I liked this post on Azrael's Free Thoughts, linking to this article on how Al Gore and "global warming" are one big evil fnord.
I'm been planning to do a post on how global warming is one big scam.
This article, via Hacker News, about the threat to network neutrality was interesting, but it sort of missed the point. ISPs would make deals with various media corporations, ending network neutrality, if it weren't illegal.
The real problem is that there's almost no competition in the ISP market. In most parts of the country, including where I live, there are only 2 viable choices for Internet access. I can buy from the local cable monopoly or the local telephone monopoly. If both of those vendors collude to violate network neutrality, I'm SOL. I can't go lay my own cables and compete with these State-licensed monopolies.
The real evil is the State regulation demanding local ISP monopolies. This is patched with the "network neutrality" regulation.
In a true free market, every ISP would offer network neutrality. They would lose customers to their competitors if they violated it.
I doubt that the Internet will be severely crippled. There are large corporations with deep pockets lobbying *BOTH* sides of the issue, which means that the issue should be decided fairly. Contrast that with the anti-psychiatry movement, where pharmaceutical corporations have billions of dollars and the anti-psychiatry movement is composed of individuals who have been hurt by the homicide industry or who had relatives murdered.
If the Internet became severely crippled, a group of dedicated hackers would make a competing network. All of the technology underlying the Internet is public domain.
This post on out of step, in reference to this Bill Hicks YouTube video about the Kennedy assassination, was interesting.
I see clips of Bill Hicks and George Carlin and other comedians doing bits that are more politics than comedy. My response is "I can do that, and better!" Of course, it takes years to build up a reputation. Plus, I'd have to practice what works well in front of an audience, although bits from my blog should be interesting.
"Promote agorism via standup comedy" seems like it's worth pursuing.
I'm not that interested in the "Who killed Kennedy?" conspiracy theories. Kennedy was trying to shut down the Federal Reserve, the FBI/CIA, and end the Vietnam War. It's not surprising that someone killed him.
Some people say that the security staff that protects the President are *REALLY GOOD*. The President could not be assassinated unless his security team allowed it to happen.
The massive security team protecting the President is an evil fnord saying "It matters who is President." If necessary, the Vice President or someone else would replace the President, and the evil of the State would continue.
Most decisions are made by the President's advisers and handlers. President Bush allowed his advisers to usually do as they please. President Obama usually takes personal responsibility for all big decisions, but he's still doing what his advisers tell him to do.
I liked this TED video, via Hacker News, on intelligent crows. Many species have been wiped out by humans. Some species, such as crows, are doing very well with humans around. These species seem to have also evolved higher intelligence.
I liked the "Code Golf" page via Hacker News. You have to produce a program in the fewest number of keystrokes.
This post, via Hacker News, was interesting. A long time ago, a creative individual was assumed to have a supernatural entity, a "muse", helping him. In the present, creativity is always assigned to the individual, with no external help.
Is some external force helping me? Sometimes it seems that way.
This post, via Hacker News, was interesting. A 65 year old self-employed person bought an expensive house and made a 10% downpayment a few years ago. Now, his house is worth less than the remaining mortgage. His jobs and contracts dried up. When the bank forecloses, he loses his investment. His bank won't let him refinance at a lower interest rate.
As an individual, when economic circumstances change in a recession/depression, you lose everything. Insiders always qualify for a bailout.
I liked this post, via Hacker News. Sometimes, catering to every whim of customers is a mistake. For example, I refuse to coddle pro-State trolls.
As long as your "refuse to coddle idiots" policy leads to sufficient audience, you have a viable business.
Sometimes, it's important to reject high-maintenance customers. For example, suppose you have one customer that you bill $1000/month and it takes 10 hours/month. You have another customer that you bill $2000/month but takes up 100 hours/month. It makes sense to drop the second customer or charge him more, if you have better alternatives.
This thread on Hacker News was amusing. In Italy, there is a proposed law making it illegal to organize civil disobedience on the Internet.
This Paul Graham essay, via Hacker News, missed the point. He laments that any online discussion of religion or politics usually degenerates into a flamewar. When debating the merits of PHP vs. Java, you can usually have an intelligent discussion. You can't normally have a reasonable discussion of religion or politics.
