five by five http://www.exaltron.com/blog/ The objectivist hip-hop blog of exaltron, the improvisational musicborg and pro-reason MC. 2008-09-03T23:08:12-05:00 getting a bit of love (not of the self variety) on a blog (other than this one) http://www.exaltron.com/blog/archives/2008/09/getting_a_bit_o.html Well now this happened a few weeks ago, but I reckon I would be remiss if I didn't send this down the PR pike for y'all, my kin. This has to be one of the nicest things anyone has ever said about me who wasn't a member of my family:

Exaltron blew my mind when I first popped it on. A product enriched with the philosophy "I remix myself onstage and it feels good", is exactly the kind of organic fuel to fire anyone's otherwise drab music tastes.

The arrangements roam, the lyrics stray, the instruments are all over the place, and frankly, we can't get enough of it. It's this sort of melding of musicalities that makes us excited about the future of music.

Click here to read the whole thing and check out which song she chose to post. Not what I would consider my best ever piece of music, but the kids seem to like it, so there you have it.

Keep it locked for new video coming out and I got a gig coming up and rawk.

]]> exaltron 2008-09-03T23:08:12-05:00 Total exaltronification is Imminent!! http://www.exaltron.com/blog/archives/2008/03/total_exaltroni.html So I got an email from a co-owner of this one feline hangout in Williamsburg in response to a booking inquiry I sent (plus a CD that I left with the soundperson) and it turns out she was already familiar with my music through this one drummer who she works with at this one music house. Which means that COOL INDUSTRY PEOPLE ARE BEING BOMBARDED BY THE SOUNDS OF EXALTRON AT EVERY TURN!!

World domination is within my grasp >:)

Or at least a cool gig... hopefully..

]]> gigs exaltron 2008-03-04T13:09:40-05:00 Drug Prices Surge Despite Criticisms On Campaign Trail http://www.exaltron.com/blog/archives/2008/02/drug_prices_sur.html Oh lord did I ever get a bitter chuckle out of this WSJ article on increasing drug prices. Just when you think the issues of individual rights and supply and demand couldn't get mired any further in altruistic rhetoric, here come our illustrious presidential candidates to prove me wrong.

First up, Obama:
On his Web site, Mr. Obama says he "will prevent [drug] companies from abusing their monopoly power through unjustified price increases."

OMG, What the.. who? Is there even one word in that quote that is not completely worthless? What "monopoly power" do the drug companies have, you mean that competition-destroying seven-year patent they get just for being lucky enough to sink millions of dollars into discovery the might yield a safe and live-saving medication. And by "unjustified price increases", I'm assuming he means charging more for a drug than people can afford. Well bravo, my good man, you are correct, it is in fact in the economic interest of the drug companies to set a price for their product that the majority of people can afford, in order to maximize their profits and- oh, I'm sorry, I misunderstood you? Ah, what you meant was that everyone should be able to afford the drugs and that the industry's profits and rights to its intellectual property are not your concern, you unprincipled little worm. Yes, I almost forgot that as an employee of a corporation in the health care industry, I have no right to consider my interests over the needs of those who demand life-saving drugs at a price of their choosing. Ok, good luck with that, I'm sure that golden goose will just keep-a layin' eggs.

Not to be outdone, her comes Senator McCain to offer his radically free-market approach:
Mr. McCain's health-care plan includes a provision to "develop safety protocols that permit reimportation to keep competition vigorous."

But of course, like a true capitalist, McCain simply wants to "keep competition vigorous" by pretending that Canadians get their drugs through some sort of free market. Let's just forget that 99% of all money spent on drugs in Canada is money that is coercively taken from Canadian citizens by their government, who then "negotiates" a price with the pharmaceutical industry. Oh Canadian Government, don't worry about Obama, he's too busy calling the Pharmaceutical industry a monopoly to notice that you actually are one.

