Capital punishment

Paul Graham makes a good case against it.

A return to blogging?

I have a lot of itches in need of scratching lately. I assume no one will really read this, but maybe jotting down thoughts here will make those pesky itches go away. Having started a business or two, I'm much more observant now of business practices. I may point out one or two. Who knows, maybe I can help someone not make my own stupid mistakes. Also, with the elections revving up, I feel the need to work out some political agitation. Apologies in advance to my liberal friends and readers (if they exist). The Democratic candidates are likely to receive a disproportionate amount of my scorn. It isn't that I don't think the Republicans are at least as equally worthy of scorn. I just think they are more easily poked at and already have been much more eloquently than I can by the likes of Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert and Jon Oliver. Obviously, I don't pretend to counterbalance such satire - I'm neither as insightful nor 1/1000th as funny - but just saying. Conservative policies are pretty easily mocked. Progressive policies tend to get less attention unless you spend a lot of time on acerbic radio stations. And that's usually more ranting than anything. If you're going to make a point, either be funny or insightful. (Having said that, expect neither here). Pointing out how scary progressive politics can be doesn't garner many knowing nods from the omniscient celebs or liberal intelligentsia. However, I find mocking Creationism too easy when a philosophy such as Keynesianism may be more difficult to dissect, not as funny, but (at least in my mind) far more concerning to our peace and prosperity. And with that lengthy aside you are introduced (or re-introduced) into just how poorly I write, but even more so how poorly I edit. Also, lest this start to feel like a political blog, realize that it is primarily my ramblings, which means there will be intermittent uninformed opinions on other unrelated topics that interest me such as the rise of the Cubs (and its accompanying misplaced hope), development of the Utah Jazz (more hope in need of squashing), parenting, boardgames, nutrition, exercise or whatever might be stuck in my craw if I get a few minutes between meetings. Welcome back?

Anger management

“We begin to notice, besides our particular sinful acts, our sinfulness; begin to be alarmed not only about what we do, but about what we are. This may sound rather difficult, so I will try to make it clear from my own case. When I come to my evening prayers and try to reckon up the sins of the day, nine times out of ten the most obvious one is some sin against charity; I have sulked or snapped or sneered or snubbed or stormed. And the excuse that immediately springs to my mind is that the provocation was so sudden and unexpected: I was caught off my guard, I had not time to collect myself. Now that may be an extenuating circumstance as regards those particular acts: they would obviously be worse if they had been deliberate and premeditated. On the other hand, surely what a man does when he is taken off his guard is the best evidence for what sort of a man he is? Surely what pops out before the man has time to put on a disguise is the truth? If there are rats in a cellar you are most likely to see them if you go in very suddenly. But the suddenness does not create the rats: it only prevents them from hiding. In the same way the suddenness of the provocation does not make me an ill-tempered man: it only shows me what an ill-tempered man I am. The rats are always there in the cellar, but if you go in shouting and noisily they will have taken cover before you switch on the light.”

C.S. Lewis, in Mere Christianity.

The Wicked Witch Lives

Life on the right side of the Laffer Curve

From Greece (NYT):

An essential element of Greece’s recovery plan has been to collect more taxes from a population that has long engaged in tax avoidance. The government is owed 45 billion euros in back taxes, tax officials in Athens said, only a fraction of which will ever be recovered. To understand the difficulty, just talk to Nikos Maitos, a longtime official in Greece’s financial crimes investigation unit. When he and a team of inspectors recently prowled the recession-hit island of Naxos for tax evaders, a local radio station broadcast his license plate number to warn residents.

Merry Christmas

Christmas is a time when kids tell Santa what they want and adults pay for it. Deficits are when adults tell the government what they want and their kids pay for it. ~ Richard Lamm

Washington extortion

Good article from Cato today on Apple not playing the DC game and how it is going to come back to bite. Best ROI on the planet - lobbying. Sad but true.

How not to start a sacrament meeting talk

Funny because it's true.

Please watch Community

Before it gets cancelled. So tired of the smart shows getting the boot.

