Gavin

Gay Marriage

2009-05-26T19:42:51Z

I am not personally opposed to gay marriage. It seems pointless to forbid such a thing, but I do have some comments for those who are enthusiastic about it.
1. Regarding the recent California Supreme Court decision : They can't declare a part of the constitution to be unconstitutional. It is their job to interpret the constitution as it applies to certain legislation or litigation. They can't decide to ignore a part of the constitution, any more than your cable guy can decide not to install the Disney channel because he hates mice. Not their job!
2. Single people are also subject to much of the same discrimination as gays who are not allowed to marry. If gays receive no medical, pension etc. benefits then single people don't get those either. Why should a married person whether gay or not, get more benefits (really money) for the same job? If you buy a newspaper on the street do you give the guy an extra dime if he claims to be married?
3. As for such access issues as hospital visitation or health proxy. These also discriminate against single people if enforced. If a single person cannot specify a friend of either sex for such a role, then that is also discrimination. A single person might prefer to have a friend of the same religion (or non-religion) to make a health care decision in an emergency. Why should they have to be married to do so?
In short gay marriage is really a red herring from a libertarian POV. Unequal rights for married people versus single people is the real discrimination.

Blog

2009-05-22T18:22:15Z

There is now another blog for the Boston Objectivist Network.
If anyone has a paid account feel free to create a syndicated feed. (See 'About' page of that blog for the link.)

Organ replacement

2009-05-02T09:54:43Z

Obtaining FDA approval is still a major hurdle, in part because cells obtained from different people may not behave alike and because recipients can have varying responses to the same kind of implant
As usual the FDA is killing people for frivolous reasons. Existing organ transplants have the same problems of variable inputs and results. To hold mechanical substitutes to a higher standard than existing therapies makes no sense. They are already an improvement due to greater availability (once in production). They don't need to justify their existence by being higher quality too.
Patients who are about to die and know that they are still months away from receiving a donor organ have nothing to lose by taking a chance on artificial replacements.

Construction and Perversion

2009-03-20T15:25:16Z

I need some fairly urgent house repairs done. I have been waiting this week for 4 separate builders to return my call and give a quote. How bad can the economy be, if not one of them bothers to do so? I suspect the stimulus is working. Construction workers would rather have a long term overpaid government contract than do a quick market priced job for me. The perverse thing is that I am paying via taxes for them to do useless make-work construction but I can't get them to do useful work at any price. Thanks FedGov - no wonder I love you so much.
While I am ranting I might as well start on a related topic :
In 1945 American engineers threw a bridge over the Rhine in one day despite hostile fire. In 2007 American engineers throw a 2 lane road bridge over a single line railway track in only ... 18 months. I realize that the Rhine bridge was only a temporary bridge with minimal safety requirements. However, there have been many advances in material and mechanical technology since 1945, not to mention complete absence of bullets and artillery. How can it take five hundred times longer to build a shorter bridge?

Dead Aid

2009-03-13T18:44:03Z

Development aid does more harm than good in Africa, says Zambian economist and author Dambisa Moyo, so we should stop it. She has the ear of at least one African president, Paul Kagame of Rwanda. 'Why should Bono be the one to determine economic policy in Africa?

Administration Fail

2009-03-11T20:05:06Z

So, Obama gave the British Prime Minister a set of DVDs :
- "2001: A Space Odyssey"
- "Casablanca"
- "Chinatown"
- "Citizen Kane"
- "City Lights"
- "E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial"
- "It's a Wonderful Life"
- "Lawrence of Arabia"
- "On the Waterfront"
- "Psycho"
- "Raging Bull"
- "Schindler's List"
- "Singin' in the Rain"
- "Some Like It Hot"
- "Star Wars: Episode IV"
- "Sunset Boulevard"
- "The General"
- "The Godfather"
- "The Graduate"
- "The Grapes of Wrath"
- "The Searchers"
- "The Wizard of Oz"
- "To Kill a Mockingbird"
- "Vertigo"
How could they leave out V for Vendetta?

Freemartin

2009-03-04T19:16:20Z

The Chimera Hypothesis: Homosexuality and Plural Pregnancy
Although commonly thought of as mythological beings, men have long known of the existence of real-life chimeras. The freemartin, a chimeric cow with varying degrees of male characteristics, was used for centuries by farmers in the identification of fertile cows. Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World envisioned a society in which 70% of human females were deliberately made to be human freemartins through hormonal manipulation (DNA had not been discovered at the time he wrote the book) for the purposes of population control.

