Problems fixed:

• Had to reinstall lots of python libraries (had been built for 2.5, needed in 2.6) in order to get my websites to work. This was expected, though more packages were affected than I had expected.
• I had quite a few problems merging my old dovecot and postfix config files with the new ones, which resulted in the household not getting any mail for a few days. This was mostly my fault, though.
• Any sound played through pulseaudio was accompanied by a horrifying hissing noise except when the volume was at a single specific value. This turned out to be a problem with my sound device's ALSA driver and the "glitch-free" playback in pulseaudio. This is despite the fact that I have snd_via82xx, which is supposed to work. Changing pulseaudio's settings to add 'tsched=0' to anything that might load a hardware module solved it, but not until after a reboot. Probably an old pulseaudio process was hanging around from one or another user and keeping the old settings active.
• Gnome menus have old legacy things in them that they're not supposed to. I have to fix this with every dist-upgrade.

Not fixed yet

• Old VMWare doesn't work with the new kernel. On the laptop, which runs Ubuntu, I'd already run into this and upgraded VMWare to solve it. I'll have to do this here in the next week or so.
• Some of my policy settings (like letting sound continue playing when you switch users) have been lost, and since there is no longer any admin GUI for PolicyKit, there's no obvious way to fix this. I find this annoying, because my audio is played by mpd, the whole point of which is to play music when run as someone other than the active logged-in user. Adding some group memberships may fix it... have to see after restarting some services.

Conclusions

Fedora 12 seems nicely put together, and the upgrade was, though not the smoothest, smoother than many others I've gone through in the past.

As probably the only person who enjoys both "The Art of Manliness" and "I Blame The Patriarchy", I'd like to point out that this article sums up why that's possible.

Source: 2009-11-10 Tue, Manliness: The Baby and the Bathwater | The Art of Manliness

Why You Should Never Talk to the Police : Law is Cool

Source: 2009-11-10 Tue, Why You Should Never Talk to the Police : Law is Cool

• Liberty in Context
  

  A well-written defense of Kerry Howley's article on thick libertarianism.

  Source: 2009-10-28 Wed, Liberty in Context

• SC Cemetery Sex Scandal Deepens :: FITSNews
  Source: 2009-10-29 Thu, SC Cemetery Sex Scandal Deepens :: FITSNews
• Trash fouls water at historic park - Local / Metro - TheState.com
  

  Source: 2009-11-06 Fri, Trash fouls water at historic park - Local / Metro - TheState.com

• Industrie Toulouse: Linguistic Simplicity
  

  Source: 2009-11-06 Fri, Industrie Toulouse: Linguistic Simplicity

• Why Ruby is an acceptable LISP
  

  Reading this as part of my ongoing effort to grok what Rubies are up to, by comparison to LISP and Python.

  Source: 2009-11-06 Fri, Why Ruby is an acceptable LISP

…

Maddow prefaced her remarks with a long homily on how badly the U.S. government hated military coups, because they ran counter to everything the U.S. government stands for, were so abhorrent to American values that the U.S. government cut off all ties to such repugnant pariah regimes, and blah blah woof woof.

This is amazingly stupid…

Source: 2009-10-06 Tue, DeMint, Maddow and Honduras: Don’t Dare Call It Treason

FBI Investigated Coder for Liberating Paywalled Court Records | Threat Level | Wired.com

the feds mounted a serious investigation of Swartz for helping put public documents onto the public web.

The crime of making public documents public…

Source: 2009-10-06 Tue, FBI Investigated Coder for Liberating Paywalled Court Records | Threat Level | Wired.com

The First Counter-revolutionary

This is really a brilliant article, in that it does a very clear job of explaining Hobbes's conception of liberty, and how that conception of liberty is still held by modern libertarians (and many modern liberals) and opposed by modern radicals. It really gets to two issues that had been previously puzzling me:

1. Why some libertarians appear to prefer monarchy to democracy (see Democracy: The God That Failed for the canonical example)
2. Why I can't get along with agorists.

