As much as I'd like to read , I just can't come up with the $399 to buy a copy right now. However, I thought some of you might be interested in the company's sales pitch summary of some of its key preditions:
| I'm only planning on writing about this topic once, as it's already beginning to wear thin, and this is only day two.
- Russia and China will rank at least as high in importance as the U.S.
conflicts in the Muslim world.
- The United States and Iran are blocking each other's ambitions in Iraq. This will open new possibilities for political arrangements.
The war in Iraq will not end in victory for anyone. That will become the basis of all negotiations.
- The United States is the world's leading power.
When it moves toward Venezuela to Asia. But the most important moves will come from Russia and China.
I was introduced to The Crocodile Hunter several years ago by my Bad Movie Night group of friends. Generally it was what we watched when we failed to find a movie bad enough to live up to our freakishly bad expectations.
I realized this week that I just presume anything that those particular people are fans of is relatively unknown to the rest of creation, from the science-fiction series Lexx to the live-action superhero British movie musical The Return of Captain Invincible (which, contrary to its name, is not a sequel).
That Steve Irwin's death was the top story on cnn.com astounded me. That television has been fascinated by this story like a royal car wreck for the last day is just shy of incomprehensible.
He's in danger of becoming another media Princess Di, only with spiders instead of landmine victims, and with far less fashion sense.
Ok, the guy has 200,000,000 viewers. (Or, to put it another way, ten times the population of Australia.
) So did Baywatch, but no one's going to throw a state funeral if David Hasselhoff dies. For that matter, we wouldn't make this big a deal about things if it was Tom Cruise who had died.
So what is it about Steve Irwin that has so fascinated us?
Is it the Jackass-like quality of some of his stunts? That may make him entertaining to some, but it doesn't make him worthy of this commemoration. Is it his fervent conservationism?
This country has never seemed particularly interested in the topic, other than in saving the occasional owl. (To paraphrase one associate of Irwin's: anyone can convince people to save koala bears. Steve took up saving spiders and crocodiles and other nasties that people generally think aren't worth saving.
)
Is it his everyman language? Maybe getting closer, but I think that ultimately stemmed from his refreshing lack of phoniness. As crazy as he was on camera, he was just as crazy off camera.
The persona we all saw was really him. He wasn't putting on a show: he really was that passionate, and that crazy, about wildlife. And while he made pleas impassioned to the point of corniness, he didn't lecture and he didn't often point fingers.
Certain species are dying because their habitats are being destroyed, he would say, not that mean, capitalist developers were callously destroying their homes. He talked a lot about respect for animals, while avoiding specifically addressing animal rights. I think in that way he made conservation palatable for a lot of people nervous about being associated with radical, tree-hugging members of PETA.
Did I approve of his methods? Not always. He took risks that were not necessary.
You have, by now, no doubt seen a couple dozen clips on CNN of him getting bit in the face by snakes. That doesn't have to happen. My high school had a program where elementary kids came as field trips to learn about a variety of animals which high schoolers handled.
As a child I attended those field trips. As a teen I was one of those animal handlers, and the main attraction was a couple boas and pythons that we would bring out draped around our necks that the children could pet. Never got bit.
No one I knew got bit. Why? Because we didn't wave them around like yo-yos.
On the other hand, Steve never EVER blamed the animals. When he got bit, it was his fault. (Damn right.
) Nor did he ever tell his audience that these animals were just harmless, misunderstood creatures wanting a cuddle. These are dangerous animals, neither pets nor toys. While many of these animals are not aggressive or wishing to cause harm (like, ironically, stingrays), they still require respect or people and animals both can get hurt.
And, of course, there's the crocs, who clearly always want a piece of that crazy zookeeper dancing around their pens.
| That summer (2002) many generals had three major concerns about invading Iraq: the possibility of Saddam's using weapons of mass destruction, the dangers of becoming enmeshed in urban warfare, and the worry that a postwar occupation could be costly especially if the United States had to put in thousands of troops to hold the country together. I can't tell you how many senior officers said to me, What in the hell are we doing?
recalled Marine Lt. Gen. Gregory Newbold, who had been the J-3, or director of operations on the Joint Staff, since October 2000.
