| Sunday,
August 28, 2005
Subject: Re: On assassination
Hi,
My main point was probably expressed too flippantly.
It was simply that the US has no particular advantage when it comes to a war
of assassinations. On the offensive side,a 5-man team can achieve as much as
the 82nd Airborne. From the defensive aspect,Nancy Reagan and Jackie Kennedy
would, I presume, agree with the proposition that US Presidents can be
murdered if someone is sufficently motivated. Why wage war using tactics
that eliminate your advantages ?
On the ethics point, jus ad bellum, as I recall,
requires proportionality. This would, in my personal rulebook, preclude the
elimination of Chavez, since the dangers of leaving him in power are largely
economic. But as I read your later comments, I suspect we largely agree on
this.If there is a demonstrable case for war and a well targeted bullet can
achieve the objective, then I certainly have no problem saving the blood and
treasure. State-ordered murder as the routine next step after a stiffly
worded diplomatic note is my sticking point, and I see that's not the
proposition in question anway.
Regards, Alan Perkins
Well -- yes. Once again, a conditional is
not a declarative. Given casus belli, then the means to victory are
justified. If operations against a head of state are more effective than
mass bombardments, then --
As for instance, if it was legitimate to
go to Iraq to remove Saddam then the air strike targeting him personally was
legitimate. Etc. A conditional does not assume the premise nor advocate the
consequence; it merely states the relationship between them.
===============
Subject: They can't blame -this-
one on the internal combustion engine.
They can't blame -this- one on the internal combustion
engine.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4184110.stm
- Roland Dobbins
Indeed! Which is not to say that we should
not be careful here.
=========
Subject: Teen pregnancy
Good evening Mr, Pournelle, the simplest thing would
be shifting high school hours later in the day to cut teen's unsupervised
time. Another would be asking media and advertisers to stop wallowing in sex
(If they ever think seriously about this, you may see the stockholders with
torches and pitchforks from your house.). Wages that would permit single
income households would help a lot, but don't hold your breath for it.
Adding to sex education curricula might help, I think teaching diaper
changing would help a lot, with real smelly, squalling babies.
Tim Harness.
==============
Subject: Organization
I consider myself to be of at least average
intelligence (all right, I consider myself to be a good deal above average
intelligence, but for the sake of the current argument I'll settle for
average). I came to this website in search of an article my son-in-law told
me about: a discussion of the political poles of liberal and conservative
and how most people don't fit comfortably in either. I perused the current
offerings and found much of interest (including the Jingoism discussion) but
not the article for which I was searching. I used the "search" feature,
inserting the words liberal, conservative and both at the same time. The
search engine informed me that my search for " did not produce any results.
I seems to me that any ordinary implementation of a search feature would
have turned up my article (even with a great deal of dross) on those search
terms. So I conclude that the search engine is either broken or that all
political references such as liberal and conservative have been purged
either from the engine or the archives. This doesn't seem very likely to me
either, so I'm choosing to conclude that perhaps the website is needlessly
complicated where the definition of complicated includes inherent bars to
finding desired information. I would be the first to defend your right to
present your website in any form you choose or not at all for that matter,
and even more your right to avoid having to wade through the morass of
undocumented features that most new software entails. Perhaps one of your
fans in the spirit of public service would offer services to recast the site
in a more user friendly form...perhaps that soul would be more likely to
undertake the overhaul as a form of self-promotion if proper recognition
were provided. At any rate, from the point of view of a visitor, it would be
nice to be able to find what has gone before as well as the current
viewpoints.
Sincerely,
John A. Thomas
Pensacola, Florida on the eve of Hurricane Katrina's landfall, hopelfully
elsewhere.
Actually the Pournelle axes (which was a
dissertation in Political Science rewritten to be in popular form) are found
at
http://www.baen.com/chapters/axes.htm as well as somewhere on this site.
I found that in a search on Google on Pournelle Axes as the first hit, but
of course you need that key word axes. Political Spectrum and Pournelle on
Google will get you that one plus
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_spectrum which is brief but
not badly done and has some references.
I will agree, it's harder to find on my
site than through Google, because it has been mentioned many time, and the
search engine turns up a lot of hits.
=====================
Subject: Calif. AG Wants Warning Label on Fries
The law makes more business for itself.
Will it now be "hate speech" to ask a customer, "Do
you want fries with that?"
But we were born free?
Hey, maybe I can get the contract for the new french
(freedom?) fry warning labels?
File under: lemons to lemonade, render unto Caesar,
"The Crazy Years" etc.
Petronius The Arbiter Of Taste
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050827/ap_on_he_me/fries_warning_lawsuit
LOS ANGELES - Potato chips and french fries
could soon come with a warning label in California if the state's top
attorney prevails in a lawsuit filed Friday against nine fast food chains
and snack-food makers.
Attorney General Bill Lockyer asked for a court
order requiring McDonald's, Burger King, Wendy's, Frito Lay and other
companies to warn consumers that their fries and chips may contain
acrylamide, a chemical the state says causes cancer.