Agorists are basically a split of the anarcho-capitalist tendency who maintain most of that tendency's theory, but have a leftist cultural identification (that is, they identify or attempt to identify with the working class) rather than the rightist (owning-class) identification of mainstream anarcho-capitalists, and a robust critique of actually-existing corporatist capitalism. I'd like to see them as allies. But they always rub me the wrong way, I think this is pretty much the reason: agorists have a Hobbesian conception of liberty that is at odds with my own radical-democratic ideals.

Source: 2009-10-07 Wed, The First Counter-revolutionary

Some Libertarian Socialist Fragments « Bowers of Paradise (Life After Authority)

A good explanation of what's wrong with the homesteading theory of property.

Source: 2009-10-07 Wed, Some Libertarian Socialist Fragments « Bowers of Paradise (Life After Authority)

Ra's Al Ghulah - Libya

Huh, how about that?

Source: 2009-10-09 Fri, Ra's Al Ghulah - Libya

Cameron could well be the last ever UK prime minister | Jackie Ashley | Comment is free | The Guardian

Source: 2009-10-09 Fri, Cameron could well be the last ever UK prime minister | Jackie Ashley | Comment is free | The Guardian

Charlie's Diary: Politics

Re: Scotland leaving the UK

Source: 2009-10-10 Sat, Charlie's Diary: Politics

LENIN'S TOMB: The pitfalls of tolerance

A discussion of "tolerance" as it exists as a tool of colonialism or of dominance.

Source: 2009-10-13 Tue, LENIN'S TOMB: The pitfalls of tolerance

The Alexandrian - Misc Creations

Dissociated mechanics

Source: 2009-10-13 Tue, The Alexandrian - Misc Creations

A Little Help From Your Friends: How Common Security Clubs Can Mend Our Social Fabric | Corporate Accountability and WorkPlace | AlterNet

Source: 2009-10-14 Wed, A Little Help From Your Friends: How Common Security Clubs Can Mend Our Social Fabric | Corporate Accountability and WorkPlace | AlterNet

Meet the New Healthcare Boss

How liberal tinkering with the payment system doesn't solve the basic factors that make health care unaffordable.

Source: 2009-10-15 Thu, Meet the New Healthcare Boss

Wired 11.09: PowerPoint Is Evil

An oldie, but a goodie.

Source: 2009-10-19 Mon, Wired 11.09: PowerPoint Is Evil

Worldchanging: Bright Green: Tragedy of the Commons, R.I.P.

Over many decades Ostrom has documented how various communities manage common resources – grazing lands, forests, irrigation waters, fisheries— equitably and sustainably over the long term. The Nobel Committee’s recognition of her work effectively debunks popular theories about the Tragedy of the Commons, which hold that private property is the only effective method to prevent finite resources from being ruined or depleted.

Source: 2009-10-19 Mon, Worldchanging: Bright Green: Tragedy of the Commons, R.I.P.

Schneier on Security: The Commercial Speech Arms Race

Source: 2009-10-19 Mon, Schneier on Security: The Commercial Speech Arms Race

The 5 Most Popular Safety Laws (That Don't Work) | Cracked.com

Via Free Range Kids.

Source: 2009-10-23 Fri, The 5 Most Popular Safety Laws (That Don't Work) | Cracked.com

Worldchanging: Bright Green: Transition Towns or Bright Green Cities?

I basically agree with the argument here, except for the negativity about the transition movement. The problem is that a bright green future is ideal, but the chance that we will fail to bring one about is significant. I don't begrudge anyone trying to achieve a "soft landing" on the (hopefully false!) assumption that a crash is the only alternative.

Source: 2009-10-27 Tue, Worldchanging: Bright Green: Transition Towns or Bright Green Cities?

"But there is, of course, a way out. It’s called feminism. It offers men a way to understand the nature of this toxic conception of who we are.

