Glibertarians.com 2018 Archive

Category: Opinion

  • Comixology Unlimited – One Guy’s Opinion

    A few months ago a few other Glibs suggested I check out Comixology Unlimited when I incorrectly complained that there was no good comic books subscription service.  Turns out, there is a pretty ok comic books subscription service. After subscribing for a few months, here are my thoughts and a list of books I enjoyed reading.

    Comixology is, by their own account:

    ComiXology, an Amazon.com, Inc. subsidiary, is a revolutionary, cloud-based digital comics service. With content from over 125 publishers as well as thousands of independent creators from around the world, comiXology provides an unrivaled library of comic books, graphic novels, manga and bandes dessinées. The company’s first-in-class innovations include the exclusive Guided View technology which provides an immersive and cinematic reading experience and a monthly subscription service. ComiXology is based in New York City, with operations in Seattle and Los Angeles.

    Comixology Unlimited is a $5.99 a month service that allows you to read an unlimited number of comic books from a limited catalog of books.  And that’s the nut. If there’s stuff in there you want to read, it’s a good price that lets you drink from the fire hose. If it is $5.99 for access to crap you don’t want, it is a waste of time and money.

    The reading experience took a while to get used to, but that’s mostly my fault.  I’m reading on a Google Pixel 2, which has a 5 inch screen. Trying to fit a full page on this isn’t going to happen.  I’ve found that you can read in landscape mode with the page set to screen width and scroll down, and that works pretty well for most pages.  But if there is a big splash screen or something interesting in the lay out, it’s a bit of a hassle.

    The Comixology app tries to solve this with something called a Guided View, where you are transitioned from panel to panel.  Again, this is ok, but fails to give you an overview of the whole page. I found that this is really important for me, so I didn’t use Guided View for a long time.  But last week I decided to see if I could get it work. Under settings, there’s an option to show the whole page on enter (or exit if you want,) and I found that gives me the experience I like.  I can see the whole page and then it feels like I”m zooming in on the panels. Between that and aggressively rotating my phone between landscape and portrait orientation, I’ve got to say that the reading experience is pretty great.

    The Guided View with my preferred settings is “better than free,” that is, I’d pay for this even if I got PDF’s of the books for free.  The ability to whip out my phone and read a few pages while waiting at the bus, standing in line at the bank, or when my kids are trying to talk to me at dinner is nice and I’m glad to have it.

    The selection is really the life taker or heart breaker of this service.  So what did I find? Lots of good, and a little bad, as long as you have a reasonable expectation.  I knew that the publishers wouldn’t want to cannibalize new sales, so I expected to only find old stuff.  By and large, that’s been true, so I’m happy with that. Some publishers, and I’m looking at you Dynamite, only like to put the first trade of a series on Unlimited to entice you to pay the per-book price to buy the rest of the series.  More on that later.

    So you’ll have to look at the Unlimited catalog for yourself to see if it has enough to get you to shell out six bucks a month.  For me, there is more than enough to keep me entertained. Marvel and DC have taken all their goodwill with me and lit it on fire   Not the SJW stuff – that’s always been a part of the big 2 publishing houses. It’s the stories. I have no interest in reading books that are going to last two years, maybe, and that are going to get jerked around to fit the latest and greatest cash grab event.  But the backlog from the big 2 and indies is large enough to keep me going for a long, long time. Here’s some good stuff on Unlimited that I’ve been reading:

    Super Dinosaur!!! This book is a wonderful, earnest story about a kid-genius and his best pal that happens to be a dinosaur.  Lots of awesome stuff happens and it’s all innocent, crazy fun from a guy that we know can write serious, brooding stories like the Walking Dead and Invincible.  But this is a book for your inner seven year old. I didn’t even write those exclamation points, they just showed up on their own.

     

     

    Atomic Robo & The Fightin’ Scientists of Tesladyne The honest to God, true life documentary story of that one time Nicola Tesla invented a nuclear powered robot in 1932 that went on all sorts of zany pulp adventures.  HP Lovecraft shows up. An insane dinosaur mad-scientist shows up. Carl Sagan shows up. There are lightning guns. There are cowboys. More fun for your seven year old self.

