Inevitable Result
After the bailout passed and the market kept falling, I argue the problem is government intervention in the economy at all, not too little of it too slowly.
All posts tagged: politics
Sometimes I tag very loosely or obscurely so the link might not be obvious.
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Writing to government representatives
Since sincere letters to Congress get form letters back, I answered Senator Casey’s bailout reply with sarcasm, thanking him for the lovely round number of ten trillion.
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The government as Robin Hood
I start with a thought experiment about who really pays taxes and argue that taxing the rich punishes the productive, since nobody has a right to wealth others must create.
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When no politicians agree with you
Voters pick the candidate who shares one value, then defend the whole platform like sports fans, and I argue that joining a gang this way makes the rest of your ideas a non-factor.
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Politics and reality
Bush’s re-election won’t change my day-to-day life much, so I’ll keep calling my representatives, and here are some loose thoughts on the parties and the next four years.
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Dichotomy
In an election year the false dilemma is everywhere, with anyone who questions the government labeled a traitor or one of THEM, which is no way to convince anybody.
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Federal Regulation
Nothing is so bad it can’t be made worse by federal regulation, and a rule requiring digital cable tuners in TVs does nothing to promote the general welfare the Constitution lists.
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Threat Advisory Questions
I asked the Department of Homeland Security what the Threat Advisory levels mean for citizens, noting that its guidance document returned a 404 and even the 404 page was denied.
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Stupidity, Laziness and Political parties
Voting for whatever candidate your party hands you is laziness, and since people die for the right to vote, I say you owe it to yourself to understand who and what you’re voting for.
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Medical Privacy and the Press
Reporters complain that HIPAA keeps hospitals from handing out patient details after a porch collapse, but I’m all for a law that stops random people claiming to be press from getting my medical information.
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Analysis: Iraq and 911
A pointed analysis passed along by Marcus Ramberg argues the terrorists got America to attack itself, and I half agree while listing recent dumb moves like freedom fries and Ready.gov.
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Voting and thinking of the children
Tonight I had a discussion on voting with Allison. She asked me what it meant. I explained, “It’s like when mommy asks you if you want cereal or toast for breakfast, and when you pick one that is voting for it.” She said, “Or pancakes?” I said, “sure, or picking pancakes over the other choices.” I then added the democratic majority wrinkle. I explained, “If 10 people were asked to vote, and you said you wanted pancakes, but the other 9 wanted toast, then you would all have to have toast.” She said, “I wouldn’t like that.” I said, “Sometimes I don’t like it either.”
Michelle had talked with her earlier about voting and told her about my decision to not vote for any of the Presidential candidates. So she said, “Mommy said you didn’t vote for one.” I told her, “If you had to vote for food, and you had to pick tomatoes or sausage (two things she doesn’t like) which would you pick?” She said, “I wouldn’t vote for either.” And neither did I.
In other news the barbie lamp won in a historic vote, defeating fish by a narrow margin of one vote and “play games on iPhone” defeated “go to sleep now” by a similarly narrow margin.
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“A government of laws, and not of men.” -John Adams This statement rang out loud and clear to me when I saw the Extent of Federal Regulation made concrete, here. What John Adam’s statement makes clear is the essential fact in a proper government that the law must be knowable and objective not subject to arbitrary whims of arbitrary men. This does not mean 25 feet thick of books of regulations, and 6 feet of laws. When both are being added to at a rate of thousands of new laws and regulations per year, you have a situation where it is not possible to know in a single lifetime what is *permissible* action in a *free* society. I do not advocate anarchy, rather objective law. It is impossible to have objective law when every action could require months or years of research to determine if it is punishable by the state. This of course is only the Federal regulations. Every state and town has their own collections of law books. The solution, stop and repeal. The obvious starting point for repeal is any and all regulations that handcuff industry. And stop all of the regulation mills. There are many government agencies that issue *Rules*. Congress has delegated it’s law making responsibility to faceless, nameless, and unaccountable bureaucrats.
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2008 Election Essentials
Dr. Leonard Peikoff, friend and intellectual heir to Ayn Rand, publishes a podcast approximately every other week. Despite the fact that he generally refuses to talk publicly about narrow political questions, he took some time in his October 20 podcast to discuss the current batch of candidates. He managed in a few sentences to say the obvious about each of the candidates in a way that would be funny if one of these gangs wouldn’t be the head of the Executive branch of the United States of America on January 20th. > I think McCain comes across as a tired moron. Obama as a lying phony. Biden as an enjoyably hilarious windbag. And Sarah Palin as an opportunist struggling to learn how to become a moron a phony and a windbag.
He gave some additional brief commentary as to why none of the Presidential candidates is fit to take office. If you think there is still some reason to choose one over the other but aren’t sure which you may want to listen, it could give starting points for further investigation.
I decided some time ago that I will not vote for any presidential candidate. It was with that decision in mind that Dr. Peikoff’s statement takes on a tragic humor and does cause me a brief chuckle.
