National Tea Party

The following is an exchange lifted from comments at Just One Minute. I'll be editing it from time to time if interest warrants.
____________________________________________________________________________________

What do you think should be the first plank in the National Tea Party Platform? I've been wondering if formalizing the approach to rejection of the DC Thieves Club through a promise of denial of support might provide a vertebrae or two to some Washington annelids.

The Contract With America (LUN if Typhuspad remains dysfunctional) provides some ideas regarding form - possibly some content as well.

NOTE: Typhuspad et the whole comment when HTML was used. SixApart sucks like an industrial vacuum.

Posted by: Rick Ballard | May 21, 2009 at 08:10 AM



* FIRST, require all laws that apply to the rest of the country also apply equally to the Congress;
* SECOND, select a major, independent auditing firm to conduct a comprehensive audit of Congress for waste, fraud or abuse;
* THIRD, cut the number of House committees, and cut committee staff by one-third;
* FOURTH, limit the terms of all committee chairs;
* FIFTH, ban the casting of proxy votes in committee;
* SIXTH, require committee meetings to be open to the public;
* SEVENTH, require a three-fifths majority vote to pass a tax increase;
* EIGHTH, guarantee an honest accounting of our Federal Budget by implementing zero base-line budgeting.

Rick,

I actually think we would go a long way to fixing our problems if #1 were implemented. I swear all of this mess starts with political cronyism. The problem is, who would every vote for that?

I think we need to find people willing to run to buck the system - who of course will be systematically destroyed by all the ins who have all the money.

Posted by: Jane | May 21, 2009 at 09:15 AM

Jane, that is an excellent list. I'd like to suggest one more.

Every member of Congress has to sign off that they have read and understand each bill they vote on.

It would not need to be a burdensome procedure, just look at how one has to click that one has read info that web sites require you read when you sign up.

Posted by: pagar | May 21, 2009 at 09:26 AM

Jane,

I begin with the premise that there is not one of our 535 elected representatives whose immediate departure from this vale of tears would have any measurable impact on the republic. I have a very real doubt that the immediate departure of all 535 would be a net negative as well.

If I were design that first plank for a National Tea Party, I believe that I would clearly state that no incumbent who has served more than eight years would receive any support from the party. That would be a first step towards limiting the cronyism to which you refer.

The second plank would be that any candidate seeking the support of the National Tea Party must maintain a searchable database of all contributions. The database must be open to the public and the datafiles easy to download.

Then we could move on to the First, Seventh and Eighth planks listed.

Posted by: Rick Ballard | May 21, 2009 at 09:46 AM

If I were design that first plank for a National Tea Party, I believe that I would clearly state that no incumbent who has served more than eight years would receive any support from the party.

I love it Rick. I think the entire thrust should be limiting government in every way possible.

And I think we should really think about making government a part time, unpaid endeavor.

Posted by: Jane | May 21, 2009 at 09:59 AM

Jane, if you do that you'd put the bureaucracy in charge because it often takes years for Congressmen to learn the ropes.

I think not only committee staff should be cut but so should personal staff and budgets--way overdone and creating nothing but trouble.

Posted by: clarice | May 21, 2009 at 10:11 AM


Clarice,

My guess is with the brilliance we have here we could come up with a concrete platform and also probably work out the minutia. So let's give it a whirl. I nominate Rick to be in charge. And if we end up moving we also have a blueprint for our own government.


The first plank needs to echo RR. Let's affirm that the contractual terms of our voluntary association are laid out in the founding documents, that all rights are vested by our creator in the individual, except for those voluntarily assigned by individuals to the 50 States, and except for those limited rights assigned to the Federal government, either by the individual or by the states.

Then we can get into the nitty gritty.

Posted by: Old Lurker | May 21, 2009 at 10:49 AM

NINTH Abolish the congressional parking spaces at Dulles International.

Posted by: Danube of Thought | May 21, 2009 at 10:54 AM


We should also do what we can to re-enforce federalism. As I understand it the ability to force the entire nation to follow Calif emission rules is a direct outcropping of a decision to allow Cal to enforce more stringent requirements than applied elsewhere. If the Commerce clause means anything it means that states should not be permitted to set their own emission policies--the Calif market is so huge than in effect whatever the turkeys there wanted was thru market forces--and now by law--expensively imposed on us all.

In almost every other circumstance the left has used the commerce clause to exercise federal sway over what really should be local decisions.

Go figure.

Posted by: clarice | May 21, 2009 at 11:06 AM

I'm in on just about everything.

How about this for a goal. We develop an outline, contact our local tea party coodinators, send it to PJTV, aim for it to be adopted at the Sept 12th Tea party in DC.

We continue to fill in the blanks as we go along.

Posted by: Jane | May 21, 2009 at 11:31 AM


Jane--

I think the NTP idea has legs. The problem is avoiding being "Alinkskyized" for as long as possible. In other words, because the Mediacrat left has absolutely no answer to the right's ideas, it seeks to personalize everything and attack individuals directly. The more organized and hierarchical the NTP is, the more certain individuals become targeted. It's a bit of a Catch-22. Anyone have ideas for working around this problem?

