#CocaineMitch wins again!
Friday, June 28, 2019
Thursday, June 27, 2019
Briefly...
The previously mentioned planned addition to an old archival weblog{1} was made
yesterday and that weblog was then returned to its prior indefinite suspension in perpetuity.
All things to the contrary notwithstanding.
Note:
{1} Briefly (circa June 24, 2019)
The previously mentioned planned addition to an old archival weblog{1} was made
yesterday and that weblog was then returned to its prior indefinite suspension in perpetuity.
All things to the contrary notwithstanding.
Note:
{1} Briefly (circa June 24, 2019)
Tuesday, June 25, 2019
Monday, June 24, 2019
Briefly...
In the interest of fairness, I briefly unsuspended an old archival weblog to make a few updates. I have in mind making one more posting to that old site before returning it to indefinite suspension in perpetuity.
In the interest of fairness, I briefly unsuspended an old archival weblog to make a few updates. I have in mind making one more posting to that old site before returning it to indefinite suspension in perpetuity.
Saturday, June 22, 2019
7-2: SCOTUS Rules “Peace Cross” Can Remain On Public Land
This was an unsurprising 7-2 ruling but nice to see nonetheless!
This was an unsurprising 7-2 ruling but nice to see nonetheless!
Wednesday, June 19, 2019
Points to Ponder:
So many letters to the editor and comments on the Internet have this…tone of thrilled vindication: these are people who have been vigilantly on the lookout for something to be offended by, and found it…Obviously, some part of us loves feeling 1) right and 2) wronged. But outrage is like a lot of other things that feel good but, over time, devour us from the inside out. Except it’s even more insidious than most vices because we don’t even consciously acknowledge that it’s a pleasure.
We prefer to think of it as a disagreeable but fundamentally healthy reaction to negative stimuli, like pain or nausea, rather than admit that it’s a shameful kick we eagerly indulge again and again…(It is) outrage porn, selected specifically to pander to our impulse to judge and punish, to get us off on righteous indignation. [Tim Kreider]
So many letters to the editor and comments on the Internet have this…tone of thrilled vindication: these are people who have been vigilantly on the lookout for something to be offended by, and found it…Obviously, some part of us loves feeling 1) right and 2) wronged. But outrage is like a lot of other things that feel good but, over time, devour us from the inside out. Except it’s even more insidious than most vices because we don’t even consciously acknowledge that it’s a pleasure.
We prefer to think of it as a disagreeable but fundamentally healthy reaction to negative stimuli, like pain or nausea, rather than admit that it’s a shameful kick we eagerly indulge again and again…(It is) outrage porn, selected specifically to pander to our impulse to judge and punish, to get us off on righteous indignation. [Tim Kreider]
Tuesday, June 18, 2019
Buttigieg's Money Quest Shadowed by Donor's Saudi Ties
Alfred E. Neumann was not going to be nominated anyway (let alone elected!) but the chutzpah he shows here should be chum for the waters of the upcoming Democratic candidates debate.
Thursday, June 13, 2019
Points to Ponder:
Many of the things we hold to be self-evident truths will look silly or obnoxious a hundred years from now. No doubt some of those being chased out of public life in our time will be regarded by our grandchildren as heros and martyrs. So it has always been in past times, at any rate. Let's use some historical imagination. Our own age is not the summit and end point of all human understanding. In many respects it is a stupid and frivolous age. [John Derbyshire]
Many of the things we hold to be self-evident truths will look silly or obnoxious a hundred years from now. No doubt some of those being chased out of public life in our time will be regarded by our grandchildren as heros and martyrs. So it has always been in past times, at any rate. Let's use some historical imagination. Our own age is not the summit and end point of all human understanding. In many respects it is a stupid and frivolous age. [John Derbyshire]
Wednesday, June 12, 2019
Today is the 18th anniversary of the passing of my father Richard Dunn McElhinney. If readers could offer some prayers for the eternal repose of his soul, I would appreciate it.
Eternal rest grant unto his soul oh Lord and may thy perpetual light shine upon him...May his soul and all the souls of the faithfully departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace. Amen.
Eternal rest grant unto his soul oh Lord and may thy perpetual light shine upon him...May his soul and all the souls of the faithfully departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace. Amen.
Wednesday, June 05, 2019
Briefly...
In doing an archive search for something from 2004{1}, I stumbled across a brief miscellaneous musing from that time that expressed an opinion I no longer recognized as my own. Here is that thread:
Briefly on the Unconstitutionality of Brown vs. Board of Education, Etc.
