Laudato Si
Here are all of the things I have been meaning to post but have not yet had the time…
- If the face is the window to the conscious mind, a few psychologists have cracked the code. Sylvan S. Tomkins and Paul Ekman spent years decoding the face, and deduced far more about human emotion made physical than you or I will ever know. Malcolm Gladwell explains.
- The smarter people are, the more subject they are to cognitive bias – or, why smart people are idiots.
- Those who wish to have government socialism forced upon all the lands should be aware of where that government socialism within our country has put many people. On reservations. The way Indians are treated in this country by the government may have something to do with historical racism, but it has everything to do with the economics of socialism.
- Keeping the theme of “we are not as good as we think we are,” how does one confront this fact as a patriot and deep thinker who maintains that everything the U.S. did in WWII was necessary and just?: hundreds of thousands of people were killed or allowed to die as a direct result of our Post-War policies in Europe. Read about it here.
- The state wishes to watch us at all times. Technology both confounds and eases this intent. IPv6, for example, the technology that will replace the current internet address system, is “too anonymous” for the FBI and NSA’s comfort. Can you imagine the government opening all of your mail and recording all of your phone conversations to make sure you weren’t a terrorist? Would we be okay with that?
- The growing attacks on religious institutions by the atheist left and secular government move to the topic of nonprofit taxpayer status of religious institutions, bringing up the old fallacy that the government owns all of your stuff and is letting you keep that which is not taxed. For being “enlightened and reason-based” those against the world’s churches sure can be complete imbeciles.
- Speaking of enlightenment and the left, why is it that in all of their compassionate wisdom these people forget so often that eugenics, racism, sexism, and legal discrimination of all sorts is their history? When you forget where your people came from, problems abound.
- Ponderous but not necessarily convincing (someone read the book and tell me if it follows from the justifications that the state should still be involved in marriage at all): The Law, Marriage, and Other Intimate Relationships.
- “If there was no government, wouldn’t warlords take over?” It isn’t that likely, says Bob Murphy.
- When fascism came to America, it came at the same time the Nazis were adopting the system and being maligned for it. If you are a history buff, this alternative reading of FDR’s legacy is one worth the read…
- Kid argues that it isn’t the kids that are entitled now, or at least not solely. Entitlement is living on the backs of the youth by the coercive measures of Social Security and Medicare when your demographic is the richest on earth. No protest here, buddy.
- Government schools, the criminal and civil legal system, and our societal norms push conformity harder than ever before. There was a time when defiance of a government of bad laws and bad men was a virtue. Those days are lost, but it will not be this way forever…
- GIVE THE ANIMALS RIGHTS! WHEN YOUR CELLS KILL FOREIGN BACTERIA, KILL THEM BACK! I know I have posted him before, but this guy’s nonsense is too good not to put another up.
- Ron Paul warned us that if we build a border fence, it will one day be used to keep us in. The symbolism is clear in the case of the Facebook Exec (now quite stale, my bad) who renounced his citizenship for what many thought was tax evasion before the company went public. Despite the fact that it wasn’t his intention, politicians went wild, many pursuing legislation that would ensure that the government never lost a penny from people who wanted to leave. This, my friends, is totalitarian. You cannot even leave without them taking from you. The fact that even Republicans were up in arms about this shows that the theft the government “graces” us with everyday simply for the fact that we produce money is now ingrained in the culture. The illusion is complete. The government owns us and our labor.
- Economic Depressions: Their Cause and Cure, by Murray Rothbard. The Austrian theory, as you have heard it many times here, is there in short and concise clarity.
Stay tuned for more…