One thing that eludes Statists of all stripes is the fact that the more discretion the State has to act, the more prone it is to manifest the baser aspects of human nature. When the State is free to act as it will, it becomes as petty, vindictive, stupid and Read more…
Talking about this. Most of the supporters of the move may be correct in the effect of the proposed rules. In fact the problem with the FCC has very little to do with exactly what they are attempting to do, even though it is a solution still in search of Read more…
So Charlie Stross has posted a lament about the dearth of Utopias in SF of late. If you follow my blog, you may already have a good idea of what I think about that. There are several issues I have with his post. (Probably all having to do with us Read more…
So Scalzi opines on Atlas Shrugged (which I’m currently reading for the first time, via a 64-hour long audiobook. If you’re curious, the book that filled the Atlas Shrugged slot in my teenage-reader political awakening was the Illuminatus! Trilogy. Yeah, I’m weird that way.) and while I don’t have a Read more…
Make that a boot stomping on a human face — forever. I actually had someone try and pull that on me in a debate, more or less in the sense “BUSH HAZ WORST RECORD ON CIVIL LIBERTIEZ EVAR.” This was true, when he was in office. But Obama has doubled Read more…
Cue REM. Dorchester Publishing looks at its bottom line and decides OMG we can’t afford to do this anymore, switches to e-publishing launching the Greek Chorus chanting “death of print, death of print.” This is premature for a number of reasons. (Not the least of which is the technical reasons Read more…
A little bit of a reality check for those of us who write about SF futures, or just think about the future in general. This snazzy 21st Century lifestyle we’ve become accustomed to is based on an extremely long supply-chain. Think of the support required for an iPhone to exist. Read more…
(with thanks to Instapundit) Thanks to an NPR article we have a concept worthy of a Phillip K Dick novel, with Orwellian commentary that should scare the crap out of you if you have any imagination— or remember the CIA’s history dealing with other chemical substances. The money quote: Does Read more…
I love conspiracy theories, but the latest article on such by Newsweek has left me a little cold. Not a single black helicopter to be had. And how does questioning the maternity of Sarah Palin’s kid rate high enough to be on a list with Goldman Sachs looting the world? Read more…