Ancient Brewing Scene

While doing some reading about yeast used in beer-making*, I ran across this cool image of an ancient Egpytian beer-making scene, from the Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum in LA:

Photo credit: E. Michael Smith Chiefio

It looks like they are getting ready to fill the four growlers of the people on the right side ;)

This piece is indicative of a whole world of such minatures that can be found in museums with ancient culture collections. They're fun to look at, some are amazingly well done, and many show a terrific sense of humor.

I like the fact that someone took the time to do something like this; it also means people had time to settle down and create enjoyable objects such as this. These miniatures were found in tombs, ostensibly to help the deceased pass time in the afterlife, in this case by enjoying a fresh beer!

* I was trying to find the exact reason why top-fermenting yeast floats and bottom-fermenting yeast sinks. I was able to find one claim that ale yeast has a water-repellent coating that makes it float, but no specific explanation of the opposite case. The information I found was descriptive (it floats/sinks) rather than explanatory (it floats/sinks because...).

No Obama, No McCain

I voted, basically straight Democrat except for the Big One. I abstained from voting for president.

I find it frustrating, because I take the responsibility of deciding very seriously, but I am satisfied with my decision nonetheless. Meaning: frustrating, because I thought I could determine which was the best/worst candidate, and I couldn't. If I really believed that either one was better in the long run, that would have been my choice. But I wasn't about to vote for a Republican, and Obama is obama-nable. His frighteningly consistent altruism is repulsive and bodes ill for America.

I would argue that this year's choice is barely possible, not only because both candidates are so abysmal, but because we hardly know what such pragmatists will do in office.

I am not one who believes that any of the three alternatives (McCain, Obama, neither) are immoral or obvious. They are not. The issue requires a broad understanding of politics and ideas to even gain an understanding by the standards of Objectivism, let alone make a decision.

I also don't agree that a vote for either bad candidate lends sanction to them. Unless they are both murderers, if one choice is less awful, then that is the choice that should be made. I could not make that determination.

Like I've said before, it's like trying to decide if you want to be hung by the neck using red or blue rope. My answer: either way, it's a hanging, so get on with it.

I Run With An ELPH In My Pocket

They're small and they don't complain much.

I mean the Canon Digital ELPH, of course.

Some time in the distant past, I was getting tired of taking film to the store to be digitized. The resolution was not that great, and the film tended to lend a graininess to the images that I didn't like.

I finally broke down and bought a Canon SD400. It changed my habits forever. It brought me 5 megapixels of crystal clear instant gratification, without the intervening film emulsion, and with terrific portability. I took that camera everywhere and shot everything.


I'm on my 3rd ELPH now, and it's still a daily item. It's my 3rd ELPH because, well, I run with it in my pocket. It's not really made for that, I realize, but I can't not take home some of the images I see, and I can't be bothered to keep it in a case. Too much weight. I tend to go thirsty sometimes because I don't fill my hydration pack enough. Trying to balance weight vs. quench.

It didn't really take kindly to the time I fell on it either (it was in my pocket), but then neither did one of my PIP ligaments. For some reason, Canon factory repair didn't seem to think a shattered LCD and impact marks were manufacturing defects. Go figure. Nonetheless, these little cameras have held up very nicely for the fine pieces of engineering and miniaturization they are, after being shaken for hours in varying conditions.


I currently have an SD1100 IS and it carries on the ELPH tradition of great images, simple interface, nice features and compact design. There are now many, many cameras in this category, but by now I'm sold on the images and the whole package of this product line. So I keep going back to the Canon well.


P.S. - Steve's Digicams is an excellent source of information on various digital cameras. I really like the sample images taken with the cameras. Often the same subjects are used so you can compare image quality easily.

Oh, Alan!

I didn't quite know what to think of Alan Greenspan during his years in government, but there shouldn't be any doubt now, unless you are one of the many rabid leftist commenters on this article, who still think that Greenspan is a arch-capitalist and that his policies at the Fed reflected free market ideology.

In spite of what those frothy pseudo-pundits say, Alan Greenspan has totally sold capitalism down the river.

Now we have to sit through the repugnant feeding frenzy over what many wrongly regard as a renunciation of laissez-faire, by someone who did not actually advocate it.

