INTERESTING: Do we “clearly” need government?

Wednesday, February 28, 2007

Reading Professor Williams is always challenging to my thinking.

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=54464

Democracy: Enemy of liberty
Posted: February 28, 2007
1:00 a.m. Eastern

*** begin quote ***

Clearly, we need government, and that means there must be collective decision-making.

*** end quote ***

Having read Ludwig and Rothfarb, I’m not sure that if I agree with that as formulated.

Government imho only has one claim to a valid existence. It should be to protect us from violence, intimidation, and fraud.

There is an often cited Supreme Court decision (which I can’t remember) that says the government has no specific duty to protect, and can’t be held to account when it or its agents fail miserably. So, that wipes out its claim to legitimacy.

So, do we really need a government. We know we don’t need the gooferment.

Does their have to be an ultimate reservoir of force? Or, is that just an open invitation to corruption?

The free marketplace always clears supply and demand.

And, it does, when allowed to work, that job very efficiently, without “checkers”.

The quality movement has taught us that “checkers” are very expensive and introduce their own set of “errors”.

So, a market, that allows one to vote with their buying decisions or buying abstentions, would be the ultimate “voting mechanism”.

Thus, it is NOT “clearly” apparent to me that we need a government that can oppress us or be the gooferment.

I hope that Professor Williams can instruct me in the error of my thinking without requiring a tuition payment?

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Posted by reinkefj

LIBERTY: Black markets, networking, and laughter to defeat big gooferment

Wednesday, February 28, 2007

http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig6/bylund6.html

A Strategy for Forcing the State Back
by Per Bylund

***Begin Quote***

What this combined strategy all boils down to is a decentralized, voluntary, spontaneous, and for-profit web of actors doing what they perceive as beneficial and thereby replacing most or all of the State’s functions. It provides also a solution to the problem of discussing only what’s wrong and what should be – through doing right where the State does wrong. It means action where it is most important and where it is most beneficial.

***End Quote***

We need to “fight this war” with decentralized internet-like tools. No one can succeed with a head2head fight with a gang that is bigger better armed and with the guise of legitimacy.

I’d add another dimension to the horizontal and vertical.

The laughter dimension.

We have to get people laughing at the gooferment’s ineptitude. We need to get them aghast at the innocent victims of its terror tactics. And, aggrieved at the injustices perpetrated on them.

IMHO that’s an important component of victory.

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Posted by reinkefj

PRODUCTIVITY: New plan to deal with winrot plaguing XPS

Wednesday, February 28, 2007

http://accessories.dell.com/sna/productdetail.aspx?c=us&l=en&s=dhs&cs=19&sku=341-2178

http://accessories.dell.com/sna/productdetail.aspx?c=us&l=en&s=dhs&cs=19&sku=A0158183

Buy a new hard drive for the XPS. ($200)

Preserve the old one as is.

Install the new one.

And restore from scratch using the recovery and distribution media..

If I missed anything, then I have the old one easily accessible to copy from or fall back to.

After everything works, I’ll take an image backup.

This will serve for the next time.

At some point in time, I’ll nuke the extra drive and use it for Linux effort.

Comments?

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Posted by reinkefj

MONEY: Everybody should have a cash stash!

Wednesday, February 28, 2007

http://www.thesimpledollar.com/2007/02/25/
why-i-keep-cash-under-my-mattress/

http://tinyurl.com/23s4v4

Why I Keep Cash Under My Mattress
February 25, 2007 @ 9:00 am – Written by Trent
Categories: Insurance

***Begin Quote***

It’s true. After all the financial advice I give out on this site, I keep a decent amount of cash “under my mattress” (actually, it’s in another secure place in my home, but it’s effectively the same thing). At first, this seems to fly right in the face of everything I preach on this site. Why isn’t this money at least earning 4.5% in an ING Direct savings account, if not earning a lot more in a mutual fund or something else? No, because this is a different kind of investment.

***End Quote***

Me too. And, gold coins.

Power outages, political instability, or a bank holiday.

There are all sorts of things that can happen. Bail out a relative? How much is up to you? The Mormons keep a year’s food supply. If you practice stock rotation, it can be a hedge against disruption and unemployment.

Everybody should have a stash!

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Posted by reinkefj

PRODUCTIVITY: MINDMAPPING as a web service

Wednesday, February 28, 2007

http://duffill.blogs.com/beyond_crayons/2007/
02/mindomo_raises_.html

http://tinyurl.com/33ovfs

THe “Beyond Crayons” blog has pointed out this out.

*** begin quote ***

Mindomo raises the bar for mind mapping software

Mindomo is a Web-based mind mapping software tool that runs in your browser, with the maps being stored on their server. But what distinguishes Mindomo in this growing field is genuine desktop-quality functionality. Pretty much everything you need from basic desktop software is there – rich formatting, curved lines, images and symbols, relationships, notes fields, task data, drag and drop editing, Web hyperlinks, and import from Mindjet MindManager.

*** end quote ***

I always liked mind mapping as a pair-of-dimes (paradigm) for communicating ideas. It seems better than power point for “mapping” a problem space. I’ve used it when consulting to scope engagements. I think it made me look smarter than I really was because when I’d “build” my map in real time, it would engage the audience like no powerpoint presentation ever did for me. It was tricky when they’d take it in a different path than I planned. The pitches always “sold” so I think it’s a great tool.

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Posted by reinkefj

XPfails – luggable – GADWIN PRINT SCREEN v3.5 – This is now the second most annoying problem

Wednesday, February 28, 2007

Recap:

For some reason, after several months of use, now when I start GPS35, it doesn’t appear to “do” anything. It doesn’t splash. It takes memory. (I can see it in XP’s process list.) But, it just doesn’t do anything anymore. I’ve uniunstalled and reinstalled. Help?

Haven’t found any help. Need to dig deeper and harder.

Leave a Comment » | LUGGABLE | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj