Kyle Varner’s Blog

posted by Kyle on Aug 2

As someone who travels internationally with great frequency, I was disturbed (but not surprised) to learn of an official policy at the Department of Homeland Security that allows this wretched entity to conduct electronic searches with no evidence of suspicion. They may seize laptops, cell phones, PDAs and the like, without evidence, and keep them for months or even longer, until they see fit to return them.

The Washington Post Reports:

Federal agents may take a traveler’s laptop or other electronic device to an off-site location for an unspecified period of time without any suspicion of wrongdoing, as part of border search policies the Department of Homeland Security recently disclosed.

Also, officials may share copies of the laptop’s contents with other agencies and private entities for language translation, data decryption or other reasons, according to the policies, dated July 16 and issued by two DHS agencies, U.S. Customs and Border Protection and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Other reasons? What other reasons? As written, the policy is a blank check to allow these thugs to do anything they want. It is downright creepy.

Even creepier is the fact that the higher-ups defend their practices as necessary to keep us safe.  I don’t know if they actually believe that, but I sure as hell don’t.  The US Government is far more dangerous than Al-Qaeda!

posted by Kyle on Aug 1

Introducing…the newest topic of my blog: The Top 5. There are a lot of great bloggers out there, and I always find a number of their posts very interesting. So, I’m going to start linking to the most interesting ones! I’m going to try to do this every week, but I make absolutely no guarantees that it will happen every week. I am a busy man, but I’ll do what I can. I’m hoping to have two Top 5 posts per week: One on medicine and one on politics and philosophy.

So, here is my inaugural Top 5 political and/or philosophical blog posts for this week! Keep in mind that the order in which they appear is not an attempt to rank them. This is just an attempt to share with my readers what I have found most interesting this week.

“Voters’ Preferences are Not One-Dimensional”

From: Cafe Hayek

Don Boudreaux of Cafe Hayek posts a letter to the editor of the Wall Street Journal discussing voter preferences. He argues that simple votes do not indicate the so-called “will of the people” because they do not take into account the intensity of voter’s preferences. Boudreaux goes on to explain (outside of his letter) that the number of people who decide to show up and vote does something to indicate what the will of the people is. I think that this is a very valid point. Boudreaux goes on to suggest that this may be a valid argument against the notion that voting is a civic duty.

I must wholeheartedly agree with Boudreaux: most voters should excuse themselves from politics, because they do not understand what they are doing. They don’t understand the nuances of the candidates’ plans, nor do they understand the primary principles upon which our Republic is based. This is, of course, especially true of the vast majority of Obama’s supporters who are being led about by his oratory prowess and empty rhetoric.

Social Welfare is a Red Herring: The Return of Feudalism

From: The Last Psychiatrist

The Last Psychiatrist has a fascinating take on social welfare, where the author dissects the motives of those who advocate socialism, specifically in health care. He is right on the money with regards to their motives—they are more interested in punishing capitalists than in improving the well-being of individuals.

He begins by stating, “The policies sound good, and perhaps they would be, if not for the malignant intentions that motivate them.” He is right: their intentions are malignant. I, however, don’t think their policies sound good, and they would most definitely not be good. Nonetheless, this piece is well worth reading.

Swimming in Government Waste

From: The Mises Institute

The Mises Institute (one of the most important modern intellectual defenders of liberty) discusses government pollution in Ohio. They point out that while a for-profit business could never get away with pumping sewage runoff into rivers, but somehow its OK if a government entity does it. I am always fond of such examples. It is a wonderful illustration of why the government is the last entity to which we ought to look if we are in search of a healthy environment.

Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them—Anti Biotech Edition

From: Reason Hit and Run

I love it when the anti-genetic engineering crow gets called out on its lies. These people are not interested in safety, or in human welfare, they are interested in recasting man in Rousseau’s image of the Noble Savage. While this article makes use of data provided by government agencies, which is notoriously suspect, the data is the best we have available, and the data sources are known for exaggeratin, not downplaying, the dangers of technology. Almost fifty years with no reports of adverse effects is pretty damn good in my book.

Penn Jillette on Bloomberg

This came to my attention on the Bob Barr for President Blog. I am a huge fan of Penn Jillette and the Penn and Teller show. Penn is an outspoken advocate of reason, and I think he has reached a large number of people with his unique style of humor and serious intellectual argument. I couldn’t embed the video here because bloomber has it disabled on their youtube channel, but just click on the link above.

By the way: I will be casting my vote for Bob Barr.

posted by Kyle on Aug 1