The Dangerous Servant - Latest Comments

Re: In Loving Memory of George S. Scoville (October 22, 1920–February 12, 2011)

Katherine McChesney — Mon, 20 Oct 2014 20:29:17 -0000

George, I knew your grandfather and Jute in the 60's when my father, Minor E. Powers, was pastor at First Presbyterian Church in Spring Hill, Tn. We thought highly of them. I am sorry for your loss but know that he and Jute had many friends.

Re: Respect for Marriage Coalition Ads Feature Pro-Gay Marriage Republicans: More, Please

James Young — Fri, 22 Feb 2013 18:36:34 -0000

There's another name for these kind of Republicans: Worthless.

Re: OPINION: “Tennessee ‘Guns in Parking Lots’ Bill a Net Drain on Liberty”

Jacksie — Wed, 20 Feb 2013 13:54:33 -0000

"The safest place in the world to be is the sidewalk outside a gun show.” http://dailycaller.com/2013...

at the Dixie Gun and Knife Show in Raleigh, North Carolina a 36-year-old man from Wilmington, North Carolina, was unfastening the case of his 12-gauge shotgun on a table near the show entrance when it accidentally discharged...The bird shot ended up injuring three people

in Indianapolis, a man walking out of the Indy 1500 Gun and Knife Show shot himself in the hand as he was loading his .45-caliber semi-automatic firearm

5 injured after firearms go off at Ohio, N.C., Indiana gun shows http://www.cnn.com/2013/01/...

Re: Problems with Involving Minors in Politics

500_lb_Gorrila — Thu, 17 Jan 2013 11:59:21 -0000

My children were subjected to left wing indoctrination all through their public school education, it's sad but it's the truth. I even experienced some of this democrat propaganda even back when I was in school, but nothing like what my kids went through from grade school through high school and college, it's truly disgusting.

Re: Christmas, Hanukkah, and Black Friday Economics

George Scoville — Mon, 26 Nov 2012 16:09:39 -0000

Thanks for the great comment, as always. My roommate Bryan actually highlighted some other worthwhile objections in a separate blog post yesterday, and I'll be writing another post. I'll be sure to note your comment as well.

Re: Christmas, Hanukkah, and Black Friday Economics

Nathan Griffith — Mon, 26 Nov 2012 15:53:21 -0000

Granted, I've only read the first couple of paragraphs of Waldfogel's (extremely interesting) article, but I think there's a problem with at least one of his assumptions--that cash represents the best you can do. His reasoning is that your best case is getting someone what they wanted, so it's equivalent to giving them the cash to purchase it. I'd argue with that (and it's connected with the "stigmatization" of cash gifts).

There's an informational aspect he's not considering; as I have access to markets you do not (and the internet, granted, makes this less so), or at least to information in a market you may not, I may actually be able to buy you a present that you want, but did not know you wanted. In that manner, it is actually more than the cash amount--what the recipient would have paid, plus the informational cost. Granted, that implies putting thought into what someone would like, but doesn't know (or has forgotten) about, but then, that's why it's the thought that counts (and why cash is looked down upon--the giver didn't try to see what they could add to your life, didn't try to use their informational resources to add value to your life--they went for the second best, for what you could have done with the information you had).

So economics doesn't have to be quite so dismal. And by the way, I've taken up knitting, so you've been warned.

Re: Christmas, Hanukkah, and Black Friday Economics

George Scoville — Sat, 24 Nov 2012 11:15:28 -0000

Ha, if only! They keep releasing archival material, much of it in digital format only. The DVDs are obviously physical media, but between those and a lot of the stuff available at LivePhish.com, there's a lot I don't have. A quick look at iTunes, though, shows I have 26.41 GB of Phish music alone, so...

Re: Christmas, Hanukkah, and Black Friday Economics

shiraheden — Sat, 24 Nov 2012 06:47:35 -0000

Wait, how is it possible that you don't already own all of the Phish albums/tour DVDs ever recorded?

