Free Republic

Economics,, as we have now seen again and again, is a science of recognizing secondary consequences. It is also a science of seeing general consequences. It is the science of tracing the effects of some proposed or existing policy not only on some special interest in the short run, but on the general interest in the long run.******But in the course of specific illustration we have found hints of other general lessons; and we should do well to state these lessons to ourselves more clearly. In seeing that economics is a science of tracing consequences, we must have become aware...

It is on the fallacy of isolation, at bottom, that the “productionfor-use-and-not-for-profit” school is based, with its attack on the allegedly vicious “price system.” The problem of production, say the adherents of this school, is solved. (This resounding error, as we shall see, is also the starting point of most currency cranks and share-the-wealth charlatans.) The scientists, the efficiency experts, the engineers, the technicians, have solved it. They could turn out almost anything you cared to mention in huge and practically unlimited amounts. But, alas, the world is not ruled by the engineers, thinking only of production, but by the...

WHEN, AFTER EVERY great war, it is proposed to demobilize the armed forces, there is always a great fear that there will not be enough jobs for these forces and that in consequence they will be unemployed. It is true that, when millions of men are suddenly released, it may require time for private industry to reabsorb them—though what has been chiefly remarkable in the past has been the speed, rather than the slowness, with which this was accomplished. The fears of unemployment arise because people look at only one side of the process. They see soldiers being turned loose...

AMONG THE MOST viable of all economic delusions is the belief that machines on net balance create unemployment. Destroyed a thousand times, it has risen a thousand times out of its own ashes as hardy and vigorous as ever. Whenever there is long-continued mass unemployment, machines get the blame anew. This fallacy is still the basis of many labor union practices. The public tolerates these practices because it either believes at bottom that the unions are right, or is too confused to see just why they are wrong. The belief that machines cause unemployment, when held with any logical consistency,...

The Lesson Applied Public Works Mean Taxes There is no more persistent and influential faith in the world today than the faith in government spending. Everywhere government spending is presented as a panacea for all our economic ills. Is private industry partially stagnant? We can fix it all by government spending. Is there unemployment? That is obviously due to “insufficient private purchasing power.” The remedy is just as obvious. All that is necessary is for the government to spend enough to make up the “deficiency”. An enormous literature is based on this fallacy, and, as so often happens with doctrines...

As the troops marched to their doom in the First World War they sang a characteristically British military anthem. To the tune of Auld Lang Syne, they intoned “We’re here because we’re here because we’re here because we’re here.” Once human beings are committed to an endeavour and have made sacrifices in its prosecution, they are strongly disinclined to subject it to serious review. The idea of abandoning the course they are on before they have reached its end becomes unthinkable. Far better simply to plough on. That is how people can cheerfully sing that they don’t know what they...

...Patterns In Irrationality A first obvious common point in all the justifications for government: they all suppose that government somehow provides some kind of goods for free, without any costly counterpart. The existence of this pattern among statists is not anything new; we libertarians even have a mantra to dispel this pattern: TANSTAAFL [28]. However, what is remarkable is that all statist justifications include this pattern, albeit sometimes in a less than obvious way... ...Ultimately, what government is supposed to bring is some kind of a warranty that evil won't happen; some special sense of security.... ...A second pattern that...

Two Questions: 1) Why must the democrats insist on shoving this giant health care suppository up our hind ends so quickly? 2) Why do they insist on gulping down the entire enchilada all at once as opposed to a piecemeal approach?The first question is easy to answer. It's now or never. Citizens are getting wise to the Washington game, and they don't like it. Support is going down, not up. They may never get this chance again. Lefties squealed like stuck pigs when Bush rammed through the Patriot Act and rushed us to war in Iraq. Although I think they...

The relations among nature, reason, and revelation are mysterious for both Protestants and Catholics. Consider John Paul II's remark that “the primary and definitive source for studying the intimate nature of the human being is the Most Holy Trinity.” Read carelessly, this might seem to imply the utter futility of philosophizing about the constitution of the human person; nothing would be left but ­theology. Not so, for revelation shines at least five different kinds of light on nature. First is the light of precept: God commands or forbids something that the mind itself can recognize as right or wrong. Certain...

