tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-133885922024-03-13T09:36:26.191-07:00Boxing AlcibiadesJust in case you remember what it was like to work on an Apple //eboxingalcibiadeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07423435926502068028noreply@blogger.comBlogger415125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13388592.post-62167777791429938382007-12-04T20:46:00.000-08:002007-12-04T20:47:51.476-08:00And... We're Back!That was refreshing. And now for a nice cold drink of "let's see if Blogger's improved in the meantime."<br /><br />Wordpress is handy, and has some nice customer support -- but I'm increasingly irked at the extensive lack of editability. We'll see how this goes.boxingalcibiadeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07423435926502068028noreply@blogger.com428tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13388592.post-1150231292731336382006-06-13T13:40:00.000-07:002006-06-13T13:41:32.836-07:00This site is toast.<div align="center">And will soon be demolished. Please update your links to</div><br /><div align="center"><em>Happycrow's Eyeball Factory</em></div><br /><div align="center">at</div><div align="center"> </div><div align="center"><a href="http://www.happycrow.wordpress.com">http://www.happycrow.wordpress.com</a></div>boxingalcibiadeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07423435926502068028noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13388592.post-1150129594906018672006-06-12T09:25:00.000-07:002006-06-12T09:26:35.013-07:00Soliciting feedback on new site.Need to know if the basic idea works.<br /><br />(I know, the top bar looks ass. I have no idea why the guy designing it liked that smudge effect.)boxingalcibiadeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07423435926502068028noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13388592.post-1149864705292439322006-06-09T19:48:00.000-07:002006-06-09T15:52:39.770-07:00Blog Port Has StartedI've just lost too many posts and post edits here, and am jumping ship to WordPress (and hopefully will stay linked up through the Sciolist group). This blog will be kept up for probably the next week or two, as I work out the kinks, and will then Michelangelo except for a forwarding page.<br /><br />Here's the page, down to fine-tuning: <a href="http://happycrow.wordpress.com">Happycrow's Eyeball Factory</a>boxingalcibiadeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07423435926502068028noreply@blogger.com84tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13388592.post-1149879277282140262006-06-09T11:14:00.000-07:002006-06-09T12:59:45.353-07:00More hypocrisy from so-called "Catholic Intellectuals"Meet Benjamin Wiker, a man whose understanding far outstrips his ability to muster an honest argument.<br /><br />Mr. Wiker has a nice little screed entitled <a href="http://www.crisismagazine.com/feature2.htm">Benedict Contra Nietzsche: A Reflection on Deus Caritas Est</a>, in <em>Crisis Magazine</em>.<br /><br />He starts out well. It doesn't take a genius to see that some intellectuals who are not Papal Monarchists could use <em>Deus Caritas Est</em> (hereinafter <em>DCE</em>) as an excuse to grind their favorite axe, that being whether or not that axe applies. For instance, Mr. Wiker is absolutely justified in pointing out that Bishop Francis Deniau is probably talking out of his butt if he regards this as a wink-and-a-nod towards softening the Papacy's position on contraception.<br /><br />Now, whether or not the Papal Monarchy has the grounds to tell us anything about contraception, as Deniau would probably argue against, is one thing, and as an obvious PM supporter, Mr. Wiker can argue that the Pope is entitled to regulate our dental floss, for all I care. Because Mr. Wiker is so focused on demonstrating his position's moral superiority to that of the liberal Bishop, and using Nietzsche as his straw-man whipping boy in the process, that he badly distorts the Encyclical in the process.<br /><br /><strong>Enter the world's most-misunderstood philosopher.</strong><br /><br />For starters, Mr. Wiker needs to actually read some Nietzsche:<br /><blockquote><em>"It was quite surprising to have Benedict open with philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche’s charge against Christianity. “Christianity gave Eros poison to drink,” Nietzsche quipped; “he did not die of it but degenerated—into vice.”</em><br /></blockquote><br />Well, actually, Mr. Wiker, no, it's not. But that's because every Christian on earth reads the words "God is dead," and assumes that Nietzsche held the same b.s. views his Nazi sister did -- the same sister who conveniently edited his works while he was in a coma. Of course, Nietzsche doesn't attack Christianity at all -- which anybody who's actually read the text with their eyelids open can tell you. Instead, he argued against <em>hypocrites calling themselves Christians</em>, while simultaneously reducing God to nothing more than a Sunday-morning checkbox.