1
I'm fond of the headline I saw over on Reddit: "WWII Vets ignore ropes and barriers... because Normandy was closed, too."
Posted by: Wonderduck at Wed Oct 2 20:37:19 2013 (dM817)
2
Interestingly, the order to erect barriers that weren't there before and to have staff standing by seem to have come from much higher up than the park service.
Posted by: Mauser at Thu Oct 3 03:59:17 2013 (TJ7ih)
These Posts Seem to Happen in Threes
In keeping with the carefree and optimistic tone of the previous two posts, I find myself asking recently why the story about the Stingers has gotten so little coverage except in overseas papers and certain partisan circles here.
"Oh God. Did you say "partisan? 'cause I was kinda' hoping to make friends!"
Indeed. Not only does my inquiry involve the "P" word it focuses on the particular "B" word that people just don't seem quite fearful of looking at too closely, and that "B" involves another "P" word which is Politics and so it goes below the fold.
1
You're right. This is a very newsworthy story, it's very depressing and worrying, and I don't believe the denials either.
On the bright side, there's always the more depressing news about China's little adventuresome side. Every time in the last ten years when I've attended Origins' military history track, they always had something else scary to tell us about China's plans and preparedness. Yet that's generally not news, either. (But at least there we can think it's a matter of straightforward bribes and advertising money.)
Posted by: Suburbanbanshee at Tue Aug 20 21:09:17 2013 (cvXSV)
2
I thought Steven didn't understand "disappoint" but now you have a definition of "bright side" I'm unfamiliar with.
Perhaps it's actually me!
Posted by: The Brickmuppet at Tue Aug 20 21:19:16 2013 (F7DdT)
Prarie Fire Fizzles
Well, the verdict in the Zimmerman trial came down. It was not the result most in the media desired.
As I type this there seems to have been only the most sporadic vandalism, and then in locations where any excuse will foment mischief so that hardly counts.
This relative calm was despite considerable efforts by certain parties in the media and elsewhere to fan the flames of violence.
Those incitements were in vain and I feel pretty damned good about that.
UPDATE: The prosecution receives some harsh words from 'The Dersh'. WOW!
1
It's easier to puff up your chest and act violent on Twitter, at no personal cost.
Posted by: Mauser at Sun Jul 14 20:45:07 2013 (cZPoz)
2
I think part of what's going on is a realization that CCH and Open Carry are gaining ground in the country. Puffing up your chest and threatening to kill someone could result in a lethal response.
Posted by: Ben at Mon Jul 15 10:06:46 2013 (/Mdmg)
Why Hong Kong of All Places?
So...you strike a blow for civil liberties.....by leaking classified, highly sensitive info that you feel really needs to get out.
OK.
It also has potential to do much harm and you are likely to be prosecuted.
'Kaaaay.
Which stalwart defender of free speech and liberty do you flee to?
Switzerland
New Zealand
The Cayman Islands
Sealand
Liechtenstein
Iceland
Finland
...
... CHINA *
OK I'll kind of agree with him on SeaLand. Also, Canada and Australia are off because of very very strong extradition treaties with the US...but on the other hand.. CHINA? Seriously!?
I'm entertaining the admittedly odd theory that this is actually a Chinese move to embarrass the US and...assuming the guy has as much info as he says he has....pull off an intel coup.
Now intel coups generally don't involve one side running around saying things like "Hey Hiiiiiitler...We've got ENIIIIIGMAAA!" but in this case the data trove is...ummm...not easy to make obsolete.
I think that to the Chinese, starting a debate about civil liberties in the US is seen a major blow against us. Any reduction in state surveillance, to them, probably seems like a debilitating action. They simply don't grok the benefit of civil liberties, but they fully understand the power of information monitoring.
Even if this wasn't initiated by the Chinese, having this fellow in Hong Kong does not give me the warm fuzzies.
Did he defect or did he derp?
In one sense it doesn't matter, any damage is done and we still have the root problem to contend with.
So...
I have some friends on Twitter who wonder "What's the big deal?" "Why RU so upset? H8er!!!" I have one friend who wrote in Davros in the last election...because he couldn't see any difference.
140 characters is not enough to explain anything involving complexity,
so for them I'll go point by point to the best of my abi....what?
"PoliTIIIIIIICCSSSS!" "Oh GOD! MAKE HER STOP" "Put it below the fold PLEASE!"
Oh My Yes. TESTIFY!
