YouTube is blowing up

I mean that in a good way. Ad Age is reporting that YouTube -- the incredibly snappy and friendly video-sharing site -- is now the fastest growing web site:

The popularity of YouTube is growing at an astronomical rate, as web traffic to the video-sharing site grew 75% just in the week ending July 16, from 7.3 million to 12.8 million unique visitors, according to Nielsen/NetRatings. Traffic to the site has grown nearly threefold -- 297% -- since January, making it the fastest-growing site online...

Keys to its success? Many of the obvious ones: media delivery via Macromedia Flash (an excellent and ubiquitous video-player), superb navigation, stunning previews, subscriptions, community-based ratings, etc.

But the real key is YouTube's tacit endorsement of viral links. If you like a video, you've got multiple ways to slap it onto your own website: a hyperlink and an embedded object are both provided on each and every video page. I don't know if anyone's bothered to count how many sites are now using these features, but I'd venture to guess it's over 10,000 (updated later: shows you how much I know - a Google Search tallies closer to 100,000!).

Only a year-and-a-half old (incredible!), the site was founded by Chad Hurley and Steve Chen who simply wanted an easy way to share videos with their friends. Certainly continues in the theme of net neutrality: successful sites that were built not by corporate behemoths, but by motivated individuals (think Digg, eBay, etc.).

Some personal favorites? Daily Show: Stephen Colbert on Bloggers, Cubicle Wars, and The Golf-Ball Prank.

Top five things Linux can learn from Microsoft

Thoroughly clear-eyed look at where Linux (and the open-source community in general) must play catch-up with Redmond. The quick list:

#1 MSDN
#2 Common interface (e.g., Gnome, KDE, ...)
#3 Common (file) format(s)
#4 Marketing
#5 OEM Support

Read it all: Top five things Linux can learn from Microsoft

Open source in the national interest

The DOD has released its official report (PDF) on open technology development. The roadmap offers a ringing endorsement of open-source software (OSS). Let's skip ahead to the conclusion:

To summarize: OSS and open source development methodologies are important to the National Security and National Interest of the U.S. for the following reasons: * Enhances agility of IT industries to more rapidly adapt and change to user needed capabilities. * Strengthens the industrial base by not protecting industry from competition. Makes industry more likely to compete on ideas and execution versus product lock-in. * Adoption recognizes a change in our position with regard to balance of trade of IT. * Enables DoD to secure the infrastructure and increase security by understanding what is actually in the source code of software installed in DoD networks. * Rapidly respond to adversary actions as well as rapid changes in the technology industrial base.

Back in '04, Canada's Defense R&D offered a similar assessment.

The ultimate nutrition site

If you want to figure out just how healthy that Cap'n Crunch cereal is... or how much fat is in a Twix bar... the Nutrition Data site is without peer.

Its visualization tools for illustrating nutritional profiles are stunningly cool. Check it out.

Microsoft's guidelines for future Windows development

Eric Bangeman, writing at Ars Technica, has posted Microsoft's new Guidelines for future Windows development. From all appearances, Microsoft hopes to strike a delicate balance. It must walk the tightrope between encouraging competition but -- presumably -- not too much competition. The first of three principles ("Choice for Computer Manufacturers and Customers") reads:

Microsoft is committed to designing Windows and licensing it on contractual terms so as to make it easy to install non-Microsoft® programs and to configure Windows-based PCs to use non-Microsoft programs instead of or in addition to Windows features. 1. Installation of any software. 2. Easy access. 3. Defaults. Microsoft will design Windows so as to enable computer manufacturers and users to set non-Microsoft programs to operate by default in key categories. 4. Exclusive promotion of non-Microsoft programs. 5. Business terms. Microsoft will not retaliate against any computer manufacturer that supports non-Microsoft software.

Tenet 5 is particularly interesting, given accusations leveled against Microsoft.

On that note, let's dial up March 15, 1991 on the way-back machine, Mr. Sherman. And let me call your attention to a New York Times article from that very day entitled, "Microsoft's Tactics Questioned by Rivals":

...Until two years ago, Alpha Software was selling a program known as Alphaworks, a combined spreadsheet, word processor and data base, to personal computer companies, which packaged it with their machines. But when Microsoft came out with a similar program called Microsoft Works, Alpha's biggest customer, Hyundai, shifted to Microsoft and Alpha lost a bid for another big contract. Realizing it could not compete, Alpha sold the program to the stronger Lotus, which has had some success with it...

