matt o'neill :: zigzagzilla

Private Property
September 27, 2008 | 9:13 AM

It is my understanding that one of the fundamental precepts of capitalism is the principle of "private property." This condition has been held up as the antithesis of community property promulgated by socialist treatises, and has remained durable throughout many changes in political tendencies.

So long as private property remains private whether it is profitable or loss-making, balance is retained. A venture of any risk/reward, is and should be a free market operation. Hence, when the government considers that property which is not profitable should become public, simultaneously retaining the privacy and immediacy of profitable property, the conditions of an injustice and an imbalance are allowed to exist and actively encouraged by the executive.

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My First Meet-Up with Bloggers
September 26, 2008 | 9:18 AM

How to be general, stay general, and know what "general" means--supposing people will actually enjoy generalities...

...I guess my attendance at the local blogger meet-up last night at CBS5's studios in North Beach caused me pause, because I had to wonder--back when I had 30K hits a day, it was flamewar city, but now that I am down to about 250, I am a more 'mature' blogger...

One of my burning questions for other bloggers was whether or not they went back in and edited their content--something I have been doing in spotty fashion since I actually tried to read some of the nonsense I have published. I thought, 'who the hell wants to read angry stuff?' Especially when what I really want to share is a balanced aesthetic.

The resounding answer was that 'no,' bloggers generally leave their thoughts stand--more in a fashion to allow for a look back to a 'then' sensibility--which makes a lot of sense, but I'm not sure I want to revisit my personal 'then' (not to be confused with 'zen').

Thank you Brittney for a great party!

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Camouflage
September 4, 2008 | 9:58 AM

A conviviance in connivance allows the uncouth to assume a measure of what is wanting, but never is really sufficient.

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On Control and Abdication of Civic Power
May 13, 2008 | 8:43 AM

Gun control is stupid. The concept that by eliminating weapons, society eliminates the crime is so absurd it beggars comprehension.

Guns are inanimate objects, last time I checked. It requires an active effect from a decision-making agent to operate, and even thus, only is effective through careful and considered activity.

This same argument also works against so-called 'temporary insanity.' If you can kill, you are not insane enough to escape consequence--even where passions are overarching.

"The power to ban crime, unexpressed, commands crime."

"The problem with the death penalty is that there is no way to mete justice to the dead."

Justice is a fallacy, where the state requires its citizens to abdicate their power of protection in favour of civic force--as civic force is never immediate, never pro-active, and seldom engaged. Terms of division, such as "justice" versus "vigilantism" only serve to demonstrate the need of the statist elements to secure their prime position as arbiters of things relevant to what should be the purlieus of the citizen--including the directives that propel the same state to exist and to seek to extend its existence indefinitely and in despite of its constituents...it is a shame of modern "democracy" that citizen apathy grants so much room for abuse to the state.

The first solid sign of the decay of any society is the regular sound of people saying "I'm just doing my job..."

"And will boredom overcome a people who, having fought for leisure, are afflicted by their victory?"

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Pregnant Ideas
April 6, 2008 | 11:04 PM

I was so excited to see a spike in traffic to my site after the recent cleaning up I've instituted--I, thinking that is was because of the improvements, had to be disappointed--my excellent traffic reports tell me it is mostly because of people from Indonesia looking up pictures of nude pregnant women...

...yes, I do happen to have published one, but I think that I may be pandering, and it certainly has no socially redeeming value, so I guess self censorship becomes a desirable choice--even though being forced to the choice is a reduction in the power to choose.

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Modern Mantra
March 24, 2008 | 9:53 AM

One of those days...so mach bad news! Enjoy the collected, concentrated human lunacy of the planet. Exposed! All the irrational mongering for this and that you can stomach, and then some more...

What goes on on this silly ball of mud and slush? All that drinking millions of years of collected and recycled dinosaur urine getting us down? We've got murder, mayhem, and Islam...we have apathy, greed, and Christianity...we have brutality, selfishness, and Judaism...we have insecurity, incompetence, and Buddhism...you name it, we have it, and its solution--final, or ongoing, and yes, ongoing is so much more profitable.

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Death and Pleasure
February 22, 2008 | 8:09 PM

Is pleasure necessary? Is the necessity of pleasure (assuming a yes answer) negative or positive? Do we find a determination for living in a sometimes artificial need (assuming a positive answer), do we determine equal need in dying?

What benefit, conformity? When might conformity be rebellious? When group consciousness is as much a form of conformity and being conscious is rebellion?

Currently: You are the sunshine of my life

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Numb to Irony
February 22, 2008 | 8:05 PM

Some months have passed since I last felt compelled to share any verbiage in this medium. Who listens, who reads, who understands...who cares?

I wonder sometimes whether there is an anomaly in calling the statement "who cares" a question, for it so often takes the form of a definitive statement.

