Chilling Effects Clearinghouse is a site that’s getting a lot of detention, and deservedly so. I’m kind of ashamed that nobody has ever sent me a cease-and-desist letter of any kind. Maybe I should change the name of this site to “Coca-Cola Blog” or “Wal-Mart Daily”.

More from the “this would be hilarious if he weren’t the most powerful man in the world” file: here’s another from President Bush’s Asian invasion, documented by Reuters.

“Hear that?” Bush called out from the camouflage-draped bunker, which sits about 100 meters (yards) from the border. “The axes that were used to slaughter two U.S. soldiers are in the peace museum. No wonder I think they’re evil.”

Is that an admission that the whole “evil” thing was just a hunch, or is he pleased to see that whoever told him to think that North Korea is evil turned out to be right?

The Washington Post has a long story today about the excesses enjoyed by high-riding Enron employees. I wanted to read the whole thing, but had to quit halfway because it just made me want to kick somebody’s ass.

Nathan Torkington has a funny piece on stone soup and open source. His “all TODO and no diff” coinage is one I’ll be using in the future, for sure.

So the Olympics are finally over. I really enjoyed the Olympics, and I think I’ve come to the conclusion that I like the winter games better than the summer games, despite the fact that the only winter “sport” I’ve ever engaged in was sledding down a hill one time.

I think the reason I enjoy the winter games so much is that so many of the sports involve people travelling ridiculously fast (or flying absurdly high) assisted only by their own muscle, gravity, and smooth surfaces. I think another nice thing about the winter games is that there are fewer events to keep track of, and fewer athletes overall. Most of the winter sports are like swimming in the summer games, the same people compete in multiple events. It’s easier on the viewer when there aren’t 10 billion stars the way there are in the summer games.

I also want to note that I’m very happy that Canada won the gold medal in hockey. I think that it meant more to the Canadians than it could have meant to any other country in the world, especially the United States, which has, lets face it, an embarrassment of riches when it comes to athletic success. The Canadians are successful too, but being held off the top of the podium for 50 years in your national winter sport has to hurt.

Oh, and I was really excited that America did so well in the winter olympics. Ordinarily, the winter games are one of the few areas athletically speaking where the US team is a major underdog. It was shocking that we did so well, and quite gratifying. Next time we can all bellyache if Americans win all the time, but this time, it was a pleasant surprise.

I’m a sucker for a good Bush gaffe. Here’s a gem from an article about a speech to Japan’s parliament:

He said he was beginning his Asia trip in Japan “because for a century and a half now, America and Japan have formed one of the great and enduring alliances of modern times.”

Rogers Cadenhead sent along a link to this seemingly underreported story that lends creedence to the idea (that I’ve floated since September) that the main reason we didn’t catch the terrorists is poor information aggregation and analysis. A British company had dossiers on 15 of the 19 hijackers in their “high risk people” file. The details in the files included the names, dates of births, associates, and known aliases for the 15, as well as the fact that they were suspected terrorists and linked to Osama bin Laden.

Looks like it’s becoming increasingly obvious to Israelis that Ariel Sharon isn’t the answer. The simple fact is that Israel isn’t going to shell the Palestinians into submission, and Ariel Sharon can never create a liveable coexistance with the Palestinians, because he detests them. He intentionally triggered the intifada and rode the ensuing chaos into the Prime Ministership, and since then he hasn’t done anything but widen the rift with the Palestinians and shed a lot of innocent blood. Given his history, this shouldn’t surprise anyone.

Here’s yet another reason to be disgusted by President Bush and the Republicans in Congress, as if I needed any more.

The New Scientist has an article on what we know at this point about the anthrax attacks last year.