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Time to Pony Up Again, Folks



Wander around your domicile, find the stacks of books that I know you all have lying about and have been wanting to get rid of all these years, box them up, click the above link and send them out to the deserving folks on the front lines with nothing to read but army training manuals and the ingrediant lables on their MREs.

Do it now and you will feel real good about yourself.

Do it not because you are trying to curry favor with the lord and you will feel even better[/snide comment]
posted by corsair the rational pirate at 09:45

Words Fail Me

Except maybe "shut the fuck up". Read now the ravings of a loon in Denver:

Our military is one of the last bastions of slavery in the United States. At the moment, our slaves are stuck in a combat zone, getting killed and maimed, and there's nothing they can do about it except hunker down and pray.

Yes, our slaves signed up of their own free will, but most of them were as misled about their job as the rest of us were about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.

And I don't think "slave" is too strong a word to describe someone who is not permitted to quit his job no matter how dangerous it becomes or how much he hates it. For most of us, the 13th Amendment abolished slavery and guaranteed that we have the right to withhold our labor. It doesn't protect soldiers.

And who is this bastion of clear thinking?! Why Reggie Rivers, of course, former Denver Bronco, that bastion of intelligent discourse and elevated thought. Who wouldn't want to hear what he has to opine about?

He is probably thinking that since he is black he gets to tell the rest of us what a "slave" is and we will get all weepy and self loathing and agree with him. Well, I don't.

How the hell does he know that "most of them were misled about their jobs" when he talks about recruits? Has he talked to most of them? I joined up once way back when and you know what? I thought I was joinnig the military (like most of my compatiots). And, being 20 at the time I think I had formed a pretty good idea of what the military does. Something about killing people and breaking things comes to mind.

But there is more:

According to Chalmers Johnson, author of "The Sorrows of Empire," almost half of our enlisted forces are between 17 and 24 years of age, and they were lured into military service with promises of education, job training, escape from poverty, medical benefits and the chance to operate some cool, high-tech equipment.

Johnson wrote: "A real deterrent to recruitment is the possibility that a new soldier will find himself or herself in combat. Roughly four out of five young Americans who enlist in our all-volunteer armed forces specifically choose non-combat jobs ... ."

Maybe that is the ratio fo non-combat jobs to combat jobs in the military? I have read (don't know where) that it takes several people in the back to support every soldier on the front. Not everyone ends up pointing a rifle at the enemy. Some people shuffle papers, others do intel, and others drive people around.

If things are so awful for these slaves, why isn't the Army having a problem keeping them when their initial term of slavery is up and they are asked to reenlist?

One of the Army�s most deployed divisions is on schedule to meet its retention goals for fiscal year 2004, and the rest of the Army appears to be on track as well.

Media coverage -- not always favorable of the war -- has apparently not deterred America�s youth from enlisting in the armed forces. Recruiting numbers so far have surpassed expected quotas.

This guy is a maroon who is just trying to raise the shock value of a black man crying "slavery".
posted by corsair the rational pirate at 10:18

Well, I Was Wrong

I try to live by the phrase "Nothing Fails Like Prayer". And up until today, I thought that was right. Now I see that prayer can have an effect:

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Two preachers grounded a flight leaving Buffalo, New York, after they frightened passengers by declaring the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks were a good reason to pray, officials said on Thursday.
One preacher told fellow passengers as the Continental Airlines plane taxied down the runway, "Your last breath on earth is the first one in heaven as long as you are born again and have Jesus in your heart," according to FBI spokesman Paul Moskal.

Passengers on the Wednesday flight to Newark, New Jersey told a flight attendant, who alerted the plane's captain, officials said. The captain turned the plane around.

"They were sincere in their beliefs and were not malicious," Moskal said by telephone from Buffalo. "In the context of 9/11 it may not have been the best way to promote their religion."

The two Pentecostal ministers, Canadian nationals Yohan Heenatigala and Komal Singh, were questioned by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and later released and put on another flight, the spokesman said. They were traveling to attend a convention in Baltimore, Maryland.

Praise Jeebus! The plane is landing! And to think it wouldn't have happened without prayer.

I pray that this is the last time it happens.

posted by corsair the rational pirate at 09:27

I Know it is Serious...

