Chutzpah of Israeli Startups

Rafer sez:
As Israeli government procurement isn’t biased unreasonably against startups (the way US procurement is), then it’s easy to see how US subsidies matter. I suspect that the Israeli system is more even-handed than ours directly as a result of more reasonable campaign finance laws. Israel has its own cronyism problems, but theirs are not so plutocratic as ours.

(via rafer)

Sawickipedia:

Folks often wonder how an avowed progressive like @rafer and an avowed libertarian conservative like myself get along so well and @rafer’s response speaks to it.  @Rafer is more of a determinist than myself, but we both realize that the system has been stacked in many perverse ways that would be much better if they were open - unlicensed wireless (a la wi-fi), non-politicized and corrupted gov’t procurement, etc.

Scott rails against his progressive political brethren who use procurement for the better good not realizing they are being corrupted in the process by entrenched cronyists.  I rail against my conservative libertarian brethren who don’t realize the hypocrisy of their meddling.  In the end, we often end up at a similar place - the less the system is stacked against innovation and upstarts the better.

(via sawickipedia)

Rex Sez: Hey Todd, I thought you were a conservative REPUBLICAN? Or have you abandoned that lost cause of a party? :)

(via rexdixon)

Sawickipedia:

@rexdixon - i’ve always marketed myself as a conservative libertarian.  The republican party includes folks like myself but also many other groups I don’t agree with.  It just happens the democrats haven’t included folks like myself in about 50 years so I can’t vote for their candidates in 99.9% of the case.