The WSJ sums up pretty nicely why I am hoping Republicans lose control of the House:
Don’t Cross this Bridge
Every time we think various preposterous Bridges to Nowhere in Alaska are history, they somehow get resurrected. One gigantic bridge — as long as the Golden Gate Bridge and designed to connect Anchorage with the Matanuska-Susitna […]
Archive for October, 2006
Oct18th2006
Why I Hope The Republicans Lose Control Of The House
Published by in DayToDay, General and ModernPolitics. 4 CommentsOct18th2006
“I recently have started using the well-known book, The Skeptical Evironmentalist by Bjorn Lomborg…In the section on forests, Lomborg states that in the previous 50 years before publication (in 2001), contrary to the assertions of various people and organisations, the total area of land covered by woods and forests barely changed at all. He cites […]
Oct17th2006
Dynamic Capitalism By Edmund Phelps
Published by in Capitalism, Economics, Europe, General and Unions. 0 CommentsEdmund Phelps, the winner of this years Nobel Prize in economics, has a very good article in the Wall Street Journal on Dynamic Capitalism, of which he compares the two different flavors of capitalism, the US model vs the Western Europe model.
He writes:
Dynamic Capitalism
Entrepreneurship is lucrative–and just.
BY EDMUND S. PHELPS
Tuesday, October 10, 2006 12:01 […]
Oct17th2006
“The Holocaust disturbs us so deeply because it demonstrates that none of the things we associate with the advancement of civilization–peace, prosperity, industrialization, education, technological achievement–free us from the dark side of the human soul. Just as there is evil in the heart of every man, there is evil at the heart of even the […]
Oct16th2006
“There are two main utilitarian arguments against liberal welfare benefits: First, poverty is almost always caused by bad choices—bad for those who make them, bad for their childen, and bad for society as a whole. The big one is having children out of wedlock. Liberal welfare benefits greatly diminish the cost—particularly the short-run costs—of making […]
Oct14th2006
“Chinese Communists have persecuted Christians since taking power in 1949. (Communists do that; they kill and imprison Christians whenever possible, but are rarely condemned for these actions by leftist journalists and historians anywhere.) Those Catholics loyal to the papal see were forced underground, and their numbers today may be as high as 10 million. In […]
Oct13th2006
Quote Of The Day
Published by in (modern day) Liberalism, Academia, Foreign Policy and General. 3 Comments“The voices of appeasement are familiar to historians, for we have heard them loudly, especially within the twentieth century. Intellectuals have done more than their share to convince others that standing up to aggression is a practical and moral mistake. Be nice, thoughtful, and considerate, the argument goes, and the murderers, thugs, and bullies will […]
Oct12th2006
Democrats And School Choice
Published by in Education, General, Hispanics (Minority Issues), ModernPolitics and Vouchers. 25 CommentsShavar Jeffries, writing in the Black Professors Blog, takes Democrats to task for their failure to support school choice:
This picture of Jeb Bush flanked by Black parents and children portends danger for Democrats. The picture concerns a rally seeking support for Florida’s fledgling school-choice program, which, though it served only several hundred children in […]
Oct12th2006
“Leftism has many of the trappings of religion, which is why Marx was so hostile to religion. He knew that religion is a competitor to the socialism he advocated. Each is a comprehensive doctrine. Each exhausts cognitive, conative, and affective space. To the extent that people are religious, they are not receptive to socialism; and […]
Oct11th2006
Not what it used to be, Forbes writes:
Budget Deficit Drops to $250 Billion
The federal budget deficit estimate for the fiscal year just completed has dropped to $250 billion, congressional estimators said Friday, as the economy continued to fuel impressive tax revenues.
The Congressional Budget Office’s latest estimate is $10 billion below CBO predictions issued […]
Oct11th2006
“If you think that government would never force consumers to buy “boutique” products when consumers would prefer to buy mass-produced products, you’re mistaken. In a new paper — “Market Fragmenting Regulation: Why Gasoline Costs So Much (and Why it’s Going to Cost Even More)” — University of Illinois law professor Andrew Morriss and Mercatus Center […]
Oct10th2006
Phelim McAleer, environmentalist and former writer for the Financial Times, describes his new documentary and why he decided to make it:
Speakout: Environmentalists are new foes of some of the world’s poorest
Colorado’s miners have struggled long and hard for the right to organize and have safe working conditions.
Many have paid with their lives in this […]
Oct10th2006
“In practice, communism is nothing less than sheer barbarism that makes even the horrors of Naziism pale in comparison. Professor Rudolph J. Rummel of the University of Hawaii outlines that barbarism in his book “Death by Government,” a comprehensive detailing of the roughly 170 million people murdered by their own governments during the 20th century. […]
Oct9th2006
Quote Of The Day
Published by in Economics, General, Hispanics (Minority Issues) and Minimum Wage. 0 Comments“Poor people are not poor because of low wages. For the most part, they’re poor because of low productivity, and wages are connected to productivity. The effect of minimum wages is that of causing unemployment among low-skilled workers. If an employer must pay $5.15 an hour, plus mandated fringes that might bring the employment cost […]
Oct7th2006
“For centuries, philosophers and poets have tried to understand what happiness is, and what might contribute to it. In recent decades, scientists have started to come up with the answers. Happiness is electrical activity in the left front part of the brain, and it comes from getting married, getting friends, getting rich, and avoiding communism”. […]
Oct6th2006
Quote Of The Day
Published by in (modern day) Liberalism, Academia, Communism, Economics and General. 6 Comments“Again, one reason why intellectuals are so much more obsessed with Nazi crimes than Soviet crimes – even though in terms of human lives lost the Soviets way exceeded the Nazis – is that intellectuals, by the very nature of their professions, grant enormous attention to words and ideas. And they are attracted by socialist […]
