August 2007 Archives

Probably because of the caramelisation around the edges of the cake. I've decided that the best way to eat an angel food cake is to eat all the top crust first, then slice the rest of the cake into flat pieces. The flat pieces can be grilled on low heat to caramelize more of the cake for extra-tasty goodness.

Here are a set of images captured from books in a "Teens Only!" section of the Daniel Boone Branch of the St. Louis County Library District. I'm not going to display the content here, but my question to you is: should these books be considered pornography targeted at minors? The St. Louis Prosecuting Attorney's Office says they're "educational in nature"... which is the standard defined in the law but still begs the question: couldn't kids learn a lot from pornography? Regardless of the legal classification, I think libraries should stay far away from controversial issues and make themselves places where parents can feel safe leaving their children.

And I use quotes in the title because it's not the real thing, but only the appearance of global warming that is caused by A/C units and a Y2K software glitch.

Here's a story of scientific investigation and discovery I'm proud to have had a small part in.

Regular readers may remember that I posted about a climate station in Detroit Lakes MN last week, surveyed by volunteer Don Kostuch, and cross posted it to the website http://www.climateaudit.org/?p=1828#comments that had two air conditioner units right next to it. It looked like an obvious cause and effect because in 1999 on May 5th, it was determined that the a/c units were moved off the roof of the radio station where this station resides and moved them to the ground where the temperature sensor is close by.

However, some folks on the blogosphere just went, well, a little ballistic over that assertion. It was a good thing too, because their very loud and somewhat uncivil complaints led to an examination of this idea: if its not the a/c units, what then did cause the temperature jump at that time?

Follow the links to see the damning evidence. Thanks to jez for the pointer!

The recent brouhaha over Senator Larry Craig (allegedly) trolling for gay sex in a public bathroom highlights an interesting phenomenon: hypocrisy is bad, but why is hypocrisy the only evil the Left is willing to condemn?

The way the Left defines hypocrisy is: you claim X is wrong, but you do X anyway.

In the link above, Jesus defines hypocrisy differently: X is wrong, you claim to agree that X is wrong, but you really don't have any problem with X and are only posing.

(Here's the modern dictionary definition of "hypocrisy".)

You'll notice that Jesus and the Left differ in that to Jesus mere action doesn't prove hypocrisy, because to him hypocrisy is primarily a sin of belief: you don't really believe what you profess. Actions contrary to profession can certainly indicate that you may not believe what you claim to, but they're hardly definitive. How many of us never act against our deeply held beliefs? Acting contrary to belief should most properly be seen as a failure of self-control. "The spirit is willing, but the body is weak."

The Left doesn't see the world this way, because the Left generally doesn't give much credence to "beliefs". The Leftist philosophy is concerned with the moment -- what will give me the result I want now -- rather than with any overarching system of moral structure. The Left doesn't wonder if Senator Craig really does see homosexual acts as wrong, because the idea of self-condemnation is alien to them.

Which brings us to the big point: the Left's obsession with hypocrisy is due to their solipsism. The secular humanist sees no absolute right and wrong, so the only moral leverage he has is that someone, somewhere claims that something is wrong. That claim, however, can only be applied to the person who made it, because the secular humanist will admit to no morality other than what one makes for oneself.

This self-centered philosophy is a forge that can craft only a single weapon: accusations of hypocrisy. The Left can't say "you shouldn't do X because it's wrong", they can only say "you shouldn't do X because you claimed it was wrong".

Considering Senator Larry Craig, does the Left condemn him for seeking adulterous sex? For seeking homosexual sex? For trolling for sex in a public bathroom? For breaking the law? None of the above! Just try getting any Leftist to admit that any of those things are wrong in any absolute moral sense. They never will. If you ask, the only response will be:

"Well, Larry Craig opposed gay marriage, and now he's looking for gay sex in public bathrooms! What a hypocrite."

The title of this post is tongue-in-cheek, but I'm really not sure what to think about American faux pas that sink business deals and offend foreigners.

Globalization has made cross-border business deals more common than ever. But, every day, deals are jeopardized or lost when foreign associates are offended by Americans unaware of other countries' customs, culture or manners, etiquette experts say.

