Archive for July 2005
Excuses
In an earlier post, today, I get called to task in the comments by my most excellent friends, Billy Beck and Kyle Bennett, for stating that the indoctrination students receive in public schools (enviro-silliness, fear-mongering, politicized “science”, submission to self-appointed “authorities”, etc.) is “small potatoes”. All of this happens–of course, and unsurprisingly–but is such problem any more serious than any of the other rot we as individualists must endure on a daily basis? Kyle comments: You’re right about the inefficiency and low quality of education being driven largely form above, but what I see as destructive is the content of that education – the stuff you call small potatoes. That also is driven from above, but after decades of NEA influence, it has trickled down to the teaching level as well. Either way, it’s an argument for privatization: allow parents to choose what will be taught to their children, allow parents to choose schools that will provide quality as cost-effectively as they can, and allow the good teachers to earn what they’re worth and have the resources to do the job right. And Billy: The cultural destruction and mutilation wrought at the hands of public schools is so enormous that,…
Read MoreCosmic Corruption
Of the millions of ways the government missuses, squanders, wastes money, the space program is one of those things I generally just shut up about. Yes, it’s all the same theft–parasites sucking money from you and me in order to finance their values–but there are a million ways in which the state does harm beyond even the fact of the theft, and it’s not obvious to me that the space program is one of those. So I give it a pass. But perhaps no more. The thing about the aviation and space business is that it’s very serious business. While a bunch of dolts in DC and the statehouses have no compunction about sticking their noses in all manner of affairs they know nothing about–like how a business should be run–they have tended to leave the business of aviation design and space exploration to people who are actually experts in the field, like engineers, pilots, astronauts and such. Imagine that! Now this: NASA engineers had already seen how fixes can break things. After they made a minor change in the foam application process in the late 1990’s to comply with environmental rules, small divots of foam rained off of the…
Read MoreThere She Goes
Well, signs went up today on our beautiful home in Willow Glen. See here. It’s tough. It was a dump with promising features when Bea & I purchased it in January of 1999 and I met the Realtor to pick up the keys with a crowbar in hand to knock out a kitchen / dining room wall to create a great room. My brother and & set beams and a column the next day, and then I began tearing out the carpet covering the white oak hardwood floors throughout. Since then, I’ve spent countless hours (hundreds and hundreds) myself, and supervised many tradesmen on improvements. I’ll throw up some photos of the interior and the back yard this weekend, perhaps. We’re actually downsizing. We bought one of these, last weekend. Update: Here’s a listing with additional photos that can be enlarged by clicking on them.
Read MoreIs The American Dream Killing You?
Not me, it isn’t. Then again, the American Dream, to me, is about the freedom to pursue things I love. It’s not about material wealth, per se. And, to the extent it is about wealth, it’s far more about the process of creating it than actually having it. Anyway, the guy who’s been pretty much my best friend since we met as Navy officers in 1988 is just on the verge of having his second book published. During the year he was writing it, which ended nearly a year ago already, we exchanged hundreds of emails, all of them addressing serious aspects of philosophy, politics, and science. He makes some interesting points, but I don’t think he’s an individualist. I’ll wait to read his final word on it. His first book was an entertaining read. I recommend it.
Read More“Only” 365
That’s miles, not days in the year. It’s how many miles my friend Davis Straub (author of the “Windows […] Secrets” series of books) flew in a hang-glider on Tuesday–half way across the state of Texas. This isn’t him (another friend), but it’s the same wing (ATOS VR) and how he’d be looking in flight gear. It’s “only” 365 because he flew 427 miles in 2001 from the same place. Go read his flight report.
