Friday, May 16. 2008
Patchwork Nation, from the CSM. Push "reset map" to clear the counties and start over. I took their "Where do you fit in?" survey. It said " Your zip code puts you in XXX, which we've identified as Monied 'Burbs community type. Based on your responses, you have a 85 % match with other people in your community type." Depressing to fit so much in a mold.
Thursday, May 15. 2008
Re the California court decision, do I have to be homosexual to marry a guy, or lesbian to marry another girl? Or can I do that if I am straight, for insurance benefits or for inheritance tax purposes, or just for the heck of it? Lots of people get married on crazy impulse. And can I marry my brother? If not, why not? If you are gay, why not be able to marry a family member? And then it would only be fair (equal protection) to let straights have the same right. So here's a cool idea for single guys: If your Mom dies, marry your Dad and dodge all inheritance taxes. Vice versa for single gals. Polygamy is next. Mark my words. It will be for the Moslems, not for the Mormons. It's sick out there, and getting sicker...
Readers know that we tend to maintain an attitude of wholesome skepticism towards almost everything, including ourselves and our own thoughts. In an outstanding post, Driscoll nails the credulity with which some invest government and politicians. He quotes Betsy: Today’s “presidentialists of all parties”—a phrase that describes the overwhelming majority of American voters—suffer from a similar delusion. Our system, with its unhealthy, unconstitutional concentration of power, feeds on the atavistic tendency to see the chief magistrate as our national father or mother, responsible for our economic well-being, our physical safety, and even our sense of belonging. Relimiting the presidency depends on freeing ourselves from a mind-set one century in the making.
Related: Last night's link asking Are we a nation of toddlers? Also related to a number of posts by our Dr. Bliss discussing how politics can be a tempting screen for the projection of, and an arena for the enactment of regressive, ie childish, irrational and unrealistic wishes and aspirations.
Tuesday, May 13. 2008
 With a decade of cooling behind us and more decades coming up, your Editor has decided that it's about time to assemble a list of the catastrophic consequences of Global Cooling.
I'll get you started, but I need additions in the comments. We care, and we can make a difference just by spreading awareness of this crisis!!! Problems Attributed to the Global Cooling Crisis Rise in food prices due to reduced crop production and shorter growing seasons, leading to worldwide famine and mass starvation Destruction of citrus, avocado, mango, pepper and tomato crops Increase in road accidents due to ice and snow Icebergs closing northern ports and northern trade routes Polar bear, Reindeer, Musk Ox and Eskimo infestations of residential neighborhoods (see photo) Increase incidence of the common cold, flu, etc: the elderly, children and minorities at greatest risk
Increases in broken bones and cancer as people stay indoors and do not get their natural Vit D from the sun
Increase in fatal heart attacks due to snow shoveling Rises in oil prices due to increased need for imported oil for heating and for 4 WD vehicles Damages bathing suit industry and destroys sun-block business
Fertility rates drop as females don unsexy parkas Stormy weather: nor'easters, blizzards, Perfect Storms, etc. Sea levels fall drastically, destroying marshes, beaches, and coral reefs - and threaten to reconnect Britain with the Continent Divorce - More family conflict due to lengthened ice-fishing season - or from spending too much time together indoors Disrupts migration patterns of birds and fish - animals die and become extinct! Increased Canadian illegal immigration to FL and AZ
Moscow, Toronto, Oslo, London, Sydney, and Boston will be buried under mile-thick glaciers by 2012 Nobody to do the work Americans don't want to do as Mexicans flee back to Mexico
Northern Europeans migrate en masse to the Middle East, bringing cultural dislocation and conflict
Australians invade S. Africa to escape glaciers
Trees killed by the trillions as climate cools, forests disappear and are replaced by tundra. Atmospheric oxygen levels drop: children and minorities at greatest risk.
Help us out in the comments - anything you offer will be officially "Attributed to Global Cooling"
The well-known piece below was written by Lewis Napper in 1993. "We the sensible people of the United States, in an attempt to help everyone get along, restore some semblance of justice, avoid more riots, keep our nation safe, promote positive behavior, and secure the blessings of debt-free liberty to ourselves and our great-great-great-grandchildren, hereby try one more time to ordain and establish some common sense guidelines for the terminally whiny, guilt ridden, delusional, and other Liberal bed-wetters.
We hold these truths to be self evident: that a whole lot of people are confused by the Bill of Rights and are so dim they require a Bill of NON-Rights
ARTICLE I
You do not have the right to a new car, big screen TV, or any other form of wealth. More power to you if you can legally acquire them, but No one is guaranteeing anything.
