Typewriter King's Typewriter Ribbons

Thermite: The Emergent Detonation Conspiracy

2006-07-12T21:50:00.000-07:00

The stunning thesis of the person writing the essay-length description for this video is that thermite charges melted the steel frames of the World Trade Center. This actually coincides with a brain fart that I had, that the 600+ MPH impact of the 757 aluminum fuselage of the plane striking the steel-framed tower may have produced the aluminum particles necessary to create the necessary thermite cloud, + the 1500 degrees Fahrenheit fire of the JP4 jet fuel, could have emerged a thermite detonation.

Possible, I suppose, but hardly necessary. Steel loses tensile streingth Possible, I suppose, but hardly necessary. Steel loses tensile strength when it expands, and could have easily cracked apart after taking that hit. I also question why conspiracy theorists incist it looked like a controlled explosion, and if they even know what a controlled explosion is. Placing bombs in a tower does not a controlled blast make, and it is foolish to (A), look at the wake of the destruction and actually believe it fell in a controlled manner, and (B), believe a callous government conspiracy would risk exposure by "artificially" limiting collateral damage.

In the end, I think all of us play dime-store psychologist for these sorts of people, and the best of us postulate that these theorists lament the loss of order these attacks symbolize. Perhaps it is true that most of us don?t want to admit that such destruction can be the work of such a small movement. Perhaps we?ve come to take comfort in the Treaty of Westphalia, in the designated role of the state to be the only wielder of extreme violence, a wielder that will follow rules, consent to the governed, and act civilized and orderly?and most importantly, far away and predictable, in their destruction. When it really hits the fan, they must think, when catastrophic events occur, government can stop them- we just have to educate the ignorant until they throw the bums out of D.C.

A pleasant fantasy, perhaps, but we're actually ruled by fallible men, no matter who holds the throne, and no matter how comfortable we in our social contract feel inside the city walls, the Goths are always scheming to storm in.

Money, Banking and the Federal Reserve

2006-07-02T01:22:00.000-07:00

Thomas Jefferson and Andrew Jackson understood "The Monster". But to most Americans today, Federal Reserve is just a name on the dollar bill. They have no idea of what the central bank does to the economy, or to their own economic lives; of how and why it was founded and operates; or of the sound money and banking that could end the statism, inflation, and business cycles that the Fed generates.

Dedicated to Murray N. Rothbard, steeped in American history and Austrian economics, and featuring Ron Paul, Joseph Salerno, Hans Hoppe, and Lew Rockwell, this extraordinary new film is the clearest, most compelling explanation ever offered of the Fed, and why curbing it must be our first priority.

Alan Greenspan is not, we're told, happy about this 42-minute blockbuster. Watch it, and you'll understand why. This is economics and history as they are meant to be: fascinating, informative, and motivating. This movie could change America.

Authority and Freedom

2006-05-28T09:48:00.000-07:00

(Posted by Leounheort)

We hold in our hands, the most precious gift of all: Freedom. The freedom to express our art. Our love. The freedom to be who we want to be. We are not going to give that freedom away and no one shall take it from us!"

~Diane Frolov and Andrew Schneider

People in Singapore tend to accept the Government's orders and whims without making a fuss (or, at least, too much of one), people like me aside, of course. Why? Because, well, the Government said so, and the Government is in charge. Any dissent is quickly and efficiently located and neutralised through public debate, lawsuits, or the dreaded Internal Security Act.

In our authoritarian, neo-Fascist state, the Government is all-powerful. No one has yet to successfully challenge it, and not for want of trying. The People's Action Party's so-called success in the latest elections are over-rated: only 19% of the population of Singapore voted for it. The 66.6% they keep harping about only refers to valid votes, and not of the population as a whole.

Despite this, the authority of the PAP reigns supreme...but authority is an illusion. It is nothing more than a perception of power, by both the powerless and the powerful. The less empowered believe that their superiors have more power than them, the more powerful ones believe that they have power over everybody else, and nobody disagrees. Every society is shaped like a pyramid, with the country's elite on top, and everybody else below, in steadily increasing numbers. This trend can be seen everywhere in the world, from America to Japan; one just needs to look carefully. The only variant is the height, breadth, and length of the pyramid itself.

This triangle itself is nothing more than perception, of course. Should the disempowered believe that they, and not the social elite, hold the power, then society changes. They will exercise their will to power, overthrowing societal norms and reforming the country, and society, placing the leaders of their revolution at the top. We've seen this before, in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, and the People's Republic of China.

This cycle, as history has shown, continues. Not even Soviet Russia or Communist China could stop this from happening: the party elite, military heads, and secret police were invariably at the top, and everybody else is below. Communism and socialism has failed. History's class struggle to subvert authority merely results in the establishment of a new kind of authority. The USSR eventually collapsed, and the PRC was forced to reform in order to survive. New leaders took over, and led their countries into the present.

Both nations' former governments' encrouchment on the rights of the people are long documented. The same applies here. In Singapore, we have allowed the Government to curtail our right to free speech and expression (no public speeches may be made without a never-issued police license; no political films may be made), our right to freedom of assembly (any gathering of more than four people for a purpose is considered illegal without a license), and our right to freedom of religion (Jehovah's Witnesses and the Falungong are banned here). Thus, we have effectively allowed the Government to break its own Constitution. We have done this because we believe that they, being the authorities, are doing the right thing, or that they wield enough power to silence dissenters in a public or private fashion. We have thus surrendered our right to live as free human beings to an abstract headed by three men: our Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew, Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong, and Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong.

Authority, being an illusion, has no substance. It is enforced by the population who swear allegiance to the leaders, but not the leaders themselves. That is all. The people themselves provide their leaders the means with which to strangle themselves with. We cannot let them this happen, not unless we have foresaken our inherent rights, the freedoms that we all possess.

Freedom, like authority, is nothing more than thoughts translated into action. If you believe that you are fundamentally a free person, your actions will reflect that, and you will be free, if only in your mind. Because freedom is a thought, you can never lose it unless you give it away, and wholeheartedly surrender yourself to the powers that be.

Freedom and authority, naturally, are in direct conflict. Both must give way to the other, to form a synthesis that can work on the micro and macro level. However, when authority gets out of hand, then it is the right and duty of the people of any nation to exercise their inherent freedom to self-determination, their freedom to decide their leaders, and destroy the authority. From there, a new form of authority comes about, one that is hopefully a synthesis of the concepts of freedom and authority. The closest we can find is a democracy, wherein the government draws its authority from the people who freely elect them.

We should never accept authority just because it is authority. We have to keep questioning our leaders, to demand our rights when they're taken away from us, to retain the right to reform our own country, to recognise that they can only take away our freedom if we give it to them. We cannot let this happen, not if we dare to call ourselves human beings. We must never, ever, let the authorities dictate to us what we should do, not unless they can provide legitimate reasons for their actions. If not, we must demand explanation from the authority, and, if neccessary, confront it. We cannot sacrifice the very essence of our being for the authority. On the political level, we must, at the very least, retain our freedom to decide what kind of government we want to give our freedom away to. That, at least, would be a worthy funeral for freedom.

Authority, though, provides a form of stability and peace. The battle for freedom, and to maintain it, had always been long and bloody, to a greater or lesser degree. Many people in Singapore tend to surrender their personal freedom for the sake of stability in Singapore. It can be justified, but not at the expense of freedom. Freedom is the very essence of a human, the ability to decide for himself or herself how to act, what to do, and how to think, and that, more than anything else, sets us apart from the animals of the wild. These three freedoms have created history, from the French Revolution to the Boston Tea Party, from the founding of America to the independence of Singapore. Can we afford to trade the fundamentals of being human for peace? Never. If we do, then we deny our right to living as a human, and become nothing more than dogs to ephemereal masters.

Authority and freedom, being contradictory, are the antithesis to each other. After both come into conflict, Immanual Kant's theory of thesis-antithesis-synthesis, if true, would come into power, and the end result is democracy. This, however, can only occur if the people recognise their inherent freedoms, and do what is morally right: to decide whether the authorities have a legitimate reason to even be in power.

Singapore is derived from the Malay words 'Singa' and 'pura'. Translated, it means 'Lion City'. Lions are proud, brave, majestic, and free animals. I only see a population of mice in the city of lions...and, Heaven forbid, only a few with the hearts of lions.

Guh!!!!!

2006-05-05T03:55:00.000-07:00

I captured this screenshot a little while ago, then added some captioning inside the image. I think it says all that needs to be said. The Kilroy part, however, was just me being childish.

Usenet

2006-04-25T21:59:00.000-07:00

You know, whenever I think of Usenet, and who writes in some of the news groups, I have to wonder why they haven't caught on as an information source the same way as these blogs have. Certainly, differences exist in what the two can do, but Usenet has a long tradition of having some highly intelligent news groups where respected authors take part. Seeing who the great posts get almost no coverage anywhere, I thought I'd point out what I consider the best I've seen posted in 2005. I've yet to name what I'll call this award, but I'm thinking I should adopt the KISS principal, and simply call it Typewriter's Annual Usenet Award, or maybe nickname it the UseType. Very well, the first UseType goes to author Tom Clancy, posting in alt.books.tom-clancy.

To be honest, I'm not even sure the post comes from 2005, because I lost track of where it is, but know it came from his Usenet account, because I copied it to a word document from there. Since I can't find the link, I'll have to post the whole thing.
Mr. Clancy, I consider this an excerpt because I'm not reproducing the whole discussion thread.

But if you're going to carry a gun, stopping power is important.
************************
So says Mr. McCall. But he is mistaken. “Stopping power” is a myth.
Death happens when the brain ceases to function. That can happen due to
physical disruption or more frequently through oxygen deprivation.
A knitting needle in the skull will be immediately fatal. So will a
.22LR—this round actually kills more than any other due to its
ubiquity—which is why John Kelly used it in WITHOUT REMORSE. They’re also
easily suppressed, but they have superior penetrating power to a .45ACP due to
their cross-sectional density.
In the 1980s, the FBI undertook a program to determine how bullets kill people.
This happened because of the Platt-Mattix shootout in Miami in April, 1986, in
which two FBI Special Agents, Ben Grogan and Jerry Dove, were killed by two
very well prepared bad guys (who did not survive the event). Platt, the
principal bad-guy shooter sustained a non-survivable wound from Jerry Dove’s
S&W 9mm automatic, but lived long enough to kill both Dove and Grogan before he
was killed by a shot to the head from Special Agent Edmundo Mireles (who had
sustained a massive wound to hie left forearm in the engagement), along with
his friend, Mattix. The way all this happened is very different from the ABC TV
movie made of the event. The FBI made a training tape of the shootout, starring
my friend, Pat, who is the “real“ Pat O’Day in my books, and a pistol
shot—and pistol instructor—of note, playing the role of Mattix. You would
not believe how this one played out, but reality ain’t the movies.
The FBI Study determined that penetration is the most important factor in
wounding and killing a human target. They also determined that since you want
to deprive the brain of oxygen, the more you make the target bleed, the quicker
he will be incapacitated (the term they use, as it’s preferable to
“killed”). The final score is simple. Sam Colt was right all along: a
large-diameter, heavy, and slow bullet will kill more effectively that a fast
light bullet. The 1873 .45 Colt cartridge remains the best man-stopper of all
time. The .44 S&W Magnum is no more effective that the .44 S&W Special, which
is its antecedent. They both drill the same diameter hole, and go all the way
through the target in most cases. The bigger the hole, the faster he bleeds
out, and the heavier the bullet, the farther it penetrates, causing more
bleeding.
By contrast, a small, light, high-speed bullet expands too quickly, and
consequently does not penetrate deeply enough to cause significant damage,
which is precisely why Jerry Dove died, after delivering what should have been
a rapidly fatal shot with his S&W automatic. Bad luck for him, his wife, and
his kids.
All of this resulted in the 10mm S&W cartridge, and its shorter cousin, the .40
S&W. The two cartridges are ballistic ally {sic} identical on the target. .45 is
better, but the 10/.40 allow one additional round in the magazine. They both
deliver a 185-grain bullet at (just) subsonic speed, which is ideal, based on
experimental testing.
Nearly everything you see on TV and in the movies about shootouts is false. The
most common reaction to being shot it—no reaction at all. No cartridge, rifle
or pistol, causes people to recoil backwards with the projectile. Shock is
either a total falsehood, or idiosyncratic to the target himself. A pistol
round drills holes. That’s all. It does not transfer energy to any
significant degree. “Temporary cavity” is also a myth. Tissue displaced
radially {sic} from the bullet’s path travels at 1/10th the velocity of the
projectile, and human tissue (exceptions, brain and liver) is inherently
flexible and remarkably resilient. Many “experts” on TV say otherwise. They
are mistaken. I have the FBI study on this issue on my computer, and their
panel of experts include experienced meatball surgeons who’ve conducted
voluminous tests on ballistic geletin, {sic} and the occasional goat.
A man-stopper can be a knitting needle if it’s in the brain case, or any
bullet that makes it there as well. But the head is a small target, and cops
are trained to shot for center-of-mass, meaning the chest, which includes the
heart, lungs, and a lot of major blood vessels. But the human brain can
function for over 30 seconds without oxygen. Various illegal drugs can
accentuate this fact by the counteraction of pain from any wound. So can
adrenelin. {sic} (Misspelled that, oops.) The human body is designed (by God, I
assume) to sustain serious damage and survive. Firearms can cause a lot of
damage without causing rapid incapacitation. Nobody will die quickly from a
shot in the guts, even if the descending aorta is lacerated. It takes time to
bleed to death. “Two in the body,” so the saying goes, “one in the head,
always leaves the target dead.“ That’s how Kelly did it in WITHOUT REMORSE.
(I had three FBI pals coaching me on perfect murders for that effort. You
didn’t think I knew all that myself, did you? I had to learn it. One of
them—call him Bill—is a genius cop who said later that I made Emmet Ryan
too smart for a local cop, but that there are a few like him out there.
Another, the “real” Dan Murray told me that if Kelly had kept his mouth
shut, he could never have been successfully prosecuted. I really goofed on
that.)
Anyway, “man-stopper“ is something grossly misunderstood even by otherwise
smart people, like Fred McCall. As Pat tells me, “Anything worth shooting is
worth shooting twice. Ammunition is cheap. Life is expensive.” You keep
shooting until the target is neutralized. All the way dead. Otherwise, why were
you shooting at him in the first place? It’s simple stuff when you think
about it.
You use a heavy, slow bullet into the target’s center of mass, and you keep
shooting until he is no longer a threat. Lire {sic} isn’t TV or the movies.
TC
Success will ruin your life.

Big Announcement

2006-04-18T18:19:00.000-07:00

Typewriterking.info is up! My new home online is looking great, and I plan to incorporate many features with regularly updated content. Some will be ephemeral, while most will be concrete. Please take a look, volunteer to add content if you want, and comment. At this time, the heart of the site is a tikiwiki, so please join in even if you plan to contribute very little. This blog will probably become part of it shortly, as well as many of the other things I have spread across the net. So content is already there, so check it out! And if you take part early and often, you'll get to greatly influence where this project is going!

Mapping The Incidents

2006-04-15T01:10:00.000-07:00

Much has been said about the Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy, but someone at Wikipedia thought to map the phenomenon. Blue represents countries that allowed publication, while red represents nations that banned publication or had major demonstrations against them. Purple countries, like Great Britain, had governments that didn't forbid publication, but had large demonstrations and possibly murders in connection to the cartoons. The shape of the map is hardly surprising on the surface. I admit to being a little surprised any nation in Africa turned blue. What accounts for that?

Great Power and Great Responsibility

2006-04-13T00:26:00.000-07:00

A few hours ago, I delivered a two-minute speech titled 'With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility' as part of a competition. Taken from Spider-man and adopted by the organisers, this is my take on this (to the best of my memory):

"Excuse my lack of humour, for I speak on a grim issue. I shall not take the stand of Peter Parker, also known as Spider-man. Instead, allow me to examine our Government. Specifically, Minister Mentor Lee Kwan Yew, Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong, and Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong.

"Ladies and gentlemen, no matter what they say, they are the three most powerful people in Singapore. Their word is law. The responsibility of governments is to allow their people to fulfil their potential, to be all they can be...and they have failed!

"Take a good hard look around! Look at what they've done to us! We are an apathetic society! There are people out there who don't even know who the Prime Minister is! They have censored the media, they have censored the Internet, they have suppressed our political opposition, they are trying to buy our votes witht he 'PROGRESS' Package! There are people who don't even know what the Opposition parties are! For crying out loud, I have to register my blog as a political website!

"Ladies and gentlemen, they have great power...but they have not executed their responsibility to the people. This, ladies and gentlemen, is what happens when great power does not come with great responsibility. This is why great power comes with great responsibility."

This is the art of speech-making: assertive, refined nonsense. I actually prefer making emotive speeches like this...but it's sorta risky in this country. If I were to make this speech in public, I'd be arrested and thrown into jail for a month.

No, I'm not joking. Neither was I exaggerating about what the Government can do. There is something terribly wrong with my country...and very few people actually care. The majority would rather keep their mouths shut, and not say anything. Case in point, the chief judge implied that I need to say things responsibly.

I am being responsible. I have a duty to my country. It is my responsibility to point out the flaws I the Government, and prevent it from becoming a totalitarian neo-Fascist state! Clearly, the meaning of 'responsibility' here has been distorted into 'politically correct'. In my country, being politically correct is crucial to remaining free of trouble.

It is also crucial to the downfall of the principles of the Republic of Singapore.

For any Singaporeans reading this, allow me to refer you to the Pledge:

We, the citizens of Singapore,

Pledge ourselves as one united people,

Regardless of race, language or religion,

To build a democratic society,

Based on justice and equality,

So as to achieve happiness, prosperity, and progress for our nation.

The Pledge invokes our right, nay, duty, to build 'a democratic society based on justice and equality'. There is democracy here, inasmuch as there are elections, and little else. Justice is relative: the courts, contrary to the Constitution, do not appear to be independent of the Executive and the Legislative. Equality is nonexistent: there are housing estates here which lifts that do not go up to every floor because they belong to Opposition-held wards.

We must tear apart the Government's lies. We must learn the truth. We must seize and exercise our right to freedom of speech and a democratic government.

Only then can we truly live as men.

People of the world...this applies to you, too. No Government can exist if the people are opposed to it, and take action to remove it from power. No Government can exist if it has no people to govern. Governments draw their powers from the people, therefore the people are the ultimate check of governments. The power of the people cannot be overemphasised: in the history of mankind, this potent force has brought down many a government.

But we must all remember this: the sound of freedom is not that of a dissenting voice. The sound of freedom is the voice of the people, pure and unmuffled.

On a far lighter note, I won the competition by a unanimous decision.

Would have been better if the other competitors didn't want to concede victory.

They Throw Rocks!

2006-04-07T02:02:00.000-07:00

I come with a video and a picture. I always wondered what Drew Carrey would look like as a
Southpark character. While that day hasn't come yet, I did get to see Family Guy's Peter Griffin in the role. I'm going to put video from this episode on my journal. Update: it's in my journal.

I also have footage a rocks thrown at US troops. After seeing the troop video, I was reminded that I need to pick up Thomas X. Hammes' book. About the troop video, I should warn of strong language.

Call for Freedom

2006-04-02T06:06:00.000-07:00

Ladies and gentlemen, I'm starting to see signs of totalitarianism in Singapore. The People's Action Party is starting to take control of the people, attempting to justify their belief that there's no need for an Opposition. The PAP has the nerve to field candidates who publicly proclaim that they see no need for an Opposition. The Senior Minister has threatened to cut off upgrading for wards that vote for the Opposition. Make no mistake, these are outright threats to the populace.

Democracy and freedom is threatened in this part of the world. People are starting to speak up and speak out, to stand up for what they believe in...but the Government is becoming increasingly harsher on them. The people's voice shall not be silenced; the seeds of dissent are being sowed, and rest assured that we WILL be heard!

I have to lie low for a while. It is entirely possible that I might 'disappear' in the near future. If I do, never forget the Republic, and spread the word!

Majullah SINGAPURA!

April 1st Update

2006-04-01T20:14:00.000-08:00

No Trust’s anonymous comment in a previous post has been unlocked. Sorry for the procrastination. To clarify on my Port deal hypothetical, I didn't mean to imply that the UAE was as a national government was a supporter of international terror, my intent was only to project them into a scenario highlighting a successful leaderless resistance cell in an international war.

It is my regret that this became the first of many posts throughout the internet that put Port Royal in a negative light.

As for the future, I'm currently reading a biography of Mr. Adam Smith, so except my observations on that in a few days.

A Clarification...

2006-03-20T04:52:00.000-08:00

(This post is by Leounheort)

I'd like to make a clarification.

The below excerpt from my blog makes it sound like there's only one textbook on local history. I meant that there's only one History textbook that covers local history; the rest is from the Social Studies curriculum. Not that it adds up to much, anyway; read that post for more details. I'll say here though, that the actual analysis provided by the textbooks are lacking: it is up to the students to decide what it all means...though the SS books, at least, stated why the Government did what it did (for certain case studies). This is not Typewriter King's fault; I should have stated it more clearly in that line.

The URL of my blog is 'leounheort.blogspot.com'. I comment usually on political issues and current affairs...though I may throw in some other stuff from time to time.

Education and Other Matters

2006-03-15T17:59:00.000-08:00

I have a video of the ABC special on education and school choice on my journal, which is rapidly becoming a video blog. Yes, it is Stupid in America, hosted by John Stossel, and if you detect a bias, yes, the program is from Stossel's view. Regardless, I consider it a fine advocacy piece, so consider it just that if you watch it. In my humble opinion, that doesn't render it invalid.

No, folks, America isn’t the only place needing education reform. The Lionheart has a post lamenting Singapore's education system for failure to carry enough material about local history and politics. I'll excerpt as little as possible:

"Here's the catch: there's absolutely NOTHING on local history, save for one textbook that doesn't go into a lot of detail."

As we say, read the whole thing.

Like Stossel, I consider it a good idea to diffuse the power of the public schools and the teachers union(s), but creating competition through an open market is only the beginning of solving problems in education. Then you have to set up a winning strategy (naturally, to win in the market), and then you need to determine the correct metrics for success. This presents another question: what is education for?

In brief, the several goals of a liberal (classical liberal) education would be to learn the skill-sets necessary to compete in the workplace, learn the civic skill-sets to take part in the politics, and the mental skill-sets to "free the mind-" learn logic and such. That's largely it, methinks, and it seems America is lacking that one/third coming out the secondary education (and undernurished on the other two/thirds), while The Lionheart is admitting that Singapore is most lacking in the middle one/third, and is very possibly undernurished in the last third, for a mind fully developed in that third should be able to adapt and education one's self about the middle third.

I think this underdevelopment of civic development must be the underlying reason for the apathy the Lionheart notices, for the people have plenty of economic empowerment, according to the Heritage Foundation's Index of Economic Freedom. If you gander at the foundation's listings of countries, you'll notice that those granting economic freedoms typically grant more civil liberties as well. All the other countries are (relatively) free in both ways, while Singapore lags a little in the de facto presence of civil liberties. Even if they have just as many de jure freedoms as the others in the list.

I have to agree with the Lionheart on this one; there is an education lag going on, in that they have more freedoms than they realize. They are being controlled by outdated customs, hence Lionheart's description of his citizens as conservative.

As for those "other matters!" I'm thinking of registering my own domain name in the near future, so people coming to this address may be redirected. I just thought you needed that heads up.

No Middleman

2006-03-10T01:50:00.000-08:00

The gatekeepers aren't necessary. I give you the audio from the President's latest radio address here on this link. It will work with the Realplayer. It is very cool to listen to the President every week without having his message filtered through a third party. Please visit the White House official site or subscribe to the official podcast via iTunes to receive the same message.

Yes, America, we can access the press releases ourselves!

Distributing Goods to A Leaderless Resistance

2006-02-12T23:46:00.000-08:00

Most of the article is subscription only, but the free excerpt is enough, I guess.

"February 12, 2006 -- The city's ports, considered a major target of terrorists, are about to be taken over by a firm based in the United Arab Emirates, a country with financial links to the Sept. 11 hijackers.

Dubai Ports World is set to complete a $6.8 billion deal to purchase Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Co., a London company that already runs commercial port operations in New York, New Jersey, Baltimore, New Orleans and Miami.

If shareholders approve the deal tomorrow, it will give control of various dock operations at some of the country's busiest points of entry to..."

The link provides no more information, but I give it anyway:

http://www.nypost.com//news/regionalnews/61767.htm

Unlike with the 1993 and 2001 WTC attacks, it looks like a 6/11 attack really could be "an inside job" of sorts. By the way, Timothy McVeigh was executed on 6/11/2001, so that date has considerable meaning to practitioners of terrorism as a tactic. I've been developing a theory that they may use these entry ports for "Geocaching" (use a search engine for clarification) items in rural settings. Emigrants could then enter cleanly, and avoid purchasing items that would be picked up in Able Danger or other data-mining programs. I could imagine distributing a few numbers such as GPS coordinance would be a simple matter. Passing on a few numbers to a recruiter, who could then find a willing lone wolf "soldier of Islam" hardly seems like a challenge, either.

How would it work? I would think there would be need for a single operative in a hub, a central city, so he could reach all the caches and move them from their original location, so no one connected to the ports would know of the ultimate location of the caches. The central operative would in turn not know of the ports playing a role, only of the initial locations of the caches. Ideally, he'd be terminally ill, and die before attacks began. Before that, he'd send one number to a different recruiter. A similar pattern could then follow, until a heavy number of caches unconnected would exist in country.

That's pretty much the genesis of the idea for a new distribution system for a leaderless resistance movement. There might be flaws and incomplete thoughts all over it, because I haven't had this peer-reviewed at all. It looks good, and it avoids metropolitan police searches,
and best of all (or worst of all), it doesn't compromise the means of entry into the country, at least until investigative units really comb it over.

Operation Outreach

2006-02-07T03:18:00.000-08:00

(This is posted by Leounheort, taken from his official blog)

Operation Outreach is exactly what it says it is: an effort to reach out to the rest of the world. Traditionally, European countries have allowed ghettos and neighbourhoods consisting solely of ethnic minorities to keep to themselves, and often fail to listen to them. Outreach will attempt to end this, both in Europe, and the world. Operation Outreach is a massive bicultural exchange programme that comes in many forms.

Firstly, the local government must take steps to ensure that the voices of the ethnic minorities are heard. The mosaic approach to various races and religions, which basically mean leaving people to do as they please, has failed: one need only look at the riots in Paris and Sydney last year.

Governments should adopt the 'melting pot' approach, meaning integration of their population, regardless of race, language, or religion. There should be no more ghettos; people of various ethnicities should mingle and co-exist with each other. The government must take active steps to ensure this, through the media, school exchange programmes, and the like. This should be two-way, i.e. both the majority and minority races should strive to understand each other better, instead of the former reaching out to the latter, but the latter not doing anything at all.

In this way, both ethnic minorities and majorities will learn and understand each others' way of life. This is especially important, for without understanding, there can be no harmony, and there can be no understanding without knowledge. Each link in this chain is interdependent; the greater whole (and its resulting benefits) simply cannot exist without any one of these elements. As people simply will not go out of their way to interact with others from different minority groups without a real reason to, the government must step in and take action, before it is too late.

Secondly, the West must reach out to Islam. The War on Terror cannot, must not, be seen as a clash of civilisations. If it were, than we would have lost, for there will be no casus belli any more, at least, not a just one. This can be done through a macro version of Operation Outreach, through large-scale versions of the above suggestions. We must, however, be careful, for it is entirely possible for Operation Outreach be misintepreted as a campaign to instil Western values in the Middle East, or, Heaven forbid, be abused to spread propaganda. Like I said, this must be two-way, and be governed by an international body.No one nation, not even the United States of America, can hope to achieve this. International cooperation is a must, for this, quite literally, involves the world.

Naturally, this body is the United Nations; it is the only organisation with the clout to (hopefully) do such a thing. I thus propose a new branch of the United Nations, (tentatively)called United Nations Operation Outreach to execute Operation Outreach on a global basis. UNOO will consist of members from around the world, and report to the Secretary General. No member may have a veto power; all resolutions passed shall be decided by majority vote, pure and simple. No country may choose to blatently ignore the UNOO. At the very least, it should have the power to send diplomatic messages and signals. Harsher measures are not practical; they will not even be accepted by the UN, since this is, at heart, a bicultural exchange programme on a massive scale, and nothing more.

The UNOO, however, can refer transgressors to the UN General Council for follow-up action, though only as a last resort.Hopefully, the world will adopt my suggestions, or at least a variation of them that is acceptible, and begin Operation Outreach, or a variant of it that embodies its aims: to allow a free flow and exchange of culture and knowledge from East to West, and vice versa.

After all, the very sanity of the world could one day depend on Operation Outreach, or something similar.

Blog This Feature Once Again

2006-01-26T20:47:00.000-08:00

I've been meaning to use this feature more often, especially in times when I'm not up to making my big "thinking" posts. Never mind that, I'll go with linking and musing right now.

I'll start with Mister Snitch outlining a business model for citizen journalism. Snitch starts off by linking to A Letter to the Bayosphere Community, which I guess is a heartfelt admission of failure, in a sense.
What Dan Gillmor has tried to do isn't all that novel, in my opinion. I can quickly think of other meta news agencies, Metafilter, Slashdot, Wikinews, that nuty one that uses Scoop software, and I can even include Livejournal communities (as long as they're open). If those aren't enough, the celebs even have one, thanks to Arianna.

As to Snitch's ideas, the local portal idea sounds nice, but I've got to wonder if the incentive on the part of the employer is there. The 'net is a huge place, and they don't have to pay someone to record these events. After all, I'm sure many people already are for their own sake.

It is my opinion that news aggregators will grow to do the job of citizen editors, using Chinese style webcrawlers (or, heck, why not tags, or manually browse blogrings?) to find content.

For anything that people pay for, I could leech for free, but I guess one could fool somebody to lend capital to us.

bin Laden Video Blogging

2006-01-19T18:27:00.000-08:00

That center of gravity of the jihadist movement spoke again on yet another video tape, offering, get this, a truce.

This video clip is 4.60 MB, and comes from this guy.

UBL video download. The file is a WMV, so it should be fine in the Windows Media Player.
How lame, he's citing polling data to justify his points! It makes me wonder if anyone is still capable of standing on firm philisophical ground anymore. Surely, there's someone that doesn't rely on such intellectual sloth!

Next is the reactionary punditry. This one's Chris Mattews from Hardball. The clip is once again from Ian Black. This one's only 991 KB, so the poor souls on dialup shouldn't be too troubled by it.
Osama is eight feet tall?
He is indeed tall and waify, at around 6,5" and 160 pounds (195cm and 75kg in metrics), but is not a legendary giant.

This next one is painful. CNN has gotten too into the habit of obscuring the boundry between pure news and editorializing.

Jack Cafferty thinks bin Laden and the president are collaborating.

This one's 4.79 MB, so if you want to pass on it, here's a bit from the transcript:

JACK CAFFERTY: "The last time we got a tape from Osama bin Laden was right before the 2004 presidential election. Now here we are four days away from hearings starting in Washington into the wire tapping of America’s telephones without bothering to get a court order or a warrant, and up pops another tape from Osama bin Laden. Coincidence? Who knows?"

Cafferty's been a news ancher all his professional life, not an opinion writer, but he has gotten into the habit of getting into rabid cross-talk on the weekend shows like Moneyline and The Capital Gang. What may be appropriate there isn't the right decorum for a program that's supposed to be hard journalism, Wolf Blitzer's Situation Room, which airs weekday afternoons.
The synthesis of the two forms can be confusing and dangerous to the network, and it is my opinion that CNN needs to better segregate the two forms.

