| Wednesday,
November 9, 2005
On the Civil War in Europe and what may happen in
America
Dear Jerry,
Here is a letter from "Marianne" in France, by way of
the Anchoress. Her observations which make our media coverage look downright
objective:
----------------------------------
May I ask you to pray for us in France, just
ordinary decent people who do no have the means to go elsewhere? I do not
sleep much. The situation is frightening. I have already lived this kind of
events in my life, and I have been many times so anxious about members of my
family who lived in Zimbabwe.
I love my country; I have so much sorrow in my
heart, so much revolt.
Do not think our media are very informative.
1) To night, [one nights ago, November 7 -
admin] one state channel, FR3, has decided not to speak about burned cars.
No fire reported=no fire at all. Most people don’t even know that dozens and
dozens of little churches all over France have been set on fire during these
past years. Our media don’t like the Catholics and as they despise the
ordinary French people, they did not want us to put 2 and 2 together.
2) Some nights ago, “youths” threw Molotov
cocktails in a bus. People scrambled outside. A poor handicapped woman was
sprayed with petrol by the very same thoughtful “youths” and was saved by
the bus chauffeur. The poor lady was badly burned.
FR3 channel showed the lady’s 2 daughters, Yaël
and Anastasie; they were European and wore no Islamic scarf. They expressed
their gratitude to the courageous chauffeur. On another channel, well there
was only one daughter… whose name was Fadella and who wore an Islamic scarf!
She said that her mother (??) was saved by the courageous “youths”. What do
you make of this? Was Fadella an actress? You bet!
It is so insulting for us! But our media are
leftist and that’s it.
We had to wait 7 days before they spoke about
“Islam”. All the while, our Jak Ben Chirak remained silent. When he deigned
to speak, it was to say that we, French people, were responsible, because we
have not fully accepted the “immigrants”. I do not know where this man is
living! He does not have to go in the metro or to take a bus. He lives in
the quartiers chics, like most politicians.
The Islamic immigrants from Maghreb and Africa
scorned France and were far too superior to deign to accept us…
When we dare to grumble, when we dare to murmur
that Islam is a religion of death, that we do not want to become an Islamic
republic, the media and the politicians also scorned us saying we were
racist and fascist and anti-arab, and islamophobic, and anti-Semitic. But
our money was not scorned upon. (we have to pay to sustain the newspapers
which would collapse if it were not for our forced contribution. I pay for
abortions, even if I disagree; I have to pay for communist and Trotskyite
newspapers, even if I loath them; I have to pay for bad comedians who have
no talent)
We pay, with our taxes, scores of
“associations” full of communist-islamics and we just have to shut our
mouths and say amen. Well, not “amen”; amen is not politically acceptable.
Villepin does not see what I would call “the
Islamic touch”in the riots; it was very much lost in translation. The man
needs to have his head examined: We all heard : “Allah Akbar! It is
Jerusalem here! C’est Jerusalem ici! Attends, on va les péter! On va leur
péter la gueule! On va tous les niquer à mort! Allah Akbar!”
The barbarians are poor victims. Right is left,
left is right, bad is good and good is bad.
A fortnight ago, Sarkozy and the police had
broken up an important network of arms and drugs dealers in the same
banlieues. The banlieues live on underground economy : prostitutions, arms
and drugs. Do you see a relation with islamic networks? Heaven forbid!
On the 11 November, the thugs have decided to
invade Paris, near the Tour Eiffel, aux Champs de Mars. What barbecue will
they have? Will they invite our grand vizir ?
To day, I put a piece of paper [a sign] on my
coat: “Do not touch anymore to MY France!” Most of the people are blind;
women are more observant than man, some people do not even dare to really
see what they saw, I don’t care: I just wanted to sow an idea (while saying
“Hail Mary”).
A protestant church in Meulan has been put on
fire [today, November 8]. Nothing about that in our media. Too many are
asleep.
