Pizza Hut

I got news for you...
that pasta you all just ate was actually Pizza Hut pasta bowls... and not a gourmet Italian chef...

... puke.

My brother's getting famous

some chick on the metro was reading about Sonos... I may or may not have pointed it out to her... that the guy in the photo was my brother. It's like that movie, Almost Famous.

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Insert movie times and more without leaving Hotmail®. See how.

Cash for Clunkers

As a free market economist... I can point to a number of reasons that I would be skeptical of Cash for Clunkers. As an environmentalists I like the fact that old cars are getting off the road.

Here's my prediction, and I hope it sheds some light onto one of the many reasons why I think this pigovian regulation is bound to make us worse off in the long run.

Under Cash for Clunkers people are given monetary incentives towards a new car in exchange for their old cars. As a result more people are opting to buy new cars right now. Auto dealerships are making a killing. The business is good.

The questions that come to me are, how long do people usually hold on to cars once they buy them new? If The people who are trading in cars would naturally go an buy a new car in the next 5 years or so, but they're opting to do it now, than essentially, the auto dealers boom in business is just them cashing in on future customers right now.

Here's the scary part, and this is why I think auto dealers should be scared. If people all rush to buy a car now we can expect them not to buy next year, resulting in a predicted dip in business next year. It's kind of like the baby boomers. A ripple in commerce.

What are the auto dealers going to do next year when the few people who were going to buy a new car aren't going to be buying. Business already wasn't good with the recession. The auto dealers are walking into the desert and they drank all their water on the first day.

I'm scared for the auto dealers.

hot links

why can't we be friends?

Cheat Neutral... cap and trade your boodie call.

Awkward family photos collected and posted for your entertainment online

and Mr T is so awesome he makes Bill O'Reilly look like a nice guy... holy hell. I never would have believed it possible.

love it.

freedom is not your freedom

the probability that freedom occurs in the first person, is 1 in 6,776,009,312 as of Aug. 7th 2009... and counting. Freedom is not you, it's usually someone else.

Get over it. If you believe in individual liberty, than let people do what they want when they want to do it.

It's better to give than receive...

you believe that? I don't.

There is a very positive force that you get from giving: that is one of humility. But at the same time some people could go for some receiving from time to time.

I think this is a nice point where reality meets a lousy linguistic moral compass phrase that erodes at the intelligence of our fair nation.

First off. Society cannot give more than it receives. In face, by the nature of it, because they are essentially the same thing from two different perspectives, the amount of giving in society is perfectly equal to the amount of receiving.

Second off: From time to time... keeping things for yourself is really a good thing. Correct me if I'm wrong but I do believe this is the primary source by which society functions. People collect things, sometimes people collect happiness and that's a very subjective thing that leads to people giving. But all in all people do do things for themselves quite a bit, and that's a really good thing. It's healthy. Actually, the whole concept behind the idea "healthy" is doing things for ones self.

Can you imagine a society where everyone thought it was better to give than to receive. What a weird society. I think it would be boring. People wouldn't be healthy.

Benchmarking my success.

and at this point in my career... I'm watching predator vs alien. yep.

How the hell is there a bottled water industry?

Seems like a steel. I mean all you really have to do is bottle it as it comes out of the ground. Sometimes you don't even have to pull it out yourself... it just bubbles up.

I'm not talking about oil, it's water and we need it. We need it so much that we've created massive amounts of regulation and really screwed up property rights schemes to make sure everyone who's thirsty gets their thirst quenched and every one who gets dirty gets to wash off their dirt. Yes, we (private individuals) pay a water bill but the water industry is anything but private: well sort of. To be fare, there really is two water industries. The water industry that delivers to your house in pipes, that we use to wash, flush, and sometimes drink, and the water industry that specializes in tasty sparkling mountain spring water or mineral water or anything else that sounds neat.

So my question is, and I can think of only one plausible answer, how does the bottled water industry exist when their competition is giving stuff away for free? I mean how can Fiji, Arrowhead Aquafina, or Evian compete with free stuff?

The only possable answer I can think of, is that public water sucks so much that even when they give away their product people are willing to pay for something different. Public water companies... you really suck.

Cops meeting a quota

I just witnessed four cars get ticketed by two cops standing on a corner.

Apparently, one side of the street in front of me is transit-only. Every private citizen who drives through it is breaking the law, and for good reason too, because they are thoroughly endangering our lives and the well-being of all the bus drivers... F this. People are being pulled over for nothing. They are hurting no one and they are putting no one in danger.

Nothing pisses me off like cops working to meet a quota.

Don’t hate date

Dear god... they're multiplying.

Come on, this is a natural thing. Seriously, all animals act this way. Like andy species, they’re only acting in the best interest or preservation of their race. They’re developing new rituals and social norms around a structural paradigm that acts to impede the renewal or longevity of, of in this case, their ideology. Of course one way to do that is to make babies.

