Come to the USA, the country whose leaders have it in for citizens and welcome alien invaders with open arms…
It’s no wonder more and more folks feel this way:
Commenting Elsewhere…
TF had an amusing post I responded to rather laconically with this:
*heh*
Just for Fun
Don’t ask, but reading this novel led me to view and download this video:
Anti-ci-pa-a-tion…
(Please don’t ask me where I stole this from, because I can’t recall where I found it. Modded it for use as a widescreen desktop wallpaper. )
The Decline
Obama and his co-conspirators have one story, but the facts on the ground call them liars:
No Redemption Absent Admission of Guilt
Or, no one can truly be forgiven if we eradicate “right” and “wrong”.
Mike Adams has a short piece that underscores some of the same issues that brought Dr. Karl Menninger, of the well-known and highly-respected Menninger psychiatric institute to write, “Whatever Became of Sin?” in the 1970s.
There are a number of problems associated with redefining all undesirable forms of behavior as “disorders” to be cured. Among them is the unanticipated consequence of depriving man of his humanity. If a man is merely a victim of some disease then he cannot really be considered evil. If he has no potential to be evil, he has no potential to be good.
C.S. Lewis pointed out another unanticipated consequence of our rush to treat, rather than punish, people who do evil things. He noted that the same intellectuals who determine when an illness has set in will also determine when that illness has dissipated. And they have a powerful incentive to drag out the entire process. Who among us would not rather take our punishment and be done with it – as opposed to waiting in perpetuity for the official clearance of a doctor?
Adams emerges at a slightly different place than Menninger, but both raise the issue of converting what is simply bad behavior into “treatable” so-called “medical conditions”.
The really critical issue to me is that wrong-doers can NOT obtain forgiveness for their wrong-doing and move on to reformation and redemption absent admission of guilt and genuine repentance–a desire to abandon their wrong-doing and change their evil ways. Yes, I said “evil”–so? 🙂 A part of admission of guilt and repentance must embrace a willingness to accept punishment and an attempt to make restitution for wrong-doing. While those last two things may stand apart from being forgiven by those they have wronged, full restoration into (whatever) society must hinge on demonstrations of willingness to make genuine restitution, however much it is possible to do so.
BTW, that last is one reason why I am a firm supporter of capital punishment for some crimes. There are simply some things for which no one can make restitution, and the criminal taking of another human life is one of them. No amount of repentance or genuine expression of remorse can restore the life (or lives) taken by a drunk driver, for example, but as long as society wrongly excuses such drunken manslaughter by giving drunk drivers a “bye” for their supposed “disease”, proper punishment of their crime (and the resultant “encouragement” of other drunks to eschew driving in the condition they created by choosing to be drunks) will not occur. (Yes, I do believe the proper punishment of someone who commits vehicular manslaughter as a result of choosing to drive drunk is execution. Preferably by having their own car–or whatever remains of it–dropped on them repeatedly, in public, until they are a greasy smear.)
Just Sayin’
Just as with simple things it’s taken Apple most of a couple of decades to catch up to the typical PC world on (can anyone come up with a sensible defense of the one-button Apple mouse?), the now iconic iPhone has feature-lag problems of its own, it seems,
What do iPhone users want most? According to the results of a survey released today, the top four things that U.S. iPhone users want most are already available from Google’s Android.
The survey, conducted by interactive research firm Vision Critical, lists a choice of wireless network (39 percent) as the number one thing that smartphone buyers in the U.S. would most like to have in the Apple iPhone. Android devices, of course, are available across multiple wireless carriers while the iPhone can only be used (without jailbreaking) on AT&T in the U.S.
*heh* “[J]ailbreaking”–exactly what Apple product users have to do over and over to gain the freedom users of other electronics products with other OSes can do OOtB. When Apple product users awaken to the world of possibilities outside the Apple realm, that is.
Of course, given the Apple Straitjacket approach to users, Apple will get around to providing features users want whenever Apple feels users should have them, which could be tomorrow or the Twelfth of Never, depending on the whims of Apple alone.
Android phones apparently have these user-desired features because it actually has to compete in the market, whereas Apple has millions of Apple-brainwashed Macrodist drones who’ll just buy “anything Apple” simply because the Mothership tells them to, creating a base to “evangelize” their products.
Of course Apple makes some decent hardware, and its BSD operating system–OSX–is good enough, apart from the straitjacket GUI (Of course, it is BSD, so at least Apple “stole from the best”* *heh*). Sad, though, that all Apple’s hardware is constrained by the Apple insidious mind control of weak-minded users. It’s almost as though Apple is building its own Assisted Computing Environment. “Here, dearie, let me make all your decisions for you. Features? These are not the features you are seeking… ” (With insincere apologies to Obi-Wan Kenobi fans.)
