brandonrobison.net

Hi all,

A handful of classmates and I have banded together to start a new blog. Its primary discussion will revolve around economic, political and social issues, but will undoubtedly also cover pop culture, religion, philosophy, and a myriad of other topics.

I don’t plan to get rid of my personal blog, and I’m not sure how I will divide up posts between it and this new one I’m involved in. So, just plan on checking them both! The worst thing that can happen is you might learn something.

So, why not head over to Unconstrained Optimism?

Yesterday I voted in the Virginia election. There were only five (or was it six?) positions to vote for. I want to tell you all a little about my experience voting.

First off, I only voted for three of the positions: governor, attorney general, and house of delegates. I guess that last one is like the state legislature or something? I really have no idea.

Well, leading up to the election, I was unsure as to whether I should vote for the D or the R guys. On the one hand, D is pretty close to B, which is the first letter of my first name. But on the other hand, R *is* R, the first letter of my last name. In the end, I chose to go for the R guys, and for reasons other than the first-letter-of-my-name thing.

Bob McDonnell’s competitor had put signs up all over Fairfax saying something to the effect that Bob wanted to get rid of schools. You might know I’m not a fan of public schools, so if Bob is against them, he’s my guy. I just don’t understand why his Creigh Deeds would have gone around paying for a positive advertising campaign for his election competitor.

I voted for Bob McDonnell, and he won by 6%. It’s a good thing I voted for him, because without my vote, he would have undoubtedly lost.

The race for attorney general had a similar story. The guy running against Cuccinelli (I don’t even remember his (or her) name) has been playing ads all over TV saying how Cuccinelli once said that he wouldn’t enforce laws he didn’t agree with. Wow! What a strong endorsement!

Seriously, these Democrats are horrible at the PR game. You guys are supposed to advertise negative qualities about your competitors (or at least talk up the good points of your own business). No wonder Republicans owned the elections last night.

Well anyway, I voted for Cuccinelli. This was a much closer race — Cuccinelli only won by 1%! My vote really counted here.

So in case you’re not keeping track, my vote has counted in two of two cases.

However, there is still the general assembly election. There was no R in this race, only a D. Having run as a third party candidate in the past, I can empathize with the lower-ranked parties. So I voted for the Green Party candidate, Anna Choi. I mean, I like the color green, so why not? And I can tell by her name that she’s Asian, and I like Asians.

Furthermore, her website claims she is a fiscal conservative… which in conjunction with being a Green means she probably just favors raising taxes really high to offset government spending. But that’s ok, because I learned recently from doing my macro homework that in a Keynesian world (which we live in), an equal increase in government spending and taxes results in a net positive effect on the economy. What’s not to love about this kind of fiscal conservatism?

Unfortunately, Anna lost her bid to serve us. It went to the D.

But I refuse to let one bad race prevent me from enjoying my democratic freedoms in this country and knowing that, at the very least, my vote counted in two of the three races.

Several weeks ago I ordered a book from Amazon for one of my classes. When I got it, and I realized it was missing pages 19-51. So I sent Amazon an email, and they sent me a new copy the next day (as in, I received a replacement *the day after I reported the problem*… Amazon FTW). Unfortunately, it had the same problem. So I asked around and found out other classmates had the same problem (ordering it from other bookstores, even).

I decided to contact the publisher, MIT Press:

I have ordered two separate copies of Lectures on Macroeconomics by Blanchard and Fischer (ISBN 0-262-02283-4) and both copies are missing pages 19-51. Other classmates are having the same problem. What can be done to fix this? It seems that multiple booksellers have the same faulty printings…

A couple days later, they replied with this:

Dear Brandon:  I have checked with the press, and they can’t seem to think of a particular book off hand.  Perhaps you can try Amazon.com.  I’m sending the link to hopefully help in the search.
thank you,
____

<http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=women+law+enforcement&x=0&y=0>

The punch line to this story is found by clicking on the link they sent me.

For those of you who read my blog but not Ashley’s, go check out her latest post to read about our adventures this past week. I thought about writing a travelog, but decided Ashley’s done a more-than-adequate job for the both of us.

And lo, he sprang before me as the flash of a turquoise tornado. As if to dare me to attempt murder, he sang a song. Calling, beckoning. The menace of his voice was unnerving, but I remained unwavering. This was not to be a moment of hesitation: nay, but a moment of decisive victory. It would be the time of his ignominy.

My course of perquisition, having lasted past years three, had landed me on his trail fewer times than that a man has fingers on his hand. Yet I endeavored, persevering in hope that my avocation would prove fruitful. And indeed it had, as the elusive Green Hornet was thus before me.

Perched upon a branch of such beauty as to cause bemusement to even the most thoughtful of creatures, he stared, peering as it were into my soul. But many long moons of study and rumination had prepared me for this chicanery, and I withstood his piercing eyes.

As we gazed across the space, it was I, who, seizing the proper opportunity, sprang forward in such a perfect grace as to immediately receive recognition from the gods. Yea, the fiercest, most noble lioness fighting for the defense of her den of cubs could not have compared to the power and agility with which I bared down upon the Green Hornet.

And it was with the Strength and Promise of the Heavens that I struck him down with all my might, banishing him from this world and the next, never to haunt the souls of men again.

Thus was the end of the elusive Green Hornet, and this is the tale.

(Click to enlarge the image of the elusive Green Hornet.)

(UPDATE: The following image is a better shot, taken of a live Chlorion aerarium. Thanks to Mike Treat and Natalie Delgado for help in identification. Turns out he’s actually a wasp, which I knew, but “green hornet” sounded cooler.)

