Category: Uncategorized

JU sees through the veil:

You are exactly correct. It amazes me how long the vast majority of Americans have been willing to “hang in there” as Pres. Bush packed dynamite around the Liberty Bell and the Statue of Liberty and poured carbolic acid on the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence!

Only now is there beginning to be heard across the land the voice of outrage at the traitorous, treacherous acts of GOP leaders. I figured it out in Feb 2005, shortly after I returned from a tour in Fallujah with the Marines. The contrast between what I knew was true and what Pres. Bush was doing to our Country was so immense that in utter disgust I threw in the towel and joined the Constitution Party.

If I never vote for another “winner” again on election day, at least I will have the small comfort of knowing I did not vote for the destruction of my childrens’ freedom!

There speaks a man who understands that he swore an oath to be faithful to the Constitution, not to a man, an administration or a political party.

I would like there to be fewer dead American soldiers to remember on future Memorial Days:

Monthly US Casualties in Iraq

March 2003 267
March 2004 375
March 2005 407
March 2006 520

This is not exactly the sort of progression that was seen three months into the German, Japanese or Korean Occupations, let alone three years, even if the moving average has been declining after less bloody months like February (86 casualties).

I miss you, Gamp. I know you’re guarding those streets with a smile on your face, keeping out the riff-raff.

Scott Adams should probably revisit his assumptions if he wants to play with logic:

After reading the replies to my prior post, I am forced to administer this logic test to the believers among us. Find the error in either the assumptions or the line of reasoning.

1. Ordinary people can be convinced to believe almost any ridiculous thing.

2. I am an ordinary person.

3. Therefore, it is POSSIBLE that I have already been convinced to believe something ridiculous.

1. DEPENDS. Every individual, ordinary or extraordinary, CAN theoretically be convinced to believe ridiculous things. However, there is no shortage of examples demonstrating how ordinary people cannot be convinced to believe things that are both non-ridiculous and demonstrably true, even if the aforementioned thing is not complex and require no formal scientific training beyond the ability to read or listen.

I would have agreed with this statement: “Every human being is capable of believing information that is factually incorrect.”

2. FALSE. This depends on the precise definition of ordinary, of course, but if we apply Ockham’s razor and assume the most common definition, I have numerous pieces of paper as well as copious statistical evidence that this is not the case. Moreover, even the most ordinary person is extraordinary in some way; I imagine that convincing people that they are ordinary would be harder than “rounding off the edges” of what Mr. Adams considers to be their misplaced beliefs.

3. FALSE. The assumptions are flawed, ergo the conclusion fails even though I strongly agree with it on other grounds.

Scott’s bigger problem is that many believers are already inured to pure reason by faith. For example, every Christian knows that he is incapable of grasping God’s wisdom, moreover, most Christians have witnessed this sort of shoddy logic, or worse, outright fraud and factual ignorance, used for similar purposes. Having seen the sociologists, psychologists, archeologists and historians repeatedly embarrass themselves in incompetent attempts to attack the bases of Christian belief, most intellectually inclined Christians are more likely to roll their eyes than experience a crisis of doubt when presented with yet another nominally reason-based assault on their faith.

I think anyone who doesn’t fully grasp the current state of quantum mechanics and world politics is foolish to even attempt to play at this game. Such a tiny minority have even the smallest understanding of the verities of the natural world that it is insane to expect anyone to be capable of comprehending the supernatural.

We are all Meximericans now, if the Senate and President get their way:

I’m just scratching the surface here. The stupidity and rottenness of CIRA is really beyond the ability of a single human mind to encompass it.

And for Republicans, the most shocking, most shameful thing of all, is that this act to vastly swell the number of future Democratic voters, to bring about “the greatest expansion of the welfare state in 35 years” (Robert Rector), to kick working-class Americans in the teeth, to render meaningless the very concepts of our nation and our citizenship — in fact, to shove U.S. citizens off the sidewalk so that foreigners can be awarded special privilieges not available to us — this appalling monstrosity was cheered through by a Republican Senate at the urging of a Republican president. For shame, for shame, for shame.

