Ever wanted to sow the seeds of distrust and panic among your social circle? Here's a simple plan on how to become a crackpot conspiracy theorist in the comfort of your own home, for fun and (if you're especially lucky and/or devious) profit!

1. Pick a topic of which very little is truly known to the Joe Sixpacks of the world. Bonus points if the US government is involved in some way. Let's take, for example, the DTV switchover, mandating that all over-the-air TV stations need to move to the digital spectrum. Why is the FCC pushing those converter boxes and newfangled digital TVs so hard? Is it because they simply want to make sure TV addicts don't lose their service when the analog spectrum is cleared away to improve the nation's communications infrastructure? Of course not... it has to be more sinister than that!

2. Assume that every single person in the world with more power than you is part of an evil conspiracy to steal our freedoms away. Remember, all Washington-level politicians are part of the vast multinational conspiracy. They stay up at night plotting new diabolical schemes to unleash on the unsuspecting population, and there is not now, nor has there ever been, any such thing as a law that is passed for the common good. Also, make sure to toss around buzzwords like "Illuminati" and "New World Order" to make your case sound even more sinister. Quotes from the book of Revelation also help, and context be damned. Hell, you can assume not many of the people you're trying to reach have even read the Bible to begin with, so if you can't find one that fits you could even make up your own!

3. Write up a website espousing your theory to the world. Relax, you don't need to know much about HTML, XML, Perl, or anything else. In fact, your message can only be enhanced if you use giant text, bad colors, bolding and underlining, and maybe even use of the <blink> tag. Working from a circa-1995 copy of a WWW design manual also helps... hey, it's not like the Web's changed at all in fifteen years, right? You can even still find copies of Netscape 1.1 out there!

4. Make sure to hit all the hot buttons. Claim that LCD TV screens can be used as spy cameras and that "digital converter boxes" contain hidden microphones connected directly to FBI headquarters. Cite proof (or at least "proof") that the Internet is part of a vast government-sponsored cultural deprogramming project, designed to break down the walls between countries and make it easier for the "one world government" to sweep in and take over. Shout about how the H1N1 virus was actually manufactured by the FDA, who are using it as a leverage point to make everyone submit to mandatory "vaccinations" that only heighten one's susceptibility to other diseases. And -- oh yes -- Barack Obama was elected for the sole purpose of selling out America to the socialists and Muslims. Remember the theory of the Big Lie: If you say it loud enough and often enough, people will believe anything you tell them, no matter how ridiculous it is on its face.

5. Go on YouTube and make videos demonstrating that what you say is "true." Of course, people will ignore the fact that that converter box looked like it was already disassembled before the camera started rolling, or that the "microphone" is attached to a plastic housing with no wires, and that blob of Elmer's School Glue holding it in place is plainly visible. Don't worry. People are sheep.

6. When you've made your case, make sure you say something like "Some of you may think I'm nuts" or "I know this sounds crazy." It's vitally important that you acknowledge the ludicrousness of your own argument. This puts peoples' minds at ease, as it reassures them that you've already thought about what must have crossed their own minds from the moment they started listening to you. Remember what Socrates once said: "The first step to knowing everything is admitting you know nothing," so saying stuff like this will only increase your legitimacy (while at the same time discrediting anyone who sees through you).

7. By the same token, make a clear distinction between people who believe you and people who don't. Remember the old adage, "Either you're part of the solution or you're part of the problem." Try to paint anyone who disagrees with you as having been already "brainwashed" by the power elite of the world, or as idiots who couldn't even spell IQ. Emphasize that you represent the last great movement of "thinking" peoples of the world, and that anyone who isn't with you is against you. Hey, if it worked for L. Ron Hubbard...

8. Stress that action must be taken NOW, before it's too late! Never, EVER suggest that only the infrastructure might be laid down, or that anyone involved at any level of government might actually have noble intentions. Always remember, they're out to get us! No exceptions. And only you and those who think like you do are all that stands between the barbarians and the gate. An urgent tone will always help your case; you don't want to suggest that time is ever anything but "of the essence," because that gives people time to actually, you know, think about what you're saying, thus giving them a chance to figure out it's all a bunch of diseased donkey feces.

9. Close with a quote. Say, from Ayn Rand. Or Plato. Orwell, of course. Or any number of Greek philosophers with mile-long names whom you know nobody outside of academia is going to bother looking up. As previously noted too, Bible quotes are always a plus, especially if they're from one of the "sexier" books like Revelation or Leviticus.

