The Decline and Fall of the American Empire

The Decline and Fall of the American Empire
Where are we going, and what are we doing in this handbasket? It sure is getting warm...

Updated: 5/19/03; 1:08:50 AM.

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Sunday, January 19, 2003

The United States of America has gone mad The imminent war was planned years before bin Laden struck, but it was he who made it possible. Without bin Laden, the Bush junta would still be trying to explain such tricky matters as how it came to be elected in the first place; Enron; its shameless favouring of the already-too-rich; its reckless disregard for the world[base ']s poor, the ecology and a raft of unilaterally abrogated international treaties. They might also have to be telling us why they support Israel in its continuing disregard for UN resolutions. [Daypop Top 40]
9:11:48 PM

Bush assails race-based admissions. MSNBC reports that George Bush will be commemorating the birth of Dr Martin Luther King jr by challenging the constitutionality of the University of Michigan's racially based admissions system. According to Bush, the quota system employed by the university in order to create a racially diverse student body results in many students being refused admission solely based on the colour of their skin. Bush states "I strongly support diversity of all kinds, including racial diversity, but the method used by University of Michigan to achieve this important goal is fundamentally flawed." "The motivation for this administration policy may be very good, but the result is discrimination". He goes on the state that better elementary and high school education would increase the numbers of minorities on campus. [kuro5hin.org]
I imagine he's still for preferences for wealthy, connected white underachievers, though. Without his family's money and connections, Dumbya would have gone to a state school, at best. So at some level, he has to like preferences. Just not the ones that send non-whites to good schools.
8:56:38 PM

Astroturf "demonstrating genuine leadership" A few alert Googlers have noticed that dozens of local newspapers from Boston to Honolulu have run the same letter under different names nationwide. [Scripting News]
And the flip-side of silencing criticism, manufactured approval. You do have to admire how organized the Right is, they are effective. But what they're doing is wrong. The letter purports to indicate grassroots "common people" approval for Dumbya's gift to the wealthy, the tax code revisions being pushed as "economic stimulus" when everyone's estimates -- conservative or liberal -- shows that the immediate stimulus impact will be minimal.
Eliminate the dropping of the dividend tax and the package actually does some good. But by far the bulk of the benefit goes to the wealthy, no matter how many dittoheads make xeroxes of a form letter and send it to newspapers across the U.S.
3:38:22 PM

Boos for Bush silenced at AMA? WHEN THE BAND Alabama received the Award of Merit, the elder Bush's face appeared on screen. "I'm very proud to be part of tonight's tribute honoring one of the most highly successful bands country music has ever known," said the former president, but his image was met with a loud chorus of boos. The boos from the crowd, however, were not audible in the broadcast, leading some to believe that they were deleted by censors. [Daypop Top 40]
And so it continues, public criticism of the current regime will not be allowed. When will we start seeing arrests, I wonder? You'd think we were a third-world nation; perhaps that's where we're headed.
3:25:24 PM

Privacy: Going, Going.... Privacy invaders are like termites. They undermine, eating away at the structure of your personal life, until you wake up one day and realize that the foundation is gone. [Dan Gillmor's eJournal]
11:12:13 AM

LOTR, the Microsoft Edition. Recently one of my friends, a computer wizard, paid me a visit. As we were talking I mentioned that I had recently installed Windows XP on my PC. I told him how happy I was with this operating system and showed him the Windows XP CD.
To my surprise he threw it into my oven and turned it on. Instantly I got very upset, because the CD had become precious to me, but he said, "Do not worry, it is unharmed."
After a few minutes he took the CD out, gave it to me and said, "Take a close look at it."
To my surprise the CD was quite cold to hold and it seemed to be heavier than before. At first I could not see anything, but on the inner edge of the central hole I saw an inscription, an inscription finer than anything I had ever seen before. The inscription shone piercingly bright, and yet remote, as if out of a great depth: "12413AEB2ED4FA5E6F7D78E78BEDE820945092OF923A40EEl OE5IOCC98D444AA08E324" [Slashdot]
11:10:23 AM

Rosen Floats ISP Fee Idea -- Charge Everybody!. Hillary Rosen of RIAA wants to impose a type of fee to ISPs which in turn will be passed to all their customers indiscriminately to recoup supposed damages done by file-sharing. The RIAA considers downloading music illegally over the Internet to be the moral equivalence of stealing. I wonder then what is the moral equivalence of the RIAA taking realized cash from people who do not download music? [Slashdot]
11:05:43 AM