     

     

    Rebels The honest to God, true life documentary story about Seth Abbot and the Green Mountain Boys.  Ok, this historical fiction is actually about real people. There are no lightning guns or dinosaurs.  This isn’t a story for my seven year old self. But I love the Revolution. Its fascinating, and I think every American should buy into the myth of America.  And oh look, its written by a guy who calls himself an almost-socialist (before it was cool to do so) who also thinks that the Revolution was fascinating and that a myth that every American should buy into.

     

    Lumberjanes Yeah yeah, it’s a book by SJWs for SJWs and it passes the Bechdel Test.  I don’t care. This is a good book. A bunch of girls at summer camp solve a bunch of Scooby-Doo level supernatural mysteries.  The characters are fun, the story telling is tight, the jokes are plentiful, and the politics are on the back burner if they are in there at all.

     

     

    Hellboy Man, what can I say about Hellboy if you don’t already know about him?  Ok, here’s the premise – Hellboy is a demon born on earth due to a WWII occultist’s summoning.  He is prophesied to bring about armageddon. And.. he’s got the personality of a blue-collar dude that just want to live a normal, humble life.  But he’s stuck working for the government as a paranormal investigator. He’s a wonderful, lovable character living in a world of geek-porn. There are Nazi’s, Rasputin, his best friend is a fish-man, his lady-friend keeps setting things on fire with her brain, etc.  And the story is long, but the author has balls and is actually telling the story of the end of days that Hellboy was prophesied to bring about.

     

    Valiant Everything (the new one) I came of age reading Jim Shooter era Marvel and Chris Claremont X-Men, were writers has years to weave dangling plot strands into a complete tapestry.  I watched Terra break Beast Boy’s heart and I watched Nathan Summers fly off into the future only to come back years later as Clint Eastwood. The new Valiant is telling those same kinds of stories with slow-burning arcs and identifiable, consistent personalities.  I’m in Act Four of the reading order, and so far everything has been on Unlimited.

     

     

    Magnus, Robot Fighter (the new one, no newer than that, the Dynamite one)  Magnus is cool – he punches robots. But now he’s infused with Super Dad Powers, which, as a Dad, I approve of.  I really, really enjoyed the first trade, but it is the only one on Unlimited. They want me to pay for the other trades… well, the problem is my BATANA is to just pick up another book I really like from Unlimited so that’s not going to happen.  Too bad. Maybe I’ll blow $5 on the next trade at some point, but I don’t think I will. Too many fish in the sea.

     

     

    Usagi Yojimbo Don’t let the fact that it’s a bunny fool you, this is a great samurai epic.  Usagi is one of the great comic book characters of all time. Love. Duty. Pain. Sacrifice.  Loss. Intrigue. It has everything you could ever want in a samurai story.

     

     

     

    Incredible Hulk Epic Collection: Man Or Monster? Some of the old Marvel titles are really hit or miss.  Pro Tip – don’t go reading old Iron Man stories. But early Hulk was a lot of fun. There are a fair number of silver age collections, and I enjoyed re-reading this one.

     

     

     

    So there you have it.  Comixology Unlimited – Try it for the 1 month free trial, and you should know within a week or two if it is right for you.

  • Ain’t My Bitch

    A question was posed, that got a lot of response:

    At which point it became apparent that nobody liked my suggestion.

    Later that week, it became apparent that nobody likes my music.  Sad.

    Surely, there must be somebody else around here with some level of discerning taste.

    *raises glass to Certified Public Asshat*

    Today is my review of beer that I picked because it got a song stuck in my head at the time of purchase.  I will post links, but given my audience, you have my word as a Spaniard that none of them will be Metallica.**

    First up, is this Belgian Style Ale from Victory Brewery.  I should be H/T somebody here, but to be honest I forgot who it was.  Here is the song.

