Archive for April 2006
The Land of the Free
Sometimes I think that Radley Balko is the most important blogger in the world for his tireless work in documenting daily the atrocious injustices that go on here in The Land of the Free. Of course, everyone knows we're all human, that mistakes resulting in cruel injustices happen even in the wake of good intentions and generally prudent and reasonable policies. But what if that's not what America is, today? What if the cruel injustices are far too common? What if they are perpetrated on the innocent with bad intentions--intentions rooted in political and bureaucratic self-promotion at the expense of people who aren't hurting anybody? I've come beyond the point where I can keep up anymore. What's more, it would be kind of silly to have every--or every other one--of my blog entries point to some new cruelty at Radley's place. So here's an idea: I'll give you about a two-week wrapup of some of the stuff I consider most important. Maybe I'll do it regularly. We'll see. - The Drug War against math nerds Drug cops in Falmouth, Mass. sent a hot, young female cop to pose as a student at the local high school. She befriended several adolescent...
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April Report Card
Profit of $18,683 for the month, a 40% return on risk March was reported here. April finished pretty much how I had accounted for it then, with details in the chart below. (Remember, under the "Trd" (Trade) caption, B = buy, S = sell, T = to, O = open, and C = close. '#' is for the number of contracts purchased at 100 shares per contract. All spreads are on the SPX for April expiration. Since you can't lose on both your underside and topside positions at the same time, risk is calculated on the side with the greatest exposure.) The green shaded trades represent one complete series in a single month. In past months, I've talked about protecting a trade by closing it down and opening a new position a month out in order to get higher premiums from time value. In this case, I was pretty certain that the 1310/1320 I entered on 3/08 was going to be in trouble, but I closed early enough (3/16) that I was able to just double my position size from 15 to 30 contracts and stay within the same month. In short, that series profited about $5,000 if you add...
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Like Riding a Bike
Well, that's the saying anyway. Today it proved to be somewhat true in my case. Longtime readers (thank you so kindly) are aware of my initiative last spring to earn my ticket flying powered airplanes. This was my last entry on the subject, from last July. I was well on my way to finishing up in September. Then, we decided to sell our house, buy a downtown loft, move, invest in and sometimes fix-up real-estate--and now build new townhouses--and it all got to be a bit of overload. And I haven't even covered running a company with a couple of dozen employees--or blogging. ...Or having my customary evening cocktails and making sure the hard disk on my TiVo doesn't get past 80% capacity... I called Jim, my instructor, a few weeks ago describing how my morning 3-mile walk underneath the final glide for SJC was just killing me. Every morning I watch airplanes land when we're in a high-pressure weather pattern (rare, lately) and take off when we're in low pressure pattern and rain is coming (too common). By the way, clearly the most impressive spectacle is the morning landing of the FedEx DC-10, probably arriving from Memphis. Day in;...
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“Unfair”
I cannot begin to describe to you the general contempt I have for what that concept has come to mean in this culture. I'm not sure, but I can well imagine that it originally served to describe those who behave dishonorably in their dealings with others. Today, in terms of dishonest word manipulation, it's at the very top. Today, when you hear it, it's nearly always a veil intended to cover an outright theft. When a big company is acting "unfairly," it means: somebody is laying claim to something to which they are not morally entitled, and "fairness" is trotted out as a legal principle in order to carry out a legally legitimized usurpation--an outright theft--you know, like when it was perfectly legal to enslave, buy, and sell another human being or send him to the back of the bus because of his skin color. (It's always important to keep "the law" in fine historical perspective.) So I get an email from a lawyer yesterday. As lawyers go, he's a very fine one. He defends businesses from the sort of theft that goes on in the courts--and more often: backroom settlement--to the tune of hundreds of millions every day. He...
