COLLECTIVE MADNESS
“Soft despotism is a term coined by Alexis de Tocqueville describing the state into which a country overrun by "a network of small complicated rules" might degrade. Soft despotism is different from despotism (also called 'hard despotism') in the sense that it is not obvious to the people."
For a variety of reasons Stern ought to be shot.
ReplyDeleteBuy intrade for a McCain victory now.
Joe Plumber, he's our man.
If McCain hadn't foolishly run back there to Washington and tried to look Presidential by brokering some kind of deal to save the nation, and had instead gotten on the right side of the issue, and said, "screw this bailout, it's a sellout of 'Joe Plumber' " and had also gotten it right about taxes and Joe Plumber, he'd be a sure winner now. As it is, he got one right and one wrong.
Joe Plumber is what McCain got to pound on now. Taxes, that's Obama's Achilles Heel.
Killed Mondale. Killed Kerry. It's hard to get elected in America promising to take our money. George the Elder broke his promise.
Joe the Plumber, he's the guy that elects the President.
This race is going to be close.
And as soon as Bob the Pundit makes his prediction, the next report on Drudge says "Shock Poll, 49-47 Obama"
ReplyDeleteAll agree, Bob's a genius.
I knew I should have gone into podiatry or punditry, but went into farming instead, choosing the harder life.
repost from last topic
ReplyDeletewhat is "occupation" said...
I am beginning to understand the democrat's pov...
As a democrat I just cannot believe it...
my party has skidded off the road...
off the cliff...
How dare we JUDGE Obama for his friendships, after all they OWN Chicago...
The Mayor is HIS reference...
Ayers is an UPSTANDING GUY
and what choice did the ONE have but to BEFRIEND all of those in Chi Town and the south side....
Of course Louis Farakhan is OK
As is Rev Wright
As is the Black Panthers
As is the right to anarchy at their choosing...
YEp I just dont "get" it since i cant get past the jew hating, israel hating, western world hating crooks that run chicago....
And when McCain wins, I'm going to 'take a vacation', act like a fifth grader, say ninner ninner ninner, and shove it up Ash's asshole.
ReplyDeleteI hope McCain's got the money to buy some mega-ads to counter BO's mega-ads at the end, and he does it right.
ReplyDeleteJust talk about Joe Plumber, the elector.
FBI is investigating ACORN.
ReplyDelete"Take from Joe, give to the bro" ain't gonna win it.
ReplyDeleteJoe Biden says it's Joe the Plumber's 'patriotic duty' to spread his wealth to the hood.
ReplyDeleteWhile ol' Joe shifts 2 million in campaign cash to his family members.
Here's a pundit--
ReplyDeleteDid 'Spread the wealth around' Obama just blow it?
Rasmussen has McCain slowly edging up. 4 now.
ReplyDeleteThis is really bad news for the Messiah. Nineteen days is nineteen "lifetimes" in Presidential Politics.
"Take from Joe, give to the bro" ain't gonna win it.
ReplyDeleteMight be the best one-liner of the year. Get it to the McCain Campaign.
That could go viral.
"Take from Joe, give to the bro"
ReplyDeleteJoe the Plumber has fixed the leak. Only took him a few moments.
ReplyDeleteWhat a guy.
What a plumber.
McCain wouldn't use it, Ruf, because off it's racial connotations. But, they got it figured out I'm sure.
ReplyDeletespread the wealth
ReplyDeletedecoded:
from according to ability, to according to need
It's not always, immediately, obvious who has "Won" a debate. Last night, the Fox News crew thought Obama had won. They were wrong.
ReplyDeleteToday, the talk is all about "Joe the Plumber." That has led to "Spread the Wealth." Over, and over.
McCain won.
Joe the plumber?
ReplyDeleteAfter some investigation by the Obama camp, it seems his real name is not even Joe.
It's John Galt
As it gets closer, some of those "real" voters that have been pissed at McCain's eight years of ankle-biting of our President, Global Warming nonsense, and Open Borders Bullshit, and that have given McCain a good cussing every time Rasmussen called will start "coming home."
ReplyDeleteIf McCain closes to within the margin of error in the next few days, and there really is a "Bradley Effect," Obama might be in trouble.
Of course, McStupid is doing "his" part. He had Palin in MAINE? today. MAINE?
Thank you Elijah for the raising of the hair on my arm!
ReplyDeleteWhy is it immoral to produce something of value and keep it for yourself, when it is moral for others who haven't earned it to accept it?
ReplyDeleteIf it's virtuous to give, isn't it then selfish to take?
Your acceptance of the code of selflessness has made you fear the man who has a dollar less than you because it makes you feel that that dollar is rightfully his. You hate the man with a dollar more than you because the dollar he's keeping is rightfully yours. Your code has made it impossible to know when to give and when to grab.
You know that you can't give away everything and starve yourself. You've forced yourselves to live with undeserved, irrational guilt. Is it ever proper to help another man? No, if he demands it as his right or as a duty that you owe him. Yes, if it's your own free choice based on your judgment of the value of that person and his struggle. This country wasn't built by men who sought handouts.
or so I've read
Joe the plumber is not even a plummer, but a contractor license fraudster.