I will not vote for any politician who helped pass this bill; I will not vote for any politician who says so much as a word in its favor — make that a syllable — and I will not even vote for any politician who agrees to go into conference on this horror. How big are Capitol Hill garbage bins? That’s the only place this heap of dreck belongs.

For some time now, I’ve said that one day, people will eventually begin to understand that we do not have a two-party system, we have a bi-factional ruling party. It only comes together to ignore the Great Unwashed in moments of great importance, like when it is ramping up for another major assault on national sovereignty.

Naturally, Katherine Lopez and some of the other bootlickers at NRO are much more interested in discussing classic rock than contemplating the reality of the Republican betrayal of America. But once the moment passes, they’ll resume the usual “Democrats are Super-scary” theme in a futile attempt to salvage the November elections for their preferred ruling party faction.

One day finally seems to have arrived for Mr. Derbyshire. I wonder when it will arrive for you?

Mad As Hell is very upset:

But…but…the nazis did it!
So we can too! So said Vox Day on WorldNut Daily a week or so back. ‘Vox Day’ is, of course, a play on ‘Vox Dei,’ that is, ‘Voice of God’ in Latin. What an arrogant, ignorant, pretentious little wanker. Unless he was thinking of the Argentinian rock band of the same name. In which case he’s an arrogant, ignorant, pretentious little wanker.

In support of his case, he cites New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, famous for his hate for smoking and his love for children and animals….

Bloomberg Says Plan to Deport Millions Is ‘Ridiculous’ – New York Times

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, in his most scathing attack to date on legislation working its way through Congress, declared a House proposal to deport 11 million illegal immigrants “pure fantasy” and called parts of a Senate plan “no less ridiculous.” “You have to wonder what world Congress is living in,” the New York City mayor said in an interview on CNN. “Talk to any mayor who has to enforce the law and you’ll find that none of these things are remotely possible.”

What Mr. Bloomberg considers possible, however, is this:

Republican Mayor Michael Bloomberg thrust himself into the national immigration debate Wednesday, advocating a plan that would establish a DNA or fingerprint database to track and verify all legal U.S. workers.

The mayor also said elements of the legislation moving through Congress are ridiculous and said lawmakers who want to deport all illegal immigrants are living in a “fantasy.”

In an editorial for The Wall Street Journal and two nationally televised interviews, the mayor reiterated his long-standing belief that the 12 million undocumented immigrants in the United States should be given the opportunity for citizenship, saying that deporting them is impossible and would devastate the economy.

So, deporting illegals is an impossible and ridiculous fantasy, various historical examples of successful mass deportations notwithstanding, while tracking the DNA of American citizens and legal residents is not only practical, but downright desirable. We might as well chip everyone while getting those samples, don’t you think?

You see, forced implant technology and DNA-tracking is morally acceptable, because the Nazis didn’t do either.

Unless they really have to:

When a 15-year-old girl ran up to a cop May 8, screaming and claiming that a taxi driver had tried to rape her, the officer assumed the worst and police arrested the cabbie later that day. But it turns out the girl made up the story to get out of paying the cab fare, police said, and all charges were dropped Tuesday against driver Oluyemi Otunba-Payne, a Nigerian immigrant and father of two who lives in Hamden….

None of the girl’s allegations — that Otunba-Payne offered to waive the fare in exchange for a sex act and then tried to rape her in the back seat of his Metro Taxi cab before she managed to escape — turned out to be true, police said. The case is still under investigation, Moscato said, and the girl could be arrested herself for making a false report.

She won’t be charged with anything, of course, because even adult women are the legal equivalent of children in the American legal system and are held to be of diminished responsibility by virtue of their sex whenever they commit crimes.

No doubt this girl has a bright future as a women’s rights advocate ahead of her.

