ayn rand movie embraces big government

So I learned about a film adaptation of Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged this weekend.

I'm sure the Randians out there will have a field day with how the film's producers, The Strike Productions, embrace Big Government.

Don't take my word for it. This is on the front page of the official movie site:



They're copyrighting this? Asserting reservation of all 'rights'?

Wait, explain to me again, what right exactly does the government have to restrict the actions of individual people? I'm so confused! Isn't the whole point that there are superior methods of freedom and liberty and justice and unicorns and nutritious donut holes than collective action through government?

We'll know it's a real movie about an Ayn Rand novel when the producers offer something better than intellectual property claims enforceable in US and other courts. Until then, suckers, you've been pwned! These oppressive big government commies even want you to do their own marketing for them so they can spend all their time killing babies and making our country weak and whatever else the sellouts to the BG do.

[note, for the googlers who stumble across this searching something about the movie or ayn rand, this tone is in jest. IP law in the US is a mess. The problem is, anarchy is worse...what is needed across a whole range of issues isn't knee-jerk reactions to government but serious proposals that actually address the problems they purport to solve.]

covey edition

In the back of my mind, I keep a list of somewhat humorous variations on 'there are two types of people in the world...'

You know, things like, there are two types of people in the world, those that wear boxers or briefs and those that don't; or, there are two types of people in the world, those who like chocolate and those who love it, etc.

Well, thanks to Olin I have added another one.

There are two types of people in the world:

Those who are familiar with Stephen Covey and those who aren't.

I would wager a small fortune the two worlds hardly even know the other exists

:)

thank you car

for surviving the winter storms.

I'm like the Ayn Rand of the automobile, that famous libertarian who railed against government programs even though she used them.

I hate cars. My favorite vehicular mode of transportation is a chauffeur. We allocate way too many resources to automobiles and way too little to other forms of transit, especially trains.

However, until other forms of mass transit are actually cheap and easy to use, I'm drivin'.

a little time to think

I have felt particularly out of touch with what's going on in the world the last couple weeks. With a little bit of time and energy to catch up, I think I find I'm most surprised that people are surprised about what's going on.

The world is changing, or perhaps more accurately, has already changed. It just takes some time for the 'old regime' to get that; things don't crumble overnight. In the US, despite everything you hear about the aging of the population, the actual median age of the population is under 40. Not only do we not remember the '60s, we weren't even born then. It's even more stark in most of the industrializing world, with many nations' median age under 30.

We just don't possess the same cultural training and socialization for the old explanations to make sense, to mean anything. You either support democracy or you support authoritarianism. Claiming to support democratic processes and acting to support autocratic ones sends a clear message: you don't believe in the benefits of democracy.

Maybe there was some time in the past when 'Democrat' and 'Republican' meant something substantive. But today, the challenges we face are almost entirely nonpartisan. The framework isn't left and right, it's We the People vs. The Special Interests. The key leadership and power centers of both parties advocate policies that consolidate wealth and power and disparage ideas that would create broad prosperity and innovation. Sure, in election season, there are always some interesting differences at the margin, and that was enough for quite some time in the US.

But entering the second generation now of Americans growing up with prospects worse than our parents, we just don't fall for the 'ole divide and conquer wedge issues. We actually believe what our elders taught us, that America should be a beacon of freedom, not a harbinger of oppression. We actually believe that representative democracy is better than autocratic strongmen. We actually believe that the leaders of our government work for the citizenry, not the other way around. We actually believe that we are on an unsustainable path and that in the end, unsustainable things end. We actually believe that a man should be measured by the content of his character, not the color of his skin. We actually believe that women can do whatever men can do.

Maybe there was a time when the traditional media or corporate media or mainstream media or whatever you prefer offered value. Maybe there was a time when they investigated stories and reported news. Many Americans alive today simply can't remember such an occurrence; it hasn't happened in our lifetime.

One of the most important observations from science, I believe, is the one about the process of scientific development itself. New ideas don't convert adherents of old ideas; it's not a frontal confrontation. Rather, a new generation grows up comfortable with a new paradigm and the old adherents simply die off. Look at viewership ratings of the CBS Nightly News and the Daily Show with Jon Stewart. Five years ago, most people over 40 had never heard of Jon Stewart. Today, most people under 40 couldn't name the lead anchors on the nightly news. Sure, a few cable commentators have made names for themselves. But as infotainment celebrities, not the people you go to for answers on why we can't provide healthcare and jobs and housing to our fellow Americans.

Change is happening. Not one interested in petty recriminations, but in a substantive reordering of the world and our place as humanity in it. We can be afraid of it, or we can embrace it. We can dig in to fortify the old ways, or we can help bring about change a little faster and better.

When you encounter somebody trying to stop it, you can be forgiven for taking a moment to laugh.

Remember when we were afraid of the Soviets, or the Japanese (the industrial economic competitor, not the bombing Pearl Harbor competitor)?