ReplyDeleteAn unlicensed, uninsured plumbing pirate. Taking advantage of little old ladies and such.
To act like a Licensed Contractor and not be. Fraud it be, indeed!
Plumbing fraud!
"Spread the Wealth",
sounds like the progressive income tax, to me.
Nothing new there. Unless you're a middle-class politico, whose family income is in excess of $6.1 million in 2006. On that income they paid $2 million in taxes.
Let's call that 30%
A normal rate of 15% for FICA withholding, without an income limit, would have taken half of the tax bite. In a FAIR system, Mrs McCain paid a 15% income tax rate.
Pretty dang cheap, considering the services and opportunities she has recieved.
The idea that his wife should pay more, well, John does not think that's fair.
Better we cut the benefits, from Social Security retirement, to all those that are working today, to keep his wife's taxes low.
ReplyDeleteInstead of ending the income cap on FICA withholdings.
where's that pro-Barr post dr
ReplyDeleteyou whine about whit and deuce and their negativity toward your man - pot meet kettle - you aren't foolin anyone
Pro Barr, do away with FICA withholding and Social Security.
ReplyDeleteThere you have it.
Pro-Barr, withdraw the US Army from Germany and Korea.
Seems reasonable, to me.
Polling at 3%, not much chance of either of those proposals being introduced, this Session.
ReplyDeletePro Barr, Repeal the Bank bailout of 2008 and repeal the Federal Reserve Act of 1913, reestablish Executive Order 11110.
ReplyDeleteI'll go for those.
Who Joe the plumber is, is irrelevant, but his question is very relevant. Leave it to the cold hard left MSM to dig up more on good ol Joe in one day than Obama in two years.
ReplyDeleteBut if we get behind those issues, with time, sweat and tears, we can overcome the status que of Federal Socialism, as expoused by Obama/McCain and the DC elites!
ReplyDeleteYes we can!
They seem to know all about Obama, just that no one really cares about his Chi-town cronies.
ReplyDeleteLike wi"o" said.
The GOP has never made Chi-town and the Daley machine an issue, not in 60 years, since Nixon/Kennedy.
A little late in the game to start, now, 19 days out, with ballots in the mail.
National Platform of the Libertarian Party
ReplyDeleteAdopted in Convention, May 2008, Denver, Colorado
Preamble
As Libertarians, we seek a world of liberty; a world in which all individuals are sovereign over their own lives and no one is forced to sacrifice his or her values for the benefit of others.
We believe that respect for individual rights is the essential precondition for a free and prosperous world, that force and fraud must be banished from human relationships, and that only through freedom can peace and prosperity be realized.
Consequently, we defend each person's right to engage in any activity that is peaceful and honest, and welcome the diversity that freedom brings. The world we seek to build is one where individuals are free to follow their own dreams in their own ways, without interference from government or any authoritarian power.
In the following pages we have set forth our basic principles and enumerated various policy stands derived from those principles.
These specific policies are not our goal, however. Our goal is nothing more nor less than a world set free in our lifetime, and it is to this end that we take these stands.
Statement of Principles
We, the members of the Libertarian Party, challenge the cult of the omnipotent state and defend the rights of the individual.
We hold that all individuals have the right to exercise sole dominion over their own lives, and have the right to live in whatever manner they choose, so long as they do not forcibly interfere with the equal right of others to live in whatever manner they choose.
Governments throughout history have regularly operated on the opposite principle, that the State has the right to dispose of the lives of individuals and the fruits of their labor. Even within the United States, all political parties other than our own grant to government the right to regulate the lives of individuals and seize the fruits of their labor without their consent.
We, on the contrary, deny the right of any government to do these things, and hold that where governments exist, they must not violate the rights of any individual: namely, (1) the right to life -- accordingly we support the prohibition of the initiation of physical force against others; (2) the right to liberty of speech and action -- accordingly we oppose all attempts by government to abridge the freedom of speech and press, as well as government censorship in any form; and (3) the right to property -- accordingly we oppose all government interference with private property, such as confiscation, nationalization, and eminent domain, and support the prohibition of robbery, trespass, fraud, and misrepresentation.
Standing tall against the Bank Bailout and Joe the non-Plumber. whose life revolves around fraud and misrepresentation.
Who dares associate with Joe the Plumber, is equally guilty of supporting his crimes against the regulation of labor by the State.
Just it could set a new precedent...
ReplyDeleteback to the future...
Equality works both ways...
If the left can accept the ayers, panthers, plo, hamas, wright, farakhan, sharpton, jessie jackson (and so many others to numerous to mention) as decent Americans than I wonder what they will say when an equal and opposite effects the aryan brotherhood, klan, skinheads political movements...
MARK MY WORD....
What is DIFFERENT now is that the GOP, and MOST of middle America doesnt accept violent hate mongers.... IF the Left forces us to accept their unrepentant/still militant heros then we are GOING down a path that will be ugly....
I have seen the bottom and it is nasty....
dr: A little late in the game to start, now, 19 days out, with ballots in the mail.
ReplyDeleteActually not....
the majority of the undecided (the swing voters) will make up their minds the 72 hours before....
the art of war...
timing....
who is the target?
this aint over
“It’s amusing until one realizes how often we discover, at intervals of 50 or so years, how a cohort of people more or less simultaneously learn to game a system until it crashes.”