Posted by: Fresh Air | May 21, 2009 at 12:49 PM

Fresh:

Well let's talk about how we expect it to play out, and then we can think about how to defend. One thing I would do is keep politicians out of it. Have it just be citizens. We should network on the internet and maybe not talk to the press until we are ready altho that could backfire.

We need a place to work on it. This topic is going to be hard to find soon.

Posted by: Jane | May 21, 2009 at 01:08 PM


Jane--

This topic is going to be hard to find soon.

What does this mean?

Posted by: Fresh Air | May 21, 2009 at 01:14 PM

When the world gets you down...

...it's time for some Heavy Metal Bluegrass.

So... who did whatever it was that was done?

The picture to the right is of a 1943 police lineup in NY, NY. I don't know what the crime was, nor who, if anybody, was ever picked out of it.

Myself, I suspect the guy second from the left just 'cause he looks like a gangster should look.

It is from an interesting Flickr photostream called LeastWanted. The stream is composed primarily of old mug shots, although there are a fair number of old ID pictures, as well as some other stuff mixed in.

It is an altogether fascinating stream, with face after face, some defiant, some forlorn, some rather crazed looking, documenting long forgotten arrests.

That is of course the interest of nearly every old picture -- who are these people, what is the story behind the picture, and whatever became of them? Questions that realistically will never be answered and so we're left, if we care at all, to create a momentary scenario for them before we move on and forget them.

Below is one more picture from the stream. If nothing else, the hat certainly deserves its own story.

That could be me behind the black square

Except I'm not a young Asian woman, and the person picking my pocket is not a young Asian boy, nor is he attempting to be particularly sly about it. Other than that...

The picture to the right, and several other pickpocket pictures, can be found in the thread Street of Thieves at the blog bg11.

"You can’t go that way, It’s toward the road.”

This is an odd little experiment. A woman built a very simple robot, well... not really a robot, just a tiny little electric cart with a cardboard robot-looking body with a goofy smiley face on it.

She then stuck a little flag on it that said the robot needed help getting to a particular destination and left it loose in New York City. She put it down and stepped back, her camera hidden in her purse, and watched what happened.

On her site tweenbots.com she has a video of part of its travel from the northeast to the southwest Corner of Washington Square Park. It took 42 minutes for the little guy to make the trip, and 29 people helped it on its way.

The people who help have interesting reactions. They'll find it stuck against a bench or in a pot hole, read the flag and then fiddle around some trying to get the robot headed in the right direction. The title of this post comes from a comment one of the robot Samaritans spoke to the Tweenbot as he aimed it on then next leg of its journey.

At her site she has information about her future Tweenbot schemes. They're apparently part of a project she is doing for a thesis in her studies.

I've spotted my first Obama Stimulus Package Logo

As you may have read, President Obama has unveiled a new ARRA logo (American Recovery and Reinvestment Act) which he intends to stamp on projects funded by his spending spree. I spotted my first today, which is pictured above. Seems kind of brazen to me, but what do I know?

Sides of a coin

Lovely to look at, delightful to ski...

Painful to dig.


BTW, where have all the Yargbians gone?

Jumping Jehosephats!

A body painting done on nude people that's an optical illusion that creates an image of Obama when viewed from a certain angle? Well, OK... I guess...

By the way, when typing the title of this thread I got interested in the origin of the expression 'jumping jehosephats'. From AnswerBag:

Jehosaphat was a wealthy king of Jerusalem. One day an army came from Koopastan to steal Jehosaphat's princess and his mountain of gold coins. Jehosaphat challenged the most feared fighter in the Koopastanian army to one-on-one combat. Right before battle, Jehosaphat ate powerful mushrooms from his kingdom. Legend has it that during the confrontation, Jeosaphat doubled in size and leaped onto the warrior, crushing him flat. Recent scientific studies show that the Basidocarpus todensae mushroom of the desert has certain chemotactic properties that increase hematocrit levels in the myofibrils of muscles, verifying the possible "doubling in size".

The people of Jerusalem created epic songs about "Jumping Jehosaphat". Don MaClean's ballad "American Pie" is a modern take on these traditional mandolin pieces. The saying quickly grew in popularity with the advent of the printing press and the translation of the bible, and the influx of Christianity throughout the world.

Hmmm... maybe it's the mushrooms that connect these two items.

Helloooo American Digest visitors. Weird picture, aint it?

Google hurt my feelings.

Man, a search for 'moron' leads to one of my posts?
Noooo... say it aint so!
Thanks a lot Google, ya bunch of disrespectful PUNKS.

Through the eyes of strangers

It is always interesting to look at drawings of foreign places, and foreigners, from the days that predated photography.

The artists of those eras must have grown up in very homogeneous societies, and as a result they frequently struggle depicting the visible ethnic details of foreigners.

Usually, these drawing are done by Europeans during the Age of Exploration. The blog Japan Post has a post Pictures of foreigners from 17th/18th century Japan that links to a Kyushu University digital archive that has pictures drawn by the Japanese of their view of foreigners.

Europeans are included, but there are also many pictures of other nationalities. Frequently, it is difficult to place where the people drawn were supposed to be from. for example, in the picture to the left, I can't quite decide if they're Polynesians or American Indians (D'oh, the linked website says they're Brazillians).

