tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post4446973883801301599..comments2024-03-27T23:12:08.917-07:00Comments on CONTRARY BRIN: Three Lessons from VegasDavid Brinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14465315130418506525noreply@blogger.comBlogger145125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-75406654087546028582017-10-13T22:50:49.399-07:002017-10-13T22:50:49.399-07:00@David | lumbering temporary measures that should ...@David | <i>lumbering temporary measures that should – over time – wither away</i><br /><br />I'd be a happy voter helping to demolish social problems all around us if I actually believed government measures were likely to be temporary. I simply don't and can't see how a bureaucracy can work that way. People in and out of government become vested in a solution and a government version doesn't have to have a business case that closes. It is a very painful process to talk to investors while pitching a project that competes with government and face down their questions about who the competitors are and how one intends to beat them.<br /><br />I know a number of people who took on Cornuelle's proposition and lost. Government isn't profit motivated. Investors are. Government can tweak market rules. Morally upstanding investors do not. We are at a PROFOUND disadvantage when competing with them and most investors with real money simply won't risk it.<br /><br />I personally witnessed a funded prize effort die because one guy ticked off someone in a certain FAA office. That annoyed bureaucrat whispered in a few ears and all permit applications were delayed until after the prize deadline (and funding) died. The money involved was small potatoes, but would have kick-started the NewSpace companies and their industry a few years earlier. That bureaucrat retired at some point and his replacement was better schmoozed by our friends, so the blockage eventually went away. Still, this experience shows WHY investors are leery. Our competitors were vested and could play in our market by unfair rules. THAT is what government can do... and does if one does not play by THEIR rules.<br /><br />Sniff. I was working one of those applications for a permit to fly. It took a while to find the arbitrary rule imposed against us all, but I did eventually. It was in a footnote in a huge doc that slid through the rule making process. Very slimy of the guy who did it.Alfred Differhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01170159981105973192noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-24311299793589867812017-10-13T19:39:23.639-07:002017-10-13T19:39:23.639-07:00I’ve always loved you’re fiction, but think I’m lo...I’ve always loved you’re fiction, but think I’m loving you’re practical ideas even better. <br /><br />Nicely, was just talking to my girlfriend the other day about regulating guns analogous to cars, with mandatory safety training, a waiting period etc. I grew up in pro-gun states and do believe in the right, but a well regulated one. <br /><br />You are right about the slippery slope fear, it is also fueled by negative stereotypes about gun owners. Most I’ve know do agree with more regulation; how can you expect someone to trust if you vilify them. <br /><br />Frankly I thought the gun modifications the shooter made were illegal, they should be. I am also pretty disgusted with the depths the NRA has sunk to. I’m that person in the middle, I can see and agree with both the basis for the right to bear arms and the need for more and more consistent and enforced regulation. <br /><br />Lastly, your oligarchy comments are spot on. Mikehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08231609275892907901noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-51711836114539853012017-10-12T20:20:54.509-07:002017-10-12T20:20:54.509-07:00Ilithi Dragon:
Ho, my apologies. Again I got off t...Ilithi Dragon:<br />Ho, my apologies. Again I got off the subject. And I know the chances are that Google's automatic translator does not correctly translate my words from Spanish to English.<br />I see that all those who have made comments are worried about the misuse of weapons by novices with large amounts of money to buy deadly toys.<br />Since the cause of the shooting in the Las Vegas did not seem to have a reason to do what he did, I could claim that there is a conspiracy. But the truth is that there seems to be no other motive than the simple old hatred caused by the resentment towards what were perceived as injustices of life.<br />Nevertheless. I can try to put the bit of my reason to pierce the thick layer of the obvious ... And find possibilities. Only as an exercise in deductive logic.<br />Let's see. For starters, the killer allegedly made a lot of money in casinos. Jaaajaa! Casinos are designed to empty people's bank accounts; not to enrich people (well-known is the fact that slot machines and even roulette, have mechanisms that falsify the result) (That reminds me of the machines counting votes that almost everyone believes infallible)<br />Consequently, I must assume that the murderer received money in the casinos. In exchange for? Why participate in money laundering? That is known to occur in many places, so it is plausible.<br />Thus, we can deduce that the gunman of las vegas worked for the Mafia.<br />Why would the Mafia be interested in causing a massacre?<br />Russian Mafia or Italian Mafia? What mafia controlled the casino where the killer had such good luck? There are those who.<br />All right. I already did 50% of deductive work. Can anyone else deduce a motive for the mafia's way of acting?<br />Of course, we could close the case by assuming that the mob lost control of one of its men.<br />But there may be other reasons:<br />A) The collection of insurance.<br />B) Punish an event promoter who did not deliver a loan.<br />C) War between mafia groups.<br />D) Punishment of event promoters who do not want to pay a percentage to the Mafia.<br />E) Nero Trump burning and punishing the state of California for the rebellion of the Californians.<br />(Can you imagine Donald Trump's smile of satisfaction as he looks over and over again at FOX News, the images of thousands of homes engulfed in flames in California?)<br />F) etc. Etc. Etc.Winter7https://www.blogger.com/profile/16829856315044551289noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-80856704583042311702017-10-12T14:23:36.407-07:002017-10-12T14:23:36.407-07:00oops, we've sailed long past the...
