Entries Tagged 'the human condition' ↓
March 7th, 2010 — FAIL, 1389, the human condition, liberal, humor
The above photo of protesters at the University of Washington is from Twitpic via Instapundit. Kudos to rickl at Grouchy Conservative Pundits for alerting me to it.
What these manifestly ignorant clowns FAIL to comprehend is that we each have a duty…not a right, but a DUTY…to educate OURSELVES to the best of our ability.
Long ago, I observed that each human being is issued one (1) human head…one cranium per customer.
Given that we don’t all share the same head and brain, it behooves each of us to USE the faculties with which we have been endowed, and NOT put the burden on teachers, parents, the government, or anybody else to do all the work of instilling knowledge and wisdom into us.
In a nutshell, the assertion, “But nobody ever TOLD me that!” is not a valid excuse for failure to cope with life.
Having been given powers of observation and cognition, it’s our job to go out and collect data about the world around us, to distill it into knowledge, and, insofar as is possible, to make a contribution to the wisdom available to humankind.
If we don’t, we have ourselves to blame.
February 21st, 2010 — George Soros, taxes, economic collapse, evil, tyranny, secession, media, IT profession, military, politics, U.S. Congress, the human condition, American South, 1389, blogging
Desperate Unemployed Software Engineer Attacks IRS Office Building
By now, many readers will have heard the news story about pilot Joseph Stack having crashed a small plane into the IRS office building in Austin Texas (for details, see Fox News, Pilot Crashes Into Texas Building in Apparent Anti-IRS Suicide.)
The Inevitable Media Reaction
Whenever anything like this happens, the same kinds of articles tend to appear in the media and on blogs. There are the articles that, often with a self-righteous tone, wax eloquent about the horrific nature of the act, the despicable character of the attacker, and (often) the pristine innocence of the victims. Given that the victims in this event were IRS employees, little has been said about them in the media.
Then there are those other articles that sympathize with the attacker’s motives, ideology, or political stance, but condemn the attacker’s use of violence. Here again, I haven’t seen much of that this time around. Joseph Stack’s manifesto encompassed such a mixed bag of grievances, accusations, and quotations that it is impossible to tell where in the political spectrum he was coming from. I suspect that he himself had no clear idea.
Finally, there are articles calling out for more and more government legislation, regulation, or law enforcement to prevent any similar incidents from occuring in the future. In this instance, there were acknowledgements that it is all but impossible to prevent this type of suicide attack, but no amount of reasoning or common sense ever seems to stop the flood of demands for draconian repressive measures.
The “Powers That Be” Knew Something Like This Was Bound To Happen
No matter where you live in the world, you know that the worldwide economy has been bad for over two years, and there is no improvement in sight. The rot started in the US, largely due to actions on the part of the US government and various corrupt oligarchs, such as George Soros. The collapse and supposed “bailout” were engineered by various corrupt politicians and financiers to take money out of our pockets and put it into their own. Everything done by the US Congress and the Obama administration has served only to deepen the depression. From here, the economic rot has spread worldwide; two notable examples are Iceland and Greece.
Then there’s the issue of the U.S. economy having been hollowed out by outsourcing, offshoring, and the H-1b visa program. This has had a particularly devastating effect on the American middle class in general, and the American IT worker in particular.
Even with the real unemployment rate in many areas of the US matching or exceeding that of the 1930s Great Depression, it is truly scandalous that the H-1b program remains in effect. This insures that any effort on the part of American IT workers to get jobs, or to retrain themselves for future jobs in the industry, are doomed to come to naught.
The H-1b program never had anything to do with aiding the competitiveness of US firms in global markets; that ship sailed away years ago. Instead, the H-1b program is simply a testimony to the power of multinational technology megabusinesses to deceive, corrupt, and intimidate US elected officials. (Please see IT Business Edge: AFL-CIO Report Takes Critical Look at H-1B Visa Program for more on this issue.)
How is this relevant to the story? The attacker, Joseph Stack, was an unemployed IT worker who was also bedeviled by a long battle with the IRS and, apparently, ensuing difficulties with his home life. I would like to point out that the overwhelming majority of people faced with such situations never “go postal” or resort to any form of violence. But the US government has enough statistics and historical data at its disposal to know that, whenever a large group of people is pushed too far into desperation, a tiny percentage of them will go over the edge.
Let me make it clear that I am NOT claiming that anybody connected with the US government knew ahead of time that this particular individual, Joseph Stack, would do what he did. I said no such thing, nor did I mean to imply it. But I do intend to say that the US government knew that it was only a matter of time before someone whose life had been destroyed by government policies would commit a high-profile violent act.
The “Powers That Be” Could Have Prevented It Without Repressive Measures
The US Congress and the Obama administration could cut unemployment significantly just by eliminating the H-1b program, but they do not. Part of the reason why H-1b remains in effect is simply because the Obama administration not only is thoroughly corrupt, but also is engaged in a covert war to disempower, plunder, and eventually eliminate most of the US middle class. In other words, the Obama administration is not going to do anything to help out a segment of the population that does not provide the Democrat party with significant political or financial support.
