Monday Morning Thoughts

  1. It’s amazing how much relief I felt when I woke up and my first thought was “I don’t have to clean up all that cat puke.” Corollary- that was a weird dream.

  2. Just because I saved up all those calories for the brother-in-law’s birthday dinner, doesn’t mean I need to use them all. Even for the mother-in-law’s cake and the wife’s deviled eggs.

  3. I’m trying to remember why I thought it was a good idea to schedule a doctor appointment on my day off. Particularly when my doc is sixty miles from the house. Oh well, at least I’ll get to wear my kilt, since I’m not going there after work.

An-Cap Asymptote

It’s been said, that if you get three libertarians in the room, they will immediately begin determining who is the true libertarian. Unfortunately, we’re seeing this play out on the national stage within the Libertarian Party. Particularly between the anarcho-capitalist wing and the left-leaning pragmatist wing.

I have great sympathy for the an-caps. For those who do not live within the libertarian world, anarcho-capitalists base their worldview on the first principles of the non-aggression principle (no one should initiate violence on another, but may use violence in self-defense) and strong property rights. All exchanges and associations should be voluntary, which would inviolate the coercive force of a state.

It’s a great ideal, but an an-cap society will always be an asymptotic ideal. We can strive for it, and get as close as possible, but we will never actually achieve it. At least, not on a national scale. There might be some communities that could, but I doubt anything over a small town. Not in a country of 330 million people. Not with a two-hundred-year history of governments being perceived as neutral or even beneficial.

In the mean time, I think libertarians should strive for that ideal. Remove the coercive force of the state from our lives as much as possible and show people that the world will not come to an end if the state does not provide everything.

HammerFall/Sabaton Concert AAR

I know the blog’s been a bit quiet the last few weeks. Been busy.

Last Saturday, I trekked up to Saint Pete to catch HammerFall and Sabaton in concert.

  1. Jannus Live is not my favorite venue. It’s a fucking outdoor courtyard with no seating where 2K+ people are crammed. If I go back to this place to catch a show, and it’s normal Florida weather, I’m wearing my damn kilt.
  2. At least two people not in line told those of us in line, that this was the longest line they’ve seen for a concert. Not sure if it was a measure of dedication from the fans or lack of heavy-hitters at Jannus, but I’m thinking the former.
  3. I need new concert ear pro. Preferably something discreet, effective, and can be worn for several hours. Particularly when the venue plays intermission music at the same fucking volume as the acts.
  4. HammerFall always does a great show. Not as familiar with the songs from their new album. I will remedy that in the coming week. Especially since it’s a non-podcast week due to the work that needs doing.
  5. It was interesting to see how many of the concert goers were seeing HammerFall for the first time. From the hands I saw from my corner, figure about 80%. This was my second time seeing them in concert. Rumor is that they will be returning next fall. This will be investigated.
  6. Sabaton brought the fucking tank. The big, dual Gatling gun tank for their drummer. Heavy metal concert requires heavy metal. Military history themed heavy metal requires military heavy metal.
  7. Sabaton’s set started with a request for donations to the construction of a WWI memorial in DC. Wasn’t expecting that, but they certainly know their audience.
  8. Sabaton knows how to use their screen to display the “audience participation” parts of their songs.
  9. Lots of songs off the new album. These I haven’t fully ingrained in my head, but enjoyable nonetheless.
  10. Joakim learned a valuable lesson. When the Florida crowd starts singing “Swedish Pagans,” don’t threaten us with singing “YMCA” if we’re “bad.” We’ll just start singing the Village People to call your bluff.
  11. It was Joakim’s birthday. We got to sing “Happy Birthday” to him while he got to wear a pink tiara and try to blow out those relighting candles. If there’s one thing I love about a Sabaton show is that they do not take themselves too seriously, and are not above fan service.
  12. They didn’t bring a kid up onto the stage with them, but they did find a nine-year-old in the front. Whose parents named him Leonidas. No, I don’t know if they’re from Tarpon Springs. (Those is you outside Tampa, google it). This did lead to the crowd doing the Spartan cheer.
  13. It was not a great idea to park on the seventh floor of the garage when the elevator wasn’t available. On the plus side, I may have partially worked off the Kit Kat I ate before the concert.
  14. Still had a great time!

Electoral College Reform

No, I’m not for disbanding the electoral college for the popular vote. However, my concern is for states like California, Illinois, Texas – states where members of the minority party have no real voice in the presidential election.

Rather than the current trend of forcing all the states delegates to vote for whichever candidate wins the popular vote, I’m wondering if a better idea is to break up the states’ electors proportionally.

I can see this being done a couple of ways. First, have the proportion of broken out by who wins the counties. This has the advantage of nullifying the power of the cities over the rural, but we get back to the minority parties in the cities being under-represented. Another option would be to break up the electors based on the over vote proportion. This has the reciprocal issues of giving the cities a lot of clout, but better representing minority parties in those densely populated areas.

Neither system is perfect, however I do think either would help better align the spirit and reason of the electoral college with modern demographics.

Same Word, Different Meanings

I talk to my grandma once a week. On our last conversation, she informed me her church was having a crusade.

Me: “What do you mean by crusade?”

Grandma: “Don’t you know what a crusade is?”

Me: “I know what it means in a historical sense, but I doubt a bunch of Oklahoma Baptists are about to invade the Levant on Sunday night.”

She thought that was highly amusing.

Also, a crusade is a fancy name for a revival.