If you follow these easy steps, I gauran-damn-tee that the world will beat a path to your door...

A little while ago, I had occasion to get a good close look at a recent Monopoly set, and was a little bit shocked to discover that the overall look and feel of the classic board game -- which has stayed relatively constant since the '50s -- had undergone a major facelift.  Oh, it's still recognizable as Monopoly, of course; it still plays the same as it always has and the object hasn't changed (buy up all the property you can to collect rents, make deals with other players as necessary, last one standing with any money is the winner).  But the game's equipment now looks substantially different from the version most of you reading this probably played with as kids, and several rules have been greatly simplified.  Some small research on my part has confirmed that the lion's share of these alterations are indeed new to the game in the current "#9" Monopoly set* that's on most store shelves right now (in the green box).  

I'm told most of these changes were done in an effort to "standardize" the game, ensuring it's played with a consistent set of rules around the world; indeed, several of them are directly lifted from the UK version of Monopoly, which served as the basis for its popularity in Europe and Asia.  Others appear to be done for the sake of simplifying some of the math involved in the game, rounding off figures and all but eliminating percentages.  Still others claim to speed up the notoriously long and drawn-out affair Monopoly can be (most games I've been a part of tend to take three hours or more, and may even take several sessions to finish). 

Curious?  Here's a partial list of the changes I've noticed, with some small commentary on each:

• New money.  The famous multi-colored scrip has gotten its first major visual refresh in decades, with a new larger typeface and a Monopoly logo.  Some of the colors have changed as well; $10s are now blue and $50s are purple, for example. 
• New-look Chance and Community Chest cards.  And when I say "new look," I mean it!  Gone are the classic orange and yellow cards with their lineart of "Mr. Monopoly" (who I grew up knowing as "Uncle Pennybags," but whatever) in various situations.  The new versions are white, feature colored artwork on their face-down side incorporating the appropriate symbol (a "?" for Chance, a treasure box for Community Chest), and include brand-new artwork of the Mr. Monopoly character in a pseudo-3D style.  (Personally, I find this artwork disappointing; rather than a unique picture for each card, the character -- allegedly a caricature of fabled financier J. P. Morgan -- appears in a repeating series of only about four or five different poses.)  Some of the language on the cards themselves has changed; "Pay Poor Tax of $15" has now become a "Parking Fine," while the card instructing you to collect $50 from each player has changed from "Opera Opening Night" to "It's Your Birthday."  The cards are also considerably larger, which leads me to the next bullet point...
• New-look Title Deed cards.  Actually, these haven't changed all that much at first glance; just a font change and some formatting alterations to fit in a new "taller" form factor.  They are now also exactly the same size as the new, larger Chance/Community Chest cards.  I guess this was an attempt to keep manufacturing costs low, since the factory no longer needed to cut different-sized decks for each game, but it's a jarring change all the same.
• The Dark Purple property group is now Brown.  (That's Mediterranian and Baltic Avenues, to jog your memory.)  This is in line with the UK version, where this group has always been Brown.
• Income Tax is now a flat $200; the option to pay 10% of your holdings has been removed.  Again, this is carried over from the UK version, which never had a 10% option for this space.  This was probably done in an effort to simplify math and/or speed up the game; besides, most people I ever played Monopoly with just paid the $200 anyway.
• Luxury Tax is now $100, up from $75.  Yet a third change with British origins; their "Super Tax" (what that space is called in the UK) was $100 from the beginning.
• Minor changes to gameboard graphics.  The word "GO" is now all black, and the "Follow Instructions on Top Card" line on each Community Chest space is gone.  
• The "Speed Die."  This is a new addition to gameplay, one inherited from a recent "Mega" edition of Monopoly (that featured a larger board with more properties).  After going around the board once, a player can begin to roll the Speed Die in addition to the regular dice.  The new die contains the numbers 1-3, two pictures of Mr. Monopoly, and a Bus symbol.  Numbers are simply added to the standard dice (meaning you can now potentially move up to 15 spaces at once); if you get Mr. Monopoly, after your regular move you advance your token to the next unowned property (or, if all properties have been bought, the next one you owe a rent on); and a Bus allows you to choose only one of the two regular dice for your move (i.e., if you roll a 3, 5, and a Bus, you can move 3, 5, or 8 spaces, whichever you choose).  Oh, and if you manage to roll three of a kind (all 1s, 2s, or 3s), you get to move to any space on the board you wish.  This is a lot easier to play with than it sounds, and it does actually make for a faster, overall more exciting game; the Bus even adds some much-needed elements of strategy, should it come up.
• There are now only eight tokens in the game, down from 11.  The Cannon, recently reintroduced to the standard set, has gone back into the vault, as has the Money Bag (which had only just marked its tenth birthday, having won a choose-a-new-token vote back in '98) and -- perhaps most surprisingly -- the Horse and Rider, which had been one of the original 1935 tokens that's been with the game ever since, until now.  The other classic tokens (including my favorite, the Racecar) remain.

