I abandoned my first attempt at blogging because I ended up posting only about once a month. In other words, I failed. This time I think I’ve succeeded. Ideally, bloggers should blog on an at least daily basis. Mostly, I’ve been doing that. And there’s Tim’s and Reed’s posts as well for our more discerning readers.
I judge Eternal Vigilance to be a success! (Judge’s decision is final. No correspondence will be entered into.)
But I’ve run into a problem. I’m spending increasing amounts of time blogging. Here, there and everywhere. And then there’s the insidious, creeping evil that goes by the name of Facebook … I’m hitting that “Like” button like a pigeon in a psychology lab. I’m being sucked into an online vortex, death spiralling to self-destruction.
Oh, no, I’m not!
I’ve resolved to have a week off to assess my situation. No posting, no commenting and I won’t be reading your posts, either.
Milton Friedman would have been 100 years old today (it’s still 31-7-12 in the US)
He was truly one of the Greatest Libertarian Thinkers of the 20th Century. God Bless Him.
Mayor Ann Johnston told the city council which endorsed the move it was “the most difficult and heart-wrenching decision” they had ever faced.
As has become the Norm these days Stockton Officals attempt to pass the blame upon the ‘Global market collapse’ rather than their own gross overspending, Yet a quick search of the Net reveals the same old story of Grand scheming…Heavy handed Government. They got into debt building and running Parking buildings… which as usual was *a fail*… just like it was for the Hamilton City Council. The City of 300 000 carries a debt of $700 Million.
Which, by comparison ought to show Hamiltonians just how grievious is their own situation being a Population of 152641 and city debts of $400 million
When the population of Stockton and US exchange rate is factored, This ruffly equates to an equivelent debt of $450 million to Hamiltons $400 Million.
We will be there by the next Local Body elections!
Thus We can safely say Stockton was brought to it’s knees by the same Pig headed Political Folly as has plagued Western democracy in General… including Hamilton New Zealand. If only Hamiltonians had listened to me!If only The Waikato Times had been able to grasp the reality of what I was saying, and given me equal time with the other candidates in their paper to present my arguements to the Ratepayers of Hamilton!
We would not be facing such a finacial catastrophy as we do now!
Tim Wikiriwhi
Libertarian Independent.
Hamilton West.
Alan Turing (June 23, 1912 – June 7, 1954)
War hero, mathematician, the father of computer science and State rape victim.
If you’ve done a Google search today, you probably noticed that it’s Alan Turing’s 100th birthday. Who was Alan Turing and why am I paying tribute to him?
Alan Turing (1912–1954) never described himself as a philosopher, but his 1950 paper “Computing Machinery and Intelligence” is one of the most frequently cited in modern philosophical literature. It gave a fresh approach to the traditional mind-body problem, by relating it to the mathematical concept of computability he himself had introduced in his 1936–7 paper “On computable numbers, with an application to the Entscheidungsproblem.” His work can be regarded as the foundation of computer science and of the artificial intelligence program.
Here’s British Prime Minister (in 2009) Gordon Brown to tell you a few other things you need to know about Turing. (Thanks to Ian Watson for the transcript of Brown’s apology.)
This has been a year of deep reflection – a chance for Britain, as a nation, to commemorate the profound debts we owe to those who came before. A unique combination of anniversaries and events have stirred in us that sense of pride and gratitude that characterise the British experience. Earlier this year, I stood with Presidents Sarkozy and Obama to honour the service and the sacrifice of the heroes who stormed the beaches of Normandy 65 years ago. And just last week, we marked the 70 years which have passed since the British government declared its willingness to take up arms against fascism and declared the outbreak of the Second World War.
So I am both pleased and proud that thanks to a coalition of computer scientists, historians and LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) activists, we have this year a chance to mark and celebrate another contribution to Britain’s fight against the darkness of dictatorship: that of code-breaker Alan Turing.
Turing was a quite brilliant mathematician, most famous for his work on the German Enigma codes. It is no exaggeration to say that, without his outstanding contribution, the history of the Second World War could have been very different. He truly was one of those individuals we can point to whose unique contribution helped to turn the tide of war. The debt of gratitude he is owed makes it all the more horrifying, therefore, that he was treated so inhumanely.
In 1952, he was convicted of “gross indecency” – in effect, tried for being gay. His sentence – and he was faced with the miserable choice of this or prison – was chemical castration by a series of injections of female hormones. He took his own life just two years later.
