Archive for June 2006
Babysitters
In reviewing material for the latest version of my "Radley Roundup," I came across this recent article he wrote for Fox News that's off-topic for my roundup, but really does a good job in illustrating that the babysitting we get from both the left and the right are just two sides of the same coin. Really good comprehensive overview. Go have a look. Update: Oh, got to add this. Radley gets a response to the column. Though many people would applaud the statistics you justify your position with, the overall problem is Godless behavior. Eventually the Nanny State will become the Pharaoh State that will imprison us all. We will cry out for relief and there will be no Messiah. Eventually all of that will come to an end as we each bend our knee and confess Jesus Christ as Lord. This is going to happen. You can read about it in Phillipians 2:1 - 12 and Acts 2:1-47. These are only a couple of the places where you can see the future. As long as we kill unborn children (bringing down the number of unwed mothers figure) and, in the name of the Liberty you speak of, allow filth...
This is a preview. The complete post is for Monthly, Quarterly, Annual, and Lifetime Members. Login or Join at the level you choose. Member posts sometimes go out in complete form to non-members on the email list, so subscribe. Browse the free downloads. New ones are added regularly.
LoginJoinEmailDownloads
The Land of the Free
Did you know that it is a crime to tell a lie to the federal government? Even if your lie is oral and not under oath? Even if you have received no warnings of any kind? Even if you are not trying to cheat the government out of money? Even if the government is not actually misled by your falsehood? Well it is. [...] To begin with, you are not qualified to know whether you are innocent of wrongdoing under federal criminal law. (extra emphasis, mine) That was written by a criminal defense attorney, as part of an article on how to protect yourself, not as part of an advertisement for his services. Stop! Stop and ponder, for just a moment, the full implications of that portion in bold and how it is that it could come to this in a so-called "Land of the Free." Well, I was going to do point-by-point commentary on the whole very fine article ("fine," only because of the extent to which it exposes the very nature of the things I've been saying, if you've been paying attention). But you know what? This is of the sort of importance where you just need to...
This is a preview. The complete post is for Monthly, Quarterly, Annual, and Lifetime Members. Login or Join at the level you choose. Member posts sometimes go out in complete form to non-members on the email list, so subscribe. Browse the free downloads. New ones are added regularly.
LoginJoinEmailDownloads
Freedom for “Safety”
...I do not see that one can blame the majority of [blank] who, in [blank], believed that the [blank] was the work of [blank]. What one can blame them for, and what shows their terrible collective weakness of character clearly for the first time during the [blank], is that this settled the matter. With sheepish submissiveness the [blank] people accepted that, as a result of the [blank], each one of them lost what little personal freedom and dignity was guaranteed by the constitution; as though it followed as a necessary consequence. If [blank] had burned down the [blank], it was perfectly in order that the government took "decisive measures"! Any ideas? Hint: it was written in 1939, describing events of 1933. See here for the answer.
This is a preview. The complete post is for Monthly, Quarterly, Annual, and Lifetime Members. Login or Join at the level you choose. Member posts sometimes go out in complete form to non-members on the email list, so subscribe. Browse the free downloads. New ones are added regularly.
LoginJoinEmailDownloads
Hey, didja hear the news?
Your life is Kim du Toit's to dominate; your values are his to dispose of. Yep. Betcha didn't know that. Says so right here. ...Well, OK, he does say "we." Yep, you're rightaboutthat. ...So I suppose it means that if you agree with Kim, you get to be in on the rape & pillage of liberal spoils. Lucky you. Good thing you agree with Kim, eh? Oh, you don't? Ahh, well ... gee ... there's that wee, y'know, and if he can git together more wee than you can git together wee, you'll just have to be his wee rather than your own wee. Wee! (As you all go about trying to throw each other into the Cannibal Pot.) You conservatives and liberals are a bunch of, well, y'know.
This is a preview. The complete post is for Monthly, Quarterly, Annual, and Lifetime Members. Login or Join at the level you choose. Member posts sometimes go out in complete form to non-members on the email list, so subscribe. Browse the free downloads. New ones are added regularly.
