Category: Libertarianism

Monday Links

September 30, 2024 / / 0 Comments

Yeah, it’s been a couple of weeks. Some of these may be dated. Please see customer service for your refund.

Reason articles first.

Should Fauci be blamed for the pandemic? He certainly didn’t help with his actions. But I dislike mono-causal explanations for complex issues. Fauci was one part. So was political tribalism. So was an advocate media. So were many other things that we won’t fully understand for a generation.

California is going to try to regulate AI. I can see that going well.

No Trump, crime is not on the rise. It’s regressing back to where it was pre-pandemic. There is some evidence that some areas are seeing an unreported increase due to folks just not calling the cops. However, it looks like the trend is going back to where it was before 2020. And we’re still nowhere near the insanity of 1992 when violent crime peaked.

The NYT thinks DIY guns cause libertarianism. Eh, it’s probably more a case of correlation than causation.

Argentina ends rent control. Millions homeless? No. Falling rents and increased supply? Yes.

Now onto a hodgepodge of other items.

New technology keeps storm surge from flooding Tampa General Hospital. There has always been criticism of having Tampa’s main hospital on an island and surrounded by water. AquaFence did an amazing job during Helene. A reporter quipped that the company will now sell a bunch of them. Well, that’s what happens when your product performs that amazingly well.

Bloomberg reports on a new paper asserting online dating causing a rise in income inequality. An interesting thesis, but I’m not sure that it caused as much as accelerated a trend that was already happening.

From TechCrunch, the FDA granted approval for Apple AirPods Pro to act as hearing aid devices. I can see this as the start of lower cost hearing aids coming to market based on earbuds.

The Atlantic has an article on the demise of the minivan. Well, not quite demise, but definitely the dwindling of the market.

CNN article on how kiosks in McDonalds increased sales and need for workers. Again, technology didn’t change the need for workers, but changed what kind of work is needed.

The Verge reports YouTube is pulling songs due to its dispute with SESAC. This is impacting some older Metal Tuesday entries.

Monday Links

September 9, 2024 / / 0 Comments

Sweet FSM. I miss a week and the articles stack up. This is going to be a long links post. A lot of gun/RKBA related stories this week.

Let’s start with our normal collection of Reason articles. And talking about RKBA-related stories…

How courts are evading the Bruen decision. Color me surprised that lawyers and judges (but I repeat myself) are trying to push the guardrails of new legal theory.

Eighth Circuit strikes down Missouri’s 2A Sanctuary law. These kinds of laws are why I think we need an amendment that allows at least a majority of states to nullify onerous federal laws.

Another parent being charged with murder because their offspring decided to murder schoolmates and teachers. I am highly skeptical of this trend, particularly since it feels like we’re burning the parents in effigy (legally speaking).

A historical look back on arms bans prior to the 20th century.

The Biden administration is trying to go ahead with its plan to cancel student debt. Even though it’s illegal and the Supreme Court has struck down pretty much all attempts. Oh yeah, that will help keep the cost of college down. If it didn’t cost so much, I’d almost be in favor of it to help burst the college bubble.

A thinkpiece on what the .gov could do to help with the housing crisis. In the same vein, here’s an analysis on what happened when the Dutch recent tried national rent control. Spoiler alert: it ended up hurting the people it was supposed to help. Cue surprised Pikachu.

A recent survey of college students find almost a third think violence is an acceptable form of protest. I’m a little leery since I didn’t see how they worded the questions, but someone needs to explain to these young adults that the means you think are fully justified for your cause are going to be adopted by your opposition because they now think they have permission. Come to think of it, that describes a lot of what’s gone wrong in this century.

Have we reached peak public schooling? This rolls into one of my soapboxes that the nation needs to have a serious discussion about what it wants out of public schools. Everyone will say they want to make “responsible and educated citizens.” But let’s face it. It’s also state-sponsored daycare for a lot of folks.

Idaho’s Child Care Program expanded benefits and now is facing a $16 million deficit. Either there were a lot more needy families or there were a lot folks just lining up to the trough. These days, it’s probably both.

And now for some Ground News aggregations.