First of all, Greenspan was chairman of the Federal Reserve. Last I checked, that was a government agency, which any self-respecting capitalist would abolish. That alone should be enough to quiet the chorus of "Down with greed!"

Second, the crisis flames were fanned by Mr. Greenspan's loose credit policy during his tenure.

Third, that policy was only part of a wider altruistic initiative by the government to lend to those who couldn't really afford it. The specific components of this initiative, which caused the crisis, can be seen by anyone who will look (see "Credit Crisis" to the right for starter links).

This whole spectacle is far worse due to the fact that Greenspan used to be associated with Ayn Rand. The turncoat is providing much better fodder for those who will distort facts, for the sake of an audience that does not check them.

Alan, you've betrayed us.

Comments On Sicko By Michael Moore

For a long time I was not going to watch this movie. I held out for a year, after all. However, I know various people in health care, so I agreed to watch it so I could discuss it with them.

Silly me.

The good news is, especially if you are an Objectivist or other type of classical liberal or advocate of individualism, and you haven't seen it already then you don't need to. Save an hour and 58 minutes of your life for something more valuable. It was a chore.

Before I criticize, I have to say that in a very limited context, Moore succeeded on an emotional level. The limited context is that of evoking sympathy for the people in the film and their situation, and in picking attractive aspects of other countries' medical systems to portray. Who cannot feel sympathy for the medical cases portrayed in the film? And taken out of context, it certainly is a pleasant thought to not have to worry about paying for medical care, isn't it? I'm sure other countries have nice hospitals and nice doctors too. Certain other aspects of the quality of life in France, Canada and Great Britain are also attractive: the long vacations, the good schools... the baked goods. After one such sequence of happy people, Moore cuts back to a scene in the U.S. where a confused hospital patient is intentionally dropped off by an ambulance on the street near a city mission. Ouch.

However, it is precisely that limited context that prevents Sicko from succeeding as documentary or political commentary. You can't comment on a society that you don't investigate. Moore is content to show scenes from everyday life, but never delves into the full context of history or the causal workings of government and the economy. He wishes to suggest that the horror stories he shows are the result of "free market" medicine, but he doesn't investigate causes, so he can't do that. Anecdotal evidence is only as good as the theory it supports, and in the case of Sicko, there is no theory.

Well, there is the usual half-hearted stab at greed, but that falls flat like it always does. He doesn't investigate the nature and extent of government involvement in medicine, or compare countries by that standard, and he doesn't touch on economic theory or even the simplest moral implications of the universal health coverage he pines for.

To Moore, society is a metaphysically divided realm, with helpless citizens on the inside, and the incomprehensible machinations of politics and markets on the outside (the noumenal world of politics?). According to the film, what should matter to the average citizen is what's right in front of us, and nothing more; it is a world without causality, where medical care administered through a slot in a prison door would be identical to medical care in a hospital, because either way it magically shows up. The same inattention to causality regarding the source of care also prevents Moore from seeing the causal relations in the wider phenomenon of health care in society in general. Therefore it fails dismally as real political commentary.

Morally speaking, if your world is made of little more than what appears in front of you, you must advocate altruism, the idea that human beings live to serve one another. That is the only way to keep goods and services magically appearing in front of you without considering where they came from; you must harness others to do it for you. It is not something Moore explicitly explores, it is simply assumed to be true. There is not even one second of reflection in the entire film about whether it is right to use others for such purposes. That is a particularly vicious omission, because it means you, the viewer, have been tried and sentenced to serve, with absolutely no chance to speak in the matter. It is assumed you are to be a slave.

There is one more issue I'd like to mention, and that is the general portrayal of America's health care system. The thesis of the film is that in our country, many are left without important medical care, lives are being ruined, lives are being lost, and we have to just do whatever will fix it, period. I don't doubt that plenty of unpleasant things happen. However, the reason for it is simple: we are neither free enough to provide a wide range of affordable, quality medical services, nor socialist enough to provide care for anyone regardless of their condition or ability to pay. The patients Moore highlights are the ones who drop through that gap in coverage.

