Archive for December, 2008

If you’d like to watch the live hearing, which just started, click here.

Thanks to Rich Miller at Capitol Fax for providing the link.

Today the Daily Illini Opinions Editor, Andrew Mason, wrote a farewell column.  I’ve had the privilege to get to know Andrew and to discuss many issues concerning the student body, the University, and the state with him.  Andrew has a first class temperament, excellent judgment, complete journalistic integrity, and mighty pen.  He has championed important student issues, and insisted on accountability from administrators.  He takes bold positions, but always does so thoughtfully, with deliberate grace.

I will miss reading his work.  In the seven years I spent reading the DI almost every day as a student, and the other three years I’ve continued to read the paper (one before law school, and two after), I believe that Andy Mason is probably the best writer to serve as Opinions Editor.  I’ll miss having the opportunity to read his work on a daily basis.

Best of luck Andrew, and Bravo!

Following arguably the most embarrassing political scandal in the history of Illinois, and that takes some doing, Governor Rod Blagojevich has chosen a curious path.  It seems that almost anyone would resign, or at a minimum apologize to the people or offer some sort of statement of regret.  Hot Rod Blagojevich, it seems, is using the “Act Like Nothing Happened Defense.”  Absurd! Read more…

Fighting Illini Basketball fans should check out this feature at Illinois Loyalty, it shows photos and videos of some of our incoming recruits and a few other players we’re targeting.

Some of these guys are coming in 09, but the two most impressive seem to be Crandall Head (Luther Head’s little brother, and yes his name really is Crandall) and Jereme Richmond, both should arrive on campus in two years.

Check out the video of Jereme Richmond.  One of his dunks is spectacular.  It’s like something from an arcade game.  It reminded me of me dunking on Billy Joe Mills on a kiddie hoop.  (Click here to see a sequence of photos depicting the Joshua-over-Billy-Joe-esque dunk).  And with Crandall Head coming to Illinois, we can once again have fantastic headlines like “Illinois fans really love Head.”  Oskee Wow Wow Illinois!

This semester I took my fourth class with Professor Ira Carmen: Genetics and Politics. The class required a final paper. Below I have pasted the concluding paragraph of the paper along with my Circular Theory of Genetics and Economics. The entire essay can be downloaded here.

The scientific literature has shown that free markets fit best with human genetics. History shows the violence and inefficiency of attempts to mold human nature against its pre-loaded software. Not all human genes are the same. The composition of gene pools in the countries of the world depends on immigration, climate, geography, and a myriad of other factors. The existence of cross-country genetic diversity suggests that varying shades of free markets should be applied to the various shades of genetic pools. Some countries, like Singapore, properly fit their economic laws with their genetic predisposition for risk and free markets. Other countries, like Japan, have economic laws far freer than the population’s genetic tolerance for risk and economic freedom. The Circular Theory of Genetics and Economics shows the surprising closeness between Marxism and libertarianism in terms of the inefficiency of their fit with human genetics. The lower portion of the circle is a bowl of efficiency bounded by the European Welfare-State on the left and Modern American Capitalism on the right. This bowl represents the approximate range for all genetically efficient economic systems. Economic philosophers have always used abstract speculations on human nature as the basis of their proposed economic systems. Today we have objective scientific measurements of human nature and we should use that knowledge to precisely and scientifically craft economic laws tailoredto the diversity of human genetic pools – Genetic Capitalism.

The entire essay can be downloaded here.