Regular Blogger Burnout
I've heard from one of my more successful blogging friends that most blogs only last about 6 months, if that. The burnout rate is very high. This definitely happens to me, since I regularly "commit" to more activity on this blog only to burn out. In the past, I've deliberately removed old posts and started anew.
Several months ago I deleted my entire WordPress database by mistake. In deciding what to do next with this site, I chose, rather than 'rebooting' the blog once again (I'd only to burn out again), to restore all the backups I do have and just go from there. You may notice this blog has more than a year missing. That's because for a while I posted nothing, and after that, I did generate some (of my best) posts which were more article-like... and then the deletion accident happened. Whoops!
Anyway, nearly everything I've done on this blog since 2005 is back now, for better or worse.
Currently Reading Roundup
At the moment I am working my way through the following books:
- End the Fed by Ron Paul
- A Fire Upon the Deep by Vernor Vinge (this is my second read through)
- Socialism by Ludwig von Mises
End the Fed
It may just be the fact that I am a ravenous reader of LewRockwell.com and Mises.org, but End the Fed is by far the quickest, easiest read out of the three at the moment. Ron Paul was never a stunning public speaker, but his writing -- or what becomes of his writing when his editor(s) get through with it -- is concise, incisive and accessible. Amazon.com was gracious enough to send the book early, and in spite of not cracking it open for several days, I'm most of the way through it. He starts by making the case for why the issue of monetary policy is so important, then walks the reader through his own intellectual journey, his experience of history so far, and his confrontations with past chairmen of the Federal Reserve. Further on, he makes several cases as to why a 100% reserve, hard money standard is vastly superior to what we have now.
A Fire Upon the Deep
I read this book years ago while still lazily studying computer science at UW Whitewater. I recently read the prequel (A Deepness in the Sky), which is in part a brilliant parable of liberty versus tyranny. Knowing a little more of Vinge's political philosophy drove me to re-read this book, since I picked up so few of those hints the first time around.
Just as in A Deepness in the Sky, Vinge takes for granted at every turn that the reader is curious and observant. I'd been reading so much economic commentary, and so much fluffier fiction in the Harry Potter books recently that Vinge was an intellectually challenging change of pace. It felt like the first day resuming an exercise regimen after a long hiatus.
Socialism
Precipitated by all the political tension around that word, socialism, these days, I decided I should read the book known as the ultimate refutation of every fallacy that feeds into the socialist theory. It is translated from German, and the man was notorious for his unique turns of phrase, even after translation. Reading Mises is a bit like seeing the same old room, but illuminated from the bottom. The light is coming at things from an unfamiliar angle, revealing obvious things you never saw before.
Anyway, that's what I'm up to reading right now. I highly recommend all these books, but please start with End the Fed. Whether you know it or not, it is at the root of every political issue today. The arguments might be about jobs or health care or bailouts or wars, but we will be facing the same problems over and over again until we confront central banking, for it is loose monetary policy that makes possible all the evils that bad politicians waste money on.
Health Care Propaganda
I keep seeing the most offensive propaganda in the news these days, centering around the "debate" on health care reform.
Senators and Congressmen are getting excoriated at their own town hall meetings by voters who don't want the bill to pass (they represent a growing majority: only 25% strongly favor, while 41% strongly oppose, and 68% are quite content with what they have now). This is great news for voter involvement. They're finally mad about something. What is not great news is the reaction it's getting on TV. I was willing to dismiss this as the usual Pravda-style coverage we're treated to on the cable news channels, but last night I saw the exact same words spouting from that 20-something news anchor on our local channel out of Notre Dame, WNDU. If it wasn't before, it is certainly now pervasive. Something along the lines of "Congressmen are interested in having discussions about the reform bill, but their constituents insist on screaming and shouting instead." I can't think of anything more Brazil-esque than seeing a bureaucrat wish his people would just calm down and be civil about his hostile takeover.
I keep hearing that this resistance is populated by "birthers," by "9/11 truthers," that they carry swastikas, that they don't understand the issue, and that they're only here because they hate having a black president. Politicians and pundits have compared the town hall meetings to "Klan rallies." They're a noisy, selfish, racist, religious-fundamentalist, conspiracy-theorist, hate-soaked rabble.
Or maybe they've read the bill and don't like it!
The pushers of this "reform" bill dove for cover behind the "racism!" wall so fast it should be obvious that it's an attempt at manipulation. The voters elected a black president. Both by electoral votes and by popular vote. That the people have misgivings about nationalizing the medical industry has nothing to do with the color of a guy's skin. If the KKK is the only group politically active enough to show up at these town hall meetings, then we've got much bigger problems.
Has the Left completely forgotten how its protesters against the Iraq invasion were treated in 2002? "Anti-American," "terrorist sympathizers," blah blah blah? This, when the whole freaking PLANET was protesting against it? Or what about the litany of "sore losers" in 2001 and "sour grapes" in 2005? Is our memory this short?
We've got an intensely partisan media, and the party it supports is entrenched power. Our health care "system" is broken. That much is true. But believe it or not, there are solutions to these problems that don't include getting government into the health insurance business. All it takes is asking how the system got this sick, and repairing that damage. Creating a new multi-billion-dollar program to alleviate symptoms is never a fix. If your car breaks down, you don't fix the situation by towing it everywhere.
Plenty of reputable guys in business and politics have written about this and not only can they explain why this bill is a bad idea, but they can offer different ideas, ideas that are way cheaper to implement than what's getting debated right now. As long as our politicians are experimenting on our problems like a kid with a chemistry set, can they please try the cheaper experiments first?