Gedanken-fetus
Jane Galt's post on the ethics of abortion brought up some interesting issues:

You cannot morally treat children, or fetuses, as if they have the same rights and obligations as human adults; they have fewer freedoms, but more entitlements. Children are not only uniquely vulnerable, but also uniquely innocent; that fetus did not ask to be in your body, and has no means at his disposal to get out and stop bothering you. Trying to reason his fate from principles designed for consenting adults is neither practical nor morally just.

I love a principled argument, although it's not always enough:

Evolution does not take cognizance of how beautifully consistently you have reasoned from first principles when it decides what behaviours will survive.

I can just hear the Objectivists jump up and object, "Ah, but that's only true if your first principles do not reflect the reality of evolution." They do have a point.
Left this comment in response:

A thought experiment might help work out opinions on this issue: what if one day it is possible for a couple to have a child in vitro, where the woman's body is not being used to nurture the child? Should the parents then have any choice as to whether the fetus continues to live or not? If so, until how late in its development? For most people who want abortion to be available, the reason is not "a woman's control of her body". That's a red herring, a straw man, in plain terms, a lie. It's because the baby is inconvenient, it would interfere with a lifestyle as it grows up. A baby grown in a test tube would interfere just the same way. So it would be interesting to hear pro-choicers' opinions on the scope of parental power. The same kind of dilemma presents itself in proxy births. Do the biological parents have the right to force the proxy mother to have an abortion if they suddenly decide, "Hey we want to go to law school - a baby isn't really convenient right now."?

Of course I think I'm right. Most abortions have nothing to do with the fact that the baby is inside a woman's body. So how can you take seriously those people who act as if that's the whole issue? Why don't they have the gumption to say what they really mean, that adults should have the right to kill annoying little brats any time they want to? Oh, OK, that was a little over the top. In fact - AH - isn't it only the fact that the fetus is inside the woman's body, out of sight, that makes it possible to contemplate "getting rid of it" with anything approaching equanimity? When it's outside, pulling on your skirt in the supermarket and whining, you might like to exterminate it, but those darn human feelings get in the way. And I suppose even if it were floating embryonically in a glass, blinking in its primitive cuteness, it would be harder to order its execution.

Asia Times Article (by a Greek!) about Turkey's role in the "negotiations" with Iran about their nuclear obsession.
First a probing attack:

Iran's supply of natural gas to Turkey was inexplicably slashed by 70% last Friday, in one of the coldest months of the year.

Then the implication:

But despite publicly supporting Iran's quest for nuclear energy, Turkish officials have privately spoken of their fears at the prospect of a nuclear-armed Iran.

And a warning, consisting of an interesting assertion:

Turkey is the only country in Iran's vicinity on which the US has prepositioned tactical nuclear weapons (an estimated 90) that it could deploy against Iranian facilities.

And the carrot:

According to German news agency DDP, Goss assured his Turkish counterparts that they would have a few hours advance warning of an air strike against Iran. He is also said to have given the green light for the Turkish army to strike PKK camps in Iran on the day of the attack.
...Bilateral trade(US/Turkey - RS) jumped in 2005 to an estimated US$4 billion, up from $1 billion in 2000.

PKK is the Kurd nationalist movement (OK, terrorist, to the Turks) Lots of good stuff. The Israelis are thinking of using Iraqi Kurdistan to launch their air attack on Iran. Seems unnecessarily provocative. Now I'm not saying I believe everything the Asia Times prints. The stimulating but absurd Spengler sees to that. Now take what Spengler says, though, (and what he says the Pope says) and put it together with Rodney Stark, and then maybe you have something! Developing, as they say.

FDR: Totalitarian Predator

My favorite blog, Samizdata, has a thought-provoking post on the French Revolution:

That the Bourbon monarchy was a corrupt institution and that the ordinary folk of France suffered under an oppressive system is not in much doubt, mind. I cannot help but think, however, that the violent overthrow of the monarchy and what followed was, in net terms, a disaster for Europe and sowed the seeds of much eventual trouble.

So I thought I'd throw out a couple of thoughts it provoked in me:

Kerensky, anyone? Weimar? Hoover? Gorbachev? And how did that Ataturk fellow survive? One would have thought a fundy Islamic regime or a communistic one would have overthrown him. Couldn't have anything to do with the ruthless and therefore effective elimination of Greeks and Armenians, could it? And who was that Iranian fellow just after the Shah and before Khomeini? I always thought he looked like Peter Sellers, which was darned suspicious. The totalitarian predators lick their chops when a "tolerant" democratic leader shows up. And, yes, I'm including FDR among the predators.

Another key is the plural leadership, as in Caesar's triumvirate, the Seventies troika in the USSR and the Directory. Historical knowledge, while always incomplete, is valuable in every particular.

Back to Rodney Stark

I promised a dissection of Rodney Stark's "The Victory of Reason". Here's the first sentence:

When Europeans first began to explore the globe, their greatest surprise was not the existence of the Western Hemisphere, but the extent of their own technological superiority over the rest of the world

As a certain uber-blogmeister would say, "Indeed!" But why? This is the question that needs answering. And others, like "Why did European ships end up going to African ports to take African slaves to the New World? Why not African ships going to LeHavre and London and Lisbon to take European slaves to the New World African colonies in New Ghana and New Zimbabwe?" Full marks to Stark for making his entire book an answer to that question.

Enemy Sues for Peace

"We do not mind offering you a long-term truce with fair conditions that we adhere to," he said.

All the rest is piffle.

This is, indeed, London
This is London has a cranky article about a TV interview with Christopher Lee which includes this somewhat interesting reference to another guest on the referenced program:

The former Coventry City footballer and BBC sports presenter stunned the nation in 1991 by announcing on the show that he was the Son of God.

Wearing a turquoise shell suit, he warned that Britain would be destroyed by floods and earthquakes.

Icke, 53, has not mellowed in the intervening years.

He believes the world is run by 12ft lizards and claims the September 11 attacks and the London bombings are part of a global conspiracy.

Dressed this time in a sober black suit, he told Wogan that Prime Minister Tony Blair and US President George Bush are puppets of a sinister network which controls all of our lives.

Next he'll be saying George Bush IS a twelve-foot lizard. Or is it Rove??

If I were a cynic
Niall Ferguson's speculating again, but perhaps not so wildly:

This [wasted diplomatic effort by the EU3] gave the Iranians all the time they needed to produce weapons-grade enriched uranium at Natanz. The dream of nuclear non-proliferation, already interrupted by Israel, Pakistan and India, was definitively shattered. Now Teheran had a nuclear missile pointed at Tel-Aviv. And the new Israeli government of Benjamin Netanyahu had a missile pointed right back at Teheran.

My Vodkapundit comment on the potential nuclear standoff between Iran and Israel:

If I were a cynic I might say the elimination of Iran by Israel and Israel by Iran would solve the two most obstinate problems in the Middle East today. IF I were a cynic.

Boy, I'm glad I'm not a cynic. What a depressing state of mind.

Beer is living proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy.

Pronouncing and denouncing

Samizdata had an interesting thread called "Abolish the Welfare State and restore some Respect":

In the decades before the Welfare State, you depended on the people around you - like landlords, employers, neighbours, etc., above all on your own family - for whatever goodies you managed to get your hands on, and bad behaviour towards these people was punishable, and was punished, with loss of goodies.

And as one gets older, one accumulates pomposity like a coating of moss, so I thought I'd share some:

A society prospers or declines depending on how the majority treats the violent and amoral fraction that always exists. As in the Islamic world and among American blacks, most people are good and honorable, but the violent criminals are too often condoned. US welfare reform in the Nineties had an immediate beneficial effect. Those in the British working class who don't wish to put up with the amoral fraction need support from their government and their culture (I almost said "their betters" naughty me!) instead of the "don't be a troglodyte - anything goes!" mentality that prevails today.

Vodkapundit had a post bloviating about the Chinese discovery of everywhere:

Now the BBC reports a story which, if true, could prove Zheng really did beat Columbus:

A map due to be unveiled in Beijing and London next week may lend weight to a theory a Chinese admiral discovered America before Christopher Columbus.

The map, which shows North and South America, apparently states that it is a 1763 copy of another map made in 1418.

There's just one little problem. The map is an obvious forgery.

I've been daydreaming about this since the days of the Vinland Map and the Tartar Relation. I'm not seriously interested:

One problem I had with "1421" was its claim that the shorelines had changed tremendously since because of global warming. I don't think so.
This goes back to the whole controversy about the Piri Reis map - also "copied from ancient charts" - in that case portolans. Fascinating speculation, but, as VS says, irrelevant to actual history. When we discover Atlantis buried under the Antarctic ice, I may re-read Velikovsky.

Happy conundrum

I'm not too worried about Iran, despite thoughts like this from Stephen Green and his ilk:

If a EU crackdown is attempted, Iran will (credibly) threaten to lob a couple nukes at some target of national interest. The EU cannot credibly respond to such a threat- they lack the capacity.

Should that day come, "I told you so" just won't cut it.

