COLLECTIVE MADNESS


“Soft despotism is a term coined by Alexis de Tocqueville describing the state into which a country overrun by "a network of small complicated rules" might degrade. Soft despotism is different from despotism (also called 'hard despotism') in the sense that it is not obvious to the people."

Wednesday, October 11, 2006

Going to Hell in A Rocketship - A Roundup of the News


This World is Going to Hell in A Rocketship.

In case there is any doubt about whether we are engaged in a religious war, this reminder comes from Iraq where the Islamic Army has taken credit for an assault on a munitions depot. The Islamic Army? They couldn't make themselves any clearer.


Here's the clear word, from the Army chief of staff, Gen. Peter J. Schoomaker, that the U.S. Army has plans that would keep the current level of troops in Iraq about 15 brigades through 2010, the top Army officer said Wednesday. This time frame accounts for the two years left in the Bush administration plus two years that a cut and run Commander-in-Chief might require.

In another part of the world, Allah's warriors have once again attacked in the Phillipines.

The Religion of Peace is also making the headlines as some Europeans are having second thoughts about the multi-culti mindset.

Across Europe, Worries on Islam Spread to Center

By DAN BILEFSKY and IAN FISHER
Europe appears to be crossing an invisible line regarding its Muslim minorities: more people in the political mainstream are arguing that Islam cannot be reconciled with European values.

"You saw what happened with the pope," said Patrick Gonman, 43, the owner of Raga, a funky wine bar in downtown Antwerp, 25 miles from here. He said Islam is an aggressive religion. And the next day they kill a nun somewhere and make his point.

Rationality is gone.

Mr. Gonman is hardly an extremist. In fact, he organized a protest last week in which 20 bars and restaurants closed on the night when a far-right party with an anti-Muslim message held a rally nearby.

This action by Turkey won't do much to ease the Euro fears:

ANKARA, Turkey (AP), Turkey called Monday on the European Union to oppose French legislation that would outlaw denials that World War I-era killings of Armenians amounted to genocide.

It's being reported that the Euros are going to give Putin hell over this week's murder of a journalist reporting on the Chechen wars.

The head of Germany's parliamentary human rights committee, Herta Daeubler-Gmelin, said Putin had to provide answers about the killing in the next two months or face "the consequences."
Now they can question him about a "contract style" murder of a Russian banker.
Russia's financial community was shocked last month by the murder of deputy central bank chief Andrei Kozlov in a gangland-style assassination.

State-owned Vneshtorgbank is planning an initial public offering.
We know what European consequences amount to. Putin, no doubt is quaking in his boots.

Over in jolly old England at the Independent, they're worried that a 300 million US population will spell the end of mankind.

While some excuse Kim Jong-Il's pursuit of a nuclear deterrent due to fear of George Bush, the Democrats and Republicans are blaming each other.

Bush has once again said that the US has no plans to attack North Korea and Iran's looney leader says he is being bullied
while a real bully threatens 'War' over sanctions. But here's the real lowdown. h/t rufus and drudgereport
Appeasing the Evil Dictator

89 comments:

  1. "The US - with five per cent of the world's population - uses 23 per cent of its energy, 15 per cent of its meat and 28 per cent of its paper."

    Last time I checked, that 23% wasn't the world's energy, it was generated by American dams and nuke plants in America. That 15% wasn't the world's meat, it was fed by Iowa corn and raised in America. That 28% wasn't the world's paper, it came from American alder and was milled in America.

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  2. We lost the Mac the Fac?

    Seemed like a hell of a guy.

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  3. Amen--someone ought to find a list of output per consumption.

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  4. what is 14 trillion divided by 300 million?

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  5. Interesting about the 4 years. That's about the time frame the Israeli military says their missile defense systems will be fully operational.

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  6. We get flacked over our energy use, but what we produce per unit of energy is very high. I can't find the article, but we are up there. Not piggishness, but efficiency and output. That's like whipping on a housebuilder for using more lumber than your hamster.

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  7. JPost: Israel unopposed to building of 5th Temple Mount minaret

    The other minarets include three near the Western Wall and one near the northern wall. The first minaret was constructed on the southwest corner of the Temple Mount in 1278. The second was built in 1297 by order of a Mameluke king, the third by a governor of Jerusalem in 1329, and the last in 1367.

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  8. Standing by the timeless principles--regardless of the atmospherics of the moment. That's why Israel is Israel.

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  9. Buddy,

    I'd like the US to start producing a 200hp 1.8L engine for SUVs. In Europe a 1.8L engine is considered a big engine.

