The Trunk

Seeing Robbie Fulks at Jammin’ Java

Sat, 21 Nov 2009 19:42:00 -0500

Seeing Robbie Fulks at Jammin’ Java

Dan Bern’s Economic Stimulus Plan

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 15:37:59 -0500

Dan Bern’s Economic Stimulus Plan

Two Feet Tall by Dan Bern | Amie Street

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 09:49:54 -0500

Two Feet Tall by Dan Bern | Amie Street:

My favorite songwriter just released a thirty-eight song kids’ album. It’s downloadable for only $7.00 at the link.

Auto-Tune the Ads: Sony. Justin Timberlake. Peyton Manning

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 12:51:30 -0500

Auto-Tune the Ads: Sony. Justin Timberlake. Peyton Manning

Crowdsourcing Comedy on Amazon Reviews - Pogue’s Posts Blog -...

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 08:49:06 -0500

Crowdsourcing Comedy on Amazon Reviews - Pogue’s Posts Blog - NYTimes.com

"We must have respect for the law. We must! An undercover cop enters a bridal shop run by City..."

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 13:24:28 -0500

“We must have respect for the law. We must! An undercover cop enters a bridal shop run by City Councilwoman Judy Wilkinson in West Point, Georgia, and nabs her in the act of serving gratis mimosas to her customers, in violation of both city and state law. She is cuffed and taken away in front of her customers, and ultimately gets away with a mere 30-days probation. (The cops also confiscated 16 bottles of the contraband champagne, current whereabouts unknown.)”

- Georgia Cops Nab 16 Bottles of Bubbly, and a City Councilwoman’s Scalp - Hit & Run : Reason Magazine

Further proof of my contention that local government is more prone to tyranny than the federal government.

Very cool.

Sun, 15 Nov 2009 14:00:25 -0500

Very cool.

"In the official record of the historic House debate on overhauling health care, the speeches of many..."

Sun, 15 Nov 2009 13:50:21 -0500

“In the official record of the historic House debate on overhauling health care, the speeches of many lawmakers echo with similarities. Often, that was no accident. Statements by more than a dozen lawmakers were ghostwritten, in whole or in part, by Washington lobbyists working for Genentech, one of the world’s largest biotechnology companies… . . Asked about the Congressional statements, a lobbyist close to Genentech said: “This happens all the time. There was nothing nefarious about it.””

- In House, Many Spoke With One Voice - Lobbyists’ - NYTimes.com

The scandal isn’t that these Congressmen used the lobbyists’ words in their speeches. It isn’t even that they used lobbyists’ language in their bill. The real scandal is that these Congressmen (in both parties) don’t have a clue about what was passed, and that they aren’t smart enough to converse intelligently about it on their own. No, actually . . the real scandal is that all of these politicians will be reelected.

Sympathy for the Bedeviled

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 16:17:45 -0500

complicatedshoes:

The three of them [Joe the Plumber, Prejean, Palin] all have one thing in common. The left has decided they need to destroy them… .

That’s true. Each of these people were mistreated by the left. Prejean articulated Obama’s position on gay marriage, and was crucified for it. Joe asked Obama a question, and was crucified for it. Palin … well, what Andrew Sullivan alone has said about her is disgusting and shameful.

Because of this, the three of them deserved sympathy. But instead, they were elevated to some sage-like status. They have all, for example, written books. That’s insane. They have all appeared on Fox News about a billion times. That’s insane. They have exploited their situation to become celebrities, and that’s fine … if they want to be cast-members on the next Surreal Life on VH-1, let them. But to elevate them because of their victimhood to some greater exalted status?—isn’t that what conservatives usually rail against?

"The Prejean story is not merely the story of a sad woman who has a need for being in the limelight,..."

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 15:08:32 -0500

“The Prejean story is not merely the story of a sad woman who has a need for being in the limelight, even if she has to destroy herself to do it. This is also a story about what is so seriously wrong with the contemporary conservative movement in America. Conservatives once again have egg on their face because they were so quick to claim Prejean as a great spokeswoman for their cause. Clearly Prejean is no intellectual. But the Right is no longer an intellectual movement. Prejean never showed herself to be a good advocate for any genuine conservative values of substance. She was not embraced because she espoused conservative values in any coherent way. Her credentials are based on one thing, and one thing only, that she went public attacking gays. That would seem to indicate that the contemporary Right has a very low threshold for membership. It apparently puts anti gay views ahead of everything else because those views, and those views alone, were sufficient for them to make Prejean a cause and give her a book contract.”

- Classically Liberal (via azspot)

This is, sadly, correct. Too many on the right are so eager for any voice of agreement that that they’ll take any voice of agreement. Joe the Plumber, Prejean, Palin—none of these people should be the voice of the right, but all of them have played that role in the past year. This pains me, because we really need to have credible and reasonable people opposing this administration.

More in U.S. Say Health Coverage Is Not Gov’t....

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 12:47:00 -0500

More in U.S. Say Health Coverage Is Not Gov’t. Responsibility

There are no libertarian leaders in power. There are no libertarian thinkers with an influential platform. And yet people are becoming more libertarian.

The lesson: There is no better advocate for limited government than incompetent government.

