Bad news for the anti-anthropic crowd

“I want to report that I think I have solved a major problem in theoretical physics,” announced [Stephen] Hawking as he described his solution to the black hole information paradox.

This paradox, ironically, stems from Hawking’s own work. In the 1970s he proved that black holes lose mass by emitting radiation and eventually evaporate altogether. But this conflicted with the laws of quantum physics, which state that information about what fell into the black hole can never be completely wiped out. Hawking previously argued that the intense gravitational fields inside the black hole were unravelling the laws of quantum mechanics, possibly sending the information shooting off into other universes. Now he thinks the information simply leaks out back into our own Universe.

Hawking explains the implications. “I’m sorry to disappoint science fiction fans, but if information is preserved, there is no possibility of using black holes to travel to other universes.

And, incidentally, there’s no reason to believe those other universes exist, as much as those made uncomfortable by the Anthropic Principle might wish them to. This isn’t to say that they don’t, only that there’s less scientific evidence for other universes than there is for intelligent design.

Speaking of science fiction, here’s one of my reader’s peeves. A new principle is no sooner discovered/conceived when the intrepid hero can suddenly use it to leap around all space and time, or create a weapon from it. When has the move from the conceptual to the practical ever taken place in time measured in months, much less minutes?

Posted by Vox Day.

Release the video

Hey, if we can rent Pam and Tommy’s wedding night nuptials at Blockbuster, why shouldn’t we be able to watch the hidden video of Mr. Sandy Berger “sloppily” sneaking out documents from the National Archives. It’s a publicly owned camera and public property, after all. That video should immediately settle the question of whether Mr. Berger was actually stuffing papers down his pants or not.

Of course, being a protege of Bill Clinton, Berger will probably insist that he was doinig nothing more than innocently trying to impress a secretary at the front desk with the bulge of his oversized genitalia.

Joe Lockhart, Clinton’s former spokesman, says Berger “categorically denies that he ever took documents and stuffed them in his socks,” according to CNN.

“That is absurd,” said Lockhart, who is now advising Berger. “And anyone who says that is interested in something other than the truth.”

Former Clinton aide Lanny Davis wants the official who leveled the sock-stuffing allegation to come forward and make the claim publicly.

“I suggest that person is lying,” the news channel quotes him as saying. “And if that person has the guts, let’s see who it is who made the comment that Sandy Berger stuffed something into his socks.”

These old Clinton lieutenants obviously still think we’re suckers. If they’re getting huffy about how the papers weren’t in his socks, we’ll probably find out that they were in his shoes and his underwear.

UPDATE: Jonah Goldberg writes: Byron York has an excellent piece on Berger. He says that the documents Berger took were said to be 15-30 pages. So, if the Post is right, Berger took somewhere between a minimum of 75 and a maximum of 180 pages worth of the same document, in five to six drafts, over two separate occasions… inadvertantly. That is, he took them from a secure room, in a leather portfolio, all the while sneaking notes out “knowingly.”

Sadly, York’s piece states that there were no cameras, it was a sting setup by the National Archives people. I guess we’re stuck with Pam, Tommy and Paris.

Posted by Vox Day.

Anybody got some rope?

From WND:

Undaunted by Kofi Annan’s rejection of a plan for United Nations monitoring of the U.S. presidential elections this fall, Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson, D-TX, is taking her case to Secretary of State Colin Powell. Johnson has urgently asked Powell to make an official request that the U.N. provide observers for the Nov. 2 elections in the United States to “ensure free and fair elections.”

Thirteen Democratic congressmen, led by Johnson, sent a letter July 8 to the U.N. general secretary requesting the presence of U.N. representatives in every county of the country during the voting process and any vote recount afterwards.

The U.N. immediately responded that such a request could not be accepted unless if came from the U.S. government. Otherwise, a spokesman said, it could be considered “intervention in a country’s sovereignty.”

The U.N. response confirms that Rep. Johnson and her treasonous compatriots are actively working to subvert US national sovereignty. I’m no Republican, but I’d certainly support giving these Democrats a fair trial, then hanging them. Well, I would, if I didn’t think it was a horrible idea to give the State the power of life and death, I should probably say.

Fine, in this case, we can make do with exiling them. I don’t think they’ll enjoy it quite as much as the immortal expatriate, Fred.

Posted by Vox Day.

Don’t look, don’t think

From WND

The New York Times, which yesterday buried the story about a former national security adviser caught shoving highly classified documents in his pants, today suggested in a news story the scandal of the missing documents might hurt his chances of becoming secretary of state.

Sandy Berger, national security adviser during the Clinton administration, is facing a Justice Department investigation for rifling through files in the National Archives in preparation for the 911 Commission hearings.

He admits taking papers home and now has no explanation as to where several are.

I’m just curious to know why anyone believes what the government was saying about Waco, OK City and TWA 800 considering that we now have proof that a top administration official of that era is manifestly willing to destroy documentary evidence. Furthermore, what reason do we have to believe that the current administration’s officials are any different with regards to the events that happened on its watch?

