Efficacy
Someone calls your name in a crowd,
And Hafiz, too, begins to look around.
You receive a piece of
Hoped-for foreign mail,
And Hafiz, too,
Becomes so excited to open it.
You lie down with a lover
After many days apart,
And Hafiz will close his eyes
When things get bare and moving,
If you ask.
My dear, there is something
You should think about and that is:
If just an old sweeper of the Tavern
Can truly be so near
And intimate with you,
How extraordinary
Must be your relationship
With - God, God, God!
(I Heard God Laughing: Renderings of Hafiz by Daniel Ladinsky)
Brian Fitzgerald - Borrowing - A poem in the style of Hafiz. Marvelous! [brianf]
John De Rosier at The Albany (NY) Times Union - Move Quickly... Run in a Zigzag pattern to avoid becoming a target... - Cartoon commentary on the effect, in the minds of the Brady Bunch, on the NRA of the DC shootings. I disagree completely with the sentiment expressed, but appreciate the humor.
Energy.xls is a little (13K) spreadsheet I wrote to compute bullet energy and "efficacy". This came out of a discussion at smith2004 where L. Neil Smith defined efficacy as energy in foot pounds times bullet area in square inches. Efficacy is a good way to compare the stopping power of different rounds.
Flash Bunny - (In)Famous Gun Nuts - good animation of five famous "gun nuts". I've probably linked to it before, but it's worth watching again. [smith2004]
John Taylor Gatto - The Underground History of American Education - Mr. Gatto is making his tome available on the web, one chapter per month. There are 8 chapters available now, 10 more to go. Or you can purchase a paper copy of it or one of his other books. From Mr. Gatto's biography page: [smith2004]
He climaxed his teaching career as New York State Teacher of the Year after being named New York City Teacher of the Year on three occasions. He quit teaching on the OP ED page of the Wall Street Journal in 1991 while still New York State Teacher of the Year, claiming that he was no longer willing to hurt children. Later that year he was the subject of a show at Carnegie Hall called "An Evening With John Taylor Gatto," which launched a career of public speaking in the area of school reform, which has taken Gatto over a million and a half miles in all fifty states and seven foreign countries. In 1992, he was named Secretary of Education in the Libertarian Party Shadow Cabinet, and he has been included in Who's Who in America from 1996 on. In 1997, he was given the Alexis de Tocqueville Award for his contributions to the cause of liberty, and was named to the Board of Advisors of the National TV-Turnoff Week.
Joe Blow at Strike the Root - D.C. Sniper: The Good News - the sheeple get some free reality education (unless you're one of the dead or wounded or someone who loves them, then it was definitely not free). [smith2004]
The State is now seen--daily, live, and in color--for what it truly is: bloated, overrated, expensive, inefficient, ineffective, and utterly helpless against a dedicated individual who refuses to play by Leviathan's rules. Millions of Americans have lived in a fog of delusion for decades, believing the lies of the State. Five million metro D.C. residents were recently forced to face the ugly truth: the State cannot protect them from this shooter, or from anyone else. While this used to be common knowledge and well understood, millions of other Americans also recently learned the facts of life the hard way.
Mark Thornton at LewRockwell.com - Voting Against the War on Drugs - Mr. Thornton recommends that New Yorkers vote for Tom Golisano for governor because Mr. Golisano wants to eliminate the Rockefeller drug laws. [lew]
Joseph Sobran - War over Auxiliary Verbs - "could," "would," "may," are Bushnev's reasons for attacking Iraq. Until Hussein actually does something, GW's gotta use that kind of language in his attempt to convince us to initiate the war. [lew]
Saddam Hussein is a "homicidal dictator," a "ruthless and aggressive dictator," a "murderous tyrant," who persecutes his own "civilian population" and has tortured and beheaded opponents. We must "protect our freedom" against the likes of him.
I know lots of people who agree that Hussein is a detestable guy, but I've never met one American who worries about being attacked by him, let alone being enslaved by him. Just how would that work? Many Americans are worried about losing their freedoms these days, but the only danger to freedom they see is the Bush administration, not Iraq. Saddam Hussein couldn't conceivably arrest Americans without warrants, imprison us without trials, and suspend the Constitution. Our own government might.
