Friday, February 19, 2010
Thursday, February 18, 2010
The Presidential Commission on Birth, Death, and the Meaning of Life
Obama's new bioethics czar just wants us all to get along.
So how might the new Bioethics Commission operate? Fortunately, we have some idea because its new chair, Amy Gutmann, outlined her views on how bioethics commissions should be run in an article, “Deliberating About Bioethics” in the Hastings Center Report back in 1997. Most of the 13 member panel hasn't been appointed yet, but Gutmann is well-known for her scholarly work on deliberative democracy, which she defines “as a form of government in which free and equal citizens (and their representatives), justify decisions in process in which they give one another reasons that are mutually acceptable and generally accessible, with the aim of reaching conclusions that are binding in the present on all citizens but open to challenge in the future.”In her article (co-authored with political philosopher Dennis Thompson), Gutmann distinguishes deliberative democracy from proceduralism and constitutionalism. In proceduralism, once basic rules of the game have been hammered out, moral disagreements are resolved through political bargaining or by moving them out of politics into the private sphere. Constitutionalism tries to avoid moral disagreement by creating a sphere of protected rights that are shielded from ordinary politics.
Gun Refresher Course
An armed man is a citizen. An unarmed man is a subject.
A gun in the hand is better than a cop on the phone.
Colt Peacemaker: The original point and click interface.
Gun control is not about guns; it's about control.
If guns are outlawed, can we use swords?
If guns cause crime, then pencils cause misspelled words.
Free men do not ask permission to bear arms.
If you don't know your rights, you don't have any.
Those who trade liberty for security have neither.
The United States Constitution © 1791. All Rights Reserved.
What part of "shall not be infringed" do you not understand.
The Second Amendment is in place in case they ignore the others.
64,999,987 firearm owners killed no one yesterday.
Guns only have two enemies: Rust and Politicians.
Know guns, Know peace and safety. No guns, no peace nor safety.
You don't shoot to kill; You shoot to stay alive.
911 – government sponsored Dial a Prayer.
Assault is a behavior, not a device.
Criminals love gun control – it makes their jobs safer.
If Guns cause Crime, then Matches cause Arson.
Only a government that is afraid of it's citizens tries to control them.
You have only the rights you are willing to fight for.
Enforce the "gun control laws" in place, don't make more.
When you remove the people's right to bear arms, you create slaves.
The American Revolution would never have happened with Gun Control.
"....a government by the people, for the people....."
This originally appeared on Armed Citizens.
Copyright © 2010 Armed Citizens
Monday, February 15, 2010
The Schools Are Doing a Wonderful Job!
Don’t let schooling interfere with your education.
~ Mark Twain
I sometimes grow weary listening to people complaining that the government schools are doing a terrible job. I have many objections to this horrid system, but I must give it credit for accomplishing its actual – but unstated – purpose, namely, to dumb-down the minds of people so as to make them unquestioning and obedient vassals of the established order. There is nothing so disruptive to the status quo as a society of self-directed, independent-minded people both capable of and insistent on informed, analytical thought. It has been the purpose of government schools to assure that such conditions do not arise; to continue to produce a society of capable workers but who, nonetheless, have passive and contented minds.
The contrast between systems of learning that focus on helping students become epistemologically independent and competent, and the government schools, is often difficult to make other than by anecdotal examples. When I was in the eighth-grade in a government school, we were required to study Latin. That revelation, standing by itself, conveys little to a listener. Only occasionally am I able to find some past curricular evidence with which to compare modern school offerings.
Thanks to the Internet, however, I have rediscovered an interesting item that helps make my point. It is an eighth grade exam that students in Salina, Kansas, were required to pass in order to advance to high school (i.e., the ninth grade). The exam was given in 1895, and consists of the following subject areas and questions.
Europe Doesn't Matter
Europe thought that it had answered Henry Kissinger's derisive question: what is the phone number for Europe? But the recently approved Lisbon Treaty has only increased confusion as to who speaks for the continent. As a result, President Obama recently announced that he will not attend the upcoming U.S.-European Union summit.
If it stands united, Europe could become one of the world's three or four great powers, along with the U.S., China, and perhaps India. The European Union's GDP and population both exceed those of America.
Many European leaders are desperate to turn Europe into a Weltmacht. For that purpose they concocted the Lisbon Treaty, a complex agreement which created new continent-wide offices, enhanced the authority of the European Parliament, and reduced the power of national governments. Although consolidating power in Brussels and creating a quasi-president and foreign minister are not the same as establishing the United States of Europe, the process was promoted as yielding a more coherent and unified Europe.
Irish Senator Deirdre de Burca explained: "If I had to name just one compelling reason to support the Lisbon Treaty, however, it is because the treaty will enhance the capacity of the EU to become a more effective actor at an international level." Wilfried Martens, a leading Member of the European Parliament, argued that "the EU must be united and able to speak with one voice on the world stage."
Leading Europeans were particularly frustrated that the continent has little geopolitical heft. French President Nicolas Sarkozy contended that "Europe cannot be a dwarf in terms of defense and a giant in economic."
Similarly, opined Charles Grant, director of the Centre for European Reform:
On many of the world's big security problems, the EU is close to irrelevant. Talk to Russian, Chinese or Indian policy-makers about the EU, and they are often withering. They view it as a trade bloc that had pretensions to power but has failed to realize them because it is divided and badly organized.
True, but most Europeans are far less concerned than their leaders about the continent's global influence. Polls indicated that in at least half of the EU member states a majority would reject Lisbon if given the chance. Only by denying a vote to everyone other than the Irish—whose constitution required a referendum—was the Eurocratic elite able to force the treaty into effect.
A Blizzard of Global-Warming Hype
It had to happen. In the midst of the record snowfall in the East, some mainstream media outlet had to try to link this season's unusual weather events to global warming.
Time was the first news organization to take the plunge. It published such an article on February 10 — and that very day, Washington, D.C., broke its 1899 seasonal snow record of 54.5 inches with its third official blizzard of the winter. Today, the New York Times joined the party.
Like 2010, winter 1899 was characterized by multiple heavy snowstorms, especially in February. Sometimes the jet stream locks into a position where it is capable of creating such a string. As has been painfully obvious, this is one of those years.
Before 1942, D.C.'s official snow totals were taken downtown. The record since the measurement started being recorded at Reagan National Airport, set in 1996, has been eclipsed by ten inches this year.
The big January 1996 storm put down 17.1 inches at Reagan. The January 22, 1996, Newsweek cover featured a man disappearing in a whiteout with the headline "Blizzards, Floods, and Hurricanes: Blame Global Warming." The cover story, written by the voluble science populist Sharon Begley, claimed that global warming allows more moisture into the air so that snowstorms can become bigger. Her go-to scientist was NASA's James Hansen — who more recently became famous for calling coal drags to your local power plant "death trains" and advocating war-crime trials for the executives who daily force you to put gasoline in your car. (So clearly we should expect no hyperbole from that camp.)
Sunday, February 14, 2010
Sam Adams on a Sunday Afternoon
"We cannot make events. Our business is wisely to improve them."