For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but
against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness
of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. (Ephesians)
----------------------------------------
<http://theanchoressonline.com/2005/11/08/an-email-from-marianne-in-france/>
Bob Thompson made a very good observation this morning:
"Many have commented that we can eventually expect to see such outrages
in the United States. I don't think that's true, at least on a large scale.
I do know that if rioting Islamic "youths" attempted to burn down our
neighborhood, they wouldn't know what hit them. Like most middle-class
neighborhoods outside the effete liberal urban areas, ours is well armed. If
Islamic riots broke out around here, our neighborhood would immediately be
closed down, secured, and patrolled. Any punks who showed up with Molotov
cocktails would quickly find themselves perforated with buckshot."
http://www.ttgnet.com/daynotes/2005/2005-46.html
Thank God for the Second Amendment.
Take Care,
Rod Schaffter
-- "I find, for some odd psychological reason, that I can deal better
with a man's exercise of free will if I believe that he has got it." --G.K.
Chesterton
Mr. Thompson may find himself facing BATF
and Federal Marshals. It is likely that the federal authority will support
the rioters, who will only be demanding their rights. After the Watts Riots,
the Christopher Commission found some very interesting conclusions, and none
of them had much to say in condemnation of the rioters.
Besides: while Mr. Thompson is formidable,
he can be isolated, demonized as an extremist, and carried off to a Federal
prison. Probably charged with terrorism.
Yes, perhaps one day, there will be a
military revolt in defense of the people of the United States, but it is not
likely. We have put up with anarcho-tyranny for some time now. Why will it
be different here? Our reaction to "punks" and slackers who riot is to ask
what we did to deserve that, and build some more youth centers, and have
midnight basketball. And to jail anyone who defends himself, as a number of
Korean shopkeepers found during the last riots here.
And another letter from France:
Bonjour,
There is a strange affair in France about
media. You can find photos and videos here:
http://www.france-echos.com/actualite.php?cle=7532 and I've written
about it (in French) on my blog here:
http://www.evoweb.net/blog/index.php/2005/11/06/p167/Banlywood-.html
In short: last Wednesday, some "youths"
had attacked a bus, spread petrol in it, and put it on fire. A disabled
woman was in the bus, unable to leave the bus alone, and she tells that the
youths spread petrol directly on her. Fortunately, the bus driver came back
to help her, and she is just severely burned, alive.
At first, the media tried to avoid this
affair: it would give a "bad image" of the rioters, and they want to
"appease the tensions". However, on Friday evening, France 3 (a part of the
national TV group France Television) diffused a interview of 2 daughters of
this woman (according to the newspaper "Le Figaro", she has 3 daughters).
These two girls are, as their mother, whites, Europeans, and one looks like
a lot her mother.
A few hours after, TF1 (private TV) and
France 2 (another of the group) diffused their interview of the daughter of
this woman: an Arabic islamist girl...
Sure, it is possible that this woman has
really 3 daughters, and that one of these is Arabic and Islamist: I do not
know. But it is very surprising: in such situations, France 2 should use the
France 3 images, because of synergy in the group, the competition is against
TF1.
So, even if it is all regular, that this
woman has 3 daughters, one being an arabic islamist, that France 2 with 24
hours late decided to find the daughter of this woman, and film her, even if
there is nothing behind, that it's just genuine journalism, it fits so much
with the current propaganda that Islam has nothing to do with riots that it
is surprising. An extraordinary luck, I would say.
For my post on Evoweb, I've coined the
word "Banlywood", on the same model as "Pallywood", from "Banlieue" which
means "Suburb". As I wrote the other day in the FAQ, an own Al-Durah affair
is a necessity for rioters if they want to be a real intifada. Maybe this is
their first attempt.
A bientôt,
Phillipe
============
A letter not printed
by the Wall Street Journal
Carol Hymowitz bases her column (October 25) on a
fallacy that is common to the point of ubiquity in discussions of sex
differences.
