Reinke Faces Life

… … you have to be able to persuade someone to do something to avoid the consequences of your prediction.

I call this the “Delphi Oracle” problem. You might be able to predict the future, but you are powerless to change it.

Akin to the cartoons where the Wylie Coyote chases the Roadrunner off the cliff, we are powerless to save others or ourselves from obvious disaster.

So I am befuddled. I lay out the prediction, all the steps leading up to it,  everyone agrees, but we CAN’T change course. We have to run into that brick wall!

Arghh!

http://ahsoon.net/2006/09/01/no-seatbelt-no-excuse/

a russian commercial that is really really good.

Wile I think seat belts are good, as a libertarian, it’s my job to convince you that you should wear one. Besides, how does giving the gubamint money in a “fine” help? It’s the nanny state telling you that you’re to dumb to know what is good for you. Bad decisions allow people to learn. imho

I’ve been wearing my seat belt since I was in injineering school and we did some exercises around the static and dynamic forces. I even had belts put in my cars, before they were required. That tells you how old I am! Never have needed it, but like a gun, never want to need a seat belt and not have it.

Bottom line, they are a great idea.

As far as being trapped, one should have one of those handy dandy class breaker / seat belt cutters handy. (I do.) And, a fire extinguisher. (I used to. Got to use it once. Hmmm.)

But, even if seat belts are the best idea in the world, (and they are right up there), I want you to be convinced, not forced.

When we do things we want to do because we see the merit, then we’ll do them far more often than if some one is “making” you do. I use a teenagers room as anecdotal evidence. I”m sure some college professor has a study to back that up.

And, when the gubamint gets involved, it costs lots of money (i.e., ticket or click it campaign), permanently infringes on our rights, steals from us our time, money, and attention, sends people to jail, and ultimately kills someone.

Maybe instead of seat belt laws, those mythical kids in the commercial might have seen this video on MTV, and made a better decision. The imaginary young girl might have something sexy to the imaginary young boy like “seat belts remind me of bondage” and he’d have had three belts on. At the very least, they would be belting up freely, with greater “compliance” than any law could hope to accomplish, and in the imaginary boy’s case with greater enthusiasm.

So in the extreme, it goes like this, the gubamint says do it to save your life, and if you don’t we’ll kill you.

Seat belts — great idea. Gubamint mandating them — bad idea!

# # # # #

UPDATE: I remember reading that seat belt compliance was higher in NH where there’s no law than in MA where there is one.

# # # # #

I was really annoyed a few years ago when my aunt died. after a life of very modest earnings, leaving a small estate to her sister and paying the State of New Jersey 15% for the privilege of dying here. Well it happened again! Another relative had the poor judgement to die while a resident of New Jersey and will also pay 15% to the grave robbing gubamint. Where’s my pitchfork and torch?

http://www.gadgetspage.com/pda-phone/six-gadget-ettiquette-tips.html

Six Gadget Ettiquette Tips
PDAs and Phones
***Begin Quote***

Gadgets go with us everywhere now. Our cell phones are cameras, gaming devices and even Internet portals. Some of us have a utility belt full of gadgets and they can interfere with our life in ways that ettiquette gurus would have never thought of twenty years ago. Here are six gadget ettiquette tips to keep you from making common mistakes:

1. Only have cell phone conversations in private.

When you are talking on your cell phone, you are not in a phone booth. The conversation can be so involving that you may not realize that there are other people around you, but I assure you, they are. If you are in a public place, the best option is to find a private place to have a conversation. If that is not possible, make sure you keep your voice low and cut the conversation off as quickly as possible (”Look, I’m on a bus and I can’t talk right now. Let me call you back.”).

***End Quote***
Almost as annoying as drivers talking on the cell, is being in a meeting when everyone is playing with the berry, or being on a conference call; hearing the keyboard tapping away, or on that same conference call, when someone’s participation is needed, and the moderator calls out the name, only to hear “sorry what was that i was multitasking”.

It’s all rude!

In Frau Reinke’s recent encounters with medical “help”, I have seen “mistakes” and “blunders” and out and out stupidity. I’m not surprised that medical malpractice insurance is expensive. More than once we have been impacted by handwriting errors, confused instructions, and “that’s not int he written orders”. Arghhh!

***Begin Quote***

Date: Sat, 22 Jul 2006 17:23:04 PDT
From: “Peter G. Neumann” <neumann@csl.sri.com>
Subject: More on medical errors

A major study lists confusion over names and wrong doses among the mistakes,
and urges more use of computers in prescribing drugs.

At least 1.5 million Americans are injured or killed every year by
medication errors at a direct cost of billions of dollars, according to a
report issued Thursday by the prestigious Institute of Medicine in
Washington, D.C.

For hospitalized patients, the report said that on average, one medication
error per day was caused by confusion in drug names, wrong doses, failure to
deliver drugs or a host of other problems.

