Wednesday, August 31, 2011

Asleep At The Wheel

Why will America come back before too long? Because it appears to be the only country in the world asking the most important question of the day.

The truly fundamental question that is at the heart of the disaster toward which we are racing is being debated only in America: is it possible for a free market economy to support a democratic socialist society? On this side of the Atlantic, the model of a national welfare system with comprehensive entitlements, which is paid for by the wealth created through capitalist endeavour, has been accepted (even by parties of the centre-Right) as the essence of post-war political enlightenment.

This was the heaven on earth for which liberal democracy had been striving: a system of wealth redistribution that was merciful but not Marxist, and a guarantee of lifelong economic and social security for everyone that did not involve totalitarian government. This was the ideal the European Union was designed to entrench. It was the dream of Blairism, which adopted it as a replacement for the state socialism of Old Labour. And it is the aspiration of President Obama and his liberal Democrats, who want the United States to become a European-style social democracy.

But the US has a very different historical experience from European countries, with their accretions of national remorse and class guilt: it has a far stronger and more resilient belief in the moral value of liberty and the dangers of state power.
One thing to keep in mind kids. Don't get cocky. There is a LOT of Trash hauling still to be done.


Tuesday, August 30, 2011

Supports The Constitution

I'm reading around the 'net and people touting various candidates say their candidate supports the Constitution. OK. It is good PR. But there is a test. Say to them:

"I never noticed a Prohibition Amendment. Except for Alcohol."

So when a candidate supporter says "my candidate supports the Constitution" check them on it. Ask: "Where is the Drug Prohibition Amendment?"

Funny thing is that a Classical Values commenter in decrying my effort to elevate the Drug Prohibition issue stated the Tea Party Manifesto which is (approximately):

Fiscal Responsibility, Constitutional Government, and Free Markets.


So my friend. Where is the Drug Prohibition Amendment? If we don't have one then the Federal Government's institution of such a program is a usurpation of power. Funny how few notice these things.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

$Green Jobs

The government has a plan.

A green jobs program in one of America's greenest cities is being called a bust 16 months after a $20 million federal grant to weatherize homes in Seattle ended up putting just 14 people to work in mostly administrative jobs and upgrading only three homes in the area.
Let us run the numbers: $20 million/14 = over $1.4 million per job. And how about houses? So $20 million/3 = about $6.7 million per house weatherized. In today's market (well any market with $1 million dollar homes) that could have bought 20 $1 million dollar homes.

The Government obviously is getting screwed. As are the people who pay the taxes that support this insanity.

Monday, August 29, 2011

Palin Tweet



According to Sarah Palin Information (not an official Palin site), Sarah tweeted this video:

I’ll be talking about this and more on September 3rd. http://fb.me/129u9eYLN
I think she is in.

You can find further links at the Sarah Palin Information site link above.

BTW thanks to Frank a commenter at Classical Values who was asking me if I thought Palin would run.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Sunday, August 28, 2011

You Can't Make This Stuff Up

Vanderleun has the story:

The Green Gym will be the first of its kind. Nowhere else in the country have such innovations been implemented for the benefit of homeless citizens. In addition to standard fitness equipment such as two weight machines, boxing bags, and a treadmill, 10 Green Revolution Technology enabled stationary bikes will generate electricity to be redirected into Cass' power grid. Over one year of four daily classes, a full class of 10 at the Green Gym can generate enough power to light 36 homes for a month, or three homes for a year!
So 40 people exercising for what?, one hour or two hours a day can support 3 houses. So if we can get 13 people living in each house (one will have to rotate), they will be self sufficient in electricity.

Well they are Green Jobs. Let us run the numbers. The US Department of Energy says the average US home use 908 KWh per month. Let us be extremely generous and say that electricity is worth 25¢ a KWh. That is $227 worth of electricity per month. Made by 13 1/3 people. That is about $17.03 per month per person in electrical production. A little over 50¢ a day.

Green Jobs!


Cross Posted at Classical Values

Throwing The Election

In Christophobia I discussed how making the Republican 2012 Campaign for President a religious crusade could be a disaster.

I gave the example of an election campaign for Federal Senator run on that basis. I looked at the numbers in Obama/Keyes vs Kerry/Bush and found that Keyes lost almost 60% of the votes of his own party.

Now I'm wondering if this isn't an intentional strategy to throw the election to Obama?

If only the Republicans would stick to Fiscal Responsibility, Constitutionally limited government and Free Markets. Speaking of the Constitution, did anyone notice a Drug Prohibition Amendment?

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Friday, August 26, 2011

Climate Models - Not Even Wrong

Watts Up With That has the news the sceptic community has been waiting for. The CERN experiments done by Svensmark et. al. [Update: actually they were done by Kirkby but they validate the Svensmark hypothesis] show that clouds are significantly affected by cosmic rays.

...it appears that a non-visible light irradiance effect on Earth’s cloud seeds has been confirmed. The way it is posited to work is that the effect of cosmic rays (modulated by the sun’s magnetic variations which either allow more or deflect more cosmic rays) creates cloud condensation nuclei in the Earth’s atmosphere. With more condensation nuclei, more clouds form and vice-versa. Clouds have significant effects on TSI at the surface.

Even the IPCC has admitted this in their latest (2007) report:
“Cloud feedbacks are the primary source of inter-model differences in equilibrium climate sensitivity, with low cloud being the largest contributor”.
If a significant effect has been left out of the models that means in the general sense that they are not even wrong. All the sensitivities used to come up with the current results will have to be adjusted to account for the new cloud factor. Effects once attributed to something else will have to be attributed to clouds. And estimates of future solar activity will have to be added to climate models. And we are not doing such a good job of predicting solar activity. The current decline in solar magnetism was unpredicted. So what does that tell us about the future of the climate? That it is very hard to predict.

CERN Experiment Confirms Cosmic Rays Influence Climate Change.

by Nigel Calder

Long-anticipated results of the CLOUD experiment at CERN in Geneva appear in tomorrow’s issue of the journal Nature (25 August). The Director General of CERN stirred controversy last month, by saying that the CLOUD team’s report should be politically correct about climate change (see my 17 July post below). The implication was that they should on no account endorse the Danish heresy – Henrik Svensmark’s hypothesis that most of the global warming of the 20th Century can be explained by the reduction in cosmic rays due to livelier solar activity, resulting in less low cloud cover and warmer surface temperatures.
There are a a LOT of careers and vast sums of money involved in the "CO2 is going to kill us all eventually" idea. They will not go quietly. In the history of science they never have.

