Quote of the Day

"Capitalism is the fullest expression of anarchism, and anarchism is the fullest expression of capitalism."

— Murray Rothbard

Meet Gaylord Rat Zinger

Come to think of it, why is the catholic church so homophobic? It's after all the gayest of all churches.

Nuns have to be celibate because they are married to Jesus. Monks and priests have to be celibate, too, presumably for the same reason. Thus, monks and priests are married to Jesus.

QED.

Hypocrites.

Looted into the Ground

First nanny state prohibits airlines and passengers from deciding for themselves whether they want to take the marginal risk of flying through an ash cloud that exists mostly in the same computers used to dramatize "global warming." Politicians like to be seen doing something, and initiating the use of force against disarmed victims "to protect them from themselves" looks like a pretty safe option to those bastards.

Now, nanny state forces airlines to pick up the tab for nanny state's crime. European airlines will have to reimburse stranded passengers for their hotel costs.

(This should be good news for American airlines, which through cutthroat competition had made themselves vulnerable to being taken over by their European rivals, US looters' permission pending. Now their European rivals will have to give any available funds to grounded peons.)

Of course, there ain't no such thing as a free lunch. Now that airlines know that they will be grounded when politicians feel like posturing and will be expected to pick up the tab, they will have to figure the costs of volcano eruptions and mad cow politicians into their fares.

So it's bye-bye to cheap airfares for European peons. Now they'll be forced to buy volcano/politician/hotel insurance with every ticket.

You cannot decide whether you want to risk flying through some wispy ash veil. And you cannot decide whether you want to buy hotel cost insurance in case the jackbooted thugs ground you in case of the former.

Big brother nanny state makes sure you spend the commission allowed to you for taxes paid exactly the way those nitwits believe wise. Big brother nanny state rules!

So what can you do while you're waiting for the capitalist world revolution? Take a train or take a car…



Puts you out of reach of the jackbooted airport thugs, too.

Happy Earth Day!

Exploit the Earth or Die

Happy Earth Day, suckers.

Buy American

An economics professor asked his class which of these two scenarios the students preferred. First scenario: Japan grows at an annual rate of 7 percent, and the Unites States grows at 4 percent. Second scenario: Japan and the United States both grow at 3 percent. Overwhelmingly, the students chose the second option.

In other words, the students accepted their own lower domestic growth rather than allow Japan — a friendly nation — to outpace us. In exchange for "equality," they chose an otherwise lower standard of living.

Students 1, Elder 0.

There is a (good) reason to buy American besides egalitarianism and yahoo patriotism. If you buy Japanese, you support a more collectivist culture at the expense of a less collectivist one.

America may not be much, but it still is the least collectivist country in the world. Although that doesn't have to mean much. I hasten to add that for me, even America is still a trillion times too collectivist. But at the moment America is all there is.

Then, how friendly is that "friendly nation" actually?

Only sixty-nine years ago, that "friendly nation" bombed Pearl Harbor. Most individuals that did the bombing may be dead, and their descendants may have been brought up in a less militaristic environment, but Japan still remains a highly collectivist society.

Yet, isn't rewarding a less competent individual American producer instead of a more competent individual Japanese producer collectivism, too?

You bet it is. But as long as all individuals are kept corralled together in countries under governments, there is no other option.

Once countries and governments have been abolished, individuals are free to deal with each other as individual anarchs, based solely on merit.



Until then, buy American.

Plus, if you buy imports, you not only give money to people who are more likely to be collectivists than Americans are, you also subsidize their fascist (i.e., nominally free but de facto state controlled) economic systems. The US economy may be only semi-free, but most others are even more statist.

Ever heard, "social market economy"? Every time the Japanese, French, or German economy outperforms the American, the looters there rejoice and boast how their fascist system is superior to greedy, exploitative, unregulated, chaotic, messy, anarchic US capitalism.

And you bankrolled their boast. Not because their products or their systems are better, but because you had to have an import for reasons of your own.

You still legitimize the system by voting? Well, I've got news for you. One vote in a couple hundred millions doesn't make as much of a difference as voting with your billfold.

So buy American. Or if you have to buy imported goods, at least buy them from capitalist countries or countries perceived as capitalist, like Hong Kong or the UK, and try to avoid the products of the worst offenders, like Japan, France, and Germany, so you don't promote their fascism/socialism.

You don't think it makes any difference? You don't care?

If you're a looter or a moocher, you won't immediately see the difference, apart from the fact that at some point there will be nothing left to loot or to mooch. But if you're planning on doing something productive yourself at some point, you should care.

That extra stack of forms to fill out before you get licensed to open a business in the "land of the free," so that the fascists can micromanage you better? Yes, that's your import coming back to bite you in the ass. If only you hadn't bought the fuehrer's car instead of a Ford!

Buy American.

