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Via The Agitator.

I had my first real taste of the world of Rugby last night, in the classic Maroon & White game here in Aggieland. The vital stats:

20 minutes of gametime
1 bobbled ball (called a “knock-on” which is not good)
1 missed tackle (a clutch one too)
1 concussion
1 fumble recovery turned into a positive gain after I juked and then pitched the ball to a teammate

I played on the “White” side and we lost every round (of 4).

No sweat though. The girls (and no, they aren’t all lesbo dykes) played their first cup game against Texas Tech and defeated them 17-0 (three try’s [touchdowns] and a conversion). It was a fantastic game to watch as they totally put the smack down, using clothes-lines, Heisman stiff-arms and good ole fashioned grab-their-shirt-and-slam-them-to-the-ground tactics.

There really hasn’t been much going on in the world aside from the latest apocalypical hurricane or 60 Minutes Rathergate boring controversy.

I’ve taken some cool pictures of various events I’ve been apart of and will try to get them online, no nudies yet, but I’m working on it.

TBN’s Promise: Send Money and See Riches:

Pastor Paul Crouch calls it “God’s economy of giving,” and here is how it works:

People who donate to Crouch’s Trinity Broadcasting Network will reap financial blessings from a grateful God. The more they give TBN, the more he will give them.

Being broke or in debt is no excuse not to write a check. In fact, it’s an ideal opportunity. For God is especially generous to those who give when they can least afford it.

“He’ll give you thousands, hundreds of thousands,” Crouch told his viewers during a telethon last November. “He’ll give millions and billions of dollars.”

Preachers who pass the hat while praising the Lord have long been the stuff of ridicule in film and fiction. But for Crouch and his Orange County-based television ministry, God’s economy of giving is no laughing matter. It brings a rich bounty, year after year.

Crouch has used a doctrine called the “prosperity gospel” to underwrite a worldwide broadcasting network and a life of luxury for himself and his family.

For at least a century, preachers have plied the notion that dropping money in the collection plate will bring blessings from God — material as well as spiritual. But Crouch, through inspired salesmanship and advanced telecommunications technology, has converted this timeworn creed into a potent financial engine.

The hardest part about posting this story is figuring out some place to cut it off. Seriously, drop everything you’re doing and read the rest of this article. Incredible quotes like:

- “If my heart really, honestly desires a nice Cadillac … would there be something terribly wrong with me saying, ‘Lord, it is the desire of my heart to have a nice car … and I’ll use it for your glory?’ ” Crouch asked.
- “John 19 tells us that Jesus wore designer clothes,” Avanzini said, referring to the purple robe that Christ’s tormentors wrapped around him before the Crucifixion. “I mean, you didn’t get the stuff he wore off the rack…. No, this was custom stuff.
- “Get Jesus on that credit card!” McClendon said.

I wonder if that Bible thing talks about fraud, I mean, you can obviously interpret anything from that tome, surely that subject is dealt with somewhere.

To end, H. L. Mencken imparts his wisdom from beyond the grave:

“Deep within the heart of every evangelist lies the wreck of a car salesman.”

“What is the function that a clergyman performs in the world? Answer: he gets his living by assuring idiots that he can save them from an imaginary hell.”

Via Jason Ditz.

2 porn companies fined for unprotected sex:

LOS ANGELES (AP) — State officials fined two companies more than $30,000 each for allowing actors to perform without using condoms — the first time the state has taken such action.

The fines against Evasive Angles and TTB Productions follow an investigation into a complaint filed by an adult film industry worker, as well as an HIV outbreak that forced a temporary shutdown of adult film production in Southern California.

The companies have 15 days to appeal the decision Wednesday by the state Division of Occupational Health and Safety.

Three women contracted the virus that causes AIDS from a male performer while working for either Evasive Angles or TTB Productions. Regulators could not determine exactly which company had hired the performers at the time, but found both companies are owned by the same person, said Dean Fryer, an agency spokesman.

The four actors were diagnosed earlier this year, prompting an investigation.

Susan Gard, who also is a spokeswoman for the agency, said the companies violated California law when actors performed sex scenes without using condoms. She said state law requires employers to protect workers who are exposed to blood or bodily fluids on the job.

“Any bodily fluid is considered infectious,” she said. “That means barrier equipment must be used.”

The citations also included an accusation the companies failed to notify authorities about actors who contracted HIV on the job.