The reason is that nearly everyone has been brainwashed as a pro-State troll. Everybody has beliefs that are contradictory. When presented with information that contradicts their brainwashing, people react emotionally instead of logically. This leads to flamewars.
Most mainstream religions say "Accept without evidence that this is the verbatim word of the One True God." In politics, people accept without evidence "There should be a government!" Pro-State religious brainwashing and pro-State Statist brainwashing are the same process. Once you have contradictory beliefs that you are 100% sure are true, there's no escape.
Via Bayesian Reasoning, you should not assign a truth value of exactly 1.0 or 0.0 to any statement. When brainwashed about religion or politics, people are trained to use binary reasoning for really hard problems.
If you believe "Taxation is definitely not theft! Nyah! Nyah! I'm not listening!", then there's nothing I can do to convince you otherwise.
There is merit to repeating "Taxation is theft!" over and over again, even to Statists. Pro-State trolls will have an extremely negative reaction the first time they hear the idea. If they hear it several different times in different contexts, they may become more openminded.
For example, some pro-State trolls will read "Taxation is theft!" here and conclude "FSK is a fruitcake!" Then, someone else may mention the same idea, and it won't seem as foreign.
I am noticing cracks in the Matrix. The volume and quality of free market writing on the Internet is greater than 1-2 years ago.
I liked this article, via Hacker News. Someone abandoned their iPhone for a BlackBerry.
I never got into mobile computing. I prefer a desktop. I don't like laptops with their tiny keyboards.
I liked this article, via Hacker News. A bunch of blogs posted fake AP stories about a talented 16 year old soccer player named Masal Bugduv. The mainstream media then picked up the story as legitimate. The Times published the fake player in a "top 50 rising stars" article.
This article, via Hacker News, was an article in Discover Magazine. The scientist who first claimed "mercury in vaccines causes autism" was accused of faking his research results.
Of course, the correct solution to resolve the controversy was not mentioned. Perform a proper scientific experiment. Give a large number of children mercury vaccines and non-mercury vaccines. Track their performance.
I'm offended that "slander another researcher" takes precedence over "perform another experiment". This illustrates the problem of State-funded science.
I have one relative who is severely allergic to mercury vaccines, which does give some credibility to "mercury vaccines are damaging".
I consider "mercury vaccines cause autism" or "mercury vaccines are damaging" to be not proven either way. I am suspicious, but no research has been performed by a scientist I trust.
Pharmaceutical corporations have a financial incentive to promote their products over genuine medicine. This severely distorts the health care market.
I read that it's possible to manufacture/purchase vaccines that weren't preserved with mercury, although it's more expensive. I haven't researched it that much.
I liked this post on the Picket Line. He linked to this article about a well-meaning person who had a dispute with the IRS. He had 8 dependents, and the IRS 1040 form has space for a maximum of 6. I really liked this bit:
My first reaction upon seeing him in a wheel chair was that of compassion because of his restricted physical condition. However, after opening his mouth questioning if I “was a tax protester,” and advising that if I was a tax protester he would have to turn my “case” over to a special tax protester department, my demeanor quickly changed. My second reaction was to put my foot at the backside of his wheelchair providing a quick exit for him down the stairway!
If you're a "tax protester", then the IRS has special heavy-handed treatment, compared to what a "normal" person gets. If ever asked by an IRS agent, you are *NOT* a "tax protester". My preferred strategy for tax resistance is to earn income that is not automatically reported to the State.
David Gross also linked to this article on Sunni's blog. A lot of Obama's cabinet appointees were exposed as tax evaders. All of them got off with a slap on the wrist, paying back taxes plus interest and no jail time. The article claims this should inspire an open tax revolt among Americans. My reaction is "Good! Obama is doing something useful!"
If ever pursued for criminal tax evasion charges, I can now point out "Members of the Obama administration were allowed to pay interest and back taxes owed, with no further penalty."
This article, via Hacker News, was amusing. It's a "two cows" description of how AIG imploded.
This article, via Hacker News, was amusing. The woman who does the voice for Bart Simpson used the voice in a Scientology automated call. Fox is now accusing her of violating her contract.
The real problem is "Intellectual property is not property!" It's ridiculous that the voices of certain characters can be copyrighted or trademarked.