Finally, there's no reason not to buy American. On average, American products are no worse than imports. If you believe otherwise, that's just some postcolonial inferiority complex Americans still suffer from. "It can't be good if it's been made in this raw, new land." Get over it.

And you wouldn't buy an import just to show off to your mentally challenged second-hander friends, would you? Then you might just as well build a wooden house in a brush-choked canyon because light frame gets you more space for your money than fireproof, you get more land for your money out there, and the view is so nice. Your "friends" will be so jealous, until the day the whole shebang goes up in smoke.

So buy American — if you don't want to see America go up in smoke and liberty be homeless on earth once more.

If That's Our Allies, We're Toast

You don't have to be literate to hate the guvernment government…

No, Ed Hudgins' audience is not smarter than him.

Ash Cloud over Channel: Continent Cut Off!

Reassuringly, the ash cloud failed to shut down the welfare-warfare state.

"As a result all unnecessary military flights were cancelled except for identification flights to enforce sovereign airspace."



No doubt them terrorists engineered the eruption, to fly some sneak raids under its cloud cover. Any air force pilot that should crash will die happy, as a hero of the war on terror, ash clouds, and red balloons. Any damaged engines and lost planes will be billed to the taxpayer.

Meanwhile, back at the airport, millions of peons are stranded, but they're not worth risking anything for. They pose no problem, as they can be incarcerated or executed once the delay makes them overstay their visas. I hear there are some vacancies at Club Gitmo…

Rush, Rush, Get the Llello?

Not, not Rush Limbaugh. He's more into little white pills.

Krautistan, ca. 1987: There must have been this here "just say no to llello" song, with a nice tune and dumb lyrics.



When I happened across it on YouTube, I thought, why not tweak the lyrics a bit for some added realism.

BTW, according to a kraut website, after her fifteen minutes of fame the singer buried herself in a second-hand store in South Podunk, Shitforbrainistan.

It was just the day
You didn't want to live anymore
But you couldn't die
You thought of paradise
Which made you feel so high
But when you awoke
You found a world awful and cruel
Please go away
Go away, take that trip
It's, like, the way to live oh
Julian, oh, Julian, oh, Julian, oh, Julian, oh
Say that you're gonna try before McDope goes by
Julian, oh, Julian, oh, Julian, oh, Julian, oh
You'll get that inner light; it used to shine so bright
Julian, oh, Julian, oh, Julian, oh, Julian, oh
There is a better way than the straight on that you stay
Julian, oh, Julian, oh, Julian, oh, Julian, oh
Give it a try and see if you're gonna die
Maybe it's your destiny
To take drugs all night
'Cause you see no light
You got your life as a gift
It ain't worth to fight
So go lose your soul
In the garden of sweetness and death
Please go away
Go away, take that trip
It's, like, the way to live oh
Julian, oh, Julian, oh, Julian, oh, Julian, oh
Oh, Julian, say that you're gonna try
Julian, oh, Julian, oh, Julian, oh, Julian, oh
Oh, Julian, it used to shine it used to shine so bright
Julian, oh, Julian, oh, Julian, oh, Julian, oh
Oh, Julian, give it give it yourself a try
Julian, oh, Julian, oh, Julian, oh, Julian, oh
Hey, Julian, see if you're gonna die
Julian, oh, Julian, oh, Julian, oh, Julian, oh
There is a better way than the straight on that you stay
Julian, oh, Julian, oh, Julian, oh, Julian, oh
Give it a try and see if you're gonna die
Julian, oh, Julian, oh, Julian, oh, Julian, oh
Oh, oh, oh, hey, Julian
Julian, oh, Julian, oh, Julian, oh, Julian, oh
Give it give it yourself a try
Julian, oh, Julian, oh, Julian, oh, Julian, oh
Oh, come on, Julian
Julian, oh, Julian, oh, Julian, oh, Julian, oh

And who is that O'Julian, anyway? I do know O'Toole, O'Hara, and O. Henry…

Now, kids, don't try this at home. If you try drugs, you might just as well commit suicide. Oh, I'm giving you ideas.

BTW, here's the titular song:

My Definition of Insanity

My definition of insanity is watching Dr. Phil.

What's 96 Polacks in a Plane Crash?

(Hi, PC pigs — look at my last name: Part of my family comes from Poland or thereabouts, so I'm entitled to tell Polack jokes.)

Question: What's 96 polish government offal officials in a plane crash?

Answer: A waste of space. That plane would have seated up to 184.

Alternative answer: A good beginning.

Or, as Shakespeare would have put it, "First, kill all the lawmakers and law enforcers."

This would be a chance for Poles to start over and elect a better government. However, as it's still a democracy, where every moronic moon bat and wing nut has an equal vote, they'll just fall for the empty promises of another populist liar or fascist.

You say, de mortuis nihil nisi bene? Sure, be a good subject.

