Electronic Darwinism - The Week in Review

For the third time, I have a collection of random links, some funny, some serious to post here and at Daily Kos.

Yes, just to practice - I don't expect too many readers at weird o'clock Sunday morning.

Okay then. Let's kick off this week's review with David Neiwert's Swiftboating of American Journalism, from which I obtained this quote:

Chicago Tribune Editor Charles M. Madigan says: “If you are a journalist, you should probably just assume that you come across as a liar.”

Like me, he points out this story in Salon. Want to know how to turn two men who shot a fleeing, unarmed suspect and lied about it into martyred heroes of the Right? That story will tell you.

Noted anti-videogame crackpot attorney Jack Thompson, at the hearing for his disbarment, has subpoenaed none other than the Chimp in his defense. Oh, and Jeb! too, for good measure. That can't help but to go well.

The Rude Pundit reports on yet another humiliation the Chimp has inflicted upon our international standing. God, can we just amend the Constitution to put "Not an idiot" in the qualifications for President already?

Glenn Greenwald tells us of the new tough guy over at National Review - Mark Hemingway. And before you ask, of course he's too tough and manly to, you know, pick up an M-16 and drive a truck in Iraq.

Okay, so maybe Giuliani is the proper heir to the Bush administration. After all, his first response is to lie.

I don't have any Linux news handy - but I do have the weather.

Good news - the ACLU wins and takes down the part of the Patriot Act authorizing national security letters. Thanks, Firedoglake and thanks ACLU.

One has to wonder about te minds that can produce Realtime ASCII Goggles. No, really. Just seeing those three terms together gives me a headache.

Oh, and Prim Perfect, the Second Life magazine that Ms. Korobase writes for, has been mentioned in the New York Times and the Daily Telegraph. It would be darkly humorous in a story-of-Moody's-life way should her writing grow more popular and famous than mine.
Yes, I always have a hard time ending these. Until next time -

I still live, I still think: I still have to live, for I still have to think.
Friedrich Nietzsche

Electronic Darwinism: Week In Review

Yes, to try to establish a blogging schedule and to practice for a weekly series, here is my Electronic Darwinism Week in Review.

Stories that, while they may not be major or earth-shaking or even make much sense, somehow managed to capture my attention enough for me to inflict them upon you, Gentle Reader.

Yes, crossposted on the Daily Kos.

By the way, this is my record for a series and schedule - two in a row. W00t!

Okay, first - go sign up for Second Life, dammit, and go see my friend csk's WTC Memorial. I'll wait.

Oh, you can find it by clicking the Map button and searching for Celestial Requiem NYC. Yes, I'll wait.

So, I heard some guy resigned from the Attorney General's office. Wake me when the war crimes trials start.

So, it's Magical September. Oh, and still no pony. And the Magic Everything-Gets-Better Fairy is dead.

Speaking of dead...

Melanie Sloan weighs in on the resignation of Larry Craig (R-Self-Hating Hypocrite).

On a lighter note, Ubuntu 7.10 finally gets rid of manual graphics card configuration. If you don't understand what that means, then savour your good fortune.

Stop me if you've heard this one before. God, maybe it is the Sixties all over again.

There's a new TV program starting on BBC America next Saturday. Spun off from Doctor Who - kind of a CSI/X-Files sort of thing - it's called Torchwood. Was watching the Doctor Who marathon on BBC America yesterday (I liked the original series, and Little Loner is a biiig fan of the new Doctor) and they had a "sneak preview" Every God-damned Break. How can I anticipate you if you won't go away?

Oh, and speaking of next Saturday...

All right, that's it for me - but feel free to add any strange, peculiar, or interesting links in comments. Yeah, I need a clever sign-off line, so I'll rotate through 'till I find a good one.

Hakka paale!

The Week in Review:

Okay - to help me add content to my blog, and to get some kind of schedule established, I'm going to take Sunday mornings to do a Week in Review.

This will probably be a quick intro and a list of links to things I think are important, interesting, or weird that happened in (or that I came across in) the past week.

There may well be random weirdness and pictures of a cat involved.

And, to get practice in doing a weekly series, I'll sacrifice one of my daily diaries at the Daily Kos to languish, unread, bearing this content.

So, the Week in Review:

Because I am what I Am, let's start with the news that Hasbro/WOTC is releasing a Fourth Edition of Dungeons and Dragons - news that I would normally greet with cartwheels of sarcasm and misery, were there such a thing and were I able to do cartwheels.

Nevertheless, I hear that feats and prestige classes are gone which in itself is enough for me to give it a look, even though they're claiming to have simplified it yet again - one wonders if Fifth Edition is going to be printed in cave pictograms and require rocks. Yes, the Geico cavemen can bite me.

Oh, I'm sorry - you want some real primal screams of outrage? Read this article from the Rolling Stone.

Ohh, this is going to go well.

The Democrats are threatening to kick Florida's electors out. Like that's going to happen.

Justice finally comes for two teens murdered before I was born.

Oh, and some idiot is comparing Iraq to Vietnam. God, it's like he's not even trying anymore. I, of course think no national re-exploration of Vietnam is complete without exploring the part that Five Deferments Dick and AWOL the Chimp played in avoiding it personally while demanding that others go to die in their place.

Okay, drop your own tidbits that you've discovered over the week in the comments.

Week in Review

Yeah, Second Life is eating all my time. How the hell does the General do it?


Anyway, for our Must Reads we've got Orcinus documenting Lou Dobbs' losing battle with reality (with a quick aside regarding the fundies' mistrust and loathing of, God help us, science fiction), and the inestimable Glenn Greenwald busting Mike McConnell's lying op-ed on FISA.

Here's a link to the NYPD surveillance targets before the Republican 2004 convention. Enjoy, and props to Bob Harris.

Oh, and speaking of warrantless surveillance - here's a preview from the UK courtesy of Slashdot.


Also, I'd like to welcome Cap'n Dyke to the blogroll - we share certain proclivities. For brightly-lit desktops, you perverts. She's added me to her crew, so I guess I need to brush up on my pirate lingo. Belike. Says I.

Wi' a curse.

Go over there and give her an Electronic Darwinism ahoy. And mind your manners, she runs a tight ship, scupper me wi' a belayin' pin, else!

Hey, this pirate bit is fun! Keelhaul the quartermaster! Jettison the mizzenmast! Splice the mainbrace!

The Week in Review

Naturally, as soon as I decide to get off my ass and get a renter, I get creepin' cruds that don't put me down enough to miss work, but do keep me sleeping in enough to miss blogging time.

Ah, well. Life goes on. Here's some things I should have written about this week:

Scarecrow at Firedoglake opines about the occupation surge. First sentence sums it up nicely:

Almost everything President Bush and his supporters told us in January about his new way forward in Iraq is already inoperative.

Also, Michael "Savage" Weiner and Ann "Frankly, I Don't Give Enough of a Shit About Her To Coin a Demeaning Nickname" Coulter get Spockoed. What Spocko has taught us is that even if the extremists that are the public face of the Republican Party have no shame, the advertisers that pay for their spots do. Isn't the free market wonderful?

What Elf Only Inn taught us is the parting shot to Ms. Coulter and Mr. Weiner, "Live long and prosper, BITCH!"

Looks like ol' "Scooter" Libby is going to the slammer. The Rude Pundit offers helpful advice to the Administration regarding Libby. I have some advice for Scooter, either take the deal that Fitz offers you and flip, or learn to sleep on your back and never let them call you Scooter.

That should catch us up pretty much - I've yet to address Rod Majors or my Online Integrity gloat, but those will have to wait for another day.