Quotes

A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves money from the public treasure. From that moment on the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most money from the public treasury, with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy followed by a dictatorship. The average age of the world's great civilizations has been two hundred years. These nations have progressed through the following sequence:

from bondage to spiritual faith,
from spiritual faith to great courage,
from courage to liberty,
from liberty to abundance,
from abundance to selfishness,
from selfishness to complacency,
from complacency to apathy,
from apathy to dependency,
from dependency back to bondage.

This quote is the central thesis of historian/economist Alexander Fraser Tyler's work The Cycle of Democracy (1778).

"A cultist is one who has a strong belief in the Bible and the Second Coming of Christ; who frequently attends Bible studies; who has a high level of financial giving to a Christian cause; who homeschools for their children; who has accumulated survival foods and has strong belief in the Second Amendment; and who distrusts big government. Any of these may qualify a person as a cultist but certainly more than one of these would cause us to look at this person as a threat and his family as being in a risk situation that qualified for government interference."

Janet Reno, Attorney General, USA
Interview on 60 Minutes
June 26, 1994
Do you qualify?
Are you (as defined by the US AG) a threat?

Intelligence and education that hasn't been tempered by human affection isn't worth a damn. Don't misunderstand me, intelligence is one of the greatest human gifts. But all too often a search for knowledge drives out the search for love...Intelligence without the ability to give and receive affection leads to mental and moral breakdown, to neurosis, and possibly even psychosis. And I say that the mind absorbed in and involved in itself as a self-centered end, to the exclusion of human relationships, can only lead to violence and pain.
- Charlie Gordon, main character of Daniel Keyes' 1966 book "Flowers for Algernon"

You will never find maximum happiness until you can effectively make a difference in the life of another person.
- Forbes 400 member Jon Huntsman (1999 $3.9B)

The European system [of Greece] won against the Oriental [of Persia] partly because transport by water is cheaper than transport by land, and partly because it is almost a law of history that the rugged, warlike north conquers the easygoing, art-creating south.
- Will Durant, The Story of Civilization, Vol II (The Life of Greece) p. 234

Liberty is one of the most valuable blessings that heaven has bestowed.
- Miguel de Cervantes

I must study politics and war, that my sons may have the liberty to study mathematics and philosophy in order to give their children a right to study painting, poetry, music."
- John Adams in a letter to his wife, Abigail, 1780

There are "no arts; no letters; no society ... continual fear and danger of violent death; and the life of man, solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short."
- Thomas Hobbes describing life in the uncivilized pre-govt 'state of nature'

"The only organized political party with a Christian vision of morality is the Libertarian Party."
- Walter E. Williams

America has a "great opportunity during this time of war to lead the world towards the values that will bring lasting peace." These include "the [following] non-negotiable demands of human dignity; the rule of law, democracy, free speech, respect for women, religious tolerance, equal justice and private property."
- George W. Bush in his January 2002 State of the Union address

"Wherever the standard of freedom and Independence has been or shall be unfurled, there will br America's heart, her benedictions, and her prayers. But she goes not abroad in search of monsters to destroy. She is the well-wisher to the freedom and independence of all. She is the champion and vindicator only of her own. She will recommend the general cause by the countenance of her voice, and by the benignant sympathy of her example. She well knows that by once enlisting under other banners than her own, were they even the banners of foreign independence, she would involve herself beyond the power of extrication, in all the wars of interest and intrigue, of individual avarice, envy and ambition, which assume the colors and usurp the standards of freedom ... She might become the dictatress of the world. She would no longer be the ruler of her own spirit"
- John Quincy Adams, as Sec'y of State in a July 4, 1821 speech to the House of Representatives ("the founding text of American foreign-policy realism" says NR)

It is the duty of nations, as well as of men, to own their dependence upon the overruling power of God and to recognize the sublime truth announced in the Holy Scriptures and proven by all history, that those nations only are blessed whose God is the Lord."
--Abraham Lincoln

Liberal efforts to seek the truth usually boil down to finding what's in fashion now!
- Tony Blankly on The McLaughlin Group, 20 Apr 2001

Politics is philosophy in action.
- Edmund Burke (quoted in Commanding Heights, Lady Thatcher liked this one)

History is philosophy teaching by example.
- Will Durant in Heroes of Civilization

The ultimate result of shielding men from the effects of folly is to fill the world with fools.
- Herbert Spencer, Essays, 1891 (FFF)

A little knowledge is a dangerous thing.
- Alexander Pope, Essay on Criticism, 1711 (on WWTBAM)

The Serenity Prayer: God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.
- Reinhold Niebuhr (1892-1971) (CT)

No people can be bound to acknowledge and adore the Invisible Hand which conducts the affairs of men more than the people of the United States.
- George Washington (PPT)

[O]ne of the most refined (and rare) certainties of liberalism is that historical determinism does not exist. History has not been written so as to negate any further appeal. History is the work of men, and just as men can act rightly with measures that push history in the direction of progress and civilization, they can also err, and by conviction, apathy, or cowardice, allow history to slide into anarchy, impoverishment, obscurantism, and barbarism. The culture of democracy can gain new ground and consolidate the advances it has achieved. Or, it can watch its dominions shrink into nothingness, like Balzac's peau de chagrin. The future depends on us -- on our ideas, our votes, and the decisions of those we put in power.
- Mario Vargas Llosa, Liberalism in the New Millenium [2000] (FFF)

And what of the old-fashioned idea of Christian charity? Once, it was a function of the church to minister to the needs of the genuinely poor and sick. One of the worst by-products of state welfarism has been the paralysis of our impulse toward charity. For not only has the state usurped this function of the church, and seized our means to be charitable, it has stolen our will to be charitable, too.
- Anna Dillenberg, The Freeman, November 1979 (FFF)

A demagogue [or 'exhorter'] cares nothing for truth or falsehood, only for his agenda.
- Sheldon Richman (FFF)

Before any man can be considered as a member of civil society, he must be considered as a subject of the Governor of the Universe. Religion is the basis and foundation of government.
- James Madison (PPT)

The 6 Principles of Just War Theory:
- just cause
- reasonable likelihood of success
- unlikely to cause more evil than it prevents
- declared by a competent authority
- discriminate between combatants and non-combatants
- be a last resort

Where there is a multitude of specific laws, it is a sign that the state is badly governed.
- Isocrates (FFF)

We have no govt armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion ... Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.
- John Adams (PPT)

The most effectual means of securing the continuance of our civil and religious liberties is always to remember w/reverence and gratitude the source from which they flow [i.e. God and the Christian faith].
- John Jay, 1st Chf Justice of the SC (LC pamphlet Feb 2013)

If America were to become an enemy to the religion of the Gospel, that collision of the govt w/Christianity would be the introduction of the dissolution of govt and the bonds of civil society.
- Elias Boundinot, 'another Founder' in 1801 (LC pamphet Feb 2013)

The 5 basic principles of economic progress (Forbes, and civilized society!):
- strong protection of property rights
- stable money
- low taxes
- minimal regulations (esp. barriers to starting busniesses)
- free trade

Addl. quote on stable money: it is "an instrument for the protection of civil liberties against despotic inroads on the part of govts. Ideologically it belongs in the same class with political constitutions and bills of rights" (Mises, quoted by Steve Hanke in Forbes 4 Jun 07 p200).

... There is no subtler, no surer means of overturning the existing basis of society than to debauch the currency. The process engages all the hidden forces of economic law on the side of destruction, and it does it in a manner which not one man in a million is able to diagnose.
- Lord John Maynard Keynes (1883-1946)

7 non-negotiable demands of human dignity, universal human values:
- rule of law
- democracy (i.e. consent of the governed)
- free speech
- respect for women
- religious toleration
- equal justice
- private property
-- George W. Bush in his Jan 2002 State of the Union speech

Heritage Foundation "big 5" principles:
- free enterprise
- limited government (enforced by separation/balance of powers)
- individual freedom
- traditional American values
- strong national defense

The 4 basic schools of American foreign policy (from CFR senior fellow Walter Russell Mead's book Special Providence, each keeps the others' faults in check):
- Hamiltonianism; concern with US economic well-being at home and abroad, imperialist tendency to want to mold world economy to US image
- Wilsonianism; impulse to promulgate US values worldwide, too idealistic, imperialist tendency to want to mold world morality to US image
- Jeffersonianism; focus on protecting American democracy in a perilous world, tends toward isolationism
- Jacksonianism; populist commitment to preserving US interests and honor in the world, America First, suspicious of world organizations (incl. WTO, UN, ...)

[Donald Trump seems to be Jacksonian, tho GOP elites remain Hamiltonian]

Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Liberty is a well-armed lamb contesting the vote.
- Benjamin Franklin (FFF)

Power may justly be compared to a great river. While kept within its due bounds it is both beautiful and useful. But when it overflows its banks, it is then too impetuous to be stemmed; it bears down all before it, and brings destruction and desolation wherever it comes. If, then, this is the nature of power, let us at least do our duty, and like wise men who value freedom use our utmost care to support liberty, the only bulwark against lawless power, which in all ages has sacrificed to its wild lust and boundless ambition the blood of the best men that ever lived...
- Andrew Hamilton, The Trial of John Peter Zenger [1735] (FFF)

George Washington, in his Farewell Address, gave the following advice:
- avoid overgrown military establishments
- avoid excessive partisanship
- avoid encroachment or consolodation between constitutional spheres (i.e. branches of government: executive, legislative, judicial)
- remember that religion/morality are indispensible supports to political prosperity
- keep public credit good (minimize use, cultivate peace, avoid accumulation of debt)
- avoid partiality toward foreign nations
- minimize political connections to foreign nations (economic ones fine)
- avoid permanent alliances with foreign nations
(Hmmm, how are we doing?)

The 5 major conservative think tanks (from Economist magazine, early 2003):
- American Enterprise Institute ("high-altitude bombing")
- CATO Institute
- Manhattan Institute (focuses on dealing w/urban problems, e.g. NYC)
- Heritage Institute ("ground troops", affect legislation)
- Hoover Institution

The wise man's understanding turns him to the right. The fool's understanding turns him to his left.
- Ecclesiastes 10:2, New American Bible, St. Joseph Edition (quoted in NR 5/5/03 p. 12, "Could this be the inspired word of God?")

A statesman cannot create anything himself. He must wait and listen until he hears the steps of God sounding through events; then leap up and grasp the hem of His garment.
- Bismarck (quoted in NR, 7 Apr 2003, p. 48)

The 7 liberal arts (from The Trivium, Sister Miriam Joseph, 2002):
- The Trivium
-- grammar (the art of inventing/combining symbols)
-- logic (the art of thinking)
-- rhetoric (the art of communication)
- The Quadrivium
-- discrete
--- arithmetic (number theory)
--- music (number application)
-- continuous
--- geometry (space theory)
--- astronomy (space application)

We tried so hard to make things better for our kids that we made them worse. For my grandchildren, I'd like better. I'd really like for them to know about hand me down clothes and homemade ice cream and leftover meat loaf sandwiches. I really would. I hope you learn humility by being humiliated, and that you learn honesty by being cheated. I hope you learn to make your own bed and mow the lawn and wash the car. And I really hope nobody gives you a brand new car when you are sixteen. It will be good if at least one time you can see puppies born and your old dog put to sleep. I hope you get a black eye fighting for something you believe in. I hope you have to share a bedroom with your younger brother/sister. And it's all right if you have to draw a line down the middle of the room,but when he wants to crawl under the covers with you because he's scared, I hope you let him. When you want to see a movie and your little brother/sister wants to tag along, I hope you'll let him/her. I hope you have to walk uphill to school with your friends and that you live in a town where you can do it safely. On rainy days when you have to catch a ride, I hope you don't ask your driver to drop you two blocks away so you won't be seen riding with someone as uncool as your Mom. If you want a slingshot, I hope your Dad teaches you how to make one instead of buying one. I hope you learn to dig in the dirt and read books. When you learn to use computers, I hope you also learn to add and subtract in your head. I hope you get teased by your friends when you have your first crush on a boy\girl, and when you talk back to your mother that you learn what ivory soap tastes like. May you skin your knee climbing a mountain, burn your hand on a stove and stick your tongue on a frozen flagpole. I don't care if you try a beer once, but I hope you don't like it. And if a friend offers you dope or a joint, I hope you realize he is not your friend. I sure hope you make time to sit on a porch with your Grandma/Grandpa and go fishing with your Uncle. May you feel sorrow at a funeral and joy during the holidays. I hope your mother punishes you when you throw a baseball through your neighbor's window and that she hugs you and kisses you at Hannukah/Christmas time when you give her a plaster mold of your hand. These things I wish for you - tough times and disappointment, hard work and happiness. To me, it's the only way to appreciate life. Written with a pen. Sealed with a kiss. I'm here for you. And if I die before you do, I'll go to heaven and wait for you.
- Paul Harvey (from an internet mailing)

Guess our national leaders didn't expect this, hmm? Recently, Darrell Scott, the father of Rachel Scott, a victim of the Columbine High School shootings in Littleton, Colorado, was invited to address the House Judiciary Committee's sub-committee. What he said to our national leaders during this special session of Congress was painfully truthful. They were not prepared for what he had to say, nor was it received well.

It needs to be heard by every parent, every teacher, every politician, every sociologist, every psychologist, and every so-called expert! These courageous words spoken by Darrell Scott are powerful, penetrating, and deeply personal. There is no doubt that God sent this man as a voice crying in the wilderness. The following is a portion of the transcript:

Since the dawn of creation there has been both good & evil in the hearts of men and women. We all contain the seeds of kindness or the seeds of violence. The death of my wonderful daughter, Rachel Joy Scott, and the deaths of that heroic teacher, and the other eleven children who died must not be in vain. Their blood cries out for answers.

The first recorded act of violence was when Cain slew his brother Abel out in the field. The villain was not the club he used. Neither was it the NCA, the National Club Association. The true killer was Cain, and the reason for the murder could only be found in Cain's heart.

In the days that followed the Columbine tragedy, I was amazed at how quickly fingers began to be pointed at groups such as the NRA. I am not a member of the NRA. I am not a hunter. I do not even own a gun. I am not here to represent or defend the NRA - because I don't believe that they are responsible for my daughter's death. Therefore I do not believe that they need to be defended. If I believed they had anything to do with Rachel's murder I would be their strongest opponent.

I am here today to declare that Columbine was not just a tragedy - it was a spiritual event that should be forcing us to look at where the real blame lies! Much of the blame lies here in this room. Much of the blame lies behind the pointing fingers of the accusers themselves. I wrote a poem just four nights ago that expresses my feelings best. This was written way before I knew I would be speaking here today:

Your laws ignore our deepest needs,
Your words are empty air.
You've stripped away our heritage,
You've outlawed simple prayer.

