Poetry Corner
This evening, my friend BOB! and I were discussing...current events ...when suddenly he broke into verse (as he is occasionally wont to do). He thus summed up the situation perfectly.
"Please don't let this be about politics...or Kipling."
Fear not gentle readers....We'll put it below the fold.
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Lots of copybooks, back in the day when handwriting was something you were expected to pick up on your own, had "headings" (the handwriting you were copying) which were proverbs or maxims. "If you write down a moral statement five hundred times, maybe it will take," was the thinking. So, basically, a shorthand for "the sorts of moral lessons that were expected to be learned by children by rote"...
Posted by: Avatar_exADV at Thu Aug 14 21:17:36 2014 (zJsIy)
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Many years ago schools in England had what were called copybooks. These were used to teach penmanship and had in addition to their text, many blank (but lined) pages. The printed pages usually contained bits of wisdom from philosophers, the Bible and great historical figures from around the world. The idea was that one would copy the quotes on the blank pages to practice proper penmanship and hopefully gain some of the wisdom in the words via 'osmosis' after copying said phrases innumerable times.
Copybooks fell out of favor in the US in the 20s or 30s but were still in use in the UK in the 1960s (Bill Whittle has mentioned that he was beset by them when he was growing up in the Bahamas).
The poem refers to a fellow going back in time through all of his previous incarnations and noting the great truths that are often discarded as passe or no longer applicable by utopians but inevitably come back to bite the societies that do not heed them.
Posted by: The Brickmuppet at Thu Aug 14 21:35:48 2014 (DnAJl)
A Bit of Good NewsBrett Kimberlin, a cyberbully and convicted terrorist has lost his defamation suit against several bloggers who pointed out that he is a genuinely nasty piece of work. This was an important case as it threatened to set a troubling precedent with regard to the ability of individuals to shut down online free speech via lawfare and intimidate those with different political views . Additionally, some of the defendants in the case had endured death threats and SWATTings.
Popehat has a roundup. It is particularly pleasing to me that this was not just a legal victory for the defendants. It was also a thorough, total and ignominious defeat for Kimberlin. Sometimes the good do win.
He did lose this case, which is good. But he still hasn't made good against all of the people who had to spend their time and resources in order to deal with his baseless complaints. So to really, really reach the "stopped getting away with it" point, the following things have to happen:
-The court needs to find for attorney costs for the defendants in this case.
-The judgment for those costs actually needs to be executed - it's easy to get a court order saying "you owe me twenty thousand bucks for legal fees" but a lot harder to actually get the twenty thousand bucks out of someone. Specifically, any assets Kimberlin might own which could be used to pay are almost certain to be transferred out of his name by now.
-He also needs to lose his federal case in the same manner.
-And the appeal to this case.
-And any follow-on cases he decides to file, until the court finally steps in and says "look, you don't even get to file anymore, get out".
Until all of these things happen, he's still getting away with it, because the whole point is that he's forcing people to put time and attention into defending against this crap - because the number one piece of advice any lawyer will give their client is "don't say a word about the case", and that shuts them up.
It's also worth noting that one of the defendants dropped his lawyer before the case went to trial, and Popehat bitched him out for it. Because even if the case is meritless, and should have been thrown out immediately, and WAS thrown out before any of the defense lawyers got to do anything but raise some objections, you need to have your lawyer to cross all the Ts and dot all the Is; basically because it was even remotely possible to lose. It says a lot about the legal system that this is the case.
Posted by: Avatar_exADV at Wed Aug 13 13:35:52 2014 (ZeBdf)
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In fairness to Popehat, he did do a follow-up post today asking for assistance in gathering up the sort of evidence necessary to get a vexatious litigant finding through the courts. Several volunteers have already come forward. Maybe this sort of thing will be easier in the modern era, with computerized records and loose networks being able to club together for what is surely a good cause.
Posted by: Avatar_exADV at Wed Aug 13 18:13:46 2014 (zJsIy)
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I'm just hoping that he finally makes some kind of error that results in a SWAT team coming to HIS home.
