Feb. 24th, 2009

defrog: (benjamins)
ITEM: In what could turn out to be the greatest fraud in US history, American authorities have started to investigate the alleged role of senior military officers in the misuse of $125 billion in a US-directed effort to reconstruct Iraq after the fall of Saddam Hussein.

As usual, the explanations break down into one of two categories: “actively criminal” or “highly incompetent” – only one of which you can be prosecuted for, as it happens.

Which is why I typically go batshit when conservatives go on the Sunday talk shows bitching about wasting tax dollars on stimulus packages or green energy. True or not, you do NOT get to lecture anyone on wasteful spending if you support the party that ran the US govt for the last eight years. No.

I have this fantasy where Bob Schieffer gets handed this line, and he reaches over the desk, grabs the guest by the lapels and screams in his face: “FUCK YOU, SENATOR! $125 BILLION DOWN THE DRAIN IN IRAQ JUST TO PAY OFF WAR PROFITEERS THAT FINANCE HALF THE GOP CAMPAIGNS IN THE LAST 10 ELECTION CYCLES, AND YOU HAVE THE GALL TO SIT THERE AND FUCKING WHINE ABOUT THE GOVT HAVING TO BAIL THE COUNTRY OUT OF A GLOBAL ECONOMIC RECESSION STARTED BY YR FUCKING GREEDHEAD CONSTITUENTS IN WALL STREET THAT YOU WANT TO GIVE FUCKING TAX BREAKS TO SO THEY CAN KEEP THEIR MILLION-DOLLAR BONUSES AND PRIVATE FUCKING JETS?! IS THAT WHAT YOU ARE TELLING ME, SENATOR?! AND I HAVE A FOLLOW-UP QUESTION!”

It’ll never happen, of course. FCC indecency rules and all. Besides, all the senator has to do is say (smugly), “See, that’s why I’m opposed to govt bailouts – we’ve proven that we are completely unqualified to handle money responsibly. It didn’t work in Iraq, why would it work here?”

Okay, fair call, although I'm told the stimulus package comes with a requirement for RSS feeds from govt agencies to account for their spending of the stimulus money. I'm sure that will help.

Anyway, regarding the Iraq funding and the Wall Street blowout, I predict incompetency pleas and wrist slaps for designated scapegoats. Because the world’s yr oyster when you don’t have to take any responsibility for anything you’ve ever done, voted for, approved or otherwise facilitated.

Bastards.

Is that justice,

This is dF

defrog: (planet terror)
Hey kids, remember when cap guns were f***ing awesome and socially acceptable?


I’m pretty sure it’s illegal to make TV commercials like this nowadays. You know, under the Patriot Act or something.

Fire at will,

This is dF

defrog: (wiretap!)
ITEM [via Threat Level]: Currently making the rounds on conspiracy radio shows: video proof that those govt-subsidized digital TV converters come with hidden cameras and mikes to spy on you.



The video, of course, has already been proven a hoax, and the guy who made the video freely admits it was all a joke, and that he cobbled together the evidence with spare cell-phone parts and a hot-glue gun in about five minutes.

Still, the DTV Surveillance conspiracy was circulating well before he came up with the hoax video (and was in fact where he got the idea in the first place), and since when did irrefutable evidence to the contrary get in the way of a good conspiracy theory?

I like to watch,

This is dF

defrog: (burroughs)
ITEM: The Guardian has compiled a list of 1,000 novels you MUST read. And they have a science-fiction/fantasy section.

Mind, they’re a bit loose on the criteria for what constitutes SF/F – certainly there’s some room for debate whether dystopian and speculative fiction should count, but in my mind it’s a bit of a stretch to classify, say, Lord Of The Flies, Beloved, The Shining or any story featuring Satan as a character as science-fiction/fantasy.

Still, there’s plenty of books that sound like they’re worth checking out that I might not have otherwise thought to investigate. So it's a list worth reading.

For the record, here’s the books on the SF/F list I’ve already read (except for the two in boldface, which I haven’t read but are in the “to read” pile next to my desk):

Douglas Adams: The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (1979)
Greg Bear: Darwin's Radio (1999)
Anthony Burgess: A Clockwork Orange (1960)
William Burroughs: Naked Lunch (1959)
Lewis Carroll: Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865)
Michael Chabon: The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay (2000)
Arthur C Clarke: Childhood's End (1953)
GK Chesterton: The Man Who Was Thursday (1908)
Philip K Dick: Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (1968)
Philip K Dick: The Man in the High Castle (1962)
Neil Gaiman: American Gods (2001)
William Gibson: Neuromancer (1984)
William Golding: Lord of the Flies (1954)
Joe Haldeman: The Forever War (1974)
Robert A Heinlein: Stranger in a Strange Land (1961)
Aldous Huxley: Brave New World (1932)
Shirley Jackson: The Haunting of Hill House (1959)
Richard Matheson: I Am Legend (1954)
Cormac McCarthy: The Road (2006)
Haruki Murakami: The Wind-up Bird Chronicle (1995)
Larry Niven: Ringworld (1970)
JK Rowling: Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (1997)
Antoine de Sainte-Exupéry: The Little Prince (1943)
Mary Shelley: Frankenstein (1818)
Neal Stephenson: Snow Crash (1992)
Bram Stoker: Dracula (1897)
Mark Twain: A Connecticut Yankee at King Arthur's Court (1889)
Kurt Vonnegut: Sirens of Titan (1959)
Yevgeny Zamyatin: We (1924)

Reading is fun,

This is dF

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