Now gunshots fill our classrooms,
And precious children die.
You seek for answers everywhere,
And ask the question "Why?"

You regulate restrictive laws,
Through legislative creed.
And yet you fail to understand,
That God is what we need!

Men and women are three-part beings. We all consist of body, soul, and spirit. When we refuse to acknowledge a third part of our make-up, we create a void that allows evil, prejudice, and hatred to rush in and wreak havoc. Spiritual presences were present within our educational systems for most of our nation's history. Many of our major colleges began as theological seminaries. This is a historical fact.

What has happened to us as a nation? We have refused to honor God, and in so doing, we open the doors to hatred and violence. And when something as terrible as Columbine's tragedy occurs - politicians immediately look for a scapegoat such as the NRA. They immediately seek to pass more restrictive laws that contribute to erode away our personal and private liberties. We do not need more restrictive laws. Eric and Dylan would not have been stopped by metal detectors. No amount of gun laws can stop someone who spends months planning this type of massacre. The real villain lies within our own hearts.

Political posturing and restrictive legislation are not the answers. The young people of our nation hold the key. There is a spiritual awakening taking place that will not be squelched! We do not need more religion. We do not need more gaudy television evangelists spewing out verbal religious garbage. We do not need more million-dollar church buildings built while people with basic needs are being ignored. We do need a change of heart and a humble acknowledgment that this nation was founded on the principle of simple trust in God!

As my son Craig lay under that table in the school library and saw his two friends murdered before his very eyes, he did not hesitate to pray in school. I defy any law or politician to deny him that right! I challenge every young person in America, and around the world, to realize that on April 20, 1999, at Columbine High School prayer was brought back to our schools. Do not let the many prayers offered by those students be in vain. Dare to move into the new millennium with a sacred disregard for legislation that violates your God-given right to communicate with Him.

To those of you who would point your finger at the NRA - I give to you a sincere challenge. Dare to examine your own heart before casting the first stone! My daughter's death will not be in vain! The young people of this country will not allow that to happen!

Do what the media did not - let the nation hear this man's speech (from an email)


Secularism in the modern political meaning - the idea that religion and political authority, church and state are different, and can or should be separated - is, in a profound sense, Christian. Its origins may be traced in the teachings of Christ, confirmed by the experience of the first Christians; its later development was shaped and, in a sense, imposed by the subsequent history of Christendom. The persecutions endured by the early church made it clear that a separation between the two was possible; the persecutions inflicted by later churches persuaded many Christians that such a separation was necessary.
- Bernard Lewis in What Went Wrong?, 2002, p. 96

Bill Gates' 11 rules of life no longer taught in school:
1: Life is not fair - - get used to it!
2: The world won't care about your self-esteem. The world will expect you to accomplish something BEFORE you feel good about yourself.
3: You will NOT make $60,000 a year right out of high school. You won't be a vice-president with a car phone until you earn both.
4: If you think your teacher is tough, wait till you get a boss.
5: Flipping burgers is not beneath your dignity. Your Grandparents had a different word for burger flipping -- they called it opportunity.
6: If you mess up, it's not your parents' fault, so don't whine about your mistakes, learn from them.
7: Before you were born, your parents weren't as boring as they are now. They got that way from paying your bills, cleaning your clothes and listening to you talk about how cool you thought you are. So before you save the rain forest from the parasites of your parent's generation, try delousing the closet in your own room.
8: Your school may have done away with winners and losers, but life HAS NOT. In some schools they have abolished failing grades and they'll give you as MANY TIMES as you want to get the right answer. This doesn't bear the slightest resemblance to ANYTHING in real life.
9: Life is not divided into semesters. You don't get summers off and very few employers are interested in helping you FIND YOURSELF. Do that on your own time.
10: Television is NOT real life. In real life people actually have to leave the coffee shop and go to jobs.
11: Be nice to nerds. Chances are you'll end up working for one.

Essays have to do with ideas, arguments, memories, while stories are about instincts, feelings, the secrets of the human heart that are only revealed through characters put to the test of action by way of plot.
- Joseph Epstein (in WORLD, 31 Jan 04, p. 29)

Resolved ... that it would be a dangerous delusion were a confidence in the men of our choice to silence our fears for the safety of our rights: that confidence is everywhere the parent of despotism -- free government is founded in jealousy and not in confidence; it is jealousy and not confidence which prescribes the limited constitutions, to bind down those whom we are obliged to trust with power. ... In question of power, then, let no more be heard of confidence in man, but bind him down from mischief by the chains of the Constitution.
-- Thomas Jefferson, The Kentucky Resolution [November 16, 1798] (FFF)

"Do not trust in princes, in mortal man, in whom there is no salvation ... How blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the Lord his God" (Psalm 146:3-5).

It must be felt that there is no national security but in the nation's humble acknowledged dependence upon God and His everlasting providence.
- John Adams (PPT)

Journalism is the first draft of history.
- NR, 17 May 2004, p. 6

The 7 deadly sins: Pride, Envy, Anger, Avarice, Lust, Gluttony, Sloth.

The G8 countries: Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, USA

"In heaven, the French do the cooking, the English are the police, the Germans run the machines, the Dutch clean the streets, the Italians make love, the Americans make cars, the Irish tell jokes, the Jews write the Bible, and the Hindus meditate. In hell, the English do the cooking, the Germans are the police, the Irish run the machines, the Hindus clean the streets, the Jews make love, the French make cars, the Dutch tell jokes, the Americans write the Bible, and the Italians meditate."
- quoted in "A Turn of the Clock - A Book of Modern Proverbs" by Peter Kreeft


Email fwded to JCS from Bob Wellborn: Subject: Re: US Govt based on the laws of God, period:

DID YOU KNOW? As you walk up the steps to the building which houses the U.S. Supreme Court you can see near the top of the building a row of the world's law givers and each one is facing one in the middle who is facing forward with a full frontal view ... it is Moses and he is holding the Ten Commandments!

DID YOU KNOW? As you enter the Supreme Court courtroom, the two huge oak doors have the Ten Commandments engraved on each lower portion of each door.

DID YOU KNOW? As you sit inside the courtroom, you can see the wall, right above where the Supreme Court judges sit, a display of the Ten Commandments!

DID YOU KNOW? There are Bible verses etched in stone all over the Federal Buildings and Monuments in Washington, D.C.

DID YOU KNOW? James Madison, the fourth president, known as "The Father of Our Constitution" made the following statement: "We have staked the whole of all our political institutions upon the capacity of mankind for self-government, upon the capacity of each and all of us to govern ourselves, to control ourselves, to sustain ourselves according to the Ten Commandments of God."

DID YOU KNOW? Patrick Henry, that patriot and Founding Father of our country said: "It cannot be emphasized too strongly or too often that this great nation was founded not by religionists but by Christians, not on religions but on the Gospel of Jesus Christ".

DID YOU KNOW? Every session of Congress begins with a prayer by a paid preacher, whose salary has been paid by the taxpayer since 1777.

DID YOU KNOW? Fifty-two of the 55 founders of the Constitution were members of the established orthodox churches in the colonies.

DID YOU KNOW? Thomas Jefferson worried that the Courts would overstep their authority and instead of interpreting the law would begin making law. an oligarchy the rule of few over many.

DID YOU KNOW? The very first Supreme Court Justice, John Jay, said: "Americans should select and prefer Christians as their rulers."

