The Blog with No Name

If you aren’t aware of the huge scam that has been uncovered involving the UN Oil-for-food program, then you need to be aware of it. A good place to start is with this post by Greg.

If you want a very thorough, almost overwhelming place to start, check out Instapundit’s archives.

In short, because of documents and testimony uncovered in Iraq we not only have found that the UN basically took huge bribes in the form of black gold from Saddam but also we have a good clue as to why France and Russia were so adamant against the war in Iraq. Kinda hard to persuade countries to go to war with a country that is giving them billions of dollars.

Read this article. If it’s true, the world will be a very interesting place by 2025. It also underscores the maxim: with the ability to do great good comes the ability to do great harm.

Money quotes:

Even a primitive diamond-building nanofactory can create products vastly more powerful than today’s versions. Electrical power can be converted to motion, and vice-versa, with one-tenth the power loss and about 108 (100,000,000) times more compactly. Computers can be a billion times smaller and use a million times less power. Materials can be about 100 times stronger than steel.

Molecular nanotechnology will be a significant breakthrough, comparable perhaps to the Industrial Revolution—but compressed into a few years. This has the potential to disrupt many aspects of society and politics. The power of the technology may cause two competing nations to enter a disruptive and unstable arms race. Weapons and surveillance devices could be made small, cheap, powerful, and very numerous.

I’ve been playing a little too much Unreal Tournament 2004. It’s such a good game.

I’ll get back to more serious stuff tomorrow.
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Currently listening to “The Test” from the album Chemical Four by The Chemical Brothers

Okay so I was pretty bored. I took this test to determine what my ideal woman looked like. It took about 10 minutes to do and read through the analysis. By and large it was right, but sometimes it was way, way, way off the mark.

Anyway, if you’ve seen the following woman, contact me, she’s my ideal type:

UPDATE: You know . . . she really is pretty darn cute.

Read this article if you still care at all about what happened to the WMDs.

I only have a few quick comments. First, if much of what this article says is true, then why isn’t it getting more attention? Why isn’t the Bush administration trumpeting the findings? The article answers the first question in a rather paranoid answer: it gets too much in the way of the Media’s agenda. I don’t think I’d go that far.

Second, this article does point out some very interesting findings and reminds us of the things Kay said under oath that did receive hardly any media coverage.

Third, this article also reminds us that Saddam was in material violation of UN regulations, did not account for tons of biological and chemical weapons, and had the equipment in place for rapid WMD production. Also, why the hell does Iraq need that much pesticide stockpiled? I mean, if that’s not fishy, then what is?

And remember, 3.9 tons of VX gas can be put in a large garage. Iraq is the size of California. These facts alone should make a lot of people pause before declaring Bush lied to us all and the WMDs don’t exist.

Three quick articles worth skimming:

This study shows that women prefer scrawny guys for mates because (to paraphrase) they’re losers who are unlikely to get play outside of the relationship. As a scrawny guy, I’m not sure if this makes me happy or sad.

Israel has already identified the new Hamas leader. Hope this guy is saying his prayers, especially with Israel hinting that even the Nobel-Peace-prize-winning Arafat isn’t even safe from harm.

An interesting article on the situation in the Netherlands and its whole-hearted embrace of non-assimiliating multi-culturalism. Seems like it ain’t working out that great for them.

Straight from Instapundit, there are some more hints that WMDs were smuggled out to Syria prior to the invasion. I had before posted this on the issue.

Cha-ching quote:

The sources said the Sudanese demand was issued after the Defense Ministry and Interior Ministry confirmed a report published earlier this month that Syria has been secretly flying Scud-class missiles and WMD components to Khartoum.

If you haven’t heard or read about what happened to Kerry on Good Morning America today, either you must live under a rock or you wait for me give you your daily dose of News According to Steve. If it’s the latter, then shame on you (though I’m flattered)! Once again, I don’t want to say much because if you want good/better commentary you can check out just about a dozen other political blogs.

I’ll just say this. Rush Limbaugh played soundbites from the Good Morning America interview, and I must say Kerry sounded highly defensive. He kept trying to cut off Gibson’s questions and often ended his replies with a jab at Bush’s National Guard service record (which, if I’m not mistaken, has been resolved as a non-issue). Personally, I’m not too impressed with the magnitude of this supposed “meltdown,” though it is very telling about Kerry’s character and inability to just come clean. It seems pretty clear that Kerry lied back in ‘71. Why doesn’t he just fess up? Also, he needs to stop claiming that Republicans are trying to smear him by saying he threw away his medals because he himself claimed he did toss them. If this story is false, then he originated it.

Quick links:

Full transcript of the GMA interview.
ABC News story.

I do feel sorry for Kerry’s handlers though. Poor guys. Damage control on this is probably going to be a big task.

Over at the Seattle Times opinion blog (STop), there is this post. I was hoping to make it through this weekend without making any kind of politically-oriented post, but the post is so flabbergastingly bad I had to say something.

There are three major statements I want to rebut. The first is this:

It is asserted widely that terrorism is caused by a lack of democracy-in Palestine, for example.

No, this is not asserted. What is asserted is that extreme factions of Islam is a cause of terrorism. Lack of democracy may permit this kind of Islamo-facism to develop and thrive, but it is not the cause. The spread of democracy will only stop these barbarians from being officially sponsored by nation-states.

Second:

Democracy does not inoculate you against spawning terrorists-though one might reply that all of the terrorists he mentioned were marginal to the societies concerned, and that in Palestine, anyway, the terrorists are more than just marginal. Still, when one links terrorism directly to a lack of democracy-as the neoconservatives do-it puts terror into a perspective that is not accurate.

I have never read a single article from any “neocon” (what the heck is that exactly?) saying democracy is a sure fire way to “inoculate” us from terrorism. Anybody who does make that claim doesn’t have a full grasp on the situation.

Finally:

The neocons also like to say that America is targeted because the terrorists hate democracy. But Fahmy says, “Why do the terrorists target you, rather than Italy or Great Britain?”

This is so sad. Apparently this guy doesn’t keep up on the news or somehow the Egyptian ambassador cast a spell of forgetfulness on him. Let’s see, what other democracies have had to deal with terrorism? Well, Great Britain (stopped a terrorist plot), France (receiving threats), and Spain (Madrid bombings) all have had to deal with terrorism lately. The point is America isn’t the only democracy being attacked. Though I would agree we aren’t being attacked because we’re in a democratic republic, I really don’t think the terrorists give a damn about the nuances of our various governmental structures. What I do think the terrorists give a damn about is that we’re infidels. They hate us because we aren’t like them.

In short, Mr. Ramsey has a nice little straw man set up. No thoughtful, realistic “neocon” thinks democracy is the Silver Bullet in the War on Terror.

This is what you get when your life activities are working, sleeping, fixing/setting-up computers, and editing videos.

Okay, back to editing; I’m almost done.

1. Dark chocolate.
2. Milk.

1. Having a cold in only one nostril.
2. Having to stay inside and edit a video on a gorgeous day.
3. Having to resync audio.

As I’m wrapping up one video project, I got suckered into another project that I have to pound out by Thursday night, so I’m not going to be posting much. As if you care!

If this crappy weather persists through the weekend, I’ll be upgrading my site software again. As if you care!

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Currently listening to “Nothing Better” from the album Give Up by The Postal Service