(Third party discussions are not permitted on Redstate. The comments on this diary have been closed.) I hope there is someone out there that can tell me I’m wrong. I hope there is someone who can convince me that the GOP in the House and Senate will act as the last line of defense for conservative values. I want to believe they will hold the | Read More »
This weekends brutal murder /suicide by NFL player Jovan Belcher has shocked many people. I’m sure by Sunday there were a number of people talking about some sort of memorial for the young couple taken by this savage act. But let’s not gloss over the fact that this act of savagery was performed by Jovan Belcher, and Jovan Belcher only. He is said to have | Read More »
A friend and I were discussing Israel and Iran tonight. It went something like this: Friend: “What could Israel do to stop Iran’s nuclear program without the same Israeli body count an airstrike is going to produce?” Me: {after great and careful consideration} “I don’t know” Friend: “What if instead of a strike on the nuclear facility, they’re planning a strike on the political AND | Read More »
This weeks entry marks the end of our reading of New Deal or Raw Deal by Burt Folsom, Jr. I felt like this book was very timely and had many points we should consider today. I had read about FDR before, and had a pretty low opinion of him. However, this book lowered that opinion further still. I get the feeling FDR was primarily concerned | Read More »
This weeks post is going to be short and sweet. With our current recession showing more negative signs each week, I thought Chapter 15 had some useful advice for today’s leaders. In this chapter, Mr. Folsom looks at some of the things FDR should have done to get the United States out of the Great Depression. Two of those things stand out above the rest | Read More »
I thought chapter 14 of this weeks reading was very interesting. In it, Mr. Folsom chronicles many of the lies FDR told to the public and to members of his own party while in office. FDR was guilty of using the same lies that we hear politicians use today. For example, in 1932, Roosevelt promised to balance the budget. He even made balancing the budget | Read More »
“My father,” Elliott Roosevelt observed of his famous parent, “may have been the originator of the concept of employing the IRS as a weapon of political retribution.” This is the first line from this week’s reading of New Deal or Raw Deal. I am going to spend my time today talking about FDR employing the IRS to silence dissent within the United States. I’ve heard | Read More »
I am going to spend some time on my soap box this week. I have always been against the minimum wage law, and this weeks reading has only reinforced that. This weeks reading of New Deal or Raw Deal? included a discussion of FDR’s push for a minimum wage. FDR citied the need for the poor to have more money. If businesses were required to | Read More »
I would normally post my thoughts here on the recent readings in New Deal or Raw Deal by Folsom. However, I haven’t finished this weeks reading so I am going to put this off until next Sunday. If you were better than me and finished the reading, feel free to post your comments here. On a different note, this is going to be the last | Read More »
I thought this weeks reading serves as a very good warning to the dangers of the federal government getting involved in charities. Mr. Folsom was looking back at the New Deal, but I believe we could apply lessons form the New Deal to today’s debate on federal spending. First, federal charity retards private charity. If individuals are taxed so that the federal government can provide | Read More »
I continue to be amazed at the number of parallels between the FDR administration and the Obama administration. There were two important ones from this weeks reading that I wanted to spend time covering. Causes of the Great Depression During the 1930′s and into today capitalism is often pointed out as the reason for the Great Depression. FDR campaigned saying that the rich were getting | Read More »
This is the first entry for our new book in the Book Notes section of Red State. I decided to go with New Deal or Raw Deal: How FDR’s Economic Legacy has Damaged America by Burton Folsom, Jr. because it seems very relevant for today. President Obama came into office on a spending spree. The Democratic controlled Congress and Senate showed no desire to reign | Read More »
Conscience of a Conservative by Barry Goldwater turned out to be a very good book wrapped in a small package. Many of the sections touched on some of the themes we have seen through out the Book Notes reading. Others brought new ideas out. The section on foreign aid has me reconsidering my entire position on foreign aid. It never dawned on me (though it | Read More »
I continue to be amazed at how much relevance the books from this project have in today’s world. Free to Choose was written in the 1970′s. Yet much the book, and much of what we have covered here, could easily apply to today. One of the interesting points in this last section was the inclusion of the Socialist Party Platform of 1928. The Milton’s write | Read More »
In this weeks reading the Friedman’s spend a lot of time comparing the government’s efforts at protecting the environment. They look at the FDA, the Consumer Products Safety Commission, and finally the EPA. For this weeks book notes, I want to focus in their comments regarding the EPA. The point of the book notes project is to learn from previous thinkers lessons that may apply | Read More »
Chapter 7 is entitled “Who Protects the Consumer?” Most of the quotes below are drawn from the second and third page of this section. I thought it was so insightful that I highlighted it, and read it to my wife. If you have a high school student in your house, you should have them read this part. This section begins with the Friedman’s acknowledging that | Read More »
The title for Chapter 5 of Free To Choose is “created equal”, and is taken from the Declaration of Independence. “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal…” What does “created equal” mean? The Friedmans would answer, “The clue to what Thomas Jefferson and his contemporaries meant by equal is in the next phrase of the Declaration — ‘endowed by | Read More »
Shortly after reading the section discussing social security in Free to Choose, I had a discussion about the dangers and misnomers of Social Security with a friend. Since this is an example of something we were reading translating directly into water cooler talk, I thought it was a good subject for this post. The Friedmans do a very good job of pointing out that Social | Read More »
Though the United States has not adopted central economic planning, we have gone very far in the past fifty years in expanding the role of government in the economy. That intervention has been costly in economic terms. The limitations imposed on our economic freedom threaten to bring two centuries of economic progress to an end. Intervention has also been costly in political terms. It has | Read More »
This week we begin our reading of Milton and Rose Friedman’s Free to Choose. I found so much in the first chapter that I wanted to discuss, I could probably write a post a day for the next week. In this chapter, the Friedman’s spend a lot of time discussing the role of prices. Prices serve three functions: transmit information, provide an incentive, and distribute | Read More »
In this weeks reading we finished Mere Christianity. I think the book met my expectations for a great introduction to Christianity. I think Lewis makes some very compelling arguments for a belief in both a god, and the Christian God. In this final reading, I found a section in Chapter 9 very interesting. Lewis discusses the “cost” of following Christianity. In this case, Lewis argues | Read More »
Lewis covers a lot of material in this week’s reading. I thought he gave a great explanation of why we should study theology. I don’t think Lewis meant studying theology as in a college course. I think he was meaning study at church, or like the discussions we have had here at Red State. There were two specific points I wanted to look at. The | Read More »
Last week, I wasn’t able to put an entry in here for the reading due to illness. It looks like I wasn’t the only one sick, so I am going to cover pages 88 through 133 this week. There are actually a number of points in this weeks reading that are worth discussion. But as I looked back over the chapters, there was one section | Read More »
Back when Eric started this project, he gave one rule that I haven’t used since the beginning of the Book Notes project. Each weeks’ book notes entry would.. …not be a “book review”, but rather our candid thoughts on the chapter, up to and including “the baby was sick all week and I didn’t get a chance to read it.” I hate to say it, | Read More »
Our last reading introduced us to some pretty compelling reasons as to why a god must exist. This weeks reading makes the argument that this god is the Christian God, and lays out some of the expectations God has for us. I want to spend my time this week covering something Lewis says that I personally struggle with: how to approach Christianity and obedience to | Read More »
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