Stupid Laws and Stupid Proposals
A zoning ordinance adopted this month by the city of Manassas redefines family, essentially restricting households to immediate relatives, even when the total is below the occupancy limit.[...]
Fairfax County is seeking authority from the state to impose criminal fines and jail time on landlords who rent houses to more than four unrelated people, typically immigrants.(That's Manassas, Virginia. And that's Fairfax County, Virginia. So tell me, what the hell is wrong with Virginia, exactly? From this day forth, I don't want to hear a peep about Texas. Not from any of you. Never again. Not one syllable.)
The emphasis, by the way, in both cases? Mine. And here is your
source.
My take?
Actually, I have two. First: A people who are not free to choose the number and description of their roommates are not actually free at all. No matter what the national anthem says.
Second: this is the kind of garbage legislation you get when your ideological focus is on the tax base, not on ethical principles.
Exactly Why I Seek Out Multiple Sources
Copley News Service syndicated columnist Doug Bandow admitted accepting money from [lobbyist Jack] Abramoff for writing as many as 24 op-ed articles favorable to some of Abramoff's clients. Copley suspended the column pending a review and Bandow resigned as a senior fellow at the libertarian Cato Institute.Source. Emphasis mine.
The
Cato Institute is a world class think tank and its credentials are impeccable. A blogger might even make a career of sampling Cato's work and re-presenting it to the general public. But he shouldn't, and this sad example underscores that point very well.
Locke and Load on Ice, No Monkeyshine on Center Stage?
It seems as if
The Man will answer
The Call. He is making noises about picking up his old solo routine
No Monkeyshine and making it the bestseller it always longed to be. Surely yours truly -- Immanuel Can't -- can be a frequent, moderating voice.
Stick a Fork In Us...
...we're done. Blogging just isn't our thing quite yet.
Thanks to those who stopped by, and thanks especially to those who left us a piece of your mind. We'll leave
Locke and Load around for a few days, in the off-chance that some of you want to download some content or chase down a hyperlink that you found here. But by the end of the week, we plan to send this dog to the great boneyard beyond. A bona fide web journal should present its readers with at least one complete essay per day per contributor, and we've not even been able to manage a quick, daily hand genade between the two of us. Once we realized this, the rest was obvious.
Anyway: speak your mind, listen with your eyes, vote with your feet, disregard the noise, and you'll do fine. Happy surfing....
White Christmas
My find this Christmas that will be a part of every Christmas from here on? Everyone knows that the definitive recording of "White Christmas" is by Bing Crosby. But while watching the TV show
Monk with my wife, they played a version at the end of the episode that I had never heard before. I knew I recognized the voice and style, but I couldn't place it. So I did a search on Rhapsody and found it.
Otis Redding.
If you haven't heard it, give it a listen. And have a soulful Christmas.
The Lockies
Welcome to The First Annual Lockies, where Immanuel Can't lists the top ten albums of the year. Will
The Man remember his login password and create a list of his own? Will he call it The Loadies, maybe? Time will tell.
So here goes:
1. The Decemberists -- PicaresqueI know, I know. Another damn love letter to The Decemberists. How predictable. How banal. We get it already, sir: you neo-gothics love the damn Decemberists. Now can we move this thing along?
2. Mars Volta -- Frances the MuteWhat a terrific year in music that
Frances the Mute sits in second place at all, to anything, for any reason. In many ways this prog-metal masterpiece is the antithesis to
Picaresque: loud, chaotic, indecipherable, and largely inaccessible. Of course a review such as this is supposed to christen the thirty-minute epic "Cassandra Gemini" as the centerpiece of the album, but my favorite cut is "The Widow," the only single short enough for heavy rotation and the only track recorded this year that can give me the soulsickness. Go ahead. Call me a sap. I'd agree with you.
3. System of a Down -- MezmerizeEasily the strangest multi-platinum act in the world, SoaD can follow up a thunderous rage-against-the-war-machine protest track with a Disneyland-on-LSD joint about jumping around on pogo sticks. Mix postmoderism with punk and metal and splash with I'm-going-native and you're half the way to describing this ensemble. Buy their entire collection on your way home tonight, and listen to it in the parking lot.
(With the exception of the #10 slot, I present the rest on a "no particular order" basis:)
LCD Soundsystem -- LCD SoundsystemFunky, witty, imperfect, and, yes, American. Sorry, U.K.
Bloc Party -- Silent AlarmStreetwise and hip, these blokes less resemble a musical act and more a Guy Ritchie film put to drums. Dare I say it? This is what music critics mean when they say "quintessentially English."
