My fortune read: “Common sense is all the sense there is.” I nodded knowingly, thinking of the Ward Churchill case and how Colorado University will most likely be forced to reinstate the horse’s behind. The little slip of paper seemed even more appropriate after the Iowa Supreme Court struck down the state’s marriage defense law. Where has the common sense gone in our judiciary branch? Methinks judges should pay more attention to their fortune cookies.
Category: Society
The Anti-Purpose of Government
Mona Charen, riffing off of Charles Murray, has this to say about the effects of a welfare state on its citizenry: To become a source of deep satisfaction, a human activity has to meet some stringent requirements. It has to have been important (we don’t get deep satisfaction from trivial things). You have to have…
The Case for Universal Healthcare
The U.S. healthcare system is broken. No one seriously disputes that any longer. The current national discussion is all about how far to nationalize healthcare. This presupposes both the existence of a problem and that the free market cannot fix it. But do we know the latter assumption is true? How long has it been…
Convergence of Ideological Opposites
My father’s definition of the range of ideology is this: I believe personality definitions are spherical in nature and can be defined by spherical equations (and a sinusoid). The far fringes meet and touch on the other side of reality. Once you get past + (conservative) & – (liberal) 90 degrees (reality) you slowly progress…
Who is John Galt?
Steve Hayward says that if Barack Obama’s trillion-dollar tax increase is implemented that he will go on strike in the fashion of John Galt, Ayn Rand’s famous lead in Atlas Shrugged. …my bigger idea is to go all Randian and literally go on strike (and I’ve never really been much of a Rand fan, by…
In Bashing Jindal, Krugman Blunders on Role of Government
NY Times editorialist Paul Krugman won a Nobel Price in Economics in 2008 but the swipe he took at Republican Bobby Jindal leaves a lot to be desired from the economy perspective. Writing about the role of government, Krugman defended the inclusion of volcano monitoring in the Democrats’ stimulus plan thusly: … knowing when a…
Love in the Time of Melancholy
Anyone who’s been struck by Cupid’s arrow knows the result is messy. Love is made of high emotions: great affection, sexual chemistry, bitter arguments, petty annoyances, and, if it’s to last, painful compromises and endless sacrifice. Do we truly love in this day and age of disposable partners and rich, empty lives? What is love…
Ch-ch-ch-change
What It Means to be Free
Freedom isn’t an easy thing to handle. That’s a fact lost on many westerners and most of the rest of the world. Freedom brings with it responsibility and difficult choices, many of which – if made using proper moral and/or ethical filters – constrain the array of possible actions down to a bare few, if…
Ayn Rand’s "Atlas Shrugged": Novel or Prophecy?
Stephen Moore writes that the central themes of Ayn Rand’s massive book are playing out even now in Washington D.C. as an incompetent government hurries to create massive new legislative programs to dole out ever greater amounts of money to mis-run businesses, all under the guise of keeping the American economy healthy. The current economic…