I don't.

P.S. Thought I'd add five links with a broad overview on these issues.

First, on US foreign policy, especially the Middle East and supporting dictators.

Second, on the abuses of the surveillance state, especially the USA PATRIOT Act.

Third, on the lawlessness with which we treat prisoners, especially torture.

Fourth, on the lawlessness with which we don't protect property rights when it's rich and powerful people committing the fraud and other illegal acts.

Fifth, on the scale of wealth inequality in the US. Mind you, this is before the people whining about deficits gave trillions of dollars of loan guarantees, backstops, free money, sweetheart deals, and other bailouts, handouts, and payouts to the very failed and fraudulent management teams that wrecked the economy in the first place:



Note that none of these issues can be delineated as 'left' or 'right'.

i'm not afraid

Julie goes out of town for 24 hours and I'm ready to blow something up*.

*warning, don't joke about blowing things up in England.

Two bits of information came out on the same day that highlight everything that's wrong with our two-tiered justice system - the one for the rich and powerful, the other for the rest of us. And when I say rest of us, I mean all of us. White, black, young, old, christian, atheist, north, south; if you're not rich, the government can steamroll you.

What am I talking about?

On the same day, we learn that:

1. The government kidnapped and tortured (err, 'allowed' to be kidnapped and tortured) an American teenager in Kuwait.
2. The government has arrested a former intelligence officer for saying embarrassing (err, 'state secret') things, a local man from O'Fallon, MO.

That both men happen to be black is perhaps the icing on the cake.

Essentially, we can't prosecute - or even stop - the most vicious assaults on American citizens. We can't prosecute - or even stop - the most blatant looting of our financial system.

But boy, share CIA secrets about CIA incompetence in the run-up to Bush's oh-so-legal invasion of Iraq, watch out! Wammmo, Obama/Bush/whoever you picture as 'the enemy' will be after you!

I have a special place in my heart for people who go nuts, because I think insanity is the only rational reaction to what's going on in this world of ours. I have some stupid unevolved hangeron in my brain that refuses to give up. I believe this country of ours can still be saved.

But it's worth it yet again to ponder the difference between a US President and a third world dictator. If government agents can arrest patriots and kidnap citizens, what can't be done to any one of us?

I'm not afraid of black people. I'm not afraid of Muslims. Secrecy itself is the cancer eating away at our security. I refuse to be afraid, whether it's a Republican or a Democrat telling me scary bedtime stories. I refuse to accept that this is the way things are.

hr manager needed, too

One of the reasons I have long liked Apple is that their business model makes sense. They sell stuff that customers pay for. So long as both parties are happy with that relationship, things will continue indefinitely; what will ebb and flow are simply users at the margins who move with fads and technological changes and so forth.

One of the interesting business models that's developed more recently in the tech world is one built upon advertising. Google is an advertising company; they compete with newspapers and radio stations much more than Microsoft or Apple. Like Google through its flagship Search product, Facebook delivers a valuable product in its core offering - the social network - but one that, like Google, isn't valuable because of the tech aspect. It's valuable because of the network effect, because 'everybody does it'. And like Google trying to monetize outside of search, Facebook faces the intriguing challenge of trying to monetize an idea that everybody knows. The phone book and the little black book and even contact management software have been around for ages. Heck, even digital directory programs predate Facebook; the program at my school was called Faces.

So when you're built on a model of extracting value discretely from users rather than billing customers directly, there's enormous pressure to cut corners at the expense of quality. When I saw this ad, I thought it beautifully captured the ongoing strategic challenges for an ad-based world.



They need a secretary themselves.

merry christmas

May your celebrations this season be Joyful and Festive
May your mourning bring Healing and Peace
May you treasure dearly that which is worth remembering from the Old Year
And for that which is not, wholeheartedly embrace Change in the New

up is down, black is white

donuts are healthy, Pizza Hut isn't greasy...

...the Bush tax cuts are now the Obama tax cuts(?!?)...

and the US government is effectively at war with a website for doing precisely what the US government has theoretically, supposedly, like, claimed to support

"Information has never been so free," declared Clinton. "Even in authoritarian countries, information networks are helping people discover new facts and making governments more accountable."

Read it and weep, Wikileaks. You took the Executive Branch of the United States at its word.

Ha! Joke's on you.



Now if only a certain college football team with the Spartans as their mascot were also getting royally screwed, there would be a great tie-in...

Oh wait!

2010 pre-bowl rankings

I continue to find it fascinating when various commentators care more about what they wish had happened during this particular football season than actually analyzing the actual season that was actually played.

