Archives for December 2005

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 your unwarranted closure, I had prior commitments, so I cut your lock."

Well, I’m happy to report that they were very businesslike about it. I’d done my research, prior, and turns out they can prosecute under Section 625 of the California Penal Code (misdemeanor offense). Instead, they charged $32 for replacement of the lock, were happy to take a credit card, and were also happy to take an additional $50 so I’d be paid up a coupla months in advance. Sold.

Alright then.

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 waiting for an appropriate segue to present itself. Then, last night I was driving over to Home Depot on an important mission: to get one of these awesome ladders that you may have seen on TV. They have them, but under a different label (Gorilla Ladders). Same ladders, 1/2 the price. Paid $200 instead of $400 for the one that extends up to 19′. I can get it in the front door of our loft, store it completely out of sight in the furnace room, yet replace a light bulb in the tract lighting 18′ up on the ceiling (or hang antique Chinese scrolls 15′ up, which is what I did last night). After watching the electricians haul up their conventional 20′ extension ladders over the railing of the outside balcony (can’t get them through the front door), I feel so superior and pleased. But I digress.

So I’m going over to Home Depot and I hear this ridiculous news report about how the Gorillas of the TSA are going to start chatting people up. First thing I wonder is how all those English-as-distant-second-language folks are going to handle that one, and what happens if I don’t speak Tagalog when I next fly out of SFO? Bless the hearts of immigrants, really, but curse the bureaubot functionaries in our government, who specifically target immigrants for lifetime, valueless–and often value-destroying–"jobs."

The next thing I wonder is if Billy will have an entry on this. Sure enough, and you’re a ‘goddamned dope’ if you don’t go immediately and read the whole thing. I was particularly fond of this paragraph, which I think is pure art:

Let me tell you something: you haven’t plumbed the depths of these
peoples’ puffery until you’ve watched some dumpy broad with a gun and a
uniform shooing-away a van unloading passengers and baggage at the airport at Dayton, Ohio on the premise that…well, it’s such
a juicy target for exploding-van terrorism that it needs a single
dumpy-ass broad with a gun glaring her resentments over a shitty job to
save the country from a family trying to get grandma and grandpop on
the plane to Memphis.

Hah! If only it was funny in reality.

So, Ok, the one I was going to blog the other day can be found and read right here. It’s of far more serious implications than the other; far more important.

"No enemies on the Left." That was the deal.  And there was no price too high for others
to pay while these moral monsters were held out as courageous crusaders
for the noble experiment of socialism. Robeson held his awful secrets
for nearly thirty years as his "friend" mouldered in the grave.

Indeed.

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 told by these external authorities, and become activists for "the cause" to varying degree. Nowadays, state force often comes on the scene after the Useful Idiot Network has paved the way by whipping up its series of "problems" where none previously existed or needed to exist.

When the state initiates force–from demanding a building permit to locking up peaceful people to stealing our incomes in taxation–it is always evil, all of the time, in any and all degree that it exists. When mysticism, lies, and hysteria are propagated–not by force, but by Useful Idiots–it’s evidence that very nearly all of the world’s population is utterly and completely stupid; i.e., they can and do believe virtually anything and everything and will perpetuate or acquiesce to virtually any evil in order to advance or protect themselves.

While human beings are capable of so much greatness, they’re also capable of great evil. They are lazy, by nature, and thus live mostly mediocre, short, unhappy lives waiting to die; where they hope to subsequently "live" an unearned, effortless life in "paradise."  Most people believe some form of this. I know…

The first example is from Kyle Bennett. I too never believed that sun-causes-skin-cancer hysteria for a single minute. Turns out that not only does the sun not typically cause skin cancer, but the minuscule risk one avoids by staying out of the sun or by using UV blockers comes at a far higher price. Well, in my experience, 99.99999% of people are complete and total morons when it comes to cost vs. risk analysis.

You watch. Someday the second-hand-smoke-causes-lung-cancer hysteria will be equally exposed for the utter bullshit it has always been. Here’s your chance to stop being a moron about that one right here and now (as an added bonus!).

My second example actually comes from an article that I quoted in an entry yesterday, but before I cite it, how abouts a little quiz. Now, read the following passage and see if you can guess what this awful, dangerous, genetically engineered substance is.

Strange is the word, for […] is a genetic monster. A typical […] is hexaploid—it has six copies of each gene, where most
creatures have two. Its 21 chromosomes contain a massive 16 billion
base pairs of DNA, 40 times as much as […], six times as much as […] and five times as much as […]. It
is derived from […] in two separate mergers.
The first took place in […] years ago, the second […] years later.

