Since it's been a long time

I think I will check to see if the blog still works.

I'm big in Canada

Via the Trailer Park Boys, it's hilarious, for me anyway. Apparently I like weed and Enchiladas.

Check it out

The GOP biological problem

There has been much hubub about Arlen Specter's switch to the democrats, saying they're losing the "Moderate" wing. My theory: The GOP's primary impediment is not ideological, it's biological. They're stuck with their corrupt deadwood, made even more rotted by their brief period in control of the legislative and executive branch. They have no credible voice on the current spending orgy because they haven't been in the credibility business in any form for quite some time.

By getting rid of the old guard (albeit not intentionally) they would seem to be solving the problem.

Keeping the blog alive....

Sorry, I've been busy lately. Here is a random assortment

• Velvet Underground on YouTube
  
• Justice, War, Etc from David Friedman
• Interesting article about Crime in Atlanta
• A nice profile about a former client of mine.
• The Agitator puts it very well with "we’ve reached the point where even jaded libertarian cliches present an inaccurately optimistic picture of what’s going on"
• A very good explanatory video by Tim Hartford.
  

Yet another belated tab clearing post

• Economics of Ticket Scalping
• The end of newspapers and the future of newspapers
• A tech support secret handshake

Sparse posting and random thoughts

Sorry for the lack of posts recently, a happy development has taken up a my free time.

And the random thought - Obama's new "Smarter government, somehow!" push could serve to keep the nags, parasites, and do-gooders busy and let creative people create things, instead of having them filter into the general population as seems to have been the case over the past several years.

An interesting thought

Via Megan McArdle - I'm not for this, but it would solve the problem.

My lunatic proposal for the day: why not make it easier to move homeowners out of homes they can't afford? Set up a streamlined foreclosure proceeding where a current or mildly delinquent homeowner can simply give the house to the bank and walk away. Do this with two legal provisos:

1. No tax on the forgiven loan

2. No black mark on the credit record. The bank marks the loan as fully satisfied.

Of course, if we decide to actually "fix" the problem we should loosen immigration and get people actually in the vacant houses.

Skank vs Skank

These two are awesome. Not safe for work

Jargon Database in the google rankings

I just went and checked Google Analytics for one of my sites, JargonDatabase.com - and much to my surprise, I rank #1 for

• "Existential Threat"
• Political Jargon
• Come to Jesus Meeting
• Guitar Jargon
• Economics Jargon

and many others, and #2 for

• "Military Jargon"."
• Normal Good

And many others. Wow.

Line of the day

Via Megan McArdle "History may not repeat itself, but it stutters like hell."

The funniest thing I read today

Was this Construction signs warn of zombies - via Scarbrough via Facebook.

Swooning, raptures and Barack Jong Il

CNN headline - "Cheers greet Obamas on parade route"

What is this, North Korea? It's like the fans of Survivor, American Idol and Sean Hannity all got together and gave each other Eskimo kisses.

I stand by my Bush III/IPod comparison - now more than ever.

The table goes to table heaven

Where it will listen to different music I'm sure. I finally finished it today after about ten weeks of slow construction - I've been finishing it for the past 3 weeks in fact.

The majority of the time was spent creating and joining all of the pieces of the top together (about 50 or so). You can't quite tell in the below photos but the top is all end grain oak, cherry and walnut. The stain melds the colors a bit.

The wisdom of white people

From Stuff White People Like

Along with Jazz, white people have also taken quite a shine to The Blues, an art form that captured the pain of the black experience in America. Then, in the 1960s, a bunch of British bands started to play their own version of the music and white people have been loving it ever since. It makes sense considering that the British were the ones who created The Blues in the 17th Century.

Worth reading - Gaza edition

From Col. Lang - a very interesting post on the structure of the IDF.

Also, lost in all of the moral analysis of the current mess (why must San Diego always get bombed by Tijuana in analogies?) is how Israel benefits from it's current engagement. The rocket attacks were bearable for quite some time - and no one goes to war out of principle anymore. The explanation of doing it while Bush is still in office doesn't seem to be that credible, Obama hasn't said anything different than Bush 43, and he has something to prove, so I imagine he would be even more agreeable to Israeli action than Bush (and as a reminder, Bush stopped the Israelis from bombing Iran a few months ago).

I suppose the War Nerd's explanation of the attacks being used to weaken Hamas so Fatah could eventually win their civil war has the most credence, but that has problems too.