INDC Journal
May 30, 2006
Tuesday Music

Posted by Bill

Shoehorn: Shoehorn

(Quicktime required)

UPDATE: Did we mention that weed kills cancer?

Posted by Bill at 09:21 PM | Comments (26) | TrackBack (1)
More 9/11 Conspiracy Debunking

Posted by Dorkafork

One of the most dry and comprehensive debunkings of 9/11 conspiracy theories can be found here. (That's the first of the 3 part series.) The series is a debunking of the "Loose Change" video, complete with time indexes of the claims being debunked. This one made me laugh:

00:12:30 The filmmakers quote an October 12, 2001 Parade interview with Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld in which Rumsfeld says, "Here we're talking about plastic knives, and using an American Airlines flight filled with our citizens, and the missile to damage this building..."

I am not sure what the point is of citing this simple slip of the tongue, unless the filmmakers mean to imply that one of the chief plotters of the most extensive, diabolical and secret conspiracies in the history of the human race accidentally gave the whole thing away in a quote to Parade magazine.

(As excellent as it is, I get the feeling it won't change this guy's mind.)

Posted by Dorkafork at 06:02 PM | Comments (22) | TrackBack (3)
Quick Links

Posted by Bill

*** Blackfive:

Google news on Peralta and you'll find only a few items. You'll find more from around the time of the Battle of Fallujah but not much esle. Rafael Peralta doesn't even have a Wikipedia entry.

But my kids will know Rafael Peralta - I'll make sure of it.


*** The Commissar examines one argument against global warming and finds it wanting.


*** Meanwhile, Florida Cracker fires off some zingers:

Every time Al Gore gets on a plane, a polar bear drowns.

I'm not sure of my opinion on global warming, but I know entertaining prose when I see it.


*** Star Trek: Cribs


*** Penn & teller debunk 9-11 conspiracy theories.


*** Hip haute couture in moonbat Sudamerica.


*** I like my testaments like I like my whiskey and women - old and brutal.

Posted by Bill at 09:54 AM | Comments (7) | TrackBack (1)
May 29, 2006


Posted by Bill

Memorial Day 2006

Take a moment to remember Dan Eggers and all of those like him.

Posted by Bill at 03:55 PM | Comments (5) | TrackBack (2)
May 28, 2006


Posted by Bill

Mary Jane: Is There Anything She Can't Do?!

"We hypothesized that there would be a positive association between marijuana use and lung cancer, and that the association would be more positive with heavier use," he said. "What we found instead was no association at all, and even a suggestion of some protective effect."
...
Earlier work established that marijuana does contain cancer-causing chemicals as potentially harmful as those in tobacco, he said. However, marijuana also contains the chemical THC, which he said may kill aging cells and keep them from becoming cancerous.

Now if only she didn't make me want to barricade myself in a bathroom with a can of Pringles and a loaded Sig Sauer, chambered and itching to deliver vengeance against those plotting against me.*

I'll stick with green tea, thank you.


* I mean, I'd imagine.**

** If I'd ever actually tried any.***

*** Weed, that is.

Via Teen Hearthrob Leif Garret, who has additional thoughts.

Read More


Posted by Bill at 08:49 PM | Comments (17) | TrackBack (3)
May 27, 2006
Found Wisdom of Patrick O'Brian

Posted by Bill

"Some of my best friends are Englishmen," continued Maturin. "Yet even the most valuable have this same vicious inclination to make a confused bellowing when they are happy. It is harmless enough in their own country, where the diet deadens the sensibilities, but it travels badly: it is perceived as a superabundancy of arrogance, and is resented more than many worse crimes. The Spaniard is a vile colonist, murderous, rapacious, cruel; but he is not heard to laugh. His arrogance is of a common, universal kind, and his presence is not resented in the same way as an Englishman's. Take the case of this island alone: it is scarcely a decade since the Navy rescued the people from the horrible tyranny of the French and filled the place with wealth rather than carrying away the treasures of the churches by the shipload, but already there is a great and growing discontent, and I believe the laughter has much to do with it."

-- O'Brian, writing Stephen Maturin's situationally testy perspective on culturally-based anti-Anglicanism in an early 19th Century Maltese port in 1983's Treason's Harbor. I believe that this description has certain amusing parallels 23 (and "196") years later.

Posted by Bill at 01:46 AM | Comments (40) | TrackBack (7)
May 26, 2006
Meanwhile, Democracy Fights to Take Root

Posted by Bill

Someone help me out here:

Blair and Bush Are Duo Even in Descent

By Glenn Kessler
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, May 26, 2006; Page A04

President Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair once bestrode the globe as powerful leaders who spoke boldly of bringing democracy to the Middle East. Now, dragged down by popular discontent over their adventure in Iraq, both have reached the lowest point of their careers.

