Vox Popoli

The Obama campaign is sinking fast:

Megan’s Fourth Law of Politics: The party that starts looking for implausible and unprovable conspiracy theories about the opposition candidate is in trouble.

The “strange coincidence” of McCain’s cross-in-the-dirt story is not necessarily any such thing, it merely demonstrates the extreme unfamiliarity of Democrats with Christian history and the frequency with which atheist Communists have persecuted Christians over the last 100 years. Due to the long history of Christian persecution, which dates back to Imperial Rome, communication between Christians is believed to have long involved such non-verbal interactions; the famous fish symbol is said to have been used in such a way.

Sadly, there is little doubt that there are Christians in North Korean camps drawing crosses in the dirt even today. Not all Christians have the courage to speak out against evil rulers and accept martyrdom, but it’s not surprising that even the most fearful and compromised believer would take action to tell a suffering fellow Christian that he is not alone in his darkest hour.

Obama was already sliding in the polls and he has really looked terrible this week. If he continues to head south over the next month, expect whispers of a pro-Hillary uprising to start being floated in the press.

UPDATE – It certainly is no coincidence, as Solzhenitsyn never wrote any such story about his imprisonment, not in The Gulag Archipelago or anywhere else. I have little regard for Republicans, but leave it to a Democrat – and probably an atheist Democrat – to come up with such a stupid and easily debunked means of attacking someone.

I’ve been thinking how it would be interesting to hold an Ultimate Gamer contest in which one would have to demonstrate a comprehensive mastery over a broad spectrum of computer games. Some scores would be based on time, others on score, still others on head-to-head play. Here’s my list of the ten games I’d use to determine the best gamer in such a contest:

1. Randomly selected text adventure (Zork, Enchanter, etc.)
2. Asteroids (arcade)
3. Pitfall (Atari 2600)
4. Super Mario Bros (NES)
5. Doom (deathmatch)
6. Warcraft II (random scenario)
7. Mortal Kombat II (best 2 of 3)
8. Total War: Medieval (score vs computer 100 years as England.)
9. Madden 2003 (score vs computer All-Madden).
10. Counterstrike – Source

I’d consider Ms Pac-man instead of Asteroids or HALO instead of Counterstrike… and I’m not the right guy to select the proper fighting game since I have a limited interest in that genre, but success across this range of games would certainly suffice to demonstrate genuine gaming skillz.

Musharraf is out, no doubt Sakaashvili will soon follow:

Pervez Musharraf announced today that he was resigning as a President of Pakistan….Mr Musharraf dominated Pakistan for years after seizing power in a 1999 military coup, making the country a key strategic ally of the United States by supporting the war on terror. But his popularity at home sank over the years. Many Pakistanis blame rising violence in their country on his alliance with the United States, and his reputation suffered further last year 2007 when he ousted dozens of judges and imposed emergency rule.

It’s becoming abundantly clear that the neocon project is on the verge of collapsing about their ears. This is the dangerous period, as one has to expect them to push hard for one last risky throw of the dice that will get the world democratic revolution back to break-even. Given the recent positioning of the U.S. carrier forces, I think the fall of Musharraf and the Georgian debacle make a strike on Iran prior to November much more likely.

In today’s column, entitled “Geopolitical Sematary“, I noted the way in which NATO entanglements permit the ambitious rulers of sovereign states smaller than most U.S. states to drag the US into conflicts it neither needs nor desires. It’s interesting to note that South Ossetia was not Georgian President Sakaashvili’s first military adventure with his American-funded toys:

The stage for the confrontation was set in January 2004, when Mr. Saakashvili handily won the presidency after leading protests against a rigged election the previous year. He made the return of separatist areas to Georgian control a central plank of his platform. It was a potent theme. Georgia had lost the wars against separatists in the 1990s, and Russia’s involvement stung Georgians. Mr. Saakashvili saw international law on his side. His young government, a small circle of men in their 30s with virtually no military experience, openly endorsed this thinking….

Whether they intended to build a military for fighting or deterrence is unclear. American officials said they repeatedly and bluntly told their Georgian counterparts that the Iraq mission should not be taken as a sign of American support, or as a prelude, for operations against the separatists. And it was obvious that Russia’s army, which at roughly 641,000 troops is 25 times the size of Georgia’s, could easily overwhelm the Georgian forces.

Nevertheless, the career foreign policy establishment worried that the wrong signals were being sent. “We were training Saakashvili’s army, and he was getting at least a corps of highly trained individuals, which he could use for adventures,” said one former senior intelligence analyst, who covered Georgia and Russia at the time. “The feeling in the intelligence community was that this was a very high-risk endeavor.”

Mr. Saakashvili proceeded against other separatist enclaves — retaking one, Ajaria, in 2004, and advancing high into the mountains of the upper Kodori Gorge in Abhkazia in 2006 to sweep away bands of criminals who had long controlled the place.