Read More…Javelin On The Move
Once considered by some to be a sleeper, at best, in the VLJ market, Aviation Technology Group’s Javelin, a fighter-like two-place twinjet, has been piling up orders as it gets its prototype ready for its first flight. The company has also hired veteran Cessna exec Charlie Johnson as chief operating officer to guide the project through certification. Johnson took 20 Cessnas through the process and told a news conference on Tuesday he’s excited about the prospects for the plane. More than 100 deposits have been received from individuals who’d like a $2.8 million, 600 mph jet that climbs at 10,000 feet per minute. But the military-style performance hasn’t gone unnoticed elsewhere. At least one unnamed European country has ordered eight military training versions of the Javelin at a cost of $5.5 million a copy. The extra money covers ejection seats, military radios and electronics, including head up display. The prototype of the all-composite jet has been taxied as fast as 100 mph but the first flight won’t be launched for six to eight weeks while the nose gear is redesigned to get rid of a shimmy. (Source: Avweb)
Read MoreVDH: Cutting Through the Bullshit
If you only read one person regarding geopolitical affairs in the age of Islamic terror, make it war historian Victor Davis Hanson. See, history is a very complex subject, and in that, nearly everyone possesses a certain myopia. All the facts are there–they really are–to be connected into what forms a pretty clear picture. Here are some excerpts from VDH’s most recent: First the terrorists of the Middle East went after the Israelis. From 1967 we witnessed 40 years of bombers, child murdering, airline hijacking, suicide murdering, and gratuitous shooting. We in the West usually cried crocodile tears, and then came up with all sorts of reasons to allow such Middle Eastern killers a pass. Yasser Arafat, replete with holster and rants at the U.N., had become a “moderate” and was thus free to steal millions of his good-behavior money. If Hamas got European cash, it would become reasonable, ostracize its “military wing,” and cease its lynching and vigilantism. When some tried to explain that Wars 1-3 (1947, 1956, 1967) had nothing to do with the West Bank, such bothersome details fell on deaf ears. When it was pointed out that Germans were not blowing up Poles to get back…
Read MoreFlight Report
Well, as I’d mentioned in my last report: Monday, we’re taking out the much faster Cessna 172 for a longer cross country to the northeast. RHV to RIU; on to CPU; then a 10 mile detour to overfly my cabin in Arnold; on to O22; then E45; on to MOD; and than back home. This was last Monday when I, my instructor Jim, and my wife Bea all piled into the C172. Started from Reid-Hillview in San Jose, CA, NE about 75 miles to Rancho Murieta, just a few miles SE of Sacramento, CA. Then it was SE about 30 miles to Calaveras County airport, midway between San Andreas and Angels Camp on the famous Highway 49 (think 49ers, i.e., 1849). Then we flew due east into the mountains about 10 miles, past Murphys and on up to Arnold to overfly our mountain cabin at 4,500 ft. elevation. It’s difficult to spot anything when overflying pine trees, and that “other” golf course faking me out didn’t help, either. But without even having to do a search pattern, we found Arnold and the cabin easily enough. As soon as we’d spotted it, we headed SW 10 miles to Columbia airport. Quick…
Read MoreYou Can’t Legislate Value
I’ve run an email discussion list for many years for people and businesses within the industry I work, which is the voluntary and mutual settlement of unsecured debts in hardship situations (think of it as a bankruptcy alternative). What follows is a post from this morning, and my response. …wouldn’t it be nice if we could get a law on the books where: …If a creditor has a client in a particular state, then that creditor is FORCED to deal with the debt settlement company on behalf of the customer. i.e., Citibank, MBNA, Bank of America would be forced to deal with us if the client so chooses. I believe this is the level of law that we should be trying to push. Be careful what you ask for. I know it’s tempting to use the omnipotent power of the state to “FORCE” creditors to deal with you, but I’d never support such an immoral abrogation of the freedom of association (and, I, unlike the “Supreme” Court, don’t make meaningless, logically untenable distinctions between the rights of individuals and the rights of individuals organized into entities like proprietorships, partnerships, and corporations). Moreover, I believe it’s an impractical measure that’s more…
Read MoreComplete Silliness
That’s me, right here: Yea, always wanted to try the multiple monitors on a single computer thing, so when we recently downsized the sales team a bit, we had some extras. Setup is easy with Win XP. My existing video card had both DVI and VGA outputs, and the Sony in the center uses DVI. So, just popped in a second VGA card and we’re done. I took the picture with my Treo 650 phone so pic quality isn’t super great. But, after the Blackberry, the HP Compaq/Smart Phone, and last, the Siemens Pocket PC/Smart Phone, the Treo is all-around by far, far, far the best. Still figuring out how to make best use of the monitors. Initially, I had my browser open to the left, Outlook in the center, and Outlook’s calendar opened in a second window off to the right. Now, I’m experimenting with keeping what I’m actually working on front & center, and moving whatever else I want to keep in view off to either side. I love being silly, especially to “excess.”