Obama, meet Orwell

I just checked out this microsite Pres Obama published to show why one should prefer him over Romney. Holy schnikies. A vision of a warm, snuggly federal government taking care of me and Julie and her son and all the rest of us? This logic walks one step down the road to the sign that says, "Wouldn't it be nice if some rich Uncle Sam would just take care of all the cost, uncertainty and pain in life?" Unfortunately, it never makes it to the bend in the road that says, "Uncle Sam actually doesn't have a job. Everything he gives you, he has to either take from you or your children or your grandchildren." I'm actually not a Romney fan, but there are few candidates you could put up at this point that would not make me feel better about his or her vision for America.

The Chosen

"You are no longer a child, Reuven, . . .It is almost possible to see the way your mind is growing. And your heart, too. . . .So listen to what I am going to tell you. . . .Human beings do not live forever, Reuven. We live less than the time it takes to blink an eye, if we measure our lives against eternity. So it may be asked what value is there to a human life. There is so much pain in the world. What does it mean to have to suffer so much if our lives are nothing more than the blink of an eye? . . .I learned a long time ago, Reuven, that a blink of an eye in itself is nothing. But the eye that blinks, that is something. A span of life is nothing. But the man who lives the span, he is something. He can fill that tiny span with meaning, so its quality is immeasurable though its quantity may be insignificant. Do you understand what I am saying? A man must fill his life with meaning, meaning is not automatically given to life. It is hard work to fill one's life with meaning. That I do not think you understand yet. A life filled with meaning is worthy of rest. I want to be worthy of rest when I am no longer here.

Good advice to students

Here.

Best viral ads from 2011 according to Ad Age

Love this one:



Not so much:



iPhone as cultural phenomenon:



Meh:



Hilarious, but probably too scary for you, Katie:



There's always room for Isaiah Mustafa:



Lionel, king of the world:


Chrome taking over the world (but Lionel won't let it):



Best Super Bowl ad:



Keep Isaiah:

Every ATM should be this way

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The World's Best Biscuits. End of Story. | Serious Eats : Recipes

I think I need to go home right now.

Sea Salt Caramel Chocolate Pretzel Bark | The Cherry on Top

Sea Salt Caramel Chocolate Pretzel Bark | The Cherry on Top

OWSers should read this

Memo to the Occupy protesters: here are ten things we evil capitalists really think

Conformity in the name of diversity

I find George Will to be one of the more insightful contrarians on the opinions page. Here's a good article from him again.

For those not interested in clicking, here's an excerpt:

Although Vanderbilt is a private institution, its policy is congruent with “progressive” public policy, under which society shall be made to progress up from a multiplicity of viewpoints to a government-supervised harmony. Vanderbilt’s policy, formulated in the name of enlarging rights, is another skirmish in the progressives’ struggle to deny more and more social entities the right to deviate from government-promoted homogeneity of belief. Such compulsory conformity is, of course, enforced in the name of diversity.

A deficit is not a deficit

The word deficit is used in two political context as those it had the same meaning in each. It isn't.

When we talk about the federal budget deficit we are talking about the government spending more than it raises in taxes in a given year. Over time, government can't spend more than it taxes. To do so this year, it has to borrow, which means today's spending gets paid for later, by us or our children.

When we talk about the trade deficit, we are talking about net imports. The US runs a trade deficit with China because they ship us more than we ship them in goods. My family runs a trade deficit with A Fresh Market - they sell me more than I sell them. My family runs a trade surplus with my supplier - I sell them more than they sell me. Resolving a trade imbalance is non-sensical. There's no reason any two entities should be equal in trade. That doesn't mean the ledger doesn't balance. It does. If China gives us a bunch of stuff for little green pieces of paper, they can either buy our stuff with it or invest in our country. Either way, the dollars come back. Whether you area country or a company, it is not a bad thing for people to want to invest in you.

Budget deficit and trade deficit sound like related concepts. They aren't.

George Will gets it

Elizabeth Warren doesn't.


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