    This is not half bad, and while I generally do like the Saison and/or Farmhouse style this one is a tad on the bitter side.  I think Boulevard does it better with their Tank #7.  Victory Golden Monkey Ale:  3.5/5

    Up next is Wells’s Banana Bread Ale (H/T: Riven)  I regret this one.  It is expertly brewed, but I believe I made my feelings for bananas clear in a previous review.  For this one, there can really only be one thing running in my head.  In the event you actually clicked that, and wish to murder me, consider that I only played you a clip.  Wells Banana Bread Ale:  2.0/5

     

    Left Coast Brewery VooDoo American Stout. This is a bit heavier than the run of the mill milk stout.  It has more coffee notes so think of this as more of the type like Guinness Extra Stout.   The song of course is something that also manages to be both heavy and mellow.  I played it as loud as the terrible speakers in my car could play.  Left Coast Brewery VooDoo American Stout:  3.8/5.

     

    Finally, this one was pretty blatant about the music choice.  I happened to like Deftones when I was in high school but they kind of fell off the face of the earth until that day I found this.  They were always just a little bit…different.  Anyhow, they picked an IPA and one that is particularly gruesome.  Lot of heavy citrus notes in this one, and as you can tell is very hazy.  A few of you will like the song, somebody here will like the beer, but nobody will like the price tag ($14 for  4-pack).  Belching Beaver Digital Bath IPA:  2.5/5.

     

     

    **Right, I’m no Spaniard, but none of the links were Metallica.  At least give me that.

  • BakedPenguin’s NFL Pick-em – Week 3

     

    NY Jets at Cleveland (-3) Starting off with a tough one. Cleveland has been showing some cojones this season, but I have to think the Jets will pull through. NYJ – take the points.

    Indianapolis at Philadelphia (-6.5) Both teams have been mediocre this year. Indy hasn’t shown much of a talent for covering the spread, however, so I’ll go with Philly at home. PHI – give the points

    Cincinnati at Carolina (-3) Carolina pissed me off by blowing last week’s game, while the Bengals have shown up for both of theirs. CIN – take the points.

    Tennessee at Jacksonville (-6.5) Jacksonville is a much better team than I originally thought, so I’ll go ahead and take them this week, probably only to be let down. JAX – give the points.

    New Orleans at Atlanta (-3) The Falcons are another team that’s better than I thought. However, I still don’t think they’re better than the Saints and their insane offense. NO – take the points

    Denver at Baltimore (-5) Denver has a rather amazing 2-0 record. The reason I think it’s amazing will probably be apparent by halftime. BAL – give the points.

    NY Giants at Houston (-3) Crap. Tough game. I wouldn’t put a cent on this IRL, but for here, I’ll go with the Giants. NYG – take the points.

    Oakland at Miami (-3) Miami has been looking good so far this year. So them playing at home against a mediocre team like the Raiders is one of my easier picks this week. Watch me get it wrong. MIA – give the points.

    Green Bay (-3) at Washington I hate Washington. I really, really hate Washington. Have I mentioned that I hate Washington? Go Green Bay. GB – give the points.

    Buffalo at Minnesota (-16.5) Minnesota is a better team than the Bills (who are the new Browns) but 16.5 points better? Mmmm… BUF – take the points

    San Francisco at Kansas City (-10) Again, KC is a better team than the 49ers, but 10 points? Well, okay. KC – give the points.

    LA Chargers at LA Rams (-7) Imma go with the Chargers, for no particular reason. LAC – take the points.

    Chicago (-5) at Arizona Chicago isn’t that great, but Arizona sucks almost as hard as its former Senator. CHI – give the points.

    Dallas at Seattle (-3) In another “I don’t like this team” special, fuck the Cowboys. SEA – give the points.

    New England (-6.5) at Detroit The Patriots are better than the Lions, but I’m not sure they’re a TD better in Detroit. OTOH, I’m not sure they aren’t. NE – give the points.

    Pittsburgh (-2) at Tampa Bay Tampa has looked much better than I thought they’d be. The Steelers haven’t. I’ll go with the Bucs. TB – take the points.

  • Swag Reminder

    A serious shoutout to our biggest financial supporter: Egould. Buddy, you’re keeping the site running.

