| Wednesday,
September 15, 2004 And we open with a
scare:
Paid informants:
As you are nod doubt aware, one of the more despotic
practices of the late republican and early imperial eras of Roman history
was the paying of informants some portion of the wealth of anybody they
turned in. This led to all sorts of false accusations as people realized how
much easier it was to use the powers of the state to steal from their
neighbors.
Well, according to the Wall Street Journal today, [
http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB109468731380913084,00.html?mod=todays_us_opinion
] (subscription required) this is exactly what Senator Grassley, Chairman of
the Senate Finance Committee, is proposing for the IRS. The senator is
proposing that people who turn in tax cheats be allowed to keep some portion
of the taxes the government subsequently collects.
“Alas, giving Americans a financial interest in
turning the IRS loose on their fellow citizens is precisely the thrust of a
measure that Finance Committee Chairman Charles Grassley has included in the
Senate version of a corporate tax bill. The idea is to encourage people to
inform on tax cheats by giving them a hunk of whatever the IRS ends up
collecting. It's all modeled on a 1986 amendment to the False Claims Act,
which Mr. Grassley also introduced and which allows people to win a
percentage of any money they reveal was stolen from the government in fraud
cases (other than tax).”
Just another nudge down the slope from republic to
empire.
Another dolphin-safe email from the desk of ~
Kerk Phillips
"I knew my estate in Tuscany would be my death,"
said one Senator being led off to execution on accusation of maiestas.
===============
Subj: Jim Dunnigan on Building an Iraqi Army
that can fight
http://www.strategypage.com/dls/articles/200482921.asp
=American trainers of the 36th battalion had to
teach the officers and NCOs new methods of managing their troops. This was
not impossible, just time consuming. Iraqis have been moving to the United
States for decades, and adapting to the different customs they encountered.
Same thing with the hundreds of Iraqis who have been in the American armed
forces. But in Iraq, the change was time consuming. There was trial and
error in deciding who to accept, who to keep and what training and
leadership methods would work best. Training the new Iraqi armed forces has
been one big experiment. Knowing that, since the nations creation, the
military had been more a source of tyranny, rather than protection from
enemy’s, there has been a search for ways to build a different kind of army.
The idea was to create an armed forces that was both effective, and willing
to always obey the elected leadership of the country. Iraqis have been
trained to fight effectively, but whether they will be loyal to their
government is not yet known.=
Rod Montgomery==monty@sprintmail.com
All well said. The question is, is this a proper
use of American money and military power? If so, why should not the
entire world have the benefit of our expertise? After all, we know how
to govern, we Romans, and others should benefit from our knowledge as we
protect the weak and make humble the proud. Look at our work in
Afghanistan where we will introduce political correctness and diversity
by putting 200 Tajik police in a citadel of other tribes and races?
subject: the United States trying to force religious
freedom
Dear Dr. Pournelle,
The article at
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6009836/ tells how the United states
is going to threaten the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia about their lack of
religious freedom. In the first place, we have no business telling anyone
how they must worship, least of all a sovereign nation. Secondly, the United
States is a very poor example, especially since the Mount Carmel incident in
1993 and recent court decisions forbidding religious practices in public.
regards,
William L. Jones
To protect the weak and make humble the proud.
Diem learned that it is dangerous to become an ally
of the United States; Kennedy's Harvard advisors decided that Viet Nam
wasn't a real democracy and Diem had to go. And then came chaos, when no one
in Viet Nam could name their president. Diem, in case you have forgotten,
was the man who sent the puppet Emperor Bai Dai into exile and brought about
independence from France. But that was not enough for the Brothers Kennedy.
JFK was persuaded that we could run Viet Nam better than the local
politicians, and thus we had this succession of clowns we raised up and
pulled down until the Army of the People's Republic of Viet Nam put paid to
our intervention.
It's not "you break it, you own it." It's "you
break it, it's broken."
===========================
Dr. Pournelle,
There are formatting errors on Tuesday's entry that
you wouldn't notice if you're using MS IE (I'm using FireFox). There are no
paragraph close tags </p> in that entry and so you have to scroll far, far
over to the right to read the post. The lack of the close tags prevents the
text from wrapping as it should (and I imagine as you intended) in modern
browsers.
e.g. <p align="left"> The bleating about the
documents continues, but it sounds more and more like Alger Hiss defense:
someone COULD have faked the pumpkin papers. Ignore everything else and
cling to the possibility. Only this time it's not even possible. Ah, well.<p
align="left">
I notice from the <meta> tags that you used Frontpage
6.0 to create the page. Are you still using this software to create pages?
