THE DOOMED CITIES

Michael Ledeen September 2, 2005

As we mourn New Orleans, let us also celebrate it, as New Orleanians famously celebrate their own dead.

The city has long been admired for its literary creativity, its exceptional food, its wonderful music, and deplored because of its legendary corruption and degradation. The possibility of its destruction no doubt played a role in the character of its people, and it is no accident that an annual bacchanal took place there, in the riotous celebrations of Mardi Gras.

Death has always been omnipresent in the consciousness of the city; dancing in defiance of death was the city’s trademark, and the (more…)

GOING WIRELESS

ttpn September 2, 2005

My perspective is from living in Jerusalem. It must be much the same in America, Canada, most of Europe, and major cities in Asia.

For many people, coffee just isn’t coffee without a pastry. If you have a laptop computer, coffee just isn’t coffee if the coffee shop does not provide what has become a basic amenity – wireless Internet access.

Those WiFi radio waves are everywhere these days. You can walk down the street and pass literally dozens of wireless networks, set up by businesses and local residents who are able to freely roam around, clicking away at web (more…)

NO BLAME

Dr. Jack Wheeler September 1, 2005

One of the many markers distinguishing civilized from primitive and traditional societies is that the former possess the concept of luck, both good and bad, while the latter do not.

There is no word for luck in the language of many American Indian tribes such as the Navaho, African tribes such as the Azande, Amazon tribes such as the Yanomamo, or New Guinea tribes such as the Dobu. The concept is absent, literally inconceivable, in their thinking about the way the world works.

How could something, anything, happen out of sheer blind chance? Whatever happens to anybody, good or (more…)

MARX AND MOHAMMED

Dr. Jack Wheeler September 1, 2005

One of my favorite websites is David Horowitz’s Front Page . Dr. Jamie Glazov, Front Page’s managing editor, has been conducting a lengthy interview of me which will be published on the site sometime later this month.

Skilled at asking interesting questions, Dr. Glazov asked me to discuss the common ground between the Radical Left and Radical Islam. I thought I’d expand on my answer to him and discuss with you the extraordinary extent to which Marx and Mohammed are ideological brothers.

In fact, they are much more than that. Marx and Mohammed are metaphysical brothers. They share the same (more…)

Chapter Six: DOÃ‘A MARINA

Dr. Jack Wheeler August 31, 2005

Chapter Six: DOÑA MARINA

“My third set of masters,” Malinali thought to herself. These people, these “Spaniards” were different from any others she had known or even imagined. They seemed to her to almost be not of this earth. Perhaps they were from the stars, she thought.

“Are you afraid of them, Little Miss Dry Grass?” she asked herself, summoning her courage, her sense of humor, and the memory of her father all at once. Yes, a part of her was afraid, of course. Who wouldn’t be? Then she heard her father’s counsel: “What reason do you have to (more…)

WHICH SIDE OF THE WAR ON TERRORISM IS THE NEW YORK TIMES ON?

Guest Author August 25, 2005

Colonel Thomas Spoehr is annoyed with New York Times reporter Michael Moss,for what I think is a good reason. Spoehr is the director of materiel for the Army staff. He had a good newsstory to tell Moss, which Moss converted into a bad news story.

Here is the story as Spoehr tells it: Last year, senior leaders of the Army became aware of technological developments which make it possible to improve the "Interceptor" body armor worn by our troops.

The "Interceptor" consists of a vest, two SAPI (small arms protective insert) plates worn in the front and the back, and (more…)

THE PRESIDENT CAN DO BETTER

Guest Author August 25, 2005

From the moment President Bush set his war policy after the 9-11 attacks, our country has been divided into two factions. The first faction supports the President because it believes he’s doing the right thing, while the second faction opposes the President because it believes he’s doing the wrong thing.

Now a third faction has emerged, comprised of those who believe the President is doing the right thing – but that he isn’t doing it very well.

Generally, those who belong to this third faction argue that the war is going badly because we aren’t fighting hard enough, or smart (more…)

THE MAP OF THE MIDDLE EAST’S FUTURE

Dr. Jack Wheeler August 25, 2005

Remember when the map of Asia looked like this? It took a real feat of imagination 20 or 30 years ago to conceive how it might look differently, without the gigantic blob of the Soviet Union. For most folks back then, it was literally inconceivable. Yet as we all know, the map doesn’t look like this any more.

How about this map?

A lot of those yellow line borders you see are just as ephemeral as the Former Soviet Union’s. There used to be a line dividing North and South Yemen until 1990. Now it’s one country. There wasn’t a (more…)

OFFING HUGO

Dr. Jack Wheeler August 25, 2005

Out of the mouths of babes and crackpotsï¿½

We have Pat Robertson to thank for Doe-Eyed Danny Quayle being George Bush the Elder’s running mate in 1988 instead of Jack Kemp. Kemp and Robertson had gotten into a bitter tiff during the Iowa caucuses when Robertson himself was going for the nomination.