To recap:

1. The Pac-10 has had a rough season. Only two teams have fewer than five losses. The third team in the conference is 6-6. Only four teams have winning records. Fully half the conference isn't bowl eligible - counting sanctioned USC among the bowl-eligible. Even in the Big East, three quarters of the conference is bowl-eligible. The WAC and MWC both have half their teams bowl-eligible (9 of the 18 total teams in the two leagues). And obviously, the Pac-10 thinks enough of Utah (and Colorado, for that matter) to beg them to join.

2. The Big Ten, similarly, is Aces and spaces. Only three teams have fewer than five losses. Heck, only three teams have winning records in conference play. Unlike the Pac-10, at least there are three quality programs instead of two and the bulk of the league is headed to a bowl game. But similarly to the Pac-10, those top teams played very few games against quality opponents.

3. Name the best team Stanford has beaten all year. Five loss Notre Dame? Or perhaps you prefer the five loss USC team that lost to Notre Dame? Or five loss Arizona? Similarly,

4. Name the best team Ohio State has beaten all year? The five loss Iowa team that lost to the above-mentioned five loss Arizona team? The five loss Miami team that, in addition to losing to Big East South Florida, lost to fellow ACC teams Florida State and Virginia Tech, teams which were themselves beaten by Oklahoma and Boise State? In contrast,

5. Michigan State, Nevada, and Boise State are one-loss teams that have much better wins than Stanford and Ohio State. Is it even relevant that Michigan State beat Wisconsin, who beat Ohio State?

6. And then there are the two-loss teams. Oklahoma, Missouri, Oklahoma State, Arkansas, and LSU are all teams with more impressive wins than Stanford and Ohio State. Arkansas gets into the BCS because the Sugar Bowl won't pick a slate without an SEC team, and Oklahoma gets to the Fiesta Bowl as Big 12 champs. LSU can't get in because the BCS only allows two teams per conference. This leaves two other slots. No way should Stanford and Ohio State be ranked above all three of the other one loss teams plus the two available two-loss teams. So,

7. Voila. We'll be subjected to another month of hearing about 'big name programs' and 'talent' and 'matchups' and basically anything to distract from those inconvenient 2010 Ws and Ls.

8. Bowl records don't prove anything. The point is who deserves to get there; most any team has a shot at beating most any other team in one game. However, this could be a particularly clear year about the over-ratedness of Ohio State and Stanford and the supremacy of the Big 12. The Big 12 in its finale as a twelve team league stands a very good chance of only losing one or two bowl games.

9. Nebraska hasn't been helping the Big 12. I'll organize some thoughts at some point about the transition of the Big 12. But the short story is that losing to Nebraska hurts those other Big 12 teams a lot, while Nebraska's wins hasn't helped them get ranked highly or helped those teams that beat Nebraska jump up the standings. It's no coincidence that both the Pac-10 and Big Ten are sending at-large teams, while the Big 12, with four ten win teams, gets none. Oregon is getting into the national championship over TCU.

1. Auburn
2. Oregon
3. TCU
4. Michigan State
5. Oklahoma
6. Missouri
7. Arkansas
8. Wisconsin
9. LSU
10. Oklahoma State
11. Nevada
12. Boise State
13. Ohio State
14. Stanford
15. Virginia Tech
16. Texas A&M
17. Nebraska
18. Alabama
19. Utah
20. Florida State
21. South Carolina
22. West Virginia
23. Mississippi State
24. Hawaii
25. San Diego State

random musings on jury duty

At some indeterminate point in time I may have an indefinite number of observations to make about a specific civil or criminal matter that may or may not be proceeding somewhere in the city of St. Louis.

Until such time, there are a few random thoughts that can clear the censors.

1. Wow, there is either a lot of lawsuits, a prosector's office that is desperate for some extra convictions, or just the whim fancy of coincidence due to only having two data points for reference. Whatever the case, the Jury assembly room was absolutely packed. The last time I was called, I sat for two days in a room that was never more than half full. Yesterday morning, every seat was taken. They were yelling at folks for trying to sit or stand in the aisles.

2. If metal detectors and shoe-wearing is good enough for our court system, how the heck is the TSA's existence justified?

3. Why do they require you to be there by 8:00am on the first day? Nothing was going on.

4. Square this one for me. How does one exercise one's 'intellect and conscience' while also listening to instructions from judges to act without regard for what one believes the law ought to be?

5. Seriously, think about number 4.

6. Downtown is actually pretty nice on a sunny fall day.

7. Communicate end times for the day. Is it so hard to tell folks when they will leave and get them bus passes ahead of time so that if you have to, say, to pick a completely random example, get your car from the shop by 5:30 pm, you know that 1) you will be able to get there by then, or 2) you won't be able to get there by then and should make alternate plans now, long before 5:20pm.

8. Is Jury duty a 'duty' or a 'privilege'? Listening to how many folks aren't eligible is a hodge-podge of hierarchy, class, oppression, and what not. Active duty? Under 21? Felony conviction? I continue to be surprised I've only been called twice in the entire time I've been living in St. Louis.