19Mar11 Saturday Night WTF: Pledge of All(ah)egiance
By: Barry Belmont

Dogmatism, whether it be political, philosophical, national, or religious, is generally a practice to be shunned. Rarely is a more terrible scourge created than when this unmovable frame of mind is coupled with an inexplicable sense of pride. At every turn it is up to those of us free of such traps of the mind to denigrate them at every turn, to expose to the light of reason the tragic fallacy of unwarranted belief perpetuated by unnecessary pride.

In this regard, there is perhaps nothing more sad and obstinate an obstacle in the path toward bettering the human condition than the sentiment expressed in this video:

Particular attention should be paid to the line “and I will die to establish Islam” for, indeed, what is there to say to such a person, to such a world view? How are we to convince those swearing to this oath (and meaning it) that it could possibly be flawed? And such a step is an absolute necessity along the road of progress [see diagram below]. No society has ever advanced claiming infallible certainty.

So, in summary, I have no idea what it would take to change the mind of the people saying that pledge (or any such pledge to an idea, a religion, a nation), but I do know that it is absolutely necessary if we are to make this a better world.

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19Mar11 U.S. Launches Missiles in Libya
By: Barry Belmont

For that minority of you following the news, the unrest in Libya has finally prompted the United States government (as part of a broad coalition) to take action and use military force.

I am unsure of exactly how to feel about the situation (it’s beyond nuanced), but for those interested, please follow along at CNN’s live blog of the situation.

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18Mar11 Maybe Some of Us Can Relate: Drunk on Debt
By: Barry Belmont

Just to give you a feel for how the debt of a nation factors in to the overall economy.

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15Mar11 Anonymous, The Fed, and Mixed Feelings
By: Barry Belmont

I’m not entirely sure how I feel about this latest proclamation from Anonymous. While I am very much in favor of the dismantling of all the institutions they have listed, I’m not entirely sure the stated reason (massive wealth disparity) is an appropriate reason.

Huge gains in wealth are not necessary bad things and often signal innovation and the production of products and services which benefit vast portions of the population. For instance, Steve Jobs and Bill Gates may have more money than God, but they utterly changed the dynamics of the world. Similarly if a (legitimate) bank were to serve enough customers to such a degree that they obtained a huge chunk of money, I would have no problem with it.

The problem with things like the Federal Reserve and their ilk is the fact that they have an unjust, unfair monopoly over a myriad of services…and that that unjust, unfair monopoly will not allow competition or ever be subjected to the forces of the market.

Who knows, maybe Anonymous will make them feel the pressure that they would otherwise experience in a free and open market. But, until all the facts are in, I should probably postpone passing judgment.

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13Mar11 Intellectual Property, Insomnia, and Lulz
By: Barry Belmont

What happens when you combine eclectic, off-the-wall musical tastes, a healthy sense of mockery for intellectual property, and an unceasing bout of insomnia? Well…a post like this.

Some of you may recall from our (three?) intellectual property meetings that things can get awful tricky when trying to parse out copying ideas, borrowing themes, being influenced, and converging tracts of thought. How do you tell which is which? Where do you draw the line? By what criteria? What each of these rhetorical questions is meant to emphasize is the utter arbitrariness involved in such disputes.

So consider these two rather odd songs. The first is “Skah of Iran” by Canadian ska band, The Planet Smashers. The thing I want you to take away is the chorus/chant “Skah of Iran!” at 0:33.

Now, stomach as much as you can of the next song, “Trollhammeren” by the Finnish folk metal band, Finntroll. The important part for your consideration is the chorus/chant “Trollhammeren!” at 0:45.

The astute among you will notice that the dah.da.da.dan! in both is exactly the same. And that’s okay. However, if this were a Lady Gaga, Justin Beiber (sp?), or Kanye West (is he still popular?) song, people would recognize it immediately and no doubt a lawsuit would be drawn up by the record company to ‘protect’ the intellectual property of their artists. After all this is what happens all too often in the “real world.” But since these are two no-name bands, there is nothing that could be strong-armed out of either of them and hence, they are free to have the same chorus.

If this isn’t the hallmark of the arbitrary, I don’t know what is.

And there you have it, the absurdity of intellectual property summarized through Iran and trolls.

