I cannot imagine a God who rewards and punishes the objects of his creation
and is but a reflection of human frailty.
Albert Einstein
Tweet of the Day
Blowback theorists on the Paris terror attacks assume that terrorists are motivated by the truth and abide by the non-aggression principle.
— Ronald Guillemette (@raguillem) November 17, 2015
Governors attempting to restrict the right of refugees to migrate violate equal protection under the 14th Amendment. https://t.co/ncCXmtPOy7
— Ronald Guillemette (@raguillem) November 17, 2015
A Bernie Sanders cultist must be gullible to believe one would want to buy a US government over $18T in debt, $80T in unfunded liabilities.
— Ronald Guillemette (@raguillem) November 18, 2015
Professional politicians like Bernie Sanders and Barack Obama try to restrict political competition through "campaign finance reform".
— Ronald Guillemette (@raguillem) November 18, 2015
Bernie Sanders, in his attempts to politicize climate science, has never heard of Hume's "is-ought" problem. A theory is bound by evidence.
— Ronald Guillemette (@raguillem) November 18, 2015
Bernie Sanders pretends that he's Robin Hood, but he's tax collector for the ruling class, the Sheriff of Nottingham.https://t.co/UiGnGLpdzS
— Ronald Guillemette (@raguillem) November 18, 2015
Image of the Day
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| Our shameful response to Jewish immigrants before/during WWII Courtesy of Jeffrey Tucker |
The only new poll I've seen since last week is Sunday's somewhat anomaly NH poll which saw Trump surging to a 17-point lead from a 2-point lead in the prior poll, with Carson's support collapsing by half to his lowest numbers since August, falling after 4 other candidates. I am somewhat skeptical about this poll for a number of reasons. It's not that I'm in a state of denial about Trump--it's just that I have not seen Carson's numbers comparably slump elsewhere and I can't point to any recent event that could explain the slump--plus Carson has been almost continuously in double-digits in NH polls since August. I don't think the last couple of debates have helped Trump at all; it's possible that he got a temporary bounce from his SNL appearance a week back. But his SNL appearance was a one-off event, so I expect any momentum would dissipate over the next 2-3 weeks.
While I was writing the last paragraph, I refreshed RCP's most recent poll data and found a Virginia poll which flips the last poll around the start of October, with Carson at nearly 30 with a 5-point point lead over Trump. Once, again, Rubio and Cruz follow a distant third and fourth, barely in double-digits.
A couple of polling related points. First, I did take a brief look at the Reuters poll that Drudge is hyping, and it's based on very thin sampling. The standard error is much larger than for your typical poll. And that's without knowing how they are sampling. I would not rely on it.
Second, the LR blog has been making a big deal out the technology (i.e., robocalling) behind a number of polls covered at RCP (realclearpolitics). I have not researched this point in depth, but I am skeptical of a theory that suggests a disparate effect on the supporters of any candidate(s).
Finally, a late headline: Bobby Jindal has become the third (sitting or former) governor to abandon the 2016 GOP race (following Perry and Walker). There was a time about 5-6 years back when I would have enthusiastically backed a Jindal candidacy. However, over the past few weeks, other than some amusing anti-Trump spots, I found myself disagreeing with almost everything coming out of his mouth.I have seen him come up to nearly 5% in some polls, but he never graduated to the big boys' table during the 4 GOP debates and no real path to the nomination
Fed Reserve Doesn't Want an Audit
Political Humor
Facebook Corner
Let's take (2) first. The libertarian position is unambiguous: the freedom to migrate is fundamental. Your property rights are specific and limited, e.g., if a stream runs through your property and onto mine, you do not have the right to pollute it; if your property surrounds mine, you cannot deny me access to and from my property. Now there are certain contexts you might resist migration, e.g., an invasion or to halt spread of a contagious dissease. (I am well aware that Rothbard flipped from a traditional support for migration, and there are others like Hoppe, but almost every free market economist I know supports open borders: it is truly bizarre for a libertarian to trust the State on restricting natural rights.)
The Catholic position is clear from many perspectives, but consider Christ's final instructions to go and spread the Good News to all the peoples, beyond Israel. Most of the apostles were executed or exiled away from Israel. There's the infamous story of Jesus, who went through Samaria, at a time where the Jews and Samaritans did not get along, and the Samaritan woman at the well. Not to mention the Exodus itself and the migration of the Israelites from Egypt. And the very nature of Christ's itinerary as a teacher moving from town to town, with accommodations for Him and His followers, including His accommodations during the Passover of His Passion.