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  10. Honda is already producing a 197-hp, 2.0-Liter, DOHC i-VTEC® 4-Cylinder Engine. So we're not that far off.

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  11. The stock Civic is already a popular rally car, they tell me.

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  12. The running dog lackeys oppress the peoples of the world. They use resouces not of their own and in return pay slave labor.
    Take the ideas of the masses (scattered and unsystematic ideas) and concentrate them (through study turn them into concentrated and systematic ideas), then go to the masses and propagate and explain these ideas until the masses embrace them as their own.
    The cardinal responsibility of leadership is to identify the dominant contradiction at each point of the historical process and to work out a central line to resolve it.
    The contradictions between ourselves and the enemy are antagonistic contradictions. Within the ranks of the people, the contradictions among the working people are non-antagonistic, while those between the exploited and the exploiting classes have a non-antagonistic aspect in addition to an antagonistic aspect.
    Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun.

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  13. What about Maynard G. Krebs? "WORK!"

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  14. The International

    Arise ye workers from your slumbers
    Arise ye prisoners of want
    For reason in revolt now thunders
    And at last ends the age of cant.
    Away with all your superstitions
    Servile masses arise, arise
    We'll change henceforth the old tradition
    And spurn the dust to win the prize.

    Refrain:
    So comrades, come rally
    And the last fight let us face
    The Internationale unites the human race.

    No more deluded by reaction
    On tyrants only we'll make war
    The soldiers too will take strike action
    They'll break ranks and fight no more
    And if those cannibals keep trying
    To sacrifice us to their pride
    They soon shall hear the bullets flying
    We'll shoot the generals on our own side.

    No saviour from on high delivers
    No faith have we in prince or peer
    Our own right hand the chains must shiver
    Chains of hatred, greed and fear
    E'er the thieves will out with their booty
    And give to all a happier lot.
    Each at the forge must do their duty
    And we'll strike while the iron is hot

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  15. Just thought I'd throw in some Mao for the evenings session ...know your enemy type stuff.

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  16. And Rufus,
    It's a latex room brother!!

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  17. The power of a gun barrel, that always gives Mao away. One of his best truisms.

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  18. Kid's 2.5 Subaru puts out well over 300 hp.
    ...at least it did before he blew it up.
    Now he has a bum knee to match his bum turbo!
    Perhaps he'll learn!

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  19. I'm allergic to latex,
    what else does the bar stock?

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  20. Wouldn't want to irritate the old gun barrel.

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  21. Part of the Communist Manifesto & closely allied to the Democratic Party Platform



    Nevertheless, in most advanced countries, the following will be pretty generally applicable.

    1. Abolition of property in land and application of all rents of land to public purposes.

    2. A heavy progressive or graduated income tax.

    3. Abolition of all rights of inheritance.

    4. Confiscation of the property of all emigrants and rebels.

    5. Centralization of credit in the banks of the state, by means of a national bank with state capital and an exclusive monopoly.

    6. Centralization of the means of communication and transport in the hands of the state.

    7. Extension of factories and instruments of production owned by the state; the bringing into cultivation of waste lands, and the improvement of the soil generally in accordance with a common plan.

    8. Equal obligation of all to work. Establishment of industrial armies, especially for agriculture.

    9. Combination of agriculture with manufacturing industries; gradual abolition of all the distinction between town and country by a more equable distribution of the populace over the country.

    10. Free education for all children in public schools. Abolition of children's factory labor in its present form. Combination of education with industrial production, etc.

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  22. Doug,

    Engineers got a 1000 hp out of the Ford Ecotec 4 banger at Bonneville..what a hand granade

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  23. There's about 50 quotable lines in that Phelps article. It's really great.

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  24. The first engine ever to get one hp per lb of wt--the Wright-Cyclone R something or other, mounted in the Chance-Vought F4U Corsair.

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  25. Each according to their need:

    "If I am elected, there will be a 1000hp Ford Ecotec and a McClaren Mercedes in every garage."

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  26. How about some Nork Pie?
    You can bet most of them would be appreciative of the gifts we'd ply them with.
    ---
    A Big Mac!
    What can I do for you, honey?

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  27. me, too, rufus--i've been everything but a Nazi Communist KKK. Give us time, we'll get there, Mr. Mao.

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  28. buddy, you'll just love the new thread at BC, it's right up your favorite President's rectum.

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  29. A communist is just a liberal in a hurry.

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  30. While duece would appreciate the Westhawk post on Russian behaviour.

