According to a University of Michigan Psychologist working for the Institute of Social Research, tobacco use among teenagers is down to the lowest point in thirty years, and government antismoking efforts were credited for the success. Perhaps also, the government crackdown of stores that sell to minors, federal sting operations against tobacco vendors, and recent assaults on privacy passed in the name of Homeland Security, have made it a little more uncomfortable for children to tell the truth about their cigarette use, on an official looking survey.

Curious to me that right now there is a concern within the political arena over which party is more concerned with minorities. For decades the Democrat Party has claimed that issue, which is fascinating to me. By their very name, the Democrats promise to represent only the will of the Majority.

The Raelians announced that they have succeeded in producing the first cloned baby, and for a brief Warholian moment, the world's attention turned. Even after it was revealed that the Raelians are a group-sex cult, and the probability of them actually cloning a human being, is far below the probability that the mother was impregnated during one of their "religious" services, the cameras refused to turn away. Since a real human clone is scientific inevitability, I wonder what an uproar will actually occur, when it finally happens.

A recent kitchen project here at headquarters involved ripping out the florescent light fixtures, the previous owner had installed, and replacing them with contemporary incandescent halogens. I believe there is very little need for fluorescent lighting in the American home, the warm glow of an incandescent bulb is much more pleasing to the senses. Cheerful incandescent bulbs are remembered being placed on Christmas trees, and the classic colored C7 bulb is as symbolic of the holiday, as a holly wreath. Incandescence is the warm comforting glow of the night light many of us once had in our bedrooms to chase away the childhood monsters.
Perhaps the difference in the feel of the two types of lighting dates back to our primitive ancestors. Incandescence is caused by heat; essentially the slow burning of a thin metal wire, inside a glass envelope, that produces the light; and it is similar in nature to the hot coals our ancestors sat around, to ward off cold and predators. I can understand why Edison might have stayed up the entire night staring at his first light bulb. Fluorescence, on the other hand, is caused by a high voltage electrical discharge, much like the lightning that made our ancestors tremble, and hide in caves, praying to the gods for deliverance.
The fluorescent lamp was invented by the German born, Edmund Germer, and is suitable only for industrial situations and penal institutions. The cold blue just seems to bring out every blemish and vein, and it burns the eyes like a chlorine swimming pool. The harsh light is actually blinking sixty time per second, and its persistent hum tortures the eardrum. Any fixture will inevitably develop a blink near the end of it's life span. Fluorescents are preferred only for their efficiency, as they uses less than one-third the energy of an incandescent lamp for roughly the same amount of light. I imagine a good portion of Communist Eastern Europe was illuminated with fluorescent lighting.
Because of the energy savings from fluorescent bulbs, and the pressure from environmental lobbies, many "progressive" cities passed laws forbidding the use of incandescent bulbs in commercial locations. I have visited towns where you cannot find a single incandescent bulb in any hotel or restaurant. Some of these towns are dark and dreary for most of the winter, and the lack of incandescents only amplifies the depression. They, most likely, have elevated suicide rates.
In the near future, I expect to see similar legislation proposed for private homes, and incandescent bulbs could someday be banned altogether.
Strangely, the environmentalists who support these ideas, are the from the same political demographic as people who clamor for government funding of the arts. You would think anyone so adamant about public resources being necessarily squandered on aesthetics; would not mind the use of a little energy to warm peoples spirits.

