Distribution of Wealth - a good point
ben | 31 December, 2006 14:46
Tom Bowler, at the blog Libertarian Leanings has a great post regarding the issue with the government redistributing wealth and what it means if a small percentage of the population controls much of the wealth.
Bowler points out:
Totalitarian Arab nations supplying the world's oil and awash in riches, suffer an insurmountable gap between the rich and poor that has laid the foundation for world wide terrorism. That gap is insurmountable because totalitarian corruption prevents their people from producing the wealth that will improve their lives.
Israel has nowhere near the natural resources of the Arab states, yet they are wealthier by far. According to the CIA World Factbook, Israel produces a measely 2740 barrels of oil per day. At the same time Saudi Arabia puts out 9,475,000, and Iran 3,979,000. Yet Israel enjoys a per capita GDP of $25,000, while Saudi Arabia and Iran come in at $13,100 and $8,400 respectively. The income gap is not a crisis in Israel because Israelis have the freedom to produce wealth. Arab state citizens have less freedom, less wealth, and less hope for getting it.
Unfortunately, leftists (and Democrats) can't bring themselves to support the spread of freedom. Their antidote to the growing gap between the rich and the poor is to prevent the creation of wealth. Taxation discourages an activity, so the lefty solution to their contrived crisis is to tax wealth (income) at ever higher rates as a person demonstrates ever higher success in creating it.
Though I disagree with certain aspects of the political statements, I think that in essence the argument rings true. And the question to me seems to be: Which is more important - Freedom and the opportunity to build your own wealth or automatically distributing wealth and by placing more and more restrictions on those who create wealth?
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Souped-Up Office!
ben | 31 December, 2006 14:01
So as a bit of a Merry Christmas to myself I've upgraded my office a bit over the past month, party for tax reasons (it's all deductible!) and partly because I get fewer and fewer things for Christmas that I actually find useful...I'm not complaining, but as I change, certain members of my family fail to notice and I fail to communicate to them clearly any particular changes.
For instance - I am a vegetarian (including no sea food), which I've mentioned to the family a few times...and I got a couple of pounds of smoked salmon for my birthday. Also, being 29 and in relatively good shape, I haven't grown much in about 9 or 10 years, yet I for some reason received a bunch of clothes in the size of Large...which I've never worn. All this I find more and more amusing as time goes on and I think it would be a bit boring to get everything I ask for and in my size for Christmas, so I'm thankful that the family gets somewhat forgetful. It's always a surprise. One close family member gets my sister perfume every year for Christmas and every year, on Christmas day when she opens the inevitable perfume, she reminds the person that she wears perfume perhaps twice a year...yet the perfume keeps coming!
Anyway, on to my office upgrades...I purchased a new Hanns-G HW191D Widescreen 19-inch LCD Flat Panel Monitor at the beginning of the month to replace the old big-ass Dell box monitor, which I would plug into my laptop at home that had to be shoved into the corner to fit in the office and I had to twist my body awkwardly to use it. It's quite nice.
I also replaced the corded mouse with a cordless mouse and keyboard by Belkin - not the nicest available but it does the job, though sometimes the keyboard can't quite keep up with my typing and both the keyboard and mouse buttons are somewhat loud.
Finally, and most recently, I purchased one of those kneeling chairs that's good for your back, similar to this one on amazon.com, but less expensive.
I never thought I would ever ever ever get one of these, but I was killing time at an office store with a friend waiting for them to bring a table out from the back and was trying out chairs. I tried this one out and, whamo! I was hooked. I've used it for a few hours on end without any real soreness or stiffness. I actually highly recommend it if you spend a lot of time at your desk.
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Today's fact!
ben | 31 December, 2006 12:04
This one's a bit gruesome, but quite interesting:
If you were to roll a lung from a human body and out flat it would be the size of a tennis court.
source: http://hookedonfacts.com
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The Devil in the Details...and Some Vague Reporting
cn | 30 December, 2006 20:27
A bill was signed into law recently (how recently, I can't be certain, though as the reporter says simply 'January') that bans:
burial at national cemeteries for veterans convicted of capital crimes
I can see the rationale in this decision and I generally agree that it is admirable to uphold a certain standard for those laid to rest at national cemeteries. However, the issue is with a specific part of the bill regarding Russell Wayne Wagner, who was honorably discharged from the Army in 1972 but later was convicted in 2002 of killing an elderly couple in their home. He died of a heroin overdose in prison in 2005 and was buried at Arlington National Cemetery. What is at issue (from CNN.com):
The law Bush signed Friday [ed: again, vague reporting especially regarding the statement previously in the article that the bill was signed in January...] includes a specific order to remove Wagner's remains from the cemetery.
The question to me is whether it is ethical to stipulate that specific people are to be held retroactively accountable to specific actions when it is very clear in American law that one cannot be held accountable for a crime if a law is passed making the action a crime after the initial action was committed...so how is it that Bush can sign a bill that singles out an individual for retroactive punishment in this case?
Again, this is not about the issue of burial at national cemeteries, but rather what precedent is the administration consistently setting in regards to American law and ethics? And, of equal or greater importance, if this is happening now with the deceased, how long until it seeps into general acceptability?
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Tracking Media Errors - How the Media Owns Its Own Mistakes
ben | 30 December, 2006 11:44
I came across an interesting blog this morning called Regret the Error, which...
reports on corrections, retractions, clarifications and trends regarding accuracy and honesty in the media.
