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This week: | Monday
September 18, 2006
I'm sending this from the Auditory Cortex conference in Grantham, so I apologise for the brevity. The latest issue of New Scientist has some follow-up on the Scientific American article on expertise last August. <http://www.newscientist.com/channel/being-human/mg19125691.300> (not free) The Pope's apology to Muslims. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/5353208.stm> <http://observer.guardian.co.uk/world/story/0,,1874354,00.html> <http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2089-2361716,00.html> <http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,13509-2358004,00.html> Also relevant <http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2089-2361460,00.html> They're barking mad--the latest installment. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/glasgow_and_west/5354260.stm> Prayer for Darfur <http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/5354194.stm> No smoking gun in peerages scandal. <http://observer.guardian.co.uk/politics/story/0,,1874335,00.html> London Times article on Republican situation in Washington <http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2089-2361339,00.html> -- Harry Erwin, PhD, Program Leader, MSc Information Systems Security, University of Sunderland. <http://scat-he-g4.sunderland.ac.uk/~harryerw> Weblog at: <http://scat-he-g4.sunderland.ac.uk/~harryerw/blog/index.php> ========= Subject: The Cost of Immigration This gentleman (another immigrant like myself) sent me an interesting calculation: http://www.indiancowboy.net/blog/ The example I used on the blog was: 10 people: 4 make 10 dollars a year each, 3 make 20 each, 2 make 30 each, and 1 makes 40. Total Income is 200 dollars. 60 of which is collected in taxes. The government then spends 6 dollars in service on each person. The guy making 40 dollars pays 20 in taxes. The two guys making 30 dollars each pay 12 in taxes. And the three guys making 20 each pay 4 in taxes. And the four guys making 10 dollars each pay 1 dollar in taxes. It works, more or less. Now 4 more guys want to come in, 2 of whom will make 10 dollars a year and 2 of whom will make 20. They’ll pay taxes at the same rate as everyone else. This brings Total Income up 50 dollars to 250 dollars total, but total tax revenue only goes up by 10 to 70 dollars. 14 people. 70 dollars. Now government only has 5 dollars instead of 6 to spend on everyone. Now, either government service gets 16.6% crappier, or they put the squeeze on the guys making 30 and 40 a year. The guys making 30, although probably paying less as a percentage or overall, will feel the hit harder than the guys making 40. The guys making 30 are our middle class. Wanting to work and pay taxes is not enough. You can still be a net drain on the economy and on the country *even if you do so*. It is the nature of just about any conceivable taxation system that for a given level of government per capita expenditure, the ratio of rich/poor must remain fixed. Under our disgustingly socialist government, allowing unfettered immigration of anyone who wants to work with no regard to their earning prospects is inviting not only a greater growth in socialism, but a total governmental failure. -- Recent novels by Michael Z. Williamson available in bookstores worldwide: TARGETS OF OPPORTUNITY, March 2005 from Avon
http://www.MichaelZWilliamson.com ============ Subject: One Less Voice Crying in the Wilderness... http://www.opinionjournal.com/columnists/tvaradarajan/?id=110008955 "Oriana Fallaci was the toughest nut, the primordial female ballbuster journalist. Her reputation was made through a series of innovatively intrusive, relentlessly probing interviews, in which she took on--and bested--some of the most prominent male politicians of the last third of the 20th century. She was not always the nicest gal, as I found in my experience as her editor for two monumental op-ed pieces that she wrote for this page in 2003... In fact, she was, by some considerable distance, the most difficult, exasperating and intransigent author I have ever worked with. She was also, by some distance, the most exhilarating, and the most perfectionist." "Ultimately, it has to be said that her fear of Islam, and of Muslims, unhinged her. Or, more accurately, disconcerted her to the point where she became unable to distinguish the incendiary from the provocative. An expert diagnostician she may have been, but her bedside manner--her constant references to Muslim immigrants as "invaders," to Europe as "Eurabia"--undermined her ability to achieve the goal she sought, which was to awaken the West to the very real dangers of cultural conflict in its midst." '"In the speech I [Oriana Fallaci] gave at the Italian consulate in New York to accept one of the four golden medals I have received in the last two months, I told that I had drawn a cartoon on the Prophet and his nine wives including the 9 year old one and his sixteen concubines including the she-camel. But I had not published it because I had not been able to draw well the she-camel. (True). The author of the booklet which asks the Moslems to eliminate me in accord with four Suras of the Koran even sued me . . . Meaning now in Italy they even appeal to the Italian law to incriminate an Italian citizen for a 'vilifying' cartoon that nobody has seen."' Oriana Fallaci -- RIP Charles Brumbelow ========= Subject: Text of the speech that started all the ruckus Linked from Drudge Report: Catholic World News has the text of the speech that started all the ruckus. http://www.cwnews.com/news/viewstory.cfm?recnum=46474 It is fairly long, and well worth reading, in its entirety. It is also worth noting that, in context, the words in question are an extremely small piece of the whole. One has to wonder if someone else isn't perhaps trying very hard to fan the flames, deliberately. --John R. Strohm == Subject: Lawrence of Arabia's description of Arabs
H =========== Subject: Fitting monuments Dr Pournelle As I read each week's Chaos Manor View and Mail, very often I follow links back into your archives. Sometimes I just pick a week at random, open the archive, and read. That's how I came across The Black September War. Satirically you suggested we despoil some cities to make monuments to our 9/11 dead (The Black September War). After the violent response to the satire, you suggested that schools would make more fitting monuments. Well, it looks like the monuments will be built but not by the American gov't. The schools will be built by an American: Melinda Gates (with her husband's and Warren Buffet's money). http://www.gatesfoundation.org/GlobalDevelopment/ If not schools, libraries anyway. And the Earth Institute at Columbia University with its Millenium Villages project http://www.earthinstitute.columbia.edu/mvp/ builds other monuments. I note that these two organizations focus on subsaharan Africa, not on Islamic populations. It will be interesting to see if the experiment succeeds. It will also be interesting to see if these organizations extend their efforts