Tuesday, December 16, 2003

"Robin Hood, Incorporated"

Greg Swann’s son, Cameron, who is twelve, had another school project to do.  Check out the assignment description:

"Assignment: You are designing a building or complex that would benefit your community in some way. You will present your building or complex to the class as if they are the City Council. You are attempting to get the “City Council” to approve your proposal."

Go read Greg’s post on this and ask yourself, once again, why are you supporting state run, public education.

Oh, and congratulations to Cameron for scoring 100% on the project.  Carmeron is fortunate to have a father like Greg.

Posted by John Venlet on 12/16 at 05:18 AM
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Charitable Mansion

As a boy, growing up in the church, I was constantly reminded about the need of others less fortunate than I.  I was reminded to give, because my rewards were not on earth but heavenly.  This is not necessarily a bad thing.  As I grew older, and less dependent on others thinking for me, I looked around the world at organized religions and charities and became aware of the vast riches these organizations were accumulating here on earth.  Even at the age of twelve, living in Wisconsin, this seemed, to me, incongruous with what I had been taught.  But at the age of twelve, I was more interested in riding dirt bikes or sledding the fire trails of northern Wisconsin to allow this conundrum to really bother me.

Now don’t get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with accumulating wealth.  I love having a pocket full of cash I’ve earned.  Buying what I want, when I want, or stashing it away to spend in times when I don’t feel like working.  But today, I find the incongruency of churches’ and charities’ accumulating wealth, mansions and other bric-a-brac even more troubling than when I was twelve.

Why do I bring this up?  Because of this article about the Salvation Army in the LA Times. This is a prime example of a charity gone south.  Churches and charities do provide many benefits to the poor and downtrodden.  It’s just unfortunate that as they gather in the alms, beseeching us to give til it hurts, they line their pockets first.  It’s a classic case of do as I say not as I do.

Linked via The Obscure Store.

Posted by John Venlet on 12/16 at 04:47 AM
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Smart Mom

In our local paper the headline read, "Should have kept son in jail, Mom says." An online version of this story, from the Monterey Herald reads “Convicted Killer’s Mom Glad Son Is Jailed." The gist of the story revolves around one David Maust, who was convicted of murder, twice, once in 1974 and again in 1981, and who now is accused of killing again since his release in 1999.  His mother, Eva Reyes, is fairly certain Maust has killed others since 1999, but that is just a mother’s intuition speaking.

Reyes says the justice system bears some responsibility for Maust’s current accusations, since they let him loose upon the population, and I agree, though the primary responsibility is her son’s.  But it is the following comments, from Eva Reyes, a simple person’s critique of the justice system, that bear consideration.

"When he was in prison (in Illinois) they said he would never get out,” Reyes said. “He conned a judge ... They should charge the judge for the murders, too."

Posted by John Venlet on 12/16 at 04:04 AM
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Monday, December 15, 2003

He's Nothing But A Thug and Flawed Principles

Writing for the Telegraph, John Keegan provides a decent overview of sovereignty immunity laws beginning with the Treaty of Westphalia in 1648 which ”...created the principle that sovereign states, and therefore their sovereign heads, are both legally and morally absolute,..." Keegan’s opinion piece is entitled "The next challenge is how to bring about a much deserved execution" so I don’t think he is lobbying for protecting Saddam.

I linked the article from a post by Robert Clayton Dean, at Samizdata, who also gives a nod to sovereign immunity but, like Keegan, doesn’t seem to be of a mind to protect Saddam’s hide.

I personally don’t think that Saddam, or any ruler, of a country deserves any special considerations.  I’m as much of a sovereign as any so called ruler of men, as are you, and I don’t note any special protections for my hide, or yours, if I’m a murderer and a thug.  Sovereign immunity isn’t a principle, it’s a tool of self preservation for tyrants, both benign and murderous.  A thug is simply a thug.  Just because a thug was a “ruler” of a country, does not deem the thug worthy of any special considerations.

