FOXNews: Profiling the Maryland Shooter
Oh no! Your friendly narrator fits the profile (except for being a murderer, of course.) I don't play checkers. I guess, being a regular shooter and reader of gun magazines, I have a "pretty good obsession with weapons." I once wanted to be in the military (and was in JROTC, too.) The average person would probably consider me an "expert marksman" (until they saw what a real expert shoots like.) I have a copy of Soldier of Fortune in my possession (since the mainstream media sucks at war coverage).I'm older than the Colombine group. I'm a slightly middle-aged loner. (It is a stretch to call me middle aged, but someone probably would.) I guess the only thing I have going for me is a rock-solid alibi.
Philadelphia Daily News | CONSPIRACY: The Okla. City-Sept. 11 Connection
I can't vouch for the veracity, but I have seen similar stories from other independant sources. It is something to keep in mind.We might actually get disclosure on this one from the government, for one reason -- it still implicates McVeigh. If it exonerated him, we would never hear the story, because the Republicans would be afraid that it would become a rallying cry against the death penalty (given that it would mean that we executed McVeigh wrongly.)
WorldNetDaily: Doping our kids
I have a thought on the overmedication of our children. The first thing that strikes me is the similarity to A Brave New World. I've seen the signs of stressing conformity for a while, the replacement of individuality with group identity (diversity and political correctness) and the hideous socialism of America's youth, but it is only recently that I realized the significance of drugs in the novel -- and the necessity of them in that kind of society.
The Onion | Bush Seeks U.N. Support For 'U.S. Does Whatever It Wants' Plan
Sometimes, the Onion is better than real life. I dream of a world that is more like the Onion.ArabNews: Naif rules out Arabs as bomb suspects
Well, I'm glad that we got that straightened out. Can you imagine a world where Saudi Muslims were bombing westerners and engaging in terrorism?You can? Oh.
Mercury News | 10/01/2002 | Dan Gillmor: Apple stands firm against entertainment cartel
Nifty article about Apple's resistance to Digital Restrictions Management. Steve Jobs (you know, CEO of Pixar along with Apple) knows that DRM is a bunch of crap, and he knows that this could be the boom that Apple needs.Imagine this furture: trusted computing and DRM is totally embraced by Intel and AMD. You can't buy a computer that doesn't run a "trusted" OS -- that means no self-compiled linux kernels, no hacked Windoze, nothing. You can run Win-whatever, or you can run a precompiled linux (approved by Intel) or you can go to hell.
Or you can go to Apple. You can run OS X (with BSD Darwin underpinnings.) You can install any number of linux distros on it (Yellow Dog comes to mind.) You can roll your own linux kenrel. You can roll your own Darwin kernel and run OS X on it if you are slick. And you can continue to "Rip, Mix and Burn."
WorldNetDaily: Too bad, Mrs. Toogood, we're taking your kids
The idea of the state deciding who can and can't keep children has bothered me for a while. Any authoritarian state must control the children to control the future. The methods are obvious in places like Cuba and other communist countries, where the children are herded into camps and indoctrinated into the state. But what about America?We have "mandatory attendance" of school. You must send your children to a government school. Well, not quite. You can send them to a government approved private school. The only problem with the indocrination plan is that you can home school a child. Well, California is trying to sew up that loophole, and if they do, other states will follow.
So what happens in this government school? Children are taught first to give an oath of obedience to the symbol of the state (called the Pledge of Allegance.) Then they are slowly indoctrinated into the socialism of "helping those less fortunate" (by having thier supplies taken from them and distributed to the class) and "environmentalism" (your property isn't yours to do what you want with it if the majority doesn't like what you are doing) and the falacious idea that America is a democracy (it is a Constitutional Republic -- if you don't know the difference, look it up.)
All the while, these children are being taught that the state/school is the ulimate authority, even over thier parents. You can't bring your medication to school unless the principal gives you permission, no matter what Mommy says. You can't take a day away from school, no matter what Mommy says. If Mommy tells you one thing and your teacher tells you another, then Mommy is wrong and you will get in trouble if you don't agree that this is right and proper.