<br /><br />Go ahead, Mr. Wiker. Take off your ideological blinders for a couple minutes, and crack a copy of <em>Thus Spake Zarathustra</em>. Of course the Pope quotes Nietzsche... Nietzsche is probably the most profound philosopher of the 19th century -- especially when one contrasts the Hegelian nightmare of an intellectual world in which he lived -- and is profoundly friendly to the practice of the Christian Faith.<br /><br />But by all means, Mr. Wiker, never leave a straw-man unburnt and a convenient whipping-boy unwhipped, if that will allow you to smite the unholy liberal.<br /><br /><strong>Can we get an honest argument from a conservative Catholic, please?</strong><br /><br />Now, by and large, I have no issue with the general argument Mr. Wiker puts forth, or would be putting forth, if he were willing to do the heavy lifting of writing an intellectually honest argument. But this guy is a Senior Fellow of Biblical Theology, not some holy-roller with a bachelor's degree pretending he understands hermeneutics. So when Mr. Wiker writes the following,<br /><blockquote><em>The restoration of eros demands that we reject both the gnostic denial of the reality and goodness of the flesh and the materialist, Epicurean denial of the reality and goodness of the spirit.</em></blockquote><br />Mr. Wiker goes beyond the pale. As, unfortunately, is usual for Conservative Catholics lately. Opposing gnosticism? <em>Great!</em> Tossing an equals sign between Epicureanism and Hedonism, because that's convenient for your argument? The holy-roller in the middle of his second semester of philosophy might make that mistake, but <em>Mr. Wiker</em>, <strong>y<em>ou know better</em></strong>.<br /><br />And so on, until we get to this lovely gem:<br /><blockquote><em>Perhaps, then, Benedict begins with Nietzsche as a prophecy. “I am a disciple of the philosopher Dionysus,” declared Nietzsche in Ecce Homo, “I should prefer to be even a satyr to being a saint.” That is, he would prefer to be less than human than to submit to the reality of a spiritual realm, for that would entail the submission of his will to God.</em></blockquote>No, as usual, Mr. Wiker, the Pope's a touch smarter than you are. For starters, on the off chance he actually forgot, Benedict has some folks who can probably remind him that <em>Ecce Homo</em> belongs to a six-letter literary tradition beginning with an "s." In case you're having trouble guessing it, I've heard recently that it rhymes with "flat tire."<br /><br />Well, the argument descends into a generally-worthwhile, albeit completely misdirected, meditation upon agape as a love that descends from above, and eros as a love that rises creatively from below.<br /><blockquote><em>Far from poisoning eros, Christianity not only affirms it, but elevates it beyond its wildest dreams. Nothing is lost; all is divinized.</em> </blockquote>Yeah, Mr. Wiker, no problem. Pity you don't realize that Nietzsche agrees with you, insofar as you're talking about actual Christians, rather than the Sunday-checkbox crowd.<br /><br />But, no. Mr. Wiker has to add in the traditional, smugly self-righteousness parting shot so horribly common amongst conservative Catholics these days:<br /><blockquote><em>If only the satyrs had ears to hear.</em> </blockquote><br />Well, the "satyr," as you termed it, can't hear. He's not around to defend himself, and his works were half-hijacked by a Nazi (not that it takes a genius to see where). And he certainly suffered, on a number of levels, and from syphilis espcially.<br /><br />In fact, his very last conscious act, before lapsing into a syphilis-induced coma, was to literally hurl himself into the street to throw himself between a coachman and the exhausted horse said coachman was literally whipping to death, shielding the horse with his body and choosing to accept the angry strokes of a vicious man's whip while weeping in sympathy for a cruelly-abused animal.<br /><span style="color:#d8d0c8;"></span><br /><a href="http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/encyclicals/documents/hf_ben-xvi_enc_20051225_deus-caritas-est_en.html">“God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him” (</a><a href="http://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0839/__P12E.HTM">1 Jn 4:16</a><a href="http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/encyclicals/documents/hf_ben-xvi_enc_20051225_deus-caritas-est_en.html">). </a><br /><br />Remove the beam from your own eye, Mr. Wiker, and crack a copy of <em>Mere Christianity</em>: the "satyr" walking down his road of suffering was closer to God than you're ever likely to get up there on your high and mighty edifice.boxingalcibiadeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07423435926502068028noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13388592.post-1149784658043781272006-06-08T09:25:00.000-07:002006-06-08T09:37:38.136-07:00Kos just GOT OWNED over at SamizdataHere's KOS, on the future of the Democratic Party: <a href="http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2006/6/7/131550/7297">Libertarian Democrats</a>.<br />Here's Perry de Havilland, <a href="http://www.samizdata.net/blog/archives/2006/06/libertarian_dem.html">roundly thrashing him </a>for his ignorance.