Monday, December 29, 2003

Seriously Now

Read this article. In it, one can learn that the FBI has cautioned the police, when stopping motorists I presume, or pedestrians who appear befuddled as to their whereabouts, to be aware if they are carrying almanacs or maps.  Evidently, today, this is a sign of potential terrorists.  I guess I better remove all the Gazetteers, Idaho, Michigan, Tennessee, Ohio et al, from my vehicles and my trusty Old Farmer’s Almanac too.  Wouldn’t want the cops to get the wrong idea about me.  I guess I needn’t worry too much about my weapons.

Via Drudge.

Posted by John Venlet on 12/29 at 12:14 PM
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Big Rock Candy Mountain - Man Made

Many individuals have a sweet tooth.  Myself, I like peppermints and seemingly always have.  I’m not sure if that’s because peppermints were the candy bribe of choice when I was a child, as I squirmed through Sunday sermons, or, because a good peppermint is a tasty treat after a cigar.  With that in mind, I point you to a Chicago Tribune story on, what used to be, the candy cane manufacturing capitol of the world. You see, it is not the candy cane manufacturing capitol any longer because the artificial price supports for sugar in the U.S. have driven candy cane and candy makers out of the country for less expensive sugar.

The story is linked via Daniel Drezner whose title to his post on the subject bears the title “Protectionism never tasted so sour."

The Chicago Tribune requires the onerous task of registration and password creation to access the story.  Or, you can use, my all purpose user name of nytimesoops and password of nytimes which I am using for almost all online sources which require registration.  It’s easy and does not require memorizing different user names and passwords for access to those who require registration.

Posted by John Venlet on 12/29 at 06:59 AM
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Social We Abuse

Via Arts & Letters Daily an essay penned by Roger Kerr entitled “The ‘We’ Word: And the Tyranny of the Majority." From Kerr’s piece,

"In modern speech, Hayek writes, the adjective ‘social’ is applied indiscriminately to a huge number of nouns in a way that undermines their original meanings and recruits them into a collectivist cause. Take the idea of justice. Let’s say that this means the fair and impartial application of legal, moral and perhaps customary rules. But precede it with the word ‘social’ and everything changes. Social justice may require redistributing property and treating people unequally. In this way the word ‘social’ empties the nouns it is applied to of their meaning."

The only “we” should be; we are each and every one of us sovereign individuals.  If, individually, each of us would respect the fact, of our individual sovereignty, and every other individual’s sovereignty, the word “we” would not be misapplied.

Posted by John Venlet on 12/29 at 05:57 AM
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A Borrowed Quote of the Day

"There is ultimately no difference between what’s most moral and what’s most pragmatic in the long run. Those who sacrifice moral principles in search of short-term gain will only gain Pyrric victories and find that their goals will continually elude them."

Scott Bieser

Via Russell Whitaker at Survival Arts.

Posted by John Venlet on 12/29 at 05:52 AM
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Religion, Manners, Law

Kim du Toit reprints a piece he wrote in July 2002.  The piece is entitled “Bring Back Morality and Manners" and is worth a look.  A paragraph from Kim’s post.

"Religion and manners, properly observed, have served our society well over the centuries, and it’s wrong to toss out everything on the basis that when employed to their extreme, they cause harm."

Posted by John Venlet on 12/29 at 05:36 AM
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