If I recall correctly, AlphaWorks was a PC Magazine Editor's Choice (tied with Microsoft Works). The real story behind Hyundai's conversion from AlphaWorks is especially interesting, but I'll leave it to the principals at Alpha Software to tell that tale.

I commend Microsoft for clearly enunciating their commitment to ethical business practices. Better late than never.

Helen Thomas takes on the Arab Street

The invaluable Newsbusters site noted yesterday's White House press room incident, as Presidential Spokesperson Tony Snow upbraided Helen Thomas (...her skin looks so good for her age... I wonder what her secret is? Formaldehyde? Oops. Did I say that out loud? So much for stream-of-consciousness blogging...):

QUESTION: The United States is not that helpless. It could have stopped the bombardments of Lebanon. We have that much control with the Israelis. SNOW: I don’t think so. QUESTION: We have gone for collective punishment against all of Lebanon and Palestine. And what’s happening - and that’s the perception of the United States. SNOW: Well, thank you for the Hezbollah view...

On the other hand, there's Ahmed Al-Jarallah, Editor-in-Chief of Kuwait's Arab Times, endorsing Israel's military operations in its self-defense:

A battle between supporters and opponents of these adventurers has begun, starting from Palestine to Tehran passing through Syria and Lebanon. This war was inevitable as the Lebanese government couldn't bring Hezbollah within its authority and make it work for the interests of Lebanon. Similarly leader of the Palestinian Authority Mahmoud Abbas has been unable to rein in the Hamas Movement. Unfortunately we must admit that in such a war the only way to get rid of "these irregular phenomena" is what Israel is doing. The operations of Israel in Gaza and Lebanon are in the interest of people of Arab countries and the international community...

Lesson learned: I guess the Arab Street lies to the right of Helen Thomas and the Moonbattery.

Did Comcast censor an ABC News Broadcast?

Think net neutrality laws aren't warranted? Here's a taste of the future; a future in which the cable/teclo duopoly calls the shots in terms of content permitted to transit their pipes (oops, I meant tubes*).

Preston Gralla reports that Comcast may have censored a news broadcast critical of its service operation:

Comcast recently censored ABC's Nightline on its Comcast Broadband TV service by deleting the part of the broadcast that said a Comcast technician was sleeping on a customer's couch instead of installing residential broadband. The Consumerist shows both the original broadcast and censored broadcast. In the original, someone was interviewed who noted that a Comcast technician fell asleep on the couch because he had called Comcast technical support, and was put on hold for an hour...

Networking and Telecom Blog: Comcast censors ABC News

* Jon Stewart, host of Comedy Central's "The Daily Show," offered his take on why it took so long for Senator Stevens to receive his staff's email: "Maybe it's because you do not seem to know jack**** about computers or the Internet ... but hey, you're just the guy in charge of regulating it."

Gingrich says it's World War III

Historian, author, and erstwhile 2008 Presidential candidate (dark horse is an understatement) Newt Gingrich says its time everyone recognized we are in the midst of World War III. This is obvious to most, except for outlets like the New York Times, who casually ignore the gaping hole a few blocks from their offices and instead concentrate on villifying the administration, the military, and Republicans (not necessarily in that order). One hopes for a day when the Times would spend 1% of their time on exposing enemy plots, rather than US national security secrets.

Gingrich said in the coming days he plans to speak out publicly, and to the Administration, about the need to recognize that America is in World War III... He lists wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, this week's bomb attacks in India, North Korean nuclear threats, terrorist arrests and investigations in Florida, Canada and Britain, and violence in Israel and Lebanon as evidence of World War III. He said Bush needs to deliver a speech to Congress and "connect all the dots" for Americans... He said the reluctance to put those pieces together and see one global conflict is hurting America's interests...

These totalitarian regimes, whether operating alone or in tandem, pose an obvious and ominous threat to civilization. Gingrich is right to hope for increased emphasis on these conflicts as a single, unified war against extremists who pray for death, chaos, and the end of human rights.

