None of the Above

I watched the debate between Spike Cohen and Dave Smith on Locals last night.

The title is a reference to this.

After thinking more about it, the less intrigued I am about either of the potential candidates.

Much like the Krystol-Horton “debate” at the Soho Forum, the more I heard, the less impressed I was.

To the participants — Spike, don’t wish for an Anachro-Capitalist society. I understand that, likely, there’s a lot less of my life ahead of me. (I worked through Y2K; I’m wondering if I’ll be around to see Y2K38) I think you could articulate a way to minimize the weight of the state on most people’s lives.

Dave, please find a book by someone with whom you disagree, read it, and write a brief summary of the arguments the author presented. Yes, there’s bad things the US did in South and Central America places in the past. Noted. It’s not why there’s tens of thousands of Haitians trying to cross into Texas. But that you floated out something from a very-biased take on history doesn’t add anything to your argument.

I find myself unimpressed with the options presented. None of the above.


Both of these guys are frequent guests on Kennedy, something which I often view.

Part of what one of the things that’s argued about the LP Mieses Caucus is an attempt to push ideas at lower levels to get libertarians to take advantage of the things that are coming up in the “alternative” media outlets.

I understand and enjoy the format. I really don’t think it lends itself to presentation of any coherent idea about policy.

Landing that fifteen-second clip that gets repeatedly shared on Twitter/Facebook/whatever, doesn’t explain what changes you would make to the existing morass that is the modern state. What will you do to move people from under the boot of the state? Next year. Not thirty years down the road. What are you going to do to bring people towards a system based on freedom?

Back At Again

I’ve never finished setting up the domain I snagged for “Notes of a Goon,” — BackAtAgain.com.

Considering the last episode, maybe I should give Harrington “mikey@backatagain.com”.

On a somewhat-related note, I’ve kind of narrowed-down what I’m going to do with my thing.

Start with three stories. What was said at the time it was reported? What was reported in the time in between, and what’s the latest news on the story?

I figure I can probably do roughly four minutes per story, which gives me some time for an intro, outro, and maybe a spot. *fingers crossed*

I’m still curious about whether I can make any money off of it. I think it might be an interesting way to supplement income after I stop working full-time. I am curious about what Michael Malice said about wiring a book.

But the OYR thing, I think, would probably be about three hours per episode doing everything myself. Obviously, folks who do a lot more opinion/entertainment-related shows probably don’t spend that much time, but I am going to do all the research, writing, and editing myself.

What else….

I’m doing some of my end-of-the-year donations. I do feel like of stingy with it, but I’m giving what I can at the moment. Maybe I shouldn’t wait until the crunch in December, but it is what it is. Who’s gotten money so far? Well, the charity gift thing my company is putting on, Reason, Cato….

I don’t know if I’m revisiting some of those, really, as a reaction to the nonsense with the LPMC fans.

They have nothing aside from their now-dated RON PAUL fascinations.

It’s not 2008.

It’s not 2012.

The Austrian school of economics is not right about everything.

I heard a longer description of what would happen if all currency was backed with real assets. While I appreciate the sentiments, there are so many things that are taken for granted in modern finance that would just completely go away.

One of the things that occurred to me the other day is that businesses run by Austrian School adherents should decline their employee compensation with predictable price deflation.

Yeah, we’re gonna drop your pay rate by 3% next year. It doesn’t matter if you kick ass performance-wise, everything you buy is going to be cheaper, so you’ll need less money.

Good luck finding people to work for you, Saint RON(pbuh).


So…news.

This.

In the wake of Epstein, the Catholic Church, the Boy Scouts, etc., you can see how things like the Comet Ping Pong story get a following.

I’m also not seeing the story I found on Wednesday or Thursday about how housing prices are pretty much at 2008-peak levels again.

Many people will be upset by this, but I can’t bring myself to be.