The expulsion of illusion & The ‘promise of the future’

The Problems

1. Human nature seems to depend upon a “system of doctrines” to be able to function
2. A replacement of this system, would still include a “prohibition to thought”
3. The fragility of society (5 reasons(Diamond)) causes a development of some system to  strengthen society

The Solutions

1. Replace the system of doctrines with the ‘promise of the future’
2. Prohibition of thought would be replaced by this promise, and thereby a motivation to reach the ‘promise of the future’
3. The fragility of society can also be strengthened by this ‘promise of the future’, a societal focus not on the present (as during the enlightenment) but on the future can fix the “conflict of interests” (Diamond). Cohesion on long term development, (not just through the ‘promise of the future’ , but also through the lengthening of life), will strengthen society.

About the financial crisis

I haven’t written for a while because I have been very busy. However, here are some links about the financial crisis.
TJIC has written this piece in the form of a FAQ, and this post ranting about the Democrats.
Eric at Classical Values has written a number of articles on government involvement in this problem; I am linking to this post because it covers an important point on why the government got involved: mortgage “discrimination”. Read about it in the post linked, and in the links inside the post.
Well, those should cover the issue as it stands.

A revolution to save America.

As I have said before, I think that it is high time that we get rid of government. While I do not like the idea of open revolution, I think that it may be necessary. I do have ideas for a plan, but that is not relevant.
I believe that at this point in history, the only way to preserve the dream of America is to end government. Government is an immoral, evil institution, and its existence threatens the moral foundation that made once made America great. I do think that markets will exist for defense, transportation, and other functions that the U.S. government claims to provide. However, at the end of the day, to be honest, I really do not give a damn. The non-aggression principle defines how all humans must treat each other, and governments violate that principle.
In truth, governments are nothing more than groups of individuals who claim that the non-aggression principle does not apply to themselves, that they may rob, or defraud, or threaten as they please. Their actions are aggressive and immoral, and I desire to protect humanity from the aggression of these people. I believe, in short, that we must end government, not only here in America, but throughout the world, in order to save humanity and liberty.

The first day RECAP: Democratic Convention was not just embarrasing it was horrible

I must admit, it was worse than I thought it would be, I almost cried.

(New Blog)

From now forward, I plan to do my personal blogging over at a new blog. I’ll cross post all political posts over to here.

Education and Private School

The stupidity of our education system is undeniable.  While private schools, particularly holy-order private schools, have more successful students(even while adjusted for Soc. Eco. Status), many still use old traditional and useless styles of teaching.

Ruby and Threading Fun

So here is a class I wrote in ruby.

class LimitedThreads
    def initialize max
        @group = ThreadGroup.new
        @maxthreads = max
        @lock = Mutex.new
        @slot = ConditionVariable.new
    end

    def to_s
        "max threads: %s; current threads: %s;" % [@maxthreads, @group.list.size]
    end

    def newthread *args
        if @maxthreads <= @group.list.size
            #delay until a thread ends
            @lock.synchronize { @slot.wait(@lock) }
        end
        nt = Thread.new do
            yield *args #this allows operation like Thread.new for passing in args to thread
            @lock.synchronize { @slot.signal }
        end
        @group.add nt
        nt
    end
end

You create an object from this with the maximum amount of threads you want it to allow to run at any given time. You use LimitedThreads#newthread with a block representing the thread you want to run. If the instance has a spot free for that thread, it will run it. Otherwise, it will wait until a already running thread finishes to start up the new thread. Now, this code probably has no real use, but it was an interesting exercise for me. Ruby is interesting in that it uses blocks for threads, not methods. The comment inside the Thread.new call is on the subject of passing arguments into the block that LimitedThreads#newthread takes. Anyway, here is an example of how to use it.

lt=LimitedThreads.new 3
sleep_time = 2
12.times do |count|
    message = "hello from pass number %s" % count
    lt.newthread(message, sleep_time) do |msg, st|
        sleep st
        puts msg
    end
end

On my system, this consistently prints:

hello from pass number 1
hello from pass number 0
hello from pass number 2
hello from pass number 4
hello from pass number 3
hello from pass number 5
hello from pass number 7
hello from pass number 6
hello from pass number 8

Printing each group of three at 2 second interval bursts (all in group appear). Try it on other systems; it might do something else. If you can find a use for it, please, tell me.

The News [alternatively: World is a Twisted Place, or Politicians are still Politicians]

Three things.
0) Russia goes to war with Georgia. Wow, that sucks. CNN on the subject:

TBLISI, Georgia (CNN) — Bombs rocked Tbilisi early Saturday morning as the fight between Georgia and Russia over a breakaway region intensified and moved into the Georgian capital.
…
Russia and Georgia, a former Soviet state, are fighting over the disputed Caucasus region of South Ossetia, a pro-Russian autonomous region of Georgia.

(As far as I can tell, it seems that some small region broke away from Georgia, and now Russia is bombing Georgia because Georgia had troops in this area. Russia and breakaway blame Georgia, Georgia blames Russia. What an utter mess.)

1) Yeah, John Edwards had an affair, and basically lied about it. More from ABC:

John Edwards repeatedly lied during his Presidential campaign about an extramarital affair with a novice filmmaker, the former Senator admitted to ABC News today.

2) Rush Limbaugh says the Clintons are up to something:

RUSH: Remember all those times, ladies and gentlemen, I warned you never, ever trust a Clinton? Nothing that happens with the Clintons is a coincidence? Isn’t it interesting, with the Lord Barack Obama plunging in the polls, there’s a story today from the Huffington Post about how he’s losing in Pennsylvania, and they can’t believe it. He ought to be cleaning up in Pennsylvania. We can believe it.

And then people wonder why I dislike politicians. So there you go.

Society cannot enforce morality.

The ends do not justify the means. All actions by individuals must not violate the non-aggression principle.
A society is composed of individuals who choose to interact, abiding by certain rules of behavior.
A society cannot force individuals to be members of that society: doing so would violate the NAP.
If a member of a society breaks the rules of that society (WITHOUT violating the NAP), the members of that society may refuse to interact with the individual who broke their rules. They CAN NOT do anything to “punish” that individual: they would have to violate the NAP in order to do so.
So, a society cannot enforce its vision of morality on its members: instead it members may reject interactions with individuals who violate their perceived rules; the freedom defined by the NAP allows them to do so.
Do not trust, or value, a society that does does not abide by the non-aggression principle. Do not feel regret for the destruction of a society that did not hold to the non-aggression principle.

MIT App. is OUT!!

Hooray!

After 4 terrible days of rumors flying around about MIT not excepting any freshman in the upcoming ‘09 year, we can finally relax.  MIT is not usually late, so this is concerning to some who were ready to finish their MIT application the day it came out.  Its finally out and in the open, so hurry up and finish those apps before November for early admission.