Author: Simon

The subject came up on this thread. This was my answer: I used to be a socialist. Until I figured out that the incentives were all wrong. In a static system – not too bad. In an advancing system you want the greatest rewards going to those making the greatest advances. And preferably you want…

Huffington Post has a graphic up showing about 2,980 metric tons of pot confiscated in 2009. Let us assume that the authorities get 10% of the traffic. So multiply that by 9 to get the total consumption. That gives 26,820 metric tons consumed. A metric ton is about 2,200 lbs. So that is roughly 59,000,000…

There is an opinion piece about immigration that I made this comment to (in part as a response to other commenters): So let me see. We can not prevent smuggling of goods (neither could the USSR) but we can prevent the smuggling of people? “Conservatives” are insane. What would I do? Make it easier to…

Jack Rice – CIA. Jack Rice, at his core, is a story teller. As an award winning journalist and correspondent, he has chased stories around the world. He is an journalist, former CIA Officer and Nationally Syndicated Talk Show Host. McCoy – The Politics of Heroin Chiang Kai-shek and the Drug Warlords of the Golden…

I also liked this belly dancer and the little hitch move she does with her hips. And this one:

The second best way to protect yourself from gang violence is to end Prohibition.

One side argues that banning “xxx” substance will eliminate all the negatives of that substance. The other side argues it will multiply them. The other side is correct. We have a one party state. Two factions. Inspired by this comment.

Obama has just promised “Peace In Our Time”.

H/T Legal Insurrection

Watch the latest video at video.foxnews.com

The decline of bees in China is forcing workers to pollinate fruit trees by hand. The Bee (Api) News adds more to the story.

Via Samizdata I came across this Eric Raymond bit that almost ends with: “I just bailed out of an attempt to induct me into a cult”. Go read the whole thing (it is not too long) to find the punchline.

NRO is lamenting that with a good majority of Americans against abortion (58% is their number) that our law makers (at what level – State? Federal?) are not passing laws against abortion. Isn’t it just like political junkies to believe that laws will solve the problem. I suppose the thought of black markets never crosses…

A lot is heard these days about guns flying off the shelves. As a backup I wonder why these aren’t flying off the shelves?

A Seeking Alpha article on stagflation states the obvious: …given the uncertainty in the economic and political environment as well as an administration that hardly can be called business friendly… Mr. Obama’s idol FDR had similar problems. It wasn’t until he got into a war that he wanted to win that he changed his anti-business…

In reply to this Economist article on foreign policy I had this to say: The ideas now ascendant re: American Foreign policy were very much in vogue in the 1930s. The results far exceeded expectations. I expect similar with this new trial of those ideas.

Retired Police Detective Howard Wooldridge says that the Drug War “is the most destructive, dysfunctional and immoral policy since slavery & Jim Crow”. Well guess who else is saying it? Today in his State of the State address, Governor Cuomo made a passionate call for reforming New York’s marijuana possession laws in order to reduce…

Al Jazeera is now a US TV network thanks to Al Gore. “When considering the several suitors who were interested in acquiring Current, it became clear to us that Al Jazeera was founded with the same goals we had for Current,” Hyatt wrote. “Al Jazeera, like Current, believes that facts and truth lead to a…

H/T JPFO