Thursday, July 5, 2012

Teaching and discussing Economics; if you understand at least some economics, you won't vote for a liberal

Thomas Sowell   "The Chronicle of Higher Education also reported on the students. The feckless behavior of today’s students in all three courses makes me glad that I left the classroom long ago, and do my teaching today solely through my writings."
Political Cartoons by Glenn Foden
Forbes; To Discredit The Anti-Capitalists, Pro-Capitalists Need To Learn How To Use Words  "It was supposed to be a parody of deep-sounding but vacuous pronouncements. But the joke turns out to be on him: since words *are* the tools of language, they are the tools of thought. That means you must resist unto death using the terminology of your enemy. The side that controls language controls thought.
"Anti-capitalists are onto this fact. Pro-capitalists need to catch up–especially since the mainstream media are dominated by anti-capitalists, who insinuate their distorted terms into what would otherwise seem to be open debate."

Does this sound like a man who understands business?

Can't anybody here play this game?


A John Lennon administration

Fireworks over Mt. Rushmore

Chris Rock Wishes Us 'Happy White Peoples Independence Day'

Breitbart   "Still carrying a grudge against a country that has made Chris Rock wealthy and famous way beyond where his waning talents should've taken him, this was how the once-interesting and once-edgy comedian celebrated the 4th of July on Twitter today:" 



Happy white peoples independence day the slaves weren't free but I'm sure they enjoyed fireworks


"To divisive racialists like Rock, nothing will ever be enough. Not a Civil War, not electing a black president, not making "Head of State" a modest hit. 
"There is, however, a special day coming up I think we can ALL enjoy, and that's March 15, the one-year anniversary of the big, tough, bad ass Chris Rock attacking a woman."

"The land on which they formed this Union was stolen. The hands with which they built this nation were enslaved. The women who birthed the citizens of the nation are second class."




By way of contrast, Debbie Schlussel gives us this bit of tribute to my favorite detective:

Peter Falk: Proud American, Proud Pro-Israel Jew, of Blessed Memory "You may not know this but Peter Falk was a proud, pro-Israel Jew, in addition to being a proud American.  He served in the U.S. Merchant Marine during World War II, after being rejected from the U.S. Armed Forces because of his glass eye.  But  he also volunteered to fight for Israel against Egypt in the 1948 War of Independence.  He was a proud, pro-Israel Jew.  From the Jewish Journal of Los Angeles:"...

ON JULY 4, REMEMBER: WE ARE NOT FRENCH

Ann Coulter  "The French Revolution is the godless antithesis to the founding of America.
Bing

"One rather important difference is that Americans did win freedom and greater individual rights with their revolution, creating a republic. France’s revolution consisted of pointless, bestial savagery, followed by another monarchy, followed by Napoleon’s dictatorship and then finally something resembling an actual republic 80 years later.
"Both revolutions are said to have come from the ideas of Enlightenment thinkers, the French Revolution informed by the writings of Jean-Jacques Rousseau and the American Revolution influenced by the writings of John Locke. This is like saying presidents Reagan and Obama both drew on the ideas of Twentieth Century economists — Reagan on the writings of Milton Friedman and Obama on the writings of Paul Krugman."

Wednesday, July 4, 2012

The Declaration of Independence

When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. — Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

The Declaration of Independence Annotated

Volokh Conspiracy  "When reading the Declaration, it is worth keeping in mind two very important facts. The Declaration constituted high treason against the Crown and every person who signed it would be executed as traitors should they be caught by the British. Second, the Declaration was considered to be a legal document by which the revolutionaries justified their actions, and explained why they were not truly traitors. It represented, as it were, a literal indictment of the Crown and Parliament, in the very same way that criminals are now publicly indicted for their alleged crimes by grand juries representing “the People.”
....
"Later, the Declaration also assumes increasing importance in the struggle to abolish slavery.  It is a foundational document of the Nineteenth Century abolitionists and was much relied upon by Abraham Lincoln.  It had to be explained away by the Supreme Court in Dred Scott. Eventually, it was repudiated by some defenders of slavery in the South because of its inconsistency with that institution. This repudiates the claims of many who say the Constitution allowed slavery.


