Category: Main

Even more posting about spaceships and guns!
I walked into Nemesis with mixed expectations. Over at Ain’t it Cool News, the pudgy demigod that is Harry Knowles had it to be an unmitigated disaster. But I had seen other reviews that suggested it might be semi-decent.
So, I was hoping to at least get some nice Enterprise-porn (those lovely CGI shots) and a few hours visiting with the old friends who were the crew of 1701-D (and now -E).
But it turns out, I was pleasantly surprised: Nemesis kinda rocked.
No, not Wrath of Khan rocked; not even Undiscovered Country rocked. But probably about First Contact rocked; which puts it ahead of most of the films in the series.
I won’t bother with plot summaries; nor will I give you spoilers. But I wanted to at least toss out a positive vote: if you’re even a casual fan of the series, yes, this one is worth seeing in the theatres.
This review can also be found over at Blogcritics.

So a brief break from the pointless stupidity of modern politics: let’s talk about tv shows with spaceships and guns!
Joss Whedon, of Buffy fame, gave us a new vision with and a striking vision it is. Great acting, strong writing, and a vibe to die for. It crept up on me slowly at first, but now, I’m hooked.
But unfortunately, after burying the program deep in the viewership hell that is an 8pm Friday timeslot, Fox has given up on the show.
Joss Whedon, however, has not: he is apparently hopeful that he can dock Serenity at a new home over at UPN.
So: I’d ask that all who are fans of this fine show take a visit to fireflysupport.com and start sending some postcards to UPN to urge them to pick up the show.
Thanks all!
-NZB
Thanks also to Jim Carruthers and Tim Minear for pointing me in the right direction.

Folks –
This week the Action Center Cause of the Week is in the holiday spirit. From Scott:
“My wife, Kim, and I have been active for the past few years in the Manhattan Post Office’s Operation Santa Claus. This is where you get a letter or two that poor kids have written to Santa and you buy and send gifts to them, signed from Santa…
The kids are simply asking for school supplies: pencils, crayons, paints, paintbrushes, and notebooks, things of that nature. Yes, some want other things, but on the whole, they just want items that will assist them in learning.”
Read Scott’s post for the whole story.
Also, note that Scott has indicated to me that they will be accepting donations through midweek, and that any remaining money will be donated to the central Post Office fund that is used to throw parties for underprivleged kids.
If you find this cause worthy, please link immediately to http://www.truthlaidbear.com/ weblogaction/archives/001596.html . (Do NOT link to this post, please).
Thanks to all!
-NZB

Don Nickles, R-Oklahoma, on ABC’s “This Week”, is looking for a new vote for majority leader:
“I am concerned that Senator Lott has been weakened to the point that may jeopardize his ability to enact our agenda and speak to all Americans…There are several outstanding senators who are more than capable of effective leadership, and I hope we have an opportunity to choose…Can he be effective? Can he campaign in places like Chicago? I don’t want to squander our ability to get things done. We only have a short window this year.”
If Nickles is comfortable making a full-frontal play for the leadership like this, it’s a sure sign that behind closed doors, the decision has been made. Lott’s out.
Quotes courtesy o’ CNN.
Update: Martin agrees.

Blogosphere power in action: fear our wrath!
Okay, so we at Trent, and hit Henry. I guess we

Updated CW for Lott Political DeathWatch (you heard it here first): Since he didn

Meryl, come on: Narnia?
Other than that, a fine list…

One one to go!
If every blogger in bloggerville clasps their hands and wishes real hard, you think we can ensure Trent heads out the door before the weekend?
Or, er, at least save Tinkerbell?