However, the solution is not to fully socialize medicine, and Moore has not demonstrated anything of the kind because his narrow focus has prevented such analysis. The solution is to undo the controls on the allegedly free medical and insurance industries so they can provide the best products, just like any industry. As always, the solution is thought, and the freedom to act on it.

No Vacation In Kabul This Year

Not that it was in my plans anyway. But in order to make my list of vacation-worthy locales, a country is going to have to protect my individual rights while I'm there, and that's not likely in Afghanistan when the government has the right to imprison or execute blasphemers.

A council of mullahs acting under court authority had originally decreed capital punishment for Kambakhsh, a 24-year-old journalism student charged with possessing anti-Islamic books, starting un-Islamic debates in class, and downloading and distributing Internet articles saying that Muhammad ignored women’s rights.

Oh, the horror! At least he wasn't downloading kite-bulding instructions.

It is reprehensible that America allowed such a government to be formed, and that Americans died helping them form it.

We kicked the Taliban out. Then we turn around and allow Islamic fundamentalism to be written into the laws of the land, so it can be used to threaten the population with the same type of rights violations perpetrated by the Taliban.

How exactly does one file a legal appeal with an all-powerful deity? Will he smite me for even mentioning it? Did you ever notice how often bad things happen to people who defy the "will of God"? I think I'll stay closer to home, and fight Amendment 48 instead, so we don't become Afghanistan.

Ninja Attack

Let me preface this by saying I live on the 3rd floor of a 3-story suburban apartment building, and it's roughly 30 feet to the ground from the roof. Each floor has a balcony, and other than that, there's not much on the outside of the building. I also have a high living room ceiling with a skylight (which has a curtain over it).

At about midnight Sunday night, I heard what sounded like slow footsteps across the roof, as if someone was trying to be stealthy.

This was not the right time of day for roof maintenance.

Then, I heard fussing with the skylight, prying and poking. I called security and they said they'd be right over. I'm looking around for a blunt instrument at this point.

I leaned out on the landing and said something I won't repeat, and the noise stopped.

As the patrol SUV rolled slowly through the parking lot inspecting the building, I heard a racket outside on the balcony, and then silence.

The patrol guy had stopped and was just standing casually outside his vehicle. Hmmm. I guess nobody threatening-looking ran by. I stepped outside with a flashlight, shining it into the parking lot, and saw... two plump raccoons waddling away across the parking lot into the night.

LOL

Did I mention I live on the 3rd floor and the roof is about 30 feet off the ground? A roof with raccoons wandering around on it, in the middle of the night. Huh? Somehow, that just wasn't the first explanation that popped into my head.

I guess there are many types of Colorado mammals who just enjoy a good climb.

Vote No On Colorado 48

Because it bears repeating: a fertilized egg is not a person.

As I wrote to The Denver Post:

There is nothing more fundamental to criminal law than the matter of defining a person. A "person" has all the rights protected by our government, and killing a person is murder and is morally wrong. Since certain methods of birth control effectively destroy fertilized eggs, if they are defined as persons it would become murder. If so, using The Pill could theoretically bring the death penalty in Colorado.

While the amendment itself may not be enough to bring such prosecutions into immediate effect, it does not matter; the damage will have been done. It will make it possible in principle, and will open the door for a host of draconian, religion-inspired restrictions on our individual rights for the sake of something that is not in fact a real human being. The pro-life movement knows this and it is counting on its opponents to let their guard down and dismiss it as an absurd possibility. Don't fall for it.

For more information and an in-depth paper on this issue, please visit The Coalition For Secular Government web site.

Elk Scofflaws

I had to laugh at the sight of these elk on a golf course in Evergreen, CO. Scenes like this are a regular occurrence near dusk, when they first come out to dine in the evening.

If you golf at dusk in the mountains, you may encounter elk hazards. If it's mating season, you might want to skip ahead to the next hole.

Elk are interesting to watch if you are so inclined, and strike me as being pretty intelligent. Like most young animals, young elk play quite a bit and try to provoke others to do the same. "Teen" elk play-fight. They all talk, and the males bugle; a strange, warbling, horn-like sound that seemed incongruous coming from such an imposing animal the first time I heard it. Males chase females; females brush off males. I suspect that sometimes the females retreat into the hills to escape them, such as when I see a group of them with their young, grazing peacefully, while a male bugles in the distance. All in all, an interesting animal society.