    Need a piece of clothing guaranteed to scare the kids at Halloween, piss off your family at Thanksgiving, or to gift the people you hate over the holidays?

    STEVE SMITH SAY RELAX

    We’ve got Hat & Hair products

    We’ve got STEVE SMITH products

    We’ve got all sorts of products featuring our fucking awesome logo

    And look. We had our quarterly board meeting the other night. We’re not operating on a hookers and blow budget. We’re not operating on a meth and lot bunnies budget. We’re operating on a suck your dick under the highway overpass for spare change budget. Every product you buy is one less dick we have to suck to keep this place running.

    All joking aside, we’ll always find a way to keep the lights on here, but if you’ve enjoyed something, this is one way to show the love. And generate new Tulpas. And be recognized by other closet glibertarians if you live in the Minnesota/North Dakota or LA area.

    As a reminder, it is the policy of the board who operates this website donates any money above what is needed to operate the site for a prudent amount of time (I think six months, but I forgot to check) to a worthy charity each year. Last year it was Institute for Justice and FIRE who got our money. We will run some options by you right after Thanksgiving to make donations for next year. So there’s another reason to buy swag.

    UPDATE: This page will remain up until 3:20 CDT so the afternoon links participants can all see our pitiful begging at the top of the page. After that, there will be… LINKS!

  • I Fucking Love Astrology: The Horoscope for the Week of September 16

    Like so many other fields of science, astrology has tradeoffs; by increasing the certainty of the conclusions you reduce the details known.  There has not yet been a heavenly Heisenberg to calculate the astrological h-bar, as far too many astrologers are really bad at math.  But it probably exists.  We can see the phenomenon this week in the skies.  There is an alignment where Venus and Mercury are in tension with the Sun, so we know that this week you will be forced to make a choice between your love life and… something.  That may sound bad, but it’s not really, because there won’t be any diminution of the one you don’t choose, it’s just that it won’t be increased.

    I’ve managed to unpack my protractor and compass, so I was able to do a little bit of more precise forecasting, and that above alignment is going to snap into opposition with Jupiter on Monday.  On that day, a romantic relationship is going to take a hit from an authority figure.  That young hottie might turn out to be a bit too young, or you will suddenly discover the existence of an ex- (or maybe even current!) spouse that you didn’t know about.  Or it could be that a bench warrant results in you and your partner being on opposite sides of reinforced glass.  Like I said, the details are unclear.

    The moon in Sagittarius brings inaccuracy in shooting.  Coupled with crappy fishing until Nov 23rd, it’s not looking good for non-market sources of meat.

    Virgo is doing particularly well this week, grabbing Mercury along with the sun.  Expect good news, and if you have a career advancement opportunity take it.

    Venus and Jupiter in Scorpio brings domestic harmony, and hotties throwing themselves at powerful individuals.

    Now some music, just because.

  • BakedPenguin’s NFL Pick-em – Week 2

    Introduction for week 2

    I approached The Powers That Be with the idea for writing a weekly NFL pick-‘em column. They graciously agreed, and then I spit the bit on getting the first column in on time, because I’m irresponsible. The good news about that is my picks are probably going to suck, and this column can serve as a vehicle for Glibs to make fun of my handicapping skills.

    That said – let’s see what’s up this week:

    The week starts with the Ravens at the Bengals. Baltimore (-1) at Cincinnati – Baltimore looked much better against the Bills last week than the Bengals did against the Colts. And while the Colts were a better opponent and the Bengals will be playing at home, I still have to take the Ravens since a 1 point spread is essentially a pick-‘em scenario. I also think there will be a few Ravens looking for payback from last year. BAL – give up the point

    Kansas City at Pittsburgh (-5). Pittsburgh giving up a late lead against Cleveland was surely disappointing to Steelers fans, and the game resulting in a tie was rather non-conclusive, although several people have pointed out that the Browns will now wind up with a better record than last year regardless of what they do from here on out. KC handled the Chargers, and although their defense looks somewhat suspect, Pittsburgh does too. I wouldn’t go so far as to pick a KC upset, but I’d take them with the points. KC – take the points

    Philadelphia (-3) at Tampa Bay. Tampa looked surprisingly good, at least on offense. The Eagles have a better defense than New Orleans, however. The Bucs played well enough last week to make me nervous about this game, but I still would have to go with the Eagles, and give up the 3 points. PHI – give the points.