Words of Wisdom from Mark Steyn

The eminently readable Mark Steyn appearing on the Hugh Hewitt show (hat tip: RadioBlogger, whose fingers must be bloody stumps from all the transcript-typing):

...in 20 years time, they'll ask us what we were doing in the year 2006. Some of us were worried about radical [extremists], and some of us were worried about Al Gore's global warming, and the voting machines, and Dick Cheney. And one of us will be right, and the other will be wrong. And the reality of this situation is it's nothing to do with Bush and Cheney. It's happening in India. It's happening in Israel. It's happening in Bali. It's happening in Russia. It's a planetary-wide problem, and it's nothing to do with Bush and Cheney stealing chads, or any of this other rubbish they go on about...

This is exactly why I wrote the article entitled "The Stockdale Paradox."

London, Beslan, Mumbai, the World Trade Center, Islamabad, Haifa, Madrid, the Pentagon... the list goes on and on and on, growing every day.

But maybe the problem will simply go away if we ignore it. After all, that seems to be the obstruction opposition party's take.

Looking for a personal battle tank?

Then have I got a deal for you! Amazon is offering the JL421 Badonkadonk Land Cruiser/Tank, which boasts a top speed of 40 mph, a 400-watt sound system, and can either be piloted from within the tank or from its topside hatch. A reviewer notes:

Finally, a tank you can trust I'll admit it. Shopping for a personal tank can be a bit daunting. Many times in the past I've purchased overpriced, so-called "battle tanks", then driven them into battle only to be wrecked in ten minutes by the first blow off of some insurgents home-made morter. But not this baby, no way. This tank R-O-C-K-S! Literally- the 400-watt sound-system keeps me rockin like a crazy man as I'm dishing out justice commando style. Wow. I just can't say enough. And the kids love it, too- imagine the look of terror in the eyes of the enemy as I'm dropping off my kid's team to their soccer game. Shock and awe, my friends, SHOCK AND AWE! I had NAO install the optional GPS-guided white phosphorus missile system, and talk about *SWEET*! Burn baby burn!!! Oh, it also has plenty of room for groceries, and if you need to like move a loveseat or something it'll fit if you use a little bungee cord. The only real negative with this tank is that it shows up on radar a little more than I like (although there is a polyresin graphite stealth model available). Also, the included spare isn't full size. Overall, a great tank.

Open-Source and LAMP News Roundup

Interesting collection of news items -- some fresh, others a few weeks old -- assembled into a contextual whole sure to excite the entire family. The speakers at the last few LinuxWorlds were representative of the increasingly corporate face of LAMP: CitiGroup, e-Trade Financial, Cendant Travel (owner of Orbitz and many other sites), and Nationwide among them.

eWeek Grades the Stacks

Last week, eWeek compared a range of popular stacks including Windows JBoss, Windows Python, WAMP, Linux Python, LAMP, Linux JBoss, Linux J2EE and native .NET. Unfortunately, at least from my perspective, the stacks included portal software that clouded the results.

And the portal choices were crucial: SharePoint Portal Server 2003, XOOPS (for PHP), Plone (for Python), and LifeRay and JBoss Portal (for JSP). Certainly for LAMP and J2EE, many other choices were viable contendors.

The biggest surprise? The performance of the WAMP stack was exceptional: its transactions-per-second more than doubled native .NET. In average throughput-per-second, though, native .NET crushed the competition.

Regarding LAMP, eWeek wrote:

This stack's performance numbers suggest what many who have been using PHP for some time now (including some of the busiest blogs on the Web) know to be true—that a pure LAMP-based PHP system can easily handle enterprise-class traffic and loads.

As for WAMP, eWeek reports that it offered the most intriguing results:

The results we saw with the WAMP stacks were probably the biggest surprise in our entire test. Enterprise IT managers shouldn't hesitate to look into the option of deploying open-source stacks on a Windows Server platform.

Stephen J. Vaughan-Nichols adds his two cents regarding the decision to include portal software in the testing:

...I know exactly why these benchmarks produced their results. Indeed, eWEEK Labs agrees with me and points these factors out. For example, all their tests were based on standard portal configuration setups. So, you're not really testing the stacks themselves, you're testing the portals... Given an expert performance tuner's hand on any of the tested configuration stacks, and you would have seen vastly better results from the Linux-based stacks, and better results from the Windows stacks...

In truth, SharePoint has a huge advantage in this sort of analysis: it is tightly integrated from the operating system level all the way through to the application serving framework (.NET). That's not the case with the plethora of OSS portals, which are completely independent projects. Nonetheless, performance results of untuned LAMP and WAMP stacks are exceptionally intriguing.

