Happy New Year!

I’m leaving for a two week ski trip in Colorado, so no blogging for a while, I’m afraid.
Want to get to know me better? Check out the new section of my bio page.

In other news, Castro as Hitler on Cuban front page sparks hunt for mystery satirist.

After asking voters not to focus on “guns, God and gays,” Howard Dean is using Jesus in his campaign rhetoric – but only in the South. Dean is a “Congregationalist” (wtf is that?) and has a Jewish wife and children. Methinks that (a) Dean is too pragmatic to hold any kind of explicit abstract belief, and (b) Dean already has his bases loaded with deities to worship – like the environment and the “common good.” Cox and Forkum comments:

In other news, Dean thinks Bin Laden should be presumed innocent until a jury decides otherwise:

I've resisted pronouncing a sentence before guilt is found," Dean said. "I still have this old-fashioned notion that even with people like Osama, who is very likely to be found guilty, we should do our best not to, in positions of executive power, not to prejudge jury trials.

Earth to Dean: There is an essential difference between a civilized, law-abiding country and a war zone. It is just as absurd to hold jury trials in a war zone, as it is to use machine guns and bombs against a common thief. Both Saddam and Bin Laden (if he is captured alive) should be tortured to obtain any relevant information and unceremoniously shot and dumped back into the hole they crawled from. If either is presumed innocent, then why did hundreds of U.S. soldier’s lives and uncounted billions of dollars go to kill them?

Earth stops slowing down

The next environmentalist mass hysteria is at hand: the earth is slowing down. Collision with sun/moon is imminent.

Correction: what I meant to say is that after billions of years, the earth has stopped slowing down -- since 1999 that is. The difference is less than a second a year, but the missing leap-second is significant to scientists and many communication systems.

CATO: "The sad truth is that the best purpose for the homeland security advisory system is for the federal bureaucracy to be seen as "doing something," to prove to the public that politicians and government officials are not asleep at the wheel-if something actually does happen, they can claim they gave fair warning."

Website Updates...

I've been working on converting my website to a content management system that I can easily deploy on other sites. If you're familiar with PHP, you can download my first hack at it here. The interesting stuff is in cms.php and .htaccess. (File compressed with WinRar.) I used the CMS to generate this mobile/AvantGo version of my homepage.

Cloned deer at A&M

Texas A&M has cloned a deer, which brings up the total number of species cloned at Aggieland to six. Nice to know that my own little neck of the woods is at the forefront of cloning research.

"presidential candidate selector poll"

SelectSmart has a "presidential candidate selector poll." Given that my answer was not listed for 2/3 of the questions, I think that the results are fairly accurate:

1. Your ideal theoretical candidate. (100%)
2. Libertarian Candidate (71%)
3. Bush, President George W. - Republican (69%)
4. Gephardt, Rep. Dick, MO - Democrat (43%)
5. Lieberman, Senator Joe, CT - Democrat (42%)
6. Edwards, Senator John, NC - Democrat (37%)
7. Kerry, Senator John, MA - Democrat (33%)
8. Dean, Gov. Howard, VT - Democrat (31%)
9. Sharpton, Reverend Al - Democrat (25%)
10. Phillips, Howard - Constitution (23%)

Though you will never see a campaign banner on my site, I will almost certainly be (once again) voting for Bush. Not because I like him or his policies, but because I alternatively shudder, laugh, and cringe at the alternatives.

The blood-stained origin of "Kwanzaa"

Kwanzaa is different. It has connections to still-living violent criminals. It is an insult to the African American community, very few of whom celebrate Kwanzaa and even fewer of whom would celebrate it if they knew the full story of its recent history, to suggest that it is an "African American holiday."

More on the founder here:

Deborah Jones, who once was given the Swahili title of an African queen, said she and Gail Davis were whipped with an electrical cord and beaten with a karate baton after being ordered to remove their clothes. She testified that a hot soldering iron was placed in Miss Davis' mouth and placed against Miss Davis' face and that one of her own big toes was tightened in a vise. Karenga, head of US, also put detergent and running hoses in their mouths, she said.

