19 December 2014

Society and Economics are not Analogous to Baseball

I'm not going to labour the Sowell/Walter Williams criticisms but this one just struck me as a perfect summation of their 'aw shucks' down-home simplicity... and its consequent misrepresentation and danger.

Williams basically criticised liberal appeals to the Rule of Law... because in our society we change the 'rules' all the time.

17 December 2014

Orban and Reagan: Drug Testing and Loyalty

Hungary's Viktor Orban has made the news a couple of times recently. The Budapest government has been increasingly moving toward the 'Right'... though no one on the American Right can seem to agree on what that term means.


Through the Looking Glass: A Journey into the Fantasy World of Thomas Sowell (7/Final)

Sowell:

It would never occur to the busybodies that multinational corporations are expanding the options of the poor in third world countries, while busybody policies are contracting their options.

10 December 2014

The CIA Report and False Repentance


I guess we're supposed to be impressed. The United States government is displaying repentance, and doing an act of penitence by releasing the report on post-9/11 CIA sponsored torture, kidnapping and secret prisons.

Is this news?


06 December 2014

Through the Looking Glass: A Journey into the Fantasy World of Thomas Sowell (6)

Sowell:

That arbitrary and unsubstantiated assumption underlies a wide spectrum of laws and policies over the years, ranging from urban renewal to ObamaCare.

05 December 2014

Cheap Oil and Geopolitics

While it cannot be proved, the current OPEC decision to sustain current production levels and thus drive the price of oil down even further causes one to wonder...

Cui Bono? To whose benefit?

04 December 2014

Christians in Kenya Should Denounce Militarism in All Forms

Christians in Kenya should denounce their government for playing the American stooge and getting involved in the Somali War. I am not suggesting they lobby, try to take over, or politically agitate. But it should be known that Christians don't support the action and Christians should refuse to play any part in executing the Kenyan government's policy.

I'm speaking of Biblically faithful Christians, not the Sacralized rulers who are the children of Colonialist Christendom and various forms of Protestant and Roman Catholic Dominionist theology.


Through the Looking Glass: A Journey into the Fantasy World of Thomas Sowell (5)

Proto:

As the Church continues to apostatize my hope is that the Remnant will come together with a real sense of community. The Amish figured this out long ago. It's not due to their stance on technology, though that is a factor, but they do hold common values. They're not the same values as the Jews or Armenians, but their community has common values. Right now American Christians are still enthralled with the possibilities of American cultural success. This vision and the ethics that go with it are individualist and won't allow such people to function within a community. There has to be some self-denial. Americans aren't good at that and at present there are numerous popular theologies which reject the very notion.


03 December 2014

Mortgage and Debt Relief: A Middle Class Subsidy

In financial circles there are rumbles concerning the extension of the Mortgage Forgiveness Debt Relief Act. Normally if you're granted relief, the amount that you were forgiven is counted as a loan, as income and thus is taxable.

02 December 2014

Ex-Nazis and their Government Sponsors

Today the local Christian radio station belatedly reported the fact that even Nazi hunting groups are acknowledging the death of Alois Brunner, the SS officer and former assistant to the notorious Adolf Eichmann.


Through the Looking Glass: A Journey into the Fantasy World of Thomas Sowell (4)

Proto Cont...:

People caricature the poor and speak of multi-generational poverty. There are some women who keep having kids in order to stay signed up for subsidies and they're pretty wicked for doing that. But for others, and let's face it, most people don't want to have a bunch of kids, as soon as their kids are school age, you must enter a job seeking programme or you get cut off. And at that point if you're eligible for a job and you turn it down, you're cut off.

01 December 2014

Tax Credits are Subsidies in Principle and Practice

If you're opposed to subsidies for the poor, then you cannot maintain any integrity and claim a tax credit. Credits are little more than subsidies.

Qualifying for a subsidy suggests that you've met certain conditions which grant an exception. You don't have to 'do' the same thing everyone else under normal circumstances is required to do.