What tickles me is that McCain is playing along with the industry's "safety" game, ie, that they're just concerned that if drugs are reimported, the vaunted public (whose right to "safe" drugs is inalienable), might end up with some fake Viagra. Oh Pharmaceutical Industry, when the hell are you gonna take your family jewels out of your purse and stand up for your rights to your property and your profits? Seriously, when a cube monkey in your multi-billion dollar industry has to point out that all your altruistic PR is just playing into the hands of those who would enslave you... Please tell me you are working on a drug that can treat a chronically weak backbone.

read more | digg story

]]> exaltron 2008-02-21T11:56:35-05:00 WSJ Article: Drug Prices Surge Despite Criticisms On Campaign Trail http://www.exaltron.com/blog/archives/2008/02/wsj_article_dru.html Oh lord did I ever get a bitter chuckle out of this WSJ article on increasing drug prices. Just when you think the issues of individual rights and supply and demand couldn't get mired any further in altruistic rhetoric, here come our illustrious presidential candidates to prove me wrong.

First up, Obama:

On his Web site, Mr. Obama says he "will prevent [drug] companies from abusing their monopoly power through unjustified price increases."

OMG, What the.. who? Is there even one word in that quote that is not completely worthless? What "monopoly power" do the drug companies have, you mean that competition-destroying seven-year patent they get just for being lucky enough to sink millions of dollars into discovery the might yield a safe and live-saving medication. And by "unjustified price increases", I'm assuming he means charging more for a drug than people can afford. Well bravo, my good man, you are correct, it is in fact in the economic interest of the drug companies to set a price for their product that the majority of people can afford, in order to maximize their profits and- oh, I'm sorry, I misunderstood you? Ah, what you meant was that everyone should be able to afford the drugs and that the industry's profits and rights to its intellectual property are not your concern, you unprincipled little worm. Yes, I almost forgot that as an employee of a corporation in the health care industry, I have no right to consider my interests over the needs of those who demand life-saving drugs at a price of their choosing. Ok, good luck with that, I'm sure that golden goose will just keep-a layin' eggs.

Not to be outdone, her comes Senator McCain to offer his radically free-market approach:


Mr. McCain's health-care plan includes a provision to "develop safety protocols that permit reimportation to keep competition vigorous."

But of course, like a true capitalist, McCain simply wants to "keep competition vigorous" by pretending that Canadians get their drugs through some sort of free market. Let's just forget that 99% of all money spent on drugs in Canada is money that is coercively taken from Canadian citizens by their government, who then "negotiates" a price with the pharmaceutical industry. Oh Canadian Government, don't worry about Obama, he's too busy calling the Pharmaceutical industry a monopoly to notice that you actually are one.

What tickles me is that McCain is playing along with the industry's "safety" game, ie, that they're just concerned that if drugs are reimported, the vaunted public (whose right to "safe" drugs is inalienable), might end up with some fake Viagra. Oh Pharmaceutical Industry, when the hell are you gonna take your family jewels out of your purse and stand up for your rights to your property and your profits? Seriously, when a cube monkey in your multi-billion dollar industry has to point out that all your altruistic PR is just playing into the hands of those who would enslave you... Please tell me you are working on a drug that can treat a chronically weak backbone.

]]> political exaltron 2008-02-21T10:05:53-05:00 WMC Miami Wrap up http://www.exaltron.com/blog/archives/2007/03/wmc_miami_wrap.html Ok, so I just spent my vacation and a ridiculous amount of cash on adventures and misadventures at WMC in Miami. It's kind of funny: since I read about WMC in 2003, I've fantasized about attending, hobnobbing and performing at the conference, but in the end, the conference itself barely resembled what I imagined. The official music as far as I could tell was limited to house, trance, etc., basically all the thump, thump, thump, four-on-the-floor beats that bore the crap out of me, no matter what is happening in between.