In that key job he oversaw the daily employment of U.S. forces around the globe, and so was the link between the Pentagon and senior American commanders in the field.
Those top officers and their staffs were coming back to Newbold. They just didn't understand, he recalled. 'Why Iraq?
Why now?' They were especially worried about undercutting the counteroffensive against al Qaeda: All of us understood the fight was against the terrorists, and we were willing to do anything in that regards -- so, 'Why are we diverting assets and attention?'
Yet for all those doubts, only one top officer really deeply objected to the entire war plan.
That was Newbold, who as the Joint Staff's director of operations was aware of almost everything of significance going on in the U.S. military, and to the classified information it was receiving.
--Thomas E. Ricks, , Chapter 3, This Changes Everything: The Aftermath of 9/11, page 40. Published on July 25, Fiasco is the No.
1 bestseller at Amazon.com.
| There's a Chinese filmmaker/blogger/government critic named who has been imprisoned, without charges, since Feb.
22.
There's also to help focus attention on his case. And if you've got a blog, and if you've got readers, and if they've got blogs, well .
.. that's another way you can help focus attention on his case (hint, hint).
| HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MOMMY! Yes, it's my mother's birthday. Know why I know?
Because my computer tells me so. Actually, it reminded me on Monday, and I quickly e-mailed a Happy Birthday song to my mommy and started writing the wrong dates on all my stuff. Why?
Because I'm a dork.
Anyway, happy birthday mom. You raised a dork, but the dork loves you.
SPEAKING OF DORKS: Two incongruent things crossed my fleeting attention-span yesterday -- a Zogby poll that shows and a that suggests a healthy chunk of that 40 percent is convinced that this is the media's fault.
Yet judging by what I can find, the President's approval rating generally appears to be running ahead of the public's trust in the news media. At what point do you just figure that people don't like the Bush crew because, after five years of watching these guys in action, they've just kinda gotten to know them?
Or do you just blame Jon Stewart?
STEP AWAY FROM THE DORK: How bad is it for Bush? Well, don't look now, but some of our local conservatives are actually distancing themselves from White House policies.
This is a trend we first noticed late last year when some out-of-town friends (FOX viewers, Bush voters) came to visit and summed up their feelings thusly: They're all bad.
Bill Frist tried the maneuver yesterday, that would put an Arab company in charge of several big U.S.
ports. I offer no opinion on the deal itself, but I want to make this point: When a politics-first administration backs a deal this stunningly tin-earred, I suspect that there's more in play than mere crony capitalism. I won't be surprised if turns out there's crony capitalism involved, but this just smacks of secret deals, blackmail and Spookworld.
BIZARRO WORLD: A University of South Carolina study published on Tuesday found that roughly -- a finding that's sure to fuel another push for a ban on smoking in downtown dining establishments.
For the record: I am an ex-smoker (or, if I use the language of addiction, a recovering smoker). I dislike the smell, and don't particularly care to be around it.
I am woefully apologetic to all the people I ever subjected to the second-hand effects of my 20-plus-year former habit.
So I'm not defending my narrow interest when I make this statement: THIS IS NO PLACE FOR GOVERNMENT INTERVENTION. If a private restaurant thinks that the majority of its patrons would appreciate a smoke-free environment, a private restaurant can simply ban smoking.
As so many have.
By modern American standards, I am a defiant liberal living in a conservative, Red-State, safe GOP Congressional district. So how does it happen that 70 percent of my supposedly conservative neighbors want a nanny state smoking ban, while I'm wandering around preaching get the government out of our private liberties?
I don't get it. I really don't.
ABORTION: Well, that didn't take long.
The Roberts Court (take your pick of names, partisans).
Anyway, here's the deal, Democrats: The Supreme Court is no longer your ally, so if you want to protect women's reproductive rights, you're going to have to pick your battles now. And this ain't it.
. Eighty-six percent oppose the abortion of pregnancies that are more than six months along. No matter how you look at this, it's a political loser.
Meanwhile, a working majority of Americans favor of abortion rights in general. If you're among that group, then protect that that fragile coalition. Tend it.
Grow it.
