Ken's Weblog

People should not fear their governments; governments should fear their people.

Month: August 2009

  • An easy question

    Where are the antiwar protesters now that we really need them?.

    Anti-war protests in all 50 states and in front of the hated King Bush II”s Texas ranch were a fixture in American life and newspapers from 2003 through mid-2008. The protests seem to have disappeared yet the ills of war remain. Let’s look at what is bad about our wars in Iraq and Afghanistan:

    • Americans are being killed
    • American taxpayers are being improverished
    • limited American resources are diverted to unproductive activities (bombing an opium factory in Afghanistan is not likely to lead to long-term growth the way that building a factory in North Carolina would)

    All three of these things were bad in 2004 when the U.S. was rich and getting richer. They are even worse now. We have had a decline in birth rate and population growth due to the economic collapse. This makes the death of an American soldier if anything more costly becuase there are fewer children growing up to replace him or her. We have less money now, so whatever it is that we’re spending on our adventures amongst the Jihadis is less affordable (http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0933935.html shows that spending is higher than ever and continuing to grow).

    Given that the cost of the wars in American life and taxpayer funds is less bearable now than before, how come the antiwar protesters seem to have melted away?

    [Philip Greenspun Weblog]

    The answer to that is really obvious: those protesters were never really anti-war, only anti-a Republican being the one in charge of the war. Now that a Democrat is in the White House, the war is fine with them.

  • It’s a good idea to be prepared

    Hotlined. Hotlined [Pro Libertate]

    Mr. Grigg’s story shows an excellent example of a sort of preparedness that most people overlook: what to do if you’re a parent and government thugs threaten to kidnap your children. This is a danger that anyone with kids should be ready for, and it’s probably even more likely to occur someday than many of the other things that sensible people take precautions for, like earthquakes and fires.

  • I’ve suspected this for a while

    Dogs As Intelligent As Average Two-Year-Old Children. Ponca City, We love you writes “The Telegraph reports that researchers using tests originally designed to demonstrate the development of language, pre-language and basic arithmetic in human children have found that dogs are capable of understanding up to 250 words and gestures, can count up to five and can perform simple mathematical calculations putting them on par with the average two-year-old child. While most dogs understand simple commands such as sit, fetch and stay, a border collie tested by Professor Coren showed a knowledge of 200 spoken words. ‘Obviously we are not going to be able to sit down and have a conversation with a dog, but like a two-year-old, they show that they can understand words and gestures,’ says Professor Stanley Coren, a leading expert on canine intelligence at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver. Dogs can tell that one plus one should equal two and not one or three,’ says Coren, adding that dogs ‘can also deliberately deceive, which is something that young children only start developing later in their life.’ Coren believes centuries of selective breeding and living alongside humans has helped to hone the intelligence of dogs. ‘They may not be Einsteins, but are sure closer to humans than we thought.’”

    Read more of this story at Slashdot.

    [Slashdot]

    Of course this also means that the average two-year-old child is as stupid as a dog, which doesn’t surprise me in the slightest. It’s pretty obvious that humans don’t really become intelligent life forms until well after birth

  • Cable modem outages are really…

    Cable modem outages are really annoying, especially when it’s the middle of the day and you work from home.