But as an artist who exalts all things 'tronic, I made the best of it. Which meant more than just lots of living the life at/in the pool, the "seabreeze" bar, and on the beach, swimming and enjoying the absurdly Maxfield Parrish-esque sunsets. I gladhanded a ton of DJs who might alltold listen to three minutes of my CD and otherwise tried to get my message out there. One of the highpoints was getting up in front of a panel that included Tom Silverman the founder of Tommy Boy records (ironically had I known who he was I might not have found the nerve) and busting my speil. I have to say I was pretty taken aback by the insightfulness and sincerity of his response. People might say it's obvious to suggest what he did: that I should take my one-man hip-hop electro extravaganza on the road grassroots style, but having someone with the kind of success this dude has behind him gives it a weight.

My other small victory was a positive response from both the panel and the attendees at Friday's Demo Listening Workshop. I got props for my nasty bassline on 5 by 5 and even a positive comparison to A Tribe Called Quest, one of my favoritest hip-hop acts of all times. But again, with the overwhelming aesthetic tending toward clubby DJ music, the exaltron vehicle was not getting the traction it should have. Thursday night I was lucky enough to hook up with Julie from the Warper fam (aka DJ Shakey), who showed me the well-connected side of the citywide festivities, including one of the uber-hyped downtown clubs whose soundsystem threatened to obviate the need for monitors at my gig the following day.

Saturday's showcase performance in the hotel lobby was similarly plagued by anti-musician discrimilation. Ok, half the issues had to do with my own "preconfigured" setup, a box packed with effects, interfaces and way too many cords to effectively troubleshoot when something comes loose on the UPS truck. But I was also plagued by the alien (at least to me) DJ mixer that was provided. Ultimately with no support whatsoever and 30 minutes into my one-hour time slot, I was literally having to talk myself out of a breakdown and convince myself that the exaltronic show must go on. But the mostly-internal drama was perhaps a bit overprescribed, as I ended up laying down some serious trumpet, a smidgen of vocals and lots of wholesome live remixing, sacrificing guitar entirely for the good of the master-outs. And yet I still got treated like DJ Dangerfield with people walking up to me in the throes of a self-indulgent trumpet solo to get my info. Seriously though, I was amped by the limited reaction I got and the two people who waited until the end to talk at me seemed infinitely more professional. Oh, also got a fifteen minute video of it, most of which will probably consist of me trying to find my mic cord among the mess of wires in my "lunchbox".

Spent the last two days in sunny and overwhelmingly retired Naples, Florida with my homegirl Ashlei getting burnt to a crisp on the beach. And this little piggy said ow, ow, ow, all the way back to Newark.

]]> exaltron 2007-03-29T02:41:25-05:00 The (Other) F Word http://www.exaltron.com/blog/archives/2006/11/the_other_f_wor.html No, not another tirade about censorship. My first podcast in, I don't know, like, forever will be on my favorite cooking/reality show (best of both genres actually) on TV, The F Word. Now, granted, I've only suffered through Rachel Ray's maniacal perk for one or two episodes, but when I saw Gordon Ramsay's new joint (yes, believe it or not, the gratuiously vitriolic chef from one of Fox's many manufactured-reality shows called Hell's Kitchen), I knew I was hooked.
The F Word effortlessly segues between a tantalizing smorgasbord of food-related segments, slicing and dicing the cult of food into a dizzying bouliabase (Ok, no more food metaphors henceforth, promise). The show is promoted with the most un-PC purpose of getting women back into the kitchen (yeah, barefoot and pregnant!! ...errr), but it becomes immediately apparent that this is a thinly veiled excuse to present his 360 degree obsession with all aspects of food. Yes, he does have some demos of very simple and easy dishes and offers some basic technique (useful stuff, much of which I've never seen on a food show), he even takes his little bucket of essentials to the houses of these domestically-challenged women and whips them into shape. Though one doubts whether spending a couple hours with a master chef can really turn someone around (we're talking women who have pans hanging in their kitchen that have never tasted food).
But the real [fights mightily to avoid another food metaphor] ..satisfying part of the show are all the add-ons and special segments, including a recurring segment on the Turkeys that Chef Ramsay is raising with the help of his adorable kids, special guest diners (who, if one were british, one might actually recognize as celebrities), even a budding-chef competition between two young hopefuls every week, the winner of which gets an Apprentice-style position in one of his kitchens (bonus: on the last episode, he deems both contestants lackluster and decides to send them both packing, and he delivers the news without a hint of apology).
This is the kind of show that not only inspires me to cook (I'm pretty bonkers about my new kitchen, even though it's eaten up half my living room), but to look at how I approach my own calling and imagine how much fun it would be to have a show like this about music- interviews, conversations, performances, tours.. Damn, I gotta get there.

