Sunday, September 05, 2004

Say What?

What comes to your mind when civil rights are mentioned?  I’d wager big, that it wouldn’t be reading, yet the 2004 Republican Party Platform, a link provided courtesy of www.democrats.org, states, that reading is the current civil right of choice.

"Our party believes, as does our President, that reading is the new civil right."

The new civil right, eh?  Sheesh.  After reading that, I thought I’d better check on what other civil rights are up and coming, so I Googled up the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights to enlighten myself.  Some other up and coming “civil rights” issues.

Environmental Justice, Native American Health Care, and Standards Based Education Reform, to name a few.

Link to reading as the new civil right via The Modulator.

Posted by John Venlet on 09/05 at 09:14 AM
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Son of a Beach

According to a piece written by Charles Leadbetter, titled “Beach party," the whole idea of going to the beach to hang out originated in Britain.

"The idea that going to the beach was good for you was a creation of 18th-century Britain. Entrepreneurs keen to promote an alternative to the spa hit upon the idea that immersing people in cold salty water might be healthy. One of the first recorded bathing expeditions took to the North sea at Scarborough in 1627. A century later, a string of seaside alternatives to the spas at Bath and Buxton were well established. Before that, beaches had been regarded as hostile places, at best a working space for people who made their living from the sea: fishermen, smugglers, wreckers. Swimming for pleasure, and sunbathing, were unheard of."

Son of a beach.

Via Arts & Letters Daily.

Posted by John Venlet on 09/05 at 09:02 AM
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"I don't need you, John"

I took the title to this post from a comment thread at No Treason. The thread, is from a June 18 post titled “Galt or Roark?," and though this post is not necessarily an expansion on the “Galt or Roark?” post, the above title/comment, which has stayed in my mind, is closely related to what follows, and can be tied to the comment thread of the No Treason post.

Garth, at the blog Musings from America’s Outback, has been noting Leonard’s, at the blog Unruled, thoughts on anarchy.  Garth’s most recent post, titled “Anarchy vs. Minarchy: Legitimacy litmus test," refers to Leonard’s most recent post titled “How to Analyze Anarchy."

Both Garth’s, and Leonard’s, posts are considering anarchy with a emphasis on protection agencies.  An emphasis that is struck in many considerations of this subject, as if protection is the keystone to the success, or failure, of an an-cap society.  But is it?

Consider the State’s protection agencies.  Do these protection agencies, the police, the military, and what not, actually protect you?  Though they advertise on the sides of their vehicles, and their websites, “To Protect, and To Serve,” these agencies do not protect you, they, for the most part, investigate actions that have already harmed you.  The State controlled protection agencies rarely protect you from murder, burglary, or bodily injury, they just step in, after the fact, providing you with a false sense of security because they are “on the case.”

Now, to the comment "I don’t need you, John," and hopefully an articulated point.  The individual fear of harm, or loss of property, appears to be the overriding reason for a perceived need for protection agencies, and, for individuals to join one protection agency versus another protection agency.  To form a group.  Though I understand, and accept, that a sizable percentage of individuals will feel a need to join a protection agency, a protection agency is not the basis from which individual freedom, individual sovereignty, an an-cap society, will grow.  This doesn’t mean that private protection agencies will not necessarily be a part of a truly free way of living, it only means that not all individuals will need to join a protection agency, a group, to be part of a truly free way of living.

"I don’t need you, John," is not a misanthropic statement, it is a statement of independence and assurance of an individual’s place in the world at large.  A world where groups, erroneously, want you to believe that there is only safety in numbers.

Posted by John Venlet on 09/05 at 06:20 AM
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Saturday, September 04, 2004

Expanding on a Patio Conversation

Last weekend, while sipping martinis on a friend’s patio, a far ranging conversation was engaged in.  Homosexuality was discussed, as were Artic trips, the percentage of left handed individuals in the world, and the origins of oil.  Though by no means does this cover the entire evening’s conversational whirlwind.

Availing ourselves of the benefits of a wireless internet connection, we determined that each individuals estimate (they ranged from 5 percent to 35 percent) of the percentage of left handed individuals in the world was correct.  As the study of left handedness, a study that we were informed has been ongoing for at least 160 years, has basically determined that there is no definitive answer, with estimates ranging from 5 to 30 percent of the population.

The question that we did not research, that night, dealt with the origins of oil.  Is oil a fossil fuel, as we so often hear it described, or, are the origins of oil from some other source?  I argued that oil is not the result of dead dinosaurs, as so advertised by the Sinclair dinosaur, and others, though I could not definitively state what the source of oil was, though I reasoned that the source of oil was a byproduct of forces within the earth.

Taking a moment this afternoon, I plugged into Google, “origins of oil.” The results are here. Though I cannot vouch for the veracity of the links supplied by the Google search engine, nevertheless, the links provide some interesting data on the subject.  Such as this link, which provides some data which support my thinking on the subject, though the majority of links that Google supplied, state that oil is the result of decayed plant and animial life.

I find this difficult to accept, and here is why.  Think about this.  A plant or animal dies.  You see it almost everyday, whether it be a road killed skunk, or the leaves decaying in a small pile in your backyard.  These dead plants and animals do not become a small puddle of oil, they become a compost type material which you can work into your soil as nourishment for plants, and animals, in next year’s growing season.

I still do not know, with certainty, that oil does not come from dead plants and animals, but my reasoning guides me to thinking that the origins of oil are simply byproducts of the earths life cycle of which we are, for the most part, still ignorant.

There you go, Pfeif.

Posted by John Venlet on 09/04 at 11:16 AM
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Bark, Bark, Bark, Pant, Pant, Pant, Wagging that Tail

A “Dog Haiku" which brought a smile to my face with Izzi stretched, languorously, under the dining room table after zealously harassing the lawn mower, broom, and chipmunks earlier today.

