Caduceus vs Staff of Asclepius You can learn something new every day. I had always thought the Medical symbol was the Caduceus (with two snakes) but it appears to be the Staff of Asclepius (with one snake)
Very Interesting.
More Problems
Before I was interupted with the Texas Trip, I had built a computer. I built a rather elaborate Mulitmedia PC that was intended to run Linux.
AMD64 3200+ CPU
Foxconn motherboard with PCI express
Nvidia 6600 PCI Express Graphics card
DVD RW
2-160 GB SATA drives
PCHDTV Card
Twinhan Sateliite Receiver Card
WinTVGo TV receiver
old TV receiver card that I am trying to figure out what to do with.
So, I bought a static strap and put it all together. Took a while, but I wasn’t rushing things.
Then I loaded a Fedora Core 3 image disk and started it up. No sparks, buzzes or smoke. The drive started up, the monitor lit up and something was happening. Then everything hung and I had a ‘kernel panic’. This is not good and I need to start tracking things down.
Evidently my configuration is cutting edge.
When I got back from Texas I tried to use the Hoary Ubuntu Live release and there was still a ‘kernel panic’
Onward to find out why I have a bad RIP value.
What is a Representative Democracy?
It would appear that people have forgotten the principles of representative government and why we elect representatives to the Congress every two years.
The holders of those offices certainly don’t want the people to think about how they are not doing their jobs. They would prefer to distract ‘The People’ and point to irrelvant issues to consider.
Taken in the light of ‘The People’ governing themselves, I don’t see very many liberals on the National Political Scene. And it may be that you have to sell your soul to get to that level. ‘The People’ don’t seem to have much to say about critical federal items like debt-ceiling and deficits. Everything seems to be pork barrel politics; get the goods for your district and keep the voters happy, even if you have to compromise your principles by supporting someone else’s bill that doesn’t really impact your district anyway.
And it may be that people just aren’t paying attention to what the idiots in DC are doing this term, because at the Federal level there aren’t that many items that have a direct daily impact on people. How your representative voted regarding salmon fishing farms of the coast of Washington State probably doesn’t have much impact on the average citizen not on the coast of Washington State. But what sort of deals were cut to get that vote?
Maybe, in the global scheme of things, Salmon Fish Farming has a role. I think that is part of why representatives are in Washington. To get the information together that will alow them to make an informed vote and not a bought vote. Their vote should be for their constituents first, and for the US second, if they do’t see their constituency as being a primary player.
We don’t have a very representative democracy anymore, here in the USA. There is 1 person representing almost 1 million citizens in Montana. That doesn’t sound very representative to me. On average, each representative represents 650,000 citizens. That doesn’t sound very representive to me. I think one representative for every 100,000 citizens is a fair goal. It may get a bit chaotic on the Hill trying to get 50% of 3000 representatives to agree on something, but democracy isn’t pretty.
I would actually suggest that a 2/3 majority is needed to pass a federal law, but that might be going to far. I’m willing to compromise on 50%+. If you can’t get 67% of the representatives to agree on a budget, maybe there are some things in it that don’t belong there.
Estate Taxes
I heard the the House has passed a bill that will do away with the Estate Tax in 2010, so it doesn’t come back as currently allowed.
What I don’t understand is why the Republicans think that the estate tax is ‘unfair’. The person who earned the estate, built it up penny by penny, is dead. They don’t need it anymore. Once you leave the playing table, your chips revert to the bank.
All right, so they want to pass their ill-gotten gains onto others. How is this fair? One measure of success in our society is your net worth. So these inheritors are suddenly swimming in money without lifting a finger. How is that fair?
Not having an Estate Tax is inherently unfair. It promotes the growth of an aristocracy that claims great material wealth based on the activities of their ancestors. I think the British have already demonstrated the usefulness of these twits.
Another argument made about the Estae Tax is that it causes family businesses to break up because they have to sell the business assets to pay the tax.
My solution is simple. Property that is inherited is not taxed at the time of inheritence. It is only taxed when it is sold. If someone passes on the family farm, worth 10’s of millions of dollars, to three children, along with 10 million dollars, the Estate Tax would be figured on the dollars and not the farm (unless the children want to sell it). When one or all of the children decide to sell part or whole of the farm, then they pay the Estate Tax on it. The same can be done for paintings, artwork, jewelry, family heirlooms. No tax until they are sold. Stocks, bonds, money instruments, basically anything the SEC might oversee, are taxed when inherited, if the total value of the Estate at time of death exceeds some set value. (We don’t count property appreciation after death.)
