What Do These Pictures Have in Common?

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What do the following three pictures have in common?

My favorite comment so far has been from Craig Reynolds who points out that all of these pictures have a hammer in there somewhere.  I had to think about it, but yes, he is right.

Return to Your Roots, America!

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Back when America was a great country and not a failed parody of itself, we believed in Science. We believed in it. Turn your back on idolatry and false prophets! America! Return to your roots!

From Our Mr. Sun (1956)

Matter.Js Is Crazy Worthless

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I feel so bad for my fellow americans.  That we have fallen into decay and incompetence.  Matter.js is a cool package for physical simulation in a browser.  The problem is, it acts differently in each different browser.  Which makes it essentially useless.

Ooops.

Graduate School Application Craziness

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UCLA has one set of rules.  Stanford another.  And Cal Arts still another.  I love these people.  No!  Wait!  I dont.  I am one person, will you please get your shit together.  Thank you.

Slaves

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It turns out that all my friends are afraid that if we have a conversation about any of a number of issues in our society, issues involving the 2nd amendment or freedom of speech and so forth, that the Gestapo will come and take them away and kill them. How far down we have come from a free society. Or maybe it was always this way and I was permitted to have such discussions at the RAND Corporation but did not realize that outside that priviledged zone the slaves, I mean the citizens, were not permitted the privilege.

My Friends Are Paranoid

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They are afraid that if I make a joke about surface-to-air missiles on the dark web that they are going to be arrested or shot in their sleep.

Right About Everything

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Dear [REDACTED]

I think that there is no doubt that I have been correct about everything. Failure to remove Trump has demonstrated to the world the failure of our system of government because, frankly, it did fail. The murder of American citizens by the way his administration handled the Coronavirus. The right wing senate protecting Trump proving that impeachment as a useful tool is a joke. The destruction of the judiciary which is ongoing. The institutional racism. And now the genocide of the Uyghurs in which we are complicit. Of course I will vote for Biden, one would have to be a real hitler youth not to, but America's position in the world has been permanently damaged. The Russians (who trump protects) won. The supreme court was able to hide the evidence (see tax returns). 

I wish my friends would take me seriously. I wish I had a life and did not live in such fucking misery, a misery that no doubt I am complicit in creating. Hope you are well. I am very impressed that you are able to maintain your cardiovascular health and trim figure. I have failed at that. I am very impressed your kids seem to be doing well although I have lost track of who has graduated from where. I wish I was taken seriously. 

Have a wonderful day!

Correspondence on China

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Dear [REDACTED]

Sometimes it takes me time to read the various things I get, but I try to, and I appreciate what you send me. And I am very ignorant of the details of China. I know more about the Tarim Basin or prehistoric Italy than I do about China. Some of this is intentional because it is a vast topic.

I do know about the vast amount of money we dumped on China to help them fight in WW 2 (very little of which went to the Communists as far as I know). I do know about Stillwell and the Flying Tigers. I do know about the time when the numbered air force that Curtis Le May was running in China against the Japanese sent three C-47s filled with medical supplies to Mao but I dont recall what the occasion was. I do know about when Doolittle and his flight of B 25s landed in China and the number of Chinese murdered by the Japanese in retribution. We were not always complete enemies, or maybe we were, but not on the surface of things.

Before I care to hear too much about the other side of the story, I need to know that the Chinese cyberattacks have stopped. I need to know what exactly we are doing educating people who are going to fight a war with us to kill as many Americans as possible since I think that is the most likely scenario in the next 20 years. I need to know that the Americans who deliberately lied to steal the money by sending industry to China without doing anything for the Americans whose lives were destroyed receive justice, which is to say civil asset forfeiture and years of important therapy in an institution run by our federal government. You know, the way a black man would if he stole food to feed his family.  And I need to know that whatever is going on with the Uyghurs in China has stopped and people given real help to recover.

I dont think we are blameless in our relationship with China, far from it.  But I also dont much care.  The above issues are happening now, they need to stop now.  After that I am very interested in some of the details.

I Have Grown Weary

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I am growing weary of this collapse of democracy, fear of death from unknown viruses, insane conspiracy theories with souvenir hats, presidents compromised by $400 M loans that we can't find out anything about, sort of thing. I want to return to happier days when political corruption meant breaking into an office, not intentionally murdering 100s of thousands (or more) people. We didnt have smartphones, but we were happy.

No Hope

I tried to put together a list of things that need to be fixed and I could not continue.  It is too awful, it is too stupid. Its a nightmare.  I dont know what will happen but I am sure I hate this country and I have no faith in it.  I cant breathe.

Zoom Comsec

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Zoom announces that they would not encrypt communications because they want to support law enforcement and I said:

Michael Wahrman This is pretty weird. Only unsophisticated criminals or conspirators would use a communications channel that was not encrypted unless they really had to. And then they would use some sort of prearranged code that was seemingly innocent but rich in hidden meaning. "Did you ever get your car fixed ?" which really meant "Execute the informer and run for the border ...", etc. Which means to me, who typically has not read this article before commenting (yes, I know, I know) that it is more about spying on citizens than it is about traditional law enforcement. More about sniffing out those who would disagree with the government's always just and righteous policies so that dissidents who might disrupt new order can be removed before they disturb our harmony or our photo opportunities, etc. I refuse to believe that any of this is an innocent mistake at this point. A company of this size and importance who is in the business of enabling communication between individuals and small groups can not possibly have the excuse of being unaware of the implications of their policies in this matter.

What is Our Moral Imperative Here?

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The obvious question is whether we should be in Washington protesting? One might want to be there to protest the racism that led to the death of Floyd, or one might want to protest the failure of our system of government to protect its people from an obviously deranged madman. 

But in either case you can be sure that those who protest will be on lists, and that they will start killing people (you know, he committed suicide in jail, he tried to resist arrest by running away from drugs planted during a no-knock raid, or maybe he/she will just be asked to serve 10 years in prison in Alabama or whatever they come up with. Nevertheless, what is our moral position here? Should we be there even though we will be punished for protesting the actions of the leader?