Quotulatiousness

October 25, 2011

“For strong personalities, the hyper-egalitarian mantras of anarchism act as a smokescreen for authoritarianism”

Filed under: Government, Liberty, Politics — Tags: , , , — Nicholas @ 09:42

Jonathan Kay discusses the contradictions of Julian Assange and his dictatorial control of WikiLeaks and uses the Occupy Wall Street “anarchists” to explain why anarchy usually turns into dictatorship:

In a fascinating report filed last Thursday, New York Magazine’s Alex Klein found that the protesters had splintered on the question of music. Many of the Occupiers, apparently, have been passing their time with daily 10-hour drum sessions. The tom toms help keep up morale, apparently. But they also anger those protesters who are trying to sleep, and have disrupted classes at a local high school.

So, the leaders of the Occupy Wall Street “general assembly” — a sort of self-appointed protester executive body — decreed that drumming shall be limited to two hours a day. The general assembly has also imposed a 50% tax on the donations that drummers earn from passersby.

“They’re imposing a structure on the natural flow of music,” complained one drumming protester. “We’re like, ‘What’s going on here?’ They’re like the banks we’re protesting,” said another.

And that’s not all. The general assembly is also ordering protesters to clean up their camp sites in advance of a local community board inspection. In some cases, they’re taking down tents and sending people away, so that new protesters can set up shop. Fist-fights have ensued. But Lauren Digion, a leader of Occupy Wall Street’s “sanitation working group” isn’t phased. “Someone needs to give orders” she told Klein, after barking commands about who could use the communal sleeping bags and who couldn’t. “There’s no sense of order in this f–king place.”

And that’s anarchism in a nutshell for you. It’s all drum circles and “natural flow” and “consensus” — until the time comes to actually get something done; at which point the self-appointed dictators start emerging naturally from amidst the protesters, like mushrooms after a week of rainstorms. For strong personalities, the hyper-egalitarian mantras of anarchism act as a smokescreen for authoritarianism.

Gangs not to blame for London’s August riots

Filed under: Britain, Government, Media — Tags: , , , , , , — Nicholas @ 09:15

Brendan O’Neill debunks the widespread story that the August riots were either gang-led or pre-planned by gangsters:

In the aftermath of the riots, police, politicians and penmen all arrived at the same conclusion: gangs have taken over parts of England. Organised cliques of mask-wearing, territory-protecting youth, who divide themselves into ‘elders’, ‘soldiers’ and ‘youngers’, are turning bits of London and other English cities into something akin to south-central LA. These gangs orchestrated the violence, we’re told, as a way of staking their claim over local patches of land and warning off the ‘Feds’ (police). It is now apparently time, says David Cameron, for a war against ‘gang culture’.

There’s only one problem with these claims: they are complete and utter bunkum. No doubt gangs exist in some parts of urban England, and no doubt some of them are criminal. But there is no ‘gang culture’ and gangs were not responsible for the recent rioting in London and elsewhere. ‘Gang culture’ is almost entirely the imaginary creation of a political elite which prefers to fantasise that urban implosion is a product of gang conspiracies, rather than face up to the harsh reality that the riots were triggered by the twin crises of community solidarity and state authority.

[. . .]

Perusing the press, it was hard to tell if you were reading genuine reports about English cities or drafts for a movie about the life and times of 50 Cent. ‘Inside the deadly world of gangs’, screamed newspaper headlines, inviting readers to peer at these violent groups where new recruits as young as nine are referred to as ‘Tinies’ or ‘Babies’, while teenage members are known as ‘Soldiers’ and the overlords have the title ‘General’. Apparently there are 171 such gangs in London alone. Journalists write about being ‘embedded’ with the police, as if they’re in Iraq rather than England, and observing an ‘inner-city underworld’. This underworld exploded into the overworld two weeks ago, we’re told, when these military-style gangs ‘orchestrated’ looting through social media or by ‘laying on minibuses to ferry yobs into and around towns’.

[. . .]

Often, the hotheaded claims about Britain being overrun with hundreds of gangs simply do not stand up to scrutiny. So the Metropolitan Police claims there are 171 gangs in London, while the Home Office says there are 356 gang members in London. As one study pointed out, this would mean ‘around two people per gang’

US Air Force grounds the F-22 fleet (again)

Filed under: Military, Technology — Tags: , , — Nicholas @ 08:42

Strategy Page has the details:

For the second time this year, the U.S. Air Force has grounded all its F-22 fighters. Same reason, problems with the pilot’s oxygen supply. This time, a pilot experienced loss of oxygen during flight. He was able to land safely, but this reoccurrence of the oxygen led to the prompt grounding of all 170 F-22s until the problem could be fixed. At the moment, F-22s comprise the most powerful component of the air force’s air combat capability.

