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The Libertarian Blog of Stephan Kinsella
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November 29, 2004
Protestants and Vitamins:
Two unrelated thoughts:
First, re Protestants--my family has a mix of full Christians (i.e., Catholics) and semi-Christians (i.e., separated brethren, i.e. Protestants). So at Thanksgiving, Christmas, you never know who's going to say the blessing. Usually's it's a Protestant. It occurs to me that Catholic blessings are to Protestant blessings, as old-style dance is to modern dance. In the old days, you would learn the steps to the waltz, rumba, foxtrot, etc. I don't like to dance, but did learn some of these for my wedding, and they are not too painful, at least. At least you know when you are dancing well or not. But I have always hated the sort of free-style, unplanned, uncooridated, jerk-your-arms and legs around type of dancing youngsters do in dance clubs. It's horrible. I feel idiotic when I do it.
When Catholics say a blessing, it's usually the standard, "Bless us Oh Lord, and these thy gifts..." But when Protestants say a blessing before a meal, they just ramble on and make it up as they go along: "Dear Lord, Thank you for ... letting Steph and Cindy arrive safely yesterday, and for letting the family be together this holiday, except for Ronnie who is out deer hunting--and please Lord let him have a successful, safe hunt--and ... please let us keep ... ummm ... meeting here like this in the future to have family ... get-togethers, ... and bless this food which is our sustenance, ... and ... nourishment. Of our souls. In-jaysus-name-we-pray."
Re vitamins: why are vitamins given boring letters, like C, K, B-12, whereas elements get cool names, like Helium, Einsteinium, etc.? If I were a vitamin I'd be upset at the disparate treatment, though I would console myself that I am made up of elements.
November 20, 2004
Oldies but Goodies: Blog Posts:
November 19, 2004
Outlook; Spam; Gmail; Tucker on "Pinging":
- I called Jeff Tucker today and he told me he'd "ping" me back, meaning he'd call (or IM) me back. So now "ping" is used by technogeeks way beyond its original technical meaning. This is similar to engineers and geeks who during a conference will say, "well, let's just discuss this later, offline". How about this one: "Well, let's copter down to take a closer look at this issue."
- God I hate Outlook. And spam. I spent a while today redirecting (forwarding) several email accounts to a couple of gmail address(es). I want to piggyback on its spam filtering. If you auto-forward gmail to another email address, it forwards the spam too; no help. So you have to instead download email via pop from gmail. The problem? If you hit "reply" then it tries to reply from your gmail address, not from your main, non-gmail address, even if you make the latter your "default'". Therefore, everytime you reply to someone you either have to send it to them on a gmail address, OR you have to change your sending-account to the one you want. There apparently is no fricking way to set Outlook to automatically send from a given email account on any reply, no matter what the "to" address was. God I hate Outlook.
November 18, 2004
Cell Phone Number Conventions:
Jeff Tucker disagrees with my rant about the annoying use of dots instead of dashes in phone numbers by those trying to appear all tech-savvy or somethign. He claims it's a convention to use dots for cell phone numbers for dashes for "analog" numbers. I think he is nuts. This is just a loony theory. In my view, not only is this not a convention, but no one even thinks it is or should be a convention.
So, help us settle the bet. Email me your views.
Muslim Humor:
Someone sent me this email. I want to say that I am posting these jokes as a public service simply to show how insensitive some people are. These jokes are completely tasteless and I object!
Here are some jokes from that crazy Muslim standup comic..... ladies and gentlemen please give it up for.... Goffaq Yussef!
- Good evening gentlemen, and get out, ladies. You have no right to be having a good time.
- On my flight to New York there must have been a Jew in the bathroom the entire time. There was a sign on the door that said "occupied."
- What do you say to a Muslim woman with two black eyes? Nothing! You told her twice already!
- How many Muslims does it take to change a light bulb. None! They sit in the dark forever and blame the Jews for it!
- Did you hear about the Broadway play, 'The Palestinians'? It bombed!
- What do you call a first-time offender in Saudi Arabia? Lefty!
- Did you hear about the Muslim strip club? It features full facial nudity!
- Why do Palestinians find it convenient to live on the West Bank? Because it's just a stone's throw from Israel!
- Why are Palestinian boys luckier than American boys? Because every Palestinian boy will get to join a rock group
- A small plane carrying Yassir Arafat and all his top lieutenants crashes and all aboard are killed. Who is saved? The Palestinian people!
- Two Israelis are in an elevator when the doors open and a Palestinian gets on. After the doors close, the Palestinian lets out a huge, noisy fart. The doors open again and the Palestinian gets off. One Jew looks at the other, wipes his brow and says, "Thank God! Must have been a dud!"
- What does the sign say above the nursery in a Palestinian maternity ward? "Live ammunition."
- A Palestinian girl says to her mommy, "After Abdul blows up, can I have his room?"