The Kyushu University site is in Japanese. I think this is the correct link to the gallery page of drawings of foreigners. The complete list of galleries appears to be located here.

Rocky Mountain High

Sure do get chilly sometimes!

Crayon Physics

Crayon Physics Deluxe from Petri Purho on Vimeo.

I've played the Demo Version of this little game for months, waiting for the Delux Version to be released. What you do in it is try to roll a little ball to bump it into a star. The graphics are styled to look like a crayon drawing, and you move the little rock by drawing shapes on the screen that get the ball rolling, and provide a path for the ball to move along.

It sounds simple, but some of the little puzzles are quite maddening to try to figure out. It takes a bit of physics intuition, and to touch of Rube Goldberg imagination, to solve them. If you don't want to spring for the Delux Version, the Demo version will still provide entertainment.

Here's the website for it: Crayon Physics Delux. Below is an example of the type of silliness you can find yourself doing with it....


Crayon Physics - That Darn Pole, featuring Wall-E from Jimmy Gunawan on Vimeo.

Well, it's supposed to glow in the dark

I kid you not, pictured to the left is a Cold War era, nuclear powered, Atomic Lighthouse. A website called English Russia has a post about them, with many more pictures and an interesting comment thread.

Large portions of the Russian northern coastline are above the Arctic Circle and navigable. It is also uninhabited and inhospitable. The Soviets decided to build automated lighthouses as an aid to shipping. Because of the problems getting power to them, they decided to power them via nuclear energy.

They used radioisotope thermoelectric generators (RTG, RITEG) to provide the power. Theses devices, which have been used to power space probes, generate electricity from the decay of radioactive materials. The Wikipedia article say that about 1,000 of these RTG power sources were used in Russia. The United States also used, and still uses, them for power at remote radar stations.

After the collapse of the Soviet Union these lighthouses were poorly maintained. Frighteningly, some are even lost due to poor record keeping (and we think our government workers are lazy and incompetent). They pose an environmental hazard. Two woodcutters died after sleeping near one, and several others have been reportedly looted. Not a comforting thought.

Not exactly the Taj Mahal

I got this from Strange Maps. It is the Buenos Aires suburb of Ciudad Evita named after Evita Peron. The Strange Maps website say it was founded in 1947 by Argentinian President Peron by Presidential Decree in 1947. Other sources have it being a project of something called the Eva Peron Foundation. Likely, it was a mix of the two.

Naming a city after a living person is a common enough thing in a Thugocracy, but according to Strange Maps it is supposedly laid out to be a portrait of her. The other sources I've found don't make that claim. I think the likeness is a bit of the stretch. Perhaps one can see the bun, but the lower part of the face just isn't there.

Regardless, I suggest nobody pass this idea on to Michelle. I don't want to risk my street becomming part of her nostril.

Lindsay's Robo-Face

How odd. Not Lindsay Lohan, although I'm sure she's odd too. Truth be told, to me she is just some celebrity that flits about in my peripheral vision. I have some vague notion that she blunders from one embarrassment to another in front of paparazzi and gossip columnists, but this post isn't about her.

Instead I'm quite struck by the fact that somebody viewed piles of her pictures, realized her expression was always the same, and then carefully cropped and sized the photos to assemble the above animated gif. It is quite remarkable. I wonder if we all look so monotonously consistent?

Sadly, I had this picture sitting on my computer for some time, and I can't remember where I got it, so I can't credit the source.

A blast from the past

Today I made one of my occasional visits to Arts & Letters Daily.  I found there, in the New Books section, a link to The great dictators, a review of two books about the The Great Books.

I have the 54 volume first edition sitting on ridiculously overstuffed bookshelves.  

Neither the authors nor the reviewer apparently thinks much of The Great Books.  To be honest, though I've owned them for nigh unto 30 years, I've read very little from them.  They've been useful the few times I've needed to dig in there after some tidbit or other but that has been rare.  The reason I own them differs from what the reviewer claims for other owners.  I own them because they came available to me for a paltry price of some $50 which included The Annals of America - my set of which may be of extraordinary value since it consists of 19 volumes rather than the 18 volumes available from Amazon.  

I have found the Annals useful from time to time.  Certainly moreso that the Great Books.  But I always figgered the Great Books were an investment in the future.  Something I'd be able to drool upon in my dotage.  Alas, it may just have been $50 poorly spent.

New Blog Site for Tech Links

I have created a new blog for pure tech links here. I will be posting all my tech links on that site Instapundit style going forward. I will only be posting political links on this blog going forward.

The Last Doughboy

I needed to cool my heels for a few minutes and spotted The Last Doughboy in the dead tree version (ht: me).   The story of the (should be) esteemed Mr. Buckles is also covered by George Will and the American Legion.

Here's nothing...

Two-party vote: Obama/Biden 53.6% - McCain/Palin 46.4%

11/4 DJIA close: 8,500


Posted by: Patrick Tyson | October 26, 2008 at 01:56 PM @ justoneminute.typepad.com

A month in:

The DJIA closed at 8,376.24 after spending most of the day between 8,500 and 8,600 while New York State (among others) certified with a vote count that sent Obama/Biden thru 53.6% to 53.66% of the two-party vote.