What

Latest news:
December 11, 2002 | Cleveland (AP) — Officials from the Center for Disease Control have confirmed the seventh death in the city this week from smallpox, bringing the nationwide death toll to forty-three.
Outbreaks of the disease have now been confirmed by CDC in twelve cities: New York, Seattle, San Francisco, Denver, Atlanta, Austin, Detroit, Nashville, Los Angeles, Chicago, Minneapolis, and Boston. In addition, nearly every major metropolitan area in the continental U.S. is currently investigating cases of illnesses believed to be smallpox, but not yet officially confirmed.
President Bush has reiterated the nationwide travel ban enacted two days ago by executive order, federalizing the National Guard nationwide to enforce the ban…
OK, to be clear: that story isn’t real. I made it up.
But I ask you: what if it was? What would you do?
I’m not talking at the usual public-policy level where this blog generally hangs out; I’m talking at a personal level.
We’re about to enter a period of genuinely heightened risk of severe terrorist attacks. Assuming that things go even vaguely close to expected plan, soon it will become 100% clear that the U.S. is planning military action against Iraq. And at that point, the risk jumps through the roof that Hussein’s agents may well strike against us here at home.
Even in my most optimistic moments, I find it difficult to conceive that Hussein would not have some “sleeper” agents already in place within the United States. I can’t bring myself to hope they just don’t exist; it seems too broad a fantasy. I hope, however, that they are armed only with conventional weapons, and not more formidable tools. And most especially, I hope they are not armed with smallpox.
But it is entirely possible that they are.
I’m not particularly afraid of nuclear terrorism, be it of the traditional fission bomb type or a “dirty bomb”. The United States can be hurt by such attacks; we might lose a city and suffer terrible loss of our fellow citizens. But we won’t be destroyed as a nation; we won’t even be seriously damaged in any objective sense.
Smallpox, however, is different. It truly, honestly does have the capability to be a doomsday weapon: a weapon that could quite conceivably destroy American society in a very real sense. In June of 2001, one of the first major role-playing scenarios was conducted to simulate a bioterrorism attack against the United States: the now-famed Winter simulation.
If you haven’t already reviewed Dark Winter’s scenario, I urge you to go do so. It is not comforting reading. The simulation proposed a release of smallpox in three American cities.
At the end of the game, thirteen simulated days in, the conclusion has been reached:
A total of 16,000 smallpox cases have been reported in 25 states (14,000 within the past 24 h) (figures 4 and 5). One thousand people have died. Ten other countries report cases of smallpox believed to have been caused by international travelers from the United States… Although speculative, the predictions are extremely grim: an additional 17,000 cases of smallpox are expected to emerge during the next 12 days, bringing the total number of second-generation cases to 30,000. Of these infected persons, approximately one-third, or 10,000, are expected to die. NSC members are advised that administration of new vaccine combined with isolation measures are likely to stem the expansion of the epidemic. NSC members ask for worst-case projections. They are advised that in worst-case conditions, the third generation of cases could comprise 300,000 new cases of smallpox and lead to 100,000 deaths, and that the fourth generation of cases could conceivably comprise as many as 3,000,000 cases of smallpox and lead to as many as 1,000,000 deaths. It is again emphasized to participants that these numbers are worst-case projections and can be substantially diminished by large-scale and successful vaccination programs and disease-containment procedures…
Although the program’s reports are too tactful to say so baldly, the Dark Winter scenario ended with a simple conclusion: we lost.
Now on the one hand, we may — may — be slightly better prepared to face smallpox now with increased stores of vaccine. But on the other, I submit that Dark Winter’s scenario was always an easy case, given a start in only three cities. Once an enemy has decided to take such a horrible step, it is trivially easy to strike twenty, fifty cities with the same infected carriers, traveling across the country. This is the likely scenario; a neat-and-clean release in only a handful of pinpointed areas is the fantasy.
And so I return to my original question: do you know what you would do if that horrible day does come when we find that the worst has indeed come true?
I don’t have any particularly brilliant suggestions, other than to say: think about it now, not later. Personally, I’ve stashed some basic supplies (water, first aid kit, nutrition bars, battery operated radio, changes of clothing) in my car trunk permanently, and have made plans with my family that, should things go bad, we’ll meet up the family’s most-secluded home up in a small town in the mountains. (I would welcome all of your comments and suggestions for practical steps to take in preparation for such a disaster; you know where the Comment button is).
Pick your own plan, but do pick one. Hopefully, none of us will ever need them.
The vast majority of the time, life feels normal for me these days. But then I remember the feeling of September 11th, and the days that followed: the persistent sensation that normal reality had fallen away; that the unthinkable, horrible scenario that we had all known in our hearts was possible had in fact come true. That the normality of September 10th was never really there at all; and that the hidden worries that we had dismissed up until that next morning had been justified after all.
In my worst moments, I wonder what the next day of revelation will be, and what fearful reality it will bring with it. And I do what I can to be ready for it.
Update: Michele is thinking similar thoughts…

