I am sure some of you noticed that the site was down over the weekend. Here’s the explanation from Vesana.

“We believe the issue was due to the deletion of the log files from the tmp directory- deleting that many small files at once could cause the CPU
spike. [Which caused them to suspend my account as a precautionary measure – Ravi]

Next time you need more space, just ask! We’re a noncommercial project-
we want you to be happy far more than we need another dollar a month.
We’ve “unsuspended” your account and changed your quota to 90MB. You have
our apologies for the delay- please do let us know if you need anything
else.

Though they are a non-commercial project, I am sure they will be happy to have your business to fund their not-for-profit activities. I cannot recommend them highly enough. If you are looking for a host for your blog, look no further than Vesana. They’ve provided the kind of service that gets them an endorsement from me even after my site has been down for two days. Need I say more?

Now I go back to my break.

An important question that a libertarian faces is that of government subsidized science and arts. Recently, for example, the US govt reduced its funding to the NSF (National Science Foundation). Could such activities be completely funded by the private sector? Hardcore libertarians/objectivists like Don Boudreaux, Ayn Rand, et al believe they can be. Worse, they believe it should be.

I do not.
What’s more I believe that libertarians who argue otherwise are not able to conceive the very thing that has given them this prosperity and this leisure to speculate.
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In this post at Cafe Hayek, Don Boudreaux comments that a belief in the requirement of a central govt for prosperity is equivalent to “sovereign creationism”. Creationism is the ideology that this extremely complex world and universe necessarily has an intelligent designer behind it. This is supposed to be an “alternative theory” to evolution. What Don says is that when people believe that a prosperous society can only be achieved by intelligent design (on part of a sovereign govt) as opposed to a spontaneous order (free markets et al) one is “guilty” of sovereign creationism.

This gels in with our earlier discussion about the differences between conservatives and liberals. Boudreaux argues that liberal atheists are being hypocritical when they ridicule creationism, but advocate social/sovereign creationism. This is a fallacious argument.
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There are some values that run through a culture, values that the culture holds to be very “important”. For example, sexual conservatism is a value that runs through most cultures with a high religious quotient. This post is about a couple of such “values” that the Indian Culture is quite saturated with.
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I was having a discussion with a friend about the sharp demarcation of conservatives and liberals in the US polity and whether there is a single underlying quality that defines each section. For example, conservatives in the US prefer small govt, but would support a big army, support free markets, but want restricted sexual lives, etc. Interestingly, albeit anti-climatically, he summed up the underlying difference in one word – conservativeness.
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The title of this post has two senses: one connotes becoming free of the shackles of restrictions. While the other is becoming free because of restrictions. Needless to say, it is the latter that this post is talking about.
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Anil Gorti, who blogs at Another Blog in the Wall will be blogging here through December. He will be The Examined Life Sports columnist.
(Incidentally, we are on the lookout for a gossip columnist, an agony aunt column and an entertainment correspondent. We are also looking for aspiring young starlets who are willing to be our Page Three girls. With these changes, TEL hopes to shed its stodgy image as a purveyor of serious analyses and bad jokes and appeal to the young and hip generation, which, as we all know is on the constant search for underclad young ladies on the net)

I will be taking a complete break from blogging for the rest of the year. See you in 2005.

It is time to actually respond to some of the postings my coblogger 7*6 has been making. It will not surprise my readers that I disagree with most of them (as I disagree with almost everything on general principles).

“Socialism does not work because it is impossible for the preferences of millions of individuals to be collated at the global level. Hence we libertarians advocate that decisions be made at a local level. But with information gathering techniques and computing powers improving, centralised decision-making will be possible and the inefficiency and waste of capitalism will be avoided.”

This is of course the gist of what my co-blogger is saying below. Interestingly, that is roughly what a particular socialist economist said a few decades back. (Who exactly was it Yazad? Gunnar Myrdal?) Except that he did not use the future tense as SS has done. He thought that it was already possible.
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An ant/termite colony is a pretty complex system. But each ant is not complicated at all. Is there a central intelligence that governs the system and that makes it capable of doing complicated things? Look at the magnificent mini-castles that
termites build for instance. Well no – there isn’t any central “intelligence”. But to an outsider there appears to be.

What if this illusion of a “central” pupeeter appears to an insider also? What does this question even mean? It shall become clearer by the end of the post.
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The discerning intellectual reader is worried. I mean, here was one of
the last bastions of logic and reason in this evil world.
And to see it being overrun by “nonsense” and “garbage” that denounces
reason and libertarianism…my goodness. The reader shakes his head and takes his tension-headache pill.
The apocalypse is not nigh, he nods vigorously to himself, portents and omens
to apocalypses are not logical after all. He fortifies himself and takes
another look at the blog. And sees some posts about some Automaton or something
– many parts at that – and he can’t make head or tail out of it either.
Overwhelmed and cornered by such unsurmountable odds, our intellectual bursts into tears.
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Previous Episodes: #1, #2,#3

The Maikhana was crowded that particular night, and there were quite a few strangers in town. The news of the Cathedral’s collapse had traveled far and wide by The Word Of Mithe. No cathedral, no control, they’d all secretly thought.

Most people who were pretending to be drunk and festive were in reality looking for clues, on how to make a killing during the chaos. The Mango Prophet had consumed more wine than he ordinarily would, and the Saki had turned up the ghazal to discourage him from speaking too much. The Sufi was still swaying to the words as they danced through the smoky air –

“Sabki saki pe ho nazar,
yeh zaroori hai magar
sabpe saki ki nazar ho,
yeh zaroori to nahi…”

Suddenly the gate swung open and a tall, lean, figure carrying a roll of blueprint and a satchel entered the Maikhana.
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We Indians, or rather the blogging ones at the very least, are logical, rational beings. Intellect drips from our very pore. It is thus quite the lament of many a tooth-gnashing intellectual [1][2] that the oft-revered Times of India newspaper has attained tabloid status. Slimes of India screams one. Times begone-from India screams another. One sarcastic take even deems it TOI-let paper.
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