I got my paycheck receipt today. Unfortunately, it was for just a day, rather than the month’s pay I was expecting. I called HR and was assured that it was for the last month, and I that was to get this month’s payment tomorrow. After remembering that I began my job on the first of this month, I decided not to pursue my complaint. Reminds me of the $100 Christmas bonus I got from HEB six months after I had quit. On the down side, I was rudely reminded of the State’s claim to my life in the form of an innocuous-looking line labeled “Federal Income Tax."

Property Rights on the Net

The Internet has often been compared to America’s expanding western frontier during the 19th century. Like all frontiers, it has the potential to create enormous wealth through the exploitation of new technologies by the cowboys of the digital domain. The creation of a global communication network has attracted millions of entrepreneurs who are eager to make a name and a dollar for themselves by finding new opportunities and business models that take advantage of the unique nature of the Net.

The Internet is not just a source of wealth – it is also a source for the creation of new kinds of property rights. Domain names, broadband access, website designs, digital databases, digitized content, and quasi-public networks are all becoming new and valuable virtual property with little or no existing guidelines for the assignment of property rights to their owners. As governments worldwide struggle to catch up and resolve disputes by establishing property rights in these new areas, businesses must often act to secure their property when the Law is unable to provide adequate protection. This applies to intellectual property such as music and images as well as to virtual property such as domain names and private networks.

The proper role of government in this new domain is to create new kinds of property rights to protect the new forms of wealth created by the Internet. Organizations like ICANN have been commissioned by the US government to oversee private corporations like VeriSign that have larger been relatively successful in establishing and protecting property rights on the Internet.

Two major challenges persist: the status of digital media such as music and movies, and the status of publicly available but privately owned networks, such as instant messaging services. Even a well-meaning, intellectual property-respecting consumer like me is bound to have a hard time knowing which actions infringe on someone’s rights – and I don’t mean knowing the law – simply knowing which actions are ethical requires some technical knowledge. For example, is it ok to copy CD’s to mp3 to play on your computer? Can you copy those mp3’s to another computer you own? What if you lose the original CD? What about posting text and images from online articles – how much is fair use and how much infringes on someone’s right? In a rational society, there would exist clear standards for what actions are ethical, but in our mixed-economy state, where respect for intellectual property is rare, there are bound to be rights violations both in infringing and in the attempt to protect private property. Organizations like RIAA often abuse the courts in their attempt to protect their client’s legitimate property. Everyone agrees that CD’s cost too much, but is their price market-driven, or is it made artificially high by a government monopoly?

Another area where property rights are hazy right now are instant-messaging networks. AOL has been struggling to shut own competitors using its protocols (and AOL’s servers) for years, and Yahoo and Microsoft have recently attempted to shut out third-party clients like Trillian. All three claim that they are only blocking their competitors because of security or technical reasons, and all three claim to be dedicated to establishing open-protocols, but it’s blindingly obvious that their goal is to preserve the revenues from the ads displayed in their clients. If AOL, Microsoft or Yahoo simply said “my network is private property, and you may not use a third party client to connect to it,” then a clear precedent would be established, but instead they offer pathetic excuses like this:

“Because fighting spam is a top priority, we are proactively implementing preventative measures to help keep Yahoo! Messenger the high-quality environment our users have come to expect," Osako said. "If this upgrade affects the way in which other services will interact with Yahoo! Messenger, it is merely a byproduct of our efforts to help protect our users from potential spammers.”

Perhaps Yahoo is reluctant to declare their network private property because it is planning to release its own multi-protocol client. Meanwhile, after failing to break into AOL’s IM protocol, and publicly releasing theirs to put pressure on AOL, Microsoft is clamping down on its own IM network. Personally, until a company says “private property, keep out ” I plan to keep using Gaim, a free multi-network IM client.

Damn you, Cox!

My Internet connection has been mostly down the last four days, thanks to Cox Internet. I tried to do some off-line activities on my computer like finishing some unfinished essays and doing some coding, but even that seemed futile offline. After looking at a blank screen for a few hours, I resumed reading .NET Enterprise Design. It’s a neat book, even if it is ironic that I decided to read a book on designing effective networks while the internet was out.