Tarentel -- Big Black Square and TarentelBay Area boy scouts Tarentel managed a grand total of three tracks on these two LPs combined, earning themselves a Lockie for that level of restraint alone. Musical purists will dispute my use of the term, but this is lowercase at its finest: silent, minimal, dissonant, and beautiful.
Explosions in the Sky -- Those Who Tell the Truth Shall Live ForeverOne part spaghetti western, one part tornado, one part lowercase music, I know nothing more about EitS than this: their 2005 release was groundbreaking and breathtaking.
Battles -- EP CA sort of league of crafty guitarists for the new generation. As is the way with the other post-rock upstarts on the list, when these guys find a groove, they keep it. Tracks are exquisitely long, impersonally digital, and utterly compelling.
10. Doves -- Some CitiesThese guys are on double secret probation, hence the last rank in the list. Wandering melodies and spectral vocals all but mask the fact that Doves positively refuse to take a risk. The sound never tells a joke and never loses control, not once in five LPs. Jeff Buckley's 1994 album
Grace took as many chances in ten cuts as Doves have taken in their entire career, as is evidenced by the fact that Buckley fans have inhaled not one, not two, not three, four, five, six but
seven (!) full-length outtake LPs after his early death. Seven. Effin' seven. Think about it.
The Tragedy of the Tamales
Earlier in the week the company president brought in a few dozen tamales and left them in the break room, for community consumption. One of our shop employees took a dozen of them home and his entire family ate them for dinner.
In spite of the fact that putting nourishment in front of his children is a father's primary reponsibility, this offends us on some hidden, nearly descriptionless basis. But why? Not because he stole them. The president left them in the kitchen for free. "Community consumption" includes "consumption by him." There was nothing to steal.
And not because he violated the terms of her gift. A gift is a gift, period. There are no terms to a gift.
And not because he deprived another employee of the tamales. The tamales were presented on a first-come, first-served basis, and no one had appeared for work based on the promise of free food. There is no substantive difference to the other employees between one man "legitimately" devouring twelve tamales on his own or "illegitimately" squirreling away twelve tamales for his kids. To those who missed out, they missed out just as much had he taken a baker's dozen or all of them. To those who secured some, the same.
It is difficult to pinpoint one's ideological revulsion to what this employee did since he did not do anything beyond acting in his own self-interest. The company president is the one who acted uneconomically. The president ignored the
tragedy of the commons.
The tragedy of the commons is, although
only recently minted, a universal and timeless concept that economics can apply to almost any good. Something not privately managed will be publicly mismanaged. Water given away for free (or worse: sold for flat monthly rates, regardless of usage) will be consumed indiscriminately. Roads given away for free will be cluttered to the point of disutility. Antibiotics given away for free will be overconsumed.
Had the president charged, say, a dollar per tamal,
those few who wanted to eat would have eaten. Instead, she proclaimed the tamales to be "common," and
a few who wanted to eat were able to eat. But instead of sacrificing something valuable for the tamales in an auction, those who found them first were able to exploit them. And this makes us uncomfortable because it values luck above effort, meaning that it violates the very definition of economics, whether we know the definition or not: "the study of how men satisfy unlimited wants using quite-limited resources."
How is the tragedy of the tamales any different than the tragedy of free water? Or the tragedy of free education? Or the tragedy of free health care? Or the tragedy of free roads? I suspect that a great many people who think the tamal taker acted selfishly would disagree that a homeowner acts selfishly when drinking free water. But the premise is exactly the same. A man acting in his own self-interest, or in the interest of his family, is given no incentive to conserve the common good, or to produce more of it.
Star (on top of the Christmas Tree) Wars
I'm feeling better. Not yet feisty. Just better. Sunday was a bit muddy from all the drink Saturday night. Monday and Tuesday, I felt like I was coming down with the flu. Yesterday my back hurt, of all things. What a week. But, to say it again, I'm on the uptick. So I'll put my big toe back in the water with...
...
this Y Files post. Apparently the Save Christmas (from whom?) Coalition has fixed their scope on born-again Christian and leader of the free world, President George W. Bush, of Texas:
This month, as in every December since he took office, President Bush sent out cards with a generic end-of-the-year message, wishing 1.4 million of his close friends and supporters a happy “holiday season.”
Many people are thrilled to get a White House Christmas card, no matter what the greeting inside. But some conservative Christians are reacting as if Bush stuck coal in their stockings.
“This clearly demonstrates that the Bush administration has suffered a loss of will and that they have capitulated to the worst elements in our culture,” said William A. Donohue, president of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights.Two Decembers ago, I fled permanently from the Glenn Beck radio show for this very thing, his non-stop anti-anti-Christmas whining. A few points on the subject:
1. While movements to forbid nativity scenes from public places are excessive and misguided, we must remember that public squares are the public's business. A successful ACLU suit of this nature is not a violation of individual rights. A successful ACLU suit against nativity scenes on
private property would be a violation of individual rights.
2. One more point about public-sector nativity scenes. What footnote to "reduce government spending" are the conservatives reading from, anyway? Civic displays cost money to procure, assemble, maintain, disassemble, store, and reassemble next year. That money comes from tax revenue. The taxes come from the people. On any other matter, conservatives would have cut me off at the word "procure" and started howling about the redistribution of wealth.
3. It was always weird to me hearing store greeters wishing "Merry Christmas" on any day but December 25. Here's a thought: wish "Happy Holidays" on every day between Thanksgiving and New Years Day, and wish "Merry Christmas" on Christmas. Or here's another: greet customers with "Welcome to Wal-Mart" when they show up and with "Thank you" when they leave. Pure genius!
4. No matter what you think of my solution #3 above, retail greeting policies are matters of private consideration, meant to make the store more universally appealing to shoppers and, therein, meant to look after their shareholders' investment. And yes, whether you boycott these retail outlets for their private considerations is also a private consideration. To the present author, an organized boycott on this basis alone seems excessive and misguided (a common motif in holiday/Christmas matters anymore).
5. Please. The sitting president of the United States is not "capitulating to the worst elements in our culture," period. Violence, nihilism, thievery, power-lust, racism, xenophobia, intolerance of other religions? These are the worst elements of our culture (and of all cultures). Protection of minorities (albeit excessive and misguided protection of minorities in this case) is the most democratic thing I can think of.
6. As to the "loss of will" remark, no. Get some perspective. G.W. Bush proposing that the U.S. Army militarize the national response to the avian flu? Yeah.
That represents a loss of will.
(this post deleted)
Yeah, yeah, that was a bit much. Sorry.
Quote of the Day
Actually, two:
--
On Tuesday [November 29], the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation took time out of its busy schedule screwing up commerce, science and transportation to host an "open forum on decency."...and...
--
Rugged individualists in Alaska get a whopping $1.89 back from the feds for every tax dollar they send to Washington.Source: Nick Gillespie's article
here on congressional deliberations toward cable TV decency legislation.
Liberal Wanted
(
UPDATE What follows is an earnest offer, even if it doesn't read like one.)
To post on
Locke and Load with The Man and me.
Strict deadlines, no pay, hostile work environment, little outside recognition. Posting in anonymity is its own reward. Excellent written and verbal communication skills required. Open contempt for the First, Second, Fifth, and Tenth Amendments helpful. Ability to explain Marxism, Stalism, Maoism, statism, Supreme Court Justice David Souter, and anything that happens in San Francisco a big plus.
Inquire within.
EEOIEO.
The State of Protectionism
For those who think interstate trade protectionism is not a natural progression from international trade protectionism, read the following excerpt from a
San Jose Mercury News piece:
Southwest Airlines Co. wasted no time in announcing Thursday that it will launch service from Dallas to St. Louis and Kansas City on Dec. 13 ... after President Bush signed a transportation bill that included a provision to make Missouri the ninth state that airlines can serve directly from Dallas Love Field.This is the year 2005, and we actually need to pass a federal law so that an airline can serve nine states?
And the new law only allows nine?
What is that thing called that the Supreme Court uses to regulate home-grown marijuana that doesn't cross state lines? The Commerce clause? Can't Congress just invoke
that?
Links
It's a fairly slow news day, so I thought a review of my links would be fitting:
At
Happiness and Public Policy, Will Wilkinson has posted a BBC article on the
therapeutic powers of dolphins. I would be delinquent in duty if I failed to mention the fact that dolphins are creepy.
Over at
The Y Files, Cathy Young weighs in on R. J. Rummel, who has admitted "that his earlier estimates of Chairman Mao's
democide was too low."
Next door,
The Agitator, Radley Balko draws an eerie
comparison between a Reason Hit & Run
post and an Onion
piece. Not as creepy as dolphins, but if you reflect that Onion is made up and that Reason Magazine is not, you'll agree that it is certainly, say, monkey creepy.
Marginal Revolution: Tyler Cowen
links yet another essay written in an indecipherable tongue.
At
Gateway Pundit, GP
presents various news pieces on World AIDS Day.
Division of Labour looks back 100 years to consider contemporary intercollegiate sports and gambling.
As to the rest of the links (and you know the ones I mean), your conclusions are your own. Happy reading!