February 17, 2003

I remember reading about a town in the former Soviet Union, where the main industry was old side-car motorcycles that looked very much like vintage BMWs. This town couldn't get goods from anywhere else in the country because of the inefficiencies of communism, but they had overruns of these motorcycles. Hence everybody in town owned at least one. Farmers actually plowed their fields with them, because they were easier to obtain than tractors. Well apparently an American entrepreneur, touring the countryside on a motorcycle, stumbled into this town and thought he had died and went to heaven. He quickly arranged to get exclusive license to bring these bikes into the US. Last I heard though, he sold those rights to Harvey Davidson, and that was the last I ever heard of these cool camouflage military bikes from this strange little town.
I recently received a catalog in the mail that I enjoy immensely. The majority of the catalog is Soviet military surplus. Even though I abhor everything about the USSR, for some reason I delight in owning old Soviet military items. You can actually get old KGB watches with rotating bezels. Usually these bezels are used for divers to estimate how much air is left in tanks; though I imagine the KGB used the bezel to time how long since they last interrogated the prisoner they are torturing, to insure he doesn't get more than ten minutes of sleep at a time. Mercifully, these watches are also very unreliable..
Originally I thought my fascination was based solely on the antique quality of the items. Because all Soviet manufacturing was based on technology smuggled in from the west, and the last time they had good access to western products was  during W.W.II, all these things have a really nice vintage look to them. My guess is, that those motorcycles were blueprinted from BMWs left behind after the war.
It just occurred to me why I really love this Soviet stuff: Just like the GIs who used to take things off of dead Nazis to bring home and flaunt, I am delighting in this merchandise as a victorious combatant in the Cold War. No, I never knew the horrors of actual battle, and I do not mean to demean the courage of those who actually did; but the Cold war was different. Rather then sending soldiers into battle, Ronald Reagan just got into a game of chicken with Mother Russia over which government had more ability to tax their population. In essence, as a taxpayer throughout the eighties, I was drafted into that war. Some bonds written to cover the deficits acquired from that conflict won't be paid for fifteen more years. So, as a victorious soldier in the only war I'll ever fight in, I have a right to flaunt my war souvenirs taken from a dead social engineering experiment. You should see the new fur hat I have!

The CIA is now reporting that North Korea has the technology to hit targets on the West Coast of America. It just occurred to me, that these targets include large clusters of people who supported Clinton throughout the nineties, while he was selling missile technology to the Chinese in return for campaign contributions. It's nice to know, that since there is such a high percentage of West Coast residents who subscribe to eastern religions, the concept of "Karmic Justice" is not foreign to them.

Occasionally, I stumble across an article that reminds me why our founding fathers fought the British. In London, there is now an $8 per day charge to bring a traditionally fueled vehicle into the central part of the City. I know that places like San Francisco always have charged tolls on the inbound sides of bridges, and I have no qualms with a town that charges a cover. In London however, their enforcement technique is straight out of the film Brazil; and right in line with their historic practice, of fundings the BBC by selling television licenses. Rather than set up toll gate (which would be a logistical nightmare on the maze of roads that lead into London, and would probably only exasperate the congestion) they have decided to set up a network of 800 video cameras around the central city which focus on license plates, record them all, and check the numbers of everone driving in that part of town against a data base of people that had paid the daily fee.

A recent anti-drug campaign warns that marijuana is more dangerous than people think. They show either a car crash, or somebody putting flowers on a memorial for a friend lost in an accident. The voice-over repeats what sounds like an incriminating statistic: "One out of three people, stopped for reckless driving, and tested for drugs, tests positive for marijuana."
Lets look at that statistic another way. It indicates that a full two thirds of persons forced to submit to a drug test, after a reckless driving pullover, tests negative for marijuana. All it proves, is that the majority of reckless drivers who look like drug users, are not pot heads. (It isn't mentioned how many of those pulled over pot heads, are also legally drunk; I would guess all of them.)
The accident footage in the commercial is nothing more than a red herring. There is no logical connection between the accident footage and the statistic, as they are talking about pullovers rather than fatal accidents. That would indicate to me, that the ads were written before they did their research, that they wanted to show a link between automobile casualties and marijuana, and the "One in Three" statistic was the most incriminating one they could find. I don't mean to suggest that it is safe for people to drive under the influence of Marijuana, but if there was a more indicting statistic on the books, they certainly would have used it.

March 15, 2003

Here in Chicago there is an ongoing disagreement between one of the last privately owned ball parks and the City of Chicago. Most ball clubs have already ceded the ownership of their facilities to municipalities, and Chicago is using questionable tactics to essentially seize Wrigley Field, one of the few remaining sports facilities here, they do not already own.
The Chicago Tribune owned Cubs are upset because a couple apartment buildings, that have been looking down into the ballpark for decades, have been converted into bars that charge a cover to watch the game from the rooftops. The ball club planned an expansion to build the bleachers higher, effectively blocking the view. This caused the City of Chicago to declare the property a historical landmark, which would prohibit the club from doing any modernization without swimming through a swamp of red tape.
It used to be an honor to be recognized as a historical site, but of late, the restrictions put on private property owners has made Historical status a bane to be avoided at all cost. Once a building is declared Historic, it is virtually impossible to do anything other than rehab a property, and structural changes are strictly forbidden, even if it is an aesthetic improvement. For instance, one of the regulations at Wrigley Field would apply to the Ivy growing on the walls, possibly requiring a lengthy process just to replace a dead plant.
I believe historical preservation committees are populated by old Hippies, whose brains have been severely crippled by the sixties, and have a difficult time navigating ordinary urban landscapes. They oppose structural changes because they have a tendency to bump into things unfamiliar, like Dick van Dyke over the ottoman. Historical Preservation is their only defense against getting lost in their own neighborhood.