After spending most of a decade in prison, the author of Kwanzaa turned hardcore Marxist and is currently protesting the commercializing of his (explicitly socialist) holiday.

Tiananmen in London

This TCS op-ed has to be the most insightful article on the peace movement I’ve ever read.

And here we begin to see why there is this strange and unholy alliance between idealistic liberalism, the vestiges of the old socialist left, traditional third world authoritarians, and the unrelenting forces of Islamic totalitarianism, theocracy, and terror. However various their ideas of what is the good, all are united in their desire for an enforced law of the good. Even elements of the human rights movement, much of the anti-globalist community, and a large swatch of the philanthropic world -- the so-called NGOs -- still yearn for a government that, through sumptuary laws, high taxation, political correctness, and entitlements, would force to happen what people ought to, but do not make happen of their own free will.

Interesting story about the hunt for Saddam @ Newsweek: "Saddam struggled and spat, until a commando slugged him."

Comments on gay marriage

A recent poll shows strong that 55 percent of Americans support a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage. Whatever one thinks of gay marriage itself, a Constitutional amendment banning it is ludicrous. A constitution is a framework for a nation’s government, not a means by which trendy political disputes are resolved. There is no constitutionally justified reason why gay marriage should even be a federal issue, and hence no justification for the federal government to have any say on what marriage is or is not. Having said that, the policy that states should enact is such: gay marriage should be recognized, but it should be recognized as just that: gay marriage. Allow me to explain:

In a free society, adult individuals are free to engage in any consensual activity they desire. In a rational government, they are also able to form any contract between them and have it be legally recognizable and binding – assuming that the contract does not impose obligations on anyone else and is enforceable. Ignoring its social and moral ramifications, marriage is just such a contract. Certainly there is more to marriage than a legal contract, but from the government’s perspective, that’s all it should be seen as – a contract to share finances, certain legal obligations, and custodial rights. Legally, marriage is a special kind of contract –a standardized way of creating a complex legal entity. It certainly would not be feasible for the courts or for couples to have to draw up their own unique marriage contract, with all the details covering all potential eventualities. It would take dozens of lawyers, and it still wouldn’t have hundreds of years of precedent to cover all the possibilities. To simplify all that, we have a standard marriage contract that can be handled by a single public notary. Are there any valid reasons not to extend this contract to couples of the same sex?

On the face of it, the answer is no -- there is nothing particularly special about the sex of the people entering into a marriage. Now some might cite a harm to children of such relationships, social harms, etc – but that is nonsense I will not go into here. There is clearly a demand for such a contract, and it is the function of government to provide it. Given the above arguments, there is clearly a valid reason to legalize gay marriage.

There is a problem however. The fact of marriage is used by many private entities to provide various privileges when entering into various legal contracts. Examples are spousal benefits provided by employers, insurance firms, and other private business that take marriage into consideration. If no distinction is made between traditional and same-sex marriages, then the firms would not be able to discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation. In fact, this is precisely what the gay lobby wants. If traditional and same-sex marriages are not delineated, then all private (and public) entities that consider marital status would be forced to use the government’s definition of marriage. Now some companies (like Disney) might be fine with that – but many others clearly will not be – and for good reasons, since homosexuality, for example, (is statistically at least) very bad for your health. There are many other valid and invalid reasons to discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation, but whatever they are, it’s not the job of government to judge them. Individuals own their lives and may choose to engage or not to engage in trade with whomsoever they please for whatsoever reason. The “homosexual agenda” – if there is such a thing – does not recognize this. Their goal is to use government coercion to impose a certain non-discriminatory social view on the public. Whether you believe that homosexuality is moral or immoral, using government to force that view on everyone else is clearly wrong.

What’s the solution? The solution is to create a new marriage contract for homosexual couples and treat as such – a separate legal contract. Private individuals will then be free to recognize it -- and provide the same benefits to gay couples or not to. Government should not provide special benefits to anyone – whether they are single, or in a traditional or non-traditional marriage. Since it respects contracts however, partners of gay marriages would still retain the same custodial and inheritance rights as those of straight ones.

