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Facebucks

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Facebook wants to create its own digital currency. It’s a terrible idea.

There’s a lot to be said for severing the link between government and money. When money is independent of government, it is not subject to the inflationary whims of whoever runs the capital that day. Independent money must be based on something people believe in, not just on the government’s say-so. That means it’s likely to be more real, more lasting, and more secure. For people who don’t think the Federal Reserve lives up to the task, gold has always been an option, just as bitcoin is now.

So it’s not wrong in itself for a private company to make private money. But anyone who trusts Facebook with something as important as currency itself is making a huge mistake. The social media company already has way more information on all of us than it should. It is already plagued by privacy violations and data leaks. Give them access to your money and your bank account? No thanks.

Iran: Can we not?

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Does anyone want a land war in Asia? There’s no appetite for war on the left, center, or even most of the right. And yet we cannot allow other countries to shoot down our fantastically overpriced drones.

The President seems to be of two minds, himself, and it’s easy to see why. We need in in-between measure to punish Iran’s insolence while not creating a drawn-out conflict. We could seize assets equal to the value of the drone, but I think we’ve already seized all we can get. Likewise, sanctions are already dialed up on Iran, aren’t they.

Respectable nations used to punish wrongdoers with a nice shore bombardment, which would really be our best option. The problem: Tomahawk missiles cost more than a million bucks a piece. Why through good money after bad?

This is why we should not have retired our battleships. They are, admittedly, no good in a naval battle anymore. Carriers made them obsolete in that way. But parking the USS Iowa off the coast of a rogue nation’s largest port? That will get their attention. And with technology from the 1940s, you can’t beat the price. That’s fiscal conservatism and conservative foreign policy rolled into one. Anchors aweigh!

Tom Brady continues to be the worst

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Last week, I wrote about Tom Brady trying to trademark Tom Seaver’s nickname. This week, we find that he is even shadier than that. According to court filings discovered by NBC Sports, Brady’s TB12 foundation is suing a professional lacrosse player, Trevor Baptiste. Baptiste’s crime, in Brady’s eyes, was to have the same initials as him.

The Atlas Lacrosse Club midfielder used the mark “TB9” on his own equipment and in marketing. Like Brady, he used his own initials and uniform number as a shorthand for himself. TB12, Inc. sued Baptiste, claiming the mark will cause consumer confusion. Baptiste, faced with the high-priced lawyers marshaled by the New England superstar, was forced to comply.

The message: only Tom Brady is allowed to have the initials TB. Look out Terry Bradshaw, Brady will be coming for you next!

Tom Brady finds new ways to be the worst

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A combination of professional success, vapid personality, and a caddish past makes Tom Brady pretty damn unlikable to anyone who isn’t a fan of the New England Patriots. But this week, he found a new way to annoy people by filing a trademark application on his alleged nickname, “Tom Terrific”.

Now everybody who cares about sports—as opposed to just Boston sports—knows that the nickname “Tom Terrific” belongs to three-time Cy Young Award winner and Hall of Famer Tom Seaver of the New York Mets. Seaver won 311 games in his twenty-year career, and was inducted into the Hall of Fame on the first ballot with 98.8% of the vote, a record at the time. He was the first player to have his number retired by the Mets and is one of two players in the Hall of Fame as a Met.

It takes a lot for me, a diehard Phillies fan, to side with the Mets. But this nickname-squatting is unacceptable. Brady could not beat New York in the Super Bowl, and he shouldn’t be allowed to steal the moniker of one of the city’s greatest professional athletes.