Officials at Evasive Angles and TTB Productions did not return telephone messages Friday.

Since the nanny State wants to protect its subjects, I wonder why they aren’t demanding that anyone performing sexual acts must use protection. After all, individuals whom partake in any oral or penetrative intercourse are exposed to blood and bodily fluids which can lead to illnesses and/or pregnancies.

Also, the chutzpah of a porn worker complaining about exposure to infectous diseases strikes the Irony Bone in me, just as someone in the National Guard or Reserves complains about being activated and deployed and even shot at. What kind of line of work do you think you enlisted in?

Via Cafe Hayek.

Here’s the scenario. It’s the last play of practice. The kicker smacks the top of the ball sending it end over end whereupon it just barely bounces into your hands while you’re in mid-stride. You juke to the left and send a defensive player head over heals. You make a b-line down field with only one player to beat. Huffing and puffing, your cleats dig in and rip through the dry earth spraying torn grass and dust everywhere. You can beat him, you’ve done it before and he’s not that big.

Thud.

Falling to the ground you realize your name is not Barry Sanders and homey doesn’t play that way. Now that you can have tea time there are a number of things to keep in mind until you come about:

10. Sex. Pure, unadulterated heterosexual lube-free intercourse. If you’re going to be knocked out, at least trick your mind into believing you’re having a good time. And like they say, if you can visualize a course of action, then you should be able to fulfill it more easily when the time cums.
9. Food. Four words. All You Can Eat. In the mood for some T-bone? What about a scrumptious scone or crusty crumpet? Did somebody say parfait?
8. Libertarian utopia. Let’s be honest with ourselves guys. You can be a nerd and no one will know. So do a little bit of role-playing and forget for the moment that the only political inroads libertarians have and will make is on PTA boards, Recycling commissions and Adopt-A-Highway committees.
7. null

Yea, I lied. I had a minor knockout last night and really can’t count backwards past 8.

A couple of A&M happenings: I successfully “rushed” into One Army (it’s like a frat, but not) and we have a retreat tonight so I won’t have time to talk smack about you and your mom. And if you’re interested, my first Rugby match is next weekend. A&M’s off-campus Bonfire has it’s First Cut this weekend. Ask me if you want more details.

Lastly, Woot.com was recently brought to my attention. They sell one cool gadget per day until it is sold out (or midnight). Good stuff.

Jesse Ogden pointed to what is perhaps the most pithy example of the intellectual prowess of Ann Coulter, an Amazon.com interview.

Upon reading it, I honestly believe the nucleic acids in my left nut are more adept and resourceful than the likes of her. I do not see how it is possible to be as witless and inarticulate as the “Blond Bombshell” is and be as widely syndicated and revered as she has been.

Though, it could be toss up between WorldNetDaily’s poster-girl and Michelle “I-heart-bondage” Malkin, thanks to Anthony Gregory. Mr. Gregory reviewed Malkin’s latest book which not only glorifies FDR’s internment policies but encourages and lauds the despotic Star-chamber behavior which Ashcroft & Co. have been operating under as of late:

“[In] times of crisis, civil rights often yield to security in order to ensure the nation’s survival. What is legal and what is necessary to preserve the Republic sometimes diverge…. In defying a Supreme Court order to restore habeas corpus, Lincoln refused to let the ‘government itself go to pieces’ for the sake a (sic) single law.” (163)

That Lincoln guy is certainly the role-model to justify your actions by, not like he waged a ruthless war and violated the civil rights of anyone that he disagreed with.

Time to rotate the hands.

I’ve been critical of Jonathan Schwartz in the past, but an engineering buddy of mine at AMD (we went to school together) pointed to a post on Schwartz’s blog that is giving me second thoughts on Sun’s inability to pick a direction and sticking to it.

The Niagara chip is going to be one bad mother when it hits the market, what other competing chip will be able to go head to head with it? At the same time however, words of caution from companies like Google might need to be heeded: with the ability to cluster off-the-shelf boxes cheaply and efficiently, SPARC marketshare may end up in a niche market not too dissimilar to where MIPS chips are.

I should note that on a personal level, if the Niagra chip was a female, I would probably tap it. It’s that delicious.