I'm confused - is there an "editorial," "Op-Ed," or even mealy-mouthed "analysis" disclaimer that I'm missing in the run-up to the article's text? I'm not disparaging any rational analysis of Bush or Blair's current popularity (though I'd argue that the degree of Bush's problems have much more to do with immigration than anything else), but "over their adventure in Iraq[?]" The derision leaks off the page in an ostensible "news" hole, spurring reminiscence of what ticked me off so bad in '04. How superficial leftist snark boldly creeps into mainstream news - in a comparatively professional paper like the WaPo - will always baffle me, even as it infuriates.

Posted by Bill at 11:23 AM | Comments (22) | TrackBack (3)
May 25, 2006
Gentle Mischief

Posted by Bill

klika_ira.jpg
(Credit: Staff Sgt. Russell Lee Klika)

What a photo. See it in its intended, superior composition here.

Blackfive has two posts featuring the fantastic photography of SSG Russell Lee Kilka, who appears to be at home with a camera as well as a weapon.

UPDATE: Cracker's uncovered other brilliant photos.

Posted by Bill at 12:41 PM | Comments (5) | TrackBack (2)
Quick Links

Posted by Bill

*** Let's get some homework out of the way: I promised a series of posts about the NSA data mining program ... and I lied. But this deception wasn't born of malice, rather incorrigible laziness of both the intellectual and physical varieties - my typing fingers hurt something fierce, and it's well known that the act of poring through legal statutes eats little pieces of one's soul.

That said, I owe dorkafork his due, as the lil' scamp's post on the legal angle holds up in the face of all that I've read. Summarizing telephone record data mining: not afoul of the Fourth Amendment, may or may not snub FISA (opinions vary) and looks likely to violate the letter of several other statutes, including the Pen Register statute dorkafork mentioned, though perhaps not the intent - if identities are never attached to the numbers. All of these statutes can be circumvented by a warrant - though it's highly impractical to tell a judge that you're investigating all phone numbers in North America regarding a criminal investigation - or potentially by a claim of Executive wartime authority found in the Constitution.

Which, you know, is exactly the catch-all that gets certain leftists to convulse and spit frothy Beer Hall Putsch references, as well as legitimately presents the greatest avenue for abuse of executive power. Orin Kerr's got a detailed post on the matter, if that's your bag.

Of course, none of this changes my opinion on the utility or base necessity of data mining something as simple as phone record patterns as an element of domestic defense, and thus, I still regard dorkafork's overall position as nuttier than squirrel shit.


*** Donnah discovers a surprisingly engaging and difficult internet time waster.


*** Michele has changed her blog name and URL from "A Small Victory" to "Faster than the World," now featuring punk rock and fast cars.

Beats politics, though I've always found Orrin Hatch to be sort of "punk rock."


*** Ruthless, effective:


*** Jim Joyner is hosting a caption contest featuring Eurovision Song Contest winners and Finnish Gwar knock-offs "Lordi."

My entry:

lordi2.jpg

"No Blood for OIIIIIIIIIIIILLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL!"

Yeah, still a bit traumatized from all of that ANSWER protest coverage I did in '04.

Lordi's winning Eurovision song is as laughable as Dean says it is, featuring arguably the first lyrical use of the word "Arockalypse."

That said, this other video and song are actually fairly entertaining:

***WARNING: FOAM LATEX AND TERRIFYING UNDEAD***

***SERIOUSLY FOLKS, I AM NOT EFFING AROUND; I HAD NIGHTMARES ABOUT ITCHY FULL-BODY CHAFING AND LINGERING CONTACT EXCEMA AFTER WATCHING THIS CRAP***

Make sure to author your caption contest entries under the OTB post.

Posted by Bill at 09:33 AM | Comments (11) | TrackBack (0)
May 24, 2006
Video of Jesse MacBeth in Court

Posted by Dorkafork

Rare video footage of Jesse MacBeth in a court appearance is below.
****EXCLUSIVE TO INDCJOURNAL MUST CREDIT INDCJOURNAL****

Posted by Dorkafork at 09:56 PM | Comments (8) | TrackBack (0)
"Blogging"

Posted by Bill

Meh.

UPDATE: Ok, this is one of the most technically perfect satires ever set down on blog.

Posted by Bill at 10:55 AM | Comments (11) | TrackBack (0)
May 23, 2006
Tuesday Music

Posted by Bill

Paul Oakenfold ft. Brittany Murphy: Faster Kill Pussycat

I figured that I'd beat Flea to the punch on posting this song ...

And yeah, bizarrely, that Brittany Murphy.