This article, via Hacker News, was interesting. The UK is making a database of all airplane flights, for "national security reasons". Of course, such a database can be used both for legitimate purposes and for evil purposes.
The problem is not the existence of the database. The problem is that, if a State employee uses the database for an evil purpose, then they are absolutely immune from prosecution via sovereign immunity.
I leave my cellphone off nearly all the time, to avoid spam. However, my cellphone battery still drains at a surprising rate. This lends credibility to the "Your cellphone is on even when it's off!" conspiracy theorists.
This reddit comment, via Hacker News, was amusing. A malicious customer was able to disable a phone network by setting up a script to repeatedly call the NOC of a phone carrier and cost them $80M in one night. It's one of those stories that make you say "If that office really was that important, then it should have been staffed better. Also, someone wasn't really that stupid." It's also a story that makes you say "Yes, people are that stupid."
My guess is that the repeated call was made maliciously. The story was fishy, but interesting.
I liked this post, via Hacker News, on ADA. It had one interesting feature. When you declare a variable, you can also declare a range. For example, you can declare a value to be of type integer 1 to 10. If it's assigned a value of 11 anytime, there's a runtime error. That's a neat feature.
This article, via Hacker News, was interesting. Allegedly, Google is having stealth layoffs. Also, they appear to be doing the "Make working conditions so lousy that people quit!" approach.
Regrettably, I no longer consider Google to be a "cool" tech company.
Also, Blogger is really giving me bizarre errors while composing messages. I'm eager to get my own domain.
This article, via Hacker News, was interesting. A Math undergraduate/grad student decided to intentionally live homeless. He saved money and he was closer to campus.
This article, via Hacker News, was interesting. There was a "peer rating review" website. Someone posted negative feedback about a doctor. That doctor is suing him for libel.
This is not an issue in a true free market. Suppose I say "X is a parasite who cheated me." Then, X is free to say "FSK is lying!" and let people decide for themselves.
"Sue someone who publicly criticizes you!" is a way to discourage discourse. Even if someone publishes false negative information, you're free to point out that person is a liar.
For example, some people have set up community "Rate your local cops!" websites, and were shut down by the State.
If I develop an agorist trust rating system, "Sue someone who criticizes you!" is obviously bad. If you complain to the State over *ANYTHING* that happens in the agorist community, then you are, by definition, breaking the rules and deserve a permanent ban.
This post had some interesting bits. He's talking about the "Fast Seduction" community, but I see it applies in other contexts.
But if the Community was a guardian, it was an abusive one, at least initially. The strange doctrines of the Community transformed me from an asexual guy with some close friends, into a sexual but rather creepy guy, without many close friends. This is a common phenomenon of Community induction: like being turned into a vampire, you become a monster before you evolve into a thing of beauty. You become worse before you become better.
This is true for discovering free market economics and pro-State brainwashing. When you first discover the truth, it's very traumatic. Most people are disgusted as someone becomes partially in-tune with the truth. When you become nearly fully in-tune with the truth, then you seem attractive to people worth attracting. Pro-State troll parasites instinctively say "FSK is a jerk/loser/etc.!" I don't mind, because I don't want to waste time on them. They're filtering out themselves.
This article, via Hacker News, was amusing. The Dalai Lama is now an active Twitter user. It turned out to be a fake account.
My father was quoting an amusing anecdote on the Communism Channel. He said that in any empire in history (besides the current one), if someone caused this much damage, they would have been publicly executed. In the present, the people who are overseeing the collapse are giving themselves huge salaries and bonuses and bailouts.
gilliganscorner has left a new comment on your post "Reader Mail #77?":
Don't bother. Why limit your blog to inferior software. Fuck 'em. Do what you do best.
According to FeedBurner (when I was using it), most of my RSS subscribers used Google Reader.
It appears that Google Reader doesn't handle posts larger than a certain size. That appears to be a recently-introduced defect.
"Write an RSS reader!" is on my agenda. It appears to be pretty straightforward. I found some "parse RSS" open source PHP libraries, which do most of the work.
Xavin has left a new comment on your post "Reader Mail #77":
Two quick points:
1) You don't seem to understand the point of screenshots in terms of game marketing. They are to entice people to buy the game, and it doesn't matter if you lie. A few companies produce a large portion of big budget titles, so gamers are pretty much SOL if they don't like it.