As Bob Schultz has discovered, all the documents related to the discussion of the 1913 income tax, and, I would guess, the Federal Reserve as well, are now missing from the National Archives. But missing documents and officials sticking papers down their pants is all innocent, I’m sure. Nothing to hide, don’t look, don’t think, just believe what they say and do as you’re told….

Posted by Vox Day.

So sprach Mogambo

So how severe will the bust be? Worse than anything you can imagine, as the degree of monetary laxity under the horrid Alan Greenspan is worse than anything anyone could possibly have imagined, sort of like when you were young and you were wondering what it will be like to be married, and never once did you interrupt the carnal daydreams and idyllic visions of staying up as late as you wanted and eating cake for dinner to consider that it would end up being an unending hell, where you spend your waking moments praying for death to deliver your from getting any more of what you so richly deserve for being such a moron and having such a loose grip on reality.

The Aden sisters, who have also been around this economic biz long enough to see the writing on the wall, write that “Inflation is headed higher,” although they qualify their assessment with the soothing qualifier, “It may not become as extreme as it did in the 1970s.” Well, they have their opinion and I have mine, which that it will be worse, much, much worse, than it was in the 1970’s, only because the outrageous level of money created and the sheer size and expense of the government makes the 1970’s look like a day at the beach in comparison.

They then give a little snapshot of how prices are acting lately. “Last month import prices soared at an annual rate of 19.2%. Consumer prices had their biggest jump in 14 years this year with the latest rise at 7.2% annualized. This included a 55% surge in energy prices and a nearly 11% gain in food prices (both annualized). Excluding these, the popular core rate was obviously less. But since we all eat and drive, the core rate is actually meaningless.”

“Producer prices reinforced the other inflation figures. They too have soared the most in 14 years over the past year with the latest up at an annual rate of nearly 10%. Energy and food prices surged over 19% and 18% annualized, respectively. So who says there’s no inflation? There is, and it’s soaring.”

Richard Russell “The fact (which few seem to realize) is that the Fed is still fighting the dragon of deflation. For the year-to-date (the last 25 weeks), M-3, the broad money supply, is up $430 billion or an annualized rate of 10.1%. This is double last year’s rate, so it seems clear that Alan Greenspan still believes it’s necessary to fight deflation.”

And what is this deflation that Greenspan is so worried about? The prices of stocks and bonds and houses.

Austrian theory is calling it. Elliott Wave is calling it. The debt levels, trade deficits and conventional history is all ominous. But Alan Greenspan says it’s okay, so I’m sure it’s fine.

Posted by Vox Day.

Mailvox: context, volk

Rhone is irked:

” Even though I understand that people read for confirmation, not information…”. You consistently underestimate your readership: Franken, Alterman, Iran post,Syrian TImes, Al Quiada websites [translated] as well as the usual: WND [damn i’m as tired of hearing their crap about how terrible the Dems are as i am the other side-verbage is almost interchangable] and the rest of the ‘conservative'[sic] stuff: even read the stock guys, to see what they’re saying about metals and to hear them lie about the market. If you only read what you agree with, how can you ever know your enemy, or how he/she thinks, plans, reacts? Besides, one actually ‘learns’ from these disparate views…just like listening to Keynsians, contrasted with Austrian School. Your arrogance in these regards is unbecoming and unwarrented. No one’s got a ‘corner’ on the truth: not ann coulter, al franken, or vox day.

Methinks you took the statement too far. I would be a massive hypocrite were I to advocate not reading viewpoints opposed to one’s own. I not only read the American Left, I also read the European Left as well as the original source material. I was speaking only of the mass preference to read for confirmation, as any analysis of non-fiction bestsellers will show. A woman who buys the Lizard Queen’s book is not reading for information, she is reading it to confirm her opinion of Hillary’s sainthood. A conservative who buys Ben Shapiro’s book is not reading for information, he is reading it to confirm what he already knows from his own experience: that academics are liberal.

I would submit that while I do not have a corner on the truth, I do have hold of a much larger portion of it than darling Alice.

Posted by Vox Day.

Mailvox: When the short answer isn’t enough

Craig is alarmed:

What drives you? If you are “just doing this for fun” I kind of feel betrayed. I first heard about this site from a friend who told me some guy is challenging AL Franken to a fight which to me was freaking awesome. There is nothing better than a bright fearless Christian that is tuned in to pop culture. The mainstream media could really use someone like you. Too bad “that is not what you want” There is a battle going on between good and evil and it has many fronts, media being a huge front. Sometimes it sounds like you want in on this battle, other times you seem to just want to thumb your nose at the battle and talk about how amusing it all is to you.

Two things. First, “for fun” was simply shorthand for explaining that I am not a journalist, have no interest in being a journalist and have no serious desire to pursue a media career. I’ve twice been asked to apply for the editorship of magazines, once a magazine that I truly love, and both times turned it down. I don’t have any burning desire to see myself on TV, to listen to my sibilant “s” on the radio or to see my name on a masthead. I just don’t. In running my own business, I’ve earned more money in a year than any ego-driven camera-hungry media whore except the biggest of the big dogs, the Limbaughs, O’Reillys and Coulters.