Trump is concerned how expensive IVF is and wants insurance to pay for it. Proving once again that Trump is fine with handing out goodies if he thinks it will get him elected, and he still has no concept of economics.

Okay, yes, the WHO beclowned itself with its obsequience to China during the pandemic. Still, it’s nice to have another study showing that there’s no link between brain cancer and cell phones.

NVIDIA is getting a hard look by the DOJ for trying to lock customers into its products. Companies being asses tends to open up the market for competitors, but DOJ is going to DOJ.

The US, UK, and EU sign an AI treaty. Yeah, that has beneficial to the growth of the technology written all over it.

Now for some more RKBA and gun related content.

John Richardson is reporting that one of the NRA directors is advocating for firing the Brewer firm. Jettisoning that firm would be a strong sign that the NRA is healing.

Speaking of John, guess who’s going to be on the ballot to become part of the NRA Board? Honestly, if I could immediately vote in the election, this might get me to join back. I’m still in my wait and see period.

TTAG article on Polymer80 closing up shop after years of fighting “ghost gun” legislation. It’s sad to see Pyrrhic victories in the gun world.

I’ve got a slew of tech-related/adjacent articles.

From The Verge, an article about how new AI-powered photo editing tools will make it harder to believe what you see.

Also from The Verge, Ecoflow launching a new series of batteries/powerstations. Honestly, I’m loving the innovation and expansion in this segment. I think advances in battery tech are crucial to improving the overall health of the power grid.

From The New Yorker, an essay on why AI isn’t going to be making art. While I think AI will make art creation more accessible to more people, it’s not going to replace the spark of creativity in humans.

From Bloomberg, Intel’s problems is endangering the promise of the CHIPS Act. Damn, it’s like industrial policy can’t overrule business / economic rules. Or that maybe the government has a bad track record of choosing winning corporations.

Via Wired, the Internet Archive got slapped down for lending out copyrighted books willy-nilly on its platform.

From MacStories, Reeder is launching a revamped product. I use the current Reeder (soon to be known as Reeder Classic) to gather the various stories that tend to end up here. (h/t The Brother)

Not tech, but of local interest, the local news station has an article on Tervis filing Chapter 11 reorganization. The Ward household has many of their products and hope they come out stronger.

Geek Culture reports on Transformers new line combining TF characters with other IP forms. Of particular interest to me is the Macross collaboration. Although I doubt it’s going to be a re-issue of the G1 Jetfire toy.

Monday Links

August 26, 2024 / / 0 Comments

This is going to be a weird one, as I have only one Reason article.

Albuquerque police chief thinks it’s okay for cops to turn off their body cams under their Fifth Amendment rights. Um, no.

Now for a couple of Ground News aggregations.

DOJ is going after a software firm saying that their algorithm allows landlords to raise rents.

Former deputy who killed airman is being charged with manslaughter. I would like to think that a private citizen would get the same consideration in terms of charging.

For news items from other sources.

Duke Medical study finds gun laws have mixed impact on suicide and homicide rates. Almost as if murder and suicide are complex problems that can’t be fixed with “one simple solution.”

The Guardian is reporting on trouble in the dating app world. Namely, the apps are losing users / subscribers.

AP is reporting that the Fed Chairman is signalling that they may reduce interest rates in the near future.

Local news station is advising people not to trust flood maps when deciding to buy flood insurance. Note to any new or prospective resident of Florida – you need flood insurance. I don’t care where you live in Florida, you need flood insurance.

The Verge is reporting that Chik-Fil-A is looking into launching a streaming service. Um, okay. Question. Will it run on Sundays?

Creative Loafing Tampa is reporting on Busch Gardens shutting down the Scorpion roller coaster. I remember when that coaster opened, and rode it a lot when I was younger, thinner, and able to ride coasters without feeling like I got bashed around.

Another Guardian article, but this one on the reveal of some of the major features of Civ 7. There’s been a lot of sturm und drang among the Civ FB groups on the changes. I’m going to wait until I’ve played before making judgements. I will say that I’m inordinately excited that rivers will now be navigable.

Via The Brother, there’s this nifty USGS site showing all of the world’s water in a sphere.