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Minus $16 Billion
That's the net worth of the once great General Motors if you count their contractual pension obligations going forward (and why wouldn't you?). Recently, out of a real business necessity, they're pursuing cash flow at the expense of profits to the tune of about $1,200 cost (borrowed) each time they sell a vehicle. Know what? I really don't care if GM--or any other once-great American company, for that matter--goes under. Sell it off for scrap, for all I care. Do you know what else? The prospect of tens of thousands of GM employees and retirees losing their pensions and medical benefits fills me with a strange sense of satisfaction. Oh, not because I don't want them to prosper. I do. I want everyone to prosper beyond their wildest dreams--but only in a manner that reflects reality and the natural order of things. It's kind of like Lottery stories: they hold no interest with me whatsoever; and when I hear that some former winner is broke, again, I'm neither surprised nor saddened. GM stockholders, directors, officers, and employees have been ignoring reality for decades. Employees got pitched a deal that for monthly dues to a union organization, they could make GM...
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The Stupidity of Theft
From a comment, here: Your right we should be ashmaned of ourselves. and for Katrina too. I dont like the republicans anymore. they inspire hate for our own, but let scum like Iran breathe. Wally: That's quite a mix of things. I suppose the only way to tie them together is under a common premise of "entitlement." Immigrants are entitled to social services. Katrina victims are entitled to disaster relief. Americans at large are entitled to be taken care of before those in other countries. If you remove that premise, what do you have? Suppose nobody has a right to take from me and you--or anyone else--without our say-so. Note: I'm not saying there's anything wrong with giving immigrants a helping start. Not saying there's anything wrong with massive relief efforts for victims of natural disaster. Not saying there's anything wrong with various forms of assistance for Americans at large, or "taking care of our own," first. But stealing from me, you and every other productive person renders all of those things the spoils of theft--not the charity from good and kind people those things should be. I don't have a right to stop an immigrant from crossing a line...
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Dear Lawbreakers:
Yes; I'm talking directly to you. See, I'm reading and hearing a whole lot lately about how sacred are the "laws of the land." ...How respectful and reverent we must be and how solemn must be our demeanor when contemplating the dire warnings of crumbled civilizations brought about by the prospect of lawbreakers!!! Well, dear reader: YOU ARE A LAWBREAKER! Do you own a computer? An Internet connection? Browse the Internet? Ever shop? Buy anything online? Ever not be charged sales tax, like from Amazon, or a private purchase on eBay or the like? Yes? Uh...and did you calculate your sales tax liability over the entire year of purchases and send in a check to your governor? Do you send in a check for purchases you make in other states with no sales tax or a lower sales tax while traveling or on vacation? LAWBREAKER Online purchases from sites like Amazon.com and eBay may seem to arrive in a state of untaxed bliss. But the law actually requires shoppers to pay their own state's sales tax rate--the concept is called a "use tax"--and voluntarily cough up the exact amount owed each year at tax time. [...] New York state has...
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“Managing Migration”
Guy Herbert, over at one of my favorite foreigner blogs, samizdata.net ("samizdat"), knows question begging when he sees it. [...] But how does a state achieve the balance between the need for control of its borders and the need to facilitate movement across its borders for legitimate purposes such as trade, tourism, family reunion and education? ...asks the IOM, seeking to explain its purpose, but begging the question. The assumption is that states will naturally ban travel and trade (which is what 'control their borders' means) and then decide what are 'legitimate purposes' for permitted movements. But this is a convenient doctrine invented by states in the 20th century, a generalization of the conditions of the Tsarist police-state and the petty, nationalist bureaucracies that emerged in the 19th. Where - let alone why - I choose to live or travel is no business of states, unless I am doing injury to their citizens. By going from place to place I do accept that places are different legally as well as culturally and physically. If there were no differences there would be no point in travel. But the natural condition of borders is openness. They are just lines on a map....
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Sent Items
It may come as a complete surprise to some, but I got into a political discussion with my dad's oldest friend (we're talkin' since 8th grade) last night at my mom's 65th birthday party. Yea...about the immigration deal, protectionism and such. This morning, I've got an email that references the conversation, along with a reference to this post by Michelle Malkin, who I just about can't stomach reading or listening to in radio interviews, any longer. So, I reply: Uh huh. And those clean-cut, middle-class-looking high-school students in Whittier, CA are what? Huh? Do you suppose they're American citizens or "illegals?" Look, I'm not particularly fond of seeing such a symbol tarnished in such a way either. I also suspect that the American Flag symbolizes something entirely different for me than it does for most--particularly judging by what I'm hearing lately. For me, it symbolizes freedom. It symbolizes a Declaration of Independence. It symbolizes freedom from oppressive governments like King George's and King Bush's. It symbolizes an ideal--an ideal premised upon the unalienable rights of individuals--rights that render all man-made law either moot, or an assault upon freedom and individualism. It has never, to me, symbolized anything having to do...