How to be a Greedy American

Thanks to Google and MSN for recognizing me as the 3rd most “Greedy American.” If I could go choose to be known by any one moniker, it would be as a “greedy American.” But this got me to thinking: who are the real greedy Americans? (And how can I capitalize on my search engine hits?) What is the essence of being selfish, anyway?

The short answer is simple: a selfish individual places his interests and his life before that of others. But merely choosing to be selfish does not provide any guidance for action. To act on any abstract idea, you must decide how to apply it in concrete situations. Should you (as the common misconception goes) simply do whatever you feel like? Are cheating, lying, and thieving selfish actions? What about caring for other people? To answer these questions (and many others!) and apply them to your life, you must integrate abstract ideas into the rest of your knowledge. As Leonard Peikoff points out in OPAR, one cannot act on any idea outside the context of the rest of his knowledge.

To live a selfish life is to make one’s values a primary. But to be successful in living as a human being, man must life by rational values, not by random whims and desires, but by rationally chosen goals which are true to his nature as a human being. This requires a fully developed moral code based on the values required for man’s survival, such as rationality, productivity, and honesty. In other words, selfishness is not for dummies: it requires an active and constant dedication to being a purposeful, rational, and productive individual.

With this context in mind, who qualifies as the “greediest” American? I think the essence of a selfish individual is the absolute and uncompromising pursuit of his values. The main obstacle the majority of people have in this regard is not that they regard the pursuit of selfish values as wrong, but that they do not have values of their own to begin with. I don’t just mean the second-handed losers who are unable to make anything of their life, but also those individuals who are ostensibly successful and self-interested in their goals, but are unable to take pleasure from them because their philosophy does not allow them to enjoy their success.

I’ve known many such people in my life: by any normal measure, they are excellent students, dedicated to their goals, and envied by their peers. But because they implicitly accept a philosophy denies their life as an end in itself, they are plagued by constant feelings of guilt, inadequacy, and self-degradation. The most common external sign of their inner turmoil is their tendency to have self-destructive, abusive relationships, or an inability to have any relationships of mutual admiration.

For this reason, it is hard to know the moral character of a person merely by looking at his achievements. For example, Bill Gates is unquestionably a successful and passionate individual when it comes to his work – he must be in order to create a company like Microsoft. But just because he lives a productive and materially successful life does not necessarily mean that he has a philosophy that allows him to reap the rewards of his achievements. His true motivation might be an obligation to contribute to society, a need to outdo his peers, or perhaps feelings of inadequacy because he cannot live up to his father’s expectations. Perhaps he became a software designer to live up to social expectation in spite of his true ambitions of being an artist. Without knowing the motivation for his success, we can’t know whether he is able to enjoy it. The fact that he offers excuses (excuses, mind you!) for his success and wastes his wealth away on charities is certainly not a positive sign.

There is another kind of philosophy whose outcome I still don’t know because I’m too young to know anyone who has lived his life by it. It’s the individual who lives by a proper philosophy, but has given up on (usually unknowingly) on philosophy as such because the meaningless void of today’s culture is all he knows. He will usually describe himself as a pragmatist, but only because he does not realize that there exists a name for his morality: rational self-interest. I’ve only known a few such individuals in my life, and they are the ones I want to expose to the ideas of Objectivism. Why? Because I used to be one of them.

Bake Sale Anyone?

SMU shuts down race-based bake sale.
The Texas A&M chapter of the YCT is planning the same thing in November.

This year's Open House didn't yield any great photos, but here is a decent one:

For more, go here.

Please recycle your scrap metal on someone else's lawn...

There is a new statue in the business school called "life rhythm." I pity the poor bastard whose "life rhythm" is described by this junk heap. This is what they picked to represent business? I can think of some superior alternatives…

From Mises.org: Isabel Blew Fallacy Ashore. The Fallacy of the Broken Window is one of many great examples from Henry Hazlitt's awesome book Economics in One Lesson.
Also: check out the latest Cox and Forkum.

A few interesting stories: Jeff Jacoby says that The War On America Did Not Begin On Sept 11th, Victor Hanson writes that "These Are Historic Times," and Arthur C Clarke's dream of a space elevator may be becoming a reality, although the weight of government involvement may ground this project before this elevator goes anywhere.