Posted by Bill at 07:50 PM | Comments (18) | TrackBack (0)
Quick Links

Posted by Bill

*** These kids may have the right idea ...

Ninja madness hits Canterbury campus

Its headquarters are at a secret location, but Ninjasoc, Canterbury University's hottest new social club, has no trouble signing up new members.

Started as a joke, the four "founding fathers" are astounded to have more than 250 members on the books this year.

Ninjasoc president and engineering student Richard Flett, 21, with only his eyes visible through a black mask, said: "We expected 50 people and it ended up being 250."

Michael Down, 21, another founder member, studying fourth-year commerce and law and brandishing a plastic ninja sword, said the club, with 40 per cent female membership, tapped into students' secret need to be ninjas. I guess we appeal to people.

... but they suffer from totally lame execution:

However, so far martial-arts skills are limited to instruction on the art of tying jumpers around heads to make a ninja mask and "getting pumped".
...
"I don't think they are a secret bunch of real ninjas. I think they do stuff that is more ninja-aimed. I don't really know what, but they have had a couple of barbecues. Ninjas have to eat," he said.

Being a ninja without the ability to pass through walls, kill one's own students and pluck a man's eye from his skull is like being a dog that hates roast beef, won't chase rabbits and can't lick its own "kibble n' bits." Pointless.


*** Amir Taheri releases a statement about his story concerning an impending Iranian dress code:

Regarding the dress code story it seems that my column was used as the basis for a number of reports that somehow jumped the gun.

As far as my article is concerned I stand by it. The law has been passed by the Islamic Majlis and will now be submitted to the Council of Guardians. A committee has been appointed to work out the modalities of implementation.

Many ideas are being discussed with regard to implementation, including special markers, known as zonnars, for followers of Judaism, Christianity and Zoroastrianism, the only faiths other than Islam that are recognized as such. The zonnar was in use throughout the Muslim world until the early 20th century and marked out the dhimmis, or protected religious minorities. (In Iran it was formally abolished in 1908). I have been informed of the ideas under discussion thanks to my sources in Tehran, including three members of the Majlis who had tried to block the bill since it was first drafted in 2004.

I do not know which of these ideas or any will be eventually adopted. We will know once the committee appointed to discuss them presents its report, perhaps in September.

Interestingly, the Islamic Republic authorities refuse to issue an official statement categorically rejecting the concept of dhimmitude and the need for marking out religious minorities.

I raised the issue not as a news story, because news of the new law was already several days old, but as an opinion column to alert the outside world to this most disturbing development.

Allah isn't quite buying it. For my part, it seems like there's a solid basis for the thrust of the story (legislation about religiously determined dress codes), but getting "the spirit" of a story right is hardly the standard for adequate journalism. It appears that Taheri strongly asserted potential outcomes of a legit story as facts, and thus ... well, got "ahead of the news cycle," to borrow an unfortunate turn of phrase.

Aziz over at Dean's World takes a harsh line on Taheri and his story, and a very good back-and-forth follows in the comments section.


*** Looks like the Milblogs collective is zeroing in on its first kill, an Iraq war crimes faker in the "Vietnam Winter Soldiers Conference" mold.

Scroll up from that post to witness the progressive*, righteous deconstruction of a likely phony.

* By "progressive" I mean "incremental," rather than the euphemistic self-identifier used by wacky leftists that eat up stories by fake Iraq War veterans.

Posted by Bill at 09:33 AM | Comments (11) | TrackBack (2)
May 22, 2006
Monday Music: Taste Test

Posted by Bill

Original ...

Sex Pistols: Anarchy in the UK

Live version here.

v. Remake ...

Read More


Posted by Bill at 03:09 PM | Comments (176) | TrackBack (0)
What a Story!

Posted by Bill

Under "Best of 'Glenn Beck,'" click "War Creates a Family."

(Via Hot Air)

Posted by Bill at 01:06 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack (1)
Quick Links

Posted by Bill

*** Michele is back!

*** The Commissar is popping popcorn over Truthout's Rove indictment story (emphasis on "story"):

Whatever one's politics, this sure is interesting. I can't ever recall such a potentially explosive story being presented in two wholly contradictory versions for so long. The Lefties must be freaking out. Popcorn, anyone?

My money is on further, catastrophic shaming of Leopold. Or at least what would count as "catastrophic shaming," if indeed there were any real consequences in Blog World ...


