Tibor Machan misreads the Declaration of Independence:

It requires “a long train of abuses and usurpations,” which reduce a government to “absolute despotism,” before secession is justified.

On the contrary, the sentence containing that phrase states a sufficient condition. The necessary condition is stated in a more famous sentence:

We hold these Truths to be self-evident, . . . that whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these Ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it . . . . Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient Causes . . . . But when a long Train of Abuses and Usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object, evinces a Design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their Right, it is their Duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future Security.

In other words:
Secession is legitimized by any state act that tends to weaken, rather than defend, the rights of the people. A revolt over trifles is not illegitimate, but it is unwise; better the devil you know. Yet the conditions complained of were so severe, so far beyond “light and transient”, as to make secession not only legitimate but mandatory.

. . the bank machine gave me an old-style $twenty, the first I’d seen in months; and I saw a squirrel burying seeds (conifer), which I can’t recall ever seeing before.

I awoke today from – or perhaps ‘through’ fits better – a dream that Diana and/or Paul Hsieh (neither of whom I know from the neighborhood raccoons, but whose blogs I read yesterday) had replaced my bedroom window with their interesting webpage.

“Hello Cthulhu“. (Sent to me by Astraea, under the title “NEXT election”)

When I was a young idealist, finance was beneath me; now it’s merely beyond me.

I got a form letter from my late employer (a firm that essentially shut down in December), saying that my 401(a)(4) money is waiting for me to collect it. I can transfer it into “an eligible employer plan” (if I had an eligible employer!) or into my IRA, or take it as cash (with a 10% penalty because I’m not 59½ years old, as well as regular income tax). Neither option appeals much.

What I want is to buy a car. My One True Ex says one can borrow against a 401 (wish I’d known that a year ago!), but it appears I won’t have one much longer.

Columbia Newsblaster cobbles together phrases from various news sources to generate summaries of top stories. The result can be surreal:

. . . Congressional Republicans are using a government – paid videotaped message from President Bush to parry Democratic attacks against them concerning Social Security and prescription drugs for Medicare. The Libertarian Party is looking to spoil a few good elections. Max Cleland (D – Ga.), Max Baucus (D – Mont.) and Tim Hutchinson (R – Ark.) and Reps. Why? The lawmakers, now in recess, can show the videotapes to constituents in town hall meetings.

Thirty fair dice (rotating in Java; still GIF) most of which you won’t find at your game supply store.

It’s misleading to imply that there are exactly thirty. Several of the figures are special (more regular) cases of others shown; others (the dihedra) are representatives of infinite sets. Apart from the dihedra, each can (I believe) be continuously deformed into any of the others without losing fairness.

2008: see also.