Based on the various mis-steps listed in the article, the main confusion seems to stem from America's flat social structure and culture of directness.

"Americans are way too informal in their dealings with their counterparts abroad, and they end up perceived as uncouth and even obnoxious," says P.M. Forni, a professor of Italian literature and civility at Johns Hopkins University. "Innocence, stupidity or arrogance make them behave in Cyprus the way they would in Cleveland." ...

"Americans often do not realize how dismaying their directness can be for people from different cultures," says David Solomons, chief executive of London-based CultureSmart Consulting. The company has a guidebook series for travelers, and it consults for corporations.

There are times when etiquette and protocol can be beautiful, unifying forces (at a wedding, for instance), but they become burdensome when enforced in day-to-day life. America the melting-pot has vastly reduced the suite of social rules that our immigrants brought with them, generally for the sake of efficiency. As American culture spreads, so will this phenomenon.

From near my old hometown: a Torrence, CA, man gets sentenced to six months in jail for repairing a city-owned fence. Yes, California is completely insane.

He built a fence, a retaining wall, a patio and a few concrete columns to decorate his driveway, and now Francisco Linares is going to jail for it.

Linares had been given six months to get final permits for the offending structures or remove them as part of a plea agreement reached in January, when he pleaded no contest to five misdemeanor counts of violating the Rolling Hills Estates building code.

If he failed to do one or the other, Linares faced six months in county jail. ...

Richard Hamar, Linares' attorney, said he has never heard of anything like this.

"We're talking about fixing a fence that was on city property," he said. "He didn't build a Las Vegas casino. You put a guy in jail for six months because he repaired the city fence?"

The 51-year-old bought the nearly 1-acre property in the 4600 block of Palos Verdes Drive North in 1998. After tearing down an adobe house on the site and building a 3,000-square-foot French-style home, he began landscaping.

When Linares asked the city to repair the white three-railed fence behind his house, he was told it was on his property and his responsibility. So he replaced the termite-infested planks. Then the city reversed itself and said Linares had illegally built the fence on city property.

In October 2004, the city charged Linares with three misdemeanors: for not taking down the fence, having a retaining wall built higher than a 2-foot restriction and for erecting stone columns without a neighborhood compatibility analysis. Later inspections found eight other violations, including a lack of permits for plumbing and grading.

Having lived in Southern California and had occasion to deal with the various city bureaucracies, I can only imagine the headaches Mr. Linares went through trying to comply with the regulations.

At the sentencing, Hamar said his client was a good Christian man who has never committed a crime and who worked diligently - 142 hours - to try to resolve the issues with the city.

And the only reason he was not able to complete the stipulations of the plea agreement, he said, was because of the city's confusing building codes and negligence in rendering a decision on his permit applications.

Jailing this guy is a severe injustice, not to mention all the legal fees he's racking up. Repairing a fence has essentially ruined Mr. Linares' life, and no just society should tolerate such capricious and pointless prosecution.

My car was rear-ended a couple of weeks ago and my car has been in the shop since then. I was hit in the right rear corner, and all the damage was localized in that area. They mechanics gave my car back to me last Friday, but when I got home my wife and I quickly discovered that the right rear wheel was making a strange noise. We took it back to the mechanic this morning and they're saying that the wheel's hub is bent.

First off, is a "hub" a rim? Is it the metal part of the wheel that the tire attaches to? I suppose it's what the "hub cap" covers.

Second, last Friday they told me they aligned all the wheels before I took it home... is it possible to align the wheels without noticing that one of the hubs is bent at a 15 degree angle? This seems like shoddy work to me.

Third, I need to learn more about cars. How?

Update:

Apparently my Honda Civic has an independent read suspension and the hub was grinding against the swing arm of the suspension.

Putting Wikipedia on the map....

(HT: Univers Immedia.)

I talked earlier about a speech by Roy F. Baumeister about how society "uses" men, and one of Dr. Baumeister's central pieces of data was that we who are alive today have far fewer male ancestors than female ancestors. DNA evidence shows that we descend from half as many men as women, largely because of historical functional polygamy.

So, an observation: is the paucity of surnames caused by this disparity? If functional monogamy were more widespread historically, would there be a greater diversity of last names?