The study is a follow-up to a 1999 report from the institute, which is part
of the National Academies, that outlined all medical errors and claimed that
as many as 98,000 people were killed each year as a result of medical errors
— 7,000 of them as a result of medication errors. The study lays out a
detailed series of recommendations for new procedures and research to
minimize the risk of future medication errors, emphasizing computerization
of prescribing and administering drugs and data acquisition.

[Source: Medication Errors Hazardous to Your Health, Thomas H. Maugh II,
*Los Angeles Times*, 21 Jul 2006; PGN-ed, tnx to Lauren Weinstein]
http://www.latimes.com/features/health/la-sci-drugs21jul21,0,5771929.story?coll=la-home-health

***End Quote***

Date: Fri, 11 Aug 2006 21:06:54 -0700
From: Lauren Weinstein <lauren@vortex.com>
Subject: Survey on putting electronics in checked airline baggage

[ Please distribute widely, as considered appropriate ]

I’m conducting a little unscientific survey on whether or not airline
passengers are willing to place their expensive or important
electronic equipment in airline checked baggage (whether “locked” or
not, but on most flights unlocked will be required), and how this
would affect their flying patterns.

With the above as preface, there are three questions:

1) Are you willing to place all of your significant electronic equipment
(including laptop or other computers, cellphones, DVD players, iPods,
etc.) in checked baggage for airline flights?

2) If you are required to place such electronic equipment in checked
baggage, would it have a significant negative impact on your willingness
to fly?

3) Do you mainly fly for business or pleasure?

I will only publish aggregated statistics from this survey, unless
individual persons specifically note that their responses may be
released publicly.

To participate in the survey, please e-mail a note (or simply
forward this message) with your responses to:

baggage@vortex.com

Only a one word reply is necessary to each of the questions
unless you wish to add comments, which are invited.

Thanks very much.

Lauren Weinstein
lauren@vortex.com or lauren@pfir.org
Tel: +1 (818) 225-2800
http://www.pfir.org/lauren
Co-Founder, PFIR
– People For Internet Responsibility – http://www.pfir.org
Co-Founder, IOIC
– International Open Internet Coalition – http://www.ioic.net
Moderator, PRIVACY Forum – http://www.vortex.com
Member, ACM Committee on Computers and Public Policy
Lauren’s Blog: http://lauren.vortex.com
DayThink: http://daythink.vortex.com

= = = = = = = =

My answers:

1) Are you willing to place all of your significant electronic equipment

NO

2) If you are required to place such electronic equipment in checked

YES

3) Do you mainly fly for business or pleasure?

SINCE 9/11, BUSINESS ONLY. AND, THEN ONLY WHEN UNAVOIDABLE!

As a Libertarian, I think the expansion of government is a bigger threat than “terrorism”. The terrorists can only kill us; the government can enslave us “for our own good”. Then, they rob us (taxes). And, then they kill us.

===

But, then anyone who’s read this blog, could have guessed those answers!

http://www.acton.org/ppolicy/comment/article.php?id=185

Perpetuating Poverty: Lotteries Prey on the Poor
by Jordan Ballor, Associate Editor

**Begin Quote***

A recently released Gallup survey confirms the fears of many who oppose government-promoted gambling: the poorest among us are contributing much more to lottery revenues than those with higher incomes. The poll found that people who played the lottery with an income of less than $20,000 annually spent an average of $46 per month on lottery tickets. That comes out to more than $550 per year and it is nearly double the amount spent in any other income bracket.

The significance of this is magnified when we look deeper into the figures. Those with annual incomes ranging from $30,000 to $50,000 had the second-highest average — $24 per month, or $288 per year. A person making $20,000 spends three times as much on lottery tickets on average than does someone making $30,000. And keep in mind that these numbers represent average spending. For every one or two people who spend just a few bucks a year on lotteries, others spend thousands.

All of this is taking place in a system of legalized gambling that is monopolized and promoted by those in political power. Where state governments are supposed to be looking after the welfare of their citizenry, the commonwealth of all the people, the establishment of a lottery has in fact betrayed the citizenry.
***End Quote***

Let’s trot out my three favorite arguments about gubamint programs: ethics, effectiveness, and efficiency.

