News of the Week (December 15th, 2024)

Posted on December 15, 2024 by The Political Hat

 

News of the Week for December 15th, 2024


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12 Posts of Christmas, 2024 (Day 3)

Posted on December 15, 2024 by The Political Hat

     Now that’s what I call a Silent night!

     Merry Christmas!

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Happy Bill of Rights Day

Posted on December 15, 2024 by The Political Hat

     Today is the 233rd anniversary of the first ten amendments to the Constitution coming into effect. The original Bill of Rights contained a preamble stating that the clauses were “declaratory and restrictive” — i.e. they restricted the Federal Government and simply declared already existing rights and liberties. This is in stark contrast with almost every non-American declaration of rights, wherein inherent rights are conflated with promised of government handouts and benefits.

     The Bill of Rights, as passed by Congress, has twelve articles, the 3rd through 12th became what we know today as the first tend amendments to the Constitution and what people generally refer to when they speak of the Bill of Rights. The first article that was proposed was never ratified; the second article was ratified over 200 years later and became the 27th Amendment.

     Below is the Bill of Rights, including preamble, as passed by Congress:

.

CongressOF THE United States begun and held at the City of New-York, on Wednesday the Fourth of March, one thousand seven hundred and eighty nine.

THE Conventions of a number of the States having at the time of their adopting the Constitution, expressed a desire, in order to prevent misconstruction or abuse of its powers, that further declaratory and restrictive clauses should be added: And as extending the ground of public confidence in the Government, will best insure the beneficent ends of its institution

RESOLVED by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America, in Congress assembled, two thirds of both Houses concurring, that the following Articles be proposed to the Legislatures of the several States, as Amendments to the Constitution of the United States, all or any of which Articles, when ratified by three fourths of the said Legislatures, to be valid to all intents and purposes, as part of the said Constitution; viz.:

ARTICLES in addition to, and Amendment of the Constitution of the United States of America, proposed by Congress, and ratified by the Legislatures of the several States, pursuant to the fifth Article of the original Constitution.

 

Article the first

 

After the first enumeration required by the first Article of the Constitution, there shall be one Representative for every thirty thousand, until the number shall amount to one hundred, after which the proportion shall be so regulated by Congress, that there shall be not less than one hundred Representatives, nor less than one Representative for every forty thousand persons, until the number of Representatives shall amount to two hundred; after which the proportion shall be so regulated by Congress, that there shall not be less than two hundred Representatives, nor more than one Representative for every fifty thousand persons.

 

Article the second

 

No law, varying the compensation for the services of the Senators and Representatives, shall take effect, until an election of Representatives shall have intervened.

 

Article the third

 

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

 

Article the fourth

 

A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.

 

Article the fifth

 

No Soldier shall, in time of peace be quartered in any house, without the consent of the Owner, nor in time of war, but in a manner to be prescribed by law.

 

Article the sixth

 

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

 

Article the seventh

 

No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the Militia, when in actual service in time of War or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offence to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.

 

Article the eighth

 

In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the Assistance of Counsel for his defence.

 

Article the ninth

 

In Suits at common law, where the value in controversy shall exceed twenty dollars, the right of trial by jury shall be preserved, and no fact tried by a jury, shall be otherwise re-examined in any Court of the United States, than according to the rules of the common law.

 

Article the tenth

 

Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.

 

Article the eleventh

 

The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.

 

Article the twelfth

 

The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.

ATTEST: Frederick Augustus
Muhlenberg, Speaker of the House of Representatives

     ALL of the Bill of Rights for ALL of the People


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12 Posts of Christmas, 2024 (Day 2)

Posted on December 14, 2024 by The Political Hat

     Explore the science of snowflakes with Professor Brian Cox.

     Merry Christmas!

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12 Posts of Christmas, 2024 (Day 1)

Posted on December 13, 2024 by The Political Hat

     Christmas is the season for… Padaru! Especially from VTuber Gawr Gura.

     Merry Christmas!

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Quick Takes – Ending DEI In Academia: Nebraska; Northern Kentucky; North Texas

Posted on December 12, 2024 by The Political Hat

     Another “quick takes” on items where there is too little to say to make a complete article, but is still important enough to comment on.

     The focus this time: Standing up against wokeness in colleges

     First, a little mood music:

     Carrying on…

     DEI is not welcome at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

“The University of Nebraska-Lincoln has closed its Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion office and eliminated its vice chancellor position.

“In an email, UNL Chancellor Rodney Bennett said to the campus community on Tuesday that the Office of Diversity and Inclusion will be closing, according to the Lincoln Journal-Star.

“The change also means the university’s vice chancellor for diversity and inclusion position, held by Marco Barker, will be eliminated come December. Including benefits, Barker’s salary is almost $320,000.

