Author: Simon

  • Obviously We Came Up Short

    All those points are important. But I especially liked #2. I intend to continue to hammer/obsess about that one until they fix it. Then I’m going to work on some of the others.

  • It Is A War Zone

    From: NRA on Facebook Some comments I liked: Those toddlers arent gonna flashbang themselves! Law enforcement does NOT need military equipment. The job of the military is to fight the enemies of the state. The job of police is to enforce the law . When the police becomes like the military the enemies of the…

  • When I Was Growing Up

    All the actions I described in My Drug War Obsession were done by Germans in war propaganda movies to make the Germans look bad. America was not like that was the undercurrent. We had the rule of law. Protection of the innocent. Innocent until proven guilty. That may have been an idealization. But being an…

  • My Drug War Obsession

    In my post Eric Cantor Loses To TEA Party Libertarian a commenter notes: Your fixation on the drug issue is getting worse. You don’t object to full up Gestapo style raids with battering rams at 3AM? You don’t object to throwing thermite grenades into baby’s cribs? You don’t object to racist enforcement? You don’t object…

  • Eric Cantor Loses To TEA Party Libertarian

    From the comments to this Reason article on Eric Cantor vs David Brat. from Brat’s c.v.: “An Analysis of the Moral Foundations in Ayn Rand” by Katy Holland and David Brat, presented and published in the proceedings of Southeast Informs, Myrtle Beach, SC, October 6, 2010 Whole thing here: http://faculty.rmc.edu/dbrat/research.html === Note: Cantor spent $5.4…

  • Dr. Sanja Gupta: Cannabis versus Cancer

    Please do me a favor and pass this on. A lot of educating needs to be done. Direct link to the video: http://youtu.be/nU2sozW46i8.

  • Cold Fusion – It Is Real

    I have been a sceptical of cold fusion for a long time. this article changed my mind. The really good stuff is in the comments – including a reprise of my former scepticism. This post is a response to a comment by NikFromNYC (good job Nik) who repeated a statement from the post he was…

  • What The Left Has In Store For You

    I have been rather harsh on the Right lately. They deserve it. But the Left is no better and in some ways possibly worse. Here is the evidence: Obama’s Science Czar Considered Forced Abortions, Sterilization as Population Growth Solutions Evidently the President that the American people elected twice is in on the mass murder deal.…

  • Texas Repulicans Oppose Medical Cannabis

    With something like 60 to 80% of the population in favor of medical marijuana, Texas Republicans have decided to strike that issue from their party platform. Supporters of medical marijuana made emotional statements arguing that patients suffering from certain diseases could benefit from the treatment. Opponents maintained that legalizing marijuana for medical use would lead…

  • Back When Unwed Motherhood Was A Social Disgrace

    Yes. Our culture has fallen. Unwed motherhood is no longer a disgrace and abortion on demand is rather freely available. But there is worse. This link was suggested to me by commenter Frank. Brought to you by those paragons of morality the Catholic Church. In a town in western Ireland, where castle ruins pepper green…

  • Too Conservative For Colorado

    The Democrats in Colorado are running ads (for? against?) Tom Tancredo claiming he is too conservative for Colorado. Democrats really don’t want former Rep. Bob Beauprez to win this month’s Colorado GOP gubernatorial primary, so they’re hitting the airwaves with television ads aimed at boosting his nearest rival, former Rep. Tom Tancredo. Protect Colorado Values,…

  • A Modern Spiritual

    Well Laurence Welk says so at the end of the video. Hilarious.

  • Why Moral Crusades Bother Me So Much

    I’m naturally inclined to the Republican Party. They have reasonably good economic sense (compared to Democrats) and their “smaller government” slogan (hardly ever honored) is appealing. But their appetite for moral crusades against the wrong kind of people (gays, dopers, what have you) is a real turn off. I’m going to repost a piece I…

  • It Could Have Been Worse

    I was recently discussing the Texas Republican’s mildly anti-gay platform. Some further news on that subject has arrived. Gay Republicans in Texas said Friday they may stop fighting their party’s proposed endorsement of “reparative therapy” over worries that even tougher anti-gay language could be added to the party platform. The country as a whole is…

  • Let’s start the war from here

    Reason Magazine had an interesting take on D-Day back in 1999. There is no more dramatic example of F.A. Hayek’s seminal discovery: the importance of dispersed information–“knowledge of time and place.” Hayek, who was to win the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Science in 1974, published his memorable essay, “The Use of Knowledge in Society,”…

  • The Latest On Polywell Fusion

    A paper reporting results. And a discussion of the paper at Talk-Polywell. Also: Focus Fusion just got a major write up at the Daily Mail – UK. They are raising funds for further research at Indiegogo.

  • Greens Against Plant Food

    A letter I wrote to my local paper (link added): A trace gas in the atmosphere essential to life has just been declared a pollutant. Am I the only one who notices the insanity of this? But the emperor has such pretty clothes. I can’t wait until water vapor – by far the most significant…

  • Ex Jew Therapy Next?

    According to this news article the Texas Republicans are considering endorsing ‘Ex-Gay Therapy’. In recent years, ex-gay therapy has been a fringe issue that even conservatives who oppose LGBT marriage rights tend to be reluctant to publicly support. Last summer, the founder of one of the the biggest ex-gay therapy operations in the country, Exodus…

  • Crazy Ideas

    Indiegogo is featuring Solar Roads, a project to turn solar cells into pavement. They authors of this idea have collected $1.9 million in project funds from credulous supporters. Meanwhile my project to revolutionize software development languishes. I probably need to retarget my campaign towards some kind of “green” theme. And it certainly wouldn’t hurt to…

  • Shoot First –

    You may remember my recent post about a drug raid that burned a 19 month old baby with an incendiary grenade. Recent reports say there is a 50% chance the baby will not pull through. Well, there is even more to the story. It seems that the task force involved has a recent (2009) reputation…