The following post is NSFW. It is floridly obscene.
Tuesday, September 30, 2014
"FBI Chief Scolds Apple and Google Over New Smartphone Encryption."-NBC News.
The FBI director on Thursday criticized the decision by Apple and Google to encrypt smartphones data so it can be inaccessible to law enforcement, even with a court order. James Comey told reporters at FBI headquarters that U.S. officials are in talks with the two companies. "What concerns me about this is companies marketing something expressly to allow people to hold themselves beyond the law," Comey said.
Comey, open your mouth really wide and
Comey, open your mouth really wide and
SUCK
MY
DICK!!!
You fucking BEANPOLE. Put a 40 watt bulb on your head and make yourself useful as a lamp post on some street corner, you BE-ATCHHH!!
Gapple, you are heroes, HEROES, I say!
Gapple, you are heroes, HEROES, I say!
The Beautiful Chinese.
Checking their cell phones.
"Hands up! Don't shoot!" From Ferguson, Missouri.
To protect from pepper spray. "The Umbrella Revolution!" Omg.
Can you imagine how pissed Zhongnanhai is when they see that?
They can have fun, too.
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Hey.
That guy who jumped the fence and entered the White House? 'Member he was tackled by the guard inside the front door? Not. The guard wasn't there.
The guards outside didn't shoot or release the hounds 'cause they didn't see that he was armed. He was. He had like 800 rounds of ammo in his pockets and also was brandishing a knife when he entered the front door.
And since the guard was not at the front door the guy made it through the East Room and into some other room. There he was tackled by some guard.
There's a buzzer system at the White House entrance. The buzzer didn't go off. It had been muted because it was found to be "distracting."
There's a new director of the Secret Service, a woman. She replaced her predecessor when Secret Service agents were found to be having sexy-time with libertines in, Colombia, I think it was. Drunk, too. Drinky-time and sexy-time, during protect-POTUS-time.
Pageviewers, America, the American public, the President of the United States, are not being well-served by America's entire security apparatus, from NSA, CIA, FBI, Secret Service, down to beat cops, like those at the Boston Marathon. I don't know how long this dysfunction has existed, nor how many billions of dollars we are paying for it but it is not working. America is not working.
Hong Kong Protesters.
Monday, September 29, 2014
Protests in Hong Kong.
So, do you think these protests are going to work? Bring real democracy to Hong Kong?...
...Anybody?
Anybody at all.
"As if," right? The PRC will never allow that to happen.
Slightly different question: Do you think the protesters think they will bring democracy to Hong Kong? Ahh...kids, young people, who knows what they think. No, I don't think they think that. They know, better than Chinese on the mainland know believe it or not, what happened in Tienanmen Square on June 4, 1989. They hold candlelight vigils every year. T'AIN'T NO CANDLELIGHT VIGILS IN TIENANMEN SQUARE.
When I first read about this I immediately thought "Another centralized protest; those things never work." Which really is not true; they worked in blessed Tahrir Square in Cairo. They worked in the maidan in Kiev, during the American Civil Rights movement; Gandhi made them work in India against the Brits. Centralized, big, telegenic, photogenic protests can work--if the guys with the tear gas and the batons and the guns let them work. There's this great scene in the movie Gandhi where Mohammad Karzai, sorry, Ben Kingsley is called in for a talk with some exasperated officials of British imperialism, you can picture them in their uniforms and mustaches and their blubbery proper English diction, and they want to know what this little half-naked man wants!, Gandhi of course says independence and one of the uniforms and mustaches says all blubbery: "You do not expect us just to walk out of India, do you?" "Yes," replies Kingsley. "In the end you will just walk out because 350,000 British cannot control 300,000,000 Indians." (Whatever the numbers were.)
Gandhi and the Indians had two things going for them: One, the Indians were not concentrated in some goddamned square in New Delhi or someplace, they were the country. Two, the Indians had going for them that their imperialist rulers were British! The Brits were not going to start slaughtering half-naked Indians until the rest of the 300,000,000 obeyed them. That just would not be cricket. So yeah, the Brits "just walked out."
Hong Kongers had British rulers too. And the Brits just walked out there too. The oppressors have to cooperate with the oppressed for protests to work. When the oppressors don't cooperate then centralized, big, telegenic, photogenic protests work against the oppressed. There is in all protests a tremendous disparity in firepower. The oppressors have the tear gas and batons and guns and shields and helmets and body armor and the oppressed have sticks and rocks and bottles, at most. The oppressed protesters all corral themselves into some goddamned square just waiting to be oppressed. It's like shooting fish in a barrel.
Now Hong Kongers know this, those Occupy kids and young people know this, they know they are not going to succeed, they know they're going to get arrested, injured, some may get killed. So the question then becomes, "Why are you doing this?" Protests seem to be just universal, even under these hopeless, and known hopeless conditions. "I have to do something," said one Hong Kong taxi driver. Right? We all have felt that way before! "If rape is inevitable, just lay back and enjoy it" (An American basketball couch actually said that.), HELL NO! We're going to fight until the last dog dies! I get that. I really get that. (I have a problem with authority.) Blow off a little steam. "You don't expect us to just walk out, do you? If you're not walking out, we're not walking out!"
But, notice: Then the protests are not really real. You're blowing off steam, you know you have no chance of success; the protests are symbolic. Rather than "really real," another way of putting it is that under these circumstances protests are real in the additional sense as symbols. Put it this way: If the protesters really want democracy they wouldn't be protesting they would be rebelling. If the Hong Kong protesters really want the "mainland" Chinese "to just walk out" they need look only to China's "restive" Muslim Uyghurs for the most efficacious means.
Symbolism is a big thing with human beings, it is a bigger thing among Chinese human beings than some others. Nothing is on the surface in China; everything has got some other meaning, some other "reality." There are protests every single goddamned day somewhere in China. To some all these protests signify a societal "bubbling cauldron." Rebellion is just beneath the surface and Beijing has to keep the lid on the cauldron or take the cauldron off the fire or do whatever you do with bubbling cauldrons. I, for what this is worth, do not see bubbling cauldrons in China (except in the "restive" west.). I see symbolic blowing off of steam. I have three images in mind whenever I think about this. Two images are from the Cultural Revolution period. Some of those "struggled" walked voluntarily to their struggle sessions. Bian Zhongyun did. There was also a guy, such a vivid image from Mao's Last Revolution, whose struggle session was set for, let's say 3 pm today. At 2:30 pm the guy walks out of his house, locks the door, walks to the stadium. Tries to enter the stadium:
"Who are you! What are you doing here!" (Red Guards).
"I'm Harris Binbin."
"Yeah, what of it Harris Binbin, what do you want?"
"Are you not having a struggle session today?"
"Yes! What of it!"
"I am the man you are struggling today."
Only in China.
