The Caffeinated Penguin

Posted By matt on October 13, 2004

Been busy for a bit. We did a housewarming this weekend. Good turnout. Lot of work, though.

I am currently reading The Underground History of American Education, by John Taylor Gatto. It basically lays out, in fairly comprehensive detail, the theory that modern forced schooling is not designed to educate, but to pacify the intellect and train one to be obedient to management. So far, it has been a good read. Additionally, for those of you with limited funds, the full text is posted on the web.

I also watched Fahrenheit 9/11. Of course, John Ashcroft singing is worth the price of the rental, but I cannot fathom why people were so shocked by this movie. Yes, Bush is an oil man. Yes, American companies profit from this. Yes, patronage, nepotism, and favoritism are alive and well. This is not a surprise. If you really thought that they weren't planning on Iraq before Bush took office, you're a bit out of touch. If you thought Iraq wasn't really about oil, then you probably thought the US Civil War was about slavery, too. Nothing Moore said was really all that shocking or surprising.

Let's see, what else…

Libertarians lose the injunction to stop tonight's debate. It was a misallocation of state funds and all that. They lost on the grounds that they didn't file with sufficient time left before the event, not because they were wrong. Might see further legal battles on this one.

CSPAN showed another 3rd party debate at Cornell. There was the Green, Libertarian, Constitutional, and Socialist parties. Not a bad spectrum. The Constitutional party seem to basically be religious libertarians, and the Greens are Socialists with an Environmental bent. It was a good show. I still have it on TiVo. I was trying to find this one online, but can't. If anyone does, let me know.

So, I'm reading more and more of the Libertarian stuff. I think I might join. Basically, I can get behind these guys. Really fundamental ideas, like dissolving the ATF (it's unnecessary because the things it deals with should be deregulated/free marketed/dealt with by other agencies). There are some things that lead one to think a bit though. For example, what about public safety issues such as handled by the FDA? Well, why can't it be handled by private industry? After all, no public agency certifies consumer electronics. This is done by UL, a private company. Could this be applied to areas currently handled by the FDA and USDA? I have a variety of these issues rattling around in my brain, but there's a rumbly in my tumbly, so I'll probably have more on this later (though I don't know when later will be).

I REALLY like Firefox's new search bar. It's nifty.

I'm going to Carnage in November. If anyone else is going to be there, let me know. If you're coming from this area, we might be able to carpool (though it's not my car and I'd have to ask).

Category: LJ Import
Tags: