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"The stream of Time, irresistible, ever moving, carries off and bears away all things that come to birth and plunges them into utter darkness, both deeds of no account and deeds which are mighty and worthy of commemoration. . .Nevertheless, the science of History is a great bulwark against the stream of Time; in a way it checks this irresistible flood, it holds in a tight grasp whatever it can seize floating on the surface and will not allow it to slip away into the depths of Oblivion. "
- Anna Comnena (1083-1153), The Alexiad
"I have taken all knowledge to be my province."
- Francis Bacon, 1592
Saturday, December 27, 2003
See How This Works?
Interested parties will want me to note the Vatican's new tone. So noted. Of course, it's just an example of how these things can work. All I had to do was make musings about a schism, and the results are there for all to see.
It's almost like when Tom Friedman declared war on France, and very soon thereafter the French began behaving in the submissive manner they reserve for their enemies, rather than the truculent one they display towards those they want to think they're friends with. See, with these peace types, they're only antagonistic towards those who don't think will fight back - just like bullies. But if you show there are consiquences, then naturally they'll fold - just like bullies.
What? You don't think the Vatican's new tone is the result of postings on my blog? What a letdown. That's almost as bad as someone telling me that the French weren't intimidated by Friedman's war alert.
I'm hoping Iraq will implement much of what Hernando de Soto recommends. The USAID involvement in the Peruvian project makes it a promising prospect that it will be pursued in Iraq as well.
A bird whose wings have been plucked will shed all its' feathers,
and turn into the beast it was before it evolved into a bird.
Since I've referenced this show a number of times, people might be confusing what The Big O alludes to and confusing it with something, um, else.
"Of all my cherished tomatoes, Negotiator, you aren't one of my beloved ones...and neither is this young lady."
The best explaination is one I found here (which contains a lot of insight and some dubious conclusions as well. But watch the show and Find Your Own Truth):
COMPUTER PROGRAMMING: WHY IS IT CALLED THE "BIG-O"?
I wrote most of the following when I was sitting in my Computer Science lab class. We were learning about search and sort methods for arrays and matrices of data, and up until this point I wasn't really paying attention, but my instructor said something that snapped me out of my stupor:
"To measure the efficiency of these paradigms, we use big-O notation... I hate this stuff. It gives me nightmares, and it's practically all you'll be doing if you ever take CS 320."
After listening to the lecture for half an hour and trying to sort out all the information, this is the meaning I've come up with:
In my computer science class, standard well-established algorithms and methods for problem-solving have sometimes been dubbed as "paradigms." Big-O notation is used to obtain a rough estimate of the time required for an algorithm to run from start to finish. Hence, big-O notation is used to determine the efficiency of various paradigms in different problems and situations, which in turn allows us to determine the ideal paradigm for accomplishing a certain task. . .
So in other words, big-O notation takes into consideration only the most-significant factor in execution time and ignores all other elements.
Btw, I'm a bit ticked off at Adult Swim at the moment. When they re-ran
episode 26 ("Are You A Hologram?1"), "The Show Must Go On", they snipped off the last second or so of the show so they could have more "Fun With Cards" time as bumps before and after commercial breaks. But then the episode loses a key element. That last second or two after Big O and Big Venus merge and vanish in a burst of light is not something for the cutting room floor. At least I had the full episode on a previous tape, but it means I don't have them in proper order.
Btw: this is a show that seems superficial on the surface, until the various threads start weaving together it may strike you as just another Mecha show. But. . .well, that too is part of the show, as one of the themes is that things are not what they seem to be.
1No, you're not a hologram, you're a Tomato. A useless attempt...at artificial cultivation! ("Even if it's true, it doesn't change the fact that I am who I am. The way in which you were given life has nothing to do with the way you live your life as a human being").
Update: More on the Scientific American article here.
"As defined by this generation of leaders,
collective security means arranging to blame one another for inaction,
so that everyone has an excuse."
