Lex Libertas

Ever since the apartment bombings in Russia in 1999 that the government blamed on Chechens, there have been rumors that it was actually the FSB, one of the successor organizations of the KGB. I have always treated this as a random conspiracy theory. I had never heard a case for it with any evidence, and didn’t take the time to go looking. If its proponents could offer nothing, it wasn’t my job to search. Well, today two sisters whose mother was killed in one of the bombings wrote an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal, Dear President Medvedev. It’s not very long, but definitely worth the read. The bombings are intrinsically tied in to the rise of Putin, the Second Chechen War, and the creation of a more authoritarian state. Because of this, the sisters are hopeful that the new president, who doesn’t have any ties to the events, can offer a chance for a real independent investigation:

Mr. President, we are writing this open letter because we would like to believe that your ascent to the presidency will end this dark period in Russian history. You were not involved.

We realize that you owe the previous regime a debt of loyalty and gratitude. But the powers of the state were entrusted to you not to protect possible murderers. You are now in control of Russia and your position imposes a higher responsibility. Before history, the people and the memory of innocent victims, you have an obligation to find and tell the truth about these crimes.

I have a lot of air miles logged (though unfortunately not on any frequent flier program), and I can attest that not all airlines are equal. Recently, customer satisfaction has been dropping for virtually all carriers, and this year airlines got the worst grades since 2001. Little improvement makes a big difference, like mood lighting, which would go a long way towards creating a relaxed and calming atmosphere:

I’ve never flown Virgin, but if it lives up to it’s description and they’re making progress like the above photo, then I’m looking forward to it. From the Virgin website:

“Design plays a huge role at Virgin America. In fact, we operate under the principle of “considered design.” In other words, everything we do is put through the design filter. That’s not to say that we design for design’s sake. Quite the contrary. We want to make sure that design contributes to usability, to function and to our guests’ benefit.”

U.S. Cites Big Gains Against Al-Qaeda

Less than a year after his agency warned of new threats from a resurgent al-Qaeda, CIA Director Michael V. Hayden now portrays the terrorist movement as essentially defeated in Iraq and Saudi Arabia and on the defensive throughout much of the rest of the world, including in its presumed haven along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border.

In a strikingly upbeat assessment, the CIA chief cited major gains against al-Qaeda’s allies in the Middle East and an increasingly successful campaign to destabilize the group’s core leadership.

While cautioning that al-Qaeda remains a serious threat, Hayden said Osama bin Laden is losing the battle for hearts and minds in the Islamic world and has largely forfeited his ability to exploit the Iraq war to recruit adherents.

Al Qaeda Discusses Losing Iraq

Al Qaeda web sites are making a lot of noise about “why we lost in Iraq.” Western intelligence agencies are fascinated by the statistics being posted in several of these Arab language sites. Not the kind of stuff you read about in the Western media. According to al Qaeda, their collapse in Iraq was steep and catastrophic. According to their stats, in late 2006, al Qaeda was responsible for 60 percent of the terrorist attacks, and nearly all the ones that involved killing a lot of civilians. The rest of the violence was carried out by Iraqi Sunni Arab groups, who were trying in vain to scare the Americans out of the country.

Today, al Qaeda has been shattered, with most of its leadership and foot soldiers dead, captured or moved from Iraq. As a result, al Qaeda attacks have declined more than 90 percent. Worse, most of their Iraqi Sunni Arab allies have turned on them, or simply quit. This “betrayal” is handled carefully on the terrorist web sites, for it is seen as both shameful, and perhaps recoverable.

The President Has Kept Us Safe

When a professed enemy succeeds as wildly as al Qaeda did on 9/11, and seven years pass without an incident, there are two reasonable conclusions: Either, despite all the trash-talking videos, they have been taking a long, leisurely breather; or, something serious has been done to thwart and disable their operations.

I’ve been a bit frustrated with WordPress’ writing interface, and have decided to branch out to some other services.  Windows Live Writer is a relatively popular choice, so I’ve decided to give it a go.

This is most an experimental post, to see how things work.  It’s WYSIWYG, so I’m trying to play with the features.

Here’s a picture of me this weekend, at a Memorial Day fair, my church was selling snacks and sodas, raising money for orphanages in Moldova and Kazakhstan.

I don’t know exactly, but from the Capoeira-style moves, I’m guessing this is Brazil:

In 1973, climate Cassandras were saying that “the world’s climatologists are agreed” that we must “prepare for the next ice age” (Science Digest, February 1973).

