October 3, 2010
Consider this a “bookend” post, following up on some of the sentiments from my series on Jews and Liberalism — particularly the “Jewish Freedom and the Free Market” post of the other day. It comes primarily from the final ‘Parting Thoughts’ chapter of economist John R. Lott, Jr.’s book Freedomnomics: Why the Free Market Works […]
Tags: Adam Smith, business ethics, capitalism, costs of regulation, economic freedom, economic principles, free market, Freedomnomics, government intervention, government regulation, greed and corruption, invisible hand, John R Lott, Office of Advocacy, regulatory agencies, SBA, Small Business Administration
Posted in Politics |
September 30, 2010
Over the past several weeks, I have intermittently been posting and commenting on excerpts from a book I happened upon at the library — Why Jews Should NOT Be Liberals (2001, rev. 2006) by Larry F. Sternberg. Sternberg examines the “doctrines”, programs, & policies of modern liberalism (in American politics) and compares them with the […]
Tags: Alexis de Tocqueville, American Jews, anti-Semitism, boiled frog, coercive force of government, conservatism vs. liberalism, creeping socialism, democracy in America, expanded government power, individual freedom, Jewish law, Jewish tradition, Larry Sternberg, liberal doctrine, liberal Jews, liberal programs, loss of freedom, preservation of freedom
Posted in Politics, Politics & Religion, Religion |
September 29, 2010
In today’s excerpt from Why Jews Should NOT Be Liberals (2001, rev. 2006), Larry Sternberg returns to the issue of free market capitalism, its benefits, and what part a good Jew should play in the system…. Most observers of American politics would agree that between the two competing political doctrines of liberalism and conservatism, when […]
Tags: Adam Smith's 'invisible hand', American Jews, business ethics, capitalism, conservatism vs. liberalism, Ellis Rivkin, ethics in business, fraud and deceit, free market, greed and corruption, honesty in business, Jewish freedom, Jewish tradition, Judaism, Larry Sternberg, liberal Jews, link between Judaism and capitalism, modern liberals, moral behavior, socialism, Tsedekah
Posted in Politics, Politics & Religion, Religion |
September 26, 2010
Yeah, I know this is an odd topic for this blog. And, I’ll probably go into more detail than necessary. Indulge me… Last night, I re-watched the first two episodes of Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles — based on the first two Terminator movies, of course. You know… the ones where Arnold Schwarzenegger says things […]
Tags: Arnold Schwarzenegger, artificial intelligence, cyborg, cyborg Cameron, endoskeleton, God, James Cameron, John Connor, Judgment Day, moral law, moral lawgiver, moral standards, murder, nephesh, Sarah Connor, soulish, T-800, T2, Terminator, The Sarah Connor Chronicles, Tony Amendola, what is the soul, what is the spirit
Posted in Religion, Science, Science & Religion |
September 22, 2010
We knew it was inevitable, but Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) has dusted off the DISCLOSE Act for a vote. But first, let me review for a moment…. Unless you’re a new reader/visitor, you probably remember that I wrote about this Act back in June/July. (Here, here, here.) DISCLOSE is a terrible piece of […]
Tags: 1st Amendment, Big Labor, campaign finance bill, campaign finance reform, Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, DISCLOSE Act, Eugene Delgaudio, free speech, Harry Reid, incumbent protection, labor unions, McCain-Feingold, November elections, Public Advocate, S.3295, S.3628
Posted in Politics |
September 17, 2010
In the preceding post, some of the final comments by Larry Sternberg were about the potential loss of certain civil liberties under the Patriot Act. In that vein, I just had to post this additional bit I also read recently. It’s by another Jew, writer/journalist/commentator Bernard Goldberg, who was remarking on this point in regards […]
Tags: 9/11, ACLU, Anthony Romero, Bernard Goldberg, civil rights, government tyranny, loss of freedoms, Patriot Act
Posted in Politics |
September 16, 2010
Continuing our (intermittent) series of posts discussing Larry Sternberg’s insightful book (Why Jews Should NOT Be Liberals (2001, rev. 2006)), consider the danger of supporting the actions/programs espoused by the current majority, without (or despite?) considering whether they actually make sense or if similar programs have a history of success. It’s something worth considering, no […]
Tags: American Jews, blindly supporting the majority, Jewish history, Jewish tradition, Jewish values, Jews in WW2, Judaism, liberal Jews, liberalism, Patriot Act
Posted in Politics, Politics & Religion, Religion |
September 14, 2010
Everybody with at least a junior-high education has heard of “survival of the fittest.” It is a common way of expressing Charles Darwin’s proposition of the importance of competitive advantage in the survival of a species. In a nutshell, the theory holds that the way plant and animal groups spread out over the eons was […]
Tags: Biology Letters, changes to evolutionary theory, Charles Darwin, competitive pressures, Darwin was wrong, Darwinist establishment, ecospace, Howard Falcon-Lang, Mike Benton, National Center for Scientific Education, NCSE, Neo-Darwinism, origin of the species, radiation of species, Sarda Sahney, survival of the fittest, tetrapod evolution, tetrapods
Posted in Science |
September 12, 2010
Y’know, for some reason, I couldn’t think of anything I wanted to blog about this weekend. Plus, today’s my birthday, so I have an excuse for loafing off, right? Then I came across some awesome pictures from the Astronomy Photographer of the Year competition. I think they’re pretty amazing, so I decided to share ’em. […]
Tags: Astronomy, astronomy images, Astronomy Photographer of the Year, photographs, photography competition
Posted in Science |
September 9, 2010
In his book Why Jews Should NOT Be Liberals (2001, rev. 2006), Larry F. Sternberg gives a bit of history, explaining how Jews in the late-18th & early-19th centuries came to think so highly of “socialism”. Unfortunately, they did not understand the true, basic tenets of the system, and it cost them and their descendants […]
Tags: American Jews, communist, Czar Alexander III, diaspora, European Jewry, idolatry, International Socialist Movement, Jewish tradition, Judaism, liberal Jews, liberalism, Marxist/Leninist, National Socialist Party, pogroms, progressives, progressivism, Second Commandment, socialism, Ten Commandments
Posted in Politics, Politics & Religion, Religion |