Could you please talk about the creation process on your journal. I know
your main job is writing but as you have said, "I do this stupid stuff so
you don't have to", so is there any possibility we might see a change in
website authoring tools and possibly a redesign of the site? An excellent
book to consult before embarking on such a oddessy is Jeffery Zeldman's
"Designing with Web Standards" (www.zeldman.com).
Cheers, Kelly
------------------------------------------------- This
mail sent through IMP: http://horde.org/imp/
I presume the problem was the long, long URL for
the Benet poem. Previous editions of FrontPage left such long lines intact
and thus it was obvious that I needed to break them up. The version does
auto-wrap on long URL's. The remedy is judicious use of SHIFT-RETURN which
drops a line but not a paragraph. I think I have fixed it now.
I may discuss other web programs but this one is
Good Enough, so far, and gets better with each edition. It makes it easy to
handle mail like yours, quickly; unlike most "blogs" I don't allow others to
post directly here, which slows things down but does wonders for the
readability not only of the mail I post, but that which I GET, since people
usually don't bother to send me long rants and silly essays. I see other
sites publish stuff that most of my readers would be ashamed to send me...
=============
And now for all you amateur
astronomers:
Subject: Amateurs detecting extra-solar planets
Jerry,
Using the light curve change as a planet transits a
star, the change can be observed by amateurs! This has been reported with 4"
telescopes; this web page goes into much detail about results with a 10"
scope. This is amazing. Detect planets with the scope in your backyard. This
may be a whole new area for amateur astronomers since they have far more
hours times eyeballs time than the professionals.
http://reductionism.net.seanic.net/HD209458/ExoPlanet.html
see also
http://www.seti-nl.org/article.php?id=956
Admittedly, these things are in the "hot Jupiter"
class, but I think we are soon going to find hundreds of new planets around
other stars. Note the amazing quality of the light curve measurement by
Hubble; this implies the method can be pushed to much smaller objects.
Chuck Bouldin
Me, I got spoiled: I got to look through Lowell's
big refractor on Mars Hill when I was on the board of the Observatory, and
Wow! does Mars look good. I could see the canals...
Actually I admire those with the patience to do
astronomical observation. It is a quality I lack.
==========
And here is an item that may
come as a surprise to many:
Subject: NASA Transfers X-37 to Unidentified
U.S. Agency
<
http://space.com/news/nasa_x37_040914.html
NASA Transfers X-37 to Unidentified U.S.
Agency By Brian Berger Space News Staff Writer posted: 14 September 2004
02:21 pm ET
WASHINGTON - NASA has transferred its X-37
technology demonstration program to an unidentified U.S. government agency
that plans to go ahead with atmospheric drop tests of the prototype space
plane next year.
NASA spokesman Michael Braukus said Sept. 13
the U.S. space agency would remain involved in the X-37 program, but would
no longer run the show. The lead, he said, has been given to a government
agency that for now NASA is not permitted to name.
"The government entity is classified," Braukus
said. "We will be able to acknowledge who that partner is when they give us
permission." Braukus said he expected to receive that permission soon.
News that lead responsibility for the X-37
program was changing hands was first reported by the Desert News, a
newspaper covering Mojave, Calif., and surrounding areas. The newspaper also
reported that the X-37 would be carried aloft for next year's drop tests by
the White Knight, the Scaled Composites-built aircraft that carried
SpaceShipOne aloft in June for its historic manned suborbital space shot,
the first in a privately funded effort.
Braukus said Scaled Composites would be
involved in the X-37 approach and landing demonstrations next year, but
could not say whether the Mojave-based company would be using the White
Knight or some other aircraft. The B-52 aircraft that NASA normally uses for
such drop tests would not be used, a decision made by the agency now in
charge of the X-37 program, he said.
"The cost analysis favored Scaled Composites,"
Braukus said.
Scaled Composites spokeswoman Kay LeFebvre
would not confirm the company's involvement in the planned dropped tests and
referred questions about the White Knight's role in the X-37 program to
American Mojave Aerospace Ventures. That company, a Paul Allen and Burt
Rutan partnership that owns SpaceShipOne and its carrier aircraft, recently
announced that it would make its first official try for the $10 million
Ansari X-Prize Sept. 29.