<br /><br />First and foremost, I've been saying for several years now, what Markos would have been saying if Perry wasn't unfortunately right (i.e., Kos has no clue what it means to be libertarian). A left-libertarian party is the only way the Dems are going to survive, because the electorate soundly rejects their two cores of power, the Soft Socialists (Kos, the Netroots, and Russ Feingold) and the Communitarians (Hillary, John Kerry, etc.) The latter have structural problems with being elected (and their outright rejection of liberty issues hurts them from the starting gate), and the former are dead in the water, because the Reagan Coalition was set up to fight these guys from Day One. The "Progressives" don't have any trouble getting their message out... the electorate hears it loud and clear, and <em>rejects it outright for the </em>semi-authoritarian pseudo-utopian claptrap that it is.<br /><br />Going a step beyond Perry, Kos, on the other hand, cannot distinguish that there is a fundamental difference between positive and negative liberty. In other words, there is "freedom from" and "freedom for," and Kos is insensitive to the fairly drastic results of orienting oneself in one or the other direction. <span style="font-size:85%;">(Three guesses which orientation appeals more to the Democrats, and the first fifty don't count.) <span style="font-size:100%;">And to make the matter worse, he seems to posit that positive and negative liberty are unproblematically compatible</span>. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-size:100%;">That is a bozo no-no error that any freshman college student reading The Republic should be able to avoid.</span><br /><br />In other words, Kos fails to walk the walk, because he has no clue how to talk the talk.boxingalcibiadeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07423435926502068028noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13388592.post-1149514968056510382006-06-05T06:27:00.000-07:002006-06-05T06:42:48.116-07:00Demogogues on Gay Marriage, round twoI'm a politics junkie. Not theory, per se, though that comes in, but political news. The Great Game. <span style="font-size:85%;">(Yes, Virginia, I'm aware that this is a specific historical term -- I am blatantly abusing it.)</span> <br /><br />So, with all these things in the news that truly matter: Iranians protesting against abuses of their government while the Basij and religious secret police literally torture students to death <span style="font-size:85%;">(note to Progressive protestors in USA: you're not showing guts by blocking traffic as your preferred means of speaking truth to power, you posers. <em>These kids</em> are showing guts, occasionally as they're pulled slowly out of their bodies by truly evil men. So, show some respect). </span><span style="font-size:100%;">Vietnam and the US might reach rapprochement on economic issues. The US wonders how to keep its foundering hospitals afloat, when illegals cross the border solely to migrate up for free medical care, and then cross back over -- without losing the politically-incorrect benefits of Mexico essentially selling us their best and brightest citizens...</span><br /><br />All this and plenty besides, and we have to talk about <em>Gay Marriage</em>?<br /><br />Gay Marriage, Flag Burning, what other issues are there that so waste our time as a body politic?<br />This has nothing to do with conservative vs. liberal or Republican vs. Democrat. A couple of quick sound bytes to the contrary, <em>nobody</em> in the political establishment is taking the gay side in this. The Republicans may be cynical about proffering an outright abuse of the Constitution to achieve their ends, but Democrats are equally cynical about proffering doomed abuses of the court system to make cheap political points claiming to support gays, and then betraying them at the ballot box <em>and "outing" people as a political weapon</em>.<br /><br />There are conservative arguments for and against Gay Marriage. (Defense of family/Provisions contra ultrapromiscuous, pro-disease bathhouse culture)<br /><br />There are liberal arguments for and against Gay Marriage. (Marriage as a civil right applying to all citizens/Fairness mandating that all government marriages be labelled "civil unions," given its inherent non-religious character)<br /><br />There are libertarian arguments for and against Gay Marriage. (Don't use the force of government to dictate social mores/Don't use government as a weapon to force straights to redefine the bedrock institution of their culture).<br /><br />There. We've said it. There are arguments for it and against it. Now, can we get back to some issue that might actually have nationwide relevance, like the fact that there's a war on?boxingalcibiadeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07423435926502068028noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13388592.post-1149513934581168622006-06-05T06:21:00.000-07:002006-06-05T06:25:34.633-07:00al-Faisal: would you buy a used textbook from this man?Sure, <a href="http://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion/editorials/2006-06-04-opposing-view_x.htm">we've got a few bigots</a>, he says, but we're undergoing changes as fast as we can...