Sunday, May 02, 2010

Don’t Miss the Exit

Socialist ideology is not dead, unfortunately.  But why is this, when the body of emipircal evidence regarding its abject failure is writ large, both historically and contemporarily?

In a review of Jean Francois Revel’s book, Last Exit to Utopia: The Survival of Socialism in a Post-Soviet Era, written by Marc Vander Maas at Acton Institute’s Powerblog titled Last Exit To Utopia, Vander Maas provides a quote from Revel’s book which concisely provides a rational explanation for why this life killing ideology is not dead.

As an a priori construction, formulated without regard to facts or ethics, ideology is distinct from science and philosophy on the one hand, and from religion and ethics on the other. Ideology is not science - which it pretends to be. Science accepts the results of the experiments it devises, whereas ideology systematically rejects empirical evidence. It is not moral philosophy - which it claims to have a monopoly on, while striving furiously to destroy the source and necessary condition of morality: the free will of the individual. The basis of morality is respect for the person, whereas ideology invariably tramples on the person wherever it reigns. Ideology is not religion - to which it is often, and mistakenly, compared; for religion draws its meaning from faith in a transcendent reality, while ideology aims to perfect the world here below.

Posted by John Venlet on 05/02 at 10:02 AM
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Hey, I Thought Flat Earth Theories Died When Columbus Sailed the Ocean Blue

In a blog post titled A Warm, But Flat, Earth, Ricketyclick notes a portion of a Vincent Gray post at Climate Realists under the heading A Flat Earth which informs us of this.

All of the computer models of the climate have adopted the flat earth theory of the earth’s energy, as portrayed in Kiehl J. T. and K. E. Trenberth 1997. Earth’s Annual Global Mean Energy Budget. Bull. Am. Met. Soc. 78 197-208.

The attached graph is in all of the Reports of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate change, and it is fundamental to all their activities.

It assumes that the earth can be considered to be flat, that the sun shines all day and all night with equal intensity, and that the temperature of the earth’s surface is constant.

Go take a gander at that graph, and you’ll understand why Don Surber says the following in regards to this bit of news.

If true, I find that to be amusing.

Skeptics are supposed to be the flat Earthers, not our moral and intellectual superiors.

Posted by John Venlet on 05/02 at 08:43 AM
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Tougher Than Birds and the Bees Questions

After reading a Times Online story regarding Greece’s economic woes, and the current troubles resulting from those woes, titled Greece erupts as men from IMF prepare to wield axe, which provides questions and observations such as these,

“I cannot help but blame my parents a little for what’s happened,” said Achilles Zacharoulis, a 36-year-old cardiologist. “They were here all that time,” he added, referring to the past three decades of mismanagement and fiscal insanity. “But what did they do to stop it?”

Vaggelis Gettos, 24, is just as alarmed at the burden being heaped on the young by austerity measures expected to be announced today, and has pledged to resist them in more protests this week against what he sees as a plot to impoverish Greece.

“We will live much worse than our parents,” he said. “Why should we be made to pay for their mistakes?”

William A. Jacobsen, of the Cornell Law School, responds in light of our own current economic woes, in a blog post titled Questions I Never Want My Children To Ask.  Portions of Jacobsen’s response.

I wonder whether the questions being asked by the youth of Greece are the same questions our children and grandchildren will ask as we head further down the road of unprecedented national debt on a scale unimaginable two years ago as a result of Obama’s attempt to restructure society…

The Tea Parties and voter discontent at the size of government are not driven by racism or fanaticism, as the mainstream media, left-wing bloggers and academics, and Democratic politicians contend.

Rather, those of us who oppose destructive Obama administration policies do so because we do not want our children and grandchildren to pay for our mistakes.

And we never want our children and grandchildren to ask: “But what did they do to stop it.”

Posted by John Venlet on 05/02 at 08:23 AM
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Tesla Roadster to Go the Way of the Segway

I never thought much of the Segway scooter or the hype surrounding its allegedly revolutionary launch.  If various state and local governments would not have bought Segways, due to Dean Kamen’s pleading with the State, the product would have been an utter failure.  Think of the flash of the Delorean, and its subsequent burn out.

Is this what is going to happen with Tesla Motors and their much vaunted roadster?  In a post at PapaDeltaBravo blog, titled Elctrofail, pdb states the following, after reading a Car and Driver story on the Tesla roadster titled Tesla’s 244-mile Range: What Up With Dat?

I’ll never own a car that I can’t recharge / refuel in under 5 minutes. Tesla Motors’ business model doesn’t seem to involve making useful cars that people want, but they ought to do well sucking up gov’t subsidies and tax incentives.

pdb is correct.  Tesla is already sucking up government subsidies and tax incentives, and has been since at least 2008, and probably was suckling at the State’s teat earlier than 2008.

