Category: Comment

This piece by Ayaan Hirsi Ali comes from her unique perspective of being a Somali, under a socialist government system. Under that type of system, there is no bankruptcy to cull the poorly performing companies and organizations. This also leads to the public good suffering. Benefiting from the work of one’s hands and profiting from private property promotes progress.

The internet, for example, gives entrepreneurs more opportunities by “getting out of their way.” If a society has a functioning rule of law, a free press and expression, and an informed public, abuses can be mitigated.

I consider the topic of Scandinavian-style medicine a worthy topic to discuss. (Unfortunately, today’s youth envisions a socialism that “works,” not the actual versions in Venezuela and Cuba.) Along this line of critique, Ali mentions that there is no denying that our healthcare system is “messy.” Even though American healthcare leads in quality, innovation, and advancements, there is inefficiency and inequality.

But the woke mob destroys this exercise of American self-criticism in the name of “antifascism” and “antiracism.” We cannot improve or even function under the constant barrage of oppressed and oppressors. We were built on constant trial and error that recognizes our “human foibles.” The question should be, “How can we improve ourselves?”

“Democratic capitalism, in the framework of the rule of law and respect for individual rights, has benefited billions of human beings. It allows for gradual, incremental progress to remedy legitimate grievances as they arise. Until a better alternative can credibly be proposed, these are the institutions that we should celebrate–and defend.”

Elon Musk has purchased Twitter, exposing its censorship activities in collusion with the government. But he has other ideas, some strange, in addition to his free speech beliefs.

During Covid: “I will be on the [Tesla assembly] line with everyone else.”

About the Democrats: The Democrats are the “party of division & hate.”

About voting: “Democracy is probably unworkable long term without limiting suffrage to parents.”

About population control: “Population collapse due to low birth rates is a much bigger risk to civilization than global warming.”

I watched the recent Tucker Carlson interview with Musk and am heartened that he opposes unrestricted AI. But that begs the question, doesn’t he have a robot in the works? (A robot needs some sort of operating system.)

He’s obviously very intelligent, but make no mistake, he’s a businessman and big business is amoral.

My Brasilian grandmother always said she loved the national anthem. She would cry in fact.

My parents became citizens in 1975. My father moved us to the U.S. (back and forth to/from the U.K.) to make a way where it was difficult in England. (Why the number of moves is another story.) My mother moved here with her mother as a kid.

I don’t want to give a mushy and overly effusive lecture on Independence Day–but it’s such an important day. The Star Spangled Banner is not the military cadence or French-style revolutionary anthem. It has a freshness even to this day. It makes immigrants cry. If only it did for all our compatriots. Gratitude.

Yes, the U.S. has to return to its roots: life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; e pluribus unum; and In God We Trust. I don’t want to preach, but those are really available, really possible, and truly trustworthy.

Peace and grace this 4th.

Daniel Miessler wrote recently about backing up self to a machine. For the most accurate recording he suggested we could do/add the following:

– Write Extraordinarily Deep Descriptions of You

– It’ll Import from Everything You’ve Done Online

– Journals, Texts, and Other Private Data

– Extensive Interviews and Scenario Exercises

– Interviews With Loved Ones, Friends, Coworkers, and Associates

– Your full Genome

If you performed all these steps/methods, is what results a human-type consciousness? (Forgive me, Daniel.) Continue reading “Recording memories”

During my life, I have seen various financial crises that seemed to resolve into the “rich getting richer”:
When I was young, the savings and loan crisis.
During college, the first real estate boom during my life and resultant crash.
During grad school, the dotcom crash.
During 08-09, the second real estate crash.
Since 2020, the slowing recession.

I can be cynical that this will happen every generation, but I have seen all these and not benefited in the least–though my ex and I were strapped during the dotcom and 08. One could become disillusioned as well as cynical.

But the billionaires seem to get more billions. Musk has the money to say what he wants, lose money, and yet prosper. (I am not one to laud him for his free speech successes as he is not out for the right.)