April 16, 2003

Wartime. I haven't been as prolific as I would like since the outbreak of Gulf War II. All the sources I rely on for obscure bits of news from which I base my rants have ceased and been replaced with war news. I am also a little lax to comment on the war, as it has  become evident to me, that there is a split between myself and the Party over the conflict.
Perhaps I'm wrong. But I don't see Muslim fundamentalism as a benign religion of antiquity. There are those that compare Wahabi Islam to the Amish: peaceful religious folk who wish to return to a simpler time, and have sworn off the accouterments of modern life. I see Fundamentalist Islam as a threat to everything I hold dear, from miniskirts and Jim Beam, to Bacon Double Cheeseburgers. Rather than co-exist in peace, the Wahabis believe that Allah will not be satisfied until the entire world agrees to live under the laws of Islam. They truly want to destroy modern civilization and return us to the middle ages. There is a very special animosity towards Liberty.
I would not be so adamant about fighting this threat either, had September 11 never happened. Like most people of my ilk, I felt that we could both peaceably co-exist, but the attack on the morning of September 11 changed my mind. I believe we had ignored the threat long enough.  They all declared war on us years ago, it's just that we never noticed. Kind of like getting beat up on by a small child. It's cute as hell until he accidentally scores a direct hit in the crotch.

If America were the colonialist empire that the Left accuses us of, things would be a lot easier. The trouble we have around the world is not so much from our arrogance or interventionist policies, it is because we keep insisting that the nations we have defeated, move towards self governance. Sometimes, it works. Places like Japan have done pretty well adopting our culture. In the Middle East, it has been a disaster.
The truth is, if we followed the Old British model,  we would never have the problems we are experiencing. In the good old days,  you conquered a nation, seized all it's valuable resources in the name of the empire, and installed a tyrannical government made entirely of white men loyal to the Crown. The reason why Iraq became so powerful, is because Hussein was able to divert oil profits into the military, and fund terrorists. Under Colonialism, Iraqi nationals would never have access to that kind of money, the locals would have all been kept poor and primitive, while all the oil profits would have gone directly into the  Treasury.
Most of the trouble we face around the globe, is because America really is not ,what it is accused of being.

Now that the war is essentially over, the protesters of Hollywood are casting themselves as victims of censorship. That's really funny, because during the troop deployment, they were allowed to say anything they wanted. They even got plenty of air time, interviewed by sympathetic tele-journalists, who listened to their opinions, not because the protesters were expert or eloquent, but because they're were cute and famous and have really pretty clothes. What the Hollywood Left is complaining about, is not that they were actually forbidden to speak, but that the fans are no longer interested in buying their dvds and cds. Madonna, (who at one point in her career shunned a Pepsi contract, rather than censor a video) has refused to release her latest anti-war production; so you know the industry insiders are polling a huge backlash against these artists.
I don't even think they saw it coming. In places like Malibu and Beverly Hills, antiwar was the popular opinion. Not many celebrities live in the small flyover towns from where most of the troops were activated. These celebrities never stopped to think that perhaps some of the people who have paid to see their movies, might have said good-bye to their son for the last time, and really didn't care to hear a tan muti-millionaire in sunglasses talk about the futility of the war effort
Hollywood artists are realizing that the First Amendment can be a double edged sword. Yes, in America, you are allowed to say whatever you want, but nobody is forced to listen. In Show Business, the refusal to listen, translates into lowered royalties and box office receipts. It's not censorship, just the Free Market. That gag you feel over your mouth is nothing more than the invisible hand of capitalism.

May 9, 2003

In an April 21st interview with The Associated Press, Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum criticized homosexuality while discussing a pending Supreme Court case over a Texas sodomy law.
"If the Supreme Court says that you have the right to consensual sex within your home, then you have the right to bigamy, you have the right to polygamy, you have the right to incest, you have the right to adultery. You have the right to anything," Santorum said.
For the first time, I'm surprised to hear a Republican Senator get it right. I only wish he wasn't using the example as a negative.

