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Conservative’s and The Fear of Change

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I have been in some ‘discussions’ with the other side of the political fence. And the first impressions I have received in many of these cases is, one of fear. Having read Why I Am Not a Conservative I quote:

Conservatism proper is a legitimate, probably necessary, and certainly widespread attitude of opposition to drastic change…

…It is that by its very nature it cannot offer an alternative to the direction in which we are moving. It may succeed by its resistance to current tendencies in slowing down undesirable developments, but, since it does not indicate another direction, it cannot prevent their continuance. It has, for this reason, invariably been the fate of conservatism to be dragged along a path not of its own choosing.

It’s no wonder that often the ‘banter’ from the Right so often results in name calling. Much like a child who either does not get his way, or the way is not of his choosing, and is then resisting without being able to give an alternative.

The child in the conservative is unable to cope with change. And the faster the change the more the resistance to change.

We live at Internet speeds, information on so many subjects smacking us in the face all the time. Things like religion being confronted by Science, Politics and truth. Mass Media, and Blogs. All constitute changes that draw fire from the conservatives.

There was a great program on RTE about Petrol Dollars and Petrol Euros and the real reason for the invasion of Iraq. ‘The continuation of American Dominance through the perpetuation of the Petrol Dollar as the foundation of the American Economy.’ Change, creates Fear, fear of what might happen to the U.S. economy which is founded almost entirely on the non renewable resource of oil.

And just like the child, the conservative, who can not offer up an alternative (like alternative energy) the conservatives resist, like a child, clutching onto the bitter end of a dropped stick of candy. Unable to see another new piece to suck on. The conservatives will never see another source of economic stability other than Oil.

So rather than accept change, a change that will come anyway, they would rather kill thousands, rob and pillage billions from others to hold on to their savior, God of Oil.

There will be Petrol Euros, and Evolution is a fact. If we could put all the conservatives into a padded cell until the changes that will happen, do. We are stuck educating the conservatives with the truth. Baby spoons anyone?

Whither we like them or not, such changes are going to happen. Unless we are open-minded enough, meaning liberal enough, to discover alternatives to these changes. we will cease to continue on this planet.

The future will happen without us, if it has to.

Controlling the Messenger

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I have been thinking about censorship for some time. More often it has been in respect to the Internet. But the new CES show is on, and there is a wealth of new XM satellite equipment coming to market. And this is now making ‘radio’ content, a global, one source issue.

I have mentioned before that if you can not control the message, then the next best thing is to control the messenger. This applies for news on the internet, and now news on the XM network. Systems like CNN and BBC have always known this, but as there were multiple channels to crosscheck and verify the quality of information. There was less ability to control the content of the message.

Now that the content can be in a singe channel, XM, and digital. Controlled content can now be sent to places that were unreachable before, even beyond the reach of the internet.

Beyond 1’s and 0’s, or rather between.

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This artical is interesting not because Quantum computers will be faster smaller versions of what we already have. But that they will be able to compute the vast space between Zero (0) and one (1).

Today’s computers work by manipulating bits that exist as either 0s or 1s. What makes quantum computing so powerful is that quantum bits (or qubits) have an infinite choice of values,

Scientific breakthrough a step toward quantum computing from PhysOrg.com
Light is the solution. It’s also the problem. That’s the paradox HP Labs’ Quantum Information Processing Group is beginning to unravel with its research into optical quantum computing. The group has been investigating ways to use photons, or light particles, for information processing, rather than the electrons used in digital electronic computers today. Their work holds promise for someday developing faster, more powerful and more secure computer networks.

[More Here!]

The ‘Liberal’ Press?

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I have been bothered by a recent study the claims to document the ‘Liberal’ bias of the press. And it struck me that the problem here is that word, Liberal. The has been another propaganda word. Spun to mean something bad.

Liberal
broad: showing or characterized by broad-mindedness; “a broad political stance”; “generous and broad sympathies”; “tolerant of his opponent’s opinions”

This is clearly a definition of real America Values like Freedom of Speech and Freedom of Religion In America, to be a good citizen you need to be ‘Liberal’, period! To respect the fact that someone might hold an opinion other than your own. If not for the ‘Liberal’ Press who would represent any opposing view point. The press, were it not Liberal, would be required to represent only one viewpoint. And that wouldn’t be Freedom of the Press

But for most, this is a hard job. But no one said U.S. citizenship was supposed to be easy. To allow someone to shout at the top of their lungs, that which you would oppose at the top of your lungs, takes real effort, real citizenship.

