C.S. Lewis once wrote a short story (I think it was called The Shoddy Lands), in which a female character reveals herself to be utterly uninterested in anything but (I think it was) jewelery. I bring this up because I recall reading a reference to that story by someone else who took it as clear …
That”s So Gay
So follow this link and watch the three television commercials that are there. (HT: Frank Golubski) Okay, all set? In the first place, I am almost tempted to give my whole-hearted endorsement to such an ad campaign just for the pleasure of hearing modern adults tell teenagers to “knock it off.” No qualifications, no poor …
No, No . . . Not a Handout
Can’t stand it. Gotta say something. As John Stott wrote somewhere, fuzzy thinking is one of the sins of the age. I was watching the tube this afternoon, and a commercial came on, urging us all to get behind the Affordable Health Care Rationing System, or whatever it is they are calling it these days. …
A Very Pink Pig
One of the fundamental distinctions we need to learn to make is the one that exists between market entrepreneurs and political entrepreneurs. The terminology here is DiLorenzo’s — Rothbard made the same distinction, talking about free-market capitalists and state capitalists. The difference is not a slight one — think of a boar free in the …
Follow Me Closely Here
President Obama has been diligently doing whatever he can do to stay out of the fracas that erupted in Iran after their elections, and he took this stand because of the history of American interference. The Iranian chokeholders were shooting down protesters in the streets, which our president was pleased to call a “debate.” Perhaps …
My Old Mentor Bugs Bunny
I need to get a few words down about Rules for Radicals by Saul Alinsky. Two of his disciples now respectively occupy the main seat in the Oval Office and the chair behind the desk belonging to the Secretary of State, and so I thought it was high time to go back in time and …
All Sermon on the Mounty
As I have been writing about health care, the point undergirding everything I have been saying against “affordable health care for all” is this: violence in order to achieve such laudable ends is still objectionable. One commenter asked what the point of health care was. Was it to provide health care to those who need …
Making Hypocrisy Possible is a Cultural Virtue
Paul Begala has said that the GOP should stop lecturing everybody about sex — because of the hypocrisy recently manifested in the behavior of Sen. Ensign and Gov. Sanford. But this overlooks the important role of hypocrisy in every decent society. As it has been well observed, hypocrisy is the tribute that vice pays to …
Quality Health Care Grows Out of the Barrel of a Gun
The other day I saw the president fielding a question about his health care deform, and he said the kind of glib thing that appears to be all the rage these days. He said, in response to a question about his proposal putting private companies out of business, that he didn’t understand what the fuss …
A Fat Roll of Twenties
I was speaking with a friend the other day about some of the economic muddles that our sorry republic is currently being pelted with, and he said something like, “But isn’t it true that our health care system is broken?” Well, yes and no. Big chunks of it, like Medicare, are not so much broken …