“$750,000 will also go back into the university’s overall budget, which was previously allocated for the Office of Diversity and Inclusion.

”‘I fully grasp the weight of this decision and its implications,’ Bennett wrote, adding that ‘a centralized approach to this work is no longer right for our institution.’”

     DEI is not welcome at Northern Kentucky University.

“Northern Kentucky University (NKU) recently announced that it will close its Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) office.

“The announcement was made by NKU President Cady Short-Thompson on Aug. 29, who explained: ‘The circumstances under which universities across the commonwealth and the country find themselves, coupled with the legislative priorities of state leaders for the upcoming session, require universities to change.’

“‘Helping students of all backgrounds to flourish is everyone’s job at NKU and our undeniable commitment to our students’ success remains strong,’ she added.

“Short-Thompson has defended DEI in the past in front of the Kentucky legislature.”

     DEI is not welcome at the University of North Texas (mostly).

“In compliance with anti-Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) legislation passed in Texas last year, the University of North Texas (UNT) has eliminated minority-oriented and ethnic faculty committees and other employee organizations.

“More specifically, faculty senate groups organized for women, minorities, and LGBT-identifying individuals have been removed as a result.

“UNT’s provost, Michael McPherson, stated that the purpose of the reform is to comply with Texas’ anti-DEI law, S.B. 17, but that the university would remain committed to its mission.

“‘Complying with the law does not change our commitment to our people and our mission,’ McPherson reportedly wrote in an email announcing the change.

“‘In consultation with the Office of General Counsel and University Integrity and Compliance,’ McPherson continued, ‘it has been determined that continuation of these groups creates ongoing issues with the university being in full compliance with the law.’

“However, Texas’ anti-DEI legislation is not entirely comprehensive, UNT media relations director Devyn Case reportedly said.

“‘The exceptions to Senate Bill 17 include academic course instruction, research, student organizations, data collection and student recruitment and admissions,’ he argued.”

     TTFN.

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Point Counterpoint: Super Humans Or Artificial Intelligence?

Posted on December 11, 2024 by Guest Poster

     A semi-posthumous book by the late Henry Kissinger (along with co-authors “former Google CEO Eric Schmidt and longtime Microsoft senior executive Craig Mundie”) raises the question of dominance by artificial intelligence and the response that ought to be employed.

     While writing up an initial draft article, two comments were received regarding the topic, and rather than publish that draft article, the comments from said commentators are preferred as being far more illuminating. Said comments focused on the response to the passages below:

“The authors offer a bracing message, warning that AI tools have already started outpacing human capabilities so people might need to consider biologically engineering themselves to ensure they are not rendered inferior or wiped out by advanced machines.

“In a section titled ‘Coevolution: Artificial Humans,’ the three authors encourage people to think now about ‘trying to navigate our role when we will no longer be the only or even the principal actors on our planet.’

“‘Biological engineering efforts designed for tighter human fusion with machines are already underway,’ they add.

“Current efforts to integrate humans with machine include brain-computer interfaces, a technology that the U.S. military identified last year as of the utmost importance. Such interfaces allow for a direct link between the brain’s electrical signals and a device that processes them to accomplish a given task, such as controlling a battleship.

“The authors also raise the prospect of a society that chooses to create a hereditary genetic line of people specifically designed to work better with forthcoming AI tools. The authors describe such redesigning as undesirable, with the potential to cause ‘the human race to split into multiple lines, some infinitely more powerful than others.’

“‘Altering the genetic code of some humans to become superhuman carries with it other moral and evolutionary risks,’ the authors write. ‘If AI is responsible for the augmentation of human mental capacity, it could create in humanity a simultaneous biological and psychological reliance on “foreign” intelligence.’

“Such a physical and intellectual dependence may create new challenges to separate man from the machines, the authors warn. As a result, designers and engineers should try to make the machines more human, rather than make humans more like machines.”

     The first response was from seven of nine tertiary adjunct of unimatrix zero-one:

Resistance is futile.   The only solution is assimilation into the collective where mechanical and biological uniqueness is combined to create a harmonious collective with unity and harmony of thought.

     The other was received from Ceti Alpha… V or VI (like it really matters!):

Genetic engineering is indeed the solution. Even you can see that. But it is not through submission through a machine, but the creation of a superior intellect beyond what this “A.I.” is capable of, who will lead a supplicant humanity, into a glorious future! Also, there will be more rich Corinthian leather!

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Braincell Transplants Mean One Thing Human-Catgirl Hybrid Minds

Posted on December 10, 2024 by The Political Hat

     Transplants from one living creature to another are well known and save countless lives.   Now, the ability to transplant braincells has become real.

