February 23, 2012

RIP Marie Colvin!

"We Lost A Great One"
<snip>
CAIRO — On Wednesday morning, Marie Colvin, a veteran American war reporter for Britain's Sunday Times, was killed in the Baba Amr neighborhood of Homs, Syria, with award-winning French photographer Remi Ochlik.

With Marie's passing, the world lost a brilliant correspondent, the journalism community lost a mentor, and women lost an icon. Marie set the gold standard in every way: personal and professional. Her reporting and writing were thorough, captivating, and honest -- she was fearless and got to the heart of the story. As a person, Marie was witty, compassionate, and generous with her time and wisdom.
<snip>
War reporting is still dominated by men. Marie stood out as a woman who could do it just as well, if not better, than the guys. She was always humble and encouraging of other women. We discussed strategies for becoming a better writer -- she was happy to sit down and share everything she knew over coffee. Without knowing it, she made me believe that I could be more like her.

The first thing that struck me about Marie was her energy. It was magnetic, frantic, and graceful all in one. When I met her, Marie had just returned from Jufra, an oasis region in Libya's south, where no other Western reporter had dared to tread. She was tired but bursting with enthusiasm for what she'd witnessed. She needed to get the story out. In a world with so little compassion, Marie cared, deeply, about everything she touched, and I watched as people responded in kind.
<snip>
http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2012/02/22/marie_colvin_we_lost_a_great_one

And RIP Rémi Olchik....
They will meet Anthony Shadid all too soon!

These three and all the war correspondents bring us what we have to have to survive as humanity. They brought us an unvarnished look at war and its collateral damage. I don't believe that ANY of them thought the death and destruction is collateral damage. War affects everyone and everything.

These courageous people are also feared more by those waging war than any weapon ever invented. The fight truly ends when brave people like these are all gone. This isn't true of just those who report on wars, but of all 'Who speak truth to power.'

Marie Colvin's last dispatches: http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/02/22/american-reporter-marie-colvins-final-dispatches-from-homs/

"Fair winds and following seas to all of you!" Gone too soon......

February 22, 2012

Karl Rove has been a political advisor the Swedish prime minister since at least 2010.

WikiLeaks (@wikileaks)
2/22/12 9:04 AM
Karl Rove has been a political advisor the Swedish prime minister since at least 2010. It is the only foreign consulting job listed by Rove.

Sweden: Political Interference by the Swedish Prime Minister

Swedish Prime Minister interferes in Assange case with fresh attacks on Assange - 25 January 2012
This is typical of someone accused [’anklagad’] of a crime in a different country - to try to cast suspicion on that country or its legal system. One can see similarities with other cases where this technique has been used. Of course we have to stand our ground - we have a system of rule of law that works. And we take rape accusations very seriously - there are special interests trying to disparage how we have developed and how we stand by the good legislation [that is relevant] in this [Assange] case. - full transcript below.
 
Swedish Prime Minister, Fredrik Reinfeldt, talks about the Assange case on Swedish national radio on 25 January 2012 - only one week before Assange’s team will argue that the European Arrest Warrant has not been subjected to scrutiny by an independent and impartial ’judicial authority’, before the UK Supreme Court.
<snip>
http://www.swedenversusassange.com/Political-Interference.html

And suddenly the fog lifts and reveals Rovemagnon.
The pestilence is spread across the globe.

February 22, 2012

Dead Man's Switch

Why?
Bad things happen. Sometimes, they happen to you. If something does happen, you might wish there was something you had told the people around you. How you feel, what you regret, where the money is stashed.
For this, you need a dead man's switch.

How?
This is how this works. You write a few e-mails and choose the recipients. These emails are stored securely, so you can be sure that no-one except the intended recipient will ever read them. Your switch will email you every so often, asking you to show that you are fine by clicking a link. If something were to... happen... to you, your switch would then send the emails you wrote to the recipients you specified. Sort of an "electronic will", one could say.

When?
The emails are sent at certain intervals. By default, the switch will email you 30, 45, and 52 days after you last showed signs of life. If you don't respond to any of those emails, all your messages will be sent 60 days after your last checkin. Of course, you can have your switch postpone its activation (if, for example, you'll be away for some time) by telling it to not try to contact you for a specified period of time. The service will resume normally after however many days have passed. In the default example, if you specify a delay of 10 days, the emails will be sent after 40, 55, and 62 days, while your messages will be sent after 70 days.

But?
But nothing. That's it. Nothing to it. You can get started right now, just register using the following link: http://beta.deadmansswitch.net/

Hmmmmmmmm..........

February 22, 2012

Who Do You Trust Less: the NSA or Anonymous?

<snip>
The Journal admits that Anonymous "has never listed a power blackout as a goal," but warned that "some federal officials believe Anonymous is headed in a more disruptive direction," anyway.

The Anonymous-affiliated Twitter account, @YourAnonNews, responded with a blunt denial. "NSA head engages in alarmist rhetoric & fear-mongering," they wrote today. "Why would Anons take out power grids when lives depend on them?"

