Read this. Ignore the comparisons to Israel -- they're irrelevant, there are plenty of other countries that treat minorities badly, and it's not really that analogous anyhow. According to that report, the U.S. military is now doing things that would make even conservatives a bit antsy...

"American soldiers have begun wrapping entire villages in barbed wire." "In Abu Hishma, encased in a razor-wire fence after repeated attacks on American troops, Iraqi civilians line up to go in and out, filing through an American-guarded checkpoint, each carrying an identification card printed in English only."

That's wonderful. I'm sure they really appreciate the freedom Americans brought them. I can sympathize with them -- if a foreign power came in to the states and deposed BushJr, I'd be quite pleased, but once it started doing this kind of crap, I'd do everything I could to get them out. They talk about Arabs only understanding force in the article.. That's not Arabs, that's humans. If you beat someone enough, they'll either die or have their spirit broken, like a horse. Is that the intent? Will Iraq be a prison-state, with American actions escalating until all the people there have a prison mentality?

"They have begun imprisoning the relatives of suspected guerrillas, in hopes of pressuring the insurgents to turn themselves in."

This is incredibly repugnant. It's the most disgusting thing in the article, to me, and if I were in a state to do so, the thing that would push me to fund opposition to U.S. forces.

"'With a heavy dose of fear and violence, and a lot of money for projects, I think we can convince these people that we are here to help them,' Colonel Sassaman said."

Wonderful quote. It might go in my rotating sig when I implement it.

According to another report from Time magazine, an American company was awarded $15mil to develop a cement factory, and when that was delayed, some Iraqis developed it for $80k instead. How sad for that American company.. *sniff* *sniff*

Apparently Rumsfeld recently made a surprise trip to Iraq. I wish they would keep him.

I want to see BushJr (pbuh) in jail for the rest of his life.

Looks like Castro is paying attention to the American plans for an invasion after his death.

Recently I was reading in Science News about an Animal doesn't need to eat because of a symbiotic relationship with bacteria living in its gut. That's really interesting -- it's probably not possible to engineer the same thing for humans (we don't take in enough materials from the air to get the kind of power we'd need, and we're more active), but it would be cool..

Here's an article on some very geek humour. A sample: Heisenberg is pulled over for speeding: "Do you know how fast you were going?" the police officer asks, incredulously. "No," replies Heisenberg, "but I know exactly where I am!"

I find it irritating that Al Jazeera feels it's necessary to report whenever an Israeli gets arrested for something. Recently, they had an uninteresting article about Israelis in an organ trafficing ring in South Africa, and it's just another in a long series of them taking care to point out things like that. Of course there are some Israeli criminals. There are criminals of every race and shape.. Oh well.

Lawrence Lessig has a response to SCO's latest publication.. And reading over it, I can't help thinking that SCO actually has a point. I despise the patent/copyright system and would do away with it... that being said, SCO's argument that the GPL intentionally flaunts it seems to be on-track. While it may be true that the GPL does operate within the bounds of copyright, and indeed needs it to function, its stated goal, and elegance, has always been that it twists the system against itself. The idea of promoting innovation that must've been present when these things were being set up were intending people to hoard and profit from their ideas, making money off of them. It's doubtful that constructing systems that would mimic commercial products, doing a better job than they do, and would offer people the chance to get involved if they give up their ability to hoard was on their minds at all. Then again, the system has changed quite a bit in other ways, as hoarding is profitable, and profits drive politics. I'm not saying SCO deserves to win (quite the opposite!), nor that I think such a deep interpretation of the system is desirable, as there is a slippery slope involving what 'legal rights' an 'IP owner' should be allowed to grant/restrict, but rather, I'm saying that SCO does have a point of some kind on their arguments about the GPL.

I was going to take care of car things, but the information lines of all the places that might've done the title transfers seem to be closed. Maybe it's the deluge of snow we got last night, or maybe it's only the driver's license stuff that's open on the weekends. Oh well.