The working hypothesis for women's rights advocates has long been the slippery-slope model. Restricting abortion rights in any way was a slippery slope toward the undoing of Roe v.
Wade. Where has that gotten us? People who should be on our side now view the pro-life movement as extremists and warm to the arguments of those who want to put the church in charge of your bodies.
Yes, it's a polarized age. Yes, Roe v. Wade is probably toast anyway.
Yes yes yes.
But politics is compromise. The way to safeguard a woman's right to choose is to willingly deal with the areas in which that right enters into the gray areas of ethics.
Every single right you can imagine eventually runs into the gray -- why is it that we must pretend that abortion is somehow different?
| NEWSFLASH! ONE WEEK OF ROCKETBOOM ADS SELLS FOR $40K ON eBAY: And the winning advertiser is someone named , whose bid bested a $31,200 offer by an unknown eBay nube called .
There were 105 bids.
We'll expect detail in today's episode, but for those of us wondering how these new media forms are going to shake out, this bears watching.
RANDOM FIND: I have found the Greatest Book Critic Writing in The English Language Today, and his name is .
WHICH VIBRATOR IS RIGHT FOR YOU? Via : Kat's on-the-job training had taught her a trick to determine which vibrator might be right for you: Touch it to the tip of your nose. It's also right there on Sue Johanson's website, episode #036: Try the nose test -- if it makes you jerk your head back, these vibration are too strong for your genitals.
(Freelance writer )
outbreaks...
The reason we've been so concerned is that veterinary systems throughout Africa are weak, said Samuel Jutzi, director of the FAO's Animal Production and Health Division.
WE'RE NOT THE ONLY ONES TALKING ABOUT CARTOONS: Via Steve Outing's E-Media Tidbits (Poynter Online), the blogs about what happens when they put a geo-locator on the IP addresses of commenters on the Danish cartoons controversy. Answer: They're coming from around the world.
Danish newspaper -- cartoons that first appeared back in September -- has, remarkably, redefined the geopolitical matrix of the U.S.-jihadist war.
Or, to be more precise, it has set in motion something that appears to be redefining that matrix. We do not mean here simply a clash of civilizations, although that is undoubtedly part of it. Rather, we mean that alignments within the Islamic world and within the West appear to be in flux in some very important ways.
SPEAKING OF CARTOONS: These days its not uncommon for more than half of our daily traffic to be people who come to Xark via image search engines. The most popular image? .
Second most popular? Growing Up Hippie No. 4.
Probably a dozen people a day download this image.
For the record, there are actually only three published cartoons in the Growing Up Hippie in the 1970s series ( ). And the first one was .
I never drew a No. 1 or a No. 2.
Why? Because I'm just not hung up on that whole consecutive order thing. I grew up hippie, remember?
Anyway, traffic counts seem to suggest I should write less and draw more, particularly if I'm drawing cartoons that have popular image search terms in the filename.
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: WaPo reports that ain't what the White House told the FISA judges. Can't say I'm surprised at this point.
By the way, was anyone else unimpressed by Bush's non-informative claim (well, actually, it's not even that -- more of a nudge-wink inference) that his illegal spying program somehow thwarted shoe-bombers from stealing a plane and flying it into some building out in Los Angeles? Excuse me, but how do you hijack a plane, post-9/11, with a shoe bomb? OK, let me into the cockpit, so I can crash the plane and kill all of you, or I will make my shoe explode, and maybe put somebody's eye out.
Allah akbah! It's just not very convincing.
war with Iraq, according to attorneys familiar with the matter, and to CHUCK NORRIS: The whole Chuck Norris meme is now officially dead, according to our oldest son, a junior in high school.
Apparently it's just soooo December 2005. So throw out your Hero shirts and try to keep up. (Actually, I don't care -- I'm far too old to be hip, and I still think the is pretty funny).
STATE OF THE ONION: Did you watch Bush last night? We didn't -- went out and supported the US economy by purchasing a sofa instead. For coverage of the event, I turned, as always, to America's No.
1 weekly news source: My ass.