It was only on September 21st that the air force allowed its F-22 fighters to fly again. The aircraft had been grounded for 140 days because of problems with the oxygen system. The air force is not giving out many details on exactly what the problems is, although they say a report on the F-22 oxygen system will be out by the end of the year. It has been mentioned that there appeared to be a problem with two much nitrogen getting into the pilot’s air, and that an additional filter was added to the oxygen system to help keep potential contaminants out.

NFL week 7 results

Filed under: Football — Tags: — Nicholas @ 08:35

You’d have had a good week if you’d just inverted my predictions. I’ve now dropped down to a 5-way tie for 13th spot in the AoSHQ pool.

    √ @Cleveland 6 Seattle 3
    ∅ @Detroit 16 Atlanta 23
    √ @Tennessee 7 Houston 41
    ∅ @Miami 15 Denver 18
    ∅ San Diego 21 @New York (NYJ) 27
    ∅ Chicago 24 @Tampa Bay 18
    ∅ @Carolina 33 Washington 20
    ∅ @Oakland 0 Kansas City 28
    √ Pittsburgh 32 @Arizona 20
    √ @Dallas 34 St. Louis 7
    ∅ Green Bay 33 @Minnesota 27
    √ @New Orleans 62 Indianapolis 7
    ∅ Baltimore 7 @Jacksonville 12

This week 5-8 (5-8 against the spread)
Season to date 64-39

Another example of a manual transmission being a good anti-theft device

Filed under: Cancon, Law — Tags: , — Nicholas @ 00:04

This is one of those crime stories that tends to provoke laughter:

RCMP Cpl. Craig Douglass said Monday that Morgan allegedly jumped into the idling Corvette just as the owner was putting away a charger used to revive the sports car’s dead battery.

The owner watched in disbelief as the suspect rolled up the power windows, locked the power doors and promptly stalled the vehicle.

“Unfortunately for the (suspect), he was not good with a standard transmission and stalled the Corvette when he attempted to reverse out of the driveway,” Douglass said.

[. . .]

As police arrived, Morgan was attempting to exit the vehicle after allegedly smashing the driver side window with his screw driver — apparently for no good reason.

“As it turns out, all the suspect would have had to do was manually slide the door lock to the side and the door would have opened,” Douglass said.

October 24, 2011

The next financial bubble: student loans

Filed under: Economics, Education, Government — Tags: , — Nicholas @ 12:08

Coyote Blog explains why student loans are the next big financial bubble and why student loans are fundamentally different from ordinary loans:

When you mess with pricing signals and resource allocation, you get bubbles. And one could easily argue that OWS is as much about the student loan bubble bursting as about Wall Street.

I must say that I never had a ton of sympathy for home buyers who were supposedly “lured” into taking on loans they could not afford. The ultimate cost for most of them was the loss of a home that, if the credit had not been extended, they would never have had anyway. US law protects our other assets from home purchase failures, and while we have to sit in the credit penalty box for a while after mortgage default or bankruptcy, most people are able to recover in a few years.

Student loans are entirely different. In large part because the government is the largest lender via Sallie Mae, student loans cannot be discharged via bankruptcy. You can be 80 years old and still have your social security checks garnished to pay back your student loans. You can more easily discharge credit card debt run up buying lap dances in topless bars than you can student loans. There is absolutely no way to escape a mistake, which is all the more draconian given that most folks who are borrowing are in their early twenties or even their teens.

I can see it now, the pious folks in power trying to foist this bubble off on some nameless loan originators. Well, this is a problem we all caused. The government, as a long-standing policy, has pushed college and student lending. Private lenders have marketed these loans aggressively. Colleges have jacked costs up into the stratosphere, in large part because student loans disconnected consumers from the immediate true costs. And nearly everyone in any leadership position have pushed kids to go to college, irregardless of whether their course of study made even a lick of sense vis a vis their ability to earn back the costs later in the job market.