Enterprise LAMP usage noted by CNet

Last week's CNet article, "Open-Source LAMP a beacon to developers," points to the dramatic rise in enterprise LAMP development:

The so-called LAMP stack of open-source software--which includes the Linux operating system, Apache Web server, MySQL database and scripting languages PHP, Perl or Python--is pushing its way into mainstream corporate computing... Indeed, several companies are staking out businesses around the open-source software rather than aligning with Microsoft's .Net or with Java 2 Enterprise Edition (J2EE) server software and tools... "What we've seen in the last two years is corporations saying, 'We don't need these big heavy J2EE application servers. Why don't we migrate to something easier to deploy and less costly?'" said Mark Brewer, CEO of Covalent... "If you look at .Net or J2EE, they are top-controlled by single entities to make decisions--sometimes good decisions, sometimes bad," said Marten Mickos, CEO of MySQL. "In the LAMP stack, the evolutionary powers make sure that only best-of components survive. It is a difference in philosophy." Both Microsoft and Java vendors are clearly aware of the popularity of LAMP...

Real Meme on J2EE and Mono: Waning

Over at Real Meme, the assertion is that J2EE has topped out and is on the wane. Evidence includes a statistical/quant analysis of the misc.jobs newsgroups and related technology areas (report: Saving J2EE). As for Mono, Real Meme reports, "He's still dead, Jim."

An InternetNews analysis asks, "Is Java EE's Complexity Its Worst Enemy?":

Java Platform, Enterprise Edition is such an unwieldy beast that developers are moving away from it, cherry picking the few pieces they need or looking at open source alternatives. And if the trend continues, Java EE could die on the vine. That's the conclusion of a report from The Burton Group, written by an analyst who has authored three books on Java 2 Enterprise Edition (its old brand name). "So it's not like I want this to be the case," joked Richard Monson-Haefel, senior analyst for Burton and author of the report...

That's been my experience. Whenever comparable web application projects were delivered in CPG, banking, and healthcare areas -- and one was in J2EE and the other in LAMP/WAMP -- each and every time the latter project beat it to market. And usually with far less FTE count. I'm not sure whether the key factors were complexity, learning curve, ramp-up time, or vagaries of the development/testing environment, but it always seemed the J2EE project lagged. Pfizer is another example of a company that has publicly reported similar results.

Open-source and Security

First came word that Antivirus vendor Trend Micro has definitively stated that open-source software is "more secure". Raimund Genes, Trend's CTO noted:

Open source is more secure. Period... More people control the code base; they can react immediately to vulnerabilities; and open source doesn't have so much of a problem with legacy code because of the number of distributions.

Other news hitting the mainstream media: word of widespread exploitation of a "feature" of the Windows File System (NTFS), which is used to create nearly invisible rootkits (self-hiding malware packages). Some commentators had warned for years that Alternate Data Streams (ADS) were rife for abuse. More recently, rootkit sites, WhiteHat tools, and even CIO Magazine have picked up the drumbeat. All point to a capability in the Windows OS that is extraordinarily difficult to police. Imagine a file -- created right from user-mode -- that is completely invisible to all but the most sophisticated tools. Effectively, that's the net-net of Windows' ADS.

OSS and Microsoft

There has been plenty of speculation about Microsoft's "co-opetition" with the world of OSS. Most recently, Sys-con editorializes MSFT's decision to provide interoperability between Office file formats and the Open Document Format (ODF):

Microsoft has up and made a 180-degree turn and is now saying it's going to half-heartedly support the Oasis-blessed OpenDocument Format (ODF) foist on it by Sun and the sovereign Commonwealth of Massachusetts, whose adoption of the anti-Microsoft format has threatened to start a wholesale defection from the Microsoft standard, particularly by government. Not to be outdone, Google has joined the burgeoning ODF Alliance, which started with 36 members in March and is now at 240... Anyway, Microsoft says it's created what it calls an open source Open XML Translator program and that the stuff - described as "a technical bridge" between its own Open XML formats and ODF... This is Microsoft's first open source project, new and hostile territory for the company, but it's gone so far as to post a prototype for Word 2007 on Sourceforge.

And at ZDNet, Dana Blankenhorn asks, "What would a Microsoft fade mean for open-source?"

