The effect of compulsion is to strip the virtue out of a transaction...

The effect of compulsion is to strip the virtue out of a transaction  – said in the context of ObamaCare.  There are more nuggets of wisdom – and a couple of wonderfully illustrative stories – in this video reader Simi L. passes along.  It shows Dinesh D'Souza and Michael Shermer in an appearance last year at the Socratic Club of Oregon State University.  D'Souza, in particular, is on his game.  Kudos to both of them for daring to criticize ObamaCare in front of one of the most progressive audiences in America...

Imagine you are a CIA spy.

Imagine you are a CIA spy.  You want to put a listening device outside an apartment window high above the street in a Soviet-era Eastern European capital.  How would you do it?

According to this story, the real CIA would have done it by hiding a tiny listening device in a small, nondescript, hollowed-out piece of slate, then used a trained raven to place it on the ledge outside that window.  It's probably hard for younger folks to even imagine a world where such a method would seem sane – but back then, quadricopters, actual working robots, drones, etc. were just science fiction fantasies.  The tiny listening device would have been a marvel all by itself (back then, just the microphone would have been the size of a soda bottle)...

Can you guess what this is?

Can you guess what this is?  All is revealed here.  It involves paint, wave phenomena, James Brown, and Pink Floyd...

What does this graph say to you?

What does this graph say to you?  Take a good, hard look at the graph at right, taken from this paper.  What's your takeaway?  Mine is this: “Eisenhower is my hero.”  He's the only postwar president who kept federal spending relatively steady.  The numbers make it clear: post-Eisenhower, both major political parties have consistently supported ever-growing government spending.  There's not even a whiff of responsible governance there.  Or of sanity – stare at the right-hand side of that graph and it's clear this trend is accelerating.

The drums of doom – or revolution? – beat ever closer...

I got here through this article at Reason, wherein Nick Gillespie takes both political parties to the woodshed for their unserious approach to managing our money...

How doctors see ObamaCare...

How doctors see ObamaCare...  Dr. Paul Hsieh is an MD and outspoken critic of ObamaCare.  He's just finished publishing a four part must-read series on the impact ObamaCare will have on our healthcare.  You can find parts one, two, three, and four at the links.  Together they provide an illuminating look at how an insider to our current healthcare system views ObamaCare.  Hint: it ain't purty...

And no, I have no idea how to pronounce his name...

I've had several conversations about ObamaCare with doctors my wife and I have had contact with over the past couple of years.  There's an interesting pattern I find there: the doctors tend to be staunch progressives politically, but to oppose ObamaCare as a disaster in the making.  I expected the former, but certainly not the latter.  Their reasons for opposing ObamaCare aren't the same, though.  Some worry about the top-down decision making, others worry about the impact on their income, and others worry innovation and science efforts withering.  Sounds just lovely, doesn't it?

She's a class act, that gal...

She's a class act, that gal...  In her low key manner, Laura Bush has been actively supporting Afghan women for over 10 years now.  The project continued without pause even after her husband left office.  Like her husband's African HIV project and Wounded Warrior support, Laura's Afghan women's project gets high marks for effectiveness – in marked contrast to so many other American U.N. humanitarian aid projects.  And just like her husband, it's clear that she does this not for personal recognition (which neither gets much of), but to simply do good in the world by leveraging her name and contacts.  The Wall Street Journal has a video interview with her (unembeddable) about her current efforts, and there's a lot up on YouTube (like the piece at right).

California has big water problems.

California has big water problems, as do a number of other western states.  There's a tension between population centers (especially San Francisco, Los Angeles, and San Diego), farmers, environmentalists, and big project loving politicians.  Teensy little fish are pitted against $10 billion in annual crop value.  Decades of policy ambiguity has led to entrenched interests with billions of dollars at stake.  The infrastructure supporting all this is old and crumbling.  Ten years of drought is stressing the entire system. 

What's the answer?  Nobody really knows.  Our personal answer: get the hell out of here – the water situation is just one more thing pressing on an state that seems to be run by people with little skulls that are only partially occupied by gray matter.

Speaking of which, the state's political pundits have decided that Jerry Brown is a shoe-in for another term as governor.  They're also certain that the Democratic super-majority in the state legislature will hold.  As I read those pronouncements, I heard the drums of doom in the background.  They're getting closer...