Fri - November 21, 2008

A New New Deal won't work


I agree with most of this article.

Mr. Obama's one deeply false note during the campaign was his harping on "deregulation" as if that were the source of current troubles. His real problem is the crack-up of the world FDR built.

Fannie Mae was a New Deal creation, subsidizing the securitization of mortgage debt. FDR's successors piled on the subsidies for housing debt and incentives directed at low-income borrowers. Kaboom.

Then there's the UAW, born in 1935. For decades the UAW steadily traded away domestic auto market-share to imports and transplants to keep its aging membership toiling away toward their golden pensions and collecting wages and benefits twice those of their competitors. It worked for a while . . .

Mr. Obama must be looking around and beginning to suspect he will be pouring his political capital, along with considerable taxpayer capital, down bottomless holes for the next four years. He won't be building a legacy as the new FDR, but cleaning up after the last one.

Fannie and its twin, Freddie Mac, have already come back for a second helping of taxpayer money as their once-profitable business model devolves into a politically directed subsidy machine for propping up home prices and delaying foreclosures. Their next meltdown, in government hands, is all but written in the cards.

AIG, an otherwise healthy insurance company that went bust betting on housing debt, has already consumed taxpayer loans and capital injections nearly as big as AIG's $200 billion market cap when it was one of the world's most admired firms. AIG still has a valuable insurance business, but ignoramuses in Congress and the press are busy destroying it. The company sells many of its products through busy independent agents. It uses lush "seminars" to encourage them to sit still for pitches about why AIG should still be trusted despite AIG's purgatory in the headlines. But these seminars only produce more outraged grandstanding from the political commentariat.

The politicos are determined to "save" what should fail, and all they can do is make things worse.

— NeoWayland, a red-blooded American hetrosexual Pagan philosopher and part-time trouble maker

Posted Fri - November 21, 2008 at 02:19 PM in Tag

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"Governments can't handle global run on gold coins"


I've only one thing to say about this one.

I don't think the people trust governments to fix the economies.

— NeoWayland, a red-blooded American hetrosexual Pagan philosopher and part-time trouble maker

Posted at 02:13 PM in Tag

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How keeping his enemies close will backfire on Obama


I think nominating Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State is a mistake.

Hillary comes with a very large bit of luggage named Bill.

By making Hillary the official conduit for foreign policy, Bill becomes the unofficial conduit, An unofficial conduit that is plugged into the Democrat Party Machine, and the remains of his own political machine.

This is going to cost Obama big time, and most of it won't make the headlines.

Bill just became the consigliere, one who isn't all that beholden to Obama. And Bill plays the political game much better than Obama. Since Bill doesn't have to be in the public eye, he's got an advantage.

Or maybe that is what Obama is counting on. Still, I don't think he's got the strength to ride herd on Bill.

It certainly doesn't say a lot that is good about Hillary. She was a power in the Senate, she's going to be a water carrier as Secretary of State.

— NeoWayland, a red-blooded American hetrosexual Pagan philosopher and part-time trouble maker

Posted at 02:03 PM in Tag

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Thu - November 20, 2008

"If it weren't for the government..."


"The government is good at one thing: It knows how to break your legs, then hand you a crutch and say, 'See, if it weren't for the government you wouldn't be able to walk.'"
— Harry Browne

One of the best things he ever said.

— NeoWayland, a red-blooded American hetrosexual Pagan philosopher and part-time trouble maker

Posted Thu - November 20, 2008 at 03:40 PM in Tag

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I'll tell you what I believe


Since I can't find anything in the news worth writing about, I'll recycle something I've written before but haven't published on this site.

I'll tell you what I believe.

In no particular order except maybe the first two and the last two.

I believe in honor. Not some romanticized notion or militaristic parody, but the real thing where you are true to yourself first, last, and always.

I believe in people's right to choose everything from their toothpaste to their faith to the folks they want to be around. And yes, sometimes that means walking away, enduring pain now to avoid greater tragedy later.

I believe that groups and voluntary associations should be exactly that, voluntary. I believe that organizing anyone who does not choose to be organized is patronizing. I believe that an institution that exists for the sake of the institution is doomed and dangerous.

I believe that no single man or woman can possibly understand everything. I believe there is a hard won difference between knowledge and experience and the two should not be confused. I believe wisdom is where you find it. I believe that the humblest has gifts to share.

