As the Democrats debated Thursday night, Ann Coulter was on Fox’s “Hannity & Colmes” declaring that if John McCain faced Hillary Rodham Clinton in the general election, she would vote for Clinton. “She’s more conservative than he is,” Coulter said…

Typically, Coulter’s antipathy for McCain has a vehemence few Republicans would echo — at least publicly.

But that’s not to say there’s not unrest on the right: In recent days many of the prominent voices of the conservative movement have rallied in an eleventh-hour attempt to keep McCain from winning the GOP nomination…

Republican pollster, Tony Fabrizio, said that much of the conservative bill of particulars against McCain represents “establishment conservatives talking about things that most Republican voters don’t even know when they go to the polls.”

Like most of the neocon nutballs, I find Coulter’s rants hilarious. This one seems to characterize what’s going on in conservative circles at the moment.

A chain of retail stores in Britain has withdrawn the sale of beds named Lolita and designed for six-year-old girls after furious parents pointed out that the name was synonymous with sexually active pre-teens… In “Lolita,” a 1955 novel by Vladimir Nabokov, the narrator becomes sexually involved with his 12-year-old stepdaughter — but Woolworths staff had not heard of the classic novel or two subsequent films based on it.

“We had to look it up on Wikipedia. But we certainly know who she is now.”

Woolworths said the product had now been dropped.

Phew!

It’s funny (in a sick humor sort of way) how easy it seems to be to get a society to accept lies in order to build a dictatorship, fascist regime or totalitarian state. History is replete with examples, and we’re living through one period now. This article by a security expert is full of links to examples and references to build his case. Which political candidate is most likely or least likely to stop where we’re heading? Is it already too late?

Security vs. Privacy

We’ve been told we have to trade off security and privacy so often — in debates on security versus privacy, writing contests, polls, reasoned essays and political rhetoric — that most of us don’t even question the fundamental dichotomy.

But it’s a false one.

Security and privacy are not opposite ends of a seesaw; you don’t have to accept less of one to get more of the other. Think of a door lock, a burglar alarm and a tall fence. Think of guns, anti-counterfeiting measures on currency and that dumb liquid ban at airports. Security affects privacy only when it’s based on identity, and there are limitations to that sort of approach.

Since 9/11, approximately three things have potentially improved airline security: reinforcing the cockpit doors, passengers realizing they have to fight back and — possibly — sky marshals. Everything else — all the security measures that affect privacy — is just security theater and a waste of effort.

A company that once boasted of creating an online directory of 90 million mobile telephone numbers, and drew fire from cell phone users and privacy advocates for it…has stopped the service “in response to consumer feedback.”

Intelius Inc. made the announcement two days after a story about its controversial cell phone directory appeared on msnbc.com, and three days after a leading wireless phone company threatened to sue the Bellevue, Wash.-based firm.

“As a company, we have strived to be at the forefront of innovation,” said Liz Murray, the company’s communications manager, in a press release. “We realize that in this instance we may have been ahead of our time…”

Creeps. Greedy creeps.

I take a break from the news and discuss my preoccupation with sound effects and clips. Enjoy!

Part of the Problem?

Caution: Sexually Explicit Content in Linked post

Wanton women cry that men miss the real target – Mainichi Daily News — A new development where men cannot consummate normal sex. This has got to have all sorts of social repercussions in Japanese society if true.

Though there’s no data available on exactly how many Japanese men are actually suffering from vaginal ejaculation disorder, a soapland brothel worker the magazine gives as its source says over her many years of servicing male clients, it would have to be around 70 percent.

related link

Max Headroom

CNN.com – Bin Laden: Goal is to bankrupt U.S. – Nov 1, 2004 — Cripes. And they cannot find this guy?

“We are continuing this policy in bleeding America to the point of bankruptcy. Allah willing, and nothing is too great for Allah,” bin Laden said in the transcript.

He said the mujahedeen fighters did the same thing to the Soviet Union in Afghanistan in the 1980s, “using guerrilla warfare and the war of attrition to fight tyrannical superpowers.”