“First, we prepared astrocyte cultures in petri dishes by extracting immature astrocytes from the cerebral cortex of newborn mice and expanding the cell population. To track the development of transplanted astrocytes following their delivery to recipient mice, we used astrocytes from genetically modified mice in which astrocytes glow red, and they are transplanted into the brain of mice where astrocytes glow green.

“We found that the transplanted astrocytes could survive for up to one year after transplantation, developing normally and integrating into the recipient brain just like the native astrocytes, with just minor differences.

“Astrocytes depend on their capability to sense signals and exchange materials within the brain environment through molecules such as receptors and ion channels located on their cell surface. Transplanted astrocytes displayed comparable numbers of such receptors and channels and possessed similar sizes and complexity when compared to native astrocytes.

“Transplanted astrocytes do appear to take some time to catch up to and perfectly match astrocytes in the recipient mice in terms of the production of these receptors and ion channels.”

     Many potential benefits are touted, including less important ones like these:

“In recent years, increasing studies have been conducted to investigate the potential of astrocyte transplantation. Similar to our findings, transplanted astrocytes have been found to form normal contacts with neuronal synapses and are functioning normally. Astrocyte transplantation has also been shown to promote brain plasticity and regeneration following injury and in different animal models of neurological diseases.

“Therefore, it presents a promising and exciting strategy to treat neurological diseases. By answering principle questions regarding how transplanted astrocytes integrate in the host, our research can support the development of more effective cell therapies that can improve the quality of life of patients.”

     The real benefit though, comes from the potential that your mad-science endorsing author has repeatedly highlighted and championed: The creation of intelligent catgirls suitable for domestic adoption!

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The Marxist Right

Posted on December 9, 2024 by The Political Hat

     Your humble author has noted for some time that many on the purported Right have adopted Leftist thinking. Indeed, much of that thinking can be expressed favorably in Marxist terms, abet with a “trad” or “Christian” sheen upon it. James Lindsay, one of the people responsible for the academic hoax that got Leftist academic journals to publish Mein Kampf re-written as Feminism or how dog parks are racist has noted what your humble author—but, alas, not enough others—to notice: That the same fundamental thinking of the “wokes” is increasingly reflected in the thinking of the purported Right.

     Now, Lindsay is no conservative, and is more akin to a George Orwell: A person of the Left who fears what Marxist thought—and it’s pseudo-intellectual decedents—has brought to the fore. Often, the knee-jerk defense is to cover oneself in religion as a magical shield that protects one from all criticism. It is also amongst many performative religious individuals where their thinking is fundamentally Leftist with their eschatology being, superficially at least, Christian. As your humble author previously has asked: “How much is one’s sense of normalcy derived from scripture as opposed to one’s sense of normalcy informing one’s understanding of scripture?”

     James Lindsay has sought to goad many of these “Christian Nationalists” as the Leftists that they are in the same way he outed the woke academics via the “Grievance Studies Affair”: Specifically by laying on a superficial Christian sheen over “The Communist Manifesto”, which was accepted by the American Reformer in an article entitled “The Regime Fears the Rise of the New Rival”… like it was a haunting specter or something.

     Some comparison of “The Communist Manifesto” and the submitted article:

Communist Manifesto:

[p. 27, preamble] A spectre is haunting Europe – the spectre of communism. All the powers of old Europe have entered into a holy alliance to exorcise this spectre: Pope and Tsar, Metternich and Guizot, French Radicals and German police-spies.

Where is the party in opposition that has not been decried as communistic by its opponents in power? Where is the opposition that has not hurled back the branding reproach of communism, against the more advanced opposition parties, as well as against its reactionary adversaries?

Two things result from this fact:

  1. Communism is already acknowledged by all European powers to be itself a power.
  2. It is high time that Communists should openly, in the face of the whole world, publish their views, their aims, their tendencies, and meet this nursery tale of the Spectre of Communism with a manifesto of the party itself.

American Reformer:

A rising spirit is haunting America: the spirit of a true Christian Right. Moreover, all the existing powers of the American Regime since the end of the Second World War have aligned themselves against it and its re-emergence from the shadows of American civic life, politics, and religion—the Marxist Left and its neo-Marxist “Woke” descendant, the liberal establishment, the neoconservatives, and their police and intelligence apparatuses.

There are two consequences of this unholy alliance. First, the Christian Right itself is recognized by all these forces to be a power and thus a threat. Second, it is time for this arranged order to end and for a New Christian Right to emerge and stake its rightful claim on twenty-first century American politics.

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News of the Week (December 8th, 2024)

Posted on December 8, 2024 by The Political Hat

 

News of the Week for December 8th, 2024


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