For those of you who don’t know her, she is a beautiful, wonderful, smart young lady, and she has been a blessing in my life. If you have a chance to get to know her, I suggest you do. You won’t regret it.

In fact, I wish you could all get to know her and find out what a beautiful person, both inside and out, she is.

Here is a photo of her from a few days ago, taken on my phone:

Happy Birthday, Amanda!

Here are the three speakers we had:

Dr. Bradley Birzer, History:

Dr. Charles Steele, Economics:

Dr. William Morrisey, Political Science:

We had a great turnout. Around 65 people showed up and filled the room we were in, even though today was a busy day at Hillsdale. The talks were excellent, and provoked some thoughtful questions. The event was a success!

If you have time, read this post Dr. Birzer had yesterday at De Regno Christi, entitled “The Priest, the Prophet, and the King.”

I tried it this evening, and it is relaxing, calming, and wonderful. Life can get so filled with things to do and deadlines to make that we never stop to actually think. Think and nothing else. After a stressful week, it was nice to reflect for a while.

Though I am, in terms of technology, an unapologetic modern, I still find value in turning some things off for a little while and having uninterrupted thought, free from the distractions of the modern world. If I knew I would not miss something important, I would like to turn my phone off and stop checking my email for a few days. The only problem I have is that technology is so ingrained in my life that if I shut off my phone or email, over 90% of my communication would be cut off. Perhaps this is a good thing, but not something I can do during school. Maybe I will give it a try over Christmas break or the summer.

Has anyone else tried this? How did it go? I am interested…let me know in the comments.

Dr. Ebeling is a prolific author, former president of the Foundation for Economic Education, and professor of economics at many different institutions, including Hillsdale from 1988-2003. In 1996, he and his wife, Anna Ebeling, obtained the lost papers of Ludwig von Mises, which had been kept in a formerly secret KGB archive in Moscow for 50 years. Dr. Ebeling is now on the faculty at Northwood University in Midland, MI.

If you are interested in what Dr. Ebeling had to say tonight, read this article he wrote yesterday.

Read these articles. They are very good. I had to read three of them recently for class, and the fourth I came across a little over a week ago.

Menger: On the Origins of Money (PDF)
Hayek: The Use of Knowledge in Society (PDF)
Horwitz: Subjectivism (Google Book)
Buchheit: Applied Philosophy, a.k.a. “Hacking” (HTML)

I apologize for the lack of new photos and decent thoughts this week. I plan to get out and take some photos this weekend, when I won’t have more exams hanging over my head.

The only worthwhile thought I have right now (worthwhile to this blog, that is) is that you should not trust the hype about the 3.5% increase in GDP last quarter. Do some research and see where it actually came from. I will give you a hint: Individuals’ consumption levels stayed roughly the same, investment stayed roughly the same, and net exports roughly stayed the same. What changed? Government spending! Does this mean things are getting better? No. In fact, unemployment went up last quarter.
Beware of Christina Romer going on national news and trying to convince you that things are a lot better since GDP went up 3.5%. “It just ain’t so!”

- – - -
Exams finished this week: 2.
Exams left this week: 1.
Days to study left: 2.

Oh, and I decided to fight the ticket I talked about a few days ago. My court date is set for Nov. 24, three weeks from today.

What’s new today: Exam number 1 of 3 for the week is finished! Now I have the Austrian Economics exam on Tuesday, and a Constitution exam on Friday. This week has been busy so far!

My cousin HankD made this zombie/skeleton by hand!

It was excellent to be home, even if for a little while. My wonderful Mom did my laundry (thank you!) and cooked a delicious meal before I had to drive back to Hillsdale this afternoon.

The Spider Holster finally came out today! I’ve been looking forward to this since the spring, but now that it finally came out, I am waiting to buy it. Even the cheapest version (just the holster, nothing else) is more than I want to spend right now. I am excited that it is finally out, though!

I decided at the last minute to drive home today and go to HankD and Jackie’s (my cousins) halloween party. I am glad I did! I had fun and enjoyed seeing everyone. Above is a photo I took of my Dad’s jack-o-lantern. I placed a strobe inside of it, a smoke machine behind it, and two skulls and a candle beside it.

Their yard looked pretty awesome:

After talking to a few professors, friends, and my advisor, I finally worked out my schedule for next semester, The number after the class name denotes the number of credits it is worth:

Symbolic Logic (3)
Theory of Probability (3)
Sophomore Math Seminar (1)
Intro to Philosophy (3)
Intermediate Macroeconomics (3)
Austrian Economics II (3)
Philosophy and Literature in Comics (1)

I think I am most excited about Logic, Probability, and Austrian II. In Austrian II, we read through and discuss Mises’s Human Action in a small group. The math seminar will focus on proof writing, oral presentations, literature research, and using programs like Mathematica to enhance our math skills. It is geared for math majors/minors. As of right now, I am working on a math and economics double major.

