Ron Paul's Free Market

I've been watching a lot of Ron Paul Debates and Interviews.  At first sight he seems almost anarchical.

I've also watched the Zeitgeist and Zeitgeist Addendum, so it seems revolutionary to hear a congressman speaking about the same kinds of things, for e.g. The fraud that is the federal reserve.  He doesn't go as far as Jacque Fresco in proposing that money is the problem and that it should be abolished in favour of a resource based economy.




RP is a strong believer in the free market and believes everything will take care of itself in a free market without the need for big government to do anything.

I wrote an article last year on the free market:

Free Market Principles applied to the Insurance Industry

It turned out the Insurance industry is heavily regulated, my argument was (on the pretense that it wasn't regulated) was that if insurance contracts were treated more as an open market - then only the providers who do the right things (calculating the right premiums, providing good customer services) will survive.

RP proposes that government stay out of all regulation, this would for example include the insurance industry, it means that the government can no longer pass rules and regulations dictating how they do business! but if this happens won't everyone just get ripped off? who protects the individual (in RP's terminology, there is only the individual and liberties for the individual alone)?

Well, if the market was truly free, then the individual is more empowered to choose the right thing, he/she will choose the provider with the most clearly defined rules that are favourable, or as I see it, instead of the government passing regulations, consumer groups will provide this function - they will form the link between the industry and the consumer.

It is slightly scary though, the private sector could make up any contract they like, and hire their own police force to enforce it.  RP believes that the government's function is only to see that the contract is met! It would be unlikely that the now empowered individual (that has to look out for him/her self because the government under RP will have removed safety nets) would not choose such a contract over others, because it is rather unfavourable to have your door kicked down because you missed a payment. Although I have heard of this happening (fucking repo).

Crime prevention could also be privatised (it is happening already in some rich neighbourhoods).  Organisation and individuals buy services, because there is competition the service would actually be any good (ever called the cops to a burglary in progress and measured the time to response?).  But I would rather it not, there must be a single authority that decides what is eventually right or wrong, based on either common sense, the constitutions, state laws and finally the contract between two individuals (whether one of them should be an organisation or not).  And as RP proposes this should be the function of the government.

All of this relies on keeping the market free, from monopolies, from regulations, from taxation and big government.

What about social stratification? What about the in-equality? It is simple enough to say there is always going to be in-equality so the best we can do is create incentives by removing social securities and socialist taxation policies?

In a truly free market, is anyone truly richer?

Injustice

I witnessed something awful.  Humility and respect for each other is frail and it is easy to bring out the worst in people.


Situation:
A parking warden is issuing a ticket to a vehicle that is clearly parked where its should not be.  Owner appears out of the blue, notices the ticket issuance in progress and begins a tyrant of abuse; it was around 12 pm in central city close to the entertainment centre - so presumably she had some drinks and wasn't thinking straight.

This might just seem like ordinary part of a parking wardens job, taking abuse, sadly some people believe that abuse and threats are a way to get away with offences.  Sure the parking wardens experience this and potentially are trained to handle such encounters - all (again sadly) a normal part of the job.

But here is where it gets just really terrible, if only I had a camera to tape the delinquent female (no words can really express the level that she goes down to). 

You see the parking warden was an immigrant, working hard at night time when he should be in bed sleeping, when he should be at home with his family - but he chose to work because he wants to make a better life for his family and children, unlike the countless numbers of people that occupy the social welfare programs.

Where this turns really ugly is, the abusive person, a local - not only starts abuse but, starts racially abusing him.  In no way is abuse acceptable, but to go down to this level is really lower than scum.

She must have figured, foreigner - I can abuse him however I like, the nastier the better; even if I don't get away with the ticket I would have lowered him down: I have the satisfaction of getting back at him without any repercussions.





The question is Why?  I really have no explanation about why this happens; It must have something to do with the anger response, maybe it really shatters the calm that is built around really weak notions how to treat others, especially towards stereotypes.

I will never know if that guy got in trouble, when the car I was in started driving off there was a sizable number of people ganging up against him - I can't help the feeling that I should have stayed, and done something about it.  There was probably nothing I could do to fight the angry mob that had broken down to near ape like behaviour, but, still I feel terrible for not trying.

couchdb ramblings

curl -X POST $CDB/basic/_temp_view?startkey=5\&endkey=2\&descending=true -d '{"map" : "function(doc) { emit(1, null); emit(2, null); emit(3, null); emit(4, null); emit(5, null);}"}'

descending=true reverses the traversal of the key space, startkey and endkey now act in reverse (otherwise startkey=largest key and endkey=smallest key)

#postgresql

<pguser> What was that thing that PG has but MySQL doesn't that we take for granted? Was it foreign keys?

<davidfetter> pguser, stuff that Just Works, vs. stuff that works, except during certain phases of the moon, 
    states of the stock market, girlfriend's mood, etc.

Stargate Universe

Stargate Universe is the newest installment of the Stargate Series.  It aired on 4th October, the pilot was quite good, but I still have my suspicions.  I don't know how they managed to milk Stargate Atlantis for as long as they did: I hope the creators take more risks this time and dare to try new things.  Because SGA was just way too predictable and in the end became a bit of a SyFy comedy show.

Interestingly the premise for the show is very much like Startrek Voyager in that the people aboard a ship get transported to somewhere in space far away from their home (Earth) and must find their way back.

I thought there were also parallels with the BSG series, especially with the character Nicholas Rush.  Ignoring for a second that they have similar hair styles, Rush and Baltar are similar: they are both smart, cannot be trusted, and believe that they are the innocent victim in a plan that they helped carry out.  Rush sets of the events that lead to all the people on the base being transported into unknown space (it is debatable whether Rush could have just dialed Earth - or whether it was convinient.

• Rush (I really do hope he does not become a Rodney McKay, that's one guy I won't miss!)
• Eli (What the hell is Eli for? Seems like he is a sort of prototype of a SyFy noob through whom various facts about the Stargate world can be delivered that would otherwise be taken for granted, at the start of the pilot we see some of this when Eli watches a training / induction video showing Dr. Daniel Jackson explaining how Stargate's Work).

There are also some interesting back stories of various other characters (introduced by the way of flashbacks during the pilot) for e.g. of Master Sergent Tamara Johansen played by Aliana Huffman.  It will be interesting to see how these play out and affect the characters and the plot.

I am eagerly awaiting the next episode.

New Game to play.

i think that tf2 would be a good game to play.  I will look into buying it so i can play with my other clan mates :D

How to make a Music Video that will feature on C4's NZ Music Segment

First you need to be in a band (especially if you are not from the southern suburbs / if you are then you just need to be in a crew - easily done), you maybe thinking that with so many useless 'bands' out there already how you can contribute (and eventually make a music video that will feature on C4).

The best way to start a band is to move in with people who play a bunch of musical instruments, chances are there is atleast one or two that play some instrument; it is highly unlikely that the musical people will be bandless - so you must make up an imaginary band to tell them, this is so they do not get over protective and shun you straight away (also bands NEED to have three word names like 'the mint chicks' or 'cut-off your hands' ... or just ONE, but NEVER TWO).

Assuming you make it this far with your new musical-flatmates (who will never acknowledge to being in a secondary band you are in - because their other band that they are in is really awesome and gets gigs all the time - which is why they eat baked beans everyday and work as poster stickers).

You need to see a guy named Marlow (his name isn't really Marlow, but he is trying to dish out the whole Bob Marley like vibe - like don't cramp my style dude).  Marlow is one annoying bastard who talks about all the artists he has worked with, in his recording studio in ponsonby, all the fucking time - he will also talk about all the sound gear he has that the others don't have anywhere in NZ (a.k.a. i am the shit complex).

Now comes the part where you must choose the style of music you will record, you would been mistaken if you thought this part needed to be sorted out earlier (common misconception).  Pick a couple of the latest punk/indie/rock artists (like the White Stripes for e.g.) and emulate them, if you sound too much like one, then pick some aspect another artist and throw it in - hopefully you have made up something now that define you, originality is the key here.

When recording your music, ALWAYS do some fucked up shit you can recite later (for e.g. you smoked crack and upper deckered Marlow's Dash), this will not only increase your street cred, but it means you don't have to make something up on the spot - when someone asks you how your band came up with such shit music.

Finally, you have recorded your song, chances are by now your flat mates are broke (because Marlow fucked you over big time because his computer got over loaded with spyware), that Marlow - you should never trust him.  You suddenly realise you need a video, but what to do.

Never fear, for there is always a way.  For this you need to see Ben: there will a ben somewhere, every second flat has a Ben.  Ben has a lot of camcorder gear that he uses to uh interview models for his modelling business that he runs out of the shed in the backyard.  If you ask me, I think he just posts videos onto the internet (whatever they are).  Anyway, creepy vibe aside you need Ben.  Ben is a sneaky bastard, he has a computer that looks like a fucking fridge with a thousand fans and neons and a big fuck off screen that says I am a douche bag.  The computer is loaded with more pirated software than it can handle - no doubt this includes Video Editing.

Ben's backyard modelling stage is quite limited, so you will be limited to what you can do, you really have two options:

1) Go outdoors, into the wild, where all the sheep are
2) Stay indoors in front of a white screen

Now comes the tricky part, no one will be interested in staring at you for 4 minutes while your record plays, so capture some sequence ... a simple one to do is ... run down the hill, up the hill, walk, crawl ... whatever, just get around 10 seconds of video.

10 SECONDS? WHAT? can't be!

Now watch Ben work his magic, he will play all sort of magical tricks on the 10 second clip you gave him, like change its speed, move it backwards and forwards in time, juxtapose YO!

Before you know it - you have a typical NZ Music Video appearing, your road to greatness (i.e. C4 Music Awards) is just beginning, you feel elated.  Your video is around 70% finished; Ben's video gear is busy (uh taping models) so you fill in the rest with graphics! LOTS OF colors, like the video, you only really have 1 - 2 graphics, you just mash them about, like mirror them, change the brightness and stuff and paste them into the video ... just anywhere, it doesn't matter.

What then? You are done. Quit your band, leave your flat, and join another band and start this process over.