<br /><br />Now, the Saudis' role in creating those bigots, and recent reporters' descriptions that said textbooks have not changed at all, doesn't seem to be mentioned. Neither the warning of Tom Holsinger <span style="font-size:85%;">(a frequent Winds of Change contributor -- link at right)</span> that the Saudis have consciously engineered a society of brainwashed welfare lackeys that cannot survive without them, and the perils that creates for when the old clan structures finally do perish... <br /><br />but, go ahead, al-Faisal, pull the other one...boxingalcibiadeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07423435926502068028noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13388592.post-1149438348584081242006-06-04T09:24:00.000-07:002006-06-04T09:25:48.586-07:00Tanning updateMinor score for those who put up with me regularly: I need to put the piece of cowhide into its dressing and get a staking knife -- the cowhide is thick and dense enough that it can't be softened without treatment and a LOT of force... for which a belt knife is simply insufficient.<br /><br />The horsehide, otoh, has started beautifully, and I may be able to get it done today. A nice excuse to sit outside in the shade while people with better tans than me soak up the sun.boxingalcibiadeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07423435926502068028noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13388592.post-1149257217376076562006-06-02T07:05:00.000-07:002006-06-04T09:20:14.790-07:00Oh, those poor mullahsThey're already planning to <a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/world/20060531-121559-6573r.htm">fight the last war</a>.<br />The one we've just spent three years learning how to be <a href="http://www.strategypage.com/qnd/iraq/articles/20060602.aspx">really, really good </a>at.<br /><br />I can't tell if this is luck, pitiable sadness, or else Comedy Gold.<br /><span style="font-size:78%;">Hat Tip: <a href="http://www.windsofchange.net/archives/008664.php">Friday Winds of War</a>.</span><br /><span style="font-size:78%;"></span><br />Also, apparently Kurdistan is really <a href="http://www.fontcraft.com/csa/culturecomments.php?id=614_0_6_0_C">getting it right </a>when it comes to religious tolerance.<br />UPDATE: It's getting serious in Iran. Check out Gateway Pundit's link to right, and <a href="http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=2380907924962420269&q=tabriz">this video clip</a>.boxingalcibiadeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07423435926502068028noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13388592.post-1149094949018938392006-05-31T09:52:00.000-07:002006-05-31T10:05:38.393-07:00Chivalry is Dead and Alive.I'm glad I'm not <a href="http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/metro/atlanta/stories/0531metmarine.html">this Marine</a>, who has to go through the rest of his life reliving what it's like to stab a pregnant gang-banger while she and her thuglet goblin friends are out robbing people at gunpoint.<br /><br />I had a long argument once with a guy in my salle, who has severe <em>Cannot Hit Women Syndrome</em>. For a long time, I even argued with myself over whether I should be bothered by the fact that I have absolutely zero compunction against laying a woman out if need be, merely because she's got tits.<br /><br />Yes, in response to the obvious reaction, it's more complicated than that. But those of us following self-defense for a while have noticed that there are a lot of women out there involved in violent and aggressive behavior, and they're not shy about taking advantage of the fact that men's better halves generally tie a hand behind their backs. Their numbers seem to be increasing.<br /><br />Chivalry is dead.<br /><br />Simone de Beauvoir noted that a lot of women's foibles that held them back were not really coming from men, but were, instead, conformism viciously enforced by their mothers and sisters. Pity that running around gangbanging wasn't one of those things on Mme. de Beauvoir's list.<br /><br />So it's going to start getting old-fashioned again. I mean, really old-fashioned. As in, <em>14th-century old-fashioned</em>, where a gentleman treats a <em>lady</em> very well. So in that sense, Chivalry is still going to be alive, especially because most men are inclined and socialized (usually by other men) to assume that women are ladies until demonstrated otherwise.<br /><br />Chivalry's alive.<br /><br />Ladies, thank you for being ladies.<br />Gangbanging slut goblin-wannabes, be warned.<br /><br />Marine, be at peace.boxingalcibiadeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07423435926502068028noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13388592.post-1148834103415197472006-05-28T09:14:00.000-07:002006-05-28T09:35:03.520-07:00Blogging about to slow down a bit pending shift from BloggerI've got an offer, and I'm going to take it soon, as I'm sick of blogger giving me "we don't like your cookie" errors.<br /><br />That said, I have random thoughts.