Check out the National Education Association's recent manifesto proclaiming it's slavish devotion to orthodoxy, conformity, mediocrity, and the enrichment of teachers at the expense of students, parents, and society. Here's are just a few gems:

A-11. Use of Closed Public School Buildings. The Association believes that closed public school buildings should be sold or leased only to those organizations that do not provide direct educational services to students and/or are not in direct competition with public schools.

Because private schools put public teachers' unions at risk.

A-15. Federal Financial Support of Public Education. The Association opposes any federal legislation, laws, or regulations that provide funds, goods, or services to sectarian schools.

Because private schools put public teachers' unions at risk.

A-24. Voucher Plans and Tuition Tax Credits. The Association opposes voucher plans, tuition tax credits, or other such funding arrangements that pay for students to attend sectarian schools. The Association also believes that any private school or agency that receives public funding through voucher plans, tax credits, or other funding/financial arrangements must be subject to all accountability measures and regulations required of public schools.

Because private schools put public teachers' unions at risk.

A-33. Federally or State-Mandated Choice/Parental Option Plans. The Association believes that federally or state mandated parental option or choice plans compromise free, equitable, universal, and quality public education for every student. Therefore, the Association opposes such federally or state-mandated choice or parental option plans.

Because private schools put public teachers' unions at risk.

B-8. Class Size. The National Education Association believes that excellence in the classroom can best be attained by small class size. The Association also believes in an optimum class size of fifteen students in regular programs and a proportionately lower number in programs for students with exceptional needs.

Because despite the evidence that smaller classes do nothing to improve education, smaller class size means more classes which means more teaching jobs which means more powerful teachers' unions.

B-20. Education of Refugee and Undocumented Children and Children of Undocumented Immigrants. The Association supports access to financial aid and in-state tuition to state colleges and universities. The Association further believes that students who have resided in the United States for at least five years at the time of high school graduation should be granted amnesty by the Immigration and Naturalization Service, granted legal residency status, and allowed to apply for U.S. citizenship.

More students means more teaching jobs which means more powerful teachers' unions.

B-55. Education on Peace and International Understanding. The National Education Association believes that educational strategies for teaching [1] peace and justice issues should include the role of individuals, social movements, international and nongovernmental organizations. The Association also believes that educational materials should include activities dealing with the effects of nuclear weaponry and other weapons of mass destruction, strategies for disarmament, [2] methods to achieve peace. Such curricular materials should also cover major contributing factors to conflict, such as [3] economic disparity, demographic variables, unequal political power and resource distribution, and the indebtedness of the developing world.

1. "Peace and justice issues" are socialist code words for communism.

2. "Methods to achieve peace"... like what? Victory over our avowed enemies? I'd love to see that taught in a public school.

3. Those "factors" (except demographics) are nothing more than socialist talking points, and the "answers" advocated by the public school teachers' institutional religion are nothing more than America-hating propaganda.

B-63. Standardized Testing of Students. The National Education Association believes that standardized tests should be used only to improve the quality of education and instruction for students. The Association opposes the use of standardized tests when -

1. Used as the criterion for the reduction or withholding of any educational funding

2. Results are used to compare students, teachers, programs, schools, communities, and states

3. Scores are used to track students

4. Students with special needs or limited English proficiency are required to take the same tests as regular education students without modifications and/or accommodations.

1. YES, by now we understand that it's all about money. We get it.

2. God forbid that anyone involved in the educational process be held accountable with actual standards... but especially not teachers!

3. Because the public -- who is paying for the education system -- has no reason to know whether its money is being used wisely.

B-75. Home Schooling. The National Education Association believes that home schooling programs based on parental choice cannot provide the student with a comprehensive education experience. When home schooling occurs, students enrolled must meet all state curricular requirements, including the taking of assessments to ensure adequate academic progress. [1] Home schooling should be limited to the children of the immediate family, with all expenses being born by the parents/guardians. [2] Instruction should be by persons who are licensed by the appropriate state education licensure agency, and a curriculum approved by the state department of education should be used.

[3] The Association also believes that home-schooled students should not participate in any extracurricular activities in the public schools.

