Day: November 28, 2005

I linked to some comments by Jerry Pournelle below, but for some reason, one portion of his comments I didn’t quote has been bring Harrison Bergeron back to haunt my thoughts all day…

“And there remains the ceaseless striving, with no peaceful end: is it any wonder that bureaucrats form feudal organizations and effectively end the striving and competition? Is it any wonder that the rise of the modern egalitarian state has produced the rise of bureaucracy and rule by bureaucracy?”

Any wonder at all? If bureaucrats had to demonstrate a genuine contribution to the good of society in order to keep their jobs, we could weed their ranks by 90% over night…

Oh, and DO pop on over and read Harrison Bergeron as well. It’s a very short story, and it’s also one of the few really good pieces by Kurt Vonnegut, IMO.

See Around and About Monday, Monday’s Featured Blog-and Open Post and Almost a “Guard the Borders” post (all below) for links to more good reading I’ve noticed.

This is a short roundup of recent ping-ins that may have slipped under the radar–worthwhile reads, all.

Peakah’s Pub mistook Teach Your Children Well for an Open Post and pinged in with “Front Page News“-and I’m glad he did cos there are some good reads listed in his link roundup.

TMH’s Bacon Bits only pinged me with Guard the Borders: What Is “Practical” Interior Enforcement, Anyway?, and that’s a shame, cos while it is a powerful post on an important topic, “Democrats Eat Their Own” Is Not News by new contributor, DL, is an equally good read.

The Florida Masochist brings the issue of Cindy Sheehan’s character-and those of her detractors-into focus with Tasteless. Indeed. 😉

And last but far from least is the collection of links posted at The Carnival of True Civil Liberties. Gribbit honors my submission with the label “important” and though I’d certainly agree (or I’d not have submitted it), I’d sooner lavish such a lable on some of the other submissions. Worthy reads, all.

Well, that covers early afternoon, here. Later.

Ditched my “Guard the borders” post for today, since The Tar Pit seems to have raided my hard drive for a draft and posted it as his own (Just kidding, dude: a good post on a topic I had planned to write on—not gonna duplicate the effort, though; just point folks to your post :-).
 
See this post at Diane’s Stuff for another border issue. “Homeland Security” my… *cough*
 
So… what? Here’s a (all too short, but very pointed) brief commentary on “The Drama of Atheist Humanism” and the impact of atheist humanism on the health (or lack thereof) of Western Civilization in general and the U.S. in particular. Pournelle commenting, of course. It’s hard to excerpt any portion of Pournelle’s all-too-brief (well, he added this during the holiday to last Wednesday’s post) exposition, but here’s a sample:

…when I was young there were no public ceremonies without an invocation and a benediction, usually both with one by a Roman Catholic and the other by a Protestant Minister. For sufficiently important events there would usually be a rabbi as well. We paid public attention and deference to “Divine Providence” and saw the Hand of God in our works.

“The courts in the name of liberalism have thrown all that out. Soon after of course goes most of civility: again I refer people to the Drama of Atheist Humanism, and where it has always led. Yes, there are highly ethical atheists. Some of them tend to militancy, at least among their friends. Marvin Minsky is a great example. But The Drama of Atheist Humanism still plays out in a different way because for every Minsky there will be two Trotsky’s and a Stalin.

“Today’s liberal establishment makes war on religion, which is odd, because the roots of liberalism are in religion. The assumption of human equality makes sense only in religious terms — surely few of you feel equal to the drooling idiot who camps on your doorstep and shakes the paper cup at you asking for change? Some see the Image of Christ, but that is not a rationalist or materialist position. Some see “But for the Grace of God there go I,” but again that is not a rationalist position…”

Just go read the rest. It’s germane to the topic “Why we do NOT guard our borders… or the rest of our civilization.”

A few of the interesting reads that cropped up over the weekend…

Pray for Kender. Seriously. Saw this at Cathouse Chat. Stop a moment and pray for the guy, would ya?

