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Worldviews

Quote of the Day: Victor Davis Hanson on Why There’s No Such Thing As a Real Socialist

July 7, 2011

So what is socialism? It is a sort of modern version of Louis XV’s “Après moi, le déluge” – an unsustainable Ponzi scheme in which elite overseers, for the duration of their own lives, enjoy power, influence, and gratuities by implementing a system that destroys the sort of wealth for others that they depend upon for themselves. Once the individual develops a dependency on food stamps, free medical care, subsidized housing, all sorts of disability or unemployment compensation, education credits, grants, and zero-interest loans — the entire American version of the European socialist breadbasket — then expectations for far more always keep rising, with a commensurate plethora of new justifications, usually in the realm of someone else having more than the recipient, always unjustly so. The endangered aid recipient is always seen as being pushed off a cliff in a wheel chair — therefore, “they” can afford to give “me” more; things are not “fair”; there is no “equality.” . . . . History is not kind to such collective states of mind. Pay an Athenian in the fifth century BC a subsidy to go to the theater; and in the fourth century BC he is demanding such pay

Mini-quote: Asexual “Teddy Bears”

July 6, 2011

By Mike Gray

Although gays populate movies and TV shows to such a degree that you would think that they represent 25 percent of the population, rather than their actual 2.5 percent, they are nearly always depicted as asexual human beings. They are cute, they are cuddly, they’re amusing neighbors and loyal chums, but they’re not sexual human beings. Their mascot is Nathan Lane. What Hollywood and the media would have us believe is that they are nothing more or less than teddy bears who have somehow mastered speech. — Burt Prelutsky, “Gays and Grays,” WND

Make Way for the Geoengineers!

June 27, 2011

By Mike Gray

By Mike Gray Climate change is a foregone conclusion. The amount of carbon dioxide already in the atmosphere from two centuries-worth of fossil fuel burning (and, apparently, with decades more worth to come, given the glacial pace of efforts to slow said emissions) is enough to substantially warm global average temperatures. And that leaves so-called geoengineering—the deliberate, large-scale manipulation of planetary processes, in the words of the Royal Society—as the leading candidate for a techno-fix of the global warming problem, a fix the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change will begin to explore in Lima, Peru this week. — David Biello It’s the end of the world! Or it might be if climate “scientists” get their way: “My generation utterly failed” to restrain greenhouse gas emissions, he remarked. “The next generation will have to do it.” Keith is well-connected, being . . . . one of the world’s leading proponents of geoengineering research as well as an advisor on climate and energy to one of the world’s leading philanthropists (and richest men), Bill Gates. As a maker of machines, including the first atomic-scale interferometer, Keith doesn’t think we’re running out of techno-fixes or even beginning to

Is There Pro-Socialist Agitprop in a Third-Grade Text?

June 23, 2011

By Mike Gray

Is There Pro-Socialist Agitprop in a Third-Grade Text?

By Mike Gray “The entire slant of the book is you’re getting used to the idea of government running your life,” said Cindy Rose, a parent who requested that the book be removed from the county’s curriculum. “Government is setting the rules. We’re all going to live by it and we’re all a collective society,” she said. Is it possible to disentangle socialism from multiculturalism? Mrs. Rose has taken issue with several chapters in the book, including one that explains how many Americans struggle to pay for health care while countries such as Canada and Sweden provide care free of charge or for a small fee. The book states that those countries’ “communities pay the rest of the bill,” and asks the reader whether he or she believes health care should be a public service. Critics have argued the text endorses expanded government but fails to fully explain that its public services are paid for by taxpayers. Train up a child in the ways of socialism, and when he is old he will not depart from them. Read the entire article here.

Life Fully Explained

June 23, 2011

By Mike Gray

On the first day, God created the dog and said, “Sit all day by the door of your house and bark at anyone who comes in or walks past. For this, I will give you a life span of twenty years.” The dog said, “That’s a long time to be barking, How about only ten years and I’ll give you back the other ten.” So God agreed. On the second day, God created the monkey and said, “Entertain people, do tricks, and make them laugh. For this, I’ll give you a twenty-year life span.” The monkey said, “Monkey tricks for twenty years? That’s a pretty long time to perform. How about I give you back ten like the dog did.” God agreed. On the third day, God created the cow and said, “You must go into the field with the farmer all day long and suffer under the sun, have calves and give milk to support the farmer’s family. For this, I will give you a life span of sixty years.” The cow said, “That’s kind of a tough life you want me to live for sixty years. How about twenty and I’ll give back the other forty?” God agreed