"We teachers are forced thus far to tolerate home-schooling, but let's put so many limits on it that no one will do it."

1. Parents teaching their own children are bad enough, but since teachers can't stop that at least they hope to prevent non-teachers from competing in their job space by ensuring that non-teachers can't teach anyone but their own kids. Plus, don't forget the money angle; these parents will have to fund the public school system through taxes and bear all the costs of educating their own kids at home.

2. Just to be sure that teachers have their fingers in everything, let's give them authority over what parents teach their kids.

3. And make sure home-schooled kids aren't allowed to associate with the rest of us.

D-8. Hiring Policies and Practices for Teaching Positions. The National Education Association believes that hiring policies and practices must be nondiscriminatory and include provisions for the recruitment of a diverse teaching staff.

By "nondiscriminatory" the teachers mean, of course, that the policies should discriminate in favor "diverse" (non-white, non-straight) applicants.

D-21. Competency Testing of Licensed Teachers. The National Education Association believes that competency testing must not be used as a condition of employment, license retention, evaluation, placement, ranking, or promotion of licensed teachers.

Yes, we get it, how many times do you have to tell us that you don't want to have to demonstrate your competence?

E-10. Academic and Professional Freedom. Academic freedom includes the rights of teachers and learners to explore and discuss divergent points of view. A teacher shall not be fired, transferred, or removed from his or her position for refusing to suppress the free expression rights of students. Professional freedom includes the teachers' right to evaluate, criticize, and/or advocate their personal point of view concerning the policies and programs of the schools. Furthermore, teachers must be free to depart from mandated scripted learning programs and pacing charts without prejudice or punishment.

Because unelected, untested, unaccountable government employees are the most qualified people to decide what your kids learn.

H-7. National Health Care Policy. The National Education Association believes that affordable, comprehensive health care, including prescription drug coverage, is the right of every resident. The Association supports the adoption of a single-payer health care plan for all residents of the United States, its territories, and the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico.

Right, you're socialists, we know. This is related to education how? Nice catch on the "resident" instead of "citizen", too.

H-11. Statehood for the District of Columbia. The Association supports efforts to achieve statehood for the District of Columbia.

Why? Because it somehow relates to education, or because it would create two new Democrat Senators and a new Democrat Representative?

I-1. Peace and International Relations. The Association urges all nations to develop treaties and disarmament agreements that reduce the possibility of war. The Association also believes that such treaties and agreements should prevent the placement of weapons in outer space. The Association believes that the United Nations furthers world peace and promotes the rights of all people by preventing war, racism, and genocide.

The Association hasn't been paying attention to the UN recently, then. UN "peacekeepers" seem mostly occupied raping local girls and smuggling drugs and oil, and funneling money to tyrants.

I-2. International Court of Justice. The Association urges participation by the United States in deliberations before the court.

I-3. International Criminal Court. The Association believes that the United States should ratify the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court and recognize and support its authority and jurisdiction.

So America can be put in its place by our moral superiors like Cuba, Venezuela, and Iran.

I-13. Family Planning. The National Education Association supports family planning, including the right to reproductive freedom. The Association also urges the implementation of community-operated, school-based family planning clinics that will provide intensive counseling by trained personnel.

But wait... wouldn't abortion reduce the number of students, and thus teachers? I don't think you gals have thought this through.

I-18. Immigration. The Association opposes any immigration policy that denies educational opportunities to immigrants and their children regardless of their immigration status.

There we go... more students means more teachers means more power for the unions.

I-28. Freedom of Religion. The Association opposes any federal legislation or mandate that would require school districts to schedule a moment of silence.

It's obvious that the NEA will never shut up.

New I. Global Warming. The National Education Association believes that global warming causes significant measureable damage to the earth and its inhabitants. The Association also believes that humans must take steps to change activities that contribute to global warming. The Association supports environmentally sound practices that abate global warming and its effects.

Hey, a whole new lever to push socialism on America!

Anyway, as you can see, the NEA and the teachers and unions it represents are actively hostile to conservative American values such as Christianity, capitalism, liberty, and the rule of law. Do you really want these folks teaching your kids? They know you don't, which is why they work so hard to enshrine their power into law.