Wendy McElroy: Get government out of the food-banning business

Filed under: Food, Government, Health, Liberty — Tags: , — Nicholas @ 09:51

Wendy McElroy thinks that governments should get their “greasy hands” off her food choices:

Thus, when government dictates what you may or may not eat — takes away your choice — it is restricting your heritage, your religious and political choices, the control over your own body; telling you that a choice every bit as personal as freedom of speech or the art you view is not yours to make. It is making a fundamental decision for you, and they try to make it better by telling you it’s for your own good.

Imagine if the government had literary experts that decided that certain books weren’t good for you. They didn’t make you smarter or teach you anything. They weren’t classic pieces of literature. And even though you were happy to buy your books with your own money and read them privately, the state still decided it didn’t want you to have access to them. People would be outraged. Why is it any different when the government is counting calories instead of artistic merit?

The typical counter-argument is to say that since society pays for our health care, we owe it to society to lead healthy lives. In short, your neighbour has a vested financial interest in what goes into your body. If you won’t take care of it, the government will make you.

This line of reasoning — rather than justifying a Nanny State or a nosy neighbor dictating your personal choices — constitutes a powerful argument against socialized medicine, but it doesn’t do much to say that the government should control what you eat. If socialized medicine had been advertised decades ago as a government mandate to control the minutia of your daily life, then it would probably have never been implemented.

All of us should of course take care of ourselves, but for our own sake. We are the architects of our own lives and that includes our health. It is not the place of the state to try and control what we can eat because some people make bad decisions. Though it seems trivial to many, it’s an important point to make. Food is part of who we are and how we related to the world. We need to kick the government out of our kitchens.

Government to freeze Canadian Forces at current size and sell off surplus properties

Filed under: Cancon, Economics, Military — Tags: , , , — Nicholas @ 09:38

David Pugliese reports on the federal government’s announced freeze-and-sell-off in the Department of National Defence:

The size of the regular Canadian Forces will be frozen at 68,000 people for the next several years and the military and Defence Department will look at selling off property and shutting down facilities as part of its belt-tightening, according to documents obtained by the Ottawa Citizen.

The new directive from Chief of the Defence Staff Gen. Walter Natynczyk and Deputy Minister Robert Fonberg outlines in broad terms how DND and the Canadian Forces plan to deal with a tighter fiscal situation between now and 2016.

A national plan will be developed for DND’s property holdings, putting emphasis on only keeping sites that support operations, the directive notes.

[. . .]

DND’s property holdings are massive, comprising of approximately half of all federally owned buildings. They include various bases across the country. In total DND has 21,000 buildings and 800 parcels of land covering 2.25 million hectares.

That portfolio also includes a large number of buildings with cultural and historical significance to local communities. There are 318 buildings that are considered as heritage structures, including the Cartier Drill Hall in Ottawa, La Citadelle in Quebec City and the Seaforth Armoury in Vancouver.

But the reference to dumping property has some wondering whether base closures could be coming.

Obama organizers seeks poster artists to work for free on jobs campaign

Filed under: Media, Politics, USA — Tags: , , — Nicholas @ 08:59

No, really, the irony meter just pegged:

The Obama campaign has more than $60 million cash on hand. In an economy this bad, you’d think a presidential campaign that flush would be happy to pay good money for a talented designer to create a campaign poster.

But the folks at Obama campaign have taken a page from the Arianna Huffington book of economic exploitation and called on “artists across the country” to create a poster … for free.

And here’s the kicker. It’s a jobs poster.

Yes, the Obama campaign is soliciting unpaid labor to create a poster “illustrating why we support President Obama’s plan to create jobs now, and why we’ll re-elect him to continue fighting for jobs for the next four years.”

H/T to Virginia Postrel (via Google+) for the link.

Vikings lose entertainingly to Packers, 33-27

Filed under: Football — Tags: , , , — Nicholas @ 08:48

Although the final numbers don’t show it (13 of 32 for 219 yards, 2 TDs, 2 INT), Christian Ponder had a pretty good game in his first NFL start. Rookies will make mistakes early on (and some players never stop making rookie mistakes), so coming out of the game with two touchdown passes and two interceptions is a good outing for a rookie quarterback. If nothing else, he provided a jolt of energy to a team that (in Jim Souhan’s wording) “the previous week played with all of the enthusiasm of guys in orange jumpsuits picking up roadside trash”.

Green Bay’s Aaron Rodgers, however, didn’t make any mistakes worth mentioning. As the TV commentators put it, he was putting on a clinic during the first half, yet the scoreboard didn’t reflect how good he was, as the Packers were behind the Vikings at halftime 17-13.

