The US government would like nothing more than to raise oil prices

Seems a little strange at first, doesn't it?

Surely low gas prices at the pump would make the electorate happier; and lower oil prices would be helpful for the economy by lowering costs in many industries. And then there are transportation costs, which affect the price of everything.

Ah, but there are other considerations at play.

All the oil in the world is priced in US dollars, or more accurately Federal Reserve Notes. The very existence of the US government hinges on the US dollar remaining the world reserve currency. The US government is so far in debt, that its unfunded liabilities exceed the world GDP.

Gone are the days when people are looking for USD to buy US made goods. Now its mostly to buy crude oil.

The Federal Reserve has more than tripled the monetary base in just the last three years. Those dollars have to go somewhere, and its best they're not used within the United States too much, lest inflation turns hyper. Just look at this graph. The numbers on the left go from 800 billion to 2,800 billion. Do you realize just how many new dollars are being created?

So here's the simple fact: the more the price of oil rises in terms of US dollars, the more those dollars will be in demand by the whole world. It makes printing money out of thin air a lot more feasible when that money is needed by the whole world to buy oil. That way the whole world is paying for US inflation, not just Americans.

If true, this allows us to rethink a few of the popular myths floating around.

The US government didn't go to war with Iraq to get access to their oil. They did it because Hussein was threatening to switch to using euros. After the invasion of Iraq, oil prices skyrocketed. Kind of casts a shadow of doubt on the whole "we went in there to get the oil" theory.

Similarly, the war in Libya was started because Gaddafi was trying to switch from USD to a new Gold Dinar. Not to save civilians, who have now probably been exposed to Depleted Uranium because of NATO's intervention.

Rectification of Names

"Political language is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind." - George Orwell


Confucius wrote of the Rectification of Names. This concept doesn't appear to be quite what I want to talk about, so I'll probably have to think up another term for it.

People understand concepts through language. Orwell understood this very well.

The Corporation

Imagine...

a corporation that does not need to sell products or services to raise revenue.

With unfailing regularity The Corporation sends you an invoice for services you never signed up for. If you are late in payment, The Corporation can take your home away, even though it isn't mortgaged.

Law in a stateless society

Imagine there is no State, and no uniform, monopoly-style law that is imposed on you by some "authority". Does that necessarily mean chaos?

Let's put the question this way.

Is there a demand for shoes? Yes.

Are humans capable of making shoes? Yes.

Do they have the freedom to make, sell, profit from, and buy shoes? Yes.

Therefore we have a market in shoes.

Do people want Laws, Justice, or recourse to arbitration when wronged? Yes.

Can people provide a legal system with courts, judges, and lawyers? Yes.

Do they have the freedom to do so? No.

There you have it folks. The government doesn't allow for competition with its legal system, for obvious reasons (it would lose power, and its indispensability in the eyes of people). Remove this restriction, and the laws of economics say it should be there.

But what would it look like?

Do you value your freedom?

What about the freedom of others?

Probably not so much.

And that's the problem.

Democracy is by definition majoritarianism. A majority can do whatever it wants to minorities, and you can bet that politicians can always find a way to polarize most people against you. And given how little of the population usually votes in elections, the necessary number of people to form a "majority" isn't even more than half. Not that half of the population is some magical marker for being right.

Asus Transformer Review

I've been using the transformer for almost two months. I'm going to make this review very simple and brief, in the form of lists. I'm coming from a background of using a PC for about 14 years, Mac for 4, android phone for 2, and very briefly linux distros. The current iteration of the OS is Honeycomb 3.2.


What I love about the Transformer, above other competitors.

Transformer Hubs

A couple of days ago I came upon a design method/layout called "Hubs".

The idea is to designate the various homescreens under categories, such as "Media", "Office", "Library", etc. After working out a few problems with the various widgets, I've finally got a look that I like, and can spend less time on appearance, and more time on useful activities. Credit for the concept and help goes to the people at xda-developers.

The screens in order from left to right are:

If someone wants to try this, it should work on any android tablet.

The programs I used were:

• ADWLauncher EX (and some free themes, purely for their icon sets)
• Multipicture Live wallpaper (for the changing wallpapers)
• Minimalistic text (for the hub names)
• Beautiful widgets (for the weather forecast)
• Elixir (for system stats and wifi toggle)

Here's a brief summary of what I did. (Everything is explained in greater detail in the forum post I linked to above.)