So, what is this monster, created by mad scientists? Pay attention, because I’m trying to cure you from henceforth being a fucking moron; easy prey for the Useful Idiot Network:

Strange is the word, for wheat is a genetic
monster. A typical wheat variety is hexaploid—it has six copies of each
gene, where most creatures have two. Its 21 chromosomes contain a
massive 16 billion base pairs of DNA, 40
times as much as rice, six times as much as maize and five times as
much as people. It is derived from three wild ancestral species in two
separate mergers. The first took place in the Levant 10,000 years ago,
the second near the Caspian Sea 2,000 years later. The result was a
plant with extra-large seeds incapable of dispersal in the wild,
dependent entirely on people to sow them.

Yes, that’s right: wheat. No, not "Good Earth," you moron. "Good Man." Man genetically engineered wheat, beginning about 10,000 ago, and the genetic manipulation, mutation, evolution continues to this day; only now it’s far more precise, efficient, rapid, and beneficial in terms of yield per acre, climate sensitivity, drought tolerance, and pest tolerance.

Same thing with corn, rice, and a host of other stuff. Virtually all fruits, vegetables, and livestock that we eat on a daily basis were genetically engineered by man going back thousands of years. Even your dog and cat were man made genetically engineered mutations.

"Natural" does not mean better. It doesn’t even necessarily mean good. Arsenic is "natural." Natural is simply what is. The world that people believe God made could support at most a few hundred-thousand people. And, they died early. Man came along and added goodness out of the "God-created" malevolent, harsh, and short existence. He created food that would sustain billions, built massive structures to shelter them, invented textiles to cloth them, and discovered medicines and technologies to sustain and extend their lives to double and triple what the inferior "God-created" world allowed for.

Your choice is clear, and how you view existence and man’s role in it will determine whether you lead the way forward or become useful fodder for those who must live off of the values created and produced by others.

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" society and it is being perpetuated upon us by thugs in blue uniforms, investigators, prosecutors, judges, and good-German juries

I was just saying it the other day.

I really don’t understand this
propensity to excuse people who chooses to actively destroy someone
else, their property, their livelihood, or their freedom for the
express purpose of "doing a job," which is to say, to advance themselves. To me, this is the absolute incarnation of evil. Man created evil. The only sort of evil that exists.

And that’s not even all of it. I can look the other way when one predator (police) goes after another predator (criminal). It’s really just like mobsters and gangsters eating one-another, and there are no important distinctions to make; none whatsoever. What I can not suffer, at all, is when criminals are manufactured–by the mere definition and interpretation of a statute, and when they haven’t harmed anyone else and don’t seem very likely to do so.

Why do we manufacture them? We do so because there are those among us with a mandate to lock people up, and locking up people who do harm others and who are a real and present risk to peaceful people is difficult, for one, and dangerous, for another. It’s so much easier, less risky, the pay is the same, and they even hand out bullshit commendations for locking up plain old ordinary folks who aren’t harming anyone.

Don’t believe me? Try this.

And do me a favor; sneer the next time someone tells you how great the cops are.

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 husband.

Beatrice and I arrived Thursday evening. The others would not begin arriving until the next afternoon. As I go through my routine to get the heat going, the water heater on, and the water turned on we notice a problem. No water. I go back out the the main and find that the county had shut off the supply and padlocked it. Then I noticed the fresh footprints in the mud. It was raining, so it had been shut off within the last few hours. I don’t recall neglecting the $22 monthly water bill, but then again, we just moved, so who knows what got neglected in the shuffle. Bottom line is that if I didn’t pay for the service, it’s my fault.

I raced to the phone, got the book and began searching for the water district amongst the County offices. Turns out they have listed the Drug & Alcohol Abuse Prevention office, the Smoking Cessation Assistance office, the Equal Opportunity Employment office, and various other assorted and sundry offices for which I have great difficulty imagining a purpose so profound as running water. Sure enough: no listing in the phone book, which I confirmed by calling 411. They did have a number for the Blue Lake Springs water service. That’s a homeowners association just up the road. Called, left a message, and the guy called me back in five minutes. Turns out they have their own water supply, and he could have had me back up in 10 minutes. But I’m stuck with the county. He gives me the number for the water district.

I call. It’s 7 p.m. by this time. The offices are closed, but their answering service picks up. It’s for emergencies only, like water main breaks and such. Water shut off? Can’t help until next Tuesday. It’s Thursday, December 22. The county has decided to take Friday and Monday off, and not even provide essential services like restoring water service. Look, if I didn’t pay the bill, then regardless of the reason, I deserve some reasonable level of inconvenience and additional cost to restore service. But these guys turned it off for a $22 bill just hours before they knew they were going on a four-day holiday over the most festive time of the year. That I had family coming up the next day for the weekend? Sorry. That’s just mean to an extent I can hardly imagine.