It's a dishonest practice. Of course, if you have a State-licensed monopoly/oligopoly, your customers are SOL if they feel cheated.
There's still a decent market for independent games, but not as much as there would be in a true free market.
2) Linux development is hands down much easier than Windows development. There is a learning curve, and documentation is spotty off the beaten path. The entire LAMP stack is fairly well documented.
Based on what I've researched of PHP, it's *VERY* well documented. For all my PHP, mySQL, and Apache questions, I was always able to find what I wanted after a quick Google search.
Configuring WAMP for windows was a PITA. I seriously considered using a Linux boot DVD for LAMP development, but I think I finally configured WAMP.
I'm really liking PHP/LAMP/WAMP as a web development platform.
Sphairon has left a new comment on your post "Reader Mail #77":
"In most areas, a college degree is merely a piece of paper saying you wasted 4 years of your life and $200k. I studied Mathematics and Computer Science, which include real knowledge. Still, I wonder if "Spend 6 months working on starting a business!" would have been more useful than "Spend 6 months in college, where most of the time was wasted anyway."
I have a similar problem. My parents would probably support me if I go to college, but considering my lack of technical interests, all I could go for would be some humanities degree - that's an even greater money sink than a general college education.
It sounds like a waste. Are you saying that your parents have so much money saved that you don't qualify for financial aid? In that case, you're almost definitely better off not going to college and investing the proceeds.
College is nice based on the people you hang out with. However, you could accomplish the same goal by hanging out at the local college. In retrospect, most of the people in college were pro-State trolls, although they were good at faking intelligence. I didn't know it at the time, because I was also clueless!
You can also accomplish the same goal by purchasing books. At the start of the semester, go to the campus store of your local college and buy the books you're interested in! That's a lot cheaper!
Some universities have put their lectures online. That's also a good resource.
If you want a wage slave job, you need the piece of paper. If you're pursuing other things, you don't need a college degree. However, your parents will probably freak out if you say "I don't want to waste time and money on college."
Do you think it's worth the hassle to start an on-the-books business in this corporatist environment? I'd been thinking all along that you were wrong with your analysis about the soon-to-come demise of the state, but considering recent events, it might just implode by its own weight in no time. Do you think a college degree will be entirely worthless then? And what marketable skills would you recommend for someone who's not really into mechanics?
You *HAVE* to learn something tangible.
Starting an on-the-books business is very hard even if you do have useful skills.
Software is sort of a tangible skill. It's also useless if electricity isn't working. If necessary, I could/would learn other skills.
How about manufacturing clothing? That's relatively low skill and would pay well.
You'll have the same problem if you get a college degree. A humanities degree, *IF YOU'RE LUCKY*, will qualify you for some entry level wage slave job in a division like HR or Marketing.
Why not learn some computer programming or something technical?
Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Bruce Springsteen vs. TicketMaster":
Excellent point on the Dutch auction.
The fact that it's not a Dutch auction already has more to do with the dishonesty of prevailing business types and their money-grubbing attitudes of trying to manipulate their way to the maximum profit possible rather than a lack of creativity.
If tickets were sold via dutch auction, that would maximize the profits for the sellers. Of course, such a system would not be abusable by scalpers and insiders.
Restriction of the market prevents reform or progress.
fritz has left a new comment on your post "Bruce Springsteen vs. TicketMaster":
I want to see your stand up comic performance on the evil state, And pro Agorism jokes.I will start the Dutch Auction with a bid of 1 troy ounce of gold.
Hook me up with a front row seat and an autograph picture please..
I'm considering "promote agorism via standup comedy". I'd probably stick to NYC, unless I was paid a decent amount to compensate for the time and expense of traveling. A lot of standup comics tour the country, which seems silly because there's so many nightclubs in NYC.
I'm enjoying getting into LAMP/WAMP/PHP development. My project list (in order) is:
- Write a Sudoku engine. Most books have a mixture of easy-to-hard puzzles. I'm only interested in hard puzzles, so I'm writing my own puzzle generator. Plus, this is a good "get started" project.
- Write my own RSS reader.
- Write my own forum engine.
I found an interesting motivational technique. I alternate between blogging and PHP coding. That's more productive! When I get bored with one, I switch to the other.
