God. Real. Right.

Someone e-mailed me this picture with the caption, redneck seafood. Since I now have less than half-inch hair, I believe I can use the word “redneck” with some impunity. And I must admit, the appearance is better than the traditional “tube steak” look.
The auto industry is tube steak. Congress is playing chef. The loans are precise slices in the “meat”. Political posturing is the presentation. Free market forces are the unchanging reality within which everything is taking place.
Now remind me: after all the cutting and renaming is done, what’s the auto industry again?

Intercollegiate Studies Institute has posted an online civics/history quiz. You can access it by following the link from here.
Here’s the challenge as they offer it:

Are you more knowledgeable than the average citizen? The average score for all 2,508 Americans taking the following test was 49%; college educators scored 55%. Can you do better? Questions were drawn from past ISI surveys, as well as other nationally recognized exams.

I’d love to know how you did.

The following paradox is certainly not the only one facing American culture, nor is it the only one contributing to the divisiveness apparent in almost every aspect of that culture. But it is a huge one, perhaps even the most deep-seated and influentially pervasive of all. In a nutshell, the problem is that the enlightenment (in more generic Western terms) and America (more specifically) are based on a commitment to individualism and to improving the human condition. Is the inherent contradiction not obvious?

• Rising Personal Liberty

One of the most basic underlying concepts which motivated the Enlightenment is a high opinion of human nature: the belief that

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Here is a link to the Free Market Voters’ Guide with information about candidates for the federal and Texas State positions which will be decided in the upcoming elections and their responses to critical issues like abortion, marriage, troop withdrawal, and borders. Be informed!
Thanks, Christopher from Vernon, for the link.

I received this e-mail from a listener. It’s worth sharing as is:

Hello Barry!
I’d like to add my comments to your show today. I believe there are several reasons Republicans are behind in the polls :
1.) Historical Perception regarding democrat party: The phenomenon an analyst on your show pointed out a while back… that being “if the economy goes bad, people will forsake their values and run back to the party they think will take care of them”.
This was exactly the thought expressed by caller…who said she believes in the Christian values upheld by candidates for the Republican party but can justify supporting those who stand opposed to those values because she wants to eat and pay her bills. Therefore she will support Obama and the democrats because of her feeling that they represent the group that will best look out for her. She falls back on the idea that “democrats look out for the little guy”, etc.
During her comments, she indicates something to the effect that

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The closer an election, the greater the shallow promises intended to convince a few more voters toward one side or the other. Since by definition the majority of people are not wealthy, many of those shallow promises are aimed at the middle class and lower. “We will not raise taxes (or we will lower taxes) for anyone making less than $xxxx.” But promises are not the only way to win a middle-class heart. There are also attacks on a minority, in this case the wicked people who make more money than they do. “Greedy corporate executives have abused the free market and they ought to be punished.” Never mind that it is not greed, but the success at acting on their greed which actually aggravates the critic’s audience. That is, there is no political bounty to be had by attacking those who are greedy but fail to gain wealth through it: only those whose greed brings them wealth face the criticism, revealing the hypocrisy of a criticism motivated more by its disdain for wealth (or even profit) than for greed.
But back to the point: even a cursory analysis of those attacks extrudes Read the rest of this entry »

This odd UPI story provides a nice metaphor for the financial and economic plight Americans find themselves facing this week. Here’s the story:

COVE, England, Sept. 30 (UPI) — Firefighters in Cove, England, said they were called to rescue an iguana trapped 45 feet up in a tree only to find the alleged lizard was a green branch.
An animal rescue officer and an aerial ladder platform team from the fire department were called to the scene by Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals officers, who received calls from residents about a stranded lizard, The Sun reported.
Colin Horwood, the animal rescue officer, said the rescuers made it about 25 feet up on the ladder before they realized the reported distressed lizard was nothing more than a green branch.
“The branch bore a striking resemblance to an iguana from the ground,” Horwood said.

So Americans look up into the economy and see an imperiled creature. (Don’t go the wrong direction for the analogy. The iguana-like branch is not Read the rest of this entry »

The same issue about economics and the free market arose about oil prices, and is discussed in this previous post.
The ideas are simple. But apparently, not very many people have thought of them lately. So here’s a very brief reminder of a very basic concept for as very many people as will read it.
Money is not real. It simply stands for something else. It is not edible, for instance; and even if it were, it would not be edible as money, but instead as whatever composes or materially represents the money. It does not buy or warm houses, invent new products, cure diseases, or entertain anyone. (Neither is it a spirit, for dualists otherwise unsatisfied by my sample list.)
But even when people acknowledge that obvious fact, they tend to think that it stands for the wrong thing. That is, they think the amount Read the rest of this entry »