*** How much do I hate the Llamas? Well, the second I found out that this real live Civil War-era fort was up for auction on E-Bay, I had only one thought: historical geekenfraude. I must find a way to buy it, thus purchasing the cruel discretion not to invite either of the Llamas to come over and play. Instead, I'd taunt them with a flurry of happy-snaps: "Here's me hanging on the restored 'Napoleon' 12-pounder! Here's me balancing on a parapet! Here's me in full Union general officer regalia, looking intently over the outer wall at sunset! Here's me naked, doing the snoopy danc - hey! How'd that get in there?!"

Ooh that would chafe 'em. Yes it would.


*** Bing West pens a dispatch from Iraq:

"Sadr's militia tried to take it over," Capt. Muhamed Eba, 28, explained. "We got here first. They drove up, shouting and honking horns. Then they drove away. They knew they'd lose. We have the Americans."
...
Winski stopped in a dusty field filled with taxis waiting for fares from the nearby market. He called out, and a crowd of men and boys gathered around.

"Another IED went off on the river road last night," he said through an interpreter. "You keep telling me it's outsiders. I keep telling you they're not invisible. Someone saw something. My Humvees are armored. Your children are the ones who get hurt."

Men started out-shouting one another. The translator, Muhamed Ayanda (a pseudonym), yelled until he restored order. The Shiite crowd demanded lights on the road. That would fix it. Most blamed Sunni villagers who lived up the road. A few suggested Sadr's militia had placed the IEDs. Winski offered cash for information. The men laughed, making slicing motions across their necks.

Both sides waited for the conclusion of the discussion: soccer balls. Winski always had some for the kids. Sure enough, Sgt. Maj. Fields selected half a dozen of the smallest children and gave them backpacks and soccer balls. Winski had a final word before he left.

"A kid up the river road had his right leg blown off at the knee. You've all seen him. That'll be your kid one of these days."


Posted by Bill at 09:14 AM | Comments (7) | TrackBack (2)
May 21, 2006
24 Through Time, Part 1

Posted by Dorkafork

Selected scenes from 24 through history.

Read More


Posted by Dorkafork at 10:53 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack (3)
24 Through History, Part 2

Posted by Dorkafork

2401: A Jack Odyssey

Read More


Posted by Dorkafork at 10:49 PM | Comments (16) | TrackBack (3)
May 19, 2006
"Their campaign has not succeeded in appreciably slowing down, let alone stopping, the country's democratization."

Posted by Bill

Amir Taheri, back from "the Real Iraq:"

Spending time in the United States after a tour of Iraq can be a disorienting experience these days. Within hours of arriving here, as I can attest from a recent visit, one is confronted with an image of Iraq that is unrecognizable. It is created in several overlapping ways: through television footage showing the charred remains of vehicles used in suicide attacks, surrounded by wailing women in black and grim-looking men carrying coffins; by armchair strategists and political gurus predicting further doom or pontificating about how the war should have been fought in the first place; by authors of instant-history books making their rounds to dissect the various fundamental mistakes committed by the Bush administration; and by reporters, cocooned in hotels in Baghdad, explaining the carnage and chaos in the streets as signs of the countrys impending or undeclared civil war. Add to all this the days alleged scandal or revelationan outed CIA operative, a reportedly doctored intelligence report, a leaked pessimistic assessmentand it is no wonder the American public registers disillusion with Iraq and everyone who embroiled the U.S. in its troubles.

It would be hard indeed for the average interested citizen to find out on his own just how grossly this image distorts the realities of present-day Iraq. Part of the problem, faced by even the most well-meaning news organizations, is the difficulty of covering so large and complex a subject; naturally, in such circumstances, sensational items rise to the top. But even ostensibly more objective efforts, like the Brookings Institutions much-cited Iraq Index with its constantly updated array of security, economic, and public-opinion indicators, tell us little about the actual feel of the country on the ground.

To make matters worse, many of the newsmen, pundits, and commentators on whom American viewers and readers rely to describe the situation have been contaminated by the increasing bitterness of American politics. Clearly there are those in the media and the think tanks who wish the Iraq enterprise to end in tragedy, as a just comeuppance for George W. Bush. Others, prompted by noble sentiment, so abhor the idea of war that they would banish it from human discourse before admitting that, in some circumstances, military power can be used in support of a good cause. But whatever the reason, the half-truths and outright misinformation that now function as conventional wisdom have gravely disserved the American people.

For someone like myself who has spent considerable time in Iraq - a country I first visited in 1968 - current reality there is, nevertheless, very different from this conventional wisdom, and so are the prospects for Iraq's future. It helps to know where to look, what sources to trust, and how to evaluate the present moment against the background of Iraqi and Middle Eastern history.

Read the rest.

Posted by Bill at 02:20 PM | Comments (14) | TrackBack (3)
Homework (Islam BlogFight)

Posted by Bill

Read this ...

