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Wrestling with the ethics of violence
Antifa, punching Nazis, accepting violence, and forcing greatness upon us As a lifelong pacifist, I abhor violence. All of it. But a long time ago, I gave my friends one exception: vampires. At the time, the movie Blade had come out and I found a way to make an exception for my pacifism. If I…
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Ignoring the Human Cost to Public Safety is Immoral
I recognize the impulse. Sometimes I feel it too. The burden of other people’s junk and the siren song of liberty. The idea that the human cost is too hard to measure against the bottom line. And it’s argument has real merit. Too many rules do cut into our ability to innovate, create, and thrive.…
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The Freeloafer Economy
In an article I read this morning (but can no longer track down), one of the people interviewed spoke of “eliminating spending”. Not cutting spending or reducing spending, but eliminating spending. As in all. It occurred to me that this is the most obtuse, and natural, of directions for the debate to go, because it is based on…
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Not Mindless
Prime Minister David Cameron was on vacation while parts of London burned. After a few days, he decided to make an appearance. England’s leaders and members of the media have called the uprising in several poor communities in London “mindless”. Condemning atrocious acts as “mindless” is a way of totally discrediting the other party’s humanity. …
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The federal budget is not the same as your family’s budget
Of course there is a lot that is the same. Both have income and expenses, set by annual budgets. Both are deeply affected by the stock market and other investments. In this simple way, we can all pretend we are in the same boat. But the truth is much different. First, unlike the average family,…