"Best of FSK" - August 2010

I wrote a PHP script that parses my Google Analytics statistics. Now, I can make a list of my most popular posts per month.

In August 2010, my most popular posts by Absolute Unique Pageviews were:

1. Did the USA Declare Bankruptcy? (353)
2. The Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (337)
3. Real GDP is Decreasing, 1990-2008 (279)
4. The Pat Tillman Conspiracy Theory (218)
5. Ruby on Rails Sucks! (200)
6. Who's the Richest Man in the World? (178)
7. The Hunt Brothers' Silver Corner (177)
8. The Monetizing the Debt Scam (136)
9. The Compound Interest Paradox (125)
10. Premium Text Messaging Fraud - 91097 and 654654 (120)
11. Got a Virus - Antivir Solution Pro (110)
12. Verizon LG enV Touch, Bitpim, and Open Source (97)
13. BMI/ASCAP/SESAC Legal Extortion Scam (91)
14. Real GDP is Decreasing, 1990-2007 (87)
15. Satanic Death Hospitals (85)
16. The Gold Lease Rate is Negative! (82)
17. Real GDP Is Crashing, 2000-2009 (80)
18. The Five Levels of the Economy (77)
19. The Federal Reserve Caused the Great Depression (76)
20. Agorist Grilled Cheese Seller In NYC (66)
21. The Black-Scholes Formula is Wrong! - Part 1/12 - Overview and Background (56)
22. StackOverflow Sucks! (56)
23. 1099 Reporting and Healthcare Reform (55)

Just counting posts published in August, the best were:

1. The Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (337)
2. Got a Virus - Antivir Solution Pro (110)
3. BMI/ASCAP/SESAC Legal Extortion Scam (91)
4. Agorist Grilled Cheese Seller In NYC (66)
5. The Fallacy of Nullification (50)
6. Free Keene Foolishness (48)

"The Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement" got a boost from a reddit thread. I left some comments in the thread, but I rapidly remembered "Debating idiots on someone else's forum is a waste of time." With Reddit, you get a lot of traffic in a short period of time, but not much after that. If you miss the first few hours after the item is posted, you've missed most of the traffic.

I also notice that some social networking sites are discussing my blog. However, due to the way they work, I don't get to see the specific referring source. The link is usually something like www.website.com/script.php?xxxx, but the part after '?' isn't recorded by Google Analytics.

Parking Ticket Death Penalty

In the USA, the penalty for an unpaid parking ticket is death. A pro-State troll says "That's silly." Consider what happens if you don't pay a parking ticket.

Suppose you ignore the parking ticket. The judge will make a default judgement against you, and order the police to steal your car. Alternatively, suppose you go to court, contest the ticket, lose, and refuse to pay the fine.

You refuse to pay the parking ticket, and the State thugs have a judgement against you. The State police have a piece of paper that says they may steal your car. The police see you driving, order you to stop, and attempt to steal you car. Suppose you say "WTF? That's my car!" You have a gun and try to defend your property. The police will shoot and kill you.

If you have an unpaid parking ticket and offer maximum resistance, then the police will murder you. The penalty for an unpaid parking ticket is death, *UNLESS* you compromise and accept a lesser penalty. Most people will pay the ticket. That's better than losing your car or your life.

The penalty for disobeying the State is *ALWAYS* death, unless you compromise and accept a lesser penalty. Every day you make compromises, allowing the State to steal your labor and your savings. You aren't explicitly murdered/kidnapped, but a huge chunk of your life is stolen. The threat of kidnapping keeps most of the slaves in line.

If I told my wage slave employer, "I don't want you withholding taxes from my paycheck. I don't want you reporting this transaction to the IRS.", then he would laugh at me. He's not risking going to jail. Most businesses comply with State economic terrorism. This enables State parasites to spend a lot of resources tracking down and kidnapping people who resist.

The phony State legal system plays an important role. This provides an illusion of legitimacy. The State thugs say "I'm just following orders. I'm just doing my job. If this was wrong, then the judge wouldn't have ordered me to do it."

As another example, "resisting arrest" or "running away from a policeman" is a capital crime. If you do such a thing, the policeman can execute you on the spot, and the State legal system will refuse to prosecute the State policeman for murder. Victor Steen suffered the death penalty for runing away from a policeman, and the policeman was not convicted of a crime. Oscar Grant was murdered for "resisting arrest", and the policeman was only convicted of manslaughter. In the USA, "resisting arrest" or "running away from a policeman" is a capital crime, if the policeman decides to impose it.

Every law and tax is backed by violence. You only notice the gun when you resist. If you offer maximum resistance, even for a minor offense, then State thugs will murder you.

Medicare Favors Dishonest Doctors

Someone pointed out a flaw in Medicare. For an honest doctor, Medicare is a lousy deal. The fees per Medicare patient are too low. However, a dishonest doctor can make a lot of money off Medicare!

Suppose Medicare specifies a payment of $X per patient. The profit-maximizing strategy is for the doctor to see as many patients as possible in a short period of time. The goal is not to maximize quality of medical care, but to minimize time spent per patient.

