Forelle's Filosofy

http://peacefreedomprosperity.com/5759/taxation-isnt-just-theft-it-is-also-armed-robbery-and...

2011-10-20T06:24:00.000-07:00

taxation-isnt-just-theft-it-is-also-armed-robbery-and...

Karen Kwiatkowski for Congress

2011-06-12T14:29:00.000-07:00

Randy Weston

2011-05-18T21:34:00.000-07:00

Randy Weston
"African Sunrise" (mp3)
from "The Storyteller"
(Motema Music)

Buy at Amazon MP3
More On This Album

A Chart

2011-04-08T11:22:00.000-07:00

Profile Pictures

from Pete Nonaggressionist Walker

2011-04-08T11:02:00.000-07:00

It's the Tax, Stupid!

2010-11-19T08:39:00.000-08:00

The day that the rich become a bigger problem than the federal government will be a day for rejoicing. The current federal personal income tax tab impoverishes every one except perhaps the very rich, which class includes most of our elected officials.

The federal government has no legitimate role in leveling personal income. If the richest 1% disappeared tomorrow, we would still be choking to death on debt. If the richest 1% doubled tomorrow, we would still be choking to death on debt.

Speaking of death, we are in a do or die struggle with our own government, and the outcome will be death or imprisonment or enslavement; the way it looks today, our government will not be the victim in this struggle.

Which government and/or party is going to save us? I don't know, but it certainly won't be the government or either party now trying to choke us to death with debt.

RIP Sparky Anderson

2010-11-16T14:25:00.001-08:00

The Main Spark

The Coming Tea Party Civil War

2010-11-16T14:11:00.000-08:00

The Coming Tea Party Civil War

But I doubt that the "libertarian wing" is anywhere near as large as the whatever-else wing.

Libertarian Quotes

2009-03-19T09:55:00.000-07:00

Welcome to Blogger, Floyd Noel.

Libertarian Quotes

I love libertarian quotes. I got started when I bought the e-book (PDF) 2000+ Libertarian Quotes by Harry Browne and his widow.

Often T.C. Mits (the celebrated Man in the Street) harbors a negative connotation for libertarianism, but any reasonable collection of libertarian quotes will change that to a positive connotation, since the names crediting the authors include such everyman's heroes as Mark Twain, Henry Mencken, Abraham Lincoln, Ike, Jesus, Clint Eastwood, Drew Carey, Thoreau, Ronald Reagan, Thomas Jefferson, Ben Franklin, and so many more.

I have my own "2000+ Libertarian Quotes" posted at my favorite political discussion forum, Political Asylum. Many come from Harry Browne's book, and the rest come from all over the domain of humanity. Please visit and add some of your own.

2009-03-17T16:40:00.000-07:00

In his inaugural address, President Obama promised to end federal programs that are not working.

This blog will henceforth be enthusiastically supportive of the administration in this laudable goal.

Photos

2009-03-17T09:38:00.001-07:00

How's that wall working out?

The Nairobi Trio

2008-11-25T13:20:00.000-08:00

See more funny videos at Funny or Die

Huh? Who knew this wouldn't work?

2008-10-20T17:38:00.001-07:00

Congressman Ron Paul - Capitalism Without Capital? - Texas Straight Talk

Capitalism Without Capital?

How good is this issue of The American Conservative?

2008-07-25T12:30:00.001-07:00

Now we're talking

2008-07-09T10:33:00.001-07:00

PickensPlan

Reflection on the 4th of July

2008-07-08T06:35:00.001-07:00

The Turning Point

We're Winning The War on Terror!

2008-07-01T09:28:00.001-07:00

Another report card from fellow Nolan Chart denizen and libertarian colleague, Doug Eberhardt.

World's Only Superpower

2008-06-30T08:04:00.001-07:00

Occupation Plan for Iraq Faulted in Army History - NYTimes.com

OK, let's set up the HQ here, and I'll see you in the Mess Tent.

Campaign for Liberty

2008-06-30T07:27:00.001-07:00

Ron Paul's Campaign fo r Liberty

The mission of the Campaign for Liberty is to promote and defend the great American principles of individual liberty, constitutional government, sound money, free markets, and a noninterventionist foreign policy, by means of
educational and political activity.

The Right to Bear Arms -- Still Unsettled

2008-06-25T10:07:00.001-07:00

In part, our second amendment is based on the propensity of Britannia to occupy (see the American Revolution, the Irish Rebellion). But further the propensity becomes a case of a government occupying the territory of its people.

It's informative to read Halbrook's The Founders' Second Amendment; Origins of the Right to Bear Arms, while thinking of the USA as currently under occupation by its own government.

Does the Invisible Hand Need a Helping Hand?