Hymowitz attempts to refute various explanations of
why only two percent of Fortune 500 CEOs are women by invoking the fact (let
us assume that it is a fact) that "these theories belie the basic truth
proved by countless surveys over the past decades: There is little
difference between the leadership styles of successful male and female
bosses."
Explanations of the male-female difference do not
(necessarily) deny that those men and women who attain the upper
hierarchical positions exhibit similar characteristics. The
explanations-even those emphasizing hereditary psychophysiological
differences between males and females-attempt to explain the statistical
difference between the numbers of men and women attaining the positions, not
the characteristics of those who do attain the positions. In other words,
the question that these explanations attempt to answer is the huge
difference in the numbers of men and women who attain these positions, not
any difference between the men and women who do attain these positions.
This is clear from an analogy that should always be
kept in mind in discussions of sex differences: The claim that heredity and
physiology accounts for the male-female difference in height does not imply
a height difference between those men and women who are exactly
seven-feet-tall.
Steven Goldberg
=============
Subject: Paris is Burning
There's a developing consensus that current events
reflect a society that had been ghettoizing its minorities--warehousing them
in lawless banlieues out of sight and out of mind. Most of the rioters seem
to be young males 12-25 living in areas where there is no community, no
adult leadership, and no opportunity. It's not a religious thing; it's not
even a cultural thing--these are second generation French citizens, and the
cars they are burning belong to their elders. At least America had the Army
during the 1950s as an acceptable career path for middle class blacks.
-- Harry Erwin, PhD "I would like to be able to love
my country, and justice too." (Albert Camus)
So it is all the fault of Western
Civilization, which did not abase itself enough to accommodate a bunch of
people who do not want to be assimilated?
I fear I cannot agree. The fault is that
liberals do not believe in Western Civilization. They piously hope that the
principles of liberal democracy will be obeyed by all, but they don't have
any reasoned defense or philosophical stuffing for those principles. The
result is that when people behave as Hobbes predicted, they have no answer.
For Dr. Erwin's reply,
see below.
============
Subj: Iraq: The Return of
Chalabi
http://www.opinionjournal.com/editorial/feature.html?id=110007523
=A year ago the Bush Administration tried to destroy
Ahmed Chalabi's chances of ever leading a free Iraq. This week the Iraqi
Deputy Prime Minister has meetings scheduled with Bush Cabinet members
Condoleezza Rice, Donald Rumsfeld and John Snow, as well as National
Security Adviser Stephen Hadley. What gives? ...=
Rod Montgomery==monty@sprintmail.com
============
Unreasonable faith in Chalabi's ability
and his supposed influence and understanding got us into this war. Who
knows, maybe he can get us out. This time for sure.
============
The trip to Egypt as part of an
international military exercise didn't happen, instead we were kept here for
the hurricane relief operation instead.
I do think that I'd state the situation in Iraq a bit
differently than you. I have utter confidence in the military situation.
Every time I look at it I'm struck at how much improvement I see and how
quickly it gets better compared to what I would have expected. Where I see
signs for concern is in the politics, here and there, and the media. I worry
about what happens if the wrong people within the US gain power to achieve
their ends, since I can't think of a worse result than teaching our foes
that if they hold out long enough we'll fold, and I worry that we can't
produce a good enough government in Iraq to keep the place from sliding over
into variously anarchy, despotism or theocracy, or some combination thereof.
However, my main fear is the media. I can defeat the armed foes of my
nation. I am utterly convinced of that and I can make a pretty good case.
I'm not so sure I can deal with those foes armed with the means to spread
their opinion around the world. We j! ust don't have much of anyone fighting
on that front for us.
Compare coverage of Iraq, where we've already built
the start of an army and had successful elections, with Kosovo, where they
have ... well, less organized killing after a couple of times as long by the
UN and EU.
A Serving Officer (Middle East veteran)
===========
Thank you for posting the letter from "Marianne". She
sounds like a younger version of my grandmother (I just finished a two-week
visit with her in Paris).