Feminism is a gift to men, if we are smart enough to accept it."

Source: 2009-09-25 Fri, The quagmire of masculinity

Language Log » Moving low-hanging fruit forward at the end of the day

"Going forward" is my particular bête noire. As commentator Nathan Myers says 'it is meant as a sort of prayer, suggesting 'please let everyone here forget all that has gone before'. I find this particularly true of political use of the phrase, and not surprisingly, it is a particular favorite of the Obama administration.

Source: 2009-09-28 Mon, Language Log » Moving low-hanging fruit forward at the end of the day

Why I don't contribute to Wikipedia anymore - Where is Ploum ?

The actual problem with Wikipedia is how desperate its editors are for (academic) credibility — to the extent that they are willing to destroy any unique value it might once have had in pursuit of (academic) credibility. But the sad thing is that they will never convince their critics, and in the mean time are alienating their would-be supporters.

Source: 2009-09-28 Mon, Why I don't contribute to Wikipedia anymore - Where is Ploum ?

LENIN'S TOMB: G20 Protests

One of the better comments I've seen about the repression of the G20 protesters points out that when the 'Teabaggers' inspired by Glenn Beck turned out to protest over healthcare reform, they could bring a gun and cite the second amendment, without being harrassed. G20 protesters get beaten up and exposed to top notch military technology if they just cite the first amendment.

Source: 2009-09-28 Mon, LENIN'S TOMB: G20 Protests

Senate Dems against public option come from states with near-monopoly insurance markets

Source: 2009-09-30 Wed, ISS - Senate Dems against public option come from states with near-monopoly insurance markets

Groklaw - On Mono, Miguel, Stallman and Fusion with Microsoft

The best article currently available on the subject. Lays out full evidence for Miguel de Icaza's perspective and why it is incompatible with the Free Software movement.

Source: 2009-09-30 Wed, Groklaw - On Mono, Miguel, Stallman and Fusion with Microsoft

Memes strike back: Gerbils, gay blood elves, and Glenn Beck - Ars Technica

How many legal documents have you seen that throw circumspection to the four winds and tell a WIPO arbiter that "only an abject imbecile could believe that the domain name would have any connection to the Complainant." And that's before the "HOMOSEXUAL BLOOD ELF" even makes an appearance.

This is quite possibly the best legal brief ever.

In other news, Rick Santorum is be "dipping his toes" in the 2012 Iowa "waters". Ew.

Source: 2009-09-30 Wed, Memes strike back: Gerbils, gay blood elves, and Glenn Beck - Ars Technica

Commentator who called for coup against Obama worked in Johnson, Carter administrations

This is basically blawg drama, and thus, SERIOUS BUSINESS, but it's interesting in what it says about the right-wing mind (such as it is). Hasn't been reported in the MSM, but possibly only because it's blawg drama.

Source: 2009-09-30 Wed, ISS - Commentator who called for coup against Obama worked in Johnson, Carter administrations

Bluetile - a modern tiling window manager with a gentle learning curve

I like the idea of a project that tries to bridge the gap between traditional window managers and modern tiling window managers.

Source: 2009-10-01 Thu, Bluetile - a modern tiling window manager with a gentle learning curve

LENIN'S TOMB: Victory for neoliberalism in Ireland

Source: 2009-10-04 Sun, LENIN'S TOMB: Victory for neoliberalism in Ireland

Woman’s Shattered Life Shows Ground Beef Inspection Flaws - NYTimes.com

Many big slaughterhouses will sell only to grinders who agree not to test their shipments for E. coli, according to officials at two large grinding companies.

Spew.

