Bill's Comments

I have learned that Google/Blogger requires absolutely no filtering of cookies to be able to use this site. I consider that intolerable in that I don't care to be tracked, hounded, or otherwise followed in any manner with cookies I didn't ask for or accept. Because of this, I will be closing and deleting this site in the very near future. I will republish the post on hard-boiled eggs and its comments to my new blog. It is Easter and that would be appropriate. I have backups of all my posts, and will republish in an archive blog those I think worthwhile. Also if there are special posts you wish to have available, either copy them to your PC or if you think them useful to others, send me an email to bill dot keezer at billkeezer dot net, and I will put them in an archive.

There is no such thing as a free blog, just different ways to pay for it.

This blog has moved permanently to http:/billkeezer.net/billscomments. It is still called Bill's Comments. The new blog is hosted by bluehost.com and powered by WordPress. Blogger is free but in the long run you always get what you pay for. As far as I know, the current content in blogger will always be accessible (they want the accesses to track them), but I have archives that may eventually get posted at the new location.

See you on the other side.

Wesley Pruden has posted an essay on the Death Penalty and its abolition. He focuses on the number of incorrect convictions overturned by DNA evidence as supporting an abolition of the death penalty on practical grounds, namely the courts too often get it wrong. The issue hangs on two principles, 1) our general approach to justice is that it is better that the guilty go free than the innocent be punished (hence the presumption of innocence, less and less frequently honored by the press), and 2) There are some people for whom it would seem the only justice for their actions is to kill them in return--prime poster boys for this would Sadam Hussain and his sons.

It is important to ignore the utilitarian static in this debate--that the cost of a death penalty conviction is much higher than that of a life sentence. Principles are not up to the highest, or in this case the lowest, bidder.

One can make note that the most frequent mis-carriages of justice would seem to be the most emotionally charged cases. People jump on the first person they can seem to pin the crime on and then blind themselves to contrary evidence. This is not a desire for justice but for revenge.

The proper approach is to determine where the errors were in the wrongful convictions and find ways to strengthen the system to prevent them. Another approach is to make a system of penalties for wrongful convictions. Cops that got carried away and failed to properly investigate, DA's that failed to properly build their case and ignored evidence, judges that produced questionable readings of the law, all should be held accountable.

Of course this all depends on a country of people more interested in getting it right than making it look good or feel good. It also depends on an attention span of more than a couple of days.

I think that doing away with the death penalty all together is throwing the baby out with the bath water. It is certainly easier than doing it right and finding ways to keep the death penalty for crimes that deserve it, and better protecting the innocent.

I received the following email today:

Gates of Vienna has moved. Our new location is:

http://gatesofvienna.net

Previous content is in the process of migrating to the new site. Most is already in place.

I owe a big debt of gratitude to Henrik Ræder Clausen, Vlad Tepes, and KGS for their help setting up the new site and tutoring me in the nuances of WordPress.

We will shortly have the archives and the comments, but the new template hasn’t really been established — just the bare minimum to get us up and running. The rest of the process will take a while.

The old site at blogspot will not redirect to the new site, because Google has locked the blog. We have filed a request for a review of our status, but there’s no telling whether that will work — Google has not communicated with us except for the initial notice, which was:

---------
Hello,

Google has received a Terms of Service complaint regarding malicious code on your blog. After conducting our review, and in accordance with Google’s Terms of Service, we have removed the content at issue.

Terms of Service: http://www.google.com/intl/en/policies/terms/
Content Policy: http://www.blogger.com/content.g

The Google Team
---------

In the meantime, if everyone could change their links to us on their sites, as well as their bookmarks, that will help the search engines find the new URL and give us back some of our ranking.

If I have any other important news about all this, I’ll send out another mass email. Otherwise, check in at the new URL for information on the situation.

Thank you all for your interest and support.

