Free kibbles

TAX AND SPEND:

Mass protests in Spain over austerity measures.

REGULATION:

Swiss voters reject law mandating businesses give workers six weeks paid vacation. Too bad American voters aren't that smart. If we had a national referendum like that here, it would pass overwhelmingly.

HEALTH CARE:

Walnuts reduce cancer and cholesterol, reverse brain aging in mice and increase heart health in diabetics, but the FDA won't allow you to hear about it.

Is anybody surprised that government's doctors corrupt the organ transplant process for personal gain? I'm reminded of the Monty Python skit: I'm not dead yet. You think this is bad, but in a few year, when the world economy collapses, government agents will come to people's houses and beat old people in the head, claiming they need their organs for younger people. Call me crazy today, but remember this in a few years.

WAR:

US soldier goes on murder spree in Afghanistan, killing 16 including women and children.

The USS Enterprise is the most famous naval ship in history. It's been in service longer than any other naval ship. Why would they scrap it instead of making it a museum?

POLITICS:

Paul supporters take control of Las Vegas GOP.

Ron Paul wins the Virgin Island caucus, but the media incorrectly reports Romney won. It's a shame the people in the states aren't as smart as the people in the Virgin Islands.

I often talk about how Americans have surrendered freedom. I claim we've surrendered so much freedom that the US is on the verge of becoming the Soviet Union. But language is a euphemism. We haven't surrendered freedom. Subsets of the American people have stolen freedom from the rest, which means we've all lost freedom. It's kind of like the old German saying, First they came for...

"First they came for the communists,

and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a communist.

Then they came for the trade unionists,

and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a trade unionist.

then they came for the Jews,

and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a Jew.

Then they came for me

and there was no one left to speak out for me."

But unlike the Germans, they didn't come for our freedom. Americans stole freedom from themselves with votes. We keep stealing freedom from ourselves with votes. I often absolve American voters because it's convenient rhetorically, but that's because I'm being lazy. Every institutionalized problem in the US is the result of American voters. Every socialist policy in the US is the result of American voters. We have the socialist goverment we deserve because of a century of voters who voted Republican or Democrat, both socialist parties. The government we suffer under today has been empowered by American voters of both parties. If you voted for one or the other, I blame you.

MEDIA:

Apparently the media corporations got together and decided daylight savings time stinks. I love daylight savings time. I think regular time stinks. I hate that it gets dark in the winter around 5pm. That's just nuts.

LOCAL:

I'm skeptical of the economic benefits of events like this. That's not honest. I know there is no economic benefit to consuming. The only economic benefit the local area enjoys from events like these is based on how much revenue comes into the area from outside. Don't be fooled. Consumption doesn't create wealth.

MISC:

OMG. Thirty years ago only smart people wrote software, and the software they wrote was excellent. Since then, every decade, smart people have developed programming languages for dumber and dumber people, and as a result, tons more software has been written, but most of it is crap. Now somebody wants to create human language programming system. I think of Star Trek. As disgusted as I am at the race to the bottom driven by past programming so-called advances, this might work. Computing power is becoming so powerful that maybe compilers can create quality code from human language instructions. If this is true, it will revolutionize programming. This could be a paradigm shift. Previously, people wrote software for others, and it generally sucked. If this becomes reality, people will write programs for themselves, improve them for themselves, and, through crowd-sourcing, the best of those programs will rise to the top and be improved by better programmers. This will not happen in the next few years, but if the project begins now, it could happen in a decade.

The three point shot has been terrible for basketball. In this case, though I can't find a static link, Florida State beat a better UNC team by shooting 11 of 22 from three point land while UNC shot 5 of 20. Basketball games should not be decided by who gets luckier at shooting long balls. If you want to try the long ball strategy, you should get 2 points like every other basket.