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Weekend ahoy - 21-22 July 2007
Jul. 23rd, 2007 02:23 pmI spent the weekend having quite a bit of fun, I must say. Went to Cedar Point’s kid brother, Michigan’s Adventure, on Saturday, to waltz around in the water park for a few hours, play miniature golf with one of my cousins and my little brother, and just generally have fun. That continued on Saturday at a reunion for relations on my grandfather’s side, where the usual eating, talking, and rude bodily noises were made. A fairly relaxing weekend, really. And I’ve got two telephone interviews this week, which may result in some other in person interviews, depending on how well I do them and whether or not the libraries in question feel they want to have me. We’ll see. Once I’ve got some ideas bolted down as to where I have to be when, I may start asking around to see if there are people in my path that I can crash with or some such. Have to make the plans solid first, though. Encouraging, though, that there’s this burst of interviews and such.
Onward to link-powered goodness. If you wonder what sort of organization this post and my life uses, “nothing” would probably be the most accurate answer. Regarding my eventual workplace, though, DDC - Dewey Decimal Classification - is probably the law of the land. Not everywhere, though, as libraries are experimenting with other options to see if a Dewey-less library helps people find things easier. Much like they’d try to find things in a bookstore - the idea of modeling libraries after bookstores has helped some libraries improve their circulation and the amount of people who visit the library. DDC itself is probably due for an overhaul somewhere along the line to rebalance it. Or maybe someone out there has a new type of classification that’s superior to DDC or LCC. We never know.
I’m trying to think in what book I read it, maybe it was Transmetropolitan, maybe it was something like Neuromancer... for all I know it was the Futurological Congress, but anyway, there’s a line or two somewhere that I came across where two characters are trying to discuss how to go about funding one thing or another, and one of them quips that they can’t do it with cash, because the cash is “bugged”. Well, apparently the cash is bugged, be it United States $20 or European Union 5 and 10 Euro bills. Some part of the “security” features of those bills reacts to a particular type of microwaving, it appears, in a rather consistent fashion. What sort of data are government entities trying to collect and/or what purpose would something like an RFID tag serve in monetary transactions?
Disinformation would like to offer something to all the people who are willing to trade freedom and liberty for false security - you are destroying America. Yes, you. Austin Cline echoes this sentiment, and goes into some specifics by noting Knowledge is Power for the People, Ignorance is Power for the Rulers. The less you know, the easier it is to scare you and herd you in the direction they, whomever they are, want you to go. It also makes it easier for them to propose ridiculous associations, like a fictional book about a child wizard is sorcery and/or responsible for terrorist attacks against the United States, or that a political candidate's religious beliefs (or appearance thereof) are more important than their actual policy, or that a scientific theory, backed by experimentation and observation, should be treated the same as an untestable religious claim. Incidentally, that person appears to have vanished, following his naming as a suspect in the death threats case. And Texas may start teaching the untestable religious hypothesis as equal or superior to the scientific theory.
That’s scratching the surface of wider conflicts, though - Turkey is still struggling to try and find a way of maintaining secular government and permitting religious expression, including holding votes on whether public officials should be able to wear Islamic headscarves. India made strides toward a more equal society by electing their first female President, giving them one more female president than the United States. Here in the United States, where war takes most of the time on camera and in the news, Mr. Bush accused his opposition of not doing their duty by doing their duty, namely debating and asking questions about the validity, cost-effectiveness, and popularity of the Iraq war. Hugh Hewitt took on a similar position, accussing anti-war bloggers of "hysteria" because of their reaction to General Petraeus appearing on his radio show and talking about the war in Iraq. The transcript of that appearance is available from Hugh Hewitt's Townhall site, so make your own decisions about whether the General was speaking candidly or from a conservative talking points memo. John Hawkins laid it out as bluntly as he could, calling on the opposition to "put the country ahead of their politics", so that Iraq doesn’t become a breeding ground for al-Qaeda, Iran doesn’t become belligerent, and gas prices don’t get doubled in the ensuing aftermath of instability. It’s rather interesting to see that the standard response to someone who questions the validity or feasibility of this war is “shut up and let the generals and the Deciders decide when it’s time to go”. See above comments about how ignorance makes it easier for the ruling class to do what they want. To say nothing and to not question would be allowing other people to stay ignorant.
