There were stories this week about Cosby and his new campaign around the country to try to inspire change in black america. And there have been a steady trickle of stories discussing Obama from the standpoint of traditional black leaders.

I realized something.

Once again, people pay for the sins of the rich. The grand trump card of black vs caucasian racism is the slave trade. It's a big one. In the words of a black man coming out of Amistad: I wanted to punch a white man.

Here's the problem. Slaves were owned by a small minority of white people: southern plantation owners. Here's a list of people not responsible for the slave trade and labor in the US:

- immigrants in the late-1900s to now
- most northerners
- most southerners that weren't rich

Now, of course all white people who directly participated in slavery are dead. The only people that one could argue have inherited the taint of the slave trade brush are the descendants of plantation owners: not too many people.

So when black people paint all white people as fundamentally evil and racist, because of the sins of slavery, they have committed the highest sin of politcal correctness: they have painted with the widest and crudest of brushes. Hell, they didn't even use a brush. They threw a can of paint at the wall to cover a thumbprint.

Now, obviously racism was enthusiastically adopted by people other than land owners, especially in the South. These people have done evil. But to a large degree, those people are old and dying. Obama is a representative of the new generation that is fundamentally less racist. You cannot blame the ignorance of previous beliefs on the next generation, especially if real effort has been done to combat that ignorance.

Obama is a truly a bellweather for racial relations in America, but he will also signify a strange shift: all the rhetoric, all the careers, all the organizations that existed to defend Black America against racism will not go into the night quietly. Just as old white racists are dying, old black grudges against those people will have to die off.

Older traditional leaders have formed their very identity and career on the oppressed black man.

I think those old entrenched attitudes will do more to hinder racial progress in America in the next few decades rather than any real offenses of the current generation. Cosby's pull youself up attitude is helpful in this regard, but the "I'm sick of losing to white people attitude" is fundamentally self destructive.

Hey, two years without posting. Awesome.

It's been a shitty shitty winter in Minnesota, and I think I understand why winters will be paradoxically worse with global warming.

In December, we got a huge snow. That was the beginning of the end, since the entire northern hemisphere was blanketing in a sun-reflecting, ground-chilling foot or two of snow. And so the winter was much colder.

Now, usually we'd have a thaw to get this. It's global warming, right? Well, unfortunately that means more moisture, and that means a constant supply of snow to fall and keep us real cold. And with the increased amount of moisture comes earlier snow. And since there's more snow when it should be getting warm, it doesn't warm up as fast. So spring races by.

And then we'll be in hundred degree summer.

Peak Oil is here.

Peak oil is a relatively complicated notion. What it essentially means is that the global production capacity has peaked.

Oil "reserves" vary in value: obviously there is size, but there is also the "sweetness" of the oil, which is how easy it is to process, and how easy it is to access, based on its depth as well as the political situation around it (like say, a bunch of crazies like Nigeria).

So that doesn't mean we're out of oil. The supply/production has peaked, but demand will continue to go up, especially as 2.5 billion people in India and China gradually industrialize/modernize. Thus the price of oil will go up.

This will cause several interesting results:

1) Offshore/outsourced production will decline, since it will be cheaper to make things locally rather than ship them across the ocean from China/Malaysia/whereever. This will stunt India and China's growth.
2) At somewhere around $80-100/barrel, a host of alternative energy schemes become price competitive. Which will drive research and economies of scale in those schemes, and move energy generation from oil to those techonologies.
3) Inflation may strike if the oil price increases are not carefully managed by the government. The stagflation of the 1970s was a similar situation, and America's overall financial health due to high debt loads is more precarious now.
4) Something will have to be done about the SUVs on the road. A heavy gas guzzler tax on existing inefficient consumer cars will be imposed. If they aren't all bankrupt by then, the Detroit automakers will be further screwed since the Japanese are so far ahead on efficient vehicle design.

Anyone wonder why the President of the United States is so vociferously defending a somewhat obscure business deal? I mean, if there was this much fuss over a plush doll factory sale (the terrorists could deliver bombs directly to our children!), the POTUS wouldn't give two flips and would nullify the deal.

Oh what? You mean it's dubai of the UAE? What? The Bush Family has been in bed with the Saudis and other Middle East oil dictators for three or four decades?

Oh, I get it. Having two presidents in your pocket must be expensive. The Bushies must have a couple hundred billion in Swiss Accounts from these guys alone. No wonder he'll further risk his presidency over these guys. I mean, he's under 40%, and this jeopardizes any ability of the president to do any other meaningful legislation for the rest of his term.

Oh yeah, and we went into Iraq for WMD. Riiigggghhhhtttt.

Well, lost quite a lot of time due to a) starting up my contract again and b) babysitting a Pug for two weeks. Especially b. Pugs are cute and affectionate, but affectionate in a you-are-my-property-and-will-never-leave-me psycho kind of a way. Good thing they only weigh about 15 pounds.

Since then, and since my frustration post over the palestinians, the muslims have selected that hotbed of intolerance, evil, and hatred in the international community to pick on: Denmark. Over a bunch of cartoons and free speech. Plus apparently the Taliban have decided to bomb and destroy fellow Afghani schools and public works, since they aren't having success with the US troops. Same thing is happening in Iraq.