Time to introduce capitalism. In a corporation, votes are based on shares owned, i.e. at least to some degree on merit.

Collateral Murder

Reason and Liberty Central

presents

The Welfare-Warfare State

in

Collateral Murder



Those Bond one liners aren't so cool anymore once you know you murdered some innocent people.

Legalize free-enterprise murder; why should governments have all the fun?

WTC Radon Alarm Puts Rebuilding in Limbo Again

I think someone's trying to hush this up. Yesterday, there was an article in the Post, with a title along the lines of "Oh, No! Ew, Another Problem: Radon in Land under WTC" or something. Now it's gone.

Below the relevant article from the Times.

"WTC Radon Alarm Puts Rebuilding in Limbo Again"

By ADAM P. RUSH and INEZ LANSKY
Published: March 31, 2010

At the World Trade Center construction site, rumors abound that the rebuilding project in the wake of the devastating terrorist attacks might be derailed by an invisible, colorless, odorless, tasteless, but radioactive terror: radon-229 gas. Radon is a known carcinogen and the second most frequent cause of lung cancer, after cigarette smoking, causing 21,000 lung cancer deaths per year in the United States.

Radon occurs naturally as the decay product of radium. If traces of radium are present in underground rock, radon gas from these natural sources can accumulate in buildings, especially in confined areas such as attics and basements.

The primary route of exposure to radon and its progeny is inhalation. Radiation exposure from radon is indirect: The health hazard from radon does not come primarily from radon itself, but rather from the radioactive products formed in the decay of radon.

If radon gas is inhaled, the particles that result from its radioactive decay may attach to the inner lining of the lung. These radioactive particles remain lodged in the lungs and continue to decay further, causing continued exposure by emitting alpha radiation.

Of the 35 known isotopes of radon, radon-229 may very well be the sneakiest, as it evades all standard chemical tests for radon. It can only be detected by mass spectrometers and very sensitive Geiger counters. Due to its stealthy characteristics, the isotope is nicknamed "radoff" by scientists.

The problem is compounded by the fact that radon-229 is much more dangerous than the more common radon-222, particularly for smokers. While prolonged exposure to radon-222 roughly doubles a nonsmoker's risk of contracting lung cancer, radoff is twice again as harmful for nonsmokers. For regular smokers, long-term exposure to high concentrations of radoff can boost their cancer risk to almost 100%. The products from the decay of radoff lodge in the lungs more easily and are particularly destructive to the already damaged lungs of smokers.

In the absence of other causes of death, the absolute risks of lung cancer by age 75 at usual radon-222 concentrations of 0, 100, and 400 Bq/m3 would be about 0.4%, 0.5%, and 0.7%, respectively, for lifelong nonsmokers and about 25 times greater (10%, 12%, and 16%) for cigarette smokers. The corresponding numbers for radoff are about 0.9%, 1.3%, and 1.9% for lifelong nonsmokers and 60%, 72%, and 96% for cigarette smokers.

Due to its hard-to-detect and hazardous nature, if found, the presence of radoff requires complex and extensive mitigation measures, like ground insulation of basements and custom HVAC systems. In most cases, demolition and new construction is the cheapest alternative.

While radon itself is rare in Manhattan, radoff is even rarer. Although it is more commonly encountered in cities in or near mining districts, like Pittsburgh or Denver, and major earthquake zones, like Los Angeles, it is not unheard of in New York, where it can emanate from pockets in the Manhattan schist.

The building 18 West 11th Street had to be demolished due to radoff contamination. Radoff was also found in the basement of the American Radiator Building during its conversion into The Bryant Park Hotel, whose boarded-up state is still remembered by many New Yorkers. Demolishing the building and starting the hotel from scratch would have been much cheaper than the conservationist approach known as adaptive-protective radoff in-location mitigation, but as the building had already been landmarked, the former was never an option.

The rumors regarding radon and radoff at the WTC site could neither be corroborated nor refuted. Neither the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which owns the land under the WTC, nor Larry A. Silverstein, the developer, nor the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene returned calls.

The engineer and developer, Alan F. Termarch, a partner at One Astor Plaza Realty Investors, LLC, and at Rad-on/Rad-off, the only radoff mitigation contractor in the city, wasn't surprised by this radio silence. "Developers and even public officials are extremely reluctant to come forward with a finding of radoff, as that's too often the death sentence for a project," he said. "Just like inhaling radoff is a virtual death sentence for a smoker."

Mr. Termarch estimates the extent of the necessary mitigation work at billions of dollars and several years in delays. "Obviously, the cheapest way to keep radoff out of a building is pouring several seamless layers of concrete and plastic under the building. Obviously, you can't do that if the building's already in place. Can't undermine all of its columns at the same time, right? Might be cheaper to rip out everything built at the WTC site in the past eight years and start over."

A version of this article appeared in print on April 1, 2010, on page A22 of the New York edition.