End the War on Freedom

How Do I Listen?

How

Do I

Listen to others?

As if everyone were my Master

Speaking to me

His

Cherished

Last

Words.

(The Gift: Poems by Hafiz, translations by Daniel Ladinsky)

From Quotes of the Day:

Any reviewer who expresses rage and loathing for a novel is preposterous. He or she is like a person who has put on full armor and attacked a hot fudge sundae. -- Kurt Vonnegut

Anarchy - it's not the law, it's just a good idea. -- Unknown

From "Sunbeams" in the August 2001 issue of The Sun:

If I seem to take part in politics, it is only because politics encircles us today like the coil of a snake from which one cannot get out, no matter how much one tries. I wish therefore to wrestle with the snake. -- Mahatma Gandhi

Instead of bucking your head against a stone wall... sit quietly with hands folded and wait for the wall to crumble. If you're willing to wait an eternity, it may happen in the twinkling of an eye. For walls often give way quicker than the proud spirit which rules us. Don't sit and pray that it will happen! Just sit and watch it happen. -- Henry Miller

Ron Paul at LewRockwell.com - The State vs. Doctors - Dr. Paul's June 2001 commencement address to the University of Texas-Houston Medical School. He tells the new graduates that their greatest problems will be political, not medical. [lew]

Good intentions and conventional wisdom were not helpful in saving the life of the father of our country. Medical care involves more than good intentions.

Second, in 1620 the Pilgrims, under the guidance of Governor Radford, landed at Plymouth Rock. For the first two years the guiding principle was "from each according to ability, to each according to need -- and by force." Starvation ensued and the colony neared extinction. However, in the third year, Radford, in consultation with the adults of the community, agreed on a system of private plots and self-reliance. Results the next summer were astounding. Productivity shot up, and a community spirit of voluntary sharing replaced the harsh laws that guided the first two years. Freedom solved the problem of starvation.

...

HCFA [Health Care Finance Administration] has actually requested authority to carry guns on their audits.

Viceland.com - The War on Drug Wars: Ashkan Sahani Gets Normal People High - an Iranian/German photographer found people who said they had not taken drugs before but were willing to try one for his camera. This article includes pictures of and comments about eleven people experiencing eleven different drugs. What the author didn't say is that though there are similarities in how a particular drug affects different people, the existing differences in the people are still predominant (for drugs that don't just knock you out). Psychoactive drugs do not change anything about you, they just enhance some of your existing qualities and suppress others. They can be a good, if blunt, teaching & introspection tool. However, the side effects are rarely worth it, IMHO. I recommend avoiding them. Like the plague. If you want to learn about yourself, seek out a spiritual teacher, or just live in the world. That's what it's for. Kuro5hin comments here. [kuro5hin]

Robert O'Harrow Jr. at The Washington Post - D.C. Plans ID Card for Students - Digital photos and fingerprints for kids aged 2-14. Parents can supposedly opt out. Big Brother is at it again. We from gummint. We here to help you. Kuro5hin comments here. [kuro5hin]

Hemos at Slashdot - Palm To Purchase Be - "Curiouser and curiouser," said Alice. $11 million in stock. Be's stockholders have to approve the deal. [/.]

Dave Winer's DaveNet - An Epitaph for Be - Dave has collected links to many stories about Be. This story is his contribution.

To the extent that Be worked, I believe it is because JLG gives great developer conference.

...

Be didn't have a credible strategy in 1995, but most of the people at Agenda had never seen a Jean-Louis stage show. He's the best there is -- he knows that he's a pimp, not a whore. (Those are his words, sexual metaphors are deeply and justifiably ingrained in the JLG developer philosophy.)

Jean-Louis talked to the bankers, entrepreneurs and reporters at Agenda as if they were developers, and they loved him, which comes as no surprise to me. He is the best harvester of love I've ever seen.

Walter Bright at Digital Mars - D Programming Language - Add garbage collection and a few other things to C++ and take away lots of the cruft, and you get D. Slashdot discussion here. [/.]

Motion Sciences looks interesting. It's the creation of Joe Firmage. They are attempting to use new physics to enable new forms of propulsion, energy, and materials. But they've got the politics all wrong. They think they can do it "for humanity" as a non-profit. They talk about ending hunger. Hunger is not a technological problem. We have the technology to feed everyone on the planet. Politics, socialist politics, is the problem.

db40 is a tiny object database written in Java. I haven't tried it, though it looks worth playing with. It is free for non-commercial use, but costs for commercial use. Source not distributed. Many of the classes in the JAR file appear to have been run through an obfuscator. This is annoying, but can be a good way to make code smaller. [meat]

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