Thursday, November 25, 2010

TSA Resistance (And Phallic Mass)

http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2010/10/for-the-first-time-the-tsa-meets-resistance-updated/65390

http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2008/11/the-things-he-carried/7057/

Worth a read.  I would vastly prefer that the government not have nationalized security for airports.

Reading these things, I can't believe they have not been able to replicate what they did almost ten years ago.

Wednesday, November 24, 2010

Do The Right Thing

http://butwhatthehelldoiknow.com/?894bf9d8
"Given how much stuff was coming at us… we probably spent much more time trying to get the policy right than trying to get the politics right. There is probably a perverse pride in my administration — and I take responsibility for this; this was blowing from the top — that we were going to do the right thing, even if short-term it was unpopular."

Fascinating quote.

Tuesday, November 23, 2010

There To Here, Here To There

http://cafehayek.com/2010/02/ungovernable.html

"The lean years? The lean years!?!?!?!!?
"Government has never been fatter.
"The crisis of government in America is that it does too many things badly instead of doing a few things well.
"We don’t need more money for government. We need government to do what citizens struggle to do for themselves. We can debate what that range of activities is. I am on the side that government has taken on too many tasks that we can do as well or better for ourselves. When government takes on too many tasks, it is hard to find money to do the core activities of government well.
"The ungovernability aspect of this problem is that it is hard to take away things from people and thrive politically. If you think 911 is an important activity of government, it is easy to keep it free. Get rid of all the nonsense government does that doesn’t need doing. Go back to the “lean” years of 1995, say, when California and the Federal government spent a lot less. Those weren’t the dark ages. But along the way, a bunch of money got added to a bunch of deparments and for some reason, instead of saying that was a mistake or unnecessary or best done privately, we start charging for 911.
"That is a sign of ungovernability and it comes from ignoring the proper role of government.
"Stop subsidizing housing. It’s bad enough that the Feds do it. But there is a vigorous California effort on top of the Federal effort. Stop subsidizing food and rich farmers. Stop policing trans fats. And smoking in restaurants. Stop trying to steer education from the top down. Stop creating programs for retirement and health that give money to rich people. Stop subsidizing rail travel. Stop all corporate welfare. Stop all tariffs and quotas. Get rid of the nanny state.
"The mission creep of government makes it obvious that governmen is poorly run. Get out of the things it does poorly and do important things well.
How do we get there from here?"

Monday, November 22, 2010

I Pencil

"You may wonder why I should write a genealogy. Well, to begin with, my story is interesting. And, next, I am a mystery—more so than a tree or a sunset or even a flash of lightning. But, sadly, I am taken for granted by those who use me, as if I were a mere incident and without background. This supercilious attitude relegates me to the level of the commonplace. This is a species of the grievous error in which mankind cannot too long persist without peril. For, the wise G. K. Chesterton observed, "We are perishing for want of wonder, not for want of wonders."
RP.4
"I, Pencil, simple though I appear to be, merit your wonder and awe, a claim I shall attempt to prove. In fact, if you can understand me—no, that's too much to ask of anyone—if you can become aware of the miraculousness which I symbolize, you can help save the freedom mankind is so unhappily losing. I have a profound lesson to teach. And I can teach this lesson better than can an automobile or an airplane or a mechanical dishwasher because—well, because I am seemingly so simple."
A classic in every sense of the word.

Sunday, November 21, 2010

Classic Quotes, Japanese Proverb

"Knowledge without wisdom is a load of books on the back of an ass."
- Japanese Proverb


Courtesy CrossFit.com

Monday, November 15, 2010

Classic Quotes, Stone

"Have the courage to say no. Have the courage to face the truth. Do the right thing because it is right. These are the magic keys to living your life with integrity."
--W. Clement Stone

Friday, November 12, 2010

Criminal Ignorance?

"Inflation is the result of too much money chasing too few goods.  So by increasing the flow of goods (and services) produced in an economy, rapid growth decreases the risk of domestic inflation. That the finance ministers of three major world governments do not understand this fundamental fact is appalling."

Power Must Be Fought For

http://cafehayek.com/2010/11/one-reason-to-hate-conservatives.html
Do you hate your fellow countrymen?  When?

http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=12550
Is the Fed a failure?

http://cafehayek.com/2010/11/prancing-preaching-posing-pols.html
Who's 'qualified' to talk about economic policies?  Palin?  The President?  Either? 

Neither!!

Pencil - A Miracle


"You may wonder why I should write a genealogy. Well, to begin with, my story is interesting. And, next, I am a mystery—more so than a tree or a sunset or even a flash of lightning. But, sadly, I am taken for granted by those who use me, as if I were a mere incident and without background. This supercilious attitude relegates me to the level of the commonplace. This is a species of the grievous error in which mankind cannot too long persist without peril. For, the wise G. K. Chesterton observed, "We are perishing for want of wonder, not for want of wonders."
RP.4
"I, Pencil, simple though I appear to be, merit your wonder and awe, a claim I shall attempt to prove. In fact, if you can understand me—no, that's too much to ask of anyone—if you can become aware of the miraculousness which I symbolize, you can help save the freedom mankind is so unhappily losing. I have a profound lesson to teach. And I can teach this lesson better than can an automobile or an airplane or a mechanical dishwasher because—well, because I am seemingly so simple."
A classic in every sense of the word.