The third image, from just a couple of years ago, is of a poor woman who was being evicted from her apartment building which was being torn down for another apartment building probably. There are actually photographs of this. She is standing alone in a dusty field abutting her apartment building facing a bunch of People's Liberation Housing Evictors armed with batons, dressed in riot gear, helmets, etc. It is the most hopeless situation imaginable. But she won't move. And in the next photograph the PLHE charge her and send her flying like tumbleweed, the dust kicking up around her.
In all three instances there was real violence. In the CR instances it was the victims who cooperated with their victimizers. The violence of the CR was real, 3,000,000 killed, but the victimizers were not street criminals, they had not been violent before, would not be violent again in their lives, they were "good girls" in the case of Bian's victimizers, they had had no previous run-ins with the victims, there was no "history" there, the victims were "good communists" as Bian and Liu Shaoqi had been, and in this sense the violence was not real, it was symbolic; during the Cultural Revolution the victimizers acted symbolically, their violence was directed at the victims but for Mao Zedong. Beijing was too civilized, Mao said. He wanted "chaos," permanent revolution; wanted students to know revolutionary ardor, wanted them to rebel. "To rebel is justified!" "Bombard the Headquarters!" There is a sense in China, throughout its history, of violence that is both "real-real" and symbolically real. Symbols are important, especially in China.
I look at Chinese history, I look at the country today, I look at the protests in Hong Kong and the only "real" bubbling cauldron I see is in the "restive" west. But, maybe I'm wrong. Love those protesters, though. :)
...Anybody?
Anybody at all.
"As if," right? The PRC will never allow that to happen.
Slightly different question: Do you think the protesters think they will bring democracy to Hong Kong? Ahh...kids, young people, who knows what they think. No, I don't think they think that. They know, better than Chinese on the mainland know believe it or not, what happened in Tienanmen Square on June 4, 1989. They hold candlelight vigils every year. T'AIN'T NO CANDLELIGHT VIGILS IN TIENANMEN SQUARE.
When I first read about this I immediately thought "Another centralized protest; those things never work." Which really is not true; they worked in blessed Tahrir Square in Cairo. They worked in the maidan in Kiev, during the American Civil Rights movement; Gandhi made them work in India against the Brits. Centralized, big, telegenic, photogenic protests can work--if the guys with the tear gas and the batons and the guns let them work. There's this great scene in the movie Gandhi where Mohammad Karzai, sorry, Ben Kingsley is called in for a talk with some exasperated officials of British imperialism, you can picture them in their uniforms and mustaches and their blubbery proper English diction, and they want to know what this little half-naked man wants!, Gandhi of course says independence and one of the uniforms and mustaches says all blubbery: "You do not expect us just to walk out of India, do you?" "Yes," replies Kingsley. "In the end you will just walk out because 350,000 British cannot control 300,000,000 Indians." (Whatever the numbers were.)
Gandhi and the Indians had two things going for them: One, the Indians were not concentrated in some goddamned square in New Delhi or someplace, they were the country. Two, the Indians had going for them that their imperialist rulers were British! The Brits were not going to start slaughtering half-naked Indians until the rest of the 300,000,000 obeyed them. That just would not be cricket. So yeah, the Brits "just walked out."
Hong Kongers had British rulers too. And the Brits just walked out there too. The oppressors have to cooperate with the oppressed for protests to work. When the oppressors don't cooperate then centralized, big, telegenic, photogenic protests work against the oppressed. There is in all protests a tremendous disparity in firepower. The oppressors have the tear gas and batons and guns and shields and helmets and body armor and the oppressed have sticks and rocks and bottles, at most. The oppressed protesters all corral themselves into some goddamned square just waiting to be oppressed. It's like shooting fish in a barrel.
Now Hong Kongers know this, those Occupy kids and young people know this, they know they are not going to succeed, they know they're going to get arrested, injured, some may get killed. So the question then becomes, "Why are you doing this?" Protests seem to be just universal, even under these hopeless, and known hopeless conditions. "I have to do something," said one Hong Kong taxi driver. Right? We all have felt that way before! "If rape is inevitable, just lay back and enjoy it" (An American basketball couch actually said that.), HELL NO! We're going to fight until the last dog dies! I get that. I really get that. (I have a problem with authority.) Blow off a little steam. "You don't expect us to just walk out, do you? If you're not walking out, we're not walking out!"
But, notice: Then the protests are not really real. You're blowing off steam, you know you have no chance of success; the protests are symbolic. Rather than "really real," another way of putting it is that under these circumstances protests are real in the additional sense as symbols. Put it this way: If the protesters really want democracy they wouldn't be protesting they would be rebelling. If the Hong Kong protesters really want the "mainland" Chinese "to just walk out" they need look only to China's "restive" Muslim Uyghurs for the most efficacious means.
Symbolism is a big thing with human beings, it is a bigger thing among Chinese human beings than some others. Nothing is on the surface in China; everything has got some other meaning, some other "reality." There are protests every single goddamned day somewhere in China. To some all these protests signify a societal "bubbling cauldron." Rebellion is just beneath the surface and Beijing has to keep the lid on the cauldron or take the cauldron off the fire or do whatever you do with bubbling cauldrons. I, for what this is worth, do not see bubbling cauldrons in China (except in the "restive" west.). I see symbolic blowing off of steam. I have three images in mind whenever I think about this. Two images are from the Cultural Revolution period. Some of those "struggled" walked voluntarily to their struggle sessions. Bian Zhongyun did. There was also a guy, such a vivid image from Mao's Last Revolution, whose struggle session was set for, let's say 3 pm today. At 2:30 pm the guy walks out of his house, locks the door, walks to the stadium. Tries to enter the stadium:
"Who are you! What are you doing here!" (Red Guards).
"I'm Harris Binbin."
"Yeah, what of it Harris Binbin, what do you want?"
"Are you not having a struggle session today?"
"Yes! What of it!"
"I am the man you are struggling today."
Only in China.
The third image, from just a couple of years ago, is of a poor woman who was being evicted from her apartment building which was being torn down for another apartment building probably. There are actually photographs of this. She is standing alone in a dusty field abutting her apartment building facing a bunch of People's Liberation Housing Evictors armed with batons, dressed in riot gear, helmets, etc. It is the most hopeless situation imaginable. But she won't move. And in the next photograph the PLHE charge her and send her flying like tumbleweed, the dust kicking up around her.
In all three instances there was real violence. In the CR instances it was the victims who cooperated with their victimizers. The violence of the CR was real, 3,000,000 killed, but the victimizers were not street criminals, they had not been violent before, would not be violent again in their lives, they were "good girls" in the case of Bian's victimizers, they had had no previous run-ins with the victims, there was no "history" there, the victims were "good communists" as Bian and Liu Shaoqi had been, and in this sense the violence was not real, it was symbolic; during the Cultural Revolution the victimizers acted symbolically, their violence was directed at the victims but for Mao Zedong. Beijing was too civilized, Mao said. He wanted "chaos," permanent revolution; wanted students to know revolutionary ardor, wanted them to rebel. "To rebel is justified!" "Bombard the Headquarters!" There is a sense in China, throughout its history, of violence that is both "real-real" and symbolically real. Symbols are important, especially in China.
