Month: March 2007

More posting later, meanwhile THIS is an open trackbacks post, open Friday through Sunday. Link to THIS post and track back. 🙂

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It’s always good to re-read books you once thought were good. Sometimes, you discover that time has lent you perspective that reveals the flaws of what you once thought was good but is merely mediocre. Other times, experience allows absorption of ideas that may have bounced off a younger head. *heh* And very often re-reading a book simply brings things back to mind you once knew but had not thought about in a while, and current events or the experience of years casts those thoughts in a new light.

Jerry Pournelle insists he doesn’t write “literature”–and he’s right, if one goes by the debauched concept of literature espoused in late 20th/century early 21st century English departments or by literature critics *spit*. But he does write often cracking good fiction, extremely good (though often dense, good and readable, but densely-packed with information) non-fiction and has one of the best blogs (although he dislikes the word :-)) around. Really, his site is much, much more than a blog.

At any rate, I decided recently to re-read The Prince, a collection of stories based in his CoDominion universe. It’s pretty good fiction–not his best storytelling, IMO–though filled with pretty heavy-handed didacticism as well. Notaproblem, since the lessons he imparts are well worth absorbing… and thinking about again. A small sample from a dialog where a mercenary “technical advisor” is counseling some terrorists on effective revolution will serve to illustrate:

…the enemy will maintain superior conventional military power almost to the end. As your own plan outlines, we must keep the struggle on a political level as far as possible.” He smiled, an expression that went no further than his lips. “In this we are aided by the nature of reality, and the arrow of entropy. It is always easier to tear down than to build, to make chaos rather than order, to render a society ungovernable rather than to govern effectively.

OK, class, applications? Try to branch out farther than just “The Democratic party” OK?

🙂

I do not observe St. Patrick’s Day. So sue me. (Good Luck!) However, I would like one and all to note that today is St. David’s Day. Dewi Sant, as he’s known in Wales, was quite a man, according to all records. Patron saint of Wales, he’s one of the few national patron saints of whom much is known, in fact.

Let me encourage you to read a bit about this guy, don a leek or a bit of parsley, hoist a Welsh dragon banner and celebrate the life of someone whom our own society’s leaders would do well to learn from, someone who had good character, instead of being a bad character as most of our political and other “leaders” (celebrities among media, for example, who function as de facto cultural leaders) seem to be.

And here’s my own lil tribute to the life of the man credited as the fist Christian missionary to Wales:

(CLICK for larger view)

Submitted this St. David’s Day, March 1, 2007 anno domini by St David the Younger (Almost. Well, close. OK, a fur piece away from… :-)).

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Trackposted to Blue Star Chronicles, The Virtuous Republic, The Random Yak, and Pursuing Holiness, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.

Thirteen Examples of Anarcho-Tyranny in Action

Yeh, another micro-mini-rant. 😉

Just follow the links for the examples. Any one of them is enough to skew my blood pressure results for a day…

1. Magistrate judge to decide if couple will be prosecuted for ‘stalking’ officer. Yeh, they set up cameras and a radar gun to catch speeders (plural) down their residential street, cos the cops were doing zippo. So, when they turned one of them in, this is what they get.

2. The Martha Stewart Rule. And here as well. Yeh. “Manufacturing” safely-prosecuted “criminals”.

3. And what about the Plame Game outcome? Seems the feds can gin up a prosecution if your memory (or someone else’s whom they want to believe) is faulty.

4. Ruby Ridge coverup and the continued freedom of Lon Horiuchi, the murderer of Vicki Weaver. No justice for the Weavers, that’s for sure.

5. The TSA. Examples too numerous to cite. *sigh* Try this one. Remanufacturing citizens as subjects.

6. You need look no further than the sticky post at the top of thos page for a prime example of anarcho-tyranny: the unconscionable persecution of two Border Patrol agents by an unjscrupullous feddle prosecutor (the position should be retitled as “persecutor” just for him, although he’s not the only one by far) for doing their job and following the rules the Border Patrol has for doing their BP agents!

7. The most obvious example of deliberate state-caused anarcho-tyranny is the willfull, witting and completely irresponsible and desrtructive behavior of the feddle gummint in NOT enforcing the laws against illegal immigrants, and, indeed, persecuting darned near anyone who does attempt to get those laws enforced. Save for the paltry few examples like the Swift plant raid that (unintentionally, I’m sure) exposed the lie that illegal immigrants are necessary to “do the jobs Americans won’t do,” the feddle gummint under the explicit leadership of President Bush has even managed to make the Clinton administration look good on border/immigration enforcement!

8. “Police blotter: Teens prosecuted for racy photos” Not condoning or in any way endorsing these kids’ behavior, but the courts determined that they were old enough to legally engage in sex in Florida, but arrested them and put them on trial as adults for engaging in child pornography… because the girl sent pictures of them in the act… to the boy. Let’s see… the pictures were of “children” who were then tried as “adults” for taking the pics and sharing them. Anyone make sense of that? That they were stupid on many levels doesn’t excuse the irrationality and injustice of the courts.

9. Julie Amero. The more I read of this case, the less respect I have for the people of Connecticut. In this case, the school system administrators, the police, prosecutor, judge and jury should all be introduced to Dr. Tarr and Mr. Fether and escorted on a long walk off a short pier.

10. The Duke “not-a-rape” case. Another case where the police (and school officials) as well as–especially!–a prosecutor all need introductions to Dr. Tarr and Mr. Fether…

11. Not here–yet!–but given the antipathy the “prisons for kids” system of public “education” has for homeschoolers (and the justifiable fear politicians and others have of citizens who can actually think), can it be far off? Police take home-taught student to psych ward: Government objected to her parent-led courses in math, Latin.

12. Of peanut butter and dogs: is there nothing the State cannot meddle in to restrict the liberties of common citizens while enabling outlaws to thrive?

13. Well, in answer to that apparently rhetorical question, no. Thursday Thirteen Hub, and Trackposted to Outside the Beltway, The Virtuous Republic, Perri Nelson’s Website, basil’s blog, Stuck On Stupid, The Amboy Times, Cao’s Blog, Leaning Straight Up, Conservative Thoughts, Pursuing Holiness, stikNstein… has no mercy, Blue Star Chronicles, Pirate’s Cove, The Pink Flamingo, Gulf Coast Hurricane Tracker, High Desert Wanderer, and Right Voices, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.