A telephone call placed to Jeff Johnson at
American Mojave Aerospace Ventures was not immediately returned.
NASA's involvement in the X-37 dates back to
1998, when the project was selected as the first of a planned series of
flight demonstrators dubbed Future X. At the time, NASA agreed to share the
X-37's projected $173 million cost with Boeing and the U.S. Air Force. After
the Air Force announced in 2001 that it would stop funding the project, NASA
told Boeing that the company would have to submit a new proposal for the
X-37 to be eligible for additional funding.
After persistent prodding from U.S. Rep.
Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.), NASA in 2002 awarded Boeing a $301 million
contract for two X-37 vehicles instead of one. One of those vehicles would
conduct a series of drop tests within the atmosphere, paving the way for the
flight of the orbit and re-entry vehicle in 2006.
But NASA directed Boeing in late 2003 to
throttle back on development of the orbit and re-entry vehicle and has since
directed Boeing to stop work on that part of the program altogether. X-37
was dealt a further setback earlier this year when a NASA review concluded
that the program was not a good fit with the agency's new space exploration
agenda.
Braukus saidan orbital X-37 flight remains on
hold but the atmospheric tests are back on track now that NASA has a new
partner willing to take the lead on the program. Braukus said NASA has spent
$325 million on the program to date.
Boeing spokesman Ed Meme said Sept. 13 that the
X-37 program is no longer managed by Boeing NASA Systems and is now under
the purview of Boeing Space and Intelligence Systems. Eric Warren, a
spokesman for Boeing's El Segundo, Calif.-based operations, could not
immediately identify the government agency now in charge of X-37.
We have long noted that real X programs have no
mission requirements, and more than one tail number.
Jerry,
As a follow up to an earlier e-mail, it looks like teh
X-37 has been taken up by DARPA. I'm not really surprised, but I thought you
might like the link to the story.
http://space.com/news/x37_darpa_040915.html
Erik
===== "The most exciting phrase to hear in science,
the one that heralds new discoveries, is not 'Eureka!' (I found it!) but
'That's funny...' - Isaac Asimov "
========================
And from an old friend I see too seldom:
Dear Jerry,
I noticed your item on the CBS forgieries didn't have
a link. Have you seen the forgery analysis (by an old time font programmer)
at:
http://www.flounder.com/bush.htm
I was checking you out because I know you were one of
the first who used computer printing and might have something to say. My own
instant impression upon downloading the CBS 60 Minute "memos" was that they
MUST be forgeries. I remember well the equipment we all used to make
manuscripts in those days. I can't believe that an NG office in Texas would
have a publisher's linotype facility and trained operators to produce mere
memos for a Colonel in the early '70s! They had a hard enough time just
getting their hands on airplanes!
An interesting time. When they phased out the use of
F102s in Vietnam a lot of experienced F102 pilots returned stateside and
could "bump" young newbies like Bush (who had only about 600hrs flight-time
on F102s) The senior pilots needed the flight-time to keep their status (and
pensions) intact which would explain why Bush had to go back to trainers and
eventually decided on a different career line. Most people don't know the
history of the F102 which was designed as a continental defense against
Russian bombers. As a ground support aircraft it was a misfit.
Warmly, Donald Kingsbury
My problem was that these were so obviously fakes
-- indeed I do recall just how hard we had to work to do anything like
proportional spacing in those days, and of course the Selectric Composer
required you to type each line twice unless you were driving it with a
magnetic card controlled Selectric (I am astonished that someone at CBS
hasn't dragged THAT into the soup!). No one would go to that effort to
produce private memos, and everyone but Dan Rather and those blinded by
hatred of Bush know this.
Bush isn't anything like the man I'd have chosen to
be President, and I am none too fond of many of his advisors, but when I
look at the people around Kerry I could almost have warm feelings for the
egregious Frum.
======================================
Subject: Junk Science
I am a Chemist and do research at a major university.
Anyone who is worried about what is in the air they breath and the water
they drink should take a look at what the national standards are. If you can
"taste" the water or "smell" the air, it has "contaminates" in it. Most
water sources have some "local" taste.