I just thought I'd mention this, since Monopoly is kind of a lingua franca for most of us (I'm assuming we've all at least played it once or twice at some point in our lives) and, like most things that've been around as long as it has, changes to the game have been relatively few and far between over the years.  The game is also a little bit of Americana, with a fascinating history (which you can read about in part on www.monopoly-history.com) and evolutionary process. 

* In Monopoly collector circles, which I only learned existed just recently, "#9" is used to refer to the standard, mass-marketed Monopoly game; i.e. the one in a normal-sized box with Atlantic City street names.  This has always borne a Parker Brothers product number of 00009, which marks it as a direct descendant of the first "White Box" version of Monopoly, as sold to the company by Charles Darrow in 1935.  There have been countless other versions of the game over the years, of course, but it's #9 that has been the old warhorse for three-quarters of a century.

Unfortunately, this entry is probably not going to appease those of you reading this that like to think of me as being a magnet for one disaster after another. At least I haven't come down with H1N1, or swine flu, or whatever it's being called this week...

Last night, I went to sit down at the computer, but in the process I did not realize the chair wasn't there (it was pushed back about three feet from where it usually was, and I was on enough of an autopilot to not even notice this). Naturally, sitting down expecting to come to rest in a chair, when in reality no chair was even present, has some rather painful consequences. In this case, however, not only did I land unceremoniously on my ass, but on the way down the back of my head (about where the head ends and the neck begins, if you want to be precise about it) actually caromed off the arm of the chair. In an unpadded area of the arm, even.

Yeah. Not fun in the least.

Oh well, at least I get wings and diet Pepsi for dinner tonight, this being one of the "indulgence" nights on the diet schedule I'm trying to hold to, and mostly succeeding at it must be said. I'm down to two nights a week of being able to eat whatever I want (within reason) if I keep a high-protien, low-carb, low-sodium diet the other five, and if this keeps up longer I'll reduce that ratio to 1:6. (Protip: Coffee can help, or water when you don't necessarily want the caffeine. Trust me on this. I've taken to using Splenda in my coffee, too, which keeps those calories under control.)

Test post

Yay, I did have this installed in Vista after all! Ahem...

Spyware is evil. Pure evil. Don't believe me? Let me relate a little tale...

About two weeks ago, I noticed I was getting ads on my XP desktop for something called "MS Antispyware 2009." Now, right away I should have had the oldschool Trek "Red Alert" Klaxon blaring through my skull at such a blatantly obvious scam -- but I was totally fooled by this thing when it popped up in my legitimate Windows Security Center toolbox, the way all my other legit protection programs did. I figure it must've installed under the radar during a System Update, and forgot about it.

Until the warnings showed up.

Again and again, I'd get a "Threat detected!" window popping up, telling me about this or that infected file found in my cache. At first I was alarmed, but that quickly passed when I discovered there was no obvious way to tell the program to actually deal with the threat. All it would do is tell me "You need to upgrade to the pro version," or words to that effect, in order for it to do much more than alert me to the presence of malware on my system. So, yeah, finally the light dawns on me what's going on here.

A quick trip to Google confirmed it - "MS Antispyware 2009" was in fact malware itself. An especially pernicious piece of malware at that. Not only does it throw up warnings every thirty seconds, interrupting your workflow and annoying the living excrement out of you, if you even so much as click into its window it will start propagating itself into your Registry and other system-essential areas. Which, like a complete and utter MORON, is exactly what I did when I first saw it was in my Security Center and didn't know any better.

The net result of all this was a hosed Windows partition... and as previously noted in this blog, as much as I may not care for Windows I do need it for certain essential tasks, as the Linuxy equivalents just aren't "there" yet for my needs. So I backed up everything I could, nuked the drive, and put a fresh install of Vista on there (since I was given to understand that Vista doesn't have nearly as many threats of this nature for it).

