The End of War

I ran across this article this week by a guy named Tony Long about the nature of war given the brutal effectiveness of today's weapons. After quoting Churchill about the squalor of modern war and noting that there's no going back to ancient times with less powerful weaponry, the author gives us the only solution: eliminate war itself:

...going forward there is only one solution. War itself must be made obsolete and that means eliminating the reasons men wage war: nationalism, religion, greed. But it will never happen, not in my lifetime or in yours, because that means 1.) abandoning the concept of the nation-state 2.) abolishing all religion 3.) replacing stock-market, corporate capitalism with universal socialism. It requires nothing less than a reinvention of the human condition. Imagine.

This is a line of thought that is simply amazing to me. This guy actually believes that the solution to man's geopolitical problems is an empire that destroys/absorbs all nation-states, abolished all religions, and brings socialism to all. Oh wait, we've already seen that--it was called the Soviet Union! I'll go out on a limb and say that veterans of that 70-year experiment wouldn't describe it as any kind of nirvana. Of course war is a terrible thing, but even the horrific toll Nazi Germany exacted on the USSR in World War II pales in comparison to the millions of lives taken in internal purges of its own people by various Soviet leaders.

I guess I can't expect anything different; this is the same deep thinker who inspired a post on this blog last year with his article about how the solution to the problems with the press is have the government license and pay all media outlets.

Ah, socialism. It works so well until you actually see it in action.

Treating You Dead or Alive

It seems that a publicly-funded hospital in Ireland certified a disabled man in his 30s as dead, but when the morticians arrived to pick up his body he was still occupying it, apparently awake and alert. The hospital suffers from chronic overcrowding and recently from nurse strikes which seek more pay for less hours. But, never fear--a committee has been formed to investigate which will probably fix everything.

If you are think that the US needs to provide health care for all, this is yet another example of the horrors of free medical care. And if you're upset about rich Americans getting better care than than the poor, consider this: do you think that wealthy Irish patients go to this hospital which is accidentally not killing people? I'll bet there are more expensive places you can be treated, and if not you can fly to another country if you've got that kind of money. The US system definitely needs work, but sending it down this path is the wrong idea.

I Scratch My Head in Salute

The link above features a letter to the editor from Arkansas that attacks Congress for exacerbating global warming by starting Daylight Savings Time early, thus adding an hour of daylight for an extra month. It kind of makes sense if you take it at face value as the worst attack EVER on global-warming theorists. Maybe the author thinks that Miss America is actually bringing us world peace, as well. However, perhaps it is sarcastically attacking conservative global-warming-doubters by making light of their alleged position and simultaneously labeling them as loose-screw right-wing conspiracy theorists.

Maybe I'm just tired, but the more I try to think about what the author was actually thinking the closer my head gets to actually exploding. I have decided that this may be the most confusing three paragraphs ever written by someone other than a lawyer, poet, or addict.

Plus, there's a typo by the editor in the headline.

Enjoy!

Racism and Hypocrisy by Reverends

In the light of Don Imus' racist "jokes" and subsequent firing, racism is on the front pages again. Not coincidentally, America's racial reverends Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson are on the front pages again.

The blog post above (here or click on the title bar) brings up some history on Sharpton and Jackson that you might not know, including their documented antisemitism. That's right, both alleged purveyors of racial harmony have some special nicknames for Jewish people, and Sharpton in particular seems to have incited antisemitic riots that have led to the deaths of eight innocent people. Another quote from the entry has interesting echoes of the recent Duke lacrosse scandal (in which Sharpton also had plenty to say):

The good “reverend” Al Sharpton has a history of using racial attacks to further his cause. As noted in the 2003 column by Jeff Jacoby, in 1987 Sharpton spread a hoax that a 15-year-old black girl was “abducted, raped, and smeared with feces by a group of white men.” Sharpton singled out one particular white man, saying, “If we’re lying, sue us, so we can . . . prove you did it.” The man does sue and wins $345,000.

Hopefully you weren't taking either of these guys too seriously before--when you start fathering illegitimate children (as Jackson has) nobody should call you "Reverend"--but this puts their self-serving racial ambulance-chasing in a new light.

If you think I'm being too harsh, check out this dead-on column by Jason Whitlock. Whitlock is a black sports columnist whose take on racial issues I don't always appreciate, but he provides some much-needed perspective on the damage Imus did versus the ongoing work of gangsta rappers. He says this:

Rather than confront this heinous enemy [hip hop that has been perverted, corrupted and overtaken by prison culture] from within, we sit back and wait for someone like Imus to have a slip of the tongue and make the mistake of repeating the things we say about ourselves.

