Did you hear? There’s a natural order.
Those what’s deserving will end up with the most.
That the cream cannot help but always rise up to the top,
Well I say: Shit floats.

The rest of the song, and fair warning: It has nasty language.

Guess what? Telecom companies are lobbying for immunity from their FISA lawbreaking at the behest of the Bush administration.

I’m just so sick of it. I mean, you break the law, violating the civil rights of thousands of people, and if you have powerful lobbyists (recycled from the Clinton administration, too), you can get away with it. Or if you’re Bush, you can order this stuff, and then say “Boo!” and the Democrats will cave and change the law and cover your ass.

I get tired of this shit, because I don’t really live in America any more. I’m pining for the days of Ronald Reagan, for God’s sake! Back then it was just selling arms to Iran and delivering drugs for the Contras. Now it’s invading sovereign nations outright and wiretapping everybody by the corporate oligarchy.

When did we begin to inhabit a William Gibson novel?

I like Torley Wong.

That second image is from a pirate-themed party at the Dancing Liberally. You know Drinking Liberally? Well on Second Life it’s Dancing Liberally. And it’s run by General J.C. Christian.

Yes, that’s Dick Cheney tending bar.

Obviously, I’m kind of sick of real life, ‘blogging lots of SL pictures here. This will switch around, though.

IOZ:

Kaplan makes some other points, all of them equally nutty. In particular, he notes that a major reason for the creation of an African Command by the US military was to “keep an eye on China’s growing web of development projects across the sub-Saharan regions.” This is nutty because China has made no secret–indeed, it’s been remarkably open–about its plans and intentions in Africa. China is buying influence, one road and one dam at a time. It is openly, incrementally, and plainly pursuing a development agenda in hopes of securing advantageous trade arrangements with nations rich in natural resources, geographic importance, strategic influence, etc. There’s nothing nefarious, underhanded, or secretive about this. This is the way that nations conduct their business. Unless the nation is the United States, which conducts its business by failing as an occupying colonial power.

This object is in the foyer of the Second Life Literary Arts Center (‘SLiterary’, which I think is funny as hell), which will be nice once they finish it.

I ended up there last night after bopping around from club to club listening to live music. Yes, life music streaming over the web with attendant visuals in-world. SL, it turns out, is a great way to go out clubbing while staying at home.

Also, a mini-rant about hairstyles. In SL, the default hair sucks. It’s just no good. So what you do is you buy hair. You buy hair made out of ‘prims,’ or primitives, which means that they’re external objects you wear, like a wig.

The end result of everyone wearing complex ‘prim hair’ is that your computer slows down to a crawl while the SL client downloads everyone’s hair and then figures out how to animate it. In joke protest, I created my own prim hair:

It’s a single strand about two meters long, and it flaps around in the breeze. It also glows yellow; it’s a light source. I even joined the ‘Prim Hair Fascists’ group to complete the joke. (I’m thinking about making it flicker annoyingly, like a flourescent light.)

But even with my contrarian attitude, I have to admit, some prim hair is completely worth risking a computer crash over. Take the avatar of Aquamina Khalifa, for instance:

Happy Talk Like A Pirate Day, ye mateys!

New Bob Harris book: ‘Who Hates Whom.’ A pocket guide to world conflict.

I really enjoyed his last book, ‘Prisoner of Trebekistan,’ and I’m looking forward to getting ahold of this one. Maybe a nice boxed set with ‘The Shock Doctrine.’

The Practical Nomad, a ‘blog that makes me happy. A nice mixture of world travel and civil liberties.

Your assignment: Figure out this image.

NYT:

The Iraqi government said it had revoked the license of Blackwater USA, a private security company that provides protection for American diplomats across Iraq, after shots fired from an American convoy killed eight Iraqis. [..]