To counter some mistaken information and impressions, I’ve started collecting a list of some myths about systemtap. Enjoy, to the extent such debunking can ever be enjoyed.

… but not in the way you might think. One good thing about this proposed bailout is that it would give the peons a glance at what happens within centrally planned economies. When the US federal government micromanages a company to the point that it tells it how many buses to make at assembly plants idled by reduced car demand, or what sorts of transportation its executives are allowed to use, a clusterfubar will not be not far behind. The spectacle should knock back down the naive eagerness of those who think the feds can do better micromanaging something really important, like the health care behemoth industry.

It’s hard to believe that anyone would want to rewrite history in such an amateurish way.
Many need their own wayback machine to keep even our guardians of truth (the press) honest.

Here’s a simple fact – a truism really – one might keep in mind when thinking about things a government may do for or give to one.

Anything of outright personal benefit one might get will have been paid for by money collected from either:

• one’s neighbours (in the form of taxes)

• one’s own savings (in the form of inflation)

• one’s generation’s children (in the form of debt they will have to repay)

And since governments are notoriously inefficient redistributors, all that collected amount will be greater than the amounts paid out.

The implications are immediate.

• The average person pays more into the various governments than he ever gets back.

• Any industrial bailout is paid for by the healthier industries.

• Any funding of one’s local concerns by a higher level of government is paid for by more taken from other localities.

Some people have no problem with this fundamentally Marxist morality (“from each according to ability (to pay) – to each according to need”), some others just refuse to recognize it as such. I find it barely tolerable.

A few memorable words from Brat Jr. upon his birthday.

• “I want to spell that word, that word, and that word” (reading a sign:) “Happy Birthday Stuart”

• “Help me spell that word.” (this time to have someone direct his finger to trace the letters)

• “I’m not two years old. I am a one year old baby.” (rationalizing why he should be allowed to pee on a carpet)

• “What’s inside it?” (looking at a robotic toy)