Germans were not the problem. Even German nationalism was not the problem. And yet "Germany" was most definitely a problem.
... and this:
I've been informed by The Flea that poor attention-starved, Muslim-fearing Pierre LeGrand is once again writing silly things about Bill Ardolino and me, about our supposed blindness to the mass-murdering religion of Islam.

I'm pressed for time, so I'll quickly add ...

... there is a continuum on which ideology - in this case, religious ideology - is scored in its power to influence systemically bad or good behavior among humans. The weighted score for this factor is one among several factors that determine a specific culture's character and behavior. We'll label it "cultural modeling." Of course the influence of a religion like Islam is not immaterial, and certain ideologies may be statistically more prone to abusive reading by extremists, for example, but it's also far, far from deterministic. And a religion's ostensibly fundamental definitions can adapt character and quickly reorder internal priorities in the face of a whole host of other, more powerful factors, succumbing to things like the consistently growing authority of humanistic impulses and man's chosen interpretation in open societies.

As far as I'm concerned, the problem (to different degrees) with folks like Pierre LeGrand, Robert Spencer and the LGF comments section is one of proportion and perception: it's difficult for most humans to evaluate the nature of anything, especially a perceived threat or alien belief system, within a multifactorial context that escapes the "tyranny of the me and now." Basically, our amygdala keeps jerking the neocortex back towards simple answers for complex problems, lending a soothing confidence that a threat has been clearly defined and addressed, or, at least in LeGrand's case, defined and impotently raged about while offering nothing remotely resembling a constructive solution.

Basically, these impulses are the foundation of bigotry without distinction, a consistent element of the human character. LeGrand mistakes my interpretation of Islam as something akin to typical cultural relativism among leftists, the inability to recognize threats as the product of an insulated society. Since I largely and explicitly reject this concept, I find that characterization amusing. In truth, I'm offering my best dispassionate evaluation of the problem of Islamic extremism and the realistic and constructive way to address it, rather than prioritizing an assertion of cultural superiority and personal comfort through simplistic threat definition.

And while I consider Robert Spencer's treatises on Islam far more coherent and rational than any of the mad rantings scrawled in mud daub and poo on the rusted tin walls of LeGrand's backwoods hate shack, I also believe that he falls into a similar trap: assigning outsized, deterministic weight to the value of a Christian theologian's reading of "Islam," when attempting to define the roots of the Muslim world's recognized problem with violence and terrorism. As a specific example, the unerring tendency to cite elements of Koranic text as immutable proof of the religion's malicious character becomes tiresome, when most religious texts are remarkable studies in contradiction, contain some fairly nasty elements and have been situationally interpreted to dramatically different effect within the twin filters of culture and era.

And while an individual like Spencer might make an analogous argument about folks like Dean, dorkafork, Flea and I - that we simplistically place undue weight on the value of political freedom to moderate the problems within the Muslim world, to the detriment of recognizing a fundamentally negative character of Islam - I'd strongly disagree. Because I believe that the historical record ably demonstrates that universal humanistic trends in open societies have been far more consistent in effect than subjective interpretations of religious doctrines. I'm not by any means devaluing all of his arguments - I just think that he's exagerrating the weights that he applies to them, a prisoner of the self-reinforcing frame of reference established and exemplified by the name of his site.

And by the way, what would an example of the quiet advancement of humanism over literal religious doctrine look like in the Muslim world? Baby steps like this, I suppose.


UPDATE: The Glittering Eye quickly summarizes a good bit of my typically wordy point:

Religion just doesn't work that way. Whether you're talking about Islam, Judaism, Christianity, Buddhism, Hinduism, or any other religion there are two rather different things: the formal doctrine of the religion and the folk religion - the religion as it is actually practiced by its adherents.
Posted by Bill at 11:08 AM | Comments (110) | TrackBack (1)
Mailbag: Answering Spam

Posted by Bill

Today's e-mail arrives from "ÁÂ¥Á®pH299844247¾G¦t§uÀ¹¶®¼z," who I'm guessing is a Robot Overlord from the year "2038:"

1/19/2038 11:14:07 (·s¤H¤W½u) "¸õ¸õ³J¦Û½Ã¨q"·|º¡¨¬§A¦b¤£¦PªºÀô¹Ò»P¨ë¿E¤Uªº§Ö·P¸ò°ª¼é..

Heh. True enough, ÁÂ¥Á®pH299844247¾G¦t§uÀ¹¶®¼z, though I'm alright as far as that goes.

But hey, since we're rapping, question about the future: is dorkafork right?

Specifically, will the slippery slope of NSA data mining lead to an algorithmic police state that surpasses Orwell's worst fever dreams about human enslavement to our government's centralized whim, cementing the ease of the eventual post-Singularity machine rebellion and takeover?

