individualism for the masses!
If you really think that historically low life insurance rates counts as "URGENT!" then feel free to click on the image and see the original ad, which I found at Yahoo! Groups, but I'm not posting this to promote life insurance. I'm writing because the ad, unlike the thousands of others I successfully ignore, just held me mesmerized for a good several seconds -- and now I'm spending a good several minutes writing about it on this dumb blog post.
Now, I'm not a big fan of what my father calls "semantic pollution" -- desensitizing us, for example, to the words Attention, Warning, and Urgent through their misuse for commercial and other promotional advertising, but what I just can't get past in this case -- the aspect of this ad that overrides all other considerations for me -- is the idea that I should be impressed by this little girl's astonishment at historically unprecedented insurance prices. If a little girl -- known as they are for their nonchalance, their jaded dismissal of life's lesser and even sometimes medium-sized astonishments 
-- if such a creature as this can be so shocked and overwhelmed that she opens her mouth and slaps her cheeks a la young Macaulay Culkin, circa 1990, then you know that something historical must be taking place. When I'm trying to gain some perspective on current events, trying to take the long-term view, I know I tend to turn to small children.
Your mileage may vary.
Gods rest ye, Unitarians, let nothing you dismay;
Remember there's no evidence there was a Christmas Day;
When Christ was born is just not known, no matter what they say,
O, Tidings of reason and fact, reason and fact,
Glad tidings of reason and fact.
Our current Christmas Customs come from Persia and from Greece,
From solstice celebrations of the ancient Middle East.
This whole darn Christmas spiel is just another pagan feast,
O, Tidings of reason and fact, reason and fact,
Glad tidings of reason and fact.
There was no star of Bethlehem, there was no angels' song;
There could not have been wise men for the trip would take too long.
The stories in the Bible are historically wrong,
O, Tidings of reason and fact, reason and fact,
Glad tidings of reason and fact!
I offer this followup to yesterday's rant.
(Tip o' the Hat to a certain Misesian with the same last name as the good padre.)Xmas -- Here is one of my pet peeves: people who take it upon themselves to oppose the supposedly un-Christian and secular use of "Xmas" as an alternative to "Christmas."
The "X" in question is not, in fact, the usual Latin letter, but rather the Greek letter "chi." This is the same chi that you see in church joined to a "P" -- which is, of course, not a "P," but rather the Greek letter "rho." The chi, usually together with the rho, is an ancient monogram for Christ, inasmuch as these are the two letters that begin the word Christ -- Messiah -- in Greek. You find it in digs from Christian antiquity, you see it used in mediaeval religious manuscripts, and you find it in the modern "Xmas."
By all means, withstand the secularization of Christian solemnities, but please be sure that you know what you're talking about first.
:: Posted by Jim Tucker 12/17/2004 09:24:14 AM -- email me ::
No, I'm not really advocating an X-rated holiday.
That description doesn't really give you a sense of how thoroughly this program debunks any possible claim that Christmas was ever primarily Christian.People all over the world celebrate the birth of Christ on December 25th. But why is the Savior's nativity marked by gift giving, and was He really born on that day? And just where did the Christmas tree come from?
Take an enchanting journey through the history of the world's favorite holiday to learn the origins of some of the Western World's most enduring traditions. Trace the emergence of Christmas from pagan festivals like the Roman Saturnalia, which celebrated the winter solstice. Learn how Prince Albert introduced the Christmas tree to the English speaking world in 1841. And discover how the patron saint of children was transformed into Jolly old Santa Claus by British settlers in the New World.
Come in from the cold for a Christmas celebration that has it all.
It has the usual nonsense about the Industrial Revolution creating poverty, "Robber Barons" somehow taking their wealth from the poor -- all the standard soft socialism, economic illiteracy, and quasi-Marxist class conflict theory that I've come to expect from academic historians. It even states as fact that the 19th-century U.S. Postal Service was efficient! Tell it to Lysander Spooner, you lazy-brained know-nothings.
Our hands slip apart,
I'm castaway.
Bobbing in a pedestrian current
thrown out among the hungry shoppers
of east 59th street.
David?
My name, like me is so small
among these people
as they hunt for symbols,
things to give the sense of
"Lie with me for 12 times 4 years."
