Musings of a Patriot

Category: culture

  • When Entertainment Rules

    Today in church the bishop gave a lesson on how to recognize and avoid the deception of the devil. One of the points that struck home with me (which was limited to that time when I was not chasing my son – I can’t wait for nursery) was how much of that deception comes in…

  • Initiative vs Policy

    It’s easy to find people describing the moral argument against government run social programs (forced charity encourages selfishness) but I don’t think I’ve ever heard a more compelling logical argument for the negative consequences of substituting an institutional approach to a problem for a solution based on individual initiative than this one. With no hint…

  • Ridiculous

    Last week his boss had his career sunk by revelations of participation in prostitution. Now the new Governor of New York starts his term by confessing his past affairs. I’m not here to criticize Gov. Paterson – his affairs hold no interest for me (especially since he’s not my governor). What I think is ridiculous…

  • Personal Political Perspectives

    I’ve posted a couple of stories where people have given personal perspectives about politics that I thought were well considered. I recently discovered that NPR has a project called Get My Vote that is meant to allow people to share exactly these kinds o f personal perspectives. NPR and public media want to hear about…

  • Liberal No More

    What happens when a lifetime of experience gets processed in a period of introspection and begins to overwhelm a long held youthful idealism? David Mamet comes up with this: What about the role of government? Well, in the abstract, coming from my time and background, I thought it was a rather good thing, but tallying…

  • Secular Theocracy

    Sometimes the truth stings – and Jeremy nailed it: “We’ll soon have a new law (because you know that our big-government-loving governor will sign it) that will make us feel good, will give us a new source of revenue via law enforcement, and will give the finger-waggers another reason to rag on parents.” Its not…

  • The Easy Way

    I couldn’t pass up the insights of Jim Harper in his post Learned Helplessness On several occasions recently, I have noted able-bodied Senate staff taking advantage of this convenience. Though they could open the doors themselves and enter more quickly, they press the button and pause a moment as the doors slowly open. There is…

  • Imports and Jobs

    I had asked whether our markets would be better served with a tit for tat approach to tariffs rather than a more dedicated insistence on free trade on imports. If I had any lingering doubts on the subject they were laid to rest after reading Why Politicians Are Wrong about Imports and Jobs. Unless the…

  • Our Chinese Finger Trap

    Socialism is like a Chinese finger trap. Playing with it just a bit look harmless and even fun, but once you start on that road it much easier to get further trapped than it is to free yourself. Image based on stuck for lyfe by Chris Martin. I read a great example of this in…

  • More on Consumption

    A great comment led me to this video – which everyone should see: