Determinism

Came across this the other day, and it made me smile.  How I miss "Choose your own adventure" books.

Depression's Upside

A friend directed my attention to this article several months ago, which I found extremely interesting to read, and so I figure I should spread the joy around with you guys. Enjoy! ... hopefully the necessary attention span does not sadden you (as the article will explain).

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/28/magazine/28depression-t.html?pagewanted=1

I always thought fourteen was one of the good ones

    So in case you haven't heard, there are these immigrants with heavy tans coming into this country and plopping out anchor babies because due to the fourteenth amendment, these bastards--or I so assume given that their fathers are most likely off drinking and who knows what in a Mexican whore house--are given citizenship. Now these babies work as anchors because the damn illegals use them to benefit off of our programs and un-socialized medicine. One has to wonder how dumb can they be? Take a ferry to Europe, keep going till you get across the border of the Canuks, but this isn't even the biggest problem because Mexican babies can be cute, I mean look at my nephew who I guess you could say is like a half-anchor baby:

    What if ol' oSAMa and his cronies get to thinking and they start plopping out little terrorist anchors beneath those black berkas, we wouldn't even know that they're there.  I think a kid could grow to twelve, maybe sixteen if he's malnourished--at least till he's strong enough to strap a bomb to his chest--beneath his mother's berka.  We wouldn't even notice the growth of the mother, we'd probably think she was becoming more American the more obese she looked, all the while a little terrorist anchor is growing between her legs.
    We have to repeal this whole fourteenth, and a whole slew of other things would be fixed in one fell swoop.  For starters the honor of our great-great-grand-daddies would be restored, taken from them after the war of northern aggression.  Civil rights, Dread Scott, Brown v. board of education, done and dusted.  And I may have my facts wrong here, but no longer would those damn liberal training grounds of California and New York get all the damn electoral votes or congressmen based on population.  Finally, those two thousand or so real Americans who live in places like Kansas or Wyoming would get a fair shake.  And probably the best one of all, no longer would we have to get the real birth certificate, but we could take that half-anchor-ass O-bam-a and send him back to Kenya or wherever the hell he's from.  Finally all the real Americans could be safe again.  By the way did I mention it took two days to drive through Kansas and about five days in total to make it through the entire mid-west both ways.  Anyway, what do you guys think?

All Hail Paul Romer heir to Henry the Lion

Back around the 12th century a Germanic Prince Henry the Lion desperately wanted to bring merchants to the crazy Beserker, Viking plundered coast of the Baltic Sea. Henry fought off many invaders, pirates, and Slavic hoards. After a while he finally seized upon a small village called Lubek[technically spelled with two little dots over the "u"]. As first order of business, he beheaded the notorious pirate Niclot the Obotrite. So things were off to a smashing start, he then set about making Lubek the seat of a diocese of merchant villages. To attract merchants to this lawless land, he setup what is called today a set of "most honorable civic rights." Basically, the city was setup outside of the feudal system, a council of local merchants governed the town, trade restrictions were relaxed, and any of the merchants who settled there were exempt from paying duties or taxes. Henry ended up creating an economic alliance of over 200 cities.
Now in present day, there is an economist from Stanford, Paul Romer, who would like to implement similar ideas for developing countries. Create an international city were trade and business practices are relaxed, in the first wave money flies in from foreign investors, in the second wave as people settle and develop the area businesses begin flowing into the country who charters the city. One such example of this is the city of Hong Kong. During its time apart from China, Britain developed a large business mecca. When Hong Kong returned to China, the Chinese government decided to allow Hong Kong to continue with the same lack of regulations and free trade they had experienced up to that point. Now, China uses Hong Kong as a template to develop other cities across its country, and in many ways has become a much more liberal country in terms of business. They still have some problems with human rights but hey. Middle Eastern countries like Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, Dubai, and Oman have also begun to create cities like this with much success.
The idea that Romer offers is to create charter cities like this all over the world, especially in developing nations. However, he points out that in some places cities like this on U.S. soil could jump start the American economy as well. One example for something the U.S. has which is in some ways similar is Las Vegas. Many laws are relaxed in Las Vegas, and the city itself generates millions of revenue for the state as well as providing millions of jobs, not just in the city, but in the surrounding area for the purpose of supplies, housing, and infrastructure. Personally, you may know, I think Las Vegas is a hell hole, but perhaps if a few states were allowed to create similar hell holes, like international cities, where more so than Vegas, the cities would be freer in their trade and restrictions, then the country would prosper financially.
Now, I really don't know that much about economics, but I did find the idea interesting. Merely, in terms of the way in which cities such as Lubek and Hong Kong have influenced entire regions politically and economically in their given times. I should mention that though Paul Romer is highly respected, there are many people out there who call him a nut. I began to investigate some of this stuff from an article in the Atlantic Monthly if you're interested. My first paragraph is pretty much a paraphrase of the first half of the article, my points expanded off of several of its bullet points as well.

Vomit Assault

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Inmmates Totes Have the Right to Sue

Apparently some bookish and litigious inmates at a Va. prison have been denied access to a certain book that specifically details how to go about suing the prison where one currently resides (see link below). Civil rights outfits are not digging it, to say the least, citing first amendment rights and whatnot. Squalid cell conditions are just completely unacceptable for any and all Americans, and so too is it every American's right to sue whoever they please... even if those Americans are exempt from participating in society.

Hey lawyer, lawyer... SUE!

GARY SHTEYNGART!!

Very funny guy, this guy... Yes, insightful, too! I read one of his books a few years back... "Absurdistan"... Typically, I'm obscure-adverse, but in spite this extreme misgiving of never having heard of him I gave the book a go, it being a birthday gift and all, and, after I finished it I smiled, satisfied and impressed, for what I had imagined would be as boring and slow as a dirge, the book turned out to be as strange and oddly pleasurable as the pleasure one receives from being sung the happy birthday song on your birthday by someone you kind of actually don't really like.

ONLY DISCONNECT