Just kidding. I pulled up and read its lead story:
Tonight, by executive order, I am creating a permanent department with a vital mission: to ensure that the political scandals, underhanded dealings, and outright criminal activities of this administration are handled in a professional and orderly fashion, Bush said.THE STATE OF THE UNION IS AWFUL: I almost wrote about this over the weekend, but restrained myself. You can see how long that lasted. Here it is, short version: I can't remember a moment in my adult life in which the fundamental foundations of our Republic and the world at large were this compromised and unstable.
The centerpiece of Bush's plan is the Department Of Corruption, Bribery, And Incompetence, which will centralize duties now dispersed throughout the entire D.C.-area political establishment.
Will 2006 be worse than 2005, which wasn't exactly a stroll in the park? Damned if I know. What do I look like, a psychic?
All I'm saying is that multiple conditions favor outcomes that could be really crappy.
YOU GOTTA SERVE SOMEBODY: The Electronic Frontier Foundation, a great group that's soon to become as maligned as the ACLU, for assisting the NSA with its warrantless domestic spying program (via ).
H5N1 REACHES IRAQ: And not just bird deaths, either.
The WHO confirmed Monday that a teenage Iraqi girl died of the disease on Jan. 17. Remember that thing I just said about how conditions right now favor some really crappy outcomes in 2006?
Uh ...
this would be one of them. BTW: The big media hasn't really sorted out the importance of this: It's not even mentioned on homepages of the or sites at this hour (although the NYT is promoting ).
BLOGS ON BUSH: Liberal : a comic-book defense of the war in Iraq.
Words of the night? Retreat and isolationism. Corn: Did a new memo come in from the pollsters?
Smug A-List conservative The delivery was, for Bush, good, and the substance was mostly good, too, though the cloning-ban stuff didn't thrill me. The Presidential Commission on entitlement reform was also very lame, though realistically it's probably all he can do. Military-themed conservative : The 'terrorist surveillance program' is the correct way to phrase it.
(Editor's note: Yes, it's the correct phrase if you're intent on helping people miss the point). Liberal Nowhere near as good or powerful as last year's (which I thought was his best speech ever). This was, frankly, more of the same ol'.
And : Seriously, shouldn’t the Democratic Response have been Governor Kaine just saying, 'WTF, Mr. President?'”
LUNCH-HOUR UPDATE: From this afternoon's , which focused on the SOTU: We'll get into issue-by-issue critiques of the speech below, but it's about the speech.
Democrat Senator Nancy Pelosi's headline at It Was a Nice Break from Reality TV. And there's this from Did he really call for a ban on 'human-animal hybrids'? Is this a real concern?
Are we at war with the Lobster People again?
| Then as now, good reporting lies at the heart of what is changing. But unlike Watergate, Katrinagate was public service journalism ruthlessly exposing the truth on a live and continuous basis.
car-parks, cameras captured the immediate reality of what was happening at the New Orleans Convention Center, making a mockery of the stalling and excuses being put forward by those in power.
Amidst the horror, American broadcast journalism just might have grown its spine back, thanks to Katrina. Here is on Saudi Arabian oil production.
Wherever you fall on the environmentalist scale, I think you'll agree that the world as a whole is fairly dependent on oil and any sudden changes in the oil supply will have significant impact. Therefore this stuff is a bit scary. Actually, more than a bit.
After you've scared yourself with that piece, you might want to read which will warm the hearts of environmentalists and economists alike.
| Last month an epidemiologist I know gave me a tip: get up to speed on the H5N1 avian flu. Quickly.
Earlier this month, that five-day influenza xark binge paid off with a front-page story that connected the dots between several wire stories that had come across that afternoon. Did it have any effect on my community? None that I can see.
For years, newspapers and TV stations have been scaring the tee-total shit out people about wimpy or absurdly unlikely diseases. West Nile, SARS, smallpox and anthrax, all came and went without the sky falling. And now we say, Hey, wait a minute, forget all that -- look over here at this BIRD flu!
Of course nobody cares, even though .
. But will H5N1 pick up that final mutation and turn pandemic?
Who knows?
But I can say this: , as scared as I've ever seen them. We are literally one antigen-governing gene mutation away from a three-year global health crisis that could kill hundreds of millions of people, launch quarantines, threaten civil liberties, shut down schools and scramble every basic economic assumption we have about daily life.
Time to configure your and start paying attention.
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