More John Galt In The News

Of course we already had John Galt donating money to Obama's website.

Now we've got people talking about "going John Galt" in response to higher taxes for high earners. And they're not talking about a secret valley hideaway. It's a lot simpler than that.

Perhaps it is time for those of us who make the money and pay the taxes to take it easy, live on less and let the looters of the world find their own way.

Meanwhile, Obama wonders:

You know I don’t know when, when they decided they wanted to make a virtue out of selfishness.

Why would you think it was good to keep your pay
when the government offers to help you give it away?

Larry Sechrest 1946-2008

I was terribly sorry to hear today that Larry Sechrest has died. My heart goes out to his wife, Molly, whom I have known for many years.

Larry was the author of Free Banking, a book which argued that government-run central banking is a bad thing.

From a summary:

Central banking accepts all the methodological precepts of socialist central planning. It is constructivist. The planners pretend to know more than they can know. They presume that their knowledge is better than the market. They use their power to override market signals of prices and interest. And the results are about as successful as socialism...

How can this be?  We are told constantly that the Fed's mistakes are a "failure of capitalism."  

Could it be that the Fed and its Chair
wouldn't exist under laissez-faire?

Transparent Appearance

Stepping lightly down the creaky stairs,
ghosts attempt to take us unawares.

They wish to whisper secrets in our ears,
reminiscing over vanished years.

Sliding by the corner of your eye,
the glowing vagueness waves a slow goodbye.

Protozoa on the Brain

Toxoplasma gondii is a protozoa. 

I used to think a protozoa was just a professional tozoa. But, no. It's a kind of one-celled animal. 

In this particluar case, it's a brain-invading parasite.

Your brain is probably fine. Only 20% of Americans are infected. And a lot of people don't seem to suffer any ill effects from the infection. But consider what it does to rodents:

T. gondii infections have the ability to change the behavior of rats and mice, making them drawn to rather than fearful of the scent of cats. This effect is advantageous to the parasite, which will be able to sexually reproduce if its host is eaten by a cat.

How clever of the parasite
to feed the rat to the cat
by making its brain
go slightly insane.

But I maintain it's impolite
to treat a host like that!

Time To Redecorate

My wife did a tour of the White House.  She says it's Really Small.  Miniscule compared to Versailles.

But it's got a big yard
with lots of guards.

But He's Good At It

When you're reading Mamet,
a phrase like "damn it"
barely counts as a curse.

Count on encountering worse!

Yawning Abyss Or Just A Yawn

Some conservatives are excited about finding an Obama radio interview where he advocates "redistributive change."

But some libertarians argue that redistribution is old hat. For example, David Bernstein writes:

At least since the passage of the first peacetime federal income tax law about 120 years ago, redistribution of wealth has been a (maybe the) primary item on the left populist/progressive/liberal agenda, and has been implicitly accepted to some extent by all but the most libertarian Republicans as well.

I suppose the key is that "implicitly accepted." Which suggests it has been "explicitly rejected".

Bernstein goes on to reflect:

Is it okay for a politician to talk about the redistribution of wealth only so long as you don't actually use phrases such as "redistribution" or "spreading the wealth," in which case he suddenly becomes "socialist"? If so, then American political discourse, which I never thought to be especially elevated, is in even a worse state than I thought.

Perhaps so, but worse in which way?  The left may be big on redistribution, but they have never succeeded in selling it on its own merits. Instead they have proceeded by selling particular programs by means of more specific arguments.

Generally, they argue from "need to help the poor."  Not from "need to tear down the rich."  You might argue that mathematically the two are one, but the emotional appeals are quite different.

You might say they've been a bit sneaky about their intentions - at least in the political arena. So whose fault is it that people are upset when the taboo is broken?

If your side has been sneaking
be careful of leaking
your true agenda
in all its splendor.

Horrid

I can't figure out a motive yet in this horrible triple-murder involving close relatives of Jennifer Hudson. The poor thing had to i.d. her dead nephew today.

Why kill 2 adults, kidnap a 7 year old boy, and then kill the child?

Was some lesser crime planned
but it got out of hand?

Or is this another bloody page
of domestic rage?

Overprotected

"Christmas is coming. The geese are getting fat." Sure enough, they're all over the place. But we're not allowed to capture them and cook them.

Killing geese outside of hunting season, or outside of designated areas during hunting season, is a federal crime and may violate state and local laws as well.

They were near extinction in the 1940's. But now they're all over. And they are messy. Listen to this sad complaint:

I have been frequently going to a public beach that is infested with Canada geese poop. It is everywhere! There are a lot of children and families also at this beach.

Once they were an endangered species.
Now they fill our parks with feces?

Shame on  you, you naughty geeses!

First Sighting

I saw some wild canines last night.  About a block from my house.

To me they looked like foxes.  Small.  A pair.  Under a street light.  One with a very bushy tail, and one with no tail at all.

A neighbor of mine said she spotted a coyote at the same place.  I imagine she saw the same critter I did.  I vote foxes.  But hey, we're both city folk, what do we know?