ReplyDeleteFifty years? Anyone who has played internet games knows that the time frame has been reduced to weeks, maybe days. Any complex system of rules will have players scrambling to find the hacks, cheats, and exploits- and they will. They’re smart. Any attempt to close those loopholes by changing the rules, or creating new ones, will only cause a brief correction before the new gimmicks are found.
That is because too many people think they are safe being gameplayers and rigging the system. No accountability. It would be different now - if we had earlier lined up Ivan Boesky, Michael Millikin, Dennis Levine, Andy Fastow, Jeff Skilling, Jack Abramoff, Dick Grubman, Charles Keating, Sen. Alan Cranston against a wall and shot them.
Told Israel to cough up “Crazy Eddie Antar” and other conmen like Marc Rich or we’d give the Pals a Pershing missile for every month they delayed…
Rigging an Internet game is easy, simply because - who gives a shit about consequences? Rigging a poker game played for money is easy too, but no one, or at least an infintesimal minority tries gaming the system because the “regulatory and oversight” structure was not and still is not in the “lawyer’s game-playing arena”. But regulation and keen oversight are pervasive.. Half our history, cheaters were killed on the spot. Then the Mafia broke their fingers when shooting at the card table became declasse`. Now they are systematically ostracized.
The notion that the slick will always prey on the honest and be one step ahead is not true if we were somehow able to return to swift and sure justice to effectively intimidate the con artists and unethical rip-off specialists.
I see the incident where someone walked up to Dick Fuld of Lehman Brothers and decked him as welcome vigilantism. Let other such lessons and long stretches in non-cushy Fed prison ratholes await others that partially wrecked America.
It took Revolutionary China just two years to wipe out the opium trade and all the slick, slick merchants, shippers, den owners, and dealers that thrived since the 19th Century, unstoppable, adept at creating and using legal loopholes.
They shot them.
Then they went to the addicts, and if the addict - being sent off to prison to dry out or die trying didn’t name dealers, they shot the addicts.
Then they shot the surviving dealers.
By 1951, the opium problem was under control and never a big problem again. All the “clever” people knew it was there asses to try and “game the system” again.
Think about how nice and saluatory it would be to have Phil Gramm, Alan Greenspan, Barney Frank, Chris Dodd, and Dick Fuld swinging from lamposts. Plus a random dozen Congress critters and lobbyists swinging alongside them for being part of the corrupt “pay to play” system the Ruling Elites have perverted American democracy into.
And George W. Bush headed for a token prison stretch for becoming so obsessed with “Islamofascists and Noble Iraqi freedom-lovers” that he screwed the American public by negligence and being a lapdog to wealthy Corporatists.
Politicians cannot BY DEFINITION devise regulation or strategy that will protect Joe Citizen because it is not predictable. - manny
Uncorrupted politicians can. Those not bought and sold like meat, as opposed to those who have special interest lawyers come in and rewrite bank, immigration, tax law and insert all the dodges and loopholes.
It also requires massive flaws in the US Constitution be fixed. (Preferably, IMO, by a new Revolution. We have had one two major Revolutions since getting Independence. The 1st to fix the 1st failed effort of the all-wise Founders - the Articles of Cofederation. Then the Civil War. then we had the minor Revolutions:
1. Jacksonian Democracy rising, tossing lawyers out, and prevailing against the Banking Establishment.
2. Counter-Reconstruction.
3. The Grange Revolt against Railroads and the Banking interests.
4. The trust-busting, anti-monopoly era.
5. The Wilsonian Revolution against communists and anarchists that discarded that era’s “terrorist rights” and any lawyers in the way.
6. FDR’s “New Deal” for the People and against the Corporatists and Banking interests.
7. The Civil Rights revolution.
8. The Reagan Revolution that helped swing the pendulum back from too much democrat government control and regulation of the Owner Class and the jobs and culture of the middle class.
Time for a new one. Hopefully a little violent. Bloodshed keeps the evil ones - the ones Richard Fernandez alerts us are now studies - a little more cowed and honest. More deckings of the Dick Fulds and firings of complicit establishment assholes like Christopher Cox, please. And let’s hope that taxpayer money does not go to make many greedy speculators “whole again” while the little people stay screwed..
And George W. Bush headed for a token prison stretch for becoming so obsessed with "Islamofascists and Noble Iraqi freedom-lovers" that he screwed the American public by negligence and being a lapdog to wealthy Corporatists.
ReplyDelete==
So why were you so quiet about it, Cederfard? I could be excused, being an ignorant foreigner, and not being aware of the oil/car/military mafia and their welfare scam, until I understood what a farce of a fake war the US is fighting. But you, you knew, yet you embraced it. So that makes you what exactly? Cedarfard, champion of the "little people"? Yeah, right.
pro-Barr
ReplyDelete2.10 Retirement and Income Security
Retirement planning is the responsibility of the individual, not the government. We favor replacing the current government-sponsored Social Security system with a private voluntary system. The proper source of help for the poor is the voluntary efforts of private groups and individuals.
pro-Barr
ReplyDelete2.4 Government Finance and Spending
All persons are entitled to keep the fruits of their labor. We call for the repeal of the income tax, the abolishment of the Internal Revenue Service and all federal programs and services not required under the U.S. Constitution. We oppose any legal requirements forcing employers to serve as tax collectors. Government should not incur debt, which burdens future generations without their consent. We support the passage of a "Balanced Budget Amendment" to the U.S. Constitution, provided that the budget is balanced exclusively by cutting expenditures, and not by raising taxes.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteCedarford is BACK!
