Two-Fisted Whimsy

I suppose I'm on Twitter now, and I can't entirely justify it. Originally, I signed up and then didn't write a thing for months. then I had to use it to test some code for work, and I appear to be using it to comment on random things I observe in New York. So, yeah: my twoots. I will try not to let it become the traditional tedious stereotype. In fact, I'll try not to twut anything unless Oscar Wilde would be proud to have also twytted it first. That twink.

He had the time of his life

Yeah Dirty Dancing was great. Ghost was nice. But I always felt he was most appropriately cast as the motivational speaker/kiddie porn kingpin from Donnie Darko. R.I.P.

Libertarian Socialists Unite!

In my ideal America, the two most prominent parties are the Libertarians and the Socialists. I suspect this would solve a lot of our current problems with public discourse, especially since recent iterations of Republicanism strike me as libertarianism -- but without the ideas (in a similar vein I'd suggest that objectivism is a lot like libertarianism, but without the compassion).

Without going too far into that, I do think there is more concordance between libertarians and socialists than you would initially suspect. In practice, they tend to agree on social freedoms and disagree on economic policy. Fair enough, but why? Well, in practice again, there are assumptions made on both sides about economic results. Presumably much of this could be eliminated, but macroeconomics a science of very few trials and no control groups -- but who said it had to be easy? It seems, though, that there should be some core difference that prompts all this guesswork. I've been turning this over, and I put forward that both libertarianism and socialism can be extended from one root ethical proposition:

• Libertarianism: A government is an object, the purpose of which is to guarantee certain rights to its citizens.
• Socialism: A government is an object, the purpose of which is to promote the general welfare of its citizens.

You see? Now, very different things can arise from here depending on what rights you guarantee and how you define such a nebulous thing as "general welfare," but firstly we'll consider the point of agreement:

A government is an object.

It's easy to push right past this, but it's quite crucial when you stop to consider what else a government might be. In an authoritarian mindset, government is an absolute, and citizens are subordinate. Ethically the government becomes an end in itself, regardless of its actions. Alternately, one might simply state that government is a collection of people, which is almost always true in some sense, but as a starting principle drives towards an adversarial relationship -- especially when that collection of people begins the collection of taxes. Government as an object, however, is necessarily subordinate to its citizens (presuming we here agree to value people more greatly than objects, yes?). Any powers granted to such a government must be inherently necessary for its purpose. Any other powers are not legitimate powers of government -- any more than a bow-tie is part of a lawn mower.

Next Up: What if Peewee Herman mows your lawn? Also, I work on backing up some assertions.

Hitler Bingo, Books & Booze

The ad bar is full of hip-hop links again, so I'd better post something. Though I'm glad Alex has kept things from going dead in my absence. Still, probably best not to ogle Teddy K down there for too long.

Firstly, I am chagrined to note that the argument "Hitler: not such a bad guy, really" has been taken up by noted nationalist Pat Buchanan. See Matt Yglesias for one of many possible refutations. But also consider this statement:

Because Hitler wanted to end the war in 1940, almost two years before the trains began to roll to the camps.

Here there is a vague and bewildering implication that the Holocaust could somehow have been avoided by leaving Hitler in power. There are no doubt hypothetical scenarios that might achieve this, but to blame Britain and France strikes me as bizarre. If war had been avoided (somehow), Hitler might have had less territory in which to build concentration camps, but it seems doubtful he would have been less genocidal in general.

Secondly, I was in DC this weekend, which was a good time but also provoked a serendipitous discovery: used books! Shortly before seeing Zach in a somewhat abridged Othello, I discovered the following at the preposterous price of 50 cents each:

• Ulysses - James Joyce
• A Connecticutt Yankee in King Arthur's Court - Mark Twain
• The New American Bartender's Guide - John J. Poister
• The Year's Best Science Fiction (1992) - Edited by Gardner Dozois

The first three should require little explanation, but the fourth has also been quite a boon so far. I must admit historical minutia sometimes intrigue me, so I was pleased to find the foreword as a comprehensive "State of the Union" overview of where the sci-fi industry was at the time (including prescient predictions as to the lousiness of the then-new SciFi Channel). I'm only a little way in, but so far "Dust" by Greg Egan is the standout -- a fascinating meditation on artificial consciousness and the perception of patterns. Of course, if sex-crazed Moon colonists and weird neurotoxins are more your style, "Griffin's Egg" by Michael Swanwick is also well-worth reading.

The whole book will be very helpful, I think. Science fiction is my native genre, but it's far too easy to stick to a few well-known names (Asimov, Vonnegut, Gibson, Stephenson, etc.) in an effort to avoid the dreck out there. This is the case with nearly everything, of course -- it's easy to stick with what you know. Probably it should have occurred to me sooner to find an anthology or two, but hey, it's easy to forget about short fiction.

Speaking of things I didn't know, turns out there's a drink called the "Doctor Funk":
Doctor Funk

• ½ lime
• ½ lemon juice
• 1 tsp. sugar syrup
• dash grenadine
• 2-3 oz. dark Jamaica, Haitian, or Martinique rum
• Club soda
• ½ tsp. Pernod or Herbsaint bitters

Clearly this needs to be made soon. I may have to share some of the other 2,199 recipes in this thing as well.