2010-03-28

Jon Justice sneers at sure justice

3.24: news.pol/jon justice sneers at sure justice:
. ironic how Jon Justice radio show
sneers at sure justice:
speeder-catching cam's are
"(the gov't watching you!)
. but perhaps the real point is that
speed limits are an obnoxious democracy
imposed where consensus could have worked:
eg, consensus would be where
your taxes pay for the roads with
the speed*mass you want:
. the most practical way is to
restructure our city planning
as gated communities that minimize commuting
by use of work-based residences .
. everything you need can be biked to
or trucked in with an internet sale .
. the shop docks are at the wall to minimize truck traffic,
the walls are composed of doughnut strip malls .
. then people can drive between these gated communities
at any speed they want .

The Big Short

3.23: news.pol/fin'reform/The Big Short:
Michael Lewis, author of
The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine
says finance reform means they must be
allowed to fail
ie, by being smaller;
he listed some suggested rules that would
encourage them to seek
that smaller size .
. not being allowed to fail means
there is a strange cheating of capitalism
where the risk is absorbed by the public
while the profits remain privatized
-- leaving no incentive to be sensible .

3.23: bk.pol/fin reform/Big-Short-Inside-Doomsday-Machine/
product-reviews:

. this book got a lot of negative reviews,
but, I'm not sure if his critics
are really on the same page .

teach a man to ... "(oh, fish!)

3.22: pol/teach a man to ... "(oh, fish!):
windows7sins.org:
"(Give a man a fish
and you feed him for a day.
Teach him how to fish
and you feed him for a lifetime.)
. seeing this in the context of
protesting against proprietary software,
I realized that such secret.ware
is just another way of
controlling population by marginalizing it .
"(
. teach a man to fish,
and he reproduces until the pond is empty;
then he's clubbing to control the next pond .
. give the masses a right to
improve your product
and the masses will do your job
for mere beans .
) .

police are human beings

3.22: pol/drug war/police are human beings:

. what was that police officer thinking
when he said drug laws help catch
other criminals?
drug laws single-handedly create
so much heavy crime! [3.28: well, combined with
the use of anonymous cash and privacy rights ...]

. we need to legalize sales,
then have drug testing for
places where it matters .
. if your drugs violate your job,
you lose your job;
if your drugs are used while driving,
you get jailed .
. another option is going cashless:
use smartcards so that drug trades
are not anonymous .
. a problem then is bartering, eg,
human trafficking to support drug exchanges .

. robotic scanners in cars
can tell when driver is impaired .
. public scanning can keep drug use private .
. police are humans; they don't
stand a chance with that cowboy job
against militant drug gangs .
. if there's no reason to
inspect for drugs,
there's no reason to prevent drug use .

3.23: pol/surface oriented architecture:
. "(service) sounds like "(surface);
and the significance of that freudian slip
is esp'ly revealed by the term "(service member)
used in the context of service in war;
as in military policies that routinely use soldiers
like skin, where dead cells are used as shields .

how money is the root of evil

3.20: co.apt/pol/how money is the root of evil:

. unlike credit's circle of trust
through 3rd party accountability,
money as cash is anonymous
making it easy to cheat consumers
or hide illegal transactions (see drug war).

co.apt/pol/root of all evil:
. the root of all evil is
secrecy for the sake of some's security
or financial competitiveness .
. private-sourcing a voting machine?
what were they thinking?

[. to say root of evil is money
would be true only if identifying money
as being a mere symbol for what is actually power
which usually means not just absolute power
but relative power as measured against
what power the competition has .
. trade secrets and privacy rights
are the primary tools of staying in power;
but, they are also the root of the devil's power
-- in that they are the root of all evil .

. to say that money is the root
is to ask how money differs from
power and secrecy,
and to ask what the alt's to money are .

. people who work for a product
they'll use
may not make a better looking product
and it might even have
obsolescence built in,
but it surely won't be
insidiously poisonoius,
either to the consumer
or the producer's neighbors .

. if there was only bartering
rather than money ?

. money is a convenient way of
metering wealth,
which is important when
people tend to demand more
than the stores will supply .
. the bottlenecks include
the reproduction of too many consumers,
some perceived difficulty with
being a producer,
some reason for limiting precursors,
and when a fear of shortages
encourages hording or gluttony .

. when there is perfect knowledge
(no secrets) then,
if we are in control of ourselves,
we can likely reason with people
about sharing
both in production and consumption .
. unfortunately, it's no secret
we have no control over reproduction;
so, the only way to encourage
productivity
is to promise supplies to those who
save money,
even in a world of gluttons ...]
[3.28: where the capacity to save wealth
may simply be used to consume excessively .]

malpractice insurance reform

3.20: co.apt/pol/malpractice insurance reform:
. doctor's sky-high malpractice insurance rates are
simply a logical response to insane practices:
they brag it's part of their rigorous training
having to practice for 24hr with no sleep
-- if our truck drivers did that,
they'd lose their insurance and their license!

stopthebrainwash.com

3.18: pol/stopthebrainwash.com:

. when I heard this author (stopthebrainwash.com)
explain what was setting us back,
I didn't know he was talking about african slaves:
his description seemed to apply to everyone:
"(
. when we came to this country
[esp'ly for the industrial revolution]
we were stripped of our language, culture, family
-- everything !
)
. how many people can say they relate to
the european cultures of their forefathers?
all but the english lost their language too .
. we have nobody but the
boss and the state now;
and, of course,
the reason there's this ongoing
fight about getting too cozy
with the state (and welfare)
is that the boss in america
is typically not family
and has not one shred of loyalty .
. this would seem like a perfect reason for
mass imprisonment
but somehow the russian communists can match us .
(maybe it's the way
communism treats them like the homeless;
owning nothing but rights to a cot in a shelter?
-- nothing much to lose ... will often lose it;
then again,
they could be political activists
or unsharing types ) .

. stopthebrainwash.com has a guest who provided this link .