November 17, 2004
Annoying Phone Number Formats:
God I hate it when people--especially those trying to show how tech-savvy and "with it" they are--use periods instead of dashes in their phone numbers. E.g., their business card will say "214.555.1234" instead of "214-555-1234".
Also very annoying is when a website or someone gives only a stupid letter-version of their phone number, like 1-800-GE-CARES. I have to figure the stupid numbers out each time I want to call.
Finally, I hate European phone numbers. Half the time they forget to tell you their stupid country code; often they insert a ridiculous (0) after the country code that you have to omit if you are calling from outside. Almost as bad are the strange, always non-standard European snail mail addresses. Jesus.
November 16, 2004
Stupid Fundamentalists:
Laurence Vance, in his article Fundamentalist Foolishness, links to Bob Jones University's position on Catholicism. These idiots, not only repudiating Catholicism's doctries, state: "At Bob Jones University we believe the Bible. We desire that every person outside of Christ, be he Catholic, Baptist, Presbyterian, Lutheran, Islamic, Jewish, Mormon, or whatever, should come to put his faith in Christ alone through the revelation of Himself that He has given in the Scriptures, His Holy Word, the Bible."
In other words, Catholics, like Muslims and Jews, are "outside of Christ"? These morons are totally clueless. It is all non-Catholic Christians who are separated brethren. They believe in "the Bible"? What Bible? Oh, the one determined by the Catholic Church? So, let me get this straight: Protestants cannot help but admit that the Catholic Church was guided by the Holy Spirit in selecting the canon of the Bible (although Luther chucked out several books he didn't like), centuries after Christ and the apostles? Yet they hold that the Church's claim to still be guided by the Holy Spirit is ridiculous? Talk about ridiculous.
Cardinals:
I've often wondered why Cardinals have their title between the first and last name, as in John Cardinal O'Connor. I find it annoying. Well, this Wikipedia explanation makes sense (though it's still a little annoying): For cardinals, use "{name if known} Cardinal {surname}]]". For example, Giuseppe Cardinal Siri not Cardinal Guiseppe Siri This format avoids problems associated with historical cardinals whose first names have long since been forgotten; they can be entered as "Cardinal {surname}" and adapted later if and when their first name has been unearthed. It also has the benefit of keeping the cardinal surname together for search purposes. This is the format officially used by the Roman Catholic Church to refer to its cardinals. Since Vatican II, an alternative version, placing the word 'Cardinal' before the first name has grown in popularity. However as the great majority of cardinals predate this change, that format would require a complete change in all cardinal titles before 1965 and is impractical.
November 15, 2004
Lindsay Lohan scandal:
I am shocked by this horrible scandal! As reported by LindsayFans.com,
We are deeply troubled and saddened by a recent trend in the LindsayFans Poll.
Our logs show unmistakable evidence of widespread cheating, by people who are circumventing the rules and casting several votes for one website.
The staff has no choice but to declare the contest null and void. All websites will be declared winners; no prizes will be awarded.
It is disheartening to see the hard work of Lindsay's fans going unrewarded thanks to a dishonest few. What is the world coming to?
MY CHEATING ART:
November 11, 2004
Two Comments: Humor, and Arafat:
My dad, whenever Arafat's name would come up on TV, would instantly say, "Yassah, Arafat!" I don't know why.
Second, this headline from The Onion is one of the funniest things I've ever seen. First time I saw it I was laughing so hard my stomach hurt: "HOLY SH*T: MAN WALKS ON F*CKING MOON!"
Smart Kids:
A friend of mine (the 'sum bitch won't let me use his name) has a brood of kids. He does not let them use computer or watch TV much. I asked if his kids are smart. He says, "Just the usual 99.5 percentile stuff."
"Really?," I reply.
"Hey, it's genes," he replies. "We forget how smart all of us are. We essentially have no contact with stupid people. Go to a county fair--you will see."
Funny!
I hate Christmas:
Because of the stupid gift-buying issues. Because of the subtle pressure to mail out Christmas cards ever year. Well I have refused the latter for many years now, and have gotten over my guilt. I'll never again send Christmas cards. What a stupid tradition.
As for gifts, it's the same every year--start worrying about it in November, call up relatives ask them what they "want". I wish there was a way out of it.
Noonan on the Election:
Peggy Noonan is such a good writer on occasion, even if she is a warmongerer. Great title--"He's Got Two of 'Em" (i.e., balls); and these comments seem like pretty good analysis of why Bush won:
I think Mr. Bush, the better man in terms of character, was also the more normal man. And we like normal. He loves sports and business and politics, and speaks their language. Normal. His wife is important to him, and his kids seem a bit of a mystery to him, and perhaps even to some degree intimidating. Normal. He thinks if bad guys attack New York City and the Pentagon, we go after them and kill them--normal. He thinks marriage is between a man and a woman--normal. He thinks if Baptist preachers in a suburb of Louisville have an after-school plan that has an excellent record of turning kids from juvenile delinquency to thinking about college, those Baptist preachers should be helped and encouraged every way we can, and it has nothing to do with "church and state." Normal. He thinks if there's an old plaque bearing the Ten Commandments on the wall of the courthouse you should leave it alone--it can't hurt, and it might help. Normal. Plus, she's kinda hot.