So, I did what I did, which was to be at Ace Hardware when the doors opened at 7 a.m. where I purchased a 24" bolt cutter for $30, destroyed the county’s padlock, and "restored service." I’ll send the county $100 this week. Hopefully, they’ll drop it. We’ll see.

Bea and I spend Friday doing some cleaning, organizing, and setting up decorations. I come up with three large boxes of books I’ve had for years. Lots of layman science books, business books, and chess books amongst a few other types. I took them down the hill to Highland Books where she takes a good three stacks of them and complements me on the sorts of books I have (there were maybe three novels in all). She gives me a $49 credit, which I considered splendid. I dropped what she didn’t take over at the library.

Our family began to arrive shortly after and we proceeded to imbibe holiday cheer and whatnot, and my brother and I fixed a spaghetti dinner with an Italian-sausage & mushroom sauce, complete with Caesar salad and garlic bread.

For breakfast, Mike & I fixed scrambled eggs cooked on low heat, stirred continuously until reaching a cottage cheese consistency, at which point they are done. This was accompanied by fresh, thick-sliced, applewood-smoked bacon from the local butcher, cooked to what my brother and I call "JBC" (just before crispy). We also split a fresh, sweet baguette down the middle, toasted it under the broiler (both sides) and then buttered it.

Saturday, I first went down to Highland books to cash in my credit. I walked away with an enormous leather-bound, two-volume set of world history. Lot’s of illustrations. It will take a couple of years of trips up to the cabin to get through it all. I got two wonderful, large pictorial histories of WWII. You’ll melt away hours in either of those. I got David Eisenhower’s account of Dwight D’s war years; the abridged version of Winston Churchill’s memoirs of WWII; Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire. Three of Solzhenitsyn’s works, though she didn’t have The Gulag Archipelago at the moment. Got a small, interesting looking paperback on the Russian Revolution and a couple of other things. Ended up spending the credit and then some, but I couldn’t be happier. As I told the owner, I now have a dozen more reasons not to get TV service up there.

After that, we went shopping, and since the recent storms had curtailed the crab catch, I had to forgo dungeness in favor of king crab legs. Mom provided the many wonderful and varied hors d’oeuvres while my brother and I prepared dinner. To accompany the crab, which we grilled lightly on the bar-b-que outside, we had chilled, crisp iceberg lettuce with radishes, tossed with chilled thousand-island dressing so as to thoroughly but thinly coat the lettuce. Drawn butter, of course, and I made up a garlic and lemon remoulade as a change-up for the drawn butter. And, none of it would be complete without a fresh sourdough baguette with crispy–yet chewy–crust from the local bakery, accompanied by unsalted (sweet) butter.

That evening, we watch The Emperor’s Club on DVD and I was suitably uplifted.

Sunday, Christmas morning, brought gift exchanges, and yes, Hunter got his "fire fuck," a two foot (at least) Tonka monstrosity with motorized ladder and the whole works. He also got fireman garb, including the yellow vinyl coat, complete with insignias. Then we went down the hill to the local cafe, under new ownership, where they’re doing a bang-up job keeping the locals and us vacationers happy. Bea and I actually considered buying that restaurant a few months back, but then I looked at their income statement and regained my sanity. It’s another story.

The local fire station is right next to the cafe, and seemingly far better than had it been planned, one of their bay doors was open and someone suggested that we take Hunter over to look at some real fire trucks. I’ll mention, offhandedly, that these were the guys who saved our cabin from burning completely to the ground nearly three years ago. They responded in 3 minutes from the time our neighbor saw the fire and called. As you would expect, they acted as though getting a Christmas morning visit from a 3-yr-old in the midst of his "fireman stage" was a gift from God himself. They pulled out all the stops, even pulling Engine 435 out of the bay and firing up the pumps so that Hunter could man the hose. You couldn’t have gotten that smile off his face with a crow bar. Good show, guys, all around. Later, Hunter and his dad delivered a plate of homemade Christmas cakes and candies in appreciation.

The afternoon couldn’t come fast enough, ’cause we had serious plans. This involved even more Christmas cheer, more and varied hors d’oeuvres, and a dinner consisting of prime rib, wasabi mashed potatoes, fresh green snap beans cooked all afternoon in onions and butter, and to begin with, a french-onion soup so sublime that I will fail utterly to describe its grace in mere words.

