Monday, June 07, 2004

Screw Them and the Horse They Rode In On, and Quit Fricking Apologizing

Stopped by The Obscure Store, just now, and read this story. The story is about a highschool yearbook, put together by highschoolers, being criticized by two groups, which I would bet are made up of bleeding heart adults, for having a special section in their yearbook for autistic students.  Here’s what the two “groups” had to say.

"Two groups—Friends of Different Learners and the Parent Advisory Committee to Special Education—said the spread singles out the 16 students in the autism program as if they aren’t part of the school at large. They also took issue with the headline, “Trying to fit in,” and a poem using “we” and “they” to describe how people with disabilities differ from others."

Yep, how terrible.  A tragedy of epic proportions that differences in individuals have been recognized.

The co-editor’s apology, which I can only hope he thinks better of, and retracts.  Stand up and tell the “groups” they are wrong.

"In the future, we’ll be a little more careful about those controversial issues and more diligent about fact-checking,” he said. “We certainly don’t want to offend anyone, but we won’t stop attacking these issues. It’s at the heart of what we do as student journalists."

Nothing like taking positive recognition and inclusion of a minority group into the whole, and turning it into something despicable, and then making the young individuals involved in the yearbook project believe they have done something wrong.  When they haven’t.

Posted by John Venlet on 06/07 at 06:03 PM
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Smash Socialism Not Capitalism

I am continually amazed by the fact that reasonably intelligent individuals still shill for socialism.  Haven’t socialism’s recognized failures and abuses of individuals in the recently past decades been enough to totally discredit socialism?  Evidently not.

"From space you can see no borders. We, and previous generations, have built up a productive capacity that is more than sufficient to feed, clothe, shelter, educate and amuse everyone on the planet. The only barrier to its use for that purpose is that it exists as capital. The only basis for its continuing existence as capital is our continuing acceptance of capitalist and state property rights. From below, at the sharp end, in the worker’s-eye view, these look as obsolete and obscene as property rights in people. Without those rights, capital would just be machinery, that we all together already operate and improve upon every day, every minute, collectively and globally. The only way in which these rights can be permanently abolished is consciously, politically, collectively and globally, at one fell swoop. Not on the same day all over the world of course, but in the space of a few years, in one historical moment. And why not? Slavery and feudalism were in the end abolished, with a stroke of the pen followed if necessary by a stroke of the sword."

Bah.  The above is quote from a piece written by Ken MacLeod titled “‘What else, gentlemen, would it be but communism, “possible” communism?’"

Posted by John Venlet on 06/07 at 05:50 AM
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Statistically Speaking

Counting this and that, statisticians present us with myriads of numbers to be shaped and twisted like clown made balloon animals.  Godless, at Gene Expression, posts a few to consider that more than likely would not be published in the New Yorker.

1. “SAT scores for whites coming from families making less than $20000 per year: 983 [1]
2. SAT scores for blacks coming from families making more than $70000 per year: 956
3. Percentage of violent criminals in New York City who are named by their victims as either black or Hispanic: 89.2 [2]
4. 43% of homosexual men in “Shoreland” in Chicago have had at least this many partners: 60
5. Transfer payment amount per native-born household due to immigration in California, in dollars: 1178 [3]
6. Fraction of black males who will likely be incarcerated at some point in their life: 1/3
7. Fraction of white males who will likely be incarcerated at some point in their life: 1/17
8. Percentage of the homeless who are mentally ill/alcoholics/drug addicted: 25/50/33
9. Number of people killed, worldwide, by Nazis: 21 million
10. Number of people killed, worldwide, by Communists: more than 110 million [4]
11. Percentage of France’s electrical power that comes from nuclear energy: 76 [5]
12. Number of people killed in nuclear power accidents in France: 0"

The post is titled “Numbers you’ll never see..."

Godless supplies links to the supporting documentation in the post.

Posted by John Venlet on 06/07 at 04:46 AM
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Sanctioned Pack Rats

When I read something like this,

"Egypt is about to begin the painstaking five-year task of cataloguing and restoring some 90,000 pharaonic and other artifacts which have lain almost forgotten for decades since they were dug from ancient ruins."

it makes me wonder if all the digging archaeologists do is merely compulsive digging, or a chance for a shot at glory if they stumble upon something big.

Dig it up, annotate a note, stuff the artifact in a box and forget about for years and years.  Maybe more could be learned if there was a private market for these relics?

“Egypt to Catalog Artifacts in Neglected Basement."

Via Yahoo News.

