Only an UNC fan could know how much these words truly mean after the last few seasons: “[We’ve gone] from being the most selfish team I’ve ever been a part of to the most selfless team I’ve seen.” - Melvin Scott, Senior Guard sniff… Courtesy of Dan Wetzel, Yahoo! Sports

According to Newsweek, one proposal before the Pentagon now is to use Special Forces soldiers and local paramilitaries to target Sunni insurgents and their sympathizers, both in Iraq and if they crossed the border into Syria. Here’s a quote from Maj. Gen.Muhammad Abdallah al-Shahwani, director of Iraq’s National Intelligence Service: “The Sunni population is paying no price for the support it is giving to the terrorists. From their point of view, it is cost-free. We have to change that equation.” ...

While I don’t subscribe to our hometown newspaper — I prefer some of the weekend coverage of The News & Observer over in Raleigh — it’s a shame that a “small, family-owned media group” comes in and immediately starts axing employees at the Durham (N.C.) Herald-Sun. Link courtesy of Romenesko

The legal fights continue, but the Washington state Democratic Party says their candidate, Christine Gregoire, has defeated Republican Dino Rossi by eight votes in the gubernatorial race. Link courtesy of Talking Points Memo

This article has the overblown title of " The Intellectual Origins Of America-Bashing," and it’s the Hoover Institution on Marxism, but it’s still interesting. “The Baran-Wallerstein revision of Marxism does provide a new global reformulation of the immiserization thesis. But the locus of this misery, the Third World, does not and cannot provide an adequate objective foundation for a revolutionary struggle against the capitalist system.” I would think an even larger problem is that there would be the need for an organized opposition representing and supported by the exploited, which is far more likely within a country than across the world. Is the identity of a global underclass really more powerful right now than so many religious, political, ethnic, and other identifications? ...

I find this essay interesting because it states one of my most fundamental political beliefs: Not every right is a Constitutional right. I doubt the author and I would agree on what issues and rights we thought important, but the ability to debate about that is an essential part of the democratic process. Link via Obsidian Wings

Over at Fafblog, the always insightful Medium Lobster comments on Donald Rumsfeld’s quest for a lighter, cheaper, faster military. “Few outside the White House have truly appreciated the hard work Secretary Rumsfeld has put into transforming America’s military, turning it from a large, cumbersome force slowly bogging itself down in one war after another, to a lighter, faster, smaller, more flammable army capable of losing numerous conflicts simultaneously.”

Ah, someone has taught rat brain cells to fly a simulated F-22 fighter jet. Rats with weapons…I can’t foresee anything that could go wrong with that, can you? (They were originally going to use cat brain cells, but the planes would lose interest and stare off into the distance.) ;) Update: William Gibson recalls author Cordwainer Smith using laminated rat brains in his 1950s SF stories performing the functions for which we would later use computers. ...

Brilliant. The state of Pennsylvania has just passed a law pretty much requiring that local governments make sure they aren’t going to compete with private companies when they offer broadband as a public service. Interesting precedent. I’d hate the be the municipality trying to put up the town’s first streetlight. Suppose one of the citizens decides to start his own system of flags and hand signals for the main intersection? Courtesy of Techdirt. ...

Fascinating interview by New Scientist with Michael Koubi, former chief interrogator with the Israeli security service Shin Bet, about his career and what he thought of Abu Ghraib. A very self-confident man, but somehow I believe him, except for the parts about there being little “physical pressure.” Somehow I don’t see that holding true in a lot of cases, although I would imagine folks are more susceptible to mental/emotional pressure than we often think. ...