Let me say that I join everyone on the planet in condemning Imus' comments. I think misogyny and mocking of a person's natural physical traits (whether or not those traits are shared by an entire racial group) are asinine and symptomatic of a tiny mind. However, I completely agree with Whitlock that Imus' comments aren't even in the neighborhood of the worst commentary of that type today. As Whitlock says:

I don’t listen or watch Imus’ show regularly. Has he at any point glorified selling crack cocaine to black women? Has he celebrated black men shooting each other randomly? Has he suggested in any way that it’s cool to be a baby-daddy rather than a husband and a parent? Does he tell his listeners that they’re suckers for pursuing education and that they’re selling out their race if they do?

When Imus does any of that, call me and I’ll get upset.

Al Sharpton has been all over Imus, but if he really cares about the problems facing black people today he should mount a campaign against the poison infecting todays hop-hop culture.

Hitler, Time's Man of the Year

I had a discussion yesterday with Friend of the Brink Travis, who informed me that Adolf Hitler was Time magazine's Man of the Year before World War II. I was incredulous, so I had to track it down, and it seems that Adolf was the Man in 1938.

However, it seems that the Man of the Year was given in respect of Hitler's ascension to power and subsequent importance in Europe, but certainly not as glowing praise. Hitler was viewed with deep suspicion and was viewed as a monster on the rise. Time devoted most of the article to a recap of recent events in Germany and on the world stage, and closed with this ominous and prescient quote:

To those who watched the closing events of the year it seemed more than probable that the Man of 1938 may make 1939 a year to be remembered.

click the headline above to read the Time cover story...

So...Many...Colors

OK, this is not the kind of stuff I usually post in this space, but this is a must-see for you artistic types. What we have here is a tool called Kuler that lets you peruse, design, and share color combinations. You can tag them with names like Ocean or Angry, or search for other people's ideas that have been so tagged.

I plan to use this for color palette ideas for web sites. You may want to use it to plan your kitchen.

So, whatever. Go crazy. Make something Kuler.

As always, click on the header for the external link...

Time Machine: Clinton Fires 93 Attorneys

In the midst of another Bush-flogging scandal over the "political" firings of 8 US attorneys, the mainstream media has failed to recall an eerily similar news item which ought to be extremely relevant. In 1993, new President Bill Clinton fired 93 US attorneys. That's right, Clinton fired all of the US attorneys.

Considering the inquisition that Bush's Attorney General Albert Gonzalez is undergoing, you'd think that Janet Reno would have undergone almost 12 times as much criticism given the fact that she fired almost 12 times as many. But it seems that there was--comparatively speaking-- barely a peep. Apparently it just wasn't considered to be that big of a deal back then. Why? Well, I hate to accuse the media of bias, but it couldn't seem to be more clear in this case.

And as for today's scandal, it's not that nobody that would know is around.

ABC brought on George Stephanopoulos – who defended the Clinton firings as the White House spokesman in 1993 – to describe this as an urgent matter putting pressure on Karl Rove to testify before Congress and for Gonzales to resign!

Most of the electorate (including myself) is unable to weigh the allegations of "politicization" in the Justice Department because we don't know what is acceptable. Do those attorneys serve, like the Attorney General, at the pleasure of the President? We're hearing about how the AG should have some "independence". The man on the street doesn't have the answers to these questions, and it's easy to assume from the media frenzy that these allegations have weight.

However, if independence in an AG is so important, wasn't John F. Kennedy's tapping his own brother Robert as his Attorney General a terrible breach of protocol, at best? And if Bush's firing of 8 US attorneys was bad, wasn't Clinton's firing of 93 US Attorneys much, much worse? And here's another question: rather than sacrificing Gonzalez, as appears imminent, why is the White House not defending itself with the above information? Correction: A few news outlets, mostly in the Mid-South, are carrying this AP story: Rove defends removal of prosecutors, cites Clinton-era dismissals.

And why am I not getting the full story from the press?

Click the headline for the full story...

New Documentary Attacks...Michael Moore

As documentary filmmakers, Debbie Melnyk and Rick Caine looked up to Michael Moore.

Then they tried to do a documentary of their own about him -- and ran into the same sort of resistance Moore himself famously faces in his own films.

The result is "Manufacturing Dissent," which turns the camera on the confrontational documentarian and examines some of his methods. Among their revelations in the movie, which had its world premiere Saturday night at the South by Southwest film festival: That Moore actually did speak with then-General Motors chairman Roger Smith, the evasive subject of his 1989 debut "Roger & Me," but chose to withhold that footage from the final cut.

Click the headline for the rest of the story...

Upgrading Humans?

Darpa, the US government agency in charge of blue-sky, far out research, is working on technologies that will enhance the human body--strength, endurance, cognition, survivability, etc. They're constrained by unwillingness to endanger test subjects, which brings up some interesting questions. Looks like they've got some stuff I need to get my hands on...

As always, click the headline above for the full article...

