The Last Ephor

So Much For What We Stand For . Follow the link for a roundup of how Bush has abandoned the "Party of Reagan". I am pained to agree. I feel politically homeless. But for his foreign policy, I would oppose the Republican agenda on almost every point. Where oh where is Barry Goldwater? Where is his heir?

I'm a fairly frequent reader of NKZone as a site for informed comment and news about the DPRK. I think they politically tilt left and seem enamored of the "sunshine policy" which I vehemently oppose. That said, they have the following post about interviewing DPRK refugees. I found some of the answers truly shocking. North Korea zone: Refugee Group Interview: North Korean Neocons! 7) Do the North Korean people still want re-unification with the South? What do most North Koreans think of the South Korean government and people? Mixed bag of responses here. Of course their greater desire is for North Korea in its present form to disappear forever. Nearly all want to return to their hometowns in a free democratic North Korea. As for re-unification and their feelings toward the South Korean government and people, the longer one has lived in South Korea the less favourably he considers re-unification and South Koreans. At first, after arriving in South Korea th

MEMRI TV should be funded by David Horowitz. They work on a shoestring budget and are virtually ignored by the general public yet they provide and invaluable service. They show the face of Islamic governments and movements that they do not show to America. They explicitly state that their goal is to lay waste to any kuffar and especially the Jews. Even Fox News channel doesn't show these. If they did, they'd be hounded by CAIR and their ilk. Some who see the videos grimly nod and say nothing. Others look and start with "..but you have to understand..." Which side do you find yourself on?

Blaming the Messenger : "Now, it is possible that no interrogator at Guantanamo Bay ever flushed pages of the Koran down the toilet, as the now-retracted Newsweek story reported -- although several former Guantanamo detainees have alleged just that. It is also possible that Newsweek reporters relied too much on an uncertain source, or that the magazine confused the story with (confirmed) reports that prisoners themselves used Korans to block toilets as a form of protest." I anxiously await riots denouncing the prisoners for their blasphemous actions.

Why I Hate FAMILY GUY . A list of problems with Family Guy. I happen to be a fan so it caught my interest. I'm inclined to agree with some of the criticisms but I think ultimately the writers is overly critical. I don't really care about background animation. The show is about the jokes, nothing more. Don't like the animation? Ok, fair enough. I'll take writing over animation any time. See also; Simpsons, The. On the upside, I think the tendency of the blogosphere to be an echo-chamber requires you to seek out things that are diametrically opposite to your own opinions to at least see what other people are saying. Sometimes you'd be surprised how good the points they make can be.

Decaying amusement park is fascinating to see. I've always been a fan of sci-fi stories that deal with post-apocalyptic or post-information age stories. The kind that King talks about when "the world moved on". The ones that end "not with a bang but with a whimper." The photos on this site resonate with me for that very reason. I sometimes imagine what New York City (or even my own town) would look like if left untouched and allowed to decay for a decade or more. Someone should use this place for a movie set. They wouldn't have to dress the set one iota. Granted the place is probably dangerous in parts and that would inhibit or limit much of what people would like to use but I digress. Take a look at the photos. Creepy and fascinating at the same time.

Air Force Seeks Bush's Approval for Space Weapons Programs ! Really? How shocking! Please, spare me. We've know about this since...oh I don't know...Sputnik? This is just the logical extention of our domination of battlespace. The frontiers are moving and to stay ahead of the curve (and our rivals) we must push those boundaries and dominate them simultaneously. Brilliant Pebbles was a big part of that plan and I think if journalists and the NYT think real hard or even do some actual journalism, they may find out about it. Even DREAD is being pushed as a possible space based platform. Space weapons are no longer a fantasy they are no longer a liberals futuristic bete noir. They are here, they are necessary and they are a foregone conclusion.

Finally, something to bridge the US/European divide.

The Amazing Rise of the Do-It-Yourself Economy makes my head spin. It's amazing the breadthe of the changes the interweb has wrought (Thanks Al Gore!). Really, I could get my brain around the communication changes, putting people together who would otherwise never speak. Break down the barriers and so on. I never imagined the business implications could be so massive as well. We truly live in amazing times.

Pencader Heritage Area Association - Landmarks : "Judge Willard Hall described conditions in Delaware in 1803: The teachers frequently were intemperate, whose qualification seemed to be inability to earn anything in any other way. … But even in the best neighborhoods, teachers of the young frequently were immoral and incapable; and in the country generally there was either a school of the worst character or no school at all." La plus ca change.....

Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. Or, in this case, a Death ray