That worked fine, for about three or four days... and then, my computer stopped booting. Wouldn't load anything, and I couldn't fix the MBR using either MS-approved or Ubuntu-esque methods.

Frustrated, I had to take it into the shop, where it was revealed that a nasty side effect of the "MS Antispyware 2009" worm is that it will often work itself into the MBR, meaning it was still lurking about on my hard drive even after a total system reformat. He also explained to me just how I was able to pick it up in the first place, despite usually being extremely careful about what and where I visit; apparently, it can embed itself into perfectly innocent advertising code, and it must have come in through the radar under the guise of an otherwise utterly normal banner ad on one of the sites I frequent. It's self-propagating, too, so it's probably not the fault of the website itself or (I would hope) even the company responsible for the ad to begin with... it was one of those things that Just Happens.

Luckily, the guy was able to purge all remaining traces of the worm from my computer, and now I have a happy and healthy (albeit Vista-running) computer. Which hasn't given me much if any grief, it must honestly be said, save for that one incident (which I don't consider a knock against Vista itself, as it was a leftover from a previous OS).

Still, the lesson learned here is a simple one, I think. Even if you're extremely careful and know what you're doing, Bad Things can still happen to you and your computer. If you use Windows at all, an investment in a decent anti-malware program is never wasted money even in these tough times... consider that a good spyware killer will set you back about $30-40, while bench time for repairing a borked box can easily exceed $100. You don't have to be Enrico Fermi to figure out that math...

The word just now came down. I'll be headed back in a Long Islandy direction in just about a month's time, to check in on the health of my grandfather.

Further updates as they warrant. For now, I'm just going to bed. I feel miserable tonight.

I'm waking up here to point out the completion of my latest project - a video "guided tour" of one of my favorite NES games ever, Zelda II: The Adventure of Link. You might want to check it out if you're of a mind. (And if you still have this LJ friended, despite my lack of updates, you're a true friend and I salute you.)

Check it out starting here. Have fun...

(Saria's the only appropriate avatar for this post...)

Testing a post from ScribeFire, a Firefox plugin. 

Well, 2008 is now more or less in the books, barring any major earth-shattering events that may take place within the next ten hours or so, and on the whole I'd have to say that it was a lot better to me than 2007 was. Last year at this time, I was saying a well-deserved "good riddance" to a year I'd just as soon forget ever took place, what with one thing after another. I can't honestly say 2008 held anything even close to that level of awfulness.

It wasn't a particularly great year; there were still any number of little annoyances. Computer problems (that have been well and truly dealt with), cable issues (the guy just left a few hours ago, in fact, after tracing my lost digital/HD channels to a faulty junction box), illnesses, my dad's car accident last week (for those who haven't heard, he got sideswiped on an icy I-270, causing minor but substantial damage to his new van; thankfully, nobody was hurt), and other things like that. However, in 2008 I managed to re-establish familial ties I'd thought severed for good, reconnect with old friends, and finally come into my own (or so I feel) as a provider of content for Way of the Geek and not just a writer, what with doing podcasts and everything else; I even got over my long-held phobia about hearing my own voice! Overall, I'm feeling a lot more "up" and optimistic about things than I was this time one planetary orbit ago.

What's to look forward to in 2009? I feel a lot of changes are in store, both for the world in general and for my little corner of it in specific. Of course, whether those changes are good or bad will only be revealed "in the fullness of time," if I may steal a Minbari expression. One thing I'm gonna definitely do is try not to be so private and insular; I've noticed lately I've started retreating back into my little coocoon, the one I always seem to crawl into when I need security. I've got to keep reminding myself that I don't have to go through life as a lone wolf, that there are people out there willing to help me through whatever might be bothering me, but sometimes it's hard to remember that...

I also vow to, once NaNo comes back around in November, get MUCH farther with it than I got this year, which due to various mitigating circumstances was only about 2,500 words or so. I'm keeping that idea in my back pocket (that idea being, to write a NaNo novel about a person writing a NaNo novel, and all the trials he or, more likely, she faces in trying to get the requisite fifty kilowords committed to paper amidst the constant intrusions of that little annoyance we call "real life") and fully plan to come back to it in ten months.

Anyway, that's all from 2008 for me. See you in the new year, gang!

My new Wacom tablet does seem to be working well...

Okay, so, I'm out at Tuttle Mall today, doing some Christmas shopping - or at least, about to do some Christmas shopping - and minding my own business, when I get a stark reminder as to why I hate commercialism and runaway capitalism.