to Islamic populations. (I would suggest they try the Moslems in India first so that their workers have some hope of police protection.) Maybe this war between tribalism and civilization will be won by the efforts of private individuals and private organizations. Respectfully h lynn keith PS I recently read (I don't recall where) that the total export commerce of the Arab nations--excluding oil--was less than that of Finland. Seems to say that economic sanctions against these countries are futile. PPS I am all for Americans building schools in foreign countries. I think that--in addition to local history--students in those schools should also be taught American history. PPPS The only real hope we have of any committed effort to develop orbital factories for power generation or other uses will come from commercial efforts, not NASA. =========== Subject: Good things to know, Jerry This was forwarded to me. I haven't checked out these items at snopes.com, so I can only vouch for #1, the headache cure. In my experience, most people suffering from afternoon tension headaches (not the kind you had) are suffering from dehydration, brought on by drinking lots of coffee with subsequent transfer of water from blood to urinary tract (caffeine is a diuretic). I tell my coworkers to drink hot water instead of taking Tylenol, Motrin, Advil or more coffee. It works. Gatorade or Powerade would work better. Ed What I received:
I have not tried most of these, but there are a couple I recognize from my days as an editor of SURVIVE magazine; we tried several of these folk remedies and they worked. Certainly the Listerine in those days was a powerful antiseptic. I never thought of it as a cure for dermatopytes or whatever those cute little burrowing things you see on TV are. I always worry about kidney damage wen considering taking some internal dope to fix toenails. =========
Clearly justifying the burning of Greek Orthodox and Protestant churches as a demonstration of how Muslims are committed to peace, order, and justice. =============
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This week: | Tuesday, September
19, 2006
I got a great deal of mail on this subject. This will have to do as representative: Subject: Old-fashioned remedies Hi Jerry Some selected comments
Some headaches are caused by low blood sugar. Gatorade will send your blood sugar to the stratosphere.
You can buy "medical" honey in a tube like an ointment. It was recommended to me as a treatment for severe leg ulcers. It didn't work for me, but some people swear by it.
As long as you never need to adjust them later.
That's the old Coke formula (circa 1960's). The current formula doesn't work. I doubt if it really has phosphoric acid - that stuff is dynamite.
If you send this to 10 people you will contribute to the clogging up of inboxes and waste of time and money! :-) Regards Michael J Smith Using honey to treat wounds is a recommended treatment in the oldest military manuals we have today, including both Middle Eastern and Macedonian manuals. I believe there is a reference in Aristotle. One uses folk remedies at one's own risk. == Subject: drying wet dogs Jerry, I know for sure that you should not dry cats fur with bounce dryer sheets and I think it applies to dogs too. It can make cat fur come off and it is bad for them to lick off. I just keep an old washcloth near the door to dry off my cat from the rain or melting snow. Wet dog and cat is a nice smell anyway. - Stephen Hart I certainly wouldn't use chemical means for drying my dog, but I would suppose the mfgrs have taken care that what the put in things meant to be used with baby clothes are not likely to be high in irritants. Dogs don't groom by licking themselves, or at least none I have ever had does. When a dog licks its own fur there is usually something wrong. Huskies don't usually smell doggy; wolf fur dries differently. Jerry, Please put a big, fat warning in the list of "interesting things to know" that your reader Ed sent you. Some of these "advices" are downright dangerous, if not criminal. An example: Applying toothpaste on burns. This is something that ER workers have seen over and over, with disastrous results. Most toothpastes on the market contain menthol and other "freshening" agents, which, applied on a burn, hurt so badly they can trigger convulsions. Also, the aluminum oxyde microparticles in the paste will certainly make it very unpleasant. As for urinary tract infections cured with Alka-Seltzer... I won't insult you by telling you why it's obviously an idiocy. Manes of Pasteur are whizzing around disquietingly. And don't even get me started on killing fleas with a few drops of dish liquid. Yeah right. Not in the strays I took care of. Maybe the wimpy Californian fleas fear evil, non-organic dish detergent, but let me assure you that in the rest of the world, they couldn't care less about the stuff. So please paste a bold warning label on that list before someone takes it literally. --Fred Mora |
This week: |
Wednesday,
September 20, 2006 Subject: Daily Diatribe - with questions When you have an enemy you know is working itself up to attacking you and a pre-emptive strike is impossible for one reason or another, what do you do? You know that ultimately a devastating attack will happen. The enemy is building its network for attack while you are forced to sit back and watch. Suppose you manage to get the enemy to reveal its true motives, its inspirations, and behaviors. You get the enemy to go on the offensive early. You feed their sense of self assurance. You assure them that you are sitting back complacent. Fate might be handing us this sequence of events on a silver platter. The sequences of Mohammedan hatred for really rather little things is starting to reach home, even to some of the most intelligent of the thickest skulls out there. I am waiting for a public figure to come out and simply cite 9:29 in a speech noting how the Mohammedan demands and behavior match it perfectly. We have seen more and more vocal Mohammedans declare, "everything would be all right if you converted to Islam." We've seen Ahmadinajad say this. We've seen others. The latest is the son of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi. He invites the Pope to convert to Islam. And 9:29 has the pertinent set of options for a "confronted" kaffir, convert, pay jizyah and accept limitations on your life and freedom, or die. In practice the jizyah tax, I am told, is out of fashion and has not been levied in 100 years. Other aspects of the dhimmitude state that accompanies the tax are still in full force, of course. So when a Mohammedan invites somebody to convert it carries the threat of being forced into dhimmitude or dieing as your options. http://www.news24.com/News24/World/News/0,,2-10-1462_2000964,00.html Thanks to LGF for the pointer. Is, perhaps, the Mohammedan world working itself into its battle frenzy prematurely enough that we can recognize it for what it is and deal with it appropriately? Or must a European nation fall to them before the rest of the world outside of Australia takes notice?
