29 Replies to “Reader Tips”

  1. Over at Babble ( rabble.ca/babble/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic&f=1&t=005898) It seems thet they have finally come around to the conclusion that registries are useless. Of course, they’re talking about Sexual Offender registries. See Jeff House’s comment and substitute gun owner for pedophile, and the same for M.Spector’s. Too bad irony is wasted on them.

  2. I’m impressed with USS Neverdock….
    ussneverdock.blogspot.com
    He’s ripping some serious holes in MSM bias on world events.
    OMMAG

  3. Ass. Press says, “meanwhile”. There is no joy at Ass. Press.
    Stand with Israel. Next? Nasrallah. Go, Israel. …-
    Israeli forces kill Hezbollah leader
    AP (via Yahoo) ^ | 8/15/2006 | JOSEPH PANOSSIAN
    Israel began slowly pulling out forces from southern Lebanon and made plans to hand over territory Tuesday on the first full day of a tense cease-fire that already has been tested by skirmishes and rocket fire. Meanwhile, Israeli forces killed a senior Hezbollah leader, the army said early Wednesday.
    The army said its forces killed the head of Hezbollah’s special forces, who they identified as Sajed Dawayer. …-
    http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1684227/posts

  4. Gloomy Tehran
    ………Iran’s rulers are hopping mad and deeply anxious over news of the huge damage sustained by Hizballah’s rocket inventory, which was proudly touted before the war as numbering 13,000 pieces.
    ….sources estimate that Hizballah’s adventure wiped out most of the vast sum of $4-6 bn the Iranian treasury sunk into building its military strength.
    3w.debka.com/article.php?aid=1201

  5. Where is he? Try Israel. …-
    Next problem: where’s the genius who solved $1m maths puzzle?
    The Times (U.K.) ^ | 08/16/06 | James Bone and Jeremy Page
    THE search is on for a reclusive Russian mathematics genius who has solved a century-old problem called the Poincaré Conjecture. Grigori Perelman, 40, known as “Grisha”, is a leading contender to win the Fields Medal, the mathematics equivalent of a Nobel prize, at the International Congress of Mathematicians in Madrid next Tuesday.He is also in line to receive a $1 million (£530,000) cash prize from an American institute for his proof of one of the seven greatest mathematical mysteries. …-
    http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/browse

  6. Has anyone seen the Michelle Malkin tv commercial? It came on so quick I can’t remember what it was a commercial for…

  8. George Will tellin’ it as he sees it.
    “Cooperation between Pakistani and British law enforcement (the British draw upon useful experience combating IRA terrorism) has validated John Kerry’s belief (as paraphrased by the New York Times Magazine of Oct. 10, 2004) that “many of the interdiction tactics that cripple drug lords, including governments working jointly to share intelligence, patrol borders and force banks to identify suspicious customers, can also be some of the most useful tools in the war on terror.” In a candidates’ debate in South Carolina (Jan. 29, 2004), Kerry said that although the war on terror will be “occasionally military,” it is “primarily an intelligence and law enforcement operation that requires cooperation around the world.”
    http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/14/AR2006081401163.html

  9. It was Thurston’s geometrization conjecture (Poincaré’s conjecture is a special case) that Perelman proved. This brings back fond and wistful memories: differential geometry was sufficiently seductive to keep me in university in my wild days. I’ve gone on to more immediately practical pursuits (need to feed the kids), but when I retire…
    Maz2 – you are one eclectic bunny

