France conquered by band geeks

Posted by Richard Bennett

This just in from CNS: France Surrenders to Texas High School

Paris (CNSNews.com) – What began as a six-day chaperoned music tour by a group of suburban Houston teenagers ended in an epic conquest in the pre-dawn hours of Friday morning as French military and government officials offered their unconditional surrender to students of the Aldine, [...]

Another reason to invade Iraq

Posted by Richard Bennett

I set off the alarm while passing through the metal detector in an airport today, and the TSA guy made me take off my shoes, empty my pockets, and submit to a very careful hand scan. When he was done, he told me: “after we invade Iraq we won’t have to do this any more”.
So [...]

Last nail in the coffin

Posted by Richard Bennett

Via Matt Welch, U.S. to Make Iraq Intelligence Public (washingtonpost.com)

“The United States possesses several pieces of information which come from the work of our intelligence that show Iraq maintains prohibited weapons,” Secretary of State Colin L. Powell said in an interview published yesterday in an Italian newspaper. “Once we have made sure it can be [...]

Another last chance, and then another, and then …

Posted by Richard Bennett

ABC News reports: EU Increasingly Divided Over Iraq Issue

British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein was “making a charade of inspection,” signaling that the United States’ closest ally had only drawn closer. Straw said “time has almost run out. If this failure to comply continues, then Iraq will have to face serious [...]

My award-winning personality

Posted by Richard Bennett

Jeff Jarvis has awarded me the prestigious Jeffie Award for being the Most Curmudgeonly Blogger. I consider this a slight, because I deserve the Lifetime Achievement Award for Curmudgeonly Blogging, not just some little annual prize, so once again we have evidence that Jarvis, the people of New York, media hacks, and all people associated [...]

Fostering innovation

Posted by Richard Bennett

MIT Media Lab co-founder Nicholas Negroponte’s article Creating a Culture of Ideas may be one of the most fanciful things ever written on the subject of invention. It’s a paean to diversity:

One of the basics of a good system of innovation is diversity. In some ways, the stronger the culture (national, institutional, generational, or other), [...]

Virus sweeps the world

Posted by Richard Bennett

Following up on the Iraq War column we mentioned previously, Tom Friedman has a fresh virus alert:

Unfortunately, when it comes to enlisting allies, the Bush team is its own worst enemy. It has sneered at many issues the world cares about: the Kyoto accords, the World Court, arms control treaties. The Bush team had legitimate [...]

This just in

Posted by Richard Bennett

Michael J. Totten reports:

PARIS, Jan. 24 – French President Jacques Chirac issued an unconditional surrender to Baghdad today, and declared he was upholding the great tradition of French foreign policy. “Saddam Hussein, like Hitler before him and unlike the current American president, was elected by his people. We admire Iraq for standing against the unilateralist [...]

HP sued again for screwing contractors

Posted by Richard Bennett

From the Frisco Chronicle we read Temporary workers sue HP over overtime pay

Hewlett-Packard has been accused of exploiting temporary workers by forcing them to work overtime without pay or benefits, according to a lawsuit filed Tuesday.
Some contractor persons of my acquaintance working for HP’s Video Server group in Santa Clara in 1995 were asked [...]

New Economy Management techniques

Posted by Richard Bennett

This memo posted on FuckedCompany.com – The Dot-com Deadpool speaks for itself, basically:

From: Julie Meyer
Sent: 21 January 2003 14:22
To: All staff
Subject: The final straw.
I see that whoever has been sending our confidential emails to a certain website has done it again. I am not amused by this. This is a complete betrayal of my [...]