I look at Chinese history, I look at the country today, I look at the protests in Hong Kong and the only "real" bubbling cauldron I see is in the "restive" west. But, maybe I'm wrong. Love those protesters, though. :)
Sunday, September 28, 2014
Lavrov Calls for "Reset 2.0" in U.S. Relations.
Obama said last week sanctions would be lifted if there was peace in Ukraine. Petroshenko said last
week peace was at hand. Putin was not out to conquer all of Ukraine, "just" Crimea and the east. "Only" 3,000 were killed in Russia's invasions of Ukraine. Obama was right to stay out of Ukraine militarily, he was right to impose sanctions, he will be right to lift them if the peace is codified.
“We are absolutely interested in bringing the ties to normal but it was not us who destroyed them. Now they require what the American would probably call a ‘reset.'”..“The current US administration is destroying today much of the cooperation structure that it created itself along with us. Most likely, something more will come up – a reset No2 or a reset 2.0,”.
-Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.
No. Just say "no" to resets. No normalization. Abnormal is the new "normal." Lifting sanctions doesn't mean the U.S. should again be "partners" with Russia. The American people and the Russian people must not be enemies and cannot be friends. Again and again since 1917 the Russian people, generation after generation of them, have shown themselves to be barbarians, worthy of partnership only with other barbarians, unworthy of friendship with freedom-loving peoples. No NATO cooperation with Russia, no military sales, withdraw from discretionary relations. There is no going back from this year. Farewell to Russia.
Saturday, September 27, 2014
"Find the damnedest things in your drafts box sometimes."
Sure do. Maybe the reason they are there is because they SUCK!
Friends and enemies, "Remembrance of Things Past" was a bad post. It was not coherent, it reads like I forgot where I was about half-way through but just kept writing. I am embarrassed. I think there's a coherent post in there somewhere and I tried to write that coherent post yesterday afternoon but I got stuck on tying "ideas" together with the other themes and then got tired. Manana. If I can't fix it tomorrow I may just leave up the account of my conversation with Jung Chang, for that is newly published and is accurate, and deep-six the rest of it.
Friends and enemies, "Remembrance of Things Past" was a bad post. It was not coherent, it reads like I forgot where I was about half-way through but just kept writing. I am embarrassed. I think there's a coherent post in there somewhere and I tried to write that coherent post yesterday afternoon but I got stuck on tying "ideas" together with the other themes and then got tired. Manana. If I can't fix it tomorrow I may just leave up the account of my conversation with Jung Chang, for that is newly published and is accurate, and deep-six the rest of it.
Friday, September 26, 2014
Remembrance of Things Past.*
This is what some Chinese have said to me. I was exasperated at the Great Wall of Silence surrounding the identity of the murderers of Bian Zhongyun. Some months ago I was on the phone with Jung Chang. Our contact had been arranged through Dr. Youqin Wang who had told Ms. Chang what I was doing. There was nothing lost in translation here, Ms. Chang knew I wanted to know the names of those responsible for Bian's murder. So it was with anticipation that I called at the time agreed upon so as to be convenient to both of us given the vast time difference. The phone rang, she picked up. I identified myself, she greeted me cordially and warmly. I decided that no further ice breaking was necessary and simply asked him pen in hand, "So who were the people that you interviewed who were eyewitnesses to Bian's beating?" "Ben, I'm not going to tell you that nor am I going to put you in touch with them." She was not playing games with me, she was not being arrogant. She rebuffed me with great civility and self-evidently, i.e. as if the reason(s) were clear. They certainly weren't evident to me and my eagerness was subsumed by disappointment; disappointment gave way to bewilderment which led to exasperation then to a flash of anger and, luckily for the sake of the continuation of the conversation, to acceptance. And acceptance produced a philosophical conversation about why she wouldn't tell me.
I gave Ms. Chang the analogy to the Nazis. Just as blithely she dismissed it, "No, the Jews were outsiders." She paused and then quickly added "Even though they were Germans they were still outsiders." It was a distinction without a difference in my mind at the time.
What about the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission? She didn't dismiss that analogy. "That's true," she said but she said it hesitatingly.
*The original post from which I decided this was the only acceptable excerpt was written sometime in 2007. It remained unpublished in my drafts box until May 27, 2014 when I published it whole and precipitously. After publishing it I read and re-read it, tried to rewrite it, failed and so yeah. May 28, 2014, 4:30 pm UTC.
I gave Ms. Chang the analogy to the Nazis. Just as blithely she dismissed it, "No, the Jews were outsiders." She paused and then quickly added "Even though they were Germans they were still outsiders." It was a distinction without a difference in my mind at the time.
What about the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission? She didn't dismiss that analogy. "That's true," she said but she said it hesitatingly.
*The original post from which I decided this was the only acceptable excerpt was written sometime in 2007. It remained unpublished in my drafts box until May 27, 2014 when I published it whole and precipitously. After publishing it I read and re-read it, tried to rewrite it, failed and so yeah. May 28, 2014, 4:30 pm UTC.
Thursday, September 25, 2014
"Harvard's Endowment Is Bigger Than Half The World's Economies."-Boston.com.
I'm just gonna shoot myself in the head.
Poroshenko: Peace is at Hand.
Ukraine's president Petro Poroshenko said today that there are "no doubts" that peace with Russia will be restored in the next few months and that the worst of the Russian-inspired crisis is over. "Ukraine Has Not Yet Died!"
Holder Resigns.
Eric H. Holder, Jr. the the 82nd Attorney General of the United States is resigning. He will stay until a replacement is confirmed. Holder had previously stated he would leave by the end of the year. He informed the president over the Labor Day weekend. Holder had been Deputy Attorney General under Janet Reno, a federal prosecutor and a state court judge.
Scholars.
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Who do we have here today, let's see:
ecu.edu. Know that one! East Carolina University. They killed North Carolina last weekend in scholarly tackle football. Go "Pirates!"
Damn. Same colors as ECU, though. Purple and gold day? You can probably over-think these things.
edu.tw. Taiwan, something in Taiwan. Bet their colors aren't purple and gold.
Toldja!
buffalostate.edu. Duh. I did not even know there was a Buffalo State. Knew there was a University of Buffalo.
Oooh, fierce.
unc.edu. Ahn a Tar Heel born and a Tar Heel bred, and when I die Ah'l be a Tar Heel dead. Got killed dead by East Carolina last weekend.
usmc.mil
miami.edu.
They suck.
uct.ac.za.
No team. Disgusting.
vuv.cz. University...not even sure that's a university...University of Vulva? Bet they don't even have a team either.
How do you get "vuv" out of "Ministry of the Environment?" Disgusting.
wbu.edu. ? I don't know, frigging Wright Brothers U? Frigging Ministry of the Environment U? I have no idea.
