The New Clarion

The Friday Jan 6th print edition of the Detroit Free Press carried an oped by Leonard Pitts Jr of the Miami Herald titled “Ron Paul is foolishly consistent in his extremism.” He starts it out with this Ralph Waldo Emerson quote: “A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds” I’ll skip the fact that there may be some debate over the contextual meaning of that quote in some circles and just focus on how Mr. Pitts uses it as received wisdom. I will quote a few passages with my comments in brackets. (more…)

It’s that time of year again when I put together my list of a dozen or so headlines I would like to see in the New Year 2012. I normally do this on New Years Eve day. But Obama and both political parties have left so much to be desired that yesterday I could have had several dozen items. Now, reduced to an essential dozen I like to count at night instead of sheep, here is the list:

1. Obama loses election
2. Republicans take Senate and add to House
3. ObamaCare repealed
4. Dodd/Frank repealed
5. Sarbanes/Oxley repealed
6. Departments of Education and Energy to be phased out/privatized
7. Fannie Mae,  Freddie Mac and TSA to be privatized
8. Community Re-investment Act repealed
9. Federal Reserve mandate to provide full employment repealed
10. All bureaucracies to be examined for initiating force thus violating rights
11. Eric Holder under investigation for crime of aiding and abetting public enemies (drug cartels) by arming them against american citizens
12. George Soros under investigation for ties to election fraud activities. 
13. (Bonus headlines)

•  NYT and WAPO losing more readers
• MSNBC bought by conservative publisher and revamped or shut down due to lack of viewers
• Well that’s it for this year’s hopeful headlines. You can add yours in the comments of course.

Since altruism holds that sacrificing oneself for the sake of others is man’s highest moral duty and any concern whatsoever with one’s self is condemned as selfish therefore evil, I wondered what it would be like to live in a society where the concept trade and all related concepts were outlawed. It would mean I think that such concepts as buy and sell would also be taboo. It would be a society in which people could only present their needs to each other. How would that work? (more…)

In Ayn Rand’s 1957 classic Atlas Shrugged, one of the bureaucrats, in response to the nation’s economic collapse, provides his reasons for Directive No. 10-289. (more…)

At the website of the Western Representation PAC I found this rather rational post titled ‘Life After the Debt Ceiling Debate.’ I think they’re right in that we can’t expect much more than what we’re getting from the handful of conservatives in the House. I left the following in their comments: (more…)

Tuesday’s 6/28 Detroit Free Press carries an op-ed by Leonard Pitts Jr a writer for the Miami Herald titled “Paying Taxes–a duty to your fellow Americans”. Mr Pitts has been preaching altruism especially government enforced altruism most of his journalistic life. I left the following comment at the online site: (more…)

Another blow to the Constitution’s guarantee of free speech was delivered this time by Michigan’s 19th District Court when it recently ruled that there is a no-free-speech zone around a Mosque in Dearborn. In this zone it shall be illegal for pastor Jones to criticize and/or protest Jihad and Sharia Law in any way. Understandably many people are outraged at this obvious violation of the right to free speech. (more…)

After reading news articles on Michigan’s new Republican Governor Rick Snyder’s State of the State address I’m disappointed. He ran on a platform of making the state government smaller, more efficient and called for a return to free market principles. But it looks to me like Mr. Snyder is not going to be the solution to Michigan’s woeful economic problems. (more…)

It’s that time of year again where I indulge in some optimism regarding headlines I’d like to see in 2011. There is no particular order of importance except for the first one. A few are repeats from last year. (more…)

“The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.” H.L. Mencken (more…)

Critics of environmentalism like Objectivists and many private scientists (private means not bought and paid for with government money ) have long contended that the green movement is against all forms of energy production. Ample evidence of this lies in the fact that whenever any kind of power plant is proposed, green groups immediately file law suits to stop it. (more…)

The election is tomorrow and so far the Democrats are staying with their anti-business philosophy. I was hoping they would change their attitude from about three weeks or so ago. At that time I received in the mail campaign promotion material from the Michigan Democratic state central committee. It was headlined “The main street agenda” and featured the pictures of Democratic candidates for Governor, Lieut. gov, sec of state and Atty gen. The bottom of the flyer contained a partial picture of New York stock exchange overlaid with the words “not a Wall Street CEO.”