LoginJoinEmailDownloads
Notes From 10-Year-Olds
I've got a number of pressing matters right now, but they'll have to wait a few more minutes. As I blogged a few weeks back, I was a teacher for a week. I was surprised how much I enjoyed it. Don't tell the Junior Achievement folks, but I followed the curriculum only peripherally. There are a million places where these kids can learn the mechanics of business. At their young ages, fundamental principles are key. Accordingly, I spent a week on various aspects of three principle topics: Business as the three primary resources (natural, human, capital) applied to trade and why trade happens (both parties are better off -- period) Time leverage (employees; human resources; beautiful minds) Financial leverage (capital) It was great to see eyes as light bulbs upon simple realizations like: Sam buys Ali's bag of apples for $5 because Sam wants the apples more than she wants $5 and Ali wants the $5 more than he wants the bag of apples, and -- and -- that Vinesh thinks it's a ripoff is his opinion, but not his business. Or: I work 200 hours per day (can you guess how?). And: though your dear grandparents might applaud you...
This is a preview. The complete post is for Monthly, Quarterly, Annual, and Lifetime Members. Login or Join at the level you choose. Member posts sometimes go out in complete form to non-members on the email list, so subscribe. Browse the free downloads. New ones are added regularly.
LoginJoinEmailDownloads
“Does the Name ‘Ayn Rand’ Ring a Bell?”
George Reisman poses the question to Joseph Nocera of The New York Times: Does the name “Ayn Rand” ring a bell? You know, the author of Atlas Shrugged, the novel that describes the collapse of our entire civilization on the basis of its hostility to business and businessmen? It’s only sold several million copies and has reportedly had a more profound influence on more people in the United States than any other book ever written, with the exception of the Bible. Perhaps Mr. Nocera is simply ignorant of these facts. If so, that should be considered astounding, given his position as a professional business writer who is presumably familiar with a wider intellectual world than exists within the confines of his newspaper and the universities which have shaped the minds of its personnel. Or perhaps he is aware of these facts but simply chooses to ignore them. If this is the case, it would be a classic illustration of the mentality of those once aptly described as “an effete corps of impudent snobs.” That is, a collection of ignoramuses feigning knowledge while going back and forth between ignoring and ridiculing those, such as Ayn Rand and Ludwig von Mises, who...
This is a preview. The complete post is for Monthly, Quarterly, Annual, and Lifetime Members. Login or Join at the level you choose. Member posts sometimes go out in complete form to non-members on the email list, so subscribe. Browse the free downloads. New ones are added regularly.
LoginJoinEmailDownloads
Altruist “Ethics”
If there's anything in the world that shines a better light on the utter and contemptible evil of altruism and those who preach it than the whole organ transplant industry, I surely don't know about it. Here's one place where -- at least -- you'll get the doctrine right up in your face. This is a place where what you might have done with your life -- what sorts of values you might have created for yourself, for your loved ones, and even for all of humanity -- is of explicitly no worth whatsoever. If you need an organ to live and continue producing the values you produce, the mantra is always the same: get in line. (aside: What might that remind you of?) Forget all the slide-rule arguments about how free markets would better allocate organ "resources." As they go, they're true, of course, but it's not the point. Neither should it be of any concern whatsoever that a doper might value his dope more than a kidney. Not your business, any more than it's your business that dopers and starving students have been selling their blood for decades, at least. Here's a post at Samizdata that speaks to...
This is a preview. The complete post is for Monthly, Quarterly, Annual, and Lifetime Members. Login or Join at the level you choose. Member posts sometimes go out in complete form to non-members on the email list, so subscribe. Browse the free downloads. New ones are added regularly.
LoginJoinEmailDownloads
Nutshells
In one (a nutshell, that is): [it] "...is nothing but the name for a social order of untrammeled private property rights, i.e., of the absolute right of self-ownership and the absolute right to homestead unowned resources, or employing them for whatever purpose one sees fit so long as this does not affect the physical integrity of others' likewise appropriated resources, and of entering into any contractual agreement with other property owners that is deemed mutually beneficial." So what is it? And what's your problem with it?
This is a preview. The complete post is for Monthly, Quarterly, Annual, and Lifetime Members. Login or Join at the level you choose. Member posts sometimes go out in complete form to non-members on the email list, so subscribe. Browse the free downloads. New ones are added regularly.