We can't be sure why he released the tape, but it's interesting that it's audio only. This suggests to me that the tape was rushed ad hoc after the recent airstrike that killed AQ's chief bomb-maker. He of course loves using his podium to fluster Washington. Just look what it accomplishes, it breeds battles in America's capitol! Raw politics is bin Laden's only friend now.

Announcing Cheah's entry...

2006-01-13T02:42:00.000-08:00

(This post is by Leounheort)

Greetings. I am Leounheort, a Singaporean writer who writes under another nom de plume at http://www.fictionpress.com ...one which will only be revealed to whoever asks. My official blog is at http://www.leounheort.blogspot.com, and it is a socio-political commentary. Unlike many of my compatriots, I have absolutely nothing worth talking about in my personal life, although I do have opinions on nearly everything under the sun, and many of my peers don't seem to understand me, so...

Like Typewriter King, I keep my real name to myself, and whoever knows me in the real world. I'm paranoid by nature (and not just of the Government). A long-running joke in Singapore revolves around a man making an anti-Government speech at the Speaker's Corner. He has five people as members of the audience. Three follow him home. As I'd like to believe that this actually has some truth in it, don't expect to see too many personal details. Here're a few:

Just a bit about me. I don't suffer racists and fools gladly; many people can testify to that. In addition, I don't tolerate people who unfairly criticise my country, i.e. slamming the country/Government with fabrications, or without providing any real solutions. Also, I'm an introvert by nature, though I speak out and take charge when the time comes. However, I tend to keep many people at arm's length or beyond; I simply don't trust them enough. Typewriter King is the exception.

That's all I'm inclined to say. I believe in deeds, not words...unless deeds are words. Let my stories, essays, and actions speak for themselves. Wordsmith I may be, but there are some things words cannot describe.

Or at least, within the confines of my mind.

The Zealots of Thomas Malthus

2006-01-12T23:22:00.001-08:00

Some time ago, I read and reviewed the manifesto of one Mark Bidrowski. I wasn't really taken with his Overpopulation Manifesto, and I expressed fault with it, as I often did with many essays last year.

A excerpt from his work:

Let’s take a look at the least developed countries. Many of those countries are in Africa. Family planning and sexual education are both very rare. Contraceptives are even rarer. Almost nonexistent in the least developed countries. Let’s get even more specific, and take a look at the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

"This war torn land is now ravaged by AIDS. The population of the DROC is 60,085,804. AIDS is taken into account with this number. AIDS creates an excess of mortality, this lowers life expectancy, heightens infant morality and death rates, could lower population growth rates, and may change the distribution of population by age and sex (CIA.) Now, what is interesting is that the growth rate for the DROC has not lessened. It is at 2.98. This is because of the fact that there is almost no place to get family planning or contraceptives. Why is this?
It may be because President George W. Bush reinstated the funding ban for family planning programs run by all international agencies which also provide abortion services, even if the latter is done out of their own funds. Now, I do not want a woman to have to get an abortion, but it is not my place to interfere with said woman’s rights. That said I was glad to hear that the European Union said they will offset the cuts that President Bush reinstated (Black).
So, not only was family planning hard to find in the first place, because of President Bush’s convictions, it is even harder to find. So if a woman in the DROC gets pregnant, and wants to get an abortion, it is near impossible for that to be done. What can be done before that? Contraceptives. Where can you get these? Family planning centers. Also with contraceptives, such as condoms, you can prevent the spreading of STDs, one of which is AIDS."

You can read the rest of it via the link provided. The meat of my reply was this: "The specter of a Malthusian crisis justifies the most abhorrent restrictions on humanity imaginable, and has been used to justify negative eugenics programs. Population and growth curves haven’t followed the predictions of Malthus or his contemporary nutcase Ehrlich, who predicted mass starvation and death in the United States by now."

The dictionary difines Thomas Malthus as so: "British economist who wrote An Essay on the Principle of Population (1798), arguing that population tends to increase faster than food supply, with inevitably disastrous results, unless the increase in population is checked by moral restraints or by war, famine, and disease."

Please excuse the expletives, but I shouldn't edit the Bidrowski's email to me:

You mistake me. I am not atheist, nor was I trying to be cool or what have you. I just wanted to let people know that they weren't getting a Christian God ridden look at everything. I have no idea how fiction press works or how you apparent reviewing elites view my title. Sorry if I was mistaken.

Now, I must say, no shit that Thomas Malthus was wrong. He could never take into account of the technologies that would arise after his predictions, neither can I, but at least I have a better idea. I never used his name, or work in my essay. Please do not make that mistake again when reviewing, it makes you look bad. I used primarily 2 sources, one would be the World Population Prospects: The 2004 Revision Highlights put out by the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs - Population Division. The other is the CIA World Factbook. Not one of those, to the best of my knowledge was written by Malthus. Also, between you and me, Ehrlich doesn't have a good idea of what he is talking about.

So you say that NoTrust has me "pegged." I guess you are right, the jumbled review that consisted of the intellectual gems "the obvious solution to overpopulation is to nuke all the brown people countries. They're the ones that won't stop fucking." and " In the developed world, we only really need to kill the old people." really got me pegged. Oh dear, just how can I get out from this one? He defiantly has the factual evidence to back up those claims right? Right?

In case he hasn't shown you (I am assuming he did, and called you in for support, if I am wrong tell me) I told him this:

We "fuck" as much as the "brown" people. We just have better access to contraceptives. Contraceptives greatly reduce the chance of pregnancy, therefore eliminating the chance for a concentrated population (like Hong Kong or Taiwan.)

I also told him:

Overpopulation occurs when a species (in this case, humans) reproduces too much and puts a strain on resources. While it is true that there will be a point at which the population declines, this point happens well after the population reaches the point of sustainability. If it where true that the population would decline at the point of sustainability, it would have been declining years ago. Look at the fish trade right now if want to see what I mean about resources.
What I mean here is once the population declines, it will go from 9.1 billion to 2.5 billion. Think about that for a bit. Entire industries will be crushed, economies will pit fall. Not a pretty picture.

So, I am called an atheist because I said "I don't quite believe in this "God" fellow people are always talking about." so I think I have all the right to call you and NoTrust racists for saying "...nuke all the brown people countries." and "...while those brown folks..." Yes, lets call them brown, because we all know that they are inferior.

Yes, it will take the world's leaders to help stop overpopulation, it will also take us as well. Oh, I never said that "white nations" need to reproduce more. I just said there needs to be a way to level out population aging. Hell, Japan, which has "brown" people are in a bad place with population aging.

One more thought, read and reflect before you shoot off a seemingly cool headed on the outside, but foolish and error ridden on the inside review. I am not asking to agree, just to state facts, not opinions.

Oh yes, please don't come back at me saying my essay was full of opinions until you fully read (as I have) the World Population Prospects: The 2004 Revision Highlights which can be found here: http://www.un.org/esa/population/publications/WPP2004/2004Highlights_finalrevised.pdf

--
The Reverend Mark Allen Bidrowski

This rebuttal of his reminds me of those that come from the many that advocate command economies today in that they'll claim no inspiration from Lenin or Marx, and that their ideas are
newer and "totally different" from those of the socialists and communists. They’ll even accuse you of making a personal attack for drawing a parallel. This is complete foolishness, of course, because the assumptions of the UN that Bidrowski references are the same as the Neo-Malthusians. Doomed to repeat history, I guess we are.

You may wonder how I responded to his email. I'll show you, displaying the letter in bold text:

Dear Mr Reverend,

Ah! I 105 page reading assignment! I'm familiar with the data and arguments, however, for I'm an SA (Scientific American) subscriber, and am familiar with the works of environmental and resource economists and their close buddies around Jeffrey Sachs. I've been through twenty pages at this juncture, and have seen all this before.

“Please do not make that mistake again when reviewing, it makes you look bad.”

What mistake, Reverend? Your ideas unquestionably have the same shape as the Neomalthusians and their environmentalist cousins, I may draw an association if I please, and in my circles, it doesn’t look bad. Thanks for the advice, but no thanks, I have my thoughts fully settled.

This new branch of economics is founded on the faulty premise that classical liberal economics doesn’t account for finite resources, but the truth is as Tom Sowell said, "The first lesson of economics is scarcity: There is never enough of anything to satisfy all those who want it. The first lesson of politics is to disregard the first lesson of economics." The concept is so integral to the mainstream of lazziz faire economic thought that the concept has been shrunken down to a well-know acronym, TANSTAAFL "There Ain't No Such Thing As A Free Lunch." The solution to the finite resources problem has always been solved by the incentives mechanism and property ownership, historically, the places where resources are depleted are collectively owned, and therefore owned by no one.

Examples exist in the old west. There were open ranges where all were allowed to let their cattle graze. The land was expansive, and many thought this utopia of land open to all would go on forever. Settlers referred to the west as God’s Country, it was so nice. However, as more cattle came in, the grasses were eaten up. A battle arose between the herders of sheep and the cattlemen, for the sheep at down to the roots. Officials had to settle the problem. Did they rely on coercive population control? They did not, they used market incentive, selling plots to owners. When the plots belonged to people, suddenly, they became masters of their own fate. They could buy or sell their plots, fence it to protect from others, and most important of all, seed the land so that only their own cattle could thrive!

A parallel exists with the Great Planes buffalo. The Dakotas were open to all, for it was also a commons. Buffalo numbered in the millions. New settlers and hunters took advantage of this seemingly free lunch, but quickly, they cut down the numbers. As in the previous example, the answer wasn’t to restrict the human population, but to once again resort to property ownership. Today, the buffalo are once again thriving in numbers, and are far from extinct. They are now a part of agriculture. I like buffalo stew, it’s delightful.

Today, there is yet another expansive commons once thought infinite disappearing. Once again, the answer is not to deplete the supply of humanity. There are answers far less draconian than that. Some are even boldly suggesting it’s possible to fence the ocean!
http://www.cato.org/pubs/regulation/reg20n3f.html

I’d rather fence off grids in the ocean than go with this quota system. I consider it more likely fishermen will actually invest in improving the habitats if they actually own the space.

On another matter, Joshua Ridinger (No Trust) is not an associate of mine. He’s never contacted me directly, but I do know him well enough not to take his racial sarcasm seriously. He philosophically belongs to the Austrian School, and therefore believes in the sovereignty of every individual. Despite that, he routinely calls for the murder of soldiers and police officers and other crazy things. Those things aren’t worth getting worked up over.

“So, I am called an atheist because I said "I don't quite believe in this "God" fellow people are always talking about." so I think I have all the right to call you and NoTrust {sic} racists for saying "...nuke all the brown people countries." and "...while those brown folks..." Yes, lets call them brown, because we all know that they are inferior.”

How asinine. I’ll call it agnosticism if I’ve committed an affront, but I abhor this new trend of writers headlining their essays to declare how they aren’t allied with “those stupid fundamentalists” to score intellectual brownie points with their “Godless cult,” if you will. This growing trend is an appeal to bias and intellectually slothful in the extreme. Your theological views are irrelevant to your points, and no, my calling you on it grants no “right” to counter by calling me a racist. Yet, if you want to play that card, your ideas are the ones advocating a stealth genocide. You are the one advocating doctrine that would leave fewer people living in developing nations by…advocating that fewer of them should be around. This sure sounds like a new suit-and-tie version of stringing up Po’ Willie to me.

I, on the other hand, and yes, No Trust, would rather encourage an ownership society in the Equatorial Sphere. He’s an ancap (anarcho-capitalist), however, so he’d probably prefer the current regime of open oceans to giving government the power to issue property deeds in the sea.

This perplexes me:

“Yes, it will take the world's leaders to help stop overpopulation, it will also take us as well. Oh, I never said that "white nations" need to reproduce more. I just said there needs to be a way to level out population aging. Hell, Japan, which has "brown" people are in a bad place with population aging.”

Ideas have consequence. You may trust the United Nations to be a benevolent institution, but I don’t. If they genuinely see a Malthusian Crisis on the way and reject market reforms, their going to start taking seriously some strong measures. Think critically now. You don’t want developed nations breeding more young people to balance the demographics, but you and the UN see it as imperative that a balance is reached. Hmm, the elderly person question is so tricky, one may start wishing they just disappear…
We’ve dealt with eugenicists all over the world before. They’ve been in all stages of government and have killed “for the greater good.”

“One more thought, read and reflect before you shoot off a seemingly cool headed on the outside, but foolish and error ridden on the inside review. I am not asking to agree, just to state facts, not opinions.”

I’ve got one thought of my own. Think critically about why the UN refuses to consider reforms that worked in the American West before you commit to be an activist for that cause. You should also have a firm background in economics before committing to policies concerning resource allocation. You’ll find that non-corrosive solutions already exist for most problems faced today.

You may also consider that all tyrannies rely on false emergencies to justify wrestling economic controls from the private sector. These states of fear may include global cooling, global warming, the collapse of the capitalistic age, or a Malthusian crisis. The dreaded eschatological event could be anything.

Before closing, you’re welcome. Most people don’t appreciate receiving reviews that aren’t empty platitudes that offer no criticism or counterpoint to improve one’s writing. Then there are the few that actually care to appreciate detailed criticism. These writers actually improve over time. You may be one of those. You’ll want to talk to Le Creature. He’s the smartest writer on the site that believes that the economic pie won’t expand to save humanity (without government intervention). He’ll probably be willing to discuss the topic with you at length. (He has this funny idea that pesticides are destroying humanity)
Cheeky fellow.

I’ve overtaxed brevity at this point. Hope I covered everything for now. I’m interested in knowing how Joshua responds, if he does at all. He’s a strange character.

Sincerely,
Typewriter King

Now, he replied to this to recap his views that I’m the racist, and that I am a political extremist. I didn’t reply to that email.

DAVID FRIEDMAN, of all people, partially refutes my points...or does he? I was kind of surprised to see him conflict with my commons argument.

If anyone wants to join in on ths discussion, please leave a comment.

Openness

2006-01-12T23:09:00.000-08:00

I allow comments again, as stated earlier, and I'm going to once again provide links to individual posts. These things will allow trolls, spammers, and others a chance to berate me to no end, but this weblog is coming open in not only these ways, but I'm also willing to partially surrender authorship to a few people I trust. I've militantly protected my individuality to this point, but I can't be afraid of community any longer. I can't be afraid of many things any longer.

I'm ready to display this thing in blogrings, too. This has been a long time coming, and I shouldn't have given it such a wait.

Obay The Law!

2006-01-10T13:36:00.000-08:00

The Typewriter King obays all traffics laws.

Great Service

2006-01-03T16:47:00.000-08:00

I'm going to keep my promise not to leech the video feeds of others anymore by using a hosting service, probably Streamload. I discovered this one after noticing Michelle Malkin is now using it to
host videos. I figured she'd have the highest inventive to find the most dependable service because

She takes this hobby seriously.
Being at the top of the scene, she's visible enough that she'd want to do things right.
After the fiasco with hotlinking the Kanye video, she'd want to make sure thing went smoothly from that point onward.

I'll tell you how it goes.

ZenPundit

2006-01-03T02:03:00.000-08:00

ZenPundit

Does anyone else notice that ZenPundit is the only blogger using this :0) emoticon? Does anyone know the origin of it?

Hee, now that I accept comments again, I can make posts for asking questions, like other bloggers with an audience!

Alright, I listened to the weekly presidential radio address via podcasting (using iTunes), and nothing jumped at me accept the president's proud pronouncement that he just submitted the...how did he phrase it? "Most fiscally disciplined federal budget since Reagan?" It may have been "largest cutback in entitlement spending." Whatever it was, I don't consider out-frugaling Clinton and Bush Sr. much in the way of raising the bar.

In case anyone's wondering about the state of this blog, I'm updating using the "blog this!" window, and I'm pushing that streaming TV station away faster as I update more regularly.

I won't let the TV raise you anymore, kids! This feature has no spell check.

That's Perfect

2006-01-02T22:12:00.000-08:00

Kids, you know what it takes to be cool, you have to smoke. That's right,
smoking is still the surest way to make your peers look up to you.

Think about it, to keep up your habit, you have to pay extra taxes like rich people, while making no extra income. That's because you're so cool,
the others must impose a punitive tax to keep you down. Not only that, you have to stay out in the cold, rain, and heat, because your coolness is too much for those that have to stay inside.

If that's not enough for you, Cloud Strife smokes! Look, he's got his own lighter! Even if you aren't convinced smoking is cool, the lighter is, so you've almost been won over, I'm sure.

The Open Society is Back!

2006-01-02T21:18:00.000-08:00

Sir Karl Popper would be proud. I once again accept comments here. Forgive me for leaving you with the television on during this transition period. Coming soon, a blogroll and entrance into some blogrings.

Cheah might be a little ahead of me with his latest post. Yeppers, folks, the open society is running again, for not only am I accepting comments here again, but my fictionpress block list was emptied for a New Year's jubilee.

Videoblogging

2005-12-19T22:02:00.000-08:00

I picked up this code from an advertisement, so it might be complete trash, but let's look at an online TV station, shall we?

Similarly, I've videoblogged the GOP ad at Greatestjounal here and the president's conference here. In the first, I used the embedded Windows Media Player, and in the second, the largely unsupported Realplayer. Let's see if this works.

www.maniatv.com

New Things

2005-12-02T17:16:00.000-08:00

Well, I just checked my blogshare, and somehow it gained a hundred dollars. Someone's looking at this. I'm setting up a comprehensive network that should maximize my exposure. I'm not about doing all the shameless gimicks for bringing people in, but I have plenty of accounts now setup for contacting people.

Let's review. Before even coming here, I had plenty of account setup for interacting with people. I was best know at fanfiction.net, fictionpress.com, anglefire, livejournal, and through my MSN Passport before. Since then, I've looked into the social networking sites, the big ones. Contact me if you're interested in linking with me at them and/or directing me toward great places I haven't considered. I'm not shy about setting up new accounts. :)

I Beat My Addiction!

2005-11-27T17:33:00.000-08:00

I didn’t post here for an entire month, signifying that I don’t have an addiction to Blogger. Similarly, I did this with Livejournal once. That said, I’m still getting traffic, curiously. Whatever’s causing it, these silent visitors have pushed me to the top of the Fictionpress ratings. As I’ve said elsewhere, when you type “Fictionpress profile” into Google and hit the “I feel lucky” button, you reach my profile, indicating that I’m the most popular writer on the site…or I gamed the system. Well, unlike with The Truth Laid Bear’s ecosystem, Fictionpress doesn’t have a rating system per se, but rather, my measuring stick relies on Google.

Curiously, I don’t receive many reviews, so I didn’t know how it could be that I’ve gotten so many hits. Also, I don’t have a paid account, so my submissions aren’t featured in “story ads.” These details make it quite a feat, further compounded by the fact I haven’t been there a year, and that many paid users have been there since 2001.

I have had two people so far admit they visit my profile page habitually, one calling herself my “groupie.”

Heh, I didn't link to anyone in this entire post!

Using the "Blog This" tool

2005-10-23T14:46:00.000-07:00

That's right, I've never used it! In fact, I never bothered to figure out what it was for. Instead, I just happened to read what it was about when reading wikipedia articles about various journal/weblog/networking services.

So, now that I know what it's for, I may begin blogging items I find interesting instantly, rather than waiting nearly a whole week for posting well-thoughtout posts.

By the way, the first time I used the "blog this" feature was an Larry Dunbar's site. He has a
Sun Tzu
post worth reading. Ha! Justin Brenis should consider taking it to heart!

Speaking of Satan...

2005-10-22T00:52:00.000-07:00

Just as I was going to fully explain my little fictionpress war, arch victim Justin Brenis dug up one of his old throw-away accounts to warn the world of my activities. Check out his essay, An Attempt at 9,000,000thGen Warfare.

"Has anyone on this website noticed that users like Mbwun, M.Flames (and his/her many, many sub-pseudonyms), SilentBlueRose, Typewriterking, Max Krugman, Darthen and a few other stragglers only seem to come out of the wood work when they can work in a team in an attempt to destroy any number of authors they have set their eyes on?
It seems as though a secret society, a League of Extraordinarily Annoying Gentlemen, if you will, has formed on Fiction Press, and I honestly think it’s time somebody at least pointed it out."

"It seems the soft-spot in their armor, the thing that really bands them together, the straw that breaks their camels backs (and I speak of the camels they ride through the desert while waging their fourth generation warfare) is when we other users decide to have an opinion about ANYTHING, so long as that opinion doesn’t match their own."

As Mr. T said, "I pity the fool." Be sure to read the whole thing. He still isn't following the basic maxim of warfare, to know one's enemy. It doesn't take much research on us to discover my posse isn't a bunch of ideological clones, for starters, and we certainly aren't "fighting" for any unified doctrine.

We'll see what becomes of this.

Why The Silence

2005-10-16T18:03:00.000-07:00

My essay/column blog (this one) is falling behind, thanks to my cutback in activity. I realize a few people only know me from this account, and may be under the impression that I’ve faded from writing or using the internet. That’s not entirely so. I've actually held tough and punctual over here, at my slightly more personal journal. It has been a project of mine to "naturally" work my way up in popularity at that service, while still holding a disdain for the obvious ways of prostituting for attention. So far, I'm known by a few people, but a large pouring in of eyeballs haven't arrived yet.

So that's been my experiment/preoccupation of late, and it just isn't working so far. Ah hem, beginning that project means ending all phases of the covert flame war with raptor7435 at Fictionpress. He's beyond broken at this point, anyway, and I think the pool is becoming immune to him there. Perhaps swinging it over to Fanfiction.net will cause a more complete breakdown. I will more completely explain my war with his faction in an upcoming series right here, but for now, methinks it's time to let you know what's happening here.

I've long been ill, so I've been taking shortcuts in my writing my customary long posts here.
My condition has rendered me fatigued, so I've cut down on most things in order to grab valuable rest. Among the labor-saving quick fixes I've used were the exploitatioin of Capitalist Magazine's lending policy, the use of the Tom Friedman template, and the reposting of some of my own "classic" columns. Eventually, all of these will wear thin, and interest will completely wane. I've noticed a slight depression in my blogshare value and total number of visits, so I know I've had a small readership growing tired of waiting.

So I'll level with you. I'm going to regurgitate one more series, the “A Very Disappointing Author” series that gained notoriety at Fictionpress, with notes and quotations explaining what was really going on. I’ll explain the war, and why it was necessary. And then you’ll have to wait for a very special treat. I’m once again going to renovate the template, hopefully ushering in a crisper look, while providing more media options. When I’m finished, the layout should superior to that of Reality Hammer, Anti-idiotarian Rottweiler, Barking Moonbat Early Warning System,
Captain's Quarters, and Little Green Footballs combined. It will be difficult to implement, but I don't forsee any problems, as I've made webpages with all the features I have in mind, so if I fall short, it will be do to the limitations of Blogger, and so far, I've seen it do everything I want without faltering.

Click this link to see the comment view.

The Real Alternative Media, Publish date: 11-03-04

2005-10-09T20:18:00.000-07:00

Here's a classic column I'm taking down from my Fictionpress account that I wrote right after the election on November 3ed, 2004.

I've witnessed the birth of children before, and constantly kept in mind just how low the infant mortality rate is in the developed world, which averages less than five percent, so births weren't all that dramatic to me, despite all the hours waiting.
A modern presidential race in America is something else. You spend the same amount of time waiting for results to come in, watching realities shift, erroneous reports, reversals, moments of intense anticipation, bathroom break, walk around, gorge on transfats, drink.

I can remember when the doctors told me the heartbeat of my unborn niece was fading, and when they told me my sister would need a caesarian section. That was real danger, when my niece, my sister, or both could have died in the hospital. My sister has a heart defect, anyway, and she'd had trouble breathing the whole twelve-hour ordeal.

But you know what? It was a yawn, a mild distraction, in comparison to Election Day, 2004. The popular count varied by only 600,000 in 2000, and all hinged on one state, as we all know.

I woke up knowing Bill Clinton would be president until January, but that was all I knew. Remember? We all saw angry crowds, goofballs peering up the butts of ballot cards queerly, a recount in three counties, a charge of cherry-picking the precincts being recounted, charges of voter suppression, Bush's lead shrink to a wafer edge in the later recounts, and finally, lawyers, and a divided court decided the counting had gone on long enough. That was the backdrop of Election Day, 2004.

Coverage started early. On November first, I went to bed immediately after seeing some returns from early voting in New Hampshire. I knew that state was considered 'bible belt,' so I wasn't surprised to hear that Bush held tight with Kerry in the exit poles. Democrat pundits, including the candidate himself, had dismissed "moral issues," because they desired the focus to be poor economic figures, even though these were only mixed, in my opinion. I found myself agreeing with "the most obnoxious man on television," Bill O'Reilly, that the "Culture War" would be a critical sleeper issue, because I've listened to plenty of "real" people firmly behind populist economic policy, the sort Kerry seemed to support, but really wanted a leader to appoint certain types of judges. These types of voters watched mainstream news every evening, and I'm sure the DNC researchers knew this, but I knew something they didn't.

The "red state" people I know also watch religious news programming, Christian journalism reported by figures like Pat Robertson, Hal Lindsey, and Paul Crouch. Like them or loathe them, these guys are the real rulers of alternative media, entering homes via cable and satellite, normally in the standard service packages, and at no extra charge to the consumer.

Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN) relies on donations, and chances are, is one of the networks you flip through or simply program out, but it's there, it's watched, and it's Christ-centered, meaning it doesn't differentiate between religion and politics. This is Crouch's network. and of course, Christ's, too.

Here's where it gets interesting: all three, Robertson, Lindsey, and Crouch, take long analytical looks at foreign policy and all the geopolitical hotspots. They explore the meaning of trade and defense, and offer interpretations of all the raw data. They are three "faith-based intelligence analysts," if you will, and on some levels, I'm impressed by what they cover and how. They site major think tanks like the Cato Institute, and quote publications from the Counsel of Foreign Relations, and all the major international organizations, like the World Trade Organization, and G8. Most cable and broadcast news stations seem to ignore these groups, almost as if they HAVE AN ISOLATIONIST BIAS!

I suspect the secularist outlets just neglect to do the legwork of proper journalism, but the popular belief is their coverage is ratings-generated, and the Christian journalists, well, they don't mind advancing the theory that their rivals are in league with the devil:-)

Put Me On The Court

2005-10-03T15:33:00.000-07:00

I'll answer questions! If the senate asks me about the Exclusionary Rule, for example, I'll answer as follows:

"The Exclusionary Rule is the court's doctrine of throwing out unconstitutional evidence, obtained through illegal searches.
The rule grows from James Madison’s own words, penned in the fourth amendment. Notice that Madison’s writing greatly resembles the modern bureaucratic form, and not some hillbilly patois, even though he wasn’t from the most cultured State in the Union.
The rule is important because it actually sets a penalty to police for conducting illegal searches, by tossing a crippling wrench in a government case.

Without the court ruling in favor of Weeks, the Exclusionary Rule may not even exist. But Weeks was just a federal case; the rule didn’t apply against the State until Mapp.
I didn’t use the word “against” by mistake. The ruling really did handicap law enforcement to an extent from that point on.

The framers of the constitution were in a pickle in 1789. Influential men, most notably, Patrick Henry, refused to sign the document, without guarantees to protect citizens from a central government.
So, based on a promise to do so, a young man from Virginia wrote out the Bill of Rights.
Besides giving States the right to build their own militias, Madison limited the powers of the State, so the authorities would never grow into a tyranny.
Tyrannies run over people on a whim, so Madison tied police powers to the court. He very carefully wrote out his checks and balances, so the police weren’t autonomous enough to become some demagogue’s enforcers.
He wasn’t careful enough, obviously, because the Supreme Court had to “interpret” a penalty for an offense.

Probable cause is a term that means the police and the courts must have a fully legitimate reason for harassing someone with intrusive searches.
That’s my take on it, because a provision exists for reasonable searches and seizures.
The provision for labeling the objective of the search exists, because, otherwise, the police could possibly “fish” a public enemies home, as a form of harassment.

Exemptions exist, for the most part, to protect officers and the public from a “clear and present danger” from concealed weapons.
Officers have the right to frisk an individual for a lethal weapon, or sweep the surrounding vicinity.
Other exemptions exist for suspicious vehicles and volunteers for searches.
Today, luggage searches and electronic “frisks” are allowed at public transportation sites, because these places are public domain."

Nominate me next!

The Exploitation of Walter E Williams

2005-09-24T15:32:00.000-07:00

Have you ever taken a good look at Capitalism Magazine? Ever notice their laissez faire attitude toward their except policy? No? Well, they allow you to take as much as 250 words from an article, as long as you provide a link to the original article. Noticing that loophole, I decided to exploit that policy as much as possible when writing my weekly big post. This means, of course, I sought out Walter E. Williams’s ten part lecture note series, "Economics for the Citizen," so I could piece together something longer than 2500 words really quickly. I ended up borrowing just below the maximum allowable total. Doctor Williams’s text will be italicized. Now, throw in a good quote for added validation:

"As a man is said to have a right to his property, he may be equally said to have a property in his rights. Where an excess of power prevails, property of no sort is duly respected. No man is safe in his opinions, his person, his faculties, or his possessions."
-- James Madison, National Gazette essay, March 27, 1792

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The first lesson in economic theory is that we live in a world of scarcity. Scarcity is a situation whereby human wants exceed the means to satisfy those wants. Human wants are assumed to be limitless, or at least they don't frequently reveal their bounds. People always want more of something…
Scarcity produces several economic problems: What's to be produced, who's going to get it, how's it to be produced, and when is it to be produced? For example, many Americans, and foreigners, too, would love to have a home or vacation home along the thousand miles of California, Oregon and Washington coastline. Shipping companies would like to use some of it as ports. The U.S. Defense Department would like to use it for military installations. There's simply not enough coastline to meet all the competing wants and uses. That means there's conflict over coastline ownership and its uses.
There are several methods of conflict resolution. First, there's the market mechanism -- let the highest bidder be the one who owns and decides how the land will be used. Then, there's government fiat, where the government dictates who gets to use the land for what purpose. Gifts might be the way where an owner arbitrarily chooses a recipient. Finally, violence is a way to resolve the question of who has the use rights to the coastline -- let people get weapons and physically fight it out.
At this juncture, some might piously say, "Violence is no way to resolve conflict!"

It isn’t the best, Williams, but barring the free market, there are few other realistic ways of solving the problem.

Which is the best method of resolving conflict over what's produced, how and when it's produced, and who's going to get it? Among the methods for doing so were the market mechanism, government fiat, gifts or violence. The answer is that economic theory can't answer normative questions.
Normative questions deal with what is better or worse. No theory can answer normative questions. Try asking a physics teacher which is the better or worse state: a solid, gas, liquid or plasma state. He'll probably look at you as if you're crazy. On the other hand, if you ask your physics teacher which is the cheapest state for pounding a nail into a board, he'd probably answer that the solid state is. It's the same with economic theory, as opposed to economists. That is, if you asked most economists which method of conflict resolution produces the greater overall wealth, they'd probably answer that the market mechanism does.

…The bottom line is that economic theory is "objective" or non-normative and doesn't make value judgments…

The importance of knowing whether a statement is non-normative or normative is that, in the former, there are facts to settle any dispute, but in the latter, there are none. It's just a matter of opinion, and one person's opinion is just as good as another. A good clue to telling whether a statement is normative is whether it contains the words should and ought… (I) tell students that my economic theory course will deal with positive, non-normative economic theory.

I understand you, Williams, but at times, I’ve seen this argument used for defending some shady moral relativists. In other words, I like the sword, but am cautious of how the sword can be misused.

