Monday, March 17, 2008

Fact Check: Barack Obama's Church

In computer terminology, a honeypot is a trap set to detect, deflect, or in some manner counteract attempts at unauthorized use of information systems. Generally it consists of a computer, data, or a network site that appears to be part of a network but which is actually isolated, (un)protected, and monitored, and which seems to contain information or a resource that would be of value to attackers. A honeypot that masquerades as an open proxy is known as a sugarcane.

A honeypot is valuable as a surveillance and early-warning tool. While often a computer, a honeypot can take on other forms, such as files or data records, or even unused IP address space. Honeypots should have no production value and hence should not see any legitimate traffic or activity. Whatever they capture can then be surmised as malicious or unauthorized. One very practical implication of this is that honeypots designed to thwart spam by masquerading as systems of the types abused by spammers to send spam can categorize the material they trap 100% accurately: it is all illicit.

Honeypots can carry risks to a network, and must be handled with care. If they are not properly walled off, an attacker can use them to break into a system.

The Ethno Nationalist Double Standard

Though it would be entirely unnatural for him to do so, no political liability would attach to Obamamandius' adoption of the hateful rhetorical drag so easily, lightly, and uncritically worn by the spiritual guides and advisors of his opponent in the general election. It is however, widely considered unpatriotic and seditious for the now retired Jeremiah Wright and the late Martin Luther King to have called out this cancerous and thanaturgic element within the American body politic. It's not enough to simply remain silent about this phenomenon as the DLC and other so-called "centrists" have historically tended to do. Let's hope that Keith Olbermann isn't alone for long in calling attention to this collective psychopathology which has thus far managed to escape much in the way of vigorous or sustained scrutiny.

Sunday, March 16, 2008

Obamamandius - Unifying America

Obama has pegged his Jeremiah Wright response to the speech delivered by Bobby Kennedy in the aftermath of Martin Luther King's assassination;
Kennedy was the first to inform the audience of the death of Martin Luther King, causing some in the audience to scream and wail. Several of Kennedy's aides were even worried that the delivery of this information would result in a riot. Once the audience quieted down Kennedy acknowledged that many in the audience would be filled with anger, especially since the assassin was believed to be a white, and that he had felt the same when his brother John F. Kennedy had been assassinated. These remarks surprised Kennedy aides, who had never heard him speak of John Kennedy's death. Kennedy continued, saying that the country had to make an effort to "go beyond these rather difficult times," and then quoted a poem by the Greek playwright Aeschylus. To conclude Kennedy said that the country needed and wanted unity between blacks and whites, asked the audience members to pray for the King family and the country, and once more quoted the ancient Greeks. Despite rioting in other major American cities, Indianapolis was calm the night after Kennedy's remarks, which is believed to have been in part because of the speech. The speech itself has been listed as one of the greatest in American history, ranked 17th on American Rhetoric's Top 100 speeches in the 20th century. Former US Congressman and media host Joe Scarborough said that it was Kennedy's greatest speech, and was what prompted him into entering into public service. Journalist Joe Klein has called it "politics in its grandest form and highest purpose," and said that it "marked the end of an era" before American political life was taken over by consultants and pollsters. It is also featured as the prologue of his book, Politics Lost.
It's a fascinating tactical maneuver. I'm somewhat impressed. What say you?

American Alienation in Microcosm

Ethnic nationalists have made hay this week pretending that Jeremiah Wright's decontextualized fire and brimstone sermonizing is "racist" or "seditious". By extension they argue, Obama is a seditious stealth racist unfit to lead. Some I've encountered online have argued that the 1960's Black exposure to the radical liberal counterculture was the genesis of this "dissent". Those caught up in this narrative seek to pretend that Blacks across class lines began to reject mainstream norms. This is precisely why I linked the text and audio of Martin Luther King Jr.'s A Time To Break the Silence speech to demonstrate the patent falsity and ahistorical absurdity of this claim. Is there a more mainstream moral or political authority to whom we might turn our moral compass than the late Dr. King on this issue?

