Chaos Manor Mail, Sunday, June 26, 2016
Do not neglect Yesterday’s View on Consent of the Governed. Here is some of the accumulated mail
Hilarious, Paulson for Hillary & Globalism!
If Dick Cheney were to endorse Donald Trump, I think it might discourage people from voting for him. Look who just endorsed Hillary Clinton and why:
<.>
Hank Paulson, George W. Bush’s treasury secretary, who presided over both the meltdown of the U.S. economy and the subsequent bailout of his close friends and associates, has endorsed Hillary Clinton — citing his belief that she’d be more likely to enact globalist policies on trade and immigration as part of the reason for his endorsement.
</>
◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊
Most Respectfully,
Joshua Jordan, KSC
Percussa Resurgo
Free Speech Under Threat
I thought that was amusing, but thought the Federal Government might try to go after free speech using some social justice black lives matter rhetoric or something like that, but I guess they’ve decided to protect Muslim migrants accused of sexual assault from free speech:
<.>
The Obama-appointed U.S. attorney for Idaho has taken the highly unusual step of intervening in a local criminal case involving an alleged sexual assault by juvenile Muslim migrants and threatened the community and media with federal prosecution if they “spread false information or inflammatory statements about the perpetrators.”
WND and other news outlets have reported on the case involving three juvenile boys, two from Sudan and one from Iraq, who allegedly sexually assaulted a 5-year-old special-needs girl in the laundry room of the Fawnbrook Apartments in Twin Falls, Idaho.
</>
http://www.wnd.com/2016/06/explosive-new-twist-in-idaho-sex-assault-case/
Spreading false information is not a crime; the United States government produces or sponsors it on a daily, if not a moment to moment, basis! And that’s a true statement. However, a cursory search of the United States Code revealed 539 results where the words “false” and “statement” appeared. I’m confident that I can spread false information without criminal charges — though I’m confident I could be sued in civil court for libel or slander under certain conditions. If spreading false information were a crime I don’t think you would have a single elected official in 2016 anywhere but a jail cell.
Uttering inflammatory statements is not a crime. I searched the United States Code and the phrase “inflammatory statements” did not appear. So the “Obama-appointed U.S. attorney for Idaho” seems to act under color of law and make fallacious legal threats for unknown purposes to protect three Muslim immigrants who stand accused of sexually assaulting a five year old girl with “special needs” in a laundry room of an apartment building!
That a US prosecutor would engage in this disgusting behavior is no surprise considering the tone and character of the Obama Administration, the Democratic Party, and their enablers.
I believe this activity models a beta test; the Attorney General of the United States said she would prosecute “speech that edges on violence” and now we have a prosecutor following suit. And, more importantly, now this has become a pattern. One more instance and it’s a lifestyle choice.
The chilling effect on the press, where they prosecute reporters under the Espionage Act or pay CNN to run or not run stories, is coming to free speech. I think these are beta tests for a larger program of intimidation and further salami slicing of our rights.
◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊
Most Respectfully,
Joshua Jordan, KSC
Percussa Resurgo
Why are you surprised?
Germany’s Turkish-Muslim Integration Problem
|
‘The force that turned Britain away from the European Union was the greatest mass migration since perhaps the Anglo-Saxon invasion.’
<http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2016/06/brexit-eu/488597/?single_page=true>
No ‘perhaps’ about it.
