On Cloning

Matt Drudge had a recent story referring to the recent claims of a successful human clone being born under the tagline "DID THIS WOMAN CHANGE THE COURSE OF MANKIND FOREVER?"
Now, I usually like Drudge, but he seems to have joined the general hysteria surrounding human cloning.

I am skeptical that a successful human clone is scientifically possible in the near future, but even if this feat can be accomplished, I see nothing wrong or immoral about the practice. First, the classic argument against cloning, that interfering with reproduction "goes against God's will" is nonsense. If we take this argument to its natural conclusion, then any human manipulation of genes is immoral. But we are in effect participating in genetic manipulation when we choose one mate over another, or breed a certain variety of a crop over another, or choose to have kids or not. Simply by favoring blondes over brunettes, or mates of a certain race, we are in fact engaging in genetic manipulation - and if man was made in God's image, than that image is certainly a moving target. Excluding human manipulation of us and our environment leaves us with little choice, but to go back to the caves or trees we originated from – because it is in fact human nature to rule nature, rather than be ruled by it.

Cloning, like any technology gives man power -- to improve his life, or to destroy it. In the long run, it is only the productive and life-enhancing applications of technology that make life and further development possible, which is why technology and industry is fundamentally beneficial to human life. The "natural order" for man is as a rational being who applies his creative power to benefit his life by conquering nature – including that of his own body. Because it excludes human achievements from “nature,” the entire notion of going "back to nature" implies a return to our animal nature -- a miserable, short, and brutish life scrounging scrubs while trying to eke out a pathetic survival.

Another argument against cloning is that it will lead to birth defects and shortened lifespans. Perhaps so, but so will so does smoking, consuming alcohol and bad diets while pregnant - and mothers are not legally liable for in those cases. Perhaps, if cloning was inherently detrimental to a fetus - for example as random radiation exposure might be, there might be a case for banning it, but in fact, it promises incredible advances in preventing genetic disease and perhaps even improving on the fragile condition from which we have involved. Sure, some people might mess up their kid's genes, but then stupid people have kids all the time - more than their fair share even, and no one tries to pass a law against that.

What I've been up to during the break...

That's me in front, blissfully unaware of the guy behind me, about to blow me away. (Don't worry, I still won the game.)


Btw, the game is Unreal Tournament 2003, which I have just bought, and highly recommend to anyone who likes FPS gaming.

Movementarian Banners

I've made two new movementarian banners:

One:

And two:

More on NK Nukes

Apparently, North Korea is going full stream with nuke production -- they have removed UN seals and inspection devices, and openly admitted to nuclear weapons production. Apparently, they're not afraid to take the world with them if they ever go down:

The communist party's newspaper Workers' Daily declared that "the army and people of the DPRK are fully ready to mercilessly strike the bulwark of US imperialist aggressors" - implying that they could hit targets in the US.

"There can be no earth without Korea," it said. "The army and people of the DPRK will destroy the earth if the enemies dare make a nuclear strike at it. This is their do-or-die spirit."

Do what exactly? Achieve a communist utopia? If the mass starvation of their people is that utopia, then "kill everyone or die trying" is a better description of their "spirit."

New Web App

I spent a whole day making a new favorites page. It may look deceptively simple to the untrained eye, but it took me a whole day to get the XML databinding and sorting to work. Also, I think my collection of links is pretty cool. Check out out!

New Design

I would like to take this time to brag about the the new layout I did tonight for Laurel's blogger, inspired by one of Tamara de Lempicka's art-deco paintings.

Graduation

I was at Tim's graduation last night, and happened to be looking through the PhD theses in the brosure, and some of the sociology and english titles reminded me of this quote

You know, if every "Woman's Studies" department was closed, and the student loans were used to create businesses that hired women instead of studied them like tragic butterflies impaled on the patriarchal pin, we might be better off. Granted, we'd be without PhDs theses like "Rape Symbolism and Beatrix Potter: A Rake's Progress," but the culture would survive; the only noticeable effect at all would be a 17% decrease in Frieda Kahlo poster sales, and a 50% decrease in 33-year old college students.

