An Example of Partisan Force

Hmmm, in a prime example of partisan extremism, Bill Clinton gave an extremely partisan speech with the central theme of accusing his opponents of partisan extremism.

Projection is one of the most successful tools of the left.

I tried listening to Hillary's speech on the radio yesterday. Except annoying announcers kept breaking in to the speech.

Bill Clinton was probably the single most fortunate president in history. The US was the center of both a computer and internet boom that can happen only once in history. The boom was crowned by an artificial Y2K problem that poured bucket loads of cash into the economy.

Bill Clinton ignored the rise of the Taliban, he turned his back on the people of Rwanda, and on the secod rise of Saddam Hussein.

He is correct that single pary rule under Bush was a fiasco.

The rational style, however, is not determined by the President. The rational style is set by the schools, press and other institutions that are dominated by the left.

Real analysis of the failures of the Bush presidency is valuable. The increased volume of the partisanship was the result the of the left and not Bush.

The wank right after Clinton (Evan Bayh?) just said the most ludicrous thing I had heard in a long time. He praised Obama for supporting a timed withdrawl of American troops when Al Qaeda was winning the war and the Iraq Democracy was at its most tenuous. He then attacked Bush for starting negotiation a time table for withdrawl when it looks like the Iraq Democracy made it through its darkest hour.

For those of you who are into definitions. Withdrawing your forces when you are losing is called "surrender." Withdrawing forces after winning is called "victory."

I opposed the war. However, the way one ends a war is far more important than the way it was started. I applauded Bush's stand that we should not negotiate a timed withdrawl until there was good chance that a democracy would survive in the region.

That means we needed to find a way to draw down during a upswing.

The ending of the war is more important than its beginning. We ended Desert Storm poorly because we left Saddam in power and simply ignored Hussein's atrocities during the Clinton years.

Homes as Slot Machines

Honestly, I tried to listen to the DNC. I went to the TV, there was a idiot named Warner lamenting about how, because of the Great Satan George W. Bush, Americans no longer see their home as a safe investment.

First of all, seeing anything as a safe investment is stupid. Investment entails risk.

Anyway, the people who understand what an investment is and who invested in their home are sitting pretty in homes that have been and will continue to be a good investment.

The problem is with the myriad of people who see their home as a slot machine. People who see their home as a slot machine have artificially driven up prices. Just like the chattle that pulls the levers of the one-armed-bandits in Vegas, people who see their home as a slot machine tend to lose.

The Warner-bot then spouted a bunch of rhetoric about failure. "Failure" appears to be one of the Democrat's favorite words. They love accusing people of failure.

Speaking of failure, I was wondering why Warner failed to lay any blame for the housing problem on the public schools. Public schools systematically fail to teach students the simple financial knowledge they need to be able to own and keep a home.

Of course the formula of the left is simple. You denounce something as a failure. You pass tax and spend laws to solve the failure and feast on the income redistribution.

Anyway, I tried listening to the DNC. Most of it is just people trying to find ways to drive wedges in our society on their rise to power.

Conventions aren't a format where people authetically discuss and resolve issues. It is a place where central authorities issue talking points and test the effectiveness of their rhetoric.

I think I will spend the evening doing something else.

Convention Insanity

I was reading local blog posts talking about how much they wish they were in Denver at the moment. I thought the posts funny because I had decided to put off

If I had been able to pull off my plans. I would be in Denver at the moment.

Much as I want to get to the other side of the Zion Curtain, I decided to put off going to Denver for six months.

I am interested in things that build local communities. Coronation ceremonies don't build community. If the convention was about people exchanging ideas with the leadership of the party, then I think I would be there. But conventions are orchestrated media events where the anointed work to deliver a message honed for the maximum effect.

This applies to both D and R conventions. Political conventions are, by definition, a partisan event. As a partisan event, they don't build community. There is a tiny change that I could have scored an inbound link or two this blog and elevated it from the lowest possible technorati score of 1. I think I would have just been miserable.

I did watch Michelle Obama's speech on the tube. The message of change is that we should give up on the American Experiment that created a government that was well suited for the way life is, and change to a shiny new government designed for the way life ought to be.