Hey, here’s a switch for you: Christopher Hitchens is channeling me, as opposed to the other way around:
in Slate, 12/10/02:
A condition of the new imperialism will be the specific promise that while troops will come, they will not stay too long. An associated promise is that the era of the client state is gone and that the aim is to enable local populations to govern themselves. This promise is sincere. A new standard is being proposed, and one to which our rulers can and must be held. In other words, if the United States will dare to declare out loud for empire, it had better be in its capacity as a Thomas Paine arsenal, or at the very least a Jeffersonian one. And we may also need a new word for it.
Several steps ahead of you, Christopher!
N.Z. Bear, 6/24/02:
…it is now in the United States’ direct, selfish interest, to ensure that every single nation on this planet provides a stable, democratic government to its people where freedom is respected, and the rule of law enforced. This used to be the stuff of idealists : now, it is the bread-and-butter of hard-nosed cynics and pragmatists.
But Empire is not really the correct word to use here, although it will be used by those who oppose this effort. The appropriate word is “Confederacy”.
Yes, some interesting resonances with American history there, but nonetheless, the term fits. Dictionary definition (from Encarta ) : “an alliance of people, states, or parties for some common purpose, or the people, states, or parties in an alliance.”
If I may impose upon you, go read the rest of my old piece if you didn’t on its first run; it is one of my better works (a statement which involves no hubris on my part, as I concede readily that everything is relative…)

Folks –
We have a (late) winner for Cause of the Week at the Center:
12/01: Misha: Support the Brave Students of Iran.
If you want to support this cause, please link to Misha’s post at your earliest convenience…
-N.Z. Bear

So several folks are the arrival of Reason’s new group blog, Hit and Run today, which indeed appears to be a quality collection o’ bits.
But this simple bear is confused: why is everyone behaving as if this is the blog’s opening day, when it appears to have archives from November?

I’m feeling a bit better today; this cold has dragged on more than I had hoped. I’m hoping today will be that day in an illness where you clearly still feel sick, but now the sickness is just a collection of irritating symptoms, rather than something which dominates your entire perception of the world.
So far, so good.

So Cardinal Law. But you knew that.

Yes, I think Lott should resign (or be shown the door in less voluntary fashion). Doesn’t everybody?