Clint Starks at The Viking Age:

The Vikings secondary was without Chris Cook (incarcerated) and Antoine Winfield (injury) and many thought this unit would struggle against the high powered passing Packers offense and they did not disappoint. In typical Vikings fashion they also racked up their share of penalties. Purple were penalized 9 times for 91 yards. All of that said, the Vikings did make it close at the end with a couple defensive stops and decent play from Ponder. In the end, the Packers passing game gave way to their serviceable running game to ice the game.

Of course the big news from the Vikings standpoint was Christian Ponder getting his first career start and for the most part he looked decent. I have spent much energy criticizing Bill Musgrave but I must admit that he called a good game and put Ponder in some good positions to make some plays. Ponder did throw two picks (to Charles Woodson), which was to be expected, we knew there would be some growing pains with the rookie play caller. For the most part, this is a good start to Ponder’s career and there is much to build off of.

Dan Wiederer, Star Tribune:

The moment felt so hopeful, the play unfolding better than Christian Ponder could have ever envisioned. On the Vikings’ first snap Sunday, there was the rookie quarterback, in play action, shuffling left into open space.

Up the sideline, receiver Michael Jenkins froze Green Bay cornerback Tramon Williams with a devastating out-and-up move. So here came this pass — a perfect spiral to a wide-open target — pumping adrenaline into a downtrodden fan base.

This one completion, netting 72 yards and setting up a 2-yard touchdown toss from Ponder to Visanthe Shiancoe, felt incredibly significant.

Suddenly, the worries that existed about giving Ponder his first NFL start against the defending Super Bowl champions were obliterated by a roar that rippled the Teflon roof covering Mall of America Field.

Just like that, the Vikings’ advertisements of Ponder as their confident leader of the future seemed valid.

Update: Tom Pelissero and Judd Zulgad of 1500ESPN:

October 23, 2011

DARPA’s new project: space vampires

Filed under: Military, Space — Tags: , , , — Nicholas @ 12:04

Yep. DARPA is hoping to release “swarming robot space vampires”* in geosynchronous orbit:

More than $300 billion worth of satellites are estimated to be in the geosynchronous orbit (GEO—22,000 miles above the earth). Many of these satellites have been retired due to normal end of useful life, obsolescence or failure; yet many still have valuable components, such as antennas, that could last much longer than the life of the satellite. When satellites in GEO “retire,” they are put into a GEO disposal or “graveyard” orbit. That graveyard potentially holds tens to more than a hundred retired satellites that have components that could be repurposed — with the willing knowledge and sanction of the satellite’s owner. Today, DoD deploys new, replacement satellites at high cost — one of the primary drivers of the high cost is the launch costs, which is dependent on the weight and volume of antennas. The repurposing of existing, retired antennas from the graveyard represents a potential for significant cost savings.

DARPA’s Phoenix program seeks to develop technologies to cooperatively harvest and re-use valuable components from retired, nonworking satellites in GEO and demonstrate the ability to create new space systems at greatly reduced cost. “If this program is successful, space debris becomes space resource,” said DARPA Director, Regina E. Dugan.

[. . .]

“Satellites in GEO are not designed to be disassembled or repaired, so it’s not a matter of simply removing some nuts and bolts,” said David Barnhart, DARPA program manager. “This requires new remote imaging and robotics technology and special tools to grip, cut, and modify complex systems, since existing joints are usually molded or welded. Another challenge is developing new remote operating procedures to hold two parts together so a third robotic ‘hand’ can join them with a third part, such as a fastener, all in zero gravity. For a person operating such robotics, the complexity is similar to trying to assemble via remote control multiple Legos at the same time while looking through a telescope.”

* “Swarming robot space vampires”, courtesy of jwz.org.

The CIA’s new boss and the new rules

Filed under: Asia, Military, USA — Tags: , , — Nicholas @ 11:53

Strategy Page discusses the new rules for the CIA under the new boss, David Petraeus:

The CIA has a new boss, David Petraeus, who formerly commanded American military forces in Afghanistan. With the arrival of Petraeus, the CIA is changing how it goes about determining the situation in Afghanistan. From now on, CIA analysts will discuss the situation with military commanders before they submit their monthly reports, rather than argue with the military leaders after the fact when people note that the military and CIA analysis comes to different conclusions. The CIA may still disagree with the military, but now they have to answer military assertions that contradict what the CIA believes.

