Children and Property Rights Wed, February 28, 2007
Posted by bencauble in Capitalism, Ideologies, Political, So Called "Education".add a comment
Here’s a story about children in Washington state who are being taught that private property ownership is bad.
It’s really 1984 kind of stuff.
Comments welcomed: do you think that the idea of property rights is naturally found in a person? What would drive a person or a collective group to oppose private ownership of property?
Required Reading Mon, February 26, 2007
Posted by bencauble in "Isms", Capitalism, Ideologies, Libertarian, War.add a comment
Update : Here is a link to Ron Paul’s website. Great reading to be found here.
Here is a link to a great post by Dr. Ron Paul, a libertarian congressman who seems to have his head screwed on straight.
If you have opportunity to read his biography, it’s intriguing.
I’m interested in his poilitical future. Some of his beliefs would probably inflame particular individuals (such as his stringently held belief that we ought to get out of Iraq) but I think that he’s consistent, which means a lot to me. And I have to say that based on his ideals (classical liberalism, from what I can see) he must oppose the war in Iraq if he is to be consistent with his own political/philosophical system.
Also, he does a great job re-capping inflation in a very small nutshell. Keep in mind that this particular article was written on June 29 of 2006.
I like what I hear from this guy. Read up.
Hitting You Where it Hurts Fri, February 23, 2007
Posted by bencauble in "Isms", Alarmism, Global Warming, Political, So Called "Education".add a comment
The global warming alarmists are quite effective, if you believe this report.
Although if you believe this report, you might believe all kinds of things anyway….
Supposedly 1 in 4 kids stays awake at night worrying about Global Warming. My mom tells a story about her school being infested with termites when she was a child. She thought from the way that people talked about the school being “eaten” by termites that one day the termites came in, and the next day the school was not there.
This is the simple mind of a child. But when people use childish thinking as a way to bolster the supposed effect of something, they are really using circular reasoning. Of course kids will worry about global warming! That’s all that’s on the news, and all that they hear in their government funded obedience training all day long, and all that they hear from parents who aren’t really excercising their brains about global warming anyway.
If I started a rumor that there was a giant-fanged man-eating 7 armed demon from the planet Quartzon, and I kept hammering it home, and it was all over the news, and the schools taught it as the gospel, then kids would believe it. And if they saw what they supposed to be rational, thinking and smart adults running around in fear for their lives, they would be even more frightened. But if I were to say to you, “see, the kids are scared…the giant-fanged, man-eating 7-armed demon from the planet Quartzon has them awake in their beds at night, so surely he’s having an effect…” well, you could say that was either very wicked for scaring children, or that I was several rounds short of a full chamber (not firing on all cylinders…ha-ha).
But this is what the global alarmists have said. “See, the kids are scared! Global warming is even keeping them awake, and there are adults who don’t even have the sense to be scared!”
You can almost hear the Warming Weenies whining, “We made a monster and you’re not scared!”
Give it a few years, and a few more tax dollars, and a few more graduating classes of kids who are trained to think as they’re told.
We’ll all be losing sleep then.
The Gnostic Empire Strikes Again Fri, February 23, 2007
Posted by bencauble in "Isms", General Interest, Ideologies, Philosophy.1 comment so far
For you archaeological-gnostic types, this would be the holy grail that you’ve been searching for.
Actually, it is kind of ironic. In Monty Python’s Holy Grail, one main thread throughout is that the whole searching for the grail business is actually quite silly. The Humanist/Gnostics would say that the search for the grail was really a campaign for power masquerading as a search for something of spiritual/historical significance.
However, it seems that it is the gnostics who are the ones on a quest: to disprove the existence of Christ as the God-man.
To those who see things in the light of the Gospel of Christ and with new eyes, the Gnostics are the ones who are tilting at windmills, thoroughly vested in the silly business of disproving Christ as God. Note that I did not say that the Gnostics try to disprove the existence of Jesus. That would be sheer madness. Jesus’ existence is not doubted, even by the most vehement detractors of Christianity. The silver bullet in the heart of Christianity would be not to disprove the existence of Jesus as a man, but to prove the existence of Jesus as a mere man. Take the whole “Messiah” notion out of Jesus, and you’re left with just a man.
This is exactly what Paul talked about in 1 Corinthians 15:12-19 –
12 Now if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? 13 But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. 14 And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain. 15 We are even found to be misrepresenting God, because we testified about God that he raised Christ, whom he did not raise if it is true that the dead are not raised. 16 For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised. 17 And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. 18 Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. 19 If in Christ we have hope [2] in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied.
If Christ has not been raised, then the assertion that he is God becomes significantly burdened. The Gnostics would have their cake, and they could eat it too:
Oh, you foolish Christians! Who has bewitched you? Jesus of Nazareth existed, of course he did! No one doubted it for a minute! But what we’re telling you is that you’ve been blinded by your childhood Sunday lessons, and you’ve suppressed the truth about Jesus: he is a man, and only a man. He bled like you and me, loved like you and me, and again, as you and I will surely die, he died. Yes, he was a noble teacher. Of course, he was a great moralist. No one will dispute that! But when he died he stayed dead.
There, there…you must count yourself dead to the Christ that you once trusted for salvation, and count yourself alive to the mere Jesus. You can’t trust a dead man to save you! You once trusted a man who you thought had conquered death — surely if he conquered death himself, he could conquer it for you…but now you are faced with the reality of death, and the finality of death, and the enlightening, freedom-bringing truth that it is not Christ you must believe in, and cast yourself upon.