Production is any behavior that creates utility, that is, raises the want-satisfying capacity of something. When a mill smelts iron ore, it raises the want-satisfying capacity of the material by changing its form. The metal's want-satisfying capacity is raised further when it's made into steel and the steel into rails, girders and the like. Production also includes changing the spatial characteristics of a good. Navel oranges have no want-satisfying capacity for Philadelphians if the oranges are in California.

Consumption is simply the reduction of the want-satisfying capacity of something.

The essence of exchange is the transfer of title. Here's the essence of what happens when I buy a gallon of milk from my grocer. I tell him that I hold title to these three dollars and he holds title to the gallon of milk. Then, I offer: If you transfer your title to that gallon of milk, I will transfer title to these three dollars.
Whenever there's voluntary exchange, the only clear conclusion that a third party can make is that both parties, in their opinion, perceived themselves as better off as a result of the exchange; otherwise, they wouldn't have exchanged. I was free to keep my three dollars, and the grocer was free to keep his milk. If you think it's obvious that both parties benefit from voluntary exchange, then how come we hear pronouncements about worker exploitation?

…I must have seen myself as being better off taking your offer than my next best alternative.

Exactly why I disapprove of price floors, Williams. I want to determine what my labor is worth!

Specialization is said to occur when people produce more of a commodity than they consume or plan to consume. Specialization can occur on an individual, regional or national basis. Here are examples of each. Detroit assembly-line workers produce more crankshafts than they consume or plan to consume. Californian citrus growers produce more navel oranges than they consume or plan to consume. Brazilian coffee growers produce more coffee than they consume or plan to consume.
There are two requirements for specialization. There must be an unequal endowment of resources and trade opportunities. The unequal endowment part means that an individual has the skills or a region or nation has the kind of resource endowment of land, labor, capital and entrepreneurial talent whereby it can produce certain things more cheaply than another individual, region or nation.

For example, while it's possible to grow wheat and corn in Japan, it would be an expensive proposition. Why? Because crops like wheat and corn use a lot of land, and Japan is relatively land poor, and its land is expensive. By contrast, the United States is land rich; hence, grain production is relatively cheap. Therefore, it makes sense for the United States to take advantage of what it can do more cheaply -- specialize in grain production -- and for Japan to specialize in what it might produce more cheaply -- say camera lenses.
In order for specialization to occur, there must be trade opportunities. …It's really individual Americans trading with individual Japanese through intermediaries.

I think we approve of globalization for the same reasons, Williams.

To reinforce the idea that price is not the full measure of cost, imagine that you live in St. Louis, Mo. The barber who cuts your hair charges $20. Suppose I told you that a barber in Charleston, S.C., would charge you $5 for an identical haircut. Would you consider the Charleston haircut cheaper? While it has a lower price, it has a much greater cost. You'd have to sacrifice much more in terms of time, travel and other expenses in order to get the Charleston haircut.
People often erroneously think of costs as only material things, but that which is sacrificed when a particular choice is made can include clean air, leisure, morality, tranquility, domestic bliss, safety or any other thing of value. For example, a possible cost of a night out with the boys might be the sacrifice of domestic bliss.
Costs affect our choices in many ways, and for the purposes of this discussion, we're going to assume that all of the costs associated with a given choice are borne by the chooser.

The law of demand can be expressed several ways: The lower the price of something, the more will be taken, and the opposite is true for the higher price. We can also say there exists a price whereby one can be induced to take more or less of something. Finally, there's an inverse (reverse) relationship between the price of a good and the quantity demanded.

Relative price is one price in terms of another price. Here's an example; actually, it's a trick I pull on freshman students. I say, "Suppose your company offered to double your salary if you'd relocate to its Fairbanks, Alaska, office. Would you consider it an good deal and accept the offer?" Some students thoughtlessly answer yes. Then, I ask, "What if upon arrival you find out that rents are more than double what you're paying now and the prices of food, clothing, gasoline and other items are three and four times more expensive?" The end result is that while your absolute salary has doubled, your salary, relative to other prices, has fallen.
A bit trickier example of how it's relative prices, not absolute prices, that influence behavior comes with the observation that married couples with young children who can't be left alone tend to choose more expensive dates than married couples without children. The couple's income and tastes have little to do with their decision; it's relative prices. Keeping the numbers small, say an expensive date, dinner and concert, has a $50 price tag and a cheap date, a movie, $20. The choice of the $50 dinner-and-concert date requires that the married couple without children sacrifice two and a half movies that they could have otherwise enjoyed.

The fact that sellers charge people different prices for what often appear to be similar products is related to a concept known as elasticity of demand, but we won't get bogged down with economic jargon. Think about substitutes. Take the reggae song's advice about not taking a pretty woman as a wife. Pretty women are desired and sought after by many men. An attractive woman has many substitutes for you, and as such, she can place many demands on you. A homely woman has far fewer substitutes for you and cannot easily replace you. Hence, she might be nicer to you, making what economists call "compensating differences."
It's all a matter of substitutes for the good or service in question. Business travelers have less flexibility in their air-travel choices than tourists. Women generally see themselves as having fewer alternatives for emergency auto repairs. A man might have more knowledge about making the repair or be more willing to risk hitchhiking or walking. A prostitute might see a sailor on shore leave as having fewer substitutes for her services than the area's residents. Motorists traveling from city to city are less likely to have information about cheaper choices than local residents.
Politicians seem to ignore the fact that when the price of something changes people respond by seeking cheaper substitutes. New York City raised cigarette taxes, thereby making a pack of cigarettes $7. What happened? A flourishing cigarette black market emerged.

In 1990, when Congress imposed a luxury tax on yachts, private airplanes and expensive automobiles, Sen. Ted Kennedy and then-Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell crowed publicly about how the rich would finally be paying their fair share of taxes. But yacht retailers reported a 77 percent drop in sales, and boat builders laid off an estimated 25,000 workers.

Property rights refer to who has exclusive authority to determine how a resource is used. Property rights are said to be communal when government owns and determines the use of a resource. Property rights are private when it's an individual who owns and has the exclusive right to determine the non-prohibited uses of a resource and receive the benefit there from. Additionally, private-property rights confer upon the owner the right to keep, acquire and sell the property to others on mutually agreeable terms.
Property rights might be well defined or ill defined. They might be cheaply enforceable or costly to enforce. These and other factors play a significant role in the outcomes we observe. Let's look at a few of them.
A homeowner has a greater stake in the house's future value than a renter. Even though he won't be around 50 or 100 years from now, the house's future housing services figure into its current selling price. Thus, homeowners tend to have a greater concern for the care and maintenance of a house than a renter. One of the ways homeowners get renters to share some of the interests of owners is to require security deposits.

It's the miracle of the market and prices that gets the job done so efficiently. What's called the market is simply a collection of millions upon millions of independent decision makers not only in America but around the world. Who or what coordinates the activities all of these people? Rest assuredly it's not a bakery czar.
There are a number of ways to allocate goods and services. They include: first-come-first-served, gifts, violence, dictatorship or lotteries. When the price mechanism performs the allocation function, we realize efficiency gains absent in other methods. The price mechanism serves as a signaling function. Prices rise and fall, reflecting scarcities and surpluses. When prices rise as a result of higher demand, this acts as a signal to suppliers to expand output. They do so because whenever the price exceeds the costs of production, they stand to gain. They ship the goods to those with the highest willingness to pay.
Let's look at just one of the baker's needs -- flour. How does the wheat farmer know whether there's a surge in demand for bakery products? The short answer is that he doesn't. All he knows is that millers are willing to pay higher wheat prices, so he's willing to put more land under cultivation or reduce his wheat inventory. In other words, prices serve the crucial role of conveying information. Moreover, prices minimize the amount of information that any particular player involved in the process of getting flour to the baker needs in order to cooperate.

Here's one that has considerable popular appeal: "It's wrong to profit from the misfortune of others." I ask my students whether they'd support a law against doing so. But I caution them with some examples. An orthopedist profits from your misfortune of having broken your leg skiing. When there's news of a pending ice storm, I doubt whether it saddens the hearts of those in the collision repair business. I also tell my students that I profit from their misfortune -- their ignorance of economic theory.
Then, there's the claim that this or that price is unreasonable. I used to have conversations about this claim with Mrs. Williams early on in our 44-year marriage. She'd return from shopping complaining that stores were charging unreasonable prices. Having aired her complaints, she'd ask me to go out and unload a car trunk loaded with groceries and other items. Having completed the chore, I'd resume our conversation, saying, "Honey, I thought you said the prices were unreasonable. Are you an unreasonable person? Only an unreasonable person would pay unreasonable prices."
The long and short of it is that the conversation never went over well, and we both ceased discussions of reasonable or unreasonable prices. The point is that whatever price a transaction is transacted at represents a meeting of the mind of both buyer and seller. Both viewed themselves as being better off than the next alternative -- not making the transaction. That's not to say that the seller wouldn't have found a higher price more pleasing or the buyer wouldn't have been pleased with a lower price.

How about your parents' admonition that "Whatever's worth doing is worth doing as well as possible"? That's not a wise admonition.

Well, I must say I budgeted my time really well here. Imagine if I’d tried to write all of this! Glad I’m being more frugal with the limited resource we call time! Thanks for writing for me, Dr. Williams!

Blushing

2005-09-22T20:42:00.000-07:00

I forgot that hot-linking code I wrote in that letter would work on Blogger! See how easy it is to spread mallicious code?

Cyberwar

2005-09-22T20:39:00.000-07:00

I wrote this letter to someone who asked for my opinions on cyberwarfare, and it came out pretty good:

Thanks for giving me so much time, I’ve had a full plate for some time. Yes, all computers comes with an internet protocol address. These addresses are usually made up of four numbers (with each number varying from zero to 255) separated by periods. For example, here mine: 209.33.77.41 (In binary: 11111111.11111111.11111111.00000000)

Please note that this is the address of my router, and not actually my computer. If my router were wireless (I‘d hate to pay for all the Ethernet cable), and I boosted the signal enough, I could place it a considerable distance from myself.

The most common way to counter someone tracking your IP address is to route through a “proxy server.” As the internet grew, a phenomenon of servers scrubbed of IP numbers, or skipping numbers, popped up. These are often used by people most concerned about privacy.

Emails also come with IP numbers written into the header file. Thanks to privacy concerns, major suppliers (like Hotmail) scrub the sender’s address and replace it with their server’s. They do, however, keep them in their logs. In the United States, the government can subpoena the provider for the records, if they have reason to believe a crime was committed, but it is my understanding most will volunteer the information if a federal agent asks.

I simple means of tracking the behavior of a user is to install spy ware.

Spyware tracks the browsing behaviors of users for the purpose of determining what sort of advertisements to through out. Internet Explorer users are showered in these programs from the very moment they go online.
Many people fear that cookies serve as a form of spy ware, but I haven’t witnessed that to be the case. Their purpose is for an individual website to keep a record of your activities on their site. A cookie is what prevents you from repeatedly leaving anonymous reviews on a chapter at Fictionpress. Notice that many users circumvent this.

I should also point out that any server administrator has the tools necessary for monitoring traffic that’s routing through his system. I briefly described this when depicting a Saudi police network in a story of mine.

“Secondly, is it legal for large multinational corporations to maintain
a
well-armed, well-trained, and well-equipped security force a lá Roger
Gordian's Sword? Or is it even possible?”

Not only is it legal, it has gained a high level of approval in the United States. Blackwater USA, which I mentioned in my story about Sword, actually exists, performing the duties I attributed to them. Their main job is to train paramilitaries or police in operating firearms. They do this on a huge range in Camden County, North Carolina.

But they also function as armed security guards. When he had Roger give that speech about contractors hanging from a bridge in Fallujah, I was referring to a real event. Private Military Contractors (PMCs) are usually paid by the State Department to guard leaders of host nations. For example, last year when President Karzai of Afghanistan was ambushed, one could clearly see members of a PMC in Rayban sunglasses and body armor returning fire with MP-5s.

Addressing your third question, you’re not correct in believing you need to hack into a server to disable a network. That’s because you can effectively disable one (assuming it’s on the world wide web) by stealing its bandwidth. I recall that the first serious worm unleashed on the net, Code Red, infected millions of ordinary personal computers (through a now sealed Internet Explorer exploit) in order to use them all as spam relays aimed at the White House website server. All this traffic aimed down one cable is what makes visiting the site too sluggish. It is a traffic jam, if you will.

You’ll note that sites like file planet are persistently slow on normal days. That’s because they don’t have enough bandwidth for their high density of traffic.

I’m not sure such an attack could be sustained; once people grasp what type of attack is occurring, they’ll work on fixing it. Patches will be distributed, a backup server will come online, infected computers are shutoff, et cetera.

On the other hand, Windows computers are infected by a worm the first twelve minutes its online, and most users out there just don’t seem to learn. Firewalls aren’t used, most people don’t update their virus archives, they still use Internet Explorer or AOL, and they never sweep for spy ware. Most people who are infected, in fact, equate a slowing computer with obsolescence or old age, and replace their machines with newer ones. In a few months, the same cycle repeats.

The point is that a truly malicious worm will continuously find new computers to convert into zombie warriors against a pipeline.

And that’s the more difficult way to choke off bandwidth. I simpler way would be to repeatedly hotlink images from someone’s server. If the programmers were lazy enough to overlook adding code for prohibiting hot linking of images on their website, an attacker could set up countless free sites on the web, repeatedly writing an instruction like this:

This will suck up bandwidth necessary for moving a picture. On a government site, it could be a large .pdf file, preferably an illustrated one. Or a flash player presentation.

A third method of disabling a sever without directly hacking it is of course a physical attack. Bullets will break mainframes, and remember, private sector ones aren’t properly protected against a determined assault. Security guards are suited best for preventing people from sneaking in and accessing the computer terminals.

Okay, FINALLY, if the other options are exhausted, one should consider hacking the machine. You recall I outlined port scanning in a story. This isn’t really a difficult process. There are legitimate reasons for scanning ports, so buying the software should be easy. Without going into details (though I can, you know), you do this to determine which port is “open,” accepting incoming data. All computers on the internet have ports accepting incoming packets of information, where all those bugs are floating. Surfing the internet is sort of like taking part in an orgy in an aids clinic. Bad packets get transmitted, and an immunodeficiency disorder ensues. The trick is transmitting malicious packets of information a firewall won’t disrupt. It always has to be novel, because if it isn’t, the servers constantly-updated library of known malicious code will recognize it, and the firewall will get in the way.

That’s how you plant the seed. As for a killer payload, computers are highly complex instruments, so there are countless combinations of code that will cause operations to breakdown.
Now here’s why I’m contemptuous of what I call “the myth of the super hacker;” most failed programs cause problems. Anyone that’s taken a tutorial in C++ has built a problematic program that’s caused hang-ups in a computer. Skilled programmers will spend countless hours debugging their programs so they can run in different systems without breaking anything. The unskilled ones are those who continually build the Frankenstein monsters.

A virus-writer, at his minimum, simply makes a trainload of these faulty machines, gives them a self-replicating function, and ships them out. It is contemptuous and darned easy to throw a wrench in a gearbox, and that’s all it is. Most nest into the Win32 folder, where many of the critical wheels turn, where some mischief can be made.

It annoys me to no end that these programmer school rejects are hailed as geniuses.

The fourth question. Yes, if a considerably strong outbreak of avian flu or SARs broke out (both of which have happened before), you can be sure the World Health Organization and possibly the American CDC and the international Doctors Without Borders organization will all be allowed to fly in. China’s taken to capitalism now, and is open enough to accept outside help. Especially after they learned their lesson about hiding the SARs outbreak from the rest of the world. I think they’re open to assistance.

I’m not sure they’d pay attention to the make of the helicopter. The US Army is prone to use any model of utility helicopter for humanitarian missions, I distinctly remember a Pave Low used to assist a flood village in… was it Tanzania? Also, air traffic is extremely heaving around Hong Kong, air traffic controllers are stretched pretty far at peak hours, and a controller could seriously lose face with his pears if he allows a humanitarian helicopter to crash in the sea.

As to your final question, I can’t answer it definitively, but the command structure of the People's Liberation Army is structured more vertically than in a structure like the United States. The politburo controls the military, schedules training exercises, directs diplomacy, and holds the ultimate authority. The registry of members for their military commission and political counsel, in fact, have the same members!

China is also heavily involved in world trade now, and that means improving the country’s image to investors. It sounds strange for men indoctrinated to serve a Marxist ideal can be in practice so preoccupied with capitalistic concerns, but that’s the reality today. A commander wouldn’t doubtlessly dispatch a flight element from his regiment to intimidate the attacker, but wouldn’t risk firing an infrared missile. An auto cannon shot is possible, if the aviator were convinced he was doing the right thing.

I’m not so sure the past is a proper guide for the future, but the PLA have shot down recon flights before. Orion and SR-71 pilots can tell you of bellicose interference conducted against their missions from time to time. Plus there a ramming accidents.

I’ll be pleased to clarify on any of my points.

Sincerely,

-(Name Withdrawn)

DISORDER AND DREAMS IN AFGHANISTAN

2005-09-21T15:22:00.000-07:00

I know many of you are upset that the OpEd columns are the NYT are no longer free, so I’ve taken the liberty of writing a counterfeit Thomas L Friedman column, to sate your appetite. In case you’re wondering, I did use a basic template (but not a generator) for making it. Michael Ward deserves credit.

DISORDER AND DREAMS IN AFGHANISTAN
By Typewriter King

Last week's events in Afghanistan were truly historic, although we may not know for years or even decades what their final meaning is. What's important, however, is that we focus on what these events mean to the citizens themselves. The media seems too caught up in spinning the macro-level situation to pay attention to the important effects on daily life. Just call it missing the battle for the bullets.
When thinking about the recent turmoil, it's important to remember three things: One, people don't behave like billiard balls, so attempts to treat them as such inevitably look foolish. Billiard balls never suddenly shift their course in order to fit with a predetermined set of beliefs. Two, Afghanistan has spent decades torn by civil war and ethnic hatred, so a mindset of peace and stability will seem foreign and strange. And three, capitalism is an extraordinarily powerful idea.
When I was in Afghanistan last August, I was amazed by the level of Westernization for such a closed society and that tells me two things. It tells me that the citizens of Afghanistan have no shortage of potential entrepreneurs and that is a good beginning to grow from. Second, it tells me that people in Afghanistan are just like people anywhere else on this great globe of ours.
So what should we do about the chaos in Afghanistan? Well, it's easier to start with what we should not do. We should not let seemingly endless frustrations cause the people of to Afghanistan doubt their chance at progress. Beyond that, we need to be careful to nurture the seeds of democratic ideals. The opportunity is there, but I worry that the path to peace is so strewn with obstacles that Afghanistan will have to move down it very slowly.
Speaking with a local farmer on the last day of my recent visit, I asked him if there was any message that he wanted me to carry back home with me. He pondered for a second, and then smiled and said, a well-known phrase in that region, which is a local saying that means roughly, "That tea is sweetest whose herbs have dried longest.”
I don't know what Afghanistan will be like a few years from now, but I do know that it will probably look very different from the country we see now, even if it remains true to its basic cultural heritage. I know this because, through all the disorder, the people still haven't lost sight of their dreams.

Looking Forward to the German Elections

2005-09-17T14:21:00.000-07:00

From the Scotsman:

"A SHY pastor's daughter from the ex-communist east, Angela Merkel will crown an unlikely rise to the pinnacle of German politics on Sunday if she becomes the nation's first female chancellor.

Few would have predicted the unassuming former scientist would make it this far, but a clever analytical mind and a cold readiness to sideline rivals has vaulted her to the top of her male-dominated party and positioned her to become Germany's eighth postwar leader.

Merkel was born in the western port city of Hamburg on July 17, 1954 but moved with her family to East Germany when just a baby.

A bookworm who guards her privacy fiercely and has only recently begun looking comfortable in the media spotlight, Merkel is married to a Berlin chemistry professor and has no children."

I don't expect her to win the majority she expects, unless the German people decide that Schroder's demogogary of America isn't a solution to the problems facing Germany. The PM, however, has decided to stick with it.
"You only need to look to America to see what poverty in old age is." With quotes like that, it is evident that he's clueless. His "social paradise" currently has an unemployment rate approaching twelve percent, hardly something to gloat over. Our's, by the way, is 4.9 percent. I think Germans may actually realize this, but maybe not. I know of Americans that actually believe Canada's far superior to the USA in every measurable way. I don't know what accounts for this, but they also insist speach is better protected in the UK.

What's Happening Now

2005-09-14T19:10:00.000-07:00

My blogging has grown a little more personal of late, so I've been posting in this journal right here.
I'll spare the newsies that stuff, but there have been a few post that may be of some interest to you, like the Katrina post, and maybe this civil liberties post. There may or may not be more in the next few days.

Inquiry Into the Biological Explanation of the Pythia

2005-09-05T23:08:00.000-07:00

On some occasions, the hubris of the modern intellectual serves to obfuscate simple truths long known by different classes. One group of man, scholars from antiquity, followed closely many of the scholarly tenants that modern researchers practice. Science is an imperfect process in constant need of refinement; Euclid's fudged math needed modern tinkering, but there have been cases of new ideas popularly trumping the old simply for the virtue of being newer.

In logic, this is a fallacy called an argumentum ad novitatem, an appeal to novelty, and has crept into science on occasion. Perhaps the root cause is a casual understanding of natural selection. Many see Darwinism deterministically, that mankind is on an evolutionary path toward utopia. The result is often a bias against any orthodoxy held for a considerable length of time. Because of this institutionalized fallacy that man is deterministically on a linear climb toward utopia, new ideas aren’t always put through the proper rigors of the scientific discipline before supplanting established concepts.

One prominent example is Adolphe Paul Oppe’s “debunking” of the traditional explanation for the Delphic Pythia’s psychosis.

Surviving first-hand accounts of the Oracle of Delphi are plenty. The most extensive ancient recording of events from the temple came from Plutarch, the most respected biographer of his age. The biographer recorded the presence of a sweet vapor rising as in the air or in the water. Pliny, Diodorus, Plato, Cicero, and Strabo all recorded similar events. As time progressed, scholars consistently noted that the gases were fading to a trickle.

Then, at the dawn of the twentieth century, the Englishman Adolphe Paul Oppe, visiting a French excavation site at Delphi, found no evidence that a chasm for releasing gases existed below the Temple of Apollo, nor did he find any emitted gases. He chose to make some bold statements in refuting over two-thousand years of convention. First, he made the broad statement that no chasm had ever existed beneath the temple, and no gases could have ever been emitted from the site.

Aided with hindsight, perhaps one should judge Oppe so harshly. After all, scientists of the time had ample reason to believe the Earth was a static place. Geography didn’t seem to move that much in the Mediterranean, after all. Ancient cities still stood, and Alfred Wegener wouldn’t popularize the theory of continental drift until 1915. On the other hand, two years after Oppe wrote his article, Mount Pelee, situated on the Caribbean island of Martinique, completely obliterated the coastal city of St Pierre. The Earth was very much active in changing its landscape in Oppe’s time.

Oppe also claimed that no gases existed that could cause the symptoms listed by Plutarch. Again, at the dawn of the twentieth century, coming to such a conclusion seemed reasonable. The pharmaceutical industry as we now know it was in a it’s nascent stage.
Finally, Oppe pointed out a seeming contradiction in Plutarch’s depiction of events. Yes, Plutarch did indeed narrate an account that deviated from the norm. However, this and other discrepancies can now be accounted for.

The return from fallacy started in the 1980s, when the United Nations dispatched a survey team to map fault lines in Greece. Jelle De Boer mapped fault lines to the East and West of the temple. It turns out that the Kerna Fault and the Delphi Fault intersect beneath the Oracle Chamber, where a drain for a water spring rests. The research team De Boer put together discovered a limestone layer filled with spring water. The layer produced different petrochemicals. They were methane and ethane.

They then took water samples from inside the temple, and discovered a mixture of methane, ethane, and ethylene. The last of which had the odor described by Plutarch. In researching the possibility that ethylene could account for the trance states of the temple’s seer, the team found the papers of Isabella Herb, who had conducted ethylene experiments on subjects. Her reports read like Plutarch’s. Given a low mixture, subjects babbled in trances. She had also witnessed that discrepancy mentioned earlier. Plutarch wrote of one Pythia going into derangement after inhaling the gas, flailing about until collapsing and dying. Herb recalled a similar incident, where a subject had rampaged until suffocating on his own vomit. The ancient accounts appeared to comport with scientific findings. Adolphe Paul Oppe, one can conclude, has been debunked.

Michelle Malkin Has Her Eyes Hacked

2005-09-03T22:00:00.000-07:00

I think Mrs. Malkin is losing her information war. When I last checked her post on Kanye West, practically all of the information she linked to had been altered. She updated to report she'd inadvertantly subjected her readers to a pornographic video, rather than her intended target. Her 'Crooks and Liars' link had also been boogered.

Amusing. At this point, all bloggers have witnessed site owners altering their site's material (which ire their rights as property-owners), often over bandwidth theft; or just to screw around with someone of an opposing ideology.

In my huble opinion, the best case of this blogosphere war spoofing was the left's use of the "Google Bomb." Just type miserable failure into Google, click the "I feel lucky" button, and so what I mean. The right quickly caught on, so Michael Moore comes up second in a "miserable failure" search.

Darn, last month I thought I'd invented the Google Bomb. Don't ask (wink). You've never heard of him.

Music Post

2005-08-31T19:47:00.000-07:00

Deciding to circumvent the so-called “Complete U2” boxed set monopoly can be quite a thrilling adventure. I’ve looked through the list, and what a long list it is!- and became furious that I couldn’t buy the unreleased songs from the All That You Can’t Leave Behind and How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb studio sessions. I’m sure others have been outraged. Most of us have practically all the songs but those few treasures, and would prefer to only pay for them individually, if possible, rather than the $150 (US) for the few songs we don’t have.

I don’t enjoy taking songs I didn’t pay for, but I have a confession, I robbed the vaults. The Apple monopoly didn’t stop me.
What I did was I used the “Dogpile” search engine. I'm guilty of a cybercrime. Notice that with the Dogpile engine, you can search "web,"
"images," "audio," "video," and so on. I used "audio." Simple. Then I decided what I wanted. I wanted Native Son.
This track is a prototype of Vertigo. Armed with a 128k internet connection, I finished in a minute. Very soon, I heard the familiar riffs I'd heard since buying HTDAAB in December, only, it was Vertigo from a parallel universe! It was no longer the rocking spiritual song I've grown familiar with, but an equally powerful protest anthem about one Leonard Peltier. Interesting!

The strange case of Peltier would make an excellent (and original) facet of study for a Criminology paper, there are so many declassified papers to dredge through. I love researching cases. So that song opened something up for me, but I quickly put my browsing to rest, after mentally filing away a wish to buy a sample of Mr. Peltier's artwork, and resumed ripping off Apple. Dogpile turned up Christmas (Baby come home), lasting 2:20. Who's spoken voice is that at the beginning?

Bad Omen

2005-08-28T18:32:00.000-07:00

"CITIZEN JOURNALISM IS HERE TO STAY" reads Michelle Malkin's headline. As with the "new economy," anything hailed as "here to stay" has usually reached it' peak. But if that's really so, aren't you glad the pundits are saying high gas prices are here to stay?

Pounding Armor

2005-08-14T23:46:00.000-07:00

I hate resorting to roundups, but I might as well collect all the IED links for a post.

From The Belmont Club,

The Unstoppable IED

From Organic Warfare,

The Evolving IED Battlespace

Securing Al Anbar IEDs
THE IED MARKETPLACE IN IRAQ

The Bombmaker, The Financier, and The Emplacer.

So now that the roundup is finished, I feel dirty.

Dogpile

2005-08-11T11:44:00.000-07:00

Dogpile's joke of the day is:

Q: "Why did the jelly roll?
A: Because it saw the apple turnover"

Ha. But seriously, that search engine has some cool applications. Take searching for audio files, for example. People talk about pirating songs all the time, as if every noob on the net actually understood where every illicit item were placed. An inexperienced noob, however, will doubtlessly look for his favorite songs by aimlessly typing in search requests for Google, Yahoo, and other conventional engines to find. The searcher will be swamped in legitimate music stores, magazines, fanzines, chat rooms, and shrines to whichever band the searcher were interested in.

Chances are, if you search in this manner, I doubt you'll ever succeed in finding more than the few precious gems you'll be willing to slog for. Well, Dogpile's audio search makes it easy to locate practically any audio file you're likely to want, and you need no insider knowledge to find things.

Indeed, I just gave it a little try finding tracks from the underrated masterpiece Passengers: Original Soundtrack 1 and came up with Slug, Your Blue Room, Different Kind of Blue, Beach Sequence, Miss Sarajevo, Ito Okashi, Corpse (These Chains Are Way Too Long), Elvis Ate America, and Plot 180. I found Always Forever Now and the Theme from Let's Go Native through a Windows Media Player music search. Now we're down to only two tracks missing, and I haven't been even introduced Bit Torrent yet!

Yes, folks, Bittorrent.com has a search feature now! Last time I tested it, not many people had their stuff in their search registery yet, but these things take time to grow. Torrents of course have their downsides, and don't seem to be user friendly. At least, I've had to help a few people figure out the most basic things about it. Therefore, I always introduce them to Dogpile first. This will satisfy you for a sec, but then you'll want videos. Dogpile will provide you those, too, but if you want large files on your hard drive, you'll just have to learn to torrent them.

A Strong Appeal

2005-08-10T22:16:00.000-07:00

Since the war (in Iraq) began, we've been told military recruitment is down, and that the Army has attempting rectifying the problem by calling high school students and playing hip hop in tricked out HMMWVs.

I say, hip hop is played out, anime babes are more appealing to those who will be 18-24 in a year or two. Yes, drawn women hold the interest of America’s (and Canada’s, Japan’s, and South Korea’s) youth, and recruiters have been slow to realize that. In light of this, I’ve taken the liberty of finding some near-hentai artwork best suited for becoming analogs for the newest crop of recruitment images.

Oh yeah, we must embrace the lowest common denominator. We must do it for our country, that's right.
Tell me they don't grab your attention, especially when I try to fit the content of my message in between them. ^_^

You think I'm joking? No, I'm serious. Anime viewers are more susceptible to patriotic persuasion than you'd think, especially those who watch the male-oriented ones.

Besides, we've got to field something better if we're going to counter UBL's daring knew recruitment drive.

Did you stick around to read this text? If so, did the images have anything to do with it? Great, then I'd like to update my readers on the status of the format changes coming. It turns out I do in fact have the comments link available for individual posts now. Sadly, I can only see it when viewing a single post as a preview.

Let me try something...

Update: Try this.

What A Cute Gun!

2005-08-10T14:12:00.000-07:00

You don’t often hear of a machine gun described as adorable, but you also don’t often see a machine gun like this! Very cute.

It appears to be this model here. So it seems these guns really exist.

This novelty weapon was designated the Tippmann Miniature M-1919A4,
According to a website with no apparent title. All sources seem to agree it fires .22 Long Rifle rounds instead of the usual .30-06 used in John Browning's .30 machine gun.

Someone named Valkingwinger seemed to understand a lot about this weapon (the ellipse is mine):

"There {sic} minatures were {sic} originally Tippmanns and .22 caliber. Lakeside now holds the manufacturing rights and whether or not they are in current production is a moot point. The last ones that were legal for civilians to own were last made in 1986 and banned (along with future manufacture of all other civilian MGs) with the "Firearm Owners Protection Act" often ed to as FOPA86. Existing machineguns were grandfathered and are still transferable albiet at very high prices. New production is only legal for govt agency or the military..."

It's an adorable piece, the weapon's cuteness doesn't match the cell phone gun!