<br /><br />1. What kind of coddled, reality-challenged white-bread yuppie scum doesn't know the difference between the sounds made by a <em>jackhammer</em> and an <em>assault rifle</em>?<br /><br />2. I traded shots with my instructor in the salle on Saturday, and hit the ground so hard I bounced. That rocked. Slowly but surely, martial arts concepts that were fuzzy, generalized statements, are becoming concrete, discrete ideas or even techniques. Unfortunately, this means you have to ask your instructor when you think you may have caught a clue... therefore, I posit that martial arts are an act of dual masochism.<br /><br />3. I think that the gal on PubliusPundit may have overstated her case slightly... but only slightly, when she points out that one of the reasons we have yet another excuse to hate the Baby Boomer scum is their insistence on chopping society up into age brackets. So, <em>don't trust anybody over 30</em>.<br /><br />4. The big exeriment I was planning on doing gets more complicated. On the one hand, good physics suggests using a nail as a penetrator, so we don't have to worry about impactor topology (far as I can tell, most of the literature on impactor topology is based on cylindrical or ogival penetrators, occasionally on spheres. Go figure, that's where the real-world application is). On the other hand, that makes the entire thing worthless in the context of medieval armor, because a nail effectively simulates a bodkin arrowhead, thus slanting any test done directly in favor of everything <em>except</em> mail armor. And while bodkins definitely existed, they were by no means the only thing out there, and neither do they conform to the topology of western early-and-high-medieval lance heads (though, oddly enough, it does somewhat conform to those from eastern Europe).<br /><br />5. I ruined the rawhide Chichester sent me a while ago, b/c what we all thought was the grain, was, in fact, not -- what we thought was the flesh was, instead, parts of the grain that hadn't been removed... which only became apparent when I tried to oil-tan it and I suddenly had horsehairs popping up on what should have been the inside of the horse. So, at this point, probably the only thing I can really do with it is to turn it into lacing.<br /><br />6. Summer is awesome, nice and hot, but not too hot, and Eason came to town, which warms the little evil cockles of my heart. Part of me still wishes I could get the time of day from recruiters so I could go do evil twisted shit to bad people who deserve it... but with folks having no trouble making numbers apparently age waivers aren't being tossed out like popcorn <span style="font-size:85%;"><em>(Note to the irony-challenged: see random thought#3).</em></span><br /><br />7. Somebody needs to simply flay Phelps and his "Thank God for IEDs crowd." Fucking demon worshipper. Hey, dude, even the biggest, hate-indoctrinated opponents of Christianity admit that "loving your neighbor" is one of its most basic commandments....<br /><br />And now, I'm going to vacuum and enjoy the nice long weekend. Have a good one, folks.boxingalcibiadeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07423435926502068028noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13388592.post-1148582004540976272006-05-25T11:30:00.000-07:002006-05-25T11:33:24.586-07:00IRS gets its hand slapped, reimburses us several hundred dollarsOr <a href="http://taxprof.typepad.com/taxprof_blog/2006/05/irs_to_give_15_.html">something like that</a>. Hell, as much as my wife calls Hungary, I'm pretty certain that getting that excise tax back will at least pay for ice cream. Though I know that the schmucks are trying to put the refund on the income tax, meaning that they're probably going to try to reimburse only this last year's worth of illegal taxation.<br /><br />Pity, that. Over the past five years, we've certainly paid enough on this excise tax for The Bunny to get herself a business suit and a new pair of shoes.<br /><br /><span style="font-size:85%;">HT-Puppy Blender.</span>boxingalcibiadeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07423435926502068028noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13388592.post-1148566611129941032006-05-25T07:11:00.000-07:002006-05-25T07:16:51.280-07:00"The mortgage you didn't know you had."Debra Saunders out in SanFran gives a chilling little piece explaining <a href="http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2006/05/the_mortgage_you_didnt_know_yo.html">why we should care </a>about the national debt. No news to "the good twin," but it's a subject that doesn't get nearly enough attention, and explains quite a bit about Bush's approval rating, more than the Iraq War by a long shot: contrary to MSM spin, 9/11 and the WoT has been just about the only thing propping Bush's numbers up, and was clearly the only reason he managed to get re-elected.<br /><br />Parts of Bush's "legacy" are going to ring big, over a long time. But the progress we've made internationally, and tax cuts at home, are only part of the problem. If he wants to really have this period shine, he needs to start waving that veto threat every time Congress tries to saddle us with more debt.boxingalcibiadeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07423435926502068028noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13388592.post-1148486658441522732006-05-24T08:30:00.000-07:002006-05-24T13:28:07.573-07:00Vladimir Putin: World-class DumbassYep, I just insulted the NeoTsar.