http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/muslim-animosity
http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/articlenews.aspx?type AllahPundit also provides a pointer to an MSNBC article about Mohammedan recruiting in US prisons. It notes authorities are too cash strapped to properly track the recruiting that is going on. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14902394/ From the article: An estimated 2 million people are imprisoned in the United States; 6 percent of them are Muslim, according to the Federal Bureau of Prisons. Prisons have long been considered recruiting stations for gangs and, more recently, terrorists, but little has been done throughout government to combat them. The report, which will be released at a Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee hearing, comes as law enforcement and intelligence officials focus on finding out how and why extremist sympathizers cross a line to become operational terrorists. ABC news has a similar article - AP byline. Daveed over at the Counter Terrorism blog has some serious additional information including data about the material that is being disseminated, including a specially annotated translation of the Qur'an that emphasizes the radical jihad teachings. He includes cites from the version of the Qur'an being circulated. Mark Silverberg posts his article "Wahhabism in the American Prison System" here: http://www.jfednepa.org/mark%20silverberg/wahhabi_america.html This raises interesting conflicts in my mind. The US government is not allowed to make any laws regarding establishing a religion in the US by our Constitution. Is the government allowed to define what is a legitimate religion? I guess this is another of my silly questions that I see this country having to answer in the future. "Can a religion be banned in the US? And if so for what reasons?" Assuredly answering the question is going to be a difficult process, since it seems our enemy is inspired by a religion which has an orthodoxy that demands non-believers, kaffirs, be eliminated one way or another. So in the name of our "religious freedom" we must allow terrorist recruiting in our prisons and indeed in our cities and towns all over the US. So we really must ask whether a religion can be so hateful and socially destructive that it gets banned entirely? I am not a lawyer. So puzzling this one out is beyond me. I hope some people who can deal with it properly take up the line of thought and complete it. (I fully realize that completely banning it is likely to prove quite impossible. But indoctrination against its hateful history and practices might inoculate most against it.) Remember that this is the religion that makes it a death penalty even to entice Muslims to leave join another faith, say Christianity.
http://gatewaypundit.blogspot.com/2006/08/indonesia If secular law won't convict then Mohammedanism has its own law. And it is not hard to see that Mohammedan riots and pressure force their laws onto those unwilling to be Mohammedan. It's not peaceful. It is a religion of hate and riots convicted by their own actions. For those interested Julia Duin has a long article about the persecution of Christians in Indonesia. http://www.nationalreview.com/comment/comment-duin010202.shtml What they do with "liberal post-Christians" is even worse. Too bad they don't seem to get it. They seem to be taken in by the lies spread by the likes of CAIR. The Washington Post decided to look into the latest CAIR report on attacks on Mohammedans. http://asecondhandconjecture.com/?p=137 (Quoting Michelle Boorstein in the WaPo yesterday) "The Council on American-Islamic Relations received 1,972 complaints of harassment, violence and discriminatory treatment in 2005, up from 1,522 in 2004, according to an annual report released yesterday." After dissecting the report it appears most of them were "civil rights" complaints such as radial profiling. They've taken a lesson from the blacks, perhaps. I wish they were as nice as the blacks. Next were about lack of religious accommodation and employment discrimination. There were some for actual acts of violence. And the reporter decided to investigate. It seems in one such a Mohammedan woman was hit in the face and called a "sand nigger". She sustained injuries including a chipped tooth. The interesting detail is that it took place in a bar. What was a good identifiably Mohammedan woman doing in a bar in the first place? The article reveals the rest. It was a loser getting into a bar fight after an exchange of words over the tee-shirt the good Mohammedan woman was wearing, It went to trial which revealed the loser had a "record" of similar problems. It was random violence not a racial thing at all. More in the article. It's worth reading for revealing the distortions coming from CAIR. In closing I'll strike a completely different note. Real moderate Muslims exist and are worth knowing. Robert Spencer posts a letter from a Mohammedan reader. http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/013188.php The man was raised a traditional anti-western anti-Israeli Mohammedan. He moved to America. "However, after working and living in the US for some years, I have come to realize that all that I was told about Americans, were largely untrue. They are the kindest and most generous people I know." We like people to like us. That is our Achilles heel. It is our best strength. We return friendship in kind and get a kick out of doing so. Americans will give you the shirt off their back if you need it long before folks in other countries. We'll give you jobs, "Irish need not apply" notwithstanding. We'll enfold you into American culture. We won't insist you adopt our ways as long as you're nice about your ways. Over time your holidays