  11. I think we need to get rid of secret ballots, or at the very least use an accountable system as they do in the UK. The bottom line is that any nation that uses secret ballots (or even worse, Diebold type machines) has only the most tenuous of claims to democracy. From Wiki:
    Today the practice of casting secret ballots is so commonplace that most voters would not consider that any other method might be used, yet in the 19th century it was highly controversial.
    The demand for a secret ballot was one of the six points of Chartism. In the words of the petition that was published in 1838: “The suffrage, to be exempt from the corruption of the wealthy and the violence of the powerful, must be secret.”
    …
    Secret balloting appears to have been first implemented in the former Australian colony — now a state — of Tasmania on 7 February 1856.
    …
    In the United States the practice became known by the name “Australian ballot”…The first President of the United States elected under the Australian ballot was president Grover Cleveland in 1892. Elections in the United States are now almost always held by secret ballot, with party nominating caucuses in some states–most significantly the leadoff Presidential nominating state of Iowa–requiring an open casting of ballots.
    …
    The UK secret ballot arrangements are sometimes criticised because it is possible to link a ballot paper to the voter that cast it. Each ballot paper is individually numbered and each elector has a number. When an elector is given a ballot paper, their number is noted down on the counterfoil of the ballot paper (which also carries the ballot paper number).
    This measure is thought to be justified as a security arrangement so that if there was an allegation of fraud, false ballot papers could be identified. The process of matching ballot papers to voters is only permissible if an Elections Court requires it, and this is an extremely unlikely occurrence.”
    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secret_ballot

  12. Master Index Of Online Books [133] From Muslims & Non-Muslims (Shows Islam’s Polytheistic Origins)
    Bible.ca ^ | Staff
    The Library of Islam’s Pagan past.
    The information presented here is just too overwhelming to ignore or just simply dismiss. A thorough investigation of even half of what is given here shows that Islam’s roots are solidly pre-Muhammed, Henotheistic and Polytheistic in origin. These works, and the suceeding extra links that I will provide below, are a stinging indictment of Islam and show its true origins.
    This information is much needed for perusal, so I decided to put it here where it would receive more attention.
    At this link there are additional links to books written by ex-Muslims detailing Islam’s poltheistic origins.
    Links here:
    http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1684334/posts

  13. math?
    lemme tell ya about math. my early high school marks were a reflection of my laziness and slower pace of uptake.
    until I was put in the class of the brand new teacher and a combination of the required effort plus a desire to make an impression added 30 % right in the first term.
    the short version, when I was working at the university, looking back I knew I had the right stuff to do the complex challenging work successfully; that was the REL lesson of grade 11 math, not just that I consistently came up with the solutions to the problems at that time.
    and despite the fact after that my marks reverted to type and went on a long slide down below passing.
    3 months ago I looked her name up in canada411 and sent out a mass mailing trying to catch up with her.
    couple weeks later she called; first thing she wanted to know was why I looked her up, so I proceeded to thank her personally for endowing me with the confidence years later to embark on a univesity education. she told me she only taught for 1 more year and then saw that IT was the way to go, that was way back in 1969. so I thanked her once again and wished her well. and finally found out her first name !!!
    its experiences like this that are only possible with the internet.

  15. images of the tank man are going to move out of the galaxy and into the stars. and I dont mean television electromagnetic waves either, they will be on recorded media for all in the universe to share and ponder.
    the comprehensive and very effective filtering of internet content is precisely what we in the free west are going to get when conditions are right. no doubt tied in with the catch-all ‘national security’. and then where will all the lockstep rightwingers going to be??? what direction will the cocktail time conversations take then???

  16. I think the dinner conversations will turn to the topic of how foolish and dangerous the left really was, and how that (thank god) they never attained any real power to effect their diseased thoughts.
    Then for dessert a wonderful orange sorbert, with brandy and cigars in the Harper room…