Source: 2009-10-05 Mon, Woman’s Shattered Life Shows Ground Beef Inspection Flaws - NYTimes.com

'I'm not sure "bimbo" is the best translation'

The Conservapedia crew are busy rewriting retranslating the Bible to cleanse it of liberal bias. (Via.) Their talk page for the Gospel According to Mark is a record of stupidity and blundering that some day they are going to wish had never been there. They've had particular trouble updating the name of the Third Person of the Trinity ('ghost is misconstrued as spectre or phantasm, rather than spirit (interestingly, they're the same word in German, geist, from which I imagine we get the wording', is one scholarly contribution) and after considering 'Holy Force' and 'Divine Force' have settled (for now) on 'Divine Guide'. Which just makes the Third Person sound like some wandering swami.

Source: 2009-10-05 Mon, The Early Days of a Better Nation

• Charlie's Diary: The future, Indian-style
  

  India is going forward with producing (and exporting) Thorium-fuel-cycle fission reactors. Compared to Uranium-fuel-cycle reactors, the Thorium fuel cycle:

  offers several potential advantages over a uranium fuel cycle, including greater resource abundance, superior physical and nuclear properties of fuel, enhanced proliferation resistance, and reduced plutonium and actinide production.

  The criticism by commentator heteromeles is relevant, of course.

  Source: 2009-09-22 Tue, Charlie's Diary: The future, Indian-style

• Singularity Salon: Putting the Human Back in the Post-Human Condition - NYC Future Salon (New York, NY) - Meetup.com
  

  From Jamais Cascio:

  With their unwavering focus on computing power and digital technology, leading Singularity proponents increasingly define the future in language devoid of politics and culture—thereby missing two of the factors most likely to shape the possibility the direction of any technology-driven intelligence explosion. Even if the final result is a "post-human" era, leaving out human elements when describing what leads up to a Singularity isn't just mistaken, it's potentially quite dangerous. It's time to set aside algorithms and avatars, and talk about the truly important issues surrounding the possibility of a Singularity: political power, social responsibility, and the role of human agency.

  Source: 2009-09-23 Wed, Singularity Salon: Putting the Human Back in the Post-Human Condition - NYC Future Salon (New York, NY) - Meetup.com

• Claudia Hart: A Child's Machiavelli
  

  A Child's Machiavelli began as a series of paintings, imaginary pages from what I envisioned as a first-grade primer instructing the uninitiated on how to seize and hold power.

  Source: 2009-09-23 Wed, Claudia Hart

• Orson Scott Card, meet Alan Turing at Feminist SF – The Blog!
  

  Geek Feminism Blog writes:

  Yonmei over at Feminist SF writes a heartbreaking post about Alan Turing (who was convicted of gross indecency for homosexual acts) and Orson Scott Card (who supports such criminalisation).

  Source: 2009-09-23 Wed, Orson Scott Card, meet Alan Turing at Feminist SF – The Blog!

• New York Post Special Climate Edition
  

  A "special edition" of the New York Post cooked up by the Yes Men.

  Source: 2009-09-24 Thu, New York Post

• Scanning Dead Salmon in fMRI Machine Highlights Risk of Red Herrings | Wired Science | Wired.com
  

  “And if I were a ridiculous researcher, I’d say, ‘A dead salmon perceiving humans can tell their emotional state.’”

  Source: 2009-09-24 Thu, Scanning Dead Salmon in fMRI Machine Highlights Risk of Red Herrings | Wired Science | Wired.com

• Operation Northwoods and the 9/11 Truthers
  

  It's one thing to believe, as I and the author of this article do, that the 9/11 Truthers have not made their case, and that the "blowback" hypothesis is much more likely. It's quite another to believe them crazy because "it is simply inconceivable that federal officials would ever do such a dastardly thing."

  Source: 2009-09-24 Thu, Operation Northwoods and the 9/11 Truthers

Everyone loves link spam, and I've been neither posting links here, nor sharing them on FaceBook, so here is a quick update of links, brought to you by org-protocol

• synecdochic: Don't Be That Guy.
  

  A guide to male behaviour on the internets.

  Source: 2009-08-28 Fri, synecdochic: Don't Be That Guy.

• Sitting this one out § Unqualified Offerings
  

  Why libertarians have no stake in preserving the existing US health care system.

