I already had a concept of what I was going to write about this morning; something about how the pardon power should be redesigned. But I’d rather write about a line from the book I was reading last night. I’m…
No Kings’ Horses: The United States Cannot Be Fixed
The United States was designed to be resistant to change. And, hoo boy, that part of the design worked. That would be less problematic if the most famous part of the design, the “checks and balances”, had worked too. But…
We Know That Ukraine Knows: U.S. Security Guarantees Are Worthless These Days
The U.S. media really sucks at its job. So what else is new. Because every time Trump, damn his name or any of his underlings mentions offering security guarantees to Ukraine as part of any proposed “peace deal” at least…
Archive: On Power And Authority
This one I still agree with pretty much completely. I’ve said many of the same things again here. An old post of mine from Kuro5hin.Org, dated “Thu Jan 3rd, 2002 at 05:34:02 PM EST”. Here I want to discuss two…
War?: Crimes.
The regime’s actions around Venezuela are crimes. It really is that simple. The only real question is whether they’re war crimes or just crime crimes. And that uncertainty is only there because it’s the military doing them; if anyone else…
Archive: Book Review: Barry Trotter and the Unauthorized Parody
I should dig up this book for the kid who’s really into the Harry Potter books. An old post of mine from Kuro5hin.Org, dated “Sat Dec 29th, 2001 at 11:23:02 AM EST”. I did get a copy of this book…
Degenerative AI: Government Must Be Able To Explain Its Decisions
The State must be able to justify its decisions and explain the process by which it arrived at them. Obviously. You cannot effectively oversee the operations of a government that will not, or can not, explain the basis for its…
No Consequences: How We Got To This Point
Have you ever wondered why your phone (or banking site, or pretty much anything these days) locks you out for a while if you type the wrong password a few times? This will be relevant to the coup, really. It’s…
Lies, Damn Lies And Politics: Factual Accuracy In Government Publications
The State has no 1st Amendment right to free speech; in fact, even a moderate reading of the 1st Amendment would require the State to avoid any expressive speech at all. And the same can be said for any fictitious…
You Should Read This: On Incomputable Language And More on Turing and LLMs
The pseudonymous blogger Camestros Felapton has an interesting post up today, “More on Turing and LLMs“, which is primarily comment on a post by Elizabeth Sandifer titled “On Incomputable Language: An Essay on AI“. You should read them both. I definitely…