Truth in Metaphor

From "Operating System Concepts - Seventh Edition" by Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne.
P.4:

We can also view a computer system as consisting of hardware, software and data. The operating system provides the means for proper use of these resources in the operation of the computer System. An operating system is similar to a government. Like a government, it performs no useful function by itself. It simply provides an environment within which other programs can do useful work.

Now THAT'S a philosophy I can live with!

Maybe the Spirit DOES Still Live...

From Lew Rockwell's Blog:

The House He Lives in Really Is America to Him

Posted by Mike Tennant at July 6, 2007 03:21 PM

A member of the Pittsburgh Ron Paul Meetup Group, who wishes to be known here merely as "Freedom Fighter," wrote the following to the members of our group today:

I am 60 years old. I have always voted for smaller government and to uphold the Constitution. I have never gotten what I voted for. Today I put my home up for sale. I am taking the proceeds and going to spend it promoting Ron Paul. That is the best way to spend my grandchildren's inheritance. They will benefit more by having President Ron Paul than having $100,000 of fiat money. Our lives, our fortunes, our sacred honor. The Revolution has begun.

Now that's putting your money where your mouth is!

Cthulhu Therapy Buddy

Now THAT'S more like it!

Who's your buddy NOW?

The Freedom Report - Thanks for the Link!

Fred Smart from the Freedom Report linked to me FAST! It looks like he is keeping pretty thorough tabs on the happenings of all things related to Ron Paul. If you're interested, go ahead and check him out!

My Therapy Buddy - Ted Bundy's Cuddle Toy

Remember those "My Buddy" dolls? Yes, the ones that gave kids nightmares and inspired a new Genre of horror films - those are the ones.

Start with that concept, take away any natural features, put a sketch of a "blissful" face reminiscent of a drug induced stupor, dye it the same shade of blue seen in asphyxiation victims, turn the body into a featureless lump ensuring that it neither wears, nor can wear, clothes, give it Renfield's voice and have it say something you ONLY HEAR WHEN NOTHING IS "ALL RIGHT" and you've got My Therapy Buddy!"


This thing was very righteously thrown off "American Inventor" last season. However, like all things evil on tv, it came back.

And it had a "life partner."

And it reproduced.

It's like Child's Play 2, Bride of Chucky and Chucky's Seed ALL IN ONE! And they ALL have those voices! They get in your head and you can't get them out and you KNOW they're eventually going to tell you to drink the Kool Aid when they've finished sapping your strength and free will with their mind numbing chanting.

This time, it got through. It already has a following - now it's going to be EVERYWHERE!

Could the Antichrist be an overstuffed plush doll?

Banning Ron Paul - The Best Thing That Could Have Happened To Him

Back on June 30th, Six Republican Candidates were invited to Iowa to participate in a forum held by Iowans for Tax Relief and the Iowa Christian Alliance. Ron Paul wasn't one of them.

The forum was a nice quiet discussion where everyone promised to cut taxes and oppose gay marriage. Neither Giuliani nor McCain bothered to show up and, since Fred Thompson hadn't officially announced his candidacy, he wasn't there either.

After the forum, right next door to the first forum, Ron Paul had his own event - a celebration of Life and Liberty - that was better attended than the one it followed and generated its own news both in print and, of course, on the net.

So, by excluding Ron Paul from the forum, the Iowans for Tax Relief and the Iowa Christian Alliance managed to do the following:

1. Get Upstaged
2. separate Ron Paul from the third stringers who attended their forum
3. generate more buzz for Ron Paul's campaign and
4. make all sorts of people ask serious questions about the motives and integrity of a group that bans the one candidate who has an unblemished record regarding taxes, abortion, immigration and a constitutionally limited government.

Way to go guys!

Lesson Learned - Research BEFORE Writing

I had a beautiful article written yesterday. It was about how, despite being in the minority, the founding fathers were STILL justified to declare and fight for independence. It examined the concepts of majority rule and how the opinions of even the vast majority don't trump the God given rights of even one person. It was eloquent, it was moving and thought provoking and it was logically sound.

Unfortunately, it wasn't based on fact.

I tried to salvage what I had, but it was leaning pretty heavily on the American Revolution leg and wouldn't balance without it. I also kind of ran out of time - I have a final exam due today that I'm still only half finished with.

I'll still try to post something, but in the meantime, Kaz has a really good article about Giuliani and his opinion of the people. It's worth a read.

Remembering Why We Celebrate

I'm sure you all have seen this before, but it's still a good reminder of why this day is such a big deal. These people understood what freedom was worth.

From USSYorktown.com:

On July 2, 1776, the Continental Congress voted 12-0 -- New York abstained -- in favor of Richard Henry Lee's resolution "that these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States."