When you can ignite the water coming out of your tap
with an open flame, that is when you have to worry. If you are at the end of
a multi state irrigation water system you will have to worry about heavy
metal salt build up. If you are in a river system that is a waste dump for
an industry or a city you would have to worry. You may want to check the pH
of your water if you feel that you are affected by acid rain.
I think that people who worry about "rocket" pollution
should start worrying about "star dust" pollution. There is a lot more star
dust falling in our rivers and streams than there is "rocket dust". Someone
should write an article about the star dust problem. We have too many real
problems with pollution to start without dreaming up red herrings to add to
the list. Just my $.02 (and that from an over educated old fat man). End of
rant!
Scott Woehler
Shhh! The EPA may be listening...
==================================
Whenever I arrive at an airport somewhere on a trip
from somewhere else (e.g., at least once a week), I ask my cab driver what
country he is from. (The answer is never, "The United States".) (Very
occasionally the driver is an American, in which case the driver is always a
"she" and black.) A very common answer is "Nigeria", in which case I take a
guess at whether the (always male) driver is an Ibo or Yoruba (never a
Hausa). My guesses are right much more than 50%, but I cannot tell you why.
(When I guess right, I always tell the surprised driver because the <tribe>
"are the smart, handsome ones.") This last time (last Sunday), I guessed
correctly that my driver was a Yoruba.
The drivers, whether Ibo or Yoruba, are uniformly
courteous and friendly, and are astonished that an American who has never
been to Nigeria has any knowledge of Nigeria's tribes. The drivers are all
Christians, are all married to a fellow Nigerian, and always have at least 1
child, but never more than 2. They all agree that the "Muslims are trouble"
and that the Hausa are thieves. All consider the religious ideal "tolerance"
of different religions rather than Christianity displacing all others (even
those (quite a few) who have a Bible in the cab with them). Specifics of my
last conversation:
- Muslims are "prickly"--one cannot get along with
them. They are trouble for everyone, everywhere because they have to impose
their beliefs on everyone.
- The genius of America seems to be "governance"--a
system where rivalries are channeled into economic efforts in the private
sector rather than political efforts to seize wealth through the power of
the state. (These are his concepts rendered into my words.)
- Afro-American women want to dominate their men,
while the proper role of women is "submissive".
- Afro-American men are irresponsible. He cited a
conversation he overheard that morning at the local Laundromat (which meant
he was doing his family's laundry!) between two native Afro-American males.
Their two topics were their new cars (one had just gotten one of the new
Chrysler 300 C "Hemi" sedans (think my Audi S8 at 1/2 the price)) and how
far behind they were on their child support payments (the Chrysler owner
mentioned the figure $6,500). My driver was dismayed by the values typified
by this conversation, not just not supporting one's children, but investing
in an expensive car rather than something that might appreciate like a
house.
- He had no hope at all that Nigeria would ever become
a real nation.
I am never able to elicit an "abstract" or
"philosophical" conversation from these men. They speak in concrete terms
only. But they speak very plainly with no overlay of political correctness.
I am always left wondering how the children of such
men fare in our society in subsequent generations. They seem to start out
with great family values, but ours is a society that is terribly cruel to
the children of the working classes unless they can make the leap into the
professional classes in a single generation.
Jim
========================
Warnings:
Dr. Pournelle:
Microsoft released two patches today. One is for a
buffer overrun when viewing JPEG images (common on many web pages). A
'specially-crafted" JPEG will allow the attacker to control your computer
(install programs, run commands, etc). The signed-on user would have to be
"administrator" equivalent for the attack to succeed. Most single-user
computers are set up as administrator-equivalent.
A Windows XP/SP2 system is not vulnerable to the jpeg
buffer overrun. But since jpegs can be used in MS-Office applications, there
are also some updates that should be applied if you have Office installed.
You can go to the Windows Update site to get Office Updates. (The easiest
way is via Windows Update on your Start, Programs menu, then look for
"Office Updates").
There is a second patch for a similar problem with the
WordPerfect 5.x conversion part of MS-Office. Not as critical as the first.
Safe computing practices will prevent the above
problems: get XP SP2 installed, set up automatic updates, do Office updates,
firewalls, anti-virus, etc. Both patches (and the Office Update) are
recommended.
(Cue the responses from the "my Linux OS is safer than
your Windows OS" crowd. Although there are almost daily updates to various
Linux OS and software.)