Today in Las Vegas, a 5-year-old found a gun in his dad’s car’s glove compartment, pulled it out, and accidentally shot himself in the head. His dad was sitting in the car right next to him.

Oh and by the way, it’s the gun’s fault.

I didn’t even want to watch the “news coverage” on this one, but I’m almost sure that was the diagnosis.

In other news, I started to look up gun laws in Virginia. I found some gems of information.

For example, you are only permitted to buy one handgun per month (unless you’re a cop, or), unless given a Multiple Handgun Purchase Certificate, obtainable by filling out a Multiple Handgun Purchase Application. Naturally, you must justify needing to buy multiple hand guns, and there are no guidelines as to what constitutes justifiable.

Not that I’ll be buying multiple handguns anytime soon — we’re too poor. But it really makes me wonder what sort of illogical mind games people (ahem, politicians) must play with themselves for that to make any sense. What purpose does that serve?

Virginia has an “informal” agreement with the state of Utah to accept its CCWs (I have a Utah and Nevada CCW, so I’m ok, right?)… I wouldn’t count on being ok, though. Really, what is an informal agreement? What does that even mean? So, I’ll probably be getting a Virginia CCW as well. Wee!

On the plus side, I found out I can at least take my gun onto GMU campus… so long as I leave it in my car in the parking lot. It’s not that I’m worried about a crazy person shooting up a school in Virginia or anything, I just like to have my gun close to me at all times, if possible.

Maybe someone can explain this to me. Why is it that every Asian home I go into (in America) has several giant geodes placed decoratively around the house?

Am I making an over-generalization from too small a sample size (I think n = 3 or 4), or is this really as common as I believe it is? Asian friends, help me understand.

This weekend in Las Vegas, Bally’s Casino hosted the FreedomFest convention. I’ve gone in several past years, but I was unable to secure free admission this year, so I didn’t attend. A note to individuals interested in FreedomFest in the future: you can get in for free — no one checks your badge. I found this out too late for it to really do me any good.

Yesterday, I went to Bally’s to meet Robert P. Murphy for lunch (read his blog Free Advice). Bob is probably one of the most normal, easy-to-converse-with educated people I’ve had the opportunity to meet. It was just the two of us sitting for an hour over lunch, and, despite having never met before, it never felt strange or awkward. We primarily discussed economics and the Austrian school, but we also talked about our backgrounds, families, etc. It was a great experience.

After lunch, since I was already near the convention, I figured I’d “test the waters” and see if I could get in. And I did. No problems. I ran into a few old LP friends (Debbie and Nate) and was tempted to buy hundreds of dollars of books from Laissez Faire Books, but I resisted.

For dinner, I went to Lotus of Siam with Tyler Cowen of GMU (his blog Marginal Revolution). My old friend/co-worker Jacqueline and her husband Neal met up with us there. The three of us were treated to Tyler’s style of food ordering, something none of us had experienced before. Jacqueline already summed up the experience, so I’ll just steal her words:

Instead of reading the menu and deciding ourselves what to order, Tyler told to the waiter to bring us “good stuff” and that we were “very serious” and to “bring us what you would eat for the last meal of your life.”  He asked where the chef was from, and said he’d been there and had high standards.  Basically, he let the waiter and chef decide what we were going to eat.

Bob and Tyler are both “economics-field heroes” of mine, so getting to socialize with them yesterday will definitely go down as one of my highlights for the summer of 2009.

Anyone who has hung out with me enough knows that whenever I am asked to show ID, I flip out my CCW. (A CCW, for those of you not in the know, is a little piece of plastic which gives me the privilege of discretely carrying a deadly weapon.)

I do this not to “show off” my CCW, but because it regularly elicits interesting responses from people…

“Oh you’re a cop?”

“… you carry a gun?”

More frequently, though, it’s to test for common sense. The worst fails occur at places like Wal-Mart and movie theaters. A movie theater example follows:

Idiot: “I need to see some ID” (for admittance to an R-rated movie)

Me: *flips out CCW* (note: the CCW reads, in very large print, “CONCEALED FIREARMS PERMIT”)

Idiot: “Umm… this doesn’t have your birthday on it.”

Me: “No, but do you think I’d be allowed to carry a concealed weapon, but not be allowed to see an R-rated movie?”

At this point, the idiot usually responds with a confused look of perplexion, and then they start over with something like, “I need to see an ID that shows your birthday.” Of course, they would say something like birthday and not birth date, because they probably wouldn’t even know the difference between the two.

The other regular failure of common sense I get is like this (common at Wal-Mart and many convenience stores):

Idiot: “Can I see some ID?” (to check it against my credit card)

Me: *flips out CCW* (note: my name and picture and emblazoned on the front of the card, right under where the large-print “CONCEALED” etc. is printed)

Idiot: “Umm.. I need to see a state-issued ID.”

Me: “But this is a state-issued ID…” (as I point to the top of the CCW, where it reads “State of Nevada, Clark County”)

The idiot then looks at it for a moment, again offering nothing but a fallen countenance in exchange for their lack of understanding, and usually reiterates, “No… I mean… a STATE-issued ID.”

If no one is in line behind me, I’ll continue to argue with them, hoping that I can reach just one individual and instill into them a minute degree of common sense. Usually I just give up and flip over my wallet to show my driver’s license.

Ashley (and others) usually just feel really awkward when they’re with me and these situations arise. I can’t understand why, because I think it’s quite fun.