I'm predicting the rapid onset of a new Ice Age, an economic Double-Depression, and the end of the Tea-Baggers.
Get a lot of space at parties.
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Prediction
October also has its ides
And darkens on Samhain's night
When Dies de Muerto cometh nigh
Shall the world of Commerce die.
And darkens on Samhain's night
When Dies de Muerto cometh nigh
Shall the world of Commerce die.
Saturday, September 26, 2009
Taped to a Flagpole
I'm amused and delighted to see the story of a drunk who stole property from the VFW and burnt it. The VFW members caught him, and he agreed to be taped to a flagpole for several hours, in lieu of court action.
The property was an American Flag. I hear it's one that was flown in combat.
The flag is not sacred. It was meaningful personal property, and the drunken perpetrator was treated entirely well, some clever justice done.
God save us from the thugs out there, though.
The property was an American Flag. I hear it's one that was flown in combat.
The flag is not sacred. It was meaningful personal property, and the drunken perpetrator was treated entirely well, some clever justice done.
God save us from the thugs out there, though.
Sunday, September 20, 2009
On the Legal Theory of Incarceration.
The authority of the State and Federal Government to incarcerate is circumscribed by and contained within the Fourteenth Amendment:
The means by which life, liberty or property can be deprived includes that of delineated penalties for criminal acts, which are described before the fact by a legislature, and are levied upon a person by competent judicial action.
A court will describe a deprivation, usually that of liberty.
Deprivation of liberty is an awful thing, and carries with it implicit restrictions and other nuisances. Such a deprivation is so impeding upon the innumerable and various freedoms a person usually enjoys, so as to constitute a sorrowful and burdensome impediment. The effects of the penumbra of being deprived of one's liberty interest constitute the bulk of the punishment for its deprivation.
However, the State's incursion upon a criminal's rights is checked by the Ninth and Tenth Amendments:
James Madison offered the following in description of this principle:
The Tenth Amendment reads:
The principles of sentencing in one particular action of law parallel these principles innately; those principles are drawn from these statements. A person can be deprived of a certain right; they cannot be deprived of rights not listed in the penalties assessed by action of legislature and judicial due process of law.
Liberty may be deprived by due process of law, and a person may be remanded to a certain place for a certain period of time. The place to which remanded may have penological regulations, which act in further durance upon one's otherwise-retained rights. But they cannot substantively encroach upon other retained rights to the degree that they functionally impair rights which are still retained.
One obvious test for retained rights is - could a legislature, or a court, have marked a certain right or liberty interest for impediment - but did not? That is the most obvious case. A penalty not given is to be considered withheld, unless otherwise evident.
The summit is deprivation of life. If a penalty does not deprive a person of life, then any State action which intentionally does so, violates the Fourteenth Amendment.
No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.
The means by which life, liberty or property can be deprived includes that of delineated penalties for criminal acts, which are described before the fact by a legislature, and are levied upon a person by competent judicial action.
A court will describe a deprivation, usually that of liberty.
Deprivation of liberty is an awful thing, and carries with it implicit restrictions and other nuisances. Such a deprivation is so impeding upon the innumerable and various freedoms a person usually enjoys, so as to constitute a sorrowful and burdensome impediment. The effects of the penumbra of being deprived of one's liberty interest constitute the bulk of the punishment for its deprivation.
However, the State's incursion upon a criminal's rights is checked by the Ninth and Tenth Amendments:
The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.
Ninth Amendment
James Madison offered the following in description of this principle:
It has been objected also against a Bill of Rights, that, by enumerating particular exceptions to the grant of power, it would disparage those rights which were not placed in that enumeration; and it might follow by implication, that those rights which were not singled out, were intended to be assigned into the hands of the General Government, and were consequently insecure. This is one of the most plausible arguments I have ever heard against the admission of a bill of rights into this system; but, I conceive, that it may be guarded against. I have attempted it, as gentlemen may see by turning to the last clause of the fourth resolution.
Madison
The Tenth Amendment reads:
The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.
Tenth Amendment
The principles of sentencing in one particular action of law parallel these principles innately; those principles are drawn from these statements. A person can be deprived of a certain right; they cannot be deprived of rights not listed in the penalties assessed by action of legislature and judicial due process of law.
