Sunday, November 27, 2005
Collaging with friends
"Music is a miniature of the harmony of the whole universe, for the harmony of the universe is life itself, and humans, being a miniature of the universe, show harmonious and inharmonious chords in their pulsations, in the beat of their hearts, in their vibration, rhythm and tone. Their health or illness, their joy or discomfort, all show the music or lack of music in their life." --Hazrat Inayat Khan---
Tuesday, November 22, 2005
Why I'm a "libertarian"
My dad really liked this article, and the commendation he gave me for it was a very important turning point in my life, after the crazy times of 1-2 years ago...
Ah, door-to-door distribution... those were the days. One time, this dude was pretty mad at me for my proselytizing in his hallway, and then we hung out at a party and made friends later that night!
Ah, door-to-door distribution... those were the days. One time, this dude was pretty mad at me for my proselytizing in his hallway, and then we hung out at a party and made friends later that night!
the Free State Project
Language Monitor's top Politically Incorrect Words for 2005!
Though this lies, I'm sure as hell not neglected
Sunday, November 20, 2005
I had no idea it was this bad in Indonesia...
A 20-year-old woman died and her friend was injured. Police said it was too early to tell if the latest attack was linked to the deadly sectarian unrest simmering between the region's majority Muslim and minority Christian communities. Hostilities last broke out in 2001, ignited by rumours that a Muslim girl had been raped by a Christian, attracting the widespread attention of Indonesia's militant Islamists.
To jihadists across the archipelago and beyond, Poso's tensions were a call to arms against the region's 200,000 Christians. By the summer of 2001, with little attempt by the government to halt their migration, thousands of militants, mainly from outlawed groups such as Laksar Jihad and Jemaah Islamiyah, had travelled here with weapons, military training from Afghanistan and a mission to drive out the infidels.
To jihadists across the archipelago and beyond, Poso's tensions were a call to arms against the region's 200,000 Christians. By the summer of 2001, with little attempt by the government to halt their migration, thousands of militants, mainly from outlawed groups such as Laksar Jihad and Jemaah Islamiyah, had travelled here with weapons, military training from Afghanistan and a mission to drive out the infidels.
Wednesday, November 16, 2005
John Tkacik's "Policy Review for President Bush's China Visit"
"From the beginning of the North Korean nuclear crisis, China’s goal has been the survival and success of North Korea’s totalitarian regime, and so it pushes off the 'ultimate goal of denuclearizing the Korean Peninsula'—forever, if necessary. Chinese President Hu Jintao has praised North Korea for how well it has preserved the 'purity' of Communist ideals."
This is a great briefing of current Chinese/US relations and what the situations mean for the near future.
This is a great briefing of current Chinese/US relations and what the situations mean for the near future.
North Korea
Last night I saw a documentary about refugees from North Korea fleeing to China, some eventually making it to Mongolia or South Korea and some being returned to NK to be killed and/or tortured. http://www.seoultrain.com. I bought it. It was sickening. I have a new obsession, and I'm trying to learn everything I can about this, so my next few posts will be related to Asian affairs.
UN control of internet...
I never write any of my own ideas on the politics I post, but I suppose that my main purpose in any case is to let even one of my friends read the shit I think is important...
check out Claudia's article - and check out the countries that are very interested in the summit on this item...
Claudia Rosett:
"A U.N. unable even to audit its own accounts or police its own peacekeepers has no business making even a twitch toward control of the Internet.
Worse, the corruption and incompetence at U.N. headquarters, however disturbing, are the least of the problems linked to the U.N.'s bid to control interconnectivity. The deeper trouble is that the U.N. has embraced the same tyrants who in the name of helping the downtrodden are now seeking via Internet control to tread them down some more.
That is hardly the kind of information, however, that U.N. organizers of this Tunis turf grab are about to share. The U.N. Web site for this event goes heavy on high-tech doo-dads, and very light on the highly relevant big picture. For instance, the site includes two scroll bars. One shows select news coverage of the summit. The other shows funding contributions from various quarters, including the governments of Syria, Libya and Saudi Arabia, all distinguished as perennial members of Freedom House's list of the world most repressive regimes. Except the U.N. site doesn't make mention of the censorship and brutal internal repression of these regimes--only of their participation, and their money.
As usual, the U.N. for reasons sadly unrelated to actual performance, is styling itself as the champion of the poorest people, in the poorest countries. (This is the same U.N. that still hasn't repaid or even apologized to the people of Iraq for the billions worth of their national assets that were grafted, stolen and wasted under U.N. supervision in the Oil for Food program).
What Mr. Annan evidently does not care to understand, and after his zillion-year career at the U.N. probably never will, is that for purposes of helping the poor, the problem is not a digital divide. It is not the bytes, gigs, blogs and digital wing-dings that define that terrible line between the haves and the have-nots. These are symptoms of the real difference, which we would do better to call the dictatorial divide.
In free societies, all sorts of good things flourish, including technology and highly productive uses of the Internet. In despotic systems, human potential withers and dies, strangled by censorship, starved by central controls, and rotted by the corruption that inevitably accompanies such arrangements. That poisonous mix is what prevents the spread of prosperity in Africa, and blocks peace in the Middle East, and access to computers, or for that matter, food, in North Korea (which is of course sending a delegate to Tunis). "
brilliant writing
check out Claudia's article - and check out the countries that are very interested in the summit on this item...
Claudia Rosett:
"A U.N. unable even to audit its own accounts or police its own peacekeepers has no business making even a twitch toward control of the Internet.
Worse, the corruption and incompetence at U.N. headquarters, however disturbing, are the least of the problems linked to the U.N.'s bid to control interconnectivity. The deeper trouble is that the U.N. has embraced the same tyrants who in the name of helping the downtrodden are now seeking via Internet control to tread them down some more.
That is hardly the kind of information, however, that U.N. organizers of this Tunis turf grab are about to share. The U.N. Web site for this event goes heavy on high-tech doo-dads, and very light on the highly relevant big picture. For instance, the site includes two scroll bars. One shows select news coverage of the summit. The other shows funding contributions from various quarters, including the governments of Syria, Libya and Saudi Arabia, all distinguished as perennial members of Freedom House's list of the world most repressive regimes. Except the U.N. site doesn't make mention of the censorship and brutal internal repression of these regimes--only of their participation, and their money.
As usual, the U.N. for reasons sadly unrelated to actual performance, is styling itself as the champion of the poorest people, in the poorest countries. (This is the same U.N. that still hasn't repaid or even apologized to the people of Iraq for the billions worth of their national assets that were grafted, stolen and wasted under U.N. supervision in the Oil for Food program).
What Mr. Annan evidently does not care to understand, and after his zillion-year career at the U.N. probably never will, is that for purposes of helping the poor, the problem is not a digital divide. It is not the bytes, gigs, blogs and digital wing-dings that define that terrible line between the haves and the have-nots. These are symptoms of the real difference, which we would do better to call the dictatorial divide.
In free societies, all sorts of good things flourish, including technology and highly productive uses of the Internet. In despotic systems, human potential withers and dies, strangled by censorship, starved by central controls, and rotted by the corruption that inevitably accompanies such arrangements. That poisonous mix is what prevents the spread of prosperity in Africa, and blocks peace in the Middle East, and access to computers, or for that matter, food, in North Korea (which is of course sending a delegate to Tunis). "
brilliant writing
Saturday, November 12, 2005
Energy dependency - how to lower demand
This is an excellent article. Now that we've seen gas prices shoot through the roof, why don't we keep them there (w/higher gas taxes) so that consumers are no longer allowed to drive anywhere they want all the time, one person in the car at rush hour? this is the same reason I support ntl consumption tax - people adjust their spending so they aren't taxing our natural resources...