ReplyDeletewow....
I have pity on him, after all his father was killed in the holocaust.....
fell out of a guard tower ya know....
Under a Barr Administration Joe the Plumber would not need Toledo's or Ohio's permission to be, a plumber.
ReplyDelete2.0 Economic Liberty
A free and competitive market allocates resources in the most efficient manner. Each person has the right to offer goods and services to others on the free market. The only proper role of government in the economic realm is to protect property rights, adjudicate disputes, and provide a legal framework in which voluntary trade is protected. All efforts by government to redistribute wealth, or to control or manage trade, are improper in a free society.
To the Libertarian Party! Salute!
ReplyDeleteThat's a pretty funny clip.
ReplyDeleteBeen away for awhile. Obama won yet?
pro-Barr
ReplyDelete1.3 Personal Relationships
Sexual orientation, preference, gender, or gender identity should have no impact on the rights of individuals by government, such as in current marriage, child custody, adoption, immigration or military service laws. Consenting adults should be free to choose their own sexual practices and personal relationships. Government does not have the authority to define, license or restrict personal relationships.
pro-Barr
ReplyDelete1.5 Crime and Justice
Government exists to protect the rights of every individual including life, liberty and property. Criminal laws should be limited to violation of the rights of others through force or fraud, or deliberate actions that place others involuntarily at significant risk of harm. Individuals retain the right to voluntarily assume risk of harm to themselves. We support restitution of the victim to the fullest degree possible at the expense of the criminal or the negligent wrongdoer. We oppose reduction of constitutional safeguards of the rights of the criminally accused. The rights of due process, a speedy trial, legal counsel, trial by jury, and the legal presumption of innocence until proven guilty, must not be denied. We assert the common-law right of juries to judge not only the facts but also the justice of the law.
Obama's sinking like a plumbing wrench thrown overboard, Sam. Or so I hope.
ReplyDeleteThe democratic proganda team is insisting he isn't a 'real plumber'.
Others here say Obama may not be a 'real American'.
With them in charge, he have to join a union, give them money, etc.
Hope you had a great time.
No, bob, he'd have to get a license, to be a plumbing contractor.
ReplyDeleteHe'd have to have liability and property and casualty insurance. He'd have to post a bond.
To be a working plumber, an employee, he'd have to join a Union. Pay the fees.
All regulated by Government.
You all seem to have no problem with the Government running every aspect of the show, just get out of sorts when the majority of voters may finally get their man in the big chair.
ReplyDeleteThe Electoral College denied the majority, in 2000, but I doubt that lightning is going to strike twice, at least so soon.
Yeah, I did, thanks, Bob. Weather was shitty but still had fun. Rainy/cloudy but real humid so it was always warm. Best it got was 75' and partly cloudy. Too windy/rough for the beach. Made it to the pool a couple times. Surfers Paradise. Man, that place is crazy. Party town.
ReplyDeleteSurfers Paradise. Man, that place is crazy. Party town.
ReplyDelete==
Miami with a mountain view.
A plumbing contractor is not a plumber. I see.
ReplyDeleteI don't much care what he's called other than Joe the Plumber, which sounds fine with me.
The guys that are building apartments out by me then are building contractors, not real builders.
But the buildings are going up, nonetheless.
If Rat is right, and I don't have a clue about the truth of it, and I doubt Rat does, anyway, it would seem Joe's living the Ratian libertarian philosophy without waiting for the libertarians to be elected.
The argument is about taxes.
Go Joe.
24,000 Felons Sent Ballots in Seattle
ReplyDeleteGregoire won last time over Rossi by about 100 votes.
Joe didn't pay his.
ReplyDeleteThe argument is about the governments ability to levy the taxes, bob.
Not the marginal rate it decides is best, for you and them.
As for Joe, we'll let him speak for himself.
On Thursday, he revealed to the media assembled outside his home that he wasn't a licensed plumber. He said he works for a small plumbing company that does residential work. Because he works for someone else, he doesn't need a license, he said.
But Wurzelbacher still would need to be a licensed apprentice or journeyman to work in Toledo, and he's not, said David Golis, manager and residential building official for the Toledo Division of Building Inspection.
State and local records show Wurzelbacher has no license, although his employer does. Golis said there are no records of inspectors citing Wurzelbacher for unlicensed work in Toledo.
Wurzelbacher, 34, also said he doesn't have a good plan put together on how he would buy Newell Plumbing and Heating in nearby Toledo.
He said the business consists of owner Al Newell and him. Wurzelbacher said he's worked there for six years and that the two have talked about his taking it over at some point.
"There's a lot I've got to learn," he said.
Wurzelbacher also owes the state of Ohio $1,182.98 in personal income tax, according to Lucas County Court of Common Pleas records.
