] I am sorry to report that much of Elena's story is not
] true. She did not travel around the zone by herself on a
] motorcycle. Motorcycles are banned in the zone, as is
] wandering around alone, without an escort from the zone
] administration. She made one trip there with her husband
] and a friend. They traveled in a Chornobyl car that
] picked them up in Kyiv.
]
] She did, however, bring a motorcycle helmet. They
] organized their trip through a Kyiv travel agency and the
] administration of the Chornobyl zone (and not her
] father). They were given the same standard excursion that
] most Chernobyl tourists receive. When the Web site
] appeared, Zone Administration personnel were in an uproar
] over who approved a motorcycle trip in the zone. When it
] turned out that the motorcycle story was an invention,
] they were even less pleased about this fantasy Web site.
]
] Because of those problems, Elena and her husband have
] changed the Web site and the story considerably in the
] last few days. Earlier versions of the narrative lied
] more blatantly about Elena taking lone motorcycle trips
] in the zone. That has been changed to merely suggest that
] she does so, which is still misleading.

The photos were very cool. However, everything else you know is a lie force fed to you by the KGB.

Boing Boing: 'Girl Photoblogs Chernobyl on Motorcycle' thing a fraud

A friend of mine sent me this link:
http://www.fbi.gov/terrorinfo/gadahn.htm

] Adam Yahiye Gadahn is being sought in connection with possible terrorist
] threats against the United States.

He thought it was entertaining because the guy looks like a typical suburban stoner. A web search on his name brings up an essay, linked here, that he wrote about becoming muslim:

] Having been around Muslims in my formative years, I knew
] well that they were not the bloodthirsty, barbaric
] terrorists that the news media and the televangelists
] paint them to be.

Dude, you're wanted by the FBI for connections to terrorism! Muslims aren't the bloodthirsty, barbaric terrorists that the news media and the televangelists talk about, you are!*

*Fine Print: All suspects apprehended on Cops are innocent until proven guilty in a court of laaauwww.

FBI searches for Stoner - Metal Head - Islamic Terrorist

] In press conferences, TV ads, and interviews this year,
] President Bush has manifested a series of
] psychopathologies: an abstract notion of reality,
] confidence unhinged from facts and circumstances, and a
] conception of credibility that requires no correspondence
] to the external world. Tonight, as he vowed to stay the
] course in Iraq, Bush demonstrated another mental defect:
] incomprehension of his role in history as a fallible
] human agent. Absent such comprehension, Bush can't fix
] his mistakes in Iraq because he can't see how or even
] that”he screwed up.

Thats pretty much how I feel about the present spin work that Bush is engaged in. The situation in Iraq is fucked up. I want to see changes on the ground. Spin doctoring doesn't influence me.

But the American people's attention span is about 1 week long, so I'm sure this thrust will improve his numbers domestically. It would be really neat if he could change the perceptions in the minds of people actually in Iraq, but that remains to be seen. I told someone a few days ago that I wish that I could fast forward three or four months. The uncertainty right now is unbearable. It will either completely improve in that timeframe, or we'll have completely lost control. Either way, we'll know whats up.

MSNBC - About last night

] This morning, I asked a Defense Department spokesperson
] whether or not the reports of a phonecam ban were true.
] This spokesperson said that these reports were
] technically inaccurate -- that the Pentagon is not
] issuing a new ban on camera phones per se, but that a
] Directive 8100.2 was issued on April 14 establishing new
] restrictions on wireless telecommunications equipment in
] general.

Better information about the DOD phonecam ban.

Boing Boing: Camera phones in Iraq; digicams and truth in wartime

] Pushed by their government, Chinese firms are shunning
] technological protocols invented abroad and developing
] their own.
]
] They want Chinese-made video discs to run on
] Chinese-invented players. They want Chinese consumers
] linking up with China-developed mobile gadgets.

A very interesting strategy. If Chinese people have Chinese electronics that only communicate using Chinese protocols then incompatibility will limit their exposure to "corrupt" western culture.

CNEWS - Tech News: China seeks to develop its own technology standards

] by Kurt Vonnegut
]
] Many years ago, I was so innocent I still considered it
] possible that we could become the humane and reasonable
] America so many members of my generation used to dream
] of. We dreamed of such an America during the Great
] Depression, when there were no jobs. And then we fought
] and often died for that dream during the Second World
] War, when there was no peace.
]
] But I know now that there is not a chance in hell of
] America's becoming humane and reasonable. Because
] power corrupts us, and absolute power corrupts
] absolutely. Human beings are chimpanzees who get crazy
] drunk on power. By saying that our leaders are
] power-drunk chimpanzees, am I in danger of wrecking the
] morale of our soldiers fighting and dying in the Middle
] East? Their morale, like so many bodies, is already shot
] to pieces. They are being treated, as I never was, like
] toys a rich kid got for Christmas

(No, I don't "agree" with this essay. But it is Kurt Vonnegut. And it is entertaining.)