2008-06-25T07:59:00.001-07:00

Ronald Bailey at Reason reports on some interesting ideas about the complexity, and individual freedom, in cost-benefit analysis. The idea that every opportunity appears differently to each observer accounts for the unintended consequences of treating us as collectives.

Does the Invisible Hand Need a Helping Hand?

George Carlin -- RIP

2008-06-23T07:26:00.000-07:00

Here's another bunch of ignorant shit: school uniforms. Bad theory. The idea that if kids wear uniforms to school it helps keep order. Don't these schools do enough damage makin' all these kids think alike? Now they're gonna make them look alike too? And it's not a new idea. I first saw it in news reels from the 1930s, but it was hard to understand 'cause the narration was in German! -- George Carlin

Exactly --
The Cunning Linguist
by Marty Beckerman

Another Good Person, #0011

2008-05-15T09:43:00.001-07:00

Burt Munro, a man who is an example of a natural libertarian, essentially apolitical, doesn't debate the principles -- he just lives that way.

Movie Review

2008-05-14T05:54:00.000-07:00

On the heels of No Country for Old Men comes There Will be Blood. Clearly the second best western since Unforgiven. And clearly Daniel Day-Lewis puts in an acting tour de force the equal of Newman in Hud, Gable in The Misfits, Wayne in True Grit, or Brando in One-Eyed Jacks.

Another Good Person, #0010

2008-05-14T05:18:00.000-07:00

John Angus McPhee (born March 8, 1931) is a writer widely considered one of the pioneers of creative nonfiction. Like Tom Wolfe and Hunter Thompson, he helped kick-start the "new journalism" which, in the 1960s, revolutionized nonfiction by incorporating techniques from novels and other forms of fiction. McPhee avoided the attention-grabbing streams of consciousness of Wolfe and Thompson, but his detailed description of characters, insatiable appetite for details, and masterful style make his writing lively, readable, and personal, even when it focuses on obscure or difficult topics.

His book, The Control of Nature, is bedrock to my libertarian views. Free man in harmony with nature is the ideal. Tinkering man pitted against nature is the folly.

Movie Review

2008-04-07T15:31:00.000-07:00

Easily the best movie I have seen in the past 12 months. Clearly the top Western since The Unforgiven. Hands down the equal of the very best Coen Brothers' movies (as in "Fargo").

Josh Brolin -- I haven't noticed him before, but too good to forget again.
Cormac McCarthy -- No more fooling around -- I will be reading now.
Kelly MacDonald -- A favorite, and what an acting gem without much screen time.
Tommy Lee Jones -- Finally another Woodrow Call performance.
Javier Bardem -- Hannibal Lecter meets the Coen Brothers.
Woody Harrelson -- Famous wiseass gets his pronto.
Steven Root -- Great cameo.
Barry Corbin -- Greater cameo.
The filling station coin flip -- what a scene!
"Look, I need to know what I stand to win." -- What a line.
The best dialog -- almost every spoken word, but, "If it ain't, it'll do till the mess gets here."
Evocative of -- Lonely Are the Brave.

What if . . .

2008-03-27T11:29:00.001-07:00

Why do we have a "farsi-spoken-here" radio station?

2008-03-24T10:01:00.000-07:00

Here I was minding my own business, reading a web post, by majd hooman, about dubya saying something stupid. Then I read that he said something stupid on ". . . Radio Farda, the U.S. government radio station that broadcasts into Iran in Farsi . . !"

Yikes! Who's paying for this? Read and weep. How much? A cursory web search reveals that Radio Farda may have had an $8 million dollar appropriation, in 2005, from the US Congress.

Paul Scofield -- RIP

2008-03-20T10:04:00.000-07:00

Oscar-Winning Actor Paul Scofield Dies

Actor Richard Burton, once regarded as the natural heir to Laurence Olivier and John Gielgud at the summit of British theater, said it was Scofield who deserved that place. "Of the 10 greatest moments in the theater, eight are Scofield's," he said.

The Benies of Libertarianism

2008-03-19T10:03:00.000-07:00

I can read and assimilate well-taken points from across the political spectrum, such as Bob Cesca's

Bush's Iraq Strategery: Blame The Troops.

Why have libertarians ceded the non-interventionist ground to the left. Why do we wait until the left states the obvious?

Houston TX -- Tunnels!

2008-03-08T08:41:00.000-08:00

Houston TX -- Comfort Food!

2008-03-08T08:37:00.000-08:00

Recommended by 41, Bar, Hakeem, Nolan and ZZ Top!

Houston TX -- Mex!

2008-03-07T08:27:00.000-08:00

Terrific Chicken Enchilada Soup

Houston TX -- Oysters!

2008-03-06T08:22:00.000-08:00

at Massa's.

