This article is late in being written. I first thought about writing something about my opposition to Donald Trump’s candidacy back before the Vermont primary, but somehow I never got around to writing it. Then, as he was battling with Ted Cruz, I thought it would be a good time to write it finally. Again, I never seemed to find the time or energy to write it then either. Now, now that Trump is the presumptive nominee for the Republican party, I finally do have the energy and time, though
Justice George Sutherland photo from Wikipedia
In the part 1 and part 2 of this series I reviewed how, before the Great Depression and the New Deal, the courts largely still protected the rights of employees and employers to freely contract with regards to wages. The courts agreed that each individual was the best judge of the wages that
True North Reports, a site that provides a conservative look at Vermont’s News, had an excellent article about Senator Bernie Sanders’ hypocrisy when it comes to campaign finance. If you know anything about Bernie, you probably know that one of his pet complaints is about “big money” corrupting our government. For him, the problem nearly begins and ends with money from
One fact of today’s world that I see all around me is that government intervention, force, leads to more and more government intervention, more force. The government creates a program to protect the prices a farmer receives for his goods, forcing people to pay above market prices for the goods. This program has the effect of raising food prices which necessitates a program to help those who can no longer afford the more expensive food, forcing people to pay more in taxes so that money can
Despite its somewhat woozy wording, what exactly is "social and environmental disruption," it is startling to see any government body, in Vermont of all places, dispute the utopian claims made by green energy advocates and actually looking at the downsides to such systems. […]
Serendipity is a wonderful thing.
Earlier this week I received an email from Representative Peter Welch (D-VT) touting all the things he is promoting of late. You can view the full email here but I mainly want to focus on the bit about biomass, as that is where the serendipity came in.
Here’s to biomass!
Modern wood heating systems are a great way to reduce heating bills while improving the environment. That’s why Peter introduced The Biomass Thermal Utilization Act which would make it more
Adolf Hitler, Dr Frankowski, Joseph Stalin
A basic fact of human nature is that there are only two ways we can deal with one another, by reason or by force, and these are mutually exclusive. If you choose reason, you rely on persuasion and facts to convince another person. If you reject reason, you rely on the threat, or actual use, of physical force to achieve your goal. You ask a friend to give you a ride to work because your car broke down or you steal a car. You work hard to learn a skill and get a good job to make a living or
The usual suspects, Vermont statists, are at it again. They are seeking to manage the behavior of citizens in a direction that they deem to be “better” and to penalize those who do not fall in line.
This latest assault is the renewal of a proposal to impose a 2 cent per ounce tax on beverages that contain added sugar such as soda and sports drinks. Based on prices at a local minimart, this would result in about a 27% increase in the cost of a bottle of soda. Supporters of the law
A day late on getting this posted due to, well, illness, work and snow. Its funny how getting sick when there is a ton of snow can really mess with your schedule.
Philosophy in Action – Usually Dr. Diana Hsieh and Greg Perkins give really in-depth answers to questions but from time to time they do a “Rapid Fire Extravaganza” which is what they did this week. Rather than just answering
An excellent introduction to major topics in Ayn Rand’s philosophy of Objectivism presented by Onkar Ghate from 2003. The video includes a Q&A session with Onkar Ghate and Yaron Brook. Topics include: Individualism vs Collectivism, What are rights?, Proper role of government, Egoism vs Altruism, Ethics, Mysticism vs Reason and more.
The Q&A session is particularly interesting. Many of the folks had challenging questions which resulted in some great answers. I was somewhat surprised