But it just sounds kinda silly:

The Defense Security Command, the military unit responsible for overseeing the army's internal affairs and for counter-espionage, has been operating a specialized unit designed to combat potential cyber attacks from North Korea.
According to Lieutenant-general Song Young-keun, who commands the Defense Security Command, North Korea operates a special cyber warfare unit.
The special unit is said to have been established under the direct orders of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il. It is responsible for collecting intelligence on South Korea's governmental and research organizations, and for building a capability to launch cyber attacks against the South.

Bunch of Mountain Dew swilling, stay up all night, pony tailed geeks hacking 133t linux boxes all the damn time. Or else they will live inside the computer and battle roughe programs in their cycle-thingys...
posted by corsair the rational pirate at 08:08

It's Not What You Think

OK, they may play for the "other team"... but dayum!

The festival closer is less traditional, unless Britney Spears' wedding counts as traditional. "D.E.B.S.'' (June 27, Castro) is a camp comedy about high school girls recruited to be government agents through the SATs. "It's sort of a lesbian 'Charlie's Angels,' '' Morris said.

[...]

Frameline28: The 28th San Francisco International Lesbian & Gay Film Festival takes place June 17-27 at the Castro, Herbst and Roxie theaters in San Francisco and the Grand Lake and Parkway theaters in Oakland. For information, call (925) 866-9559 or visit www.frameline.org/festival.

Any chance of letting me join their team... or getting them to switch to mine?

UPDATE: Here is some more info about the movie. Whew, turns out not all of the girls in the picture are "on the other team" just these two:


And here I thought all of the "other team" looked like this:


posted by corsair the rational pirate at 10:30

Now That's Some Wacky Weapons

Seems there is a painting out there by that Picasso guy called "Massacres in Korea". I took a look and while Picasso may have been a "great" painter (whatever) the world became a better place when he decided not to go to work in the military industrial complex as a weapons designer.

Take a look:


posted by corsair the rational pirate at 10:18

I'm Bipolar

I am running through the blogroll this morning when I come across two completely different takes on the same story. Have a look at this:

It ought to be President Gore

versus this:

Gore Goes Nuts

It is amazing how two humans from not that dissimilar circumstances (both are Americans born in the the last have of the last century, etc.) can see the same thing and come to the exact opposite conclusions.

No wonder the world is screwed up. What we need is a good old dose of authoritarianism where someone on top (I will reluctantly volunteer) will tell everyone what to think and there will be no more disagreements (think North Korea). And we will all live in a world filled with butterflies and puppy dogs!

Wheeeeee!
posted by corsair the rational pirate at 08:14

Got Some New Ones

The blogroll on the left over there has been pruned and added to. Check some of them out!
posted by corsair the rational pirate at 12:55

Just Shut Up

Anyone who has the balls to call this guy a murderer or mercenary or a deluded lackey for fighting for Bushitler needs to just shut the fuck up. OK?
posted by corsair the rational pirate at 09:58

Must Be A Worker's Paradise If You Have to Fence Them In

Seems that the ingrates in North Korea are so ungrateful for all that Kim IL Sung and Kim Jong IL have done for them that they are trying to leave before settling their bar tabs.

Well, the kind and understanding rulers of NoKo have decided that measures must be taken! Once these people leave they don't call and they don't write and everyone is just sick, sick I tell you, with worry about them! They could be lying in a ditch somewhere! Or in the hospital (here's hoping they were wearing their clean pair if KJI underroos). So, for their own good, something had to be done. KJL didn't want to have to resort to this, but because of the actions of a selfish few:

It has been learned that North Korea is building a 400 km wooden fence from Shinuiju, North Pyongan Province to Onsong, North Hamgyong Province in order to put a stop to the recent exodus of defectors from the country.

In a telephone conversation with this reporter, an officer in a North Korean border guard unit said, "In accordance with an order from the National Defense Commission calling for us to completely seal the border, border guard units and all the citizens of the border regions were mobilized and have been building a 2 meter high wooden fence since last month." Construction is first being done in those hard-to-patrol areas used by defectors to escape; wide-open, easily patrolled areas are being saved for later, he said.

Now, if someone would just sit down with the Dear Leader and explain what they problems are that lead them to this drastic measure, I am sure something could be worked out (or maybe worked to death).

