I was even able to take away a nice bit that describes what I do for a living (slightly paraphrased from Randy Waterhouse):

“I make my way in this world by knowing that two and two equals four and sticking to my guns in a way that may be kind of nerdy but hurts people’s feelings sometimes. . . . people who put a higher priority on social graces than having statements in a conversation be true.”

Reminds me of you a bit as well come to think of it – or at least your writing. Thanks so very much for this great recommendation. If you ever wanted to post other recommended books, I would be a repeat customer.

Apologizing is silly, especially as Turing is long dead. Turing isn’t an ordinary case. He deserved the honors and benefits of a winner of the Victoria Cross. Put him on a stamp as a war hero, but don’t apologize. Interest groups want apologies to flex their political muscle — once they’ve proven they have it, the demands for special favors will be right behind.

British police learned of Turing’s gross indecency because Turing volunteered it in the course of reporting his being burgled. The first US Supreme Court case on sodomy (Bowers 1986) was a result of police breaking into the wrong house on a search warrant and needing an excuse to cover-up — it could have been a libertarian lighting up a bong with weed grown in his basement. For me these were both cases of “State v Individual” and bad policing. It’s a sad result, however, that the Supreme Court’s overturning Bowers has opened the door to US gay’s demanding special favors. Never give a sucker an even break.

My point about the British Empire is that governments can act badly … bigger governments seem to do it more … and Empires abroad even more so. No people is immune from this phenomenon. The level of hypocrisy within a society also grows this way. The US is trending this way unfortunately even though we have good people mostly, a history of fair play, and a written constitution.

Lastly, I see the last 1500 years of British history as a bunch of German tribes grabbing control and then lording it over the Celtic tribes who provide all the creativity and industry, as well as the infantry — but I’m biased. Our American political tradition and libertarianism owe more to Scotland than anything out of London and environs.

There’s a reason why chemists and physicists don’t ask for government powers to enforce their theories, and why psychologists do. It has something to do with accuracy and truth, I’m told, by people who explain the ‘scientific method’ to me.

It’s all symbolism.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turing_test

It’s an interesting idea. Suppose you have a human in one room and a computer, programmed to the max, in another. You can ask all kinds of questions, but you can’t take a look.

The computer is said to have passed the turing test (i.e. is ‘intelligent’) if you can’t tell who is who.

In this case, no one has any reason to apologise for anything. We, *today*, might not approve but at the time a middle-aged man having sex with a ‘lad’ (he was 19, not yet an adult in the eyes of the law then) was against the law of the land and justice took its course. If we are going to insist that prime ministers, and presidents, apologise for everything in history which ‘bien pensants’ now believe were errors they won’t have any time to run our respective nations – oh! well, on second thoughts, perhaps that not such a bad idea!

I will graciously forgive ‘Link’ his fey, ‘Oirish’ nonsense because I am aware that for reasons I have never fathomed they cling to their peculiar and mythical world view. “[T]he Brits have been just a milder version of the Nazis”, “After the war, the Brits acted like Soviets”! Yes, yes, Paddy, have another Guiness and calm down.