Houston TX

2008-03-05T10:16:00.000-08:00

Sam Houston Airport

Thomas Paine

2008-02-12T11:41:00.001-08:00

Society in every state is a blessing, but Government, even in its best state, is but a
necessary evil; in its worst state an intolerable one: for when we suffer, or are exposed to the same miseries by a Government, which we might expect in a country without
Government, our calamity is heightened by reflecting that we furnish the means by which we suffer. -- Thomas Paine

Is Barack Obama a Left-Libertarian?

2008-02-12T11:33:00.000-08:00

Obama's preference for reducing healthcare costs while preserving the freedom to choose whether or not to participate in the healthcare system, as against Clinton's (and Edwards's) insistence on mandating participation, is not a one-off discrepancy without broader implications. Rather, Obama's language of personal choice and incentive is a reflection of the ideas of his lead economic advisor, Austin Goolsbee, a behavioural economist at the University of Chicago, who agrees with the liberal consensus on the need to address concerns such as income inequality, disparate educational opportunities and, of course, disparate access to healthcare, but breaks sharply from liberal orthodoxy on both the causes of these social ills and the optimal strategy for ameliorating them. -- Daniel Koffler, Substance, not style

FDT Out!

2008-01-23T08:12:00.000-08:00

Fred's very best qualities: Doesn't like campaigning, and has the substantial sense of self-worth that allows him to leave politics behind.

On the fearmongering against Islam

2008-01-23T07:57:00.000-08:00

To even speculate that islam will overcome christianity is a sorry-ass joke. There are 2 -- exactly 2 -- major religions in terms of adherents. There are 3 christians for every 2 muslims. There are millions of rich christians for every rich muslim.

In my little ky town, there are hundreds upon hundreds of christian churches, while there is 1 islamic center with maybe 200 members (ie. a whole christian congregation or 2 for each individual muslim. Can you imagine the amount of pure chickenshittedness it takes to cry that we* should be afraid of the lunatic fringe of the amateurish islam.

The chicken little routine is an immense insult to christianity, its teachings, its followers, and the goodness at its core. Christianity outnumbers Mohammedanism 3-t-2. Christianity dominates nearly all of the world's major countries. Islam has never permanently replaced an advanced religion, government, culture, or economy. Islam apparently, based on where it thrives, is the self-destructive religion of the 4 horseman of the apocalypse. It is large because chaos reigns in many regions of the world, but it is incapable of coalescing into the thoughtful philosophical forms that rule the world.

If you believe that there will ever be a united states of sharia, or similar such dumb shit, then you are a loser, a traitor to your country, and an infidel to christianity. Mark it down. It ain't gonna happen.

We may get invaded by martians someday, but they are gonna have both christians and muslims for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

* note -- I was raised a christian, and I still see the evidence of God in the world around me. I am philosophically a taoist (not religiously a taoist). In other words, I am not big on ritual and dogma. Therefore, when the battle comes I will be on the side of Jesus, with sword in hand, whether we are fighting klingons or islamofaschists. But to even pretend that these ululating fools are on the same plane as christians or americans is a humiliation that we should reject with all our might. Otherwise, we will lose . . . to our fearstricken selves!

Orchestration Central

2008-01-09T12:11:00.000-08:00

I have found a way to pick up real fast on what the neocon-giulianis will try next. Listen to michael savage at night, then to francene the next day, on WHAS radio, our louisville nexus to talk wrong radio. They come across entirely differently, but that's strictly bad cop, good cop.

Last night, ms was frothing over obama's church, then today francene (the local talk wrong distaff talking head) seems to be giving the issue a fair hearing before coming down in the same place as savage.

Who does this help? Ironically, shrillary. Comparing obama to mitt over and over reduces cred for both of them. Rudy is already dead but his campaign provides a nice place for neo-cons to pick up a few paychecks, until the endgame when they will drift unobtrusively into the hrc camp.

I fear that our favorite stealth authoritarians are doing an end run to land in a soft spot in the chillary administration.

photo storage

2008-01-03T06:40:00.000-08:00

Criswell Predicts

2008-01-02T13:20:00.000-08:00

Criswell Predicts

Ask Mitt Anything . . .

2007-12-21T09:33:00.000-08:00

. . . he will tell you anything.

The World in Peril?

2007-12-21T08:44:00.000-08:00

henry clay vii: This election is one of the most important elections in US history and the reason it is so important is because of the number of tremendous threats that exist around the world today. We must elect a president that takes the WOT seriously and when a candidate comes out with an isolationist foreign policy, all it says to me is that this person is either lazy or stupid. I dont want either one. Plus, with China and Russia potentially becoming more and more of a threat, that just adds to the significance of this election.

kilgore forelle: I appreciate your view, hcvii, but the world has always been in crisis -- eg, 2000 years ago we conspired to kill Jesus Christ!

You must not place so much reliance on your young eyes and your partisan precepts. I was unfortunately at the lexington cemetery yesterday, and on visiting the office, I gazed upon the beautiful painting which focused on your 5g patriarch and his colleague, abe lincoln -- I doubt that either would agree that your times are more perilous, but both would grieve about how little we have learned from the intervening years.