Read MorePonderables
Greg Swann makes some nice comments with regard to my pursuit of a pilot certificate. Then, in what might be too esoteric a discussion for some (but doesn’t bother me), he suggests that the way airspace has been allocated constitutes a theft (broadcasting, too). I’m not sure I would go that far, at least as a general statement. For instance, while it’s clear that buzzing someone’s house, or flying only a few hundred feet above is an usurpation of their property (not to mention peace of mind), how about at 39,000 feet, where you’ll be hard pressed to even have any idea whether the airplane is actually flying through the imaginary space of your property extending vertically? And if that’s usurpation, then where does it end? How about satellites orbiting earth? Well, they aren’t in the air. Yea, but you can’t own the air (otherwise, the wind and convection currents would be in a constant state of transferring property between everyone). you can potentially only own the space, so why wouldn’t it extend past the atmosphere? If we’re talking space, then limiting the claim to the atmospheric boundary (which is not a discreet demarcation, by the way) makes the claim…
Read MoreOops; Let One Slip
“It comes down to them being defiant,” Reynolds said. Indeed. So it’s not really about “health,” presumed rights of non-smokers, “second-hand smoke,” or any of those other manipulative lies ginned up for the consumption of morons (most people). As concerns the state, it always comes down to compliance and defiance. Compliance makes you a good citizen; defiance, an enemy of the state. Now, how long have I been telling you that the state is about nothing but maintaining the power to steal from you in order to finance favor with the masses? Getting in the way of that makes you defiant, and being defiant of the state typically works in the state’s favor. The morons who live their lives as subjects of the state (most people), resent those who refuse to kiss ass cheerfully. Subjects, just like spectators at state lynchings, cheer when the state does its business. Justice has not nearly so much to do with it as does the demonstration of power. People always cheer the dominant. In short, if these good people persist, they will loose their business, that little restaurant that customers have been happily frequenting for years. In fact, they ultimately have to back down,…
Read MoreFlying and More Flying
Well, I was half a page into this entry, got up to get something, came back and it was gone. Vanished. No damn idea what happened. One day I’ll learn never to get significantly into something without always saving–no exceptions. Well, that sapped much of my enthusiasm for it. I was relating that at last report, I was to be headed out with the chief pilot/instructor to get cleared to venture out on my own, farther than the local traffic pattern. Mission accomplished. It was tough, though. Len is an old-time, very experienced pilot (type rating in all business jets from Lear to Gulfstream, many hours in all sorts of old biplanes, and even used to fly a Ford Tri-Motor). The task was to put the Citabria is every sort of bizarre attitude and have me recover. We’re talking skating the edge of aerobatic maneuvers. From time-to-time, he’d say, “well, I could have you do [blank] too, but that would require us to be wearing parachutes.” These maneuvers came over and over, in quick succession. 60 deg. pitch ups and downs, 90 deg. banks, sometimes with the lower wing stalled, and sometimes in a severe pitch up with the upper…
Read MoreJudgment, On Your Own Terms
I was going to blog Kyle Bennett’s very good piece (read it all), but then Billy Beck went and beat me to it. Unfortunately, I have nothing to add that would imply greater implications than they’ve already done. But I’ll try and sum it up. Both post are really essential for anyone to read and grasp who believes themselves to be an individualist. Bluntly, if you can’t bring yourself to agree with Billy’s take on this, then you may very well be a fabulous human being, one that I might generally be delighted to know, but you’re no individualist. An individualist would never, ever, substitute another’s judgment for his own (be it an individual, or a whole great big “government”), either in condemning a person, or in deciding when, where, and under what circumstances to grant clemency. All proper justice is rendered by individuals or organizations comprised of freely associating individuals, one single person or such organization at a time. There is no other genuine (i.e., in accord with reality) justice in existence, and there never has been. State “justice” is merely a tool of submission, and the fact that they sometimes get it “right” is merely an accident of…
Read MoreStealing and Lying
So it’s about 11:30 p.m. last night, I’m reading and studying at home when my computer suddenly barks that MS Outlook has lost its connection to Exchange Server (down at the office). I check my Internet connection at home (fine), then try to hit my desktop at work, then two of the servers via Remote Desktop (no joy), so either something’s amiss on our server rack, the router has a problem, or the T1 (data) is down. So I think. I call up my IT manager and we decide to meet at the office. It’s midnight. When we get there, nothing appears wrong. The internal network is fine. We just can’t get out. We figure it’s the T1, we call Covad, and they can send an OpCenter tech right over, or, we can wait until morning for a field tech. We’ll wait. In preps for the tech the next morning, my IT manager opens the door to the central phone/data room in the building. Guess what? Someone has simply stripped the wires off the T1 jack, pulled it off the wall, and hooked it up to their phones. Turns out a new company was moving into the building last night…
Read MoreKeys to the Kingdom
