Archive for the ‘In the news’ Category

Never Forget

Saturday, September 11th, 2010

Half-mast flag and burning Trade Center

I was at work when the news came about the WTC being hit by an airplane. When it became obvious that it was a major story, I went home and brought back a small TV, which we watched most of the day. I still remember the images I saw – smoke, flames, people jumping to their deaths, the towers coming down, dust-covered people running and walking away from the scene. I also remember Muslims dancing in the street in celebration. It took me four days to verify that my father had not been in the Pentagon when it was hit, and I thought of those celebrations a lot.

Now we have imam Rauf threatening violence if his victory mosque isn’t built at his proposed site. A few things have become obvious in the last nine years:

There are no moderate Muslims, in the respect that there is no effective Islamic voice opposing the radicals and terrorists. There are a few individuals here and there who denounce the violence, most of whom are under threat of death because of it, but the “Muslim street” acquiesces to or celebrates the vicious acts.

Islam is not a religion of peace. It is a religion of conflict and oppression. How many acts of terrorist and sectarian violence and armed conflicts in the world do not involve Muslims, and how often are they not the aggressors?

Islam demands supremacy over other religions. The very word “Islam” means “submission.” It demands respect it does not give to others, and the political left is cooperating with it. There is currently a flap over a threat to burn some Korans. Consider that Bibles are not allowed into Saudi Arabia, even for personal use, and the US military has burned Bibles that were sent to US troops in Afghanistan. Compare that with “Piss Christ” and “elephant dung Mary” and the left’s reaction to Christian complaints of disrespect.

Sharia courts have been implemented in Europe and Canada, and Muslims are trying to get them here. In Milwaukee, Muslim taxi drivers refused to carry people with dogs or alcohol, until they were told they’d lose their licenses. They do what they want, and don’t back down unless forced.

Islam is more-or-less a totalitarian political ideology masquerading as a religion. It divides the world into Dar Al’ Islam (the House of Islam) and Dar Al’ Harb (the House of War). As such, Islam itself is largely incompatible with Western Civilization. People keep saying that we’re not at war with Islam, but they won’t admit that Islam is at war with us.

If we don’t start to protect our civilization and our society, it could get very bad.

Never forget what happened. Never forget who did it. Never forget that it wasn’t their first attempt. Never believe that it won’t be their last.

I had a pedal car when I was a boy

Monday, September 6th, 2010

… but it wasn’t stylin’ like this one.

What made this seem like a good idea? In particular, what makes taking this on the street seem like a good idea?

Suffered brain damage?

Monday, September 6th, 2010

I’d say he already had it.

Another post on language

Monday, August 30th, 2010

About a month ago, I ran across this web post. Yesterday, I ran across this article, which is excerpted from a new book I’m going to have to read. Fascinating stuff.

My personal take on Sapir-Whorf is that language doesn’t provide an absolute limit to what you can think about. Instead, it limits what you can think about easily. If the first were true, then how would any new concept make it into language in the first place?

An interesting personal sidelight is that I remember having an absolute internal compass until about the age of 11. That was about the time my family left England – I wonder if I’d internalized the subliminal clues where I lived, and coming back to the US changed the clues enough to disrupt my compass for good?

Miscellany 8

Monday, June 14th, 2010

Airplane! was a remake – who knew?

The Japanese have extended their alphabet. As if there weren’t enough characters already.

The last veteran of The Great Escape has died. I remember reading Paul Brickhill’s book in high school, before I saw the movie.

Everyone talks about using good passwords, but everyone uses ‘password’ or their mother’s maiden name, rather than using something harder to guess.

A comparison of features between the Rosetta Stone and the iPad? I have to believe that there’s a larger market for the iPad, though.

I remember a song from sometime in the 60s with a line in the chorus that went, “Ride, ride, ride the wild surf!” Somehow, I don’t believe that this is what they were singing about.

The radio has finally wound down

Thursday, June 10th, 2010

Dr. Demento is shutting down his radio show after this weekend. He’ll still be producing shows for the internet, but the days of hearing his show on radio are gone, unless you’re in the area of Amarillo this summer.

I first ran across Dr. Demento in the 1970s. At the time, I was on a submarine, and we were pretty isolated from the rest of the world when we were on patrol. For official entertainment, we had small library (a box of books) and weekly movies in the crew’s mess and the wardroom. Unofficial entertainment usually involved books and magazines you brought along yourself, or playing cards. Some sailors crocheted or hooked rugs.

One patrol, I found a couple of LPs produced by AFRTS, the Armed Forces Radio and Television Service. One held a recording of a Dr. Demento show. I was enraptured. If I’d had more free time (often in short availability at sea), I’d probably have worn it out. When we got back in port, I tracked down his show on radio and started listening.

When I got out of the Navy and came to Denver, I found his show on KBCO in Boulder. Their format has changed somewhat since then – they used to have yearly broadcasts of The Fourth Tower of Inverness and have a locally-produced thing called “Intervention Day” on April 1st, but at that time, the doctor was in at 7pm on Sunday evenings, IIRC. Later, they moved the show to midnight on Sunday. I couldn’t afford to stay up that late, so, for the most part, I stopped listening. Some time later, I realized that I could swap RCA plugs around to feed the stereo into the VCR, which would allow me to set up a programmed recording at the right time for his show. Since there was no video associated with the radio, I’d end up with Dr. Demento as the soundtrack for whatever show was on TV at the time. This usually meant Baywatch Nights, which added a level of surrealism to listening to the show.

Shortly after that, KBCO dropped Dr. Demento completely. I’ll admit that I kind of stopped looking for him then. I did sign up with this site, but don’t listen often. It’s good to know that the doctor is still in.

Via Slashdot.

Obviously,

Monday, May 17th, 2010

Nothing important happened yesterday.

Who owns your thoughts?

Tuesday, May 11th, 2010

Better yet, who controls them, and what will they do with them?

DARPA is looking into prosthetics to help those whose brains have been damaged. A worthy idea, but one fraught with potential peril.

Who gets access to them? Advertisers would love to inject urges directly into your brain. What could hackers do with a botnet of real people? What would government want to do?

As much as I’d love implants that would enhance my brain’s capabilities, or even just maintain them in the face of damage or deterioration, I’m not sure I’d trust them.

Not quite friendly fire

Tuesday, May 11th, 2010

Vigilante action on behalf of the RIAA takes out an authorized distributor.

I, for one …

Tuesday, May 11th, 2010

Welcome our new software masters.