You know, there's one guy who knows how to control Iraq, and he's available. Why not turn Saddam Hussein into a new puppet there -- he'll probably be amenable to such a deal.

Borland et al had might as well give up on java IDEs; when Eclipse 3 is done, they won't be able compete while charging money for their product. I wonder how long before governments start cracking down on opensource as unfair competition...?

Eclipse 3.0 Milestone 8 has been released, and it's muy excelente. (It's also a rather large download for a single file (~80m), which makes me wonder why the world beyond usenet hasn't caught on to the idea of multi-part archives.) The new look and feel has been integrated, and it's not as annoying as I feared it would be (it reminds me of ice cream or snow crystals) -- the sloping tabs are optional for instance -- and it looks like custom themes can eventually be added. It also now supports a workspace selection dialog (so the -data arg isn't strictly necessary), the long-awaited skip-all-breakpoints debugging option, collapsible and floatable views, default vm arguments, and the ability to specify working sets for builds. You can also easily add new file templates so your xml won't look like a pile of charcoal anymore; and FIXME and XXX have been added as task tags by default (in case you didn't already do that).

Because it has a naughty word in it, radio stations can no longer play Pink Floyd's "Money" (let alone "Not Now John"). If they do, then the FCC may attempt to fine not only the station, not only the DJ, but the band.

Heinlein wrote, "The human race divides politically into those who want people to be controlled and those who have no such desire."

Madison wrote, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."

This year's election is a great cause for enthusiastic despondency. Has the future of American politics ever felt this desperate? Shock and Awe comes close to the expression on my face when I realized who the final choices were to be. It's a big joke, right? Right?

"Anything But Bush" is an asinine political philosophy. I refuse to vote for a candidate with whom I have fundamental differences in order to prevent the election of a candidate with whom I have fundamental differences. I don't even know which evil is the lesser.

For the most part I have philosophical reasons for opposing capital punishment. Treason in a time of war is an exception. The abduction and murder of a child is another. My Big Idea has always been that whoever was closest to the victim should be awarded the life of the (convicted) perpetrator of the crime. They may choose either to end that person's life by whatever means they deem fit, or turn it over to the state for the normal course of sentencing. They may employ another to carry out the execution of the criminal if they wish. They may employ the state to do so. In the case of war-time treason, the state would be granted this right, but only in such a case..

This arrangement, while still falling short of Justice, comes closer than our present legal system, where lawyers wrangle for plea-bargains and prisons fill with tax-draining monsters never fit for release, or worse: receive parole to prey again upon the world. Victims of terrible crimes should have a Constitutional right to proper redress of the wrongs committed upon them. Courts can and should stand between the innocent and the revenge of victims, but they should not stand between victims and their right to revenge.

And as an added benefit: no victim? No crime. Life is really much simpler than lawyers and politicians want us to believe.

Threatening Japan with the execution of three hostages unless they surrender their mission in Iraq, Arab radicals once more demonstrate their complete lack of familiarity with history. The US had to drop two atom bombs on Japan before closing a deal like that. If these guys would only study something other than what Mohammed had for breakfast they might finally figure out their best interests. As it is, only violence remains. And I maintain: education is the answer. The propaganda pamphlets should contain history lessons, philosophy, natural science. Where is the Arab Tom Paine?

Imagine if a country like Cuba were routinely firing rockets and artillery at Florida. How long do you think that would last before the US went apeshit on them? About half an hour? Twenty minutes? The Isrealis should be praised for their restraint rather than condemned for necessary measures.

Dawn of the Dead redux turned out to be a cool movie, despite completely empty characters and an embarrassing A-Team scene. I thought they should have stayed at the mall, myself: all a person really wants out of life is something good to shoot at.

When the dead come to life and start chasing people around trying to eat their brains, guess who instantly becomes the most popular guy in town? The gun shop guy. Oh, so now you want looser gun laws, eh? I guess it's the cutlery store guy that gets the most business in the UK release.

It is typically the most extreme circumstances that reveal a person's character, and in that revelation an object lesson for the rest of us. Fabrizio Quattrocchi, abducted and executed Italian contractor in Iraq, should be remembered for his brave defiance at the moment before his death. "When his murderers were pointing a pistol at him," reported Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini, "this man tried to take off his hood and shouted, 'Now I'm going to show you how an Italian dies.' And they killed him." Hopefully his craven killers will remember Quattrocchi, and remember that they didn't allow him to remove the hood. And realize what that says about their character.

Reuters of course puts quotes around the word hero in their headline. Which says something about the character of Reuters.

This is why you need to go buy guns. Now please. (How's that for Tom Paine?)

