February 2008

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Our will is to keep the torch of freedom burning for all.

-John Paul Jones

April 19, 2007

Mean Martin Manning

Okay. I have neglected this topic for far too long. I have ordered my copy of Mean Martin Manning by the Scott Stein.

Now, I am a fairly busy guy. I don't have as much time to read these days as I used to - certainly not as much time as I would like. Especially for fiction. So what makes this book so special that I would find time for it, and pay for it? And blog about it?

I can sum up my powerful interest with one line from Scott's blog:

Characters from the novel and sites will be blogging and will be visiting other people's blogs to comment on threads, leaving links back to the sites.

Oh, that's just cool. Check it out and tell me it's not just that damn cool. Brad Warbiany thinks it's cool. I can't believe I have left this on the back burner for so long, because I was completely fascinated with this since I first read his explanation of it. I will be sure to share more about the actual book after it arrives, but in the meantime I am focusing on this novel means of promoting a book.

Pun intended.

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June 30, 2006

The Da Vinci Challenge

Want to play a game? Go into any of the mega-chain bookstores - say Barnes and Noble, blindfold yourself, and randomly pull ten items off of the shelves from the music, video, fiction, and non-fiction book sections. Count how many of the items are of, or related to, Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code novel. The empire created by this man, and the subsequent demand for all things Da Vinci, is astounding.

As embarrassed as I am to admit this, I, too, have been caught up in the hoopla, at least from the historical point of view, and have been glued to the multitudinous line-up of Discovery Channel/TLC debunking documentaries (my favorite being the Tony Robinson The Real Da Vinci Code).

A common element to all of these documentaries is parading one or more of the authors of Holy Blood, Holy Grail to discuss and expand upon the hypotheses of which Dan Brown borrowed heavily for The Da Vinci Code. In particular, one of Holy Blood's authors, Henry Lincoln, is still active in searching for 'landscape geometry,' supposed evidence of Templars, or the so-called Illuminati, or masons having passed down the secret of the Holy Grail for future generations to discover.

While I find their theories intriguing, I also think they're mostly a lot of hooey. For example, Henry Lincoln believes that he's found a pentacle in the geometry of the streets in Washington D.C. And others have continued with Lincoln's work, suggesting that Thomas Jefferson and George Washington - both Freemasons - put heat on Pierre Charles L'Enfant, the architect and urban planner of Washington DC, to include Masonic symbols in his plans.

Now, if you take a rectangular grid street pattern, and you superimpose a series of circles connected by radial streets, then I challenge you not to find a pentagram pattern in the design. I think if you look closely enough, you can even find the words "Atlas Blogged" among the squares, circles, and triangles that make up the streets of D.C. I'm not sure what significance that has, other than, of course, George and Martha conceived a child whose descendant may or may not be one of the authors of this blog. But I digress...

So clearly, Lincoln has gone from amusing speculation to outright goofiness. And indeed, according to Jeremy Harwood in his book, The Freemasons, the "decisive feature in the positioning of major buildings was topography." And while there are five-pointed stars to be found in the major intersections of the U.S. capital, "it is far more likely this was coincidence rather than a Masonic conspiracy."

While I do not believe there are Masonic images hidden in the street patterns of D.C., imagine my surprise when I ran across this:

The story is different in Sandusky, Ohio, which is the only city in the world as far as is known to have been laid out according to a Masonic master plan. Hector Kilbourne, the first master of Science Lodge No. 50, was the surveyor who drew up the city plan in 1818. He took great care to position the streets so as to form a picture of the Square and Compasses. Indeed, his plan for the city as a whole has been likened to a representation of an open Bible, with the Square and Compasses in the positions they would be in at the opening meeting of a Masonic Lodge. Some of the street names honour statesmen and other prominent members of the country in the history of the United States.

Now this I find interesting. The streets have changed a bit since 1818, but when looking at Sandusky, Ohio, it's easy to make out the square and compass designs. But what amazes me most is the northernmost street - Water Street, which takes a noticeable southern dip to complete the image of masonry tools atop a bible.

In all of the Dan Brown holy grail hysteria that's swept the world, the scope of the history takes place over millennia. While our own Americana is measured by the centuries instead, this story of the Masonic streets is a little more plausible, and one that we can call our own. I'm just thankful that I don't have to drive the crazy streets of Sandusky, Ohio. What a mess.

Incidentally, I noticed the placement of the Barnes and Noble stores in Sandusky form a pentacle pattern. I wonder what Dan Brown would make of that?