Oh, and it is not just a little fence. They were forced to put in some... pits where these straying sheep would be caught until a compassionate border guard could come by to help them:

Side by side with building the wooden fence, North Korea is also preparing traps at strategic spots along Yalu and Tumen rivers that are frequented by people.

A defector who recently crossed the border said, "The traps set up by the border guards are about 3 to 5 meters deep and have sharp metal or wood spikes at the bottom so people are killed or seriously injured when they fall into them."

These traps, which were installed outside political prison camps to stop inmates from escaping, have now made an appearance along the national border.

If work on the wooden fence and traps are completed, the North Korea-China border would be completely sealed off and the number of defectors escaping from the North would likely diminish markedly.

Well, maybe help what is left of them would be more appropriate.

Welcome to the Worker's Paradise. "You Can Check In But You Can't Check Out!"



posted by corsair the rational pirate at 08:45

Another Something You Won't See in the US

So imagine you are a US soldier being sent to Iraq for duty. Imagine that your commander comes down and tells you that you will have to go to cultural training first. "OK" you think. Talk about not shaking hands with the left hand and dont' show them your shoes. But then, they tell you that you are expected to do this:

South Korean soldiers awaiting orders to Iraq visited the Islamic mosque in Itaewon, Seoul, yesterday as part of their training in Iraqi culture. [YONHAP]

Would never happen. Not in a million billion years. Could you see a bunch of US soldiers bowing down before Allah? Whilst wearing those fry cook hats?

What were the Koreans thinking?
posted by corsair the rational pirate at 16:15

I got Nothing

Something is wrong in the world. I seem to have nothign to mouth off about. It is a sad day when a know-nothing like me can't find a subject on which to pontificate despite a crimminally negligent lack of facts, knowledge, or insight.

Come on, somone. Do something!
posted by corsair the rational pirate at 16:09

Just a Hint of Infantile Obsession

You can just see a



belly button!
posted by corsair the rational pirate at 08:17

Are People Getting Smart?

It seems that people may be getting smarter in their choice of auto machine:

Ever since gas prices started spiking last month, customers have been flocking to one side of Lustine Toyota/Dodge in Woodbridge and ignoring the other.

"The Dodge truck business is way down," General Manager Jim Giddings said, because of what he called "this gas thing." He's on track to sell just 36 Dodge trucks this month, compared with 68 during the same month last year.

Toyota sales, on the other hand, are up 38 percent so far in May. One of the big drivers is the Prius, the gas-electric hybrid that has become a phenomenon in the past year. Giddings said he has a waiting list of more than 50 customers.

People who spend enormous amounts of money on huge cars that cost tons to fuel, maintain, and insure are idiots. Most people are going from here to there alone and don't need to be driving a truck.

Maybe I was scarred as a youth when my first car was a 1968 Ford van. It took $5 of gas every day to run. I know this because I could never afford to fill the damn thing up and so I would put $5 in at a time.It sucked.

My next car was a '76 Honda Civic CVCC. About as far from a giant, gas sucking van as you can go. It was a sweet little car that I had to sell to a guy in Texas for $1 becuase I was shipping out to Korea (and it didn't run anymore after the tragic drive from California to Texas somehow managed to fry it's innards).

It has been small cars ever since and I have never felt the need for some big, ostentatious, gas guzzling SUV monster (especially after I drove a real HMMV [or whatever its ititials are] in the Air Force). So run right out everyone and get smaller cars. They won't kill you. But someone driving a monster truck will.
posted by corsair the rational pirate at 07:56

Shall We Dance?


posted by corsair the rational pirate at 07:48

Inspired Writing

Brian gets it with this essay.

In the spirit of that wonderful bit of writing, let me tell most of the world that they are "going to hell".

Better get with the program.
posted by corsair the rational pirate at 07:23

Shirley, Not Heidi!

I couldn't believe it when I read the following:

MADRID, May 19 (Reuters) - A Spanish judge accused three Algerians on Wednesday of belonging to al Qaeda and forming part of a network that recruited Islamists across Europe to go to Iraq and fight the U.S.-led occupation.

High Court Judge Baltasar Garzon said the mobilising of insurgents was directed by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, whose group has claimed responsibility for the beheading of a U.S. hostage and the assassination of the head of the Iraqi Governing Council.

[...]