At least one of the companies disputes that,
saying there is no evidence the substance is carcinogenic.
"In taking this action, I am not telling people
to stop eating potato chips or french fries," Lockyer said. "I know from
personal experience that, while these snacks may not be a necessary part of
a healthy diet, they sure taste good."
But consumers should have the information
needed to make informed decisions about their food, he said.
Acrylamide, a byproduct of chemicals and high
heat, has been found at low levels in several foods. The lawsuit focuses on
french fries and chips because they have more acrylamide than other foods,
according to the Attorney General's Office.
Frito-Lay spokeswoman Lynn Markley said there
was no scientific evidence that acrylamide causes cancer. She said it was
counterproductive for the state to sue the companies when California
regulators are setting standards for the chemical under Proposition 65, a
state law that requires companies to notify the public about potentially
dangerous toxins in food.
Wheee!
===========
Subject: Missing Music Producer Found, Hospitalized
No Nigerians were found.
File Under "Silly Season, HollyWeird"
Petronius The Arbiter Of Taste
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050827/ap_on_en_mu/missing_producer
LOS ANGELES - The nearly weeklong search for a
Grammy-nominated producer ended Friday after a resident spotted the man
sitting naked in a backyard creek, washing his jeans.
The Topanga Canyon resident found a distraught
Christian Julian Irwin saying he feared he was being pursued by Nigerians
who had contacted him in an Internet scam, sheriff's Capt. Ray Peavy said.
Peavy said there was no evidence anyone was actually
pursuing the 48-year-old producer, who has worked with Carly Simon, David
Bowie <http://search.news.yahoo.com/search/news/?p=David+Bowie>
, among others.
Irwin was taken into custody because he was deemed
mentally incompetent and possibly dangerous to himself, Peavy said.
Well that's a relief.
===================
Subject: Proposed Reorganization of Chaos Manor
Hi, Jerry. The "blog"-style of reverse chronological
order is ideal for diarist who writes short comments, intended for readers
who stop by frequently throughout the day. Glenn Reynolds' "www.instapundit.com"
is a perfect example. Rarely does Glenn write more than a paragraph, and
usually short ones. His blog is more in the "news headlines" genre, where
the newest stuff HAS to be at the top of the page.
Your style, on the other hand, is more essayist than
diarist; your comments are longer, more involved, and always more in-depth
than Reynolds'. I doubt that the majority of your correspondents drop by
more often than daily, not hourly; we read your page for content, not
headlines. Your style _needs_ to be different, because the purpose is.
It's your site, and it needs to be done your way, but
for whatever weight my "vote" counts, I'd say leave Chas Manor alone. It's
fine. Take the time that you might spend on a redesign and write fiction.
How about a new Jannisaries novel?
------------------------------------------------------------------- Ken
Mitchell Citrus Heights, CA
ken@creativemindssacramento.com
"No government ever voluntarily reduces itself
in size. Government programs, once launched, never disappear. Actually, a
government bureau is the nearest thing to eternal life we'll ever see on
this Earth." Ronald Reagan Oct. 27, 1964
http://www.opinionjournal.com/extra/?id=110005180
Actually I am working on the next
Janissaries even as we speak...
===========
Jerry
The first story was The Forgotten Planet by Murray
Leinster. I am holding a hardback reissue in my lap as I type this.
Ed
=============
Subject: The Invasion Of The Chinese
Jerry
Here is a man who made a counterintelligence
breakthrough, exposing an organized spying operation of enormous
proportions. His reward? He was fired from his job. This really, really
makes me confident about the management of Sandia labs.
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/printout/0,8816,1098906,00.html
Rather than fire him, his boss could have asked for
some organizational cover. But no. He took one of our most successful cyber-cointel
guys off-line.
Ed
You are astonished?
==========
Jerry
This is something like a story I saw in Analog decades
ago, but cheap silicone has done it again: a lady caught a flasher on her
cell phone's camera, showed it to the cops then posted it on-line. "I hope
his mom sees it," one commenter posted.
http://www.nydailynews.com/front/story/340923p-291030c.html
Ed
=========
Dear Jerry:
Has it ever struck you that as teachers have been
required to take more and more "education" courses to get and remain
certified the quality of our educational system has tumbled, and that the
more sex "education" is taught in grammar, middle, and high schools the
higher our rate of teen pregnancy has become?
Cordially,
Tim Loeb
Actually I had made that observation..
===================
Asia Minor: Causes of catastrophe
http://www.economist.com/books/
PrinterFriendly.cfm?Story_ID=4316114
1453: The Holy War for Constantinople and the
Clash of Islam and the West. By Roger Crowley. Hyperion; 304 pages; $25.95.