Posted by: Mauser at Fri Aug 15 03:42:22 2014 (TJ7ih)
A Slight Detour
Yesterday, I got up and zipped off towards the west with the intention of going to the mountains. However, there was a monstrous traffic jam in Newport News and I decided it was prudent to exit the interstate, make my way to Yorktown, drive up the Colonial Parkway and get on the interstate up near Williamsburg, some thirty miles on. When I noted that the on ramp was backed up because I-64 was STILL a parking lot that far west I decided to take drastic measures and headed all the way to Jamestown, where I took the CF Pocahontas across the James River to Scotland.
I keep hearing about how Scotland is trying to break away and form their own country, but I don't think they're going to be able to make a go of it. Built on a steep embankment they only have a dozen or so houses, a ferry pier , some fishing boats and no place at all to pull over and take pictures. But hey, if Sealand can make a go of it, who am I to judge?
I continued down State Route 31 with the intention of taking it to Route 460 and via that highway, heading west. Where routes 31 and 10 meet there is a stoplight. This is the center of Surry, the capital of Surry county.
I stopped at a small grocery and purchased an iced coffee from a pleasant south asian gentleman and zipped off down the road.
After some time I encountered a small cluster of churches around a large Fire station and out the corner of my eye spied the word MUSEUM.
The word museum was attached to the word Dendron which is usually attached to a neuron, so I determined that it was advisable to examine the place more closely and do some disambiguation.
It turns out that the town of Dendron, is, like the postsynaptic branch of a neuron, named after the Greek word for tree. Also, the aforementioned nerve thingy is actually called a dendrite so my confusion was quite inexcusable and no disambiguation was, in fact, needed.
The little museum contained an eclectic collection of artifacts including a list of the 12 men from this tiny town that died in the war that began 100 years ago this month.
The museum also solved a mystery of my youth. In my childhood days I lived in a little town called Zuni, some 40 or 50 miles to the southeast of this place. Wandering through the swamps there I had encountered a set of odd very narrow gauge railroad tracks that disappeared into the Blackwater river. It turns out that there had once been a lumber mill in Dendron that had micro gauge rail lines for hauling trees from tree farms as far as 100miles away. The Lumber mIll had closed up shop in 1929 and taken with it the fire station they had provided, to the town. In 1931 the town burned down, leaving the churches the post office and one small grocery. Now there is also a hardware store and a few other buildings including a very large 4 bay corrugated steel fire house.
Among the churches was this one, the oldest in the town having been built before 1890.
Now a Methodist church, it was originally non-denominational and was unusual for many years in that it was a nonsegregated church. The other churches were all built much later.
Thus edified I proceeded on my way finally reaching a town called Wakefield. Wakefield located on RT 460 (between Disputanta and Ivor if you were wondering)describes itself as "The Peanut Capital of the World" this may or may not be true, but the town is home to the Virginia Diner, which has the best peanut soup and ham biscuits in the entire solar system.
They had just run out of peanut soup but I got a plate of their exquisite, heavenly, ham biscuits and partook of the buffet where, it seems, the beets and the meatballs, both being red spheres, somehow got confused. For a brief moment EVERYONE in the restaurant was made very aware of this most vexatious calamity at the moment it befell a hapless but quite vocal young diner. One horrified shriek notwithstanding, the dining experience was superb. As I left, I observed this theological conundrum across the street.
"The Shrine of the Infant Jesus of Prague" Wait. WHAT!?
I then proceeded to my car and noted that my muffler had broken off and was hanging by a single clasp.
Thus ended my journey to the west. I turned east down 460 and headed back towards home via Suffolk. Along the way I stopped in my old home town of Zuni and discovered that most of it had been washed away during Hurricane Floyd, but the grain elevator (the explosion of which had blown windows out 11 miles away in my youth) still had the lift machinery dangling precariously after 33 years.
Shortly thereafter the passenger side of my car began filling up with water. I soon realized that the AC drain was somehow diverting water into the passenger compartment. I arrived home last night an\d have spent the day flitting between car repair shops.
Robin Williams 1951-2014
He was a great actor, a fantastic talent and one of relatively few thespians to be capable of such astounding range. He had the ability to be moving and even inspirational in the most unlikely roles, one result being that very young man alive should watch Dead Poet's Society. One thing not widely mentioned about him is that he was one of the few celebrities who went to the considerable trouble of participating in USO shows in Iraq and Afghanistan, something that in today's Hollywood, speaks to a certain moral courage in addition to his talent.
The world is a less happy place and we are certainly all diminished by his loss.