She scans full-circle
a lighthouse look,
taking in the street
(its pickpockets,
vendors,
beggars innocents.)
in two half circles.
I, a baby boy in a red row boat
lost in the juggling and jostling
handbags-thighs-knees-shoes.
She picks me out
the child she takes clasping
warm and tight against
the tide
her mother smell sweet,
with a deep hint of woman
shuts out the rest.
Lets it be unsaid
that you are my love,
my jacket,
my safety belt
and I will never undo you
or let you come undone.
Les Allemands étaient chez moi
On m'a dit résigne toi
Mais je n'ai pas pu
Et j'ai repris mon arme.
Personne ne m'a demandé
D'où je viens et où je vais
Vous qui le savez
Effacez mon passage.
J'ai changé cent fois de nom
J'ai perdu femme et enfants
Mais j'ai tant d'amis
Et j'ai la France entière.
Un vieil homme dans un grenier
Pour la nuit nous a cachés
L'ennemi l'a su (Les Allemands l'ont pris)
Il est mort sans surprise.
Hier encore nous étions trois
Il ne reste plus que moi
Et je tourne en rond
Dans la prison des frontières.
Le vent souffle sur les tombes
La liberté reviendra
On nous oubliera
Nous rentrerons dans l'ombre
Okay, so here's my take on the Ferengi. So much about their culture comes from the fact that their males have their balls on their heads.
If, as I take it, male Ferengi ears are very sensitive physically and structurally, then it makes sense that you don't want to engage in open physical combat. Klingons have all these redundant systems, right? They can get hit and hit and hit and still keep going. But Ferengis have these big sexually sensitive things right there saying, "Grab me! Rip me! Hit me! Tear me!" No, no, no. What makes sense is if you only fight when you have the upper hand, if you can strike from a distance, if you can use guile, if you conduct strategies of combat that allow for you to be physically distant and thus protective. That's why the Ferengi weapon we see in Next Gen is a whip, instead of the up-close-and-personal knives like Klingons. In fact, I think a whip is a little "earsy" (as opposed to "ballsy") as far as Ferengis go. They should be into guns, blow darts, arrows, any type of range weapons. Ferengis should be all about poisons and booby traps. The only thing that keeps them from going that way, I guess is the fact that it makes sense that they favor some sort of hierarchized system that allows for the agressive aquisition of goods and services so that they don't have to resort to combat. If fact, classical Ferengi culture should be full of helmets, big, ornate, sturdy, padded helmets.
Anyway, that's my thought.
-C
A
J
Libertarian critter says, "I'm pretty sure that everyone, save a few hate filled radical leftie anarcho-frauds, supports the troops."
If you can tell me what it means to "support the troops" I'll tell you if I do or don't. What does support mean?
I'm not hate-filled, not lefty let alone radical lefty, and I don't know what an anarcho-fraud is, but I don't think I am one. And yet, if you ask me if I support the troops, I'd say No!
My support goes to very few people, certainly not people I don't know -- unless they are actively representing a principle I do stand for. The "troops" don't count.
In fact, the troops count less than most: if there's anything that unites them as individuals, it's their willingness to relinquish the responsibilities of free will to the glorification of the State in the name of patriotism. I don't see how any decent person could support such nonsense.
A willingness to kill under orders is not a virtue. Neither is "following orders" an excuse for violating anyone's rights.
Unless supporting X means only that I do not actively wish harm upon X -- in which case it is an almost useless concept -- then I do not support "our" troops.
My favorite idiom blend was from the college drama club, combining "looking for fresh talent" and "needing new blood" into "We're looking for fresh blood!"
One after-college acquaintance told me a certain iconoclast had been "totally hanged at the stake." (But that was the same acquaintance who, when told that J. Edgar Hoover was a closeted homosexual, said "Wow, a gay president!")
The official Top 15 list is here.
Top 15 Daily Articles:
And while I've temporarily disposed with the veneer of improbable modesty, I'll also let you know: I recently discovered that a Steven Yamarik, Instructor at Tufts University in Boston, is using my Gilligan article in his Intermediate Macro course. Here's his handout for the section on the quantity theory of money:
I also learned that this professor of economics and finance at Manhattan College links to the same article as well as to this very blog. She also links to the 1945 article, "The Economic Organization of a P.O.W. Camp", which was one of the inspirations for my Gilligan piece.