The boundless hypocrisy of ethnic nationalists has been brought into full view. These people are projecting their own motivations and ways of living on Wright for daring to give voice to righteous dissent. To date, I've not heard a single critic question the mainstream propriety of Jeremiah Wright's curriculum vitae. They are instead seeking to read their own psychological realities into a handful of his words taken out of the context in which they were spoken. What we have seen demonstrated this week, is that for a man to question the historical and continuing collective psychological tendencies of American ethnic nationalists is literally psychologically intolerable.

Put Young Children on DNA List, Urge Police.....,

In today's Guardian;
Primary school children should be eligible for the DNA database if they exhibit behaviour indicating they may become criminals in later life, according to Britain's most senior police forensics expert.

Gary Pugh, director of forensic sciences at Scotland Yard and the new DNA spokesman for the Association of Chief Police Officers (Acpo), said a debate was needed on how far Britain should go in identifying potential offenders, given that some experts believe it is possible to identify future offending traits in children as young as five.

'If we have a primary means of identifying people before they offend, then in the long-term the benefits of targeting younger people are extremely large,' said Pugh. 'You could argue the younger the better. Criminologists say some people will grow out of crime; others won't. We have to find who are possibly going to be the biggest threat to society.'

Pugh admitted that the deeply controversial suggestion raised issues of parental consent, potential stigmatisation and the role of teachers in identifying future offenders, but said society needed an open, mature discussion on how best to tackle crime before it took place.
Just goes to show that it can always be worse......,

Saturday, March 15, 2008

Too Late To Break Silence Now...,

The jig is up and there won't be any do-overs except in Michigan. Barack Obama's rorschachian phenomenon is finished and it was brought to an untimely end by his willful failure to break silence on the nationalist symbol rattling by which he's now been prosecutorially skewered. Thing is, he should have seen this coming a mile away. Beginning with the lapel pin and hand over heart probes, most definitely as against the strategery embodied in duplicitous attempts on Mdme Obama's proud comment, but no....,

Obama just laid back in a faux news rope-a-dope, not because it was a brilliant or prophetic political strategy, but because HE DIDN'T HAVE ANYTHING!!!!

The tragedy of the thing is that he had all the practical, moral, political, and symbolic resources he would ever need, the proverbial book of Wu Dan at his ready disposal.

Even when pressed by the demands of inner truth, men do not easily assume the task of opposing their government's policy, especially in time of war. Nor does the human spirit move without great difficulty against all the apathy of conformist thought within one's own bosom and in the surrounding world.

All he had to do was open it and use it. Having done so, he would've obtained both practical and symbolic control of the moral higher ground. Barack has failed by his inability to smoothly command and control the moral higher ground in the moment.

We now know that Obama is no Ali. Having probed him repeatedly and found his feet of clay, the nationalists have closed in for the kill, which they obtained with the deposition like questioning to which he was subjected by Major Garrett. Barack's going to be swiftboated now and will find himself defending his flanks against neverending trifling litigious examinations of his claim to have not been present whenever Pastor Wright preached fire and brimstone.

Had he only been present to the prophetic anointment emanating from a true prophet who braved all odds to break silence - things very well may have turned out differently. Barack may well have had it in him to be king....,

Feet of Clay?


Nah grasshopper. You are overreacting. God's son is playing intellectual political & cultural judo with this one. Electorial Sun Tzu. Picking his battles. Why run 90 yards to fumble?

Why indeed friend Denmark, why indeed.....? Our boy has been muddied and bloodied by ethnic nationalist riff raff. Judging from the two interviews, one friendly, one adversarial, these are not strong challengers launching a surprise sneak attack. These are busters coming with something old, obvious and hidden in plain sight. Obama has not dealt with this artfully or deftly....., even Geraldo noted last night that the sparkle has gone out of Baraka's eyes. Look at the videos and tell me that he hasn't succumbed to some egregious conformity.

Used in the Bible in Daniel 2:34, part of the description of the huge statue in the dream of Chaldean King Nebuchadnezzar.

feet of clay

(idiomatic) To say that someone, who appears strong or invincible, in fact has a hidden weak point which could cause their fall.

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