I finished listening to all the Christopher Lydon interviews I'd missed today. So amazing. The only problem now will be having to wait for each new one and pine for the days when a bunch just sat on my playlist.#

One of the last interviews/recordings, the one of Wesley Clark really impressed me. Listening to Clark talk in comparison to Howard Dean or John Edwards makes me reconsider my voting preferences. I'm liking most of what Dean is putting down but there's seem to be a lot of what others are pointing out: many people think Dean is something he's not, he's got a rocket pack of excitement but the substance comes from the outside. John Edwards really left me with a bad taste in my mouth, he seemed incredibly petty on Bush and generally nonconstructive. Clark on the other hand, is very articulate, experienced, and has a brain inside there.

We'll see.

Michael Williams points to an excerpt from Outlines of Roman History to give people calling American imperialistic a taste of true imperialism.#

Siege and Destruction of Carthage (B.C. 146).—Never was there a more heroic defense than that made by Carthage in this, her last struggle. She was without arms, without war ships, without allies. To make new weapons, the temples were turned into workshops; and it is said that the women cut off their long hair to be twisted into bowstrings. Supplies were collected for a long siege; the city became a camp. For three long years the brave Carthaginians resisted every attempt to take the city. They repelled the assault upon their walls. They were then cut off from all communication with the outside world by land—and they sought an egress by the sea. Their communication by water was then cut off by a great mole, or breakwater, built by the Romans—and they cut a new outlet to the sea. They then secretly built fifty war ships, and attacked the Roman fleet. But all these heroic efforts simply put off the day of doom. At last, under Scipio Aemilianus, the Romans forced their way through the wall, and the city was taken street by street, and house by house. Carthage became the prey of the Roman soldiers. Its temples were plundered; its inhabitants were carried away as captives; and by the command of the senate, the city itself was consigned to flames. The destruction of Carthage took place in the same year (B.C. 146) in which Corinth was destroyed. The terrible punishment inflicted upon these two cities in Greece and Africa was an evidence of Rome's grim policy to be absolutely supreme everywhere.

Ryan Overbey illustrates the power of the aggregate in the Blogosphere.#

I'm going to put forward one modest claim. Some time in my life, and by extension on my blog, I will do or say at least five interesting things. New, provocative, insightful things. Those new things will be communicated to you on these very pages. Free of charge, instantly accessible. They'll show up in your aggregator within minutes of me writing them. They will not be hidden away in an obscure, expensive journal. They will not be placed under lock and key, in a diary under my pillow. To the extent I am an intellectual, I will be public. The ground is shifting under our feet.

So what? Ryan has a blog. He says five new things. Whoop-dee. That's not going to change anything. But what if Joi Ito and Chris Lydon and Dave Winer and Andrew Grumet and Glenn Reynolds and Josh Marshall all have blogs too, with a whole range of emotions and interests and passions and ideas? What if they're just as honest and public as I am? What if each of these people say five new things, do five really incredible pieces of art, have five profound insights, at some point in their lives? And what if I read their works, if I acknowledge their humanity and their inspiration and their ideas, and I deal with them on a human level? What if I react and discuss and think and let myself be challenged, and in respect for their honesty and passion I passionately and honestly challenge them in return?

Richard Tallent does some hypothesizing on a new Microsoft strategy.#

Microsoft will soon go public with a new strategy to make up for the legions of dumbass companies and users who won't secure their machines, an approach they refer to as "securing the perimeter." I have a prediction on what the technical details might look like.

Matt Moore on those funny punk rock / indie / emo / hardline kids.#

It's weird when you first see a band and you had a preconceived notion about them. I always assumed that PGMG [Pretty Girls Make Graves] was a trio, and was at least half women. When they came out, I saw they had five members, and two were women. Then the second guitarist took off his hoodie and was clearly male. All the members had great energy the whole night, but they were more emo than the punk I expected. The lead singer would pantomime things, like patting her chest when she was singing about her heart beating, something you're not likely to see at a straight-edge show. At one point I'm sure she pointed at me... but the song called for pointing then, and I was the tall guy right in the middle of the balcony, so she was probably just pointing into the ether. Sigh.

I remind you that, Indie Sux, Hardline Sux, Emo Sux, You Suck!

Richard and I agree that if you want to criticize or comment to a blog, then you should do it on your OWN blog. More public, More accountable, etc.#

I know people who want me to enable comments (or even Trackback) on this site. Uh huh, maybe later. I want to make it hard for people to flame (or worse, correct) me. There's an email form on the sidebar. There's no "remember me" function—not yet anyway. For now, at least, comments aren't exactly unwelcome, but if you want to make them public, you can do it on your own site.

Blogging for me is perfectly suited to bitterness. IRC and, lately, IM have been too much, too fast, with too high an expectation of response.