- Sen. Joseph Biden,
on the '90s era multilateralism that
Democrats want to return to
(quote from p.302, "A Problem From Hell").
Many Democrats are suggesting that we listen more to their favorite pillars of diplomacy, the French, and learn from that paragon of diplomatic enlightenment and font of global wisdom. Amir Tahiri looks back on what a year of French diplomatic effort has wrought. The column includes a quote from a personal favorite of mine, Dominique Moisi:
“France over did it,” says Dominique Moisi, a foreign policy researcher close to the Chirac administration. “Our opposition to the war was principled. But the way we expressed it was excessive. The Americans might have accepted such behaviour from Russia, but not from France which was regarded as an ally and friend.”
Moisi describes as “needlessly provocative” the campaign that Villepin conducted last spring to persuade Security Council members to vote against the US-backed draft resolution on Iraq.
Of course, the same descriptions could be applied to Moisi's own commentary during the period, which appeared in the pages of the Financial Times from time to time and was both a source of endless amusement and an insight into the mindset of the European (self-)Elect. Moisi's unctuous attitude that people like himself were best situated to decide how American power ought to be used in the world, and that those of us who disagreed were unenlightened people for refusing their offer to assume command in determining our policies just because they offered nothing of substance beyond their hauteur. Their sense that they should be congratulated for their global courage in speaking their mind - while Americans did the actual fighting - was and remains emblematic of their delusions of grandeur. They think they're doing their part if they offer their willingness to be the deciding vote determining what will and won't be done.
The fact that so many Leftists and Liberals do so congratulate them (which is really a form of self-congratulation among the like-minded) will mean that this next year of Franco-EU diplomacy will resemble the year just past. As they say, one sign of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, expecting a different result. Well under such circumstances it's no wonder they construct theories that reality is contingent. Democrats like Dean who once recognized the fundamental unseriousness of French foreign policy, which determines what its policies will be based on what will most obstruct the United States, are now pretending otherwise for overtly partisan political reasons - and they believe that makes them suited to be entrusted with America's security.
But for me, it just reinforces the belief that any Commonwealth of Democracies through which decisions be made and action then taken consist not just of those Democracies which are willing to participate in deciding what the policy will be, but those that demonstrate through the devotion of significant resources an ability and willingness to make a substantive commitment to enforcing the policy through action.
To paraphrase John I Tzimices (on the eve of the battle of Dorostolon, in 971), valour is shown through deeds, not words.
Update: For more regarding France and the discrepency between reality and Fantasy Ideology Theory, check out Monsieur, this is not the true France, link via Trent Telenko (e-mail).
Trent Telenko sends a link to this story which says that five families are believed to direct the attacks.
Five families? Looks like we should put Rudi Giuliani on the job. He has experience dealing with the criminal enterprises of Five Families. Trent himself writes, in the e-mail containing the link:
A point to remember with this story is that come February the Saddam faced
currency will not longer be legal tender in Iraq. That fact together with
what this article reveils point to American forces finally having a grip on
the Sunni-Ba'athst resistance and we are noow in the grinding down stage of
operations.
So they probably won't need Rudi till it's time to conduct the prosecutions.
I've been mentioning both South Park and Catholic stuff quite a bit recently. Here's something that touches on both. Well worth reading - serious, not humor (much less sarcasm).
Those not that keen on religious stuff can give it a miss if they insist, but IMO their loss. Those keen on religion but not South Park likewise can give it a miss if they insist, but IMO their loss.
Ralph Peters reminds us of our allies. Our real allies, that is, the ones the Democrats would like people to forget we have - but which we're neglecting. The Democrats could make that an issue, if they weren't too busy saying we should defer to France.
Nicholas Burns on NATO's transforming role since Sept. 11th. Burns is America's NATO Ambassador.