Posted by John Venlet on 12/15 at 04:35 PM
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Punk Bands, Anarchy, Artists, Mises and a T-shirt

Jonathon Wilde, over at Catallarchy, reposts a piece written by Robert Brager who blogs at Astropolis. It’s a good read.  Where can I get a t-shirt?

Posted by John Venlet on 12/15 at 07:03 AM
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Low Information Costs

An article by Everett Ehrlich, entitled “Q: What will happen when a national political machine can fit on a laptop?," published in the Washington Post," provides an interesting comparison of thought to the post immediately below.  Ehrlich utilizes the work of economist Richard Coase in regards to the "rise of modern corporations" and how this may herald the decline of the two party system, specifically pointing to the Dean campaign as an example of this in action.

Via Arts & Letters Daily.

Posted by John Venlet on 12/15 at 06:48 AM
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Vertical or Horizontal?

Roderick T. Long as a post up entitled “Horizontally Speaking" where he utilizes the Nolan Chart to present a "(partial) explanation" of why the two party system does not reflect the quadrant diversity within the Nolan Chart.  Roderick makes this comment within the post,

"It’s also to be expected that politicians, unlike their rank-and-file constituents, would tend to offer more lip service to the freedom aspects and more practical support to the anti-freedom aspects."

The lip service that politicians give to freedom, is like striking the root with a Play-Doh axe.

Posted by John Venlet on 12/15 at 06:23 AM
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Something Completely Different

My lovely wife Melissa brought one of these home from her many travels.  It’s a wireless, radio-controlled weather station and its pretty cool.  The feature that intrigues me the most though is the fact that the unit provides radio controlled time.  The clock is fed by the National Institute of Standards and Technology-Time and Frequency Division, meaning it keeps time based on the atomic clock in Boulder, CO.  I was aware that the atomic clock was quite accurate but I was not aware that it was accurate to within ten billionths of a second per day.  A second is measured by the 9,192,631,770 vibrations that are emitted from a Cesium-133 atom in a vacuum.  It’s no wonder life is so good.  I’m reveling in every one of the 9,192,631,770 vibrations each second gives me.

Posted by John Venlet on 12/15 at 05:02 AM
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"rank, pre-modern, savage"

Billy Beck, noting a quote from a Syrian student, provides the title to this post.  Watch out for his boots too.

Posted by John Venlet on 12/15 at 04:50 AM
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Saddam - It's Not About the Oil Now

David Yeagley sees the pot-o-gold at the end of the rainbow and the rush of 2003-2004 is on.  From David’s post entitled “The Hussein Bonanza."

"His sequestered wealth will be hounded, of course. That’s part of the intrigue of the story. His family members, living in neighboring Arabic countries, will all be interviewed endlessly. A new refulgence of book writing will seize the publishing industry. Saddam will mean good business, for a good while to come.

Yes, many Iraqis are jubilant at Hussein’s capture, and want him put to death immediately. But, in the Western liberalized morality tradition, they will be denied such a catharsis. The Iraqis must become civilized. They must rise above the murderous behavior of their enemies. They must allow their enemies to live and be well-treated. All in the name of vicarious, projected equality, of course.

Hussein loved the Godfather movie. Like Don Corleone, Saddam was from a dirt-poor village, and believed in violence as the sure means of attaining power. Hussein will become the next movie godfather, indeed. Italians move over! Here come the Arabs. But don’t worry, they won’t last too long in the American imagination. They don’t have no salsa di pomodoro. They don’t have the cultural familiarity. They were never part of America. Hussein is not really a cultural competitor. The media will try to make him one, for profit, but in the end, he won’t sell. He won’t even be humiliated. He’s too proud, and America is too soft. It’s all going to be a dud."

Posted by John Venlet on 12/15 at 04:21 AM
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Sunday, December 14, 2003

Justice or Circus?