He gave a very interesting talk on structural activism and the seasteading movement. The talk was the culmination of his past few years of thought on how to change political structures in order to maximize freedom in a society while still maintaining the stability of that society. While significant work has been done on how to set up political systems to preserve a high level of freedom and stability while minimizing coercion, little –if any– work has been done on how to actually get to political systems like this. Until now. That’s where Friedman comes in.

Does this interest you? If so, check out Friedman’s essay from April on the topic of structural activism and why he thinks it is the only way to make systematic changes that will lead us to a realistically freer world in our lifetime. The essay is basically an outline of what he spoke about on Tuesday night. Also check out Let A Thousand Nations Bloom.

After reviewing the code, I believe I was not in violation of that code.
Here is the situation: A vehicle in front of me stopped to make a left turn off of a two lane road into a driveway. There was a line of vehicles in the other direction, so it was clear he was going to sit there for a little while. The shoulder was fully paved, and as wide as a normal lane, so I slowed down and went around the vehicle in front of me–on the right. I thought this was perfectly okay, but apparently not. A State Patrol car happened to be traveling in the other direction and pulled me over immediately. I was not speeding, I was wearing a seat belt, and following all other traffic laws. The only thing I was cited for was passing on the right. The Michigan Vehicle Code has a clear exception for passing a vehicle on the right if that vehicle is making a left turn. The code also states, however, that “the driver of a vehicle shall not overtake and pass another vehicle upon the right by driving off the pavement or main-traveled portion of the roadway.” I did not drive off the pavement (the very wide shoulder was paved), but a shoulder is not technically the “main-traveled portion of the roadway.” Still, the vehicle in front of me was making a left turn, I slowed down, and was fully on the pavement.

Should I challenge it? My ticket is $100 and there are no court costs involved if I decide to schedule a hearing, so the most I can lose is $100 plus my time in the hearing. How much of a chance do I have of winning the case? I realize the odds are stacked against me, as it is my word against an officer of the state’s word and another officer of the state’s interpretation.

By the way, since I am an out-of-state driver, the court needed either $50 or my driver’s license as bond, to make sure I pay the ticket. Since I did not have $50 in cash on my person, I had to hand over my license, so I have to at least pay $20 to get it back. If I lose the case, that $20 goes towards my total $100 fine. (I was told I am allowed to drive without my physical license for the time being. If I am asked for it, I just need to show the ticket I received, which shows that my license was posted in lieu of bond.)

What do you think, should I challenge it, or suck it up and hand over $100?

My friend Kahryn:

Dr. Hutchinson’s class:

1: ISO Expansion
In normal mode, the 40D only shoots in ISOs 100-1600. Once ISO expansion is turned on, ISO 3200 is made available, denoted as ISO H. This is a HUGE help in low light situations, especially capturing action, such as football games under the lights or indoor volleyball games.

To turn it on:
Menu > Scroll over to the Custom Functions menu (the orange square with the camera) > Select C.Fn I: Exposure > Set > Scroll over to 3: ISO Expansion > Set > Select 1: On > Hit Menu to go back to the regular menu.
There you are! You can now shoot in ISO 3200! (I suggest using something like Noise Ninja in your post-processing to clean up some of the additional noise.)

2: Highlight Rendition
This little known setting improves the details in highlights. You won’t notice a difference in most shots, but it becomes wildly apparent when shooting photos with strong highlights, such a sunset lighting up a few select clouds with others in shadow. Ken Rockwell has a great writeup on this setting.

To turn it on: Menu > Scroll over to the Custom Functions menu (the orange square with the camera) > C.Fn II: Image > Set > 3: Highlight Tone Priority > Set > 1: Enable > Hit Menu to go back to the regular menu.
As Ken Rockwell points out, this setting won’t help you if you overexpose a photo, and it limits your ISO from 200-1600 if you have it on. I only turn it on when I notice a scene with strong highlights I want to get more detail in.

Introduction to Anarchy and the Law: Ed Stringham

Anarchist Theory FAQ: Bryan Caplan

What it means to be an Anarcho-Capitalist: Stephan Kinsella

But Wouldn’t Warlords Take Over?: Robert Murphy

A 5-part series from Stefan Molyneux:
1: The Stateless Society
2: Caging the Devils: The Stateless Society and Violent Crime
3: These Cages are only for Beasts
4: Disproving the State
5: The Stateless Society Fights Back – Answers to Common Questions

Small Town Anarchy: J. L. Bryan

Anarchy, Anarchy – Wherefore Art Thou?: Wilton Alston

About Market Anarchism: Molinari Institute

Anarcho-Capitalism: An Annotated Bibliography – Hans Hoppe

Center for a Stateless Society

These past few days in Hillsdale have been beautiful! Check out William Clayton’s blog to see a beautiful Hillsdale autumn photo. I even had class outside yesterday! (The seminar I was in is not the one pictures on Will’s blog. Dr. Wenzel gathered us around a tree because Dr. Smith already took the amphitheater.)

The Chicago skyline on a dreary day, taken from the Chicago St. bridge over 90/80. EDIT: 90/94.

Downtown urban art: This robot character was made out of the same thing the reflective lines on the road are made of. Evidently, someone got his hands on some of it and made these characters. I saw them all over downtown.

Inside Cloud Gate (The Bean) at Millennium Park

Eleven City Diner is great! It is a Jewish deli/diner with excellent food. I had a double decker corned beef & pastrami sandwich, and I tried a few other things. Here are a few photos from my phone:

After lunch, we walked down Michigan Ave down to Millennium Park, then took the river architecture tour. I have some really cool photos from today, which I will upload over the course of next week.

Right now, we are on our way to dinner, then a house party down to street to hear some live music.

Tomorrow night, I will be back at Hillsdale.

EDIT: We decided to go see Where The Wild Things Are and then eat Chinese food at midnight, rather than go to the house party.

I slept in, then got up and ate brunch at Jam, a trendy little spot in Ukrainian Village, just a few blocks from my cousin’s house. The food was excellent–great coffee, a tasty chocolate raspberry muffin, fingerling potatoes, and a spanish omelet with chorizo, roasted peppers, melted onions, and garrotxa cheese. The restaurant was really neat, with small tables, clear plastic chairs, and chefs out in the open.

After brunch, I decided to walk in the drizzling rain down to Michigan Ave (about 3 miles) to where Ryan works. It stopped raining about halfway there, and it stayed nice for the rest of the day. I visited Ry’s office, visited a bunch of stores down Michigan Ave. I carried my camera around all day, so I have a bunch of photos! I will post some when I get back to Hillsdale…the internet here is not very reliable.

Ryan’s girlfriend Carrie met us for a dinner of deep dish pizza at Lou Malnati’s. It was my first time eating it, and it was excellent! Later, we hung out at Carrie’s house for a little while, then went to the Blue Man Group show at the Briar St. Theatre. I had a great time!

Tomorrow, we are going to devour some hot wings at Jake Melnick’s, then visit some museums.

By the way: Another printed version of The Onion came out today! I was excited to find that. I really enjoy The Onion.

I got stuck in traffic outside of Chicago for about 40 minutes, then once I finally got to Ryan’s apartment, I just hung out until he got home. I planned on going exploring, but it was raining all day, so I just lounged around. After he got home from work, we went for a walk and ended up eating at The Silver Palms. The dining area is actually in an old railroad dining car from the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad. Apparently the restaurant was featured on Anthony Bourdain’s No Reservations. Ryan ordered the Three Little Piggy sandwich, which is a huge sandwich stuffed with smoked ham, pork tenderloin, bacon, and gruyere cheese, all topped off with an onion ring and a fried egg. I ordered the Smoked Meat sandwich, which is corned beef brisket, grilled onions, and gruyere cheese on pumpernickel. We ended up splitting the sandwiches, so we both are half of each. I liked mine better, but his mountain of pork sandwich was pretty good, too.

On the walk back, I found a newspaper box that had paper copies of The Onion, so I am looking forward to reading that later tonight.

I have very sporadic and unreliable internet at his apartment, so I might not be uploading any photos while I am here.

Plans for tomorrow: Visit Ryan’s office, walk around Michigan Ave. and take photos, eat deep-dish pizza, and go to see Blue Man Group!

Besides lots of sight-seeing, photographing, and eating, I plan to update my photography portfolio here on my site while I am there. I have not updated it in a year, and my skills have improved in that time. I have a lot of photos to take out, and a lot of photos to add. I will post it when I get it finished.

Here are some photos from the alumni football game last weekend. All previous Hillsdale football players were allowed to participate in the event. Guys ranging from their mid-20s to mid-50s showed up to play.

Now, for the regularly scheduled program:

4 photos from the Charger Blue & White meet last Saturday:

In other news:
2 exams down, 1 to go, and one paper to finish before I leave for Chicago!

∆T∆’s representative, Taylor Gage, was Homecoming King:

The Chargers had a victorious win over nationally-ranked no. 1 team in division II, the Grand Valley Lakers, this afternoon. The Chargers broke the Lakers’ 48 regular season game winning streak. What a wonderful homecoming! Read about the win at the Hillsdale College athletics page.

How, then, do we account for people who are stuck in a routine (i.e. walk the same way to class every day, go through the motions, eat the same thing almost daily, etc)? Is that routine irrational because it is not a systematic way of making choices, and one does it without thinking? At what point does a decision become a routine? Why is it rational one day because it is based on a systematic choice, and irrational the next day because it is part of a routine and not thought about?

After much thought, Professor Lea remembered an answer Hayek had to a similar question: individuals economize on brain power. This means that people go through a routine because it requires less brain power. Scarcity is a reality for brain power, too, so whenever individuals can economize on it, they do. This manifests itself frequently when individuals are involved in projects that take a lot of thinking.

I recognized it about myself when I am writing papers–I don’t think about small details like where I am going to eat for dinner. I just pick somewhere close and eat something on the menu that I frequently eat. When I am writing a paper, I try not to devote a lot of power to deciding on small details like where to eat, what to wear, where to study, etc. I just pick the first available option (within reason) in those cases.

Individuals aren’t being irrational, for the most part, when they follow habits or routines. Yes, those individuals are not making active choices and weighing the costs and expected benefits, but they are economizing on brain power and falling back on choices they previously made. This has huge implications which I will cover another time.

I have a very busy weekend coming up. I have three big exams on Monday and Tuesday of next week, a paper due Wednesday (which was just assigned last night via email), and a number of homecoming photos to take and edit for the college by Monday.

I had to do portraits of the guys nominated to the homecoming court here at Hillsdale. I took all of the of the photos outdoors. Taylor Gage could only meet me at night, so I got creative and did a little strobist work with a flash off-camera left.

A side note:
I am in an epistolary communications class and I love receiving letters. Here is my address if you want to send me one. (I will reply by letter, too!)
Chuck Grimmett
Simpson 308 B
300 N. West St.
Hillsdale, MI 49242

After a meeting of the Classical Liberal Organization tonight in which a few people confused this, I feel the need to say something about this:

Aggregates don’t act. Aggregates don’t make choices, laws, invade other countries, or have rights. Only individuals which make up those aggregates make choices, act, have rights, and the other things that follow. Groups don’t do things. Individuals inside groups do things.

This has all kinds of implications which I will leave you to ponder. I am open to any questions, just email me or post a comment.

Oh, and here is something else which is also commonly misunderstood: a change in price does not change demand, only quantity demanded. Raising the price of ice cream will not change an individual’s demand of ice cream, only the quantity he or she demands. Think about it.

South quad and Lane Hall:

Grewcock Student Union and North quad:

Delp Hall:

Plumb line to tell if Central Hall is leaning (Don’t worry, it isn’t!)

Behind the West clock face:

(Just so people know, there are some birds in the photo. It isn’t sensor dirt!)

After much rest, NyQuil, water, and Emergen-C, I am finally feeling better. Good thing, because I have the first round of midterms over the next week and a half!

I don’t smoke, so it took me a week and a half to hear about this. This ban is garbage. I have a feeling that the FDA is just getting started with its regulations. Since a lot of people have a negative view of smoking, this was probably pretty easy to push through Congress. The oppressors legislators probably gave speeches about how smoking is ruining the health of Americans and how we need to do something about the number of young people starting to smoke.

I venture to say that the ban has very little to do with trying to stop kids from smoking and almost everything to do with finding an excuse to regulate the tobacco industry. I asked some of my smoker friends if they started smoking flavored cigarettes, or if they knew anyone who did. None of them started with flavored cigarettes or knew anyone who did. Most of them have tried cloves, but thought they were gross. Granted, this is a small sample, but I think this might hold for a lot of the youth in America. Furthermore, flavored cigarettes are more expensive, which is a huge drawback for young smokers. Think of what kind of beer young people primarily drink – Natural Light. Why? It is dirt cheap. For the most part, young smokers are not going to routinely buy more expensive flavored cigarettes. They are going to buy the cheap stuff.

Also, if the regulators really thought that flavored tobacco is what lures young people to smoke, why is every kind of flavored tobacco besides cigarettes untouched? I know a number of people who started smoking different kinds of cheap cigars (Black & Milds), then turned to regular cigarettes.

Again, just so I am clear, I don’t smoke, and I don’t think other people should smoke. That said, I do NOT want to use the government in any way to force people to stop. The government reaching out its oppressive hands and regulating industries does far more harm than possible good, even in this situation.

Here is what I predict will happen:
There won’t be a statistically significant change in the number of young people who start smoking.
–When the FDA figures this out, it will roll out more regulations under the guise of “protecting” America’s youth.
Smokers of flavored cigarettes will switch over to flavored cigars or flavored pipe tobacco, or roll their own cigarettes, if the flavor is what they are really after.
–With the increased usage of other types of flavored tobacco, more regulations will come.

Since the The Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act is a blanket regulation that leaves the possibility open of fully regulating the tobacco industry, I predict that we will see more and more tobacco regulations coming in the next two years. (I say two years because I think the government is inefficient and it will take them a little while to get around to it, luckily.)

Do you think I am overreacting? It is just a little ban for the common good, right? Wrong. The door of regulation is now wide open. In the last year, Congress managed to move its way from regulating the financial sector to the auto industry, and now they gave the FDA the right-of-way to even more closely regulate what Americans consume.

