AWOL

What the fuck does it take to bring our president back from LaLa golfing land?

Who Cares?

A Sad Anniversary

For the end of the world was long ago,
          And all we dwell to-day
          As children of some second birth,
          Like a strange people left on earth
          After a judgment day.

          For the end of the world was long ago,
          When the ends of the world waxed free,
          When Rome was sunk in a waste of slaves,
          And the sun drowned in the sea.

          When Caesar's sun fell out of the sky
          And whoso hearkened right
          Could only hear the plunging
          Of the nations in the night.

          When the ends of the earth came marching in
          To torch and cresset gleam.
          And the roads of the world that lead to Rome
          Were filled with faces that moved like foam,
          Like faces in a dream.

Thirtynine years ago today, the North Vietnamese Communists moved into Saigon.  The helicopters had left, and anyone still there was lost.  

Thank you for the reminder, Grim.

AP photo by Hubert Van Es

Hallelujah

Which One of These is Terrorism?

According to this administration

and their willing shills, the media....

h/t Weasel Zippers

Western Arrogance and Decline (by Bruce Thorton from Frontpage Mag)

Two thousand years ago the Roman historian Livy, surveying the wreckage of the Roman Republic, invited his reader to contemplate the “life and manners” of his ancestors that led to their dominance, and “then, as discipline gradually declined, let him follow in his thoughts their morals, at first as slightly giving way, next how they sunk more and more, then began to fall headlong, until he reaches the present times, when we can neither endure our vices, nor their remedies.” Livy specifically linked this decline to the vast increase of wealth that followed the success of Rome, and that “introduced avarice, and a longing for excessive pleasures, amidst luxury and a passion for ruining ourselves and destroying every thing else.”
Clichés, one might say, but no less true for that. The astonishing wealth of the West, more widely distributed than in any other civilization, the abandonment of religion as the foundation of morals and virtues, the transformation of political freedom into self-centered license, and the commodification of hedonism that makes available to everyman luxuries and behaviors once reserved for a tiny elite, have made self-indulgence and the present more important than self-sacrifice and the future. Declining birthrates, a preference for spending on social welfare transfers rather than on defense, and a willingness to beggar our children and grandchildren with debt in order to finance these entitlements– all bespeak a people whose wealth deludes them into thinking that they can imprudently ignore the future and indefinitely afford these luxuries that in fact insidiously weaken the foundations of our social and political order. This process is more advanced in Europe than in the U.S., but we in America have been steadily moving towards the same mentality.

Lies, Lies, Damn Lies

 

 

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Gen. “Mad Dog” Mattis just gave what may be the most motivating speech of all time

Gen. “Mad Dog” Mattis just gave what may be the most motivating speech of all time



Yeah, what he said.



Thank you for your service General Mattis, I am grateful to have had you keeping me safe.  

Journalist.... What Should They Be and Do?

From the 1389 Blog and McGraw Hill.

In their book The Elements of Journalism: What Newspeople Should Know and the Public Should Expect, Bill Kovach and Tom Rosenstiel list the basic guiding concepts for journalists:

• Journalism’s first obligation is to tell the truth.
• Journalism’s first loyalty is to its citizens.
• The essence of journalism is a discipline of verification.
• Journalists must maintain an independence from those they cover.
• Journalists must serve as an independent monitor of power.
• Journalism must provide a forum for public criticism and comment.
• Journalists must make the significant interesting and relevant.
• Journalists should keep the news in proportion and make it comprehensive.
• Journalists have an obligation to personal conscience.

I can't think of very many journalists who meet those goals, and sadly, most Americans do not seem to expect it.  They look for agreement with their own views, not facts.  When presented with facts, the public calls journalists meanspirited and  heartless.  I am reminded of Paul's letter to the Corinthians....

"1And I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual men, but as to men of flesh, as to infants in Christ. 2I gave you milk to drink, not solid food; for you were not yet able to receive it. Indeed, even now you are not yet able, 3for you are still fleshly. For since there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not fleshly, and are you not walking like mere men?…"

Are we all helpless infants then, tolerating only milk, and not yet ready for meat?

Return of the King: The Sacrifice of Faramir - Billy Boyd - The Edge of ...

It isn't so easy to tell the good guys from the bad in real life.  Or maybe it is, after all. 

Progressive Education

When I was in grad school, I proofread a fellow candidate's thesis proposal, and in two pages, I found 64 grammar and spelling errors.  She was the product of a progressive high school and college whose goals included giving people a chance to progress even if "educationally challenged". That was the late 1970's.

Now we have a program in New York in which failing students can get full credit without attending class.They would instead watch video lessons and take tests online.  This program was exposed by the Times on the 9th in a scathing article.  Administrators for the program were not happy, and encouraged students to write in defending the program.  The results are between sad and laughable.  This is one of the many reasons our country has fallen so low in the world's standings for literacy.  The less we demand of our students, the less we reward them, the less we get from them.  How surprising.  Progressive education is not...progressive.... at all. 

Politicians...Scum of the Earth

 

I am inordinately fed up with politicians. Lawyers pretty much disgust me, but when they go into politics, they hit a new low.

 

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Stay in Line, or you are Finished! Orwellian Activities in Science.

A scientific journal was created with open access to the public.  It looked at patterns, and tried to interpret them.  Published by Copernicus Publications, it began well, but before the year was out, it had committed the ultimate crime.  It had published an article showing patterns that lead to an offering of the opinion that perhaps man made global warming was not verified. 
The announcement of its demise is quoted in it's entirety below.

Termination of the journal Pattern Recognition in Physics

Copernicus Publications started publishing the journal Pattern Recognition in Physics (PRP) in March 2013. The journal idea was brought to Copernicus' attention and was taken rather critically in the beginning, since the designated Editors-in-Chief were mentioned in the context of the debates of climate skeptics. However, the initiators asserted that the aim of the journal was to publish articles about patterns recognized in the full spectrum of physical disciplines rather than to focus on climate-research-related topics.

Recently, a special issue was compiled entitled "Pattern in solar variability, their planetary origin and terrestrial impacts". Besides papers dealing with the observed patterns in the heliosphere, the special issue editors ultimately submitted their conclusions in which they “doubt the continued, even accelerated, warming as claimed by the IPCC project” (Pattern Recogn. Phys., 1, 205–206, 2013).

Copernicus Publications published the work and other special issue papers to provide the spectrum of the related papers to the scientists for their individual judgment. Following best practice in scholarly publishing, published articles cannot be removed afterwards.

In addition, the editors selected the referees on a nepotistic basis, which we regard as malpractice in scientific publishing and not in accordance with our  publication ethics we expect to be followed by the editors.
Therefore, we at Copernicus Publications wish to distance ourselves from the apparent misuse of the originally agreed aims & scope of the journal as well as the malpractice regarding the review process, and decided on 17 January 2014 to cease the publication of PRP. Of course, scientific dispute is controversial and should allow contradictory opinions which can then be discussed within the scientific community. However, the recent developments including the expressed implications (see above) have led us to this drastic decision.

Interested scientists can reach the online library at: www.pattern-recogn-phys.net

Martin Rasmussen
January 2014


The italics and underlining are mine.