I had intended to slow-cook the prime rib to 118 degrees in the center. No more, no less. But time got away from me, I didn’t get it in the oven until 4, and by 5:30, I threw in the towel and turned up the heat to 350. The advantage of a slow cook is that the prime rib is pink medium rare from about 1/4" from the outside, all the way through. As it was, we got well done for about 3/4" and the rest was perfectly pink. My dad’s sister made the french onion soup. You must understand: this is like nothing you’ve ever experienced. We’re not talking canned beef stock, here. We’re talking beef bones cut up and broiled brown then boiled, then reduced at low heat to a virtual demiglace. Forget, really, about the onion, the crouton, and the melted gruyere. It’s in the broth. The flavor is immense. Indescribable. The pomme de terre puree is done in my style, which means: lots of butter, a bit of heavy cream, and just enough wasabi as to have guest ask, "what’s that taste?" Also, you must melt the butter and keep it hot; nuke the heavy cream as well. You don’t want to compromise the heat within the potatoes in order to melt a couple of cubes of cold butter.

At that point, the Holiday was just about a wrap. We watched a "Two Thumbs Up" film on DVD that was so boring that I can’t even remember its title. But everything else was so perfect, it didn’t matter. I wish the rest of the year was so intense and enjoyable; and it should be.

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 secular or religious–have been responsible for more murders than all other forms of death combined, save for natural causes. We are talking in the many hundreds of millions.

Now, contrast that with science, agriculture, and industry. Contrast that with arguably the greatest savior of mankind in all of human history (odds are that you have never in your life heard his name; and that should tell you just about all you need to know about the current state of human culture: from top to bottom and wall to wall).

But instead, we moronically reject what is right in front of our eyes, choosing instead to believe and trust that "Jesus is coming again," and/or that "The President will save us." Of course, all will be paradise, then. The underlying structure of the belief and trust is identical.

It’s true that it’s difficult, if not impossible, to argue against the benefits people perceive that they get from their religious myths, and what they think they receive from the state. It’s so hard because people don’t seem to know or care to understand where their values actually come from. Just ask Norman Borlaug, for example. You could also go ask any of those "Robber Barons" from the past, along with current Satans like Bill Gates. No, nobody will ask them. But they’ll ask the likes of Dan Rather, Barbara Walters, Oprah. In business, they’ll ask those who are ultimately failures in business, or those who "teach" it, but have never created a value or signed a paycheck in their lives.

They’ll ask their minister–who hasn’t seen hide nor hair of God, either. They’ll ask every form of parasite, hanger on, and poseur imaginable. They will never get to the true sources of their values in physical form, and thus will never understand the ultimate and fundamental source of every single value they hold dear: man’s mind.

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 only true, but is a perfectly valid scientific theory. But most are also ignorant of most of what constitutes science and how it’s conducted. High school lab just doesn’t give people anywhere near the background needed to understand how bad ID is, as science.

This gives us the very odd spectacle of layman believing ID based on [their knowledge of] science and the few "real scientists" who believe it, based on faith, because their faith comes before scientific observation.

Personally, my very biggest problem with this "theory" is that it’s a profound non-explanation that religionists have the effrontery to call "science." It’s an insolent slap in the face of science, the traditions of which are great and important. Science endeavors to actually explain things, not throw up its hands, essentially exclaiming that it’s just too complex to understand, so it must have been magic.

What an utter disgrace, smearing the human ability to gain knowledge in that way. Christians ought to be ashamed of themselves, first, and second, stay the hell away from science, the grandest traditions of which have always been to shed light upon their dark-ages primitivity.

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 doing their best to fudge up
reasons to believe it.

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:

This is why sensory perception and reason are primary, which is to say, they supersede and overrule faith. Otherwise, you would obviously be dead.

Since sensory perception and reason overrule faith anyway, I have absolutely no need of it. Every exercise of it is a detriment to happiness and success in my life. I loath the human propensity to exercise faith, which I firmly believe is rooted in nothing more than abject laziness. It is one of our greatest vices as human beings. It’s anti human-life. Straight from the devil, if you ask me.

Let me ask you this: if you have faith, what need do you have of learning anything from anyone? How can it possibly matter? What it is tied to; grounded in? How can it be verified as truth, when belief is the standard and not evidence and reality? Faith and truth, in fact, are oxymoronic in nature. It’s when your adherence is not to the truth that you are in most need of faith.

Almost a year and a half ago, I hired a sales manager that was grossly overqualified. Due to some relevant circumstances, I hired him anyway, and I’ve learned a lot from him, particularly about how to hire good people. I’ve always been aware of the management credo of "finding good people." What I’ve learned is that there’s finding good people, and then there’s finding good people. It’s just like anything else. It’s hard, excruciating work. There’s almost nothing I loathe more than sifting through stacks of hyped resumes full of BS. But I’ll tell you what: there is nothing more profound in an organization, particularly a small one, than the difference between a really great employee and an adequate, OK employee.

