awesome

Kickin' back with a Beck's after skiing at Garmisch Partenkirchen. Sweet.

libertarians are stoopid

I was just watching Colbert's interview with John Stossel (whoever the hell that is) and I was struck by how dumb libertarians are. He said that we don't need an FAA because the free market would somehow determine a way to prevent airplanes from crashing into each other in the air, since it would be bad for airline profits if they killed their customers. Uhhh, John, not exactly. The whole point is that the level of risk a company is willing to take of people dying is higher than the risk society is willing to take. An airplane manufacturer won't rush an airplane into production because they want people to die, but their risk calculations are different from that of the public. If rushing an airline into production means a five percent risk of an avoidable plane crash in the next 20 years, but will ensure a manufacturers solvency, that might be something they are willing to live with. The public, including me, and by extension the government, will not allow it.

blech

I'm not entirely sure why I still read this website. The reasoning is specious and ridiculous. Yes, New York City and other places are declining in population in comparison to, say, South Carolina. Yes, abortion may be largely responsible for this decline. But is population growth really much of a goal for New York City? Should Democrats and people in blue states just have a bunch of kids in order to sway the political order? Apparently Republicans think that piss-poor quality of life is OK as long as there are more little Republicans.

wow. just wow.

I'll update for real sometime later this week, but something too good to pass up just came to my attention.

Hat tip.