Sometimes...
...Ya jus' gotta go to war in the unnerwear ya got on.
--Dolly
The Cloud Observatory
Thursday, January 19, 2012
Observation 26 (New Series)...
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Thursday, January 19, 2012
Snow Day...
NOT THAT WE'LL BE off school, or anything, or even that there'll be much accumulation, (though in a city where half the streets have a 50% grade or better, it doesn't take much slick stuff to screw with traffic), just that it's supposed to snow most of the day. Fun to watch.
Mark Philip Alger
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The Cloud Observatory
Wednesday, January 18, 2012
Observation 25 (New Series)...
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Wednesday, January 18, 2012
Spotted at Random...
NOT QUITE SURE where or who: (If it's yours, claim it. We'll credit you.)
Facebook: "I know everybody!"
Google: "I know everything!"
Internet: "Without me, you're all nothing!"
Electricity: "Keep talking, bitches."
Mark Philip Alger
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Wednesday, January 18, 2012
Post Apocalypto...
POINT ONE: You won't survive it.
Glenn Beck has been on a prepper tear for the past however many years. He's talking about what you have to do to survive the collapse of civilization.
Here's a pro tip for you -- from somebody who's been thinking about the post-apocalypse for half a century:
You won't survive it.
It doesn't matter how well you think you've prepared: how much ammunition you've lain in; how many crops you have un-modified seeds for; how much gold specie you've bought and buried in Mason jars in your back yard; how far from your neighbors your house is; how independent your water supply.
You. Aren't. Prepared.
You can't prepare for this. And I see trying to prepare for it as a species of betrayal. The only way YOU will survive, the only way your family will survive, the only way your nation, your species will survive is for CIVILIZATION to survive.
Don't. Give. Up. Quit digging your private cave. Do your part to preserve Civilization.
Mark Philip Alger
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Wednesday, January 18, 2012
Not Only is the Answer “Yes”...
IT OUGHT TO BE, well... HELL yes!
You can't get a much-clearer statement of Original Intent than, "We consider these truths to be self-evident..."
So the question, "Does the Ninth Amendment protect economic liberty?" borders on stupid.
The answer is, "It's supposed to." But these days, the statists in and out of government trample on the Constitution like it was a doormat and it was raining out.
What's next when you can't rely on the government to obey the law?
Mark Philip Alger
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Wednesday, January 18, 2012
SOPA/PIPA...
SO WE THE LITTLE people won this round. Ever fear; they'll be back. Keep your powder dry. Keep an especial eye on those freedom-of associations such as MPAA and RIAA which can oh-so-easily turn into criminal conspiracies against civil rights. It is unfortunate that this is an acutal legitimate function of government, or I'd be calling for the banning of copyright and patent. However, I do firmly believe that both should inhere only to the individuals who create original works, and that ownership rights should pass to corporate entities of any stripe with only stringent limitations on their exercise by those entities.
No, I don't have a list ready to hand, so don't ask. Just... There need to be limits. Here's one -- subject to modification and extension -- the ownership of Mickey Mouse should go to Ub Iwerks and Walt Disney, and NOT the Disney corporation. The exercise of those ownership rights, if passed to the corporation, should expire just as though they had been personally retained by Mickey's actual creators.
On the other hand, I would question anyone's attempts to use Mickey in a work and then claim copyright. If you directly use a public domain work in your work, that work cannot be considered original, and is therefore not copyrightable. Take that, samplers!
But, back to the original subject. We need to kill this and make sure it doesn't come back zombie-like in some omnibus defense appropriations nightmare. I have no idea how, except just avalanching the legislators with letters, phone calls, and emails any time they try and voting out of office the miscreants of EITHER party who bring it up.
Of course, there's a long list of things we should do that on, and the criminals keep getting away with it -- witness the fact that Chuck Schumer is still alive, let alone holding down a Senate seat.
Mark Philip Alger
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The Cloud Observatory
Tuesday, January 17, 2012
Observation 24 (New Series)...
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Tuesday, January 17, 2012
Leaning…...
WARTS AND ALL
If the name of the game is "Anybody But Obama" (ABO), and Obama loses in a landslide to a generic Republican...
You can't get much more generic than Mitt Romney.