Let me give you an example of a great employee. Today, I had the lead sales person (hired by the new sales manager) uncharacteristically come into my office (she’s always working), and I thought she was going to burst into tears with gratitude. You see, some months back, she fell some dozens of feet from a cliff into a shallow pool of water while hiking in Hawaii. Very lucky she wasn’t killed. Fairly sever injuries. I believe she was at home for more than a month. Turns out that in spite of the severe back and neck pain, she began making sales calls from home as soon as she could. Racked up a telephone bill in excess of $1000. She also paid to extend her health insurance from her previous employer instead of going on ours at her 90-day point.

Now, mind you, these expenses were months ago by now, and she never said anything. But it eventually got out, and then I found out. When I did, I ordered that she be immediately reimbursed for not only the phone expenses, but her insurance premiums as well, since she’d delayed going on our health coverage due to the extent of the injuries.

Contrast that with a person who milks the injury for everything they can, makes sure we get invoices for every possible reimbursement as soon as possible–with copies in triplicate to the union rep and local labor department. Contrast that with the job I’m most likely to get when that person’s at work.

Believe me. There is very little in the hiring process to which you can be subjected that isn’t worth going that extra mile for a really great employee. Never, ever, go it on faith. I certainly never will again.

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 honest side of history are really in a two-front war.

To sum up the idea, Wal-Mart and the essential Americanism it so righteously symbolizes in so many important ways is so evil as to make Saddam Hussein, Bin Laden, and al-Zarqawi palatable by comparison. Thoughts of suburban and rural inhabitants lined up in hoards to load up on all the latest bargains at rock-bottom prices, all without any regard or need whatever for their urban "superiors," makes visions of Middle-Eastern women as chattel more than tolerable.

This, folks, is the depth of the depravity we’re dealing with: at the intellectual level. It’s a hatred of what America truly symbolizes so profound that it will even be complicit in mass murder, should mass murderers stand against or in contrast to its number one nemesis: America. Had it not been for the many decades of the evil embodied by the USSR, I would not have even imagined the levels of internal and external dishonesty to which human beings can ascend. It is tantamount to a reversion to the most primitive human social order: tribalism. Allegiance to the tribe is paramount and absolute. Honesty, reality? Not primal. Not ultimately necessary. Intelligence is the value, not honest integration with the truth that human beings exist as beings of a certain immutable nature that supersedes all contrived social designs. Intelligence is amoral, which is to say that it is merely a tool: a tool for evil, or a tool for good. Very intelligent, can indeed mean: utmost evil.

But far more important is to understand why, this depth of hatred. The left, represented by the political culture that has dominated Europe for decades, and academia and the activist class in the U.S., should know one thing for certain: The America they despise and fight tirelessly and dishonestly against does not need them. Quite the contrary. In fact, for a half-century, the security of Europe relied almost exclusively upon the American soldier. The America symbolized by a culture that sees more value in Wal-Mart than, say, a gay-pride parade, relies upon the men of science and business who create and distribute the wealth in myriad ways that people desire.

Do note that every cause taken up by the left, at root, attacks the American ideal of productivity, self-reliance, self-direction, and self-made prosperity. So, at base, this "post-modernism vs. Americanism," as I’ve called it, could more fundamentally be thought of as parasites vs. producers. The left finds an ally in the primitives, who wish to essentially destroy American productivity, because productivity needs neither the primitive nor the parasites. The contrary is the truth. The left can never admit that their very survival depends upon the producers they so revile.

And here is where is all comes together, so pay attention: The natural result is that they, the left, must eternally attack the producers in order to appear superior; in order to foist unearned guilt, the road to control and influence. It’s a tenuous position, for, all the producers need do is lethally ostracize the parasitic left, by which I mean that they perish or become that which they despise: net producers.

Well, I’d intended to write something about this latest VDH paper.

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 evidence"
establishing that intelligent design "is a religious view, a mere
re-labeling of creationism, and not a scientific theory," said Jones, a
Republican and a churchgoer appointed to the federal bench three years
ago.

I applaud Judge Jones on his objectivity.

In a wider context, children ought to be taught and instilled the values their parents would impart to them, at their own expense, of course, living with the full consequences of what they do (or don’t) teach them. But in our greater "wisdom," we have instead devised a system where everyone pays the cost of education for everyone but themselves; thus, no one owns it, no one has an absolute say in what’s taught, and no one is happy with the product or the result.

Rather than focusing on what we will learn, we focus instead on what we will "teach" to others. Our "wisdom" knows no bounds.

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 wrote:

"I must confess that I think her as delightful a
character as ever appeared in print, and how I shall be able to tolerate those
who do not like her at least, I do not know."

It would be hard for me to grasp how that could not have been their guiding light in making this film. Go see it.

