it bears repeating

Mormons, still the correct answer.

The Final Exam-Mormons are the answer
by samueltheutahnite

The Man Who Fell in Love with the Moon

Sarah has been reading this book, a favorite of a friend of ours. It's set in a tiny town in Idaho. I've been enjoying a second hand reading.

Sullivan asks Bush to own up to torture

so the US can move forward. His open letter to GWB covers a lot of the specifics in regard to torture during the Cheney/Bush years alongside historical analogues. Not for the faint of heart but definitely worth reading.

an untimely encounter

Either he had seen God too soon or he had seen him too late. In any case, it had done him no good at all in terms of survival. Encountering the living God had not helped to equip him for the tasks of ordinary endurance, which ordinary men, not so favored, handle.

Philip K. Dick - Valis

pictures by Tolkien

Sarah sent me this link to pictures by Tolkien. I've been reading LoTR recently just because it's so therapeutic reading books like that again and again. I don't think I'll finish it this time but it's still been a nice break.

Britain's first co-operatively owned pub

When we were in England a few years ago we had the chance to go to the Old Crown Pub. Now that we have some connections and a brew store maybe we'll be able to import some beers from them.

invisibility and ignosticism

Short somewhat funny TED talk by John Lloyd.


He mentions being an ignostic. Seems appealing: Ignosticism (wikipedia).

a theory consistent with the facts

Who decided to print trillions of dollars and give them to banks? The Bush Administration. Who decided to print hundreds of billions of dollars and give them to AIG? The Bush Administration. Who decided not to tell General Motors and Chrysler to work out their problems in bankruptcy court like any other company not smart enough to recognize the implications of pension and health care guarantees (see While America Aged)? The Bush Administration started with the Detroit bailout.

A theory consistent with the facts is that King Bush II knew that the next president would be a Democrat, due to the endless depressing Iraq/Afghanistan war. He therefore intentionally wrecked the economy and then took over much of it in order to make the next administration look like socialists.

Going by the numbers and facts, an economic historian would have little choice but to classify the U.S. circa 2009 as a socialist nation. Government at all levels spends a greater percentage of GDP than does China’s (source), for example, and the government either directly owns or assumes financial risks for a lot of our largest enterprises. How did we get here? It was a Republican plot to make Obama look like a socialist, by the clever strategy of converting the U.S. into a fully socialist economy prior to January 20, 2009.

Republican Plot to Make Obama Look Like a Socialist Philip Greenspun

Republicons: the other socialist party in the US.

health care reform

Philip Greenspun wrote an essay on health care reform. Of course ideas that make sense will likely be shot down in congress since our elected officials are incapable of reasonable discourse and behavior (their constituencies aren't much better) but it's fun to dream. He's looking for feedback.

It's time to vote third party in all national elections. Democrats and Republicons are just subsidiaries.

And if you get cancer in the US, before buying in to the "best healthcare in the world" nonsense and going bankrupt, look into getting treatment in India or maybe even Mexico.

update

We've moved out of the aves and are now living in Sandy temporarily. We'll likely be in Newport, OR within the year. I'm building my company, working with a number of clients and doing more strategy and product design and less coding than previously. The upside is that I'm getting paid to think and write a lot more. The downside is that I'm not putting much energy into philosophy (or politics, thank the gods).

I'll get back to posting more regularly as things settle.

another strange book on Wittgenstein

"Wittgenstein and Theology" (NDPR)

Sounds pretty bizarre. h/t Methods of Projection