Garzon said the Spanish al Qaeda cell included Heidi Ben Youssef Boudhiba, who is in jail in Britain. He said Boudhiba formed part of a network that was attempting to attack London with the deadly toxin ricin in January 2003. Garzon has asked British authorities to hand him over.

Garzon also linked Boudhiba to members of the cell based in Hamburg which supplied three of the suicide pilots for September 11. He said Boudhiba and another cell member left the port city and flew to Istanbul eight days before the attacks.

Whew! First I thought cute little Heidi had become a Muslim... Then I thought she was a terrorist! But now I see I was mistaken. It was some guy named Heidi... WTF? A Muslim guy named Heidi? Boy, I bet he got picked on in school.
posted by corsair the rational pirate at 13:53

What The Hell Is the Strategic Petroleum Reserve Anyway?

Typically, the Dems want the President to release some oil from the Stretegic Petroleum Reserve to "lower the price" so that people driving around in huge SUVs don't get hit so hard in their wallets whenever (usually every three days) they fill up.

Seems that not everyone thinks this is such a good idea. Surprisingly, the New York Times is taking the Dems, and Kerry in particular to task (I'll put the whole thing here so you don't have to login):

With the election season moving into full swing as Americans start thinking about their summer travel plans, it's sadly predictable that politicians will try to curry favor with voters by playing silly blame games and proposing simplistic quick fixes for rising gasoline prices, which are averaging more than $2 a gallon. A case in point is the demand made yesterday by 20 Senate Democrats that the government release as much as 60 million barrels of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve over the next two months.

President Bush is rightly resisting the call. Since 9/11, the administration has been adding to the reserve in a disciplined manner, and it is closing in on its goal of filling up the reserve's capacity, 700 million barrels. Tapping the reserve to assuage motorists at a time of increasing security threats to already tight fuel supplies would be foolish.

As the energy secretary, Spencer Abraham, correctly noted yesterday, "The reserve is not there to simply try to change prices." In fact, the law calls for it to be tapped only in the event of supply disruptions. And even if Washington wanted to alleviate rising fuel costs, the reserve is not a very effective instrument for doing so, as President Bill Clinton learned in the fall of 2000. Experts estimate that at most, turning on the spigot now would knock only a few cents off a gallon.

Senator John Kerry, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, knows this, of course, and he demeans the seriousness of his own candidacy when he suggests that President Bush could single-handedly bring down fuel costs. Senator Kerry has urged the administration to stop buying oil for the reserve, as if that would make a difference. Fortunately, some residue of shame has kept him from joining the other Democrats calling for the reserve to be raided. The government's oil purchases have taken place at a time of higher prices, but they are not a major cause of the increase.

The real culprit behind rising energy costs is the roaring demand from growing economies, especially China's and the United States', though the volatile situation in the Middle East does seem to add a risk premium. Most of China's energy demand is for industrialization, which, in turn, contributes to the global economic recovery. In contrast, roughly half of the United States' petroleum demand is for personal consumption, primarily for cars, trucks and S.U.V.'s, a situation that, in turn, makes the nation ever more dependent on an increasingly endangered supply of foreign oil.

If $2-per-gallon sticker shock slowed sales of Hummers � which get about 11 miles per gallon � that would hardly qualify as a national tragedy.

Still, even Americans who don't drive gas-guzzling S.U.V.'s are feeling pain at the pump, and responsible political leaders have to prepare the public for this new reality. No comprehensive energy policy should overlook long-term means of encouraging conservation and minimizing our dependence on oil from the Persian Gulf region. Rather than pretending that there are facile switch-flipping fixes, Senator Kerry should be talking about bolstering conservation efforts and fuel economy standards, and encouraging new investment in refining capacity.

In the meantime, we all need to keep the shrill hyperbole about "record high" oil prices in perspective. A barrel of oil now costs more than $40, but when adjusted for inflation, that price is less alarming. During past spikes, oil has cost well over twice that amount in today's dollars. Yes, high fuel costs could ultimately endanger the economic recovery, but there is no reason to believe that they will do so at this level.

So what is the SPR?

The U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve is the largest stockpile of government-owned emergency crude oil in the world. Established in the aftermath of the 1973-74 oil embargo, the SPR provides the President with a powerful response option should a disruption in commercial oil supplies threaten the U.S. economy. It also allows the United States to meet part of its International Energy Agency obligation to maintain emergency oil stocks, and it provides a national defense fuel reserve.