Monday Links

August 19, 2024 / / 0 Comments

Stop! Reason time!

Oh look, someone’s already challenging Florida’s law banning lab-grown meat. Because bullshit crony-protectionism laws needs to be taken down.

The Fifth Circuit is taking down geo-fencing warrants. See what I did there. Taking down a fence?

IJ is going after Indiana claiming the state is seizing millions from FedEx packages. Seriously, there needs to be a constitutional amendment banning seizure of property without an underlying criminal conviction.

On to other stories.

Massad Ayoob talks about Salman Rushdie’s new book Knife. He particularly goes over how Rushdie froze when he was attacked.

CrowdStrike’s president showed up at DefCon to accept the award for “Most Epic Fail” in person. I will give them kudos for showing up.

Monday Links

July 29, 2024 / / 0 Comments

This is going to be a tab-clearing edition as the Ward household has been out of state for the past couple of weeks.

Let’s start with our normal Reason links.

A bunch of redditors who hate Christians decided to sic Florida’s DCF folks on a family. A good example of how an online mob can whip itself into a frenzy and cause real world havoc.

More analysis on the lasting impacts of the school shutdowns during COVID.

Michigan Supreme Court tells Detroit their civil asset forfeiture program is wrong. No idea if they will block Detroit from working with the feds to sidestep any restrictions.

Thinkpiece on the FTC and its unconstitutional power grabs. This is another symptom of Congress not doing its damned job and putting in some guardrails on the FTC. But then again, the incentives for Congress is to let the FTC run wild and demagogue.

Over 1 million people have fled Cuba in the last couple of years. Apparently, this is around 10% of the population. But it’s supposed to be such a paradise.

A pilot of Universal Basic Income found it didn’t help people work more. UBI is one of those ideas I like in concept on the premise that its better to let people make their own decisions with their money. Unfortunately, society can’t stand by when people make bad decisions with their money. So, I can’t see how UBI is going to work.

Kamala’s Gen Z appeal is not what it appears to be. You’ll excuse me if I’m unimpressed by the youngins new fads when it comes to politics. Also excuse me if I’m unsurprised that the youngins are planning on voting for the Dems.

The government is exacerbating issues in the wine industry. Color me surprised, particularly when it comes to California.

Now on to some other stories.

From the AP, the FTC is looking into “surveillance pricing”. You’ll excuse me if I don’t trust assertions from the FTC about “possible” issues. Please see previous Reason link above.

From TFB, CZ is looking at opening factories in Ukraine. Hey, I’d like to get a Bren stamped “Made in Ukraine”.

From Active Response Training, an article on pet first aid for cats.

From Venture Beat, Microsoft has come up with a new LLM for spreadsheets. I’m kind of interested in playing with this.

Now on to some anime / weeb news.

Ranma 1/2 is getting remade and will show up on Netflix later this year. I’m very interested in this as Ranma was one of those shows in the nineties that got me into anime as anime.

A Couple of Cuckoos is getting a second season. This was a previous anime recommendation, and I’m glad it’s getting a second season.

Sanrio is causing some havoc by claiming that its iconic character Hello Kitty is not a cat, but a young girl living in London. Well, that’s a bold assertion cotton.

Monday Links

July 8, 2024 / / 0 Comments

This week is almost exclusively Reason links.

None of the major candidates are pro-freedom.

Sotomayor is right – we should re-evaluate immunity for prosecutors.

ICE apparently ran a fake school and duped a bunch of foreign students to enroll. A court ruled they can sue for breach of contract.

SCOTUS is going to look at FDA’s regulations against vaping. This looks more like another in a line of cases that essentially boil down to “Congress, do your damn job.”

This article states that Moore doesn’t allow for a wealth tax. Maybe not, but I think this is going to be one of those cases that has a lot of impact down the line for government’s rapacious appetite for money. Particularly as interest rates rise and debts get more expensive.

A bunch of states are ignoring the administration’s Title IX rules. Utah just joined them.

Labour rides the anti-incumbent wave and unseats the Tories. I haven’t been following Brit politics as much since The Economist paywalled all of their podcasts.