Mommy can't spank you because the state/school protects you from her. She can't punish you because the state/school protects you. It isn't just your duty to tattle to the state/school if Mommy hits you, but also if someone else's Mommy hits them. The state/school must be obeyed, and if it isn't, then Mommy will go away and you won't be able to see her again.
Race and IQ scores -- The Washington Times
I can't resist any column that deals with sacred cows. This one was both thoughtful and tasteful.MEMRI: US Ambassador's statement to Egyptian Press
This one was interesting to me. It is hard for me to tell from translations halfway around the world what kind of foothold conspiracy nuts have in Egypt, but it seems like they are at least a step ahead of the nuts here. From this translation, it doesn't seem like the Ambassador was being intentionally inflamatory.I was glad to see that there IS a debate going on in Egypt, but unfortunately, I'm not educated enough on Egyptian culture to know how credible the defenders are. One thing that did strike me as interesting is how a call for restraint is equated with censorship. At first, I considered it a blatent straw man attack, but as I read, I began to remember radicals in America (socialist and libertarian) using the same tactics. It isn't hard to keep this straight: You have the right to say what you want, and I have the right to call you a stupid idiot for saying it. That is how freedom of speach works.
DDN | Dozens protest Preble County police shooting
This is your police.This is your police on Drug Wars.
Any questions?
Yahoo! News - Myth Dispelled: Shoe Size, Penis Size Not Linked
Science marches on. I wish I could blame this on socialized medicine, but I can't.How much do you want to bet that these two guys wear something like size 6 shoes?
"It is Impossible to Make Peace With the Jews"
Any time I start to think that modern Arab Islam is a religeon is peace, I just have to go to someplace like MEMRI and read translations of what is being said to the believers.ArabNews: Saudi Arabia to build 600 houses for Palestinians
This is support for terrorism. It is time for Saudi Arabia to head the list of nations supporting terrorism.ArabNews: Car bomb blast kills German in Riyadh
This is a continuation of a trend in Saudi Arabia. I'm on the fence; I really don't have a feel for whether or not this is terrorism or gangland warfare. I can certainly buy the alcohol smuggling angle -- prohibition in any form breeds violence.On the other hand, I haven't heard any stories about any non-Westerners being targetted in these bombings. I think that I am starting to lean towards terrorism. Before Bin Laden, you could count on terrorists to claim their strikes. Al Quiada started a new trend of not claiming attacks, but simply couching them to achieve the goal. One of Bin Landen's professed goals is to remove non-Muslims from his Holy land of Saudi Arabia. This attack swayed me to believe that this is a continuation of that philosophy, if not under his direction (and probably not, since he is probably dead.)
TalkLeft: Ecstasy: Experts Disagree on Dangers
It disappoints me to read these articles, but I don't expect them to end any time soon. "Drugs are bad, m'kay?" Well, turns out that the tests show that they aren't that bad. What do we do? Change the test! Still isn't that bad? Fake the results! Gotta have that gummint funding!"Prohibition is an awful flop.
We like it.
It can't stop what it's meant to stop.
We like it.
It's left a path of graft and slime,
It don't prohibit worth a dime,
It's filled our land with vice and crime.
Nevertheless, we're for it."
Franklin P. Adams, 1931
OpinionJournal - How to Be Happy
This was a pretty thought provoking article for me. I had always had this gut feeling as a libertarian, but it was interesting to see it verbalized. We are the sum of our choices. Too many people are being told that the wrong choices will make them happy.ABC Sci-Tech: Venus could be a haven for life
Informative. This stuff tends to get lost in the shuffle.Jerusalem Post: Arafat to Gaza rally: We'll liberate Jerusalem
Yassir Arafat won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1994.Does anyone still believe that this is a man of peace? Everything he is saying that they will achieve in the uprising is what he was promised in Olso and turned down. Of course, they Palestinian people know what he is really saying.