It is depressing sometimes to look at France and see
only evidence that the entire country is going down the tubes, but things
like that give me hope. The main problem is the French elites, who dictate
to the rest of the people what they should think. If they can be tossed
aside (and socialism with them), I think the ordinary French have the guts
to handle this.
In some ways I think it is good that this has happened
now. France is still strong enough to fight off the infection if it becomes
aware of it quickly enough. If the underclasses had waited another 10-15
years or so before making a major move, they'd be much stronger.
Kent Peterson urquan @ rocketmail.com
"... there was always a minority afraid of something,
and a great majority afraid of the dark, afraid of the future, afraid of the
past ..." - Ray Bradbury, _The Martian Chronicles_
==========
Subject: Marine Spec Ops ?
Dr. Pournelle,
Not that I disagree with the move to create a Marine
Corp Special Operations Command, but I thought the Corp was already
considered an elite force. I guess now they're looking for a few better men.
http://www.military.com/NewsContent/0,13319,79698,00.html?ESRC=marine.nl
Ron Booker
============
Subject: Whack the Wahabi Map
Here is a most excellent and fully active data fusion
map overview of the Afghan-Pakistan happy hunting groud, brought to you in
the interest of earthquake disaster relief, but mighty handy for keeping up
with the hunt for what remains of OBL and the Taliban.
http://www.communitywalk.com/map/293#
be sure the # is part of the adress, and use
broadband- this is a very high resolution map, and you can zoom as much as
bandwidth allows. RS
==============
Subject: Greenland icecap
Jerry:
To add to the never-ending stream of contradictory
climate information, satellite radar mapping is showing the Greenland icecap
to be growing. You may also find the related links at the bottom of the page
interesting.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/11/07/ice_sheets_thickening/
Chris
'Every special interest is entitled to justice full,
fair and complete....but not one is entitled to a vote in Congress, to a
voice on the bench or to representation in any public office.' Theodore
Roosevelt
Actually, that's not entirely incompatible
with warming. There needs to be energy to transport water vapor to the north
icecap areas. But it is an indication that we don't really understand what
is going on.
There are two major questions: what human
activities contribute significantly to global warming -- and is there any
warming at all. In both cases the theory indicates we ought to be seeing
more warming than we see. Finally there is the question: if it's not a
lot of warming, will that be harmful or beneficial? Longer growing seasons
and milder northern weather are not obviously a bad thing.
========
The global decline in seabird populations is of
growing concern to ecologists, and now researchers have discovered a new
cause – some may be becoming too stupid to survive.
http://www.newscientist.com/channel/life/dn8287.html
===========
Subject: Router
Dear Jerry,
Quite some time ago, you advised me to get a router
for my stand-alone Windows PC. I did not quite understand at the time why
you were so insistent, but I took you at your word and got a D-Link DI-604.
I don't do wireless, except for Bluetooth with my Palm Tungsten T3, so the
DI-604 is satisfactory. Since then, I have not had a single problem with a
worm. Once in a while, Norton AntiVirus traps an email virus, but the thing
is, it all works. You have saved me so much trouble.
I subscribe to your website and am happy to to do so.
Warmest Regards, Bill Dooley
==============
Subject: Tom Bethell and AIDS, Abolishing the Dept of
Education
Dr. Pournelle:
I have also searched the Spectator site (www.spectator.org)
but can not find that article. I even searched under their columnists (link
at bottom of their home page), found a link to Tom, and got a list of his
articles. There's one dated October, but has nothing to do with AIDS. It
could be that electronic versions aren't archived until a later date, OR,
they do not archive the print edition in its entirety.
I agree with you regarding abolishing the Department
of Education. This Jimmy Carter sop to teacher's unions has done absolutely
nothing to improve education. While I agree in principle with you regarding
returning control to local districts, it would be impossible here in Texas.