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 you know why? Because what is happening to Cory Maye didn’t "just happen." It was caused to happen. Officer Jones decided that how people manage their own affairs, to include chemicals they put in their own bodies, was somehow his business. Officer Jones decided that he would gather an armed force dressed in paramilitary gear and break down doors without any knowledge of who might be behind them or what private activities might be taking place. Officer Jones did all this, most obviously, to further his career as a 4th generation police officer.

So, in essence, rather than adopt the valuable role of a circumspect and responsible public protector and servant, he chose a far easier path to prestige and recognition. He chose the path that criminalizes peaceful people who engage in a popular, mutually consensual behavior. Since it’s popular, there’s a lot of it. Hence, there’s a lot of "criminals." Hence, there’s a lot of opportunity for whipping up a bunch of problems where there really aren’t any, in order to gain a lot of attention and prestige. Officer Jones wanted to advance, but rather than doing so by producing values that don’t harm others in the process, he was willing to advance himself by risking the lives of people doing nothing to harm anyone else. And, where these people aren’t killed in defending themselves and their property in a late-night, covert-ops raid, they’re then convicted in court, imprisoned, and the rest of their lives ruined. And it’s all so that people like Officer Jones and his ilk get to feel worthy, big, and important.

So, uh, yes; I question the hell out of people’s motives. Do you know why? Because good and evil aren’t ambiguous. The values necessary to live a human life are not a mystery. The virtues that are the part and parcel of pursuing the values necessary to live a human life are perfectly available to anyone honest enough with reality to recognize them.

Ayn Rand once wrote that "man is a being of self-made soul;" and while I don’t believe in a benevolent God, neither do I believe in a malevolent Satan. The good is all that is necessary and essential to man’s life in terms of values and honest actions in pursuit of those values. The evil is that which seeks to destroy these values or to parasitically live or advance an unearned life by feeding off of the values produced by others.

Evil exists only in the actions of human beings.

I really don’t understand this propensity to excuse people who chooses to actively destroy someone else, their property, their livelihood, or their freedom for the express purpose of "doing a job," which is to say, to advance themselves. To me, this is the absolute incarnation of evil. Man created evil. The only sort of evil that exists.

Jones was pure evil where it really counts, his other "virtues" notwithstanding, and I’m glad his plan to advance himself by destroying the lives of others turned out exactly the opposite. Sometimes, we get a little true justice here and there.

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 this morning after I emailed him yesterday, apologizing for not returning his call of a few days ago:

Just get well, Richard. There is almost no better feeling than feeling good
after you have been feeling bad.

Aint that the truth? Other than the once or twice a year cold, I get sick enough to crawl into bed about once every two years, and it’s normally no longer than a day. This time put me down for four days. No idea what it was, but it was long enough I completely forgot what it was like to feel good.

But I’m back now, and I just really can’t believe how good it feels to feel good.

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.

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 worthy. Yea, it was the wrong place, again. This time, however, things went the other way. Mr. Maye heroically met his moral obligation to protect himself and his sleeping daughter, and luckily enough, it was one of the "protect-and-serve" guys that got killed (yes, I’m blood-lust glad for that fact; regretful only that I’m not presently disposed to go piss on his grave). Turns out it was the police chief’s son. Double-plus good. Thrilled for his loss.

So, no real surprise, now, that Mr. Maye, a black man in small-town Mississippi, having been convicted by an all-white jury, now sits on death row.

Here’s links to the whole story: Radley Balko, who has taken this on as a bit of a cause and has been investigation and posting updates; Billy Beck; FMNN.

How many cops sit on death row–or even in prison for that matter–for the times when the truly innocent guy gets killed in one of these insane, late-night raids on the wrong house? You know the answer. Do you know the implications?

How long will you live in your "land-of-the-free" fantasy?

UPDATE: See here for a roundup and clarification on some initial allegations that have turned out to be false.

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 computer screen.

I’m beginning to lightly dabble in the area of currency trading, having finally settled in on a profitable options trading strategy that nets a pretty consistent 5-10% return per month. Problem is, it’s boring. It involves trading bear call spreads and bull put spreads on the SPX, which is the index traded fund representing the S&P 500. Essentially, you make your plays at the beginning of the month and wait for the options to expire. These are credit spreads, so the option you sell is more valuable that the option you buy (as a hedge), the difference being the credit that you keep. So long as your spread stays out of the money by the time the options expire in a few weeks, you walk away with the credit you earned at time of the transaction. The cool thing is that if things start to go wrong, there are numerous was to defend your position. But, it’s generally pretty boring. This is good, since I don’t have time to monitor positions all day long.

Currency trading is 24×7. You can literally log in at two in the morning anywhere in the world and trade currencies online. And, currency trading is very suitable for making very short-term trades, like only being in a position for a matter of minutes.

