As a veteran (US Army infantry) and a former-veteran (D&D 1st level fighter), my suggestion is:

Save Versus McCain.

-- SCAM

Where can I find the .pdf version?

I took family to hear Cory read in SEATAC and they want to know how the story ends.

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@1155 Xeni: What do you think? Seriously, I'm asking. I don't know. We don't have a policy for it yet.

I think that a good first step would be notifying the Boing Boing moderators that you "don't have a policy for it yet" -- and, therefore, there is no One True Church ... uh... Official Policy that must be defended unto death on this comment string.

On the other hand, if the Boing Boing editors decided to let the moderators engage the haters in a ham-fisted manner to keep the editors' hands clean -- see also good cop/bad cop routine, political attack via surrogate -- then the BB principles are even more brilliant than I thought.

And I thought all y'all was pretty damn clever to start with.

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Fellow Boinglings,

I may be in the minority, but I think that this thread has not yet outlived its usefulness and is still serving a productive function.

Xeni - Thanks for taking the time to engage this comment string. Even if I thought you deserved all the invective hurled in your direction, I would still respect you for wading into it. Your active participation is deeply appreciated.

Nina Eleanor Alter - Thanks for putting our hosts' choice/actions into context. I still think it damages the valuable transparency/openness aspect of the Boing Boing brand, but your post makes it much more understandable.

But some of the moderators have let the righteousness of their task -- taking up arms to defend Xeni's honor would certainly go to my head -- devolve them into enflamers. Challenging the legitimacy of BB lurkers and irregular commenters reads like, "If you don't truly love Boing Boing, your opinion doesn't matter -- and if you truly loved Boing Boing, I'd know who you were." Although it is understandable, it is unseemly.

Which, now that I've typed it, sums up my feelings on this entire "Violet Blue/'Unpublishing' controversy": Unseemly but understandable.

Always all the best, etc.

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Does Boing-Boing's decision to "unpublish" VB posts mean that some action of hers was more objectionable -- more contra-Boing-Boing -- than the vile behavior of the Walt Disney Corporation?

Or will the myriad Disney posts be "unpublished" as well?

Or is Disney too big to try to control and/or punish in this manner?

Just curious.

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Reid: "It's as if their marketing department thinks that warrantless wiretapping is funny or something."

AT&T doesn't think warrant-less wiretapping is funny.

But they do think being able to tell customers to go fuck themselves over the issue of warrant-less wiretapping is hilarious.

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"I agree with you. I want to do it. Now make me do it." -- Franklin D. Roosevelt to a group of progressive reformers.

To get the government that we deserve, we must DEMAND that our political representatives do the right thing, not just wish and hope and expect them to magically do the right thing.

Sen. Obama's phone numbers:
D.C.: (202) 224-2854
Chicago: (312) 886-3506
Springfield: (217) 492-5089
Marion: (618) 997-2402
Moline: (309)736-1217

Light up those phones -- MAKE Barack Obama do the right thing!

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"You will be happy."

I would be happier with FF3 if someone would make v3 compatible versions of:
1. Copy Plain Text
2. the del.icious.us tool
3. Paste and Go
4. TinyUrl Creator

If someone pushes out Firefox version 3 updates for those, I'll be happy as a fat hog in a puddle of goo.

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X: "If I use something in a legal way, I should not object to someone else using my work in a legal way."

And I submit that putting a watermarking an image is a de facto objection to using that work.

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I never said that it was illegal or even wrong to maintain control over one's own intellectual property while using the intellectual property of another.

It just seems a bit... inconsistent.

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That would require very little modification to be acceptable for flight: http://tinyurl.com/65q8f8

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Reece Ward's image is unquestionably an infringement on Lucas' intellectual property, but Ward has watermarked his image to deter unauthorized copying by others.

Curious.

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Where can you get cuff link blanks?

I know... I know... check the Google...

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so-called "Austin Mayor"

Now that we've established the inherent silliness of religion, Mr. Einstein, let's talk about your hair!

"My haircut is for me nothing more than the expression and product of human weakness -- a collection of honourable, but still primitive styles which are nevertheless pretty childish. No interpretation no matter how subtle can (for me) change this...

"For me the oversized mustache, like all others, is an incarnation of the most childish facial hair. And the cookie-duster wearers, people to whom I gladly belong and with whose mentality I have a deep affinity, have no different quality for me than all other people."

A word of advice for the kidz: >f y drss lk [ ____ ], dn't b srprsd f y r trtd lk [ ____ ].

There is nothing "weird" about an a-hole arms-dealer being anti-open source. Makes perfect sense.

-- SCAM (

NASCAR! NASCAR!
USA! USA! USA!

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so-called "Austin Mayor"
http://austinmayor.blogspot.com

"Please remove your glasses and place them in the basket."

It would be a very stupid rule, but it would be no stupider than many.

"At least let a Republican write the ones about the Democrats."

I strongly suspect that Charles Stross is not a member of the Democratic party -- especially considering he isn't even an American.

When I first saw this post, I thought it said, "Vulcan comes up with a new list of Seven Sins."

Ironically, both the planet and the god have more moral authority than the papacy.

TNH,

I've given it some more thought... In addition to eschewing any sponsors that might offend my delicate sensibilities, could the Boing-Boingers also rub my feet and serve me peeled grapes. (Not in that order!)