Katherine Lopez can’t get enough of the Bush family:

In conversation, at least one experienced political hand agrees that conservatives might vote for the 53-year-old term-limited governor—the first Republican governor reelected in the Sunshine State’s history. “At the end of the day, conservatives are looking for a leader with a proven record of accomplishment, an intellectual understanding of, and commitment to, conservative values with the skill and energy to lead the country in a conservative direction. Jeb is one of the few potential candidates who meets all of those criteria.” Jeb might be just what demoralized conservatives want and need….

There’s nothing in the Constitution prohibiting people who have too many family members who’ve been elected to the job. Nor should there be. As one Floridian recently e-mailed me, “I’m against these familial dynasties, but in the Bushes’ case, they’ve saved the best for last, and I see no reason to punish ourselves by not electing a capable Jeb, just because his father and brother were mixed successes at best.”

Seriously, what is wrong with these people? As if Jeb wouldn’t sell out conservatives every bit as fast as his father and brother. I hope the Republicans do nominate him, it would demonstrate once and for all what a complete fraud the American electoral system is.

Vote for anyone you like, as long as their name is Bush or Clinton.

From the Washington Times:

A centrally planned immigrant labor market. Buried inside the guest-worker provisions is an extension of the Davis-Bacon Act, which mandates “prevailing wages” to workers in specific industries contracted by the federal government. The bill would extend “prevailing wage” laws to include immigrant workers in all private sector jobs, even those not covered by Davis-Bacon. A “Temporary Worker Task Force” made up of 10 political appointees and the secretary of Labor would choose which industries have unmet labor demands and devise a prevailing wage employers must pay to their immigrant workers.

According to the Heritage Foundation’s Tim Kane, the extension would effectively bring 5 percent of the U.S. labor market under federal control, rendering arguments coming from the right favoring a guest-worker program on free-market grounds absurd. For instance, the Wall Street Journal editorial page attacked “anti-immigration conservatives” yesterday for “showing they don’t believe in free labor markets.” If by “free” they mean markets controlled by 10 bureaucrats sitting in the Department of Labor, we plead guilty.

You’d think conservatives would have learned by now, after the bait-and-switches of the European Common Market, NAFTA and FTAA. What Washington sells as a “free market” measure generally turns out to be anything but.

More freedom for Mexicans and other foreigners, less for American citizens. That’s been the pattern of this administration since the beginning.

So, you might want to think twice when they tell you that they’re building a wall to keep foreigners out. Given the federal government’s track record, that’s the one thing you can count on being untrue.

From “Science Once Again Nudges Science Fiction Towards Fantasy” in the Spring ’06 SFWA Bulletin:

The latest nail which science has driven into the coffin of science fiction appears in the March 2006 issue of Scientific American in an article entitled “Shielding Space Travellers” by Eugene N. Parker. Roughly, cosmic rays produce radiation expressed as “rems per year”, and at sea level we receive 0.02 – 0.04, about the equivalent of a couple of x-rays….. Our faithful robots report that interplanetary space, which must be traversed to reach Mars, experiences 13-25 rem per year, so that Martian astronauts would receive a dose of more than 80 rems per round trip….

So our space ships will need to be shielded with the equivalent of five meters of water, making them so hopelessly massive that the needed acceleration to move them from here to there is simply impossible.

As one who has always felt that the focus of most science fiction writers on “getting the science right” while getting nearly everything else from religion to basic human relations wrong was pedantry bordering on autism, this news makes me laugh.

Now, certainly several writers will invent cunning ways around this apparent limitation, but the vast majority will simply ignore it while continuing to posture ostentatiously about their commitment to scientific verity. Wny, without space travel, it will be obvious that romance novels in space are nothing but… romance novels!

For me, there is little difference between science fiction and fantasy. They are essentially the same genre wherein the point is entertainment and escapism, with an edifying theme thrown somewhere in the mix if the writer is so inclined. (I have to say, I am increasingly disinclined to do so, having rather overdone it in my first novel.) Nevertheless, it is certainly amusing that while the supernatural of which I write from time to time remains possible while the space travel that is a fixture of so much sober and serious science fiction looks increasingly improbable.