...and so it goes.

Happy Holidays!

Sunday Links

Does Obama scare al-Qaida?

Switching to the WSJ?

Nearly as hard as diamond, slipperier than teflon.

Russian paranoia runs rampant.

Does time exist?

The great British prostitution debate.

Movies of atoms in motion.

Free plane tickets for the Canadian obese.

We sleep to forget.

China steps up its computer espionage attacks on the US military.

Friday Links

The proud and sad history of the Detroit oligopoly.

Now we know: almost all matter is nothing but quantum fluctuations in the vacuum.

Massive glaciers have been discovered on Mars.

Chicago is on a roll.

Bad cars can live almost forever.

Google axes 3D.

Why worry about a little trillion dollar deficit?

A new Ebola virus has broken out in Africa.

China's expanding sphere of influence in Latin America.

Learning math causes massive reorganization of the brain.

Shades of Stalin: Iranian blogger "confesses" to spying for Israel.

Introducing GlassDoor.

Is the universe teeming with aliens?

Japan is itching to take on the pirates.

Limitless clean energy for the taking.

Is the US going down the tubes in the next two decades?

Wednesday Links

Why people are lucky. (H/T: Jeff)

An Estonian spy passes NATO's cybersecrets to the Russians.

A vaccine for skin cancer?

Let it go to a happier home.

The body's secret network of tunneling nanotubes.

MIT open courseware—in video.

Controlling your time.

A new generator that can boost wind turbine power output by 50%.

Botnet control passed to Russia.

Success begets success.

The case against Hillary.

2 million dead?—oops! Sorry!

Podcasts from Oxford.

The leader of the year.

Godzilla meets King Kong: both dead.

US physicist sends secret military information to China.

Sunday Links

Global warming mongers embarrassingly debunked.

How much per second?

Is there a genius in all of us?

Chromosome division is different between women and men.

Putin: why do we need so many stinkin' elections?

North Korea gets tough.

Can ancient Chinese medicine yield a cure for AIDS?

Some transitions are more equal than others.

Is China its own worst enemy?

How to hide molecules.

Venezuela down the tubes.

How to bail out GM.

Why ant colonies don't have traffic jams.

Dictatorship in Nicaragua.

Time travel in Google Earth.

FLYING BLIND UNDER THE WEATHER RADAR NOW

We weren’t too worried about beauty when
The season opened, —oaks over the old
Pumice stone quarry downhill, with its pond,
Going gold in that all but exhausted light

Reflected, in a last spasm of what,
Ever alert to changes, the first rain
Brings by, backed up along the ridge toward town
And down valley, touching the waiting bay…

Well, if mere “understanding” is the key
Coordinated universal time
Will offer us, the world rolling by,
Stubbornly, we’ll ignore the vanishing

That’s trickling up nearby seasonal streams,
Salmon against the current, shaking free.
So oak leaves settle on the forest floor.
And fall’s no more a form of breathing out, —

It’s all openness now, last laughs have been
Vouchsafed, withdrawn, then granted in a kind
Of pitiless accounting—I’m “all in.”
It’s all a gamble. Speaking with the bee

Person last week, I have this great idea
But lose it in the hum of flying home,
Hoping to hear the reassuring word,
That somehow, what you wrote got past the guard,

Reached spirits in the cold, second-growth woods
Along the Hudson. Shoot me an email:
It looks as though van der Waals forces hem
Us in for now, our world alight with ice

And blowing snow, a type we rarely see
In coastal northern California, free
Of any taint of commerce, the great sky
At peace with us at last. Despair’s a sin

And we won’t take the moss for granted when
Winter rain lights it up—close to the sea,
It won’t do to be backing off, being true
By faking it. You have to build from here

By tearing down sand castles in the air,
Gradually building back: I hope to show
That x to the nth power takes us home,
Flying blind under the weather radar now.


For Lynne Knight


XI.07.2008

Wednesday Links

The persistent and dangerous illusion of political unity.

President Nanobama.

The demise of the Republican party?

Ruby + Lisp in one slick package.

Obama and the KGB.

Are sharks going extinct?

The opportunities of Taiwan.

The home of the apple.

Obama and the Founding Fathers.

Evolving white blood cells to kill HIV.

Introducing BeatMyPrice.

Opportunities sadly missed.

The robot guitar tunes itself.

Close the border!

Rethinking the idea of the gene.

Just how do you lose a whole pyramid?

Sunday Links

Shown: uranium eating bacteria.

Secret Al-Qaida enclaves of the UK.

A triumph of temperament not policy.

Teaching nanoparticles to swim.

Kasparov beseeches Obama.

When things get too dry the government is toast.

A Hard Day's Night is finally solved.

When photoshop goes bad.

The good virus.

The top 10 most irritating phrases.

Individual responsibility and self-reliance are for chumps.

The hotel of the future.

Beware the 5 year old witches.

A man of decency and integrity.

Be the first on your block to get a mini nuclear plant.

The top 10 things to look forward to in Windows 7.

No bittorrent in China.

