Weds. morning links

If you've got nothing to hide, what are you worried about? So, in the total surveillance state, strip off and post that selfie.

Of course, it goes the other way to, if the government doesn't have anything to hide, why are they so paranoid about people watching them? Posting information online? They must be doing something illegal.

See, it works both ways if you don't accept the position that the government is superior to the People.

#2 JKB on 2013-10-02 07:36 (Reply)

We all have something to hide. Particularly those who say they have nothing to hide.
But your premise is correct. If one side must be laid bare, so must the other. Open kimono in a society of equals.

#2.1 Bulldog on 2013-10-02 07:50 (Reply)

Oh, I know we all have something to hide. Society runs on a polite ignorance. We don't really want to know what our neighbors and friends do when we aren't around and they are with a more intimate association. Those that do want to know do it for their own perverse pleasures and power. Well, that and perhaps a fear their own secrets will out. Like how many individuals with mental issues are drawn to study psychology, perhaps even becoming practitioners in the field.

#2.1.1 JKB on 2013-10-02 08:03 (Reply)

The Machen quote struck me because it presupposes liberty as an "unknown god". Perhaps in turn of the century Wales it was. However bad things have gotten here in the US, we remain very closely tied to a god that is both known and active.
The very existence of Maggie's is evidence of this.
It may be true that liberty is misunderstood rather than unknown. Which is why some may use it in a fashion which suits their desires.
Politicians often cast liberty as safety and security. It most certainly is not this. Other politicians cast liberty as having the economic freedom to do as you please. Vacations twice a year, a big home, iPhone and flat screen TV. But it isn't this, either.
Liberty is the security of self that permits you to say what you believe without fear of imprisonment. Bit is the knowledge you can manage your affairs in a way that suits your desired lifestyle, and the ability to utilize the available tools and resources you have to make your life in whatever way you see fit.
It is not an unknown god. But like many religions it has its false prophets and adherents who misuse it's doctrine.

#3 Bulldog on 2013-10-02 07:48 (Reply)

Excuse the misspellings. Posting from the train and auto correct kills me.

#3.1 Bulldog on 2013-10-02 07:54 (Reply)

Stanford’s nude virgin festivals, library snacks, and more nakedness than you can swing a stick at:

Apparently, when it comes to nudity, diversity goes out the window. How exclusive "nude virgin festivals"? What about the slutty students? And "more nakedness that you can swing a stick at"? Isn't that patriarchal? What about the girls? They don't have a stick big enough to shake. And I thought the idea of being "cool" with nudity was you didn't shake your stick in public.

#4 JKB on 2013-10-02 07:50 (Reply)

The current crisis, at its heart, is about greed and the human lust for authority over other humans.

The shorter way to say this is "socialism"

QUOTE:

Since the socialist grieves at the unequal distribution of material wealth, and regards a better distribution as essential to the reformation of society, one is obliged to ask at once why the socialist does not himself set to work and accumulate wealth as well as others? In our country there are hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of cases where men have begun with nothing and accumulated a competence. Why do not the socialists do the same? If material wealth is the cure-all, why not go in at once and get it? The answer is not far to seek. They claim that they have no chance of success in the competitive struggle with others. They wish wealth, but they do not possess the bourgeois virtues necessary for its acquisition under existing conditions. Therefore, they wish to rearrange society so that those who do not now have the industrial qualities may obtain wealth as well as those who do have them. Of course, they do not explain who is to produce the wealth they are to share, and which they are incompetent to produce. That is supposedly an insignificant detail. However this may be, the central point in the question is this: having admitted their failure to achieve success in accumulating material wealth in a competitive struggle open freely to all, they propose the abolition of free competition. State control is to take its place. Here we have socialism confessedly as a philosophy of failure. Just to the extent that the socialists insist on their inability to accumulate as much wealth as others, under existing conditions, they are unconsciously advertising their own industrial inefficiency. They clamor for a philosophy of failure -- for a system in which they shall be relieved from the inevitable results of their relative inferiority in obtaining the material means which they regard as essential to their idealistic ends.

#5 JKB on 2013-10-02 07:54 (Reply)

While I agree with your comment and thought the quote summed it up nicely something was still missing. It is important to know that Socialists don't want equality and fairness. Oh sure, some do, but the activists and political Socialist want power pure and simple. The easiest way fro them to get that power is to promise everyone (or at least those who want free stuff) to not only give them things (welfare) but to pull down the rich and middle class (higher taxes) to their level. Nothing feels quite as good as those rich and two car families getting their comeuppance. A true Socialist useful idiot would rather tear down everyone they consider above them then get free stuff. Getting both is good but Schadenfreude is exquisite.

#5.1 GoneWithTheWind on 2013-10-02 10:43 (Reply)

Well, they can't sell the "we are your betters, get on your knees" theory of socialism, so they adopted the fairness and equality theme. See the quoted recommended by Ace above. The socialist just use equality and fairness instead of freedom and liberty.

#5.1.1 JKB on 2013-10-02 12:02 (Reply)

Special housing for Gays and Lesbians at famous colleges? Ann Althouse has a post on some new Hawaii Girls' court.

Separate but more equal?

Seems the socialist have arrived at the moment where they throw off equality and fairness and rush straight to special privilege to special class.

I'm not sure we should call them out on the revealing of their true nature.

#5.1.2 JKB on 2013-10-02 12:05 (Reply)

Dartmouth's new isolationist housing alongside of the list of five schools having naked festivals has led me to remind MF readers that I believe homosexual behavior begins in the families of greater privilege. Yes, poorer kids get dragged into it--but, that is part of the fun for the initiator!

#6 another one on 2013-10-02 10:18 (Reply)

Skool Daze ...

gods help us.

#7 wirraway on 2013-10-02 16:39 (Reply)

Re: queer housing. Will the self-segregating students who live in the queer ghetto get to wear triangular yellow patches on their shirts and blouses to show their solidarity? Perhaps it's all for the best. Now the other 95%, the "normal" students, can get on with the business of learning in between their major binges of drinking.

#8 Agent Cooper on 2013-10-02 22:34 (Reply)

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Wednesday, October 2. 2013

Weds. morning links