I cut down on the size of my "Reader Mail" posts. Now, it's included both in the regular and FeedBurner feed in Google Analytics. My main blog feed is no longer redirected through FeedBurner, but the FeedBurner feed is still active.
Anyway, I've decided that "**** FeedBurner!" is the correct conclusion. When I get my own domain, I'll write a custom analytics/FeedBurner engine from the Apache server logs
I'm on pace for a 15%-20% traffic increase for February compared to January. However, my page eCPM has declined by 40% and my average daily earnings have substantially decreased! It appears that I'll still earn enough to pay for hosting, which was my goal.
That eliminates my "Google's AdSense algorithm learns over time!" theory.
After I get my own domain, I'll look into other "sell advertising" options, especially "sell ads directly". Until I get substantially more traffic, "sell ads directly" probably isn't viable.
My post on "The Monetizing the Debt Scam" has somehow made it into the top couple of search results on Google for "monetizing the debt" and variants thereof.
That's one thing I'll miss about moving to my own domain. I'll lose my accumulated PageRank, and Google seems to reward older pages more than newer ones. However, that's a necessary cost of moving.
I watched Demetri Martin's "Important Things" documentary. It wasn't as awful as I expected ahead of time. It was just barely interesting enough to get me to watch the second episode.
It had some good bits. I liked the part where he made fun of the diamond cartel's aggressive diamond marketing.
I watched the "House of Cards" special on the Communism Channel (CNBC). It has some good bits. Of course, "Negative real interest rates fueled the boom!" was never mentioned. At no point did the narrator even come close to considering "Is having a central bank a bad idea?"
One interesting bit was the relationship between credit rating agencies and banks. Banks hire credit rating agencies to rate their CDO products. The credit rating agency is paid by the bank whose debt is being rated. This leads to the obvious conflict of interest and "Captured Regulators". The rating agencies aren't competing on price. They are competing on rating.
Suppose agency X rates debt at A and agency Y rates the same debt at BB. Then, the bank will choose agency X over agency Y in the future. Anybody in the credit rating business who is too honest/conservative gets weeded out. They're looking for reasons to give a high rating, rather than a low rating.
For the mortgage backed CDO credit ratings, there was an assumption "Housing prices will increase by at least 6%-8% per year. Housing prices will never decrease."
Chrono has left a new comment on your post "Michael Phelps Marijuana Fnord":
Hey FSK! You have an awesome blog. Here is a free idea, hahaha...
Intellectual property is not property.
When you make the switch to your own hosting, put some automation on your site that continues to update this blog as well. That way you will retain your pagerank, revenue stream, etc...and still have the new site. You can also automate a signature into your posts that will direct traffic to your new location.
I briefly considered that and rejected it.
- There's no way to programatically automatically export from WordPress into Blogger.
- I want my regular readers to go to my new domain and not keep visiting here.
- I believe I can leave a link in every page that refers to my new site, by adding a header to my Blogger template.
- A decrease in PageRank and SERP (search engine result placement) is a necessary cost of moving. Eventually, new content on my new site should outrank content here.
- It took me 1.5 years to build up my current PageRank. I should be able to do the same, possibly even faster, on a new domain.
Now for the purpose of this post...I'm not interested in horoscopes and astrology. When in the mental hospital, one victim had an astrology book they were reading. That makes me wonder "Is astrology worth anything?" My gut reaction is "No."
I was reading a horoscope element and I thought about your panic attacks. Hell this even makes sense when considering your angle on the world. Anyway it would be interesting (and extremely rare) if you actually had this aspect. Nevertheless I think it fits. If I knew you personally, there is a good chance we'd be friends. Just letting you know there are people on the internet who feel the same way about things that you do.
Anyway...on to the post. I have a feeling you will not be much into astrology, most rational minds consider it complete hooey, and that's fine. But hey...I could be wrong.
This totally sounds like someone breaking with pro-state brainwashing. It is a permanent (birth horoscope) aspect, as opposed to a transit.
How can you give me a birth horoscope if you don't know my birthday?
