Theoretically, it could be used to someday cure addiction, which is a learned behavior.

It could also be used to turn people into dolls that get rented out for the purposes of paying clients. I so love Joss Whedon.

So if an [...]]]> Some researchers in Brooklyn have found some chemical that alters the memory storage processes of the brain.

Theoretically, it could be used to someday cure addiction, which is a learned behavior.

It could also be used to turn people into dolls that get rented out for the purposes of paying clients. I so love Joss Whedon.

So if an addiction is re-formed after being ‘cured,’ could it become so firmly engrained in the brain that it again becomes uncurable? Might this already be the case in people that have been smokers their entire lives? Sounds like we’ll need another billion or so for more research.

If it is later discovered that homosexuality is, in fact, learned, might it become illegal to try to ‘cure’ it?

List of Madoff’s presumed victims

My favorite is the fact that his lawyer is on that list. He’s really in trouble.

There is far too little being paid to this issue. Genuine fraud is actually immoral, unlike getting paid a lot of money. I really don’t understand why people get upset about people who earn a [...]]]>

Charles Ponzi

List of Madoff’s presumed victims

My favorite is the fact that his lawyer is on that list. He’s really in trouble.

There is far too little being paid to this issue. Genuine fraud is actually immoral, unlike getting paid a lot of money. I really don’t understand why people get upset about people who earn a billion a year, but don’t get upset about a guy that stole $50 billion through cold, hard, fraud.

Anyone who knows me I generally dislike certain policies that our new president promotes. But transparancy is something that everybody likes. While there is nothing about the new whitehouse.gov that is inherently more transparent than the old one, is sure is pretty.

As a amateur web designer myself, I really appreciate good web design. and that includes [...]]]>

Anyone who knows me I generally dislike certain policies that our new president promotes. But transparancy is something that everybody likes. While there is nothing about the new whitehouse.gov that is inherently more transparent than the old one, is sure is pretty.

As a amateur web designer myself, I really appreciate good web design. and that includes this new layout.

For those of you who, like me, expect sour policies for the next term, look on the bright side. Even if Obama does spend tons of money on wasteful government research, it will be cool research. Not like  the lame research about how to ‘drill for more oil’ or ‘defeat an insurgency.’

This commentary from the Wall Street Journal reflects some of what I’ve been feeling in the past few weeks. The people have gone to the polls and elected themselves a social architect. In the book Atlas Shrugged, the author details how a relatively small economic downturn balooned into the [...]]]>

The art for a 1999 postage stamp.

This commentary from the Wall Street Journal reflects some of what I’ve been feeling in the past few weeks. The people have gone to the polls and elected themselves a social architect. In the book Atlas Shrugged, the author details how a relatively small economic downturn balooned into the full scale collapse of civilization as the government enacted hundreds of anti-competition, redistributive give-aways, and ‘essential need’ projects ‘designed to stimulate the economy.’

Short Civics Lesson:

The office of the President is so named because his job is to ‘preside‘ over the executive branch of government. The word executive essentially is just the power to enforce laws made by the legislature, and is only granted other power in Article 2 of the Constitution. The legislative branch is granted only those powers enumerated in Article 1 of the Constitution.

But that lesson can be ignored because it is ‘widely conceded’ that the federal government can do pretty much anything it wants, whenever it wants, in any manner it wants.

I’ll just note, laws in general are good and necessary. The Bush administration made some horrible mistakes that lead to ‘John Galt’ style engineers taking positions in finance companies and applying their ingenuity to the distribution and packaging of debt, when they could have been applying their brilliance to technology, science, or even better policy. The world is a worse place because of this. But that does not justify the rampant spending of trillions of taxpayer dollars in ways that reward foolish decisions.

Hat Tip to Ryan Gleason who sent me the WSJ commentary.

Lady was behind the wheel of her car, in a fire lane at the grocery store waiting for a parking spot. The cop pulls up and asks her to move her vehicle, she doesn’t. So the cop turns on his lights and asks her for licence and registration. She [...]]]> Woman Says Off-Duty Officer Arrested Her Without Cause

Lady was behind the wheel of her car, in a fire lane at the grocery store waiting for a parking spot. The cop pulls up and asks her to move her vehicle, she doesn’t. So the cop turns on his lights and asks her for licence and registration. She drives over his foot. So the cop catches up with her and pulls her out of the car, cuffs her on the asfault, and arrests her for assault.

I say that she should have taken the ticket, and fought it in court. The cop was absolutely being a jerk, but he was totally right to arrest her after she started to drive off, even if she hadn’t run over his foot.

Incidently, I’ve been to this grocery store, and there usually are spots open, they’re just really far away.

Israel is so scrupulous about civilian life that, risking the element of surprise, it contacts enemy noncombatants in advance to warn them of approaching danger. Hamas, which started this conflict with unrelenting rocket and mortar attacks on unarmed Israelis — 6,464 launched from Gaza in the past three years — deliberately [...]]]> Moral Clarity on the Israeli-Gaza conflict

Israel is so scrupulous about civilian life that, risking the element of surprise, it contacts enemy noncombatants in advance to warn them of approaching danger. Hamas, which started this conflict with unrelenting rocket and mortar attacks on unarmed Israelis — 6,464 launched from Gaza in the past three years — deliberately places its weapons in and near the homes of its own people.

This has two purposes. First, counting on the moral scrupulousness of Israel, Hamas figures civilian proximity might help protect at least part of its arsenal. Second, knowing that Israelis have new precision weapons that may allow them to attack nonetheless, Hamas hopes that inevitable collateral damage — or, if it is really fortunate, an errant Israeli bomb — will kill large numbers of its own people for which, of course, the world will blame Israel.

The amazing thing about this commentary, is that it is often applicable to conflicts between Israel and any of the terrorist organizations over there.