Thursday, November 11, 2010

Thankful, Grateful

I remain humbly grateful to those who gave life or limb in the service of our nation.

I remain thankful that it is not my turn to be in the breach today, that I am home and my big worries are how much I'll 'get done' today, vice whether my actions will equal those of my brothers in arms as we work to keep each other alive while we kill the enemy.  It's a lucky few who get to do that job well, but I'm happy to have a different role than that one today.

I'm also grateful and thankful that when it was my turn to be 'downrange', I did the job without letting down my team mates.  Takeoffs equalled landings, and we all still have our fingers and toes.

"Saving Private Ryan" said it all:  "Earn this."  Let us do so.

Wednesday, November 10, 2010

Climate Measuring - It's Not Simple Like The Rest Of Life

http://directorblue.blogspot.com/2010/11/busted-15-photos-of-climate-cheating.html
Revealing photos.  Bottom line - there's the intention to measure changes in the earth's climate, then there's actually doing it correctly.

Friday, November 5, 2010

Maybe He's Right?

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/11/04/AR2010110406581.html
"Tuesday was the electorate's first opportunity to render a national verdict on this manner of governance. The rejection was stunning. As a result, President Obama's agenda is dead. And not just now. No future Democratic president will try to revive it - and if he does, no Congress will follow him, in view of the carnage visited upon Democrats on Tuesday.
"This is not, however, a rejection of Democrats as a party. The center-left party as represented by Bill Clinton remains competitive in every cycle. (Which is why he was the most popular, sought-after Democrat in the current cycle.) The lesson of Tuesday is that the American game is played between the 40-yard lines. So long as Democrats don't repeat Obama's drive for the red zone, Democrats will cyclically prevail, just as Republicans do.
"Nor should Republicans overinterpret their Tuesday mandate. They received none. They were merely rewarded for acting as the people's proxy in saying no to Obama's overreaching liberalism. As one wag put it, this wasn't an election so much as a restraining order.
"The Republicans won by default. And their prize is nothing more than a two-year lease on the House. The building was available because the previous occupant had been evicted for arrogant misbehavior and, by rule, alas, the House cannot be left vacant."
"In his next-day news conference, (the President) had the right demeanor - subdued, his closest approximation of humility - but was uncomprehending about what just happened. The "folks" are apparently just "frustrated" that "progress" is just too slow. Asked three times whether popular rejection of his policy agenda might have had something to do with the shellacking he took, he looked as if he'd been asked whether the sun had risen in the West. Why, no, he said."

Hey, he might be right, right?

Classic Quotes, Edison

"There is far more danger in a public monopoly than there is in a private monopoly, for when government goes into business it can always shift its losses to the taxpayer. The Government never really goes into business, for it never makes ends meet, and that is the first requisite of business. It just mixes a little business with a lot of politics, and no one ever gets a chance to find out what is actually going on."
- Thomas A. Edison
Courtesy of CrossFit.com


Seems to me that this one goes to the heart of one of the biggest and most commonly held beliefs in our nation - which is wrong.  And that is that government's defend us from monopoly predation.  I know of you instance of actual monopoly predation which did not result from the engagement of government.  Rather than saving the citizenry from government, government actually creates monopoly after monopoly, all of which are supported by the coercive power of the state.

Wednesday, November 3, 2010

Classic Quotes, Morgenthau

"We have tried spending money. We are spending more than we have ever spent before and it does not work." Henry Morgenthau, Secretary of the US Treasury

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2010/11/02/guess_who_107804.html

Tuesday, November 2, 2010

Pardon My Boondoggle

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/10/29/AR2010102905959.html
More on the absurdity that is the plug in electric vehicle.  Costs a ton, saves little to no green house emissions (even if you believe in that sort of thing), and serves only to highlight just how foolish those given to government are. 

There need be no better highlight of what "political calculus" means.  Sunshine out of cucumbers?  Why not.

Monday, November 1, 2010

Nothing But the Truth, 2

http://cafehayek.com/2010/10/the-geniuses-who-lord-over-us.html
Who built the railroads, and which ones worked best?

Nothing But the Truth

"Somehow, it's become fashionable to think that high-speed trains connecting major cities will help "save the planet." They won't. They're a perfect example of wasteful spending masquerading as a respectable social cause. They would further burden already overburdened governments and drain dollars from worthier programs -- schools, defense, research."

"President Obama calls high-speed rail essential "infrastructure" when it's actually old-fashioned "pork barrel." The interesting question is why it retains its intellectual respectability. The answer, it seems, is willful ignorance. People prefer fashionable make-believe to distasteful realities. They imagine public benefits that don't exist and ignore costs that do."

High speed rail - more wishing that we could get sunshine from cucumbers, and illustrating that governments make decisions based on political calculations made with other peoples' money.