...Just as the cost of starting production rises exponentially as chips get more complex, so the cost of developing and maintaining software rises with complexity. In hardware, this means the number of companies which can afford a fabrication plant or "fab" declines. In software it means that fewer-and-fewer companies can compete in important niches as software grows more complex... Open source may be software's way out of Moore's Second Law. And that law will continue to bite every remaining competitor in the proprietary realm, including Microsoft.

Self-Defense 101 for the New York Times

In an interview with Israeli Air Force Major General Eliezer Shkedy, one of his answers struck me as especially insightful:

This war [on terror] is so complex. [The terrorists] are always trying to figure out what we're doing; they adapt to it. I would love to be able to tell [all] we are doing... to protect them. They'd be proud to hear it. But the moment I make something public, the other side will adapt. So telling the public actually harms... efforts to protect the public.

Got that, editors of the New York Times? Is that clear enough for you?

Okay, this sent chills down my spine

The report that Israel has given Syria a 72-hour ultimatum ("...to stop Hizbullah’s activity along the Lebanon-Israel border and bring about the release the two kidnapped IDF soldiers or it would launch an offensive with disastrous consequences...") didn't do it. But a commenter's note did:

Isaiah speaks of Damascus ...when he says (17:1): The burden of Damascus. Behold, Damascus is taken away from being a city, and it shall be a ruinous heap... ...and the kingdom from Damascus, and the remnant of Syria: they shall be as the glory of the children of Israel, saith the LORD of hosts.

JOS Salary Survey

The JOS forum has an interesting thread (which made it to Digg's frontpage) regarding IT/Software Development salaries. Lots of data -- the accuracy could certainly be in question, though. Not exactly scientific methodology, but interesting nonetheless.

Joel on Software: Salary Survey

Iran's Proxies at War with Israel

It is worth remembering, especially at this juncture in the decades-long Middle East conflict, the reason Iran's Mullahs can roll the dice. While their proxies (Syria, Hezbollah, and Hamas) launch attacks into Israel, they gamble on U.S. inaction due to political paralysis.

They read the New York and LA Times. They hear the likes of Nancy Pelosi, John Murtha, and Howard Dean on CNN. And they remember Jimmy Carter, whose lack of will led to the ascent of the theocracy in Tehran.

They bank on the purely partisan gamesmanship that has supplanted any coherent long-range plans on terrorism and terrorist states. Americans were once unified after 9/11, but the country has long since become fractured -- first by Howard Dean during the '04 primaries and then by the mainstream Democratic party -- for reasons of political expediency.

The party organ of the Left, the New York Times, routinely censors stories and pictures of the WTC jumpers, the heroes of flight 93, the 500 WMD found in Iraq since 2003, the accelerating reconstruction of Iraq, the horrific attack on Beslan, the aftermath of the Madrid subway bombings, and any other evidence of the widening global conflict promoted by religious extremists against civilization.

Instead, the Times chooses to wage war on America's national security initiatives and to provide a willing channel that funnels propaganda to the enemy. The litany of wartime programs the Times has chosen to expose include rendition, SWIFT, phone-number databases, international calling pattern analysis, and the like. Counter to the Times' claims of government's overreach, not one person has gone to jail nor has anyone even been indicted over these programs.

The Times pretends instead that we are not at war. They ignore the ever-escalating conflict, which was strengthened by the A.Q. Kahn nuclear parts network and the Loral/ICBM debacle under the not-so-watchful eyes of Clinton and Albright. That leads us to the current situation with North Korea and Iran.

Michael Ledeen comments:

Iran has been at war with us all along, because that’s what the world’s leading terror state does. The scariest thing about this moment is that the Iranians have convinced themselves that they are winning, and we are powerless to reverse the tide. As I reported here several months ago, Khamenei told his top people late last year that the Americans and Israelis are both politically paralyzed. Neither can take decisive action against Iran, neither can sustain prolonged conflict and significant casualties. Meanwhile, the Supreme Leader said, the terrorists are all working for Iran, and we will expand the terror war. Don’t think for a moment that they worry about victims in Gaza or Lebanon. They are delighted to see Israel fighting on two fronts, because they will use the pictures from the battlefield to consolidate their hold over the fascist forces in the region. After a few days of fighting, I would not be surprised to see some new kind of terrorist attack against Israel, or against an American facility in the region. An escalation to chemical weapons, for example, or even the fulfillment of the longstanding Iranian promise to launch something nuclear at Israel. They meant it when they said it, don’t you know? The only way we are going to win this war is to bring down those regimes in Tehran and Damascus, and they are not going to fall as a result of fighting between their terrorist proxies in Gaza and Lebanon on the one hand, and Israel on the other. Only the United States can accomplish it.

