Sunday, August 29, 2004
First of all, my subject line "ˇViva la revolución!" now read "Re: ˇViva el terrorismo!" and the close "compliments for fishing! (the net) ;-)", which was meant as a more general compliment, not just for the links in the previous post. And the text read "so let's support bin laden by smoking a good afghan roll......" Which shows that this guy, Marcus, really has read JDM's column. . . . I prefer not to mention the guy's full name ~~ as he may not want to accompany me (scilicet join me in being deported!) to Guantánamo Bay, where you can break more than a leg on Cape May beach and the sex can become too much also. . . . JDM, nobody should say that I am not a political satirist too. :-) My close: Deportes cubanos y americanos hoy por hoy. . . . Y, esto hay triste que deber decir, islámicos!ˇViva el terrorismo!
Whenever I add one of the more striking posts to this "CB's notewok", a column to my Op-Ed page or any other important item to my websites, I often send an announcement by e-mail to a small number of my closest Internet contacts (and much more rarely to a much much larger number on my mailing list) and include those who are more immediately concerned (it doesn't matter whether they are being caressed or shredded). So I did for "ˇViva la revolución!", the previous post. This is sometimes also supposed to be sort of a test. As it was the case this time. So I had, as a close to my message, used the wording "Fishing for compliments...". Now I got this unexpected and endearingly witty answer from someone:
Posted by Christian Butterbach @ 04:20 AM GMT+1 [Link]
Friday, August 27, 2004
So JDM should be forgiven for having missed a unique opportunity to write about the very far-reaching and all aspects of politics illustrating story (1/2/3/etc.) happening in his home state New Jersey. He was not even nearby, in his new state of residence Pennsylvania. He was in a "cave" in Aruba (look it up on the map!), where he couldn't even see road signs (4,3,2,1), focused as he was on other landmarks. Also, his honeymoon being of the, in manifold ways, still better subsidized kind, or to put it simply, the straight kind, he may not have been the right expert for that other kind of honeymoon, which went down the drain. ˇLa revolución! It should come in thinking first. And one should for instance not consider gays more prone to becoming a victim of blackmail or to mixing sex and politics than straights. Not anymore. And if it ever was the case, who was to blame for it? Certainly not the gays!ˇViva la revolución!
It is difficult to deal with politics during a honeymoon or to organize a revolution or to help to unseat a governor who does not need that help, as he has the talent to do it all alone, or to unseat a Fidel who apparently does not have that kind of talent and can safely rely on wrong U.S. politics to keep him on the throne.
The parting New Jersey governor, in the opinion of some gay activists, made a moving speech, which in my view was an easy way to skip talking about the real guilt, the political one that amply justifies his resigning.
JDM considers him flimsy. It's really a bit much, in our time, to be gay, marry a woman, have a child, a girl, then divorce (thus far there still could be reasonable excuses for all of it), then marry a second time, again a woman, have another child, again a girl, then . . . He did not say that he wants to continue "the same procedure". He did not say "I am bisexual." He said "I am a gay American." To me all this looks more like he took a few shortcuts to a rapid political career. At least, if you look at his wife and his "male affair", he showed excellent taste. He himself is one of those lucky ones that can afford such luxury, offering the same. For pictures see the links at the beginning of this commentary. Extortion attempts are a risk of climbing or mounting such windy Golan heights. Who doesn't know that trips to Israel can be a bit risky? "Body guards" maybe should not be so squeamish and prissy about such things; enough of their kind consider certain intimacies part of their job. . . . The poor harassed guy let himself be imported for many monthly shekels from sandy battle fields to plush offices of a State House. Not to forget those "evenings around the fireplace" in a beautiful historic Princeton mansion.Questionable conduct, shenanigan, on either side, on the governor's in the first place. It's no sign of a very truthful character. But would you really associate an honest character with any politician? Badnarik may be the exception that confirms the rule. Let's thwack the drums (no Scottish etymology here) for his initiatives rather than for those of the other guy, but we may enjoy the irony of it:
There is nothing new under the sun, except the new media. First Families have often had Second Families. . . .
