"The left has a proud tradition of defending political freedoms, at home and abroad. But this tradition is in danger of being lost when western intellectuals indulge in power worship. Applause for autocrats undermines the morale of people who insist on fighting for their freedoms. Leftists were largely sympathetic, and rightly so, to critics of Berlusconi and Thaksin, even though neither was a dictator. Both did, of course, support American foreign policy. But when democracy is endangered, the left should be equally hard on rulers who oppose the US. Failure to do so encourages authoritarianism everywhere, including in the West itself, where the frivolous behaviour of a dogmatic left has already allowed neoconservatives to steal all the best lines."

I guess this weekend Larry Hughes got over the whole brother dying thing. Love the shirt, need one.

Oh man, this reminds me of playing hoops inside of sam's room.

I think everyone should read (or re-read) '1984' by George Orwell.

There are pieces of the modern day puzzle that are so clear after I re-read that book a few months back. It's all outlined there: double think, propagandism, crazy slogans like 'war is peace', and then Goldsten (cough! Osama Bin Laden!) as the former ally-turned-traitor that can never be caught but allows all of fundamental human rights to get tossed out the window over security concerns.

I'm somewhat concerned that it looks like the Fascist Neo-Con Think Tanks read the book and are using it as their game plan.

(This post is from my most recent blog post, which also covers another topic about so-called 'Conservatives', plus Fear Tactics of NeoCons, as well as my theory that the Roman Empire never fell but instead went underground, rebranded as Institutionalized Catholicism.)

Yes, I went back to a political topic. Didn't seem like there was much discussion over the previous posts. Or maybe everyone's taking a break from the cxc blog?

There's a cool trick where you can upload video to Google video and embed it into a myspace page, or any page that uses CSS. It's not much of a trick b/c Google helps you do it ... but it's pretty cool anyway.
Looks like the Video Revolution is picking up. Soon we'll have video bombarding us from everywhere.

I learned three things this morning:

1. I'd prefer to rip out my eyes, pour acid into my ears and live my life as a deaf-mute than to watch another Olsen Twin movie about getting dates for the spring dance.

2. When my Ipod shuffles to a 15 minute Mettalica ditty during my commute, it reduces travel time by 20-30%. Side effects include getting angry, developing anti-authoritarian vaguely liberal outlook, flashbacks to long nights at ADs house, and running away from po-po.

3. You can save a lot by switching to Geico

Skype. Wow. On dloading, I didn't think it was that big of a deal, until I did my first videochat. Whoa. SO much better than AIM chat or videochat, which sucked inside my work LAN. The SKYPE videochat was like looking into the future...

Did everyone see the Steven Colbert 'Roast' of Pres Bush? CLASSIC!!!
Right & Left alike will surely get a chuckle. You gotta admire the cojones of this guy!!

Here are direct links to the video: Pt 1 , Pt 2, Pt 3,
and Democracy Now's complete re-broadcast in RealAudio.

Why do I continue criticizing the USA? B/c I'm a citizen of the USA. I believe it is patriotic to be outspoken in criticizing my country when it makes huge mistakes. Maybe other people have different ideas of what constitutes patriotism?

I admire Michael Moore, John Stewart, Amy Goodman, and now Steven Colbert. I think they have guts and are very brave people. I think they are truly American patriots.

I am not saying they don't 'spin' things as well, b/c everyone does (I learned that BIAS is a constant in studying US History @ UCSD).
I do like when the facts make it thru the bias.