Regards, Rick Hellewell
and
New Microsoft Patch
Morning Jerry,
There's a new series of patches released by Microsoft
yesterday, and in a new twist, both the OS and applications are affected by
one vulnerability. While XP SP2 is safe, the applications running on it may
not be.
http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759,1645829,00.asp
Most of your readers have likely turned on automatic
updates for Windows, but there's no equivalent feature for Office, Works,
and the rest of their suite. On windows update, after installing the
scanning tool, there's a link to a knowledgebase article with a detailed
list of what's impacted, and what action to take.
I can't judge the likelihood of an exploit being
developed, but if one is, it has the potential for widespread damage. Users
should read the articles as background, and patch their systems as a
precaution.
Virtual PC 7 for the Mac is looking better and better.
Best regards,
Doug
Doug Lhotka doug[@]lhotka[.]com
"Do something you like. Forget about the pay, for
Christ's sakes. Regulate your style of living to fit your income. Just have
fun in your job, that's the main thing." ~ General Chuck Yeager
I think these explain themselves.
=============
Heh:
Subject: Context is all
Dr. Pournelle,
I read this on your site
"Tonga has sent 45 Royal Marines, which is roughly
equivalent to 13000 Canadians or 23000 Frenchmen..."
and I thought, hmm, yes, that sounds about right.
Then I noticed that this came afterwards:
" ...in terms of percentage of national population. "
O, fie: not what I thought you meant, at all :-)
Best regards,
Andrew Duffin
Heh. Heh. We Normans have a slightly different view
of such matters of course. When an English fanatic braced me once and said
"I hate the French. When I see a Frenchman I say Waterloo! What have you to
say to that?"
To which I could only reply "Hastings."
=====================
Subject: virtual desktops
Dr. Pournelle,
I just read your column regarding the mac virtual
desktops, and I found it amusing to recall that my very first linux
installation on a 16 mhz 386 with 6 meg ram (4 of it on 2 ISA expansion
cards), a generic cirrus logic video card, and dual 20 meg SCSI hard drives
installed and set up 6 virtual x-windows desktops and 7 virtual consoles by
default. Switching between the consoles was as simple as hitting F1-F7, and
the virtual desktops could be switched either by mousing past the screen
boundary or choosing one from a little grid placed at the bottom right
corner of the screen. It worked just like any high-end unix workstation and
that was back in the 1993-1994 timeframe. An upgrade to a 40ish mhz cyrix
386 equivalent, 400 meg hard drive, and 8 meg ram made that system extremely
smooth compared to similiar tasks using windows 3.11. I used slackware, a
free x-server, and fvwm (feeble virtual windows manager), and with a bit of
reading it was reasonably easy to set up and predictable to use.
But my point was that virtual consoles and windows
were "mainstream" and offered by default on linux PCs at least as far back
as 1994, and it's sad that apple doesn't include and enable this by default
since it's almost trivial to set up on any free linux or BSD system.
Requiring aftermarket software to get virtual windows on an OSX mac is like
buying a car and having to go to a special shop to get more than one gear in
your transmission.
Sean Long
Alas. But it's for the rest of us, you see...
==============
MOZILLA USERS TAKE HEED!!
Dr. Pournelle:
(from The Register): "Mozilla released a series of
security updates for its Firefox and Mozilla 1.7 browsers yesterday that
resolve the first security vulnerabilities to come from the Mozilla
Foundation's Security Bug Bounty Program. Its Thunderbird email client also
needs patching for similar reasons.
"The total of 10 vulns discovered are described by
security firm Secunia as "highly critical" - and with good reason. Attack
scenarios opened up by the flaws include cross-site scripting attacks,
access or modification of sensitive information and (in the worst case) the
complete compromise of a user's system. Not good. Users are advised to
upgrade to Mozilla 1.7.3, Firefox 1.0PR and Thunderbird 0.8 from earlier
versions to protect themselves against attack."
Info about the vulnerabilities is here
http://secunia.com/advisories/12526/ . The full story in The
Register is here
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/09/15/mozilla_patches/ .
Nobody is exempt from security problems.
Regards -- Rick Hellewell
=================
A bunch of short shrift items from the last couple
of weeks.
=====================
Subject: Times New Roman articles
Hi Dr. Pournelle -
Times New Roman has been around since the 1930s. The
Times of London used it.