There is currently 659 million barrels of oil in this thing (at least I hope it is in there... What if they got a hole in the bottom and it all drained out? Boy, wouldn't they be surprised when they went to draw someout!).

So there you have it. Don't play politics with the oil! Save it for when we really need it!
posted by corsair the rational pirate at 13:24

Excuse Me?

I wasn't under the impression that the US military had to go to foreign countries (especially foreign countries where a significant percentage of the populace active dislikes them) and ask permission to do it's mission. That is the tone that this article about US troop movements out of Korea seems to imply:

South Korea is preparing for negotiations with the United States on a possible reduction of American forces stationed in the South to deter North Korean aggression, the government said on Wednesday.

The announcement followed reports that the U.S. decision announced on Monday to pull a crack army brigade out of the front line facing the communist North signaled deeper future cuts to the 50-year-old U.S. military presence on the Korean Peninsula.

"The government will consult with the United States if it makes the request to discuss the U.S. Forces in Korea as part of the Global Posture Review, and we are preparing for it," Foreign Ministry spokesman Shin Bong-kil said in a statement.

I guess I missed the part where we asked various European countries if we could, pretty please, move our boys and girls down to the Middle East to handle that little Iraqi situation. I am sure Germany would have had a few things to say about it. So why does Korea seem to get some sort of seat at the table when it comes to our troops. Aren't we there saving their ungrateful asses from North Korean domination? And haven't we been doing so for 50 years?

Maybe it is time the SoKos to grow up and stop leaning on Uncle Sam. They shouldn't need us in the first place:

Military branches:
Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, National Maritime Police (Coast Guard)
Military manpower - military age: 18 years of age
Military manpower - availability: males age 15-49: 14,252,851
Military manpower - fit for military service: males age 15-49: 8,994,941
Military manpower - reaching military age annually:males: 345,331
Military expenditures - dollar figure: $13,094.3 million
Military expenditures - percent of GDP: 2.8%

Plenty of people, plenty of dough. Especially when compared to North Korea:

Military branches:
Korean People's Army (includes Army, Navy, Air Force), Civil Security Forces
Military manpower - military age: 18 years of age
Military manpower - availability: males age 15-49: 6,103,615
Military manpower - fit for military service: males age 15-49: 3,654,223
Military manpower - reaching military age annually: males: 180,875
Military expenditures - dollar figure: $5,217.4 million
Military expenditures - percent of GDP: 33.9%

About time they got kicked from the nest and started flying on their own.
posted by corsair the rational pirate at 07:18

A Big Bag Filled With Water?!

Another joke in here somewhere (and if I wasn't so busy, I might be able to ferret it out):



A U.S. Army soldier takes a rest beside a big bag filled with water during an exercise at Paju city near the border village of Panmunjom between the two Koreas, north of Seoul, Tuesday, May 18, 2004.
posted by corsair the rational pirate at 11:36

Big Gums

She's not that money...


South Korean actress Sung Hyunah, a former Miss Korea winner, smiles during a photocall for South Korean director Hong Sangsoo's film entry 'Woman is the Future of Man', which is competing for the Palme d'Or at the 57th Cannes Film Festival

She's got tiny little teeth and big gums.
posted by corsair the rational pirate at 09:46

Who The Hell Cares?

Does CNN have to mention this?

NAJAF, Iraq (CNN) -- U.S. troops and Muqtada al-Sadr's Mehdi Army fought bitterly on the Muslim holy day, trading fire in the radical cleric's power centers of Najaf and Karbala, despite ongoing peace negotiations.

Who the hell cares if it is Holy Day, Ground Hog Day, or National Plumber Day?!?! What the hell has that got to do with fighting? Do we (by "we" I mean real people in the West) not fight on Sunday (or Friday for Jews or Saturday for Seventh Day Adventists or Monday for Monday Night Football Fanatics)? I suppose we should just go back to the barracks on Fridays so as not to inflame the local religious morons.

Don't be stupid.
posted by corsair the rational pirate at 12:06

Sally is Wrong Again

Not really surpirsing. She makes the following gross misrepresntation:

Atheists disavow any objective moral order transcending the moods of mankind;-and consequently -- Corsair's affected outrage is about as gaseous as a fart. He has no authority to make a true judgement.