Who is the bigger Apple?

This is getting ridiculous: The Beatles Sue Apple Computers Over iPod, iTunes
The purpose of trademark law is to prevent a business from mooching of another’s success by falsely representing it. Unfortunately, that’s exactly what Apple Corps is using it for in this case.

Barbie dolls a threat to morality?

Saudi Arabia's religious police have declared Barbie dolls a threat to morality, complaining that the revealing clothes of the "Jewish" toy — already banned in the kingdom — are offensive to Islam.
For more on the story, see Cox and Forkum.

Arafat threatens to commit suicide if he is expelled from Israel. Oh, the horror! Don't do it Arafat – the thousands of innocent people you murdered will never get over it!

A California judge on Friday gave preliminary approval to a landmark settlement under which Microsoft will pay $1.1 billion to settle a class-action suit that claimed it overcharged consumers for Windows.

Hey, California, you're overcharging people on taxes -- where is their settlement?
Microsoft comments:

"Microsoft has offered great products at competitive prices and we believe we would have prevailed in this case," a Microsoft spokesman said in an e-mail message to reporters. "However, we were committed to resolving this matter. This settlement further demonstrates Microsoft's continued efforts to put these conflicts behind us and to focus on the future."

So, theft is wrong in theory, but if we capitulate to crooks this time, they'll leave us alone, right? Right?

Christian Right Lobbies To Overturn Second Law Of Thermodynamics

Canadians: Government pot not up to par.

Walter Williams on "Click It or Ticket"

"Click It or Ticket" represents another bold step along the road to serfdom. History knows of no totalitarianism agenda where noble goals weren't used as justification. Nazis used "for the good of the German Volk" and the Soviets used "for the good of the proletariat" as their justification. Health and safety have become the American justification for attacks on liberty.

Skype

Tim sent me a link to Skype, a new P2P telephony application from the makers of Kazaa. I was skeptical at first, but a test call changed that. It's encrypted, reaches callers behind firewalls and NAT's, has very high quality, and is extremely simple to use. The only downside is that it uses third parties to route calls when direct connections aren’t possible. If you want to try it out, you can add me by searching for [email protected]

.Net rocks!

I'm playing with the VB.Net-based DotNetNuke portal. Although it’s very new, the superiority of the .Net platform is allowing it to rapidly catch up with mature LAMP-based portals. It really gives a whole new meaning to RAD development. (Btw, did you know that you can run .Net on Linux/Apache using Mono and the ModMono Apache module?) I’ve already set up a blog, and I’d like to move my homepage to .NetNuke, if only I could find a .Net host. Anyone interested in getting a free Unix account in exchange for some space on a .Net-enabled host? I'd host it on my pc if Cox hadn't blocked port 80...I'll be damned if they make me upgrade to a commercial account just to run a web server. Speaking of which, the value/quality of the service Cox offers is ridiculous, but they have a local monopoly on cable Internet service, and I’ve disabled my landline, so I can’t get DSL. Incidentaly, I just found I get free web hosting at http://cox-internet.com/david, but Cox offers no scripting support, making my account rather useless.
Anyway, you should seriously consider using .Net for your web/GUI/Unix development needs. I’m going to do just that…right after I cash my check from the MS marketing dept.

“If you build it — we will burn it”

That is the slogan of the eco-terrorists group known as “ELF.” In the last few years, these home-made terrorists have not only been causing untold millions of dollars in damage, but have also been committing murder for “crimes against nature.” Ted Kacynski’s ‘revolution against the industrial system” is just one example of their methods, along with assassinating political opponents, and large-scale harassment and intimidation campaigns against American companies. A few years ago, they went after an insurer of a drug-testing company:

Employees have had their homes vandalized with spray-painted “Puppy killer” and “We'll be back” notices. They have faced a mounting number of death threats, fire bombings and violent assaults. They've had their names, addresses and personal information posted on Web sites and posters, declaring them “wanted for collaboration with animal torture.”

