End the War on Freedom

It was incredibly windy last night. The power went out around 11pm; tree branch fell on the power line, most likely. I traced the outage back to about a mile and a half from my house, then called the power company. They fixed it during the night. Had to get up to turn out the lights.

From unknown:

When they took the 4th Amendment, I was quiet because I didn't deal drugs. When they took the 6th Amendment, I was quiet because I am innocent. When they took the 2nd Amendment, I was quiet because I don't own a gun. Now they have taken the 1st Amendment, and I can only be quiet. -- Lyle Myhr

From kaba:

I am a retired policeman and firearms instructor, and I believe in gun control. Responsible gun owners should be able to hit where they are aiming. -- Donald E. Clem

Michelle Delio at Wired - 'Lifters': An Idea in the Clouds - anti-gravity for hobbyists. American Antigravity contains more technical info and some videos. [grabbe]

Stephen Wolfram - A New Kind of Science - 10 years, in the making, A New Kind of Science is 1200 pages redefining science with the principle of "computational equivalence". Released today. I ordered a copy (second link). It's reviewed in the June 2002 issue of Wired magazine, not yet available online. From p. 148, the last column of the article:

As dessert is served, I bring up the secret-of-the-universe question. Wolfram's theory that there is a single rule at the heart of everything -- a single simple algorithm that, in effect, generates all the rules of physics and everything else -- is bound to be one of his most controversial claims, a theory that even some of his close friends in physics aren't buting. Furthermore, Wolfram rubs our faces in the dreary implications of his contention. Not only does a single measly rule account for everythinhg, but if one day we actually see the rule, he predicts, we'll probably find it unimpressive. "One might expect," he writes, "that in the end there would be nothing special about the rule for our universe -- just as there has turned out to be nothing special about our position in the solar system or the galaxy."

I have some trouble with this.

"I've got to ask you," I say. "How long do you envision this rule of the universe to be?"

"I'm guessing it's really very short."

"Like how long?"

"I don't know. In Mathematica, for example, perhaps three, four lines of code."

"Four lines of code?"

That's what I'm guessing. I mean, I don't really know, but I think there's no obvious evidence that it's any longer than that. Now, in a sense, it will be short if Mathematica was a well-designed language. It will be longer if it doesn't happen to be as well-designed, in the sense that that doesn't happen to be the way the universe works. But we're not looking at 25,000 lines of code or something. We're looking at a handful of lines of code.

from the Q & A About the book page:

Q: Who should read A New Kind of Science?

A: A New Kind of Science is about big new ideas and discoveries. So anyone who is interested in those kinds of things should find it interesting. It's very much a book about new things. And in the past century or so most new things that relate to science have been described first in a rather technical way. But I've written A New Kind of Science to be completely accessible to a general audience. It's full of pictures (more than a thousand), and using these I've managed (with great effort, I might add) to explain pretty much the whole story of my new science in just plain ordinary language. (There are extensive notes at the back of the book that are somewhat more technical.)

Steve Sebelius at The Las Vegas Review-Journal - Talking about The Issue - a self-proclaimed liberal agrees with his fellow socialists on just about everything, except guns. [kaba]

How far does the Second Amendment go? All the way: A fully automatic AK- 47? You bet. Heckler & Koch MP5, with suppressor? Absolutely. The classic M-14? Can't get enough of them. A Barrett .50-caliber rifle with a round that can rip through a car's engine block like Oscar Goodman through a martini? I'll take two. And toss in the classic Bond piece, the Walther PPK, would you? For formal occasions.

Why would a liberal take this stance? Because the Constitution is clear: We have the right to do it. And I'll let you in on a little secret, too. I don't believe the Second Amendment was written to protect our ability to hunt deer. It's there to make sure no government ever gets so big and oppressive that we turn into slaves. It's there to keep Washington in check, when everything else has failed. It's there to give The Man pause. And I'm glad it is.

Edgar J. Steele at Sierra Times - Guilty of Caring - the lawyer for the Christines, the couple whose kids were kidnapped by the state of Oregon, bemoans their conviction for Robbery, a felony with mandatory minimums. Mr. Steele has no bad things to say about the judge, the prosecutor, or the jury. The system is at fault here. [sierra]

My theme to the jury in this trial was unintended consequences. A system manned by good people, but which produces results that would never have been desired by anybody involved.

I think that the theme of unintended consequences may well apply well beyond the Christines' case, however. In a real sense, I think that is what the whole legal system has become, if not America altogether. Bad things happening to good people as a result of a system that has just gotten out of hand.

There is a sickness extant in America; nay, the world. A sickness evidenced by the stench of unfairness wafting forth from courtroom, legislative hall and corporate boardroom, alike.

...

Consider how Brian and Ruth Christine must feel at this very moment, held in isolation and on suicide watch. They have lost everything....everything. Until yesterday, at least they still had each other. This verdict, however, is a state-mandated divorce, since she will be deported once released from prison and Brian will never be allowed a passport or entry to England (generally, no great loss, but that's where the three oldest Christine girls are, after all). My disconsolance is nothing, compared to theirs, believe me.

Ron Paul's Texas Straight Talk - President Bush Delivers Victory Over UN Court! - three cheers for GW's official withdrawal of the US from the ICC.

The American people won a great victory last week in the ongoing battle to preserve our national sovereignty. On Monday, the administration formally announced President Bush's bold decision to withdraw the United States from the UN International Criminal Court (ICC) treaty. UN bureaucrats have been working quietly for several years to create the ICC, with the ultimate goal of installing an international tribunal that claims jurisdiction over every human on the planet- and judicial supremacy over our own Supreme Court. Given the steady progress of ICC planners to date in convincing about 60 nations to ratify the treaty, the American withdrawal represents a stunning setback for those intent on establishing an international legal system that undermines our Constitution- and a rare but important triumph for American national interests.

Frank Langfitt at The Baltimore Sun - Chinese load up on guns for profit and protection - when the cops are corrupt and guns are illegal, what's a community to do to protect themselves? Make their own guns, of course. Hehe. [smith2004]

The New Yorker - Here's Johnnie - Johnnie Thomas, a seventy-year-old African-American woman, is on the FBI's "no-fly" list because "John Thomas Christopher was one of the aliases used by Christian Michael Longo, who had been arrested on January 13th at a beach camp in the Yucatan and charged with murdering his wife and three children". She gets treated differently each time she flies. All of it no fun. [smith2004]

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