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Showing posts from May, 2019

"A MODEST PROPOSAL"

A MODEST PROPOSAL For preventing the children of poor people in Ireland, from being a burden on their parents or country, and for making them beneficial to the publick. by Dr. Jonathan Swift 1729 It is a melancholy object to those, who walk through this great town, or travel in the country, when they see the streets, the roads and cabbin-doors crowded with beggars of the female sex, followed by three, four, or six children, all in rags, and importuning every passenger for an alms. These mothers instead of being able to work for their honest livelihood, are forced to employ all their time in stroling to beg sustenance for their helpless infants who, as they grow up, either turn thieves for want of work, or leave their dear native country, to fight for the Pretender in Spain, or sell themselves to the Barbadoes. I think it is agreed by all parties, that this prodigious number of children in the arms, or on the backs, or at the heels of their mothers, and frequently of...

A Modern Rebuttal to Jonathan Swift’s “Modest Proposal”

Marcin Kubik January 7, 2017 A Modern Rebuttal to Jonathan Swift’s “Modest Proposal” The very basic premise of Jonathan Swift’s proposal to reduce poverty within a nation state, is that one should look to the culinary utility of unwanted offspring as a means of increasing both the gross domestic product & reducing poverty, is a solution for those invaded and exploited, not the imperialist oppressors who starve entire countries or bleed them dry and steal their resources. It just so happens that I live in the modern equivalent of the British occupier of Ireland, presently the biggest, the most ruthless and genocidal empire in Earth’s history. While eating of one’s own offspring is a viable option to few, a solution I probably would not prefer, one that has Mythological and historical roots even in antiquity, with Caligula gutting his pregnant wife to consume an unborn child mimicking Zeus, a god conceived by the Greeks but whom the Roman emperor fancied himself a liken...

Arts of Mars

"Arts of Mars " or Martial Arts  is not a thing of hand to hand combat. It is not even about melee weapons or projectile weapons. It is not about self defense. Archery has little to do with that. It is about the philosophy and practice of war . Martial Arts are not exclusively about self defense . They are also about lethal preventive strike using a weapon. Few would dispute that Iaido can be used to assassinate, as easily as it is to defend from an attack. Ninjitsu is undisputedly the martial art of the assassins. Martial Arts of the Wild West are all about firearms. Gunfights are generally not recognized as a form of martial arts, though they should be. Just as a sword, a spear or a bow can be used with deadly consequences and not exclusively in self defense but in protection of property, livestock or other humans, so can firearms be used for this purpose and they are. The philosophy of the duel has a long list of underlying rules and cultural norms . Melee weapon...

Che-Go

Part of a conversation between two sentient persons who are told they are part of a quantum computing platform or actually are quantum computers individually. Q. How can you be a quantum computer  without knowing quantum algorithms? A. How can you be a calculator without being sentient or self-aware? Quantum teleportation and telepathic connection to a U.S. General: Q. How can you be a soldier and not know war? A. Soldiers do what they’re told. When I wrote this down I thought that “not knowing war” has more to it than “not understanding its causes and conduct” in a holistic manner, or being able to work out the entire thing in all its complexities instead of developing skills to participate in its individual elements, for instance pilots know little about being commandos and submariners don’t have the skills to survive in the mountains. Most soldiers today never actually see any combat. They literally don’t experience war. They don’t know war at all. Most of them just ex...