Automated robots programmed to terminate human life are already in use, in the battlefields of Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as on the borders on many of the more powerful western nations. Thankfully, they still require an actual human to pull the trigger, but this is merely a technicality. US military leaders have already expressed their desire to have fully automated robot death squads, and are ready to put their money where their mouth is:

Washington plans to spend four billion dollars by 2010 on unmanned technology systems, with total spending expected rise to 24 billion, according to the Department of Defense’s Unmanned Systems Roadmap 2007-2032, released in December. James Canton, an expert on technology innovation and CEO of the Institute for Global Futures, predicts that deployment within a decade of detachments that will include 150 soldiers and 2,000 robots.

However, like every other technological innovation of war, designed to be used against the “enemy”, its only a matter of time before that technology is turned against us. And when you’re talking about killer robots, things get dicey real fast:

Captured robots would not be difficult to reverse engineer, and could easily replace suicide bombers as the weapon-of-choice. “I don’t know why that has not happened already,” he said.

But even more worrisome, he continued, is the subtle progression from the semi-autonomous military robots deployed today to fully independent killing machines. “I have worked in artificial intelligence for decades, and the idea of a robot making decisions about human termination terrifies me,” Sharkey said.

Scary shit man. 2029 isn’t all that far away. Hopefully John Connor’s still kicking it somewhere.

Before there were right wing blowhards like Rush Limbaugh and Bill O’ Reilly hamming it up for ratings, there was William F. Buckley–a voice of conservative punditry who could actually put together a coherent thought. Unfortunately for the right, they’ve lost one of their most articulate and venerable voices. According to his son Christopher, Buckley suffered from emphysema and diabetes; the columnist died overnight in his study at his Stamford, CT, home.

Buckley’s column “On the Right” entered into national syndication in 1962 and appeared in over 300 newspapers. He also hosted an Emmy Award-winning show, Firing Line that pitted liberals against conservatives, ran for 33 years. Buckley spoke fluent French and Spanish, and though he took pride in taking jabs at the left, he also didn’t take it easy on his right wing brethren. In a 2006 column, he called for President Bush to admit defeat in the Iraq war and said of the neoconservative movement:

“The neoconservative hubris, which sort of assigns to America some kind of geo-strategic responsibility for maximizing democracy, overstretches the resources of a free country.”

A series of tributes to the man appear on National Review Online.

Starring Adolf Hitler as Rupert Murdoch…

On the heels of last week’s unexplained cancellations, just received this release from Live Nation regarding Van Halen’s upcoming shows at Arco Arena in Sacramento and Oracle Area in Oakland:

Tickets for Van Halen’s upcoming Oracle Arena and Arco Arena dates were scheduled to go on sale on March 1st and March 3rd, respectively. Those on sale dates have now been postponed. Additional information regarding the ticket on sale dates for those appearances will be announced soon. Please disregard previous on sale announcement.

Maybe Eddie is so bummed about ex-wife Valerie Bertinelli breaking it down on Oprah the other day - about boning other dudes, getting fat, doing blow and all sorts of other shit - that he called up ex-VH bassist Michael Anthony and they both rolled to the nearest bar and ordered bottles of Jack Daniels, neat.

A very compelling article from Seattle’s The Stranger (via Utne) on the 9 / 11 Truth Movement six years after WTC:

It’s inaccurate to refer to Truthers as conspiracy theorists because, as they’re quick to point out, many of them don’t have a theory. They only have questions. Some of them believe that the government is guilty of knowing about the attacks and simply allowing them to happen, others believe that the planes were remote-­controlled and no passengers died in the attacks, and still others believe that the Pentagon was hit by a cruise missile and no plane was involved at all. Many Truthers believe that Flight 93 couldn’t have crashed in Pennsylvania since the crash site is only 6 feet wide by 20 feet long. A radical few even claim that no planes struck the Twin Towers. The debate within the movement is intense and not always polite; some Truthers believe that denying that hundreds of air passengers died on September 11 is disrespectful and stupid.

And although a 2006 Scripps poll found that 36% of Americans believe the government was somehow responsible for 9 /11, getting that 36% to agree on exactly what this means has gotten perhaps more difficult than ever. What do you believe?

Dog the Bounty Hunter has had a tough couple of months, what with the whole racists rant caught on tape and sold to the National Enquirer and its fallout. BTW, check out that link for a DT blog and subsequent comment thread containing whole bunch of the worst people on the internet saying bad hurtful words, and a whole bunch of people standing up for morals and decency rebuking them with bad hurtful words. (ah, teh internets.)

Well, the person responsible for leaking the conversation, his son Tucker Chapman has gotten himself into hot water as well by violating his parole.

From the Hawaii Star Bulletin:

The alleged violations include drug use, association with a felon, failing to inform the parole officer that he had contact with a police officer and failure to follow the police officer’s instructions…

Too bad he didn’t go on the lamb - that would have made for a great episode of Dog’s show.

Speaking of, Duane Dog has reportedly resumed filming episodes for the next season of his show, though A&E has yet to announce the air-dates for his return. They must be waiting for the nation to forget about his tirade and the pig-eyed idiocy squirming under the slim greasy surface of his mullet. Shithead.