The message was interesting in that I have been trying to figure out how to say just the opposite.

The Ancients through the Dark Ages held the ideal that happiness would come through the perfection of the centralized government ... The Empire. People fell for the line that the king (and the ruling class) lived as servants to the people. Serfs did horrible things to one another in the belief that the centralized government would take care of them when the emperor was strong.

The Renaissance and Enlightenment were defined by new intellectual efforts to apply reasoning to define the way life is, and to find the best way of governing a world the way that it is.

This effort came to fruition with the development of a slightly freer market, the protection of human rights and a limited government with democratically elected leaders. The system works. It is a shame that the people meeting in Denver want to end it.

The other thing I noticed about Michelle's speech. She spent the lion-share of the speech talking about the struggles of the working class. She spoke about people working themselves ragged to pay for health care and consumer goods. She lamented the people working two shifts to make ends meet and spoke about how it is nigh impossible for a person who is in the habit of living from pay check to pay check to pay for health care expenses.

Nowhere in the speech did she mention small business or ownership.

The paycheck to paycheck trap is untenable. There are two ways out of it. The first is for people to accept the world as it is, and for individual people to save in times of health to prepare for times of hardship. The second is to return to imperial dream where we have a massive centralized feudal system, and people hold to the delusion that the king is a servant to the people, as it ought to be.

Linking Bridges

I've been doing silly things. I took a few shots of the 3300 South bridge moving. I can link these pictures to the ones I took of the 4500 South and 1300 South bridges.

I've noticed that I am pretty much the only person who links to my Community Directories; so, to create some inbound links, I decided to make a stock page. Companies that trade on the market must file quarterly reports. That means that following the local stock market is a great way to learn about the local community.

I've started making a page of stocks of importance to a community. Since big companies usually have their headquarters in big cities, I suspect that this project will only work for Salt Lake and Denver. I am intentionally going slow on this project. I will gradually add stocks over the next several months.

The reason I am going slow on the project is that Google seems to penalize web sites when they add a bunch of web pages in a massive update. Google seems to be kinder to web projects that role out over a period of time.

To test this hypothesis. I dropped a Golden Can integration on the site A Fountain of Bargains. My guess is that Google will balk at the appearance of a large database on the aFOB site but will treat the gradual appearance of data on the stock project as an organic process.

In other words, I think that search engines tend to be kinder to web sites that are designed as a long term process with a steady flow of updates than ones than to web sites that get updated in versions.

Less Guzzling

This is wonderful news, the U.S. Department of Transportation estimates that US consumers drove 12.2 billion miles fewer in June 2008 than in June 2007. This is a 4.7% decrease in consumption. The site claims a 400 million gallon drop in consumption of gas and 318 million fewer gallons of diesel.

Here's hoping that July will break the 5% mark.

I am so happy.

Americans are doing what needs to be done. We are re-assessing our gas guzzling ways. We are getting fuel efficient vehicles.

Consumers now want smaller, efficient cars. The market just accomplished one of the great aspirations of the political pundits. It is increasing the efficiency of the American fleet.

The downside for the DOT is that the dramatic drop in consumption of fuel means a dramatic drop in tax revenue. (The site fails to mention that fewer miles driven and lighter cars decrease the stress on the highway infrastructure, which should decrease their costs). Regardless, we probably need an increase in the gas tax to continue maintaining our roads.

Anyway, I applaud the conservation efforts of Americans. Learning to make the most efficient use of our resources makes us stronger as a people. Conservation, alternative energy and wise use of our energy resources is the path to prosperity.

Heating prices are likely to be wicked this upcoming winter. I hope that all Americans invest some of their ingenuity this Fall in coming up with ways to decrease their heating bills.

The Potential of Aristotle

I finally finished the section on Aristotle. The article took a long time to write for two reasons. The first is that there are just too many directions that one can take from a mention of Aristotle. The second problem is that Aristotle, per se, is not a primary concern of mine.

Aristotle is important because he is associated with the innovation of logic.

There are several things that I wanted to emphasize in the article. The first, of course, is that respect for quality reasoning leads to prosperity.

