The online journal, notebook and playground of HFM

REUTERS: A majority of people around the world view President Bush unfavorably and think the United States was wrong to invade Iraq, according to a BBC poll published on Monday. — Look at the list of countries that think the USA is more of a threat to the world than Iran, Korea, Syria and the Al Qaeda.

Courtesy of my friend Lori, — UPC symbols are being replaced by RFID tracking chips in some items, which will help stores track individual products as they are carried around in the store. Which means that when you decide you don’t want that [item x] and take it out of your cart and set on any old shelf in the store, they’ll be able to find it and put it back where it goes. It’s possible that the technology could be used to track other things, like what you carry into the store with you if the tracker is still on it, but those issues are far in the future.

The Iraqis are so much better off now that we’ve liberated them, that they’re stealing the zoo animals to cook for food. Yeah for America.

Rand Beers, former special assistant to the president for combating terrorism, National Security Council, has a lot to say about his former boss, George W. Bush. Excerpts:

“The administration wasn’t matching its deeds to its words in the war on terrorism. They’re making us less secure, not more secure,” said Rand Beers, who until now has remained largely silent about leaving his National Security Council job as special assistant to the president for combating terrorism. “As an insider, I saw the things that weren’t being done. And the longer I sat and watched, the more concerned I became, until I got up and walked out.”
“The focus on Iraq has robbed domestic security of manpower, brainpower and money, he said. The Iraq war created fissures in the United States’ counterterrorism alliances, he said, and could breed a new generation of al Qaeda recruits. Many of his government colleagues, he said, thought Iraq was an “ill-conceived and poorly executed strategy.”