Tuesday, July 31, 2007
Why do they hate us?
As I've said many times before (but not lately!), this is a bad question, a weakening question.
In all periods of human history, half the tribes and nations hate the other half. If hate were the relevant variable, all nations would be at war all the time. In fact war is relatively rare and isolated, so hate is simply not the relevant variable when your goal is to maintain peace.
War starts when Nation A decides that Nation B is weak or distracted, and when Nation A can gain something - land, resources, power, macho mojo - from the attack. This can happen with or without hatred.
Nevertheless, sometimes the question just can't be avoided.
I've mashed together two pictures here: the Korean mission school in Afghanistan, and a Mohammedan mission school (madrassa) in Tanzania.
See the difference? All the kids have head coverings, but the kids being taught by Christians have something else as well.
Joy.
This also explains why Western Leftists are Allah's best allies. Both of their gods (Gaia and Allah) are strictly concrete gods, who reside in specific places. Gaia lives in the entire earth, and Allah lives in Mecca. Concrete gods order their believers to worship in concrete ways: avoid certain substances and sacrifice real innocent human beings.
For Gaia, the substances to avoid are tobacco, carbon dioxide and meat. For Allah, it's pork and alcohol. For Gaia, the sacrifice is abortion, euthanasia, and ultimately the entire human species. Allah's sacrifice is less universal but more dramatic: Jihad. Both gods hate capitalism, banking and Jews. And above all else, both gods hate Joy. ¶ 7:46 AM
In all periods of human history, half the tribes and nations hate the other half. If hate were the relevant variable, all nations would be at war all the time. In fact war is relatively rare and isolated, so hate is simply not the relevant variable when your goal is to maintain peace.
War starts when Nation A decides that Nation B is weak or distracted, and when Nation A can gain something - land, resources, power, macho mojo - from the attack. This can happen with or without hatred.
Nevertheless, sometimes the question just can't be avoided.
I've mashed together two pictures here: the Korean mission school in Afghanistan, and a Mohammedan mission school (madrassa) in Tanzania.
See the difference? All the kids have head coverings, but the kids being taught by Christians have something else as well.
Joy.
This also explains why Western Leftists are Allah's best allies. Both of their gods (Gaia and Allah) are strictly concrete gods, who reside in specific places. Gaia lives in the entire earth, and Allah lives in Mecca. Concrete gods order their believers to worship in concrete ways: avoid certain substances and sacrifice real innocent human beings.
For Gaia, the substances to avoid are tobacco, carbon dioxide and meat. For Allah, it's pork and alcohol. For Gaia, the sacrifice is abortion, euthanasia, and ultimately the entire human species. Allah's sacrifice is less universal but more dramatic: Jihad. Both gods hate capitalism, banking and Jews. And above all else, both gods hate Joy. ¶ 7:46 AM
Monday, July 30, 2007
Martyred 2
The sub-bestial Mohammedan camel-humpers have martyred a second member of the Korean missionary team. This time it's Sim Sung-Min (심성민) who is the second man from left in the group picture below.
There's some indication that Korea is getting angry enough to do something about it. Let's hope so, since we're not going to do anything about it. ¶ 9:42 PM
The sub-bestial Mohammedan camel-humpers have martyred a second member of the Korean missionary team. This time it's Sim Sung-Min (심성민) who is the second man from left in the group picture below.
There's some indication that Korea is getting angry enough to do something about it. Let's hope so, since we're not going to do anything about it. ¶ 9:42 PM
Saturday, July 28, 2007
Skirts, cars and 202s
I'm alternately annoyed and amused by Hollywood's tendency to miss the culture and style of earlier periods.
The most annoying and universal tendency is pure Socialist Realist propaganda: they depict the normal taboos and prejudices of the earlier era as evil and repressive, by contrast with the Ahead-Of-Her-Time Heroine who proudly carries this month's rigorously orthodox Leninist taboos and prejudices. She manages to Re-Educate the more Enlightened Ones of the Evil and Repressive Natives in that Horrible Time, and the remainingnormal people Nazis continue to Heil each other in their Swastika-bedecked Pigpens.
Hollywood's errors in style are not so intentional or heavy-handed, but still annoying. Can't they hire someone who lived through the '50s or '60s? Surely some of their writers and producers are old enough to remember these things accurately.
Focusing on this point today for two reasons:
1. The new series Mad Men on AMC refreshingly avoids the standard propaganda tricks. Mad Men depicts the taboos and prejudices of 1966 with amazing accuracy and sympathy, and doesn't shove modern taboos and prejudices down our throats to Raze Our Consciousness. The show even distinguishes between 'enlightened' and 'less enlightened' views by the actual standards of a 1966 adult, leaving the viewer to decide which era's peculiar bigotries are preferable.
Despite such careful objectivity, Madmen misses the mark on style. The female hairstyles belong in 1959, and some of the clothing dates from 1948. The cars are also too old on average. It's true that 50's cars were still around, but only in the hands of teenagers and old ladies. No self-respecting social-climbing businessman would dare to keep a four-year-old car, let alone a 25-year-old clunker. This failure is especially puzzling because the three-year obsolescence cycle was created by the same admen featured in the show!
*** Much later note: As I was searching for something else, I noticed an error in this entry. For some reason I thought Mad Men was set in 1966. In fact the first year of the series was set in 1960, so the 1959 hairstyles were just right, and the 1958-59 cars were also within the 3-year obsolescence cycle designed by the ad men. In other words, the show is 100% accurate! ***
2. I've acquired a little more sympathy for the writers and producers, after encountering a period puzzle of my own.
Polistra is displaying a digital model I'm building: a Western Electric 202 phone. It's destined to become part of the furnishings in my version of Nelson's Dream Village Motel, a Route 66 landmark in Lebanon, Missouri. The Dream Village grabbed my esthetic soul for some reason, and I've been working on it sporadically, as a background project when other work wasn't pressing, for quite a while.
Here's the puzzle. Nelson's Dream Village was built in 1934, and its heyday was in the late '30s. When I set out to give the cabins a room phone, I knew that the 'candlestick' phone was still common at that time, but wasn't sure if the newer square style would have been available. Perusing online sources, I found the 202 was supposedly the most common phone in the '30s.
Yet I've never seen a real 202 before, and I'm reasonably certain that it wasn't used in Missouri or anywhere in the Midwest. Why certain? First, before the ATT breakup most folks kept their phones forever. It was just too much trouble and expense to switch the company-owned phone. I saw plenty of candlestick-style phones still in use through the '50s and '60s, but I never saw a 202. Second, I've been focused on electrical gadgets since birth, and spent a fair amount of money and time collecting old phones and radios. If this strikingly beautiful phone had been in a house or motel anywhere within my travels, I would have remembered it with affection; if it had been in an antique shop or auction, I would have bought it with joy. So I'm sure it wasn't used by Bell in the central part of the country, but it must have been common elsewhere, perhaps in the Northeast, judging by the number of 202's available on eBay.
Well, what to do? I finally decided to include it in the Dream Village model on the shaky grounds that it's the sort of thing Colonel Nelson would have wanted in his motel. He had an eye for style, and if this phone had been available from Bell, he certainly would have used it. (No, the actual reason is that it's the sort of thing I like, and I enjoyed building it!)
= = = = =
Much later note: The 202 ended up as part of the Arcade Hotel set, after the Nelson set didn't sell well. ¶ 12:58 PM
The most annoying and universal tendency is pure Socialist Realist propaganda: they depict the normal taboos and prejudices of the earlier era as evil and repressive, by contrast with the Ahead-Of-Her-Time Heroine who proudly carries this month's rigorously orthodox Leninist taboos and prejudices. She manages to Re-Educate the more Enlightened Ones of the Evil and Repressive Natives in that Horrible Time, and the remaining
Hollywood's errors in style are not so intentional or heavy-handed, but still annoying. Can't they hire someone who lived through the '50s or '60s? Surely some of their writers and producers are old enough to remember these things accurately.
Focusing on this point today for two reasons:
1. The new series Mad Men on AMC refreshingly avoids the standard propaganda tricks. Mad Men depicts the taboos and prejudices of 1966 with amazing accuracy and sympathy, and doesn't shove modern taboos and prejudices down our throats to Raze Our Consciousness. The show even distinguishes between 'enlightened' and 'less enlightened' views by the actual standards of a 1966 adult, leaving the viewer to decide which era's peculiar bigotries are preferable.