View Comments Posted by Barry Belmont in Absurd, Irrational, Videos
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9Mar11 Apathy…meet Antipathy
By: Barry Belmont

Apparently today is the day of voting for candidates for the ASUN.

So there I was, bored at work, having just heard some girl talk about the ASUN presidential debates and I thought, Hmm, Maybe I should watch those…Call me a gluttony for punishment. I knew nothing important was going to be said by either candidate, I knew it was going to be a waste of my time, and I knew I wasn’t going to enjoy it. But. My. God. To say that this is one of the saddest demonstrations of real world politics would be a massive understatement. Here I present it to you unaltered. Please do enjoy the future of Nevada politics:

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9Mar11 What a Concept…
By: Barry Belmont

The ASUN recently announced (though it was long rumored) that the final funding period for clubs would not be observed as the organization had run out of club funding. And in typical WTF GOVERNMENT? style logic, the commissioners in charge seem to glean over the point entirely, managing to not only not take away the key economic lesson (that public funds will always be at the mercy of the Tragedy of the Commons) but exasperating it more so (by seeking to impose penalties on those clubs that don’t spend the entirety of their allocation).

I’m going to repeat that because it really needs to land for effect: Nathan Demuth, HeadHoncho of ASUN Clubbiwubbs said that “The fact that clubs don’t always spend all the money they are awarded often confounds accurate balance predictions.” And hence, “New penalties for clubs that don’t spend allocated funds will be imposed in the future.”

He seems unable to recognize that the problem is with the way clubs are funded, not with the fact that they don’t spend all their money. In fact, not spending all of their funds can only, only be seen as a good thing. It means more money in the bank, less wasted, more frugality. But with this new penalty to be levied on clubs in conjunction with the fact that late funding periods may not be held at all, you will see clubs hitting the funding hard, fast, and most importantly, recklessly. When punished for not spending money, it is only inevitable that people will spend and spend and spend.

Oh ASUN, when will you ever learn? Perhaps this recent comment from the Sagebrush website will give you the advice you need in starkly barren terms:

View Comments Posted by Barry Belmont in Abolish ASUN, Absurd
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7Mar11 Google Hosts BitCoin Implementation
By: Barry Belmont

For those of you interested in having a Java implementation of the BitCoin node protocol, wait no longer (I’m looking at you Mr. Russell). The idea is to make BitCoins more readily available (for instance, through mobile platforms) and easier to use. Anyone who’s down to be part of the greatest experiment in currency exchange I’ve ever seen, check it out.

Google, truly free market currency, and computer code…could this post be any cooler?

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3Mar11 Wealth Creation 101
By: Barry Belmont

Maybe this will help a few people understand that trade itself creates wealth and correct that nasty little assumption that it merely redistributes it.

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28Feb11 Breast Milk Ice Cream
By: Barry Belmont

Yep, you read right: breast milk ice cream.

While arguing about the more sensible issue of organ donation markets, my debating partner claimed that you are not currently legally allowed to buy or sell human breast milk because the FDA would have no way to regulate it (citing this as a reason why there shouldn’t be markets in organs — analogously, how would one regulate it?). Now, this didn’t sound quite right to me, but lacking knowledge of evidence in my favor I merely conceded the point.

But it turns out that with just a small amount of Googling one can find many sites to both buy and sell breast milk (like this one). In fact I came across this eccentric entrepreneur and his product:

However, with a bit more researching, it turns out it is in fact illegal to sell breast milk. The government has given a writ of monopoly to the Human Milk Banking Association of North America (HMBANA), and made it an entirely donation driven operation. Can you guess what that has resulted in?

It seems to me sad that the government (through this organization) is reduced to begging and pleading on a site that I’m sure few have ever thought of visiting for more people to donate resources of which they have plenty, rather than simply turning over the whole situation to market forces.

Unfortunately for our side, the UK government appears to have shutdown the ice cream entrepreneur, citing the same arguments as were made in the debate I had which prompted the research. Even though many consenting adults wanted to supply, produce, and consume breast milk ice cream, government, as it always does, stepped in and fouled everything up.

It’s a sad day indeed.

View Comments Posted by Barry Belmont in Absurd, Stupid Government
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