Some Actual, Well, Pontification

March 2nd, 2010

From a thread on a mailing list I’m on. I just happen to be inordinately fond of the phrase “Understanding gravity doesn’t keep you from falling.”.

IME, people’s politics, with a few exceptions, have very little to do with their nature as individuals — their intelligence, their morality, their propensity to violence, their willingness to think. Within every group, there are those who come to their opinions by way of reason, study, and logic, and those who come to the same opinions by instinct or “That’s just the way I am.” There are those who respect those who differ and those who don’t. There are those who can separate out the individual threads of the tapestry of ideas, and those who see the entire thing as a lump package, to be taken or rejected as a whole. No faction, viewpoint, side, or subculture, beyond the smallest and most extreme, has any uniform propensities. The human tendency, wired into us by evolution millions of years ago, is to always see “Us” in the best light and “Them” in the worst. (I do not claim to be in any way immune to this propensity. Understanding gravity doesn’t keep you from falling.) “We” and “they” do the same things, in the same way — it’s just right when it’s us doing it and wrong when they do it.

Or, as I said recently in an online game, when someone in my corporation (EVE Online, the ultimate game of bloody cutthroat violent capitalism — invented by Nordic Socialists, oddly enough), complained another corporation wasn’t showing up to be slaughtered in battle:
“WE practice proper wartime discipline and don’t waste our resources in battles we know we can’t win. THEY are craven cowards hiding in their stations.”

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Racist Community Bans Unwelcome Minorities

February 15th, 2010

Oh, wait, they’re Indians Native Americans First Peoples? Oh, that’s OK then.

Remember, folks, racism is wrong, except when it isn’t. Reading this article, it’s hard not to think of the spittle-flying rants one encounters on far-right sites and in the “Talkback” sections of, well, just about everywhere. Fear of “assimilation”? A desire to “protect” one’s “culture”?  Yup. Pretty much indistinguishable from the arguments of any other breed of racist.

“Culture” is not genetic — believing that it is is one of the chief idiocies of racism. Nor should culture be “preserved” via force of law. Whether it’s the French trying to keep their language pure, or nations mandating a certain percentage of “natively produced” programs by shown on TV (even if no one watches them), or Mohawks or Klansmen trying to kick out people they don’t like, there’s no such thing as a right to a culture, a heritage, or a tradition — remembering that a “right” is “That which you are morally entitled to use lethal force to protect.” If your culture is being destroyed because another culture serves people’s needs better, then let that culture die.

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Hah! Bite Me, Vegans!

February 13th, 2010

Oh, sure, it’s just one study, and, yeah, if you have a tenth of a brain, it’s obvious that comparing the most processed types of plant food to meat isn’t really a decent comparison — it’s a poor study and easily rebuked by even the dimmest sprout-munching hippie. But I don’t care, I’m enjoying my moment of schadenfreude.

But, here’s the thing. People, at least sane, normal, people, don’t want to just eat lettuce they grow in their backyard. We are omnivores by evolution, and that means we want, and crave, meat! Even if for ethical or health reasons (correctly or incorrectly), we choose to let our forebrain overrule that primal desire to sink our teeth into a haunch of something that used to be running around, we will crave something close — fake meat, in other words, or highly processed vegetable matter. So as a matter of practicality, a major shift by the population to a vegetarian, or mostly vegetarian, diet can only occur if the craving for flesh can be sated by fake flesh — and that imposes environmental costs, as does everything.

(I actually like tofu, which is my deep and secret shame.)

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Cindy Sheehan… Well, Do You NEED To Read Any Further?

January 17th, 2010

Everyone’s favorite fifteen-minuter, Cindy Sheehan, went off the deep end a long time ago. She’s since burrowed through the bottom of the pool and descended to Pellucidar, where she’s lecturing tyrannosaurs on veganism. Every so often, though, she burrows upwards and, if she sees her shadow, we get six more months of war in the Mideast. Can I mix metaphors, or what?