In addition to Dwarf Fortress, The Independent Gaming Source points to a slew of other entertaining and interesting independent games. I've enjoyed Flow and Warning Forever, and there are a few others I'm going to try this evening if I have a chance.

ThinkGeek is selling aluminum chain mail, bringing AC 5 to the masses (of geeks).

I don't see any reason why aluminum wouldn't be a good material for chain mail. Lighter and easier to maintain than teel or iron, even if not as strong. Where's the titanium chain mail?!

My brother also sent me an article about a Chinese couple who wanted to name their child "@" (to the consternation of the State Language Commission). Most interesting to me is the distinct likelihood that whether or not the authorities allow the unusual name, the record-keeping software they use probably won't.

More and more these days I've noticed that our choices, public and private, are limited by what our software allows us to do. Most software won't accept as input a name with strange characters, and none will accept arbitrary symbols like that formerly used by the Artist-Formerly-And-Now-Once-Again-Known-As-Prince. Using standards makes software development easier, but "simple to build into software" is not a requirement that human societies naturally conform to.

This phenomenon is especially noticeable when human interactions are mediated by software. For instance: wasting five minutes to get past an automated phone system to get a ten-second answer from a human; or ordering a computer from Dell and not being able to select certain components because they simply aren't on the list. Further examples abound, from data entry to transaction processing to borrowing a book from the library.

Once a computerized system is in place, human operators generally refuse to take any actions outside the boundaries prescribed by the software, giving the software's arbitrary constraints near-absolute power. No one wants to deal with software that's out of sync with reality because of some out-of-bounds activity, so no one breaks the rules and everyone endures their chains because at least their severely-curtained choices can be executed twice as efficiently.

My brother sent me a link to a speech by Roy F. Baumeister titled "Is There Anything Good About Men?" in which the professor explains that while society has "used" women, it has "used" men far more harshly.

Nor is this about trying to argue that men should be regarded as victims. I detest the whole idea of competing to be victims. And I’m certainly not denying that culture has exploited women. But rather than seeing culture as patriarchy, which is to say a conspiracy by men to exploit women, I think it’s more accurate to understand culture (e.g., a country, a religion) as an abstract system that competes against rival systems — and that uses both men and women, often in different ways, to advance its cause. ...

When I say I am researching how culture exploits men, the first reaction is usually “How can you say culture exploits men, when men are in charge of everything?” This is a fair objection and needs to be taken seriously. It invokes the feminist critique of society. This critique started when some women systematically looked up at the top of society and saw men everywhere: most world rulers, presidents, prime ministers, most members of Congress and parliaments, most CEOs of major corporations, and so forth — these are mostly men.

Seeing all this, the feminists thought, wow, men dominate everything, so society is set up to favor men. It must be great to be a man.

The mistake in that way of thinking is to look only at the top. If one were to look downward to the bottom of society instead, one finds mostly men there too. Who’s in prison, all over the world, as criminals or political prisoners? The population on Death Row has never approached 51% female. Who’s homeless? Again, mostly men. Whom does society use for bad or dangerous jobs? US Department of Labor statistics report that 93% of the people killed on the job are men. Likewise, who gets killed in battle? Even in today’s American army, which has made much of integrating the sexes and putting women into combat, the risks aren’t equal. This year we passed the milestone of 3,000 deaths in Iraq, and of those, 2,938 were men, 62 were women.

One can imagine an ancient battle in which the enemy was driven off and the city saved, and the returning soldiers are showered with gold coins. An early feminist might protest that hey, all those men are getting gold coins, half of those coins should go to women. In principle, I agree. But remember, while the men you see are getting gold coins, there are other men you don’t see, who are still bleeding to death on the battlefield from spear wounds.

That’s an important first clue to how culture uses men. Culture has plenty of tradeoffs, in which it needs people to do dangerous or risky things, and so it offers big rewards to motivate people to take those risks. Most cultures have tended to use men for these high-risk, high-payoff slots much more than women. I shall propose there are important pragmatic reasons for this. The result is that some men reap big rewards while others have their lives ruined or even cut short. Most cultures shield their women from the risk and therefore also don’t give them the big rewards. I’m not saying this is what cultures ought to do, morally, but cultures aren’t moral beings. They do what they do for pragmatic reasons driven by competition against other systems and other groups.