First and foremost, we have the "Robin Hood" school finance rule which takes
money from wealthier districts and distributes it to poorer districts. This
disaster came about as a response to a 1980s lawsuit that claimed the
then-current funding to schools was unconstitutional. As a result, school
taxes are ridiculous in better school districts. My school district (Spring
Branch Independent Schol District) charges $1.81 per hundred dollar assessed
valuation. This is in addition to the $2.38 per hundred dollar assessed
valuation for property tax for Harris County, but I digress. Houston
Independent School district, which is also completely within the confines of
Houston, Texas, charges only $1.62. HISD is an underperforming district that
gets additional moneys from wealthier, better performing districts. Many
districts in poorer areas charge less because they receive largesse from
other districts. This law has been upheld by the Texas Supreme Court, and I
think we'd be stuck with it. It'd be nice if we could get back to teaching
the basics, instead of paying for everything from breakfast to computers, to
babysitting, to self-esteem programs. I don't see that happening.
Unfortunate, but true.
I think that teacher's unions have too tight a grip on
our education system, and without a Chinese "Cultural Revolution" type of
purge, they aren't going anywhere. I say this as the son of a teacher (and
union member, who ran unsuccessfully for statewide office because she was a
registered Republican).
With teaching, where do you start? I would go with the
stream theory... teach college prep to those qualified (the A stream) teach
trades and careers to the capable (but less qualified) (the B stream), and
teach basic skills to the minimally qualified (the C stream). My high school
had a "career center" that focused on jobs such as machinist, welder, and
other manufacturing jobs (I graduated in 1978) that were useful in the oil,
gas, and agricultural industries. Today's career centers could teach IT and
similar skills. I've gotten into very heated arguments with folks when I
state, "Not everyone should be in college." If you want to cause a few
strokes, say that to members of the "equality of outcome" crowd. Schools
should also not be daycare centers, nor should they be feeding children free
breakfast, lunch, and in some cases, dinner. Schools should teach skills.
They should neither babysit nor even teach sex education.
I've ranted enough. Have a pleasant day!
Regards,
Bill Kelly Houston
========
Subject: 10 worst software bugs
http://wired.com/news/technology/bugs/0,2924,69355,00.html?tw=wn_tophead_1
Interesting little article. Some occurred in the early
60's. Some actually caused deaths (you don't often hear about those.)
I would bet that there are some we aren't hearing
about because they happened on secret projects, weapon systems, etc...
John
-- John Harlow, President BravePoint
============
Subject: Educational theory
and practice
Came across this in today's paper, and thought it fit
in well with the earlier IQ and education discussions. It would be almost
funny if it weren't true. I'm sure some brilliant, properly credentialed
educational theorist thought this was an excellent idea...
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/09/education/08education.html
Seems to me that it would probably be difficult to
teach "why" something works before the student knows what it is that the
"why" is explaining. Number theory prior to arithmetic? As you've more than
adequately argued many if not most students have neither the aptitude or the
necessity for esoteric abstract concepts - and that is this schools primary
curriculum? I can't even come up with a reasonable metaphor for this sort of
inverted logic.
I especially liked how the school's highest performer
in maths ascribed his achievements to his parents and teachers "in spite of"
the school's curriculum, and that it is the students that seem to be the
first ones to recognize the implications of such lunacy.
Between this and Kansas's school board decision
yesterday, one wonders exactly how many and how far students will be left
behind by such "enlightened" folks.
As you often say "we have sown the wind..." and I am
*not* looking forward to my generation having to harvest it in the
not-all-too-distant future. The baby-boomer/60s generation from whence many
of these "unstructured learning" ideas have come has done far more (albeit
well-intentioned) damage than any invader or terrorist could possibly have
done to our society and our future. My generation (the so-called apathetic
Gen-X children of that generation) are inheriting quite the mess.
Regards, J. Scott Cardinal
==========
Subject: Rebels with a cause
Hi Jerry,
The newest fad in education is to force children to
independently reinvent every concept of mathematics from counting to
calculus. This approach might work for the next Richard Feynman, but it is a
disaster for every child who is not a mathematical prodigy.