Posted by John Venlet on 06/07 at 04:26 AM
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Continuing the Quote Train

Found the following quote at Survival Arts, which Russell received via David T. Anderson.

"Do not be afraid of enemies; the worst they can do is to kill you. Do not be afraid of friends; the worst they can do is betray you. Be afraid of the indifferent; they do not kill or betray. But only because of their silent agreement, betrayal and murder exist on earth."

Bruno Yasienski

"The Plot of the Indifferent” (1937)

Posted by John Venlet on 06/07 at 04:19 AM
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Litany of Terrorism, It's Fairly Long

Dr. John Lewis, the assistant professor of history at Ashland University, is compiling a listing of terrorists attacks against the West, a work in progress he terms it, since the 1970’s.  Additionally, he says the following about this chronological work.

"A list of every terrorist attack in the twentieth century would fill a volume. The chronology here is ruthlessly select; it includes a few events needed to understand the sequence, such as the formation of selected top-rank Islamic groups, formal declared wars, [and includes, in brackets, certain non-Muslim terrorist acts].

But no attempt has been made to document the hundreds of Palestinian bombings in Israel, and Israeli retaliations, unless they had international affects or involved the deaths of Americans. A series of one hijacker / one day hijackings without casualties have been omitted. This list does not adequately demonstrate the state of siege in which Israel has lived for over fifty years, nor does it convey the depths of Arab rage that has led them to prefer suicide over co-existence with Israel. This list focuses on violence against civilians by Islamic fundamentalists, for political purposes, which takes place in an international context."

“The Evidence: Chronology of Attacks on the West."

Via Nicholas Provenzo at The Rule of Reason.

Posted by John Venlet on 06/07 at 04:10 AM
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Will Wonders Never Cease?

I don’t know about you, but I still can be amazed by medical discoveries.  Here’s one that’s pretty interesting.

"An experimental drug that suppresses the appetite and causes a reduction in high levels of sugar in the blood may be the next big thing in treatment for people with the most common form of diabetes, studies presented Sunday suggest.

The drug exenatide, a man-made version of a hormone found in the saliva of Gila monsters, reduced high blood sugar levels and led to weight loss in tests on more than 1,000 people whose type 2 diabetes was not being controlled by current drugs, researchers reported at a meeting here of the American Diabetes Association."

The headline for the article brings to mind licking frogs for their hallucinogenic benefits.

“Licking diabetes with lizard spit?"

Via Google News.

Posted by John Venlet on 06/07 at 02:50 AM
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Just Do It Yourself

In today’s world, more individuals seem to be clamoring for protection from this, that, and the other thing, via the State, they ever before.  Leonard, at Unruled, stumbled on a comment thread at Crooked Timber which asked individuals to rank some items to make the “world a better place.” One individual who responded, thought that eliminating advertising, should be the solution, so more social programs could be funded.  Leonard’s response to the poster’s advertising proposal.

"Turn off the TV. Don’t watch the programs which are supported by commercial advertising. Don’t watch Buffy, or those reality TV shows that you love to hate. Don’t even watch public TV, with all that “underwriting”.

Turn off the radio. Don’t listen to music which is supported by commercial advertising. Buy a CD and a CD player, or do without.

If you are unwilling to do that — to stop watching the commercial TV shows that you like — then please stop whining about how you don’t like commercials. The fact is, you are revealing your preference for them, by watching them. The fact is, you do, actually, value them (for making possible the programs that come with them), more than you value food for poor people.

Instead of watching an hour of TV, work an extra hour and donate the money to OxFam.

Stop being a hypocrite, or, own up to the fact that you value the things that you do.

NB: I do watch a small amount of TV. But I am not a hypocrite. Every evening, I have the choice whether or not to watch that TV, or work for the poor, and I choose to watch TV. I value it above feeding the poor. I am responsible for what I do. What about you?"

Posted by John Venlet on 06/07 at 02:38 AM
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A Facetious Question

Remember when all that money was found in Iraq about a year ago?  650 million dollars worth of money, in crisp, neatly packaged bundles?  Well, the Senate, of course, held hearings on just this issue, lots of U.S. money in Iraq, and here’s the question one Thomas C. Baxter uttered, in Senate testimony.

""How could that happen?” Mr. Baxter thought to himself, as he recalled later in Senate testimony. “Not only with U.S. sanctions, but with U.N. sanctions. How could that happen?"

No definitive answers are available, for some reason, but the article is an interesting read anyway.

“Lockboxes, Iraqi Loot and a Trail to the Fed."

Via Mises Economics Blog.

Posted by John Venlet on 06/07 at 02:23 AM
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