There are many studies about day care that conclude it's not the best thing for children. Meanwhile, the importance of "socializing with other kids" is just assumed by leftists to be valid, no studies have ever been performed. To make a bird a good pet, you take it from the nest before it can see, and start feeding it in human hands. That will imprint onto the bird that human hands are it's mother, and the bird will mature into an adult that likes to be petted.
In the same fashion, kids taken from their parents home and put into State facilities will grow up to recognize the State as their parents. In books like 1984 and Brave New World, totalitarian governments always assume all the responsibility for raising children. It is imperative to instill a love of the State into kids minds at a very young age. The younger they can start, the better.
About forty years ago, leftists decided that First Grade was not early enough to begin imprinting children, so they instituted Kinder Garten.  About twenty years ago, Operation Head Start was instituted as a pre-Kinder Garten measure. Even though studies indicate there is no benefit to a child's education from being in Head Start, the funding for the program has increased every year since it's inception. Now all the talk is of State financed daycare, for kids not old enough to get into Head Start.
Look in the coffeehouses of America if you want to see the end result of Daycare. A bunch of bitter unemployed vegetarian art school graduates who didn't believe their parents when they were told they would never get a job with a degree like that, waiting for a government handout. Where do you think they learned, that hanging out with your friends and making pretty pictures, is more important than work?

In a recent speech, Democratic Presidential Candidate Al Sharpton promised to fight for the Constitutional Right to Health Care. I was aghast at the ignorance of the statement, and even more so, that nobody criticized him on the remark. Even FDR knew that his freedoms from fear and want were extra-constitutional.
Perhaps the statement was ignored because it came out of Al Sharpton, but quite possibly, it was ignored because a lot of modern journalists didn't realize that the word "health" is never once mentioned in the Constitution.
It is for this reason that I have been rethinking the ban on Immigrants running for President. One advantage that immigrants have over the majority of natural born citizens, is that reading the Constitution is a requirement for all those who wish to be naturalized, while most of those born here, never bother.

Despite the fact that it was probably a political stunt, it was still neat to see President Bush land on the carrier in a tailhook landing. Even more enjoyable was seeing the Democrats outraged by the landing. Senator Robert Byrd, in one of the most ironic speeches of all time, decried the use of Federal Tax Money as a re-election tool.
The real reason the Democrats were furious, is that the Presidential landing was such a sharp contrast to the predecessor. The previous President could not have fit into a flight suit, would probably have been afraid to land on a moving carrier, and wouldn't have dared to stand in front of so many troops, without wearing Kevlar®.

June 23, 2003

In last years hit movie "My Big Fat Greek Wedding, a running gag is how the Father of the Bride is intent on showing everybody he meets, that many words in the English language have Greek origin: "Give me a word, any word, and I show you how the root of that word is Greek." His daughter is continually embarrassed by his word game, and hides her face whenever he starts it.
It somewhat reminded me of how Libertarians like to take on all the world's problems: "Give me a social ill, and I'll tell you how it can be fixed with Liberty."
I'll admit I've bought into it also. How would Libertarians help feed the homeless? "Well, with less government restrictions on agriculture, food would become much cheaper, and Americans would save fewer leftovers. Hence the quality of food in the dumpsters would improve, and homeless people could eat more nutritious meals. You see, Liberty can feed the homeless."
It's really satisfying to convince yourself that government is the root of all problems, and for the most part, I still believe it. Unfortunately, we are so far away from the Libertarian Utopia we dream of, that our grand ideas seem somewhat delusional to the average American.
In America the government is representative of the people. The Fourteenth Amendment destroyed a lot of States rights, and the Seventeenth moved us closer to pure Democracy. While both run contrary to our framers intent, they are now the laws of the land. The reason why there are entitlements, is because there are huge groups of Americans who want entitlements. Whether a Libertarian society can ever bring forth peace and prosperity is irrelevant, as long as there are great segments of America opposed to Libertarianism.
A recent rumor was that John Kerry accused George Bush of being an extreme Libertarian. While I've often wished that he were, we all know he isn't even deserving of a lower case "l". Libertarians across the country started complaining, and one even considered suing Kerry for false advertising. What eluded many of my fellow travelers, was that the word "Libertarian" was being used derogatorily. The remark was obviously made as a political calculation to tar the president with an unpopular political philosophy, and reduce his 60% popularity to a point where a Democrat could possibly win the 2004 election.
It occurs to me that George W. Bush might be as Libertarian a candidate, as we can ever hope to have in the White House, under the present political climate. We can talk about election reform, ballot access, and all the other hindrances that prevent us from ever achieving power, but until the American Public turns, we're never going to get very far. We all hope for a Nuclear option, the yet undiscovered strategy, that will make our party the majority; but until we discover it, we might have to resign ourselves to small policy victories.
In the meantime, taking the position, of what might happen in a Libertarian Utopia, where self-government is the law of the land, is always going to make us look like that kooky Greek dad.

