Saturday, February 25, 2012

The No-Tax Men Part 1: Cooperation

Imagine there are three people on a desert island and you are one of them, along with Joe and Bubba.

Bubba is pretty good sized and, being bigger than you and also bigger than Joe he decides to lay claim to the only coconut tree. But that doesn't mean he climbs it to get coconuts; instead, he alternately forces you and Joe to climb the tree and get coconuts—none of which he will allow you to eat. Because the coconuts are his.

What do you do about this?

The answer that most human individuals arrive at in a case like this is called "cooperation": You and Joe make an alliance, in which both of you agree to cooperate in forcing Bubba to share.

Now, you and Joe are nice people: You share the coconut tree—the coconuts—equally with Bubba. You're not starving him; but he can no longer have the coconut tree to himself.

Bubba's freedom has suffered. Bubba is oppressed; well, according to him, anyway. Bubba says, "Fine. I'll share the tree, but I won't climb it to get coconuts anymore. You guys have to do all of that."

Thursday, February 2, 2012

Birthers, Exposed

UPDATED MARCH 10, 2012

I put off writing about this, but the last full week of January, a judge ruled that Obama needed to testify in yet another "Birther" case.

The Birthers just won't give up. For three years, they hassled him endlessly to, "Produce the certificate;" by which they meant his "long-form" birth certificate.

Finally he did (you can see it here).