This statement leads one to think that religious leaning people are paragons of moral order, correct behavior, and the one true way.

Since atheists don't have a moreal compass (you know, that guy up on the pulpit telling us how to behave 'cause he read a violent book full of rape and killing... whilst diddling the altar boy behind him), they have no problem with one person doing awful things to another... Supposedly. Well. Let's take a look at who is in prison:

Dear Mr. Swift:

The Federal Bureau of Prisons does have statistics on religious
affiliations of inmates. The following are total number of
inmates per religion category:

Response              Number      %

----------------------------  --------

Catholic               29267   39.164%

Protestant             26162   35.008%

Muslim                  5435    7.273%

American Indian         2408    3.222%

Nation                  1734    2.320%

Rasta                   1485    1.987%

Jewish                  1325    1.773%

Church of Christ        1303    1.744%

Pentecostal             1093    1.463%

Moorish                 1066    1.426%

Buddhist                 882    1.180%

Jehovah Witness          665    0.890%

Adventist                621    0.831%

Orthodox                 375    0.502%

Mormon                   298    0.399%

Scientology              190    0.254%

Atheist                  156    0.209%

Hindu                    119    0.159%

Santeria                 117    0.157%

Sikh                      14    0.019%

Bahai                      9    0.012%

Krishna                    7    0.009%

Eww, don't hang out with them Catholics or Protestants. You are likely to have something done to you so illegal that the perpetrators end up in JAIL!

Here is some more

And more

And a little more

So what we can conclude from this is that religion does not keep one out of prison (despite all that 10 commandments blather). Atheists, on the other hand tend not to go to prison in relation to their percent of the population. Probably cause atheists can figure out what is right and wrong without the help of blow dried, pinky ringed, fake healing, preachers who want nothing more than your money (and you kid in some cases).

So quit pulling the "atheists have no morals" crap, open your eyes to the things that religions does (think "beheading") and does not do (think "keep my dick in my pants") and grow up.
posted by corsair the rational pirate at 07:56

Let Me Pull The Switch

Or push the button or inject the drugs or pull the trigger.

Some people (loose use of the term) deserve to die in painful and ugly ways:

Convicted child molester Curtis Dean Anderson has told investigators he kept 7-year-old Xiana Fairchild captive for several weeks after kidnapping her from Vallejo in 1999 and videotaped himself molesting her, authorities say.

And don't give me any of that liberal anti-death penalty crap. When you give up your humanity, you deserve what happens to you (and that can be pretty much anything for all I care).
posted by corsair the rational pirate at 11:15

The Real Story

While everyone in the US and Europe has their panties all in a knot about that is happening in Iraq, it is noce to be able to see what average Iraqis think about their situation. Since most of the liberal press as well as the European intelligentsia do not beleive that Iraqis have the intelligence, drive, will, or history to govern themselves in a democratic way and only that bastion of democratic values, the UN, has the legitimacy to "rule", I find it refreshing to see what the little people think.

I was going to link to a specific aricle on Iraq The Model's site, but just go ahead and read everything.
posted by corsair the rational pirate at 15:45

Undersea Cable?

Years and years ago I read a fascinating article about laying undesea fibre optic cable from England to Japan. It was written by Neal Stephenson of sci-fi fame:

In which the hacker tourist ventures forth across the wide and wondrous meatspace of three continents, acquainting himself with the customs and dialects of the exotic Manhole Villagers of Thailand, the U-Turn Tunnelers of the Nile Delta, the Cable Nomads of Lan tao Island, the Slack Control Wizards of Chelmsford, the Subterranean Ex-Telegraphers of Cornwall, and other previously unknown and unchronicled folk; also, biographical sketches of the two long-dead Supreme Ninja Hacker Mage Lords of global telecommunications, and other material pertaining to the business and technology of Undersea Fiber-Optic Cables, as well as an account of the laying of the longest wire on Earth, which should not be without interest to the readers of Wired.

I highly reccomend it as a great read (especially if you are on an airplane and have several hours of uninterrupted reading time).

Now I read kind of a followup of the whole thing many years, much pain, and tons of money down the drain later:

It has been several years since executives in the undersea cable industry had anything to cheer about. Nearly every company that strings fiber optics across oceans has been restructured or has gone bankrupt. Lease prices for cable lines have collapsed and are still falling. Bankers pulled the plug on most new projects long ago because so much cable was already sitting at the bottom of the ocean.

