Should we stop treating people as gods?

Survey says yes.

On the Union Brouhaha

The public union protests are the big news story. And though everyone seems to have picked their sides, I think I'll mostly stay out of it. A number of states have created labor contracts which can't be fulfilled; benefits are being cut as a result. Are the cuts deserved or being made in appropriate places? While I'm surely doubtful of the latter, my experiences with public employees, including teachers, inclines me to affirm the former. What I do know is that these unions, giant bureaucratic hierarchies unto themselves, are pitted against their former colluders in state capitals. Maybe if they constantly protested for more dynamic or experimental education or students' rights, I'd take them more seriously in their self-interested protests. In other words, I'd think more highly of them if I viewed them as teachers rather than prison guards.

Satire You Wish Were True

From The Onion:

Embarrassed Republicans Admit They've Been Thinking Of Eisenhower Whole Time They've Been Praising Reagan

"When I heard about Eisenhower's presidential accomplishments—holding down the national debt, keeping inflation in check, and fighting for balanced budgets—it hit me that we'd clearly gotten their names mixed up at some point," [RNC chairman] Priebus told reporters. "I couldn't believe we'd been associating terms like 'visionary,' 'principled,' and 'bold' with President Reagan. That wasn't him at all—that was Ike."

Radiohead: The King of Limbs

Upon first quickly listening through Radiohead's new album The King of Limbs, I was terribly underwhelmed. Four years of waiting for this?! There was nothing that really grabbed my attention. But after giving it a couple more listens, some of the nuances became clearer and it has grown on me, yet I still consider it their worst release since My Iron Lung.

The album contains only eight songs with all but one coming in at or around 5 minutes in length. Despite the length of each song, there's not much variation as the songs progress. That's the major drawback. The drum beats, which all sound as if they were done electronically, on several of the songs, Bloom and Feral, in particular, are simple, high tempo, and redundant. With the exception of Lotus Flower and Little By Little, the drums/beats are a major disappointment.

Stone Age Minds

Perhaps it can be chalked up to confirmation bias, but I found this interview to fit in nicely with the anarchist, localist, decentralist, Austrian, and mutualist narratives. In other words, markets are very efficient, but there's a psychological component that can get lost in the facelessness of most exchanges. We're not robots even if most modern economic, business, and political models would prefer to treat us that way. (Via Reason TV)

When I Do Stupid Things

I just caught myself being "irrational," but just a little too late...

I was standing at a dual elevator with another guy who had pushed the up button, while I, the down button. When the first elevator arrived, the "down" signal lit. When he motioned to enter the elevator which was empty I mentioned that "it was going down." But because it was empty, it didn't matter what light lit up; he could have pushed a button to any floor and the elevator would have gone where he wanted it to without any problems.

Immediately after I stepped in the elevator I realized this -- a blinking light had made my decision for me! If I recall correctly, the other guy was there first. He was probably also in more of a hurry than I. Normally in such a situation, I would have definitely given him the "right of way," so to speak, but a heuristic signal narrowed my thinking and blinded my decision, leading to one that was less than optimal.

It's small potatoes, but it's interesting -- this is one I've actually caught. How often do these types of cues give us irrelevant information from which to make decisions? A lot more than we tend to think.

Note: I put 'irrational' in quotes because I prefer 'arational,' yet 'irrational' is more widely used.

War Is So Childish

Banksy

Thickness To What Point?

James Briggs has been an articulate proponent of "thick libertarianism." Still More Than a Political Philosophy contains some of his best explanations thus far. But I think "thickness" brings libertarianism to a bit of a fuzzy point.

I readily accept that a lot of this will look like economic reductionism, it is, but that’s simply because I know more about economics than I do about social psychology so I can present a better argument from that perspective. I don’t think it’s as simple as “the market will handle it” and obviously it would be unrealistic to downplay the need for movements to consciously challenge social values. What I am saying is that if we take that as a given we should then look at what sort of outcomes different institutions will favour and that there are some good reasons to support libertarian ones.

Boo-hoo

EMI, "the fourth-largest business group and family of record labels in the recording industry" according to Wikipedia, is on sale:

Here’s some insight from former Creation Records and Poptones owner Alan McGee taken from an interview with NME.

The trouble is, now everyone has woken up to the reality, which is that illegal downloading is murdering the music business. Will EMI find a buyer? Bits of it will. Everyone wants a piece of its publishing catalogue, which is worth a lot – but these days no fucker wants to buy a record company.

A Lesson in Capitalism

Charles Davis explains "what Ronald Reagan's stupid face taught [him] about capitalism" in a hilarious retelling of his eye opening first encounter with corporate capitalism. Just a sample:

As the future unemployed – nay, unemployable – English major of the group, I, of course, was the P.R. guy: the dude who wrote up bullshit speeches to deliver to our mock shareholders and who drafted the compelling advertising copy about how my fake firm's brand of widgets would make you last longer in bed and whatnot. The Lord's work. And while it was undoubtedly a bullshit job – aren't they all? – it was a bullshit job that I busted my ass for, developing blisters from furiously writing corporate jargon and phoney-baloney speeches with my trusty Dixon-Ticonderagos (#2's, motherfucker).

