don't see this
latest comments:
It's true. You're being watched..
I can see it from my office building, hovering a bit North and East of my location. Hooray for Big Brother Blimp!
Throughout the week, the 178-foot-long lighter-than-air craft will conduct test runs over the Washington area designed to determine how effective electro-optical and infrared cameras aboard are at detecting potentially threatening movements on the ground.
The equipment already is used in Iraq and Afghanistan to identify enemy troop movement, but in combat zones it is attached to a static inflatable device that looks like a giant, blimp-shaped balloon.
Clearly, those enemy troop movements will be a result of the new handgun law push...
This site is bizarre. Written by a conservative self-proclaimed "policy guy", it is little more than a screed against liberal government. To see the worst aspect, however, one must visit the site and then read this bizarre conservative logic:
Thanks for stopping by. My name is John R. LaPlante, and I am the author of the PolicyGuy blog.
If you know your fonts, you will know that the header on this page is in the "comic" font. There's a reason for that. Public policy is serious business. Arrogance leads to all sorts of policy flaws: not invented here, we've always done it that way, we're armed with advanced degrees and we're help you, and so forth. Flawed policies have terrible effects on society, the economy, families, individuals and communities. It's important then, if you work in policy, to not take yourself too seriously.
So, because policy is important, policy people should not be serious. And they should use comic sans for websites. Wow. I can only conclude one thing: that this guy must be the sort of person who thought implementing a "flat tax" in Iraq would solve problems. "See? It's a flat tax! It's funny! It's not serious! You get to keep more of your money!"
Where do these people come from? I don't want to slur the buckeyes but...
This article seemed normal until I came upon the following paragraph:
With the booster program by then 161/27 years behind schedule, Pentagon officials approved a plan to re-bid the project. To increase the chance of getting an effective booster, they decided in early 2002 to authorize two separate development efforts based on two different designs.
Um, 161/27 years? It's too early for math like that...
For the record, I'm not even sure the diamonds are "conflict diamonds". All I know is that the area in which the mine exists used to be in a state of war.
So I think the easiest solution is to simply ask where the mine is located, and work from there. That way I get all the facts out first, and if the area is in a government held territory, I can do the job with a clean conscience.
Speaking of caving in for money, look at what google just decided they would do in China. Yeah, that's right. They caved. Sell-outs. Think of how ill-informed Americans are and we have a free press. Now think of China.
Comic sans...that's the font. See this site to understand.
I can see the argument that perhaps more good could be done by sabotaging the guy's evildoing. Not a game I would engage in, but I believe that if you contract to do a job, you should do that job to the best of your ability, while factoring in reasonable excuses for a social life and sleep.
The argument that someone else will do the job anyway is bad, and you know it, Brad. You can't free yourself of the moral responsibility for your own behavior, simply because someone else would engage in the behavior if you don't. There is something to be said for not being the guy who does the rotten thing, even if the rotten thing gets done anyway.
You know Ed has plenty to spend on your birthday -- the guy could probably buy you a lamborghini with all the credit he has to his name. Has there ever been a month when Ed was not hard-up? And yet his lunchtime adventures continue unabated...
actually, i've got a couple of questions straight off. first, is ed just posting this question or is he the one who is conflicted? it sure sounds like ed, especially the whining about money and the inability to say no to dumbass requests.
and if it is ed, then my birthday is coming up, and i could use some serious gifts this time around instead of the usual 'hey it wasn't what you said you wanted but instead is a lousy knock-off that blows mountain goats...' so i guess i've got a dog in this fight as well.
now i know what helena is thinking. brad gets called the 'embodiment of evil' once and now he thinks he's on the dark side, so he can get away with ethically troubling advice. but i have a higher purpose this time than getting prezzed up nice and all. and that's knocking some sense into ed/poster person. because if the cash man is going to ask somebody else to do it, then there's no reason he shouldn't just do a lousy job and still take the money.
that way he maximizes the chance of conflict dude's presentation falling flat, while minimizing his own effort, and at the same time, ensuring that conflict dude has no time to get the presentation fixed up by other means. i mean, if he 'refuses' out of principle, conflict guy will simply get someone else to do it, because there are always low-lifes out there who'll do anything for a buck.
so the real question is - how can i make an elegant powerpoint presentation that does the exact opposite of what its owner wants? i think something that turns a boring, yet bad, proposal into an over-the-top vegas presentation. throw in a bunch of animated diamonds (preferably anthropomorphic ones with googly eyes), really annoying blinking text (preferably in an absurd font...what was that one that helena and ed hated?) and some codewords and euphemisms for the morally suspect.
as the cheshire cat says, 'come on, it'll be loads of fun...'
While I am lucky enough to work each day toward a cause I believe in, I can certainly reconcile doing neutral work. I really don't think that you should work for some guy looking to make a buck off the diamond trade. Evil, evil!
(For the record, in the circles I move in, soon-to-be-engaged women describe their perfect ring as blah-de-blah cut, NON-RECENTLY-MINED diamond, blah-de-blah setting... Heath knows he has to give me a hand-me-down diamond. In plenty of circles, no one bats an eye at new diamonds.)