    New York Giants at Dallas (-3). Wow. I don’t like anything about this game. The teams, the spread, well… maybe the cheerleaders. That said, I would never put a cent down on this game in the real world. In Internet land, I’ll take Dallas at home because I think they lost to a better team last week. DAL – give the points.

    New England (-2) at Jacksonville. I hate constantly giving points. While this isn’t something I’d bet my house on, there’s gonna be at least one upset. Screw it, Jags win at home against a Pats team that, while still good, isn’t what it used to be. JAC – take the points.

    Minnesota at Green Bay (-1). Well, this one will piss some people off. Sorry Vikes fans, I gotta go with the Packers here, especially after the balls they showed in last week’s comeback. GB – give the point.

    Houston (-2) at Tennessee. Houston played NE tough last week. Tennessee played Miami tough last week. I’d kind of like to take the home team here, but I won’t. HOU – give the points.

    Cleveland at New Orleans (-9). Cleveland may really, really suck, but they at least proved they can play in the NFL, even if they think they’re playing soccer and a tie is okay. Also, Tampa does have offensive talent, but New Orleans really showed nothing on defense last week. NO has the talent to blow out the Browns, but perhaps the Browns will make a habit of actually fighting this year. CLE – take the points.

    Carolina at Atlanta (-5.5). I’d feel good about taking the Panthers if the spread were over a touchdown. This is another game I’m really on the fence about. Eh, screw it CAR – take the points.

    Indianapolis at Washington (-6). Washington beat Arizona pretty badly last week, and Indy got dealt with by Cincy. However, Cincinnati was a playoff team, Arizona has sucked for years, and I HATE HATE HATE anything to do with DC. Fuck you, Redskins. IND – take the points

    Miami at NY Jets (-3). Ehhh, ummmmm – the Jets. NYJ – give the points.

    LA Chargers (-7.5) at Buffalo. That Ravens/Bills game was brutal. That is, unless you don’t care about the Bills, in which case it was just really, really funny. Really funny. And while there’s a decent chance the Bills will be shamed into playing better, there’s a limit as to how much better they can play. LAC – give the points.

    Detroit at San Francisco (-3.5). Ever wish both teams could lose? Detroit at least used to be a worthwhile part of the US economy, but SF has the better team. SF – give the points

    Arizona at LA Rams (-13). Okay. Now THAT is a point spread. In a fuck John McCain massive point spread special, I say LAR – give the points.

    Oakland at Denver (-6). Given Denver’s lackluster (and quite inconsistent) performance over the past few years, I really thought about taking the Raiders with the points. However, it’s in Denver, and Oaktown wasn’t looking that great last week. DEN – give the points.

    Seattle at Chicago (-3). Another tough one, as both teams had tough losses last week. Again, I’ll go with Chicago at home. Maybe they’ll give Mack some energy bars and he’ll actually play 2 good halves instead of one great one. CHI – give the points.

  • You’re Doing It Wrong – #3

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    Find out what you were doing wrong previously. And the time after that.

    A while back there was a post where someone referenced the Digital Time that was proposed by the French Revolution. Well, arguments about our calendar are really useless.

    Or are they.

    [/et_pb_text][et_pb_divider _builder_version=”3.10.1″ color=”#ffffff” height=”6px” /][/et_pb_column][/et_pb_row][et_pb_row _builder_version=”3.10.1″][et_pb_column type=”1_2″][et_pb_text admin_label=”start of day” _builder_version=”3.10.1″]

    Your calendar: The changeover of the day occurs at midnight.  The changeover of the year occurs on 1 January.

    Status: WRONG

    This one is similar to the seasons example.  Looking at the daylight as a sine wave (negative light? work with me here), starting the day at the peak of the negative is the same as starting winter on the day of the Winter Solstice.  Again, looking at history, day used to begin at daybreak.1 

    Make 6AM the start of the new day.  While we’re at it, start the hour count at that time.  Noon is 0600, nominal sunset it 1200 and midnight (“middle of the night”) is 1800.  Suddenly makes much more sense.