Posted by Rammage | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

April 15, 2006

Iran Seeks Nukes Nikes

From an email sent to our list by Rammage:

Wow. Wulfman's been singing this tune (see below) for at least five (5) years now. He and I could have had this conversation today. In fact, I think we did have this conversation today...

Wulf - Glad you enjoy these "Day in History" finds. I found this post to be particularly apropos, considering the talk today...

So, what were we talking about five (5) years ago? An article by John Derbyshire, titled Hesperophobia. It appeared in the National Review Online on September 14, 2001.

And I did my best to pick that article apart for my friends on the email list. And now I'm posting it here at AtlasBlogged for further discussion.

I disagree!!!!

The fundamental reason America is under attack by Arab terrorists, several dozen people want me to know, is that the U.S. supports Israel.

This is true - it's not the only reason, but it is the major fundamental reason.

And the only reason we do that, several of them have said, or hinted, is because of the political power of the Jewish lobby here in the U.S.A.

Okay, that's at least party wrong. They walk, talk, and dress like we do. They are the "good guys" as we grow up. They're even the "good guys" in the Bible - well, for most of it. There is a cultural allegiance that guides our democratic decisions to engage in supporting them in their religious war. And that same allegiance (plus memories of Hitler) will get one called "Anti-Semite" faster than one can down a matzo ball, if ever one should mention that it might be better for our own national security if we did not overtly involve ourselves in their fights.

...at the risk of yet more ill-tempered or abusive emails, I am going to declare that I don't think these recent outrages can be blamed on the Jews, nor even on pro-Israel American politicians.

Okay, I buy that it's not to be blamed on Jews or on Israel, but it's ridiculous to discount the role of our alliance in all of this. The Jew-hating Muslim terrorists want to destroy Israel, so why is the jihad against Israel and the USA? Because we dress alike? No! It's because we send money and weapons to these people! As the author himself says later on, Israel is severely outnumbered over there, and they know that they would get overrun without us. Bin-Laden knows that too - that's why we are targeted. We are the ones who facilitate their survival and control of Muslim holy ground. That's what the acts of war are all about.

The root phenomenon is not American involvement in Middle Eastern affairs: the root phenomenon is hesperophobia.

I disagree to some extent - the article is very interesting and very well written, and I appreciate exposure to the new word, but I cannot accept his conclusions.

I can't see any strong reason for believing that if the state of Israel were to disappear from the face of the earth tomorrow, hesperophobia would disappear with it.

Red Herring! He has tricked the reader into assuming that the hesperophobia (independent of financial and military backing) is the basis for the terrorist actions themselves - thus making it easy for the reader to agree that killing the Israelis wouldn't stop the terrorism. Check your premises.

They hate us because we humiliated them, showed up the gross inferiority of their culture. To them, and similarly humiliated peoples, we are the other; detested and feared in a way we can barely understand.

An excellent and insightful note. Imagine - really try to imagine - if China announced tomorrow that they had developed cold fusion, transhumanism, and FTL travel. And they won't sell - they'll only assimilate those who want in. How would we feel? Imagine if we resisted, how would we feel in 50 years? Holy shit.

However, imagine if they didn't demand assimilation. Imagine if we could have those things just by throwing away parts of our culture - say, the internal combustion engine and other fossil-fuel engines are outdated, and all of our medicine is antiquated, and every form of transportation is slow.

Would we resent them still? Well, we would if we couldn't meet their price. The hesperophobia comes from the fraction of the population who is more focused on clinging to the old ways, and they are of course among the most vocal (as is often true here, too). The way to win them over is not to carpet-bomb Kabul and beautiful Baghdad, but rather to offer free trade.

Aren't you hungry for Burger King now? Most of them are - and Nikes and Nokias and Nordstrom's, too. They would love westernization - at their own pace. And it would not have to be violent. Let them buy what they like and refuse what they don't. That certainly works, or we would not have the distinction that the author himself makes between their Arabs and our Arabs - the Kuwaitis and Saudis, cowering in their plush-lined air-conditioned bunkers being waited on by their Filipino servants while we did their fighting for them. (btw, far from accusing him of anti-Semitism, I would note that the author seems to have a very strong prejudice against Arabs, whose culture is referred to as "squalid, hopeless, irredeemably inferior", and who he divides into two categories "the mad phobics and the cowering, pampered, Westernized Arabs.)