VD: "Your clearly outsized ego makes you a poor choice for moderating any site, but this one in particular. You really ought to apologize for your petulance, or step down."

Boing-Boing's "Shocking Lack of Introspection Contest" is over -- we have a winner!

Mark Etc,

You're missing the point: Boing-Boing readers are sheep. If you allow Honda to sponsor the posts tagged as "safety," "the environment" and "innovation," we will mindlessly be compelled to permanently and irrevocably associate "safety," "the environment" and "innovation" with the Honda corporation.

How could you presume that your readers were in any way capable of critical thinking? How could you believe that we could think for ourselves? How could you doubt that we would be instantly and eternally incapable of viewing the words "safety," "the environment" and "innovation" without thinking of Honda?

I used to think you guys were cool, but now I know you're just a bunch of CORPORATE SELL OUTS like Wilco, our high school drama instructor and my mom's new boyfriend!

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Mark Etc,

How dare you SELL OUT?!? After all the money we've sent to you?1? After religiously reading your content, you stab us in the back by daring to engage in commerce!?

If you had to have a sponsor, why didn't you choose a sponsor that no one would complain about? Like Sunshine, Lollipops and Unicorns?

What?

Oh yeah -- too much sunshine can give you skin cancer, so that is out. And loli's will rot out your teeth and make you fat. So no lollipop sponsorship either. And Unicorns are clearly a gratuitously phallic tribute to thousands of years of male hegemony...

But I'm sure that there is someone, somewhere, who is 1) willing to give money to this site, and 2) incapable of offending any of your hypocritically hypersensitive morally vigilant readers!

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Mark Etc,

I don't see why you BoingBoing types don't understand: You should provide free high-value content to your readers and never, ever take money from any advertiser that might be objectionable to any of your readers.

As you know, every single person who reads this blog works for free and survives on the scraps they find in the trash, so there is no reason that the BoingBoing editors should not be reduced to a subsistence life-style.

In the 21st century it is not enough to feed your readers eyeballs with juicy and nutrient-rich content, you must abstain from ever, ever exposing any readers eyeballs to anything even slightly objectionable.

It's the new, New Economy -- the one where we all starve to death but get to be so goddamn smug about it.

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"I'll give you a TKO from Tokyo!" -- Piston Honda

"I'll give you a TKO from Tokyo!" -- Piston Honda
http://tinyurl.com/2uz46v

Bright Tunes Music v. Harrisongs Music
420 F. Supp. 177 (S.D.N.Y. 1976)

'This case found the late George Harrison liable for copyright infringement; given Harrison's popularity as one of the Beatles, it is probably the most commonly known music plagiarism dispute. The court's tone is almost apologetic in determining that Harrison's use of the melodic kernels of plaintiff's universally popular number, in the same order and repetitive sequence and set to "identical harmonies," compelled it to conclude that Harrison unconsciously misappropriated the musical essence of "He's So Fine."'

-- http://tinyurl.com/buxqq

In “Cryptomnesia” (1905), a paper about accidental plagiarism, Carl Jung argues that it’s impossible to know for certain which ideas are one’s own. “Our unconsciousness... swarms with strange intruders,” he writes. He accuses Nietzsche of unwittingly copying another’s work, and urges all writers to sift through their memories and locate the origin of every idea before putting it to paper: “Ask each thought: Do I know you, or are you new?”

-- http://tinyurl.com/2br9nt

I suspect that the hood is called "Nippon" due to its strong similarity to the masks worn by some Japanese pro-wrestlers, especially the mask of Masanori Murakawa aka The Great Sasuke.

Murakawa adopted the identity and mask of Ninja Sasuke while touring the Mexican wrestling circuit and he kept the mask and took the name The Great Sasuke upon his return to Japan. In 2003, the Great Sasuke was elected to the Iwate Prefectural Assembly, making him perhaps the first actual masked legislator in the history of representative government.

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P.S. I'm not a nerd.

XJ,

Do you enjoy life as much as you seem to?

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Dear Gabe & Max,

I am working as an internet policy adviser to some political candidates. After reviewing their campaigns, I have discovered that many don't have any "netroots".

How much do you charge for netroots? Could we get a volume discount for bulk netroots purchases?

THank you for your helps and don't forget to vote,

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The downloads "were just a 'tactic' to boost CD sales" in the exact same way as a band's tours, tee-shirts, posters, music videos, web sites and interviews with music magazines.

I fail to see the scandal in any of it.

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"I don't buy everything he's saying"

One disclaimer should be applied to one-half of the earth's population. The other half, of course, gets "I don't buy everything she's saying."

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Bitch about BBTV...Bitch about BBTV...Bitch about BBTV...Bitch about BBTV...Bitch about BBTV...Bitch about BBTV...Bitch about BBTV...Bitch about BBTV...Bitch about BBTV...Bitch about BBTV...Bitch about BBTV...Bitch about BBTV...

There... am I cool yet?

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"If we don’t apply discipline to our thinking, we risk falling into the trap that even some of our best intellectuals have—like Harper’s editor Lewis Lapham, who on reading a bit too much 9-11 conspiracy, has concluded that it all has some merit."

Lewis Lapham left his role as editor of Harper's Magazine in 2006.

Pedantically yours,
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