Liberty may be deprived by due process of law, and a person may be remanded to a certain place for a certain period of time. The place to which remanded may have penological regulations, which act in further durance upon one's otherwise-retained rights. But they cannot substantively encroach upon other retained rights to the degree that they functionally impair rights which are still retained.
One obvious test for retained rights is - could a legislature, or a court, have marked a certain right or liberty interest for impediment - but did not? That is the most obvious case. A penalty not given is to be considered withheld, unless otherwise evident.
The summit is deprivation of life. If a penalty does not deprive a person of life, then any State action which intentionally does so, violates the Fourteenth Amendment.
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Sunday, August 23, 2009
Brother's monologue, the Lazarus Man, cont'd.
Brother paused, the rheumy, bruisy whites of his eyes showing a faint yellow, the yellow of Catholic-school bricks. Behind those eyes were the Medusa's hair in torment.
"They only had that night to put the fix on. Peter and Judas, He chose well - two of the bravest men in history. Peter took the physical torment - and Judas took the spiritual. Judas fingered him, and the Romans didn't know any better - and it gave the rest of them time to get away. Peter got sifted back into the story, himself denying the Lord three times - that was added in, to cover Peter's absence in the Big Fix."
"And Judas? He hanged himself on the tree, sure. And his last words - My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me? were immortalized as Jesus's, in tribute to Judas's bravery. But first, he divided his possessions among the disciples."
A teacher in the back of the lounge was quietly sobbing. Brother paused, surveying the absolute quiet with attentive scrutiny, as though testing a machete's blade with his thumb; and then continued.
"His possessions. His notes. Judas - he was Jesus's biographer. He was "Q." All the Gospels, the Synoptic Gospels, were by the hand of Judas, divided among the disciples, copies - sent out, that survived, even survived the great massacre of The Twelve. They just barely survived, through the narrow escape of a very few minor followers, survived by luck and a lot of running.."
"Think! Why were the Four Gospels written by nobodies? Not even members of the Twelve, but lesser disciples? For they were the ones during The Scattering, each writing as though he were the sole survivor, to cover up The Greatest Betrayal Ever. They all only differ in the ending - how much was added after the Night of the Desertion."
"Completed in partial fulfillment of a Ph.D. in Religious Studies, Gregorian Academy, the Vatican. That's what independent thought, and education gets you - that's what you want? It's best when the true intellect of mankind is few and far between. That, I am proud to say - that was my finest hour, when I submitted nine years of work, and was expelled. From there to here, is the rest of the path. And I am proud to bear the title of Student."
He ruffled his paper, went back to the NHL box scores as though he'd just recounted the Flyers game.
"They only had that night to put the fix on. Peter and Judas, He chose well - two of the bravest men in history. Peter took the physical torment - and Judas took the spiritual. Judas fingered him, and the Romans didn't know any better - and it gave the rest of them time to get away. Peter got sifted back into the story, himself denying the Lord three times - that was added in, to cover Peter's absence in the Big Fix."
"And Judas? He hanged himself on the tree, sure. And his last words - My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me? were immortalized as Jesus's, in tribute to Judas's bravery. But first, he divided his possessions among the disciples."
A teacher in the back of the lounge was quietly sobbing. Brother paused, surveying the absolute quiet with attentive scrutiny, as though testing a machete's blade with his thumb; and then continued.
"His possessions. His notes. Judas - he was Jesus's biographer. He was "Q." All the Gospels, the Synoptic Gospels, were by the hand of Judas, divided among the disciples, copies - sent out, that survived, even survived the great massacre of The Twelve. They just barely survived, through the narrow escape of a very few minor followers, survived by luck and a lot of running.."
"Think! Why were the Four Gospels written by nobodies? Not even members of the Twelve, but lesser disciples? For they were the ones during The Scattering, each writing as though he were the sole survivor, to cover up The Greatest Betrayal Ever. They all only differ in the ending - how much was added after the Night of the Desertion."
"Completed in partial fulfillment of a Ph.D. in Religious Studies, Gregorian Academy, the Vatican. That's what independent thought, and education gets you - that's what you want? It's best when the true intellect of mankind is few and far between. That, I am proud to say - that was my finest hour, when I submitted nine years of work, and was expelled. From there to here, is the rest of the path. And I am proud to bear the title of Student."
