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Reading on my day off
21 October 2002 02:35 am"I don't want to carry a gun on a plane (ballistics, etc.) If, on the other hand, I could fly with all of my other weapons, then I will be able to subdue and kill stupid ragheads (etc) without making such a mess .. If I have to use my teeth and my claws, I'm filing suit, and sending the airline my cleaning and dentist bills.."
--me, on the phone earlier tonight
And, having read ESR's latest weblog posts (about his manifesto), I am convinced he has slipped his clutch and stripped a couple teeth off one of the more important gears. (And that was a better ad hominem1 than anything in the AIM.)
His positiion paper is little more than a long enumeration of insults to people he's never liked anyway. In particular, he seems to have drifted some-wards to a place where he honestly believes nation-states hold the solutions to our problems and that states can fight networks (which they can't anymore than a Gutenberg press can out-produce a Mac and an HP Laserjet 4L). Perhaps the worst of it is that he seem to be encouraging the United State's government's plan to invade and colonize western Persia (er, Iraq). To his entire rant about the war to save Western civilization, I have one line in response2:
"I think it would be a good idea."
--Mohandas K. Gandhi, when asked what he thought of Western civilization
Anyway, I'm reading the Eldred v. Ashcroft oral arguments transcript, which may end up being at least as much of a downer, but will at least require use of my brain.
Now reading the Evil side of Eldred. Lessig's skill and talent show through in comparision to the government's attorney. WTF is the "preambular recitation of promotion" ??
1: An ad hominem is a popular logical fallacy in which, rather than providing a counter example or logical argument against the proposal, one attacks the arguer and not the position. It's covered in any college ethics class.
2: Okay, a one line quote after a paragraph rant. Sheesh, you'd think people'd be happy I left off the list of things I agreed with ESR about, like lumping all the monotheists together, and so forth ..
--me, on the phone earlier tonight
And, having read ESR's latest weblog posts (about his manifesto), I am convinced he has slipped his clutch and stripped a couple teeth off one of the more important gears. (And that was a better ad hominem1 than anything in the AIM.)
His positiion paper is little more than a long enumeration of insults to people he's never liked anyway. In particular, he seems to have drifted some-wards to a place where he honestly believes nation-states hold the solutions to our problems and that states can fight networks (which they can't anymore than a Gutenberg press can out-produce a Mac and an HP Laserjet 4L). Perhaps the worst of it is that he seem to be encouraging the United State's government's plan to invade and colonize western Persia (er, Iraq). To his entire rant about the war to save Western civilization, I have one line in response2:
"I think it would be a good idea."
--Mohandas K. Gandhi, when asked what he thought of Western civilization
Anyway, I'm reading the Eldred v. Ashcroft oral arguments transcript, which may end up being at least as much of a downer, but will at least require use of my brain.
Now reading the Evil side of Eldred. Lessig's skill and talent show through in comparision to the government's attorney. WTF is the "preambular recitation of promotion" ??
1: An ad hominem is a popular logical fallacy in which, rather than providing a counter example or logical argument against the proposal, one attacks the arguer and not the position. It's covered in any college ethics class.
2: Okay, a one line quote after a paragraph rant. Sheesh, you'd think people'd be happy I left off the list of things I agreed with ESR about, like lumping all the monotheists together, and so forth ..