Despite such careful objectivity, Madmen misses the mark on style. The female hairstyles belong in 1959, and some of the clothing dates from 1948. The cars are also too old on average. It's true that 50's cars were still around, but only in the hands of teenagers and old ladies. No self-respecting social-climbing businessman would dare to keep a four-year-old car, let alone a 25-year-old clunker. This failure is especially puzzling because the three-year obsolescence cycle was created by the same admen featured in the show!
*** Much later note: As I was searching for something else, I noticed an error in this entry. For some reason I thought Mad Men was set in 1966. In fact the first year of the series was set in 1960, so the 1959 hairstyles were just right, and the 1958-59 cars were also within the 3-year obsolescence cycle designed by the ad men. In other words, the show is 100% accurate! ***
2. I've acquired a little more sympathy for the writers and producers, after encountering a period puzzle of my own.
Polistra is displaying a digital model I'm building: a Western Electric 202 phone. It's destined to become part of the furnishings in my version of Nelson's Dream Village Motel, a Route 66 landmark in Lebanon, Missouri. The Dream Village grabbed my esthetic soul for some reason, and I've been working on it sporadically, as a background project when other work wasn't pressing, for quite a while.
Here's the puzzle. Nelson's Dream Village was built in 1934, and its heyday was in the late '30s. When I set out to give the cabins a room phone, I knew that the 'candlestick' phone was still common at that time, but wasn't sure if the newer square style would have been available. Perusing online sources, I found the 202 was supposedly the most common phone in the '30s.
Yet I've never seen a real 202 before, and I'm reasonably certain that it wasn't used in Missouri or anywhere in the Midwest. Why certain? First, before the ATT breakup most folks kept their phones forever. It was just too much trouble and expense to switch the company-owned phone. I saw plenty of candlestick-style phones still in use through the '50s and '60s, but I never saw a 202. Second, I've been focused on electrical gadgets since birth, and spent a fair amount of money and time collecting old phones and radios. If this strikingly beautiful phone had been in a house or motel anywhere within my travels, I would have remembered it with affection; if it had been in an antique shop or auction, I would have bought it with joy. So I'm sure it wasn't used by Bell in the central part of the country, but it must have been common elsewhere, perhaps in the Northeast, judging by the number of 202's available on eBay.
Well, what to do? I finally decided to include it in the Dream Village model on the shaky grounds that it's the sort of thing Colonel Nelson would have wanted in his motel. He had an eye for style, and if this phone had been available from Bell, he certainly would have used it. (No, the actual reason is that it's the sort of thing I like, and I enjoyed building it!)
= = = = =
Much later note: The 202 ended up as part of the Arcade Hotel set, after the Nelson set didn't sell well. ¶ 12:58 PM
Friday, July 27, 2007
Imposing your morality....
Listening to C-Span interview with Romney, in which Mitt was given several of the Youtube questions from the last brand-D debate. Inevitably, one of the questions was about torture, and Mitt gave his standard answer again: Never, not under any conditions at all.
Why doesn't anyone ask the followup? Like this: "Okay, so you're perfectly willing to sacrifice the lives of 300 million Americans to satisfy your own personal ethical standards. You will knowingly allow complete national destruction to preserve your own precious pure-as-the-driven-snow conscience. What kind of twisted conscience is that? How dare you impose your morality on the lives of 300 million people????!!!!"
= = = = =
As said before, I deeply appreciate Brownback's true and valid morality on this question [it's better to sacrifice one evil life than many innocent lives] and I'm sad to see that Brownback has essentially dropped from the race. His campaign website has been static for more than a month.
Why doesn't anyone ask the followup? Like this: "Okay, so you're perfectly willing to sacrifice the lives of 300 million Americans to satisfy your own personal ethical standards. You will knowingly allow complete national destruction to preserve your own precious pure-as-the-driven-snow conscience. What kind of twisted conscience is that? How dare you impose your morality on the lives of 300 million people????!!!!"
= = = = =
As said before, I deeply appreciate Brownback's true and valid morality on this question [it's better to sacrifice one evil life than many innocent lives] and I'm sad to see that Brownback has essentially dropped from the race. His campaign website has been static for more than a month.
Labels: Ethics
¶ 6:34 PM
Korea's Dan Rather
Apparently Korea has its own problem with elite media sophisticates. While reporting on the martyred missionaries in Afghanistan, MBC's main anchorman Um Ki-Young (엄기영) switched to a remote report and didn't realize he was still visible on a split screen.
He leaned over and laughed to a colleague, as if vastly enjoying the plight of the martyrs. MBC was quite appropriately barraged with nasty emails!
A short FLV video of the chortle is in the middle of this webpage. ¶ 3:22 PM
He leaned over and laughed to a colleague, as if vastly enjoying the plight of the martyrs. MBC was quite appropriately barraged with nasty emails!
A short FLV video of the chortle is in the middle of this webpage. ¶ 3:22 PM
Crackin' those ACORNs
While the national political mechanism collapses, states are carrying on in their usual fashion, which is sometimes pretty damn good. Here in Wash, the state is finally prosecuting the Communist-front group ACORN for voter fraud, which probably led to the election of brand-D Gregoire in 2004. Can't undo the election, but it's mighty satisfying to see a Leninist group get crunched.
ACORN has been causing nationwide mischief for 35 years, while rarely gaining publicity. It was founded as part of LBJ's welfare entitlement, to help organize welfare recipients into a private army for The Party. It has faded since Clinton phased out the entitlement, but it's still around and still making trouble.
From the Seattle Times:
Workers accused of concocting the biggest voter-registration-fraud scheme in state history said they were under pressure from the community-organizing group that hired them to sign up more voters, according to charging papers filed Thursday.
To boost their output, the defendants allegedly went to the downtown Seattle Public Library, where they filled out voter-registration forms using names they made up or found in phone books, newspapers and baby-naming books.
One defendant "said it was hard work making up all those cards," and another "said he would often sit at home, smoke marijuana and fill out cards," according to a probable-cause statement written by King County sheriff's Detective Christopher Johnson.
Prosecutors in King and Pierce counties filed felony charges Thursday against seven employees of ACORN, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, claiming they turned in more than 1,800 phony voter-registration forms, including an estimated 55 in Pierce County.
This is a good example of a phenomenon I've discussed before: each state has a permanent political culture, either honest or dishonest, totally uncorrelated with party affiliation. Wash is on the permanently honest side, which means that voter fraud by the Left gets harshly punished by a totally Dem state government.
I made this observation as I moved back and forth between Kansas and Oklahoma over the years. Kansas gradually shifted from R to D, and Okla shifted the other way, but Kansas remained culturally honest and Okla remained culturally dishonest. Such basic cultural factors are never mentioned, perhaps not understood, by the usual experts and commentators, even though they explain trends and behavior far better than "the issues" or ideology. ¶ 12:06 PM
ACORN has been causing nationwide mischief for 35 years, while rarely gaining publicity. It was founded as part of LBJ's welfare entitlement, to help organize welfare recipients into a private army for The Party. It has faded since Clinton phased out the entitlement, but it's still around and still making trouble.
From the Seattle Times:
Workers accused of concocting the biggest voter-registration-fraud scheme in state history said they were under pressure from the community-organizing group that hired them to sign up more voters, according to charging papers filed Thursday.
To boost their output, the defendants allegedly went to the downtown Seattle Public Library, where they filled out voter-registration forms using names they made up or found in phone books, newspapers and baby-naming books.
One defendant "said it was hard work making up all those cards," and another "said he would often sit at home, smoke marijuana and fill out cards," according to a probable-cause statement written by King County sheriff's Detective Christopher Johnson.
Prosecutors in King and Pierce counties filed felony charges Thursday against seven employees of ACORN, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, claiming they turned in more than 1,800 phony voter-registration forms, including an estimated 55 in Pierce County.
This is a good example of a phenomenon I've discussed before: each state has a permanent political culture, either honest or dishonest, totally uncorrelated with party affiliation. Wash is on the permanently honest side, which means that voter fraud by the Left gets harshly punished by a totally Dem state government.
