Beware of Boars

A foreign student from a communist country unexpectedly interrupted a college sociology lesson to ask the teacher:

“Do you know how to capture wild boars?”

The teacher suspected the student was heckling him, but decided to hear the punchline anyway.

“How would you do it?”, he replied.

“You capture wild boars finding good place in forest, and throwing corn on ground every day. Boars come daily to feed on free corn. When boars accustomed to come every day, you build fence on one side of place. They get used to fence and continue to come every day to eat. Then you build fence on other side of place. Boars get used to this and continue to come. You then build third side of fence around place with same result. The last side more difficult. You build only little bit every day, and soon boars will come through narrow opening to eat. When boars inside, you close opening with door and you have whole group.”

“Is very simple, in seconds, boars lose freedom. They run in circles, but once inside fence, they are subdued. Then they eat free corn and forget what freedom was like. Wild boars dangerous, but once captured they forget how to hunt and fight and accept slavery.”

Image by Nathan Duckworth, used with a Creative Commons license

The Associated press has written an article about the Amnesty Report released today, but included both sides of the issue. Amnesty, why didn’t you?

Amnesty International has published a report about the human rights abuses in the past few months in Honduras. They have seemingly abstained from the gross exaggeration that many leftist human rights organizations have been spreading. They do condemn the excessive force of the police when dealing with protesters.

But it is their silence which has disappointed me. There is no mention of the vandalism that the protesters were engaging in. Throughout the document, Amnesty International has swallowed the lie that all the protests were peaceful. How likely is it that they are unintelligent or misinformed? They must know that this is false, and choose to ignore it.

Ammnesty International, if you willfully ignore the truth why should we believe anything you say?

Babalú Blog, in a post named “Home of the Free” has published this amazing picture, taken from website, The Real Cuba, of yesterday’s march.

The Chicago tribune, in contrast, reported protests IN FAVOR of Zelaya, and with a major understatement, that “There were also large protests in the capital against the return of Zelaya.”.

Infuriatingly deliberate misleading of the public.

The post-modern urbane prefer to dismiss violence as distasteful and barbaric at best, and hideous and criminal at worst. I wonder how many of them would survive in the wild. Would they become vegetarian? I certainly have never had to kill an animal to eat. The closest I’ve ever come to it is breaking eggs for an omelet. But I eat dead animals every day.

Some might say that humans were never meant to kill and eat animals, and to do so is tantamount to murder. The result of a vegan diet, which only includes fruits, vegetables and dairy produce seems to support this.

On the other hand, the effects of testosterone on males from the womb, that leads them to develop primary and secondary male characteristics, suggests otherwise. One of the major traits, is agressiveness. Why would such agression be useful? The role of hunter comes to mind, as does that of protector, and perhaps, avenger.

In the book of Genesis, animals were excluded from early human diet until after humans were expelled from Eden. This is suggestive. Also the first recorded act of violence, Cain’s murder of his brother, Abel, was after the fall. Also, the first mention of male dominance was immediately after the fall.

But death is first implied earlier, in that there is a “Tree of [eternal] Life” in Eden. Access to this tree was taken away until after the fall of mankind. So, according to Genesis, the first humans were mortal, but had access to immortality. Once rebellion entered the picture, access to immortality was taken away, and replaced by death and violence.

According to Genesis, it seems, violence is a result of the fall, but is unavoidable for survival in a world full of anger and injustice. Also in this category are: death, male dominance, pain in childbirth, a wilder Earth, divorce, etc…

Image by Ewan Rayment, used with a Creative Commons license

Our president’s idol in Venezuela has sent a law to his congress that grants him the power to interrupt any and all telecomunications in Venezuela

“When public order, security, or the nation’s interests demand it” (emphasis mine)

The phrase “the nation’s interests” mean simply Chávez’s interests, as he practically IS the state.

This includes, internet, phone, radio, written text, signals, messages, private networks, voice, data video, sounds, and get this: “any other media that may be invented.” If this law is passed, not even the most bessotted Chávez groupies can deny that Chávez would now be a totalitarian dictator.

Would someone please impeach Zelaya, before he has time to imitate Chávez on this!

Image by Zoomar, used with a Creative Commons license

How much do you hate evil? What is evil anyway? It is a question even atheists tackle.

A few days ago I had an epiphany while reading the invitation Wisdom gives to the simple in Proverbs 8. In it she says “To fear the Lord is to hate evil”. One of the oft repeated verses about Wisdom in Scripture is that “the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom”. Stringing these two concepts together gives us: “To hate evil is the beginning of wisdom”.

How much do I hate evil? That is the degree of wisdom I have. In the degree that I don’t hate evil, I am unwise, foolish, an idiot, [supply your own adjectives please].