And weak-minded Apple drones simply “Baaah” in reply. (Rather like voters at the polls, come to think of it… Maybe Apple’s onto something here. Maybe people in general really are just that stupid.)
With Apple, it’s even more about control of the user than anyone over at the Evil Empire (M$) has ever desired even in their wildest dreams.
*”stole from the best” is not intended to imply anything illegal on Apple’s part. BSD is open source and Apple is legally free to adopt it as the real operating system that its GUI is the straitjacketed interface for. Of course, all Apple had to do with BSD was figure out a way to slap an interface on top of it that would lock users into its lil fantasy world of Apple Supreme Excellence.
Oh, do keep in mind that my critique of the Apple Straitjacket Fantasy World comes from a perspective that views folks telling me, “Have a nice day” as being pushy and intrusive. (Who are they to tell me what kind of day I should have? I can have a perfectly rotten one if I want to, and it’s none of their business, anyway! *heh*)
It’s the Little Things… Isn’t It?
Why do I prefer some products (various computer hardware, software, automotive, household products, etc.) over others? Usually, it seems to come down to little things.
I prefer Mobil1 motor oils, because, among other “little things”, Mobil makes a wide array of reliable, high-quality synthetic lubricants besides just motor oil, and I like having a consistent quality across the board in my automotive lubes.
I prefer ASUS computer hardware wherever possible, because I have come to find ASUS hardware to be consistently reliable and high-quality, but also–perhaps especially–because of one important “little thing”–live people respond quickly to support requests 24X7. I have not always liked the answers I’ve gotten, but I’ve never gotten any lame excuses from the support folks, either. Oh, and they all seem to be competent speakers of English. *heh*
I prefer Opera as my web browser for TONS of “little things” it does right. Built in mouse gestures that work consistently well and aren’t “broken” by upgrades like the add-on mouse gestures other browsers clumsily implement. Paste-and-go. Why the heck is that not a context menu option in other browsers (let alone, as in Opera, a quick keystroke combo)? How many times each day do folks paste links in a nav bar and then have to press “enter” or click another button to get the simple functionality of CTRL+D I have (yes, I modded the built in keystroke combo, because I have no use for CTRL+D as a keystroke combo to bookmark a site).
Speaking of modding keyboard navigation keystrokes, that’s another little thing: super simple, easy-peasy in Opera to make darned near any keystroke combo one wants.
Tons and tons of those kinds of “little things” make Opera THE choice here at twc central.
Household products? You may not have heard of the company, but for years now we have relied on the consistently exceptional quality and affordable cost of Melaleuca products, and my Wonder Woman will NOT give up her nutritional supplements the company makes. One example of affordable, high quality: the liquid laundry soap (not detergent) generally requires about 1/8 of a cup of product to do an excellent job cleaning clothes in our washer, with our small town water. That’s half what the company recommends, but it works for us. And that makes the product less expensive to use than buying something else at WallyWorld
And all the products work similarly for us. Little things like, use less (often much, much less) or simply unique properties–like the disinfectant spray that uses thyme as a primary component, for its disinfectant properties–have solidified the company’s products as our default for household needs.
Unique properties and features, customer service, consistently high quality, attention to detail: come to think if it, these aren’t “little things” at all!
Right to Exist
Stolen from a discussion at Jerry Pournelle’s place:
Couv’s Aphorism: No country has a right to exist except that which it enforces by persuasion, diplomacy, trickery, or force of arms. Of the four, force of arms trumps all.
That is, as another commenter points out, simply existing is something a nation must actively defend. There is no inherent national “right to exist”. This means, of course, that a nation whose borders aren’t actively enforced won’t be “itself” for long.
And another “of course” (of course ;-)): undefended borders are a boon to those who want to effect the demise of a nation. Makes one wonder if applying the word “traitor” to open borders advocates isn’t merely appropriate but a bit soft.
Kindle for PC? Notsomuch. But I Do Like the Book Pricing
OK, so Kindle for PC works. Reading The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest now, and the app just works. Barely.
*sigh* I guess I’ve just been spoiled all these years reading all my eBooks in my browser where I can set the text size to whatever I want, but the Kindle for PC app’s inability to change text size is really irksome. Do Not Like!!!
Oh, well. At least the $10 for the book was a good price (for me; and the author doesn’t care, since he’s both Swedish and dead. *heh*)
BTW, the book’s the culmination of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and The Girl Who Played with Fire— both very good reads. If Stieg Larson had lived and written more books, I’d certainly have bought and read ’em. Strong writing. The Sweden he describes isn’t appealing to me at all* (Mace is an “illegal weapon” for example), but I would certainly have enjoyed reading more of his work anyway.
*On further reflection, there is one appealing aspect of the Sweden Larsen describes: his view that a constitutional crisis, brought about by government abuse of one person’s rights, could bring down a (parliamentary style) democratic government. I’d wish the same for our country.