In the last year, since the 2008 presidential election started heating up, there have been an unusual number of Ron Paulians in DC--or as some of my other friends in the liberty movement like to call them, DC Paul-tards. Paul-tard is a little harsh, but I know where the Paul-tard skeptics are coming from. It’s a turf struggle thing. The Paulians are trying to get in on the DC party. I'm down with it. Let the Paul-tards roll. F the ol’ boy’s club, this is innovation a "R3volution." The Ron Paul organizations might not be the smartest/most clean-cut, god knows Paulians are not old money dinner party material. But they do access a deeper-younger political crowd. They do the populist thing way the flip better than other liberty-oriented non-profits. Suck it up. Paul-tards are gifted.

To boot, maybe this’ll improve my dating life. There is such a critical mass in DC that they have begun to develop institutions around their habitat: dating institutions. It reminds me of an experience I had in the Adams Morgan earlier this year. I was in a bar that seemed a little off. Something wasn't right. I soon realized that no one was talking. The music was loud but no one talked. The bar had specialized, developed itself a niche around Gallaudet University. They offered a nightlife to the large deaf community in DC. Awesome.

Granted, libertarians have not claimed a bar yet, we now have a dating space. So all y’all libertarians who whine about there being no classically liberal women. Suck it up and start cutting loose.

oh yea and billy bob thornton is a whack job.

moon challenge

Private companies go to the moon with Photoshop, not robots.

F this challenge.

I got a moon challenge for you... go moon a police officer.

all things considered I do like the idea though. It's non-governmental. It promotes innovation. I guess I'd rather see google give $24 million to someone who can come up with a form of energy more efficient than oil, but that doesn't have the same sort of pizzazz about it.

In my opinion there is no difference between going to the moon and the Super bowl. Probably costs about as much... and makes about as much money too.

I can already see some company making their label into a lunar design for a couple of months... woot woot. Big deal.

Rant: DMV

Standard pissed off blog post about the DMV.

If your having a nice day don't continue reading.

So my co-worker and I took off early this Friday afternoon to go get some Virginia DMV work done. He needs to get a new ID to be able to drive in Virginia, as he has recently moved from out of state and I need a new ID period... Turns out I don't look the same as I did when I was 15, which was the last time I had my picture taken for a license.

My buddy and I are both marginally passifist-anarkist-libertarians... which generally translates to "thou shalt despise thy bureaucracy, and thou shalt blog about it when thoust encounters such filth" in layman’s terms.

Any, as a side project (and I probably should be even mentioning this, oh well I wasn't going to be elected to office anyway) I'm trying to get a new ID without having them destroy my old one. I mean my little brother doesn't look at all like me but the boy is locked in a town with nothing to do all summer and I figure the least I could do for him is to drop him a fake. So I was in the line with all my documents.. Crap I'm getting ahead of my self. It seemed like there wasn't a line but it was dirty trick. The line to get a number was very short. Crafty bastards.

I got to the front of that line and the lady, who barely spoke English, grunted at me that I needed two forms of ID to get a new ID. How twisted is that? So, (pause) if I lost my ID... let me get this straight, I would need two forms of ID to get a new one. I should preface this. Maybe normal people have a goggle of ID's with them from time to time but myself, and apparently I'm alone in this, I seem to be a little on the needy side when it comes to self-identification.

I have my Birth Certificate. My Passport got stolen and beyond that... boy things start looking grim. As I mentioned before I am a pacifist (of the political nature, won't think twice about a street side brawl) which pretty much negates all military ID's... Guess I'm just royally chastened...

There is another form of ID you can use, and you'll love this. Official College Transcripts. ... What the $%@&*? Yes ladies and gentleman, finally Marx is making an appearance on my blog. Talk about class segregation!! If you didn't get a college degree... and bring your Birth Certificate you would very soon find yourself face to face with a blond-Russian-female-mid-life-crisis who is grunting negations at you as you pee yourself with a lost prospect to visit a pub that night. Meanwhile your left in the cold as you attempt to penetrate her impermeable charm shield. Damn you invisible charm repellant!! … Nothing can save this bitch from her own depression... not even free sex.

Fortunately I was lying, and I will totally be able to go to the bars tonight because I totally did not loose my ID. (caveat: Lil' Bro, you owe me big, you sent a libertarian to the DMV, that's like forcing Kert Cobain to watch the Golden Girls) .

My buddy, on the other hand, waited through the choose-a-number-baloney and finally got to speak to a tenant in person, who oddly reminded me of a toad who was five years out from a break-up that ruined his life. The tenant send my buddy away for not having proof of residence, even though he had a letter issued by the DMV that was sent to his house in Arlington, Virginia (his residence).

