Classic Books In Three Lines

Ha! Here’s Orwell’s 1984 distilled down to a haiku:

WINSTON: Don’t tell the Party, but sex is way better than totalitarianism.
EVERYONE: Surprise! We’re the Party.
WINSTON: Oh, rats.

Biodiesel: You Still Can’t get Something For Nothing

The next great idea: use the world’s zillions of acres of fallow farmland to grow diesel fuels. Friggin’ brilliant!

A billion acres of farmland around the world have been abandoned and could now be used to grow biofuel crops, a new study suggests.

One of the criticisms of biofuels such as ethanol from corn or rice is that the crops eat into land that could be used to grow food, which is increasingly in short supply globally, causing frustration and hunger that have led to protests and riots. The alternative of clearing forests to grow biofuel crops is unacceptable to many.

Yet somewhere between 1 billion and 1.2 billion acres of agricultural land is lying fallow, the study finds. That compares to about 3.8 billion acres that are currently in use.

Shortage of land is not the issue. Profitability is. The only reason we grow corn here to make into biofuel is because our government subsidizes it. But it isn’t profitable. Especially when there are untold zillions of barrels of energy-dense fossil fuels to be had at a price that is still cheaper than biodiesel. At the moment, the only way to make biodiesel widely available is for governments to steal the means of production at which point political expediency will trump saving the planet (whatever the definition).

Philadeiphia’s Wall Murals Also Its Newest Religion

Philadelphia started its wall mural program in blighted areas in an effort to send a positive message to impoverished inner-city kids. I recall seeing them painted on the walls of housing projects way back when off of Vare Ave as I sat in traffic on the Schuykill Expressway. But don’t dare contract with the owner of a privately-owned building to paint your own mural without permission from your overlords.

In a city famous for murals, some recent paintings on the sides of businesses and abandoned buildings seem to blend with Philadelphia’s urban landscape.

But a closer inspection shows them to be advertisements for Pabst Blue Ribbon beer and Colt 45 malt liquor, which are brands sold by Pabst Brewing Company. They appear to be part of a national marketing campaign by the Illinois-based company.

Several business operators said they were paid to have the ads painted on their buildings and were told or assumed that it was legal.

However, the city’s Department of Licenses and Inspections said they are breaking the law.

Meanwhile, put that same artwork on a billboard and it’s ok. Go figure.

When Anti-Gun Rhetoric Fails, Try Class Warfare

Or so goes the reasoning of Karen Heller at The Inky:

Aaron McKie grew up in Olney, went to Gratz High, graduated from Temple, and was a valued guard for the 76ers, named NBA sixth man of the year for the 2000-01 season.

On Monday, he was arrested after allegedly lying in the purchase of two handguns, a .38-caliber Smith & Wesson and a 9mm Ruger.

“Unfortunately, Philadelphia’s become a pretty dangerous place,” his attorney Brian McMonagle said, “and for athletes like himself, there’s certainly no good reason for them not to try to protect their families and themselves.”

McKie no longer lives in Philadelphia. He resides in a $1.8 million, 7,417-square-foot French colonial with five bedrooms and 61/2 baths in the bucolic burg of Narberth. So danger is less likely to come from thugs than from deer.

Karen, the whole debacle stemmed from the sham that is gun control. The man shouldn’t have to justify owning a gun (or his mansion)  to you or anyone else.

Supremes affirm second amendment, still manage to get it wrong

Chris Manion reports on the lewrockwell.com blog that the Supreme Court has upheld the Second Amendment (gee, thanks!) with the majority and minority from the Boumadiene decision on habeus corpus exactly reversed. Yet as unsettling as that is, what is really a worrying prospect is that both the majority and the minority have fundamentally flawed ideas about the scope (it is designed to constrain the feds only), the nature of the right, and the plain wording of the amendment;

“Justice Antonin Scalia, writing for four colleagues, said the Constitution does not permit “the absolute prohibition of handguns held and used for self-defense in the home.”

You’re damn right it doesn’t, but it also doesn’t permit the prohibition of any weapon used for any non-criminal purpose, by any person, you ignorant jerk.

“In dissent, Justice John Paul Stevens wrote that the majority “would have us believe that over 200 years ago, the Framers made a choice to limit the tools available to elected officials wishing to regulate civilian uses of weapons.”
He said such evidence “is nowhere to be found.”

Um, Justice Stevens, have you actually READ the document in question? What part of “the right to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed” don’t you understand?

Thanks in part to the heroic efforts of Ron Paul and others, the average garbage collector has a better grasp of the constitution than these nine enshrined eminences.
Will someone please save us from this court?!

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/business/AP-Scotus-Guns.html?_r=2&oref=slogin&oref=slogin

UPDATE: Our friend Stephan Kinsella disagrees; according to his reading, the thugs in the government of DC have plenary power, so the Second Amendment does not apply;

http://www.lewrockwell.com/blog/lewrw/archives/021701.html#more