Chandrayaan enters lunar orbit.

The Two Views of Wealth

Wealth is a slippery and difficult concept. Even money, the most visible manifestation of wealth, is hard for most of us to really grasp. What is it? Where does it come from? Why do some have so much more than others? Why don't we just make more of it?

It was as late as a college economics class that I learned that banks create money when they issue loans. Then I knew we were in deep doo-doo.

As for wealth, the views and understandings are myriad and nuanced, running the gamut of sophistication and erudition. But to simplify greatly there are two common views. The static view is that there is a fixed amount of wealth and the economy is simply the process of moving it around from person to person. Like the "spot" in The Cat and the Hat. If I have $5 I can keep it, in which case I have it and you don't, or I can give it to you and now you have it and I don't.

There are two ways I might give you the money. You could make me something I want, and I could give you the $5 in order to have that thing—we trade. Alternatively I could just give it to you. Either way, the money has moved from me to you, the spot has moved from the wall to the towel.

Dig deeper and there's a world of difference between these two scenarios. If you make something for me to get my $5, then afterward you do indeed have the $5 but I have something I didn't have before. In the dynamic view wealth is not just money, it is something created by the efforts of human beings. It is not like matter. Our exchange has created wealth that didn't exist before. It follows that economic policies can and should be formulated so as to increase wealth as much as possible. The dynamic view has prevailed since Reagan and Thatcher.

I like Obama's temperament. My greatest fear is that, having never held an "ordinary" job in his entire life, his understanding has never matured from the static view of wealth to the dynamic. I fear that he will seek to "spread the wealth around", killing the wealth-creating economic goose in the process. Let us all hope not.

Wednesday Links

Russia responds to Obama's election with missiles.

Antitrust kills the Google + Yahoo deal.

The 10 genetic secrets of a cancer revealed.

Obama's scientific policies, in his own words.

British Big Brother wants to monitor and record every single use you make of the internet.

Some electoral map perspective.

The treatment President Bush has received from this country is nothing less than a disgrace.

The 8-armed animals of yesteryear.

Economic crisis mounts in Germany.

Bacteria you can hold in your hand.

The case against humanitarian intervention.

Congratulations to President-Elect Obama

This blog did not support Barack Hussein Obama for President but we predicted it. We are however happy about his success and wish him the very best during the next four years.

All Republicans can take great pride in the outcome of this election, one set in motion by the Republican party more than 150 years ago. We are proud of President-elect Obama and realize that his victory is a victory for all of us. He is not our enemy; we believe him to be misguided, not evil. We hope that the weight of experience will lead him toward what we consider to be better policies for the survival of the Republic.

One Last Thing to Read Before You Vote

Here's Stanley Kurtz's summary of what we actually know about Obama.

...four inter-related points stand out: Obama’s radicalism, his stealthy incrementalism, his interest in funding and organization-building, and his willingness to use — or quietly support — Alinskyite intimidation tactics.

Obama’s troubling associations are more than isolated friendships or instances of bad judgment. His ties to Jeremiah Wright, Bill Ayers, Bernardine Dohrn, Rashid Khalidi, Michael Pfleger, James Meeks, ACORN, the New Party, and the Gamaliel Foundation all reflect Obama’s sympathy with radical-left ideas and causes — wealth redistribution prominent among them....

Following well-worn organizer strategies, Obama knows how to wrap ideological radicalism in the soothing rhetoric of “pragmatism” and classic American values. There is a kernel of truth to the pragmatism, however. Radical though his ultimate goals may be, Obama follows classic organizer strategy — pursuing his ends in tiny, incremental, and cumulative baby-steps....

Obama has often claimed that his early community organizing, and his redistributive legislative work, were at the very core of his political identity. We’ve heard his radicalism on the radio in 2001. Does anyone really believe that he’s changed in 2008? Obama’s political radicalism consolidated his shaky personal identity. It formed him as an adult....

Obama is clever and pragmatic, it’s true. But his pragmatism is deployed on behalf of radical goals. Obama’s heart is, and will remain, with the Far Left. Yet he will surely be cautious about grasping for more, at any given moment, than the political traffic will bear. That should not be mistaken for genuine moderation.

Well boys and girls...

...the election is upon us. So far, during the entire campaign season, our comments section hasn't been visited by a single Ron Paul loon or Obamabot. A small victory to be sure, but I'll take it.

Here's hoping for a McCain win. After all, I would hate to wake up a year from now in Idaho, behind barbwire, growing potatoes, getting properly re-edumacated, and learning how to chant "Ohh-Bahhh-Mahhh, Ohh-Bahhh-Mahhh, Ohh-Bahhh-Mahhh... " with the correct level of enthusiasm.

Sunday Links

(Apologies for today's tardiness.)

Which Obama will we get?

Dubhe is not in the moving group.

Iran's new naval base.

The end of economic progress?

Dimensions.

Why Windows 7 will smash Vista.

Germany's richest woman in a sex-blackmail scandal.

Your new speakers will be made of carbon nanotubes.

Russia wants to help Venezuela get the bomb.

Where Caesar landed.

If it quacks like redistribution....

Red on women drives men wild.