At least their competent enough to not trust themselves. They know what's up. The DMV is a cluster fuck, and the only way through it is to get drunk and bring porn, cause it's going to be a while.

I will go this far. Airport security is run better than the Arlington DMV. … tax dollars?

Check out this bull shit

Dude thinks Mark Stanford is a threat to the US. Granted the fact that he self identifies as a repuplican should stand alone to satisfy this bag-of-dick's claim. I can't understand why Mark does though, because by my accord I do think he's more of a libertarian than a republican. All the real believers in freedom seem to be too limp to proclaim what they actually believe, that or you can't get anywhere in the American political system if you don't pledge alegance to a party.

I got a bone with this article and I'll get to it now. For a country of immagrants to claim that a public offical cannot be in love with someone from another country is flipping rediculious. You don't like the guy, vote him out. Democracy equals such. But if this guy wants to play Argentinian, or if Bill wants an oval lapdance, or if who ever when ever wants what ever... it is totally their own business. Politics is for politics. Public officials are put in place to make political decisions. Let the man do his job and judge him there.

And I am consistant with this rational. If a sports player wants to fight dogs in his free time, let the law deal with him, but disallowing him to go to work based on activities that are truely exogenous is rediculious.

Come on nation! We're better than this.

Remember people vote, whether they do it with their feet or their ballots voices can and will be heard in this land. Let the system work.

Ok... so I may be saying this because I have a bit of a thing for Argentenians. But I still feel that Mark Sanford should deal with this problem on his own terms less our fine country becomes a massive mixing pot of day time television. Politics is bad enough as it is, we don't need Ricky Lake to fuck it up even more.

Waxman-Markey

now I'm not one to bicker in with the fox news crowd on the subject but I do have a number of concerns about the new Waxman-Markey cap-and-trade bill: two of which I'll bring up now.

Carbon caps do not/never will/in no way what so ever mean hard hats.

Truth is carbon caps are a tax. A very basic burden on industry. This rains true especially due to the fact that the tax in subject is on energy, the most basic ingredient in all industry. Change that does not happen in a piecemeal form (that is coercive change) breads inefficient outcomes and vary bluntly bureaucratic costs. Sorry guys but unless the world suddenly starts acting differently, we're looking at a net loss in hard hats.

Secondly, Obama promised for a 100% free auction cap and trade system, (which we can argue the nuts and bolts about at a later date. I'll tell you frankly though, a free auction is a pretty sweet deal for free markets if you believe global warming is a threat, which I think I do.)

Only thing is, Obama and your great american superheros (every other politician) opted out of the free auction and went for massively no free auction. The gov't will be allocating the vast majority of the carbon credits. And who do you think they'll be giving the credits to? Yes ladies and gentleman let the life blood of special interest flow!!! We're gonna have a party on the capital tonight!!

The plan according to the capital is to transition to a free auction over a period of 10 years.

Let me draw up an analogy. You are a kindergarden teacher and you have 40 pieces of candy and 3o students. You want the students to value the candy and respect you and not try to steel candy from you.... instead of trading it to the students for something you might value as a teacher you give a bunch of it out for "nothing" then attempt to trade the rest for good behavior. Not only have you massively deflated the value of your good but now you've forever distorted the price of the good among the students in the class. they don't know when you'll go handing out candy again so they're hesitant to buy and generally uncertain about you and when they can get candy.... they may end up not trading good behavior for candy. Instead they may attempt to hire a lobbyist/parent to make sure you as a teacher are allocating the candy equally.

Now blow that classroom out to the size of a society. Those companies are confused as all hell. What do I buy when? It's easier to get free credits than buying them so possibly we'll se quite a few more offices pop up around DC. For locals that means more business however for the rest of us tax paying patriotic individuals we get to fork out the loot, our savings, that which I would have spent on forming an environmental company.

Yes ladies and gentleman, to clarify, I do believe the new cap and trade bill is a cluster fuck. Good luck america! I'm certainly not investing in energy any time soon. This bill is gonna make us pay out the bung-hole.

In conclusion, I think we need to seriously consider what a sense of urgency can do to a democracy. After all, as freedom in economics means freedom to fail, freedom in politics means freedom to really fuck up a nation.

God bless amaercia

and not for the reasons you think.

I was just in the land of the free and it sure as hell isn't anywhere near the capital of this fair land.

The land of the free, and by my limited accord the last bit of land like that we've got left, if Bozeman, Montana. Let me just list some of the common past-time activities which I took part in whilst exploring what people in the eastern part of this continent call "the west:"

1) Hunted ground squirrels with a 22 while driving around mountain roads in a truck. Yes we shot them from the truck, and no we didn't pick them up we left them to die.

2) Cooked a pig. One entire pig, gutted, choked with an apple, and lying in a bed of coals.

