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Weekend miscellany

  • Hooboy. We’re never going to hear the last of this from the “guns as phallic symbols” hoplophobes.
  • The first WikiLeaks revolution? I think the moral here is that, if the government of your country is reasonable and transparent (yeah, rare, I know), WikiLeaks can’t possibly hurt it. But if it’s already corrupt to the core (I mean more corrupt than usual) …
  • Scanners. Detecting nothing.
  • How come government mainstreamers only “get it” after it’s too late for them to do anything about it?
  • The miracle of Wikipedia. Sometimes it’s just great to be reminded that freedom can work so brilliantly.
  • All right. It’s gloomy and wintry today. Definitely a day that needs brightening up with a funny dog video. Okay, make it two. And have a happy weekend.

9 Comments

  1. naturegirl
    naturegirl January 14, 2011 6:26 pm

    Luckily, I haven’t seen the new photos, don’t wanna either, LOL….but somehow it’s not a surprise…..

    My personal experience as a Wiki babysitter for a famous musician, taught me right away how unreliable it is (simply because of the “mischief”, as the article linked put it)….if it hadn’t been for that, I’d probably think it was pretty cool; now I read any of them with a level of skepticism that kind of spoils it……

  2. Kent McManigal
    Kent McManigal January 14, 2011 8:35 pm

    I’ve decided guns really ARE phallic symbols- to those who fear them. Not to those of us familiar with how both tools work. I think there might be some clues that Crazy AZ Shooter Guy ain’t quite right and might not be a good standard to judge the vast majority of gun owners by. Sorta the way Ron Paul isn’t a representative … well… representative. But, in a Mirror Universe sorta way. [I give the Evil-Kirk smirk from my fevered visage]

  3. Ellendra
    Ellendra January 14, 2011 11:12 pm

    “I think the moral here is that, if the government of your country is reasonable and transparent (yeah, rare, I know), WikiLeaks can’t possibly hurt it. ”

    I agree. But at the same time, I must point out that this is the same argument used by the feds to dismiss privacy concerns, and to justify unlawful searches.

  4. Pat
    Pat January 15, 2011 4:36 am

    And that’s why Wikileaks is necessary – so much discrepancy between what govt says and what it ought to be! (If in fact it *ought to be* at all. People need rules and perhaps a leader, but they never need to be “governed”.)

    I liked the phrase that Wikileaks used in calling Ben Ali’s regime “sclerotic”. It’s the condition that all empires reach before they start to fall – and we, who “ought” to know better, are the sickest of all.

  5. Jeffrey Quick
    Jeffrey Quick January 15, 2011 5:26 am

    I was trying to think of ways that government is a kteic symbol, but decided that was insulting to women.

  6. Claire
    Claire January 15, 2011 8:31 am

    Ellendra, you wrote — "I agree. But at the same time, I must point out that this is the same argument used by the feds to dismiss privacy concerns, and to justify unlawful searches.”

    Have to differ with you there. I can think of a number of grounds for the difference of opinion, but the simplest way I can put it is to say that a servant (government, supposedly) who deceives its master (people, supposedly) in matters relevant to the job deserves to be exposed and fired. And while master and servant both have areas in which their privacy should be sacrosanct, the servant has no business to conceal issues of basic job performance from the master.

    Geez, I hate putting anything in terms of master and servant. Seems absolutely creepy. But I think WikiLeaks is merely exposing the lie that government “serves” anybody.

    —–

    Indirectly related: More on Tunisian government antics …

    http://cpj.org/internet/2011/01/tunisia-invades-censors-facebook-other-accounts.php

  7. Winston
    Winston January 15, 2011 11:21 am

    Usually when a socially dysfunctional young white guy goes on a high profile shooting spree you end up with pictures of him attempting to look badass in a cheap trenchcoat or a 5.11 vest…but posing in a g-string? WTF? He must just never want his friends and relatives to show their faces in public ever again.

    Stranger than fiction…as usual.

  8. naturegirl
    naturegirl January 15, 2011 12:25 pm

    I really expected the gun show scheduled to be held in Tuscon to be stifled in every way, but it’s still on…and kudos for this simple, yet right to the point comment by the show organizer: “This really is not about guns, it’s about mental illness and a person who had an agenda.” (from here: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/16/us/16giffords.html )

  9. Victor Milan
    Victor Milan January 16, 2011 2:52 pm

    Government, always and ever, serves the interests of its owners. Who aren’t us.

    As for Stockman and the “point of no return”: those who launched the Fed’s career of inflation knew precisely what it would bring about. Every President since has known. Every figure involved in government spending knew. Keynes knew. Krugman knows. Everybody knows. Except the public (and much of the media, except a few specifically paid snake-oil sellers like Krugman.) Inflation is not mysterious.

    Stockman knew. He’s trying to avoid dangling from a lamp-post, after hyperinflation truly crushes the American people. Which I fear quite likely happens this year.

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