Archive for December 2005
Businesslike
Well, I called Calaveras County Water District this morning to find out their intentions with respect to cutting their lock last Friday morning--when they should've been open for business serving their customers, but weren't. I was straight up with them: "You should have been open for business, I should have gone through the routine for not paying on time, and you should have restored service within a very short time. This was impossible due to…Read More
Why I Read Billy Beck
Yea, I know: he's rude, uncivil, abrasive, inflexible, and all that. But he will never, ever, bullshit you or lie to you. Never. Not even a little bit. Not for any reason. I've known the man for 12 years and this is the one thing I know about him with absolute clarity and certainty. He doesn't equivocate. Anyway, he had an entry about liars a couple of days ago that I'd marked and was just…Read More
Useful Idiots
It's a bonus Useful Idiots entry because I have two examples for you today. This is going to be its own category from now on. The idea is that falsehoods, hysteria, injustice, pseudoscience and more are propagated in two ways: one is through state edict and force; the other is via the Useful Idiot Network of everyday people who continually seek out external authorities in every matter of their lives, believe virtually everything they are…Read More
As I Was Just Saying
Why is it so difficult to understand that when you give someone the job of locking people up, and then make that the standard of their success and advancement, then that's what you'll get? And, you'll get it where the most important and overriding consideration is whether you can lock them up and whether you can ultimately keep them there. No other facts are really relevant. This is the greatest evil in our entire "civil"…Read More
Holiday Reflections and Roundup
A lot of variety this year. As with last year, we spent the Christmas holiday in our "cabin" in Arnold, CA, where we'll be spending it every year if I have anything to say about it. Dad & mom were there, of course, along with my brother, his wife, and their 3-yr old son, Hunter, who wanted Santa to bring him a "fire fuck." We also enjoyed the company of my dad's sister and her…Read More
The Power of Myth
Reason's Matt Welch, in a very interesting article, essentially explains why the state will never die, although I'm not altogether certain that's what he meant to convey by his article. The state, like religion, never dies. It just changes from one form to another. The essential characteristics for belief in both, however, remain resoundingly the same: "can't live without them." Never mind that religious crusades of one form or another--state or church sponsored--and state conquests--whether…Read More
That’s What You Get
Devastating articles such as this one by Reason's Ronald Bailey are what you get when you don't know what the hell you're talking about. I would suggest that you not only read the article, but take time to read the many background citings. Find out just how over-your-head most of you are in even discussing this stuff. Oh, sure, there are tens of millions, if not more, who believe profoundly that "Intelligent Design" is not…Read More
Not the Exclusive Domain
David Friedman, in his new blog, demonstrates how Intelligent Design and much of environmentalism are two sides of the exact same faith-based coin. The real objection is that its supporters are driven by religious, not scientific, motives. Somewhere in the world there must exist someone who was persuaded of its truth by scientific arguments—but looking at those arguments makes it clear that they were generated by people who knew what conclusion they wanted and were…Read More
The Things We Learn From Others
One of the greatest things about running a company with employees is that I have such opportunities to learn. I believe I've always been successful in leadership roles, going back to my days in the Navy, principally because I'm always interested in learning. I learn things all the time. Sometimes it's a principle, sometimes a rule, and sometimes just an operational fact; but it all ties in. I just said to someone in an email:…Read More
The Culture War: Two Fronts
First of all, it's not a "War on Terror." Terror is simply a tactic in the overall culture war that might be described in the whole as primitivity vs. modernity. But that's not all there is to it. There's a concurrent culture war that I might loosely characterize as post-modernity vs. Americanism. This one isn't being fought on the physical battlefield, yet, but it's being fought nonetheless. Those of us on the right, rational, and…Read More