The Supreme Court knocked down the University of Michigan Policy of awarding points to select minorities, just for being minorities. In a different ruling the court (specifically Sandra Day O'Connor) upheld the Law School's policy of favoring minorities. In essence, affirmative action was upheld, but the point system was thrown out. Perhaps if the University subtracted points for being male, Jewish, or Asian, it might have been found acceptable to Justice O'Connor

Recently the Alderwoman Cynthia Carter, of Annapolis Maryland proposed a law banning children from playing with toy guns within city limits. A warning: If we decide that toy guns are bad, then only bad children will have toy guns.

The question I wanted every interviewer to ask Hillary Clinton about her new autobiography "Living History" is whether or not she has actually read it. How much do you want to bet she only skimmed through the Cliff's Notes? I would like to see her forced to take a pop quiz on the book.

Benton Harbor Michigan erupts into violence, and leftists across America start making excuses for the disorderly behavior. All the usual excuses: No jobs, poverty, substandard housing, lack of health insurance, tax cuts for the rich, and global warming. Perhaps they might understand the rush into Iraq under the same victim mentality: Yes, we were out of line invading Iraq, but we were just acting out because we were still angry about 9/11. After years of institutionalized terror, and disillusionment with peace processes, we just lashed out at the terrorist system that sought to subjugate us.

July 22, 2003

A recent radio message led me to thinking about how Libertarians are losing the battle for language. There was a blood drive held at a hotel here in town, for dogs. It's something that we don't ever think about, that dogs going through surgery need blood transfusions, and the only source for that blood is other dogs. They gave a phone number and urged you to call it if your dog would like to "donate" blood.
Donate used to mean, "give voluntarily." The key word is "voluntarily" which isn't even attached to the definition in dictionaries anymore. In order to actually donate you have to be willing to make a sacrifice. Usually that happens after you become aware of the need, and you are motivated by empathy for those less fortunate than yourself.
 Personally,  I have a problem with the idea of blood donation. I'm probably using objectivist morality, to cover for a fear of needles, but I think its far less objectionable to sell your blood. (I don't do that either, because I don't like to hanging out with the winos in the waiting rooms of those plasma centers.)
The animal that resides within the reptilian portion of all our brains normally rejects the process of giving blood. There is absolutely nothing pleasant about having a vein opened, and being slowly bled into a glass jar. If the pain doesn't scare you away, the sight of your own blood most certainly will. Those who donate regularly, understand the need for blood. Therefore, the frontal lobes of their brains, where humanity resides, are capable of overriding emotions, like fear, that reside in the other parts of the inner brain, allowing a donation to occur.
It is impossible for a dog, to override the fear. Dogs are pretty simple machines, and their craniums are limited. Most thought processes occur in the present tense: When you're hungry, you eat; when you itch, find someone to scratch you; if a stranger invades you're territory, kill him. There is not a lot of space left on the hard drive for a higher concept like altruism.
I imagine that  the room where the dog blood "donations" are taking place is quite a lively area. There's probably a lot of noise, and people having to hold their dogs down while they're donating. Since they are more in tune to odors, the place smells of blood and dog fear, so that even walking your pooch into the waiting room will test the strength of its leash and collar.
It seems to be the same form of "donation" that occurs in IRS audit offices, only the yelping is louder. And much like the IRS,  the oxymoronic practice of involuntary donations are standard operating procedure.