onward
...oops, we've sailed long past the...<br /><br />onward<br /><br /><br />onwardLarryHartnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-22634105838695672742017-10-12T14:22:14.390-07:002017-10-12T14:22:14.390-07:00donzelion:
But you're quite right about Ameri...donzelion:<br /><i><br />But you're quite right about American barbarity toward our own Native Americans, barbarism equalled only by our treatment of African-Americans. We have dirty hands. We clean them, sometimes with great difficulty, and try to do better.<br /></i><br /><br />That's what's so insidious about the whole Trump phenomenon. He's empowering those who want to say "What dirty hands? We've never had dirty hands!!! Nothing to clean here!"<br /><br /><i><br />"The British Empire was nearly as bad - but not as self righteous"<br />I am not so sure. 'The white man's burden'? Yet perhaps we're all obtuse toward our own hypocrisies.<br /></i><br /><br />The "White Man's Burden" thing, while arrogant and dated in its racism, at least was a call to use one's powers for good rather than evil. It's certainly not what Hitler would have admonished. <br /><br />It's similar to the present day admonition to those who enjoy white privilege to at least use it to good purpose.LarryHartnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-53449520473465548342017-10-12T13:09:30.975-07:002017-10-12T13:09:30.975-07:00I give up on this person, who cannot look in a mir...I give up on this person, who cannot look in a mirror, examine his processes or perceive the ironies in his relentlessly repeated behaviors. What you think of my thinking is laughably irrelevant. I am vastly more agile than you could begin to conceive.<br /><br />We have found a left wing Locumranch. <br /><br />But enjoy. Strawman away. I am done.<br /><br />onwardDavid Brinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14465315130418506525noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-54191298093133647042017-10-12T13:07:27.006-07:002017-10-12T13:07:27.006-07:00Occam's Comic wrote: "Yeah Zepp, French r...Occam's Comic wrote: "Yeah Zepp, French racism towards Africans is so much worse than American racism towards black folks."<br /><br />Don't know who you were quoting, but it wasn't me. French attitudes are pretty bloody awful. But I can't imagine characterising one form of racism as being "worse"; racism is pernicious, and eventually it destroys civilisations.Zepp Jamiesonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16261339498383415026noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-8269772137707812662017-10-12T12:45:03.229-07:002017-10-12T12:45:03.229-07:00"Zepp you are consistently blind to how you r..."Zepp you are consistently blind to how you repeat the same torrent of contempt and hate, over and over again:"<br /><br />Doctor, if you're incapable of debating me, at least maintain your dignity and stop reverting to scurrilous jibe like "contempt and hate". I'm debating with neither, and it is a rather nasty smear that reveals only the feebleness of your own position.<br /><br />You're assigning a position to me that I not only didn't make, but refuted from the start. The bad actors alienating America's friends did not represent America at large. That's the third time I've said that in one way or another, and I expect better from you.<br /><br />Some of them are stereotypes, but stereotypes can do enormous damage. Some are not stereotypes, and also do damage. <br /><br />I think your political thinking has ossified some time around 1962. That was about the end of Pax Americana, It has long since ceased to exist, and to insist that it does is as silly and as futile as if I were to claim that Britain was still taking on "the White Man's burden." <br /><br /><br />Zepp Jamiesonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16261339498383415026noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-23787244571037461582017-10-12T12:36:36.659-07:002017-10-12T12:36:36.659-07:00onward
onwardonward<br /><br />onwardDavid Brinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14465315130418506525noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-73875640988943567192017-10-12T12:26:48.200-07:002017-10-12T12:26:48.200-07:00The history of American relations with native Ame...The history of American relations with native Americans is of course a tragic travesty. But when you examine each case you find many people with fine intentions, whose top sin was failure to follow up and to protect native peoples from the worst whites.David Brinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14465315130418506525noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-63103001001557863662017-10-12T12:24:46.939-07:002017-10-12T12:24:46.939-07:00Illithi: "...you should take Dr. Brin's a...Illithi: "...you should take Dr. Brin's aggressive language with a grain of salt - you can always tell when he's posting while traveling"<br /><br />Agreed. For the 'anti-American' claim, I suspect he was thinking of someone else. I was hardly being anti-American, though proper control of guns (or lack thereof) is a distinctively American challenge.