That's just the intro, but I bet the rest will interest you too.

(HT: TierneyLab.)

I've still been playing Dwarf Fortress, and it recently got a nice spread in Games for Windows magazine.

I'm on my third fortress right now, and this time I decided to go all-out and head straight for the magma so I could easily make steel. Heck yeah. My fortress is huge and awesome, and none of the various monsters have been able to touch me yet. I'm still waiting for a goblin siege or some magma men, but so far nothing!

Here's my current fortress Ducimalis. This is the first time I've made it to the magma, and I dug straight for it, getting my magma smelter up and running during my first winter. So far the chasm and river monsters haven't caused me many problems, and I haven't seen any magma men. My economy is booming, and I really need more dwarves to help me expand further!

(HT: Ellipsoid and the Wandering Pocket and Dubious Quality, two other DF bloggers.)

Despite our perception living in America, Christians are still the world's most persecuted group of people and face widespread violence and subjugation. It's hard to fathom this sometimes, but one of my friends from church pointed me to the website of The Voice of the Martyrs magazine that helps lend a little sobering perspective. If you're interested, you can also sign up with their affiliated site, PrisonerAlert, and get email updates about Christians who are jailed for their beliefs.

Around the world today Christians are being persecuted for their faith. More than 70 million Christians have been martyred for their faith since 33 AD. This year an estimated 160,000 believers will die at the hands of their oppressors and over 200 million will be persecuted, arrested, tortured, beaten or jailed. In many nations it is illegal to own a Bible, share your faith, change your faith or allow children under 18 to attend a religious service.

I may as well cover this story since I'm in Los Angeles today: the AP headlines it "Immigration Activist Deported to Mexico", but I think my title above is more appropriate.

An illegal immigrant who took refuge in a Chicago church for a year to avoid being separated from her U.S.-born son has been deported to Mexico, the church's pastor said.

Elvira Arellano became an activist and a national symbol for illegal immigrant parents as she defied her deportation order and spoke out from her religious sanctuary. She held a news conference last week to announce that she would finally leave the church to try to lobby U.S. lawmakers for change.

She had just spoken at rally Los Angeles rally when she was arrested Sunday outside Our Lady Queen of Angels church and deported, said the Rev. Walter Coleman, pastor of Adalberto United Methodist Church in Chicago, where Arellano had been living.

The churches involved should be ashamed of themselves, being more concerned with their personal concept of "social justice" than with the commands of the Bible.

Romans 13:1-7

1Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God. 2Consequently, he who rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves. 3For rulers hold no terror for those who do right, but for those who do wrong. Do you want to be free from fear of the one in authority? Then do what is right and he will commend you. 4For he is God's servant to do you good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword for nothing. He is God's servant, an agent of wrath to bring punishment on the wrongdoer. 5Therefore, it is necessary to submit to the authorities, not only because of possible punishment but also because of conscience. 6This is also why you pay taxes, for the authorities are God's servants, who give their full time to governing. 7Give everyone what you owe him: If you owe taxes, pay taxes; if revenue, then revenue; if respect, then respect; if honor, then honor.

The doctrine of submitting to earthly authority does open some legitimate doors for discussion (e.g., was the American Revolutionary War justified?) but no Christian can reasonably deny that a nation has the right to control what foreigners it allows over its borders. These churches and their pastors either don't care about the Bible, or are incredibly ignorant. Ministering to all comers is one thing, but actively working to undermine law and order is another.

As for "activist" Elvira Arellano herself, she's nearly as despicable.

"She has been deported. She is free and in Tijuana," said Coleman, who said he spoke to her on the phone. "She is in good spirits. She is ready to continue the struggle against the separation of families from the other side of the border."

Her 8-year-old son, Saul, is now living with Coleman's family. During a news conference in Los Angeles after Arellano's arrest, the boy hid behind the pastor's wife and wiped away tears.

I find it hard to credit Arellano's "struggle against the separation of families" considering how quickly she abandoned her son instead of taking him back to Mexico with her. Using a child to score political points in this manner is depraved and tragic, and the parties involved have no honor and are certainly not being guided by Christian love.