The day has been spent between sleep, Water Law, finding a home, and well, this…
I really love Spaghetti Westerns. I should write one…
Category: Personal Blog (Page 21 of 27)
One of the things I’ve found disturbing lately in the realm of science fiction is the lack of solid economics. The most recent example I’ve come across is the tessera in The Hunger Games. The concept behind the Tessera is that by entering your name more than the mandatory 1 time in the annual Hunger Games drawing, an individual is given the minimum amount of grain and oil necessary to survive for one person for one year.
Many of the poverty stricken enter multiple times to provide for their families. On the year Prim is selected Gale is mentioned at having entered 42 times. Katniss had entered 3. How is this a problem? Well, there’s a set amount of grain and oil given for each additional tesserae taken. That number is unchanging. Therefore there is no room for the effects of inflation. Surely that means that grain and oil are likely begin to be used as a form of currency rather than survival rations and inflation would work itself out appropriately in the marketplace. But as far as the effect of each entrance upon the rations provided by the Capitol, it doesn’t make sense that someone like Gale, who enters 42 times, doesn’t negatively affect the value of a tessera. Otherwise, why would the members of District 12 not simply come together and each enter an agreed upon amount of times, keeping, “the odds ever in their favor” while providing copious grain and oil ad infinitum?
Also, don’t cry to me and tell me that it’s juvenile fiction and we shouldn’t concern ourselves with such things. Even DuckTales gave a great lesson on inflation to children:
Here’s a second video added for sheer cracked out offensiveness. To be honest, I have no idea what is going on here. Very not safe for work:
Spartan Beast, June 30th. The Learned Sergeant is registered. Dumbass masochist Jarhead.
Spartan Race 2011 Official Video from Ben McDonald on Vimeo.
Inspiration: Powerful Beyond Measure (how great are you?) from Ben McDonald on Vimeo.
New short story added in the Short Stories page.
The Bar Association has no right to exist.
Of course, having a group of professionals come together and discuss their craft is a good thing. Having them come together and establish standards and practices of what they believe makes for a good lawyer is a good thing. However, a group of people in a profession having the ability to exclude other people from their profession is immoral and unjust.
Mandatory licensing matters on their face are offensive. This is enough of an issue that I have the right to pursue a trade enshrined in Article the First, Section 14 in my Constitution. Trade associations would still exist even without licensing requirements. The only difference is that a consumer would be able to pick and choose amongst those he hired. The odds are a person would likely hang their certification by their trade association over their desk and use it to charge a higher rate. It would also open the door for less skilled or unlicensed people to enter the profession, allowing at least some representation for those with fewer resources. Instead, a person jumps through the required hoops, and the end result is that a person is compelled to charge an exorbitant rate for their services simply because the cost to meet the requirements of their trade association was so high.
But the point of this post isn’t about licensing in general, but rather licensing and the Bar Association. The Idaho Bar Association sets the requirements for what is required to be able to practice law in the state. Some of those requirements are:
Pass the Bar Exam
Pass the Multi-State Professional Responsibility Exam
Be a person of ethical moral character (as understood by the Idaho State Bar)
Graduate from an approved law school. (as approved by the Idaho State Bar)
Okay, why is this an issue? Let’s hit each one individually. This post will cover the Bar Exam with future posts to cover other factors. Passing the Bar Exam is a problem for a few reasons. Firstly, again, no group of people have the right to come together and place a requirement upon others to prevent them from entering the profession. Secondly, the Bar Association has an effective monopoly on who can practice law in Idaho. Therefore if I want to practice in the state I must accept their rules, even if I or potential clients find those same rules distasteful. Thirdly, the Bar Exam is costly. With the application is a fee of $500 to sit for the exam. There is an additional $125 to be paid if you’re taking the exam with a laptop, something that is nearly a requirement now. Additionally, in order to take the exam it is nearly mandatory to take a private Bar Exam Prep Course. These cost between $2000-$3000 on average. So after 3 years of law school and the costs involved, a student must spend several more thousand dollars to take a course to pass a test about THE LAW.
A student graduates in May. Then said student must study for this exam that he cannot take until July. Still, it is several months until a student gets his grades and license back following the exam and can begin to practice law on his own. These are all MONTHS of earning potential lost at time when student debt is at its highest. The end result, as with most other licensing requirements, is to help keep people out of the profession, protecting the limited market space for those already established.
The very same thing was recently done in Idaho about a year ago involving the licensing of midwives. Many established midwives supported licensing that would make it more difficult for more people to enter the profession. Perhaps the biggest supporters were OB/GYNs. By making it more difficult for midwives to enter the profession, options to consumers are limited and they are steered away from homebirth, and back into the hospital. No matter. I’m done. Video time!
New short story added in the Short Stories page.
Okay, the Learned Daughter is not to be referred to as Katniss. I think if I’m fortunate enough to have another daughter I’d hate to give her the name I’m calling my current daughter. She shall henceforth be known as Molly, for Molly Pitcher.
I doubt these kid quotes entertain you as much as me, but you can deal with it. My kid is better than your kid.
After giving my usual incoherent explanation for one of the many “why?” questions as we went for a walk, the following conversation occurred:
The Learned Sergeant: I’m sorry honey, that didn’t make very much sense. I’m not a very good communicator.
Molly: I know.
TLS: /laughs/ Thanks. I imagine you could communicate that idea better than me.
Molly: Yeah, I use better words than you do.
Are you serious?! How did my three year old understand what communicate meant?
Teach Me to Hate: An essay I wrote about my time in the Philippines added to the Short Stories page.
I caught myself after a small rant in Workplace Law sounding exactly like Malcolm Reynolds. I’m not sure if that means I’m awesome or insane. I’m siding with awesome.
The fact of the matter friends, is that you cannot improve people by force of arms. Through antidiscriminatory regulations perpetrated by the federal government we harm the species. Let employers discriminate. Let private schools segregate. Diversity makes us strong. Leaving your comfort zone makes you strong. It advances the glory of man. Let those that choose to live in their comfort zone spouting ideas unchallenged by their friends, amongst people who look and act the same ghettoize themselves and die. Natural selection will destroy the weak or marginalize them in poverty and public derision. Why should we prop them up and give them the power to wield government?
What gives one group of people, whether a majority or not, the right to implement by force of arms, their own ideas on ways to improve man? The mandatory hiring of minorities or desegregation of schools is step one on the way to ghettoization, mass murder, and government implemented genocide. If you can use force to improve man through integration, why can we not force the majority’s next “improvement” by force? What will you do when that “improvement” is teaching us all a strong work ethic by putting your kids in the military, or to work the coal mines? The hilarity of the matter lies in the fact that by telling an employer that he must treat men as individuals, rather than property he can pick or choose from at will, we tell that same employer he is property of the state and subject to the whimsy of his owner.
It was government that implemented Jim Crow Laws. It was government that interned Americans with Yellow skin. Society made that demand and enforced it with guns. Now because government is demanding a new definition of equality we will trust the same machine that gave us sickness to make us strong?
Now I don’t know about you, but I’d much rather allow men to operate freely and trust that the laws of nature will enrich the strong, intelligent and honorable, rather than to take the chance that a group of people with their own selfish wants and needs who have failed us repeatedly will better know how to order society to the advancement and survival of our glorious species.
This is some Starship Troopers stuff!
Popular Science covers Space Marines.
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