- Study: “Progressive” is the New “Reactionary”
- The Truth of the Matter
- BP Moves the Goalpost for the Oil Well Integrity Test
- As Predicted, BP Tries to Pretend New Leak is a “Natural Seep”
- Blogetery.com Shut Down: Danger on the Internet
Study: “Progressive” is the New “Reactionary” Posted: 20 Jul 2010 04:59 PM PDT From C4SS Does progressivism point the way to a brighter future, or has it become the last line of defense for a failed political and economic status quo? In his latest research study, released today by the Center for a Stateless Society, Kevin Carson makes the case for progressives as the bitter-enders of a social project made obsolete by liberating technologies and the production and distribution methods those technologies make possible. “Thermidor of the Progressives: Managerialist Liberalism’s Hostility to Decentralized Organization” traces the development of managerialism in the political and economic realms, the history of progressive attachment to the managerial vision, and the siege mentality displayed by progressives as they confront what Carson calls the “Network Revolution.” “For liberals,” writes Carson, author of _The Homebrew Industrial Revolution: A Low Overhead Manifesto_, “the American Golden Age was the ‘Consensus Capitalism’ of the New Deal and the first post-WWII generation. … This general affinity for large-scale organization and hierarchy, more recently, has been reflected in hostility to the new forms of networked organization permitted by the emerging technologies of the late twentieth century.” The study is freely available online and may be reproduced under a Creative Commons 3.0 Attribution license. Read the PDF here. Related posts: |
Posted: 20 Jul 2010 11:56 AM PDT From Strike The Root Freeman finds himself within the borders claimed by a government. This human being decides he does not want to participate in the government organization anymore, so he quits. He then finds a nice plot of “public” property and claims it as his own. He is quickly confronted with a government participant named Citizen, who informs him that the land belongs to the government, and he is trespassing. Freeman points out that the land is not owned, and so he has claimed it from nature as his own. If this Mr. Government person indeed has first claim on it, then let him show up and prove his claim. Citizen then informs Freeman that there is no “Mr. Government person,” and that the government is made up of all of its participants. These participants pay taxes, and so they are the rightful owners of this land, and they all (or at least most of them) say you are trespassing, so clear off. But Freeman is not so easily moved. Citizen seems to believe that the imaginary organization called government (Yes, it is no more than an intangible, imaginary construct.) can actually claim the right to hold a piece of nature’s resources as if it possessed the rights of an actual human being. Freeman points out, quite correctly, that imaginary creations cannot claim rights equal to that of an actual human being, and so if Citizen is actually saying that Freeman cannot stay here because an imaginary entity has already claimed this land, then Freeman is afraid that Citizen is the one who must leave, as he is the trespasser upon Freeman’s justly acquired property. But Citizen continues to insist that millions of tax-paying humans have decided that Freeman cannot just appropriate this land that has been declared public, because all those human beings are joint owners. Freeman points out that no human being, or group of human beings, can arbitrarily claim land that they are not using or have never seen as their own, or else the first person to lay claim to the entire planet would rule over all humanity. Every human being has the right to exist upon the Earth, and it is imperative that he be able to claim unused natural resources as his own in order to survive. This right cannot be logically overridden by the supposed rights of a fictional character, nor can it be justly overridden through the aggressive force of the many against the few. Citizen wishes to convince Freeman that the edicts of government overrule the laws of nature. Citizen does not want to give credence to the idea of natural law. He wants to believe that government is an idea that rules human beings, and not the other way around. Citizen believes that whatever the majority holds to be just, is de facto just. Citizen is a very deluded individual, and Freeman is having none of it. Citizen then points a gun at Freeman, and the truth of the matter is revealed. Related posts: |
BP Moves the Goalpost for the Oil Well Integrity Test Posted: 20 Jul 2010 09:02 AM PDT From Washington’s Blog I noted on July 15th: As Coast Guard admiral Thad Allen has explained, sustained pressure readings above 8,000 pounds per square inch (psi) would show that the wellbore is more or less intact, while pressures of 6,000 psi or less would mean there could be major problems:
