I stand corrected

I just refreshed my page after that last post, and find a Google ad leading to a site called realtruth.org . Now, granted, at first glance it does look a conspiracy theorist type site. But it does, at least, have some relevance to things I have posted. More on that site in another post, but the appearance of the ad does raise my curiosity as to how Google's ad placement works. The problem with that is, even if someone told me how the algorithms worked, my maths skills are too minimal to understand. Oh well, too bad.

Find your perfect Lover???

WTF, over?
How on earth does Google make so much money from advertising? I have yet to see an ad on my blog that relates coherently to anything I've posted. Perhaps this is due to the lack of traffic this blog gets. I guess I'll have to post something interesting.

What's with Palestine?

Who exactly are these people? I used to be on a forum with a young palestinian who lived in Kuwait. He told us that Palestinians are treated like dirt in Kuwait, and from what I've read since, the same holds true throughout that part of the world.
Now I always thought that palestinians were those of Arab descent who lived in what is now Israel when that area was ruled by the Turks. But my history lessons told me that when the Jewish people were given the mandate to form the government for that area everyone living there at the time was allowed to vote. In addition, I know there are Muslims of arab descent living in Israel to this day. I recall a news story a while ago of a resturant that had been co-owned by a Jewish and a Muslim family since 1948. It was blown up. So these people are quite able to live in Israel, and vote, and bring about changes democratically. And they are despised by the other people groups in the area. Why not simply live in Israel, as so many other gentiles do, and participate in the political process?
I'd also love to hear from any Muslims who don't believe Jews and Christians should be totally subjugated.

Cool new tech from AMD

Ever since Dual Cores started popping up, I've been wishing I could use the cheaper 64X2 cpus in a dual socket board. Unfortunately, they used different different sockets. However, the AM2 socket looked to change that. I assumed that there would probably be some sort of crippleware option to disallow using the desktop cpus on the workstation mobos, but it seems that AMD may not go that way. Their "4X4" tech seems to be a dual-core, dual socket solution for the gaming market.
There's a good write up here, at Tom's Hardware that suggests that AMD seems to have got their head around the possibilities available here.
Now I want an 8 socket desktop box. :)

Islam Delenda Est

I got this information from a book called Islam and Terrorism, by Mark A. Gabriel, PH.D, former professor of Islamic history at Al-Azhar University, Cairo.
According to the Koran, a Muslim is called to live according to their strength in a given society.
Stage 1. Weakened Stage
This is when Muslims are a small minority in a non-Islamic community. The relevant sections of the Quran relate to when Muhammad was keeping a low profile in Mecca. Sort of "Muhammad, the early years". Verses such as "There is no compulsion in religion"(Surah 2:256, The Noble Quran).
Stage 2 Preperation Stage
This relates to when Muslims are a fairly influential minority, and can make better preperations for the upcoming conflict. An appropriate verse is
"Let not the Unbelievers think that they can get the better(of the godly):they will never frustrate (them). Against them make ready your strength to the utmost of your power, including steeds of war, to strike terror into (the hearts of) the enemies of Allah, and your enemies, and others besides whom you may not know, but whom Allah knows. (Surah 8:59-60, Ali Translation).
The other major translation includes some interesting commentary.
"And make ready against them all you can of power, including steeds of war(tanks, planes, missiles, artillery) to threaten the enemy of Allah..." (Surah 8:60, The Noble Quran).
Stage 3 Jihad
This stage is when Muslims are a minority with strength, influence and power. At this stage every Muslim's duty is to actively fight the enemy, overturning the system of the non-muslim country and establishing Islamic authority.
"Fight and slay the Pagans wherever you find them, and seize them, beleaguer them, and lie in wait for them in every strategem(of war)..."(Surah 9:5, Ali Translation).
Why does this matter to me? I'm a Christian myself, and am somewhat saddened when I hear of Christian Fundamentalists trying to push 'Creation Science', or shooting Drs who perform abortions(not that I don't feel a tad inclined myself, sometimes, on the last point).These people are either twisting the Bible for money and power, or they're really gullible. And I believe Christ calls me to use my brains as best I can, not hand them over to some schmuck in a fancy suit.
Now, I used to think the same was true of the RIFs, but it turns out this is not the case. Blowing yourself up in a shopping mall is a true and sincere expression of a follower of the Quran. In actual fact, Islamic govts other than Iran are actually twisting the Quran to try to wring some basic human decency out of it. Islam has a closer relationship to the cult of Thugee than anything else I know from the last 2000 years. The Carthaginians probably would have got on well with them, at least until they'd helped wipe out everyone else.
Maybe David Drake can help me with a new sig line? Something like "Islam delenda est". How's the grammar on that?

A scary look at a possible(?) future

This link was posted at Baen's Bar and piqued my interest.

Brings to mind a couple of points for me.