Comment on Vodkapundit:

How do you support an intifada with long-range missiles? The point of insurgencies has always been that they have no center of power to retaliate against. The second Iran gets unequivocally tied to any terrorist movement, Rumsfeld sighs with relief. And if they're not so tied, how can they threaten anyone on the terrorists' behalf?

And I updated thusly: "And when Rumsfeld sighs with relief, many people die!" ah, so true.

MLK day
Ah, Martin Luther King Day! The day every year when I meditate on the good things that African-Americans have brought to American civilization and especially the benefits their history and culture have bestowed on me personally.

Links
This post on Captain's Quarters brings Nicholas deB Katzenbach back to mind:

Now Katzenbach wants America to disavow wiretaps altogether and cynically uses King Day to stump for that position. However, the two situations hardly prove analogous. Today we face an enemy that has already killed thousands of Americans in a sneak attack, using our open communications networks to stage and time the attacks for maximum effectiveness. In order to stop the next attack, we need to have the ability to grab data from those phone sets that have connections to al-Qaeda based on evidence and testimony -- and to do it quickly. The calls that get intercepted cross international boundaries, so domestic calls still require (and get) warrants. The numbers come from captured phones and computer equipment directly tied to terrorists. Under those circumstances, the use of warrantless wiretaps makes sense and has prevented attacks on America, according to one Senator who participated in the briefing sessions from the NSA program.

What is going on this weekend? Cronkite levitates creakily from the edge of the grave:

We had an opportunity to say to the world and Iraqis after the hurricane disaster that Mother Nature has not treated us well and we find ourselves missing the amount of money it takes to help these poor people out of their homeless situation and rebuild some of our most important cities in the United States," he said. "Therefore, we are going to have to bring our troops home."

Right. The hurricane means we should stop fighting terrorists and just forget about 9/11. And no one has put any money into New Orleans and the Gulf Coast. Hell, more money has been ripped off down there than we spent in Iraq all last year. How many stupidities can Walter pack into one paragraph? I guess he WAS there but he ain't any more. Now NdeBK has to comment on the wiretapping scenario. Why someone might think there was a plan here. A plan to beat Bush about the head and shoulders with implications of needless wiretapping and bigotry. And someone like me might even remember a link between Nicky K and people like Ramzi Clark, PR genius and defender of a certain oppressed totalitarian baby-murderer. A link they share with me. From right around the same time NickyK was contemplating wiretapping MLK - just to teach J. Edgar Hoover a lesson, of course. Say no more.

Tax Blather
Found this thread on Samizdata about living other places, always a favorite topic of mine. This comment:

I thought Americans don't work abroad much because they remain liable for US taxes as well as the local taxes...?

Posted by Ron at January 16, 2006 01:19 PM

started me off on a somewhat ignorant blather/comment:

I believe that for US expatriates foreign tax paid can be offset against US tax due. I'm not even sure that foreign source income is counted. And I suspect British tax, at least, would be more than applicable US tax, although that may just be latent Anglophobism! Perhaps someone with actual expertise can untangle the situation.

I really shouldn't pontificate about important stuff like taxes when I haven't really got a clue, just some notions from talking with Flea about US taxes for expatriates. But I'm just a risk-taker from the word "go".
I do intend to live in Turkey when I retire, so I suppose I should inquire about the tax I will be paying on my Social Security and Florida State Pension payments, assuming I ever get anything from those sources, after the Great Nuclear Exchange with Turkmenistan in 2012. And the more imminent and likely disaster of the Great Pension and Alimony Robbery of 2006 by Miss Maloney.

Enjoying a somewhat sybaritic weekend, I ran across some thoughts on Noodlefood about decimalization and this memory floated up:

As a nine-year old, back in the Fifties, I was enrolled in a British school after having lived in Florida for years. My first test was addition and subtraction of pounds, shillings and pence. And I loved it! Much more interesting than dollars and cents. The added complications of florins and guineas and half-crowns and farthings just made it all seem more human and connected to centuries of fascinating if somewhat bloody history. Because of the prevalence of computers today, decimal currencies are not needed to make calculations easier. Back to the guinea, halfpenny and crown!

They say as you grow older the past comes back more vividly. I can remember the ledger in which I did the calculations for the headmaster, in his office, to see if I was qualified to go into St. George's in Mill Hill. Can't remember his name, but I sure do remember the cane he always carried, which Haynesworth became uncomfortably familiar with every week or so.

Lost comment
Made this comment somewhere, plunked it into my blogger account, saved the post in draft, now I can't remember which blog I was commenting on. Probably Protein Wisdom, but could have been several. Don't feel like rummaging around in people's archives, which one might call blogattics. So here it is ex vacuo:

So, if we go into Iran, is there really any way to make absolutely sure that the libs, after the conquest, cannot sanely say, “They never really had WMDs! Again! They were only ... joking! That’s it! You idiot rednecks don’t know enough about Persian culture to know that when a Persian says “Nuclear Death to Israel” he really means, “Don’t invade us! We don’t really have nukes. And we HATE AlQaeda!”
”
Nah. They’ll say it anyway. But after all this they will really look silly

(For some reason I'm getting weird question-mark-type thingies instead of quote marks in the blog itself. Changing the encoding doesn't appear to help. Maybe this is a Safari idiosyncrasy. Or am I doing something wrong?)

And in this vein, I noticed that Congressman "Scratchy" Murtha and Walter "If I'm not there You Are Not There" Cronkite are trying to take credit for the progress being made in Iraq by proclaiming that we'll have to withdraw all our troops in the next year. Their implication is that Bush never intended to withdraw, he wanted to stay forever, for the oil, don't you know, and the brave standing-up by stand-up guys like Soros and Dean is making him withdraw his terroristic Imperial stormtroopers. Boy does Rove have an easy target now. Cackle!

Slashdot has an interesting thread: Mathematics Skills More in Demand Than Ever about the future of careers that stress math skills. They link to a Business Week article about the future of math. I especially liked this Slashdot comment:

I've always liked math. And, in the past decade, there has been much evidence pointing toward math being a primary component in a better lifestyle. It didn't fully hit me until I was a freshman in college and my computer science courses started crossing paths with my linear algebra courses.

But even in grade school, there was evidence that those in control of mathematics sat a bit higher on the food chain. For instance, I got into an argument with my dad (an independent concrete pourer) when I was in eighth grade. He wanted to build a base for a grain silo and needed to know how many cubic yards of cement was needed. So he was having a hard time computing this. I told him it was (as we all know) pi*radius^2. After much debate, I gave him a piece of graph paper and a compass and told him to draw it and estimate the number of squares. I don't look down on my dad, he just never had an education like I was privileged to have.

And so I slowly started to realize that mathematics were the underlying principle to everything. Maybe you've seen the motion picture Pi and remember the part where the main character has a revelation that everything can be described by math. In my opinion, he was dead right.

Of course,with my IQ obsession, it struck me that the stress on math skills in hiring was pretty close to using IQ for hiring, a tactic that's become absolutely verboten in recent years. So instead of saying, "I need a guy with at least a 140 IQ", why not say, "Quantitative skills at a high level are essential to job performance." Might work out to the same thing. And it would also show the asininity of this quote from the Business Week article, saying that part of the solution is:

...engaging more girls and ethnic minorities in math...

Right. Anyone who thinks girls and minorities who have the needed quantitative skills have been shut out of the job market because of discrimination just hasn't been listening or thinking for the last fifty years.

Mulling over the Mullahs
this thread on The Adventures of Chester is mind-boggling (hey, "boggling" is an acronym of "blogging"! Mind-blogging. Now there's a scary thought!)
The speculation on whether Iran has or soon will have a nuke and what to do about it is as addictive as guessing who will win the Superbowl. And since the ordinary guy knows far less about the offense and defense in Tehran than in Indianapolis or Seattle, anything goes. It's at least a three-sided game, with Israel having slightly different interests and goals. And the presence of our troops in Iraq can be seen as a plus or a minus, a strategic counter or a vulnerability. One thing seems clear. It's a good thing we've gained a lot of knowledge about the Middle East recently, and cleared ourselves some tactical room. It would not be a good thing to go into Iran cold, with Saddam on one side and the Taliban on the other. As I've frequently commented, it's at least possible that if Iran does get the bomb, their thinking will concentrate on their own demise. And they'd better be sure that if they don't have a nuke or an advanced nuke program, they make sure everyone knows they don't and they can prove it. Bluffing didn't work out too well for Saddam. Nor did relying on the French or the UN or the EU. Reality is setting in for the Islamic nutcake side, in the person of George W. Bush. I hate some aspects of the Republican administration. But I am awful glad in this conjunction of terror and stupidity that I don't have John Kerry or Al Gore in the White House. Submandave says it well:

"From a political perspective, *everything* argues against US military action of any but the briefest, most limited variety."