Darwin’s arguments against God How Darwin rejected the doctrines of Christianity by Russell Grigg Charles Darwin Charles Darwin grew up embracing the ‘intelligent design’ thinking of his day—William Paley’s renowned argument that the design of a watch implies there must have been an intelligent watchmaker, and so design in the universe implies there must have been an intelligent Creator.1 Concerning this, Darwin wrote, ‘I do not think I hardly ever admired a book more than Paley’s “Natural Theology�.2 I could almost formerly have said it by heart.’3 Nevertheless, Darwin spent most of the rest of his life attempting to...

Will someone tell me I have no reason for concern? Please! I, as have we all, been informed of the day by day, hour by hour, and lately, minute by minute events and arrangements for the events of the inauguration of President-Elect Barack Hussein Obama. The media has informed us that Obama tailored the inauguration to mimic President-Elect Abraham Lincoln’s Republican ascension to the presidency. It is interesting to learn so much about Abraham Lincoln’s inauguration that I didn’t know. Abraham Lincoln arrived in Washington D.C. on February 23, 1861 and virtually had to sneak into town disguised. Abraham Lincoln’s...

Scientology, Seizures, and Science by Edward Hudgins January 13, 2009 -- Jett Travolta, the sixteen-year-old son of actors John Travolta and Kelly Preston, died recently of what the autopsy found to be a seizure. The boy had a history of seizures and unconfirmed reports suggest that his parents acted responsibly to ensure he was on medication to mitigate his condition. We don’t know yet what caused the seizure—a change in medication or dosage, or a worsening of the underlying condition that caused the seizures. I’ve held in my arms a dear loved-one during her seizures, someone who fortunately now survives...

Scientology, Seizures, and Science by Edward Hudgins January 13, 2009 -- Jett Travolta, the sixteen-year-old son of actors John Travolta and Kelly Preston, died recently of what the autopsy found to be a seizure. The boy had a history of seizures and unconfirmed reports suggest that his parents acted responsibly to ensure he was on medication to mitigate his condition. We don’t know yet what caused the seizure—a change in medication or dosage, or a worsening of the underlying condition that caused the seizures. I’ve held in my arms a dear loved-one during her seizures, someone who fortunately now survives...

Here I want to correct the assumption made by Meacham and Miller that the case against same-sex “marriage” must be a Biblical one. Instead, both by faith and by reason one can see that genuine marriage must be heterosexual, that sexual acts outside of marriage are immoral, and that the state, therefore, should not declare any same-sex unions “marriages,” nor actively encourage sexual acts outside of marriage.

Converted Muslim Tells Story Behind Papal Baptism Italian Journalist Recounts Journey to Catholicism By Luca Marcolivio ROME, DEC. 1, 2008 (Zenit.org).- The high-profile baptism of Magdi Cristiano Allam at the Easter Vigil ceremony presided over last year by Benedict XVI has a story behind it. According to Allam himself, his conversion journey was possible because of great Christian witnesses. One of the directors of the Milan daily Corriere della Sera, he spoke about his conversion and the experiences that led to it when he met with university students of Rome last week to tell the story of his path to...

reason has been on the gun beat since the very first issue of the magazine appeared 40 years ago. In “Violence in the U.S.—the Reversal of Cause and Effect,” founding editor Lanny Friedlander described the political reaction to the assassination of Bobby Kennedy: “Gun laws, we find them screeching, from every radio received, gun laws, gun laws, gun laws! Make it illegal for anyone to own a gun and enforce that law at the point of a gun. Forget that a murderer does not stop for stop signs and would not obey a gun law either. Forget that it leaves...

Is America out of balance? Feminine Yin and masculine Yang must be in balance to achieve harmony, according to the Chinese ancients. Has our nurturing Yin outstripped our self-reliant Yang? Ed Kaitz has written a provocative piece in the American Thinker entitled, The Testosterone Crisis. He makes a convincing case that testosterone rich Yang is in short supply here in America. My personal observation is that it is publicly nonexistent in Europe outside of soccer hooligans and the dwindling klatch of professional soldiers. The author arrived at this conclusion while in the park observing that dads simply shouted encouragement to...