Don Van Nieuwenhuise – director of geoscience programs at the University of Houston – explained to CNN that the pressure at the bottom of the well is 11,000 psi, and so scientists have calculated that it should be 8,000 psi at the top of the well: Yet BP is now trying to pretend that 8,000 psi was never the target. As oil industry expert Robert Cavner writes:
Cavner’s article is well-worth reading in full. Related posts: |
As Predicted, BP Tries to Pretend New Leak is a “Natural Seep” Posted: 20 Jul 2010 07:58 AM PDT From Washington’s Blog Listening to the news this morning as I drove to work, I heard that BP is saying that the seep discovered near the blownout well might be a natural seep . Reuters notes:
Indeed, a breaking news headline across the web reads:
As I pointed out on June 24th (and again yesterday):
Today, recently-retired Shell CEO John Hofmeister told MSNBC:
Thad Allen said today that there are anomalies on the seafloor within 100-200 meters of the blown out well. And oil expert Bob Cavner told MSNBC today: You know, these seeps that the admiral talked about within 100 meters of the well concern me some… The ones close really concern me. And there is a possibility, if you look at the well diagram which is complicated and I won’t get into it. There is a path for oil and gas to get out into the sub strata. And I’m concerned about that. A 20-year petroleum geologist – with 13 years spent in offshore exploration in the Gulf of Mexico – “gasmiinder” noted yesterday:
In response to the above post, blogger CD notes that page 16 of BP’s Initial Exploration Plan for the well states:
Gasmiinder responds:
Gasmiinder adds:
So BP (and its partners in the well, Anadarko and Mitsui) would have maps of all of the nearby seeps which were there before well blew out. In addition, there are logs of where BP’s underwater submersibles (ROVs) have traveled since they arrived at the scene. Tracking the logs would show whether any ROVs had visited the current seep before today. If so – and my hunch is that they have – then the corresponding footage would show how big those seeps were previously. Indeed, enterprising citizen journalists who have recorded and stored the footage from BP’s underwater cams could compare the compass readings from the current feeds showing seepage to previous similar compass readings, and find the footage themselves. NASA has also demonstrated that natural seeps show up in satellite images when photographed in sunglint. However, I am not sure whether the seep near the blown out well is big enough – or of the right chemical composition – to see from satellite images. Related posts: |
Blogetery.com Shut Down: Danger on the Internet Posted: 19 Jul 2010 08:50 PM PDT Tyranny rules… — From PC World The blogosphere and online message boards have been buzzing with speculation as to why blogging website Blogetery.com, which claims to have hosted more than 70,000 bloggers, was suddenly shut down last week. Was the site a haven for terrorists? Packed with how-to advice for bomb builders? Rife with child porn? And did the FBI really order the blogging site’s host BurstNET to pull the plug? BurstNET officials on Monday attempted to set the record straight by issuing the following statement: “On the evening of July 9, 2010, BurstNET received a notice of a critical nature from law enforcement officials, and was asked to provide information regarding ownership of the server hosting Blogetery.com. It was revealed that a link to terrorist material, including bomb-making instructions and an al-Qaeda ‘hit list’, had been posted to the site. Upon review, BurstNET determined that the posted material, in addition to potentially inciting dangerous activities, specifically violated the BurstNET Acceptable Use Policy. This policy strictly prohibits the posting of ‘terrorist propaganda, racist material, or bomb/weapon instructions’. Due to this violation and the fact that the site had a history of previous abuse, BurstNET elected to immediately disable the system.” So it appears that terrorist activity, including a “hit list,” were key factors that led to Blogetry.com’s shutdown, as well as the fact that the service had previously violated BurstNET’s usage policy. That explanation probably won’t wash with numerous online commentators who’ve speculated that the Blogetery.com shutdown was part of a government plot to stifle free speech and control the Internet. “It is beginning. The govt. control of the internet has begun. With out due explanation or reasons given other than ‘a history of abuse’. How far away is ToL from their crossfire?” wrote user “Pikman” in a discussion forum on survivalist-friendly The Tree of Liberty site. Related posts: |