Amit Varma has written a good piece about blogs and he has called the discussion on this and Yazad’s site “intelligent, informative and enlightening”.

Thanks all of you, please be on your best behaviour today and continue to keep the discussion intelligent, informative and enlightening okay?

Lakshmi wants to know (6th comment) why Republicans are called “Conservatives” and Democrats “Liberals” and how, if at all those labels can be applied to India.

Unfortunately Lakshmi, it has been some time since the label “conservative” or “liberal” made literal sense anywhere in the world. In the 19th century Europe and USA, a “conservative” was someone who wanted to conserve the existing order. The then existing order was mostly capitalist, but in many respects, it was illiberal. Women could not vote, the poor could not vote, blacks could not vote. Workers weren’t allowed to form unions, there was no welfare, etc.

Those who were opposed to Conservatives were Radicals. But the word “radical” could very easily take on negative connotations (“Hey he is a radical! He wants to overturn our entire way of life!) So those who supported reforms in the existing order called themselves “Liberals”

Now here’s where things get complicated.
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When the country was distracted by the tsunami, the government took the decision to move ahead with the privatisation of Mumbai and Delhi Airports. The communists protested of course, but no one bothered with them because everyone was more concerned about the tsunami than about that bunch of retards. But, look God, if you really want to implement my idea, could you do it without all the loss of life?

Also I am wondering why the retards haven’t said anything about repeal of Press Note 18. Any ideas?

… the change of tagline. It is a temporary change, reflecting the new spirit of this blog. Once I declare a comprehensive victory over the challenger, I will revert to my usual policy of torturing readers till they confess that they like my writing torturing reality till it confesses the truth. In the meantime, vote for me at the Indibloggies..

You folks must know by now that we had a meet yesterday, and by the unwritten conventions of the blogging world, we should all write about it, give our various perspectives and basically make you all jealous that we had so much fun.

I was meeting Dilip D’Souza and Amit Varma for the first time. I know the question on all your minds is, “what happens when four supporters of the free market face off against one left-of-centre guy? Why aren’t the capitalists writing about it? Do they have anything to hide?”

Let me assure you, nothing happened. Dilip turned out to be a rather softspoken guy, not the type who’d get into verbal arguments (I too fall into that category, incidentally)

Amit turned out to be exactly the kind of guy I had expected him to be, which was a big surprise. It has never happened before. He was smart, articulate, intelligent and interested in a lot of stuff. ( I hadn’t expected the long hair, however.) My only regret is that I didn’t pick his brains as much as I wanted to. Somehow he managed it so that he was the one asking questions and I and Yazad debating over them.

Incidentally, Amit links to a good piece on how the personality of a writer shows up differently in his writings and in person. Speaking strictly for myself, this is inevitable. I am a moody person. What you see when you read me is what I am when I am at my best. If you catch me in person when I am my sullen self, you’ll think that I am very different from my written self.
Secondly, everything that is written by me has gone through lots of edits. If there is any crispness you see in my writing, it is because of that. I am a slow (but deep 😉 ) thinker. So when I argue face to face, I tend to miss out points in the heat of the discussion.

To all those who are distressed by Yazad’s post yesterday defending price gouging, let me propose the following thought experiment.

Suppose that there is an island which has absolutely no contact at all with the rest of the world. It is usually self-sufficient, but something horrible has happened this year. It has suffered such a bad drought that food production is only 20% of what it was last year.
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Amit Varma, whose brilliant dispatches from TamilNadu should surely win India Uncut an award for Best New Blog (there! My first endorsement) had a post some time back speculating that Jayalalithaa has designs on coastal land.

I don’t know if that’s true. Given JJ’s record, it may well be. But if I were the Government of India, and if I had designs on coastal land, my methods wouldn’t be as hamfisted as issuing fake warnings against eating fish. Here’s what I’d do.
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It turns out that someone has found a category he can enter me for over at the Indibloggies

The Examined Life is a contestant for the prestigious Best Tagline Indibloggy. I am pitted against Kingsley, who hasn’t blogged for over six months, and a person called Gopi Sundaram, whom no one knows. So please vote for me.

My tagline, if you find it difficult to read the small print, is “Where I torture reality till it confesses the truth.” I hope you accept that it is an accurate description for what I do.

(The Examined Life is currently accepting bribes in return for endorsements in other categories. Please contact me with your offers. )

I’ve just read the most intelligently written post in the Indian blogosphere I’ve ever read. It is by Amit Varma who has some thoughts on fighting poverty.

I don’t agree with his unduly pessimistic conclusion. I’ll write on that sometime, but go ahead and read what he has written now.
[Pessimistic? It looks like an optimistic conclusion to me – ed.

No ed, the conclusion is pessimistic. If our progress depends on our blundered into having elected an “enlightened economist”, then we are in serious trouble. That’s because his position is too dependent on a capricious lady, a bunch of retarded leftists and a host of other unpredictible factors. We can’t predict those factors individually, but we can be dead certain that atleast one of them will kick in and so the probability of the rug being pulled from under him approaches certainty. If we need to find the future of India, we need to look at structural issues, not at personalities. ]

Try to find the weirdest formula that you can feed to Google’s calculator. Post your entry in the comments. My entry is given below.
Google Search: avogadro’s number times the speed of light in furlongs per year divided by pi

India Daily: India may be the first country to explain to the world about extra-terrestrial and UFO contacts. The secret debate is on

Reading this introduction (PDF link) (via Anarcaplib) to the Economic Freedom Report written by Parth Shah brought back a memory to me. In it, he restates the story of how the License Raj causes misery to the cycle-rickshaw pullers of Delhi.

I had read about it some time back, and once I sent a link to the story to a young communist friend of mine (yes, there are still young communists) pointing out that the law causing the misery was a socialist law, written with noble socialist intentions.
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