tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-80949792012-02-15T10:35:58.365-08:00When an idea grabs hold and won't let go...Mastiffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08009663221665718199noreply@blogger.comBlogger3931100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8094979.post-91394556552900773872010-01-11T13:48:00.000-08:002010-01-11T14:28:06.243-08:00

(Whew! Need to blow the dust off of this here blog. It's been a while, but I hope to get back into the swing of things. Onward!)Lots of people have Employee Stock Option Purchase plans (ESOPs) through their employers. Have you ever wondered why companies provide them?I happen to have just sat through a presentation for one of our client companies on putting an ESOP in place. The short version is

Mastiffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08009663221665718199noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8094979.post-9722441709064967062008-09-05T08:07:00.000-07:002008-09-05T08:16:25.613-07:00

In my last post, I argued that positional equality (i.e. equality of outcome) was unsuited to be a fundamental political principle for society. Unless positional equality is a secondary, subordinate principle to some other controlling principle, it provides no basis to choose between ends, leads to endless coercion, and goes against human nature in opposing the drive to better ourselves.

Mastiffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08009663221665718199noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8094979.post-61892105561099958142008-08-18T19:00:00.000-07:002008-09-05T08:17:18.021-07:00

[I'm ba-aaack... —ed.]A stereotype of the political controversies of our time envisions a conflict between those who favor freedom and those who favor equality. This formulation is imprecise: liberals and conservatives each claim to be motivated by both of these principles, applied in different ways. (In particular, the difference between “procedural equality” and “equality of outcome” is

Mastiffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08009663221665718199noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8094979.post-19086154262379755622007-12-14T11:10:00.000-08:002007-12-14T11:12:49.094-08:00

The mere fact that someone disagrees with one's judgement is insufficient grounds for opening one's mind. Most epistemologists forget that it is just as urgent a question to determine when we are justified in opening up our minds as it is to determine when we are justified in closing them.—Isaac Levi, "Consensus as Shared Agreement and Outcome of Inquiry." Synthese 62, pg. 3

Mastiffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08009663221665718199noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8094979.post-60171406297635591652007-11-26T02:18:00.000-08:002007-11-26T02:36:36.551-08:00

At the blog of Harvard economist Greg Mankiw, he writes about a debate he participated in over whether one person should be allowed to sell his right to vote to another. Dr. Mankiw said no:It is true that both parties in the transaction must be better off if they agreed to the deal. Nonetheless, the standard argument for unfettered voluntary exchange does not apply because there are externalities

Mastiffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08009663221665718199noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8094979.post-71199242857190816912007-11-20T06:59:00.000-08:002007-11-20T07:02:38.312-08:00

"Cowardice" and "self-respect" have largely disappeared from public discourse. In their place we are offered "self-esteem" as the bellwether of success and a proxy for dignity. "Self-respect" implies that one recognizes standards, and judges oneself worthy by the degree to which one lives up to them. "Self-esteem" simply means that one feels good about oneself. "Dignity" used to refer to the

Mastiffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08009663221665718199noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8094979.post-86545166636996953602007-11-12T07:28:00.000-08:002007-11-12T07:31:03.218-08:00

[Information Technology’s] revolutionary significance is not merely in that it is a brand new technology itself, but more in that it is a kind of bonding agent which can lightly penetrate the layers of barriers between technologies and link various technologies which appear to be totally unrelated. Through its bonding, not only is it possible to derive numerous new technologies which are neither

Mastiffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08009663221665718199noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8094979.post-44284158755790970442007-04-29T17:46:00.000-07:002007-04-29T17:50:44.838-07:00

It is not generally realized that education can never be more than indoctrination with theories and ideas already developed. Education, whatever benefits it may confer, is transmissive of traditional doctrines and valuations; it is by necessity conservative. It produces imitation and routine, not improvement and progress. Innovators and creative geniuses cannot be reared in schools. They are

Mastiffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08009663221665718199noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8094979.post-10131023601571449512007-03-25T23:52:00.000-07:002007-03-25T23:57:39.136-07:00

Every one who has had the misfortune to talk with people in the heart or on the edge of mental disorder, knows that their most sinister quality is a horrible clarity of detail; a connecting of one thing with another in a map more elaborate than a maze. If you argue with a madman, it is extremely probable that you will get the worst of it; for in many ways his mind moves all the quicker for not

Mastiffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08009663221665718199noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8094979.post-81022248843469855522007-03-22T09:42:00.000-07:002007-03-22T09:47:22.374-07:00

The relative, diminishing hardships of everyday existence, together with more extensive academic instruction, has laid a foundation of knowledge for most people that is less tested by experience and affirmed more by internal feelings and passions. More people may be better educated these days, but they are also more insulated and more naive.—Richard Reay, letter to the Wall Street Journal,

Mastiffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08009663221665718199noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8094979.post-68190773297671978502007-02-25T00:05:00.000-08:002007-02-25T00:12:12.485-08:00

Everyone prefers to believe rather than to judge. One never judges but always believes regarding the things which are vital. Error transmitted from hand to hand always turns us to and fro and throws us down headlong, and we perish through following examples taken from others. We shall be cured if we were but to secede from the crowd. As it is, however, the people, the defender of its own evil,

Mastiffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08009663221665718199noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8094979.post-1171175168308748112007-02-10T19:27:00.000-08:002007-02-10T22:26:08.366-08:00

Longtime readers of this blog may remember that I am interested in the concept of a decentralized, flexible military that follows the model proposed by Arquilla and Ronfeldt in their work, Swarming and the Future of Conflict. Briefly put, they propose that the current hierarchical structure of the military be replaced with one where troops are organized in autonomous units of about 200 men, which

Mastiffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08009663221665718199noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8094979.post-1171000768827215502007-02-08T20:19:00.000-08:002007-02-08T21:59:28.850-08:00