Posted by John Venlet on 09/04 at 10:13 AM
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The Word, I Think, is Veracity

The other day, I noted Bitheads eye, and thoughts, on Instaman’s foray into the mainstream media, via the Wall Street Journal. Instaman was considering the effect of blogs, on the mainstream media, and Bithead was also was considering the subject, with a nod towards recognizing that the mainstream media’s “authority” was waning, and various blogs’ authority were waxing.

In my post, I threw out for consideration, the thought that it wasn’t necessarily “authority” that blogs were gaining, but respect.  Bithead kindly dropped an expansion of his thoughts on this subject in the comments to my post, and, in a further expansion on this subject, in a post titled “Why has the press lost it’s (sic) authority?" he notes an earlier post of Billy Beck’s titled “What’s Happening To Authority," which references Gutenberg’s contribution to the issue of authority, which was an undermining of a powerful group and an uplifting of individuals.  Gutenberg’s contribution, without a doubt, did empower the individual, as do the internet, and blogs.

As I applied myself to various yard chores this morning, I considered these two gentlemen’s thoughts.  One word kept casting itself into my thoughts as they mingled among Billy’s and Bithead’s thoughts.  Veracity. As recently as this morning, Billy noted the lack of veracity in the mainstream media, and he also noted the alacrity with which the mainstream media’s product is consumed, a thought which bears heavily on this issue of whether or not the mainstream media actually does have any authority, or, is more like a group of gossipy teenage girls gathered around a locker in the hallway of a local highschool.  Or, as I mentioned in this post, simply spewers of white noise.

The subject is an interesting one, and though Bithead ends up at a somewhat different destination than Billy, as noted in his post titled "Why has the press lost it’s (sic) authority," where he posits that authority is acheived through groupings of individuals, rather than through the individual, both Billy and Bithead display more veracity, individually, than any media group currently in existence.

Posted by John Venlet on 09/04 at 09:17 AM
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Thursday, September 02, 2004

Headscarves, Hostages and the Hoi Polloi

France’s headscarve ban, for Muslim girls attending school in France, is inextricably knotted to the French journalists currently being held hostage in Iraq.  Both of these items, are inextricably knotted with the need government’s have for controlling the hoi polloi.  It’s a pity, actually.

“French Muslim girls obey headscarf veto."

Posted by John Venlet on 09/02 at 04:29 PM
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What Comes to Mind?

What comes to your mind when you read words such as the following?

Bighorn
Sedan
Umbrella
Cactus
King

Probably not what you were thinking.

Via Fred Lapides.

Posted by John Venlet on 09/02 at 04:19 PM
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"Ya Might Rabbit, Ya Might"

I’ve mentioned the line that serves as the title to this post, in an earlier entry here, but I cannot recall, at this moment, what entry.  It’s from an old Bugs Bunny cartoon.  It came to mind again this evening when I read a piece at Scientific American.com titled “Miracle on Probability Street."

The piece is both a review of the book Debunked, and a condensed primer on the Law of Large Numbers.  It makes for a short, interesting read on miracles and the probability of one happening to you.  An interesting sentence from the piece.

"Events with million-to-one odds happen 295 times a day in America."

Now, where can I place a bet on one of these 295 occurences?

Via Arts & Letters Daily.

Posted by John Venlet on 09/02 at 04:07 PM
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It's All "Blather" Anyway

Robert Bianco, writing for USA Today is a tad upset with the pundits who have been covering the Republican Convention.  His displeasure is expressed not only in the title to his piece, “TV swamps convention with blather," but within the body of the piece also.

"As President Bush’s acceptance speech tonight closes the Republican convention and sends us full speed into the final electoral push, would it be too much to ask one tiny favor of TV’s anchors, analysts and pundits?”

“In the name of all that’s holy, shut up."

Well, Robert, you are correct, there is alot of blather emanating from the convention, and the pundits, but it’s all kind of like white noise, a masking of the inanities being uttered by both the political clowns, and the clowns on teevee.  It’s a shame they don’t cancel each other out.

Link to USA Today story via Drudge.

Posted by John Venlet on 09/02 at 05:21 AM
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Wednesday, September 01, 2004

Bit by Bit

Bit, over at Bits Blog, notes Glenn Instapunditman Reynolds making the pages of the Wall Street Journal discussing, among all things, blogs and their effect on mainstream media, or, what I would call the rags.

Bit posits that blogs are achieving a level of “authority” out in the world at large, competing with the mainstream media rags.  I don’t know if blogs have achieved a level of authority, but, I do believe they have achieved a level of respect.

Bits piece is title “Godzilla vs. the ‘Blogosphere’."

Posted by John Venlet on 09/01 at 04:40 PM
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Reviewing the Medicare Infomercial

Jason Kuznicki takes a well deserved bastinado to Dr. Frist, and his Republicans in name only friends, after hearing Dr. Frist pitch the ease with which one can obtain a Medicare card.  Jason’s review is titled “We Know What’s Best for You. From Jason’s piece.

"You can get your [Medicare] card today. And it’s simple. Just call 1-800-MEDICARE. Tell ‘em you want your card. Tell ‘em Dr. Frist prescribed it."

Posted by John Venlet on 09/01 at 04:28 PM
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Sit, Stay, Down, No, Good Girl

Ya know, Charlize Theron is a beautiful woman, but anybody who needs “handlers,” is lacking a little something.

"Oscar winning actress Charlize Theron was injured on the set of a movie she is filming, but her handlers are not saying much more than that."

Posted by John Venlet on 09/01 at 04:20 PM
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