3-12-11 Hodgepodge

Death Threats in Wisconsin

It is remarkable that so soon after leftists unjustly blamed political "rhetoric" for the Tucson shootings, we are hearing reports of death threats against some of the Wisconsin state senators who recently voted to remove most collective bargaining powers for public workers.

"This is another example of the anger which is being spewed by the government unions," [Sen. Glenn] Grothman said. "This has been all about intimidating ... Republican legislators into bowing to the public unions, and it has only steeled our resolve."

Grothman said he is hesitant to completely disregard the threat given the volatile atmosphere in Madison. A note shoved under his door Wednesday night said, "The only good Republican is a dead Republican."

I have, in the past, attributed leftist caricatures of their political opponents as "violent" to psychological projection and heard others do the same. It looks like there is something to be said for that notion.

On a positive note, I am glad to see these legislators stand up to such threats.

Weekend Reading

"If being exploited means being able to schedule an MRI appointment for myself in twenty-four hours with my iPad using the free WiFi at the local coffee shop while sipping on a latte, rather than waiting six months on a government waiting list, I’ll take the capitalist version of exploitation any day." -- Paul Hsieh, in "Socialized Medicine: Theory Versus Practice" at Liberty Ink Journal

"The lesson to heed is we're not stock investors or bond investors or commodity investors. Whether we admit it or not, each of us is an absolute-return investor with one goal only: making money over time." -- Jonathan Hoenig, in "Absolute-Return Investing: The New Black" at SmartMoney

"Cognitive psychology assumes that ideas are the cause of emotions." -- Michael Hurd, in "Figuring out Your Feelings" at DrHurd.com

"Imagine a world without health insurance." -- Yaron Brook and Don Watkins, in "The Road to Socialized Medicine Is Paved With Preexisting Conditions – Part 2" at Forbes

My Two Cents

Brook and Watkins invite the reader to perform a thought experiment in the first line of their latest column, which I quote above. Step One is to put on the shoes of a health insurer. And so it is that the column is the first to my recollection that enables readers to see health insurers as fellow human beings, thereby illustrating (on yet another level) the inhumanity of altruist-collectivist proposals to dictate the terms of health insurance.

Making a Virtue out of a Drawback

I recently discussed why I probably would go with a new netbook over an iPad (or similar device) a while back, but nevertheless found this Lifehacker article in favor of tablets as productivity tools interesting:

Another situation in which the lack of true multitasking is actually good: You're always focused on the one thing you're doing right then.

The "insane battery life" earlier in the article hooked me, but this lost me again. I need multitasking ability enough of the time that this is still a deal-breaker for me.

-- CAV