I made this observation as I moved back and forth between Kansas and Oklahoma over the years. Kansas gradually shifted from R to D, and Okla shifted the other way, but Kansas remained culturally honest and Okla remained culturally dishonest. Such basic cultural factors are never mentioned, perhaps not understood, by the usual experts and commentators, even though they explain trends and behavior far better than "the issues" or ideology. ¶ 12:06 PM
Thursday, July 26, 2007
Fairness pt III
Not necessarily an objective judgment, because I'm a bit crankier than usual lately for no particular reason. Maybe a gut feeling of impending disaster.
Subjective or not, it seems that the brand-R talkers are just begging for the Fairness Doctrine to be reimposed.
Normally, when you get a 'warning ticket' indicating that the gov't is about to come down on you, what's your response? You clean up your act just a bit. You slow down, or park away from fireplugs, or mow your lawn more often, or in this case you would try to make your opinions and talk more substantial, less trivial, less brazenly monomanical.
Nope, that's not how the talkers are behaving. With a couple of exceptions, they are accelerating the raw ego, turning up the blind Bush-loyalty, screeching the Hate Hillary feedback, amping the Ayn Rand. They are converging toward a single line of squawk, which goes something like this:
"I am Lord of Lords and God of Gods. I contain all galaxies and universes within my Mighty Soul. I know everything; nothing which was created was not created by Me. You tiny atomic particles out there, I can scarcely see you, but I know that you are all Weirdos, Perverts, and Losers Losers Losers Losers Nyah Nyah Nyah! Losers, Losers, Losers!!!!!! I need nothing except Zero Taxes. When I have Zero Taxes, the world will be perfect."
Even a normally loyal conservative loses patience with this bizarre and ferally contemptuous verbiage, and wishes for something different, even something diametrically opposite, in its place. ¶ 3:55 PM
Subjective or not, it seems that the brand-R talkers are just begging for the Fairness Doctrine to be reimposed.
Normally, when you get a 'warning ticket' indicating that the gov't is about to come down on you, what's your response? You clean up your act just a bit. You slow down, or park away from fireplugs, or mow your lawn more often, or in this case you would try to make your opinions and talk more substantial, less trivial, less brazenly monomanical.
Nope, that's not how the talkers are behaving. With a couple of exceptions, they are accelerating the raw ego, turning up the blind Bush-loyalty, screeching the Hate Hillary feedback, amping the Ayn Rand. They are converging toward a single line of squawk, which goes something like this:
"I am Lord of Lords and God of Gods. I contain all galaxies and universes within my Mighty Soul. I know everything; nothing which was created was not created by Me. You tiny atomic particles out there, I can scarcely see you, but I know that you are all Weirdos, Perverts, and Losers Losers Losers Losers Nyah Nyah Nyah! Losers, Losers, Losers!!!!!! I need nothing except Zero Taxes. When I have Zero Taxes, the world will be perfect."
Even a normally loyal conservative loses patience with this bizarre and ferally contemptuous verbiage, and wishes for something different, even something diametrically opposite, in its place. ¶ 3:55 PM
Wednesday, July 25, 2007
Martyred
One of the Korean missionaries has been martyred by the savage subhuman Mohammedans in Afghanistan.
= = = = =
Update: This first martyr was the group's pastor and the founder of the church, Bae Hyung-kyu (배형규). He's the one standing on the right side, slightly separate from the three rows, in the group picture below. ¶ 2:55 PM
One of the Korean missionaries has been martyred by the savage subhuman Mohammedans in Afghanistan.
= = = = =
Update: This first martyr was the group's pastor and the founder of the church, Bae Hyung-kyu (배형규). He's the one standing on the right side, slightly separate from the three rows, in the group picture below. ¶ 2:55 PM
Spokane: Boom! Dallas: Boom! Where next?
A big explosive fire in Dallas is all over the TV this morning.
On Monday, Spokane had a very similar and equally dramatic explosive fire, which didn't make the national media for some reason. [Actually the reason isn't mysterious: there was a vastly more important story about some Paris Hilton-type celebrity critter, which pre-empted all minor trivia such as disasters and wars.]
A fuel distribution company caught fire with a tremendous mushroom cloud, and continued exploding and burning wildly for several hours as thousands of oil drums ignited individually. They had to call in a foam-spraying "crash truck" from the airport to calm it down. Several nearby businesses were damaged or destroyed, but no injuries or deaths.
Investigators quickly decided it wasn't an accident, but they haven't found - or at least haven't announced - a suspect yet.
KREM has lots of videos and pictures and the latest dope.
Are we seeing a planned cross-country bomb-fest? Is this a test of a technique to divert the crash facilities from airports?
= = =
Later: Tie this in with today's TSA warning about "dry runs" for bombs on airplanes and it gets real interesting. Fox mentioned that none of the people who brought "blocks of cheese with wires and batteries" to airport checkins had been arrested. This tells me with 100% certainty that the dry-runners are clearly identifiable Mohammedans. If any of them had been Christians or (heaven forfend) conservative Christians, they'd be in the Seventh Circle of Supermax, getting the 24-hour waterboarding treatment. Mohammedans are, as we all know, naturally immune from arrest. ¶ 8:26 AM
On Monday, Spokane had a very similar and equally dramatic explosive fire, which didn't make the national media for some reason. [Actually the reason isn't mysterious: there was a vastly more important story about some Paris Hilton-type celebrity critter, which pre-empted all minor trivia such as disasters and wars.]
A fuel distribution company caught fire with a tremendous mushroom cloud, and continued exploding and burning wildly for several hours as thousands of oil drums ignited individually. They had to call in a foam-spraying "crash truck" from the airport to calm it down. Several nearby businesses were damaged or destroyed, but no injuries or deaths.
Investigators quickly decided it wasn't an accident, but they haven't found - or at least haven't announced - a suspect yet.
KREM has lots of videos and pictures and the latest dope.
Are we seeing a planned cross-country bomb-fest? Is this a test of a technique to divert the crash facilities from airports?
= = =
Later: Tie this in with today's TSA warning about "dry runs" for bombs on airplanes and it gets real interesting. Fox mentioned that none of the people who brought "blocks of cheese with wires and batteries" to airport checkins had been arrested. This tells me with 100% certainty that the dry-runners are clearly identifiable Mohammedans. If any of them had been Christians or (heaven forfend) conservative Christians, they'd be in the Seventh Circle of Supermax, getting the 24-hour waterboarding treatment. Mohammedans are, as we all know, naturally immune from arrest. ¶ 8:26 AM
Tuesday, July 24, 2007
Hunter & Kaptur on SPP
Very interesting bit of discussion in the House, shown on C-Span a few minutes ago. Duncan Hunter teamed up with Marcy Kaptur of Ohio to introduce an amendment relating to the "Security and Prosperity Partnership", the giant borderless highway from Mexico to Canada. Their amendment is primarily aimed to eliminate spending for various stages of planning and design on the SPP, but the stated secondary motive is to bring some kind of Congressional oversight on the SPP.
Hunter and Kaptur described the project and its likely security problems quite accurately. They were opposed by Knollenberg, brand-R from Michigan, who called the project "mythical", and by some old guy named Olver, brand-D of Mass, who simply appeared to be senile.
This [the amendment, not Olver's senility!] is especially interesting in two ways. First, whether the amendment passes or not, it plants the existence of the SPP into the record, with two solid "witnesses" behind it.
Second, watching Hunter and Kaptur work together leads me to think that the real "partnership for security and prosperity" would be Hunter for Pres and Kaptur for VP. Both have long records of favoring American blue-collar workers and heavy industry against the inroads of Mexican and Chinese semi-slavery. Both are strongly in favor of maintaining sovereignty and security. Back in 1996, I think, Kaptur was considered for VP on the Perot ticket; I don't remember if she got nominated or not. And of course Hunter is the only brand-R candidate who accurately understands our current situation.
= = = = =
Later: the amendment passed 362 - 60! Though it's only a cut above symbolic, such a huge majority represents a sound rebuke to the Borderless Establishment, by most members of both parties. ¶ 3:49 PM
Hunter and Kaptur described the project and its likely security problems quite accurately. They were opposed by Knollenberg, brand-R from Michigan, who called the project "mythical", and by some old guy named Olver, brand-D of Mass, who simply appeared to be senile.
