Category: Uncategorized

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,…

While there are certainly other things going on in the world, this headline seems worth at least a passing complaint: Libya’s liberation: interim ruler unveils more radical than expected plans for Islamic law While I worried when I read reports about al Qaida acquiring Stinger missiles (“the better to shoot down your passenger planes, my…

M. Simon’s earlier post reminded me that morality is often not based on eternal and unchanging principles, but on whatever a majority happens to believe is immoral at a given place in time. I left this comment: No one who is sane believes drugs can actually be eliminated by laws. So, the goal is to…

So I’m having an ongoing discussion with a guy and he has me pegged. MSimon believes that it is every individual’s right to consume whatever drugs in whatever quantities that an individual so chooses. What is your plan to prevent that? Because that is exactly the nature of current reality. The legality or otherwise makes…

The cancellation of Republican Speaker Eric Cantor’s planned lecture at the University of Pennsylvania fascinates me. Clearly, the man had as much of a First Amendment right to speak as to not speak. Just as the demonstrators who are now crowing victory for having intimidated him would have in theory had a First Amendment “right”…

The Tektronix 475 Oscilloscope I ordered last Friday arrived yesterday at about 3:30 local time (2030z). I have had it on the bench since then testing it out. It was advertized as used and I must say it is well used. The Digital Voltmeter (the LED readout on top) appears to be defective. No great…