Be totally honest. Could any candidate, (even Gov. Palin), have been elected to succeed a president of his own party whose job approval rating was 25 percent? Probably not. Could any candidate have been elected to continue his party’s stay in the White House when roughly 90 percent of Americans believed the country was on the wrong track? Probably not. Could any candidate from the governing party have been elected after the Dow Jones Industrial Average plunged 4,000 points before one could even turn around? Probably not. McCain faced all those obstacles but there’s no doubt that McCain far outshone...

In a recent piece that appeared at Newsweek and his own web publication, Slate Editor in Chief Jacob Weisberg announces "the end of libertarianism." Responding to commentators who believe that misguided government policies caused or contributed to the current financial mess, Weisberg asserts that the real culprit is the libertarian financial policy (which banned "any infringement of the right to buy and sell") that the U.S. has allegedly pursued in recent years. We're in the midst of "a global economic meltdown made possible by libertarian ideas," writes Weisberg, who adds that intellectually vapid libertarians simply cannot "accept that markets can...

Why the Republicans Must Lose Nothing short of defeat will put the GOP back on its limited government track I grew up in a particularly conservative part of the already conservative state of Indiana. I voted for Bob Dole in 1996 and George Bush in 2000, generally because—though I'm not a conservative (I'm a libertarian)—I'd always thought the GOP was the party of limited government. By 2002, I was less sure of that. And by 2004, I was so fed up with the party that I did what I thought I'd never do—vote for an unabashed leftist for president. Since...

When Owen Beck was 17, doctors amputated his right leg to stop the spread of bone cancer. His parents, desperate to find a drug that would relieve their son's excruciating phantom limb pain, brought him to Charlie Lynch's medical marijuana dispensary in Morro Bay, California, carrying a recommendation from a Stanford University oncologist. The marijuana not only eased the pain but also alleviated the nausea caused by chemotherapy. Called to testify as a character witness in Lynch's federal marijuana trial, Beck did not get far. When he mentioned his cancer, U.S. District Judge George Wu cut him off and sent...

On July 17, Nobelist and Academy Award winner Al Gore issued a stirring challenge to our nation to produce 100 percent of our electricity from renewable energy and carbon-free sources within 10 years. Gore asserted, "The quickest, cheapest and best way to start using all this renewable energy is in the production of electricity. In fact, we can start right now using solar power, wind power and geothermal power to make electricity for our homes and businesses." This massive push for no-carbon electricity production would help prevent climate change and cut our dependence on foreign oil. Of course, great-souled visionaries...

At the end of the day, we have two different accounts of the views of Benedict XVI with respect to Islam, one (Weigel's) that sounds very much like the view of the George W Bush administration, and another (Fessio's) that is consonant with the direr pronouncements of Magdi Allam. Too much might be made of this opposition. The pope is more than the theologian Joseph Ratzinger, whose views on the petrified character of the Koran are a matter of record: he is the head of both the Catholic Church and the Vatican State, whose pastoral as well as diplomatic requirements...

Speaking at the White House, Pope Benedict XVI April 16 embraced America's "quest for freedom...." Benedict explained: "Freedom is not only a gift, but also a summons to personal responsibility. Americans know this from experience - almost every town in this country has its monuments honoring those who sacrificed their lives in defense of freedom, both at home and abroad." April 16 was Pope Benedict's 81st birthday. The White House greeting, carefully scripted by US and Vatican officials, included the Army Chorus' moving rendition of the "Battle Hymn of the Republic" -- anthem of an earlier war for freedom which...

Energy Analyst Robert Bryce Explains Why Trying to Make All Our Own Power is a Foolish IdeaIn his forthcoming book Gusher of Lies: The Dangerous Delusions of “Energy Independence� (PublicAffairs) Robert Bryce, managing editor of Energy Tribune and author of Pipe Dreams: Greed, Ego and the Death of Enron, grapples with what he detects as a growing belief, both among policy elites and the public, in “energy independence.�That’s the notion that America should disengage from world energy markets and seek self-sufficiency in energy production. To Bryce, this is not only impossible, but dangerous to even attempt. As he writes in...

