You know, with our liberals - who needs a scrappleface? Check this out - the shop at the UnemployedDemocrats.com. Ladies and gentlemen, behold the exhibit A. Described by the seller as "outrageous and over-the-top". Just in case the image is too small, the line on the T-shirt says:

The last time someone listened to a Bush, folks wandered around the desert for 40 years

Can you believe this? They actually think that this shirt is making fun of Bush. How can those people be so outrageously dumb and over-the-top ignorant on so many levels? Unbelievably delicious. Thank you, guys.

This is a sticker designed by one Laurent Winnock, president of the official youth branch of the Belgian governing Socialist Party. Translating into the terminology we remember since our childhood, he's Secretary General of the Belgian "Komsomol". The stickers are distributed for free on the official web-site of, again, governing Socialist Party under the "give piss a chance" headline. An idea is for those stickers to be placed in urinals - so that any Belgian can engage in a free speech by pissing on the American President and the American Flag. Obviously this is an example of the sophisticated European diplomacy, famous for its nuanced approach - to distribute those stickers just as they welcome George Bush on his official visit. Well, we guess, it's their call. We never had any illusions of how cultured and refined lefties are.

Anyway, after a bit of pondering, we have to say that in itself an idea that piss is speech does have merit. We are libertarians, right? We wouldn't do it in just any bathroom, of course. But, if the owner welcomes this kind of expression, why not? If we ever find ourselves in a bathroom like that - we will make ourselves heard. Loud and clear. If peeing in the urinal is speech, so is peeing on the floor, right? We intend to take full advantage of those freedom-of-piss bathrooms. When in Belgium - do as the Belgians do.

We are not going to repeat all the things that were said about the democratization of the media. We just wanted to make a couple of points.

The Internet is not the first revolution in the information technology. The first one was an invention of the written word. Once it became possible to preserve the information and to transport it - the first step was made. The second step was in the invention of the printing press. Now people could replicate the information at a low cost and in big volumes. But still those costs were prohibitive to many and the one who wished to publish in volume needed sizeable sums to be able to do so. The Internet does not just make information dissemination quick, it makes it instantaneous and, more importantly - it makes it virtually free. This is bigger then just being about the change in politics. That said, the change in politics caused by the Web will be profound.

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( Main Stream Media sundownCollapse )

One last thing. Comparatively speaking, conservatives in the Media are much more enthusiastic about the whole blogging phenomenon. FOX is regularly inviting bloggers, conservative talk-show hosts quote from them. Conservative journalists like Michelle Malkin or Hugh Hewitt quickly became ones of the most prominent bloggers. Only few blogs are visited or linked to more often. All the whining about the unwashed pajama-clad bullies taking their toys - comes from the liberal corner. They have more to lose, haven't they? We agree. Given how fast the center of the mass in mass media shifts toward the Internet - we wonder how much role will be left to play for CBS, ABC, CNN, NBC, NYT and so on - in the next elections. Without their support - how do liberals plan to win?

For some unknown reason Christo decided that if there is a color New York needs more of - it is orange. I do not know if he ever saw taxi-filled avenues of Manhattan before. Anyway, I have heard some negative reviews, but decided to go and take a look of my own - if I do not give a damn what New York Times says about politics, why would I care about their or anyone else's in this town snobbish "oh, it's not a true art" bullshit? They can shove that "true art" up their... actually, that in itslef would be an act of art.
Enough of day dreaming. Back to The Gates. They look great. It was fun.

Update: here is the link to the official page with photos. Check out the aerial views at the bottom of the photos page - those are the cool ones

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And no, it has nothing to do with Ukraine.

I can tell you right now how the history of Iraqi war will be taught twenty years from now in liberal colleges on both coasts - there will be a lot of assertions that Saddam was getting ready to liberate Iraq a la Gorbachev and then some complaints about how George Bush almost ruined that liberation by an uncalled for intervention. Luckily, Iraqi people saw through him and then rejected his attempt to steal their oil in the elections of 2005 that George Bush tried to block, but through the selfless actions of the freedom fighter Zarqawi – failed. Great credit belongs to John Kerry, who through negotiations with Zarqawi and Ted Kennedy helped those elections to happen and then in a most courageous act did not overhype them, thus removing the greatest threat there was.

You do not think the events can be interpreted so? Just check out this article - an author apparently thinks that George Bush hoped that the free elections would be won by a small minority and now is surprised and disappointed that Shiites and Kurds rule the day.

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Since we mentioned idealism in the previous post.