He ruffled his paper, went back to the NHL box scores as though he'd just recounted the Flyers game.
A Review of the Movie, "Lazarus Man"
The award-winning movie "Lazarus Man," starring Barack Obama, typified the American mindset of the early century.
One of the pivotal scenes of the movie is described below.
Teacher's Lounge. Barack Obama is an idealistic young history teacher for Eighth Grade students. He is bewildered by the apathy of the teaching staff, and the absolute, immobile stupidity of the classes. He is speaking with one of the senior teachers.
O>I don't get it. You sit there and read the paper during every class, and give them nothing but thinly-veiled contempt - let them drift in and out of the room, talk, fight. You make no pretense to teach them. Why do they hate me more than they hate you?
It's because you suck as a shepherd, Obama. You bring the sheep out in the meadow, and torture them for your own selfish entertainment. At least get under a tree, get drunk and fall asleep. That's what good shepherds have done through the ages.
O>But I want to DO something - to make a DIFFERENCE in their lives.
Obama - you have come face to face with the soul of your species, and you don't like it. You don't like reality. THEY are reality. All a sheep really cares about is being next to the ass-hole of the nearest sheep. Anything else makes them scared.
O>But I was NOTHING like them when I was in school!
That's because you are a mistake, a genetic aberration. All of this shit about fresh-faced, eager young students looking for knowledge - those are the occasional and rare, the little blips that the race sends out every once in a while, to ask a question. The question is - "ARE WE INTELLIGENT BEINGS?" The answer is "NO." And you won't face reality for long enough to understand that. So you torture the sheep.
Every class has one or two of them, like you, every few years. The other students usually beat the shit out of them, for a good reason. They are dangerous to the herd. They might grow up and be like YOU.
O>I can't stand it. So we're supposed to sit back and produce ANOTHER generation that grows up, becomes miserable, gets drunk, lives for nothing, beats their wives and kids? Like we don't care?
As opposed to what, Barama? You have just described the character of our species - it's no difference than pointing out that sheep live in herds, bees in hives, that lions eat herbivores. That's what we do, by and large. It's the caring part - that's an alien idea, as foreign as though it came from Mars. Ask your class. Go ahead, you got balls? Ask them how to be a better teacher. They'll tell you to read the paper and leave them the fuck alone.
All you really are, Barama, is a spore of a bad idea, a terrible idea - that stuff that we teach right out of Civics 101, that Tom Jefferson horseshit. It's a lot better that they associate him with President's Day Sales Events, and Mount Rushmore, than the crap that you're peddling, that you have in your head.
You serve a useful function to society. You encapsulate those with the potential for bad ideas - your fellow fresh-faced idealists - and protect the herd from them. Think of your "greatest inspiration," your favorite teacher. He or she did society a favor. Look what happened to you. Look where YOU wound up with, you with your best ideas.
O>But I'm here to teach! To give somebody a chance!!
Whatever got you here - it protected the herd. You didn't go to a place where you could cause the greatest damage. People like Lenin and Hitler - they caused some serious damage to the herd. Not you. Thank God.
Every time, some fucker with a vision, some idealistic-minded asshole, gets up there - and usually he's psychopathic enough to snare a shitload of people in his delusion - a Believer. Every time some fucker like you gets into a dangerous position, the species takes a hit.
That's why Jesus walked on the deal. Took a dive. Willingly walked into the Wheel of Karma - more like a sawblade.
You like history, Obama? Here's this for you. All the contemporary Gospel literature was about the return of the Line of David. Jesus came down, and had the choice - go ahead with the plan, or face the reality of what He really created. He took the Dive. He walked on us. The whole rest of Christian literature is all about papering over that fact. He dumped us.
"All the New Jerusalem stuff? Not here, not on this planet, not with this mis-begotten species. It's all right there in the Bible, see? They had to do a little creative revision to get the story out that Jesus still loves us. They spun the Temptation by the Devil, and the story of the Three Tabernacles, out of the Gethsemane story. That's when he walked. The night before. It's all one story. He thought about becoming the New David for all of us - and he said, 'fuck it.'"
One of the pivotal scenes of the movie is described below.