Thousands of people have come together to demand justice for Alan Turing and recognition of the appalling way he was treated. While Turing was dealt with under the law of the time, and we can’t put the clock back, his treatment was of course utterly unfair, and I am pleased to have the chance to say how deeply sorry I am and we all are for what happened to him. Alan and so many thousands of other gay men who were convicted, as he was convicted, under homophobic laws, were treated terribly. Over the years, millions more lived in fear of conviction. I am proud that those days are gone and that in the past 12 years this Government has done so much to make life fairer and more equal for our LGBT community. This recognition of Alan’s status as one of Britain’s most famous victims of homophobia is another step towards equality, and long overdue.
But even more than that, Alan deserves recognition for this contribution to humankind. For those of us born after 1945, into a Europe which is united, democratic and at peace, it is hard to imagine that our continent was once the theatre of mankind’s darkest hour. It is difficult to believe that in living memory, people could become so consumed by hate – by anti-Semitism, by homophobia, by xenophobia and other murderous prejudices – that the gas chambers and crematoria became a piece of the European landscape as surely as the galleries and universities and concert halls which had marked out European civilisation for hundreds of years.
It is thanks to men and women who were totally committed to fighting fascism, people like Alan Turing, that the horrors of the Holocaust and of total war are part of Europe’s history and not Europe’s present. So on behalf of the British government, and all those who live freely thanks to Alan’s work, I am very proud to say: we’re sorry. You deserved so much better.
Turing was found dead on 7 June 1954, two weeks before his 42nd birthday, after biting into a cyanide-laced apple. Wikipedia notes that
The logo of Apple Computer is often erroneously referred to as a tribute to Alan Turing, with the bite mark a reference to his method of suicide. Both the designer of the logo and the company deny that there is any homage to Turing in the design of the logo. In Series I, Episode 13 of the British television quiz show QI presenter Stephen Fry recounted a conversation had with Steve Jobs, saying that Jobs’ response was, “It isn’t true, but God, we wish it were.”
Turing’s work is the foundation of computer science and of research into artificial intelligence. Turing is responsible for the Turing Test (the CAPTCHA‘s big brother), the Turing Machine and (jointly with Alonzo Church) the Church-Turing thesis.
This simple machine can, given a long enough ticker tape, do anything your mind can do—and much more. It’s humbling for some to realise that the human mind is the biological equivalent of a read-write head, a binary internal state, a look-up table and a ticker tape. But that’s all anyone ever is—biological ticker tape. (In fact, we’re all world lines.)
19-year-old Daniel Briant’s car, a Nissan Laurel, was crushed yesterday. It became the first car to be crushed under National’s “boy racer” legislation—the Vehicle Confiscation and Seizure Bill, 2008.
Why crush? According to Judith “Crusher” Collins (via NZPA)
Cars could be confiscated under current law and courts could order them to be sold, she said, but they were bought by other boy racers and the problem was recycled.
“Yesterday, the owner of the first crushed car was just another boy racer with an attitude problem. Today he will be a hero to his fellow boy racers.”
“The idea that this car seizure will stop other youths offending is basically wishful thinking.
I love how he flat-out contradicts himself in the next two paragraphs (although what he’s trying to say is basically right, I think).
“Young females are attracted to young males who take risks. That’s one reason young males are so reckless. A young male would rather lose his car and be attractive to young females than obey the law and sleep alone.”
“The part of the male brain that links cause and effect doesn’t fully develop until the early 20s. That’s why young males often do silly things without thinking of the consequences.”
Stuff.co.nz has a photo of the boy-racer hero Briant, informs us that
A Facebook memorial site has been created for the souped-up car.
and helpfully links to Briant’s Facebook page, where we learn that Daniel’s interests include
Doing your mate’s ex to see what the problem was
Not dumping your girlfriend cause she’s a fucking hectic root
Being a cheeky cunt to everyone you know. Because, wtf else is there to do?
I wish I was on E as often as my gas tank
Never underestimate a guy’s ability to not give a shit
Going out for a Quiet One and Coming Home with a Court Date
While Daniel mourns the loss of his Nissan Laurel, we can mourn the misspent youth of today. Or mourn the misspent youth of yesteryear. (I don’t ever recall having that much fun! Well, not at that age, anyway. Oops, I think I’ve said enough. Time for a closing parenthesis.)
This is not a pretty picture. (It’s Minister of Police Anne Tolley, standing atop the crushed Laurel.)
Tolley said less than three hours after receiving his third strike from the court Briant was back behind the wheel performing a burnout.
He lost control and crashed into a fence. It is understood he and a passenger fled the vehicle on foot.