become our holidays. St. Patrick's day is a splendid case in point. We want to like you and be liked by you so much it blinds us to evil people we should catch if we looked around without our rose tinted glasses. I happen to like some Arabian food imports to our culture. I respect them enough that I never had any problem at prayer times waiting if needed. They were respecting my foibles. So why should I do differently? I think given a chance most Americans are, at heart, like me or better in this regard. It's just the orthodox Mohammedan religion itself and those who adhere to it strictly that trouble me. So I'm doubly worried about the GOOD people who will go down with the bad if we don't start dealing with the bad right away while we can still be rational about it. {^_^} (Joanne Dow) ========= While I am not sure I agree with the Court that Congressional action is constitutionally required (the precedents say otherwise to me) I do agree with the decision as policy: involving Congress in policy making is generally a good idea. Having said all that, I freely admit that it is a complex subject, and before I made any definitive answer I would have to give a great deal more thought to the subject. As it happens, a Congressional staff friend has asked me for advice on the matter. I asked a close observer with some years of experience in military law what he would recommend. He gave this answer: I think the "ideal" solution is to follow historical precedent. In the past, military commissions have been done in the same format as courts-martial, with specific, necessary modifications to some rules. The current system is the same format as the last commissions, which were patterned after courts-martial of the 50's, which were in use at the time. Procedural rules wouldn't need change, for the most part, and you could make a special exception to the hearsay rule to allow hearsay where the judge finds the witness is unavailable due to military necessity (deployed to Iraq, say) AND the evidence is reliable. The big disconnects right now are confrontation (preventing the accused from seeing evidence/witnesses against him), representation (no right to self-represent and counsel must include uniformed military and civilians must be U.S. citizens), and discovery (no meaningful access to the existing evidence/statements for the accused or his counsel). The trap is to avoid the argument, "Why should terrorists get the same rights as our soldiers?" The rights don't accrue based on the alleged misconduct, or even one's personal status, but rather accrue based on the party imposing the forum. When we try the worst in society for the most serious crimes (pedophiles, rapists, murderers) we don't define their rights by their crime, citizenship, or any other criteria. Anyone tried in federal district court gets the same treatment, without exception. Everyone tried in California state criminal court gets the same treatment. For me, if an American flag flies in the court room, then that defines what minimal standards are required. As for the uninvolved Congress-person, I'd recommend they ask that question of the Judge Advocate's General of the services. These are notable legal minds, with 25+ years of military law experience, and they weigh both what is best for the services and what is lawful in making their recommendations. They uniformly recommend we begin with the UCMJ as a base, and modify as necessary. And, of course, the President has the alternative of simply interning people for the duration of the war. Given that we have no idea how to end a war "on terror" that poses obvious problems. My correspondent predicts that is what will happen with most of those cases: they will be interned, and gradually those seen to be harmless will be released. ========= Subject: - An interesting report on Teacher Education Jerry, No surprise here http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/19/education/19report.html - teachers don't learn enough about the subjects they teach, many teachers have low grades in high school, &c, &c, &c. "Most American teachers are trained in university programs with low admission and graduation standards, and with faculty members and courses that are often unimpressive and disconnected from what takes place in elementary and secondary schools, according to a study released yesterday. Some education departments and schools should be shut down and others need vast improvement, said the report, “Educating School Teachers,” released by the Education Schools Project, a research group." Recommendations - close numerous colleges, have would be teachers spend five years in school, four learning what they will be teaching, one learning the rudiments of teaching. "Arthur E. Wise, president of the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education, rejected what he called the elitism in the report and in Dr. Levine’s views. Most teachers graduate from regional state colleges and universities. They do not “spend over $160,000 in four years, in order to prepare for a job that pays $30,000 a year,” Mr. Wise said." Mark Becker PS - Please accept my best wishes for a speedy and full recovery. I would certainly agree that it is more important that as a general rule, knowing subject matter is better than knowing "education". Most education methods courses are silly and many are actually harmful. We used to have a very good teacher's college system, but now the state teachers colleges are universities. With tenure, and research, and higher degrees, and very high costs, and debts for graduates... ======== Subject: Huskies AARRR? What's the difference between a Husky and a wolf? I have heard over and over repeatedly that Huskies love to pull. Do they really love to pull, or do they just love to run, even if they have to pull