"A new scientific truth does not triumph by convincing its opponents and making them see the light, but rather because its opponents die and a new generation grows up that is familiar with it." - Max Planck

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Christophobia

So I'm having the usual discussion with a Socon and he accuses me of not liking Jesus.

M. Simon, your post attacking me makes you sound like a “Christophobe.” Your logic shows your contempt for Christianity and distrust of us Christians.
You got me. It was caused by me being FORCED in public school to attend Christian assemblies. In public schools that were at least half Jewish. We never had a Jewish assembly.

So Christian outreach reached me. The results could have been predicted although they may not have been desired.

I no longer dislike Christians as a group. Just those trying to ram their faith down my throat. I have my own faith. Thank you very much.

====

The cycle goes like this: The Ds get in and wreck the country. The electorate gives the Rs a shot. At first they attend to fixing most of the problems that the Ds caused. When they have that in hand they decide that what the country really needs is God. Their version of God. And the electorate rejects the Rs and we are back in a different kind of misery.

Moral socialism begets economic socialism.

And the Rs are too stupid to see this. Mostly.

“If you analyze it I believe the very heart and soul of conservatism is libertarianism.” – Ronald Reagan

===

Here is what you are up against if Republicans make faith central to the coming election campaign:

Obama/Keyes vs Kerry/Bush

Keyes lost about 60% of the votes of HIS OWN PARTY. Not an election winning strategy.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Power And Control

I was having a discussion with Eric via e-mail about blogging and decided to Google Power and Control. My blog comes out on top of course (we bloggers are a very competitive lot - Hey "M. Simon", "M Simon", and "MSimon" searches all have my blog, Power and Control, at the top - but I digress). What interested me was the other numerous links dealing with Power and Control. Or to put it as this blog did:

Power and Control over males


Which relates to this image:


The site gave me this link to another place that had this to say:

We can not promote Fatherhood by denigrating Fathers. We can not promote Fatherhood by incentivizing single motherhood. We can not solve all of our neighbor’s arguments.


Which reminds me of a girl I once dated for a rather long while. She would agitate and agitate until I assaulted her. A punch in the arm or similar. And I had never beat a woman before in my life. Ever. And I had been with a LOT of women. Well one day I told her I had enough and was never going to touch her that way again. She LITERALLY kicked me out of her apartment. Best kick in the ass I ever got. Naturally that relationship ended. I was quite fortunate not to have encountered the legal system over the matter. My ass would have been grass. Which is to say some women want to be beat and are not enough in touch with their desires to articulate their desires. Putting the onus on the man. Clever.

Which led me to a book:

I Hate You--Don't Leave Me: Understanding the Borderline Personality

From a review:
I found this book to be very useful in helping me understand the behavior of a woman with whom I was involved. It was recommended to me by my therapist who was treating me for depression because of the traumatic relationship I had with a borderline.

Kreisman and Straus do an excellent job of explaining the root causes, behaviors, and treatment of the disorder as well as coping skills for dealing with a person with BPD. Although the relationship was turbulent and ended disastrously, I found a great deal of comfort in the book because it explained how and why a borderline behaves the she does. I learned that I indeed had narcissistic tendencies which drew me toward women with clinging and idealizing behavior, but then devaluating and vengeful behavior. Basically I was involved in a hostile/dependent ( narcissistic / borderline ) relationship. It made me take a serious look at my self. I also have learned to be a lot more cautious about who I relate with in my life.

Borderlines are not evil, just very vengeful and scared people. If you are involved in any capacity with someone who exhibits primitive idealization, devaluation, omnipotence, projection, or projective identification and seems irrational, this person may have BPD. This book will help you learn principles to help cope with a borderline. I sure wish I had access to it when I was involved with one.
The reviewer talks about "coping". I consider myself fortunate to be surviving.

I did have a relationship (short) before the above mentioned fiasco with a girl who wanted to be spanked. HARD. She did know herself enough to sorta ask for it. She was really in to it. I was not. By evening it was over. I still wonder to this day if it had something to do with her father being a pain inflicter (dentist). Where ever you are these days honey I hope you got and are still getting the pain you desire. From some one willing to give it to you. I'm glad it is not me.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Thursday, August 25, 2011

Baptists Are Like Communists

ED MORRISSEY: Biden’s Praise For China’s One-Child Policy: So Much For Being “Pro-Choice.” “Women in China have no choice over their bodies. The state enforces its policy with a totalitarian regime that requires IUDs, aborts children, and tortures and maim women who attempt to exercise choice.”

Silly Ed. These are communists. It’s okay when communists take away your choices. It’s only bad when Baptists take away your choices.

Posted at 6:08 pm by Glenn Reynolds

Cross Posted at Classical Values

The Taming



The best version of this I ever saw was in a traveling show that passed through Rockford one year. I was hoping for a pleasant evening and was WOWed.

This was brought to mind by Protecting Yourself While Divorcing Someone With Borderline or Narcissistic Personality Disorder. Of course "Kiss Me Kate" and "The Taming Of The Shrew" are all about this stuff. Before we had names for it in the case of Shakespeare.

I especially liked this comment:

23. toadold

Well it has been decades ago so I’m pretty sure everyone is well clear and dispersed. But the abdication of Judges and Lawyers in dealing with the wack jobs in family courts has been apparent for quite a long time. If you lack resources the system can destroy you financially. A consequence is that people will step outside the system, unintended consequences. An incident that I’m aware of involved an abusive mama’s boy who wouldn’t leave his ex-wife alone. Her brother gave him a warning an it was ignored. Shortly thereafter the wife beater was set upon and beat down to the point he had to be hospitalized, and his sports car that his mommy had bought him was set on fire. He never bothered the ex-wife again. The brother and all of the wife’s family members had a rock solid alibis for the incident. Some months afterwards the brother casually mentioned, “Amazing what you can get done for a few bottle of wine and some out of town bus tickets.”
August 24, 2011 - 6:48 am
Obviously the system can't keep going on the way it is. So it won't. People will find their way around if the official way doesn't work well.

Say. Did I mention Drug Prohibition?

H/T Instapundit

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Wednesday, August 24, 2011

Free Breasts



The video is Not Safe For Work.

Glad that is out of the way. In any case the video asks "Are you a woman who has come to this site...." No I'm not. I'm actually a guy looking for photos of topless women. Free photos of topless women. And you know what? They have them. Here. At
Go Topless. Actually it is gotopless.org. I haven't found any OR G photos at the site. Yet. I'm still looking.

This question is being asked:
Other than breastfeeding, why do women need to be topless?
Because the competition for the male of the species is getting more intense.

