Category Archives: Uncategorized

Appeals concerning the NSA’s warrant-less surveillance of the interwebs are going on this week.

Astronomers found a supernova within hours of the light of it exploding reaching earth.  It should be visible with binoculars in a couple weeks.

NPR has the entire Green Album available for listening to. I’m torn about it. I like the bands and I like the Muppets, but together they don’t always work. Alkaline Trio’s Moving Right Along is the highlight.

CNN reporter was “grazed by bullet casings“. Yeah I get that too, every time I go to the range, being left-handed. I’ll grant you, those suckers are hot for a second.

Infrastructure free, ad hoc networking for emergency situations. I thought, “neat, but will it reach critical mass” and went on with my life this morning, but in light of the East Coast earthquake, I’ll pass it along.

Maybe why the poor in America are curiously ambivalent about wealth redistribution.

Hilarity ensues when you ask students to give up an advantage they’ve worked hard for to help those less fortunate than themselves.

In the midst of the rising tide of bad economic news, the Economist has a cool graph that compares the GDP and population of US states to other countries.

This dude makes these prints, and others like them. I want to believe.

After weeks of waiting and voting, the NPR Top 100 Science Fiction and Fanstasy Books list is done. The list is an interesting mix of pop and literary styles.

I don’t have much to argue with, but quibbles are as follows:

While I enjoy A Song Of Fire And Ice as much as the next person, it would not be that high on the list if it weren’t coming off of massive publicity due to the show and recent book release. It’s good, but not that good.

I’m surprised Wheel of Time did as well as it did. I put it down after 100 pages in the first book, but while it obviously has its fans, most seem to think it’s gone on too long. Squeaky wheel effect, maybe.

I also can’t believe the Thomas Covenant, Self-Pitying Jerk Across The Multiverse, beat out the Vorkosigan saga, even if only by one place.

Cryptonomicon higher than Diamond Age? Please.

The new TSA chief may not be as brain-dead as the previous ones.

I don’t know what Labor Force Participation rates are, and I don’t care enough to go check, but apparently they’re down. I’m commenting on this so I can post this picture, which I love.

This shirt and others are in my Amazon wish list. It’s never too soon to start my birthday shopping, you know.

It’s appalling that Green Day won Rolling Stones’ Greatest Punk Band of All Time poll. Every other band on that list should have beat them, since, you know, they were actually punk bands (yes, yes The Clash and Social Distortion crossed genres too. Still better.)

I’m going to go listen to Social D now in protest.

No, it not so dangerous. But I tried to cook Americium, Radium and Beryllium in 96% sulphuric-acid, to easier get them blended. But the whole thing exploded upp in the air…

.

Sarcasm boost creativity. Which is why I am the next Michelangelo, obviously.

You can’t be howling about your opponents use of violent metaphors in politics and six months later use them yourself. Oh wait, this is America, we only care about whatever current “crisis” CNN and Fox have decided we should care about.

Time magazine lists the 30 greatest music videos [unfortunate slideshow format]. They got all the ones I thought of.  Somewhere in the 90s I started having never seen any of them.

Apple (the company) has more cash on hand than the US government.

Spock Is Not Impressed is made of win and LOLs.

The “polar bears are dying off” scientist is under investigation for integrity issues. What about, nobody knows yet.

First off, I always wondered how Piers Morgan got anywhere in the US, but then more recently, I’ve been wondering if there would be any splashback on him with the whole hacking deal.

The fun starts at 4:15 and the threats at 5:20 and Ian wins at 8:10.

Starts at 5:50

I just love those videos so much.

Do they get all their medical information from the NFL? Also, where was the NFL when they were in peewee, high school and college football? They should probably sue their parents for allowing them to play as minors.

42 years ago today we landed on the moon.

A test of whether the Fifth Amendment applies to your computer passwords is coming up in Colorado.

Related: TrueCrypt

I’m not as convinced that politicians couldn’t see the outcome writ large in the communist countries at the time, making it less of an attempt at benevolence and more of a power grab, but other than that, a good article.