Exam day. I have no time but there is a full-on old-fashioned filibuster going on now.
This is a really compelling speech.
It may well be a historic one.
Senator/Doctor Paul is going to talk till he drops, or the President states categorically that he rejects drone strikes on American citizens. More here.
1
To me, the most worrisome part so far was when Paul asked for a "sense of the Senate" resolution that the President shouldn’t kill
American citizens in America, and the Democrats objected!
They will fight any and all attempts to execute crimmals who have been convicted in a court of law, but they want the President to be able to kill any American that he wants, anywhere, anytime, without so much as a hearing? Really?
Posted by: Siergen at Wed Mar 6 20:56:45 2013 (Ao4Kw)
2
Yeah that was appalling. OTOH is was nice that it caused some Democrat Senators...quite liberal ones to break ranks and "ask questions" showing their support for Dr. Paul.
Posted by: The Brickmuppet at Thu Mar 7 01:07:38 2013 (F7DdT)
Kind of Like the Civics Test in the Post Before Last
...the tweet being mocked here is depressing and not a little frightening.
Bob Woodward of course is one of the reporters who took down Nixon. This is major 20th century history, and history it seems is at least as poorly understood by our polity as civics.
Of course one might ask why Bob Woodward came up in casual conversation and then one would find oneself in the middle of something even more disturbing.
Worse it involves #politics.....so we'll continue this below the fold.
It is particularly striking to me how much the left has turned on Woodward. He didn't change. He was telling the truth before, and he told the truth now. They only like the truth when it works in their favor. Otherwise, it can get stuffed.
Posted by: Mauser at Fri Mar 1 03:21:02 2013 (cZPoz)
That Civics Quiz
...that's making the rounds, is here. Everybody else on the starboard side of the blogosphere seems to be missing two, which is much better than most Americans.
Full Civic Literacy Exam (from our 2008 survey)
Are you more knowledgeable than
the average citizen? The average score for all 2,508 Americans taking
the following test was 49%; college educators scored 55%. Can you do
better? Questions were drawn from past ISI surveys, as well as other
nationally recognized exams.
Yikes!
Pete and other immigrants should do very well as they have to take a civics exam as part of the naturilization process, yet with most of the country getting an "F" ...well this is a serious problem that explains rather a lot.
1
100%, but I'm not surprised that a lot of people do badly. The questions seem evenly divided between Constitutional Law, Economics and American History, with most of the questions being suitable for an undergraduate college-level course.
Few Americans have studied all 3 subjects at a college level, and probably fewer still remember all that they learned.
Posted by: Jonathan Tappan at Wed Feb 27 20:57:35 2013 (poC8e)
2
Likewise 100%. Political science degree with a minor in economics. There's a FEW questions in there that are more "trivia" than "civics", though - two or three that relied on your knowledge of certain speeches, etc. Granted that they were generally important speeches. And the question about foreign policy being shared between Congress and the President is... well, it's much closer to what you'd find in a textbook than in the actual world, hm?
A politically active conservative OUGHT to get 100% on this test, or at least damned near.
Posted by: Avatar_exADV at Wed Feb 27 23:24:29 2013 (pWQz4)
3
27 out of 33; not bad for someone who has never taken a Poly Sci, Law or Econ class in his life, and darned little American History (yes, I know).
Posted by: Wonderduck at Thu Feb 28 01:14:19 2013 (PHdMw)
Posted by: dkallen99 at Thu Feb 28 11:39:22 2013 (2lHZP)
6...yet with most of the country getting an "F"...well this is a serious problem that explains rather a lot.
Heck, I got 31 out of 33, and (as I mentioned in a previous comment) I'm not even an American. I did take some economics electives in university, and I'll admit to making educated guesses on a few questions.
Posted by: Peter the Not-so-Great at Thu Feb 28 19:14:57 2013 (ElBzz)
7
PTNSG proves the wisdom of the cornerstone of US military policy since 1814.
'Don't screw with Canada'
Posted by: The Brickmuppet at Thu Feb 28 20:33:20 2013 (F7DdT)
1
People have trouble visualizing the scope of the debt. Telling them that a stack of 16 Trillion dollars would reach the moon doesn't help, because they can't get their brain around the distance to the moon.
They've seen Airplanes though. I tell folks at work, where we build 787's this:
1 787 lists for around $200 Million. So 5 of them is a Billion dollars.