Job Destroyers

I was looking around the 'net and for some Vonnegut material and came across a review of Player Piano

Remember the days Greenspan would trumpet productivity improvements brought on by the internet as a key factor in maintaining benign inflation during economic expansion?

It was a great time.

But these days, productivity gains brought on by the net as well as other technological advances only serve to exacerbate our nation’s inability to improve employment.

In other words:

If it weren't for farm machinery we would all have jobs.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

How About A War?

Rather often these days the idea that CO2 is destroying the planet is touted. Well OK. This is important. Really important. I get it.

So how about a War to stop China from making so much CO2? Its output is expected to be double the US output by 2020. That is a doubling every ten years. They have to be stopped. They are destroying the planet.

We need to go to war with China to save the planet.

I have brought that up in several "Global Warming Is Gonna Getcha" threads. What do I get in return?

Silence.

Which is to say we are not dealing with a real save the planet movement. We are dealing with Watermelons. Green on the outside. Red on the inside. It is about political power in America.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Monday, August 22, 2011

I Have A Running Clue

In Running? I was asking the question: "Is Sarah Palin running?" A topic that really captures my interest. Obviously some research is in order. So I'm reading the comments at the Hill Buzz piece I linked to earlier and found this little gem:

jenforpresident

Kevin, there appears to be an "easter egg" on the Tea Party of America website. If you go to www.teapartyofamerica.org/ and hover over the "Events" button with your mouse, the alt text says "Restoring America Presidential Event". I think this is it! Sarah has been heavily promoting the event, which is very unusual for her. And this video is most definitely a campaign video. So exciting!
The teapartyofamerica site has been updated (as noted in the next comment). But this is the link from the "Events" button at the bottom of the page:

www.teapartyofamerica.org/event/restoring-america-presidential-event

Which of course is proof of absolutely nothing. I think I'm getting the vapors.

Update: I was looking at the MapQuest map for Indianola, Iowa and found that I could leave Rockford, travel through Dixon, Illinois (Reagan's home) and be in Indianola in 5 hours and 7 minutes. Only about 15 minutes longer by scenic Route 2 than the fastest route. Wouldn't that be some fun? Plus it is the first mate's birthday. Unfortunately she is no Palin fan. Seriously honey. A good looking woman with a very libertarian husband? Sounds like another couple I know. Personally. Nice try buddy. Will it work? Hope springs eternal. But I probably ought to give that one a rest.

In any case, could some one going do me a favor? I'd like to see a sign like:

It's The Constitution? Where Is The Drug Prohibition Amendment?

at the event. And please. Take pictures and report anecdotes if you do. I'll post them.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Sunday, August 21, 2011

Running?



Pretty nice campaign ad huh? Kevin at Hill Buzz thinks she is running. He likes the video too!

Me? I'm a Palin fan. I think she has enough cultural sensitivity to unite libertarians and social conservatives the way Reagan did.

"If you analyze it I believe the very heart and soul of conservatism is libertarianism." - Ronald Reagan

He did get Drug Prohibition wrong. Other than that his instincts were pretty good. Palin has at least made a small move in the right direction when she said something like, "chasing pot smokers should not be a top priority".

This wiki bit should give you the flavor of the man and why I have high hopes for Palin.
[Todd] Palin first registered to vote in 1989. From October 1995 through July 2002, except for a few months in 2000, he was registered to vote as a member of the Alaskan Independence Party.[14] In late August 2008, The Politico reported that Palin was registered to vote as an independent (undeclared), and had never registered as a Republican.[15] In her memoir, Going Rogue: An American Life, Sarah Palin confirms this, writing, "My husband... isn't registered with any party, for sound reasons, having been an eyewitness to the idiosyncrasies of party machines."[16] Sarah Palin reaffirmed that Todd is not a registered Republican again in her February 6, 2010, keynote address to the national Tea Party convention in Nashville, Tennessee.[17]
You can get the links from the wiki.

Anyway that is why I like Todd and have high hopes for Sarah. But this is politics. I'm ready for the inevitable disappointment. Despite some people's faith there are no saints in politics.

The Democrats hope for a Messiah and the Republicans want a Saint. Making Democrats the crazier. But not by much.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Doing Well In Business

If you want to do well in business have a friend in government. Evidently Exxon-Mobil is short of friends.

Unfortunately, Exxon has discovered firsthand what it’s like to deal with what Investors Business Daily calls “regulatory pirates” in the Gulf of Mexico:
ExxonMobil, and its Norwegian partner Statoil made the biggest discovery of all — a field worth a billion barrels of oil — 7,000 feet below sea level in its “Julia” field in 2007.

Exxon tried to keep its discovery secret to keep marauders away. Sadly, the pirates in this instance are U.S. regulators — and their aim is to stop them.

That’s right: Instead of marvel at the continuing treasures of the New World, or hail the human ingenuity that made retrieval of so much oil possible, or simply quantify how this discovery will boost U.S. energy security, Interior Department bureaucrats moved instead to snatch Exxon’s permits and shut the whole thing down.
They may not have paid enough to the right party.

Here is a group that paid plenty and is unhappy with their ROI (yes it is a pun using a foreign language - the nominal meaning is Return On Investment)
Let’s see. Obama has lost Wall Street, the progressive grassroots, and even a few unions. Now it looks like another funding source for his re-election bid might fade as well — high-tech Silicon Valley. Politico reports that the innovation center once celebrated the fact that they had backed a President who uses a Blackberry, but now think he’s just another middle-aged man with some ubiquitous personal technology...
Let us not forget that he is a middle-aged BLACK man. That still counts for something. Not as much as it used to. In any case if you make efforts to strangle the electrical supply - which the boys in the valley totally depend on to make their products and make them useful - people interested generally take notice. Making oil more expensive isn't helping either.

Go to the "paid plenty" article for a multitude of links.

Saturday, August 20, 2011

Reserve Margin

You may have heard that the EPA is planning to shut down roughly 20% of coal generated electrical capacity by 2015.

Francois Broquin, a co-author of reports on coal by Bernstein Research, said the combined rules could push as much as 20 percent of U.S. coal-fired electric generation capacity to retire by 2015. "Obviously that will have an impact," he said.
What kind of impact? Let us get technical (not too) and see.

Electrical power grids must be able to supply the power demanded or else they will not supply any power at all. But. You know in the real world the SCHTF. Things like electrical storms and high winds can break power lines. A bad bearing can trip a generator off line. A tsunami can flood a plant. S*** Happens. So you have reserve margin. Generators either in hot idle or cold idle that can be brought on line for peak demand or to make up for failures in part of the system. So how much margin is enough? Around 10% is sorta adequate and 20% is too much (it costs money to carry the idle equipment on the books).

