Yesterday I finished reading John Paul the Great by Peggy Noonan. I was less than impressed. It’s not that it is a bad book per se, but it just wasn’t that interesting to me. I prefer books that are much more biography oriented if I am going to be reading about a figure. Her book was much more about her personal experiences with things relating to the Pope.

I’ve read Witness to Hope, the weighty official biography by George Weigel, and so I guess I know many details already.

One thing that I did learn and found quite amusing was this:

At a meeting of the Synod of Bishops he made his way slowly and haltingly to the front of the crowd. He looked out at the assembled prelates and muttered what Galileo had said after being forced to recant his discovery that the earth revolves around the sun. “Eppur si muove.” And still, it moves.

One must find humor in that and recognize that the Pope himself had a sense of humor over the centuries-old issue. To me it makes those who hold up the condemnation of Galileo as one of the Church’s gravest errors seem silly. Living in this day and age, everyone knows that Galileo turned out to be correct. Even John Paul did.

Technorati Tags: pope, johnpaulii

I set alarms to wake up at 9:45 on a Saturday. I had 4 different browsers open to the Ticketmaster site. And still there were no Tool tickets left when the first page came up after hitting F5 repeatedly.

Who wants to get me tickets? They are only about $500 a pair now on eBay.

technorati tags: tool, tickets, music, concerts

I had to write checks to the United States Treasury and the Franchise Tax Board today. They are relatively small amounts but I don’t let that fool me. They’ve stolen my money all year long in the form of withholding. For 2005 I paid $1,253 to the Federal Government and $210 to the State of California. Not much compared to some people, but that is a whole month’s salary to me. There is no way I can recoup that much in services from either the state or federal governments, so basically it’s going to go to someone else.

I am a big fan of the idea to end withholding from paychecks so everyone would have to pay a big chunk of money to the government all at once so it would be more clear to them how much they take. Couple that with making election day the same day or the day after tax day and things would change.

technorati tags: taxes

Many people get up in arms about technology companies keeping records of their users information and accuse them of being Big Brother.

The distinction that must be remembered is that in a ‘Big Brother’ scenario, lack of choice is implied. If a user voluntarily gives up his or her information to a company for safe-keeping or whatever other purpose, there is no coercion involved. The government is the entity capable of coercion. They are the true ‘Big Brother’.

So when PayPal customers put their trust in the company to safeguard their data and personal financial information, PayPal has incentive to honor that trust in order to retain customers. But when the IRS goes after PayPal seeking customer records, users may get confused about who the bad guy is. They may be upset if PayPal gives up the information, and rightfully so, if it is without a fight, but it must also be understood that the company is faced with a threat from the government if it does not cooperate. The government is the aggressor, PayPal and its customers are the victims.

On a related note, that is what excites me about the prospect of a consortium of Google, eBay (owner of PayPal), and Amazon bidding on large portions of the wireless spectrum in order to bring the internet to more people, or at least be a different choice for the rest of us between the duopoly of Comcast and AT&T. In my view, this could only be good for customers because of competitive reasons as well as the possibility that AT&T is already in bed with the government.

Technorati Tags: google, ebay, amazon, paypal, government, irs, bigbrother, at&t

I read an interesting piece today by Gene Callahan at my favorite anti-state site. He makes an analogy between men who beat their wives and people who support the state. Since the state is simply an intstrument of force against individuals, he argues, those who support it, even in the most minimal way, would be the same as a man who says it is acceptable to beat his wife, if only rarely. Therefore, minarchists, who only support the state’s effort to protect life and property, are only one step away from totalitarians.

Anarchists reject the notion that it is permissible to employ violence against someone who has not themselves committed an act of aggression, no matter how much one wants to get that innocent person to cooperate in forwarding one’s desired ends, and no matter how important one believes that end to be. Minarchists, to the contrary, defend their right to initiate aggression in any circumstance where they see the use of coercion as being really, really useful.

I wish more people would understand anarchism like he does.

Technorati Tags: anarchism, minarchism

If I can’t make you hate the state through intellectual exercises, maybe you will hate them for what they do to people’s pets.

I got the May issue of Reason delivered to my mailbox the other day and laughed out loud as I scanned some of the blurbs on the cover:

“The Great Teen Fellatio Scare”

and

“Osama bin Laden’s Favorite Blogs”

How could I not love a magazine that encompasses so many issues, promotes them in this way, and then publishes well-written articles about them.

Today was the first day I actually had to get out of the house fairly early to get to work. I left at 6:30 and the sun wasn’t even up yet. That is pretty absurd.

An article that I read yesterday explaining Daylight Savings Time put it all into context. It turns out the U.S. Congress is responsible for making us go through this silliness twice a year as part of the energy policy of this country. I was talking to my dad about how it is moving up a month next year and both of us didn’t know who exactly was responsible for coming up with the new plan, but now we know. I still wonder when they will try to legislate the weather.