History and Eternity

“What shall pass from history into eternity? The human person with all its relations, such as friendship and love.”

-George Florovsky

Net Neutrality

Was talking with my cousin about this the other day.  I understand the threat posed by giant corporations, but agree with the FCC Chairman that “The entire predicate of government regulation should be that there is, or is highly likely to be, a fundamental market failure that warrants pre-emptive regulation...But there was no evidence of that in 2015. The hypothetical harms that were discussed were exactly that: hypothetical.”  And as the video notes, which set of giant corporations do you side with?  The ones for or against net neutrality?

Scare tactics intended to prompt us into supporting a larger government don't go with representative democracy.  If abuses happen (open to hearing of any that actually occurred prior to 27 months ago), we have the recourse of engaging the problem via the courts and our legislatures (i.e. the folks we vote in to pass laws, not the unelected administrators of the FCC). And the executive branch retains its ability to step in the event of sudden, acute abuses of the environment of 1993-2015.

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=10154722841689117&id=17548474116

Human Capital

I don't buy all of the author's thesis, but this is an interesting and thought-provoking read nonetheless...

https://aeon.co/essays/how-the-cold-war-led-the-cia-to-promote-human-capital-theory

Slow Withdrawal

This article makes an important point about the dangers of attempting to slash Federal spending rather than slowly reversing it with an eye towards rebuilding the local associations that have been withered by the encroaching state. Namely, cutting too quickly will create political backlash that results in further expansion of the government to "remedy" the impact of the hasty slashing​.  Some withdrawals cannot be done cold turkey...

To those who would say we can't afford to wait and that slashing is better than nothing,  I say: I may not have a better idea immediately at hand, but that doesn't make the anvil strapped to your back a good parachute.

http://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/the-danger-with-trumps-budget/

Don't give them the attention...

Give me a break. I understand the ADL's mission, and Cernovich is... well, if you don't  have anything nice to say.....  

My point is, it's called an "OK" sign. This hypersensitivity and speech policing is insane, and plays right into the hands of fringe-types:

Step 1: Be racist/sexist jerks.
Step 2: Frequently use some otherwise benign symbol.
Step 3: Wait for folks on the other end of the spectrum to react to what appears to 85% of people to be completely harmless.
Step 4: Watch the media pick it up as a "story".
Step 5: Enjoy the backlash created as those who value free speech point out the absurdity of the symbol interpretation and the danger posed by policing speech.

Free publicity is free publicity.  I thought last year's election cycle (in which the loser spent a quarter of a billion dollars more than the winners) taught all of us that lesson.

And yes, I realize blogging about it sort of undermines my point of not giving these people attention, but only to the extent my blog is actually read.  :)

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/white-power-hand-symbol-cassandra-fairbanks-mike-cernovich-alt-right-white-house-a7709446.html

Freedom and Virtue

Good article from First Things.  Beyond believing the snippet below succinctly captures the results of the Talk-radio-ification of the Conservative movement, I also found the article convicting.  Not because I have any, uh, "tastes" similar to the Drupal guy who was fired, but because it exposes my tendency to value personal liberty over the virtuous or good.  This usually takes the form of my saying/posting/IMing something I find hilarious, though base or crass, or saying something not because I truly feel/believe a particular thing but because my speech represents a sort of rebellion or exercise-of-freedom-for-freedom's-sake.   "Ha! I'm going to say this just because I know it's politically incorrect!". 

Anyway - here's the snippet I mentioned and a link to the article.

"If third-wave feminists and social media leftists announce the sky is blue, then we know it must be green. This kind of pathetic pseudo-solidarity amongst some conservatives is precisely why the movement finds itself ruthlessly hijacked by blowhards and hucksters, some of whom are valorized on the right even as they reject principles like the personhood of the unborn. Why? Because they’re good at ridiculing the enemy. This is not conservatism; it’s right-wing identity politics."

https://www.firstthings.com/web-exclusives/2017/04/kink-is-not-conscience

Friendship

Friendship is unnecessary, like philosophy, like art... It has no survival value; rather it is one of those things that give value to survival.

- C. S. Lewis

Tyranny

I used to think the primary driver of tyranny was deliberate malice.  While that's a factor, it occurred to me that a better predictor of tyranny is the gap between an individual's lust for power and their competency to wield power, multiplied by their access to power. T=(L-C)*A

Especially on Mondays...

"Each day new widows howl, new orphans cry, and new sorrows slap heaven in the face..."

Macbeth, Act 4 Scene 3

Paging Dr. Moreau

There's​ absolutely no way this isn't abused in the future.  The concern is not with the advancement or research and and knowledge, per se, but with the dissolution of absolute moral boundaries that is continuing in parallel.  We are increasingly a world where "might makes right", and in which the only constraint on our action is the imposed will of others.

This combination does not bode well for the reduced suffering and increased flourishing of humanity.
http://www.foxnews.com/science/2017/03/16/chinese-researchers-announce-designer-baby-breakthrough.html

I really like this song...

Oh great mammon of form and function
Careless consumerist consumption
Dangerous dysfunction
Described as expensive taste

I’m a people disgraced
By what I claim I need
And what I want to waste
I take no account for nothing
If it’s not mine

It’s a misappropriation of funds
Protect my ninety percent with my guns
Whose side am I on?
Well who’s winning?

