Glenn Greenwald has demonstrated how not to think critically. He's received a spoofed email, and doesn't understand how it can be fake:

UPDATE IV: After a crash course in tracing email headers and IP addresses and the like
. . .
All three of those sets of emails came from the same IP address — 10.70.20.11 — as the original email I received today, so clearly that is an IP address used by the U.S. military in Iraq.

Ladies and Gentlemen of the alleged jury, it appears that some education is in order. Whenever you see an IP address that starts with “10.”, “172.16.” through “172.31.”, “169.254″, or “192.168″, it is the rough equivalent of a “555″ telephone number. These ranges of addresses are set aside for local networks. They cannot be assigned to servers on the Internet, and properly-configured Internet routers will refuse to send traffic to them.

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An email that comes from a 10. address is prima facie fake.

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How is this a failure of critical thinking? Greenwald conflated "This email says it's from steven.boylan@iraq.centcom.mil" with "This email was written by Colonel Steven Boylan, spokesman for General Petraeus". If you don't realize the difference, you might be interested in a buying a bridge.

UPDATE 1: (heh)
This is not to state that the message itself is necessarily fake, only that the 10. address itself is not "on the Internet". Validation of the author is purported to be done by that machine with the 10. address, which may be valid within a local network, but cannot be verified outside that network. This part of the message is assumed to have been placed there by the next machine above it, which is the one to point to when establishing its validity.

In fact, the validity "chain" must always begin at the top of the headers, for it establishes a nested "Computer A says " Computer B says "Computer C says ... "person X says "..."...""" statement. If Computer A is lying, it doesn't matter whether Computer B is truthful or not, because it never said the rest of the statement. What does make the 10. address special is that it is entirely a creation of the local network administrators, so there is no mechanism to contact it directly to validate that part of the chain of custody.

In that respect, perhaps it's better to say that a 10. address is like a sock puppet.

Honor among weasels

Drudge had some interesting documents on his site today. The post and links are gone now but they revealed something that finally crystallized in my mind today.
I’m not going to recap the entire Scott Beauchamp/Shock Troop saga. If you need background you can start here.
(Full disclosure. I have never served in the military but I have the greatest respect for those who have.)
The thing that first struck me about the whole Scott Thomas/New Republic afair was the complete lack of honor so proudly on display.
1st The lack of honor portrayed in the original stories.
2nd The lack of honor displayed by Scott Thomas by writing those stories about his comrades in arms.
3rd The lack of honor promoted by The New Republic to actively seek out and publish such stories about our armed services during time of war.

Then I read the transcript of a telephone conversation between Scott Beauchamp and the editors of The New Republic.
This exchange jumped out at me.

Beauchamp: Well, I mean I know I… and I’m sorry. But like I said- I’m not, I’ve decided, and it’s a personal decision – I’m not commenting to the media past, present or future military experiences.

Scoblic: Scott, you can’t honestly lump us in with “the media” you know – we published three of your pieces, your wife works for the magazine- you know. /snip besides which, over the last six weeks you know, Frank and the editors and the writers have put tremendous effort into finding out what was going on, making sure that you were okay via a number of pretty high channels. /snip Trying to take care of this and trying to take care of you and your reputation from any number of angles. I mean, I gotta tell you- being lumped in with the quote, unquote media is a little ridiculous. I think we deserve to be accorded a little bit of a special place in this situation, don’t you?

This is what is so rich.
Appealing to honor of a man whose express lack of honor was the big attraction from the start.

Live by the shame.
Die by the shame.

Fish

This is my first blogging post ever; so bear with me I have every intent of going somewhere.

So, I love fishing. More accurately, I used to love fishing. Now I'm a two time daddy who seldom gets a line wet but still loves the idea of fishing. Fishing is quiet, peaceful time spent with people you choose in sometimes breathtaking locations. The exact opposite of where I spend most of my actual time.

But guess what? This post is not about fishing; it is about Fish! That relieved but bewildered look on my fellow ECTN bloggers faces right now and taking a bank shot off of Rule # 2 and sinking it in Rule # 4 explains everything. No? Well perhaps a little background will help.

A few years back, as I was signing up as one of the first employees of my third startup, the President - read owner - of the soon to be company handed me a used copy of John Christensen's 1998 book Fish! and indicated the Fish! Philosophy would be the guiding principals of the company. The book is another one of those business motivational books but it boiled down to four basic rules I could live with.