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  31. Let me guess--his deceitful NYT article?

    "Deceit" (n) the purposeful withholding of pertinent information.

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  32. Of course--Pratt & Whitney. My dumbass--the Wright-Cyclone was the other big radial.

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  33. You'd get more Nork Nooki per bushel than any E-85 would get Miles per bushel!

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  34. More than you'd might want.

    I'd imagine the NorK ladies would smell a bit more sour then their southern sophisticated cousins, who were not all that sweet.

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  35. Farm women have rough surfaces, for sure.

    Hey, look at this neat graphic:

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  36. the last gal in the establishment is automatically beautiful

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  37. Just when you think Wacko Jacko hit bottom...

    "...his spokesman claimed it was a
    simple mistake
    - Jackson was unable to read the Arabic sign saying 'Ladies'."

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  38. Before we got rid of our Nukes, we didn't talk about Nork Nooki, either.

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  39. Buddy,
    That is a neat graphic. If it were hung outside a North Beach bar in San Fransisco the place would be pack'in.

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  40. Rufus,
    If he's eat'n kim chee pie it ain't what we think it is...

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  41. habu, you axed for the truth over on BC and I gave it to ya.

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  42. Buddy


    Say what ya mean an mean what ya say..ya done good



    plus I was just stir'n up trouble

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  43. Buddy,
    I've always been interested in engines F1, double over head cam fours ,but that graphic helped me understand the radial better than anything I've run across..neat

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  44. Buddy Larsen said...
    "PossumDeiter"--jeeziz kee-rist--


    I thought it was funny, and creative...they say there's np greater flattery than imitation, but I guess that was morpo-prostitution

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  45. systembullshit initialisms SbI.......hey I like that

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  46. the graphic--yes, me too--I finally understood how those old flyboys would talk about flying home with "cylinders shot out" Seeing how the rods wobble made it all come clear.

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  47. bobalharb..me too..but I like the sound of cascade effect and of course anything with assymmetric warfare sounds damned impressive

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  48. Buddy,
    My Dad was flying into MCAS Cherry Point in an F4U and when he turned it off one of the crew chiefs said"Major, that engine doesn't sound right"...they inspected and found that one of the exhaust manifolds had a hole in it that was hitting the gas tank, which was behind the engine and in front of the pilot..lucky day for Dad.

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  49. Asymmetric in understanding only.

    Cascading "staying" seems to say it all about US

    congress is going to provider a plunger for Iraq

    help us break it up and get things moving again

    Dont Stop
    Thinkin bout
    Tomorrow

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  50. That CWO is certainly easier to wield that the civilization it attacks.

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  51. bobalharb...the secret is when you're outtta words and thoughts just go to cutt'n and paste'n and soon the creative juices set in..either that or sleep

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  52. DR,


    I'm with ya..can I bring a gun?

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  53. By the time it gets here, bobal, it's "today" again. "Tomorrow" never comes. Blows my mind.

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  54. anything better than renaming the clog

    doug eats a hawaiian pizza with bad ham and renames the cresting overflow "sunshine"

    Or you could bring fiber and try to dump that down the drain. Call that aid.

    Or you could bring your gun, habu, sure. make a whole mess of porcelain and the bathroom wont ever be useable again.

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  55. Chaos-Wand-Operations or CWO.

    Say how much latte can a fella get outa one o them thangs?

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  56. Dang ,Dr, you and Buddy are gonna get 1st place at the Cucamonga Science Fair.

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  57. Once a bunch of my drunk frat brothers created a cascade off the house balcony..does that count?

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  58. "Our method is related to research into reliable technology, stochastic symmetries, and the deployment of the memory bus [2,17]. Sasaki and Sato suggested a scheme for investigating the exploration of the lookaside buffer, but did not fully realize the implications of introspective symmetries at the time. Instead of architecting metamorphic methodologies, we fix this question simply by simulating homogeneous technology. New encrypted information proposed by Wilson et al. fails to address several key issues that our system does overcome [13]. While we have nothing against the previous method by Noam Chomsky et al., we do not believe that method is applicable to theory."

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  59. Here in the east it's later than it was when it wasn't so far east so I'm go'in ta bed.

    have a great night gentlemen, always enjoy the conversation. Thx

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  60. Dogfooding Sizar...damn near woke me up

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  61. Ok..just keep it up and I'm go'in for Tom Swift

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  62. Yep--sleepy--guess i'll go take off my boots and jacket. Sell ya later--

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  63. "I'm good with a bow and arrow," said Tom, archly.

