ConfigSys.boy! - On being Geek
And that is the thing that universally separates all of us who earned the label of Geek from those who simply aspire to join the party now that it's no longer a source of shame and social loathing. We paid the price of admission that these esurient latecomers had no desire to pony up for. And when, as inevitably occurs in the whims of culture and society, it is no longer en vogue to be Geek, we will remain as we have always been. Those wastrels who were unable to shoulder the weight of our legacy by contrast will doff the mantle like so much old hat and leave us again with our titles as terms of derision rather than endearment.If you are interested, I qualified on all counts in his description. Hell, on the gaming front, I'm expert in both RPG AND miniatures gaming.
Of course, I am that variant of geek known as the Mac Geek -- always bordering on cool but never really there, never quite decending to pure geekdom.
The Horrors of "Peace"
One Iraqi American had a message he hoped protesters would hear:The article contains a detailed and telling account from the Iraqi rebel's point of view showing how we failed to support them fhe first time. We must not repeat that mistake."If you want to protest that it's not okay to send your kids to fight, that's okay. But please don't claim to speak for the Iraqis. We've seen 5 million people protesting, but none of them were Iraqis. They don't know what's going on inside Iraq. France and whoever else, please shut up."
Amazon charging different prices on some DVDs - Computerworld
Yes! Yes yes yes yes yes!The corner market is back, in a sense. If you were a good customer, you get treated better. This is how it should be. When I go to my local chinese food take out, I get free sodas. Why? Because I am usually calling the order in, picking it up, and buying $20-35 at a time. That is the sort of thing that can happen when the owner has latitude, but not at a Wal-mart style retail vendor. I am glad to see that technology is allowing groups like Amazon to start providing that sort of personalization.
'Skeletons in peace marchers' closets' - timesunion.com
The demonstrations are thereby making war more -- not less -- likely.This one is the description that most fits the Iraqi situation:All this should be no great surprise, considering the ignominious history of peace protests over the past century. The record is fairly clear: When the demands of protesters have been met, more bloodshed has resulted; when strong leaders have resisted the lure of appeasement, peace has usually broken out.
The Vietnam rallies are usually judged to have been successful because they stopped the killing of Americans in Southeast Asia. The killing of local people is another matter. The U.S. pullout led directly to the communist conquest of Saigon and Phnom Penh in 1975. The results were a human-rights disaster. Tens of thousands of South Vietnamese were executed, hundreds of thousands wound up in brutal "re-education camps" and more than a million sought to escape in leaky boats. It was even worse in Cambodia, where the Khmer Rouge slaughtered more than a million "class enemies."I have seen no logical reasons to protest this war. The only reasons I can accept as honest are the principled pacifists; at least they are consistent. For the America First types, Iraq is a direct - direct threat to America; we are still in a state of war with this regime, and they with us, and they are in blatent and intentional violation of the cease-fire they agreed to. For those who are worried about "the children", protesting the war is to support the continuation of a regime who, as a standard and widespread practice, starves children, steals humanitarian aid, and has children raped, tortured and murdered in front of thier parents.Anti-war protesters were not entirely, nor even mainly, responsible for this outcome; faulty U.S. military strategy also was to blame. Still, anyone who once chanted "Ho, Ho, Ho Chi Minh, NLF is gonna win" should not feel particularly smug about the consequences of that victory. Their protests led to peace, all right, but for many Asians it was the peace of the grave.
For those who claim that this is for oil, it is worth remembering that while America has less than a dozen oil contracts with Iraq, France, Germany and Russia have over 1,500 contracts between the three of them. The Iraqi Ba'ath regime is a great evil, one that rivals the Nazi and Stalinist regimes, and must be eliminated, for security, political, and moral reasons.
Was I That Stupid?
I wonder, like instapundit, how many of the current protesters will be saying this in 30 years.Three decades later I have no pride in the memory of those protests. Rather, I wonder how it was possible to be so mistaken about real politics and world events. My political gullibility is an embarrassment. The so-called peace movement had completely deluded itself, conveniently ignoring any evidence that countered its agenda.To quote the left's beloved Marx, History always repeats itself, "the first time as a tragedy and the second time as a farce."
The loose collaboration of leftists, anti-war activists, and anti-globalization proponents, must wake up. There are fundamentalists who would kill them without a second thought merely because they are Westerners. Appeasement gets you nowhere, as Europe learned from Hitler.I looked at the recent television images of thousands, almost in a party atmosphere, as they chanted their rhyming protests against a possible war. Was I that stupid? I hope not.
Some British "human Shields" Flee Iraq, Cite Safety Fears - from Tampa Bay Online
Schadenfreude is glorious. I can imagine no more humiliating an experience. Of course, since the entire endeavour was an exercise in hypocrisy, I can't imagine that it bothers them too much.I was encouraged by this bit:
Maria Ermanno, chairwoman of the Swedish Peace and Arbitration Society, cited reports that Iraqi officials were arranging transportation, accommodations and news conferences for the human shields.I have been looking for a while to see peace activists who really advocate peace rather than Anti-Americanism; this is the first one that I have seen."To go down to Iraq and live and act there on the regime's expense, then you're supporting a terrible dictator. I think that method is entirely wrong," Ermanno told Swedish Radio.
Forbes.com: Five Vital Lessons From Iraq
These are all true and correct conclusions. We must remember them, and act on them.OpinionJournal - Thinking Things Over
It is hard for me to put myself in the shoes of non-Americans and look at the war; perhaps this will make it easier for the non-Americans to put themselves in an American's shoes.