But that’s not the only reason. Whenever anyone who is not part of the administration’s political support base reacts to oppression by becoming violent, this violent act provides those in power with a convenient excuse both to discredit their political opponents and to increase government control by cracking down on everybody by any means available.
If Violence Is Not The Answer, What Is?
Supposed “democratic election” or no, recent polls in the US have made it clear that neither the Obama administration nor the US Congress enjoy the consent of the governed, in any sense of the word. The US economy remains in free fall with no recovery in sight, and with the levels of debt and irresponsible spending being what they are, little possibility of recovery in the lifetime of anybody old enough to read this blog. Glenn Beck proclaimed that we don’t need a revolution; we’ve already had one. He is correct that we don’t need a “revolution” in that sense, but incorrect that we have already had one. The American Revolution in 1776 was not really a revolution in the usual sense, but a war of secession. What we need now is not revolution, but secession, and not just one secession, but perhaps fifty of them. And if enough people understand what they want, secession need not involve bloodshed.
Keep watching this blog for more about secession.
Here we go again, this time with the “Pentagon Shooter”
Michelle Malkin has the story here: About the Pentagon shooter - Update: Stop playing games, MSM. John Patrick Bedell was a registered Democrat
February 4th, 2010 — 2008 US Elections, Obama, McCain, smiley, 1389 Blog - Antijihadist Tech, the human condition, Clinton, 1389, blogging
Yes, we’re still around…
As I have mentioned elsewhere, we unfortunately no longer have the time, energy, or resources to devote to blogging that we once had in the past. Political blogging takes a heavy, and often a truly staggering, personal and professional toll on anybody who does it. Moreover, I have had some severe health issues and have had to cut back on certain activities, so it is a matter of priorities. Thus, in recent months, we have been blogging on a very infrequent basis.
When the 2008 US presidential election came down to Hillary, McCain, and Obama, followed by the worldwide economic collapse, it became clear to us that there was not much more that we could contribute by blogging at the same rate as we had previously been doing. Fortunately, we had reached the point where all of the points that we have been trying to make are also being made by many other bloggers, and even by a few conservative journalists and other public figures. We do not aspire to be acknowledged as the leaders of any particular movement.
Therefore, at this point, we have decided to post an article only when we have something to say that nobody else is already saying.
We do welcome your comments and feedback.
June 9th, 2007 — 1389, the human condition, meme, humor, blogging
I just now visited The World According to Carl, which is another blog in the Hillbilly Ecosystem.
There I saw a post entitled 8 Things. It’s a blogging game, and the rules are as follows:
Players start with 8 random facts about themselves. Those who are tagged should post these rules and their 8 random facts. Players should tag eight other people and notify them that they have been tagged.
Okay, here are eight random facts about 1389, the admin of this blog:
- One of my few pleasant memories from elementary school was the Bell Labs series of science documentaries, including Our Mr. Sun.
- I used to take care of the birds and snakes for a small zoo in Ohio.
- I once worked on an IBM 1401 Autocoder conversion. My, that goes back a ways…and that wasn’t even my first programming job.
- I once saw a tornado…from the inside. Not an experience I would care to repeat.
- My maternal grandfather made his own beer during Prohibition.
- My father drove a soft drink truck during the Depression.
- My first computer was an IBM PC with two floppy drives, a green monochrome monitor, and an Epson dot-matrix printer, which cost me roughly five thousand dollars. To do graphics, I added a CGA board and used an RF modulator to route the results to an old black-and-white television set.
- Many years ago, I lived and worked in downtown Chicago. At that time, I remember that there was a herd of stray cats living near the train tracks under the old U.S. Post Office building. I found out because I saw someone in an office building elevator who was bringing them food.
Now I have to find eight other bloggers to pass this along to. If you’re a blogger and you don’t have time to deal with this, I’ll understand; otherwise, I invite you to give it a try. This is an opportunity for us bloggers to get more acquainted with one another, and for the public to get to know us a little better.
If you are seeing this blog post now and you feel like joining in, consider yourself “tagged” by 1389!
Update #1: I did manage to send the tag out to eight other bloggers, but not all at the same time. Hardware problems intervened, and I can no longer recall everyone who was on the list. Oh, well…
Update #2: Here are some random links from the same chain, both before and after me:
Technorati tags:
1389
blogging
humor
meme
the human condition
June 5th, 2007 — the human condition, Jenn Sierra (author), cyberwars, conservative, search engine, Web 2.0, politics, culture wars, Google
If you are not a liberal when you’re 25 you have no heart, and if you’re not a conservative when you’re 45, you have no brain.
This saying, sometimes credited to Winston Churchill, seems to hold a bit of universal truth, as does the notion that the young people of a generation affect change, while the older folks lend stability. This certainly seems to be the case when it comes to politics online in the 21st century (allowing, of course, for exceptions such as the Young Republicans clubs and the die-hard hippies).