The numbers on what a bank run in America would look like. Based on my semester of microeconomics, I suggest avoiding that kind of thing.

While we’re on the downer talk, an historical look at federal borrowing over the last 30 years.

360 degree HD view of the Discovery shuttle flight deck.

Soon enough people will just walk out with their groceries under their arms. Inconvenient for people that buy more than a meal’s worth of groceries, and makes life easy for shoplifters, but hey, good for the environment.

Today marks the first full orbit of the planet Neptune since its discovery on the night of September 23-24, 1846.

A cool time lapse video of the last space shuttle rollout, complete with annoying voiceover. Atlantis is supposed to launch tomorrow at 11:26 EDT. You can watch it launch here.

I shudder to think how the TSA could become more pointlessly invasive in their searches.

I came for the They Might Be Giants covering Tubthumping, I stayed for the other interesting combinations.

Nasty coal energy may have kept the planet from warming over the last decade. And surely we all still remember the last decade of global warming alarm. Back when it was still called global warming. And it was alarming.

Way to be awesome. I would have got you something, but I already did April 15th.

Happy Canada Day

The more power you give the government, the more it will haunt you later on. It seems like most people only remember that when it’s too late. If you want the freedom to define a social relationship, the last thing you want is government interference. Yes, the government has to have some say for legal, tax, and census purposes, but it should really be kept to a minimum.

I am posting this purely because of that awesome quote. I hope to be able to use it someday. But as Jesus on a cracker appearances go, it’s pretty weak.

Now I have two movies to look forward to in 2012. C’mon, it’s Pixar, first of all, and secondly it has Emma Thompson, Kelly MacDonald, Billy Connelly and Craig Ferguson.

Everyone’s building large lego things these days, but this Barad- Dur is truly impressive.

Ralph Nader thinks Cisco should hand out more cash and dividends to their shareholders. Oh, did he mention he’s a shareholder and that a significant part of his portfolio is in Cisco?

I too think all the companies I’ve invested in should just give me more money regardless of the economic environment or their financial plans.

Backin 2003? 04? 0-something I started reading A Song of Ice and Fire. I was horrified by the first book and by halfway through the second book fed up with Martin setting up heroic, likable characters and killing them off. So I flung set the book aside and refused to finish. This has served me well as Martin has dithered about for 5 years not finishing the second half of the 4th book, better known as the 5th book in the series (what? it makes perfect sense).

Skip ahead to 2011 when HBO films A Game of Thrones. There is much internet buzz about it. I don’t have HBO or particularly care enough to watch the show, but every week io9 has a recap and I find myself drawn into the discussion. Luckily, the first season is the first book so I know what’s going on.

I resist for a while, but having had all of the major deaths spoilered one way or another over the intervening years, I decide to pick up the books again, determined not to care too much about the characters (because they’re just going to die). Know what? These are well written stories with awesome characters and as long as you don’t hold too tightly to them, the books are a great read.

Now, however, instead of the impending death of every likeable character being my biggest complaint against the book, I have to say I’m not a fan of some of the storylines. The whole multiple storylines thing has been a big thing in the 90s/00s and it frustrates me in general. Given the structure of the ASOFAI books, with each chapter being told from a different character’s point of view, Martin takes it to new heights. I don’t care about the Dornes, or the Krackens. Samwell is tolerable, but most of the time I have a hard time caring what’s happening to Jon or Bran. It’s so annoying to have to switch from an interesting story with Jamie or Tyrion or Daenerys to go read about people I don’t care about in the least. I’m sure it’s all very important to the story development, but it’s very frustrating as a reader. A roller coaster ride is fun for a short time, but it grows tiresome after a while. Like 15 years. I’m looking at all you genre fiction writers.