Good morning, and welcome to Super Duper Tuesday Week...It's also the culmination of Mardi Gras, and oh yes, there was a big football game of some sort yesterday...Hollywood Writer's strike is expected to end this week...

The truth is that many of the theories we come up with are bogus. They are based on the assumption that voters make cold, rational decisions about who to vote for and can tell us why they decided as they did. This is false. In reality, we voters — all of us — make emotional, intuitive decisions about who we prefer, and then come up with post-hoc rationalizations to explain the choices that were already made beneath conscious awareness. “People often act without knowing why they do what they do,” Daniel Kahneman, a Nobel Prize winner, noted in an e-mail...

Maybe Dallas wouldn't be ranked as the 34th most dangerous city in America if Dallas police weren't devoting precious resources to raiding friendly poker games played by veterans. In his latest video for Reason.tv, Drew Carey examines a paramilitary-style raid on a poker game at the Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 1837 in Dallas, which has now been forced to close its doors. "Poker is about as American as baseball and apple pie," Carey says in theReason.tv video. "It was born here in America. Mark Twain loved it. He's a great American. Until recently, Supreme Court justices had a monthly...

In the 1980s, conservatives and feminists joined to fight a common nemesis: the spread of pornography. Unlike past campaigns to stamp out smut, this one was based not only on morality but also public safety. They argued that hard-core erotica was intolerable because it promoted sexual violence against women. "Pornography is the theory; rape is the practice," wrote feminist author Robin Morgan. In 1986, a federal commission concurred. Some kinds of pornography, it concluded, are bound to lead to "increased sexual violence." Indianapolis passed a law allowing women to sue producers for sexual assaults caused by material depicting women in...

Reason: George Bush, not the most conciliatory person in the world, has said on plenty of occasions that we are not at war with Islam. Hirsi Ali: If the most powerful man in the West talks like that, then, without intending to, he’s making radical Muslims think they’ve already won. There is no moderate Islam. There are Muslims who are passive, who don’t all follow the rules of Islam, but there’s really only one Islam, defined as submission to the will of God. There’s nothing moderate about it. Reason: So when even a hard-line critic of Islam such as Daniel...

VATICAN, October 5, 2007 (CWNews.com/LifeSiteNews.com) - By denying the existence of natural law, secularism is undermining the very foundations of democratic society, Pope Benedict XVI argued in an October 5 private audience with members of the International Theological Commission. Disregard for natural law, the Holy Father said, has caused "a crisis for human-- even more for Christian-- civilization." In response to that crisis, he continued, Church leaders should mobilize "both lay people and followers of religions other than Christianity" to reclaim a common moral tradition. The International Theological Commission had gathered in Rome this week to discuss a forthcoming document...

There's a very interesting story over at the Cybercast News Service, if you can stomach it. (CNSNews.com) - Science must ultimately destroy organized religion, according to some of the leading atheist writers and intellectuals who spoke at a recent atheist conference in Northern Virginia. God is a myth, and children must not be schooled in any faith, they said, at the "Crystal Clear Atheism" event, sponsored by the Atheist Alliance International. I'm not going to rehash the article for you -- you can click on the link and read it for your self. It's pretty alarming when you actually read...

Pope Benedict Encourages "Child-Poor" Europe to Open up to Life Called attention to the demographic implosion in Europe By John-Henry Westen MARIAZELL, Austria, September 10, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - In his homily delivered Saturday at Mariazell during a Mass to mark the 850th anniversary of the Marian shrine's founding, Pope Benedict XVI called attention to the demographic implosion in Europe for a second time on his pastoral visit to Austria.  "Europe has become child-poor: we want everything for ourselves, and place little trust in the future," he told the assembled crowd. On Friday, Benedict addressed political leaders in the nation pointing...

