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BYE-BYE BOLIVIA?

Dr. Jack Wheeler April 7, 2005

This map of Bolivia may about to become obsolete:

For some time now, a lot of Bolivians have been conducting a “Gas War,” blocking roads, demonstrating in cities like El Alto and Cochabamba to prevent the export of Bolivian natural gas by foreign companies. The fellow coordinating the protests is Evo Morales, a Marxist protégé of Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez, the leader of the MAS (Movement Towards Socialism) Party, and also the leader of coca leaf growers (the stuff that’s made into cocaine). The protests brought down the presidency of Gonzalo Sanchez do Lozada in October 2003 and continue to (more…)

SECURITY DO’S AND DON’TS

ttpn April 7, 2005

Is your hard disk about to crash?

A friend of a friend called. He was clearly in distress. He downloaded what he said was a highly regarded hard disk analyzer and it said his disk was about to crash. Should he back everything up, buy a new hard disk and reinstall everything?

I asked him which OS he ran – XP Pro. Same as me. So I downloaded the program and asked it to analyze my C disk. The program is called Hard Disk Inspector. I had never heard of it. After installation I asked it to analyze and monitor (more…)

GOOD NEWS IS BAD NEWS FOR BUSH-HATERS

Guest Author March 31, 2005

“I hate to say this to Iraqis, but I pray for chaos and civil war,” Nina from Toronto emailed the BBC. "It’s the only way to stop Bush’s policies and show that peace can never come through force. If Iraq gets peace, Bush gets credibility. It cannot be allowed to happen."

These are miserable days for Nina and others of her ilk. Two British newspapers report that the resistance in Iraq is crumbling. Sharif Ali bin al Hussein, a Sunni Muslim who heads Iraq’s main monarchist movement, told the Financial Times that “many insurgents would lay down their arms and (more…)

POLITICAL SOCCER

Michael Ledeen March 31, 2005

A couple of years ago, before I learned better, I was on a BBC radio broadcast in which they had a reporter on the scene in Tehran reporting on big riots in Tehran following a soccer game. The BBC woman in London asked me what I thought about it all, and I said it was a sign of discontent with the regime.

She commented, “But we have soccer hooligans in England, too, don’t we?” To which I responded, “Yes, but they aren’t burning effigies of Tony Blair. The Iranians are burning pictures of Khamenei and Rafsanjani.”

It was a wasted (more…)

RED ZIMBABWE

Dr. Jack Wheeler March 31, 2005

It used to be called Rhodesia, named after its colonial founder, Cecil Rhodes. Before that it was Southern Rhodesia, distinguished from Northern Rhodesia, now called Zambia after the Zambezi River. It was one of the most beautiful and productive countries in the world when I was first there in the early seventies. Now it is hell on earth. It is, of course, Zimbabwe.

As most all African countries, it is a national fiction, a colonial construct with no historical or cultural viability as a country. It has been run since “independence” in 1980 by one of the world’s most racist (more…)

JUDICIAL MURDER

Guest Author March 30, 2005

Terri Schiavo has committed no crime, yet she has been sentenced to death by Florida Circuit Court Judge George Greer, who steadfastly jettisoned due process in her case.

The fundamental issue in Terri’s case is disability rights — not the right to die. Throughout all the extensive media coverage of the case, there has been only slight mention, but usually none at all, that nearly every major disability-rights organization has filed legal briefs to prevent what they regard as judicial murder. The protests are not only from pro-lifers and the Christian Right.

Mrs. Schiavo — who collapsed in 1990 from (more…)

RESPITE FROM LUNACY

Dr. Jack Wheeler March 30, 2005

I just returned from ten days on the Nile in Egypt. It was a special experience to see it once again, this time through the eyes of my 12 year-old son Jackson:

34 years ago, back in 1971, I bribed an Egyptian Army guard at the end of the day when no one was around, and climbed the Great Pyramid (in the background behind the Sphinx). I sat on the top (it’s a small flat square, not a point) to watch the sunset and read Aristotle’s Metaphysics. It was a moment I’ll never forget as long as I live. (more…)

POCKET PC: OBSOLETE?

ttpn March 30, 2005

After a break I’m resuming the discussion of PDAs this week. Last time I discussed the various models of Palm Pilots. This week I’ll take a look at Pocket PCs.

Pocket PCs have been around for a few years, and unlike Palm, are made by several different manufacturers, such as Asus, Dell, Toshiba, HP and Compaq. All have certain features in common, including a stereo headphone jack, IrDA infrared ports, stylus, built-in speaker and microphone, and Windows MediaPlayer (which can handle MP3 files and Windows Media format movies, ASF and WMV), as well as Pocket Word, Pocket Excel, and Pocket (more…)

NOT FIT TO JUDGE

Guest Author March 24, 2005

The perplexing, appalling, heartbreaking Terri Shiavo case brings very modestly to mind Socrates’s injunction that the proper study of philosophy is man. Perhaps the great Socrates could make the study of man a useful endeavor, but if the Schiavo case is any example, most of the rest of us don’t seem up to the task.

