Rant: Cinemagoers. There is a whole caste of people who should be barred from the cinema. They are unable to understand the requirements of a communal space, and a communal experience, and it should be denied them. It is simply *not* acceptable... [Insufficient Time]

So far, though, it seems that these people who are unable to properly watch a movie attend certain movie theaters and not others. I no longer go to see movies at the Redlmond Town center theaters near us. Several times the movie was ruined by the sorts of people discussed in the link. I guess the managers just do not do any ploicing. The last time I went was with my son to see the first Lord of the Rings. A man, his wife and his mother were sitting behind us talking about all sorts of things and talking on their cell phone. I turned and asked them to please be quiet. The man proceeded to curse me out in the foulest language possible (His mother chimed in too, demonstrating where his awful manners came from) and did not shut up until I turned again and told him I had an 11 year old sitting next to me so watch his language. They shut up then and I was thanked by people on either side AND in front of me. As I left, I explained to the manager why I would no longer be attending movies at their theater and why I would be recommending the same to others. If I am going to spend the huge amount of money they want now, I will not put up with rude idiots (who probably listen to Clear Channel radio stations - see below).

Other theaters near us, like Bella Bodega or Woodinville, have never had these problems. The only loud noises are at kid movies where the laughs and giggles actually make sense.  11:50:39 PM    

World drowning in oceans of data. The equivalent of a 30-foot pile of books of data is produced for everyone on Earth annually, a study finds. [BBC News | Science/Nature | World Edition]

I loved this from the article:

The researchers point out that this means we are accessing information media 46% of the time.

11:35:27 PM    

The Washington Post: Mac OS X 10.3 'has a Christmas list of new features'. "I want whatever coffee Apple is pouring in its cafeteria: Since 2001, the Cupertino, Calif., firm has cranked out four major consumer operating-system upgrades, three more than Microsoft could manage. The latest such release, Mac OS X 10.3 Panther, arrived Oct. 24, only 14 months after its predecessor, Jaguar," Rob Pegoraro writes for The Washington Post.

Pegoraro writes, "This release preserves the things that make Mac OS X worthwhile -- it had yet to crash through a week... [MacDailyNews]

Well, my wife got her computer updated last year and my son got a new iBook the year before that. I am using a Pismo laptop as my main copmuter because the Beige G3 I have is too slow to run OS X. The Pismo is starting to frustrate me with its slowness. So I think I'll opt for a new G5. Should I get the dual processor or not? I never have owned the top of the line Mac (well, except when the 128K Mac was theonly one. I guess that makes it the top of the line.) Could happen soon.  11:31:11 PM    

Natsios Goes Missing. Kevin Drum uncovers an interview where USAID Director Andrew Natsios promised Ted Koppel that rebuilding Iraq would cost less than $1.7 billion. The interview is available in google cache, but seems to have gone missing from the USAID site. Mysterious,... [Matthew Yglesias]

Luckily nothing ever disappears from the Internet so the USAID discussion of just how much rebuilding Iraq would cost us (no more than $1.7 BILLION. This from April.) The Democrats could make some very effective campaign ads simply showing these guys speak their falsehoods. By April any sane person should have been able to see that rebuilding the infrastructure of Iraq was going to be very expensive. But, saying that in April would have casued political problems. Since anything political trumps everything else, they can just evade the truth until it makes political sense. This is why I still do not believe thet $87 billion figure.  11:24:01 PM    

Arsonist Burns Peace Activists' Home... (Matthew Rothschild). Arsonist Burns Peace Activists' Home... (Matthew Rothschild) [Common Dreams]

What I found so heart-warming about this is that hundreds of people came to the aid of the peace activists whose house was burnt. What was probably started by some drunken idiot ( probably listening to a radio station emplying idiots hired by Clear Channel - see below) resulted in a large number of people showing the common decency of the vast majority of people in the US. Instead of cowering, these people came forward and denounced the fire. It is because of people like this, those who have a strong sense of right/wrong/fairness, that I feel we will eventually get back on the right track. I am just pessimistic on how much damage will be done by the idiots of the world before then.  11:06:50 PM    

