OQO
"The closer you get to power, it seems, the less you are inclined to pipe up against it. Politicians who inveigh against abuses of power never mean they want to abolish the power itself; they merely mean that they want it for themselves." -- Joseph Sobran
From Thoughts of Chairman Kim (du Toit):
"I refuse to read any Press reports about the Clintons, unless the phrase 'died suddenly' is included."
"If some asshole tries to rob you, don't give him what he wants: give him what you want -- and what you should want to give him is a Hydra-Shok bullet in .4x caliber."
"Money sent to Third World countries seldom reaches the point of intent, or the point of greatest utility. Ditto the federal government."
"No wonder the Democrat Party loves trial lawyers: both groups survive by creating a class of victims, then enriching them -- at the expense of the productive."
#
Mad Ogre -
The Ogre has a nice new picture of himself, aiming
his Marlin (a 336CS in .30-30 caliber), in the upper-right-hand corner
of his news page. [madogre]
# U.S. Bureau of Engraving and Printing - About the New $50 Notes - there's a new fifty dollar federal reserve note, changed similarly to the new twenty. A 280K Flash animation documents its features. They plan to issue it in late 2004, followed by a redesigned hundred.
# William Marina at The Independent Institute - Iraq: The Moon Is Down, Again! - aptly compares Amerika's occupation of Iraq with the Nazi occupation of Norway. [smith2004]
Art, films and literature often offer insights that help to explain human situations perhaps better than does history. My favorite book on the integral interaction between occupiers and those being occupied, is John Steinbeck's The Moon Is Down (1942), shortly thereafter made into a film starring Cedric Hardwicke, Lee J. Cobb and Henry Travers. I first saw the film in the 1950s, but it is not shown these days.
It is a story about the German invasion of a small town in Norway in 1940 and the developing reactions of the inhabitants as the Nazis seek to insure that the mines nearby continue to send coal to the Third Reich's war machine. Readers this year may be tempted to replace the term "Norway" with "Iraq," "coal" with "oil," and "Germany" with the phrase "Coalition." The story even has a "fifth column" Ahmed Chalabi-like character, who sets up the town for an easy occupation, imagining he will be dearly beloved by the people.
# Bob Wallace at LewRockwell.com - The Elephant and the Ants - a fable. [lew]
"Once there was an elephant bitten by a few ants. In his rage he crushed all the ants, innocent and guilty, and tore up the forest, until in his frenzy he toppled over a cliff."
I have no idea how many members "al Qaeda" (or whatever it's called now) has. I've read, maybe 1000. Not many. Yet the United States, the most powerful country in history, with going on 300 million people, has tried to get other nations to join us in declaring "war". . .on 1000 people.
It'd be funny if it wasn't a tragedy.
Instead, these 1000 people should have been treated as the murderous criminals they are -- hunted, captured and tried, or killed if they resisted.
Instead, we've conquered two countries, although neither is conquered, and never will be, not unless we act like ancient amoral pagans and put everything to the sword -- men, women, children, babies, goats. And we're not going to do that. Societies that have done such things aren't around anymore. They've collapsed from the inside, from moral degradation.
I am reminded of the saying, "You can conquer a country on horseback, but you have to dismount to rule it." We're not going to dismount.
# Luke Harding at The Guardian - Huge US attack to crush Iraq rebels - the Iraqi side of the story of recent U.S. attacks on Najaf and Fallujah. As I guessed on Monday, they bombed Fallujah yesterday. For the Amerikan viewpoint, the attack, as described by the Washington Post, warmed the cockles for Kim du Toit. In general, I like Mr. du Toit. But his happiness about killing Iraqis reminds me of the old joke where the drunk is looking under the lamppost for the keys he lost under the bridge because the light is better there. Yes, we need to hunt down, try, and execute, every criminal responsible for 9/11. No, none of the Iraqi civilians killed by U.S. bombing had anything to do with it. That means that their deaths were murder by our guys. Murder. [grabbe]
"The Americans are the terrorists. They keep on killing Iraqi women and children," said fighter Said Husseini outside Kufa's second mosque, clutching a rocket launcher and two green grenades. "We would urge European countries to pull their sons out of Iraq. Otherwise they'll go home in body bags."
# Carl F. Worden at The Price of Liberty - Another Huge Medical Marijuana Win - legal commentary on the story I linked to yesterday about the Ninth District court striking down federal closure of WAMM's medical marijuana farm. [price]
So if someone was convicted in federal court of mere drug possession, but the feds had not established that commerce was involved, then that convicted person may have a strong basis for appeal and perhaps even freedom if the state laws he violated were now beyond reach due to the state law's statute of limitations.
Example: A person was convicted in federal court for drug possession where no commerce was established. He was sentenced to 25 years. He has served 10 years in federal prison, which is well past the statute of limitations of the state where he was arrested, but the state never prosecuted him because the feds took the case. His federal conviction is vacated due to lack of jurisdiction under this new ruling, and the state cannot prosecute him either. He goes free, and he can now sue the feds for his wrongful conviction and prosecution.
It will be interesting to see how this latest federal ruling plays out, especially if the feds push the case before the Supreme Court, and the Supremes confirm the lower court's findings -- which I think they will.
#
The
OQO ultra personal computer (uPC) "is a fully-functional Windows
XP PC small enough to fit in your pocket, yet powerful enough to
replace your laptop. The OQO computer is the much-anticipated mobility
solution for people who until now had to choose between the bulk and
awkwardness of a laptop and the limited capability of a PDA."
Pronounced: Oh, Cue, Oh. Tres kule! Nice QuickTime
video. 4.9" x 3.4" x .9", 14 ounces. They expect to ship in the
fall of 2004. No prices evident. [wes]
The OQO computer has all the functionality of an ultraportable notebook computer, with a 1GHz processor, a 20GB hard drive, 256MB of RAM, color transflective display (for easy indoor and outdoor viewing), 802.11b wireless, a removable lithium-polymer battery, and FireWire and USB 1.1 ports. For input and navigation it includesthumb keyboard with TrackStik and mouse buttons as well as digital pen and thumbwheel.
The OQO computer is the most versatile computer to date. Standalone, it is as portable as a PDA. With the docking cable, it is no different than a laptop in its ability to connect to projectors and Ethernet networks. In the desktop stand with the docking cable, it is a desktop computer. As a Windows PC, the OQO computer moves seamlessly from one mode to the other with no synchronizing.