<br /><br />For the 'gun myth' - the notion guns 'caused' liberation and transformed ancient modes of domination - I suspect this is one of those friendly disputes not unlike our previous spat over whether America really could have taken on the entire world after the Civil War (my view: we couldn't).<br /><br />My point has been a fairly reasonable one: guns did not make feudal lords act kindly - states did. Absent the state, but present the guns, and feudal lords abound. Present the state, but absent the guns, and feudal lords are restrained. Hence, the state is the 'cause' - not the guns.<br /><br />The gun myth impedes reasonable policies, an emotional barrier preventing pragmatic considerations. (Guns are the basis of liberty! If you restrict them, it must be because you secretly harbor tyrannical aspirations! You're coming to take my guns!). In the real world of America, state legislators boast about opposing 'federal oppression' - since they can't find much real oppression to oppose, they target pragmatic, reasonable licensing regimes and undermine them, citing not what actually exists, but what it might lead to...donzelionhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05991849781932619746noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-75353714244039427252017-10-12T12:19:04.345-07:002017-10-12T12:19:04.345-07:00This comment has been removed by the author.donzelionhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05991849781932619746noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-32434724694223647222017-10-12T11:14:59.895-07:002017-10-12T11:14:59.895-07:00Duncan: "Maybe I'm wrong but as a Brit I...Duncan: <i>"Maybe I'm wrong but as a Brit I always though that most of Kipling's poems were rather tongue in cheek...That one especially!"</i><br /><br />Perhaps so. Unfortunately, many took him at his word (both Brits and Americans). And his prose certainly favored sentiments that would cause later folks to cringe.<br /><br />But the accusation of 'self-righteousness' traces largely to the rhetoric of Woodrow Wilson: the subject territories should be granted self-determination as soon as practicable, an expression of American policy (toward Filipinos, Puerto Ricans, Guam, and most others). We moved into commonwealth with the Philippines as an intermediate step, until they requested and received independence bloodlessly. Not entirely different from how the Australians, Canadians, and New Zealanders were treated (but quite different from the Irish).<br /><br />Even toward Native Americans, by the period you cite, our policies are fairly comparable to yours toward aborigines and Canadian natives: compulsory reeducation (in English), occasional dispossession, government efforts to 'protect' (but also to restrict), phases focusing on assimilation and segregation. Where the indigenous peoples had land coveted by interested (white) settlers, the settlers tended to take primacy. The fact that Canadian indigenous peoples were treated differently from their American counterparts arises more from the frequency of settlers coveting the lands (I do not know Australian history well enough to compare the aboriginal treatment, but suspect there's quite a few barbarisms there as well).donzelionhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05991849781932619746noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-55065573748020228552017-10-12T11:01:20.012-07:002017-10-12T11:01:20.012-07:00Erin thanks. It is ironically very pertinent to se...Erin thanks. It is ironically very pertinent to several of the talks here at FiRe. Today we saw a new documentary about UnDx or the movement to get more attention paid to undiagnosed illnesses. And yes, seeing the suffering through images has been a major force breaking some of the log jams.<br /><br />Way back in 97 The Transparent Society spoke of how light can hold oppressors accountable... if that assertion of accountability is acceptable in the 1st place. Oppressive regimes want that to never happen. Here, it's still a struggle! But it is advancing sousveillance of elites and reciprocal accountability of each other.David Brinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14465315130418506525noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-23663296730610996262017-10-12T10:40:36.823-07:002017-10-12T10:40:36.823-07:00My comment is off the current discussion of guns a...My comment is off the current discussion of guns and war, but it does relate to a tangential topic in David Brin's original post. He said, "Though for two decades I have been pointing out that the Great Equalizer that’s arming nearly all citizens, today, is the cell-phone camera."<br /><br />An article about ME/CFS, <a href="http://www.cosmopolitan.com/lifestyle/a12779054/what-is-chronic-fatigue-syndrome/" rel="nofollow">Millions of Women Suffer From a Disease That Virtually Sucks the Life Out of Them — But Doctors Still Don’t Take It Seriously</a> said:<br /><br /><i>She recalls the moment when she realized that film could be a powerful way of changing that equation: She’d been describing to a doctor how she’d collapsed the night before and been unable to get up for hours. He was barely paying attention until she took out her phone and showed him the video she’d taken of her face pressed against the floorboards. “He just turned white,” she recalls — and then he immediately started ordering a slew of tests. Apparently seeing is believing. That’s when she decided to turn her iPhone video diary into a documentary film.