Not that you didn't already suspect as much...

but both Kerry and Bush are related to...well, go see for yourself (via Liberty and Power). And, yes, he is the inspiration for the character we all know so well.

Political Fiction

Not a bad takeoff on Pulp Fiction (via Catallarchy)

I hate John Kerry

I think he's pompous, an incoherent thinker, a dedicated statist, and not honest. He's my guy. Un-be-fucking-lievable.

Giant Douche v Turd Sandwich

Oh my god, Wednesday night's South Park is amazing. It takes on PETA, Puff Daddy, and the sanctity of voting. Another SP classic.

Dangerous

What would you say to a development that lowers the value of intellectual property, is a vehicle for subversive ideas, and puts people out of work. I'd say it's the greatest catalyst of rising living standards, ever.

When markets don't work

An interesting theory on the Tulip mania bubble. Whether or not it's correct, it does highlight an important point about markets: they go hand-in-hand with a positive-sum society, and don't mix well with negative situations. I guess that's two points, unless you consider them opposite sides of the same coin.

What to do now?

The Red Sox are World Champions! First time since 1918, since before vitamin c was identified. Unbelievable. I can't really put it into words very well, so I won't write much more. But wow. Wow.

Damn

Triumph kicks ass even better than Stewart did (via The Agitator)

Red Sox

Wow, this is hard to believe. We're up 3-0, and games 6 and 7 will be in Fenway if needed. Am I allowed to feel optimistic? Or do I have to continue to tell myself that they have no hope? I won't know what to do with myself when/if they finally do win, but that's a problem I will happily deal with. Will we win tonight? I don't know, Derek Lowe is pitching. He can be great (like in game 7 against the Yankees), and he can be awful (like all of September). Derek Lowe is like a box of chocolates. And so is Tim Wakefield for game 5. But even if we do lose both those games, we're still in great position, with Curt and Pedro lined up for the weekend home games. A Saturday night win in Boston? Now that would be amazing!

Misconceptions

about Social Security (via MR)

Kinda gross

but could be useful, if the power goes out or something.

Kinda cool

Here's a site with a bunch of audio from and about the presidential candidates. A lot of it is free.

Yes the crowd may have been rowdy

But this is just not right. Please don't mar this great season any further. I don't look back and wish we had lost because more of this bullshit happens.

Two distinct kinds of thinking

Muddled:

The heart of the problem, experts say, may be that no one person or agency is truly in charge of making sure that the United States has an adequate vaccine supply.

Clear:

QUESTION: Do you wish him [Castro] a speedy recovery?

MR. BOUCHER: No.

The amazing thing is Boucher works for the State Department. I'm not a State Department hater, but still, you don't usually see that sort of talk out of them.

Intelligence

It looks like the standard education gap has been reversed. Not sure if it's meaningful or not, but thought I'd point it out.
On a related topic, here's a great line about IQs:

Liberals tend to believe two things about IQ:

-	First, that IQ is a meaningless, utterly discredited concept.

-	Second, that liberals are better than conservatives because they have much higher IQs.

I myself can't really speak to the specific validity of IQ tests, but this observation has amused me for some time. It can also be expanded to include a third thing, which is that a low IQ exempts someone from the death penalty.

PC-ness gone wrong

or is that redundant?

Get stuff

Want a free iPod? Follow the link. It's legit, though the term free is not exactly true, the implicit discount is steep enough that it may as well be.

The short vs long term

Tom Palmer with a longish, thoughtful post on hostage situations. I wish he were wrong, but I don't think he is.

On fire

Will Wilkinson with a trio of quality posts, here, here, and here.

Dropping the odds

About a month or two ago, I said the chances of me voting for Bush were around 1%. After the debates I dropped that to about 0.1%. Now the only way I would would be if Kerry comes out as an avowed commie or something like that. See here and here (both via Andrew Sullivan). Ugh. And I know the second one doesn't come from the administration directly, but it's still disgusting and tells you a lot of what you need to know.

Taking voting seriously

Thomas Sowell has a great column on voting. People often demand that others go out and vote. Wrong. Tell them to learn more about the issues and candidates. After they do that, then they should vote (or not) as they see fit. If you don't know shit and vote, you're just being a shithead.

I like Ike

or, at least, these quotes from him.

WS Primer

Olney breaks down key elements of the World Series. Did you hear the Red Sox made it? Just wanted to be sure you knew.

A little quantum mechanics and a little econ

Steve Landsburg tries to use entangled particles to improve on game theory. There follows a long discussion of it on crookedtimber's comments section. His original posts show he has no understanding of what either coordination or communication mean, and he tries to weasel out of it in the comments, basically conceding what he was denying while claiming to have always been correct. Good geek stuff here.