Security expert Christopher Soghoian displayed skepticism about the NSA warning, too. "I'm confused," he tweeted, "What will happen in next year or 2 to give anonymous ability to hack power grid. Either the grid is secure or insecure."
<snip>
The overheated cyber rhetoric reminds some of the way the Bush Administration used yellowcake uranium in the lead-up to the Iraq war.

"Evidence to sustain such dire warnings is conspicuously absent," wrote George Mason's Jerry Brito and Tate Watkins last week in Wired's Threat Level. "In many respects, rhetoric about cyber catastrophe resembles threat inflation we saw in the run-up to the Iraq War. And while Congress' passing of comprehensive cybersecurity legislation wouldn't lead to war, it could saddle us with an expensive and overreaching cyber-industrial complex."
<snip>
http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2012/02/who-do-you-trust-less-the-nsa-or-anonymous/253399/

They either can't or won't go after China, N.Korea, and others so they will pull out all stops to capture some Anonymous hackers. Maybe they have made strides, but don't want to talk about it so Anons will serve for them in absentia.

They will parade them around as GIANT proof of their efforts against cyberattacks. Nevermind that
some countries are a much bigger threat and have been rummaging around in our cybersystems for gawd knows how long. They have also caused gawd knows what damage.

I don't trust the NSA at all. Anon may be a stateless group, but they are state sponsored spying and I probably don't want to know what else.

Delivery of 1000 pizzas and DDOS attacks vs messing with our power grids and ??? right now.
Obviously extra larges are much more dangerous.

February 22, 2012

Wanda Sykes zings Chris Christie!

Official Wanda Sykes (@iamwandasykes)
2/21/12 9:17 PM
Gov. Christie, asking voters to decide if same sex couples can marry is as ridiculous as asking voters to decide how much you should weigh.

Oh Snap!

February 21, 2012

A Rick Santorum composite made entirely out of gay porn images(NSFWish)

http://unicornbooty.com/blog/2012/02/21/omg-a-rick-santorum-portrait-made-entirely-of-gay-porn-nsfw-ish/

Idle hands.....

February 21, 2012

Admiral nominee once deliberately shot down friendly aircraft

Capt. Timothy Dorsey is nominated for promotion to admiral despite a 1987 incident in which he intentionally fired a missile at an Air Force reconnaissance plane during a training exercise, nearly killing two aviators and destroying the aircraft, The Washington Times reported.

The official investigation into the shoot-down said the F-14 pilot’s decision “raises substantial doubt as to his capacity for good, sound judgment,” and the Navy banned him from flying its aircraft,the Times said.

Dorsey is one of several officers whose names were recently submitted for Senate confirmation by Defense Secretary Leon Panetta.

Dorsey, who was a rookie pilot at the time, declined the Times' request for comment.

The official report of the incident, obtained by The Associated Press, found that Dorsey knew the training was a no-fire exercise and that he fired the missile deliberately when given the command to simulate a launch. Today, the Navy routinely fires officers for less serious reasons.

http://www.stripes.com/news/navy/admiral-nominee-once-deliberately-shot-down-friendly-aircraft-1.169221?localLinksEnabled=false

Yeah, let's promote him and his good judgement to admiral.
I wonder who his rabbi is?

February 21, 2012

Dilbert finds the Higgs Boson:

LOL!
A nightmare for physicists, theologians, both or neither?
When science, gawd and comedy join together......

February 21, 2012

The GOPeas and their allies are Masters of

We need action or inaction figures.

February 20, 2012

I almost believe in reincarnation.

Santorum is the next life of Savonarola. Those 2 are scary peas in a pod.

<snip>
Under Lorenzo the Magnificent art and literature had felt the humanist revival of the 15th century, whose spirit was utterly at variance with Savonarola's conception of spirituality and Christian morality. To the adherents of the Medici therefore, Savonarola early became an object of suspicion but till the death of Lorenzo in 1492, his relations with the Church were at least not antagonistic and when, in 1493, a reform of the Dominican order in Tuscany was proposed under his auspices, it was approved by the pope, and Savonarola was named the first vicar-general.

But now his preaching began to point plainly to a political revolution as the divinely-ordained means for the regeneration of religion and morality, and he predicted the advent of the French under Charles VIII, whom soon after he welcomed to Florence. Soon, however, the French were compelled to leave Florence, and a republic was established, of which Savonarola became the guiding spirit, his party ("the Weepers&quot being completely in the ascendant.

The republic of Florence was to be a Christian commonwealth, of which God was the sole sovereign, and His Gospel the law: the most stringent enactments were made for the repression of vice and frivolity. Gambling was prohibited an the vanities of dress were restrained by sumptuary laws. Even the women flocked to the public square to fling down their costliest ornaments and Savonarola's followers made huge "bonfires of the vanities."

Meanwhile, his rigor and claim to the gift of prophecy led to his being cited in 1495 to answer a charge of heresy at Rome and on his failing to appear he was forbidden to preach. Savonarola disregarded the order, but his difficulties at home increased. The new system proved impracticable and although the conspiracy for the recall of the Medici failed, and five of the conspirators were executed, yet this very rigor hastened the reaction.
<snip>
http://www.historyguide.org/intellect/savonarola.html