Crimes, that get you hauled into court, ought to be things you did, not thoughts you had. To be a free country, like we claim to be, one should be free to think anything they like. Only actions can be criminalized.
And not too many actions either. I believe Moses got the number just about right, and Moses lived and died thousands of years ago.
Take that newsie's Watergate Wail, "What did he know and when did he know it?" That's a cry to pursue a thought crime. "Knowing" is pure thought. It's perfectly legal to know damn near anything. Why do the newsies go about siccing cops and courts on people just for knowing something? A far better question is "What did he do, and when did he do it?"
A lot of places have passed new laws penalizing "hate crimes". These are things already crimes, they just added some extra jail time if the crime is motivated by prejudice against minorities. I don't hold with that. The law should punish actions, crimes, the same way no matter what the perp was thinking, before during, or after committing the crime. Murder is murder, doesn't matter why the accused committed murder.
Wednesday, May 2, 2018
Tuesday, May 1, 2018
Cultural Appropriation
The social justice warriors are attacking a good looking young woman for wearing a prom dress with some Chinese style to it. Despicable. Its a good looking dress, makes her look good. You ought to be able to select your prom dress on how it looks on you, not whether SJW fanatics will dump on you for your choice.
Western civilization has been very effective over the centuries at adopting important technical ideas from other cultures. Magnetic compass, which vastly improved the odds of your ship returning safely, came from China, and only appears in Western literature in the time of King Richard the Lionheart. Gunpowder also came from China, although the idea of putting it into cannon is probably a western idea. Some early cannon were taken to the battle of Agincourt in 1415.
I am in favor of cultural appropriation. If other cultures have good ideas, or well styled garments, or well cooked food (chili, pizza,bleu cheese,lots of other goodies) we ought to adopt them.
Western civilization has been very effective over the centuries at adopting important technical ideas from other cultures. Magnetic compass, which vastly improved the odds of your ship returning safely, came from China, and only appears in Western literature in the time of King Richard the Lionheart. Gunpowder also came from China, although the idea of putting it into cannon is probably a western idea. Some early cannon were taken to the battle of Agincourt in 1415.
I am in favor of cultural appropriation. If other cultures have good ideas, or well styled garments, or well cooked food (chili, pizza,bleu cheese,lots of other goodies) we ought to adopt them.
Monday, April 30, 2018
Trump vs the NORKs
Hard to tell how things are going. According to the newsies, Kim Jong whats-his-face has offered to denuclearize the Korean peninsula. Assuming that's what Kim really said, and not an overly wishful translation by peacenik newsies, it's good. That's more and better than any NORK offer since 1953. Granted we have some well founded trust issues with the NORKS, i.e. we think they are liars, it's still good to have them making the denuclearization offer.
And certainly we have one idea of what denuclearization means and the NORKs have another, and we may not be able to come up with a compromise acceptable to both sides, there is still a possibility of success We ought to go for it.
Big question. Why is Kim making nice now? Possibly the US led trade embargo is beginning to bite? Possibly the Chinese are worried about American tariffs on their goods killing their economy, and so have decided to make nice with the Americans by leaning on Kim? My sources say that the NORKs are totally dependent upon imports of fuel and food from China. Perhaps the Chinese are telling Kim to cool it with the Yankees or face a cutoff of vital imports. Although the Chinese like having the NORKs around as a buffer state between them and the pushy American allied South Koreans, and as an attack dog who they can sic on the Americans any time they want to , they cannot be happy with the idea of a nuclear armed North Korea. And both we and the Chinese have doubts about the stability of Kim's government. If revolution breaks out in the North, the Chinese fear that the South will take over all of Korea, the way West Germany took over all of Germany. Bye-bye buffer state and attack dog. So the Chinese may be reining Kim in to prevent him from over stressing his hold on power in the North.
Who knows?
If things work out right, President Trump ought to get a Nobel Peace Prize.
And certainly we have one idea of what denuclearization means and the NORKs have another, and we may not be able to come up with a compromise acceptable to both sides, there is still a possibility of success We ought to go for it.
Big question. Why is Kim making nice now? Possibly the US led trade embargo is beginning to bite? Possibly the Chinese are worried about American tariffs on their goods killing their economy, and so have decided to make nice with the Americans by leaning on Kim? My sources say that the NORKs are totally dependent upon imports of fuel and food from China. Perhaps the Chinese are telling Kim to cool it with the Yankees or face a cutoff of vital imports. Although the Chinese like having the NORKs around as a buffer state between them and the pushy American allied South Koreans, and as an attack dog who they can sic on the Americans any time they want to , they cannot be happy with the idea of a nuclear armed North Korea. And both we and the Chinese have doubts about the stability of Kim's government. If revolution breaks out in the North, the Chinese fear that the South will take over all of Korea, the way West Germany took over all of Germany. Bye-bye buffer state and attack dog. So the Chinese may be reining Kim in to prevent him from over stressing his hold on power in the North.
Who knows?
If things work out right, President Trump ought to get a Nobel Peace Prize.
Sunday, April 29, 2018
The Economist discovers a new Greenhouse Gas
Carbon Dioxide (CO2) has been the greenie's favorite greenhouse gas. Greenhouse gases in the atmosphere are blamed for global warming. These are gases that are transparent to visible light and near visible light (short infrared and some ultraviolet) and opaque to long wave infrared. Solar heat comes to the earth and warms it as visible light. The warmed earthly objects, rocks, soil, vegetation, everything, throws off heat by radiating long wave infrared. On the night side of earth, the long wave infrared goes up into space carrying heat with it. Overall earthly temperature is believed to be the result of a balance between incoming Solar heat on the day side, and outgoing infrared radiation on the night side. Increased levels of greenhouse gas block the long wave infrared and are believed to increase the average temperature of the earth.