This [the amendment, not Olver's senility!] is especially interesting in two ways. First, whether the amendment passes or not, it plants the existence of the SPP into the record, with two solid "witnesses" behind it.
Second, watching Hunter and Kaptur work together leads me to think that the real "partnership for security and prosperity" would be Hunter for Pres and Kaptur for VP. Both have long records of favoring American blue-collar workers and heavy industry against the inroads of Mexican and Chinese semi-slavery. Both are strongly in favor of maintaining sovereignty and security. Back in 1996, I think, Kaptur was considered for VP on the Perot ticket; I don't remember if she got nominated or not. And of course Hunter is the only brand-R candidate who accurately understands our current situation.
= = = = =
Later: the amendment passed 362 - 60! Though it's only a cut above symbolic, such a huge majority represents a sound rebuke to the Borderless Establishment, by most members of both parties. ¶ 3:49 PM
Amok
The phrase political correctness run amok is being thrown around every hour or so in news broadcasts and various discussions. Those who use the phrase seem to think it's a tough and hard-minded form of expression, but in fact the phrase is itself a euphemism.
This phrase is generally used in describing situations like the Flying Imams, where our government allows the enemy to use all the weapons of Due Process and Rights against us. These situations are far more serious than the self-censorship properly denoted by political correctness. These situations are in fact forms of surrender to the enemy in time of war.
Our current enemy, Arabs and their allies fueled by Allah, is perfectly willing to use our court and political mechanisms against us. Their political branches, such as CAIR and ACLU, know how to run these mechanisms. Their internal agents, such as Keith Ellison and Abu Hussein Obama, are in a position to take over these mechanisms. When we allow this to happen, it's not political correctness run amok, it's aiding and abetting sabotage.
= = = = =
Later: On this same topic, I just noticed something in the previous entry about Korean missionaries ... something that should have caught my attention but didn't.
The Taliban spokesman said: "Afghanistan is an Islamic republic where conversion from Islam or attempting to convert Muslims is regarded as a serious crime in several areas."
And just who set up this republic? We did. Good old helpful Uncle George, always ready to assist the enemy in achieving his goals. ¶ 9:17 AM
This phrase is generally used in describing situations like the Flying Imams, where our government allows the enemy to use all the weapons of Due Process and Rights against us. These situations are far more serious than the self-censorship properly denoted by political correctness. These situations are in fact forms of surrender to the enemy in time of war.
Our current enemy, Arabs and their allies fueled by Allah, is perfectly willing to use our court and political mechanisms against us. Their political branches, such as CAIR and ACLU, know how to run these mechanisms. Their internal agents, such as Keith Ellison and Abu Hussein Obama, are in a position to take over these mechanisms. When we allow this to happen, it's not political correctness run amok, it's aiding and abetting sabotage.
= = = = =
Later: On this same topic, I just noticed something in the previous entry about Korean missionaries ... something that should have caught my attention but didn't.
The Taliban spokesman said: "Afghanistan is an Islamic republic where conversion from Islam or attempting to convert Muslims is regarded as a serious crime in several areas."
And just who set up this republic? We did. Good old helpful Uncle George, always ready to assist the enemy in achieving his goals. ¶ 9:17 AM
Monday, July 23, 2007
The new Noah will be named Kim or Choi.
Koreans are probably the most serious and most exemplary Christians in the world. I've been noticing this for a while, and now it shows up in a news story.
A large group of Korean missionaries were captured by the Taliban in Afghanistan on Thursday. The kidnappers claim that they want Korea to remove its small contingent of troops from that country, but I suspect the missionaries themselves, not the troops, are the irritant. If anyone can manage to convert Mohammedans to Christ, it's Koreans that will do it.
Here are the 23 young missionaries just before they left for Afghanistan:
In an interview with the Arabic satellite TV channel Al Jazeera on Saturday, Qari Yousuf Ahmadi, a purported spokesman for the Taliban insurgents in Afghanistan, said that the detained Koreans were carrying out "missionary activities." He added, "Afghanistan is an Islamic republic where conversion from Islam or attempting to convert Muslims is regarded as a serious crime in several areas."
And here's the school where they were planning to work:
A kindergarten in Kandahar, Afghanistan which a missionary group from the Saemmul church in Bundang, Gyeonggi Province planned to visit before they were kidnapped. Since its opening in 2005, the kindergarten has admitted about 100 war orphans and children from destitute families. Two classrooms and the teachers' room were burned down in an arson attack last year. ¶ 7:41 AM
A large group of Korean missionaries were captured by the Taliban in Afghanistan on Thursday. The kidnappers claim that they want Korea to remove its small contingent of troops from that country, but I suspect the missionaries themselves, not the troops, are the irritant. If anyone can manage to convert Mohammedans to Christ, it's Koreans that will do it.
Here are the 23 young missionaries just before they left for Afghanistan:
In an interview with the Arabic satellite TV channel Al Jazeera on Saturday, Qari Yousuf Ahmadi, a purported spokesman for the Taliban insurgents in Afghanistan, said that the detained Koreans were carrying out "missionary activities." He added, "Afghanistan is an Islamic republic where conversion from Islam or attempting to convert Muslims is regarded as a serious crime in several areas."
And here's the school where they were planning to work:
A kindergarten in Kandahar, Afghanistan which a missionary group from the Saemmul church in Bundang, Gyeonggi Province planned to visit before they were kidnapped. Since its opening in 2005, the kindergarten has admitted about 100 war orphans and children from destitute families. Two classrooms and the teachers' room were burned down in an arson attack last year. ¶ 7:41 AM
Sunday, July 22, 2007
Time capsule: Pangborn and the Kamikaze
In 1935, America was fully preoccupied with its own problems. FDR had made a bad start on fixing the Depression (National Recovery Administration), and his second try (WPA) hadn't quite taken hold yet. Europe was starting to boil over but hadn't yet exploded into open warfare. As I've detailed before, the isolationist mood was nearly universal until 1940.
Not quite universal, though. Here's an NBC commentary by Edwin Hill, December 1935, which sounds a lot like us modern hawk types. Hill complains that American diplomats are naive and innocent, always expecting other nations to behave decently, and always shocked when other nations behave like nations. "Good old Uncle Sam, always hopeful, always patient in the face of European skulduggery."
Hill also mentions a Congressional hearing in which the noted aviator Clyde Pangborn warned us about Japan's real intentions. "America is threatened by only one enemy, and that enemy is Japan. Japan has perfected man-operated aerial torpedoes in which the plane and the bomb are one, an instrument deadlier than any known weapon. Certain to bring death to the operator, yet thousands of Japanese have already volunteered for the honor of dying as pilots of these infernal modern weapons."
We had plenty of warning, just as we had warning of the Mohammedan version of the "man-operated torpedo".
There's one important difference, though. In 1941 FDR, learning from Churchill and from Canada, was cured of American naivete and decided to fight the war with total 'skulduggery' and nastiness; decided to get through the war quickly so that we could resume our natural decency. In 2007 George W. Vichy has learned nothing. He is still Shocked! Shocked! Shocked! that our enemies are not Episcopalian Gentlemen, and still cannot bring himself to fight effectually. His idiotic "long twilight struggle" is a guarantee of defeat, a guarantee that we will never be able to return to normalcy.
Listen to Edwin Hill.
= = = = =
Update 7/23: Now "good old hopeful Uncle Sam" is talking with the Persians. According to a report on Prince Walid News (aka Fox) just now, "US diplomats hope to get the Iranians to help stabilize Iraq, which is in Iran's best interests. Meanwhile, evidence mounts that Iran is responsible for helping to destabilize Iraq."
Aside from the basic idiocy that "stability" should be our goal, this is just silly and self-contradictory. In the first sentence Fox says that "stability" is in Iran's national interest, and in the second sentence we hear that Iran is helping to "destabilize" Iraq. Can't we understand that other nations always act in their own interest? Can't we learn something from this?
