For gaming. Lets see if it works.

All this innovation and yet no government intervention. Odd.

Enter the ICHC online Poker Cats Contest!

Use the state to regulate an industry to prevent monopolies and what will inevtiably happen? The companies will find ways to manipulate the state to give them the monopoly.

Comcast hired a bored and sleepy claque to attend the latest Federal Communications Commission hearing on the company’s blockage of internet traffic, thus preventing interested parties from sitting in. Michael Weiss has the techie reaction to the cable giant’s pushback against its opponents.

Sigh, its just so much easier to let free markets ‘regulate’ then let ‘experts’ inform bureaucrats on how an industry should be ran.

Diebold Accidentally Leaks Results Of 2008 Election Early

I absolutely love Barack Obama’s logo. Check it out.

Seriously, it really is an awesome logo.

LA has passed a law forcing pet owners to have their animals sterilized.

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa on Tuesday signed one of the nation’s toughest laws on pet sterilization, requiring most dogs and cats to be spayed or neutered by the time they are 4 months old.

Failure to do so will result in the state bringing its coercive power to bear on you:

First-time offenders will receive information on subsidized sterilization services and be given an additional 60 days. If they still fail to comply they could be fined $100 and ordered to serve eight hours of community service. A subsequent offense could result in a $500 fine or 40 hours of community service.

Here is what I believe. That unless you are raising pure breed dogs you should get your pet seterilized. This is just basic common sense. If you get a pet for companionship then the responsile thing to do is to have your pet sterilized.

However, im fully aware that this is my belief. Other people have other beliefs and I think they are entitled to those beliefs, however, the city of LA disagrees. In LA, people that don’t view sterlizing their pet is a good thing will be forced by the state to do so anyway. That is those that don’t believe what I believe, will be forced to do what I believe.

This story nicely exposes the application of coercive force on those that believe something different, then arguably, the majority. I think its better to just keep the state out of forcing some people’s values and beliefs on to others, but, what do I know, im just a libertarian.

Kinetic scultpor Theo Jansen uses the principles of evolution to refine and design creatures that walk the beach.

Jansen is dedicated to creating artificial life through the use of genetic algorithms. These programs simulate evolution inside their code. Genetic algorithms can be modified to solve a variety of problems including circuit design, and in the case of Theo Jansen’s creations, complex systems. Some measure of “fitness” is introduced into the algorithm; in Theo’s case it is to survive on the beach while moving around within two enclosing lines on the wet sand near the ocean, and the dry sand at the edge of the beach.

Note the use of the term ‘fitness’. Fitness here is being defined as a set of parameter to direct or guide the procession of creature design. I point it out only because it makes salient just how much direction is inferred by evolution. Several days ago I was laughed at when I suggested that evolution sets a path in how things are designed. In a very real sense evolution is short hand not necessarily for intelligent design but certainly survival design. Meaning that evolution directs design that survive.

I’m sure I’m being sloppy with my working so correct me so we can get to the interesting part of this position.

Lets take a look at what you get when you put together the desire to redistribute wealth equitably, increase government control over markets, and use experts to inform bureaucrats how best to manage resources and people.

The introduction, by editor Stéphane Courtois, states that that “…Communist regimes…turned mass crime into a full-blown system of government”. Using unofficial estimates he cites a death toll which totals 94 million, not counting the “excess deaths” (decrease of the population due to lower than the expected birth rate). The breakdown of the number of deaths given by Courtois is as follows:

* 20 million in the Soviet Union
* 65 million in the People’s Republic of China
* 1 million in Vietnam
* 2 million in North Korea
* 2 million in Cambodia
* 1 million in the Communist states of Eastern Europe
* 150,000 in Latin America
* 1.7 million in Africa
* 1.5 million in Afghanistan
* 10,000 deaths “resulting from actions of the international communist movement and communist parties not in power.”(p. 4)

It explicitly states that Communist regimes are responsible for a greater number of deaths than any other political ideal or movement, including Nazism. The statistics of victims includes executions, intentional destruction of population by starvation, and deaths resulting from deportations, physical confinement, or through forced labor. It does not include “excess deaths” due to higher mortality or lower birth rates than expected of the population.

This comes from The Black Book of Communism.

Capitalism is all about greed and the ignoble virtue of getting and keeping whats your’s.

Communism is about equity and the noble virtue of sharing whats your’s with all.

If you ask me I would live in the ignoble world of greed than the noble word of sharing. I base this primarily off the likelihood that I would be dead in a world of good intentions.