The man who strikes first admits that his ideas have given out.
Chinese proverb
Earlier One-Off Post: "Progressives" in a State of Denial
Chart of the Day
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| Via Libertarian Catholic |
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| Re Broken Window Fallacy: via Dollar Vigilante |
Entertainment Potpourri: My New Favorite Hallmark Cable Movie
Corrine, trying to rebound from a failed relationship, makes a wish for a great romance on a Christmas tree ornament. The context for the song is that her once pregnant newlywed grandmother had gotten serial arrangements of a song melody from her husband at war, who died before sending the final segment; at one point in the movie, Dave, a secret admirer and co-worker, asks her if she ever wrote anything, and she mentioned as a 7-year-old she had tried to merge the immortal "Twas the Night Before Christmas" with "Come Home For Christmas". Harold, an angel with a mission, gets a job at the same music store with Dave and Corrine and tries to get them together. (Of course, the nefarious Tim returns to resurrect his relationship with Corrine.) Corrine overhears Harold playing her grandfather's whole song, including the missing part. Dave, in a bid to win Corrine's heart, bribes the community group with free musical instruments to get Corrine the solo part; the song happens to be a variation of the granddaughter's lyrics on the grandfather's melody. (Who wouldn't fall in love with Corrine, a real sweetheart?) I love the song and arrangement; the backing choir is brilliant.
Guest Post Comment
From Libertarian Republican:
Australian Senator David Leyonhjelm today (26 November) introduced his long-awaited gay marriage bill in parliament. The straight Liberal Democrat told the upper house that he supported gay marriage 'because I think people ought to have the freedom to choose their own life path.'No, the true libertarian position is NOT to change the legal definition of marriage, but rather to privatize the concept of marriage.
'To most people, marriage equality means the right to get married irrespective of gender or sexual preference,' he said. 'But it is much more than that; it is the right to live your life as you choose and not have the government impose a particular view on you.'
The Freedom to Marry Bill proposes to change the definition of marriage to 'the union of two people', rather than a 'man and a woman.'
In keeping with his Libertarian values, it also gives non-government religious and civil celebrants the right to refuse to marry gay couples
A Reappraisal of Bork
Familiar readers know that during the life of the blog I've sometimes shifted my perspective; e.g., I went from backing McCain in 2008 to publicly distancing myself from him in a 2012 post. But more specifically I finally dropped my Democratic Party affiliation (by that time, I was a rare conservative Democrat; I had been a pro-life liberal Democrat until I took my first economics course at UH; my professor was non-ideological) over the borking of his failed SCOTUS nomination. In fact, I can recall ordering a number of Bork volumes during the early years of the blog; I don't think I ever found the time to read them.
But just like I developed nagging doubts about McCain, the same thing started to happen with Bork. I still believe that he was the most brilliant jurist ever selected for SCOTUS in my lifetime; that doesn't mean I always agreed with him, i.e., the infamous inkblot with respect to the ninth amendment. But it wasn't until I learned that he and Holmes had a majoritarian deference that I suddenly realized how libertarian my perspective has evolved.
Sunday Talk Soup
Today I was listening to a backlog of MTP with Chuck Todd when I came across a rather brutal prosecution of Bobby Jindal by an argumentative Todd. It was one gotcha after another; e.g., you have a high disapproval rate in LA--how do you expect to compete in a Presidential primary; you enacted a tax cut and then boom, you have a billion dollar deficit; etc. It was so one-sided; the only good thing was that Jindal is one of the brainiest politicians on the planet. He can land 3 or 4 spot-on talking points before Chuck Todd could draw a breath.
There was also a softball interview on ObamaCare where Todd was reinforcing (in fact, finishing their sentences) administration talking points about cost containment, cuts in the uninsured. GOP resistance was regarded as totally political, and there were allegations that several Republicans were for ObamaCare before the stereotype Tea Party allegedly cracked down on them. It's the same nonsense that annoyed me about David Gregory.
Not to mention there was this whole discussion about how the Dems will have much different, favorable turnout in 2016, more minorities and some of the Senate seats (e.g., CO and NC) would have gone the other other way, that in 2016 the Dems will start out with 240 or so votes, only a few states shy of the magic number. I will simply point out 2016 is a change election and Reagan's landslide victory over Carter was not expected. Too much emphasis that minorities will vote for Dems 4-1.
Facebook Corner
(LFC). Jon Stewart does a good job ripping the Republicans who have made grand stands against eminent domain being used for environmental purposes, but have no issue with eminent domain being used for the Keystone Oil Pipeline. Theft is theft, no matter the circumstances, The Law still applies. If I can't steal my neighbor's land, neither can the government.
Some idiots don't understand the difference between an easement, in this case a pipe buried 4 ft. deep under a thin strip of land, for which the person receives fair market value for lease or purchase and is otherwise minimally inconvenienced, and real eminent domain abuse. Cry me a river.
(Cato Institute). "If you could wave a magic wand and make one or two policy or institutional changes to brighten the U.S. economy’s long-term growth prospects, what would you change and why?"
Join the conversation on Twitter using #CatoGrowth!
Elimination of progressive tax structures, emphasis on consumption taxes (e.g., VAT), zero-based regulation, privatization and/or devolution of noncore functionality (vs. defense, justice), open immigration, unilateral free trade.
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| Courtesy of Henry Payne via Townhall |
Glen Campbell, "It's Only Make Believe". As announced earlier, I'll be suspending the Vocalist/Campbell series until the New Year for my annual holiday music series.