     

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    Oh, yeah. Notice the 24-hour clock notation in there? Who decided that we need to reset the clock again in the middle of the day? Why are there two 8 o’clocks every day? If you’re going to have 24 hours in a day, count them all, dammit!2

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    By the same token, the year starts at perihelion? Our time, human time, is based upon the days of the season rather than some arbitrary orbital milestone. Again, looking at the previous post’s graph (reproduced at right), the logical start of the new year is the Spring Equinox, the positive-going zero-crossing. Interesting that this date was used as the start of a new Presidential term in the early days of the Republic. The Romans (among others) used that date to start their year.

    So again, there is a historical precedent.3

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    I can’t help but to be an engineer whose job is to “fix things.” Here’s a fix for something that you never knew was broken.

    Now get off my lawn.

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    1. I think the Romans used this. No citiation.
    2. Of all of my crackpot ideas, this would be the easiest to implement and the most certain to get the most screams; i.e.“Military Time!!” (the elimination of the BC/AD would be a very close second)
    3. Well, I’ve gotten this far without a citation so you’re on your own.

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  • BakedPenguin’s NFL Pick-em – Week 1

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    Ed. note: BakedPenguin’s new idea is a good one. However, he didn’t think of it until late Saturday night. So, instead of a preview of the NFL’s Week 1, you get to see how well he did picking them!

    We expect the following weeks will be more timely.
     

    Special thanks to Web Dom for graciously giving up her time spot tonight so we could run this post.

    [/et_pb_text][et_pb_toggle admin_label=”PIT @ CLE” _builder_version=”3.13.1″ title=”PIT @ CLE”]

    [/et_pb_toggle][et_pb_toggle admin_label=”SF@MIN” _builder_version=”3.13.1″ title=”SF @ MIN”]

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  • The Problem with Aggregation, Part 2 of an… Aggregation

    TW: No funny pictures, and you may well think I’m somewhere between naive and insulting by the end of this.

    You are what you eat.  Obviously true for actual food for our physical body, but I contend that it is even more true for our mental and spiritual bodies as well.  Probably even more so. If you deny yourself carbs, your body undergoes a process called gluconeogenesis where it turns protein into glucose.  If you deny important inputs to your mind or your spirit, I don’t think there is a similar process to turn garbage in into anything but garbage out.

    In the previous post in this series, I promised that I would put forward a way to use the insight of that post (that aggregation and transitivity isn’t universal,) to make yourself a better person.  Here is the long, round-about way of getting to that suggestion.

    There is a saying that is the answer to the nature / nurture question.  That saying is “Nature loads the gun, the environment pulls the trigger.”  What that means is that ‘nature’ aka your genetics, your inborn instincts, and your physical limitations, they have created you as this machine that reacts to certain things in certain ways.  In one environment, you will act in one way, and in another environment, you will likely act in a very different way to produce a different end result. Take, for example, a big burly man with limited abstract intellect, a distrust of machinery, but with great willpower.  Put him in the workforce in a coal-mining town decades ago, and he will be remembered for generations as an American Hero. Put him in the workforce in a modern metropolis, and he is going to have a hard time holding down a steady job. Same traits, different environment, different outcomes.

    Alla yall nerds, did you read Jim Butcher’s Brief Cases?  Before the story about Marcone, Jim says that in another world, Marcone would be an ideal and humane landlord.  But in wizard-and-magic Chicago, he’s a ruthless crime boss. Same traits, different environment, different outcomes.

    Another example.  Take the world’s most literate, religious, and educated population on the planet.  Put them in a small town with no electronic communication facilities and a low enough level of wealth that many take for granted can only be made as communal property.  A town usually has one oven, and all the ladies get together for bake days. The town has one mill, and all the men get together to for milling days. The town gets one newspaper and everyone gathers together when the mail comes so someone can read it out loud.  Do you know the origin of the title Professor? He was the guy at the university who made up for the fact that there were more students than books. You couldn’t study in the library because there weren’t enough books to go around. They had a job called the reader where a bunch of people sit in a classroom and listen to someone read the books aloud.