Friday Links

Download the latest version of World Wide Telescope—totally awesome.

The US must update its nuclear deterrent.

Attractive fathers do not attractive sons make.

The court limits business method patents.

What kids are up to these days.

The candidate of decline.

Introducing Hushie.

The paradox of an unattractive Russia.

Is malaria winning the race?

Contrary to propaganda, McCain is not more of the same.

Why not just let them marry?

More scary—but hidden—Obama connections.

The persecution of Christians continues in Iraq.

The persecution of Christians continues in India.

Is the Iceman from a different branch of humanity?

Is the Newest Deal bad for the market?

In my CLU.

USMC Camp Lemonier, Djibouti.

A Containerized Living Unit. Spartan. 20 X 8 X 8. A desk, a twin bed, a few lockers. Books from home.

Bathroom nearby, in another container. About 200 yards from an active runway.

It is remarkable what a mollycoddled civilian can get used to after three months. At least I'm not getting shot at.

Wednesday Links

Progress in plasma propulsion.

Shame cubed.

Microsoft reveals Azure.

Yet another Islamic woman stoned.

Transsexual genes.

Turns out that she's smart after all.

Solomon's copper mines found.

Touchpad without the pad.

Suppressing the Obama tape.

Nuclear planes.

Will Sarkozy become the first "President of Europe"?

The master of fire is at least 790,000 years old.

Why's everybody always picking on Russia.

7 of the greatest hoaxes of all time.

It's all downhill after 39.

Childhood's end.

But Who Pays?

Obama has called for people to take off work on election day to vote. Are people to be paid for not working or are they supposed to forego a day's wages during an economic crisis? I'm not sure if the campaign has answered that question. It sure says something though.

Quote of the Day

"...not everyone agrees that the stimulus packages, which are designed to loosen up tight credit, will prove helpful. Peter Schiff, president of broker-dealer Euro Pacific Capital, believes the impact will be decidedly negative.

"The goal of all these plans is to give consumers more money to spend. However, excess consumer spending is part of the problem, not part of the solution" he said. "After a decade-long spending orgy, market forces are finally trying to restrict consumer spending and dampen credit. But the stimulus looks to provide a new source of funds after savings, income, and credit have been exhausted. Our imbalanced economy is in desperate need of retrenchment, but stimulus plans will effectively hold the firemen at bay while throwing gasoline on the flames."

Original article.

But, Teddy Bears are cute!

I've had this article from the Daily Mail bookmarked for a couple of weeks. There is something about it that puzzles and horrifies me, but more on that in a bit.

It is a news story about a British Columbian fellow by the name of Jim West who was out walking his dog. He heard a grunt behind him, turned around, and discovered a rather pissed-off black bear. He tried to scare it off by kicking it, and ended up with a bear on top of him mauling him. Somehow he rolled free and got his hands on a large tree limb. He cronked the bear over the head with it. The bear was stunned by the blow, and he figured his only hope was to keep swinging the tree branch. Amazingly he survived the encounter by killing the bear with that tree limb.

That's all remarkable, but it is not the part of the article that really caught my attention. The final two paragraphs are what puzzle me to this day. I quote:

Sadly, the bear was the mother of two young cubs - who had to be euthanised because it was believed they would not survive the cruel Canadian winter without her.
Even so, he said, he did not regret what he had done - believing it had been necessary for him to survive.

Seriously, did the reporter actually ask him if he regretted saving his neck by killing the bear? Who would even ask such an idiotic question? Poor little bear cub orphans aside, did they think Mr. West would regret making it out alive of a situation like that to return to his family and friends?

There is a frightening fuzziness of thought in mechanics of that question -- I imagine a reported solemnly grieving for the bear cubs and not noticing the fellow with 60 stitches standing in front of them.
Oh yea, there is one comment on the piece. Again, I quote:

I'm sorry, but I'm totally on the side of the bear here. Those poor cubs... was there not a zoo they could have gone to?

Totally on the side of the bear? Good God Almighty, doesn't that fool realize how callous their sensitivity sounds?

Sunday Links

The global electoral college.

Can Ford be saved?

Giving Caesar control over the things that are Christ's.

3M's new x-ray business.

Good news in Kashmir.

Are the orcas starving?

The facts of press bias.

A turnaround in housing?

Computing in the cloud.

The real Italian job.

Smarter smart cars.

Tens of thousands march for independence.

You've seen Google Mail, Google Maps, Google Knol,.... Introducing Google Fighter Jet.

Rebooting the immune system to cure multiple sclerosis.

Afghanistan on the edge of disaster.

Friday Links

Why the Republicans must lose!

If you're going to Mars, you better be prepared to stay.

Blowing up Jews in Russia.

10 things to do for a freshly laid-off developer.

The irony of Obama.

Did feathered dinosaurs precede birds?

Lighting up Berlin.

The current state of the cancer art.

Mexico's spreading drug violence.

18 ways to live below your means.

Check out some people in the Living Library.

Chavez expands his empire.

When spiders eat birds.

US Johnny still can't add.

Ready for a brain wipe?

Spend now, tax later.