Hoo-hoo-hoo.
Well...?
And a syphlitic camel is preferable to Obama...
You're not!
No. I'm not. But we've been bitching for decades that we wanted candidates and officeholders to stand up and speak truth to abused power. Here's Newt doing it -- on however limited a basis. Don't we owe at least some support? Not saying I'll still feel this way on Super Tuesday. But, for the moment...
Mark Philip Alger
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Tuesday, January 17, 2012
Hey, Lamar Smith!...
(R-HOLLYWOOD) I do my own stunts.
Well... Looks more like you do somebody else's.
Nah. No stand-in for the star in this movie. Just somebody else's script.
Also stunting:
And many, many more. And yet, Insty reports that Lamar Smith is pressing ahead with the bill. As Glenn says, Smith must be an honest politician -- when he's bought, he stays bought.
Mark Philip Alger
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The Cloud Observatory
Monday, January 16, 2012
Observation 23 (New Series)...
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Monday, January 16, 2012
About Romney...
RUSH'S CALLER JOANNE from Texas, (in the second hour Monday), missed on one point -- one I consider essential. The reason conservative voters don't trust Romney is that he appears to have no principles. Every position he takes seems to have been come by because it might sell well, not because it's what he really believes. Experience tells us people like that are squishes. And when the shit hits the fan, they have a tendency to compress where pressured like a water balloon or a tube of toothpaste.
And then there's Newt, who appears to have principles, but the wrong ones.
Mark Philip Alger
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The Cloud Observatory
Sunday, January 15, 2012
Observation 22 (New Series)...
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Sunday, January 15, 2012
Quote of the Day...
Ultimately, I move closer to the opinion that people on the Left are not playing with a full deck.
--Smitty at The Other McCain
Mark Philip Alger
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Sunday, January 15, 2012
Moral Poseurs...
DANS LE PISSOIR. Heh. Vraiment!
Mark Philip Alger
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Sunday, January 15, 2012
If I Were Supreme Judge...
OF THE BEHAVIOR OF the government under the Constitution, there would be a whole lot of unhappy politicians. I'd be "Bailiff! Whack his pee-pee!"* Left and Right.
About the whole recess appointment power grab. The Constitution says, in relevant part:
"The President shall have power to fill up all vacancies that may happen during the recess of the Senate, by granting commissions which shall expire at the end of the next session."
Please take note of the phrase "that may happen". You gonna tell me that the post now allegedly filled by (former Ohio Attorney General) Richard Cordray just happened to come vacant in the three days you claim the Senate was in recess, (when, in fact, and by law, it could not have been)? Just happened to come vacant just right then.
'Cause that's what the Constitution says has to happen. That's the only exception to the "advice and consent" thing.
*Pop culture reference fer ya, there.
Mark Philip Alger
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Saturday, January 14, 2012
That’s Not a Car...
THAT'S a fetish.
Mark Philip Alger
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Saturday, January 14, 2012
Talk About Your Knee-Jerk Reactions...
SAW AN AD AT INSTY'S (funny how all those Left orgs aren't too proud to support an opposition site if it has a lot of eyeballs). The ad asks you to sign a petition. Dunno the subject. It's not relevant to my point. The ad said this is an initiative of Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH) -- my other Senator. The one who manages to do, support, espouse, and believe nearly the opposite of everything I'm for. So I'm wondering: where's the site to sign the petition opposing whatever it is Brown is selling?
I like the modesty of putting your own face on a postage stamp.
When have you ever known a politician bereft of hubris? Just running for office ought to beg the wrath of the gods.
There is that.
Mark Philip Alger
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Saturday, January 14, 2012
Tough Getting By...
IN THIS ECONOMY, innit? Of course, you do realize that the reason the economy is in the state it is is because of control freaks in the government -- they live to mess with your life ... because they can -- dicking with economic controls they shouldn't have their hands on or anywhere near, don't you?
In fact, it would be more accurate to say, "It's tough getting by with this government." Safe to say, if we had a different government, the economy COULD (at least) be better. The way things are right now, there's no chance.
Mark Philip Alger
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Saturday, January 14, 2012
Does Anybody Besides Me Think...
THAT WHEN (AND IF) they find those Marines who pissed on Taliban corpses that they ought to give them a medal and a parade?
(If they did it.)
And tell Hillary Clinton to get on her broomstick and fly away.
What if they didn't really do it, but only mimed doing it?
Sort of like the cover of Who's Next?
Yeah. Just like that.
Same thing: medal; parade.
Mark Philip Alger
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Thursday, January 12, 2012
Advice Not Just for Romney...
AS DA INSTANTER ONE advises in his post, but for every single, solitary Republican candidate and officeholder. And voter and constituent. Ask them: why haven't you been doing this all along? Why is not "job-killer government" as ubiquitous a phrase as "extreme right wing"? Make them defend their policies.
If anything is keeping Mr. Newt from sinking beneath the waves, it is that people who actually listen to him -- as opposed to reacting to media reports (when will they ever learn) -- deeply appreciate that here, at long last, is a politician who will speak the truth about government abuses of power and damn the consequences. To hell with "reaching across the aisle" with anything but a hard-swung cricket bat. Those people are traitors and wreckers and are deliberately trying to destroy America. Put them on the defensive.
Insty's correspondent uses a phrase that resonates -- "downright belligerent." I say, "Damned right!"
DAMNED RIGHT BELLIGERENT.
Sounds like a bumper sticker.
Mark Philip Alger
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Thursday, January 12, 2012
Just a Reminder...
AS BEFORE if you spam the comments, your comment will be deleted -- probably before anybody can read it. (We get fewer than 1,000 visits a day; it's really easy to police comments faster than new visitors arrive.) And now, we have further incentive. If you spam comments, your membership will be deleted and your IP address banned. And, since you won't be a member in good standing, you won't receive the free copy of It's Dolly's Birthday that will go to every member in good standing when we publish. So behave yourselves.
That doesn't mean the rest of you shouldn't dive in and get a little chatter going on out there. Consider this an open thread.
Hey! Battah, Battah, Battah, Battah, Battah, Battah, suh-WING!
Mark Philip Alger
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Wednesday, January 11, 2012
Wrong Center...
IT SEEMS TO ME that the relentless calls from Left and Right for candidates (and, by extension, voters) must move to "the center" engages in a species of category error in that it mis-identifies the center. In order to find the center of American politics, one must start from the grand concept of our founding -- embodied in the Constitution. Liberty. Individual rights and responsibilities. This is the center. And, it seems to me, that BOTH parties are flung out far to the Left of this, and that, therefor, constantly trying to find a chimerical "center" between the two misses the point. Nor are "moderates" or "independents" seeking a political solution in that mythical region between the two poles. They are objecting to the whole concept of there BEING a solution to be found there.
Mark Philip Alger
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Tuesday, January 10, 2012
Chuckle of the Day...
I prefer Ru Paul.
--Toni Alger (reacting to
election news)
Can you tell Mama is apolitical?
Mark Philip Alger
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Tuesday, January 10, 2012
Oh, Holy Crap...
VODKAPUNDIT is ten years old. I just woke up and realized, "HFS! It's 2012!" I'll have been blogging ten years come some day in April (24th, I think.) Of course, Stephen has a lot more to show for it than I do. That liver! Thanks for the mentions along the way.
Oh. Right. It says so up there on the right. April 21, 2002.
Yes, we're going to a party, party. Yes, we're going to a party, party. BIRTH-day... Git-tar!
I think at that point in the song, it's actually piano. ::sings:: I would like you do dance - BIRTHday. Take a cha-cha-cha-chance!
WHAT. EV-errrr.
But with piano. That Blüthner concert grand.
Mark Philip Alger
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Monday, January 09, 2012
Kitten Break...
To!
Mark Philip Alger
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Sunday, January 08, 2012
Begging Off Again...
GOT NOTHING TO SAY The weekend was a washout. Spent most of the time sleeping or falling asleep. Made some progress on the novel, but didn't get nearly the dwell time I wanted on it. Got some alpha feedback that helps a lot. (Thank you, J!) Got my head straightened out on several other things and all, but still -- sleep.
And, OK, I'm frigging shocked ... the word count now stands at 59,000, which means 8-9K since Thursday, so the weekend wasn't SO much of a wipeout as I thought. I might even tell the folks on the FB group.
