Thousands of TWEETS, Posts, Articles, Pages, chapters, Notes, Diagrams, drafts, sketches and Quotes from 2009 to present
Conservative Strategy Since 1980
The Leftist blog Economists View posts that Stiglitz writes that there is an ideological crisis in western capitalism. by which he simply means the “right is wrong”, and Stiglitz is right. Really. That’s all he says. And, of course, Stiglitz’s analysis is a straw man. CONSERVATIVE STRATEGY The conservative strategy since 1980 has been: 1)…
July 4th: A mistake?
I love my country. The world is a better place because of the American Constitution. And the evidence is clear that everyone has been better off having been an English colony than a French one. But the colonists declared independence largely to escape paying the costs incurred by England in protecting the colonies during the…
Conservatism Isn’t Always Aristocratic, And Aristocracy Needn’t Be Conservative
American conservatives struggle with the fact that their political sensibilities consist of both the sentiments of conservatism and the remnants of aristocratic european philosophy – and that because they neither understand aristocratic philosophy, or understand conservatism, they cannot separate these two bodies of thought into their constituent parts. As constituent parts they can easily be…
Fear and The Rise of China Post 2: A Lesson In US Military and Geopolitical Pragmatism
In my Time Magazine reply to “Why do westerner’s fear the rise of China”, someone challenged me with: You make the westerner seem as if he actually walks around Afghanistan and iraq folding hands and asking people to be quiet and china being the only country forcing power on others. I don’t make that assertion…
Why Do Westerners Fear A Rising China?
Why? Why do westerners fear a rising China? Lets look at the reasons: 1) Their history with communism, and enduring love of authoritarianism 2) Systemic Human rights violations, not only in the conquered territories, but between the political north and the entrepreneurial south. 3) Endemic Corruption at all levels of society and perpetual intransigence 4)…
The Ethnic Nation State Is The Most Likely Means Of Preserving Individual Freedom.
Great panel discussion today, with speakers on China, Turkey, Islam, Europe, and the Anglosphere. The closing questions were largely to do with the changing world boundaries, and nationalism. Summary by, I think, John O’Sullivan, was that, it certainly appears, that the small ethnic nation state is the most likely means of preserving individual freedom. And…
A Mouthful Of Pebbles And The Roar Of The Ocean
Someone asked me (again) today, why I waste my time on some silly online political debate group. And that’s a good question. But I know the answer. It’s a choice. First, it’s not really very useful to argue with people who agree with you. I spent a good half hour last night at a dinner…
Reductio Libertarianism As An Effort To Export Costs (ie: Theft)
In yet another debate with crooks masquerading as libertarians. I ask “Define Moral.” Bob replies “Moral = “Absence of coercion. Immoral = Presence of coercion (force or fraud).” Then he teases me a bit for my usually turgid analytical analysis: “What’s your definition, Curt? We assume it’s gotta be a pretty complex definition or it’s…
A Better Analysis Of Libertarianism: “Why don’t I kill you and take your stuff?”
As Camus said, the first problem of philosophy is why we do not commit suicide. But that is followed by the first problem of political philosophy, which is not “how do we best get along?” It is “Why don’t I kill you and take your stuff?” I opt for freedom by advocating the organized application…
A Centralized NY, and a Distributed LA
From Peter Gordon, referring to an article in the Atlantic. “The LA metropolitan area is actually spread over parts of five counties and includes twice as many cities as writer Conor Friedersdorf cites. The Orange county-LA county boundary is invisible to most of us. And even granting Friedersdorf’s view of the world, trading the 88…
Translating Complaints About Private Sector Services
When people disparage the private sector and seek services from the government what they really mean is one or more of the following: 1) DISCOUNT ON RESEARCH / RISK REDUCTION: “I am not able to judge the services in the marketplace, and unable to determine which of the inexpensive choices at my disposal in the…
What Would You Learn From A Lifetime Of Studying Politics And Economics?
Fundamentally, assuming you were intellectually honest, if you were to spend the next twenty years of your life studying political science, with the goal of long term stability and prosperity, then you would come to these conclusions: 0) The Problem a) Time: b) Space (distribution): d) Acting: c) Choosing an Action: d) Memory: e) Limited…
No Whoopie, It’s Not About Race.
Over on Real Clear Politics, Whoopie Goldberg says she’s Playing The Race Card. To which I reply: It’s not about race. It’s about the welfare state’s collectivism vs classical liberalism’s individualism. Three Rules of Politics: RULE 1: “People will not tolerate rulership by someone who despises them and their values.” RULE 2:“People will not tolerate…
The Questionable Ethics Of Climate Scientists And Economists
Karl Popper (who wrote the Logic of Scientific Discovery) and Thomas Kuhn (who wrote the structure of scientific revolutions) approached the problem of knowledge in the domain of DISCOVERY, which we call the physical sciences. At the same time, the CLOSE FRIEND of Karl Popper, Friedrich Hayek, worked on the problem of hubris in the…
Camus Didn’t Take It Far Enough
Camus starts The Myth of Sisyphus with this insight. “There is but one truly serious philosophical problem and that is suicide.” To which I’ll add: “There is but one truly serious problem of political philosophy, and that is, why not kill others and take their property?” We always assume common interest, and that politics starts…
Correcting Our Uses Of Taxes, Law, Money And Credit
There is a natural conflict between the need to avoid a scarcity of cash and credit, such that all opportunities for increases in productivity within the economy can be exploited, and the fact that fiat money and fiat credit tend to mask, obscure and distort the information that would come from climbing interest rates. The…
Fiat And Private Money From Both Sides Of The Coin
The first reason that the USA wanted it’s own money is so that it did not export profits to England or France in the form of currency appreciation. The second reason was to reduce trade friction between the colonies. The third was because private money is a riskier proposition, and trade was artificially limited by…
Governments Should Be Empirical Not Moral
All societies in history, without exception, appear to have a ‘referee’ or ‘judge’ — usually an elder male. This topic has been researched to death: Egalitarian tribal warfare societies have some elder male. Chieftain societies tend to concentrate decision making power. Urban societies develop specialists. Advanced civilizations have micro-specialists (judges). Likewise, as they grow, societies…
All Cultures Developed Religions Of Some Sort
Mystical Political Religion and the concept of good and evil was invented by the Persians to separate the persian people from the indians who were, at that time, similar peoples. Mystical religion was invented to cause conflict and political division. All cultures developed religions of some sort. If by religion we mean a body of…
Ayn Rand’s ‘Selfishness’ Is A Play On Words In Order To Hook Your Attention
Selfishness, as defined by Rand, is a play on words in order to hook people’s attention. It is a classic marketing trick. It assists her in marketing her ideas specifically because the word ‘selfish’ has negative connotations. While she uses the word ‘selfishness’ the general idea is used by other writes as any one of:…