to do it? R Hunt A little of both, I think. Ours has one major goal in life, to see that these humans walk at least two miles each morning, and preferably another mile in the evening. She also likes to play tug of war with a rope. Her predecessors had much the same agendas. Huskies, after about two years, are great dogs, but their wolf ancestry shows. The difference between a Husky and a wolf? Neither is obedient, but Huskies are cooperative. ======== Subject: All Saints Pasadena As a resident of Pasadena, with many friends who attend All Saints, I too am dismayed that dissent in America is viewed as a punishable act by agencies of the Federal Government. Are the evangelical Christian mega churches who openly distributed ballot cards proclaiming that a vote for George W Bush was a vote defending the nation from idolaters, Satanist, and other deviants also under investigation? Probably not, or I am just being cynical? Robert Grenader I see absolutely no reason why the pastor of a "real" church cannot give a sermon on any subject, and if that pastor chooses to say that voting for George Bush is a vote for the devil I do not believe the Republic will fall. I am far more concerned with restricting government power than restricting what is said in the pulpit. I do have some concern about just "what is a real church" but I am not sure I have much of an answer to that question. Once again I would leave it to the states. ========= Subject: My sin was to write a screenplay accurately depicting Bill Clinton's record on terrorism. BY CYRUS NOWRASTEH http://www.opinionjournal.com/extra/?id=110008958
Charles Brumbelow PS You and/or your readers might enjoy this discussion of competition and winning, Dr. Pournelle: http://www.lcmedia.com/mind444.htm========= US federal judge declares boating illegal in all US navigable waters. http://www.ybw.com/ibinews/newsdesk/20060814154923ibinews.html - Roland Dobbins That won't last. ======= Kimball: The consequences of Richard Weaver. http://www.newcriterion.com/archives/25/09/richard-weaver/print/ - Roland Dobbins An important article. Thanks. ========== Wikipedia forked. http://www.roughtype.com/archives/2006/09/sanger_forks_wi.php-- Roland Dobbins Interesting
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This week: |
Thursday,
September 22, 2006 Subject: Houston and Katrina
We took in the refugees from New Orleans because we also live in Hurricane Alley - "there but for the grace of God go I." I live in Galveston County - Texans are nice people. But we're also pretty hard nosed and have a low tolerance for lawbreakers, card sharks, dead beat dads, lazy people, and other riffraff both foreign and domestic. I find Houstonians to be similar in attitude as the Citizens of the planet Sparta were toward the refugee's from the welfare islands of earth. If you're hungry, go get a job. Or go out in the bush and throw rocks at rabbits. It's not rocket science. Jim Coffey =======
I think for a Mohammedan scholar to make a mistake and not predict this reaction it would be an astounding error. It may have been Oriana Fallaci who reminded him of his responsibility towards his flock and the world in general. So he spoke out in as dry and scholarly a manner as possible fully expecting the reaction. I believe he hoped that it WOULD wake up such moderate Mohammedans as exist. And would point out to the rest of the world that we either deal with the situation now, one way or another, or we end up being apologetic to Mohammedans as they put their boots on or necks forever more. {^_^} ========= Subject: Daily Diatribe - with Conservative dessert at the end Hugo Chavez addressed the UN. The most notable result of that is raising himself and Venezuela in the group consciousness of the conservative blogs. One of the results talks about the possibility that Iran, Venezuela, and Cuba are discussing the potential of 2000 mile range missiles in Venezuela and Cuba. Reportedly Chavez and Castro are afraid to do it thinking that would be one step too far for Bush to ignore. I hope the writer is correct on that point. http://www.babalublog.com/archives/004012.html One thing that is clear is that the three form an interesting triumvirate of evil that is a particularly peculiar alliance when you consider Mohammedan feelings about infidels. It must be an attempt at manipulation - first the US then we roll up these heathen "allies." They certainly are not going to welcome a large Venezuelan or Cuban presence in Iran. After all, it is unseemly to the point of death for a dhimmi to be put in any position that resembles authority. As an example look to British Home Secretary John Reid's pleasant reception by hecklers when he attempted to address Mohammedan's to establish the dialog that Pope Benedict urged. "So much for dialog," one might think. If one did then one would be missing the most dramatic point of the little event caught on video here:
http://news.sky.com/skynews/video/ Notice how ONLY the one black robed heckler was a problem. Then notice all the other Mohammedans who sat politely and listened. I personally take this as a remarkably hopeful sign. Maybe there is a way to reach the 100s to 1 or even 1000s to 1 moderates to get them to, in turn, become active themselves against the immoderate orthodox Islamo-Nazis The BBC report on the full incident is here:
http://news.sky.com/skynews/video/videoplayer While we are considering dialog it's hard to forget the Mohammedan concept of dialog with non-Mohammedans. Typically it amounts to destruction and terrorism. Pakistani journalist Hamid Mir is one who predicted 9/11 ahead of time as a "maybe". He describes some of his past and recent observations in a phone interview. A short 6 minute clip appears on HotAir. Note that MyPetJawa has a summary of the whole thing.