I’m disappointed to see the Democrats continuing to cash in on the false notion that the people on Wall Street are the enemies of the people on main street. This ad represents all that is wrong with Michigan (and national) politics. Readers are presumably supposed to be relieved that these Democrats are anti-wall street. It is blatantly anti-business in tone. And yet it is only businesses that can create productive jobs. Government cannot create jobs. All government has to offer is force and the threat of it. And for decades government has used this power to chase businesses out of Michigan.

It’s time to get government out of the way and let business do what it does best: create prosperity. We’ll have to see if the new republicans are up to the task. The Democrats sure aren’t.

I had a good laugh today driving back from dropping off some Objectivist literature at a local community college. Michael Medved was interviewing his wife on his radio show and she pointed out that one of the more popular scary political costumes selling this season is a Nancy Pelosi costume. (Good thing I can multi-task, laugh and drive at the same time.) I decided to do a google search when I got home and found this. Yikes! That is scary!!

I took a look at the new Republican Pledge to America and I don’t like it at all. In the first paragraph of the introduction is this sentence: “America is the belief that any man or woman can – given economic, political, and religious liberty – advance themselves, their families, and the common good.” Right off the bat is the influence of collectivism-common good. Since only individuals exist, and since the good of individuals is the only good to exist, anytime the common good is said to be in addition to the good of individuals, it means that the good of some individuals can (and will be) sacrificed to other individuals. This is not a founding principle of our nation. (more…)

According to this article in the Washington Times, Kenyans are voting for a new constitution. I did a search for a copy of it and found one here.It’s a long document and it seems to be trying to address every possible contingency. While I haven’t read the whole thing, there are some things I like in it but far too many I don’t. I’m afraid the fingerprints of collectivism and a really bad epistemology are all over it leading to contradictions and and just plain wishful thinking. (more…)

At a polling place yesterday Aug 3rd I was handing out literature for a Republican candidate who is running against the U.S. House seat of lifer Democrat Sander Levin whom I want out. I took a lunch break at home and decided to catch up on my email. (more…)

The Wednesday July 14th Detroit News carries an op-ed by NYT writer David Brooks who wants us to know there are two kinds of people in the business world. But Mr. Brooks, like so many in the educated class, has a hard time forming concepts in any hierarchy or at least doesn’t want us to. (more…)

The Saturday, 5/3/10 Detroit News has an editorial on the new finance regulation bill offered by the congressional Democrats. Evidently the bill restores some of the regulations on businesses that the Supreme Court just struck down while exempting unions from the same disclosure requirements. I have to shake my head at the Orwellian (or should I say Atlas Shruggedian) title of the bill:”Democracy Is Strengthened by Casting Light on Spending on Elections bill” aka DISCLOSE. (more…)

Tomorrow, April 22nd is Exploit the Earth Day. This year I plan to celebrate it, weather permitting, by burning some scrap wood in my burner. This will of course release valuable carbon dioxide into the atmosphere thus warming our planet. You see warming the Earth will make growing seasons longer and this will benefit almost all living organisms including us humans. (more…)

By way of the Detroit Free Press, today’s leap of faith is this gem of logic from Iran: promiscuous women are the cause of earthquakes. Proof that religion places reason in the seat of justifying faith in dogma. A look at reality however does hint at a solution to the quakes:

“Some experts have even suggested Iran should move its capital to a less seismically active location. Tehran straddles scores of fault lines, including one more than 50 miles long, though it has not suffered a major quake since 1830.”

Nevertheless:

“Minister of Welfare and Social Security Sadeq Mahsooli said prayers and pleas for forgiveness were the best “formulas to repel earthquakes.”"