Bush's Other War: US Intelligence is Being Scapegoated for Getting It Right on Iraq... (Sidney Blumenthal). Bush's Other War: US Intelligence is Being Scapegoated for Getting It Right on Iraq... (Sidney Blumenthal) [Common Dreams]

The lies are coming almost every day. Rumsfeld says last month that we could not have predicted that there would be insurgents in Iraq yet an Adminstration report to Congress written in April says that the expectations were exactly that. It adds that this Adminstration has contingency plans for the actions of these insurgents. The rest of the article details how this Adminstration, when confronted by intelligence no amenable to its aims, created its own intelligence orginizations to 'stovepipe' the proper information to its leaders. The fact that this information was misleading if not downright false must have been part of their contingency plans. See, if anything bad happens, we can always blame the CIA. Since everything is secret, we can make sure that our story is believed. Well, I believe more than any previous Adminstration, the current ones obfuscations are historic. Twenty years from now, people will just not understand how anyone could have fallen for these lies. I think it is because most people still trust the office of the President, even when it is filled with untrustworthy guy. The currentr Adminstration knows how easily people can be misled, at least for a short time. They do not realize how quickly people can turn when they realize they have been misled. As Johnson realized, so to will they. Lincoln was right. You can not fool all of the people all of the time.  11:03:04 PM    

If you have a chance on Monday check out the Center for American Progress's (aka John Podesta's new liberal think tank) new daily run-down of all things political: The Progress Report.

Also, I mentioned a few days ago that Zbigniew Brzezinski's speech at the New American Strategies for Security and Peace conference was absolutely essential viewing and/or reading. Well, now you can do both. Here's the transcript. And here's a link to the archived video feed. [Talking Points Memo: by Joshua Micah Marshall]

Talking Points Memo is always fun to read and the Zbigniew Brzezinski speech offers some interesting viewpoints. How can the most powerful nation ever effectively lead the world if most of its actions are dictated by fear and anxiety? We are more afraid today even as we gain more and more powerful. What is more terrifying to the people of the world than a terrified giant?

And he makes the very strong point that without believable intelligence, few will be likely to follow us. When we say we know something, we had better know it, not just think it might be so. Kennedy was able to overcome the missiles of october because we had absolute proof and the world believed us. Now, the only ones who would be with us seem to be Britain and Micronesia.  10:45:06 PM    

Cut and Run?. CUT AND RUN?....Back before the war started, Pentagon planners believed that Iraqis would mainly view American forces as liberators, we would be able to install a local government fairly quickly, and by September there would be no more than 30,000... [Calpundit]

Some interesting talking points, especially about timing. But I have a hard time thinking we will leave before we have conclusive proof that Saddam is gone. It would not help Bush to much to get out in the Spring, in time for elections, only to see saddam pop up in the Fall. That would not be the October surpise they were expecting.

There will have to be something done about troop strength by then. You can bet that they will not be getting new recruits in at the rate to replace those returning. You can bet some very smart people are going to try and crack this nut. At least this has been a demonstration of the weakness of the neocon plans, even if we are a hyperpower with no competition in sight. We do not walk the Earth with the strides of giants, no matter how loud Wolfowitz says it.  10:01:52 PM    

Grow Up. GROW UP....More charming behavior from morning radio jocks at Clear Channel stations. Not only are they brainless children, but apparently they listen carefully and pick up each others' most brainless rants. Oops, my apologies. I didn't mean to insult children... [Calpundit]

[rant]This is what happens when one company owns most of the radio stations in the country. We get idiot DJs making a 'mistake' all at the same time. How much you wnat to bet that those DJs were all actually in the same building somewhere in North Carolina. Clear Channel has so few actual local stations. Many are simply robots with a little bit of color. What disturbs me is that KLOL in Hoyston was one of my favorite stations when I used to live there. Sorry to hear it employs idiots now. But Clear Channel loves the publicity. And the FCC will not do anything at all about this. This will only embolden the idiots of the world who are using the public's airwaves to spew garbage for their mindless listeners. Short term profits are all that counts for Clear Channel. They will wonder why people listen to their stations less and less, claiming it must be those music pirates or the internet radio stations. No, it is because they employ hateful idiots who drive away any reasonable person of conscience.[/rant]  9:43:55 PM