Americans, hold on to your freedoms while you can. I fear that it won’t be long before most of them are gone.

I never realized how easy my Mom made being sick. I could stay at home and rest while she took care of me. I didn’t have to walk across campus to eat, I didn’t have to drive to pickup medicine, and I didn’t have to worry about anything other than getting better. As this is my first time being legitimately sick at college, I never thought about those things. Something as simple as making tea is a lot worse when you are sick and incoherent. Mom, I appreciate how much you took care of me when I was sick at home!

I’ve been taking NyQuil, DayQuil, lots of vitamins, drinking lots of fluids, and getting extra sleep, so hopefully I will feel better in the morning. I don’t have a fever, so I think this should pass quickly. It has been a rough 2 days so far. I miss my Mom.

Today is the birthday of the great Austrian economist, Ludwig von Mises. Read reflections on Mises at ThinkMarkets and The Austrian Economists.

Unfortunately, I didn’t have time to make a celebratory visit to the Mises Room in Hillsdale College’s Mossey Library, which is home to Mises’ personal library. I will have to do that tomorrow. I did read a part of Human Action today, though!

Photo by Shannon Odell:

The Dark North “is a burgeoning apparel and entertainment outfit with aims to discover and promote emerging talents, be they musicians, athletes, designers or anything in between.”

Check out the Collegian article, and visit The Dark North.

(Sorry about the low quality photos.)

WilliamClayton.com
William Clayton’s photo blog. I link to this often-it is worth visiting. I learn new things about photography every day from William.

LifeAbundant
My suitemate Zach Howard’s academic, religious, and political thoughts aimed at learning to live well.

Shannon Odell
Shannon Odell’s photo blog. She is an excellent photographer with a style all her own. Check out her work.

Stormfields
Dr. Birzer’s blog: “An irregular blog, of sorts, dealing with culture, religion, western civilization, etc.”

HoldFast
Sam Branchaw’s thoughts on current events, culture, books, politics, movies, and “anything else that [he] can apply biblical thinking to.”

Liz Essley
Liz Essley’s journalism blog.

The Sigdorian
Adam Peterson’s writings on subjects all across the spectrum.

Laffy Taffy
Hillsdale graduate Rebekah Wilhelm’s blog of weekly poems and wonderful recipes.

Ambrotos Photography
Jan Wanek’s blog on photography (not necessarily a photo blog).

Burt Folsom
Dr. Folsom’s political and historical ventures.

Hopefully the college will use some of my photos of students studying outdoors in its publications soon!

A Pigeon can transfer data faster than South Africa’s Telkom : Now might be a good time to start investing in infrastructure in South Africa, provided you can get around the regulations of oppressive states.

The current issue of Studies in Emergent Order : Yes, orders emerge. Read about it!

21 great photos and how they were taken over at the Digital Photography School

Mary O’Grady on Mexico’s useless war on drugs at the WSJ : Why do states still waste resources on this nonsense?

Texas Stadium Fail at Failblog : Time to stop using Windows.

This semester’s first issue of The Collegian came out today! I am excited to take pictures for them this year–we have a great photo crew! (Also, some great writers, too!) Check out The Collegian online, at HillsdaleCollegian.com.
Also, I had this photo run on the front page today:

It finally stopped raining, and it was a beautiful day today. Many students were studying out in the sun on the quad this afternoon. Caroline (above) didn’t mind me taking photos of her. Natural lighting, f/2.8, 1/500, ISO 100. Click on the photo to view it at a larger size.

Check out the archives of these posts. They are really interesting, and usually things we take for granted, but would not have if it were not for capitalism!

This idea is kind of what yesterday’s post was about. The answer to my question is that the two photos are identical. I made a duplicate of the same file and posted them both. Even though they are the same photo, 5/10 people who left comments (and one person who did not comment) “found” something different about the two photos. Why? The only explanation I can come up with is that they must expect something to be different. Otherwise, why would I ask what is different, right? I did a little research to see if someone has published work on this type of thing, and the only thing I found was the subject-expectancy effect, which might help explain why 6/11 people saw differences between two identical photographs.

Not until a few days ago did I fully come to terms with the idea that “no solution” (or, to the above questions, “nothing is different”) is a perfectly valid answer that should be seriously considered all of the time. I realized this when I was doing my linear algebra homework. I was trying to find an answer to a problem, and after a few attempts, I was getting frustrated that I was not getting an answer. I thought my math must have been wrong, so I poured over my work trying to find an error. Finally, it dawned on me that there could be no solution to the problem, which is a perfectly valid answer. Sure enough, there is no solution to the problem. I had a few more problems with no solution that night, so now that possibility is always in the back of my mind.

Anyway, the point I was trying to get at (if it is not painfully clear) is most questions have the possibility of having no answer, so we should always consider that possibility. Don’t trick yourself into finding answers that are not there.

