Yeah, right:
But by Jeebus, we’re not surrendering!
Month: December 2010
This BEGS for a Caption
Found at AR15.com
Please, Drive Carefully
This ad is from Australia, but it’s equally valid here.
WARNING: Graphic content
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z2mf8DtWWd8?fs=1&hl=en_US&rel=0&w=640&h=505]
A Land Fit for Criminals
One of the books in my queue is David Fraser’s A Land Fit for Criminals: An Insider’s View of Crime, Punishment and Justice in the UK. The synopsis states:
In this meticulously researched study of the British criminal justice system, author David Fraser, a long-serving Senior Probation Officer, offers a clear-sighted and persuasive analysis of how and why the country faces the spiraling crime figures it does today. Fraser addresses government policy since World War II, showing how the belief that ‘prisons do not work’ became a central plank of criminal justice policy and charts the disastrous consequences that this had for the British public. He examines in detail how the workings of government, Civil Service, judiciary, police and Probation Service have all become perverted by a philosophy that seeks to uphold the ‘rights’ of the criminal rather than those of their victims. Finally, he argues that only by sending the country’s large numbers of persistent criminals to prison for increasingly long periods will we be able to head off the social, political and civic catastrophe that looms in Britain today. Accessible and lucidly written, “A Land Fit for Criminals” will appeal to both those involved in the criminal justice system and to general readers concerned about the issues affecting Britain today.
The book was published in 2006. Four years later, nothing much seems to have changed. In a recent headline from The London Evening Standard entitled Clarke tackles record jail numbers, we get this update on the British “justice” system:
Murderers could serve less time in prison under Government plans that would see shorter sentences, fewer criminals in jail and more offenders handed fines or community sentences.
Justice Secretary Kenneth Clarke outlined plans which would give judges more discretion over how long killers should spend behind bars.
A “simpler, more sensible” approach that “leaves the judge to do justice in the individual case” will be put in place.
Other plans include letting foreign nationals escape jail as long as they leave the UK forever, wiping the slate clean for young offenders when they reach 18 so they are not hindered by a criminal record, and halving sentences for those who plead guilty early.
As I’ve noted previously, it appears that a “life” sentence for murder in the UK is actually about 15 years.
Nope. Not much has changed at all.
Quote of the Day – A Little Socialism Edition
Simply put, socialism is a system where citizens are promised results, not just opportunity. Our Constitution promises the “pursuit of happiness,” but does not guarantee that any particular citizen will attain anything, but will not be restricted from pursuing any legal goal. Socialism preaches that every citizen has the right to certain entitlements, and the state endeavors to provide them to its citizens. Socialists believe that under capitalism, too much wealth becomes concentrated in the hands of too few, who then exploit the less privileged. Socialists advocate a more even distribution of wealth and power, “spreading it around,” to quote a recent Obama phrase.
Under the socialist ideal, effort is rewarded, regardless of results, and accumulation of wealth by a few is prevented, so that more may enjoy the benefits of what society has to offer. The sad fact is that often even a minimal effort is not required, and everyone gets entitlements, deserved or not.
So, what is wrong with wanting to make sure that all citizens are provided for, and that more can have a better lifestyle by taking from the overabundance of the privileged few?
The problem is that to implement socialism, basic freedoms have to be curtailed or abolished. For starters, socialism is built on government ownership or very tight control of industry and commerce. This means, obviously, that citizens’ rights to freely pursue business opportunities are severely limited by the government. Property rights must also be greatly curtailed, and the personal accumulation of wealth abolished. The government becomes the arbitrator of who succeeds, and to what extent.
— Gene Retske @ I’m Sick of the Crap, “What’s wrong with a little Socialism?” from February of 2009
And, as Shepherd Book stated so succinctly in the Firefly episode “War Stories,”
A government is a body of people, usually, notably ungoverned.
Quote of the Day – Poetry Edition
WESTERN CIV, PART II
The party goers and well wishers
Deny the facts, deny the fissures
They dance atop the speeding floe
That hurtles to the falls below
We have our rights! they scream and shout
You cannot turn this floe about!
There are no falls around the bend
And if there are, it’s not the end
So we will dance and sing all night
And hope that all will turn out right
America will save us soon
Did not they put men on the moon?
Are not they friends who won’t forget?
Will they not come to pay our debt?
They’ve saved us from much worse before
They saved us twice from reckless war
They saved us from the Russian bear
Deny us now they would not dare
No we will dance, watch our debt climb
While fearful they won’t come this time
With pieces breaking off the floe
Here come the falls, the rocks below
Two thousand years, a goodly run
We’ve thrown away for decades fun
No babies born, but what the hell
I’m sure Islam will treat us well– Walter Erickson, found at Belmont Club
Quote of the Day – Tough History Coming Edition
From Daphne at Jaded Haven in Last Call:
Today’s stark refusal of the senate to heel in their most venal, basic impulses over the country’s dire need for prudent management during our current economic implosion, a feat they foolishly orchestrated in all of their glorious incompetence, tells me we’ve crossed the abyss into no man’s land.
The crisp suits we’ve elected to spend and manage our money don’t have a single ounce of respect for the work and sacrifice we provide to fund their sickening folly. Their disdain for the republic is manifest in every piece of statist legislation under consideration, their privileged contempt for our conscripted dollars evident in every spendthrift measure they pass.
I believe it’s finally time to start discussing alternatives to our present system. The republic of the founding fathers no longer exists.
It hasn’t for quite some time, Daphne.
Update on the Comment Import Saga
I received this from Disqus tech support this afternoon:
Hi,
The reason why these comments from Echo aren’t importing is because they aren’t given a URL to link the comment to, unfortunately. We’d love to be able to offer a way to bring them in, but for now it’s not possible with this format. We’ve opened a ticket with our development team for any possible ideas of how to do this, but it’s still in the planning phases.
We’re sorry for any inconvenience, we know it’s important to import your existing comments, so hang onto those files.
Thanks again for using Disqus
So apparently the export files from Echo/JS-Kit don’t have identifying tags that Disqus can recognize. But Chris Byrne was able to successfully import his comments. I’m alone in having fvcked-up export files?
AAAAAAAAGGGGH!
Your Moment of Zen
“Thou shalt not make a machine in the likeness of a human mind.”
That’s from the Orange Catholic Bible from Frank Herbert’s classic 1965 SciFi novel Dune. (Which reminds me – it’s time to read it again.)
Back in 2008 I reported on the successful creation of the fourth fundamental electronic component. To complement the inductor, resistor and capacitor, researchers at Hewlett-Packard had finally created the Memristor. The characteristic of the memristor is that its resistance changes based on the direction current flows through it. In one direction the resistance goes up, in the other direction, down. But the key characteristic is that after the current flow stops, the resistance of the device stops changing and remains fixed. It is, in effect, a non-volatile memory device.
At the time the story was that several neuroscience and engineering labs were looking at the memristor as the key component for systems that emulate neural networks.
And they still are. Now the research is being funded by DARPA. If you’re at all interested in artificial intelligence, it’s a fascinating article.
And the Singularity grows nearer.