I believe the universe has a sense of humor.

I believe that the only faiths worthy of freedom are those freely chosen.

I believe that a man can be measured in the lives that he touches.

I believe in speaking truth.

I believe in telling what I think you should know.

I believe that forced charity is extortion.

I believe that it's not freedom if you only defend the inoffensive.

I believe that allies work better than lieutenants because power with delivers more than power over.

I believe that compassion is not usually gentle and that kindness flows from strength.

I believe that the greatest gift is trust.

I believe that change begins at the borders.

I believe that most people go through life sleeping and let the robot do the driving.

I believe that our every act reflects deep in our secret heart, the part we hide even from ourselves. Every caress, every blow, every kiss, every stab, every encouraging word, every rage-filled scream molds our inner self even as we pretend it does not.

I believe that the universe is shaped by thought and driven by passion. I believe that magick is the essence of change and evolution.

I believe that gods make you stretch.

I believe that the World has a Song.

I believe we gather our own darkness, but we have to nurture our own light.

I believe that the Story is not the Journey.

I believe you don't have to share any of my beliefs. I believe you are free to choose for yourself and only for yourself.

I believe I am obligated to defend that freedom.

— NeoWayland, a red-blooded American hetrosexual Pagan philosopher and part-time trouble maker

Posted at 03:37 PM in Tag

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Tired of watching the feud


I had held off commenting on the same-sex marriage thing because there isn't anything I can think of to say that I haven't said many, many times before.

Here's how I feel in a nutshell. Government should not give legal force to a religious sacrament. Which means rather than marriages and civil unions, it should all be civil unions ONLY as far as the government is concerned. As long as everyone involved is a consenting adult, that is where government supervision should begin and end. Now that also means that the civil unions goes further than same-sex marriage. It also has to include things like year marriages and group marriages.

Now, despite the efforts of comment spammers to talk about this, the only reason I am making noise now is because I do not like the fallout.

I don't care who you are, the same sex marriage issue isn't even in the same league with the civil rights movement. Stop trying to pretend otherwise.

There is absolutely no reason to damage Mormon church buildings.

And this mess with eHarmony. eHarmony is a privately held company. A user has no right to a service that they don't provide, any more than a customer has the right to demand that a vegetarian restaurant provide a cajun bbq pork special, or that the the local nursery provide marijuana cuttings, or that the neighborhood hardware store sell high explosives.

Somewhere, somehow we've moved from equal rights to special privilege and that is something I can not support.

— NeoWayland, a red-blooded American hetrosexual Pagan philosopher and part-time trouble maker

Posted at 03:23 PM in Tag

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Passing observation


More stuff later today I promise.

But for right now, is it just me or is there an awful lot of former Clinton Administration staff around Obama?

Mighty strange for someone who ran on "Change."

— NeoWayland, a red-blooded American hetrosexual Pagan philosopher and part-time trouble maker

Posted at 08:34 AM in Tag

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Wed - November 19, 2008

Is it REALLY a conspiracy?


I'm getting a little tired of these Obama birth certificate rumors. Here's one of the latest.

I'm a conspiracy guy. Looking at the JFK assassination is one of the things that got me really interested in history.

I'm also a guy who doesn't think Obama would make a very good President. No matter what happens, come January 20th there is still going to be someone in the White House who doesn't really belong there.

But for the birth certificate to be fake, at least two major Hawaii state officials would have to be lying under oath. That's a felony under state law, probably under Federal law as well. Depending on the circumstances, it could also be treason.

Where's the payoff? Obama as President couldn't pardon them of charges under the state law, and there is no way in Hades that anyone would trust them again, especially in public service.

I just don't see it happening. There are too many loose ends.

— NeoWayland, a red-blooded American hetrosexual Pagan philosopher and part-time trouble maker

Posted Wed - November 19, 2008 at 07:20 AM in Tag

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Tue - November 18, 2008

Verdict: The solution is making things worse


Well, it's been a few weeks. How has the Treasury plan to bail out the economy worked?

Not so well. By some estimates, the current total bailout tab is over 5 trillion dollars. That should scare the heck out of you since the U.S. Gross Domestic Product is only 13 trillion dollars.

