The Heller ruling and the 2008 elections

I’ve had time to think about the impact of the Heller ruling on the 2008 elections now, and I’m concluding that a pro-gun-rights ruling with a 5-4 split was absolutely the worst possible outcome for Barack Obama’s campaign.

Civil Disobedience

This morning I read the entire majority opinion from the Supreme Court striking down the D.C. gun ban. Then I walked over to the Malvern Police station and asked for a few minutes with my town’s Chief of Police.

A victory for civil rights

I’ve just read the Supreme Court’s opinion in the Heller handgun-ban case, issued this morning. It’s a somewhat better result than I was expecting.

I’m unstealthing

Yes,. there is a good reason that I disappeared for two years. As soon as a certain lawsuit now in court wraps up, I’ll even be able to explain it in detail. But I’m back to blogging. Starting now.

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Categorized as General

Oderint, dum metuant

In Nablus, a young man is kidnapped by Palestinian terrorists — who then set him free on learning he is an American because they don’t want to end up like Abu Musab al-Zarqawi so recently did. I am irresistibly reminded of a piece of cynical wisdom from the mouth of the mad Roman emperor Caligula,… Continue reading Oderint, dum metuant

Massive Intelligence Raids Follow Zarqawi’s Death

NEW YORK (Disassociated Press) – In a surprise sequel to the death of top al-Qaeda terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi this morning, police have executed raids and searches on dozens of newsrooms and editorial offices belonging to a shadowy and ill-defined network called the “MSM”. The resulting haul of intelligence on terrorist objectives and strategy has… Continue reading Massive Intelligence Raids Follow Zarqawi’s Death

Published
Categorized as Terror

Commands and Colors: Ancients

I’ve put a new page up on my website about the excellent Commands & Colors: Ancients game. It’s just couple of variant rules and some scenario results now, but may grow in the future.

I have received a death threat

Well, this is novel. I’ve just received a terroristic death threat. From an idiot who failed to obscure his return path. Here it is, precisely as I received it mere minutes ago: From salehizadeh_atc@yahoo.com Sun May 21 22:44:42 2006 Return-Path: X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.1.1 (2006-03-10) on snark.thyrsus.com X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-1.0 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00,DNS_FROM_RFC_ABUSE, DNS_FROM_RFC_WHOIS,UPPERCASE_25_50 autolearn=no version=3.1.1… Continue reading I have received a death threat

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Categorized as Terror

Testosterone makes people stupid

Yes, testosterone makes people stupid. No, I’m not talking about the men who secrete and metabolize it, I’m talking about the nervous old women of both sexes who pronounce upon it as though it were some sort of demonic drug.

Animal imagination?

About a month ago, one of my regular respondents asked me to blog about self-awareness in animals. I’m doing so now because it will be useful for an essay I’m planning to write about ethical and legal definitions of humanity.

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Categorized as Science

The Eurogame Phenomenon

I enjoy strategy games. I’ve been playing them since the heyday of the elaborate hundreds-of-tiny-counters hex-map historical-simulation wargames in the 1970s and early 1980s. But those games don’t get played much any more, largely because they took so long to set up and learn; after 1985 or so younger gamers moved to computer simulations instead,… Continue reading The Eurogame Phenomenon

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Categorized as Games

Memetic Success

Bwahahaha! My sinister master plan for world domination is working. Straight from the pages of the highest-quality general-news magazine in English, check this out! The money ‘graf is the last one: Moreover, the ease with which the internet spreads wrong-headedness–to say nothing of lies and slander–is offset by the ease with which it spreads insights… Continue reading Memetic Success

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Categorized as Culture

In the Belly of the Beast

In the beautiful-irony department, I have just learned that my name and copyright now appears in the EULA (End-User License Agreement) of a Microsoft product. A vector-graphics editor called “Microsoft Expressions”, apparently — thanks to Martin Dawson for the tip. The history behind this is that GIFLIB is open-source software for hacking GIF images —… Continue reading In the Belly of the Beast

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Categorized as Software

Apologists for Islam

Since I posted Dan Simmons’s Message From The Future, I’ve had a couple of Muslims show up on this blog protesting that I’ve got it all wrong, that Islam is a peaceful and tolerant religion and Islamic terror is an aberration not sanctioned by the Koran. Here’s a challenge to all you apologists for Islam:… Continue reading Apologists for Islam

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Categorized as Terror

My Comment Policy

I deleted a coment this morning. This is not something I normally do, except for comments that are both anonymous and content-free — abuse and invective do not count as ‘content’ for this purpose. The comment I deleted this morning was not anonymous, and it could be argued that there was some content in it.… Continue reading My Comment Policy

Dan Simmons’s message from the future

I very seldom post just to forward my readers to someone else’s writing, but SF author Dan Simmons has earned it with this potent warning. Read the whole thing. Because it is indeed our future, unless we wake up.

Islam Is At War With Us

I’ve been warning since 2002 that the West really is in a war to defend civilization against Islamic barbarians, and had better face up to that fact before the consequences of whitewashing Islam as a “religion of peace” get worse. Comes now Fjordman, a blogger from Norway who tells us that Moslem immigrants to Sweden… Continue reading Islam Is At War With Us

Open Letter to Steve Lohr & John Markoff

You’ve described only symptoms in Windows Is So Slow, but Why?, not the underlying problem. Closed-source software development has a scaling limit, a maximum complexity above which it collapses under its own weight.

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Categorized as Software