Do the two conflict? I think that Catholicism goes beyond recognizing the natural right to migrate, although I would argue that Catholicism does recognize natural rights and the importance of free will. Christ calls us to a higher moral order, of responding to the image of God in all His children
Libertarian Catholic Lew Rockwell I think has the best response:
The closed-border libertarians are libertarians in name only. I've heard their bullshit arguments and don't buy it whatsoever. A classical example is if I buy land and someone else buys land surrounding it. That other person does not have a right to prohibit me from migrating to or from my propertty; he de facto would be imprisoning me.
(Lew Rockwell). Writes Helmholz Watson:
Friday’s terrorist attack has really frightened me. I see months of increasing tension coupled with hawkish voices being given expanded platforms. A day dream I cannot shake is that Ron Paul reenters the race. He may be older, but he is clearly more alive than so many of the other candidates. His campaigning can be limited to debates, interviews, occasional speeches, and his various media platforms.
The country was not ready for Ron Paul in 2008. His presence and influence was much more apparent in 2012 — can you imagine the reaction he would get now?
The reality is that Rand Paul was running in the mid-teens--better than his Dad's 10-11% against a weaker field in Romney, Santorum and Gingrich--when the Trump circus rolled into town and basically grabbed almost two-thirds of Rand's support. Yet Paul and Trump advocate very different policies.
The problem is that the limited government mantra during the Tea Party uprising has dissipated. Even simple goals like ending the NSA metadata program, auditing the Fed, and ending Ex-Im are doubtful, never mind budget cuts beyond a nominal sequester. People don't see adverse effects from Fed activities, a bloated national debt, Ponzi scheme entitlements. The GOP candidates are barely discussing ObamaCare and Dodd-Frank. Instead, they are obsessed by immigration, even though unauthorized immigrants are down since 2007.
I'm a Rand Paul supporter, although his moves on immigration, trade, and ISIS violate my libertarian-conservative views. I just don't think the people are ready to embrace austerity until the facts on the ground dictate a change in policy. We may need to bide our time until 2020.
Entertainment Potpourri: Holiday Movies Are Back
Hallmark Channel started its annual tradition of recycling its mix of mostly recent cable movies around Halloween weekend. (It runs them around the clock except for a 4-hour block around midday when it runs some original daily programming.) It has also been debuting a couple of new cable holiday movies every weekend. It looks like Lifetime started running some today and will continue over the weekend.
One of the problems I have with Hallmark's schedule is that it runs groups of movies on heavy rotation. I've listed some of my favorites in past posts which I believe are tagged; I don't really care for the Santa Claus fantasies (the Kathy Ireland and Santa Jr. ones I find particularly annoying) And 101 different takes on 'A Christmas Carol' are boring. There are a couple of tolerable romances involving Santa's daughter and an elf. Some of the new flicks are interesting but nothing remarkable to date--for instance, one seemed to be a Christmas theme variation of 'Liar! Liar!'. I haven't seen 'Farewell, Mr. Kringle' or 'A Christmas Visitor'. I would also like to see classic Christimas movies in the mix ('White Christmas', 'Miracle on 34th St.', 'It's a Wonderful Life', etc.) I know NBC has some licensing deal on the last movie cited. I think a mix would be healthier and I would do less channel surfing.
I've probably mentioned in the past that I don't like the subtle anti-capitalist or politically correct subplots. For example, in one movie, the son in a homebuilder concern wants to build green homes, opposed by his traditional brother. In numerous movies, the business owner is portrayed as a business obsessed, greedy, dishonest tightwad, unfair and exploiting his employees, a tyrannical, emotionally unattached, absentee, negligent father, etc.
I am a creative writer by hobby, and I'm obviously not going to outline my writing projects in my free blog, but let me hint I think there is a market for Horatio Alger/social mobility style uplifting stories, some Bastiat-style free market parables. I also never cared for a mythical, judgmental, creepy Santa Claus rewarding kids for doing the right thing
Political Cartoon
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| Courtesy of Bob Gorrell via Townhall |
Aretha Franklin, "Spanish Harlem"