Richard takes Eugene Volokh's comment about asking someone to blog about something they don't know about (in this case the Plame Affair) then you are asking them to work, at least if you expect them to give you anything useful or factual; and Richard turns it in to a genius humorous thought.#

[Note] that not knowing a whole lot about girls, relationships, sex and so on isn't stopping me from blogging about it. In fact, you could say there's an inverse relationship between my knowledge of said subjects and the amount of time spent blogging about them.

Richard writes excerpts an article about Negotiating Condom Use.#

Lara Tabac on the reasons women may not want their sexual partner to use a condom (note this does not grant my female friends licence to talk about their sex lives with me):

In general, it is problematic to speak of condom use by women. Obviously a woman cannot wear a condom, she can only ask her partner to do so. There are many reasons a woman might not ask her partner to use condoms and her partner might not offer. (In other instances women do ask, but nonetheless condoms are not used.) I have more firsthand information on why a woman won't ask for a condom than why a man won't wear one. (Some think that there is one obvious answer to this.) As one of my informants said to me once: "Why would I ask him to wear a condom? I don't want him to be angry at me! I need him to give me money for Pampers and rent and I don't need to be thinking about condoms, I have Norplant!" And another: "If I ask him to wear a condom he's going to be thinking that I'm sleeping around. I'm not sleeping around, but I know that he is. Still, we play like I don't know that and never use them." While these explanations speak to issues of power and keeping the peace, other women talk about the heat-of-the-moment dynamic: "I knew I shouldn't do it," one explained, "but he was so damn hot and when he didn't put one on and I didn't have one in my apartment, I just said the hell with it."

Far be it from me, a concerned prude with too much time on his hands, to suggest that abstaining from pre-marital sex might solve that dilemma. Besides, the hypocrisy would be rank: I'm pretty sure I don't oppose pre-marital sex for myself. It's just interesting to know that females also have reasons for intentional condom non-use. Also interesting is the second-last woman's brazen risking of her own life just for a fuck.

Dawn Olsen points out the pointless pomposity of personalizing politics.#

Just cause Bill wants to sue Al, doesn't mean I have to hate my fellow blogger cause they see if differently that I do. And now with the Arnold debacle and the Rush rift, some liberals are pretty happy to see Rush get his comeuppance (I know I sure am as I feel pretty certain that he is a duplicitous windbag who is highly full of shit.

But I am not saying "YOU, Mr. Conservative, IN YOUR FUCKING FACE".

I try not to identify your average person's political leanings as one in the same with a self-elected spokesperson of pointless pomposity. Rush isn't you, you or you, so don't take it so damn personally when I say "Oh look at that big jerk finally eat some humble pie after putting down welfare moms, drug addicts and liberals for years."

Godless at Gene Expression reminds us of a great old Onion article.#

In a bold gambit hoped to resolve dozens of conflicts around the world, the U.N. announced Monday the establishment of Ethniklashistan, a multinational haven in the West Bank that will serve as a new homeland for Irish Protestants, Hutus, Serbs, and other troubled groups.

"For far too long, these groups have been locked in prolonged strife with their former neighbors, unable to achieve a lasting peace," U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said. "Now that these various peoples have a new homeland where they can find refuge, all the years of fighting and bloodshed can finally be put behind them."

Jason S. at Gene Expression links to an absurd article about India.#

It is a big mistake to venture out at night if you are young, male and unmarried in the Indian state of Bihar.

Subhash Kumar, a bank clerk in Patna, let his guard down and paid the price by being kidnapped. Four days after being carried off by a gang of thugs, manacled to a bed, starved and severely beaten, Kumar found himself married to a girl he had never seen before.

His tears and offers to pay ransom led to beatings, at least until the nuptials were complete. During the marriage ceremony a rope was tied around Kumar's waist in case he disgraced the bride's family by trying to flee. But by then, the resistance had been beaten out of him.

In those dark hours, all he wanted was for the nightmare to end, even if it meant being married to a complete stranger. The next day a sullen Kumar took his wife home, vowing vengeance against his in-laws.

But, like thousands of similarly married Bihari grooms, he feared the kidnappers' vengeance. Unwilling to face more beatings, he resigned himself to marriage.

Joi Ito recognizes scene locations from Lost In Translation. That's like a Bostonian watching Good Will Hunting.#

Don Park talks about exhibitionists.#

Wow. One of our cactuses sprouted two flowers. Well, I think they are flowers. Desert plants tend to keep their flowers sheathed until the conditions are right to breed. I am not sure if many people share my view, but I think flower is like penis for plants except, unlike mammals that run around to mate, plants just let it hang out. Hey, that's one horny cactus we got here.

Tony Pierce tells it like it is.#

i think i have always been clear about this, but maybe not, so let me repeat myself: this drug war is a load of bullshit aimed to keep the poor poor, the cops rich and too powerful, and the minorities in prison.

zero tolerance is fascist.

everyone knows that. thats why rush wont have his mansion confiscated for having thousands of illegally-gotten pharmacuticals, which if found on a brotha, the brotha would have a possession and an intent to distribute rap against him, and all his shit would get taken away from him, including, cash, cars, and whatever else the cops wanted to say he got through his dealing.