Some of the poeple here have poked fun at me for decrying the militarization of U.S. foreign policy, calling me either naive or stupid for claiming it sends a distorted picture of America to the world. Well, I guess that makes Defense Secretary Robert Gates either naive or stupid, too. My question: where the hell is [...]

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Feist, the glorious female vocalist from Broken Social Scene who went solo and got her song in an iPod commercial, recently made an appearance on Sesame Street: I don’t know if it’s creepy or not, but it is most definitely surreal. And awesome. I wish I had learned to count like this. addthis_url [...]

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Megan McArdle managed to get in at a screening of The Dark Knight and offers her short review. (No Spoilers) addthis_url = 'http%3A%2F%2Fasecondhandconjecture.com%2Findex.php%2F2008%2F07%2F15%2Freview-of-the-dark-knight%2F'; addthis_title = 'Review+of+The+Dark+Knight'; addthis_pub = '';

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Official friend-of-Registan.net Sean-Paul Kelley, of The Agonist fame, has set forth an offer I simply cannot refuse: He is willing to pitch in $1000, if I can raise the remainder of my costs for going to Afghanistan August 22. That would mean that, in order to buy my plane tickets without their cost rising into [...]

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I won’t bore you with the details, but I’ve been invited to blog at QandO and I took it. That’s right, I hopped all over that opportunity like a starving alley cat on plate of tuna fresh and a saucer of milk. And I like it. So sue me. Just remember that I’m [...]

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Posted first at Registan.net, the web’s best source of news and analysis of Central Asia and the Caucasus. My friend Jeb Koogler and I co-wrote an op-ed in Thursday’s Christian Science Monitor, titled, “Myths in Al Qaeda’s ‘home’.” This matters tremendously as we ponder what to do (if anything) about the latest round of peace talks. [...]

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This book was written entirely in the passive voice. The passive voice was used to avoid assigning causation or personhood to various events. As a result, we learn that places were invaded, people were slaughtered, armies were founded, but no one can say by whom. Good grief, that is exhausting. How is it a book almost [...]

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Yep, there sure is consensus about global warming… addthis_url = 'http%3A%2F%2Fasecondhandconjecture.com%2Findex.php%2F2008%2F07%2F10%2Fless-pollution-leads-to-global-warming%2F'; addthis_title = 'Less+Pollution+Leads+to+Global+Warming%3F%3F%3F'; addthis_pub = '';

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Cross posted at Risk and Return You may remember the website we discussed back in January. Dale Franks just discovered their program, because they now are on Television. He asks the obvious question: So, should the mortgage companies get off scott-free from facing the results of their poor business decisions when it comes to the loans—loans they [...]

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Libertarian Party candidate Bob Barr is doing very well in the latest Zogby poll Eric Dondero at Libertarian Republican informs us. The poll has Barr at 6% in Texas and Florida and a pretty impressive 10% in New Hampshire. State: Texas Summary: McCain - 42% Obama - 39% Barr - 6% Nader -2% Someone else - 4% Undecided - 7% Over 3,200 were surveyed [...]

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Not the same thing as a Harry Reid Timetable (HT: McQ): A deadline should be set for the withdrawal of U.S. and allied forces from Iraq, and the pullout could be done by 2011, an Iraqi government spokesman said Tuesday. Ali al-Dabbagh said any timetable would depend on “conditions and the circumstances that the country would be [...]

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We probably wont know what’s behind this, unless there’s some indictments handed down. Just goes to show though that the fight against terrorism hasn’t completely left our country. However, the second article shows that many of those we are fighting over seas have been over here at some point in the past. [...]

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Blogging can bring about some amazing opportunities. Through my involvement with Global Voices I’ve had the opportunity to meet some extraordinary people working very hard for the basic right to speak their minds—something I routinely take for granted. It is humbling. But speech isn’t everything. Every once in a while, you get the chance to [...]

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There are times when I’m kind of ashamed to work in the military-industrial complex: Former congressman Curt Weldon is helping broker deals between Russian and Ukranian weapons suppliers and the Iraqi and Libyan governments as part of his new job with a private American defense consulting firm, Wired.com has learned. Weldon, who is currently being investigated by [...]

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Jesse Helms has died today. And I have lost track of the number of gay friends who have written me congratulatory or celebratory emails and IMs. It really is terrible—yes, the man opposed our right to an equal stake in society, the right to have a family, the right simply to live our lives without [...]

