It looks like Donahue's show on MSNBC will be going the way of all things mortal soon. And look who may be taking his place: Jesse "The Governor" Ventura.

I just hope Donahue's viewers (either one of them) don't accidentally tune into Jesse's show and go into toxic shock from the sudden increase in testosterone level.

Cryptography and computer security guru Bruce Schneier is working on a new book:

My new book, still untitled, is a book about security. Not computer security, but security in general. Its goal is to teach readers how to think differently, how to tell good security from bad security, and to be able to explain why. Its goal is to instill in readers a healthy skepticism about security, especially the technologies surrounding security. Its goal is to convince readers that good security is about people.

Schneier's first book, Applied Cryptography, focuses very narrowly on the technology of encryption, and gives the subject as thorough a treatment as has ever been done. He later came to question the usefulness of his own work, though, for its lack of context:

Readers believed that cryptography was a kind of magic security dust that they could sprinkle over their software and make it secure. That they could invoke magic spells like "128-bit key" and "public-key infrastructure." A colleague once told me that the world was full of bad security systems designed by people who read Applied Cryptography.

And so Schneier wrote Secrets and Lies, a more general look at computer security. (The passage above is taken from the introduction to that book.) Now, he takes another step back for a still broader view, looking at security in general, informed by the events of 9/11, and the attempts -- most running the range from ineffectual to counterproductive -- to respond to the need for greater security.

No doubt Scheier's thoughts on the subject will be worth reading, but don't get too excited just yet:

Book publishing is second only to furniture delivery in slowness. My deadline for the book is the end of the month, but it's not going to be available in stores until next September.

Ten months? That's about a decade in blog-years.

No link on this one, just a thought apropos nothing, except general silly talk on the left about how the Republicans are endangering all that is right and good in the world.

Those who claim that Roe v. Wade is hanging by a thread with the Republicans in power fail to see how deeply the GOP is divided on this issue; it runs about fifty-fifty even here in the rock-ribbed redoubts of suburban Houston.

The unspoken compromise that has been worked out is that candidates must rhetorically embrace the anti-abortion position in order to secure the support of religious conservatives, but are forbidden to actually do anything to repeal Roe, to avoid alienating their pro-choice constituency. Issues on the margin -- like "partial birth" abortions, parental notification, and waiting periods -- are negotiable, since candidates may need them to demostrate their anti-abortion bona-fides.

This is not a stable situation, and works better when the party is in opposition rather than in power, when professed policies run the risk of actually being put into practice. Wartime footing may postpone such a reckoning further, by pushing abortion downward on the list of priorities, and making obvious the problems with pushing such a divisive issue.

But once the war is over, Republican fortunes will go into decline shortly afterward, as they are forced to make a choice on the abortion issue, and thus alienate either the religious conservatives or the social moderates among their own ranks and among swing voters.

In combination with the prospect of a left-vs-DLC split in the Democratic party, there could be a major general realignment of the parties in the offing.

Woundwort over at Silflay Hraka posts a list of his favorite movies ("Fletch" at number one? whatever...).

I started making up my own list of favorites, and found I was duplicating other movies nominated in Woundwort's comments, or just making obvious choices. (Casablanca, Star Wars, The Matrix, Princess Bride...)

So instead, here's a list of movies -- not necessarily my favorites, but really good nonetheless -- that probably won't make anyone else's list.

Henry V (Kenneth Branagh version)
Get it for the St. Crispin's Day speech alone. And Brian Blessed in full medieval armor is as imposing as an M-1 Abrams. Derek Jacobi, Ian Holm, Paul Scofield, Robbie Coltrane, and Judi Dench also star.

Grosse Pointe Blank
A screwball romantic comedy about a hitman attending his high school reunion while on the run from a former client and a former partner. Really. Stars John Cusack, Joan Cusack, Minnie Driver, and Dan Aykroyd.

Dead Again
Ken Branagh, Emma Thompson, and Derek Jacobi try to out-act each other (and Branagh fakes a credible American accent) in a murder mystery based on reincarnation. Andy Garcia in a supporting role, Robin Williams in an uncredited cameo.