Follow the bouncing ball here: I'm just exiting Sears (one of the little quirks of my family that I seem to have inherited; whenever I go to a mall, and there's a Sears in it, that's always where I go in) and am going to Lens Crafters to get my glasses adjusted, after which I plan to commence shopping for parental Christmas goodies. I don't get more than about ten steps into the mall corridor when a nice lady comes up to me and asks to see my hands.

Like an idiot, I showed them to her. I guess I thought, in the back of my mind, something would happen to me like what happened at Smithhaven Mall a few years ago on LI (where I ended up paid $50 for taking 25 minutes or so to test a yogurt product), so not much harm could come of it. Famous last words, anyone?

In any event, she led me over to her kiosk (at which point I could hear the old Enterprise red-alert klaxon in my brain) where she proceeded to demonstrate a series of skin-care and nail-care products on my rather nonplussed hands. Giving me what amounted to as much of a spa treatment as I could get with my clothes on (and in public), she extolled all the virtues of these products, supposedly made from deep-sea salt and other exfoliating nutrients designed to clean out all the dead cells and revitalize dry skin.

You'd do well to ask, why didn't I just walk away, or tell her off? To which I repsond, "You assume I had the chance to do so." I did not. The whole time, I kept trying to beg off, saying I was in a hurry, that I had to go meet someone, all that stuff. None of it did any good. I even tried walking away, but she pulled me back and kept rubbing all manner of creams and such in my eyes. I couldn't get away gracefully, or at all without creating a total scene.

And that wasn't even the worst of it. That came when high-pressure and weak constitution conspired to get me to spend over $600 on this stuff. Admittedly, I walked off with more than double that in terms of value, but $600 is $600 in this economy, especially given my own financial situation (all the more so after this weekend's motherboard misadventure). All because I agreed to buy the first ($60 or so) deal she offered me on a nail kit, for my mom; I figured she could at least use something like that. But this lady took that as her cue to start foisting all manner of creams, exfoliants, moisturizers, and other assorted cosmetical ga-ga on me, and she wouldn't - WOULD NOT - take "no" for an answer. (I think I now have some inkling of how rape victims must feel.) Before I could protest, she was taking my plastic out of my hand and ringing up a $120 facial kit, a $250 toiletry set, all like that. She was doing everything but signing my name on the damned receipts!

Naturally, $600+ on my credit cards was not going to stand, and a few phonecalls (and threats to sic mall security on the whole operation) later I was able to finally erase these purchases from the permanent record. It wasn't pretty, but it had to be done - and even though I sacrificed my dignity, that was far preferable to where I'd be headed if I had let that garbage stand, both on my financial record and my conscience.

So let this serve as a warning to all - when mall-crawling this holiday season, beware the kiosk hustlers. It's worse than the phony-Rolex vendors in Times Square.

Swapping the old mobo and CPU for the new came fraught with some peril at first, as it seemed none of my USB devices were working in the slightest and I had no network connection. And, of course, my forgetting that such a swap causes Windows to summarily deactivate itself.

Re-activating XP was trivial, if annoying. It really galls me that I have to call MS and beg for their kind permission to use the software I own, but as I still need Windows for some tasks it's something I'll just have to grin and bear. The USB and networking issues, however, left me stymied for several hours, and the included documentation with the mobo, with a classic Engrish translation, was of scarce little help.

Except for the one page I noticed where it discussed proper jumper settings for the on-board USB ports. Not having had to deal with this on my previous mobo, I didn't think to check for it here. --;

As if that wasn't enough to make me feel like a total n00b (to use the vernacular), the network problem was traced back to the simplest of root causes - namely, the RJ45 plug wasn't in the socket all the way. --;;;;

In any case, I'm now back up and running at full capacity, and better than I was before this little escapade commenced. And the Apple Pro keyboard that started this whole mess has been consigned to the trash, and good riddance I say. I'll know better than to blindly trust USB devices like that in the future...

First, the good news: A new motherboard and processor have been purchased, and I was even able to get 4GB of memory to go with (as the 2GB I have in my box right now won't work on the new mobo).

Now, the bad news: Because of weather conditions (lots of the white stuff + icy roads * complacent Columbus drivers who've forgotten how to drive in winter = life and limb on the line) I won't actually be able to pick them up until tomorrow at the earliest. Fortunately, Micro Center lets me purchase the stuff online for in-store pickup, and they will hold it for me until I can actually get up that way.