(And here's where the numbers still get all mind-boggly)
So FIVE THOUSAND 787's is a Trillion dollars.
So our national debt of $16 trillion would take EIGHTY THOUSAND 787's to pay off, if the world could afford to buy them all. But at the projected production rate of 10 per month, it would take 666 years to build them.
And that's not counting new debt.
Posted by: Mauser at Sun Feb 10 23:33:11 2013 (cZPoz)
2
Being a Canadian, I don't really have a dog in this fight. However, I am still worried about what's happening in the United States right now, both out of concern for the welfare and liberty of people in the US and a more self-interested concern about the knock-on effects that future economic and political turmoil in the US will have on Canada. (After all, the US is my country's neighbour, closest ally, and biggest trading partner.)
If I may, I'd like to ask your opinion about the "going Galt" and "let it burn" movements I've read about in the small-c-conservative US blogosphere. If I'm understanding things correctly, the starting premise behind these movements is that the leftists are going to win, no matter what--which seems at first glance like giving in to despair. However, the idea seems to be more like letting the leftists build the New Socialist Worker's Paradise, in the sure and certain expectation that the New Socialist Worker's Paradise will collapse under its own weight, much like the old one (the Soviet Union) did. Then, once the dust settles and the leftists have been run out of Washington in disgrace (tar and feathers will presumably be involved), sensible people will have a chance to rebuild the republic on a sensible basis. (The "going Galt" movement seeks to speed the process up by starving the
Worker's Paradise of tax revenue it will need to fend off collapse.) It's not so much giving in to despair but enduring short-term pain for longer-term benefits, or so the theory goes.
Posted by: Peter the Not-so-Great at Tue Feb 12 23:54:42 2013 (ElBzz)
3
That is a good question. I'll try to answer it in a bit of depth later this weekend.
Posted by: The Brickmuppet at Fri Feb 15 11:46:00 2013 (vp6an)
Being a founder of a startup here in silicon valley, I can comment on Spengler's essay. In the EDA business (Electronic Design Automation) everyone expects to get bought by one of the large EDA companies. No one expects to go IPO. Why? All of those wonderful laws the democrats passed after the fake energy crisis. Once you pass the small business threshold and enter big business, the cost of doing business goes up prohibitively. Further, the extra burdens placed on IPO's in the last 10 years, make it much harder to go public. The net result is we all (if we are lucky) join the collective. We get paid for our stock or get new company stock, stay the minimum required time and leave. Those of us with the energy, do it all over again. The unintended consequence is we build bigger and fewer large companies. Just what the democrats like. As Amity Shlaes pointed out in "The Forgotten Man", bigger companies act more like the government and are easier to manipulate. Resistance is futile."
The Spengler column: http://pjmedia.com/spengler/2012/11/07/if-you-believe-in-staples-clap-your-hands/
the big problem right now is that we need 100 Facebook IPO's a year right now just to make good on the recession and we are not going to get them.
Posted by: J Carlton at Mon Feb 4 22:29:32 2013 (i0RQw)
3
J Carlton. Thank you for that comment and the links! You very succinctly conveyed what I was trying to.
Posted by: The Brickmuppet at Wed Feb 6 15:42:08 2013 (vp6an)
4
Your welcome. Ever since I was "restructured" out of a job, I've had a fair amount of time to catch up on reading stuff like this. It beats running around and looking at all the "for rent" signs.
Posted by: J Carlton at Wed Feb 6 16:04:00 2013 (i0RQw)
Some Quick Thoughts on Recent Events
Evil exists.
No writ of law or regulation will banish narcissism and hatred from mans heart.
It cares not one whit whether you acknowledge it's blackness or you make up politically correct excuses for it.
Evil will always find a way to arm itself in some manner, and it will gravitate to those places where no one else is able to do so. For evil is not impressive, it is generally cowardly, venal and narcissistic.
Mass shootings take place in schools, movie theaters and workplaces in part because these are places where no-one is allowed to carry a weapon and options for escape are limited. The lessons from this are obvious, but they are not the lessons being espoused by those who want a nation of compliant subjects and not citizens.
No, the maniac in Colorado shot up the theater because he was a
pathetic weakling unloved by women and incapable of satisfying them and
so retreated into a twisted babydick world of power fantasy.
Same thing with this guy.