But the question isn't whether the diamond mine is evil -- you believe that it is. You can't do it. You aren't that hard-up. I know you aren't. Go watch In America. I saw it just last night. You'll feel alot less sorry for yourself. Money's cheap; integrity's more useful.
Dear Dredwerkz,
A former co-worker, who continues to do business with the firm I work for, called me up today. In the past, I have helped him setup a new computer, troubleshoot when his box was infected with a virus, etc. I was expecting more of the same today.
Instead, he said he needed some help putting together a powerpoint presentation. He described to me what he needed and said he'd compensate me for my time. The problem? The presentation is so that he can get people to invest in his conflict-diamond mine in Africa.
Normally, I'd say no on principle, but I am very hard up for funds this month and I could surely use some easy work. So I told him yes, and got off the phone. Now I'm rethinking my position.
Unlike the death star contractor debate, I'm not worried about the risks. I'm more worried that someone's hand will get hacked off because I want to make a few franklins. Which makes me want to go ahead and do the presentation , but do a really bad job so that no one buys shares in this guy's efforts.
Or perhaps I should just ask him what he thinks of the situation. I don't know where to turn. What do you guys think?
Sincerely, A Conflicted Pauper
This is hilarious. The heroes page is also good.
The Metro police nailed another person recently, this time for cursing loudly into her cell-phone.
Again, I think this is fine. A few high-profile incidents like this, and people will start to treat the Metro with more respect. A zero-tolerance policy is exactly why Metro has remained so good, despite its lousy service. If you're going to be packed like sardines into a car and have every other escalator broken, at least you can appreciate the calm, quiet commute.
I saw a prostitute near my old house today.
It was early in the morning.
So yesterday good ole' rummy said elections in most of iraq were acceptable. in fact, he said, "...so you have an election that's not quite perfect. Is it better than not having an election? You bet."
yikes, stop, hold your horses. elections in most places are ok? this sort of controvenes the universal suffrage form of democracy we tend to espouse. what's next? only male iraqis owning 2 acres of land an not living in fallujah can vote?
let's forget for a moment the practical reasons rushing elections can be a disaster. bosnia held elections very quickly and elected a nationalist government. afghanistan's elections put election workers into an environment where they create violence. instead, let's just remember that we may not want the world to observe how we talked a great game about bringing democracy to iraq, and then turned the country into florida.
Read Milbank's latest article. I still would like to see anyone name a reporter from that other paper who is as skilled. And, unlike previous times, this time the editors moved the article to A1. All Dana needs now is to sneak above the fold to cement the WaPo's status as the best paper in the country. The other paper, by contrast, today ran a front-page story on the last time Kerry lost a campaign, which, unsurprisingly, has nothing to do with today.
Again, I think the other paper has a better editorial page. And I think the LA Times has terrific international news coverage. But for domestic politics and coverage of this administration, you can't beat the Washington Post.
Wow. Kerry looks so much stronger on offense than defense. His speech at Temple University today was a knockout punch. The video isn't up yet, but when it is, I encourage everyone to go watch it. In the interim, go read the speech.
Wow. Bush's Rose Garden conference was a doozy. Let's see the clip that will be the most widely talked about:
Q Mr. President and Mr. Prime Minister, I'd like to ask about the Iraqi people. Both of you have spoken for them today. And yet over the past several months there have been polls conducted by the Coalition Provisional Authority, by the Oxford Institute and other reputable organizations that have found very strong majorities do not see the United States as a liberator but as an occupier, are unhappy with American policy and want us out. Don't the real voices of the Iraqi people themselves contradict the rosy scenarios you're painting here today?
PRESIDENT BUSH: Let me start by that. You said the poll was taken when the CPA was there?
Q (Off mike.)
PRESIDENT BUSH: Yeah, okay. Let me stop you. First of all, the Iraqi people now have got Iraqi leadership.
Prime Minister Allawi and his cabinet are making decisions on behalf of the Iraqi people.
Secondly, I saw a poll that said the right track/wrong track in Iraq was better than here in America. (Chuckles.) It's pretty darn strong. I mean, the people see a better future. Talk to the leader. I agree: I'm not the expert on how the Iraqi people think, because I live in America, which is nice, safe and secure. But I talk to this man.
Um, that's idiotic. The right track/wrong track number is better in Iraq than in America? And Bush's rejoinder is that America is "nice, safe and secure"? I guess Bush really is living in fantasy-land Good to see Kerry calling him on it.
So, I've been out of commission a few days with what I call a tummy bug. Not so fun. I returned to work today to learn that a very large contingent of people have been suffering the very same ailment. Turns out, we all ate the same catered lunch for a meeting on Friday. The plot thickens. Now investigations are underway -- from the sound of it, I was lucky enough to get one of the milder cases. People went to the hospital; one man's temperature dropped six degrees.
Drama central. You just don't go poisoning a pack of lawyers.
Oh, and I'm also disappointed that I missed National Talk Like a Pirate Day -- I reminded myself last week and then...I'll blame it on the illness...I forgot.