Quote of the Day: About Miracles

June 22, 2011

By Mike Gray

Miracles were done for a specific purpose—pointing to God and demonstrating His power—and they were often performed before witnesses. The reactions and accounts of these witnesses are mentioned in Scripture. For those who take the Bible seriously, this is absolute proof these miracles happened. Indeed, if we started from the premise that miracles could not happen, this would undermine our belief in Scripture since so many important events were miracles worked by God. Those who start with the presupposition that Scripture is not true have a difficult problem with miracles as well, because of the large number of miracles specified. Often, non-believers want to infer that miracles are listed for symbolic purpose. But, if this were true, then the symbolism would be lost because otherwise reliable witnesses would actually be deceivers or deceived. It is not satisfactory to claim that good moral lessons are taught from events that never happened, related by people who lied or were deceived! It is difficult to accept that all these witnesses could be wrong when we look at the caliber of the witnesses, such as Abraham, Moses, Daniel, Luke, and especially Jesus. Even members of the Sanhedrin, who were strongly opposed to the gospel

Quote of the Day: Bruce Deitrick Price on Several Prevalent Sophistries

June 20, 2011

By Mike Gray

Quote of the Day: Bruce Deitrick Price on Several Prevalent Sophistries

. . . . don’t imagine sophistry to be a dull topic. This stuff’s as juicy as a good bank swindle and for the same reasons. Mark Twain said lies are like cats except cats have only nine lives. Lies, it seems, just go on and on. Witness some of the major philosophical currents of the last 75 years. Looked at closely, they turn out to be all too sneaky and sophistical. . . . . SITUATION ETHICS has been used for decades to undermine religious and moral absolutes. While pretending to be a disinterested look at life’s tough choices, situation ethics usually functions destructively. . . . . DESCRIPTIVE LINGUISTICS starts from a sensible insight: that anthropologists should be humble and unintrusive when studying foreign languages or cultures. In short, the locals are the experts about their own culture and language, especially spoken-only languages. Visiting scholars should keep their own values and opinions to themselves. descriptive linguistics also a tremendously handy tool for educators engaged in dumbing down the schools. These people actually say: it’s not scientific to make kids learn to write good English. Whatever the children do, that’s fine—they’re the experts regarding how they

The Mob Quells the Mobocracy: ‘The Syndic’

June 17, 2011

By Mike Gray

The Mob Quells the Mobocracy: ‘The Syndic’

By Mike Gray They had what they called laissez-faire, and it worked for a while until they got to tinkering with it. They demanded things called protective tariffs, tax remissions, subsidies — regulation, regulation, regulation, always of the other fellow. But there were enough bankers on all sides for everybody to be somebody else’s other fellow. Coercion snowballed and the Government lost public acceptance. They had a thing called the public debt which I can’t begin to explain to you except to say that it was something written on paper and that it raised the cost of everything tremendously. Well, believe me or not, they didn’t just throw away the piece of paper or scratch out the writing on it. They let it ride until ordinary people couldn’t afford the pleasant things in life. — C. M. Kornbluth, The Syndic Jeff Riggenbach has an article on Mises Daily about a largely-forgotten science fiction writer of the ’50s whose political views gave every indication of sympathizing with Communism, and yet the philosophy found in one of his books marks him as a libertarian. Kornbluth’s The Syndic depicts events occurring . . . . about 150 years from now, sometime in the

“Decent fellow, in his way. But not one of us” — Class Warfare in the Works of Agatha Christie

June 17, 2011

By Mike Gray

“Decent fellow, in his way. But not one of us” — Class Warfare in the Works of Agatha Christie

By Mike Gray I have just been reading Agatha Christie’s short stories. But to enjoy her fully today, I suspect, you need to be a social historian — or a novelist. In everything she wrote, she employed one deep secret of her craft. But she may not even have been conscious of it. It took 70 years of cultural change to reveal it. That secret is, simply, that she shocks the reader with endless social transgressions. Her every story is coded with social prejudice and her characters are class-labelled on arrival. Whenever her characters are in conflict, it’s not simply a case of whodunnit? A little class war is also being played out. — John Yeoman According to Yeoman, the secret of Agatha Christie’s success lay in who comprised the bulk of her readership: Given that Christie’s readers were largely lower middle class, they must have gained great satisfaction in seeing their social betters unmasked as rogues. Xenophobia and racial prejudice are everywhere in Christie, and provide rich opportunities for social conflict. Nobody born south of the English Channel can be entirely trusted. A rich American or ex-colonial might be admitted cautiously to one’s parlour but only once the ladies