However, this is irrelevant. We're not talking typeset
or font design here, but typewriter fonts. I don't think you'll be able to
find anyone out there who can show that Times New Roman, as used by
Microsoft, was available as a typewriter font. Remember, it's a True Type
font, which means that it used patented glyphing and ligature generation
techniques that Microsoft licenses from Apple. That is what makes the idea
of a typewriter font matching these qualities frankly incredible, as the
patents were granted in 1989, not 1973.
This is where the I have to bow out to authority:
Joseph M. Newcomer, PH.D.
http://www.flounder.com/bush2.htm
I think the link pretty much tells it all.
Add to that this:
http://www.hughhewitt.com/#postid893 (scroll down to comment #3)
Comment #3 is from Paul Snively, a software engineer
who used to work for Apple. He points out that when looking at the ligatures
and glyphs for Times New Roman, as used by Microsoft, there are some patents
involved regarding the way that the ligatures and glyphs are generated. This
means that if there were typewriter fonts available, the patents held by
Apple would have prior art and probably be therefore void. Knowing IBM, it
is unlikely that IBM would have failed to patent generating ligatures in
this manner.
While I know that you're probably being inundated with
e-mail on this matter, the two source above seem to me to really be about
the most authoritative around.
Best regards,
John F. Opie
No need to break a butterfly on the wheel. It's
clear those were fakes. Now where did CBS get them?
=============
Subject: Follow-Up on English Problems
See the following stories: <
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Society/
children/story/0,1074,1303181,00.html > Problems of English
adolescents <
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Society/
children/story/0,1074,1303215,00.html > Commentary <http://www.guardian.co.uk/guardianpolitics/story/
0,3605,1302998,00.html> Blair's understanding of economics... -- Harry
Erwin, PhD, Senior Lecturer of Computing, University of Sunderland.
Computational neuroscientist modeling bat bioacoustics and behavior. http://osiris.sunderland.ac.uk/~cs0her
=========
Subject: Paul Samuelson
I believe the present writer is the same Samuelson
you're referring to, as the summary at the link below refers to him as being
89 years old.
http://www.ecommercetimes.com/story/wrldwd/outsourcing-globalization-36421.html
Mark Skousen tracks the transitions in Samuelson's
thinking as reflected in his introductory Econ textbook in a fascinating
article:
http://www.mskousen.com/Books/Articles/perserverance.html
Steve Setzer
=================
Dr. Pournelle:
I read you for years when Byte was print magazine, but
lost track of you in the ether. Within the last few months you have
reappeared in my vision since you started appearing in Dr. Dobbs. It's
wonderful to have you back.
Your installation of Xandros got me to write. I am a
programmer working for New York City. At work we use a Windows based network
with most databases residing on large Sun computers ( E 10 K or E15 K). For
several years, at home, my LAN has been linux based. Until last year, my
wife and sons all used windows 98 (or 2000) machines. I received an email
from Microsoft about critical updates needed on Debbie's machine. I used the
Windows Update facility, and was left with a non bootable machine. I faced
three choices: I could re-install the operating system for the fourth time,
(Microsoft had previously done something and each time I re-installed the
software), purchase a new copy of XP, since my licensed copy of 2000 was on
another machine, or move Debbie to Linux. I purchased a copy of Xandros 2.0
and Debbie has not had any problems with it. There have been no crashes, and
no need to re-install software.
I am curious about your decision to instantly try to
use Windows software on the computer. Why not try to use Linux alternatives
to your current software? You might find the current software works quite
well. I believe you mentioned you were having trouble with Framework 2000. I
believe you need the latest version of cross over office to make it work.
The version originally bundled with Xandros is version 2.5 while Framework
2000 requires 3.
Be well and take care.
Alan Polinsky
Well, I have the Microsoft Office software and it
works quite well. But I am told that the latest Open Office is also neat and
I am doing things with that now.
==========
Jerry: The raging opinions back and forth about the
true purpose of public education has not touched a raw nerve of mine that
has been making me uncomfortable for about 25 years --- somewhere in the
late 1970's my kids suddenly were swept into a warehouse-like environment
whose main purpose was to keep them busy and off the streets for 6-8 hours a
day. Education was found to be too hard a task for the poorly paid public
servants. I also got the impression that the school advisors were
uncomfortable around actively engaged parents.
