Why? Why not?

21/9/01 11:14 am

Well, after a long development, this is my first post to Inocuo via my Palm.

The time/date stamp at the top of this post is the actual time of composition, as Blogger doesn’t allow this to be set programmatically.

Just got back from watching Dubya’s address to Congress. Scariest points for me:

• Appointment of a ‘Secretary of Homeland Security’
• Law enforcement to be given whatever it needs to combat terrorism
• Any government that aids terrorists is to be considered a hostile one.

Like the US has never supported terrorism. Oh, sorry, if the US is supporting them, then they’re ‘freedom fighters’ not terrorists.

To say nothing of the scariness of law enforcement being given whatever it needs, or at least whatever it says it needs, to combat terrorism. I guess that does mean that encryption will be illegal soon.

Let’s all take a moment to look forward to the time when ‘terrorism’ comes to mean ‘whatever the current administration doesn’t like’. I reckon a (sick, twisted) case could be made now that copyright violation constitutes terrorism. You’re depriving so-called innocents of their right to make money, and forcing them to live in fear that you might steal their ‘intellectual property’. Obviously, then, breaking copyright is terrorism, and thus can be punished to the fullest extent under the funky new anti-terrorism laws.

Maybe I’m being grossly cynical, but the current hyper-legalism style of government really does lend itself to this kind of manipulation.

I think I’ll take a break and calm down.

Those crazy Monash people. Perl in Latin.

I was going to post a lengthy rant about how the US is damned if they do and damned if they don’t, but I don’t have the energy any more. Instead, read this interview with Osama Bin Laden from the Feb ‘99 Esquire, and draw your own conclusions.

Or perhaps you prefer Chomsky.

American Embassy, Moscow

American Embassy, Berlin

Terrorism sucks arse.

Many sympathies to anyone who loses loved ones as a result of this.

I’m going home.

(insert ‘I am evil homer!’ rhythm)

I got 1-1 honours!
I got 1-1 honours!
I got 1-1 honours!
I got 1-1 honours!
I got 1-1 honours!

That is, I got a HD!

Woohoo!

I’d thought I’d seen it all.

I thought nothing could shock me.

And then I saw this.

It’s the Hello Kitty Vibrator!

There are so many things I could say, but won’t.

Just bought ‘Discovery’ by Daft Punk. I must admit to being quite impressed by the membership club card inside the CD case. Very nice. Great CD too.

I’ve also discovered the awe-inspiring funkiness of the CPAN module for Perl. Nothing like a module for a programming language that lets you connect to the net and download more modules.

Comicfest 2k1 is on the weekend, looks like it should be fun, as does the Mysterious Cities of Gold marathon I think I’m going to on Sunday. More later!

Well, today marks four years of Trang and I. Crikey!

Seriously, though, it’s been an awesome four years, and I’m looking forward to more.

We now return you to your regularly scheduled blog.