1/ I had an interesting conversation with a muslim taxi driver(quite a lot of them in Auckland). He agreed with my guess that most of the muslims who had come to NZ had done so to get away from the fruitcake fanatics in their homelands. As for the imans, he suggested that I knew more about the activities of their prophet than they did.

2/ Just to take a really cold veiw of things, I think the best part about the coalition presence in Iraq is that it gives the nutters a target against which to expend themselves and their resources. I don't know what the casualty ratios are like, but the Brits and Yanks should have a good core of salted troops if anyone wants to open the full can of whoop-ass in the next 5-10 years.

On defence spending in the civilised world.

Up until maybe WWI, military force was still considered to be a reasonable and legitimate means of furthering national interests in the western world. Currently military force is considered more appropriate for use in defense of national interests. Except of course, for those who consider the use of military force to be the ultimate evil which can never be justified. But lets keep them out of the discussion for now.
With the breakup of the Soviet Union, the 'west' has really only got China as a semi-rational possible military threat.
Have I mentioned I really don't like that use of the word west in that context. NZ is east of everyone.
Anyway, what the coalition really needs to be prepared for is the crazy folk. People who don't have rational goals or motivation. Or rather, not rational as we would see it.
For example, holding Aussie and/or NZ would be a nightmare. No question there. But for anyone other than China to invade would not be a rational act. That doesn't mean we ignore the possibility, it means we check for signs of irrational behaviour.
Indonesia is an example relevant to this part of the world.
There is a significant level of anti-western, anti-christian, and anti-hindu feeling in the indonesian population. To date, the govt has keep a lid on things by stepping on anyone who stepped too far out of line. East Timor has a large catholic population, and had come to UN notice. And I suspect Helen Clark(our PM) is looking for a senior position in the UN when we finally kick her out of office. Bali has a large hindu population, and lots of westerners. And our efforts to help in the investigations generated a lot of resentment.
Anyway, the govt has been very authoritarian, and kept the more obvious atrocities out of the international media spotlight. In other words, they have been pragmatic and rational.
If any Indonesian govt eased up too quickly, I suspect they would be either overthrown, or find themselves having to run at the front of the mob to hold their positions at all.

Defense vs social welfare

According to ACT's website, the NZ govt is spending 10X more each year on welfare than we do on defense. This is some nasty kind of insanity.
Before we go jumping on those on some form of income support, I think there are other places where savings could be made. Particularly in the field of admin. At present, every time a benefit changes from one form to another, all forms of ID have to be resubmitted, all of the personal information forms have to be filled out all over again, and then all of this has to be re-entered into the WINZ computer system(for which I'm certain they paid too much, btw), and this all costs money. This shouldn't have to be done.
At present, everyone getting some form of income support has a community services card, and I think these could be used far more effectively.
Lets take a single, unemployed male, for example. Rent, up to set amount, charge to the community services card. Same for groceries and petrol, if a car is owned. A set amount can be spent per week, with the card, on bus and/or train fare. Any other regular expenses must be negotiated with the case manager. On top of that, $20 a week spending money. Anytime the card is used at an eft-pos machine, a complete list of products bought is forwarded to a mainframe and luxury items, including smokes, alchohol, sweets, etc are redflagged, and the costs subtracted from the weekly spending money.
For a student, the same, except course costs can be charged, along with stationary, etc. And the $20/wk is for those with a c- average. C average gets $40/week, c+ average gets $60 etc.

So much for the welfare side of things. Where should we be spending our military money? As an ex-soldier myself, I have a few thoughts on that matter. These have been developed progressively since I left the army. Since 1991 I've been studying military history from Scipio to Hannibal(I'm not a fan), Caesar to Lieutenant-General Bernard Freyberg(I am a fan). I've also been hanging out online with a rather diverse group of American military folk, some currently serving, some not.
First things first, service pay is currently profoundly insulting. Come on people! These men and women hand over a large chunk of the rights civvies take for granted, in order to stand between the pleb mob and whatever harm would come their way. And they get treated like absolute crap by civvies into the bargain. Before any money is spent on marketing, it should be spent on training. High frequency, high intensity training. When not on excersise, all uniformed personnel should be putting at least 100 rounds a day down the range. That alone will start to cost big bucks. In addition, outside working hours, base ranges should be open, with service members able to purchase ammo at cost. What the hell, let civvies with firearms licenses in there too, for a charge. That should help with some of the costs.
Armoured Corps next. Apparently, we've had M113 Gavins in the past, and I think we should go back to them. They're light, air-transportable, amphibious, and just the right size to carry an 8-man section with a good load of extra-ammo. Use the LAV's for carting VIPs around or something. Maybe target practice. Just as long as no one important is forced to used the pocking things. Like soldiers. Politicians we can afford, soldiers we can't.
Hell, just have the rifle ranges open 6 days a week will take care of any recruiting problems, without spending money on tv and radio commercials.
More later.