"There are men, in all ages, who mean to exercise power usefully; but who mean to exercise it. They mean to govern well; but they mean to govern. They promise to be kind masters; but they mean to be masters." Daniel Webster

Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Quote of the Day: A Free Society

My definition of a free society is a society where it is safe to be unpopular. ~ Adlai Stevenson

Tuesday, September 29, 2009

Quote of the Day: Capitalism

Capitalism undoubtedly has certain boils and blotches upon it, but has it as many as government? Has it as many as marriage? Has it as many as religion? I doubt it. It is the only basic institution of modern man that shows any genuine health and vigor. - H.L. Mencken

Monday, September 28, 2009

America: The New Japan

Some thoughts from Fabius Maximus.

Sunday, September 27, 2009

Why I'm Not a Conservative

I don't find this a bit profound. In fact, watching the video, I found it more than a bit disturbing.

UPDATE: More thoughts from Gene Expression.

Saturday, September 26, 2009

RIP John Hart

He was the other Lone Ranger.

Friday, September 25, 2009

Hush

Everyone knows the Deep Purple cover of this song. But Valdosta, Georgia's own Billy Joe Royal had a country hit with it first.

The Aristocracy of Pull

An auto firm owned in part by Al Gore gets $529 million from the federal government.

Thursday, September 24, 2009

The American Brain Drain

Highly skilled and educated immigrants ae leaving the United States.

Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Sheriff Joe Is at It Again

Joe Arpaio keeps arresting County Supervisor Don Stapley, but can he convince a prosecutor to charge him with anything.

Tuesday, September 22, 2009

Herschel Walker Signs with Strikeforce

Walker, 47, says he will make his mixed martial arts debut next year. This will end well.

Quote of the Day: Neoconservatism

This statement from its founding father, Irving Kirstol, pretty much sums up the entire philosophy:



There are different kinds of truths for different kinds of people. There are truths appropriate for children; truths that are appropriate for students; truths that are appropriate for educated adults; and truths that are appropriate for highly educated adults, and the notion that there should be one set of truths available to everyone is a modern democratic fallacy. It doesn’t work.


HT: Lew Rockwell

Monday, September 21, 2009

East Asian Women Prepare for a Trip to the United States

I think that is what they are doing.


EMBED-Spare me my Life! - Watch more free videos

Quote of the Day: Euthanasia

[Euthanasia] is what any State medical service has sooner or later got to face. If you are going to be kept alive in institutions run by and paid for by the State, you must accept the State’s right to economize when necessary. - Graham Greene


HT: Bill Shugart at The Beacon

Sunday, September 20, 2009

OK, Now I'm Worried

Barack Obama is open to a newspaper bailout.

Quote of the Day: Jobs

Don't you wish you had a job like mine? All you have to do is think up a certain number of words! Plus, you can repeat words! And they don't even have to be true! -
Dave Barry

Saturday, September 19, 2009

Appropriate Attire for a Military Funeral?

Based on the article, I'd say yes.

Keep Doing What to That Chicken?

Watch the woman's reaction:

Linda McMahon Is Running for the U.S. Senate

Jim Cornette and other former wrestlers talk about her chances.

Quote for the Day: Parenting

Parenting is the most important job on the planet next to keeping Gary Busey off the nation's highways. - Dennis Miller

Friday, September 18, 2009

South African Saliva

There's a market for it.

HT: Tyler Cowen

Quote of the Day: Oppression

Find out just what the people will submit to and you have found out the exact amount of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them; and these will continue until they are resisted with either words or blows, or with both. The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress. - Frederick Douglass

Thursday, September 17, 2009

Kimbo Slice's Last Fight Was an Embarrassing Loss

But the man is still a major star.

The Real Ayn Rand

Will Wilknson says that her detractors and many of her admirers misunderstand her:


Rand does not valorize the wealthy. She valorizes the uncompromising integrity of creative visionaries and the productivity of inventors, innovators and entrepreneurs. But there is little to assure the reader that the virtues she extols really pay. Rand’s view of the world was actually pretty bleak, pretty Russian. Her best novel, We the Living, is best precisely because she had yet to philosophically suppress her tragic instincts. One of the least plausible and certainly the saddest aspects of Rand’s thought is what she called the “benevolent universe premise” — a kind of as-if attitudinal stance of positivity meant to ensure “the inability to believe in the power or the triumph of evil.”


From the comments section, he adds:

I wouldn't say Rand leaves herself "wiggle room" in depicting fictional worlds in which "looters" and "moochers" and "second-handers" dominate. I'd say that she pretty conclusive doesn't think money in such worlds track virtue. And she thought our world was a lot like her fictional worlds.

I don't disagree that a lot of Rand's admirers ridiculously identify themselves with her heroes, despite the fact that even the best of them is Eddie Willers. And I don't disagree that a lot of Rand's admirers vacillate incoherently between the idea that our world is chillingly similar to the one depicted in Atlas Shrugged and the idea that wealth is in fact a measure of virtue. But the fact that Rand's admirers can't understand books doesn't speak to what the books actually say.