How, then, have we gotten to the point that everything we have done for 220 years in this country is now suddenly wrong and unconstitutional? Lets put it [this info] around the world and let the world see and remember what this great country was built on.

Chamber, US House of Representatives

I was asked to send this on if I agreed or delete if I didn't. Now it is your turn ... It is said that 86% of Americans believe in God. Therefore, it is very hard to understand why there is such a mess about having the Ten Commandments on display or "In God We Trust" on our money and having God in the Pledge of Allegiance. If you agree, pass this on

"The wyrd [way] of all living things [flesh]: beauty and then death."


On the similarity of [non-libertarian] govt to banditry:
"Justice being taken away, then, what are kingdoms but great robberies? For what are robberies themselves, but little kingdoms? The band itself is made up of men; it is ruled by the authority of a prince, it is knit together by the pact of the confederacy; the booty is divided by the law agreed on. If, by the admittance of abandoned men, this evil increases to such a degree that it holds places, fixes abodes, takes possession of cities, and subdues peoples, it assumes the more plainly the name of a kingdom, because the reality is now manifestly conferred on it, not by the removal of covetousness, but by the addition of impunity. Indeed, that was an apt and true reply which was given to Alexander the Great by a pirate who had been seized. For when that king had asked the man what he meant by keeping hostile possession of the sea, he answered with bold pride, "What thou meanest by seizing the whole earth; but because I do it with a petty ship, I am called a robber, whilst thou who dost it with a great fleet art styled emperor."
- St. Augustine, City of God [Circa 420 A.D.] (from FFF 21 Nov 2005)

The 9 Muses, i.e. goddesses of the arts and sciences in Greek mythology, daus of Zeus and Mnemosyne, goddess of memory (from WB; name, area, symbol):
1) Calliope, epic poetry, tablet and stylus (i.e. pen and paper)
2) Clio, history, laurel wreath and scroll
3) Euterpe, lyric poetry, flute
4) Thalia, comedy and pastoral poetry, comic mask and shephard's staff
5) Melpomene, tragedy, tragic mask and sword
6) Terpsichore, dancing, lyre
7) Erato, love poetry, lyre
8) Polyhymnia, sacred song, veil
9) Urania, astronomy, globe

On the value of genealogy (father writing to daughter): "... you will inherit my house, my money, my furniture and books, but I can easily believe that you will treasure these documents in my hand more than any of the other items, because they will contain your own story, your history" (The Historian, Elizabeth Kostova, Little, Brown and Co., 2005).

Nuclear powers: USA 1945, Russia 1949, Britain 1952, France 1960, China 1964, all under the NPT. Non-NPT i.e. unauthorized India 1974, Israel 1979 (suspected but hasn't confirmed or denied), Pakistan 1998, N Korea 2006. Strivers Iran, and if they, then possibly Japan, S Korea.

The 7 sacraments of RCC (Priest required): Baptism, Confirmation (conscious renewal of commitment), Confession/Penance, Holy Communion (Eucharist, central rite), Ordination, Marriage, Extreme Unction (final preparation of soul for heaven)

"the contest between capitalism and socialism is over: capitalism has won ... Capitalism organizes the material affairs of humankind more satisfactorily than socialism"
- socialist economist Robert Heilbroner, 1989

"Why does America's prosperity and self-confidence seem to bear so little relationship to the competence of its govt? The obvious answer is that America, founded on a libertarian theory of minimal govt, has always had low expectations of politicians"
- Anatole Kaletsky, London Times columnist (quoted by Ed Crane in Cato Memo 4 May 07)

In the same Cato Memo: "Cato scholars have been ... testifying against the Mitt Romney-style health care reforms that mandate the purchase of health care insurance and, we think, will lead to ultimate govt control over the health care system. Unfortunately, at mtgs around the country they often run into our friends at the Heritage Foundation, who helped construct the MA plan, in opposition to our support for radical deregulation" (?!)

Keynes on the power of ideas: "[the world is governed by virtually nothing else but ideas] ... Practical men, who believe themselves to be quite exempt from any intellectual influences, are usually the slaves of some defunct economist. Madmen in authority, who hear voices in the air, are distilling their frenzy from some academic scribbler of a few years back ...
- John Maynard Keynes on the power of ideas (Burton Malkiel's aRWdWS p179)

On people-person v. idea-person: "There is little social intercourse between the successful businessmen and the nation's eminent authors, artists and scientists ... Most of the 'socialites' are not interested in books and ideas" Mises (quoted in Liberty Jul 07 p51).


The Origin of The Twelve Days of Christmas: There is one Christmas Carol that has always baffled me. What in the world do leaping lords, French hens, swimming swans, and especially the partridge who won't come out of the pear tree have to do with Christmas? Today I found out, thanks to the Internet. From 1558 until 1829, Roman Catholics in England were not permitted to practice their faith openly. Someone during that era wrote this carol as a catechism song for young Catholics. It has two levels of meaning: the surface meaning plus a hidden meaning known only to members of their church. Each element in the carol has a code word for a religious reality which the children could remember.

- The partridge in a pear tree was Jesus Christ.
- Two turtle doves were the Old and New Testaments.
- Three French hens stood for faith, hope and love.
- The four calling birds were the four gospels of Matthew,Mark, Luke & John.
- The five golden rings recalled the Torah or Law, the first five books of the OT.
- The six geese a-laying stood for the six days of creation.
- Seven swans a-swimming represented the sevenfold gifts of the Holy Spirit: Prophesy, Serving, Teaching, Exhortation, Contribution, Leadership, and Mercy.
- The eight maids a-milking were the eight beatitudes.
- Nine ladies dancing were the nine fruits of the Holy Spirit: Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness, Gentleness, and Self Control.
- The ten lords a-leaping were the ten commandments.
- The eleven pipers piping stood for the eleven faithful disciples.
- The twelve drummers drumming symbolized the twelve points of belief in the Apostles' Creed.

So there is your history for today. This knowledge was shared with me and I found it interesting and enlightening, and now I know how that strange song became a Christmas Carol ... so pass it on, if you wish.

email from JCS


Something not to laugh about: If they know of him at all, many folks think Ben Stein is just a quirky actor/comedian who talks in a monotone. He's also a very intelligent attorney who knows how to put ideas and words together in such a way as to sway juries and make people think clearly. The following was written by Ben Stein and recited by him on CBS Sunday Morning Commentary. Herewith at this happy time of year, a few confessions from my beating heart: I have no freaking clue who Nick and Jessica are. I see them on the cover of People and Us constantly when I am buying my dog biscuits and kitty litter. I often ask the checkers at the grocery stores. They never know who Nick and Jessica are either. Who are they? Will it change my life if I know who they are and why they have broken up? Why are they so important? I don't know who Lindsay Lohan is either, and I do not care at all about Tom Cruise's wife. Am I going to be called before a Senate committee and asked if I am a subversive? Maybe, but I just have no clue who Nick and Jessica are. If this is what it means to be no longer young. It's not so bad. Next confession: I am a Jew, and every single one of my ancestors was Jewish. And it does not bother me even a little bit when people call those beautiful lit up, bejeweled trees Christmas trees. I don't feel threatened. I don' t feel discriminated against. That's what they are: Christmas trees. It doesn't bother me a bit when people say, "Merry Christmas" to me ... I don't think they are slighting me or getting ready to put me in a ghetto. In fact, I kind of like it. It shows that we are all brothers and sisters celebrating this happy time of year. It doesn't bother me at all that there is a manger scene on display at a key intersection near my beach house in Malibu If people want a creche, it's just as fine with me as is the Menorah a few hundred yards away. I don't like getting pushed around for being a Jew, and I don't think Christians like getting pushed around for being Christians. I think people who believe in God are sick and tired of getting pushed around, period. I have no idea where the concept came from that America is an explicitly atheist country. I can't find it in the Constitution, and I don't like it being shoved down my throat. Or maybe I can put it another way: where did the idea come from that we should worship Nick and Jessica and we aren't allowed to worship God as we understand Him? I guess that's a sign that I'm getting old, too. But there are a lot of us who are wondering where Nick and Jessica came from and where the America we knew went to. In light of the many jokes we send to one another for a laugh, this is a little different: This is not intended to be a joke; it's not funny, it's intended to get you thinking.

