Cindee and Pride

It's Cindee's birthday today. Happy and many more. It's also pride day. I have to admit I don't feel much connection to what has become a sell-o -thon. Buy Mr.S fetters for that edgy epater les bourgeois look. But tradition is tradition, so I'll probably tumble down Kearny street, take a couple of snapshots of folks celebrating their identity, realize that I still don't like large crowds, and mark it as being done for this year. I'm in the wrong demographic I suppose. (I'll smash the State after my morning coffee thank-you) I wonder what the Westboro Church will be doing this year? After their protests at military funerals and Fred Phelps' God hates Ireland speech, the TV cameras might be in short supply. They could always admire themselves on You Tube after editing out the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence laughing them off the stage. And speaking of the God-wacked:

• God Is Cursing Us With Bear Attacks For Failing To Follow The Bible: Last week, researchers at Yellowstone National Park trapped a Grizzly Bear, tranquilized it and fitted it with a radio collar. Shortly after the bear awoke, it attacked and killed a man who had apparently "ignored warning signs posted advising hikers to avoid the area because of the likelihood of a dangerous bear encounter."
• Rev. James David Manning posts a video with La Guns about the revolution.

Next is a bit of history:

• This fascinating essay, written by King Hussein’s grandfather King Abdullah, appeared in the United States six months before the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. In the article, King Abdullah disputes the mistaken view that Arab opposition to Zionism (and later the state of Israel) is because of longstanding religious or ethnic hatred.

A few computer and tech articles:

• The internet, Everything you ever need to know: A funny thing happened to us on the way to the future. The internet went from being something exotic to being boring utility, like mains electricity or running water – and we never really noticed. So we wound up being totally dependent on a system about which we are terminally incurious.
• The Terminator Comes to Wall Street: You’ve seen this story in countless Hollywood science-fiction movies, from The Terminator to War Games. Scientists develop a sophisticated computer or robot to assure the nation’s security, but something goes wrong and the technology itself mutates into a catastrophic threat. Unfortunately, the U.S. economic system now finds itself crippled by a real-life technology-gone-wrong story line.
• Large Cryogenic Gravitational-wave Telescope: We have waxed poetic about gravitational-wave detectors before. These instruments are truly amazing feats of engineering, with the power to unlock a whole new window on our Universe. LCGT would be even more impressive than the current instruments.

A short story.

• The Exterminator's Want-ad, by Bruce Sterling: So, I'm required to write this want-ad in order to get any help with my business. Only I have, like, a very bad trust rating on this system. I have rotten karma and an awful reputation. "Don't even go there, don't listen to a word he says: because this guy is pure poison."

And, of course, the week's politics. Eris must be working overtime or The Twilight Zone was a documentary or all three.

• Geopolitics in the Raw: I have been wondering for a while just what we — the west in general — are doing in Afghanistan. Iraq was pretty obvious: oil. (Don't listen to the mouth, watch the hands.)
• The Failed State Index: The 10 states that fill out the top ranks of this year’s Failed States Index — the world’s most vulnerable nations — are a sadly familiar bunch. Shattered Somalia has been the No. 1 failed state for three years running, and none of the current top 10 has shown much improvement.
• SCOTUS: The question at issue was whether Washington state is within its rights to require the disclosure of signatures given to a petition to get an initiative on the ballot. The argument made by the anti-same sex marriage group that the First Amendment required that the signatures be kept private, to put it mildly, not very convincing. In essence, the argument seems to dovetail uncomfortably with Sarah Palin’s, er, innovative contention that the First Amendment should protect her from any criticism.
• The Very Angry Tea-Party: Sometimes it is hard to know where politics ends and metaphysics begins: when, that is, the stakes of a political dispute concern not simply a clash of competing ideas and values but a clash about what is real and what is not, what can be said to exist on its own and what owes its existence to an other.