Plugh
# The Spiridellis Brothers at JibJab - Second Term - a new Flash animation from the creators of "This Land" and "It's Good to Be in D.C.". 5.8 megs. Not as good as "This Land", but entertaining. [brad]
# David McIntyre - Plugh.com - I typed in this web address just for fun and came on a lover of the old, original "Adventure" game. I spent many hours playing this game in front of a DecWriter printing terminal in Baker House (on the Charles River at MIT in Cambridge, MA) in 1975 or 1976. "Plugh" never got the notoriety of xyzzy, but I still remember it, almost 30 years later. There's an on-line version of the game (converted to static HTML) at sundae.triumf.ca/pub2/cave/node001.html, but I think the executables are more fun. And then there's the adventure game built in to Emacs. "M-x dunnet" starts it up. I've never played that one to completion.
# Mike Whitney at Counterpunch - Flags, Cops and F-16s: Coronation in the Garrison State - on Bushnev's swearing-in. [clairefiles]
The police-state transformation of the nation's capital is astonishing. Even the manhole covers have been welded together along the Presidential parade route. No detail, however insignificant, has been ignored in "battening-down" a major metropolitan area. The armed contingents of roaming soldiers and the familiar trappings of Martial Law should remind us of ceremonials in banana republics; the apparent model for the Bush inaugural grand-opera. According to the Associated Press, the capital has readied itself, "with rooftop snipers, missile batteries, bomb-sniffing dogs, high-tech monitors and miles of metal barricades Coast Guard cutters are on duty in the Potomac River, while customs aircraft and other surveillance flights are in the skies above the city. Sophisticated sensors to detect chemical, radiological or biological material are in place," and, "Canine bomb-sniffing squads, bicycle patrols and crowd control units also are at the ready Hour by hour the city of grand buildings and marble statues disappears behind curtains of steel security fences and concrete barriers."
"Disappears behind curtains of steel?" Or, was that an Iron Curtain?
# George Bush at Fox News - Transcript: Bush's Address - I didn't listen. As usual for Mr. Bush, nice language. Wish he would act the way he talks. Sekurity is not compatible with liberty. [geekwitha.45]
# Deuce of Clubs - Legal Piracy - entertaining rant on the reality of the "property tax". [deuce]
Take away justice, then, and what are governments but great confederacies of robbers? After all, what are confederacies of robbers unless they are small-scale governments? The gang itself consists of men, it is directed by the authority of the chief, it is bound together by a pact of mutual support, and the loot is divided in accordance with an agreed law. If, as a result of the recruitment of desperadoes, this evil grows to such an extent that it takes control of a territory, establishes bases, occupies cities and subjugates peoples, then it assumes the name of a government, the more openly because this is now plainly applicable: not because the robbers have renounced their rapacity, but because they are no longer at risk of punishment. The reply that a captured pirate made to Alexander the Great was apposite and legitimate. For when the ruler asked the man how he could justify making the sea a dangerous place, he answered, with defiant outspokenness, "In exactly the way that you justify doing the same to the whole world. But because I do it with a single paltry ship, I am called a robber; while you do it with a large navy, and are called an emperor." -- Augustine of Hippo, Civitas Dei (Book IV, Chapter iv)
# Deuce of Clubs Switcheroo: Reasons Not to Direct Link Images - how to cure people of direct linking to images on your web site. Hehe. [deuce]
# Not in Our Name - Statements of Conscience Against War and Repression - there's a new statement slated to run in today's New York Times. [nion]
As George W. Bush is inaugurated for a second term, let it not be said that people in the United States silently acquiesced in the face of this shameful coronation of war, greed, and intolerance. He does not speak for us. He does not represent us. He does not act in our name.
In our name, the Bush government justifies the invasion and occupation of Iraq on false pretenses, raining down destruction, horror, and misery, bringing death to more than 100,000 Iraqis. It sends our youth to destroy entire cities for the sake of so-called democratic elections, while intimidating and disenfranchising thousands of African American and other voters at home.
In our name, the Bush government holds in contempt international law and world opinion. It carries out torture and detentions without trial around the world and proposes new assaults on our rights of privacy, speech and assembly at home. It strips the rights of Arabs, Muslims and South Asians in the U.S., denies them legal counsel, stigmatizes and holds them without cause. Thousands have been deported.
As new trial balloons are floated about invasions of Syria, or Iran, or North Korea, about leaving the United Nations, about new "lifetime detention" policies, we say not in our name will we allow further crimes to be committed against nations or individuals deemed to stand in the way of the goal of unquestioned world supremacy.
# GeekWithA.45 - Targeting Data - an illustrated explanation of why golden triangle targeting (shooting to hit the triangle formed by the nipples and the nose) is better than aiming for center of mass. Good practical stuff. [geekwitha.45]
# I upgraded my Windows machine to Emacs 21.3.1 yesterday. I've been using 20.3.1 for the last six or seven years. The styled text is interesting, but they fixed some ange-ftp bugs that have been making it hard to fetch files from our AIX machines. In order to make BlogMax work, I had to identify my web host as a "dumb unix host" so that ange-ftp would use "dir" instead of "ls -l" to get directory listings (m-x customize, Files group, Ange Ftp group, Ange Ftp Dumb Unix Host Regexp). 20.3.1 also seems faster. Emacs rocks!