Inside MTV’s Choose Or Lose: A DW Subtext Special Report - Summation in a word: cumtastic. Seriously, although the DW guys link to the blokes at Rock-the-Vote (an equally conniving group of charlatan nutjobs), MTV couldn’t be anymore partisan if it slapped a “Anybody but Bush” tattoo on Carmen Electra’s or Jenny McCarthy’s ass (or whomever else did Singled Out). And I by chance watched an episode of The Real World: Philadelphia. I’ve met more exciting, intelligent and cultured people at an inner city Greyhound bus stop smoking used blunts they found in ash trays and drinking old clumpy Pepto from the bottle. Granted they had neither teeth nor fake mommy bags (titties for the uninitiated), but they would at least talk about something other than how to tell whether your roommate has anal sex.

Who’s the Crook? - Think Quattrone is a choad douchebag? What about Sean O’Keefe or any other director of a federal agency who drops the ball, fudges numbers, blatantly lies or simply screws the pooch?

Quote of the day:

VeriSign speeds up registry changes :

VeriSign said Thursday it will update its domain name system servers every few seconds, instead of twice a day.

With this “rapid updates” policy, the Internet domain name registry said, people who seek new .com and .net domain registrations will be able to launch Web sites more quickly. Similarly, people who intend to change their hosting servers or modify domain name registrations can do so with less disruption in service.

“We’re pleased to be able to offer upgraded services to the .com and .net DNS (domain name system) and help registrars, Internet service providers and all domain industry service providers better manage their customers’ needs and reduce the potential for downtime to Web sites,” Raynor Dahlquist, VeriSign’s acting vice president for naming and directory services, said in a statement.

Under a contract with the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, VeriSign operates the master database of all .com and .net domains and collects a few dollars a year for each domain name from the approximately 200 ICANN-accredited registrars that sell domain names to the public.

Each day, VeriSign handles more than 14 billion DNS queries. More than 35 million domain names for .com and .net exist.

Slow lethargic service, yet another innovation from a State monopoly. I wonder what took them so long to rectify this…

I’ve been entertaining my younger brother this weekend as he visited Aggieland, we’ve gone to a number of extracuricular activities however I’m not sure which family members read this blog, so we went to bed promptly at 10 pm every night and attended Mass, Synagogue and Piñata services earlier today.

So because of our escapades, I haven’t had much time to drive through the blogosphere much.

A few posts that did wet my whistle:

- Russell Roberts on choices and competition
- David Skarbek discusses culture and trade with a Nader Raider
- LibertarianJackass on why it’s axiomatically correct to lube up with KY Jelly during encounters

Lastly, Peat put together the diet Coke of jingle’s for yours truly, da-da-duh-duh-da-da. Picture via Mike Ewens.

P2P company sues RIAA over patent:

Yesterday a company named Altnet (who sells music and other products on-line through file swapping programs) sued the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) alleging patent infringement of USPN 5,978,791. Altnet has been joint venturing with Kazaa.

The patent covers a technology known as “TrueNames,” which (according to a 2003 Altnet press release) covers “a method of identifying data based on the actual content of a file, rather than by the file name, origin, location, address, or other information that can easily be changed. A unique identifier, or hash, is assigned to the data using an algorithm in a patented process. Networking applications can use the hash to identify files correctly.”

Altnet is alleging that the RIAA infringes the ‘791 patent through its support of two antipiracy companies (Overpeer and MediaDefender) who use the technology to frustrate Altnet’s business. According to Cnet, Overpeer posts “millions of false or corrupted files on networks such as Kazaa, trying to make real files harder to find” whereas “Media Defender uses “interdiction” techniques, which essentially clog networks with requests that block real download efforts.” Both Overpeer and MediaDefender were likewise named defendants in the suit.

IP attorney Stephan Kinsella pointed to this story which I think is a perfect ending to a rather odd academic week filled with ironies o’plenty.

One story comes from my “Racism and Ethnicity” class in which I found out that unless you are an artificially constructed minority, it’s difficult to prove that you aren’t a racist. Even if you don’t say “you dirty jew” or “what is up my nigga” you could be a closet racist. Basically, you have to have close friends or associates you socialize with on a regular basis, that are “minorities.”

This of course is curious, because is Bumpkin Joe from out in the boonies required to bus in inner-city minorities once a week as part of a diversity exchange program? Unfortunately, despite the fact that I have enjoyed parts of the class (his Marxist leanings are surprisingly more fresh tasting than the slavishly hawkish neoconservatives that I’m so used to), the ad hominem attacks took the class down a couple notches in my book.