Quality reasoning is different from effective rhetoric. Quality reasoning is a process where one goes through a detailed analysis of their reasoning process to see if the ideas are sound.

A second important point I wanted to make was that Aristotle positioned his work as an improvement on what came before. This is actually an important point. In the classical world, philosophers were seeking improvement on what came before. In the post Kantian world, philosophers started seeking radical change.

My observation is that people who are committed to sound rational thinking and who are seeking improvement occasionally come up with ideas that are revolutionary in nature. The structure of this type of thinking is more apt to result in changes for the better.

Conversely, people who are committed to radical change for the sake of radical change often end up creating regressive change.

The next key element I wanted to emphasize in Aristotle was his approach to moderation. People who are committed to sound reasoning are often labeled as dictatorial. The reason for this is that such people believe in clear statements.

Aristotle's observation was that virtues pushed to extremes created vices. The secret to a truly virtuous life was to find a mean between the absence of a virtue and the excess of the virtue.

The second key to balance was to avoid absolutes. One must accept that the edges to their definitions are always fuzzy.

Very important to my work was Aristotle's differentiation between the potential and actual infinity.

I wanted to keep this article short; so I avoided enumerating all of the things I don't like about Aristotle. For example Aristotle held the merchant class in contempt. His political theories and his theories on virtue were perverted to support centuries of rule by oppressive kings and emperors. (These same faults were true of Plato).

There are also many mistakes in the writings we attribute to Aristotle.

The challenge is finding a way to present Aristotle in a way that encourages a commitment to rationality without having to rehash all of the mistakes made in the Aristotelian tradition.

It is common to make mistakes in the process of discovery.

I think Aristotle is a very interesting historical figure, but I don't think that the works we have from Aristotle, in and of themselves, make a good foundation for leading quality reasoning. The writings we have are actually lecture notes. They are fractured and convoluted. What is important is the commitment to rationality.

Tired of Politics

I am tired of all of the negativity in politics. For example, Obama said that people will vote for McCain because he looks more like the people on American currency than Obama.

It took me a moment to figure out what Obama was saying.

Then I realized that all of the people depicted on American currency were dead.

Judging from looks, McCain appears closer to being dead than Obama.

Anyway, I was shocked by Obama's blatant use of agism.

Speaking of negativity and naysayers ...

I had a plan to solve the energy crisis.

My plan was to turn zucchini into bio-diesel.

Zucchini seems to grow like a weed and seems to be able to grow in all sorts of different climates.

When I wrote up my proposal, the powers that be just said no. It seems that there are environmentalists who are ideologically opposed to zucclear energy.

They wouldn't even let me try my idea. Something about a zucclear test ban.

Others claimed my "bio-diesel from zucchini" plan was just a ruse in a fiendish plot to raise weapons grade zucchinis.

They pointed to the people who seem to plant a few zucchinis every year then dump bussels of zucchinis on the neighbors. They said that before anyone else plants zucchini, I had to solve the zucclear waste issue.


While politics gets more bitter, all of my good ideas get passed by.

Fence Jumping

On the issue of pets. I've been telling people that the one trait we are collectively breeding into dogs is the ability to jump fences.

My parents don't have a dog proof backyard, so Coco spends her days in doors.

Last week I was talking with a neighbor about the problem and how much I wish Coco had the experience of a backyard. We put Coco in the backyard with an 8 foot high fence (and a 6 foot high gate). 15 minutes into the experience Coco escaped. I assume she lept over the gate.

When we lived in Denver, our neighbors had a male dog with a distinctive ring around an eye. It was adept at fence jumping. Sure enough, dozens of litters of puppies mysteriously appeared at households that were oh so good about keeping their female dog in the back yard. They all had the same mysterious ring around the eye.

With each passing generation (dog generations are only about two years), dogs are getting better at fence jumping.

Of course the thing we really have to worry about is the day when one of the millions of pups in this country figures out how to open doors. That pup will spawn a new species of canine.

Fixing the Pet Crisis

I used to be a big advocate of pet adoptions. I thought that, if enough people adopted unwanted pets, then we could humanely solve the pet overpopulation crisis. Unfortunately, a large number of people who have adopted pets have found themselves saddled with expenses that they are not able to handle.