  Source: 2009-08-28 Fri, Sitting this one out § Unqualified Offerings

• Unconscionable Math « Taunter Media
  

  Recission, and why the health insurance industry must be destroyed.

  Source: 2009-08-28 Fri, Unconscionable Math « Taunter Media

• Eco - "Eternal Fascism: 14 Ways of Looking at a Blackshirt"
  

  What makes fascism fascism?

  Source: 2009-09-04 Fri, Eco - "Eternal Fascism: 14 Ways of Looking at a Blackshirt"

• Charlie's Diary: Chrome Plated Jackboots
  

  What will the core political conflicts of the 21st century be? Probably not what you think.

  Source: 2009-09-04 Fri, Charlie's Diary: Chrome Plated Jackboots

• The Mosaic navigator: The essential … - Google Books
  

  Sigmund Freud was ahead of his time.

  Source: 2009-09-08 Tue, The Mosaic navigator: The essential … - Google Books

• Facebook | AK Press: Anarchism: A Documentary History of Libertarian Ideas—Volume Two: The Emergence of the New Anarchism (1939–1977)
  

  Source: 2009-09-09 Wed, Facebook | AK Press: Anarchism: A Documentary History of Libertarian Ideas—Volume Two: The Emergence of the New Anarchism (1939–1977)

• The Infamous Brad - Why I Do Not Support Obama-Care
  

  How Obama-Care fails to actually address the healthcare delivery problem by tinkering around the edges of the health insurance problem.

  Source: 2009-09-14 Mon, The Infamous Brad - Why I Do Not Support Obama-Care

• Truthdig - Reports - This Isn’t Reform, It’s Robbery
  

  "It will basically be a government law that says you have to buy their defective product"

  Source: 2009-09-14 Mon, Truthdig - Reports - This Isn’t Reform, It’s Robbery

• Education Needs to Be Turned on Its Head
  

  An introduction to unschooling.

  Source: 2009-09-14 Mon, Education Needs to Be Turned on Its Head

• The Data Liberation Front (Google)
  

  A hopeful sign that Google is going to live up to their "Don't be Evil" motto with regard to the cloud… assuming other working groups listen to this one.

  Source: 2009-09-16 Wed, The Data Liberation Front (the Data Liberation Front)

• kucinich.us - Home
  

  Source: 2009-09-16 Wed, kucinich.us - Home

  The Private Mandate Sausage Machine

• FAQ | bigskyfreedom.org
  

  The FAQ of an anarcho-Buddhist community. Fascinating.

  Source: 2009-09-18 Fri, FAQ | bigskyfreedom.org

• Uchiyama Gudo - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
  

  A late-19th, early 20th century Zen Buddhist priest and socialist anarchist activist.

  Source: 2009-09-18 Fri, Uchiyama Gudo - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

• Hew's Lawn Labyrinth
  

  This is very cool, but as for me, I can hardly manage to keep my lawn mowed, much less carry out something like this.

  Source: 2009-09-18 Fri, Hew's Lawn Labyrinth

This little code snippet fixes that. I'm not sure it's ideal in all ways. But it works for me currently.

(eval-after-load "w3m"
  '(progn
     (defun jfm/open-url-dwim (&optional url)
       (interactive)
       (if (equal browse-url-browser-function 'w3m-browse-url)
           (w3m-browse-url url)
         (if (equal (face-at-point) 'w3m-anchor-face)
             (w3m-view-url-with-external-browser url)
           (browse-url url))))
     (define-key gnus-article-mode-map (kbd "<return>") 'jfm/open-url-dwim)))

After my daughter was born, I needed to use it to show baby pictures to our family, so I had the motivation to at least fix stockphoto up to work with a current Django release. This is done; it mainly involved fixing up the model code, switching to forms from oldforms, fixing up the URLs, and fixing zipfile import to work with the new upload API. I have put the fixed code on bitbucket. If you pull from tip at that repository, or download a snapshot of tip from the downloads page, you will have a stockphoto package that works on Django 1.0.