Read the story, and see how eager Saakashvili was to get Georgia into NATO in an obvious attempt to ensure American military reinforcement as insurance in the event his military expansionism prompted adverse consequences. As, in fact, it has.

If Charles Murray’s proposal is ever adopted by the employers of America. Needless to say, I expect women’s organizations to eventually team up with America’s university administrators in leading the charge to ban the use of certification tests by employers:

Outside a handful of majors — engineering and some of the sciences — a bachelor’s degree tells an employer nothing except that the applicant has a certain amount of intellectual ability and perseverance. Even a degree in a vocational major like business administration can mean anything from a solid base of knowledge to four years of barely remembered gut courses.

The solution is not better degrees, but no degrees. Young people entering the job market should have a known, trusted measure of their qualifications they can carry into job interviews. That measure should express what they know, not where they learned it or how long it took them. They need a certification, not a degree.

It’s interesting to see how many intellectuals are slowly coming around to the realization that the modern college education is completely worthless for most students.

This really is getting pretty funny:

The high temperature at Denver International Airport today was 58 degrees. This 58 degree reading will replace the previous low maximum temperature record for August 16th which was 63 degrees set 118 years ago in 1890.

And scientists wonder why so few respects them or science as they think they deserve… if they’d stop trying to peddle complete BS under the aegis of their sacred methodology, then people would be inclined to place more trust in them. As it stands, you’d have to be insane to permit them anywhere near the levers of power, especially given their predilection for technocratic autocracy.

I find it very interesting that despite the way in which science has prospered more in Christian, capitalist, decentralized societies, most scientists appear to favor secular, socialist, centralized societies. It’s amusingly unscientific… which should come as no surprise as some of them STILL subscribe to the Enlightenment prophecy that has remained unfulfilled for more than 200 years:

Science as an Instrument of Change

Atheism is a natural consequence of the scientific way of looking at the world; furthermore, the scientific perspective is ascendant. Myers will explain why the new atheism is a reasonable and predictable product of our culture, and why that should give us hope for a more secular future.
– PZ Myers

Good luck making that case. Only a scientist as poorly educated in history as old PZ could hope to do so; much better-educated atheists such as Jonathan Haidt and Daniel Dennett know better than to even try it.

I don’t see why they even bother making people show up to pretend they’re a jury anymore. If a juror doesn’t do what the judge wants, they’re thrown out anyhow:

It was supposed to be just another federal drug prosecution. The federal prosecutors introduced evidence that the man on trial was involved in the black market drug trade. The defense attorney said the government agents entrapped his client. And then the twelve citizen-jurors retired to deliberate the outcome of the case.

But then something unusual happened. The jury sent a note to the trial judge with the following query: Since the Constitution needed to be amended in 1919 to authorize federal criminal prosecutions for manufacturing and smuggling alcohol, a juror wanted to know from the judge where “is the constitutional grant of authority to ban mere possession of cocaine today?”

That’s a fair question. It is a point that has been made in Cato’s publications (go here (pdf) and here (pdf)) and a point that has been made by Justice Clarence Thomas, among many others. Federal District Court Judge William Young was startled. He says he has been on the bench for 30 years and has never faced a situation where a juror was challenging the legitimacy of a criminal law. Young tried to assure the jury that the federal drug laws are constitutional because the Supreme Court has interpreted the commerce clause quite expansively. When the jury sent out more notes about a juror that wasn’t going to sign off on an unconstitutional prosecution, Young halted the proceedings to identify the ”problem juror.” Once discovered, that juror was replaced with an alternate–over the objections of defense counsel. Shortly thereafter, the new jury returned with guilty verdicts on several cocaine-related charges.

Notice the pattern here? You will vote until you get it right. You will deliberate until you get it right. At all times, please not to notice that you don’t actually have a choice.

Better late than never:

All British combat troops are to be withdrawn from Iraq by the middle of next year, leaving a few hundred military trainers to continue instructing an Iraqi army division based in Basra, according to proposals confirmed by defence sources yesterday.

It’s long past time for American troops to do likewise. For better or for worse, the Iraqi people have a Saddam-free future. We must leave them to it.

The Original Cyberpunk’s Friday Challenges keep getting better and better. I tend to think the half-jokingly suggested anthology entitled Cyberpunk: The Next Generation is actually a very good idea for Rampant Loon. Below is an entirely outdated story of mine written on a similar theme, albeit focused on the marketing department rather than tech support and rather more remniscent of Anthony than Bethke. However, I have to disagree with the OC’s adjudication, because in my opinion, despite the generally high level of quality in the submissions, it was Leatherwing’s take on tech support that was the clear winner. Although, I have to admit that Waterboy did crack me up with this line: “it sure-as-hell wasn’t his fault that they mistranslated his design for the new “Psychotropic Homosexual Cannabis” entertainment trip as “Psychotic Homicidal Cannibal!”