By the way, I think horoscopes are utter nonsense. Most of them are written so vaguely that it is almost impossible not to find a way your “reading” relates to your life. It ties in to what I wrote about above: some individuals expect the horoscopes to relate to their lives, so they play Leonard Nimoy (In Search Of…) and find a way to tie the horoscope into their lives. It blows my mind how many people read horoscopes every day and believe them. Remember, it is possible (and the real answer, in my opinion) that horoscopes are arbitrarily written and have no relation to your life. Don’t trick yourself and find something that is not there.

By the way, can anyone recommend any work that has been done in this area? I did quick research, but did not find anything. I would appreciate anything you can recommend.

A side note:

The 2010 New Internationalist Planner is now for sale! (The reason I am so excited about this is because the project Sean Nelson and I started, Illum, has two photos in there, and the photos are part of a display page on the planner’s sale page!) You can also buy the planner from Borders. By the way, I do not necessarily agree with most of New Internationalist’s views, but I am pretty excited that they wanted to use two of my photos for an international planner.

A quick note: I had a guest post on William Clayton’s blog yesterday!

I took some shots of the frisbee golf course at Baw Beese Lake this afternoon. This guy was really good.

In other news, I tried swing dancing tonight. It turns out I am terrible at it. I wish I was better!

By the way, the entry on the Team Fortress 2 hats is ridiculous.

I took this on my phone when I was walking Amanda back to her dorm after dinner. This makes me smile.

Today was the first day of classes at Hillsdale! It is time to hit the books. I already have homework and reading piled on for Friday. I am excited about my classes, though, and I am looking forward to a wonderful semester! (The photo above is my roommate Trevor, studying away.)

I installed Snow Leopard the day after it came out, since I was on a retreat in the middle of the woods when it was shipped. I can tell a major difference in how fast my computer processes and exports photos, and I like the new Expose and contextual menu layouts. The upgrade was definitely worth $30.

I start classes tomorrow!

I am on my way back to Hillsdale today. After I get there and unpack all of my stuff, I am going to Michindoh on a retreat with the honors program.

I packed all of my stuff today for my return to Hillsdale. My friends Aaron and Jayme are staying at my house tonight and we are all driving up to Hillsdale in the morning. I am excited!

I had a wonderful evening with Amanda. We went out to dinner, shopped a little while at Crocker Park, and then saw Julie & Julia (it is a very long movie!). Tomorrow, I pack, then pick up Aaron and Jayme at the airport, then we are all driving up to Hillsdale Thursday morn!

Here are my 2002 and 2009 Sky Lift photos:

This morning/early afternoon, I went to Ashland with HankD and Jackie to go to Fin Feather Fir Outfitters. While in Ashland, we stopped at Ashland University, where Jackie went to college. Above is a photo of one of the buildings on campus.

A note on my Palm Pre: I found out today that it is possible to put the phone into developer mode and install third party apps. My Pre just got 20x better! This is wonderful, as the Palm App Catalog is still in beta form, and has very few apps. Visit PreCentral.net to see how to do it.

As of right now, I have a Google Voice app, a better Twitter client, a DOF calculator, a tip calculator, a scientific calculator, a unit converter, a Google Mobile web apps launcher, an iTunes remote, an IP address revealer, a flashlight app, and a quick dial application installed.

Motivational speaker and football champ Joel Penton spoke to the incoming freshman at Amherst High School today.

Impulse buy of the day: Pepsi Natural.

My Mom and I went to Target to pick up a few things, and I saw Pepsi Natural sitting on the shelf. I’ve heard of the Pepsi Throwback and the Mountain Dew Throwback (which was excellent, and I heard it is coming back for 8 weeks in December!), but this was the first I’ve heard of Pepsi Natural. I decided to buy a pack of four bottles. The minimalist label instantly pulled me in, then the ingredients set the hook: all natural cola made with sparkling water, natural sugar, and kola nut extract. Also, it is in a glass bottle! I am a sucker for things like this. I am normally not a big Pepsi fan (besides for the occasional Mountain Dew and Sierra Mist Ruby Splash), but I decided to give this a try.

The taste test: It is a lot smoother than regular Pepsi–no bite like the regular variety. The color is a lot lighter, too, so there is less carmel coloring. In fact, there is apple extract and carmel for coloring instead of just carmel. If someone put Pepsi Natural in a glass and asked me to identify what major soft drink it is a variety of, I definitely would not pick Pepsi. It actually reminds me a lot of a diluted Coca-Cola Blāk, Coca-Cola’s coffee flavored cola. Pepsi Natural has hints of coffee and a slight nutty flavor mixed with other spices, which I can’t put my finger on. It is pretty good, though.

According to Pepsi, it is only available in ten regional markets: Chicago, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Los Angeles, San Diego, San Francisco, Seattle, Portland, Las Vegas and New York. If you want to try some, order it online, or take a road trip!