Marxism

Interesting article on Marxism at the Economist.

Here is the conclusion:

Anti-globalism has been aptly described as a secular religion. So is Marxism: a creed complete with prophet, sacred texts and the promise of a heaven shrouded in mystery. Marx was not a scientist, as he claimed. He founded a faith. The economic and political systems he inspired are dead or dying. But his religion is a broad church, and lives on.

A pacifist speaks his mind.

On October 8, Air Force Academy cadet Robert Kurpiel sent an e-mail to several college professors seeking support for the academy's annual assembly, which provides a forum for the exchange of political views. His polite request sought advice on publicity for the event and such. One who responded was Professor Peter Kirstein of St. Xavier University in Chicago. Here is his October 31 reply in full and verbatim:

You are a disgrace to this country and I am furious you would even think I would support you and your aggressive baby killing tactics of collateral damage. Help you recruit. Who, top guns to reign [sic] death and destruction upon nonwhite peoples throughout the world? Are you serious sir? Resign your commission and serve your country with honour.

No war, no air force cowards who bomb countries with AAA, without possibility of retaliation. You are worse than the snipers. You are imperialists who are turning the whole damn world against us. September 11 can be blamed in part for what you and your cohorts have done to Palestinians, the VC, the Serbs, a retreating army at Basra.

You are unworthy of my support.

After the national media covered this story, and Dr Kirstein was temporarily removed from his position for his remarks, he gave the following (non)apology:

I have expressed to Cadet Kurpiel my regrets over what I communicated to him in my e-mail. I did not mean to impugn his character. I am sure he is of the highest character. I should have written him in a more thoughtful and contemplative manner. As one who believes in non-violence and the avoidance of conflict, I could have been more circumspect and creative in my communication with him.."

I don't think I need to add much commentary here, except I can say from some of my experience at Texas A&M that Dr Kirstein is no exception and this this is the ugly underbelly of today's academia out in the open.

Trent Lott

Here is a quote from MSNBC news:

He added, "I am going to have to make changes, make amends and do something about it." Specifically, he pledged his support for affirmative action programs and for creation of a "task force on reconciliation."
"There's an opportunity here," Lott said. "This is a wake-up call."
When pressed by moderator Ed Gordon, Lott spoke candidly about his Thurmond comment. "It was insensitive, at the very least," he said. He also said if he had to vote today he would vote for the federal holiday in honor of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., which he voted against in 1983."

Note a few things:
Lott doesn't ever acknowledge that his comment was in fact racist -- so what is he apologizing for exactly? He doesn't say. Instead of admitting his own guilt, he wants a "task force" -- as if his racist remarks should be dealt as a social problem, not a racist attitude on his part. (If he's not racist, he hasn't explained what he "really" meant by his remarks.)
As a response to his own racism, he decides to force it on others - by affirmative action. So what "convinced" him to support affirmative action and a national holiday for MLK? No answer. So does it then make any logical sense to change one's political views in response to your actual political views being revealed? Of course not. It only makes sense to a politician who tells the public whatever he believes they want to hear, without bothering to define any principles or ideals to base his position on.

No Gore in '04

It seems that Al Gore won't run in '04 after all, clearing the way for (the marginally better candidates) Tom Daschle, Dick Gephardt, and Lieberman. Either way, as long as the Dems fail to get their act together and find something to stand for, Bush's re-election should be a shoe-in.
Also, while advertising the upcoming speech on Abortion, I started a lively (perhaps too lively) debate on TexAgs.com which is probably the most active thread ever outside their college football section.

Quoth one commie

"We need [Moore's] noisy, cocky energy, his passion and class consciousness; we need his shticks, we need his stones."

Anyone who wants more proof that Hollywood/media is commie heaven should note the
13 positive and 0 negative reviews on Michael Moore's latest manifesto: Bowling for Columbine.