This citizenship seems to be sadly lacking in the Right-Wing blogsphere, and the Republican propaganda machine.

They came for the internet pornography

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I read this article today Keeping kids from nasties on the net and remembered the old recant of They came for the Communist (read Pornographers here)

But then the article about politicians in Australia, continues. “…and other inappropriate material …. This vague and broad inclusion can only mean, well just about everything that they don’t like. The word is Censorship.

This is again going back to the what the right wing of every country is trying to push. No freedom from the ‘Majority’ view, ‘The righteous view’ . It’s ‘Democracy’ at it’s worst, a right wing republican ‘Taliban’ point of view.

If you can’t control the message, control the messenger.

And this leads back to articles I have posted here before, when ICANN halted the ‘xxx’ domain, this would have made filtration of the porn domains easy. But if it was made this easy, it would mean that more sophisticated filters would NOT have to filter all the content on the internet, only the ‘xxx’ domains. If it were that easy, you would not have the ability to block “…other inappropriate material … as deemed by the right wing conservative morally correct politicians.

Read more about internet filters here

History upon a media floats.

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Watching a documentary about underage British soldiers in WWI. They presented many cases of mail, not email but letters, from the soldier to parents and loved ones, and from parents to their children. And it struck me that much of the domestic history we view is wrapped up in letters. Paper letters, written most often longhand, and delivered by whatever postal method existed at the time.

One of the most important archeological artifacts of our time is called The Rosetta Stone. which is really only a set of decrees. Not some piece of literature in a library, but a plain bit of government ‘paperwork’ . It provided a vital key in cross translation that was missing in ancient Egyptian language.

Moving forward, to current times, I look at the way my wife and I treat our emails. I have always kept my in folders in my email system. My wife will always print any important email, then delete everything else in the inbox. She never keeps email electronically. Bill Gates mentioned that the Blu-Ray, HD DVD media will be the last physical media ever produced. And while I doubt this, it brings up an important issue. Who will document us as a people in the future, and with what? If all future media, literature, emails, communications will be stored in ephemeral media electronically or otherwise. What will tell of our stories in the future?

If the electronic history is anything, it is a story of change. Changing protocols formats, (ASCII, Unicode) different document formats, and storage media. If say, I had keep my resume on 8 inch Floppies, who in the future would be able to read my CV on a IBM-3740 format encoded in BCD and what “Rosetta Stone” would they be using?

When is the last time you watched a movie about a lost or misdirected email in a romantic setting. Letters, yes, email not a chance. What if Shakespeare, had written his works in WordStar version 1? Would anyone value a newly discovered e-manuscript? Or even be able to read it? Not a chance. Physical media, substance, printed materials, BOOKS, will survive. They are our future for history.

Massachusetts may have hit upon a weak link in this electronic history when it attempted to standardize on an open document for future government documents. These may prove to be the future Rosetta stone for the historians. A method to remember the meaning of all language translations, or not.
But for now, I think I’m going to stop saving my important documents in PDF. and start printing them on good low acid paper and black ink. (and who said computers would make a paperless office ;-))

World Wide Thanksgiving

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It looks like the entire Blogspace and most of the RSS feeds I read have dried up for American Thanksgiving.

I’m not sure if I’m that grateful. But I’ll get by. If the Republicans are stuffing themselves with turkey, they they won’t be causing any disasters today. Unless excessive flatulence increases global warming or something.

I’m just glad my wife made a pumpkin pie.

Saving the Net, and maybe saving freedom of speech also.

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I just read a great article here: Saving the Net

But it only grazes an issue I mentioned about Internet Censorship. The subject of why politics and Government are moving to control the net, isn’t just a profit motive, it’s about information control. Everyone was fearing that the recent move to U.N control of the Internet was going to amount to turning over control to governments that would censor the information. But failed to realize that the Republican, and hence far Right-wing, have been attempting to control the information on the internet every bit as, say China or North Korea. They may have been correct, but putting it into a larger venue, particularly a bigger political venue would have delayed any consensus about ‘control’, generations into the future.

Selling the President like a used Car salesman

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Somehow this is just wrong. An Unwavering Bush Ally shouldn’t be require to sell Bush issues like a Used Car salesperson. If the Bush can’t sell his Ideas on their own merits, Then they shouldn’t be sold at all.

If Bush wanted to sell broken down Ideas, He should be required to print a disclaimer on the Home Page.

Believing anything on these pages, could be hazardous to your Health, Welfare, Finances, Personal Freedoms, Family and friends.

And it should be a click through requiring you to be 18 years of age or older like a Porn site.