Friday Four
Friday, June 29, 2012
1. I have a general policy to focus on the
positive on my Friday posts, but I will not let yesterday's horrendous Supreme
Court ruling go without comment. Medicine will certainly suffer in the short
term. Much worse, our freedom to act has become far more precarious than it
already was. Some conservative commentators welcome the ruling since it places a limit on what
Congress can justify via the Commerce Clause and will intensify the debate the law started about the proper role of government.
Others note that the nature of the ruling strengthens the case for repealing the law. Perhaps, but
if the ruling does these things, they come at the cost of making anything the government
wishes to do permissible, if it is understood (and not even by the lawmakers themselves) as a
tax. In principle, rule of
law has ended in this country. Perhaps the best thing that can be said is this: We
still have a way out via the ballot box. Dum
spiro spero.
2.
Nearly 3000 Shades of Awful and Counting: If you've ever been
mystifed by some of the things that "go viral" in the
television/Internet/social media wasteland of epistemological egalitariansm,
you might enjoy reading a few of the
thousands of one-star reviews of Fifty Shades of Grey over at
Amazon. Or not: It may be nice just knowing that, appearances to the contrary,
there are lots of people with good taste and judgement out there. (HT: Snedcat)
3. Have you ever wondered why
scotch smells like band-aids? Even if you haven't, this is an interesting read.
4.
Heh!
Does the success of a programming language depend on its creators being
bearded? If you believe that correlation implies causation, you'll
find this pictorial convincing.
-- CAV
6 comments:
‘Perhaps, but if the ruling does these things, they come at the cost of making anything the government wishes to do permissible, if it is understood (and not even by the lawmakers themselves) as a tax.’
Essentially, it’s always been that way, right. What is government coercion but the ability to tax? Communism is nothing more than a 100% government tax rate. There doesn't seem to be any constitutional protection to prevent us from taxing ourselves into oblivion.
I find the ruling especially absurd, given the role of taxation as an impetus for our nation's founding.
'Does the success of a programming language depend on its creators being bearded?'
Ha. maybe it works the other way. The success of a beard depends upon its wearer being a good programmer.
Nice! I love the combination of out-of-the-box thinking and logical fallacy!
Well, I have to try to keep a sense of humor in light of the latest court decision and all that; don't want to become a cynical old man or anything.
I read a lot of history, and quite a bit about the late Roman Republic, usually with a mixture of regret and curiosity – trying to understand how and why the very first (semi-free) republic in history destroyed itself and wiped out any pretense of individual freedom – and also wondering what they might have become if they hadn’t.
The real danger, I think is to look across the course of history; and conclude that the great cycle of the rising and falling of nations is inevitable. That’s the road that leads to a pit of cynicism and despair. It’s the theme of Isaac Asimov’s famous short story ‘Nightfall’.
I always held most of my moral and political views in common with Rand but one of the great lessons I learned from her is the potency of good, the benevolent universe; she even wrote a novel about it, perhaps the only book I’ve ever read where the main conflict is the GOOD vs. the GOOD.
The liberals blame Bush, but I blame Caesar. Kidding, he only cashed in on what the culture had already wrought. But someone very like him, is probably already amongst us, already born and will soon be circling the wagons getting ready to wield the leash. But it won’t be Obama; the country is not quite ready, yet.
If the US doesn’t change its direction; soon, we will share the fate of southern Europe. And guess what happens to Greece, then?
That is what admirers of Ayn Rand need to remember most tight now: the benevolent universe premise.
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