  17. So, NDP cheer leader Libby Davis is “…very concerned this prevention project [Insite, a “safe injection site” for addicts] will become a political decision. We need this to be a health-based decision.”
    http://www.cbc.ca/cp/health/060815/x081532.html
    I wonder if she’s aware that she and the rest of the activists at the AIDS Conference in Toronto have turned IT into a political circus, rather than a serious gathering to consider genuine health strategies for preventing and curing AIDS?
    When a majority of participants boo and jeer speakers who suggest abstinence and self-control as an effective preventative measure, and when Stephen Lewis calls Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s decision not to attend this conference “a terrible mistake” and “a slap in the face to the international community of activists and scientists and researchers and advocates and agencies” (‘leave any of the gravy trainers out, Stepehn?), you have to wonder just how serious these whiners are about “health-based” decisions and solutions.
    The director of the Insite centre for HIV-AIDS, Dr. Julio Montaner, says that his “researchers say the results have been so positive that people who initially objected to the pilot project–local merchants, the Vancouver police–are now firmly on side.”
    Some experts who think that the centre might reduce the risk of drug users becoming infected with AIDS by providing clean needles say that “the three-year pilot project hasn’t been [in operation] long enough to assess that scientifically,” which may be the ‘elusive’ answer Dr. Montaner is seeking to his question at a news conference yesterday: “what is there that you cannot see, Mr. Prime Minister?”
    It seems quite clear that Prime Minister Stephen Harper can see that the only studies and research done to support this facility are “in-house,” by Dr. Montaner’s own researchers. Given that Dr. Montaner is soon to become president-elect of the International AIDS Society, could there be any political motivation on his part to keep this project going?
    Some advice, Libby Davis: If you want decisions about cures for AIDS to be health-based instead of political, then you’d better call off the AIDS activist-pack dogs who are turning this AIDS Conference into a political zoo.

  18. So, NDP cheer leader Libby Davis is “…very concerned this prevention project [Insite, a “safe injection site” for addicts] will become a political decision. We need this to be a health-based decision.”
    I wonder if she’s aware that she and the rest of the activists at the AIDS Conference in Toronto have turned IT into a political circus, rather than a serious gathering to consider genuine health strategies for preventing and curing AIDS?
    When a majority of participants boo and jeer speakers who suggest abstinence and self-control as an effective preventative measure, and when Stephen Lewis calls Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s decision not to attend this conference “a terrible mistake” and “a slap in the face to the international community of activists and scientists and researchers and advocates and agencies” (‘leave any of the gravy trainers out, Stepehn?), you have to wonder just how serious these whiners are about “health-based” decisions and solutions.
    The director of the Insite centre for HIV-AIDS, Dr. Julio Montaner, says that his “researchers say the results have been so positive that people who initially objected to the pilot project–local merchants, the Vancouver police–are now firmly on side.”
    Some experts who think that the centre might reduce the risk of drug users becoming infected with AIDS by providing clean needles say that “the three-year pilot project hasn’t been [in operation] long enough to assess that scientifically,” which may be the ‘elusive’ answer Dr. Montaner is seeking to his question at a news conference yesterday: “what is there that you cannot see, Mr. Prime Minister?”
    It seems quite clear that Prime Minister Stephen Harper can see that the only studies and research done to support this facility are “in-house,” by Dr. Montaner’s own researchers. Given that Dr. Montaner is soon to become president-elect of the International AIDS Society, could there be any political motivation on his part to keep this project going?
    Some advice, Libby Davis: If you want decisions about cures for AIDS to be health-based instead of political, then you’d better call off the AIDS activist-pack dogs who are turning this AIDS Conference into a political zoo.