BLOGLET USERS--SWITCH TO FEED AGGREGATOR:
To the Bloglet subscribers to my site--Bloglet is old tech. I now have a site feed, which you can subscribe to with any RSS or Atom feed news aggregator. I highly recommend you unsubscribe from Bloglet and instead use some aggregator, such as SharpReader, which is great. Get an aggregator and subscribe to my Atom feed, the link to which is here: http://www.stephankinsella.com/atom.xml.
November 10, 2004
!!SWITCHING TO ATOM FEED!!:
After this post, the old RSS feed will be deleted. THE NEW FEED IS AN ATOM FEED: http://www.stephankinsella.com/atom.xml. Please subscribe to this instead the old RSS feed.
Causation, Aggression, the Law, and Reinach:
Latest article: Causation and Aggression) (co-authored with Patrick Tinsley), in The Quarterly Journal of Austrian Economics, vol. 7, no. 4 (winter 2004): 97-112, a special Reinach symposium issue (based on the Reinach and Rothbard: An International Symposium, Ludwig von Mises Institute, Auburn, Alabama, March 29-30, 2001).
Woulda Coulda Shoulda:
Sometimes you ask someone a question and they diplomatically answer, "Well, I would think that..." I want to interrupt and say, "'Would'? You 'would' think that, if what?" Would is conditional; if you were to do this, then I would do that.
Even worse is "should"--"I should think that..." Should is normative; obligatory. Nobody cares what you should think; say what you do think.
It's a pretentious Britishism, sort of like saying "he was graduated from Harvard" instead of saying "he graduated from Harvard" or "when I was at university" instead of "when I was in college".
November 4, 2004
Free Things I Can't Do Without:
- FireFox browser. Much better than Internet Explorer. Rarely crashes; faster; has tabbed browsing.
- The Google Toolbar (or, for FireFox, the GoogleBar).
- Google Desktop search. This is just fantastic: google indexes emails, Word files and other documents on your computer and instantly shows results when you do a google search.
- SharpReader: a great RSS feed aggregator. How did I live without it?
And most of these, the indefatigable Jeff Tucker told me about! Also increasingly useful: Skype, with its free Internet telephony; and AIM, which also now has Internet telephony and even video (which I have not tried yet).
November 2, 2004
Theo Van Gogh, RIP:
I just spoke (free--via Skype) to a Dutch attorney friend. He said the headlines over there are all about the murder of filmmaker Theo Van Gogh, the great-grandnephew of painter Vincent van Gogh. Apparently he was killed by a muslim angry about a film of Van Gogh's critical of Islam's treatment of women. My friend told me two interesting things. First, that at least the headlines of the murder will trump all the US election headlines that would otherwise take center stage. Second, that most Dutch seem hostile to the idea that it was a Muslim who killed Van Gogh. Jeez, I didn't realize the Europeans were as politically correct as we are.
European Websites:
In a recent chat with a friend he wrote:
Why is it that foreign sites are never worth linking to? Their URLS are always breaking. These bastards don't pay their bills or what?
Europe is one big pile of shit so far as the web is concerned. A well known webmaster refuses to link to anything in Europe. First they steal all our graphics and code, then they don't pay their bills.
November 1, 2004
Gmail invites:
In response to a previous request for gmail (Google mail) invites on the LewRockwell.com blog, I received a bunch--more than I need. Some of the senders agreed to offer them to the LRC community (or others, presumably). Their email addresses and messages or invites are listed below:
- Paul [evilpaul@gmail.com] writes: "I've got three Gmail invites that I'd like to share with any interested LRC reader or writer."
- Chris Pruden [cdpruden@gmail.com] has 5 gmail invites to give away
- tex.mac@gmail.com: I have some invitations, too. I'll be glad to send them to whoever is interested
- villa.straylight: I just checked my 2 gmail accounts and I have 13 invites total to give away. They'll have to be anonymous donations (I have an uncommon name that so far doesn't appear in search engines!) and use my other address "spindle@gmail.com" instead of this one. I'll use the same priorities as the other guy, authors then readers
- Joshua Paulin [joshua.paulin -at- gmail.com] offers: http://gmail.google.com/gmail/a-e9284b0f1e-ae5f99fa8c-f34565fac5 ; and he also writes: ps, I have 6 more sitting over at my other account: joshua.paulin@gmail.com if you know of any other deserving LRC peeps
- Adam Jones [ajones@gmail.com] offers: http://gmail.google.com/gmail/a-c542fb7dda-8be7cbb278-84842339b7
- Eric Liebman [liebman@gmail.com] offers: http://gmail.google.com/gmail/a-630950d64f-323d065735-bfba629560
p.s.: if you don't know what gmail is you probably don't need it!
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