But there is nothing new in recognizing man’s heroic inadequacies. Consider the first stanza of the Christian Enlightenment poet Alexander Pope’s The Proper Study of Mankind :

Know then thyself, presume not God to scan; The proper study of Mankind is Man. Plac’d on this (more…)

THE FIRE IN IRAN

Michael Ledeen March 24, 2005

From al-Reuters, we have a masterpiece of disinformation:

ISFAHAN — Iranian authorities beat up and tear gassed exuberant young revellers as they breathed new life into a pre-Islamic fire festival with a night of dancing, flirting and fireworks. The Islamic Republic, which has an awkward relationship with its ancient Zoroastrian religion, only gave guarded recognition to the “Chaharshanbe Souri” festival last year.

The Islamic republic does not have “an awkward relationship” with Zoroastrianism. It forbids Zoroastrian practices, including the celebration of the Zoroastrian New Year, Norooz. Forget about “guarded recognition.” There is a ban. The mullahs know something that al-Reuters (more…)

CLEOPATRA WAS A BLONDE

Dr. Jack Wheeler March 24, 2005

No, this is not a blonde joke. Cleopatra was in fact a blonde. That’s because she was not Egyptian. She was a Macedonian Greek, with hair as blonde as Alexander’s.

Alexander conquered Egypt in 332 BC, then went on to subdue all of the Middle East. When he died nine years later, his just-conquered empire was fought over and carved up by his generals. The one who ended up running Egypt was Ptolemy (367-283 BC).

Declaring himself Pharaoh, he founded the Ptolemaic Dynasty, with twelve Ptolemies in succession, many of whom had wives named Cleopatra.

The Cleopatra we know, lover (more…)

EARTH TO SPACESHIP PUTIN

Dr. Jack Wheeler March 24, 2005

The White House is becoming increasingly concerned about Pootie-Poot. He actually said point-blank to one of Bush’s key advisors: “Mr. Bush is in no position to criticize me on my actions towards the Russian press – look at how he fired Dan Rather.”

Besides the typical Russian chip-on-the-shoulder defensiveness, Putin sees everything now, this advisor told me, “through the lens of Russian imperialism.” In any conversation with him, “you can’t shut him up. He’s become a motor-mouth of endless complaints.”

What did shut him up, at least for a reflective moment, was this White House message: “You have to decide (more…)

FIREFOX AND THUNDERBIRD – DID I SPEAK TOO SOON?

ttpn March 24, 2005

Now that I’m using Firefox and Thunderbird exclusively, I’ve become disappointed. Not surprisingly, I’ve read more about them, and a number of blemishes have been showing up in the Information Technology press. Some even question the integrity of Mozilla Organization.

Furthermore, press reports indicate that Internet Explorer 7 will be released this year. It will have a tabbed interface, cut way down on resource use, and allow third party additions that will dig less deeply into the operating system itself. I’ve also heard this directly from two Microsoft contacts, both of whom are in positions to know.

Let’s begin with (more…)

CASTRO AND MRS. BLANCO

Guest Author March 17, 2005

[Cuban-born writer Humberto Fontova has just published Fidel: Hollywood’s Favorite Tyrant ]

It gets old. It really, really gets old.

I refer to all the moralizing and humbug by U.S. political and business hucksters when they visit Cuba. Take Louisiana’s own Democratic governor, Kathleen Blanco, on her visit to Castroland last week. If the woman had simply told us: "Look, Cuban-Americans, there ain’t enough of you voting in Louisiana to make any difference to me. Worse, all you Cubans are Republicans and didn’t vote for me or contribute to my campaign anyway. I owe you people nothing." How refreshing it might have been!

But no. She insists on warbling about the "strictly (more…)

WORTH IT IN BAGHDAD

Dr. Jack Wheeler March 17, 2005

Major General Peter Chiarelli, head of US military’s Task Force Baghdad and commander of the Army’s 1st Cavalry Division, spoke a few days ago at a AUSA (Association of the United States Army) meeting at the Ft. Hood (Texas) Officer’s Club. A friend of To The Point’s took notes. This is how it really is.

*Baghdad is about the same size, geographically, as Texas’ capital of Austin, with ten times the folks: 700,000 for Austin, 7 million for Baghdad.

*Baghdad’s main problem area has been a huge slum called Sadr City. Last fall, there was an average of 160 terrorist (more…)

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BYE-BYE BOLIVIA?

SECURITY DO’S AND DON’TS

GOOD NEWS IS BAD NEWS FOR BUSH-HATERS

POLITICAL SOCCER

RED ZIMBABWE

JUDICIAL MURDER

RESPITE FROM LUNACY

POCKET PC: OBSOLETE?

NOT FIT TO JUDGE

THE FIRE IN IRAN

CLEOPATRA WAS A BLONDE

EARTH TO SPACESHIP PUTIN

FIREFOX AND THUNDERBIRD – DID I SPEAK TOO SOON?

CASTRO AND MRS. BLANCO

WORTH IT IN BAGHDAD

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