So, with my background of education in stocks and options, which consisted of books, DVDs, and personal coaching, I decided on a "power-course" in currency trading through FXCM. It’s online, and the format is very interesting. Essentially, they use a contemporary BBS sort of interface where an initial post is made and then there are replies and follow-ups. The instructor posts the lesson, which really resembles a classroom lecture with illustrations on the whiteborad in the form of graphical images. Students then post replies in the form of questions and the instructors follow up with more detailed information/clarification, and even more graphical representation.

It’s slick as hell, and best of all, I can go back and review all the lessons and questions and detaied answers as often as I like. What’s more, I can take the lessons whenever I like. This isn’t happening in real time. For instance, I’m reviewing Wednesday’s lesson right now, on Friday. If I think of a question, I can still ask it, the instructor will post a reply, and other students will be alerted that there’s a new question and reply on that previous lesson when they next log in.

I’m only just getting started with it, so maybe an update in a week or so.

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 occupies the spot formerly occupied by some local establishments I used to frequent when I previously lived downtown–Taco Bell being prominent among them. City Hall is now the largest, tallest, most prominent building in San Jose–although it should be pointed out that there’s a height restriction to the west–where most of the buildings are–due to final approach into the airport. Adobe, because they couldn’t go high, built three separate towers that I think look great.

So, a brief discussion of eminent domain ensued. And, during that discussion, I learned that the landowners "made out like bandits." The city didn’t "have to" undertake an eminent domain action. I didn’t think I’d get much mileage pointing out that it doesn’t matter what price the landowners received because it wasn’t a voluntary transaction. Even if no eminent domain action was undertaken, the threat of action was there.

The state never has moral authority behind anything they do, for the fundamental reason that they operate through the overt use of force; and where not, they operate through the implicit and explicit threat of force, between which, there is no meaningful distinction to make.

In the end, the fundamental justification I received for the use of eminent domain powers is that "we’ll be screwed if we don’t put it here." Now, consider that for a second; the raw audacity of it. We’re talking about people who supposedly own land, homes, commercial buildings, and businesses. The city dreams up some "plan" on how it will next use the money that’s taken from you in various forms of taxation. It’s then determined that they, the city, "will be screwed" if their planned development isn’t built on the spot they deem best suited. In order to keep from "being screwed" in undertaking their designs with your money, they’ll screw any landowner who won’t accept whatever terms they’re willing to offer.

Of course, I know I’m barking up the wrong tree just about everywhere. Eminent domain, after all, is contained within the sacred US Constitution. Public use, right? Yea, I do, in fact, see a huge difference between a Costco–that delivers high-quality merchandise at the lowest prices anywhere, saving its hundreds of thousands of customers (I’m talkin’ one location) hundreds and thousands of dollars per year, benefiting the local community in providing solid well-paying jobs for lots of employees–and a city hall, county office, or state house that taxes people to ruin, runs a bloated bureaucracy mostly composed of méchant do-nothings who do nothing but create problems for local businesses, which are the real benefactors of the community, and then takes their property from them by forced sale. Indeed, there’s quite a difference.

Just try to remember all that the next time you make meaningless distinctions between eminent domain for "public" and "private" uses. The distinction has no moreal standing because it’s taking property either way, and that’s normally wrong. Moreover, the distinction you usually make is quite untenable, as you should now be able to see quite clearly. The real distintion to make is between creators, benefactors, net producers of value for society and destroyers, parasites, net consumers of values often stolen from society by force.

If public benefit were not only the standard, but exercised in fully integrated, full-context honesty and not the typical state, media, commie, useful idiot (that’s most of you) deception standard, "eminent domain" would mean tearing up city, county, state, and federal property right and left to make way for auto factories, computer, software, and biotech R&D and manufacturing plants, and Costcos and Wal-Marts galore. And that’s just to get started.

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 the new place (a loft). To paint a mental picture, imagine 18 ft. ceilings with my desk at about the 9 ft platform level, looking out the front, which is mostly window.

In the spirit of downsizing and getting sportier, I sold my Hummer H2 and got a 2006 BMW X5 with the 4.4 liter V8. That’s 315 HP in a car that weighs in less than 5,000 lbs. It has a, get this: 6-speed automatic transmission. I can tell you that I am very, very good with a stick and clutch, going way back. If you were in an automatic, I could spot you a whole lot of horsepower, ’cause there was no way you were going to out-accelerate me. That’s all changed, now. In sport-shift mode, I’d swear I’ve got Shirley Muldowney doing my shifting for me. It even downshifts as it senses deceleration, so that if, say, you’re rounding a bend, it’s already downshifting to 3rd or 2nd as you come through, so you’re right and ready to accelerate through the turn. Brilliant.