Democrats still can't believe they lost the 2000 presidential election. I was listening to a couple the other day complain about how it's wrong that George W. Bush is President, because he lost the popular vote. I suggested that perhaps Harry Browne should have been made president because he was certainly the most handsome of the three. They looked at me like I was nuts. "It wasn't a beauty contest," one of them remarked.
"No, and it wasn't a popularity contest either." If were not going to follow the electoral college procedure strictly laid out in the Constitution either method is equally valid.

There is no better proof of the therapeutic qualities of medicinal marijuana, than recognizing its unique and miraculous property, to make even hospital food, taste good.

September 10, 2003

Watching the recent gubernatorial recall, I couldn't help being reminded of November 2002, when the GOP victories started talk swirling of succession between a few California Leftist acquaintances. Knowing that there is probably a bailout being considered in exchange for an important electoral State in the 2004 Presidential election, I couldn't be more supportive of their exit from the Union.
On the other hand, I couldn't help but notice that fully grown child star Gary Coleman was getting a lot of media attention. I was also quite interested in his political beliefs: Pro gun, Pro-Marijuana, and abolition of the income tax. Perhaps, we should start a movement to draft Gary Coleman as the Libertarian Presidential candidate in 2004. I know we had all been hoping for someone like Clint Eastwood; a little more, you know, capable of getting on a roller coaster, but what the heck. It couldn't hurt.

Ignored in the debate over whether the Music industry has a right to sue frequent downloaders, is an important economics lesson for everybody. We always say that a corporation cannot continue to make so-called "obscene" profits for very long, before a competitor will appear within the market to challenge the monopoly. The reason why the Music industry is in trouble, is because technology had reduced the cost of recording music down to pocket change. Had their prices reflected that reduction, or if they would have embraced MP3s rather than attacking them, they would have survived. Until they start building websites where music can be downloaded quickly and reasonably, the only people who are going to make any money will be their lawyers.

With the defeat of Miguel Estrada from the Federal bench, the Democrats celebrated a victory. It's easy to see why they are afraid of him. Because his family fled from a region threatened by the Sandinistas, he knows the danger of Marxist philosophy. As a naturalized citizen he was required to have actually studied the Constitution, and as a former resident of a Central American country, he knows what kind of chaos can be caused by ignoring one.

I wonder if the reason why Lyndon LaRouche wasn't allowed to participate in the Democrat debates, is that they still want everybody to think he is a Libertarian?

October 15, 2003

In retrospect, I might have been a little too hard on Bill Clinton. He really does seem likable, and I'll bet he's the kind of guy who would never let your beer get empty. Of course, he also seems like the sort who would skip out, leaving you with the bar tab, pretend he forgot to leave you with some money when he took that chick home, and promise to make it up to you next time. He's like that buddy we all had in college that we loved to Party with, until he met this girl you couldn't stand, and started bringing her everywhere.

I often wonder if it's worth it. The increasing support that seems to be growing for  Hillary Clinton, is based on the idea that your average American woman will always vote for another woman, regardless of who she is or what she believes. And since women are the majority in this country, especially in that prized demographic known as the over 65 voter, there is a good chance that men won't have a hope at keeping her out of the White House. It really makes me question the benefit of the 19th Amendment.
There is some weight to the argument that on the whole, women aren't the most informed voters. If the 19th Amendment had never been ratified, it is highly improbable that we ever would have to say things like, "President Kennedy" or "The second Clinton term."
Let me add that I admire every woman who has the wisdom and the intelligence to be reading this magazine right now, and I would rather see you at the polls than all the wimpy Leftist men that are out there. Not wanting to offend the small percentage of Women who belong to the Libertarian Party, I usually keeps such thoughts to myself. However in the scheme of things, you are the minority of a minority Party. Your few measly votes are going to be overwhelmed by the millions of women who look towards Oprah for election advice.  It would be a lot easier just to cancel out all those votes with a new Constitutional amendment than it would be to change a million minds. Consider it an acceptable sacrifice, and know that  Libertarian men will always vote with your self interests in our hearts.

As the reason for the big blackout of 2003 slowly is constructed I can't help but be amused by Canada. Although most American residents were back on line within 24 hours, some Canadian residents were struggling a full week later. Strangely enough, the Canadian Electric market is strictly regulated, and in the case of Ontario, actually owned by the province. This flies in the face of those wise people here who are clamoring for more regulation. Once again, a Socialist government is completely incapable of engineering what the free market does without thinking.