Oklahoma decides teaching the Bible will fix the kids. Y’know, school choice would allow parents to decide if they wanted their kids to have Christian theology crammed down their throat. Or some other religion’s dogma.

Now on to a couple of other stories.

This one’s a local story. Storied restaurant Wright’s was sold to Caspers Company. Why is this interesting to me? Because up until a couple of years ago, Caspers was one of the largest McDonalds franchisees in the nation. And many moons ago, Derek Ward was one of their shift managers.

VIZ Media buys the RWBY franchise. This is good news, as this is an IP that didn’t deserve to die.

Not Your Typical Independence Day Post

July 4, 2024 / / 1 Comment

This is going to be a bit more of a rant on our current election state. Not the candidates, but how we’re selecting the candidates.

Yesterday, I changed my party affiliation from Libertarian to Republican. No, I haven’t suddenly drank the MAGA Kool-Aid. I’m still the fiercely minarchist person. So, why would I change?

My county commissioners have been acting in a rather craven manner for their backers. They’ve also shut down almost all forms of public redress. And they’re actively going after critics or anyone who dares challenge them. Then they hide behind a smokescreen of culture war issues that have no bearing on, you know, making sure the county runs. That infrastructure is built to handle the massive influx of residents. That our local resources are preserved so that we can continue to draw tourists to our area. Needless to say, I am displeased by the current crop. Maybe one or two exceptions.

Manatee County is bright red. As in Irish Yankee spent too much time on the beach without sunscreen red. My only chance to vote against the incumbents will not be at the general election in November, but the primaries in August. And Florida has a closed primary system. So, I have to forsake my Libertarian affiliation so that I can vote against the bastards damaging my home county.

Herein starts the rant. Primaries should not be to choose the parties’ candidate. Primaries should be to winnow a field of candidates down for the general election. Party affiliation should be considered more as an endorsement, like getting approved by the Chamber of Commerce. I don’t really care how the parties select their candidates (elections, smoke-filled rooms, gladiatorial combat).

I just want to see better candidates.

Monday Links

July 1, 2024 / / 0 Comments

This week’s going to be heavy with Volokh Conspiracy / Reason links due to the handing down of some major Supreme Court decisions. I might make a roundup of the court post later this week or next after I’ve had some time to digest as well as to listen to more knowledgeable folks. But, let’s go ahead and get started.

First, more on Rahimi’s impact on Bruen.

Next, about the outrage surrounding USSC reaffirming the right to jury trials for cases with significant penalties.

Of course, a lot of folks are celebrating the official overturn of Chevron Deference, but it may not be the silver bullet some believe.

An article looking at Florida’s response to citrus canker and the people who suffered.

Baltimore is using a cell phone hacking service again.

From the local news station, but widely carried, many nations’ Olympics teams – including the US – are bringing their own AC’s to Paris. Because the Frenchies decreed AC was bad and against their carbon goals.

WSJ (paywall warning) has a story about how delivery drivers got their wages raised by government fiat, and now they have less orders to deliver.

Sora News is reporting that a reboot of Ranma 1/2 is in the works. I’m kinda curious because this was one of the series that got me into anime as anime – and not a Saturday-morning cartoon.

Monday Links

June 17, 2024 / / 0 Comments

This week is a bit long. Reason starts us out.

First, a couple of articles relating to Hunter Biden’s conviction. One on the constitutional question of his conviction. I lean on the charge is bullshit, because I think the whole premise of banning people who might use drugs is bullshit. If they had convicted him on having the weapon on him while intoxicated, that would be a more reasonable charge. Anyways, this whole thing goes back to the infamous laptop, and we have an article on the media’s failure to own up to its mistakes on their coverage.

Reason covers the secret recordings of Alito done “Project Veritas”-style. The best descriptor of this story is that it’s a Rorsach test of your political priors.

Maybe charging teens with felonies for vandalism isn’t a good idea. Particularly if you’re going to ramp up the charges because you’re offended. Particularly in light of your failure to react the same when it wasn’t one of your sacred images.