"To appreciate all that is packed into these two paragraphs, it is useful to break down the Declaration into some of its key claims."
Left Coast Rebel  posts this about the above article.  "Like everyone here, last week's developments find me deeply disturbed. Like many points in the past several years I fear for not only my safety, liberty and economic freedom, I also fear for the same thing for my family and my loved ones that will live in this land generations from now.  
"On this point -  just what should we celebrate Independence Day for today, this July 4? Independence from what? From England? Or is it a lot bigger than that (of course it is)...
"Randy Barnett, writing at the Volokh Conspiracy points us to an annotated version of the Declaration of Independence, what it means, and what it should mean in an America under the creeping shadow of an opressive(sic), all-powerful Leviathan government:"

The Annotated Constitution

Lies, damn lies, and TV documentaries

American Thinker   "First the History Channel aired a "documentary" version of Howard Zinn's fake history of the United States (the one that begins with the claim that 12 million native Americans were killed in the Indian wars). Now Oliver Stone and a marxist(sic) professor from American University have created a ten part "history" of America and the world since World War 2. Showtime, owned by CBS, thought this was worth airing. At a press conference to promote the series, Stone revealed that Hitler and Stalin were misunderstood." 
The People's Cube
Ron Radosh: More Revelations about the Oliver Stone-Peter Kuznick “Documentary” on How America is an Evil Nation    "Based on what Kuznick and Stone said about their concepts, I presented a tough and cogent argument about how it promises to be one of the most ill-advised and dangerous treatments of our history by the media. I also addressed what I thought Kuznick was bringing to the documentary. I called him “yet another of the politically correct tenured radicals; a man of far left sympathies who considers Oliver Stone a man of great insight and profound truths.” And I called him a “left-wing activist whose concept of education verges on indoctrination, not scholarly inquiry.” "

Alan Caruba: Saving the Republic

Warning Signs

"In May 1787 fifty-five men, ranging in age from twenty-six to eighty-one gathered in Philadelphia and spent 116 days putting together a Constitution that deliberately slowed the process by which legislation could be passed, knowing how the passions and enthusiasms of men, often ill-conceived, could result in a bad outcome. Was there ever a nation so blessed to have men like George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, and Benjamin Franklin in the same room?"
Political Cartoons by Glenn McCoy
...."The answer is that the Constitution does protect Americans. We still have the vote. Now we must ensure that everyone understands what is at stake because America has been falling prey to stealth socialism for a very long time. 
"We must restore the fundamental principles of limited government, fiscal prudence, and individual rights. And we shall."
Political Cartoons by Chuck Asay

The Obama Foreign Policy; There is much to criticize, but Romney must choose his points carefully.

Victor Davis Hanson  "Words ultimately have consequences. The constant naïveté from the administration — the characterization of the Muslim Brotherhood as largely “secular,” the mythography of the Cairo speech, the taboo against using the phrase “radical Islam” — may have been designed to offer a politically correct mask for Obama’s continuance of the Bush-Cheney protocols, but it may also have had the effect of suggesting to our enemies that the U.S. is ambiguous about radical Islam and does not necessarily connect it with anti-American terrorism.
"In general, given American exhaustion over Afghanistan and Iraq, combined with the economic crisis, the Obama administration correctly gauged the public desire for no more interventions, but it finessed that isolationist impulse into its own sense of a multipolar world where America was merely one among many nations."
"Aside from the war on terror, then, what are the ten legitimate areas of criticism?" Read on...

Happy Independence Day

http://terrellaftermath.com/
 Heritage; Does the Declaration of Independence Still Matter?   "The Declaration of Independence was partly intended as a list of grievances against a distant monarch. And both George III and the colonists who disagreed with his rule are long dead. But so are many of those who’ve argued that the Declaration is obsolete. In fact, this is exactly what those who called themselves “progressives” were saying a century ago."


Here's one I wish I had seen sooner:
Hillsdale College; "Read the Declaration” campaign
"This 4th of July, Hillsdale College wants you to join with your friends, family, and neighbors - and actually read the Declaration of Independence. This can be the largest-ever public reading of the Declaration in American history! We want hundreds of thousands, even millions, of Americans setting aside a few minutes to remember the legacy of liberty our Founders entrusted to us."

Remember this is Independence Day

Political Cartoons by Bob Gorrell