Well-meaning pet adoption efforts seem to have saturated the community's ability to care for pets. As many pet adopters were feeding their pets on credit, the recent mortgage mess has created a perfect storm situation where households are forced to give up pets in a market that simply cannot absorb more homeless pets. Pundits have taken to calling this crisis "foreclosure pets."

With so many households in stress, pet adoption is not a viable path out of the crisis. The massive pet adoption industry that encouraged people to adopt pets on credit seems to have created an even deeper crisis. I actually feel bad about my past efforts to encourage pet adoption as a solution to pet overpopulation.

In some cases, pet adoptions and pet rescue efforts enable inhumane treatment of animals. For example, greyhound rescue efforts save dog racers the cost of caring for older dogs. The walking-talking-slugs that breed pitbulls for fights use pitbull rescue efforts as a dumping ground for dogs that aren't prime for fighting.

It is a difficult task to organize a charity so that it isn't an enabler for the problem the charity wishes to address.

Anyway, I just penned a review of no more homeless pets.

Past versions of the review lauded people for adopting homeless pets. This version of the review loudly rings the bell for fixing pets. The review emphasizes the costs associated with pet ownership and condemns people who don't fix their pet for saddling the community at large with the cost of caring for our excessive pet population.

Pets consume an inordinate amount of food and fuel. Dogs and cats feed from the same food chain as humans. The recent trend to convert food to bio-fuels is straining the food chain. There are already reports of food shortages in poorer parts of the world.

There is a moral issue involved in converting food to fuel (The issue is especially pronounced in regards to government subsidies for bio-fuels). The fact that we are converting food to fuel creates a secondary issue of feeding out bloated pet population in a world facing the scourge of global warming and food shortages.

I contend that pet ownership is an area where we can reduce our consumption of food and energy.

While I still hold that people should adopt pets from the vast reserve of homeless pets before buying animals from pet farms, I no longer see pet adoption as a viable cure for pet overpopulation.

Pet owners have a moral responsibility to control the reproduction of their animals. Fixing pets is the best solution to the problem. I believe that the humane societies of the US would be wise to use the boom of "foreclosure pets" to drive the message that Americans should spay, neuter and reduce our overall pet population.

I am really sad, but the crisis of foreclosure pets will lead to a massive increase in the number of euthanized animals.

In my review I make the claim that every time an irresponsible pet owner lets the dog or cat drop a litter costs society at large some $30,000. Pet owners make a difference when they lead their beloved foofoo on that long walk to the vet for a simple operation.

Stimulating Inflation

I was watching talking heads on TV yammering about the need for a second stimulus package while griping about the sudden emergence of inflation. The talking heads seemed to miss an obvious connection.

We had a stimulous package where the Feds borrowed a pile of cash which came largely from China, oil producing nations. There were also investors who pulled their money out of risky investments in the stock market and in mortgages.

Not surprisingly, after the stimulus packages we saw the value of the dollar drop, and the price of gas skyrocket. As smart investors yanked their capital from risky investments in the stock market and mortgages, the market tanked and the housing crisis worsened as borrowers find that investors would rather own treasury bonds than investing in housing.

It appears to me that the stimulus package was a qualified and quantifiable flop.

Of course, not all of the economic news is bad. Apparently, many Americans have taken conservation to heart and they reduced their fuel consumption. The result is that oil inventories rose when the pundits were predicting a decline. Oil prices tumbled on that news last week.

Energy is currently the limiting factor for growth. Each and every step that we take to reduce the waste of energy at this point in history has a magnifying effect. The Pelosi stimulus failed to address the problem. In fact, one might argue that the artificial stimulus simply subsidized bad behavior.

Anyway, since Nancy Pelosi voted for inflation, I decide to inflate my prices. I decided to increase the listing fee for SL Sites from $10 to $12. That is a nice round 20%. Art organizations, non-profits, content sites and blogs can still list for free.

I actually wrote the program so that I can easily adjust the price. Since I figure that the Democrats will have complete control of Congress and the White House, I programmed the site so that it will automatically inflate the price at a rate 20% a year.