New WTC design

The new design of the WTC has been unveiled (photos) – after Daniel Libeskind was forced to compromise on his original monstrosity. I don’t particularly like the new design either – the top third is just a useless lattice – with a wind turbine added in for “environmental” reasons. Still, it will be the tallest building in the world at 1,776 feet – a nice touch. The entire WTC project is estimated to cost $12 billion, with $5 billion being paid by taxpayers.
One further comment: some people are questioning whether the new tower could withstand another 9-11 style attack. While the tower should be designed with all reasonable safety precautions in mind, withstanding a 9-11 type of attack should not be a consideration. Terrorism is not and should not be regarded as a natural and inevitable phenomenon – it is the job of the security agencies to prevent terrorist acts, not the job of architects, airlines, and engineers to waste their resources on building terrorist-proof facilities. The hundreds of billions spent on terrorist-proofing everything from airports to credit card processing centers should be regarded as an unnecessary expense made necessary by the failure of America’s foreign policy and security agencies, not a natural part of doing business.
(See my previous post on the WTC.)

Whether the People be led by the Lord,
Or lured by the loudest throat;
If it be quicker to die by the sword
Or cheaper to die by vote—
These are the things we have dealt with once,
(And they will not rise from their grave)
For Holy People, however it runs,
Endeth in wholly Slave.

Whatsoever, for any cause,
Seeketh to take or give
Power above or beyond the Laws,
Suffer it not to live!
Holy State or Holy King—
Or Holy People's Will—
Have no truck with the senseless thing.
Order the guns and kill!

Saying—after—me:—

Once there was The People—Terror gave it birth;
Once there was The People and it made a Hell of Earth.
Earth arose and crushed it. Listen, O ye slain!
Once there was The People—it shall never be again!

From Rudyard Kipling's 'MacDonough's Song.' Found at Objectivism.net

Art Gallery Updates

I’ve updated my art gallery with several new artists, including a new pin-up section and a number of artists from Quent Cordair fine art, who kindly allowed me to feature them. I made the gallery from my collection of 1600 paintings and drawings, the bulk of which come from the Art Renewal Center. (More art links.) You can also browse my photo album and the originals.

The Rise and Fall of Aviation

Cox and Forkum has a great cartoon about the Wright brothers, celebrating their tremendous achievement, and lamenting the lack of innovation in the aviation industry today.

As Heike Berthold explains, there has not been a radically new civilian aircraft design in 50 years. While technology has surged ahead in every field, today’s jetliners and private aircraft are virtually the same as those of 40 or 50 years ago.

While FAA bureaucrats engage in constant “restructuring,” the weight of government regulation and leftist judges have made it prohibitively expensive to release a new aircraft design and has restricted private flying to a hobby for wealthy individuals who can afford to spend thousands of hours getting the proper certifications. Because the government has made selling aircraft commercially so expensive, more people build their own experimental planes than buy them today, and most U.S. small aircraft are now at least 25 years old. Imagine how difficult the government would have to make selling a new car to force most people to build their own or own a 25 to 50 year-old model. Not surprisingly, the kits being assembled today are often more advanced (using advanced composites and avionics) than the new pre-assembled airplanes being sold today. (And the same kind of attitude pervades space flight.) The technology is here. It is our philosophy that America needs to rediscover.

Greed Makes the World Go 'Round

A great story from Radley Balko @ Fox News: "Greed Makes the World Go 'Round."

Sex vs. Communism

China’s Communist authorities recently shut down shut down a sex museum and sentenced several people to life for organizing an orgy. The Communist Party quips: "Sex Still a Dirty Word in China." (More here and here.) While underground porn and prostitution is widespread and tolerated in China’s large urban areas, any attempt to legitimize sexuality is strictly banned. Why?
The short answer is that sex is a strictly selfish action. Romantic love is a profoundly self-interested pursuit of one’s personal happiness. To quote Ayn Rand,

Love, friendship, respect, admiration are the emotional response of one man to the virtues of another, the spiritual payment given in exchange for the personal, selfish pleasure which one man derives from the virtues of another man's character. Only a brute or an altruist would claim that the appreciation of another person's virtues is an act of selflessness, that as far as one's own selfish interest and pleasure are concerned, it makes no difference whether one deals with a genius or a fool, whether one meets a hero or a thug, whether one marries an ideal woman or a slut.

