- The cannabis entrepreneurs preparing to fight Jeff Sessions’ renewed war on an herb. They think it might be a war of regulation and bureaucracy this time.
- Kim du Toit muses on bedside guns.
- Why did we hear so little about Turkish goons — employees of the dictator Erdogan — beating up peaceful American protestors? In America? I’m sure Erdogan’s thugs are just shaking in their jackboots that the U.S. State Department had a very strong and forceful hissy-fit after the fact.
- Yikes. That looks like finger-burning fun. Make a firestarter with a battery and a gum wrapper. Very carefully, though, please.
- You’ve heard of the strange case of Phineas Gage, the young man whose grotesque accident kicked off modern neuro-science. Two things I didn’t know. One, his radical behavior changes after his brain got pierced apparently lasted only a few years. Two, scientists are still learning from him.
- Speaking of brain science, a major recent discovery overturned 300 years of belief about the brain. Yet the evidence for it had been in plain sight all along.
- Did Machiavelli write The Prince to slyly encourage tyrants to destroy themselves?
- Oh yeah. This is just what we need. The government should give everybody a job. (I juxtapose this with Machiavelli on purpose.)
- This weekend was the 90th anniversary of Charles Lindberg’s famous flight. Check out other milestones in aviation history.
- Teen saves dying swan by giving it mouth-to-mouth resuscitation
- The worst tourist trap in every state. YMMV.
To call the Alamo a tourist trap is almost sacrilegious that also should go for the liberty bell too no matter what size it is. If you do go to the Alamo there’s a bar down towards the river walk (if I remember correctly) where Teddy Roosevelt supposedly recruited some of his rough riders, which required a shot or two while passing through, I’m a sucker for historic old bars for sure.
There’s nothing more dependable than a revolver however every time I’ve pulled the trigger on my Glock it has always gone bang, enough to make me willing to bet my life on it.
Government guaranteeing jobs. Talk about a disease posing as its own cure.
Heaven save us from social engineers and do-gooders. Or, if that’s kind of contradictory, may heaven, social engineers and do-gooders all get the hell out of our way.
Perhaps I’m viewing the Undersea Gardens through the lens of time, but what I remember is that, as a kid, that was really cool. 5 fish? Maybe the writer went on a bad day. And 2 dings against Elvis? Sacrilege!
I had a strange idea once for a way to “give everybody a job” while at the same time getting the do-gooders out of everyone else’s way. It would require several organizations to work together in order for it to work, but it could, hypothetically, be done voluntarily and with private funding.
It would start out similar to some medical studies. Basically, people would get paid to sit and watch something, and their brainwaves and other reactions would be monitored.
The data gathered could be used to improve virtual-reality systems, graphics, movie scenes, advertising, different types of psychotherapy, etc. Selling the data to companies that deal with such things would provide the funding to sustain the whole project.
The theory being, even someone with no skills, no ambition, and no desire to improve themselves, would still be providing data that’s of value, while earning a paycheck instead of just mooching.
Before anybody starts flaming, I’m aware that this is an insane idea that would never work. But, does it at least start the brainstorming on ideas that might work?
PS: That’s assuming no large-scale government collapses and no sudden freedomista revolutions. Basically, a way to keep both moochers and do-gooders distracted without using government funds or new laws.
“The government should give everybody a job.” This is a perfect example of a rational that furthers civilization’s decline and fall due to internal erosion. It also shows how, if enough thought is given to a subject, anything can be justified.
The good thing about being a slave or serfdom is it seems is you will always have a job of some kind I bet!
In re the first link:
Y’know, I don’t find wired.com’s ads obnoxious in any particular way, and would even be happy to disable my ad blocker in their case except…a pop-up that waits till I try to scroll up before blocking me from reading their article until I unblock their ads invariably has an effect on my actions opposite that which they say they want. To wit: I just close the tab and get on with my life.
Just saying.
Same thing, same reason, Joel.
The federal-job-guarantee concept goes back to Huey Long’s Share Our Wealth plan in the 1930s.
Um. Huey Long? Really? Not a heritage I’d want to be associated with.
The open-ended program would be funded as needed, expandable in recession, and contractable when the economy recovers. Government would become the employer of last resort.
ROTFLMAO. Please list government programs that have “contracted.”
What kinds of jobs would be created? CAP suggests that home health care, child care, and teaching aides are all urgently needed. It also cites infrastructure investment for job creation–roads and bridges, but also schools and hospitals.
IOW: “There are all those skuzzy jobs I want done, but I don’t want to do, so the government should make unemployed peons do them. And provide the wages and benefits, so I don’t have to.”
There are better firestarters, I don’t chew gum, and I’d be surprised if sticks come in foil wrappers any more. Even my toothpaste tube is plastic.
Kim makes some good points. In my case, my carry gun becomes my bedside gun when I’m asleep, and returns to carry when I get up.
IMHO firearm reliability is related to practice, maintenance, and quality. “Too simple to go wrong” encourages slacking off on those three variables.
To call the Alamo a tourist trap is almost sacrilegious…
Was a time I would have agreed. The Daughters of the Republic of Texas rescued it, and for generations kept it as a shrine. However, they have now been ousted. The Legislature and the City of San Antonio are planning “improvements.” (One idea is to add authenticity by restoring the perimeter wall, only making it glass so you can still see the chapel.) It will not go well.
Thanks to the WannaCry ransomware scare, corporations are stockpiling bitcoin. Bitcoin value has now reached an all time high: http://www.cnbc.com/2017/05/22/bitcoin-price-hits-fresh-record-high-above-2100.html