I'm glad that Rush Limbaugh is addicted to pain killers. Maybe now that he is forced to admit publicly that he had a drug problem, perhaps he might lighten up on all the pot smokers. Actually, that drug thing was one of the few places I disagreed with him. I think, unfortunately, it's going to swing the other way. Just like you won't find too many ex-smokers that don;t mind sitting in the smoking section, Rush will probably complain that he got addicted because the laws were too lenient. I hope I'm wrong.

November 17, 2003

The market has won another victory over political correctness. For years, radical feminists have been protesting the appearance of Mattel™ Toy Company's popular Barbie® doll. In an effort change America's perceptions of beauty, women's advocacy groups demanded that children play with dolls that look more like feminists.
Turns out, nobody was interested in the wider hipped, smaller breasted Barbie®  for which they were clamoring. Last year, Mattel released of two new dolls, the My Scene Barbie® who is dressed like Brittany Spears complete with trashy make-up, and a line of Lingerie Barbies® who are actually wearing provocative underwear. Since their introduction last Christmas, they have been flying off the shelves, leaving PC Barbie® as alone on the shelf, as Andrea Dworkin  was on prom night..
The Market rules. Toys are fantasy objects, and despite the wishes of asexual unattractive leftist feminists, little girls still fantasize about being beautiful. This marketing failure is reminiscent of an earlier attempt by Mattel:  Becky®. She was a handicapped doll, sold complete with a wheelchair, that in a marvelous unintentional irony was manufactured too wide to fit through the Dreamhouse® door. Her recommended position in Barbie's® circle of friends was "The School Photographer" and she came complete with photographic equipment, so she could take pictures of all the other dolls having the fun she couldn't. Turns out, even handicapped children refused to play with her, as even for them, it is impossible to imagine wheelchairs in the wondrous Utopia that is the Nation of children's make-believe.

According to a recent article in the Chicago Tribune (November 12,2003), very little is read in Arabic outside of the Koran. In fact, Greek translations of books are published at a rate five times the Arabic translations, even though there are twenty five times more Arabs than Greeks over there. Meanwhile, Andras Simonyi, Hungary's ambassador to the United States, credited rock music for bringing down the Communist State in a recent speech.
If we really want peace with terrorists, Fundamentalist Islam must be banished into the same trash can of History that currently holds Medieval Catholicism, and the only bloodless way I can see it happening is to infect Muslim youth with American culture.
The best way I can imagine, is to gather up all the old rock cassettes and Walkmans we all have gathering dust in our basements, and scatterbomb them across any nation where Wahabi Islam is taking a hold. Once those kids learn to love a Pete Townsend power chord, a David Lee Roth glass shattering high note, or a thumping bass line behind a solid rap, they will no longer hate us. It would be impossible to convince those teenagers that a magical Nation, that creates such beautiful music, is inherently evil.

The economy is up, unemployment is down, the stock market is strong, and it seems that the George Bush tax cuts are taking all the credit. By arguing incorrectly, that tax cuts hurt an economy for the past year, the Democrats put an exclamation point on that fact, and perhaps indelibly underlined a truth of supply side economics for the next generation: lower taxes=bigger economy. We cannot thank them enough.

December 13, 2003

The source for the Hepatitis outbreak in Beaver County Pennsylvania has been traced to a Chi-Chi's restaurant, where scallions imported from Mexico were found  to be the source of the virus. Strange, that the most authentically Mexican item Chi Chi's has ever served, turns out to be Hepatitis.

Once gun control is adopted, Ammo-phobia sets in, and the eventual result is firearms ignorance. The longer a region has the laws in place, the more ignorant the residents become. Places that pioneered gun control, like New York City, become great collectives of  firearms ignorance. The best example here, is the recent attempted suicide by former Staten Island Ferry Captain, Richard Smith.
Capt. Smith ran the ferry into a dock causing a mass of casualties. He was so distraught, that he went home and tried to kill himself with a PELLET gun. Anyone familiar with guns will tell you it takes a .22 or better to kill yourself. I wonder how many times he pulled that trigger before he realized it was going to take a lot more time and patience to complete the deed, than he had to offer. He's lucky he didn't put an eye out.

