Month: January 2009

Evil Fictional Corporations

by

Via Instapundit comes this review of science fiction movies at Popular Science. The review of the movie “Moon” caught my eye:

 In this space drama, Sam Rockwell plays a lonely lunar miner who is nearing the end of a multi-year contract. With communication satellites down, he’s cut off from the outside world, with little to keep him company other than a Kevin Spacey–voiced computer named Gerty (and his own demons, naturally). While the space dramas of the ’70s and ’80s were dominated by acid-spewing aliens, this movie’s monster is scarier yet: a negligent corporate bureaucracy. [Emph. added.]

WTF? You set a movie on the freaking Moon and the scariest, most dramatic conflict you can come up with involves tight-fisted accountants? Who’s going to be the scary monster in the sequel, those weenies in marketing? 

This follows a pronounced trend I have seen in popular entertainment: Corporations are always portrayed as evil. This is especially true in entertainment aimed at young people, such as animation and video games. 

Read more

The British Police Are Sifting Through Facebook

by

The headline reads “Police tackle Internet knife gangs“, but it is completely false.

It seems that the cops in the UK are looking at profiles in Facebook and other popular Internet sites. If they see a picture of someone posing with a knife, a picture taken in a public place, then they go arrest the miscreant. It would appear that simply having a knife in public is enough to have the full weight and power of the law come down on your head. The police can arrest you, and the courts will convict you, even if there isn’t any reason for them to suspect you are up to no good with that knife.

It is legal to own knives as long as you keep them at home, but that doesn’t stop the cops. Even though no law has been broken, they still will lecture the poor knife owning bastard and confiscate his legally bought and held possession.

Notice, if you will, that there is no hint that a gang is involved. The cops are targeting people who want to look tough in a picture on a social networking site, not criminals. What gang? Where are the gangs? There aren’t even any “Internet gangs”, just some isolated kids!

Let us consider this as yet another reason why I thank God every day that I was born an American.

(Hat tip to Milo, who seems to have morphed into my go-to info source for British government overreach.)

Clausewitz, On War, Book 2, Concluding Comments

by

Time constraints as usual are not allowing me to participate like I would wish to in this fascinating discussion.

Just a few comments, a bit disjointed perhaps, but here goes:

First, the “tactical nature” of victory.  Fighting is the means for tactics and military victory is the end, whereas military victory is the means for strategy whose end is the return to peace with the political purpose attained  (Book 2, ch 2).   Of course either side could forestall peace for whatever reason, seeing the continuation of (relatively low-level) hostilities as more advantageous than concluding peace.  This brings up potentially other problems as referred to in Section 3, Ch 1, Book 1.  In any case, a four-star general who says that he didn’t plan for “Phase IV” operations should be busted to private and expected to clean latrines for the duration.  You would only have to do this once, and the effect on strategic thought and its interaction with planning would be only beneficial.

Read more

Rocketing to Hell

by

Did you guys see this?

Seems the European Union is attempting to establish a “European Criminal Records Information System”. The idea is to share information concerning criminal convictions between the member states, and the lack of a program to do this was first noted in the European Council Declaration on Combating Terrorism of 25 and 26 March 2004.

A criminal database is something I heartily approve of, particularly when dealing with all of those little bitty countries that make up the EU. Far too many hardened criminals would slip through the cracks if the police and courts don’t know their past history. In fact, I’m wondering why it took the member nations five years to get off their collective backsides and get around to actually taking action.

But I was taken aback when I looked over the categories of offenses that would make up the data entered into the database. The sheer number of offenses is staggering, taking up at least half of the PDF file I linked to above. And some of them are not anything that I would consider a crime.

For example, number 0200-00 is “Knowingly taking part in the non-criminal activities of a criminal organization”. So that means lawyers who defend gangsters in court are considered criminals?

I was also intrigued by the way that the listed crimes illuminated, if not the actual conditions in the EU, then at least the fears of the people who live there. Section 0400 concerns “trafficking in human beings”, which should most certainly be a crime. But there are eight separate crimes listed! Simply trafficking in humans isn’t enough, they have to break it down.

Take a look at 0403-00, which is “Trafficking in human beings for the purposes of organ or human tissue removal”. That is certainly scary enough, but 0407-00 is reserved for those who kidnap children to remove their organs! What the hell, is Europe turning into one big horror movie? A horror movie where, thanks to draconian gun control laws (section 0500), all of the victims are unarmed? Consider this the next time you plan a vacation overseas.

It isn’t until section 8 where we see violent crimes against individuals crop up. 0807-00 is all about “Offences related to committing suicide”. Take my word for it, if they manage to break this particular law then punishing them is a waste of time.

If you want to see just where the EU is going, then take a look at sections 1205-00 and 1206-00. Both of them say that it is a crime to “insult” the State, the Nation, the symbols of the State or Nation, or representatives of the State/Nation. Does this mean that it is considered a crime if someone writes an op-ed that is disparaging of a politician? Sure sounds like it.

I could go on for awhile, but you get the idea. Click on this link and take a look for yourself.

Keep in mind that this is simply a list of offenses where someone has already been found guilty. It is not a list of new laws, nor is it a sentencing guideline. But if this is an accurate snapshot of what the EU considers to be crimes, then it is probably too late for them.

(Cross posted at Hell in a Handbasket. Hat tips go to Milo and the Libertarians.)

Blogo-Sphere

by

Today the crazed Illinois governor Blogo went on national TV to attempt to sway public opinion. We taped the various shows, and having watched Illinois politics for a lifetime, sat down and watched this totally amazing spree.

Geraldo ambushed the governor on the way to “The View” and actually let him off pretty easy. On his lawyer’s leaving:

It was like rats jumping off a sinking ship!

On “Chicago Tonight”, the great Chicago public television news program, Dennis Culloton, who represented our former incarcerated governor George Ryan as press secretary, when asked if he’d represent Blogo:

I would have to say no for the same reason his attorney Ed Genson pulled out of his case last Friday. He strikes me as someone who will not listen and who will just impulsively dive headlong into whatever crazy idea happens to come before him rather than try to approach this with some modicum of dignity

Then on Chicago Tonight they had an interview with Daniela Schreier who is a clinical psychologist who specializes in psychopaths. Here is a link to her profile. Here are her comments on whether or not he is truly a psychopath (she said he seemed to ACT like one, and looking into his blank eyes it seems like the truth):

Complete lack of remorse… very shallow affect… he is a great showman

He was also on with “The View”. When he said that he was interested in picking Oprah, Joy Behar said:

Oprah will just give you a car!

And then she tousled his hair and told him to put up his arms like Richard Nixon saying “I am not a crook.”

There were some actual journalists involved. Barbara Walters actually tried to ask him tough questions, and so did Diane Sawyer. But Blogo doesn’t even pretend to answer them, he just sticks “on message” with his rambling that 1) the trial is unfair because that he can’t call witnesses 2) the “fix is in” because he fought the state of Illinois.

From all of this he fails to point out that impeachment is a political process, and not a legal one. He doesn’t have the same rights as a governor as you’d have as a criminal defendant. He is not being charged by Republicans… he is being charged by everyone in Illinois.

This is an insane process and it is hard to imagine how even Saturday Night Live can improve on it. They probably will just play it straight.

A sorry, sorry, sorry day for Illinois.

Cross posted at LITGM