Is It Happening Again?

Column for week of April 20, 2015

     A news item at Bloomberg News reports that the gulf
stream in the North Atlantic is slowing down for the first time
since 900.  The gulf stream caries warm water north from the
tropics warming the North Atlantic and surrounding area,
including Europe.  Slowing of the gulf stream could cause
cooler, dryer weather in the North Atlantic region.

     Supposedly the cause of the slowing is melting ice
diluting the salt water in the ocean.  So far this all sounds
reasonable.  The force that drives the gulf stream is the
difference in pressure between the cold, dense North Atlantic
and the warmer, lighter tropical water to the south.  The light
water is forced up by the heavier water from the north.  This
creates a hill in the tropical ocean.  Water flows endlessly north
being replaced by cold northern water.  The cold water warms
and then flows north too.

     Fresh water from melting ice is less dense than salt
water.  Thus, it reduces the pressure that drives the  gulf stream. 
For this to continue there must be an endless supply of fresh
water.  Otherwise, the fresh water soon mixes with the salt
water.  Then the gulf stream returns to its faster flow. 

     So far we are talking science.  Then the article jumps the
fence into politics.  It claims the recent slowing of the gulf
stream is caused by man made global warming.  Few, if any,
people would even dare to claim that the slowdown in 900 was
caused by humans.  Why aren't they considering that the current
slowdown may be caused by the same natural forces that caused
the one in 900?

     The year 900 was during the Medieval Warm Period that
peaked around 1100.  Then the world slid into the Little Ice Age
that held on until the mid nineteenth century.  For 150 years or
so the world has slowly and intermittently warmed a degree or
so from the Little Ice Age.  There is no reason to believe that
the world is as warm today as in 1100.  Likewise there is no
reason to believe the present warming has different causes than
the warming during the Medieval Warm Period.

     If the slowing of the gulf stream cools and drys the air
over the North Atlantic, it will slow the ice melt.  This will
restore the density of the North Atlantic.  This in turn will
restore the speed of the flow in the gulf stream.  As is so often
the case, nature will have restored its own equilibrium.

     Of course saying that the current slowing of the gulf
stream is merely repetition of a age-old phenomenon is barely
news worthy.  For anyone who isn't a gulf stream fanatic, it
would be a yawner.

     The fashion of the day is to blame every ripple in our
ever changing weather and oceans on man made global warning,
sometimes called anthropogenic (Can you believe I spelled that
right on my first try?) warming.  Scare mongers like big scary
sounding words.

     Human activity may be causing some warming.  It is well
established that building and paving a major city creates an
urban heat island.  The effect of this on average world
temperature is incredibly small.

     The "proof" of carbon dioxide caused warming is almost
all based on computer models that exaggerate warming and
completely missed the current pause in warming.  We should
back off on draconian actions to prevent man made global
warming, at least until we find data that show dangerous
warming is actually occurring.

     So far we have had three warming periods of 20 years or
so since 1860.  The warming periods were separated by cool
periods of 30 or so years each.  Most of the warming was prior
to 1940.  Most of the carbon dioxide was produced after 1940.

     The warming periods simply don't match the carbon
dioxide emissions.   Those who claim that the carbon dioxide
caused the warming have a lot of 'splanin' to do.

aldmccallum@gmail.com
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Copyright 2015
Albert D. McCallum

How Infantile Are They?

Column for week of April 13, 2015

     Some people are different, really different.  They do
unbelievable things.  I have grown accustomed to this.  When I
hear of someone doing something I would never even imagine
doing, I don't usually jump to the conclusion that it can't
possibly be true.

     A recent article from Reason.com strained my limits.  If
it had been April first I might not have believed it.  The article
was about safe space on college campuses.  There is nothing
wrong with safe space.  The world would be a better place if
all space was safe from violence.  The space in question wasn't
designed to protect against violence.  It was a place to flee
from frightening ideas.

     The Reason article quotes Judith Shulevitz as follows
regarding safe space at Brown University: "The safe space, Ms.
Byron explained, was intended to give people who might find
comments 'troubling' or 'triggering,' a place to recuperate.  The
room was equipped with cookies, coloring books,
bubbles, Play-Doh, calming music, pillows, blankets and a
video of frolicking puppies, as well as students and
staff members trained to deal with trauma.  Emma Hall, a
junior, rape survivor and 'sexual assault peer educator' who
helped set up the room and worked in it during the debate,
estimates that a couple of dozen people used it.  At one point
she went to the lecture hall -- it was packed --  but after a
while, she had to return to the safe space. 'I was feeling
bombarded by a lot of viewpoints that really go against my
dearly and closely held beliefs,' Ms. Hall said."