ARTICLE II
You do not have the right to never be offended. This country is Based on freedom, and that means freedom for everyone -- not just you! You may leave the room, turn the channel, express a different opinion, etc.; But the world is full of idiots, and probably always will be.
ARTICLE III
You do not have the right to be free from harm. If you stick a screwdriver in your eye, learn to be more careful, do not expect the tool Manufacturer to make you and all your relatives independently wealthy.
ARTICLE IV
You do not have the right to free food and housing. Americans are the most charitable people to be found, and will gladly help anyone in need, but we are quickly growing weary of subsidizing generation after generation of professional couch potatoes who achieve nothing more than the Creation of another generation of professional couch potatoes. (This one is my pet peeve...get an education and go to work .. don't expect everyone else to take care of you!)
ARTICLE V
You do not have the right to free health care. That would be nice, but from the looks of public housing, we're just not interested in public health care.
ARTICLE VI
You do not have the right to physically harm other people. If you kidnap, rape, intentionally maim, or kill someone, don't be surprised if the rest of us want to see you fry in the electric chair.
ARTICLE VII
You do not have the right to the possessions of others. If you rob, cheat, or coerce away the goods or services of other citizens, don't be surprised if the rest of us get together and lock you away in a place where you still won't have the right to a big screen color TV or a life of leisure.
ARTICLE VIII
You do not have the right to a job. All of us sure want you to have a job, and will gladly help you along in hard times, but we expect you to take advantage of the opportunities of education and vocational training laid before you to make yourself useful. (AMEN!)
ARTICLE IX
You do not have the right to happiness. Being an American means that you have the right to PURSUE happiness, which by the way, is a lot easier if you are unencumbered by an over abundance of idiotic laws created by those of you who were confused by the Bill of Rights.
ARTICLE X
This is an English speaking country. We don't care where you are from, English is our language. Learn it or go back to wherever you came from!
ARTICLE XI
You do not have the right to change our country's history or heritage. This country was founded on the belief in God. And yet, you are given the freedom to believe in any religion, any faith, or no faith at all; with no fear of persecution. The phrase IN GOD WE TRUST is part of our heritage and history, and if you are uncomfortable with it, TOUGH!!!!"
Jerry Muller at Foreign Affairs. The summary of his essay: Americans generally belittle the role of ethnic nationalism in politics. But in fact, it corresponds to some enduring propensities of the human spirit, it is galvanized by modernization, and in one form or another, it will drive global politics for generations to come. Once ethnic nationalism has captured the imagination of groups in a multiethnic society, ethnic disaggregation or partition is often the least bad answer.
It's about healthy nationalism and the problems with the multicultural "ideal" in most places. Read the whole thing.
Monday, May 12. 2008
 This well-worn oldie came in over the transom again, but I thought it deserved a re-post this time: What Is A Veteran?
A "Veteran" -- whether active duty, discharged, retired, or reserve -- is someone who, at one point in his life, wrote a blank check made payable to "The United States of America," for an amount of "up to, and including his life." That is honor, and there are way too many people in this country today, who no longer understand that fact.
When in England at a conference, Colin Powell was asked by the Archbishop of Canterbury if our plans for Iraq were just an example of 'empire building' by George Bush.
He answered by saying, 'Over the years, the United States has sent many of its fine young men and women into great peril to fight for freedom beyond our borders. The only amount of land we have ever asked for in return is enough to bury those that did not return. (More details on that exchange here.)
Continue reading "Our Veterans"
Saturday, May 10. 2008
Stick with it to the debate with the three Canadian Moslem lawyers (or law students?). Video: The Agenda: May 6, What's wrong with Mark Steyn's view of the world (h/t, LGF)
Thursday, May 8. 2008
 Donald Boudreaux considers his colleague Bryan Caplan's much-discussed book, The Myth of the Rational Voter. One quote:
Each of us has muted incentives to study the facts and issues carefully -- and to reflect upon them dispassionately -- because no one of us is responsible for deciding which policies the government will implement. But Bryan Caplan explains another reason why each of us as a voter generally exercises less wisdom than we do in our private affairs. This other reason springs from what Caplan calls our "preferences over beliefs." Each of us wants to believe certain things. Each of us gets satisfaction simply by holding certain beliefs firm to our hearts. Just as many of us enjoy feeling loyal to our favorite sports teams, many of us enjoy believing that our favorite political party is an especially wise steward of the public interest. Many of us enjoy believing that our troubles are caused by foreigners. Many of us enjoy believing that if the rich pay higher taxes, middle-class and poor people will be better off. We resist rejecting these beliefs even if the evidence before us suggests that they are mistaken.
