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ors stealing from the residents and restricting liberty the situation becomes very bad with corruption poverty and economic decline so you hope to clean it up by calling for the mafia gang to get more power this is an error there is a matter of luck at play our military has enormous power yet it is full of honorable people just by our good luck our government has a fair amount of honorable people in it but not nearly enough to counterbalance the dishonorable ones if you empower a government body you better be lucky enough to have that body peopled by honorable men in the case of government outside of the military you aren t so lucky stop making this mistake your luck isn t going to change the founding fathers wanted government to be restricted hog tied and severely limited to enumerated powers so it couldn t wreak havoc of the kind it is wreaking now 200 years later they knew we wouldn t be lucky they knew there would be corruption please try to revisit this vision of government it is correct the progressive vision the vision driving american federal and state government for the last 100 years is an error please try to give up on the but if we just reflex which drives you to suppose that there are governmental solutions to this problem these solutions are 2000 page bills that feed the parasite that is killing you the choice is small limited government or big unlimited government there is no third way big unlimited government isn t the solution it s the problem if you can t see this you ll keep making the same error over and over again please reconsider the founding fathers vision posted by jim ryan at 11 01 am tuesday october 04 2011 social contract the left is talking about social contract the idea is that the rich didn t really earn their money alone they earned it partly because they relied on workers and the government so they should to give a lot more of the money to the government than they already do and the government will distribute the funds to the workers in the form of welfare payments unfortunately this argument works for the non rich too they have houses and cars they got these in part because there is a government and because there are rich people therefore they need to give a lot more of their wealth to the government which will give it to the rich indeed the argument is more robust when it runs in this direction because the non rich contribute very little to tax revenue while the rich account for almost all of it the argument if sound shows that the rich are exploiters of the non rich and the non rich are freeloaders indeed it shows that both groups should pay far more in taxes than they do now so the argument isn t sound what went wrong the argument is based on the idea that since an individual earns wealth in a social group if it s a lot he owes more of that wealth to the group than he has already paid back to it always more he always owes more what s a lot who knows the poor have houses hvac and cars that s a lot the premise is barely cogent let alone a good basis for an argument but when uttered emotionally by candidate the u s senate such as elizabeth warren it inspires voters i m sure she will win because massachusetts residents will be moved by her emoting in the hands of gates and others it has inspired youngsters to occupy wall street and gripe about rich bankers global warming and genetically engineered food it s poppycock what would a good social contract require its justice would require that every adult who can work pay the same absolute amount in taxes since everyone is equal and everyone commonly enjoys the protections of government everyone should pay the same absolute amount not only is progressive taxation unfair to the rich but even a flat tax is unfair the amounts paid in taxes by each individual should be absolutely the same there are two caveats to this principle first we may require a government that is too costly to be born if we stick closely to this principle of taxation so we may need to increase the tax requirements on the wealthy just enough to support a functioning government this is a just caveat if we cannot in fact have a society without these increased payments second a good social contract requires that when innocents fall into dire straits through no fault of their own their fellows family members of their community or the government as an instrument of the latter come to their aid when it is reasonable to do so yet this caveat may itself have a caveat that charity should not be entrusted to the government but left in private hands so this caveat does not by itself support the view that a good social contract requires a welfare state in any event a reasonable concept of social contract implies limits on governmental power when you have an unreasonable concept of social contract you tend to overlook the wisdom of these limits posted by jim ryan at 9 42 am monday april 25 2011 imagination take account of the plethora of opportunities available to you use your imagination the liberty to be oneself is of unsurpassed preciousness what threatens it is big government criminals poverty war and similarly debilitating conditions in which a person or circumstances rule over a person making him unable to fulfill himself in his life this liberty is a crown jewel in western political theory it is an object of devotion in the eyes of the american constitution imagination is funny but a liberty from governmental criminal and poverty induced regimes of behavior are its siblings they thrive together one discovers a course for one s life which is among the best things one can do with one s liberty in view of one s preferences talents and circumstances there is something deeply human and personal about the value of liberty even though liberty itself is a pretty starkly simple concept the free human spirit loves the imagination it makes clear for that spirit which paths make sense imagination sees how things fit together under various scenarios so that we can judge which path to prefer it should go without saying that logic and empirical evidence are also important in choosing a path of action or way of life but imagination lets you see it is like the illustrations figures photos and other visual bits in a book only it s not limited to the visual faculty alone you need to think through your own talents and where they might lead what do you have to offer that people need see whether you can imagine it what would you prefer to do over the course of you life see whether you can imagine that as well in each case you need facts about people inferential powers and the imagination to project a way of dealing appropriately with the former there should be no holding you back if you can only get a good hold of yourself in that place where you love yourself and feel powerful enough to be yourself splendidly because the circumstances are such that you are free this is the key blessing of the american political system the american people could cease to care about this only if they forget forget this don t forget it dig deep within yourself you have a reservoir of talents and intelligence and drive to tap into you must protect the political circumstances which protect your free exercise of the right to do so kkeep close tabs on the facts about human beings and yourself in particular and the facts about your circumstances see whether you can understand human nature generally and also your particular character and circumstances the american dream is closely tied to reality it is not unmoored but free posted by jim ryan at 12 10 am monday february 21 2011 the term right i m thinking of the political noun such as it is not the moral adjective which we use to describe actions the political noun is rubbish at this point the term has been perverted through long use of a certain type namely to denote the competitor to the leftist using the therm this competitor could be law and order societies stamping down on the leftist s goal of disorder or violent revolution or it could be a another leftist organization competing for power with that of the speaker it could be some people whom the leftist has targeted for plunder it is in these ways a speaker relative term where the speaker is a leftist what semantic connection it may have had to conservatism is now well trodden under by ambiguity it s a severe ambiguity with occasional incoherence between my competitor and conservative it puts hitler in with the set of conservatives which demonstrates that its shared meaning is absurd it is now a semantically broken term and may as well be abandoned posted by jim ryan at 1 06 am friday november 26 2010 scott lafaro 1961 if you are interested in traveling to the site of lafaro s death on the 50th anniversary of the tragedy july 6 2011 please contact me via email see my blogger profile for email address it would be good to pay tribute lafaro changed jazz bass playing before he died at 25 through his innovation he made my life as a bass player immeasurably better i can hear the melodies and harmonies that i want to play and i can play them because he showed me how the least i can do is to lay some flowers at the site of the accident posted by jim ryan at 5 28 pm saturday november 20 2010 leftist dogma and its derangements the left loses every time on philosophical principles and on historical and economic facts this is why they usually offer nothing more than imaginative and deranged expressions of antipathy towards conservatism they can t disprove that man has unalienable rights to liberty and property they can t disprove that big government devolves into wasteful kleptocratic bureaucracy they can t disprove that some ways of life are better and others worse because these things are demonstrably true and yet the falsehood of these truisms is the core of leftist dogma if the core of your dogma were demonstrably false and yet you were unfailingly committed to it you would be deranged too posted by jim ryan at 8 54 am sunday november 07 2010 crap you believe you actually believe this stuff fdr ended the great depression with extensive regulation and high spending democrats care about the poor and non whites not corporations republicans care about corporations not the poor or non whites if you tax at lower rates you get less revenue if you raise taxes you get more revenue republicans are the party of no they have no policy ideas democrats pushed the civil rights act through against republican opposition barack obama is an intellectual who is very smart the democrats under reid pelosi and obama saved us from sliding into a depression the evidence is that they said so that unemployment skyrocketed after their stimulus program which they promised would reduce unemployment is not evidence to the contrary social security and medicare are great programs not ponzi schemes they just need to be funded properly with higher taxes on the wealthy the democrats spending will get us out of the recession it s several trillion and it s been two years with no results but we need to be patient it is not the case that the secretary of the treasury said this in 1939 we have tried spending money we are spending more than we have ever spent before and it does not work i want to see this country prosperous i want to see people get a job i want to see people get enough to eat we have never made good on our promises after eight years of this administration we have just as much unemployment as when we started and an enormous debt to boot you actually believe all that crap what the hell is the matter with you posted by jim ryan at 11 04 am friday november 05 2010 leftism you re a leftist not a liberal liberalism died 100 years ago leftism is not so much a political philosophy as psychological attitude composed of a contempt for the poor and a hatred for conservatives this is why it flourishes unencumbered by the facts of history and economics and by the lack of philosophical basis cf the conspicuous failure of rawls s attempt at proof why would someone embrace such an impoverished political stance because of his discontent with himself his lack of love for himself and his envy of certain others those who love themselves and flourish in this world as it is for someone who is lost in these ways leftism provides an immediate semblance of complete moral redemption the sickness the contempt for the poor and hatred of conservatives become sanctioned as the very redemption of the lost soul the substance of his righteousness they disguise themselves as pity and compassion for the poor and righteous moral indignation for conservatives thus becoming psychologically almost impossible to overcome this is why we have old foolish leftists in their 50 s and 60 s or older pathetically oblivious to their deplorable situation the poor become the tools of the leftist s political designs the conservatives his political enemies if he is smart or ruthless he will become one of the powerful if neither smart nor ruthless he will become one of their useful idiots posted by jim ryan at 5 13 pm wednesday november 03 2010 the patient stirs the patient is in a stupor the victim of a malicious poisoning he tries to wake up his only chance at survival stirring he opens his eyes glazed pleading panicked a fire burning deeply in each one yet only partially focused on what lies before them a leg jerks a hand grasps some sounds are heard sincere and urgent yet garbled and muddled the eyelids narrow once more the pupils still gazing out from between them the poison courses through the veins toward the heart half of the body still accepting at peace it won t be long the throat emits moans a fist clenches the chest strains posted by jim ryan at 10 10 am monday october 04 2010 kekes on the human condition ii your well being depends upon fulfilling the values you hold dear and this fulfillment depends upon your being in control of yourself you must correct the beliefs motives and emotions which do not map appropriately to this set of values this is the control of yourself which you must have of course mistakes will be made you might change attitudes in a direction from bad to worse such as when you move from over eagerness about an endeavor that was good for you to depressive dejection about it and a mistaken belief that it is not worthwhile or possible for you kekes raises the point that the ways of self control are too varied to be distilled into one summary gist in this regard kinds of compatibilism other than his are mistaken for ignoring the variation in beliefs emotions and motives which are the objects of self control also libertarianism is mistaken for denying that there is a satisfactory sense of self control that does not appeal to a transcendence of the natural world and its laws hard determinists are incorrect in denying the reality of self control kekes tries in this way to carve out a unique approach to the issue of the age old question of free will there are peculiarities...