I’ll have to say about this is: I like big butts and I can not lie, you other brothers can’t deny that when a girl walks in with an itty bitty waist and a round thing in your face you get sprung.

Rugby, One Army, sub-leasing and 18 hours of coursework is keeping me busy. I can’t even argue online via email with non-me’s.

Anyways, for those of you that care, our football stadium seating policy has currently come under the eye of Greek Organizations (shudder). While I personally have little disdain for sororities (they’re alot of fun to hang out with and smell nice), aside from three of my friends that have joined frats, I think all the my-daddy-helped-me-rent-a-friend dickwads are choads. There really is no beating around the bush on that one. Who do frat guys hang out with? Other frat guys. Who don’t they affiliate with? Non-frat guys. In fact, the ones I’ve met, disdain non-frat guys with some sort of religious passion (yes, I know you can afford a more luxurious hedonistic lifestyle filled with 24×7 KY Jelly bacchanals, I’m jealous). And non-frat guys generally (when they aren’t wishing they were in a circlejerk chapter) dislike frat guys.

In Auburn, in addition to looking unkept and dirty (basically, not a groomed prep) they were clique-ish assholes. College Station? Same way. Dallas… same way. Austin, same way.

Anyways, the Greeks wanted to have “block” seats within the student seating sections of the stadium and I thought this response from a fellow Aggie was great:

I would like to request that my roommates and I be given a reserved block of four seats on first deck for all football games this year. Just like the Aggie Greeks, we give many things back to A&M and this community every day in our own special way, and thus we think we deserve the best seats in Kyle Field every week.

One of my roommates regularly does more community service around College Station than the average Greek student is required to do. Another one of my roommates is an executive in Town Hall and is responsible for bringing music and culture to our campus. My other roommate is a writer and a painter who brings honor and prestige to our Liberal Arts department on a daily basis. Finally, by working at CIS, I make it a priority everyday to make sure your Internet and computing technology is always up to date and in working order.

We understand that we haven’t been around as long as the Corps, but we feel that our accomplishments are just as important. I know that the Greek community will support us 100 percent because they are fighting the same fight. They are working hard to remind all of us that they are more important than every other Aggie in Kyle Field because of the size of their membership.

Dizzam.

“I was Bigfoot’s love slave, now I’m pregnant with that SOB”s baby!”

That was the headline for this week’s issue of the infamous WWN. I liked it so much I admittedly, in the middle of the public eye during the day at a Wal-mart, bought a copy of WWN — encouraging the editors and publishers to publish more drivel. And I was rewarded with the following information:

- Explorer discovers ‘Fountain of Old’: Water instantly ages you 30 years!
- NASA probe has spotted the BUTT on Mars: Jennifer Lopez assets may have inspired the mysterious monument
- Rich people can’t read: Their servants do it for them
- God created woman to provide man with sex & beer: New Bible chapter’s politically incorrect revelation
- New club drug makes straight men gay for a day
- Amish phone sex chat line a huge hit: “I, too, am moist, Samuel… from the day’s plowing!”
- Atheist missionaries are spreading the words… there is no God!
- International house of testicles restaurant closes after one day: the decision was tough to swallow
- Exposed terrorist plot to kidnap sexy waitresses: Al Qaeda plans to replace big-boobed American gals with overweight Iraqi burqas
- Chances are you’ll be Left Behind: How to live it up during the End Times
- The oldest whorehouse in Texas: no prostitutes under 90 years old!
- And much much more!

One of the more flattering exposés included that of Kim Il Jong in drag. Gotta love that guys personality.

Also, I joined a free Fantasy Football league from Best Buy — just look up the user Tejano to see how much I trounce j00.

Glenn Reynolds on Afghani terrorists and economics:

While I’m (sort of) on this topic, why doesn’t the United States address the Afghan opium trade by just buying the stuff up? Presumably, farmers would be just as happy to sell their poppies to us, and that would keep them off the market, as well as depriving bad guys of a revenue source. Am I missing something here?

Geniuses come in all shapes and sizes.

Via Matthew Barganier.

Speaking of oddities (and creating more room for my picture), here is an entertaining interview with IP attorney Stephan Kinsella who just finished work on this project:

PH: Let me try another approach. You must have a pretty thick skin to run as a third party in Texas. How extensively and aggressively did you campaign? Did you do any live debates or just the normal sign-in-the-yard kind of stuff?