In January 2007, Ohio's Department of Taxation filed a claim on his property until he pays the debt, according to the records. The lien remains active.
Wurzelbacher, who voted in the Republican primary and indicated he backed McCain, was cited by the GOP presidential candidate as an example of someone who wants to buy a plumbing business but would be hurt by Obama's tax plans. Wurzelbacher said he was surprised that his name was mentioned so many other times.
"That bothered me. I wished that they had talked more about issues that are important to Americans," he told reporters gathered outside his home.
Wurzelbacher said he's feeling overwhelmed.
"I'm kind of like Britney Spears having a headache. Everybody wants to know about it," he joked.
In Toledo on Sunday, Wurzelbacher told Obama that he was preparing to buy the plumbing company, which earns more than $250,000 a year, and said: "Your new tax plan is going to tax me more, isn't it?"
Obama said that under his proposal taxes on any revenue from $250,000 on down would stay the same, but that amounts above that level would be subject to a 39 percent tax, instead of the current 36 percent rate.
Wurzelbacher said Obama's tax plan wouldn't affect him right now, because he doesn't make $250,000. "But I hope someday I'll make that," he said.
"If you believed (Obama), I'd be receiving his tax cuts," Wurzelbacher said. "But I don't look at it that way. He'd still be hurting others."
...
"I don't have a lot of pull. It's not like I'm Matt Damon," Wurzelbacher said.
"I just hope I'm not making too much of a fool of myself," he added.
But his story clearly caught on with McCain's crowd. Some supporters held signs saying: "Joe the Plumber for senator. Undeniably qualified to clean up Washington's waste."
Joe and Sarah, Team Maverick
At least one admits to not being qualified.
Joe the Plumber,
ReplyDeletebrought to US by Westinghouse News
Wall Street Journal Endorses Joe the Plumber
ReplyDeleteAs the front-runner in the polls, Mr. Obama probably figures he can afford to play this kind of small ball and coast into the White House. He merely needs to disguise and downplay the magnitude of his tax and spending plans. As for Mr. McCain, we've argued for months that he's needed a larger, more compelling economic narrative -- and the financial panic gave him an opening to argue for a far more substantial tax cut to spur growth and avoid a deep recession. He's preferred to play small ball instead. Mr. McCain's best hope now is that millions of Americans share the basic economic common sense of Joe the Plumber.
So Joe is commiting plumber fraud, each time he works in Toledo, Ohio.
ReplyDeleteHow many tens of thousands of other worker fraud cases are there, out there?
It is undermining the entire fabric of our regulated Society!
Instead of outrage, he recieves accolades, from folks that by so doing support the basic premise of a Librarian Administration and are rejecting the basic tenents of Federal Socialism.
But still insist upon voting to support the Federal Socialist status que.
For a guy that doesn't much like rules Rat, it amazes me how you're always bring 'em up. Always lookin' to the letter of the law, in an argument, when you want to throw much of the whole damned code out. :)
ReplyDeleteWould you condemn a moose hunter for hunting without a license, if you were against hunting licenses as a matter of principle?
I'm going to the casino, to lose what I won earlier.
Sure, because it is the law, bob.
ReplyDeleteIf you do not like the Law, work to change it. I believe you wrote that, in regards Drug Laws.
Break it only as a last resort, after attempts at change have failed. Civil Disobedience as per Henry David Thoreau.
I heartily accept the motto,—"That government is best which governs least"; and I should like to see it acted up to more rapidly and systematically.
Scientific American
ReplyDeleteOctober 9, 2008
Using the Internet's History to Develop Clean Energy's Future
Innovators who aim to create a world of cheap, clean energy should heed some basic lessons
By Robert M. Metcalfe
Suddenly the world is racing to find ways to create cheap, clean energy. A study of the Internet’s long development since 1946, arguably when modern computing began, offers valuable lessons that can help keep energy innovations on course for a comparable 62 years:
Hardening of the Categories. In the early days of the Internet there were computers, monopolized by IBM, and there was communications, monopolized by AT&T. The U.S. Department of Justice regulated IBM, and the Federal Communications Commission regulated AT&T. Officials in Washington, D.C., actually had years of hearings to decide which agency was in charge of which: computers versus communications. That turned out to be a silly hardening of the categories; the Internet soon became a merger of computing and communications, not one or the other.
Voice, video and data were once separate categories of communications, too, narrowly construed by their respective monopolies to be telephone, television and the Internet. Over the decades voice became more than telephone, video more than television, and both are now integrated into the Internet. For a long time the goal was to integrate voice, video and data by carrying them on the same copper wires. The old telephone and television monopolies were surprised when voice and video became data on the Internet. So don’t be surprised as we learn not to harden the categories, for example, among feed, food and fuel; corn ethanol is teaching us that right now.
Choosing Laws. Few people remember that during the early years of the Internet, computing resources were centralized. Grosch’s Law said that bigger computers were better, so IBM introduced its big IBM 360 mainframes in 1964. But starting the very next year, Moore’s Law came out of Silicon Valley saying many little computers were better than a few big ones. Then, if I may say so myself, Metcalfe’s Law came along to say that the more you networked computers the better. The Internet’s laws changed. Our way of looking at computing and communications changed. We learned too slowly that cheap and clean communications would be distributed. Personal computers and mobile phones surprised us. What do we think energy’s “laws” will be? Will cheap and clean energy come from centralized power stations? Internet history makes me think not.
