People lie a lot.  Human communication is mostly an attempt to influence other humans, and lying is a good way to do it - if you don't get caught.  There seems to be an ethic that "if you can't prove I'm lying, then I'm not lying".  Check out the news and see if you don't agree.  Or do what I did today, and spend a couple of hours in a deli, listening to conversations.  Today's top lie: "I'm not in it for the money".  More on this to come...

France continues to dig themselves a hole.  The International Herald Tribune notes France Will Have to Pay a Price.  (IHT is based in Paris.)

I'm thinking there should be a semi-organized boycott against French and German companies doing business in the U.S.  I know a lot of people are like me and are informally doing it, but perhaps a more formal boycott would be helpful.  Many people probably don't even realize that Chrysler is a German company, for instance (they're owned by Daimler Benz, the same company which makes Mercedes - and Rolls Royce!).  Non-obvious French companies include: RCA, BIC, Motown Records, MP3.com, Red Roof Inns, Smart & Final, Sparkletts, Universal Studios.

Heck, I even stopped buying Peet's French Roast.  It's good most of the time, but it just wasn't there for me when I really needed it.  I switched to Italian...

Hans Blix is retiring.  Not too surprising, he was under a lot of pressure.  Many people blame him for "the failure of inspections", but they should be blaming Saddam (for not disarming) and Chirac (for setting unreasonable expectations).  More about this here.

You know how people are asking "Where is Saddam?"  Well, I have a question.  "Where is Osama?"  If he were around, you'd think he would publish one of his little videos condemning U.S. aggression and calling on Islam to defeat the infidels.  Maybe Osama and Saddam are together?

Wondering why Iraqis are not welcoming their "liberation" more enthusiastically?  Read Kanan Makiya's war diary.

Despite a good start and a promising name, IraqWar.info is just not delivering.  They're Command Post wannabes.  Off the blogroll!

Did you like the Onion before they stopped being satirical?  Then see the Lemon.  Sample headline: 'Fox News condemned for "Flagrant centrist bias"'.

C|Net has an interview with Bill Gurley.  He used to be so smart and cool and interesting.  Now he's blathering about Business Process Management - read this for buzzword overload.  The content/word ratio approaches zero.

Are you a Windows XP "power user"?  Do you play with Power Toys?  Some of them are, uh, quite powerful :)

Did you watch NCAA basketball today?  Two good games (1, 2) and two blowouts (1, 2).  Arizona really looks unstoppable to me.

Here's some interesting perspective on the current state of the music business, from Pamela Horovitz, president of NARM (the people who sell music).  She seems much more balanced and realistic than Hilary Rosen and the RIAA.  Meanwhile there's another entry in the online music subscription race...

Here's the perfect search engine if you're surfing with a mirror.  Some programmer obviously has way too much free time.

Finally - you have to be a nerd to appreciate this - check out Interconnected's suggestion for hacking London traffic.