Anyway, while she may have forgotten this, you may recall her alleged gripe with George Bush was that her (Cindy’s) son, whom she (Cindy) referred to as a “man-child”, despite him being in his mid-20s, was killed fighting in Iraq. She deftly positioned herself as a self-appointed spokeswoman for all mothers of all sons ever lost in battle. You’d think, then, that she’d approve of anything which got the job of war done while keeping other people’s sons and daughters out of the line of fire to be good thing. You’d think that, but Cindy doesn’t think. She just wants media coverage. This is also why she’s picketing Dick Cheney, a man who as much say over current US policy as, well, she does. Perhaps if she picketed Obama, her head would explode. Here’s hoping.

(I’m sure someone will reply, knee jerking as tears stream down their face, that the al-Qaida operatives being blown away by the UAVs are also people’s children. My response? I know, I just don’t care.)

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Cause of Earthquake in Haiti: SAAAATAN!!!!

January 14th, 2010

Today’s double-facepalm, courtesy of Pat Robertson.

Short summary: According to Pat Robertson, Haiti is suffering because, 300 years ago, Haitians made a deal with Satan.

There is only one proper response to this:

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Google To Pull Out Of China?

January 13th, 2010

If they go through with this — if it’s not just empty corporate posturing amounting to nothing in the long run — it’s big. Really big.

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Phoebus Krumm

January 11th, 2010

L Neil Smith is doing webcomics???

Huh. Depending on the ratio of plot/soapboxing, this could be pretty good…

(Yes, I dislike too-obvious soapboxing even when it’s soapboxing I generally agree with. As someone said, “If you want to send a message, use Western Union”. Good soapboxing should flow organically from the plot and only very occasionally be lampshaded. I daresay Vinge’s “A Deepness In The Sky” did more to actually sell the value of libertarian ideals than Smith’s “The Reality Broach” did, as the latter pretty much just preached to the choir and the former may have gotten some knee-jerk lefties in the sci-fi community to really THINK a little about the reality that underlies such pretty words as “service” and “community”. )

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Illegal To Defend Yourself. In Your Own Home. With a Knife.

January 10th, 2010

While there’s time when the slippery slope argument is a fallacy — private stores saying “Happy Holidays” does not mean that, next year, the government is going to arrest you for being a Christian — there are other times when it’s perfectly valid. One such time seems to be any restrictions on the rights of law-abiding, mentally fit, adults, to bear personal weapons for self defense. When I was in the SCA, a common bumper sticker was, “If guns are outlawed, can I use my sword?”. The answer from the increasingly fascistic government of the United Kingdom is “Hell, no!” First, they banned Bat’leths, leaving Great Britain increasingly vulnerable to attack by Romulans[1], and now, they have decreed, and I wish I believed in God so I could wish to God this was a joke or a satire, that you cannot carry an “offensive weapon” in your own home.

This is so far beyond the pale I cannot believe it is being placidly accepted by the British citizenry, but it is. The people who stood up to the Blitz, who built an Empire, who bravely marched in bright red uniforms so they could get mowed down by Yankee rebels hiding behind walls, have become scared, cowardly, sheep, just waiting to be made into mutton. Or lamb chops. Or whatever it is you make from sheep.

[1]My online spell check suggests “Romanians”. Perhaps it knows something I don’t.

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I Guess 9/11 Happened Under Clinton…

January 8th, 2010

..since Rud911y G911ulia911i claims there were “no domestic attacks” under Bush.

OK, well, one. But, like, who remembers it, right?

Part of the problem with being rational is having to condemn irrationality. That is, there’s a lot of Obama’s actual and proposed policies I disagree with. His personal philosophy and values are not moderate or centrist, but quite doctrinaire leftist, and if he could wave his magic wand and make America into a Eurosocialist nation, he would. However, this doesn’t make him a Communist Muslim Zionist, and regardless of his personal beliefs and philosophies, the American system has a President, not a King, and his ability to implement such policies are extremely limited. He is beholden to innumerable power groups, and so is Congress. So when people screech that America was destroyed when a half-assed and mostly-meaningless “health care reform” bill was rammed through using tricks no dirtier than those used continually over the past 220 or so years by Congress, I have to raise a disbelieving eyebrow. Fact is, the PATRIOT act is far more anti-American than socialized medicine. While the Constitution doesn’t explicitly grant the government that power, it also explicitly doesn’t deny it — while much of what happened in the “War On Terror” front during the Bush administration is a direct and undeniable assault on the Bill of Rights. George Bush II violated almost every moral and philosophical tenet of conservatism — he created a government more bloated than that of the “Great Society”, altered law by executive fiat, and greatly increased the power of the State to interfere in the lives of private citizens. He began the socialistic bailouts of failed businesses which Obama continued.