    This is a time of very cosmopolitan mixing.  Anabaptists and Lutherans share dinner instead of the sword and the flame.  Brewers sold yeast to Puritans. This happens because of the social environment.  When two ladies are standing around waiting for the oven temperature to drop from “pie” to “bread,” it’s not likely that they’ll debate the scriptural validity of Calvin’s teachings.  They’ll gossip about what sort of social disease the town strumpet gave to the preacher. Men around the millstone, slowly pouring in grain, don’t usually debate the value of the teachings of the Physiocrats vs that of the Scottish philosophers in developing the wealth of a nation.  They talk about how preacher should apply a tincture of lead and witch-hazel to pants and stop riding the town bike.

    Face to face, they’ve got a life to lead with more pressing and immediate concerns than abstract political economy.  Or politics. Or whatever -ism you can think of. And having just seen what a circular firing squad it is when people of different faiths choose to go oppressing others, they opt to find a way to make friendly relations instead.

    This has a drastic impact on what happens when a political disagreement comes up.  I’m of course talking about the Colonies. Former-Loyalist or former-Patriot, early Americans knew that once the war was over they still had to live with each other and they had to work together to overcome the problems of slow communication and honest differences of interest.  First time around, it worked pretty well.

    The second time around…  Well, it didn’t work so well.  The economy and the social fabric of the nation had changed.  Industrialization started in the north. The south became more stratified.  People had less face to face time with each other. Rounded human beings became names, and names became labels.

    Take the same humans out of the colonial environment and put them in Reconstruction.  You have Yankees and Carpetbaggers, not Hank and Cynthia. Instead of a memory of the futility of warring over differences, you have a memory of a war where brother went to war against brother and shit got done because of it (either emancipating the slaves or perpetrating northern aggression and control, depending on which side of the Mason Dixon you haled from.)

    Same traits, different environment, different outcomes.

    The difference in the environment is a social difference.  People knew more people but not as deeply, they cataloged others with labels, and they operated in an environment of labels.

    The greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was making you think you can only have tacos on tuesday.  The second greatest trick was to get you to replace people with labels.

    Because the human mind is lazy.  Once you understand something, you won’t go any further to define that thing if we don’t have to.  It has to be beaten into our heads. You have to stand next to someone working a millstone or loading bread into an oven day-in and day-out to see them as a human being instead of a label.

    In short, labels are a way to aggregate people into types.  It happened less in the Colonies, more in Reconstructions and…

    And now, its out of control.  Our social environment is becoming mediated by platforms and trends that reduces the standing-around-next-to-people time and increase the labeling tools at your disposal.  Social media is making us evil, because remember, aggregation of humans is the root of evil these days. Your ability to spend more and more time plugged into your phone means you are spending less and less time being bored next to people you don’t have much in common with.  Fewer and fewer kids are spending time running around the neighborhood with whoever happens to liveby, and more and more time being shuttled around to activities full of like-minded families.

    And it’s making us worse off.  On this website, lots of you call it derp.  Posting links to show just how out of touch some idiot progressive or statist is.  Progressive. Statist. These are labels and they do their damage even when, especially when, they are right.  

    Using labels like this makes someone a foot soldier in the culture war.  “SJW” is used as a knowing insult. It’s a poke at people who are warriors when there’s no war to be waged.  Its an assertion that these people are Mad Online in the real world. They can’t meme because they take everything to serious.

    And in a lot of cases, it’s a rhetorical blow that strikes true.  But it’s a blow in the culture war. It’s a fight in the war fueled with labels.  It’s a blow in a battle that doesn’t need to be fought. Not by the SJWs. And not by us.

    There’s names for people who fight battles even when it’s not appropriate.  Different names in different times and places, but it’s an old idea. In one time, in one place, they were called ber-serkir.  They were so useful in their society that they were treated like divine gifts. But that’s not what we call them now in modern culture.  Now, if you go and you fight a battle without provocation, it just makes you a maniac.

