Quote of the Day – A Little Socialism Edition

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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

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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

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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

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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!

“Thou shalt not make a machine in the likeness of a human mind.”

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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.

“When dealing with guns, the citizen acts at his peril.”

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Sorry about not posting. Life intrudes.

Most of the gunblogosphere has been commenting on the case of Brian Aitken who is now serving a seven year sentence for doing something perfectly legal in almost every other state in the union.  It’s even legal in New Jersey, unless a prosecutor can convince a jury otherwise.  A New Jersey jury, but a jury all the same.

The title of this post comes from a New Jersey Superior Court decision wherein a man was convicted of possessing an “assault weapon” – a Marlin Model 60 .22 caliber rifle he’d won in a shooting competition and had never even taken the manufacturer’s tags off the triggerguard – because said .22 could hold more than fifteen rounds in its tubular magazine.  Another law unique to New Jersey.

Do you want to know why McDonald v. Chicago was such a big deal?  Because laws like the one that put Mr. Aitken in jail exist only because of the 1875 Supreme Court case U.S. v. Cruikshank wherein the Court stated that the Second Amendment protected the right to “keep and bear arms for a lawful purpose” only from FEDERAL infringement.  The states were free to infringe to their heart’s content.

And New Jersey has.

McDonald says that the right is and should be protected against state infringement as well, and if the Federal government can’t make it illegal, no state government can either.  Make no mistake, this fight is going to take decades, but if we don’t keep it up people like Brian Aitken and Albert K. Kwan, and people you’ll never hear about will continue to get railroaded.

Well No WONDER He Didn’t Read the Obamacare Bill!

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Remember this?

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t32ckkdlcao?rel=0&showinfo=0&w=640&h=360]

It wasn’t that he needed two days and two lawyers, it was because there weren’t any pictures!

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WZ09sKVFI7k?version=3]

Srsly, dood?  Reading Looking at Playboy on a commercial flight?  At least Nancy has the, er, “decency” to fly private.  He needs to read Chapter IX of Despotism Made Easy. Of course, Conyers’ wife is currently in prison, so perhaps the octogenarian needs a little “outside stimulus” that doesn’t involve ten-digit dollar figures, but still…

Quote of the Day – Despotism Made Easy Edition

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Nothing puts a damper on a reformer’s day like a populace that will not embrace utopia. Of course, once dissenting voices are muzzled, the objections of the people will become more like white noise; an irritant but tolerable. But, and this is an important but, if the people are armed they can really play havoc with your agenda and legacy. Perhaps most disheartening to the reformer is the realization that armed resistance signifies that the people do not appreciate all you’re trying to do for them.
History teaches that radically altering the social, political and economic order without first disarming the populace is untidy. Most citizens, given enough incentive, will get with the program, by why chance it. An accelerating program of firearm restriction, registration, taxation and confiscation will do much to ensure a smooth transition to a new era of social justice, equity, fraternity and solidarity.

Despotism Made Easy: A Self-Help Guide for the Aspiring Tyrant by Brad Lena, Chapter I: Disarm the People

H/t to Day by Day for the link. I wish I could say I thought it was funny, but it’s uncomfortably close to the truth. Runner-up for QotD, same source,

At the end of the day remember that inmates of Communist slave labor camps in Siberia openly wept at the passing of Stalin so there will always be hope for your legacy if not actual change.

From Chapter X: Know When It’s Time to Leave