300 the way I saw it

I'm kind of upset because of the way this movie is doing to mess up heads of a no small number of young Americans who had not reached maturity. I don't know... Call me paranoid, but this movie, allegorically and yet not in too subtle a way, explains why the nation considering itself a foundation and a citadel of all kinds of liberties and freedoms needs to go out there and destroy those that oppose it. I would not be bothered to look into historical context and how truthfully (or rather not) the story was re-told...

But here comes the encoded message:

1. Persians. At what other historical moment there would be an opportunity to label them worse that this?
2. Did you recognise some entity in the council of "wise man"? Refers to either UN or The Senate, in my view, in a very derogatory and false way
3. All the Asians altogether: monsters, deserving to be slain without mercy for horrible creatures they are: filthy, decadent, and greedy.
4. One monster was strikingly reminiscent of a type in one of Rocky movies, the half-naked giant that through Rocky fame represents nothing but Russians...

This is just disgusting. Whether it is a conscious choice of people making the movie, or something they were paid to do... I don't know. Quite appaling all the same. I can imagine a shameless producer selling the movie concept to the Department of Defence, Homeland Security or something like that... After all, if there are no cars and no cell phones in the movie, what advertising company needs to be behind it to finance the production?

Picked up a new book

Thank God, this is genetic! My daughter finally developed the taste for the smell of new books! Since she was picking up some paperback for her enjoyment, why wouldn't I? And so I did. Excellent book, "The End Of Faith" by Sam Harris. I admit that there are exaggerrations in it, and the text is quite hard to read as there are many words I would need to use dictionary to understand 100%, but the main assertion I subscribe to.

It is unacceptable to be tolerant towards people believing in fairy tales as though they were true. Author expresses my thought exactly: if there is more than one religion claiming it being the true religion that descends from one true God, none can be trusted to be so. Next time I hear about "The Book" I should ask for proof. Prove to me that everything it says is true.

Acknowledging one's religious beliefs in public has no place in this day and age, just the same as American's bravery about A-bombing Japan (which they don't) or German's deeds in concentration camps (neither would they, except for marginal extremists) would.

Religious beliefs are incompatible with reason. I would hope one day a candidate for the highest office in the country would be required to be free of this anachronic superstition.

Phone tapping: what's the big deal?

I wonder how long is the public going to fool itself with regards to freedoms, privacy and such. Government can not function effectively without such an instrument. While phone records might have started to be analysed on such a massive scale only recently, international phone calls were probably monitored ALWAYS. To support this claim I can offer the following, if anecdotal, evidence. In year 2000 I was using landline to call my parents abroad. It was not uncommon with our crappy provider to have extensive peak periods when we would not be able to connect for up to an hour, or at all. The trick that worked extremely well was (I don't remember if I came up with the idea myself or whether I picked the idea up somewhere...) to loudly say "Allah akbar" into the microphone while long beeps would sound. I'm not kidding you: our calls got higer priority and would go through as if by magic. I also remember that this trick worked for a couple of months only. Obvoiusly, since the rest of the conversation was completely uninteresting, and spoken in a language that has nothing Arabic to it... Fun, fun, fun! Just as people are expoiting Google's PageRank to their advantage, every similarly overarching system can be too.

Poor accounting practices in Iraq as cause of war

You might remember Iraq grudgedly scrambling to provide the documents confirming resolutions on destruction of WMDs were in fact followed, but somewhat falling short of being convincing? Doesn't surprise me at all. I mean, what anally-retentive freak must one be be to keep records of yucky stuff being DESTROYED?! I know I would not. Destroy it, yes, but keep accurate records? I think it's so against human nature...

And now, Iran is bein put into similar situation. Or at least they try to. Annan says: "Iran, go contact US directly to disspell their doubts". Are you f#$%ing shitting me? Noone can convince US of something without having to adhere to same accounting standadrds as US have. And to be in compliance with US accounting practices (using "accounting" term in broader sense than if applied to financial activities of corporations), that's just too much to ask. So, they're doomed. Damned if they do, damned if they don't.