Published in Britain as "Constantinople:
The Last Great Siege, 1453"; Faber and Faber;
£16.99 The Mechanism of Catastrophe: The Turkish Pogrom of September 6-7,
1955, and the Destruction of the Greek Community of Istanbul. By Speros
Vryonis junior. Greekworks.com; 664 pages; $75
WHATEVER befell the Queen of Cities, 553
summers ago, it was evidently a turning-point in world affairs. But to
paraphrase Lenin's question, who exactly prevailed over whom?
The bare facts are not in doubt. On May 29th
1453, a 21-year-old Ottoman sultan, later known as Mehmet the Conqueror,
took the ancient capital of the Byzantine, or eastern Roman, empire. By
blockading the Bosphorus, spiriting ships into the supposedly impregnable
Golden Horn and pounding the walls with cannon, Mehmet fulfilled the dream
of many previous besiegers, going back to the early Islamic era. Constantine
XI, the last Christian emperor, died in the defence.
In Turkish history books, the conquest of
Istanbul is presented as a heroic feat by a visionary leader, who cast aside
the caution of his elders and opened a brilliant new chapter in history. It
is argued that the city was badly depopulated, and the civilisation it had
spawned had become moribund: only after a change of master was the great
conurbation on the Bosphorus able to rediscover its natural role as the
epicentre of a world empire.
For Constantinople's defenders and their Greek
or philhellenic heirs, the "fall of the city" was a tragedy whose sharpness
has never ceased to be felt: the end of a civilisation whose art,
architecture and world view were deeply infused with Christian doctrine and
Hellenic thought--with spectacular aesthetic results, whatever you might
think of Byzantine politics.
A comparatively dispassionate--yet still
gripping--view of the drama of 1453 is offered by Roger Crowley, an
ex-teacher with a pedagogue's gift for anticipating queries and injecting
life into an old, if perpetually fascinating, story. One of the hardest
questions, as he suggests at the outset, is how to describe the warring
parties. Were they "Greeks" and "Turks" in the modern sense? Of course not,
because the nation-state had not been invented. On the attacking side, the
best troops were Slavic; so, it seems, were at least half the genes of
Mehmet; his feisty commander, Zaganos Pasha, was of Greek origin. The
defenders included Venetians, Catalans and above all Genoese. It is less
misleading, Mr Crowley argues, to define the belligerents in religious
terms: on one hand, a "Christendom" whose split between a Catholic West and
Orthodox East had fateful results; on the other, the realm of Islam, whose
passion for holy war had been reinvigorated by the arrival of the Ottomans
in Anatolia.
The book mixes intriguing details of military
history with rich references to the religious imagery that influenced both
parties. It describes how morale on the defending side was fatally affected
by apparent portents from heaven--such as the incident when a famous icon of
the Virgin Mary, revered as a protectress of the city, fell into the mud
during a procession. Odd meteorological phenomena, apparently linked with a
volcano thousands of miles away, were seen by both sides as omens.
But for all the power of religious symbols and
rhetoric, the conflict between the Christian and Muslim worlds was not as
total, or as simple, as the discourse of the time might suggest. Notionally
Christian powers were willing to ally with the Ottomans against their fellow
Christians. As for Mehmet, he selected a conservative (ie, anti-Roman)
theologian as patriarch and reaffirmed the prelate's authority over all the
empire's Christian subjects. Before 1453, it seemed that the Orthodox
Christians of Constantinople might yield some doctrinal ground to Rome in
order to secure military aid from the Catholic West. But the monastics, and
above all the people of the city, rejected compromise, even if this refusal
sealed their military fate. After 1453, the Ottoman rulers played an
important part in making sure that their Christian subjects remained on an
eastern Orthodox, rather than Roman Catholic, track.
So whatever it implied, the Ottoman victory in
1453 did not mean an end to the practice of Orthodox Christianity either in
the great city itself or the wider region. A more nearly terminal moment
came almost exactly five centuries later. In September 1955, at a time of
tension over Cyprus, well-orchestrated mobs ran amok through the Greek
churches, shops and cemeteries of the city, desecrating, looting, maiming
and in a few cases killing. Speros Vryonis, a Greek-American scholar of
Ottoman history, has devoted many years to documenting this episode--along
with the diplomatic legerdemain that was used to limit its consequences. The
most upbeat thing about this sobering book is the fact that two Turkish
scholars--albeit American-based ones--have endorsed it.
In diplomatic theory, modern Istanbul should
have been spared this kind of horror. The Lausanne treaty of 1923, a
founding document for the modern states of Turkey and Greece, had exempted
Istanbul from the Greek-Turkish population exchange. During the early 1950s,
and for a brief halcyon period in the early 1960s, Greek Orthodox
businessmen with deep roots in the city were thriving once more. But in the
end, modern statehood proved more harmful to Greek-Turkish and
Christian-Muslim co-existence than traditional theocracy (including Ottoman
theocracy) had been. That is thought-provoking for anyone who assumes that
over time, the world is becoming more secular, and from a secular viewpoint,
more "sensible".
============
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