Ugly liberals

Wilkinson on the presumptiveness of many Democrats.

Not sure if I understand

but it sounds like it could be meaningful, maybe.

Family ties

Unlikely relatives revealed.

Things you probably didn't know...

about Newton. I have to say, though, I don't uderstand why his interest in alchemy taints him at all. Given what was known at the time, it seems like a reasonable thing to believe in. So he pursued a dead end, so what?

How to make a movie

be like Raimi.

Holy Shit

I can't believe what I just saw. Amazin'. This is redemption for 1978. Even if we don't win the World Series (and I like our chances), it's been a great year. But remember, they only win when you don't believe. Tell yourself they have no chance, no hope. It's the only hope.

More evidence of a Bush lie

or, charitably, he knew something which wasn't so.

Who's your daddy???

You're still down by 5! And A-Rod? What a bitch!

Fairly accurate in some ways

Take the test that says I have little conviction, less loyalty, and expect politicians to cater to my outsized ego. 1 out of 3 ain't bad, at least compared to how the vast majority of politicians do.

Economics

This article could have been called principles matter.
Wilkinson defends Social Security 'privatization.' A good post, but this quote struck me: "I can't see how a welfare liberal can account for the justice of transfers in cases where people become deprived in old age due to their own failure to plan and save." That's exactly the argument I've heard many a liberal make, the old people-are-too-stupid-to-trust-with-their-own-lives argument.

I knew it!

I just saw Adolf Hitler in the stands cheering on the Yankees. It all makes sense now.

Jimmy

So I watched Jimmy Carter on Hardball today. He and Chris Matthews talked about the Iraq situation today and the hostage situation back when he was president. He kept talking about how he/America had the support of the world, that everyone agreed with us. I don't think he mentioned results once. I finally got the feeling, and the more I think about it the more I think it's correct, that to Jimmy having the world agree with him was the result. It wasn't important to free the hostages, it was important to be popular around the world. I'm all in favor of being popular, but it's a secondary consideration, a nice consequence of doing the right thing, and hopefully if you are popular it expedites what you're trying to do. To make popularity the goal of US policy is insanity, but that seems to be what Jimmy wants. Oy.

Shocking

There's a correlation between tax rates and work ethics!

Ferrets, The Matrix and understanding the brain

Somehow the first two add up to the third. (via The Dynamist)

Leave it to a liberal

Yglesias articulates why libertarians should vote, and vote for Badnarik. I was saying almost the exact same thing to my roommate the other day, but I don't think I did a very good job. Of course, it may not have been me so much as that he can't understand why people aren't all Democrats and in favor of Kerry. Probably a little of both.

epitome

Bush fits this description extremely well in many ways.

Fantastic

A site devoted to the one man who has done a worse job than Tito Francona this series. And no, I'm not blaming it all on Tito, but he continually puts the Sox in tough situations. He basically conceded games 1 and 3 while they were still in doubt, and mismanaged game 4 siginificantly. I will say I don't think he messed up in game 2, but I'm not sure if it didn't happen or if I just don't remember it. I can't believe I actually miss Grady Little. Little sucked. I don't need a great Red Sox manager, but competence would be nice.

Gross

but funny (via The Agitator)

Scary!

Keep this article in mind when people talk about our flu problems.

No diggety

No doubt.

Suckiness

Fafblog tackles what makes one suck. Is it an objective part of one's being, like for the Yankess, or is it due to actions, like "leavin in Pedro Martinez for too long." I prefer to think it both.

Intertwined policies

Lindgren on Canadian health care, defense, and immigration.

Phil's diary

Not sure how much I believe, due to Phil Jackson's self-serving nature, but he has some interesting stories and analysis, mostly relating to Kobe Bryant. Good stuff.

Laying the smackdown

Jon Stewart on Crossfire. Someone pointed this out (don't remember who, sorry), media people think The Daily Show makes fun of politicians. It does, but it's primarily making fun of media people themselves, and they just don't get it.

For the science geeks out there

The top 5 equations of all time.

Unprecedented

Atrios criticizes a liberal democrat!

Fellowship 9/11

For all you Michael Moore-hating, Lord of the Rings-loving folks. It's clever, so you probably don't have to fit that description to enjoy it, but that is the target audience.

Cute

Puppybreak and Kittenbreak (via electric bugaloo)

A picture's worth a thousand words

Nice.