Everything except the foreign policy track record of the man currently in the White House, and a good thing at that. Like him or not, I fail to see how anyone can discount that he does not make empty rhetorical threats against others when it comes to national security and the GWOT. This is one reason I'm sure he's not said a lot directly opposed to Iran's regime. Over the past five years he has established more credibility that the US will follow through on its stated policy than any other president since probably Truman. I think this is especially important in these times. Like many on this thread, I believe that if Bush views the Iranian nuclear potential as a large enough threat he will first clearly declare it as such, give Iran notice that we cannot allow them to attain that capability and then, if nothing changes, follow through to do his best to prevent it from happening.

Bouncy violin

Now there's two words you won't see together too often. But I do have that problem. I'm just starting out playing my violin again after thirty years of procrastination. And I am having a terrible time getting the bow to stay on the strings. It bounces all over the place, making spurious notes and not playing when I want it to. I'm sure it's all a matter of technique and finger strength, which will come in time. But it would be nice to run across a shortcut. I suspect my rosin, the bow, the strings, everything. But I will press on. Already after ten days of playing I feel I'm better and I get real satisfaction from the music. Only the neighbors are less than pleased.

Thinking yourself poor
Noodlefood has a thought or two about poverty and relative deprivation:

So over the next few years, any reasonably well-off American will be expected to feel guilty about the great new gap between "the haves" and "the have-nots" -- where "the haves" are magically blessed with high speed wireless, while "the have-nots" must suffer with the all the slow pains of dial-up. Please, let me get out my world's smallest violin: I'll play a tune or two.

I just got dial-up after having no internet for months. However before that I had broadband for a while. That memory makes me empathetic. And how again is it that the poor will raise themselves out of poverty once they get daily immediate access to Drudge and porn and gambling sites? So I had to gently remind everyone of the ground-breaking Speirs theory of poverty:

Seems to me that once survival level has been achieved, advance toward a better life depends heavily on cognitive ability, that is, IQ. Those left in "poverty" feel accurately that they haven't got much chance to get rich, which they feel would make them happier, because they see that those who achieve more are smarter and more disciplined than they are. And what government program can confer intelligence and discipline? There are ways and means to overachieve, but most people never figure them out.

And that makes sense, right? Poor in IQ terms means, as we have seen, less ability to figure things out.

OT: Just figured out what was wrong with my state bureaucracy office building: no beer machine. How long, oh, Lord, how long??

Dangerous charms

Boy, Nigeria has problems:

A king-elect in a community in Delta State has been arrested and detained by the police for being in possession of two pump action guns, while the regent of the community was also nabbed with an AK 47 rifle, a pump action and dangerous charms.(emphasis added)

Not only do they elect their kings (how exactly does that work?) but their regents have come-hither smiles and winning ways that could be fatal. Or maybe they're talking about voodoo charms - but hey, why do you need anything more after you've got the AK-47 and the shotgun? That's the mojo with the most.
There should be a band with that name: "The Dangerous Charms" appearing tonight with the Bangles.

What, me fret?

Those silly Samizdatistas are all upset about Iran getting a nuclear weapon or two:

Iran made another step forwards towards its long held goal of obtaining nuclear weapons yesterday by restarting its uranium enrichment program.

While Iran's long term strategic goal is quite possibly insane, it must be conceded from a Realpolitik perspective that Iran is playing a very strong hand, and their tactical moves are precise and well executed.
... I personally am very pessimistic about these developments.

But the way I see it, using one's one and only available nuke to waken the sleeping Israeli nuclear tiger is not just insane but impractical. Israel's small. They might miss and hit Damascus or Cairo. Oops. They know this, so I don't fret:

It's not easy, but I'm relatively unworried about the Iranians having a bomb. Pakistan has a bomb. Musharaff could qualify as a "Jew hating fruitloop." India has a bomb. China has a bomb. Is Ahmadinejihadi really THAT into big-time suicide bombing? And for the foreseeable future Israel will have many more bombs than Iran. Which means not just bye-bye Tehran but adieu to the Islamic and especially Arab world in general if the mullahs push the big red button. Assad and Mubarak and the Saudis haven't given any signs of being particularly avid for Paradise quite yet. Maybe they've absorbed the lesson of Star Trek:

Q - Why are there no Muslims on Star Trek?
A - Because it's set in the future.

England continues to carry on
I found this post on Samizdata with reference to the further misadventures of Bliar:

He wants to introduce new laws to regulate anti-social, yobbish behaviour and introduce training (this is not a joke) for particularly wayward parents.
...It may amaze some readers to think that Blair was once thought of as a highly intelligent politician back in the mid-1990s, and there is no doubt that to this day, he remains - on tactics at least - one of the most astute political figures of modern times. In terms of his grasp of human nature, however, he presents a pitiable sight as he grasps for that "eye-catching" gesture.

So I had to kick in this:

Since none of these program proposals have ever worked to actually reduce crime, is it nuts to suspect their real object is to tighten the screws on the innocent law-abider? Just like cameras and gun bans and smoking bans and "congestion charges" and drug laws, they don't attack the actual problem, that's too hard. They just keep making things worse for the average man trying to enjoy life. And the screams of protest are cited to support the delusion that "something's being done". And, just coincidentally of course, they set in place the machinery of a truly repressive state.

This Chronicle article (From Arts and Letters Daily) I found interesting because it's about the detractor of Margaret Mead's, a woman whose reputation needed serious detracting from:

Freeman was convinced that Mead had been duped into believing that Samoa was a sexual Shangri-La. He laid out his argument in two books: Margaret Mead and Samoa: The Making and Unmaking of an Anthropological Myth (Harvard University Press, 1983) and The Fateful Hoaxing of Margaret Mead: A Historical Analysis of Her Samoan Research (Westview Press, 1999).

But then I found this:

People with a narcissistic-personality disorder are generally arrogant, exploitative, and unempathetic, while exhibiting a grandiose sense of self-importance, observes Mr. Caton. They are preoccupied with fantasies of unlimited success or brilliance, and they believe that they are "special" and can be understood only by other special people.

Now who does that remind me of? And I note that the article finds no logical basis on which to attack Freeman's analysis of Mead, only the imputation of nuttiness. Well, for liberals, that's usually as much as they can manage and they think that's plenty. Unfortunately, they're sometimes right. But not always.

From Econlog:

2. The idea that economic growth is determined by ethics.

Well, OK, so if being a more ethical man makes you rich, and if IQ, as Lynn and Vanhanen posited, makes you rich, maybe the two concepts are related:

I liked the article about ethics and prosperity. IQ and The Wealth of Nations posits a link between average IQ and prosperity. Doesn't this suggest that higher-IQ men are better, more ethical men? Smart is good. The counterexample of China (high-IQ, not so prosperous until lately) is being eliminated as we speak. Perhaps the link only comes into play after a certain level, when survival is no longer absolutely dog-eat-dog and ethics can be afforded.

Darned Armenians!
They've even spread their myths and lies on Wikipedia!
And surprise, surprise, it's all about population:

'The map of the Soviet Azerbaijan, where it is indicated with green color that Armenians made the majority in regions outside of the Nagorno Karbagh is absurd and inaccurate. Kelbajar and Lachin regions of Azerbaijan, the green color indicates as being mainly Armenian populated is worng. ALmost 99 percent of the population of both these regions were Azerbaijanis, untill they were expelled by Armenian barbars, fundamentalists and fascists. Therefore, I storngly suggest the elimination of that map from the page. Sooner it is done, the accuracy of Wikipedia will be ensured. For more information about this issue, visit www.human.az —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 71.195.182.195 (talk • contribs) 19:12, 18 December 2005.

Interesting meta-comments about the role of Wikipedia. Maybe it's really a blog.

This post on Gene Expression had some interesting speculation, invoking the god Stephen Wolfram, whom I don't worship but admire from afar:

In the near future Google will determine what we "know" or "believe". Asking the Internet will be as easy as asking our own memory and the answers will be more reliable. We won't "know" why; we will only know that the Google answers are right. Google will be the modern oracle.

Perhaps we can avoid this fate by expanding human intelligence and consciousness. Or perhaps a complex universe just won't fit into a human brain.

So I had to add:

A New Kind of Science is immensely thought-provoking, perhaps mostly because it doesn't draw any conclusions! Just as space robots can explore where man cannot go and UV sensors can see what human eyes can't, it strikes me that a superbrain could come up with and consider philosophical questions men couldn't even dream of. And then perhaps it can tell us those few simple answers that happen to apply to our deprived less-conscious lives, while keeping the good stuff to itself! Now I'm depressed.

This post on Gene Expression, containing this enigmatic statement:

When the End of Insight comes, the nature of explanation in science will change forever. We'll be stuck in an age of authoritarianism, except it'll no longer be coming from politics or religious dogma, but from science itself."

elicited this comment from me:

We are so used to thinking of consciousness as something attached to a man-sized brain with two eyes, two ears, a nose and touch and taste sensors that I don't know if it would be possible for us to empathize with or understand the consciousness that could reside within a computer perhaps a million times larger than one man's brain, with hundreds of sensors of every kind, from telescopic to microscopic, from ultraviolet to infrared. Would we and IT even be able to consider the same question in the same way?