But hey, it sure beats not having anything...

(For the record, the new CPU is an AMD 64 X2 @ 2.80-somethnig GHz, dual core. Niiiice.)

Okay, here's the deal. I am without a computer, maybe (if I'm exceptionally unlucky) for an extended period.

As near as I can figure, my problems can be traced back to a particular USB keyboard I picked up at the thrift store earlier today (Friday) for $2. I did so because it had USB ports on the stupid thing, which I thought would be just the thing to move my webcam and game-controller connections to more convenient locations than the back of my PC. Plus it was a keyboard I'd heard a lot of positive things about - an Apple Pro keyboard, which are also usable on PCs - and wanted to give it a try.

I don't suspect the keyboard itself is to blame for my current woes, but rather the fact that this device seems to have been that elusive "one too many" for my poor PC.

I started noticing problems in the evening when several of my USB devices curiously stopped working - external drives refused to remount, I lost my gamepad connection, that sort of thing. Oddly enough, the keyboard itself worked fine, but just about everything else either stopped working or refused to work in the first place. (I never tested my printer or Jordan's cradle. I never got a chance to.) Annoyed, I rebooted - and that's when everything went to hell on a warp sled. First, the system hung at the stage where USB devices were being unmounted - just a blank screen with a flashing _ cursor. I stared at this for almost two minutes before I was convinced something had gone into ca-ca land, and did a manual power cycle, hoping I could run a diagnostic on the "unclean shutdown."

Except the computer never came back. Oh, all the fans (the CPU, the PSU, both case fans, and the GPU) spun up, the DVD drive activated, and I heard a sound that appeared to be the hard drives spinning up... but I never got a BIOS screen, nor any indication that the computer was in fact booting. Nothing, not even the dreaded "Beeps of Doom" that usually indicate a fatal mobo/CPU error. The whole mess just sits there, with running fans and not much else.

That's where I stand right now, in fact. I'm typing up this entry on my laptop, which may end up becoming my primary computer if what went wrong here is what I'm afraid went wrong here. (That being, an overload on USB devices I wasn't aware I had may have fried the CPU and/or the motherboard. The research I've done so far points to this being the case, given the symptoms I was experiencing before the shutdown.)

Rest assured, though, this is not a "Linux thing" or yet another misadventure with me Doing Things I Shouldn't Do. At least, not as far as I can tell. This was just plain and simple Bad Luck on the scale of a Homerian epic, and it might well be the problem is something else entirely.

However, I'm preparing for the worst while hoping for the best. I will do more extensive research into this tomorrow (or later this morning, after I've had a chance to catch a few stray Zs), and may end up taking the ol' box in for a bench test.

I sincerely hope it's not the CPU or mobo that needs to be replaced, though. Quite simply, I cannot afford to replace either of these things, let alone both. If that's what has to be done then I may end up having to stay on this almost laughably-underpowered laptop for longer than I'd like... but if that's the way it has to be, then that's the way it has to be. But I hope it won't be necessary.

I guess I've just jumped on a bandwagon of sorts, since I now have a Twitter account.

You can read it, sign up for it, make paper dolls out of it, or do whatever you'd like with it here.

Enjoy...

This is the worst thing to happen to me when I'm struggling, really struggling, with my NaNo project...

I spent Wednesday really sick and unable to keep my focus. One doctor's visit (this afternoon) later, it's been ascribed to a nasty case of exhaustion brought on by lack of (restful) sleep and stress.

So, yeah. Not exactly fun times, here.

SC Inmate sues Blizzard for... well, click here and read for yourself. Seriously, I can't even begin to do this loon justice. You have to read this thing (or even just the /. story I linked to) to believe it.

They'll let anyone on the Internet these days, that's all I can say...

I found this pic on, of all places, 4chan earlier this morning. Obviously it's a scan of an full-page ad from somewhere (probably a magazine; I'm really not sure), but if ever any collection of image and text summed up my exact feelings on this sad anniversary, this would be it.

Here 'tis.

Although designed as a plea for clemency by an Arab-American special interest group, the sentiment expressed in the ad - "If we let ourselves become consumed with hate, we become little better than those who hate us" - is fairly universal, and could just as easily apply to those on the Far Right who subscribe to the "Support the war or you're a traitor" mentality, or (conversely) those on the Far Left who feel every Republican in the world is a war-mongering scorched-earther. It would, as always, be wise to remember what a certain famous Vorlon said about the three-edged sword...