This isn't quite a release though; it needs a few cleanups before I can push out an 0.3 release:

1. Update documentation
2. Since there were some small model changes, I need to provide a way of migrating from 0.2.1. I am leaning towards South for providing this.
3. Remove dead code

There won't be any new features in stockphoto 0.3 except for non-browseable galleries (which is already in bitbucket, since I wanted it for my daughter's site). I'm tentatively planning a 0.4 release that will have the features originally intended (since so many years ago) for 0.3, plus some suggested to me in email.

If you're interested in using stockphoto, please follow it on bitbucket, and send me any patches you find useful.

I announced her birth to friends and family by email, and set up a Django-based website for them to see her photos (password required; friends and family who got left off the email announcement, email me to get it). But other than that, I really didn't get in front of a keyboard between her birth (April 9, 2009), and when I went back to work two months later (thanks to FMLA).

But anyway, she's beautiful and strong, and I'm at a keyboard a bit more now, so the web-mediated part of my life is getting back on track, and a few articles should start to trickle out.

I promise to write something that isn't just a link collection one of these days.

• Welcome to Roseanne World
  

  Roseanne Barr's blog is full of much more high-weirdness than you would expect.

• Beat the Press Archive | The American Prospect
  

  Interesting debate in comments about whether real wages are actually rising during the current crash.

• Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab Perfume Oils: Welcome to the Lab
  

  Extremely fascinating perfumery. Many scents are olfactory interpretations of characters, scenes, or concepts from literature and philosophy.

• The Science of Peace
  

  A feature-length documentary on what peace is, and why we have trouble realizing it, with reference to new scientific studies; hosted by LeVar Burton. Unfortunately, some of it dips into pseudoscience (like morphogenetic field theory and "noetic science"), but any attempt at dealing with this is better than no attempt.

• partiwm – a tabbed/tiled window manager for modern desktops
  

  This seems like a pretty nice idea – to do the kind of things that hacker-friendly environments like ion or stumpwm do, but look good doing it.

• Mekabu: seaweed for cancer prevention
  

Again, some of this has been piling up.

• Gaza medics describe horror of strike which killed 70 - Telegraph
  

  100 members of an extended family were ordered into a building by the IDF, which then shelled the building.

• ISS - Another TVA coal waste spill underscores need for federal action
  

  Coal waste: much worse than anyone previously thought, apparently.

• ZNet - Tel Aviv Reflections
  Israeli philosopher Adi Ophir on the nature of the assault in Gaza.
• Micro Persuasion: Why Text Remains King of the Web
  
• LENIN'S TOMB: Resisting the recession
  

  Pretty UK-centric, but some features are relevant to the US.

• Let's Get Get Those Freight Trucks Off the Road and Put America Back on Tracks | Environment | AlterNet
  

  Back to the future.

• Nancy Kanwisher: Reigniting Violence: How Do Ceasefires End?
  

  Stats show Israel is more likely than Hamas to resume violence after a period of relative peace.

• 2009-2010 Bill 56: Profanity - South Carolina Legislature Online
  

  SC Legislature seeks to outlaw profanity in verbal or written form in any public place or forum.

  > "Obscenity is whatever happens to shock some elderly and ignorant magistrate." - Bertrand Russell

• Face Facts: Outsourcing Sucks
  
• Homage to Icarus » Blog Archive » Ubuntu Ruined My Life
  

  GNU systems are already easier to use and more capable than mainstream systems. But ISPs, universities, and employers undermine that advantage by imposing arbitrary requirements on how you must do things rather than practical requirements on what you must do.

• Redirect linux console beep to the sound card « Autopragmatic
  

  Nice to see someone is using something I've written.

• The Trouble with Those %u201CShovel-Ready%u201D Projects
  

• 1 step forward, 2 steps back « PhD in Parenting Blog
  

  Facebook has now deleted someone's account for posting their breastfeeding pictures.