Web 2.0 technology affects our lives online in the form of blogs, online citizen journalism sites (social news), wiki’s, folksonomies, social networking sites, collaborative bookmarking sites, podcasts, aggregators (e.g. RSS), semantic web, collaborative software, and other online scenarios in which users create and share content such as graphics, news, informatio
n, technology, creative writing, software, photos, and videos. The original World Wide Web gave us the opportunity to share information by posting what we had to say, and by reading what others had to say. Web 2.0 takes that concept to the next level, by giving users the opportunity to collectively influence what information is available and how the information is distributed.
Today’s twenty-somethings grew up online, and generally seem to be more intuitively tech-savvy and more comfortable with online collaboration than those of us that are older (“older,” in this case meaning anyone over 35!). It is no wonder, then, that there is a noticeable liberal/progressive majority in the politics discussions of any of the social networking sites, which extensively utilize the newest technologies and the art of collaboration.
Largely due to Web 2.0 technology as well as increasingly interactive search engines, there is a growing body of knowledge online that is taking on a life of its own, and it is very influential. Features such as Google PageRank assure that the majority view of any issue is likely to be the first available information on any given topic. Anyone interested in the accuracy of the information that is being disseminated online, needs to have a voice in this increasingly important global discussion.
As conservatives, we need to understand and utilize Web 2.0 technology if we want this body of knowledge to even partially reflect our values, attitudes, respect for history, and vision for the future.
(Go to Part 2 of 3)
(Go to Part 3 of 3)
Technorati tags:
conservative
culture wars
cyberwars
Google
Jenn Sierra (author)
politics
search engine
the human condition
Web 2.0
June 3rd, 2007 — counterjihad, MSM corruption, Serbia, the human condition, virtues, Israel, current events
It’s not about looks, bodily stature and strength, celebrity, power, or wealth.
It’s all about emotional and spiritual fortitude.
With all of the public-apology-fests we hear about these days, from the unspeakably hypocritical Don Imus brouhaha to the flying TB patient, it’s getting harder and harder to find folks who can repent of their own wrongdoing before they have been put under pressure by civil authorities, media hounding, public disgrace, or all of the above. Were this merely a personal spiritual issue for those who cannot turn aside from the wrong path they have chosen, it would be bad enough.
But when those who cannot repent are public figures, the slippery slope to destruction grows broad enough to encompass us all.
This is why the defamation of the Serbs never seems to end. I am talking about the US/NATO/EU government officials and bureaucrats, the NGO/”think tank”/academia frauds, the mainstream media people, and everybody else who has played a part in this over the last decade and a half (and more). The New York Times is one recent example; see Still Slandering Serbia.
The accusers keep sticking to their wrongheaded story–no matter how obvious it becomes that the U.S. has been fighting on the wrong side, on behalf of the Muslim jihadists in the Balkans.
It’s true that too many of them have built their career on Serb-bashing. But there’s another reason why these high-placed Serb-bashers dare not recant. It’s because they have caught themselves in their own trap.
Lying is the lubricant that keeps the machinery of evil in motion. But now, the perpetrators can’t get off their own runaway train. Nor can they let the rest of us off.
In the name of “justice,” they relentlessly demanded draconian punishments for any Serbs accused of real or fictitious war crimes. Now the tragic irony is that these accusers cannot recant their own false allegations without inviting the same harsh fate for themselves that they have been demanding for the Serbs.
Lies have consequences. Their own false allegations against the Serbs resulted in a very real genocide against the Serbs. If these Serb-bashers were ever to admit they had been wrong, they would have reason to fear that, at some point–maybe years from now, maybe sooner–they would be called to account, and would find no more mercy than what they themselves had dealt out to the Serbs. And that is what they are truly most afraid of.
Stein hoists to these valiant bloggers:
Thanks to all of you for having the courage to discuss this issue. Sadly, I too must admit that it took me way too long to understand what was going on.
Technorati tags:
1389
counterterrorism
current events
jihadism
MSM corruption
politics
Serbia
the human condition
virtues
May 25th, 2007 — immigration, the human condition, offbeat news, Canada, Florida, humor, animals, photos
May 23rd, 2007 — the human condition, counterjihad, incivility, crime, conservative, culture wars, politics, military, virtues, Internet
If you aren’t familiar with William A. Whittle and the Eject!Eject!Eject! website, you’re missing one of the best writers on current trends from an historical perspective. His understanding of the issues of war and defense is spot on.
You Are Not Alone, Part 1 and Part 2 is a long article, but so thought-provoking, and, dare I say, inspiring, that it is worth dropping whatever else you are doing to take the time to read it now.
Read it, think about it for awhile, and read some of the other articles on Whittle’s site. He has an intriguing, and I believe correct, comprehension of the real purpose behind, and need for, those efforts and struggles that so often seem lonely and futile.
Comments are open, both here and on Whittle’s site.
Technorati tags:
1389
conservative
counterterrorism
incivility
inspiration
culture wars
jihadism
military
politics
the human condition
virtues