Re: How I Voted — 2012 Edition

George Scoville — Thu, 08 Nov 2012 10:35:47 -0000

I have lots of thoughts about that. Aside from allegations of voter fraud sounding like sour grapes, prognosticators on the right aren't very good prognosticators. And this breaks two ways: campaigns and conservative media. The Romney campaign, while light years better than the McCain campaign in how it approached big data analysis, was far behind the Obama campaign, which had been cultivating data as far back as 2010, analyzing who might be a voter, making contact, and then running election simulations over and over and over again to find out where their vulnerabilities were. And then they would adapt and use the data to allocate their field resources. On the other side, Romney's internal polling told the campaign certain things that helped them decide where to spend their resources, but as it turns out, their internal polling wasn't very high quality -- certainly not as high quality as the Obama machine's analysis. Then there was the conservative media problem. Conservative media are happy warriors -- they view their job as helping conservatives and Republicans to push back against a hostile mainstream media. A lot of them did stories based on very flawed data analysis by the campaign, in an effort to help the campaign. Others just wanted to put a positive, principle-based narrative out there, hoping to signal voters that Romney had a chance. But he never did have a chance, mathematically speaking. Spending so much time on narrative-building and not enough time on research and reporting was the great failure of conservative media this cycle. I'll go into more detail in a subsequent post.

Re: How I Voted — 2012 Edition

Kelita Deems — Thu, 08 Nov 2012 09:57:00 -0000

I read a commentary yesterday that suggested major voter fraud - how could so many prognosticators be wrong. Any thoughts on that?

Re: Pre-Election Meditation from The Dangerous Servant

George Scoville — Mon, 05 Nov 2012 16:58:37 -0000

Yeah, the probability that my vote in particular will change the outcome nears zero. It's not as close to zero as, say, an individual's vote in (a) a more populous state, or (b) a heavily partisan state like California. But I'm not sure I'm with you on the "you lose no matter what" deal. If, by that statement, you mean that, according to Duverger's Law, which I link to above, plurality rule elections manufacture two party systems, then as someone who doesn't conveniently fit into either box, I "lose" because my views will never be fully accounted for or represented, then I think you're right. But if you mean that the probability of someone's vote affecting an outcome is meaningful in some way to how closely someone's preference matches the outcome, I don't think that's correct. If Romney wins, Romney voters win regardless of the likelihood that their individual vote won the election for Romney.

On the bit about my vote's value: I take a bit of a contrarian view here, too, because over time, politicians I do and don't support will both win and lose elections, with and without my participation. So the main vote my value has is a value to me: I get to exercise a freedom to participate that not everyone in the world has de jure. Knowing that I have participated has utility in and of itself. So the chief criterion in the rationality calculation will be, "Will voting at all yield enough of this type of utility this time around to make it worthwhile to walk 1/2 a mile to our polling station?"

On the rest of it, I'm totally with you.

Re: Pre-Election Meditation from The Dangerous Servant

Bryan Pick — Mon, 05 Nov 2012 14:27:27 -0000

Your vote almost certainly won't change the course of the election (so "you lose" no matter what), so your vote's value is mainly in what you signal to future contenders, and especially those who will actually make policy.

In case any strategist scans the voter rolls closely enough that they notice the tiny difference you make (which is often forgotten in calculating whether it's rational to vote), hopefully your voting record tells them something about what it takes to earn your vote.

If they don't think they can gain *or* lose your vote, they'll ignore you. If you vote Dem or LP or stay home sometimes, but vote Republican sometimes, then you're sorted into a much smaller group of coveted swing voters, and strategists try to figure out whether they should try to cater to people like you, and whether it's worth even running a particular kind of candidate.

So it's probably best to keep it simple. Think about whether your vote has any chance of signaling to the people who will eventually make policy to act a little friendlier to you. Has the Democratic candidate been more bold than usual in trashing libertarian values or breaking libertarian promises? Is the Republican candidate friendlier toward libertarians than the typical GOP candidate? And does your vote get the LP to act in a way that through *some* mechanism will move policy in your direction?

Re: I am now officially rooting for Romney to pick up...

Jeremy — Wed, 31 Oct 2012 09:33:16 -0000

Damn Shockwave crashing in Chrome. Again.

Re: Photo on the front page of today’s Post invokes...

Sandra Hopes — Sun, 21 Oct 2012 13:19:04 -0000

Um this worked in 2008 for those who are easily influenced, it won't work now, he definitely is not the one, nor an angelic image

Re: THIS is why I’m looking forward to Election Day.