Fixing the template

2005-08-10T13:51:00.000-07:00

The abrasive midi has been plucked! If any sound plays from this point, it should be easier listening, a rendition of U2's "All I Want Is You." If you don't follow the band, you may recognize it from "Reality Bites."

Anyway, I'm altering the template a bit. Just some really subtle nudging, really. I'm also trying to enable comments, but the problem is bugging me. I should have it fixed, but I can't give you a timeline. It will be ready when I make a breakthrough, that's all.

Over There

2005-08-08T01:00:00.000-07:00

So I did it, I watched the second episode of FX's Over There, knowing that no other in this sphere would write about it again.

I must say, some of the problems everyone pointed out in the first episode persist. The "jive brother" is still performing as he's typecast to do.
He even said "honky." He smokes, he's rash with his trigger finger, bucks responsability, and sees everything in racial terms.

If they kill him off or believably change him, the series can grow, however.
"Dim" was a little more likable this time. He's becoming more of a Webster (from Band of Brothers) type character than a Taylor (from Platoon). Actually, Charlie Sheen managed to actually make Taylor likable, despite Oliver Stone's best efforts!

It looks like Bo's going to fight back for his mates, his band, rather than forget about them as easily of that Tom Cruise character of Stone's. Tariq seems likable enough, as well. He seemed to breath in some knowledge and moral clarity the green bunch lacked in the first episode, and brought a lot to offer when they had their crisis at the checkpoint. Perhaps they aren't all characatures, after all.

I've nothing better to post

2005-08-06T22:47:00.000-07:00

Here's some Instant Messenger conversations I've had since yesterday. You may find them interesting. Note that the emoticons sometimes don't show. Also, a link to something interesting.
It seems history professors are making shallow comparisons between the second Gulf War and the American Revolution.

genometype (4:37:55 PM): Pardon?
billy_bo_bob_yep (4:38:05 PM): I'm 33 on Thursdays
genometype (4:38:12 PM): Oh.
genometype (4:38:32 PM): So, Why'd you want to contact me?
billy_bo_bob_yep (4:39:08 PM): Hmmmmmm
billy_bo_bob_yep (4:39:18 PM): That's a good question
genometype (4:39:20 PM): :-w
billy_bo_bob_yep (4:40:33 PM): Probably because I was bored
genometype (4:40:56 PM): I see. Why is it difficult to find something to do?
billy_bo_bob_yep (4:42:13 PM): Why do you ask?
genometype (4:42:33 PM): I can't relate to boredom.
billy_bo_bob_yep (4:43:08 PM): So every single minute of every single day you have a new and interesting activity to partake in?
genometype (4:43:29 PM): Yes. I'm currently reading a news letter.
billy_bo_bob_yep (4:43:45 PM): Do you regularly read news letters?
genometype (4:44:15 PM): I regularly do many different things. No, news letters aren't what I typically read.
billy_bo_bob_yep (4:45:17 PM): Well, you see, I prefer to retain a larger variety of words in which I can describe myself instead of disregarding the variety of words which some might not say applies
billy_bo_bob_yep (4:45:49 PM): So, while I can regularly do something, if that something isn't on par with my usual activities, then that is what I would consider "bored" just so that I can keep the word in my vernacular
billy_bo_bob_yep (4:46:42 PM): Bored perhaps has a different relative meaning to other people, but since most people are bored by their own definition at some point in their lives, I usually see no reason to universalize the word
genometype (4:47:11 PM): I see. So novel experiences equal boredom.
billy_bo_bob_yep (4:47:29 PM): If the usual is extraodinary then average is below par
genometype (4:48:11 PM): Wouldn't consider the best news letters below a set average.
billy_bo_bob_yep (4:48:30 PM): That doesn't mean you have to be bored right now
billy_bo_bob_yep (4:48:44 PM): If you were "bored" all the time then that would be equally bad
billy_bo_bob_yep (4:49:07 PM): Because then "interested and active" would both lose their meaning
genometype (4:49:31 PM): True.
billy_bo_bob_yep (4:51:51 PM): I'm actually a little dissapointed now, too
genometype (4:52:11 PM): In me? Please forgive me.
billy_bo_bob_yep (4:52:17 PM): I was really hoping the admins would delete my "Bow Knaves" essay
billy_bo_bob_yep (4:52:35 PM): And here it is still completely untouched
genometype (4:53:14 PM): Oh, so I'm not the source of disappointment.
billy_bo_bob_yep (4:53:45 PM): Nope. For someone with "dissappointing" in their name you're not really that dissapointing
genometype (4:54:00 PM): I see.
billy_bo_bob_yep (4:54:10 PM): Flee?
genometype (4:54:17 PM): I see.
billy_bo_bob_yep (4:54:22 PM): Oh
genometype (4:54:29 PM): I see.
genometype (4:54:45 PM): This better?
billy_bo_bob_yep (4:54:49 PM): Hahaha, yeah
billy_bo_bob_yep (4:55:06 PM): This is the equivalent of 9 AM for me, since I just woke up, sorry
genometype (4:55:27 PM): You live in Asia?
billy_bo_bob_yep (4:55:40 PM): No, I just write better at night
billy_bo_bob_yep (4:55:47 PM): So I usually sleep through the days
genometype (4:56:15 PM): Well, that's common, but not for a 33-year-old.:))
billy_bo_bob_yep (4:56:39 PM): Hahaha, it's also not common for a 33 year old to be going to college... unless you're a doctor, I suppose
genometype (4:57:41 PM): I guess not. So a 33-year-old college student wrote "Bow Knaves.":))
billy_bo_bob_yep (4:57:57 PM): Does my profile say I'm 33 or something?
genometype (4:58:07 PM): Yes, it does.
billy_bo_bob_yep (4:58:38 PM): Nice. is this the one with the quote from "Blonde" too?
genometype (4:59:12 PM): Um, can't remember. Was that on Yahoo?
billy_bo_bob_yep (4:59:34 PM): I don't know, I can't remember how to actually see my own profile
genometype (5:01:15 PM): Oh, it says 23 now. I just clicked on your avatar. That should do it.
billy_bo_bob_yep (5:01:27 PM): Nice
billy_bo_bob_yep (5:01:42 PM): Yeah, I usually just make up everything on my profile
billy_bo_bob_yep (5:02:27 PM): I haven't been arab yet. Maybe i'll try that next
genometype (5:03:09 PM): A very distraught Arab.
=))
billy_bo_bob_yep (5:03:13 PM): I love how when I have a real essay, that has "rape" in the title, fictionpress deletes my essay
billy_bo_bob_yep (5:03:26 PM): Yet when I have two chapters that have a total of four words, that is somehow "okay"
billy_bo_bob_yep (5:03:59 PM): (three words, since chapter 3 doesn't really have a word, just a string of letters)
genometype (5:04:26 PM): MMM. I've never tested them that way, seeing how I don't want my account deleted.
billy_bo_bob_yep (5:04:41 PM): I'm not worried about one of my accounts being deleted
billy_bo_bob_yep (5:04:55 PM): They obviously don't care enough to actually freeze the other accounts from your IP
billy_bo_bob_yep (5:05:05 PM): If your account got deleted, you probably could make another one
genometype (5:05:21 PM): Indeed.
billy_bo_bob_yep (5:05:32 PM): And, Hell, I'm not banned yet
billy_bo_bob_yep (5:05:44 PM): You'd have to do some pretty retarded things to get yourself banned from that site
genometype (5:06:27 PM): You have a trove of accounts, I’d guess. One would think they could better regulate it, seeing how only some 200,000 accounts exist on the site.
billy_bo_bob_yep (5:07:02 PM): Unless of course there's only something like 2 people working at the site
genometype (5:07:31 PM): I've always assumed all the columnists chipped in.
billy_bo_bob_yep (5:07:39 PM): The columnists?
genometype (5:08:14 PM): You've never seen the columns on the right side of the home page?
billy_bo_bob_yep (5:08:19 PM): No, I have
billy_bo_bob_yep (5:08:24 PM): Haven't you seen autumndark?
genometype (5:08:43 PM): One of the columnists. What about him?
billy_bo_bob_yep (5:08:52 PM): The column feature is broken so he's been posting in the essay section
billy_bo_bob_yep (5:09:01 PM): If he has any moderating ability it is preciously small
genometype (5:09:44 PM): True, but some of them seem to have power as founding members.
billy_bo_bob_yep (5:10:27 PM): I wouldn't really know. It's not like there's a list of moderators or any conceivable way to talk to the admins short of the report feature
genometype (5:11:33 PM): Oh yeah? I've seen a list of moderators for the different genres.
billy_bo_bob_yep (5:11:51 PM): Really? You have the link?
genometype (5:11:55 PM): And a list for fandoms on the sister site.
genometype (5:12:01 PM): Give me a sec.
genometype (5:13:11 PM): Well shoot!
genometype (5:13:56 PM): I'm being timed out right now, but I left the complete list on a review for one of Musashi Media's essays.
billy_bo_bob_yep (5:17:31 PM): Gilraen is a mod? Jesus, no wonder this site is so fucked up
genometype (5:18:12 PM): If you think you can do better, I dare you to try it.>:P
billy_bo_bob_yep (5:18:47 PM): Me? Gods no. But there are better mods out there
genometype (5:19:01 PM): Dare them.
billy_bo_bob_yep (5:19:07 PM): Although when I actually do have power I generally don't abuse it nearly a much
billy_bo_bob_yep (5:19:21 PM): The people I speak of are already moderating less retarded sites
genometype (5:19:40 PM): There are less retarted sites?
genometype (5:19:49 PM): :^O
billy_bo_bob_yep (5:20:25 PM): People already treat the review board as a forum
billy_bo_bob_yep (5:20:35 PM): Perhaps having an actual forum would help the site
billy_bo_bob_yep (5:20:48 PM): groups.yahoo also has some pretty good sites
billy_bo_bob_yep (5:21:02 PM): and google groups
billy_bo_bob_yep (5:21:10 PM): And pretty much everything other than fictionpress
genometype (5:21:14 PM): Their writer groups don't impress me much.
billy_bo_bob_yep (5:21:28 PM): Wait wait wait wait.. fictionpress writers impress you?
genometype (5:22:04 PM): No, they don't, but at least they (usually) refrain from using netspeak.
billy_bo_bob_yep (5:23:19 PM): Hmm. Yeah, that doesn't really mean much to me when I've used and visited other communities that are far better
genometype (5:24:12 PM): Sturgeon’s law plagues nearly everything.
billy_bo_bob_yep (5:25:04 PM): Hence why good groups are inherently more selective
genometype (5:25:30 PM): And so small, nearly nothing ever happens.:D
billy_bo_bob_yep (5:26:07 PM): Untrue, if you do nothing they boot you from the group
billy_bo_bob_yep (5:26:30 PM): That's what people do when they're actually selective
genometype (5:27:00 PM): =P~ Oh really? Where are these groups? I've seen Google and Yahoo, but there are so many!
billy_bo_bob_yep (5:28:07 PM): I can't find the link to the one I was temporarily in
billy_bo_bob_yep (5:28:17 PM): As a rule of thumb, I now try to avoid posting good writing online
genometype (5:28:43 PM): I guess everyone must do that.:(
billy_bo_bob_yep (5:28:43 PM): http://groups.yahoo.com/group/critical_writing/
billy_bo_bob_yep (5:28:56 PM): I wouldn't honestly reccomend that group, but it is an example
genometype (5:29:31 PM): Alright. Um, this being Central Time, I have a dinner to catch right now.
billy_bo_bob_yep (5:29:42 PM): So?
billy_bo_bob_yep (5:29:48 PM): :P
billy_bo_bob_yep (5:29:50 PM): Late
billy_bo_bob_yep (5:29:56 PM): *Later
genometype (5:30:12 PM): See you again.

genometype (6:06:07 PM): This Dr. H.H. Gaffney is a smart fellow.
creature_dm (6:06:17 PM): Who what?
genometype (6:06:43 PM): I've been reading that news letter.
creature_dm (6:06:52 PM): Ah
creature_dm (6:07:10 PM): Would you like to hear what's going on in my story right now?
genometype (6:07:30 PM): You have a story? OK, sure.
creature_dm (6:08:01 PM): A half-dragon in the form of a mortician and a reincarnated serial killer are investigating the corpse of Sherlock Holmes in an effort to prevent terrorists from killing King Arthur.
genometype (6:08:37 PM): You didn't use one of those silly story plot generators, did you?
creature_dm (6:09:00 PM): Nope, I thought up this mess of convoluted gibberish all on my own
genometype (6:09:16 PM): Then you're obsolete.
creature_dm (6:09:35 PM): The machine is taking over?
genometype (6:10:06 PM): Just visit Seventh Sanctum or the Generator Blog, and try telling me they aren't.
creature_dm (6:11:49 PM): This is a murder-mystery with a focus on stupidity. The story is about a rebellious archaeologist. It takes place in a magical universe. The future of peacemaking is a major part of this story.
creature_dm (6:12:11 PM): I'm sorry, but that's not nearly as elegantly nonsensical as my work
genometype (6:13:02 PM): Which account will post it, and I think the generators perfectly mimic what you do.
creature_dm (6:13:24 PM): Nah, I will never post this story to fictionpress
genometype (6:13:52 PM): That's your choice.
genometype (6:15:16 PM): Globalization and weapons proliferation seems to have an inverse relationship.
creature_dm (6:16:23 PM): ...what?
genometype (6:16:42 PM): Gaffney's theme.
genometype (6:17:08 PM): http://www.newrulesets.com/journals/barnett_1aug2005.pdf
creature_dm (6:19:44 PM): "though we fear some may never be able to join and may forever dwell in nasty, brutish, poor conditions."
creature_dm (6:20:00 PM): Boy, I'm glad to see there aren't any biases or obtuse statements with no support here
creature_dm (6:20:03 PM): That would be tragic
creature_dm (6:20:44 PM): "Is proliferation exponential? Naw."
creature_dm (6:20:54 PM): Rhetorical questions? Colloquialisms? You won't find any here!
genometype (6:21:34 PM): The letter was meant for a closed community.
creature_dm (6:22:04 PM): What's your point?
creature_dm (6:22:30 PM): Rhetoric and logical fallacies are rhetoric and logical fallacies regardless of the community they're designed for
genometype (6:23:07 PM): The normal rules of essay-writing don't apply in closed letters.
genometype (6:23:17 PM): I think.
creature_dm (6:23:44 PM): Sowhen you're preaching to the choir you don't have to make sense?
genometype (6:24:42 PM): In theory, every reader understands all the assumptions in the paper.
creature_dm (6:25:12 PM): If every reader understands the assumptions, then why doesn't he just state the conclusions?
genometype (6:25:46 PM): I don't know how to make a shrugging emoticon.
creature_dm (6:25:59 PM): *shrug*
genometype (6:26:00 PM): I would have, if I could.
genometype (6:26:09 PM): *Shrig*
genometype (6:26:23 PM): *Shrug* Opps, typo.
creature_dm (6:31:59 PM): Odd that he belittles terrorism as broken up just weeks after the London bombings
genometype (6:33:04 PM): Well, if no state sponsor exists anymore... What's your field, anyway?
creature_dm (6:33:33 PM): My field?
genometype (6:33:51 PM): You attended college, correct?
creature_dm (6:34:19 PM): I'm attending college
genometype (6:34:56 PM): I know.
creature_dm (6:35:15 PM): I intend to go into publishing
genometype (6:35:28 PM): As an editor?
creature_dm (6:35:53 PM): As a person who has his writings published
creature_dm (6:35:58 PM): Opposedly, as an editor
genometype (6:36:25 PM): Sidelining as an editor. Now it makes sense.
creature_dm (6:37:14 PM): I would say that if that doesn't work out i'd become a teacher or something, but if I really got absolutely none of my writing published i'd probably have to kill myself just on principle
genometype (6:37:40 PM): Every young person says that.
creature_dm (6:38:24 PM): Yeah, we all know i'm far too lazy to kill myself
genometype (6:38:47 PM): Every young person says that as well.
creature_dm (6:39:36 PM): You know, I'm willing to bet I know several hundred people that have never said either of those things
genometype (6:40:04 PM): They all think it, and I can manipulate them into saying it.
creature_dm (6:40:41 PM): Every young person says they can manipulate anyone into saying anything
genometype (6:41:42 PM): Perhaps. They also tend to believe they can change the world with a 300 word essay.
genometype (6:42:00 PM): That's still puzzling.
creature_dm (6:42:45 PM): They do
creature_dm (6:42:54 PM): They change the world by 300 words
genometype (6:43:17 PM): Leaked memos don't count.
creature_dm (6:43:27 PM): I bet if I had a 300 word, truly insightful essay, I could change the world
genometype (6:44:32 PM): I dare you to try.
creature_dm (6:45:23 PM): There is no evidence yet that god exists. Therefore, it is illogical to believe in him. Without god, there can be no meaning to life. Without meaning to life, all aesthetic and moral values are without basis. Since if god does not exist there can be no moral or aesthetic values, then there is no reason not to believe in god.
creature_dm (6:45:38 PM): If that were written in every textbook I bet it'd change the world
genometype (6:46:25 PM): As I always say: "How can you prove a negative?"
creature_dm (6:47:15 PM): I was merely stating the logical conclusions of several facts, at no point do I try to prove a negative
genometype (6:47:28 PM): I can read.
creature_dm (6:48:10 PM): Really? Can you also explain what your criticism is? Because that's really what I was going for.
genometype (6:49:58 PM): Yeah yeah, it seems to say the status quo is fine, that belief or disbelief... uh, my spelling has gone to hell... don't matter...
genometype (6:50:16 PM): Can I start over?
creature_dm (6:51:09 PM): What it really says is that there's no way in which the current status quo can be proved or disproved, so that you probably shouldn't waste your time debating it
genometype (6:51:56 PM): Yeah, I can see that, just couldn't articulate it correctly with rushed typing.
creature_dm (6:52:09 PM): You really like smilies, don't you?
genometype (6:52:31 PM): I just try to utilize them.
creature_dm (6:52:41 PM): "Nothing else makes sense, therefore the only logical course of action is to be completely illogical. Status quo and whatnot."
genometype (6:53:22 PM): What did... uh, C.S. Lewis or whatever-his-name-was say about God?
genometype (6:54:04 PM): Basically, things that men seek out must exist?
genometype (6:54:23 PM): We hunger for food, therefore it must exist.
genometype (6:54:42 PM): We hunger for love, therefore a companion must exist.
creature_dm (6:55:04 PM): Except you'd have a really, really hard time proving that
genometype (6:55:26 PM): What, food?
genometype (6:55:32 PM):
creature_dm (6:55:55 PM): That would certainly explain why people die of starvation
creature_dm (6:56:07 PM): and why people die alone, unwed
genometype (6:56:22 PM): Some people just suck.
creature_dm (6:57:06 PM): So if your plane crashed in the Sahara, that you couldn't find food and you died of starvation would imply that you "just suck"?
creature_dm (6:57:31 PM): Further, the whole point is moot since I, for one, do not seek out god or any form of divinity
genometype (6:58:51 PM): So you've opted out. Some people starve themselves. And yes, people who starve in the Sahara suck more than the Bedouin.
creature_dm (6:59:35 PM): But "opting out" is implying I have a desire in the first place
creature_dm (6:59:59 PM): The argument you presented was that if it is desired it must exist
creature_dm (7:00:11 PM): I have stated that I do not have such a desire.
genometype (7:00:23 PM): So God doesn't exist in your worldview.
creature_dm (7:01:06 PM): Now you're subjectifying the argument. While we could go into a great deal of subjectivism and postmodernism and all that rubbish I didn't think that's where you were giong
creature_dm (7:01:33 PM): It is implied that "it is within my worldview" that I am arguing about
creature_dm (7:01:37 PM): That's obvious
creature_dm (7:01:48 PM): Otherwise I wouldn't use the word "I" when referring to myself
genometype (7:02:26 PM): Love may not exist in mine. Since you aren't in pursuit for the truth, a postmodern answer suffices for you.
creature_dm (7:03:00 PM): Love, for one, would need to be defined before we start debating its existance
creature_dm (7:03:25 PM): I have no idea what you mean by "you aren't in pursuit for the truth" nor how "a postmodern answer suffices" even if that were true
genometype (7:03:45 PM): "Love is friendship on fire." That good?
creature_dm (7:04:02 PM): Perhaps. What, then is friendship?
genometype (7:05:48 PM): God doesn't matter to you, correct? So, you aren't looking for him, therefore, Lewis's argument holds no meaning for you.
genometype (7:06:04 PM): Therefore, it is invalid.
creature_dm (7:06:47 PM): This is a most creative viewpoint you've expressed
genometype (7:07:22 PM): Is it? I thought it has existed for some time.
creature_dm (7:07:38 PM): Most creative thoughts have.
creature_dm (7:08:08 PM): You're saying that unless I assume the existance of god, then I am not looking for truth.
genometype (7:09:08 PM): I see. I suppose if someone is already looking for God, one has already assumed his existance.
creature_dm (7:09:54 PM): If one is looking for god, one by definition must be aware that the entity referred to god may or may not exist
creature_dm (7:10:17 PM): I can be "looking for my keys under the couch"; to do so I must know that some form of keys have at some point existed
creature_dm (7:10:38 PM): Humans have the capacity to take ideas and place them in new situations and environment
creature_dm (7:10:40 PM): s
genometype (7:11:23 PM): It doesn't sound very economical to search for things one assumes doesn't exist. That's a poor budgeting of one's time.
genometype (7:11:43 PM): Therefore, the WMDs must exist.
genometype (7:13:32 PM): Keys and God both exist.
genometype (7:13:55 PM): "God" being a first mover of the universe, at least.
creature_dm (7:14:05 PM): For simplicity's sake, let me refresh our minds on the development of this discussion
creature_dm (7:14:13 PM): My argument: There is no evidence that god exists.
creature_dm (7:14:29 PM): You: There is evidence, for anything which people desire must exist.
genometype (7:14:37 PM): Go on.
creature_dm (7:14:50 PM): My argument: Things which people desire don't necessarily exist, and further I do not desire god.
creature_dm (7:15:42 PM): Your new argument seems to be: People desiring something that doesn't exist doesn't make sense and would not be economical.
creature_dm (7:16:31 PM): However, people do many things which either don't make sense, or don't appear to make sense.
genometype (7:16:32 PM): I'm assuming people are rational, and would only search if they expected some sort of reward out of it.
creature_dm (7:16:52 PM): Yes, people expect a reward, but that people's expectations are not often met
creature_dm (7:17:28 PM): I wish that I had a million dollars in my closet, however, there is none there and wishing for it to be true breaks my expectations
genometype (7:17:50 PM): You don't really expect it to be there.
creature_dm (7:18:17 PM): Do you ever expect to find god?
genometype (7:18:41 PM): I'll have to improve my math skills first.
genometype (7:18:51 PM):
creature_dm (7:19:03 PM): In a class I expected to get a C, but I actually got a B
creature_dm (7:19:20 PM): For me to expect this, the idea of a C must exist
creature_dm (7:19:29 PM): However, that does not mean that is what I will receive
genometype (7:19:34 PM): And yet, the potential for a C existed.
creature_dm (7:19:37 PM): Yes
creature_dm (7:19:42 PM): The potential for a C existed
creature_dm (7:19:46 PM): I cannot prove that C does not exist
creature_dm (7:20:05 PM): However, just because I expect a C doesn't mean that is what I will receive (that is, what exists)
genometype (7:21:42 PM): We’ve gotten to a point where atheistic arguments don’t make sense, because the potent ional for God’s existence exists.
genometype (7:22:38 PM): The potential for a C exists.
genometype (7:23:22 PM): The multiverse is a large place, and within it, the potential for God's existance exists.
creature_dm (7:24:11 PM): busy brb
genometype (7:24:24 PM): "How do you prove a negative?" OK.
genometype (7:26:16 PM): What could Le Creature be busy doing? Of course, he's searching for the $1million in his closet!
creature_dm (7:28:44 PM): I'm totally gonna find it one of these days
genometype (7:29:14 PM): Ha! So you aren't an agnostic!
genometype (7:30:47 PM): Reminds me of the White House photo session.
creature_dm (7:32:30 PM): Score
creature_dm (7:32:39 PM): Got into all the important classes
genometype (7:32:58 PM): Just now?
creature_dm (7:33:08 PM): Yeah, my Phase II was at 5:20
creature_dm (7:33:27 PM): Now, back to the discussion
creature_dm (7:33:34 PM): You seem to be misinterpreting my argument
creature_dm (7:33:41 PM): I was never saying that the potential for C does not exist
creature_dm (7:33:59 PM): Rather, there is merely no evidence yet that proves that C exists
genometype (7:34:09 PM): Cs exist for other people.
creature_dm (7:34:17 PM): Precisely
genometype (7:34:26 PM): God exists for other people; they say so.
creature_dm (7:34:34 PM): If you choose to believe in C, there is no way in which I can prove you are incorrect
creature_dm (7:34:52 PM): Just as if you choose to believe there are aliens, there is no way I can prove you are incorrect
genometype (7:35:42 PM): When a tree falls in the woods, is a sound made? I can't remember how that goes.
creature_dm (7:35:59 PM): Yes.
creature_dm (7:36:18 PM): The sound reverberations can leave indentations on nearby objects.
genometype (7:36:57 PM): Drakes equation seems to point toward the existence of aliens.
creature_dm (7:37:19 PM): Also, the average airspeed of an unladen swallow is 11 meters per second
genometype (7:37:56 PM): You chased that knowledge and found it.
creature_dm (7:38:19 PM): Yes, there is evidence involved
genometype (7:38:26 PM): Those that pursue God find him, usually.
creature_dm (7:38:33 PM): You seem to consistently argue that there is evidence
creature_dm (7:38:39 PM): toward the existance of god
genometype (7:38:52 PM): Those that pursue him find him.
creature_dm (7:39:09 PM): However, they do not find evidence of him
creature_dm (7:39:17 PM): Thus is the definition of belief, not evidence
creature_dm (7:39:45 PM): My whole point is to not confuse belief with knowledge
genometype (7:39:49 PM): Drake started with a hypothesis.
creature_dm (7:39:59 PM): Drake's equation proves nothing
genometype (7:40:12 PM): We might confirm it in a few decades.
creature_dm (7:40:41 PM): We can confirm the existance of god if he appeared in front of everyone simultaneously and said he existed. Until he does that, though, there is no evidence
creature_dm (7:40:48 PM): My point is to not confuse belief with knowledge
creature_dm (7:40:57 PM): Knowledge can be debated, proven or disproven
creature_dm (7:41:16 PM): Should drake's equation be able to be calculated, its result is knowledge
creature_dm (7:41:36 PM): Until then, speculating as to what it will prove is merely belief
creature_dm (7:42:06 PM): Belief cannot be debated because there no evidence that can be used as proof
genometype (7:43:00 PM): Now you sound like No Trust, with his "Intellectual masturbation."
creature_dm (7:43:48 PM): Just because No Trust is a prick doesn't mean he isn't occasionaly correct
genometype (7:44:37 PM): In the meantime, I see a lot of patterns that seem to spontaneously propagate.
creature_dm (7:45:33 PM): Where? From whom? What are you talking about now?
genometype (7:46:26 PM): Where did language and the market come from, for starters. Nature seems to be pseudorandom. What for? I need a hypothosis.
genometype (7:47:15 PM): Hayek's observations will lead one to think the market isn't a human invention.
creature_dm (7:47:43 PM): The market isn't a human invention, it was created by human predecesors
genometype (7:48:01 PM): Aliens?
creature_dm (7:48:18 PM): "random" only exists at the quantum level; beyond that there are merely situations in which there are too many variables for an effective calculation
creature_dm (7:48:36 PM): Do you believe aliens were human predecors?
creature_dm (7:48:43 PM): Because there is evidence against that
genometype (7:49:18 PM): I don't believe aliens invented the market, or language.
creature_dm (7:49:27 PM): Good
genometype (7:49:50 PM): Command economies simply don't work, because they aren't supposed to.
creature_dm (7:50:05 PM): The market and language were created by chimpanzee-esque human predecesors, and the market and language still exist on primitive levels among chimpanzees
creature_dm (7:50:38 PM): Humans merely made the market more diverse, than say, sex for food.
creature_dm (7:51:03 PM): and humans merely greatly expanded the vocabulary beyond "Holy shit someone's going to come kill us"
genometype (7:51:57 PM): Sure, we've built up from humble origins, but it seems predetermined to me.
creature_dm (7:52:17 PM): Many things appear to be predetermined in hindsight
genometype (7:52:30 PM): Like anthills.
creature_dm (7:53:10 PM): Of course, one can argue for a level of predetermination in all things
creature_dm (7:53:55 PM): If the world operates where finite and comprehensible rules govern human behavior and all natural phenomenon, then all things that will ever happen hypothetically can be calculated from any point in time
genometype (7:54:17 PM): That sounds familiar.
creature_dm (7:54:25 PM): (save those things which are truly random but have very little effect on events beyond the quantum level)
creature_dm (7:55:20 PM): The problem of course is 1) in establishing rules to govern every conceivable phenomenon, 2) in collecting enough data to begin analyzing, and 3) in building a powerful enough machine that can analyze that many variables
genometype (7:55:31 PM): Did you write the wikipedia entry on economic determinism?
creature_dm (7:55:44 PM): I have never written a wikipedia entry, so no
genometype (7:57:12 PM): Ok. So, do you believe we're going somewhere we can't control?
creature_dm (7:57:29 PM): That depends entirely on what you mean by control
creature_dm (7:57:49 PM): Do you believe we are in "control" now?
genometype (7:58:36 PM): No. Market forces, just one among many forces, shape the world, rather than a central command.
genometype (7:59:08 PM): Neo's babbling about "choice" means little in shaping it, at least for most of us.
creature_dm (7:59:44 PM): On the other hand, the market, as well as many other forces, are almost entirely defined by humans. If they could collectively decide to do something else, they could. In that sense they have "control", they merely do not apply it
creature_dm (8:00:43 PM): However, if all humans should choose to do something, then that too could be, hypothetically, predicted accurately should we have the means to do so. In that sense, "control" is merely a word humans use to imply their idea of "choice", which of course is also an illusion
genometype (8:02:00 PM): Planned economies fail.
genometype (8:02:19 PM): 1990, the big nodal shift in mankind.
creature_dm (8:02:29 PM): The majority of most large-scale planned economies have not lasted greater than a century.
creature_dm (8:02:51 PM): Planned economies on smaller scales generally have more resiliency as the number of variables decrease.
genometype (8:03:19 PM): Yes, microeconomics works differently.
creature_dm (8:03:29 PM): Only because there are less variables
genometype (8:03:48 PM): That seems to be true.
genometype (8:05:26 PM): Well, I only have a limited amount of sunlight left in the day here.
genometype (8:06:32 PM): Anything I need to answer for before logging off?
genometype (8:06:44 PM): Besides everything?
creature_dm (8:06:48 PM): brb
genometype (8:07:30 PM): Take your time. I need to step out until the sun goes down.
genometype (8:58:37 PM): I'm back when you're back.
creature_dm (9:39:00 PM): Just been watching some family guy and eating dinner
genometype (9:39:21 PM): Hello.
creature_dm (9:39:52 PM): Howdy
genometype (9:39:56 PM): Did you watch it on video or DVD?
creature_dm (9:40:00 PM): What's with the Navy stuff anyway? Are you in the Navy?
creature_dm (9:40:01 PM): DV
genometype (9:40:22 PM): I just chose this IM environment.
creature_dm (9:40:44 PM): I know, but why do you like it?
genometype (9:41:00 PM): It is pleasing.
creature_dm (9:41:17 PM): Which one do you stay on? 1234 or 5?
creature_dm (9:41:23 PM): I like 2
genometype (9:41:43 PM): I usually stick with one.
genometype (9:41:58 PM): #1
creature_dm (9:43:25 PM): You know, i've almost hit the same review count as you have for "The End of Segregation" with a whooping 74 words
genometype (9:43:50 PM): The choices people make...
creature_dm (9:44:21 PM): Did you know I think i'm the only person on fictionpress to actually have more reviews on a piece than actual words?
genometype (9:45:19 PM): That is frightening, but haikus usually get close.
creature_dm (9:45:42 PM): Yes, haikus can get close
creature_dm (9:46:37 PM): War Suck!
genometype (9:46:38 PM): I've seen some journals routinely collect more reviews than words in the original posts.
creature_dm (9:47:03 PM): Oh? What sorts of journals?
genometype (9:48:23 PM): They usually devolve into forums. Things like Live/dead journal often do that. Sometimes, a daily post will say nothing more than "discuss amoung yourselves."
creature_dm (9:48:44 PM): Ah
creature_dm (9:48:58 PM): I've spent a total of 30 seconds on lifejournal
genometype (9:49:20 PM): All the good ones are closed to friends only.
creature_dm (9:49:30 PM): Good thing I don't have friends
genometype (9:50:46 PM): Occasionally, someone might post something of interest, but its best look look elsewhere.
genometype (9:51:30 PM): Have you ever browsed Project Guttenberg?
genometype (9:53:03 PM):
creature_dm (9:54:11 PM): hold
creature_dm (9:55:45 PM): No, i've always stolen my free books from elsewhere
creature_dm (9:55:46 PM): I mean...
genometype (9:56:30 PM): Libraries don't have all the classic titles, at least not any that I've seen.
creature_dm (9:58:05 PM): Mr. President, it is natural to man to indulge in the illusions of hope. We are apt to shut our eyes against a painful truth, and listen to the song of that siren till she transforms us into beasts. Is this the part of wise men, engaged in a great and arduous struggle for liberty? Are we disposed to be of the number of those who, having eyes, see not, and, having ears, hear not, the things which so nearly concern their temporal salvation? For my part, whatever anguish of spirit it may cost, I am willing to know the whole truth; to know the worst, and to provide for it.
creature_dm (9:58:51 PM): Mr. President, it is natural to man to indulge in the illusions of hope. We are apt to shut our eyes against a painful truth, and listen to the song of that siren till she transforms us into beasts. Is this the part of wise men, engaged in a great and arduous struggle for liberty? Are we disposed to be of the number of those who, having eyes, see not, and, having ears, hear not, the things which so nearly concern their temporal salvation? For my part, whatever anguish of spirit it may cost, I am willing to know the whole truth; to know the worst, and to provide for it.
genometype (9:59:21 PM): ?
creature_dm (9:59:24 PM): It is in vain, sir, to extenuate the matter. Gentlemen may cry, Peace, Peace—but there is no peace. The war is actually begun! The next gale that sweeps from the north will bring to our ears the clash of resounding arms! Our brethren are already in the field! Why stand we here idle? What is it that gentlemen wish? What would they have? Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!
genometype (10:00:12 PM): Thanks for the quotes...
genometype (10:00:27 PM): Wikiquote?
creature_dm (10:00:38 PM): No it's from that site you just mentioned
genometype (10:01:03 PM): Which author did you look up?
creature_dm (10:01:12 PM): Patrick Henry
genometype (10:01:24 PM): Yes, liberty or death.
genometype (10:02:04 PM): I enjoy the selection there.
genometype (10:03:02 PM): Note that if Patrick Henry were alive today, you'd condemn him for the rhetorical questions.
creature_dm (10:03:02 PM): I always preferred the modern american version, "Give me liberty or i'll cap your mothafuckin ass"
creature_dm (10:03:12 PM): That's incorrect
creature_dm (10:03:21 PM): I condemn him anyway for his use of rhetorical questions
genometype (10:03:32 PM):
genometype (10:04:30 PM): Makes sense.
genometype (10:05:02 PM): His speeches wouldn't motivate me to fight anything.
creature_dm (10:05:30 PM): That's because you're not poor and stupid
genometype (10:05:53 PM): Thank you.
creature_dm (10:06:04 PM): Yeah, you're not poor
creature_dm (10:06:08 PM): cha-burn
genometype (10:06:24 PM):
creature_dm (10:09:49 PM): Are you holding up your pointer or your middle there?
genometype (10:10:06 PM): It is the shape of an L.
creature_dm (10:10:27 PM): Ah
creature_dm (10:10:38 PM): Sort of like the pilot in the picture to the left?
genometype (10:10:48 PM): Yeah!
genometype (10:11:41 PM): I've been calling you a loser from the beginnging.
genometype (10:11:54 PM):
creature_dm (10:12:40 PM): But it's backward
creature_dm (10:12:53 PM): I thought you were trying to tell me something about yourself
genometype (10:13:11 PM): I'm not a naval aviator.
creature_dm (10:13:32 PM): Really? What are you then? A potato?
genometype (10:13:57 PM): How dare you insult the Irish!
creature_dm (10:14:20 PM): What, are they having another famine?
genometype (10:15:01 PM): May a thousand plagues descend on your house.
creature_dm (10:15:29 PM): Your mother smells of elderberries
genometype (10:15:30 PM): I do, however, grow potatos.
creature_dm (10:18:21 PM): STATELY, PLUMP BUCK MULLIGAN CAME FROM THE STAIRHEAD, bearing a bowl of lather on which a mirror and a razor lay crossed. A yellow dressinggown, ungirdled, was sustained gently behind him by the mild morning air. He held the bowl aloft and intoned: --INTROIBO AD ALTARE DEI.
genometype (10:19:00 PM): Organicly
genometype (10:19:11 PM): Bad spelling.
creature_dm (10:19:52 PM): Yeah, whoever wrote that must have been a n00b
genometype (10:20:10 PM): Is that a gothic writing style...
creature_dm (10:20:53 PM): It's Joyce
genometype (10:21:10 PM): I was about to guess Hawthorne.
genometype (10:25:13 PM): I learn something new everyday: Jonny Cash covered a Soundgarden song.
creature_dm (10:25:25 PM): He also covered a NIN song
creature_dm (10:25:28 PM): The history of all hitherto existing societies is the history of class struggles. Freeman and slave, patrician and plebeian, lord and serf, guild-master and journeyman, in a word, oppressor and oppressed, stood in constant opposition to one another, carried on an uninterrupted, now hidden, now open fight, a fight that each time ended, either in a revolutionary re-constitution of society at large, or in the common ruin of the contending classes.
genometype (10:26:25 PM): Alex de Tocqueville?
creature_dm (10:26:32 PM): Marx
genometype (10:26:43 PM): I'm bad at this!
genometype (10:27:32 PM): Ah, now that I've read it again, it should have been obvious.
creature_dm (10:27:58 PM): Retrospect is 20/20
genometype (10:28:22 PM): Bite me.
creature_dm (10:28:33 PM): OkY
creature_dm (10:28:36 PM): *bites*
creature_dm (10:28:40 PM): Hmm, tastes like chicken
genometype (10:28:49 PM):
genometype (10:29:36 PM): And FYI, I knew "Hurt" was a Nine Inch Nails song.
creature_dm (10:29:56 PM): Okay
creature_dm (10:30:05 PM): Why did you switch your avatar to a female?
genometype (10:30:55 PM): I did that a long time ago. It isn't hard to switch. I did it for reasons of family politics.
creature_dm (10:31:52 PM): ....?
genometype (10:32:49 PM): In short, I talked to a girl, and her family noticed, didn't approve of her talking to a boy. So I switched sexes.
genometype (10:33:13 PM): Strange, considering she was supposedly over 18.
creature_dm (10:33:56 PM): Ah, I see
creature_dm (10:34:03 PM): Maybe she was married
genometype (10:34:21 PM): If so, she didn't say anything about it.
creature_dm (10:34:42 PM): What, people just slip that in these days? "Hi, my name is Joanna and I'm married. Nice to meet you."
genometype (10:35:04 PM): Hey, I never told you my marital status.
creature_dm (10:35:41 PM): You claim to be single and not looking
creature_dm (10:35:49 PM): What the truth is, I don't know/care
genometype (10:36:23 PM): So you CAN check profiles!
creature_dm (10:36:34 PM): Other people's, not my own
genometype (10:36:51 PM):
creature_dm (10:37:22 PM): What's with the nose thing?
genometype (10:38:00 PM): It means "Liar." I'm saying you can check your own profile.
creature_dm (10:38:11 PM): Oh I can
creature_dm (10:38:34 PM): But I have to click on your profile first, and then type in my name on the part with the name
genometype (10:39:10 PM): That doesn't sound so hard.
creature_dm (10:39:38 PM): It isn't, if you aren't looking for a real link
genometype (10:40:14 PM): Real link?
creature_dm (10:40:57 PM): Like clicking on your avatar
creature_dm (10:41:02 PM): ie the lazy way
genometype (10:41:34 PM): You are 33 again.
creature_dm (10:41:51 PM): Actually i'm 2,300,485.93 years old
genometype (10:43:22 PM): Except on thursdays. Are you going to continue keeping raptor7345 in that rut?
creature_dm (10:43:41 PM): What rut?
genometype (10:44:05 PM): Writing two word chapters.
genometype (10:44:25 PM): Now that you know they won't delete him.
creature_dm (10:44:57 PM): So you're thinking I need more words?
genometype (10:45:32 PM): Gah! Your parody needs to grow.
genometype (10:46:00 PM): The shock value of chapter two was fine, however.
genometype (10:46:08 PM):
creature_dm (10:46:19 PM): Not really. I knew that anyone reading me more than likely had read it somewhere else
creature_dm (10:46:30 PM): It was actually redundant
genometype (10:46:57 PM): It shocked me into a giggle.
creature_dm (10:47:41 PM): Heh
genometype (10:49:10 PM): AVDA wasn't going to stop writing until SBR or SBS or whatever admitted to laughing to it.
genometype (10:49:27 PM): SBR Silent Blue Rose.
genometype (10:49:32 PM): That was it.
genometype (10:50:12 PM): AVDA wouldn't be happy with a displeased audience.
genometype (10:53:37 PM): Le Creature died while instant messenging with a radical superhacker. May he rest in peace.
creature_dm (10:54:53 PM): Le Creature went underground. He's currently living with the moles.
genometype (10:55:48 PM): I see. What is the self I'm talking to? Got a screen name?
creature_dm (10:56:06 PM): Yes, Creature
genometype (10:56:27 PM): Creature is no longer French, I guess.
genometype (10:56:35 PM): Tres bon.
creature_dm (10:57:55 PM): You never even met the real creature, he was gone before you got here
genometype (10:59:23 PM): Mmm. I'm not sure I'd want to see that carnival. Some say that site was better back then, but I'm doubting that.
creature_dm (10:59:54 PM): in a sentence: it inspired the creation of MrFlames
creature_dm (11:00:17 PM): It was different in some ways and completely the same in others
genometype (11:00:46 PM): I missed a colourful character!
creature_dm (11:01:02 PM): You can always buy my book
genometype (11:01:22 PM): I bet it made the retarded anarchist's day.
genometype (11:02:12 PM): I enjoyed lobotomizing him.
creature_dm (11:02:13 PM): Someone once flamed me on one story, commended me on another, and made no comment on another
genometype (11:02:46 PM): How does one review without leaving a comment?
creature_dm (11:03:23 PM): He said, "...no comment."
genometype (11:03:40 PM): Oh, I hate those reviews!
genometype (11:03:49 PM): Loathe.
genometype (11:04:01 PM): Wait! *Loathe*
creature_dm (11:04:02 PM): Did you ever read Chapter 2 of The Imperialist?
genometype (11:04:29 PM): Imperialist? Sorry, no.
creature_dm (11:04:55 PM): http://www.fictionpress.com/read.php?storyid=1293968
genometype (11:05:28 PM): It is going to time out.
creature_dm (11:05:42 PM): copy/paste it then
genometype (11:06:06 PM): That won't solve it.
genometype (11:06:19 PM): Didn't.
creature_dm (11:06:46 PM): Well, I trust you can figure out what must be done
genometype (11:07:07 PM): I just can't connect with it.
creature_dm (11:07:42 PM): Just do a search for Admiral on Fictionpress
creature_dm (11:07:49 PM): or something
genometype (11:09:00 PM): You don't understand. Fictionpress routinely times out on me. I can't visit the site. I have, however, read works by Admiral.
genometype (11:09:35 PM): Was that in any way related to the, uh, Armchair General thing?
creature_dm (11:10:26 PM): vaguely
creature_dm (11:10:37 PM): This was his most provoking and less-than-usually-retarded piece
creature_dm (11:10:44 PM): It was also one of his first
genometype (11:11:10 PM): Most people become reactionary after the first one.
genometype (11:13:49 PM): So, you have no trouble visiting the site? I envy and loathe your ability to connect to high-traffic sites.
genometype (11:17:58 PM): I'd say almost everything is "provoking" on the site. I don't necessarily equate that with talent.
genometype (11:20:27 PM): Did your question about Admiral's work have anything to do with my "Yes Virginia!" Christmas card gag?
genometype (11:32:23 PM): I'll assume you had a power outage, rather than believe you simply vanished.

