The Rational Mind

Month: February 2003

  • Sea lions in the NAVY….yes, real ones

    On a more positive note, Sea lions are being used to guard U.S. ships in Gulf. I think it’s kinda cool: “the animals were trained to mark people but not to kill. The mammals can dive to 1,000 feet, swim at speeds up to 25 miles per hour, as well as see and hear better…

  • Some more thoughts on the Koreas:

    MSNBC reports that much of North Korea’s income comes from slave labor camps whose products are “filtered” through China and often ends up at U.S. markets. (I wonder if most libertarians support that as “free trade”?) North Korea has basically become one big slave labor camp — one which many people are deperately trying to…

  • "Food Aid Said Diverted to N.Korea Military "

    Regular readers of my blogger will know what I think of the groups that send aid to North Korea: they are guiltier of causing mass starvation and supporting genocidal regime than Kim Jong Il himself. If it were up to me, I would have those “humanitarians” sent to die in the labor camps with the…

  • "Open letter to Brother Kelly Boggs, Pastor"

    (This is in reply to Circumstantial evidence.) Greetings, Far be it from me to attack an argument for a war with Iraq, but your piece did not use the terms “theory,” “evidence,” and most importantly, “belief” properly. The proper approach to determining facts, whether it is the theory of evolution or Saddam’s possession of WMD’s…

  • Yet another communist "utopia"

    Check out these Satellite photos of North Korean prison camps. Then read this: Death, terror in N. Korea gulag.

  • This is interesting: "State computer

    This is interesting: “State computer with confidential medical data put up for sale.A state computer put up for sale as surplus contained confidential files naming thousands of people with AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases, the state auditor said Thursday.” I’ve been trying to buy up some old hardware from Texas A&M’s surplus auctions myself.…

  • Microsofts and standards compliance…

    Here is a quote from an email I sent out on the Brazos Valley Web Design listserv regarding Microsoft’s lack of compliance with the W3C standards: I think that it’s helpful to realize that Microsoft’s browser is in effect a de-facto standard, which by overwhelming user preference is preferred over the W3C-compliant Mozilla. If you…

  • The Antitrust Racket

    Check out this blog from initium: In 1977, Congress passed the Hart-Scott-Rodino Act, a law intended to make life easier for FTC and Antitrust Division officials in deciding which mergers to prosecute and stop. Under HSR, all mergers worth at least a certain value (approximately $50 million under the current law) must be reported to…

  • On Columbia

    It seems like every single blog on the internet has an ode of some sort to the downed space shuttle. Not all are positive — Laurel things that it’s time to privatize (i.e. close) NASA because it’s a waste of taxpayer’s money. I think it’s important not to confuse the spirit of discovery that allowed…

  • Gotta love the UN

    Charles Krauthammer of the Washington Post has written a great editorial about the U.N. He mentions how Iraq has been chosen to Iraq to Chair U.N. Disarmament Conference (with Iran as co-chair) while Libya, that great utopia of individual rights was elected to the chairmanship of the U.N. Commission on Human Rights.Can the U.N. possibly…