]]> exaltron 2006-11-21T23:28:44-05:00 exaltron podcast VI: the resurrection http://www.exaltron.com/blog/archives/2006/08/exaltron_podcas_1.html That's right, the exaltron podcast refuses to die!! Not only that, but thanks to my sis (thanks Sue), I remembered that I actually have to post the podcast to the blog to make it show up in iTunes and other blog sites. So, here's the speil:

fans of exaltron and those yet to be assimilated-
I've been conferring with some imaginary market research firms I hired and their data indicates that literally handfuls of people were at one point tuning in to my podcast. So I concluded: I shall get back on the stick vis-a-vis podcasting. This time 'round I bring you:

1. Intro featuring Maria-Stella Fountoulakis as Scary Robot Voice
2. Improvisation no. 3,240,782.5
3. Futuristic hip-hop duo ApSci's "Puttin' on the Fitz" feat. Vursatyl of Lifesavas
4. exaltron's wanderlust remix of "Puttin' on the Fitz"
5. Skit: Bizarre Fetish w/ music from Scott Joplin, Kajagoogoo, and the comedy stylings of Maria-Stella Fountoulakis.
6. Clip and upcoming gig info for cool ethereal rock band The Lost Patrol.
7. Scary Robot Voice wants to hang out

Ok so check it out- it's free entertainment!! What the else are you gonna do while you're waiting for that goddamn MySpace page to load?

]]> Podcasts exaltron 2006-08-18T05:39:19-05:00 Ayann Hirsi Ali I want to marry you http://www.exaltron.com/blog/archives/2006/07/ayann_hirsi_ali.html I saw this woman at a cafe in midtown the other day (won't say exactly where or when because the islamofascists are trying to kill her), and she is even more serene and beautiful in person. I would have asked her to marry me on the spot, but I couldn't remember her name correctly. Damn.





I copied this from Cox and Forkum:



From Reuters: Dutch MP says necessary to criticise Islam.

A Dutch politician and self-styled Muslim dissident urged Europeans to stand firm on Thursday in an international crisis over cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad, saying it was "necessary and urgent" to criticise Islam.

Ayaan Hirsi Ali praised newspapers in many countries which have printed the cartoons, considered blasphemous by many Muslims, but said others had held back for fear of criticising what she called "intolerant aspects of Islam".

"Today I am here to defend the right to offend within the bounds of the law, " she told a news conference organised by her publisher during a visit to Berlin.

"It's necessary and it's urgent to criticise Islam. It is urgent to criticise the teachings of Mohammad."
Hirsi Ali, who was born in Somalia and brought up as a Muslim, has received frequent death threats for her criticism of Islam, including in a controversial film called "Submission" for which she wrote the script.
Its director Theo van Gogh was shot and stabbed to death by a Dutch-born Islamist militant in 2004, and a note threatening Hirsi Ali was pinned to his chest with a knife.

"Many Muslims are peaceful people; not all are fanatics. As far as I am concerned they have every right to be faithful to their convictions. But within Islam exists a hard-line Islamist movement that rejects democratic freedoms and wants to destroy them, " the Dutch liberal member of parliament said.
She heaped shame on editors and politicians who had argued it was insensitive or irresponsible to reproduce the Mohammad cartoons, including one showing him with a bomb in his turban.

From Speigel magazine: 'Everyone Is Afraid to Criticize Islam'.

SPIEGEL: But Muslims, like any religious community, should also be able to protect themselves against slander and insult.