First impressions
Just a few pages in to The Victory of Reason, I like it. One instance of "her or him" annoys me but I can ignore that warning signal for now, since the book is published by Random House. The author got his PhD at Berkeley and teaches at Baylor, so he has obviously had a lot of practice at ignoring political correctness! So far the big insight is how thoroughly I've been imbued with the idea that classical civilization was "lost" after the fall of the Roman Empire, survived as a dim spark in the monasteries and in Islamic lands, and came back to Europe at the Renaissance. I've always known that scenario left too many unanswered questions, but to see it challenged directly is somewhat disorienting.
Another related revelation is how easily I accept challenges to my dominant preconceptions. Too easily, perhaps? Is the ease with which I jumped on the Armenian non-massacre bandwagon and the non-AIDS idea a warning signal that I'm either a flittertigibett (is there really such a word?) or that I don't examine my ideas often and closely enough. In any event, what better time than the New Year to reexamine the old and explore the new?

The Media rattles its sabers
Judging by the comments, this story has got the BDS-ers knickers all in a twist. Yet what's the provenance?:

The United States government reportedly began coordinating with NATO its plans for a possible military attack against Iran. The German newspaper Der Tagesspiegel collected various reports from the German media indicating that the North Atlantic Treaty Organization are examining the prospects of such a strike.

One news outlet quoting another, quoting lots of others? Where's the good old red-blooded war-hungry American beef? Strikes me it would be an excellent, Rovian idea for this story to get out there and then be denied. Good cop, bad cop, anyone? And guess who's the bad cop? The lefty media! Eine Meistertuch!

Seasoned greeting

Diana Hsieh, whose Noodlefood blog I always enjoy, has a clever post showing by indirection how absurd a "socially responsible" holiday greeting can be:

Please accept, with no obligation implied or implicit, my best wishes for an environmentally conscious, socially responsible, low stress (Yeah, right), non-addictive, gender neutral, celebration of the winter solstice holiday...

So I went all conventional on her:

And a Merry Christ-mass to you! And a Happy New Year, beginning on the - hmm, what does January 1 commemmorate? What happened then? Can't be Christ's birth. Can't be the coming of the Magi- that's 12 days after Christmas, not 6. You would think Jesus-obsessed Christians would have started the new calendar from his birthday. Or the solstice, to co-opt the pagans. But no. Someone messed up somewhere. At least one can reject the use of "Common Era" and "Before the Common Era" to replace Anno Domini and Before Christ as ignorant or presumptuously dismissive of the historical connection between the generally used calendar and Christ, however puzzling the exact nature of that connection may be. Reality is messy, isn't it? But amenable to reasonable analysis.

The denial of Christian historical reality is a significant theme of Rodney Stark's book,The Victory of Reason, the analysis of which I expect will be a major feature of this blog in the next few days/weeks/years. I have two copies of St. Augustine's The City of God, so perhaps I'll dip into that as well.

Something Happening Here(?)

BBC reports:

A senior Syrian official has said President Bashar al-Assad threatened former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri only months before his death.

Debka also had the story.

At first I thought the "senior Syrian official" was still in power. That would have signaled either a coup or the immediate embarrassment (which in Syrian is translated "death") of the concerned official. Nonetheless poor Bashar's influence is fading. To be dissed like this on the world stage is extremely embarrassing for a potentate like Assad and is likely to be fatal. In the good old days any former Syrian official saying something like this would soon disappear in a puff of smoke. Wonder what the likes of Sailer and the other "Bush is a bumbler" types think caused this development? Couldn't have been anything to do with the liberation of the other major Ba'athist regime in the world and the trial of buddy Saddam, could it now?

The virtue of cleverness

This is so cool. He should write about how it occurred to him. Perhaps it's a function of growing up with cyberspace as a given, part of the background. Check out the testimonials. It's neat, too, that the page shows a cross-section of the commercial internet. Lots of poker. Travel. Dating. Games. Getting rich. Hey, that's life! (via (Hugh Hewitt)
Update
He blogged the whole thing!

Paperclips are not electronic (not yet!), but ideas like this one depend on the freedom and open information that only the information sphere can offer. Why does the trading adventure remind me of reading a dictionary? (Also via Hugh, posing as Mary Katharine Ham) Some day he'll own the entire world! Is there a limit?

What would they say?

Just wondering what the media would say if something like this happened in Australia or Miami or Iraq:

Ten Sudanese refugees died and 30 others were injured in clashes with Egyptian security forces Friday, an Egyptian Interior Ministry spokesman said.

(from this post on the Big Pharaoh) The Sudanese situation is a real problem for the media, since the bad guys are Islamic and the victims are poor and black. There's no acceptable villain. I predict they'll find some way to blame it on Bush. The article does highlight, though, the difficulties that immigration causes in many other countries. I had to laugh at this:

But Egypt, which suffers from high unemployment and strained social services for its own population of 72 million, offers the Sudanese little assistance, and the Sudanese complain of discrimination by Egyptians.

Yep. Those Egyptians just spend too much on medical care and food stamps for their own population!! It's especially rich when the whole article is about how the UNHCR should be spending more. Let's see, how many billions of dollars did we give Egypt last year??

How can I tell?

I don't think Verity likes David Cameron:

The man is a shallow, self-satisfied idiotarian. Bob Geldof and Zacharia Goldsmith? Does he really think this is going to play to the hordes of Tory voters who stay firmly away from the polling booth? He is out of touch if he thinks most Tories believe this commie global warming myth. It is a totally destructive lefty construct and is designed to control capitalism and technical innovation. Du-uh, Dave.

He is as empty and magpie-like as Bliar. Like Bliar, he sees something glittery and swoops down to steal it, not understanding that it is tinsel and has no value. What a tragic mistake this shallow idiot is.

Just a guess from her comments on this post.
I really feel sorry for the English. They can't seem to buy a break, after the promise of the Thatcher years. Cameron appears to be a Blair clone, interested only in changing his address to 10 Downing Street. Unfortunately for the Brits, I have to disagree with Verity that Cameron is a mistake, however. He's a logical outgrowth of fifty years of rampant Socialism. The acceptable range of ideologies is narrowing tremendously. That's why I'm glad I live here. We don't have Bill Clinton clones at the head of the Republican Party.

Before the Big Bang
I found this blog talking about an interview in Der Spiegel with Daniel Dennett. Having just read this book I was somewhat familiar with the more sophisticated ID arguments, essentially fallacious though they are. So I had to chime in:

The Der Spiegel article was interesting because Dennett didn't address the last refuge of the ID-er, the Big Bang. A colleague of mine who's religious gave me a copy of an ID book that talks about nothing else, just keeps insisting that the acceptance by most scientists of the Big Bang theory shows that they acknowledge the need for a Prime Mover, some kind of Creator. I find it odd that saying, "Yes, it's true that we don't really know what was going on "before" the Big Bang"(whatever that may mean) means that you accept Michael and all the angels. But that seems to be the corner the ID folk have been backed into.

They're like chess players who have lost a Queen and whose only hope is now stalemate, which they would consider a victory.

Splog?

Jeff Jarvis has an outraged dignity rant about "sploggers", that is, people - or machines - who steal online content and offer it as their own in order to reap ad revenues. I wonder what ESR thinks about this? The digital ocean has its pirates, to be sure, but I, as always, see the bright side:

Isn’t the idea of blogging to get as much exposure as possible for one’s ideas? And don’t splogs help with that? Or is it to make max ad money? Seems like it’s a bit of a compliment to be ripped off in this way. I for one welcome our new splogging overlords.

Is this like open source? If the open sourcers can prevent others from taking Linux and selling it by enforcing their non-license license, why isn't it possible for bloggers to prevent splogging? But how would that work exactly? Wouldn't advertisers prefer to deal with the originator of the content, in order to assure authenticity? Perhaps splogs can open some bloggers' eyes to the commercial potential of their writing.

Refining the money pool

As Darwinians see the death of unfit organisms as refining the gene pool, I see this sort of activity as improving the characteristics of the pool of those who have money. Anyone who responds to this sort of email:

The latest hoax email contains a legitimate-looking NAB letter requesting that customers forward their account number and passwords to the bank so it can proceed with a "planned software upgrade".

truly deserves whatever horrific financial damage he suffers. Ditto anyone who thinks the government will protect him from such e-brigandage. Is there really anyone left with an email account who doesn't know enough not to fall for this nonsense? If so, he should be drummed out of the internet age immediately. We'll all be better for it.

What else could it be?

Is this a straw in the wind presaging Victory?:

Since August, Col. Muhammed Wasif Taha has served as acting commander of the 5th Brigade, 6th Division of the Iraqi army, the unit set to take charge of a section of the capital including the airport road and the perimeter of the fortified Green Zone. The U.S. Army's 3rd Infantry Division currently controls both areas. (my italics)

Is it possible this is from the Washington Post!? OK, I guess so, since the article emphasizes the negative side -

The dispute over Taha shows the extent to which the United States wields influence over key details of security here, even as it promotes the authority of the Iraqi government and delegates ever more responsibilities to Iraq's military.