In accordance with its collectivist/altruist philosophy, the Communist Party accepts two views of sex: as a somber marital duty, and (more commonly) as a lower animal instinct to be suppressed and hidden. The liberalization of China’s urban youth and the rediscovery of China’s rich sexual history is a threat to the collectivist idea that servitude to the State is the only acceptable function of life. The threat posed by the selfish pursuit of one’s happiness is the driving motivation for authoritarian regimes of all kinds to have joined organized religion in fiercely opposing public acceptance of sexuality as a natural and moral activity.

Cornered like a rat

From Cox and Forkum

Palestinians react to Saddam's Capture

Jerusalem Post:

Fathi Salman, 50, a taxi driver, described the arrest of Saddam as a "black day" for the Palestinians. "This is a black day for all the Palestinians and all the Arabs and Muslims," he said. "I still can't believe that President Saddam has been captured by the Americans. Saddam was the only Arab leader who cared about us. He supported the Palestinian cause from the beginning. His arrest is a major setback for the Palestinians. It's a pity that he didn't fight."

Khairiyeh Said, 43, a high-school teacher, said she wept when she watched Saddam in captivity. "I was sitting with my friends when we heard the bad news," she added. "We all started crying because we love Saddam and we hate [US President George W.] Bush and [Prime Minister Ariel] Sharon. This is a big victory for Bush and Sharon and all the enemies of the Palestinian people. We hope the Iraqi resistance will now teach the American dogs a good lesson."
...
During the past three years of Israeli-Palestinian fighting, Saddam sent millions of dollars to the West Bank and Gaza Strip, including US$25,000 for the family of each suicide bomber and US$10,000 for each Palestinian killed in fighting with Israelis.

"I love him so much, I can't stand watching it while he's in custody," Raafat Logman, 23, said as he was shooting pool. "We are surprised. We are so sad," said Sameh Aloul, 22.

Saddam Hussein Captured Alive

"It's true," said a U.S. intelligence official in Baghdad about the arrest of the former dictator. The official wouldn't give any more details except to confirm that the former dictator had been detained the night before... Celebratory gunfire erupted across Baghdad as the news of the fallen Iraqi president's arrest spread across the town. Iraqis showed their joy that the brutal leader had been detained by firing bursts of automatic weapons fire into the air.

My, how the mighty have fallen:

Update:
Not surprisingly, liberals are distraught over Saddam’s capture. One remarks "Sigh. All I can think about is the effect of Saddam's capture on the Dean campaign! ... Somebody cheer me up, please!"
Leftists everywhere are secretly (and sometimes openly) hoping for more casualties. The media is doing their part too: not more than a few minutes after the story broke, (yes, I was up) I saw headlines on CNN and MSNBC proclaiming “Saddam’s capture could lead to more violence.” The headlines seem to have disappeared after Iraqis everywhere decided to celebrate rather than vow revenge. Anyway, I have to go work on my data mining project, so read up on the story at Hootinan and the Command Post.

Goddamn commies

"The Edge," a slick and glossy publication produced by the TAMU Business Council is one of the most anti-business magazines I've ever read. Whether bashing McDonalds or the "moral depravity" of Martha Stewart, some of the editorials beat Pravda in their distate for capitalism. The only jobs I've seen praised are for non-business groups like the military and the CIA. And that's the truth.

Keiko vs Enviromentalism

I’m embarrassed to admit that “Free Willy” was my favorite movie when it first came out (back when I was an enviro-freak.) So I found this interesting:

Keiko, the killer whale made famous by the “Free Willy” movies, has died in Norwegian coastal waters where he remained after millions of dollars and a decade of work failed to coax him back to the open sea, his caretakers said early Saturday.... The project — to reintegrate Keiko with a pod of wild killer whales — cost more than $20 million and stirred interest and ire worldwide.

