Cross-posted to Random Fate. — Here is the result of almost six years of fear-mongering: “It had a very sinister appearance,” Coakley told reporters. “It had a battery behind it, and wires.” We’re now panicked by Lite-Brites that have “batteries and wires” behind them. This is what we’ve come to. It’s not Iraq that we have to worry about when it comes to the “terrorists winning”; it’s right here at home when we allow fear...

Cross-posted to Random Fate. —- A few weeks ago I tried to write a movie review of <em>Casino Royale</em>, the new James Bond movie. (In case you’re interested, I enjoyed the movie a lot, especially considering I went into it expecting to not like it.. I’ll finish the full review if anyone cares to read it at this late date after the release of the movie). This past weekend I went to see the movie <em>Babel</em>, and this movie prompted thoughts that went...

A “tag cloud” has been generated for the recent State of the Union Address by President George W. Bush. Tag clouds were originally created to indicate which tags used to label/categorize blog posts were used the most; it lists the words (or tags) used in different sizes, with the larger sizes for the most used tags. In this case, the larger words are the ones used more often in the speech. I am always interested in new and creative ways of displaying complex information, and tag clouds...

Cross-posted to Random Fate. — God forbid we should ever be twenty years without such a rebellion. The people cannot be all, and always, well informed. The part which is wrong will be discontented, in proportion to the importance of the facts they misconceive. If they remain quiet under such misconceptions, it is lethargy, the forerunner of death to the public liberty. … What country before ever existed a century and half without a rebellion? And what country can preserve its liberties...

I listened to President George W. Bush today (Wednesday) as he discussed the “new” strategy for Iraq. After digesting what I heard (with no notes on the visible body language, which I have heard was rather obvious to any normal observer), the fundamental question that I see is this: How is the proposed strategy any different than the past “surges” run with the mantra “as the Iraqis stand up, we will stand down.”? I cannot see any substantive changes. Can you? ...

A reminder to those who use RSS feed reading software that the URL for The Moderate Voice feed is now: http://themoderatevoice.com/feed/ Please also note that the site is still undergoing changes associated with the content management software, so do not be alarmed if comments you add to posts do not immediately appear.

Reports indicate that President George W. Bush will issue his “The Decider” statement that the correct strategy in Iraq is for a so-called “surge” of troops to retake control of the situation in that troubled land. The new, Democratic leadership in Congress have sent a letter to the President indicating that they will not support any troop increases in Iraq. Some commentators, while admitting their intitial analysis indicates the “surge” is unwise, also claim...

Cross-posted to Random Fate under the category “Recommended Reading“. — There are some posts that show why sorting through all the dross in the vast majority of weblogs is worth the time:    Velociworld – Requiem for the Senator Although knowing the context underlying the tale told helps, it is not necessary. The fact that “the Senator” is the author’s father becomes apparent when reading, and the full, rich texture of the relationship that...

Before going further, recall that “moderate” does not equal “centrist” nor “balanced” but instead an attitude that acknowledges the possibility that maybe, possibly, one just might be wrong. Cross-posted to Random Fate. — President Gerald Ford gave David Hume Kennerley access to the White House to take unstaged photographs of the President at work. From the MSNBC Photoblog, here is a candid shot of Ford talking with his Vice President, Nelson Rockefeller. By...

As part of the transition of The Moderate Voice to new content management software, the URL for the RSS feed has changed. It is now: http://themoderatevoice.com/feed/ Please update your feedreader software accordingly.

…here is how Santa Claus does his thing every Christmas Eve:    Science of Santa Claus: Jolly Old Elf Really Can Deliver Presents in One Night, Says NC State Engineer

…holds lessons that we need to learn, although we refuse to even see the warning.    The legacy of Chernobyl — Cross-posted to Random Fate.