Having said that, I thoroughly enjoyed A Storm of Swords, though by the end of the book I found myself caring about characters. I sternly warned myself against the caring and continued on through A Feast for Crows . Just as I feared, death comes to the ones you least want it to. Alas. But knowing ahead of time softened the blow and along the way I enjoyed the story. There were a couple of occasions where I marveled at the writing and now I can see why people say it is a great series and reread it often. It is good storytelling. And now I am anxiously awaiting book five, A Dance with Dragons where most of my favorite (but no doubt inevitably doomed) characters are waiting.

The TSA has gone mobile and expanded their brief to include immigration. It was bad enough when they were just violating our rights in airports. These people need to be stopped now before they get any bigger or more powerful.

Yet another thing to opt out of on Facebook.

I’m glad the Department of Defense is looking forward into the next century and wants to build starships. But I’m still waiting on my moon visit. What’s the point in living in the country with the greatest military spending in the world if I don’t get a ride on a rocketship?

Thanks for all the computers.

The internet says it’s Captain Picard Day and who am I to argue?

Our brains are weird and powerful and do surprising things when we aren’t paying attention, so the fact that they argue amongst themselves surprises me not at all.

Duke Nukem Forever is on sale now.  Expect the four horsemen any minute now.

As long as Obama means he’s pledging the US’s moral support on the issue, that’s okay. Europe wanted this union, let’s let them deal with their problems. It’s not like we have our economic house so in order that we can be giving help willy-nilly.

Yes, I get that it’s all one big global thing and a butterfly going bankrupt in Greece causes major storms in the US markets. I don’t think trying to boss Germany around is the way to approach, well, anything. They don’t take it well.

I like PBS. I like the shows they show. I like the shows they make. I hope WGBH never stops making shows. I like that they make restricted British stuff available for streaming in America. But if PBS is only getting about 20% of its budget from the federal government, I don’t see why they can’t make that up through the corporate funding and viewers like you that they apparently use for the other 80% of their budget. Do four pledge drives a year instead of three. Problem solved.

Consequently, I don’t really have a problem with Chris Christie selling off New Jersey’s public broadcasting stations. Even more so since it sounds like he’s just leasing them to other public broadcasting stations. And those states back East are so small it’s kind of immaterial, really. You could take four or five of those “states” and combine them into something resembling an actual state. Christie is saving the state, well, I don’t know all the details so $2-$4 million. Call Bill Gates up and see if he can donate some pocket change.

Since I was on the site, I’d just like to point out that once again, the Idaho government is giving the northern half of the state the shaft. On the other hand I applaud their thriftiness in getting Washington state to provide us with our public television.

Anybody that thinks they “own” any portion of what they do or have a say in anything on a website other than their own is deluded. Just because you use a website constantly, buy things, have friends there or feel welcome doesn’t mean it’s yours. It belongs to the website creator and they have to answer to the EULA (or whatever the big boys have) of whoever is serving their site.

Facebook has never had a good track record with privacy or fairness, perceived or otherwise. Someone needs to come up with the Facebook killer. Hopefully something open source. Though I have my doubts the open source crowd could pull together on something of that size and scope.

I have no exciting books or series I want to get through this summer, so the list is sparse. Even Baen doesn’t have anything that’s really calling out to me and I’ll probably just drift along picking up this and that, but here is what I do have planned for this summer:

Consider Phlebas – Ian M. Banks. Having enjoyed the latest Culture novel Surface Detail, I thought I’d start at the beginning.

The Forge – S.M. Stirling and David Drake. If it’s any good I’ll get the rest of the series.
Doctrine of God – Herman Bavinck

I’m debating reading The Hunger Games. Everyone says its good, but I’m just not sold on it. I should just borrow it from someone.

Tune In Radio is a fantastic little app for the iphone. Since Spokane has lost it’s only alternative radio station (apparently the 3 “modern hits” stations weren’t enough), now I can listen to all the stations in the world that have an internet stream. I can have The Current and 91x and KWAVE and BBC 4 and Absolute Radio  IN MY CAR because the app works over 3G. Woo!

Plus it’s cool and gives my my usage stats so I don’t go over, lets me choose bandwidth sizes, shows what is playing so if it’s lame I don’t have to waste buffering time switching.

