Does the end justify the means?

Continued from Machiavelli, does the end justify the means? If the answer yes, then you have just approved the Bush Doctrine. If we attack other nations in fear of being attacked, without sufficient evidence, we as the world leader are essentially encouraging other nations to do the same. Its like we hold up a neon sign for the terrorist groups to the same. Also, if we torture people to get information, that allows other countries to torture our soldiers. The question is: do we really want to torture people and allow our soldiers to be inflicted excruciating pain. I don't think that our soldiers deserve it. We can't risk our country's honor. Most importantly, is it even humane to torture people for any reason at all? People might say that soldiers should love their country more than their life. Does that mean we can throw away their lives, like tissues?

I believe that wars are pointless and that we should not waste our soldier's lives. Essentially, for every person a soldier kills, there will be some person who mourns for him/her and will cause even more violence. All the soldiers that come back alive, will be portrayed as heroes for a time, but only history can make the real judgment. One of my favorite books by Orson Scott Card, Speaker of the Dead, Ender was regarded as a hero of the world at the end of the war (Ender's Game), but later, he was portrayed as evil because the human's view towards the Formics changed. Ender himself also changed his view later for the reason that was only ostensible to him.

The average day of a computer

It’s 11:00 PM and my master just shut me down for the night. I can finally get my rest, but… oh, I shouldn’t be exhausted? Well, let me tell you what exactly happened today.

First I should tell you a little bit more about me. I’m about a year old, and I’m a gray Dell laptop with white outlines. My favorite maxim is that without travel, there is no fun.( Imagine those boring desktop PCs, they do nothing but sit at home.) My master can be extremely fun. Sometimes, after our work is done, we go to the theme park that was in town, where the hurricane ride gave me the thrill of my life. My master and I also like watching Naruto on the Internet together. It’s fun to get away from all the academics that my master does. I also like to talk to my master’s DS for he has very interesting tales about the games my master plays (he agrees with my master that Final Fantasy Tactics Advance A2: Grimoire of the Rift is the best strategy game ever. Personally, I think its Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn.)

It was 9:30 when I woke up. My master wanted me to go onto bluejay.cty.jhu.edu to write his CAT exercise (the answer of it is confidential). Afterwards he wanted to know how I feel about his treatment to me. He was confused however and started to type random things like AMITUOFO, it is his way of having temper tantrums. I was sorely tempted to change all of the letters on my screen into binary (hello, Andrew here, my computer cannot see this and luckily it doesn’t know that I actually know binary). After a while (a while meaning 3 hours), he finally finished this essay but forgot to save it before closing the filet, so he had to spend another 2 hours writing this again (more like another 2 hours for ME!!!). He was banging away at my keyboard. It’s the same as if you humans have been whacked by a mallet for 5 hours. After a short lunch break from each other, we did math which confuses me but not my master. My master is a hard worker and we continued with chemistry lesson for a while. It’s my favorite subject because we computers wouldn’t even be alive without chemistry and every computer likes to blow stuff up.

The time has come when I need my rest. I fully expect that it will be another exciting and tiring day tomorrow (hopefully without temper tantrums.)

A Note about Machiavelli

Niccolo Machiavelli was a Florentine scholar (1469-1527) who was a major figure of the Florentine politics of his time. He was the author of The Prince and other works. The Prince was his most well-known book which he wrote in 1513, but it was only published 5 years after his death. In The Prince, he wrote how rulers should rule. His most important maxim was that man must be adaptable to any situation he came upon. He was an unofficial ambassador, sent to neighboring countries as the Secretary of the council Ten of War after the Medici were thrown out in 1492. It worked out very well for him, as he also analyzed each country he went to. His life remained like this until 1502.

In 1502, Borgia, the son of the Spanish Pope Alexander VI, set his sight on conquering Italy. He had already gained control of most the area. As Machiavelli examined his tactical moves, he was able to win a case for a citizen militia using Borgia's philosophy, and in 1509, Machiavelli led a thousand citizens to conquer Pisa. Machiavelli's army stood together until 1512, when his troops broke ranks, and left Florence open to Medici and his comrades. Medici overthrew the republic and seized control of the city. Then Machiavelli's militia and the Great Council were dismissed and he was jobless. He hoped that the Medici's would find his talents useful. It was then when he wrote The Prince, which made him famous as that book was responsible for many events in other countries.

In 1522, there was a plot to murder Giulio de' Medici which originated in the anti-Medici circle that Machiavelli was involved in. The plot failed and the circle was broken; it's members exiled or killed. Although Machiavelli was part of the circle, his friends could not trust him to keep the secret because he worked for the Medici family. In 1527, the Medici was overthrown, but Machiavelli, at 58, could no longer be trusted to serve the Republic. He died just a month after the Republic was restored.

Why do I write about Machiavelli?

TO BE CONTINUED

WHY WHY WHY

This morning, I was reading the September 15 edition of The New Yorker and one article especially came to my attention. That article was called A Cloud of Smoke by: Jennifer Khan. It was about James Zadroga, a New York City homocide detective who worked at Ground Zero after 9/11 and how he died.

