Yesterday or so, I received a FB invitation to join the group “Petition To Remove Group ‘Soldiers Are Not Heroes’".  As much as I would love to sign such a petition and am in complete sympathy with those who are disgusted by the group that inspired this, I can not join.

The sacrifice of our military heroes throughout our history purchased, among other things, freedom for the American people.  That includes freedom to be a clueless jackass.  So there is the irony.  The very thing the “Soldiers are not” group is speaking out against is what provided the liberty to speak in the first place.

Thomas Jefferson had it right:  “"The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants."  Our nation decided this even before it was a nation, and has re-affirmed throughout the centuries since.  I believe this is true, and I believe it is important.

So, I can’t set that aside because I’m suddenly faced with an issue about which I feel personally.  As important as freedom is each person having a code of beliefs that they hold to and act on consistently.

All of that said, the other side of this coin is that those who disagree are also free to speak out with passion.  So, I hope everyone flames the crap out of the “Solders are not” group.

This is brilliant.  After playing KFC Kitchen at Shockwave Games for 5 minutes, I had 2-piece original recipe with a side of mashed potatoes on the brain.

The game is moderately engrossing, but that’s not the diabolical part. It is a party for the senses. You take frozen chicken pieces and put them on the grill. After 5 seconds of a tantalizing sizzle, golden brown fried chicken emerges. Mmmmm … fried chicken.

Curse you KFC!

My buddy Tim from the school formerly known as Marion College has a site:  Defense Against Fruit.  In his own words:

We are interested in fair and open minded communication and exchange of ideas and thoughts.

Check it out.  And, from time to time I’ll be putting things out there, such as … Random Links Friday – July 10th, 2009.  Enjoy!

Those few who read with any regularity already know that I have kind of an up and down opinion of Twit/Face, which usually corresponds to how much time I have on my hands.

Around the holidays, for example, there is more free time so, what the heck, I can keep TweetDeck going in the background and let it suck away a little time here and there. These days though, not a lot of spare time, and it seems like every time I do steal a glance at TweetDeck or Twhirl I come away with an overwhelming, “Oh jeez, there’s two minutes I’d really like to have back.”

Case in point, a #tcot tweet this morning:

“BHO legacy: single-handedly bringing socialism home to the US.”

Wow, talk about value-added … not that I disagree, but cripes! How many hundred million times has that thought been tweeted since January?

Also, I’m becoming increasingly nauseated with all the “cute” little words starting with “tw” that have evolved around this medium. Makes me want to invent the “Twap!” When a follow comes on with a “Good morning, Tweeps!” you can invoke the Twap! which will trigger a device that springs from behind their monitor and slaps them silly. Btw, this “Good morning Tweeps!” is the perfect storm of annoyance: cute “tw” word + the assumption that this is a virtual Cheers, you are @Norm and we are all just sitting around waiting for you to show up … oh, hey! @SoandSo235 is here, yay! + just the general cheeriness early in the morning.

And don’t even get me started on all the re-tweets and “check out this post” posts. Thanks anyway, but I’m on the same Twitter you are and I have a feed aggregator. Plus, I’m not sure I’m interested in what interests you since you seem unable to provide any original thoughts of your own. I’d rather communicate with someone who disagrees with integrity than someone who agrees but hasn’t the foggiest idea why.

This is awesome, and perhaps a reason to give anonymously.

Zoom in and find out way too much about your neighbors’ political donations. Name, address, occupation, employer, how much and to whom. It’s all there.

I first latched onto this one through a post on Wired.  In addition to standard ranger duties at Kenya’s Mara Triangle wildlife part, Ranger Joseph Kimojino regularly finds himself blogging (http://maratriangle.wildlifedirect.org/), tweeting (http://twitter.com/maratriangle) and posting to Flickr (http://flickr.com/photos/maratriangle).  All three rate a “must check out.”

Of course, Kimojino is more than just an online hobbyist blogging for self-satisfaction.  The Mara Triangle Conservancy, like any other non-profit, needs donations.  Toward that end, they’ve devised a great way to solicit – by simply getting the Mara Triangle story out there in a compelling way.  That’s what attracted me to this.  It’s a powerful use of Twitter and other tools, helping the casual observer half a world away feel in touch with what is going on in the Kenya wilderness.  Their tech efforts have already paid dividends, and hopefully will continue to do so.

I also wish all the tree-hugging, whale-saving bleeding hearts would give the sites a look.  Turns out that nature is a violent, merciless place, with or without man’s involvement.

Brian at Pajama Market today posted his review of a new social media site called DotDashCreate.  He can’t figure out the purpose or the value but did note that 101,594 blogs have already signed on.  Brian’s piece is an excellent indictment, not only of DDC, but how so many of these things take shape.  His conclusion:

So to sum up my review, I don’t know what it’s for, I don’t know how it will help, you can add your blog for free without registering, but you can register and add it for free too, after you register, you may be kicked out for no reason, and the site may say your user name is not active.

For the most part, it was a waste of 30 minutes this morning.

