Energy, History, Security

Tall Tales of Texans

Leave a comment

I have been stuck arguing with a friend from Texas about government. He is a big fan of less regulation, less government, less interference…the usual vapid tall tales of woe you can expect from stereotypical Texans.

I have just been trying to convince him, in my best Kansan conservative fashion, that his position is actually very anti-graft yet pro-regulation. In fact, as he complained about the manner in which legislators are able to spend money, I asked him “so, it seems you think they need more guidance, perhaps some regulation, on the allocation of funds?” Even more ironic is the fact that he is working with companies to help them navigate security regulations — he is making a living consulting with companies on how to abide by data protection regulations, and he is a hardliner at that.

My revelation of these contradictions to him seemed to have slowed things down a little, but then he countered with the argument that a legislator stealing money should not be considered corrupt if they do it in the open. Er, curve ball. I actually think he means that no one should be accused of breaking the law if they say they do not recognize the laws they are breaking, or there is “insufficient” evidence as determined by the accused. Hmmm, who does that remind me of…?

The logical twists and turns he has taken in order to find a way to argue against government makes me think his eventual position will be more like an overly salted pretzel rather than the well seasoned meal he thinks he is serving.

If I remember correctly, the last time I saw him he tried to convince me that the US was actually winning the Vietnam War but were defeated by liberals at home. More recently he has tried to suggest that there is no conclusive evidence that cigarettes cause cancer, based on the premise that a lack of absolute certainty means scientific proof is inherently insufficient. He said this means we must accept prejudice as a natural condition and stop trying to make it seem like a bad thing. I told him that empiricism is certainly no proof that prejudice is natural, but rather the opposite when coupled with a value system, and to try and spin the two into a meaningless blend was to take a painfully shallow position. What possible point could someone have in trying to claim the word “prejudice” as a positive and natural human condition?

Alas, the one thing we seem to agree on is that diesel is the future transportation energy source of choice.

And that says a lot to me, given the distance of opinion we have on everything else.

Poetry, Security

Darfur is a Casualty

Leave a comment

by Mr Mohammed Adam Qarad, an interpreter for the AU/UN

Worry nights about poor babies
whose life on the ground resources
Still waiting for the cloud raining
cleans starvation conflict boiling
The youth instead of standing by
They left Darfur to North Sky

Music of Darfur drums noising
not only for singing and dancing
neither for harvest nor collecting
only for chairs politicians are fighting
also for diet many people are suffering
The youth instead of standing by
They left Darfur for North Sky

Darfur is a great mother of men
she paid for now and then
but nature of life is often
loses hand of generous thieving smile
wonderful world beautiful people exile!
and the robust case which is alive
When do we build responsible life?
The youth instead of standing by
They left Darfur to North Sky

Posted on the Soldier of Africa blog.

Security

Piracy because there is no alternative?

Leave a comment

Ha ha, Dvorak is a funny guy. I’ve been reading his column on and off for as long as I can remember, but this dilemma really takes the cake for philosophical computer humor:

Wow. This is a new chicken-and-egg conundrum. Is piracy high because users have no alternative? Or is there no alternative to piracy because there is so much piracy?

I have visited many parts of the world over the years where the locals moaned about having to pirate a product because nobody would sell it to them legitimately. And I have always believed that in some particularly underserved areas around the world, such as Southeast Asia, software piracy is tolerated to keep Linux from gaining a foothold. It never ends.

Conspiracy. It just goes to show that Microsoft’s success is often made from making others look bad (in an exaggerated fashion, of course) more than achieving something admirable itself. Competition does not always work best in the absence of (an agreed set of) rules for engagement.

Sometimes when I hear people argue that competition brings out the best in people, I ask “are you a fan of sports?” If they say yes, I ask how their preferred activities would play without referees and judges to measure success fairly. If they say no…well, I ask what they mean by “the best”.

How’s that for food for discussion, John?

Poetry

The Way of It

Leave a comment

by R.S. Thomas

With her fingers she turns paint
into flowers, with her body
flowers into a remembrance
of herself. She is at work
always, mending the garment
of our marriage, foraging
like a bird for something
for us to eat. If there are thorns
in my life, it is she who
will press her breast to them and sing.

Her words, when she would scold,
are too sharp. She is busy
after for hours rubbing smiles
into the wounds. I saw her,
when young, and spread the panoply
of my feathers instinctively
to engage her. She was not deceived,
but accepted me as a girl
will under a thin moon
in love’s absence as someone
she could build a home with
for her imagined child.

I’m not a big fan of Thomas, but it is interesting to read his poetry after seeing another perspective put forth in his biography:

The brilliant artist that RS Thomas married virtually sank into obscurity in his shadow.

Mildred Elsie Eldridge became plain Elsi and a forgotten artist after she married Thomas exactly 66 years ago on July 5, 1940.

But just three years earlier, when she first met her husband-to-be, she was driving an open-top Bentley and he was an unpublished poet on a bike.

The Bentley reference falls flat, mostly because the pair subsequently lived a pauper’s life apparently at the insistence of Thomas who turned to religion and nationalism, and feared technology. Or was that the point of the reference? It’s so unclear, it seems like an awkward detail. Could the bicycle have been in fact a richer experience than the Bentley?

Anyway, the part of the story about the biography that really caught my eye was this revelation:

Rogers believes Elsi was the source of much of the muse that moved in Thomas, but the poet only ever mentioned his wife’s work in a single poem.

Rogers said, “I try to show the effect Elsi had on Ron. About 1940 he is writing gushy things about fairy lands and a few years later he is writing about grim Welsh peasants.

“Something made him grow up, and it’s something to do with Elsi.”

Is “The Way of It” that single poem that Rogers wants us to recognize? Thomas certainly seems very fond of his wife, and seems to put her in contrast to his own pained perspectives on life. Does growing up mean giving up? I wonder if there might be more pronounced references to Elsi lurking in his collection? Additional references could dispel Rogers’ argument regarding acknowledgment by the poet, yet prove a theory of connectedness at the same time.