Meantime, I never got around to pre-loading a month's-worth of Cloud Observatories, so those aren't happening. Sorry. And, except for the insensitive dicks at MSNBC who took after Rick Santorum over his wife's miscarriage...
Yaknow, it kind of reinforces Our Curmudgeon's thing on Friday. You know: where he argues that people who embrace evil ideas are evil people. The dicks at MSNBC have embraced the whole collectivist ideology, with its murderous, enslaving behaviors and its hatred of mankind. So it kind of follows that they'd be insensitive dicks on top of that.
And it makes me wonder if we might succeed after all in persuading genuinely good-hearted liberals -- some of them any way -- that they're backing the wrong horse, that the Left is not going to make the world a better place for all humanity. Far from it. Maybe we already are. How would you know?
Anyways. Time for me to bed. Say, "Good Night", Gracie.
Good night, Gracie.
Good night, Dolly.
Mark Philip Alger
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Friday, January 06, 2012
Why Do People...
SPAM TWITTER? It doesn't make sense!
Mark Philip Alger
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Friday, January 06, 2012
I Am So Glad Gerard Van Der Leun...
IS ON OUR SIDE because -- check it out -- our side. But still, he's dead wrong when he follows the herd and engages in some Maoist self-criticism. He makes the same mistake that so many Boomer Bashers do in assuming that the darlings of the partisan press in the '60s represented even a plurality, let alone a majority of the Boomer generation. Not all of us believed in the anti-Americanism, the nihilism, the sex-drugs-and-rock-and-roll... Well, OK. That last one.
It is instructive to remember that the hippies were into rugged independence and self-reliance, but that the portrait of the type shown the country by the media were a bunch of stoner johnnies-come-lately who ended up on San Francisco welfare rolls while the actual hippies were on farms, learning how to live on the land -- albeit the hard way.
It is instructive to remember that there were far more volunteers fighting in Vietnam than there ever were occupying the Admin Building at Columbia.
It is instructive to remember that Rush Limbaugh has an audience of 20 Million while Air America is -- well -- off the air.
It is instructive to remember that libertarians are Boomers. And Republicans are Boomers. And that the traitors and socialists -- even from back in the '60s are Depression and War Babies.
Yes, there are socialist Boomers. Is Gen-X immune?
It is unbecoming for people putatively principled on such subjects as individual rights, individual responsibility -- rugged individualism -- to insist on collective guilt of a group solely on the basis of their birth date. (Gee! Sound like Heinlein much?)
Tired of the Boomer Bashing. So bored. How about taking responsibility for your own actions, rather than blaming somebody else -- especially the wrong somebody else? How about, to borrow a phrase from the '60s, you do your own thing. IOW: Mind Your Own Business.
No. Really. Mind your business.
Mark Philip Alger
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Friday, January 06, 2012
Ron Paul Says...
ASK YOURSELF, "Why do they hate us?"
I have.
Answer: "You came to our country 500 years ago and you NEVER LEFT!"
What.The.Fuck.
I would point out that "your country" was a Christian country for 600 years before Islam ever came along. And a Jewish one for a thousand years before that.
So where DO you get off bitching about people in "your" country?
You tried to conquer the world. Made it to Tours. Made it to the gates of Vienna. We kicked your ass. You keep stirring shit. We keep kicking your ass. Try either changing your tactics or... STAY DOWN! Or we kick-a-you-ass AGAIN.
To quote myself -- to some controversy -- capisce?
Mark Philip Alger
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Friday, January 06, 2012
Smokers are Less...
PRODUCTIVE BECAUSE they take more breaks. Read: We can screw the non-smokers out of their breaks easier.
Mark Philip Alger
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Friday, January 06, 2012
Software Gripe...
I HAVE SEVERAL PET PEEVES about software design. For example, I believe that there should be a law requiring -- on pain of death for the programmer responsible for documentation -- that any computer program should include in its embedded help (not in a separate file or a third-party book or a knowledge base article) a simple, clear, and relevant explanation of every error message the program can throw.
Here lately, I have been being aggravated by two seemingly universal behaviors -- unresponsive interfaces and taking over the focus ininvited.
