Six Degrees
From samizdata:
Nature intended women to be our slaves. They are our property. They belong to us, just as a tree that bears fruit belongs to a gardener. What a mad idea to demand equality for women! Women are nothing but machines for producing children. -- Napoleon
BanScrewdrivers.com is a web site devoted to making the world a safer place by banning screwdrivers. Very funny. It almost manages to remain completely serious, but the satire is given away on the About Us page:
"One day I was talking to my Dad on the phone - my Dad's an electrician - when he mentioned that he had recently sustained an injury using a assault screwdriver in his job."
'Assault Screwdriver' is Michael's parlance for a drill with a screw-head attachment.
"My Dad is a nice guy who wouldn't hurt anyone, but here the screwdriver hurt him. Dad tried to laugh it off, but the injury was serious and required a bandage."
Jules Varwig at anti-state.com - The American Dream - Mr. Varwig imagines what it would be like if buying a truck were like buying a gun, though he doesn't use the word "gun" anywhere in his article. [anti-state]
See here- just because you THINK you need one of these trucks doesn't mean anything. Do you realize how much fuel one of these trucks uses? Sure, we've made them as efficient as we can- but even government incentive and laws have their limits. You need to be a government agency, an associate of a government agency or have a demonstrable need to buy one of these trucks. A need like hauling cargo that can't be hauled any other way. I'm sorry but a mere hobbyist is NEVER going to qualify for a Purchaser's License. You can see that we can't have just anyone driving around in a large vehicle that has the capacity for mayhem that one of these 2 ton trucks has. Why, what if you buy it and even after the three day cooling off period decide to drive it through a crowd of holiday shoppers? Can you imagine the net loss to assets of the State that would be?
Al Martin Raw - The Looting of America: Reagonomics, Clintonomics & Enronomics - I don't know how much of this is true, but it's certainly interesting. According to Mr. Martin, Clinton's presidency was much more fiscally responsible than Reagan or either Bush. By the way, the Public Debt To the Penny is now over $5.9 trillion. It'll likely cross the $6 trillion mark in a month or two.
Why do you think these security measures are being put in place? Why do you think Bush is doing this? We are gradually turning this country into a dictatorship. Very few people would actually disagree with that idea. All the new restrictions on personal liberties and freedoms will increase over time.
More power will be consolidated in the office of the presidency. The militarization of law enforcement will become a fait accompli -- after the Posse Comitatus Act is rescinded and military forces within the United States are increased. This will be necessary to control civil unrest and political strife, which will undoubtedly be created in the throes of the inevitable Bushonian-inspired economic collapse.
Jerry Pournelle - A Nation Of Sheep - good commentary on the growing national security state. Will move here next week. [pournelle]
On the back pages of the LA Times was a bit about how an airplane from Hawaii to Dallas had to stop in Los Angeles to have the bathroom inspected because white powder was found. The passengers were not 'deplaned' and after a bit of time on the ground the airplane went on to Dallas. "It was not disclosed what the powder was." Tooth powder? Talcum? Metamucil?
It is not what Bin Laden can do to us, is is what he can get us to do to ourselves. We are now in the hands of a bunch of incompetent arrogant jerks.
Joe Eldred - Oppose the National ID - a petition to GW opposing a National ID in any form, including slipped in to state driver's licenses. [geneice]
John Rich at KeepAndBearArm.com - Proposed Gun Parts Regulation H.R.3660 - a traitor from New York state has introduced H.R.3660, Ari's Law, "to control the sale of gun kits." It redefines gun from "receiver" to "receiver, barrel, stock, or any part of the action." This bill would require the purchase of any part of a gun to be done through an FFL. Very bad. Fortunately, the bill has no cosponsors. [kaba]
Joel Spolskly - What is Six Degrees? - Quark treated their top developers badly and lost them. They started a new company. Joel thinks they have promise. [joel]
What they came up with is nothing short of a breakthrough in the field of personal knowledge management, an effervescent field that has not quite made it onto the radar of the buzzword maniacs. Six Degrees is gonna be Google for the desktop. Everywhere I look I see people blabbing about how they're going to crack the knowledge management nut. It's like 7 years ago when everybody was making a search engine. But only Larry and Sergey figured out the formula to make search actually work, and only Mark, David, Cameron and Zach figured out the formula for to make knowledge management actually work. This is cool stuff. Ship it already, dammit, I need it yesterday!