The clean bottles:

Corks soaking:

The wine:

Adding sweetening and flavoring:

The bottling bucket:

Bottling:

And finally, corking:

My Dad:

Some of the family:

Chuck returned from his annual trip to Lake Chautauqua at 1:30 this afternoon and stopped by to visit me for an hour or so. I was sitting outside reading while my family’s dog, Otto, patrolled the front yard and chased away squirrels. Otto is easily excitable and has not done well with Chuck in the past; he jumped, slobbered, and mouthed his way onto Chuck’s bad side. Chuck was always very patient and tried to pet or play with Otto to calm him down but it never seemed to work. Today, however, we decided to take a different approach and follow the advice of dog behaviorist, Cesar Milan. Chuck was instructed not to “look, talk, or touch” until Otto was in a calm/submissive state. Once Otto calmed down Chuck fed him Cherrios to build his trust. This worked wonders and I am happy to say that Chuck and Otto are finally on good terms. In fact, Otto became so comfortable with him that he decided to lay down at his feet. It will be interesting to see how he reacts the next time Chuck comes to visit.

1. Government can provide you with absolutely nothing except that which it has first taken from somebody else.

2. A government big enough to give you want you want, is big enough to take everything you have.

3. A free people are not economically equal, and an economically equal people are not free.

Before I begin, I want to remind you to put your emotions aside while you read this, and remember that I think that having health problems is a terrible thing, and I feel for those who have health problems and have problems getting insurance coverage. I am just arguing that using government force is not the way to fix this, and might actually make things worse.

Also, before I begin, this is from HealthReform.gov: “Under health insurance reform, insurance companies will be prohibited from refusing coverage because of someone’s medical history or health risk.”

Now, to what I wanted to say:
Insurance companies are in the business of taking on risk and providing compensation for some sort of specified loss. Those firms’ livelihood depend on their ability to calculate risk and gamble on it. Look at, for example, housing insurance in known high-risk flood areas. Most insurance companies will not insure homes in these areas. The companies know the home will likely be washed away in a flood and, if they choose to insure it, they will have to rebuild it every few years. Insuring homes like this frequently would probably bankrupt a company. Remember, insurance companies are gambling. They look at the amount of risk they are taking on and make decisions on who and what to cover based on how much and how often they will have to pay out.

If you are playing poker and know you will not win the hand, do you fold or call? If you are concerned about your money, you fold, obviously. If you are concerned with giving money to someone else at the table, you call. This is just a hunch, but I am pretty sure insurance companies are concerned with their own assets. They are not insuring you because they want to help you…if this was the case, they should just hand out money to everyone around. They are insuring you in order to make money by providing a service to you. If they think that insuring you is not a good investment, they will not do it. They do not make money by paying out more in claims than they can possibly bring in. They avoid paying out more in claims than they being in by rationally selecting who they will insure. (If you think insurance companies should be there to help you instead of make money, get in contact with me. I would like to explain some things to you.)

How does an insurer rationally select (in the case of health insurance) who it will insure? A lottery system is a bad plan, as it will just provide a smaller, but very similar sample of the general populous. Instead, insurance companies look at health history, lifestyle, etc, and calculate the risk of insuring someone. Frequently, these companies decline to insure people with pre-existing conditions, or people with lifestyles which will likely lead to health problems. Or, if it does insure these people, it weeds out more of them in another way: price. Typically, health insurance premiums are higher for smokers, because smokers are more likely to have health issues. This works in two ways: it discourages smokers from seeking out health insurance from these firms (and causes some to stop smoking), and the firms get more money from the smokers it does cover, so it does not lose as much money. Either way, it keeps more money in the firms’ accounts. The more they can select who they cover, the less they have to pay out. This keeps them in business.

To take it into other areas of insurance: Why do insurance premiums go up (or your coverage dropped) if you frequently get speeding tickets, DUIs, and get in accidents? The insurance companies know you are a higher risk, so adjust accordingly. Should the insurance company be forced to provide car insurance to known DUI offenders? I think not. Should insurance companies be forced to cover homes they know will be wiped out by floods roughly every three years? I think not. Why, then, should insurance companies be forced to cover people with conditions that make them a high risk for making future insurance claims? (I want it to be known here that I am not equating people with medical conditions with DUI offenders or houses that need rebuilt every three years. Look beyond the particulars here to the underlying components here.)

Now, what will happen if these firms are no longer allowed to select based on if someone has pre-existing condition? I see two things happening. The first is that premiums will sky-rocket. The second is that, over time, insurance companies will stop providing health care insurance all together. Medical/health insurance will give them huge losses, so they will drop that all together and stick to insuring other things. Should this happen, only one provider of health care coverage would be left: the government. It bothers me to think about that, but I am pretty sure that is what would happen. Back to the flood plain example: who provides low cost home insurance in known flood plains? The government. Other insurance companies can’t afford it. Only the government can because it is taking the money from your pockets at the point of a gun. This is what I dislike the most. If you are okay with the government taking your wealth, we have a lot more to talk about. Please contact me.