There's a Web Site for Everything

Believe it.

Quote of the Day: Sacrifice

It only stands to reason that where there’s sacrifice, there’s someone collecting the sacrificial offerings. Where there’s service, there is someone being served. The man who speaks to you of sacrifice is speaking of slaves and masters, and intends to be the master. - Ayn Rand

Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Churches Use Mixed Martial Arts to Fill the Pews

In Brazil.

More Swayze

Quote of the Day: Plunder

Often the masses are plundered and do not know it. - Frederic Bastiat

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

10 Things Road House Taught Us

A tribute to the great Patrick Swayze.

The Aristocracy of Pull

The Washington Post notes that with the federal government's increasing role in the financial sector business decisions are being made based not on economic principles but political ones.

Quote of the Day: Freedom

I am free, no matter what rules surround me. If I find them tolerable, I tolerate them; if I find them too obnoxious, I break them. I am free because I know that I alone am morally responsible for everything I do. - Robert Heinlein

Monday, September 14, 2009

RIP Patrick Swayze

I've said it before, and I'll say it again. All a man needs to know about being a man can be found it four Swayze films: Red Dawn, Road House, Next of Kin and Point Break.

Limiting Carbon Emissions Will Require Limiting Liberty

And advocates are pretty open about that.

Quote of the Day: Corrupt Nations

Nations grown corrupt
Love bondage more than liberty;
Bondage with ease than strenuous liberty.
- John Milton

Sunday, September 13, 2009

Phil Bredesen Wary of Health Care Reform

He says it may repeat the mistakes of Tenncare.

Stop Politicizing the Economy

Economist Tyler Cowen argues we've already placed far too much of the economy under political control.

Economist Pete Boettke has more.

Quote of the Day: War

War is just one more big government program. – Joseph Sobran

Saturday, September 12, 2009

Yes, Young Men Really Are Getting Dumber

A reader tells me the failed backflip video I posted was actually that young man's second attempt at the stunt. Here's his first try.

Quote of the Day: Government and Business

Government “help” to business is just as disastrous as government persecution… the only way a government can be of service to national prosperity is by keeping its hands off. - Ayn Rand

Friday, September 11, 2009

Why I'm Not a Conservative

I still don't care what Google's logo for the day is.

Are Young Men Getting More Stupid?

Seriously, I look back at my teens and early 20s and can't believe some of the stuff my friends and I did. But I don't recall doing anything like this.

Quote of the Day: Economics

The art of economics consists in looking not merely at the immediate but at the longer effects of any act or policy; it consists in tracing the consequences of that policy not merely for one group but for all groups. - Henry Hazlitt

Thursday, September 10, 2009

Headline of the Day

Courtesy of the BBC.

Krulak on Will: Time to Get Out of Afghanistan

The former commandant of the Marine Corp weighs in.

Worst Sports Column Ever?

Reason's Matt Welch says this is it.

Quote of the Day: Democracy

Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want and deserve to get it good and hard. - H.L. Mencken

Wednesday, September 9, 2009

Should I Trust the Government?

Kevin Carson says no.

Headline of the Day

I didn't even read the story. I'm sure it wouldn't live up to the headline.

Don't Do It Like The Japanese

From The American Conservative blog, a short but pointed reminder that comparisons between American and Japanese health systems aren't clear cut.

Obama's Speech to Students

At Reason, Jesse Walker calls this the definitive report. I agree.

Quote of the Day: The Law

When plunder becomes a way of life for a group of men living together in society, they create for themselves in the course of time a legal system that authorizes it and a moral code that justifies it. - Frederic Bastiat

Tuesday, September 8, 2009

Dang, That's a Big Squirrel

I wouldn't be smiling if this popped up near my camp.

Quote of the Day: Public Education

Today's quote is from H.L. Mecnken, via this post on Lewrockwell.com:

The aim of public education is not to spread enlightenment at all; it is simply to reduce as many individuals as possible to the same safe level, to breed and train a standardized citizenry, to down dissent and originality. That is its aim in the United States, whatever pretensions of politicians, pedagogues other such mountebanks, and that is its aim everywhere else…. Their purpose, in brief, is to make docile and patriotic citizens, to pile up majorities, and to make John Doe and Richard Doe as nearly alike, in their everyday reactions and ways of thinking, as possible.

Monday, September 7, 2009

From the Octagon to the Silver Screen

First Quinton "Rampage" Jackson is cast in the Mr. T role in the "A Team" movie. The Tim Sylvia gets cast as Jason in the new "Friday the 13th" film. Now, Steven Soderbergh has picked Gina Carano as the lead in his next film.