The mall in Dubai is more culturally diverse, classically liberal, and "Westernized" than any mall I have seen in the USA. And they make better coffee. But if there is a sense that they've lost control to us, of course they will resist and pull away! It has to be at their own pace - the same way each of us keeps up (or doesn't) with the latest technologies. It's no different.

If the present state of Israel were inhabited by Christian Lithuanians or Frenchmen, the hatred would be nearly as intense.

I agree - it's about the land!! Why do people fail to recognize that? The irrational belief that Jews should live in that strip of land because God gave it to them, and that it is our duty to protect them because that's our God too and he's for whatever reason not available to rain fire on their enemies like he used to so we should show some religious solidarity and kick Arab ass for our beloved Jewish friends who have been there since way back in the 1940s, IS ABSOLUTELY INDEFENSIBLE AND STUPID!

A Western state on "Arab land," is an outrage, an illegitimate creation, a crusader state. The fact that the Jews had a wealthy and powerful nation on that land three thousand years ago counts for nothing. Israel is, from the point of view of most Arabs, an alien graft that must not be allowed to "take."

This is meant to be facetious, but I agree with it. In this country we are outraged by the number of Arabs who own prime real estate in our best cities, and there is great resentment toward the fairly new Arab parts of town. How would we feel if we had lost WWII and Hitler gave New England and the Mid-Atlantic States to some new pals from Persia and Palestine? An Arab state controlling the birthplace of American democracy? We would fight - throwing rocks at tanks if necessary, and we don't even have the cultural cohesion that Palestinians have. Why is their point of view so difficult to understand?

So, so, so, is this any of America's business? What are we doing, meddling in the Middle East? Where is our interest? Well, U.S. politicians must speak for themselves, but if I had any position of authority in any Western nation, I would be urging full support for Israel, and I am not Jewish. It's a matter of cultural solidarity.

"Cultural solidarity"? We were pretty culturally similar to, say, King George's England. Should we have stood by them? How about the Civil War - should the North have refused to fight based on the fact that the Southerners looked and talked pretty similar to Northerners? How about the Germans? Or, was that because they weren't as much like us as the UK was?

How did they start fighting in the first place? What a crock - look at what he's saying. The Arabs aren't like us and the Jews are, so that's why we should support Israel fully. It's complete and total racist, cultural elitism - and that's the real reason people hate Westerners. JFC!

What, after all, does the Buchananite program offer us, if carried through?

Using Buchanan's name is an emotional appeal, and not even an appropriate one. Most people who don't feel we are justified in supporting Israel in their struggle against Arabs do not have old Pat's extremist's attitudes. I for one say we throw open the doors to all Israelis - hey, it's not a police state over here, so if you can be peaceful and lawful, we'll let you live in our country, where there are not car bombings by people who feel that you're living in their ancestral homeland! But if you feel it's more important to stick to your religious guns, I can't help you - ask your God.

But if we don't arm the Israelis, who will?

Allow me to take a moment to say that I am not advocating any actions that would prevent private companies from selling arms or sending money to Israel; nor do I feel we should try to prevent our citizens from forming a Foreign Legion that operates sans tax dollars and outside the government's sanction - hey, if you want to risk your life freeing the Israelis or Bosnians or Chinese, that's your right. But when you use my tax dollar to fund a war in which you send my brother or son in a draft over to fight a war, in which they and I do not believe, that is unjustifiable and wrong.

Don't tell me it can't happen - the draft was in effect less than 30 years ago, in support of a war that was not on our soil and was controversial in justification (to put it mildly).

You just have to think straight. You just have to understand that the war between civilization and barbarism is being fought today just as it was fought at Chalons and Tours, at the gates of Kiev and Vienna, by the hoplites at Marathon and the legions on the Rhine.

And so the civilized, non-barbarous thing to do would be to escalate the situation and continue the practices that have incurred so much hatred and violence in the first place? I think the author is off base.

Well, it's been a long five (5) years. A lot has happened. And it is taken as a given that we are, in fact, in the middle of a war between civilization and barbarism, as John Derbyshire said. But I still say that free trade would have had a much better long term impact on the Middle East than war did. And I have always felt that would be the case for Cuba, as well. How has anybody benefited from the forty year grudge match embargo we have against that island?

For Iraqis, there was a better option than living under Saddam Hussein, and it remains to be seen how many of them will be able to enjoy that in peace as a result of US military action. Iraq has been since its inception an artificial state with hateful rival ethnic groups, and it is still possible for their situation to deteriorate into civil war. On top of that, we are looking at possible armed or nuclear conflict with Iran - well, I don't believe shots will be fired, but everybody else seems to.