SK: I think I spent 2 cents total, for the paper used to fax something to the election commission. As for the extent of my campaigning, when friends and colleagues told me they would vote for me, I did my best to refrain from uttering my favorite aphorism, “Don’t vote. It only encourages them.” I’m starting to think I’m not cut out for politickin’.

NCAA College Football kicked off today with a brawl between The Fightin’ Texas Aggies and the Utah Utes. Early on there were a number of communication errors between the players and coaches for the Aggies, as both the offensive and defensive units thought it was yet another practice skirmish. Guess who got pussywhooped?

Despite the fact that I would be one of the smallest players on the team (5′8″, 175 lbs.) I’m fairly confident that I would be able to pull my own weight as a walk on. I am certain that I could jump off-sides with the finesse of a seasoned veteran. Catching a ball? No problemo, I’ll be sure to get wide open, away from any opponent and drop the perfect spiral you throw at my numbers — at least three times per quarter. I can even scramble out of the pocket and get sacked instead of grounding the ball or running forward or tossing the option or bouncing it off a referee. Better yet, I could simply hand the ball to the meanest looking Mormon (the ones with the mohawks) and thank the 12th Man for their unflinching support.

Texas A&M has the 2nd largest student body in the country yet the quality of players can be summed up with a police rap sheet: we have had more football players arrested in the past year than we have won football games in the last two seasons combined (6-6, 4-8). Granted we have a new coach which changed up a number of key fundamental playing styles (i.e. defensive positioning) but with the amount of resources and support behind the football program, one would think that we could muster up a little bit more class (especially the off-season antics).

In the end, the entire game smacked of a bad N-Gage ad: This is where they schooled me — here is where I became a man.

Half Mad with the Itch for ‘Simpler Times’? : Don Boudreaux explains increases in the standard of living, using historical perspective to paint a picture of humanities struggle from rags to riches. I recall a similar message from a speech by Dr. Bordeaux several years ago at a FEE student seminar: Cleansed by Capitalism. Empirically I believe it would be difficult to prove otherwise, that individuals in industrialized and even “third-world” countries have had longer lasting and less suffering livelihoods throughout the past century because of free-trade and enterprise.

Venting Against Mysticism: Another article by Don Boudreaux, in which he discusses the “Cargo Cult Science” behind the State. Feynman gave a speech in which he tells a story of Pacific Islanders post-WW2 who are essentially addicted to foreign aid and concoct a scheme to entice aid from afar: they rebuild (to the best of their abilities) airports, towers, landing strips — the whole nine yards and then expect that upon completion, planes (akin to the Newborn Stork) would simply land and give them supplies. Dr. Boudreaux suggests that the politicos and pundits that worship the State use similar smoke and mirror techniques to create a veil of legitimacy around their menacing machination.

Nobel Laureates for Kerry: Jonathan Dingel discusses the “argument from authority” fallacy in which ten Nobel Prize winners in Economics (actually, it’s not a real Nobel Prize) issue a letter of reprimand to Bush and laude Kerry. It’s not that Jonathan is pro-Kerry and anti-Bush, it’s simply that their argument is fallacious solely upon the use of their status as recipients of what is considered a prestigious award (argumentum ad verecundiam). Here’s my take on the Nobel Prize in Economics: it’s quite tainted. It’s the only prize in which the winners (or co-winners) from year to year can have diametrically opposing views: Hayek and Myrdal. This would be like awarding someone the Physics Prize for their experiments which impugned the validity of the General Theory of Relativity and then awarding the co-winner the prize for his work demonstrating the definitive validity for Relativity. While I’m not suggesting that past or future recipients for the Economics Prize are ignorant or foolish academics, I am suggesting that the selection committee and the economics profession as a whole rethink the philosophy behind the award (prior to the creation of the Economics Nobel Prize, the Francis Walker Medal was awarded every five years for life-time achievement within the field).

I’d like to take a quick moment to plug a couple other Mises U guys I met that blog: David Skarbek has an excellent blog he has updated with economics-related punditry and John Spears of Georgia who runs an odds & ends blog (sorta like mine, minus cool pictures).

Also, if you live an apartment, please do not play loud bass-driven music at night. So damn annoying.