Moon Square Pluto
This aspect means that your emotions are often so intense that you seem to be at their mercy. When you are with people you like a lot, you easily become jealous and you may try to control those you love for fear of losing them. Of course, that is the fastest way to lose them, so you should try to trust the people you love and let them be. You will go through several critical times when you very much need understanding and support from your family and friends. These emotional crises may seem to pull you apart, but they are stages in your inner growth that will help you become better, wiser and more mature.
Horoscopes tend to give you generic advice that is universally useful in many contexts. For example, "You will have problems with a difficult coworker."
I occasionally pass by "psychic readers" selling their wares. Psychics usually give generically useful advice, reading the other person's reaction so they say what the customer wants to hear. If the person really was psychic, then they would run up to me saying "OMFG!! I can't believe what happened to you!"
AzraelsJudgement has left a new comment on your post "Reader Mail #78":
Do not worry FSK I will have more thorough comments for you.
As for Ron Paul if it was not for him I probably would not be anti-state. His arguments against government intervention I just used for everything and decided government is not needed. Though the biggest problem is he gives people hope in government.
Ron Paul is interesting. In some ways, Ron Paul is an advocate for freedom. In some ways, Ron Paul is a pro-State troll.
Ron Paul is the only mainstream politician that explicitly criticizes the Federal Reserve and income tax. However, Ron Paul says "The Federal Reserve and income tax are unconstitutional!", which is a weak criticism. Ron Paul does not explicitly say "The Federal Reserve and income tax are immoral!"
Ron Paul has done a good job of raising awareness for the evils of the Federal Reserve and income tax. Before I started researching Ron Paul, I had a vague sense that something was really wrong but wasn't sure where to focus. When I saw a debate clip of Ron Paul criticizing the Federal Reserve and IRS, I decided to focus on that. I wrote some articles on the Ron Paul wiki and became active on the Ron Paul Forum. I very rapidly realized "There's no way Ron Paul will get elected. Elections are fixed. The system is broken." I also got very frustrated with pro-State trolls on the Ron Paul Forum, and I had a problem with wiki vandals. I decided it would be easier to get my own blog, so I wouldn't be repeating the same arguments over and over again. Plus, on my own blog, I wouldn't have the "get shouted down by pro-State trolls" problem.
There is a "debate ceiling". Ideas more radical than those of the "debate ceiling" are not publicly discussed. Ron Paul represents the limit of (L)libertarian/minarchist thinking. Ron Paul does not explicitly say "Who needs a government anyway?" Ron Paul holds out the false hope that the system can be reformed. In this manner, Ron Paul is a shill for the establishment. Ron Paul is advocating for the usual libertarian/minarchist intellectual trap, rather than advocating for true free markets.
Via the Internet, Ron Paul has successfully led some people to the philosophy of true free markets. Once you realize that Ron Paul is a promising candidate with no chance of getting elected, you realize "The system is completely broken!" and that leads to "Who needs a government anyway?" The Ron Paul Internet forums are still active. However, only a minority of Ron Paul supporters have been converted to agorism.
Ron Paul is good, because he helps raise awareness for "The Federal Reserve is evil!", "The income tax is evil!", and "Big government is evil!" However, he is part of the problem because he does not say "Who needs a government anyway?" By giving a weak criticism of the State, Ron Paul can seem to be endorsing the State.
(This bit deserves its own separate post.)
Someone left a comment saying "Please don't publish this."
They wanted to donate $50 to me Anonymously, but don't remember my name and address from when I posted it when I was sick. It's impossible for you to send me money if I don't know who you are and you don't know who I am.
For now, AdSense is a decent source of revenue. It appears that I will earn at least $0.33 per day, which is enough to cover hosting costs. My goal for now is to merely clear my hosting costs. I'm still growing traffic at a rate of 5%-10% per month, and that should continue even if I lose some traffic when moving to my new domain. If I'm just barely making $1/day now. I should be making $2-$3/day in a couple of months.
"Should FSK publicly associate his real name with his blog?" If I write a good open source RSS and forum engine, then maybe I should publicly take credit? However, I'm concerned that future employers would discriminate against me based on my personal beliefs. Some people would flat-out refuse to hire me if they knew I had a history of mental illness and had some weird disputes at previous jobs.
Until my blog and agorism become a full-time source of income, I should continue posting anonymously. I've considered standup comedy and vlogging, which would necessarily involve giving up my anonymity.