If you’re not following the Friday Challenges, you’re really missing out. Some of the best short fiction I’ve read of late have been entries in the FC Octagon. Anyhow, the speed references should serve to correctly date this story for those who can remember when Zeos was a PC player.

Demons in the Disk Drive

“Welcome, Ladies and Gentlemen, to the Fall Codex show, back again in Las Vegas, the desert city of silicon sorcery and sin!”

The smiling speaker beamed at the masses of people crowding his forty-by-forty trade show booth. Like them, he appeared to be wholly caught up in the furious technoglitz of the giant annual industry gathering. His teeth gleamed white, his dark Italian suit was expensively impeccable, and his coiffed hair fairly screamed out his total ignorance of his subject matter. He had Sales/Marketing Guy written all over him.

“Xaos Computer is proud to participate in the thirteenth annual Computer Demonology Exposition!” the Salesman announced, winking at a pretty young technical analyst who was examining one of the colorful product specification guides. Her eyes lit up eagerly as he gestured broadly and raised his voice.

“At last the moment you’ve all been waiting for has arrived, a first look at Xaos Computer’s newest product line, the long-awaited, non-equated Legion of Doom!”

The Salesman flung arms wide to scattered applause as the scarlet satin curtains on either side of him drew smoothly back to reveal four jet-black computer systems, each resting suggestively atop Grecian marble columns. The fevered applause grew louder as the four dark crystal screens flashed simultaneously to life, spelling out X-A-O-S in letters of brilliant red-and-gold flames that leaped and twisted as if they were possessed.

“First, the Xaos Doom Thirteen, perfect for the casual home and small-business user. It’s powered by three minor demons bound by a guaranteed Intel Guild enchantment burning at twenty-five megahells! And every Doom Thirteen ships standard with MicroSpell’s Word of Power, the most-popular spell-processing package for the last four years straight!

“And over here you can see the Xaos Doom Sixty-Nine, the ideal solution for Guilds and Merchant Houses requiring the ultimate in connectivity and trans-planar communications. The Doom Sixty-Nine is ensorcelled with the same three-demon hellpower as the model Thirteen, but burns at a faster thirty-three megahells, and is specially optimized for networking. Deadspeakers will be pleased to hear that included with every Doom Sixty-Nine is a pre-installed version of Oracle’s latest necrommunications spellware.”

The Salesman grinned knowingly at three network consultants clad in tasteful navy-blue suits who were nodding their approval of the new Xaos machine. Their eyes were bright with lust at the thought of a Doom Sixty-Nine coupled to their main unit. The salesman smiled inside. He knew a sure sale when he saw it. He could smell it.

“And for spell engineers, alchemists, and other Power users Xaos is proud to announce the Doom One Sixty-Nine! Four minor demons are bound by puissant spells guaranteed unequivocally by the Intel Guild, and burn at sixty-six megahells, providing performance prophesied centuries ago by Nostradamus! The Doom One Sixty-Nine is specifically designed for use with AutoMage, leader in the spell-generation industry for almost a decade, and can even be used for some minor elemental summonings!”

The hoary white eyebrows of one aged sorceror rose as he noted the last comment and the Salesman of Xaos mentally notched another soon-to-be customer with satisfaction. Then the lights dimmed, the fiery letters dancing on the crystal screens disappeared, and hidden speakers emitted an ominous low-frequency hum as a darkling air filled the booth. The Salesman lowered his voice as he invited the audience to share his awe at the unveiling of the ultimate machine.

“And last, but never, ever, least, Xaos Computer presents the DoomBeast Six Sixty-Six!”

The crowd murmured and buzzed with excitement. The hidden loudspeakers growled, and moaned, diving deep into the most sinister ultrafrequencies as the Salesman’s voice was electronically modulated to a dark, mystical pitch.

“You are witnessing the dawn of a new generation of technology! The DoomBeast Six Sixty-Six is powered by a brand-new, secret-until-now Chaos Processing Unit known as Pentagram, developed by the Intel Guild. This new CPU has the power to bind major demons, summoning them directly from the bowels of the Fifth Nether Plane and harnessing their energies within. The hellpower derived from only a single major demon is equivalent to that of five minor demons and burns at an incindiary one hundred megahells! And Xaos Computer is proud to be the first to announce a product designed for this awesome new technology.”

The Salesman raised a cautioning hand.

“Now as we begin the demonstration, please keep in mind that the DoomBeast 666 is a prototype model, so you must not be alarmed if there are some minor design inadequacies which happen to appear in the course of the demonstration….

“You will notice the chalked circles that are conveniently provided on the floor in front of you. Please make sure that you are standing completely within a circle at all times, and no matter what happens, do not leave it! Do not be distressed at any shrieking or howling noises you might hear.

