Nobody asked but … There are, I confess, two state-provided services I like — public libraries anywhere, and public restrooms in little villages in places like New Zealand and the Dolomite Alps. In the USA, We combine the two. I think the Library of Congress is the one federal government artifact I might argue for…
Category: Nobody Asked, But
Re: Compliance Training
Nobody asked but … Parrish, you are right in that it is sneaking up on us. But the politicians have been running amok with their law and order demagoguery for nearly 50 years. Again, I am reading Radley Balko’s new book, “Rise of the Warrior Cop: The Militarization of America’s Police Forces” and the record…
Dirk Dickenson
Nobody asked but … When I was in college the first time I was kind of a hippy, although I could often be seen in an Air Force ROTC uniform with a haircut (more or less) to match. That was up through the Fall of 1967. In 1972, I was busy making a home for…
The Meat Puppet Theory
The Meat Puppet Theory It is my conviction that for any group of 100 people, relatively, eighty of them will be natural meat puppets. Of the remaining twenty, sixteen will have become the equivalent of meat puppets through bad choices such as addiction, romantic misfortune, or politics. That leaves four, of whom some combination of…
Re: Donut Fail
Parrish, this is priceless! And that reminds me to tell our readers that I have started on Radley Balko’s Rise of the Warrior Cop: The Militarization of America’s Police Forces. I expect to be posting a few cop fail observations myself, in the coming days. My cause célèbre is the casual shooting of dogs in…
Re: On Collectives III
Skyler, I asked the wrong question (I suppose because I view accountability as a dual proposition — ie there are both those who are accountable and those to whom they are accountable) I should have asked, who makes the members of the collective outwardly accountable not inwardly to the oligarchy? Kilgore
Re: On Collectives
Skyler, certainly specific individuals presume to take actions on behalf of the collective — if such actual and presumed delegation were not matters of course, there would cease to be collectives. But there is an inner collective in any state which is the oligarchy. The oligarchy chooses who will do the deeds for the oligarchy. …
Re: Collectives II
Nobody asked but … My Kentucky Wildcat basketball team lost in a close contest to Michigan State last night. These are two of the teams considered most likely to play for the National Championship in the early Spring of 2014. So a statist may have observed my tirade against collectives and responded with, “you are…
Re: Collectives
Yes, Skyler, that is a good distinction to make. In my lexicon all collectives are the constructs arising from central planning. Specialization occurs in free markets, without central planning or artificial conglomerations of individuals. Furthermore, if in a free market the individual had all the skills needed, and no opportunity costs, he would do a…
The Tragedy of the Collective
Nobody asked but … There is a common misconception that a collection of people can do more than the sum of the accomplishments of its individuals. In The Mythical Man Month (free download), computer scientist Fred Brooks explains that you cannot do twice as much by doubling either the time or the people allocated to…