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Yeah, this is kind of funny, if in a dancing on gravestones kind of way. I hate to continue to beat an old drum, but the economic data is showing far less stress than is actually out there. Employment is far weaker than the commonly reported data is showing, inflation is running higher than the data [...]

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for $3,800. addthis_url = 'http%3A%2F%2Fasecondhandconjecture.com%2Findex.php%2F2008%2F07%2F03%2Fman-sells-his-soul-to-hell%2F'; addthis_title = 'Man+Sells+his+Soul+to+Hell'; addthis_pub = '';

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Over the last ten years, Russia has emerged from one of the unfortunate victims of the 1998 financial crisis to become a strong, almost fearsomely assertive country. Much of this is thanks to Vladimir Putin, a man who has won and maintained near mythical popularity by doing his best to “make Russia strong.” While this [...]

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Budapest is fun. What’s also fun is when Lufthansa cancels your flight to Frankfurt on the tarmac, then spends so many hours making you wait in line you miss other, useful connections and wind up on some Air France flight to Paris that is nevertheless still delayed on the runway — again, without explanation — [...]

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Due to popular demand, I’ve thrown my hat into the race. (HT: My Best Man) addthis_url = 'http%3A%2F%2Fasecondhandconjecture.com%2Findex.php%2F2008%2F06%2F30%2Fthe-launch%2F'; addthis_title = 'The+Launch'; addthis_pub = '';

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for each party? Well surprisingly enough, the ideal candidates for Obama and McCain are… Colin Powell. This is the result of a survey which was powered by an Affinnova algorithm it calls “evolutionary optimization”. Powell seems to occupy a special place in bipartisan politics. Respected by the right for his service and involvement in the Iraqi [...]

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From an interview by Stephen Moore (HT: GR): So what if a President Barack Obama were to impose 50% or 60% tax rates on these CEOs and other big earners? Mr. Gramm pounces: “When you help a company raise capital, to put its idea to work, and you create jobs, those jobs are the best housing [...]

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David Axe writes on one of the world’s biggest ignored crises—right next door to the much more hip, much more visible crisis in Darfur. The Central African Republic has been spiraling into conflict, forcing over 60,000 people into refugee camps… which are in close proximity to the hundreds of thousands of refugees who fled Darfur. [...]

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It is telling that some of the most outspoken anti-gay Republicans out there, who attach their name to anti-gay marriage amendments no less, are tranny bottoms, cruisy sluts, and whore-mongers. Not that there is anything fundamental to Republican Christian conservatism that encourages deviant anonymous sex, but there is a disturbing correlation building. They think people [...]

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One of the subtextual themes coming out of the conference so far is what can almost be called a double-standard: the participants demand the right to unrestricted speech, but recoil in horror at the consequences such speech brings. It is difficult to discuss this without denying, or, at the very least, denigrating the very real [...]

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Hey everybody. First off, Budapest is a great city! We’re about to start the GVO meting, which is focusing mostly on net censorship. Considering my other blog, Registan.net, is definitely blocked in Uzbekistan, and quite possibly elsewhere, this matters tremendously, to say nothing of real people in really dangerous places doing their best get their [...]

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Oooooh yeah! addthis_url = 'http%3A%2F%2Fasecondhandconjecture.com%2Findex.php%2F2008%2F06%2F24%2Fkool-aid-man-on-the-loose%2F'; addthis_title = 'Kool-Aid+Man+on+the+Loose+on+North+Side+Chicago'; addthis_pub = '';

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Pic: simplistic political activism at the Blaha Lujla metro stop in Central Budapest. My own thoughts on the matter are here. And no, Michael, the Gellert baths were not as molest-y as you made them out to be. Rather, the aggressors weren’t quite as frightening as you implied! addthis_url = 'http%3A%2F%2Fasecondhandconjecture.com%2Findex.php%2F2008%2F06%2F24%2Fhungary-hungary-hippies%2F'; [...]

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Check out this creepy photographic project by Oliviero Toscani. Children are dressed up as heroic “eco-warriors for the future,” in some kind of luddite Lord of the Flies homage. It’s a nightmare vision…but it’s doubtlessly many others’ vision of a postindustrial ecotopia. addthis_url = 'http%3A%2F%2Fasecondhandconjecture.com%2Findex.php%2F2008%2F06%2F23%2Ffuture-savages%2F'; addthis_title = 'Future+Savages'; [...]

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The idea of state funded and administered universal health care is a bugbear of libertarians everywhere, and especially those who are subjected to such a system as a matter of course. Routinely held up as one of the worst of the lot of state-run systems is Britain’s NHS. Now, direct from the trenches [...]

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