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Parody vs Real Life
I defy you to explain to me the difference between Barack Obama’s sentiment, “We may not agree on abortion, but surely we can agree on reducing the number of unwanted pregnancies in this country.” And the one uttered by Kang in Treehouse of Horror VII, “Abortions for some, miniature American flags for others.” American politics is not even trying to hide the fact that their words are absolutely meaningless and they are just trying to unlock the right combination to get elected. Playing a high stakes crossword puzzle.
By the way, please don’t interpret this as support for the Republicans. Their allegiance with the Religious Right is an outright attack on the first amendment and until they renounce this partnership I cannot even consider supporting their candidates.
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So unless you have been living under a rock somewhere you know it is frowned upon to bring a knife onto an airplane. You also probably know that they have a little lottery to decide if a passenger gets an extra special screening by the TSA. Well I sometimes carry a Swiss Army Knife that was a Christmas Gift from my Aunt Judy, Uncle Dom and Niko. I carry it in my backpack that I use to carry my laptop and what at times is a huge collection of electronics gear (usb drive, ipod, travel alarm clock, headphones, airline headphones, usb mouse, cell phone, wireless pcmcia card, laser pointer pen.) Well I flew out of PHL today and the gear bag was at full capacity. And I won the TSA lottery for extra inspection.
Of course I don’t know the knife is in there. And it turns out they don’t either, even though I noticed the TSA worker looking quizically at my USB drive, and checking out my ipod. It wasn’t until I was talking to Michelle a few minutes ago that I noticed the knife while I was looking for my cell phone charger.
Dammit. I have at least 3 more airplanes to get on. And to pass TSA security at least twice more. A knife has to light up like a christmas tree on the XRay machine, otherwise why the hell is the xray machine there. I could check my bag. What a PITA, especially since my original 2 flights and 1 of my subsequent flights were cancelled today. Where would my laptop end up?
So I decide to try the “At your service” line at the Marriot I am staying in. Well they hook it up, a fedex envelope is filled out and set to be shipped back toward my home, for hopefully not too much money. Now I can avoid becoming a mainstay on the terrorist watch list, or avoid further disgust and embarssment as my tax dollars at work to protect the airways continue to miss finding a knife in my bag.
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Early and Often
I was finalizing some research for my vote tomorrow morning, and I noticed that the vote-smart site didn’t seem to have all the Pennsylvania races that are of interest to me. So I found that congress.org seems to have some more complete listings. So I am looking at PA attorney general, auditor general and state treasurer tonight. I also found that the League of Women Voters has a nice 2 page PA statewide voters guide that gives a good summary of all the major races.
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Where to Vote
Find out where you are supposed to go to vote at MyPollingPlace.com. It’d be a real shame if you went to vote-smart and did all of your research, and made sure you were registered, and then didn’t know where to go.
Heck just read this whole thing. It tells you what to do if you know you are in the right place and you aren’t being permitted to vote for some reason. Basically you can still cast a provisional ballot.
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Office Importance
Since the election talk is on the minds of many and there is so much focus on the office of the President, everyone please make sure and do a little research on the other important governmental offices. I had a conversation with Mike about which office on the upcoming ballot is the most important to an individual, his argument succinctly stated is “Your representatives in the U.S. House and Senate are exactly that, your direct representatives.” It is important to try and understand all the offices and questions you may have on your ballot. So go to vote-smart.org find out who is on your ballot and do enough research to help you make a decision.
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Rhetoric 101
Background: My brother, Tom, is teaching a college freshman rhetoric course and has recently shown Farhenheit 9/11 in his class and apparently asked for some sort of reaction paper to be written. There also was a paper comparing the rhetorical techniques of Gandhi and Malcom X. Seen in Tom’s away message:
In grading student papers over the weekend, I’ve learned the following:
- It’s not fair to remove a president from office before he finishes a war he’s started.
- The war on Iraq was unjust, the president doesn’t seem qualified, and the facts presented in “Fahrenheit 9/11” are disturbing, but it’s unpatriotic to question the president and wrong to vote against him.
- Gandhi was a “coward and a suck-up” and “soft”
- During the 1960s, “some slavery” was beginning to be abolished.
- Americans never get to hear Bush’s side of the story
- Direct quotes: “you are a liar” (to me), and “Michael Moore can eat *&@!”
- Gandhi is more like a “Care Bear” than Malcolm X
- It’s “fucking awesome” that Bush was a cocaine addict and alcoholic
Those are the building blocks of some fine arguments.
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No Fact left behind
I am sure many of you checked out all or part of the debates. And if you are like me you often wondered if some of the exact, very conveniently round figures that were thrown out by the candidates resembled in any way the truth. Well it seems there is a seemingly good resource on the Internet for that analysis: FactCheck.org. So it seems Bush does own a timber company.
Not that it matters much, but at least there are some other things there that we can review and look for a kernel or two of truth.