(Even though it would have been very easy, I did not look these up on purpose; below is what I got out of it and remember and that is part of my point.)

1. Choose Your Attitude
2. Have Fun\Play
3. Be Where You Are
4. Make Someone's Day

There has been some criticism of the rules as naive, unrealistic, etc. And my one experience with their application in a business environment proves the critics point. Picking up from the moment I joined the company and was handed the grand Fish! Philosophy as a guide to the company's founding principals - two days later she requested I return her $7 book and buy my own copy, so she could give it to the company's next new hire. This should have sent clue flags flying - it didn't.

Ends up, like many business motivational philosophies, her application of the philosophy was no more than lip service. You see, the grand unified theory of guiding principals of interaction apply to how I interact with the company management - her - and to how I interact with customers; not so much when it comes to how she interacts with me. I work independently at the customers site so lucky for me we don't interact too often. But once a year, when Fish! Philosophy Rules #1, #2, #3 and #4 meets Company President's Objective #1 - Maximize Profits - the pages of Rule # 4 becomes the inner fish wrap seeped in blood; rule #3 gets lost in voicemail purgatory; Rule #2 emerges as a greedy smile and Rule #1 is used to wrap it all up in a nice clean outer wrapper for public viewing.

So, you are sitting there picturing a dead bloody fish with it's head cut off wrapped up in the pages of some business motivational philosophy book wondering "What the heck are you getting at? Why spend all this time talking about some rules that are just another in a long line of motivational business management fads used to motivate employees with lip service to maximize profits while not actually paying employees more? That's not new or funny or insightful or even logical. Do you have a point?"

Why would I think these rules of interaction would be useful on a Blog when they are just a shallow attempt to maximize profits?

Because our interactions here on this Blog are not business transactions, they are social interactions based on entirely voluntary social relationships. ECTN, Enjoy Critical Thinking Network, was formed by a few - remotely - like minded friends who met on another blog who wanted to meet occasionally, discuss whatever we felt like - thus our own blog - have some fun and possibly advance our critical thinking and writing skills in the process.

Now, go back and read the rules again and think about how they apply for a social group like a blog community.

Rule # 1. Choose Your Attitude - Your attitude is the one thing you control.
Rule # 2. Have Fun\Play - We are doing this on our free time, voluntarily
Rule # 3. Be Where You Are - Not so applicable here; There are much more important things in life than what goes on in the blogs sphere.
Rule # 4. Make Someone's Day - Open to your creativity.

Take away one side's making money off of the other and add in voluntary participation and the criticisms no longer hold.

Consider a family: I taught my kids about these rules while swinging on the swing set. They became our backyard rules and later became just our rules in general. If a family of four just tries to keep these rules in mind, what happens? Not peace on earth, but certainly a few more smiles, an explosion diffused, a way to remind a child acting up in public of "Rule #1" quickly and quietly. I am sometimes amazed it works but my kids like being in on our "secret rules".

My kids use Rule # 3 on me all the time. When I am with them, I am with them; not on the phone; not on the laptop; not off thinking about work or bills; just with them. And I love Rule #4. Make Someone's Day. I get hug attacks on Sunday mornings that are the meaning of life. Doing something for somebody else can be its own reward. That one has been around a long time; Still true; Applies everywhere; Even here.

I know none of this is new and it does not have to work; but it can. I'm an optimist.

A bit of fluff

It's hard to follow rules #1- (Choose your attitude) and #2 (Have fun)

When "where you are" #3 Is watching your Texans loose 25 to 7 with more penalty yards than offense.

I guess I'll go for #4 and make somenone's day. Off the the used book store.

-Update
32 - 15, 4th qtr.

-Update
32 - 22, 8 Minutes left

-Update
Two turnovers in 4 minutes - it's hard to find a happy place.

-Update
35 - 29, 1:37 left. At least they're making it interesting.

-Update
Onsides Kick! 1:32 left

-Update!
Touchdown!
35 - 36! this is insane! 57 seconds left

-Update
2 seconds left Titan field goal.
38 - 36
A record setting 8 field goals for Tennessee

Good game.
And my very first live blog.

Now I'm off to the bookstore.