HIRSI ALI: That's exactly the reflex I was just talking about: offering the other cheek. Not a day passes, in Europe and elsewhere, when radical imams aren't preaching hatred in their mosques. They call Jews and Christians inferior, and we say they're just exercising their freedom of speech. When will the Europeans realize that the Islamists don't allow their critics the same right? After the West prostrates itself, they'll be more than happy to say that Allah has made the infidels spineless.

Here is another great blog post from Atlas Shrugs that quotes a brilliant New York Sun article about a speaking engagement my girl did in NYC.

]]> exaltron 2006-07-28T12:01:48-05:00 The Absurdity of Censorship http://www.exaltron.com/blog/archives/2006/06/the_absurdity_o_1.html I've been LOLzing at one segment of Jimmy Kimmel's talk show, "This Week in Unnecessary Censorship" for a while now, without realizing that it was meant to be, and quite succeeds at making a political statement: The FCC's goal of "protecting us from bad words and nudity" is simply idiotic and futile. Idiotic because there is no right to not be offended. If there were, it would conflict directly with the right to free speech, meaning we would only have the right to speak our minds so long as it didn't offend anyone. But rights by definition do not require sanction or special permission. The FCC's censorship is futile because ultimately they can't stop people from being exposed to ideas. Laws against ideas create thought crimes and, as we know from sci-fi movies, policing thought crimes can get very messy. Finally, the criteria for censorship, ie, whether it is "offensive" or "prurient". As you can see from the video below, the same bleeping and pixelating employed to render the bad stuff inert can be used to render inert stuff offensive and prurient. Enjoy..

link

]]> philosophy exaltron 2006-06-15T19:55:06-05:00 5 by 5 CD Release Party, June 2nd at Bar Mundial in NYC!! http://www.exaltron.com/blog/archives/2006/05/5_by_5_cd_relea_1.html Another update that went out via email: My release party is June 2nd at Bar Mundial (12th st betw Ave A & B). There will be drink specials and CD giveaways (maybe even a free CD for the first ten people through the door..). Of course I should mention that this party is FREE, ie, NO COVER, so save your money for a stack of CDs!!

Here's a photo of me from my photoshoot with my homegirl Tara at Mundial:
IMG_4273.JPG

]]> gigs exaltron 2006-05-21T23:07:42-05:00 5 by 5 is pressed!! Available on Paypal now!! http://www.exaltron.com/blog/archives/2006/05/5_by_5_is_press.html For those of you who aren't on my mailing list (you can add yourself here), I just picked up 1000 copies of my CD last week in New Jersey. It's done!! I'm offering a direct-ship starting today for Paypal users (if you don't have an account, you can set one up today in minutes- totally secure). This is a Paypal exclusive: $10.00 + $2.00 s/h anywhere in the US.









Orders placed Sunday through Thursday before 4:00 pm will ship the same day or your shipping is free!!

Options for CD Baby, Amazon and Tower Records coming soon.

The CD is gettin a lot of positive press, mostly thanks to my sister and her family. She's got my niece and her friends on the exaltron bandwagon and apparently my brother-in-law Michael was blasting exaltron in Soho the other day and ended up selling a local doorman on exaltron. Oh and yes Sue, that is your daughter Kate sample on track one and this lyric is indeed referring to you and the rest of the LI peeps:

check out the handclaps for my number one fan
tahoe-ready for my peeps in long island

]]> Family exaltron 2006-05-21T22:15:51-05:00 Warper party wrapup http://www.exaltron.com/blog/archives/2006/03/warper_party_wr.html Last night's Warper party was an amazing experience. As usual, exaltron's fanbase was in full effect, ie, master drumborg Andy O'neill showed up and the rest of you losers couldn't make it. Don't worry, exaltron still loves you, but not as much as he loves the Warper people, especially the uber-organized, um, organizers, Shakey and Moldover. Special thanks to Shakey for lending me a power supply after I tripped over mine just before packing up my laptop and snapped the plug right off it.