If we had any sense at all we'd understand that an "unstable" Iraq is in EVERYONE'S best interest, and we'd throw millions of weapons into the mess then stand back and watch the fun. THOSE ARE ARABS KILLING EACH OTHER. ARABS ARE OUR ENEMIES. IF THEY KILL EACH OTHER, IT SAVES US THE TROUBLE AND EXPENSE. ¶ 7:49 AM
In 1935, America was fully preoccupied with its own problems. FDR had made a bad start on fixing the Depression (National Recovery Administration), and his second try (WPA) hadn't quite taken hold yet. Europe was starting to boil over but hadn't yet exploded into open warfare. As I've detailed before, the isolationist mood was nearly universal until 1940.
Not quite universal, though. Here's an NBC commentary by Edwin Hill, December 1935, which sounds a lot like us modern hawk types. Hill complains that American diplomats are naive and innocent, always expecting other nations to behave decently, and always shocked when other nations behave like nations. "Good old Uncle Sam, always hopeful, always patient in the face of European skulduggery."
Hill also mentions a Congressional hearing in which the noted aviator Clyde Pangborn warned us about Japan's real intentions. "America is threatened by only one enemy, and that enemy is Japan. Japan has perfected man-operated aerial torpedoes in which the plane and the bomb are one, an instrument deadlier than any known weapon. Certain to bring death to the operator, yet thousands of Japanese have already volunteered for the honor of dying as pilots of these infernal modern weapons."
We had plenty of warning, just as we had warning of the Mohammedan version of the "man-operated torpedo".
There's one important difference, though. In 1941 FDR, learning from Churchill and from Canada, was cured of American naivete and decided to fight the war with total 'skulduggery' and nastiness; decided to get through the war quickly so that we could resume our natural decency. In 2007 George W. Vichy has learned nothing. He is still Shocked! Shocked! Shocked! that our enemies are not Episcopalian Gentlemen, and still cannot bring himself to fight effectually. His idiotic "long twilight struggle" is a guarantee of defeat, a guarantee that we will never be able to return to normalcy.
Listen to Edwin Hill.
= = = = =
Update 7/23: Now "good old hopeful Uncle Sam" is talking with the Persians. According to a report on Prince Walid News (aka Fox) just now, "US diplomats hope to get the Iranians to help stabilize Iraq, which is in Iran's best interests. Meanwhile, evidence mounts that Iran is responsible for helping to destabilize Iraq."
Aside from the basic idiocy that "stability" should be our goal, this is just silly and self-contradictory. In the first sentence Fox says that "stability" is in Iran's national interest, and in the second sentence we hear that Iran is helping to "destabilize" Iraq. Can't we understand that other nations always act in their own interest? Can't we learn something from this?
If we had any sense at all we'd understand that an "unstable" Iraq is in EVERYONE'S best interest, and we'd throw millions of weapons into the mess then stand back and watch the fun. THOSE ARE ARABS KILLING EACH OTHER. ARABS ARE OUR ENEMIES. IF THEY KILL EACH OTHER, IT SAVES US THE TROUBLE AND EXPENSE. ¶ 7:49 AM
Saturday, July 21, 2007
Breaking science: Natural gas is a RENEWABLE resource!
There has been a lot of disputation about the idea that oil is constantly produced by bacterial action; the conventional wisdom is that all fossil fuels were laid down in Fred Flintstone's era, so the supply is strictly finite.
Apparently liquid oil is still dubious, but it turns out that a significant portion of natural gas - maybe 20% - is known to be generated steadily and presently by bacteria. This fact is not publicized for some reason, and I'd never heard it before, but it's settled science.
"In 1993, researchers with the USGS reported pockets of biogenic gas across the US and predicted that 20 percent of all known natural gas deposits worldwide were formed by microbes."
Jennifer McIntosh at the Univ of Arizona is trying to determine whether the right kind of microbes can be injected into shale deposits that bear a likely combination of hydrocarbons. Goal: start methane generation where it isn't already occurring!
From New Scientist, 7/21/07 print issue. ¶ 2:52 PM
Apparently liquid oil is still dubious, but it turns out that a significant portion of natural gas - maybe 20% - is known to be generated steadily and presently by bacteria. This fact is not publicized for some reason, and I'd never heard it before, but it's settled science.
"In 1993, researchers with the USGS reported pockets of biogenic gas across the US and predicted that 20 percent of all known natural gas deposits worldwide were formed by microbes."
Jennifer McIntosh at the Univ of Arizona is trying to determine whether the right kind of microbes can be injected into shale deposits that bear a likely combination of hydrocarbons. Goal: start methane generation where it isn't already occurring!
From New Scientist, 7/21/07 print issue. ¶ 2:52 PM
Friday, July 20, 2007
Dammit, Roger!
Normally I find Roger Hedgecock to be superior to Rush when he substitutes.
Today he's missing the point badly, and I'm sure intentionally.
On the question of giving citizens immunity from enemy lawsuits, which is being pushed by the heroic Peter King, Hedgecock is strictly blaming the Dems in Congress for obstructing the law.
In almost the same breath, Hedgecock knocks Congress for trying to pull us out of Iraq, saying CORRECTLY that Congress isn't supposed to run the war.
Yes, the executive is supposed to run the war.
So why in the hell isn't the executive protecting citizens from enemy lawsuits? Bush could enforce this by executive order.
Instead (breaking news just this moment) he has IMPOSED THE GENEVA CONVENTION ON OUR INTERROGATION OF TERRORISTS BY EXECUTIVE ORDER.
Well, anyone with half a brain can no longer wonder about it. Bush is on the other side. He enthusiastically prosecutes our soldiers and border guards when they dare to do their job; he allows the enemy to use courts against Americans; and he orders our interrogators to stand down. He uses up our treasury and our military in an effort to accomplish a goal that no rational human believes to be possible.
How much more evidence do we need? ¶ 10:50 AM
Today he's missing the point badly, and I'm sure intentionally.
On the question of giving citizens immunity from enemy lawsuits, which is being pushed by the heroic Peter King, Hedgecock is strictly blaming the Dems in Congress for obstructing the law.
In almost the same breath, Hedgecock knocks Congress for trying to pull us out of Iraq, saying CORRECTLY that Congress isn't supposed to run the war.
Yes, the executive is supposed to run the war.
So why in the hell isn't the executive protecting citizens from enemy lawsuits? Bush could enforce this by executive order.
Instead (breaking news just this moment) he has IMPOSED THE GENEVA CONVENTION ON OUR INTERROGATION OF TERRORISTS BY EXECUTIVE ORDER.
Well, anyone with half a brain can no longer wonder about it. Bush is on the other side. He enthusiastically prosecutes our soldiers and border guards when they dare to do their job; he allows the enemy to use courts against Americans; and he orders our interrogators to stand down. He uses up our treasury and our military in an effort to accomplish a goal that no rational human believes to be possible.
How much more evidence do we need? ¶ 10:50 AM
Saturday, July 14, 2007
Visually impoverished
I've pet-peeved for many years on the odd lack of visualness in television. Even though each subject has thousands or millions of photographs and clips available, news stories use precisely one standard 'icon' for each subject. If a story involves DNA, we see a technician using a pipette to fill a grid of gels. If a story involves smoking, we see the side view of a cigarette assembly line, and we see a closeup of some old unshaven dude smoking. If a story involves obesity, we see fat people without heads walking down the street. If a story involves an Amber Alert, we see a teddy bear. You know the pictures I'm talking about, because you see the same ones on your TV no matter where you live.
In other words, TV might as well be radio. It was intended to bring us actual pictures of events, but instead it brings us a standard font of icons, with as much visual meaning and variety as the desktop icons on a computer screen.
And for a story about al-Qaeda, we see tall Osama with his scepter of authority, walking grandly through the mountains, and Soldiers of Allah being trained on jungle gyms and martial arts.
Think for a moment about the jungle gym and martial arts. Does this bear any relationship to even one known attack by the Army of Allah? Has any Christian or Jew been knocked down by a flying ninja kick? No. All attacks to date have been high-tech attacks, using airplanes, cars, bombs, and guns. No athleticism required. Wouldn't it be more appropriate to use clips of actual attacks for the stories about Mohammed's Military? Clips of stockbrokers jumping from the WTC, beheadings, cars smashing into innocent college students ..... Those clips would keep us mindful of the specific forms of attack we can genuinely expect. ¶ 10:01 AM
In other words, TV might as well be radio. It was intended to bring us actual pictures of events, but instead it brings us a standard font of icons, with as much visual meaning and variety as the desktop icons on a computer screen.