Jeremy — Fri, 19 Oct 2012 13:34:36 -0000

Too bad I can't get Election Day off...

Re: After reading in early September about Nabisco...

George Scoville — Wed, 03 Oct 2012 20:11:32 -0000

You won't regret it unless you overeat them like I did.

Re: After reading in early September about Nabisco...

Jeremy — Wed, 03 Oct 2012 10:09:50 -0000

This is the kind of thing I totally want to try, even though I know if I bite into it my head will spontaneously explode.

Re: What does anarchy look like? This cartoon is...

Jeremy — Tue, 02 Oct 2012 10:50:45 -0000

Thanks for this, George. Haven't gotten a chance to look at it just yet (thanks, Flash!) but I definitely will. We need more minarchists out there.

Re: Cheetah Magazine (À Demain)

KS2 Problema — Sat, 18 Aug 2012 14:28:59 -0000

It was a *very* hip magazine. Not teenybopper at all.

There were articles by and/or about Bill Burroughs, Richard Alpert (Ram Dass), Ken Kesey, John C. Lilly, and many other members of the hipster elite.

The magazine's tone was a considerably more anarchic, but equally arch and often ironic jump-off from the *old* (ie, literate) Esquire.

Re: Robert Reich: Back from Three Weeks Vacation with a Bold Proposal

Dirk Hoag — Thu, 09 Aug 2012 21:58:37 -0000

This would be a nice start. Paid maternity/paternity leave are sorely needed as well.

Re: Housekeeping Notes: Friction Tape, and an Update

Jeremy — Thu, 26 Jul 2012 13:57:13 -0000

The Tumblr type thing (it's called "post formats") doesn't work in every theme, but from what I understand, it works with most.

Should probably also say that it's in Wordpress 3.1, at least, so you may need to update your core Wordpress install.

Re: Housekeeping Notes: Friction Tape, and an Update

George Scoville — Mon, 23 Jul 2012 10:31:45 -0000

I haven't heard of/tried those other WP features. Are they theme-dependent, or universal?

Anyhow, for the first time since 2005, I may be headed for a great social media consolidation.

Re: Housekeeping Notes: Friction Tape, and an Update

Jeremy — Mon, 23 Jul 2012 10:08:46 -0000

WordPress does have the new "aside" feature and those "post types" where they try to incorporate links and media. I think that was their attempt to get on Tumblr's case (though clearly, it wasn't effective.) And there are "Press This" bookmarklets and smartphone apps which can also manage quick posts.

I've been thinking of getting on Tumblr for a long time, but...seriously, I have a Wordpress account at jdkolassa.net, my old Livejournal account, United Liberty, Twitter, Facebook, and Google+...I don't know at this point if I can add on another account. Though I can certainly try.

Re: Silver Linings in SCOTUS Obamacare Ruling

George Scoville — Wed, 04 Jul 2012 00:13:40 -0000

Tom -- Sorry, I can't help you. I supported Gary Johnson in the GOP primary until he left to run on the Libertarian Party ticket. I know better than to waste my vote there.

Re: Silver Linings in SCOTUS Obamacare Ruling

Tom Herron — Sun, 01 Jul 2012 16:56:45 -0000

Hey George, Try and help me out here. I hate what Obama is doing, our economy is already on shaky feet, and he's going to raise taxes on the middle class. Obama straight up lied and there needs to be repercussions at the voting booth.

What I need help with is, what are we getting different with Romney. Mitt Romney was the first one to implement this healthcare in Massachusetts, Romney has flip flopped on many different important issues. Barack Obama LIED to us multiple times and has gotten away with it. How do you know Romney isn't going to do the same thing?

George Bush said that he wanted to be a peaceful nation and not nation build when he was running for President. 9/11 happened and we went into Iraq. Those two things had nothing to do with each other. Yet we were nation building in Iraq during G W 's presidency.

Can you tell me what I'm going to get different with Mitt Romney? Sure he has all of this advertising on the internet about Obamacare and how he is against it, but have you even watched the interviews when he says he's against it? He basically supports everything in the bill, and then says he doesn't like it.

Why should I cast my vote for Romney when his top corporate donor is the same as Obamas?