There’s every sign that Briant is undeterred. (And, you know, I could have done with a souped up Nissan Laurel to replace my ground down Nissan Maxima.)
I’m against the whole idea of the government using cases like this to make “an example” and destroy property as “a deterrent to others”. It’s an unjust, utilitarian way of going about things. As philosopher Immanuel Kant rightly remarked
Juridical punishment can never be administered merely as a means for promoting another good either with regard to the criminal himself or to civil society, but must in all cases be imposed only because the individual on whom it is inflicted has committed a crime. For one man ought never to be dealt with merely as a means subservient to the purpose of another…
NZ Fighters puts up some very interesting posts on their facebook feed.
Today they posted this picture and Quote:
“When man learns to respect even the smallest being of creation, whether animal or vegetable, nobody has to teach him to love his fellow man. Compassion for animals is intimately connected with goodness of character, and it may be confidently asserted that he who is cruel to animals cannot be a good man. “Albert Schweitzer”
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
This is undeniably True.
Even when we must eat Animals …Even when we must exterminate them (destructive and dangerous Pests) we must never be cruel, but seek to dispatch them in as ‘humane’ a fashion as possible.
That these Pugilists put up such a post on their page is an excellent example of True Martial character.
It demonstrates the truth that Martial arts, and even Military Professionalism is not of necessity accompanied by a Brutish or Sadistic personality, but can and ought to be regulated by high morals…as opposed to the Love of violence for violence sake. The strong and powerful man ought also to be Meek, and a friend of the Lowly.
This is what distinguishes the likes of David Tua from thugs like Mike Tyson.
In war it distinguishes the honorable and truly heroic soldiers like Rommel, from the depraved and barbaric monsters like Chemical Ali. (Hey; I hope Tyson figures this out…maybe he has? The great truth is People can change for the better if they so wish!)
Getting back to the subject of having compassion for the lower creatures…
As a Christian I believe the value system of the Bible, whereby God gives Man Dominion over the Earth, and all the things therein. Ie They exist for our use, sustenance and enjoyment.
Thus the Bible places Mankind above the animals…but below the Almighty.
This being so does not mean we can abuse these blessings or make use of them to satisfy perverse lusts… like sadism.
The Bible teaches us to be dillegent gardners and to practice righteous Husbandry… these being examples of good character… Christ even being described as ‘The Good sheppard whom giveth his life for his sheep’.
This is the Christian ethic and heirachy of values.
It is important to understand that while we must never be cruel to animals, or reckless with the environment, we must take care never fall into the snare of de-valuing Humanity by valuing other creatures above Mankind.
Eg we ought to be prepared to sacrifice our most treasured animal companion should that be necessary to save a human life.
I post that warning because there is a very real Danger today due to the prevalence of ‘Earth worshipping’ ‘Anti-humanity’ philosophies… propagated by Atheists whom despise the ethics of Christianity and work like Transylvanian Gypsies for Dracula lobbying Governments around the globe to pass laws and prohibitions which sacrifice the wellbeing of Mankind to ‘the Goddess Earth Mother’… and this involves a perverse hierarchy of values the exact opposite to Christianity.
Radical Environmentalists consider Mankind a disease.
I have witnessed this hatred for mankind from Environmentalists whom think it is a virtue to go to war against humanity for the sake of some ‘endangered species’.
Take care never to be sucked into supporting such wicked Anti-freedom anti-humanity politics.
You don’t have to be a member of the Green party to care about the environment or to work for the preservation of species.
As a Libertarian I care a great deal about these things, yet I promote the pursuit of these noble goals via non-coercive means which do not involve oppressive Laws which violate the rights and liberties of Humanity.
Libertarianism is about instilling High values and personal ethics in the hope of raising the level of civilization via voluntarily action.
The Christian ought to realise this Libertarian modus opperandi is the perfect fit for the dissemination and practice of our faith which functions via voluntarily embraced and self-imposed duties and moral obligations.
The Christians whom support the Left/Right Green lobbyist organizations whom function via Political force are supporting an antichrist/ definitively Unchristian ideology… a ‘pseudo morality’ that is in direct competition with Christianity… A Cult Of Wolves in sheep’s clothing.
They are the Chumps of Christ hating atheists.
They walk in Darkness with the Lost.
They need to experience a Libertarian ‘intervention.’
Tim Wikiriwhi.
This is why We must have an Ironclad Constitution which Keeps the Government in check, and an Enlightened, Armed and Vigilant Population.
Presently things are not looking good.
