the good the bad the ugly

Depressing things I've head lately (in no particular order):
1. New York Times headline, "US Moves to Overhaul Ailing Car Makers" (NYT)
2. Canada's Science Minister is a creationist (theglobeandmail.com)
3. Senator Kennedy's "Service Bill" ("mandatory volunteerism" - ugh)

Hopeful things I've heard lately (also in no particular order):
1. Atlas Shrugged is high on the best seller lists and bookstore shelves (OActivists)
2. The president of the EU said that Obama's economic plan is "a way to hell" (NYT)
3. People are actually questioning the role of the federal government and whether it is to blame for this financial crisis (here and here)

Good things in my life these days:
1. Aikido (bendaikido.com)
2. Our cozy house
3. The Duke (see photo)

Bad things in my life these days:
1. The National Park Service and it's complete lack of ability to be reasonable
2. Inconsiderate, whiny, paranoid person we are deep into a business deal with
3. Not enough time before heading north (one month from tomorrow)

Redistribution of Wealth

This was a treasure in a randomly forwarded email...

Yesterday on my way to lunch I passed a homeless guy with a sign that read "Vote Obama, I need the money." I laughed.

Once in the restaurant my server had on a "Obama/Biden 08" pin, again I laughed as he had given away his political preference.

When the bill came I decided not to tip the server and explained to him that I was exploring the Obama redistribution of wealth concept.

He stood there in disbelief while I told him that I was going to redistribute his tip to someone who I deemed more in need, the homeless guy outside.

The server angrily stormed away.

I went outside, gave the homeless guy $5 and told him to thank the server inside as I've decided he could use the money more. The homeless guy was grateful.

At the end of my rather unscientific redistribution experiment I realized the homeless guy was grateful for the money he did not earn, but the waiter was really pissed that I gave away the money he did earn even though the homeless guy seemed to need the money more.

I guess redistribution of wealth is an easier thing to swallow in concept than in practical application.

Objectivist Round-Up for this week

This week's Objectivist Round-Up was hosted by Amy at The Little Things. Once again I didn't get to reading every post, but there are always at least a few that catch my eye. One of these weeks I will write something worth adding to the round-up myself...

I have also really been enjoying Amy's style on The Little Things so I've been checking in there regularly. I like her mixture of political, philosophical and personal ramblings and want to try to incorporate more variety myself.

Google - a Threat?!

Voices for Reason had a great post today about the possibility of antitrust lawsuit being brought against Google due to the market power it has gained by being the dominant search engine. I found the post very easy to understand and think Alex Epstein makes a clear argument for why antitrust laws actually harm competition and therefore the customers. One of my favorite points:

"Google famously encourages employees to devote 20% of their time to creative projects of their own choosing. An antitrust case could effectively force much of that time and energy, especially for top performers, to be devoted to convincing the Department of Justice that Google did not engage in “unfair competition” or some other undefined antitrust term."

I wonder who first thought of the idea that a few individuals in government could decide what was right for the general public better than the general public themselves...

Click here for the whole article.

Objectivist Round-Up

I just found out that each week someone compiles a collection of the best posts on Objectivist Blogs. This week's round-up can be found here. Some of them I have read and others I haven't gotten to yet, but looks like an interesting list. Check it out.