We are running at the low end of that range and possibly below. But for this case knowing roughly is good enough. Let me add another roughly: coal supplies 40% of the electrical power in America. It may be more. Never mind. So what is 40% of 20%? (coal generation times % shut down) . That would be about 8% of grid capacity. Or almost all of the margin that makes the electrical supply reliable.

Nationwide blackouts and certainly local black outs are in our future if this is not stopped or scaled way back.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Friday, August 19, 2011

The New Rallying Cry

I'm visiting places around the 'net and what do I see? Lots of "it is all Bush's fault". Bush's opponents had the Congress and the Presidency since early in 2009. Almost total control. And they still didn't have enough time and power to reverse what ever actions of Bush they wanted. It seems they were impotent.

So their campaign slogan for 2012 seems to be:

There is nothing we can do.


I'm inclined to agree and hope to hasten the day when they do nothing some place else.

Thursday, August 18, 2011

Observing The Mentally Ill

I got a link from Instapundit to an article bashing the usual and continued left wing idiocy and especially its connection to the recent flash riots. Comments like this one pop-up regularly in such posts.

It’s all just more evidence that liberals are mentally ill. They cannot figure out cause and effect. Logic and facts do not sway them from their ideas.
You want to see mental illness? Just ask a conservative about the Drug War. Their little contribution to the mess.

There is no better promoter of outlaw culture than a prohibition regime. In fact we have recent American historical experience to prove that proposition. Alcohol Prohibition 1920 to 1933. Even criminals hate criminals who take stuff from them. In fact stealing from criminals is a very dangerous occupation. But criminals who can deliver something the government won't allow? Those boys and girls get respect. Glorification even.

Most Americans don't worship law and government. The worshipers are going to have to get over it. I'd hate to have to Party Like It Is 1773 all over again. That goes for the worshipers of the State on the Right and The Left. I actually like the Lefties better because they don't hide their love. The Righties are clever though. "I hate big government except for..." is how they rally the troops. Seriously. What are we to think of a country that has declared war on 5% to 10% of its citizens on account of they have habits which some others find distasteful?

Those condemned to history are bound to repeat it.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Wednesday, August 17, 2011

How To End The Welfare State

The post I just did Liberty? We Can't Afford It - Says Coulter got me to thinking about how to end the welfare state. Coulter is incensed that welfare money would be going to support dopers if drugs were legalized (as if that isn't the case currently).

Well Ann is not too bright. Just think of the demand to end the welfare state if drugs were legalized Ann. First we get more liberty and that causes a demand for more liberty. Make the jump to lightspeed Ann.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Liberty? We Can't Afford It - Says Coulter



I can understand her position. Notwithstanding the Constitution which so many "conservatives" claim to totally support. Except when it comes to Drug Prohibition. Could some one point out the Drug Prohibition Amendment to me? Anyone? Bueller?

Tuesday, August 16, 2011

Project Update 16 August 2011

After putting hundreds of hours in on the project (still a secret - for now) I figured out a much better way to do things. So I'm in the middle of a redesign. Maybe another week or two. Provided I don't get any more bright ideas. ;-)

Monday, August 15, 2011

A Date With A Brainiac

A really smart woman discusses the pleasures and pitfalls of high IQ dating.

Many people equate high IQ with “high achieving”, but they are two distinct things. Women with an above-average intelligence (IQ range of 110-130) are likely to be professionals: lawyers, nurses, dentists, mid-level civil servants, journalists, managers, teachers, pharmacists, librarians, or the like. High IQ women (those with an IQ>130) will tend toward more creative or “typically masculine” pursuits: surgery, engineering, research science, politics, philosophy, authorship, mathematics, music, art, architecture, high-level civil service, military office, or entrepreneurship. A woman would normally have to have unusually high visual-spatial scores in order to reach 130, which is why men outnumber women in that range and in those occupations.
Which is why intelligent women are so much in demand. They are rare birds compared to the number of high IQ men.

I have checked out the comments too and the vast majority are excellent. Also the blog hostess Alte chimes in frequently in the comments.
Posted by Alte on May 27, 2011 at 8:41 am

As to Chris’ comment, I thought it was relevant because of his assumption that having an “advanced degree” means that the women are high-IQ, but the majority of advanced degree holders are not high IQ. This is proven with simple statistics — there are way more advanced degree holders (6% of the adult population) than people of high IQ (2% of the adult population).

Add in the fact that most (58%) of those advanced degree holders are women but women are in the minority among those with high IQ, and that many people of high IQ don’t have advanced degrees, and it is just more proof of the fact that there is little direct correlation between advanced degrees and IQ>130. In other words, although someone of high IQ is more likely to have an advanced degree than someone chosen randomly from the general population, most people with advanced degrees are not high IQ — even those with prestigious degrees (technical schools like MIT or CalTech being the exception, as they select candidates with high v-s abilities).

You have to remember that high IQ is associated with DOE (over-excitability), which makes standardized education (i.e. college) very difficult for many of them. The women are also more likely to have highly fluctuating hormone levels, heavy and painful periods, and children with behavioral problems. All of those things mean that high IQ women who marry often fall out of the high-achievement pool rather quickly, which is one reason why homemaking is so prevalent at the very top of the income scales.
I had that problem with college sort of. I found women. Woo hoo! And I found them more exciting than the school work. Not to worry. I worked my way up to aerospace engineer completely bypassing the whole college thing.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Why I Like Sarah Palin

I'm a big Palin fan because I have studied closely the politics of the guy she sleeps with when their schedules mesh.

Looters



From Keeping Up Appearances - Looters Brought To "Justice".

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Sunday, August 14, 2011

Pushing The Fantasy

tom swift

“Social Conservative (which includes fiscal conservatism for the clueless)”

Absurd. Social conservatism doesn’t subsume fiscal conservatism. The two concepts are totally unrelated. Recognition of this obvious fact has been the most important development in American politics of the past half-decade.

There are two groups trying to push the fantasy that the two philosophies are intrinsically related (in a more fundamental way than a partial similarity of names). First, social conservatives themselves, presumably because they don’t want to be left behind by the surging popularity of fiscal conservatism. And second, our Leftoids, who hope to confuse the electorate into thinking that fiscal conservatives suffer from the same glaring faults as do the social conservatives. But it’s a load of rubbish.
August 10, 2011 - 5:18 pm

From the comments at Vodka Pundit who had this to say. "Well said, Mr. Swift."

