j.carl.henderson

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• Commented on Why I want Bitcoin to die in a fire
  I don't want to get into the business of defending Bitcoin. I think I've been clear that I think it is just another commodity for people to buy and sell, and is likely to have little impact on the world...
• Commented on Why I want Bitcoin to die in a fire
  You are correct. I had forgotten that Pournelle stated pretty much the same thing more elegantly. As for Nicholas van Hoogstraten, Willie Walsh, and Iain Coucher, I was not familiar with them. A quick look at those names in Wikipedia...
• Commented on PSA: Why there won't be a third book in the Halting State trilogy
  Probably not. At least here in Irving, Texas (a suburb of Dallas), the local Baptists were quite happy to work with the local mosque in an attempt to defeat a proposed change in city law that would have allowed beer...
• Commented on A deceptively simple question
  Many cities already have constructed extensive networks of HOV (High Occupancy Vehicle) Lanes in parallel to the existing freeway infrastructure. Such lanes could easily be repurposed for self-driving vehicles....
• Commented on Commercial interlude
  RingOfStones wrote: "I note that on the one hand Bob talks about his job including dealing with "Old Bat Wings himself" and nine paragraphs later is telling us it's safe to discount everything HPL talks about, including "Old Bat-Wings himself,"...
• Commented on Commercial interlude
  "Who the fuck are they planning on deploying these things against?" I ask hoarsely; "An invading Panzer division?" Congratulations on the subtle (but funny) Tom Swifty! I only caught it on re-reading that line in heteromeles's post....
• Commented on Time tourism
  The time-tourism sub-genre isn't inherently sexist; it's history that is inherently sexist....
• Commented on The latest news
  This bit from the Guardian article is hilarious: "The NSA's codeword for its decryption program, Bullrun, is taken from a major battle of the American civil war." The Union Army of the United States lost the First Battle of the...
• Commented on On Syria
  What seems to be emerging in the US House of Representatives is an unlikely coalition of Tea Party Republicans (nearly all of whom entered congress after the Iraq war began) and Progressive Democrats. I hope it is enough to abort...
• Commented on On Syria
  Keep in mind that a "vote of conscience" doesn't mean much in US politics. Individual House and Senate member routinely vote against the desires of their leadership. What House Speaker Boehner seems to be signaling here is that he's not...
• Commented on On Syria
  "Rethuglican" may be common usage, but its hardly conducive to reasonable discussion of political issues. As long as you are not trying to convince anyone who disagrees with you to change their minds, I suppose it's fine. But to see...
• Commented on On Syria
  I think you are misreading what Dave P said. He said that the American Civil War was the war that the US took the most casualties in; not that the Civil War was the bloodiest war in world history....
• Commented on On Syria
  Darn those Republicans. Maybe in the next election, evil Republicans war mongers who support war with Syria like Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid can be replaced with good, peace-loving Democrats. Seriously, though. This is an issue that you can't break...
• Commented on On Syria
  As I said in my previous post, I am far from a regular reader of the DailyKos. I read through only a single thread on Syria there. But from that small sample (and I know small samples can be notoriously...
• Commented on On Syria
  Quite fair. I'm sure my takeaway from your past comments on Obama is heavily colored by my preconceptions of him--which are influenced by my personal politics, race, class, region, and the general US media environment....
• Commented on On Syria
  Obamacare (which I'm not fan of) differs from George W Bush's Medicare Part D expansion (which I wasn't a fan of either) only in scope. Both were huge injections of government regulatory power and money into the health care industry,...
• Commented on On Syria
  Based on what you've said previously, I expect your opinion of Obama is that he's a typical center right, American politician who's continued so many of the previous administration's polices that he's not that far from being the 3rd and...
• Commented on On Syria
  In one of the cases you cite (the Falklands War) the party that instigated the war was looking for the prototypical "short, victorious war". That party was Argentina. It didn't work out well for them. (They lost badly, the Argentine...
• Commented on On Syria
  He is not the only one. Most of the political blogs I normally read are libertarian and/or fiscal conservative. (Yours is a clear exception). But last night I decided to read through the most recent Syria comment thread on the...
• Commented on On Syria
  Of course they won't get a "short, victorious war"l they never do. (unless they just lob some cruise missiles and declare victory). Russian Minister of the Interior under Tsar Nicholas II, Vyacheslav von Phleve, coined the now-infamous phrase saying, "What...
• Commented on On Syria
  I don't think threatening military strikes (i.e., going to war) in Syria is a matter of an administration trying to show its manliness. They are more likely looking for a "short, victorious war" to distract people from a growing list...
• Commented on On Syria
  This isn't really different. It's not even particularly new. The Iraqi Baathist regime under Saddam Hussein used chemical weapons on rebels in the Kurdish regions of Iraq. WMDs were the United State's entire justification for going to war with Iraq....
• Commented on On Syria
  I rarely find myself in complete agreement with our host on political matters. However, he's spot on here. I only have one minor quibble. Syria isn't a party to the Chemical Weapons Convention or to the International Criminal Court, and...
• Commented on Worldcon
  Multiple Mexican states rebelled against Santa Anna. Texas, along with the Republic of Yucatán, were the only ones to successfully win their independence. Sam Houston was a slave owner, but he didn't believe that the preservation or expansion of slavery...
• Commented on Worldcon
  No. The Texians were not revolting against a republic. The ruler of Mexico at the time of the Texas Revolution was Antonio López de Santa Anna, one of the earliest Latin American military dictators. Immediately before the Texas Revolution, Santa...
• Commented on Worldcon
  There goes my ambition of getting my mint condition Fiend Folio signed by you. ("Stross is important! He invented both the Githyanki AND the Sladi!") It's not that hot and unpleasant. Texas has had an unusually cool summer this year,...
• Commented on Snowden leaks: the real take-home
  Perhaps history will prove me wrong, but I think economic and class-based analysis of Snowden is incorrect. Snowden's actions are those of someone who at his core really believes in America and the principles that this country is supposed to...
• Commented on Who ordered *that*?
  If the Catholic Priest in question had just pissed off the largest military and economic power in the world, and then the rape allegations surfaced, I'd be extremely suspicious of the charges....
• Commented on Who ordered *that*?
  Torture may be illegal in the US, but you can still be confined for life in a in solitary confinement for 23 hours a day in a cell the size of a large bed. It is bizarre that our media...
• Commented on Who ordered *that*?
  cahth3iK wrote: "When you are richer than the rest, you must contribute more than the rest (since this is the core principle behind the notion of taxes and you are a Tea Party sympathiser, I reckon the notion must be...