The Perfect Coffee Mug?

I've been buying coffee mugs made by Waechtersbach since their simple lines and bright colors caught my eye, perhaps 20 years ago.

They come in a rainbow of colors (as well as many patterns), but there's also functionality behind this simple and attractive mug.

The ceramic used by Waechtersbach is lighter than most, and it gives the mug a very pleasant weight. Other mugs seem like boat anchors by comparison. It is slightly more fragile than harder ceramics but well worth it due to the wonderful feel in hand. Heck, I've probably saved $30 in food cost over my lifetime due to consuming fewer calories by lifting this lighter mug :).

Also, if you brew with a Melitta drip coffee maker (#2 cone), you can fill it exactly twice and it comes up to about 1/4" to 1/2" below the top. Perfect; no overflow (test this; your mileage may vary).

You can purchase it on the Waechtersbach site for $10.00* or at various department stores. I bought some recently from Foster's in Philadelphia via their web site for $8.00*. They shipped within a day and were very well packed, arriving in perfect condition.

* as of 10/17/2008

Our Government Is A Contrarian Investor

I have been puzzling over our government's reaction to the credit crisis, and I have to say I feel like Hank Rearden, discovering in the unseemly behavior around him the germ of an idea, which will become understanding.

It's apparent to me that despite the panicked demands of Washington power mongers to "Act now!", the Administration's actions so far are in contradiction to the opinions of those who know what they are doing: investors and markets in general. Investors say -- and reality says -- that mortgages gone bad, and financial products based on them, are a non-value or a lesser value. A loan to a person about to enter bankruptcy court is not a good thing.

What is our government doing? It is investing in these failed products. Not because it can make money, but because others cannot, and it probably will not either. It is investing because it is not a good investment.

The banks that are in trouble are in the following situation: due to the government's incessant altruistic badgering (everyone should own a home!) and extortion (via the CRA and other means), they have shot themselves in the foot and now they can't run. The government wants to magically extract that pain and give it to us to hold for a while. This will facilitate the "liquidity" of the various feet, and running will commence again (of course what is probably happening is they are waiting for the government to give them a cab ride). Then we have to figure out what to do with a bunch of feet with bullet holes in them. After all, somebody's got to wear them and allow them to heal.

However, there are two aspects to this. Not only is the goal wrong, but the means are wrong too.

It's not as if our government has a big pile of cash lying around, with which to make investments. It has nothing. It has us.

When it uses our tax money, what happens? It prevents us from doing what we would have done with that money. What would some people have done with that money? Some would have not purchased crashed mortgage-related products. Things that are low in value are things people don't want. Therefore, the government is ultimately buying these things because people regard them as bad investments.

As for as the government's putative reasons for the bailout, they don't compute. Confidence? Liquidity? These things don't happen because governments decree they will happen, while swooping in clumsily, ignoring the market and buying things nobody else will buy. Let's be real. They happen when there are values to be traded and profits to be made. If the housing market is as saturated as we are being told, that simply is not going to happen in housing for a while unless prices fall.

As for banks, who is going to lend money to banks in trouble, and why should they? It's objectively a bad idea. The market should be frozen toward banks in trouble. Instead, the government should make an unquivocal statement to the effect that it will not intervene, and they should be allowed to fail and their valuable parts allowed to be purchased by banks that did better recently. That's liquidity.

UPDATE - A bit of validation from John Allison of BB&T about the need to make home purchases more attractive, using the excellent idea of tax credits for buyers:

The only way to solve the fundamental problem weighing down the economy, he suggested, is to clear the nation’s housing market of its inventory of unsold homes. To do that, he proposed a 10 percent tax credit for buyers on all real estate transactions for a limited period of time. The credit would apply only to houses that already existed as of a certain date.

The housing market generally remains overvalued, Allison said, so such a tax credit could move buyers into the market quickly at prices both they and sellers would accept. He suggested that would be a better use of the $750 billion Congress recently set aside to buy toxic mortgage assets from the lenders themselves.