"The libertarian [Bill] Maher even attracts opinionated people from both sides of the aisle."

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 12:28:41 -0500

“The libertarian [Bill] Maher even attracts opinionated people from both sides of the aisle.”

- 11 late-night TV shows: The good and the bad- msnbc.com

Note to MSNBC: wanting to legalize pot and prostitution does not make you a libertarian.

"Scientists in Australia say they’ve developed an apple that can stay fresh at room temperature..."

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 08:47:49 -0500

“Scientists in Australia say they’ve developed an apple that can stay fresh at room temperature and, if refrigerated, can last for months. The apple for now is called RS103-130, but I think it’s safe to assume they’ll come up with a catchier name for it. The fruit’s developers (that sounds weird, doesn’t it?) say taste tests indicate that it is “the world’s best apple.””

- Here Comes the Long-Lasting Apple | The Big Money

"[W]riting for a porno mag is an important American literary rite of passage, like getting into a..."

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 12:34:57 -0500

“[W]riting for a porno mag is an important American literary rite of passage, like getting into a feud with Norman Mailer.”

- Claire Berlinski, Learning to Fight: I NEVER BELIEVED THE LETTERS I READ IN PENTHOUSE UNTIL IT HAPPENED TO ME (h/t Volokh)

"Abstract: This Article explores what limits the Thirteenth Amendment’s prohibition on involuntary..."

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 11:22:00 -0500

“Abstract: This Article explores what limits the Thirteenth Amendment’s prohibition on involuntary servitude places on the government’s use of informants in criminal investigations. Informants are a crucial part of all law enforcement efforts and a keystone in the investigation and prosecution of organized crime syndicates and “victimless” crimes, such as narcotics trafficking, prostitution, and gambling. While many informants merely provide previously-obtained information to the police, others take more active roles in assisting law enforcement, engaging in controlled drug buys, wearing wires, or infiltrating criminal organizations. This latter group of “active informants” is the most useful to law enforcement because they work under police direction to obtain hard evidence of criminal conduct. Though active informants cooperate for many reasons, most assist the police out of fear that if they refuse, they will be subject to criminal prosecution or more severe punishment. This Article argues that by compelling these “coerced informants” to work under such a threat, the government violates the Thirteenth Amendment’s prohibition on involuntary servitude… .”

- SSRN-Coerced Informants and Thirteenth Amendment Limitations on the Police-Informant Relationship by Michael Rich

Mike Rich (a good friend) wrote this fantastic article about the problem of coerced informants. It’s a growing problem—for example, there’s what happened to this poor woman who had unpaid parking tickets. If you care about this issue, follow Mike’s informants twitter.

"But Rand’s popularity almost crashed with the stock market. As the current economic catastrophe..."

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 08:17:00 -0500

“But Rand’s popularity almost crashed with the stock market. As the current economic catastrophe unfurled, former Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan issued a mea culpa. The once-infallible Maestro — one of Rand’s most powerful disciples and once a member of her New York salons — admitted he had misplaced faith in the ability of markets to self-regulate.”

- Ayn Rand goes mainstream - Kendra Marr (h/t Squashed)

This represents a typical and profound misreading of Ayn Rand’s work. Or rather, it’s the type of characterization applied to Rand by people who have never read her. In her books, businessmen and people are often corrupt, irresponsible, and irrational. Rand believed in capitalism because it was moral and just—not because it eradicated the flaws of men, and not because it provided any utilitarian maximization of wealth or happiness. So when Greenspan admitted that he had overestimated the rationality of the market, he wasn’t rejecting anything Rand had espoused. He was rejecting, perhaps, things that the Chicago school economists had espoused. Non-libertarians tend to think this is the same—that Friedman and Rand were intellectual compatriots. They weren’t. Their libertarian beliefs rest upon vastly different values and assumptions.

"So if I understand the Democrats’ logic correctly, health insurance companies are evil profit..."

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 19:34:13 -0500

“So if I understand the Democrats’ logic correctly, health insurance companies are evil profit mongers who do everything they can to avoid paying for their customers’ needed procedures. Therefore, the government will now at the point of a gun force every American to give said health insurance companies a portion of their money, whether they want to or not.”

- Radley Balko

Auto-Tune Cute Kids and Kanye (via schmoyoho)

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 21:14:55 -0500

Auto-Tune Cute Kids and Kanye

(via schmoyoho)

"My theory is that Hersh’s journalism is a little like a 12-gauge shotgun. He just lets it go,..."

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 15:48:29 -0500

“My theory is that Hersh’s journalism is a little like a 12-gauge shotgun. He just lets it go, and something is bound to hit the target. But each year, it seems, another inch is shaved off the barrel, so the shot group gets wider and wider. Over time, fewer and fewer pellets actually hit the target, but such is his reputation that people only remember the articles of his that actually exposed something new and none of the articles that, in retrospect, turned out to be just crazy talk.”

- Andrew Exum, on Seymour Hersh (via Andrew Sullivan)

This seems right to me. It also describes Robin Williams’ stand-up comedy, I think—a hundred rapid fire jokes discharged with the hope that you’ll just remember the one that was funny.

(via ReasonTV)

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 12:04:22 -0500

(via ReasonTV)