Warper is a serious geekfest, so I was right at home. Not only did they have a projector so the audience could peep all the on-screen scientificals, there was a professional videographer, Vlad, there filming the performances and interviewing performers on their rigs and software (should be posted to his site in the next few days). He and I also discussed the possibility of collaborating on a "promuctional" (my coinage, but feel free to take a bite) video that we would try to get posted on the Ableton website*. Another possible collabo came up with Mike from trackteamaudio who produces self-installing CD-roms chocked full of patches, loops and other cool stuff for use with Live. Your favorite borg has been planning to post some free loopage on the homepage for a while now, but working with this guy could open up a lot more exposure than my spiderweb scheme likely would have.

Finally, file under Delicious Rumors from Planet Geekitron: a couple unnamed laptopoligists last night were discussing a cracked version of Live that allegedly works for a few months, then out of nowhere just up and dies. Apparently a somewhat successful laptop artist was caught with her pants down when "her" software decided to bite it just before a gig. Mmmmm, sweet, buttery comeuppance.

]]> gigs exaltron 2006-03-23T00:04:09-05:00 Warper laptop party!! http://www.exaltron.com/blog/archives/2006/03/sorry_to_have_t.html sorry to have to drop this on you last minute, but I just grabbed an open spot at the legendary Warper party at the Botanica bar in Manhattan! What, you haven't heard about Warper? Ok, I hadn't heard of it either, but it's this really cool laptop DJ/musician throwdown that they do every month- mostly borgs using Ableton's Live software. So even if exaltron completely malfunctions, the other borgs are likely to "bring it" as the kids like to say. 

From the website:

Warper is the party for people interested in getting in on the ground floor of the latest evolution in DJ culture. Conceived by users of Ableton Live audio mixing software to build community, showcase creativity, and share knowledge in the NY area and beyond. Your hosts, musician / Djs Shakey and Moldover, schedule the evening to include feature performers, open laptop jams, and discussion of styles in a fluid and energetic environment appealing to both participants and party people. Warper will be held monthly at various NY and Brooklyn venues and will additionally include all-ages parties, premium shows, and events on the road.

your favorite improvisational musicborg lays down the electro-hijinx at 9:30 in the front room. 

what else?
Botanica Bar
47 east houston st., btw. Mott and Mulberry, NYC
MAP 212-343-7251

warper website (you can contact them if you want to sign up for a laptop spot)

Also, the CD is COMPLETELY DONE!!! My borg Mark Fallai is almost done with the CD design so it should be going to duplication in a week or so.
hope you can make it out on a school night!
]]> exaltron 2006-03-19T22:13:09-05:00 Chomsky is a reject http://www.exaltron.com/blog/archives/2006/03/chomsky_is_a_re_1.html Here's a post that some socialist loser posted on the Capitalism board on myspace about the best books on Capitalism, and my response:

FoxFistWrote:

Capital Volumes 1-4

Imperialism: The highest stage of capitalism

Manufacturing consent: the political economy of the mass media

Necessary Illusions: Thought control in democratic societies

Democracy vs. Capitalism: Restoring historical materialism

The orgins of family, private property, and the state

A People's History of the United States

The Iron Heel

There you go! that should start you off arguing against socialists. If you can read and understand all of those books and still love capitalism, I'm sure might be able to argue against a few first-year socialists. GOOD LUCK!

exaltron wrote:
Of all of those, I would have to say Manufacturing Consent is the sneakiest. Chomskyism is definitely the biggest threat to capitalism going forward, since he is one of the only socialists who is able to cloak his Marxism in the language of populism and democracy. In other words, tyranny by a small group of individuals is bad, but if we all vote together that Bill Gates doesn't deserve his billions because he didn't "labor" (ie, sweat and pant like an animal) enough, then it's perfectly OK to violate his rights and take whatever "society" (ie, another group of individuals who happens to be the majority) needs from him. After all, we know that Gates can't possibly be *creating* wealth, since Marx (oops, back to him again) told us that there is this static pool of wealth in the world, and since the big bad capitalists have hoarded all the means of production, they have cornered the market on all resources from now until the end of time.