</i><br /><br />This unequal relationship, a doctor dismissing a black woman's complaint, was equalized by a smart-phone video camera.Erin Schramhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12376510919659209734noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-16838816544089444982017-10-12T10:18:26.143-07:002017-10-12T10:18:26.143-07:00"Cripes. We are accused of anti-immigrant rac..."Cripes. We are accused of anti-immigrant racism. But third generation and most 2nd and many 1st generation immigrants are fully accepted here. 4th generation Frenchmen with Algerian last names suffer horrid racism every single day. What hypocrisy!"<br /><br /><br />Yeah Zepp, French racism towards Africans is so much worse than American racism towards black folks.<br /> occam's comicnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-91666984274237792252017-10-12T10:07:42.596-07:002017-10-12T10:07:42.596-07:00Zepp you are consistently blind to how you repeat ...Zepp you are consistently blind to how you repeat the same torrent of contempt and hate, over and over again:<br /><br />“We both know it wasn't "all Americans" or even a tiny minority. But it reverberated with a resounding clang in Europe, and cost America a lot of friends. It didn't help that few Americans saw fit to challenge the noisy trash purporting to speak on their behalf.”<br /><br />Bullshit again! You try to backpedal out of an untenable position… then double down on the identical diametrically opposite-to-true baloney. Yammering about hurt feelings and grudges about hurts inflicted by a few bozos.<br /><br />Jiminy, the number of horrific stereotypes cast at Americans is vastly greater… and YOU are doing it right now, obstinately, relentlessly, insultingly… and if I were like you, I would react by blaming all Europeans for their “amercan-trash” insults. Instead, I have aimed my insults directly at you… with the parental intention to shake you out of some truly obnoxious mental habits…<br /><br />…and I’ve failed. You will not look at how your attitudes drive from propaganda and I give up trying.<br /><br />Cripes. We are accused of anti-immigrant racism. But third generation and most 2nd and many 1st generation immigrants are fully accepted here. 4th generation Frenchmen with Algerian last names suffer horrid racism every single day. What hypocrisy!David Brinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14465315130418506525noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-33244332664793329822017-10-12T09:45:38.310-07:002017-10-12T09:45:38.310-07:00"are those two thinks"
A typo, obviousl...<i>"are those two thinks"</i><br /><br />A typo, obviously. But in context, it almost works as slang. Mispronouncing "thoughts", but meaning "mindsets", the way you think.Paul451https://www.blogger.com/profile/12119086761190994938noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-8239208665309202522017-10-12T09:41:37.825-07:002017-10-12T09:41:37.825-07:00"and for years they've been regaling &quo...<i>"and for years they've been regaling "Eurotrash" with tales of how they won't fight or can't fight and survive only because America tiredly supports their layabout asses."</i><br /><br />It underpins the whole "paying their way" NATO meme. That Europe has economically benefited from US carrying the majority of the burden of NATO funding, and that European countries must increase their defence spending.<br /><br />From a logical standpoint, that argument carries two core assumptions: 1) That spending less on defence is good for your economy. 2) That the US wants to spend less on defence.<br /><br />When you look at the people who created and repeated the NATO meme, are those two thinks what they would say when you actually talked about US defence spending?<br /><br />--<br /><br />Duncan,<br />Re: Kipling<br />However, there had to be something there that he was parodying.Paul451https://www.blogger.com/profile/12119086761190994938noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-70900419123911103012017-10-12T09:09:54.377-07:002017-10-12T09:09:54.377-07:00Dr. Brin:
We both know it wasn't "all Am...Dr. Brin: <br />We both know it wasn't "all Americans" or even a tiny minority. But it reverberated with a resounding clang in Europe, and cost America a lot of friends. It didn't help that few Americans saw fit to challenge the noisy trash purporting to speak on their behalf.<br /><br />And unfortunately, it wasn't anecdotal, limited or otherwise. There's a chunk of America that want to be isolationist (I doubt you would dispute that) and for years they've been regaling "Eurotrash" with tales of how they won't fight or can't fight and survive only because America tiredly supports their layabout asses.Zepp Jamiesonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16261339498383415026noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-73138637719559429042017-10-12T07:27:18.300-07:002017-10-12T07:27:18.300-07:00We’re zeroing in on the problem with: “Once libera...We’re zeroing in on the problem with: “Once liberated, Italians and French fought fiercely alongside allied troops, and were rewarded after the war with sneers that they were cowardly surrender monkeys.”