The Legal and Ethical Limits of Technological Warfare

The Legal and Ethical Limits of Technological Warfare

This was the title of a symposium held at the University of Utah in 2013. I received a postcard invitation for the symposium from a colleague whose father was an attorney and alum of the U. 

I didn't attend the symposium, so I don't know if they concluded whether or not there are limits, legal or technological, to warfare. However, I have been thinking about this in the interval.

I concluded at the time that for the US, there really are no limits. Now, listen carefully so you don't misunderstand. I think that the US feddle gummint believes that there are no limits to how it conducts warfare.

I further think that the US passed the ethical limits of technological warfare long ago, perhaps on a certain few days in August, 7 decades ago, perhaps earlier.

If anyone doubts the messianic character and grasping of the feddle gummint, one only has to see the assumed omniscience and omnipotence of the drone wars being conducted around the world by the US.

Here is a little wisdom from the actual source, "Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord." (Romans 12:19)

 

Fighting Big Gummint with Something Better

Fighting Big Gummint with Something Better

You have probably heard the adage, “you can’t fight something with nothing.” Old adages happen to be true, like this one.

I have been opposed to Big Gummint for years, and for varied reasons. The tax burden I and every other American bear was one of the big reasons I opposed Big Gummint and I could list many others. Many of the reasons were economic and some were moral, but beyond asking for the elimination of Federal, three letter agencies, I didn’t have something else to put in its place.

Just this week I read Gary North’s explanation of The Freeman, a magazine that was published by the Foundation for Economic Education, where he outlined the philosophy of the magazine and the Foundation. Leonard E. Read, the head of the foundation called it the freedom philosophy.

This was the first time in decades that I have heard in the conservative movement what can be described as that something with which to oppose Big Gummint.

Read did not see the freedom philosophy as simply anti-government. He saw it as a defense of a society in which individual liberty would unleash the creative forces that are necessary to build a better society. He always emphasized the positive message. He always fought big civil government on this basis: individual creativity is the basis of progress, not the negative sanctions of civil government, and surely not the imitation positive sanctions of civil government. He and the many authors who contributed to the magazine constantly returned to this theme: the civil government is able to bestow benefits on some people only because it has extracted wealth from other people. The state is not a source of net positive sanctions. It is at best a source of restraints on violence and fraud.

 Gary North continues:

It is not good enough to be anti-. You have to have some idea of what should replace the system created by the forefathers of today's bad guys

This is a theme that I would like to build on. More from Gary:

It is not good enough to diagnose a problem. You have to suggest a cure. Otherwise, people are not going to pay attention to your diagnosis. It is easier to eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die.

You can't beat something with nothing.

In every philosophical system, there is a pro and a con. There is a benefit and a liability. There is something to be attained and something to be avoided. There are positive sanctions and negative sanctions. There are carrots and sticks. Christianity teaches about heaven and hell.

Let's replace Big Gummint with individual liberty and creativity and let the positive and negative sanctions that are part of reality have full sway.
 

SO WHAT!

I've gone from being a denier to being a so what-er! Let me explain.

 Shown above are last night's temperatures in Northern Utah. My dad grew up in Randolph, where it was -35 degrees F! Where I live it was in the range of -10F. These temperatures represent clear and present danger to life. Only heated homes keep us from death.

This is why the whole catastrophic man-caused global warming narrative is irrational.

The progressives want the deplorables to pay more for energy (carbon tax) in the present to avoid a possible 3.6 degree F (2 degree C) rise in temperature in a hundred years from now.

We are freezing now. Why we we be concerned about a possible temperature increase in 100 years?! We welcome it. The -35F would be what, a -31F? This is supposed to be catastrophic?  Ha ha.

You progressives need a better narrative, like Saddam has weapons of mass destruction, the Vietcong fired on us at Tonkin, the Germans are killing Belgian babies, etc.

This leads me to SO WHAT! SO WHAT if the global average temperature goes up a few degrees over a century!
 

Ships and Planes

Both of my readers will agree that I take myself too seriously at times, OK, well most of the time.

So, here is a chance to have some fun. I went with my family to Cancun and Cozumel in July of this year. I saw some impressive ships and planes. Here are some photos of the biggest/coolest.
 

The ship was moored in Cozumel, where we saw it on a snorkeling trip.

This plane was parked at the Denver airport, where I saw it on the way home.

 I day-dream sometimes about being the captain of these fine vessels. Maybe in another life. Then again, who knows, it would be a ton of fun just to ride in the jump seat or on the bridge for a flight or two or a trip or two!