On July 4, the Declaration of Independence drafted by Thomas Jefferson -- heavily edited by Congress -- was adopted without dissent. On July 8, the Declaration was publicly proclaimed in Philadelphia. On July 15, Congress learned that the New York Legislature had decided to endorse the Declaration. On Aug. 2, a parchment copy was presented to the Congress for signature. Most of the 56 men who put their name to the document did so that day.
And then?

We tend to forget that to sign the Declaration of Independence was to commit an act of treason -- and the punishment for treason was death. To publicly accuse George III of "repeated injuries and usurpations," to announce that Americans were therefore "Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown," was a move fraught with danger -- so much so that the names of the signers were kept secret for six months.

They were risking everything, and they knew it. That is the meaning of the Declaration's soaring last sentence:
"And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm Reliance on the Protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor."

Most of the signers survived the war; several went on to illustrious careers.

Two of them became presidents of the United States, and among the others were future vice presidents, senators, and governors. But not all were so fortunate.

Nine of the 56 died during the Revolution, and never tasted American independence.

Five were captured by the British.

Eighteen had their homes -- great estates, some of them - looted or burnt by the enemy.

Some lost everything they owned.

Two were wounded in battle.

Two others were the fathers of sons killed or captured during the war.

And what moved them to such sacrifices and risks? The ideas expressed on that document they all signed:

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed,will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankindare more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.--Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.
He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.
He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.
He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.
He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.
He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.
He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.
He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.
He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.
He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.
He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:
For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:
For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:
For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:
For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:
For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:
For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:
For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:
For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.
He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.
He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.
He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.
He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our Brittish brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The 56 signatures on the Declaration appear in the positions indicated:

Column 1
Georgia:
Button Gwinnett
Lyman Hall
George
Walton

Column 2
North Carolina:
William Hooper
Joseph Hewes
John Penn
South Carolina:
Edward Rutledge
Thomas Heyward, Jr.
Thomas Lynch, Jr.
Arthur Middleton

Column 3
Massachusetts:
John Hancock
Maryland:
Samuel Chase
William Paca
Thomas
Stone
Charles Carroll of Carrollton
Virginia:
George Wythe
Richard Henry Lee
Thomas Jefferson
Benjamin Harrison
Thomas
Nelson, Jr.
Francis Lightfoot Lee
Carter Braxton

Column 4
Pennsylvania:
Robert Morris
Benjamin Rush
Benjamin Franklin
John Morton
George Clymer
James Smith
George Taylor
James
Wilson
George Ross
Delaware:
Caesar Rodney
George Read
Thomas McKean

Column 5
New York:
William Floyd
Philip
Livingston
Francis Lewis
Lewis Morris
New Jersey:
Richard
Stockton
John Witherspoon
Francis Hopkinson
John Hart
Abraham
Clark

Column 6
New Hampshire:
Josiah Bartlett
William
Whipple
Massachusetts:
Samuel Adams
John Adams
Robert Treat
Paine
Elbridge Gerry
Rhode Island:
Stephen Hopkins
William
Ellery
Connecticut:
Roger Sherman
Samuel Huntington
William
Williams
Oliver Wolcott
New Hampshire:
Matthew Thornton

Foster Homes Worse than Child Abuse

A new study confirms it. In all but the most extreme cases, kids are better off at home.

From USA Today:

Children whose families are investigated for abuse or neglect are likely to do better in life if they stay with their families than if they go into foster care, according to a pioneering study.

The findings intensify a vigorous debate in child welfare: whether children are better served with their families or away from them.

Kids who stayed with their families were less likely to become juvenile delinquents or teen mothers and more likely to hold jobs as young adults, says the study by Joseph Doyle, an economics professor at MIT's Sloan School of Management who studies social policy.

"The size of the effects surprised me, because all the children come from tough families," Doyle says. The National Science Foundation funded the study.

The premise of foster care is that, in some situations, a child is better off if he is taken away from his family and left with strangers. This study does NOT dispute that premise. It merely suggests that the government is SERIOUSLY missing the mark in its estimation of the threshold delineating how bad a situation has to be before foster care is better.

For instance, homeschooling is probably below that threshold.

Paul's Numbers Within Spitting Distance of McCain's

From Intrade.com:



McCain's odds of getting nominated have been in a freefall, while Ron Paul's Numbers just keep inching up there.

Of course Fred Thompson is STILL going to take it, but it would be nice to see Ron Paul up to third place

Kids First!

Just call it a Sign of the Times.

(hat tip: Vox Day)

update: To keep the kiddies amused in the meantime.