You saw the recent, all-too-true cartoon The 24 Types of Libertarians. Embarrassingly funny. Well, here’s the remix: The 24 Types of Authoritarians. Also true. But not so personally embarrassing. Yeah. Right. The Obama White House is reaching out to business in a desperate, pre-election attempt to “end tensions.” But you know darned well that, if anything at all comes of the effort, it’ll be nothing more than the usual favors to big business. More competition-killing regulations. More subsidies. More strategically targeted taxes. More you-scratch-my-back-I’ll-scratch yours. Hey, Obama: You want to really do something for business? Get the government the heck…
Category: Miscellaneous
Pat was the first commenter to notice: They caught Colton Harris-Moore yesterday. At least the Bahamian cops had the presence of mind and decency not to shoot him. (I expect most U.S. police would simply have blown him away, under the circumstances.) That boy. Neither monster nor hero. But oh, what a story! Might be silly, but I’m proud to have had a small connection to his adventures. (Yes, it’s a tenuous connection, I admit. But there’s a tad more to it than I’m at liberty to tell right now.) Interested in paleo/primal nutrition and exercise? Free the Animal may…
Sorry for the “lite” posting this week. I hope I made up for the lack of volume with the quality of Wednesday’s post. (The quality of response to that post has certainly been outstanding.) I had some bad news Wednesday. Nothing earth-shattering, but a setback that … well, it drove me to eat four whole squares of chocolate (a huge indulgence at the very end of my month of primal-nutrition purity). It’s kept me in the doldrums since then. You may remember that I’ve been debating options about where to live. The more I explored, the more I realized I…
Common sense comes to a public school near you. Can’t possibly last. You heard the tut-tutting because more than a quarter of Americans recently polled didn’t know what country the famous forefathers won independence from. But what if respondents were just funnin’? C’mon. Everybody knows it was the Soviet Union. Which brings back fond memories of the witty (and now retired from writing) Patty Neill and her hysterical take on “How We Got the Data for the National Household Survey on Drug Abuse” Old. But timeless. On the more serious side, here’s an excellent Forbes piece from Michael Pento on…
Today in 1943, “pay-as-you-go” income-tax withholding began. (Oh thank you, Milton Friedman.) Today in 2004, Marlon Brando died, age 80. There was probably no connection between the two, but I have friends who could spin conspiracies proving me wrong. Today is also the day the Battle of Gettysburg began (1863). I had a Confederate cavalry re-enactor friend who, with his comrades, almost won that battle once. It was very embarrassing for the event organizers. Not to mention the Union troops. —– The wind has been howling more than usual lately. Making me crazy. Makes me dream of northwest forests. But…
An 11-pound hero. (Thank you, S&L, for the news.) Another great dog story. Okay. Equal time for cats. This is not only amazing cat news, but the implications for severely injured humans are pretty awesome, too. Gold. Yes, it’s likely to end up as a bubble. But in the meantime, take a look at that chart. Besides, the Dow really could go to 5,000. Are any actual humans investing in stocks any more? Or is it all just banks and computers? “A Sermon on Ethics and Love.” (Hail Eris! All Hail Discordia!) Tip o’ hat to C2 for this and…
Perfect example of the broken-window fallacy. Not to mention public relations idiocy. Yes — the Gulf oil spill is good for you! Every person who ever takes a government office should have this tattooed on his or her forehead. Backwards so it’s readable in the mirror every morning: “Truth never damages a cause that is just.” — Gandhi (and Wikileaks) You remember that “ending welfare as we know it” thingie back in 1996? Uh. Well … not quite.. (That chart is from a June 1 Heritage Foundation report, which contains many other “fedgov by the numbers” charts guaranteed not to…
This WSJ article focuses on the behavior of investors (and draws, I think, some dubious conclusions). But the heart and soul of it is about the psychology of going along with the crowd. Good info not to live by. The NRA’s free-speech sellout from a different political perspective. He loves his Mac. He doesn’t hate Windows. In fact, he thinks Windows 7 is a great product. But he’s switching to Linux. Well, whaddaya know? Portugal decriminalizes virtually all recreational drug use and the universe fails to implode. “Patience and Personal Finance.” News you can use if you’re working on getting…
… and some more miscellany. The confession The astute among you who’ve followed my links to Joel Simon’s blog, The Ultimate Answer to Kings, have noticed, shall we say, a few similarities between Joel’s life and mine. I think it’s time to reveal the secret. No, I am not Joel Simon. I have more hair and I’d look just awful in that beard, not to mention that Jayne Cobb cunning hat. But I am the neighbor Joel refers to as W. or Uncle W. — and I suspect his attempt to turn me into a person of the male persuasion…
Via Wendy McElroy, the gummint’s view of all us “stay out of debt and be responsible” types. 😉 So this is the kind of person being hired to “protect and serve” these days. Whoo, scary. Maybe he should become a terrorist, instead. He seems to have all the qualifications. There are “experts” predicting hyperinflation. There are “experts” who sneer at that, pointing out that we’re obviously in greater danger from deflation. Here’s the best explanation I’ve seen of why the latter can easily lead to the former. “Toxic Citizens.” Even the WSJ is now noticing. And it says what’s bad…