(second block, fourth letter of the prisoners' quadratic tap code...)

image
...am here to tap through the walls.


Wed Jun, 10 2009

Socialism For Imbeciles

The nerveless little freak Ezra Klein proposes to lecture on "Health Reform for Beginners".

"Single-payer health care is not socialized medicine. It's a system in which one institution purchases all, or in reality, most, of the care. But the payer does not own the doctors or the hospitals or the nurses or the MRI scanners. Medicare is an example of a mostly single-payer system, as is France. Both of these systems have private insurers to choose from, but the government is the dominant purchaser."
...with stolen money.

Pay attention where Klein cannot: when a government can steal everyone's productivity in order to (in this twit's parlance) "purchase" the entire product of a given business, it doesn't need to "own" anything else about that business. It has already claimed everything at the root. It doesn't have to "own" MRI machines, etc., because it owns you.

The principles are the things that the socialists do not want you to identify. That's why you will, if you look around, find endless, sterile and completely pathetic "debates" over whether fascism is socialism. And while you're out there kicking that rusty can around, this government has its way with you.

Try to understand and keep this in mind, because it's what the socialists do not want you to understand: socialism is not an economic system. It is a moral system -- a code of ethics, with its roots in metaphysics -- with necessary political and economic implications. Klein doesn't want you to look any deeper than he is, and you'd better not be that bloody stupid.

(link: Michael F. Cannon)

Jun 10, 09 | 7:58 am

AxeBites

Various guitars I see floating by, mostly Gibson and mostly eBay.

Early Norlin ES-335 -- 1970, in Walnut ("ES-335TDW"). This is a period-piece look and feel, and arguably the sound as well but that's to cut things very finely. A "classic" 335 would be the original of 1958 in the Sunburst or Natural finish, or the Cherry Red of 1959; the Walnut of 1970 (second year of that finish offering) is not really a "classic" 335. In the history of the Gibson aesthetic, this is analogous to, say, vertically-striped polyester bell-bottoms or Bahama Blue shag carpeting. None of this is to say that they're not cool guitars, and this is a nice one. Excellent photographs.

Chrome hardware, featuring the trapeze tailpiece (like my L-47 and I've always liked it) and ABR-1 bridge with period-typical nylon saddles. Bound rosewood fretboard, with small block markers, and then the crown inlay at the machine head. These would be the T-top Humbuckers. Vintage Nazis would moan that the upper bouts are pointy (the body templates were wearing-out in the factory) and the fourteen-degree machine head with the volute signals a sometimes not-fun era of the line, but these things really do rock or moan or whatever you want a 335-type semi-hollow to do. ...which, of course, is because it really is a 335.


In the months since I've let AxeBites languish all to bleedin' hell, Gibson's Robot Guitar technology has sifted out to other models than the original Les Paul application. I don't know how it's going: I still haven't even seen one of these self-tuners. I don't see piles of them burning on the sides of the highway, nor reverent hangings in display cases over bars, so who knows? This 2008 Robot SG is ready to rock in the Metallic Red. Nickel hardware; it's the stoptail wired for data to send to the tuners, with dual Humbuckers. It's a bound rosewood fretboard, but I really like the single-bound machine head with the crown inlay. That's a real cool old-school look, right there, to set off that crazy-ass color. {nod}