Definitely read the whole thing. Maybe I'll provide some details from my own eye opening experience working for Best Buy some time in the future.

Man Hating

On and off again I'll come across identity politics type sentiments which I find utterly absurd. Take for instance this quote from Charles Johnson which I found by way of Instead of a Blog:

What is supposed to be wrong with man-hating, anyway? If some feminists do hate men, would that mean that there is something wrong with their position?

I, for one, hate men. Not all of them, but lots of them. And I hate them precisely because they act like men are supposed to act. I.E. because they are controlling, exploitative, rude, callous, and/or violent, just like they were brought up to be. I hate men who act like that and I hate myself when I realize that I’ve acted that way. I don’t think it’s because I’m a neurotic bundle of self-loathing or because I’m aiming to become one; it’s because I think that all of us men have a long way to go to break ourselves out of habits and beliefs that keep us from acting like decent human beings as often as we should. We grow up thinking that we have the right to do a lot of fucked up stuff and then we usually go on to do it at some point or another. Often at many points throughout our lives.

Why I Stopped Reading LRC

Back around the early writing of this blog, I read LewRockwell.com fairly religiously, but it became apparent over time that too much of the information they presented was primarily rooted in hyperbole rather than truth. It was no problem for me to filter out or put in context the natural-rights-capitalist-libertarian absolutism (something I did often when reading Rothbard), but when you can't even present information in a way resembling the truth, I'm not going to pay attention anymore. This post illustrates my point:

Paul Krugman Smears Ron Paul and Tom DiLorenzo

Murray Rothbard used to write about the “smearbund” and it seems that Paul Krugman is trying to become the latest bund leader. In a blog post today, he goes after Tom DiLorenzo, Ron Paul, and the Mises Institute for the “crime” of opposing the Federal Reserve System.

Now let's see what Krugman actually said:

Trail of Dead: Tao of the Dead

...And You Will Know By The Trail of Dead released their new album Tao of the Dead this past Tuesday. No surprises here; it's an amazing an evolution in their unique take on psychedelic art rock. The first eleven tracks transition seamlessly and the last track contains about five connected song giving the album a very cinematic feel.

Bright Eyes: The People's Key

Bright Eyes has returned after nearly four years with a new album, The People's Key. I've enjoyed various aspects of their music up until now and particularly enjoyed their last album Cassadaga. But despite amazingly sincere and intelligent lyrics, they've never found a permanent spot in my rotation. Perhaps that's been due to a lack of hooks and pop elements, but that's changed with the latest release. Oberst's lyrics are still cream of the crop and the melodies are far more upbeat than what I remember of their past efforts. As an added treat, woven in between tracks is an interesting -- sometimes crazy, sometimes touching -- narrative by what would appear at first listen to be an inarticulate southern conspiracy theorist. By the end of the album, however, I grew to find it a welcome addition. Anyway, I highly recommend checking the album out.

Response to "Immigration and Boutique Multiculturalism"

Over at Alternative Right, Jaenelle Antas explains her beef with Immigration and Boutique Multiculturalism. Here's my take on it.

If you spend any time on Facebook, you may have seen someone you know post the following copy-and-paste status message, which seems to have been making the rounds at least since the Arizona immigration law went into effect:

Your car is Japanese. Your pizza is Italian. Your beer is German. Your wine is Spanish. Your democracy is Greek. Your coffee is Brazilian. Your tea is Chinese. Your watch is Swiss. Your fashion is French. Your shirt is Indian. Your shoes are Thai. Your radio is Korean. Your vodka is Russian--and then you complain that your neighbor is... ......an immigrant? Pull yourself together! Copy if you are against Racism!

Let's just address a few basic problems with this.

Another Mexico: A Conversation with Sam Quinones

I found this interview to be particularly interesting. Sam Quinones discusses the Mexican Government's talents for pacifying dissent (sounds like a more blatantly obvious US Government), the entrepreneurial spirit of Mexicans, the mindset of immigrants, the crippling effects of centralization, and some odd cultural idiosyncrasies.

Great Moments In Conflict Resolution History

A couple things happened that I though I'd share from a concert I attended this weekend:

First, I dropped thirty dollars (I'm certainly not a wealthy man) on my way in and the bouncer found me and returned it. Not a great moment in conflict resolution, but still really cool and worthy of mention -- enough to give your faith in humanity a little bump in the positive direction.

Possibly more interesting to you, however, was how the band, El Ten Eleven, dealt with some of the obnoxious members of the audience. When some dude jumped on stage and started dancing, acting as if somehow part of the show, the guitarist/bassist walked off and joined the crowd to watch. He then remarked that he "was not a proud man" and didn't want to hog anyone's time in the spotlight. The intruder looked like a dear in headlights, standing motionless on stage; it was priceless.