And, yet, during the Bush years, I was often put in the position of defending him, because despite all of the above, he was not especially more corrupt or evil than his predecessors. The war in Iraq was wrong-headed and stupid, but it wasn’t fought because “George Bush wants to kill brown people” or “George Bush is trying to wipe out Islam”. Nor did Bush conspire to bring down the World Trade Center with anti-matter bombs, as some people have, apparently seriously, claimed. Dubya also doesn’t have access to the Orbital Weather Satellites[1], so he neither caused, nor failed to stop, Hurricane Katrina.

There’s good and bad reasons to criticize someone. Using the bad reasons just strengthens the target of your criticism.

[1]They were taken over by the Gnomes on turn 4, and they in turn control the Boy Sprouts and the Convenience Stores.

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Ninefold Welfare Mom Not Getting Sympathy — Gee, Ya Think?

January 6th, 2010

OK, let me start off by saying that if this article presents all the relevant facts, the woman may have a legal case. Regardless of what I, and any sane person, might think of her, if someone does something to your body without your consent or a legitimate legal requirement (i.e, tracking devices for felons on parole), you have had your rights violated and you should receive just and due compensation. Respecting the rights of people you disagree with isn’t just limited to supporting pornographers, racists, right-to-lifers, and homophobes. It even extends to welfare moms, and since the basis of all human rights is one’s ownership of one’s own physical body, a violation of that most essential piece of property is a violation of your rights, and it is (sigh….) the duty of the State to defend your rights. That is its only valid function.

HOWEVER….

There’s a big difference between acknowledging someone’s rights, and treating them with any kind of respect. The “Reverend” Phelps has a right to protest, as does Operation Rescue, even when their protests cause emotional pain and suffering, because we do not limit speech if it makes someone feel bad. Indeed, if you ban all speech which causes anyone to be upset, you ban all speech of any meaning. NONE THE LESS, I can and will openly despise, mock, jeer, and loathe those people, because doing so is part of my right to free speech, and if they want pity or sympathy when they’re arrested, or, even better, beaten to a pulp (but that would be wrong), they’re barking up the wrong kettle of fish in a barrel, or something. Ms. Savicki may or may not have had her rights violated — the courts will decide based on the facts — but she’s not entitled to the smallest smidgen of pity. By continuing to produce children well beyond her capacity to support them, she exploits the generosity of society as well as condemning the children she allegedly loves to inferior upbringing. She is not a good person. Hostility towards someone who squanders the resources of the pack is hard-wired into our genes. A monkey who tosses away his own bananas doesn’t bug us, but one who throws away the bananas the entire pack has set aside hits us in our hindbrain. Ms. Savicki lives off the generosity of society — contrary to what the leftists might think, there is no right to anything which requires the labor of others to produce. Whatever social support networks are put into place in a society are a gift from the productive members of that society to those who, at least in theory, want to support themselves but cannot, for reasons which, again at least theoretically, are out of their control. Recipients of such aid have, I feel, a moral duty to minimize their drain on the resources set aside, because doing so reduces the effect on the contributors and leaves more for each other person in need. No matter how the lawyers may spin this, people like Ms. Savicki aren’t robbing the Wall Street Fat Cats — they’re robbing the genuinely needy.

Mandating reversible sterilization for welfare recipients and capping benefits no matter how many kids you have is logical and moral. Not surprisingly, the right wing “right to life” folks oppose the former and leftists oppose the latter, so don’t expect it any time soon.

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