The vision thing

Sowell on how visions can be dangerous. I hope he realizes how this applies to the run-up to the Iraq war. Clearly Hussein is a horrible person, but just as clearly everything he did was always given the worst possible interpretation, was always seen as confirming the worst in him and his intentions towards us. To quote Maher, Hussein was Hitler like Oasis were the Beatles.

I am the law!

Roberts on the proliferation of laws.

Clever

very clever! (via Luskin)

Drawn...

and Quartered (via Silber)

Vindication

Hans Blix (rightly) gloats a litttle.

Ha

I've known (and know) a few people like this.

The LP gets aggressive

Badnarik (and Cobb) is arrested protesting the debates.

Informational decreasing returns to scale

Tom Palmer gives a good reason why increasing the size and scope of government reduces effectiveness.

Purely awesome

Damn straight!

Odds

Don Luskin lets us know that since the market tells us there's a 60% chance of Bush winning the election, that means there's a 90% chance of it happening. Does anyone else see a problem here? I mean logically, not in terms of Bush sucking. Either there's a huge market inefficiency he's uncovered, or his analysis is faulty. I'm pretty sure it's him, not the market.

Friday's debate

I'd say it was a small win for Kerry, and the polls support that idea. Bush was a lot better than in the first one, Kerry was probably not as good as he had been, but not too far off. My baseball analogy is the first debate was a double for Kerry, and a pop-up for Bush, and this one was a single for Kerry and a walk for Bush.
Two things about Bush, one against him, one for (sort of). His claims about "non-homeland, non-defense discretionary spending" are bullshit. It's not that his facts are a little off but the idea is right like some of Kerry's statements, he just tells a whopper. The other is on the Dred Scott reference. People are making fun of him for coming out against slavery. Ha, ha, aren't we clever. That wasn't his point, he was using the case as an example to illuminate a bigger idea. He didn't do it well, but I hate that kind of petty political game. Grow up. Also, some people claim it was code for Roe v Wade. It's possible I guess, but doesn't seem likely to me.

The Commerce Clause

Reason looks at where it's over applied and under applied.

The coolest man in the world

Bill Shatner, of course!

A new one

Jib Jab has a new cartoon up. You may want to wait a while for site traffic to slow down.

Funny 'cause they're true

The Onion on celebs against Bush, and an analysis of post-college life.

Not voting

Thomas Sowell points out why we should be happy so few people vote. I think he has a point. He also reminds of a time a few years ago when my Mom wanted me to vote on a ballot issue a certain way. I refused to vote at all, not because of any strong opinion that some aspect of the issue was being ignored, not as some form of protest of the system, not to annoy her, but because it was the responsible thing to do. I wasn't anywhere nearly informed enough to deserve a vote, I would simply be diluting people's votes who knew what was going on and were far more affected by the outcome than I. Of course her reaction was to say that this showed why they shouldn't have lowered the voting age. I still think I was right, and still have no idea what the correct outcome of that vote would have been.

A trio

Sigh. Ugh. Vile.

A Man for all Shifts in the Wind

Check out the Ultimate John Kerry ad. I actually think some of his apparent flip-flops and apparent issue straddling is justifiable. I don't agree with most of it, but it can be justified. You can argue that Saddam needed to be dealt with, and still regard the invasion as stupid. You can regard the invasion as stupid, and still think that abandoning Iraq given what's happened so far would be foolish. I only agree with the position that invading was stupid, but the other positions aren't necessarily contradictory. Kerry is just unable to actually articulate why they are consistent and/or right. He came close in the debate at times, but he needs to be even better in the future.

Oh the horrors!

Cheap goods!

The most prevalent form of abuse in this country

and probably in the world.

A little common sense

From Dixie Lee Ray.

FInally, a reason to vote for Bush

WWID?

Move Rice out for Blitzer

Jude briefly suggests Wolf Blitzer should replace Condi Rice as NSA. I agree with him, if only for the humor of Wolf and Wolfowitz in the same administration.

Finally watched the debate

Not totally sold on Kerry, but he definitely was far better than both Bush and my expectations. I don't quite fit this category yet, but I'm getting there. I still need Kerry to give me good reasons, not assertions, to vote for him, but I now have reason to think he might actually do so soon, so that's something.
Also, read Jude and Gordon for some legit reasons to vote against Bush (though not necessarily for Kerry).

A quickie

but a goodie.

What's the delio?

A good reminder of the difficulties of running a small business (and he has my boss' name, who started just over a year ago. I know you're not interested in that irrelevant fact, but I am). (via Newmark)

Hsieh on Sowell on Marx

Diana highlights some of the best parts of Sowell's analysis of Marxism.

More on that road

Williams on the takings clause case.