An inevitability that one runs across when they muse and write on subjects over a span of time is that from time to time, they will discover that they have changed their view on some issues. I noted last year this phenomenon when trying to pinpoint exactly when my view changed on another particular political issue{2} after a similar archival discovery. On the above issue however, it is not to my knowledge a subject I have explicitly discussed at any other time. For that reason, a similar pinpointing of when my position changed would be very difficult to do.{3}
If I was to summarize the substance of my current view on the matter; it would essentially be in a macro sense{4} the fundamentals of Judge John Marshall Harlan's dissent in Plessy v Ferguson: a ruling which indirectly informed the majority decision of Brown v Board of Education.
I note these things at the present time in the interest of both accuracy and fairness. And though I have no intention of delving into this matter in the foreseeable future; if I do, it will be from a different application of the foundational presuppositions that I have operated from throughout the lions share of my adult life.
But enough on that for now.
Notes:
{1} On a matter totally unrelated to the content of this posting.
{2} On the Changing of One's Positions (circa January 31, 2018)
{3} And quite likely impossible to do based only on perusing this site's archives.
{4} I say in a macro sense because there are some particulars to Justice Harlan's dissent which I do not concur with.
In doing an archive search for something from 2004{1}, I stumbled across a brief miscellaneous musing from that time that expressed an opinion I no longer recognized as my own. Here is that thread:
Briefly on the Unconstitutionality of Brown vs. Board of Education, Etc.
An inevitability that one runs across when they muse and write on subjects over a span of time is that from time to time, they will discover that they have changed their view on some issues. I noted last year this phenomenon when trying to pinpoint exactly when my view changed on another particular political issue{2} after a similar archival discovery. On the above issue however, it is not to my knowledge a subject I have explicitly discussed at any other time. For that reason, a similar pinpointing of when my position changed would be very difficult to do.{3}
If I was to summarize the substance of my current view on the matter; it would essentially be in a macro sense{4} the fundamentals of Judge John Marshall Harlan's dissent in Plessy v Ferguson: a ruling which indirectly informed the majority decision of Brown v Board of Education.
I note these things at the present time in the interest of both accuracy and fairness. And though I have no intention of delving into this matter in the foreseeable future; if I do, it will be from a different application of the foundational presuppositions that I have operated from throughout the lions share of my adult life.
But enough on that for now.
Notes:
{2} On the Changing of One's Positions (circa January 31, 2018)
{3} And quite likely impossible to do based only on perusing this site's archives.
{4} I say in a macro sense because there are some particulars to Justice Harlan's dissent which I do not concur with.
Tuesday, June 04, 2019
Points to Ponder:
The world runs on individuals pursuing their separate interests. The great achievements of civilization have not come from government bureaus. Einstein didn’t construct his theory under order from a bureaucrat. Henry Ford didn’t revolutionize the automobile industry that way. In the only cases in which the masses have escaped from the kind of grinding poverty you’re talking about, the only cases in recorded history, are where they have had capitalism and largely free trade. If you want to know where the masses are worse off, worst off, it’s exactly in the kinds of societies that depart from that. So that the record of history is absolutely crystal clear, that there is no alternative way so far discovered of improving the lot of the ordinary people that can hold a candle to the productive activities that are unleashed by the free-enterprise system. [Milton Friedman]
The world runs on individuals pursuing their separate interests. The great achievements of civilization have not come from government bureaus. Einstein didn’t construct his theory under order from a bureaucrat. Henry Ford didn’t revolutionize the automobile industry that way. In the only cases in which the masses have escaped from the kind of grinding poverty you’re talking about, the only cases in recorded history, are where they have had capitalism and largely free trade. If you want to know where the masses are worse off, worst off, it’s exactly in the kinds of societies that depart from that. So that the record of history is absolutely crystal clear, that there is no alternative way so far discovered of improving the lot of the ordinary people that can hold a candle to the productive activities that are unleashed by the free-enterprise system. [Milton Friedman]
Friday, May 31, 2019
Points to Ponder:
[W]hat I observed [with other people] was abject conformity and the desperate desire for the safety of will-less passivity. Not passivity of the body, but passivity of the mind…They were either unwilling or unable to think beyond the confines established by the pack…They lead blighted lives, bereft of any interest in science, philosophy, morality or art… They were merely passing through existence, as cultural ballast, individuals that never looked up, held nothing sacred; while I and others seeking to achieve the ideal were righteously doing what truly, in logic and reality, was of fundamental importance. [Mike Mentzer]
[W]hat I observed [with other people] was abject conformity and the desperate desire for the safety of will-less passivity. Not passivity of the body, but passivity of the mind…They were either unwilling or unable to think beyond the confines established by the pack…They lead blighted lives, bereft of any interest in science, philosophy, morality or art… They were merely passing through existence, as cultural ballast, individuals that never looked up, held nothing sacred; while I and others seeking to achieve the ideal were righteously doing what truly, in logic and reality, was of fundamental importance. [Mike Mentzer]
Thursday, May 30, 2019
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)