The overuse of prescription drugs facilitates this. The doctor is a drug dealer. The patient must see the doctor to get a prescription refill. Issuing a refill only takes the doctor a minute.

Medicare encourages abuse of tests. If a test for X is covered by Medicare, then the doctor gives a test for X.

Via the healthcare "reform" law, all private plans will operate similarly to Medicare. People are forced to enroll in a State-sanctioned plan. This makes it hard for a doctor to say "F*** insurance! I'm going back to straight cash for service!" If doctors do start dropping out of State plans, there will be a law making participation mandatory.

Medicare rewards dishonest doctors and penalizes honest doctors. A dishonest doctor milks the State for payments. An honest doctor earns a lousy return on his investment in his medical career.

The real problem with the healthcare system is the State/AMA licensing cartel for doctors. Hopefully, the reform will be such a disaster that people are forced to get healthcare in the counter-economy. I don't know any agorist doctors, but that may change as the State economy collapses. "Start a drug-free mental health treatment business!" is one of my agorist business ideas.

An Example Of State Waste

This story was interesting. In mid-August, President Obama made a fundraising trip to Los Angeles. He raised approximately $2M for Democratic Congressional candidates.

However, the trip occurred during rush hour. Many commuters were inconvenienced. Roads were blocked to enable the President to travel quickly.

When the President travels, a large security team always accompanies. Local police earn overtime. Policemen in Los Angeles worked overtime, due to the visit.

The President earned a couple million dollars in campaign contributions. The cost of his security was *MUCH* more than that. Many commuters were inconvenienced.

The President always has a huge security team. This creates the illusion that the President is important. The reality is that the President is an interchangeable cog in the machinery of the State. He's just a figurehead, with no real power. If the President deviated from his brainwashing, he'd be Kennedy-ed.

It would have been cheaper to directly pay $2M to those candidates, rather than pay for the cost of the President's security and for the cost of inconveniencing people. However, that would be obviously too corrupt. Having the taxpayers pay for the security and inconvenience obfuscates the real cost.

Roger Clemens Indicted For Lying To Terrorists

Here's a fantasy news story:

In two unanimous votes, President Obama was impeached and removed from office for the crime of "lying to the American people". House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said "He promised that he would close the Guantanamo Bay prison camp within a year. There must be accountability when the President breaks his promises."

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said "He originally promised to have all US troops out of Iraq by mid-2009. The current 'withdrawal' is a sham. There still are 50k US troops in Iraq, plus military contractors. Who does the President think he's fooling? It's 'obstruction of justice' when the President makes pathetically transparent lies. We had no choice but to remove him from office."

In other news, a Federal judge tossed Roger Clemens' perjury indictment, saying "It's none of the government's business whether Roger Clemens used steroids or not. Doesn't Congress have better things to do than question baseball players about steroids?"

That seems like a headline from bizarro universe.

There are two "justice" systems. There's one for State insiders and one for everyone else. It's OK for police to lie to you, but it's a serious crime to lie to the police.

It's OK for police to commit perjury. They usually get away with it or get a slap on the wrist. It's OK for politicians to lie and break campaign promises. The lying politician says "It's complicated. Circumstances change. We're smarter than you slaves." That reasoning leads to trillions of dollars in bailouts, even though most people object.

It isn't immoral to lie to someone, if they may kidnap and torture you based on your response. Unfortunately, State thugs think their authority is legitimate.

State police have no obligation to record their interrogation. The police take notes, and then testify/testily based on their notes. If you're interrogated for 3 hours and say one thing wrong, then the police will quote you out of context. That isn't applicable to Roger Clemens, but it's a common abuse of State power.

In State courtrooms, there's a written transcript but no video footage. Most judges resist cameras in the courtroom. Suppose every courtroom was videotaped and the footage were placed on the Internet. The slaves would be outraged, when they see how the "justice" system works. State parasites are hostile to publicly videotaped trials, because it would show how it's all a sham.

Roger Clemens' indictment is particularly stupid. Roger Clemens said "I didn't use steroids." Other people say "He did use steroids." That's all the evidence against him. That isn't proof.

By shaming Roger Clemens, State thugs say "Look at how awesome we are! Roger Clemens was a famous baseball player and now he's a criminal! See what happens when a slave disrespects us! Roger Clemens was a high-status slave, but he's still a slave just like everyone else!"

Professional sports leagues can and should ban steroids. "Roger Clemens took steroids!" should be a civil offense and not criminal. At the time, taking steroids wasn't against the baseball players' CBA.

I'm not a professional athlete. I should be able to take steroids if I want to. It would be a stupid thing to do because of negative side-effects. "Certain substances are banned!" is part of corrupt State law. Taking steroids isn't a crime, because you're only hurting yourself.

Professional athletes should not take steroids, when the league's rules forbid it. Breaking that contract is a civil offense and not criminal. The penalty for a steroid-taking athlete is whatever the league's rules say.