Wayland Baptist U? That's the first image under "Wayland Baptist University logo." I think that's a real...what is that, a steer? Scrawniest damn steer I ever saw. The "Shorthorns?" The "Pioneers." I know that's a real McDonald's.
wright.edu. :o Wright Bros U?
:o
msoe.edu....Missouri Southeastern, peut-etre? I don't know man, I'm getting punch-drunk.
msoe.edu....Missouri Southeastern, peut-etre? I don't know man, I'm getting punch-drunk.
Looks like a museum logo. The Milwaukee School of Engineering. Whatever, enough.
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I asked a variation of the same question with regard to the Russia sanctions. Answered it affirmatively. Just assumed. Then Putin charged sanctions were a violation of the WTO. The Administration didn't respond so I just assumed.
All of this began with Harry Truman. Korea. On the farm in Independence r&r'ing. Ring. Couldn't have been more surprised if he had been Hooker at Chancellorsville. Couldn't get a declaration of war from Congress on such short notice but UN in session. UN in session and Rooskis not there! UN resolution. In we went. "Police action," never a "war."
JFK, Cuba. "Blockade" an act of war: Need Congress for that. Okay, "quarantine."
War Powers Act. If you're on the farm when an attack happens go ahead and just notify us in 30 days for approval. Okay. Vietnam. "War" without the declaration part. War with the "Power" part. Bad.
If you're teaching school when an attack comes, same diff. Okay but that didn't happen for two years. After 9/11 Bush had to figure out who did it. It had to be bigger than Al Qaeda, we needed something to hit and they didn't even have their own country, shoot :(, and it had to be smaller than Islam, we can't hit all of Islam! :o so it was radical Islam. But they still don't have a state. How did we settle on Iraq for our riposte? I remember yellow cake, turned out there was no yellow cake, but I also remember there was no Al Qaeda there, no connection to 9/11, I don't remember how we settled on Iraq. I supported it! but I don't remember how we chose Iraq. I wanted a declaration of war, I didn't know how we could get around the Constitution with two years of preparation but I wanted a declaration of war against Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, I think there were three, I think the third was Iran, just because, maybe Egypt. Maybe Afghanistan, don't remember. I wanted a war with Islam. I knew the Bushies didn't. I understood their need to hit a state, I figured if we declared war on Pak, the House of Saud and let's say it was Afghanistan, we'd both get what we wanted; they'd get their states to hit and I'd get my war with Islam because I was sure the war would spread beyond those three. They chose Iraq and the rug. Okay. The point here is they still didn't get a declaration. I didn't understand how they could get around the Constitution in that case, I guess the War Powers (B-A-D), I didn't and still don't understand why they would want to get around a declaration in that case. Remember, there were hearings before Congress, Powell went to the UN and Congress, we went to NATO, we put together a "coalition of the willing" because France was unwilling, Damn French, let them eat Freedom Fries, Britain was with us, to Britain's regret, the point is we spent two years trying to get legal authorization but without doing the one thing, going to Congress and asking for a declaration of war, that, without question, would have provided a legal basis for war. Don't understand why.
Hitting the Islamic State is small beer compared to the war in Iraq and Afghanistan but the point is still by what legal authority is Obama doing it. I'm for it! if it's legal. We are bombing Syria, a state, and Obama hasn't even invoked the War Powers Act. Forget a declaration of war. As if. He says quickly he can do it as Commander in Chief. He says it quickly because he doesn't want to spend a lot of time talking about it because under the Constitution the Commander in Chief is just like a general in the field, like MacArthur in Korea, subject to civilian control, in this case, Congress. Congress declares war, authorizing the president to command. He, a civilian, commands the military generals to act. MacArthur was fired by Truman for wanting to turn the UN authorized "police action" in Korea into a war. It all began with Truman.
I expected more from Obama, the President of Change, the lawyer, the constitutional law lecturer, he, who is chary of executive unilateralism, cautious even skeptical of US ability affect change abroad. I expected him to call a coup a coup in Egypt, I expected him not to just grandfather in NSA spying, the parallel legal system so different from the legal system he and I were trained upon, I expected him to support and defend the Constitution.
Wednesday, September 24, 2014
Tuesday, September 23, 2014
China.
Hey. There's this guy, Ilham Tohti, he's an ethnic Uyghur ("Wee-ger" (I think.)). If you're an ethnic Uyghur, positively the last place on earth you want to be an ethnic Uyghur is in China on account of ethnic Uyghurs who live mainly in the--Say it with me now!--"restive" west of China (I think it is against the law for any Western pencil NOT to refer to western China as "restive."...Yes, I just looked it up, it is against the law.), I say, ethnic Uyghurs have been murdering ethnic Han Chinese pretty regularly in the last little while, yeah they really have, no that is not a good thing to do, and ethnic Uyghurs have been murdering ethnic Han Chinese in a traditional Muslim manner, in sneak attacks with knives they have quite literally butchered ethnic Han Chinese civilians at places like train stations and have, again betraying their Muslim heritage, guerrilla bombed police stations, places crowded with non-ethnic Uyghurs, crowded with ethnic Han Chinese and so yeah, China is not a good place to be right now if you are an ethnic Uyghur, Don't come to America!, just, China T'AIN'T A GOOD PLACE NEITHER.
As close pageviewers have deduced Ilham Tohti lives in China. Ouch. Yeah, major ouch because Professor Tohti, he is an economics prof at Minzu University in Beijing, has just been sentenced to life in prison, convicted of the quintessentially Chinese sounding crime of "separatism."
The undersigned ethnic ex-Presbyterian is not acquainted in the slightest with the particulars of Professor Tohti's crime but is an acquaintance, not friend merely acquaintance, of China's "criminal" "justice" "system" and upon this foundation of reinforced sand the undersigned goes out on this here reinforced limb and proclaims to an audience of tens, occasionally hundreds, that the conviction of Ilham Tohti, ethnic Uyghur, professor of economics, on the charge of "separatism" IS BULLSHIT!
I am the undersigned, Benjamin Harris, ethnic ex-Presbyterian, practicing attorney, and that's what I say. I also say good night.
As close pageviewers have deduced Ilham Tohti lives in China. Ouch. Yeah, major ouch because Professor Tohti, he is an economics prof at Minzu University in Beijing, has just been sentenced to life in prison, convicted of the quintessentially Chinese sounding crime of "separatism."
The undersigned ethnic ex-Presbyterian is not acquainted in the slightest with the particulars of Professor Tohti's crime but is an acquaintance, not friend merely acquaintance, of China's "criminal" "justice" "system" and upon this foundation of reinforced sand the undersigned goes out on this here reinforced limb and proclaims to an audience of tens, occasionally hundreds, that the conviction of Ilham Tohti, ethnic Uyghur, professor of economics, on the charge of "separatism" IS BULLSHIT!