billy_bo_bob_yep (9:43:26 PM): GRENADE!
genometype (9:43:34 PM): "The moment the idea is admitted into society that property is not as sacred as the laws of God, and that there is not a force of law and public justice to protect it, anarchy and tyranny commence."
billy_bo_bob_yep (9:44:16 PM): Anarchy and tyranny simultaneously commence?
billy_bo_bob_yep (9:44:18 PM): That's incredible
genometype (9:44:52 PM): John Adams got away with saying it.
billy_bo_bob_yep (9:44:53 PM): It's like water on fire or "reality TV"
genometype (9:45:24 PM): 'Sup?
billy_bo_bob_yep (9:45:29 PM): Hmm
billy_bo_bob_yep (9:45:36 PM): I'm pretty sure the story i'm writing makes little to no sense
billy_bo_bob_yep (9:45:47 PM): This has begun to concern me, ever so slightly
genometype (9:46:09 PM): The same one? It was silly from the start.>:P
billy_bo_bob_yep (9:46:44 PM): The part I referred to was well over a hundred pages in
genometype (9:47:14 PM): :-< I could have guessed that.
billy_bo_bob_yep (9:47:21 PM): At least some of the narrative/dialogue is a bit amusing, even if as a whole it doesn't really make sense
genometype (9:47:39 PM): PWP?
billy_bo_bob_yep (9:48:15 PM): PWP?
genometype (9:48:52 PM): It stands for "Plot, what plot?" A fan fiction term, usually. It mostly applies to smut, however.
billy_bo_bob_yep (9:49:00 PM): Ah
billy_bo_bob_yep (9:49:27 PM): It also is an underground hacker group, a stock, a site that sells tennis racket, and an underground wrestling organization
billy_bo_bob_yep (9:49:56 PM): Actually there is a plot, the plot just is sort of an anti-plot
billy_bo_bob_yep (9:50:12 PM): Given my inspiration for the section, this of course only makes sense
genometype (9:50:26 PM): Okay.
genometype (9:50:37 PM): :-?
billy_bo_bob_yep (9:50:49 PM): It's kinda like an episode of seinfeld. You know, nothing really happens. But a lot of stuff is happening
genometype (9:51:36 PM): Oh yes. Kramer has a adventure, while George complains about... whatever.
billy_bo_bob_yep (9:51:44 PM): The first thing he noticed was that he didn't have a tail. The next thing he checked, however, was still there, and for this he was glad. The next thing he noticed was that he was a human male. This would come as a surprise to most half-dragons, I believe, but I think Char managed to take it in stride. If nothing else, he could appreciate the fact he was wearing a pretty smooth suit, even if he was a human.
billy_bo_bob_yep (9:52:09 PM): Out of context that might not make sense
billy_bo_bob_yep (9:52:17 PM): Char is a half-dragon
genometype (9:52:52 PM): The only other Char I've ever heard of was from Mobile Suit Gundam (1979).
billy_bo_bob_yep (9:53:24 PM): He soon finds out that in this world, his name is apparently Charlie
genometype (9:53:58 PM): I see. The next thing he checked out, was that what I think it was?
genometype (9:54:10 PM): :-O
billy_bo_bob_yep (9:54:26 PM): "You see, in this world, we're supposed to fulfill certain stereotypes. You're the charming and masculine male protagonist, and I'm the alluring yet deceptive femme fatale. Do you understand yet?"
"Absolutely," Charlie said. "Are we to have sex now?"
"Not a chance in Hell," Emilia stated frankly, "Unless this is Hell, which could be the case-in which case, not a chance, period."
"Oh I see," Charlie said. "You must be a lesbian."

genometype (9:55:43 PM): This was definately written by the personae I've come to know.<:-P
billy_bo_bob_yep (9:55:48 PM): "But if they're so stupid, why do I have to stop them? Why haven't they been stopped already?"
"Because," Emilia said, exasperation apparently beginning to set in, "They are extremely intelligent stupid people. You've never dealt with someone like that before?"

genometype (9:56:19 PM): :)
billy_bo_bob_yep (9:56:44 PM): "When, exactly, did everything stop making sense?"
"It all started when this guy showed up. Well, not really a guy."
"Was he a girl?" Charlie asked.
"Not when he showed up," Emilia said.
"Was he a eunuch?" Charlie asked.
"Not when he showed up," Emilia said. "At least I don't think so."
"Ah," Charlie said, "That would explain why the world stopped making sense when he showed up.
genometype (9:57:16 PM): K
billy_bo_bob_yep (9:57:34 PM): Do you find any of those "funny"?
genometype (9:57:48 PM): Nope.
billy_bo_bob_yep (9:58:18 PM): What exactly do you think of them?
genometype (9:59:09 PM): They're like the contrived comic relief of a major motion picture.
billy_bo_bob_yep (9:59:51 PM): Well, I'm making progress. At least people can tell that it's at least supposed to be funny.
genometype (10:00:34 PM): Aiming for comedy is difficult.
genometype (10:01:44 PM): The three law enforcement types processed the same scene differently. Jones, obviously, was eavesdropping on one civilian electro-magnetic emissions within United States territory. Sure, he was just rehearsing for his airtime over Indian Country, but still, the law's the law.

The navy crime scene investigators turned their attention away from the workstation operators, and toward the writer. They wished to talk over the case, but weren't sure what to say before civilian ears. They glared, then mentally threw up their hands, and delved into some manila folders.

The Lieutenant set a Playstation One, super-modified in anticipation of the PSP, in his crossed lap.

“Does anyone want to play Tekken?”
billy_bo_bob_yep (10:03:03 PM): Interesting
billy_bo_bob_yep (10:03:12 PM): I'm not exactly sure what to make of it
genometype (10:03:25 PM): Noise pelted ears irritably in homes all over Southern California during the hours before sunrise, when UpLink's legion of secretaries dialed the numbers of the company's network security personnel.
These men, and a few women, slowly rose from the beds or couches of their apartments or bungalows, and groped for the necks of conventional phones, or maybe the arches of headphones, and hailed the other end in original groggy ways.
Not all were asleep. Some, in fact, were playing the new release of PS2 Dragon Ball Z game when their games were interrupted.
billy_bo_bob_yep (10:06:02 PM): Is there more coming?
genometype (10:06:23 PM): Affirmative.
genometype (10:07:40 PM): “Here is a really special man on campus, the Tiny Terror, a fellow Hispanic, a former Special Forces Soldier. Tell everybody your name and rank, Soldier!”

The reporter exchanged the microphone from his black thermal gloves to the soldier's hands.

“I'm Communications Sergeant Robin Molina. My last assignment was actually classified, but my last non-secret unit was within the 5th Special Forces Group. Is that good?”

“Very good. De Oppresso Liber. That was some impressive booty you brought in. Care to talk about it?”

Robin was a ham for the camera.

genometype (10:08:19 PM): “OK, sure. They don't call us snake-eaters for nothing. I went out woven in with a fire group of a friendly Arab militia, hunting mice and snakes from the open desert. The locals out here live within an ecological wasteland created by Saddam, so living can be pretty tough. Really, we can and do import a lot of stuff, but these people need a staple. Besides, if we give them everything except skills to do this alone, they only become dependent on us. We've taught them so much- much more than just how to shoot a gun. We're really covering everything the cowering civilian weenies are supposed to, so we're doing something of a double duty.

genometype (10:08:32 PM): “They're really getting an education with us, and they in turn are giving us some needed experience at this. We're also getting to know and trust one another, which is more than the diplomats are doing. Really, they can identify with soldiers a lot better than weenies who wilt without air conditioning.

“Can I ask you a question?”

“I don't know, can you? Just kidding, go ahead.”

“How is it that all the news that happens in a day can fit on a twenty-five minute news show?”
genometype (10:08:52 PM): fin
billy_bo_bob_yep (10:10:37 PM): Indeed
billy_bo_bob_yep (10:10:48 PM): Good question, they should ask Johnny about that.
genometype (10:11:01 PM): #:-S
genometype (10:11:23 PM): They carried the heaviest and most complex bomb known to man, a bomb of horrifying power. Does anyone outside of the scientific community know just what ten terawatts is? That’s ten to the thirteenth power watts, sickening amount of electricity, enough to heat a packet of deuterium (heavy water) to a really big number in scientific notation, a temperature seen in nature only around quasars (which are probably masses of space dust and gas being pulled into a black hole). All you need to burn water to these temperatures is a collage tabletop laser to concentrate all its output into the briefest moment, say a femtosecond (a time so short, nerve impulses are turtles in comparison), and got a whole lot of steam power lunging against the bomb casing. They worked on this, too.
genometype (10:11:58 PM): Different story.
genometype (10:12:04 PM): :-B
billy_bo_bob_yep (10:12:13 PM): Indeed
genometype (10:12:48 PM): I won't harass you with more.
billy_bo_bob_yep (10:13:26 PM): Wait, was the last one a mistaken post or did I just really miss something?
genometype (10:13:39 PM): Which one?
billy_bo_bob_yep (10:14:26 PM): the one with ten terawatts
genometype (10:14:35 PM): What of it?
billy_bo_bob_yep (10:14:41 PM): Was it supposed to be funny?
genometype (10:15:06 PM): No!=))
genometype (10:15:35 PM): I hope to build that bomb one day.B-)
billy_bo_bob_yep (10:15:43 PM): ...why?
billy_bo_bob_yep (10:15:59 PM): So you can heat up 100 gallons of hot chocolate instantly?
genometype (10:17:22 PM): Dude, bombs are awesome! All the chocolate would evaporate. Naw, it would be more useful for moving objects through space.
billy_bo_bob_yep (10:18:06 PM): Bombs are interesting as a form to relieve sensory deprivation and as a tool. Do you not have enough contact in real life?
genometype (10:18:40 PM): Contact? Contact with what?
billy_bo_bob_yep (10:18:46 PM): Other human beings
billy_bo_bob_yep (10:19:07 PM): non-standard environments... a sufficient supply of mental input
genometype (10:19:29 PM): :-$ Don't tell anyone, but I'm talking to a human right now!=))
billy_bo_bob_yep (10:19:39 PM): No you're not
billy_bo_bob_yep (10:20:00 PM): I'm not a human, I'm a god, remember?
genometype (10:20:07 PM): Right, you’re a nonentity.
billy_bo_bob_yep (10:20:14 PM): Precisely.
genometype (10:20:30 PM): You've never looked for yourself, therefore, you don't exist.
billy_bo_bob_yep (10:21:09 PM): What do you mean by "yourself" and "exist"
billy_bo_bob_yep (10:21:38 PM): The idea of self and other are merely abstract concepts that oversimplify a complex state
genometype (10:22:30 PM): Untrue. A self may be nothing more than some inquiring. It thinks, therefore it is.
billy_bo_bob_yep (10:23:01 PM): Does making no sense give you a boner or something? Descartes was a tool, "I think therefore I am" isn't a proof, it's just a catch-phrase.
genometype (10:23:31 PM): Dropping names gives AVDA an erection.
genometype (10:23:45 PM): Not nonsense.
billy_bo_bob_yep (10:24:04 PM): What is this thing you speak of, "thinking"?
billy_bo_bob_yep (10:24:17 PM): Where, precisely, do you think? Can you point to the specific location where *you* are?
billy_bo_bob_yep (10:24:33 PM): Is there a specific portion of your brain that, if we removed it, would be "you"?
genometype (10:25:02 PM): Socratic junky.
genometype (10:25:11 PM): L-)
billy_bo_bob_yep (10:25:30 PM): Yes, I am employing rhetoric
billy_bo_bob_yep (10:25:48 PM): Since this text box is insufficient to contain a lengthy argument on the essay, I have to use simpler methods
billy_bo_bob_yep (10:25:57 PM): *subject, not essay
genometype (10:26:11 PM): I just kicked my desk, proving my leg exists.
billy_bo_bob_yep (10:26:18 PM): To who?
billy_bo_bob_yep (10:26:28 PM): I didn't just feel your leg get kicked
genometype (10:26:39 PM): Feel that?
billy_bo_bob_yep (10:26:40 PM): Please don't do that, I'm playing music
billy_bo_bob_yep (10:26:55 PM): That came from my computer, not from "you" specifically
billy_bo_bob_yep (10:27:11 PM): There are computer programs I have dealt with that are capable of almost equivalent reactions
billy_bo_bob_yep (10:27:26 PM): Do you have a mic?
billy_bo_bob_yep (10:27:49 PM): Tell me if you start talking
billy_bo_bob_yep (10:27:59 PM): I have to adjust volume, just a sec
billy_bo_bob_yep (10:28:09 PM): alright
billy_bo_bob_yep (10:28:14 PM): I don't have a mic
genometype (10:28:36 PM): I exist!
billy_bo_bob_yep (10:28:39 PM): You're still kinda quiet on my computer, my speakers can't go very high
billy_bo_bob_yep (10:29:03 PM): Are you claiming that merely because you can create sound that you exist?
genometype (10:29:35 PM): You seemed to think trees existed because they made a sound when they fell.
genometype (10:29:45 PM): =D>
billy_bo_bob_yep (10:30:08 PM): There is evidence that trees make a sound even if no one is watching
billy_bo_bob_yep (10:30:16 PM): However, this does not prove they exist
genometype (10:30:41 PM): Take that back!
billy_bo_bob_yep (10:30:57 PM): The human mind shapes and defines reality, because of this everything is subjective to the individual's perceptions.
billy_bo_bob_yep (10:31:07 PM): What exactly do you mean "you exist"? That means nothing.
billy_bo_bob_yep (10:31:41 PM): That there is some matter which you would refer to as yourself? This could be just as easily supplied should I be schizophrenic.
billy_bo_bob_yep (10:31:44 PM): Or dreaming, even.
genometype (10:32:19 PM): I own property. The property-owner is defined by law.
billy_bo_bob_yep (10:32:21 PM): I once dreamed that I was walking in a world of pure white, with no other entity in "existance" other than myself? Because I perceived this, does this mean that world "existed'?
genometype (10:32:43 PM): I've been there.
billy_bo_bob_yep (10:33:07 PM): Salad, brb
genometype (10:33:41 PM): Champloo is on!=P~:x

Fanfiction post

2005-08-05T17:09:00.000-07:00

Fanfiction.net is being a pain, so I'll have to post my latest chapter of the Gordian Knot here until I can get in. Note the copyright is owned by Berkley Fiction, Tom Clancy, and Martin Greenburg.

Note: This chapter is dedicated to Steve Vincent.

“Man fears the darkness, and so he scrapes away at the edges of it with fire.”
-- Rei Ayanami (Neon Genesis Evangelion)

“It's a simple formula. The greater the tragedy, the greater the emotional effect.”
-- Legato Bluesummers (Trigun)

“Just as [in physics] the center of gravity is always found where the mass is most concentrated, and just as every blow directed against the body's center of gravity yields the greatest effect, and--moreover--the strongest blow is the one achieved by the center of gravity, the same is true in war. The armed forces of every combatant, whether an individual state or an alliance of states, have a certain unity and thus a certain interdependence or connectivity (Zusammenhang); and just where such interdependence exists, one can apply the center of gravity concept. Accordingly, there exist within these armed forces certain centers of gravity that, by their movement and direction, exert a decisive influence over all other points; and these centers of gravity exist where the forces are most concentrated. However, just as in the world of inanimate bodies where the effect on a center of gravity has its proportions and limits determined by the interdependence of the parts, the same is true in war."
-Carl Von Clausewitz, describing a center of gravity, as translated from German by Antulio J. Echevarria II

Gordian's office, Camp William Eaton.

“When you look at the globe where we live from space, you'll see a thousand points of light. These lights shine with all the bustling energy of the heavens. These lights are the most accurate boundaries of our civilization. Classically, these lights have been equated with safety, even if no obvious forms of security compliment the lighting. I'm in the business of expanding that light, removing the darkness from a region that's been dim for far too long.”

Roger Gordian rested his arms on his massive oak executive table, capturing the lone news camera in his eye.

“The hub from which I've expanded this light is here, at Camp William Eaton. The theories of Max Plank, the Theory of Quantum Physics, tells us that light isn't a ray, but chunks of energy. Indeed, we move chunks of energy, all the vitality of modern life, from this hub right here. This endeavor to connect the Iraqis to the vitality of our wondrous civilization has bulged this facility into the center of gravity of the entire nation. The community that exists here is the harmonious force that binds these people together, and as such, it unifies the light.”

Roger nodded toward his strategist and speech-writer, Vince Scull. Both men studiously studied the motions of the wacky ROMP, the Randomly Oscillating Magnetic Pendulum, swing on one side of the desk.

“Warfare is an open-ended system slaved to the vagaries of the butterfly effect. Daily we see minor perturbations fluidly motioning us into a completely different war. This evolving system has kept the Pentagon from coming to terms with what we're facing here, but by carefully designing the functions of this hub for fortifications, communications, and logistics, we've drawn together a gravitational node for this country's vigor to join together. What this facility is to Southern Iraq is simultaneously what the Alexandria Library was to classical knowledge, what Memphis is to Federal Express, and what Khe Sahn was to the Northern border of South Vietnam.

This is the middle of the table, and if they break it, the legs are immaterial.”

A deep bass flutter shook some lime dust from the ceiling, powdering Roger's nearly alabaster coif. Scully's basset hound bloodshot eyes faintly shifted. His meaty right hand signaled “OK.” A rotary ululate report from what could only be a Vulcan cannon emphasized the immediacy of Gordian's quixotic address.

“You can hear that our counterattack has begun. There has been a truthful maxim put forth in warfare that puts a premium on taking the initiative. The words come from Clausewitz, but I've heard it expressed commonly. From one of the superior cartoons I've watched with my grandkids (1), and even from the current President of the United States, the near universal belief that the best defense is a good offense. While the President has made the phrase his near trademark since endeavoring on this ambitious campaign, it is free for all who put a premium on protecting our culture to cherish and practice. I came here with my eyes on connecting a more broad and perfect center of gravity, a free and vital Iraq. One that can speak for itself, protect itself, and instill the values of a liberated society.

Remember the flickering hopes seen from above. They seem to sparkle on a vast sea of darkness. The enemy may at times seem large enough to stand over the points of light and smother them in a valley of shadow. I assure you the fields of light are aligning together, conquering the night. Sunrise is long overdue in this region, but the soldiers of light are marching the illuminating power of undiluted freedom even on the enemy's core, where shrouds are instituted to obscure our torch, and the unreasonable fear of apostasy muffles our cries for understanding. I came here with my eyes on a high sunny plane where we could all enhance our common values and collaborate on nursing the newborns toward furthering our initial steps.

Seeing all the progress around me, I know I came to Iraq with my eyes fully open.”

