The ability of people to globally report on oppression and spread news without government or corporate censorship is why we started the Personal Computer revolution back in the mid 1970s. The use of social networking and global relayed communication was the holy grail for a generation that grew up on Nixon, lies and dishonest reportage. We haven’t quite reached all the goals we’d set forth back then, but we’re well on the way and perhaps the people of Iran will ironically be the first to benefit.

OK. The world just changed. (Or will when it ships)

This is mind-blowing technology that we’ve been waiting for since at least when I started in personal computers back in the toggle switch days. Interaction with the computer without controllers. Face recognition, voice recognition, full body 3D motion sensing and, from the looks of things, an API that’s extremely powerful. And much as this is initially a gaming tool it goes far, far beyond that. (As Steven Spielberg noted in his brief appearance at the first public demo at Microsoft’s E3 announcements.)

Wow! Just Wow!

http://www.xbox.com/en-US/live/projectnatal/

Readjustment Blues

By Bill Danoff

Popularized by John Denver

Just out of the infantry this morning, I had to pay my dues across the sea.
No one back in boot camp ever warned me what the readjustment blues would do to me.
"Welcome to Havana", said the pilot. “We must have made a wrong turn on the way.
Let's buy some cigars and keep it quiet, if they don't know we're here we'll get away."

Just as I had realized he was joking, I saw we were in Washington D.C.
'Cause there was all the patriotic buildings, just like I had seen them on TV.
It must have been a holiday, 'cause there was this parade.
People carried signs, I couldn't read, that they had made.

'Till I got closer and my heart fell to my socks,
There was a battle raging and the air was filled with teargas and rocks.

There was the flag I'd fought against so often, the one I fought for hanging upside down.
The wind was blowing hard, the dirt was flying, it made the city sky look dark and brown.
I saw a girl, she could have been my sister, except her hair was long and in her face.
She explained this was a demonstration against the war and for the human race.

Now, I've seen a lot of strange things in my travels. Cannibals, yes, and aliens galore.
But I never thought I'd see so many people saying, “we don't want your war!”
The troops all had on uniforms just like the one I'd worn,
But they were all domestic and my duty chose war.

They carried guns just like the ones across the sea,
Except this time, I was the citizen, and they were pointing their guns at me.

Yes, I was just a citizen, and I was walking down the street,
And it was just that night, the readjustment blues got through to me.

---------------

We’ll miss you very much Bob.
Sukhumvit Road will always be one-way in our minds.

Today the first act of terrorism under President Obama’s watch hit America.

Let me repeat that because the words were chosen carefully. Today the first act of terrorism under President Obama’s watch hit America.

I do not use the word terrorism lightly or in any way that diminishes earlier events. The act of violence to influence a political position by creating a climate of fear is terrorism.

The murder of a doctor in Kansas by an American terrorist for performing medical procedures that are totally, clearly and unquestionably legal in this nation is no less an act of political terror than strapping on a bomb and blowing up a restaurant or crashing planes into buildings or sending biological war weapons to political enemies. That only one person was, so far, tied to the attack does not change that it was terrorism any more than the murder at the Seattle Jewish Community Center was a terrorist attach when it was carried out by one man wanting his political views heard. That only one person was killed does not change this from terrorism to anything else any more than the failure of a bomb belt changes the intent of the terrorist to anything else.

I call upon the people of America to treat this act of terrorism as they would any other. That the terrorist was likely a right-wing, fundamentalist Christian espousing a cause popular in his circle of friends is no different than if it were done by a right-wing, fundamentalist Moslem espousing a cause he thought popular.

Anyone who justifies this act of terrorism in any way they would not were the perpetrator Moslem rather than Christian is just defending terrorism. Anyone who justifies this act of terrorism in any way they would not were the perpetrator Saudi rather than American is just defending terrorism. Anyone who justifies this act of terrorism in any way they would not were the attack in New York or Washington rather than in the Midwest is just defending terrorism.

And by anyone I include President Obama, the members of the 111th Congress and the US Court system. This terrorist and the organizations that promote views that lead to this political violence should be subject to the same investigation, restrictions on funds and control of access to weapons that are placed on Hamas or al Qaida supporters in the US. That they are promoting a cause popular with a minority of American citizens does not change whether this is terrorism and it does not change that these are terrorist organizations and supporters of terrorism.

To do less is to say that we as a nation do not oppose political violence – that we do not oppose terrorism. It is to say that we only oppose these horrors when their cause is one we already oppose. And that means we do not oppose terrorism, we only class it as something that works. And we are too noble a nation to go down that road again.

I have to admit a certain guilty pleasure at watching the Mac Fanatic crowd’s collective heads explode from the three (so far) Laptop Hunters commercials. I know schadenfreude isn’t a nice thing but we all need some fun once in a while…