Doubling Your Likelihood of Death!

Or tripling. Seriously, this is posted, right now, on CNN: Your chance of death, YOUR CHANCE OF DEATH, is 100-percent, regardless of what lifestyle behaviors you pursue. You will die. You will not die twice or even three times. Just once. But definitely once. No matter what. bkd

This Week in Security Theater

Saw this sign at the Long Beach airport on my way up to Seattle over the weekend: First off, I’m glad that the TSA is finally getting around to their most important assignment: self-preservation through public relations. Otherwise known as scaring people into thinking that they’re still relevant. I love these accomplishments, though. System wide,

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Welcome to Your New Prison, Americans!

In case you somehow missed the news, as of today you’re no longer allowed to leave the United States without a passport. Previously, other countries might have required a passport in order to enter them, but as of now (well, this morning), your government decides whether you’re allowed to leave its jurisdiction. More here. Y’know,

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Definition of Fascism

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

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TSA: Where Nanny State and Police State Meet

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

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Iraq Cost-Benefit Analysis and Net Present Value: The Only Reason to Be For or Against Continuing the War

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

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Ways in Which the US Has Become More Fascist in My Lifetime

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

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Psychology of Comparing Yourself to Others

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

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Morality Grid

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

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Newspapers Must Die!

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

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