Let me add that there are a fair number of social conservatives who are on the left. Blacks and Hispanics mostly. And a fair number of social conservatives (Billy Sunday ring a bell?) joined with Progressives to give us Alcohol Prohibition, thus helping to make Progressivism the deleterious force it is today. It would be nice if I could be assured that social conservatives wouldn't again fall for that stuff. But they still support Drug Prohibition which looks suspiciously like a smaller form of Alcohol Prohibition. Not in the nature of the problem but the numbers of people involved. And still the social conservatives (that bastion of historical rememberance - according to them) don't seem to be able to learn from the history of Alcohol Prohibition. Pity.

Anyway - given the numbers of social conservatives on the left and given that a fair number are black - why am I not seeing calls from that group for fiscal conservatism? It is a wonder. Or it may be that social conservative does not equal fiscal conservative.

So what group is consistent on the fiscal question? I'd have to say libertarians. Except that there are a fairly large number of left libertarians. That leaves the Tea Party. So far. Except a fair number of them were pushing their social agenda items up until a few months ago. Which may merely mean they have gone into stealth mode.

So it is really not just the Left that I'm fighting. It is the statists of the Right and the Left. The folks who want to wield the fasces. And you know what we called those people in the 20th Century.

H/T Instapundit

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Saturday, August 13, 2011

Race Industry

Race hustlers have always been with us.

There is another class of colored people who make a business of keeping the troubles, the wrongs, and the hardships of the Negro race before the public. Having learned that they are able to make a living out of their troubles, they have grown into the settled habit of advertising their wrongs — partly because they want sympathy and partly because it pays. Some of these people do not want the Negro to lose his grievances, because they do not want to lose their jobs….There is a certain class of race-problem solvers who do not want the patient to get well, because as long as the disease holds out they have not only an easy means of making a living, but also an easy medium through which to make themselves prominent before the public. – Booker T. Washington (1856 - 1915)
Here is a guy victimized by the race hustlers:
"There is nothing more painful to me at this stage in my life than to walk down the street and hear footsteps and start thinking about robbery, then look around and see somebody white and feel relieved." - Jesse Jackson
Bummer Jesse.

Good Training

In Prohibition Regimes I took a general look at how Prohibition regimes are associated with a breakdown of the rule of law. I want to be a little more explicit here.

What does prohibition teach? Break the law if you can get away with it.

And how do you get away with it? Too many people are doing it at once for the police to keep up.

What is amazing to me in all this is that no one else can see the pattern. Is it a cause of the riots in England? Doubtful. But it is certainly a contributor.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Friday, August 12, 2011

Racist Pizza

In an article on what Obama can do to regain public support, I came across this little gem referring to Republican Presidential Candidate Herman Cain.

The racist pizza guy?
BBBut Herman Cain is Black. Um. I thought the rule was that Black people can't be racist. Wait. I get it. Only Republican Blacks are racist. Those Blacks targeting whites at the Wisconsin State Fair? Republicans all.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

The Women's Vote

I was looking at the women's vote in the 2008 election. And came across this:

Women's votes were a significant factor in Senator Barack Obama's victory, with a sizable gender gap evident in the election results....Women strongly preferred Obama to Senator John McCain (56 percent for Obama, 43 percent for McCain), unlike men, who split their votes about evenly for the two presidential candidates (49 percent for Obama, 48 percent for McCain).
The Republicans have their work cut out for them.

Take my own mate. I was telling her before the election that Obama would be a communist disaster. She voted for Obama anyway. When I asked her why, she said she didn't like Palin. Not because of Palin's policy positions. Nope. She didn't like the way Palin talked. Ugh.

BTW the mate now agrees with me that Obama is a disaster. And we voted in Illinois which went solidly for Obama. So two canceled votes. Not important. What is important is the attitude.

Sometimes I despair that we ever gave women the vote. Just kidding honey. Well, maybe not. (I'm in the dog house now - if she reads this).

Cross Posted at Classical Values


Guns And Weed - The Road To Freedom



From the above trailer: "I was an undercover narcotics officer [secret police - Ed.], the Drug War is nothing but a farce."



Suggested by a post at Libertarian Punk. Commenter Bob Mulroy recommended the site in the comments at Guns And Drugs.

Update: You can watch the whole movie here. Just click on the Play All button at the top and the whole movie will automatically play in segments. The www site for the movie is here.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Prohibition Regimes

The American Thinker is discussing the breakdown in respect for the rule of law. I have some ideas about that.

Prohibition regimes always engender a spirit of lawlessness among the populations they are imposed on. It seeps into the wider culture. See Prohibition, Alcohol, 1920 to 1933.

Had enough yet?

We now have two generations who have grown up in a prohibition regime. If it goes like Alcohol Prohibition we will have a 20 year hangover once we end it. Maybe longer since this has gone on longer.

Half of all kids growing up try pot. That is a LOT of folks whose adherence to the rule of law has been weakened. And of course just a generation ago such law breaking was a felony. Now it is more often just a caution or ticketing offense. Still.

In a Prohibition regime you give people practice in breaking the law. Is that really the training we should be giving half our kids?

Might I add that Alcohol Prohibition was a scheme cooked up by Progressives and some Social Conservatives. Billy Sunday ring a bell? The Progressives are no longer backing that. Leaving Conservatives holding the bag (all puns intended).

When the Democrats come back it will be under a banner of ending Prohibition. A former LEO friend of mine thinks it will happen in the next 5 years. The Maker help us if the right is on the wrong side of the issue.

And what will the Left run on? "Protecting people from themselves is not a legitimate function of government. That is what we have family and friends for." i.e. they will pretend to move to the right.

Let me add that only a police state can protect people from themselves. Why the Right wants a nanny state is beyond me. You are sharpening the dagger that will be used against you. Ah. Well. I guess there is a reason why they call the two parties names. One is evil, the other is stupid.

DRUG WAR = BIG GOVERNMENT


I'm no more interested in moral socialism than I am in economic socialism.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Thursday, August 11, 2011

Union Lies

They were just trying to keep their jobs. By lying.

American Federation of Teachers officials have disavowed an internal report after it was posted on the union's website following its annual conference, embedded on each of its 19 pages with the union's logo and signed by a union official.

The report, titled "How Connecticut Defused the Parent Trigger," was replaced on AFT's website with a note saying "we have received complaints about these materials and have removed them because they do not represent AFT's position."

Education activist RiShawn Biddle copied the report before it was removed from the AFT website. The report describes in detail AFT's strategy for subverting school reform legislation in Connecticut, a strategy that relied greatly on deceiving legislators and interested parents.
Don't they realize that if they don't do a good job their retirement funds will not be secure? Guess not.