We have always had crisis because the political process does not produce the leadership that we all crave. It is a fine measure, however, of influence without a rudder of right and wrong.

It is the sheerest accident when we get a good president. And good presidents always rise above the quotidian spats of the party system.

The estimable henry clay -- a leader if ever there was one -- said it best when he said he would rather be right than president.

Another Good Person, #0009

2007-12-13T13:33:00.000-08:00

Heh heh heh.

2007-12-13T12:17:00.001-08:00

Another Good Person, #0007

2007-12-12T10:33:00.001-08:00

And speaking of toilets:

Hundertwasser's Kawakawa Toilets

Another Good Person, #0006a & b

2007-12-12T10:27:00.000-08:00

The Toilet in the Corner by Ilya and Emilia Kabakov

Another Good Person, #0005

2007-12-12T09:39:00.001-08:00

I'm not much for modern dance, but this lady is unbelievable.

To see some video, check out Destination America

Another Good Person, #0004

2007-12-10T11:35:00.000-08:00

Robbie Coltrane

The Nanny State digs in

2007-12-04T09:54:00.000-08:00

Last night I went through a process that leaves me bewildered.

Just before Thanksgiving I came down with some malady that is not unlike what we used to call the common cold (the difference being that nobody knows what to call it now.) Among the sort of shrugging recommendations that my family doc made was to get some pseudofed, which he advised did not require an rx, but did require a certain amount of groveling and jumping through hoops of fire. The pseudo whatsis is now kept behind the counter, like trading cards, girlie magazines, cigarettes, and small flagons of distilled spirit. I had to show my drivers license and sign some sort of life altering document submitting myself to the domination of walmart and the KY legislature.

WTF? Surely there has to be a way of separating criminals (drug chefs) from patients that rises above requiring patients to register as potential criminals. How many numb skulled bureaucratic schemes must we endure on a day-to-day basis? Does anybody see this as an effective program, as a shot ringing out in the war on drugs? Please tell me how.

Another Good Person, #0003

2007-12-03T10:46:00.000-08:00

John Havlicek combined a one-of-a-kind mixture of athleticism and court sense, but the incredible difference was that he could run all day, all week, all year, if that was what it took to outrun you. In any battle of endurance, the opponent was his.

As this series expands, you will see many Celtics and many pro basketball stars, but the number 1 in my sky is John Havlicek.

Btw, Hondo is being guarded(?) by 1 of the best defensive players ever, Jerry West (left) in the photograph. He has his work cut out for him.

Another Good Person, #0002

2007-12-03T10:36:00.000-08:00

Thelonious Monk, the coolest human who ever lived

Another Good Person, #0001

2007-12-03T09:20:00.001-08:00

David Gilmour

Can you imagine Pink Floyd without him?

Rated 82nd in Rolling Stone's 100 Greatest Guitars list.

Obviously, they're all a gang of idiots. But, you know...live and let live -- David Gilmour

2007-11-30T11:53:00.000-08:00

2007-11-30T11:04:00.000-08:00

Tough Guys Don't Dance

2007-11-12T14:07:00.000-08:00

Farewell to a literary great, with chutzpah

Without Responsibility Even To God

2007-11-09T09:45:00.000-08:00

Without Responsibility Even To God

What happened here was the gradual habituation of the people, little by little, to being governed by surprise; to receiving decisions deliberated in secret; to believing that the situation was so complicated that the government had to act on information which the people could not understand, or so dangerous that, even if the people could not understand it, it could not be released because of national security....

A study in lingo

2007-11-09T06:20:00.000-08:00

There seems to be an element of the anti-immigration crowd who think that we can make spanish go away. But I don't think that any language can be outlawed under our constitution. If we do outlaw a language, then the next short step, imho, is to outlaw the content of speech.

btw, the bi-lingual belgium is currently unable to form a government among the flemish and the walloons (I forget which ones have the stars on their bellies).

Also, isn't it an irony that neither faction in belgium speaks belgian, but each borrows another country's tongue? The flemish majority speaks dutch, while the walloon minority speaks french. And how is flemish the adjective for flanders. When social anthropologists go to hell, is it belgium?

As an aside, is there any correlation between the number of "world" organizations domiciled therein and the degree of governmental dysfunctionality. That would explain a lot about nyc (aka rudy-land).

If I ever write a book it will be about sanctioned language as a tool for oppressive government.

Bosox!

2007-10-29T08:20:00.000-07:00

The power to tax, once conceded . . .

2007-10-25T08:40:00.000-07:00

The power to tax, once conceded, has no limits; it contains until it destroys. Professor Bernardo de la Paz, Robert A. Heinlein, "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress"

Rudy Giuliani is NOT a libertarian!