     My first thought is, Why would someone terrified by
new ideas even set foot in a university?  Next thought, Why
would a real university cater to such a phobia, rather than
seeking to cure it?  One more thought, How has our society
reared children with infantile minds to physical adulthood?

     I see two threads that may help sew this together.  One
is the obsession with self esteem.  Earned self esteem is a good
thing.  Unwarranted self esteem can be a killer.

     Imagine a falling down drunk who feels good about
himself.  Why should he change if he is pleased with himself?
Giving everyone a trophy doesn't encourage effort and self
improvement.

     The second thread is the claim that all beliefs are
equally good.  We must not criticize anyone's beliefs and make
them feel bad.  Why would a college student break down into a
babbling blob merely because her beliefs were challenged? 
Most likely because those beliefs were never challenged before
and she has no idea how to defend them.

     In all probability those beliefs were passed on to her by
others who merely said "believe me."  They provided no
foundation or reasons why the beliefs were valid.

     Individuals who feel good about their beliefs and have
never faced challenges to those beliefs are in beyond their
depth when they venture beyond the intellectual wading pool. 
They certainly aren't ready for a real college.  And, a college
that isn't willing, and even eager, to challenge students isn't
ready for real students.

     Pretending to make the world idiot proof retards
development.  People need to take responsibility for their own
lives, including their safety.  Encouraging people to believe
everything is safe to buy and use only discourages them from
developing beyond infancy.  It also makes them less safe by
lulling them into believing their world is far safer than it is.

     As someone observed, attempts to make the world idiot
proof only produce more idiots.  I believe "idiot" is the wrong
word though.  "Fool" fits better.  Very bright people can still
do very foolish things.

     All of the above and more converge to assure adult
bodies are occupied and controlled by infantile minds.  This
shreds the fabric of civilization.  We stagger toward the point
of no return.

aldmccallum@gmail.com
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Copyright 2015
Albert D. McCallum

Are There Reasons for Hope?

Column for week of April 6, 2015

     A look back over the years can be quite depressing. 
Liberty has been trampled as long as I can remember.  Even a
cursory glance at history reveals the stomping was in full swing
before I arrived.  People in the USA are far less free than when
I was born.

     Liberty has gained ground in a few small corners.  It is
no longer illegal to sell yellow margarine, or to sell milk in
gallon jugs.  On the other hand, it is now illegal to sell raw
milk in any container.

     The law making it illegal to own gold fell by the
wayside.  That repeal came at a high price.  Our money is no
longer backed by gold.  It is merely ink splashed on paper by
the government.  That is why a dollar is now worth about what
a nickel was worth when I was born.

     Before World War II about 5 percent of workers needed
government permission to pursue their work.  Now 30 percent
have to jump through government hoops and get licenses to
work.  This has little to do with health and safety, and
everything to do with protecting established service providers
from competition.  How many people have died from bad
interior design, poorly arranged flowers, or bad hair braiding?

     Government controls the size, shape, color and location
of your house, as well as how far your cupboards are above the
floor.  It also controls what you plant or don't plant in your
yard.  A Michigan man was jailed for not planting grass.  An
elderly woman was cited for planting herbs instead of grass.

     I have watched government ride roughshod over us for
decades.  When I spoke out most people's eyes glazed over.  If
it didn't affect them personally, they didn't care.  If it did affect
then, they learned to live with it.  I doubted that the sheep
would wake up until they were in the slaughterhouse.

     I now see some signs of people rattling their chains. 
Civil asset forfeiture went big time in the 1960s.  A cop or
prosecutor would claim property was somehow involved in a
crime.  Government seized the money, house, car, whatever
without warning, or any kind of court hearing.

     The cops keep the property, unless the owner proves the
property innocent.  Sometimes the owner has to post bond for
the privilege of trying to reclaim his property.  Try posting
bond or hiring an attorney when everything you own has been
taken from you.  This is nothing more than legal theft.  In 80
percent of the cases the owner isn't even charged with a crime.

     Finally civil asset forfeiture is on the radar.  Politicians
are talking about the abuse.  Two states outlawed it.  Even the
national government has tweaked it down a bit.  Politicians are
followers, not leaders.  If they see votes to be had by reining in
civil asset forfeiture they will do it.