“Christ” as God does not exist, and never has. But Jesus of Nazareth! Ah, he existed, and lived, and loved, and taught the world things it did not know…and then he died. Oh, you poor, pitiful Christian! Your religious crutch, which you never really needed, has been turned on you and crippled you, making you think you needed it, rather than making you free as you thought it would. You were a slave to this notion of Christ as God, and now you are a free man, made not in God’s image, but your own. Live therefore, as though there is no tomorrow, for eternity holds nothing to fear.
For the complete story, click here.
Responsible Tourists Fri, February 23, 2007
Posted by bencauble in General Interest, International Interest.add a comment
Once in a while a story comes along that really makes you feel good.
This is one such story. While there are sad elements (such as the fact that the mugger died, probably Christless) there are good aspects to this.
1)The busload of seniors did not get hurt.
2)The seniors are not being charged with anything, and the Costa Rican authorities say they were justified in acting the way they did.
3)The seniors kicked butt.
A Spot of Good News Fri, February 16, 2007
Posted by bencauble in Good News, Justice System, Police.3 comments
Once in a while, good things happen. Like the government limiting itself, and practicing restraint.
It’s not all gloom and doom. Just mostly all.
Inconvenient Truth… Fri, February 16, 2007
Posted by bencauble in Alarmism, Global Warming, Ideologies, MSM.add a comment
I love irony. This is not new, but I do love it. Freezing weather, the Global Alarming meetings being postponed till it’s warmer (and more believeable…) and now this.
When will the left learn to think, rather than to eat anything they’re spoon-fed by a hysteria-driven media?
When people were taught to think in schools (0r when they were taught to think at home) stupidity such as we see today could not masqerade as scientific thought.
Dumb them down, and then dizzy them up.
Global Warming Non-Propaganda Sun, February 11, 2007
Posted by bencauble in Global Warming, Political, Technology.2 comments
This is a good article that shows the silliness of this whole global warming business.
Highly recommended reading.
Minimum Wage Effects Sun, February 11, 2007
Posted by bencauble in Capitalism, Libertarian, Political.add a comment
So the minimum wage goes up, meaning the cost of goods sold goes up, but demand for the goods remains the same. Thus, to keep profitability at the right levels to ensure continued operation, the number of hours to produce the goods must go down.
Simple economics, and the Democrats and wimpy Republicrats didn’t see this coming?
Ted Kennedy’s rant on the senate floor seems shortsighted, doesn’t it?
Best Short Video Fri, February 9, 2007
Posted by bencauble in Capitalism, Fun(ny) Stuff, Political, So Called "Education".add a comment
This is great. It’s about 10 minutes long, but it’s really good. Worth the view.
Vista and the Government Mon, February 5, 2007
Posted by bencauble in Capitalism, General Interest, Technology.add a comment
I’ve always thought that the relationship between Apple and Microsoft was like that between the private sector and government: Apple, (the private sector) is quick, classy, able to adapt, cutting edge, hip, and entirely non-kludgy.
Microsoft, on the other hand, offers program after program that seem to be poorly thought out, but at the same time attractive to millions of people who are quite content in their “government dependence,” only crying out at tax-time (upgrades and new OS releases), and fearfully dependent on Redmond’s ultimately kludgy and problematic processes to protect them from all kinds of computerized evils and ne’er-do-wells.
I love capitalism, and I love Apple.
I wish I had one.
Making the Law With His Own Hands Sat, February 3, 2007
Posted by bencauble in Corruption, Follow the Money, Political.add a comment
Your friendly conservative government at work here….
Do you see how a “conservative Christian who opposes and stem-cell research using embryonic cells” thinks that he knows best for his state, even if they all disagree?
You might ask, “Ben, what makes you think that all people in his state disagree with him? Perhaps there are many who do agree that these girls need to be vaccinated against this lifestyle-induced disease.”
Well, look at these facts, and then tell me what you think:
- Governor Rick Perry received money from the manufacturer of the pharmaceutical during his campaign to the tune of $6k.
- Perry’s former chief of staff is a leading lobbyist for Merck, the pharmaceutical company.
- Perry’s current chief of staff’s mother-in-law (and Texas state representative, I might add) is the state director of “Women in Government,” another group which had the benefit of Merck’s altruistic [editor, please insert "lobbying" here] efforts.
- Perry then decides that the issue of public health here is too important for elected officials other than himself to decide, and so he mandates the use of the aforementioned pharmaceutical.
Why was it so important to keep this out of the hands of the legislators? Why is it that they can decide what laws to pass regarding speed limits, and budgets, multi-billion dollar state projects and health-care for the elderly and indigent, but they just can’t be trusted to come to the correct conclusion on this one particular issue that is so close to the governor’s heart?
Because this one particular item did not have their support, or the support of the people, and Perry had a debt to pay.
This is not about what is best for the state of Texas, or about what is best for these girls. It is about what is best for Piper Perry, and the one who pays the piper calls the tune.
Follow the money.
(hat tip to GS)
Infuriating Police Brutality Fri, February 2, 2007
Posted by bencauble in General Interest, Justice System, Outrage, Police.add a comment
This is a case of police brutality that enrages me. I don’t usually get very angry, but this kind of thing makes me see red.
In short, the woman is pulled over. She tells the officers that she is 3 months pregnant and is bleeding, and they ignore her, asking about her license, and the tag, and then they take her to jail. The next morning she gives birth to a premature baby boy, who dies within the first minute after his mother spent the night in jail.
All 3 of these officers involved should be tried criminally, and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.
I don’t know what else to say.