Oops!

I overclocked my computer a few days ago, disabling its ability to reboot. Last night, it rebooted to apply an automatic update, but becuase of the overclock, it didn't come back up, and after a few hours, Cox reset my IP address, causing the DNS entry to be erroneous. So, my website will be down for a day or two, until the new DNS clears...

Random clips from the news...

Ted Turner on terrorism: "There's a lot of despair out there. Despair and poverty... these breed anger. And, I think, that's one of the reasons terrorism exists. There's so much frustration, anger, and despair..In the Arab view, America doesn't do enough to help them and that's why they're so angry at it," he said. The battle against terrorism is a battle against poverty and injustice. People are willing to die when they don't have anything to live for."

meanwhile, "poverty-stricken .... North Korea's Foreign Ministry said Thursday it would immediately end a freeze on its nuclear power plant in response to an allied decision to suspend oil aid to Pyongyang,.Under a 1994 pact, Pyongyang promised to scrap plans to develop nuclear weapons in return for light water nuclear reactors and fuel oil supplies."

as, US forced seized then released an unmarked, North Korean freighter loaded with Scuds and chemicals:
"The real name of the North Korean ship had been painted over, so too had the registration number. The vessel was not flying a flag which Señor Trillo said meant the Spanish crew was within its legal rights to seize the vessel.At first the So San's captain claimed she was a Cambodian vessel but on seeing marines clambering into launches and heading in his direction he asked if he could contact his masters in Pyongyang. "
"Señor Trillo listed the haul as 15 Scud missiles, 15 conventional warheads, 23 tanks of nitric acid rocket propellant and 85 drums of chemicals."
The ship was allowed to go on with all it's cargo after "The [Yemeni] Sanaa Government insisted the Scuds were for their own defence and were indignant at suggestions the missiles could fall into unscrupulous hands."

Also, apparently Palestinian rule seems to have it's flaws:
"Crime wave in West Bank as unpaid cops turn rogue...A network of gangs have appeared that extort from businessmen, steal property and other assets and work for those who want to eliminate their rivals. The sources said the gangs operate in the Jerusalem and Ramallah areas and face virtually no danger from being captured by either Israeli or Palestinian authorities."

Let's see if they can dig themselves out of this hole

Gray Davis and the California democrats have done it again: California is on the edge of bankruptcy. Apparently all those "progressive" social programs couldn't survive the recession.
Personally, I'm glad. Those stupid democrats have dug themselves into this hole, and I hope they feel the pain on the way out. After all, CA is unionized to hell, and they will have to convince all those teachers and state workers to take massive pay cuts /lay offs.
Either that, or raise taxes. But higher taxes will scare away even more business, digging them into an even bigger hole. Either way, California is screwed. Apparently, the highly progressive tax system in CA had a part to play:

"California prides itself on its progressive income tax, with people earning high incomes paying a huge share of state taxes. The top 10 percent of filers pay 75 percent of personal income taxes. But when their income drops, as it did when the technology boom went bust in early 2000, the state treasury crashes."

It seems that you can't milk the rich for all the're worth after all. The Dems are still clueless though:

"Mr. Wesson, the Assembly speaker, said it was "mathematically impossible" to balance the state budget without raising taxes.
"The way you do it is to put absolutely everything on the table, every conceivable cut, every conceivable way to raise taxes," he said. "Then you sort out what is the least painful and what is the most fair."

The likely outcome, I think, is that taxes will go up, and many of California's businesses will go away. NYC's tax hike had (and will have) much the same effect. I'm hopeful that NYC and CA will learn a lesson from this, but somehow, I doubt it. Nevertheless, the lesson is not lost on all, as thisUSA Today story from a while back shows

Latest essay...