Indeed, people are only sometimes rational, and even less often rigidly logical. We are not computers, or Mr. Spocks. In most things humans do, we engage our souls, hearts and our minds, and it is the challenge of adulthood to monitor, critique, and to balance those things in ourselves. For example, were it not for our hearts and souls, it might make sense for us to vote for a thoroughly pragmatic, efficient, and logical Brave New World. Wisdom is not the same thing as logic, and logic is not the same thing as virtue. Therefore I am in favor of a degree of irrationality in voting. And, anyway, who is the Grand Arbiter who gets to define "rational voting"? People like Thomas Frank, who believe that it is "rational" to vote yourself other peoples' money? Or "values voters" like me? Politics, government - and life itself -is messy and complicated, and even more so with freedom. Books that need to be written: "The Myth of the Rational Human" (well, Freud covered a lot of that ground already) "The Myth of the Rational and Virtuous Government" "The Myth of the Rational and Virtuous Politician" "The Myth of the Rational and Virtuous Bureaucracy" and "The Myth of the Rational Expert" Editor's Comment: Great blog minds think alike. Bainbridge today on The Imperfectibility of Human Institutions. He quotes: The Framers understood that the self-interest which in the private sphere contributes to welfare of society — both in the sense of material well-being and in the social unity engendered by commerce — makes man a knave in the public sphere, the sphere of politics and group action. It is self-interest that leads individuals to form factions to try to expropriate the wealth of others through government and that constantly threatens social harmony. John O. McGinnis, The Original Constitution and Our Origins 19 Harv. J.L.& Pub. Policy 251, 253 (1996).
In a short post on tax competition, Mankiw gets right to the heart of it all: ...are you more worried about too little government or too much?
Wednesday, May 7. 2008
 As the human race awaits the next inevitable Ice Age which will leave vast areas of the Northern Hemisphere under mile-thick glaciers, humans find it amusing to argue about the weather.
Quote from a piece at Global Warming Politics: “The warmers are getting more and more like those traditional predictors of the end of the world who, when the event fails to happen on the due date, announce an error in their calculations and a new date.” [Dr. John Brignell, Emeritus Engineering Professor at the University of Southampton, on Number Watch (May 1)] Oh dear! The inevitable is happening. The ‘global warming’ trope is unravelling on a daily basis - scientifically, economically, and politically. The wheels are coming off the hysterical bandwagon, and it is not going to be a salutary sight watching the politicians and the media junkies jumping cart and trying to throw mud in everyone’s eyes.
However, fear-mongers like well-known emitter Al Gore says cyclone a consequence of global warming. WTH? Does he believe that, or does he just have a policy that everything that happens in weather is man's fault? He parodies himself while frightening the ignorant. Meanwhile meteorologist John Coleman echoes our piece on how the warming frenzy is damaging worthy environmental efforts. From his Open Letter to Environmentalists: Here is what I am suggesting you do. Campaign for your environmental goals on the basis of their own merit. Let go of the global warming frenzy before it leaves you discredited and embarrassed. Stop screaming, “The sky is falling.” It is not. Do your good work. Devote your lives to our environment. In many ways you will succeed. We are all grateful for your love of the planet. But, don’t use scare tactics. Most of all I urge you not to become extremists. And, may I encourage you to live your lives in a loving way, love your fellow human beings and our wonderful advanced standard of living and way of life as much as you love the Earth.
Image is a free plug for Prehistoric World Images.
Is there a post-Protestant Ethic, post-Consumption & Hedonism Ethic of Capitalism? I suspect this book review from Spiked is more interesting that the book itself. A quote: Barber argues that the new ethic of capitalism is one of ‘infantilisation’: money today is to be made in maintaining adults as needy children, who stuff down dumbed-down films, saccharine food and video games. While in the early stages of capitalism it benefited the capitalist system for everybody to save their pennies, now it benefits the system for us to splurge every penny and borrow more. While in the time of Franklin people were encouraged to restrain themselves and reinvest, now, says Barber, we are encouraged to act on every immediate whim, to be the grasping child in a sweet shop unable to say no.
Apparently I am way out of date, as usual, because I still operate on the Ben Franklin model, more or less.
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