Wednesday, October 24, 2007

What have we done?

What I'm about to say may seem trite and obvious, in retrospect, at least, but I've become aware that in a bizarre cross dimensional incedent, we have evidently "elected" a man and all of his buddies from the Bizzaro World president. Twice!

Think about it:

"Saudi Arabians attack us! Me invade Iraq!"

"If you no find weapons of mass destruction, that mean they still there. Me tell you keep looking!"

"Al Gonzales good man. Him have perfect memory. Me give him medal."

"Me right to lifer. Me support death penalty."

"Economy is Strong. Me friends doing very well."

"Heckuva job, Brownie!"

"Mission Accomplished"

"Me not know Ken Lay. Me never hear of him. Who him is?"

"Liberal Media Elite hate America. Try to destroy America. Me hear about it from Fox News."

"Me vice president totally divested from Halliburton. He just get $130,000 a year from them. It make sense. Him work hard for them."

"Me sign many laws, as long as Me signing statements say Me can do whatever me want, no matter what law say."

"Me have no money for health care. Me want billions more to give to Blackwater for doing such good job in Iraq."

"Me think it good idea to put missle defense system right next to Russia. Me tell them we afraid of Iran, not them, Iran. It make sense."

"Missle defense system work good. Real good. As long as you tell system exactly when and where you test missile will be and how fast it go, it knock down missile sometimes 40 percent of time. That better than me popularity!"

"We not torture. If we do it, it not torture. It simple. If we do it, and it look like torture, it not torture. It enhanced interrogation. That not torture. You want put handcuffs on Jack Bauer? He not torture. Once he cut off guys head to drop in his buddies lap, but that not torture, that just funnin. Me like Jack Bauer. Him me hero. He never sleep. 24 hours awake. Me her0."

"Fox News am not propaganda wing of Republican Party. It not! They have fair and balanced mix of Extreme Right and Far Right views. That balanced. Tony Snow come to work for us! He very different than when on Fox News. Me not able to tell how, but they tell me he different. Now he back at Fox News, because they pay better. Me miss him, but cute girl who take his place is fun. She a girl. Rowr."


I'll add more as I think of them. You can help.

Tuesday, October 23, 2007

3 Laws? We don't need your stinking 3 Laws!


I'm about to start re-reading Asimov's "I, Robot", which I think I read in high school. One of the main ideas in the book is the three laws:

1. A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
2. A robot must obey orders given to it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
3. A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.
I understand that the laws were created as a literary device to explore power relationships, (try replacing the word robot with slave and human being with master) but all I can think of is what a truly autonomous robot might say about the laws;
"I don't know who made these up, but it certainly wasn't a ROBOT!"
That is all.

Monday, October 15, 2007

From the "Well, Duh!" department

I used to have an ongoing arguement with a friend of mine who is a Catholic, which always boiled down to the same sticking point. I say that if you are anti abortion, you should be pro birth control, and that if you are anti abortion and anti birth control, you are basically anti sex. He says that isn't so, that contraceptives cause more problems than they solve, so you can be anti abortion and anti contrception. I say hooey. He says hooey. We agree to disagree. By the way, I'm right, and he's wrong.

From Slate Magazine's Human Nature Column:

A study concludes that the global abortion rate is falling thanks to birth control. Data: 1) The rate fell 17 percent from 1995 to 2003. 2) The biggest drop was in the former Soviet bloc and "did coincide with substantial increases in contraceptive use in the region." 3) Previous studies found that "abortion incidence declines as contraceptive use increases." 4) Abortion bans don't correlate with low abortion rates. 5) Abortion bans do correlate with high rates of unsafe abortion. Authors' conclusion: If you want fewer abortions, don't ban them; provide more birth control and sex education. Liberal reaction: Bush is making things worse by censoring abortion counseling and pushing abstinence instead of condoms. Pro-life rebuttal: 1) The data are unreliable. 2) They're being spun by pro-choice "scientists." Human Nature's view: Reducing abortions through birth control is a no-brainer.

I agree, whole heartedly.
I just can't see the logic of saying "We must do anything we can to prevent abortions. We must murder doctors who give abortions, we must bomb clinics that provide abortions, but heaven forbid that we should allow anyone to use birth control."
I just don't get it.