Battle Of The Ski Resorts: A Tie

It may seem incomprehensible to those who don't live near the mountains that anyone is thinking about skiing/riding in mid-October, let alone actually doing it. However, two Colorado resorts opened for business today.

I'm trying to decide if I want to risk my skis on the early season rocks that will surely be lurking underneath the "white ribbon of death".

Anyway, this was more interesting than the presidential debate. Imagine, if you will, that you're working on a puzzle where the picture is always changing, so once you have part of it done, the rest of the pieces no longer match. That's what watching those guys is like. It saps my will to analyze when their opinions are based on such expedient, nonsensical standards. They are two pragmatist peas in a pod.

That, and I've been working a lot. Maybe it's time for a ski break.

Denver Art Museum - Houdon From The Louvre

I saw this sculpture exhibition this weekend, and I'm very glad I went. I'll tell you why.

Jean-Antoine Houdon (1741-1828) was a French sculptor in the Classical tradition who created, among other things, portrait busts of many of the leading figures of Enlightenment Europe and America. You can estimate the magnitude of his professional success from his portrait subjects in this exhibition alone: George Washington, Ben Franklin, Diderot, Voltaire, and Rousseau among others. There are 21 pieces in the show, and although there were other types of sculpture (such as full-size figures), I was really drawn to his portraits. Each one was terrific.

I can tell you from personal experience that portraiture is hard, and requires very specific practice and dedication to do well. It also requires a keen interest in -- and affection for -- people, in order to make portraits that are engaging and capture the person. I can count the truly great portraitists that I know of on ten fingers. I would pick Velasquez, Van Dyck, Reynolds, Stuart, Holbein, Sargent and a few others. I can now safely add Houdon.

There are sculptures of his children, which show their open innocence, and of his young wife, whose easy smile shines brightly. The sculptures of various famous people from his time wonderfully extract the individual traits of each person, with a mix of realistic accuracy and artistic selectivity. Ben Franklin has a friendly manner and a keen gaze, wearing a typical wig of his times and the wrinkles of his years. He is someone who has lived through many trying and good times, and done much. This is work from a time when France and the nascent United States had more in common ideologically than they do now; we were both freeing ourselves from monarchies, and freedom and democracy were ultimate political values to be fought for. We were comrades in that fight.

While the portraits were all excellent, I didn't expect the portrait of George Washington in particular to have such an impact.

It is not the image of George Washington that most of us probably think of: the silver-haired elder statesman. It was done in 1785, when Washington was 53, only 2 years after the end of the Revolutionary War. It is a portrait of a man at the height of his abilities, a mature man, but by no means elderly. His look was of peacefulness, clarity, certainty, and an easy command, combined into one. It was disarmingly real. I felt the shock of being in the real presence of a man to whom I owe a great deal, and felt a momentary pang of shame over what we have allowed to happen to his country. I wondered what he would have thought, and was glad he couldn't hear today's politicians! He probably would have fought against them too. I wondered: will we succeed in restoring what he and his contemporaries fought and worked so hard for: a country that protects individual rights? I walked away from this sculpture, yet kept coming back. It was like a radiant heat source, which you felt only when you were close enough to examine it.

The fact that I was still looking at a piece of cold, lifeless terra cotta in an art museum, and yet was able to feel and think these things about "mere" sculptures, is why I consider Houdon to be a great portraitist and why I'm glad I saw this exhibition of his work.

If you don't live in the Denver area (or can't see his work at The Louvre), try to seek out Houdon's work at nearby museums. I think you'll be glad you did.

This Is Not Breaking News

This story was listed as "BREAKING NEWS" on the CNN.com web site: G-7: 'Urgent action' needed to help world markets. Uh, sorry, not really!!

What would be breaking news is if the financially disabled would cease taking action and allow markets to prevail.

What would be breaking news is if they stated the real cause: government meddling, and the only real solution: freedom.

What would be breaking news is them saying "Capitalism is great!".

C'mon, people. Altruism and irrationalism have been around for a loooooong time. They are not news.

Pardon Your Algorithm

CGI jockeys of the world, I have a favor to ask.

When you create computer-generated creatures in your films, please give them inertia, some play in their joints, shake in their muscles and flesh, and some mass so that they don't move instantaneously. I'm tired of seeing monsters jumping around like they have no weight at all. It's not impressive or scary; it's hokey. Nothing moves like that.