3) Learned how to use Bear Mace. Apparently it's somewhat stronger than regular mace as it has to account for a bit more beast per bitter.

4) Assumed the alpha male role among the members of the conference I attended.

5) Mingled with the locals. One stepped in for some drunken-close-talking and made me feel his guns (thankfully it was his arm mussel he was referring to, though at that moment I definitely imagined a number of things he could have meant by the proposal). He promptly stumbled out of the bar with a level nine droopy eye but not before announcing an epic closure to the night by screaming "WE'R LIVIN IN A DREAM WORLDT!!!"

6) Missed my plane because I was hung over and got upgraded to another flight for free.

7) Apparently they surf the lakes and rivers in montana, something I have got to see/partake in.

and it's all in the land of the free. You screw up your life its your own damn ass that gets grilled. I love it.

libertarian environmentalism

Environmentalism and Free Market Economics are totally completely holistically compatible.

In fact, free market economics, I would argue, is the only way to achieve long term peaceful environmental improvement.

To form this conclusion I start with the foundational principle that "evil" within humans, doesn't exist. I whole heartedly disagree with the premise that there exist so called "evil" people in this world. I do agree that there is bad education, mental illness, and perverse incentives, however this should by no means lead anyone who finds any amount of trust in their neighbor to conclude that another is by definition "evil." Such an assertion is the basis for a logical paradigm that leads to totalitarianism, communism, as well as generally irritating people. If one were to truly believe that there exist a sense of evil in people in this world, than they should just as soon, logically, confine themselves to a cube and live out their days with a catheter and feeding tube.

Society must trust. We carry out trusting instinctively. Learning to trust and distrust builds the basis for understanding contracts: both social and written. Trade, in all of it's forms, is the manifestation of trust. It follows that any restriction on trade is, at it's core, a laceration at a citizen's cognitive ability to trust and should be immoral.

Libertarian Environmentalism, as I define it, is an particular emphasis on human kind's ability to trust a contract that benefits them. Environmentalism benefits humans, therefore people request it and are willing to pay for it. If they were not, than they would be irate that their taxes were presently going to it; which is essentially the same thing. I citizens are willing to pay for it, why not let them do it individually, with the knowledge of trust that they individually have. I ask, if humans are not evil, why cannot they make decisions for themselves? I believe, and you may disagree with me, that individuals, and the entrepreneur represent the basis of trust we can believe in. Very little outside of that force has the incentive to achieve a catered local environmental movement that represents true change to a cleaner society.

Env't'al P-rights

Are most environmental regulations simply the present-day manifestation of property rights for future generations?

I was discussing the subject of recycling today and we were trying to allocate a property rights argument for or against recycling. It seems like any mandated recycling system is nothing more than a property right for future generations.

got lots going through my mind these days. I'll definitely be back soon.

North Hollywood Observations

I've been out of California for a while and on this renaissance journey to LA it almost seems as if I am going back to a second cousin's house that I used to spend christmas at as a child; only I recently found out my second cousin has a meth lab in the basement and has a human trafficking business on the side. Cutting up the roast beast has become a bit of an awkward encounter.

It's almost feel like "the one who got away." Like Darth Vader catching a cup of coffee with Obionekanobi a couple of years after he went to the dark side... "how how are things?" "Well ya know, it's good to see you... uh... I don't want to talk about my job."

Right now, i'm chilling in North Hollywood right. Waiting for my brother to come pick me up. I was running a seminar for the past week (working my tail off) and I finally, now, I have a chance to see my blooded generational monastic homey. My brother.

I really don't know when he'll show up, but it's ok. Leaves me a good opportunity to people watch. And here's what I see:

1. Good looking people.

2. Small dogs.

3. Paintings on buildings.

4. Egos.

5. People walking around with massive video cameras. I can't tell if the expression on their face is actual fatigue or them acting like they are fatigued. This kind of dull-blank stare that both boring people and overworked people have.

6. And also, correspondingly, everyone else can be categorized as people who are not batting an eye when people walk around with massive video cameras. I guess in hollywood it's the norm to hall around expensive looking equipment. I've got a philosophy book on my coffee-shop table, I suppose this is a similar beast.

7. Soul patches on wrinkly faces and trendy cloths on white haired people.

8 Excessive mixing of ethnic foods. I saw a Japanese hamburger place across the street from a Thai Pizza shack. It's like one big static cluster fuck of cuisine. I like it. Creatively destroy me some food.

9) Uneducated judgement. You can see it in their eyes.

10) Ridiculous clothing. People seem to match. I thought my New Glarus Brewing Co. sweatshirt was awesome, now I feel underdressed and outdated. (Nothing personal Dr. New Glarus. You know I think you totally rule, but I think you would agree, LA is not your target market.)

I think the big question to be answered in this venture to california is,

Is it creativity or confusion.