Saddam’s been nabbed and I’ll have to admit I’m glad.  It’s big news, for the world, and its traveling as fast as the space shuttle orbits the earth or faster.  Since I first read the news about it this morning, the bombardment of filler stories has become so relentless they lay like cluster bombs.  The stories explode from every type of news source.  Boom, boom, boom.  You can almost feel the spin rotation developing into a vortex as the stories collide and reverberate, readying to suck us in.  But what about justice?

I typed saddam capture+criminal court into the Google search engine and already there are 101 stories available and the news has been on the wire for what, 18 hours?  The Iraqi’s want a trial in Iraq, and understandably so, but I’m sure we will hear calls for the Hague, the U.S., possibly France or an Arab nation.  Who knows who will throw their hat in the ring.  And it will be a circus ring.  The call of the big top is too alluring.

There will be clowns in the guise of juries and judges, and the lobbying for Ringmaster will be a show in and of itself.  Evidence, tired old tricks of Saddam’s, will be shown again and again, and though we’ve all seen the show too many times to count in the last twenty years, it will be presented as new and improved and with dog and ponies too.

Justice for Saddam should be swift and final.  Any “trial” held for Saddam will be mere window dressing.  Any verdict less than death will only be the result of the world’s “leaders” admitting to themselves they are only shades lighter in their desire to rule and an acknowledgement that Saddam’s fate could be theirs if they allow their avarice for power to continue to grow unabated.

Unfortunately, I think justice for Saddam will be slow.  It’ll be a circus.  The ticket office take is too tempting.  Let’s move on, there’s nothing to see here that hasn’t been shown to us time and time again, and there are more important things to do.

Posted by John Venlet on 12/14 at 06:55 PM
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Welcome and Thank You

I want to welcome you to my new blogging home.  Thank you for stopping by and for visiting me at my Blogger address in the past.

I have two individuals who I must thank publicly.  First, John T. Kennedy, whose site No Treason has been a source not only of informative discussion but encouragement for myself.  John encouraged me to procure my own domain and helped guide me to where I needed to be for this and for hosting.  Second, Daniel Medley, of LoboWalk. This site would not be here without Daniel’s voluntary time and efforts and personally, I think this site looks great.

The most wonderful aspect of both John and Daniel’s assistance is that I have never met either of these individuals in person.  The fact that these gentlemen, who I know only through their posts and email exchanges, voluntarily assisted me in this endeavor, is what LIVING is all about.

Thank you John.  Thank you Daniel.

Posted by John Venlet on 12/14 at 10:18 AM
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Update to "We'll Kick Your Ass" Below

Did a little Google search a moment ago on the post “"We’ll Kick Your Ass” - “...as per policy" which I blogged yesterday.  This article, from the Toledo Blade, provides more detail than the article I linked previously.  Additionally, the article provides a photograph of the young lady, who is no longer with us.  My, doesn’t she look dastardly.

Per the Blade article, five squad cars participated in this fiasco which led to death for a young girl.  A girl who was, allegedly, seen "erratic driving" and had "a broken headlight."

She’s dead because she seemed to be driving erratically and had a broken headlight.  Of course the police, through the mouth of one Lieutenant Farrell, ”...would like to express condolences to the family," or at least Farrell would as the sentence italicized begins with the word I.  Additionally, Farrell had this to say, "It’s regrettable and unfortunate."

Who writes this shit for the cops?

Posted by John Venlet on 12/14 at 06:42 AM
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Psst, Hey Kid, You Want a Gumdrop?

Read this story and then ask yourself why you are tolerating state run, public education.

Via Skip Oliva at The Rule of Reason.

Posted by John Venlet on 12/14 at 06:10 AM
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Stomachion - Eureka

Earlier this year I had enjoyed NOVA’s presentation of “The Archimedes Palimpsest." Via the New York Times we are now informed that this work is revealing its secrets and what it is revealing is that Archimedes was further ahead of his time than we can really even appreciate.  Fascinating story.

Link to NYT article via Greg Ransom’s PrestoPundit.

Posted by John Venlet on 12/14 at 05:57 AM
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