• Michelle%u2019s Blog » Blog Archive » Facebook%u2019s saga against Breastfeeding photos%u2026
  
• ISS - Texas activist involved in New Orleans projects admits to being an FBI informant
  
• Brandon Darby : Proud FBI Informant and Snitch
  
• a brief history of guile – wingolog
  

  Very interesting article on the goals behind the guile programming language, why it hasn't really succeeded, and what needs to happen to make it succeed.

• Good post on making baby food
  
• Schneier on Security: Allocating Resources: Financial Fraud vs. Terrorism
  
• fíam » Using a metaclass for registering template tags
  
• "Top 5 Lies About Israel%u2019s Assault on Gaza" by Jeremy R. Hammond
  
• LENIN'S TOMB: A lie you weren't supposed to believe
  

This is not an isolated incident, but part of a disturbing pattern. The IDF has also shelled UN relief convoys, forcing the UN to end humanitarian aid to Gaza civilians. What's more, the UN gave GPS coordinates of all UN facilities in Gaza to the IDF, presumably so that they would know not to target those coordinates. They also made it known that civilian refugees were taking shelter in the school, which makes it clear that the shelling was an intentional act of state terrorism.

It is highly disturbing that The State's official editorial position is in favor of state-sponsored terrorism.

• Johann Hari: You are being lied to about pirates - Johann Hari, Commentators - The Independent
  
• Making Whole Wheat Bread, Part One | The New Homemaker
  
• THE REVOLUTIONARY PLEASURE OF THINKING FOR YOURSELF
  
• Don't like speed cameras? Use them to punk your enemies
  
• Infoshop News - On the Israeli war in Gaza
  

  Anarchist communist analysis from Syria.

• Does Last Child In The Woods say anything new?

  I'm currently reading this book, and while I strongly agree with many of its points, and value my childhood in the woods very much, I also agree with this review, and don't care for some of the knee-jerk luddism of the book's author.

• Fighting the Greedy Defense Lobbyists: Our Our Schools vs. Their Worthless Weaponry
  
• A jaded left-wing view of Barack Obama, circa 2000? | Straight.com
  
• Camltastic!: Destroying old hard drives
  
• Target: Freedom: Armed jack boots confiscate family's personal food supply. Is this a prelude to government created depression, or even famine?
  
• LENIN'S TOMB: The intelligence
  

  An analysis of the strategy and propaganda of the Israeli massacre of civilians in Gaza.

Again, these are delayed a little bit.

• Joe Bageant: Obama's election will keep liberals happy
  

  Tomas, a Bageant reader writes:

  > So now Obama parades his lineup of economic advisers and, in the immortal words of Gomer Pyle, "Surprise! Surprise! Surprise!" But only if you've not been paying attention all along. The only surprise is how easily the democrats managed to get people all jacked up about pissing in their own beds. I am hoping that Thomas Frank will explain all this in his next book.

  Ayup.

• denialism blog : Cancer 101
  

  The basics of what cancer is, how it works, and how it is treated. If you understand just this much, you'll never be fooled by quacks pushing woo-woo cancer "treatments".

• Cruella-blog: Dear Santa
  

  No anti-wrinkle cream for Christmas. Plus, the seven signs of aging. I have one (knows the words to ABBA songs).

• Workers - 1, Wal-Mart - 0: Employees Win Right to Unionize | PEEK | AlterNet
  
• Cooperation, Not Obedience
  

  An article on the roles of expertise and authority.

• Aegisub: If programming languages were religions…
  

  According to this, I am a Humanist/Zen Buddhist, forced to work in a Fundamentalist Christian environment. Which is disturbingly close to the truth.

• from Vim to Emacs - part 1
  

  Debian's vim package maintainer and author of popular vim extensions switches to emacs.

• What Does Vilsack's Appointment Mean for the Future of Organic Food and Public Lands? | Environment | AlterNet