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Terror Threats
Well I am glad I stumbled upon Schneier’s blog today, it gave me some lunchtime reading material, and I found he recently wrote on a topic I have had interest in and displayed scorn for, DHS terror alerts. I published a cynical email I sent to the DHS back in April of this year. And so Bruce Schneier’s blog entry from a couple days ago: Do Terror Alerts Work? obviously struck a chord with me. Not only because his essay echos my sentiment, but because he is a respected security expert who does a good job of analyzing the terror alert system and the current government misuse of them. Sure it’s a bit long and obviously not as profound ;-) as my letter, but I certainly think it is worth a read and some consideration, and even a few emails to your congress critters to let them know that if it really is simply a choice between political CYA alerts or a new pair a shoes, that you would prefer to opt out of paying Tom Ridge’s salary and head right to the nearest cobbler’s shop. Of course we could always have them keep the tax dollars, since they already have them, and do something that would actually be effective in providing for the security of the homeland.
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Register to vote, win cash!
Hey everyone, exercise your right to vote, do not disenfranchise yourself. People in the short but storied history of the US have given their lives for the right to vote, so exercise it. Please go sign up to vote, to do so, go here and click on the Rock the Vote link. This is part of a contest that the guys from HotOrNot.org are running, apparently they want to get people to vote, and drum up publicity for themselves. So I got suckered in, why not? So while you are on that page sign up to win 100K, if you use my referal link and win, then I will win 100K also. I signed up a couple weeks ago, I haven’t gotten any spam as a result, therefore feel free. Plus money is good. Register at VoteOrNot.org. If people actually use my link I’ll post back here about how many people I ended up referring. Plus after you sign up, you will get your own referal page you can use to have other people sign up and increase your chances of winning.
But if you don’t want to participate in that, at least register to vote in the general election and do it.
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Reclaim the Public Domain
Go read and sign the petition to ensure a rich, diverse public domain.
Saw it at Freedom to Tinker
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Freedom and Justicefiles.org
Those of you who are busily consuming your Soma in large doses will be happy to know that despite your indifference to the political and legal make-up of a great Nation, a blow has been struck for freedom. It did not involve bombings or potentially staged rescues. It invovled a dull legal battle for free speech. The content of Federal District Court Judge Cougenour’s decision can be found here. An excerpt I found particularly poignant follows:
However, we live in a democratic society founded on fundamental constitutional principles. In this society, we do not quash fear by increasing government power, proscribing those constitutional principles, and silencing those speakers of whom the majority disapproves. Rather, as Justice Harlan eloquently explained, the First Amendment demands that we confront those speakers with superior ideas …
By the way, if you are interested in following this type of information more closely, check out Declan McCullagh’s Politech, very high signal to noise ratio mailing list, on politics relevant to technology.
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Monkey Business
None of that biased, lying, garbage on Fox or CNN is news, this is:
Green Bay police are on the lookout for a monkey named Jasper, who they say isn’t armed but might be dangerous. Jasper dashed out the back door of a tavern where he and his owner are regulars, Lt. Mark Hellmann said Monday. Hellmann described Jasper as small, dark and hairy, but didn’t know what species he is. The police department’s humane officer said Jasper may try to harm people if he’s scared and advised anyone who sees him use caution.
Since the war is over, we might as well pass around the soma and get back to our happiness.
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Reasons behind the invasion
This article, in the form of a conversation, A warmonger explains war to a peacenik, summarizes my view on the lack of justification for Operation Iraqi Freedom.
Luckily I was able to come across this article to this using my freedom-computer on the freedom-internet, looking at WWDN. Time to get back to some freedom-work for my freedom-job.
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Biff from Back to the Future
So Andrew Carlssin is arrested and being held for Insider Trading. Kind of like when 1955 Biff got his hands on that sports almanac. Of course I know it is the Weekly World News supermarket tabloid. But I still think its funny.
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Commander in Chief
The oath of office:
I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my Ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.
Yesterday: cnn.com:
At 10:15 p.m., Bush gave his address to the nation. “On my orders, coalition forces have begun striking selected targets of military importance to undermine Saddam Hussein’s ability to wage war,” he said.
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At the White House, officials said that just before Bush addressed the nation, he pumped his fist, winked, and said “I feel good.” He then delivered his address, which lasted four minutes.
The man enjoy’s his work.
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DMCA
Here Rich Kulawiecis gives an interesting, and probably highly accurate, interpretation of why some of the major players in the software industry oppose some of the suggested restructuring of the DMCA.
If that kind of stuff is interesting to you, contribute to the Electroninc Frontier Foundation and you’ll certainly find Declan McCullagh’s Politech interesting reading.
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Ready.gov humor
In the event of a nuclear explosion, drive around it.
The current regime’s terrorist propoganda has spawned the FUD promoting site Ready.gov. Fear mongering at its best.
Luckily there are great generic images there that have been appropriated for the purposes of comedy. Apparently adding new captions is highly entertaining and fun. You can see a bunch of this at the Internet Infidels Discussion.
Thankfully there is the Crackmonkey list, or I might never have seen this. And then where would we be?