I’m a libertarian. While I see little difference between the sale of principle required to be embraced by the mainstream media and the sale of one’s body, I fully support an individual’s legal (not moral) right to do either. But I have known call girls for whom I have more respect and regard than many a talking head.

The media battle does call to me at times, Craig, but the problem is that the battle, for the most part, is a fraud. For example, the studio will feature two talking heads, one “conservative” and one “liberal” arguing about the administration’s proper policy response to an unexpectedly high CPI number. Meanwhile, I know: a) the CPI number is completely fake, since it is manipulated to exclude inflationary elements and overcount deflationary elements, b) the cause of the real, higher inflation, and c) that inflation is necessarily an inherent part of the current system. This is only one of dozens of possible examples.

Most people don’t know that I could have been writing columns for WND three years before I started. Mr. Farah and I discussed it, but I didn’t feel as if I had enough to say to write two columns a week. Now, of course, I’m blogging daily, so in retrospect that wasn’t a problem. It’s possible to think that things might have been different if I had established myself sooner. But any student of economics understands opportunity cost, and now the cost of throwing myself into what I know to be a largely superficial conflict is much too high.

Potentially more significant is the apparent fact that the media does not appear to want much to do with me. My column is out there, every single week, and this blog is updated every single day. I can’t force the newspapers to run my column any more than I can force people to read my blog. 1,600 daily hits here compared to 61,000 at Wonkette would seem to indicte that people have a strong preference for snappy one-liners about anal sex over what I have on offer. Does it annoy me when so much column space goes to inferior thinkers who repeatedly demonstrate their cluelessness? Of course! But it doesn’t surprise me at all; the market for mediocrity has always been a large one. Money and fame is not the only measure of quality, if they are, Britney Spears and Jenna Jameson rate more highly than Ann Coulter and Michelle Malkin.

I am always open-minded with regards to the future. But unlike most, I have seen up close the costs of both fame and great fortune, and so I am considerably more ambivalent about such things than most. And I think, Craig, that perhaps you failed to consider one possibility. Sometimes one laughs because the only alternative is to scream.

Posted by Vox Day.

Be a good little serf

U.S. Citizen, Elena Sassower, respectfully waited through two hours of speeches in favor of the nominee until Chairman Senator Saxby Chambliss adjourned the May 22, 2003 U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee’s Judicial Confirmation, a Public Hearing without asking if anyone else present wished to be heard.

Elena Sassower, then said: “Mr. Chairman, there’s citizen opposition to Judge Wesley based on his documented corruption as a New York Court of Appeals judge. May I testify?”

Elena Sassower, within seconds, was removed by the D.C. Capitol Police from the Senate Judiciary Committee Hearing Room, hands cuffed behind her back, arrested and incarcerated for 21 hours.

Elena Sassower, was prosecuted by the U.S. Attorneys’ Office and on April 20, 2004 was found ‘guilty of Disruption of Congress’ after a week-long trial before Superior Court Judge Brian F. Holeman at 500 Indiana Avenue, N.W., Washington, D.C.

I know nothing about the particulars of this case, but somehow, it doesn’t lead me to think that our elected officials are likely to pay much legitimate attention to We The People’s exercise of their Constitutional right to petition. I suspect the only thing that keeps the Federal staatspolizei from locking them up is that the arrest of 14,592 people who’ve done nothing but sign a formal Petition of Redress would explode the matrix construct once and for all.

In tangential news, I doubt anyone will be surprised to hear this:

After several hours of legal wrestling related to findings and recommendations included in [Dick] Simkanin’s pre-sentencing report, USDC Judge John McBryde imposed the sentence that is approximately double what was indicated by the “point system” criteria utilized in the federal sentencing guidelines. During the day, McBryde also sentenced two other individuals on federal charges including a bank robber and a wife-beating firearms dealer. Their combined sentences were less than half that [84 months] received by Simkanin….

The most telling proofs of judicial manipulation were McBryde’s improper directed findings of critical facts to the jury, ruling that Simkanin could not enter a single piece of paper as defense evidence and McBryde’s repeated quashing of testimony when he (Simkanin) attempted to put on a defense by explaining the content of the Constitution’s taxing clauses and the content of federal tax law and how he relied on the words of the law to determine his actions.

Seven years. I imagine that it won’t be long before businessmen who are interested in operating under a government that actually obeys its own laws will begin to want their businesses headquartered and staffed outside the United States. Not all outsourcing and offshore moves are to countries with low-cost labor, after all. Once a government ceases to respond to its citizens and begins to hold show trials meant to intimidate its productive classes, it’s all downhill from there.

Posted by Vox Day.

A viral meme

White Lightning Axiom: Redux is mesmerized:

Vox is evil, but an odd, seductive evil that is irrefutable.

Very flattering, to be sure, but the interesting thing was the single comment inspired by this post. “Hi. Hope I’m doing this correctly, am unfamiliar with this blog site. Just wanted to say thanks for being a reader. I took your advice and manually pollenated my pumpkin and zuchini. Keeping my fingers crossed. Growing my own Jack-o-lantern would be amazingly cool.”

Though my sins be many, manually pollinating vegetables is not numbered among them. So, just who is in league with darkness here, Mr. Republican National Convention?

Posted by Vox Day.