The way the economy is going, I'm starting to have severe doubts about finding another wage slave job. I don't have the "right" experience, and the job market is *LOUSY* right now. I have 10 years of experience as a slave software engineer and I'm near the top of the talent scale, but my experience appears to have a market value of $0. You could say "Then start your own business, FSK!" Due to State restriction of the market, that is very hard. If I'm serious about starting a business, I should do it agorist-style, because otherwise I'm merely subsidizing my larger corporate competitors.
When I get my own site, I'll consider offering a "donate" option.
Also, the commenter was paranoid that I'd discover his IP address. When I get my own domain, I'll be able to know everyone's IP address via my Apache server logs. On Blogger, Google has the full server logs and I do not. If you're that paranoid, you should use Tor. I consider such paranoia unnecessary.
You also can contact me by E-Mail (fsk2006@gmail.com) instead of by the blog comment submission form. Gmail has a pretty good anti-spam filter, with almost no false positives and almost no false negatives. I don't miss comments, because I see them when I log into Blogger. There's a chance I could miss E-Mails, if gmail's anti-spam filter has a false positive.
fritz has left a new comment on your post "Stealth Tax Increases":
Every time you expose a scam to me. It always make me think (Why didn,t I see that before). So much smoke and mirrors. I often wonder what master minds have developed these deceptions. Or was I and most other folks so out of touch that I never bothered doing the math my self. And just relied on the press(censored)to report to me what I didn't bother to investigate myself.
Once you realize "The State is Evil!" and you have good logical thinking abilities, it's easier to see the scam.
You should not expect a mainstream media outlet to publicly tell the truth. Once you can see the fnords, it's actually amusing more than terrifying. My reaction is usually "Oh, they're still trying that!"
Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Evidence of a Massive Conspiracy":
I agree with Thomas Blair. You have made some intelligent arguments, and then you spiral off into la-la-land with this SLH bullshit. If I were you I would stop posting about the SLH and I would stop ruminating about whether or not the SLH or the powers that be are letting you do your thing. The reality is that the do not give a shit about you and your blog, or the 'remnant'. Why do you think we have Ron Paul? LOL Ron Paul = false solution, come out and say it and stop tap dancing around it!
I haven't written about the Supreme Leader of Humanity recently. That post has gotten quite a bit of traffic lately, and it's #3 of my "Best of FSK" list.
The Supreme Leader of Humanity is an interesting intellectual exercise. Is there an evil person somewhere, secretly pulling the strings? Or, is the current system so corrupt that there is the illusion of an evil person pulling the strings? Are advanced aliens pulling the strings behind the scenes? It doesn't matter (and I've repeatedly said that also). The current corrupt system is completely broken and should be replaced.
I've already said many times that "Vote for Ron Paul!" is a false solution. In some ways, Ron Paul is a force for good. In some ways, Ron Paul is a force for evil. If I had to rank members of Congress on a scale of "most evil" to "least evil", Ron Paul would probably be on the "least evil" side. Ron Paul does not say "Who needs a government anyway?", which makes him part of the problem and not part of the solution.
Also, you should evaluate each of my ideas independently. Even if you disagree with "There might be a Supreme Leader of Humanity.", that doesn't discredit the other things I write about. I'm not writing about the Supreme Leader of Humanity as absolute truth. I'm saying it's an interesting possibility.
Agorism, implemented properly, is a real threat to the bad guys. Anybody who also realizes this probably would also agree with me. You might say "A handful of people writing about agorism on the Internet are zero threat." I'm looking ahead 5-15 years when there are functioning agorist trading groups. Once started, agorism should spread exponentially.
F. E. Huginn has left a new comment on your post "Is the Collapse of the State Inevitable?":
I'd say you're optimistic.
2012 tops.
You're the one with the optimistic estimate. The sooner the collapse occurs, the better!
It should take 10-20 years to build a functioning agorist economy. For this reason, I say that the collapse will take another 15-20 years.
In the present, the vast majority of people in the USA recognize the legitimacy of the State. There might be 50%-200% annual inflation, but a complete collapse won't occur until at least a couple percent of the people are working full-time as agorists. After that point, it becomes feasible for agorists to stop government as a criminal conspiracy. Once there are some geographic areas where the State cannot collect taxes, then freedom spreads rapidly. People living in the free area can then profitably sell police protection to people living outside the free area.
fritz has left a new comment on your post "Is the Collapse of the State Inevitable?":
My gut tells me we have 10 years tops. I hope I am wrong. It just doesn't feel like things can continue like this for very long. I just have this nagging intuition that an implosion is near.
