- I’ve reviewed the instant replay, and it’s strike 3.
- Justice Samuel Alito, Burkean.
- Shhhh! Don’t say “death panels!”
- It’s going to be a long decade for _______.
- Europe may be broke, but it’s got style.
- Philly gets a new star.
- Flash! Unsigned NYT Lead Editorial May Be Right!
Category: State capitalism
We have little of any pure free market. Much of what private business interests laud as “free markets” is a regulatory state where business manipulates regulators, tax credits and the like – i.e., State capitalism.
Tasty Tidbits 7/7/11
Here’s today’s Tasty Tidbits I’ve thought worth memorializing. Orthodoxen in particular might want to read item 6, which links to a post at the Orthodoxy at Purdue blog (which also appears on the St. Alexis website’s homepage):
- I’m ballast (but please don’t throw me over if it gets stormy).
- “… it’s probably you.”
- Cecilia Bartoli.
- Debut of the Journal of Christian Legal Thought.
- The Strong One(s).
- Three excellent AFR Podcasts.
- A perceptive Orthodox podcast on economics.
- A different take on Mormon electoral odds Continue reading “Tasty Tidbits 7/7/11”
Tasty Tidbits 7/5/11
Here’s some Tasty Tidbits for the day:
- Conservative conservatism calls out liberal conservatism.
- Crony capitalism and the complicit commentariat.
- James Howard Kunstler’s birthday card to America.
- Are we really free?
- John’s Curmudgeonly thoughts on our history.
- Who’s really totalitarian?
- Are we “defining” or “banning”?
- What does barbecue tell us about race?
Daily Grab Bag
I’m going to try a little experiment to see if I can cease flooding Facebook with some of the intriguing things I read in the course of a day. So here’s today’s grab bag: Continue reading “Daily Grab Bag”
An interesting interview about Distributist economics
From Backyard RadTrad, a Traditionalist Catholic website, an mp3 interview on Distributist Economic thought with this sidebar: Continue reading “An interesting interview about Distributist economics”
The Finance “industry”
I’ve been obsessing a bit about plutocracy. “The American Interest” magazine’s current issue is devoted to the topic. Yet there are some oddities that give me pause. Continue reading “The Finance “industry””
Orthodox Economics (with a shame-faced eucharistic postscript)
I’m unlikely for years, if ever, to compose a better introductionto Distributism for Orthodox Christians (or others) than this article from the Orthodox Peace Fellowship . All the following quotes, accordingly, are from it unless otherwise noted.
“Capitalism immediately appeals to Americans, who value freedom above just about everything,” the article acknowledges But don’t expect me to bite my tongue about what I see of Emperor Capital’s new clothes. Continue reading “Orthodox Economics (with a shame-faced eucharistic postscript)”
American Civil Religion Redux
James Allen, a radio talk-show host and second- or third-tier columnist at Townhall.com, praises Glenn Beck as a “great leader” who has a “belief in a transcendent being called God.” I dissent and accuse Allen of suborning violations of the 1st Commandment. Continue reading “American Civil Religion Redux”
Plus ça change …*
Published in The Tablet (English, I think), Jan. 3, 1914, this reflection provocatively notes that all the bad things socialists are said to favor have been visited upon us by non-socialists. Continue reading “Plus ça change …*”
George Will’s Questions for Kagan
Why would nobody have the cajones to ask the questions George Will suggested Sunday and Monday?
Personal favorites (get a grip, Tipsy; not too many now!):
- If Congress decides that interstate commerce is substantially affected by the costs of obesity, may Congress require obese people to purchase participation in programs such as Weight Watchers? If not, why not?
- Can you name a human endeavor that Congress cannot regulate on the pretense that the endeavor affects interstate commerce? If courts reflexively defer to that congressional pretense, in what sense do we have limited government?
- The Fifth Amendment mandates “just compensation” when government uses its eminent domain power to take private property for “public use.” In its 2005 Kelo decision, the court said government can seize property for the “public use” of transferring it to wealthier private interests who will pay more taxes to the government. Do you agree?
- William Voegeli, contributing editor of the Claremont Review of Books, writes: “The astonishingly quick and complete transformation of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, from a law requiring all citizens be treated equally to a policy requiring that they be treated unequally, is one of the most audacious bait-and-switch operations in American political history.” Discuss.
- Regarding campaign finance “reforms”: If allowing the political class to write laws regulating the quantity, content and timing of speech about the political class is the solution, what is the problem?
- Incumbent legislators are constantly tinkering with the rules regulating campaigns that could cost them their jobs. Does this present an appearance of corruption?
- Justice Thurgood Marshall, for whom you clerked, said: “You do what you think is right and let the law catch up.” Can you defend this approach to judging?
- You have said: “There is no federal constitutional right to same-sex marriage.” But that depends on what the meaning of “is” is. There was no constitutional right to abortion until the court discovered one 185 years after the Constitution was ratified, when the right was spotted lurking in emanations of penumbras of other rights. What is to prevent the court from similarly discovering a right to same-sex marriage?
- Bonus question: In Roe v. Wade, the court held that the abortion right is different in each of the three trimesters of pregnancy. Is it odd that the meaning of the Constitution’s text would be different if the number of months in the gestation of a human infant were a prime number?