—————————————
Roland Dobbins
Charles II and the Restoration
Dear Doctor Pournelle,
A fair piece of history from your readers on the background of England pre- and post-Cromwell. For my part, I’ve been reading the Diary of Samuel Pepys (the Latham-Matthews edition, first published by University of California Press, Berkeley starting in 1970) which goes into some detail – both in-diary and in commentary on the diary – concerning what was happening in those days of the Rump and the fall of the Generals. Pepys certainly had a close-up view of a lot of the major events of the time. It’s worthwhile reading to get through the 9 main volumes of the Diary if you have any interest in the period, though I recommend the hardcover first printing. Later printings, including the paperback version have left out some of the artwork (in photos) shown in the first printing.David Crowley
Macaulay’s History of England, all five volumes, is well worth reading; but it is long, and until one gets accustomed to his style, can be confusing. He also assumes his readers are educated; fortunately modern readers have Google, which I did not have when I undertook reading all five volumes fifty years ago. I would require all college students in the United State to read Volume I as a condition of graduation: first for the general overview, and next because of the English. Winston Churchill was accustomed to read Macaulay before preparing any major speech. The result is obvious.
One can challenge some of Macaulay, and indeed I do, but it’s a systematic presentation of a history of vital importance to anyone who wants to be a citizen of the American Republic.
Abortion’s great question
Jerry:
I am opposed to abortion, but believe that it should be legal. I figure that any woman who would kill her unborn child for convenience is carrying bad genes, and should not pass them along to an innocent victim.
I will try to convince a woman NOT to kill her child, but will not call on the force of government to prevent it.
However, there is one question which I like to ask those who push abortion:
“What makes you think that YOU have any more right to live than does an unborn child?”
They usually either ignore it, or they duck and dodge, but it’s a serious question. What can they say to convince me that I should care any more about their lives and rights than they care about those of the unborn?
Moral arguments don’t work. Their own argument is that it is morally acceptable to decide who is and is not “people,” so all of their arguments can be applied against them.
Until the day that this question can be answered in a cold and firm way, homicide can be considered nothing more than a very-very-very late term abortion.
It should be noted that the same moral/political position which promotes abortion is also the environment from which most violent criminals arise. Once you have decided that you can ignore someone’s right to be born, all other rights likewise become less than absolute . . .
Keith
Educated persons, including clergy of most faiths, used to debate the age of “quickening”, i.e. when a fetus acquired a soul. This is no longer much debated, and the Roman Catholic Church has settled on the moment of conception, but that has not always been agreed to; it is theologically the safest position for clergy, but good arguments can be made for a later time of gestation. It is generally agreed that it is before the time at which the infant could survive birth, but abortion advocates will generally not agree, some because they consider the question without meaning, and many because they refuse to agree to any limits on abortion up to the time of birth. Of course classical pagan societies extended the time well beyond actual live birth, allowing parents to expose unwanted children; it is difficult to understand why most advocates of abortion forbid infant exposure, but it is in fact a crime in nearly all jurisdictions.
If one purpose of law is to protect the rights of innocents, it is difficult to imagine anyone more innocent than a newborn baby – or one capable of life if allowed to be born. Of course, as you say, if there are those who have no right to be born, it is imperative to define when rights are acquired – if indeed they are.
NExit — not a problem
Dear Dr Pournelle,
Your correspondent Phil Tharp commenting on Norway and its oil in the June 25 column has got the facts wrong. Norway never joined the EU, and never lost its sovereignty over its oil (or fish resources for that matter). In fact, Norway had two referendums on joining, the first in 1972, which was rejected by 53.5%; and the second in 1994 which was narrowly rejected by 52.1% (against the stated objective of the prime minister much like in the Brexit vote this week).
Another matter, have you considered the Dell KM713 keyboard? — it has a good tactile feel and the keys are widely spaced (4mm = 0.157″ space between them). It is probably the best keyboard I’ve been using in more than 50 years of computer programming.
Best Wishes,
Rune Aaslid PhD
I think Phil had a momentary absence of mind. EU would like to have Norway join EU so they can get a larger share in Norway’s North Sea oil, as they use some of Britain’s North Sea money to allow Greece to escape austerity budgets and also bankruptcy. The Brussels bureaucrats are always in need of other people’s money, and apparently they now get some of Norway’s anyway, but not as much as they would have if Norway joined EU. Everyone needs money…
I will have a look at the Dell keyboard. Thanks.