<br /><br />Here's a quick blurb on Russia's <a href="http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2006/05/the_end_of_motherhood.html">collapsing demographics</a>, and thoughts for the same in Europe.<br />Now, I'm sensitive to this stuff lately, since the Bunny and I started on the trying-for-kids thing very late in the game, but bear with me.<br /><br />There's one overriding difference, though: Europeans are sufficiently full of themselves that they think they can ignore Economics 101. Go ahead, ask one, he'll tell you. He'll tell you how brilliant European politics and the "social market" is, especially compared to the obvious failures of the heartless and corrupt American system.<br /><br />That'll last a while. But when push comes to shove, European egotism will give way. The technocrats, unlike the Vampire, aren't stupid. France is already starting to turn around its demographic issues. The French, for all their many serious domestic problems, are smart -- they understand that quality of life counts. They may choose to get there in a way that makes most Americans twitch, and God help them, they may figure out how to actually carry it off... but they know for a fact that you're not keeping a society alive with a QOL in the toilet.<br /><br />Putin, for all his aspirations to restart the Cold War and dictate to the world from an angular Eurasian throne, doesn't get it. Paying a subsidy to women so that they'll create babies is a start. But the notion that women are going to agree to this for the good of Russia is nonsense. To start with, so is the notion that anything Putin would describe as good for Russia will trickle down to the average Russian subject. <span style="font-size:85%;">(Yeah, I said "subject," not citizens. Citizens have rights.)</span> The Kremlin and its faction runs Russia for its own benefit. Putin and his cronies love to tout their status as an "energy power," but it's all hat and no cattle for international grandstanding and foreign cash... ask the Muscovites who froze their asses off this winter when the weather got a little colder than normal, because the Powers that Be could care less whether there's something resembling a decent domestic gas infrastructure. Why waste all that good gas on the little people?<br /><br />QOL, Pootie-Poot, QOL. This dumbass, for all his pretentions to worldly glory, still doesn't grasp that it's not 1850, and still doesn't grasp the reasons the Soviet Empire got its ass kicked in the Cold War.<br /><br />It sure wasn't the CIA. Hell, our intel guys were so bad, we couldn't turn a Polish agent who <em>knew he was going home to be executed</em>. <span style="font-size:85%;">(Then again, whatever the faults of the Poles are, we all know it isn't a lack of balls.)</span> No, much as I hate the phrase, we whipped the crap out of the Soviets, because we had Human Capital. Human Capital let us innovate and grow the Soviets into the ground during the Arms Race <span style="font-size:85%;">(insert giant nod to Reagan here)</span>. In the modern world, middle-class civil society <em>is</em> geopolitical power. That's why everybody wants to do business with China, in spite of the banking practices that would be a national scandal here in the US. It's why the Canadians still punch above their weight in foreign policy, in spite of the fact that their military can't make numbers because they're openly despised at home.<br /><br />And it's why the US still hasn't had quite had its financial meltdown. Our financial markets are two steps away from a serious fiscal crisis as the dollar teeters over a debt-excavated abyss -- but folks abroad know we have a reputation for economic growth and innovation that makes the dollar a decent bet, for all its many documented faults.<br /><br />Am I waxing brilliant here? Am I saying anything that any economist who's had his morning coffee won't be happy to confirm? Nope. This is all Bozo territory.<br /><br />So why doesn't this dumbass get it? Hey, Putin: you want some babies? Try keeping your prospective mommies from freezing their asses off all winter, and stop continuing to foster the conditions that keep your prospective daddies at a life expectancy in the low 50s.boxingalcibiadeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07423435926502068028noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13388592.post-1148479745128192692006-05-24T07:07:00.000-07:002006-05-24T07:09:05.186-07:00Taheri sticks to guns on Iranian legislation story.Update <a href="http://www.nysun.com/article/33126">here</a>. Apparently, just because it wasn't in the formal legislation, didn't mean that folks weren't seriously mullahing it over.