Allan Smalley
EnPRO
Well -- yes.
===================
Back Home, Safe, and Enlightened by Austin Bay
<http://www.austinbay.net/> September 8, 2004
Last week, when my wife and youngest daughter asked if
they could greet me at the arrival gate ("My husband's a soldier returning
from Iraq," Kathy said), one airport security officer and an airline counter
clerk conspired to let them. My daughter didn't even have a photo ID, a
by-the-book requirement to pass airport screening. I suspect the clerk and
security officer are pros at reading people, and the delight in Christiana's
eyes positively identified her as a teenager relieved of long-term, sobering
worry.
Sapped by jetlag, I ambled off the airplane, right
into my ladies' smiling faces. The family hug lasted a decade or so. In case
anyone wonders, colonels do cry (at least this colonel did) -- one tear down
the left cheek. "You're home and safe, Dad," my daughter said.
Safety at home is the core raison d'etre for this war,
and safety at home, on a planet linked by jumbo jets and instant
communications, means fundamentally changing the failed states and despotic
hellholes that export their religious, civil, tribal and gang wars as
terrorism.
Sept. 11 shook, but failed to shatter, a premise
shared by many Western elites that "the talking cure" of diplomacy and our
demonstrated good intentions will inevitably bring a negotiated harmony. The
tut-tutting media celebs who urge Russia's Vladimir Putin to negotiate with
the beasts who killed more than 300 children, parents and teachers in Beslan
simply fail to see our enemies for what they are.
To paraphrase Churchill, "jaw jaw" surely beats "war
war," but our enemies think talk signals a flagging will to resist.
Globally we confront two enemies, and I have seen both
of them in Iraq.
Despots and autocrats are the first enemy. The despot,
with an arrogance that comes from never being held responsible for his
crimes, believes his iron resolve eventually will trump the spineless
advocates of democracy. Despots -- like the Saddamist holdouts fighting in
Iraq -- believe all they need to do is keep killing until everyone is cowed.
Why not? It's worked for them before. The arrogance only ends when a Green
Beret -- or, with increasing frequency, an Iraqi cop -- blows his head off
in a raid.
The despots are, in their own way, at war with
modernity. Successful modern political systems liberate human creativity. A
freed imagination ultimately demands a greater say in governance -- which
means the end of the tyrant.
The second enemy we face feeds off the unfortunate
victims of the first. The second enemy is the Islamist religious extremist.
I have many Muslim friends, and they are the first targets of the bin Ladens
and Zarqawis. Is this enemy a "death cult"? Not really -- note that the top
dogs aren't suicidal. This enemy is an aggressive, imperialistic, violent
sect that, in one guise or another, has plagued Islam for centuries.
This Islamist enemy is also at war with modernity.
These radicals seek "imperial restoration." Recall bin Laden complained of
"80 years of Muslim indignation and suffering," the result of Turkish
reformer Kemal Ataturk's 1924 decision to end the caliphate. History, going
wrong for Islamist expansionists since at least the 16th century, went
totally tilt when the caliphate dissolved.
The 21st century Islamist radicals, however, really
aim for global domination, with themselves as the sole interpreters and
enforcers of what they deem God's laws.
If there is one mistake I think we've made in fighting
this war, it's been the way we've soft-pedaled the ideological dimensions.
This really is a fight for the future, between our free, open political
system and the unholy alliance of despots and Islamo-fascists whose very
existence depends on denying liberty.
Iraq -- long plundered by despotism -- should be a
wealthy country. It has water, an agricultural base, a source of capital
(oil) and people willing to work. It is the best place to begin to reform
the dysfunctional political systems that shackle and rob the vast the
majority of Middle Easterners. The lesson of 9-11, three years on, is that
liberty must sustain a focused offensive if it is to survive.
That's an enormous undertaking, and I've seen
firsthand in Iraq just how complex and costly a task it is. Strategically,
however, we must do it to protect our free and open society, and to provide
our families with the security they dearly deserve
=======================
Subject: US Plans Portable Nuclear Power Plants
Dear Jerry,
http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99996344
"A nuclear reactor that can meet the energy needs of
developing countries without the risk that they will use the by-products to
make weapons is being developed by the US Department of Energy."
"The DoE hopes to have a prototype by 2015."
DoE's schedule combined with other broad 'American'
economic trends appear to dovetail perfectly. A 'developing country' (i.e.