Meanwhile, just as I told you, companies are lining up to get their piece of the pie. There's the Big 3 auto companies going for their second round (although this one looks more like a subsidy for the UAW than a bailout). Major firms are becoming banks.

The economy slows down more and more because no one is sure what the Treasury Department's next move is. No one knows where the money is going or if the Treasury will ever get it back. Somehow, some of the same people who were responsible for the meltdown are now part of the public solution.

My verdict: there's no evidence that this "grand plan" is working and every indication that it is making things worse.

We've taken the wrong lessons from history. Government doesn't control the economy. The best thing it could do is to get out of the way and let the free market work.

But since the President-elect doesn't believe that, it's time to watch the collapse of the centralized state. The Nation won't fail but the State will.

KYFHO now and forever, because freedom is just another word.

— NeoWayland, a red-blooded American hetrosexual Pagan philosopher and part-time trouble maker

Posted Tue - November 18, 2008 at 01:59 PM in Tag

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Mon - November 17, 2008

Not looking for love


Here's an article that I wasn't sure if I should link to or not, Love in the Time of Darwinism by Kay S. Hymowitz.

It's not a very politically correct article. It's also a very true article.

Long story short, if a straight guy wants sex regularly, he shouldn't be a nice guy.

We could argue about the reasons.

I used to think that it was the industry I worked in. It's not. It's all over.

Compassion works great after orgasm. If you can find a woman willing to discuss philosophy, that usually works best after breakfast. Those can get the "repeat business," but don't expect the "initial sale." Depending on the neighborhood, the Pagan thing can make it better or worse. Bottom line though, the right kind of jerk will score more than all the nice guys around.

Of course it's a mask. I would prefer romantic seduction, but it doesn't usually work.

Right now I'm not in a committed relationship. I have some friends, and occasionally I do the pickup thing for the release.

Nudity isn't sex and sex isn't love.

Most of the women out there aren't looking for love.

So if love is hard to find, what should a guy do?

— NeoWayland, a red-blooded American hetrosexual Pagan philosopher and part-time trouble maker

Posted Mon - November 17, 2008 at 02:09 PM in Tag

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Sun - November 16, 2008

What's up with that global warming thing?


Sometimes there is nothing I can say that will make it clearer. Like this time.

A surreal scientific blunder last week raised a huge question mark about the temperature records that underpin the worldwide alarm over global warming. On Monday, Nasa's Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS), which is run by Al Gore's chief scientific ally, Dr James Hansen, and is one of four bodies responsible for monitoring global temperatures, announced that last month was the hottest October on record.

This was startling. Across the world there were reports of unseasonal snow and plummeting temperatures last month, from the American Great Plains to China, and from the Alps to New Zealand. China's official news agency reported that Tibet had suffered its "worst snowstorm ever". In the US, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration registered 63 local snowfall records and 115 lowest-ever temperatures for the month, and ranked it as only the 70th-warmest October in 114 years.

So what explained the anomaly? GISS's computerised temperature maps seemed to show readings across a large part of Russia had been up to 10 degrees higher than normal. But when expert readers of the two leading warming-sceptic blogs, Watts Up With That and Climate Audit, began detailed analysis of the GISS data they made an astonishing discovery. The reason for the freak figures was that scores of temperature records from Russia and elsewhere were not based on October readings at all. Figures from the previous month had simply been carried over and repeated two months running.

The error was so glaring that when it was reported on the two blogs - run by the US meteorologist Anthony Watts and Steve McIntyre, the Canadian computer analyst who won fame for his expert debunking of the notorious "hockey stick" graph - GISS began hastily revising its figures. This only made the confusion worse because, to compensate for the lowered temperatures in Russia, GISS claimed to have discovered a new "hotspot" in the Arctic - in a month when satellite images were showing Arctic sea-ice recovering so fast from its summer melt that three weeks ago it was 30 per cent more extensive than at the same time last year.

So if you can't trust the government experts because they just might have an agenda, who can you trust?

— NeoWayland, a red-blooded American hetrosexual Pagan philosopher and part-time trouble maker

Posted Sun - November 16, 2008 at 09:44 PM in Tag

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Pagan news milestone


The first (and still one of the best) Pagan news site I ever read just posted it's 20,000 article.
Without Witchvox, there wouldn't have been the original Technopagan Yearnings site. And without Wren's Nest News, there wouldn't have been a Pagan Vigil.