Whatever they were, I've never seen them around here before.

Maybe they were gray foxes, which are native to Illinois, and which can climb trees.

I thought that I would never see
a canine that could climb a tree.

All the squirrel in the area
are on notice: please bewarea.

Kita y Fernanda

Saw a play full of Spanish-speaking actresses tonight. Well, they spoke English too, which was good for me.  I'd have to say the target audience is Spanish-speaking women,

The title charaters, Kita and Fernanda, are a couple of Mexican-born girls who spent years growing up together in the same Texas house.  Kita is the daughter of the maid. Fernanda is the daughter of the owner.

Ann Filmer directed.  Which always means you get great acting. I felt the outstanding performance was Suzette Mayobre, who played the complex character of Fernanda, the rich girl who struggles for acceptance.

Even the rich,
can have trouble finding a comfortable niche

Limits of Experience

Two ways to look at it:

Peggy Noonan:

When it comes to his career, his decisions are thought through and his judgments sound.

Thomas Sowell:

But the country does not deserve to be put in the hands of a glib and cocky know-it-all, who has accomplished absolutely nothing beyond the advancement of his own career with rhetoric...

My guess is that we'll learn soon enough
how he handles executive stuff.

Cutting Loose

From the pages of Vogue,
to Republican rogue...

Yes, Sarah Palin, formerly featured in a fashion magazine, is now rumored to be veering from the party line:

"She's lost confidence in most of the people on the plane," said a senior Republican who speaks to Palin, referring to her campaign jet. He said Palin had begun to "go rogue" in some of her public pronouncements and decisions.

Control starts to slip
on a desperate ship.

Is It Contagious?

The top aide of the governer of New York had a little problem: he hadn't paid 300,000 dollars worth of taxes on time.

The aide is a former Jesuit priest.  
Did he forget the moolah was due?

His lawyers said the complaints should cease
because this guy was a victim too.  

Specifically, his lawyers said he suffered from "non-filer syndrome."  Which you may not have heard of.  Which nobody had ever heard of.

People seeking excuses will
sometimes claim to be mentally ill.

But I recommend being leery
when it's their very own theory.

Give Me A B!

A young woman, a McCain volunteer, reported falsely that a robber, an Obama supporter, had carved a "B" into her face.

If you look at the picture, here, you'll see the "B" is backwards.

Oh, yeah, a dyslexic robber, who barely scratches her, but nonetheless writes neatly.

The situation is getting clearer
I bet she did it herself in the mirror.

Some right-wing bloggers fell for it.
Now the left will give them hell for it.

If you must work in the mirror, scratch an "O".
It's left-right symmetrical, you know?

Greenspan Shocked

Alan Greenspan is shocked, and can't figure out why banks did not act to protect their shareholders.

"Those of us who have looked to the self-interest of lending institutions to protect shareholder's equity – myself especially – are in a state of shocked disbelief."

Probably I don't know enough to understand what he's shocked about. But even when people are acting in their self-interest, they make mistakes. Especially when "everyone else" is making the same mistake. Bubbles and panics are examples of that.

Bubbles are trouble
and panics are double.

Residing in Colorado

John Galt donated online to Barack Obama. 

Oh, wait, no.  Someone donated using Ayn Rand's hero as a fake name.  To prove a point - that the name and address validation feature was turned off at Obama's site.

It's okay with me.  I haven't heard there's a law that says you have to turn on this feature.  Sure, there are all these pesky rules about who can donate - limits on size - bans on foreigners - and so on.

But I believe the donors can be trusted.
At least until a bunch of them get busted.

No Wonder It Died Out

Today I was looking at an interesting book on learning Latin by reading excerpts from Ovid.

I saw the book was showing "ita" as the word for "yes". But elsewhere I have read that, strangely:

Latin has no simple words for the unqualified "yes" or "no" that is so common in English.... Saying yes or no takes a little thought in Latin.

In Latin, you can't "just say no".
Nor can you "just say yes".

You have to think before you express
that it is, or isn't, so.

The Obesity Crisis Spreads

We just saw the biggest raccoon we'd ever seen.

He was sitting in the middle of an alley, just watching us.

By the light of the moon
we saw the raccoon -
he was hunkered down not far away.

He was monstrously big
liked a furry masked pig
and he eyed us as if he would say:

"Humans keep walking.
I don't need your stalking
or worrying how much I weigh."

November

I just finished reading November, by David Mamet. It had a six month run on Broadway earlier this year. Nathan Lane starred as a totally corrupt incumbent president. He's the schlep protagonist. It's a comedy, with lots of laugh lines, but very cynical about Washington.

It's gag-heavy but turns philosophical at brief moments. My favorite exchange occurred after a woman risked her life to save the life of the President. He asks her why she did it. She tells him that he's the President - that the people voted for him.

He: They were mistaken.

She: That's their right.

The republic has lumbered along
even if some choices were wrong.