I'm thinking 15-20 years are left. The only way to find out is to wait and see!
I like that phrase go viral. Maybe we could consider agorism as a friendly virus. One that can take over after the host is dying.
You have it backwards. The parasite is dying and the host will survive.
2012 will be interesting. But if you calculate the end of the world probability. The odds are against you. Dec 31 2012 should be just like any other day.
Fritz
My estimate is 20 years until the collapse, but I'll wait and see what happens.
heuristic has left a new comment on your post "Is the Collapse of the State Inevitable?":
Well, a premise of your post is that "the state" = the USA. But the USA is only one state amongst many.
When the US government collapses, it will rapidly spread to other countries. Just like the subprime mortgage meltdown spread from the USA to other countries, an agorist movement will spread from the USA to other countries.
Remember that there also are state and city governments. I'm the property of three States! The US Federal government, the New York state government, and the New York City government all claim that I'm they're property. All three should collapse simultaneously. (I can change allegiance from the New York state government to the New Jersey state government, but there will always be some local government claiming I'm their property.)
AzraelsJudgement has left a new comment on your post "Is the Collapse of the State Inevitable?":
I think things in the USA will indeed collapse, but what happens after I have no idea. It is possible it may just break it many smaller States run by wannabe totalitarian Presidents. Who knows. We can hope for the best well after people freak out for ahile anyways.
For this reason, agorists should do a good job building a replacement system. If agorists do a good job building an alternate economic system, then they will be able to manage a smooth transition to a real free market economy. It is possible that the transition will be mostly nonviolent.
Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Is the Collapse of the State Inevitable?":
When the Roman Empire collapsed that was not the end of the State. If the masses don't have a good idea of what they are going to, it's just going to be more of the same statism, regardless of whether our particular form of statism survives.
There's a valid reason to believe "It will be different this time." The Internet is breaking the mainstream media information monopoly. I see a lot more intelligent writing about agorism on the Internet.
There is a viable alternative to the State, real free markets, that has never been seriously discussed or tried before. The only way to find out is to conduct an experiment!
Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Is the Collapse of the State Inevitable?":
Even after the demise of the State, most people who have grown up within a state are too dependent, too dumb to be able to cope with life without the State. They would die, or they would need to learn new skills and ways fast.
Members of the parasite class will need to adapt or die when the State collapses. Productive workers will be *MUCH* better off without the State.
Do I mind that lawyers will need to find other work when the State collapses? No. They'll be doing something useful instead of leeching off everyone else. I'd much rather see a former lawyer flipping burgers and doing something useful, instead of being involved in the process of wealth destruction.
Do you think electricity and water supply would still be available? Internet? Computers? Or would we all revert to a less technological era?
Yes, maybe. If agorists do a good job, alternatives will be in place before the collapse. If necessary, agorists would hire people to maintain current water and electricity networks until free market replacements are developed.
When the State collapses, do you think that all the people who currently repair infrastructure are going to commit suicide?
It is the State after all and the institutional complex around it which has created PCs and the Internet.
This is a common misconception. Most of the "good" features of modern life were created *IN SPITE OF THE STATE*, although pro-State trolls give the State credit.
Computers and software and the Internet are nearly completely unregulated, which allows for rapid innovation. There is almost no progress in medical care, because of huge State restriction of the market.
You cannot prove that the rate of technological progress would be faster or slower without the State. My prediction is "Technology progresses much faster without the State."
Further, there is some evidence that the rate of technological progress was greater before 1913 than after! After the USA abandoned free market principles in 1913, that really cut back on the rate of scientific progress.
I'm sticking with "shorter Reader Mail posts" and "2 Reader Mail posts per week". This seems to be a reasonable change. Besides, this means I don't use up my other queued drafts as fast!
2 comments:
Hey, thanks for responding. Your recommendations are pretty much congruent with what I'd thought of. Practical implementation of these plans seems to be the problem now.
Mises.org forum is now full of anarcho-capitalists like you.
You can come back now.
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