Now the Economist has a long piece about the evils of methane in the atmosphere. It's dreadful. Methane is the bulk of natural gas, and flatulence. It comes from leaks in natural gas pipelines and gas wells, as well as flatulence among cows, of which there are lot on the earth.
Only one little problem with the methane scare story. The Economist shows a graph starting in 1984 and going to 2018. Methane in the atmosphere has increased from 1650 parts per BILLION, to 1850 parts per BILLION.
Rescale from parts per billion to the more widely used parts per million, and the methane levels become 1.65 PPM and 1.85 PPM.
We have good laboratory data going back about 100 years on carbon dioxide levels. They used to be 350 some PPM, and now are getting close to 400 PPM.
Somehow I don't think less than 2 PPM of methane will ever make much difference against 400 PPM of carbon dioxide.
And for that matter, plain old water vapor is as strong a greenhouse gas as carbon dioxide or methane, and the atmosphere contains about 10000 PPM of water vapor. It varies from time to time, the weathermen call it humidity and report it on the nightly news. As I write this, it's raining outside, which means 100% relative humidity. Since there is about 25 times more water vapor in the atmosphere than carbon dioxide, I don't worry much about carbon dioxide. Compared to the water vapor, there just isn't enough carbon dioxide to worry about. And the water vapor is better than 1000 times more plentiful than methane.
On a planet that is three quarters ocean, nothing is going to reduce the water vapor content of the atmosphere. Plus the water vapor comes down as rain, which most places need more of.
Now the Economist has a long piece about the evils of methane in the atmosphere. It's dreadful. Methane is the bulk of natural gas, and flatulence. It comes from leaks in natural gas pipelines and gas wells, as well as flatulence among cows, of which there are lot on the earth.
Only one little problem with the methane scare story. The Economist shows a graph starting in 1984 and going to 2018. Methane in the atmosphere has increased from 1650 parts per BILLION, to 1850 parts per BILLION.
Rescale from parts per billion to the more widely used parts per million, and the methane levels become 1.65 PPM and 1.85 PPM.
We have good laboratory data going back about 100 years on carbon dioxide levels. They used to be 350 some PPM, and now are getting close to 400 PPM.
Somehow I don't think less than 2 PPM of methane will ever make much difference against 400 PPM of carbon dioxide.
And for that matter, plain old water vapor is as strong a greenhouse gas as carbon dioxide or methane, and the atmosphere contains about 10000 PPM of water vapor. It varies from time to time, the weathermen call it humidity and report it on the nightly news. As I write this, it's raining outside, which means 100% relative humidity. Since there is about 25 times more water vapor in the atmosphere than carbon dioxide, I don't worry much about carbon dioxide. Compared to the water vapor, there just isn't enough carbon dioxide to worry about. And the water vapor is better than 1000 times more plentiful than methane.
On a planet that is three quarters ocean, nothing is going to reduce the water vapor content of the atmosphere. Plus the water vapor comes down as rain, which most places need more of.
Friday, April 27, 2018
Too bad about Bill Cosby
I remember Bill Cosby in "I Spy" on Philadelphia TV in the 1950's. I once owned the "200 Miles an Hour" LP record. "Mother Jugs and Speed" was hilarious. "Fat Albert" livened up Saturday morning cartoon time. He did the Doc Huxtable gig well. I never met the guy, all I know him by is his entertainments, which were entertaining.
I am sorry to hear that he has been convicted of sexual some-thing-other committed 14 years ago. We used to call it rape, but apparently simple four letter words are too much for lawyers and the political correct now a days.
Too bad such an good comedian turned out to be a rapist.
I am sorry to hear that he has been convicted of sexual some-thing-other committed 14 years ago. We used to call it rape, but apparently simple four letter words are too much for lawyers and the political correct now a days.
Too bad such an good comedian turned out to be a rapist.
Thursday, April 26, 2018
New Hampshire must be doing something right
Thursday's Wall St Journal had a bar chart, showing growth of personal income in all the New England states. New Hampshire is best in show, with 3.5 % income growth for last year, 2017. Better than Massachusetts (3.3%) , better than the US average (3.1%). Way better than Connecticut which only managed 1.5%. The purpose of the editorial was to trash Connecticut's performance and blame it on state government's tax hikes, deficit spending and driving GE to move to Massachusetts. It didn't say anything about what pushed New Hampshire to the top, but Governor Sununu ought to use this chart in his next campaign for governor.
Wednesday, April 25, 2018
Farewell to Heat and Eats
They aren't the greatest, they aren't the worst, and they do heat up and serve just one, which is nice for us who live alone. But now, it looks like heat and eats are off my menu.
Reason? More and more heat and eats now say "Microwave only" and "Do not heat in conventional oven or toaster oven". I don't have a microwave, my kitchen is very small and I just don't have any counter space to put a microwave. And I don't plan on remodeling my kitchen just so I can microwave heat and eats.
I wonder why the heat and eat makers only want us to microwave their product?
Reason? More and more heat and eats now say "Microwave only" and "Do not heat in conventional oven or toaster oven". I don't have a microwave, my kitchen is very small and I just don't have any counter space to put a microwave. And I don't plan on remodeling my kitchen just so I can microwave heat and eats.
I wonder why the heat and eat makers only want us to microwave their product?
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