Why should a program ever lock up? Why does not clicking the "Close Window" button not close the window like turning off a light switch -- immediately?
Because the offending program or segment or component has taken over all CPU cycles. In a world and an age of multi-core processors, multi-threaded, massively parallel, gigahertz-speed front end busses ... there is no excuse for any program not responding immediately to user input. And if the user input is nonsensical or repetetive, it should be trapped and an error message thrown. (See above.)
This locking up thing is just a symptom of junky code.
Yes, I'm looking at YOU, Opera. No reason for a Web browser to take up 100% of CPU cycles and 2 GB of RAM. None. Fix that, whatever it is.
But Miscrosoft is not to be excused. I don't care how big a database file is, or how fragmented the index, (And why doesn't the damned system defrag its own files on the fly? See above about abundant resources.), if the total number of BYTES in the file is exceed by a factor of >1 by free RAM, there should be no delay except the transfer rate from the disk. This whole booshwah of taking three minutes to load a 2GB InBox file (which is only 2GB by grace of a program bug in the first place) is... well, booshwah.
And, even so, why can't I load and read ONE eMail message while the rest loads? Hmmm?
And, then there's this thing of taking over the foreground focus. If I start a program and then switch the focus to another while that one loads (remember, this is MY computer), why in HELL does the program in the background have to take over the foreground at seemingly random checkpoints in its load routine?
This is a behavior that was a whole lot more understandable in the old days of limited resources (1MB RAM, anybody?) than in these modern times. It's rude. It's unforgiveable. Stop it!
A couple of big ruler whacks across the knuckles to programmers of commercial software.
Mark Philip Alger
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Thursday, January 05, 2012
Another Cogent, On-Point Post...
FROM KRIS RUSCH in her The Business Rusch series.
People, LISTEN. This is no amateur pundit or wannabe author. This is a seasoned pro, making this WORK.
So, you indie writers who’ve self published, you’re feeling pretty smug right now, aren’t you? You’ve read this post, you’re thinking, I’m glad I didn’t walk down that road.
And yet, how many of you have novels selling for 99 cents? How many of you have all of your novels priced at 99 cents? How many of you have a novel up for free somewhere, even though you’ve published fewer than ten novels? How many of you have nothing priced over $1.99? $2.99?
How many of you fled all of the other e-publishing platforms so that you could be in the Kindle Select program, just because they give you five days when you can market your book for free?
In some ways, you guys are much worse than the traditional writers. You have no vision and no understanding of business. Most of you are running around the internet, promoting your one novel, following some kind of crazy Get Rich Quick scheme. According to Michael Cader’s figures, only 20 self-published ebook authors made the bestseller lists in 2011. Only 20, out of the hundreds of thousands published.
You’re gambling on a wave that won’t ever reach you, wasting all your energy on one or two or three books rather than doing the one thing that will guarantee you more readers: Writing (and publishing) the next book.
And even if you’re one of the fortunate few for whom lightning does strike with your 99 cent ebook, you won’t make much money. The bestselling ebook published in 2011 was by a self-published author, Darcie Chan. Her Mill River Recluse sold 413,000 units at 99 cents, which means she made roughly one-third of that (because under $2.99, most e-book sites only pay 35% or less). In other words, she made about $143,000. Not bad.
But if she had priced at $2.99, and sold half of those 413,000 units, she would have made around $432,000. (206,500 units times $2.99 times 70%)
Here’s the thing: If the book is good—and clearly that one is or it wouldn’t have sold that well—it would eventually have sold 413,000 copies or more, and Darcie Chan would have made a lot more money. She’s a news story, and the darling of the Kindle Boards right now, but her wave will dissipate, especially if she doesn’t publish another book soon. Anyone see Amanda Hocking on any bestseller lists lately?
Most books—whether traditionally published or not—never ever ever even sniff at a bestseller list of any kind. To pursue that as your goal is like trying to win the lottery. You’re better off writing the next book, getting a lot of books out there and making money on all of those books over time.
RTWT.
Mark Philip Alger
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Thursday, January 05, 2012
Repeat Until It Soaks In...