My kingdom’s built with the blood of slaves
Orphans, widows, and homeless graves
I sold their souls just to build my private mansion

Some people say that my time is coming
Kingdom come is the justice running
Down, down, down on me

I’m a poor child, I’m a lost son
I refuse to give my love to anyone
Fight for the truth
Or help the weaker ones
Because I love my Babylon

I am a slave, I was never free
I betrayed you for blood money
Oh I bought the world, all is vanity
Oh my Lord I’m your enemy

Come to me, and find your life
Children sing, Zion’s in sight

I said don’t trade your name for a serial number
Priceless lives were born from under graves
Where I found you

Say, my name ain’t yours and yours is not mine
Mine is the Lord, and yours is my child
That’s how it’s always been

Time to make a change
Leave your home
Give to the poor all that you own
Lose your life, so that you could find it

First will be last when the true world comes
Livin’ like a humble fool to overcome
The upside-down wisdom
Of a dying world

Zion’s not built with hands
And in this place God will dwell with man
Sick be healed and cripples stand
Sing Allelu

My kingdom’s built with the blood of my son
Selfless sacrifice for everyone
Faith, hope, love, and harmony

I said let this world know me by your love
By your love

Oh my child, daughters and sons
I made you in love to overcome
Free as a bird, my flowers in the sun
On your way to Mount Zion

All you slaves, be set free
Come on out child and come on home to me
We will dance, we will rejoice
If you can hear me then follow my voice

-Josh Garrels

They're reporting from the wrong angle...

The real story is the effect this will have on those "in the system".  Social workers, fearing potential criminal liability will undoubtedly opt to break up families more quickly and otherwise err on the side of protecting themselves. 

If these individuals actually falsified records or otherwise lied to protect the murderous parents, then the social workers should be prosecuted.  What this may be, however, is prosecutorial and judicial overreach and Monday morning quarterbacking. 

Regardless, faced with the choice between potential criminal prosecution at the hands of District Attorneys with near limitless resources and civil suits from resourceless parents at or below the poverty line, many social workers will understandably act to protect themselves from the former knowing the latter just isn't going to happen...

http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-social-worker-charges-20170320-story.html

Troubling on Two Fronts

1) The Alt-Right is the logical result of extracting Judeo-Christian virtues from conservativism.

2) The strengthening "we know what those words really mean, and they are not acceptable and must be silenced" movement on the Left is particularly disturbing.  This is also the logical result of the Left's ascendancy in cultural, social,  media, and intellectual circles; Free Speech is always viewed as a problem by those in power.

http://www.vox.com/2016/11/23/13659634/alt-right-trolling

Easier Grasped than Embodied

"..the golden mean between prudery and permissiveness...is discipline."

- Graeme Hunter

The Deep State

Looking past the smoke billowing from the Right and Left, it would seem the real cause for alarm is the fact that our intelligence agencies can, and do, falsify forensic evidence.  This should be what shakes every American (and beyond) to the core: unelected - unknown even - members of the government can, without an iota of legitimate oversight, fabricate evidence that could be used to threaten, abuse, or even imprison an innocent person. 

Mix in "well-intentioned" motives such as "defending freedom by making sure that senator doesn't scuttle this defense bill" or "helping the poor by making sure the Speaker of the House helps benefit program X get expanded", and...

It feels like the Left and Right are Liberty's ungrateful children, arguing over her estate at her hospital bedside, ignoring the implorations of the doctors to start treatment, while the the monitor starts to flatline in the background.

https://www.wired.com/2017/03/wikileaks-cia-dump-gives-russian-hacking-deniers-perfect-ammo/?mbid=social_fb_onsiteshare

Peter Singer

Peter Singer's philosophy is vile, and an example of what generates so much mistrust of our higher educational systems.  He's brilliant, intellectually speaking, and his logic is sound.  It's his presuppositions that lead to his monstrous conclusions. 

In this article he notes that, "There have been many critics of my views about euthanasia for severely disabled infants."

Yes, Mr. Singer there are and always will be.

http://www.jpe.ox.ac.uk/papers/twenty-questions/

Nationalism

Good article. 

One of the area where I would disagree with the authors is in my belief that some amount of what they would deem "economic protectionism" is needed.  To be free, a nation must produce its own food and energy supplies and have the industrial and technological base required to ensure its independence from other nations.  In fact, to the extent that certain nations lack these capabilities, one would expect their support of transnational and globalist policies to be stronger than that of nations which do have these capacities (i.e. for true independence).

A second observation would be that it is likely Americans' increased willingness to identify as "global citizens" is tied to the breakdown of both the nuclear and extended family.  If the nation itself represents an extension of familial bonds, and an increasing number of people come from non-nuclear and/or dysfunctional families it would follow that nationalist sentiment would wane as a result.

https://www.nationalreview.com/magazine/2017-02-20-0000/donald-trump-inauguration-speech-and-nationalism

Hope

Another item for future comment...

https://thepointmag.com/2017/politics/the-substance-of-things-hoped-for

Madness, Genesis 3, and Pogo

The madness of attempting to make sense of the world lies in the fact that much of the world does not "make sense". 

That is to say, less tautologically, that the world is broken and unless one's view accounts for this, the world will not make sense.  This is why economic theories from the left and right collapse when translated from theory to practice; why political systems fail to fulfill their promises of security and prosperity; why religion does not bring internal or relational peace; why mutually beneficial relationships dissolve; and why even ambitions completely within the apparent ability, power, and means of an individual go unfulfilled.

Will comment on this one later...but it's excellent.

http://pca.st/iyo7Om