SwampLog 3.0

Shibumi

* About eight months ago, when Bush started to ramp up the war machine to head into Iraq, Marty and I were commenting on how disempowered we were feeling. The voices of dissent were growing louder by the day -- thousands of people were protesting the impending war, the evidence was piling up that the war wasn't necessary, and yet the Bush administration didn't care. They were going to have their war, whether we liked it or not.

That's when I heard about MoveOn.org. While they haven't been able to stem the tide of the Bush cabal's continual rape of America, at least they've gotten more people involved and motivated to try and fix things.

And now, they've launched a second site, aptly named the Daily MisLeader. It's a site that tracks specific times when Bush outright lies to the American people, such as the State of the Union Address which not only lied about the Iraqi ability to make war, but the forthcoming improvement of the American economy (not happening -- wages are still falling and unemployment soars) and promoting "energy independence" (ridiculous, since policies drafted by the Bush administration favor further dependence on Persian Gulf oil).

Today's missive from the MisLeader targets the Bush claim that Iraqi oil would help fund the repairs made necessary from our coup. It turns out that a highly publicized report that the Iraqi oil industry could not possibly allow for the kind of funding necessary to rebuild the country went unheeded by the Bush adminstration. The allowance has shot up from $2.5 billion, to $20.5 billion. You do the math.

* On a wholly lighter note (and thank God), the incredible asswhip that is Rowdy, mascot for the Dallas Cowboys, is examined in wonderous detail by the Dallas Morning News. If there is any justice, both Rowdy and Rangers Captain, the inexplicably popular mascot for the Texas Rangers, will go away in my lifetime.

Outstant Messeging

D: What's an antonym for "instant"?
=M=: "Outstant?"

At the risk of dating myself, I'll tell you that I was there when IM was in its infancy.

I was a subscriber of US Videotel, which sold an all-in-one terminal with a built-in modem, connecting you to on-line data before AOL or Prodigy had taken off. The real reason people signed on, however, was a thing called Chat. My nick for the service was "Case," after the lead character in Neuromancer, which chicks dug because I was literary and edgy.

Even then, I could see precursors to something I consider to be the scourge of the Web -- emoticons and chatcronyms. You know them as the extended family of =-) and ROFL.

After someone explained what they were, and I saw the long list of what chatcronyms were in use, I left them all behind, swearing to rarely, if ever, use the damned things. My typing skills were always above average -- even with the lousy keyboards attached to the USV terms -- so I never minded typing things out.

(I should take this moment to state that I don't think badly of anyone who uses either abbreviated method of chatting -- your chat is your pidgeon. It's just not for me.)

My allergy to emoticons has gotten me into trouble more than a few times, dating back to the first time I hopped into an AIM chat room in 1997. Less than 30 minutes later, I was booted by an overprotective SYSOP because some young (and, in this room, popular) twentysomething trollop took offense to one of my ironic witticisms. At the time, I chalked it up to the lack of sophistication in the room (even then, a superiority complex!), but I knew then, and now, that the use of one or two well-placed ;-) would have gotten the message across that I was, in fact, JK.

These days, I'm sure I'm looked upon as a bit of an anachronist, typing all of my stuff out rather than using the built-in acronyms that AIM or Y!IM or MSNM have. Big deal.

The printed word has always relied on the reader to infer a bit of the writer's inflection when reading it. Instead of having your reactions spoonfed to you, you should be able to make your own decisions on what the writer means, without having to look at a smiley face.