Although this new policy was announced after Petraeus took over at the CIA recently, it was actually in the works for months. It was held up when it became clear that Petraeus was going to be the new CIA chief. Petraeus approved the new policy, which he had long been asking for.

All this came about because CIA analysts eventually noted that the military commanders were using different criteria for “success” and that often had uncovered aspects of the situation that the CIA analysts were missing. So, even before Petraeus showed up at CIA headquarters, the intelligence analysts had decided to work more cooperatively with their military counterparts, if only to ensure that all the bases were covered.

The CIA analysts always were at a disadvantage in Afghanistan, and Iraq, because the military was getting their information first hand, while the CIA often was getting it second or third hand. Moreover, the military was more aware of the fact that “success” in Afghanistan depended a lot on what you believed was possible, and what you knew was actually going on. In some cases, the CIA analysts did not appreciate what impact American field operations were having. Afghanistan, to outsiders has always been a murky place, and difficult to read.

What to do when “Tech Support” calls you

Filed under: Humour, Law, Technology — Tags: , , — Nicholas @ 11:39

crshbndct recounts the heart-warming story of his recent call from “Tech Support”:

“Good Morning Sir, I am calling to inform you that you have serious issues with your pc and that we can help you fix them”

“Really? I just got it working today (had been having a nightmare of a time with video drivers)”

“Yes, Sir, but do not worry, we can help you to fix this problems”

(Realising its a scam, but willing to play along)

“Oh OK well that’s good. How are you going to do that?”

“Well Sir, Your computer runs a thing called Windows XP, which has many viruses and malware and rootkits and things like this which infect your master root on your CPU and slow it down and causes problems with your computer which can cost a lot to fix. We can help you fix this really cheaply”
“Really cheaply?!?! That sounds fantastic!! How do I do it?”

California Democrats in sudden financial crisis

Filed under: Law, Politics, USA — Tags: , , — Nicholas @ 11:18

No, I’m not talking about the plight of the state itself, but the plight of hundreds of individual Democratic candidates whose political campaign funds may have been drained by the state campaign treasurer:

Stunning accusations that a top California Democratic campaign treasurer looted the war chests of her big-name clients have left candidates across the state scrambling to raise more money as election season looms.

Kinde Durkee, who controlled the funds of roughly 400 candidates and groups, ranging from Senator Dianne Feinstein to local Democratic youth clubs, was arrested in September and charged with fraud.

While the extent of the losses isn’t yet clear, the coffers of dozens of Democratic politicians have been frozen, prompting the crippled campaigns to ask the California Fair Political Practices Commission to permit further donations from contributors who have already given the maximum.

Feinstein, seeking re-election in 2012, has been forced to start from “square one” to raise campaign money, said Bill Carrick, political strategist and consultant to the Senator.

But a commission official said it wasn’t that simple.

“It’s quite clear that we can’t just say ‘the contribution limit is set aside’,” California Fair Political Practices Commission chair Ann Ravel said, adding that the commission’s legal team was researching what options were permissible by law.

NFL week 7 predictions

Filed under: Football — Tags: — Nicholas @ 11:08

As usual, no guarantee of accuracy is included with my semi-random guesses. With all the injuries (and an arrest) in the Vikings secondary, I’m clearly insane to be picking them to win against the unbeaten Green Bay Packers. But if when they win, I’ll look like a genius! (Or double your money back)

    @Cleveland vs Seattle (3.0) Sun 1:00pm
    @Detroit vs Atlanta (3.5) Sun 1:00pm
    @Tennessee vs Houston (3.0) Sun 1:00pm
    @Miami vs Denver (2.0) Sun 1:00pm
    San Diego vs @New York (NYJ) (2.0) Sun 1:00pm
    Chicago vs @Tampa Bay (1.0) Sun 1:00pm
    @Carolina vs Washington (2.5) Sun 1:00pm
    @Oakland vs Kansas City (4.5) Sun 4:05pm
    Pittsburgh vs @Arizona (3.5) Sun 4:05pm
    @Dallas vs St. Louis (13.0) Sun 4:15pm
    Green Bay vs @Minnesota (9.0) Sun 4:15pm
    @New Orleans vs Indianapolis (14.0) Sun 8:20pm
    Baltimore vs @Jacksonville (8.0) Mon 8:30pm

Last week 8-5 (7-6 against the spread)
Season to date 59-31

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