I will note that it in no way detracts from or diminishes the immense contributions of this singularly talented entertainer to posit that perhaps, just perhaps, there are certain additional developments currently transpiring that might actually warrant at least some attention from our cable news anchors this evening.
I Find to my Astonishment That I Do Not Immediately Despise This Plan
The President just gave a speech.
It was rather more direct than usual.
First some background.
ISIS (or ISIL) has been slaughtering, crucifying and otherwise creatively exterminating Christians for some time now. However, they have taken as their latest project the complete extermination of the Yazidi, an ancient community in Ninevah whose faith is an offshoot of Zoroastrianism,. The Yadzidi survivors have fled in an attempt to make for Baghdad but are now besieged and surrounded on a mountain in the desert where starvation and thirst are beginning to take their toll. Thus we are on the verge of a near total genocide.
ISIL has also taken the dam overlooking Baghdad which means they control vast amounts of electrical power a good percentage of the capitals water and can, should they blow the dam, drown thousands of civilians.
Elsewhere, the Kurds are on the ropes and the whole region is becoming an abattoir. Finally, ISIL, has put their territorial gains and the months they have been largely unmolested to good use, having grown from around 10,000 troops to well over 50,000.
The President is in a difficult position and none of the options before him are desirable. This evening he announced that US forces have begin air dropping aid to the Yadzidi and he has authorized what he describes as "targeted strikes" to defend them and a US consulate being menaced by ISIL troops.
As many of you know, I am not in agreement with our President on most maters, but tonight he is faced with a selection of wretched options and he chose what he believes is the least dreadful amongst them. There will be a lot of second guessing on this and in the weeks and months to come erudite and voluminous critiques of the minutia of his decision will be made and judgements will be passed with the profound wisdom and knowledge that comes from hindsight.
But for right now, Barak Obama, our president, has decided to attempt to stop a genocide. There is much to warrant concern, but I for one do not immediately despise this plan.
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I have been giving our various administrations a pass on the Middle East since Carter in '76. There never seem to be good options there. Only the best of the worst.
The problem with the current administration is public doubt over motive. When all your decisions are based on politics, the citizens will ascribe political motivations to every thing you do. As Steven pointed out, that seems to be his only motivating factor here.
ISIL has come a long way from the JV league, it seems.
Posted by: topmaker at Sat Aug 9 09:19:31 2014 (i0rVe)
But with Obama's latest decision to launch airstrikes against the Islamic State in the Levant (ISIL or ISIS), the Obama Doctrine has now come into focus: pretend to give a damn about suffering of innocents when it hits the headlines, ignore it the rest of the time.
Because Obama doesn't truly care. At all. He is a master emotional manipulator, capable of achieving effective posturing when it comes to the suffering of innocents. That's why the media constantly swoon at his "tone†and his "attitude†during his press conferences. They repeatedly praise his "anger†or his "determination.†But they rarely ask just what he's doing to fight evil.
Any deployment of power will be short-term and ineffective. Obama will do all he can for innocents up until the moment when he doesn't have to do so. Then he'll leave them to die.
I just read that a second round of airstrikes -- four bombs! -- happened today, following the first round of two bombs.
Sincerest Apologies
...to all my readers who are not members of the Mee.Nu blog hosting service.
I just deleted over 30 pages of spam comments that took the form of a cascading cornucopia of katakana. At least for the time being, I simply have to switch to allowing comments by registered users only.
Note though, that it's real easy to become a registered user. Just click on this hyperlink and fill out the form. After that, you can just log in and comment away!
I know it's scary, but it's perfectly safe!
You don't even have to use the free blog you'll receive, so it's just like registering for disqus or any chat forum,.
It's not just the ease of registering though, because now, more than ever, there are good reasons to become a Mee.Nuvian.
For instance, if you have a Facebook Page and find yourself asking the question "What can a Mee.Nu blog do for me that Facebook can't?" then I assure you, gentle reader, that you are asking the wrong question.
The correct question is "What awful stuff is Facebook doing to me that a blog based in Naru and managed from Australia absolutely won't?".
Unless you get ALL you're news from a Facebook feed, you may have heard about some of this. However, if you did you were probably afraid to say anything because deep down inside, you know that Facebook is run by the sort of people who thought that Police song was charming and romantic. Well, fear not , because as a Mee.Nuvian, you would be able take off your mask....