My question is: how do the first responders of 9/11 prove that they are victims? It was 7 years since 9/11 and most people still haven't gotten aid from the government. For example: the Zadroga Act gives compensation to the families of the consequential 9/11 victims that are city workers, but it hasn't actually give out compensations because 9/11 illness is hard to define. In this case, doctors cannot agree on the REAL cause of James' death ( drugs or breathing hazardous chemicals at Ground Zero). Should we still respect him as a 9/11 hero and give his family compensation? My opinion is, even if James did take drugs, it was probably because of what he witnessed at Ground Zero (therefore a mental illness). It shouldn't matter what the cause of death was in the doctors' eyes. His death was a effect of the tragedy, therefore we should still respect him and his family should get help.

On a happier note, the USCL matches are happening tonight, don't miss the action!!!

REVENGE!!! (or maybe not)

This is my 5th day of homeschooling.

Unfortunately, the Boston Blitz lost 1.5/2.5 to Dallas. Jorge, was only able to pull out a draw against Davorin. Boston was really hoping for a win for Davorin. Vigirito and Shmelov drew, not exactly what they were hoping, which left Krasik to beat his higher rated opponent. However, he lost in a time scramble where both sides had chances.

USCL REMATCH

This is my 1st weekend break.

The USCL lineups have been announced today, for the four teams playing on Monday. Boston is having their epic rematch against Dallas, who they lost to in a Blitz tiebreak in the championship match of 2007. Click here to see what happened. Unlike last year, Larry and Drasko will not be playing, having been replaced by IM David Vigorito, and IM John Bartholemew. Dallas superstar Jacek Stopa is also not playing, having been replaced by Igor Schnieder. Ilya Krasik will be playing for Chrissy Bear. Last year, the win Jorge got against Davorin was awarded as the game of the year. Judging from the two teams history, will the imbalences created by the rosters be enough for Boston to pull out a win? Find out on Monday!!

McCain Speech and Sarah Palin

I was watching the McCain speech last night, and have you noticed that he always repeats his major points. When McCain speaks, it's repetitive. For example: "we will know their names, we will know their names," although repetition is a critical form of speech rhetoric, it gets boring after a while. Also, it's ridiculous that John McCain canceled the CNN interview because of the Campbell Brown's interview with Tucker Bounds. CNN is completely able to ask questions about Sarah Palin's past. Sarah Palin, although supposedly a great governor, tried to censor books when she was a mayor. The city censorship was just like China, and she tried blackmail the librarian who wouldn't get rid of the books!

USCL and the Republican Convention

This is day 2.

Last night, the Boston Blitz beat the Carolina Cobra's 3-1. Larry Christiansen got a really fast draw against IM Lev Milman on board one. Denys drew Oleg Zaikov on board two. Returning player from 2006 Charles Riordan got a critical win against Fide Master Ronald Simpson as White.

Ronald Simpson just played 17... Nf6. Can you guess what Charles Riordan played?

For the solution, click here.

On the last board, Marc Esserman made his debut to the USCL with a win against fellow National Master, Craig Jones. Right now, Boston is tied with the Miami Sharks and the Queens Pioneers. Miami beat the New York Knights so they have 0-2 and Queens beat the New Jersey Knockouts which are 1-1. The USCL adds two new teams to the division every time, last year, it was New Jersey and Queens which has a 1.5/2 record against New Jersey. If you want to view the games from last night, click here.

Last night was also day 3 for the Republican Convention in Minnesota. Former Governors Mitt Romney, Rudi Giuliani, and Mike Huckabee spoke. Sarah Palin, governor of Alaska, also spoke. I noticed that whenever they spoke, they all did two things. They never mentioned Bush, and they always talked about McCain serving his country more than Obama. Now that doesn't make sense to me. For some reason, people think that the person who has the greatest sob story will serve his country the most. Please comment.

USCL and CNN

This is my first day of homeschool.

The reason why I wrote this is because the US chess league is happening today. If you want to watch, go to one of the places specified near you at http://www.uschessleague.com/. I am a big chess fan of the Boston Blitz, I am friends of most of the players. Larry Christiansen is my coach and will be playing tonight at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. The Boston Blitz almost won the last championships but they lost to the Dallas Destiny, which has lost their first match.

I watched a CNN video last night of Campbell Brown interviewing John McCain's spokesperson Tucker Bounds. She really nailed him with the question of Sarah Palin's qualifications. He kept dodging the question. If you want to watch it click here.

Also if you want a fun chess problem for those who weren't watching last week's action of the USCL, then here is one from the game Shabalov-Sammour-Hasbun. This game is from the match between the Boston Blitz, and the New York Knights. They have an really old rivalry that dated from 3 seasons ago. It is quite similar to the situation in baseball. Before the game, Shabalov(2700) was trash talking that he could beat the entire team by himself. Well, he lost against our first board, Jorge Sammour-Hasbun (2500) who doesn't even have a IM or GM title yet.



White just played 16. Qc2

Shabalov has many threats like Qg6 on his next move. Can you predict what Sammour-Hasbun did?

For the solution, click here.