For reasons both personal and related to exhaustion with the idiocies I see in blogworld, my postings both here at The Moderate Voice along with my own personal weblog Random Fate have been few and far between. Instead of a political diatribe, I offer photo I took Monday night in San Francisco on a businesss trip when out with an old friend I worked with in France. Click on the thumbnail to go to a page with a bigger version, and click on the photo on that page to get an even larger version.

My voting experience today was not one to encourage confidence that our system of voting has even rudimentary safeguards against unintentional error, much less deliberate fraud. It just goes to show that the latest technology isn’t the solution to every problem.

…it’s not just the answer to life, the universe, and everything.

…you can visit my personal weblog, Random Fate, to read some musings on the meaning of “home”.

Cross-posted to Random Fate. — It has been a while since I have posted anything thoughtful or even remotely original. I wish I could say it was entirely due to changes in my life-circumstances, with my new wife, new children, and new priorities, but I cannot attribute my lack of commentary entirely to other priorities. While they are important, these other priorities have not ruled my life exclusively. I did indeed have the choice to write when and if I needed to. I simply have not chosen...

The Commissar of the Politburo Diktat 2.0 does the incredibly difficult but ultimately right thing in issuing a mea culpa: I think we (allegedly informed and thoughtful conservative bloggers) should have done better. There were plenty of warning signs and contrary voices. I didn’t want to listen to them. Stephen takes an action that is beyond the capabilities of many, including the current President: admitting an error publicly and learning from the mistake. Kudos to the Commissar, and here...

McCain is hearing it from the Republican base over the torture amendment. They want torture. He doesn’t. From the NY Times: After months of orchestrated peace, the battle with Mr. Bush over the administration’s effort to reinterpret the Geneva Conventions has put Mr. McCain back into a familiar position: bucking the White House and at odds again with some conservatives, who had already been wary of his ideological views. The dispute is shaping up as an early chapter in a shift of influence...

At The Politburo Diktat there is a back of the envelope estimate of troop levels that might be needed in Iraq to achieve what we have been told is the mission there, along with a brief comment on mission-creep. What is just as interesting as the analysis is the origin of the piece; the author is a right-leaning blogger who started the Raging RINOs (Republicans and Independents Not Overdosed on the party kool-aid) although he has passed administration of that group on to another. In an overheated...

Since it is rather lengthy, my “Post number 1970” will not be cross-posted here at The Moderate Voice as many of my recent writings have been. If you are interested in my take on the fifth anniversary of the murders committed on September 11, 2001, you are welcome to visit my weblog, Random Fate.

Choices. In commemoration of the events on September 11, 2001, on ABC the network has chosen to show a fictionalized version of the events leading to September 11, 2001, a narrative that was allowed to be previewed almost solely by advocates of the right-wing (and mainly Republican cheerleaders), approximately two months before the next election. In commemoration of the events on September 11, 2001, on CBS the network has chosen to show a narrative based upon a compilation of interviews along with...

In a recent interview with Essense Magazine, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice discussed to the current situation in Iraq, endeavoring to place it in the context of the American Civil War. Her remarks included an attempt to buttress the “stay the course” mantra of the administration by striving to liken critics of the current policies towards the situation in Iraq to those “people who thought it was a mistake to fight the Civil War (in this country) to its end and to insist that...

Continuing the theme that Michael van der Galien brought to the fore with his post “Why ‘Pre- and Post-9/11′ Should Be Banned From Vocabulary“, here is what I wrote at my weblog Random Fate on September 11, 2004 regarding how perceptions and NOT reality changed on September 11, 2001: September 11, 2004 – Some thoughts… on lessons learned and now apparently lost The world did not change on September 11, 2001. What changed was the perception of the world held by...

From Scott Adams’ The Dilbert Blog: Now, since I know from the comments that many of my readers are – inexplicably – also troglodytes, allow me to include a disclaimer here. I’m way more hawkish than you are. It just doesn’t look that way because my thinking is that if a bully punches you, you should run away. Later, when he’s asleep, put a bullet in his head and leave the gun in his little brother’s crib so it looks like a sibling squabble. In other...