Category: General

from http://www.sundayherald.com/46389

US admits the war for ‘hearts and minds’ in Iraq is now lost

Pentagon report reveals catalogue of failure
By Neil Mackay, Investigations Editor

THE Pentagon has admitted that the war on terror and the invasion and occupation of Iraq have increased support for al-Qaeda, made ordinary Muslims hate the US and caused a global backlash against America because of the “self-serving hypocrisy” of George W Bush’s administration over the Middle East.
The mea culpa is contained in a shockingly frank “strategic communications” report, written this autumn by the Defence Science Board for Pentagon supremo Donald Rumsfeld.

On “the war of ideas or the struggle for hearts and minds”, the report says, “American efforts have not only failed, they may also have achieved the opposite of what they intended”.

“American direct intervention in the Muslim world has paradoxically elevated the stature of, and support for, radical Islamists, while diminishing support for the United States to single digits in some Arab societies.”

Referring to the repeated mantra from the White House that those who oppose the US in the Middle East “hate our freedoms”, the report says: “Muslims do not ‘hate our freedoms’, but rather, they hate our policies.

more on the site

I don’t like coming home from day job and having to work my night job. I told my boss today that I’d be willing to stay on through January but that I’d also be scoping for opportunities to work upstairs in the office, and he was fine with that. Also my walkman has, as my father would say “had the bun.” (Kinda like “had the biscuit,” but less cracker and more roll.) So that’s disappointing.

Revised Wish List:

CDs:
Lord of the Rings soundtrack (any)

DVDs/VHS:
The DVD with 8 Abbott & Costello movies including A&C Meet Frankenstein.
Complete Superman Cartoons: Diamond Anniversary Edition
Jonny Quest Season 1 (low priority)
Kiki’s Delivery Service (low priority)
Spirited Away
Princess Mononoke (low priority)
My Neighbor Totoro

Books:
d20 – A Magical Medieval Society: Western Europe
Tome of Horrors (1 not 2)
d20 Toolbox (AEG)
Any ALIAS or POWERS graphic novel.
Unearthed Arcana (Dungeons & Dragons)
Tales of Freeport
The Diamond Throne (Arcana Unearthed Sourcebook)
Hellboy: Chained Coffin & Others
Professor Wormbog and the Search for the Zipperump-a-zoo (low priority)

Misc:
Practically any miniatures that look cool – especially of monsters that I don’t already have and “rare” minis like female gnome monks, that sort of thing.
**NEW** D&D Miniatures:
ABERRATIONS SET
Formian Warrior
Achaierai
Hook Horror
Chuul
Gibbering Mouther!!!!!!
ARCHFIENDS SET
Ochre Jelly
Gauth!!!
DRAGONEYE SET
Salamander
Carrion Crawler
HARBINGER SET
Displacer Beast

Those black plastic VHS tape cases
Nyarlathotep and/or shoggoth plush doll
Sripey socks (not sports socks)

They finally had some Black Jack gum at the Candy Aisle by The Comicshop. I bought a pack but it was $2.13 total (42 cents a piece) and it wasn’t really the same as the stuff I had as a kid. Still – licorice gum.

Marlo & I watched the documentary “Stupidity” last night. It was OK. There was some truly interesting stuff in there, but it had problems. The editing and presentation was flashy and gaudy. It spent too much time on some aspects of stupidity and not enough on others. Still – a good effort and worth seeing. 7/10

Last night Marlo & Yvonne & Stephane & Sheri and I played Beyond Balderdash, and thanks to the Committee for the Re-Election of the President, I pulled ahead to win the game. We listened to some Ray Charles and Brian Eno and drank larvae juice and ate Pocky and Two-Bite Brownies.

Now Kodos & I are going to have a kitty litter party!

Sam has generously offered to give me his old wooden bed frame (Roughly speaking the headboard is 30″ X 54″, and the long support boards are 80″, which is, like, six and a half feet long) for free!

But how to get it from 1120 Barclay Street to my home by/on Thursday?
Suggestions/offers very much appreciated.

Posted on Thursday, November 4, 2004. From a list of cases heard in U.S. civil and criminal courts, published in the October 24, 2004, issue of the ABA Journal eReport, the online magazine of the American Bar Association. Originally from Harper’s Magazine, January 2004.

See the full list at http://www.harpers.org/2004-01-NoContest.html

Schmuck v. Dumm

United States ex rel. Gerald Mayo v. Satan and His Staff

I Am the Beast Six Six Six v. Michigan State Police

Friends of Kangaroo Rat v. California Dept. of Corrections

State v. Big Hair

U.S. v. Pipe on Head

Henny Penny v. Chicken Little

Easter Seal Society .for Crippled Children v. Playboy Enterprises

Loser v. Superior Court of Alameda County

United States of America v. 2,116 Boxes of Boned Beef, Weighing Approximately 154,121 Pounds, and 541 Boxes of Offal, Weighing Approximately 17,732 Pounds

Jones v. God, Jesus, Others

Plough v. Fields

United States v. 11 1/4 Dozen Packages of Article Labeled in Part Mrs. Moffat’s Shoo Fly Powders for Drunkenness

Truelove v. Truelove

Short v. Long

People v. Booger [Yes of course I saved the best for last!]

I finally saw Kill Bill. I watched both parts back to back, as though it were the single movie originally intended. I was pretty disappointed.

Here’s the setup for the entire film: the bride and her wedding party have an assassination attempt made. Why? We don’t find out right away. That’s the mystery that for me supports the film. I waited intently for the resolution to that, and after 4 hours Bill’s answer was basically “I dunno.” There were no interesting onion-layers. There was almost no backstory. I didn’t really care about any of the characters because a) most of them don’t really show any character apart from “don’t I look cool…and deadly” and b) they’re obviously just obstacles on the way to Bill – 2-D obstacles. Lucy Liu’s character is given the most back-story, and yet her character seems to be the most two-dimensional. Michael Madsen’s had no backstory but seemed to have the most character. Curious.

I guess in my old age I’m caring less and less about on what interesting new way the bad guy gets impaled or beheaded, and more about characterization and plot. I was introduced to the main character and instinctively I am interested to know why she and her wedding party had an assassination attempt. I am curious about what she is going to do, and what she is going to say. Turns out the she doesn’t really say anything, and she only does one thing: kill people and react. I was more interested in things like: What does she eat? What does she read on the airplane? Why did she want to marry that guy?

The most interesting scene was the bride talking to the guy who made her sword. Now here we have some interesting characters; we have some dialogue; we have intimations made and a bit of humour to spice things up. Nice. Interesting.

The rest of the movie seemed conflicted. The bride doesn’t want to kill one lady in front of the lady’s little girl. And then she does. Madsen’s character says he deserves to die and doesn’t seem keen on killing the bride – and then that side of him is gone and he shoots the bride with a shotgun and buries her alive.

I was disappointed that I never really find out the relationship between Bill and all of his assassin-lackies. The dialogue was not up to the Tarantino precedent. In fact, it was all pretty insipid. Then I have the nit-picky stuff: the snake in the brief case; the truth serum; the anime-like gushing blood; the katana on the airplane. Sure, the fight scenes were everything they promised, but by the time Bill and the bride are sitting down for their head to head – I am worn out. I just want answers to my questions. What answers I get are either weak or conflicting.

5/10

Now that I’ve seen the film, I can finally read Kevin Murphy’s review: http://www.ayearatthemovies.com/reviews_10_07_03.htm