The day they go subscription is going to be a sad one though. Try it though, it’s pretty awesome.

Manos: The Hands of Fate sequel.

We should let Torgo and the Master rest in peace and bask in the epicness of the MST3K episode.

I’m starting my countdown now.

The first film, titled The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, will be released on December 14, 2012. The second film, titled The Hobbit: There and Back Again, is slated for release the following year, on December 13, 2013.

Because what we know about the Patriot Act isn’t bad enough. I’m shocked, shocked to discover that the government is broadening its definitions in order to invade our privacy further. That sort of thing hardly ever happens. Oh wait, it happens every time we give the government a modicum of power.

He warned in a Tuesday statement about the government’s “unfettered” access to bulk citizen data, like “a cellphone company’s phone records.” In a Senate floor speech on Tuesday, Udall urged Congress to restrict the Patriot Act’s business-records seizures to “terrorism investigations” — something the ostensible counterterrorism measure has never required in its nearly 10-year existence.

Glenn Greenwald knocks it out of the park with this article.

And note the rationale for why it was done in secret bipartisan meetings:  to ensure “as little debate as possible” and “to avoid a protracted and familiar argument over the expanded power the law gives to the government.”  Indeed, we wouldn’t want to have any messy, unpleasant democratic debates over “the expanded power the law gives to the government.”  Here we find yet again the central myth of our political culture:  that there is too little bipartisanship when the truth is there is little in Washington but that.

I also quite like this quote:

The way a republic is supposed to function is that there is transparency for those who wield public power and privacy for private citizens.  The National Security State has reversed that dynamic completely,….

The RIAA, everyone’s favorite goon, backs warrantless searches in California.

but critics worry that it may open the door to Fourth Amendment violations.

Open the door? OPEN THE DOOR?

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

I think we’re a bit past that.

Who’s buying these discs anyway? Do they  not have the internets?

I don’t care if it’s all legal; it looks shady, and it should be illegal, and none of you should have done it.

Meredith Attwell Baker, one of the two Republican Commissioners at the Federal Communications Commission, plans to step down—and right into a top lobbying job at Comcast-NBC.

As usual Yes, Minister explains it to us (relevant part starts @ 7:07):

As Homeland Security has moved on from terrorism (who could have seen that coming? Oh wait, everyone…) to protecting us from the dangers of knockoff handbags or blacked-out and other countries sports feeds on the internet, Mozilla has some inconvenient questions for the DHS’s demand that they remove an extension that routes around the blocked IPs.

His proposal is that evil be understood as a lack of empathy — a condition he argues can be measured and monitored and is susceptible to education and treatment.

We all know how this will end.

Forcing companies to reveal how much they give to political parties when applying for contracts could be both an increased transparency move and a not-so-secret political criteria. It could easily go either way or both. I don’t trust the lobbyists or the politicians motives on this. Or in general.

The answer, of course, is to stop lobbying.

So, good riddance to bad rubbish. For selfish reasons, I can’t help but wish that this had happened 10 years ago. We would have stood a better chance of getting rid of the Patriot Act, Homeland Security and the TSA sometime in the intervening years. Now, I’m afraid we’re stuck with them forever. My other thought is: I wonder if this has anything to do with Pakistan’s squawking about that one CIA dude recently. Obviously, we the public know practically nothing about what goes on politically and diplomatically between us and Pakistan, but it makes me wonder. Other than that, thank goodness something changed Obama’s mind about shutting down the War on Terror once he got in office, and good work CIA and US Military.

It’s interesting, and by interesting I mean entirely predicatable and stupid, that while when Bush was in office the Left said that the president (or his puppetmaster) had total control over gas prices and he wouldn’t lower them so that Shell could make money. The Right said it was speculators and the president couldn’t do anything about it. Now that Obama is in office the Left says that the poor president can’t do anything about it, it’s the market forces and the Right is all, “Whoa, let’s not blame the speculators, what about the President.”

I realize that you can change your story from one month to the next and neither the media nor the public will notice, but c’mon, let’s try for a little intellectual honesty.

