Author: N.Z. Bear

is just a thing of beauty.
Paris and Berlin must be having cows (and then giving themselves a few subidies for them, natch).
Oh, and the BBC also has this nice summary of how Europe is “split” on Iraq. Take it for what you will (it is the BBC, after all), but even with their analysis, its easy to see the “unilateral” argument falls apart.

There has been a explosion at a pharmaceutical plant in North Carolina. Several people killed; absolutely no news out yet as to potential cause.

Okay, two links for a new blogger in a week is a bit excessive, but I can’t resist piece by Aurora Leigh on liberals and opposition to deposing Saddam Hussein:
Earth to liberals: this is not a game… When you are in Kindergarten, and someone cheats, you go to the teacher. Well, guess who that is? That’s us. That’s not France, bartering their support to whoever will turn over the biggest percentage of their lunch money, and it’s not Germany, trying to emulate the bad kid so teacher and parents won’t notice that he’s having trouble learning to read. We are the authority of first and last resort because all those international authorities you want us to abide by get their power from our guns. And this game is a little too serious to call it off and send everybody home without first taking control of the Ba’athist bedroom and making sure that there aren’t any toys in there that aren’t recommended for their age group.
Everybody just blogroll her today (including you, InstaGuy) and we’ll all save a lot of time, m’kay?
Update: Hell and damnation. I forgot she’s on Blogspot, the original link was hosed. Just go to her front page.

Ken Layne us that the Los Angeles Examiner prototype is now public, and that you can sign up for a trial subscription.
Layne’s steady, Sherman-like march towards Total Media Domination proceeds apace…

Last post for the day: don’t forget anniversary is today.

Oh, fine: I was going to leave the live blogging to but I’m sitting here watching it, I guess I’ll post observations as I view the web stream.
Note: All quotes are best-I-could-do based on listening to the speech live; some inaccuracies may exist. You have been warned.
First observation: Nice suit, and like the tie.
Social Security: Hmmm, was that a pledge to privatize Social Security I just heard? Interesting; thought that was on hold for a while…
Healthcare: Big bodyslam to the whole nationalized healthcare thing; no shock there. Money quote: “Instead of bureaucrats and lawyers and HMOs, we must put doctors and patients back in charge of American medicine.”
My Beverage: Stephen’s got cheap-ass brandy; I’m enjoying a Red Hook Brown Ale, myself.
Foreign Oiiiiiil: Standard spiel here; reduce dependence on foreign oil. Not excited, sorry. I still want to hear somebody explain what happens to the miserable, economically retarded Middle East when we take away their one actual source of income. Folks seem to think they’ll just write us a nice thank-you note or something; methinks we might want to expect they might just be the teensiest bit pissed.
AmeriCorps: Ooops, wrong President. But he was going on about something about national service….
Fight Against Drugs: Well, at least he didn’t say “war”. $600 Million for a new treatment program — well, okay. How about we keep the $600M, legalize the stuff, and start making tax revenue off the phamaceutical firms that will rush into the market? Just a thought.
Human Cloning: Called for a full ban. Hmmm. Virginia?
Global AIDS: Asking Congress for $15 Billion, $10B in “new money” to fight HIV worldwide. Sounds good to me. Collapsing sick countries don’t make good partners, and Africa is the next Middle East in terms of breeding terrorists if we don’t help them survive. If it can be used effectively, it will be money well spent: both from a pragmatic, and from a moral perspective.
Terrorism: “One by one, the terrorists are learning the meaning of American justice.” Don’t know if I approve of the pace (how about we get a whole bunch of them at a time, eh?) but it sounded good.
Bioterrorism: “Project BioShield”? Eeeeeww. Rename that, fast. $6 Billion, huh? Is it me, or is there a lot of new spending in this speech for a Republican president?
Terrorist Threat Information Center: Merge all terrorism information into one place. Uh, ok. But the Devil’s in the details; stay tuned on this one.
Now It’s Getting Good: On WMDs and terrorism: “This threat is new. America’s role is familiar.” Not so subtle dig at our erstwhile European allies, eh?
And Better: “America’s purpose is more than to follow a process. It is to achieve a result: the end of terrible threats to the civilized world. All free nations have a stake in preventing sudden and catastrophic attacks, and we’re asking them to join us.. Yet the course of this nation does not depend on the decisions of others. Whatever action is required, whenever action is necessary, I will defend the freedom and security of the American people.”
The People of Iran: “The United States supports their aspirations to live in freedom. ” Bravo.
Iraq Part I: “He has shown… utter contempt for the United Nations, and for the world. The 108 UN inspectors were not sent to conduct a scavenger hunt across a state the size of California.”
Iraq Part II: I think I get the strategy here: Note the repeated references to U.N. assessments. Tonight, we’re not going to hear new intel information. We’re going to hear the United Nations’ own case against Hussein. This is the same judo he used quite successfully in his U.N. speech last year: tonight, he’s putting the burden back on the defenders of the U.N. to explain why it’s ok for Iraq to ignore it, even when the U.N. itself has declared him in violation. Smart move. The really compelling American intel will come later: probably right before (or even right after) the attack begins.
Iraq III: “Trusting in the sanity and restraint of Saddam Hussein is not a strategy, and it is not an option.”
Iraq IV: After listing Hussein’s torture techniques: “If this is not evil, then evil has no meaning.”
Iraq V: “And tonight I have a message for the brave and oppressed people of Iraq. Your enemy is not surrounding your country. Your enemy is ruling your country. And the day he and his regime are removed from power will be the day of your liberation.”
Iraq VI: February 5th is the date for the next checkpoint at the U.N. — not the 14th. Interesting. I remain convinced that the “we’re not ready to go for a few weeks anyway” CW in the media is bullshit; not necessarily from any reading of other reports (although folks like Den Beste have provided convincing arguments) but simply because it is completely to our advantage to keep everyone possible assuming we’re not ready until long after we actually are.
Closer: “Confidence in a loving God” — Well, could have been ‘Allah Ackbar’, so I guess that’s a little better. But not really.
Other Key Phrases / Statements
“Days of Promise, and Days of Reckoning”— Hopeful and resolute, yet wary; I like it. Particularly the ambiguity about exactly who the “reckoning” is for…
“Arrested or otherwise dealt with” — Bush’s description of what we’ve done to Al Qaeda leaders. “Otherwise dealt with” ? That gets the euphemism of the night award….
Overall Thoughts: Eh. It was good, not great. The SoTU is always such a laundry list, it’s hard to actually make it a good speech. He hit most of the right notes (Iran, AIDS, Iraq) and a few clunkers (Fight Against Drugs, Cloning), but that’s taking my biases into account.
Overall I think the inital spin is going to say it was somewhat disappointing, especially for lack of new and exciting Iraq evidence — but see my thoughts above on that. But that’s okay, because in a week or two, the real Iraq speech will get rolled out, and he’ll have much more time and focus to do a proper job of making the case. The SoTU was never actually the right forum for that anyway, so this shouldn’t be a huge shock (but probably will be treated like one; expect “No new evidence” to be part of the headlines in the NYT tomorrow).
And that’s all for me for now…
Update: Not the NYT (yet), but I told you so: USA Today: Case for attacking Iraq still short on critical details

