News and Politics

If you ever wondered why I’m not a Republican, you should check out this article by Robert Locke at the The American Conservative. The Republican Party is made up primarily of pragmatists to whom the following questions are logically consistent:

Libertarians need to be asked some hard questions. What if a free society needed to draft its citizens in order to remain free? What if it needed to limit oil imports to protect the economic freedom of its citizens from unfriendly foreigners? What if it needed to force its citizens to become sufficiently educated to sustain a free society? What if it needed to deprive landowners of the freedom to refuse to sell their property as a precondition for giving everyone freedom of movement on highways? What if it needed to deprive citizens of the freedom to import cheap foreign labor in order to keep out poor foreigners who would vote for socialistic wealth redistribution?

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There is a great discussion going on over at the Beckner - Posner Blog (the dueling University of Chicago Professors) about ways to solve the illegal immigration problem including one of the best ideas I’ve never thought of: charge for admittance.

Given these realities of free immigration, the best alternative to the present quota system is an ancient way of allocating a scarce and popular good; namely, by charging a price that clears the market. That is why I believe countries should sell the right to immigrate, especially the United States that has so many persons waiting to immigrate. To illustrate how a price system would work, suppose the United States charges $50,000 for the right to immigrate, and agrees to accept all applicants willing to pay that price, subject to a few important qualifications. These qualifications would require that those accepted not have any serious diseases, or terrorist backgrounds, or criminal records.

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Hunter S. Thompson, the acerbic counterculture writer who popularized a new form of fictional journalism in books like “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas,” fatally shot himself Sunday night at his home, his son said. He was 67.

[Via: Yahoo! News - Author Hunter S. Thompson Kills Himself]

I don’t know how to feel about this one. I always though that it was a complete waste that Thompson had such an abundant writing talent and squandered it on the meaningless and trite. However, it is sad that such a raw talent disappear. Well, I hope the afterlife is as gonzo as the real world was for you.

Johnny Carson, the “Tonight Show” TV host who served America a smooth nightcap of celebrity banter, droll comedy and heartland charm for 30 years, has died. He was 79. “Mr. Carson passed away peacefully early Sunday morning,” his nephew, Jeff Sotzing, told The Associated Press. “He was surrounded by his family, whose loss will be immeasurable. There will be no memorial service.”

Poll: Nation split on Bush as uniter or divider

[Via: CNN.com]

I should preface this post by saying I am not, in any real way, an open source developer. I feel no compulsion to distribute the source of my work for others to modify and distribute on their own without proper monetary compensation. In fact I am revolted by anyone who suggests that I have a moral obligation to do so. This is the talk of looters who wish to steal the works of others for their own purposes without the producers consent. However, my feelings on the politics of GNU style open source are well known and not the purpose of this post.

Following up on my little rant of yesterday, I had started to write my original piece about the eagerly offended agnostic. However, what do I find, but that the ever eloquent Mr. William F. Buckley has once again stolen my thunder (though while talking about a completely different subject):

The opposition to nativity scenes at Christmastime, or to the singing of songs that focus on the manger and the stilled star that hung over it, embraces a wide group of people. Among them are secularists who have drunk deep of ACLU doctrines over the years and have convinced themselves that any theological exercise in public circumstances is both a deprivation of their rights to seamless agnosticism and a personal affront to believers in competing doctrines. In such language you can’t say a Christian prayer without offending the Jew or the Muslim.

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Some people will forever be chasing the chimera of better government. This shields them from the idea that the only option is less government - Peter Gordon.

[Via Samizdata.net]

[Listening to: Bad Businessman - Squirrel Nut Zippers - Hot (03:48)]

Man, this is just starting to get real funny to me. Here’s another great quote from a newspaper editor furious about the increasing popularity and pressure from the online publishers:

In July, he [Randell Beck, executive editor of the Argus Leader] explained to readers that “true believers of one stripe or another, no longer content to merely bore spouses and neighbors with their nutty opinions, can now spew forth on their own blogs, thereby playing a pivotal role in creating the polarized climate that dominates debate on nearly every national issue. If Hitler were alive today, he’d have his own blog.”

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Well it took long enough, but finally the fight is over. Maybe now they can all be friends:

Reuters - Business software maker PeopleSoft Inc. has accepted a sweetened $10.3 billion acquisition offer from rival Oracle Corp., ending a bitter, 18-month hostile takeover battle, the companies said on Monday.