Luther's Demon

2009-02-19T21:45:00Z

The following is my personal speculation. I don't remember coming across this idea from any other source. Luther's demon is an adaptation executer. It is a sub-routine of the human brain that runs without any conscious oversight. I will use anthropomorphic language to make my explanation easier.

The function of this demon is to detect when a long period of sex with a given mate has elapsed without any reproduction. When one has spent a long time with a lover and there is no pregnancy, the demon will attempt to reject that lover. It will 'create' negative emotions towards that lover. It will encourage the desire to search for other mates. In short, it will try to break up your relationship. The evolutionary motivation is that the current mating is infertile. Mating with a different lover may well be fertile.

This demon is not concerned with your conscious decision to delay/forego reproduction. It doesn't care.

My speculation is based on personal observation of my friends. Couples who choose to remain childless or to delay having children tend to split up after about 3 years. This is in spite of (my perception of) their great love for each other. I am not thinking of flighty people whom one would expect to split up every few years but sober mature couples. (I understand this is not scientific evidence of any kind, but every formal observation or experiment has to start with some hypothesis.)

I call this Luther's Demon because of the famous opinion of Martin Luther on the duty of women :
Work with all your might to bring forth the child. Should it mean your death, then depart happily, for you will die in a noble deed and in subservience to God.

The past is a foreign country

2009-01-13T18:38:38Z

Movies that were made in say the 40s or 50s, seem much more alien - to me - than modern movies allegedly set hundreds of years in the future, or in different universes. Watch a movie from 1950 and you may see a man slapping a woman. Doesn't happen a lot in Lord of the Rings, does it? Drop back to the 16th century and one popular entertainment was setting a cat on fire. Ever see that in any moving picture, no matter how "lowbrow"?

The Prisoner - Patrick McGoohan

2009-01-09T18:56:04Z

To promote a modern remake, starring “Jesus” from “The Passion of the Christ,” AMC has made every episode of the classic 1960s British spy series “The Prisoner” available online, in unedited high quality video. While I’m not about to chuck my dvd collection of the series, I heartily recommend this version of the show to those who’ve never seen it.
(From Social Services for Feral Children)
My take will be in the comments. (Could be considered a spoiler.)

You know, this used to be a helluva good country

2008-12-12T19:41:21Z

Barack Obama is promising a stimulus package for an economy that has received more stimulation than John Holmes in Saturday Night Beaver

Greenspan and the Free Market

2008-12-04T19:02:19Z

Greenspan now (2008)
Greenspan Admits Free Market Ideology Flawed

and then (2001 - random example)

The Federal Reserve Board today announced the settlement of its administrative enforcement proceeding against Incus Co., Ltd. and Carlos Hank Rhon ...
Incus and Hank Rhon have agreed that: they will pay to the U.S. Treasury $10.75 million now and an additional $29.25 million within the next seven years ...
The settlement is enforceable under the Board's cease-and-desist and civil money penalty authority.

Greenspan had the power to prosecute anyone in the banking system. His opinions had the actual force of law and every banker knew that. There was no such thing as a free market in banking.
Would anyone think we had a free market in software if Bill Gates was appointed to a Software Review Board with the power to levy fines on Stallman and Torvalds?

Anecdotes

2008-11-19T16:25:38Z

Whether it's Thomas Friedman, who, it seems, cannot go a whole week without inventing a new fruit-based metaphor explaining everything about the entire modern world, all based on some random jibberish he misunderstood from a taxi driver in Kuala Lumpur, or Malcolm Gladwell with his weak theories on tipping points, crazy incorrect theories on first impressions, or utterly lunatic theories on experts, it all becomes insanely popular simply because the stories are fun and interesting and everybody wants to hear a good story.

Modern Libertarian

2008-11-19T16:23:39Z

I am the very model of a modern libertarian

Rand LOL

2008-10-31T15:56:21Z

Totally going for the obvious one here, but..

Africom

2008-10-23T17:25:05Z

The United States military command for Africa (AFRICOM) began full operation yesterday as an independent command for the continent.
According to the BBC's correspondent, Africom reflects concerns about tackling Islamist extremism, securing oil supplies, and countering Chinese influence in Africa.
Apparently the quagmire in the Middle East is not deep enough for the US military. They now plan to micromanage the entire continent of Africa too.
(Yes, I realize this is merely a minor bureaucratic change now, but bureaucracies always want to expand their missions.)
The commanding general doesn't seem to be saying anything about China but the BBC and CFR agree that Chinese influence in
Africa is a factor. I previously discussed the growing power of China in Africa. At that time I hoped that America would simply ignore the issue. It seems that we are now to have a 'cold war' over Africa - again.
This new command is not in the real interests of America, China or Africa generally; but I guess the US military can't resist any opportunity to participate in a debacle.

