Life Imitates Fiction

I just started reading the Fountainhead again on inspiration from the painting my niece Rachel gave me for Christmas. I'll have to wrap it up quick so that I can give AS another go!

'Atlas Shrugged': From Fiction to Fact in 52 Years

Many of us who know Rand's work have noticed that with each passing week, and with each successive bailout plan and economic-stimulus scheme out of Washington, our current politicians are committing the very acts of economic lunacy that "Atlas Shrugged" parodied in 1957...

Politicians invariably respond to crises -- that in most cases they themselves created -- by spawning new government programs, laws and regulations. These, in turn, generate more havoc and poverty, which inspires the politicians to create more programs . . . and the downward spiral repeats itself until the productive sectors of the economy collapse under the collective weight of taxes and other burdens imposed in the name of fairness, equality and do-goodism...

The current economic strategy is right out of "Atlas Shrugged": The more incompetent you are in business, the more handouts the politicians will bestow on you.

I was a little disappointed to see that in the last paragraph of this article, Moore makes a reference to the subjectivist David Kelley, who himself has had some pretty nasty things to say about Rand. I have no idea why people call him an advocate of her ideas.

UPDATE: Oooh. A video interview.

Doctor Wants Kidney Back As Part of Divorce

As a person who is only living with a partial kidney removed, not even someone with a whole kidney removed, Lia has this to say:

"This guy rocks! I'd want that thing back too. He should hire some Russians to put her in a bathtub full of ice and take the sucker out!"

A four-year divorce, a doctor that knew beforehand what it would do to him to give up a kidney (he must have really loved her), and a lady who cheated on him after getting one of his organs. Also he is confident enough in his ability to make a living that he doesn't want any other money, the house, or other part of the estate: just the kidney, or it's equal value: 1.5 Million Dollars.

It's not as if having a kidney removed is nothing: you can live without it, but it's 6 months to a year before you stop feeling all your insides shifting and rearranging from the void you created by it's absence. Also, it's a major surgery, meaning they cut through flesh and muscle to get to the damn thing, and it's a long recovery to get over that.

Financial Crisis Link Roundup

Bush says sacrificed free-market principles to save economy. Umm. You didn't have any in the first place, George.

John Stossel: The Next Crisis

"Barack Obama says, '[Today's economic problems are] a stark reminder of the failures of ... an economic philosophy that sees any regulation at all as unwise and unnecessary.'

What? Does that mean that until last week the Bush administration embraced the free market? Nonsense.

BB&T chief blames crisis on government

“I think George Bush has been one of the worst presidents in history, but this is not his fault,”

ARI: Stop Blaming Capitalism for Government Failures

"...whatever one wishes to call the unruly mixture of freedom and government controls that made up our economic and political system during the last three decades, one cannot call it capitalism."

Repeal the Bailout

"...once started, the bailouts were not going to stop.
...
Consequently (and unfortunately), we expect this domain and website to be policy relevant for years to come. So with all due respect to those who may have thought us naive, we would like to gently suggest that it was more naive to believe that the government was going to close the the "Pandora's Box" of bailout policy once they had opened it."

The Only Stimulus Package That Will Work

An economic emergency? Yes. Time to take action now? Yes.

But not the kind of action Obamalicious is calling for. Exactly the opposite: Not more deficit spending, but less; not more taxes, but less, for ALL Americans; not more individual welfare, not more corporate welfare, but less.

Don't just cut taxes for 95% of America. Cut it for everyone. Repeal the capital gains tax. The result? Everyone is free to invest and spend and save as they see fit. AS THEY SEE FIT! Interesting concept. No imperious overlord standing by to force us where to put our money. Actual monetary freedom.

How do we pay for all this then? By taking every bureaucratic wealth redistribution scheme that has been created in the last 70 years and repeal them all. We'll start with the most current ones and work backwards:

• Repeal the recent $700B bank bailout
• Repeal Bush's prescription drug bill ($120B)
• Repeal Medicare and Medicaid ($580B)
• Repeal Social Security ($560B)

And in addition, repeal every statist, restrictive law that has come into being since the 70's, such as the Community Reinvestment Act, which had a hand in causing this recession, and Sarbanes Oxley, the IPO inhibiting monstrosity that got passed after the Enron-WorldCom debacle.

It's a simple, two part plan, really. The government should:
1) Cut the hell back
2) Leave my money alone

Obviously it would take years to dismantle these huge entangled bureaucracies, but it needs to happen. Most of the entitlements people get from Social Security and Medicare are immoral anyway, and those that aren't can be made through the private sector, and done cheaper.