http://hotair.com/archives/2006/09/21/audio- I think the most important thing in the clips is the conviction Mir has that al Qaeda and Hezbollah have been cooperating since about 1995 when al Qaeda was centered in Sudan. From Jawa "Say's that Osama has completed the "cycle of warnings." Under Islamic law, the defender is given three warnings before being attacked. Says that Osama is trying to legitimize his actions with Islamic scholars who criticized him for 9/11. Doesn't believe they're bluffing. Said in earlier interviews with Osama, he didn't believe he'd ever strike America. He was proven wrong. ... Says it's an "open secret" that AQ is in Lebanon, and is allied with both Iran and Hezbollah. Says that Osama forged an alliance with Hezbollah when he was still in the Sudan. Says that Iran is providing arms and money to both AQ and the Taliban in Afghanistan. That last is hot information if it's true. The following is a link to Robert Spencer's sober reflections on this development: http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/013204.php Of course these ARE the fine people who will burn a 6 year old girl in Britain to death for trivial reasons. The little girl at left (at the site below) is six-year old Alisha Begum, whose family are of Bangladeshi origin. She was the victim of an arson attack at the family home on Friday, March 10 this year. The attack took place on Bayswater Road, Perry Barr, in Birmingham. Two men had broken into the house and thrown petrol accelerant into the building, setting it alight, and had then fled. The fire was so ferocious that the rest of the family who were in the house had to jump from an upstairs window to escape. Little Alisha was trapped in her bedroom in her bunk bed, where the flames were the most intense. Read the story at http://www.westernresistance.com/blog/archives/002995.html (thanks to an lgf pointer) Note that the perpetrators were a 26 year old DENTIST (emphasis added) and an 18 year old. It was an honor killing. Alisha's brother had been seeing the sister of the dentist. The dentist's family found out about it and warned Alisha's brother to stay away from their 15 year old daughter. The following day the arson attack took place. This violence is not the result of being idle poor. At least I don't know very many poor dentists. The problem is simply a religion that teaches violence is the solution to all problems. One hopes the religions moderate members can get past the teachings of violence to the peace that is hidden in the chapters written in the earlier days of Mohammed. Meanwhile in France youths are beating up riot policemen using iron bars. Mohammed says violence is the solution, do it my way or die.
http://littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/?entry= Very close to home here in the LA area we have the Maher Hathout scandal. A faux moderate Mohammedan, Hathout, has been given an award by the LA County Commission on Human Relations. This has inspired one prior recipient to return his award, Note at the bottom of this message Commission President Dove's remark. Jerry, we have a lot to worry about here in the LA area if Hathout is as moderate as their leaders come.
http://littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/?entry=22650 Regarding their Perpetually Petulant Porcine Poopiness If you mock Islam with a drawing or a novel, you get riots and dead people. News of mishandled holy books yields riots and dead people. Insufficiently reverent short films by a Dutchman yields a dead person, specifically the Dutchman. Now we add this detail: Quoting medieval religious colloquies is a reasonable justification for burning churches, shooting a nun and holding up signs demanding that the pope convert to Islam or saw off his own head. (There have been reports of carpal tunnel syndrome among radical Islam's enforcers, and they have requested we all help out.) http://www.newhousenews.com/archive/lileks092006.html Will the real moderate Mohammedans please stand up and be counted. We may be approaching the time when remaining silent is much more dangerous than speaking out and acting on the conviction that this senseless violence and terrorism is a really bad thing. Of course, this is standing up and being counted is a dangerous thing. Mohamed Taha Mohamed Ahmed, the former chief editor of the independent Sudanese daily Al-Wifaq is a case in point. Now HE, I am willing to believe, has his 72 virgins; and I bet he treats them with a lot of respect. And I'm serious about that. May he rest in peace. http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/013211.php And in an ominous note from Thailand, the general who took power is a Mohammedan. I have a bad feeling about this. http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/013205.php On a second news front, the Geneva Conventions front, the level of effectiveness of the CIA "torture" levied on various prisoners and Khaled Sheikh Mohammed in particular was acknowledged by ABC News Chief Brian Ross on Fox News in an O'Rielly interview.
http://hotair.com/archives/2006/09/20/bombshell The lightly edited video from the interview is VERY worth watching. I can't say I agree with the water boarding technique IF these are people regarded as anything other than pirates, "enemies of all mankind". I happen to feel they fall into this latter category. They are state independent and basically consider themselves to be a law unto themselves. As such they are outside all rational legal boundaries the same as any other band of pirates. They just run their operations a little more ecumenically with regards to venue than traditional pirates. I cannot seem to bend my mind around any concept that these captured men are "lawful combatants" or are in any way "civilians". Going back to the Reutersgate scandals another interesting detail has floated through the blogs, today. It appears that a Reuters reporter was a communist spy during the Vietnam War.