  • Not Just Self-Evident

    Suthenboy is not a credentialed philosopher. Consult a credentialed professional before deciding.
    “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” -Declaration of Independence of the United States, 1776

    The notion of natural rights, that a person’s rights are inseparable from that person under any circumstances, is a relatively new concept and one that is and has been from the outset of its declaration controversial. It’s detractors say that it is an abstract concept existing only in the minds of its proponents. They claim that there is no objective evidence that such a thing exists in nature and thus that morality and ethics are arbitrary. I disagree.

    Whatever our founders believed the source of natural rights they made and appeal to the divine to justify belief in them. Perhaps it was a somewhat cynical, utilitarian approach to appeal to a nation that was strongly religious.

    “Can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are of the gift of God?” -Thomas Jefferson

    Certainly the founders were not monolithic in their belief in the origin of rights, but they were in agreement that they existed. I propose that whether a gift from God or simply existing by virtue of our nature objective evidence can be found for their existence. It does not matter where they come from, their existence is evident.

    Few rational people would argue that our world does not function on naturally existing laws. The sciences operate on this premise. Science is a method for discovering what those laws are and how they affect ourselves and the world around us. The veracity of scientific discoveries is measured by the ability of those discoveries to make accurate predictions about how we and the world around us will behave. By this measure science is a far superior system than, say, astrology. Simply put, superior systems yield superior results.

    An engineer that can produce a functioning spacecraft certainly has a superior grasp of the laws of physics and chemistry than one whose most sophisticated accomplishment is a dugout canoe. The production of a computer requires a far greater depth of knowledge about nature’s law than the production of an abacus.

    Geologists have a deeper understanding of the earth’s structure than the guy who believes in turtles all the way down and so can produce petroleum or predict earthquakes and volcanoes whereas the latter cannot. The success of this system of knowledge is evidence of its correlation with natural law.

    Those disciplines are based on an understanding of the naturally existing laws of physics and chemistry. Systems of morality and ethics are the products of ideas. Their success depends on how closely those ideas conform to the natural laws of human nature and economics.

    To whatever degree societies have allowed individual liberty – that is the belief in and respect for natural rights – success by any measure has been exponentially greater than those societies that have not. The United States is the premier example of such a society.

    The US has produced more wealth than all other nations through the history of mankind combined. The US contributed to increased worldwide health, wealth and longevity more than any other nation. The US has more social mobility than any other nation. The US produced air conditioning, flight, electricity, refrigeration, hamburgers, hotdogs, telephones, mass produced automobiles, atomic energy, chocolate for the masses, heart surgery, vulcanized rubber, computers and the internet. The list is nearly endless. As the joke goes “There are two kinds of nations: nations that do X, and nations that have put men on the moon.” Nearly everything that makes the modern world what it is is a product of the United States.

    This wild success is the product of a belief in and respect for natural rights. Innovative individuals have been free to innovate and profit from their efforts. Individuals have been able to think, speak and act as they willed more than in any other society. By respecting the concept of self-ownership – that every individual naturally owns their mind, body and conscience exclusively and thus the product of their intellectual and physical labor – a powerful incentive for those individuals to strive for success is created. As a result the United States has flourished more than any nation in history and contributed mightily to the welfare of all mankind.

    Simply put, superior systems produce superior results because they adhere more closely to the existing laws of nature. A belief in and respect for natural rights has unquestionably produced superior results.
    * Fun story: During World War II my grandfather owned a pulpwood business and had a contract with the federal government to use German POW labor. One of the jobs he secured was in south Louisiana. He transported the POWs to the job site on a route that went through Baton Rouge. The first time the POWs saw the Wilkinson bridge they were awestruck. If you have occasion to cross that bridge pay attention to it. Most people that cross the bridge take it for granted but if you really look at the scale of it it is awe inspiring. It is easy to see how the POWs were barely able to believe their own eyes. What they said to my grandfather about it really stuck with me. “If we had known what America is like we never would have gone to war against you. No one can defeat a country that can build something like this.”