  19. The Insite facility mentioned in my post above is in Vancouver, in Libby Davis’ riding.

  20. I posted the URL connected to my posting at 8:37, but it got caught in the filter…

  21. Kursk said: “I think the dinner conversations will turn to the topic of how foolish and dangerous the left really was, and how that (thank god) they never attained any real power to effect their diseased thoughts.”
    “Diseased thoughts”? Yes, and suicidal thoughts.
    The following from Commenter “Lord Acton” at Belmont Club.
    To me, the more fundamental question is: how can the West avoid commiting suicide? The Western self-hatred and fellow-travelling in our “elites” a far more serious threat than the bankrupt tyrannical theology of the Mullahs.
    Here is a mind-blowingly prescient piece that speaks to this way back in 1978, mid-WWIII…With no further ado, I give you Mr. Solzhenitsyn speaking at the Harvard commencement 1978: …-
    Wretchard says:
    So here is the full text of his speech in 1978. The ideas it lays out are essential not only to understanding the events of September 11 but everything that happened afterward. He warned that the greatest danger was still to come and predicted we would meet it, glasses full and smiles wide, surprised until the very end. …-
    A World Split Apart
    by Alexander Solzhenitsyn
    The split in today’s world is perceptible even to a hasty glance. Any of our contemporaries readily identifies two world powers, each of them already capable of entirely destroying the other. However, understanding of the split often is limited to this political conception, to the illusion that danger may be abolished through successful diplomatic negotiations or by achieving a balance of armed forces. The truth is that the split is a much profounder and a more alienating one, that the rifts are more than one can see at first glance. This deep manifold split bears the danger of manifold disaster for all of us, in accordance with the ancient truth that a Kingdom — in this case, our Earth — divided against itself cannot stand. …-
    http://www.columbia.edu/cu/augustine/arch/solzhenitsyn/harvard1978.html

  23. I’ve wanted to read this speech–Solzhenitsyn’s prophetic 1978 Harvard Address–for years. Thanks, maz2.
    I note that Solzhenitsyn makes the connection that I, new kid, Martin, and a number of others have made between the weakness and lack of moral fibre and courage of the West and our deliberate shunning of both our Judeo-Christian roots and the practice of self-abnegation. Without that foundation and a willingness to adhere to its obligations (vs such legalistic rights as those enforced by our Charter), Solzhenitsyn notes that the result is the selfish materialism that, like a tsunami, has swamped the West.
    The view that the West’s Judeo-Christian heritage is one of the principle goods of our culture doesn’t seem popular with sda readers. In spite of that, my opinion, like Solzhenitsyn’s, is that the extreme disconnect from our spiritual heritage is largely responsible for many of our present woes. This would be one of the unhappy truths to which Solzhenitsyn alludes: “Harvard’s motto is ‘Veritas.’ Many of you have already found out and others will find out in the course of their lives that truth eludes us if we do not concentrate with total attention on its pursuit . . . Also, truth is seldom pleasant; it is almost invariably bitter. There is some bitterness in my speech today, too. But I want to stress that it comes not from an adversary but from a friend.”
    The West is seriously deluded because it pursues utopian fantasy over truth. (In fact, post-modernism–a pox on it–denies that there is such a thing as truth.) We in the materially prosperous West are spiritual paupers, so busy “entertaining ourselves to death” that we refuse to face up to the hard choices we need to make because we realize that they will exact serious sacrifice and hardship. The only problem is: NOT facing up to the hard choices we need to make will result in FAR GREATER sacrifice and hardship. (Like little kids, we wish to avoid the dentist because it hurts: of course, no dentist means more hurt. Realists and grownups–imperfect as they are–understand the necessity of sacrifice and privation. Collectively, the West seems to be in complete denial about this.)
    But putting the genie back in the bottle’s not an easy thing to do. Is it even possible? For those (relatively) few of us in the West who still believe, “with G_d, nothing is impossible”.
    But it doesn’t mean it’s going to be easy. Maybe it’ll take literal hellfire and brimstone to thaw the spiritual frozenness of those who are left.