This changes the heart and mind of the average guy on the streets in the Middle East how, exactly?

Ironically, this point was also made the other day by Rimjob at DailyKos, who asks
Will Mickey Mouse & Coca-Cola Destroy Radical Islam? The folks in the comment section don't seem to be getting the point at all, but Rimjob seems to be singing my tune:

Could the American culture be a greater weapon against the terrorists & the radical Islam they represent, than any Nuclear Bomb could ever be?

Answer: Yes. If you don't think so, then I really feel sorry for you, and I would like to try to help you see the light. Amid all the fear of the dhimma that awaits us if we don't "take out" Iran, some people seem to have lost sight of the fact that freedom and capitalism are good - in fact, they are better. I have absolute confidence in our way of life triumphing over any other - and I am not talking about the English language, Christianity, a two-party system, and warrantless wiretaps. I am not even talking about the internal combustion engine and bottled beer. I am talking about the personal freedoms that come with economic options. Free trade makes for free people. Free people make for poor extremists - which is why the downtrodden American libertarians have never managed to have a rally for their freedoms.

Rimjob may sound like a cultural elitist (i.e. ugly American) when he says,

I believe in my heart of hearts that most people (maybe not all but most), whether here or in Iran, China, Cuba, or anywhere, want to come home at night & sit in front of a 60 inch television, eat hamburgers, and drive a nice car if given the chance.

But I agree with him - except to clarify that most people want that option, even if they wouldn't partake of it. After all, I have not elected to get a 60 inch television. But you can bet your ass I would resent being told I couldn't have it.

Rimjob refers readers to Thomas Friedman's famous Golden Arches Theory of Conflict Prevention. I am familiar with the theory, but I have to admit that I have never read The Lexus & The Olive Branch, nor Friedman's other tomes. But I intend to, even if they are only going to support beliefs I already have about globalization and economic freedom.

It is refreshing to see this diary entry by Rimjob. DailyKos is held up as an example of what is wrong with lefty bloggers, to the point that the site has become a punchline. But Mickey Mouse and Coca-Cola will destroy radical Islam, and socialism, and any other extremist political and economic movement in the world, if we will only get our politicians out of the way of the forces of the American economy. This is a really important point that most Americans don't seem to grasp - at least become familiar with Friedman's point, please.

I have never suggested that Americans shrug off the rhetoric of the Iranian regime, or the al-Qaeda terrorists, or the socialist dictators in Latin America. But for the long term vision of the world, Americans need to recognize that our most powerful weapon is capitalism.

It is (to coin a phrase) the Unknown Ideal.

Posted by Wulf | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

February 12, 2006

Eat the Rich

Below are some humorous snippets from P.J. O'Rourke's treatise on economics, Eat the Rich. Incidentally, this book will be included in my "Top 10 Books That I Wish My Liberal Friends Would Read" list. P.J. O'Rourke excels in this book at proving his basic premise: America....it doesn't suck.

On socialism in Sweden, or "Good Socialism":

According to the Swedish Institute's booklet On Sweden, 'The overall aims of the social welfare system are to redistribute income more evenly over each individual's life cycle, narrow the gaps between social classes, and provide everyone with a broad selection of public services.' An American reads that sentence and hears, 'We're putting half your allowance in the bank because you'll no doubt want to buy some Rage Against the Machine CDs and a skateboard when you're eighty.'

On socialism in Cuba, or "Bad Socialism":

Much work had been done, however, painting the propaganda slogans. SOCIALISM OR DEATH appeared on almost every overpass. What if the U.S. government had slogans all over the place? I tried to come up with a viable campaign. My suggestion, AMERICA—IT DOESN'T SUCK.

On brotherly love in Russia:

[...] a socialist society seems to produce solidarity among people. It does so in Sweden. And it does so in Cuba, even if that is a solidarity of suffering and anger. Socialism, however at odds with economic sense, engenders brotherhood.

Or so I was thinking as I arrived in the Siberian city of Irkutsk. The twentysomething Intourist guide who met me at the airport certainly seemed a younger-brother type. Ivor was affable, outgoing, and....

'You'll notice there are no niggers here,' said this product of socialist childhood and schooling.

On Russian fitness:

The World Bank estimated that one-third of Russia's population had an income below the minimum sustenance level; One out of three people was keeling over from hunger. This wasn't happening. Indeed, three out of three Russians could use some time on a StairMaster.