USA) prototypes its own Developing Country nuclear reactor. Probably your
own state will be a very substantial customer come 2018, Si Senor?
More news here http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/12.09/china.html?tw=wn_tophead_6
<http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/12.09/china.html?tw=wn_tophead_6> on
nuclear power for OTA (Other Than America) countries. The Chinese are taking
up and developing an idea aborted in the late 1940s by the U.S. Military
Industrial complex.
I still want to bring the army home, defend our
borders, and develop the new weapons of the Technological War. The key to
the War on Terror is energy: if we don't need to buy the oil the Middle East
becomes the backwater its culture would have made it long ago except for
petroleum.
Amen.
One question. Since both wings of the pro-war
Patriotic American Unity Party (Party members henceforth called PAUPers)
actively oppose all parts of that mighty fine agenda, what do steps do you
suggest to implement it? Seccession? Coup 'd tat? Another Third Party. The
anti-Imperialist Third World America Party perhaps?
Mark
I have more influence in the Republican Party than
the other one, and it's likely to win. Despair is a sin. And one pushes
where things give.
2015 is a ways down the line. It can be done a lot
sooner.
Subject: Pebble bed reactors, British imperialism,
etc.
Oddly enough, I had just been going over thorium
pebble bed reactor stuff through wikipedia and such when you posted about
pebble bed reactors. Apparently there was some US Navy political infighting
on which way to go, and one admiral had his own pet project using a thorium
breeder pebble bed reactor with light water coolant. Light water works for
that with the better behaviour of thorium for breeding. When the admiral
died so did that line of research.
But it's not dead in the wider world. India is still
working in the area, at least partly since India has better thorium supplies
than uranium. (In passing, so much for free trade arguments when it comes to
strategic priorities.) And the Russians are working on salting the fuel with
ordinary uranium to make it harder to get weapons grade fuel back.
When it comes to Britain, you were mistaken in saying
that British conservatives were happier with imperialism than those in the
USA. What actually happened was, they were happier with keeping the empire
once it was there. Here in Melbourne there is a Boer War memorial with the
words "for the empire that is our strength and common heritage", which
expresses it well. But the empire builders were far more from the other side
of politics, the Liberals (the word means something different in the USA,
Britain and Australia). They were people like Joe Chamberlain, who were very
much not conservatives any more than Churchill was at crucial moments. The
conservatives had actually favoured not growing the empire, and after all
there hadn't ever been a deliberate policy to acquire one, just the logic of
empire forcing us into picking up the pieces and into heading off the French
(who WERE consciously imperialist, but built a lot of resistance).
In fact there was a recent Spectator article (http://www.spectator.co.uk)
pointing out how Lord Milner, the imperialist ideologue, was a forerunner of
today's US neoconservatives in many ways. Later work on the subject came
from people like the Beit Professors of Imperial History at Oxford, people
like Sir Lionel Curtis and Sir Reginald Coupland, but by then it was more
about preserving and passing the torch than about creating - and then the
destroyers took over (that includes US diplomacy). Destruction isn't the
same as not doing it in the first place, so conservatives weren't in favour
of that.
On English universities, the comments you have heard
about them don't reflect the variety within England either. Until the mid
nineteenth century there were only two, Cambridge and the other place. It's
only the newer lot created since the late nineteenth century that fully fit
the bureaucratised description you were given. Cambridge, Oxford, and the
few that came in the middle of the nineteenth century are descending more
slowly - they even fall under separate legislation to the others, although
it's all gradually being consolidated to put all the eggs in one basket.
Finally, I've seen you're interested in browsers. What
do you think of Arachne, the DOS browser I'm trying out here? It may one day
have a Linux variant.
Yours, P.M.Lawrence.
GST+NPT=JOBS
I.e., a Goods and Services Tax (or almost any other
broad based production tax), with a Negative Payroll Tax, promotes
employment.
See http://member.netlink.com.au/~peterl/publicns.html#AFRLET2
and the other items on that page for some reasons why.
============
Subject: Priceless.
Sit down. Make certain that all chairlegs are solidly
on the floor.
Put down any beverages you may be holding
Swallow.
Do NOT view this site until AFTER you have done the
above.
Then go read
http://www.satirewire.com/news/jan02/australia.shtml
You may have seen this already.
--John R. Strohm
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