While the scale of death and destruction caused by eco-terrorism has been growing, neither the police nor any federal agencies have pursued these groups with any seriousness, in large part due to the political power of the environmentalist movement.
Earlier today, a terrorist was finally arrested in CA for causing over $1 million dollars in damage. Their bold-faced lies are astounding:

[The offender’s] roommate insisted he had no role in the vandalism.
"We absolutely condemn it," she told the Daily Bulletin. "We think it was wrong. We're peace activists. We feel like we're being unfairly targeted because we disagree with our government."
Lopez said the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms were continuing an investigation of federal crimes, which would be added to Connole's state crimes charges. The FBI, after the arson and vandalism spree, released surveillance video from a Ford dealership in Duarte that showed two young men spray-painting SUVS.

Despite the scale of violence coming from these groups, a much more serious threat to our lives comes from the non-violent mainstream movement, which is just as dedicated to the wholesale destruction of human life. I think Glenn Woiceshyn sums it up best:

Since man survives only by conquering nature, man is an inherent threat to the "intrinsic value" of nature and must therefore be eliminated. Environmentalism makes man the endangered species.

(Read on for several of the more interesting crimes perpetrated by eco-terrorists.)

JULY 21, 1997
Redmond, Ore.
The ALF and ELF used napalm which they referred to as “vegan Jell-O” - to destroy the Cavel West horse slaughtering plant.

OCT. 1999
“An ALF faction known as the Justice Department took credit for sending over 80 razor blade-laced envelopes, each containing a threatening letter with a picture of a bomb on it, to animal researchers, hunting guides and others in the United States and Canada. An ALF communiqué said some of the razor blades, which were positioned so as to slice open the fingers of anyone opening the envelopes, were coated in rat poison.”

MARCH 30, 2001
Eugene, Ore.
Thirty SUVs at Joe Romania's car dealership were torched, causing about $1 million in damage. The ELF said the attack was in support of Jeff “Free” Luers, who was serving a 23-year prison sentence, in part for torching cars at the same dealership.

MAY 21, 2001
Seattle, Wash.
The ALF set fire to the University of Washington's Center for Urban Horticulture, causing $5.6 million in damage and wrecking years of research on genetically altered poplar trees and similar projects.

JULY 4, 2001
Detroit, Mich.
The ELF torched an executive office of logging giant Weyerhauser to protest the company's part in funding Oregon State University and the University of Washington's poplar and cottonwood genetic engineering research.

JULY 24, 2001
Sands Point, N.Y.
The “Pirates for Animal Liberation” claimed responsibility for unsuccessfully trying to sink a Bank of New York employee's 21-foot boat.

JAN. 29, 2002
St. Paul, Minn.
The ELF claimed a $250,000 arson at the University of Minnesota's Microbial and Plat Genomics Research Center, which was under construction.

Victims? I don't think so.

An MSNBC story reports on RIAA's suit against 261 music pirates:

The stories of the RIAA 261 are emerging across the country. Many defendants say they are surprised by the suits, that they were unaware that such song swapping could be illegal, or that they were ignorant of the activities of others using their computers, such as children.

Innocent and ignorant victims, huh? As misguided and counter-productive as I think RIAA's actions are, the "RIAA 261" were all sharing at least 1000 songs – not a number you can easily download in a single afternoon, or even a week. It takes a dedicated downloader to download and share thousands of song for a period long enough to get RIAA’s notice. Anyone using P2P software that much can hardly be excused for being ignorant of the law, especially with all the disclaimers and warning most P2P applications present, and the widespread coverage the RIAA actions have received in the media.
Regardless of how the current suit turns out, in the long term, the RIAA effort is futile, and it is inevitable that some sort of music subscription service will supplement CD’s. Nevertheless, the media should not irresponsibly present music pirates as innocent victims when the great majority of them knew full well that what they were doing is illegal and wrong, but ignored such considerations with the pragmatic attitude that is common today.

Last night's Objectivism Club meeting went well, though I didn’t get to finish the introduction to Objectivism that I was writing, so I won’t be putting it online for a while. We had a decent turnout, and a very positive response from the audience. One delusional Keynes-worshipper apparently came to the meeting solely to argue economics with us – and I was more than willing to take him on. Later that night, I read some positive responses to our meeting on a local forum, and saw the usual ad-hominem attacks against “extremism.” I wrote a lengthy reply on the forum talking about some of my experiences with Objectivism, and included it below. I don’t really expect to convince anyone, but it’s been a long week of classes, and I needed to let some steam off.