CATASTROPHIC ANTHROPOGENIC GLOBAL WARMING HAS BEEN DEBUNKED. Falsififed. It is an un-theory. (It never was a proper theory, but never mind.) Therefor, all -- ALL -- public policy prescriptions based on the fallacious conjecture that the burning of hydrocarbon fuels may cause or contribute to CAGW are initiated in bad faith. Do not accept any arguments in favor, they are founded on false premises. People who insist on doing things for reasons founded in "global warming" or "greenhouse gases" may be assumed to be rent-seeking wreckers. Fight them on all fronts with all vigor, to paraphrase Teh Won's Mentors and Inspirations.
Sheesh!
Mark Philip Alger
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Thursday, January 05, 2012
I Tend to Be An Absolutist...
WHEN IT COMES TO LIBERTY. To me, the concept of a compelling public interest (read: state interest) is -- or ought to be -- an anathema to a free people. So long as there is no damage done by one citizen to another, the bright line between individual rights and the power of the state should be treated as though it were an unbreachable force field. Crossing it: not an option. No sovereign immunity. Civil penalties, Hell! Criminal penalties. Throw the book at 'em.
(In a nation where the individual citizen is sovereign, how does the doctrine of sovereign immunity for public officials hold sway?)
There is a case wending its way through the courts wherein investigators for the state "believe" evidence of guilt may be hidden behind an encrypted password-protected screen saver (or similarly-constructed system). The owner of the password refuses to divulge on Fifth Amendment grounds -- arguing the password is protected as testimony perhaps tending to incriminate.
I say, "Stop right there."
The mere assertion of the right, according to the Ninth Amendment:
The enumeration in the Constitution of certain rights shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.
...is -- or ought to be -- dispositive. You name it; you own it. The agents of the state shall not force self-incriminating testimony for any reason whatsoever, on pain of civil and criminal penalties. No immunity.
Now, waitjustadamnedminnit, Alger! That would make it impossible for police to do their jobs. You could never prove anything in court.
Except on the basis of eyewitness testimony. Yes.
And you don't see the problem with this?
What? That the burden of proof be on the state? Seems to me the balance has tipped too long, too far in the other direction. Just bringing things back to center.
In the case mentioned above, the agents of the state are arguing an analogy (read: weasel-wording the law) that the state has been permitted in the past to compel the surrender of a key to a locked file cabinet and how is this different?
And I say, echoing Dolly above, nowwaitjustadamnedminnit! Let's look at this the other way. Stipulating the analogy between a password and a key to a file cabinet for a moment, let us ask this question:
HOW IN THE HELL IS COMPELLING THE SURRENDER OF A KEY NOT A VIOLATION OF THE FIFTH AMENDMENT?
Hmmm? Weasel-word THAT.
(And, no, I do not accept precedent as a "because" reason. Ever.)
Cross-posted at Eternity Road.
Mark Philip Alger
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Thursday, January 05, 2012
John McCain Has Endorsed Mitt Romney...
THAT'S OK. At this stage in the '08 election, I wasn't for McCain then, either. Same shit, different election cycle.
Mark Philip Alger
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Wednesday, January 04, 2012
Been Rather Distracted of Late...
AND THINGS AREN'T GOING the way I want them to around here. Hope that will change.
I haven't done Cloud Observatory or Pix posts this week. Since today is Thursday, I figure this week is blown. I'll pick up next Monday. I'd like to get a month ahead. I used to do that.
Progress on It's Dolly's Birthday has slown to a snail's pace.
I have broken 50K. But still it seems the end is receding ever farther from my grasp. I've become dissatisfied with the gradually escalating nature of Dolly's jeopardy. As in, it isn't. Each one seems to be a disjointed body part, and not incorporated into a whole. There's no gradually rising tension in them. It's not in my telling, so far as I can see, but in the actual nature of the jeopardy as I conceive it. Oh, they're all jeopardish and stuff enough, but I'm not doing the setup, the delivery, the punch line right. Needs work.
I've jiggered the ending. Apocrypha stories in first draft have traditionally had a happy ending: Dolly goes home with Drummond and they live and love happily ever after. Until the next time. This is a pattern I think I want to break. Each story will have a different heartbreak at the end. This is another thing that's a great idea, but requires excellent execution. I'm having a crisis of confidence on that score here.
