The Enemy’s Gate Is Down

I love this. Says Mahmoud Komati, deputy chief of Hezbollah’s political arm :

“The truth is — let me say this clearly — we didn’t even expect (this) response…. that (Israel) would exploit this operation for this big war against us”.

He said Hezbollah had expected “the usual, limited response” from Israel to the July 12 cross-border raid, in which three Israelis were killed.

Isreal has treated those trying to kill them with kid gloves for so long that they seem to have forgotten consequences could exist in the first place. I’m glad Isreal is finally reminding them.

I am reading Slashdot’s collection of reader comments reacting to the report that MySpace was last week’s most visited website on the internet. I just had to stop in the middle of reading and, I guess, conform to the debate itself in a way by reposting these two quotes:

Reader caitsith01 speaks for many with an evaluation of MySpace as “for the most part intensely narcissistic and inane,” and writes “People are presented with a tool for publishing absolutely anything, about any topic they choose. Instead of presenting thoughtful, creative or otherwise valuable content, the vast majority elect to pointlessly ramble about themselves in minute detail or engage in endless back and forth with other users about nothing in particular. Which is fine, but it shouldn’t have the legitimacy of other web content. […] Perhaps it’s time to move past the blog hype and to consider some method for differentiating personal diaries (i.e., what used to be a personal homepage), social chit chat (i.e., what used to be a bulletin board, IRC, or IM activity), and publications with actual content. Right now the net is awash with an ever-expanding tide of rubbish and there is very little to assist in finding the few really interesting and high quality publications among the garbage. Ultimately it’s depressing that, given the ability to communicate our ideas to anyone on earth, most of us can’t come up with anything better than pictures of ourselves drinking too much and mass-produced but ineffectual rebelliousness.”

Reader enjahova reacts viscerally to that sentiment, commenting “You are not alone in your argument. You are supported by medieval scholars who decried the rise of literacy, the government of the UK when the printing press was made, and many more anti-intellectual pessimists throughout history. They held your very same belief, what sort of chaos and tragedy will occur if everybody is literate? Peasants are dumb and uncultured, they will only pollute the literary pool. You say the same shit about the Internet. The only difference now is that we have search engines, computers, and instant communication to help us sort through the bullshit. People like you like to ignore the fact that if only one out of every 99 people posting to MySpace creates something worthwhile, that’s one more worthwhile thing on the Internet to be found and shared.”

That’s all I’m saying for now. Read the rest.

Whether its sloppiness or deliberate deception, this doesn’t surprise me coming from CNN: Lost In translation?

Saw The Da Vinci Code this past Saturday night and I have to say I enjoyed it. I’m one of those who hadn’t read the book going in though, so I don’t know how much that might have to do with it. I’m a budding history junky so the movie definitely appealed to me on that side. I was afraid it would be a cheap, Oliver Stone-style mess but luckily I was wrong. The main actors were good, and honestly, so are Dan Brown’s ideas. The theological conversation I got out of it later was worth it, if nothing else.

As far as the touchiness of the story itself goes, I’ll just say that I’m not Catholic or religious. My mother was though. As I see it, anything that challenges and qustions the dogma of an institution that has been so corrupt and vicious is a good thing. I don’t quite agree withMichael Novak here. Too bad there’s no way I’ll have anything similar to say about good ‘ol Oliver’s upcoming mess which they embarassingly previewed in the coming attractions.

It’s now 6:15 in the morning on the dot and I’ve been here at the new Apple Store since 10:30 the night before. As soon as I got down the big glass spiral staircase there was an old friend, waving like mad at me in the crowd. I hadn’t seen this particular person in almost a year and it seems like a good way to have reconnected. For the past many hours we’ve been running around playing with the merchandise, watching the (sometimes celebrity filled) crowd, and trying like hell the win one of the MacBooks being given away every hour. He recently cut out because he has work this morning.

The friend I came with and I waited about an hour to get in last night on a line that went around the corner three times. Only having waited an hour, we were some of the lucky ones. Right now it’s the emptiest it’s been all night. I think even the diehards have begun giving up.

I’ll have some of the many pictures that were taken up soon.

Update: I stayed until the start of the 10 AM drawing before finally giving up. No luck on that last round either. Good thing I met some people and had fun anyway.

State of the Union Address starting now. Yay!

UPDATE: Cyndi Sheehan taken out in handcuffs. Hah.

I’m in a damn foul mood on account of it being 17 degrees out and my heat not being on. This must be some kind of sick joke.

I’m reading Robert Kaplan’s Warrior Politics - a great book that I recommend to anyone who wants some meaty thought on Foriegn Policy. I began to wonder whether liberals reject a lot of strategic thought, like Machiavelli’s assertion that there is no “right” or “wrong”, only what works and doesn’t work, consciously and deliberately. Or do they blindly denounce what they don’t know and don’t understand? From my own experiences, I suspect it’s the second.

Update: I remembered a New Year’s conversation with a somewhat tipsy family friend. On seeing me again she immediately started in. “You’re not still voting for Bush, are you?” Well yeah, I am, I told her. The poking around continued and we started arguing our opposite points. She said that the people we’re fighting, unlike us, have no tanks or bombs so they use themselves. I’m sorry, I told her, the people blowing themselves up to kill people in Jerusalem and Baghdad don’t get one bit of slack from me. Finally, she said to me, “The people we are fighting hate us insanely, and we must fight hate with love.” At that point, I recoiled altogether. This is the blindness I’m talking about.

Ariel Sharon is in really bad shape. The funny thing is that I was discussing the state of his health and its political impact at the New Year’s Eve party I went to, and my friend was saying that this is just what was likely to happen. We’ll see if he makes it out of this — I’d honestly be surprised.

I’ve left my job for the new year. Sunday, January 1st for brunch was my last shift and I’m completely relieved. A lot of my regulars are really disappointed and and my bosses were very upset (one said it was a big loss and I’ve been told the other was being scolded by his wife for chasing me away because she wanted me for her son). I listened to plenty of glowing praise and stern finger-shaking life advice from everyone, everywhere I turned. Even though there are financial uncertainties in the immediate future, it’s important to do this. I can’t stick in a less profitable arrangement where I have to work twice as hard to make half as much, especially when I know I can do well in a wide range of situations. We’ll see how things work out.