End the War on Freedom

Ten Thousand Idiots

It is always a danger
To the aspirant
On the
Path

When one begins
To believe and
Act

As if the ten thousand idiots
Who so long ruled
And lived
Inside

Have all packed their bags
And skipped town
Or
Died.

(The Subject Tonight Is Love, versions of Hafiz by Daniel Ladinsky)

From Quotes of the Day:

Happiness is nothing more than good health and a bad memory. -- Albert Schweitzer

Anyone who goes to a psychiatrist ought to have his head examined. -- Samuel Goldwyn

Satire from GOP News & Views:

Sharon Orders Bush to Withdraw from Afghanistan

EAST JERUSALEM. Concluding his remarks at a Palestinian Chamber of Commerce dinner, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon surprised the three-member audience when he announced that Operation Enduring Freedom had run its course, and therefore the United States, in the name of peace, must withdraw its troops from Afghanistan.

"Israel recognizes the rights of sovereign states to defend themselves from terror," Sharon said, "but the World Trade Center atrocity occurred nearly seven months ago, there have been no further such incidents in the U.S., and the American incursion into Afghanistan is no longer helpful. Meanwhile, as a result of America's aggression, Afghani families have had their homes destroyed and innocent Afghani civilians have lost their lives."

Asked whether the terrorist threat from the Taliban justified a continued U.S. presence, Sharon responded that this cycle of violence was "unhelpful to peace in that troubled land. It's time America recognized that it must respect national borders and the legitimate aspirations of those with whom it disagrees."

With spontaneous anti-American demonstrations breaking out in Islamic capitals, Paris, France, and Berkeley, California, it's clear that world opinion is confirming the Israelis' counsel to America: The cause of peace is not being served by chasing down the last few members of the Taliban. In a presentation on Egypt's government-sponsored television station, al-Stabubak, a spokesman for Egyptian President Mubarak appealed to the American people: "Can you not see that the Taliban has legitimate beefs . . . while the exorbitant military spending habits of your own Congress reveal fraudulent pork? The arrogance of your government is astounding. It acts as though only Arabs engage in suicide attacks."

Interviewing Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres, correspondent Leslie Stahl asked whether the U.S. effort in Afghanistan had simply deteriorated into a personal vendetta by George W. Bush against Osama Bin Laden. "I'm a public servant, not a psychologist," Peres replied, "but my dear friend George Bush, with whom I've shared many a falafel, is obviously obsessed with the individual, and this vengeful obsession is now counter-productive to the peace process. Mr. Bin Laden is a religious man, and used to work in the American interest against the Soviets - he's obviously capable of peace. And, as we all know, he wasn't even present in the U.S. on September 11. I'm afraid the 'terrorist' label is blinding my dear friend George Bush to the opportunities for peace in this region."

[In response, a Bush spokesperson issued the brief statement that the President had indeed enjoyed sharing falafel with his dear friend Shimon Peres, and that this obviously contradicted the latter's comment that the President was blind to peas.]

After interceding in a food fight in the Knesset dining room between Arab Members, Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer was asked whether he supported the Prime Minister's ministrations. "Listen," he said, wiping some hummus from his brow, "I'm an old soldier, and recognize peaceful people better than most. Despite what you see on the television, the Afghanis are a peaceful people. So are the more moderate elements of the Taliban. After all, 'Islam' means 'peace'. America's sending troops thousands of miles simply to humiliate and inflict misery on these peaceful people is a reckless military endeavor and, more important, does nothing to further the cause of peace. Indeed, it is more likely to provoke the militants. Prime Minister Sharon is correct - if America does not withdraw immediately, the cycle of violence will continue to spiral out of control."

The Taliban remnant in Afghanistan seems to be paying attention to Sharon. There has not been a single shot fired against American troops - who continued their assault on suspected Taliban positions - in the twelve hours since the Prime Minister's directive.

But there is far from unanimity on Sharon's position within Israel. Prime Minister-wannabe Benjamin Netanyahu issued a counter-statement that Israel should continue to give America the green light to rout terrorism "by whatever means necessary." The reactionary hard-line right-wing former PM warned that "terror is an evil that knows not negotiation" and urged "my good friend, President Bush, to stay the course."