Here is a parable about something that happened to me a long, long time ago, when Hobbes was just a search engine, and resnet was little more than a repository for porn:

When I entered TAMU as a freshman, I was a hardcore liberal democrat, brainwashed by years of public education and reform-Judaism “social justice” BS. I wanted to be politically involved, so I joined the Aggie Democrats. From the day I met them, they impressed me as the friendliest, most accepting, tolerant, open-minded, non-judgmental, un-critical people around. We all sat around and made fun of the stupid republicans, with their silly religious dogma, their fetus-worship, their hidden homophobia, and their evil plans for selling the country to the rich. The democrats were real nice, agreeable folks.

Some time after this, I met a group of radical capitalists, who shall remain nameless, other than to say that one of them has posted on this thread. I found them to be the most arrogant, self-righteous, stubborn people I knew. Everything I knew about politics, economics, human nature, and even some of morality, they told me I was completely wrong on. No matter how much we argued, they would not back down, compromise, or relent in any way shape, or form. I was used to high school debate, so I was confident in my ability to out-debate anyone, even by sheer force of will, but these people stuck to their position and refused to budge an inch!

Now, normally, I would just dismiss someone as hopeless after a while, but there was one thing that kept me coming back (besides the booze) – I couldn’t refute all their claims. As wrong as they seemed, and as contrary as they were to everything I knew, I gradually had to admit one error after another on my part. It took several months, but before I knew it, it was I who was arguing with the my old buddies, the democrats! I didn’t change all my views, but I found my whole worldview completely turned around. The stubbornness and arrogance I saw on their part was part real, but mostly it stemmed from my indignation that someone could be so serious about his position, and arrogant enough to say “you’re wrong, and I’m right” and refuse to back down.

Imagine if I had simply judged the two groups based on their attitude and walked away in resignation and self-righteous anger as soon as I had heard a contrary view. I’d still be a hopeless and ignorant commie. I learned from my experience to never judge someone’s ideas by his presentation, attitude, or arrogance. Just because someone is utterly persistent about his position doesn’t make him right – but it doesn’t make him wrong either. This is why I simply ignore anyone who claims that an individual or group with a particular viewpoint is dogmatic/stubborn/arrogant/conceited/stupid/fanatical/radical/intolerant/judgemental. What such name-calling really means is that the opposition is either unable or unwilling to offer a real response to an argument, and would rather resort to ad-hominem and slander in a cheap attempt to discredit his opponent. Sure, some of the traits I mentioned are genuine character flaws – but they say nothing about the validity of a person’s ideas.

A year or so after I became a capitalist, someone recommended that I read Ayn Rand. I went to the library, and picked up the only book I found – “The Cult of Ayn Rand.” I immediately realized that the author was engaging in the same kind of ad-hominem attacks that I engaged in not so long ago, and became even more interested in this “Ayn Rand.” I looked up a few websites, watched a few videos, and found that I agreed with the ideas perfectly. Not too long after, I was considering starting an Objectivist club at TAMU. One person after another warned me about the “cult” I would be joining. I decided that if this is a cult, I was already in it for life – and this was before I had met any Objectivists, or even read any of Ayn Rand’s books.

I’ve met quite a few people who call themselves “Objectivists” since then. A few of them do in fact treat Ayn Rand’s philosophy as a religion – uncritically memorizing what they read -- without evaluating, concretizing, or digesting ideas. Most of these people simply rejected one religion – some version of Christianity – and accepted another. While real, this group is a minority. Most of the Objectivists I have met have an earnest desire for knowledge, and before they accept any idea as true, they subject it to the harshest scrutiny, evaluating it from every angle, and integrating it with the rest of the knowledge. They are unafraid to question Objectivism, and before accepting any idea, they consider all possible alternatives and counter-arguments to it. But they don’t spend their time dwelling on the real or imagined personal flaws of Ayn Rand or other prominent philosophers, as some so-called “Objectivists” like to do. They don’t dismiss a person’s ideas because of they way he presents them, goes about his personal life, or what kind of friends he has in an attempt to evade any actual thinking. All those things are certainly relevant when evaluating a person – but not when considering the validity of his ideas.