LoginJoinEmailDownloads
Homecoming
We were out of town last evening, deciding to stay over after attending an wedding anniversary party over in the Valley. Two messages on the answering machine when we got home. "Saturday, 2:30 p.m.... "
This is a preview. The complete post is for Monthly, Quarterly, Annual, and Lifetime Members. Login or Join at the level you choose. Member posts sometimes go out in complete form to non-members on the email list, so subscribe. Browse the free downloads. New ones are added regularly.
LoginJoinEmailDownloads
“Don’t Be Fooled?”
Uh, Rather: don't be a moron. At any rate, word. It's a rare politician who sees government and politicians for the thugs, criminals and thieves that they (all) are: The Real Price Gougers 4/28/2006 Assemblyman Ray Haynes Do you want to reduce the price of gasoline by almost 60 cents a gallon immediately? Get the real price gougers. They take nearly 60 cents of every $3.00 gallon of gas. They should pay the windfall profits tax. They should be investigated. What are they doing with this money? How is it being spent? How are they ripping off the gasoline consumer? They manipulate the market in oil. They withhold large amounts of the oil supply from the public, artificially reducing the supply so that the price of gasoline continually goes up. They prohibit the refining of oil, and, in fact, add useless, polluting chemicals to gasoline (claiming that it makes the air cleaner), which also artificially increases the price of gasoline. In fact, they profit from their activities at the expense of consumers everywhere. They gouge consumers, take home exorbitant salaries from their price gouging practices, and do absolutely nothing for the gas consuming public. They take the food from the...
This is a preview. The complete post is for Monthly, Quarterly, Annual, and Lifetime Members. Login or Join at the level you choose. Member posts sometimes go out in complete form to non-members on the email list, so subscribe. Browse the free downloads. New ones are added regularly.
LoginJoinEmailDownloads
“America: from Freedom to Fascism”
There exists, by my count, about one million definitions for the overused and misunderstood multi-purpose-pejorative-at-large: fascism. This section from Wikipedia gets closest to what I judge to be its essential defining characteristic: Fascism is also typified by totalitarian attempts to impose[s] state control over all aspects of life: political, social, cultural, and economic. The fascist state regulates and controls (as opposed to nationalizing) the means of production. (strikeouts & brackets, mine) See here as well for a broader discussion. I don't have a reference in front of me and Google didn't save me, but I think Ayn Rand did the best job of crystallizing the difference between socialism and fascism. Both wield absolute control and power over everything, but in socialism there is no pretense at "property rights," whereas in fascism, there is. In fascism, the corporations are turned into the agents of the state, i.e., pretty much what the United States is today. You, my dear friends, live under a fascism that you have easily been fooled into believing was "freedom," and you have for a pretty long time now. Perhaps now the Leviathan is getting to be such that people might start to get a clue. I dunno,...
This is a preview. The complete post is for Monthly, Quarterly, Annual, and Lifetime Members. Login or Join at the level you choose. Member posts sometimes go out in complete form to non-members on the email list, so subscribe. Browse the free downloads. New ones are added regularly.
LoginJoinEmailDownloads
I Don’t Get It
I'd meant to hit on this early in the week, but here it is now: I don't get the whole American Civil War reenactment, enthusiast, nostalgia thing. I don't get it at all. 600,000 people died in that war, killed by their own countrymen--a figure that represented three percent of the American population at the time. That would be the equivalent of a conflict that took 9 million lives today. As I blogged earlier, I spent Memorial Day (formerly Decoration Day, originally to commemorate fallen Union soldiers of the Civil War) camping up in the pacific redwoods near Santa Cruz. A short hike down a trail brings one to Roaring Camp and it was here that hundreds (at least) Civil War "enthusiasts" (for lack of a better term) gathered for their annual mock-up, display, and battle reenactment. This is no idle hobby. These people range from the serious to the obsessed. We're talking authenticity down--I imagine--to their underwear. In that sense, I was quite impressed with the whole thing. I like and appreciate people who take things seriously and go all out for their values, particularly when it involves the resurrection of things long past. Such endeavors require years of...
This is a preview. The complete post is for Monthly, Quarterly, Annual, and Lifetime Members. Login or Join at the level you choose. Member posts sometimes go out in complete form to non-members on the email list, so subscribe. Browse the free downloads. New ones are added regularly.
LoginJoinEmailDownloads