And there wouldn't have been a NeoWayland willing to stick his libertarian nose in the news.

— NeoWayland, a red-blooded American hetrosexual Pagan philosopher and part-time trouble maker

Posted at 03:55 PM in Tag

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Cash versus value


There's a difference between cash and value.

Cash is a way of keeping track. It's a polite fiction.

Cash has value only because people agree that it does.

Value can and does exist independently of cash.

For example, original animation cells from Disney films used to be sold in Disneyland for just a few dollars. Before long, people said, "Hey, Wait a minute!  These are works of art! They're worth MUCH more than that!"  Now an original early Disney cell is worth at least a couple of thousand, striking scenes from the best loved films can be worth more than ten thousand.

The value changed not because Disney raised their prices or because of an act of Congress, the value changed because people thought it was worth more.

Now value is a pretty relative thing. An animation cell is next to worthless if you are dying of thirst in the desert.

Roughly speaking, your value is the part of the economy that you control.  You don't exchange your labor for groceries, you exchange your labor for cash which you then exchange for groceries. If you sell your car, you don't expect to be paid in shoes.  You expect cash which you can then exchange for shoes and the services of a plumber to get that bathtub fixed with some left over.

It's easy to dilute value. Airlines did it with frequent flier miles.  They used to be worth something. Now they are barely worth the trouble to keep track.

Cash is just the mutually agreed on medium of exchange, value exists despite cashflow.

One group where I am active suggested replacing cash with cell phone minutes. That may be pretty practical, although right now we don't know how many cell phone minutes it takes for a new lawnmower blade.

It the dollar collapsed tomorrow, there's no doubt in my mind that within a week there would be hundreds of alternatives, and within a month there would be five or six really strong replacements with proven track records and national distribution.

The value would not have changed, just the medium of exchange.

That brings us to those interesting slips of paper we pass back and forth.

Paper money is not the problem.

The politicos attempting to set the value of the paper money, that's the problem.

With competition and a free market, the value would set itself. Then it wouldn't matter if
the paper money was drawn against gold, oil, frozen orange juice concentrate, or Star Wars collectable figurines.

Or all of them at once. Or something completely incomprehensible to us now.

The problem isn't with the polite fiction we call money. It's with the politicos and bureaucrats proclaiming that the dollar is worth so much or that the minimum interest rate must be defined by a government agency.

Most of our problems with money losing value are caused by government trying to dictate the value.

If Company Alpha issued oil certificates and Company Baker issued gold certificates and Company Yellow issued uranium certificates AND if all those certificates had to compete in trading exchanges like the stock market or the commodities exchange, the value of the certificates would be mostly self governing. As time passed, that value would be more and more stable.

The certificates are paper.

The paper is money.

But under the situation I've just described, the value is set by the free market based on what the certificates are drawn against, not some government edict.

Paper isn't the problem.

Government is.

— NeoWayland, a red-blooded American hetrosexual Pagan philosopher and part-time trouble maker

Posted at 03:33 PM in Tag

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Satellite radio gets worse

"Evil" laws

The new overwhelming competitive advantage

"How an Economy Grows and Why it Doesn't"

Why didn't it work?

How we got there before we got here

A great way of saying "thou shalt not initiate force"

Tolerance, but only if you are politically correct

"Office of the President-Elect" speaks. All hail the Imperious Leader!

"Rewrite the Laws of Cyberspace"

The new day

Do you know what one of the best things about today is?

Rush to judgement

Anyone seen it?

Best small "L" definition I've seen of libertarian I've seen in a long time

Economic déjà vu, or why Bush is like Hoover

Technology Disruptions

"The Lost Years & Last Days of David Foster Wallace"

The income tax threatens your liberty

Methane and global warming

About those Obama birth certificate rumors

Today's lesson in practical politics

Not even pretending anymore

"Like, we would have done it two years ago but those grody-to-the-max Republicans stopped us"

How do you reclaim the word "rights?"

Auction fails because sellers are waiting for the Federal bailout

Quick links on my way somewhere vaguely important

Obama in 2001 talking about redistributing the wealth

The Democrats want you dependent

From a free market to a command economy

Listen to Fred Smith, the CEO of FedEx

"They were to the left of socialism."

How did it help?