“We, alongside the mujahedeen, bled Russia for 10 years until it went bankrupt and was forced to withdraw in defeat,” bin Laden said.

He also said al Qaeda has found it “easy for us to provoke and bait this administration.”

Click image to see Cranky Geeks.

Today’s Guests:

• Sebastian Rupley, Co-Crank, PCMagCast.com
• Robert Scoble, Blogger, Scobleizer.com
• David Hornik, General Partner, August Capital

The Topics:

• QTrax: Purported Provider of Free Music Does a Humiliating U-Turn
• Gartner Researchers Predict HD-DVD is Going Down
• Swedish Prosecutors are Pursuing Pirate Bay Owners

MySpace: No place for Atheists? – Secularstudents.org: Social networking site, MySpace.com, panders to religious intolerants by deleting atheist users, groups and content.

Early this month, MySpace again deleted the Atheist and Agnostic Group (35,000 members). This deletion, due largely to complaints from people who find atheism offensive, marks the second time MySpace has cancelled the group since November 2007.

“MySpace refuses to undelete the group, although it never violated any terms of service,” said Bryan Pesta, Ph.D., the group’s moderator. “When the largest Christian group was hacked, MySpace’s Founder, Tom Anderson, personally restored the group, and promised to protect it from future deletions.”

It’s interesting to note that the Wikipedia entry for this group is being considered for deletion.

German authorities were able to pin a burglary committed in April on a suspected serial thief after he left a half-eaten slice of salami carrying a sliver of his DNA at a crime scene.

The 37-year-old Romanian man is accused of breaking into a workshop office in the western city of Darmstadt, stealing cash and two locks and causing damage worth around 3,400 euros ($5,055), Suedhessen police spokesman Ferdinand Derigs said. “He didn’t bring the salami with him — it was just lying around in the office,” Derigs said.

Wrong time for the munchies.

In addition, the council voted to explore enforcing its law prohibiting discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation against the Marines because of the military’s don’t ask, don’t tell policy. And it officially encouraged the women’s peace group Code Pink to impede the work of the Marines in the city by protesting in front of the station.

In a separate item, the council voted 8-1 to give Code Pink a designated parking space in front of the recruiting station once a week for six months and a free sound permit for protesting once a week from noon to 4 p.m. The Marines have been in Berkeley for a little more than a year, having moved from Alameda in December of 2006. For about the past four months, Code Pink has been protesting in front of the station. “I believe in the Code Pink cause. The Marines don’t belong here, they shouldn’t have come here, and they should leave,” said Berkeley Mayor Tom Bates after votes were cast. An employee of a nearby business who asked not to be identified said Wednesday the elderly Code Pink protesters are aggressive, take up parking spaces, block the sidewalk with their yoga moves, smoke in the doorways, and are noisy. “Most of the people around here think they’re a joke,” the woman said.

A Marines representative did not respond to requests for comment.

So Berkeley, when Al Qaeda storms the beach in the Bay area, who ya gonna call?

Irish shoppers with cloth shopping bags

There is something missing from this otherwise typical bustling cityscape.

There are taxis and buses. There are hip bars and pollution. Every other person is holding a cellphone to his ear. But there are no plastic bags, the ubiquitous symbol of urban life.

In a determined attempt to deal with litter, Ireland passed a plastic bag tax in 2002 – now 22 euro cents, about 33 U.S. cents – at the register if you want one with your purchases. There was an advertising awareness campaign. Then something happened that was bigger than the sum of these parts.

Within weeks, there was a 94 percent drop in plastic bag use. Within a year, nearly everyone bought reusable cloth bags, which they now keep in the office and the back of their cars. Plastic bags became socially unacceptable – on par with wearing a fur coat or not cleaning up after your dog…

Before the so called plas tax, Ireland was struggling with a plastic bag problem that is typical in much of the world. Frank Convery, a professor at University College Dublin and head of ENFO, Ireland’s environmental information service, said: “You’d be driving in the Irish countryside and the sides of the roads were covered in plastic – when the foliage dropped off in the fall what was left on branches was a bunch of old plastic bags waving in the wind. That’s gone and people love it.”

Do Americans care what their neighborhood looks like?