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“Democracy of the Dead”
I suppose that Jonah Goldberg is at least to be commended for this most accurate depiction of what constitutions really are--or at least eventually become. This, via Drizzten, and you ought to head over and read his Spooner quote--if not the whole Spooner essay which he links to. It's a classic 'must-read' for everyone, especially those who harbor sacred notions regarding the US Constitution. Googling the Chesterton quote yielded the following: "Tradition means giving a vote to most obscure of all classes, our ancestors. It is the democracy of the dead." Chesterton goes on to say: "Tradition refuses to submit to the small and arrogant oligarchy of those who merely happen to be walking about. All democrats object to men being disqualified by the accident of birth; tradition objects to their being disqualified by the accident of death. Democracy tells us not to neglect a good man's opinion, even if he is our groom; tradition asks us not to neglect a good man's opinion, even if he is our father." OK, so it's mostly crap. What else would you expect from someone who "...also argued against both socialism and capitalism and showed why they have both been the enemies of...
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Goings On
Wow. Haven't posted in a while. Busy. Actually, I'm trying to put together a $5 million construction project. Here in the Bay Area--Sunnyvale, in particular--that's six townhouses on a 12,000 square foot lot. I've got the land under contract for $1.2 million and have been working on putting a financing package together for the cost of construction. Met the architect, yesterday. I swear to God: it's the coolest office I've ever seen. It's on the 7th floor of a glass building in Burlingame, CA. Corner suite. About 400 square feet. Floor to ceiling glass. Overlooks the entire bay, as well as being just adjacent to the southeastern jetty of SFO so you can sit there watching 747-400s taking off and landing, marveling at where in the world they're coming from and going to. See what I mean by clicking right HERE (you'll want to close that balloon that pops up). This is an office I'm quite certain Howard Roark would have been proud of. Now I'm off to pick up my Winchester Mod 94.
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Food For Thought
Here's some food for thought to all you "law-abiding, 'compassionate' conservatives" out there, as well as democrats who smell the red meat that the immigration issue is sizing up to be for the upcoming solve-all-problems-by-voting-your-1/270,000,000th-say season. I'm reading reports of the massive demonstrations and I can't help but recall back in the day when people were breaking laws right and left--peacefully and gleefully--in order to partially correct the institutional injustice faced by the black man. What was their fundamental operating premise, their rallying cry? Was it that blacks were "legal citizens of the United Sates?" Or, was it that blacks are ... uh, human beings who ought to be judged, individually, by the content of their character and not the color of their skin, or, and pay attention here: their "legal" status. Arbitrarily stopping a guy at some arbitrary line drawn on a map when he is coming to peacefully trade with others in terms of employment, food, shelter, clothing, and so on, is not fundamentally different than sending a black man to the back of the bus. If these demonstrators get their fundamental premises and rationale correct, you "compassionate" ones just might get one hell of a lot more...
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Finally, a Little Logic and Honesty
I've been sitting on the Doctor Doom story for about a week since I first came across it. Recently citizen scientist Forrest Mims told me about a speech he heard at the Texas Academy of Science during which the speaker, a world-renowned ecologist, advocated for the extermination of 90 percent of the human species in a most horrible and painful manner. Apparently at the speaker's direction, the speech was not video taped by the Academy and so Forrest's may be the only record of what was said. Forrest's account of what he witnessed chilled my soul. Astonishingly, Forrest reports that many of the Academy members present gave the speaker a standing ovation. To date, the Academy has not moved to sanction the speaker or distance itself from the speaker's remarks. Naturally, there's no shortage of outrage. I don't need to point it out, as Google will do a far more thorough job than I for those so inclined. Also, in fairness, it's probably appropriate to reference Dr. Eric R. Pianka directly--either his clarification or backtrack, depending on your point of view. What I've yet to see, and anyone is welcome to point me to it, is some recognition that the...
