In haste as the grandchildren approach

View 806 Wednesday, January 15, 2014

“Transparency and the rule of law will be the touchstones of this presidency.”

President Barack Obama, January 31, 2009

 

Christians to Beirut. Alawites to the grave.

Syrian Freedom Fighters

Roberta thought she had to go to the emergency room at 6 AM this morning. Having been through what she suffers from – she caught it from me –  I could understand that, and I didn’t argue. We went out at a good time, shift change, almost no one in the waiting room, so we got lots of attention and didn’t take up resources needed more urgently. Of course even at Kaiser that’s expensive, but it did assure us that she is fundamentally all right, no pneumonia, nothing wrong other than she feels more miserable than she has in a year. It was that way on the third or fourth day with me, and this stuff is tracking through her just like it did with me.

So that used up the day until noon. Now Richard and Herrin and two grandchildren are due here in an hour, and that’s going to be tricky, which means that yes, once again, I am begging off, but I thought I owed you an explanation.

I hope to take this up again when I have more time.

Stephen Tonsor, RIP.

<http://obits.mlive.com/obituaries/annarbor/obituary.aspx?n=stephen-tonsor&pid=169062682>

–

Roland Dobbins

Stephen Tonsor was of the generation of Russell Kirk, one of the philosophers of conservative thinking, whose writings influenced a generation. Of course that was all the more reason for the egregious Frum to “turn his back on him” in his infamous neo-conservative denunciation of the true conservatives. His list included many, including me; we deserved his ire, he said, because we were not zealots for the Iraq Wars. I am not sure who appointed the egregious Frum as the Lord Censor of the Rolls of who may call themselves conservative.

A number of us opposed the invasion of Iraq as retaliation for 9/11. Most of us said at the time that once we have committed the troops to the fray we have no choice but to give them all the support they need: we have not sent them overseas to bleed out in the desert sands. They deserve support, and they deserve a clear mission that they can accomplish so that we may shed this entangling alliance and this involvement in the territorial disputes of the Middle East. Frum would have none of that. If you are not a war hawk you are not fit to be in the honorable company of men like the Egregious Frum.

Dr. Tonsor and I exchanged a brief correspondence after that. He has not written much lately, but he was a good influence on scholars and students at a critical time, and deserves respect from us all. Requiescat In Pace. Et lux perpetua luceat eis.

NASA Image of God’s Hand

Jerry:

First God’s eye, now God’s hand. Once NASA images a few more body parts, we’ll have a pretty good idea of what God looks like.

http://www.foxnews.com/science/2014/01/09/hand-god-spotted-by-nasa-space-telescope/

Doug Ely

It is certainly remarkable.

Greetings and wishes for a fine New Year.

For your pleasure, former Congressman Roscoe Bartlett, off the grid.

http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2014/01/roscoe-bartlett-congressman-off-the-grid-101720_Page2.html

Best Regards,

Paul Taggart

I have much to say about the end of net neutrality. You will recall that I was opposed to federal interference in the Internet market place. Some regulation may be needed, but not the ham handed actions of the current bureaucracy. More another time.

Jerry,

http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2013/12/gadget-border-searches-2/

Court Upholds Willy-Nilly Gadget Searches Along U.S. Border

Note: The article makes the point "The judge said it ‘would be foolish, if not irresponsible’ to store sensitive information on electronic devices while traveling internationally." I agree. But that’s because of theft risk and capture of the electronics by the country you’re visiting. It should not justify random searches of electronics by the US on return. This business of collective exceptions to the Fourth and Fifth Amendment is Unconstitutional, no matter what the Courts say. All of that said, I would encourage everyone traveling internationally to either buy a "sacrificial" laptop for the trip and only put the minimal information necessary on it (a practice at least one company of my experience recommends), or backup any personal or business sensitive information onto a disk that you leave at home and delete it from the computer using NSA protocols. (Speaking of which … at this point it’s probably safe to assume NSA has the data anyway…)

Jim

Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty. I seem to have heard that said before…

And I have to run.

We couldn’t arrange dinner.  The kids have been travelling all day, and Richard and Herrin are done in anyway.  I find my grandchildren exhausting. Their dog at home is a desert pit bull, so devoted to them that they can ride him although he doesn’t put up with it for long.  His solution to being abused is to go away.  He is fanatically devoted to them.  Sable, with her bad leg, is also devoted to human children, but she can’t run off so easily, so fur pulling is going to get snarls from a wolf.  That doesn’t happen often, but it’s worth preventing: which takes a good deal of watchfulness. Anyway, with Roberta still bedridden, and all the kids tired, it works out better that they all go to a hotel for the night.  We’ll see them in the morning.  Disappointing, but given just how bad off Roberta was this morning, about the best we could hope for.  As I said to her a few minutes ago if you can’t be cheered up by grandchildren nothing is going to work.  But of course she was.  We had a great time. They’ll be back tomorrow for the day.

 

For reasons I won’t go into I was thumbing through some old View posts, and came across the one I did after the Osama bin Laden assault. There were a lot of unanswered questions a couple of days after that was over.  They are still unanswered so far as I know.  If anyone knows any of the answers, I’d appreciate mail on that. http://www.jerrypournelle.com/view/2011/Q2/view674.html#Monday

 

Freedom is not free. Free men are not equal. Equal men are not free.