31.3.06

Old, but still good

From ThePain with love... or something.

26.3.06

Mere stor kunst inden sengetid

Presenting, The Order of the Stick, by Giant in the Playground Games.

25.3.06

Exam time

I've been meaning to blog on the UN report about the cartoon 'controversy', but with my exams approaching, I'm chronically short on time (hey, at least this time I have a valid excuse).

Besides, Ed Brayton (at Dispatches) says it more eloquently than I could.

I might come back to blog a little about the politizising of the 'issue', however, since I've noticed that this interesting topic is hardly ever discussed.

But that'll have to wait until after the exams.

24.3.06

Hands up, who's surprised?

The fascist swine Ahmed Akkari - spokesswine for the Danish Society of Fascist Imams - has issued threats of murder against Danish politician Naser Khader. That is not surprising. That Akkari is a fascist swine is well known. That the Danish Society of Fascist Imams is an organisation of fascist swines is likewise well known. That fascist swines consider threats of murder a legitimate political tool should not come as a surprise. That has, after all, been a consistent trait throughout the history of fascism.

In fact, there are only two things to say to this:

To Naser Khader, I say: May your life be long and happy. I respect and admire you enormously, and it would be an irreplacable loss for the Danish political life if you were to retire from politics (or be retired by fascist swines like Akkari or their SturmAbteilung goons).

To the fascist swine Ahmed Akkari, I say: Since I, unlike you, am a civilised person, I will not advocate sending goons to silence you. But make no mistake. I do hope to live long enough to piss on your grave. I would take the greatest pleasure from burying you with your head in a pig's ass and wrapped in dog excrements.

"Først så ta'r vi Laban i hans fede ben - herpå ta'r vi Akkari og slår ham med en sten, så hænger vi Hitler i en strop - ved siden af Abdul Wahid, så bli'r de rent til grin - de fire nazisvin,"

13.3.06

One GoogleBombing coming right up

This post at Pharyngula about the Sexist Asshat, William M Napoli, Sen. (R) - who's surprised?, SD, appeals to the reality based community and the pro-civil-liberties part of the Blogosphere to GoogleBomb the Sexist Asshat, William M Napoli.

I hereby join the recommendation: All who care about protecting civil liberties and enforcing the Cairo Protocol should place a link somewhere on their website saying Sexist Asshat, and linking to the Sexist Asshat, Willian M Napoli.

11.3.06

More Crap from the Culturally Corrupt

Via The Mad Biologist, I learned of a post on Daily Kos that frankly pissed me off.

By this time, there is very little in the pressure-cooker that passes for a political climate on the other side of the Pond that can surprise me, or seriously raise my blood pressure. But this is one of them.

I wish that I could say that this is an unprecedented escalation and that the Bush Regime is now taking anti-democratic methods to a new high.

But I can't and it isn't.

EDIT: On a lighter note, if this kind of crap was sent in the mail to people in Scandinavia, my bottle of beer says that the idiot responsible would get chucked out of his/her party faster than you can say 'unsolicited bulk mail'.

The Mad Biologist has some fine thoughts...

... here, on the subject of crank economic 'theories.'

There is one or two things about the Laffer curve that bother me, which The Mad Biologist doesn't write about.

The first is that there is nothing in the model that justifies assuming that there is only one maximum.

Rather than being subdivided into two monotonous parts, it could be divided into any number of such, and still obey the boundry conditions.

This would (for example) be the result if more than one tax-rate-dependent effect (tax evasion) played into the equation.

One could easily imagine that shareholders (for example) would increase profit margins as taxes went up. There is a distinct possibility that this would slow down the economy, thus reducing revenue.

But if this effect essentially levels off at some point before tax evasion becomes a real problem, you'd get a seperate maximum due to this effect.

In fact, I can see no justification for assuming that it should even be single-valued (although it's probably safe to assume continuity). Common sense tells us that there is considerable hysteresis and a lot of transients in the tax system.

If you change a tax, it takes a while for society to react to the change (the transients).

For instance, if you make a government-induced price hike on gas, it will take time for people to begin consuming less gas (for one thing, much of the car fleet would have to be changed).

The car fleet could also provide an example of hysteresis. If car manufacturers had developed a gas-saving car as a result of demand provoked by a gas-price hike, there is no reason why the consumer should change back to high-consumption cars when the gas tax is abolished.

Thus, we see that the neat, smooth Laffer curve is complicated by a non-trivial evolution in time, the problem that you have no way of being sure that you're heading towards or away from the global maximum, the fact that the time to achieve equilibrium conditions might exceed the lifespan of any given taxation policy and the fact that society will not simply return to the status quo ante when you repeal a law...

Blasphemer!

OK, this is taking the freedom of the Blog too far! Surely, the freedom of the Blog should not be used to depict the holy FSM is such a deregatory manner!

\end{thick irony}

1.3.06

Ooops

Elendige amatører. Nu kan de flagafbrændende fascister rundt om i verden ikke engang finde ud af hvilke flag de skal sætte ild til...