Wow are muslims totally and completely crazy. Seriously. I think we should go back to the original strategy toward Muslims we had in the 80s: since people this intolerant, absolutist, and crazy hate each other as much as outsiders, we should be supporting those groups that are in civil wars with other muslims. Ahhh, the days of the grand Iraq-Iran Sunni-Shiite hatefest.

We also really really really need to stop giving money to the Muslims for their oil. It's clear these societies are completely beyond reformation using rational means. Look at Syria and Egypt, "moderate" muslim countries that are decades in the making. Their population is still utterly insane and a powderkeg.

We should just invade these oil-rich muslims and take the oil from them. It's the only power they really have. It would have a double effect as well. Muslim countries act as if they can inflame and insult the Western world as much as they want to since we respect their free speech. It's true that we should accept the principle of free speech and expression - for our citizens that operate and behave in accordance with our civilizations. But if the populations of foreign nations have declared us our evil enemies and heretics that must be destroyed, why can't we view the burning of flags, bombings, and torching of embassies as direct acts of war? Why aren't these countries our enemies? The governments of these states tolerate, tacitly approve of, and use this sentiment to their own ends. That's an act of war.

These people are barbarians with oil money. Take away their oil money and they are no threat at all. The experiments with moderation have failed. The only thing left is to treat the barbarians to barbarian warfare: neuter their military capability, take their oil, displace the populations. This means: Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Kuwait, Bahrain, Iran. We could have conquered the necessary resources, displaced the populations, and secured the arab-less territories in less time and money than we've wasted on Iraq, for a far better return on our money. Georgie-poo's Texas Oilmen would love this plan.

The funny thing is, this is still far more civilized than what the Mongols did. I suppose this reeks of the imperialist attitudes of the 17th and 18th centuries, but the muslims are different. This isn't a peaceful society. It just isn't. It is a backward society totally and violently resistent to reform. Islam is cancerous, more dangerous, destructive, oppressive, irreformable, and counterproductive than America's out-of-control consumerism.

Also, as a vague taoist, I dislike the absolute us-good, them-evil of typical wars. It is inevitably a matter of point of view. The lopsided morality of World War 2 Hilter/totalitarian/holocaust is pretty rare, usually wars are morally quite even. We fought the indians for resources. We may have been invaders, but they fought among each other with equally base motivations. We just had gunpowder. England and France battled for centuries over power, resources, and influence.

But in this struggle, it's clear that the West has done its due diligence. We've tried to reason with them. We've financially and diplomatically supported "moderate" regimes. We've bought their oil. It's apparent muslims want a big bloody war, regardless of the glaringly obvious fact that they will be the ones spilling blood in vastly assymettric ratios. I'm sure the crazy christian conservatives will be on board, I'm sure the oilmen will be, and so will most of the muslim- and terrorism- weary american populace.

Next, big HDCP discussion on slashdot. I have problems explaining to people that HDCP is bad, since HDCP Blu-Rays will drop HD content to normal resolution if your monitor/TV doesn't support it. Then Majick Sheff said that he sees this word every time he sees HDCP:

HanDiCaP.

Perfect. Dead on. Fark-style humor probably has the best modern marketing catchphrases in existence.

Hamas vs Fatah.

I've heard lots of Palestinians bemoan their existence throughout the decades. I'm sure the Israelis haven't been saints the entire time the Palestinians have sent waves of suicide bombers and formed an entire generation brainwashed on anything except raw hatred.

But one thing I always knew, when millions of oil money was being funneled to them, that the leaders were just pocketing the cash and fucking the common Palestinian, just like any good African dictator does. And when Yassar Arafat finally bit it, what a surprise, he had a couple hundred million stashed away. Add that to the pointless millions of dollars flushed down the toilet in military weapons and operations, and it's pretty clear the Arafat and the Palestinians at this point have themselves to blame for living in a crappy hunk of desert.

So it's appropriate that their f'ed-up society is now having democratic elections between Fatah, the corrupt thieves that just steal all the money, and Hamas, a bunch of thugs that undermine any attempts at security, society, or structure.

This "country" basically has one chance: let women run it. Muslims. Let women run them. Hah, oh yeah, that's right, they beleive in the most backward, warlike, mysogynistic, ignorant religion ever invented. Backward - just do a tour of muslim countries, warlike - man these guys love a war, either between themselves (Sunni and Shiite) or anything under the sun (Jews, us, Christians, evil toads) mysogynistic - see veils, summary executions of women, suppression of education, and ignorant - well, call me radical, but backward+warlike+mysogynistic == ignorant. Hey, thank's for the zero guys, but that was two millenia ago. What else have you invented while being at the crossroads of three continents? Not much else.

The Palestinians should be thanking their god every day they don't live in the darker ages of history, when any of the shit they pulled would have resulted in the Mongolians putting their entire population to the sword, just like they did to Baghdad.

Random thoughts from the day's tech surfing.