Outside

It looked every part the doomsday tank of art show horror, the invincible Israeli armored D9 Caterpillar bulldozer, spewing rotary fire from the massive front plow blade, where the marine had managed chaining the remaining Phalanx cannon. It sputtered led and flame. The gearbox whirled, teeth grinding down on grit, willing the drive train, heaving forward the treads. Scarved heads planted themselves under shallow trenches, sometimes not deep enough.

The bull dozer blitzed. Ricci, the ex-SEAL, fought against the sand grains given flight by a nascent gust, and chased the beast's wake storm. His waist turned to inspect his troops. Yes, hunched silhouettes were rolling out carts of cleaned sentry guns! Others hauled smaller ROBOrifles over one shoulder, and unburdened light SWORD infantry filed behind Ricci. Most ran with “variable velocity” versions of the M16A2.

Something swooped from above.

“Where'd they come from?”

His elevated eyes missed that crater.

“Sumtafitch!” mechanical and thermal energy burned his hands and knees, his chest pressed against the ground with a breath. A steel splinter pricked his wrist, and two slowing hands pressed on his back.

“Geese season's over, Reach.” The left arm of Pete Nimec, the ex-Ranger, hooked under Ricci's- “Reach's,” armpit, lifting him to both feet.

“That UCAV must be from Noriko's bunch out at Camp... duh, Chennault? Yeah, Claire Chennault. I-” A tank turret barked, scattered sub munitions at entrenched enemy.
“What?”
“I said another must of picked off the enemy!”
“Yeah, I seem to notice!”

In the dozer

He loathed the setup, stringing wires in and out of the cabin, chaining the Phalanx to the Earth-moving blade, and driving toward a massed line of determined infantry, but brother, he'd read of the Battle for Jenin 2002, had managed contact with several IDF members.

They never lost a man in an armored bulldozer.

He opened the throttle and steered toward the nearest turret. It barely looked like a gray circle under his headlights, but it wasn't demolished. Someone's alive. Someone needs a marine real bad.

Behind the dozer

The left arm of the ex-ranger dragged the ex-SEAL from his scrapped knees, urged him ahead.

“C’mon, Evens needs protection!” Nimec watched a troop of red tracers swarm the dozer canopy on both flanks, originating from positions wide of the gat’s sweeping arc. The marine attempted pivoting the tracks, in order to brush them away. In dark silhouette, both men saw the highly Freudian shape of long shafts with bulbous heads shouldered by the desert-uniformed insurgents. RPG-7s.

They bucked off their shoulders, the explosive projectiles copied from the German Panzerfaust design, a design shape feared by Great Patriotic War tanker veterans after the nightmare of the Berlin siege. The design infamous for its deadly use in the Mogadishu ghettoes, and for its employment around Gaza and the Sunni-populated region around Baghdad.

The design exploded prematurely on the shielding grill extending inches outside of the plated armor. Successive hits seemed Xeroxed matches of the first one, except the pivoting progressed. Green tracers emanated from the plow, ephemerally illuminating the sky adjacent to the falling bodies.

Nimec stood tranquil, rapt by the iridescent jade.

“One in ten, son of a gun.”

“What, Pete?”

“The tracers, one in ten. This is our game.” Unthinking, Nimec’s hand raced up his neck, and clutched his dog tags.

Gordian's office, Camp William Eaton.

“The enemy at the gates know what we’re about. One of my associates in this endeavor, a Mister Singe, aptly described them as skinheads. Think about what that label means, think about what the common definition of a skinhead is, and determine they truly are skinheads, a category of thugs our society condemns above all else.
“They attack integration; marital, social, commercial. British and American citizens have encountered the movement, and largely condemned it. The same movement took root in Russia, where the disdainful movement clashes with Turks, Tarters, Chechens, and others for little reason other than that they originate from somewhere other than Russia.

“The current movement we are fighting is ideologically identical. Granted, it is perceived to focus less on racial characteristics, but it still discriminates against those of a differing national origin.

“Let me tell you about the reality of their movement. The reality is that this movement will manhandle a man from his car, jab a gun at the back of his neck, and pull the trigger. This man never harmed anyone in his life, he was just born somewhere different. Maybe he was born in Groton, Connecticut, maybe his crime was reporting about Pakistani business, or maybe his crime was touring the Mediterranean with his wife, or maybe that he was born American, or Jewish. It doesn’t matter! They never victimized anyone, they just came here to do ordinary honest work, or to vacation here, or to retire.

“This is the glory of the jihad, the glory of bombing houses of worship, because they kneel on Saturday instead of Friday, the glory of hacking a scimitar on someone’s neck, because his alms to the poor were Christian, rather than Moslem. This is the same glory as that of a group shoving a teenage boy through a tractor combine, so his body would be mangled to death; all because he whistled at a girl of a different color! You know that incident, you raged against it, now why should your response be more tepid when a whole crowd faces an execution by scorching explosion for providing food from somebody different?”

Vince Scull signaled for a deep breath, for a transition to a more calm, collective, demeanor. The passionate red drained from Roger, replaced by a more placid pallor.

“Our organization’s infrastructure in this region works to lubricate connectivity for both domestic and foreign enterprise. Because we’re building to share with other interests, we’ll drive costs for everything downward, and because everyone in Iraq will be a consumer, we’ll increase everyone’s standard of living. It will be the same as giving everyone a raise.”

A mortar shell shook a breath of dust from the ceiling.

“They aren’t interested in giving anyone a raise, their interests are in creating discontent, so they can slave the hopeless to the gun. Helpless people without outlets for independence are the future slave-warriors of their glorious revolution. Ha! They want a new crop of miserable people in legion to begat another legion of miserable people until they have a miserable army in mass to export misery into lands that don’t appreciate this glory! Well, we surprised the terror-mongers, we’re knocking on their doors, and we’re planning on planting the best we have on their ground. This is their center, and it’s blooming in our favor. The cancer of their misery-exporting business is in remission, and vitality is pouring back in.

“I thank you the viewers for sparing your time to listen in. Stay safe.”

As the set director closed shooting, Roger accepted a warm coffee cup with the UpLink logo emblazed on the side facing the camera. Scull schlepped over with a large mug housed in both his meaty hands.

“Thank you,” said Gordian graciously, “ I tried.”

Nod.

“You gave them the message about the best we can do,” Vince said, turning for his own coffee, “it made a difference.”

“I suppose,” Gordian replied wistfully, idly dipping a croissant over the brim, “I’ve brought a lot of people here in my folly, if it’s a folly.”

“Right, if it’s a folly. It isn’t, and it isn’t yours, we’ve all taken ownership of a future worth creating.”

The Village Guesthouse, south of William Eaton

One crusty old Arab sheik lounged smoking at the dinner table in a darkness illuminated by the arcing flares of a surrounding enemy. They might get him this time, insh Allah, but they haven’t gotten him in the past seventy years of his life, so he felt content. If they got him now, it still meant he’d outlived many past devils. Seventy years is a full life for a Marsh Arab. Considering his tobacco habit, seventy wouldn’t be bad for him had he lived with these gentlemen.

The one with the peg leg, he paced around a lot, supervising the defense, while the mountain man, Singe, politely corrected Marsh Arab mismanagement of the mortar on their converted tank. The chopper guys, they didn’t seem combat types. Molina set things right.

For the moment, he’d retreated back in for more chatter with the outside. Though in charge, the radioman he still was. He spoke in English, but in radio English. The sheik could follow that.

Private First Class Manning, the gunner from Madison, Wisconsin, had the FN M240D unbolted from the chopper, firing prone from the roof. The roof trembled when Manning burst, but not much. Blockhouses don’t shake much, and fortunately, can safely absorb a Draganov round.

What didn’t shake was Molina. Positive feedback came in from the base. Evens had shouldered a counter-offensive, and had disposed of a mole. Oh. Grimly, the sheik nodded. He’d known, but had never confronted it. Forgiveness awaits him, insh Allah. Hopefully, it awaits us all. Molina chattered on the wireless. Drones from Chennault pounded the assault, and a gunship from Cairo circled overhead. Though vulnerable, the DC-6 made an excellent gunning platform.

“Say again, Eaton?” Molina’s demeanor shifted.

Camp William Eaton

“I said be advised, a platoon or larger sized force of hostile technical are barring on you from the Southwest. Cat’s Eye is reporting an indeterminate amount of Fahd 300- er, Egyptian APCs, armored jeeps, and Somali-style technicals. That means big guns-”

“What the heck type of radio discipline is this?” Molina demanded. “To whom am I speaking?”

The Louisiana man shifted in his seat.

“Its Rollie. Look, you have beucoup armor humping the desert your way. The JSTARS orbiting doesn’t know how the Saudis let such a large armored force skirt by, but Cat’s Eye don’t got hope of anything slowing them more than their estimated quarter hour ETA. All the high tech needs go-go juice after lighting the fires after chasing some fast-movers from Mullah Land. Their reporting a FUBARed Green Zone from the mess, so the brass is off the loop. We’re managing what we can.”

Molina mulled over a reply.

“I hear you, Will Eaton, good luck on your counter-offensive. We can hold out in house-to-house fighting a few hours. Thanks for the heads-up.”

Rollie shifted uncomfortably.

“Acknowledged. We’re still facing a hostile logistics train dropping jeep-loads of infantry against us, but I’ll reserve some arty time for you. Just feed me the coordinates .”

Rollie attempted to imagine watching for muzzle flashes from a window, glancing down at a GPS, aiming a laser range-finder, and estimating a locations. In a minute, he had fed directions to the Cajun.

“I want anti-personnel rounds proximity-fused and coordinated for TOT, then fired for effect-”

“Most people wait for the results first.”

“Not me. I want your boys to creep it in, and keep loading until their barrels turn white. I want general propose rounds to fall danger close immediately following.”

Rollie fed it to his Blackberry PDA, repeated the highly-complex order, and heard it confirmed by Molina. He then switched channels to the artillery battery, and relayed the instructions in chunks he believed they could process.

“Anti-personnel rounds timed for TOT, yes sir. Battery loaded, elevated… fire!”

The guns, buried in a steel destroyer turret, survived the shellacking dealt out by the enemy, to retaliate in anger. They did. The ex-navy personnel in the turret easily adapted to the corporate culture of UpLink’s Sword service, despite Peter Nimec’s instilling the team with a more Army Ranger culture. Sometimes they still slip into calling the choppers “helos,” the walls “bulkheads,” the toilet a “head,” and said “aye” to the annoyance of the team leader, but they ran a ship-shape gunning platform, earning their pay grade while conducting the chores ordered by Robin Molina. Rollie need-not have worried about them misinterpreting orders. They followed spot on.

They ejected the spent casing from the breech, loaded again, shut the breech, pulled the lanyard, boom. Decrease the angle, ejected the casing, load the shell, shut the breech, lanyard pull, fire, repeat for effect.
They walked it further, then switched ammunition types. The general purpose ammo storage door momentarily protested from opening, but a good WHACK! From the palm of Rusty Singleton, a South Dakota native and retired Master Chief from an Arleigh Burke-class destroyer, eased out the obstruction.

The drill finished in three minutes. A battery of four guns averaged roughly nine shells a minute for those solid three, circumscribing the northern border of their friendly town with 114 rounds, almost certainly breaking the lightly dug-in insurgent infantry.

“Cat’s Eye, the JSTARS thingy in the sky, is trying to give us a bomb damage assessment,” radioed, Rollie Thibodeau, “mon Deu, They use radar, you know, and could be more, uh, definitive, with a thermal scan, but they don’t see an image of a human body outside the parameter. Great work.”

Outside the Compound

Iranian/Russian high-tech evidently never thwarted American high-tech, making Commander Farouz was extremely nervous. His T-55 probably never broke 55 kilometers an hour in this desert sand, and those unmanned Yankee birds probably carried ten death-arrows apiece, meaning those two circling had twenty opportunities to kill his armor.

He’d thought those Gophers, the SA-13s their mysterious benefactor had bestowed upon them, would provide enough umbrella to spare him from onslaught, but the American Sheik’s high-tech came in a larger quantity then they’d thought, and the spare Gophers could only escort them so far before risking the fire of NAVAL artillery !

Worse, the radio told him the sappers and shock troops had failed to remove some of the T-72 tank turrets arming the base parameter. The news that the G-5 guns had failed to even dislodge the beached naval guns left him dumbstruck completely. What exactly did they shoot? For once breaking with his tradition of being the good soldier, Farouz, a proud veteran of the Revolutionary Guard, asked for an explanation.
The reply had been more than curt.

“The dipsticks in intelligence and the artillerists underestimated the enemy’s Shortstop trance on our proximity fuses. They had to saturate soft targets so long, they didn’t get to the hard ones.”

He’d been thankful for the candor, it had bolstered his faith in the leadership, but he felt apprehensive about his chances of surviving the mission. He’d fought the Iran-Iraq war, respected his counterparts in the Republican Guard, and had seen them decimated in two wars and countless air strike operations in between. After visiting Kosovo and Yugoslavia in 1999, he’d personally seen what this high tech stuff could do. Without the support with armor on the ground, the Americans and NATO scared the Shiite out of the conflict region. The big stealth bomber had shown up for that war, as did some larger numbered GBUs.
The JDAM and JSOW weapons made him tremble, because weather couldn’t disrupt them. American and British armor scared him more. How to hide from it? Melt into the city?

Western news agencies and clerics in their towers will say what they want, but Farouz saw little hope of living past this mission.

He swiveled his co-axle chain-gun toward a flash in the sky. He caught a glance of illuminated smoke corkscrewing, saw the flame jet out, and saw the dive-bombing outline of the man-less destroyer.

Dung it! The bucking of the recoil pulled his crosshairs off the shape! Breath, it is climbing slowly, heading away, banking sharply. The nose suddenly tilted directly at him. Farouz triggered a long stream, but the UCAV’s maneuver had been a feint. The tanker didn’t know aeronautics, but whatever he saw seemed impossible. Big mistake; it flew parallel to him, showing a fat, juicy profile. The dot in the middle of his crosshairs eclipsed the bird, he fired. Not good! The tracers trailed behind it!

I get it, I have to aim ahead. He did aim at the future location of the aircraft, but initially overestimated its airspeed. He then overcorrected. He mentally triangulated with his imagination.

Kabam!

Flight, weightlessness, his heart and stomach leapt into his throat, then rushed back to normal, as flight turned ballistic. Farouz felt gravel merge with his cheek. It pained, it burned, it embedded in his face. The effects of a skeletal concussion bled in, and he understood. The high-tech had punched a hole into his universe. He dared not get up. He dared not glimpse at his tank, at the remains of the three youngsters under his care. He dared only focus on the salt and acid spicing the granules in his mouth, and only on that until the darkness seeped into his world.

Peel’s observation post

Terrance Arthur Peel’s binocular-enhanced vision gave instant feedback to the reality of the situation. Some yahoo cowboy had led a armored column out by example, using his unhealthy machismo to spit on Peel’s attack plan. The rogue had a bulldozer, one of those D9s those Jewish chaps used, running to and fro with a gatling chained to the blade, running over fields of men like a big mechanical reaper. He’d brought friends.

A small armored Bobcat backhoe chased behind it. A man in a cowboy hat piloted it. He looked familiar. Yes, he was a South African TAP new from the 90s. He looked thrilled, taking on the old-time airs of a cavalry officer. A cavalier, that’s what he was! Well, he’d messed up everything. Following him were the big APCs.

Peel’s aide had to rouse the 106mm recoilless riflemen and Sagger missile men from their cowering. The light brown heel of his combat boots had to contact some rumps harshly, and still some wouldn’t rise.

“We’ll have to fire and maneuver,” shouted the British leader, grabbing his aide’s bicep, “I want these guys firing, while I lead some guys down this trench,” said he, pointing toward one that led to the base’s edge and to the flank of the armored column. A smoking wreck of an armored tiller, dismantled by a stationary T-72 turret, concluded the trench’s progression.

“This has been some bloody Hell and a fist of aspirin.”

The bulldozer

The marine surveyed the biological litter his actions had created, looking around the prone six-patterned desert fatigues for stragglers or infiltrating sappers. He stretched his senses, feeling out for shapes and movements that didn’t belong. He’d lost a headlight in his rampage, but otherwise had a fully functional tracked mount. The immediate presence of the enemy faded, but rocket mortars arced overhead.

Evens bent forward, where he kept the computer controlling the gatling. He punched open the CD tray, fed in the original anti-mortar program, and watched the old operation gush to life, aided in the inundation by a reservoir built into the temporary space of the RAM and virtual RAM.

Steel beamed skyward, igniting rocket fuel. Many splashes of fuel came ablaze, brightening the night. Paul exploited the illumination, craning his neck so his eyes could find mischief.

They did. Stooped figures darted down a trench. Bundles of RPG-7 rounds burdened their backs. Evens had a gun port ready. He grabbed the M24 jutting from it, and let a rocket grenade bundle have it.

In the trench

A trillion nerves overloaded with heat and shock, screaming the announcement that the organism faced mortal end. The sensation drowned out all other news until Peel tasted the rouge gushing from the divide in his lower lip. Peel, numb, reluctantly, flopped from his stomach to his back, and visually established a record of what happened. They’d been hoisted on their own petard, and now Tap felt thoroughly moist. He knew just how much water sprouted from the de-compiled human at ground zero, some ninety percent of his makeup was water. Water, tinged garnet, matted the trench. Water and bone shivers.

The other bodies looked solid. Peel refrained from checking for pulses, opting instead to get that Yank.

The dirt he clawed. He clawed to a sitting position. He rested the bipod of his weapon, watched the bulldozer tracks turn, and squeezed the trigger. He inhaled smoke, foul acerbic smoke, before collapsing in his refuge.

In the bulldozer

He felt it. While the gatling’s software reverted back into operations against the infantry, Paul Evens felt the thud, and couldn’t see the damage.

“Nigel, care to take a peek under my skirt?”

The Afrikanner growled seductively.

“I’ve never turned down the offer before, ‘cept from one odd Scotsman,” he laughed. Evens stopped, waited for the backhoe to overtake him. Finally, he idled to the bulldozer’s port.

“Hmm, he nipped you a little bit. I believe he merely snipped apart your wire cage, chap.”

Good news pursued good news. The gatling once again trawled over the battlespace, rendering a clean surface free of hostiles. The marine quickly keyed in the mortar-intercept mode, and advised Pete Nimec that the guys in the APCs should dismount to clean the trenches.

Footnote

1. The cartoon Roger Gordian watched with his grandkids was Mobile Suit Gundam Wing.

I'm Still Alive, Resurfacing

2005-08-02T22:49:00.000-07:00

Boy, this story makes my recent crusade for school vouchers seem far more important.

"Of all religious groups Baptists were among the most fiercely persecuted in the Soviet Union. They were not just Christians but they also distrusted the state, preaching an institutional secession from state-run institutions. Many Baptists belonged to the German-speaking minority in Southern Russia and Kazakhstan. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, they emigrated to Germany, the land where their forefathers had originally come from. Today, these Baptist immigrants from Russia, as well as the Low-German Mennonites, are being prosecuted in Germany because they are unhappy with what their children are learning in the German public schools, which they consider too secular. Children are not allowed to opt out of classes or school activities and homeschooling is illegal in Germany since Adolf Hitler outlawed it in 1938."

I've told everyone the merits of voucher programs supported by the likes of Milton Friedman. We need to more actively pursue that quickly.

Besides that, the world seems pretty peachy right now. Peachy, indeed. I've been collecting buckets full of peaches from the tree starting last month. They've made great pies. I've been writing as someone else recently, but will soon return to my old personae. I plan on making the return triumphant.

Oh yeah, and thank you Mark, for adding me to your blogroll.

:-P~~

2005-07-29T13:10:00.000-07:00

While everyone's been talking about what the McCain-Feingold-Cochran Campaign Reform law means to everyone expressing an unauthorized opinion, I've fully envisioned my future.

Heh, I'm not worth much, but it should be enough to entice locals to (try to) bring me in.

Avoiding Customs

2005-07-27T16:11:00.000-07:00

If I were a terrorist of any sort, and I had some canisters of nerve gas, there’s no way I’d walk it into Singapore. I’d keep my butt safe where the Republic couldn’t reach me, on a boat in the littoral waters, in an (neglected) area of Malaysian responsibility.

It should be feasible to fire artillery rounds housing the sarin from a deck gun into Singapore, but I’m not sure how easy aiming a field gun designed for land would be from the vessels used by pirates or terrorists, and I don’t know if I’d want to make my approach from The Malacca Straits, a bottleneck I’d hate to be trapped in, or from the other side of the peninsula, where shipping traffic wouldn’t be heavy enough for me to hide in the clutter.

I’m going to also assume that smuggling a machine pistol in would be difficult. I’ve heard of Singaporean customs officials catching a tourist sneaking in a package of chewing gum taped behind his knee! However, it should be legally possible to own an air soft version of the Skorpion, and use the frame to upgrade into the most highly sophisticated zip gun the world has ever seen. Heck, it may be possible to label a real Skorpion as an air soft model, and fool customs, that might be more plausible.

Another to smuggle the guns in would be the clichéd method of wrapping everything in wax paper or plastic bags and sinking them into oil drums. That might also be a reliable way to smuggling in more nerve gas. If the tangos have a state sponsor, the diplomatic pouch would be an all but guaranteed means of importing the guns as far as embassy row.

A sure way of smuggling in the inert chemicals that make up sarin would be to store them in silicon implants, most likely the ones for breast augmentation. That would likely mean hiring women (because men with large breasts would draw unwanted attention) and a surgeon to take part in the early phases of the operation. Having such chemicals housed within the silicon pouches, rather than the safe saline solution, would put the women at risk of exposure to hazardous chemicals, and some risk would be involved the surgeries to put the implants in and to remove them.

Paying for apartments and transportation shouldn’t be any more difficult for unknown terrorists than for ordinary tourists.

The last consideration is casing the business district. Where do the people congregate? Where do air ducts pull outside air from? Is there a subway terminal? Do mobile concession stands sell fast food in this business district? Can you park some motor scooters nearby, and can you ordinarily weave among the traffic within your operation’s timeframe?

If it is true that concession stands operate in the district, importing the canisters may be possible. If there’s a subway terminal, you have a packed and accessible closed space. Terrorists love hitting subways with Sarin, or with conventional bombs. Air vents are usually unguarded, and are a great way of introducing hazardous gases. Motor scooters are agile enough to avoid police cordons, and one can still fire a Skorpion reliably one-handed from one.

For maximum effect, terrorists like to have a second set of teeth to take out those fleeing and those rescuing. Consider that crowds gassed in the confined office buildings and subway will escape to the open street. Perhaps then would be the best time for the hypothetical artillery ship to open up, perhaps with incendiary cluster munitions, perhaps with something even more sinister, like fuel-air explosives.

The planning phase is entirely conceivable. One could probably find the plastic surgeons and mules necessary for the Sarin smuggling operation pretty easily, if one could dupe them into believing they were moving drugs. The precursors for sarin aren’t difficult to acquire. If you go with the air soft idea, getting the scorpions is easy. Moving a handful of operatives is the height of ease. One could probably buy an artillery piece and a couple of shells from Karen rebels in Burma easily, with enough funds. If not them, Tamil Tigers might sell, and getting it from land to a boat would only take some hired manpower.

Overall, it would be easy to arrange, and one could even prosper from doing it by buying “puts” (a form of stockbroker insurance) on the businesses ruined in the attacks. The whole thing would fund itself.

Becoming Accessible

2005-07-24T22:23:00.000-07:00

Next time I tweak the site’s resolution, I’ll once again enable comments and track backs. It may let some nuts in, but that’s a risk I’ll take to be friendlier.

Idea toward unity theory of sin

2005-07-24T00:39:00.000-07:00

The one rule we've all broken is the “There Ain't No Such Thing As A Free Lunch (TANSTAAFL)” principal. Simply stated, you aren't entitled to more than you can earn without harming someone.

Pride is considered a sin because it convinces you TANSTAFFL doesn't apply to you. Adultery is a sin because an adulterer believes he's entitled to more sex partners than that “special person” he provides. Sure, the polygamous relationships that work, but each member has an understanding no member belongs to another member, so TANSTAAFL isn't violated.

There are so many misunderstandings of Christian theology that you have. I wish I could correct them all, but the concise rule, mind.

It is imperative, however, that you understand that the Judeo-Christian tradition doesn't state that God created a Hell. God created a limited universe that would gradually fall into entropy. In other words, this is Hell a few trillion years early. God put us here, and will pull us out if we can release our spite against him.

The Messiah is among other things a mnemonic device used to remind us of our lifeline. I could send you a post card telling you I love you, and you'll forget it. Ancient religions were all forgotten. Today is July 23^h

2005. Let's do an experiment. See if you can remember I told you I loved you on this date on it's first anniversary. You just might, we'll see, but wouldn't it mean more to you if a physical avatar of myself showed up and healed everyone with his touch, fed your town, and told you all this in person? I think you'd

write it down, and try to tell the world. My avatar would only have to suffer death once, and generations would remember how kind and loving I was.

Assimilating The Gordian Knot

2005-07-14T21:50:00.000-07:00

Assimilating The Gordian Knot

“The terrorists may have recruited their new Atta, now splattered on the walls of the Baghdad mosque he has suicide-bombed. We have recruited tens of millions of Afghan and Iraqi Muslims--with Lebanese and others to follow--opposing that Atta as they attempt to build decent, moderate, tolerant societies. I'll take our recruits.”
-Charles Krauthammer

Market Forces, A Brief Summary

Natural forces shape the human experience. These forces are everywhere, and a careful observer can feel them interacting. These forces have benefited humanity. Forces of electromagnetic energy have fed the planet, providing convertible energy to the plants on our tables. These same forces carry our voices to and from metal rails we construct in the sky. The biggest emitters, our sun and the stars, not only nourish humanity with radiation, but by heating pockets of air and sea, generate harvestable energy for mills and sails. The seafarer’s ability to make cloth catch hold on the wind connected a transatlantic trade system that pulled the world into it’s modern state of plenty. The forces of the sun begat market forces, a phenomenon quickly chronicled by a Scottish mathematician in 1776.

The Scotsman, an intellectual named Adam Smith, analyzed the natural processes that caused the American Revolution. The market, he discovered, is a force of nature that benefits those that engage in it. The free market is the trade of one party’s goods for other desirable goods. Many willingly pledge eight hours of work a day in exchange for easily exchangeable tokens. When one finishes the work, one leaves with the tokens, and seeks out the most advantageous ways to trade this currency with the most valued goods one can bargain out of it.[1]

Conversely, other men may wish to collect these tokens by selling goods. Chances are, more than one seller will exist. These sellers will bid for the currency through providing bargains in competition with other sellers. Because humans engage in economizing behavior, they will naturally select the best offers, while the sellers will invest the least quality they can while still outperforming their rivals. These circumstances generally put the market in an equilibrium between buyers and sellers, where both are content with the agreement they’ve made.[2]

Since Smith’s day, this system has expanded on every route pioneered by the builders of empires. The merchants often followed close behind, sometimes cooperating with the empires in turn for special privileges. Smith termed this “mercantilism,” and condemned it for polluting the bidding process. The British notoriously cut foreign competition from trade after the French-and-Indian War that ended in 1763, going for short-term schemes to generate enough revenue to pay their war debts. Dutch and American traders could no longer enter the bidding process.[3]

As Smith formulated his theories, Bostonians ignited in revolution. The merchant class of Massachusetts had had it with having their outlet removed, and refused to be the inlet for tea from India. The war resulted in the formation of a continental nation willing to take on the fresh ideas of Smith. They subsequently crafted a trade coalition of states that quickly benefited from the open relationship, but there were problems.[4]

A rift developed in President George Washington’s cabinet. It was philosophical, and it was heated, and it broke into sectarian factions. Alexander Hamilton stressed that America needed to (temporarily) subsidize the development of an American textile industry, to counter British dominance. Thomas Jefferson disagreed, arguing on the grounds that an agricultural society was more moral. The divergent views found support in different regions. Towns like Lowell, Massachusetts, a town where the textile looms were eventually set to work, naturally sided with the Federalists. Fredericksburg, Virginia, a farming town, sided with Jefferson’s Democratic Party. From that point on, leaders in government granted regulatory favors to their voting blocks, but overall, America upheld most of Smith’s “old time religion” of a free market.[5]

It was 1807 when America first used trade as a weapon.[6] The French and English battled for domination of Europe, and Horatio Nelson’s[7] fleet sank Napoleon’s chances of competing at sea. The new emperor had failed to capture Egypt several years before, had ditched an effort to tunnel under the English channel, and desperately needed ways to lash out at the British. Well, with the Royal Navy in control of the sea, maybe Napoleon could check it by holding and closing all the ports in Europe. He took that action as the British once again strangled transatlantic trade. President Jefferson resolved to protect American sailors and starve out the war by closing all American ports. The embargo did diminish the flow of goods to Europe, but didn’t halt aggression in the European war.

The embargo theme is one that will return many times in this essay, as will the concept of market forces, but for now, we’ll discuss a few other issues needed for understanding the broader meaning of this essay.

Defining terms should be the right start. Asymmetric Warfare, Fourth Generation Warfare, and Network Warfare in the context of discussing Al Qaeda means the same thing.

To fight asymmetrically, one only has to fight in an unconventional manner. From the author’s perspective, the War of 1812 wasn’t a land grab for Canada, as the history teachers will tell you, but an American attempt to offset the British Navy’s overwhelming superiority. Capturing Eastern Canada would have meant a short crossing to Ireland, a threat that, if achieved, would have forced the British to capitulate at the negotiation table.

Fourth Generation Warfare (4GW), is conflict through a revolutionary body other than an armed force. You may have heard the pundits accuse so-and-so of being a “fourth column” for such-and-such. Well, some of those so-and-sos are agents of such-and-such, and their function is to alter the enemy’s system from it’s current state down to a level it can finish off. Fourth gen is a maneuvering variant of asymmetric warfare, aimed at unseating the political leadership of the enemy.

Network Warfare is the operation of terror organized from an ubiquitous cellular network. Operatives disperse across the world, live off hidden accounts, then one day, the clock strikes, and the whole cell retrieves weapons from their caches and initiate a Black Hawk Down. With cells setup with staggering timelines, one could rotationally orchestrate a serial Black Hawk Down, or a real-life 24.

Because Al Qaeda means “The Base” in Arabic, one can surmise the organization originated as a hub-and-spoke network operation. Such a network has it’s origin in logistics, specifically, the package delivery company Federal Express. Fed Ex deliveries filter through a hub in Memphis, Tennessee, where they’re arranged and tagged, before going down the “spokes” to their ultimate delivery. This was in fact how they operated against the Soviet Union.

In it’s origins, Al Qaeda worked under this philosophy. Back when the Soviets were the enemy, the training camps, then based in Pakistan, were the hub, and the “payload” walked through the Khyber Pass, a web of terrain-masking “spokes” for operatives to walk through.

Since the invasion of Afghanistan, however, Al Qaeda hasn’t been so vertically structured. Today, the only place where Al Qaeda is operating a complex top-down command structure is Iraq, where a wounded Abu Musab Al Zarqawi just happened to recover from his 2002 war wounds when an American-led coalition removed the country’s sponsoring Baathist government.

Speaking of Baathists, they are an Arab Socialist movement. Egypt’s leadership was once a part of it, as was Saddam, and now the only one left is the Syrian system.

Why So Much Contention Over Iraq?

