Unqualified Offerings

Looking Sideways at Your World Since October 2001

Archive for December 21st, 2005

Wednesday, December 21st, 2005

Might As Well

I don’t burn with outrage at the very thought of drilling for oil in the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge anyway, but it seems to me that if you think there’s anything to “peak oil” theory, then drilling in ANWR becomes a downright good idea. If you don’t believe in peak oil you can probably afford [...]

Wednesday, December 21st, 2005

Open Up, It’s – !

Radley continues to pursue the Cory Maye case and learn ever more disturbing things:
I think this reflects even more poorly on the way the raid was handled. Only one of the eight officers — the officer from the task force — had any narcotics training at all. He was on the four-man team who executed [...]

Wednesday, December 21st, 2005

Taking Comfort Where I Find It

I gotta go all the way to Logan’s blog to get cheered up by commenter Anodyne?
I accept that selection bias on some cognitive dimension may make it more likely for some people to be attracted to libertarian principles and arguments than others. But do you believe that self-identifying libertarians are any more likely to adhere [...]

Wednesday, December 21st, 2005

Conventional Wisd0m Catches Up

Honestly, just last night Mrs. O and I had a conversation in this very room about how the domestic spy program and the blatant assertion of untrammelled executive power that characterizes the Gonzaleschina are Nixon’s Revenge – not just the same mindset, but the same people, propounding the same principles. The idea is not original [...]

Wednesday, December 21st, 2005

Damn You, Loyal Readers!

Steve asks in comments downblog:
Did you ever think you’d see the day when you’d have to ask a bunch of self-proclaimed libertarians if any state action was morally indefensible even if it was done in the name of national security?
Um, no? I didn’t?
Richard frigging Posner has flunked the test on this one
Sigh.

Wednesday, December 21st, 2005

Santa Claus Is Coming to Town – To DESTROY!

Eve tips me to a Santa rampage in New Zealand.

Wednesday, December 21st, 2005

It Still Needs to Be Said Apparently

1. My attitude is not the problem. YOUR POLICIES are the problem. The people who actually have the power to conduct policy are the problem.
2. Anyone who wants to prate about their sincerity and their positive outlook as if it somehow outweighed the foreseeable results of their own goddam hubris, while the Administration they’ve trusted [...]