Someone suggested Sun should rename solaris since that name implies closed source, not the current open source status. The blog then suggested Sun Linux. Terrible.

Seems pretty clear it should be called Sunix or Sunux. Same number of letters and name structure as Linux, which would imply a similarity of offering/targetting, but has Sun in the name. As if it would ever happen.

SInce it was the new year, and people are all gaga about tech predictions, I still hold the prediction of computing without monitors. Basically, you wear sunglasses that has a laser projector that beams images directly onto your eyeball. Gyroscopes and other alignment sensors can intelligently detect if you're actually looking at the monitor. Don't know how text input/keyboard would be replaced though, but those displays aren't limited by any preset pixel resolutions. It's a deep as they want it to be, with multiple displays, and maybe 3D.

For input, I've heard of a palm -sized device that you can "chord" in input as fast or faster than a keyboard. Basically, a character is a combination of buttons pressed at once. The eye's focus can be the mouse pointer.

I have heard of sensors that can actually move a mouse by reading cortical activity, but that would be difficult to implement.

Making a fully mobile computer is the next great leap in computing, integrated with a cell phone and wireless internet connections. The data immersion abilities are immense. Of course, it is the first step toward cybernizing humanity, but that is inevitable.

Dick Cheney may be the biggest liar in the history of American politics.

Every single time this guy opens his mouth with his solemn uber-serious tone, the media treats him like he's wise grandpa straightening us all up.

Every single time this guy opens his mouth, a bald-faced lie pours out: Iraq WMD, Iraq Intelligence, BinLaden-Hussien Connections, Energy Meetings, Halliburton, Progress/Regress in post-invasion Iraq, the state of the economy.

He even lies about lying:
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2004_10/004860.php

Now he's completely bullshitting about FISA violations/Domestic Spying.

This is a guy with four heart attacks, and knows he'll be dead of heart failure in under ten years. He's raping the country behind the scenes for his own gain. He works in a completely different building that the White House so there won't be any tapes or records of what he did. That's probably why Bush stays in Crawford too. Kind of like the US insisting they import all the building materials when they built their embassy in the USSR, so the Russkies couldn't plant bugs in the walls.

So basically, the republican leadership is assfucking America right and left, and then goes out on the campaign trail so their deluded radical Christian followers to suck off their shit-covered dicks. While some may consider that an obscene, pointlessly vitriolic portrait, I'd consider it far less obscene that what's really going on.

Colorado skiing distracted me. I went to Vail, Keystone, and Breckenridge.

Of the three, Breckenridge was the best deal (ate at the outside grill). Simple access from free parking, Good runs, solid all around.

Vail was a disaster in the morning due to strangely perfectly gray clouds, which created strange white-out zero-visibility conditions. In the afternoon, the sun came out, but too late, where the legendary aspect of the legendary back bowls became apparent. Go to Vail when it's sunny. If it's windy and overcast, do China bowl and Blue Sky Basin. Vail's parking is $16, make sure you drive to the bottom level of the parking garage, so you don't have to do any stair climbing in ski boots. Vail did really distinguish itself with the best touches all around, you really have to go skiing in Vail if you go to Denver-area resorts.

Keystone was the worst of the three, even besides the fact it was the coldest and windiest that day. They have some good glades, and I got substantially better skiing moguls on this, my third consecutive day skiing. The walk to the mountain is long, consider bringing some cheap shoes and a bag so you can walk to the base of the mountain (it's at least a quarter mile of walking), and put the shoes in a bag under one of the benches. The runs were short-ish on the backside. Food was as expensive as Vail, without the service. Not that it's awful, but I think I'll try A-Basin next year, despite it's bad rep for being cold and windy.

Maybe I'll go to Aspen for a weekend trip with a group too.

Anyway, the Colts just played the Steelers, I only watched the first half, but Tarik Glenn (Colts' LT) singlehandedly ruined the offense in the first half. False starts, blown blocks, just terrible, looked like a Vegas fix. Especially that blatant false start on the goal line. Terrible. The defense gave up two touchdowns to the Steelers and looked lackluster too. At least it wasn't the Patriots, and Manning really did well when his offensive line decided to block, so the Sports Guy can't do his annoying anti-Manning screed without looking like an idiot.

I like the Steelers, so it is win-win, and the Steelers-Broncos will be a great game. I'll probably be rooting for the Steelers, since Cowher has had so much disappointment in the playoffs, the Bus hung on for this season in a reduced role to go to the Super Bowl, and I really like Antwaan Randle-El, Troy Polamaou.

Much like the NFC championship of the 80s and 90s, the AFC championship is for the NFL championship. None of the NFC teams stand a chance, they're all worse than the Eagles from last year, whereas the AFC teams are all equal or better than the Patriots from the year before: equivalent defense, better running games, equivalent passing offenses and quarterbacks. The Bears or Panthers will win the NFC berth, which shows how horrible they are.

BTW, to complete the weekly rant about how shitty the news is, the #1 problem with TV news has to be the emotionalization of the news, rather than any sort of logical dissection and analysis or insight. Instead, everything is raw emotional or instinctual relation, from 9/11 to Iraq to hurricanes.