Laudato Si
Since finals and graduation, my blog has fallen into a bit of neglect by me. My bar course starts Tuesday, and for 6 weeks the only likely posts will be the weekly Switch and Sunday Song. I simply won’t have the time to scour the internet as I could in school. Still, I have a few things to share right now…
- It is easier to create a society of fascists or radicals than you might imagine. A high school teacher did it in his classes with stunning results. And we pretend as if we are free thinking here in the U.S. It seems laughable sometimes…
- Last week, the SCOTUS ruled that you do not have the right to resist police when they try to enter your home without a search warrant. The reasoning behind this is that it will make searches safer for the police. Therefore, the illegal searches will be thrown out by courts after they have taken place. The problem with this thinking is that where formerly there were two buffers to protect you from illegal search and seizure – one being the prevention of police from entering premises without a warrant and two being the courts – now there is one weak buffer, making the likelihood of police malfeasance much more likely. A video from CATO discussed it in the correct light:
- There is no Third Way between the state and a minarchism run by the free market, as many Catholics and Christians seem to believe. A few Christian friends have told me to look into distributionist principles espoused by Chesterton and others, but in studying economics more, the truth is that state intervention in the market on any level is sure to cause problems for all, whether it be on a micro or macro scale. This is because the state will usurp power in whatever way it can, and the people will believe its lies. How many failed government programs do we have? And the solution is always that the program is failing due to lack of money, and so the program is increased instead of cut. Without fail, this is the case. Look at public schooling, which “educates” youths at 3-5x the cost of private schooling – the latter of which yielding a better education as it is. The state is a parasite, and we are allowing it to be so. There is no third way. The state or the market.
- Meanwhile, some Christians feel the need to talk about Austrianism as immoral without even knowing what it is. Austrianism is far more moral than the Keynesian system of lies (there is no inflation; inflation is stable) and materialism (spending is a measure of how the economy is doing and you must buy things!) that we have in present currently, and morally supersedes the virtue/selfishness-as-vice systems that Ayn Rand and Milton Friedman sought – even if they were closer to a better system…
- Where do a parent’s rights to raise their children end in public schooling? I honestly haven’t thought about it much, and don’t know if I agree with all of the conclusions in that article…
- If Christianity means one thing, it means morality spread into all of the corners of each of our humanity. So where are the Christian Churches when it comes to war?
- If you haven’t learned how stupid partisanship is yet by reading information here, maybe this will help: Presidents, Congresses, and Debts/Deficits. It appears the economics is lost on Republicans just as fully as Democrats…
- Do the wealthy pay their fair share or are they screwing the poor as those who push class warfare ideals maintain?
- One of Thomas Friedman’s (no relation to Milton) more powerful arguments in Freakonomics is that abortion lowers crime rates. The methodology and assumptions behind that theory are incredibly poor though, and it is completely untrue.
- A congressman states that the P.A.T.R.I.O.T. Act is more nefarious than the government admits. Of course, he is correct. The P.A.T.R.I.O.T. Act seems all but impossible to reach via court challenge in any meaningful way, and when a legislature or court gets ahold of a general legislative provision, it is expanded ad nauseam to justify many things which defy its original intent. The Welfare and Commerce Clauses of the Constitution are great examples. One can easily conclude from the past treatment of legislation that the Act will be expanded greatly, and it will very soon apply to more than simply suspected terrorists.
- Is it surprising that people can only come up with one solution to societal problems (government) when we are told at all ages that it is the one and only panacea?
- We live in an age of entitlement, and giving ourselves via political means that which we have not earned. It is selfish and childish, but it seems one can hardly escape it any more. Sowell: “To listen to some of the defenders of entitlement programs, which are at the heart of the present financial crisis, you might think that anything the government fails to provide is something that people will be deprived of.” He gets it.
- Generally, smart kids grow up to be heavier drinkers. My thoughts are existential pressure and the idea that very few others their age can discuss them on the same level. Here’s another theory as to why.
- Barry Marshall is the stomach doc who drank H. pylori to prove that it caused stomach ulcers. What a badass.