I'm going to go against my political team, here-- although
conservatives often say "Label evil as what it is, Evil, and leave
therapy and psychology out of it," I'm going to say No, not in these instances. Because Evil (notice the capital letter E) is powerful in these sad losers' imaginations, and they want to be called the Big Scary Man, the Shadow That Menaces At Midnight.
For an impotent, weak, ineffectual man, that is an attractive fantasy.
What they do not want and could not abide is an accurate assessment
of their psychology, their physical stature and shortcomings, their
ability to succeed in work or school, their loser history with women,
and so on.
Yes. Don't encourage the worms that might follow him in search of some affirmation of their value via infamy. This dickless wonder should not be a source of dread but beneath our contempt.
The Wonders of a Modern Education
I've been in and around colleges and universities off and on for 20 years. While this is certainly amongst the more crazy lecturers I've seen, I can say that yes, things are indeed getting this bad. This is especially true regards China/ Mao et al.
This is not below the fold because it's history.
Note the applause...
OK, actually it's the evil opposite of history but hey...
This is closely related. It's deeply troubling and fairly accurate.
In my limited experience, it tends to be almost exclusively older professors (a rapidly dwindling demographic), or some of those from abroad that occasionally buck this trend, and they do so at their peril.
UPDATE: For those who did not look at the 3 minute video, it's a professor adamantly denying that Joe Stalin killed anybody.
The big problem with the Democratic government over the past four years has been that they haven't owned or even properly addressed any of the serious underlying problems they've been facing. Everything has been laid at the door of the previous administration, with the tacit assumption that now that the Republicans were out of power, the problems would be solved by fiat.
How to approach this over the next four years (as a conservative or libertarian) is tricky. Getting liberals to admit that they have a problem and need to find a solution (really, many problems, and many solutions) is essential, but when people are invested in something, it becomes very difficult to get them to admit they made a mistake. They will often back up their mistake with increasingly irrational responses rather than admit that the original decision was wrong.
Posted by: Pixy Misa at Wed Nov 7 06:38:37 2012 (PiXy!)
2
Bricky, you make some very good points, but you're too optomistic. I and a number of people said the same thing regarding the social conservatives four years ago -- they were poison to our cause. We tried to make a (third-party) go of it then, but failed due to lack of money, leadership, focus, and everything else needed to succeed. Oh, and the minor matter of a schism -- by the social conservatives. We never recovered, and I can tell you -- the liberals can't tell the them from the Tea Parties, and nobody can tell either from the "false flag" operations mounted by the GOP.
In four years, it won't be "difficult"; it will be impossible. The EU will fall into chaos by then, and I expect Europe to start falling under the sway of fascists in fact if not name, with war to follow. Greece is already heading there. We'll be suffering from a broken economy, China will be in a succession crises and looking for a diversion, and Mexico is a mess.
What to do now? We can't "close the deal" when half the country thinks the "deal" is being taken care of the other half's productivity. The voters will (continue to) flock to whomever promises them food and security.
I'm too old and decrepit to tilt at windmills any more. My plan is to hunker down in a ringside seat with a drink and try to survive watching the fall of Western Civilization. The end is beer.
This assumes I'm not in the equivalent of a re-education camp somewhere for wrongspeak.
Oh wait, been there, done that. It was called "diversity training."
3
Ubu: I'm most assuredly not optimistic.
I'm a history buff. The road we are on is well traveled, but only in one direction.
Still, despair is a sin, and we simply must turn this around, because civilization is precious and there is nowhere to run.
Posted by: The Brickmuppet at Wed Nov 7 15:20:44 2012 (e9h6K)
4
1. The NEA has raised a couple generations of American students to expect the government to give them what they want, and that there is no need to actually go out and earn it themselves. Most of the young voters I have talked to have never been exposed an alternative political argument, and in fact have been conditioned to tune out any opposing viewpoints because they are, by definition, racist/sexist/Fascist/etc.
2. The majority of the members of the supposed Fourth Estate were educated as "journalists", which means they feel their purpose is to advance a social agenda, and not report facts . In other words, they are political propagandists. Even as a growing number of voters turn away from traditional sources such as newspapers, magazines, and TV/radio news programs, most are still being spoon-fed one political viewpoint disguised as "news".
3. The majority of the entertainment industry is also committed to pushing leftist agendas, just so long as they are exempted with special tax breaks, etc.
Right now, I just don't see any prospects to turning things around in my lifetime...