Nazi Twins Give Up Racism After Smoking Pot

I wonder if any one has told the President? The whole story is here.

It's only mid-afternoon, but I'm confident this is the strangest story that's going to cross my desk all day. A pair of twins who caused a media frenzy a few years ago by presenting themselves as the cute faces of white supremacist racism have renounced their former hatred, saying that medical marijuana has helped them see the error of their ways.
Too funny!

Cross Posted at Classical Values

New Gun Control Regulations

Forty Nine states have open or concealed carry laws. And yet Obama wants to impose new regulations unauthorized by law. All this because the government sent a LOT of guns to Mexico. I'm sure this is not a vote getter for Obama. I wonder if he is going to run in 2012?

Gun industry representatives said they would file lawsuits Wednesday challenging new gun-control measures by the Obama administration, an effort the nation's top lawyer vowed to "vigorously oppose."

The Justice Department, facing growing questions over Operation Fast and Furious, a controversial sting targeting Mexican drug cartels and American gunrunners, announced last month that it would begin requiring firearms dealers along the nation’s Southwest border to report multiple sales of certain semi-automatic rifles. The department said such rifles are "highly sought after by dangerous drug trafficking organizations," and the new measures would help "detect and disrupt" weapons trafficking networks.
I think if we could get the government to stop shipping guns to Mexico it might have a much more significant effect.

Aftershock



The video is mostly a commercial for the services these folks are offering. I still think the advice presented is sound. Having for practical purposes no assets or cash all I can do is sit back and watch. The video was posted to YouTube on 18 July 2011. As far as I can tell the free offer is no longer available. Here is a link to the Amazon version of the book:

Aftershock 2nd Edition

Update: I had meant to add this to the post because I follow the electronics market and because I think it gives an idea of where we are headed. From Semiconductor Foundries Reducing Production.
LONDON – July sales at foundry Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Ltd. were down on a sequential basis running against historic trends for the month at the company. Coming immediately after rival foundry UMC posted soft July sales, the decline was expected but appears to indicate the semiconductor industry is headed into a weak third quarter.
Just a feather in the wind. So far.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Wednesday, August 10, 2011

Racist

The reason we have affirmative action is because there were too many racists around. And they were screwing up the country.

The evil compounds.

Hope And Change? Meet The Snake


Via Legal Insurrection and Chicago Boyz.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Suppressed Cancer Treatment



Note the police officer who testifies at the beginning.

Here is a site that thinks Burzynski is a quack.

Here is a link to the Burzynski Clinic.

And the link from the end of the movie: www.burzynskimovie.com

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Tuesday, August 09, 2011

The Elite Speak

I found at Hawaiian Libertarian the words of Zbigniew Brzezinski.

"The technetronic era involves the gradual appearance of a more controlled society. Such a society would be dominated by an elite, unrestrained by traditional values. Soon it will be possible to assert almost continuous surveillance over every citizen and maintain up-to-date complete files containing even the most personal information about the citizen. These files will be subject to instantaneous retrieval by the authorities." - Between Two Ages: America’s Role in the Technetronic Era, 1970
I'm working to put a lot of sand and gravel in that machine.

Secret Courts In America

Taken into Custody: The War Against Fatherhood, Marriage, and the Family

From a review:

The greatest civil rights abuse in the Western world today is the forced removal of children from their parents, usually their fathers, by family courts and social services agencies. Family courts in America and other democracies have almost absolute power to take away people's children without giving any reason, confiscate their property, and incarcerate them without trial, charge, or counsel. These courts operate largely in secret.

A virtual publishing blackout has protected this abuse, and until now no comprehensive exposé of this political underworld has appeared. Some fine books by authors like Sanford Braver, Warren Farrell, Jeffery Leving, Dean Tong, and Jed Abraham, have partially broken the silence with gently worded critiques of family law and policy, along with numerous self-published books that reach a more limited audience. But this is the first time a major publisher has revealed the full horror of what is taking place in America's family courts and government bureaucracies. Not only the systematic removal of children from fit and loving parents but the criminalization of the parents, often in complete defiance of constitutional protections and due process of law, is widespread and routine.

All assertions are carefully documented by a writer with scholarly credentials (PhD from the London School of Economics and professor of political science at Patrick Henry College). Baskerville not only describes what is happening but explains why, demonstrating the unaccountable power, conflicts-of-interest, and extremist ideology driving the most tyrannical governmental machinery ever to arise in the United States. As such, this book bears comparison with Michael Harrington's The Other America and Upton Sinclair's The Jungle.
Yeah. This topic has gotten almost all my attention for the last day or two.

I have been lucky. No divorce to mess up my life. So far.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Manginas - NSFW



A discussion of male/female relations in the Black Community. There is a LOT of pain in this rant.

Here is a white guy with a similar rant. Probably safe for work.



This one by a young lady is excellent. At 11+ minutes in she talks about the war on men and shows the parallels to unfortunate times in human history. I highly recommend viewing it. Probably safe for work. Here is a link to more of her videos.



Cross Posted at Classical Values

Where Are The Socons?

The Futurists asks why socons are distracted by gay marriage and why they are paying no attention to the bigger threat to marriage. Easy divorce. Where even if there are children the husband is considered expendable.

To put it even more plainly, the number of straight men avoiding marriage to women due to gay marriage legislation is zero, whereas the number of straight men avoiding marriage due to brutally anti-male laws is sizable. The socon reaction to this, in their strategic brilliance, is to attack gay marriage and ignore what really disincentivizes marriage.
I have no problem with easy divorce if there are no children involved. When there are children involved divorce must be very difficult and very painful.

They Declared War On Men

So, to review, if a woman has second thoughts about a tryst a few days later, she can, without penalty, ruin a man financially and send him to prison for 15 years. 'Feminists' consider this acceptable. At the same time, even though men consider being cuckolded a worse fate than being raped, 'feminists' want to make this easier for a woman to do, by preventing paternity testing. They already have rigged laws so that the man, upon 'no fault' divorce, has to pay alimony, to a woman who cuckolded him.

This is pure evil, ranking right up there with the worst tyrannies of the last century. Modern misandry masking itself as 'feminism' is, without equal, the most hypocritical ideology in the world today. The laws of a society are the DNA of that society. Once the laws are tainted, the DNA is effectively corrupted, and mutations to the society soon follow. Men have been killed due to 'feminism'. Children and fathers have been forcibly separated for financial gain via 'feminism'. Slavery has returned to the West via 'feminism'.