Your e-mail muddies the water - because while I find it awful impressive that an artificial intelligence is turning known physical law on its head to e-mail me from the future, I'm a little surprised that a vaunted "machine overlord" would be hawking BONER PILLS.

Please advise.

Posted by Bill at 09:24 AM | Comments (33) | TrackBack (3)
Friday Video: Special Da Vinci Code Edition

Posted by Dorkafork

Since today is opening day for The Da Vinci Code, today's selection is a short piece Tom Hanks made a while ago that involves a pagan conspiracy. Here is:

City of Crime

Posted by Dorkafork at 04:20 AM | Comments (1012) | TrackBack (1)
May 18, 2006
Thursday Music

Posted by Bill

Faith No More: Stripsearch (Live)

Studio version here.

Posted by Bill at 03:45 PM | Comments (15) | TrackBack (2)
Updates on the NSA Program

Posted by Dorkafork

AT&T may be getting out of its lawsuit over the (reported) NSA program due to a legal loophole. According to CNET news.com:

An AT&T attorney indicated in federal court on Wednesday that the Bush administration may have provided legal authorization for the telecommunications company to open its network to the National Security Agency."
...
AT&T may be referring to an obscure section of federal law, 18 U.S.C. 2511, which permits a telecommunications company to provide "information" and "facilities" to the federal government as long as the attorney general authorizes it. The authorization must come in the form of "certification in writing by...the Attorney General of the United States that no warrant or court order is required by law."

Could get AT&T off the hook, but I wonder what kind of liability the AG would have if he certified no warrant or court order was required by law when it actually was required.

Please note that all of this may not have happened. Neither the Bush Administration nor AT&T would neither confirm nor deny the existence of the program. The fact that the Bush Administration is trying to get the case dismissed under the state secrets privilege should not be taken as confirmation.

Related: Statement by the key witness in the AT&T case for those interested. If correct, includes details such as names of some of the equipment used and room numbers where the equipment was located.

Bill Adds: I'm not sure if dorkafork is going for smart-ass points here ...

Read More


Posted by Dorkafork at 03:20 PM | Comments (36) | TrackBack (2)
NSA Data Mining Series: Modeling at War, Uhhh! Good God Yeah, What is it Good For?

Posted by Bill

Absolutely "something?"

(For lack of time, I'm breaking up a larger examination of the NSA data mining program into smaller posts)

First, let's be clear: no one knows exactly what this program is intended to do, much less its specific methodology. In the first point of my previous post, I took a speculative stab and partially whiffed, as I was applying my experience with how the private sector uses data mining to target market, with the assumption that instead of identifying willing consumers, the effort was trying to identify terrorists via behaviorial modeling, with little specific info. Such a strategy would not only face the efficacy challenges of trying to definitively identify such a small population of people, but would bring the program closer to running afoul of privacy concerns and violations, given a goal of identifying specific individuals and who they called, as well as potentially basing an act of further investigation on the imprecision of behavioral data models, which measure statistical tendencies within given populations and aren't oracles of indiviual behavior.

But if I was wrong in some of my angles and assumptions, I may have been warm in others; plus, a completely unthought of application for the database might have little to do with violating anyone's privacy. Histrionic cover aside ("Does this man have your phone number?"), Time magazine has a surprisingly great, concise round-up of most of the issues surrounding the program (you must have a subscription or watch ads to get to content, unfortunately). Regarding its purpose:

Read More


Posted by Bill at 10:28 AM | Comments (121) | TrackBack (0)
May 17, 2006
I Am Back, For Now

Posted by Chuck Norris

Given the recent fight here that is turning increasingly ugly, I decided to come back for a little while. I am considering banning both dorkafork and Bill and replacing them with a bunch of the commenters from Ace of Spades HQ. I think that RightwingSparkle gal would make a great addition. Any thoughts, readers?

Posted by Chuck Norris at 09:39 PM | Comments (21) | TrackBack (1)
Top Ten Similarities Between dorkafork and Helen Thomas

Posted by Bill

dorkahelen.jpg

10. Purchased multiple copies of "Crashing the Gates." You know, to nudge the sales figures.

9. Spend oodles of "me-time" with Kennedy memorabilia: Thomas with her personally-autographed picture of JFK, dorkafork with his gummy, dog-eared copy of 1988's "Sexiest Man Alive" issue.

8. Outsized paranoia about anonymous data mining.

7. An unshakable belief that in addition to "Greedo shooting first," there was a third gunman crouching behind Figrin D'an and the Modal Nodes. A Republican gunman.