Apparently orcas are smart enough to know that living “close to nature” isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. $20 million and all the environmentalists in the world couldn’t convince Keiko to leave human civilization. If only the environmentalists were so smart…

My Blog is Back!

Check out "The Racism of 'Diversity'" a great editorial by Peter Schwartz starring Texas A&M's president Robert Gates. Gates sent out a university-wide email announcing that
race will not be used as a factor in admissions. I applaud the announcement, but wonder why he promoties other racist policies, such as hiring a new diversity czar. The contradiction becomes readily apparent at Texas A&M's "community plan," where the administration's goals are plainly visible:

A Russian Student Encounters Marxist Indoctrination—at San Francisco State University

Ever wonder how a terrorist thinks?

December 1, 2003 -- WONDER why Muslim terrorists have targeted Muslim nations such as Turkey and Saudi Arabia? Try reading the rants of Zacarias Moussaoui, the bored al Qaeda jihadist sitting in a U.S. jail.

Moussaoui, the Osama bin Laden loyalist charged as the "20th hijacker," has scrawled hundreds of motions from his Alexandria, Va., cell, offering a glimpse into the twisted mind of a terrorist.

Among other things, he plainly sees "half an enemy" as more contemptible than a full one.

Some of Moussaoui's writings are just sick. He mocks victims of the 9/11 attacks and talks of attacking the next World Trade Center. Often he ends a motion with a request for a Boeing 747-400 with "1st class, no smoking, no alcohol, no women and one day Allah willing, no landing."

The most frequent targets of his scorn and ridicule are U.S. Judge Leonie Brinkema, who's gone to great lengths to accommodate his bizarre defense methods, and the "blood sucker" government-appointed defense lawyers who are trying to save him from the lethal needle.

He labels Brinkema "little bitch" and "dirty joke" and "daughter of evil." He's furious that she's a woman in what he sees as a man's job. He mocks his Jewish lawyer with various anti-Semitic insults, refers to an Asian-American attorney as "Kamikaze" and calls others of his defense team "fat megalo pig" and "racist."

He barely comments on the prosecutors. These enemies are a fact of life to Moussaoui. Indeed, He wrote of his defense team: "The fact that I do not trust them - unlike the government - prevents me to receive legal advice. Let me be clear that I find them so repulsive as unbelievers that I never even shake their hand."

What disgusts him most are phony pals. Moussaoui believes his own defense lawyers - and the "death judge" - are just as committed to killing him as Bush and the prosecutors.

The same "logic" holds for "fellow" Muslims. In recent motions, Moussaoui has slammed Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad as the "traitor of Golan" and Mohamed VI as the "Jewish King of Morocco" for cooperating with the "wicked Anglo-Zionist persecution" of fellow al Qaeda terrorist Mohammed Zammar.

To al Qaeda, Islam is about death: Just days before the bombings in Turkey, Moussaoui chillingly declared, "Jihad Strike - Ramadan is the Jihad month where all the Mujahids increase their operations (especially suicide ones) . . . no drink, no food, no woman, only blood."

It boils down to this: Kill everyone, especially the Muslim "pretenders," until the only people left all think like him.

Brian Bloomquist is a reporter in The Post's Washington Bureau.

More death-worship from the Palestinians. Anyone who still thinks only a minority of Palestians support terrorism is living in a fantasy world.

Researchers who found that young Muslims were to blame for many attacks on Jews were told several times by the European Union to change their conclusions, they said yesterday.
The report's authors responded yesterday by saying their findings had been shelved because criticism of Muslims did not fit in with the centre's agenda.
... They had found that young Muslims, particularly immigrants from the Middle East and North Africa, were responsible for much of the rise in anti-Semitism. The far-Right and some Left-wing anti-globalisation activists were also partly to blame, they said.

Howard Dean Vows to 'BREAK UP GIANT MEDIA ENTERPRISES'

Check out this masterpiece of evasion by Howard Dean on the Drudge Report. Observe how he expects the media companies to offer themselves as willing sacrifices for the sake of “democracy,” and that he defines “censorship” not as the absence of governmental control of the press, but as the active use of government coercion to provide “information from all portions of the political spectrum, not just one.” Note also the New Deal justification of “saving capitalism from itself.”

