Zimmerman, contraception, mercenary arsenals, fusion, and other interesting stuff

Mail 717 Tuesday , March 27, 2012

Not a complete mailbag, but a couple of topics are topical so to speak.

Black Panther Party has offered reward for Zimmerman’s ‘capture’

It amazes me that this could happen and that the media gives it a pass:

Zimmerman has gone into hiding. A fringe group, the New Black Panther Party, has offered a $10,000 reward for his "capture."

http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/2012-03-26/news/os-trayvon-martin-zimmerman-account-20120326_1_miami-schools-punch-unarmed-black-teenager

Tracy

Few things have amazed me recently. Incidentally, the radio today reports that the Black Panther Party has raised the ‘reward’ for information on Zimmerman’s whereabouts. All races are equal, of course…

Media Bias?

Anon

I have no provenance for these pictures, but I have them from more than one source. It is an interesting question.

This just in:

Jerry,

I just wanted to let you know that the photo in the bottom right of the montage that is supposedly a photo of an older Treyvon Martin is an admitted fake. Please see this report from Fox News online: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/03/27/media-matters-honcho-sorry-after-blasting-drudge-for-trayvon-photo/?intcmp=obinsite.

There is more on this in tomorrow’s View. It all illustrates the point I have been trying to make: given the state of journalism we are not likely to get the facts, and there is no reason to conclude that the local authorities, who are a lot closer to this, have not or will not act properly. We can’t nationalize all events. If we did we would drown.

 

TSA

Sounds like someone might be reading your blog in congress, which I believe you have always suspected if not knew.

http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2012/03/congressional_t.html

Bob Gates

I know for a fact that at least two Congressmen and staffers of at least half a dozen more regularly read these posts.

Private arsenal ships

Jerry, I get regular newsletters from military.com. Today’s included a link to an article

(http://defensetech.org/2012/03/22/private-arsenal-ships-in-the-fight-against-piracy/)

about how private security companies are maintaining floating arsenals in international waters off of Somalia. The idea is that merchantmen should be able to protect themselves from pirates but there are laws against armed ships entering some ports, for obvious reasons. The biggest problem with this is the complete lack of safety standards and, in fact, even the companies running them are concerned because they don’t want any accidents or thefts either.

J

I seem to remember some similar problems for Mike Hoare’s outfits in the Katanga days. I can pretty well guarantee that putting blue helmets on troops doesn’t really make them less mercenary or more reliable when it comes to safety regulations…

Subject: 4-Year-Old’s Drawing Leads to Dad’s Arrest

I want to believe there was more to this story, but in today’s environment, I’m not sure any more.

From the article:

“One day last week at school Jessie Sansone’s 4-year-old daughter drew a picture of a man with a gun. The teacher didn’t like it, so she called Family and Social Services. If you think that’s an outrageous overreaction, just wait.

According to the Calgary Herald, when Jessie went to pick up his daughter and his other children at the end of the day, he was handcuffed, arrested, and strip searched <http://www.calgaryherald.com/news/Father+arrested+girl+picture/6209132/story.html> , as they looked for this gun. They did actually find one after they went and searched the family’s home in Ontario … only it turned out to be a toy. Yes, the only gun in the entire house was a toy gun. “

http://thestir.cafemom.com/toddler/133600/4yearolds_drawing_leads_to_dads?quick_picks=1

Tracy

A startling story, but I am not familiar with the Canadian constitution. This sort of activity was a major factor in the Independence movements prior to 1776. Of course it could happen here…

Prostitutes have political power!  =)

<.>

Spain’s high-class escorts are refusing to have sex with the nation’s bankers – until they open up credit lines to cash-strapped families and firms.

Madrid’s top-end prostitutes say their indefinite strike will continue until bank employees ‘fulfil their responsibility to society’ and start offering bigger loans for struggling Spaniards, it has been claimed.

Sneaky bankers were trying to circumvent the protest by claiming to be architects or engineers, the sex-workers said.

</>

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2120984/Spains-high-class-hookers-ban-sex-bankers-provide-credit-cash-strapped-economy.html?ITO=1490

—–

Most Respectfully,

Joshua Jordan, KSC

Percussa Resurgo

your nuclear power comment

A couple of weeks ago Michio Kaku was a guest on Coast to Coast and in passing mentioned that there’s a French experimental reactor that is trying to get HOT fusion up and running. He said they’re close and expect to be generating power in about 8 years.

I don’t know if I misheard him or not but I’ve seen nothing on this anywhere.

Have you heard anything about it ?

george senda

I have not seen anything on this. My last serious inquiry into fusion power led me to conclude that we know how to build a large and expensive device that would, using fusion, produce more energy than it consumed (provided that you could collect much of the heat wasted in confining the reaction) but it would not be economically break even, and building a demonstration unit would be extremely expensive. Two decades ago I thought inertial confinement and laser triggers would make fusion devices a great deal cheaper, but I have seen nothing on that either. I confess that my enthusiasm for fusion now has faded since for thirty years it has been there will be fusion Real Soon Now. Eventually it will happen, but there are other things we have to develop first, I think.

I have had this mail for weeks:

President Obama & the E.U. “Code of Conduct for Outer Space Activities”

Dr Pournelle,

I hope you’re feeling well enough to give your thoughts on this N.Y.