<br /><br />Argument by isolated anecdote! A few snarky comics cast an aspersion… and suddenly that’s all Americans trashing allies. That is the technique used by Fox It is a dismal, lying technique.<br /><br />Anecdotes can disprove a broad generality. If I claimed “we always treated all allies with universal respect, all of us,” then that anecdote would have meaning. Otherwise, feh, what a lie.<br /><br />But today I pass the utter delusion award over to Duncan. I have no place to start. Duncan's mind is sharp and his values and heart are in the right place. (Like Zepp.) And there's almost not a single one of his comparisons of the British empire to us or anything else that is anything but utter-bizarre, opposite-to-true clkaptrapo.<br /><br />David Brinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14465315130418506525noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-55850523320504894162017-10-12T07:05:25.114-07:002017-10-12T07:05:25.114-07:00Dave,
You repeatedly refer to the political party ...Dave,<br />You repeatedly refer to the political party that controls all three branches of the federal government and the vast majority of states as Treasonous Traders in the Service of the Oligarchs. That sounds every bit as anti-American as anything anyone has said in this thread.<br /><br />Now I understand that you have a powerful emotional attachment to the idea that America is a force for good in the world (I certainly had that emotional attachment too, and it is very painful to realize that it is not true)but an honest evaluation led me to conclude that the US is very powerful, it acts in the perceived interested of the powerful in the US, is seldom wise in its application of force and is increasingly acting dangerously and erratically. occam's comicnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-12610911024831306672017-10-12T05:08:20.918-07:002017-10-12T05:08:20.918-07:00Donzelion:
I don't have enough time to make m...Donzelion:<br /><br />I don't have enough time to make much of a post (only have so much time to shower/eat breakfast between PT and when I have to be back to work), but I do want to note that you should take Dr. Brin's aggressive language with a grain of salt - you can always tell when he's posting while traveling and doesn't have time to give more thorough/detailed responses, because his posts get short and focus on pointing out ideas/arguments as wrong or stupid. You've probably figured this out, yourself, but I figured it was worth the reminder, and also worth pointing out to anyone else reading who hasn't been around long/often enough to catch the pattern.<br /><br />The personal insults are wrong, and counter-productive (I cover that in Section 7 of my now 9-section mega post that I will hopefully have finished this evening), and Dr. Brin should know better, but try not to take them personally. Ilithi Dragonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10300247936272572280noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-56528190623668091582017-10-12T03:21:57.985-07:002017-10-12T03:21:57.985-07:00Hi donzelion
Maybe I'm wrong but as a Brit I a...Hi donzelion<br />Maybe I'm wrong but as a Brit I always though that most of Kipling's poems were rather tongue in cheek<br />That one especially! duncan cairncrosshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14153725128216947145noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-64754773107858594032017-10-12T02:07:57.066-07:002017-10-12T02:07:57.066-07:00Duncan: The US empire in the Philippines - and ot...Duncan: The US empire in the Philippines - and other holdings taken from the Spanish in the Spanish American War - started with a colonial model as precedent, but shifted quickly to what later became known as a 'mandate' model (with commonwealth as an intermediate step). American policy toward the Filipinos was initially quite harsh, but folks quickly realized that was counterproductive (including future president and Chief Justice Taft). Puerto Rico, Guam, and a handful of others are similar 'imperial' possessions - eligible for independence just as soon as they ask for it.<br /><br />Not quite the same story for India...<br /><br /><i>"I really don't think any of the actions of the British Empire at that time approach those levels of barbarity"</i><br />Well, Indians fought alongside British during WWI and WWII, and Filipinos fought alongside Americans in both wars - so by a standard our host has proposed, 'those people love their masters.' I'd say things are a bit more nuanced than that.<br /><br />But you're quite right about American barbarity toward our own Native Americans, barbarism equalled only by our treatment of African-Americans. We have dirty hands. We clean them, sometimes with great difficulty, and try to do better. <br /><br /><i>"The British Empire was nearly as bad - but not as self righteous"</i><br />I am not so sure. 'The white man's burden'? Yet perhaps we're all obtuse toward our own hypocrisies.<br /><br />donzelionhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05991849781932619746noreply@blogger.com