No Treason

I think I am finally beating my addiction to forums. Slowly. The leechblock plugin for Firefox helps.

Google releases their new browser, named Chrome. Someone mentioned that it was difficult to find Chrome related domain names. Not too difficult for me. I scored 4 in 10 minutes.

Also, the release of Chrome is somewhat surprising. I’m not a tech gawker, and admit I had no idea it was coming even though it coincided with Google shutting down it’s CPA referral program (perhaps due to someone I know who had found a way to push massive conversions through it) where it promoted Firefox heavily. After doing so much work to move people to a browser that is now a competitor…

Maybe it was to give Microsoft a kick in the jiggly bits.

What’s fascinating to me is that the internet is evolving so rapidly that browsers are becoming more diverse and more disparate. Chrome is not like other browsers, although only the more technically minded folks will realize how different it really is. There truly is a lot of differentiation in the freest market mankind has ever seen.

FSK lost his job. That sucks. Although I think the drama of his workplace was starting to crush his soul, so maybe it is a good thing that he is now searching for a new mission. I’ve been there. I’ve always been better for the resets in my life, whether I pushed the button or someone else did.

I have 10 drafts, or unpublished, half-written, half-baked posts. With each passing day, I feel less connection to them, and the reasons I started them in the first place. While this holds true of what I thought might be a legendary post about the LRC Podcast, with the lack of podcasts for what feels like a couple weeks now, perhaps it is best that I didn’t get that one done or sink hours into transcribing audio quotes.

I totally abuse commas. So sue me.

I don’t like blogging. Bloggers have always seemed like soapbox self-promoters to me. There are so few who have something worthwhile to say, and many who just want acknowledgment for saying anything. But I have to admit that it is cathartic. And can be reflective.

On the Mises forum, someone asked, “How does an industry benefit from being taxed?”. What proceeded were explanations of the method by which companies benefit from taxation, and the conclusion that taxation functioned similarly to regulation as a barrier to entry.

I was going to add to the discussion and point out that lobbyists and corporations now write legislation, because whether it is tax or regulation, the government is the most efficient way for big business to control and limit competition. There doesn’t seem to be enough disgust with statism and the status quo for me in those discussions. At times, the environment seems very laissez-faire and in direct contradiction to Mises admonition, “tu ne cede malis”. I’m all for laissez-faire, but not when it comes to my oppression.

There are so many charades going on around us. The campaign charades, the legislative charade, the patriotic charades. Yesterday I listened to a few friends talk about Obama and Palin. They both acknowledge the system is a scam, that politicians are parasites and so forth, but are completely enthralled with the cult of personality that surrounds speech making and grandstanding.

“You should watch Bill Maher!” they tell me. Well, no I shouldn’t. I gave up Maher early in my transformation. He’s a cynical bigot whose primary contribution is attacking everything and everyone. The problem is, he does it indiscriminately. Literally, the loose cannon of left-intellectualism.

This guy, Francois Tremblay, does a Market Anarchist Carnival. I thought about signing up for it, but I don’t have a lot of content yet. I don’t know that he would let me run one.

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As seen on the LRC blog, this guy Steve Benen, posts the following;

Advocating secession is, practically by definition, un-American.

Questions for Steve Benen…

What definition is that? What would you call the American Revolution? Were the colonies not seeking to secede from Great Britain?

Considering that the Revolution was a founding event in the history of America, your statement

Advocating secession is, practically by definition, un-American.

is stunningly ridiculous.

Steve, the world is already overflowing with people who post mindless jingoism. Please find a new shtick and stop trying to damage humanity.

And shame on AlterNet for reprinting you. Don’t they have anyone with any editorial integrity?

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On the Mises forum, Majevska wrote,

The majority of people start to hate libertarians when they are humiliated by them. You may be 100% correct in your logic, and if so you will probably make the other person feel defeated and humiliated and all you accomplish is making yourself into an object of hatred and discomfort.

This reminded me of something I read in “Mises and Austrian Economics: A Personal View” by Ron Paul.

“No one should expect that any logical argument or any experience could shake the almost religious fervor of those who believe in salvation through spending and credit expansion”

That’s from Ludwig Von Mises, “Stones into Bread : The Keynesian Miracle” Planning for Freedom 1974 p. 63

I’d like to add, the humiliation is not always a result of the approach. I think many people feel shame when they realize they have never critically thought about what they believe, let alone that they may be totally wrong. They cannot defend their position, which makes it seem like more of a beating.

Someone also wrote in the discussion that no one likes finding out Santa doesn’t exist.

Worse than that, no one with any modesty likes finding out that they were believing a lie. It is very embarrassing.