If national security is the question, the party of weakness (and its media organ - the Times) will never be the answer.

National Review's Michael Ledeen: The Same War

David Twersky has more: War on Iran has begun

Plame Blame Game: Lame

The fun kicks into high gear with news that Vanity Fair pinups Valerie Plame and hubby Joe Wilson have sued various folks in the Administration. I can't wait until this one hits CourtTV:

For those who think that the Wilsons still have any credibility left, please see my omnibus post on the various efforts by Joe Wilson to obfuscate the truth until put under oath by the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. Undoubtedly, this lawsuit will founder on the same shoals -- and it will give us a splendid opportunity to ask Plame under threat of perjury [many] questions including: ...How did Joe Wilson get this assignment? Let's put Plame on the stand and really get to the heart of what she hoped to accomplish by promoting her husband for this task. I'd bet the lawsuit gets dropped in a New York minute -- and if not, the record of Wilson's prevarications should easily sink it.

Captain's Quarters: Attention, Perjury Fans!

Boycott the New York Times

Long ago, the Times' public editor Daniel Okrent answered the question, "Is the New York Times a liberal newspaper?" His response was, "Of course it is."

In the most recent edition of Talking Points, Bill O'Reilly pointed out some additional metrics regarding the Times:

The publisher of The Times, Arthur Sulzberger, believes the Bush administration is a danger to the world. He's convinced the president is using the War on Terror to turn America into a totalitarian state bent on enriching the powerful and violating the rights of every day people. Sulzberger's put together a staff of true believers like himself. And they are bent on undermining the Bush administration. Not watching it, undermining it. Three political columnists for The Times -- Maureen Dowd, Bob Herbert and Frank Rich -- wrote a total of 156 columns on the Bush administration in the past 18 months. Every one, all 156 were negative. ...[The Times] simply says it is exposing an incompetent president. But the truth is far more insidious. There is a far-left press jihad going on in this country. That's the truth. Their ideology prevents them from understanding true evil. Their theoretical outlook would make it impossible to win on the battlefield.

The title of O'Reilly's piece: "When Living in a Dangerous World, You Must Know Your Enemy." But: 156 anti-administration stories in a row? Maybe it's just a coincidence. And maybe penguin commandos will invade Canada and pillage Toronto.

O'Reilly has a point. Does any sane person doubt that extremists plot further attacks on New Yorkers? High-profile targets include Manhattan's subways, buses, tanker-trucks, neighboring refineries, tunnels, bridges, and high-rises -- to name but a few. But the Times can't be bothered to investigate or comment upon the enemy's plans.

Instead, it concentrates on disclosing a swath of classified Government programs, ranging from rendition to SWIFT. Furthermore, its news and analysis pieces have attempted to justify its behavior. Laughably, other articles even question the Government's rollup of terror attacks that are in the planning -- and not execution -- stages.

Furthermore, incidents that appear in the mainstream press (e.g., the 500 WMD found in Iraq since 2003) are censored and ignored by the Times in a self-righteous zeal to wage information warfare against Americans and New Yorkers specifically.

It is one thing to have opinions and spin the news. It is another thing altogether to censor the news, to damage national security, and -- in the end -- to ultimately harm the American people by withholding news and information in a manner reminiscent of Pravda circa 1960.

Boycott the New York Times. New Yorkers deserve better. Americans deserve better. We deserve the truth.

Hugh Hewitt hammers another nail into the LA Times' coffin

It is certain the LA Times doesn't need another reminder that their business is going to hell in a hand-basket (heaven knows that Patterico has delivered enough to rival a pizza-driver's mileage). Nonetheless, they got one yesterday. Hugh Hewitt delivered a blistering (and maniacally dandy) weather report for the LA Dog Trainer.

It comes after a May 2006 report showing that the Times has lost more paid weekday circulation (5.4% year over year) than any other major daily.

