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Some will recognize the title of this post as the title of a book by Arthur C. Clarke written in 1948 in a serialized version—IIRC—and issued in one volume in 1953. And those who recognize both the title and the book will immediately recognize the meme and fill in the gaps of this post rather readily, even though this post will address only one of many issues that would fit with that meme.

Those who have never read the story, will simply not “get” this post quite so fully (which, now that I’ve mentioned it, makes that lack of a shared meme a meta-comment in itself… )

That’s just one of many values of shared memes: the ability to invoke a broad concept and trust that the reader or hearer will have a fuller understanding of what’s going on than the plain text of the article or story in which the meme is embedded says.

There is more to the invocation of a shared meme, but that will suffice for this post.

Now, here’s the nut of the post.

Angel, of Woman Honor Thyself, has an evocative post up, Democracy, or something like it (read the post here) that deals with what I might call the problem of an Islamic democratic republic. Interesting post, indeed.

But it spurred some thoughts in me, naturally. 🙂

Pakistan is indeed a mess. *sigh*

But Angel’s observation that “50 percent [of Pakistanis] are illiterate” struck a nerve. There’s “illiterate” and then theres… “illiterate,” American style, where half of the graduates of four-year colleges in the U.S. (according to a recent survey, another article here) _can_ sound or puzzle out words, but are clueless when it comes to comprehending the content of a newspaper editorial or… a soup can label.

*profound sigh*

(Which is worse? Someone who can’t drive and doesn’t or someone who can’t drive and tries to? Or more closely, which is worse: People who can’t read the directions on a prescription bottle or people who _think_ they can read, but can’t comprehend the instructions?)

BTW, two-year college grds (usually an “A.B.” degree) came in at less than 30% being able to comprehend normal written English.

(Oh, and in understanding “complex” literacy tasks—like charts that show the relationship between exercise and blood pressure—four year college grads in the survey cited above scored about a 30% literacy rate!)

Now, even if these folks can puzzle out the words in an article or book, if they can’t demonstrate comprehension of the content, how much better off are they—and our society—thinking they can read… when they plainly cannot really read?

And then there’s the vast abyss between functional literacy and true literacy.

“There is a tide…” was once a meme which would evoke a profound metaphor, but now? And there are many such that have been repaced by shallow metaphors, weak analogies, cultural illiteracy. “Western Civilization” is—for many reasons, most of them without any redeeming value whatsoever—withering. It seems to me that the meme referred to above is a profound metaphor for the crossroads we face: the Decline and Fall of Western Civilization… or its renaissance:

“There is a tide in the affairs of men,
Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune;
Omitted, all the voyage of their life
Is bound in shallows and in miseries.”
–(Shakespeare, Julius Caesar)

“There is a tide…” and we can either catch the tide and make use of its energy or we can be swept under by it.

Of course, I firmly believe the miserable existence Pakistan seems destined for is a product of its Islamic-dominated culture: there is little of value in Islam, and none, IMO, that cannot be found in richer abundance in the heritage of Western Civilization.

But the societal juijitsu designed in the psyops efforts of communism to defeat “the west” has borne fruit in the more and more common acceptance of the “all cutures are of equal worth” meme used by communitst (seriously: revealed as a specific tactic in recently revealed Stalinist papers) organs to hamper our society. Others may well be just as recognizable, and they ALL depend on exploitation of a culurally illiterate society. From Armed and Dangerous, excerpted from the post, “Gramscian Damage“, this list:

• There is no truth, only competing agendas.
• All Western (and especially American) claims to moral superiority over Communism/Fascism/Islam are vitiated by the West’s history of racism and colonialism.
• There are no objective standards by which we may judge one culture to be better than another. Anyone who claims that there are such standards is an evil oppressor.
• The prosperity of the West is built on ruthless exploitation of the Third World; therefore Westerners actually deserve to be impoverished and miserable.
• Crime is the fault of society, not the individual criminal. Poor criminals are entitled to what they take. Submitting to criminal predation is more virtuous than resisting it.
• The poor are victims. Criminals are victims. And only victims are virtuous. Therefore only the poor and criminals are virtuous. (Rich people can borrow some virtue by identifying with poor people and criminals.)
• For a virtuous person, violence and war are never justified. It is always better to be a victim than to fight, or even to defend oneself. But ‘oppressed’ people are allowed to use violence anyway; they are merely reflecting the evil of their oppressors.
• When confronted with terror[ism] , the only moral course for a Westerner is to apologize for past sins, understand the terrorist’s point of view, and make concessions.