And for a story about al-Qaeda, we see tall Osama with his scepter of authority, walking grandly through the mountains, and Soldiers of Allah being trained on jungle gyms and martial arts.
Think for a moment about the jungle gym and martial arts. Does this bear any relationship to even one known attack by the Army of Allah? Has any Christian or Jew been knocked down by a flying ninja kick? No. All attacks to date have been high-tech attacks, using airplanes, cars, bombs, and guns. No athleticism required. Wouldn't it be more appropriate to use clips of actual attacks for the stories about Mohammed's Military? Clips of stockbrokers jumping from the WTC, beheadings, cars smashing into innocent college students ..... Those clips would keep us mindful of the specific forms of attack we can genuinely expect. ¶ 10:01 AM
Friday, July 13, 2007
Teams again
Listening to Bill Bennett interviewing Tony Snow ... Snow says he is about to start giving our side of the war, using facts and graphics. Bennett says Okay, fine, glad to hear it.
This is a perfect example of the cheerleader phenomenon.
In a war that involves propaganda more than any previous war, our side finally decides to gingerly tippy-toe into the water, to start telling our own side, after five long years of dead silence, five years of letting the enemy possess the media, five years of letting internal enemies leak with no punishment.
Those of us who want our side to win have been screaming at the TV for five years now: "What's wrong with you, George Bush? What's your defect, Snow? This isn't complicated or mysterious, dammit! Your job is not to pal around with Helen Thomas, your job is to tell us what we're doing and why! Look at what FDR did in WW2!!! He took full control of the media, and WE WON THAT WAR!!!!!"
But the people who were in a position to carry those complaints to the administration have never done it; they just said "Yay Bush! Yay Bush! Bush is God! Hillary is Satan! Bush is God! Hillary is Satan!" It would have been far more helpful to the team if people like Rush and Medved had asked the hard questions directly and publicly.
Briefly: I don't expect people to be heroic. I do expect them to use their resources and position for good ends. If you are in a position to speak directly to administration officials, you must use that position to give them honest information, and to ask the questions they won't hear from Helen Thomas or David Gregory. You're not entitled to simply complain and moan like any ordinary citizen.
¶ 5:42 AM
This is a perfect example of the cheerleader phenomenon.
In a war that involves propaganda more than any previous war, our side finally decides to gingerly tippy-toe into the water, to start telling our own side, after five long years of dead silence, five years of letting the enemy possess the media, five years of letting internal enemies leak with no punishment.
Those of us who want our side to win have been screaming at the TV for five years now: "What's wrong with you, George Bush? What's your defect, Snow? This isn't complicated or mysterious, dammit! Your job is not to pal around with Helen Thomas, your job is to tell us what we're doing and why! Look at what FDR did in WW2!!! He took full control of the media, and WE WON THAT WAR!!!!!"
But the people who were in a position to carry those complaints to the administration have never done it; they just said "Yay Bush! Yay Bush! Bush is God! Hillary is Satan! Bush is God! Hillary is Satan!" It would have been far more helpful to the team if people like Rush and Medved had asked the hard questions directly and publicly.
Briefly: I don't expect people to be heroic. I do expect them to use their resources and position for good ends. If you are in a position to speak directly to administration officials, you must use that position to give them honest information, and to ask the questions they won't hear from Helen Thomas or David Gregory. You're not entitled to simply complain and moan like any ordinary citizen.
¶ 5:42 AM
Thursday, July 12, 2007
Fairness, part II
Excellent rant by the 2nd-string talk host Jerry Doyle tonight.
His point: Republican talk radio has done more to ruin the Republican party than anything else.
His basic argument: When was the last time the R brand won in a landslide? Reagan in 1984. When did the current model of talk radio start? Roughly 1988. And what's happened since then? Talk radio and talk cable TV have turned into a sporting event rather than a discussion, with two teams. Team R cheers for everything the Republican party does; Team D cheers for everything the Democrats do. There is no flow of advice or information; nothing to guide the politicians. Just cheering for the mere existence of each team. So the teams have deteriorated, lost their principles, until both sides are just playing to waste time and money.
Reagan won because he had no automatic cheering section. He couldn't count on loyal courtiers to take his side no matter what he did, as e.g. Michael Medved does for Bush. Reagan had to craft a solid message that could break through the filters, so that's exactly what he did.
Picasso said "There is no great art without a resistant medium." True of any craft or discipline. If you want to create a meaningful product, you need to fight your way through obstacles, thus learning new facts and techniques.
This ties with my recent essay on the Fairness Doctrine. I was mainly talking about cultural matters, but it applies equally to politics. When every station has to devote a certain amount of time to covering public affairs in a factual way, competition leads to quality. When that requirement is gone, political coverage depends purely on ratings, which leads to bottom-feeding and triviality. When serious commentary is required by license, stations will offer serious commentary.
I think the Web also contributes to the team effect. For reasons I've never plumbed, all discussion on the Web is crammed into a two-team template. Whether the subject is software, sex, spirituality or spam, every online forum splits into Team A and Team B, with precise lists of permitted statements on each side. Woe betide the discussant who tries to speak between or outside the bounds. If you try to show that a third position exists, or that A and B are both false, or A is right for B's reasons, you'll be beaten with four-letter sticks and stones until you leave. ¶ 8:19 PM
His point: Republican talk radio has done more to ruin the Republican party than anything else.
His basic argument: When was the last time the R brand won in a landslide? Reagan in 1984. When did the current model of talk radio start? Roughly 1988. And what's happened since then? Talk radio and talk cable TV have turned into a sporting event rather than a discussion, with two teams. Team R cheers for everything the Republican party does; Team D cheers for everything the Democrats do. There is no flow of advice or information; nothing to guide the politicians. Just cheering for the mere existence of each team. So the teams have deteriorated, lost their principles, until both sides are just playing to waste time and money.
Reagan won because he had no automatic cheering section. He couldn't count on loyal courtiers to take his side no matter what he did, as e.g. Michael Medved does for Bush. Reagan had to craft a solid message that could break through the filters, so that's exactly what he did.
Picasso said "There is no great art without a resistant medium." True of any craft or discipline. If you want to create a meaningful product, you need to fight your way through obstacles, thus learning new facts and techniques.
This ties with my recent essay on the Fairness Doctrine. I was mainly talking about cultural matters, but it applies equally to politics. When every station has to devote a certain amount of time to covering public affairs in a factual way, competition leads to quality. When that requirement is gone, political coverage depends purely on ratings, which leads to bottom-feeding and triviality. When serious commentary is required by license, stations will offer serious commentary.
I think the Web also contributes to the team effect. For reasons I've never plumbed, all discussion on the Web is crammed into a two-team template. Whether the subject is software, sex, spirituality or spam, every online forum splits into Team A and Team B, with precise lists of permitted statements on each side. Woe betide the discussant who tries to speak between or outside the bounds. If you try to show that a third position exists, or that A and B are both false, or A is right for B's reasons, you'll be beaten with four-letter sticks and stones until you leave. ¶ 8:19 PM
Scary predictive ? dream
Putting this down for the record, regardless of meaning.
Dream happened this morning (Thu 7/12) about 5 AM Pacific time. In the dream, a bomb was narrowly averted when a little old lady driving a '62 Rambler started to drive across it; she noticed it, got out of the car and started to move it out of the road. I recognized it as a bomb (it seemed to be sort of L-shaped) and shouted her away from it. The bomb was supposedly meant for a red-haired "candidate" ? whose name was Smithfield or Maxfield, or perhaps the name of the constituency or district was Smithfield or Maxfield. The named district would imply Britain, because our congressional districts have numbers, not names.
In my "mental iconography", the '62 Rambler undoubtedly means Romney, but the rest doesn't make any particular sense. (Especially the part where I was the hero ... that part doesn't make a lick of sense!!!!)
= = = = =
A bit of Googling finds that there isn't a Smithfield constituency in Britain, but there is one in the Australian state of New South Wales, and the MP from Smithfield (in the NSW state assembly) is an Assyrian Christian named Ninos Khoshaba.
Assyrian Christians are definitely endangered by Jihadis, who consider them to be traitors to the Arab cause. I've never heard of this Khoshaba and never paid any attention to New South Wales, but I do pay attention to dreams that have the asterisk of significance.