Posted by: Siergen at Wed Nov 7 19:23:21 2012 (Ao4Kw)
5
Eh... not all the glories of Rome were in the era of the Republic.
The one bright ray of sunshine, if you can call it that, is that though we are beset by problems, it's worse almost everywhere else. Things are exceedingly unlikely to go wrong here first, and the worse off it is elsewhere, the more we benefit in terms of relative competitiveness. Already it's one of the prime enablers of our spending spree - the treasury bonds keep coming in because if the US goes under, there's no other safe harbor for the money anyway.
And if things go bad everywhere? Well, not to put it too bluntly, but in a savage world of tooth and claw, nobody has fangs to match ours. In point of fact, nobody is even in the same class, excepting the broad class of "countries who have nuclear weapons", and of those none other have anything even remotely like our ability to project power abroad. You could even go so far to say that the current system of international trade and commerce exists entirely at the whim of the US - were we determined to stop it, not a single tanker would reach port, nor a single pipeline continue to pump gas. It's not good to make too big a deal of it, and obviously it would be PREFERABLE not to have to go down that road, but if the shit hits the fan...
Posted by: Avatar_exADV at Wed Nov 7 22:56:07 2012 (pWQz4)
Hobby Space News of the commercial space industry A Babe In The Universe Rather Eclectic Cosmology Encyclopedia Astronautica Superb spacecraft resource The Unwanted Blog Scott Lowther blogs about forgotten aerospace projects and sells amazingly informative articles on the same. Also, there are cats. Transterrestrial Musings Commentary on Infinity...and beyond! Colony WorldsSpace colonization news! The Alternate Energy Blog It's a blog about alternate energy (DUH!) Next Big Future Brian Wang: Tracking our progress to the FUTURE. Nuclear Green Charles Barton, who seems to be either a cool curmudgeon, or a rational hippy, talks about energy policy and the terrible environmental consequences of not going nuclear Energy From Thorium Focuses on the merits of thorium cycle nuclear reactors WizBang Current events commentary...with a wiz and a bang The Gates of Vienna Tenaciously studying a very old war The Anchoress insightful blogging, presumably from the catacombs Murdoc Online"Howling Mad Murdoc" has a millblog...golly! EaglespeakMaritime security matters Commander Salamander Fullbore blackshoe blogging! Belmont Club Richard Fernandez blogs on current events BaldilocksUnderstated and interesting blog on current events The Dissident Frogman French bi-lingual current events blog The "Moderate" VoiceI don't think that word means what they think it does....but this lefty blog is a worthy read nonetheless. Meryl Yourish News, Jews and Meryls' Views Classical Values Eric Scheie blogs about the culture war and its incompatibility with our republic. Jerry Pournell: Chaos ManorOne of Science fictions greats blogs on futurism, current events, technology and wisdom A Distant Soil The website of Colleen Dorans' superb fantasy comic, includes a blog focused on the comic industry, creator issues and human rights. John C. Wright The Sci-Fi/ Fantasy writer muses on a wide range of topics. Now Read This! The founder of the UK Comics Creators Guild blogs on comics past and present. The Rambling Rebuilder Charity, relief work, roleplaying games Rats NestThe Art and rantings of Vince Riley Gorilla Daze Allan Harvey, UK based cartoonist and comics historian has a comicophillic blog! Pulpjunkie Tim Driscoll reviews old movies, silents and talkies, classics and clunkers. Suburban Banshee Just like a suburban Leprechaun....but taller, more dangerous and a certified genius. Satharn's Musings Through TimeThe Crazy Catlady of The Barony of Tir Ysgithr アニ・ノート(Ani-Nouto) Thoughtful, curmudgeonly, otakuism that pulls no punches and suffers no fools. Chizumatic Stephen Den Beste analyzes anime...with a microscope, a slide rule and a tricorder. Wonderduck Anime, Formula One Racing, Sad Girls in Snow...Duck Triumphalism Beta Waffle What will likely be the most thoroughly tested waffle evah! Zoopraxiscope Too In this thrilling sequel to Zoopraxiscope, Don, Middle American Man of Mystery, keeps tabs on anime, orchids, and absurdities. Mahou Meido MeganekkoUbu blogs on Anime, computer games and other non-vital interests Twentysided More geekery than you can shake a stick at Shoplifting in the Marketplace of Ideas Sounds like Plaigarism...but isn't Ambient IronyAll Meenuvians Praise the lathe of the maker! Hail Pixy!!