Both parents and classroom teachers are protesting the
lunacy of the new "innovation". The professional educational establishment
is trying to suppress the rebels. The Board of Education has decided to
overrule the parents.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/09/education/08education.html
The terminology used by the proponents of the new
method of instruction is almost Orwellian. "Constructivists" and
"progressives" are good. "Traditionalists" are bad. Multiplication tables
are proscribed.
Why does the American teaching profession refuse to
teach children the methods used in the real world? When I was in grade
school in the 1970's the new fad was ITA (Initial Teaching Alphabet).
Warning: no professional writer with a family history of heart disease
should ever google this phrase.
My first grade teacher spelled the name of a red fruit
as "appul". I corrected her. She told me I had to learn how to spell the
wrong way before I was taught how to spell the right way. I ignored her. I
saved myself two years of confusion, because by the time I was in third
grade ITA had been abandoned. My classmates took years to recover.
Eric Krug
==============
Subject: Paris is Burning (follow-up)
"So it is all the fault of Western Civilization, which
did not abase itself enough to accommodate a bunch of people who do not want
to be assimilated? I fear I cannot agree. The fault is that liberals do not
believe in Western Civilization. They piously hope that the principles of
liberal democracy will be obeyed by all, but they don't have any reasoned
defense or philosophical stuffing for those principles. The result is that
when people behave as Hobbes predicted, they have no answer."
--It's more like a long-term social policy of keeping
these people from competing for jobs. France is known in Europe for its 35
hour work week and high job costs. These are the people who have been
excluded from the job market to maintain the high salaries for those with
jobs. The French government has been using a combination of welfare state
programs (the carrot) and brutal policing (the stick) to encourage them to
keep their heads down, but those policies have been unreliable for a long
time. The same thing could easily happen in Washington DC.
I don't think it's as much liberalism--remember
radical liberalism is libertarianism--as it is social policy that attempts
to maintain a comfortable status quo long after it is appropriate to the
situation. The French government is not interested in free trade, government
withdrawal from the economy, and free enterprise capitalism--the policies
that would create jobs with living wages for the currently excluded.
Oh, by the way, the UK government lost in Parliament
on the Terror legislation. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,22989-1864619,00.html
On the other hand, you *really* have to read this
story: http://www.guardian.co.uk/Education/schools/story/0,5500,1637434,00.html
This proposal includes inspections of child-minder's homes to ensure they
are teaching the national curriculum to toddlers.
Breaking news: terrorist attacks in Amman http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,1638667,00.html
-- "The difference between theory and practice is
that, in theory, there is no difference between theory and practice, but in
practice, there is." (Tom Vogl) Harry Erwin
===========
=On this month's column in
www.byte.com
Subject: Alternatives to Norton Anti-Virus
Dr. Pournelle,
The network administrators here at Michigan State
University had a listserve discussion about replacing Norton Anti-Virus just
a couple weeks ago. The strongest vote was for NOD32,
http://nod32.softwaresecuritysolutions.com/. On the other hand,
AVG/Grisoft is recommended in the latest PC World (Dec 2005).
Regards,
-- David McFarlane,
Research Technology Specialist
Dept. Psychology, Michigan State University
==
Subject: Anti-virus suggestions
Jerry--
I gave up on Norton anti-virus last year, like you fed
up with the poor performance. I switched to Trend Micro PC-cillin Internet
Security, and other than the silly name I am exceptionally happy with the
product. They offer a home networking pack, which gives you three licenses
at a fair price. I've been using it on three different machines with no
problems for a full year now.
The performance (boot-up, real-time scans and full
manual scans) is dramatically better than Norton. And they seem to update
their virus definitions much more often (sometimes once a day) than Norton.
The included firewall is also quite good -- easy to setup and quite
effective.
Keep up the great work,
Bruce.
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