God. Real. Right.

Post-moderns attempt to escape the narrow confines of a culture defined by the Enlightenment. That attempt includes moving from pure individualism to community, from propositional claims to narrative, from strict rationalism to contentment with inconsistency, from truth to authenticity, and from integrity to transparency. Every one of those moves is surrounded by dangerous cliffs overlooking jagged valley floors. But that discussion is for another day.

The point here is that by making those moves, post-moderns also end up embracing a type of community which is organic and emergent rather then artificially planned, engineered, and executed. There is something about post-modernity which expects the unexpected, and does not believe that air-tight solutions really have all the holes sealed up. So natural pressures and and the choices of individuals acting as part of a community within those pressures creatively emerge into solutions unforeseen by those living within strict rationalistic guidelines.

Interestingly, conservatives share exactly the (more…)

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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?

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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.

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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 (more…)

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Addressing the current financial sector crisis in America, President Bush made this remark:

I’m a strong believer in free enterprise, so my natural instinct is to oppose government intervention. I believe companies that make bad decisions should be allowed to go out of business.
Under normal circumstances, I would have followed this course. But these are not normal circumstances. The market is not functioning properly. There has been a widespread loss of confidence, and major sectors of America’s financial system are at risk of shutting down. [emphasis added]

The Market is not the problem.
The problem is that we don’t like some of the things the market does. We don’t like that the market makes the stuff we love very expensive and the stuff we don’t care about as cheap as dirt. We don’t like the fact that the market makes us put as much (more…)

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This week’s return to school has put back in the forefront the troubles facing many school districts and individual schools. The problems are defined in different ways by different parts of society, but all the symptoms point to poor performance. Students are not learning as they should. Two questions seem inseparable: why, and what to do. They seem inseparable, but they are not. Conventional thinking says that if the reason for poor performance can be discerned (why), then it can be addressed with this or that program or plan (what to do).
But, in fact, every explanation and accompanying solution appears to have failure built-in to it. If the problem (more…)

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There is no real law of unintended consequences. But there might as well be. Whenever people choose acts based on some desired result, they will not only get the desired result (maybe, that is) but also much more. They may or may not foresee it. They may or may not want it. But there will be a consequence, actually many, which they did not intend.
Some unintended consequences are happy, like telling a joke and stumbling into an extra pun in the process. Some seem malevolent, like running tests to avoid potential meltdowns at Chernobyl only to bring about the meltdown through the test. (Yes, that’s how it happened.) Some are simply ironic, often resulting in the opposite of what was intended, or an intensification of the problem which was supposed to be solved.
Such is the case with animal protection. In May U.S. Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne announced that polar bears were being added to the list of endangered species. Never mind that Russian, Alaskan, and Canadian populations (more…)

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If it is true that where there is smoke there is fire, it is also true that where smoke-bans are expanding, freedoms are burning.
Smoking is a terrible behavior. It is habit-forming. It stinks. It destroys health. It is obnoxious. It ought never to be done. For Christians, such a barrier-building behavior is inexcusable. But in a democracy it is not the government’s place to keep it from happening.
The Dallas Morning News reports that anti-smoking groups, the mayor, and several council members are pushing to expand already draconian restrictions on smoking in Dallas. The expanded ban would prevent smoking even in bars and taverns. People who disdain tobacco’s noxiousness and who do not visit bars and taverns anyway might be tempted to think they are unaffected (at least negatively) by the proposed ban. (more…)

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A Jerry Johnson Live broadcast from June 10, 2008: Some on issues at the SBC, some on the death of desabled human value advocate Harriet Johnson, and some on McCain, Obama, and congress trying to steal oil company profits.

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The Dallas Morning News reports that The Bridge, Dallas’ new multi-million dollar homeless shelter/social services center, is regularly seeing overflow crowds. Some interpret that (over-) use as a good thing–evidence that The Bridge was needed, and that it was worth the $21 million spent to build it.
Let’s be clear. (more…)

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