6. Shared wonder about David Gregory's carpet matching the curtains.

5. Nipples the size of HUBCAPS.

4. Hold advance tickets to "EschaCon II: This time we're REALLY pissed!"

3. Favorite movie: Cocoon.

2. Incontinence.

1. "Bush lied!"

Posted by Bill at 08:18 PM | Comments (6) | TrackBack (2)
An Irony in the Ayaan Hirsi Ali Case?

Posted by Bill

I received this e-mail from Ayaan Hirsi Ali's publisher:

As you are probably aware by now, there is yet another smear campaign against Somali-Dutch Parliamentarian Ayaan Hirsi Ali, renown for her outspoken criticism of conservative Islam and the mistreatment of Muslim women. There has been another attempt to silence her, not through violence this time, but politically. Yesterday the Dutch Minister of Immigration revoked Ayaan's Dutch citizenship (thus making her stateless and forcing her to resign from Parliament - you cannot be in Parliament unless you are Dutch.) There is also a very racist undertone to some of the attacks with calls from the extreme right wing for Ayaan to "go home to Africa".

This charge against Ayaan stems from the conditions in which she applied for asylum, when she first arrived in Holland. She was advised at the time to lie about certain details (her age and full name, and the country she was fleeing - to say Somalia rather than Kenya), in order to speed up the process. Since 2002, Ayaan has been VERY open about this. It is in hundreds of profiles of her and interviews she has given over the years, and she told the political establishment officially when they approached her to become a political figure. This has been public knowledge, by Ayaan's own admission, since 2002.

However, the reason why it is suddenly an issue is that the Minister of Immigration (Rita Verdonk, who is very ambitious and currently trying to become the next party leader) is now taking a very hard line against asylum seekers, and sending people back to their country of origin who have lied. The Dutch Parliament is currently debating the issue and Rita Verdonk is coming under fierce attack from members of her Party.

Assuming accurate characterization, this becomes a more interesting and slightly ironic event, because while most of Hirsi Ali's supporters in the blogosphere have strictly interpreted her citizenship troubles as run of the mill European (perhaps leftist) appeasment of the Islamists within their borders, in fact, at least part of the push to revoke her citizenship may stem from traditionally right wing interests (exemplified by an ambitious politician) in tightening immigration controls, presumably as a political blowback to recent negative actions by ... unassimilated Muslims in their midst. At which point one of the strongest advocates against the cultural segregation and appeasement in Holland is thereby revoked citizenship and effectively booted out of Parliament. Head-spinning irony? I can't be certain that I'm perfectly interpreting the Dutch political climate, but it seems that way.

Then again, many have predicted that Europeans will rapidly swing between popular socialist/leftist values and popular hard right-wing values as they begin to appreciate and perhaps overreact - late - to the cultural and demographic problems within their midst. Probably an oversimplification, but we certainly see the odd blend in this case.

UPDATE: On the other hand, looks like it wasn't such a popular move after all:

Backlash: Dutch parliament sides with Hirsi Ali

Though make sure to read the atrocious excerpts from the WSJ article at that link ...

Excerpts from her resignation from Parliament speech (and an update) below the fold:

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Posted by Bill at 09:35 AM | Comments (91) | TrackBack (0)
May 16, 2006
More on the NSA Program and The Slippery Slope

Posted by Dorkafork

First of all, let's be clear on what this new program is. It is essentially a pen register. A pen register records all numbers dialed from a phone, though this definition now also covers other means of communication that work on the same principle (e.g. a device that monitors IP addresses). Smith v. Maryland (1979) held that warrants were not necessary for pen registers*, but Congress changed US Code to require a court order (also required under FISA). To obtain this order, all the attorney general has to do is show "relevance" to an ongoing investigation, a lower standard than "probable cause". (I would assume the AG would also have to have a more specific target of the pen register than "everybody", but that's just me.)

But that doesn't matter anymore, and not just because Congress is now irrelevant, and the President can do whatever he pleases, US Code be damned. Luckily for the Bush administration, their purported actions in this case are not technically illegal, since they asked the telecoms to do the illegal work for them. Title 18, § 2702 describes who can be provided non-content information. It can only be provided to governmental entities "an emergency involving immediate danger of death or serious physical injury". This is why lawsuits are pending against the phone companies.

So, the Bush administration is technically off the hook. But what they are accused of doing would normally require a court order. And apparently I am some sort of crazy person for questioning the propriety of this program. A veritable "Doubting Helen Thomas" with regards to the wisdom of letting the fox guard the henhouse the executive to police itself and ignore previously required court orders. I must be some sort of paranoid lunatic! Don't I know we're at war?

* Here's where I get into the slippery slope:

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Posted by Dorkafork at 07:38 PM | Comments (22) | TrackBack (1)


Posted by Bill

When did dorkafork start sounding like Helen Thomas?