I almost forgot the cigars (Havanas!) and the true revolution (not the Havana one!), civil disobedience. Read all about it, all revealed here (JDM uses hairspray! But he was not in the movie. . . .) in Jonathan David Morris's great insightful weekly guest column:
An Ode to Cuban Cigars
ˇY mi enhorabuena para su casamiento!
PS: If any of my readers is caring for those cigars without a banderole (this tax seal or brand ad streamer around it), why not queue up on November 15 at Trenton or prowl the beach in Cape May? ;-)
For the reasons explained earlier in this weblog, I did not get to announce and maybe comment the four preceding columns by JDM added to my Op-Ed page. So, now, here they are, as quick links: 4,3,2,1.
Posted by Christian Butterbach @ 03:25 PM GMT+1 [Link]
Wednesday, August 25, 2004
Bush and Badnarik
I preferBad and (NotBeatingAboutthe)Bushnarik
A geek as President of the United States is the best thing that could happen to America and therefore to the world. I appreciate that Michael Badnarik seems to be well received in IT circles. An interview was published on CNET News.com on July 22. I read it the next day, started right away to prepare this note, but get to post it only today. In that good month it has not lost a tittle in quality and importance. Let me just quote the answers to two questions:"Q: Congress is becoming more and more interested in enacting new laws in areas like spyware, file-sharing networks and voice over Internet Protocol. If you were running things, what would you do?
A: Basically get Congress out of the Internet completely. The Internet is successful explicitly because it's a free-market-regulated environment. We have freedom of speech and the Internet allows people to express their views quickly and easily. It is a free marketplace of ideas. Web sites spring up by the thousands if not millions on an almost daily basis. The American people have flocked to the Internet in part because it was unregulated. Any attempt by the government to regulate it will destroy or diminish the value of the Internet.
Q: What about people who want regulation or new laws because they'd like to feel safe and comfortable online?
A: You have a responsibility to protect yourself from any threats that you perceive on the Internet. It is not the government's job to regulate just because you have personal concerns."
Attaboy!
Internet surfers to this site probably know what is in their best interest to do next November. And ahead of that date. And it is good to know that their own interest here will be good to all their fellow men. Let's not beat about the bush and beat Bush, as his own interest is well bad for all his and our fellow men.
Posted by Christian Butterbach @ 08:13 PM GMT+1 [Link]
Nipples again
And again considered by Wendy McElroy, not by the Federal Communications Commission. As soothing as breastfeeding is to the baby, as elegant are these legal and libertarian considerations on the matter. Highly recommended reading. As are the following essays by Wendy recently added to my Op-Ed page, but which, as I explained here, I was yet unable to present and comment:Males should become jealous that their nipples are the subject of so little ~ public ~ consideration. Privately, who knows?
But, if it is true, as Wendy says, speaking of public property, that "the argument that breastfeeding is natural and healthy may sway whatever process determines that property's use," then . . .
Men, listen: Having a leak is "natural and healthy" too! And it is done with an organ that, like the other organ, serves more purposes than that. In spite of that, here in Hamburg, Germany, very heavy fines are imposed on those who use public property (trees and bushes, no Bush being around, sad to say for once) for that purpose, at the same moment when almost all public restrooms were closed. Rights and good manners as our sadist State understands them. . . .
Posted by Christian Butterbach @ 07:15 PM GMT+1 [Link]
Tuesday, August 17, 2004
Pregnant with evil?
Republicans in office will not abort in this case, sad to say; on radical principle or something?To get back at symbols and statues (see six posts earlier, on August 4): L. Neil Smith has written one of the most brilliant articles ("Hollow Woman" on two hollow women) ~~ that you are not allowed to miss! ~~ which really shows that Rational Review stands up to its claim to be the "The premier libertarian web journal of politics and culture."
Would you have thunk that at this very instant a former officer of the Libertarian Party (of Colorado, where the party was founded) is Secretary of the Interior (one clear choice among several possibilities! see here) of the United States of America?What then do we still need Badnarik for? To oust her!
Posted by Christian Butterbach @ 09:39 AM GMT+1 [Link]
Sunday, August 15, 2004
It's 2AM, time to get up.
Don't fall asleep again...
