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Tuesday, November 5, 2002
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Learning:
Only a few analysts (and a few milion homeschoolers or alternative family schools) have stumbled onto the real secret--that the structure of the system itself is inimical to true education and individual development. It is designed to discourage thinking, not promote it.
These same analysts point out that government schools are not a failure. Not by any means. The system is doing exactly what its ninteenth century creators intended it to do when it was modeled after Prussia's Polizeistaat schools. It is producing masses of docile citizens who view the government as a kind of super parent.
I got this from a freedom-related mailing list, and don't know who wrote it.
8:58:09 PM 
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Laser Shoots Down Artillery Shell In Flight [Slashdot]
This has applications for missile defense, since missiles are easier to hit than artillery shells. If systems like this could be widely deployed, it would have a huge impact on land warfafe. For a long time artillery has dominated land battles, causing most casualties. If artillery shells could be intercepted short of their targets, direct-fire weapons such as tank guns and small arms would become much more important.
5:45:20 PM
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It turns out that it is indeed possible to write in a name on the ballot here in Los Angeles. Never having needed to do so before, I wasn't sure. I doubt the Los Angeles Times will bother reporting on how many votes Art Olivier gets, but it should be possible to get an idea by adding up the percentages for all the other candidates.
5:15:16 PM
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I exercised my stock options (or as many as I could) today, so in theory I should be getting a check in the mail. I'm doubtful, though, since the last time I used some stock options e-trade (which I'm forced by Symantec to use) just sat on the money for several weeks. When I finally called to ask them, they said the check "got lost" and FedExed me another. Not that I believe it--from what I've heard talking to co-workers, the same thing happens to everybody. No doubt they want to hang onto the money for as long as they can in order to collect interest on it.
3:02:55 PM
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FBI Agents 'Miffed' that Gun Owner Contacted Media. Prior to the capture of 'Beltway Sniper' suspects John Allen Muhammad and John Lee Malvo, an unconfirmed number of Maryland gun owners received surprise visits from the FBI as part of the investigation. One such gun owner had a surprise of his own for the agents when they arrived at his home.
Jeff Brown of Gaithersburg, Md., was 'a little nervous' when he heard the voicemail message from an FBI agent on the sniper task force who wanted to 'visit' Brown at his home to check a .223 caliber semi-automatic rifle Brown purchased in 1993. Adding to that apprehension was the fact that Brown owns and drives a full-sized white panel van, the type of vehicle investigators believed the sniper was driving.
'I expected, actually, to be pulled over and spread-eagle on the street at some point,' Brown told CNSNews.com Monday. 'When he called, I knew their database had had a double hit. A white van and a .223 rifle? I knew they were coming.' [FirearmNews.com]
More on the harrassement of gun owners by Feds who were totally clueless in the sniper case. It's nice to know what they were doing with their time instead of following up on Muhammad's attempts to give them clues.
12:51:17 PM
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"Sustainable" Development's Unsustainable Contradictions. History has amply demonstrated what kind of development is truly good for human life. For two centuries in the West, free markets, property rights, and the industrial civilization they made possible have produced an ever-increasing--and indefinitely "sustained"--prosperity. The environmentalist mythology paints this as an era of deadly pollution, when, in fact, the advent of industrialization doubled the average person's lifespan. It's not hard to see why: the Industrial Revolution brought us all of the development goals set forward at the UN conference--clean water and sanitation, the elimination of disease, plentiful food--and much, much more. These were enormous achievements in making man's physical environment healthier, and they were all made possible by industrial capitalism. [Counterpoint]
This was written during the UN's anti-civilization hatefest in Johannesburg. My favorite part of the article:
For environmentalists, the campaign for "sustainable development" is not motivated by a legitimate desire for development. Instead, it is an attempt to put a respectable face on their anti-development, anti-industry, anti-technology philosophy. The environmentalists want to pretend that strangling industrial civilization would not consign the world to a permanent hell of poverty, starvation, and mass death. They want to evade the monstrous consequences of their ideas.
12:07:57 PM
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If it's the law it's the law .... Vin Suprynowicz at Backwoods Home Magazine -
If it's the law it's the law ... - Mr. Suprynowicz asked two local
candidates for Attorney General whether they would enforce any law the
legislature or the people passed. Both said that they
would. Constitution be damned. Traitors!
Again, I found myself driven to ask, "Come on. What if a majority of
voters OK'd a law that required all Jews to wear yellow Stars of David
sewn on the outside of their clothing?"
"If it's the law it's the law," Mr. Child replied. "Whoever made these
laws, if they're passed, you have to abide by them."
Are the gentlemen anti-Semites, who really want racial minorities to
be "marked" for later round- up and removal, as practiced under
Germany's Third Reich? I seriously doubt it. I think they merely
wanted to demonstrate consistency in defending an initial wrong
premise -- that a nation once proud of our tradition of breaking bad
laws by throwing the tea in Boston harbor, or acquitting John Peter
Zenger of libel, or by defying the Fugitive Slave Act, is now a land
of dutiful little drones, enforcing and obeying any edict of the
central state.
...
Nowadays, I'm considered a "dangerous radical" because I insist I
can't find in the Second or 14th amendments any language that says
"The right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed,
except that any number of 'reasonable restrictions' can be enacted to
make the soccer moms feel safe by preventing anyone from walking down
the street with a bazooka."
[End the War on Freedom]
This attitude is a problem all over. During the debate between the socialist candidates for Governor in California (of course non-socialists are not permitted in debates), Simon said repeatedly that he would enforce the existing gun-control laws--even though they are all blatantly illegal under the Constitution. When I emailed his campaign to tell them that he'd lost my vote, one of his campaign workers made a point of repeating this.
10:07:34 AM
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The Register (UK) - Email deletion bug bites Norton Internet Security . A serious bug within Norton Internet Security 2003 is responsible for the unexplained deletion of emails for some users. Symantec is aware of the problem with the latest version of its security suite and is working on a fix. It promises to deliver a patch through its LiveUpdate automatic updating facility this week. The company has downplayed the significance of the problem by saying it affects a small number of people. [Privacy Digest]
I haven't been too impressed by the quality of our PC products. The Mac products are much better.
9:32:23 AM
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© Copyright
2005
Ken Hagler.
Last update:
3/9/2005; 2:32:18 PM.
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