Oh wait, they’re politicians. It’s interesting that states keep trying to bluff Amazon on taxes and Amazon keeps calling them on it.

I’m sure this will make everyone happy. Now can we move on and talk about “budget cuts” that aren’t cuts, merely slightly lower growth, and whether or not we should pull in our horns and let the rest of the world burn without us militarily?

Teleporters and quantum computers are one step closer.

Communism, still not working.

So, I’ve been playing a lot of Portal 2 this week and haven’t had time to talk to you. Review after the jump…

Continue reading →

I have no doubt that everyone that signed this is already paying extra, since there’s a line on the tax forms for voluntary contributions. They’re probably living a median American lifestyle and sending the extra to the IRS. Of course.

Know why I don’t like typewriters? No backspace key. Even though I type at a 93%+ accuracy (last time I checked), that’s still a lot of error correction. And on a typewriter error correction is a painful, time-consuming process.

Also, it’s hard to know exactly where you are on a page or where the key will strike. Perhaps this becomes easier with practice. I will never know. Lord willing.

I don’t think the Chinese government understands what television is for.

“Many stories are totally made up and are made to strain for an effect of novelty. The producers and writers are treating serious history in a frivolous way, which should by no means be encouraged any longer,” he said.

Also, apparently, China is big into time-travel stories on TV.

Yes, what America needs is another generation of people with no incentive to save for their retirement. Please, kill the Roth IRA.

I can’t stand the implicit tone in the article that it’s the government’s money and the greedy bastards trying to afford a retirement are destroying the country.

Flying alongside Virgin’s Spaceship 2 as it heads into SFO.

Naming three people I least admire would be a tough one. I mean, you always have Hitler as a go-to, but then it gets hard. I guess you could do Hitler, Stalin and Mao. That lets some of the Roman emperors off lightly. Maybe if I grouped them into “mass-murdering political leaders”; but I repeat myself (I kid, I kid).

Who sits down and categorizes people they don’t like the most? And then what if I name some Joe Blow who done me wrong? How does that help?

The house of Saud is nervous after the way Mubarak got the heave-ho and has been talking to Russia and China in a subtle move to show their strong commitment to friendship with the US.

Here’s the thing, the Gospel of Matthew doesn’t say “When I was hungry, he gave me to eat…” it says, and I’m assuming chapter 25 is what Pelosi’s talking about, “For I was hungry and you gave me food….”  It’s a personal choice, done personally.  It’s not some nebulous group out there doing the giving; it’s you, and me, doing it because we see the problem right in front of us.

Which isn’t to say that the government shouldn’t cut subsidies to major corporations. Cause right now, the government should be cutting spending on everything. All of it.

On this day, 52 years from now, Vulcans will detect Zefram Cochrane’s warp signature and make contact. Yay!

You can do anything you want to a bible and if any Christian speak up, they’re uptight bigots trying to squash peoples freedom of expression. Burn a Koran and suddenly concerns over freedom of expression go out the window.

The lesson for Christians here is, of course, more death equals more respect from the US government.

For the record: This pastor is an idiot, apparently has a shoddy grasp of what Christianity is, and is wasting everyone’s time with his antics. Also, Reid and Graham are idiots, apparently have a shoddy grasp of what the Constitution says, and are wasting everyone’s time with their antics.

Anyone that didn’t expect inflation from all the quantitative easing we’ve had is dumb not good at basic economics.

Upside: The smaller sized containers may help with America’s obesity problem.

I was recently reminded of this hilarity which I now share with you.

Shut it down, go ahead. All you’re doing is saving us money.

Former Rep. Tom Davis, a Republican who represented a swing district in northern Virginia, said both parties have a major selling job ahead to win over the independent voters who decide elections.

“They think both parties are worthless and dysfunctional,” Davis said.

It’s true.

Amazon jumps in to the cloud storage game with both feet. 5 gigabytes free. 20 gigabytes free if you buy a MP3 album from them. Given that I’m bound to buy an album from them sooner or later, this is a good deal for me.