  24. DESPISE NOT THE DAY OF SMALL THINGS
    Zechariah …-
    Janesville man spotted doctoring of photo from war in Middle East
    Milwaukee Journal Sentinel ^ | 8/16/06 | MARK JOHNSON
    He initiated uproar that exposed ethics breach
    The furor over a photograph began in such a quiet, ordinary way.
    Mike Thorson, a Janesville artist and part owner of a tool distribution company, was sitting at his computer on a Saturday, checking a few news sites after looking at his e-mail. On Yahoo, he came across a Reuters photograph purporting to show the smoky aftermath of an Israeli air raid on the Beirut suburbs.
    “As soon as I saw it something looked very strange,” said Thorson, 39.
    What he found led to a story that raced around the globe and resulted in Reuters’ severing its ties with photographer Adnan Hajj.
    Looking closely at the photography, he saw an odd pattern in the thick, black clouds of smoke rising from the bombed area. He recognized the effect, a bit of Adobe Photoshop magic called cloning.
    To clone, you simply click on part of a picture, then paste an exact copy of that part somewhere else on the photo. Thorson recognized the effect because he’d used it. Sometimes he’d worked on catalog photographs of the tools his company distributes. Sometimes, on close inspection, he would find on the photograph a speck of dust, a piece of dirt, a hair or some other imperfection. By cloning, he could replace the imperfection with a clean image.
    The photo on the Yahoo site was different, though. It was supposed to be journalism.
    “I was shocked,” Thorson said later. “This is supposed to be serious. Reuters is a very well-known and respected wire service.”
    Within minutes Thorson went to the political blog Little Green Footballs and sent a comment about his suspicions that the photo had been doctored. He thought of the blog because it had been among those questioning the authenticity of the documents “60 Minutes II” used in a report on President George W. Bush’s record in the Texas Air National Guard.
    The very next morning, Aug. 6, Thorson saw his suspicions posted on Little Green Footballs, and the story soon caught fire.
    “I was really surprised that the story got to be as big as it did,” Thorson said. “I certainly didn’t mean for anybody to lose their job or anything like that. I am glad that it was exposed.
    “I think people do need to have some sort of skepticism about the news: What’s being presented? Who’s presenting it? Do they have an agenda? What’s being left out?” …-
    http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1684704/posts

  25. Thanks, maz2, for Solzhenitsyn’s brilliant and prophetic 1978 analysis of what’s ailing the West: lack of all conviction in “truth” leading to spiritual and moral cowardice.
    Thanks, lookout, for your application of Solzhenitsyn’s analysis to our situation today. Cutting ourselves off from our spiritual heritage is, literally, killing us, and as you say, most sda readers (essentially, most bloggers) seem to be very uncomfortable with this notion. Watch the thread come to a halt, now!)
    WITHOUT A VISION, THE PEOPLE PERISH.

  26. Pictures that lie
    August 14, 2006 7:36 AM PDT
    This photo isn’t exactly what it appears to be–nor are the other images that follow in this photo gallery. All were manipulated beyond straightforward cropping of edges or lightening shaded areas. Often they have a key element inserted or deleted….
    tinyurl.com/gn7e7

  27. Lovely to hear from you, been around: I guess you’re the block person! You’ve put it in a nutshell. And when even “the good guys” are so lukewarm (to hostile) to the source of the strength of the West, it’s pretty discouraging. Well, no great civilization’s survived forever. I guess we’re next!
    Yup, no traffic for nearly 3 hours: I’ve probably really nailed it.
    Cheers!

  28. Caw…caw…caw…bzzz…caw… …-
    CAW severs ties with NDP
    Canadian Press
    Vancouver — The Canadian Auto Workers union has declared political independence after delegates to the union’s constitutional convention voted to formally severe ties with the New Democratic Party.
    Delegates also voted to express their outrage at the federal and Ontario NDP executive for suspending CAW leader Buzz Hargrove from the party

  29. The above at 09:08 AM was from the Belmont Club post entitled:
    “Nor any voice of mourning save the choirs”
    Wretchard took the line from a poem by Wilfred Owen:
    Anthem for Doomed Youth
    Excerpt:
    What passing-bells for those who die like cattle?
    Only the monstrous anger of the guns.
    Only the stuttering rifles’ rapid rattle
    Can patter out their hasty orisons.
    No mockeries now for them; no prayers nor bells,
    Nor any voice of mourning save the choirs,-
    The shrill demented choirs of wailing shells;
    And bugles calling them from sad shires. …-
    http://www.rjgeib.com/thoughts/abraham/abraham.html

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