A SF Chronicle piece by Adam Sparks on winning over the Axis of Weasels. Yes, they actually use that phrase multiple times. One man's look at the fallout of Saddam's capture, well worth the read.
In the meantime, Quadaffi still runs Libya. His concessions and his contempt still matter.
James F. Dunnigan on why worries remain when it comes to aircraft-as-weapons-of-terror.
Will the Democrats be saying Clinton Lied? You tell me. We do know Dean is dishonest - lying about Bush so he can claim his false statements about what Bush said means Bush lied. The Democrats are starting to roll over and show their throat to Dean. Of course, the propagandia mill is working overtime now to present the candidate favored by the hard Left of the Democratic Party as a centerist. If true, that would make him a cynical poseur willing to say whatever he has to to gain power, not the man of principle he will also be presented as. And either Dean is lying, or Clark is. In this case, I'd bet on the latter. Clark has shown a penchant for wild, crazy whoppers that would be called lies if he was still fundraising for Republicans instead of running as a Democrat.
Stanley Crouch on the latest example of how Republicans bungle in appealing to Black voters. Yah, the problem with Republicans is they're all cattle and no hat, completely the reverse of Democrats on these things. Too much substance, not enough show. If you think that's harsh on Democrats, well just look at what big city schoolboards, under Democratic control for the last thirty years, have done for big city schools. I could go on with examples, but that will suffice. The Democratic Party is the party of the education establishment that has failed the country for a generation. The GOP is the party of education's consumers.
Colin Powell still relevant, as Bush increasingly sidesteps the State Department. James Baker tours the world on the Iraqi debt, the NSA handles the Libya negotiations, and the State Department is the Axis of Weasel's envoys to Washington.
The UN's tax ambitions only grow. Democracy in Russia is looking bleak. It'd be odd if Iraq and Libya become stable Democracies before Russia does.
Reuters declares Old Europe the phrase-of-the-year. Just as we triumph over the Axis of Weasels.
Last week B. Varenius wrote a reply to my fine suggestion, backed by reasoned argumentation, only his blog was, well, bloggered, and it took forever for the post to finally publish on his blog (yes, he tried the republication-of-archives trick).
I debated with myself not linking to the post now that it's finally up, as a way of encouragement-through-punitive-action. That is, encouraging people to get off blogger. Hey, if I of all people can afford to maintain a more reliable site, then anyone can. But, it's a forgiving and charitable time of year, so here is his reply.
I will say that not all schisms are necessarily permanent. I will also say that things sometimes reach the point where a believer must decide what he's most loyal to, Christianity or a Church hierarchy that places other matters at a higher priority than Christ's teachings. Now, good Catholics can remain good Catholics and challenge the leadership of the Catholic Church. But historically that has been a good way to get yourself denounced as a schismatic heretic, even if your original intention wasn't to break from the Church.
Sort of like how NeoCons are excommunicated from the First Church of Liberalism & the Democratic Party nowdays, or how America is declared in schism from the Civilized World for daring to think that the civilized world is worth defending against those who attack it, rather than something to be apologized for. We're this close --->][<--- from EuroPope Romano Prodi or EU Cardinal Patten putting America under Interdiction, and no doubt Cardinal Ximenez in Rome will bless it (a little Monty Python reference there).
So a lot of us remember how during the height of the Enron scandal European pontificators were asserting that such an accountancy problem couldn't happen in the superior European social-market system, because of their tighter regulatory oversight of such things.
Well, a series of scandals, from Eurostat to ELF, to something involving a Duch firm (the name of which slips my mind at the moment) have chipped away of that smugness over the last little while. Now, it's Parmalat in Italy, in a situation that almost exactly mirrors Enron's: accounting slights-of-hand designed to artificially inflate the stock price, and about a 9,000 M$ crater in what they've been claiming. They will likely file for bankruptcy. Even the BBC is reporting it as "Europe's Enron".