And we can see that the strategy of spreading these memes has worked to the detriment of our country—and indeed, of Western Civilization—on an increasingly subliterate and even illiterate society. A genuinely literate population would be more resitant to these nonsensical memes. And the fake “liberalism” that has no connection whatsoever to classic liberal thought but has gained so much sway in politics, the media and academia nowadays? All dependant on these lying memes, and each vulnerable to a literate public.

(An obvious corollary of “a genuinely literate population would be resistant to these nonsensical memes” suggests, in the presence of many Academia Nuts who embrace these lying communist memes, that a large number of Academia Nuts, Mass Media Podpeople, Hollyweirdites and Democraps are, at the very least, culturally illiterate… or traitors… or just plain old everyday stupid.) Hmmm…. can I take door numbers one, two and three, please?

Breakin’ Bacon @ TMH’s Bacon Bits.

[Yes, I have edited for some content and a few of the awkward sentences. Those that remain are just too much trouble to fix, so there. 🙂 ]

Hi all.

I was quite flattered when yesterday David asked me to put up a guest post or two on his blog. Maybe the guy is off his meds but I am gonna take advantage of it while I can 8)

Dave’s dislike of all things muslim is well–documented. Well I have a similar dislike of France, French People and anything that comes from France. So that being said I am proud to make this news report from France my first contribution to the Third World County:

In this article France steps up rhetoric on Iran The BBC reports:

France has for the first time explicitly accused Iran of using its nuclear programme as a cover for clandestine military nuclear activity. Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy told French TV no civilian programme could explain Iran’s activity.

A short time later Iran responded to the charges by the French Foreign Minister:

Iran’s chief nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani not taking kindly to the French stance said: “I suggest Mr. Douste-Blazy to use diplomatic tone and avoid increasing the tension (over Iran’s nuclear program) by making such comments. His motivation for making such comments is unclear to us. But adopting a logical stance towards Iran’s nuclear activity, better serves the interest of the region.”

Upon hearing the news French President  Jerkoff ….Err Jacques Chirac released a brief statement:

To avoid further offense to our dear Iranian friends France hereby declares an Unconditional Surrender.  We did not mean to imply in anyway that France had a backbone or courage. We hope the mullahs accept our sincere appology and see fit to spare the lives of our women and children. We are not making any demands of course. We are begging really. Please don’t kill us.

This post is crossposted at The Real Ugly American

(authors disclaimer) If this actually worked and you were able to read this post it was due to pure dumb luck.

[Announcing the surrender at Customerservant

I received a letter from the Goose Creek Consolidated Independent School District yesterday informing me that-

February is an important month for many students across the state of Texas because the week of February 20-24, grades 3,4,5,7,9,10 and 11 will take the February administration of the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills, our state mandated assessment.

OK let me get this straight. They’re taking an administration? Are they sure they don’t mean that the TAKS tests will be administered to students in those grades? ALSO I’d like to add that this letter came to me folded so that when I took it out of the envelope the first thing I read was-

Estimados Padres y Estudiantes:
Ebrerero es un mes muy importante para muchos alumnos a traves de todo el estado de Texas…….

Well let me tell you- I no habla espanol and that’s because I’m an English speaking American. Do the people that mail these letters out assume that most of the recipients are Spanish speaking or what? As far as I’m concerned they should damn well be folded so that the English side is what’s seen first, and furthermore as far as I’m concerned there should only be an English side. If you can’t speak or read the language go to some country where you can.

They say students and teachers have worked hard throughout the year to prepare for all state mandated tests. They sure as hell have. That’s all I ever hear from my kids when I ask so what did you do in school today? We’re studying for the TAKS test. If they’d just teach the damn subjects and not worry about the tests and keep the kids concerned about their performance on them both the kids and the teachers would be better off. The kids might actually even learn something other than that if they don’t do well on these tests the school’s budget will be affected.

One of the purposes of sending me this letter was to let me know that to help my child be successful on these tests that they should:

• Get a good night’s sleep before each day’s test;
• Allow plenty of time to awaken before each day’s test;
• Begin each day with breakfast;and
• Allow plenty of time to arrive promptly to school.

I’m so glad they gave me this bit of advice I’m overcome with gratitude. I guess it’s ok then to let them party all night, sleep in late, skip breakfast and drag in the middle of second period the rest of the school year.

GIVE ME A BREAK!

