Mother of all Metaphors

Phil DeLuca, the executive producer behind America’s Army, is not happy with hackers taking advantage of the system. He calls it a misuse of army property and issues a rather ominous threat of retaliation.The metaphor that he grasps for is that of the pacific conflict with Japan of the 1940’s and claims that "we know [...]

Continue Reading January 17th, 2005 Björn Hallberg

Colonials and Natives

We’ve all seen the coverage of ‘Harry the Nazi’ since the hiccup at the latest fancy dress party of British high society. Isn’t anyone kind of wondering why and how this has reached such monumental proportions? I guess we all have our reasons for getting upset. Some are actually bothered by the swastika and uniform [...]

Continue Reading January 17th, 2005 Björn Hallberg

Abu Ghraib Aftermath

The presumed instigator of the Abu Ghraib abuse, Charles Graner was found guilty on all five charges as could be expected. No one else would take the fall and Graner, by all definitions, is still small potatoes. Small enough and far enough from any real power to make a shallow example of. I don't think [...]

Continue Reading January 15th, 2005 Björn Hallberg

Barbarians in Babylon

The British Museum claims that U.S.-led troops damaged ancient Iraqi city of Babylon. Not so surprising perhaps if you realize that the master plan here goes far beyond setting up a 'democracy', finding WMD, fighting 'terror' or whatever flimsy explanation the US regime is currently comfortable with. Indeed the master plan is a plan without [...]

Continue Reading January 15th, 2005 Björn Hallberg

A definition of Decency

Stingy or not, here it goes. After the natural disaster in SE Asia, the charity race has been on. And just as much as people seem to want to help, they also have another agenda. It can be either getting a foot in the door, to present a fine print with the ‘gifts’ (or trojan [...]

Continue Reading January 10th, 2005 Björn Hallberg

Flag-wavers

AP reports that flag-waving is on the rise in Florida.

More than 15,000 American flags need to be replaced in public-school classrooms in central Florida by the end of the school year because they are smaller than required under a new state law. The law, requiring every Florida public classroom to display [...]

Continue Reading January 10th, 2005 Björn Hallberg

Memogate, Rathergate, Bloggate

Columbia Journalism Review has a rather thought-provoking story about the apparent success of bloggers in the CBS News memo affair. Most notably how bloggers tended to pat themselves and each other on the back and celebrate the success over mainstream media and the elites. And how they fell into the same bottomless journalistic pit as [...]

Continue Reading January 10th, 2005 Björn Hallberg

Magnetic Charity

Can't say I'm surprised to see this happening. Seems to be a big thing now. One could argue that either way you look at it you're living a fantasy. Antimagnet has it figured out. It's a shallow way of feeling part of something greater. As shallow as sci-fi conventions or sending toys to Iraq. A [...]

Continue Reading January 10th, 2005 Björn Hallberg

A Fettered Nation Unbound

Washington Post informs us that the US regime is looking for new ways to detain suspected 'terrorists' indefinitely (login info: BugMeNot).
The Pentagon and the CIA have asked the White House to decide on a more permanent approach for potentially lifetime detentions, including for hundreds of people now in military and CIA custody whom the government [...]

Continue Reading January 3rd, 2005 Björn Hallberg