It is Called Price Gouging, You Moronic Free Market Mousketeer!

The latest poster boys for techno-Libertarians is the taxi service Uber, which is a smartphone based car hire service.

At the core of their business model is the idea that there is no need for any pesky regulations, because ……… Internet.

Ignoring for the moment supply restrictions like New York City's Medallion^* system, there is a reason that cabs, and cabbies, are regulated.

There is a need to ensure that the cars are safe, that the cabbies are properly trained,^† and that pricing is consistent and transparent, so, for example, we do not see price gouging, on New Year's eve, or during a rain storm.

So, what does Uber do?  It triples rates for New Year's Eve, and Randroid morons like Rob Leathern, the Chief Product Officer of Brand Networks, has this is not like price gouging at all, because ……… Internet:

Uber’s pricing isn’t price gouging. It’s just in an area we are deeply conflicted about, and missing some transparency that would increase consumer trust. They could certainly give all or some more of their excess surge profits to the drivers, or show us more of the extensive data their Math Team produces but doesn’t yet share– if their algorithms are as sophisticated as they claim then the benefit they get from sharing information with customers will outweigh any competitive concerns.

Bullsh%$.

This is price gouging, and it has been defined as such throughout the developed world for something over 80 years.

One of the reasons that we as a society make laws against this is because it is unethical, and dishonest.

I really hope that if he ever has a heart attack, that Mr. Leathern does not find an ambulance driver who jacks up the rate to take him to the hospital.

^*Apart from that Mrs. Lincoln, how was the play? The medallion system sucks.
^†Uber has already had at least 1 rape allegation attached to its service so far, and it turns out that rape by gypsy cab drivers is endemic.

While I Do Not Think that Netanyahu is Operating In Good Faith, This Demand Should Not be a Deal Killer

For some reason, it appears that the Palestinians feel unable to recognize Israel as a Jewish state.

The transaction here is at its core to be "Land for Peace", but if the Palestinians are unwilling to acknowledge Israel, the "peace" part becomes pretty iffy:

As Middle East peace talks churn on, Israel has catapulted to the fore an issue that may be even more intractable than old ones like security and settlements: a demand that the Palestinians recognize Israel as a Jewish state.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has made such recognition the pillar of his public statements in recent weeks, calling it “the real key to peace,” “the minimal requirement” and “an essential condition.” Israeli, American and Palestinian officials all say it has become a core issue in the negotiations that started last summer.

But Mr. Netanyahu’s argument that this single issue underpins all others is exactly what makes it unacceptable to Palestinians. At its heart, it is a dispute over a historical narrative that each side sees as fundamental to its existence.

Critics skeptical of Mr. Netanyahu’s commitment to a two-state solution to the long-running conflict say that recognition of a Jewish state is a poison pill that he is raising only to scuttle the talks. The Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, has repeatedly said that the Palestinians will never agree to it, most recently in a letter to President Obama last month.

The Palestinians cite both pragmatic and philosophical reasons: They contend that recognizing Israel as a Jewish state would disenfranchise its 1.6 million Arab citizens, undercut the right of return for millions of Palestinian refugees and, most important, require a psychological rewriting of the story they hold dear about their longtime presence in the land.

But Israeli leaders say that the refugee question can be resolved separately and that the status of Israel’s Arab minority can be protected. Without acceptance by the Palestinians that their neighbor is and will be, in Israel’s favored formulation, “the nation-state of the Jewish people,” Israelis argue that they can never be convinced that an agreement truly spells the end of the conflict.

“The core of this conflict has never been borders and settlements — it’s about one thing: the persistent refusal to accept the Jewish state in any border,” Mr. Netanyahu said last month in a video statement to the Saban Forum in Washington.

He added: “We recognize that in peace there will be a nation-state for the Palestinian people. Surely we’re entitled to expect them to do the same.”

Netanyahu probably isn't mooting this in good faith.  He has made a career of putting road-blocks in front of the peace process, but even a stopped clock is right twice a day.

It's why 73% of the famously fractious Israeli Jews support the idea.

Israeli thought has changed over the past 66 years, Golda Mier denied the existence of a Palestinian people, and this has not been relegated to the frothing at the mouth lunatics of Israel's body politic. 

No one in Israel with any political power is claiming that they are Jordanians, or "Southern Syrians" any more.  (Though to be fair there are a bunch of profoundly stupid reactionaries in the United State, both Jewish and Evangelical Christians who do.)

The Palestinians, on the other hand, are unwilling to go much beyond a statement that Israel exists, and that this (currently) is a fact on the ground that they (grudgingly) accept.

Both sides need to acknowledge their respective personhoods and nationhoods in order for negotiations to be fruitful.

It's not an end point, it's a start point.

For F%$#'s Sake, Why?

It appears that France is more evil than I had been believed.

Some scientists in Bordeaux have found a way to block the euphoric effects of marijuana:

Leave it to science to find a way to harsh the mellow of marijuana.

A French research team has discovered a natural chemical brake that can tamp down the effects of THC, the main intoxicant in marijuana. They believe it could lead to ways to protect against memory loss, torpor and other side-effects better known as being stoned.

“We have this built-in negative feedback mechanism, a brake” on cannabis intoxication, said University of Bordeaux neurobiologist Dr. Pier Vincenzo Piazza, principal author of a study published Thursday in the journal Science.

The researchers were investigating the role of neurosteroids in addiction. These are a class of hormones produced in the brain, and they have been implicated in regulating mood and cognitive activities.