SUBJ: 377 Words you can’t say online
One of breakout standup routines from the late, great George Carlin was his
1972 monologue “Seven Words You Can’t Say on Television.”
Well, DHS has its own version for the internet.
These are the same people who want to expand prohibitions on those untermenchen on the “No-Fly List”.
Truly the lunatics are running the asylum.
Cordially,
John
These ARE the days that try men’s souls.
My condolences on your troubles with Word. In my tech days we used to say that upgrades only substituted the version that you had learned how the work-around for it’s bugs to a new version that introduced new bugs that you didn’t know how to work around…yet. Now that no one is paying me to use Word, I only use Open Office.
Robert Heinlein was pretty smart, in the ‘Starship Troopers’ universe the schools had mandatory classes on Citizenship and Government. Not taught by a teacher with a degree but it could only be taught by a veteran. We should start doing that in every high school in the nation, tomorrow. I’m sixty-six, and I remember Citizenship and Government classes in my high school. When did we stop teaching that?
There’s a lot that the citizens of 1789 knew that today’s ‘Citizens’ don’t. Like, all of history. But on the other hand there is a lot of things that people know today that they didn’t know in 1789; unfortunately most of it, like ‘Global Warming’ isn’t true.
“Actually, they had cannon, too; you can still see some of them on courthouse lawns.” Reminds me of the story about a man that had a job at the courthouse; cleaning up, replacing lightbulbs, but mostly he had to keep the courthouse cannon in front polished and shining. But he had ambition and saved his money until one day he was able to quit his job at the courthouse and start his own business. He bought his own cannon to polish…
Sorry. I’ve always thought joke was hilarious.John The River
The story of the brass cannon was one of Mr. Heinlein’s favorites, and he actually had a brass cannon – a model, of course, but a reasonably large one, forged from real brass – on display in his main room. I first saw it when I visited him in his home in Colorado Springs before they moved to California. That is why the NSS made a brass cannon the symbol of their Heinlein Award.
Transgender Locker Rooms
Sexual Assault Victims on Transgender Bathroom Policies
Sexual Assault Victims on Transgender Bathroom Policies
A group of women who were sexually abused at young ages are going public with their stories to fight the state&#…
One more thing to consider. When I was a high school student visiting teams would come to compete and use the girls locker room while they were there.
So we need special language in any law to account for that, and anything like that.
B
I suspect that is a fairly minor problem if you accept the premise, which most Americans do not, although our ruling elite’s overwhelmingly do accept it. My reading of the Constitution does not find any power of Congress to legislate on the subject at all, which I would have thought meant that it was a matter for the states.
The map is not the territory – unless it is
A map of Kansas is not Kansas. However, a map of a map of Kansas is indeed a map of Kansas.
So far, so tautological.
A computer simulation of the water currents in the Atlantic Ocean is not the Atlantic Ocean. But, if strong AI holds (which we still don’t know for sure, although in their hearts I think most AI researchers think it to be the case), a dynamic computer simulation of a human mind may actually be a real human mind.
A dynamic computer simulation of a brass pendulum is not a brass pendulum – but, like the brass pendulum, it is still a real oscillator.
The map is not the territory – unless it is.TG
I think you have not grasped the point of Korzybski’s aphorism, which summaries centuries of epistemological thought. Models may be incorrect. Our understanding of most things – some would say all – even the simplest can be wrong. If we act as if an illusion is true when it is not, the outcome might be trivial, but it might cost billions of dollars. We are betting that our climate models are true, we have bet a lot on something that is difficult to prove, and with enough parameters cannot be falsified.
The map is not the territory is an aphorism, a reminder, and I have been impressed by Korzybski for seventy years; perhaps incorrectly so, but I am grateful to him for saying that. (And to A E Van Vogt for using it in some of his Astounding stories.) But the map is never the territory.