(It’s no joke and it’s no lie! Here’s today’s stop of the Tech Support Blog A Day Tour by Laurence Simon, smack dab in the middle of the Truth Laid Bear.)
I guess you can call this post “The Truth Laid Lair.” And here’s a little truth for you:
A while back, N.Z. Bear was preparing to move from Blogspot to this fancy-schmancy MT site. And from the looks of these nice digs, he did a great job of setting himself up with a fancy apartment in the sky of the blogopshere.
One thing you might not be aware of is that the picture there of the Sekimori-designed polar bear in the hat typing away almost wasn’t the mascot of the site. The truth is, I sent over a selection of Media Builder Animation Factory animations and I was darn tootin’ certain he’d pick one of them for his site.
Alas, instead of going with an animated cartoony mascot, he settled for the stoic and dedicated ursine figure there in the hat. It lends an air of respectability and trust, don’t you think?
I mean, what kind of goofball would use an animated cartoony character as his mascot?
Anyway, the point of this post is that for a successful blog, you have to get people focused on a single concept. You need to make it painfully easy for people to get to you, to refer to you, and to remember you. N.Z. Bear accomplished this with his name (N.Z. Bear), his blog name (The Truth Laid Bear), his mascot (a bear), and domain name (truthlaidbear.com). He allows for easy access to his articles and the option to comment. There’s no confusion when it comes to what word leaps out at you when you think of his site or if you want to refer to it.
“Bear”
I, on the other hand, commit every sin in the book when it comes to identity. I have yet to settle on a single name (Laurence, Larry, Lair, file13, Amish), my blog name (File13’s Amish Tech Support, Amish Tech Supprt, ATS), my mascot (changes once every few days), and domain name (don’t ask). Permalinks and commentary on my own site is shakier than Jell-o in an earthquake. I don’t even post in the same place every time (The Tour). I’m surprised that people can find me in this electron-cloud of mixed identities.
Do what the Bear does, not me. Get your ducks in a row, don’t let your ducks scatter and run around crazy-like.

Quote of the day goes to Joe Klein, who is handicapping the Democratic presidential hopefuls on WBUR’s The Connection. Observe as host Dick Gordon prompts Joe on one candidate in particular…
Dick Gordon: Reverend Al Sharpton
Joe Klein: I don’t want to talk about him. He shouldn’t be on the stage. The guy is a criminal. The guy is a buffoon… he’s a waste of time….I think that the degree of politeness that has been accorded his candidacy is actually outrageous.”
Amen, Joe!
This particular quote is at about 13:20 of the RealAudio file.

Here’s a new toy for you book-lovers:
It’s a free search engine that claims to search about sixty online bookstores, giving you the best prices available.
You can search by title, author, or ISBN.
I haven’t stress-tested the thing, but quick tests seem to show it works quite nicely. I was able to find my PMP Exam Study Guide for $38.85, about $4.50 cheaper than Amazon. And it includes shipping costs in the display, so you can tell when you’re getting a 20% discount in exchange for 20% higher shipping costs.
Anyway, seems like a useful tool to someone like me who blows way too much money on books. Check it out.
And here’s a widget to help you try: this is the core search box…

Enter Book Title or ISBN
Powered by FetchBook.Info Compare new & used books prices

By the way, I’m not completely tone-deaf politically: right: Blix’s report wasn’t all bad, despite my earlier carping. I just don’t have much faith left generally in the fellow.
And I still like my version better.

Wow. I think I’m in love:
The idea of absolute state sovereignty is relatively new, and it derives from agreements among kings, emperors, kaisers, and czars for their mutual benefit. What we