Noises Off
Michael Caine. Do I need to go on? Okay: Carol Burnett, Denholm Eliot (in one if his last roles), Christopher Reeve, Marilu Henner, John Ritter, and Julie Hagerty in a screwball comedy about an off-Broadway troupe putting on a screwball comedy -- badly.

Cast a Deadly Spell
Gritty detective drama with snappy dialog and some comic relief, set in an alternate 1940s Los Angeles where everyone uses magic. Everyone, that is, except our hero, private dick Phil Lovecraft, played by Fred Ward (who was born to wear a fedora). David Warner and Clancy Brown co-star.

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead
More actors trying to out-act one another, in this case Gary Oldman and Tim Roth, playing R & G (or may be it's G & R; they're not sure themselves which is which), the hapless, ill-starred minor characters from Hamlet. It came out about the same time as Mel Gibson's Hamlet, and would make a nice double-bill if you have the stamina. Richard Dreyfuss plays the Player King.

The Big Lebowski
Don't watch this one unless you have watched Bogart & Bacall in The Big Sleep first, or have read Hammett's novel. Jeff Bridges plays our profoundly laid-back hero, The Dude. John Goodman is one of the good guys, but scarier than most of the nominal bad guys. Steve Buscemi, John Turturro, Ben Gazzara, and Flea (Red Hot Chili Peppers) also appear.

Dangerous Liaisons
Glenn Close can be really scary when she wants to be. John Malkovich is horribly miscast -- I would have loved to see Timothy Dalton assay the role of Valmont -- but fun to watch anyway. Intrigue, debauchery, and sadism among the aristocracy of pre-Revolutionary France; by the time it's over, you may think the guillotine wasn't such a bad idea after all. Michelle Pfeiffer, Uma Thurman, and Keanu Reeves also star.

Get Shorty
John Travolta plays -- no, don't stop reading, it's good, really. JT plays a loan shark who's come to Hollywood in pursuit of a "client" on the lam; Gene Hackman and Rene Russo want to make a movie about him, and to get Danny DeVito to play him. Dennis Farina guest stars, and says the "F" word a lot. Based on a novel by Elmore Leonard.

Lola Rennt (aka, Run Lola Run)
Don't like subtitles? Tough. The dubbed version is awful; get the original German-language version and read along. Lola's boyfriend, Manni, is going to be killed by mobsters in 20 minutes unless she comes up with DM 100,000. We see events play out three times, with three alternate endings; and there is a neat device showing how the lives of the people Lola runs into turn out vastly differently in each alternative. The animation is still dumb, though.

The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the Eighth Dimension
Speaking of dumb ... okay, that's not fair. Buckaroo Banzai is dumb in the same way the old Adam West Batman was dumb -- in a sly, amusing, entirely intentional way. The producers deny that this is a pastiche of Doc Savage; they are, of course, lying. ("Perfect Tom"? C'monnn...) John Lithgow chews more than his share of scenery; Christopher Lloyd, Jeff Goldblum, Ellen Barkin, and Clancy Brown co-star.

Immortal Beloved
Think "Amadeus", except with Gary Oldman as Beethoven instead of Tom Hulce as Mozart. It's an attempt to answer a real-life historical riddle: to whom was Beethoven referring when, in his will, he left his worldly possessions to someone he refers to only as "my Immortal Beloved"?

Mystery Men
Some critics wondered how the producers fo this movie could make such ruthless fun of superhero conventions and cliches, and then fall back on those very cliches as the story played out? But the best parodies have genuine affection for their subjects. Based on supporting characters from Bob Burden's "Flaming Carrot Comics".

Big Trouble in Little China
As with "Buckaroo Banzai", if you go into this looking for serious adventure, you'll be disappointed; but if you go in looking for some silly fun, you'll find it in abundance. Kurt Russell swaggers, Dennis Dun kicks butt, James Hong and Victor Wong throw lightning around, Kim Catrall ... well, she's in it, too. And a good time was had by all.

The Last Remake of Beau Geste
Marty Feldman directed, produced, and starred in this farce (and I mean that in a nice way), which comes off kind of like an anglicized Mel Brooks production. Ann-Margret, Michael York, and Peter Ustinov co-star.

Okay, so I have weird tastes.