Today I completed my 3rd observed solo (1st one reported here). These solos are observed by the instructor on the tarmac and consist of three takeoffs, climb out in the pattern, and landings. It’s not an FAA requirement to do three solos, just a requirement of the school. In aviation, it’s not uncommon for training organizations or FBOs to have more stringent requirements for their students and customers than government regulations call for. This is sometimes due to their own sense of safety and sometimes due to business (insurance) constraints. At any rate, I’m used to it. Hang-gliding is virtually unregulated, but our safety procedures and record have great depth in near complete absence of government intervention. That topic is worthy of its own post if ever I get around to it. So, now I can go take the keys any time I want (provided acceptable weather conditions hold, which is way most of the time) and go fly the pattern, to practice pattern work. Tomorrow morning, I get to go out with Len von Clemm. He’s the first instructor in this list (Chief Pilot). More than 20,000 hours. They tell me he’s picky. I guess he has every right…
Read MoreApologists for Truth
I sure hate to see apologetic stuff like this on a libertarian blog. A court in Georgia required the removal from public school science textbooks of stickers warning that evolution is a theory to be critically examined, not a fact (see here). The sticker didn’t say evolution didn’t happen; merely that no one could be certain that it did, which is a pretty accurate claim. Now, I don’t much care or get worked up about what one part of the state requires another to do. But to characterize it as “a pretty accurate claim?” How about these equally ridiculous and ignorant (especially ignorant, to the point of utter stupidity) pretty accurate claims: – A court in Georgia required the removal from public school science textbooks of stickers warning that relativity is a theory to be critically examined, not a fact. – A court in Georgia required the removal from public school science textbooks of stickers warning that gravity is a theory to be critically examined, not a fact. – A court in Georgia required the removal from public school science textbooks of stickers warning that atomic structure is a theory to be critically examined, not a fact. – A court…
Read MoreIndividualism and Consequences
The first and most fundamental step to becoming an individualist is to demand of yourself and others that they live with the consequences of their own choices in life. This is why the world has so few individualists. Anti-individualism permeates every facet of society: culture, politics, families. Only in bottom-line business do you find individualism with any degree of frequency, and even then it’s rare. It’s rare in small businesses and virtually non-existent in large ones. And it’s at the root of all problems. Radley Balko has a good critique of that load of BS they’re calling Live 8. Read it and see what I’m talking about. And note: when you demand that the risks of the potential downside consequences of your choices be born by someone else, you’re not just affecting them. By making those risks unprofitable for anyone without your clout at getting others to bear them, you’re also harming others who just might profit and prosper from undertaking those risks head on and coming out on top. As I said, I look around and I almost never see an individualists, anymore.
Read MoreCelebrate Life, Not the 4th
I could quibble with items such as the authority of a Constitution and the conflating of rational defense with world policing, but on the whole, Harry Browne’s 4th of July message is right on. And, so, on this day, like every day, I try to celebrate my life and what’s possible in spite of every conceivable barrier standing in my way, wasting my time, my money, my life–for no other reason than to grant unearned power, prestige, and livelihoods to a class of parasites of the state who purport to run things. I curse them all. Uncelebrating the Fourth by Harry Browne Unfortunately, July 4th has become a day of deceit. On July 4, 1776, the Continental Congress formally declared its independence from Great Britain. Thirteen years later, after a difficult war to secure that independence, the new country was open for business. It was truly unique — the first nation in all of history in which the individual was considered more important than the government, and the government was tied down by a written Constitution. It was the one nation where you could live your life secure in the knowledge that no one would ask for your papers, where…
Read MoreDu-uh!
“Compassionate conservatism” has been a disaster for those of us who love liberty. In the first term, it brought us a new Medicare prescription drug plan, steel tariffs, farm subsidies, LBJ-era domestic spending rates, No Child Left Behind, and campaign finance reform. In the last six months, conservatives have been treated to a gargantuan federal highway bill, a federal ban on medical marijuana use, a proposal to raise Social Security taxes, an amnesty plan for illegal aliens, a Constitutional amendment to ban flag burning (I can’t walk down a street anymore without seeing flames!), and a total cave-in on conservative judges. And, as a bonus, we got new dietary guidelines from the Department of Agriculture! […] Since 1964, conservatives have been working to seize the Republican Party from the Rockefeller-types so that we could reorder policy priorities toward those that promote the maximum liberty for our countrymen. Now, in 2005, the Republicans control everything — we have a Republican president, a Republican House, and a Republican Senate. And yet, not a single conservative agenda item is being advanced. Why should conservatives work for this party anymore? What is the point? Joe Sabia, bitchslapping his Republican brethren. Haven’t I been saying…
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