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THE VIEW FROM CHAOS MANOR

View 382 October 3 - 9, 2005

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Monday October 3, 2005

We can walk again. Took Sable out last night. She nearly went mad. Air quality is good again. Fires are out. All states ought to have at least as good an emergency management system as California, but ours can be improved. We need to return to the old Civil Defense organizations, part volunteer, part volunteer with paid expenses, and part professional; with rehearsals, and titles and ranks. It works. Carter should never have dismantled that for FEMA.

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I have a number of letters from a serving officer in Iraq. For a first hand view in letters not originally intended for publication (I wangled permission), see SPECIAL REPORTS: IRAQLetters.

Upcoming: the languages debate.

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Cost of a totally secure wall from Texas to California: $2 billion (low) to $8 billion (high, deluxe version).

ANNUAL cost of social services to illegal immigrants: $20 billi0n (low) to $25 billion (high).

Neocon position: we need open borders no matter the cost or our economy will be destroyed.

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For a different account of Katrina, see:

http://www.livejournal.com/users/auryn24/298757.html which is rather revealing.

You might also read Fred on poverty http://www.fredoneverything.net/FOE_Frame_Column.htm That actually takes you to the current column which is also worth reading, but the one previous on poverty is what I had in mind.

 

 

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Tuesday, October 4, 2005   

  Michael Galloway is over to help throw stuff away and get the lights back in order, so I'm frazzled. Matter is the enemy! It's not what it is, it is THAT it is! Get it out of here!

Something sane later. I'm in the throes of creative destruction.

July letter from Iraq here.

And Fred this week is worth reading too: http://www.fredoneverything.net/FOE_Frame_Column.htm This is the one on turning Marxist.

 

 

 

 

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Wednesday, October 5, 2005

IslamoChristianity.

http://www.jihadwatch.org/dhimmiwatch
/archives/008379.php

 Roland Dobbins

Where is the Inquisition now that we need it?

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I see that Google hasn't learned, and Sun has forgotten: they held a press conference in which they in essence declared war on Microsoft, but don't seem to have brought any armored divisions. More in the column, but this may be interesting. Meanwhile there is a new Microsoft Office SP-2. I have downloaded and installed it in several machines without incident. I don't yet know what it does that's different or better, but I'm working on that. At least it seems to give no problems. For More on SP2, see mail.

And Roland draws attention to a NEW FEATURE of VISTA. One wonders if this will harm VISTA sales?

 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/
article/2005/10/04/AR2005100400287.html

Staying with XP won't work either. But will LINUX have a solution? Stay tuned...

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And there is another "Your Pal" letter from Iraq

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Charlotte's Webpage .

Outstanding, truly.

http://www.oriononline.org
/pages/om/05-5om/Monke_FT.html

- Roland Dobbins

I note there is also an article by Wendell Berry, my favorite paleo conservative green (which is to say I don't always agree with him, and sometimes he can be a bit silly, but it is seldom that he's not worth paying some attention to).

 

 

 

 

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Thursday, October 6, 2005

Today Microsoft also released a white paper detailing its security technology investments and road maps. The paper is available at

http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security/spyware/software/enterprise/default.mspx 

 .

Steve Ballmer Details Microsoft's Security Strategy

REDMOND, Wash., Oct. 6 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Today in Munich, Germany, Steve Ballmer, Microsoft Corp.'s chief executive officer, and Mike Nash, corporate vice president of the Security Technology Unit, outlined Microsoft's companywide strategy and product road map for helping secure the breadth of its customers from home PC users to businesses of all sizes. As part of its comprehensive security strategy, which focuses on a defense-in-depth approach, Ballmer announced Microsoft's plans to release Microsoft(R) Client Protection, a solution to help protect business desktops, laptops and file servers from current and emerging malware threats. In addition, the company announced the creation of the SecureIT Alliance, which will further enable participating security partners to efficiently integrate their solutions with the Microsoft platform to build new security features and products for the benefit of their common customers.

"At Microsoft, we're investing heavily in security because we want customers to be able to trust their computing experiences, so they can realize the full benefits of the interconnected world we live in," Ballmer said. "With the continuing onslaught of malware, viruses, phishing attacks and other kinds of Internet fraud, creating a more secure computing environment requires a concerted, long-term effort on the part of all technology companies, as well as customers and governments."