Ned

Gates of Vienna has been taken down by Blogger. GoV is a major voice in the fight to halt the Islamization of Europe. Their content, of which I have read every post, states the events in Europe from a non-multicultural and factual viewpoint. They tell the truth about Islam. Yesterday, I received the following email from one of the two owners of GoV:

Sorry to hit everybody en masse, but Blogger has taken us down again.
This one is different:

---------
Hello,

Google has received a Terms of Service complaint regarding malicious code on your blog. After conducting our review, and in accordance with Google’s Terms of Service, we have removed the content at issue.

Terms of Service: http://www.google.com/intl/en/policies/terms/
Content Policy: http://www.blogger.com/content.g

The Google Team
---------

That's all I know at the moment. We are backed up, so we are OK for a new start somewhere else.

Ned

I have reviewed the Google terms of service and the Blogger Content Policy. The relevant passage in this case would appear to be:

Hate Speech: We want you to use Blogger to express your opinions, even very controversial ones. But, don't cross the line by publishing hate speech. By this, we mean content that promotes hate or violence towards groups based on race, ethnicity, religion, disability, gender, age, veteran status, or sexual orientation/gender identity. For example, don't write a blog saying that members of Race X are criminals or advocating violence against followers of Religion Y. [emphasis mine]

Note that even if it were true that members of race X are criminals or advocate violence against followers of Religion Y, blogger can decide it is hate speech. I think that what has occurred is that some Muslim has complained to Google that the truth is hate speech and Google has agreed and taken down the site.

Understand that contributing to this is that Google is in the back pocket of the Democrats; Algore is on their board, and Algore just made a small fortune selling his cable channel to Al Jazeera, thus putting him in their back pocket and through him Google.

We are at war with Islam whether anyone wishes to admit it or not, and they will use any means at their disposal to further their aims. Taking down a major voice against them is certainly a win for them. GoV will be back up under a more secure environment. If this blog does not get taken down in the meantime, it will also move from Blogger to either WordPress or TypePad. I haven't decided which yet, both are used by friends that recommend them.

Blogger has removed one of the big blogs, Gates of Vienna, from its rolls. Google is noted for its liberal sympathies. Apparently it extends to disallowing any criticism of Islam now. GoV is a major voice in the fight to avoid the Islamification of Europe. Somebody wanted them silenced and succeeded.

I will be working to move this blog to a personal domain, and will be removing myself from FB.

The State of Wyoming is proposing a bill to effectively nullify any Federal firearms regulation. The parallels to the 1850's grow everyday.

From an essay by Judge Andrew Napolitano: "The historical reality of the Second Amendment's protection of the right to keep and bear arms is not that it protects the right to shoot deer. It protects the right to shoot tyrants, and it protects the right to shoot at them effectively, thus, with the same instruments they would use upon us."

And, Dear Reader, are you so naïve as to think that our current politicians don't know this? Or that they don't have tyrannical designs on us?

Walter Williams, one of my favorite commentors, has very nicely summarized the reason for the Second Amendment -- protection from our government. He also points out that those who would take away our guns, are the same ones who want to dictate our lives. The guns prevent the latter. It's short. Read it. We are having a take home exam on the material.

This excellent column by someone who has been there before, confirms what I have thought to be true since McCain's disasterous campaign--the Good-Old Boy network has taken over and cares not about results but only lining their own pockets.

I think, in line with my current predictions of a coming Civil War, that the Republicans will go the way of the Whigs, and pretty much for the same reasons.

To everyone,

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Peace,
Bill

About three months after I started this blog, I posted a note called "Oversized Load." I received a comment on it today that was probably spam, but the embedded link, advertising a heavy hauling specialist company, led to some fascinating pictures for any fan of large-scale engineering. So my spammer actually gets top billing instead of being buried.

Source: Obama has chosen John Kerry as Secretary of State, from Suntimes

Thanks to Drudge.

From Kevin Kim via WakaWakaWaka: 

here’s one physician’s comments on Obamacare (which of course we have now lost any hope of repealing).