Nobrainer’s Think Tank

Probably the best ~30 minutes of video I’ve seen on the internet in quite a while.

I’ve said it. You’ve said it. Our mothers have said it. Our fathers have said it. Our fathers’ brothers’ cousins’ nephews’ former roommates have said. And it’s stupid. There shouldn’t be a law.

Why? Because people who make laws say that. They believe it. Then they make a law. It’s usually a stupid law.

For example, mandating child car seats. They’re expensive, bulky, and not necessarily a major safety improvement. And they’re often misused. From an article in the St. Paul Pioneer Press:

The Minnesota Safety Council estimates more than 80 percent of child car seats used in Minnesota are not properly installed.

I was just about mention that Freakonomics talked about car seats and their worthlessness a bit. So I just went to their blog to search for any content they had about car seats. Well “search” turned into the 2nd visible post on their blog today. Consumer Reports recently found:

When we crash-tested infant car seats at the higher speeds vehicles routinely withstand, most failed disastrously. The car seats twisted violently or flew off their bases, in one case hurling a test dummy 30 feet across the lab.

CONGRATULATIONS! You just spent your money on a government mandated piece of shit! But remember, car seats are for “the greater good” and “for the children” and “for the future.”

But there was another article that caught my attention today. In part it was because a drunk crashed his truck and collapsed a whole bridge. But as I read it commented on his BAC.

A preliminary breath test at the crash site showed Campbell’s blood-alcohol content at .21, nearly three times the legal limit of .08. He blew .13 after completing field sobriety tests and a Datamaster test showed .147.

Hows that for accuracy and precision! Do the police use the average? The min? The max? The median? The mode? The average was .162 with a standard deviation of .042… or about 25% of the average. Hey, it’s close enough for government work!

And I almost forgot to rant about other stupid legislation, such as nutrition labels and movie, tv, and video game ratings. What has this information done? Made us fatter and focus on adult, R-rated, and most extreme video games. FUCK YEAH!

“You know they’re not gonna saw your hands off here, alright? The worst they would ever do is they would put you for a couple of months into a white-collar, minimum-security resort! Shit, we should be so lucky! Do you know, they have conjugal visits there?”

That of course is part of the conversation from Office Space where they talk about stealing a whole boatload of money.

It turns out that things may be even better in real life:

A U.S. appeals court will allow ex-Enron Chief Executive Jeffrey Skilling to stay out of prison while it considers granting him bail…

Skilling attorney Daniel Petrocelli told the paper he found out Monday evening the Fifth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals would allow Skilling to remain under house arrest while it considers granting him bail during his appeals of fraud and conspiracy convictions.

A Houston jury convicted Skilling in May.

Since being sentenced in October, Skilling has been under house arrest in Houston and required to wear an electronic monitoring device on his ankle.

I bet his pad is a real dump, too.

Last week, the legislature of Maryland overrode a veto to enact a new bill designed to affect only Wal-Mart, which employs 17,000 in the state.

The bill will require private companies with more than 10,000 employees in Maryland to spend at least 8 percent of their payroll on employee health benefits or make a contribution to the state’s insurance program for the poor. Wal-Mart, which employs about 17,000 Marylanders, is the only known company of such size that does not meet that spending requirement.

Surprise surprise, the bill “drew strong backing from labor unions and health care advocates.” The labor unions and invasive government know how to run your business better than you do! So there! Nana-nana boo boo!

Will Wal-Mart close stores? Doubtful I say. Raise prices? No. Will they find ways to need fewer employees? To some extent I’m sure. But what’s my prediction? A net loss of freedom for Wal-Mart employees. Yes, the unions and stupid politicians have just legislated a loss of freedom for the workers they believe they are protecting!

Stupid law leads to unintended stupid consequence.

Here’s what I mean. Wal-Mart has a very simple solution, should they choose to implement it. They don’t need fewer employees at all. They have to get their health benefit spending up to 8% of payroll. By summing payroll and the amount of current health benefit spending we have total compensation. All Wal-Mart has to do is keep the total compensation the same while changing the ratio between payroll and health benefits. Other than updating some data in the computers, Wal-Mart won’t have to spend a dime. Meanwhile, the employees will simply see their paychecks decrease.

But hey, at least they’ll have more health care.

Addendum: Now if I ran Wal-Mart, here’s what I would do. I wouldn’t touch wages. And I would increase health benefit spending. But I’d only spend that money on management and executives. I’d give them ludicrous health care packages. And I’d do it just to spite the Maryland legislature while living up to the letter of the rifuckingdiculous law.

• Bush made his next SCOTUS nomination. Similar to the first one, I’m left wondering who the person is, and how on Earth can I tell if she is or is not a good nominee.
• Clemson football is an annual effort in self-inflicted pain. Every loss puts me into a funk for the better part of the following week. I think I’d rather get kicked in the nuts, or even get dumped by a girlfriend. As bad as those things can be, I’m smart enough to crawl back looking for more, time after time. Surely I could invest my time in something that is much more worthwhile.
• Seatbelt laws have been on my mind. I no longer accept the “good for society” type arguments that accompany them. The laws are an infringement of freedom. Wide acceptance of laws designed to protect citizens from themselves will ultimately prove to severely limit how we live our lives. The cost of freedom is allowing others to do what they want (within reason), no matter how much you disagree with them.
• I think I’m almost starting to understand some of this php stuff.
• My (still somewhat incomplete) wish list. The holidays are approaching
• I need a digital camera, too. Any suggestions out there? Good storage, some amount of zoom, small size, and low price would be nice. I haven’t looked at any at all. I should really start somewhere.

Points to the lawyer who thought this one up.

DUI law ruled unconstitutional
Va. presumes guilt if blood-alcohol level is 0.08, a judge says

BY MATTHEW BARAKAT
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Aug 12, 2005

McLEAN — A Fairfax County judge has ruled that key components of Virginia’s drunken-driving laws are unconstitutional, citing an obscure, decades-old U.S. Supreme Court decision that could prompt similar challenges nationwide.

Virginia’s law is unconstitutional because it presumes that an individual with a blood-alcohol content of 0.08 or higher is intoxicated, denying a defendant’s right to a presumption of innocence, Judge Ian O’Flaherty ruled in dismissing charges against at least two alleged drunken drivers last month…

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