Abortion Is Torture

There is no doubt that abortion—the cruel murder of unborn infants—is torture in every way. Yet the Left complains about harsh interrogation of committed terrorists who may have actionable intelligence, and in fact Los Angeles may have been spared an attack because of KSM's breakdown? I am not arguing that torture for obtaining intelligence is necessarily moral, and the fact that we have a debate about it is healthy (unlike the Islamofascists, who don't even blink at torturing not only enemy soldiers but also civilians). Yet warfare does render normal rules of ethics inapplicable.

About two weeks ago I got a knock on the door from an ACLU missionary, who was apparently going door-to-door in a manner not unlike a JW. She gave me the standard spiel about how we are losing civil liberties, how Bush shreds the constitution, the treatment of detainees, the passing of Proposition 8, etc. I was almost tempted to administer some cognitive dissonance to her, but then I picked one issue—income taxes—and told her that the tax system is the most intrusive thing the government does to us, and that's the civil liberty I cared about. She admitted that she agreed in part with me on this, but since the tides of the tea parties were still high, she probably figured out that I was a right-wing extremist and promptly left.

So, the possible dissonances for ACLU: (1) The government's taking away our means of self-defense (gun control) increases our civil liberties? (2) Interrogation of terrorists is torture, yet torturing and murdering of innocent unborn babies is to be legally sanctioned and even federally funded? (3) Proposition 8 was passed by a democratic process, with the majority of African Americans and Hispanics voting for it. How about—for the sake of dissonance, not my acutal viewpoint—sending the African Americans back to the South and the Hispanics back to Mexico, so we can have "gay marriage" in California? Errr, wouldn't they be disenfranchised if the ACLU had its way?

Oh, yeah, did I mention that President Barack Hussein Obama believes that marriage should be between a man and a woman?

UPDATE: Another cognitive dissonance for ACLUers: American Christians do not, as a general rule, use violence to enforce their moral values. They may use the ballot—that's their political right in a democracy—to restrain what they consider evil (abortion, homosexuality, etc.), but except for a few lunatics whom most Bible-believing, law-abiding Christians would disown, they don't go around committing acts of violence against the non-Christian Leftists. In contrast, the radical Islamofascists that rule much of the Middle East, if they get to dominate the world, will target the Leftists first for their godlessness (from their point of view). Why, then, does the ACLU care about the Islamofascists' supposed rights but at the same time are so hostile to Christians? After all, the Christians respect the atheists' right to go to hell, though they will try to evangelize them and will ask God to grant them repentance in time, whereas the Islamofascists will send them straight to hell.

Owen and Payne

is a fictitious accounting firm who specialize in Form 483000. They tell us how much we will be owing and paying after O and the demoncra* congress rob us of our freedom and money.

555 timer circuits

I need an automatic mechanism for activating a backup phone if asterisk fails.  Found this nice page with various circuits using the venerable 555 timer.

Obama’s dog

What stupidity the MSM displays when even a triviality like Obamas' dog would consume so much of their bandwidth. Wait, is it stupidity or jealousy?—MSM must have thought of itself as Obamas' dog, but now the new dog is stealing affections from O's.

世說新語

Tautology = 套套邏輯

Power factor of CFLs

Compact fluorescent lights (CFLs) have been increasingly popular—or is it so by government mandate?—because they are supposed to generate more light than heat for the same amount of energy.  However, there is a downside: their power factor is not so great, about .57 in an experimented conducted by the author of the linked article.  That means there will be additional loss in the power grid, as the system needs to deliver the current demanded by the apparent power.