Google and Bomama

I apologize for my absence from Incredible Wampum! School, as always, has monopolized my life once more and so that leaves little time for thinking and writing about random ideas. A lot has been on my mind but I have a paper to write and countless other readings to get done. I promise I will be a better blogger in the next coming weeks!

There are many among us who believe that Google will take over the world- and think that a good thing! Their user-friendliness and web innovations make it a great company and one that is widely supported. Google, however, has to fight its fair share of battles to keep providing such services to us grateful customers. David Henderson of EconLog wrote about the scrutiny Google’s phone service is now undergoing. Also, this blog has a post, “Google you swine” where a great analogy is made.

No, it is not “unfair” that Google remains the behemoth we know it as. Fairness has nothing to do with it. You wouldn’t give special treatment to the Olympic swimmers competing against Michael Phelps. He dominates because he has tremendous talent, and he works his tail off. If the Olympic Committee decided that Eight gold medals was simply unfair, and that the other, less talented, less hard-working swimmers should be able to wear special aquatic turbo boosters to help with “competition”; well, that would be crazy. Correct?

It’s the same with Google. Just as Phelps is an amazing athlete, Google is an amazing Online Search provider. Tell me, why should we punish Google by giving the less qualified, less impacting, less dominant business an upper hand? Do we not benefit greatly from Google’s exceptional technological prowess? Does Google not deserve the market share it has rightfully achieved?

They have a great blog with posts on morality, altruism, and freedom. It’s definitely worth checking out! Although I do have one critique of Google! I’ve applied for a Google Voice invite twice and have waited weeks with still no reply! I am, sometimes, accused of being a luddite, but there is no way Google should know and discriminate with this information! I’d be a loyal Google Voice user! I do, after all, check my gmail about every thirty minutes… haha.

My Public Choice professor, Charles K. Rowely has been in the news quite a bit lately for his recent publication “Economic Contractions in the United States: A Failure of Government.” He attributes the financial crisis to the government interaction with the market. The chaos that has ensued is the outcome of “rational behavior in a dysfunctional state capitalistic environment”. He features in An Unwelcome Message for Obama at American Thinker and has a post, “Obama’s ‘Long March’ to the Social Market Economy” at ConservativeHome. He has a very methodological approach to his teaching style and is a very gentle man. He is my favorite professor this semester, with all his eccentricities and all. He does, however, paint a pretty dim picture of our democratic future with Obama:

Barack Obama is deploying all the substantial powers of the presidency to ‘persuade’ Congress to vote through his agenda against perceived voter resistance. Like Mao Tse Tung through 1934-35, Obama through 2009-10 is engaged in a ‘long march’ to socialism.

Even if he pays the ultimate price in 2012, with a defeat in the presidential election, he will ‘own’ legislation that will have transformed the US economy from laissez-faire to state capitalism. And that will be quite an achievement for a left-leaning Democrat.

An achievement for one politician is a severe loss to millions of livelihoods. I am sufficiently scared.

On a more optimistic note, in my (sparse) free time, I’ve been reading Into the Wild and it’s absolutely wonderful! I think in all of us there is a silent yearning for something more and fulfilling. Many dreams and wishes remain repressed and unlived and for sometimes trivial reasons and cowardice. When reading The Alchemist the young boy learns how to pursue and live his personal legend. First he has to come to understand that the universe conspires with him to fulfill his personal legend, and therefore, he should have more faith in himself and what lay in wait for him. This sense of adventure, this trust in one’s own abilities, and excitement of filling one’s heart with dreams and joy is so admirable because so few actually live a life like this. I get the same feeling when I read Jack Kerouac. Two days ago I was sitting in Starbucks on campus and I talked to a guy who was a bass player. He traveled for a year and lived in New York for the other before coming back to school to get his Bachelors in Music. I expressed my respect and slight envy of his pre-university escapades. He just laughed and asked me what there was to envy: I could easily do the same, I just chose not to. “So, it really is that easy?” I asked. “It’s that easy. Just get up and go,” he said.

There’s always time for a little adventure. I’ll let you know what I get myself into.

Here is a picture of me and my friend Nat and my brother’s new kitten, Radar. I like dogs more, but this little, annoying cat has become my shadow, following me everywhere I go in the house, and the more it relies on me for attention and care, the more I love it.