Check out my latest:Google, Censorship, and the Hostage Dilemma

"On September 8, 2002, the Chinese government blocked Google, one of the Internet's biggest search engines. The government of China regularly blocks websites that it considers "dangerous" to its regime, but Google.com is a search engine - it only indexes the Internet without bias or preference to the content of a particular website. So why would Google be banned in China, especially considering that it is a crucial research tool without adequate Chinese substitutes? I believe that the answer lies in a game theory scenario known as the hostage dilemma. Because Google had the potential to greatly improve coordination between pro-democracy supporters, it may pose a threat to the Chinese regime. While the exact intentions of China in blocking Google are not clear, the incident holds a lesson for anyone trying to support or suppress democratic movements in authoritarian regimes."

The anti-war protesters: what are they for?

I've written a new essay: The anti-war protesters: what are they for?
(shorter version:)

"A recent incident at University of Texas is indicative of the nature of the pacifists opposing a war with Iraq. After the student government of the University of Texas passed a resolution condemning a U.S. attack on Iraq, the Young Conservatives attempted a debate with the "Campus Coalition for Peace and Justice." However, as CNN reported, "Most listeners in the audience seemed to agree with the Campus Coalition, or at least people on that side seemed more vocal about their feelings. When an antiwar advocate began heckling a student in the pro-war camp, other supporters of the President's policies stood up, and a fistfight almost broke out." One can easily imagine what "more vocal" means when reverse-translated through the filter of CNN's liberal bias. Apparently, the "peace protesters" are not so peaceful. All over the world, they have been rioting against "aggression." What is the true nature of the anti-war sentiment in America then? Much insight about the nature of the "anti-war" protest can be found in their "Statement of Conscience," which has been endorsed by thousands of professors and students across America."

Can you spot the difference?

See if you can spot the difference between two following photos from MSNBC: ....this and this

...I couldn't.

(A bit of context: both groups were protesting the same topic.)

Consumer profiling can make you gay

Interesting story at ArsTechnica:
As this article points out, many consumers are finding themselves presented with odd choices when they return to their favorite websites. Just today I searched on Amazon.com for "writers market". Now, when I return to Amazon I'm presented with a list of recommendations, all of them books matching my earlier search criteria. This kind of techno-profiling, or as they would like you to believe, "feature", is becoming quite common.

For a live demonstration before an audience of 500 people, Mr. [Jeff] Bezos once logged onto Amazon.com to show how it caters to his interests. The top
recommendation it gave him? The DVD for "Slave Girls From Beyond
Infinity." That popped up because he had previously ordered "Barbarella," starring Jane Fonda, a spokesman explains.

But wait, there's more. Not only has this trend become standard procedure at sites such as Amazon.com and NetFlix, even TiVo is in on the action.
Mr. Iwanyk, 32 years old, first suspected that his TiVo thought he was gay, since it inexplicably kept recording programs with gay themes. A film studio executive in Los Angeles and the self-described "straightest guy on earth," he tried to tame TiVo's gay fixation by recording war movies
and other "guy stuff."

"The problem was, I overcompensated," he says. "It started giving me documentaries on Joseph Goebbels and Adolf Eichmann. It stopped thinking I was gay and decided I was a crazy guy reminiscing about the Third Reich."

My own experience with Amazon is pretty good, with the expetion being the four post-modern books I ordered from Amazon for my english class. The books sucked, but the authors kept popping up on my recomendation lists until I finally rated all the books as "crap" (or whatever the amazon rating for that is) at which point Amazon resumed pushing Objectivist books at me due to my purchase of OPAR a few years ago.

Website Updates...

In a pathetic attempt to find avoid having to work on all the papers I have due this week, I have checked my email, bugged all my friends online, done my laundry, cleaned the apartment, scrubbed the bathroom, and finally, in desperation, I even cleaned the toilet. All to no avail, as my paper still isn't done. Oh, I also updated my website, so take a look around.

Thanksgiving...

I had a great time in San Antonio over thanksgiving, including good food, several new books to read, and a brand new digital camera! Expect higher quality photos soon!

Meanwhile, check out a few shots I took with the new camera...