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Morton Kondracke’s latest column argues that if we blow it in Afghanistan, we’re going to have a hard time finding friends to help us get rid of Saddam in Iraq. More than that, it looks like things are moving in the right direction in Afghanistan. The loya jirga actually turned out to be quasi-democratic (if not perfect), and featured real people arguing about real policy issues without getting shot or thrown in a dungeon. It sure seems to me like the Afghans are doing what they can to rebuild their nation, but they’re going to have to rely on the outside world to make it over the hump. And the bottom line is, if Afghanistan changes from being the most wretched country in the world to being something decent, perhaps it will plant the seed of an idea in the heads of some people on the fence that being friends with the “great Satan” isn’t such a bad deal. ...

Damn damn damn damn damn. Scott Shuger died Saturday in a scuba diving accident. I honestly don’t know what to say.

Sometime back, the odometer rolled over and the old rc3.org weblog’s database-backed software turned three. What this means is that now I’ve added a “three years ago today” link to the little right hand nav box on the front page. I think I’ve gotten better at this whole blogging thing over the course off these three years, but that’s not really for me to judge. (Looking at the archive page, I see that the first entries posted to the then new system were published on March 4, 1999.) ...

The Washington Post reviewed Mozilla today. The review is generally positive, and points out a number of Mozilla’s better features. It still misses Mozilla’s outstanding cookie management, and its settings that enable you to block all images from certain servers, thus filtering out various ads. It also refers to ChatZilla as an instant message client, which is completely wrong. It’s an IRC client, and doesn’t purport to be anything else.

If one wanted to purchase a certificate for a secure Web server, and was utterly opposed to doing business of any kind with VeriSign, who would one approach about purchasing said certificate? Please send email.

Josh Marshall wrote a lengthy post today about “homeland defense.” Unlike everyone else, he actually took the trouble to figure out where this term came from. I was a little surprised to learn than the Bush administration was talking up “homeland defense” even before 9/11 – in reference to missile defense, and that in fact the use of the term to refer to missile defense systems goes all the way back to the eighties. I can’t say that it surprises me that terminology with the ring of fascism comes from the likes of the Heritage Foundation. ...

When Bruce Schneier talks about security, I listen. The concepts behind securing a server, a network, a building, or a country are fundamentally the same … the only difference is in scope. Schneir’s advice on how to organize our efforts are worth reading. Anyway, he has a good article in his latest Crypto-Gram that talks about the intelligence failures leading up to 9/11 and how to improve for the future. Here’s his bit on the “Department of Homeland Security”: ...

OK, I keep seeing things about the Amazon Gold Box, but it never shows up when I visit the site. Why? What must I do to get in on this Gold Box action? Amazon’s Web site is one of my favorite applications, and I feel like I’m using an old version. That’s frustrating.

Arthur Andersen was found guilty of obstruction of justice today. The New York Times doesn’t see the case having a big impact on the auditing industry. The case itself, which seemed to be open and shut at the beginning, turned out to be hard to prove, and the accounting industry seems to have effectively lobbied to kill any new regulation of the industry stemming from the Enron debacle.

It looks like there’s a regular groundswell of opposition to the use of the word “homeland” when we in the United States talk about ourselves. Mickey Kaus wrote up a number of reasons why usage of the word is a poor idea and he’s right about every one. I think that the key reason I’ve seen mentioned several places is that I honestly had never heard of the United States being referred to as our “homeland” prior to 9/11. If we’d always talked about it that way, perhaps I’d feel differently, but suddenly having this creepy word shoved down my throat since then has been nothing but disturbing. I don’t think I’ve spoken to a single person who likes the word, but it’s not like I’ve been randomly calling people about it either. ...