The Race

Andrew Sullivan writes vis a vis the possibility that OBL and his ilk may be looking at biologicals,

I fear we are close to the moment when our intellectual capabilities as human beings overtake our moral capacity for self-restraint. We are becoming too smart for our own good. We know too much, and have too much potential for massive destruction for major shit not to hit the fan relatively soon. I’m not even talking about unintended consequences of intellectual or scientific advances. I’m talking about deliberate use of destructive technologies to end our civilization as we have known it. Have we advanced morally as a species at the same pace that we have advanced technologically?
andrew sullivan

It is pretty easy to imagine scenarios in which the sheer fanatical nastieness of al-Qaeda or the perversity of nature let lose the plague. (I am always struck by the fact Canada’s own Timothy Finlay had his bizarre dystopian novel Headhunter set against a backround of dying birds…What did he know??)

At the same time, we are on the brink of scientific revolutions - from nano technology to solar power to space elevators to cancer vaccines - which will push back the limits of our Earth’s resources and our own mortality. My bet is that Sullivan read rather less science fiction than Glenn Reynolds when he was a kid. The sheer awfulness of the deliberate use of biologicals is not a foreign country to people who read Heinlein or Herbert; but the ability of humans to adapt and thrive drives the classic science fiction.

No doubt OBL and his fellow cave men would be delighted to let loose a plague. I doubt they have the ability at the moment; but the desire is there. Which, of course, makes them vermin in the same sense that the rats which carried the bubonic plague are vermin. Time to go and finish the job. Extermination is never particularily attractive; but the alternative is worse.

Written by jay on October 15th, 2005 with 8 comments.
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Juan will likely delete this post

My gut tells me that the letter is a forgery. Most likely it is a black psy-ops operation of the US. But it could also come from Iran, since the mistakes are those a Shiite might make when pretending to be a Sunni. Or it could come from an Iraqi Shiite group attempting to manipulate the United States. Hmmm.

The authenticity of the letter has also been questioned by al-Qaeda in Iraq.
juan cole

Cole goes through a delicious song and dance about various idiomatic issues with the Zawahiri letter which, given that he barely speaks Arabic, is marvelous fatuous. But, for Juan, if al-Qaeda questions a document that’s really all he needs.

What a turd.

UpDate: Actually the turd may be engaged in even more wishful thinking than I thought…this just in from a Powerline reader:

The actual Al Jazeera seems rather skeptical of the denial (see this story): “A purported al-Qaida web posting”…”who claims to be spokesman for al-Qaida in Iraq. It could not be authenticated.”

via memeorandum

Written by jay on October 15th, 2005 with 4 comments.
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Better than Adsense?

I am trying out ads from Chitika. While I have no problem with Google Adsense the truth is that people are pretty used to seeing the Google ads which means their eyes slide right by them. There are a couple of cool things about Chitika. First, the little images of the products for sale. Second, the pulisher has control of which keywords to use. (This is actually mandatory if you run Adsense anywhere on the page.)

There are some real advantages to Chitika. You control the ads which arrive so you don’t get endless ads for blogs. You can target services and products which you think will appeal to your audience. The per click payout is at least the same as Google and, in some cases, two or three times as good. I can’t say much about the click through rate but, as there are practically no clicks on my existing ads it would not take much to create a XXX% increase.

If you want to give Chitika a try on your blog you can find out more by clicking here.

Written by jay on October 15th, 2005 with 3 comments.
Read more articles on Uncategorized and blogging.