Yet announcements came in February and March that two new large cables would be built under the Indian Ocean, the Persian Gulf and the Mediterranean Sea to connect East Asia with Europe via the Middle East.

The projects - the Falcon cable financed privately by Flag Telecom and the Sea-Me-We 4 line built by a consortium of global telephone companies led by Singapore Telecommunications - are nothing if not ambitious. The cables, which were several years in the planning, will stretch more than 9,300 miles, touching some of the more underserved parts of the globe. Flag did not announce a price tag for its project, but the consortium said it would spend $500 million on its line.

Of course no one makes money on undersea cables because of all the overcapacity. Turns out that not everyone in the US decided to download anime from Japan and therefore:

As it is, 11 percent of available undersea bandwidth globally is being used. With so much unused capacity, prices on leased lines across the Atlantic fell about 25 percent last year even as demand doubled, said Alan Mauldin, an analyst at the research firm Telegeography. There is so much unused bandwidth worldwide, he said, that three-quarters of all network operators would have to leave the market before prices stabilized

So don't go investing in undersea cable companies just yet.

Here is a pretty cool map showing all kinds of undersea cable
posted by corsair the rational pirate at 15:17

Testing new Blogger Stuff

So, how does this whole blogging thing work?
posted by corsair the rational pirate at 12:15

Ministry of Silly Walks Spring Picnic


posted by corsair the rational pirate at 14:40

There's A Joke Here

But I am not sure what it is:



Here is the text that goes with it:

South Korean Unification Minister Jeong Se-hyun (2nd-L) looks at crafts made with ostrich eggs at a farm in Pyongyang May 6, 2004. Officials from the two Koreas met informally on Thursday at inter-Koean ministerial talks to try to break an impasse over military tensions on the Korean peninsula, local media said.

Ostrich eggs?!?! What the hell does Pyongyang have to do with ostriches? Other than sticking there heads in the sand on the whole "we are not the personification of evil in the world" thing?
posted by corsair the rational pirate at 08:59

I Don't Even Like Courtney Love!

Apple iTunes was running a deal last week where they were giving away songs every day to celebrate their One Year Anniversary. So I got some. One of them was Courtney Love's Hold On To Me. Well, it was free.

So now I can't stop playing the stupid thing! She has the voice of someone gargling with broken glass and she is obnoxious and not half the hottie she thinks she is. But the song rocks (imagine me playing air drums and bobbing my head up and down like some sort of stoned head banger at a Mettalica concert... Pretty scary, huh?)

At least I got over my Avril Lavigne fixation. That one was really embarrassing!
posted by corsair the rational pirate at 07:22

Fuck the Palestinians

Meirav was two

Corsair Princess II is two years old.

Remember that Hell that I don't believe in? The only real problem with it is that it would include scum like the ones who killed Meirav and her sisters and unborn brother and mother. And I would have to spend the time I wasn't being dipped in the lake of fire being mad at those asshole Palestinians all over and over and over again. Being trapped anywhere with those diseases is the real Hell... Which makes where we are now not that much different.

Good morning.
posted by corsair the rational pirate at 07:17

I'm Going To Hell

Or, at least I might be were I to believe in that silliness. But then I started to think about what Hell means to a lot of fundie loonies. It is the place where everyone who does not accept Jesus Christ as his or her personal savior goes to swim in the lake of fire.

Fine. There are plenty of people who dispute all or some of the above. Is there really a place called Hell or was Jesus just talking about the garbage dumps on the outskirts of town? Is Hell in the middle of the earth or in orbit somewhere? Do babies go to hell (if this isn't evidence of the insanity of christian religion, I don't know what is. The fact that people have to question whether babies should be immersed into a lake of fire for all of eternity because they are "born into sin" says a lot about the mentality of whacky fundies)? Is Gandhi in Hell? Should he be, the Jesus-denying, demon-spawned, anti-christ? Are there Neandertals in Hell? Should they be?

So the whole concept of hell is, of course just like everything having to do with religion, unsettled. But let us take the big picture. If you haven't "Kissed Hank's Ass" then you are going to hell. Well, lets make a list of all the people headed to the Devil's Playground:

• Neandertals
  
• Everyone born before 0 AD (or 0 BC, hard to figure that out)
  
• Most of the Chinese, Japanese and Koreans today (talk about Hot Asian Chicks!)
  