http://hotair.com/archives/2006/09/20/ Is it any wonder that the military is just a wee bit sensitive about the AP stringer it pulled in with a bunch of terrorists? For dessert I serve up the following. The last few words are just WONDERFUL. http://hotair.com/archives/2006/09/20/video-clinton-on-chavezs-un-speech/ {^_^} I take it that it is your purpose to document the suicide of the West. We have sown the wind. ========== Hi, Doc. I followed the Google link to the video of Harlan Ellison being introduced and Connie Willis refraining from decking him. (Her call, I guess.) Out of curiosity I then checked the video of the speech he made after that. http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6277206066234024229 In which he slandered the late Virginia Heinlein. Is there anyone over the age of nine who is unaware that when someone uses that particular sneering tone while putting words in someone else's mouth, he's lying about what happened? Ellison, whom I respected from around 1966 until yesterday, claims that she: 1 - Came up to him; 2 - Brought up the topic of Hugos, apropos of nothing; 3 - Mentioned up the difference in numbers herself; 4 - And did it all just to declare, in a tone that would have been considered unusually snotty coming from the infant Louis XIV, "YOU may have more HUgos, but BOB'S are for NOVels." And we can believe as much of that as we want. I find it rather easier to visualize Ellison recognizing her, going over to intrude on her privacy, and saying, "Now I've got more Hugos than Heinlein!" And receiving the reply, "Novels take longer to write than short stories." I'm very sad. I really liked Ellison, not just as a writer. Matthew Joseph Harrington I knew Mrs. Virginia Heinlein pretty well from about 1961 on, and I visited them in Colorado Springs when I visited the AF Academy or Ent AFB. The incident in question would have happened in 1969, I would presume, since there was an SF festival in Rio then, and I cannot imagine any other circumstance under which Robert, Ginny, and Harlan would be on the same airplane from Rio. If Ginny had any concern about the number of awards won by Harlan and Robert respectively, it is a surprise to me. While Robert valued awards, he valued sales more. By 1969 Robert was extremely well known, and Stranger had generated a large and devoted following. Although they ran scared most of their lives -- Robert always told me that writers were professional gamblers, and we should always have our house and car fully paid for just in case the bottom fell out -- by 1969 just about every one of his books had sold quite well, and many of them in the millions of copies. By that time Robert was pretty well known as the dean of American SF, and I find it difficult to believe that Ginny cared much about relative numbers of Hugo awards. In any event, Ginny Heinlein never called Mr. Heinlein "Bob" in her life. She did not like the diminutive name, and insisted that he be called "Robert." While I don't think he cared that much, he deferred to her wishes, and told all his friends to call him "Robert", which we did. I am fairly certain no one said "Bite me, bitch" to Mrs. Virginia Heinlein while Robert A. Heinlein, Lt. USN Ret., was alive. I am nearly as certain that neither Robert nor Ginny much cared who had won how many awards. The night that Robert lost the Nebula to Arthur Clarke, Robert took care to get everyone in the room to autograph a congratulatory message to Arthur (who was not present). Robert and Ginny were dear friends, and Ginny was very much an elegant lady on every occasion on which I met her. The half-Hugo that Harlan refers to is the broken base of the Hugo Larry Niven won (from me) in 1976; how the base was broken is an interesting story. How Harlan ended up displaying the broken base of Niven's Hugo is another. You'll have to get Niven to tell you those stories, since they are not mine.
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This week: |
Friday, September
22, 2006
Afternoon Jerry, Great points on the 'Tribunals' being debated (wish they'd have picked a different word though). As I see it, there's five options as to how we treat terrorists/militant Islamists: 1) Use the same rules as American citizens (i.e. criminals). 2) Call them POW's, which under the Geneva convention can be interred until the cessation of hostilities. No trials required or allowed for normal soldiers. 3) Treat them as spies or saboteurs, which can be tried by military court, convicted and executed under international law. 4) Treat them as pirates under international law. 5) Create a brand-new special court without historical precedent, defined by the US unilaterally, and subject to domestic and international criticism and debate. The Bush administration seems to think that option 5 is the only way to go (typical neo-con attitude), which will destroy the Republic. The liberals want option 1, which is sure to be both ineffective and undermine the war effort. Your correspondent opts for something akin to option 3, which is certainly reasonable, although because of the lack of education among the public, I suspect it will be spun as "denying them their civil rights" by the Option 1 crowd.. Intellectually I prefer option 4, and treat them as the pirates they are, but there could still be debate about the appropriateness. So that leaves option 2. Call them POW's, and announce publicly that as soon as hostilities end and an armistice is signed, they will be repatriated. It disarms the liberals (and France), meets our obligations under the questionable Supreme Court decision, and still allows us to hold the worst of the worst indefinitely. Am I oversimplifying option 2? Cheers, Doug ========= Subject: What If? Hi Jerry, What if Moslems start "demonstrating" and maybe rioting here in the US, Shouting "DEATH TO JEWS" and DEATH TO AMERICA and DEATH TO BUSH (or whoever is president when, yes WHEN those riots take place). Will they be charged with "Hate Crimes? Or will charging them be a violation of their "Civil Rights"? Frank G. ========== Subject: The "Face on Mars" Dr. Pournelle: NASA has released new pictures of the "Face on Mars" (see story at http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14939825/ , including some shots at various angles. Regards, Rick Hellewell ======== Subject: Computer Security Issues Dr. Pournelle: A couple of computer security issues today: 1) The BlackHat demonstration (by David Maynor and John Ellch) of a security risk with wireless cards in Mac laptops has resulted in three patches released by Apple. While Apple doesn't specifically state that their hardware is at risk, the fixes seem similar to the vulnerability shown at BlackHat demonstration. One article about this vuln is from Brian Krebs of the Washington Post here: http://blog.washingtonpost.com/securityfix/2006/09/apple_issues_patches_for_macbo.html . There are links to his interviews with Maynor/Ellch, and a video of the exploit. Mac fanatics are split (vociferously, of course) as to whether the Mac is vulnerable. But, Since the patches have been released, it's probable that hackers will take apart the patches and build an exploit, so Mac laptop users would be well advised to apply the patches. 