This is how the game's played. When a wonderful positive change happens, admit it, but find aspects of it that make it negative, doomed, a false hope for the Chimpy McHitler O'Halliburton devotees. The article doesn't even go into the interesting aspect of the situation, that a Sunni officer is playing a prominent part in the Iraqi army. The negativists were saying that the Iraqi army was never going to be a success because no Sunnis were included. And it was Bush's fault because he disbanded Saddam's army and right after the US leaves the mullahs will take over because the army would be entirely Shi'a. And wasn't it just a short time ago that the opposition (to freedom) was citing the lack of Iraqi control over the road to the airport and the Green Zone as certain proof that the whole effort in Iraq was never going to work? This was even more persuasive because most reporters who went to Iraq never saw much more than the road to the airport and the Green Zone.
Every day the doomsayers lose another argument.

Defending the fruitcake

I saw this column by Kevin Hassett on Bloomberg.com, containing this irresponsible unprovoked attack on the best-tasting food available to mortal man:

... 10 percent to 18 percent of every dollar spent is wasted on fruitcakes (do these things come from a quarry, or where?) or neckties from the 1970s.

So I had to put a flea in his ear:

Dear Mr. Hassett:

Your Bloomberg column about the economics of Christmas gift-giving was thought-provoking. It's too bad you had to descend to rabid unthinking animadversion in your description of the greatest culinary treat of the year:

10 percent to 18 percent of every dollar spent is wasted on fruitcakes (do these things come from a quarry, or where?) or neckties from the 1970s.

As an ardent fruitcake-o-phile (we call ourselves "fruities") I protest! I demand satisfaction. Citron and marzipan at fifty paces in the morning would avenge the honor of the luscious toothsome confection. One has to wonder if you've ever actually tasted a fruitcake or plum pudding or even gingerbread. In spices, nuts and fruits are the salvation of the world! I ... I don't want to seem extreme. But that bit about the 1970s necktie was over the edge. Perhaps you could post a photo of yourself happily consuming a delectable morsel, packed with walnuts, cherries and raisins, as a fitting apology.

Robert Speirs
Tallahassee, Florida

OK, so maybe some fruitcake has some rum or brandy or whisky in it. So maybe it's not ENTIRELY innocent. But it's still luscious!

Tortured reasoning

The Belgravia Dispatch is on the edge of being eliminated from my book marks, along with Esmay and Quick. Oooh, bet they're scared! But this piffle about torture seems so pathetic when you've read a couple of Vince Flynn books. When logic screams:

The lesson of history is that, when the law is not there to keep watch over it, the practice is always at risk of being resorted to in one form or another by the executive branch of government.

"In one form or another". Right. The weasel words that spawned a hundred liberal columns, as I remark:

All this verbiage and not a word on what constitutes torture. Does putting panties on someone's head equal putting someone on the rack? Can any reasonable man allege that? How about giving a Muslim only pork to eat? Playing Neil Diamond songs would be torture to me. But this is a live issue. All the moonbats who assert the Bush administration has been torturing everywhere all the time are simply lying about what constitutes torture.

How about telling a suspect he will go to the electric chair unless he turns state's evidence? How about when death is an overwhelmingly likely outcome, and the "threat" is thus a true statement? Is this torture? And why are the lives and mental contentment of murderers and psychopaths more important than the safety of innocent civilians? Isn't it honorable to use (real) torture in some situations and utterly DISHONORABLE not to? The opinion of the Law Lords in many situations is a reliable guide to what not to do.

Obscure Scandinavian authors
An article in the New Yorker (via Arts and Letters Daily) led me to a story about Knut Hamsun, great man of Norwegian letters who got caught up in that annoying little Nazi matter:

But his admirers had watched with some alarm as his politics evolved; many found it unforgivable when, in the mid-thirties, he attacked the awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to the anti-Nazi journalist Carl von Ossietzky, who had been tortured and imprisoned by his fellow-Germans. Even worse, he supported Vidkun Quisling, the Norwegian defense minister who founded the pro-Fascist National Union Party, in 1933. Though that could be tolerated, barely, as a nasty idiosyncrasy, everything changed after the Germans invaded on April 9, 1940, and Hamsun urged his countrymen to throw down their weapons and coöperate.

So maybe Knut isn't my hero, although Hunger sounds interesting. But the story reminded me of a Norwegian author I hadn't thought of in years: Agnar Mykle. I remember reading him in the library at prep school, then couldn't find his books any more. Now forty years later, I remember him, Google him and find a book of his I hadn't read on Ebay for $1.74! I do love the new way of knowledge!

Apple nonsense

As an avid Lileks-phile, I don't have any illusions about Apple. I just bought a new Mac mini because I could use the same old display - had to change to a USB keyboard, though. But I failed to notice that the more expensive (599) Mini, unlike the 499 model, does not come with a dial-up modem. I had thought I would use it on broadband, but changed my mind. So I ordered a USB modem. Note that the modem description says it works with the Mac mini. As I say here (OK, I got a little uncomplimentary) there is a little problem. But I hope to have it worked out soon. I like the idea of dial-up. It's cheap. And so am I.

Frostbite, Florida

24 degrees this morning at 7:45. Frost on the palm trees. Walked in to work over the tracery of hoarfrost on the grass - about half a mile - and my thumbs were half-frozen by the time I stumbled into the building. I refuse to wear gloves in Florida. In New Hampshire I wore them eight months out of the year. Never again! Don't want to risk my thumbs, but I know from New England that it takes quite a lot of cold to actually damage one's extremities. It should be over sixty this afternoon, so who knows? Shirtsleeves on Christmas? Could happen.

Nigerian catastrophe

I heard in past years about explosions in Nigerian oil pipelines caused by villagers poking into the pipes to draw off fuel. I guess it's still happening:

Yesterday’s explosion, at Ehor, in the Uhunmwode local government of Edo State, Vanguard gathered, was caused by vandalisation to the pipeline by people suspected to be illegal bunkerers. The explosion occurred at about noon. The victims were mainly youths of the community.

A tanker and equipment believed to belong to the bunkerers also got burnt.
Residents of Ehor told Vanguard that the bunkerers by-passed the security surveillance mounted by armed policemen at a checkpoint along the pipeline route and capitalised on alleged laxity of the policemen said to have mounted an illegal road block on the expressway.

The other explosions mentioned in this article, though, appear to have happened because

"...a suspected terror gang blew up a Shell pipeline at Agba Okwan Asarama in the Andoni local government area of Rivers State and another pipeline belonging to the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) caught fire in Delta State."

Why do I care about disasters in Nigeria? My sister works at the American University in Yola. Luckily, that's way out in Adamawa state, well away from any pipelines, as far as I know, and much less densely populated than Lagos, Abuja and Port Harcourt. But someday I may get the wacky idea of visiting her. So I'm keeping tabs on what's going on in Nigeria. The "illegal road block on the expressway" has been noted and will influence any thoughts I may have had about taking a motor trip around West Africa!

Playing telephone?
Oxblog has a post about the silly NSA wiretapping "controversy" ginned up by the traitorous New York Times. The other commenters were barely beyond the Bushy Chimpy Mchitler stage:

Anybody who defends what Bush has been doing is a complete idiot or a fascist. There are no other explanations.

Ah, the level of discourse among the idiotarians! So I had an idea:

Example:

The NSA is listening to phone calls made by a suspected terrorist in Dubai. A connection is made and the conversation turns to a specific terrorist act planned for the US. Then, horrors! the listeners realize the other end of the conversation is a US phone number. Are the NSA supposed to stop, turn off the tap and run out to get a court order before continuing to listen? Get real.

Nanny-cams

Samizdata, as usual, has an interesting discussion on the growing use of public cameras in Britain:

Using a network of cameras that can automatically read every passing number plate, the plan is to build a huge database of vehicle movements so that the police and security services can analyse any journey a driver has made over several years.

Representative comments:

Ive been called paranoid - but sooner or later we will have no liberty at all. What really concerns me, is no one cares. Ive spoken to well educated informed people who have no idea about the laws introduced by phoney tony and bully blunkett or just dont care. "It for our own good" the masses cry.

Nearly time to make a choice, emigrate or stay and fight.......

Verity:

Matt - the British public are supine. They really don't care. In fact, they'll be pleased that the government is taking care of them. The people who have the will to fight are very few and far between.

It is tragic that this government, instead of confronting the Islamic problem head on chooses to victimise and subjugate its other 58m citizens. Tony Blair's got a yellow streak as wide as his back.

Posted by Verity at December 22, 2005 01:12 PM

And now she gets right to the point, advocating (gasp!) dealing with the actual problem:

Instead of cowering and whimpering in corners like puppies who've been caught weeing on the carpet, the government needs to be seen to take control.

As a start, there should be an immediate fiat against wearing burqas in public places, like public buildings, libraries, banks, train stations and airports "for security purposes". Burqa clad women trying to enter those premises should be told firmly to remove their burqa or go away. (This suggestion comes from the magnificent Fjordman, whose blog closed down for good yesterday.)