With such a proven track record of being right . . .

Now, we need to protect the polar bears:

Because of restrictions on hunting, polar bears might be more numerous today than ever and might be twice as numerous as they were three decades ago — when the media were fanning frenzy about global cooling. (Science magazine, March 1975, reported “the approach of a full-blown 10,000-year ice age.”) As Nigel Lawson, a former British cabinet member, writes in his new book, “An Appeal to Reason: A Cool Look at Global Warming”:

“Over the past two-and-a-half-million years, a period during which the planet’s climate fluctuated substantially, remarkably few of the earth’s millions of plant and animal species became extinct. This applies not least, incidentally, to polar bears, which have been around for millennia, during which there is ample evidence that polar temperatures have varied considerably.”

Iceland: Euroband “This is my life”
-good cheesy eurodance beat. Not a fan of the eurotrash singer. Girl’s got a solid voice, better than the guy.

Sweeden: Charlotte Pierelli “Hero”
-weak voice, not very confident. Got significantly better with chorus. Set design is awful, there’s basically none. Niagra falls behind, her in a silver dress. Some backup dancers finally come out, still extraordinarily boring.

Turkey:
-Decent rock riff. Song’s in Turkish, so can’t understand anything. Apparently it’s about love. Voice kind of cool. I’m not ecstatic. We clearly haven’t seen a winner yet.

Ukraine: Ani Lorak “Shady Lady”
-Leave it to the Slavs to bring the blatant, in-your-face sex. Sultry singer, showing off her figure, all male backup dancers in black. Don’t even notice them. I like the red and white set colors. Got my blood pumping a little faster, but still not a winner.

Lithuania: “Nomads in the Night”
-Soft pseudo-goth opera. Kind of like a young Meatloaf. Not working for me. Well, now I understand why they’re having semi-finals.

Albania: Olta Boka
-Another native language entry. Cool World Music intro. Power singing. A bit over the top, voice not too melodious, sounds a bit forced.

Switzerland:
-Singing in Italian, interesting choice. More pop-opera. This has to be done really, really, really well to win. I don’t know why people pick it. Sure, maybe I feel some emotion, especially now that they have pyro-technics, with a pop-opera song. Girls bouncing down in front of their partners, more appropriate for a rap video.

Czech Republic: “Have some fun”
-Intro with rhythmic gymnastics. Another Slavic entry, more blatant sex. Five girls, super tight, super skimpy clothes. Of course, tie this is with the title “Have some fun,” and I can’t imagine at all what they talking about. The sixth person on stage is a DJ. They’re all in Silver, with angel wings on a heart as their backdrop. Song not bad, standard europop. Pyrotechnics, adding to that whole “Sexy angel” thing. This is almost as bad as Russia’s entrance last year, who looked like prostitutes, these girls are just loose and want to party with you in the club (and after). Wow, and it started out so classy (I mean rhythmic gymnastics is pretty classy).

Belarus: Ruslan “Hasta La Vista”
-Won on Russia’s “National Artist.” Soft rock, eerily similar to last year’s Belarus entry, Dima Koldun. Background dancers seem to be moving for no apparent reason. Not a fan. Disappointed. Gold balls on the stage.

Latvia: Pirates of the Sea “Wolves of the Sea”
-Whoa, a themed ensemble. All dressed up like pirates. Waves on the background screen. A little to happy for pirates, if you ask me. Catchy kitsch. Reminds me of Englands entry last year “Flying the Flag,” with flight attendants, though England’s was better. This is kind of like Rednex for pirates. who came up with this concept? Probably a lot better on paper than realized.

Croatia: 75 Cents “Romanca”
-Starts with speaking, like introducing a story, or a tale. Old dude, on a stool. I kind of understand some of it. Another native language song. Croatian isn’t too similar to Russia, can’t understand it when sung. Sort of half updated folk music, half jazz. Random background dancers doing flamenco/tango/other latin dances. This is one of the more original entries thus far. Should make it out of the semi-finals.

Bulgaria:
-Opens with break-dancing, dudes pounding away on guitars, electronic music (reminiscent of the 80s). Cool brake-away riff. Burlesque blonde singer, with huge head feathers and everything, “DJ please take me away,” sung pop, with some more election coming back. Overall, I’m a fan. It’s an interesting mix of styles, inventive, creative. Distorted music, sounds like her voice. This is my vote so far.

