A compendium of truly interesting stuff
Over at Power Line, they call it clearing the spindle, a charmingly old-fashioned concept. But that’s exactly what I’m going to do. I’ve got a pile of posts from the last few days that I really want to share with you. In no particular order:
John Stossel has as good a definition of any I’ve seen about true libertarianism. Although I’m not a complete libertarian (there are some things I think need to be subject to regulation by a governing body), it’s pretty damn close to my philosophy. And just for a glimpse of how right Stossel is, read this article about the idiocy behind Michelle Obama’s very un-libertarian government war against childhood obesity.
Zombie writes about the mind-numbing mental gymnastics a group called Queers for Palestine engages in to justify protesting Israel’s pro-gay rights agenda. Understand that, while these people represent an extreme, they are still part of the same Left that gleefully turns on the only liberal democratic Republic in the Middle East (our unesteemed President included).
Oh, a question for you: since I’m not of a religious turn, the Antichrist really isn’t part of my frame of reference. Do any of you know of a non-religious philosophical equivalent to the Antichrist? When I read about Obama’s singular attack on Israel (one that has emboldened Palestinians to unprecedented extremes, even for them), his love affair with dictatorships, his assault on our economy and our freedoms, and his systematic destruction of our whole concept of self-defense, I’m thinking he’s a candidate for that role, whatever the secular equivalent is of the force leading to the non-religious apocalypse.
Considering all this, is it any wonder that we’ve entered a state of complete exhaustion from anxiety?
I’ve complained somewhere about the fact that the media is attack today’s 21st Century church for sex crimes committed in the 1950s through 1970s. Not to excuse those crimes, but the fact remains that the venom directed at today’s church seems unusual, motivated more by global animus to the church than by actual concern over 50 year old wrongdoings. Which leads to a very interesting question: Can one fairly judge yesterday’s deeds by today’s standards? I’ve always thought that there are some moral absolutes (no genocide, no slavery) that transcend time. Even as to that, though, one must still sift wheat from chaff (Jefferson was right about freedom, even thought he was incapable of applying it to his own life). As for other things, I still read both Agatha Christie and Dorothy Sayers despite the casual, non-venomous antisemitism that crops up in their books. And I think Gone With The Wind one of the greatest books ever written, despite the heinous, paternalistic attitude towards blacks.
First Hank Johnson is worried about unbalanced islands. Now Alan Grayson is launching paranoid attacks at restaurants. Yes, both parties have their sex, drugs, rock ‘n roll and money scandals, but I’m a mistaken in thinking that it’s only the Left that has the insane people?
Victor Davis Hanson writes in chilling terms about Obama’s unabashed Leftism. Liberal Americans always pooh-poohed the notion that it was impossible really to elect a true Leftist in America: “It can’t happen here.” As with so many things, they were wrong.
Aside from the money wasted on creating a huge effigy of a bloated hamburger eater, doesn’t the NHS know better than to burn it in effigy, which will only increase the amount of harmful pollutants in the environment? This is your brain; this is your brain after decades of socialized medicine, right?
During the election, Obama assured his that lobbyists would be shown the boot, and he’s now promised us that he’s done just that. Since our president couldn’t possibly lie, it’s clear that he meant, not that the lobbyists would get a sharp jab to the tuchis, propelling them out of the government door but, rather, that he would extend his booted foot for their rapturous tongue cleanings. How else to explain this?