And another thing: If the UN doesn't come clean on this Oil-For-Food scandal, we need to send some Marines down to First and 46th. Drag those smug little Belgians off the lawn.... A-and the French too, and the Russians, get out... get out. Lousy Belgians....

Actually adds some depth to the equally excellent but rather shallow Vol. 1. 9of10 Five-Point Palm Exploding Heart Techniques.

The Punisher: A collection of bad choices that make for a mediocre film. Why don't they assign comic book movies to people who like comic books? Whoever made this didn't seem very interested in it. It takes Frank Castle the whole movie to get his revenge (padded out with beefy fist-fights and a silly frame-up scheme, presumably in order to cast some box-office draw in the dull villain role, somebody like John Travolta). What makes The Punisher an interesting character in the comics is what happens afterwards: that he doesn't stop, that he hunts down and kills any criminal he can find, that he's schizo berserk, driven by a code of Good and Evil that makes Rorschach look like the United Nations. That should have been the rest of the movie; not this trite a to z revenge plot they scribbled down on cocktail napkins as the bar was closing, big-ass piles of money sitting between the drink puddles. Hollywood sucks. 2of10 disappointments.

People who are into complex programming algorithms are also into not naming variables very well.

I just saw some tape of Marines using .50 caliber sniper rifles in Falluja. That means they're blowing heads off breathing bodies. Gruesome stuff. Legion stuff. You see? All you have to do is ask, and the Marines will answer.

That was on MSNBC. Meanwhile, Fox was showing a car chase that ended with the guy rolling his truck and flying out limp onto lush green median-strip grass. They quickly returned to the studio and apologized for offending my delicate sensibilities. Who the hell gets themselves into a car chase? You've got to be thinking, "Holy crap. I'm in a car chase. I'm in a car and the police are chasing me. What went wrong with my life? Had to have been that girl in ninth grade...." and so on.

More on Iraqi oil-for-food-and-kickbacks. Scroll down for names and amounts.

This is the video of what happened to the American contractors in Falluja. That was on March 31st. Why is that bridge still standing? Why aren't there Iraqis hanging from it? Who is the driver of that red car and why isn't he tied to it by the neck? Who is trying to negotiate with these people? Why?

This is a quote from one of Dr. Pournelle's stories: "[Y]ou've got yourself on the shit list of the toughest bastards in the galaxy! Don't you know what they're doing? They're not getting ready to negotiate. They don't negotiate with people like you. They're getting ready to come here and sterilize this place. [...] They'll never negotiate. They'll just see that nothing survives here. Nothing. Not you, not your animals, not your troops. Not even women and kids. Nobody and nothing. Then they'll burn everything. [...] They'll sow the ground with salt. [...] [Y]ou're in trouble, and so is everyone here. You're all fucking dead."

Perhaps not a politically plausible message to send, but what's needed more? Political security or respect? One follows the other. If we're going to have an Empire we have to accept that we also need a Legion.

This is the video.

While I was a Best Buy I picked up a new telephone. I now sit in eager anticipation to find out what the ringer sounds like. Some people would just call themselves to find out, but I prefer to be surprised. I'm like that. When it comes to telephones. And calling myself (which is a weird thing to do). The sound of the telephone has a rather large impact on one's home atmosphere, especially for children. I can remember what the phone ringer sounded like when I was growing up. I think children get keyed to that sound somehow, resulting in something or other later in life or something.

I've waited 2.5 hours and the phone still hasn't rung. I wonder if I've connected it properly...?

This is a great idea. I paused about 5 seconds before ordering one.

I couldn't wait, I had to run out and endure the glaring commercial hell that is Best Buy in order purchase a new Intellimouse with Tilt Wheel Technology(!) the old fashioned way. The idea of having effectively nine bindable mouse buttons was impossible to resist. Well, I suppose it's my fault for assuming MS would be consistent, but the new mouse -- and more specifically the new driver software required to run it -- sucks. With the version 4 software you were able to bind mouse buttons to any keystroke on a universal or per-application basis. Which is surprisingly useful. But not so with the version 5 software. They let you bind the buttons to a few retarded commands like Back or Forward or Copy, but don't allow bindings to keys like Shift. Which I use a lot in order to shift-click browser links. Not to mention for twitch games. I'm very sad now.

I have a feeling they were getting too many support tickets for mouse bindings not working with some application or other, so they just dumped the feature entirely. This is what happens when a company no longer has to compete. Maybe I'll check out Logitech for a change.

Holy crap, it's Hired Girl. Too bad Heinlein couldn't live to see it. Not that expensive either; probably do well on the filters etc.