(1) Ethically

For the government to literally rob the poorest segment of its people is immoral. For the socialists, who go by the label “liberal” today, but bear NO resemblance to the Classical Liberals of history who advocated liberty, where is their justification for it. For the socialists, who go by the label “conservative” today, but bear NO resemblance to the Barry Goldwater / Ronald Regan small government low taxes conservatives, where is their justification for it. Now while the Lottery, and other State sponsored forms of government gambling, may not be a tax in the strict definition of the word. A tax is anything we pay the government that we can NOT avoid paying. You can avoid the lottery. But then the drug addict can avoid the pusher. The alcoholic can avoid the bar. The smoker can avoid the Tobacco Company. But, the State in this case is preying on the poor as surely as the Drug Pusher, the Bar Owner, and the Tobacco Company Executive. Even worse, by its vice laws, the State ensures that there is no competition to its robbery. Back in my younger days, when my in-laws played the numbers, the bookie would pay 750-1 on a straight three digit number bet. True odds were one in a thousand. The state lottery when it was introduced paid 500-1. It’s been reduced since to 250-1. And there was a huge crackdown on the numbers runners to “protect the people from Organized Crime”. No mention of protecting a very lucrative State fund raiser. But the lottery was for education. Except later we found out that it was very expensive to run the lottery and there were lots of things that were considered “education” like guards for road trash gangs. What a joke! I’d judge it as “unethical”; wouldn’t you?

=

(2) Effectively

OK, ethics aside, how effective is the lottery? The stated objectives of the lottery, that I remember, were (a) to raise funds for education; and (b) eliminate organized crime. Now days, there is no mention of the reasons why we have such a “near tax”. If the objective was to raise money for state gubamint, then it’s a rousing success. “.. the gross sales for the Lottery’s first full year, Fiscal 1972, were over $137 million. The Lottery’s phenomenal growth and popularity were reflected in gross sales of some $1.2 billion only 21 years later in Fiscal 1991.” Consider that most of that comes DIRECTLY from poor people, it’s a stunning “user fee”. As far as I know, schools are still rotten and funded mostly with absurdly high property taxes. Organized Crime move into drugs. So it took them from a relatively peaceful activities to a very corrosive one. I’d judge it as “ineffective”; woudln’t you?

=

(3) Efficiently

OK, ethics aside, effectiveness aside, how efficient is the lottery? From the players perspective not very. A roulette game pays 35-1 for a one in thirty eight shot. That’s about a 97% return. Using the Pick3 as a proxy, it is the  best case, it pays 275-1 for a one in a thousand shot. That’s about a 72% return. Hmmm? AND, if there is a disaster, like that train wreck over the hackensack river bridge, where there is a number picture on the newspaper’s front page, they suspend play on that number. It’s amazing how many of those hit “breaking” the bank. So any time a sucker might actually win, then they change the rules. All legal of course. I’d judge it as “inefficient” from the player’s perspective; woudln’t you?

You can’t judge the “efficiency” from the gubamint’s perspective because not only does it bring lots of money in for pork projects. It also provides jobs for hacks, post-gubamint hiding places for politicians at obscene salaries. It gives contracts to the friends of gubamint. So, it’s a winner from the gubamint’s perspective.

=

So I’d say that about wraps it up. The gubamint needs to get out of the “lottery” business! IMHO

OK, while I wouldn’t do it, or more accurately smoke while pregnant, or more accurately want my wife to smoke if she was pregnant.

We have to allow people the freedom to make their own choices. Mistakes will happen. And people should bear the responsibility for the choices that they make.

But, the pic is funny. Worry about jack hammers? Worry about smoking? Which is the more proximate hazard?

But it’s her body and her pregnancy. I would no more tell her what to do than I would want some one to take away my McDonald’s French Fries because “everyone knows those are bad for you”!

(I almost tapped out a bad word about being quiet!)

MYOB!

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=51331

***Begin Quote***

Ask the 1.5 million Armenians massacred by the Ottoman Turks;
or the 6 million Ukrainians slaughtered by Stalin;
or the tens of millions of other Soviet citizens killed by Stalin’s Soviet Union;
or the 6 million Jews murdered by the Nazis and their helpers throughout Europe;
or the 60 million Chinese butchered by Mao;
or the 2 million Cambodians murdered by Pol Pot;
or the millions killed and enslaved in Sudan;
or the Tutsis murdered in Rwanda’s genocide;
or the millions starved to death and enslaved in North Korea;
or the million Tibetans killed by the Chinese;
or the million-plus Afghans put to death by Brezhnev’s Soviet Union.
Ask any of these poor souls, or the hundreds of millions of others slaughtered, tortured, raped and enslaved in the last 100 years, if “world opinion” did anything for them.
***End Quote***

Those numbers are staggering. And, many of them have no dimension to them, for example lots of Tutsis!

Governments kill their citizens. Period!

Hence we should always be keeping gubamint small, hungry, and in check. Actually maybe we should keep our government in the Check Republic (partially joking). At the very least, the politicians and gubamint workers should be in Prison Clothes. Partially so we take them as seriously as they should be.  And, partially, so they know where they’re going when they hurt a citizen. And, you know they will. Can you see the House of Representatives being in session in Orange Jump Suits? And, when they enter and leave, that will be the “perp walk”. Do NOT ask me what I have in mind for Trenton!