At the Republican Convention in New Orleans, Robertson got word that Bush had picked Kemp. Furious, he stormed up to Bush and yelled, “If you run with Kemp, I’ll campaign against you and do everything I can to see you are defeated.”

In a panic, Bush dumped Kemp (more…)

THE TROJAN HORSE AND HOW IT WORKS

ttpn August 25, 2005

From a computing point of view, the crew responsible for what one Internet site called a “Day of Atonement” for Israel’s computer safety had all the bases covered.

A sophisticated “Trojan horse” – a program that works stealthily to either wreck computer systems or steal information – combined with the “personal touch” of private investigators or corporate colleagues passing files or CDs to unsuspecting users ensured that the deception went undetected for too long.

Trojan horses are named for the ur-Horse of Greek mythology, where the hapless Trojans didn’t realize they had been invaded before it was too late.

The (more…)

FROM COMPUTER SPEAKERS TO STEREO SPEAKERS

ttpn August 25, 2005

Tinny. That’s the word for music delivered through computer speakers off an Internet stream or an MP3 file. The sound quality is just not up to the sophisticated sounds most people want to hear when they download MP3s or play CDs.

There was a time not too long ago when people strove for high-fidelity perfection, or something close to it, and invested loads of money in sophisticated equipment. Speakers, amplifiers, fancy bass and treble enhancers – there was a time when stereo was not even considered enough, and the industry pushed “quadraphonic” sound systems.

I remember those days. I’d be (more…)

Chapter Five: THE LEADER

Dr. Jack Wheeler August 22, 2005

Chapter Five: THE LEADER

The leader of the strangers stood underneath the big ceiba tree he had slashed with his sword. He addressed the sub-chiefs assembled in front of him through the stranger who spoke Maya.

“I come to you from the greatest king in the world, His Majesty Don Carlos of Spain. The mighty country of Spain lies on the other side of the Great Ocean, and we have crossed it to trade peacefully with you and to instruct you in the religion of the One True God.

“His Majesty Dos Carlos commands us to come in peace, yet (more…)

A CABINET OF EVIL

Michael Ledeen August 19, 2005

Iranian President Ahmadi Nejad has been busy putting together a cabinet for the Islamic republic. While all real power remains firmly in the clammy hands of Supreme Leader Khamenei, it’s worth taking a look at some of the new ministers, if only because it tells us two important things:

(1) The face the regime wishes to show to the world at large, and (2) the policies the regime intends to unleash on the long-suffering Iranian people.

Let’s start with the interior minister, Hojatoll-Islam Mostafa Pour-Mohammadi. He was formerly the number-two man in the ministry of intelligence and security — (more…)

THE PERSIAN RATCHET

Dr. Jack Wheeler August 18, 2005

The war between Persia and the West is very ancient, well over a thousand years older than the war between Islam and Christianity.

Western Civilization originated in a strip of land 90 miles long and 30 miles wide along the Mediterranean coast of Asia Minor (Turkey today) known as Ionia. The Greeks who settled there in the 9th and 8th centuries BC colonized such cities as Ephesus and Miletus, where the first philosophers in history (like Thales, 635-543 BC) offered natural explanations of the world rather than superstition and myth.

The founder of the Persian Empire, Cyrus the Great (576-529 (more…)

THE VIRTUAL CD-ROM CONTROL PANEL FOR WINDOWS XP

ttpn August 18, 2005

Last week I used Microsoft’s material to explain that an ISO file is an exact image of a CD-ROM or a DVD.

As a Microsoft Developer Network (MSDN) subscriber, I receive a broad number of DVDs each month. However, the items – like development platforms and the MSDN Library are available for downloading up to a month before I’ll receive the DVD.

I’ll download the ISO, and use the Virtual CD-ROM to install the application. As I wrote last week, Virtual works just as well for DVDs.

Some Microsoft downloads are only available as downloads. These are usually beta products. (more…)

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THE DOOMED CITIES

GOING WIRELESS

NO BLAME

MARX AND MOHAMMED

Chapter Six: DOÃ‘A MARINA

Chapter Six: DOÑA MARINA

WHICH SIDE OF THE WAR ON TERRORISM IS THE NEW YORK TIMES ON?

THE PRESIDENT CAN DO BETTER

THE MAP OF THE MIDDLE EAST’S FUTURE

OFFING HUGO

THE TROJAN HORSE AND HOW IT WORKS

FROM COMPUTER SPEAKERS TO STEREO SPEAKERS

Chapter Five: THE LEADER

A CABINET OF EVIL

THE PERSIAN RATCHET

THE VIRTUAL CD-ROM CONTROL PANEL FOR WINDOWS XP

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