Crossposted at Diane’s Stuff

And written on the chalkboard 100 times, ok, just once, at Bloggin’ Outloud

After years of prevaricating, fence-sitting, and discombobulating the diplomatic community (yay, I’ve always wanted to use that verb) the French have finally decided on a course of action (the one we’ve been on for years) and said that the Iranians have a nuclear weapons program. And, not only them but the Russians and Chinese are finally coming down on the Western side.

“No civilian nuclear program can explain the Iranian nuclear program. So it is a clandestine Iranian military nuclear program,” Douste-Blazy told France 2 television.

“The international community has sent a very firm message by saying to the Iranians: ‘Come back to reason. Suspend all nuclear activity and the enrichment of uranium and the conversion of uranium,”’ he added.

Iran’s chief nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani not taking kindly to the French stance said:

“I suggest Mr. Douste-Blazy to use diplomatic tone and avoid increasing the tension (over Iran’s nuclear program) by making such comments. His motivation for making such comments is unclear to us. But adopting a logical stance towards Iran’s nuclear activity, better serves the interest of the region.”

Iran has ratcheted up the gears again, and starting enriching uranium to obtain U-235 (the fissile uranium isotope). They are using centrifuges to do this, but they are thinking large-scale, and the Iranian deputy Secretary of the Supreme National Council has indicated they are aiming to have somewhere around 60,000 centrifuges. That will produce a large quantity of U-235 a year.

As a by-product of this whole process, it should be noted that they will be left with huge quantities of U-238, a useless material since it cannot be used in power plants or nuclear weapons. BUT, it can be used in depleted uranium munitions (like the Western powers use it for) or for radiation shielding (yes, that’s right).

It does make me wonder WHERE they’re getting all their uranium. I mean seriously, if we wanted to stop them, why not ban countries from selling them uranium in the first place? The list is interesting, and many countries mining uranium, are near to Iran… It would be easyt to convince Canada or Australia to stop, since they agree with our view on the Iranian nuclear program, but Asian and muslim nations? Not so easy.

Of course, Iran is playing more games with the world. After how many years of diplomatic talks with Britain, France, and Germany, Iran is saying this:

“We are ready to engage in dialogue with the members of the European Union to reach a solution, but they are not going to talk to us in the language of threats,” he told France Inter.

And as Random Numbers comments, that’s Iranian talk for “just wait until we get these nuclear weapons ready…”

I’m not going to pretend I know the reasons behind Iran’s decision to pursue peaceful nuclear energy (*cough* excuse me while I nearly choke on my coffee), since they sit on top of one of the world’s largest oil and natural gas fields. But it DOES look suspicious that they would pursue one source of energy which is costly, dangerous and volatile and at the same time, CAN produce weapons. Oil cannot. Natural gas cannot.

The National Institute for Truth and Freedom (blog) puts it:

Iran says they are not trying to build a bomb, because they have signed the Non-Proliferation Treaty. That seems to be the basis of their entire argument. Despite the fact that the International Atomic Energy Agency has announced that Iran possesses a document that shows how to form nuclear material into warheads, the best Iran can come up with is a variation on “Nuh-Uh.”

How true. Just because they sign a bit of paper means nothing. Remember people, Hitler signed a non-agression pact with Stalin, then two years later 3 million of his troops invaded in a surprise attack…

I’ll sign off with Ali Larijani‘s comments that provoke the most distrust in me:

“We are a responsible country, it is Western propaganda that keeps on saying that Iran is seeking a bomb, but it is not true.”

Cross-posted at Balanced News Blog and The English Guy.

Or shifting sands?

Sunday School kids’ll recall the song about the foolish man and the wise man taken from the parable by a carpenter from Nazareth. Foolish man? Built his house upon a foundation of sand and was naturally washed away in the first flood. The wise man built on a solid bedrock foundation and his house withstood the floods.

Keep that in mind as you read this extract from a Stop the ACLU post on Antonin Scalia’s response to one of the central strategies of the ACLU:

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Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court Antonin Scalia was in Puerto Rico at the invitation of the Federalist Society for Law and Public Policy Studies where he made a few comments on “Originalism”. Which is a term… descriptive of Strict Constructionism. Scalia does have a philosophy; it’s called originalism. That’s what prevents him from doing the things he would like to do. According to his judicial philosophy, he said, there can be no room for personal, political or religious beliefs.Scalia criticized those who believe in what he called the “living Constitution.

“That’s the argument of flexibility and it goes something like this: The Constitution is over 200 years old and societies change. It has to change with society, like a living organism, or it will become brittle and break. But you would have to be an idiot to believe that. The Constitution is not a living organism, it is a legal document. It says something and doesn’t say other things.”

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