Between Mozy, Dropbox, Ubuntu One and now Amazon, I’ve got a decent amount of cloud space.

Dropbox still beats it in that Dropbox is available offline though.

The story of how two twenty-something year old stoners became multi-million dollar arms dealers.

Also, an interesting look at how word choices affect tone.

The Cars still sound like The Cars.

A solar charging film that can be incorporated into LCD screens, like phones and ebooks, and etc. Of course it’s useless to me as I keep my phone in my pocket.

Chavez sounds nuttier than a Payday.

“I have always said, heard, that it would not be strange that there had been civilization on Mars, but maybe capitalism arrived there, imperialism arrived and finished off the planet,” Chavez said in speech to mark World Water Day.

Also:

He added that the West’s attacks on Libya were about water and oil reserves.

When all you got is a hammer, every speech sounds the same.

xkcd has made a very nice chart showing comparative radiation doses.

1. It’s nice to see Europe manning up and being the world’s policeman for once, even if it is an easy-peasy case and indicates a lack of decisiveness from the White House. But, that’s what a significant portion of the electorate wanted for most of the Aughts. Now they have it.

2. Haha. C’mon Libya, that was too easy.

If you’re worried about your precious bodily fluids being tainted by Japanese radiation, and you’re an American: here’s a radiation tracking map to obsessively watch not change.

If you are willing to pay ridiculous amounts of money for a 1 person, 10 day supply of potassium iodide tablets, shoot me an email. What? Who doesn’t enjoy a little profiteering…

For all your Japanese radiation dosage thinking: The banana equivalent dose.

No mention on the Godzilla equivalent dose.

RAND Paul, ladies and gentlemen.

A cap on debit card purchases, especially if they decide to go with $50, is a fantastically stupid idea from my point of view. I’m sure it all makes sense for Chase. I’m also sure banks hope this will drive people to credit cards, but it’ll drive me to cash or a credit union without the stupid limit.

Out of 300 million people, usually less than 750 renounce their citizenship every year. This last year it doubled to 1500, but I still find that incredibly low.

A Saudi prince, of which there are dozens, questions the necessity of the driving ban on women.  Women aren’t allowed to vote, or even appear in public unless covered head to toe, but hey the natives are getting restless so throw them a bone.

Though the song is not a masterpiece, I can sympathized with the sentiment.

This story is neat and all but I completely disagree with this statement:

(“Slugging is not most interesting for what it can teach about carpooling,” he wrote, but rather for the trust among strangers it requires and its leaderless organization. “Slugging is a contradiction to the everyday culture of America.”)

If he really thinks that, he needs to leave the major metropolises (metropoli?) for a few minutes. If Americans do anything really well it is organizing themselves when left alone to do so. It’s probably our greatest strength as a people.

I’m sure each and every one of the departments is vital to the running of the nation and their work could not possibly overlap or be done by any other department.

The British should accept blackouts as a bonus when they switch from coal plants to wind power to meet stupid renewable energy targets.  Yay, for living like a third-world country!

I have a feeling that this will be unacceptable to the voting public when the rubber meets the road, making it an expensive boondoggle.

Say it with me people, nuk-yuh-lur* power.

*I actually pronounce it nuh-clee-ur, but I like that the other one irritates so many.

You can listen to R.E.M.s new album for a limited time. It very much sounds like classic R.E.M. Some good stuff that’ll be worth buying at the beginning fading into weird stuff at the end. FWIW, however, am the kind of fan that their “real” fans hate. I like Stand and Automatic For The People. Anyway, I particularly like the first four songs on the album and then it gets sketchy.

UBerlin is free on iTunes this week:

A British high court has ruled that a Christian couple’s “moral certainties” about their faith (specifically about homosexuality) should keep them from fostering 5-8 year old children.

Patrick Rothfuss says he is willing to help Nathan Fillion buy Firefly.