Michael McBride believes that current thinking on war means only the impossible will be viewed as a success, because quick, casuality-lite war is the kind the American populace want to see, rather than the kind of war that produces "handshake" agreements with insurgents to get them to stop fighting and give them some amnesty if they’ll be co-operative from that point on. He may be right - it might be that we have to find an excellent long-term justification for aggression and war before we begin to plan for it. Or we might try to find some manner of resolving conflict without war first. Such a novel idea, that we might actually have to plan out war, and that it’s an unpopular last resort to only be engaged in when necessary, if at all.
A lot of what people think and believe about the war is influenced by the things they read, see, or experience themselves. Seeing an article about three suspects arrested and accused of plotting terrorist attacks wouldn’t do that much, except right at the beginning, it mentions that they’re Muslim, and that the arrests and training camp was supposedly a mosque. I understand the need to give details, but it always seems that the terror arrests that make the papers today are all Muslims. I doubt somehow that there’s a sudden lack of Christian terrorists, or atheist terrorists, or Jewish terrorists, or what have you. It just seems that all the terrorists in the news these days are of Arabic descent or Muslims. That must be what makes news these days.
I think I’d rather find out about FEMA failed to act on knowledge that some of their refugee trailers had toxic levels of formaldehyde gas, up to 75 times the recommended workplace-safety threshold. No testing was done, even after complaints and deaths because FEMA didn’t want to take responsibility for it and actually have to fix the problem once it was discovered. So, how much does your government care about people struck by natural disasters? Is it a lot less than the people of your country?
Of course, what I want to know is not necessarily what’s going to be put up on the news. From the “liberal media, my tailscales” department, Liberal Eagle points out that the media tends to interfere significantly in elections, by choosing what to report on and what “story” they want to build about a candidate, turning him into a stuffed-shirt, goofy enviro-nut or a laid-back “down home” casual man who you’d want to drink beer and go to church with. You’ll notice that the one who was presented as “plain folks” was not exactly the best choice. So rather than lay out the facts and trust the people to make an informed decision, there’s crap stories like John Edwards’ $400 haricut appearing while, say, Mitt Romney’s similar makeup expenditures are simply not mentioned.
Sounds like a paranoid sort of speech, but these days, everybody wants to keep us ignorant of something, it seems. Which is anathema to the idea of good government based on information and fact, and elections made by persons informed of the candidates various positions and policies and what they actually plan on doing, rather than the image they present as being a “man of the people” or some other nonsense.
Anyway, that’s the weekend report. Today’s material comes tonight.
Onward to link-powered goodness. If you wonder what sort of organization this post and my life uses, “nothing” would probably be the most accurate answer. Regarding my eventual workplace, though, DDC - Dewey Decimal Classification - is probably the law of the land. Not everywhere, though, as libraries are experimenting with other options to see if a Dewey-less library helps people find things easier. Much like they’d try to find things in a bookstore - the idea of modeling libraries after bookstores has helped some libraries improve their circulation and the amount of people who visit the library. DDC itself is probably due for an overhaul somewhere along the line to rebalance it. Or maybe someone out there has a new type of classification that’s superior to DDC or LCC. We never know.
I’m trying to think in what book I read it, maybe it was Transmetropolitan, maybe it was something like Neuromancer... for all I know it was the Futurological Congress, but anyway, there’s a line or two somewhere that I came across where two characters are trying to discuss how to go about funding one thing or another, and one of them quips that they can’t do it with cash, because the cash is “bugged”. Well, apparently the cash is bugged, be it United States $20 or European Union 5 and 10 Euro bills. Some part of the “security” features of those bills reacts to a particular type of microwaving, it appears, in a rather consistent fashion. What sort of data are government entities trying to collect and/or what purpose would something like an RFID tag serve in monetary transactions?
Disinformation would like to offer something to all the people who are willing to trade freedom and liberty for false security - you are destroying America. Yes, you. Austin Cline echoes this sentiment, and goes into some specifics by noting Knowledge is Power for the People, Ignorance is Power for the Rulers. The less you know, the easier it is to scare you and herd you in the direction they, whomever they are, want you to go. It also makes it easier for them to propose ridiculous associations, like a fictional book about a child wizard is sorcery and/or responsible for terrorist attacks against the United States, or that a political candidate's religious beliefs (or appearance thereof) are more important than their actual policy, or that a scientific theory, backed by experimentation and observation, should be treated the same as an untestable religious claim. Incidentally, that person appears to have vanished, following his naming as a suspect in the death threats case. And Texas may start teaching the untestable religious hypothesis as equal or superior to the scientific theory.