Solana Beach California became the first beach in the nation to become smoke free. Beaches are the new target for the tobacco nazis, there has been talk about banning smoking here, on Chicago beaches as well. The alleged motivation is litter. 40% of all litter is cigarettes, which implies the overwhelming amount of trash is non tobacco related, and most probably food and food wrapping. If the real motivation is eliminating litter, why isn't eating on the beach being banned instead? I suspect because eating for the time being, is still politically correct.
Right now, smokers will probably either ignore the law which will be really difficult to enforce, or just avoid Solana Beach. Eventually though, as the trend becomes more popular, it will be difficult to find smoking beaches. I wonder then, if there will be crowds of people standing in the parking lots; those who had to leave the beach for a cigarette break.

Japan recently set a speed record of 361 miles per hour in a magnetically levitated train. Such a train installed in the United States would go far to clear up the airport congestion, by replacing the shorter runs like Detroit to Chicago. Rail travel does not require the extensive security of air, as it is extremely difficult to hijack a train --steering is pre determined. The only controls in a train are stop and go. High sped rail would be a quicker way to travel, it is also more energy efficient.
Unfortunately, I think American nature will prevent any high speed trains from ever being built here. Japanese culture puts a high value on obeying rules, while in the US, people will try to get away with as much as they can. For instance, there is a greater propensity to jaywalking here. In Japan, when the railroad crossing signal goes off, people will stop their cars, and wait for the train to pass. Here in the United States, a red light means "floor it." With train speeds over three hundred miles per hour, it becomes quite difficult to win a race through a crossing, even if you have a stroked V8 Hemi engine. Knowing this is a disaster waiting to happen, not many municipalities along any selected train route are willing to even raise their speed limit to one hundred, let alone three.

All the buzz around Paris Hilton (the celebrity, not the hotel) has made me seriously reconsider some of my most cherished personal dogma. I believe in property rights, and think the right of inheritance is one of the most sacred extensions of those rights. In regard to dispensation of his property, the will of the deceased should always be honored, and it is the duty of a civilized society to insure that it is. Inheritance taxes are nothing short of legalized grave robbing.
Recently though, I found out that Paris Hilton is in line to inherit a fortune presently worth three hundred and sixty million dollars. Only in a monarchy, could such a value be attached to a human being so apparently worthless. I trust God and all the Saints of Liberty will forgive me, but right now, every fiber of my being wants to see that vacuous, bulimic, bratty, little snip of peroxide arrogance, left penniless.

According to Bill Ruddiman, emeritus professor at the University of Virginia, in a paper published in the December issue of the journal Climatic Change, Manmade Global Warming is a prehistoric event, and first began occurring around 8000 years ago, not coincidentally, about the same time man began clearing forests for agriculture. This explains why ancient pockets of air trapped beneath Antarctic ice have higher levels of CO2 than climatologists have been predicting. From this we can deduce three things:
A) Global Warming is a natural phenomenon, because even human beings in their purest, primitive, and most politically correct, state, will still cause it to occur. Just as coral will build a reef, and alter the ocean's ecosystem, humans will always create a bubble of warmth around themselves.
B) Global treaties and alternative fuels are futile. The only way to stop Global Warming, is to call for mandatory extinction of the entire human species.
C) Climatologists are all self-loathing whack-jobs, who blame human activity for everything bad, and will go to great lengths to protect their predetermined conclusions from contradictory data.

The Atkins diet is presently quite popular in America. Atkins is a high protein, low carbohydrate diet that encourages things like eggs, and severely limits grain intake. It is becoming so popular, that it is starting to affect food prices. Grain prices are down, and egg prices are up. Market forces will now compel farmers to use the back forty to build a hen house rather than plant corn in the spring. Were the Department of Agriculture in total control, it would take several years for them to adjust. By that time the fad will have passed, and low cholesterol will probably be back in fashion. Or perhaps, the food bureaucrats, who have always opposed the Atkins diet on a nutritional basis, will work to keep the shortage of eggs in place, to encourage people to follow the food pyramid -- those DoA funded guidelines, we all have been ignoring for the past ten years.
Even with the cost increase, the price of eggs are extremely reasonable. Once considered a luxury, an egg contains 10% of a days worth of protein  for about fifteen cents. Even the poorest laborer (6.00/ hour) can now fulfill his entire daily dietary requirement of protein (10 eggs) with only fifteen minutes of work. Compare this to the first pioneers who tilled the soil from sun up to sundown just to sustain themselves, sometimes unsuccessfully, and you will realize how wealthy modern Americans really are.