stupid is as stupid does – Page 35

March 2, 2007

Entropy

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?

🙂

March 1, 2007April 6, 2009

T-13, 1.18: Thirteen Examples of Anarcho-Tyranny in Action

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.

February 27, 2007February 27, 2007

Once again, an appeal to illiterates

The big news of the past few days is James Cameron’s soon-to-be-aired film in which he claims to have debunked the ressurection of Jesus. I haven’t seen it, of course, since the release is not until Sunday this coming (of course), but if news articles discussing it are anywhere near to truthful, its only appeal will be to people so ignorant and unable to reason that it’s likely to appeal to the huge numbers of sheeple our so-called public education’s been hatching for years. Let’s let the film’s publicity flacks lead with its strong cards:

Archaeologists and clergymen in the Holy Land derided claims in a new documentary produced by James Cameron that contradict major Christian tenets, but the Oscar-winning director said the evidence was based on sound statistics [emphasis added]…

…One of the caskets even bears the title, “Judah, son of Jesus,” hinting that Jesus may have had a son, according to the documentary. And the very fact that Jesus had an ossuary would contradict the Christian belief that he was resurrected and ascended to heaven.

Cameron told NBC’S “Today” show that statisticians found “in the range of a couple of million to one in favor of it being them.” Simcha Jacobovici, the Toronto filmmaker who directed the documentary, said the implications “are huge.”

Who can spot at least one unwarranted assumption? Any hands waving in the back of the class? Hint: Jesus, or Yeshua, was long a popular name for Jewish boys. A little elemental biblical knowledge would reveal why. So, the “evidence… based on sound statistics” is B.S. Silly people. One would think that Jacobovici, an Israeli Jew who has spent much of his life attempting, without much success among literate people, to “debunk” Jewish history would know when he’s talking nonsense. I suspect, in fact, that he does and is simply being disingenuous to sell his product to cultural and historical illiterates.

As Amos Kloner, the first archaeologist to examine the site that the film claims to be the burial of the Jesus of the New Testament says, “It was an ordinary middle-class Jerusalem burial cave. The names on the caskets are the most common names found among Jews at the time.”

Oh, watch the thing if you want. The poor guy, Simcha Jacobovici, hasn’t been able to sell many copies of his tinfoil hatted book, The Jesus Family Tomb, and even con men have to make a living somehow, right? Heck, he and his lk have been pushing this story since 1996. All he had to do was keep pushing his story until he found a dummy like James Cameron to buy it. OK, “dummy” ~~may be a little~~ is too harsh. Guliible, certainly. Operating in waters above the level of his cultural literacy, absolutely. But “dummy” is a bit much… Just one more data point added to my observations of smart people doing stupid things and falling for the most outrageous cons.

Of course, one of the points of being culturally literate is that it aids in spotting such obvious chicanery. Doesn’t assure infallibility, but it sure does go a long way toward spotting the obvious cons.

Trackposted to Perri Nelson’s Website, Adam’s Blog, stikNstein… has no mercy, basil’s blog, Pirate’s Cove, The Pink Flamingo, The Amboy Times, Dumb Ox Daily News, Jo’s Cafe, and Right Voices, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.

February 27, 2007February 27, 2007

Tuesday Linkfest/Scoring Education

Note the brief reference to some significant information about education in the U.S. below.

THIS is an open trackbacks post. Link to THIS post and track back. 🙂

If you have a linkfest/open trackback post to promote OR if you simply want to promote a post via the linkfests/open trackback posts others are offering, GO TO LINKFEST HAVEN DELUXE! Just CLICK the link above or the graphic immediately below.

If you want to host your own linkfests but have not yet done so, check out the Open Trackbacks Alliance. The FAQ there is very helpful in understanding linkfests/open trackbacks.

Grades are rising but learning is lagging, federal reports find
High school students today have higher GPAs but lower skill levels, suggesting a failure of education reforms.

Yep, you read right: high school students are getting better grades than their counterparts 15 years previously, according to a data on high school students in the year 2005 compared to students in 1990.

And then there’s the gotcha: on standardized tests, reading skills are declining steadily (no surprise to readers of this blog… or anyone who’s been paying attention at all, at all) and math skills are lower than before, as well.

