Sunday, December 24, 2006

the dead-enders argument against timetables

* SteveA points us to this:
"...Remember the dead-enders argument against timetables? That a timetable would give "the enemy" a reason to hide out until the troops come home to unleash their power on an unwitting Iraq? Why wouldn't a short-term "surge" suffer from the same problem? Do the people proposing this solution think that there are some fixed number of insurgents out there that just need a mopping-up so we can solve the problem?"
the original 'timetable' argument was bollox - but at least we should hold them to some sort of consistency rule.

* some holiday cheer - every 2-3 months or so, i drop my ironictimes.com - and am always happy i did. its a little bit difficult to navigate - each (weekly) issue has 3 pages - look for the links at the top and bottom of the page (hit the archive link for, um, archives) - and don't forget to read the scroll bar at the top of the frontpage. they often issue 'corrections' which are usually 'harder' than the rest - here's an example:
"CORRECTION
We reported that the United States government had issued new rules to stop the practice of extracting false confessions from suspects through the use of torture. In fact, it is the Chinese government which has made this effort. Torture is still used by the United States. We apologize for any confusion caused by our mistake."
but the rest of the site is usually quite funny/clever.

* everyone is trying to switch over to BloggerBeta - for no discernible benefit. i've been trying to do it for months to no avail. I can't do it because "But for now, if you have a very large blog (more than a couple thousand posts + comments), you'll need to hold off for a bit."
against that criteria, i have really very fucking large blog - 8200 posts - so far. actually, the only reason i want to switch over is so that i can actually add tags to the VERY few substantial posts that i write - mostly the Sibel stuff - so that people don't have to wade through the mountains of detritus that i post to find anything of value. i promise that my posts wont end up like larisa's with a gazillion tags and links and things - if only cos i'm way too lazy.

4 comments:

Mizgîn said...

I am not trying to switch to blogger beta, even though they keep getting me to try to do it. I won't do it until they absolutely force me, as I am very stubborn. Well, besides, I think it's going to be a huge mess when it happens anyway.

I'm still mulling a private server. I do have unique problems in that regard, especially since the Turkish military (among other fascist pests) is a regular visitor.

I hang on by the First Amendment, but with habeas corpus gone, who knows how long the First Amendment will last?

lukery said...

mizgin - i havent heard of anyone having any troubles with 'beta' (apart from the great atrios meltdown of 2006)

Mizgîn said...

So no one is having any problems with archives or anything?

lukery said...

not that i've heard - but maybe