Quote of the Day: Frederic Bastiat on “Organized Injustice”

June 17, 2011

By Mike Gray

Quote of the Day: Frederic Bastiat on “Organized Injustice”

You say: “There are persons who have no money,” and you turn to the law. But the law is not a breast that fills itself with milk. Nor are the lacteal veins of the law supplied with milk from a source outside the society. Nothing can enter the public treasury for the benefit of one citizen or one class unless other citizens and other classes have been forced to send it in. If every person draws from the treasury the amount that he has put in it, it is true that the law then plunders nobody. But this procedure does nothing for the persons who have no money. It does not promote equality of income. The law can be an instrument of equalization only as it takes from some persons and gives to other persons. When the law does this, it is an instrument of plunder. With this in mind, examine the protective tariffs, subsidies, guaranteed profits, guaranteed jobs, relief and welfare schemes, public education, progressive taxation, free credit, and public works. You will find that they are always based on legal plunder, organized injustice. — Frederic Bastiat, The Law (1850)

“Aggressive Desecration”: Are There Links Between Materialism, Darwinism, and “The Impoverishment of Beauty”?

June 16, 2011

By Mike Gray

“Aggressive Desecration”: Are There Links Between Materialism, Darwinism, and “The Impoverishment of Beauty”?

By Mike Gray For now, of course, we all live under a suffocating blanket of materialism. Many fight to breathe fresh air. Others seem strangely content and smug about being able to endure it and even urge us to give up the struggle and join those brave New Atheists as they revel in the foul, close atmosphere, boasting of its superiority to any alternative. This condition of our culture probably explains the pervasive ugliness of modern media life . . . . — David Klinghoffer To commit art is a human act. Much of today’s art celebrates the ugliness of the world and, by implication, the hideous human psyche. But Klinghoffer thinks Intelligent Design (ID) has the potential to rehabilitate the artistic endeavor: If art can make a case for ID, it’s equally true that art itself points to a design transcending our natural world and would be devastatingly blunted in a world where materialism and Darwinism had driven out the sense of life’s enchantment. This, at any rate, is the argument of some philosophers who you might not otherwise think of as ID advocates. The threatened impoverishment of beauty deserves consideration as being at stake in the cultural struggle

As the Twig Is Bent: European Union Kiddieprop

June 14, 2011

By Mike Gray

As the Twig Is Bent: European Union Kiddieprop

By Mike Gray One of the unexpected pleasures of parenthood is reading Brussels propaganda to your children. The material is unintentionally hilarious, and will soon have your progeny shrieking with laughter. Little ones enjoy The Raspberry Ice Cream War, which tells the tale of a group of intrepid youngsters who travel back in time to a barbarous age where there are still sovereign states, and teach the inhabitants to scrap their borders. — Daniel Hannan Just how much of an effect does propaganda have on children? The EU hopes it will have a big impact on small and naive minds. Daniel Hannan explains: What is the EU’s agenda ? Well, a few years ago, I stumbled across an internal Commission report that concluded as follows: “Children can perform a messenger function in conveying the message to the home environment. Young people will often in practice act as go-betweens with the older generations, helping them embrace the euro.” The notion that the government should get at parents through their children is a characteristic of authoritarian states, not liberal democracies. One thinks of Orwell’s fictional youth organisation, the Spies . . . . Indeed,

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Worldviews

Quote of the Day: Victor Davis Hanson on Why There’s No Such Thing As a Real Socialist

Mini-quote: Asexual “Teddy Bears”

Make Way for the Geoengineers!

Is There Pro-Socialist Agitprop in a Third-Grade Text?

Life Fully Explained

Quote of the Day: About Miracles

Quote of the Day: Bruce Deitrick Price on Several Prevalent Sophistries

The Mob Quells the Mobocracy: ‘The Syndic’

“Decent fellow, in his way. But not one of us” — Class Warfare in the Works of Agatha Christie

“Aggressive Desecration”: Are There Links Between Materialism, Darwinism, and “The Impoverishment of Beauty”?

As the Twig Is Bent: European Union Kiddieprop

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