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The definition of “fascism” has gotten pretty squirrely since Benito Mussolini coined the term to define his governing principles. The current street definition seems to be something along the lines of “stuff that someone else does that I don’t like”. The definition drift seems unfortunate — its core definition is something that, IMHO, needs a [...]

Or maybe those are synonyms — whatever. Just saw this on Cato-at-Liberty: (The recording and interview with the guy are the good part, the rest of the clip is usual FoxNews grandstanding and chest-thumping.) Seriously, though, how can anyone *not* have a problem with a quasi-police force at the airport that’s not responsible enough to [...]

I’ve been watching the PBS series Carrier, which follows the USS Nimitz through a Persian Gulf deployment in 2005 (note: this post was written a while back). One of the things that’s most striking is how the crew splits up in terms of their views on the war. Also striking is how neither side’s opinion [...]

Fascism = “the welfare of the state is more important than the welfare of the individual”. Seatbelt laws. Patriot Act. Airport security. Airport closures for “suspicious comments” (and exploded batteries). Homeland security. DUI checkpoints. Helmet laws. Mandatory waiting periods. Car seat laws. School attendance requirements. Having to register with your driver’s license in order to [...]

When I was on my mission in post-reunification East Germany, one of the most striking realizations that I had was that there were A LOT of very average people who actually felt worse off since being joined to West Germany than they had previously. The reason, I figured out, was that even though they now [...]

Somehow I think this is useful to consider:   So I dunno. I think *most people* would say that the columns don’t matter nearly as much as the lines. They’d rather a positive outcome from a bad intent than a negative outcome from a good intent. In theory, I think most people would agree to [...]

I wrote this on some other site regarding trying to save the New York Times and obviously impressed myself: This seems like a classic case of Clayton Christensen’s “disruptive innovation” overwhelming a traditional business model. An old-school enterprise has to maintain its old-school practices in order to keep its reliable cash cow alive. As soon [...]

Best Feature: Really nice job of in medias res and of avoiding exposition, plus Lee Marvin was fun to watch. Biggest Question: How did they manage to hang out together for a month (longer?) without either of them ever learning a word of the other’s language? Too Long By: 20 minutes. Haiku Synopsis: On island [...]

A few (several?) weeks ago, I went out to Yorba Linda to check out the Nixon Library, seeing as it’s not that far away and I hadn’t ever been to a presidential library before. Ate lunch in Placentia at Carl’s Jr., among whose customers that day I believe I was the only one who hadn’t [...]

It’s either okay to train killer whales to be in shows or it’s not. If it’s okay, it’s because the whales like it, not because they have decided that it’s the right thing to do for the betterment of their kind. And if they like it, then there’s no reason not to have ‘em jumping [...]