Have I cared? Some months have passed since I felt anything at all, other than the certainty that I was numb. Another irony: Numbness is a feeling.

Currently: I can hear music.

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Market Socialism (A Work In Progress)
October 25, 2007 | 8:47 AM

Every time I enjoy a feeling of particular pleasure in the accomplishments of humanity, I am minded that the success is usually brought about by a combination of will, mutual benefit, and some amount of leadership. The motivators behind each of these factors tends to shift largely dependent on the cultural and economic standards of the locale whence the initiative springs. Someone has a dream...an idea, and that someone is able to see a benefit beyond the satisfying of their own desires--perhaps the desires of many are satisfied, or perhaps the satisfaction arises from the successful development of a tool to successfully satisfy further desires. Without getting embroiled in too much detail, my point is that inspiration to contribute to a good work requires the identification of that work as good, as manageable, and as useful by more than one person--therefore leadership becomes implied, and granted.

Socialism has been a fuzzy concept since its inception, and only grows fuzzier with each successive attempt at codification and execution. Based on the underlying assumptions of the root word, I judge socialism to be that form of governance which most carefully seeks the greatest benefit to the greatest number of governed, soemtimes at the expense of the most successful. The further extrapolation of the concept for me is to ensure that socialist governance enhances the ability of the most successful to grow their success, for the greater good of the greatest number of governed, and to ensure that the greatest number of the governed have the opportunities to contribute to the success of the so-geverned state.

For a planet to have more than one government is inefficient. The optimum for of governance is cerntral in nature, not absolute, and with an admixture of codified and precedent-based legalism.

The essential tenets in my proffered form of social-market governance:

1. Business must be allowed to operate freely, with healthy competition and little fear from corruption, market aberrations, or regulatory impedance.
1a. Corruption must be actively quashed, government administration must be above cavil, must be open and accesible, must be understandable at all levels, and should strive to be a directly accountable to its customers as any business it regulates.
1b. Market stability and free fluctuation is an essential product of a mercantile, free, and accessible economy. Regulatory bodies must ensure that the rules set forth are sound and adhered to, that business does not seek to reduce competition through illegal (not to be confused with unfair) practice. Government receives its special regulatory ability through the requirements of individuals to be protected from the power of collective individuals (either corporations, or similar associations).
1c. Regulatory bodies and acts must be consistent and open to change, moribund legislation hampers healthy growth and commerce.

2. Taxation must be predictable, fair, and transparent.
2a. Rates must be fixed, with consensual acceptance of the levels set for the varying segments of the social economy, exceptions must be broad ranging, and temporary, subject to periodic review.
2b. Rates must be in line with the expectations of profit, inflation, and the needs of the regulatory bodies. Surplusses in government accounts should me reinvested in sovereign market funds to reduce the overall tax laibility of society.
2c. Rates must be published in broadly accessible formats. All addenda, subtaxes, exceptions, reductions, and rebates should be codified in simple terms.

3. Economic stability and accessibility creates the opportunity for society to advance.
3a. The duty of Government is to enhance the opportunity for its citizens to partake in the market economy. This requires reducing barriers to entry, fiduciary burdens on businesses, and regulatory hurdles. This requires enhancing markets, resources, and intellectual capital.

4. Education, universal and excellent.
4a. Government is in a special position to provide and create intellectual opportunities for the citizenry, from whom new leaders in industry, arts, and government are procured.

5. Government must behave as both citizen and business.
5a. Government is a political body, and as such, has the power to act as an individual with highly enahnced power--this power must be directed to socially acceptable and beneficial goals.
5b. Government is funded by its constituents, and must be responsive and adhere to the same conditions it sets forth to business and society. Government which fails to operate efficiently must be changed. [See Appendix X for the process of government activity and renewal.]

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Was mir damals verboten wurde, und Heute erlaubt ist, hat mit dem "wollen" kaum zu tun
September 18, 2007 | 2:05 PM

Sensuous bricks...sinuous conrete...the first emerging sun, beats down on a cobbled lane--the smell of last evenings beer mingles with the damp earth.

There's an ionized freshness in the air, as ozone-spouting busses pass noisily by, their cargoes staring out of clean windows.

Bavaria sands tall above us all, her proud breasts giving suck to all the city west of her, but protected from ravening maws by the Isar...and shrugging to the South where poor Valentine sits in the Isartor, awaiting some sort of love.

There's a train pulling into the tunnel at Muenchener Freiheit, there's another one emerging--each one donning a new blue in the lights down here, madding crowds are busting for the escalators, escalating their urgency onto the street.

Now it is fall, a cold snap has sent the bricks of these grand houses in Lehel shivering, the trees protest, but it suits Lenbach just fine, even the frozen Stacchus can't but help to revel in the hope of a spill of gluhwein, or two.

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