<br /><br /><span style="font-size:85%;">HT- regimechangeiran</span>boxingalcibiadeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07423435926502068028noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13388592.post-1148477166612710732006-05-24T06:25:00.000-07:002006-05-24T06:26:06.613-07:00Jeb Bush to run NFL?Why make this speculation a <a href="http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/F/FBN_JEB_BUSH_NFL_COMMISSIONER?SITE=7219&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2006-05-24-06-54-31">public announcement</a>? Has McCain shot himself in the foot so badly that prepping Condi, who's publicly known to be lusting after the job, is the only thing the Elephants have for '08?boxingalcibiadeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07423435926502068028noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13388592.post-1148477031096504412006-05-24T06:23:00.000-07:002006-05-24T06:23:51.156-07:00Well, Romania is on the ball...Can't say I'd like to be one of the poor schmucks under <a href="http://www.news24.com/News24/World/Bird_flu/0,,2-10-1959_1937498,00.html">virtual house arrest</a>, but nobody can say that they're not taking H5N1 seriously...boxingalcibiadeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07423435926502068028noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13388592.post-1148392389276522472006-05-23T06:40:00.000-07:002006-05-23T06:53:09.360-07:00Data Transfers and the Role of GovernmentBy now, I am assuming that I don't need to post a link for folks to be up on the data theft of 26.5 million veterans' data.<br /><br />I'm sure I don't need to insult peoples' intelligences by pointing out that the story of how this happened is fishy as hell. (How does one guy get that much info on a disk, and why would he take it home?)<br /><br />So while I personally suspect that John Q. Dipshit made himself a deal with some crooks in order to score big, and then got caught, let's back up and look at something else.<br /><br />Government is not a god, not a Superhero, not even a Supervillain. It's just a tool, nothing but violence ritualized. That tool can enable people to do awesome things, or really boneheaded things... but it's still people doing them, whether it's a bunch of suits doing their damndest to destroy America's small farmers in order to give ConAgra and its like a bureaucratic edge, or whether it's thousands of Coast Guard guys kicking ass and saving lives during Hurricane Katrina.<br /><br />Part of why I'm a libertarian, and not a conservative, is that I have a keen awareness that people can really be boneheads. And to stretch a metaphor, we don't want to loan the car keys out to too many people, and on too many jobs, because one bonehead can take the power of government, and accidentally drive 26.5 million folks right to hell.<br /><br />So we have powers at the State level, where if folks are going to kick ass and take names, groovy... but if they're going to start swerving mightily all over the road on their Bikes of Government, they're doing it on a 200cc bike, not an 1400cc monster that's so big that even folks riding 650's can't even figure out how the thing manages to keep itself upright. Put a bonehead who's just kinda okay on a 200 onto a 650, and he's going to run that sucker right across the intersection and straight into a wall.<br /><br />So, asking whether somebody trusts Government is kind of a silly question. The real question is, "what jobs are you willing to trust a complete stranger to do?"boxingalcibiadeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07423435926502068028noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13388592.post-1148052681383062562006-05-19T08:28:00.000-07:002006-05-19T08:31:21.463-07:00Iran takes first steps to religious genocideAll muslims to wear uniforms, and non-Muslim religious minorities to <a href="http://www.canada.com/components/print.aspx?id=11fbf4a8-282a-4d18-954f-546709b1240f&k=32073">wear clothing </a>specifically marking them as Jewish, Christian, or Zoroastrian.<br /><br />It seems that the 20th century's evils are yet to be scrubbed out in the 21st.boxingalcibiadeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07423435926502068028noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13388592.post-1148049694896580732006-05-19T07:36:00.000-07:002006-05-19T07:41:35.226-07:00Benedict XVI and Church ReformCould it be that Benedict's treading more lightly than some of the Papal Monarchists would prefer because, unlike the latter, he's paying attention to the <a href="http://www.chiesa.espressonline.it/dettaglio.jsp?id=48741&eng=y">bigger picture</a>?<br /><br />It's not really likely that the Vatican will reinstate its armed forces -- but one never knows. As one of the very few universalist, globally-oriented factions in Western Society (the tranzi socialists being very nearly their only competition), they are constrained in ways that states and other societies are not, but also able to act in ways that would be beyond dreaming for others.<br /><br /><span style="font-size:85%;">Hat Tip: Winds of Change </span><a href="http://www.windsofchange.net/archives/008629.php"><span style="font-size:85%;">5/19 Hatewatch Briefing</span></a><span style="font-size:85%;">.