Norway: Simon Matthew “All Night Long”
-Psuedo-retro 50s pop, singer has a very strong voice. Happy lyrics, but the music doesn’t quite match it. Great presentation by the singer, but the whole doesn’t come together as well as Bulgaria. Not a bad choice, should make it out of semi-finals.

Georgia: Diana Gurtskaya “Peace will Come”
-opens with a black stage, everyone in black. Doesn’t exactly make a good impression. More of a political statement than a good song. Not exactly a particularly good political statement, either. Peace, maybe Abkhazia and Ossetia? Dunno, maybe won’t beat people in the streets anymore? Boring. I’ll forget this one two songs from now. At the end of the song, everyone rips off their clothes and are now dressed in White. Symbolism duly noted.

Hungary: Csezy “Candlelight”
-First entry with a piano on stage. Sultry jazz. Nice strong voice. Too Top 40 for me. Mushy. Might make it through, certainly better than many others we’ve seen tonight. Though I’ve stopped watching it, just listening.

Malta: Morena “Vodka”
-Manic technopop, a la Verka Serdyuchka of last year’s Ukraine. Singer dressed liked a leather dominatrix. Isn’t English the native language of Malta, doesn’t sound like it when she sings. Everyone in black. Manic, not in the good way, like Ukraine last year. All I understand is “Vodka.” Now they’re jumping, this is awful.

Cyprus: “Femme Fatale”
-Native language, more sultry jazz, again silver and black. I’m getting real tired of that. Creativity, please!!! Out come the guitars, and she changes into a red dress with some black leather. At least it’s more color. Sultry posing, yawn. Cool use of background screens. That’s about it. Will probably advance, but shouldn’t make it too far in the finals.

Macedonia:
-Techno/Hip-Hop/Folk. More black and white. Stong voice, one of the clearest, best English performances. This one deserves to advance. Not a fan of the guys with their hip-hop refrain, but the girl gives a great performance.

Portugal:
-Very cool set design, use of background screens, seems underwater. Native language. Opera style, great voice. I just don’t think this is the best style for Eurovision. Again, black and white. Why the lack of color this year?? She’ll continue on, but won’t make it high in the finals.

While the media offers mostly images of violence, and many Americans have grown weary of the war in Iraq, I bring hopeful news to Washington this week as I meet with the administration and members of Congress.
…
As Americans debate the future of the U.S. role in Iraq, allow me to say that America’s mission remains vital to the stability and security of our region. A precipitous withdrawal of U.S. forces could be calamitous. We welcome a U.S. presence in the Kurdistan Region as part of any redeployment of forces.

The Kurdish people of Iraq suffered under Saddam Hussein. And we fought and died alongside Americans to liberate our country. There is no ambiguity about the depth of gratitude that Kurds feel for America’s sacrifices in Iraq. Americans who have been killed or wounded in Iraq are heroes to me and to all of Iraq’s Kurds. We will never forget what you have done for us.

Mr. Barzani is prime minister of the Kurdistan Regional Government of Iraq.

Like human commuters, this city’s stray dogs can often be spotted traveling on the subway, waiting patiently for a train to pull in and its doors to slide open.

In Soviet times, dogs were barred from Moscow’s metro. Today, however, they are so common there — curling up on empty seats, nuzzling their neighbors, lounging in stations — that there is even a Web site devoted to them: www.metrodog.ru.

Perhaps dogs are kind and tranquil in the downtown area, but not so out in the housing districts of St. Petersburg where I lived. I’ve written about this before, and the roaming packs of strays where I lived were pretty aggressive and intimidating. There were times when I thought seriously about carrying a bat with me around my neighborhood, and not to fight off the skinheads.

A device that lets a camera take pictures with 100 times the resolution of the most advanced models on the market is poised to revolutionise amateur photography.

The Gigapan allows people to take pictures which are more than a gigapixel - or 1,000 megapixels - in size, effectively turning a single photograph into a panoramic experience, around which the viewer can navigate on a computer.

The device itself is kind of funky looking, but the pictures it produces are amazing!

Check out either London or San Francisco.

What’s phenomenal is that as you zoom in, you still get a crisp picture. Pretty cool, especially for panoramic shots.