Credit where credit is due since I slam their radio World Service News all the time, they were very open and candid in their climbdown from previous smugness on the subject, very explicitly acknowledging that, yes, it can after all happen there and all the previous assertions that EU countries had fixed things so nothing like what goes on in America could take place in European firms was false. So, kudos to them for being able to admit that.
The Dutch firm in question is Ahold (actually technically "Koninkiljke Ahold" or in English "Royal Ahold", which if you pronounce with the "D" silent gives you a good idea of the nature of this company and its management). Now, in fairness to the Euroweenies, the most egregious Ahold fraud took place at 1) its Argentine subsidiary, "Disco" and a good deal of this had to do with their Argentine partners, Grupo Velox; and 2) its US subsidiary, "US Foodservice."
That's right, Ahold. As I recall, the parent company was still supposed to be responsible for keeping proper books, which was why it was a bit of a scandal in Europe and Holland and they couldn't completely pass it off as something that took place elsewhere.
That said, the Parmalat story is hilarious (though I have to laugh through tears, as another book at the fund where I work lost several million dollars on this piece of crap). At least Enron's guys worked sedulously to spin a mind-numbingly complex web of partnerships and subsidiaries to cook their books. Parmalat basically forged a single document stating that Bonlat (the financing arm) had $4.9bio in an account at BofA, which could easily have been the work of one dude with an inkjet printer. But, in fairness to the Euroweenies, the auditor that allowed the forgery to slip past its gimlet eyes was Grant Thornton, an Australia-based accountancy.
Yah, it makes one wonder, actually, which companies really have tighter scrutiny: Enron at least had to engage in a web of subterfuges that the Parmalat guys didn't think they'd need to engage in. Both got caught, but at least the Enron scheme was more creative.
Not that creativity in fraud is necessarily praiseworthy, but it does show that they didn't think they could skate by with a basic grift, like the boys at Parmalat did.
Ding dong, they caught Saddam! Merry Christmas to the world!
If, because of folly, perfidy, or a feckless lack of good sense, you didn't watch it as I told you to, the script to It's Christmas in Canada is up. Hey, baby, relax, I wanna negotiate!
Clark Vows to give Europe Veto over American Foreign Policy
According to this, Wesley Clark does not believe America should determine its own foreign policy. Everything will be submitted to Paris and Berlin for prior approval:
And I would say to the Europeans, I pledge to you as the American president that we'll consult with you first. You get the right of first refusal on the security concerns that we have.
Of course, this is what the rulers of the Frankenreich have dreamed of, and have long known that any Democrat President would likely give them. Not that they submit their foreign policies to us for prior approval, of course not (that would be "American bullying"). But Clark, like Dean, is on board with insuring that America cannot take a step without a "mother may I" from those who will be made our parental guardians. Collectivist Internationalism on the march at home: no one can make a move without the consent of the Vanguard.
The BBC continues to admonish Spain and Poland for their intransigent refusal to accept their proper role as vassalary sattelites of the Restored Carolingian Empire. The core areas are planning on forging ahead with the Restoration anyhow:
Other diplomats have confirmed that France, supported by Germany, Belgium and Luxembourg, had been preparing to release a call for closer integration among a selected group of countries.
In possibly related news, the Pope proposing an Imperial beatification. If things continue on this road, perhaps Romano Prodi will beat out Vladimir Putin in getting a mandate that all portraits show him with a halo.
Well, credit where credit is due. Not all is bad in Europe. Major blogosphere whipping-boy (though overshadowed by his partners in weaseldom across the Rhine) Gerhard Schroeder has pushed through a much needed package of tax cuts and spending reductions, including reforms of the German welfare system. The BBC's not quite amused, but not as harsh as they are when such things are enacted in America.
They'd rather we handle these things the way Clinton & Carter handled North Korea: just cut a deal and pretend everything is fine, while everyone (including Kim Jong Il) goes about their business. That, of course, is their argument for replacing Bush next year.