Good examples -- still -- are the CGI T.Rex and velociraptors in Jurassic Park. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire was pretty amazing. The reason they were good is I didn't think about it, I just watched events unfold.

A less effective example is found in the many fictional creatures -- in sci-fi and fantasy movies -- hopping around from wall to wall and onto ceilings like someone is shining a flashlight from spot to spot. A giant animal has to land and its body mass shifts as it comes to rest. It doesn't just hit a surface and then jump off again like it's empty. What the?? Fill that puppy up with some CGI innards or something!

I realize you probably spent a lot of time on your wall-jumping monsters. You worked late to meet studio deadlines, ate dinners in the editing suite, and maybe even slept under your desk, who knows? I appreciate that. But get the boss to ante up for more realistic motion rendering algorithms or software or hardware or whatever it takes. Because 2-ton monsters that move like 1/4-inch leaf hoppers just don't cut it.

Spanish Cheese Plate

Recently -- for no particular reason other than curiosity -- I've been trying and enjoying a few cheeses from Spain. I'm not a huge stinky cheese fan but I also like enough flavor to make it worth my while. Enter:

Campo de Montalban - A mixed goats'/sheeps'/cows' milk cheese from La Mancha. It's a bit like a soft Romano in texture, mild, with a slight goat cheese flavor, but also buttery and milder than 100% goat goat's milk cheeses. Excellent.

Mahon - A softer cheese, like a firm Montery Jack in texture, with a similar buttery mildness at first, then a gentle tangy note at the end. Nice character but gentle too.

Manchego - For some reason I never connected this cheese with La Mancha (although it makes sense now that I look at the words side by side) until I happened to catch this episode of Spain... On The Road Again. Like the Campo de Montalban but a little less buttery and a slightly stronger sheep's milk note.

Idiazábal - A smoked sheep's milk cheese. The smoked flavor was mild, I thought it tasted a bit like a Swiss. I prefer the others but it was fun anyway.

Obama/McCain Round 2

I'm finding I actually prefer reading the transcripts of these debates. I get to focus on the ideas, minus the theatrics (such as they are). I found a couple of things interesting about the 2nd Obama/McCain debate on 10/7/2008, and they are rather general in nature. Because discussing more platform details at this point seems like discussing what color of rope I want around my neck at my hanging.

First, a minor point. Of the four candidates, I think Obama comes off best in print. He makes fewer stutters and mistakes, and his extemporaneous comments read more like a written statement than the words of the other candidates.

Second, I regret that McCain is associated with the Republican Party and its fundamentalist hangers-on. Taken alone, I would prefer to vote for McCain (without Palin). He seems genuine, has certain values I can respect, and his altruism is not as complete as Obama's and is mixed with positive values. I am aware of his calls for national service. I am aware of his love/hate relationship with capitalism. I am aware of his statements about the USA as a Christian nation. However, I believe to some degree he actually still values productivity and freedom whereas Obama clearly does not. Additionally, Obama's statements about the economy and credit crisis are just so ridiculous (his mantra: it's deregulation!) that I have to say he just does not have a firm grasp on reality. Someone with experience in national public office who does not know or admit the real causes of the credit crisis (too much high-risk credit, pushed by various government laws and policies) is forcing himself into a state of denial of epic proportions in order to further his statist agenda. I am not fooled by talk of helping people. You can't help people with coercion.

In fact, there is not a single thing that Obama said in this last debate that I agree with. He unfailingly blames freedom for every wrong, and unfailingly advocates coercion for every solution. It boggles the mind. The only positive thing Obama represents is opposition to the Religious Right and its policies.

And so for me, the lesson of this debate is the difficulty of retaining one's vision of the big picture in the face of such unpleasantness. To fight a 2000-year-old mystical, irrational, highly motivated and somewhat integrated tradition? Or fight a secular, irrational, statist and slightly less integrated tradition that I abhor, but is inherently weaker (for now).

I think about this study a lot, where children were given the choice between eating one cookie now, and waiting and getting two cookies. The claim was that waiting was associated with higher intelligence. Well, I'm fighting against that first cookie.

