Month: August 2007
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Linkers part 1
I’ve been working on and off on a new linker. To my surprise, I’ve discovered in talking about this that some people, even some computer programmers, are unfamiliar with the details of the linking process. I’ve decided to write some notes about linkers, with the goal of producing an essay similar to my existing one…
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The Morality of Government
Governments are formed when a group of people gathers together, either freely or by force, and lives together in a community with a shared set of laws. The government is the entity which creates and enforces the laws. What is the moral grounding of the government? In the old days in Europe we had kings…
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Terrorism: Goals vs. Methods
I rcently read what I thought was an insightful comment on terrorism, although I have unfortunately now forgotten where. The comment was that terrorists want to be judged on their statements, but they are in fact judged on their actions. For example, Osama bin Laden has stated that his goals are to force U.S. forces…
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Iraq
What should we do about Iraq? (Obviously a contentious topic.) It seems clear at this late date that the reasons that the Bush administration gave for the invasion were consistently either lies or hopes which have failed. But that is the past. What should we do now? What are the advantages of keeping the army…
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Cutting Without Measuring
We’re having our front steps replaced. They are made of concrete with embedded tiles (the old steps were badly cracked, and had to be removed anyhow when we had our foundation rebuilt). We were able to salvage about half the tiles from the old steps as they were destroyed, and managed to find matching new…