Hewitt's prediction? Continued blight, followed by extended drought, followed by seven or more years of famine. Think of it as the second half of Joseph's dream interpretation for Pharoah and you're pretty much there.

...When the new circulation figures for the [LA Times] appear, it is a guarantee that... any losses will be explained away by reference not to the papers' atrocious editorial decisions, but to the challenge from online competitors. To help the small brained dinosaurs... there's a useful new category cooked up by the Audit Bureau of Circulation that counts free papers left in hotel lobbies etc., "Verified Circulation." You can perfume a corpse, but that doesn't make it less dead. Keep your eye on home delivery, paid circulation. The advertisers will. And my guess is that they won't be happy. Nor will the shareholders or Wall Street...

Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeew. That's a mighty tall glass of shut-up juice the Times just got served.

It's always fun to see Mr. Hewitt delivering bi-coastal smackdowns. That's why CNN only books him on CNN's Reliable Sources infrequently. Say, when there's an eclipse during the Summer Solstice... and when he's outnumbered 3-1 or greater by the moonbattery. I did notice that the last time he was on, they pulled the usual one conservative versus three liberals (including a certain "Eric Lichtblau", recently infamous for a shameful national security disclosure). Hewitt rendered it a brutal mismatch for the Right.

I could be mistaken, but Hewitt delivered enough punishment that by the end of the segment he was yelling, "Is that all you got? Bring on some more! Carville, Rafferty, whoever you got!"

I could've imagined that last part, but I'm pretty sure that's the way it went down.

It will get considerably uglier for the Times, whose infantile behavior defies both logic and any semblance of business sense. The only saving grace for those employed or otherwise captive to the Times: the inevitable, chaotic meltdown won't last long, so it will all be over quickly.

This American thinks Soccer needs some major changes

It's been said before and I'll go ahead and say it again. Soccer is weak, my friends. Too weak for most Americans to bother with. It's downright painful to watch. Once again, I invested a couple of hours to watch the World Cup final. My biennial affair with soccer was as satisfying as eating Angel Food Cake without any toppings. I can officially vow -- in writing -- not to watch another.

As a basketball fan, the problem is obvious. Soccer is ridiculously, egregiously skewed towards defense. Example: do soccer statisticians track the number of turnovers in a match? If so, what's the record? 5,000?

Selecting (yet another) World Cup champion with penalty kicks is like deciding a Super Bowl with a Punt-Pass-and-Kick competition. Or choosing a World Series champion with a Home-Run Derby.

And it's especially bad when one team -- France -- dominated the pitch for the last 75 minutes. You heard that right: France literally controlled every bit of action for that period. Only a lightning-fast save by Italy's goalkeeper on a brilliant Zidane header kept the match tied.

In the meantime, Italy stacked defenders in their backfield like cordwood and played the least offensive-minded attack one can imagine.

Here's a suggestion: outlaw the goalie. Or get rid of the offsides (I'll admit it, that's still something this gauche American can't even begin to fathom... so let me get this straight: my reward for outhustling the defender is a turnover!). Make the goal bigger. I don't care, just tweak the game to get enough offense that every critical match doesn't end up with penalty-kicks!

That would involve adjusting the rules a bit to get the average score to, say, 5-4.

I'm sure the soccer-holics don't care what Americans think. But I think your sport -- as currently constructed -- isn't worth watching. I suspect there are a lot of other Red-Staters who agree with that sentiment.

The suicidal tendencies of the Times

Eric Lipton must be suffering from depression and anxiety over the Government's recent rollup of terrorists caught plotting to destroy PATH tunnels in and around Manhattan. How else to explain his (each hand holding up two fingers) news story entitled, "Recent Arrests in Terror Plots Yield Debate on Pre-emptive Action by Government"?

It's worth pointing out that the Times has spent very little time analyzing the terrorists' actual plans and have instead scrutinized the government's attempts to preempt attacks. The point of Lipton's piece follows this template. Not satisifed with exposing the classified programs that help catch terrorists, the Times also hopes Americans will question the ethics associated with arresting terrorists before their plots have fully congealed!

I'll save you the time and energy required to click the link and read 14 column-inches of the Times' traditional counter-clockwise spin. Lipton's bullet-points are:

• Terrorists have been arrested while in the planning stages of attacks
• Shouldn't we wait until they're closer to pulling off their attacks (can't we give them a fighting chance to carry their plans out?)
• Some attorneys like Martin R. Stolar figure we should!