And me:

Instead of putting wrongdoers into prisons, the PC state has decided to make the entire world a prison. One has to wonder if real, violent crime will be reduced. I'm even cynical enough to suggest that the data produced by these cameras will not be used by the government, since that would take effort and analytical skill, qualities not much in evidence in government functionaries. The main result will be to terrorize innocent citizens into obedience in all things. That would be reason enough for the nanny-staters to put a camera in everyone's nose. I mean, if you have nothing to hide ...

Zarqawi in Gaza?
Debka is speculating about Zarqawi's influence in Gaza:

Since early December, a branch of Abu Musab al Zarqawi’s al Qaeda in Iraq has been running a forward base in Gaza City preparatory to in-depth attacks in Israel, according to DEBKAfile’s exclusive counter-terror sources. It joins the Al Qaeda-Palestine cell established some weeks ago in the Gaza Strip.

It couldn't happen to a nicer bunch of people. That's what I would wish for the Palestinians if I were an Israeli - an influx of frustrated foreign homicidal thugs to compete with the home-grown homicidal thugs. You have to wonder if Netanyahu planted this story himself or had someone do it!
And Iraq and Jordan are undoubtedly thinking, "Don't let the door hit you in the butt, Zarq-man, on the way out! Have a merry Christmas!"

Nice new blog

Came upon this nice new (to me) blog (via the Big Pharaoh). Plenty of links to "Afro-Asian" blogs and news resources. Not spending so much time picking fights on Esmay's and Quick's sites is allowing me to find some good stuff out there:

"There is no way out," Tahar finally said after almost ten minutes of eating without speaking.

"No?" I was disappointed.

"No, it is everywhere. Look at Egypt and Iraq. They are all this way. I think we're going to have to accept it."

"Not necissarily," I started.

"Yes, necissarily," he snapped "What the Turks did will never work with Arabs."

I hadn't even thought of Attaturk.

(spelling as in original)
Now I want to go to Turkey even more. Got $12 in my Istanbul fund. Enough for a nice lunch - heck, maybe dinner - in a restaurant overlooking the Bosphorus.

Today's best

It's only 9AM, but this essay and comment thread may easily be the best of the day:

Today's Muslim regimes cannot win this war in the long term. Most of them are absurd governments of kings and princes or brutal generals whose idea of succession planning is primogeniture. (Kings?!? How often do we Americans, who institutionalized lèse-majesté, consider how idiotic a system monarchy really is?) These kings, princes, sheikhs and generals-for-life are clowns, and anybody who views any of them -- even the "moderate" ones -- as better than contemptible is seriously deranged. History is against them, and every thoughtful person in the world knows it. The question is, what will replace them? The jihadis are fighting to install a Caliphate and lower a dark curtain over a fifth of the world. The United States and its courageous allies are fighting to create room for modern democratic governments based on popular sovereignty.

Yeah, I hate clowns. Don't you?

I'm always a sucker for the power of ideas. Shakespeare would agree:

Caes.Let me have men about me that are fat. Sleek-headed men, and such as sleep o'nights. Yond Cassius has a lean and hungry look. He thinks too much. Such men are dangerous.

Ant.You need not fear him, Caesar. He's not dangerous. He is a noble Roman and well given.

Caes.Would he were fatter ...

So who's right here, eh? Old Julius, as always. What a political instinct! But he also saw the likes of Cassius had to be faced down. Question is, was Antony dissembling or did he really see no danger in Cassius? If so, he must have truly felt bad at the funeral oration: "If you have tears, prepare to shed them now!"

No tears for al Qaeda.

Hallelujah! Free at last!

So after three years of fighting, the Sunnis finally give in and vote and what's the first thing they complain about? The
election was rigged (via Lucianne):

Sunni Arabs alleged Tuesday that last week's parliamentary elections were fraudulent, especially in Baghdad province, and they said if the irregularities are not corrected, new balloting must be held in Iraq's largest electoral district.

Who do they think they are, Democrats? Seriously, though, this is a great sign. As long as all the Sunnis do is whine about the results and resolve to do better next time, they can be considered to have learned one of the basic lessons of democracy: Karl Rove always wins. Wait a minute. Ramzi Clark is already over there. Can David Boies be far behind?

Double "yipe!" (at least)

The good old Scotsman has a scoop about super-Stalin and his super-apes:

According to Moscow newspapers, Stalin told the scientist: "I want a new invincible human being, insensitive to pain, resistant and indifferent about the quality of food they eat."

Hey, isn't that the definition of a Marine? (Full disclosure: I grew up as an AirForce brat)

All you ever wanted to know, courtesy of the blogosphere

This thread on Protein Wisdom exhibits the widest, deepest, most passionate and thorough consideration imaginable of the FISA/wiretap issue that's currently consuming the media(via Lucianne). Makes the NY Times look sick. Read the whole article and the whole thread, if you've got a spare hour or more. Teaser:

The Dems are putting themselves in a position just now to argue that what will no doubt be seen as legal technicalities—and those points are in dispute, even!—should have prevented him from taking steps necessary to protect the homeland, steps that DID in fact protect us. And by extension, they will be arguing that as a group they would have worried more about a contentious legal battle over a now unworkable statute (getting warrants on automated phone chains—which it is not clear were even legally necessary, provided the AG gave notice—would have been impossible) than they would have about taking bold actions to protect the country, knowing that we are indeed at war.

And it just gets better, on Professor Bainbridge:

You live in LaLa land. Why do you think this came out the day of the Iraqi elections and just before the writer is to publish a book?

Always jump to conclusions based upon disgruntled ex somebody's rants.

Do you do any research before pontificating.

Somebody's doing some research:

Professor B. apparently thinks that the Constitution requires a warrant for snooping on suspected terrorists. The 4th Amendment that Madison urged us to ratify contains no such requirement. The document merely requires that all searches and seizures be "reasonable." All sorts of searches and seizures take place without a warrant, including the search of autos, the seizure of suspected felons, searches incident to a lawful arrest (whether or not the arrest was supported by a warrant), various searches of business purusant to a regulatory scheme, the seizure of someone who commits a misdemeanor in an officer's presence. Indeed, one recent article estimates that there are two dozen different categories of searches and seizures that can proceed without a warrant.

If the local sheriff can arrest someone he spots shoplifting without a warrant, and then search his person incident to that arrest, without a warrant, why does it violate our liberties for the NSA to monitor a phone call between two suspected terrorists who just happen to be in the USA?

Just wondering . . .
***
Justice Powell's dicta contravenes the actual language of the 4th Amendment, precendent, historical and current practice. And, Powell himself ignored it numerous times.

1) The language of the 4th Amendment simply forbids "unreasonable searches" and says that, if you want a warrant you need probable cause. It does not require a warrant or probable cause before a search or seizure. Is there new language out there I am not aware of?

2) The Supreme Court has described 2 dozen situations in which no warrant is required for a search or seizure including very large categories like arrests for felonies and searches of automobiles. So far as I know, Justice Powell supported all of these decisions. These searches and seizures are valid even if it is practical/easy for the officer to obtain a warrant.

3) In 1789, the same Congress that wrote and proposed the Bill of Rights authorized warrantless searches of ships. James Madison signed legislation in 1815 that authorized warrantless searches of vessels, beasts, and persons.
Since the beginning, police have arrested and searched suspected felons without a warrant. Today the police can arrest a suspected felon, search his effects and put him in jail for 48 hours without seeking a probable cause determination from a magistrate. This is a very large intrusion, and no warrant is required, even if the police could easily get one. Ditto for searches of your car, boat, or mobil home.

4) The state interest in detecting terrorist activities BEFORE they come to fruition is much stronger than the interest in, say, detecting illegal drugs, the latter of which Justice Powell called "compelling" in US v. Mendenhall. Plus, the intrusion of, say, a wiretap may be far less than the intrusion of an arrest and search incident to it, plus the 48 hour incarceration that the law allows. A fortiori, then, a warrantless wiretap of someone suspected of conspiring with Al Qaeda seems quite reasonable.

5) The preference for a warrant may be alive and well in Law School Classrooms. But, Akhil Amar debunked it as a historical matter long ago, as have others. Plus there is the pesky constitutional text, which militates against such a presumption. Ivory tower fulminations against warrantless this or that, even in opinions by Justice Powell, are not up to the task of determining what is reasonable and thus Constitutional when agents of foreign adversaries are in your country plotting to kill your fellow citizens.

6) If there really is a warrant requirement, I guess we'll have to get rid of metal detectors a

PB's thread is much more civil, but just as informative and hard-fought as Goldstein's. Why choose? Read both.

It's hotting up

The comment thread on this post about the appropriate ways of dealing with Islamic jihadists in Western countries is getting hot:

Sorry, but it is a muslim problem. These young muslims are raised separately from the mainstream australian community in male dominated families and get their life lessons in the mosques, run on islamic principles. They are bred on hatred, particularly against jews and the united states. As a result they are trained to view the egalitarian, open democracy that is Australia as an evil, non-islamic place inhabited by jews and anglo scum.
***
t would appear that nearly all of Tony Blair's much trumpeted proposals to combat terrorism in the UK have now been abandoned or watered down.

The latest to go is the requirement for foreign born imams to take a "Britishness test".