Shaming Language and Projection as a Substitute for Rational Debate : As discussed previously, any legitimate and polite questions about the fairness of anti-male realities in the legal system and media are quickly met with Pavlovian retorts of 'misogynist' and 'loser'.
Another bit I liked:
Lastly, the religious 'social conservatives' who continue their empty sermonizing about the 'sanctity of marriage' while doing absolutely nothing about the divorce-incentivizing turn that the laws have taken, have been exposed for their pseudo-moral posturing and willful blindness. What they claim to be of utmost importance to them has been destroyed right under their noses, and they still are too dimwitted to comprehend why. No other interest group in America has been such a total failure at their own stated mission. To be duped into believing that a side-issue like 'gay marriage' is a mortal threat to traditional marriage, yet miss the legal changes that correlate to a rise in divorce rates by creating incentives for divorce (divorce being what destroys marriage, rather than a tiny number of gays), is about as egregious an oversight as an astronomer failing to be aware of the existence of the Moon. Aren't conservatives the people who are supposed to grasp that incentives drive behavior? An article worthy of being written by The Onion could conceivably be titled 'Social conservatives carefully seek to maintain perfect 100% record of failure in advancing their agenda'.
Another good bit. It explains why current male/female conditions are a bubble. Look at the charts on the site for more information.
Lefto-'feminists' will be outbred and replaced very quickly, and rural American conservatives will be the only resiliently youthful population among all the world's white ethnicities. The state that lefto-'feminists' so admire will quickly turn on them once the state calculates that these women are neither producing new taxpayers nor new technologies, and will find a way to demote them from their present 'empowered' position of entitlement. If they thought having obligations to a husband was such an awful prospect, wait until they have obligations to the husband-substitute state.

From The Misandry Bubble. Read the whole thing.

Also see his latest on the subject: It is Time to Expose Misandry

Cross Posted at Classical Values



Who Said?

"We are living on borrowed money and borrowed time. These deficits hike interest rates, clobber exports, stunt investment, kill jobs, undermine growth, cheat our kids and shrink our future."

I'll give you a hint. It was from a political speech in 1980.

The answer is here.

Welfare Or Darwin

In many places, government workers are mainstays of the Black middle class.

And when government runs out of money?

The Jews did not attach themselves to government. And look at the result. Everywhere they are given a chance.

Look at real Nobels. About .2% of the world population is Jewish. Something like 20% of the real Nobels are to Jews.

We don’t see anything like that among the Blacks. If anything the reverse. They are under represented.

=========

It is in part a result of a changed environment. Ordinary manual labor no longer pays. We saw that coming in the “John Henry – Steel Driving Man” song. That is rather an old song. Over one hundred years old. And now we have microprocessors to replace humans on the assembly line. Engineers design products to be assembled by machine. If the volumes are high enough. And the low volume stuff requires a more skilled worker.

=========

Well there is still trade. Except the licensing Depts of all the Urbans are controlled by the Unions or other entrenched interests. You often have to buy your way into the guild – think Taxi Medallion. Or hair cutting schools.

And then all the paperwork and depts that must be satisfied. And deposits for this or that government “service”.

And you wonder why there is such interest in the dope trade? Simple. You go to the “man” and ask him, “I want to sell dope. How much can you front me?” And if you make a deal you are in business. No paperwork. No regulations to satisfy. All you have to do is find customers and avoid predators (police). Might I add that paying your suppliers on time is a very important business practice in this market.

Well anyway. Engineering and politics have designed low skill work out of our economy. The alternative is welfare or Darwin. Neither pretty choices.

At the margins there are things that can be done – make hiring cheaper is one thing. That helps the low skilled. Eliminate the minimum wage. A neat little way to keep the low skilled and unskilled out of the market.

=====

Fix this? Progressives are going to have to be reduced. Short of war this takes time.

Of course the “Conservative” attachment to the Drug War needs to be reduced as well. But overall the Conservatives are more in touch with reality.

====

From a comment I made at Why Blue Can’t Save The Inner Cities Part I

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Monday, August 08, 2011

When?

OK. Let me be explicit:

The Drug War is a threat to your rights.

When are you going to do something about it?

Guns And Drugs

Evidently, our Drug Warriors, stung by a lack of success, have decided to throw in their lot with the ATF in order to drum up support for a bigger drug war.

The head of the Drug Enforcement Administration has admitted that the agency knew about and played a role in "Operation Fast and Furious," a botched gunrunning program that allowed more than 2,000 firearms to "walk" across the border into Mexico.

In a letter to the House Committee on Oversight, obtained by the LA Times, DEA administrator Michele Leonhart wrote that DEA agents in Phoenix and El Paso were "indirectly involved" in the Fast and Furious operation run by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF). The letter states that the DEA had no "decision-making role" in Fast and Furious.

Leonhart's letter marks the first time another law enforcement agency, other than the ATF, has acknowledged working on Fast and Furious.
I have been saying something in my e-mails, but I haven't said much in public. Let me correct that:

Drug Prohibition is a stalking horse for Gun Prohibition.


I have been saying that in other words for quite a while. See a couple of my more recent posts:

The Drug War – It Is Not Just For Dopers Anymore

Guns And The Drug War

Today I thought I'd make it explicit. I also want to ask a question: "Why is the gun rights community so silent about one of the chief threats to their rights: The Drug War?"

It is not just the fecklessness of the pols that is ruining the country. It is also the silence of the masses (specifically gun owners in this case). We are getting the government we deserve with all the corruption and murdering that goes with any prohibition regime.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Chicago Honors Heroin Addict With Street Naming

That would be Halsted Street. Named after the founder of modern surgery. William Stewart Halsted. Who was a life long heroin addict.

I propose we petition Chicago to change the street name. It sends a bad message to the kids.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Racially Motivated

A friend of mine asked me to write something about the racially motivated attacks on white people at the Wisconsin State Fair.

"It looked like they were just going after white guys, white people," said Norb Roffers of Wind Lake in an interview with Newsradio 620 WTMJ. He left the State Fair Entrance near the corner of South 84th Street and West Schlinger Avenue in West Allis.

"They were attacking everybody for no reason whatsoever."

"It was 100% racial," claimed Eric, an Iraq war veteran from St. Francis who says young people beat on his car.

"I had a black couple on my right side, and these black kids were running in between all the cars, and they were pounding on my doors and trying to open up doors on my car, and they didn't do one thing to this black couple that was in this car next to us. They just kept walking right past their car. They were looking in everybody's windshield as they were running by, seeing who was white and who was black. Guarantee it."
But I thought having a "Black" President was supposed to prevent this sort of thing. Maybe he isn't Black Enough.