Microsoft's Security Strategy

Recognizing there is no single solution to resolve all security and safety issues, Microsoft has taken a multipronged approach to security, with efforts to better secure its platform in three key areas: making the right technology investments, providing customers with clear prescriptive guidance, and partnering closely with the security industry, governments and law enforcement.

"Customers are telling us what our research shows: the nature and complexity of online threats and attacks are continuing to evolve, and hackers, thieves and pirates are getting more sophisticated," Nash said. "At Microsoft, we believe customers have the right to know what software is running on their machine, how it got there, its purpose and how to remove it if necessary. To help our customers combat the evolving threats and to have those rights protected, we are taking a holistic approach to security that includes developing new technology, partnering with the industry, and keeping customers as educated as possible about how to stay ahead of the latest threats facing them." <snip>

Informed comments solicited. (See mail)

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Tall women upwardly mobile By Nigel Hawkes They may chase a career and have fewer babies, but it's not because tall girls can't find a mate

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0%2C%2C2-1811662%2C00.html 

TALLER women aim higher in their careers and attach less importance to having children than shorter ones, according to a new study.

The taller a woman is, the less maternal her personality and the less broody she feels about children, say the researchers, Denis Deady, from Stirling University, and Miriam Law Smith, of St Andrews University.

Taller women aim for fewer children, and put off having their first for longer, the research found.

But they set more store by a career than shorter women, and are more competitive.

The two psychologists, who have published their findings in the journal Personality and Individual Differences, questioned 1,220 women - 679 of them aged between 20 and 29, and 541 over the age of 45.

The average height of the women surveyed was just over 5ft 5in - higher than the average for the UK, which is 5ft 4in.<snip>

Roberta is 5 10 1/2. We have four boys. But she did have quite a career and her reading program is still the best thing out there for teaching kids to read.

====================

I have added a comment to the mail about the egregious Frum and the Meier appointment.

 

 

 

 

 

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Friday, October 7, 2005

Column deadline time.

I may or may not make more remarks about Meier, but I see no real reason to do so; nothing I am going to say here will make the slightest difference in the confirmation hearings. So far as I can see, she is better qualified than many judicial appointments have been (Whizzer White comes to mind). She seems a decent sort, and being a Texan is likely to have a stronger view of states rights than many (indeed, to actually have the notion that states have rights). She seems to understand arguments about standing to sue, which is terribly important: many of these silly cases that get to the Supreme Court can be dismissed in two lines about standing to sue, and should be.

In these times the notion of a strong traditionalist "original intent" judge making it through the insulting and humiliating process of confirmation -- and of finding someone willing to put up with that -- is bizarre. It won't happen. Liberals will skate through on courtesy. Liberals have no courtesy to others, or rather, consider their cause so important that it over-rides all civility: monsters must be opposed "by any means necessary". The result is a degradation of the democratic process, and the furtherance of imperial governmental style. (and see next week.)

I note that Al Gore is now saying that Dan Rather was dismissed as anchor because he offended the White House. The mind boggles.

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There is an October Letter From Iraq

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Saturday, October 8, 2005

If you are looking for something interesting to read, try:

James Q. Wilson: The Ties That Do Not Bind: The Decline of Marriage and Loyalty http://www.incharacter.org/article.php?article=46

Man is a social animal utterly dependent on forming and maintaining relationships with other people. A person who has always been truly alone is one who will be emotionally dead. Of all of the relationships into which people enter, the family is the most important. We are raised by parents, confronted with siblings, and introduced to peers through our familial roots. Indeed, human character arises out of the very commitments people make to others in their family or outside of it. Marriage, of course, is the supreme form of that commitment. When we make marriage less important, character suffers. In addition to the fact that married people are happier, wealthier, and sexually more satisfied than are unmarried persons or those cohabiting, it turns out that married people and their children are less likely to commit crimes. <snip>

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Sunday, October 9, 2005

It's the drop dead deadline day for the column, and we've been pounding on it all day. It's nearly done and pretty good, and I'll try to get a bit of mail up.

 

 

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This is a day book. It's not all that well edited. I try to keep this up daily, but sometimes I can't. I'll keep trying. See also the monthly COMPUTING AT CHAOS MANOR column, 8,000 - 12,000 words, depending.  (Older columns here.) For more on what this page is about, please go to the VIEW PAGE. If you have never read the explanatory material on that page, please do so. If  you got here through a link that didn't take you to the front page of this site, click here for a better explanation of what we're trying to do here. This site is run on the "public radio" model; see below.

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