He was a life-long technocrat, a do-gooder that lived off the dole of the Swedish taxpayer, and a dedicated socialist whose professional training was in economics. While he was a proto-Keynesian (a Keynesian before Keynes), what really separated him from hoi polloi was this: he was instrumental in establishing the Nobel Prize in Economics.

You see, before ol’ Alfred Nobel passed on into the Eternal abyss, he established a trust fund that bears his name. And from this fund, monetary awards are divvied up each year to recognize five different fields of inquiry, none of which is Economics.

That didn’t stop Gunnar though. Give and take, he shrewdly played the game of politics and convinced various governmental divisions in Sweden to approve a new award. He even got the Bank of Sweden – the world’s oldest central bank – to finance this new award, in Honor of Alfred Nobel (note: the Nobel trust fund is privately managed).

The prize got the go-ahead and was ultimately christened in 1969… however fewer than five years go by when one big conflict of interest arises: he is nominated and wins the Nobel Prize in Economics. Imagine that.

And that’s not the only twist — he actually shares it with an advocate of free-markets, F.A Hayek.

So, a socialist, whose publications promote Keynesianism, wins alongside someone whose laissez-faire theories are diametrically opposite to his. How much credibility does the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences have now? Oy vey!

I was reminded of these historical footnotes when I came across a tribute to Ludwig von Mises by columnist Lawrence Fertig:

Mirabile dictu, Gunnar Myrdal, who was the architect of interventionism and did much to promote the welfare state in Sweden, as in other parts of the world, had this to say: “The organized welfare state has gone mad … It (the strike) has become a class struggle, with judges, academics and civil servants seeing the lower classes creep up on them … It’s an impossible situation.”

There is a measure of poetic justice in the anguish of Gunnar Myrdal and the other academics in Sweden who promoted the equalitarian society, and are now hoist by their own petard.

Fertig’s essay was written in the spring of 1971. Mises dies in 1973. Myrdal wins the Nobel prize in 1974.

Doneski, right?

One last wrinkle, the Nobel Peace Prize. Oddly enough, the stereotypically statist-leaning Norwegian Nobel Committee is charged with awarding the Peace Prize each year (long story short, Norway once “belonged to” Sweden). Its five members are appointed by the interventionist-friendly Norwegian parliament.

In 1984 it went to Alva Myrdal. She was Gunnar’s wife and a life-long promoter of State intervention through a sundry of welfare schemes.

Phrase of the day: nepotistic kleptocrats.

The friend that sent me that link notes that he himself has replaced his PDA with a Moleskin as well.

I wonder, will there be cheat codes?

Viva Sargent Slaughter and Doogie Howser!

Quite the botching, wouldn’t you say?

Viking warriors filed deep grooves in their teeth, and they likely had to smile broadly to show them off, according to new finds in four major Viking Age cemeteries in Sweden.

Caroline Arcini of Sweden’s National Heritage Board analyzed 557 skeletons of men, women and children from between 800 and 1050 A.D. They discovered that 22 of the men bore deep, horizontal grooves across the upper front teeth.

“The marks are traces of deliberate dental modifications … they are so well-made that most likely they were filed by a person of great skill,” Arcini wrote in the current issue of the American Journal of Physical Anthropology.

Both Chris Rock and Bill Cosby are noted critics of what they see as systemic sophomoric tomfoolery in the “black community” which the metallic grill plays a role in.

Apparently the Vikings did something similar, although the dental work was a bit more permanent and probably a lot more painful. Damn that would hurt.

Classes at A&M are cancelled for Friday. The football game has been moved from Saturday to Thursday (gotta love the love of football in Texas, we’ll play no matter what). One of my professors recently taught at the University of Florida and has lived through a number of these… his recommendation to all of us, leave for Dallas.

For those unfamiliar with the geographical proximity of College Station and A&M to anything else: we are approximately, 95 miles north of Houston and 170 miles south of Dallas and 100 miles east of Austin.

The current trajectory has Rita hitting just west of Galveston/Houston from which it will then head north, passing close to the College Station area. So that means lots of puddles to splash in and good weather to fly kites.

And to give you an idea of the size this sucker is, someone on the Weather channel suggested that this was like a tornado the size of Georgia. That’s how we like things in Texas, big.

MIAMI (AP) — Small toys showing an airplane flying into the World Trade Center were packed inside more than 14,000 bags of candy and sent to small groceries around the country before being recalled.

Lisy Corp., the wholesaler that distributed the candy, said Friday that the toys were purchased in bulk from a Miami-based import company.

The toys came in an assortment purchased sight unseen from L&M Import in Miami and included the toys depicting the Sept. 11, 2001, attack on the twin towers, whistles and other small toys, said Luis Pedron, Lisy’s national sales manager. The invoice said the toy was a plastic swing set.

Now I might be fussy about small details, but you know what they say, better safe than sorry.

When the management of Miss Norway was informed that Aylar had starred in two porn films, she lost her place in the Norwegian finale.

However, first she tried to blame it on her non-existing twin sister, reported the Norwegian television channel TV Norge Monday night.

Aylar from Oslo is not allowed to participate in the finale of Miss Norway August 29 after her past in the porn industry was revealed.

The two films were made in the US in 2002. They include a number of hardcore porn scenes, reported TV Norge.

“It is clearly written in the requirements that the candidates must not have been pictured naked in a commercial connection, and in this instance, this is the case and then some,” said Geir Hamnes at the Miss Norway management, to the TV Norge news.

When the 20-year-old was confronted with the issue, she claimed she had an identical twin, who was a star in the US.

However, investigations revealed that she does not have a twin sister.

They don’t make pageant contestants like they used to (or maybe they don’t make porn stars like they used to…).

Note: all of the crappy blog posts are from my twin brother, Ivan.

Via Andrew Moroz.