What would be a good set value to start Estate Taxes? How about 10 times the anual salary of the President of the United States? or 5 times? That allows the value to change with the times and not squeeze everyone once inflation pushes the poverty level up to $1,000,000.
What is a Liberal?
I can across this commentary last week and it addressed a question I have been puzzling about for a while.
“What exactly is a Liberal?”
I have peripherally been following the Conservative/Liberal clash in the US and am puzzled why the term ‘Liberal’ has picked up such a bad connotation. ‘Liberal’ has been the hallmark of American politics for over 220 years.
Mahablog answers this in a perceptive way, A liberal is one who believes that ‘The People’ can govern themsleves; a conservative believes that ‘The People’ can’t govern themselves, but instead appeals to a higher or singular authority to enable governance. (This makes Scalia’s comment a lot more obvious.)
The conservative approach is to appeal to a higher authority, to deify or sanctify one individual, usually the President in US politics, and say that he is the Ruler and that what he wants is the ‘right thing’ and that all who oppose him are evil. If the President doesn’t come up to snuff, then you can point to an ayatollah or a newt for governance.
Kings, Caesars, Dictators, High Priests, Archbishops, Witch Doctors, Chiefs, Elders, Popes, Jedi Knights. These are all higher authorities that people look to for guidance. So often, it is the cultural background that demands obedience without evidence. And questioning them for the evidence is heresy and undermines the faith of others. Faith. That is the ultimate appeal of the higher authority. You don’t need evidence if you have faith.
When ‘The People’ singularly, or within groups, give up their right to determine for themselves who shall represent them, and instead follow the dictates of a demagogue who is influenced and guided by larger demagogues, then democracy is lost.
It will be interesting to see what happens in Iraq in the next few years. My impression, albeit from sketchy sources, is that the Iraqi people don’t necessarily believe that ‘The People’ should govern themselves. There are learned and wise people who have studied the arts of governance and they are the ones that need to be in charge. How they determine the top dog is their problem, not a problem for ‘The People’. I hope I am wrong. I hope that the Iraqi’s will work out the governance problems and become liberals. We shall see.
Democracy is not pretty. Democracy involves working with people you wouldn’t want within a thousand meters of you. Democracy means being a liberal.
Week 1
I have 14 hitters on my team. After the first full week of play, 8 of them are hitting at the Mendoza line (.200) or below. Only two are hitting above .300. The team batting average is .223. On the good side, it appears that 13 of the 14 hitters are playing full time so they are getting lots of At-Bats to strike-out on.
League-wise, the Rocky Coloradans are in the lower-middle of the pack. The last place in average is countered by the first place in Stolen Bases. HR, R, RBI are all in the middle. So, if my guys get on base, they can run.
Pitchers did not have a good week, but do they ever have good weeks? Ha-Ha Rhetorical question. The surest way for a pitcher to ruin his career is to get drafted by the Rocky Coloradans.
No on the roster appears to be on DL or to be sent down to the Minors or to be traded to the National League, so I don’t have to submit any roster moves this week. Also, the guys sent down last week are still down so I don’t need to reactivate anyone.
It’s too early to start making shoring up moves. I will wait another two weeks before looking for Free Agent Moves or trades.
(looks like I need to work on my HTML C&P skills)
The weekend in Baseball
On Friday, Saturday and Sunday, my batters went 12/52, .231; 16/45, .356; and 11/45, .244. This is not good. 39/142, .272 might do later on in the season, but I need to get the team average up to about .280, or at least .275, to have a reasonable chance at the end of the season. Something is going to have to compensate for the pitching.
Just another Jihad
Come and join the Unitarian Jihad
My Unitarian Jihad Name is: Brother Machine Gun of Courteous Debate.
(I picked this up at Patrick Nielsen Hayden‘s blog)
Helpful Advice
If you want to clear the non-internet junk and spam from your life…
From Mark Atwood on the Rec.arts.sf.fandom list:
When hitters can’t hit
Thursday’s are usually a slow day in baseball. It’s normally a travel day and a lot of teams don’t have games. I only had fours teams on my roster playing, giving five hitters a chance to bat. There were 16 At-Bats between the five of them. 1 hit. A .o625 Batting Average for the day. After 5 days of the season, my staff is hitting .163. Pathetic wimps. Now I really am in last place in the league in average.
Of course, I know that by the time these guys have had 10,000 at-bats they will have at least 2,850 hits, but that’s way in the future. That’s the way averages work.
I want satisfaction now!
Let’s see how they do over the weekend. All teams should be playing Friday, Saturday and Sunday.