I am the undersigned, Benjamin Harris, ethnic ex-Presbyterian, practicing attorney, and that's what I say. I also say good night.
Fifty years after Jamaican independence:
"Jamaica would have been better off being part of the British Empire rather than an independent state, according to a poll taken by local newspapers.
Results from a survey commissioned by The Jamaica Gleaner newspaper showed that 60 percent of respondents supported this notion, 17 percent rejected it."
-International Business Times, June 29, 2011.
Image: One of the 121,397 Jamaican children to turn out to welcome Queen Elizabeth II, 2002.
When I read Nirad Chaudhuri's dedication I remembered this, sent to me by Professor Frank Dikotter and published in The New York Times.
VERNA YU
December 13, 2012
Hong Kong
THE other day I went into a family-run noodle shop and when I paid, I handed over a colonial-era one-dollar coin with the British queen’s head. I instantly felt a pang of regret.
“Sorry, could I swap it? I want to save the one with the queen’s head,” I explained, popping another dollar coin with a Bauhinia flower into the money pot and retrieving my old coin. The owner frowned and gave me a funny look.
I was puzzled by my own action. It’s not like I loved living under the colonial government. I vividly remember the sense of humiliation we endured: as a child in the 1970s, I remember kids from the nearby British school habitually jumping the public bus line. As late as 1997, I was shocked at the blatantly racist attitude of white colleagues: one even told me to “go home and eat chicken feet” and laughed when I looked offended.
So despite the fact that I spent my formative years in Britain, I was looking forward to the handover of sovereignty to China in 1997. I returned to Hong Kong only months before the event that July, worrying my friends in England who couldn’t understand why I was going “the opposite way” from those who tried to get out. Since the 1980s, many Hong Kong people who feared Communist rule had emigrated. But I told my British friends: it was time we proudly called ourselves Chinese.
So 15 years later, why was I hanging on to a coin with the queen’s head?
Perhaps, it was just nostalgia. But more likely I was trying to hold on to something that linked me to the pre-handover way of life. Under the “one country, two systems” arrangement, we were told our freedoms would be preserved for 50 years after the handover, but many locals now feel under threat as mainland China takes an increasingly active role in Hong Kong affairs.
...
Even though [the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress] later ruled that the election of Hong Kong’s political leader and the legislative council, or parliament, “may be” elected by universal suffrage in 2017, many fear that Beijing will not honor its commitment, given a political system that is designed to favor pro-Beijing policies.
And sadly, those fears have been realized. Hong Kongers wll be permitted to vote--for candidates approved by Zhongnanhai.
Image: Hong Kong protest, 2012; Hong Kong protest 2014.
To the memory of the British empire in India,
Which conferred subjecthood upon us,
But withheld citizenship.
To which yet every one of us threw out the challenge:
‘Civis Britannicus sum’
Because all that was good and living within us
Was made, shaped and quickened
By the same British rule.
-Nirad C. Chaudhuri, dedication of his book "The Autobiography of an Unknown Indian" (1951).
Which conferred subjecthood upon us,
But withheld citizenship.
To which yet every one of us threw out the challenge:
‘Civis Britannicus sum’
Because all that was good and living within us
Was made, shaped and quickened
By the same British rule.
-Nirad C. Chaudhuri, dedication of his book "The Autobiography of an Unknown Indian" (1951).
Monday, September 22, 2014
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"Valet! My car please."
Look at the guards at top left! WHAT are you doing? Suspicious? We don't see anything suspicious. That fat m*****-f***** should be DEAD right now! Watering the grass with his bodily essences leaking from two-dozen bullet holes. Instead he's making for the FRONT DOOR OF THE WHITE HOUSE like Forrest Gump running for a touchdown!
This is humiliating. Malaysia, okay, understandable. America? America doesn't work anymore.
Does America Still Work?
WASHINGTON — The man who managed to get in the front door of the White House on Friday had a cache of ammunition and weapons in his car at the time of the incident, and he had been arrested by the Virginia State Police in July with several weapons and a map of the White House in his possession, according to law enforcement officials.
On Monday, federal prosecutors said that officers found 800 rounds of ammunition, two hatchets and a machete in the car of Omar Jose Gonzalez, 42, of Texas, after they searched it on Friday.
...
In late August, Secret Service officers stopped Mr. Gonzalez in front of the fence on the White House’s South Lawn after they noticed a hatchet in his waistband, the officials said. The officers searched Mr. Gonzalez car, finding two dogs, camping equipment but no weapons. He was not arrested or questioned further.
In July, Mr. Gonzalez was arrested after he led Virginia troopers on a high-speed pursuit along Interstate 81 in Southwest Virginia in his Ford Bronco. After being stopped, police found the vehicle filled with weapons, according to a release by the state police.
Among the items found in Mr. Gonzales’ vehicle in July was a mini-arsenal of 11 guns including two shotguns and four rifles, some equipped with scopes and bipods that a sniper would use and “a map of Washington, D.C., with writing and a line drawn to the White House,” law enforcement officials said. He also had four pistols, three of them loaded, and a revolver. The inventory of Mr. Gonzales’ vehicle listed by the Virginia State Police indicates the items were found stored in his vehicle’s “bulky floor.”
...
The fact that the Secret Service knew the man was facing gun charges and had a map of the White House has prompted its director to expand the agency’s internal investigation of the incident.
-The New York Times, September 22.
He got in the front door?! How could this happen? America is a surveillance state, NSA and the other acronym spooks read our email, track our movements by license plate, and THIS GUY, with his past gets into the front door of the White House!? That guy shouldn't have been allowed in the District of Columbia. How did the United State of Surveillance miss the Brothers Tsarnaev at the Boston Marathon? Leaving backpacks at the finish line! NSA et al, are looking at the wrong people and not looking at the right people. America does not work.
On Monday, federal prosecutors said that officers found 800 rounds of ammunition, two hatchets and a machete in the car of Omar Jose Gonzalez, 42, of Texas, after they searched it on Friday.
...
In late August, Secret Service officers stopped Mr. Gonzalez in front of the fence on the White House’s South Lawn after they noticed a hatchet in his waistband, the officials said. The officers searched Mr. Gonzalez car, finding two dogs, camping equipment but no weapons. He was not arrested or questioned further.
In July, Mr. Gonzalez was arrested after he led Virginia troopers on a high-speed pursuit along Interstate 81 in Southwest Virginia in his Ford Bronco. After being stopped, police found the vehicle filled with weapons, according to a release by the state police.
Among the items found in Mr. Gonzales’ vehicle in July was a mini-arsenal of 11 guns including two shotguns and four rifles, some equipped with scopes and bipods that a sniper would use and “a map of Washington, D.C., with writing and a line drawn to the White House,” law enforcement officials said. He also had four pistols, three of them loaded, and a revolver. The inventory of Mr. Gonzales’ vehicle listed by the Virginia State Police indicates the items were found stored in his vehicle’s “bulky floor.”
...