I think he missed the obvious self-fulfilling nature of these things.  This is clearly a collection of 150K+ blogs that, in the near future, will be posting about how important DotDashCreate is and how it is changing the whole landscape, and if you aren’t on DDC you are yesterday’s news.

There is a new Diplomacy site out:  PlayDiplomacy.com

A few weeks ago I got into my first game there and I’m really liking it.  The interface is a little more friendly than the old Judge systems, while still allowing for making “mistakes” when giving orders.

The current game is going well.  I’m playing Turkey, my favorite country in the standard Diplomacy game.  We’ve just completed the first year so the alliances haven’t surfaced yet.  Austria has to be the worst country unless you can lock into an ironclad alliance right from the start.  In this case Austria went hunting for supply centers and builds and totally left his home centers exposed.  Italy and I blocked his fall expansion and Russia moved in to Budapest.  The two best things about Diplomacy:  1.  There is absolutely no luck involved.  It’s all … Diplomacy.  This is, by the way, Henry Kissinger’s favorite game.  2. You can’t succeed alone.  You must ally with someone.  This is especially true in the case of Austria.  His bad for trying to go it alone.

I am admittedly growing a little weary with talking/reading about the election. So, it was nice to find some good non-political blog fare this week:

Blog Comment Ethics: You operate a blog and one day receive an e-mail requesting that you remove one or more of the sender’s comments from your site. What do you do? The guys at Wizbang encountered this situation recently and asked their readers for advice. In this case it was a reader whose input was, in the opinion of Jay Tea, “not particularly clever or witty.” The reader is in the middle of a job search and is concerned that prospective employers will Google him and land on some of his political commentary.

Quick advice for the guy: In the future, don’t use your real name and/or don’t use your full name. With the damage done, all he would really need to do is make a bunch of less controversial comments and drive the problem remarks behind the first page of a Google search.

My two cents: No way (actually my exact words were “Screw You!”) And as we’ve just finished up a barrage of candidate interviews I sadly realized that what any prospective employer really needs to know about this guy, even more than any political bent or lack of discretion in the remarks he makes at times, is his basic weakness. He either succombs to “internet bravery” and says things while hiding behind the false veil of web anonymity that he wouldn’t be willing to say in person, or just doesn’t think that far ahead. If you’re not one to stand behind your words, posting things on the internet is not a good idea for you.

More generally, I view blogs as a conversation. Clicking the “publish” button is akin to saying your piece. Once you’ve done it you can’t take it back when speaking, and shouldn’t take it back when blogging. I would think a lot less of a blog if I learned that posts were heavily edited after being published and coming under fire. Same thing for comments. I say again, have some character and stand by your words. Also, grow up and realize that from time to time we say things that we later think better of. That doesn’t make you bad, it makes you human.

You and your germs stay home: – Laura W at Ace of Spades gives those who come to work sick a piece of her mind (language warning), via Insta-Pundit.

This is near and dear to my heart as I was sick most of the week and went through all phases of this scenario, from quiety cursing those “heroes” who have been spraying their crap all over the building for the last two weeks, to soldiering on myself, to giving in and staying home.

I’ve got to admit, I generally come down on the side of those who said that it must be nice to have a job like Laura W’s where you are basically unnecessary. Part of the problem, though, is that we usually aren’t just talking about one day. If I were to strictly adhere to the stay home if you are sick policy, I would have been out four days this week. There is no way that will ever happen. But even if we are talking some 24-hour bug, there will be days where work just can’t accomodate an unplanned absence. Example: My boss was out on Tuesday, which is the day I would probably have gone home early, so I pretty much had to be there. And this was our week to produce financials – I don’t care how sick I am, I won’t ever be the reason that our cabinet and board don’t get their numbers on time. So, my general strategy is to anticipate the day of peak misery associated with the illness, lay out that day and just understand that I am resting and gathering myself to go back in the next day, regardless of how I feel.

Of course, this leads to another discussion. People like me who take care of themselves and are in generally good health kind of get the short end of the stick and wind up, I believe, compensating for people who smoke, and eat like crap and have a bunch of other bad habits that result in their nearly constantly experiencing some kind of illness.

Don’t Screw with the US Navy! The World’s Finest Navy took out that defunct spy satellite this week. I know they had to repeatedly affirm that their purpose in this was simply to get rid of the hydrazine and sensitive intelligence before it came anywhere near the earth’s surface, but the exercise was rife with auxiliary implications. As modern warfare becomes increasingly dependent on a space communications component, this ability is huge. Also, we have demonstrated that we are a lot further along on missile defense than many knew. China wants us to share the details. I say, “bite me!” You know all you need to know. First, a tank full of toxic gas won’t be landing in your back yard, and second and more importantly, don’t screw with us! Video here:

More about the platform and weaponry involved: Navy Tech: Ticonderoga Class CG.

Well, Runaway Box hasn’t had the deluge of ties that I was expecting. I count four so far. However they have gone above and beyond the call with Christmas cheer.

There is also Daddy Home for Christmas, but Lazy Christmas (above) is much better.