The current health care reform may not look like a government take over, but I fear that it might be in the near future. A take over of the health insurance industry is not explicitly written into the reform bill, it does not have to be. If the government makes providing health insurance no longer profitable, it will no longer happen privately.

I would like to point out that there have been a lot of particulars brought up by individuals in the government in order to get people upset about firms selecting on the basis of pre-existing conditions. Here is a quote from HealthReform.gov: “But a pre-existing condition does not have to be a serious disease like cancer or heart disease. Even relatively minor conditions like hay fever, asthma, or previous sports injuries can trigger high premiums or denials of coverage.” I am not in the health insurance industry, but some of these ‘conditions’ seem a little harsh to limit covering someone because of. I am not advocating, however, that the government regulate these companies and force them to stop their selecting practices. There are other ways of getting the company to change its ways. Stop buying insurance from them. Threaten to stop buying from them. Picket them. Send them millions of letters. Just don’t use force to get them to change. Providing insurance should be a voluntary thing, on both ends, not a forced thing.

Here is a shot of me riding the jetski:

While Brad and I were out on the boat this afternoon, and the sky and radar was clear when we went out. We ate lunch out on the lake (some sandwiches we picked up earlier) and all was well. We were a good distance away from the dock, and we kept traveling farther away. All of a sudden, one of us looked back, and the sky behind us was very dark and ominous-looking. Not wanting to get soaked, we decided to make haste back to the dock and try to beat the storm. We had to head into it, but we hoped we could go fast enough to get through it before the rain started coming down.

As we went into the dark clouds, I think we went through the actual front. As soon as we went into area covered by dark clouds, the air was instantly cooler and the wind hit us. Within a few minutes, the rain started to pour. Then it started to pour really hard. That would have been fine with us for the rest of the trip back to the dock, but lightning was coming down pretty close around us. Close enough that the thunder was shaking us. Luckily, there was a restaurant on the lake with docks we could tie to and get away from the lightning as quickly as possible.

We ended up ordering a few appetizers so we weren’t just using the restaurant as refuge. Luckily, the storm passed as quickly as it came. I checked the radar, and another line of storms was on its way, so we hightailed it to the boat and motored back to the dock. Just as we got back, the second line of rain came in, so we made it back just in time.

For the rest of the week, we will be a little more attentive to what is happening with the weather. Hopefully I will have some more photos tomorrow!

Though utilitarian arguments are useful for certain situations, I think individuals defending liberty ought to seldom use them. Most utilitarian arguments are single-use, since they are special tailored to each situation. If you are going for a one time, quick win, utilitarian arguments can be very useful and the statistical evidence can be easily shown to everyone. Defenders of liberty, however, need to focus their arguments a little more long-term. The downside to using utilitarian arguments is that, because they are tailored to each situation, one might need many additional arguments in the future for all the new situations that arise. “You’ve won the battle, but not the war” seems to fit this–a utilitarian argument shows why one should support/oppose X but usually says little to nothing about all situations similar to X but with different particulars.

Philosophical arguments, on the other hand, strike at the root of the issue. If one can convince others that X is wrong on philosophical grounds, other arguments in the future on issues with similar foundations can be avoided. Instead of convincing people that your position on a single issue is correct, you can convince them that your philosophical outlook is correct and it will cover a whole range of issues.

As for arguing against the proposed healthcare reform, instead of attacking it as costly and poorly designed, defenders of liberty should try to convince people using one of these arguments or something similar:

Using coercion to justify and fulfill one’s preferences is wrong.
Stealing money from individuals to support other individuals is wrong.

Of course, there are many other ways to argue against the proposed health care reform. Here is a good article I recently read from the Center for a Stateless Society on a market anarchist approach to health care.

Also, Sean and I will have a light graffiti photo coming out soon in the New Internationalist 2010 planner. As soon as I can get my hands on one, I will post a shot of it.

I am on my way to Chautauqua Lake with Brad tomorrow for a week. I look forward to a nice week of relaxing, taking photos, fishing, kayaking, and discussing economics! I will be back either the 15th or 16th, then I leave for college the 27th.

My number is: (440) 941-7247

Call, text, or leave me voicemails!

Anyway, while I was at a fairly deep bend in the river, I spotted a large brown animal on the east bank in front of me. As I got a little closer and saw its tail, I realized it was a beaver! I was delighted to see one, as I heard they were making a natural comeback in the area. I had my Dad’s camera in the dry bag, so I quickly got it out, but the beaver saw me and slipped into the water before I could take a photo. I did see its handy-work on a couple trees right next to where I spotted it, so here is a shot of a tree gnawed by the beaver:

St. Joseph Church in Avon Lake:

Angie & Bill:

The happy couple cutting the cake: