It’s back! The New Silk Road launched yesterday. Though other online black market services saw their usage increase during the shutdown, this shows exactly why the War on Drugs is failed policy, online or offline. Though I don’t consume recreational drugs, I am an advocate for the principle that everyone owns their body and has…
Category: Two Cents
On the Hunger Games V
(Spoiler Alert!) In the end, the toppling of one tyrant meant the the rise of others. Though Katniss killed President Coin, the heretofore leader of District 13 and the rebellion, and aspiring dictator, “representative” rule will govern what’s left of Panem (North America) going forward. Suzanne Collins story seems to reveal her as a student…
On the Hunger Games IV
As I finish up this series, halfway through the third and final book, one major theme that has been consistent throughout is the effects that violence has on an individual’s mind. Written in live first person, the author, Suzanne Collins, brilliantly portrays what the Games and the following rebellion does internally to Katniss. Horror after…
On the Hunger Games III
Something that this series, as well as previous ones like John Carter and Carson Napier, has taught me is the importance of extending empathy to those who have been raised to regard certain actions, say forcing people to participate in a game where they must kill everyone else to win, as not wrong. There’s a scene in…
On the Hunger Games II
If you are unfamiliar with “agorism” and would like an introduction, look no further than the first few chapters of The Hunger Games, book one. It describes Katniss and Gale crawling under the unpowered electrical fence around their district to hunt game and gather food, return and trade it at the black market known as…
On Government Failures
I’ve heard 9/11 called “Government Failure Day.” Indeed. The government did fail on September 11th, 2001, and it failed horribly. The government is supposedly here to protect us, to keep us safe, and on 9/11, like on 4/15, 4/20, 12/7 and 12/12, it failed (not an exhaustive list). Today, 11/1, it has failed again. This time…
On Trick-or-Treating
Oh the times I enjoyed as a kid going door to door, further and further away from home, collecting candy and enjoying the time with friends! Too many parents these days are too scared to let their kids go out alone and experience Halloween without mom and dad tagging along (thanks trunk-or-treating for succoring their…
On the Hunger Games
I’ve started the Hunger Games trilogy. I saw the first movie on blu-ray and hope to finish reading before the second premiers. Ironically, I’ve read a lot of violence-filled fiction over the last year. I completed Edgar Burrough’s John Carter of Mars and Carson Napier of Venus series, and went several books into Tarzan. The…
On Government Projects
The Obamacare website debacle is a perfect example of the sorts of inefficiencies, disasters, and boondoggles that plagues government projects again and again. Irrelevant is the good or service being produced. Government lacks the necessary incentives, knowledge, and calculation to do anything as efficiently, successfully, and worthwhile as private organizations in society. That so many…
On Harry Potter II
There are at least two other themes from the Harry Potter series that I enjoyed: 1) the idea that youths are stronger and smarter than adults realize, and 2) you can’t liberate someone who doesn’t want to be liberated. On 1), again and again adults underestimate the creativity, brilliance, and the tenacity of the younger…