On the seasteading blog.

It's not as good as the Bush/Kerry video that launched Jib Jab to prominence, but their McCain/Obama "Time for some Campaignin" is amusing at least.

I was excited about Obama for a little while after reading his platform, but with the FISA flip-flop, Biden pick, and dishonesty, the gloss is gone. And even when I liked him, it wasn't enough to overcome my preference for divided government. So I'm very much rooting for McCain, since the Dems will clearly control Congress.

As a politician-hater, all this stuff about inexperience (Obama's & Palin's) seems ridiculous. I'm supposed to think it's a bad thing that a candidate hasn't had much practice at stealing my money and taking away my freedoms? Sure, in the occasional situation where I want the government to do something (smack down Russia, make sure Iran doesn't get nukes, help North Korea join the modern world) experience is nice, but those situations are relatively rare from my perspective. Mostly I want the President to have a nicely muscled veto arm.

It seems like a fitting description of the Bush/neocon legacy that both parties are running on a platform of "Hey, we're really different from those guys!".

[Bad username: dagon.net] had a really good response to my whiny post about democracy:

The abuses that outrage you (and me) seem to happen in the absence of democracy as well. I hesitate to say that this is the inevitable result of humans living together, but it seems wrong to lay the blame fully on democracy.

I do agree that democracy is not the most important element that's made things so good (relative to everything else tried so far). Common acceptance of rule of law, equal treatment, and constitutional limits on democratic actions are far more important than voting. And it's the erosion of these that cause the problems. Democracy turns out not to be immune to erosion of these ideals, but it's hard to see it as the cause.

I think it's a really good perspective change to say "Democracy is only a partial solution", rather than "democracy is the problem."

Because, after all, democracy isn't the problem, unless you compare it to some impossible ideal. Compared to recent alternatives like communism, monarchy, and feudalism, democracy is a huge improvement. Democracies kill less of their own citizens, less of other people's citizens, and trample on people's rights less than any other form of government which has been found [1].

I may complain a lot about all the crappy things, but I'm delighted to live in a democracy, particularly the USA. Back when I was thinking about expatriating, I did a bunch of research, and it turns out that the USA is a pretty damn free place to live compared to the rest of the world.

But just because democracy is the best solution yet doesn't mean it is the ultimate one. As I like to point out, it is far, far from the ideal. Democracies still do lots of awful things to their citizens, including things we associate with more primitive governments, like physically beating political opponents, hauling people off to forced labor camps (prison labor may not be as bad as working in Siberia under the USSR, but it's still a forced labor camp!), shooting innocent citizens, giving the police a special protected status above and beyond that of ordinary citizens which let them murder innocent people and get away with it, time and time again....I could continue on this note for a long time.

Still, while it is easy to get caught up in criticism, I think it is much healthier and more accurate to look at democracy as a flawed solution, rather than the problem. The problem is some aspect of human nature, that some people, given the opportunity, will rob, cheat, torture, and kill other people. It's our nature as humans to crave power and resources, and a good system harnesses that selfishness to maximize some combination of wealth, happiness, freedom, security and equality for all. (the good things). When bad things happen under democracy, they happen because it is not perfect at restraining the bad elements of human nature, not because it is causing problems.

I think seasteading is a better solution, but what it is a better solution for is the problem of how to organize human society to maximize good things. It is not a solution for the problem of democracy - that's a dumb way to look at it which I fall into sometimes.

[1] Maybe Iceland was better, but one country is not enough of a data point. And Hong Kong may have been better, but just because the occasional dictator turns out to be benevolent doesn't make dictatorship a good system, since you can't count on benevolence.

A couple studies have come out recently showing that substituting protein for carbs at breakfast helps people eat less calories during the rest of the day and lose weight.

So if you eat a high-carb breakfast, and you'd like to make a simple change that may help you lose some weight, try replacing your bagel/cereal/toast with the Ultimate Breakfast Food - eggs. Hopefully you'll notice increased alertness during the morning, and less need to snack.

While I only eat breakfast once or twice a week, I do put a little protein powder and milk (~50-100 calories) in each of the 2-3 cups of green tea I have between waking up and 2pm, on the theory that having some protein while (mostly) fasting will reduce muscle loss. Guess it decreases appetite too!

The stakes are pretty small, but Pokerstars has an 8-game mix including NLH, PLO, and the usual limit suspects (THORSE, I think).

Fun! They change games every 6 hands.

These "peace officers" could use some obstruction of bullets by their heads.

Nicole was videotaping. Her tape of her own violent arrest is chilling. Police in riot gear charged her, yelling, "Get down on your face." You hear her voice, clearly and repeatedly announcing "Press! Press! Where are we supposed to go?" She was trapped between parked cars. The camera drops to the pavement amidst Nicole's screams of pain. Her face was smashed into the pavement, and she was bleeding from the nose, with the heavy officer with a boot or knee on her back. Another officer was pulling on her leg. Sharif was thrown up against the wall and kicked in the chest, and he was bleeding from his arm.

I was at the Xcel Center on the convention floor, interviewing delegates. I had just made it to the Minnesota delegation when I got a call on my cell phone with news that Sharif and Nicole were being bloody arrested, in every sense. Filmmaker Rick Rowley of Big Noise Films and I raced on foot to the scene. Out of breath, we arrived at the parking lot. I went up to the line of riot police and asked to speak to a commanding officer, saying that they had arrested accredited journalists.

Within seconds, they grabbed me, pulled me behind the police line and forcibly twisted my arms behind my back and handcuffed me, the rigid plastic cuffs digging into my wrists. I saw Sharif, his arm bloody, his credentials hanging from his neck. I repeated we were accredited journalists, whereupon a Secret Service agent came over and ripped my convention credential from my neck. I was taken to the St. Paul police garage where cages were set up for protesters. I was charged with obstruction of a peace officer. Nicole and Sharif were taken to jail, facing riot charges.

By all means, act like this towards the people who are rioting, breaking things, burning things, and assaulting police. Those people are bad guys. But when you act like this to someone just for filming, or just for being somewhere, then you are the bad guy.

"Peace" officers. Yeah.