2007-10-25T08:34:00.000-07:00

Rudy Giuliani is NOT a libertarian!

"Rudy Giuliani does not believe in a libertarian relationship between individual and state." -- Brad Warbiany

Demogoging the Incendiary

2007-10-24T13:49:00.000-07:00

Is there anything that we can leave untarred by the politico's brush?

Don Boudreau has a good take on this:

The War and Wildfires

Glenn Beck, otherwise!

Neo-cons for POTUS--NY

2007-10-22T13:48:00.000-07:00

Please note the newsfeeds to the right. Everyday you can see the latest linking Hillary and Rudy to the covert support of the neo-cons. Click on Hilly or Rudary.

Baghdad Bomb Blast

2007-10-22T09:34:00.001-07:00

Republican debate?

2007-10-10T09:24:00.000-07:00

I posted elsewhere that it was hard to tell these guys apart from socialists, pandering to the stereotype of the michigan union rank-and-file.

rudy -- a grinning skull; thinks that nyc is the world
fred -- a deer in the headlights, even after nixon's posthumous endorsement
mitt -- an empty suit -- a gov from MA, yeah, right.
mccain -- how the semi-mighty are free-fallen.
ron -- screechy, even though smarter than the rest put together
mike tom dunkback -- fuhgeddaboudit!

do any of these guys have a personality better than bob dole?

I thought they were all running for UAW treasurer. Yikes!

2007-10-07T10:18:00.000-07:00

Coping with fallout from defeat

Mahmoud's Revenge

2007-10-02T07:25:00.000-07:00

Have you noticed the fecal storm over ahmadinejad?

Duncan Hunter has introduced a bill to take federal research dollars away from Columbia U.

Why are we fighting amongst ourselves to pay homage to this little creep. His PR firm is having a wet dream over our reaction. He has become the Mr. Deeds of the Middle East!

Believe me, I would be right there on any proposal to end the federal grab-bag on academic funding, but only across the board. This unconstitutional punitive legislation is a taxpayer supported campaign ad for Duncan Hunter!

How little government is small enough?

2007-09-07T09:12:00.000-07:00

kilgore forelle: Government is disorder and unfair advantage. Government is oligarchy -- the accumulation of power and wealth to a few. The market can do order and fairness better.

How do you explain the fact that 99.44% of us can proceed daily without knowing any of the intricacies of government. But you say government protects us from the ill-intentioned ones? There are 1000s of incidents every day in which the ill-intentioned ones escape the notice of government altogether. You are protected only by the probability that no harm will come to you as a result of how you organize your own life.

Since the government can only protect you after the fact, we have a word for those protected by the government -- victim.

pangloss: kf, that implies that no one is discouraged from partaking in predatory commerce despite laws prohibiting. To take that idea to its logical conclusion we would say that no laws have a deterrent effect...no?

I would argue that without govt and without laws and law enforcement there would be more "victims" on the order of magnitudes.

kilgore forelle: Argue that if you like. Predators just get less scrupulous lawyers and prevaricating accountants.

If what I said about oligarchy were not true then government would be fine.

We'll probably never know who's right since we are more and more in the global clutches of oligarchists, but historical evidence of anarchy shows cooperation and fewer victims. Read the links.

An optimal number of laws will have an optimal effect. Nobody passed new laws faster than the bolsheviki, except perhaps the brits during their 4 century rape of ireland, or maybe paul bremer as emperor of the coalition provisional authority. (Tip -- if you're not gonna be an authoritarian, don't put 'authority' in your name!)

Deterrence sucks. See britney spears, lindsey lohan, paris hilton, nicole richie, michael "let's make a deal" vick, george bush, o j simpson, saddam hussein, bill clinton, osama bin ladin, larry craig, william jefferson, . . . ad nauseum.

Pavarotti -- RIP

2007-09-06T07:12:00.000-07:00

"Je crois entendre encore" from Bizet's Les Pecheurs de Perle

David Gilmour

Alfredo Kraus

I believe I hear him still.

Michael Jackson -- RIP

2007-08-31T08:36:00.000-07:00

"He was simply the best beer writer we've ever known. He told wonderful stories about beer, breweries and far away places." -- Tim Hampson

International Herald Tribune Obit

Michael's view of my favorite Irish ale, Caffrey's.

Pharoah's Army

2007-08-31T07:42:00.000-07:00

A small movie with a compelling story about the civil war among the common people.

A review.

Two of my favorite actors, patricia clarkson and chris cooper, excel.

Unforgiveable Blackness

2007-08-30T11:34:00.001-07:00

Ken Burns' best documentary to date, imho.

Are we an EMPIRE or a REPUBLIC?

2007-08-18T13:16:00.000-07:00

We are neither.