Antarctic: past 8000 year warmer than today
J
‘The sun goes blank again during the weakest solar cycle in more than a century’ | Climate Depot
J
Climate Change Prediction Fail? – Reason.com
http://reason.com/archives/2016/06/17/climate-change-prediction-fail
Muslims and Orlando
Dear Dr. Pournelle,
While considering the problem of Muslims in the Orlando shooting, we should also consider the Muslim USMC vet who rescued bar patrons —
And the Muslim man who went to the mosque that both the perp and America’s first suicide bomber went to. He reported the dude to the FBI but was, alas, ignored.
You also mentioned the Kurds in your blog post; there aren’t many Baptists among them :).
I suggest that the real issue here is Saudi radicalization and Wahhabism. There are plenty of Muslims throughout the world living normal, peaceful lives. Some of them may believe it is their duty to spread Islam throughout the world, and expect it to happen one day, but in the same way Christians expect the second coming. During the 19th century, the Ottomans allied with the French and British to check Russian expansionism. Amongst rational people, worldly concerns trump religious rhetoric as a reason for state policy. And even in the 19th century, I don’t recall Muslims blowing themselves up with suicide bombs or shooting up nightclubs — that sort of thing was done by western anarchists, and even they were more interested in political targets like the Russian Tsars than they were in ordinary people.
What we have is a unique confluence of Saudi money which radicalizes mosques
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-l-phillips/countering-islamic-radica_b_9463300.html
Coupled with easy access to internet propaganda by young men who are alienated from society. It isn’t just Islamic young men — our society is doing an extremely poor job of socializing young men of any age group. In Japan, they become otakus and stay at home, not working.
Islamic young men go for what they perceive as something heroic.
At any rate, my solution is: 1) Fracking. If the Saudis have no
money, they can’t spread propaganda. 2) Counter-propaganda. If we’re not funding moderate Islamic clergy and think tanks, we should.
Surely we can use our weapons of cultural destruction on some other culture than our own? 3) Rule of law here, intelligence (supplied by
Muslims) and special ops abroad. 4) Fund a military force to destroy ISIS. Doesn’t have to be American ground troops. Maybe a foreign legion recruited for the purpose, or the locals such as Assad. Assad isn’t going away — we don’t have the will to stop him — so we might as well make use of him. 5) Step up to the competence plate at home.
Seriously, the Orlando shooter was reported by his neighbors, was reported by the gun store he bought ammunition from,
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/orlando-shooting-gun-store-owner-says-they-called-fbi-about-omar-mateen/
Had been investigated repeatedly by the FBI … c’mon, there was more than enough evidence to see he was a person of interest. Yet it still caught the security people by surprise.
I can only surmise that fear of a civil rights publicity nightmare with a dark-skinned person prevented them from following up on these leads until it was too late.
The only thing I can think of is mass turnover and put in agents who will put their jobs before their careers. Regrettably, that’s going to be really hard, because those who are still in are there because that is who has survived the current administration. It took decades to make the agencies what they are today — ineffectual — and it will take a serious sea change from the very top on down to make them effective again.
Respectfully,
Brian P.
I forget how many years I have been saying that if we invest in US energy we can tell the Arabs to drink their oil, and not have such a huge military, especially standing army. Not that anyone listens. Well, a few do.
New book with an interesting premise.
Dear Dr. Pournelle,
You may be interested in a book that’s about to be released. The book is “Wolf’s Empire” by Claudia Christian and Morgan Grant Buchanan.
The premise is intriguing. The Roman Empire never fell and has now expanded into the Galaxy. The book intermingles Military Science Fiction and alternative history as well as a wonderfully well told adventure story about a young woman’s efforts to extract revenge against those who killed her family.
This is a many faceted book with comp;ex and memorable characters and a completely plausible Galactic Roman Empire.
I’ve read it and it’s a page turned, impossible to put down.
I would recommend it to any reader of Science fiction, especially those who enjoy alternate history.Mike
Freedom is not free. Free men are not equal. Equal men are not free.