     Government kills people wholesale by denying them
access to medical treatment that hasn't endured years,
commonly a decade or more, of testing.  This wanton killing is
outrageous.  Until recently few seemed to care.  Some states
are now considering laws to restore some of the right for
individuals to have the treatment they chose.  There is a bill in
Congress to back down national restrictions on the access to
new treatments.

     Even those who hate marijuana should be thrilled that
marijuana prohibition is staggering on its last legs.  We all pay
the price of prohibition with little or no benefit.  Drug use rolls
on.  Criminals grow rich.  The police are distracted and
corrupted.  Perfectly good employees are fired and perhaps sent
to jail.  Families are broken and welfare rolls expanded.  Those
who profit from the war on drugs would block the ending of
prohibition if it weren't for the ever growing pressure from the
people.

     Perhaps people are finally fed up enough to stand up for
the liberty to control their own lives.  Perhaps there is some
reason for hope.

aldmccallum@gmail.com
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Copyright 2015
Albert D. McCallum

Who Is In Charge?

Column for week of March 30, 2015

     Many people are certain that every venture must have a
big boss at the top calling the shots.  Otherwise, everyone
would head off in different directions.  Nothing could be
accomplished in such confusion.

     To publish a world class encyclopedia the big boss
would direct the planning and hiring for the entire project. 
This would include hiring experts to write about every field,
editors, fact checkers, personnel managers, etc.  The big boss
would be responsible for approving the rules that would keep
everyone on track.  That is roughly the way Britannica did it.

     The enablers of Wikipedia had different ideas.  They
provided some on-line memory and a format for an
encyclopedia.  Then they said to the world, write an
encyclopedia.  The world responded.

     Individuals wrote about anything and everything.  They
checked each other's facts and edited the writing.  Anyone
connected to the Internet could participate, or not.  No one was
anybody's boss.

     Rather than chaos and confusion the strategy produced a
world class encyclopedia with accuracy that rivals
Encyclopedia Britannica.  When errors are posted someone
corrects them, usually within hours.

     Many people are shocked that the Wikipedia approach
worked at all, leave alone spectacularly.  Students of
spontaneous order aren't surprised.  Spontaneous order isn't a
new idea, only a neglected one.  Adam Smith published "An
Inquire Into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations"
in 1776.  He concluded that the nation whose government
interfered the least with the economy became the wealthiest. 
In other words, spontaneous order where free people organized
themselves in voluntary cooperation with each other, out
performed command and control by a big boss.  Spontaneous
order is Smith's famous "invisible hand" that guides production.

     For a short, simple illustration of spontaneous order see
"I Pencil" written by Leonard Read over half a century ago. 
The booklet is the autobiography of a lead pencil.  In the
beginning Read asserts that no one knows how to make a
pencil, yet pencils are made.

     Read proceeded to prove his point.  He considers the
vast array of tools, equipment and materials required to make a
pencil.  A few of the included items are chain saws,
locomotives, mining equipment, paint, graphite, and metal.  
These resources come from all over the world and use
technology developed over generations.

     The people involved for the most part don't even know
each other.  Some may hate some of the others.  Still, they
cooperate to make pencils.  They may not even know their
efforts are part of making pencils.  Some of them don't want
pencils and may never have seen one.

     Small parts of pencil production are organized and
managed by bosses.  There is no big boss over the entire
operation.  Each one in the chain of production seeks only to
earn a living by selling his efforts for the best price he can get. 
Through spontaneous, voluntary cooperation the fruits of their
labor flow to the pencil factory where they are used to make
pencils.

     The equipment used in producing pencils is far more
complex than the pencil.  Still, it can be efficiently produced
through spontaneous order.  The driving force that motivates
the production of pencils is consumers' desire to have pencils
and their willingness to pay for pencils.

     All production is for consumers.  With freedom and
spontaneous order the consumers are kings.  If producers don't
produce what consumers want, the consumers fire the failing
producers.  With top down command and control the wasteful
and incompetent get away with ignoring consumers' desires and
sticking it to consumers and taxpayers.

     "I Pencil" can be download free from FEE.org (PDF,
HTML or audio).  It is about 30 pages and well worth the read. 
If nothing else, you will never look at a pencil quite the same
again.  For more about spontaneous order, look it up in
Wikipedia and perhaps jot down some notes with a pencil.

aldmccallum@gmail.com
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Copyright 2015
Albert D. McCallum