These are perilous times for drug warriors. With self-reported illicit drug use flat or declining, there is a danger of complacency—or, worse, smaller budgets. At the same time, it's important to claim a victory now and then; otherwise taxpayers may begin to worry that their money is being wasted in a futile effort to stop people from using politically incorrect intoxicants. In its description of the latest numbers from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health, the Office of National Drug Control Policy walks that thin line between gratitude and apathy, panic and hopelessness: YOUTH DRUG USE AT A FIVE...

As we all look forward to more sputtering news conference antics from Sen. Larry Craig, here's hoping that the Idaho politician will eventually draw on traditional Republican principles and stand up for his right to engage in consensual sex in toilet stalls with men. Craig, a critic of the Patriot Act who weakened some of its worst provisions during last year's renewal vote, clearly understands the need to keep the government from snooping willy-nilly on its citizens. At first flush, the news that the 62-year-old senior senator from the Gem State pleaded guilty Aug. 8 to misdemeanor charges of disorderly...

In 1985 a prominent liberal legal figure argued that Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court decision that established a constitutional right to an abortion, was a “heavy-handed judicial intervention” that “was difficult to justify and appears to have provoked, not resolved, conflict.” The writer was Ruth Bader Ginsburg, now an associate justice on the U.S. Supreme Court—and also now a strong supporter of Roe. Ginsburg isn’t the only backer of abortion rights to have taken issue with the 1973 decision. In 1995, for example, the University of Chicago’s Cass Sunstein, a superstar among liberal law professors, wrote in the Harvard...

Our most celebrated atheist, the biologist Professor Richard Dawkins, has briefly turned his attention away from bashing people who believe in God. Instead, he is about to bash people who subscribe to 'new age' therapies which he says are based on 'irrational superstition'. In a TV programme to be shown later this month, Dawkins looks at a range of ludicrous therapies and gurus, including faith healers, psychic mediums, 'angel therapists', 'aura photographers', astrologers and others. Not surprisingly, he is horrified by such widespread irrationality, not to mention an exploitative industry that fleeces people while encouraging them to run away from...

The United States plans to sell Gulf countries at least $20 billion worth of military hardware in the coming years, and will sign 10-year military aid packages with Egypt and Israel, valued together at $43 billion. According to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Washington is "working with these states to give a chance to the forces of moderation and reform."Oddly, on Friday the New York Times published a story roundly criticizing the Saudis for their "counterproductive" attitude in Iraq. Senior U.S. officials were quoted as saying that the kingdom had tried to discredit Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki by handing...

I really think that this is one of the big stories of the day. Maybe because it is something I've been saying for years ... about liberals, that is. It looks like we have a high-powered brain scientist serving as the latest advisor to the Democratic party. Drew Westen conducted research which leads to his conclusion that politicians – liberal politicians -- should try and appeal to people's emotions, rather than bogging them down with data and facts. Where did we first find out about this research? Why, at the ultra-left wing "Take Back America" convention, that's where. The study...

On Complementarity: A Tale of Two Friends Albert Einstein and Niels Bohr were great friends. Of this extraordinary friendship a mutual friend would write, “Their relations were marked not only by profound mutual respect but also by great affection, if not love.”1  It is a friendship that history records as one of most contentious, yet fruitful, and splendidly illuminating of all time. For the two friends engaged in a great debate over many decades — a public one, with “all comers” invited. History will likely record it as one of the greatest extended public debates on issues in science,...

Last month, President Bush declared Nov. 30 "National Methamphetamine Awareness Day."The official statement from the White House implored, "I call upon the people of the United States to observe this day with appropriate programs and activities."There's no question that meth is a particularly nasty, vicious drug, both in how it's manufactured and in what it does to the people who use it. I think some skeptics have raised legitimate questions about the accuracy of some of the more hysterical media proclaiming we're in the midst of an "epidemic," but there's no question that the drug is widely available, and that...

In Maryland, like in many other states, candidates carrying the designation of "libertarian" emerged on the ballot. In Maryland, the libertarian Senate candidate was Kevin Zeese, a former official of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws. He wants the government to leave him alone so he can smoke dope. Generally speaking, libertarians are supposed to favor limited government and low taxes. Yet, the libertarian magazine Reason has astonished many observers by publishing an article that seems to be endorsing global taxes and the world government such a scheme would entail. In an article about the collapse of...

