” … the most improper job of any man, even saints … is bossing other men. Not one in a million is fit for it, and least of all those who seek the opportunity”
– JRR to Christopher Tolkein
(Thanks to Skye Stewart for the longer quote.)
Source date (UTC): 2012-09-24 21:21:00 UTC
http://peacerequiresanarchy.wordpress.com/A Bit Of A Rant But Priceless Tolkein.
Source date (UTC): 2012-09-24 21:20:00 UTC
http://righteousmind.com/largest-study-of-libertarian-psych/LIBERTARIAN PSYCHOLOGY
Well, I”m glad we have enough empirical evidence now that we can state the obvious;
1) Libertarians are the least emotive and most rational segment of the ideological triangle.
2) Libertarians are the highest IQ segment of the ideological triangle.
3) Libertarians really do put liberty first and foremost at all times.
What Haidt doesn’t get to is this:
4) Libertarians are the most economically literate segment of the ideological triangle.
Source date (UTC): 2012-09-24 20:15:00 UTC
http://www.manhattan-institute.org/html/cr_71.htm#.UGD1C_E-us0WHY ARE PEOPLE LEAVING CALIFORNIA
“The Great California Exodus”
1) Density. People flee density. Despite the desires of urban planners.
2) Unemployment. People flee to opportunities.
3) Uncertainty: The government cannot provide essential services, and tax hikes are imminent.
They forgot: 4) LA is a few points of pretty amidst a sprawling slum.
Source date (UTC): 2012-09-24 20:11:00 UTC
LEFT = LAWS : Redistribute income
RIGHT = NORMS : Redistribute norms
LIBERTARIAN = PROPERTY : Redistribute liberty
Source date (UTC): 2012-09-24 20:02:00 UTC
(Just want to thank my friend Kevin Dillon for some passionately communicated advice the other day. Advice I’ve taken. Thanks Kevin.)
Source date (UTC): 2012-09-24 15:54:00 UTC
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/five-myths-about-the-47-percent/2012/09/21/57dc7bbe-0341-11e2-8102-ebee9c66e190_story.htmlTHE 47% OR IS IT 74%?
I love that this issue is getting popularized. This article tries to debunk a few myths but misses out on a few important and related statistics:
a) something close to 74% of people join the tax paying majority at some point in their lives. The young, immigrants and the old of course, are not. The people of productive age of course are. So, it’s true that at any given point less than half of americans pay taxes. But that’s not the same thing as saying that more than half of them will become, or have been, taxpayers.
b) The 1% consists largely of people who are in that 1% for only one or two years – people who make windfalls.
c) About 12% of americans actually qualify as ‘poor’. The rest are either recent immigrants, young or old, and the remainder are those who have made poor reproductive decisions, or have other problems that leave them to the left of the curve.
d) Any statistic that makes use of ‘household’ rather than individual numbers means the author is lying. The composition of the family has eroded so significantly since the sixties that any statistical comparison of households is irrelevant. We humans choose spatial independence at all costs. This means more smaller poorer households.
Source date (UTC): 2012-09-23 16:34:00 UTC
ON WAR AS ORGANIZED MURDER
(A post from elsewhere)
It may be true that war is organized murder, But that moral statement must be balanced by the practical recognition that those who are unwilling to engage in war, unprepared for it, and unskilled in it, will rapidly become the subjects of those who are willing, prepared, and skilled at conducting it.
Certainly the neocon mission has been a failure in muslim lands, for the sole reason that exacting punishment for not controlling one’s citizens is different from the absurd attempt at social conversion of paternalistic tribalism to something like democracy and consumer capitalism.
Certainly the intervention in Serbia was a mistake. Wars can be waged by urgent violence, tactical trade policy, ideological conversion, and sustained immigration. To limit the appropriation of a people’s life and property to that of violence is a bit of arbitrary and dishonest rhetorical trickery. Conquest by immigration is just as viable as conquest by force. The only difference is the time frame.
Certainly the US intervention into WW! was a mistake, as was our intervention in the european theater in ww2. The cultural core of Europe was Germany and we broke her will. And along with that will, the long term viability of the high-trust society that is unique to protestant germanic lands and the secret of Germanic resistance to corruption. The rest of Europe is just a cultural province by comparison. And teh german criticism of petty consumerism of anglo society has proven as true as they predicted. It will be two or three generations before she regains her will to act as the core cultural state of western civilization. (Others think it will not recover but I’m less skeptical)
But I don’t think our interventions that stopped the spread of communism were mistakes. I don’t think McArthur’s desire to topple communist china was a mistake. It would have saved millions of lives, and prevented the upcoming confrontation we will all be faced with.
And most of all, I don’t respect european pacifism paid for with american blood and treasure. Nor social programs that are subsidized by Americans who pay for European defense, and most importantly, subsidy of stable energy prices. Nor do I respect American pacifism that is mere financial and personal convenience masquerading as conviction.
There is a vast difference between war, nation building, police action, and empire building. Only war is necessary. Nation building, police action and empire building are just thefts by way of murder.
Source date (UTC): 2012-09-23 14:08:00 UTC
MOSCOW
Watching a movie right now. Captures the lights of downtown. I want to go back.
Russians still remember what it nobility is. Art and elegance , sophistication and grace are terms that still retain their meaning, at least to some.
Source date (UTC): 2012-09-23 01:24:00 UTC
https://www.quora.com/Startup-skills-vs-startup-ideas