Deplorable Denier from Flyover Country (aka Red State)

I'm a deplorable denier from a red state. By mutual exclusion, that means that I am not a leftist twit who aims to force all humanity into their conception of reality.

Denier is such a convenient term with which to label one's enemies.

Let's take it apart. What is a denier allegedly denying? In this context, I am accused of denying that humans are causing catastrophic climate change. Let's break it down into 4 questions:

1. Is climate change actually occurring?
2. Is it catastrophic?
3. Is it caused by humans?
4. If it is caused by humans and it is catastrophic, is there anything humans can do to stop or mitigate it and at what cost?

Number one: It is very difficult to detect climate change, because the weather is changing all the time. Where I live in Northern Utah, the annual low to high temperature range is commonly well over 100 degrees F. The daily temp change can be 30 degrees or more.

The question becomes; how does one measure a small change in something that is always changing a lot?

Satellites provide the best earth-wide coverage and temperature measurements and have shown no global warming for 18 years, at a time when fossil fuel burning has added CO2 to the atmosphere.

Number two: If there has been no global warming for 18 years, how can it be catastrophic? The answer is simple, it isn't catastrophic.

Number three: The answers to one and two were negative, three has to be negative also. But, let's address the question of CO2, caused by fossil fuel burning. CO2 has been added to the atmosphere by human activity, but not all of the increase in the Keeling curve is due to human activity.

Also, note that all life, plant, animal, and HUMAN is carbon based. That carbon comes from CO2 in the atmosphere. That CO2 is increasing means that life is increasing. To curtail CO2 is to curtail life itself.

That brings us to number four: It is hard to detect climate change. It hasn't been happening for the last 18 years, during which humans have burned a lot of fossil fuels and it isn't certainly isn't catastrophic. So, why do we need to do anything about something we are not sure is happening, let alone catastrophic?

Again the answer is simple, we don't need to do anything. But, let's look at the estimated cost to fix the non-problem, that isn't catastrophic, that we are not causing.

One of the proposed mechanisms is a carbon tax. What would that mean to you and me that don't own G650s? (BTW, these babys burn lots of fuel to cruise at just under the speed of sound!)

(I'm just poking fun at the global elite and looking for a good excuse to put a picture of a cool airplane in my post.)

 The Sanders-Boxer carbon tax was estimated to cost $1.2 trillion dollars over a decade to reduce CO2 in 2025 by 20% over 2005 levels. That really is a lot of money - a crushing amount!

I perceive that the global warming global elite aim to do me harm with their tax schemes. Why would I sign on for that?

 

Great Ideas from Texas Part Deux

My friend has a theory that everyone is stupid. I call it the Bailey Theorem.

I find myself part of the theorem.

If having a state legislature meet every other year or only every five years, imagine what blessings would flow to mankind, all seven billion of us, if the US Congress only met every other year, or never?

This didn't occur to me when I was thinking about the state legislatures, because I'm stupid. But, I thought of it now.

All you have to imagine is law, custom, tradition, what was historically accepted in all of history, before the French Revolution.

Law was known by everyone, because it was small. It was accepted by everyone, because it was traditional and customary and it wasn't changing with every session of Congress or the legislature. Laws couldn't be passed that would make something legal today, but not legal tomorrow, or visa versa.

What would previous generations think of 5 robed justices (a majority of SCOTUS) rewriting 4,000 years of law just because they think they can socially engineer 350 million people? The Bailey principle applies to them, too. They just think they are smarter; they really aren't.

Great Ideas Come from Texas

Maybe there is a reason that Texas is the land of opportunity. They have great ideas.

One of them is that the state legislature meets only on odd numbered years! Think of that! On even numbered years you can sleep peacefully knowing that the cretins can't dispossess you!

That is such a great idea that I think Utah should adopt it, but with the modification that the legislature should only meet on years that end in zero or five! Sweet relish! Four years of peaceful sleep and joy knowing that the laws won't be changed or new ones invented to torment you or tax you to death!

Fidel, Rot in Heck

Fidel finally bit the dust last week. 

So, the US now has an opportunity to take the lead in integrating the country into the rest of the world.

We can do this without reciprocation on their part. Congress and the Donald can remove all restrictions on travel and investment by Americans to Cuba. Why should Cuba be any different than the rest of the countries in Latin America? Five decades of embargo accomplished virtually nothing to change Fidel.

But, the future can be changed by what we do. Let's trade, talk, visit, etc. When ties are established, I am confident that the dire situation of the Cubans will change for the better, the government will then follow. It will become obvious to all that central planning did not and does not work.