Here’s the deal. My second book is about to come out. My publisher tells me there’s a decent chance of us selling a truly ridiculous number of copies. If this happens, I will have more money than I’ll know what to do with.

Except that’s not exactly true. I know exactly what I’d like to do with that money. I’d like to help you buy the rights to Firefly back from Fox.

A) His first book, The Name of the Wind, is the finest fantasy writing since J.R.R. Tolkien; B) His next book, The Wise Man’s Fear, comes out next week; C) Nathan Fillion; and D) FIREFLY!

I wonder if Nathan Fillion thought his comment would excite such interest.

I gave Obama a pass on Egypt, but really, his people should have figured out what to say about Libya by now. They’ve had 3 countries to practice on. Are we just going to ignore the Middle East and hope the changes don’t hurt us in a few years?

We’ve irritated Israel, Russia has some strong words to say about these revolutions and we’re sitting here. Just sitting. Is Obama going all libertarian on us and quietly pulling back US engagement with the world?

North Korea’s starving again. Or should we say, starving badly enough to ask for help again. They haven’t really been on their economic feet since the late 60s.

A kinder, gentler fascism. It’s creepy that the government is going to secretly create online sock puppets en masse.

Historic hyperinflation. [Danger: evil slideshow. Really, worse than the usually bad slideshows. I wouldn’t blame you for not clicking at all.]

Common causes: slow economy, because of war or bad agricultural; the government starts printing money to pay its debts or it imposes price controls. Viola, hyperinflation.

Common solution: some other currency becomes the de facto currency. Or war.

Congress is finally legislating, after about a decade of sitting around rubber-stamping stuff.

Apple is trying to force a 30% price increase* on all our internet subscription services (Netflix, Hulu, Rhapsody, Amazon, Barnes and Noble, magazines, newspapers, etc.).

Don’t even try to tell me that the companies won’t pass the expense along to the customer. They’ll either pull out of the app store or raise prices. Either way we lose.

*I know the increase we see won’t be exactly 30% but math is hard and I don’t care enough to figure it out.

As one opposition leader put it before Mubarak’s fall, the Americans “are just waiting to see which side wins and then they will claim to have backed them all along.”

The US president was hoist on a petard 40 years in the making and couldn’t win no matter what he said.

Having supported the stable, but dictatorial, leadership in Egypt for 40 years, we couldn’t just turn on him the instant things started looking bad for him. What if Mubarak hadn’t stepped down? “Oh you’re still in office? You know we’re behind you. 100%. Really. Now, go do this for us.” Also, it would make all the other thugs we prop up in the name of realpolitik nervous.  The results could be catastrophic.

On the other hand, it would be churlish for us to not support a democratic uprising since we always go around saying the world should be more democratic.

What’s right for the Egyptian people versus what’s best for America. It would be a tough line to walk for any president.

5 things Donald Duck invented first [Cracked: NSFW]

Oh, the budget cuts! Think of the children and their lack of medical care and education! Think of PBS and their lack of funding! Think of the poor government workers forced to make due with only 7% more than they had last year!

President Barack Obama’s 2012 budget proposes to spend $3.48 trillion on everything except interest on the national debt. That’s a 7 percent increase over what the government spent in 2010. And keep in mind that in 2010, there was a lot of stimulus money flying out the door.

The government’s definition of a budget cut and mine are very different. I think a budget cut would mean they actually spend less money than last year, or, if I had my way, 10 years ago. But, the government sees things differently.

Everyone is outraged at everything all the time.

Yes, just push the problem off into the future. That’s worked really well so far.

The DHS is busy keeping us safe from the horrors of international sports.

The lesson to learn from this is to register your domain name in a country with copyright laws you agree with. Also, since they just seize the domain name a careful search will reveal the IP address for all your soccer watching needs.

Heresy I know, but if—if—Brown is really making cuts, I don’t have a problem with continuing the tax hikes if that is what it takes to balance the budget. If he’s just mucking about with the “limiting growth counts as a cut, right?” thing, that’s a different story. But if everyone hates it, I figure it’s a good compromise.