The fact that the Secret Service knew the man was facing gun charges and had a map of the White House has prompted its director to expand the agency’s internal investigation of the incident.
-The New York Times, September 22.
He got in the front door?! How could this happen? America is a surveillance state, NSA and the other acronym spooks read our email, track our movements by license plate, and THIS GUY, with his past gets into the front door of the White House!? That guy shouldn't have been allowed in the District of Columbia. How did the United State of Surveillance miss the Brothers Tsarnaev at the Boston Marathon? Leaving backpacks at the finish line! NSA et al, are looking at the wrong people and not looking at the right people. America does not work.
Francis Fukayama has a new book out. Same story different decade for the “End of History” author.
Chimpanzees are naturally warlike. That was the big science story last week. Previous thinking had been they learned it from humans! Nope. Our closest evolutionary cousins war on each other for “benefits.” It’s a trait unique to the two species. It’s like discretionary cannibalism among Chinese, it’s done because it tastes good; it’s done because they can, not because they have to.
Vladimir Putin is a chimpanzee.
Chimps war on each other for some of the same reasons humans do—for more resources, more territory, more sex. More. They’re not starving, homeless or without orgasms. They want more. “We hold these truths to be self-evident…That among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” “Fuck her right in the pussy!” Power, too. “Americans are from Mars, Europeans are from Venus.”
“Might makes right.”
Do chimpanzees know it is wrong to kill discretionarily? No. Wrong, right, hell, heaven, morality—those notions are unique to one species.
The air was so fresh, so clean in spring 1989 it tasted like wine. Heady days. Intoxicating. The Soviet Union and all its walls crumbled in that air. Not the People’s Republic of China and all its walls. The end of history ended in Tiananmen Square; history continued.
A fatwa was issued against Salmon Rushdie in 1989, just a few months before Fukayama’s essay first appeared. History never came to Islam, neither its end. “The Clash of Civilizations” was written in response to “The End of History.”
Capitalism for chimpanzees. Wherever there is capitalism there are clashes. Capitalism is naturally expansive. Capitalism pursues. Like the mythology of the shark capitalism must keep moving or it dies. A corporation not growing is a dead corporation. That is the inherent contradiction of capitalism. It is unnatural. In nature things do not grow continuously; in nature the cessation of growth is called maturity, it is not called death.
Capitalism has bloody borders. Capitalism knows no borders. For multi-national corporations when the domestic market is exhausted the corporation must look abroad. It must grow. Construction of the first McDonald’s in Moscow began in 1989. Where there is capitalism there will be clashes.
Everything is never quite enough. Channeling his inner chimpanzee man restrains the chimp within with morality via religion, with morality via law. "I wish you enough." They are all unnatural. Ask the chimp.
Chimpanzees are naturally warlike. That was the big science story last week. Previous thinking had been they learned it from humans! Nope. Our closest evolutionary cousins war on each other for “benefits.” It’s a trait unique to the two species. It’s like discretionary cannibalism among Chinese, it’s done because it tastes good; it’s done because they can, not because they have to.
Vladimir Putin is a chimpanzee.
Chimps war on each other for some of the same reasons humans do—for more resources, more territory, more sex. More. They’re not starving, homeless or without orgasms. They want more. “We hold these truths to be self-evident…That among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” “Fuck her right in the pussy!” Power, too. “Americans are from Mars, Europeans are from Venus.”
“Might makes right.”
Do chimpanzees know it is wrong to kill discretionarily? No. Wrong, right, hell, heaven, morality—those notions are unique to one species.
The air was so fresh, so clean in spring 1989 it tasted like wine. Heady days. Intoxicating. The Soviet Union and all its walls crumbled in that air. Not the People’s Republic of China and all its walls. The end of history ended in Tiananmen Square; history continued.
A fatwa was issued against Salmon Rushdie in 1989, just a few months before Fukayama’s essay first appeared. History never came to Islam, neither its end. “The Clash of Civilizations” was written in response to “The End of History.”
Capitalism for chimpanzees. Wherever there is capitalism there are clashes. Capitalism is naturally expansive. Capitalism pursues. Like the mythology of the shark capitalism must keep moving or it dies. A corporation not growing is a dead corporation. That is the inherent contradiction of capitalism. It is unnatural. In nature things do not grow continuously; in nature the cessation of growth is called maturity, it is not called death.
Capitalism has bloody borders. Capitalism knows no borders. For multi-national corporations when the domestic market is exhausted the corporation must look abroad. It must grow. Construction of the first McDonald’s in Moscow began in 1989. Where there is capitalism there will be clashes.
Everything is never quite enough. Channeling his inner chimpanzee man restrains the chimp within with morality via religion, with morality via law. "I wish you enough." They are all unnatural. Ask the chimp.
Sunday, September 21, 2014
Notice from Public Editor of Public Occurrences.
As America's "quasi-official" blog "of record," Public Occurrences has an obligation to its readers. It is a sacred trust. It is a sacred trust and we have an obligation not to inflict emotional distress or fear on our readers. Unless they're Muslim. Therefore, by the powers invested in me and consistent with the sacred trust aforementioned and the obligations yada-yada, that image on the header afore-commented upon with sacred prayer and question mark and legal objection, that photograph shall not stand, it shall come down, if is OUT OF HERE. Thank you and good night.
OBJECSHUN!
No. That is not real. It can't be. It has to be photoshopped...C'mon man, don't be playing around like that, you're going to give me a heart attack. Oh my God, I can't even look at that thing...Look, I want...Look, get the housing inspector on the line, the code inspector, the meat inspector, the guardrail inspector, EVERY inspector...I wish to report a violation...a public nuisance...
Where the hell is that?
No. That is not real. It can't be. It has to be photoshopped...C'mon man, don't be playing around like that, you're going to give me a heart attack. Oh my God, I can't even look at that thing...Look, I want...Look, get the housing inspector on the line, the code inspector, the meat inspector, the guardrail inspector, EVERY inspector...I wish to report a violation...a public nuisance...
Where the hell is that?
The Pursuit of Happiness.
"We worship money instead of honor. A billionaire in our estimation is much greater in the eyes of the people than the public servant who works for the public interest. It makes no difference if the billionaire rode to wealth on the sweat of little children and the blood of underpaid labor. No one ever considers the Carnegie libraries steeped in the blood of the Homestead Steel workers, but they are."
"We do not remember that the Rockefeller Foundation is founded on the dead miners of the Colorado Fuel Company and a dozen other performances. We worship Mammon."
"Until we get back to the fundamentals and return to the Giver of the Tables of the Law and His teachings these conditions are going to remain with us. It is a pity that Wall Street with its ability to control all the wealth of the nation and to hire the best brains of the country has not produced some statesmen, some men who could see the dangers of bigness and of the concentration of the control of wealth."
"Instead of working to meet the situation, they are still employing the best law brains to serve greed and selfish interest. People can only stand so much, and one of these days there will be a settlement."