Since the fundamentalist takeover of Iran in 1979, members within the Saudi Royal family have considered that movement the most dangerous to their national security. The radical Shiite youth in Iran considered all other Arabic governments corrupt western entities, not Moslems to be protected. They formed Hezbollah not only to remove America and Israel from the region, but even marginally secularized Moslem governments- and there is the old Shiite-Sunni feud.[8]

Back then, the United States military was still in a period of malaise over Vietnam, the transition to an all-volunteer force, reductions in force, and dealing with an ill-thought-out policy of accepting convicted criminals in lieu of prison.[9]

The policy in replace of direct intervention was to battle by proxy. The Shah’s military had the finest air defense, including the latest radar installations, Hawk missile batteries, and F-14A interceptors. A coup just dashed that investment aside.[10]

Forget that, how about a buffer to crush our previous buffer? So Saddam Hussein became a client of the United States, invading Southern Iran to grab the fertile Shatt Al Arab. The region saw eight intense years of Soviet and American hardware slugging on a borderline, with the occasional Scud terrifying Tehran citizens, and a brief Iranian F-4 raid reaching deep into Iraq.[11]

Curiously, Saddam’s artillery fired deeper than existing western or Soviet designs. Regardless, the war ended in stalemate, with nearly a million Iranians slaughtered, with Iraqi casualties numbering roughly a third that number. Saddam also discovered his fascination with chemical weapons.

Afterward, the Baathist government needed a quick plunder to cover their loses, and Kuwait seemed easy pickings. Sadly for him, the Soviet Union collapsed as it happened, freeing the US from a European commitment.

Some may be too young to remember, but the Cold War focused American attention on Communist-inspired brushfires, not on inter-Arab conflicts. The sixties saw a civil war in Yemen escalate enough that rebels were shelled with mustard gas, and the Egyptians developed Cobalt-60 (highly radioactive) warheads for their ballistic missiles- only to lose them in a stunning 1967 Israeli air raid. These things weren’t core concerns (not even the Arab-Israeli conflict until détente) while Lenin’s global movement still marched.

So, completely out of form with the old reality, in 1990-91, a large portion of European Command, still painted forest green, shipped to the desert to face down a plunderer. These were the days of the Powell Doctrine,[12] an operating procedure that specified that the US military wouldn’t fight prolonged wars, basically. The Saudi’s were joyous over this, because they were still in the mindset that Saddam made a firm buffer against those Shiite crazies. So the coalition stuck within the limits of the UN mandate and focused only on ousting the Iraqis from Kuwait. Meanwhile, air strikes focused on breaking their communications and leadership core, and the 101st airborne division landed several hundred miles within the border.[13]

It ended after 1000 hours of air operations, and 100 hours of ground operations. Saddam signed an armistice, the Saudis provided King Khalid Military City and a few other facilities for Operation: Southern Watch, and the Turks, within their NATO capacity facilitated Northern Watch. [ibid]

For the rest of the 90s, Saddam Hussein, still valued as a buffer, lay in a box. Those Iranians were still crazy, after all, and thanks to the Powell Doctrine (named after Colin Powell, the founder), the Pentagon had no interest in pursuing the urban operations and occupation necessary for removing him. All parties were happy.

The UN placed strict sanctions on Iraq, while the United States and United Kingdom enforced the embargo. Special Forces and Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) cooperated in Operation Provide Comfort in the Kurdish Autonomous Region. This humanitarian mission lasted from the tail end of the Bush Sr. administration into early 1997, and basically provided a functioning democracy friendly to the United States within reach of Mosul. The Kurdish infant mortality rate fell from the world’s worst to one acceptable within the industrialized world, and the united Peshmerga swelled to 50,000 competent members by the time the next opportunity to smite Iraqis arrived. [ibid1]

Elsewhere, the world moved along with Saddam in his box. Americans condemned “police actions,” and vocally denounced perceived efforts to fashion the military into the “world’s police.” Palestinians slung stones, and Somali “technicals” ferried about khat-chewing militiamen. [14] The UN banqueted against the Rwandan genocide[15], careful never to actually say “genocide,” and equally bad things happened in Indonesia, only Americans don’t know about it. Hands were hacked off in Sierra Leone, a madman named Charles Taylor landed a boat loaded with 100 men with assault rifles, and killed a lot of people.[16]

Saddam botched a bomb plot to kill an American president, and his successor retaliated with some cruise missiles. Fidel Castro beached a lot of people on Florida, paradoxically convincing kids at UC Berkley that Cuba was a socialist paradise. All this happened while Saddam lounged in the box General Anthony Zinni proudly claimed CENTCOM had him trapped in, while that embargo did what embargos do; strangle wealth from a population.[17]

The absence of trade is the absence of wealth. America rode a boom cycle on NAFTA. The absence of trade is the absence of wealth. Larger trade spheres means larger markets, so inversely, the absence of trade is the absence of wealth.

So, summarizing Saddam in the 90s:

1. Saudi Arabia held their buffer against crazy Shiite radicals.
2. The United States, utilizing the Powell Doctrine, checked Saddam in what Zinni called his “box.”
3. The United Nations attempted to starve out the box with the embargo.

Saddam, in his box, felt no need to unseat the first two rules set by the new world order, they actually propped him up, but the third one did hurt. Luckily, he could bleed the heart of western civilization. If images of starving kids could attract aid to Somalia, perhaps it could bring goods into Iraq. For all the recent talk of the United Nations being a “European banquet club,” the members seemed to understand what trade sanctions could do. Saddam had something to trade, and he had a population westerners wanted to care for. He’d just need to strike a few deals, and the embargo would be neutralized. He’d still be in the box, at least on paper.

Subverting The Medium of Ideas

Ours is an international system of trade. We trade food, we trade manufactured goods, and we trade ideas. If you’ve actually listened to non-English television or radio, at least if you have my ear, you’ll discover many commonalities. Just the other day, I listened to a Polish economist speak in his native language. I’ve never studied Polish a day in my life, but because he spoke very formally about economics, every other word originated from Latin or Greek, and I followed the conversation! This is “the language of pure science” Europeans have long spoken of.
Language has an undeniable power. It is a fundamental medium of ideas. Some ideas are Latin, some are Germanic, and then there are English ideas. Most of the Old English words we still us are very coarse, and won’t show up in this essay. Englishmen have become Latin in scholarly fields, just like other Europeans, and have largely become French in law and the arts.[18]

Japanese subtly become more Portuguese and Dutch over a few centuries, and after America opened trade in 1854, many Anglicized Latin words labeled the new items introduced. Such things have eased the friction of introducing reforms throughout the world.

Language, however, only has so much potency in subverting. With the exception of the “estate tax” versus “death tax” instance, people seem highly immune to having their values shifted by language. An example of the practice being futile would be the effort of television news to subvert opinion on abortion. The author can’t determine who started it, but today it is clearly evident that Fox News and CNN are speaking different languages. An “abortion clinic,” a fairly neutral term for a place where pregnancies are terminated, is no longer an abortion clinic. At CNN, Eric Rudolph bombed a “women’s clinic,” while at Fox News, he bombed an “abortion mill.” Divergent sides now have euphemisms for everything, but notice that opinions are grid locked despite the adventures in wordplay.

Assimilating Change In Your Culture

Yeah, pundits try to trick us, we all know that, but what does it have to do with diffusing terrorism? Well, think about how trade languages naturally seed into lands we trade with. Our tongue is just one aspect of our culture to embed into the world dominated by Islam, but it may be the first introduction to change the Arab street. Once Arabs begin exchanging ideas in say, Americanisms, “the infidel has already won.”

This is mostly ineffectual alone, but our culture is loaded with a bag of tricks. Imagine if we do the opposite of an embargo, eliminate tariffs with the Arab street. What happens when we share our meals, our jobs, our money with them? What if we dismantle Saddam’s box? What if we go beyond removing the embargo, and remove the Arab command economy government with a free market?

The world has a wealth of real world examples of this working, but let’s indulge the Star Trek fans. The Jihadist network is basically the inverse of the Borg, it is currently a decentralized network that exports the decay of civilization. For western civilization to defeat this network structure, Star Trek offers a solution. Could we not inject our virtues into their recruiting ground? You bet we can! We can follow Janeway’s [19] method, insert a “neurolytic pathogen” into the network structure, a covert action, and use Picard’s method, insert our core values (a borg with humanity, like Hugh) into their recruiting ground. This is largely a diplomatic and free market solution.

From the beginning, UBL understood that his network could only thrive as long as Hugh didn’t enter the collective. At the training camps, he forbade members from enjoying aspects of Americana. Conditions remained Spartan at all times, Coca Cola was specifically forbidden, [20] and UBL himself never touched ice water. He always drank it at room temperature, rather than allow refrigeration in the camps. Tapes of the televised results of his attacks were the only aspect of western culture he came in contact with, and arguably, those were more infused with his culture than ours.

Whenever you watch an attack, you’re watching a bin Laden production. Culture flows aren’t one way.
"We are the market economists. Lower your guns and dismantle your explosives. Your cultural and ethnic distinctiveness will be added to our own. Resistance is futile. You will be assimilated into our way of life."

The Boys From Chicago

"I don't see why we need to stand by and watch a country go communist due to the irresponsibility of its own people. The issues are much too important for the Chilean voters to be left to decide for themselves." -Henry Alfred Kissinger

In America, the state pension plan, social security, earns approximately 1.75 percent interest, while the typical Chilean pension program, a free market system, earns conservatively five percent. Over a career, that means a Chilean’s pension will equal 90 percent of the retiree’s income if he retires at 65. An American, if he relies solely on the state pension plan, can only expect a return of 60 percent of his salary in his pension. [21]

What do pension plans have to do with fourth generation warfare? Well, the success of Chilean retirement accounts is part of the endgame of one of the most successful 4GW operations in the history of man.

You may vaguely know the story of General Pinochet's government, of his September 11th coup over Allende in 1973. The coup was military-oriented and funded by Director Helms of the CIA under direction of President Richard Nixon, but that isn’t the 4GW we’re discussing, that was your regular tin pot military coup. Bolivia had thousands of those. No, we’re discussing how economic freedom leads to civil liberties.

Back in 1973, American foreign policy still ran on some assumptions since rejected under the current doctrine. Anyone that uttered the right words against socialism was better than someone that called himself a socialist, and if the White House were convinced this ardent anti-communist could stabilize a country while waving the right flag in the Cold War, well, they’d pick him, and beware if you’re the other guy!

So, in the name of stability, the CIA propped up Pinochet and funded the liquidation of the socialists that called themselves socialists. Cold War mission achieved. Not really. While Henry Kissinger may have believed the economic differences between Pinochet and Allende were worth killing over, the General, now Dictator, attempted central management of the economy. It wasn’t free market economics, and he operated it worse than the “socialist” (actually, often Keynesian) policies of Allende.

He needed someone smarter than his army logisticians to cut inflation (in part a consequence of Allende’s Keynesian “juicing” of the money supply), but most of the old advisors had been liquidated (killed, disappeared, exiled, that kind of thing). The only (untainted) Chilean economists left were the ones that had taken part in the University of Chicago’s exchange program. [22]

The Chicago Boys, as they came to be called, reversed state controls and strangled the money supply in one sweep, drastically cutting inflation. State ownership and central management disappeared everywhere but the copper mines. Suddenly, an ownership society overtook Chili, and the country became the most economically free in South America.

As a free market society, forty percent of the nation’s gross domestic product came from international trade, largely from the United States. A funny thing happens when you trade with a democratic society, they trade back, importing an influence. Most internationally trading countries sign trade agreements that come with basic human rights rules, the World Trade Organization has some, but whether or not international trade comes with an international regulatory body, one can see the “source code of western civilization” being assimilated into Chili’s structure.

Alexander Hamilton said a power over a man's subsistence amounts to a power over his will. Alexander Hamilton was a very smart man. When the state holds that power over a man’s subsistence, it hold his center of gravity, thus, he can’t be free, he’s dependent. In the base of a free market, however, the state doesn’t hold leverage over the man’s center of gravity, because it doesn’t provide his income.

It does something else, too. The free market provides the concept of self-ownership, and the ownership of property. Property ownership equals power, because property is something an individual can manipulate outside of oneself. One can own it, improve it, trade it, sell it, or choose to abandon it. Such control over objects gives individuals power over something, and once they realize they can be trusted with this power, they develop confidence, a sort of confidence nonexistent in a planned economy.

Take a look at the world community. Whose citizens are deemed “arrogant,” and whose are labeled “humble?” Right, Americans are arrogant, and certain East Asians are often viewed the same way. There’s a reason for that, and it isn’t ethnic or physiological. The reason is based in economic freedom. Countries with more leadership-controlled systems begat more docile citizens.

Here’s a thought experiment. You’re name is Yao Ming, and you’re upset over a loss at a Knicks game. You take a taxi to the United Nations building, and you insult the honor of every passerby. Who is most likely to defend his honor? Make a list based on the common stereotypes, and compare it to the Index of Economic Freedom rankings kept by the Heritage Foundation. Chances are, those that control their assets are the most likely to lash out at you.
The bystanders of stereotypically docile countries probably won’t make you apologize. With the exception of the ethnically Chinese countries (and their attitudes are rapidly changing), they live in centrally planned economies.

Not convinced? Well, real life example; Chileans weren’t cowed. They replaced Pinochet, and reestablished a democracy. Oh, and by the way, when I said their private pension plans “conservatively” earned five percent interest, I cut the real average growth in half. From 1981 to 2004, the average Chilean private pension account has averaged a 10.3 percent annual growth rate, and all that’s real untaxed money.

Nota Bene

Some of you may be unable to review this work at the date of its publishing. I’m sorry about that, but if you are on my list of blocked accounts, it may be because you are prone to forming adversarial relationships with writers. While I’m not trying to limit the dialogue to a consensus, I mustn’t allow the usual hurling of empty adversarial slogans, because building on the understandings in this paper is too important to be lost in the normal zero-sum game played by the ideological clientele of this site.

Within western civilization, we are all winners if an applicable strategy comes forward from this paper. If you are blocked but willing to alter your behavior into something more civil and constructive, mail me an oath that you’ll be helpful, and I’ll grant you access. You don’t have to pledge loyalty, you don’t even have to say you like me, but you do have to agree to see me as a writer first, and maybe an ideological adversary far after that.

Disclaimer on perceived cultural insensitivity

I’m perfectly aware of cursory treatment of various cultures trigger contention between people, especially in cultures as old as that of China, but it is so evident to the author that the shift from central accountability to personal economic responsibility is rapidly changing Chinese culture and the Chinese sense of self. It is clearly manifested in the interpersonal dynamics of the Chinese National Basketball Team in the 2004 Summer Games, when center Yao Ming asserted himself in defiance of the consensus-driven culture of the team.

In short, I’m calling a spade a spade and following the consequences. I’ll more thoroughly discuss the globalization of the People’s Republic in the next chapter. Expect more low-context analysis.

In Context of Iraq

After explaining why China is no longer communist, and why democracy is inevitable, I’ll explain what the second Gulf War was really about, why an occupation force is really necessary, and why we (the citizens of western civilization) are winning. You’ll learn the true casus belli, and why it was more rational and humanitarian than the status quo.

Between now and then, this account name has a fan fiction novel titled Tying The Gordian Knot dealing with the minutiae of implementing this doctrine in Iraq.
Until later.

Footnotes!

[1]Adam Smith, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations (1776)
http://www.gutenberg.org/catalog/world/readfile?fk_files=93618

[2] Investopedia.com
http://www.investopedia.com/university/economics/

[3] Economic Expert.com
http://www.economicexpert.com/a/Mercantile.htm

[4] US History.org, Profile of John Hancock
http://www.ushistory.org/declaration/signers/hancock.htm

[5] Bartleby.com definition: Jeffersonianism versus Hamiltonianism
http://www.bartleby.com/59/11/jeffersonia2.html

[6] Infoplease.com
http://www.infoplease.com/ce6/history/A0817234.html

[7] BBC History, Horatio Nelson
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/nelson_horatio.shtml

Nb: My unconventional warfare definitions are a personal synthesis from innumerable sources.

[8] Tom Clancy & Carl Stiner, Shadow Warriors.
[9] Tom Clancy & Chuck Horner, Every Man A Tiger.

[10] See #8 ^_^

[11] Imperial Iranian Air Force website
http://www.iiaf.net/home.html

[12] Charles Krauthammer, Jewish World Review column, What Happened To The Powell Doctrine details what was right about it, in balance to my criticisms. Nb: The problem with the doctrine is that it doesn’t allow for sustainable occupations. Am I the only person that adds opinion to footnotes?
http://www.jewishworldreview.com/cols/krauthammer042701.asp

[13] Andrew Leyden & Camille Akin, Gulf War Debriefing Book: An After Action Report

[ibid] #9
[ibid1] #8

[14] Mark Bowden, Black Hawk Down: A Story of Modern War.

[15] History Sunday: Soldiers for Hire, from the History Channel.

[16] Klaire Boutwell, Scientific American, Special Report: A Scourge of Small Arms, June 2000 issue.

[17] Tony Zinni & Tom Clancy, Battle Ready.

[18] The Modern Li, by Le Creature.

[19] Full synopsis at Wikipedia.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Borg

[20] Mentioned in Frontline’s special on bin Laden.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/binladen/

[21] Alan Clendenning, Chilean Pension System A Model For Privatization, from the Washington Times.
http://www.washtimes.com/world/20041214-122049-1478r.htm
[22] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicago_Boys
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/commandingheights/shared/video/qt/mini_p02_07_300.html
Milton Friedman’s feature in the PBS “Commanding Heights” special.

One other thing to “note well:” you’ll need this link to the Heritage Foundation:
http://www.heritage.org/research/features/index/

Footnoting is a tiresome business, but it develops credibility quickly, if I didn’t make any mistakes. If you catch any, my email address is Typewriterking@cebridge.net
Having to put the numbers by the correct test can be confusing when one does it after the fact, as I did. Please forgive me, and let me know if there are any dead links. Thank you.

School Vouchers #1

2005-07-07T22:30:00.000-07:00

I’m cautiously heartened we’re moving forward when no one blames Columbine on the tools used, excellent. Wow, you guys even correctly place the ultimate blame on the institution, very positive! Now, if only you’ll build on this truth and seek alternatives to socialized education. This year marks the fiftieth anniversary of Milton & Rose Friedman’s endeavor to save our educational system through school vouchers. The voucher program would realistically open up a market of choices for parents, and rectify the squalor mandated by the educational racket terrorizing our country.

Today we all see the state of our system, that high school is almost pointless, that it breeds mass-murderers, that young adults aren’t suited for operating bank accounts. Populist politicians are resurging because our youth is economically illiterate, socialized programs are gaining popularity because students aren’t trained to be anything but dependant on government, and malaise is resurging because socialized education produces helpless whelps, not capable adults.

By strange circumstance, we have a president that supports school vouchers, but a public that rejects choice for phobia of a religious bogyman. Abstract imagery of brutal cult practices have replaced logic in the debate over school vouchers. People need to understand that a market atmosphere would have created an out for the two Columbine kids; it would have presented a selection to shop from. They could have found a niche to thrive in. When the state monopolizes something, it shuts out alternatives. Only one choice exists, allowing for complete stagnation. That’s where the blame lies.

Catching Stuff

2005-07-02T09:20:00.000-07:00

This is the handiest use of flash animation technology I've witnessed to date.

This is my column blog, and I usually save my Greatestjournal for the rounding up of the "instapunditry," but there's so much to try together today. It is just that kind of day!

NBC's Brian Williams is "catching stuff." I didn't even know MSNBC/NBC let it's talking heads keep their own comment logs, and doubly surprised to see that they must not edit it for them.
Here's the paragraph that has people shaken up:

"Many Americans woke up to a curious story this morning: several of the former Iran Hostages have decided there is a strong resemblance between Iran's new president and one of their captors more than 25 years ago. The White House and most official branches of government are ducking any substantive comment on this story, and photo analysis is going on at this and other news organizations. It is a story that will be at or near the top of our broadcast and certainly made for a robust debate in our afternoon editorial meeting, when several of us raised the point (I'll leave it to others to decide germaneness) that several U.S. presidents were at minimum revolutionaries, and probably were considered terrorists of their time by the Crown in England."

Here's his non-apology apology:

"Today, apparently, on some radio talk shows and blogs, my friends in the media have accused me of labeling George Washington a terrorist. They apparently missed my point: That the BRITISH CROWN might have viewed American revolutionaries that way."

I think you, sir, missed the point, that valueble point about moral relativism. No one accused you of finding evil in George Washington, but of excusing a contemporary one. Taking diplomats hostage is evil, sir, it would be best if you wise up and recognize that.

I'll win this next year.

Get to know where I live at this place.

This is going to be a full day, so expect things to pour in here and here all day.

Stuff II

2005-06-28T21:27:00.000-07:00

To "A Very Disappointed Author"

Sir, the origin of your account is an anathema unto the very meaning of this site, and your current project. You were invented as a counter-battery against a legion of reviewers who had a dire interest in protecting this beloved site from an eminent domain seizure by a new crop of fanficcers (a real word) that don’t know their place.

You’ve lost with the folks, because we know there is, to cite Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, a clear and present danger. Categories are bleeding together. The manga section is awash with Inuyasha stories, hobbits walk in the fantasy department, and X-wings are now performing immelmanns in the science fiction section. You created your account to be an accessory of a wrecking ball to all remaining structure and coherence of a highly idealistic community.

If you’ll please, read the stirring ’about’ page. You may grasp the idealism that went into the crafting of this place. They built a publishing house for us! It isn’t brick-and-mortar, I’ll never make a dime from it, but they gave me this gift I could use.

This place makes a perfect modern parable for the Genesis story. I suggest reading John Milton’s “Paradise Lost” for why that tale has had an impact on people for so long. Basically, Jehovah made a world for humanity practically free of charge. The world provided everything humanity would need for a peaceful existence, but rather quickly, man, although we had no hand in building the world, felt entitled to violate… the terms of service. They raided God’s library, in essence. They decided they were entitled to his knowledge, that they could put urine on his wall, or defecate in his wine flutes. Although given everything they’d ever need, they violated God’s property, and there was a price.

Fast forward to John Locke’s day. We’ve been here, but you missed the point. To determine if there are such things as “natural rights of man,” one has to determine if certain rights are valued by all men.
Locke (1632-1704), would have been inspired by the universal theme of ’Paradise Lost,’ published in 1667. It would have made one right staggeringly obvious! That the ownership of property is a sacred right! Fictionpress.com is a registered domain. It is property. They aren’t obligated to protect your account, or my account, or Kim Jung Ill’s account. (He probably has some screenplays here or at Deviant Art.)

The administrators, I don’t know them. I’m thinking of helping them out this fall. I’d like to help them keep IP logs of reviewers. That’s a really neat feature that would allow us to match Ips from a flamer account to all others taken by that user. It would partially vanquish this cowboy-and-Indians game of masked marauders and spleen-venting vigilantes. It would sizably cut down on these reactionary rants passing for essays. The site would lose it’s ardor for many of the people, but I consider it a vital reset.

And lastly, there is nothing to give positive feedback to in this posting. Everyone is willing to second that point. You are violating the terms right now, and don’t be sure this will stay up. I don’t know if the admins removed the work, or if Mister Flames voluntarily removed his own crass parodies, I’m guessing on the latter, but he’s had many removed.

I don’t live in the realm where every line of every work is going to be appreciated, and I thank God for that. I appreciate honesty, and I regularly dole out an honest critique that can never honestly be accused of falling into “groupthink.” I give supplemental information, supplemental sources, and try to educate writers.

Example: Sturgeon's law states that Ninety percent of everything is crap. When other users said ninety percent of fan fiction is crap, I thanked them for citing Sturgeon's law. I also thanked them for standing up for someone else’s property rights, and I meant it. They’re patriots under Robert A Heinlein’s definition, as he expressed it in a 1972 Naval Academy graduation speech.

I didn’t make a faux pas in my legal arguments, didn’t establish an ad hominem argument, was entirely coherent, gave helpful supplemental information to the readers, and thus, didn’t flame.

Your works to date have been sure non compos mentis, however, and by giving me a review forum, I have the right to say so. Vaya con Dios.

Stuff

2005-06-24T19:30:00.000-07:00

Hello! I wrote some things for naught that deserve reading. First up is a review written for an essay now taken down. It concerns property rights, so is on subject for the big court ruling:

"Dang it, I spelled Lucas wrong! Yeah, I figured it was the Star Wars story. Nothing's drawn that much attention to copyright law in my viewing experience here, but I was also pointing attention to the larger complexity of Lucas Arts' relation to fan fiction. Lucas personally fights to remove something called chanslash from the entire fanfic scene because:

1. He doesn’t want his subculture tarnished.

2. He doesn’t want his creation used toward legitimizing child molester organizations like NAMBLA.

3. He hopes to avoid having that sort of thing mistaken for being a part of the canon literature.

I’m sorry, I might put more trolling ideas in Raptor’s head with that little story. Well, I applaud your actions, Sarasa. The facts of this case is that a group of cool people generously put together a second home for all of us to play in, but with all the free fun came a few simple rules to follow. All of us consented to play under the conditions, but not all of us have followed, sadly.

Many shallow players in this episode have claimed their freedoms were violated, but this is clearly a case of property rights, not of expression. Raptor’s nascent sock puppet appeals to the supposed hard work put into his derivative work, but Star Wars isn’t unconditionally his. George Lucas still owns his property, and he invested his all after finishing film school to see this risky space opera venture through. There was a lot of scripting, screen writing, shooting, auditioning, promoting, and directing to go through, and he did it six times with just the movies.

I understand he micromanaged in the beginning, because the story arc we’re all familiar with was the master work of his life. Thanks of sketching something in your early twenties and finishing a full thirty years later. This was his blood and sweat. He wasn’t some preternatural uber-wealthy aristocrat the klepto sloth gangs imagine when they P2P or bit torrent someone’s dream, he was just another desperate graduate that put in the work to fulfill the luck that shined on him. I’d never make a seizure of that, but if he’s willing to throw out scraps, I’ll play in his world. I have the beginnings of a Star Wars fan fiction; at the proper site. I wrote it on a typewriter when I was twelve, so I’m sure it doesn’t measure up.

Anyway, Lucas, the actors, producers, designers, engineers, soundmen, the great John Williams, and the sanctioned authors like Zahn and Alston aren’t all the people that put blood and sweat into something Raptor violated, but the wonderful hosts of both of the writer host sites they created. Both sites are as thoroughly made as any of the wiki sites we’ve seen online. The beautiful people here fought hard to set it up, and took a lot of heat from their guests over a bug in the search engine this winter. The flaw was probably down in assembly code, and would have been tedious to fix, but someone did. We didn’t express gratitude, either, we collectively said “it was about time,” and held on to our frustrations until events bled it from our memories.

I don’t know any of these people, but I treat their property with respect, because I’ve made things I had to protect. Even the laziest of us have probably faced it. Many of us have built sand castles, and many have had thugs kick it over. Whenever I such a thing happen, I let in to the internal savage and hurt the perpetrators. They had shot the sand castle. The were armed. It didn’t sway me from my principles then, and I don’t like seeing it wherever I go to play.

Sarasa, I noticed you don’t display an email address anymore. Did you keep the threatening or obscene messages these thugs sent you? Most email services comes with a toolbar with a button for viewing the header file. The file will come with the sender’s IP logged. You can run an ARIN search to find their ISP administrators contact information. The admin will help you take the proper actions against them.

Krugman, the genius that brought us “No! My Anus!” Needs taken behind the woodshed. In your account’s log in area, there is a toolbar to the left. Below “Author Alerts” is a “Block Users” button. You can press it and add his user id to the entry field, and he’ll never troll on your posts again.

Good luck waving the flag."

Yeah, I saved it in anticipation of the essay going down. All this involves a copyright battle at fictionpress.com. Next is a Greatestjournal update that didn't come out right. Sadly, my links are gone :-(

"I've been staying out of 10 Downing Street because I considered it a British problem, not an American one. It turns out not even to be a British problem, at least once Blair gets ahold on the perception change taking place. Yes, they're fakes, they aren't "smoking guns," to use the turn-of-phrase I loathe.

Captain Ed has the whole story. I still don't care, but he has the story. I warn you he does accept money from the RNC.

I'm not sure I spoke of this previously, but the EU courts are... stupid.

I've been following a very interesting discussion board about ethonal, but I haven't joined in.

Wow, the Anti Defamation League must be a part of the vast right-wing conspiracy, too! The ADL says Durban's comparison of GITMO to the Nazi camps are flat wrong. They almost call him an anti-semite. Remember that ADL considers Europe very anti-semitic. This has the Senator a little miffed. He seems to be stepping it back. Baby steps, though. To this, Captain Ed gave him a well-deserved thrashing. Keep it up! Bill Kristol has an idea, but this doesn't look like something that will end in justice. The truth is, in Washington, if you have vowel beside your name, people with that same vowel will back you up, no matter what.
I hope this soap opera is canceled soon enough. I'd hate for this thing to ruin July 4th for everone. Chances are, something will, though. I'm looking toward a lot of loud fellas ready to scree at me if I go out to observe the holiday. I'll bring mace."

Deadball, Liveball

2005-06-20T19:48:00.000-07:00

In 1910, an inventor named Ben Shide made a livelier “jackrabbit” ball for the 1911 major league season. Baseball historians call the era from 1905 to 1910 the dark ages of the “dead ball era,” because offense slowed during these years. Shides ball was used in the 1910 World Series. The ball caused enough excitement that the league instituted it for the 1911 season.

Thanks to the vigorous properties of the ball, batting averages jumped thirty points from 1910 to 1911. The hated Tyrus Cobb won the batting title with an astonishing .420 average, greatly surpassing the previous year’s highest of .384.
The game picked up some more in 1920, when the league abolished the doctoring of baseballs. A pitcher could no longer add a substance to the ball’s surface, or scrape some away. This enforced lack of eccentricities meant a more uniform approach, and offensive statistics soared.

Babe Ruth batted .376 and blasted 54 four-baggers, carried a slugging average of 1,847, drove in 137 runs, and scored 158 runs, while George Sisler won the batting title with a .407 average, while he banged 257 hits.

The institution of a clean ball improved offensive statistics all around in 1921. The livelier ball resulted in the Tigers franchise batting .316, while the Babe smashed 59 taters and generating 171 runs.

In 1931, the balls were made less lively, but Lou Gehrig wouldn’t been denied, for he drove in 184 RBI, 211 hits, 410 total bases, 163 runs, and 46 moonshots.

But war caused the game to slow 1943. The war in the Pacific cut America off from it’s Southeast Asia rubber supply , forcing baseball to introduced a rubber less core to the ball. While the intention wasn’t to drive down runs, no dingers were hit in the season’s first 11 games, and the entire league failed to generate 1,000 runs. Tellingly, no slugger managed to belt as many as 30 round-trippers that year. Thankfully, that ball has never been used again.

So what actually causes a ball to be more or less active? No official answer exists, but many believe that manufacturers were inserting more rubber into the core of balls in the 20’s, 30’s, and 40’s.
Perhaps so. The ball doesn’t seem to have changed much in the following eras. We aren’t sure what cause the 1961 homeruns explosion, except a short right field wall and two crazy sluggers in Yankee Stadium. We aren’t sure why Bob Gibson and others made pitching the dominant side in 1968. We do know the mound shrank in 1969, to offset the pitching, and we know that the game changed the ball cover from horsehide to leather in 1974.
We now also know players were juicing themselves in the nineties, after the 1994-95 broke baseball fan attendance. But every no and then, sportscasters and barmen will spin a conspiracy about a “juiced ball.”
Insiders aren’t telling, but what has happened before is bound to happen again, should some on the inside determine a livelier ball will increase the bottom line. We’ll see, but for now, this is the history of the baseball.

Retrospective

2005-06-09T01:19:00.000-07:00

That brilliant man Travis McKee just posted chapter one of the Retrospective of Typewriter Ribbons. It comes out at 18744 words and covers the Angelfire and Livejournal versions of Typewriter Ribbons, and of course, the very first HTML page versioin. So there you go, I have an archive at fictionpress!