Professional sports leagues should ban steroids. Otherwise, steroid use is mandatory, due to the short-term benefit.

If you did a "drug approval study" for steroids looking at only 6-12 weeks, you might falsely conclude that steroids are beneficial. Steroids give a short-term boost, but have long-term negative side-effects. Most State pharmaceutical research only covers 6-12 weeks. This leads to the false conclusion that long-term harmful drugs are beneficial.

Why would anyone testify before Congress? Why would anyone talk to the FBI or police? If you say "X", and someone else says "not X", now you can be prosecuted for perjury?

"Swearing in as a witness" isn't a valid contract. If State thugs can show you lied, then they can prosecute you for perjury. What is the witness getting in exchange for testifying? For a contract to be valid, both parties need to contribute something.

"Roger Clemens used steroids!" is one of those issues that distract the slaves. People talk about Roger Clemens, instead of more important things.

I'm offended by Roger Clemens' perjury prosecution. Why should I pay the cost, via higher taxes?

There's a double standard for justice in the USA. State insiders may lie to you. It's a serious crime to lie to State insiders.

Steven Slater

Steven Slater was a flight attendant. He got into a fight with a rude passenger. He ran out of the airplane's emergency exit, while the airplane was in the gate.

There's one bit that has me puzzled. The mainstream media is portraying Steven Slater as a hero. I guess that's to contrast with Omar Thorton, a disgruntled person who murdered 8 coworkers after getting fired. Steven Slater didn't hurt anyone. It was a minor offense.

Steven Slater's only real offense is "He might have caused some flights to be delayed, by inappropriately using the emergency exit." That should be a civil offense and not criminal.

The mainstream media is portraying Steven Slater as a good guy. Look at this article. Notice the photo. Steven Slater is smiling. When the mainstream media wants to make someone look bad, they show a picture of the victim frowning. When the mainstream media wants to make someone look good, they show an airbrushed picture of him smiling. All the mainstream media pictures of Steven Slater show him smiling.

Many slaves are disgruntled. Steven Slater is portrayed as a hero. He was abused, but vented his frustrations in a harmless manner.

Philadelphia Blogger Tax

This story was amusing and offensive. Philadelphia is requiring bloggers to get a business license, which costs $300. The law applies if you have any ads on your blog.

This is a huge regressive tax. Even if your blog generates less than $300/yr in income, you still have to pay the tax.

I'm making less than $5/month from this blog via AdBrite, even with 200+ regular readers. It's very hard for a hobby blog to make more than $300/yr. I'd need 5x as many readers, to go over $300/yr.

I'm pretty disgusted with both AdBrite and AdSense. Google unfairly banned by AdSense account and I switched to AdBrite. Both AdBrite and AdSense serve mostly spammy/scammy ads. The alternatives don't seem substantially better.

Using a blog solely for ad income seems stupid. The only profitable blogs seem to be on "How to make money from blogging!" If I attempt standup comedy or agorism, a blog would be useful for self-promotion.

Even if my ad income were $0, it's still worth it. (My actual income of $5/month is negligible. My goal was to make $20/month, so I could afford self-hosting on a Linode.)

Blogging has been useful because I'm refining my ideas and getting feedback from users. A mainstream media author typically gets *ZERO* feedback from readers.

When I was in my State brainwashing center (school), I learned to hate writing. I was writing about stupid pointless subjects. I had to make sure I never wrote something that offended the teacher. My teachers penalized me for writing in active voice instead of passive voice, so I learned to write in passive voice.

Active voice example: Taxation is theft! Government is an extortion racket!
Passive voice example: Some libertarians believe that government is too big.

In a State brainwashing center, you learn to self-censor while writing. You learn to write in a passive voice. You learn to self-censor and not write things that may offend teacher/State. Blogging helped fix that bad habit.

Even if NYC passed a stupid law like Philadelphia, there's an easy workaround. If you pull all ads from your blog, then the tax doesn't apply. The tax only applies to for-profit blogs.

Also, it seems like a hard-to-enforce tax. How would Philadelphia economic terrorists know if a blogger lives in Philadelphia. I say that I live in NYC, but I could be lying.

Philadelphia's "blogger tax" is obviously unfair. It's designed to censor the Internet. It's a completely unfair tax for bloggers that have less than $300/yr in income. The "blogger tax" makes it hard to bootstrap an Internet-based business.

There's another workaround for agorist bloggers. Advertisers can pay you off-the-books! The more the State restricts the economy, the more potential profits are available to agorists.

In the present, the economy is controlled by large corporate cartels. That makes it hard for me to find legitimate small business advertisers. A large corporation will only advertise in an outlet where there's censorship. Look at how often someone is forced to resign when they say something offensive and corporate advertisers pull their ads.

Philadelphia's "blogger tax" is stupid and offensive. However, any hobbyist blogger can simply pull all ads from their blog. I'd do that if NYC passed such a stupid law. I might do it anyway, because I'm not making much and most of the ads are spammy/scammy.