Left Hand Imperial Stout

The Left Hand Brewing in Longmont, CO produces this very nice example of a stout.

The Imperial Stout is a dark, strong beer with a good balance of sweet and hop notes. It's one of the better stouts I have had, and I think once you've taken a sip, you'll toast the brewery with the rest of this excellent beer. I have not seen it in six-packs, but it is available in 22 oz. bottles.

The name Left Hand is common in the area around Longmont, Niwot and Boulder CO, because Left Hand is the English translation of the Arapaho "Ni Wot", the name of a famous chief who lived in Colorado. The names Left Hand and Niwot are used for many landmarks in the area.

Palin/Biden: Welfare To War Zones

In general, there was little news for the Objectivist community in the Palin/Biden debate last week. By my scoring, Biden did as well as could be expected from a liberal Democratic insider (sorry Joe), Palin came off as feisty but unsophisticated. They are both highly pragmatic, display little or no respect for individual rights, and America loses either way. Between the two, I would rather have a relatively knowledgeable pragmatist than an inexperienced mystical one running my country.

What was a bit surprising to me, or at least I had not heard before, was that both candidates are eager to extend their altruism around the world, at our expense of course. This, at a time when we are already overextended in terms of people and money. Joe Biden says this about Pakistan:

There have been 7,000 madrassas built along that border. We should be helping them build schools to compete for those hearts and minds of the people

And this about Darfur:

I don't have the stomach for genocide when it comes to Darfur. We can now impose a no-fly zone. It's within our capacity. We can lead NATO if we're willing to take a hard stand.

And this about Afghanistan:

We need government-building. We need to spend more money on the infrastructure in Afghanistan.

And Palin says about Afghanistan:

we're securing democracy, and we're building schools for children there so that there is opportunity in that country, also

Great. More overseas altruist adventures; just what we need.

On the upside, the debates provide excellent fodder for humor such as this 10/4 Saturday Night Live version. Good stuff!

Lenticular Clouds and Rock Bubbles

Below is a shot of some ominous-looking lenticular clouds from Pine Valley Ranch Park, CO on Saturday. With the remains of a forest fire and the unsettled sky, it looked like a scene of destruction from a science fiction movie.


Truth be told, the scenery was beautiful and peaceful. The sun even came out for a while even though there was a large storm front moving in.

The granite formations in the Pike National Forest are pretty unusual. The entire area is filled with strange rock outcroppings that look like modern abstract sculptures. Around Sphinx Park, I took this shot of a huge bulge of rock:


The roundness is not from the camera lens; it actually looked like that!

Admonition Letter For Bailout Yes Vote

I sent the following to one of my senators, Ken Salazar:

Senator Salazar,

I am writing to express my disappointment that you voted "YES" for the bailout package for Wall Street. No amount of tweaking will change the basic facts.

1. Bad assets should be written down by those who took the risk, not the American people.

2. The credit crunch is not due to them holding these assets, it's due to them always waiting for the government.

3. Instead, you should declare a moratorium on intervention so the markets can move on with certainty.

4. Government caused this mess with lax credit policies at the Fed, the existence of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the disastrous presence of the Community Reinvestment Act, and so on. More intervention will only prolong the malaise, rather than allowing the market to weed out the losers and begin recovery.

5. It is morally wrong. The government has no business spending my money like this because I have a right to it, not banks with failed assets. I am not a beast of burden.

Unfortunately, now we will have to contend both with the problems caused by encouraging bad business decisions, and a prolonged economic recovery. Markets could have done better. Markets are free and don't violate my rights. A bailout was not the answer.

I also sent a thank you to Colorado Senator Wayne Allard, one of the few who voted "No".

Pro-Evasion Lobby Wins Senate

In a strong victory for ignoring nearly everything, the U.S. Senate passed a bailout bill 74-25. Colorado was split: Wayne Allard=No, Ken Salazar=Yes. They will get feedback from me; a very tiny drop in the bucket, but a voice nonetheless.

The House may vote again by Friday; more letter writing is ahead.

If this passes in the House, what the heck am I going to do with all those bum mortgages? Maybe I will wallpaper every room at Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae with them, since I own them too.