Cult! Fear and loathing in College Station

More news of interest: Patriots for the Defense of America issued "America's Failing War Effort: A Report Card," girl of 12 settles with RIAA for $2,000, and faced with losing their precious pools, Germans are turning to (God forbid!) private enterprise to save their badekultur.
Also:Tim's article appears in today's Mises Daily Article. It's a decent story, but I don't get his obsession with capitalizing the word “State.” Like using too many exclamation marks, it rapidly loses effectiveness with overuse!

Interesting: Thomas Sowell makes a convincing case for voting for Arnold, and a man ships himself home in a wooden cargo crate.

If you're wondering where the real content is, I'm busy with my job, grad school, and a introduction to Objectivism that I'm writing for the meeting tomorrow. I’ll be sure to link it here when I’m done with it.

If you're a regular reader of my blog, you know that I got a job last week. There’s a very good chance that my boss/coworkers visit this site, so I’ll do my best to refrain from slandering any of them -- not that I have any cause to. Actually, my mom reads my blog whenever I don’t answer the phone, and if I don’t moderate my comments for her, I doubt I would for anyone else. (Don’t worry mom, last week’s hangover was the first time in a long while – I can’t afford that much alcohol very often.)
Anyway, I will be doing hardcore .Net programming at work, and extending and applying what I learn at home as well. My homepage, which was originally created in plain html, converted to php, then converted to asp, then converted to .Net, and finally converted back to php, will probably be converted to VB.net and then C# as I apply my new knowledge to this site. Although I find LAMP to be a better solution in many cases, .Net offers power and features that are unmatched by any other solution. (If you’re interested in a comparison of the two, check out Microsoft’s take on MSDN. Although the disadvantages of .Net are mysteriously left out, the superiority of .Net as a platform is made very clear.)
In any case, I am looking for potential projects that I can use as a learning experience for .Net. If you would are looking for someone to design your interactive non-profit website, let me know, and I might do it gratis.

Google for h4x0r's

Finally, all those wanna-be 1337 h4x0r's have a search engine of their own .
(Props to Tim for the link)

Abbas' Resignation

Yahoo reports that Abbas has resigned as prime minister and Arafat is once again in charge of the terrorist support organization known as the PLO. Has the “peace process” failed? Are more attacks on Israel forthcoming?

I think that the “resignation” is a positive turn of events in Israel's war against terrorism. Despite the pretence of change in the Palestinian leadership, Abbas was never in charge of the PLO. He has been Arafat’s close confederate for many years and is just as responsible for the terrorism the PLO has carried out as Arafat. When Bush made it clear to Arafat that he would refuse to deal with him, Arafat chose his right-hand man as a puppet through whom he expected to prolong his hold on power. My guess is that Abbas was so impressed with the respect he got from Bush and Sharon, that he let his position go to his head and crossed Arafat. In an attempt to gain legitimacy, he supported a truce between Israel and the three main terrorist organizations (Hamas, Islamic Jihad and the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades) that was doomed from the start. In retaliation, Arafat used his control over the terrorist groups intensify the attacks on Israel, ending the "truce," and dispelling any pretense that Abbas was in charge of the PLO or able to control the terrorist groups under Arafat’s leadership.

Abbas’ ouster benefits Israel because Bush cannot pressure Israel to negotiate with any more terrorists, at least not until Arafat chooses another collaborator to present as his "successor." With Abbas out of the picture, Israel can resume its badly-needed hunt for terrorist leaders. If its attacks are to be successful however, they must not be tainted with the same timid uncertainty and moral compromising as America’s attack on Iraq. As Mike pointed out, during the latest failed attack on the head of Hamas, “the attack failed because Israel used a smaller bomb to avoid harming civilians.” Israel may have saved a civilian life or two, but by failing to kill the leader of Hamas, it has virtually guaranteed that dozens of innocent Israeli civilians will die. If he wants to win the war, (and that’s what it is) Sharon must learn to stop apologizing for civilian casualties and defend Israel with the same uncompromising and unrelenting attitude as those who wish to destroy it.

