|
|
Thursday, October 21, 2004
|
|
| |
Bureaucrats = Fish Food. Pete Canning pointed me to this story: Police kill India's 'Robin Hood', about India's most wanted criminal, Veerappan, who was recently "shot dead in an hour-long gunbattle with police in a jungle in southern India," after having "eluded authorities for... By Stephan Kinsella. [LewRockwell.com Blog]
It's interesting that the article only describes one crime that wasn't either a victimless non-crime or an attack on the government, that being kidnapping a movie star and releasing him four months later. The original article being from CNN, it's not surprising that they give a passing mention to the kidnapping and make it clear that (to the author) the serious crimes were engaging in free trade and opposing his government--things which I'm inclined to applaud him for. I wonder if he ever committed any other real crimes at all?
11:26:12 PM 
|
|
 John Kerry killed a poor defenseless goose today to show that he likes guns. I'll vote for him anyway. And I like the way it routes around the NRA which has shown its colors. It's not about protecting the 2nd Amendment, because Kerry supports it. They're using their members for something else. Good for Kerry for calling their bluff. If Bush can run as a compassionate conservative, no reason Kerry can't run as a gun-totin liberal. It's about time the liberals started kicking some butt. Or shooting it.  [Scripting News]
Of course it's ridiculous to claim that Kerry supports the 2nd Amendment--or any other part of the Constitution, for that matter. The same is true of most of the candidates; if you are a single-issue voter on the 2nd Amendment, your only choices are Michael Badnarik and Michael Peroutka.
11:19:18 PM
|
|
Delusions of Empire. Conceit, as I have pointed out before, has always been the defining characteristic of the imperialistic personality, but the sort of hubris exhibited above -- "We're an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality" -- goes beyond anything the world has yet seen. The maddest of Roman emperors took care to propitiate the gods, even as they accorded themselves divine status. But none dared venture their own creation myth. This is not just a new kind of American, as Professor Ryn would have it, but a new species of madmen.
The epistemology of modern-day imperialism gives us a glimpse into minds afflicted with a novel form of mental illness, one made possible not only by the concentration of centralized power in the American metropolis, but also by advanced technology and the evolution of the military arts. The savage thug who believes he can control reality by the use of his club -- Ayn Rand called this archetype "Attila," after the infamous Hun -- has been supplanted by the Gucci-suited technocrat who believes he can create reality by simply pushing a button or issuing an order. By commanding black-winged jet fighters to blast his enemies out of existence, the modern Attila believes he is constructing a new reality, one where his whims, his prejudices, his prissy little orthodoxies have the force of natural law.
In short, the neocons are just plain crazy, albeit in a historically unique fashion. This explains a lot. It explains the peculiar stubbornness that refuses to acknowledge error, even as Iraq implodes. It explains our rulers' utter indifference to being caught in so many lies -- the disappearing "weapons of mass destruction," the illusory "links" between Saddam and 9/11, the brazen "cherry-picking" of sexed-up intelligence, and the outright forgeries. [Antiwar.com]
10:25:10 AM
|
|
American Passports to Get Chipped. The United States plans to issue passports with personal data stored on radio frequency identification chips. The documents would be harder to forge, but might leave holders vulnerable to identity theft. By Ryan Singel. [Wired News]
If I get a new passport that has such a chip in it, the first place my passport will go is the office microwave.
10:03:18 AM
|
|
Warm Offices Boost Productivity. bluelip writes "It looks like the real reason for offshoring is corporations looking for warmer weather. Instead of paying the energy bills to crank up the heat in the office to a more productive temperature, the offices are moving to warmer areas. This article shows a 44% error reduction and 150% increase in productivity for those working in warmer offices. Will this increase in output be enough to convince my boss to pay for us to vacation-commute from a tropical island?" [Slashdot]
I'm glad someone actually did a study about this. In every company I've worked for the office thermostat has been controlled by a penguin, and it's amazing how much harder it is to work when I'm shivering at my desk in a heavy jacket compared to working at home in a comfortable temperature. I'll have to print out the article and pass it along to the facilities people at work.
9:30:48 AM
|
|
|
|
© Copyright
2006
Ken Hagler.
Last update:
2/15/2006; 2:03:16 PM.
|
|
|
