Real McCoy vs. Cheap-Ass Ploy

After the DNA test, who’s the poseur now?; Obama’s voodoo politics; Eye candy on the Linux desktop: AND: Jedi Mind Tricks for Jesus

An upset Suaad Hagi Mohamud, 31, left, pictured at the airport three weeks after arriving in Nairobi, was deemed to be not the same woman who was photographed on entering the country, right. | The Star

Did Suaad Hagi Mohamud try to trick customs officials in Kenya about her identity? The most obvious answer is no. DNA tests proved that the woman held by Kenyan officials after Canada labelled her an impostor was, in fact, Mohamud, despite her alleged vagueness on Canada, her job and the prime minister’s name, among other things.

If DNA testing showed beyond a doubt that Mohamud really was who she said she was—if you needed proof beyond the reception she got from her pre-teen son at Pearson International—why would anyone at all think that before-and-after airport photos of her in Kenya, the ones used to brand her as an impostor, would vindicate Canadian consular officials? Are the officials in question willing to say the Mohamud now in Toronto was not the one that initially showed up at the Kenyan office?

Now, not only do these officials look dead wrong, but also petty and vindictive.

Voodoo Politics

Did Obama outsmart everyone? That’s what Charles Blow of the New York Times asks after Obama’s poll numbers have “leveled out” despite a long summer of nasty words and relentless attacks. We know that Obama plays the long game, but observers and particularly progressives have been chewing nails watching the aloof flailing of the guy Paul Krugman was hoping to be the next FDR.

While I have come to really respect Obama (after, ahem, hating on the dude for most of the Democratic primaries) I can’t be so optimistic. The criticism against him from the left on health care is overheated—he’s gotten farther than anyone despite strategic gripes from people like Jim Webb, who wanted more discussion and a more defined White House plan. And a filibuster-crazy Republican minority doesn’t help at all. But lack of vision on two fronts—the domestic economy and foreign policy—make me worry Obama’s going to end up like Bill Clinton, impotent and compromised, when right now the United States needs Franklin Roosevelt.

First, the economy. As Krugman notes, the stimulus was important, but it most definitely wasn’t enough. And the financial bailout and the progress of financial reform shows how Obama is still closely tied to Wall Street, the source of much of the country’s problems.

Then there’s foreign policy. Afghanistan is only part of the issue, and that’s worrying enough. What’s missing is an underlying global strategic vision that would help guide America’s Afghanistan policy. This is starting to feel like the Clinton era: competent and well-intentioned foreign policy, but no real vision for the United States’ role in world affairs. No manifest destiny. No containment. No dollar diplomacy. Not even isolationism, which is at least a coherent policy.

It’s unfair to judge a president—especially one who plays the long game—only a few months into a term chalk-full of crises. But it’s becoming increasingly clear that Obama isn’t working some genius political voodoo on us—duping the right, co-opting the center, winking at the left—so much he’s covering up the fact that on two important fronts, he probably doesn’t have any tricks up his sleeve. On the policy front, that leaves him no better than the pompous, bumbling Michael Ignatieff. Obama’s a much better man and politician, but when’s he going to show up?

Jedi Mind Tricks for Jesus

Former teen heart-throb (did I just write that?) Kirk Cameron has some Charles Darwin for you: Slightly creepy, very stupid, and subversive-like-a-fox Darwin that helps show, once and for all, that a mighty Christian (read: not Catholic or Mormon, but possibly subversive-like-a-fox Jewish) God created us individually and that the seminal 19th-century biologist was really a crank.

It’s a copy of Darwin’s book, "On The Origin of Species," but with a kooky creationist introduction. Seriously.

The most self-defeating political campaign I’ve seen since McCain/Palin. I’ll take a copy. Someone else has my non-evangelical version.

Neoseeker

Eye candy is good for you. Like Grand Theft Auto

The first time I used KDE was in 2003 at a workplace that was as cheap as my $10/hr salary might have suggested. It was slow and clunky on ancient laddoo-coloured computers and its idea of desktop eye candy was geyes.

Fast forward six years and two fancy placemat-degrees later, and now we have Compiz, the most sophisticated desktop eye candy thingy I’ve ever seen, right at home on KDE 4.2.

Compiz has too many functions to mention, so I’ll just mention three. First is the ability to switch windows using a clone of Microsoft Aero’s flip switcher (seen here on Gnome with Compiz). It’s so customizable that I can get it just as fast or as slow as I want it. Users can also choose the Apple iPod-style cover switcher among others, but the flip is more functional and just as purty. There’s also a Mac OS-style window picker called Scale, which shrinks the visible windows so they all fit on the screen, ready for you to pick.

Second is the desktop/workspace switcher. Compiz makes the desktop/workspace metaphore absolutely intuitive: When switching (using Meta+Tab in my case) the windows on screen smoothly slide to one side, and the windows from the target desktop slide in to replace them. It’s as if my two desktops are sitting side-by-side. There’s also a workspace version of the Scale picker, though it’s prettier.

Finally, there’s the window decoration kit that’s a part of Compiz, called Emerald. The powerful window decorator makes choosing and customizing the look and feel of windows very easy. My source for decoration themes has been KDE-Look, as always.

I should mention that KWin, the native KDE window manager and eye candy thingy, has similar effects, but it has nowhere near the breadth and customizability of Compiz’s suite. Same goes for deKorator, a KDE-oriented alternative to Emerald.

Window decorations and desktop effects don’t just make your computer look slick. They’re actually very useful. The proof is in the times you’re on another computer and reach for your trusted shortcuts even though they’re not there, and when you realize, a couple months after consistent use, that the effects don’t get in the way at all and probably help you work faster.

And none of this even holds a candle to the fact that, out of curiosity, I installed my 2003-vintage copy of Grand Theft Auto III for Windows on my Kubuntu desktop using Wine—and it worked like a charm. There’s a small bug when the game initializes the audio, but it works itself out after a few seconds. End.