Obama in his natural habitat

I probably should be ashamed of myself, my political commentary seems to have dwindled to nothing more than posting odd YouTube videos. All I can say in my defense is that I am absolutely gobsmacked by how strange this election has been, and gah... can the media sink any lower into Democratic Poodle status?

Anyhoo, above is my latest silly YouTube offering.

Hat tip to hillaryclintonforum.net, which is a forum I've gotten addicted to lurking at. It is a forum full of PUMAs and, if you think Republicans hate Obama, they're pikers compared to these folks. They positively loathe Barrack.

It has been very interesting watching their transformation. They were kind of in despair until Sarah Palin was selected as McCain's VP. A lot of them posted that this year's Republican convention was the first they had ever watched. They were struck by how upbeat the Republicans were, and the absolutely went wild over Palin's speech.

Since then they've come to believe McCain is an honorable and decent politician, that Palin is a delight (second only to their beloved Hillary), that the MSM's Democratic campaigning is a scandal, and that ACORN's attempted vote-rigging is beyond the pale. Most of them are going to be pulling the lever for a Republican for the first time in their life, with a number of them already having switched parties. A number are also actively campaigning for McCain/Palin.

I have no idea how many of them there are, although the forum is extremely active (this, with their registration locked to prevent it from being overran by Obamabots). It is quite an interesting daily visit.

Wednesday Links

Drugs of the Stone Age.

Born in Columbia, made in the USA.

Putin's weak-kneed western defenders.

With only a billion years left, is it time to move the Earth?

100 more banks to fail?

Able to leap tall buildings with a single bound.

Sometimes you just have to stand on principle.

Global warming goes poof.

Russia to world: "death solves all problems".

Your Mexican drug dollars at work.

Not enough ads for all the startups?

Aid workers vs. the Taleban.

Good times breed bad times.

UFOs over England?

World Champion Anand wins a second game as black, and one as white.

Robotic surgery on a beating heart.

Sunday Links

Who stole the beach?

Running the economy into the ground.

How to buy a mattress.

The audacity of Obama.

The waft of a plant in agony.

Sinbad's time capsule.

Where communism is the new fad.

Logical bacteria.

Was Milan Kundera an informer for the communist secret police?

Camel wrestling in Turkey.

Yahoo's coup de torchon.

THE CARDINALITY OF CANTOR'S SET

A few of us, being left more time to sort
The verbiage, thought we'd find "wisdom," for sure, —
Books in the old man's library, lake house
Still standing, despite earthquake and wildfire
Consuming so much from so many years.
So one stumbles around, looking for verbs.

(The verb in Spanish would be evitar,
As in Tu sabes, quiero evitar…)

Though end-of-summer loopiness pervades
The dry air, hinting lavender, —a tinge
Of leafy close-to-happiness remains
To squander, hours of freedom to bestow
After the passing of the private pain
The flesh is heir to.

One might reel stuff in,
Appreciate the meanings, toss it back,
And hope it doesn't work its way back home
Somehow, to cloud significance the mind
Assigned to aspects of reality
Already dealt with. Firmly. I insist
We stipulate migrating humpback whales
Be counted at least once, and in a space—
"Virtual" space—of our own making, so
The doubters and deceivers, on a whim,
While being besieged by this beleaguered blue
Bounding our earthly spaciousness, let go
Of pointing out the pointlessness of time
Well spent on Heidegger's first question: Why
Is there something, rather than nothing? No,

The sun may be taking the decade off,
Cutting back on his spots, and girls may bathe
Blithely in his last rays, and children swim
Against the current of the what's-to-be…

I've half a mind to let the whole bunch go.
The sea turtles, I mean. Also the sea
Cucumbers, other vegetables the sea
Deposits on our shore, as though our faith
Were somehow limited. If you must know:
It's like, you take the middle of the three
Thirds of a line segment (you have to leave
The endpoints on the page) but endlessly
Repeating the same taking/leaving, you

Are left with just this "dust of points," somehow
Still infinite, its cardinality—
Roughly, the "size" of its "infinity"—
The same as what you started with. Just so,
Your attitude is generous and calm.

After the moon moved on, we walked a bit
Down to the garden, cosmos of starlight
Or light dusting of stars, where the old man
Had buried secrets for the grandchildren.
Long since invisible, the ghosts of these
Still haunt the place, at least if you believe
In secrets, keeping them. Down by the creek,
Watery voices, the first light of dawn.




X:11:2008

Friday Links

Is it time to ban recess?

9,000 year old tuberculosis.

Who is the real Obama?

Can magnets cure deep coma?

Can electricity cure paralysis?

Wind-powerd bicycle lights.

Democracy vs. Property.

Is Jobs leaving Apple?

You need a podcar.

A ton of snake.

The $58 trillion elephant in the living room.

Balloon sculpture.

Google's chips are hotter than thine.

Don't laugh at the bear.

What is the speed of life?

Wednesday Links

Hang the Christians.

H1-B visa fraud is rampant.

Why "Russian human rights" is an oxymoron.

Black silicon to the rescue?

Rising gun culture in a gunless land.

Why you should write your goals.

Russia and China play the UN like a fiddle.

The 200 greatest songs of the Sixties.

Can nanolevers kill superbugs?