End of the Mouse?

Jeff Han was a New York University computer scientist minding his own business when inspiration suddenly struck. Looking at a water glass one day, he was intrigued by the way his fingers interacted with the glass and he hit on an idea to take touchscreen technology to a new level.

Word of his multi-touch interface reached last year's TED conference curator, Chris Anderson, who invited him to give a brief demo, sandwiched between other lengthier talks. Han was the surprise hit of the show and became a geek rock star overnight. Since then he's had a crazy year developing a company, Perceptive Pixel, with Phil Davidson, and has sold some of their first products to the CIA. He's back at TED this week by popular demand. -- from Wired.com -- click above for the full story

Hot Accessory for 14-year-olds: A Real Baby!

"When my friends see my bump they say they wish they could have a baby, then three weeks later they're pregnant and don't know what to do.

"Teenage girls think babies are cute, but they forget the physical side of being pregnant, then having to give up your own childhood to look after a baby.

"It seems to be fashionable to get pregnant."

Family campaigners said her comments showed how the Government's sex education policy had left teens with the "ridiculous but extremely worrying" misconception that having a child was no different to getting a new handbag.

The father of the pregnant British 14-year-old quoted above blamed the rise in underage pregnancies on "gang culture", media influence, parents, schools and the local authority, concluding that "it's a social problem". The mother blamed her daughter for the situation.

It seems to me that we should spend less time teaching children to "be true to themselves" and more time teaching kids the difference between right and wrong, healthy and unhealthy, and smart decisions and stupid ones.

click above for the full story...

Little Dancer Boy

This one is for the Official Sister of the Brink, a player of Dance Dance Revolution and a pincher of the cheeks of five-year-olds.

Texas GOP Seeks National Voice

This one goes out to official Friend of the Brink Tom, as pertaining to our conversation about party politics and the fact that it has no direct connection with actual legislative action.

The article describes a new event to be held this summer and open to past participants in Republican State Conventions. These former delegates will gather, listen to GOP presidential candidates, and then vote on them in a completely meaningless election--except to the candidates, who will surely trumpet a positive finish in the "straw poll" to residents and media on other states to bolster their campaigns. It is an attempt by the Texas Republican Party to influence a national election.

Like the conventions themselves there is no legislative significance to this event, but there will be plenty of political significance if it leads to a change in the national perceptions of candidates jockeying for the highest office in the land.

click the headline above for the article...

Bible, Meet Web

Speaking of the Bible, here's a cool, free site that has the whole thing--readable, searchable, and in several versions. So the next time you need to know if a phrase like "Spare the rod, spoil the child" is from the Bible you know where to turn. (It isn't.)

Click on the title above to go to the site...

Longevity and the Bible

An interesting article here positing the theory that, as God decreed the maximum age of humanity to be 120 years in the book of Genesis, the ages given in subsequent genealogies drop significantly (but not immediately) due to a supernatural adjustment to their DNA which is still measurable today.

Notable for, if nothing else, the ages compiled from the Bible showing spectacular lifespans (900+ years) of early humans dropping significantly toward more familiar lengths.

click on the title above for the full article...

What Science Doesn't Know

Wired Magazine's current issue (February 07) has a very interesting cover story about the limits of current scientific knowledge. As I read it I realized that the gaps in our scientific knowledge receive very little press, while scientific achievements are shouted from the mountaintops. While this is certainly understandable, it's good to realize the very real limits of what we know.

click the headline for the full story...

Secular Humanism: Defined

Secular Humanism is the dominant western viewpoint of our day--but what is it, exactly? This question is answered in detail, with quotes from humanists and a bibliography, by the attached article.

click the title above for the article...

Dolly The Cloned Sheep Died Young

Am I the only one who missed this? Dolly, the famous sheep product of cloning, died young of a disease that usually afflicts older animals and was found to have aged prematurely... Hmm. Maybe cloning is still a bit more complicated than we thought.

click on title for the full story...

This Just In: President Found on Dollar

After two failed attempts to interest the American public in dollar coins, the U.S. Mint is getting away from female/native American empowerment icons (Susan B. Anthony and Sacagawea) and going back to the well with two proven formulas: 1) A huge series of collectible designs and 2) dead presidents.

Will it work? Will America make room in its pockets for a different type of change? Will we flip for this new coin? Only time will tell.

Click on headline for the full story...

Cat Nurses Puppy; Nature v. Nurture Debate Erupts

A 6-day-old Rottweiler puppy rejected by its mother and taken in by the Humane Society has been adopted by a family of cats. Treated as a brother by the kittens and a kitten by their mother, we here at The Brink hope that little Charlie will become a powerful advocate for his adopted species and known across the planet as the world's largest house cat. Alternatively, he will grow up to be a dog.

click headline for the full story...