Special interests select representatives, citizens elect the selections. We are at least 1 remove from a republic. "A political order in which the supreme power lies in a body of citizens who are entitled to vote for officers and representatives responsible to them". -- Answers.com

We have never been an empire, although we have individuals and factions who are empire builders. In our earlier days, washington rejected being enthroned as a king, then john adams wore powdered wigs and flitted about in a royal carriage. Thanks be that t_jeff brought us back down to earth, saving us from emulating our former brit masters, a ". . . political unit having an extensive territory or comprising a number of territories or nations and ruled by a single supreme authority." -- Answers.com

Iraq: A Done Deal Pre-9/11?

2007-08-18T13:02:00.000-07:00

I have seen opinion* to the effect that neocons believe the country (unfortunately, the USA) is at its best while at war.

So which war we're in is irrelevant to them except for whether it is a robust war (takes a licking but keeps on ticking). Afghanistan had a paucity of targets, and anyway chalabi already had gained their assurances on iraq.

Worse, whether or not we win a war is irrelevant to them, because we cannot be in a state of war if we ever define winning.

Therefore, a war against terror centered in a non-country without a functional government is heaven on earth for neocons (a euphemism for war profiteers).

*I will attempt to document (help, anyone?)

“Americans are a warlike people and that we love war . . . What we hate is not casualties but losing.” -- Michael Ledeen (link)

Uncertainty

2007-08-15T14:54:00.000-07:00

"Beware the fallacies into which undisciplined thinkers most easily fall--they are the real distorting prisms of human nature." -- Francis Bacon

"Assuming more order than exists in chaotic nature." -- Francis Bacon

"Our brains are wired for narrative, not statistical uncertainty. And so we tell ourselves simple stories to explain complex things we don't--and, most importantly, can't--know." -- Chris Anderson

Link

Is this the America of which we dream?

2007-08-09T08:48:00.000-07:00

America -- locked down.

In the land of the free, we lock up a greater percentage of our population than any nation. The U.S. prison population has increased 91 percent in the past 15 years. More than 7 million Americans are under some form of state or federal correctional supervision, and this does not include the legions of Americans in county and city facilities. -- Cory Booker

Lightning in a Bottle

2007-07-27T10:59:00.000-07:00

Last night I watched a total surprise on DVD. Lightning in a Bottle (exec producer -- scorcese). It is a live onstage (radio city music hall) documentary of the Blues. It is the best music based movie I have seen since the Buena Vista Social Club. The performers list is astounding -- bb king, buddy guy, the nevilles, bonnie raitt, robert cray, keb mo, natalie cole, india.arie, solomon burke, gregg almond, . . .

Cruelty to animals

2007-07-27T06:35:00.000-07:00

This is an extremely difficult area, even for a libertarian -- perhaps moreso. In the end, I believe the conflict boils down to the individual rights and responsibilities of the owners vs the rights of any free assembly of people to decide and codify what is right or wrong. The evidence is overwhelming that people, in their various governmental schemes, will make cruelty against the law. As long as there is wisdom in implementation, the libertarian has no quarrel with any law given that he can choose to live in or out of its jurisdiction. This does overlook the idea that one onerous law within a collection of good laws may be preferable to a good law among deplorable ones. I think this has more to do with why 1 person will live in l.a. while another lives in kansas than with the distribution of natural and economic resources. See the red states and the blue states.

This is the classic issue where local decisions are best, and the more local the better. This is within bounds, however, as 1 man cannot make himself a governmental unit. So the decision should be pushed down to the level at which the process most closely matches group desires with the consensus of individual sentiment. Then birds of a feather can flock together.

I don't know enough about the michael vick case to say whether he is being held up to local law or to federal strictures. If the former, I am ok with it and its outcome.

As a farmer, I tend toward being the animal lover. My farm is posted, and abounds with turkey, deer, hawks, geese, raccoons, and songbirds by the throngs. I will not kill a deer to save a tomato. As long as I have forage for my horses, the wildlife can eat all they wish. Most of my neighbors are practicing hunters, so when the wildlife overflourishes it is usually taken care of in the vicinity.

It is with sorrow that we bring you this

2007-07-25T12:29:00.000-07:00

Obama Compared To Dukakis; Willie Horton Makes An Appearance by Marc Ambinder

I'm Dumping on the iPhone

2007-07-25T12:11:00.000-07:00

I told you so! Well I didn't really, but I would have if you had asked.

I'm Dumping the iPhone by Chris Case

The telephone world (particularly at&t) has such a disdain for information and usability. I suppose it is because obviously you can sell anything as long as you take plastic. I blame george steinbrenner for this.

Someone who was not standing en queue to buy this stoopid thing said something like, "I just want a phone that doesn't drop calls."

Yeah, folks. Let's get a few gewgaws that do 1 job well, first.