The angst continues to build over the ballooning cost of medical care in the United States. Thanks to a toxic combination of perverse legal incentives, crippling legal restrictions, and inefficient use of medical resources, health care costs have been consistently growing 2% faster than inflation for decades. (It is noteworthy that both health care and education—the other sector where prices have

Mastiffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08009663221665718199noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8094979.post-1170872957884886162007-02-07T10:27:00.000-08:002007-02-07T10:29:17.903-08:00

The various modes of worship, which prevailed in the Roman world, were all considered by the people as equally true; by the philosopher, as equally false; and by the magistrate, as equally useful.--Edward Gibbon, The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire

Mastiffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08009663221665718199noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8094979.post-1170635291335651042007-02-04T16:26:00.000-08:002007-02-04T16:28:11.366-08:00

Government is the only enterprise in the world which expands in size when its failures increase.—Judge Janice Rodgers Brown, speaking at the University of Chicago on 20 April 2000.

Mastiffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08009663221665718199noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8094979.post-1170624611024755162007-02-04T12:38:00.000-08:002007-11-12T07:43:44.990-08:00

Revolutions rarely compromise; compromises are made only to further the strategic design. Negotiation, then, is undertaken for the dual purpose of gaining time to buttress a position (military, political, social, economic) and to wear down, frustrate and harass the opponent. Few, if any, essential concessions are to be expected from the revolutionary side, whose only aim is to create conditions

Mastiffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08009663221665718199noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8094979.post-1170390551062538492007-02-01T20:22:00.000-08:002007-02-01T20:29:11.080-08:00

The rich, the owners of the already operating plants, have no particular class interest in the maintenance of free competition. They are opposed to confiscation and expropriation of their fortunes, but their vested interests are rather in favor of measures preventing newcomers from challenging their position. Those fighting for free enterprise and free competition do not defend the interests of

Mastiffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08009663221665718199noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8094979.post-1170380015257782292007-02-01T16:37:00.000-08:002007-02-01T17:33:35.276-08:00

One of the things I've been up to in my long absence from blogging has been studying up on game theory and issues of persuasion and decisionmaking, for one of my side projects. One of the tidbits I gleaned from this study is that academics agree that it is, indeed, very hard to go against a group consensus. You must fight against social penalties for perceived disloyalty, as well as the

Mastiffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08009663221665718199noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8094979.post-1169680722330548672007-01-24T15:11:00.000-08:002007-01-24T15:18:42.360-08:00

It always turns out that the party that is not your ally calls for your neutrality, while your ally asks that you declare yourself with action. In order to avoid immediate peril, an irresolute prince most often embraces neutrality and most often comes to grief…. And let no state suppose that it can choose sides with complete safety. Indeed, it had better recognize that it will always have to

Mastiffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08009663221665718199noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8094979.post-1163904475813802222006-11-18T18:25:00.000-08:002006-11-18T18:47:56.736-08:00

Looking over the details of the New School case as reported in this news article, one point in particular stands out:According to New School Director Sue Miller-Hurst, she went to the county initially. “When we looked at this site in 2004, we sent a school architect to the county for a conditional use permit and he was told we did not need one because we were a public school. When we wanted to

Mastiffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08009663221665718199noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8094979.post-1163481016763525082006-11-13T21:09:00.000-08:002006-11-13T21:10:16.783-08:00

Government is not reason, it is not eloquence, it is force; like fire, a troublesome servant and a fearful master. Never for a moment should it be left to irresponsible action.—George Washington

Mastiffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08009663221665718199noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8094979.post-1163322731410261312006-11-12T00:50:00.000-08:002006-11-12T01:12:11.430-08:00

[Apologies for not posting much lately. Since Nov. 1, I have been participating in National Novel Writing Month, which has utterly monopolized my capacity for stringing sentences together. However, I would be remiss if I did not say something about the most recent election.]Well, the Democrats have control. Let's see what they do with it.That was my overriding reaction to the election results, by

Mastiffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08009663221665718199noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8094979.post-1162794195039094602006-11-05T21:57:00.000-08:002006-11-18T18:20:41.046-08:00

[Note: I originally had a post up dealing with an attempt by a government bureaucrat to make trouble for a charter school. People involved in the case have asked me to pull the post for the time being; I have archived the original and will hopefully add more details later.][UPDATE 11/18: It's later. The original post follows; here is a link to a news article covering the case.]On Friday, I

Mastiffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08009663221665718199noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8094979.post-1162188942822009582006-10-29T21:06:00.000-08:002006-10-29T22:15:43.003-08:00

Over at Smallest Minority, Kevin Baker has posted a monumental effort at defining a "right," and explicating why it and the United States are so important, from the atheist perspective. (Kevin was kind enough to quote from my earlier piece, The Enervated Man of the West, as part of his presentation.) Ultimately he must fall back on Ayn Rand's "one fundamental right," the right to your own life,

Mastiffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08009663221665718199noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8094979.post-1161844352125057252006-10-25T22:24:00.000-07:002006-10-25T23:32:32.666-07:00

Last week I attended an industry conference in Atlanta, at which the headline speaker was former Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan. Greenspan was interviewed on the front stage by a CNN finance anchor, Ali Someone-or-Other (not being in the habit of watching CNN, I did not know him at all). The contrast throughout was striking: while the interviewer kept digging for the incendiary soundbite

Mastiffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08009663221665718199noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8094979.post-1161050045735698762006-10-16T18:01:00.000-07:002006-10-16T18:54:51.010-07:00

Excerpts from a post about politics by Roger L. Simon and from a few commenters:It's blood sport performed by truly uninteresting performers—basketball without Kobe, Shaq or Jordan. People like Reid, Hastert, Pelosi are complete mediocrities who should be at much lower levels in our society. Something is fundamentally wrong on both sides of the aisle if they are the upper leadership of our

Mastiffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08009663221665718199noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8094979.post-1160611538978759482006-10-11T16:53:00.000-07:002006-10-11T17:05:38.996-07:00

North Korea's been conducting purported nuclear tests and threatening war, the budget deficit has shrunk to 1.9% of GDP (well below the 40-year average of 2.3%), Jimmy Carter has opened his fetid mouth in public again, the price of oil has dropped like a rock, and Pope Benedict continues to state uncomfortable truths about modern Islamism.So why haven't I been posting?There are several reasons

Mastiffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08009663221665718199noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8094979.post-1159392292562943092006-09-27T14:21:00.000-07:002006-09-27T14:24:52.580-07:00

Officials of the [Iranian] regime have admitted that most Iranian clerics have always taken a wary view of Khomeinism. It is important to realize that the religious references which Khomeini used to justify his rule were literally the same as those invoked a century earlier by an eminent ayatollah who was arguing for the legitimacy of parliamentarianism and popular sovereignty on Islamic grounds.

Mastiffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08009663221665718199noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8094979.post-1159323210080608542006-09-26T18:07:00.000-07:002006-09-26T19:14:24.056-07:00

One of the constant critiques by soldiers deployed to Afghanistan and Iraq is that they are having to carry out diplomatic and civil affairs duties that are, strictly speaking, outside of their core competency. Robert Kaplan noted that "they say where is the State Department. We want desperately to hand over responsibility to USAID, the State Department." Yet the State Department has been slow to

Mastiffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08009663221665718199noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8094979.post-1158179724126487362006-09-13T13:32:00.000-07:002006-09-13T13:35:24.143-07:00

In societies such as ours, it is unusual for anyone describable as an intellectual to feel a very deep attachment to his own country. Public opinion — that is , the section of public opinion of which he as an intellectual is aware — will not allow him to do so. Most of the people surrounding him are sceptical and disaffected, and he may adopt the same attitude from imitativeness or sheer

Mastiffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08009663221665718199noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8094979.post-1158132439431123802006-09-12T22:56:00.000-07:002006-09-13T00:27:19.493-07:00

The Sept. 9-10 Wall Street Journal published an interview with President Bush that is well worth reading, if only for the insight it provides into the mind of the most powerful man on Earth. I would like to focus on one particular point. Discussing the old policy of Middle-East "stability" at the price of liberty and justice, the President said:The problem with that philosophy, or that foreign

Mastiffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08009663221665718199noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8094979.post-1158019258105707802006-09-11T16:22:00.000-07:002006-09-11T22:31:28.626-07:00

In Roman times, roads meant trade, so new villages were built beside roads. In Anglo-Saxon times, roads meant marauders, so new villages were built far from roads. Tells you most of what you need to know, I reckon.—dearieme, commenting at Samizdata.As the West wages desultory war against its enemies, we have too often taken our eventual victory for granted. Those among us who hope that we lose,

Mastiffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08009663221665718199noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8094979.post-1156922921069316952006-08-30T00:26:00.000-07:002006-09-27T14:26:56.546-07:00

There are truths that must be stated. Mark Steyn starts down that road with the speech from which I quoted some hours ago, which has earned him a great deal of hatred; yet while he identifies the problem — that there is little in the multicultural identity, or lack of same, that can offer a compelling alternative to a determined, militant Islam for the individual Muslim — Steyn stops halfway in

Mastiffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08009663221665718199noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8094979.post-1156895223515801432006-08-29T16:43:00.000-07:002006-08-29T16:47:03.536-07:00

Now I have a great sympathy for Muslims that face demands that they assimilate; it's on the front pages of all the newspapers in London this weekend. Even if you wanted to, even if you wanted to, how would you assimilate with say, Canadian national identity? You can't assimilate with a nullity, which is what the modern multicultural state boils down to. It's much easier to dismantle a society

Mastiffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08009663221665718199noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8094979.post-1155842739213751142006-08-17T12:24:00.000-07:002006-08-17T12:25:39.233-07:00

Our medical system is heading towards a meltdown. The symptoms are easily apparent; we have devolved into two loosely connected systems, each of which performs poorly. In one, people pay a large amount of money every month so that if things go wrong, they can take advantage of free or heavily subsidized medical care. In the other, people incur no costs until something goes wrong, in which case

Mastiffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08009663221665718199noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8094979.post-1155002618388677902006-08-07T17:58:00.000-07:002006-08-07T19:03:38.510-07:00

He who is kind when he should be cruel, will be cruel when he should be kind. If you could point to a single ironclad rule in history, this Talmudic dictum would be it. The specific context for the quote was the Biblical reign of King Saul. Ordered to annihilate the kingdom of Amalek, Saul instead spared the Amalekite king, Agag, and allowed his troops to take back plunder which had been

Mastiffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08009663221665718199noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8094979.post-1154672974471728492006-08-03T23:07:00.000-07:002006-08-03T23:29:34.550-07:00

Thus said the Lord Hashem/Elokim: "Woe unto the foolish prophets, who follow their own spirit, and things they have not seen. Like foxes among the ruins, so are your prophets, O Israel. You did not ascend into the breaches nor build a fence for the House of Israel, that could stand up in battle on the day of Hashem. They saw a worthless vision and false divination; they say, 'The word of Hashem!'

Mastiffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08009663221665718199noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8094979.post-1154454616479714582006-08-01T10:19:00.000-07:002006-08-01T10:50:16.583-07:00

This morning, I listened to an NPR news report that surveyed the non-approved use of the cancer drug Avastin to treat a common cause of blindness, wet macular degeneration. A researcher realized that Avastin was chemically similar to another drug being specifically approved by the FDA for this disorder (whose name I forget, but it is made by Genentech), and tried it on his patients with great

Mastiffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08009663221665718199noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8094979.post-1153713430995736992006-07-23T20:52:00.000-07:002006-07-23T20:57:11.050-07:00

The ever-devastating Mark Steyn has written a piece titled "Failure to solve Palestinian question empowers Iran," wherein he notes that the Arab powers created a terrorist monster that has finally gotten away from them, and is now serving the interests of their true enemy, Iran. Key paragraph:Saudi-Egyptian-Jordanian opportunism on Palestine has caught up with them: It's finally dawned on them

Mastiffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08009663221665718199noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8094979.post-1153368341764173122006-07-19T20:23:00.000-07:002006-07-19T21:05:41.880-07:00

(Perhaps it is strange to be thinking of political philosophy and free markets at a time when Israel is crushing Hizullah and both sides of the Lebanese-Israeli border are red with blood. But I have prayed for Israel and Lebanon and the boys of the IDF, and there is little else I can do. We must not stop building in times of trouble, else nothing will ever be built.)John Mackey, founder of Whole

Mastiffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08009663221665718199noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8094979.post-1152825304702493032006-07-13T14:09:00.000-07:002006-07-13T14:15:05.186-07:00

At Tigerhawk is a fantastically thorough discussion of the larger strategy behind the decision by Hizbullah to pull the trigger. Read the whole thing, but here is a key paragraph from Aristides:Now, let's talk about transferring the captured soldier to Iran. Whether this was planned all along, or whether this move is opportunistic, it shows me two things: 1) As Tigerhawk said, Iran is positioning

Mastiffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08009663221665718199noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8094979.post-1152769217334987192006-07-12T22:36:00.000-07:002006-07-12T22:40:17.346-07:00

At Café Hayek, Jane S. Shaw gives a thorough summary of the field of economics known as Public Choice, which "takes the same principles that economists use to analyze people's actions in the marketplace and applies them to people's actions in collective decision making." As such, it is primarily focused on understanding government action.If you ever wanted to know why governments don't care how

Mastiffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08009663221665718199noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8094979.post-1152754271220561522006-07-12T17:55:00.000-07:002006-07-12T18:31:11.300-07:00

Hizbullah, apparently hoping to relieve pressure from their Hamas allies in Gaza, launched a barrage of mortar rounds and rockets into Galilee this morning, and under cover of the attack ambushed an Israeli tank and a Humvee, killing 8 IDF soldiers and capturing two. They seem to have badly miscalculated, as Israel has responded by bombing the hell out of Hizbullah bases in Lebanon. Israel has

Mastiffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08009663221665718199noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8094979.post-1152311458604397542006-07-07T11:56:00.000-07:002006-07-07T15:30:58.760-07:00

Some time ago, Dennis Prager wrote a number of articles (such as this example) arguing that Judaism needs to shed its traditional reluctance to proselytize, and actively promote Judaism to the non-Jewish world. Traditional Judaism has historically dissuaded converts, for good and bad reasons. First, if the convert is not fully committed to Jewish law, conversion will end up being a net negative

Mastiffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08009663221665718199noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8094979.post-1151830265652846942006-07-02T00:29:00.000-07:002006-07-02T01:51:10.380-07:00

Having now seen Al Pacino's rendition of the Merchant of Venice, which ostensibly presented an "incendiary drama" (quoth the DVD jacket) focused largely on a more "humanized" Shylock, I can categorically state that it was an offense to Shakespeare; and noxious to this particular Jew at least, because the makers felt it advisable to pander to the Jewish community in such an inept manner. Ye gods,

Mastiffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08009663221665718199noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8094979.post-1151650756583840572006-06-29T22:55:00.000-07:002006-06-29T23:59:16.680-07:00

At Samizdata the other day, they posted a video of a speech given in the European Parliament, directed towards British Prime Minister Tony Blair, in his capacity as rotating President of the E.U., in which Mr. Blair is savaged for backing down on his purported efforts to reform the E.U. The speaker notes midway through that the EU's auditors have refused to sign off on the budget for eleven years

Mastiffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08009663221665718199noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8094979.post-1151386112813752582006-06-26T21:05:00.000-07:002006-06-26T22:28:32.883-07:00

Yesterday, one of my close friends got married. The new bride and groom are some of the nicest, most fun people I know. I wish them much happiness and joy together; may their house be among the splendours of the House of Israel.Two weeks ago, at a gathering to celebrate the approaching wedding, my friend gave a drash (loosely translates as "sermon") regarding the blessing we recite during the

Mastiffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08009663221665718199noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8094979.post-1151086694668294372006-06-23T10:54:00.000-07:002006-06-23T11:18:14.730-07:00

The Grey Lady of Gotham has decided to publish a report about the government analyzing records of international money transfers. Readers have surely seen articles about it in any major newspaper by now. The program was legal, Congress was notified, other countries were notified and actively participated in the program, safeguards were in place to prevent abuse, and the program had been

Mastiffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08009663221665718199noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8094979.post-1151016747538513332006-06-22T15:44:00.000-07:002006-06-22T15:52:27.540-07:00

Imagine my surprise, as I browsed through my inbound links at the Ecosystem site (see sidebar) to find that I have apparently been drafted into the Alliance of Communist Blogs!This is certainly an unexpected honor, but I suppose I have to play the part now. Henceforth, no quarter will be given to capitalist running-dogs such as the Alliance of Free Blogs and their lackey the Right Hand of God who

Mastiffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08009663221665718199noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8094979.post-1150928993034684622006-06-21T14:11:00.000-07:002006-06-21T15:29:53.136-07:00