John Kerry, speaking on "Meet the Press" about the Iraqi elections, opined with all the sour envy of the liberals in his eyes: "No one in the United States should try to overhype this election." James Taranto responded in his "Best of the Web" column with a beautiful quote from Friedrich Nietzsche. One that we can not better. Nor need to:

"And those who were seen dancing were thought to be insane by those who could not hear the music"

This wraps up the whole dialog on the war with terrorism, the war with Saddam and the discussion of the Bush's "liberty is our realpolitik" line.

Lately there has been a lot of talk in the Main Stream Media about Condi Rice trying to mend the strained relationship with Europe. Well, here is the thing. Although Dr. Rice does try to mend things, it's not what it looks like.

First of all, when in this context the MSM says "Europe", they really talk about "France and Germany". We need not to mend anything with either UK or Italy, we are quite friendly with Poland, we are on a first name basis with Czechs and with many other friends we have there.

Second, we are not exactly "mending". Not in a sense "trying to get them to help us" anyway. We agree with Kenneth Timmerman who said that "going to war without France is like going deer-hunting without an accordeon."

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The original plan was to write a long article about the State of the Union. We were going to talk about Bush betting on people's desire to live free of fear. And about Iraqis who delivered the fatal blow to the "insurgents", reducing them from the most feared enemy to the level of a car crash, a drowning or a lightning strike - lethal, yet not feared and not life-controlling. We were going to talk about the stunning success of the elections that went better then we hoped in our more optimistic hours. However, other people managed to say it all and where is the fun in just repeating what has been said already? ( Read more...Collapse )

Lately people seem to be obsessed with disclaimers and disclosures. For some reason, whenever you speak, you must warn your listeners of your political preferences, your affiliations, funding sources, suppliers, personal friends and sexual preferences - otherwise, they may not be able to correctly evaluate your opinion. Ok, fine, here it goes.

First of all, since the authors present a united front to the World, we will disclose as a single entity:

1. We are libertarians... or so we think. Overall, our political philosophy is build entirely on the premise that all people are endowed with their rights by their Creator and thus no human being is entitled to violate those - other than in defense. We believe that a government is something instituted by the people (rather then by the Creator) and as such it can have only those powers we, the People, delegated to it. That also means that a govenrment can not have the powers we could not delegate to it. For example - those we did not [individually] have ourselves.


2. We do not receive any money for what we do here. We support ourselves by being gainfully employed as computer professionals. If you doubt this, you are welcome to try and enrich yourself: you can make us an offer of a one-time payment in exchange for all the money we received for blogging - all of it. An exact sum you offer will, of course, depend on your estimates of our alleged profits and a degree of your believe in those estimates. Your offer shall also stipulate that you will cover all the additional expenses we will incur in the process of the settlement. We reserve the right to decline an offer made in a bad faith and an offer of a sum insufficient to justify the distraction


3. We donate money to certain charities, some of which are mentioned in our blog. We also contributed to "Swift Vets and POWs for Truth" organization.


4. We consider all information about our sexual lives, histories, experiences and preferences to be irrelevant to what we do here (in general). Same applies to our medical, family and professional information. Such information will be divulged only when we decide that we want to do it - because it is interesting, or because it is relevant, or because we are a good witness of some event, or because we want to prove our credentials, or because we just want to brag or complain. We do not consider ourselves under any obligation to disclose it and will not entertain challenges to do so.


5. We do not post anything locked, restricted and so on. We will probably add no more friends (we use other journals to do our readings).


6. English is not our native language. Our grammar is far from perfect. Stylistically we are also far from where we wish we were. You are invited to help us out and point to our mistakes. We will not be embarrassed. If you still think that we will be and is willing to spare us an experience - you can offer a correction in an anonymous commentary. Those are screened and moderated.


7. We do not possess all the knowledge available to humans. We can make factual mistakes as well as grammatical ones. Please, feel obligated to correct our factual mistakes.


8. we are done so far

We prefer not to discuss our political views right here. If you have issues with what we should disclose, - go ahead.

To make the long story short: after the prostitution was legalized in Germany, brothels became legitimate businesses just like all the others: they hire personnel, they pay taxes, they pay for the health insurance for their workers, they get access to the governmental database of people who receive unemployment benefits... Which means they can pick from the lists those who fit their profile of prospective employees. Basically, they pick young women, who then must choose between taking a position or losing their unemployment benefits.

arbat likes to compare sexual freedom to all other kinds. He keeps saying that a government has no right to regulate consensual business transactions - no more then it has any business regulating how and with whom he has consensual sex. I have seen him ridiculed for this comparison and I have thought on quite a few occasions that it really was pushing it too far. Well, (even though some may consider this at least partially a shameless self-promotion) my hat's off to him. What a vindication. arbat is a prophet after all. When a government starts directing people's lives, sooner or later they do try to get you on all fours and have their way with you.

Here is the link to the story (via drudgereport.com)