-Senator Harry S. Truman, speech on Senate floor, December 20, 1937.
Saturday, September 20, 2014
Ice news.
And now for the ice news. The Antarctic ice shelf "continues" to break records for growth! Continues. Whaddya mean "continues?" I thought that shelf fell down, was drifting away to be put in cocktails in Miami. The ice bureau here at Public Occurrences has been chastised for not making us upper echelon types aware of this. The ice shelf in the Arctic is shrinking, however; "continues" probably, I don't know. Frigging ice staff; fire their asses. Arctic Schmartic. It's the South Pole that's the big ice cube, no? That's good that it's growing, no?
Friday, September 19, 2014
This has been sticking in my craw for awhile. President Obama has turned the American economy around. He has:
1. Ended the "Great Recession."
2. Created something like 250,000 jobs per month.
3. Reduced unemployment rates.
4. Created economic conditions that have led to record highs in the stock market.
5. Reduced the number of the medically uninsured via Obamacare. That is, Obamacare has worked.
I unsay none of the things for which I have bitterly criticized the president but the above have been unsaid, at least by me, and he deserves praise for them.
Praise.
1. Ended the "Great Recession."
2. Created something like 250,000 jobs per month.
3. Reduced unemployment rates.
4. Created economic conditions that have led to record highs in the stock market.
5. Reduced the number of the medically uninsured via Obamacare. That is, Obamacare has worked.
I unsay none of the things for which I have bitterly criticized the president but the above have been unsaid, at least by me, and he deserves praise for them.
Praise.
Jasmine Dylwood.
"What’s your favorite Woody Allen movie? Before you answer, you should know: when I was seven years old, Woody Allen took me by the hand and led me into a dim, closet-like attic on the second floor of our house. He told me to lay on my stomach and play with my brother’s electric train set. Then he sexually assaulted me."
...
"What if it had been your child, Cate Blanchett? Louis CK? Alec Baldwin? What if it had been you, Emma Stone? Or you, Scarlett Johansson? You knew me when I was a little girl, Diane Keaton. Have you forgotten me?"
-Dylan Farrow.
...
"What if it had been your child, Cate Blanchett? Louis CK? Alec Baldwin? What if it had been you, Emma Stone? Or you, Scarlett Johansson? You knew me when I was a little girl, Diane Keaton. Have you forgotten me?"
-Dylan Farrow.
I see. When Dylan Farrow's letter was published in February, I had never heard of Louis CK, had not seen Blue Jasmine and didn't know that all of the first three on Dylan's call-out list acted in Blue Jasmine. I did know that Allen was up for, or had received, some award and that Cate Blanchett was up for an Oscar for her performance in Blue Jasmine. I think I recall that the Allen camp's thinking was that Dylan's letter was a conscious attempt to derail all the awarding.
Dylan's letter got to me; she was calling out people like me who watch Woody Allen movies in addition to stars who act in them. Farrow's letter made me think, and write, whether I should see any more Woody Allen movies. I thought and wrote quite a bit; decided I had a moral obligation to determine, as best I could, whether the allegations first made 21 years ago and re-made in that February 2014 letter were true. I got as far as writing about what the appropriate standard for me to stop watching Woody Allen movies should be: "Proof beyond a reasonable doubt" that Dylan's allegations were true? "Preponderance of the evidence?" I gave up. It was just too hard. So last night, when Carmen popped one of the DVD's she gets from Netflix into the player and I asked what movie it was, I watched Blue Jasmine.
Thursday, September 18, 2014
Scotland Independence Vote.
Sporting news.
Oh God.
Two more American professional tackle football players were arrested for committing domestic violence recently, one for child abuse in disciplining two of his children on two separate occasions. The other one, Jonathan Dwyer, was arrested just yesterday. This is what police say he did: He wanted to have sex with his wife, see, and she didn't want to. So he head-butted her and broke her nose. The next day, repentant, he punched her in the side of her face.
And in the college version of the sport scholar Jameis Winston, accused of rape in 2012, repeatedly
helping himself to soda that he hadn't paid for at a Burger King, disregarding the commands of a manager, and helping himself to seafood at another restaurant in 2013, scholar Winston got up on a table in the student union at his school, Florida State University, the Harvard of the Panhandle, and, reprising a, I have read, popular and well-know meme, shouted loudly, and I quote:
"Fuck her right in the pussy!"
The common thread in all three is, of course, violence against those weaker, almost the definition of cowardice. There is an additional theme in the behavior of Dwyer and Winston, and let us add Jerry Sandusky: entitlement. Entitlement to sex, entitlement to free food, entitlement to free education, wealth, honors. Entitlement. In Winston's case, as there clearly was in Sandusky's for years, there may also be a feeling of entitlement to no consequences to his behavior since he has never been arrested. Florida State prohibited him from playing a few baseball games for his "see-food" diet last year, and has prohibited him from playing one-half of the football game on Saturday for his entertainment at the student union.
If we subtract Peterson and Sandusky and add Ray Rice to this group, and let's throw in O.J. Simpson too, women are second-class citizens to these men, women are there to serve them, to be used and abused, they are little better than slaves or "uppity" black people after slavery and before Civil Rights who didn't know their place, women are to these men the new "niggers." Unbeknownst to me before the Winston rape allegation broke in 2013, the sexual mistreatment of women is "epidemic" on American college campuses, it is not confined to the treatment by scholar-athletes. Rape goes unreported, under-reported, uninvestigated and under-investigated when reported--there are no consequences. Sexual assault of college women on campus is an "epidemic." How in the world did this state of affairs come to be? At universities! I don't know. I don't know but the Obama administration has named dozens, dozens and dozens of colleges and universities that it is investigating.
It is God-awful.
Two more American professional tackle football players were arrested for committing domestic violence recently, one for child abuse in disciplining two of his children on two separate occasions. The other one, Jonathan Dwyer, was arrested just yesterday. This is what police say he did: He wanted to have sex with his wife, see, and she didn't want to. So he head-butted her and broke her nose. The next day, repentant, he punched her in the side of her face.
And in the college version of the sport scholar Jameis Winston, accused of rape in 2012, repeatedly
helping himself to soda that he hadn't paid for at a Burger King, disregarding the commands of a manager, and helping himself to seafood at another restaurant in 2013, scholar Winston got up on a table in the student union at his school, Florida State University, the Harvard of the Panhandle, and, reprising a, I have read, popular and well-know meme, shouted loudly, and I quote:
"Fuck her right in the pussy!"
The common thread in all three is, of course, violence against those weaker, almost the definition of cowardice. There is an additional theme in the behavior of Dwyer and Winston, and let us add Jerry Sandusky: entitlement. Entitlement to sex, entitlement to free food, entitlement to free education, wealth, honors. Entitlement. In Winston's case, as there clearly was in Sandusky's for years, there may also be a feeling of entitlement to no consequences to his behavior since he has never been arrested. Florida State prohibited him from playing a few baseball games for his "see-food" diet last year, and has prohibited him from playing one-half of the football game on Saturday for his entertainment at the student union.