We also believed, in the early days of the “information explosion,” that we needed to conserve bandwidth. The huge multibillion-dollar infrastructure of copper wires around the world was limited by some version of Shannon’s Law to carrying not much bandwidth. So our first priorities were on bandwidth conservation, on data compression, multiplexing, buffering and smart terminals—the low-hanging fruit. But after 62 years of building the Internet, do we use less bandwidth now? Was building the Internet mostly about conservation? No. Today we are not using less bandwidth, not twice as much, not 10 times as much, but something like a billion times more.
In 62 years from now, in 2070, are we going to use less energy than we do now? No. Today I do walk more, bike more and take trains more, and I’ve recently switched cars, dropping from 12 to four cylinders. I’ve already ordered my next car, which will move me from 30- to 40-plus miles per gallon. I plan to go all electric after that. And I turn my energy-efficient lights out more religiously. But I don’t think for a moment that we’re going to conserve our way out of the energy crisis. Internet history shows that prosperity depends on abundant bandwidth. Prosperity (gross domestic product, per capita) is proportional to energy use. We are not going to lower per capita consumption of energy in the U.S. We are going to enable the rest of the world to be as prosperous by using not less but more energy. We need to make energy cheap, clean and therefore abundant—really abundant, for a really long time.
Going to Washington. I’ve also heard that the green energy movement is going to Washington, probably right after the elections in November. For the Internet we went to Washington to build Al Gore’s Information Superhighway. And the Internet bubble burst. Remember, live by the sword, die by the sword. When innovators go to Washington, it’s a Pro-Am match—professionals versus amateurs—and innovators are the Ams. The status quo can be dangerous and downright mean, and they own Washington. The status quo’s monopolies are very good at lobbying and litigation.
When you go to Washington to get stuff, sometimes you get the wrong stuff, like subsidies for corn ethanol—the wrong feedstock for the wrong fuel. The best thing about corn ethanol is that taxpayer money is being misspent in the Middle West instead of the Middle East. Washington thought that the markets for corn—feed, food, fuel—were separate. Wrong.
When your movement goes to Washington, you also get things like the Department of Energy. The next time we go to Washington, could we start by fixing the DOE? The department developed bad policies, such as not building nuclear power plants for 30 years. The DOE is also malfunctioning by soaking up energy research dollars in its huge and inefficient, congressionally mandated labs—dollars that would be better spent at competing research universities. Be careful when you go to Washington, thinking it’s going to fix things, thinking that’s the way to scale up energy innovations.
Scale. It is indeed a big challenge. The world needs scalable solutions. But be careful about demands for scale early in the process of technological innovation. One of the weapons used by defenders of the status quo is to set high hurdles for innovations. They say, “It’s got to be safe, of course, and it has to scale, or we and our friends in government are not going to let you do it.” In Washington legislators make laws that discourage new technologies when it is not immediately obvious how the technologies are going to scale. The telephone monopolies got Washington to make rules about the Internet that said, “If you can’t serve everybody, then you can’t serve anybody.” Which meant innovators couldn’t start small and grow new technologies, driving them down steep cost curves. You had to serve everyone, all at once, right out of the lab. That’s too high a hurdle for new technologies. So watch out when people demand that we consider only energy solutions that scale, which often turns out to mean only mature technologies already in the hands of the status quo.
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http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=using-the-internets-history-to-develop&print=true
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Yet this government never of itself furthered any enterprise, but by the alacrity with which it got out of its way. It does not keep the country free. It does not settle the West. It does not educate. The character inherent in the American people has done all that has been accomplished; and it would have done somewhat more, if the government had not sometimes got in its way.
ReplyDeleteJoe the Plumber, he makes the Librarian case, much better than I or Bob Barr.
ReplyDeleteHis living is in jeopardy, not from taxes, but regulation and licensing.
ReplyDeleteHe cannot legally practice his trade, in Toledo, he is not a licensed apprentice. He did not make his tribute payment to the city.
The tax rate of 35 or 39% on income over $250,000 has no effect on Joe the Plumber, his working in violation of regulations certainly does. That is where the arguement should be, the power of government to regulate citizens, their business and free associations.
Mat, you been?
ReplyDeleteMy brother lived there, Sam.
ReplyDeleteNice. They were setting up for the Indy race while I was there. I think it's on next weekend.
ReplyDeleteThe local news there had a story about the problem of topless girls hanging out over the balconies of the apartments during races of years past.
I don't see much of a problem with that.
Pretty cool place. I liked it a lot.
Don't be so coy, linear.
ReplyDeleteHad to look it up.
One more damned thing to tend to.
We stayed at Conrad Jupiters. Went to the Hard Rock Cafe Saturday night.
ReplyDeleteRented a car and drove up into the Hinterland to Springbook. Took walks through the rainforest to a couple of waterfalls. Pouring down rain up there in the middle of the clouds. Warm 'though.
Welcome back, Sam.