Battling the Bland

2008-10-22T17:33:47Z

Behold

North Korea

2008-10-09T15:37:03Z

North Korea to be taken over by China?
Via NoodleFood
This is similar to my thoughts on North Korea. The countries with most to lose from turmoil in Korea are South Korea and China. America should not interfere and should withdraw all troops (on a schedule agreed with SK and China). American involvement is pointless and merely exposes America to risks and embarrassments with no possible benefit. China enjoys watching America 'negotiate' with NK the same way I enjoy watching a dog chase it's own tail.
China has far more reason to prevent NK nuclear proliferation than the US does. They also have more practical means of enforcing non-proliferation. Of course this would also mean that SK would fall into China's 'control'. This is inevitable anyway for economic reasons.

Muslim Cartoon Week

2008-08-13T20:53:05Z

Muslim Cartoon Week
Via Wendy McElroy

Doctor, There are Two Kinds of "No Evidence"

2008-08-11T20:22:03Z

Interesting post on cancer science.
The comments are actually worth reading.

U.S. Government Policy for Seizing Laptops at Borders

2008-08-01T19:52:51Z

My theory is, Customs got frustrated with losing their position of most-annoying-part-of-travel to TSA. This is their attempt to get back to the top.

liberty lolcats

2008-08-01T18:55:10Z

liberty lolcats
Via bureaucrash

DNA Trawling

2008-07-21T17:41:30Z

State crime lab analyst Kathryn Troyer was running tests on Arizona's DNA database when she stumbled across two felons with remarkably similar genetic profiles. The men matched at nine of the 13 locations on chromosomes, or loci, commonly used to distinguish people.
via The Agitator
The FBI is disingenuous when they claim Troyer is misusing their database by running unusual searches. As the database becomes larger and it is used more often the chance of invalid matches becomes much greater. A statistical calculation made when the database held a few thousand people is not relevant when the database reaches the millions. The use of DNA for law enforcement and civil actions is still increasing rapidly, this will boost the opportunities for invalid matches.
At the very least database matches must be rejected as direct evidence. If a person is a suspect a second match with the original sample needs to be done.

AWB2 : Bigger Badder and Uncut

2008-07-16T09:58:52Z

In the wake of my successful predictions regarding Heller and the financial meltdown, I am venturing on another prediction. As with my other predictions I don't see unlikely events far into the future. I am simply stating what should be obvious to anyone paying attention.
Heller was not an unqualified success for gun rights. In fact it was a nearly unmitigated disaster. It is true that some limit has been placed on gun laws but its a very minor limit. It was previously possible to believe that some future Supreme Court decision would deem the words 'shall not be infringed' to have actual meaning. This is now impossible, even though the court has recognized some minimal individual right. However governments can restrict that right to almost any level, provided it isn't a complete ban. In practice this means obstacles can be raised to any height, as long as a few determined people manage to overcome them.

On to the prediction : Once Obama has been enthroned and anointed with holy oil, Congress will enact the next major gun law. This law will be worse than the old assault weapons ban by a long way. It will not amount to a total ban on all guns but it will :
1. Ban magazines over 10 rounds
2. Ban 50 caliber rifles (already law in CA)
3. Restrict private modification of weapons
4. Ban selling guns without a FFL (no private sales at all)
5. Restrict buying ammo without a license for that type of ammo (this is law in many countries)
6. Ban transporting guns across state lines, even in your own vehicle, without a federal license
7. Require all state databases of CCW to be linked to federal databases
8. Sundry other restrictions which my mind is not perverse enough to think up, but which Congress can imagine.
Gun rights activists have been complacent lately because they have won a few trifling victories. Their enemy has already surrounded them while they were sleeping.
The reason the gun grabbers are quiet now is because they need to win the election for Obama. They don't want millions of apathetic Republicans to suddenly wake up and head to the polls in November. This post is not a call to vote for Republicans, it won't help and its too late anyway. This election will be about financial fears and in a minor way about foreign policy. Gun rights are not on the agenda at all and nothing is going to put them there.
If the situation is hopeless why am I writing this? Simply so you can buy gun stuff now. If there is anything you were thinking of buying at some point then get it now. Stock up with as much ammo as you can afford. If you are planning to sell some surplus guns do it now before you need to pay a $50 fee for each sale.

The Geopolitics Of China

2008-06-24T21:38:15Z

The greatest military threat to China comes from the United States Navy. The Chinese have become highly dependent on seaborne trade and the United States Navy is in a position to blockade China's ports if it wished. Should the United States do that, it would cripple China. Therefore, China's primary military interest is to make such a blockade impossible.