</span>boxingalcibiadeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07423435926502068028noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13388592.post-1147926395816902282006-05-17T21:08:00.000-07:002006-05-17T21:26:35.886-07:00Petersen's "Mothras of Texas"<div align="center"> Holy shiat.<br /> </div><img style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/5062/123/320/DSCN3014.jpg" border="0" /><br />I stepped next door to loan a Petersen's bird guide to the Watercolorist, and BooBoo said "hey, would ya look at that?" (BooBoo's el gato numero dos, so this was in sign language.)<br /><br /><br />Whiskey Tango, Foxtrot, over. <a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/5062/123/1600/DSCN3013.jpg"><img style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/5062/123/200/DSCN3013.jpg" border="0" /></a><br />Now, I know, intellectually, that there are some big moths out there in this great big wide world of ours. I also know, that in over fifteen years around Dallas, I ain't never seen one like this. Usually we get the little grey jobs that eat the hell out of your wool. Since I happen to make felt out of exotic and otherwise hard-to-obtain wool, guess who kills pretty much all moths, on sight, 24/7?<br /><br />Have alien beings masquerading as harmless third-world villagers planted the Moths of Doom in my house, or what? You know, the ones with the cricket legs who are Secretly Causing Global Warming from their Underground Base in Central America? (No, really, that's the plot of an honest-to-God sci-fi flick, and one of the better ones if you don't mind a little camp.)<p><a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/5062/123/1600/DSCN3015.jpg"><img style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/5062/123/200/DSCN3015.jpg" border="0" /></a>Oh, and... she's a girl. Saw the ovipositor, while she was flapping like mad trying to escape me and BooBoo. Fortunately, she ain't real bright, and "flap" seems to be her cure for all problems.</p><p>"Flap" is ineffective against orange oil. </p><p>But she didn't give it up without a hell of a fight, so ya gotta hand it to her there. This is "Mrs. Flap," during one of her less intense moments, in my hand.</p><p>Yes, that's not a little moth bed I cranked out of nowhere... that's my hand, and the whole picture should be rotated CCW by 90 degrees to understand this sucker's true scale. Looks like the cocktail dress is only pretty from the outside; she's all brownish-grey underneath.</p><p>I was sleepy as hell on my way home... now, I think I may as well put on a pot of espresso, just so it's official. I'm not easily creeped out by bugs: I have, in fact, eaten a roach, just to seriously mess with a girl's head (she deserved it). But I'm mildly freaked by critters that aren't supposed to be living where they're living.</p><p>Gotta look this sucker up. What the hell is this thing, and how did a <em>two-inch-long moth</em> get the hell inside my house without me noticing?</p>boxingalcibiadeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07423435926502068028noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13388592.post-1147916746852343762006-05-17T18:43:00.000-07:002006-05-17T18:45:46.900-07:00Little monkeys imitate small boys with plastic machine-gunsPyow Pyow Pyow! Hack Hack Hack Hack!<br /><br />Which is apparently monkey for <a href="http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-2185477,00.html">this place is boring, let's go for ice cream</a>.<br /><br />Also, apparently early chimp-like man interbred with equally early, man-like chimp.<br /><br />Having been exposed to precisely 9.2 seconds of Farscape Fan-Fic, I find this eminently plausible.boxingalcibiadeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07423435926502068028noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13388592.post-1147898953137402672006-05-17T13:46:00.000-07:002006-05-17T13:49:13.190-07:00Congress, President, pass tax-cut heroin-pushing billIt sure seems that way. Woohoo, we've managed to keep AMT from gutting middle-class America... <em><a href="http://www.breitbart.com/news/2006/05/17/D8HLMH1G0.html">for one year</a></em>. We've passed legislation to keep capital gains from going amuck... <em>for two years</em>.<br /><br />What is this, the 1960s Chevrolet model of tax-cutting? Cut it for such a ridiculously short span of time that it becomes a permanent issue? "Vote for us, or we won't be around to give you another 12-month moritorium against having your paycheck raped by AMT next April?"<br /><br />Talk about your cynical, election-year ploys. This is ridiculous. At least Soviets pretended to give you a Five-Year Plan.boxingalcibiadeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07423435926502068028noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13388592.post-1147811569763671302006-05-16T13:28:00.000-07:002006-05-16T13:32:49.766-07:00The Attention-Whore to Sell our Jets?Let me get this straight. The Attention-Whore of Caracas wants to sell jets to the Mullahs. Our older F16s.<br /><br />And the Mullahs are willing to pay for them? For jets they can't possibly maintain?<br /><br />I don't know who's further into the bong-water.boxingalcibiadeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07423435926502068028noreply@blogger.com0