Quote of the Day
Sometimes it is more important to discover what one cannot do, than what one can do.Lin Yutang
Image of the Day
Laudato Si'
I have not read the pope's new encyclical in its entirety yet and will reserve full comment until I read it. Acton Institute is a well-known market-based Catholic think tank. I myself have been a serious critic of Francis to date, but some of the free market threads on Facebook have been so anti-Catholic, it's put me into an unusual position of defending Francis.
Choose Life: Pregnancy Announcement
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| Courtesy of the parents |
(Reason). Environmentalism rehabilitates in secular drag the stinging rebukes of humanity once delivered by pointy-hatted men of God.
I'm not Catholic and he's not a scientist so I don't give a f* what he thinks about "global warming"
Actually, Francis is not a scientific illiterate; he was a high school science teacher. But that doesn't mean that he isn't unduly influenced by a predictable leftist populist critique.
(Reason). Can Conservatarians bridge the gap between libertarians and the right?
As a "conservatarian" (who hasn't read Cooke's book but did read this interview on it), I do not feel it reflects my perspective at all: I don't think I necessarily speak on behalf of all conservatarians (or fusion libertarian-conservatives) like the Paul's, Massie, Amash, Sanford et al,--and heaven knows we have our differences.
To give an example, I'm a radical free trader and open borders type of guy. Even though I'm a Rand Paul supporter, he's given me heartburn with some of his discussions on ISIS and TPP. The late great Robert Taft and Goldwater opposed freer trade initiatives. I do understand political free trade talks are de facto neomercantilism; ideally I would prefer us to declare unilateral free trade.
I also make a distinction Cooke doesn't between conservatives and right-wing populism and/or authoritarianism. I do see the conceptual inconsistencies of being fiscally conservative, except when it comes to national security, of claiming you're for regulatory reform and small government but then want Big INS on steroids.
But in terms of conservatism on the topics of "gay marriage" and abortion (both of which I oppose), Cooke's discussion is not a worthy perspective. Even though I personally disagree with the gay lifestyle, I'm not for government regulating consensual lifestyles. I prefer to live in areas where people share a reverence for the virtues and traditional institutions like churches, not where fascist judges can impose politically correct socially experimental policy on a state or local communities.
On abortion, the issue is one that has divided libertarians as well; a third of us reject abortion, given the fact a preborn child is scientifically distinct from his or her mother from the moment of conception. I don't oppose a woman who doesn't want children having her tubes tied, but any attempts to draw a line of the commensurate unalienable rights of the preborn child is, at best, arbitrary and morally unacceptable.
(IPI). A new report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics has ignited a discussion on Illinois’ business climate with most media outlets focusing on business creation in Illinois.
But on national, regional and county-level comparisons, the report was negative for Illinois, making it especially odd that media outlets spun the numbers as a positive.
New business startups cannot be considered a positive without context. In this case, the growth of new Illinois businesses came in the context of poor job creation and lagging wages. On those metrics, Illinois ranked 29th nationally for jobs growth and 42nd for wage growth.
Lagging wages are because you RepubliCONS wage war against unions RepubliCONS are greedy S.O.B.S.
Fascist union crony unionists, using corrupt Democratic anti-competitive policies, try to artificially raise wages at the expense of other workers. You can't force employers to hire above what employees contribute to the business.. Wages increase due to things like economic/business growth, not because of unions demanding unsustainable business model costs. Case in point: the auto bankruptcies.
(another comment)
[Other discussant], the union fascist OP did not answer your question. The fact is fascist politicians put into place all sorts of taxes and regulations that effectively raise the cost of doing business. That leads to slower business growth and weaker employment. Labor policies, like the morally bankrupt minimum wage, were never designed to facilitate competition to labor unions. What was behind the original minimum wage was racism: Southern blacks were willing to take jobs at lower wages than the going rate in the Northeast. It did not help black workers who couldn't find work at higher wages, etc.
(FEE). The government has no business deciding what foods are healthiest for us to eat.
I don't want lead in my food. Trans fat is just another type of poison. Glad I don't have to worry about it. There are hidden costs to a society as a whole if it is unhealthy
Just because you have the freedom to select non-trans fat goods doesn't mean you have a right to impose your fascist rules on other people.
(IPI). It’s not out of line or unfair to ask teachers to pay their share of the costs associated with their own retirement benefits.
So why are nearly 2/3 of Illinois school districts still picking up pension contributions for teachers?
Maybe if you paid them a living wage, and stop having them pay so many out of pocket expenses for their classrooms,and stop robbing their pension funds (you politicians and stop tying their increases to additional education requirements so that they don't have to go into debt just to get a measle 2% raise. Why don't you stop harassing them about pay, do you do that to the lawyers, doctors, nurses, union workers they are no less valuable!!!!!
Another teacher union whore, spreading trite propaganda promoting self-centered, self-serving greed. Let's eliminate tenure, peg pay to market forces and objective student performance, abolish seniority-based layoffs, introduce real education choice for parents, not enslaving kids to failing local public schools. It's not just that unions protect mediocre teachers at the expense of the kids' education, but we also have bloated administrations. Catholic schools routinely outperform public schools at a fraction of the cost.
IPI has repeatedly provided evidence of RETIRED teachers pulling in, say, $70K or more. I've seen reports of teachers in a Chicago area making up to $130K a year. Most people (including me) do NOT have our employers picking up our share of 401K's. Spare me the propaganda of teachers paying for school supplies out of their pockets. If and when that occurs, it's an administration issue--and if necessary, ask the parents or hold fundraisers. There's no such thing as "free" school or "free" roads; they are paid through taxes.
(FEE). We shouldn't be afraid of opening up our borders to immigration.
We have our borders open to immigration already... legal immigration !
This is absolutely clueless. Our country had (with the exception of racist policies against Asians) had a fairly open immigration policy through around 1917, which, not coincidentally, correlated with immense economic growth. The 1917 law, adopted during WWI, put in discriminatory speed bumps, including a literacy test. The drop in immigrants wasn't enough in the post-WWI depression to keep anti-immigrants from imposing quotas, tilted in favor of North/West Europe immigrants. The quota system was intended to be temporary, but like all stealth moves by States, became permanent. There have been some updates, some good, others not so good (e.g., early legislation didn't target the Americas), but we still have the same economically clueless, archaic, immoral quota system in play. Only economically ignorant, xenophobic, Statist , busybody know-nothings can champion this corrupt anti-growth policy.
Political Cartoon
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| Courtesy of Eric Allie via IPI |
Dionne Warwick, "Trains and Boats and Planes"
