We all thought there was weapons there, Robin. My opponent thought there was weapons there. That's why he called him a grave threat. I wasn't happy when we found out there wasn't weapons, and we've got an intelligence group together to figure out why.

Okay, so let me make sure I understand this. You feared for the safety of the American public. Your fear was founded on the belief that Iraq had WMD. When you found out that Iraq did not have WMD, what was your reaction? A sigh of relief, perhaps, for the safety of the American public? No. Your reaction was unhappiness. Anger.

So you were more angry about being wrong than you were happy about being safe? Is that right?

Hrm.

The Presidential Candidates' 2nd Debate

Paul Bremer writes:

The press has been curiously reluctant to report my constant public support for the president's strategy in Iraq and his policies to fight terrorism. I have been involved in the war on terrorism for two decades, and in my view no world leader has better understood the stakes in this global war than President Bush.

What I Really Said About Iraq

Ana Marie Cox, editor of Wonkette.com: Personal experience can often change political opinions. So, just hypothetically: Let's say your vice president's daughter was gay ... Oh, wait. Umm ... What if you were responsible for the biggest deficit in American history -- oh, ha. O.K.: Let's say you invaded a country based on faulty intelligence ... Er, oops ... No, we got it: How did "The Pet Goat" end, anyway?

Questions for Bush

"Signing Howard Stern is, without a doubt, the most exciting and transformational event in the history of radio," said Joseph Clayton, CEO of Sirius.

Howard Stern to Shift Show to Satellite Radio in 2006

Is this actually an escrow fund? It might be improper to call it a Defense Fund if you're just collecting donations without imposing legally binding limitations on the expenditure of funds.

Introducing: The MemeStreams Defense Fund (memestreams.org)

Books. It's what's for reading.

A brilliant book celebrating improbability as the engine that drives life, by the acclaimed author of The Selfish Gene and The Blind Watchmaker. The human eye is so complex and works so precisely that surely, one might believe, its current shape and function must be the product of design.

How could such an intricate object have come about by chance?

Tackling this subject -- in writing that the New York Times called "a masterpiece" -- Richard Dawkins builds a carefully reasoned and lovingly illustrated argument for evolutionary adaptation as the mechanism for life on earth.

The metaphor of Mount Improbable represents the combination of perfection and improbability that is epitomized in the seemingly "designed" complexity of living things.

Dawkins skillfully guides the reader on a breathtaking journey through the mountain's passes and up its many peaks to demonstrate that following the improbable path to perfection takes time.

Evocative illustrations accompany Dawkins's eloquent descriptions of extraordinary adaptations such as the teeming populations of figs, the intricate silken world of spiders, and the evolution of wings on the bodies of flightless animals.

And through it all runs the thread of DNA, the molecule of life, responsible for its own destiny on an unending pilgrimage through time. Climbing Mount Improbable is a book of great impact and skill, written by the most prominent Darwinian of our age.

<sarcasm> More than seven years after its publication, the probability that a scientifically literate person, X, has not encountered this book, Y, is vanishingly close to zero. </sarcasm>

Used paperbacks are available for $5. Can you spare $5?

This message brought to you by the Book People.

Climbing Mount Improbable

skullaria wrote:
] Indians are combing US job boards obviously looking for US jobs.
]
] Now exactly what about that is NOT competition?

Daniel Drezner has his points. He has a blog. Direct questions to him at his blog.

My point is not that outsourcing does not exist nor that it has a negligible effect on American lives. It does exist and its effects are real and significant, both in the US and around the world.

My point is that advocating reactionary strategies and policies is doomed to failure, especially in the long run if not even in the short run. In attempting to shield the US, you are not propping it up. You are drowning it. For every moment the US delays, hoping for a political bail-out that allows it to reject change and maintain the statuo quo, the US stands idly by while the other 95% of the world scrambles to overtake them. A growing number of nations are already ahead of the US in education, and now they're extending their lead.

The world is a tough place. Go read your Darwin. Cowboy up!

Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

No one said anything about a job.

RE: The Balance Sheet on Outsourcing

"As a friend of mine said, it takes half a second for a baby to throw up all over your sweater. It takes hours to get it clean."

Wired 12.10: The Crusade Against Evolution

Busted! by the DMCA.

More Troubles for Diebold

Times readers respond (rather quite predictibly) to Daniel Drezner's recent op-ed on outsourcing.

These people are in such denial!

The gang's all here, as if on public display. You have the lame, out-of-work ex-programmer who spent money on a "master's degree" in IT. (Yeah, that's right.) You have the Labor economist, the flag-waving DIYers, and the counter-corporeals. All that's missing is the foreign commentator who decries the new social divisions brought about by the influx of Western work to the developing country.

The Balance Sheet on Outsourcing