Category Archives: government, law, and politics

Heroic Disappointment

John McCain went on Leno last night. In reference to a recent gaffe, when McCain couldn’t remember how many houses he owns, Jay asked him, “How many houses do you have?”

Everybody knows that John McCain was a prisoner of war, that he suffered more than five years of imprisonment. Most people, even those who serve in the military, do not experience such terrible things in service to their nation, and McCain certainly deserves respect for what he gave.

But when he responded to Jay Leno last night, he turned that awful time in his life into a trite dodge:

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Fun Poster

This poster is awesome. Okay, yeah, Lincoln, Jefferson, and Franklin probably were not thorough atheists, but they certainly had the fortitude to reject religious claims based on their own reasoned analysis. Darwin probably wouldn’t classify as a thorough atheist either, but he recognized the value of skepticism, too.

Good enough for these idiots.

The lesson to take is that you don’t have to fall lock-step into any religious tradition to be a great person or do great things. Exercise your own mind and never underestimate your own ability to see through the lies of others, even when they tell them forcefully, with great conviction. And watch out, because you might be lying to yourself, too.

Found via Pharyngula.

The Current State of My Political Philosophy

I believe that the government that governs best governs least, but I would not call myself a through-and-through, principled libertarian. I’d prefer that the federal government be severely limited in its powers. Generally, I believe that governmental powers should be no greater than inversely proportional to a government’s scope. I believe such a notion is compatible with subsidiarity.

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As If Traveling Weren’t Bad Enough Already

The Department of Homeland Security is looking into requiring all airline passengers to wear a special bracelet that would allow the crew of a plane to cause an “electro-muscular disruption” (EMD) to immobilize disorderly passengers.

What about people with pacemakers? What about the small percentage of people with undiscovered conditions who may be killed by such a device? And who decides the sufficient level of disorderliness to justify the use of EMD? What about particularly paranoid airline crews? What happens if somebody is immobilized and mass hysteria breaks out among the paranoid passengers, who then beat the living daylights out of the immobilized person, causing severe injuries or even death? And if you’re worried about terrorists on airplanes, does this just invite them to figure out a way to immobilize people easily to avoid another one of those “Let’s roll” incidents?

As the legal threshold for government detainment and infliction of force against citizens seems to be falling, things like this do not bode well for freedom.

Buncha Whiners

So Phil Gramm, who supports John McCain in November, says, “We have sort of become a nation of whiners.”

A good response from John McCain would have been something like, “Damn straight! And it’s time to wean the American people from their dependence on the government, restore their civil liberties, get them back in the driver’s seat, and foster individual responsibility, independence, and innovation!”

Instead, McCain’s campaign just illustrated Gramm’s point with a whiny response:

John McCain travels the country every day talking to Americans who are hurting, feeling pain at the pump and worrying about how they’ll pay their mortgage. That’s why he has a realistic plan to deliver immediate relief at the gas pump, grow our economy, and put Americans back to work.

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