Times op-ed by John Bolton & John Yoo on the Obama administration’s unofficial adherence to the E.U.’s draft treaty on outer-space activities, including restrictions on the militarization of space:

<http://nytimes.com/2012/03/09/opinion/hands-off-the-heavens.html>,

“Hands Off the Heavens”.

I know this issue is important to you. I’ve been borrowing your “There Will be War” series from the Brooklyn Public Library, and I’m sure that American military presence in space is not much less important now than it was in the ’80s.

—Joel Salomon

I covered most of the principles on this in The Strategy of Technology. Space will be decisive and if you have no ability to defend your access to space you may very much wish you had. Take the high ground, boy, or they’ll kick hell out of you in the valleys.

Contraception

Contraception is pretty much universally available and affordable here in the US, yet the very people that you would think would most avail themselves of it don’t. http://neoneocon.com/2012/02/18/over-50-of-births-to-mothers-under-30-are-outside-marriage/ Digging into the data it seems that it is 59% among young Hispanic women and 78% among Blacks. This is an unmitigated disaster (particularly for the children) whose wave, I suspect, has not yet crested and to which government will inevitably turn its attention. In this regard the legislation mandating the universal availability of free contraception is not only a boon for Big Pharma, but a necessary precondition for a government mandate to **employ** contraception. The ‘Progressive’ welfare state has created a problem which can (notionally) only be solved by an even more controlling welfare state. There won’t be any unanticipated side effects, I’m sure; it’s all good. Strangely, I’m missing the troglodytic, pitchfork waving mobs burning down condom and pill factories. Perhaps they are only deemed to have rioted and burned.

Certain contraceptives seem to be a major cause of blood clots in women. http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=7&cts=1331257756266&ved=0CGAQFjAG&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.webmd.com%2Fsex%2Fbirth-control%2Fnews%2F20111026%2Fnewer-birth-control-pills-may-double-blood-clot-risk&ei=fmFZT6CTE8eZiQLVlrHOCw&usg=AFQjCNE8osVr3Kexnui7VIWGUI8r7SdZyg&sig2=JgRZZM0Fbxi4zPaCRCZtxA

Women’s health is not really the driving force behind this movement.

Regarding Ms. Fluke and her alleged constituents, $1,000 a year on contraceptives would seem to indicative of a certain energetic and sustained focus on the prevention of the consequences of procreative activities. But perhaps they are merely obsessive compulsive consumers of these products rather than practitioners of pillow arts; better not to use nasty words in the absence of evidence; probability we’ll just ignore.

As for Malthusian prophecies, I have become sceptical. I clearly recall predictions that 25% of Americans would starve by 1990, and someone even went so far as to suggest the extermination of India as a realistic, if temporary solution to world overpopulation. The panic seems to have been a bit premature. What saved us? I submit: human ingenuity. Panic is still premature.

Leo Walker

Universal Health Care

A point from one of your commenters:

"Its time that we get past the idea of universal health care. Every industrialized, forward looking country has some type of universal coverage and it shows in their health statistics. The US if falling way behind in infant mortality, life-span and general health. This impacts us economically, and reduces our ability to compete."

He is the one behind the times. The truth is that all of these "forward looking" countries (and ours) have huge piles of debt. Politicians will promise anything to gain support, and just like Athens in ancient Greece or Athens today, it will catch up with us. I say "us" instead of "them" because this problem has been pushed off in the grand style of Louis the XIV "Apres moi, le deluge". There is nothing new under the sun and human nature is basically consistent. Bills always come due and you can never make specific calls on what is the best way for the economy to be micromanaged. The idea that macro economics is different than micro is absurd on its face, yet the "progressives" still insist that they just need to spend a bit more for the good of all and things will be perfect.

Damon

The one thing you can be sure of is that someone will pay soldiers.

Saw your mention of your "tendency to overly long and complex sentences" and realized that the sentence itself might be a case in

point: 72 words, 4 commas, 1 semi-colon, and 1 period. Also 6 pronouns, 6 proper names, and 6 verbs. I also count at least four separate timeframes-as-point-of-view (present, past retrospective to present, past influencing expectations of the present, past retrospective to present (again), present, and past). On the gripping hand, the sentence was perfectly and easily undersandable on first reading.

"Niven and Barnes and I have developed pretty good editorial habits and we’ve worked together long enough to know some of each other’s weaknesses, such as my tendency to overly long and complex sentences and Steve’s addiction to gerunds, so our works are generally well edited; having said that I don’t want to diminish the contribution of editors like Ed Kuehn, Bob Gleason, and Jim Baen on our works in the past."

Once in High School I decided to see just how long a sentence I could write. It ended up being shortly over one page, long-hand, on wide-ruled paper. Didn’t actually *say* much, but I said it verbosely and within the bounds of proper English grammar. I think I had you beat by a bit (at least in number of semi-colons), but if I kept it I don’t know where the page would be. And it still wouldn’t be worth re-reading except for the same amusement value that caused its creation.

You keep on writing and I’ll keep on reading. Unlike my younger self, you have a lot to say that’s worth saying.

–Gary P.

I was impressed by Macaulay at an early age and never got over it…

Zero trust in the professional force

http://thisainthell.us/blog/?p=29019

"The U.S. Navy will start giving Breathalyzer tests to Marines and sailors reporting for duty aboard ships and submarines and at squadrons, Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus announced Monday in a worldwide call to forces."

I see many results to come from this, none desirable. Provided, that is, that the goal is to improve the defense of the United States.