An Intelligent Ruling on Design
Of course, within the narrow context of the US Constitution, Judge John Jones' ruling is correct. There can be no rational dispute about that. The US Constitution prohibits State advocacy of any religion, and "Intelligent Design" is repackaged religion. Jones decried the "breathtaking inanity" of the Dover policy and accused several board members of lying to conceal their true motive, which he said was to promote religion. A six-week trial over the issue yielded "overwhelming…Read More
Pride and Prejudice
Beatrice & I walked down to Caper's Loft Bar and Bistro last evening for a drink in the upstairs bar, then over to catch the 9:30 showing of Pride and Prejudice. Truth is, I've never paid much attention to Jane Austen, or her works, but I must say that I thoroughly enjoyed each of the 128 minutes of this film. Keira Knightly's performance was just perfect as Elizabeth Bennett. Of Miss Bennett, Jane Austen once…Read More
Self-Made Soul
I was thinking of the Cory Maye case the other night, wondering how people believe this sort of stuff happens. I mean, even Balko--who started the whole movement (and I want to take nothing from him for that)--doesn't seem to be able to connect dots. I wanted to stress that we shouldn't be thinking of Officer Jones as a villain. We should be thinking of him as a victim. That's just utter bullshit. And do…Read More
Feelin’ So Good, I Don’t Care That My Blog Blew Up
Well, Looks Like Typepad blew up last night and a few of my most recent posts are missing. They've got a recent back-up running until such time as all their hundreds of thousands (if not millions) of blogs can be republished from the database. I can republish manually, but at the moment, looks like everyone is trying to republish. But I feel good. I mean: good. A friend and business colleague in Pittsburgh emailed me…Read More
Will the Terrorist Paul Guerra Please Stand Up?
Since it's not this Paul Guerra, perhaps it's this one; or this one; or, one of these Paul Guerras; or this guy; or, wait...furniture...very suspicious indeed; but not as suspicious as opera; ...and here we have a Paul Guerra posing as Paulo Guerra of Portugal. Ohmygod. Bunch of incompetent, do-nothing fucks (TSA and associated entities)--who do nothing but cause problems for people who are actually productive and beneficial to civilized humanity.Read More
Cory Maye
I filed this under "Justice." Seems that whenever I post on the topic of justice, it's to catalog some enormous injustice, so perhaps I ought to rename the category. At any rate, Cory Maye was the victim of one of those late night military raids by "police" playing G.I. Joe. You know, the kind with little to no genuine self-esteem; the kind that needs to brutalize others in order to make themselves feel important and…Read More
Pretty Cool
I've never taken an online course of study, before. Sure, I've researched a million things on my own over the years and sometimes scanned through dozens and hundreds of pages on a single topic. It's really remarkable how quickly you can become conversant on virtually any topic within minutes, if you know how to use this vast Internet resource and you're not so dumb that you believe something just because it shows up on a…Read More
“We’ll Be Screwed”
I had the opportunity to speak with two attorneys for the City of San Jose last evening down at the Tied House brewpub. One is a relative, so I can't be too harsh; and besides, he beat an ex-cop in court a few years back. She sued the city 'cause they "harassed" her, she claimed, on account of her sexual preferences. Anyway, I jumped on them because San Jose's newly-completed, multi-bazillion-dollar city hall building now…Read More
Random Odds & Ends
I've really been a terrible blogger, lately. Even I can't read my own blog without becoming bored. Anyway, here's a collection of random updates and observations in no particular order. We sold our house in the 'burbs and moved back to the city. Love it. I can walk to a dozen cool restaurants & bistros, and even a 12-screen cinema with stadium seating. I'll have to snap a picture from my new home-office setup in…Read More
An Observation About Truth, its Price, and its Consequences
I've recently observed that there are numerous ways to become a villain. Of course, there always exists the old conventional ways that everyone knows about, but there's another way too: Simply insist, uncompromisingly, upon an unpleasant truth. That's what I've done, publicly even, which now makes me the 'very bad guy.' Of course, it will be protested that it's not that I'm insisting on the truth, but the way I'm going about it (exposing obvious…Read More