Here is another report on the violence.
The violence left workers and patrons of the fair in West Allis shaken and reminded many of the mob-like disturbances that occurred over the Fourth of July weekend in Milwaukee.

The trouble at the fair started around 7 p.m. Thursday in the midway area, where amusement rides are located, when fights broke out among black youths, said Tom Struebing, chief of the State Fair Police. Those fights did not appear to be racially motivated.

Then around the closing time of 11 p.m., witnesses told the Journal Sentinel, dozens to hundreds of black youths attacked white people as they left the fair, punching and kicking people and shaking and pounding on their vehicles.

At least 31 people were arrested - many for disorderly conduct - in connection with the incidents on the fairgrounds and on the streets outside. At least 11 people, seven of them police officers, were injured, officials said. Twenty-four people were arrested within the fairgrounds by State Fair Police. West Allis police arrested seven people, five of them juveniles, outside the fairgrounds.

Struebing said two injured officers were hospitalized; one was hit in the face with an improvised weapon, the other suffered a concussion.
Of course no mention of the violence every day in Rockford. We have been having two or three shootings a day for the last few weeks. Why? Rockford is the dope cross road of the Mid-West. The economy is down and dealers are fighting each other for or over business.

Well enough of local woes.

What does all this mean? Well we have a "Black" President and the black economy is the worse than the "white" economy. I believe this is not the hope and changed they expected. Hence, severe disappointment. And rioting. Which will ultimately worsen their situation. Clever.

And one other important point. Just as it appears that some women lie about rape, Black people CAN be racist. Political Correctness is not holding up well. At all.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Sunday, August 07, 2011

Probably Not The Jacking He Was Originally Asking For

A woman who met a man at a sex club had her car taken from her by him at gunpoint.

SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) – A woman had her car stolen at gunpoint in San Francisco early Friday morning by a man she met at a sex club in the city’s Tenderloin neighborhood, police said.

The carjacking was reported about 4 a.m. near the intersection of Seventh and Howard streets.

The 38-year-old victim met the suspect, a man in his 20s, at the Power Exchange [NSFW], a sex club located at 220 Jones St.
I include the url of the Power Exchange for information purposes only. Besides the police are looking for clues. If you study the pages you might find one. Or perhaps something else.

From the Power Exchange Rules Page.
Club also STRONGLY ENCOURAGES that all patrons secure their valuables. Leave them @ home, the room, in the car, in a locker or utilize the coat check! Power Exchange is not responsible for misplaced or lost items.
Evidently the lady forgot to take her most valuable item into consideration. Herself.

Personally I'm not into one night stands. They are so unsatisfying. Unless she begs for it. I did sorta have a one night stand once with a lady I knew. I wound up marrying her. We are still together 37 years on. So be careful out there. You can get more than sex from a one night stand. In my case it turned out well. That is not always the case.

And just in case you are curious here are some reviews [NSFW] of the club. None of them (that I have read) are flattering. Here is a classic review by some one who didn't have to pay to get in:
I paid nothing and felt ripped off.
You have to wonder what a woman driving a BMW (the jacked woman's car) was doing at a place like that without friends? Slumming? She probably got her fill. For a while.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Friday, August 05, 2011

Gone Are The Days

We sure got some crazy 'Merkins about these days. Eric is discussing a few who want to put an end to egg eating because you know - an egg is a chicken - or something. Which reminded me of a little adventure I had when I was four or five.

My dad once owned a chicken. Bought special for the occasion. So he only owned it for a few days. Then one fine morning in Charlottesville, VA, at the foot of Monticello where we lived he axe murdered the chicken on an old stump. The chicken then began running around the yard like a chicken with its head cut off. It didn’t last long.

Which gave me a valuable lesson in life which I have never forgotten:

“Try to keep your head on your shoulders. It generally works better that way.”

Seen it with my own eyes.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Thursday, August 04, 2011

A Change In Policy

Suppose you have a bad experience with a company. What can you do?

Stop buying their product.

Suppose you have a bad experience with government. ....

Police Beat Schizophrenic To Death

For those of you who have a schizophrenic male relative it is something you live in fear of. He has a run in with police and doesn't respond to police commands and the police take it personally. Reason magazine has the story, plus video and pictures that are just too horrific for me to repost. But they may have gone after the wrong schizophrenic. His father was a retired police officer. Reason quotes another blogger:

Kelly Thomas, a 37-year-old homeless man with schizophrenia, kept calling for his father as police beat and tased him repeatedly.

But his father, a retired Orange County sheriff’s deputy, was not around.

It wasn't until after Thomas slipped into a coma and was hospitalized with multiple injures that his father saw him.

And by then, it was too late. Thomas never recovered. The 135-pound man died five days after his run-in with Fullerton police.
Read the whole thing. And weep.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Wednesday, August 03, 2011

Hangover



The first minute and fifteen seconds are commercials. Then comes a bio of the guest, Niall Ferguson, which lasts until about three minutes and thirty seconds into the video. Then you get about twenty minutes of good stuff.

The video was recorded in February. In the interim it looks like there may have been a change in political direction even if the results so far are meager. Inflection points are by definition the beginning of change. And at the inflection point there is balance. But there is also momentum. And ultimately the question is: how much force can be applied for how long in order to increase the velocity towards the goal? Just getting to the inflection point is not enough.

And something else. Mr. Ferguson says no one has been discussing his preferred solution - Privatization. That is not true. Harry Browne who ran for President on the Libertarian ticket in 2000 and who I strongly supported at the time was saying exactly that during his campaign. The Federal Government owns too much of America.

And let me also speak to his last point. The trouble with our education system. The solutions are appearing in places like Kahn Acadamy among others. It would be really good if our education system wasn't so reactionary. But it doesn't matter. The Lower Education Bubble will burst. The end is in train. We just can't say when. The if is not in doubt.

Niall's book Civilization: The West and the Rest will be out in November.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Sign Of The Times


NORTHIOWATEAPARTY.COM

Tuesday, August 02, 2011

The Emperor Has No Clothes

It must be really hot out today.

Monday, August 01, 2011

Moore's New Law

I have an article up at ECN Magazine about some new innovations in chip design that look to reduce power requirements by a factor of twenty to one hundred for a given level of computing power. There is an example of this chip in production that can do over 90 Billion Instructions Per Second (BIPS) for a power cost of just a little over six tenths of a watt. Compare that to your current desktop or laptop machine.

It was invented by Chuck Moore of FORTH fame.

Details and links can be found at ECN.

Cross Posted at Classical Values