I had an inside view of the dotcom and 08 crash. I saw the foolishness that was Christianity.com and saw the hubris partly responsible there. I worked at the SDUT during the 08 crash and the demise of newspapers. Now, I have written cyber blogs and seen the increase in scams, but also this period where government-colluding social media rule.

I cannot become an anti-capitalist. There’s nowhere else to go.

https://www.wired.com/story/odni-commercially-available-information-report

This data gathering goes with the hiring of more IRS employees, targeting Christian believers preaching in the street or demonstrating at abortion clinics, and social media colluding with government agencies. My aunt and uncle were audited twice and they are not wealthy.

The power of the data brokers demands action.

No matter what you think of the Jan. 6 defendants, it’s unconscionable that the ones in custody now have been held for over two years in some cases without a court date. The quicker they get the opportunity to defend themselves, the better for the constitutionality of this.

The route to civilizing big data will help us to gain more instead of only lose. I think we must bring old methods of interacting with the data overlords of past times (banks, credit) to bear on the new ones. Make a human connection. Like when you make physical trips to your account holders, hold them accountable. Visit their sites, talk to their reps, READ their privacy and legal statements.

Similarly, we make unspoken agreements with media and advertising. We give them our data, and just like we can’t function without a bank account, we can’t interact without one of the media monoliths. It comes down to which monolith you want to pay (serve). That’s obvious and depressing.

I am afraid though of what kind of subserviency will be prevalent later this decade. I understand the handwringing; without AGI, we can’t reason with AI. AGI will be the pivotal step to the singularity. Don’t be distracted when people say here is AI, and there is AI–but the time is not yet.

Developing…

Write a constitution, and you generally have a more stable government.

Once you have it, defy it, and your actions are evident. The constitution is a witness against you. It looms large. The nation’s citizens are its citizens.

Its footprint shadows you. Now that the government is intended secure, culture and society thrive.

Those protected under the constitution can prosper, in wealth, mind, spirit. The pursuit of happiness is given to them to work out.

Poverty emerges in those countries without such a support. The weak have no place to rest. They are subject to violence and theft.

And so here: we hold these truths to be self-evident.

SJWs purification is much like self-flagellation. Their attacks on various groups not of their liking returns upon their heads.

It is not their intent, but redounds.

Their propensity to cleanse and purify themselves of what they see as bigoted (or insert other group) ends in becoming the target of their SJW allies themselves.

Irony.

We need a change of business. The worst types are brought out in what we call dialogue on the internet. Not only is free speech restricted by those who hold the keys to SM, it is also promotional of content that draws the most likes and follows. Unfortunately, popularity promotes the most controversial, the most provocative. The merit of a post is that it draws likes.

The erudite and the interesting are drowned.

An internet bill of rights should promote good content and less clickbait.

It sounds like something that a censor would promote. How can good content be promoted other than by a Google-like algorithm? Google operates by popularity and quality of links to your page. What if Google promoted less popular content that was sharp? Is there a way to promote new good quality content?

My generation’s access to social media hinges on Facebook. I used to say “naw we can’t be classified.” But no. There are some things true about each generation. Mine is one already with kids and perhaps jobs, and other responsibilities. We don’t have a lot of access to contemporary music, cocktails, nights out.

FB provides an outlet for us as we cope with daily responsibilities. We speak with friends and “friends” on FB. I used to say some things that were “important,” but learned that is not in my bailiwick–as if it ever was. I have learned to be content with things I can speak about.

IP numbers are ubiquitous. Most of us have more than one at all times.

They’re a blessing and a tracking and monitoring vector. Through them a cyber attack can happen or a phone can be found. Marvelous. Perilous.

The IP lights up the world. Things not alive, like stone, and things alive, both come to life, illuminated by electricity.

radicals to fight radicalism?

The Republicans and Democrats have crappy candidates. In a nation of 380 million we come up with these people.