Chomsky's trick in Manufacturing Consent is to create a monolithic media jauggernaut that operates in the same way as the death squads and storm troopers (not the ones from Star Wars) have throughout history, except that they don't, you know, murder civilians and torture people. What they do is they all get together and, with the help of Rupert Murdoch and one or two other guys who control the ENTIRE MEDIA, they conspire to.... MANUFACTURE CONSENT!! (sounds tres ominous, no?)

Now, the shell game here is that there is no fundamental distinction made between actual physical force (a gun to the temple, for instance), and the media "forcing" you to believe whatever Bill O'Reilly or Paul Krugman of the New York Times (another well-cloaked Marxist, but Chomsky lumps the NYT in with all the rest as TOOLS OF THE IMPERIALIST CONSPIRACY- they're totally not radical enough for him) -whatever these guys want you to believe, which is to say what the government wants you to believe, since they're nothing more than clever sounding boards for government propagandists. I'm not sure if Michael Moore is part of that conspiracy- He may be some kind of modern-day court jester, unleashed by the powers that be to create the illusion of freedom of speech and diversity in the media.. I'll get back to you on that.

That's why we need to have unlimited democracy! Well, I mean, we won't vote on whether you can have an abortion or have weird sex, cuz that's your business, we just want to control your wealth (that you totally stole from the proletariat) in case you're too productive (and hence in danger of weilding too much POWER). And we need to make sure that everyone gets the right information (namely ours) to make the best decisions, so in the interest of free speech, we will hold a gun to your head and make you pay for our message to be heard over all that other stuff that you *think* you want to read/watch on tv/hear on the radio, but really you've just been brainwashed by those TOOLS (of the imperialist conspiracy).

It really is a sad state of affairs when only the super-elite can afford the $100 or so that it would take buy a computer and connect to the internet, where they could discover the real truth. If the masses only knew that instead of watching Fox News, they could be logging on to MySpace and enlightening themselves with all kinds of regurgitated Marxist claptrap, they would surely slug off their imaginary shackles and taste true freedom.

]]> exaltron 2006-03-01T12:38:50-05:00 economic amnesia http://www.exaltron.com/blog/archives/2006/02/economic_amnesi.html Reading this article about Wal-mart in the New York Times today, I was thinking about all the people who criticize the store's lack of benefits and low wages and those who work to stop Wal-Mart from entering markets where it would no doubt offer a better/cheaper alternatives to local retailers. A lot of their criticism seems to have a familiar ring to it and I realized why, it's the same mindless criticism that is leveled at the US and other capitalist countries for not "sharing the wealth". The typical argument goes, "the US is so wealthy, it's a disgrace that a country with such an astronomical GDP should have millions of people without free health insurance (or free education, free shoes, etc.).

The question they fail to ask is: Why is the US so successful? More to the point: Why are certain individuals in the US able to create wealth, and why are they so much more likely to do so in the US than elsewhere? The answer is simple, individuals (and corporations like Wal-mart) are able to create massive amounts of wealth because they are able to control what they have. The US constitution (despite successful and unsuccessful attempts to dilute it) guarantees individual rights and freedoms and enjoins those interlopers who would seek to force others to conform to their whims. Hence a company like Wal-mart is able to trade freely with workers and customers who voluntarily choose to shop or work at Wal-mart. "But Wal-mart is forcing all the competition out of the market by dumping their prices temporarily until they can establish a monopoly", goes the standard criticism. While there is no hard evidence to support this claim, even if it were true it would not change the fact that Wal-mart must win in a free market by providing a better option to both its workers and its customers, and it must do this in both the short and long-term. One does not build a multi-billion dollar corporation through sleight of hand and shell games.

Ultimately, the second-guessing of a corporation that employs more people than any other company in the United States outside of the Federal government is hurting the very people it's supposed to help: the poor and the underemployed. Those who don't understand economics and the nature of wealth creation should get out of the way and let those who make this country a land of opportunity continue to do what they do without having to constantly defend their right to profit in a free society.

]]> political exaltron 2006-02-17T11:33:00-05:00