Move along. Nothing to see here but “No child gets ahead”…

Among other things, [Daria] Hall [assistant director of the Education Trust] said, the transcript study provided clear evidence of grade inflation, as well as “course inflation” Ã¢â‚¬â€ offering high-level courses that have “the right names” but a dumbed-down curriculum.

“What it suggests is that we are telling students that they’re being successful in these courses when, in fact, we’re not teaching them any more than they were learning in the past,” she said. “So we are, in effect, lying to these students.”

Well, duh.

[Expect me to refer back to this, as well as other information when I address the issue of public education in an upcoming “Mending Walls” post. Heck, just mark this place and I’ll just say something like, “Remember the decline in reading and math scores … ” *sigh*]

February 26, 2007March 2, 2007

Guard the Borders: Sutton Withheld Exculpatory Evidence In Border Patrol Trial

By Darnell McGavock of Independent Conservative

As far as major finds in how badly the case of former US Border Patrol agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean was not only messed up, but intentionally tipped towards their conviction, legal experts say this is the biggest! The defense says that a document from the Department of Homeland Security confirms that two supervisors were on the scene the day an illegal immigrant drug smuggler claims he was shot in the butt. The defense is just finding out about this document, that US Attorney Johnny SuttonÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s office had and did not reveal to them during the trial. This was all reported on CNN show Lou Dobbs Tonight last night. IÃ¢â‚¬â„¢ve YouTubed the video and you can watch it below.

Why did SuttonÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s office withhold exculpatory information?

Ramos and Compean said they never filed a report because supervisors were there. Sutton claimed otherwise in court. Their version of the story has now been verified and once again we see another obvious lie from the mouth of Johnny Sutton.

Jeffrey Toobin, CNN Senior Legal Analyst says this news is potentially major, as opposed to other news he does not feel is as impacting to changing the outcome of the case. Toobin says this moves things into a Ã¢â‚¬Å“new categoryÃ¢â‚¬Â that may cause a new trial. Lou Dobbs says that Johnny Sutton Ã¢â‚¬Å“liedÃ¢â‚¬Â when he said he had no choice but to offer immunity. And World Net Daily has found more information about illegal alien drug smuggler Osbaldo Aldrete-Davila still running dope into our country, after being given medical treatment at US taxpayer expense. This offense was gagged by the judge and the family of Ramos and Compean still refuse to even talk about it, for fear that Johnny Sutton will come after them.

We need and I mean NEED a full Congressional investigation of this entire case right now. We also need to know who in our government knew what, when and what orders they gave to Johnny Sutton and/or the judge. We need to know every single detail related to President George W. Bush involving this matter. ItÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s time to stop reading and start writing your congresspeople. We now have more than enough information to not simply be suspicious about this case, we know these men were set up!

Let me add a comment, taken from Samuel Francis’ excellent 2005 essay on anarcho-tyranny:

The state today is perfectly capable of enforcing laws against illegal immigration and catching and deporting the illegals who are already here… The state and those who control it clearly have the will to enforce those laws they wish to enforce. The state does not Ã¢â‚¬Å“failÃ¢â‚¬Â to enforce the rest; it has no intention of enforcing them nor any desire to do so…

Anarcho-tyranny is entirely deliberate, a calculated transformation of the function of the state from one committed to protecting the law-abiding citizenry to a state that treats the law-abiding citizen as, at best, a social pathology and, at worst, an enemy. Having captured the state apparatus, the anarcho-tyrants are the real hegemonic class in contemporary society, and their function is to formulate and construct the new Ã¢â‚¬Å“cultureÃ¢â‚¬Â of the new order they envision, a culture that rejects as repressive and pathological the traditional culture and civilization.”

The very fact that President Bush has intransigently refused to even review the facts of this case (at least it so appears, since his mouthpiece, Tony Snow, evidences woeful lack of knowledge and the president has yet to do the right thing and release these men), and his own administration has led the charge in railroading these men for doing their job and then lied about the circumstances to Congress, reveals that this administration has little regard for fullfilling its constitutional obligation to enforce the laws of the land whenever it runs afoul of the goals of the ricos who rule Mexico.

When “justice” is a lie, then we can add another data point to the similarity between the “great train of abuses” the Founders levied against King George and the steadily-growing train of abuses of our own current federal government–on every side of any aisle. What? You think the Democraps are any more interested in justice for Ramos and Capeon (or you or I) than the Republican’ts? Dream on.