Read that Car and Driver story on the Tesla, and then think about, if Tesla is a leader in the electrical car business, and can only supply 244 miles of range on a charge; if you’re lucky that is; with recharge times that are unpractical and expensive, the only way Tesla could survive is by attaching itself to the government’s teat, because real, day to day Americans are not going to purchase a 130K vehicle which cannot get the job done unless they are forced to by the State.

Posted by John Venlet on 05/02 at 07:38 AM
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Saturday, May 01, 2010

Yeah, That’s A Pretty Good Clue…

Torres went to the Space Coast Credit Union to pick up some cash for a cruise this weekend and was on his way out when he noticed a man walk in, give him a weird look, pull out a Walmart bag and put it on his head. It was the first sign it wasn’t going to be just any visit to the bank.

Customer Uses Own Gun To Stop Bank Robber

Via The Obscure Store.

Posted by John Venlet on 05/01 at 02:19 PM
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Stray Dogs Attempting to Invade Smokers’ Homes

Just the other day, in a post I titled If It Only Took A Broom, I noted Joan of Argghh!‘s recent personal experience with a stray dog, and the wider lesson she imparted in that essay.

I thought of Joan of Argghh!‘s essay again this morning, as I perused The Grand Rapids Press, reading the “celebratory” news stories regarding the State of Michigan’s loss of another personal freedom, via banning smoking in bars and restaurants.

Naturally, the do-gooders are waxing poetic about this loss of freedom, fussing over all the stray dogs who barked and bit, as a pack of wild animals is wont to do, to collectively devour as much of the corpse of freedom which currently remains exposed in America as wolfishly as they can.

These same stray dogs, appetites unsatiated after their rapacious raid on Michigan’s bars and restaurants, are now reforming their packs to invade private homes.

For many of the same reasons secondhand smoke is deemed harmful to humans, some studies suggest pets also are at risk of tobacco-related respiratory problems, allergies and even cancer. So as a statewide ban on workplace smoking takes hold today, one that may push smokers to light up more often in the privacy of their own home, a growing body of research begs the question: Should the ban be extended to pet owners’ homes?

Pet owners say furry friends are major incentive to quit smoking

America is going to need more than brooms to stop these packs of stray dogs, before they devour every last scrap of freedom remaining.

Posted by John Venlet on 05/01 at 11:55 AM
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Victims of Communism - May Day 2010: A Day of Remembrance

Can the atrocious and utopian notion of May Day be turned on its ear and into a meaningful day of remembering and honoring the victims of Communism?

Jonathan Wilde is making the attempt in a post titled May Day 2010: A Day of Remembrance.

Welcome to this year’s May Day commemoration. As is our tradition, today, we remember the (sic) all those who have died at the hands of communism. Their story is sometimes overlooked, usually brushed aside if acknowledged at all, and often denied outright. They deserve their day of remembrance.

Jonathan provides some additional linkage to various bloggers who are also participating in remembering and honoring the victims of Communism.

Posted by John Venlet on 05/01 at 08:48 AM
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ID, Please - Not so Innocuous A Request

Maintaining your freedom, requires diligence, and attention to detail, especially the smallest of details.  The realm of personal identification, ID or papers please, is one of those smallest of details which individuals tend to overlook, rather than scrutinize, as requests for “ID, please,” are rather ubiquitous, today, above and beyond individuals opting into ID requirement programs like reward cards, etc.

With Democrats once again raising the issue of a national ID card, attention to detail, our freedom, cannot be relaxed.

Professor Bainbridge considers this matter in a post titled A National ID Card?, from which the following is gleaned.

My initial reaction to this article was “so what?” After all, at the moment I’m carrying the following photo ID cards:

•Driver’s license
•UCLA Bruincard
•Bicycle Casino points card
•Library card

Not to mention 4 or 5 non-photo ID cards, like my Ralph’s and Von’s club cards, etcetera. What’s one more? Especially if it helps control illegal immigration?

But then I read this statement:

Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin (Ill.), who has worked on the proposal and helped unveil it at a press conference Thursday, predicted the public has become more comfortable with the idea of a national identification card.

“The biometric identification card is a critical element here,” Durbin said. “For a long time it was resisted by many groups, but now we live in a world where we take off our shoes at the airport and pull out our identification.”

And I hate that world. The ever-increasing invasions of our liberty and privacy in the name of order and security. The story about how to boil a frog is becoming an over-used metaphor, but maybe it’s relevant here. If we keep accepting little chips at our freedom, when does it stop?

I’ll tell you where: In a state where people in uniforms are forever saying “papers, please.” Do we really all want to become like Arizona?

So maybe the solution is for me to figure out how to ditch some of the ID cards I already carry instead of quietly rolling over for yet one more. (bold by ed.)

Paying attention?

Posted by John Venlet on 05/01 at 07:05 AM
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