Teacher's Lounge. Barack Obama is an idealistic young history teacher for Eighth Grade students. He is bewildered by the apathy of the teaching staff, and the absolute, immobile stupidity of the classes. He is speaking with one of the senior teachers.
O>I don't get it. You sit there and read the paper during every class, and give them nothing but thinly-veiled contempt - let them drift in and out of the room, talk, fight. You make no pretense to teach them. Why do they hate me more than they hate you?
It's because you suck as a shepherd, Obama. You bring the sheep out in the meadow, and torture them for your own selfish entertainment. At least get under a tree, get drunk and fall asleep. That's what good shepherds have done through the ages.
O>But I want to DO something - to make a DIFFERENCE in their lives.
Obama - you have come face to face with the soul of your species, and you don't like it. You don't like reality. THEY are reality. All a sheep really cares about is being next to the ass-hole of the nearest sheep. Anything else makes them scared.
O>But I was NOTHING like them when I was in school!
That's because you are a mistake, a genetic aberration. All of this shit about fresh-faced, eager young students looking for knowledge - those are the occasional and rare, the little blips that the race sends out every once in a while, to ask a question. The question is - "ARE WE INTELLIGENT BEINGS?" The answer is "NO." And you won't face reality for long enough to understand that. So you torture the sheep.
Every class has one or two of them, like you, every few years. The other students usually beat the shit out of them, for a good reason. They are dangerous to the herd. They might grow up and be like YOU.
O>I can't stand it. So we're supposed to sit back and produce ANOTHER generation that grows up, becomes miserable, gets drunk, lives for nothing, beats their wives and kids? Like we don't care?
As opposed to what, Barama? You have just described the character of our species - it's no difference than pointing out that sheep live in herds, bees in hives, that lions eat herbivores. That's what we do, by and large. It's the caring part - that's an alien idea, as foreign as though it came from Mars. Ask your class. Go ahead, you got balls? Ask them how to be a better teacher. They'll tell you to read the paper and leave them the fuck alone.
All you really are, Barama, is a spore of a bad idea, a terrible idea - that stuff that we teach right out of Civics 101, that Tom Jefferson horseshit. It's a lot better that they associate him with President's Day Sales Events, and Mount Rushmore, than the crap that you're peddling, that you have in your head.
You serve a useful function to society. You encapsulate those with the potential for bad ideas - your fellow fresh-faced idealists - and protect the herd from them. Think of your "greatest inspiration," your favorite teacher. He or she did society a favor. Look what happened to you. Look where YOU wound up with, you with your best ideas.
O>But I'm here to teach! To give somebody a chance!!
Whatever got you here - it protected the herd. You didn't go to a place where you could cause the greatest damage. People like Lenin and Hitler - they caused some serious damage to the herd. Not you. Thank God.
Every time, some fucker with a vision, some idealistic-minded asshole, gets up there - and usually he's psychopathic enough to snare a shitload of people in his delusion - a Believer. Every time some fucker like you gets into a dangerous position, the species takes a hit.
That's why Jesus walked on the deal. Took a dive. Willingly walked into the Wheel of Karma - more like a sawblade.
You like history, Obama? Here's this for you. All the contemporary Gospel literature was about the return of the Line of David. Jesus came down, and had the choice - go ahead with the plan, or face the reality of what He really created. He took the Dive. He walked on us. The whole rest of Christian literature is all about papering over that fact. He dumped us.
"All the New Jerusalem stuff? Not here, not on this planet, not with this mis-begotten species. It's all right there in the Bible, see? They had to do a little creative revision to get the story out that Jesus still loves us. They spun the Temptation by the Devil, and the story of the Three Tabernacles, out of the Gethsemane story. That's when he walked. The night before. It's all one story. He thought about becoming the New David for all of us - and he said, 'fuck it.'"
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Friday, August 21, 2009
Doug French on the Bubble
It's hard to be blindingly cynical every day. Read Doug French on the Bubble Economy in Mises (see also You Can't Print Prosperity for yux) - he'll carry the water today.
PS: How long do we have? Bill Sardi says until Tuesday. That's the big melt-down for him. I'm still going for October 17th.
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PS: How long do we have? Bill Sardi says until Tuesday. That's the big melt-down for him. I'm still going for October 17th.
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