The debtor nation.

Free movies online while they last.

Chavez managed to lower oil production 25% so far.

The baldness gene.

Racism ueber alles.

Almost human.

The statists are on a roll.

Sunday Links

Is it a government-induced problem?

Is it time for a time-out?

The end of Capitalism?

The end of free trade?

The end of the Universe?

Iran celebrates.

In defense of (copyright) piracy.

The secret to a long life? Maybe it works better for women.

Trying out the Touchless. Video here.

Mexico City is bad for children and other living things.

He's got magic hands.

They just can't hold onto their data.

California breaks the ozone law.

When Big Brother just isn't big enough.

Shameless

So today I get the following from Wells Fargo

Fed Drops Rates Again

Take Advantage of Lower Home Equity Rates

So the Fed lowers the rates and it's an excuse to dun up more debt among consumers. And don't tell me the folks who borrow on their house are good credit risks. There might be occasional good reasons, medical expenses and such, but I'm inclined to regard someone wanting such a loan as a bad indicator. And aren't there better things for Wells Fargo to invest in? And aren't home equity loans the main exposure of Wells Fargo to the housing bubble? But what do I know, maybe I'm just old fashioned.

Friday Links

What Ayers believes.

The fungus that eats pollutants.

Two questions that mattered.

The colors of the brainbow.

$900b gone today. Dow in worst decline since 1931.

Machine learning for a more beautiful you.

You need the $12,000 bulletproof shirt.

Why energy in Germany comes increasingly from Russia.

When character trumps degrees.

Earthquakes in the Midwest.

Trees growing in Antarctica.

Salmon in Switzerland.

2008 rankings of the top 200 worldwide universities.

When doctors go bad.

How the turtle got its shell.

The right to free universal health care.

Errant black holes.

A mouse-bites-snake story.

Wednesday Links

Britain tries to fuse.

Dubai under the covers.

Has Microsoft lost it?

A car of one's own.

Nature red in tooth and claw.

Woz speaks.

China's fastest growing NGO.

Watching brain cells in live action.

1 in 6 underwater.

G + Y = Bad Idea

The dyslexia gene.

Is Latin on the comeback?

CNN: Obama lied about Ayers.

What it takes to build a topological quantum computer.

Your tax dollars at work?

The real Obama.

Sunday Links

Palin is the poorest.

Introducing CostToDrive.

Chavez wants the bomb.

Who brought on the crisis?

The Spanish baby-jumping festival.

It's about the authenticity, stupid.

10 persuasion techniques.

Ever-new depths of shamelessness from the Macbeth family.

Just a spoonful of sugar helps the radioactive scorpion venom go down.

Biden's repeated lies.

The cutting room floor...

Considering the editing of interviews and remarks taken out of context... oh, bah-humbug... enough with political wind-baggery for a bit. Time for some pure puffery. I found the following Presidential Debate edit and was amused by it.


HT: Monkeys for Helping

A SPLURGE OF WORSENING FOR WHICH ONE WILL PAY

The fear was jays just had no way to know
Those codes, embedded in the morning rain,
Trucks bearing gondolas loaded with grapes
Gearing down on the highway, as though months

Of hastening toward fall’s beckonings would play
Out in what coming sundries! —But the eye
Still hungers. We’ll be leaving ample room
There to maneuver, where the starling starves,

Where vines appear—to love hard times as much
As any of us, that the vintage be
Torn from the earth quietly as sunlight
Falls on a hillside vineyard.
Let the rains

Continue, I am happy as scrub jays
Harvest their acorns. Such a bumper crop
Has not been here for years, among a dearth
Of sadness, to judge by the hermit thrush

Down in the darkening garden, where we breathed
For free…
Until distilled intoxicants
Arrive, we’ll be left hanging—out in back,
With the alembic, say, of Plato’s mind

To guide us for a while. But in the thick
Of thinking things through we’re so often lost,
Albeit in a “compact metric space,”
Austere and timeless, a Platonic form

Itself, of sorts.
Out standing in the field,
Electric, with a buzz on, in my shorts,
I’d rather celebrate when static air
Goes lively, new waves battering the shore.









IX.27.2008

Friday Links

On moral philosophers and child murderesses.

A complete collapse in the ethics market.

Snow on Mars.

Exiled to Siberia for his rap song.

Martian fossils?

No honor among thieves with machine guns.

Dragonfly robots for Mars.

Africom goes operational.

You think the CIA is a bunch of clowns? Check out these guys.

Making coasts invisible to tsunamis.

80 of the best web illustrator resources.

Bleeding without being cut.

Addicted to debt.

Sawatdee Khrub!

Wednesday Links

Democracy won.

Rescuing children from forced marriage—in England.

Carbon nanotubes was the secret of Damascus steel.

China's secret African slave empire.

Rich men are more likely to find mates, sire children.

The newest prime number.

Iran is more important than Wall Street.

Fourth time's a charm.

Mortgage brochures from hell.

Search Flickr by color.

Things you can get for free.

The warrior and the priest.

The social threat of naked long-buyers.

Learning from mistakes only works after age 12.

Study a little history, lest you relive it.

How government went wrong with mortgages.