Many lists of sins have been made by people through the ages. For instance, the Catholic Church codified the list of seven deadly sins (lust, gluttony, greed, sloth, wrath, envy, and pride), which the pope recently added to. But, there are others. For instance, Jesus listed “evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly” in Mark 7:21-22.

The apostle Paul has several lists, for instance, “sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies” in Galatians 5:19-21.

Shouldn’t we all hate those things? In the degree that we do, we’ll cultivate wisdom and virtue.

Image by Aaron Escobar, used with a Creative Commons license.

After being mugged on Saturday, I needed to go stand in line at the National Registry of Persons (RNP in Spanish) to get a new ID card. Without it I can’t do even the simplest transaction, like taking money out of the bank, for instance. After four hours of waiting, much of it in the midday sun, I finally got a “contraseña” which hopefully, in two weeks I can turn in to get my brand new ID card.

Standing alongside the lines were multiple “tramitadores” who offered people the chance to get their documents that very same day (how they do it without the collaboration of someone within the registry, I don’t know). I understand why people would pay for them though. Standing in line was grueling. Thankfully it was a beautiful day, and not too hot.

I got to experience the friendliness of ordinary Hondurans. The people in front and behind me would stand in line for each other, chat, and in general, be good Samaritans to each other. They even let me leave the line to get something to eat when it became apparent lunchtime would go by without us getting inside the building.

On the doors were posters from the RNP syndicate complaining that the government had seized their computers. When I went inside the man who took my fingerprints and data told me this story:

Apparently the government created a separate registry office for rich people who don’t like standing in line with the poor. The cost per ID card: 200 Lempiras. But, instead of buying new computers and equipment for this new office, they simply took the computers and equipment from the normal office, leading to the long lines and suffering that I was witness to today.

Government of the power of the citizens? No. Government of the powerful citizens.

Image by Beppie, used with a Creative Commons license

Hasbro wants to shut down a perfectly legal knock off of it’s popular word game Scrabble. Copyright law offers very limited protection for games. Not even the name of the game is protected. Only the written instructions, artwork, logo, etc. are protected.

Consider this quote from US copyright law:

The idea for a game is not protected by copyright. The same is true of the name or title given to the game and of the method or methods for playing it.

Copyright protects only the particular manner of an author’s expression in literary, artistic, or musical form. Copyright protection does not extend to any idea, system, method, device, or trademark material involved in the development, merchandising, or playing of a game. Once a game has been made public, nothing in the copyright law prevents others from developing another game based on similar principles.

Some material prepared in connection with a game may be subject to copyright if it contains a sufficient amount of literary or pictorial expression. For example, the text matter describing the rules of the game, or the pictorial matter appearing on the gameboard or container, may be registrable.

Scrabulous, written by Rajat and Jayant Agarwalla of India, is one of the most popular applications on Facebook. The game is also offered at their website, scrabulous.com.

Instead of shutting down Scrabulous, Hasbro should buy the game from the creators, or at least offer a competing game online. The company probably fears that an online version of Scrabble would cannibalize sales of its board-game version. This is very short-sighted. Young people are much more likely to play a game online than using a physical board. Hasbro will lose their customer base, and will end up selling board games for old people! A web version is an excellent marketing tool to raise interest in buying the boxed version.

Wake up corporate America! Embrace technology! Don’t be another Kodak, who lost their leadership because of their stubborn refusal to invest in digital photography until it was to late. Embrace the internet, or lose your customers.

Image by Karen, used with a Creative Commons license

Chen Yuhua has the audacity to sue the Chinese government…for censoring him! He is only the second person to do so in the entire history of the People’s Republic. Why on Earth would he risk becoming the latest political prisoner sent to a labor camp? Because government censors deleted a posting where he expressed his disapproval of a certain Chinese law: the law regulating the maximum height of pet dogs!

There is a very reasonable law citing a maximum of one dog per family. When in China there is only one child per family, limiting the number of dogs is not a contentious issue. The bizarre and ridiculous aside is that the law limits the height of dogs to 14 inches maximum! I wonder if offending dogs are destroyed, or confiscated and deported!

Sadly all the humor is deflated from this…instead being laughed out of court, the government is upholding this petty and unenforceable law. The blind hubris of assuming the government is always right and squelch any tiny dissent is so unwise. They should regulate dog breeds, as some countries have done with Pit Bulls, but not individual dog heights. The government could have take the opportunity to show it’s modernity by reforming the law, instead of censoring the posting, which originally appeared on Chinapet.com

Sources: The Washington Post, via Slashdot.

Image by Trevor Lowe, used with a Creative Commons license