Reached at his ranch in the Negev, Prime Minister Sharon was asked today whether he stands by his remarks of the previous night. "The situation speaks for itself. Aside from the incidents on September 11, there has been no terrorist activity in the U.S. And yet America seems intent on stirring up the pot in a very dangerous part of the world. Not only are innocent lives being lost because of America's actions, but what if Pakistan, Iraq, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt, Libya, Kuwait, or Berkeley, California get involved - it's a powder keg."

When challenged by what authority he would presume to order the U.S. to do anything, Sharon said that he answers to "a higher authority."

God?

"Well, Him, too, but I was referring to the Arab 'street', and, boy, are they meshugge!"

Friedrich A. Hayek at DudeGalea - The Road to Serfdom in Cartoons - F.A. Hayek's classic text in easy-to-read cartoon form. From a booklet published by General Motors. [lew]

John Lettice at The Register - MS pulls the plugs on Hailstorm, pending rethink - no more Microsoft-branded consumer web services. Good riddance. The rest of .NET is actually a pretty good piece of work, IMHO.

Effectively, the great 'anytime, anywhere, bet-the-company .NET adventure' is being progressively downscaled to something that looks more and more like a traditional set of software products.

John Markoff at The New York Times - Microsoft Has Shelved Its Internet 'Persona' Service - Mr. Markoff's take on the death of Hailstorm (aka My Services). [{@scripting}]

"There was incredible customer resistance," said a Microsoft .Net consultant, who spoke on the condition that he not be identified. Microsoft was unable to persuade either consumer companies or software developers that it had solved all of the privacy and security issues raised by the prospect of keeping personal information in a centralized repository, he said.

...

Microsoft is now considering selling My Services to corporations in a traditional package form, rather than as a service. The companies would maintain the data for their own users.

Jon Dougherty at World Net Daily - Bill would keep U.S. out of world court - Ron Paul has introduced a bill reminding everyone that United States citizens are not under the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court. As a matter of fact, noone is. The United Nations has no authority to establish such a court. [trt-ny]

"The ICC cannot exercise legitimate jurisdiction over American citizens," Paul said. "Furthermore, the Senate cannot constitutionally ratify any treaty that attempts to surrender the judicial function to an international agency. Our Constitution guarantees every American citizen various rights before, during and after a criminal arrest and trial, and no valid treaty can deny our citizens those rights."

Reuters via Yahoo! News - Gateway Launches Ad Campaign Against Copyright Bill - The CBDTPA must die! Slashdot comments here. [/.]

James Bovard at The Future of Freedom Foundation - The Bush Administration's "Drugs = Terrorism" Fraud - why ending the war on some drugs is the best way to keep drug money out of the hands of terrorists. [lew]

Drug Enforcement Agency chief Asa Hutchinson told Congress in October, "The DEA will continue to aggressively identify and build cases against drug-trafficking organizations contributing to global terrorism. In doing so, we will limit the ability of drug traffickers to use their destructive goods as a commodity to fund malicious assaults on humanity and the rule of law."

But how will the DEA change the laws of agricultural economics that encourage farmers to grow crops disapproved by the U.S. government? Afghan farmers can easily earn ten times more from growing opium than from growing wheat or other crops. The effort to persuade Third World farmers to abandon illicit crops will be about as successful as trying to persuade stockbrokers and law-firm partners to abandon their high-paid jobs, move to Mexico, and scratch out a livelihood assembling toilet brushes for sale at Wal-Mart.

Dave Winer's Davenet - Google is just the juice - Google now has a SOAP API. Yay! Dave is implementing the concept of Google boxes into Radio Userland. Very nice. Now I want it for BlogMax, too. Any volunteers? [script]

JProfiler "is a fully dynamic profiler based on the Java virtual machine profiling interface (JVMPI). It is targeted at J2EE and J2SE applications, and features CPU profiling, memory profiling, thread profiling, and VM telemetry information." It's not free. A single-user license costs $199. I haven't tried it. [meat]

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