After getting rats and mice high on the active ingredients of cocaine, morphine, nicotine, alcohol and marijuana, the researchers measured the increase in pregnenolone, a precursor to all steroid hormones that was thought to be otherwise inactive.

Getting mice stoned is not as easy as you think. They tend to Bogart that joint.

But more seriously, marijuana is not physiologically addictive, so why are harshing our buzz?

What the f%$# is wrong with you guys?

A joke in a related vein after the break:


Dr. Calvin Rickson, a scientist from Ohio State University, has invented a bra that keeps women’s breasts from jiggling and prevents the nipples from pushing through the fabric when cold weather sets in.

At a news conference, after announcing the invention, a large group of men took Dr. Rickson outside and beat the sh%$ out of him.

Who Hit the Democrats with a Clue Stick?

It seems that Democrats are looking to stop running away from Obamacare, (a good idea, the Dems own it whether they like it or not) and instead want to push for a minimum wage increase as their signature issue for 2014:

Democratic Party leaders, bruised by months of attacks on the new health care program, have found an issue they believe can lift their fortunes both locally and nationally in 2014: an increase in the minimum wage.

The effort to take advantage of growing populism among voters in both parties is being coordinated by officials from the White House, labor unions and liberal advocacy groups.

In a series of strategy meetings and conference calls among them in recent weeks, they have focused on two levels: an effort to raise the federal minimum wage, which will be pushed by President Obama and congressional leaders, and a campaign to place state-level minimum wage proposals on the ballot in states with hotly contested congressional races.

With polls showing widespread support for an increase in the $7.25-per-hour federal minimum wage among both Republican and Democratic voters, top Democrats see not only a wedge issue that they hope will place Republican candidates in a difficult position, but also a tool with which to enlarge the electorate in a nonpresidential election, when turnout among minorities and youths typically drops off.

“It puts Republicans on the wrong side of an important value issue when it comes to fairness,” said Dan Pfeiffer, the president’s senior adviser. “You can make a very strong case that this will be a helpful issue for Democrats in 2014. But the goal here is to actually get it done. That’s why the president put it on the agenda.”

This is good politics, and good policy, though having your hired guns run to the press (I'm talking to you, Mr. Pfeiffer) crowing about how this is such good politics does not serve to reinforce their message.

The minimum wage fight is an opportunity to create a space for the discussion about political values on a terrain that favors Democrats, it's not about allowing self important political consultants crow about their genius.

Your Bit of Religious Archeology Geek of the Day

It appears that archaeologists have found a fabric fragment containing traces of Techelet, the blue dye mentioned in Torah:

In a rare discovery, scientists have confirmed that an almost 2,000-year-old piece of fabric found near the Dead Sea contains remnants of the Biblical blue color known as tekhelet.

It is only the third piece of fabric ever found to contain this precious blue dye derived from snail glands. In accordance with a Torah commandment, tekhelet was used in ancient times to dye the tassels, or tzitzit, attached to the four-cornered garment traditionally worn by men, as well as the clothing worn by the High Priest during the days of the temple.

The finding was revealed on Monday at a special conference held in Jerusalem to mark the 100th anniversary of the publication of the doctorate of Rabbi Yitzchak Halevi Herzog, the former chief rabbi of Israel, on the subject of tekhelet. In attendance were many of the former chief rabbi’s grandchildren, including the keynote speaker, Isaac Herzog, the new chairman of the Labor Party.

Announcing the discovery, Dr. Na'ama Sukenik, a curator at the Israel Antiquities Authority, said the tiny piece of fabric had been discovered in the 1950s in a cave at Wadi Murba’at, where Jewish fighters hid during the Bar Kokhba revolt in the second century. As part of her doctoral dissertation at Bar Ilan University, Sukenik recently tested the color found in the fabric and was able to determine that it was derived from the Murex trunchular, a mollusk widely believed to be the marine animal known as the khilazon in the Talmud -- the source of the rare blue dye.

To this day, scientists and scholars have not reached a consensus on whether tekhelet was a light sky-blue color, as most modern day experts on the subject now believe, or a darker, more purple-hued blue. The shade discovered on the piece of fabric tested by Sukenik was sky blue. The tassels on the fragment were spun in a way that was common in Israel in ancient times, she said, demonstrating that the dye was locally produced.

The dye color varies with exposure to sunlight during the dyeing process, so it is unclear what color was actually applied in ancient times.

Kewl.

H/t Failed Messiah.

Our Pundit Class is Evil and Stupid

Case in point, Ruth Marcus. Her latest article is titled, "Snowden, the insufferable whistleblower."

She is certainly upset that Edward Snowden opposes the DC consensus of global hegemony and contractor excesses that pays for those cocktail parties that she hangs out at.

Linkage

• Good Grief and Great Tits (The Stranger) Dan Savage's takedown of Sarah Palin's is epic.
• Crushing Christmas: How to Win Every Argument (The Daily Beast) How to deal with that crazy uncle at family get togethers by out crazying them all.
• But I'd like, just once, for someone to have the balls to admit their bigotry without trying to blame it on Jesus (Squatlo Rant) Not bishop Shelby Spong, but pretty good
• Scientists Link Spike in Thyroid Disease to Fukushima Disaster (Real News Media) Be afraid, be very, very, afraid.
• Stanford Researcher Proves NSA Can Probably Identify Individuals From Phone Records (TechCrunch) Seriously, this sh%$ is data mining 101. Your phone records reveal who you are.

H/T Distractify