And the inimitable Verity:

I think it is time to hire a fleet of 747s and shovel these people on board. As a first step, there should be a lock-down on all mosques. The problem is Islam and this has to be acknowledged...It is not racism. It is Islam.

So I just had to pile on. Hope I contributed something:

If deporting violent criminals - no matter what passports they hold - is not Libertarian, I guess that explains why I am not a Libertarian. Anyone who joins a violent deadly conspiracy against a culture should not be able to rely on that culture's protecting him. If that conspiracy promotes the dominance of a culture foreign both geographically and ideologically to an existing nation's culture, what more appropriate punishment than deporting the conspirators to the homeland of their death cult? Lincoln said, "Democracy is not a suicide pact". Neither is rationalism.

And yet more

I just can't keep my opinions to myself:

As for me, I'm not a libertarian wingnut, I'm an objectivist wingnut. I favor immigration controls when necessary to keep a society that safeguards some aspects of freedom from degenerating into one that protects none. I don't think of Islam as immediately and fatally toxic to all who come into contact with it, but that doesn't mean those who do succumb shouldn't be put out of the way one way or the other and the British justice system, from what I know of it, cannot and will not do that job.

Relevance

Maybe a new determinant of the onset of Alzheimer's disease will be whether you can tell whether a blog comment is off topic or not. I can't decide whether this:

Charles Murray agonized over this question in The Bell Curve. Using IQ as a determinant of educational placement pulled high-IQ individuals out of low-IQ groups such as minorities. High-IQ minorities, therefore, no longer met and married lower-IQ co-ethnics. The ghettoes and farms and "hollers" have been emptied of those capable of achievement. They find their way to walled suburbs and university towns. Ethnic groups are left to compete with desperate illegal aliens for the low-IQ jobs. No one has yet come up with an effective way of addressing this problem while allowing high-achievers to achieve.

is off topic as a comment to this post:

Most Americans still believe that their country offers more opportunities for economic success and advancement than any other country on earth. They are convinced that American society is a basically free and meritorious one, which judges everyone according to his individual ability and rewards him for his accomplishments...

The benefits of inequality
Unequal ability, whether innate or acquired, tends to lead to great differences in personal income and social position in every kind of economic system and social order. In a market order, men and women who render valuable services to consumers are rewarded accordingly; others with lesser ability and diligence who render mediocre services earn and receive less...

Academic analyses now show that it is increasingly difficult to rise from rags to riches. Some studies reveal, for instance, that fewer and fewer families in the bottom fifth of the population (as ranked by income and social status) can make it up the ladder. Nearly 70 percent remain either at the same level or even do worse than their forebears; similarly, many in the second-poorest fifth stay put in their class. While all such studies readily agree on growing social immobility, they may differ on the causes of such a development.

Relevant? Only perhaps in that the author appears to think that the rich are shutting the poor out completely, while I and Murray agree that the poor can still rise to the top if they have the right intelligence in their genes. And I would agree with the author that rising to the top is becoming less common, but only because the genes that correlate with intelligence are becoming less common among the poor. And, I would add, a high level of raw intelligence is becoming more and more important, not just as a status determinative, but as a necessity for real achievement on merit.

Old hat - but yipes! again

I know the Diana Hsieh discussions about The Objectivist Center versus the Ayn Rand Institute have been around for a while, but I hadn't been interested in wading through the whole thing. Now, perhaps thanks to Esmay and Quick, I felt like taking the time and am finding some rather entertaining material. For instance, Diana tells it like she thinks it is to Nathaniel and Barbara Branden:

Together, you two have done more damage to the cause of Objectivism than I ever imagined possible. I regret that it took me so long to see that. But now that I do, I will certainly not help you do any more damage. I want nothing to do with either of you.

I sometimes poke fun at the whole Kelley/Peikoff split as similar to medieval theologians debating the size of angels, and bring in the Monty Python (Holy Grail?) dialogue about the splittist Judean Liberation Front and Popular Front for the Liberation of Judea. But I know there are real issues. One can't constantly mock. Reality is real, most of the time.

Over the top

I've always enjoyed The Amazing Randi's website. I sent him an email about some things I'd like to get his opinions on:

Dear Mr. Randi:

I enjoyed your commentary as usual this week. I was struck by one statement, however:

There are no “different interpretations” involved; calling astrology a science is like saying that a barber is a surgeon, or that a chimpanzee at a typewriter is a journalist.

I've known some journalists personally. I would be hard put to it in some cases to distinguish them significantly from chimpanzees, especially when at their typewriters!
I'm sure Mencken would have agreed.

I wondered - are you ever concerned that you will meet your match in the conjuring department? That is, someone will sign up for the Randi Challenge and work an illusion to such effect that he defeats your precautions and you will be forced to hand over the million dollars, even though you just know it was a trick. This would be a catastrophe for scientific skepticism. But I guess you just love to live on the edge!

Speaking of monkeys, was it on your site that I saw the quote from Larry King to the effect that, "Hey, if evolution is real, how come there are still monkeys?" That's a favorite.

Keep up the good work. God bless!

Robert Speirs

I guess the "God Bless" was over the top, him being a Bright and all. So even though I meant it sarcastically or sardonically or whatever definition it falls under, he probably will think I'm trying to tweak his nose and am really a Xtian. At any rate, he hasn't yet replied.

At it again

OK, I can't resist. I'm harassing bloggers again, especially this Brad fellow, who, even though he has a few good ideas, thinks he's much smarter than he is:

Major retail chains Target, Wal-Mart and others announced today they will end the so-called war on white people that had resulted in most stores posting signs welcoming “shoppers” or “customers” instead of “white patrons”, even though white people represented a considerable majority of their business.

.
Ha flipping ha!

So I had to get in on the act:

A better example would be: On May 31, the stores decide to have a "Spring Holiday" sale, not mentioning that the relevant holiday, the reason for the long weekend, is Memorial Day, because, after all, some people are against the military, some people have relatives who have been killed by the US military and every ethnicity has a spring festival of some kind. We don't even get any time off for Easter any more.

It's Newspeak to say "Happy Holiday" without mentioning the reason for the holiday. You can say "Happy Holiday" on any holiday year-round and "Season's Greetings" in any season. The minor festival Chanukah and the non-existent Kwanzaa would not have given anyone a reason to take time off and celebrate if it hadn't been for Christmas. Ramadan of course rotates around the year. Anyone ever say, "Happy rotating Lunar Holiday" to a Muslim? Even (especially) in Muslim lands? It reminds me of the use of "BCE" instead of "B.C.". Can't mention Christ! Have to say "Before the Common Era". Which leaves unanswered the questions, "Why exactly is this computation used? Why is this Era Common?" No wonder kids are confused.

Verity again

Verity on Samizdata is on the warpath again about the Conservatives' failure of nerve on the EU issue. She welcomes another commenter to the topic:

Tomahawk - I personally love your logic, which I am sure will be appreciated by other Samizdatas when they get up in the morning and have a giggle with their cup of tea. It's some time since we've had some knock-about comedy around here.

And she does go on with this comment. Much more entertaining than DailyPundit or Dean Esmay!

Update

Checking back on the above thread, all I can say is, "Yipe!!" Tomahawk is getting scalped. Glad I didn't toss in my two cents. But Verity did say on another thread she liked my idea about compensating suicide bomber victims by holding their families responsible:

I do like the idea of the families of suicide nitwits having to compensate the victims, and it is an idea with which they themselves should feel perfectly comfortable as the concept of blood money is mother's milk to them. My own preference, which I doubt would find favour with Tony Blair, would be putting to death the mother or father of each suicide murderer. After all, they brought him up in this vile cult.

I feel great!

I don't care

More and more, I just don't care what other people think, especially on blogs. I don't get a sense of "belonging" or reinforcement from commenting on a blog, or writing one for that matter. It's just a matter of getting closer to the truth. And very many people have no good grasp on reality at all. I just finished reading The Wisdom of Crowds by James Surowiecki. It challenges many of my long-held beliefs about the superiority of individual intelligence over that of the collective. But it makes sense. And it's intelligently qualified. I hope to derive from it some better conception of why democracy works so well, when an individual's vote matters not at all to the general result. It contains support for the market view of policy but also stresses that the conditions of a collective decision have to be set by decisions a collective cannot necessarily make.

More here

Banned or not?

I appear to have been banned from commenting on Dean Esmay's blog. But it could just be his comments function is messed up. I have been arguing vehemently for consideration of the Turkish position on the Armenian massacre question. I just can't stand it when people won't even listen to facts they don't like to hear.

Pali moaning
On Captain's Quarters, Palestinians come in for ritual condemnation on the occasion of their voting for Hamas:

Besides, the Palestinians have made themselves clear in their reasonably free and open elections: they want war and support terrorism. Not only have they consistently voted in favor of the most reliably anti-Israel faction, the lack of a counterbalancing "peace" party makes it clear that Palestinians have no interest in peaceful co-existence with Israel. They have repeatedly chosen the no-negotiation platform of Hamas over that of the Abbas approach, which at least keeps the door open to a negotiated end to hostilities.

