If someone invented a pill that would add 25 years of robust, perfect health life to anyone who took it but cost $10,000 per month to produce the pill, is society entitled to this pill? That is, should the government, and therefore the taxpayer pay to make sure everyone has free access to such a pill? Clarification: You have to take this pill every month to have the benefit ($10,000 per month for the person taking it).

The technology tree in Galactic Civilizations II is one of the most controversal parts of the game.   For some people, the descriptions of technologies have too much humor which they find off putting.  Others find the descriptions, particularly the early ones, too light on details and phoned in.   For the expansion pack, Galactic Civilizations II: Twilight of the Arnor, we have the opportunity to go back and redo the technology tree.  Most technology description...

The far left in the United States are outraged that Bush vetoed the bill that would have provided "free" health insurance to minors. When these discussions get going, I am always amazed that the obvious solution isn't taken: Start charities that provide health insurance to the "needy". It wouldn't be that hard to do.  Those who really feel strongly about paying for health insurance for other people could donate to these charities. Then, those who wanted said health insurance would sen...

As more reports come out of Iraq, it does seem to appear that "The surge" is working.  The new tactics are working.  Of course, much of the mess the US finds itself in in Iraq is due to the lack of planning and poor handling of the victory on the battlefield in 2003. Al Qaeda moved in and for awhile, it appeared that they were gaining the upper hand. But then they managed to lose the support of even the insurgents who are increasingly seeing that the US doesn't want to be in Iraq an...

In a discussion I had today, an argument was posed: Why do conservatives hate insuring kids? Of course, it's a strawman argument.  Conservatives object to paying for other people's personal decisions.  Having a child, is a choice.  Liberals are overwhelmingly in favor of "Abortion rights" and therefore see having children as a "choice". On the other hand, they apparently against choice when it comes to whether other people should have to pay for the choice a woman m...

In our ongoing series of discussions between me and a group of radical left-wing quasi-marxists, we learn a great deal on the differing viewpoints on how wealth is created and the role of government in our society as well as the contributions of different groups in our civilization. My position is that wealth is created through labor. But the value of that labor varies widely. One person can produce a lot more wealth with their labor than another person can. This is the foundation of why some...

Over at a fringe left-wing site, a discussion on economics recently came up. It was very interesting to see some of the viewpoints on how wealth is created and used and so forth. Here are some of the highlights: Income has nothing to do with it really. Income is only a derivative, the real culprit is WEALTH. Income comes in two ways, (1) from work i.e., being paid for your labor or (2) from WEALTH applied over time, whether you call it rent, interest, capital gains, property appreciation,...

One of the common things you see coming from fringe groups, particularly those on the far left, is that our government is horrible and its leadership criminals and all kinds of assertions that the world has gone to hell in a handbasket. But do they really believe this?  If they do, and yet do nothing, would that not make them cowards?  If you really believe that our government has become a fascist, evil, force for evil in the world or is indeed the biggest threat to world peace but ...

The song about Delilah that's been on the radio was written about a girl who isn't interested in the guy. As a result, someone came up with a hilarious parody of the song that is in response.

The song about Delilah that's been on the radio was written about a girl who isn't interested in the guy. As a result, someone came up with a hilarious parody of the song that is in response.

For a fascinating series of examples of how really REALLY far-left debaters think and behave, especially when confronted with alternative points of view, check out the comments in this article: http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thread/10079#comment It is extremely interesting to read how they think but also how intolerant many of them are to opposing points of view. 

I merged the two hives -- just in time as the queen in one of the hives had died.  I am pretty confident one of the hives will survive the Winter but I have reservations the other honey bee hive will make it but I'll do my best. Next year I plan to try to get up to 5 hives.  My friends think I'm nuts (they're probably right). I don't really like honey, I'm in it for the bees. We need them (they are the primary pollinator of flowering plants including much of our food supply) ...

Why don't garbage men or teachers or factory workers make as much as CEOs? We need teachers right? Our society would get pretty dirty in a hurry without garbage men and the things we rely on every day wouldn't exist without factory workers.  How can we justify living in a world in which some CEO makes 1000X as much as these people? A garbage man doesn't make as much as a CEO because the number of people who can be a garbage man are far more than the number of people who can be a CEO. ...

The smirking chimp is a site dedicated to not just insults of President Bush but also of promoting radical left-wing nonsense like the article "When the rich make too much money". It never ceases to amaze me to see someone write, without irony on a computer, built by companies started by people who are now "rich" full of components made by companies whose founders are "rich"  running computer software made by companies whose founders are "rich" complaining how unfair it is that there a...

Lots of coding in Twilight of the Arnor this week. One thing we're putting in is right of passage treaties which should make a lot of people happy. But as we've been playing around with things, we've come to realize that what is going to make Twilight of the Arnor so spectacular is not the unique technology trees unto themselves but rather the planetary improvements and ship components that these unique tech trees can deliver. For this reason, we're going to have a beta next month for peop...