Anyway, I’ve never owned a BMW before, and now I honestly regret that. There’s not a thing I don’t love about this car. I don’t know whether it’s ‘the ultimate,’ or not, but it is one fine ‘driving machine.’ Next time, I’ll tell you about the 12-speaker premium sound package.

Spent the weekend at our cabin for the first time since August, I think. Too much going on with the sale of the house and all that. Man, was I grateful to be up there? Now that we’re city and the mountains (the cabin is at the 4,500 elevation level), I just love it. It’s really the best of everything. I have no interest in living in the ‘burbs ever, ever again.

Let’s see… Oh, my wife insisted upon a 2nd dog, so we’ve now got a 4-month old female rat terrier, Nanook, to be a supposed future companion for our 6-year old, Rotor. Whatever. Rather than descriptions, I’ll get some pics up soon.

Readers know I mention my morning walk a lot. Been religious about it for three years, now. Rotor and I have been doing three miles starting at about 6:15 am every weekday morning. Accounting for a few lost days on account of trips and bad weather, that’s about 250 walking days per year, so 750 in all. Three miles a pop means we’re coming up on the 2,500 miles walked mark. Anyway, I used to have a western route and an eastern route going from our house in Willow Glen, so as not to get bored. But now look what I’ve got. I’m about 1/2 mile walk from the entrance where Coleman/Market crosses 87. From there, I head north to I880 and back. Of course, it’s all uninterrupted, as you are crossing under all the streets. Part of the route south to I280 is still under construction, but it shouldn’t be but a few months and I’ll be able to rotate the routes each week.

Yea, I know, part of the massively wasteful municipal budget that no doubt goes to produce the park includes money the government steals from little old widowed ladies under threat of taking away the homes their late husbands spent 30 years at hard labor paying off. Assholes, to a man/woman. Wish it were otherwise, but it isn’t.

I rarely have the time or motivation (mostly motivation) to pack a lunch in the morning, before heading to the office (now just a 5-10 minute drive away). Also, I don’t really like big lunches, as they tend to ruin my afternoon. But nowadays, try getting a small sandwich rather than some massive, piled-high concoction. Don’t get me wrong. I love ‘piled high.’ And, of course, that’s the problem. I only need a small meal to maintain a reasonable weight (once I get there, of course). Starbucks to the rescue. You checked out their pre-made sandwiches? They’re all good, not huge, and in particular, they have this Ham & Turkey Club with lettuce, tomato, et al, but it’s on a roll that’s about the size of a large dinner roll. $3.95. Perfect.

And, finally, SYNC2IT is just a wonderful, wonderful little service. I operate from three machines: office, home office, notebook. Work wise, I’m dialed in with things like remote access, exchange server, etc. But bookmarks? Ugh! This little tool does it all. Whether you use IE, Firefox, Netscape, or Safari on the Mac, this will keep all your bookmarks synchronized on all machines, across platform and across browser applications. So, no matter which browser I’m using on which machine, if I bookmark it into an existing or new folder, it’s right there next time I open any browser on any other of my machines. It’s a few bucks per year if you’ve got more than 50 bookmarks, I think. Worth every penny.

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 lies and all that impolite stuff).

Now, mind you, I’m not talking about controversial topics where there is room for reasonable disagreement. I’m talking about the truth related to a serious, seemingly uncharacteristic harm that one person has caused another. The actual harm is unpleasant enough, but then, somehow, the truth becomes even more unpleasant than the actual harm it describes.

In this case, some portion of the truth is enough for some people; it’s all they want. And, once they’re satisfied with this portion of the truth, they turn from demanding the truth to supporting and defending what is, ultimately and in reality, a lie.

And whatever you do, keep it all quiet, please. It’s not so much that the victim doesn’t deserve to see the perpetrator subject to some degree of public scorn and shame, it’s really that more publicity simply equals a spotlight, and lies ultimately do not fare well under the spotlight. Nope. They do not like scrutiny.

Everyone requires a cool, damp, and dark place for their favorite lies.

To those who know what incident I’m referring to:

When I say that I will not accept a lie that I know to be a lie, no matter what the cost, it is exactly what I mean. Let me boil it down for everyone. There is no value in the universe, up to an including my own life — my most cherished value — that is worth willfully swallowing an abject contradiction of reality that I very well know to be a contradiction of reality (a damn lie).

I would quite literally rather die than pretend the truth of something I know to be false, and therefore, I am quite unconcerned with the [conveniently overblown and exaggerated] potential repercussions of the actual truth being told.

This position and oath is as eternal as existence itself. It will never change. While it may feel as though I’m being overly dramatic, never forget that I live by principles, and what I’m talking about, here, with all of it’s applications and historical implications, is the cornerstone of all principle and all life. Go read it, again.