Pun Salad

³² The lips of the righteous know what finds favor,
    but the mouth of the wicked only what is perverse.

Speaking of perversity, the good old King James translation:

³² The lips of the righteous know what is acceptable: but the mouth of the wicked speaketh frowardness.

That's right, "frowardness". The Google Ngram Viewer shows that the word used to be a lot more popular:

And I wonder how many of those current uses are just people typoing "forwardness"?

Let's bring it back! Try to work it into your next conversation around the water cooler. "I'm feeling full of frowardness today."

In his short story “Rattlesnakes and Men,” science fiction author Michael Bishop describes a town where everyone is required by law to own a dangerous rattlesnake. It’s a scenario that he says is no more absurd than how America treats access to guns.

“We lost our son at Virginia Tech in 2007, in the shootings there,” Bishop says in Episode 322 of the Geek’s Guide to the Galaxy podcast. “I had been opposed to the laxity of our gun laws for a long, long time, and that just hardened both my wife and me on that particular point.”

Sympathy is in order, of course. But… come on. Is this "scenario" convincing to anyone not already converted? And doesn't that short story sound just a tad obvious and preachy? It was nominated for a Nebula award, but I'm not sure if that's a mark of quality these days, or simply a nod to CorrectThink.

Google's employees and Google's management are clashing over ethical issues again. Just two months after Google's "Project Maven" military drone project was seemingly resolved, Google's employees are now up in arms over company plans to create censored products for China. The internal protests resulted in the issue being addressed at an all-hands meeting, and we got to learn a bit more about Google's China plans.

It's an, um, interesting view of corporate ethics. Another view from Bloomberg: Google’s Brin Cops to Plan to Reclaim Lost Decade in China, which revisits the history of Google's 2010 pullout from China:

Google’s top management committee decided to pull out of China based on a black-and-white view of censorship at the time, according to a former executive. The business implications of leaving were considered, but limiting the flow of information online in any way was considered bad and Google’s involvement in such activities could have damaged its brand in the rest of the world, said the person, who asked not to be identified discussing internal company deliberations.

Oooh, "black-and-white"! Can't have that!

It would be interesting to see just how Google cooperates with unfree countries around the world, and how much that cooperation aids and abets suppression of each country's citizenry.

I’m running for office to give the voters of this region a choice that actually supports liberty and live free or die, not big government. My three main issues are: (1.) Ending prohibition of all victimless “crimes” (like cannabis or other drug possession, gambling, prostitution, operating a business without a license, etc). (2.) Making all taxes voluntary, because it’s wrong to threaten violence against peaceful people, which is what taxes are. (3.) Seceding New Hampshire from the United States federal government, an evil organization controlled by power-mad lunatics that extracts unending amounts of wealth and obedience from the people and gives back to them a growing police state and global conflict that puts us all in danger of terrorism. New Hampshire was one of the original colonies to declare independence from Great Britain and it’s time to do it again, peacefully, of course.

Ian is running (no surprise) on the Libertarian Party ticket. He lists his "occupation" as "Cryptocurrency Evangelist & Talk Show Host". His campaign website is here. He's a little too hardcore for me.

When State government overtaxes, overspends and overregulates it causes great damage to families, communities, and businesses. That has happened in other states and I don’t want to see that happen here in New Hampshire. Our citizens deserve better! I will work hard to protect our Constitutional rights and for Granite Staters to keep more of their hard earned money! The three most important issues I believe are Taxes, 2nd Amendment Rights and Quality of Life. I will vote against any state income tax or state sales tax proposals. I will vote to preserve 2nd amendment rights, and will not support unconstitutional legislation. I believe our kids deserve a great education geared to their needs. Our pursuit of liberty and our “Live Free or Die” attitudes are what make our State really remarkable and contribute to our ranking as one of the best places to live.

Judy's campaign website is here. She is looking to replace Jim Grenier, a Republican who's not seeking re-election.

[…] it certainly doesn’t follow that a large legislature is necessarily accompanied by a large and powerful state. I submit as evidence, as I have before, New Hampshire in the United States.

With a population of fewer than 1.4 million, the state’s lower house has 400 members. On top of that, it also has a 24-member senate. Politicians are not thin on the ground in the Granite State.

'Live Free or Die' no nanny-state

So New Hampshire must be a tax-and-spend, nanny-state dystopia, right?

Well, not quite. To the libertarian Cato Institute, New Hampshire is the freest state in the union. In fact, it has no income or general sales taxes. The only state that taxes less is Alaska, which is fuelled by oil revenues.

And it seems to work. New Hampshire has less poverty than any other state, but is also at the top end for the number of millionaires per capita. Overall income levels are high and the state is generally quite prosperous.

On the personal liberty front, there is much for Seymour to like. New Hampshire is the least religious state and one of the first to legalise gay marriage by legislation. It has a school choice tax credit programme and a medical marijuana law. It’s even resisted making seatbelts compulsory for adults, if you can believe it.

All this in a jurisdiction that has fewer than 3500 voters per legislator. Smaller government is, it seems, not a precondition of small government.

I especially like "if you can believe it." Head-spinning, 'tis.