If we subtract Peterson and Sandusky and add Ray Rice to this group, and let's throw in O.J. Simpson too, women are second-class citizens to these men, women are there to serve them, to be used and abused, they are little better than slaves or "uppity" black people after slavery and before Civil Rights who didn't know their place, women are to these men the new "niggers." Unbeknownst to me before the Winston rape allegation broke in 2013, the sexual mistreatment of women is "epidemic" on American college campuses, it is not confined to the treatment by scholar-athletes. Rape goes unreported, under-reported, uninvestigated and under-investigated when reported--there are no consequences. Sexual assault of college women on campus is an "epidemic." How in the world did this state of affairs come to be? At universities! I don't know. I don't know but the Obama administration has named dozens, dozens and dozens of colleges and universities that it is investigating.
It is God-awful.
Russia.
Sanctions, especially the latest round, targeting, inter alia, Kalashnikov, are biting. Russia's former finance minister says they could push the Russian economy into zero growth or a recession in 2015. Surely not coincidentally, Vladimir Putin has accused the West of violating World Trade Organization agreements. Sure hope Putin is wrong about that.
There are a couple of other reports, not from authoritative media however: One has it that Russia is moving troops in Ukrainian Crimea to the border of the rest of Ukraine; another says that Putin has stated that Russian troops could be in Baltic and eastern European capitals as easily as he said he could be in Kiev. The language is almost identical.
There are a couple of other reports, not from authoritative media however: One has it that Russia is moving troops in Ukrainian Crimea to the border of the rest of Ukraine; another says that Putin has stated that Russian troops could be in Baltic and eastern European capitals as easily as he said he could be in Kiev. The language is almost identical.
Wednesday, September 17, 2014
Scotland.
Today the people of Scotland vote on independence. I, one American, want whatever the people of Scotland want and I hope the people of Scotland want to remain a part of the United Kingdom.
Tuesday, September 16, 2014
Egypt 3.0
Good news out of Free Egypt--Finally, huh?--where President Virginity Check's government announced plans for a "New Suez Canal" last month, a $3 billion project sure to instill Pride in the country's Glorious History. To mark the Moment the government issued special commemorative stamps that depict the Panama Canal. So yeah, that's encouraging.
The Day
Pretty uneventful day for public occurrences. Unusual day for Public Occurrences.
Three search terms that landed peoples here.
I do know who Jennifer Li is and her background. And I ain't tellin'.
I do know who Ward Churchill is and I don't know if he has bodyguards.
I did not know what the heck that third one was, looked at it closely and A-ha! The last character. There are so many English variations of Song Binbin's name, Song Pinpin, Sung B'in-b'in, Song B'ing b'ing, that finally, years ago, I memorized her name in Chinese; it was easy since the last character repeats, even in Chinese. I recognized the last character in the search term as Songie's given name:
宋彬彬
Heavier than normal traffic yesterday, 168 pageviews. We have averaged a leetle over 100 per day the last few months. And a very unusual distribution of pageviews by country. In a given 24-hour period the U.S. is going to be first 90% of the time, Russia is going to be second 75% of the time. This is the September 15 end-of-the day distribution:
Everybody else was in single digits, Germany was fifth with 6.
-historical background of jennifer li
-does ward churchill have bodyguards
-心風暴violence of the mind 2013 電影Three search terms that landed peoples here.
I do know who Jennifer Li is and her background. And I ain't tellin'.
I do know who Ward Churchill is and I don't know if he has bodyguards.
I did not know what the heck that third one was, looked at it closely and A-ha! The last character. There are so many English variations of Song Binbin's name, Song Pinpin, Sung B'in-b'in, Song B'ing b'ing, that finally, years ago, I memorized her name in Chinese; it was easy since the last character repeats, even in Chinese. I recognized the last character in the search term as Songie's given name:
宋彬彬
影, 彬
I recognized that I was an idiot.
I googled "violence of the mind:" It's a movie, something about two gay guys who fall in love. Won some award at a San Antonio film festival.
I googled "violence of the mind:" It's a movie, something about two gay guys who fall in love. Won some award at a San Antonio film festival.
Heavier than normal traffic yesterday, 168 pageviews. We have averaged a leetle over 100 per day the last few months. And a very unusual distribution of pageviews by country. In a given 24-hour period the U.S. is going to be first 90% of the time, Russia is going to be second 75% of the time. This is the September 15 end-of-the day distribution:
France, 38.
U.S., 35.
Turkey, 34.
Russia, 34.
Everybody else was in single digits, Germany was fifth with 6.
"We wander around the world and see how things work." Adam Coates, Baidu USA.
That is a great way to live life. Wander the world and see what works. Here's to wanderers!
Sunday, September 14, 2014
"Islam is a religion of peace."
Friends and enemies, I swear to you I have read the Koran cover to cover, I have read Sayyid Qutb's commentaries. There is no basis in the texts, there is no basis in practice, no basis in history, for David Cameron's statement. I swear to you there is not.
Islam.
"They boast of their brutality; they claim to do this in the name of Islam. That is nonsense. Islam is a religion of peace. They are not Muslims, they are monsters."
-David Cameron, Prime Minister Great Britain, in an address to the British people in response to the beheading of British national David Haines, an aid worker, by the Islamic State.
-David Cameron, Prime Minister Great Britain, in an address to the British people in response to the beheading of British national David Haines, an aid worker, by the Islamic State.
Saturday, September 13, 2014
Theoretical Physics News.
And now for the theoretical physics news. In theoretical physics news:
Fluid Mechanics Findings: An Alternative to Quantum Orthodoxy.
I know that this is potentially BIG. I know that quantum mechanics is and has been for a long time the "orthodoxy," that in Thomas Kuhn's terminology it is, and long has been, "normal science." I know that there has been a problem with quantum mechanics from the beginning.
I know that the problem has been that quantum mechanics cannot explain matter existing at a fixed position in space-time.
I understand how that would be a problem. I know that this problem has vexed theoretical physicists. I know that it has given rise to clever attempts like the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle to somehow fit the problem into quantum mechanics orthodoxy, that these attempts have not been entirely successful, and to outright denial that there is a problem at all.
I know that these fit Kuhn's description of how theoretical physicists behave with challenges to normal science. It sounds to me like the normal science of quantum mechanics is now, in Kuhn's term, in "crisis" and that the result will be either fixing the problem within the quantum mechanics model or overthrowing it with this proposed mathematical model or with something else. That is all I know.
I know that the problem has been that quantum mechanics cannot explain matter existing at a fixed position in space-time.
I understand how that would be a problem. I know that this problem has vexed theoretical physicists. I know that it has given rise to clever attempts like the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle to somehow fit the problem into quantum mechanics orthodoxy, that these attempts have not been entirely successful, and to outright denial that there is a problem at all.
