when scarcity leads to madness

That's the title of this article by Ben Stein on the Nazi's former euthanasia center in Hadamar, Germany, which killed persons "with mental diseases, with retardation, with vaguely defined 'antisocial tendencies,' which could include being divorced too often, changing jobs too often, drinking too much, or, of course, being Jewish or 'Negro' or Gypsy".

Why?

[The Nazis] believed there would inevitably be shortages of food, and it should not be wasted on so-called undesirables, including mentally retarded people (who supposedly tended to reproduce much faster than careful, prudent Aryans of good mental health) and unemployed vagabonds, who were portrayed as weighing heavily on the shoulders of the German working man. [...]

The logic was simple: Fewer “useless eaters,” more food for the Reich. Exhausted forced laborers from Russia and the Balkan states were killed there for the same reasons.

Contrasting this corruption of Malthusian economics with American thinking, Stein states:

[T]he great glory of America is that our economics has always been based on the idea that abundance is the natural order of things, interrupted only by the Great Depression.... If there is always plenty, there is plenty to go around. No one need be killed for others to thrive. [...]

We have not had to face genuine scarcity in North America since at least 1940. We have certainly never had a generational crisis comparable to the one that is coming in Medicare. What will happen down the road?

Frankly, I don’t know. But the economics of Hadamar stands grimly as a reminder of what not to do. In the cemetery at Hadamar there is a stark obelisk on which is written, in German, “Man, respect mankind.”

Stein also calls for Americans to "make some economic policy plans" so that abundance continues. I don't disagree. The main thing I see is to raise the retirement age to reflect longer lives (Life expectancy is 50 percent higher just since the 1930s, when Social Security was created.)

Quotes: Even for Miss Manners, life ain't AA

This nice thought is courtesy of Representative Jim Ramstad, a Republican from Minnesota:

“If we could turn Congress into one big A.A. meeting,” he said, referring to Alcoholics Anonymous, “where people would be required to say what they mean and mean what they say, it would be a lot better Congress.”
- From an interview in the NY Times

I don't doubt it. But then, my impression is that AA meetings are meant to be apart from the normal rules of life and tact. (Although I wouldn't mind if political speech included some relationship to truth ... or tact ... ;)

Bonus: Miss Manners, on "What are the rules for passing on private email?":

For email, the old postcard rule applies. Nobody else is supposed to read your postcards, but you'd be a fool if you wrote anything private on one. [...] We're now seeing email that people thought they had deleted showing up as evidence in court. You can't erase email. As that becomes more commonly realized, people will be a little wiser about what they type.

In the business world, some emails are 100% work documents and you expect forwarding at will; others are obstensibly "private", but still, postcard rule definitely applies.

In private life, I feel private email should not be forwarded or posted publically without express permission. I reserve the right to be angry with anyone who does so. And yet... I've discussed email I've received with my spouse, and in once case publically - and I forwarded that one later without permission. If it was relevant, I could see turning it over to a lawyer.

I guess, if business email is a postcard, personal email is a letter.

Later in the interview:

We have two regulatory systems: legal and etiquette. The legal system prevents us from killing each other. The etiquette system prevents us from driving each other crazy.
- From an interview in Wired

Prius, UPS, Priups

From The New York Times: ( [H]ere he had this car that spends most of its life 'lump-like, sitting in a garage or a parking spot.' Meanwhile, it had a powerful battery, about 17 times the voltage of a conventional car battery, just sitting dormant. What if that power could be used for other purposes, like powering a house in an emergency? )

More info at http://priups.com/

Strip habeas corpus for detainees?

I know the Republicans have been acting as if they have no limits - even when the military prefers them. But this just crossed some line somewhere in my head. ( excerpt )

What is with these people? Why are they so afraid of judicial review?