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Tuesday, November 28, 2017

Post #3459 M

Quote of the Day

Destiny is no matter of chance. It is a matter of choice. 
It is not a thing to be waited for, 
it is a thing to be achieved.
William Jennings Bryan 

Tweet of the Day








DiLorenzo On How and Why Government Lies About Everything


A little dated (Barney Frank retired a few years back), but it's still relevant.



Stossel On How the Working Rich Improve Our Lives Better




Internet Clippings

I did one of these several of these back; I often clip my responses, URL or embedded codes for cartoons or videos interesting quotes or news items using CintaNotes (which has a limited-feature freeware product, highly recommended).

(from Facebook)

Trump: Why would Kim Jong-un insult me by calling me "old," when I would NEVER call him "short and fat?" Oh well, I try so hard to be his friend - and maybe someday that will happen!
How STUPID are you, Trump? Do you think you're "clever" by calling Kim Jong-Un "short and fat" while pretending not to? You need to stop worrying about what other people think of you, whether or not other people "respect" you or the US. This is an insecurity (or maybe even a sign of mental illiness) unworthy of a POTUS.

From a recent charity appeal

This is a Facebook exchange on relationship advice with a nephew (although my sibling and most relatives have never divorced, two nephews have). I haven't had as many relationships as many, if not most men, but there have been women attracted to me, including literally some of the most attractive women I've ever met, who could probably have dated their pick of taller, more handsome, better dressed, popular, or richer guys. It's not that I felt undeserving or insecure of the attention, but I wondered what was it that attracted them to me. (In fact, some of them made the first move.)

 As a never-married bachelor, I am not an expert on this question, but I've been surprised by the comments of past girlfriends. One insanely attractive coed in undergrad school saw in me some of the qualities she wished others saw in her--my being a high-achieving student--and I didn't treat her like all the other guys. Another one said she found me hilarious; I've always had a sense of humor about myself, don't take myself too seriously. A third noticed I was the only one whom showed up at the college chapel in a suit and tie. I think women also like a guy whom shows he's been listening to them. Just a short example: your Aunt Sharon once told me about a Cat Stevens tune she liked. So one Christmas I gave her a Cat Stevens greatest hits album. And she's totally surprised, like she only mentioned Cat Stevens once in a passing conversation, but I remembered it.


This is a dated thread from around the time of the notoriously bad ObamaCare initial opening websites. One of my relatives by marriage started the thread.

[relative]
Without getting into a political discussion, all of the stories about glitches with the Obamacare websites crack me up. As a computer person, I can tell you that there are few, if any, websites or networks that could handle the President and every news channel telling tens of millions of people to "go check out this website today." The number of users is just too high.

 What will really be interesting is the chaos with these sites on March 31, 2014, the deadline for signing up. On that day, those sites will lock up cold and I guarantee the deadline will be extended.

[comment] It's kinda like the Christmas Tree lighting at Rockefeller Center. They turn the lights on and everyone snaps a picture that instant. Is it going to look different 5 minutes from now? An hour from now? 2 days from now?

[comment] The voice of reason!

There are technical solutions to the problems [relative] is discussing. Among other things, the workload can be distributed (by hardware and/or software) among large numbers of middle-tier servers. How do you think web businesses manage to handle their user loads, when outages can mean losing millions of dollars? This is gross mismanagement by horrible IT management in the public sector, and I've had to deal with some of these bozos. [relative] is right in the sense that these thing happen in poorly designed systems, but these idiots have had 4 years to plan for accommodating yesterday. The problems [relative] discussed can be simulated--there are IT solutions for that. I know [relative] isn't trying to excuse these idiots; that people will wait until the last minute is also totally predictable. But let's be clear: there is no excuse for what happened. I have done lots of go-lives over the past 2 decades, and we drilled so many times that we never ran into these type issues.

via Cafe Hayek

One of the marks of a good economist is to recognize that money is not at all all that matters.  Incentives come in lots of different forms – often in monetary forms, but often (perhaps even more often) in non-monetary forms.
 The man who diets and goes to the gym regularly might well do so in order to make himself more attractive to potential mates.  The benefit isn’t monetary, and the cost isn’t exclusively, or even chiefly, monetary.  But there’s nevertheless a real cost-benefit calculation going on in that guy’s mind.  Raise the cost (say, he injures a pectoral muscle) or lower the benefits (say, he meets a fetchin’ babe with a fetish for flabby dudes), and he’ll spend less time at the gym.  And vice-versa.
 Another mark of a good economist is to be skeptical of stated intentions.  Talk is cheap.  So if Jones professes his great love of humanity, the economist pays little heed.  (Old joke: Economist and non-economist are strolling in Manhattan.  When they pass Carnegie Hall, the non-economist says wistfully to the economist, “You know, I’ve always wanted to learn to play the piano.”  The economist replies “Obviously not.”)
 Which brings me to the main point of this post, namely, a proposal to screen for truly public-spirited public servants to seek and hold high elected government office.
    We are constantly told that this long-serving senator or that 19th-term representative has devoted his or her life to “public service” – implying that he or she has made genuine sacrifices in order to work for the betterment of society.  Politicians are routinely called “public servants.”
But how do we know that they – more than the ordinary mortals who vote them into office – truly put the welfare of strangers above their own welfare?  Of course, they say they do so.  But talk is cheap.
    So here’s my proposal: require that everyone seeking high-level elective government office do so anonymously.
    Each candidate for office gets a new, sterile name – something that reads like an abbreviated VIN for a automobile.  For example: 8ANJf9.  In fact, call it a PIN – “politician identification number.”
    Each candidate, successful or no, will for the rest of his or her days and into the future mists of history be known to the public only by his or her PIN.  Candidates’ and elected-officials’ faces will never be seen by the public; they will address the public from behind curtains (both real and virtual), and their voices will be electronically modified so that not even their mothers, spouses, or household pets will recognize their voices.
    History will know them – the good, the bad, the indifferent – only by their PINs.
    They will also be required, during their time in office, to live in spartan government housing, and they will be paid modestly, say, 80 percent of the U.S. median household income.
    My proposal, if adopted, would screen for truly public-spirited people to serve in elected office.  When, say, 8ANJf9, proclaims his or her (we’ll not know the person’s sex) devotion to the greater good and the public weal, that proclamation will be believable.
    Of course, adoption of my proposal is not without its downsides – but yet another hallmark of the economic way of thinking is to recognize the ubiquity of trade-offs.
    All the tawdry ‘glory’ of elected office will be stripped away, so that such offices are no longer sought by fame-seeking megalomaniacs.
    ….
    This proposal stems from a conversation that my buddy Andy Morriss [now Dean of the Texas A&M law school] and I had in July 2000 in the jungle of Tikal, Guatemala.  Hearing a tour-guide there refer to ancient Mayan rulers as “King 1,” “King 2,” “King 3,” and so on – personal information on these long-dead Ozymandiases is lost – Andy immediately saw the promise of making genuine public servants anonymous.


Political Cartoon


Courtesy of Michael Ramirez via Townhall


Musical Interlude: Christmas Mix 2017


 Pentatonix, "Mary, Did You Know?"

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