The last post of 2006 is titled 'Advances in online corrections' and has quite a few interesting insights into the media and how various different entities handle mistakes they make, as well as tracking the evolution of online corrections. It cites a number of examples from different news outlets. Here's a clip from the analysis of a Reuters project (which we wrote about here at Cafe Novo in a post about a speech by the Reuters CEO):
Our final evolution of note is a lovely project being pursued by Reuters. The wire service now has a regular feature called, "The Good, the Bad, & the Ugly." This is a regularly updated online page where editors respond to feedback (usually complaints or requests for correction) from readers. It's often akin to a friendly cafe where Reuters serves itself some humble pie and readers get to enjoying watching them eat it. It's about conversation and pulling back the veil on how the news operation works (and occasionally doesn't).
The post goes on to show an example of how this plays out on the Reuters site.
The blog also has another interesting annual post - the Plagiarism/Fabrication Round-Up - which gives a bullet list of the plagiarist activities over the past year with links to the entire stories. Some highlights of 2006:
- In March, ABCNews.com ran an article that was heavily plagiarized from one that appeared in the Boston Globe. It didn’t name the guilty party and the resulting correction was only on its Website for one day. Full Post
- In March, the Village Voice removed a cover story from its website after discovering that the writer, Nick Sylvester, had fabricated parts of it. He was immediately suspended. Full Post
- In March, Ben Domenech, a conservative blogger hired by the Washington Post, resigned after he was accused of plagiarizing previous work for a student newspaper and in National Review Online. Article
- In March, ABCNews.com ran an article that was heavily plagiarized from one that appeared in the Boston Globe. It didn’t name the guilty party and the resulting correction was only on its Website for one day. Full Post
- In March, the Village Voice removed a cover story from its website after discovering that the writer, Nick Sylvester, had fabricated parts of it. He was immediately suspended. Full Post
- In January, The Press Enterprise, a newspaper in Bloomsburg, Pa., discovered that Kate York, a reporter, fabricated interviews in 24 stories. Full Post
What is perhaps as disturbing as the number of incidents is the frequency with which they are un-investigated or denied by the media outlet in which they occur.
The post also cites a few photoshop snafus, also discussed in the Reuters CEO speech referred to earlier and found here, and interestingly even the manipulation of color in the images has been grounds for termination of the offending artist.
Check out the whole list here.
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Random Fact for Today
ben | 30 December, 2006 11:39
A species of earthworm in Australia grows up to 10 feet in length.source: http://www.hookedonfacts.com
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The Free State Project's 2007 New Hampshire Liberty Forum
cn | 29 December, 2006 18:09
February 23rd to 25th the Free State Project is holding it's annual NH Liberty Forum in Concord, NH. Now, I spent 3 months one winter living in Concord working at the mall in town (that's a long story not worth relating here) and Concord's kind of quiet, but not a bad little New England city.
Anyway, the keynote speakers will be Michael Badnarik, the 2004 Libertarian Party presidential candidate, and John Stossel, ABC news correspondent and author, who will be presenting a speech entitled 'The Enemies of Liberty'.
The forum looks like it will be interesting and a full three day pass is only $99. You can't go wrong!
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Random Fact for December 29th
cn | 29 December, 2006 15:36
Warner Chappel Music owns the copyright to the song 'Happy Birthday'. They make over $1 million in royalties every year from the commercial use of the song.source: http://www.hookedonfacts.com
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Today's fact!
ben | 28 December, 2006 23:06
Today's fact:
Right-handed people live, on average, nine years longer than left-handed people.
source: http://www.hookedonfacts.com
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Amazing Random Fact for December 26th
ben | 26 December, 2006 14:58
Children laugh about 400 times a day, while adults laugh on average only 15 times a day.
Source: http://www.hookedonfacts.com/index.htm
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Random Quote for Christmas Day!
ben | 25 December, 2006 14:55
It does not require a majority to prevail, but rather an irate, tireless minority keen to set brush fires in people's minds
- Samuel Adams
Source: http://liberty-tree.ca/
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Random Quote for December 24th
ben | 24 December, 2006 14:53
Liberty cannot be preserved without a general knowledge among the people, who have... a right, an indisputable, unalienable, indefeasible, divine right to that most dreaded and envied kind of knowledge, I mean the characters and conduct of their rulers.
- John Adams
Source: http://liberty-tree.ca/
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Random Quote for December 23rd
ben | 23 December, 2006 14:48
A patriot must always be ready to defend his country against his government.
- Edward Abbey
Source: http://liberty-tree.ca
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Random Fact for December 22nd
ben | 22 December, 2006 14:46
Three consecutive strikes in bowling is called a turkey.
Source: hookedonfacts.com
And at a bowling alley/bar in the town (Clinton, NY) where I went to college you got a free shot of tequila if you scored a turkey!
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Checkpoints in the Good Ole' U.S. of A.
cn | 22 December, 2006 00:43
I've lived in this area for about two and a half years now and I've been stopped three times at roadblocks. Roadblocks set up by various government agencies here in the US to check papers.
First it was up by Lake Placid, coming south on the interstate, the border patrol had a checkpoint set up and was stopping all cars, asking where we were coming from, where we were going, and if we were all citizens.
The second time was on an on-ramp to the highway by the state police. They checked my inspection sticker and registration. My inspection had expired that week. They checked all my papers and ticketed me.
The third time was on a secondary road, by the sheriff's officers, again checking my inspection and registration stickers. This time all my stickers were in order..luckily they didn't notice my blinker wasn't working as I drove away.
Hit and Run has a great post regarding checkpoints, immigration, and the history of such things in the Supreme Court. Here's a clip;
Vermonters are complaining about the patrol's more aggressive tactics, especially the use of highway checkpoints as far as 100 miles from the border. They say the random checkpoints -- which stop all passing cars inside the state, even if they're not headed to or from the border -- can make driving within their state feel like being in Eastern Europe under communism.
That quiet sound you hear in the back of your head is the sound of authoritarianism tip-toeing into your living room....
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