Cybernethics / Cybernéthique

I admit that my previous post RIP, Aslan Maskhadov was so lacking of an explanation as to be easily misread. I admit that was based on an thinly ascertained opinion that might turn out to be wrong after further examination. And thus I thank my gentle reader averros for correcting me, though I'm not sure how much to trust his information. I am still looking for independent confirmation of his statements, but pending such confirmation, I stand corrected. I wrote the previous post hurriedly, because it was a hot reaction to some news. I knew I wouldn't be able to blog for some time, and I wanted to share my concern about an underdiscussed yet very relevant episode of our times, war in Chechnya. Now that I have more time, I would like to make it clearer what I did and didn't want to say on this topic, and what my opinion is now.

NOTE AND UPDATE: This article has always been about why my message didn't suppose personal endorsement of Maskhadov, though my point was admittedly quite unclear from my previous post. I have since received contradictory statements about Maskhadov himself, and pending independent confirmation, I will refrain from giving a verdict either way about Maskhadov. I have changed the tone of the article several time, alternatively leaning one way or the other. I now explain clearly why I lean however slightly with my current sources, since that's what the whole point of sources, though I'm very open to other sources, if they prove reliable. However, and that's also a point, I will grant Maskhadov the benefit of the doubt, whereas no such doubt exists regarding the culpability of the KGB bastards.

Aslan Maskhadov. He wanted his people free from the KGB. The KGB refused any negociation. The KGB unleashed a horrible war of mass-killing. The KGB won.

The French officials call that National sovereignty. The Americans officials call that Saving the Union. I call that the same old pretense for the mass-killing of dissidents.

The usual leftist professionals of outrage aren't outraged a bit. And if anything is to be blamed about Russia, it's its wild "ultra-capitalism", they will tell you, not its criminal statism, and not the fundamentalist muslim terrorism. Puke.

UPDATE: I stand corrected concerning Maskhadov, although I'm reserving my judgment pending further confirmation. Thanks to averros in the comments section below. I still call the KGB bastard an evil killer based on illegitimate claims of sovereignty; but so was possibly Maskhadov another evil killer based on rival illegitimate claims of sovereignty -- though further information is required for me to tell. However, it still seems very clear to me that the KGB bastard is a great evil, far beyond what Maskhadov could possibly be. Importantly, I still salute Joe Random Chechen Non-Murderous Freedom Fighter, though he might be rarer than I believe he is, and though the last one might have ceased to fight quite some time ago.

Sometimes, I think I have got a life. And you don't hear much from me. But to make a woman happy takes more than I currently know how to give. She can feel it, though she can't (or won't) tell exactly why (to me, probably to herself neither). Then I can feel she can feel it, yet I don't know what to do. And finally we part.

Quel nul je fais! Avec son tact habituel, Hervé de Quengo me fait prendre conscience de ce que lors de mon passage à la radio, j'ai erronément attribué à Henry Hazlitt un texte qui était de Leonard Read: I, Pencil. De plus, j'avais oublié qui, dans les années 1950, avait réintroduit le mot "libertarian" dans son acception moderne. Mea Magna Culpa.