Brief History of GOP Race Relations

2005-06-07T20:46:00.000-07:00

I would argue that most Americans believe in equal access to education
opportunities and equal job access, based on merit. America has elected a religious

minority in the '60s, and very nearly elected one in the nineteenth century. In

2000, a ticket that included a Jewish senator one the popular vote, and that ticket's

detractors never made Judaism a campaign issue, nor did it become a grassroots

issue within the opposition. White Americans cheer the black athlete, laugh with

the black comedian, and nominate/confirm a black Secretary of State, then another

one. One contemporary piece of revised history asserts the rediculous notion that Lincoln's when in 1860 had nothing to do with slavery, but that's not how it went down.

I don't have to probe very deep to understand why the South opposed him.

They didn't like him because he ran on the platform of the new Republican

Party, a group of former Whigs, Northern Democrats, and defectors from the

Free-Soil Party. The party's founders were firmly linked in common opposition

to slavery, particularly to the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854. The southerners

saw the new party as an opposition bloc against their interests, and their

paranoia was heightened by the Harper's Ferry incident. They were surely

alarmed by the rapid growth of the GOP. Their first Presidential campaign was

just four years before Lincoln's run, and Lincoln's personal denial that he was

an abolitionist seemed insincere, even in print.

It is Lincoln's passionate, or belligerent, orations during his race for the

Illinois Senate that brought him to the party's fore, and his views on containing

slavery won him the ire of the Southern Democrat. Poor Seward was too

controversial to win, because he held even stronger opinions than Lincoln, so

the lanky Illinois native won. So he won the nomination, and the Republicans

were the only powerful party that was completely united, while the Democrats

split, kind of like in 1948. John Bell further split things in the Northern South,

taking away valuable electoral votes, and some xenophobe popular votes.

So Lincoln became president without any pull in the South.

The revised version of history is an effort by leaders of outdated special-interests

to “prove” never left its “foundation” (more like a nasty habit) of racism. I believe

my fellow citizens are good, and that when they say they aren't racists, that they

aren't hiding in the “racist closet.”

End of History Week

2005-06-01T17:17:00.000-07:00

Yeah, its the middle of the second week, but I had a hacker to fight. He's taken care of, so here's the post.

How did the Church deal with the many patterns of belief and di

From the beginning, Papal authority looked unquestionably corrupt, but not terribly brutal. Rome, in fact, worked hard to keep feudal Christians from killing each other for the longest time. Pope Innocent III set a new tone in Europe, however. While in office, he organized two Crusades, one against the Cathars, merely a group of separatists that believed the Roman Church belonged to Satan, and the other Crusade attacked the Eastern Church, after a fashion.

Transubstantiation, or, as the Lutherans call it, Consubstantiation, is a center for some bizarre debate, largely springing from the Book of Luke, and its account of quotes from the last supper. From what I can gather, Jesus commanded the followers to remember him with a thanksgiving-type feast, but the Early Church, probably swayed by a certain Greek-educated tentmaker, elaborated the ritual into a routine miracle. Centuries later, I’m laughing at all those theologians, because they overlooked the key fact that Jesus WAS HOLDING THE BREAD when he stated that it was his body! And they burned guys like Nick Ridley and Hugh Latimer for denouncing flawed beliefs like these; unbelievable.

Reformers of England held a great advantage over reformers in all other European lands. Bede wrote many scholarly works in the vernacular Old English, and preserved many oral traditions and histories in writing. The people of England, through these recordings, could recall a time when another band of missionaries spread a different version of the faith, without many of the undesirable trappings of the Church. During and after the twelfth century, Englishmen were tired of living under the Papal yoke. Church officials escaped punishment for all kinds of crimes, because they were held under the jurisdiction of Canon Law. Interestingly, John Wycliffe didn’t speak out against the Church too much until after he joined a diplomatic team to negotiate tribute to the Vatican authorities in the 1370s. He resented exporting English wealth to alien Rome, while enemy France, with a domestic Pope, kept its wealth home. He seemed highly motivated by nationalism, first condemning the Papal tithing, and other forms of extortion. Not until the 1380s did he begin the real business he’s special for, including his training of lay preachers. His English bible, which eventually made up some eighty-to-ninety percent of the King James Version, was finished shortly after his death. Lollardism reached Bohemia after Richard II married Anne. It didn’t take long for Catholic corruption to actually suppress the word they claimed to spread. Eventually, censorship became a more formal and preventive authority, with heretical works recognized under the Index of Forbidden Books, a list that stayed in vogue until 1948, a year in which a great many things changed.

Normally, the Church kept its heretic crusades under it’s own authority, but in Spain, the Church authorized Ferdinand and his cousin/wife Isabella to reform the non-Christian population. For the purpose of creating religious unity within Spain, the King and Queen founded the Santa Hermandad, and shortly after, supplemented that national police unit with the infamous inquisitors. Ferdinand’s greatest triumphs and treacheries came in the year 1492, when he successfully conquered the final Moorish holdings, and expelled well over 100,000 Jewish “undesirables.” Half a millennia later, the memory of his reign was celebrated in the 1992 Olympic games. Of course, his endorsement of an ambitious Genoese explorer factored more in his favor than his killing of perceived heretics. The Genoese explorer, Columbus, exported the Inquisition to the New World.

Even if he does call himself the Pontifex, the Priest of Rome never legitimately held a higher office than the priests of the other churches. Christians place a lot of emphasis on an institution’s foundation, and the foundation of the Roman Church is based on a pack of myths and traditions, not supported by any writings of the Apostles. Perhaps ethical reasons existed for the Pope’s assumed dominance. Rome, after all, was the center of the universe. Taxes and food came from outward into the city, and the heavenly bodies orbited the city, of this, the ancients recorded carefully. No, these things weren’t true, and astronomers were the first to prove it. Kepler, the famous German mathematician, was so moved by the truth, he joined the more tolerant Protestant cause, even though Luther personally chided him for his belief that the sun is stationary. Galileo became the first martyr for science, and German princes from that time on ignored Rome. Cities like London and Paris became the new alternative intellectual centers, and empires conquered for a more personal God and Country. Embryonic America gleaned its values from the London and Paris intellectuals, and the revolutionaries decided to prevent the establishment of a state religion by establishing freedom instead. But yes, some authoritarian measures ARE necessary, for the sake of convenience. The majority has the right to impose their day of rest on a reasonably small majority, and the majority also has the right to establish several of their most important holidays. Some of the most important moral laws should also be enforced. It’s only natural that the majority should decide the control of their environment, but minority religious beliefs shouldn’t ever again be subject to witch-hunts. At least, as long as they don’t deprive me of life and limb.

Byzantium

2005-05-27T12:46:00.000-07:00

Even at the beginning, as Christianity became endorsed by the powers of the Mediterranean world, many sides of the religion had manifested themselves, each taking a conflicting facet on the overall jewel, when a large summit was held in the first gentile region fertile to the new faith, Asia Minor. The first major question to be decided was: “Is Christianity really a monotheistic religion?” Everyone worked really hard to establish their views concerning the nature of Jesus Christ, and the debate continues. All this debating really meant a lot to Christendom, and Egypt defected, but the compromise ruling was not really the root of the East-West division, Chalcedon's twenty-eighth proposed canon was the real stink that the textbook missed. The twenty-eighth proposed granting the Patriarch of Constantinople equal status with the Roman Pope, but this one never passed. The Dogma of Papal Infallibility wasn't passed until 1870, but the doctrine was very much alive from the start.

The Popes found themselves in no position to argue many times before the fall of Constantinople, but it never seemed to make a difference to them. The Schism itself is a clear example. Pope Leo XIII was in Norman captivity when he mailed the papal bull that Cardinal Humbert delivered to the Patriarch!

Catholicism by no means focused its energy on the Eastern Empire. Less than two centuries before, Rome had started a mess with the Franks and the Germans, a mess that outlived all but the most fundamental problems in the western world.

Emperor Basil I tried really hard to save Papal and Patriarchy ties, when he decided to boot Photius at the Sixth Council of Constantinople, but Papal authority was steadily becoming a power of its own, and Rome had already shopped for a new power to be the Western Empire. Charlemagne was crowned Emperor, and the Pope decided Constantinople was a flawed device. By the twelfth century, Frederick Barbarosa added “Holy” to his title, though even Papal authorities despised the guy, calling him “Antichrist,” behind his back. At the same time as the Schism, Catholic leadership moved against secular leadership in the West. The Western Emperor was selling Church property, and the Pope, ego-tripping, moved against him in what is called the Investiture Controversy. Just five years after excommunicating the East, Rome abolished the Western Emperor's traditional power of nominating new Popes. From then on, Cardinals assumed the role of an electoral collage. Germany's Henry IV tried to hold some power in electing clerics, but the church wouldn't have laymen controlling anything. Michael Cerularius, obviously, doesn't deserve blame for the split, for Papal politicking alienated just about everyone, even the Empire of their own creation, which, as Voltaire pointed out, wasn't Holy, neither was it Roman, nor an Empire.

But there was a time when Italy was subject to Byzantine whim, but that yoke was a loose fit. The Eastern Empire indeed held possessions in the South, when the Emperor ordered all icons destroyed, but by the time Empress Theodora pacified the zealous destruction once-and-for-all, the Pope had found his power base.

Today, the Roman Pope is of Eastern Europe, and many people now belong to Eastern Catholicism. The Romanian Church and the Ukrainian Eastern Orthodox both accept papal primacy, although they read the old rites. The Ukrainians, in fact, still observe the Byzantine rites, though they are in many ways now Catholic. Slobodan Milosevic, and others within the Serbian Orthodox Church, are still giving the West the religious finger, even as they try the same with the Moslem communities. Serbia stayed under the Ottoman thumb until 1868, when they pulled themselves out. Wasting no time getting even with the new Reich in town, Serbian terrorists helped thrust the former Holy Roman Empire and the Ottomans to their destruction (1914-18).

Revising Rome

2005-05-26T19:00:00.000-07:00

I forgot that Latin word of the day thing. Here it is.
Crapulum -- n, drunkenness, hangover.

That little contribution comes from a Livejournal community that's been dormant since the first of the month. Not exactly daily, is it? Well, I've give you a word and a history lesson. How's that?

The weaknesses of the Empire began with Augustus. He probably realized his shrouded leadership practices would lead to intrigues for his successors, but he probably reasoned his doubts away. The Tetrarch (rule of four) would later put this water under the bridge, but in the meantime, vulnerable successors administered the secret dictatorship.

In classic Italian style, the “republic became a family business, it worked smoothly immediately after Augustus died. Tiberius lacked ambition, and he kept the status quo, then Caligula abolished the (1%) sales tax before becoming a royal nut. At least Claudius was only physically ill; they say the good die young, and so he’s murdered so the Empire can have another nut.

I think we have conflict-of-interest laws because of Nero. This guy ripped Augustus’s careful facade by tyrannically becoming a pop star and every other celebrity type. His pyrotechnic show angered Romans, and his executions of Peter and Paul angered an emerging population to look out for.

Vespasian could be likened to Clinton, if Clinton had been military. They both slashed expenses after an excessive era. Unlike Clinton, however, this Emperor had a decisive Middle East policy. Vespasian put down a massive Hebrew rebellion in his time, while Clinton let Hamas grow to unmanageable size during his eight years in office.

Domitian begins the process of strengthening the Empire’s borders. His efforts anticipate Hadrian’s, but passive defenses are a cheap quick fix; just ask China’s Han Empire.

I think Rome would have done well to research better missiles, or maybe they should have better invested in current technology. See, the Dacian infantry ‘falks’ were good blades, and only better organization made dominion over Romania possible. Really, they should have carried more standoff weapons. Rome’s military reforms are to little, to late, but our reforms began as soon as we found our tools less-than-ideal. Our answers came in remarkably similar forms, however, fast cavalry.

Finally, nearly 300 years after Julius Caesar first chronicled Rome’s new direction, Marcus Aurelius, the last of a line of good leaders, desperately fought a new threat to his north.

Rome had lost in the Tauten Forest before -and the Iceni routed them, too, around the time of Nero- but as Commodus held his games, the law of the jungle must have been drafted.

Things could have been worse. In the 180s, the Dinarii was seventy percent pure, while Nixon pulled the US off any standard in as crucial a time, but no commission existed to end the Roman drama. Taxes grabbed 10% of Rome gross national product (GNP),* and barbarian raids on grain shipments were still fairly rare. During Nixon’s presidency, the Vietnam War alone gobbled 8% GNP, and OPEC blocked all oil imports.

The mob packed the games to watch the Emperor’s antics, while in the 1970s, Americans must have watched baseball- the Big Red Machine was building into a dynasty in Ohio- but something tells me Rome was happier in the 180s.

Into it’s bi-centennial, America and the looked in the same shape the Rome Commodus re-christened ‘Colonia Commodiana,’ and things would get worse before better.

America had it’s first un-elected President, and Rome raised a puppet. The Japanese Yen gained on the dollar, and Roman inflation was equally absurd.

Persia captured an Emperor of Rome, and in a similar time, they captured the occupants of a US embassy. And OPEC embargoed us again. Just in time, Aurelian and Ronald Reagan came to power, and things looked a little brighter.

We thankfully have not cycled through the next act, and it’s important to note that John Hinckley failed his job of making my parallel perfectly square. Meanwhile, in the past, Aurelian did not survive.

* Rome’s tax rates were misleading. While it does look like American taxes were far higher than Rome’s, subject provinces absorbed still more income in the form of tribute, and slaves gave all of their bodies to handle labor and spectacle, something we phased out a little after the Battle of Fort Sumner.

We're Greek to Me!

2005-05-25T14:18:00.000-07:00

The Midas Touch

From the pulpit every Sunday, in every city in the West, a minister instructs a crowd in a book translated from Koine, the Hellenistic World's universal language.

Identifying with Athens, the American and French revolutionaries both chose the neoclassical style for all major public works.

A neoclassical artifact, the Bradenburg Gate, played center on the Berlin Wall throughout the Cold War.

These example are striking, and influences, Hellenistic or not, can't run much deeper than this- or can they?

Physicians still take the Hippocratic Oath, and other institutions of responsibility, the presidency and the armed forces, for example, borrow language from the man most influential to Alexandrian medicine, the fifth-century doc, Hippocrates.

We Are Hellenism

Hellenism is Thomas Jefferson, designing his home, or the City of Chicago, constructing a bronze monument to Michael Jordan.

Hellenism can be these things, and even be cast members being voted off of Survivor, because Hellenism is the spread of Greek culture that started when Philip's troops united the Greeks with their standoff weapons.

The Civic Lord

Alexander's legacy is evident in his civic works, and how they reformed the West. Situated around the agora, amphitheaters, Gymnasiums, and bathhouses stayed with the people longer than the Greeks did.

Helens donated libraries into the modern Middle East and Asia Minor, a little footnote in history that kept the Byzantines and the Arabs out of the Dark Ages.

All The Wonders

Babylon's hanging gardens were probably just a memory by the time, but Alexander's empire either captured or built the other six wonders of the world; building most of them.

The contents of Alexandria's library deserved status, as did the monument collection in Athens, but Pharos is the one on the list moderns can most appreciate, because of its awesome function, and it undoubtedly played a large role in the cities growth as the major commerce hub- as important as the library and location? I don't know about that.

When Europe reached the Renaissance, or rather, when the Renaissance left the Italian states to find Europe, Europeans rediscovered many of the Greco-Roman thoughts, but one entity, the Eastern Roman Empire, or as the Arabs called them, the Greeks, were still hanging on to the legacy of Greece.

Constantinople, a treasure in a location never quite touched any of Alexander's major successors, truly was the best of the Greeks and the Romans packed into a Christian city, when the Crusaders sacked the city, and in effect, started the Renaissance in the first place.

How It Revived

By the time Byzantine disappeared from the map, Venice, Florence, and even Rome housed intellectuals who learned Latin and Greek, learned Aristotle and Euclid, and even recreated the sculptural styles of the ancients.

The authorities, the Roman Catholic Church, endorsed these thinkers to the same status as deities, and charged opponents of Greek thought with heresy, even though the classics gave rise to humanistic ideals counter to the bible.

(I grow up with a fundamentalist religious education, so forgive me if my writing looks militant on this subject. This is just the tone the subject was first taught to me.)

Anyway, Rome and all of Europe promoted the classics all over again, and the age of exploration just tapped off, so Portuguese explorer like De Gama take the teachings everywhere, and other ships land colonists with the teachings to the New World, and there you have it, a dominating church and a looted city help bring the oldies back like new, Shakespeare and Dante revive theater, Thomas Jefferson and James Madison write a few letters, and Napoleon, a Corsican, pales at emulating Alexander.

The Center Of Democracy Summarizes

Today, Washington is a city of neoclassical monuments, running a nation built on classical ideals, while centered on an acropolis called Capitol Hill.

Human history shouldn't fit in a nutshell. It's disturbing.

History Arc

2005-05-24T19:07:00.000-07:00

Being a history major, I thought it would be a great idea to post daily about that subject. What a novel idea!

The Second Great Awakening transpired throughout our sprouting and
hurriedly evolving nation. In the comparatively disconnected South, it
manifested itself initially in large camp meetings and later in the
influential southern evangelical churches, but in the newly connected

North, the effects of the Second Great Awakening left a deeper
impression.
It was more than a simple renewal of interest in matters of faith. It

changed the way many Americans thought about spirituality, and thus
forged a large influence upon the way they conducted their daily lives.
Overall, it should be thought of as a duel crusade for universal
Christianity and against sin. The utopia founders fought a more
personal battle against sin, while many emerging organizations actively
fought for conversion and against sin in the entire nation.
As Protestant tradition would have it, the American Bible Society gave away bibles, and that makes perfect sense; to get the word out, you should get “the
word” out, right? Of course, that's precisely how Protestantism successfully
broke away from Catholicism, by passing out bibles translated into
the vernacular, and if the plan was to win over Catholics again, the same strategy would apply. Proliferating religious tracts in the lingua franca goes naturally with it.
To broaden appeal, the movement smoothed out the
unsavory Calvinist doctrine of predestination, eventually sweeping
it away in favor of the belief that individuals had control over their
actions, and that the decision to sin or not was up to each person.
Under the leadership of Charles G. Finney, the Second Great
Awakening moved even further from a stuffy theologically based
interpretation of religion and appealed more to the emotions of
the people. This emotional appeal to a sense of right and wrong
combined with the concept that each person had control of his or
her fate and led directly to the movement's massive effect on the
period's reform movements.
Reformers organized against a very physical evil spirit,
alcohol, or rather, human consumption of it. Distilled whiskey was
cheaper and more prevalent than ever before, and reformers
responded zealously to the new trend.
Just a few years after the formation of the American Temperance Society, use of hard liquor curbed to moderate levels. Moderation wasn't enough for the
extremists within the organization, and the American Temperance Society split.
Prime among the various social movements were the
abolition movement and feminism. These movements
declared that the 'inalienable rights' should be enforced
across the gamut of American society.
William Garrison linked the causes of Women and Slaves in
his splintered anti-slavery society, and influential women
worked tirelessly in both movements.
The Second Great Awakening re-energized the Christians of
America, and motivated them to hasten the second coming of
the messiah, but before the newly awakened could see Jesus,
they had to make sure everybody got a fair chance at
accepting the faith, and that meant everybody. So these
people, christened “reformers,” reached out to the lepers of
their time, untouchables to white society. These reformers
built institutions for the insane and the criminal.
They reformed the prostitute and the destitute, and they
counseled the alcoholic. They circulated pamphlets, and
organized missions. They did all these things, and they even
looked toward the slave.
This great outpouring of love spread into the personal lives
of men and women, and a form of courtly love rooted into the
relationships of middle class couples. A different kind of
division of labor was born, with men in the workforce, and
women stationed in the household. These stationed women
united with others to continue the crusades.
These women joined the American Colonization Society
(founded in 1817), dedicated, depending on one's point of
view, on cautiously moving freed blacks to the West African
land of Liberia, which the society founded in 1821. Into the
183
Tomorrow, I mean this afternoon, I'll discuss the Greeks and share what the Latin word of the day is. I'm still waiting for notification from the university that I've passed American History. OU really needs to get its crap together!
On a developer's note, I've set up a Greatest Journal account to replace the LJ one. You know my account name!
One more gripe; my Typekey account isn't working yet. Must fix!

Watergate! Watergate! Watergate!

2005-05-17T18:46:00.000-07:00

How has Watergate contributed to change in our understanding of the president as a person? Should we separate a politicians personal and public life?

“Perhaps the place to start looking for a credibility gap is not in the offices of the Government in Washington but in the studios of the networks in New York!”

-Spiro Agnew

Watergate certainly hasn't changed the authority of the Executive Branch of

government for ill, that's for sure. Under the Patriot Act, one can reason, the
federal bureau of Investigation- subject to Executive authority!- actually has the
legal power to conduct covert searches and seizers. But it shouldn't have been
necessary.

It defies the common since of that era that Daniel Ellsberg wasn't found

guilty under the Espionage Act. Taking state secrets and reveling them to the otherside, after all, WAS the textbook definition of espionage. With the exception of defecting, Ellsberg did everything Kim Philby did in the UK. He didn't have to defect, by revealing his own country's secrets, he was deemed a hero.

Oh, if only Benedict and Judas had lived in this era! Nixon wasn't even all that extreme in
trying to muffle the leak, taking a more conservative route by filing injunctions
against news papers planning to publish the state secrets. The courts sided with the
papers.

The papers were full of pure military analysis relevant to a theater of war
that was still hot, the mainstream press actually distributes the secrets, the
president isn't even arresting them, and I'm supposed to accept the concept that the
president was making an “excessive abuse of power?”

Journalist Bob Woodward published an article choke full of secrets about a
CIA operation to remove a Russian Golf-class ballistic submarine from the depths
of the ocean. He played within the rules, holding the story until the government
was prepared with a response to the inevitable Russian rantings, but it was clear
the government had lost power to the unelected media elite.

It isn't paranoia when it's true. Investigative journalism was on a high, and
they were going to get their stories, even if it meant violating the Espionage Act.

It sounds less and less like Nixon was a true paranoid authoritarian. While it
did limit the freedom of employers to chose their employees, Nixon's pioneering
of affirmative action (how'd it get that name, anyway?) mandated opportunities to
minorities. In 1971, Congress repealed the Emergency Detention Act of 1950,
which meant Habeas Corpus was the law of the land again. Nixon in his day
rejected a National ID card, and even ordered destroyed some 40,000 WWII-era
Civil Defense Ids still in government archives.

Considering all his efforts to expand the cause of liberty, and the court's
refusal to enforce the law, I find it perplexing the possibility of impeachment was
taken seriously. After all, Ellsberg was obviously a criminal, and the efforts of the
“plumbers” seemed focused on him and collaborators. Normally, one would get a
court order for psychiatric records, but the courts had already shown their hostility
to the administration's case.

In Nixon's shoes, I'd probably keep a close eye on what Agnew called the
“hopeless, hysterical hypochondriacs of history.” By 1972, troop levels in
Vietnam dropped to twenty percent of the numbers in 1968, but what Agnew
called the “nattering nabobs of negativism” didn't seem satisfied that the war was
cooling down. Instead of be satisfied with “peace with honor,” the anti-war crowd
must have seemed every bit the “vicars of vacillation” Agnew called them out to
be.

After Senator Mike Gravel entered the papers into the public record, it must
have seemed two branches of government were at full-scale war with the other
branch. None of Nixon's efforts were done for personal gain. The raw data from
the papers embarrassed not Nixon, but previous administrations all the way back
to Franklin Roosevelt, especially the Johnson Administration. So how was public
opinion shaped so much against Nixon? I leave this quote from Spiro Agnew as a
clue:

“The American people should be made aware of the trend toward monopolization of the great public information vehicles and the concentration of more and more power over public opinion in fewer and fewer hands."

Afterward

During and after Nixon's terms in office, the mainstream media (MSM) became

preoccupied with airing the dirty laundry of public officials. We've seen Nixon

resign, another candidate drop out of contention because of the publishing of a

photo, a mayor smoke crack on video, a dress stained with DNA evidence, and

DWI become public hours before an election, forged documents used in an

attempt to unseat a president, the testimony of veterans to discredit his rival, and

hourly accusations of bias.

Spiro Agnew was the first to verbally assault the press, and both he and his boss paid for it. But wasn't he right when he said the following:

"Every time I criticize what I consider to be excesses or faults in the news business, I am accused of repression, and the leaders of various media professional groups wave the First Amendment as they denounce me. That happens to be my amendment, too. It guarantees my free speech as it does their freedom of the press… There is room for all of us – and for our divergent views – under the First Amendment."

Kind of whiny, for sure, but wouldn't you expect that from a helpless victim?

Sources Cited

I've been using the wrong “cited” all this time, and I just noted it.

Spy Book, The Encyclopedia of Espionage, by Norman Polmar and Thomas B. Allen
Brainyquotes.com
Worldofquotes.com
My textbook

The State as Nanny: Social Reform in the USA

2005-05-06T12:54:00.000-07:00

Social work performed by the state “shrinks the pie,” as the supply-side

economists say. Our graduated 'progressive' income tax system violates the

economic rule of incentive. High tax rates discourage people from devoting effort

into earning extra income. Because tax rates increase with income, the extra work

hours of high-income taxpayers will yield fewer rewards, until the high-income
taxpayers stop putting in extra hours. The prospect of extra work will lose its incentive.
From my viewpoint, government spending doesn’t benefit me very often. With the
one exception of student aid, I’ve never been on the receiving side of government
spending. I’ve never needed the help of police or government health programs.
For ten years, my education was private, and not funded by the taxpayer. I only
make use of roads as a passenger and jogger. I rarely use the mail. Even if
America were invaded; I doubt I would need assistance from the military, because
any invading force is likely to bypass my home. No city authority exists to take
out my trash. I buy used books from various sources, so I don’t even need the
library. As you can see, I make little use of public services, so taxes are just extra
charges to me. Even so, I’m thankful for their role in banking, and I consider their
role so important, I list Andrew Jackson at the very bottom of my president-
ranking list.

Even though government spending doesn’t benefit me very much, I recognize I’m
probably a rare case. I recognize that very few private toll roads and canals were
ever built without government aid (the text book beats that into my head), and that
these commercial arteries are very important. But consider that private canal and
road builders won’t engage in superfluous construction that serve very few, while
the government must connect everyone, and consider what that means.

When you think about an authority paving roads that make so little difference to the greater
good, doesn’t that strike you as a waste?

Governments are saddled with problems private funding doesn't contend with.
They have to take care of a load of special interests isolated by circumstance,
while private interests are allowed to leave people behind, as long as they aren’t
concerned with them.

As of May 2004, one year ago, America had a trade deficit with 123 Countries,
and a surplus with 107 Countries (source: U.S. International Trade Center). The
People’s Republic of China was and is the largest trade deficit with. China is a
“growth” market that's moving away from government regulation. In a deep
contrast, we have the largest trade surplus with The Netherlands, a highly regulated
welfare state whipped by labor. With steep taxes, the Dutch pay $52 US dollars
for a club sandwich before paying the 20% service tax. Empirical evidence
collected by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development
(OECD) demonstrates that national economies with governments only taking 10%
of GDP will grow at a rate of around 6%. A government such as The Netherlands,
a government that removes 50% of the private sector's income through taxes,
crawl at 2%.

Indeed, contrary to assertions made by modern wearers of the progressive cloak, it
wasn't inaction by the government that caused tragedies like the 1892 coke fields,
but local government sanction of heavy-handed methods used by the plant managers.
They shouldn't have worried over unions. As Jesse Gordon said at askme.com,

“Labor unions "solved" one of the great dilemmas that Marx saw in capitalism: Marx said that industrial bosses would pay the workers the minimum needed to keep them alive, especially as the population grew and more labor was more readily available. Hence the only way to improve the workers' situation was through revolution by the workers against the bosses.”

Left alone (but of course they weren't), Unions, as Jesse said, “were a political response and, in essence, a compromise that forestalled the introduction of either "unbridled capitalism" or the need for pure communism.”
In the past (says Jeffery Sachs, I concur), practically only aristocrats securely lived about absolute poverty (which today means about a dollar a day), but today those figures are turned on their heads. Thanks to
agreements made through NAFTA, GATT, and the WTO, only the few remaining nations outside of the fair marketplace have large populations teetering on the edge of absolute poverty. In 1940, practically all of East Asia was this way. Roosevelt embargoed Japan, one of the few markets for Southeast Asian goods.

After the war, the “Asian Miracle,” which was not hyperbole, flourished despite the lack of a Martial Plan in the East. The unique factors of Asian growth include the ability of Asian governments to score higher on the Heritage Foundation's Economic Freedom Index than anybody else.

But some instances of government help in social reform exist that demonstrate
government intervention works. After the 18^th Amendment was passed, after all,
honest citizens, that 30% that stopped guzzling alcohol, had to invent or expand alternative means of entertainment. The ice cream sundae was invented during the
twenties, and the profession of soda jerk expanded(I have an interesting testimonial from Dick Tracy founder Chester Gould about that).

I blame Margaret Sanger for my poor results with the benefits calculator at Social
Security on-line. Thanks to her, I'll have fewer people paying into my account
when and if I retire, cutting my entitlement down to $5,362.00 future dollars
when the time comes. I can also blame the anti-immigration acts at the tail-
end of the progressive era. If those twelve-million didn't arrive at the
twentieth centuries turn, I'd doubtlessly grow to be a poor old man, if I were
as irresponsible as everyone else.

On the whole, deregulation gives us an appearance unlike Europe, and this is the only era I personally know. Policy of today is the polar opposite of the early thirties.
Consider the crisis of 29/30 and the similar one of 2001/02. The coupling of bank
closures and increased income taxes from 1929 to 1932 bleed the private money
supply anemic, even if raising taxes was done in the name of “social justice.”
Tariffs jumped 40% then. During the recent crisis, more of NAFTA's statutes
came on-line, as scheduled. The country has fiscally returned to its roots, one
could say (and this one does). Then there was a major test. As I recall, the
president initially offered $30 million in foreign assistance after 12/26/2004, a
sum ridiculed even by so-called “deficit hawks.” That number jumped to $950
million later, leaving every other donation group looking stingy by
comparison; except private American donations. USAID reports
receiving $1 billion dollars from private American donors (stingy people).

An amusing tendency of of American private social workers has been the peculiar
idea of the same people funding multiple organizations. Margaret Sanger alone
was the driving force behind the following agencies:

American Birth Control League
Birth Control Clinical Research Bureau
Birth Control Council of America
Birth Control Federation of America
Birth Control International Information Center
Birth Control Review/New York Women's Publishing Company
Brownsville Clinic and the Committee of 100
Committee on Maternal Health/Maternity Research Council
International Committee on Planned Parenthood
International Planned Parenthood Federation
Joint Committee of the American Birth Control League and the Birth Control Clinical Research Bureau
Margaret Sanger Research Bureau
National Committee for Federal Legislation on Birth Control
New York Birth Control League
Planned Parenthood Federation of America
World Population Emergency Campaign

That's a lot of organizations dedicated to making sure fewer people exist to pay my way through social security:-)

Sources cited:

Labor Management Conflict in American History (Ohio State University project)

http://history.osu.edu/Projects/LaborConflict/Default.htm

The Margaret Sanger Papers Project (NYU)

http://www.nyu.edu/projects/sanger/

Temperance and Prohibition (OSU)

http://prohibition.osu.edu/

Social Security On-line

http://www.ssa.gov/

Immigration in the Gilded Age and Progressive Era

http://www.h-net.org/%7Eshgape/bibs/immig.html

John Dewy

http://www.infed.org/thinkers/et-dewey.htm