On the good news front, preliminary UCR data shows deep declines in crime. More indications we’re coming out of the crazy that was the COVID lockdowns. I blame the lockdowns more for the sharp uptick in crime, and it looks like we’re trending back to baseline, at least in terms of crime.

Trump announced he wants to exempt tips from income tax. On one hand, I like this because it reduces the amount of bullshit reporting people have to do – or put them in jeopardy if they forget to do. On the other hand, I don’t trust Trump to get anything done if he’s elected (ask the gun lobby how much legislation they managed to get signed). On the gripping hand, I’m not sure I like the downstream impacts – either on the federal deficits or how wages will get structured in the labor market.

Let’s ban flavored vaping for the children! What do you mean teen smoking goes up in response? Is vaping a good habit to have? Probably not. Is it orders of magnitude better than smoking tobacco? Fuck yes. I swear, public health officials should be forced to take real economics. You know, the one where you learn there are no perfect solutions, only more optimal trade-offs.

Going on to other news.

I have a Ground News aggregation on how US soldiers are nine times more likely to die by suicide than combat action. Suicide is an epidemic in our society. Particularly for those of us who fear getting help will result in our guns or livelihoods being taken away. For gunnies, I’m going to recommend going to the Walk The Talk America site.

More Fulton County drama, but this time in the Young Thug trial. The judge wanted to jail the defense attorney for contempt after said attorney refused to disclose how he learned about an exparte meeting between the judge and the prosecution. The Georgia Supreme Court reversed that. Still, the defense lawyer made the baller statement of if the judge was going to throw him in jail, could he be jailed with his client so they could work on his defense?

The NYT reports on the FAA investigating how titanium used in Boeing and Airbus airliners came from a questionable Chinese source with fraudulent documents. One wonders how many more body blows Boeing can suffer before the company gets radically realigned.

Speaking of the NYT, the Economist did an investigation on if the NYT bestseller list is politically biased. To almost no one’s surprise, it is. (Paywall warning.)

AP reports that Armenia is getting tired of Russia’s shit and is withdrawing from their “security alliance”. Considering the recent series of conflicts between Armenia and Azerbaijan, I’m concerned this is the first step before a major flare-up.

The Firearms Blog reports a San Antonio officer was put on indefinite suspension after he took home guns from a recent buyback.

A story going around the local stations reporting that half of parents who visit Disney end up in debt from the trip. Okay, yeah, Disney’s been jacking up prices for years. However, I look at this as more of an indictment of young families budgeting ability.

Let’s go on to some lighter items.

War is Boring looks at deploying military tech, including drones and helicopters, to deal with – feral hogs. I’ll be honest, going on a hog hunt is one of those things I’d like to do.

Finally, The Verge has a look at the Excel World Championship in Vegas.

Monday Links

June 3, 2024 / / 0 Comments

Let’s start off with our normal slew of Reason links.

Obligatory article on Trump conviction. Do I think that anyone else but Trump would have been brought to trial on this flimsy of a legal theory? No. Do I think this demonstrates the abuse a prosecutor can do with his powers? Yes. Do I think this could have all been avoided if Trump just kept it in his pants and not cheated on his wife? Also yes.

Obligatory article on the unanimous Supreme Court decision in favor of the NRA. Again, give the government enough power, and officials will abuse it.

Oh look, Fauci was caught trying to evade FOIA. This happens way too often. And it only makes the news when it’s someone prominent.

Gorsuch rails against Florida’s use of six-person juries. This one I don’t understand. What does it matter if it’s six or twelve? But I’m willing to be convinced. Maybe a tiered system. Civil and misdemeanors use six, minor felonies use eight, and major felonies have twelve.

Jumping minimum wage up to $20/hr has bad effects. Shocked Pikachu face.

A couple of Ground News aggregations.

That deputy who shot an airman who answered the door with a gun? Yeah, he’s fired. Now to see if he’s prosecuted.

China convicted 14 pro-democracy Hong Kong protestors.

Now on to other news stories.

You think you know how SEO works for the Google algorithm? Probably not, according to some leaked documents.

An article on Exo-Squad. That was such a great cartoon.

Here’s an interview with one of the creators of Magic: The Gathering.