Category Archives: Liberty

Not a System; But Life Itself

Free Markets, Individualism Vs. Collectivism, Liberty, Natural Law

I missed the Republican debate last night. The weekly, WND column was to be devoted to that bit of sparring. But lo, 8:00 PM EST rolled round, and there was no debate on CNN, FoxNews and Business, MSNBC, etc. There were references to The Debate, but the newsmen who’re supposed to say, Where, What, When, Why, Who—they refuse to give it up when the ratings don’t accrue to their network.

Here is the “Complete Transcript of the Hanover Economic Debate.”

Hermann Cain promised to “re-establish confidence in our system.” “Our system.” How I hate that phrase. Everyone uses it with reference to the voluntary free market.

Such crude utilitarianism.

“The free market—it has not been unfettered for a very long time—is really is a spontaneously synchronized order comprising trillions upon trillions of voluntary acts that individuals perform in order to make a living. Introduce government force and coercion into this rhythm, and you get life-threatening arrhythmia. Under increasing state control, this marketplace—this magic, organic agora—starts to splutter and people suffer.” [By The Free Woman]

They all call it The System. It is not. The free market is a sacred extension of life itself.

Remember the cult, 1967 British television series, “The Prisoner”? Google “I am not a number—I am a free man!”. (Whenever “Number 6” (the individual) attempted to escape from “The Village” (the collective), a giant balloon called “Rover” gave chase and subdued him.)

The free market is us; at least everyone of us who is not a moocher or a looter. If this “collective” had a voice it would scream, “I am not a system I am life itself.”

Troy Davis, The Sanctity of Life & The Racism Card

Crime, Criminal Injustice, Justice, libertarianism, Liberty, Political Correctness, Propaganda, Race, Racism

The macabre count down to an execution is always a horrible affair—for all except a few sorts like Ann Coulter. She has never encountered a country she didn’t think the US should level, or an execution not worth carrying out. The commutation of the death sentence of Troy Davis (who has since been executed) seemed eminently reasonable to me (who supports the death penalty) in light of the fact that, according to reports, the Davis sentenced was based on eye-witness testimony, which is always iffy. (Surprisingly, Chris Matthews covered the case well, looking at all angles and evidence.)

The assertions of “racism,” however, are as despicable as Coulter’s prod to kill.

I am so sick of people (many of them in the liberty camp) who think their moral status is elevated by fingering others as racists. Cut that crap already. As one of my readers pointed out, on the very same day that Davis was scheduled to die a white man “was headed to the death chamber … for the infamous dragging death 13 years ago of James Byrd Jr., a black man from Jasper in East Texas.”

Argue on the merits of a case, don’t make amorphous, feel-good charges of racism.

I agree with BARRY SCHECK, who raised a reasonable case for commutation:

…at the Innocence Project, we have over 275 people who were
exonerated with post-conviction DNA evidence. And, remember, DNA evidence
is only present in less than 5 percent of criminal cases. So, what about
all the other ones where there may be eyewitness misidentification, perhaps
as happened in the Troy Davis case or bad forensic evidence that we know
definitely happened in the Troy Davis case?

It’s futile to remind Republicans like Coulter that commutation is not exoneration. Republicans generally confine their appreciation for the sanctity of life to fussing over fetuses; about fully formed human-beings they don’t care as much.

Freedom Fighters Vs. Freedom Deniers; Truth Vs. Untruth

Conservatism, Journalism, libertarianism, Liberty, Media, Political Philosophy, Propaganda, Pseudo-history, Pseudo-intellectualism

If economic historian Tom Woods and XM radio host Mike Church made it onto Freedom Watch’s often-misnamed Freedom-Fighters panel, I would be inclined to tune in more often. These men have fidelity to truth and reality. It was on display during an appearance on Judge Napoliaton’s Fox Business show.

More often than not, I switch off. Sure, the occasional freedom fighter finds his way onto the segment, but the Freedom Fighters Panel is set-up, in general, in the mold followed by every other cable and network show. It’s positively postmodernist. Present the public with two competing “perspectives” or worldviews. By doing so, you mislead Tweedledumb and Tweedledumber into thinking that indeed there are two realities, and that he may decide which one is more compelling.

The truth is that truth is immutable; it is not relative. There is, moreover, too little truth in media. Truth cannot afford to be diluted or presented by its adherents as dueling with untruth.

Gasbag Gasparino/Nancy Skinner/Caroline Heldman/Tara Dowdell/—these Fox News fixtures no more represent truth or promote it than does your average Holocaust denier.

Except, that—although I know nothing about the Dewey Decimal Classification—I believe that in a library, Holocaust denying literature would not be classified under history. If I am correct in this last assumption, why classify the reality defying bunk spewed by the likes of Nancy Skinner, Caroline Heldman, Tara Dowdell, Carl Jeffers, Joe Sibila, Erika Payne, “Charlie” Rangel, and other assorted TV mouths, as versions of the truth? For that is what the panel format suggests.

Naturally, the dueling “perspectives,” political-panel format is quite compatible with the aims of CNN, MSNBC, and other progressive media outlets.

The Worst of Times

Bush, Economy, Foreign Policy, Iraq, Jihad, Liberty, Military, Nationhood, Neoconservatism, Terrorism, War

National Journal has had an aha Moment: “The 10 years since the terrorism attacks of 9/11 rank among America’s most troubled,” concludes the Journal’s Ronald Brownstein:

[George W. Bush’s] “mismanaged wars in Afghanistan and Iraq sapped U.S. strength and imposed costs vastly exceeding their benefits. Overstretched and in the red, America ends the decade weaker on many international dimensions than when it began… At home,… the median income is now lower than in 2001 and the number of Americans in poverty nearly one-third higher. Most incredibly, fewer Americans are working today than in September 2001—a decadelong record of decline matched since 1900 only during the 1930s. Faith in all public and private leadership is flickering.”

No doubt, it began with Bush, who was bad to the bone.