¶ 5:26 AM
Dream happened this morning (Thu 7/12) about 5 AM Pacific time. In the dream, a bomb was narrowly averted when a little old lady driving a '62 Rambler started to drive across it; she noticed it, got out of the car and started to move it out of the road. I recognized it as a bomb (it seemed to be sort of L-shaped) and shouted her away from it. The bomb was supposedly meant for a red-haired "candidate" ? whose name was Smithfield or Maxfield, or perhaps the name of the constituency or district was Smithfield or Maxfield. The named district would imply Britain, because our congressional districts have numbers, not names.
In my "mental iconography", the '62 Rambler undoubtedly means Romney, but the rest doesn't make any particular sense. (Especially the part where I was the hero ... that part doesn't make a lick of sense!!!!)
= = = = =
A bit of Googling finds that there isn't a Smithfield constituency in Britain, but there is one in the Australian state of New South Wales, and the MP from Smithfield (in the NSW state assembly) is an Assyrian Christian named Ninos Khoshaba.
Assyrian Christians are definitely endangered by Jihadis, who consider them to be traitors to the Arab cause. I've never heard of this Khoshaba and never paid any attention to New South Wales, but I do pay attention to dreams that have the asterisk of significance.
¶ 5:26 AM
Tuesday, July 10, 2007
Chertoff's gut
Homeland Security head Chertoff says he has the gut feeling that an attack is coming soon.
Refreshing! Our gov't and corporate officials have fallen into the habit of saying only what their lawyers approve, which means a narrow range of verbatim boilerplate phrases like "Out of an abundance of caution" or "We have no specific credible information". Such meaningless phrases form a huge part of our loss of trust ... we sense that leaders don't respect our intelligence enough to speak to us as adults. So I congratulate Chertoff for treating us with respect and giving us his human judgment. This is closer to the way Roosevelt and Churchill spoke.
For what it's worth, Madame Polisztra isn't getting the same dire sensation, and her gut is usually pretty accurate.
= = = = = = = = = =
Wednesday: I spoke too soon. It turns out that Chertoff was not really offering a bit of genuine human feeling; he was trying to pre-empt or soft-pedal a report that he knew was coming out today. The report says that every bit of our war effort has been completely pointless and misdirected. Spending trillions of dollars and thousands of American servicemen has accomplished precisely zero. Al-Qaeda and other divisions of Allah's Army have rebuilt to their original strength while we were trying to impose Free And Fair Elections Monitored By Jimmy Carter on fucking Arab savages. In other words, the report says exactly what we hawk-types have been saying for the last three years.
Will the administration change course and start fighting? Of course not.
Please, Lord, send us a Pinochet before it's too late. ¶ 9:04 PM
Refreshing! Our gov't and corporate officials have fallen into the habit of saying only what their lawyers approve, which means a narrow range of verbatim boilerplate phrases like "Out of an abundance of caution" or "We have no specific credible information". Such meaningless phrases form a huge part of our loss of trust ... we sense that leaders don't respect our intelligence enough to speak to us as adults. So I congratulate Chertoff for treating us with respect and giving us his human judgment. This is closer to the way Roosevelt and Churchill spoke.
For what it's worth, Madame Polisztra isn't getting the same dire sensation, and her gut is usually pretty accurate.
= = = = = = = = = =
Wednesday: I spoke too soon. It turns out that Chertoff was not really offering a bit of genuine human feeling; he was trying to pre-empt or soft-pedal a report that he knew was coming out today. The report says that every bit of our war effort has been completely pointless and misdirected. Spending trillions of dollars and thousands of American servicemen has accomplished precisely zero. Al-Qaeda and other divisions of Allah's Army have rebuilt to their original strength while we were trying to impose Free And Fair Elections Monitored By Jimmy Carter on fucking Arab savages. In other words, the report says exactly what we hawk-types have been saying for the last three years.
Will the administration change course and start fighting? Of course not.
Please, Lord, send us a Pinochet before it's too late. ¶ 9:04 PM
Sunday, July 08, 2007
Spirit of a sissy, part II
Continuing this theme........
I used to think the Episcopalians had "gone about as fur as they could go" along the road of turning Christianity into a social club for Communists, lesbians, and enemies of civilization. Surprisingly, it looks like Rome is grabbing the prize from the Piskies.
This story from the Seattle Times:
The Rev. Ann Holmes Redding, a local Episcopal priest who announced she is both Muslim and Christian, will not be able to serve as a priest for a year, according to her bishop.
During that year, Redding is expected to "reflect on the doctrines of the Christian faith, her vocation as a priest, and what I see as the conflicts inherent in professing both Christianity and Islam," the Rt. Rev. Geralyn Wolf, bishop of the Diocese of Rhode Island, wrote in an e-mail to Episcopal Church leaders.
...
Redding, who until March was director of faith formation at Seattle's St. Mark's Episcopal Cathedral, has been a priest for 23 years.
In June, she announced publicly that, for the past 15 months, she's also been a Muslim — drawn to the faith after an introduction to Muslim prayers left her profoundly moved.
Ah, but she's found a new "spiritual" home:
Redding is scheduled to start teaching part time as a visiting assistant professor at Jesuit-run Seattle University this fall.
What's that high-pitched screeching sound I hear? Oh, it's the gyroscopic spin of Ignatius Loyola's ghost. Loyola founded the Jesuits to be literal soldiers of Christ, and their main campaign in his lifetime was to convert Mohammedans to Christianity. ¶ 6:55 PM
I used to think the Episcopalians had "gone about as fur as they could go" along the road of turning Christianity into a social club for Communists, lesbians, and enemies of civilization. Surprisingly, it looks like Rome is grabbing the prize from the Piskies.
This story from the Seattle Times:
The Rev. Ann Holmes Redding, a local Episcopal priest who announced she is both Muslim and Christian, will not be able to serve as a priest for a year, according to her bishop.
During that year, Redding is expected to "reflect on the doctrines of the Christian faith, her vocation as a priest, and what I see as the conflicts inherent in professing both Christianity and Islam," the Rt. Rev. Geralyn Wolf, bishop of the Diocese of Rhode Island, wrote in an e-mail to Episcopal Church leaders.
...
Redding, who until March was director of faith formation at Seattle's St. Mark's Episcopal Cathedral, has been a priest for 23 years.
In June, she announced publicly that, for the past 15 months, she's also been a Muslim — drawn to the faith after an introduction to Muslim prayers left her profoundly moved.
Ah, but she's found a new "spiritual" home:
Redding is scheduled to start teaching part time as a visiting assistant professor at Jesuit-run Seattle University this fall.
What's that high-pitched screeching sound I hear? Oh, it's the gyroscopic spin of Ignatius Loyola's ghost. Loyola founded the Jesuits to be literal soldiers of Christ, and their main campaign in his lifetime was to convert Mohammedans to Christianity. ¶ 6:55 PM
Wednesday, July 04, 2007
No stars, no stripes
Polistra finds nothing to celebrate today. US and UK are led by mental defectives. Our leader spends our entire army and treasury on a completely pointless war, which accomplishes nothing except to spend our entire army and treasury. Britain's new leader thinks the enemy will go away if he doesn't name it. Rome is eagerly embracing Mecca. Among the consequential nations, only France and Australia are truly and honestly on the side of civilization.
September 1939 wasn't this bad. ¶ 6:50 AM
Polistra finds nothing to celebrate today. US and UK are led by mental defectives. Our leader spends our entire army and treasury on a completely pointless war, which accomplishes nothing except to spend our entire army and treasury. Britain's new leader thinks the enemy will go away if he doesn't name it. Rome is eagerly embracing Mecca. Among the consequential nations, only France and Australia are truly and honestly on the side of civilization.
September 1939 wasn't this bad. ¶ 6:50 AM
Tuesday, July 03, 2007
England is dead.
From the Daily Express:
Gordon Brown has banned ministers from using the word “Muslim” in connection with the terrorism crisis.
The Prime Minister has also instructed his team – including new Home Secretary Jacqui Smith – that the phrase “war on terror” is to be dropped.
The shake-up is part of a fresh attempt to improve community relations and avoid offending Muslims, adopting a more “consensual” tone than existed under Tony Blair.
I thought there was something exceedingly odd about PM Brown's first public statement; he uttered a few Bushian platitudes about "being vigilant", but didn't say anything meaningful. Blair would have told the straight truth, in language that would brace the nation for whatever needed to be done. I was willing to tentatively forgive Brown on grounds of newness and perhaps a different style.
Then I thought Jacqui Smith's statement "These terrorists are criminals" was even more wrong-headed. Again I was ready to discount for inexperience and accidental word choice.
But I didn't realize just how bad it is. This is not inexperience, this is intentional and premeditated total surrender.
This is so utterly cowardly, so completely suicidal, that it should call for an instant correction from the throne, even a takeover from the throne. Elizabeth Regina, are you there?
¶ 7:35 PM
Gordon Brown has banned ministers from using the word “Muslim” in connection with the terrorism crisis.
The Prime Minister has also instructed his team – including new Home Secretary Jacqui Smith – that the phrase “war on terror” is to be dropped.
The shake-up is part of a fresh attempt to improve community relations and avoid offending Muslims, adopting a more “consensual” tone than existed under Tony Blair.
I thought there was something exceedingly odd about PM Brown's first public statement; he uttered a few Bushian platitudes about "being vigilant", but didn't say anything meaningful. Blair would have told the straight truth, in language that would brace the nation for whatever needed to be done. I was willing to tentatively forgive Brown on grounds of newness and perhaps a different style.
Then I thought Jacqui Smith's statement "These terrorists are criminals" was even more wrong-headed. Again I was ready to discount for inexperience and accidental word choice.
But I didn't realize just how bad it is. This is not inexperience, this is intentional and premeditated total surrender.
This is so utterly cowardly, so completely suicidal, that it should call for an instant correction from the throne, even a takeover from the throne. Elizabeth Regina, are you there?
¶ 7:35 PM
Monday, July 02, 2007
Pius XIII
Here's the man who should be Pope. He has the same kind of guts as Pius XII, the kind of guts needed to lead the Church Militant when a true Crusade is called for. Benedict has unfortunately shown himself to be just another standard EU bureaucrat, eager to surrender to Allah.
Here's the kind of man the world needs:
Archbishop Pius Ncube of Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, has openly called for the overthrow of the government led by President Robert Mugabe.
In an interview with the Sunday Times of London the archbishop said: "I think that it is justified for Britain to raid Zimbabwe and remove Mugabe."
Archbishop Ncube later told BBC that while he suggested intervention by Great Britain, the former colonial ruler of the African country, he could justify action by any other power to ease the suffering of the people of Zimbabwe. Some action is required, he said, to oust "a government which is ready to sacrifice the lives of its people."
"We have to choose between two evils," the archbishop explained. He said that Zimbabwe is facing a desperate situation, with widespread crop failures aggravating an economic disaster that has seen the annual inflation rate rise toward 15,000%.
...
Archbishop Ncube has said in the past that he is prepared to face death in order to bring about change in his country. Now he told the Sunday Times, "I'm ready to lead the people, guns blazing."
His logic is easy to follow: A pastor is shepherd of his flock. Sometimes a shepherd has to shoot wolves. That's how a pastor becomes a Crusader. ¶ 8:32 PM
Here's the man who should be Pope. He has the same kind of guts as Pius XII, the kind of guts needed to lead the Church Militant when a true Crusade is called for. Benedict has unfortunately shown himself to be just another standard EU bureaucrat, eager to surrender to Allah.
Here's the kind of man the world needs:
Archbishop Pius Ncube of Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, has openly called for the overthrow of the government led by President Robert Mugabe.
In an interview with the Sunday Times of London the archbishop said: "I think that it is justified for Britain to raid Zimbabwe and remove Mugabe."
Archbishop Ncube later told BBC that while he suggested intervention by Great Britain, the former colonial ruler of the African country, he could justify action by any other power to ease the suffering of the people of Zimbabwe. Some action is required, he said, to oust "a government which is ready to sacrifice the lives of its people."
"We have to choose between two evils," the archbishop explained. He said that Zimbabwe is facing a desperate situation, with widespread crop failures aggravating an economic disaster that has seen the annual inflation rate rise toward 15,000%.
...
Archbishop Ncube has said in the past that he is prepared to face death in order to bring about change in his country. Now he told the Sunday Times, "I'm ready to lead the people, guns blazing."
His logic is easy to follow: A pastor is shepherd of his flock. Sometimes a shepherd has to shoot wolves. That's how a pastor becomes a Crusader. ¶ 8:32 PM
Shocked! Shocked! Shocked!
Headline on Prince Walid News Network, aka Fox:
"Today residents of UK woke up to the shocking news that two of the terrorists are doctors; that they don't fit the usual model of disaffected youth."
What goddamn usual model?
Al Qaeda is an army of doctors and engineers. Doctor Zawahiri invented it, Engineer bin Laden funded it, and all of the 19 soldiers who pulled off 9/11 were professional-class men. That's exactly why al-Qaeda is so dangerous and successful.
The "newscasters" have been reading these facts for several years now, with no exceptions. Why does this idiotic poor-and-disaffected idea persist when it has never been supported by a single fact?
Serious terrorists, even before the current Mohammedan set, have always come from upper-middle class backgrounds. The low-level recruits in a place like Palestine may be poor and disaffected youth, but that situation is more of a guerrilla army than a band of terrorists.
= = = = =
And while I'm growling and grumbling: Why in the hell are the terrorists still described as "alleged attackers" and "suspects"?????
When you have footage of a man covered in flames crawling out of a burning car, and he pushes aside people who try to put him out, while shouting "Allah! Allah! Allah!" ... this man is not an alleged suspect. He is an enemy soldier.
The continual use of these legalistic terms keeps our response locked in the court model. The military model does not assume enemy soldiers to be "innocent until Mike Nifong decides they are guilty"; the military model assumes the enemy soldier needs to be killed until his commander or national leader surrenders completely.
One more thing: the fact that he was shouting "Allah! Allah! Allah!" has been completely censored from all American coverage of this event. His Mohammedan loyalty has been tossed in the Memory Hole. Censorship is needed in a war, but the correct job of censorship is to prevent the enemy from knowing our plans, not to prevent us from recognizing the enemy.
= = = = =
Later: Now that we have at least three MDs involved in this plot, my suspicions about biological agents are tingling wildly. Wonder if any of these docs are specialists in bacteria?
¶ 8:06 AM
"Today residents of UK woke up to the shocking news that two of the terrorists are doctors; that they don't fit the usual model of disaffected youth."
What goddamn usual model?
Al Qaeda is an army of doctors and engineers. Doctor Zawahiri invented it, Engineer bin Laden funded it, and all of the 19 soldiers who pulled off 9/11 were professional-class men. That's exactly why al-Qaeda is so dangerous and successful.
The "newscasters" have been reading these facts for several years now, with no exceptions. Why does this idiotic poor-and-disaffected idea persist when it has never been supported by a single fact?
Serious terrorists, even before the current Mohammedan set, have always come from upper-middle class backgrounds. The low-level recruits in a place like Palestine may be poor and disaffected youth, but that situation is more of a guerrilla army than a band of terrorists.
= = = = =
And while I'm growling and grumbling: Why in the hell are the terrorists still described as "alleged attackers" and "suspects"?????
When you have footage of a man covered in flames crawling out of a burning car, and he pushes aside people who try to put him out, while shouting "Allah! Allah! Allah!" ... this man is not an alleged suspect. He is an enemy soldier.
The continual use of these legalistic terms keeps our response locked in the court model. The military model does not assume enemy soldiers to be "innocent until Mike Nifong decides they are guilty"; the military model assumes the enemy soldier needs to be killed until his commander or national leader surrenders completely.
One more thing: the fact that he was shouting "Allah! Allah! Allah!" has been completely censored from all American coverage of this event. His Mohammedan loyalty has been tossed in the Memory Hole. Censorship is needed in a war, but the correct job of censorship is to prevent the enemy from knowing our plans, not to prevent us from recognizing the enemy.
= = = = =
Later: Now that we have at least three MDs involved in this plot, my suspicions about biological agents are tingling wildly. Wonder if any of these docs are specialists in bacteria?
¶ 8:06 AM