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  64. ok...

    Some clarification of the problem. The
    dilation/compression factor, alpha, for a constant speed between source
    and target is given by alpha = (1-beta)/(1+beta) where beta = V/c. In
    Kelly's paper he derives an expression by basically using a Taylor
    series for the round trip delay between the radar (source) and the
    target. His expression is basically alpha' = alpha - A*t/c/(1+beta)^3.
    Where A is the uniform acceleration as measured in the radar frame and
    t is the duration of the radar signal or period of acceleration. If I
    assume a period of acceleration of T then I would expect that the
    alpha' should be equal to
    (1-(beta+A*T/c))/(1+(beta+A*T/c)). However, these two expressions are
    not equal. Kelly's derivation makes sense to me but the check for the
    alpha factor at the end of the acceleration does not. I have tried to
    expand the alpha expression using a Taylor series and do not get
    Kelly's result. (Not that I would necessarily expect to but that would
    have been nice.) I also tried integrating the derivative of alpha over
    the T second interval. Since the alpha value is theoritically correct
    and exact I would have thought that using a Taylor series expansion to
    account for the acceleration would work. This seems like a simple
    enough problem that should have a ready made answer. I guess I will
    have to get serious and try the accelerated frame derivation using
    standard STR.

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  65. America the Beautiful

    America the Beautiful
    Words by Katharine Lee Bates,
    Melody by Samuel Ward
    MIDI sequencing provided by Melody Lane

    O beautiful for spacious skies,
    For amber waves of grain,
    For purple mountain majesties
    Above the fruited plain!
    America! America!
    God shed his grace on thee
    And crown thy good with brotherhood
    From sea to shining sea!

    O beautiful for pilgrim feet
    Whose stern impassioned stress
    A thoroughfare of freedom beat
    Across the wilderness!
    America! America!
    God mend thine every flaw,
    Confirm thy soul in self-control,
    Thy liberty in law!

    O beautiful for heroes proved
    In liberating strife.
    Who more than self their country loved
    And mercy more than life!
    America! America!
    May God thy gold refine
    Till all success be nobleness
    And every gain divine!

    O beautiful for patriot dream
    That sees beyond the years
    Thine alabaster cities gleam
    Undimmed by human tears!
    America! America!
    God shed his grace on thee
    And crown thy good with brotherhood
    From sea to shining sea!

    O beautiful for halcyon skies,
    For amber waves of grain,
    For purple mountain majesties
    Above the enameled plain!
    America! America!
    God shed his grace on thee
    Till souls wax fair as earth and air
    And music-hearted sea!

    O beautiful for pilgrims feet,
    Whose stem impassioned stress
    A thoroughfare for freedom beat
    Across the wilderness!
    America! America!
    God shed his grace on thee
    Till paths be wrought through
    wilds of thought
    By pilgrim foot and knee!

    O beautiful for glory-tale
    Of liberating strife
    When once and twice,
    for man's avail
    Men lavished precious life!
    America! America!
    God shed his grace on thee
    Till selfish gain no longer stain
    The banner of the free!

    O beautiful for patriot dream
    That sees beyond the years
    Thine alabaster cities gleam
    Undimmed by human tears!
    America! America!
    God shed his grace on thee
    Till nobler men keep once again
    Thy whiter jubilee!

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  66. Check out Sen. Harry Reid's 1.1 million dollar land deal on MSNBC....broke a lot of Senate Rules and perhaps the law..this will be big

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  67. Whit, some years ago I read of a fake scientific paper that had won some sort of legitimate award. It was a set-up all the way, the perps were exposing the misuse of 'jargon'--and it worked. So, in trying to find the paper, I googled 'fake scientific paper', and there was the site you asked about.

    SystemBS is onto something--besides morroccan hash that is. I think the message is "in life, we all need an editor".

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  68. Actually, SysBS, I read every word seven or eight times, and I think it has changed my life.

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  69. I really like the tiny cyrstalline dancing worlds. (watch that Oh-Pee-Um, tho)

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  70. buddy larsen,

    A thesis always comes in handy, without attempting to stifle creativity.

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  71. There's a rat in the hen house.

    Some devilish dog is using my moniker, not all that badly, but never the less....

    Some blogger savy impersonator with a sense of humor.

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  72. That's a toughie--somebody was doing that to me, too, in WSJ Opinion Journal comments. A liberal, too, no less! I complained to James Taranto, who expunged the guy--he said he'd watch out for him, if he tried it again.

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