... be yourself, and not worry about your every interest, donation and keystroke being recorded and sold to those who would spam you, scam you or struggle against you...at least you wouldn't have to worry about it being done by Mee.Nu.
You see, Mee.Nu is run by Pixy Misa, a champion of justice who fights evil from his secret bases in New South Wales and Niue. Facebook is run by Baron Von Zuckerberg... a super-villain who feeds on the souls and personal information of his customers.
It should be noted that in Australia such acts of villainy are actually frowned upon by the media, providing another layer of security for people who use an Australian affiliated service.
But wait. There's more!
Mee.nu has all manner of spiffy keen features that are exceedingly easy to use via the user friendly and intuitive dashboard widgets.
For instance, YouTube video's embed just as easily as on Facebook...
On top of all this, since Mee.nu is a Niuean domain managed from Australia, every time a Mee.Nuvian gets online they are visiting exotic locations on the far side of the world!
But without the scorpions!*
I'll try to get the matter resolved ASAP but signing up for Me N' You is pretty much a win/ win...
*Mee.Nu is absolutely guaranteed not to cause scorpions to menace those at or near one's computer work station, However, Mee.Nu cannot and does not claim to remove preexisting scorpions from ones domicile. If you currently have a scorpion infestation, please contact a licensed exterminator...immediately after signing up for Mee.Nu.
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Sorry about the trouble. Getting pattern matching to work on spam in a language I can't read is a bit... Fiddly.
Oh, and it's Niue, not Nauru. Nauru got saddled with .nr, which is far less interesting.
Posted by: Pixy Misa at Mon Aug 4 23:09:08 2014 (PiXy!)
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Can't complain, those spammers have been really fierce lately. (What a waste of effort...)
Posted by: Avatar_exADV at Tue Aug 5 02:08:52 2014 (ZeBdf)
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I knew it would come to this. Heck, I got a mee.nu account LONG before I ever started using the blog (frankly, I had forgotten about that part) simply to post.
Although to be honest, I don't recall too many posters of comments here who don't already have mee.nu accounts.
Posted by: Mauser at Tue Aug 5 02:25:06 2014 (TJ7ih)
5Steven, Pixy, thanks. for pointing out those errors. I've corrected the post.
"NO ONE WILL EVER KNOW!"
Posted by: The Brickmuppet at Tue Aug 5 10:38:57 2014 (DnAJl)
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Well, I was one. Meh, I guess it won't hurt to have yet another blog sitting around I never update.
Posted by: Mitch H. at Tue Aug 5 14:09:48 2014 (jwKxK)
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LJ used to have a bunch of comment-only accounts. As long as they don't have a "welcome" post that attracts spam, they don't draw Pixy's resources much.
Posted by: Pete Zaitcev at Tue Aug 5 16:54:48 2014 (RqRa5)
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"A runabout! I'll steal it! No one will ever know!"
My favorite line from that cartoon. But I have to wonder if it was a reference to something.
(Now if only the comment UI was a little more clear on whether you were logged in or not.)
Posted by: Mauser at Wed Aug 6 03:36:23 2014 (TJ7ih)
100 Years Ago Today
The whole situation in Europe had been deteriorating since the 28th, but there had been an ephemeral moment of hope on August first, whe King George V himself had intervened and was exchanging telegrams with his cousins the Kaiser and the Tsar. There appeared to be some conciliation possible but a report that Russian troops had crossed the Austrian frontier invoked a declaration of war by Germany, While all this was going on Belgium was being discretely asked if they would mind terribly if a million or so German troops were to just, kind of pass through their country...for some reason.
Over the next 24 hours, German troops entered Russia's Polish territory, a German cruiser squadron bombarded the baltic town of Libau and German troops just kind of showed up in Luxembourg Significantly, that night. there were reports of German troops as far as 10 miles inside France and French border guards being killed.
The next day, August 3rd, German aircraft bombed the French city of Lune'ville. Belgium responded to Germany's inquiries with an emphatic "NO!". They then invoked their treaty with the British Empire and requested that London help them preserve their sovereignty. The British responded with a n order for full mobilization.
Then as German and Russian troops engaged each other on the Polish/Prussian frontier Germany declared war upon France.
With that, Hell descended upon Europe, and a catastrophe that the world has never fully recovered from began in earnest, 100 years ago today.
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