Pat Buchanan on Scooter

2007-07-12T12:04:00.000-07:00

PJB: How Scooter Skated

Forelle's Book Findings

2007-07-10T10:38:00.000-07:00

Playing God: Seven Fateful Moments When Great Men Met to Change the World, by Charles L. Mee.

Mee is a playwright and a historian, among other things, and I found his view and dramatic, descriptive powers to be very useful in re-enacting these events.

I bought the book because of a debate with an intellectual friend about the aftermath of wwii in eastern europe, thus I was focusing on the conference at yalta. It is particulary interesting that Mee subtitled this chapter with reference to the problems of unintended consequences (the inevitability of which is the foundation of the libertarian tendency toward minimalism in government -- and in foreign policy, for that matter).

Not only did the yalta chapter teach me much more about yalta than I expected, each of the other 6 crucial moments were richly rewarding.

The only two quibbles I have are with the sub-title. Being a zeitgeist believer, I don't believe out-of-hand in "great men," even when churchill and roosevelt are involved. Somewhat contradictorily, I don't believe in the idea of "fateful," so much as crucial. And from reading Mee, I believe he would let me edit the sub-title accordingly, once he got to know me better.

Amazon Review Page

Woman Arrested for Not Watering Lawn

2007-07-09T10:38:00.000-07:00

The entire state of utah looks like it hasn't been watered!

Woman Arrested for Not Watering Lawn

Top 50 (or so) Forelle Flicks

2007-07-03T10:44:00.000-07:00

A developing list:
rank, title, (rotten tomotoes %)

Amadeus (97%)
Sling Blade (95%)
Longitude (80%) kf mini-review
No Country for Old Men(94%)
To Kill a Mockingbird (100%)
Seven Samurai (100%)
Breaking Away (94%)
Fargo (92%)
Ghost World (92%)
Pulp Fiction (96%)
L. A. Confidential (98%)
Bang the Drum Slowly (95%)
The General (81) -- severely underrated
The Maltese Falcon (100%)
The Big Sleep (94%)
Silence of the Lambs (95%)
Frida (75%)
Shackleton's Antarctic Adventure (not rated)
Dr. Strangelove (100%)
The Misfits (100%)
Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels (71%) -- severely underrated
Irma La Douce (88%)
Lonesome Dove (100%)
Being John Malkovich (92%)
Ran (95%)
Hi Fi (91%)
Lonely Are the Brave (100%)
It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World (72%)
Some Like It Hot (97%)
The Player (100%)
Risky Business (100%)
The Invasion of the Bodysnatchers (100%)
Gandhi (85%)
Red Rocks West (100%)
Magnolia (86%)
The African Queen (100%)
Hear My Song (91%)
The Gods Must be Crazy (94%)
About Schmidt (85)
Amelie (90%)
House of Flying Daggers (88%)
Raise the Red Lantern (96%)
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (97%)
Once Were Warriors (94%)
Defending Your Life (96%)
Breaker Morant (100%)
The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada (84%)
Cat Ballou (100)
The Unforgiven (96)
The Spanish Prisoner (89)
Psycho (98)
Little Big Man (95)
The Dish (96)
The Informer (89)
The Night of the Iguana (88)
Zorba the Greek (the other movie in the Dr. Strangelove year)
Zulu (100)
About a Boy (94)
Men in Black (90)

Other 100%'ers from Rotten Tomatoes: The Wizard of Oz, The Godfather, Blood Simple, Taxidriver, Apocalypse Now, On the Waterfront, North by Northwest, Airplane!, The Princess Bride, Chinatown, The Birds, Remains of the Day, Cool Hand Luke, Das Boot

Anybody can go with GWTW, Citizen Kain, Lawrence of Arabia, Sound of Music, Clockwork Orange, etc., but they don't need me for their place in the pantheon.

Kucinich - Gravel 2008 . . .

2007-07-03T08:59:00.000-07:00

The landslide winners of the white house after dubya's incredibly ill-considered libby leniency.

Why not? The same kind of deal let jimma carter into the white house.

bush has totally diddled the gop for 2008, which leads me to revisit my suspicion that the racketeers currently in the wh plan on holding it by coup. Occam's Razor: The simplest answer that fits all the facts is most likely to be true.

Note: dubya couldn't even do this on the up-and-up. libby still has a quarter-million dollar fine and a criminal record.

Political Asylum

Another tinkering example

2007-06-22T08:27:00.000-07:00

Given the negative economic and environmental effects of U.S. sugar programs, why do they persist? Because Congress often decides to confer benefits on a favored few at the expense of the general public. In this case, the favored few really are few—about 42 percent of all sugar program benefits go to just 1 percent of sugar growers. These large sugar growers, such as the Fanjuls of Florida, are a notoriously powerful lobbying interest in Washington. Federal supply restrictions have given them monopoly power, and they protect that power by becoming important supporters of presidents, governors, and many members of Congress.
The Washington Post lamented the political corruption caused by the federal “sugar racket.” More than that, sugar policies are a textbook case of economic damage done by big government intervention in the marketplace. -- Chris Edwards

No wonder we're getting pumped full of high fructose corn syrup.

