End the War on Freedom - Links and Commentary from my Crypto-Anarcho-Libertarian Perspective

Quote

Sat, 07 Nov 2009 01:56:56 +0000

From this speech on receiving the Outstanding Lifetime Achievement Award in Cultural Humanism at Harvard University's Memorial Church:

"Faith is something we have to embrace. Faith in God means believing, absolutely, in something, with no proof whatsoever. Faith in humanity means believing absolutely in something with a huge amount of proof to the contrary. We are the true believers."

-- Joss Whedon

A fresh way to take the salt out of seawater

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 15:39:46 +0000

The Economist - neat new desalination technology uses much less energy than former methods. [grabbe]

SodaPopStop.com

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 14:27:20 +0000

Chow.com at YouTube - John Nese, the proprietor of Galcos Soda Pop Stop in LA, talks about soda. He sells about 500 different kinds, sweetened with sugar cane sugar, whenever possible. You can order it via UPS ground at SodaPopStop.com. This guy's sheer joy is infectious. Don't miss it.

Bookase.com

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 12:50:23 +0000

Bookase.com is a book price comparison service, based in Delhi, India. Enter a book title, select the one you want from the results, and it shows prices, including shipping, for a large number of online book sellers. Worked well for the couple of samples I tried, though there was a layout problem in the results page, causing the result table to be offset to the right. Includes coupon codes to use for discounts, when applicable. No ads, except a couple of popular books listed on the home page. Appears that they make money with affiliate fees.

No More Twinkies for Obama

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 11:42:58 +0000

I have been running TwinkiesForObama.com since November 6, 2008. In that time, there have been 1891 presses on the "I Sent One" button, hopefully representing something close to that number of actual Twinkies sent to Obama, and over 20 thousand visits to the site. The domain expires tomorrow. I'm going to let it go. No longer worth the money or time it takes me to keep it running. I'll keep it up at twinkiesforobama.nfshost.com, in case I decide to repurpose it for another similar effort in the future.

The real climate change catastrophe

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 10:13:54 +0000

Christopher Booker at The Telegraph - Mr. Booker introduces his book, The Real Global Warming Disaster (Amazon), in which he tracks the history of the hoax of human-induced global warming. Not yet released in the US (that Amazon link), but you can order it from the UK via the "2 new from $19.77" link on the Amazon page, or directly form the publisher, Telegraph Books.

Quote:

Next Thursday marks the first anniversary of one of the most remarkable events ever to take place in the House of Commons. For six hours MPs debated what was far and away the most expensive piece of legislation ever put before Parliament.

The Climate Change Bill laid down that, by 2050, the British people must cut their emissions of carbon dioxide by well over 80 per cent. Short of some unimaginable technological revolution, such a target could not possibly be achieved without shutting down almost the whole of our industrialised economy, changing our way of life out of recognition.

Even the Government had to concede that the expense of doing this – which it now admits will cost us £18 billion a year for the next 40 years – would be twice the value of its supposed benefits. Yet, astonishingly, although dozens of MPs queued up to speak in favour of the Bill, only two dared to question the need for it. It passed by 463 votes to just three.

One who voted against it was Peter Lilley who, just before the vote was taken, drew the Speaker’s attention to the fact that, outside the Palace of Westminster, snow was falling, the first October snow recorded in London for 74 years. As I observed at the time: “Who says that God hasn’t got a sense of humour?”

...

Thanks to misreading the significance of a brief period of rising temperatures at the end of the 20th century, the Western world (but not India or China) is now contemplating measures that add up to the most expensive economic suicide note ever written.

Non-Aggression Principle and Vice: Where's The Crime?

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 10:04:01 +0000

Russell D. Longcore at The Libertarian Enterprise - why vice is not crime. Some things governments do routinely that are crimes.

Quote:

Punishing crime is meant to guarantee to every person the fullest liberty he can realize that is also consistent with the full liberty of others. Government should exist only to protect the liberty of the individual, and protect his life and property from force and fraud. An individual must be free in the "pursuit of happiness," even to practice vices that others detest. An individual must be free to use his own judgment, his own body and his own property without restriction so far as the use does not interfere with another individual's quiet enjoyment of his own person and property.

Everyone wants to be protected against violations from other men. But no one wants to be "protected" from himself, since someone else is determining what "protection" is.

It's Just Not Fair!

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 09:53:53 +0000

L. Neil Smith at The Libertarian Enterprise - when simple new inventions make big, complicated, old technology obsolete, it's just not fair. "Good," says Neil.

Quote:

For long years afterward, Henry VIII, who used archers to good effect, himself, had to put up with exactly the same whining: the French and other aristocrats complained bitterly about this invention, the Welsh longbow, that nullified a lifetime of training with animals and equipment in which they had invested fortunes, and which could now be defeated by mere farmers using couple of sticks and a piece of string.

"It's just not fair!"

Do what they would, the age of armored knights was over, and that was a very, very good thing. It set up the psychology under which our ancestors, equipped with another revolutionary weapon, the flintlock Pennsylvania or Kentucky rifle, cast off the rule of kings altogether. Most Americans today don't appreciate what was really revolutionary about that rifle: compared with firearms that had preceded it, it was so simple in design and cheap to manufacture, every family could own one.

Politicians and bureaucrats still haven't gotten over it.