A Spammer's Club?

Wired has an article on "A Support Group for Spammers" if you're into that stuff. If you hate spam as much as I do, I recommend one of the server-side filtering tools, such as SpamAssassin. It filters out over 99% of spam when properly configured. If your ISP doesn't provide you with a proper spam filter, ask me, and I'll give you a free full-featured @rationalmind.net or @objectivismonline.net email account.

"The Ten Commandments vs. America"

Check out Harry Binswanger's editorial The Ten Commandments vs. America. I think Harry’s theme is a good way to point out the contradictions between Christian and American values. That and the quotes on the Religion vs. America page @ ARI. It’s scary how many otherwise intelligent people claim that “America was not founded on a principle of separation of church and state.” (If you read the Monday’s op-ed in the Batt, you know who I’m talking about.)
Btw, the editorial started as a post on the HBL listserv. At $10 a month, the subscription is a bit pricey for a college student like me, but the high quality of the content is hard to beat.

Socialist healthcare policies are bankrupting doctors and killing untreated patients. If you believe that doctors should not be made slaves to bureaucrats and patients, support Americans for Free Choice in Medicine.

Not satisfied with forcing flush-twice (or thrice, if you’re in CA) toilets on unsuspecting Americans and creating numerous toilet smuggling outfits along our borders, enviro-wackos are pushing the “dry flush” variety to developing countries . These monstrosities start around $2000 and closely resemble the unsanitary, disease-ridden, unheated, and putrid outhouses our ancestors had to use before the invention of flush toilets. The new variety “improves” on that design by forcing you to regularly empty the toilet -- presumably on your crops. After all, we wouldn’t want to deprive ringworms and other assorted parasites of their “right” to continue infecting us.
(Props to Tim for the link.)

The Joys of Blogging

Going along with the theme of my previous post, I would like to review the progress of this blog, and perhaps inspire some of my readers to start their own (and feed my already super-sized ego.) I started blogging 16 months ago to improve my writing, thinking, and web-design skills. 595 entries later, the blog has been far more successful than I expected. My literary abilities still need much improvement, but there have been many tangible results. Traffic has grown from nil to 2155 unique hits and 5364 visits this August. Google and Blogshares count 75 and 44 links to my homepage, respectively. When the value of incoming links is measured, my site is in the 644th place (with .0082% marketshare) among the Blogshares top-valued blogs, placing it in the top 1% of blogs by any standard. The success of my homepage has inspired me to start several other sites, and several people to start their own blogs, some of which may soon outpace mine in traffic. Many of my sites are growing at near-exponential rates, which makes me excited for the future and worried about how much it will cost me to host everything.

Although I blog primarily for myself, I appreciate all the tips and comments I get. My fall schedule will allow me little time to read the news and surf the blogosphere, so I’ll be even more dependent on your submissions. To help my marketing efforts and test my new polling script, please let me know how you came across my site.

The first day of the rest of my life...

Tomorrow, I start my first full-time semester in grad school and my first “serious” job. I don’t consider these events very important in themselves, but in a way, tomorrow is the first day of the rest of my life. Unlike my liberal arts education, the classes and the job I have now are aimed at preparing me for my future vocation and formerly tentative musing about my future have been replaced by a clear focus on where I want to be, and what I must do to get there.

During the four years of my undergraduate education, I went through a process of intellectual discovery and application of my knowledge to my values and goals. I think that skipping the usual “rebellious teen” phase made my exposure to the vast variety of influences on campus more earnest and open-minded. For good and bad, my passion for ideas took me from one group to another as I sought to find people who shared my view of the world. For various periods, I was a webmaster of the Aggie Democrats, my corps outfit, the Aggie Libertarians, the Aggie Review, and then the Objectivist Club. I saw the consequences of corrupt philosophies firsthand and I finally found one that made sense. I am just beginning to integrate my philosophy with my life; and while the details have yet to be filled in, I am certain of my values and of my goals. I know who I am and what I want to become. In the words of Ayn Rand, I am "a being of self-made soul."