The conditions of a sleeper car on a four-day journey to Siberia:

You can stretch out on these bunks in comfort if you answered the casting call for Tattoo on Fantasy Island. The compartment window does not open, and there's no fan or other form of ventilation, and no window shade. In the summer in southern Siberia, the sun shines eighteen hours a day. If your compartment is on the south side of the train, as mine was, you can use it to bake pies. A few of the windows in the corridor do open, and some relief can be had by sticking your head out and letting your jaw hang open in the breeze. I saw most of Siberia the way your dog sees I-95.

[...] I'd brought my own food along, too, purchased in Irkutsk's Martha Stewart grocery. And when the train made its brief stops, I could go to the market stalls that lines the station platforms and buy fresh bread, homemade pickles, smoked fish, and—even in Ust'-Urluk, on the frontier of Outer Mongolia—Pepsi. I also bought carbonated Russian mineral water. This tastes like Spic-and-Span but I could shake the bottles and use my thumb to direct squirts of household-cleaner-type liquid at the cockroaches eating Hong Kong tea biscuits under my bunk.

On the economy of Tanzania:

Man was born into a state of nature, and nature, I'm sad to report, is woefully underdeveloped in an economic sense. The wildlife herds were sad reminders that there are only two ways to obtain a thing; either agree upon a price for it or take it by butting heads. Wildebeest must depend on the latter method. Due to lack of pockets, wildebeest cannot carry cash or credit cards. Among animals, only marsupials have pockets, and then just to keep their young inside. And there are various difficulties, practical and theoretical, with an economic system based on inch-long blind and hairless kangaroos.

[...] Wildebeest also sleep, but not peacefully. A significant minority of creatures on the African veldt aren't grazers or browsers, or members of PETA.

Still in Tanzania:

[...] Maasai [tribe] cuisine is nothing but, basically, gravy. It would be food suicide for any other people and may cause even the Maasai a certain amount of indigestion. They call Europeans iloredaa enjekat, 'those who confine their farts with clothing.'

In Tanzania's capital:

In Dar [es Salaam], as knowing travelers call it, I was met by a driver named Nzezele (pronounced 'Nzezele'). [...] Buses and taxis bear pictures of Bob Marley. Pedestrians wear T-shirts emblazoned with Rastafarian slogans. BACK TO AFRICA is—confoundingly—a popular slogan in Tanzania.

A quote from John Cowperthwaite, the British officer given credit for Hong Kong's laissez-faire economic success:

[...] in the long run the aggregate of decisions of individual businessmen, exercising individual judgment in a free economy, even if often mistaken, is less likely to do harm than the centralized decisions of a government; and certainly the harm is likely to be counteracted faster.

On the notion of the U.S. opening its doors to Hong Kongese emigrants after the handover to Red China:

Imagine 6.5 million savvy, hardworking citizens-to-be with a great cuisine. What a blessing for America. And how we would hate them. Pat Buchanan would hate their race. The AFL-CIO would hate their wage rate. The NAACP would hate their failure to fail as a minority. And Al Gore would hate 6.5 million campaign contributors who didn't have to sneak pro-free-trade money to the Democratic National Committee anymore but could go right into polling booths and vote Republican.

In summation:

The first nine commandments concern theological principles and social law: Thou shalt not make graven images, steal, kill, etc. Fair enough. But then there's the Tenth Commandment: 'Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor anything that is thy neighbor's.'

Here are God's basic rules about how we should live, a very brief list of sacred obligations and solemn moral precepts, and right at the end of it is, 'Don't envy your buddy's cow.'

What is that doing in there? Why would God, with just ten things to tell Moses, choose, as one of them, jealousy about the livestock next door? And yet, think about how important to the well-being of a community this Commandment is. If you want a donkey, if you want a pot roast, if you want a cleaning lady, don't bitch about what the people across the street have. Go get your own.

The Tenth Commandment sends a message to socialists, to egalitarians, to people obsessed with fairness, to American presidential candidates in the year 2000—to everyone who believes that wealth should be redistributed. And the message is clear and concise: Go to hell."

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June 30, 2005

Author on Speed

Remember back in the days when all those shortsighted computer claims were from the Forties and Fifties?

One gigahertz (one clock cycle every billionth of a second) may be an absolute limit that can be obtained for [computer] clock speed.

-Medri R. Zargham, Computer Architecture, Single and Parallel Systems, 1996.

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