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“It’s The Law”
JTK over at No Treason duly bitch-slaps Libertarian turned Republican Congressman Ron Paul. You bandy about the words “illegal” and “lawbreaker” as if they had moral content. They don’t. Weren’t Washington, Jefferson, Franklin and all the founding fathers lawbreakers? Wasn’t Thoreau? Or Martin Luther King? Wasn’t the Declaration of Independence itself an act of lawbreaking? Men have no moral obligation whatsoever to obey or even recognize immoral laws, including many immoral laws that you are party to. Stop using law as a proxy for morality in your arguments. There is no necessary relationship between the two. Amen.
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Status Report
I'm in Vegas (again) for a couple of days. All business, this time. In the meantime, Billy Beck has a very good post up that explains what I mean when I say that "America exists all over the world." Go take a look.
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Be Careful Who You Pray For
Reason's Tim Cavanaugh highlights a couple of recent studies (748 patients and 1,800 patients) that suggest that not only is prayer for the sick of no measurable therapeutic benefit, it often measurably hurts, i.e., makes people worse off. God comes up empty-handed in the largest, longest study of the effect of intercessory prayer. In a study of 1,800 heart bypass surgery patients, the American Heart Journal finds that remote orisons not only don't make any difference, they actually make things worse. My own experience with religion in youth leads me to a particular understanding. In my observation, the more religious people appeared outwardly, the worse they did at just about everything -- especially financially. Often, their lives could be clearly seen as on a long, steady downward trend. Those same people, once they begin to turn away from religion as a day-to-day affair seemed to do better at manging their lives and prospering as human beings (by my standards, of course). Now, granting that such study data is objective, how do you square it with your beliefs? It seems to me that you've basically got to conclude that either your God is a completely evil sonofabitch, or there just isn't...
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Winchester Model 94 30-30
One of my greatest memories of growing up in Reno, Nevada was our annual deer-hunting trips up north to Elko County, within eyeshot of the Ruby Mountains. My family (grandfather, grandmother, dad, mom, and assorted others) hunted deer exclusively with scoped .243 bolt-action rifles. That was the only suitable gun with which to hunt mule deer in Nevada's sagebrush and open spaces, in our not-so-humble opinions. Why? Well, as I've stated, our hunting ethic was always about eating what we kill and we'd all seen way too much meat ruined by overkill with 30-06s and 7mms. Anyway, fast forward to the early 80s. I was going to college in Oregon and had occasion to go on a deer-hunting trip in western Oregon with my brother and some friends. We were hunting for whitetail, as I recall, and there was thick greenery everywhere. I quickly discovered that a scope was worthless (you get an eyeful of blurry green). A friend had a good old lever-action model 94 Winchester 30-30 he let me borrow, and I just loved that gun. Ever since, I always thought about getting one. Then, the other day, I read something over a Kim's place and I knew...
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I Reply
To a comment: To be perfectly honest, this is how I approached "libertarianism" from the beginning, back in 1990--owing to the influence that awakened my mind. I saw it not so much as a required evolution in "practical politics," as society is currently arranged, but more as a need to “evolve” (or motivate) the "practical mind" to the next stage of its necessary development. Understand: human consciousness (conceptual, integrative) is the greatest power in the universe, per se. It is the only power capable of purposefully controlling all of existence / the universe (think about it: on what foundation does knowledge rest?). We already have human consciousness. We've had it for about 3,000 years or so (if the late Julian Jaynes in The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bi-Cameral Mind is to be believed). All the potential is there. But I see "children" raising their fists in the streets all over the world, demanding "their fair share." I'd love to be on the verge of concluding that the problem is existential, metaphysical. But I'm talking about things so fundamental that we're not dealing with a "bug" in consciousness. That's impossible (again: the foundation of knowledge?). There are...
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