Saturday, July 31, 2010

Wikileaks exposes the racket of war

These three articles (among others) explain how the heroics of Wikileaks may SAVE American lives:

1. Thank God for the Whistle-Blowers by Robert Sheer
What the documents exposed is the depth of chicanery that surrounds the Afghanistan occupation at every turn because we have stumbled into a regional quagmire of such dark and immense proportions that any attempt to connect this failed misadventure with a recognizable U.S. national security interest is doomed. What is revealed on page after page is that none of the local actors, be they labeled friend or foe, give a whit about our president’s agenda. They are focused on prizes, passions and causes that are obsessively homegrown.

2. WikiLeaks: Who's Hiding What and Why by Fred Reed
Two ways exist of looking at WikiLeaks, the site that publicizes secret military documents and videos. The first is held self-interestedly by the Pentagon and by Fox News, the voice of an angry lower-middle class without too much education. These believe that Wikileakers are traitors, haters of America, who give aid and comfort to the enemy and endanger the lives of Our Boys.

Implicit in the Foxian view is a vague idea that the leaks give away important – well, stuff. You know, maybe frequencies of something or other, or locations of ambushes or, well, things. Important things. The Taliban will use this information to kill American soldiers. The notion is vague, as are those who hold it, but emotionally potent.

The other view, held usually by people who have some experience of Washington, is that the Pentagon is worried not about the divulging of tactical secrets, but about public relations. WikiLeaks doesn’t endanger soldiers, insists this way of looking at things, but the war itself, and all the juiceful contracts and promotions and so on entailed by wars.

3. US Treasury Is Running on Fumes by Paul Craig Roberts
The White House is screaming like a stuck pig. WikiLeaks’ release of the Afghan War Documents “puts the lives of our soldiers and our coalition partners at risk.”

What nonsense. Obama’s war puts the lives of American soldiers at risk, and the craven puppet state behavior of “our partners” in serving as US mercenaries is what puts their troops at risk.

Keep in mind that it was someone in the US military that leaked the documents to WikiLeaks. This means that there is a spark of rebellion within the Empire itself.

And rightly so. The leaked documents show that the US has committed numerous war crimes and that the US government and military have lied through their teeth in order to cover up the failure of their policies. These are the revelations that Washington wants to keep secret.

Friday, July 16, 2010

Publish Your Book on iPad and other eReaders

Smashwords will do it for no charge, taking only a small percentage from net sales once your books are published. From the Smashwords website:

Publishing on Smashwords is as easy as 1-2-3:

Step 1: Carefully format your manuscript as a Microsoft Word .doc file per the guidelines in the Smashwords Style Guide and, if you desire mainstream distribution via Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Sony and other retailers, study the guidelines for inclusion in the Smashwords Premium Catalog. Apple and Sony require ISBNs, which you can acquire from our ISBN Manager.

Step 2: Click Publish on the home page and follow the simple steps to publish your book instantly

Step 3: Read the free Smashwords Book Marketing Guide for valuable book marketing tips!

Thursday, July 15, 2010

Is it real? iPhone 4 Attenuation Problem

For some iPhone 4 users, the answer is yes, it is real and annoying. And no, they don't want to stick tape on it, hold it a certain way, or enclose it in a bumper case to fix the problem. Nor should they have to.

After having used one for 16 days now, I can happily report that I have no problems with attenuation at all, and I've used it in talking to people located near and far, and in various places on my end. I've paid no attention at all to how I hold the phone, and I trust I hold it as anyone would in making a call. My computer-savvy 5-year-old grandson has used it as a phone without any problems. At this point I can say the iPhone 4 is the greatest gadget I've ever owned or used, and I've worked with computers all my adult life.

From what I've read most people have no complaints about attenuation. The problem is significant for some users, though, and Apple should offer to fix it in some reasonable manner. The company has scheduled an iPhone 4 press conference tomorrow, Friday, July 17, 2010, and they will likely tell us how it plans to remedy the defective units.

Saturday, July 10, 2010

Did Lee fight for the North?

John Avery Emison's Lincoln Uber Alles argues that the war of 1861-1865 was not the War Between the States, but the Federal Government's war on the states -- all states, north and south. Lincoln had no reservations about sending troops to any part of the country to shut down opposition to his policies and decrees. When Lee surrendered he gave up the political sovereignty of the individual states to the supremacy of the national government. The voluntary union had been replaced by a coercive union. In this sense, Robert E. Lee was fighting for the rights of states on both sides of the Mason - Dixon line. Consequently, we lost the Founder's republic and witnessed the laying of the foundation of today's leviathan state that, for propaganda purposes, still insists on celebrating Independence Day.

Saturday, July 3, 2010

iMovie on iPhone 4

In spite of the anti-market mania of the last - well, forever - people still manage to make some amazing things and offer them to the world. One of those products is the Apple iPhone 4. Last night I put together a short movie on the device using iMovie for iPhone 4.

Twenty years ago, or less, it would've been near fantasy to imagine creating a movie on a phone then posting it for the whole world to see. It is the freedom to innovate and profit that made it possible.

An early George Gershwin song from the musical "Miss 1917"

  Today, February 12,2024, marks the 100th anniversary of the debut of George Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue" in Aeolian Hall in...