Quote of the Day: Doing Good

Do not ever say that the desire to "do good" by force is a good motive. Neither power-lust nor stupidity are good motives. - Ayn Rand

Sunday, September 6, 2009

Kid Selling Suits

The DPJ and America

Some thoughts from Daniel Larison.

National Review Rewrites History, Again

Christopher Manion scores a number of points agains the neo-cons.

Quote of the Day: Taxes

Taxes must, in the end, fall upon the consumer. - Frederic Bastiat

Saturday, September 5, 2009

Afghanistan: Myths and Reality

From the Cato Institute.

Quote of the Day: Freedom

Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves. ~ Abraham Lincoln

Friday, September 4, 2009

People of Walmart

I think I knows some of them.

To Quote Chris Rock

I ain't saying this was right.

Quote of the Day: A Higher Power

I believe there is something out there watching us. Unfortunately, it's the government. - Woody Allen

Thursday, September 3, 2009

Amazing Horsemanship

Swedish Dad in Bid for Breast Milk

Dear Penthouse.

The Ugly Side of Cheerleading

Some people take it very seriously.

George Will Doubles Down

He calls for the United States to get out of Iraq, too.

What Next for Japan-U.S. Relations?

Doug Bandow looks at the results of Japan's recent elections.

Making Enemies in Afghanistan

Benjamin Friedman looks at how U.S. policies are turning key segments of the population to the Taliban

Capitalism and the Jews

Taking off from some remarks on the same subject by Milton Friedman, David Henderson looks at why Jews are, as a group, so hostile to capitalism.

A Will But No Way

At The American Conservative, Daniel McCarthy says George Will is on the right track on Afghanistan but still has a ways to go.

Obama MIA on Afghanistan

Abu Muqawama writes

So I was on the Newshour last night debating Afghanistan with a favorite of this blog and its readers, Andrew Bacevich. As readers of this blog know, I am uncomfortable when placed in the position of being expected to lustily defend the war. I think the war is in the nation's interests at the moment, sure, but I'm quick to add that my own thoughts are not wholly formed, I am open to dissenting views, and what views I do offer are accompanied by admissions of how difficult the mission is and a rather un-Abu-Muqawama-like degree of humility. (One of the things that turns me off to Bacevich's arguments on Afghanistan, for example, is how certain he is of his knowledge and opinions on the country, its peoples, its history and NATO operations there without, to my knowledge, having ever traveled to Central Asia. Rory Stewart, obviously, is another matter -- as is the wider Bacevich thesis about the use and abuse of American power.) As I walked out of the studio last night, though, Gwen Ifill turned to me and said, "Look, I understand you're not some fire-breathing hawk, but you're about the only person we can find in Washington to defend this war at the moment."

Woah. The only person who will defend this war? If this blogger is the only person in the nation's capital willing to defend the war, we have a big problem. I'm more used to hosting debates on Afghanistan than participating in them. I do not think it would surprise any reader of this blog, though, to note the speed with which the debate has shifted on the war in Afghanistan. What was, 12 months ago, "the good war" has now become, for paleoconservatives and progressives alike, a fool's errand. And the Obama Administration has thus far shown little energy for defending a policy and strategic goals (.pdf) they themselves arrived at just five months ago. I thought that once the president had settled on a policy and strategic aims, the rest of the administration would then go about executing that policy. That's the way it's supposed to work, right? Yet the policy debate seems to continue within the White House, with the Office of the Vice President apparently pushing for a much more limited approach than what was articulated in March by the president himself and following a lengthy policy review. No wonder, then, the uniformed military is getting nervous about the administration's support for their war. Either the White House has been too busy with health care, or they have failed to notice how quickly the debate has shifted under their feet (as with health care).

Quote of the day: Taxes

I have always paid income tax. I object only when it reaches a stage when I am threatened with having nothing left for my old age - which is due to start next Tuesday or Wednesday. - Noel Coward

Wednesday, September 2, 2009

Strong Thighs

Japan's New First Lady Says She Rode UFO to Venus

I like her already.

Headline of the Day

From Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

Quote of the Day: Heroes

Hero-worship is strongest where there is least regard for human freedom. - Herbert Spencer

Tuesday, September 1, 2009

Audit the Fed

Ron Paul has been trying to get this done for years. It looks like it may finally happen.

Glenn Beck: Pro and Con

Jack Hunter makes the case for the weeping one. Jack Ross says Beck is a lunatic.

George Will: Time to Get Out of Afghanistan

Will is probably the only conservative pundit I can think of who has gotten more libertarian and more radical as he got older. And if you see the reaction from National Review and the Republican echo chamber to his stand on Afghanistan it seems that even the most respected of conservatives will get smashed by their peers if they stand against the militarism and imperialism that masquerades as conservatism these days.

Quote of the Day: The Law

Law never made man a whit more just; and by means of their respect for it, even the well disposed are daily made agents of injustice. - Henry David Thoreau