other, but if one looks closely at the writing of the
] younger intellectual pacifists, one finds that they do
] not by any means express impartial disapproval but are
] directed almost entirely against Britain and the United
] States

The only point the left is earning here is that most Republicans are too stupid to think critically about their own pundits. Congradulations Democrats, you've now lowered yourself to their level.

Unfairenheit 9/11 - The lies of Michael Moore. By Christopher Hitchens

] A divided U.S. Supreme Court ruled on Monday that people
] are required to identify themselves when asked to do so
] by police, and rejected arguments that it violates their
] constitutional rights to privacy and to remain silent.

There are very serious problems with this ruling. For example, the Supreme court has ruled that I am not required to identify myself when distributing political pamphlets. This ruling seems to contradict that ruling.

Supreme Court rules that your must identify yourself to police!!

] Rocket plane SpaceShipOne reached an altitude above 62.5
] miles (100 km) during its brief flight Monday morning,
] making it the first privately built craft to fly in
] space, controllers said.

] Shortly after, the space vehicle landed safely at the
] same place from which it took off.

Welcome to the era of corporate space. Lets hope science fiction has properly prepared us.

CNN.com - Private craft flies into space - Jun 21, 2004

] Herein is the sordid tale (posted last night to Dave
] Farber's "IP" list) of what recently happened to me --
] and my narrow escape -- when Viacom/MTV Networks came
] calling, asking for my help to educate the world's youth
] about important topics (in this case, the scourge of
] spam). Be warned. It could happen to you!"

This is entertaining. So, this morning I read Weinstein's post about getting duped by this comedy central show. Then I do some digging and find some comments from a few people who actually went on the show and got made fun of. (One ignorant right winger in particular felt the show was a left wing conspiracy. Sorry, dear, the asshatness seems to be multi-partisan. Weinstein is nearly as liberal as sane people get.) In any event, now this has made Slashdot. Not everyone reads Slashdot. Ali-G has proven that you can be a well known asshat and people still won't know who you are. Of course, the difference here is that Ali-G is actually funny and I think his victims see the humor in it in the end. This show seems to be pissing its victims off. And so the internet has outed the show. I wonder how long it will last before they can't get experts to mock anymore.

Slashdot | Lauren Weinstein: If MTV Calls, Hang Up

] To use the "Wiki It!" bookmarklet, simply highlight the
] word or words you wish to look up, and click the
] bookmarklet. A separate, minimalist window will open with
] the Wikipedia entry for it.

] Just drag the Wiki It! link onto your personal toolbar.
] It has been tested on Mozilla 1.5 on Linux and Windows
] systems, as well as Firefox 0.7, and Internet Explorer 6.
]

Most Significant Bit :: Wikipedia Bookmarklet

] SPF is harmful. The architectural ramifications of it
] are so extensive and will have such significant changes
] on the ways that people can access and can use Internet
] mail, that it would actually be less costly to switch to
] an entirely new architecture such as IM2000 Internet mail
] than it would be to switch to SPF and deal with all of
] its consequences properly.

Hrm. This website makes a compelling case that the rush to adopt SPF is premature.

FGA: SPF is harmful. Adopt it.