Sunday, June 24, 2007

Sermonizing and stuff


  • I've added a link in the sidebar to BibleGateway.com. Not to worry, though, I haven't got religion. I just want to be able to recklessly throw around Bible quotes. I used to be able to do this from memory, but have since decided to devote those brain cells to other functions.


  • Verse of the Day for today, when I did happen upon BibleGateway.com, was “But the Lord is faithful, and he will strengthen and protect you from the evil one.”- 2 Thessalonians 3:3 I'm not sure if Jesus can save me from Darth Cheney, but Thessalonians is just a fun word to say.


  • Speaking of whom, in Ron Suskind's book The One Percent Doctrine, Cheney justifies the GWOT and all of his other actions basically, by saying that if there's even a 1% chance of ___insert fear-of-the-day here___ happening, we must act as if it is true. Not that he ever bothers to show his work on those calculations. What goes into deciding that there's a 1% chance that Saddam Hussein had WMDs? I'm betting Cheney just pulled a number out of the ether.


  • Speaking of pulling numbers out of ethers, in that same book, Cheney or some henchperson figures out that if you follow the money, you can maybe track terrorists. Rather than hurriedly cobble together a computer program and/or database, they just went to FirstData and got all their data. Yep, that's right, FirstData would be the company that handles abut half the credit card transactions in the US. Cheney didn't even have to snarl at them to get them to hand over the info, they were plumb tickled to do their patriotic duty and help their country. Nor is this the first-ever time in history that the government has asked a huge corporation to hand over their records of their customers' transactions and the corporation has complied.


  • Speaking of credit: a small public service announcement


  • Google Street View is still just a fun toy, no way are we anywhere near living in a panopticon society, right? Well, maybe just in New York City and London and a few other places and a few remote spots in sunny Florida.

6 comments:

Keifus said...

Meme! Man, I was just bitching about those insidious information collectors. How could I forget the mortgage pirates that swooped in just after I refinanced?

Nice segues. Agree about Thessalonians, but please use that knowledge for good (fun). Regarding the chemical weapons, he might have decay rates available regarding the stuff we sold him in the eighties.

K

aylqxq: anaphylaxis (I'm allergic to something, evidently. Word games wouldn't lie.)

dogscratcher said...

So is there a 1% chance of Anthropogenic Global Warming happening? Should we act as if it is true?

Steve Bates said...

Thessalonians... wasn't there a Star Trek episode about them?

Sorry; I suppose I should treat other people's religious documents with more respect. On good days, I am suitably respectful. Tonight, OTOH...

hipparchia said...

i wasn't planning to be especially respectful, steve. no need for you to be either, unless you want to.

hipparchia said...

heya, dogscratcher. welcome back from the wilds.

me, myself, and i have all been acting on that 1% for several years now, but we'll probably have to come up with some kind of mushroom cloud to scare the others into following us.

hipparchia said...

ah, decay. i'll admit that i was trying to figure out how you'd calculate the chances that he actually did get some yellowcake. what, they gave hime a free sample?

back when friends and enemies alike were trying to "save" me, they would quote scripture at me [among other things]. i always got a kick out of quoting some bible passage that contradicted whatever it was they were quoting at me.