As my father and I were waiting for the start of my brother's graduation ceremony last week, the conversation somehow turned to the program of study for the Master's in Education. My father commented that as he understood it, Education students are primarily trained in the theory of education, especially from a developmental and psychological standpoint. There is certainly some value in learning

Mastiffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08009663221665718199noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8094979.post-1150659929081704682006-06-18T12:39:00.000-07:002006-06-18T12:45:29.093-07:00

Zelos, emulation, is a good thing and characteristic of good people, while phthonos, envy, is bad and characteristic of the bad; for the former, through emulation, are making an effort to attain good things for themselves, while the latter, through envy, try to prevent their neighbors from having them.—Aristotle, Rhetoric 2.10.1A self-pitying inclination to contemplate another's superiority or

Mastiffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08009663221665718199noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8094979.post-1150481463321671472006-06-16T11:10:00.000-07:002006-06-16T11:11:03.356-07:00

[I apologize for my nonexistent posting lately. At a certain point, it felt like I didn't have anything interesting to say that wasn't being said already, and there are only so many "In Praise of Wretchard" posts I can write before it gets repetitive. Fortunately, I just got a job in legislative analysis, which should be enough to get my creative juices flowing again. Plus, there's grad school in

Mastiffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08009663221665718199noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8094979.post-1149573126980010892006-06-05T22:43:00.000-07:002006-06-05T22:52:07.006-07:00

Wretchard, publisher of the Belmont Club, is on fire. Every post on his front page right now is amazing, and terribly important. Most important, I think, is this one about the apparent decision by the major American media to embargo reporting on the widespread unrest in Iran.Why is the media suppressing this story, which could well be the most significant geopolitical event of the last two years?

Mastiffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08009663221665718199noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8094979.post-1149408081498091102006-06-04T00:50:00.000-07:002006-06-04T01:01:22.586-07:00

Two quick hits:First, a roundup of the large Islamist terror cell busts in over six countries yesterday and over the last few months, provided by the frighteningly erudite Jeff Goldstein at Protein Wisdom. The biggest cell was in Canada, and had at least 17 members who had assembled 3 tons of ammonium nitrate (the material used in the Oklahoma City bombing). One worrying thing for me is that

Mastiffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08009663221665718199noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8094979.post-1148878192121693152006-05-28T21:28:00.000-07:002006-05-28T21:49:52.220-07:00

I just stayed with cousins on the East Coast for the weekend. (I was in town for my graduation ceremony, an amusing bit of theater with no intrinsic significance… but fun anyway.) The husband is a white-collar employee of New York's MTA; being of a conservative bent, he will readily tell of the many ways in which the whole system is dysfunctional.One anecdote I found particularly striking. In

Mastiffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08009663221665718199noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8094979.post-1148194295302290102006-05-20T23:51:00.000-07:002006-05-20T23:51:35.306-07:00

I have finally started reading the work of the Nineteenth-century British literary critic Matthew Arnold, on the recommendation of my old Humanities teacher. So far I have got through Democracy and The Function of Criticism at the Present Time, which are quite interesting when set alongside each other. In the latter essay, Arnold defines criticism (being primarily interested in literary criticism

Mastiffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08009663221665718199noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8094979.post-1148192321919782182006-05-20T23:12:00.000-07:002006-05-20T23:18:41.930-07:00

Democracy is a force in which the concert of a great number of men makes up for the weakness of each man taken by himself; democracy accepts a certain relative rise in their condition, obtainable by the concert for a great number, as something desirable in itself, because though this is undoubtedly far below granduer, it is yet a good deal above insignificance. A very strong, self-reliant people

Mastiffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08009663221665718199noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8094979.post-1148020841546497812006-05-18T23:01:00.000-07:002006-05-18T23:40:41.660-07:00

My apologies for not posting recently. The last few weeks have been rather depressing, between Iran's continued provocations and the immigration clash. But things seem a bit better now, so I'll try to round up.First, Wretchard over at Belmont Club writes a fascinating post on the sense of unease that has been percolating through the blogosphere, and the obscure knowledge of our deeper brains that

Mastiffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08009663221665718199noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8094979.post-1147028355129524402006-05-07T11:01:00.000-07:002006-05-07T11:59:15.236-07:00

A key tenet of modern Libertarianism is the Nonaggression Principle, abbreviated as the NAP. In the words of Walter Block:[NAP] states, simply, that it shall be legal for anyone to do anything he wants, provided only that he not initiate (or threaten) violence against the person or legitimately owned property of another. That is, in the free society, one has the right to manufacture, buy or sell

Mastiffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08009663221665718199noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8094979.post-1146987715615625662006-05-07T00:38:00.000-07:002006-05-07T00:41:55.626-07:00

In the modern social order, the person is sacrificed to the individual. The individual is given universal sufferage, equality of rights, freedom of opinion; while the person, isolated, naked, with no social armor to sustain and protect him, is left to the mercy of all the devouring forces which threaten the life of the soul, exposed to relentless actions and reactions of conflicting interests and

Mastiffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08009663221665718199noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8094979.post-1146468320872978112006-04-30T23:53:00.000-07:002006-05-01T00:25:20.970-07:00

The ways in which the statement, "A well-regulated militia, being necessary for the defense of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed," has been interpreted to better match prevailing social mores are many and varied. What many interpretations have in common is the understanding that the "well-regulated militia" is the subject, or at least a restriction

Mastiffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08009663221665718199noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8094979.post-1146457643339382382006-04-30T21:00:00.000-07:002006-04-30T21:27:23.430-07:00

This evening we ran into the parents of a student who went to my high school. He is a few years younger than me, and if we were not close friends, we got along. He also enrolled at my college in New York and was there for at least a semester by the time I left. His parents told us that he had "ran off and joined the Marine Corps." The mother proudly showed us a wallet-sized photo of her son in

Mastiffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08009663221665718199noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8094979.post-1146423387667824012006-04-30T11:42:00.000-07:002006-04-30T11:56:27.720-07:00

XXIX. Now for my Part, being fully assured, by the Reasons I have already given, that there is some Right common to all nations, which takes Place both in the Preparations and in the Course of War, I had many and weighty reasons inducing me to write a Treatise upon it. I observed throughout the Christian World a Licentiousness in regard to War, which even barbarous Nations ought to be ashamed of:

Mastiffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08009663221665718199noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8094979.post-1145912414080629222006-04-24T13:25:00.000-07:002006-04-24T14:00:14.190-07:00

I have been a fan of instant-runoff voting, an electoral process in which voters rank candidates by preference, instead of casting a single vote. If nobody has a clear majority of first-place votes, the bottom candidate is dropped and his supporters apply their second-place votes. This continues until one candidate has a clear majority. Of course, IRV does not produce outcomes that match

Mastiffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08009663221665718199noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8094979.post-1145767658122489992006-04-22T21:42:00.000-07:002006-04-22T21:47:38.133-07:00

Much of the debate on illegal immigration has focused on the effect of such immigration on the United States. But what about its effect on Mexico?Captain Ed has reproduced an email from Artcamp Artesanas Campesinas, a communal business in Guerrero, Mexico, made up of women. The email calls for the immediate closing of the US border, because the lure of easy dollars has caused all the men of their

Mastiffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08009663221665718199noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8094979.post-1145659832730567982006-04-21T15:31:00.000-07:002006-04-21T15:50:32.823-07:00

Oil rose past $75 a barrel today. And I feel fine. Indeed, I feel positively thrilled.Why? Won't high oil prices act as a drag on the economy in general, and on the personal prosperity of millions and millions of people? Yes, in the short term. But over time, sustained high prices for oil will have a number of beneficial efffects.First, high oil prices have stimulated a rush of investment in

Mastiffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08009663221665718199noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8094979.post-1144817728639490392006-04-11T21:23:00.000-07:002006-04-11T21:55:28.730-07:00

How many times have you heard a variation of the following: "Islam is incompatible with violence. In fact, the word 'Islam' itself means 'peace.'"I know that I have read such statements many times in news stories. And every time, I know that I am being lied to. "Islam" does not mean "peace," far from it. It means, in fact, "submission." And the mindset of "submission" is fundamentally opposed to

Mastiffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08009663221665718199noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8094979.post-1144781407527892072006-04-11T11:40:00.000-07:002006-04-11T11:50:07.646-07:00

Via Ace comes an editorial in the London Telegraph titled There IS a problem with global warming... it stopped in 1998:For many years now, human-caused climate change has been viewed as a large and urgent problem. In truth, however, the biggest part of the problem is neither environmental nor scientific, but a self-created political fiasco. Consider the simple fact, drawn from the official

Mastiffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08009663221665718199noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8094979.post-1144738876482454112006-04-10T23:47:00.000-07:002006-04-11T21:56:05.636-07:00

About a year ago, the French government commissioned an exhaustive study of their school system, carried out by a team of educators and Education Ministry officials. Horrified by what the study reported, the government then tried to suppress it entirely; but it was leaked to the Internet a few weeks ago. Here is a summary, along with a link to the original 37-page document in French.Excerpts:

Mastiffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08009663221665718199noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8094979.post-1144692446738527782006-04-10T10:46:00.000-07:002006-04-10T11:07:27.753-07:00

Writing about the anemic response by the American black community to the genocide in Darfur, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette writes:Among the barriers [to a strong black response], say scholars and social activists, are a lack of news media attention, black leaders' focus on surviving critical domestic problems, the black community's lack of focus on international issues and the perception that the

Mastiffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08009663221665718199noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8094979.post-1144614702814959902006-04-09T12:29:00.000-07:002006-04-09T13:31:42.916-07:00

For some time now, Apple Computer has been shipping machines built around the Intel Core Duo processor, which has the same instruction set as any other Intel processor. When this move was first announced, Steve Jobs emphasized the gains in reduced processor heat and increased speed; but observers speculated that this was Step One in a bid to allow Windows use on the Mac.A few days ago, this

Mastiffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08009663221665718199noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8094979.post-1144262639215541582006-04-05T11:36:00.000-07:002006-04-05T11:43:59.973-07:00

At Winds of Change, they've posted an extensive series of links about advances in alternative energy. Lots of good stuff over there, you should check it out. Especially interesting to me is the piece about plasma energy experiments at Sandia National Labs, which (IIRC) I've mentioned here in the past. Also interesting is that Honda is apparently researching home cogeneration units, including one

Mastiffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08009663221665718199noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8094979.post-1144182129147501062006-04-04T12:48:00.000-07:002006-04-04T13:22:09.243-07:00

It would be hard to hat tip everybody I've seen who linked to this, but suffice to say that the blogosphere is reacting gleefully to the news that Abu Musab al-Zarqawi has reportedly been unseated as leader by Iraqi insurgents:According to Huthayfah Azzam, the son of Abdullah Azzam, al-Zarqawi’s former mentor, the notorious commander of al-Qaeda in Iraq was stripped of his political duties at a

Mastiffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08009663221665718199noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8094979.post-1144093637181293182006-04-03T12:07:00.000-07:002006-04-03T12:47:17.276-07:00

From Samizdata comes a frightening post about the creation of a new law-enforcement body in Britain that seems, quite literally, to be a secret police. Agents of the Serious Organized Crime Agency will not take the Police's customary oath of service to the Crown that mandates adherence to the rule of law; they are authorized to act out of uniform, anywhere in the world; the names of SOCA agents

Mastiffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08009663221665718199noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8094979.post-1143512404063479772006-03-27T18:06:00.000-08:002006-03-27T18:20:04.106-08:00

Police, at all times, should maintain a relationship with the public that gives reality to the historic tradition that the police are the public and the public are the police; the police being only members of the public who are paid to give full-time attention to duties which are incumbent on every citizen in the interests of community welfare and existence.--Sir Robert Peel, founder of London's

Mastiffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08009663221665718199noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8094979.post-1143180591086886902006-03-23T21:49:00.000-08:002006-03-23T22:09:51.136-08:00

The reason the American Army does so well in war is that war is chaos, and the Americans practice chaos on a daily basis.— Unknown West German general

Mastiffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08009663221665718199noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8094979.post-1143172070288336982006-03-23T18:28:00.000-08:002006-03-23T19:47:50.403-08:00

[Disclaimer: I am not a rabbi, nor do I play one on TV.]Jewish tradition records that we received at Mount Sinai two interdependent codes of law: the Written Torah (or simply the Torah, i.e. the Five Books of Moses) and the Oral Torah (Torah sh-ba'al peh, the core of what would become the Talmud). On the one hand, we were commanded to transmit the Written Torah according to precise scribal rules

Mastiffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08009663221665718199noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8094979.post-1143057401434830592006-03-22T11:35:00.000-08:002006-03-22T11:56:41.526-08:00

This article in BusinessWeek (hat tip: ArrogantAthiest commenting at Samizdata) discusses how a shortage of skilled workers in China is causing wages to grow rapidly. Salaries at multinational firms in China increased 8.4% last year, and job turnover jumped to 14%. At the same time, working conditions are improving dramatically, as employers must compete for skilled employees.This is having

Mastiffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08009663221665718199noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8094979.post-1142978194450693982006-03-21T13:02:00.000-08:002006-03-21T13:56:34.543-08:00

A few days ago, President Bush gave a speech in Cleveland, Ohio, laying out his fundamental vision of how the war in Iraq is progressing. Much has already been said about this speech, which was apparently one of the President's better ones; but I would like to look at one small point in the Q&A session. When a representative of the Cleveland Hungarian Revolution 50th Anniversary Society [?] asked

Mastiffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08009663221665718199noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8094979.post-1142797870607923902006-03-19T11:34:00.000-08:002006-03-19T11:51:10.660-08:00

But, but, but surely Saddam had no connection to al-Qaida!Read it and weep, useful idiots of the Jihad. John Negroponte finally got moving after the President gave him a direct order to release as many documents as he could, from the vast hoard of intelligence captured in Iraq and Afghanistan. One of the documents is a fax to Baghdad from the Iraqi ambassador to the Philippines, outlining their

Mastiffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08009663221665718199noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8094979.post-1142757450244431792006-03-18T23:57:00.000-08:002006-03-19T00:37:30.323-08:00

Tonight, I attended a production of Kiss Me Kate at UC Irvine. The production was in most respects quite good; the singing and acting were both top-notch, and the sets were lavishly done. But there was one sour note that had me fuming for most of the second act, unfortunately. The character of Harrison Howell, a Texas cattle-rancher in the original, had been rewritten for the 1999 revival as an

Mastiffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08009663221665718199noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8094979.post-1142498769902647912006-03-15T21:35:00.000-08:002006-03-16T00:46:10.046-08:00

I happened to run across an editorial from last month by Ted Halstead, boss of the New America Foundation, in which he proposes a "new Homestead Act" to promote greater access to financial assets. His thesis:The most promising way to revitalize America’s middle class is to update old traditions. In the nineteenth century, the U.S. sought to broaden the ownership of land; in the twentieth, the

Mastiffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08009663221665718199noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8094979.post-1142363390331309432006-03-14T10:59:00.000-08:002006-03-14T11:10:09.336-08:00

Some days it's really easy to believe that most of our problems will be solved by advancing technology:Robert Downs: Well, on the 2009 [Mars Science Laboratory] mission nuclear powered machine that they’re going to put up there, lots of power, and they are going to put this little device that’s going to be in the order of 200 cubic centimetres in size and it’s going to sit out as an arm on the

Mastiffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08009663221665718199noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8094979.post-1142146447400495352006-03-11T22:14:00.000-08:002006-03-11T22:54:07.456-08:00

In his fantastic book Imperial Grunts, Robert Kaplan returns again and again to the way in which our military is constrained by a top-heavy bureaucracy, in which soldiers on the ground often cannot act without confirmation from multiple levels of high-command officers. In his section on Afghanistan, Kaplan notes that Special Forces teams receiving "actionable intel" on insurgents cannot strike

Mastiffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08009663221665718199noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8094979.post-1141932753165858752006-03-09T11:30:00.000-08:002006-03-09T11:32:33.176-08:00

An "intellectual" is a man who takes more words than he needs to say more than he knows.--President Dwight D. Eisenhower

Mastiffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08009663221665718199noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8094979.post-1141780398243829602006-03-07T17:13:00.000-08:002006-03-07T17:16:15.083-08:00

The mind is not a storehouse to be filledbut an instrument to be used.John Gardner(Though to be precise, your mental instrument can be best used when it is guided by knowledge; but still, knowledge is nothing without application.)

Mastiffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08009663221665718199noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8094979.post-1141694848856819072006-03-06T16:30:00.000-08:002006-03-06T17:27:28.936-08:00

Shannon Love over at Chicago Boyz has written a piece on the economic consequenses of the growing numbers of childless adults. She argues that such adults are economic free-riders, since they benefit from society while doing nothing to perpetuate that society. This is not a moral judgement per se, as it does not consider whether such adults are childless by choice; not only are marriages

Mastiffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08009663221665718199noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8094979.post-1141598225702683552006-03-05T14:33:00.000-08:002006-03-05T14:37:05.716-08:00

Be sure to watch this interview by Pajamas Media of Congressman Tom Lantos (D-San Mateo), the only Holocaust survivor in Congress and a consistent champion of liberty. He recently chaired a subcommittee hearing to nail down Yahoo and Google for cooperating with China's political repression. The video linked above shows clips from that hearing, which demonstrate just how easily the companies have

Mastiffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08009663221665718199noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8094979.post-1141197996140620382006-02-28T23:00:00.000-08:002006-02-28T23:26:36.203-08:00

A recent study by the Boston Consulting Co. says that 60% of private wealth in China is concentrated in the hands of 0.6% of the population.—J. Christoph Amberger, executive publisher of the Taipan Group's "Dynamic Market Alert"(By comparison, the wealthiest 1% of Americans had 33.4% of the United States's net worth in 2001, and 39.7% of America's financial wealth. Not sure what this proves, but

Mastiffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08009663221665718199noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8094979.post-1141101388626387802006-02-27T19:46:00.000-08:002006-02-27T20:36:28.696-08:00

When dealing with complex human interactions, people have often found it useful to construct simplified models which, while they do not capture the full intricacies of a given interaction, are close enough so that one can abstract away from the human and draw conclusions based on mathematics or logic. In international relations one find the Realist model, which posits that all nations are unitary

Mastiffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08009663221665718199noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8094979.post-1140930694258229602006-02-25T21:00:00.000-08:002006-02-25T21:11:34.270-08:00

If five firemen get killed fighting a fire, what do you do? Let the building burn?I wish people in Washington would totally get Vietnam out of their system.—Lt. Col. "Duke" Christie, Special Forces, quoted in Robert Kaplan's Imperial Grunts, p. 82

Mastiffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08009663221665718199noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8094979.post-1140590918472406912006-02-21T22:24:00.000-08:002006-02-21T22:48:38.523-08:00

Long-time readers of this blog willl know that I have frequently complained about what I saw as a declining interest in fine arts within the Jewish community, at least those parts of it I interacted with. Well, Rabbi Yonah and the crew at Jewlicious decided to do something about it. I was blown away by the whole shabbaton, but most of all by the incredible collection of talent, Jewish and

Mastiffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08009663221665718199noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8094979.post-1140426305537832212006-02-20T01:05:00.000-08:002006-02-20T01:06:51.530-08:00

Freshly-applied henna + "Apple Photo Booth" FX = Spawn of Hell! Originally uploaded by Mastiff.

Mastiffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08009663221665718199noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8094979.post-1140338156814296052006-02-19T00:27:00.000-08:002006-02-19T00:42:09.790-08:00

I'm typing right now on a Mac that Apple generously donated to the Jewlicious convention in Long Beach, CA. The event has been amazing so far, and I will have an awful lot to write about once I get time. For now, I'll leave you with a quick thought from one of the writers of a short documentary, "The Tribe," which I heartily recommend. He said that the two core aspects of the Jewish identity,

Mastiffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08009663221665718199noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8094979.post-1140042298001295742006-02-15T14:21:00.000-08:002006-02-15T14:24:58.016-08:00

The evil of the current [organ-donation] regime is not that innocent people are dying to uphold a principle. Indeed, it is only for principles that people should be compelled to die. It is, rather, that this is a pretentious counterfeit principle.—Lloyd Cohen, writing about his proposal for an organ market.

Mastiffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08009663221665718199noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8094979.post-1140039379590647612006-02-15T12:21:00.000-08:002006-02-15T13:36:19.656-08:00

Today's Wall Street Journal reports that the IRS estimates unpaid taxes at roughly $290 billion. That's nearly enough to close the budget deficit on its own if it were collected, without any changes in government policy. Whatever your views on taxation, it is grossly unjust for some people to break the law and let the tab fall more heavily on their fellow citizens. Yet our present system of

Mastiffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08009663221665718199noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8094979.post-1139961534823331622006-02-14T15:12:00.000-08:002006-02-14T15:58:54.896-08:00

I do a lot of research in stock trading and mutual funds. In the market, everyone tries to guess which way particular stocks are headed. When you guess right, you get rich. When you guess wrong, you can get wiped out. Such are the risks and rewards of playing the market.Traders can choose between two general strategies when looking at a possible stock trade: fundamental investing and technical

Mastiffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08009663221665718199noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8094979.post-1139732326500639292006-02-12T00:14:00.000-08:002006-02-12T00:18:46.513-08:00

Apologies for the nonexistent posting last week. I've been hard at work (some of the time, anyway) on my thesis, and can now proudly report that I have a completed draft. Woo-hoo!Once I finish drawing up some accompanying diagrams, I get to send it off to my professors. There will almost certainly be some revisions, but I should have a final draft ready soon.If you need a primer on what's been

Mastiffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08009663221665718199noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8094979.post-1139256381005547512006-02-06T10:43:00.000-08:002006-02-06T12:06:24.416-08:00

Today's print Wall Street Journal carries an article examining how Brazil managed to shift its gasoline consumption habits, so that it now relies heavily on diesel and ethanol fuel. Government action was required to build up the retail infrastructure, and Brazil simply mandated that its state-run oil company Petrobras sell ethanol at all of its fuel stations. Another critical component was

Mastiffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08009663221665718199noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8094979.post-1138736480177328302006-01-31T11:05:00.000-08:002006-01-31T11:41:20.276-08:00

I had been under the impression for some time that the US government's subsidies for biodiesel production were misguided, as producing biodiesel supposedly cost more fossil fuels than it replaced. As to why the US government would continue to subsidize biodiesel… well, soybean growers are generally found in swing states, right?But that logic does not explain why environmental activists would

Mastiffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08009663221665718199noreply@blogger.com2