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Two Essays on Objectivist Ethics
Two essays from Ayn Rand's The Virtue of Selfishness are reprinted in Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal as the ethical basis for her moral defense of capitalism. "Man's Rights" and "The Nature of Government" are pedestrian defenses of a natural law conception of man's natural rights and of a concept of government that mixes enumerated powers and individual rights with the Weberian concept of the state. In positing individual rights and enumerated powers as defenses against arbitrary exercise of power, Rand employs arbitrary qualifiers in her concept-building, rendering her definitions of crucial terms meaningless for both practical and political purposes.
http://www.kuro5hin.org/story/2008/11/18/194559/27
2008-11-21 6:3:8
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Beefeater's holocaust
A recent episode of Boston Legal featured a courtroom drama where a farmer filed suit in order to be able to test all of her herd for BSE1/vCJD, the agent which causes "mad cow" disease (otherwise known a bovine spongioform encephalopathy) in cows and variant Creutzfeld-Jacob disease in unfortunate beefeaters. In TV land, the farmer won and was allowed to test her herd and advertise the results. In reality, the USDA prohibits testing of cattle for BSE (except by the USDA) and the FDA has refused to even allow applications by biotech/pharma companies for newer generation quick blood and tissue tests for BSE.
http://www.kuro5hin.org/story/2008/11/18/154445/99
2008-11-21 6:3:8
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Why the Big 3 Bailout is Bullshit: Cadillacs Made in China
First, they say that between 160,000 and 3 million manufacturing jobs are on the line, but then turn around and blame the unions (the organization that represents those workers). In fact, foreign (mainly Japanese) automakers employ almost as many Americans as the "Big 3" do (113,000). Helping GM, Ford, and Chrysler could actually hurt those American auto-workers at non-Big 3 factories. Moreover, even according to optimistic estimates, the crappy clunkers Detroit has been making for years will be far less feasible in the coming worldwide depression than the smaller, cheaper more sensible Japanese brand cars which are (by % of parts/labor) MORE AMERICAN than the "American" cars. (GM parts are often made in China, whereas cars like the Honda Accord are 70% American-made).
http://www.kuro5hin.org/story/2008/11/18/93514/227
2008-11-21 6:3:8
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FreeBSD Owes Apple Big
The other day, while booting my eight-core 3.2 GHz Mac Pro with 32 GB RAM, I watched my system startup messages (nvram boot-args="-v") and thought of Darwin's origins at NeXT as a pastiche of academic research and hacker hobby. Darwin has come so far and exhibits the best of long-term software engineering. But while thinking of how far Darwin has come, I also thought of all it has given back to FreeBSD. By the time my Mac had loaded my desktop, I was at work researching just how much FreeBSD owes Apple.
http://www.kuro5hin.org/story/2008/11/17/16268/141
2008-11-21 6:3:8
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Let The Games Begin
First off, I WAS COMPLETELY WRONG. So much for predictions of a year and a half ago. Looking back it's easy to see what happened. There is a collective sigh of relief throughout the U.S. and most of the world as Obama became President-elect Obama. Even so there is still 40+% of America that voted for McCain. President-elect Obama's calls for national unity will likely not last more than 30 days past his inauguration. I hope I am wrong.
http://www.kuro5hin.org/story/2008/11/8/132750/758
2008-11-21 6:3:8
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The Silver Lining for California's Gay Marriage Ban
On election day, Californians narrowly approved Proposition 8, an initiative to amend the state constitution to include "only marriage between a man and a woman is valid." Undoubtedly this vote was a setback for gay rights throughout the country, but upon closer inspection there is a lot of silver lining in the results.
http://www.kuro5hin.org/story/2008/11/6/45342/9914
2008-11-21 6:3:8
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I'd never vote for a black President
The Presidential race between Barack Obama and John McCain ended just like the polls said it would, and now, come January, we're going to have the first black president in the White House. I know this because the headline article at Fox News is titled Obama Wins White House, Becomes First Black President. Oh Boy!
http://www.kuro5hin.org/story/2008/11/5/24836/2086
2008-11-21 6:3:8
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Official K5 2008 Election Poll
Election Day arrives tomorrow. Since we're human, we try to predict the future. Usually it's pretty easy: fall follows summer, which is followed by winter. It's not a good practice to plant your seeds in the fall, and our future-seeing abilities alerts us to better courses of action. Inside: The Official K5 U.S. Election Poll and a book passage on future-seeing. If the election goes to the courts à la 2000, I'm sure they'll decide by looking at our humble poll.
http://www.kuro5hin.org/story/2008/11/3/14210/9972
2008-11-21 6:3:8
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One conservative's case for Barack Obama
Let me begin with the observation that "morality" is just the way class warfare is done in the United States of America. (Caution. Possibly offensive language ahead.)
http://www.kuro5hin.org/story/2008/10/31/9105/9154
2008-11-21 6:3:8
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Vietnam's "Tits or GTFO Law" Abandoned
Communist health officials in Hanoi have reluctantly agreed to abandon an 83-point plan to make small-breasted driving illegal in the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. Tits within.
http://www.kuro5hin.org/story/2008/10/30/41220/671
2008-11-21 6:3:8
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