The Current State of Missile Defense

Austin Bay writes in TCS DAily that we have the a missile defense system, even if thin and still emerging. This is good because a) North Korea and Iran won't really be able to threaten us, and b) they won't be able to threaten our allies, either.

I perceive a few downsides, however:

1. The system isn't flawless. This means that political pressure from the anti-ABM crowd could still dismantle or delay it past the point of usefulness.

2. Even if a robust system is developed, the result could be a strengthening rather than a weakening of the desire to hunt terrorists abroad, a false safety, if you will.

3. It does nothing to defend against a "suitcase-nuke" scenario, which, while it might not be as plausible as it once seemed, is by no means beyond the bounds of plausibility. Having an effective missile defense will, paradoxically, increase rather than decrease the need to stay on top of international terrorists, to hunt them down and damage the states that protect them, even as it potentially saps the will to do so.

Doubtless dKos has the answers to all of these.

"C'mon, Satan. Relax, Guy."

I can't have been the only one who wondered when the South Park Saddam and the real-life Saddam were going to meet.

I wonder if the movie is available in the rest of Iraq.

UPDATE: Hand-wringing here. Me, I have a hard time drumming up sympathy for the old bum, and think that after the song-and-dance he puts on at his trial, loudly claiming to still be the President and denying the validity of all around him, this is a thoroughly appropriate comeuppance.

The Devil has Been Found!

And he wants Plastic Surgery!

I knew it.

Meanwhile, in the Center Ring...

...Saddam's trials continues in the same spirit as before, and the continuing irrelevance of his antics are becoming clearer as nail after nail goes in:

The prosecution accused Saddam of ordering the Anfal campaign, and charged all the defendants with war crimes and crimes against humanity for their involvement in the Anfal campaign aimed at clearing the Kurdish along the border with Iran.

Saddam claimed that the special tribunal was illegal and refused to state his identity, only identifying himself as "the president of the republic and commander-in-chief of the armed forces."

Ken Frost, who maintains the blog, is of the opinion that "It would have been far better to conduct a Nuremberg style trial, where all crimes would have been placed before the court in one trial." And he's got a point, but that's not the way the Iraqis want it done, and I think I can understand their reasons.

Nuremberg was done for the pleasure of the conquering allies of a blasted land; Saddam's trial is being done by his own people. They apparently want every crime noted, every butchery denounced. I can't say I blame them.

Doom is Imminent. Film at Eleven.

Iraqpundit on the coninuing STORY of a nation Gone to the Dogs:

The result, according to ABC news, is “encouraging.” The network reported that in the last two weeks, there has been a significant decline in violent attacks. The Iraqi ministry of defense says that violent attacks were down 30 percent, the U.S. military says the violence was down 22 percent, and both agree the numbers are preliminary.

This comes from ABC news and the WaPo, those bastions of neocon flackery. Bet they've all got Halliburton stock.

"In the past three weeks," he writes, "the U.S. military has killed about 25 death squad leaders, and captured more than 200," according to the officer leading the sweep.

But, by all means, lets continue shouting from the rooftops that Iraq is sliding towards civil war, already in a civil war, experiencing a low-level civil war, almost nearly half-way to a declaration of the possibility of a civil war, or whatever mush-meter you please. We've got Bush to bring down, after all.

Shut Up, Hipsters. Please, Just Shut Up.

Yeah, I lied. Deal with it.

I am roused from my torpor by a variety of things, but the immediate catalyst was this typically incisive Lileks rant, especially the following:

In other words, one review talks about how the Establishment was paying people to skewer itself in the 50s, and it’s followed by another review that praises an incomprehensible 1969 “satire” for bringing hipness to the squares.

Hmm. Well. Suggestion:

It’s quite possible the squares had been hip to this long before, inasmuch as they did not believe housewives really clicked their heels when they saw what Tide could do. It’s possible the squares didn’t spend a lot of time worrying about Madison Avenue and its lies, man, its Santy-Claus lies, because it wasn’t exactly a thunderous revelation. It’s possible the squares were hip before the hipsters invented the squares.

And that, boys and girls, is the real conspiracy: the conspiracy of Hip. I happened to get my latest issue of Spin in the mail today (don't ask. long story), and the first actual article, once you made it past the bizarrely air-brushed-looking cover pic of Johnny Knoxville (hurting yourself for entertainment is AWESOME if you look good doing it), and the pages of ads for the Gap (which thunders "Long Live Individuality"), Helio Cell Phones (Yes, I called it a Cell Phone. It fits in your pocket, and you can make calls with it. It thus fits all the characteristics of a Cell Phone. I don't care if you can perform brain surgery and Play 3-D Omega Snood on it at the same time. IT'S A @%&*$##$* CELL PHONE. THANK YOU), Best Buy, Le Tigre (The shirt, I'm guessing, not the band), the Toyota Yaris (Oooh, you can play MP3's in your car! I've never done THAT before!), the MTV Video Music Awards, Meltin' Pot (presumably a jean company), some Beatle-boot manufacturer called Ben Sherman, Jeep, and Union Bay, is called "the Rebirth of Uncool". It's about a new generation of soft-rockers who want to love Hall and Oates and the Eagles proudly.

Nope. Not kidding.

This is the same magazine, purporting to be the voice of the underground, or at least to know where it could be found. This is the mag that seems to suggest by its very existence that Rolling Stone is a tool of the Establishment. And they're trying to sell us Soft-Rock. Why? Do they like Soft-Rock? Do they really think that Soft-Rock is an idea whose time has come, again?

Or are they just keeping the Music Industry Double Helix going, whilst they pretend to damn the system they cash in on? Is it just me, or is this pretense the very means by which they cash in?

Somehow, I get the feeling that if these hipster doofuses (doofii?) really really wanted to change the culture, they'd do so by, oh, I don't know, changing the culture. Instead of whining about the schlockiness of our films, theater, music, etc., they'd make better films, better theater, better music. Better not in the sense that it knew what the problem was and piled anxiety upon denuncation upon glibness underlining that fact, but better in the sense that it was timeless, moving, a reflection of something good within the creator that touched something good in everyone that encountered it. But that's hard. It requires years of painstakingly learning your craft, learning your market, paying the dues to the world of business without killing your spark while managing not to become contemptuous of your fellow man enough to express something he'll understand. And bitching's not only easier, it's profitable. Denounce the Man loud enough and the Man beats a path to your door to shower you with riches.

Well, guess what. All you empty-headed truth-talkers, you poser swine, you regurgitating aliterate dingleberrys on Stephen Colbert's backside, YOU ARE THE MAN. Aaron MacGruder is the Running Dog of Madison Avenue. Public Enemy was a Lackey of the Oppressor. Hunter Thompson was the World's Greatest Capitalist (straight Horatio Alger, man).

And I don't just mean the ones we all know about. I mean the "underground" which means nothing more than "Pop Culture Farm Club" as far as I'm concerned. I mean the tools who labor to make their "indie" "scene" "real". I mean anyone who's ever subscribed to Maximum Rock n'Roll. I mean Ian MacKaye, examplar of the Free Market.

You are all aristocrats, because you are all rebels. Or, if you don't really want to shake the world, you're useful idiots for those that do. Take your pick. I don't care.

Just shut up.

I Have Been Away...

...because I have been busy, doing nothing. As anyone who's ever seriously done nothing can attest, it can keep you very busy indeed.

But within a few days, I'll be doing some more posting. There are a few things left to say, and a few things new to say as well. Bear with me.