This guy lays out the numbers pretty well of what our debt would be if the stimulus plan passed.

Trillion-Dollar Spree Is Road to Ruin, Not Rally: Kevin Hassett

We are in the midst of a crisis caused by so many financial institutions borrowing too much money. Somehow, a critical mass of policy makers now believes that the correct response is for the U.S. government to borrow too much money.

He talks about a couple senators that are trying to trim back the budget, but no specifics yet on where. The Senate press release he links to is a year and a half old, but it's still the right idea.

Now is the time to address the unsustainable shortfall between our expected revenues and the trillions we know we will be spending for federal health and retirement programs.

Screw these Keynseian economics theories. They say more and more deficit spending will bring back the economy. If deficit spending is the path to economic nirvana, then that means with all the deficit spending we've had in our lifetime, everything would be puppy dogs and unicorns by now. But it's not. Keynes sucks.

Positive

Lia tested positive today! Whew.

What a huge relief.

Mountain Bike Trails on Google Earth/Maps

Ever since I got my GPS unit I've been tracing all my tracks through the backwoods on the bike. I figured out you can post your tracks on Google Earth and Google Maps. Now I have profiles in both places. Pretty Sweet.

Here's the trail network in Flag that I've hit so far, and below that, the area in Sedona I've done with the GPS, which is only the stuff around Cathedral Rock. I gotta get out and do more riding!


View Larger Map


View Larger Map

X equals two to the Nth

We implanted three "A" grade embryos out of our batch of 19. They were perfect: 8 cells, no fragments, still growing. It turns out each cell divides once a day, and we stuck 'em in on day three, so 8 or more cells is perfect (hence the awesome equation I derived all by myself).

Lia has to sit on the couch for a day, and then take some more drugs, then we get a preggo test on the 30th to see if they stick. I say "they" meaning one or two. Not all three!

This T-shirt from the XKCD store will be the first item of baby clothing we will buy when this is all over:


I don't think they sell it in a onesie. He, or she, or they, will have to grow into it.

There were four other embryos that were "B"s and still growing. So Dr. Patel (a skinnier, more Indian version of my brother-in-law Ernesto: super smart and totally awesome, and catches me off-guard a lot with random jokes) said we could freeze those if in a few days they grow up to be "A"s.

So if you are a radical fundamentalist, and you're keeping score, we have committed at least 14 acts of "murder" in the course of having one kid. That's from the two we didn't implant last time and the 12 we didn't implant or freeze this time. I just want to point that out for everyone at home.

Guess what? I feel great about the whole thing, because until we get something that actually poops, I pretty much don't care. We'll do some stem cell research with the rest.

We're stoked, eh!

IVF Round 2

Lia and I have 19 babies growing in Scottsdale right now, so things are looking even better than last time, and last time our numbers weren't too shabby. We have an excellent chance of having some RoarkSpawn soon. We'll implant this weekend at the latest.

It was a little painful for Lia over the last few days, and then have the procedure on Monday, but she recovered faster than last time and now I'd say she's 90%, with a little discomfort now and then (we both went to work today). The implant will be a little uncomfortable, but it's all for a purpose.

Space Tourism is Coming

PopSci had a little blurb on WhiteKnightTwo. It's good these guys are still up and running after their mishap last year.

Why do they go after Mumbai?

A Bombay (Mumbai) native asks why the city was attacked. The answer is the same as it always is: democracy, whiskey, sexy!

Why do they go after Mumbai? There’s something about this island-state that appalls religious extremists, Hindus and Muslims alike. Perhaps because Mumbai stands for lucre, profane dreams and an indiscriminate openness.

...

From the street food vendor squatting on a sidewalk, fiercely guarding his little business, to the tycoons and their dreams of acquiring Hollywood, this city understands money and has no guilt about the getting and spending of it.

He has a reaction to this attack that is very similar to the one I had after 9/11. When everyone else was talking about building little, short, squat buildings in the place of WTC 1 and 2, I was hoping for something not 110 stories, but 111 stories right back in the same place. Paint a big middle finger on it with an AA battery at the top and we got a deal.

...the best answer to the terrorists is to dream bigger, make even more money, and visit Mumbai more than ever. Dream of making a good home for all Mumbaikars, not just the denizens of $500-a-night hotel rooms...of clean running water, humane mass transit, better toilets, a responsive government. Make a killing not in God’s name but in the stock market, and then turn up the forbidden music and dance; work hard and party harder.

By the way, I remember the middle finger being Lia's idea.