Unqualified Offerings

By Thoreau
Late last week, in discussing the “libertarian label”, Picador wrote that:
I hope you understand that this is very pointedly not personal, Thoreau — the reason people are giving you a hard time is because they actually respect most of your positions, and find it frustrating to hear you apply a label to yourself that [...]

By Thoreau
I just made my last student loan payment.  I’ve been making more than the minimum payment because I wanted to be debt-free.  Yeah, yeah, go ahead, give me the lecture on how I should be saving and investing rather than paying fairly low-interest loans early due to compound interest, but (1) there’s still something [...]

Art-cartoonist Ursula Vernon offers a very personal take on a very bad precedent prosecutors are setting in a "child pornography" case. Writes Vernon:
My teen years are now off-limits to me as an artist.

By Thoreau
Scientists speculate that language emerged to facilitate gossip among females.  Why?  Because female monkeys make more noises than male monkeys.
*Disclaimer:  This post should in no way be interpreted as an endorsement of any particular theory regarding gender differences in humans or other vertebrates.  This post is offered strictly for entertainment purposes only, and does [...]

You know how some guy supposedly said, "Democracies survive until the citizens realize they can vote themselves money from the treasury?" I’d like to find that person and punch him in the face.

By Thoreau
Via New Scientist I learn of a sea slug (i.e. an animal) that can get chloroplasts (not normally found in animals) from its food and thereby produce sugar from carbon dioxide, water, and sunlight.  Interestingly, the sea slug actually has in its genome some of the genes needed for photosynthesis–although chloroplasts do have their [...]

By Thoreau
Greetings from California!  Having survived our annual traditions of earthquakes and fires, it is now time for the annual mudslide season!  I’m getting my wife some special designer sandbags this year, and we’ll celebrate with a romantic getaway at this little hillside inn I know with a great view.  We might get a front-row [...]

By Thoreau
Guns in his sack,
It’s been too long and I’m glad that he’s back!
The 24 prequel (basically, a 2 hour TV movie with a story that is wrapped up at the end but leaves a lot hanging for next season in January) was pretty good last night.  I thought that the overall story was excellent, [...]

I understand what Matt’s getting at with the frustration he expresses about “liberal/libertarian fusionism for the 21st century.” Official libertarianism may make a poor coalition partner, but there aren’t that many votes in it anyway. Meanwhile, liberals do have power (sort of). Democrats can pick and choose among libertarian ideas they think contribute to good [...]

By Thoreau
Personally, I’d love to just let the Big 3 fall–I owned a GM car once, and after 100,000 miles I was spending about $1500/year fixing one thing or another. (OK, so I’ve only owned 2 cars in my life, but I say that using anecdotes in place of data is fine if it [...]