And finally, there's the actual structure of the story itself. I've got it laid out so that it braids the threads among Dolly, Drummond, and Pete (Dolly's sidekick). As Dolly gets more stage time than the other two, her segments/scenes are longer and more numerous than the others. I'm beginning to think that, instead of braiding, I should be blocking. With Scrivener, it's easy enough to do, Just set up a separate arrangment and change the order. But there's a lot of implications that crop up along the way. I'm having trees-eclipsing-forest problems at the moment. I can work through it, but it's frustrating.
Meantime, Alphas have the first "half" and I'm not wanting to jog elbows, but really am starved for feedback. ::sigh::
Mark Philip Alger
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Wednesday, January 04, 2012
In a Word, YES...
THE PRESIDENT ASKS does anyone think that the reason we're in this mess is too much government regulation?
Well, for certain specific values of too much, in a word, Yes. To me, "too much" == "any," but then, I'm a bomb-throwing radical extremist.
But, perhaps, as usual, he seeks to distract you from the reality of the situation by asking the wrong question. It's not too much or too little, but the wrong kind. In coercing businesses to do things that are contrary to their purpose, operate to their detriments, and do not serve their owners, after all, the real indictment comes in the question, "Why are you doing that at all?" not in "Are you doing too little/too much of that?"
BTW: does anybody but me consider it fighting words when Chuckie Schumer uses the phrase "extreme right wing" with a sneer in his voice?
Mark Philip Alger
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Wednesday, January 04, 2012
Government or...
UNIONS? Glenn Reynolds slugs his item linking to this post about the decline of the California prison system GOVERNMENT. But a more apposite slug would be UNIONS.
People can be misled by their compassionate hearts and come to believe that the use of a corrupt tool in the amelioration of misery brought on by imprudence will not corrupt that compassionate use.
Unions have all of the ills of government with none of the redeeming features of free markets. They start out operating in bad faith and the abridgement of individual rights and go downhill from there. To have public employees unionized is a double insult to a fatal injury.
Mark Philip Alger
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Wednesday, January 04, 2012
Rush:...
"STEVE SCHMIDT'S out there again -- that's the guy who ran McCain's campaign."
And anybody is listening to him ... why, exactly...?
This is like listening to -- oh, I dunno -- Jimmy Carter's campaign manager. Or Walter MON-dull's.
Mark Philip Alger
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Wednesday, January 04, 2012
Why Businesses Lose...
SHORT VERSION: they forget that markets exist for the benefit of the customer.
Mark Philip Alger
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Wednesday, January 04, 2012
Is #OccupyFail Trying to Rewrite the Constitution...
DAVID CODREA takes a at some claims by a group asserting a desire to re-jigger the Constitution. He concludes that this not the same apparent ideology that drove the infestation of leftists that drove the OWS crowd last year. Me, I'm not so sure.
You have to start out from the premise that the Left never acts in good faith. So, if they are asserting ideals more consonant with traditional, Constitutional, liberty-ideal types than with the Marxist-Leninist-Maoist revolutionaries driving the Occupy movement, I'm more inclined to believe those are a stalking horse. There is no intent to restore the original purpose of the Republic. Rather, the drive is to get the hands of international revolution on the gavel of a constitutional convention, and thereby to rewrite the whole document from the ground up on wholly other premises with insidious and odious ends in mind.
My first clue is the assertion that the Constitution "drastically outdated". This is not a claim I've ever heard from anyone who truly understands and appreciates the wisdom of the Founders. Rather, this is someone whose ideological thinking has drifted far off-course and rudderless into a Sargasso Sea of insanity. The problem is not that the Constitution is outdated, it is that the soi-disant ruling class of America has drifted far too far from that basis and is now afraid to be judged according to its lights -- realizing, of course, that it (the self-nominated ruling class) would be found wanting -- indeed, traitorous -- by those lights.
Those who might want to find hope in this, as Codrea appears to do, should follow one bit of advice: follow the money. See what sources of financing and ideological direction this movement has before you trust it. In the words of that great sucker, Admiral Akbar -- it's a trap!
Mark Philip Alger
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Previously on BabyTrollBlog...
