Quote of the Day

"I divide my officers into four classes: the clever, the lazy, the industrious, and the stupid. Each officer possesses at least two of these qualities. Those who are clever and industrious are fitted for the highest staff appointments. Use can be made of those who are stupid and lazy. The man who is clever and lazy however is for the very highest command; he has the temperament and nerves to deal with all situations. But whoever is stupid and industrious is a menace and must be removed immediately!"

— Kurt von Hammerstein-Equord

Sayonara, Bill Gates

I just fired Bill Gates. Explorer crashed on me once too often, so I made Google Chrome my default browser. I'm already using Open Office, and my next computer will probably run Linux.

Microsoft? More like Maxicrap.

That's capitalism, Bill: You manufacture crap, you go out of business. You won't be able to survive forever on the peons too dumb to install better software.

In related news, friend Kushal joins Reason and Liberty Central in applauding Google's decision to finally resist the Chinese commies.

"I wonder why the state's political power didn't get overturned in the US despite a complete freedom to call President Bush a jackass even while he was in the office."

If only it had.

I'm not quite sure, though, if he thinks pornography is damaging, or if he's just quoting the commies.

Me, I have never been damaged by pornography. On the contrary, things often get damaged due to a lack of porn:

Seek, and Ye Shall Find

Stupid anti-virus software keeps running one rootkit scan after another. I'm considering installing a rootkit on my computer so that the AV software finds something and hopefully shuts the fuck up.

The Ed Hudgins Implosion

Or, no more hugging for Hudgins.

It's not a pretty picture when parables implode:

Health Care "Deeming" as Political Adultery

by Edward Hudgins

Let's imagine a woman who is getting pressure from some obnoxious sleazeball stud to cheat on her husband and commit adultery. She's tempted but, if caught, wants some excuse with which to placate her outraged husband so she can avoid a divorce. "Honest, honey, I didn't consent!" And let's imagine that the sleazeball wants to protect himself from a rape charge and probable beating by the husband.

So how could they do their deed and both cover their butts?

Perhaps, after sexy chit-chat over a few drinks in a bar, she says, "I'm really reluctant to do this." But they agree to go up to his place, ostensibly so she can help him hang his etchings or for some other lame-ass excuse that both know to be a lie. And she pretty much lets him have his way with her.

If later the husband finds out, she plays her "I told him 'No!' sort of" card. "I only agreed to drinks and to help decorate his walls!" When the husband sends the cops to haul the sleazeball off to jail, he argues that he "deemed" that she had consented and that what he did was perfectly legal. After all, he explains, she had the drinks with him and went up to his room to see his artwork, and they were just creating a fiction with which she might placate her husband. Of course, the two stories contradict one another. The police would probably rule this to be a case of adultery rather than rape and the slutty wife would face a divorce.

This is the scenario faced by Democrats in the House of Representatives.

Political sluts?

Ignoring the slap to politicians in general and Democrats in particular this hysterical screed is meant to be, let's look at the language and Hudgins' implicit values.

That impossible contract "marriage" is a good idea. Any attractive man is a "sleazeball." Any sexually healthy woman is a "slut."

And this Victorian hypocrisy is datelined March 19, 2010. More like 1910.

Scratch a conservative and you find some beta loser driven to fits of jealousy by and itching to initiate the use of force against anyone who so much as looks at the piece of property inventoried as his "wife." Assuming she's worth looking at in the first place. Some "Objectivist."

"A competent and self-confident person is incapable of jealousy in anything. Jealousy is invariably a symptom of neurotic insecurity."

— Robert A. Heinlein

"The moral failing of the adulterers and the Democrats, among others, comes from attempts to be dishonest, to fake reality."

The moral failing of this so-called Objectivist comes from attempts to fake reality.

Fact of reality is that no one alone can fulfill all the emotional needs of any other person. Monoamory is impossible, and any attempt to uphold it is philosophical suicide.

And this is meant to be an outreach to reasonable, freedom-loving people? More like an outrage. Little wonder Hudgins gets along so well with the fundies at those tea parties.

Sayonara, Ed. I'm off your mailing list.

No Alex for you! Come back ten trillion years!

Broken Windows Theory

Microsoft argues that if a computer is sold without an operating system preinstalled, a stolen copy of Windows will be installed.

Like anyone would steal Windows.

Wanting to steal Windows is like wanting to steal Ebola.

Alex Loves Virginia

Reason and Liberty Central would like to tender its belated congratulations to the Commonwealth of Virginia on its abolition of the slavish institution of marriage.