• Issac Asimov
  
• Albert Einstein
  
• Carl Sagan
  
• The Native Americans (Indians, whatever)
  
• All those silly Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Animists, Tree Worshippers, Sun Worshippers, and every other non-Christian
  
• The Romans (Pre 313 AD)
  
• The Greeks
  

So it looks like Hell is going to be a hopping place. Plenty of folks from all over interacting, suffering, having tea, being dipped in a lake of fire, taking out the trash. Sounds sort of like the Riverworld Series from Philip Jose Farmer.

It certainly sounds more interesting than heaven, which will be populated by the likes of Jesse Jackson, all those silly Popes, Pat Buchanan, George Bush and Ted Kennedy and every other "pious" politician who goes to church to try and win votes from the easily swayed.

Mark Twain described it best (of course):

For instance, take this sample: he has imagined a heaven, and has left entirely out of it the supremest of all his delights, the one ecstasy that stands first and foremost in the heart of every individual of his race -- and of ours -- sexual intercourse!

It is as if a lost and perishing person in a roasting desert should be told by a rescuer he might choose and have all longed-for things but one, and he should elect to leave out water!

His heaven is like himself: strange, interesting, astonishing, grotesque. I give you my word, it has not a single feature in it that he actually values. It consists -- utterly and entirely -- of diversions which he cares next to nothing about, here in the earth, yet is quite sure he will like them in heaven. Isn't it curious? Isn't it interesting? You must not think I am exaggerating, for it is not so. I will give you details.

Most men do not sing, most men cannot sing, most men will not stay when others are singing if it be continued more than two hours. Note that.

Only about two men in a hundred can play upon a musical instrument, and not four in a hundred have any wish to learn how. Set that down.

Many men pray, not many of them like to do it. A few pray long, the others make a short cut.

More men go to church than want to.

To forty-nine men in fifty the Sabbath Day is a dreary, dreary bore.

Of all the men in a church on a Sunday, two-thirds are tired when the service is half over, and the rest before it is finished.

The gladdest moment for all of them is when the preacher uplifts his hands for the benediction. You can hear the soft rustle of relief that sweeps the house, and you recognize that it is eloquent with gratitude.

All nations look down upon all other nations.

All nations dislike all other nations.

All white nations despise all colored nations, of whatever hue, and oppress them when they can.

White men will not associate with "niggers," nor marry them.

They will not allow them in their schools and churches.

All the world hates the Jew, and will not endure him except when he is rich.

I ask you to note all those particulars.

Further. All sane people detest noise.

All people, sane or insane, like to have variety in their life. Monotony quickly wearies them.

And yet, Heaven is a place where:

1. First of all, I recall to your attention the extraordinary fact with which I began. To wit, that the human being, like the immortals, naturally places sexual intercourse far and away above all other joys -- yet he has left it out of his heaven!

[...]

2. In man's heaven everybody sings! The man who did not sing on earth sings there; the man who could not sing on earth is able to do it there.

[...]

3. Meantime, every person is playing on a harp -- those millions and millions! -- whereas not more than twenty in the thousand of them could play an instrument in the earth, or ever wanted to.

[...]

4. The inventor of their heaven empties into it all the nations of the earth, in one common jumble. All are on an equality absolute, no one of them ranking another; they have to be "brothers"; they have to mix together, pray together, harp together, Hosannah together -- whites, niggers, Jews, everybody -- there's no distinction. Here in the earth all nations hate each other, and every one of them hates the Jew.

[...]

5. Every man in the earth possesses some share of intellect, large or small; and be it large or be it small he takes pride in it. Also his heart swells at mention of the names of the majestic intellectual chiefs of his race, and he loves the tale of their splendid achievements. [...] Make a note of it: in man's heaven there are no exercises for the intellect, nothing for it to live upon. It would rot there in a year -- rot and stink. Rot and stink -- and at that stage become holy. A blessed thing: for only the holy can stand the joys of that bedlam.

So according to many I am destined for Hell. Oh, well. I am sure I will see you all there as well (check me out at 23 Screaming in Pain Lane, I will be the one impaled on the weed whacker).
posted by corsair the rational pirate at 09:45