Amazon.com Widgets 2008 September

A Stitch in Haste

A Stitch in Time Saves Nine … But Haste Makes Waste

A collection of real-world libertarian, individualist and laissez-faire rants on law, economics, politics, culture and other current events
by an average, everyday lawyer & investment banker and part-time pop scholar.


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Entries from September 2008

Lies, Damned Lies, and Nursing Homes

September 30th, 2008 · 1 Comment

I was all set to cite this New York Times article on violation rates in nursing homes simply in a "Questions" entry: Shouldn't a supposed "right to health care" include a right to violation-free nursing home care? Etc.
But I'm changing tack after having read the whole piece:
More than 90 percent of nursing homes were cited [...]

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Tags: Socialized Medicine

Linkfest: Some More Criticisms of "We're Not Wrong, The Market Is!"

September 30th, 2008 · No Comments

"It's not based on any particular data point," a Treasury spokeswoman told Forbes.com Tuesday. "We just wanted to choose a really large number."
To review: A key selling point girding up the proposed Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 (a/k/a the Wall Street Bailout) is the insistence by its authors and supporters that the "cost" [...]

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Tags: Economics & Finance · Politics · Taxation & Fiscal Policy

Questions

September 29th, 2008 · 2 Comments

–How are the health care socialists in two Australian hospitals rationing their scarce resources?
–A Special Guest Question: What would Ayn Rand have done?
–Who owns the last home run ball hit at the old Yankee Stadium?
–Special Follow-Up Questions: Suppose a court rules that the person currently in possession of the ball does not in fact own [...]

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Tags: Questions

From the Archives — Government as Stockholder: A Terrible Idea

September 29th, 2008 · No Comments

While looking up a link for an entry in yesterday's "Sunday Updates," I stumbled upon an old post that takes on a new relevance in light of the (apparently near completion) mortgage-based securities bailout and the increasing concern over the financial health of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. This piece was originally published on November [...]

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Tags: Activist Legislators & Nanny Statists · Economics & Finance · Freedom of Contract · Taxation & Fiscal Policy

Linkfest: Sunday Updates

September 28th, 2008 · 2 Comments

SPECIAL UPDATE AND REMINDER: Today, September 28, is "Pulpit Freedom Sunday," the day when various theocrat clerics intend to knowingly and wilfully violate the Internal Revenue Code's proscription on tax-exempt institutions endorsing political candidates. The professional bigots at the Alliance Defense Fund openly and notoriously hope to goad the I.R.S. into revoking, or at least [...]

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Tags: Updates

Doesn't a "Night Watchman State" Presuppose a Night Watchman?

September 28th, 2008 · 1 Comment

I was finally all prepped to record some video and shoot some pictures of Diamond at the new dog run, now open after a seemingly excessive period of construction and landscaping.
I wound up documenting a less-than-festive scene:

Standing dumbfounded at the splashy pool (a particular favorite of Diamond's), cruelly thrown over an unclimbable fence, my only [...]

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Tags: DiamondBlogging · Libertarianism · New York City & State

Sunday CuteTuber™

September 28th, 2008 · No Comments

Last week's CuteTuber™ discussed Twitter. So this week why not feature a discussion of MySpace?


I share Ericrants' frustration at externally selected ads — John McCain appears way too often (i.e., more than never) on my Google Ads. And I too seem to attract the pretty, um, "23-year" old ladies on [...]

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Tags: Sunday CuteTuber™

In Which I Rescue the Housing Market

September 27th, 2008 · 2 Comments

Some of you may remember this recent post in which I noted that some non-negative potentialities might constrain my blogging. Well, one of those potentialities appears to have come to fruition.
Barring any exogenous shocks, I will soon the proud owner of a penthouse. Best part is, that it's a penthouse in my building (i.e., I'll [...]

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Tags: Personal Topics

Taser Misconduct Reaches New Heights — Literally

September 26th, 2008 · 1 Comment

Just when you think the incidents can't get any more absurd or outrageous:

To say, "What were these cops thinking?" is too generous — they obviously weren't thinking at all. Which is the whole problem with prevailing law enforcement attitudes toward the Taser. The willingness to use the device, not as a substitute to the use [...]

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Tags: Fourth Amendment · Law Enforcement Abuses

The Bailout, the President and the Fallacy of Intrinsic Value

September 25th, 2008 · 2 Comments

Every so often, I see a Wall Street commentator defend his failed predictions by insisting that his analysis is indeed perfectly correct, even though his picks turned out to be dead wrong. I call this ego defense mechanism, "I'm not wrong, the market is!"
But of course the market (by which I mean any market and [...]

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Tags: Economics & Finance · Politics