By -
Test post via text message.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Predictions (Part II)

By -
Unfortunately, I believe the vote count to be much closer than my friend Stephen does. My predictions: Bush electoral votes: 270 Kerry electoral votes: 268 Switching to Red: Hawaii, Iowa, New Mexico Switching to Blue: New Hampshire, Ohio Popular vote: Bush 50.1, Kerry 48.5 Senate: GOP picks up 2. House: GOP nets 5. Should Colorado split its vote, Lt. Kerry reports for duty (with Bush still winning the popular vote). I suppose the only consolation for such a circumstance would be the deafening silence on the topic of reforming the electoral college.
Read more

John Locke, an old Subaru, and the ethics of blocking traffic

By -
By now most people have seen video of a man in a Subaru driving through a crowd of protesters in Minneapolis. The crowd sees the Subaru approaching, and acts to block him from continuing. We don't know what was said, just that the driver honked furiously, then tried edging forward. One young woman who refused to move was bumped and knocked over, at which point, he was mobbed with people pounding on his car. He decided to get out of Dodge and bumped/pushed his way through the crowd to freedom. What of it? Pedestrians traditionally have the right of way when interacting with motor vehicles, even if said pedestrians are stupid. How much of that rule applies when they are illegally blocking a street? If my daughter can't run a lemonade stand without a permit, but people can illegally block traffic (no permit) without fear of any police intervention, we have a strange inversion of law. When you pick your targets based upon likelihood of compliance, you are part of the problem. ...
Read more

Cutting out all the middlemen

By -
Great post from "Captain Capitalism" about his $38 visit to the doctor . No, that wasn't the co-pay. That was the cost of the visit. As he points out, it was less than an oil change. It's funny how cutting out layers of paper-processors can save money. Everyone who touches your insurance claim needs to take a slice. And so does their boss, and their boss' boss, and every executive. Oh, and the government expects to get their portion of each of  those portions, plus a nice chunk of the overall profits. And not one of those people in the long line of people getting paid actually provides a service to you the patient. Well, except for the doctor, who is increasingly becoming an afterthought. After all, the government is ready to slash "reimbursements" to doctors as a way of controlling the costs of this monstrous new bureaucracy, designed, without irony, to make health care affordable. What would car insurance premiums be if oil changes and other routine ma...
Read more