Still think it wasn't a hostile takeover of Wall Street?

The Democrats keep bringing back these zombie ideas...

My thoughts on the neighborhood

McCain says libererals and conservatives fail because "neither emphizes the obligations of a free people to the nation."

Shorter line to get to the good stuff

Spiced Apples

"A pre-mortem for gay marriage in California" and probably Arizona too

Obama fudges the numbers

Internal ACORN report details possible violations of Federal law

It wasn't a "failure of capitalism"

Introducing the Neighborhood Game

Welcome to facism

Innoculating yourself against the state

Computers made meltdown possible?

Obama doesn't want the FBI to investigate ACORN

Schwartz tells it like it is

Libertarians tell truth about the economy

I'd like to know...

Spreadin' it around

Online liberty source

Liquid assetts

Let the private market work...

One percent, the margin, and recovery

Bribe the politicos and they might leave you alone

"Wasn't the bailout supposed to calm the financial markets?"

Why are the Democrats escaping?

Going to the people

Local ISP and blogging

"The problem is with giving government that authority in the first place."

Somebody please tell me

Why every election needs a "None Of The Above"

California wants a bailout

"They blew it up"

"I'm loyal to nothing... except The Dream."

"...until values reach realistic levels."

Just in case you didn't think it was obscene enough

House tells Paulson "No blank check for you"

Fiscal Porn

Political questions about the bailout

Posting at long last

Myths, Meltdowns, and Misery

EU muzzles blogger

Democrats blackmail Jewish non-profit groups

Ron Paul and the Christianist - UPDATED

Spare me the "racial" politics

Where's the competition when I really need it?

Can't believe their eyes

Watching the dominoes

Obama broke U.S. law and tried secret negotiations with Iraq

Expanding the police state

Someone else says the global warming models are flawed

Even in a partial free market, the poor don't stay poor

"We're Gonna Frickin' Lose This Thing"

The FDIC marker

Going too far

Criticizing the book "Party of Defeat"

Down but not out

"Dude, I'm not doing science. I'm just cheating the game!"

Barney Frank robbed YOU

Plastic Logic Reader

The dominoes begin to fall

Palin rumors - Updated AGAIN

Table stakes, or why Palin changes the game

Think before you go after Palin

Best quote about Palin I've seen so far

Police state in Minnesota

Fair game - UPDATED

The "character" thing

The "experience" thing

"Dude, the RFID thing. I'm sorry, it's just not going to happen."

High stakes

Obvious choice

What brings people to my vigil?

Libertarian anarchist dares to talk about abortion

Say what? How did race get involved in the global warming argument?

A non-story or a buried story?

Computer tech takes down San Francisco city government

Is Barak Obama really what he is made out to be?

A little perspective please

John McCain is dead wrong. Again.

Yahoo Music goes bye-bye

A responsible librarian and "Uncle Bobby's Wedding"

Pizza order

Emptying the global warming links file

Talk with Jeff Sharlet

Would-be saints unleashing chaos and destruction

What if taxes made sense?

Taking more than it gives

To help the American taxpayer, we're going to raise the gas tax

The Obama they don't talk about

If I were going to say I told you so...

Diebold and the 2002 election

Not even fair taxes

Reverend Magdalen update

Passing through, let's see how many of these links I can hammer out

Fannie Mae and Freddy Mac

Unusual view of the FISA Amendment of 2008

"The Family: The Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power"

Naked Pictures At WalMart? Send in the SWAT team!!

A first step

The KYFHO Gambit, or How libertarians Have Already Won (without realizing it)

Obama sucker-punched by Clintons

Once again demonstrating her total lack of practical economics

"Behave yourself and don't hit your sister"

This isn't MLK's dream

Alternately destroying the environment

The new third rail of American politics

No skip video ads

State senator goes after video games

Wiretaps pulled because of unpaid bills

Huckabee is desperate

Paul's liberty isn't - Updated

Apple flakes discourage blogging

"Pull over so we can fingerprint you."

Climate computer models flawed

FBI database threatens your freedom

Not a bright idea

Let us pray, but only to an acceptable god

Forgot to post this freedom banner the other day - UPDATED

Just a Girl in short shorts tells us again that "Democrats knew"

Iranian students turn up the pressure

It will be harder to find a mortgage

Chavez doesn't trust the Venezuela voters


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