Anders Monsen

Lost worlds and ports of call

Page 46 of 92

Book acquired

It’s one of those cases where you think you have a book, only to discover you don’t. Then when trying to order from the publisher discover that the 1,500 print run is sold out. Luckily, I was able to order James P. Blaylock’s 2011 novel, The Affair of the Chalk Cliffs, from another source. I have most of Blaylock’s books, with an exception here or there made for chapbooks and single stories.

Eve of non-voting

On the eve of another general election, it is difficult for a principled non-voter to summon the will to care. It’s not an issue of “your vote doesn’t count” or general apathy. For 25 years I’ve ignored elections from the belief that if government has no moral legitimacy, participating in any political election is akin to violence. Those who view democracy as the ultimate goal, thinking it superior to non-democratic models, still fail to see its just a different mask hiding the same coercive statist model.

The choice between one or the other candidate will not eliminate wars, taxation, burdensome and crazy regulations. Free speech will remain threatened, the courts and bureaucrats will continue to insinuate the state into our daily lives.

The long parade of so-called libertarians who cast their votes for Republicans, who campaign ceaselessly for a statist candidate under the mistaken belief that he won’t be as bad as the other guy, I find disheartening. Elections are the only time when principles suddenly become a liability.

If you decide to vote, cast it for a smaller party, either one, rather than one of the status juggernauts.

Patents and development

Does a company that patents a concept yet does nothing to bring it to reality really have a case when a company decades later creates something real, yet similar? SurfCast appears to think so, in it suit against Microsoft and Windows 8’s tile interface. I tend to think a patent means you actually do something about that you “invent” not sit on it and then sue, since no one decided the needed to license a dormant idea.

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