2) The "VML" vulnerability for Windows-bases systems seems to be a bit active now, according to the Internet Storm Center. This is an exploit against Internet Explorer versions 5.0 and above. It seems to be active on the 'adult' sites, and through links in emails. The CERT advisory is here: http://www.kb.cert.org/vuls/id/416092 . No patch available from Microsoft (the vuln was just announced this week). But the major anti-virus vendors have some protection against the vuln. Users are advised to ensure their anti-virus is current, and should also be wary of the darker places of the 'net (including 'adult' areas), as your computer can be attacked with just a visit to the infected page (you don't have to click on a link on the infected page, or agree to install/run a program). The CERT advisory (above) has recommendations for this one, including using alternate browsers. But ensure that your alternative browser is current; for example, there have been some updates to Firefox in the last two weeks. "Safe Computing" practices, which have been discussed before, are recommended. I say this three times. Regards, Rick Hellewell ========= Subject: All Saints Church & the IRS Dear Jerry, Why should any church property be tax exempt, and why should any donations to churches be tax deductible and tax exempt? Most of these shamans and medicine men will tell you you're going to hell if you go to a competing Brand X church down the street, or perhaps don't contribute x percentage. Let's assume God is actually represented somewhere in that clamoring multitude of creeds. Aren't we running a terrible risk by subsidizing all the blasphemers, heretics, pagans, infidels and con artists who are drowning out God's True Messengers*? If churches were taxed like other businesses, then there would be no greater danger of the IRS interfering with 1st Amendment rights at All Saints than anywhere else. A reduction in financial incentives will also cause the mercernaries to seek income from other scams. This will help clear out the field so God's True Messengers can be heard more clearly, whoever they are. Doing this will also lighten up the tax load on the families with young children all these financially fat religious groups claim to be so worried about. Tax'em all and let God sort them out! While taxing 'religion', it's also time to take a searching new look at what the rest of the Non-Profit Industry is doing to justify its privileged position. Best Wishes, Mark * I predict any serious movement to tax all these fakirs and witch doctors will produce the greatest display of ecumenical solidarity yet witnessed among preachers, rabbis, mullahs, priests, monks, fortune tellers, witch doctors and the rest. As John Marshal long ago said, the power to tax is the power to destroy: Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion was intended to prevent the destruction of independent churches. At the time that was written, seven states had established churches. To the extent that religion is a matter for government to deal with, that was deliberately and intentionally left to the states. I am sure that the example of Roger Williams, who fled Massachusetts to Rhode Island to found a more tolerant church, was one of the things they had in mind. If the IRS can harass churches over non-payment of taxes it can destroy them. For good or ill, the Framers thought religion outside the authority of the Federal government, and took pains to keep it that way. A searching new look means destroying the independence of the churches, That will be the inevitable result of your searching new look. It is probably not your intention, but it is the inevitable result. Government does not look where it treads. Playing about with tax exemption for religious bodies is as dangerous a game as can be played. Sure: taxing the revenues of non-religious activities (as when for instance a church owns rental property) is old hat, and in theory not objectionable, although I object on the grounds that the Federal government has no power at all in that sphere; let the states do it. I never said that all churches or any one of them have earned a privileged status: I have said that the Framers gave them that status, and that giving them a privileged status is not only a Good Thing for the Republic, but is probably necessary if we are to have a republic. Had All Saints used church revenues to take ads endorsing Gore or Kerry, I would still say that is a state matter, not a Federal one; but using the tax laws to control what is said in the pulpit is mindless disregard for the very foundations of the Republic. I see you are acting like a good Imperialist. Let us have none of these independent organizations that sow dissent among the people. Everything for the state; nothing against the state; nothing outside the state. ======= Hi Jerry, The Pope's actual remarks are now online at the Vatican.
http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi doug An important speech, addressing an age old question many have forgotten. =========== Jerry, Please put a big, fat warning in the list of "interesting things to know" that your reader Ed sent you. Some of these "advices" are downright dangerous, if not criminal. An example: Applying toothpaste on burns. This is something that ER workers have seen over and over, with disastrous results. Most toothpastes on the market contain menthol and other "freshening" agents, which, applied on a burn, hurt so badly they can trigger convulsions. Also, the aluminum oxyde microparticles in the paste will certainly make it very unpleasant. As for urinary tract infections cured with Alka-Seltzer... I won't insult you by telling you why it's obviously an idiocy. Manes of Pasteur are whizzing around disquietingly. And don't even get me started on killing fleas with a few drops of dish liquid. Yeah right. Not in the strays I took care of. Maybe the wimpy Californian fleas fear evil, non-organic dish detergent, but let me assure you that in the rest of the world, they couldn't care less about the stuff. So please paste a bold warning label on that list before someone takes it literally. --Fred Mora Whatever. I suspect that fleas hit with detergent will die fairly quickly as wetting agents get to work, but I don't know. I have whole books of folk remedies, and when I was an editor of Survive Magazine I paid attention to that stuff, but given the chance I prefer a modern emergency room... ========== Apple OSX WiFi vulns and fixes. This is very important, and relates to this controversy:
http://blog.washingtonpost.com/securityfix/2006 http://daringfireball.net/2006/09/open_challenge As I suspected, Krebs was right and Gruber was wrong. See: http://www.apple.com/support/security/pgp/ http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/ http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/airport42formacosx1033.html http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=61798Roland Dobbins
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This week: | Saturday,
September 23, 2006 Working on column
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This week: | Sunday,
September 24, 2006 The very model of a modern major company... "Theoretically, forever."
http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune -- Roland Dobbins ========== NYT on click-fraud. -- Roland Dobbins
Inevitable, I suppose. ===========
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