Dean is right about one thing -- "The essence of capitalism, which the right-wing never understands -- it always baffles me -- is, you got to have some rules." What socialists like Dean will never understand however, is that the basic rule of capitalism is not the adoption of socialism, but the removal of force from men’s relationships.

If elected president, Howard Dean vows to "break up giant media enterprises" out of a concern "how deeply media companies can penetrate every single community" in America.

The Dem hopeful made the comments on GENERAL ELECTRIC-owned MSNBC during HARDBALL WITH CHRIS MATTHEWS.

"The essence of capitalism, which the right-wing never understands -- it always baffles me -- is, you got to have some rules," Dean explained to Matthews and students at Harvard.

MATTHEWS: Well, would you break up GE?

(APPLAUSE)

DEAN: I can`t -- you...

MATTHEWS: GE just buys Universal. Would you do something there about that? Would you stop that from happening?

DEAN: You can`t say -- you can`t ask me right now and get an answer, would I break up X corp...

MATTHEWS: We`ve got to do it now, because now is the only chance we can ask you, because, once you are in, we have got to live with you.

(LAUGHTER)

DEAN: No.

MATTHEWS: So, if you are going to do it, you have got to tell us now.

(CROSSTALK)

MATTHEWS: Are you going to break up the giant media enterprises in this country?

DEAN: Yes, we`re going to break up giant media enterprises. That doesn`t mean we`re going to break up all of GE.

What we`re going to do is say that media enterprises can`t be as big as they are today. I don`t think we actually have to break them up, which Teddy Roosevelt had to do with the leftovers from the McKinley administration.

Dean explained how "11 companies in this country control 90 percent of what ordinary people are able to read and watch on their television. That`s wrong. We need to have a wide variety of opinions in every community. We don`t have that because of Michael Powell and what George Bush has tried to do to the FCC."

Matthews continued:

"Would you break up Fox?"

(LAUGHTER)

MATTHEWS: I`m serious.

DEAN: I`m keeping a...

MATTHEWS: Would you break it up? Rupert Murdoch has "The Weekly Standard." It has got a lot of other interests. It has got "The New York Post." Would you break it up?

DEAN: On ideological grounds, absolutely yes, but...

(LAUGHTER)

MATTHEWS: No, seriously. As a public policy, would you bring industrial policy to bear and break up these conglomerations of power?

DEAN: I don`t want to answer whether I would break up Fox or not, because, obviously

(CROSSTALK)

MATTHEWS: Well, how about large media enterprises?

DEAN: Let me -- yes, let me get...

(LAUGHTER)

DEAN: The answer to that is yes.

I would say that there is too much penetration by single corporations in media markets all over this country. We need locally-owned radio stations. There are only two or three radio stations left in the state of Vermont where you can get local news anymore. The rest of it is read and ripped from the AP.

MATTHEWS: So what are you going to do about it? You`re going to be president of the United States, what are you going to do?

DEAN: What I`m going to do is appoint people to the FCC that believe democracy depends on getting information from all portions of the political spectrum, not just one.

China's communist authorities are training "Internet police" to trace political dissidents using the world wide web to evade state censorship.

Kyoto is Dead

Russia has rejected the Kyoto Protocol. As TCS points out, Russia's real motivations have more to do with pragmatic politicking than any regard for the sound science, but with the EU itself falling far behind its own Kyoto goals, this environmentalist wet dream (and economic nightmare) is finished. Good riddance!

Never thought it would happen to me…

I discovered today that my credit card racked up $2,500 in charges during the last two days for unspecified “network services.” I have my suspicions about how my number leaked out, so I offer this advice: don’t ever send out your credit card number on a non-encrypted connection, even if it’s someone you trust. Btw, while I was waiting for a CitiBank rep, I heard two things -- “Congratulations, your account limit has been upgraded to $3000!” and some advice: “spend wisely - live richly.”