Over a year ago, I got my first little taste of blog fame (like real fame, only less so) when Glenn Reynolds published an email of mine suggesting that we were probably killing fewer Afghans with our bombs than the Taliban would have, if they had kept on with business as usual. It struck me as ironic that getting bombarded by the United States probably resulted in a net improvement in public safety.

Now, at last, I am vindicated -- and the vindication comes, believe it or not, in that most anti-war, anti-American of Brit rags, The Guardian:

Was it worth it, I asked? He pointed up at the sky: "We shouted with joy when the American planes came over this way. They hit a Taliban police barracks down the road. Boom! It was a big ammunition dump, we knew that. But we were amazed at how precise it was. Yes, we cheered!"

Not surprising, perhaps, as this is Hazara territory, the downtrodden, spat-upon tribe that makes up 20% of the population. But what of the bombs that missed, the innocent dead, among them Hazaras too? Hussain Dad spread his arms wide: "How many more do you think the Taliban would have killed in this last year? Thousands! And they would still be killing now."

Ron Rosenbaum, writing in the New York Observer, isn't a "Bush hater". Mind you, he doesn't like our man Dubya, but he knows who the real enemy is, and is frustrated that so few on the Left share his understanding:

Again, it goes back to my puzzlement about what the Left is about: Isn’t it supposed to be on the side of oppressed people? And yet the multilateral system that suddenly is all the rage in Left rhetoric does little more than entrench some of the worst torturing and murdering police states more deeply in power; allows theocracies to execute "blasphemers" with impunity, as Iran is about to do; allows others to commit multiple genocides with impunity; puts Sudan and Syria in charge of the U.N. Human Rights Commission. I mean, come on, who are we kidding? The multilateral system in place now is no more moral than the gangland system of The Godfather.

Wouldn’t it be a victory for the oppressed people of Iraq, of North Korea, of Iran, if their police-state regimes were overthrown? Even by a cowboy unilateralist?

Link via InstaPundit.

Gerhard Schroeder is getting spanked in German public opinion pools and pop charts:

Schroeder's government of Social Democrat-Greens has slumped dramatically in voter surveys since the Sept. 22 polls after breaking election promises not to raise taxes. It has fallen 10 points behind the opposition in what pollsters call the steepest drop in support for a government since World War II.

On Monday Schroeder announced another new tax on equities and property sales -- which the conservative opposition called the 49th new tax since he was first elected in 1998.

The government said tax increases became necessary because of worsening fiscal conditions discovered after the election.

Did you tell the voters to "read my lips", Ger?

"Never has a German chancellor lied so boldly to the nation as Schroeder did," wrote Friedrich Klages of Negenborn.

Actually, I can think of one other, but Godwin's Law forbids me from naming him.

Let's not let the Reuters reporter, Erik Kirschbaum, off the hook either:

Brandt's song recalls the Beatles' 1966 classic "Taxman" by George Harrison: "If you drive a truck, I'll tax the street; if you try to fix it, I'll tax your seat. If you get a cold, I'll tax the heat; if you take a walk, I'll tax your feet."

Erik, that low moaning and rattling-of-chains you heard during the night was the ghost of George Harrison, mad at you for mangling his lyrics.

Chorus: If you drive a car, car, Harrison: I'll tax the street; Chorus: If you try to sit, sit, Harrison: I'll tax your seat. Chorus: If you gets too cold, cold, Harrison: I'll tax the heat; Chorus: If you take a walk, walk, Harrison: I'll tax your feet.

Link courtesy of InstaPundit.

Change is brewing in Iran, according to the Christian Science Monitor. Even some religious leaders are rejecting the outcome of the first revolution:

"The people have the right to rule themselves, and that right is given by God himself," says Ayatollah Moussavi Tabrizi, the former chief justice of Iran's revolutionary courts, now a reformist attorney. "The system has to respect the people to survive."

Eloquently put; but I can think of someone who expressed that sentiment even more grandly:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. --That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.

Link via InstaPundit.

Regarding the whole delinking fuss of late, I have nothing to say that Michele at a small victory hasn't said better. But note, for your blogrolling pleasure, that the unjustly maligned a small victory, Wilde, and Little Green Footballs have been added to my blogroll, for whatever that's worth. All are highly recommended reading.