The Tar Pit wrote my Monday “Guard the Borders” post (I just have to improve the security around here! 🙂 when he featured, “Fred Barnes pimps the Bush Amnesty”. Gee. Now do I go ahead and post, “Don’t Read His Lips” for my GTB post or just refer everyone to The Tar Pit? heh

And, how did I miss this important news embedded in Pirates! Man Your Women!’s Thanksgiving Day post???

“You know its [sic] Thanksgiving when the SciFi channel is showing Army of Darkness.”

*sigh*

Found via a link in a post featured in a linkfest that linked to another post that linked to (convoluted enough for ya?): The Neo Con Blogger(TM)’s: “Young Drinkers Thinner Than Non-Drinkers”. His conclusion” “Enter LSU when you’re 20 and drink your butt off for 18 years and you’ll end up skinny, drunk, and stupid!”

Just caught up with this one: Rich Casebolt liveblogging Thanksgiving Day. Okaaaayy… (But really, some good stuff.)

With the upcoming Christmas season, many folks’ll just be too busy to lay back with old favs. Lotsa people like  to catch “It’s a Wonderful Life” (for some reason that has yet to reveal itself to me). For those who like the flick but may run short on time, be sure to save this link to “Frank Cappra’s ‘It’s a Wonderful Life’ in 30 Seconds (and re-enacted by bunnies)”. I can’t tell much difference between it and the original except that it’s shorter and doesn’t have Donna Reed. 😉

Sam’s begging for votes. Help out a tad, ‘K? Meanwhile, check out her post on an activity I could never quite get a handle on.

Diane comments on a “How-to” article written by a speech-impaired piscine. heh And her post on the Asian Bird Flu pretty well reflect my own views (apart from her musical selection :-).

S’all for now. Maybe more later. Time for more coffee.

N.B. The Maryhunter dropped me a note to say his trackback to Guard the Borders: What Is “Practical” Interior Enforcement, Anyway? hadn’t shown up. Hmmm, I’ve heard rumbles of not-talking-nice between Moveable Type(??? Or was it another??) and Haloscan, so that might be the culprit. Anyone else attempting to TB and having no success let me know in comments, ‘K?

Today’s featured blog, introduced to me via a linkfest/tb party, is Liberal Common Sense. More about that is a second, but first, let me point you to the Open Trackback Alliance and Open Trackback Provider blogrolls on my right sidebar. Hit up those blogs listed as Monday (or daily) Open Post bloggers for links to some fine reads you might otherwise miss, won’t you? It’s how I found Liberal Common Sense, and there may be others you’ll enjoy discovering either here, on this open post or elsewhere today. And do trackback posts to this one that you want to bring to others’ attention, eh?

On to Liberal Common Sense. Some folks who have read here for a while might think I dislike liberals, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. It’s just that real liberals can’t be found among the Mass Media Podpeople and Loony Left Moonbats I so often deride for their faux liberal blather.

Lisa Renee, at Liberal Common Sense doesn’t talk “reality based fantasy” but reality based reality, apparently grounded in the kind of liberal thinking John Stuart Mill would recognize, you know, the real thing. Take “Ramsey Clark, Saddam Hussein and the Media”—a post where she sensibly and calmly argues that both the AP and Worldnet Daily twist or selectively report news according to apparent bias. (Granted, she does score the WND article more highly for quantity and quality of info—by a hair. 🙂 Good commentary. As is this, while this whimsical piece is typical of other posts.

So, now you know why Liberal Common Sense is in my blogroll.  It earned a place there.

Open Post. Trackback with a post linked to here, and I’ll work it into an “Around and About” later on today.

And do note open posts at OTA member sites, Committees of Correspondence, The Land of Ozz, Pirates! Man Your Women!, Don Surber, Bloggin’ Outloud, and others as I get around to it or they get their Monday Open Posts up.

For this Open Post, link here and trackback to this link.