Using Martin Stolar to counter the Government's notions of prosecuting terrorists makes as much sense as having Michael Jackson serve as a character witness in a pedophilia case. Lipton writes:

...suspects have been apprehended before they lined up the intended weapons and the necessary financing or figured out other central details necessary to carry out their plots... "Talk without any kind of an action means nothing," said Martin R. Stolar, a New York defense lawyer. "You start to criminalize people who are not really criminals."

And just who is Martin Stolar? He seems to be quite a character, based upon a brief session with Google. Stolar's background includes unsuccessfully defending would-be terrorist bomb-plotters:

A Pakistani immigrant was convicted yesterday of plotting to wreak havoc in the heart of the city by blowing up the Herald Square subway station... Siraj and [a conspirator]... were caught discussing nitty-gritty details... including targets, how big the bomb should be, how to get nuclear materials and different disguises to use when they planted the bomb... But Siraj's lawyer, Martin Stolar, insisted his client was entrapped, saying, "This was a manufactured crime... This is not somebody who is a terrorist."

Stolar showed up to organize and/or defend civil disobedience protests at the Republican National Convention.

He also defended "activist" David Segal, who pled guilty to a charge of attempting to burn down a Bronx military recruiting office and was subsequently sentenced to prison.

He also appears to be the same Martin Stolar who was denied entry to the Ohio bar for refusing to answer, among other questions, the following:

State whether you have been, or presently are . . . (g) a member of any organization which advocates the overthrow of the government of the United States by force . . . .

Stolar appealed that decision all the way to the Supreme Court, who ruled in 1971 that he did not have to answer the questions.

In other words, Stolar appears to have some very odd loyalties and -- at minimum -- loose affiliations with out-of-the-mainstream, anti-Government types.

So this wouldn't be the first guy I would go to when I needed a legal expert. But that's just me. However, he was someone Eric Lipton thought of immediately when weaving another tilted story.

If I wanted an expert, I'd find someone equivalent to Dennis Lormel. Lormel is a 28-year FBI vet, who served as Section Chief for Financial Crimes. At the Counter-terrorism Blog, he writes about the effects of the Times' SWIFT disclosures (hat tip: Hugh Hewitt):

The Times article mentioned select operational investigative SWIFT program successes, to include the capture of Jamaah Islamiah leader Hambali. How could that happen if terrorists had stopped using the formal financial system because of Government disclosures of financial tracking mechanisms? ...One fact is certain…the disclosure... has caused terrorists and their supporters to sit up and take notice. This will cause terrorist operational changes and significant new challenges for the Government in identifying and countering evolving terrorist financing methodologies.

Another interesting aspect to Lipton's article relates to the American Spectator's report that the Times' SWIFT disclosure endangered three ongoing and active investigations:

Treasury and Justice Department officials [indicate]... media outlets were told that their reports on the SWIFT financial tracking system presented risks for three ongoing terrorism financing investigations. Despite this information, both papers chose to move forward with their stories.

Could it be, Eric, that the Government was forced to rein in the conspiracy prematurely because the Times helped blow the investigation?

* * *
The original title of Lipton's piece was:

In Zeal to Foil Terror Plots, Cases May Be Missing Something

But a more accurate title would have been:

In Zeal to Foil National Security, Newspaper May be Missing Something

Put bluntly, the Times appears to have suicidal tendencies. How else to explain its willingness to coddle terrorists and expose a series of classified US national security efforts, some of which all can agree are perfectly legal?

In the Archives of Suicide Research, Dr. M. Wolfersdorf associates these tendencies with, "thoughts of worthlessness, guilt, despair, depressive delusional symptoms, inner restlessness and agitation."

By and large, that sounds like the Times to me.

The nom de guerre  "Gray Lady" may have special significance given the Times' suicidal tendencies. After all, a corpse in a state of rigor mortis is tinged with gray.

Related:
Hugh Hewitt: The NYT's Bill Keller, Unplugged
Patterico: Another Leaker Damages Our Counterterror Efforts
Philip Mella: The politics of Terrorism
RantingProfs: Another Terror Threat and Damned if you Do
Rathergate: Bill Keller does Charlie Rose
Villainous Company: NYTimesWatch: Connecting The Dots On Treachery