Paging Mr. Orwell
The Light of Reason - Living By Permission, Revisited - It certainly is true that, in terms of the great benefits conferred by technology generally, our lives are infinitely enriched. Nonetheless — and this is the point that is crucial, and that seems to be ignored — the fact is that the government has incredible powers over each and every one of us now — and all that is required for the government to put its already existing machinery into action against you is for some nameless, faceless government bureaucrat to decide to use it. The laws and regulations are already in place for him to do pretty much whatever he wants, should he decide to take advantage of the opportunity.

Heretical Ideas - Living By Right Or Permission? - What does it mean to be living by "right" or by "permission"? In context with the discussion, what it boils down to is the level of control that a person has over their own life. To live by permission is to live in a state in which "everything not compulsory is forbidden." That is, the ultimate control over one's life is dictated by somebody other than oneself. To live by right, then, is to have complete autonomy over personal decisionmaking, so long as you don't interfere with the liberty of others.

Pictures at an Exhibition
Northwest Notes - Lakeshore Photos and Volcanocam - These are from my walk last week in Colman Park by Lake Washington, just southeast of where we live.

Poll Tests
Occam's Toothbrush - Mangy Poll Cats - The margin and the confidence level are usually chosen in advance, at some acceptable level, so the pollster can determine x, the amount of people that he will need in his sample. Trying to get the margin of error down, or the confidence level up, will make x prohibitively large. But the whole thing is a joke, because the pollsters are violating the first rule of statistics, by starting with a sample that is anything but random.

Smiting the Semites
Facts of Israel - Land for War - In 1994, I served as a medic in the IDF (Israel Defense Forces, or Israel's army). I spent a few days near Naharayim, land that was given back to Jordan in return for peace. The land in question was named the "Island of Peace" - allowing regular Israelis and Jordanians to meet near the Jordan River and make peace a reality. Unfortunately, in 1997, a Jordanian soldier opened fire on a bus of Israeli school girls, murdering seven eighth-graders. That pretty much stopped the meetings and the "Island of Peace" is today only remembered as the place where this massacre occurred.

The Talking Dog - La Cosa Nostra di Ramallah - Think of the Palestinians in general (these morons, anyway, who will now set up a shrine to the mass-murderer they had the misfortune to have raised) as comparable to the stupid neighbors of Dapper Don John Gotti, who were so pleased with the Don's Christmas pageants and Fourth of July fireworks that he was regarded as a local hero and civic leader, rather than what he was: a *&&^^%^ criminal, whose minions had dozens of people or more killed in the course of their activities.