I highly suggest that people rush out to the stores and pick up Seasons 1 and 2 of Titus. The show Titus is a semi-autobiographical show created by Christopher Titus. Titus, like many entertainers too funny and intelligent for prime time, had his show cancelled for having a show that was too racy, and it was moved over to HBO. Although there’s not a lot of hope for an uncancellation like Family Guy, more people need to see that sitcom to really understand how intelligent Christopher Titus is and to encourage television to stop cancelling shows because they’re too good (e.g.: Firefly, Family Guy, Titus, God, the Devil, and Bob, Herman’s Head, etc.).

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How does it make you feel that the constitution being drawn up by the Iraqi interim government — with substantial oversight from the US — includes a universal health care system? If it’s a good idea for Iraq, why isn’t it a good idea for Vermont, Minnesota, California, or the US? (cite)

Note that I’m very specifically not advocating a national health care system here, and I don’t support one: I’m just asking a couple of questions.

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Further evidence of Bush’s betrayal of conservativisim, courtesy of Jon Stewart and Lisa Rein (cite).

Bush vs. Bush (mirror)

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Echoing Bruce Schneier, because it needs to be done:

I would also like to urge everyone not to get wrapped up in the particulars of the terrorist tactics. We need to resist the urge to react against the particulars of this particular terrorist plot, and to keep focused on the terrorists’ goals. Spending billions to defend our trains and busses at the expense of other counterterrorist measures makes no sense. Terrorists are out to cause terror, and they don’t care if they bomb trains, busses, shopping malls, theaters, stadiums, schools, markets, restaurants, discos, or any other collection of 100 people in a small space. There are simply too many targets to defend, and we need to think smarter than protecting the particular targets the terrorists attacked last week.

Smart counterterrorism focuses on the terrorists and their funding — stopping plots regardless of their targets — and emergency response that limits their damage.

Also note the comment left by another user (”Felix_the_Mac”):

I live in the UK. I good make lots of points, however, the one thing which made me shout at the radio today was hearing Tony Blair say:

“We will not let these people change our way of life”

Blatant hypocracy, we have already changed:

1. ID Cards
2. Imprisonment without trial
3. Launching an illegal war.

(You may agree or disagree with the war but I believe that almost everybody in the UK acknowledges that it was illegal, i.e. not authorised force under the UN charter.)

British history is a tale of people gradually taking power away from the few. Now this process has gone into reverse.

See my old post about what security is for more of my thoughts, and see Bruce Schneier’s blog for a lot more intelligent analysis on security from an expert.

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For all of my complaints about the Republican party, I am certainly not a supporter of the Democratic party. Ideology aside, my biggest issue with the Democratic party is that the Democrats fail to effectively represent the groups they claim to be representing. Admittedly, which groups they claim to be representing is subject to rapid-fire change (e.g.: small business): moreover, the mainstays of the Democratic camp (the poor, non-white race-identity groups, etc.) are being poorly represented by the corporatist power structure that is currently in control of the Democratic party.

There’s a nice blog about this, with some even nicer comments: cite

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