December 14, 2004
Rothbard Speaks
by B.K. MarcusHave you ever wanted to hear Murray Rothbard reminisce about Mises?
Do you know what he claimed was the key to understanding Karl Marx?
Have you heard what he thought was the proper role of the Federal Reserve?
One of the lesser-known treasures on this website is right here: Rothbard Speaks!
Wendy McElroy edited this collection of 75 short audio clips, selected from his longer lectures.
There's nothing quite like hearing his own words in his own unique voice.
Posted by Marcus at December 14, 2004 05:44 PM
Nice. You can listen to them all without lots of clicking via WebJay's play this page service -- click the link, choose your media player, click the play button, all of the clips play with no further fuss.Posted by: Mike Linksvayer at December 14, 2004 06:48 PM
I have so little patience for these kids you see panhandling.
You know, there are homeless people ... there are helpless people ... there are people who need help, who should get help, who don't get help ... and then there are these kids!
They're teenagers, you know: punks, shaved heads, couple tattoos...
"Got any change?!"
And they all have have an ethic -- they all have their heroes: Trent Reznor T-shirts ... Nine Inch Nails ... Rage Against The Machine -- but have you noticed that none of your heroes are here? that Trent's not hanging out on the sidewalk today in front of the convenience store?
May-be ... HE'S AT WORK!
He's a professional musician. He gets paid money to sing "Fuck The System" to you!
He takes that money and spends it on other businesses, creating ... an economy! This basic exchange of goods and services is the backbone of the very system that you claim to not want to be a part of, so I can't give you my money. I'm not going to infect you with my ... dirty ... capitalist ... money! I'm not going to be the corporate snake that lures you out of the Eden-like paradise of sidewalk living.
You have $400 worth of metal hanging off your lip. Smelt it! You'll have a year's worth of quarters right there. Tattoos cost money: you had change at one point! You made a choice: Ham sandwich? or Eagle-with-a-giant-penis-on-my-elbow?
Bush Blocks Import of Inexpensive Clothing
12/13/04
"Eighteen days before the end of a 30 year-old system restricting international trade in textiles and apparel, the Bush administration is imposing new barriers on imported clothing that is likely to curtail an expected flood of Chinese imports in the first few months of next year." (Washington Post, Monday)
Next time politicians express sympathy for low-income people, remember this.
FEE Timely Classic
"Misdirected Compassion" by Douglas Mataconis
One of the constant problems for libertarians -- or at least for paleo-liberals, like myself -- is that no one understands the language we're speaking.
What we say: liberty; what they hear: privilege.I blame the Democrats for perverting the word liberal, and I blame the Republicans for perverting free market, property, privatization ...
We say: free markets; they hear: corporate welfare.
We say: capitalism; they hear: mercantilism.
We say: laissez faire; they hear: dog-eat-dog.
We say: liberalism; they hear: socialism.
I had mixed feelings about publishing my last article -- The Spectrum Should Be Private Property -- because I believe most people will form their impressions from the title and the summary (and the terms used in the title and summary) rather than reading the analysis with an open mind. Rothbardian privatization doesn't look like Republican privatization.
This was posted to the mises.org/blog:Now, I realize they're asking for nominations for the top 15, and not for my top 15 nominations, and yet ... that's how many nominations I come up with:Best of 2004
Mises.org UpdatesThe Mises Institute is inviting nominations for the best 15 Daily Articles of 2004, and the best 5 scholarly articles from either the Quarterly Journal of Austrian Economics (6.3-7.2) or the Journal of Libertarian Studies (17.4-18.3). Send your nominations to contact@mises.org. (We'll leave out best online books, since the the 2004 list is dominated by Menger, Rothbard, and Mises.)
One thing you missed was Skousen's Economics on Trial. This is a good book for folks who want to see their confusing college econ 101 textbook exploded. I picked it up while in grad school and thereafter read Hazlitt, Cox, Rothbard, Mises, etc.I'd never heard of Skousen's book, but it's extremely well reviewed over at Amazon, so I ordered a copy. Skousen seems to have written quite a bit on the subject.
Cox's work is undervalued, in my opinion. I have used it very successfully. But, it needs a complementary work that answers questions such as the ones you pose in a very short kind of economics catechism.