"It is not aggressive to carry weapons but it is aggressive to use them for any purpose other than that of defence; therefore it is aggressive to forbid the possession and carrying of weapons, or rather to enforce this prohibition."Who wrote this? L. Neil Smith? Mary Lou Seymour? Thomas Jefferson? :-) Dan Weiner? JDM? . . . No, it's JHM! John Henry Mackay (1864-1933), on page 150 of The Freedomseeker.
So? ~~ Well, keep yourself informed through the Second Amendment link in the ~ E ~ English menu above!
Posted by Christian Butterbach @ 08:42 PM GMT+1 [Link]
Monday, August 9, 2004
"Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we. They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we,"
Bush said last Thursday to top Pentagon brass during a signing ceremony for a new $417 billion defense appropriations bill that includes $25 billion in emergency funding for operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.Source: Capitol Hill Blue and Rational Review News Digest.
Capitol Hill Blue, the Web's oldest political news site, is only one of Doug Thompson's websites, all to be recommended, and this one sports the endearing slogan "Nobody's Life, Liberty or Property is Safe While Congress is In Session"...
Alles klar?
Posted by Christian Butterbach @ 08:45 AM GMT+1 [Link]
Sunday, August 8, 2004
John Henry Mackay, The Freedomseeker, Chapter Five, THE SCEPTIC, is finally online since today, adding to the four previous chapters. It'll continue more rapidly now I guess. The recent bad accident with my eye prevents me from doing arduous work on the PC, but as the main work for this online book was done since a long while (over a year!), I took the opportunity to finish that work now by quick steps, as the little that has still to be added is of such a nature as not to be too tiring on my eyes if I space the work, taking longer than usual rests in between.
Posted by Christian Butterbach @ 07:21 PM GMT+1 [Link]
Friday, August 6, 2004
HIROSHIMA AND NAGASAKI
Hiroshima, 59 years ago exactly to the day today, Nagasaki three days later. They should always be remembered. Government mathematics must be exposed. Perpetual parallels with the despots of today recognized, understood, examined and the "friendly neighbourhood" despots opposed wherever they are. And Bush and the rest ousted... Read this.Posted by Christian Butterbach @ 04:40 PM GMT+1 [Link]
Wednesday, August 4, 2004
August, the dog days, a bad accident, no donations
Even Lady Liberty is not a sultry woman anymore...
So you should not be astonished that there are fewer additions and that some regular ones are somewhat late. And you know how to remedy that...
It is indeed very hot here, I really had an accident, with my eyes, which is rather unfortunate for a job such as mine, I have to be very careful now and reduce my time in front of the monitor. You could help me financially, to improve my hardware/software equipment, allowing me to become more efficient and quicker with everything. To your advantage, when all those many postponed top pages show up!
There are also private obligations these days, sad commemorations. Today the anniversary of my mother, a Leo like Badnarik, in three days the anniversary of her decease 3 years ago.
My faithful companion (since 19 years next month), my tomcat Raffi, almost died two months ago and is since then in very demanding care.
On the positive side, Revelations 3: While for 03-2004 (March) the last traffic figure for this site had been 2,437 (Revelations 2), the figures evolved as follows:
- 03-2004: 2,437
- 04-2004: 2,599
- 05-2004: 2,746
- 06-2004: 2,639
- 07-2004: 2,988
The above figures, by the way, reflect less than the actual traffic, as some parts of the site, due to their exceptional size, are hosted on the server of butterbach2.net in Germany and are not counted by the statistics program of butterbach.net in Florida. I would have to add it manually, but you know, the sultry dog days...
Posted by Christian Butterbach @ 11:23 PM GMT+1 [Link]
Statue of Liberty re-opens
From Indianapolis Star, as reported by RRND:"Tourists now can go only as high as the statue's feet, where they can gaze up through a glass partition at the steel girders bracing the landmark's hollow interior." says the Indianapolis Star. While Thomas L. Knapp, the publisher and editor of Rational Review News Digest comments: "That last sentence just about says it all about American liberty, doesn't it?"
How could I contradict an expert, who is a well-informed American citizen living within that righteous and pompous reserve, sort of inside that Lady?...
Posted by Christian Butterbach @ 09:30 PM GMT+1 [Link]