Lorelle gave an awesome presentation at WordCamp ‘08. I didn’t have a chance to attend, but I’ve learned a lot from watching the vidcast. I recommend watching the whole presentation if you are a regular blogger or are interested in getting started. Lots of tips for time and work saving:

Lorelle on WordPress is an awesome resource as well. Additionally, there is more video from the conference in the links section here, or at the conference schedule pages, click on the presentation title to get info and video.

Kudos to Russophile for pointing me to the video.

The Facebook Skit (A cappella)



FaceBook Off



Facebook Infomercial



Facebook Parody



FaceBook in Reality

I am always in awe of and inspired by funny commercials:

For the first time since the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russia has decided to add heavy weaponry to its Victory Day celebrations. While a nice gesture for a country reasserting its military and geopolitical might, it comes with an obvious cost:

“Some 1.44 billion rubles ($60 million) will be spent to repair asphalt-and-concrete road surfaces over an area of more than 900,000 square meters,” he said. He added that another 9 million rubles ($375,000) will be needed to repair utilities, sewage and drainage facilities in the city.

Note the old emblem, which still says “USSR” on it:

Men (and women) who survived and participated in the Great Patriotic War (WWII) are revered on this day, often given gifts and flowers:

In America, when graduating from university, a speaker usually gives a short speech to the students. Mostly motivational, these speeches are meant to give advice to the new graduates and spur them on to do great things in life. P.J. O’Rourke is a famous right-wing political humourist, and this is his commencement advice in a column in the LA Times, abridged:

Don’t moan. I’m not going to “pass the wisdom of one generation down to the next.” I’m a member of the 1960s generation. We didn’t have any wisdom. We were the moron generation. We were the generation that believed we could stop the Vietnam War by growing our hair long and dressing like circus clowns. We believed drugs would change everything — which they did, for John Belushi. We believed in free love. Yes, the love was free, but we paid a high price for the sex.

Don’t be an idealist!

Don’t chain yourself to a redwood tree. Instead, be a corporate lawyer and make $500,000 a year. No matter how much you cheat the IRS, you’ll still end up paying $100,000 in property, sales and excise taxes. That’s $100,000 to schools, sewers, roads, firefighters and police. You’ll be doing good for society. Does chaining yourself to a redwood tree do society $100,000 worth of good?

Idealists are also bullies. The idealist says, “I care more about the redwood trees than you do. I care so much I can’t eat. I can’t sleep. It broke up my marriage. And because I care more than you do, I’m a better person. And because I’m the better person, I have the right to boss you around.”

Get politically uninvolved!

All politics stink. Even democracy stinks. Imagine if our clothes were selected by the majority of shoppers, which would be teenage girls. I’d be standing here with my bellybutton exposed. Imagine deciding the dinner menu by family secret ballot. I’ve got three kids and three dogs in my family. We’d be eating Froot Loops and rotten meat.

But the problem isn’t politicians — it’s politics. Politics won’t allow for the truth. And we can’t blame the politicians for that. Imagine what even a little truth would sound like on today’s campaign trail:

“No, I can’t fix public education. The problem isn’t the teachers unions or a lack of funding for salaries, vouchers or more computer equipment The problem is your kids!”

Forget about fairness!

I’ve got a 10-year-old at home. She’s always saying, “That’s not fair.” When she says this, I say, “Honey, you’re cute. That’s not fair. Your family is pretty well off. That’s not fair. You were born in America. That’s not fair. Darling, you had better pray to God that things don’t start getting fair for you.” What we need is more income, even if it means a bigger income disparity gap.

Be a religious extremist!

Read the Bible for political advice — even if you’re a Buddhist, atheist or whatever. Don’t get me wrong, I am not one of those people who believes that God is involved in politics. On the contrary. Observe politics in this country. Observe politics around the world. Observe politics through history. Does it look like God’s involved?

Observe the Tenth Commandment. The first nine commandments concern theological principles and social law: Thou shalt not make graven images, steal, kill, et cetera. Fair enough. But then there’s the tenth: “Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s house. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor anything that is thy neighbor’s.”

Here are God’s basic rules about how we should live, a brief list of sacred obligations and solemn moral precepts. And, right at the end of it we read, “Don’t envy your buddy because he has an ox or a donkey.” Why did that make the top 10? Why would God, with just 10 things to tell Moses, include jealousy about livestock?

Well, think about how important this commandment is to a community, to a nation, to a democracy. If you want a mule, if you want a pot roast, if you want a cleaning lady, don’t whine about what the people across the street have. Get rich and get your own.