Virginia is for lovers

Take That, Fuehrer's Car!

EADS will not mount a solo bid for the US Air Force KC-X tanker program, ending the company's highest profile effort to grow its footprint in the US market.

EADS CEO Louis Gallois ruled out a solo bid a day after the Northrop Grumman-led team involving EADS and the Airbus A330 said it would not respond to the Pentagon's request for proposals (RFP), saying the tender favored the Boeing-offered KC-767.

…

Meantime, European political leaders are blasting the US for perceived protectionism on KC-X, saying the request for proposals favored rivals.

Although it had no direct involvement in the program, European Union's trade commissioner, Karel de Gucht, says that "it is highly regrettable that a major potential supplier would feel unable to bid for a contract of this type. Open procurement markets guarantee better competition and better value for money for the taxpayer."

How can paying tax money to nazis be a better value for the taxpayer? Daimler AG, proud to be the manufacturer of "the fuehrer's car," owns 22.41% of EADS.

Daimler should have been dissolved after World War II, and the ground sown with salt. And of course no one should buy the fuehrer's car.

The EU notes that defense trade balance has heavily favored the US. In 2008, the US exported $5 billion from EU members and imported only $2.2 billion.

WTF? About the only sector of the economy where the trade deficit isn't the other way round? The fuehrer will not be content until America is totally re-colonized. If African socialism is, "What's mine is mine — what's yours is ours," then European national socialism is, "Our markets are ours — and your markets are ours, too."

The European Union's message was echoed by Germany's economics minister Rainer Bruederle. The RFP clearly favored Boeing, he says, adding that "also in defense procurement, free trade should not be curtailed."

Look who's talking. That mendacious moron is a member of the kraut libertarian party. Apparently, their definition of liberty is along the lines of, "Your markets are free for us to take." On the other hand, they don't mind it at all if American capitalist corporations like Wal-Mart find it impossible to compete with the Euro Orren Boyles and their pull peddlers in their highly regulated markets.

The only thing those assclowns ever heard about free trade or any kind of freedom is, "Arbeit macht frei."

Shove your tailfin-losing plastic planes up your ass.

ALEX' GENERAL WARNING: Flying the Fuehrer's Planes May Result in Death.

Funny Nazi

Reason and Liberty Central congratulates Christoph Waltz on winning the Oscar for Best Actor in a Supporting Role for playing Hans Landa in Inglourious Basterds. No one ever deserved that Oscar more. Hardly any villain in movie history ever was that witty and charming while being that evil (and a nazi at that).

Buon giorno!

Canadian Socialism

You remember that line about African socialism?

"What's mine is mine — what's yours is ours."

What, then, is Canadian socialism?

"Our healthcare system is yours — my healthcare system is in the US."

An unapologetic Danny Williams says he was aware his trip to the United States for heart surgery earlier this month would spark outcry, but he concluded his personal health trumped any public fallout over the controversial decision.

In an interview with The Canadian Press, Williams said he went to Miami to have a "minimally invasive" surgery for an ailment first detected nearly a year ago, based on the advice of his doctors. [The Canadian way of treatment would have involved breaking bones.]

"This was my heart, my choice, and my health," Williams said late Monday from his condominium in Sarasota, Fla.

"I did not sign away my right to get the best possible health care for myself when I entered politics."

No, sir, this is not your heart, your choice, or your health. This is Canada's heart, Canada's choice, and Canada's health. Under socialism, you are the property of the state.

You did sign away your right to get the best possible health care for yourself when you agreed to become an agent of the system, when you entered politics as a welfare-state conservative. Talk the talk, walk the walk, break them bones.

"I would've been criticized if I had stayed in Canada and had been perceived as jumping a line or a wait list. … I accept that. That's public life," he said.

Well, you would have been rightly criticized. Canuck Six-pack would have died waiting for the bone-breaking treatment.

(Why is it that socialism and brutality always go hand in hand? Oh, yes, socialism consists of brutally forcing me to pay for your stuff. Trying to force me, that is. Even a system of brutality can be gamed.)

"I have the utmost confidence in our own health care system in Newfoundland and Labrador, but" I don't use it.

"God forbid for the Canadian public I won't be around longer than ever." That might open a spot in the line for Canuck Six-pack to survive. And we can't let that happen, can we, eh?

Gentle reader, the next time you fall for a line about the common good, remember: "All good is common, but some folks' good is more common than others'."

(Actually, there is no common good. There are only individuals, and only very few if any things are good for all individuals. Oxygen comes to mind. But I digress.)