More importantly, this is an excellent example of how a moderate subsidy can end up costing more than 10 times as much at the checkout counter.

Cato Institute Tax & Budget Bulletin

to resist the temptation of tinkering

2007-06-21T10:31:00.000-07:00

Russell Roberts at Cafe Hayek addresses another harebrained scheme produced by the inability of humans to resist the temptation of tinkering. He quarrels, correctly imho, with the following proposal:

Globalization has brought huge overall benefits, but earnings for most U.S. workers -- even those with college degrees -- have been falling recently; inequality is greater now than at any other time in the last 70 years. Whatever the cause, the result has been a surge in protectionism. To save globalization, policymakers must spread its gains more widely. The best way to do that is by redistributing income. -- Kenneth Scheve and Matthew Slaughter

YIKES!

Some of it whacky

2007-06-21T08:53:00.000-07:00

I have a problem with charlatans who steal defense dollars, who are draining the integrity of science and the credibility of our national defense. The linked article:

Pentagon Spends $78 Billion a Year on Weapons and Space Research, Some of it Whacky,

says that about 10 billion (of 78 billion) a year goes to fringe science like "gay bombs" and psychic teleportation.

In her book "Imaginary Weapons," military expert Sharon Weinberger writes that the federal government is spending taxpayer money on war technology at a pace of about $50,000 per second. -- abc news

So the tab for charlatanism is about $6,000 per second! You can buy a lot of bulletproof vests with that.

Today's mixed metaphor

2007-06-14T08:08:00.000-07:00

A caller on npr this morning said, paraphrased, if feinstein and pelosi lived in my neighborhood, they would be singing a different picture.

mixed metaphor -- a combination of two or more metaphors that together produce a ridiculous effect. -- WordNet

My favorite mixed metaphor was when dikembe mutombo described defending against shaquille o'neal as "no walk in the cake."

Mr. Wizard RIP

2007-06-14T07:19:00.000-07:00

Back in the day, I could count the people I knew who had teevees on one hand. I always tried to visit when Mr. Wizard was on.

Read Marty Kaplan's remembrance.

A New Link: Chris Kelly, funny man

2007-06-13T18:29:00.000-07:00

Chris Kelly blogs at Huffington, writes for Bill Maher on Real Time, and is a very funny guy. See today's Make Your Own Bush Speech!

Adios TCP PDF, hola PA

2007-06-13T18:12:00.000-07:00

Last week, the owner of the Cat's Pause site at Rivals.com decided to implode the venerable PDF (political discussion forum) without much of a reason. So a lion's share of the politico rats, myself included, jumped ship. One of our number set up a new board, Political Asylum, 'where the inmates are in charge,' and most of the old crowd moved there.

This is an exceptional bunch from many political persuasions. I am proud to be a charter member, and I welcome any readers of this blog to check it out.

Another reason why big government is not necessary.

2007-06-04T10:15:00.000-07:00

"It was in 1949 that Rothbard first concluded that the free market could provide all services, including police, courts, and defense services better than could the State." The Myth of Lighthouses

Temporary Link to TCP thread as of this posting

On the Road -- Spokane WA

2007-05-22T22:19:00.000-07:00

The Davenport Hotel

On the Road -- Spokane WA

2007-05-21T22:33:00.000-07:00

On the Road -- Spokane WA

2007-05-20T22:49:00.001-07:00

The Enhanced Political Quiz...in 2D

2007-05-20T13:28:00.000-07:00

Here's how I scored on this quiz:

See my assessment write-up.

I disagree somewhat with the "radical" adjective, but will not lose much sleep over it. Even though I happen to be near the north woods today, I am not looking for a compound.

I felt that most of the positions were overstated at the libertarian end, leaving too much uncovered space to the next choice. For example, one question echoed reality; the quizzers have no solution for social security either.

The drug question leaves the same distrust that most critics invoke for libertarians by distorting the position. I do not favor legalization of drugs; I favor instead the removal of laws that we do not intend to enforce, and further I favor a drastic reduction of the fda along with the elimination of a federal role in pharmaceutical protectionism and medical research (excepting perhaps epidemiology).

Also there is a wide gap between the right to bear arms and the sanctioning of military arms. I voted for the complete removal of gun control, but I believe that there will be no legal control of arms the day our government turns against us. And if a foreign sovereign attacks, I cannot envision the US government enforcing any gun laws.

To launch quiz2d, press here.

On the Road -- Spokane WA

2007-05-19T23:03:00.000-07:00

On the Road -- Spokane WA

2007-05-18T14:23:00.000-07:00