Cold Turkey

Islamists believe that the Church can go hand in hand with Science.

How do you explain that the need for intellectual objectivity in the pursuit of science exists regardless of culture when the person you are speaking to is operating under a belief system?

Islamists believe that you can stop theft by cutting off people's arms.

How do you explain that they are solving a minor problem by teaching people to resolve differences with extreme violence? How can you show them that this is the origin of other violent tendencies in their culture when your own culture still has the death penalty and doesn't understand it. How can you prove to them that they are frequently dismembering innocent people when they believe their government is run by god and is beyond question.

Islamists don't believe in the separation of Church and State.

How do you explain that god really isn't guiding the hands of their leaders when you can't explain this to people who live in the South Eastern United States?

Why don't we see more essays from Islamists? We read western authors all the time. We know the Islamists are on the internet. Where is the dialog, anyway? I haven't read an Islamist author since the last time I was in Malaysia. Maybe I ought to start reading their paper. I'll bet its online in English.

Even if we had dialog, how do you tackle the problem of absolute beliefs? I can't even do it amongst my friends.

This is not a war that will be won with bullets. Bullets are required, but they are not the answer. This war, like every war, is a war that will be won with words. It will be won in the hearts and minds of people who might consider radical Islam. Like every war.

Are we fighting it? Do we know how?

] Presented with such a stark choice, voters appeared
] likely to support the ruling conservative party,
] notwithstanding its Iraq policy, just as they did last
] year in local and regional elections. In those elections,
] held days after the suicide attacks in Casablanca, which
] included the bombing of the Casa de España, the war in
] Iraq played as big a role as, if not a bigger role than,
] it did in the national elections of March 14. Indeed José
] Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, the Socialist leader and now
] incoming prime minister, tried to make those elections a
] referendum on José María Aznar's policies on
] international and domestic terrorism, but voters sided
] with the government.

I collected a bunch of essays in response to Oaknet's post that the bombings on 3/11 had no impact on the election in Spain.

I don't like this essay, per say. It attempts to argue that the government in Spain didn't mislead people in the wake of the attack about who was responsible. It did. You were there. I was arguing against the ETA hypothesis on MemeStreams long before it was widely accepted that the ETA wasn't responsible, and I don't even live on the same side of the Atlantic.

But, this essay did make me think. Spain is libertarian.

Spain has two main parties. The republicans (essentially) and the socialists. Most Spaniards don't agree with the position of the conservatives on Iraq. But they consistently vote for them anyway. The reason is that they support the conservatives successful economic programs, and they care more about the economy then they do about the war.

The bombing didn't shift their opinions so much as it shifted their PRIORITIES. They concluded that Iraq was more important then the economy. So they voted for the guy who was going to give them the Iraq policy that they wanted, despite giving them an economic policy that they don't want, rather then the guy who was giving them the Iraq policy that they didn't want and the economic policy they liked.

Spain is libertarian. If a candidate appeared on the scene there who was opposed to the Iraq war but ran a capitalist economy, he'd win.

Also, Al'Q likely knew this. All Spain needed was a priority shift. A terrorist attack will do that. Spain was low hanging fruit for Al'Q. Their minds were already made up.

Al'Q will not touch Spain again now that it has withdrawn from Iraq. Doing so would let the spanish people know that in or out of Iraq, Al'Q is still a threat to them. Al'Q would rather they believe its America's problem. I don't think that Spain, France, Germany, or Canada is in the firing line. The UK is. Russia is, but for unrelated reasons. Al'Q would rather everyone believe that they are America's problem. At least for the medium term.

It was a win for Al'Q. There is no doubting that. But it wasn't the bombing that really did it, ultimately. It was our failure to properly communicate the threat the Al'Q represents to the European street. Our failure to coherently explain what the hell we are doing in Iraq (in this context the we is required. Bush represents you.). Our failure to be diplomatic.

BTW, Bush's approval rating has dropped below 40%. He has a big problem. Al'Q might help him out a bit with it. An attack will drive the U.S. right.... like clockwork...

Who Misled Whom in Spain?

] MBTA transit police confirmed yesterday they will begin
] stopping passengers for identification checks at various
] T locations, apparently as part of new national rail
] security measures following the deadly terrorist train
] bombings in Spain.
]
] Although officials would release few details about the
] initiative, the identity checks will mark the first time
] local rail and subway passengers will be asked to produce
] identification and be questioned about their activities.

Boston.com / News / Local / MBTA set to begin passenger ID stops

] In "Fahrenheit 9/11," we see the actual dying, of
] American troops and Iraqi civilians alike, with all the
] ripped flesh and spilled guts that the violence of war
] entails. We also see some of the 4,000-plus
] American casualties: those troops hidden away in clinics
] at Walter Reed and at Blanchfield Army Community Hospital
] in Fort Campbell, Ky., where they try to cope with nerve
] damage and multiple severed limbs.

Most detailed review I've read...

Michael Moore's Candid Camera