That’s scratching the surface of wider conflicts, though - Turkey is still struggling to try and find a way of maintaining secular government and permitting religious expression, including holding votes on whether public officials should be able to wear Islamic headscarves. India made strides toward a more equal society by electing their first female President, giving them one more female president than the United States. Here in the United States, where war takes most of the time on camera and in the news, Mr. Bush accused his opposition of not doing their duty by doing their duty, namely debating and asking questions about the validity, cost-effectiveness, and popularity of the Iraq war. Hugh Hewitt took on a similar position, accussing anti-war bloggers of "hysteria" because of their reaction to General Petraeus appearing on his radio show and talking about the war in Iraq. The transcript of that appearance is available from Hugh Hewitt's Townhall site, so make your own decisions about whether the General was speaking candidly or from a conservative talking points memo. John Hawkins laid it out as bluntly as he could, calling on the opposition to "put the country ahead of their politics", so that Iraq doesn’t become a breeding ground for al-Qaeda, Iran doesn’t become belligerent, and gas prices don’t get doubled in the ensuing aftermath of instability. It’s rather interesting to see that the standard response to someone who questions the validity or feasibility of this war is “shut up and let the generals and the Deciders decide when it’s time to go”. See above comments about how ignorance makes it easier for the ruling class to do what they want. To say nothing and to not question would be allowing other people to stay ignorant.
Michael McBride believes that current thinking on war means only the impossible will be viewed as a success, because quick, casuality-lite war is the kind the American populace want to see, rather than the kind of war that produces "handshake" agreements with insurgents to get them to stop fighting and give them some amnesty if they’ll be co-operative from that point on. He may be right - it might be that we have to find an excellent long-term justification for aggression and war before we begin to plan for it. Or we might try to find some manner of resolving conflict without war first. Such a novel idea, that we might actually have to plan out war, and that it’s an unpopular last resort to only be engaged in when necessary, if at all.
A lot of what people think and believe about the war is influenced by the things they read, see, or experience themselves. Seeing an article about three suspects arrested and accused of plotting terrorist attacks wouldn’t do that much, except right at the beginning, it mentions that they’re Muslim, and that the arrests and training camp was supposedly a mosque. I understand the need to give details, but it always seems that the terror arrests that make the papers today are all Muslims. I doubt somehow that there’s a sudden lack of Christian terrorists, or atheist terrorists, or Jewish terrorists, or what have you. It just seems that all the terrorists in the news these days are of Arabic descent or Muslims. That must be what makes news these days.
I think I’d rather find out about FEMA failed to act on knowledge that some of their refugee trailers had toxic levels of formaldehyde gas, up to 75 times the recommended workplace-safety threshold. No testing was done, even after complaints and deaths because FEMA didn’t want to take responsibility for it and actually have to fix the problem once it was discovered. So, how much does your government care about people struck by natural disasters? Is it a lot less than the people of your country?
Of course, what I want to know is not necessarily what’s going to be put up on the news. From the “liberal media, my tailscales” department, Liberal Eagle points out that the media tends to interfere significantly in elections, by choosing what to report on and what “story” they want to build about a candidate, turning him into a stuffed-shirt, goofy enviro-nut or a laid-back “down home” casual man who you’d want to drink beer and go to church with. You’ll notice that the one who was presented as “plain folks” was not exactly the best choice. So rather than lay out the facts and trust the people to make an informed decision, there’s crap stories like John Edwards’ $400 haricut appearing while, say, Mitt Romney’s similar makeup expenditures are simply not mentioned.
Sounds like a paranoid sort of speech, but these days, everybody wants to keep us ignorant of something, it seems. Which is anathema to the idea of good government based on information and fact, and elections made by persons informed of the candidates various positions and policies and what they actually plan on doing, rather than the image they present as being a “man of the people” or some other nonsense.
Anyway, that’s the weekend report. Today’s material comes tonight.