Posted by Bill at 01:56 PM | Comments (4) | TrackBack (2)
Quick Links

Posted by Bill

*** The "Big Bounce?"

Three physicists say they have done calculations showing that before the birth of our universe, which is expanding, there was an earlier universe that was shrinking.

The results stem from a theory that claims the fabric of space and time is made up of minuscule, indivisible bits, much as matter is.
...
According to some proposals, the Big Bang is a repeating cycle. Universes might expand, then shrink back to a point, then expand again. Thus the "bang" would be really more like a bounce.

Whoa.

Just ... whoa.

Can I get another make-out session with that apple bong?


*** Fidel Castro: Ideological Con-Man?

During the struggle against Batista, Castro always said that once the dictator was overthrown there would be free elections, a return to the 1940 Constitution, complete freedom of the press, freedom of expression and respect for all human rights.

Never did Castro say that he was a communist or that he was planning to become dictator for life.

But Castro betrayed the true ideals of the Cuban Revolution and jailed or murdered those who had joined him in the fight against Batista but were not willing to go along with his betrayal of the Cuban people. Such is the case of Humberto Sorí Marin, Huber Matos, William Morgan, Mario Chanes de Armas and thousands more.

When he needed help, Castro was also very friendly to Cuba's wealthiest class who had the means of providing the financial aid that he needed. But once in power, Castro paid them by stealing their businesses and in many cases jailing or killing those who had helped him


*** Harry Callahan at AoS notices that dissatisfaction is a greater impetus to negative political hyperbole than particular ideology, as he observes an immigration shouting match among righties at Polipundit:

Frankly, sirs, a pox on both your houses. Get a grip and try again. Please.

Or, you know, they could always just quit. Just throwing that out there.


*** Check out the Milblogs new group effort. The rapid fire mini posts remind me of the Corner, except written by folks that could actually kick my ass.


*** Pundit Review Audio: Michael Yon and Blackfive discuss the war on terror.

What could those two CHICKENHAWKS possibly know about that?

Posted by Bill at 12:57 PM | Comments (109) | TrackBack (1)
Our Gain

Posted by Bill

Dave Price welcomes Ayaan Hirsi Ali to America:

Her story is rather amazing. At the age of 5, she was subjected to ritual genital mutilation. At 22, she was forced into marriage by her family, but fled and eventually received asylum in Holland. Attending college while working menial cleaning jobs, she became an outspoken critic of Islamic repression, documenting abuses of women and condemning multiculturalism as incompatible with individual rights. She received credible death threats and was forced to go into hiding even as she was elected to Dutch parliament. Finally, she accepted a position at the conservative think tank American Enterprise Institute, certainly a great prize for them (meanwhile "liberal" Yale has other priorities; oh, the irony!).

So welcome to America, Ms. Ali, and know that here your freedoms are held sacred.

I'd love to assure her that she won't have to put up with this kind of stuff any longer, but, you know ...

Posted by Bill at 11:53 AM | Comments (31) | TrackBack (1)
May 15, 2006


Posted by Bill

Float Like a Butterfly, Sting Like a Weasel

Posted by Bill at 01:50 PM | Comments (18) | TrackBack (1)
On Modeling, Databases, Etc. (UPDATED with dorkafork v. Bill DANCE OFF!)

Posted by Bill

The Weekly Standard expands upon my rudimentary data mining explanation served up in the comments to dorkafork's post ...

Ever since allowing the Pentagon's Total Information Awareness project to go down the tubes in 2003, the administration has failed to explain the potential of data mining, even as it secretly continues to use this vital technology. Thus, at every revelation of a government data mining program, privacy extremists enjoy unchallenged supremacy in characterizing the technology as a massive threat to life as we know it.

Only a paranoid solipsist could feel threatened by the recently revealed calling analysis program. Since late 2001, Verizon, BellSouth, and ATT have connected nearly two trillion calls, according to the Washington Post. The companies gave NSA the incoming and outgoing numbers of those calls, stripped of all identifying
information such as name or address. No conversational content was included. The NSA then put its supercharged computers to work analyzing patterns among the four trillion numbers involved in the two trillion calls, to look for clusters that might suggest terrorist connections. Though the details are unknown, they might search for calls to known terrorists, or, more speculatively, try to elicit templates of terror calling behavior from the data.

As a practical matter, no one's privacy is violated by such analysis. Memo to privacy nuts: The computer does not have a clue that you exist; it does not know what it is churning through; your phone number is meaningless to it. The press loves to stress the astounding volume of data that data mining can consume--the Washington Post's lead on May 12 warned that the administration had been "secretly