ReplyDeleteCould be dangerous for the drivers though.
brook
ReplyDeleteYep..:)
ReplyDelete...topless girls hanging out over the balconies of the apartments during races could be dangerous for the drivers...
ReplyDeleteI think the drivers are pretty focused on the race.
ReplyDeleteThe whole issue with it is that it's not very family friendly. Kids with their parents looking up and all they see are tits.
Let us assme that Joe the Plumber's boss, he made $300,000 taxable, each year.
ReplyDeleteSo we're speaking of 35% or 39% of $50,000, as the boss man's fair share of the government's levy.
35% of $50,000 = $17,500
39% or $50,000 = $19,500.
The tax on the first $250,00 is the same in both cases.
How many jobs will the boss man create, with $2,000, that he would not create, regardless?
It is the FICA & IRS withholding, Health Care mandates and other mandated costs and regulations that keep him from expanding, not an extra $2,000 on an already sizable personal tax bill.
Been there, done that.
I think rat could in reality not care less about Joe's apprenticeship papers or license status. It's just another target of opportunity for his rants against McCain's campaign.
ReplyDeleteHow many jobs will the boss man create, with $2,000, that he would not create, regardless?
Is he in the plumbing business to provide a service and make a living, or is he in the job creation business? Taking his surplus $2000 is theft.
Kids with their parents looking up and all they see are tits.
ReplyDeleteAnd they'd for sure spend a lot of time lookin' up. But, what's the harm, really? I venture to guess they'd grow up with a healthier psyche...less obsession with tits, etc.
Take me for example.
Now the FICA tax rate for Joe's boss, 15.3% of the first $102000
ReplyDelete$15,606
The current schedules do not line up with Obama's $250,000 floor, but upwards of $196,000 is taxed at 28%
28% of $250,000 = $70,000
So, boss man is paying $86,000 annually for the first $250,000 plus another $17,500 or $19.500 on the "extra" $50,000.
A total of $105,500 or $107,500.
On income of $300,000
The same rate, 33%, combined FICA & Income Tax, maybe a tad higher, than that which Cindy McCain paid on $6.1 million.
The way it has been explained.
The local news show put it to a viewer poll. I think it was split 60/40 to keep the tits free.
ReplyDeleteWhy, sure, lineman.
ReplyDeleteIt is theft, but of $100,000, not $2,000.
But they leave the binary public arguing over the marginal $2,000.
While the scope of government grows, geometricly.
It is a slam against ALL the Federal Socialists, not just McCain and Obama.
Joe the Plumber reminds me of a friend. He did remodel work around the neighborhood. Had a great reputation. Did no advertising, and had to turn work down because his reputation was high and his work so much in demand. Only one customer ever stiffed him. The guy found out he was working under the radar without a contractor's license and city blessings. The customer refused to pay. An attorney.
ReplyDeleteNice guy.
ReplyDeleteSo, it seems, that Joe the Plumbers boss, he pays a higher combined tax rate on $300,000 in income than the rate the McCain family paid on $6.1 million.
ReplyDeleteNot very progressive.
A tad regressive, actually.
FBI Moves In On Dem Mahoney-- Here's What the Media Is Not Reporting on the Sex & Hush Money Scandal
ReplyDeleteWill MSM Parrot Desert Rat flog this every day like he did Foley and Craig?
3 Guesses!
Barack the Plumber Cartoon
ReplyDeleteIf you do not like the Law, work to change it. I believe you wrote that, in regards Drug Laws.
I agree with that. Didn't mean to imply that I didn't, and moose hunting was a stupid idea half formulated. Better, would you convict a starving man of stealing a chicken.
Shooting a moose is a serious thing, fixing somebody's kitchen sink without a license another matter.
I'm all for building codes too, in cities, out on the farm another proposition entirely.
Them lawyers, Linear. But the asscrack lawyer should have known better and asked to see his license.
Doesn't take long to lose money at a casino. They are having their big pow wow out there. Crowded.
Here's a blog you should like, 'Rat!
ReplyDelete---
Why the Image of McCain and Joe the Plumber Won’t Help His Campaign!
Bob: For a variety of reasons Stern ought to be shot.
ReplyDeleteI think it was yesterday I heard a talk show presentation of Stern's man-in-the-street survey in Harlem, prefaced by the remark that Stern is not exactly your most conservative radio personality.
Following is paraphrased from what I remember. Three subject were interviewed, and gave essentially identical answers to the same questions.
Question 1. Do you favor John McCain or Barack Obama in the coming election?
All three subjects presented favored Obama.
Question 2. [I'm vague on the phrasing, but it was essentially attaching one candidate's name to a position of the other on what should be done in Iraq. Something like "do you favor quick early withdrawal of US troops as proposed by John McCain, or should we stay until the victory is assured as proposed by Obama?"]
All three subjects selected the option identified with the name Obama, even though it was McCain's policy.
Question 3. Considering Obama's selection of Sarah Palin as his vice-presidential running mate, do you think she would make a good president if anything happened to Obama?
All three subjects thought Sarah would make a real good president if any thing happened to Obama.
Asked why they liked Obama, the answers were basically, "Well, like, you know, he's for change!"
If anyone can find a link to a YouTube of this it would be worth posting. It should be out there.