Okay, so now the game is truly afoot. Iraq has its declaration to the United Nations, and now the fun starts.
First, an observation: Why does the AP story on this event say the following:
The Iraqi government presented to the rest of the world Saturday a mass of documents detailing its nuclear, chemical and biological activities and formally declaring to the United Nations that it has no weapons of mass destruction.
What we know of this document is that it is apparently 12,000 pages long, and that, as of now, nobody but the Blix team has access to it (not even the Security Council — but hold that thought).
Now, yes, the story quotes Lt.-Gen. Hossam Mohammed Amin, the Iraqi general who prepared the document, as stating flatly that they have no WMDs.
But that doesn’t count. The only thing that counts is what is actually in the document, as I understand it. And bottom line is, we won’t know that for several days, at least.
(Absurd, you say, why would he say that if the declaration didn’t actually back it up? First, think about who you are talking about here, and second, you don’t think there’s a vast amount of room for arguments of definition (“The Iraqi people do not consider sarin gas a WMD…”) in this situation?)
Bottom line: is it clearly premature to be saying that Iraq has “formally declared” that they have no WMDs. We just don’t know that.
But ok, let’s assume for the sake of argument that the declaration does say, in terms everybody can agree with, that Iraq has no WMDs. What happens then?
Well, one of two things happen:
1) The Bush administration presents some very hard evidence that it has been holding in reserve as to specific Iraqi violations, thereby showing all those who have been whining about the lack of specifics up until now exactly why they haven’t gotten them yet. (And not incidentally, restoring some of my faith that this President is serious).
2) Nothing much at all happens for a few weeks, in which case I start getting very, very worried.
Incidentally, about this whole flap regarding the disclosure of the declaration to the Security Council. Seems to me this is likely a communications snafu, not any serious disagreement.
I say this partly because, when I heard of it, the idea of not wanting to release the full document to a wide audience actually made some sense. The argument, as I understood it, was that the disclosure could very well take the form of something close to a how-to guide for a nation that wanted to pursue nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons.
When you remember that currently, Syria is on the Security Council, it starts to make a bit more sense why maybe giving that document out to everyone might not be such a hot idea, doesn’t it?
But this, of course, just points out a basically insoluable problem; you can’t get around the fact that Syria is a SC member, so they’ve got as much of a right as anyone to see the sensitive info, according to UN rules. Just yet another problem with ascribing moral and legal authority to a body that is nothing more than the sum of its (rather imperfect) parts…

Hesiod a comment on my Betrayal of Faith post which I thought required a response. Here’s his comment in full:
Nope.
It means us “liberals” WERE right all along.
Any trained monkey could have figured out that we needed to invade Afghanistan.
And the VAST majority of liberals and Democrats AGRRED with that move.
But…once Dubyah got fixated on Saddam…and he started trying to compromise our national security by kissing Saudi butt, and covering up his administration’s screw-up pre-/911…we got the picture.
Too bad it’s taken you this long to understand what we already knew: Dubyah is an emperor waiting to happen.
Or rather, he’s arrogant, stupid, narrowminded, and ruthless.
All that would be bad enough if he were merely venal and powerhungry.
But…he’s also “on a mission.”
He’s a true believer in his own myth.
He’s a neo-utopian nutcase.
It’s time to fight him with every legal and constitutional means at our disposal.
First, Hesiod, there were plenty of liberals who opposed invading Afghanistan. If you were not among them, then good for you, but that doesn’t mean there weren’t a significant number carping about it before (and after).
The fact that Bush is not full dealing with all of our terrorist problems at this moment (Saudi Arabia) doesn’t mean he’s necessarily wrong in dealing with one of them (Iraq).
I won’t pretend to have a huge degree of confidence in the administration’s conduct towards Saudi Arabia based on their actions thus far, but I hold out a shred of hope that they will deal properly with the House of Saud once Iraq (and possibly Iran) have been helped to establish a beachhead for civilized democracy in the region.
But we’ll see. Your problem, Hesiod, is that your hatred for Bush blinds you to the merits or flaws in his actual policies. He supports something, so therefore you seem to reflexively oppose it.
This is just as bad (worse, actually) then blindly supporting Bush regardless of what he does. It’s worse because Bush is clearly not a torturing, mass murdering dictator, although perhaps he does have some of the negative qualities you ascribe to him.
I had a thought recently about the way our prejudices guide our thinking — how the positions that we have taken up to the present necessarily influence which side in a given conflict gets the benefit of the doubt when the situation is murky.
I thought about my support for Bush and his administration, and my natural distrust of Hussein; of the Taliban; of the PLO and of Arafat.
Was I leaning too far to one side?
And I concluded that even if I was, so be it. If after I am gone, on my tombstone is written this epitaph:
“He gave the benefit of the doubt too little to those who deliberately murdered innocents to serve their cause, and too much to those who opposed them.”
Well, then, I think I’m just fine with that.

Sorry for the light posting. My grand ambitions to get a lot of weblog work done today were squished by the cold I seem to have picked up.
More when I’m a bit recovered…
-NZB