And to think that I haven’t had time to carve a pumpkin. What’s the world coming to? I did, however, somehow find time to attend Majority Leader Eric Cantor’s University of Michigan speech. He did a good job with a hostile audience, and he is to be commended for his courage in facing them down. Naturally, [...]

I got one of those annoying IM pop ups on my e-mail and for S&Gs I decided to engage (warp drive plus impulse engines). So I start chatting. Since I am not biting right away the female in question gave me a link to “her” site. Well she was looking good with not too many [...]

Thanks to Howard Wooldridge of Citizens Opposing Prohibition I have a link to what purports to be a Mexican Drug Cartel PR site. We Are The Cartels. They boast on their current front page: Mexican Drug Cartel Association – Now offering To-Your-Door Service in many cities. There is another page that I found interesting. Breaking [...]

This is a live version that I haven’t heard before. It is very good. And for something different here is Grace doing a Flintstone Commercial. Not Safe For Work

My friend Karradine is caught up in the Thai Flooding. He tells me that it will be about 30 more days until the waters recede. He could use some help (about $500). He told me that if he gets more than that he will use it to help others in need. You can contact him [...]

Now that many young people have voluntarily surrendered what little remaining privacy they have to Facebook social media, it’s natural to make a move on the notion that there is any such thing as privacy in matters pertaining to lifestyle personal health: Tobacco users consume about 25 percent more healthcare services than non-tobacco users, says [...]

I wish it wasn’t, but it is. Substantive criticisms or discussions are boring. DISCLAIMER: Please note that I am not “weighing in” on the validity of any allegations. I guess I have to say that I am not, lest people think I am. Such is the nature of the, um, system. MORE: Tastes matter.  Just [...]

I came across an article from a while back discussing the impact of technology on employment. I’ve been arguing that as machines and software become more capable, they are beginning to match the capabilities of the average worker. In other words, as technology advances, a larger and larger fraction of the population will essentially become [...]

I don’t know why Halloween has to be celebrated tonight, but whatever. Just got back from Halloween partying, and no one “got” my costume.   Clearly, this guy had more fun. I had to get this post up lest I turn into one.

I detest the label “true conservative” because not many “true conservatives” fit the Reagan definition. “If you analyze it I believe the very heart and soul of conservatism is libertarianism. I think conservatism is really a misnomer just as liberalism is a misnomer for the liberals — if we were back in the days of [...]

Lets see what that 5,000 a year would be in terms of the US population. Guatemala has a population of 13,276,517 according to the wiki.The US population is 312,468,000 according to the wiki. So 312,468,000 divided by 13,276,517 times 5,000 is 117,677 deaths a year. That is a very intense Drug War. H/T Drug Policy [...]

Last week I wrote a post about secret laws, under which the government can charge citizens with criminal offenses that are written in secret and never disseminated to the public. Yesterday I learned about a stunning Justice Department proposal to allow the government to deny the very existence of “sensitive” documents: The proposed rule directs [...]

I was big into folk for quite a long time. I still am I guess. It all started in the late 50s when folk music was quite the rage. I remember the local folk club in Omaha (the Grape Vine was the name IIRC – it had something to do with wine) got shut down [...]

All animals are created equal, right? So why would only the animals called “men” be endowed with “certain inalienable rights”? Doug Mataconis links a news item I heard about last night that has brought much laughter and derision: A federal court is being asked to grant constitutional rights to five killer whales who perform at [...]

The job market is bad. The economic scene is worse. And Federal debt is spiraling out of control. How can America be on the mend? Ambrose Evans-Pritchard tells the story. He mentions shale gas. We now have at least a 50 year supply and maybe 100. Then there is shale oil. Total US shale output [...]

It seems the crackdown the Feds are doing on medical marijuana dispensaries is none too popular among Democrat voters. Medical marijuana advocates have reacted angrily to reports of the Obama administration threatening dispensaries, including some in the Bay Area. California voters passed a medical marijuana law in 1996, and many people use the drug to [...]

I probably shouldn’t write about politics, but sometimes my paranoia gets the better of me and I succumb to temptation. Anyway, the more I talk with Republicans, the more I sense overall disgust and disappointment over the current field. Almost everyone has strong feelings against one or more of the candidates. This is not limited [...]

Tyler Cowen on the lack of economic growth in Italy: At the risk of sounding like a broken record player, we are not sufficiently thinking through what it means for an advanced society to have basically zero net economic growth for a ten to twenty year period. It can’t be said often enough imho. It’s [...]

Eric is discussing my post Prevention Methods, and looks at the harms that making things illegal causes. A commenter chimes in with this bit of wisdom. …many of these “illegal drug” like Marijuana can be produced without a good means of tax revenue – another reason to outlaw them You can make quite a bit [...]

How many people are occupying Wall Street? Does anyone know? It would seem that somehow, somewhere there would be a reliable estimate of the crowd size, but I can’t seem to find an exact number anywhere. It is not a huge deal, but considering that the protesters claim to be 99% of the American people, [...]