Al Jazeera: Iraqi president arrives in Syria. 

According to Google News, the Iraqi president's visit to Syria isn't being reported by American news sites. It could be that my search is inadequate. Or it could be that we're not getting all the news.  

Jason Lefkowitz outlines a reaistic nightmare scenario in Iraq.  

Congress has power again 

It's time for everyone to bone up on the separation of powers in the American form of government. In its first six years the Bush executive was unchecked by Congress, but that's over now. It's remarkable to see the lights of our government come back on. The wisdom of John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, the fighting they did, the tension between the first Senate and the first vice-president (Adams), the personalities of our founding fathers are still what forms discourse in our country, in the age of television, blogs and podcasting. It really is a miracle to see it all start to work again. Brilliant!

What I meant to say 

Yesterday's essay has gotten a lot of pointage and comments, but so far no one has pulled the key quote from the piece, probably because I buried it. So here it is, standing on its own.

"The iPod is a wonderful product, but damn it's time we made one that could run our software, could run any software, so users have choice, and so you don't have to buy new hardware to get software features, and so the market can grow at the rate of innovation, not at the whim of one marketer."

Perhaps people can agree with this. Apple could even make it, a limited edition iPod that runs Mac software and allows us to add commands to the iPod user interface.

You never know what might come from this, after all Apple didn't invent all the cool stuff that's come along in the last few years.

What does it mean to be open? 

A permathread for sure.

Am I hypocrite because I want to write software to run on iPods but I won't allow other people to post to Scripting News? I don't know, maybe to some it does, but I think not.

When I started this blog in April 1997, I immediately published, for free, in source, the code I used to publish the site. The result, within a few months, a bunch of sites that worked more or less the same way this site did. When I added syndication to this site, I encouraged others to create their own syndicated content, and tools that use the content. Within a few years everyone is doing it. That may not be the only way to define being open, but it seems to be part of what it means to be open.

STFU about the hand-wringing 

Paolo: "Ask not what Apple can do for you. Buy their products and STFU."

Ethan Kaplan says the hand-wringing is out of control.

I think the hand-wringing about the hand-wringing is out of control.

Governor of Caleee Forrrr Neeee Ahhhh 

I just watched our governor on ABC.

He's great. Just what we need.