Four years later, it proved everyone wrong.
It’s hard to believe it’s been four years.
All posts by Rand Simberg
Libertarianism
What it isn’t:
…journalists cover complex things they don’t know about all the time, and this is usually okay because they research and talk to people who do know about it.
Unless, of course, they’re writing about libertarians.
Not only do you not have to know the first thing about libertarianism to cover it for major news outlets, it is perfectly fine to a) decline to ask anybody who does know, b) make up your own version of what it is, and then c) lament the terribleness of this terrible philosophy or people you have just created. Cases in point: approximately every 10th article published by Salon, this piece by Damon Linker at The Week.
A lot of people seem to have difficulty with the concept of liberty.
If You Oppose Administration Policies
…you just might be racist.
My response:
Not saying main driver of administration policies is socialism, race baiting and class warfare, but those are elements, Attorney General.
— Rand Simberg (@Rand_Simberg) July 14, 2014
[Update Tuesday morning]
The nation’s chief law-enforcement officer is trying to spark racial hatred:
For most, this is a joke. The meme that the bipartisan notion of “taking the country back” is somehow racist was long ago debunked. As the brief history lesson above demonstrates, however, no one is listening to this nonsense beyond the cult of true believers. Those for who racism is a religion – ubiquitous and unfalsifiable – nod in agreement at Holder’s self-aggrandizement. All others roll their eyes.
It is natural and right to be incensed over the attorney general’s statement here, but a 30,000 foot view suggests there is even more reason to take heart in his remarks. Only those liberals [sic] Democrats the party desperately needs to turn out in the fall are inspired by this rhetoric; that desperate need is met with increasingly desperate tactics. A glance at the polls suggests it will not be successful.
Let’s hope.
[Update a few minutes later]
The real problem isn’t racial animus, but Eric Holder’s animus toward his critics.
[Bumped]
The Border Tsunami
Have the Republicans forgotten how to play offense?
The first step to leading is understanding what you are up against. This border crisis isn’t incompetence. It isn’t bungling.
It is a calculated effort to crash the immigration system and fundamentally transform the nation. It is an effort to accelerate demographic trends and forever alter the nation’s culture. Until the GOP comprehends the full measure of Obama’s purpose, the GOP will be trapped in a prevent defense, never moving past complaints about Obama’s incompetence.
To the Obama administration and open borders groups, the tidal wave across the border is not an accident, and it is not a crisis. It is not even limited to unaccompanied children.
To be fair, they haven’t forgotten — they’ve never known how to go on offense.
[Update a couple minutes later]
The lie at the heart of immigration “reform” is exposed:
…does anyone think the people attending Obama’s White House meeting will accept any other new security measures that might actually succeed in blocking their co-ethnics from moving to El Norte – even as part of a “comprehensive” reform bill? They won’t. Once today’s illegals get their immediate “provisional” (i.e. permanent) legal status, security measures like E-verify (computerized checks of new hires), the border fence, and exit-entry visa controls will be subject to the same sort of counterattack as Obama’s request for more deportation “flexibility.”
Overcoming those attacks will only get more difficult as the Latino population grows — and it will grow even faster once a reform bill legalizes millions more eventual voters. It’s not hard to imagine that we’re at a tipping point: Implement border security measures now, or else they will never be implemented.
And the only way to implement them is to require they be done first, before any legalization — before the activists are free to attack them with full force (lest they jeopardize the eventual amnesty prize). The other way around, the McCain-Schumer-Obama way — ‘Legalization First, Security Later’ — is a swindle in the classic tradition. Just give us our amnesty. We’ll be there for you when it’s time to appropriate for the border fence. Really we will. You can trust us! You just have to
wire the money to the Nigerian princegive us what we want first.If we didn’t spot the fraud before, we do now.
Well, some of us do, anyway. Let’s hope it’s enough.
Extending Moore’s Law
…through self assembly. Behold the power of innovation and competition.
Peer Review
Some thoughts on its corruption.
It’s highly overrated, and I’d say that in the age of the Internet, you’ll get much more rapid identification of issues via crowdsourcing.
Transparency
The federal government doesn’t think that states need to be told that large number of illegal immigrants are being shipped into them.
This seems like a violation of the spirit, if not the letter, of the Third Amendment. That was previously the only one for which the administration had seemed to show any respect.
SpaceX And Orbcomm
This morning’s flight seems to have been a complete mission primary success. No word, though, on recovering the stage. No status updates on relighting engines, entry, etc. Reports of Elon’s and other plane circling the recovery zone. Sea state seems to be good, less than three-foot waves.
[Update a few minutes later]
Rocket booster reentry, landing burn & leg deploy were good, but lost hull integrity right after splashdown (aka kaboom)
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 14, 2014
My response:
Was it caused by thermal shock from water contact on hot engine? Maybe try dropping it on an island in the Bahamas instead? @elonmusk
— Rand Simberg (@Rand_Simberg) July 14, 2014
Uber Surge Pricing
This piece on the economic ignorance and irrationality of consumers reminds me of my old piece, “Three Cheers For Price Gougers.”
More IRS Smidgens Show Up
It gets more implausible by the day:
Who knows how many of her colleagues and allies are breathing a sigh of relief upon learning that their e-mails to Lerner were destroyed and their instant messages not recorded? I think Lerner must have a sizable silent cheering section in Washington; people who are rooting for her to hang tough in pleading the Fifth and hoping that she does not go wobbly on them. I’ll bet her government retirement check is one check that never gets lost in the mail or delayed.
It gets even better. In another disclosure, Lerner’s attorney said that previous emphatic statements he had made declaring that Lerner did not print hard copies of her e-mails were not lies, just a “misunderstanding.” In this case, it is obvious what happened. When Team Lerner discovered that not keeping hard copies of some e-mails – which are considered government records – would in itself violate the law, it changed its story. It’s as simple as that.
The coordination among the Democrats and Lerner is remarkably brazen, even by today’s standards. While she lies low taking the Fifth, her mouthpieces in the Democratic caucus recite talking points that only she could approve. For example, during House oversight hearings on the scandal, Democrats seem to recite with great precision what Lerner did or did not do, what she knew and when she knew it. So while she hides the truth, protects her gang and stays clear of a perjury charge or worse, elected members of the Democratic party declare her innocence and tell her self-serving story.
Good thing there’s no one like that around here.