8/9/06-8/12/06

BOOK TAG 8/12/06

I got this from my 360 buddy redbarronaustin who got this from friends.

Reese argues that the costs of law in this context are extremely high-- in part because it is hard to distinguish between legitimate and illegitimate uses of cyberspace. Web spiders, which gather data for web search engines; browsers, who are searching across the Net for stuff to see; hackers (of the good sort) who are testing the locks of space to see that they are locked); and hackers (of the bad sort) who are breaking and entering to steal. It is hard, ex ante, for the law to know which agent is using the space legitimately and which is not. Legitimacy depends upon the intention of the person gaining acess. excerpt from: Code by Lawrence Lessig. New York: Basic Books, 1999.

Here is the way to do it (also lifted from redbarronaustin's blog):

1. Find the nearest book.

2. Open to page 123.

3. Find the 5th sentence.

4. Post the text of 3 sentences on your blog---along with the title of the book and the author.

5. Please do not go digging into the closet for that "cool" or "intellectual" book. Just pick up what ever is closest.

As usual, I tag no one. spike q

THOUGHT FOR TODAY 8/12/06

"When fascism comes to America it will be wrapped in the flag,carrying a cross." ~Sinclair Lewis

WAR HURTS REAL PEOPLE 8/11/06

Updated Aug 9, 2006 BEIRUT (IPS/GIN) - About 55 percent of all casualties at the Beirut Government University Hospital are 15 or younger, hospital records show. "This is worse than during the Lebanese civil war," Bilal Masri, assistant director of the hospital, one of Beirut’s largest, told IPS. Not only are most of the patients children, but many of the injured are in serious condition, he said. "Now we have a 30 percent fatality rate here in Beirut. That means that 30 percent of everyone hit by Israeli bombs are dying. It is a catastrophe." The fatality rate was high, he said, "because the Israelis are using new kinds of bombs which can enter shelters. They are bombing the bomb shelters which are full of refugees."

Mothers wail, "What human would ever do this?" :: from www.uruknet.info :: news from occupied Iraq

The link above is located at
http://www.uruknet.com/
?p=m25619&hd=0&size=1&l=e and you should be able to read the whole story there. The nation doing these things is the nation that our President has chosen to side with in the Israeli-Lebanon conflict: Israel.

9/11 happened. That is a reality. I didn't want it to happen nor would I wish it to happen. But it did. The word terrorist is not defined as: everyone in the universe who is an Arab or a Moslem or from Iraq or from Lebanon or from Palestine or has connections to the Middle East or who disagrees with President Bush.

9/11 happened. When something like 9/11 happens again, who then will we blame? The government of the United States persists in holding entire groups of people accountable for the terrorist acts of a few. What part of the responsibility will our government accept when terrorists come calling for us again? Pogo said it pretty good many years ago, "We have found the enemy, and it is us."

spike q

Thank-you blu4lyf for sending me the link to the article. I appreciate it.

DEAR MR. PRESIDENT 9/10/06

US at war with 'Islamic fascists', Bush says. 11/08/2006. ABC News Online

Dear Mr. President,

My country, the United States, is a nation at war. It is not a nation at war with terrorism. It is not a nation at war fighting fascism or tyranny. You want us to believe those things perhaps. You want us to believe that this "war on terror" is real.

Mr. President, war is not a political smear campaign. Name-calling is not nice. You are fueling the flames of a fire already burning too brightly. When you insult my islamic brothers and sisters throughout the world Mr. President, you are insulting me. Your prejuidice is showing.

Are you going to erect concentration camps for all followers of Islam and for some of the rest of us who are voicing our dissent here in the United States like our country did shamefully once before during World War II? Is anyone who disagrees with your foreign policy and your christian god The Enemy? Does your god approve of what you are doing? Isn't there enough hatred in the world already?

Mr. President, I'm sorry that you are afraid of anyone who is not like you.

We don't want your war on terror. We don't want your hatred to continue to infect the universe. We don't want the United States to continue to slide into the very fascism that you say you despise.

sapphoq

l

US President George W Bush has tightened airline security and said a plot foiled by Britain to blow up US-bound flights was a "stark reminder" the United States is "at war with Islamic fascists".

The suspected plotters were "a couple days from a test, and a few days from doing it," according to a US intelligence official.

Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said the plan would have involved coordinated multiple suicide bombings.

Mr Bush said the United States was safer than before the September 11 attacks but that it would be a mistake to believe there was no longer a threat.

Mr Bush launched a global war on terrorism after the 2001 hijacked plane attacks on New York and Washington killed nearly 3,000 people.

Faced with public discontent over the three-year-old war in Iraq, he often tells Americans the threat remains.

Speaking briefly on a visit to Wisconsin, Bush said the foiled plane plot was "a stark reminder that this nation is at war with Islamic fascists who will use any means to destroy those of us who love freedom, to hurt our nation".

Criticism

US Muslim groups have criticised Mr Bush, saying his choice of words could inflame anti-Muslim tensions.

"The problem with the phrase is it attaches the religion of Islam to tyranny and fascism, rather than isolating the threat to a specific group of individuals," said Edina Lekovic, spokeswoman for the Muslim Public Affairs Council in Los Angeles.

THE ISRAELI-LEBANON CONFLICT 8/9/06

I have reproduced the Human Rights' Watch Questions and Answers on the Israeli-Lebanon conflict. The Human Rights' Watch is an international watchdog organization and as such remains neutral on the whys of war. The HRW does take a position on violations of the International Rules of War-- something which Israel signed on to but Lebanon did not.

Anyone who wishes to comment on the blog post located at: http://radical.sapphoq.com/ [the Q&A is the second post down] must have a [free] Blogspot account in order to do so.

I will caution anyone eager to dis followers of Islam of the following:

• I have some 360 friends who are of the Moslem religion. I do not take kindly to anyone disrespecting or name-calling anyone else because of their religious beliefs.
• Quite frankly, I believe that Israel has done far more to violate the International Rules of War than Lebanon has. I am not siding with the position of my government on this one.

Thank-you,

spike q

O Lebanon, Stand Firm!

بعد ان قلناها لانفسنا ... فالنقولها الى العالم...

شعار صمود لبنان بعد تعديله اصبح الان يتحدث الى العالم لكى يقول ...
اصمدى يا لبنان .. فكلنا معك.
O Lebanon … Stand Firm!

We are all with you.