“It is also possible that you may notice the sensation of a hand resting on your shoulder at some point during the demonstration. A very large, very clawed hand. Do not, under any circumstances, turn around, or attempt to remove the hand! Also, if you happen to hear a familiar voice crying for your help, we very strongly encourage you to ignore it. Even if it sounds like your mother. Especially if it sounds like your mother!”

“So what happens if we turn around?”, a disheveled man with long hair sneered skeptically. He was obviously a spell sourcer. “We turn to stone or something like that?”

“Something like that”, the Salesman agreed solemnly. “Depending on the aspect of the particular demon in question, one’s heart might stop, one’s brain might shatter, or in the most unlikely scenario, one’s soul could, possibly, be inadvertently devoured.”

The Salesman grinned, attempting to allay the crowd’s obvious distress.

“Ladies and gentlemen, please, there’s no need to be afraid! The DoomBeast 666 has been tested and retested under the most strenuous of circumstances, and has passed the Federal Communication Cabal’s most stringent tests with flying colors. So if you’ll bear with me a moment, I’ll just call up the incantation and we’ll be off! … see kolonbaks lash beastbaks lash demonsix dotexe!”

He intoned the incantati
on in his deepest, most impressive voice.

The crowd screamed in fear as a thunderclap boomed and a huge six-armed firedemon unexpectedly appeared in their midst, howling like a lost soul and lashing out at them with lightning-tipped claws. Sparks slavered from its lava-like tongue as the New Products editor from Bite Magazine panicked and backed out of her chalk circle. She was devoured in a flash. The terrible sight sent two nearby reporters into hysterics; attempting to flee, they too disappeared into the fiery maw of the hell beast.

“Begone, spirit of evil”, shouted a Xaos technician, leaping out from behind a scarlet curtain to wave a dead chicken over the DoomBeast’s keyboard. “By the F10 and the Three-Finger Salute, I banish and bind thee!”

There was a hiss, and an unearthly roar erupted from below as the demon imploded in a flash of sulfuric purple smoke. Hysterical shrieks and moans came from the shocked audience as they stared at the DoomBeast, terrified, but afraid to abandon the safety of their shielded circles.

“Sorry about that folks”, apologized the Salesman as he crawled out from under a display counter, his glamorous hair now unfashionably unkempt. “Apparently I called up the wrong program! Let’s try this again, shall we?”

The Salesman ignored the frightened wails of the crowd and gestured towards his assistant. The young man cleared his throat, and nervously began to call out the arcane words. “…see kolonbaks lash beastbaks lash demonsev dotexe!”

In a matter of seconds, the Salesman’s visibly relieved audience was watching, enraptured, as a beautiful female face began to take form within the purple smoke that still lingered in front of them.

Ten minutes later, twelve dancing dervishes dissolved to the ringing of tinkerbells and the thunderous applause of the ensorceled crowd. The Salesman wiped his sweaty brow with the tailored cuff of his silk shirt, and sighed with relief. With only a few minor hitches, the grand kickoff had succeeded! He looked up to see a multitude of hands waving, reporters, techies, sourcers, magicians, all clamouring for his attention.

“How soon is the model 666 available?” “When can we get an evalation unit?” “What’s the retail?” “Who’s distributing?” Inquiring minds wanted to know.

“Shipping will begin in less than two months, but we’d encourage you to place your orders immediately. That’s all I can tell you for now.” The Salesman of Xaos smiled cryptically and shrugged his shoulders.

“Wait a minute,” the scruffy sourcer who’d spoken up before called out. “With Compact and Devil locked in a price war, and since Zeus, Gatekeeper, and you guys are all scrambling to undercut them, prices just keep dropping. It seems the longer you wait, the less you pay, and the more you get. What do you say about that?”

“Well, yes, that’s true,” the Salesman admitted. “But you can’t pursue an ever-receding horizon forever; at some point, you have to make your choice and live with it. Otherwise, you’ll never buy anything!”

For just a moment, the slick sales veneer vanished from his face and revealed the world-weary eyes of a philosopher.

“It’s just like anything else in this cursed industry. You’re damned if you do, and damned if you don’t!”

The Democrats keep dragging her back in:

Since June, Senators Obama and Clinton have been working together to ensure a Democratic victory this November. They are both committed to winning back the White House and to to ensuring that the voices of all 35 million people who participated in this historic primary election are respected and heard in Denver. To honor and celebrate these voices and votes, both Senator Obama’s and Senator Clinton’s names will be placed in nomination.

And to think some of you thought me crazy for not accepting the “reality” of an Obama triumphant. That scraping sound you hear would be all the knives being sharpened. Make no mistake, the party elders know they picked the wrong horse; now they’re trying to figure out how to get off the gelding and onto the hardbitten old mare.