(We, Americans will learn that lesson also, when the feddle gummint defaults on all its promises. Central planning doesn't work - that means that Janet Yellen and the rest of the FED crowd cannot plan the economy better than 7 billion people making economic choices minute by minute. But that is a subject for another day.)

Plane Spotter

Sometimes, I just like to hang out at the airport and see what's happening. Luckily, my airport doesn't have commercial service and thus, no Keystones Kops of the TSA variety. 

Here are some aircraft I saw the other day.

Time-sert

I stripped out the threads of the stud/bolt that attaches the intake manifold to the cylinder head of my Aerovee engine in my Sonex.  I wasn't happy at the time, but I found an inexpensive way to fix it with time-sert.

Here are some pictures of the process. It worked out really well!

Installing the insert after drilling, counter-boring, and tapping the new threads

 I used aluminum tape to cover the intake ports to keep the swarf out of the engine.

 

 Another view

 Installing the intake manifold (red part) and torquing the socket head cap screw that attaches it

An Open Letter to the Pope

Your Holiness,

The Vatican

Rome, Italy

I hope that you’ll forgive the informal nature of this letter. I am not a Catholic, but I am a Christian and because of that most important faith we share as brothers, I wish to suggest a couple of things that will benefit that faith worldwide.

The most important message of all time and space is the divine mission of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, His birth, life, mission, atonement, resurrection and continuing work.  I am sure that we both agree on that.

Here are my suggestions:

First, cleanse the church completely and thoroughly of abusers and molesters. Cooperate with civil authorities. Excommunicate them. As Jesus said it were better that a millstone were hanged about their neck and they were drowned in the depths of the sea. Then, develop strict policies to deal with abusers. Follow them every time.

Next, require that priests be married as husband and wife and have families (that means children) Priests who are husbands and fathers will know how to minister better to the believers.

1 Timothy 3:1 This is a true saying, If a man desire the office of a bishop, he desireth a good work.

 2 A bishop then must be blameless, the husband of one wife, vigilant, sober, of good behaviour, given to hospitality, apt to teach;

 3 Not given to wine, no striker, not greedy of filthy lucre; but patient, not a brawler, not covetous;

 4 One that ruleth well his own house, having his children in subjection with all gravity;

 5 (For if a man know not how to rule his own house, how shall he take care of the church of God?)

Require tithing of your members and encourage donations. Begin again to build up your church.

Rebuild parochial schools and build new ones. Catholic schools were always superior to public schools, plus they taught the most important message of Jesus Christ.

Don’t dilute the message of Christ with climate change. Christ Rules in the heavens and the earth is his footstool. He created the earth that it be inhabited by his children. He foresaw all of this. The message of His divine mission and Sonship transcend climate change.

These changes will prompt growth in your church, to the glory of God and his Son and will benefit your Church and the entire world. Each soul of infinite worth that comes to know his or her Savior will rejoice with the believers.

Sincerely,

B. W. Rex

A fellow brother in Christ

#Calexit

#Calexit

Let's start with the following assumptions that should be axiomatic:

Big government = big corruption

Small government = small or smaller corruption

When I said I was willing to donate to the #Calexit project, I wasn’t kidding.

A decent consideration for the opinions of others demands that I share my thoughts on this subject.  I have friends and family that live in California, and I meant no disrespect to them.

Here’s how a see it. I buy things from nearly every country in the world. What difference does it make if California becomes one of those countries?

Just because I buy things from other countries, that doesn’t require me to adopt the politics and world view of that country.  However, being politically aligned with California now means exactly that. Their laws are enforced in my state. Let’s be honest, some in California have views that are diametrically opposed to those I have.  Let’s be grownups about it and each go our own way, politically. By all means, we will still be good neighbors, visit Disneyland, the beach, etc. And you folks should come to visit the natural wonders in Utah. Commercial relations!! Yes! Free Trade, Yes! Peace, Yes!

Here’s what I see as the benefits of Calexit. And BTW, the same benefits apply to any region or state, or whatever area secedes.

1.      The Federal government becomes smaller

a.       Small government = smaller corruption = more freedom

2.      Both parties become somewhat more aligned with the interests of their respective citizens, aka, the people

3.      Other states and regions can follow the example of California (ie. Peaceful secession)

4.      The process continues, until maybe 3000 counties are independent states with the corresponding freedom accruing to all!

5.      Power is decentralized and local politics is empowered

6.      The rest of the world, threatened with the overlordship of the US federal government, military and nuclear war, breathe a sigh of relief.

What if there were 3,000 states where there used to be 50?