My Chavez really is doing a brilliant job over there...
(apparently deaths for "resisting the authorities" have risen 254% since 1999 :( )

Alternate reality hippie Colbert does The Word.

Shame on American Airlines for questioning the Iraqi's based solely on one womans racism and hysteria (quote: "he looked mean"), shame on the woman for delaying a flight and humiliating these people (who were actually consultants for the Marines(!!) trying to help our country). Honestly I wish there was a way to for them to sue her and not just the airline. It's people like this that give Americans a bad name :(

Wow. Yup, its important to clear those MS Word histories, eh?

The story below absolutely fascinated me, as robots advance and become increasingly part of our lives (and not just in the military realm, though that will probably where their initial presence will be the most striking) what will our relationship with them be? A really good article from the Washington Post.

"At the Yuma Test Grounds in Arizona, the autonomous robot, 5 feet long and modeled on a stick-insect, strutted out for a live-fire test and worked beautifully, he says. Every time it found a mine, blew it up and lost a limb, it picked itself up and readjusted to move forward on its remaining legs, continuing to clear a path through the minefield.

Finally it was down to one leg. Still, it pulled itself forward. Tilden was ecstatic. The machine was working splendidly.

The human in command of the exercise, however -- an Army colonel -- blew a fuse.

The colonel ordered the test stopped.

Why? asked Tilden. What's wrong?

The colonel just could not stand the pathos of watching the burned, scarred and crippled machine drag itself forward on its last leg.

This test, he charged, was inhumane."

Honestly reading this just left me furious: (though it actually might explain some of what seem to be going on over there, imho). It sounds like classic incompetence, lack of ownership and basic follow through on the part of the people in charge of the Iraqi reconstruction. If these people worked in a company their asses would be on the street and if the Marshall Plan had been executed like this we probably would have lost the cold war.

Oh and the pathetic buck-passing by the individuals interviewed is infuriating as well.

Personally I suspect that this is only the tip of the iceberg. The United States (and other 1st world nations) will continue to massively automatic all elements of the military. The long term implications of this could be very strange.