Wow. It isn't over yet. I won't believe it until I see it, but please let this be true:
Rand Paul has expanded his lead in the Kentucky Senate race even further over the last week and is headed for a blowout win. His margin over Jack Conway is 55-40.
Here's a link to the PPP page. Scrolling down, it looks like the GOP really is headed for a landslide win. I hope this doesn't mean the electorate will go back to sleep.
Quotes are funny things. When engaged in a heated debate nothing makes you feel better than a good "zinger" from your favorite politician, philosopher, religious leader, athlete, etc. I use them all the time and I hear other people use them at least as often. In school there are specific rules on how/when you can/should quote someone as a support in your papers or debates. However, the trouble is rarely does it have as much influence on the person who's world you just rocked as it does yourself, unless the person is already on your side. Yet we still use them all the time and feel good about it...at least I do. Quotes are kinda like PSA's, they sound great but rarely does it ever inspire anyone to actually change. So with that in mind I will occasionally post a favorite quote under the heading RSE PSA (an admittedly lame attempt at some fun). Hopefully they can bring others as much satisfaction as they have brought me. ;-)
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"Government is not reason; it is not eloquence; it is force. Like fire, it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master."
Alexander Hamilton duelling with Aaron Burr who shot and mortally wounded Hamilton during their 1804 duel in Weehawken, New Jersey.
... Hamilton, despite his legitimate heroism in the cause of Independence, may have had the most pernicious influence of any political figure in our nation's history.
Nearly all of the salient traits of the modern Leviathan State headquartered in Washington -- the imperial presidency, judicial activism, the Federal Reserve System's institutionalized counterfeiting and fraud, the ever-metastasizing government debt, the ever-expanding ranks of tax-subsidized corporate welfare parasites, the reduction of the states to docile administrative units of a unitary regime -- were inspired by, and are the fulfillment of, Hamilton's designs.
Ever since Eric Parks drew my attention to Thomas DiLorenzo's "Hamilton's Curse," I meant to read the book. Unfortunately, I didn't get around to it. The below, excellent summary by the author seems to suggest that DiLorenzo has produced another masterpiece like How Capitalism Saved America, a mutual favourite of Eric's and mine:
This post has been inspired by comments on our recent post Ben's Reading List.
along with some others. Not sure why Whitman is on there - she's not really a TEA Party candidate, and she didn't really take the election away from an established force.
Wouldn't it be awesome if the Republicans could take the district that Rahm Emmanuel once represented? And wouldn't it be simply spectacular if that Republican was a real small government constitutional conservative?
It's always iffy endorsing candidates with no proven voting record, but I have absolutely no qualms about putting this name on our list. While I've never met Mr. Ratowitz, I worked side by side with lots of people that have. I have absolutely no doubt that David is the real deal.
There's only a few days left, it is now or never. If you live in or near Chicago, get off your couch and volunteer in his office for a couple of hours, If you can't do that, send him some money. Really - according to the WaPo link, Ratowitz had raised only $7,000 compared to the Democrat's $327,000.
Well let's jump right in and get controversial right off the bat, shall we?
I was fortunate enough to catch this interview last night and wanted to comment on it.
1) How did Spitzer parlay his disgraced political career into being a credible journalist? Only in America...
2) Yes, the dude is an extremist, but does he really sound all that different from any other person you know? Seriously, how many religious people do you known that DON'T want to spread their message? How many mainstream religions DON'T believe that someday their religion will rule the world? How many people do you know that DON'T think their religion is the answer to all of life's problems?
3) Why is it that the only time you hear talk in the media about why the U.S. is being targeted by "terrorists" it's always from someone who is immediately discredited? When are we going to have an honest discussion about what this guy was really trying to say? I lost count of the number of times he made the point that the U.S. is being targeted because they are and have been occupying Muslim lands. I say "an honest discussion" because yes, Spitzer did ask him if his religion deemed the events of 9/11 morally justifiable; however, when he tried to explain why, in his view, it was o.k. Spitzer kept cutting him off and wanted a yes/no response. Spitzer knows that a definite yes/no answer to a question with no pretext is open to interpretation...an interpretation that will be given or implied by the person who asked the question.
4) Piggybacking off of above: I want to play with Spitzer's question "is the attack on 9/11 morally justified by Islam?" So let's start with a bit of perspective, and maybe a bit of a role reversal for good measure. Most of us can admit (regardless of how justifiable one views it) that the United State's actions in the Middle East has cost that part of the world countless lives, and billions of dollars in health care costs, infrastructure damage, etc etc. Now let's reverse roles. Let's say that the U.S. was a "Muslim" country and that the Middle East was full of Christians but everything else is and has been the same (the death, destruction, etc). Christianity has historically believed in St. Thomas Aquinas's "just war theory" meaning that the only time you should use violence against others is if they are using violence against you...or defense. Now ask Spitzer's question again, "is the attack on 9/11 morally justified by Christianity?"
Is this exercise a bit simplistic, probably, but you get the point. It's not about the RELIGION attacking the U.S. it's about a whole group of people who feel they have been oppressed for generations rising up in defense of their way of life. We as a country need to stop framing this as a religious war and begin to examine our own role in contributing to the violence. Until that happens this will never end.
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"A just war exists when a people tries to ward off the threat of coercive domination by another people, or to overthrow an already-existing domination. A war is unjust, on the other hand, when a people try to impose domination on another people, or try to retain an already existing coercive rule over them." - Murray Rothbard
Ben (our very new blogger) is being deployed to Afghanistan and needs reading material for his nook. We need to provide him with tons of stuff to read so that he comes back much smarter than when he leaves. Our duty will be to provide a much more fertile ground for liberty for when he returns. Here are my selections:
Any Ayn Rand books: Favorites are Fountainhead and Anthem
Manhunt : The Lincoln Assassination
Peter and the Starcatchers series (kid books but fun and great for Jade when she's a little older)
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