So I couldn't resist jumping in with both feet:

So one might say it's not Hamas stirring up the Palestinians, but the Palestinians stirring up Hamas. Now that Arafat's not around to put a "moderate, peace-loving face"(!!??) on Palestinian "nationalism", maybe its true death-cult nature will shine through. Wish I had a little more faith in Netanyahu's insight and leadership ability. Oh well, at least it looks like the accommodationist Sharon is out of the picture.

Interesting how the views of Sharon and Arafat have changed so quickly, for those who couldn't see straight to begin with!

Now THIS is a judge!

He is so NOT Harriet Miers:

What counts in mixology is the "original understanding" of the martini's essence by those who first consumed it. The essence remains unaltered but allows proportions to evolve as circumstances change.

I would trust Scalia and Bork with a cocktail shaker. Roberts ... ? And don't let Souter anywhere near it. Some NewHampshireman he is! (HT: vodkapundit)

I'm in love

I've been reading Samizdata.net for quite a while now. I've always admired Verity's plucky, articulate comments. But on this post she outdoes herself:

"ineluctably plump and corrupt". An excellent phrase, which I am going to apply to Cherie Blair.

I wonder whether she's ever paid all the Customs duty she owes from having walked through the Green Channel with gifts worth thousands of pounds? Probably not. Paying duty is for the little people.

Posted by Verity at December 14, 2005 03:58 PM

Be still my heart! When's the next plane leave Tallahassee for Britain?

Update:
Another:

Indeed he has, Ron Brick. But when is blow-back time for Blair? I find it astounding that he has got away with this pandering dhimmitude for so long. Of course, he is very frightened and he is a coward. But surely at some point, even the passive British are going to call him on it. He's not even as bold as France's Sarkov, who shouted at the rioters that they are the "scum of the earth". And Bliar, supposedly a leader, can't bring himself to condemn mass murderers of his countrymen.

Anyway, Bliar is not a real leader. He is an actor playing the role. He's contemptible.

"Bliar"! Ha!

Winter noon in Tallahassee

Beautiful cold blue day downtown. It's hot and muggy for so much of the year that I love to try and tuck these days away in my memory and unpack them in the summer. The Capitol building is in a plaza that always channels the wind. So it feels like Boston for at least a few weeks. I used to walk around the Common and over to Faneuil Hall on my lunch hour when I worked in Boston, so I have some coldness to compare this to! The sky is wonderfully blue here though, which you couldn't be sure of in Boston. There's really nothing like Florida in winter. It's a bit disconcerting to come around a corner with the wind blowing and your hands freezing and see a palm tree.

Apple - my eye!
I got a Mac mini a bit ago. Thought I was going to be able to get dial-up service for it, then discovered - because I bought the HIGHER-priced model - that it didn't come with a dial-up modem. So, I thought, no problem. Just get this, right? Well, it's on order but I'm not very good at waiting patiently for things to arrive, especially at Christmas, so I'm a bit sore at Apple - would like to chew them out, so to speak! Seems like forever. It would be nice to be able to blog from my new extremely small high-tech computer. And I will NOT deal with Comcast. I've read more books since I started relying entirely on over-the-air broadcast TV. Luckily it's the football season. I can overdose on TV on Sunday and Monday and coast through the week. This is the magic week when they start having NFL games on Saturday as well, since the college regular season is over and the bowls haven't quite started yet. I will watch golf, but that's about the limit of my TV watching. I have two seasons of Rumpole of the Bailey on DVD, so that's how my idiot box is going to be employed for a while. Say, I wonder - in all those surveys that show how many hours a week people watch TV - does that count recorded TV as well as broadcast? What if I just watched Rumpole on my Mac mini? Does that count? Get some use out of it while waiting for my modem.

Tookie de-funked

Finally, justice after 26 years of dubbing around:

Despite persistent pleas for mercy from around the globe, the governor earlier in the day had said Williams was unworthy of clemency because he had not admitted his brutal shotgun murders of four people during two robberies 26 years ago.
After the U.S. Supreme Court denied a request for a last-minute stay Monday evening, the co-founder of the infamous Crips street gang — who insisted he was innocent of the murders — became the 12th man executed by the state of California since voters reinstated capital punishment in 1978.

Also, note to Joan Baez: you were thrilling in 1964. Now shut up. We don't need no stinking multiple personalities neither.

Talking Turkey
Perry de Havilland went to Turkey. So he just had to pontificate about the EU question:

Spending a few days in Turkey and reading their newspapers makes it very clear that the Kemal Ataturk's vision of a modernising, secular Turkish republic is still very much an ongoing battle. It should also be noted that very few secular Turks seem to be anti-Muslim, they are just pro-secular and as the overwhelming majority of people in Turkey are indeed Muslim (at least nominally), that the whole structure of politics are avowedly secular makes Turkey the front-line on the struggle against Islamist governance.

I of course have strong opinions about the Armenian genocide and the dilemmas of democratic delusion:

The many European delusions about Turkey, including the Armenian "genocide" questions and the pure innocence of the Kurdish terrorists and the peace-loving orientation of the Greeks with respect to Cyprus, do not bode well for easy or even possible Turkish entry into the EU. And that may not be a bad thing. Security and secular Ataturkism are more important than suicidal democracy, at least right now. And what is the actual benefit to Turkey of jumping aboard the sinking European ship? In ten years this will be even more obvious. Taiwan, South Korea, Kuwait, even Singapore, have managed to move toward civil or at least economic freedom while dominated by dictators. I believe Turkey will increasingly look toward the US rather than Europe.

Of course it would be better if Turkey could become democratic and capitalist and secular overnight. Hey, I really need to go there and check out the possibilities. But the way my Istanbul fund is going it may be a few years. Perhaps just in time to see the ceremonies celebrating admission into the EU. E-uwww!

Sad
Tookie apparently will shortly be an ex-Tookie. The sad part is that he lived so long after his crimes deprived four other people of their full lives. But at least his death will expose the liberal morons who don't think murder is important enough to deal with:

The impending execution has mobilized death penalty opponents and drew pleas for his life from prominent figures such as South Africa's Winnie Madikizela-Mandela and rapper Snoop Dogg.

Funny Winnie ex-Mandela and murder coming up in the same connection. Wasn't there a connection before, about Stompie Seipei, a child she had murdered? That's the problem with the left. They have no sense of history. And that's also sad.

Christian equality?

Interesting article here stimulated me to think a bit. Rodney Stark attempts to explode the myth that science and capitalism arose only with the Renaissance and Reformation:

It was during the so-called Dark Ages that European technology and science overtook and surpassed the rest of the world. Some of that involved original inventions and discoveries; some of it came from Asia. But what was so remarkable was the way that the full capacities of new technologies were recognized and widely adopted. By the 10th century Europe already was far ahead in terms of farming equipment and techniques, had unmatched capacities in the use of water and wind power, and possessed superior military equipment and tactics. Not to be overlooked in all that medieval progress was the invention of a whole new way to organize and operate commerce and industry: capitalism.

...But, if one digs deeper, it becomes clear that the truly fundamental basis not only for capitalism, but for the rise of the West, was an extraordinary faith in reason.

The church, according to Stark, allowed entrepreneurial capitalism to develop when secular despotism would not have tolerated it. Why was that, though? Not having read Stark's book, I can only guess what he would say. But it strikes me that Church hierarchies were generally not based on blood inheritance, despite the Borgias. Could it be they were based on intelligence? Innovative scholarly interpretations of the Scriptures would perhaps have been a good way to rise in the hierarchy of the Church, at least in some environments. And the leaders who were good at theology may also have been good businessmen. In short, they may have been more intelligent. So perhaps the Church system selected for IQ. An emphasis on reason and self-help might be very useful in keeping capitalism alive in a time of serfdom and constant war. The international Church organization would also be able, to some degree, to protect its members from suffering from the constant warfare characteristic of the medieval world. Of course, too much tolerance of intelligent speculation could also lead to problems, such as heresies and men like, oh, Martin Luther. I may even be interested enough in this topic to buy Stark's book. I wonder if he says anything about the Jews, speaking of intelligence

Feelings

Realized yesterday, watching all the ridiculous commercials on the football games, that people were always trying to make me feel a certain way. That's how they sell food and cars and beer. Eat this, you'll feel better. Drive this car. You'll feel like an astronaut chick-magnet. Drink this beer. All your troubles will disappear. Hey, it's not true. I've got my pickup in the driveway (and my non-functional Peugeot 505) and some Beefeaters left in the freezer. But finally, at the age of 57, I've realized that the truck, even the Peugeot or, more surprisingly, the Beefeaters won't really make me feel better. Not reliably. In fact, I have no way, none at all of changing the way I feel to a better way. I am completely dependent on chance. And you know what? That's OK. I'll just go on in my usual way, going to work, cleaning the house, visiting my family, watching football. Whatever happens will happen.
Things can make me feel worse. Too much Beefeaters or too little sleep will, reliably, make me feel awful. But I no longer confuse myself by thinking that by my own efforts I can make things better for me. And you know what? It's an enormous relief.