Hilarious.
...and disturbing.
But there I go again. Being coy.
In Foley's district, no less.
ReplyDeleteMust be the water, there.
It does not say where the $121,000 payoff came from, if it was even made.
Was it his own money?
Or did they use that advertising firm as the cut out and use campaign funds?
When we know that, then we'll know.
But this fellow fell down on his promise of "a world that is safer, more moral."
Hiring the woman as an assistant, not to clever. But Charlie Wilson sure got it done!
Whether we should harp on it depends, doug, there does not seem to have been a Democrat cover-up of the scandalous affair.
If the FBI moves forward, prosecutes or not, in an open forum, then it'll be what it is.
Does the guy resign or stand for reelection in 19 days?
Betcha he stands in there.
Will the folk reelect him?
The worst thing I've heard in a long time was that phone call between Mahoney and that girl, if you heard it. What a piece of crap. Nothing but power, bully, power, bully, on and on.
ReplyDeleteSometimes people make you sick in a way that really cuts the fog.
Mahoney goes to the matresses
ReplyDeleteA little to much Godfather, maybe.
A tad dated.
It wasn't gay sex with minors...
Mahoney, a manly man of the people
Homeless Mahoney
Mahoney's Baloney
I'm all for building codes too, in cities, out on the farm another proposition entirely.
ReplyDeleteAll the work exceeded code. Some instances, but probably not all, were also done under a building permit, for instance where gas or electrical utilities were involved, and the permit needed to get their service. As I recall, my friend had the owner pull the permits and deal with the inspectors.
I've no problem with your "out on the farm, another proposition entirely" attitude, but I'd probably qualify it to something like just do the work solidly and let the county go fuck themselves. I haven't met a farmer yet who'd jeopardize his stock or equipment with a slapdash shed or barn, and if he did, who's problem is it?
Sexual harassment, on the job, no doubt.
ReplyDeleteCongressmen are bound to have exempted themselves from those laws, too.
Soundin' more like a Librarian with each successive post, lineman.
ReplyDeleteYep
ReplyDeleteJoe the Plumber took over this thread so completely, that no one commented on Stern, except Linear.
ReplyDeleteLinear, there was a case in Latah County where I farmed, between a guy I knew a little and the state, or maybe county. Anyway, it was time to build another house, cause grandpa's where he grew up, was falling down over his head. He got entangled with the building inspector, refused to get a permit, said fuck you.
The case was tried here in Lewiston. Famous case for us around here.
Short case.
Lawyers argument.
"A man has a right to build a barn for his cattle without a permit, a hog shed for his hogs, a chicken coop for his chickens, without a permit. I believe a man has a right to build a house for himself out in the county without a permit too."
Judge--"I agree with that. So ordered."
I think it is still the law here. But not sure. It wasn't challenged here. But maybe the Idaho Supremes ruled some way in some other case that has now overturned it.
Don't know what to make of This but it is interesting.
ReplyDeleteThat African Press, which the article says is connected to Norway somehow, may be much better than most of our own.
Dang, I forgot to try and watch that Corsi conference today.
I knew that the Politico was nothing more than another shill for the Left. They are worried that Joe owes $1,289 in back taxes. Why that could qualify him to be in charge of the Ways and Means Committee, and oh my he is not a member of the plumbers union or guild.
ReplyDeleteOooh, you mean he is not part of the scam tax and restraint of trade of the construction trades which extorts excess money from American consumers?
Goodness, Washington DC is a right to work City last time I checked and if you need some real cheap labor, you can go to many many street corners and find all the non-union workers you want and these guys are all non everything. The press would defend their right to only be looking to be part of the American dream and the Democrats would be signing them up to vote as well, but Joe is a real native American, white, not on welfare and has a brain to express an opinion. He is also a Republican, sort of.
What a load of bullshit. NYC built the Empire State Building in 18 months with all union labor? Hardly.
The sclerosis brought on by politicians, the union construction trade and beauracracy has helped us rebuild the World Trade Towers in record time has it not?
The arabs recognized the iconic value of taking down the most American of towers, but we showed them what we could do to put them up. Seven years and I still swell with pride when I drive by and see the new towers piercing the sky and telling the world America is back.
By all means let's destroy Joe the Plumber and show him what it is like to be a real American.
"...So ordered."
ReplyDelete:-)
Joe the Plumber took over this thread so completely, that no one commented on Stern, except Linear.
ReplyDeleteEgg on face. I passed up the video and header on this post to jump right into the thread. My comments on the Stern interview that somebody should track down and link? The topic of the damned thread!
Senior moments. Had a tough but rewarding day helping my son through some major hurdles. He got the Tacoma of his dreams today, Bob.
Tacoma huh? He'll be having some fun.
ReplyDeleteIt's Plumber Derangement Disorder Disease And I Hope It's Not Catching Cause We've All Been Exposed :)
That's PDDD in Trishtalk.
the Stern interview that somebody should track down and link?
ReplyDeleteWell I looked but couldn't find it.
Just ran the video I'd skipped. My account? False but accurate. Good enough for Dan, good enough for me. Senior memory.
ReplyDeleteI was going to sort of mention it, but focused my wrath in another direction.
ReplyDelete