Nobrainer’s Think Tank

What has gotten into me? I’ve finished 4 books within the last 2 weeks, if not the last 8 days. The good news is that I have fewer unread books lying around. Also, because I’m going to review those books, you’ll get to benefit from my experience. The bad news is that 2 of the books were received in the mail just this week, which means that my pile of unread books is still not much reduced. I’ll try to keep the reviews short and concise, because one thing worse than overly-long, boring book is an overly-long, poorly-written, boring review.

Today I’ll review my favorite of the 4, Bryan Caplan’s The Myth of the Rational Voter: Why Democracies Choose Bad Policies. Caplan basically argues that, taken as a whole, people are biased, people are irrational when voting (which contradicts most modern theories), and that human irrationality is a function of cost. This seems like it should be common sense, but it is not. It then follows that since there is practically no cost to voting any given way, that democracies make bad decisions. Caplan compares the situation, to that of Oedipus; people want both programs that will lead to bad results as well as good results, which means that politicians are damned if they do and damned if they don’t. From this, among other things, it comes out that it’s a really bad idea to let encourage stupid people to vote.

All in all, I liked this book the most of the 4 because I feel it taught me the most. It has given me some things to think about. The book is somewhat dense which makes for slow and thoughtful reading. If your not just a nerd, but a nerd like me, then I recommend that you get your hands on the it, and quickly. Otherwise, I definitely don’t recommend buying a copy and warn you that you might just fall asleep reading it if you find it in your possession.

Apparently, the Huffington Post is still letting the dreadful Bobby Kennedy, Jr., write for public consumption. Apparently he and Brendan DeMelle, whoever that is, have embarked upon writing what may become a series of posts titled “Unearthed: News of the Week the Mainstream Media Forgot to Report.” The Washington Post takes some offense to this. It seems they actually did report on many of the things they allegedly forgot to report.

The concept of a regular feature on News the Mainstream Media Forgot to Report is a good one. But go ahead and scroll through this HuffPo column and what you’ll see, again and again, are links to mainstream media sites, including The New York Times and The Boston Globe.

I have long been frustrated by the way some bloggers viciously deride the MSM even while relying day in and day out on the (expensive) news gathering of the self-same dreadful Fourth Estate. Talk about ungrateful! The irony gets ratcheted to a new level when the bloggers use that news and pretend that they’ve done the legwork themselves.

I believe that much of what the MSM passes off as news is just pure crap (perhaps I’m slightly influenced right now by having just finished reading It’s Not News, It’s Fark: How Mass Media Tries to Pass Off Crap As News.) That, however, does not take away from the fact that they aren’t reporting stuff. Therefore it’s pretty lame to do what Kennedy and DeMelle did.

I generally try to avoid watching CNN (and Fox, and well any “news” that they put on TV). However, airports tend to have CNN Headline News on the TVs near the gates. When I was at the Dayton airport last weekend, after I nearly crapped my pants (speaking crapping your pants, some guy near the doors at the grocery store this afternoon farted. Loudly. It sounded wet. But I digress.), I was subjected to about an hour of CNN. Two stupid things stood out.

The first stupid thing involved everyone’s favorite people, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. The two of them were on the same stage in front of a crowd. However, since the primary is settled, they’re now working together. Let me tell you, nothing says “change” and “new way” and Washington Outsider than joining with Hillary Clinton to bolster your chances in the general election. I might have forgotten about that early-morning thought. However, the editors of the New York Times have noticed, too. According to them, Obama is New and Not Improved.

The second stupid thing was about China. CNN referred to their economy as a “giant.” While the Chinese population may qualify for giant status, their economy really does not. The Chinese economy is big. Depending on your statistical provider, they’re the 3rd or 4th largest economy in the world. Their GDP is about 3.3 trillion dollars. That’s impressive. Or, it is until you compare it to that other economic giant we all forget about. That giant just had a birthday, and oh, by the way, has a GDP of 13.8 trillion dollars. If you haven’t figured it out, I’m talking about the good ol’ U S of A.

Addendum: In what should probably be titled “Geniuses draw straight line”, a think tank has announced that China will have the biggest economy in the world in 2035. Basically, from what I can tell, they found plausible ways to assume that China will continue to grow at ~10% a year until…. well indefinitely I guess. Buncha fucking geniuses there.

Earlier this week I ordered a book, Moneyball, from half.com. It was listed as being in very good condition and priced at 89 cents. About a day later, I heard from the seller. Whoops, they said, they didn’t actually have the book. They gave me two options: either choose a different book from their inventory, or have them refund the order. I chose neither. I replied, “I want the title I ordered at the quality I ordered at the price I ordered.” In other words, I’m saying that it is their obligation to find a new copy for their inventory and ship it to me even if it means they lose money on the deal. That seems fair to me. Heck, I think it should be the half.com policy: if a seller suddenly realizes they don’t have the product they listed for sale, then they should be obligated to buy the next cheapest similar item and then sell it to me at the price originally listed by the seller.

I haven’t heard back from them. We’ll see how this goes.

FOLLOW UP: Having just read The Double D’s comment below, I realized that there is an update to this. Several days after I made my request, I received another email from the bookseller. However, this email was from someone else, and it looked like my original email had gone through several people. Anyway, the new email said basically the same thing as the first one, “would you like a refund or a different book.” I again explained my position, being very careful not to sound like a smartass. After a couple more days I heard back, they said they’d found a copy and ship it right to me.

Right now, 5:20AM, I’m at the Dayton airport waiting for my 6:10 flight to Dulles to board. And I’m damn happy to be here.

Not 5 minutes after I left my parents house, I was cruising down the highway toward another highway which would take me to the interstate. From far away, there was a car stopped up near my exit. Given the distance and the whole it-being-night-thing-at-4AM thing I couldn’t tell exactly where they were stopped so I started to slow down. Then, from the left, a car comes flying from the entrance ramp, over the road, barrels through the median onto my side of the road. The driver then, kinda gained control and then he/she started heading straight for me. I, of course, froze like a deer in the headlights. Fortunately the driver straightened out a bit and passed to my left.

Fuck, that was scary.

If you don’t buy our coffee, we’ll kill you. Got it.