Liberty 101: The great conservative debate

There are well-meaning, good-hearted people on both sides of the debate over social conservatism versus social liberalism.  That doesn’t always help to clarify things, but it’s important to emphasize that point up front.

A fresh outbreak at PJ Media – Bryan Preston versus Roger Simon – prompts this post.  And with due respect to both gentlemen, who write well and passionately, I conclude that we all just keep slogging through the same muddy trench on this issue, and it doesn’t seem to be helping.

Liberty 101: Why the light bulb ban is evil

Keep windows closed. Sweep up. Dispose. Repeat, until incandescent bulbs are gone. Then begin multi-step HAZMAT process for disposing of other bulbs. (Image courtesy of deviantart.com)

The light bulb ban is evil because it treats people as if we are, in the aggregate, a “system” to be tinkered with.  Change an input here, and the output will change there.

Humanity and our aggregate actions and decisions, our interactions with each other and the physical world, the physical world’s effects on us – the sum total of these things is seen, in the progressive-left philosophy, as a great “system,”

Liberty 101: Law as SMOD

One of the most remarkable things about Obamacare has been the theme, lurking with a blithe, disarming shrug, that we have to wait to see “what’s in it” and how it all “plays out.”

It’s not just Nancy Pelosi who talks about it that way.  Basically, it’s everybody who ventures to discuss it analytically.  Each pundit ends up making the point that we’ll just have to see what happens and how it all plays out.

It’s as if Obamacare is not a law, written by men and fully manipulable by them, but

Liberty 101: The principle of establishment

Developments at home and abroad are forcing Americans to think anew about the meaning of liberty and the proper nature and function of government.  What is important to us, and what must we do to keep it?  How do we change the things that manifestly aren’t working, and are in fact doing us daily harm?

Liberty 101 is a series devoted to discussing these topics.  And the subject for today is what I call the principle of establishment.  Very simply, the principle of establishment recognizes that liberty and the protection of natural rights

Liberty 101: Ten things government can’t do without an income tax

1.  Think your income is too big and another person’s is too small.

2.  Propose to “redistribute income” using government policies.

3.  Plan government activities based on the expected size of your income.

4.  Treat you unequally under the law based on the size of your income.

5.  Make it illegal for you to earn income without reporting it to the government.