Make Your Own Flu Shot

Sat, 31 Oct 2009 12:48:44 +0000

YouTube - If I lived in Canada, I'd probably recognize this guy, but I don't, and I don't. Funny, though. And frightening. [militant]

Physicist Howard Hayden's one-letter disproof of global warming claims

Fri, 30 Oct 2009 12:39:14 +0000

Stephan Kinsella at The Mises Economics Blog - short intro and reprint of a letter that a Professor Emeritus of Physics at UConn wrote to the EPA. Why the science is most assuredly NOT settled on CO2 and climate, and why there's no such thing as a "tipping point" to the CO2 levels in the atmosphere.

Quote:

It has been often said that the "science is settled" on the issue of CO2 and climate. Let me put this claim to rest with a simple one-letter proof that it is false.

The letter is s, the one that changes model into models. If the science were settled, there would be precisely one model, and it would be in agreement with measurements.

Alternatively, one may ask which one of the twenty-some models settled the science so that all the rest could be discarded along with the research funds that have kept those models alive.

We can take this further. Not a single climate model predicted the current cooling phase. If the science were settled, the model (singular) would have predicted it.

GeoBulb Arrives

Wed, 28 Oct 2009 18:02:47 +0000

I received today from C. Crane my first GeoBulb. It's a GeoBulb II in cool white. Standard Edison socket, 60 watt equivalent light, draws 7.5 watts, 30,000 hour life, $50 plus shipping. The bulb is quite heavy, relative to the incandescent bulb it replaced. It's cool to the touch when illuminated. Nice white light. It buzzes softly, but I only hear it if I put my ear within a few inches. Won't be able to fully judge it until the sun goes down, and when I discover if it really does last for three years, but so far I'm happy with it.

GeoBulb Box

Made in China

Well-packaged

With my old full spectrum incandescent bulb

In my 35-year-old desk lamp

Flawed climate data

Wed, 28 Oct 2009 15:07:36 +0000

Ross McKitrick at Financial Post - I had been convinced that the earth really was warming, just that we humans didn't have much, if anything, to do with it. This article challenges the former. More evidence that the whole global warming fairy tale was a huge lie from start to finish. Those hockey stick graphs? Fabrications.

Quote:

I have been probing the arguments for global warming for well over a decade. In collaboration with a lot of excellent coauthors I have consistently found that when the layers get peeled back, what lies at the core is either flawed, misleading or simply non-existent. The surface temperature data is a contaminated mess with a significant warm bias, and as I have detailed elsewhere the IPCC fabricated evidence in its 2007 report to cover up the problem. Climate models are in gross disagreement with observations, and the discrepancy is growing with each passing year. The often-hyped claim that the modern climate has departed from natural variability depended on flawed statistical methods and low-quality data. The IPCC review process, of which I was a member last time, is nothing at all like what the public has been told: Conflicts of interest are endemic, critical evidence is systematically ignored and there are no effective checks and balances against bias or distortion.

...

Ross McKitrick is a professor of environmental economics at the University of Guelph, and coauthor of Taken By Storm: The Troubled Science, Policy and Politics of Global Warming.

Absolved: Chapter 31, Black and Tans

Wed, 28 Oct 2009 13:47:26 +0000

Mike Vanderboegh - a patriot packs a crop-duster with an air-fuel bomb, and brings down hell-fire on the Brightfire mercenaries in Vanderboegh's novel of a near-future America. I remember enjoying this the first time I read it, many months ago. Didn't cheer out loud this time, since I knew what was going to happen, but I enjoyed re-reading it. Getting excited about the coming release of the book.

For the 2010 Census: Name and Address Only

Wed, 28 Oct 2009 13:21:18 +0000

Paul Galvin at LewRockwell.com - when the census taker comes to your door next year, Mr. Galvin recommends that you hold the feds to their Constitutional authority. Tell her only your name and address.

Quote:

Readers will note that the Constitution simply authorizes an enumeration, a counting of heads. Not an enumeration by race, Hispanic ethnicity, personal relationships, or by the manner in which a person occupies his/her home ("tenure" in census-speak). Not an enumeration by one’s labor force status, by health insurance coverage, by disability status, by level of education. Not an enumeration of the number of bedrooms, kitchens, cars, distances/times traveled to work, school. Not an enumeration of the amount of income made, or by the answers to numerous other nosy questions found in the American Community Survey. Just a simple counting of the number of people. Madison’s extensive notes on the 1787 Convention contain not one word about the delegates spending any of their valuable time discussing the issues of race, Hispanic origins, personal relationships, or plumbing.

Surprised by Disaster

Tue, 27 Oct 2009 21:29:10 +0000

Fred Reed at LewRockwell.com - I doubt this is accurate, and I'm sure one of the colonels Reed pisses on could tear it to shreds, but it sure was entertaining.

Quote:

In re Afghanistan, why, you might ask, is the world’s hugest, expensivest, most begadgeted military unable to defeat a few thousand angry tribesmen armed with AKs and RPGs?

Easy: Character. The men running the war are mentally the wrong ones to do it.

Think about this for a moment. Suppose that your boss at the lab or law firm or newsroom demanded that, when he entered the room, you leapt spasmodically to your feet, stood rigidly erect with your feet at a forty-five degree angle like a congenitally deformed duck, and stared straight ahead until he gave you permission to relax. You would think, correctly, that he was crazy as a bedbug. If he then required reporters to stand in a square so he could inspect their belt buckles, you would either figure he was a gay blade or call for a struggle buggy and some big orderlies. This weird posturing is not normal, nor are those it appeals to.