Finally, a leader has spoken about the real, essential differences in the struggle between the West and Islam, as it emanates from a contest within Islam itself over the most important things. With startling—indeed alarming—clarity, Pope Benedict XVI told his audience in Regensburg, Germany, that not only is violence in spreading faith unreasonable and therefore against God, but that a conception of God without reason, or above reason, leads to that very violence. To ensure everyone knew what he was talking about, the pope quoted from a 14th-century Byzantine emperor, Manuel II Paleologus, who was besieged by Islamic forces attempting...

The first post-election update to our War on Terror tracking shows increased confidence regarding the United States’ position. Forty-five percent (45%) of respondents now say the United States and its allies are winning the war—a five-point increase since the last survey, taken immediately preceding the 2006 mid-term elections (see crosstabs). This is the highest level of confidence measured in all of 2006. In fact, with just a single exception, it is the highest level of confidence recorded since December 2005. The current results clearly show the impact of Election 2006. Democrats and unaffiliated voters are more optimistic than in the...

Table of Contents Authors’ Foreword PrologueDramatis Personae The SceneThe Dialogue The so-called “Cartesian Split” What is “all that there is?” Pure, blind chance? First reality and second realities What is knowledge? Does science “have it in” for God? Is Intelligent Design science? What is matter? What lies at the beginning of “all that there is?” Aristotle’s Four Causes What is “randomness?” First Adam, Second Adam Is science “killing the soul?” The Public Square: a “values-neutral zone?” What is science? What is the universe? What is life? What is reality? Endnotes Appendix Nuts and Bolts Numbers Big and Small Combinatorics,...

Despite a full century of scientific insights attesting to the antiquity of life and the greater antiquity of the Earth, more than half the American population believes that the entire cosmos was created 6,000 years ago. This is, incidentally, about a thousand years after the Sumerians invented glue. Those with the power to elect presidents and congressmen?and many who themselves get elected?believe that dinosaurs lived two by two upon Noah's Ark, that light from distant galaxies was created en route to the Earth and that the first members of our species were fashioned out of dirt and divine breath, in...

One repeatedly hears that some conservatives and Republicans will either vote Democrat or not vote at all -- out of anger at the Republican Party. According to these Republican holdouts, the Republicans have governed as Democrats-lite by greatly increasing government spending and doing little about illegal immigration. Accordingly, it is better to have liberal government under liberals than liberal government under Republicans, and the Republicans need to be taught a lesson so that in the future they will govern as authentic Republicans. Conservatives should file this thinking under the heading "Cathartic," but not under "Smart." One of the great realizations...

Studies show how the brain lets the emotions override common sense when reaching some tough decisions. Our correspondent reports on the 'ultimatum game' ...George Loewenstein, Professor of Economics and Psychology at Carnegie Mellon University, in Pittsburgh, and one of the pioneers of neuro-economics, said: “The new science of neuro-economics is lending support to a very ancient view of human behaviour. That is the idea that there is a conflict and interaction between passion, and reason and self-interest. “The now standard view of people as rational maximisers of self-interest is a very recent view. Neuroscience is telling us that that was...

Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new. . . "Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." --Basileus and Autokrator Manuel II Paleologos Reason and ObservationIt is with an odd mixture of grim delight, sorrow and wistfulness that we Orthodox Christians hear the words of the antepenultimate Orthodox Emperor of New Rome, spoken by the Pope of Old Rome, and behold them used as an excuse for the persecution of Christians, Latin, Orthodox, and...

... How does a faith address the paramount concern of human mortality, and what action does it require of its adherents? I addressed these issues under the title Jihad, the Lord's Supper, and eternal life (September 19), explaining that jihad does for Muslims precisely what Communion does for Christians. It is not a doctrine but a sacrament, that is, a holy act that transforms the actor. ...Pope Benedict XVI is a man of vast erudition and insight, but his September 12 speech fell far short of its purpose. Since then the pope has offered so many qualifications that it is...