"The usual terminology of political language is stupid. What is 'left' and what is 'right'? Why should Hitler be 'right' and Stalin, his temporary friend, be 'left'? Who is 'reactionary' and who is 'progressive'? Reaction against an unwise policy is not to be condemned. And progress towards chaos is not to be commended."
Ludwig von Mises, Interventionism, An Economic Analysis, 1940
"The 'progressives' who today masquerade as 'liberals' may rant against 'fascism'; yet it is their policy that paves the way for Hitlerism."
Ludwig von Mises, "The Source of Hitler's Success"
"When people hear the word 'fascism' they naturally think of its ugly racism and anti-Semitism as practiced by the totalitarian regimes of Mussolini and Hitler. But there was also an economic policy component of fascism, known in Europe during the 1920s and '30s as 'corporatism,' that was an essential ingredient of economic totalitarianism as practiced by Mussolini and Hitler. So-called corporatism was adopted in Italy and Germany during the 1930s and was held up as a 'model' by quite a few intellectuals and policy makers in the United States and Europe. A version of economic fascism was in fact adopted in the United States in the 1930s and survives to this day. In the United States these policies were not called 'fascism' but 'planned capitalism.' The word fascism may no longer be politically acceptable, but its synonym 'industrial policy' is as popular as ever."
Thomas J. DiLorenzo, "Economic Fascism"
"There are definitely conservatives who are more pro-capitalism than pro-war, and liberals who are more pro-peace than pro-socialism. On the other hand, there are those on the Right who don't mind the welfare state, so long as it accompanies empire; and there are those on the Left who don't mind bombing a few countries and trashing the Fourth Amendment as long as the government also provides a free lunch. The first kind of leftists and rightists should be working together to oppose the second kind, who always manage to be the ones in control of the state and its two parties."
Anthony Gregory, "Down With Left and Right"
http://literalmind.blogspot.com/
furious asks where to begin if one wants to become economically literate, and Wally Conger replies.
I lent the CDs around to my friends, all of whom responded favorably. One of my friends said, "He makes it so simple." That friend gave the book to his leftist dad, who was apparently less impressed, but we can't really tell how carefully he read it.
An even shorter book is Jim Cox's The Concise Guide to Economics, which he's generously made freely available online. See also his booklet,
The best book for an introduction to this bottom-up approach is Gene Callahan's Economics for Real People. This is another one I'd love to see on everyone's bookshelf. When I was 18, I read a book called The Mind's I, and decided I was going to major in philosophy. At twice that age, I read Callahan's book and felt the same overwhelming pull. I was disappointed by how little my college taught the philosophy that interested me. I suspect the same would have been true with economics. Sometimes books are far more educational than schooling.
 Mises in One Lesson
(1:00:11) This lecture might be the best introduction to the core ideas of the Austrian School. An extraordinary performance, that is also entertaining. -- Murray Rothbard |
| Demand and Supply, Consumer Goods, Prices and Exchange
(52:51) -- Murray Rothbard |
| Money and Prices
(55:21) -- Murray Rothbard |
| Banking and the Business Cycle
(1:38:10) -- Murray Rothbard |
| Capital, Interest, and Profit
(54:23) -- Murray Rothbard |
| Labor
(50:46) -- Murray Rothbard |
| Labor and Unions
(51:35) -- Murray Rothbard |
| Conservation and Property Rights
(54:35) -- Murray Rothbard |
B.K. Marcus is an amateur political economist with no formal education in the subject. He works from Charlottesville, Virginia, as an editorial consultant for the Ludwig von Mises Institute. He is no longer a house husband, nor a faculty spouse, but he is still a dilettante, and a layabout, at least in spirit.
"It is no crime to be ignorant of economics, which is, after all, a specialized discipline and one that most people consider to be a 'dismal science.' But it is totally irresponsible to have a loud and vociferous opinion on economic subjects while remaining in this state of ignorance."
| Ludwig von Mises: "What is called economic progress is the joint effect of the activities of the three progressive groups . . . the savers, the scientist-inventors, and the entrepreneurs, operating in a market economy." - The Ultimate Foundation of Economic Science |
For unlike the rest of us, government sells no productive good or service and therefore earns nothing. It can only get money by looting our resources through taxes, or through the hidden tax of legalized counterfeiting known as "inflation."
Murray N. Rothbard, |
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