June, 2004

  1. KNOW Small Hypocrisy

    The latest issue of the newsletter for local anti-war protesters Kalamazoo Non-Violent Opponents shows that the group has no problem speaking out of both sides of its collective mouth. Principles, apparently, are for right wing nutcases. In its online newsletter, KNOW has suddenly discovered freedom of speech, Dear friends, THIS IS AN EMERGENCY CALL! PLEASE…

  2. Are Other People’s Ideas Worth Reading?

    Robert Cringely has an meandering essay about blogging which includes the following, I give credit to Dave Winer of Userland Software for inventing web logging, and I think the idea then was to publish, to share your thoughts with everyone else. But most people’s thoughts aren’t really worth sharing. Most web logs are little more…

  3. The Mainstreaming of Anti-Semitism

    One of the more bizarre trends in America and Europe of late is the mainstreaming of anti-Semitism. Anti-Semitism, which had been widely discredited after the revelations of where it lead to in Nazi Germany, seems to be making a comeback in the West. For example, Muslim extremist Fawaz Damra is currently on trial in Ohio…

  4. Who’s Afraid of BugMeNot?

    Chris Pirillo has posted an e-mail he received from a newspaper after he posted an article about Bug Me Not which is a site/tool to get around those annoying newspaper splash pages that either want you to sign up for an account to access the newspaper or (and worse IMO), simply ask you for demographic…

  5. NetGear: Security Through Stupidity

    This Slashdot thread about security problems with a NetGear router is hilarious (well, it’s probably not hilarious if you own one of these products). A couple days ago it was revealed that the NetGear WG602 has a backdoor account that cannot be deactivated. And, of course, it didn’t take much effort for people to publish…

  6. Disturbing News Story about Treatment of Guantanamo Prisoners

    I haven’t seen this story reported anywhere else, but if anyone else has more information please e-mail me at brian@carnell.com, But Maj. Laurie Arellano, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Southern Command in Miami, said Spc. Sean Baker’s medical discharge last month was not related to the head injury he received during training at the detention…

  7. Reagan and AIDS

    The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force has a press release/letter out reminding people about Ronald Reagan’s supposed hostility to AIDS sufferers and lack of action to combat the disease. For example, the press release notes that, AIDS was first reported in 1981, but President Reagan could not bring himself to address the plague until…

  8. Prairie Home Companion Audience Cheers Reagan’s Death?

    Apparently, a small number of audience members of Prairie Home Companion reacted to Garrison Keillor’s announcement of Reagan’s death with cheers. Too bad the show isn’t available on the web so those of us who don’t listen to it can listen ourselves. There is, however, some discussion of this in the Prairie Home Companion’s forum…

  9. Was Reagan Just Lucky?

    One of the best articles I’ve read about Ronald Reagan in the past couple days is Glenn Garvin’s review of Peter Schweizer’s biography ReaganÂ’s War: The Epic Story of His Forty Year Struggle and Final Triumph Over Communism. Garvin tackles head on one of the claims about the triumph over Communism that started floating around…