Month: May 2019

Schrödinger’s Sock

Posted on by Jeff Cassman

For more than 20 years I’ve wondered how my Wife manages to lose so many socks. It’s so bad, we have a large laundry basket overflowing with nothing but socks which have no match.

Think about that…it must be hundreds, perhaps thousands of orphan socks.

How does this happen? I mean, you take the socks from the basket, into the washer, then to the dryer, and then back out again. What’s so complicated about it?

Yesterday I did my own laundry for the first time in many years. I’ve been on the road for more than a week and it simply couldn’t be avoided.

I loaded the washing machine with two black t-shirts, three pair of black boxer shorts, two pair of navy dress socks, one pair of black dress socks and three pair of black athletic socks.

It’s a small load, so what could go wrong?

After I pulled the clothes out of the dryer, I found that I was short one navy dress sock and one black athletic sock.

Out of 12 socks, two were missing.

I checked the dryer, and then the washer, and then the area around the machine, and then the basket, and then the path from my room in the condo to the machines.

Nothing.

I guess when I get home tomorrow, I’ll check the bastard sock basket.… Read the rest

The Tyranny of ‘Good’ Intentions

Posted on by Jeff Cassman

For Statists, whether Left or Right:

“Of all tyrannies a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies.

The robber baron’s cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience. They may be more likely to go to Heaven yet at the same time likelier to make a hell of earth. This very kindness stings with intolerable insult.

To be ‘cured’ against one’s will and cured of states which we may not regard as disease is to be put on a level of those who have not yet reached the age of reason or those who never will; to be classed with infants, imbeciles, and domestic animals.” {C.S. Lewis} H/T Eric S. Giunta… Read the rest

Daddy’s Trade War

Posted on by Jeff Cassman

“Daddy” has done many good things since he was elected in 2016. One of the few bad things he has done is instigate the costly trade war with China, which he has threatened to further intensify this week with a dramatically increased tariff (tax).

Yes, a few thousand blue collar men in the rust belt have benefited. Yes, this might protect Trump from Biden next year, since Trump can lose many votes in (red), flyover land but none in the (purple), Rust Belt. Yes, it will likely bring about and/or worsen the coming recession.

But do you really like paying higher prices on Chinese goods and products connected to those goods so you can ‘teach them a lesson’ by hurting poor Chinese while enriching the feds?

https://reason.com/2019/03/05/trumps-tariffs-cost-the-us-economy-14-bi/?fbclid=IwAR0y8GYHhBAHGQvAsJOyjzhhWH9u6Xsv2gNB61HSkFFH8E6-Nyq3IOOPuN0
… Read the rest