email from JCS


Billy Graham's daughter [Ann Graham Lotz] was interviewed on the Early Show and Jane Clayson asked her "How could God let something like this Happen?" (regarding Katrina) Anne Graham gave an extremely profound and insightful response. She said, "I believe God is deeply saddened by this, just as we are, but for years we've been telling God to get out of our schools, to get out of our government and to get out of our lives. And being the gentleman He is, I believe He has calmly backed out. How can we expect God to give us His blessing and His protection if we demand He leave us alone?" In light of recent events ... terrorists attack, school shootings, etc. I think it started when Madeleine Murray O'Hare (she was murdered, her body found recently) complained she didn't want prayer in our schools, and we said OK. Then someone said you better not read the Bible in school. The Bible says thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not steal, and love your neighbor as yourself. And we said OK. Then Dr. Benjamin Spock said we shouldn't spank our children when they misbehave because their little personalities would be warped and we might damage their self-esteem (Dr. Spock's son committed suicide). We said an expert should know what he's talking about and we said OK. Now we're asking ourselves why our children have no conscience, why they don't know right from wrong, and why it doesn't bother them to kill strangers, their classmates, and themselves. Probably, if we think about it long and hard enough, we can figure it out. I think it has a great deal to do with "WE REAP WHAT WE SOW."

email from JCS


When faced with the discrepancy between their ideals and reality, there are 4 possible basic responses: 1) the hypocrit ignores reality (e.g. 'fake' 'goody goody' evangelicals?), 2) the cynic dismisses ideals as, at best, useful myths, 3) the complacent just admits the gap and moves on ['whatever', ironic detachment] 4) the moralist [diligently] seeks to narrow the gap with religious uplift, social reform, ... (from 'Freedom Just Around the Corner' p16, see rvw).

Related to fjac #1: from NR 21 Apr 08 pp38-41, Michael Novak discusses Pope Benedict XVI's visit to the USA, "My guess is that the Vatican has never had a better friend in the White House than George W Bush - not only in defending the sanctity of human life, but in exposing the reflexive leftism (and 'gnosticism') of many intl organizations, and in stressing the importance of religious liberty in the ME and elsewhere ... in the early 80s ... Ratzinger [already knew] that Communism was dead ... [but] was concerned about 'gnosticism', the great intellectual threat of the future ... Like Eric Voegelin ... [he] was thought to have meant by this a kind of dreamy utopianism, an attempt to escape from human limitations. Gnosticism seeks such unrealistic forms of perfection that it necessarily becomes the enemy of the merely human and the merely good. It leads to dissatisfaction, outrage, bitterness, alienation, depressed capitulation to evil, and, often enough, self-destruction [and self-loathing]. Perhaps [Ratzinger] was even then working toward his more recent thinking about relativism and nihilism, genetic engineering, and political romanticism as the chief enemies of freedom today."

"The great questions of the day will be decided not by speeches and majority votes - that was the great mistake of [the revolutions of] 1848 and 1849 - but by blood and iron"
- Otto von Bismarck

It is the responsibility of men and women who seek an audience for their writing beyond the family to instruct or entertain, or to die trying
- WFB Jr in NR (12 Feb 07 p54)

"Pray as if everything depends on God, then work as if everything depends on you"
- Martin Luther

Daniel was a scholarly, skeptical type, governed by his intellect, not his emotions ... to him, fear was in a way an intellectual exercise. He didn't ignore his fear, but he talked to it, telling it to sit in the far corner until he'd finished the task at hand ... He'd never permitted himself to love the people in his life as wholeheartedly as he'd loved his dog. And he'd been well loved in return. With people it was different. He'd kept his distance, always at a slight emotional angle from the rest of the world, even in his marriage. He'd used his intellect to keep himself safe, a half-step apart.
- Kate Cross in "A Man With Good Nerves" (Writing class at SCC)

First you must reach the intellectuals, the teachers, and the writers, with reasoned argument ... It will be their influence which will prevail and the politicians will follow.
- Friedrich Hayek (quoted in Dick Armey/Tracie Sharp/SPN fundraising letter, Apr 07)

There are no easy answers, only intelligent choices.
- 1970s ad for Caterpiller Corp (CAT) which impressed me, nudged me toward conservatism

There are no easy answers ... but there are simple answers. We must have the courage to do what we know is morally right.
- Ronald Reagan

There is a religious war going on in this country, a cultural war as critical to the kind of nation we shall be as the Cold War itself, for this war is for the soul of America.
- Pat Buchanan at the 1992 GOP Convention (from Hoover Digest, Winter 07 p68)

The message of Imprimis has remained constant, as it has promoted the ideas of limited govt, individual rights, personal responsibility, free-market economics, and a strong national defense.
- Arlan K Gilbert, Imprimis Jun 07 (interestingly, corelates to Heritage's 'big 5' w/2 and 3 linked w/Heritage's individual liberty, traditional values, Hillsdale's motto is Virtus tentamine gaudet i.e. 'strength rejoices in the challenge')

When asked what voters want, GOP candidate Mitt Romney replied (paraphrase): I think they want a return to Reagan's ideas, i.e. basic conservative values: a strong military, a strong economy, strong families and values (Hmmm, sounds pretty good!) (from a recent USNWR 8/07). It struck me that this intersects nicely with faith, family, freedom and also Heritage's and Hillsdale's 'big 5'. Also related, Chuck Colson's recent CT backpage editorial reminding Christians not to focus too much on politics alone, since other 'spheres' are also important e.g. family, church, community. [Pentacostal pastor] Rod Parsley, in Culturally Incorrect p29 refers to "the 7 spheres of society: home, church, school, media, arts (including entertainment, sports), commerce - science - technology, govt - politics. Murray Rothbard's reprinted article in Liberty ('Me and the Eiger' Sep 07): us Jews like to discuss ideas, books, movies, politics, gossip ... v. goyim's nature, strenuous pursuits (e.g. mtn climbing) ... finally, these categories brought to mind Herman Dooyeweerd's 'aspects' of reality: 1 math, 2 spatial, 3 kinematic, 4 physical, 5 biotic, 6 sensitive, 7 analytic, 8 historical, 9 lingual, 10 social, 11 economic, 12 aesthetic, 13 juridical, 14 ethical, 15 pistic [faith] ... particular laws/norms hold for each aspect, creating 'spheres' ... (from Contours of a Christian Philosophy).

Govt is not reason; it is not eloquence; it is force! Like fire, it is a dangerous servant and a fearful [-some] master.
- George Washington (Quotations of GW, Applewood, 2003, p29)

The power to tax is [involves] the power to destroy.
- Justice John Marshall

A govt big enough to give you everything you want is big enough to take everything you have.
- Barry Goldwater

That govt is best which governs least.
- Thomas Jefferson

"We're from the govt and we're here to help you"
- caption under pic of a gun pointed at you

"You are sick and tired of manipulation, lies, and agendas. Isn't it time for a return to truth, logic, and natural law?"
- from an ad for Salvo mag, pub. by The Fellowship of St James (RCC)

James Dobson in response to IRS investigation of Focus on the Family (prompted by CREW accusations of political partisanship, but found nothing wrong, from a monthly update letter): "We have no interest in stretching the rules, bucking the system, or seeing how much we can get away with before we get caught. Every day, this organization fights to promote bibical values, and we don't want to do anything that would embarrass or reflect negatively on the cause of Christ. We're fallible, of course, and we will make mistakes at times. But we will never waver in our determination to walk the straight-and-narrow and to follow the principle set forth in 1 Peter 2:16-7 (NIV): 'Live as free men, but do not use your freedom as a cover-up for evil; live as servants of God. Show proper respect for everyone: Love the brotherhood of believers, fear God, honor the king.'"

"The natural progress of things is for liberty to yield and govt to gain ground ... The tree of liberty must be watered from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants"
- Thomas Jefferson

"Politicians are people who have what it takes to take what you have. Politics may not be the world's oldest profession, but the results are the same"
- John T. "Jack" Wenders (CATO contributor, d Nov 07)

How are politicians like diapers?
They both need to be changed often, and for the same reason!

"The UN is an organization of renegades, socialists, dictators and thugs whose main purpose is to fleece the United States!"
- Rush Limbaugh (heard 28 Nov 07)

"Virtually everything is under federal control nowadays except the federal budget"
- Herman E Talmadge (NTU calender)

"That most delicious of all privileges - spending other people's money"
- John Randolph of Roanoke (NTU calender)

"I cannot undertake to lay my finger on that article of the Constitution which granted a right to Congress of expending, on objects of benevolence, the money of their constituents ..."
- James Madison (NTU calender)

"An election is nothing more than an advance auction of stolen goods"
- Ambrose Bierce (NTU calender)

"It's time to admit that public education operates like a planned economy, a bureaucratic system in which everybody's role is spelled out in advance and there are few incentives for innovation and productivity. It's no surprise that our school system doesn't improve: it more resembles the communist economy than our own market economy"
- Albert Shanker, frmr pres. of the American Federation of Teachers (1989) (NTU calender)

"To tax the community for the advantage of a class [or any subcommunity] is not protection: it is plunder"
- Benjamin Disraeli (NTU calender)

"We contend that for a nation to try to tax itself into prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket and trying to lift himself up by the handle"
- Winston Churchill (NTU calender)

"We are devoted to what Madison called a 'spectacle ... of Liberty and Learning, each leaning on the other for their mutual and surest support.' At the center of [our curriculum are] ... the Great Books, Western Civilization, American Heritage, natural sciences and the US Constitution ... In a speech at the laying of a new cornerstone in 1853, Hillsdale President Edmund Fairfield stated that the 'history of Liberty has been the history of intelligence' ... motto: 'Educating for Liberty Since 1844' ... [the 1787 NW Ordinance stated] 'Religion, morality, and knowledge, being necessary to good govt and the happiness of mankind, schools and the means of education shall forever be encouraged' ... [Hillsdale's founding Articles] identified 'sound learning' as essential to perpetuating 'the blessings of civil and relgious liberty and intelligent piety' ... [to] 'develop the minds and improve the hearts' [of students]"
- from a Hillsdale College mailing (Christmas 2007)

"Justice, justice, you shall pursue ..." (Deut. 16:20)
- from an ACLJ mailing

Democrats, "the old party of rum, Romanism and rebellion"
- CBC editorial #1606

A neoconservative is a liberal who's been mugged by reality.
- Irving Kristol ('father of neo-conservatism')

If you're young and not a liberal, you have no heart.
If you're old and are a liberal, you have no brain.
- Winston Churchill

"What explains the extravagant overrepresentation of Jews, relative to their numbers, in the top ranks of the arts, sciences, law, medicine, finance, entrepreneurship, and the media. If it is IQ, as Charles Murray argues it is, how did the Jews become so smart?"
- from a Commentary mailing

"I believe not just that ideas have consequences, but that only ideas have lasting consequences. It is once again time for us to go back to ideas, which is what the Goldwater Institute trades in. It is because of institutions like the GI that I am not pessimistic"
- George Will at GI

"In 1946, when FEE [Foundation for Economic Education] was founded, those who cherished freedom were celebrating the defeat and destruction of Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan. But, with the defeat of freedom's enemies abroad, FEE founder Leonard Read and his colleagues were forced to endure the institutionalizing of the 'New Deal' here at home - not to mention subsequent massive expansions of our govt's size and power. They were also forced to witness the rise of Soviet Communism and watch an Iron Curtain descend on Europe, China, and SE Asia. But it was during these dark days that FEE brought together some of the greatest advocates of freedom - a generation of great thinkers - Mises, Hayek, Hazlitt, Friedman, and others - whose words and wisdom still guide us today ... However, despite our successes [e.g. decline of Keynesianism, Communism, Socialism, even liberalism, fall of Berlin Wall], freedom here at home remains fragile and under constant assault. Indeed, political trends suggest that Americans have once again acquired a taste for growing govt [hence the need to continued FEE educational programs ...]"
- from an FEE mailing

At the 1984 founding of the Institute of Religion and Public Life [IRPL], it was 1 of only 5 think tanks in America devoted to R and PL. Today (12/07) there are >200. From the founding vision: "FT means, 1rst, that the FT to be said about PL is that PL is not the FT. 2nd, that there are FT, in the sense of 1rst principles, for the right ordering of PL. The 1rst meaning of FT is that, for the sake of both R and PL, R must be given priority. While R informs, enriches, and provides a moral foundation for PL, the chief purpose of R is not to serve PL. Here we discover a necessary paradox. R that is captive to PL is of little public use. Indeed, such captivity produces politicized R and R-ized politics, and the result, as we know from bitter historical experience, is tragedy for both R and PL. R best serves PL by relativizing the importance of PL, especially of PL understood as politics. Authentic R keeps the political enterprise humble by reminding it that it is not the FT. By directing us to the ultimate, R defines the limits of the penultimate. By illuminating our highest purpose, all lesser purposes are brought under transendent judgment."
- from a Nov 07 fundraising letter

"I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just; that His justice cannot sleep forever"
- Thomas Jefferson on slavery, etched into Jefferson Memorial (quoted in Liberty Counsel newsletter Jan 08)

"Sadly, in 2006 many Christians didn't bother to vote their Christian values. In 2007, we faced the consequences of that apathy ... defensive battles just to maintain the status quo ... Not surprisingly, many Christians and values-minded citizens began 2007 in a state of despair ... [w/media trumpeting] doom for 'values voters' ... lost 2 great leaders Falwell, Kennedy ... The secret to America's greatness, as Alexis DeToqueville and many other historians have noted, is found in our reliance on God and conformance to His moral law [e.g. honoring sanctity of marriage, life] ... We cannot expect to be [economically, militarily, morally strong 'the moral compass of the world'] if we slaughter the unborn ... destroy our 1rst govt - marriage and the family"
- Liberty Counsel Jan 08 newsletter

"Whatever has gone 'wrong' for the [GOP] in recent years ... An agenda based on core Republican principles lower taxes, small govt, cutting waste, personal responsibility, a strong national defense and protection of traditional values [is preferable to] the liberal Dems' ... Left-wing agenda of ever-rising taxes, massive welfare spending, anything-goes values, and a [Blame America First] foreign policy dictated by the anti-American bureaucrats at the UN"
- from a mailing of the Republican [AZ] State Leadership Conference

"... the moral and legal erosion that's occurred in our nation has actually taken place over several generations. It started out slowly. One law at a time. One legislator at a time. One activist judge at a time. But gradually it snowballed w/enough force and momentum to deconstruct essential tenets of the Constitution ... [ban prayer in schools 1963? ...] legalize abortion ... [1973] undermine marriage and family life ... protect the vilest pornography ... bring us to the brink of same-sex marriage ... and much more"
- Ave Maria School of Law mailing

History is the mirror [image] of Providence
- old saying quoted by Walter Russell Mead in "God and Gold" p81 (i.e. so study history to see what God has been up to!)

Fascism and communism are two sides of the same coin. Under [the 1rst], corporations become the govt; in the other, the govt becomes the corporations.
- Tim Slagle (Liberty Reflections Aug 06 p45)

Nazism values 'the nation' above all, fascism 'the state'

All the really good ideas belong to the libertarians.
- Hugh Downs (frmr 20/20 co-host), 1997

The whole purpose of the Constitution is to remove our rights from the reach of democracy.
- Timothy Sandefur, Liberty, Sep 2005

Little else is required to carry a state to the highest degree of opulence from the lowest level of barbarism, but peace, easy taxes, and a tolerable administration of justice.
- Adam Smith, quoted in Liberty magazine, Sep 05 p34

Each year the Fraser Institute [of Vancouver] publishes their Economic Freedom of the World Index (see www.fraserinstitute.org), which measures 5 major areas of govt activity in >100 countries: size of govt, legal structure, sound money, trade, and regulation [hmmm, corresponds to key principles of limited govt, rule of law, sound money, free trade, low barriers to starting/running a business]. The most surprising thing about the study, according to its author James Gwartney, a prof. of econ. at FL St. U, is the importance of of legal structure as the key to maximum performance for an economy. "It turns out that the legal system - the rule of law, security of property rights, an independent judiciary, and an impartial court system - is the most important function of govt, and the central element of both economic freedom and civil society, and is far more statistically significant than the other variables." Optimal level of govt calculated by various studies to be 23%, 25% 20-30% of GDP (Mark Skousen, 'The Necessary Evil,' Liberty, Sep 05, p32).

The phrase 'robber barons' was popularized by socialist historian Matthew Josephson in the early 20C (e.g. Andrew Carnegie, Jay Gould, Henry Clay Frick). Another classic leftist work was Gustavus Myers' 1909 'History of the Great American Fortunes.' Myer's 1936 edition included a "rancidly self-pitying account of his battle against free enterprise. As late as 1939, Myers was still banging away at 'wealth' and hoping FDR would follow through and confiscate it all."
- Liberty, Sep 05, Stephen Cox rvw of Sanger, Renehan books, pp41-4

Most Christians today "like their predecessors, undoubtedly spend most of their daily energies trying to secure their own place within the American capitalist system while remaining faithful to their understanding of the Christian gospel"
- Dict. of Presb. & Reformed Trad. in America, entry on 'Capitalism' p56

Where there is no Law, there is no Freedom [or 'there can be no liberty w/o law' and] where law ends, tyranny begins.
- John Locke

Politics is the art of achieving the maximum amount of freedom for individuals that is consistent with the maintenance of social order.
- Barry Goldwater in 'The Conscience of a Conservative'

As a proud member of the American Seniors Association [aspiring conservative alternative to the left-liberal AARP, founder Jerry Barton], I strongly support its efforts to promote sound public policy that encourages less govt, lower taxes, a solid national defense, stronger families and individual responsibility ... courageous and unswerving stand for conservative principles.
- Shirley Jones, Academy Award-winning Actress in a membership brochure

The people are responsible for the character of their Congress. If that body be ignorant, reckless, and corrupt, it is because the people tolerate ignorance, recklessness, and corruption. If it be intelligent, brave, and pure, it is because the people demand these high qualities ...
- Pres. (and Rev.) James Garfield (1831-81, from LC's Feb 08 'Liberator', also in bl-elop)

The theme of Deuteronomy is simple: If you obey God and keep His commandments, your Nation will be blessed; if [not] ... cursed ... strong v. weak families, cities (crime), military, economy, lender v. debtor.
- Mat Staver in LC's Feb 08 'The Liberator'

Daily liturgy of RCC monasteries:
- 6am Prime (just after sunrise)
- 8:15a Lauds
- 11:00a Mass (Tierce)
- ~2pm? Sext
- ~5pm? None
- 7:30p Vespers
- 9:30p Compline (7pm in winter, 8pm in summer in England)
- 3am Matins

Conservatism isn't just an alliance of convenience among libertarians, war hawks, culture warriors ... [but based on] a fundamental insight ... If the original leftist insight is 'things don't have to be this way, they could be better' then the original conservative insight [response] is 'yes, but they could also be worse' [reminds me of Daniel Patrick Moynahan's comment: conservatives 'culture > politics'; liberals 'yes, but politics can change culture'] ... our love for 'the permanent things' isn't simply temperamental timidity, unexamined prejudice, or irresponsible nostalgia ... [but] healthy humility before the accumulated wisdom of the human race [incl. that revealed by God] ... the Left has always paid a high cost for disdaining the wisdom of the past (cf Dan Flynn's bk "Conservative History of the Lef") ... the neocons and libertarians of the right respect the past least, but even they're not stupid enought to distrust anyone >30yo ... human prosperity, freedom, happiness are never going to be assured by scientific discoveries, political schemes, or newly invented ideologies [but] depend on respect for fundamental principles that we learn from inherited wisdom ... [we] are for private property not just [for selfish reasons] but because we believe in God-given rights ... free mkt not just because we want to be rich, and not just [because it 'works'] but because we known that men are meant to be free [i.e. normative] ... defend marriage, fight porn not just [for pragmatism] but because we know its right and good, sex is for more than pleasure ... patriots not out of [selfish] chauvinism but because its right to love your country and America's founding principles are real, universal ... support quality education not just for practical reasons but also because we want to pass on the permanent things ... cf Carl Middleton's "Great Quotations That Shaped the Western World" (Elizabeth Cantor in CBC 'And Rightly So' Apr 08).

The fundamental ideology of Americans is "antistatism, laissez-faire, individualism, populism and egalitarianism."
- Seymour Martin Lipset (quoted by David Boaz in CATO clippings, 2/13/08 article)


Rodney Stark ends his book ("The Victory of Reason: How Christianity Led to Freedom, Capitalism, and Western Success," Random, 2005) with this: "Consider this recent statement by one of China's leading scholars:

'One of the things we were asked to look into was what accounted for the success, in fact the pre-eminence, of the West all over the world. We studied everything we could from the historical, political, economic, and cultural perspective. At first, we thought it was because you had more powerful guns than we had. Then we thought it was because you had the best political system. Next we focused on your economic system. But in the past 20 years, we have realized that the heart of your culture is your religion: Christianity. That is why the West is so powerful. The Christian moral foundation of social and cultural life was what made possible the emergence of capitalism and then the successful transition to democratic politics. We don't have any doubt about this.'

Neither do I," says Stark.

Neither do I [says Steve].

[This quote comes from "Jesus in Beijing" (David Aikman, Regnery, 2003, p5). It was heard by 18 American tourists (including Aikman?), uttered by "a scholar from one of China's premier academic research institutes, the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) in Beijing in 2002" p6]


WFB's Sharon Statement outlined the principles of modern conservatism: individual liberty, limited govt, the US Constitution, federalism, the free-market economy and a strong national defense.
- from David Boaz obit of WFB 2/28/08

Those were the principles that WFB [et al] advanced from NR's 1955 founding ... 1964 Goldwater campaign ... 1980 Reagan victory ... 1994 GOP victory ... Then in 2000, for the 1rst time [the GOP] took control of [House, Senate and Pres]. At last, conservatives believed, they'd be able to deliver on the agenda they'd been advancing for decades. What happened? [They]:

- increased federal spending by a trillion dollars in 6yrs
- passed the biggest expansion of entitlements since LBJ
- federalized education
- gave unprecedented power to the executive
- launched a massive nation-building projects thousands of miles from home
- [intellectuals] abandoned limited govt roots, led by neocons (who drifted over from radical left, transformed conservatism from 'rugged individualism' to 'national greatness')
- religious right demanded that govt impose their social values on all
- from Reagan's 'govt is not the solution, its the problem' to Bush's 'when somebody hurts, govt has got to move'

- from same David Boaz WFB Jr obit

Early in the 1rst millennium, the Roman poet Juvenal AD 55-14x lamented that his society had degenerated to the point where all that most citizens craved were 'bread and circuses' rather than the responsible exercise of power. Is this observation applicable to America today?
- NTU pres. Duane Parde in 3/08 'Dollars and Sense'

We at Calvin College are heirs to a long tradition ... shaped by Augustine's dealings w/the Donatists [who refused to reinstate bishops who had folded under Diocletian's persecution], Calvin's dealings w/late medieval Catholicism, ahd [Abraham] Kuyper's dealings w/a culturally captive Dutch national church ... several constructive themes ... 'invisible c. visible church' ... 'organic v. institutional church' ... sphere sovereignty - have been adept at squelching clericalism and keeping the church from merely focusing on its own institutional life"
- John D Witvliet in Spark (Winter 07) on the CRC's 150th anniversary

My friends, we live in the greatest nation in the history of the world. I hope you'll join with me as we try to change it.
- Barack Obama, 2008 (?!)

The CATO Institute is the foremost upholder of the idea of liberty in the nation that is the foremost upholder of the idea of liberty.
- George F Will

The G7(8) nations: 1 USA 2 Japan 3 Germany 4 UK 5 France 6 Italy 7 Canada 8 Russia

War costs (Reason May 08, 07 data): Am Rev $4B War of 1812 1B Mex War 18xx 2B Civil War 81B Span/Am 1898 7B WWI 364B WWII 3.2T Korean 691B Vietnam 650B Persian Gulf 'Desert Storm' 1991 92B Iraq 820B (so far)!

The 'golden triangle': Freedom requires Virtue, Virtue requires Faith, Faith requires Freedom (all Founders agreed, Case for Civility, Os Guinness, p70)

"CT reports that in 1960 the 7 leading mainline Protestant denominations - United Methodist, Presbyterian, American Baptist, Disciples of Christ, Lutheran, Episcopal, and United Church of Christ - had a combined membership of 29M ... growth of evangelical and conservative churches ... decline of traditional/liberal [mainline] ... trend favors Leave Us Alone Coalition ... [former] mocked and derided [by] establishment left [i.e. the Takings Coalition] ... Sophisticated leftists [have a] hostility that is difficult to believe coming from folks who think of themselves as devoid of prejudice. They [don't look like] George Wallace or Sheriff Bull Connor ... but they sound like them" (Leave Us Alone, Grover Norquist, 2008, pp155-6).

The 7 7s of Revelation: churches, seals, trumpets, personages (woman, dragon, Man Child, archangel Michael, remnant, beast from sea, beast from earth), bowls, dooms (ecclesiastical Babylon, political Babylon, antichrist and false prophet, antichristian nations, God and Magog, Satan, wicked dead), new things (heavens, earth, city, nations, river, tree, throne).
- from New Unger's Bible HB, SBC, p651


America was on the gold standard from its founding to the Civil War (rate?), after which we went back on it 1879-1914, during which 1 oz = $20.67, i.e. $1 = .048 troy oz. From this, one can see how far the dollar has been debased!

Throughout most of American history the dollar has been defined as a specific weight in gold. Until 1933, in fact, $20 could be redeemed for 1 oz of gold. But in that year, the US govt went off the gold standard ... [even outlawed holding it or using it for contracts] but [redeemed for foreign central banks at] $35/oz, a devaluation from the earlier $20.67/oz. Even this tenuous link to gold was severed in 1971, when Nixon declared that w/in a year, at $35, we wouldn't have any gold remaining [at Ft Knox].
- Ron Paul's 'Revolution' p140 [gold recently hit $1000/oz!]

All the perplexities, confusions, and distress in America arise, not from defects in their Constitution or Confederation, not from a want of honor or virtue, so much as from downright ignorance of the nature of coin, credit, and circulation.
- John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, 1787 (cited in Ron Paul's 'Revolution' p138)

In "The Buck Starts Here" (TAE 5-6/08 p12), there's a blurb on Craig Karmen's book "Biography of the Dollar" which quotes the book: "since 1971, the year when the gold standard ended and currency trading began, [the US dollar] has experienced 5 extended trading cycles ... weakening 1971-8 [from $35 to >$800], strengthening 78-85 [$300], weakening 85-95 [$500], strengthening 95-02 [$250] and finally weakening 02 to the present day [$1K]. [It's important to note that] the dollar lost more ground during the weak years than it made back during the strong ones."

An online chart of gold prices 1975-05 (kitco) showed 12/76 $60, 12/79 $760, 6/82 $300, 1/83 $500, 12/84 $300, 12/87 $500, 12/92 $330, 12/95 $420, then up up and away (4/08 $1K).


Toward God, earnesty; toward people, cynicism! (i.e. 'In God we trust; all others pay cash')

Don't be too cynical in public, or too trusting in private.
- Empire of Debt book

Since WWII most countries have regarded monetary, fiscal and tax policy as the 3 critical instruments in regulating the economy.
- Steve Forbes in Forbes mag 5 May 08 p19

In TAE 5-6/08, Arthur C Brooks explains that "money doesn't buy happiness, but success does ... Could it be that what we care most about isn't material comforts, but one-upmanship? ... This theory may sound good, but is NOT the explanation best supported by the evidence. Rather ... relative prosperity [leads to happiness because it] makes them feel successful [i.e. that they'd created value, demonstrated their worth, ...] ... Our market system, which often rewards success w/$, can create the tendency to confuse success itself w/$ ... as Tocqueville noted, the remedy lay not in [govt social engr] but in the institutions of civil society: families, churches, charities, and friendships [associations] ... mkts not enough, we need morality too"

Some of the larger commitments of US forces as of 2004: Iraq 153K, Germany 75K, Japan 47K, S Korea 37K, Italy 13K, England 12K, Afghanistan 11K, Kosovo 5K, Bosnia 3K, Qatar 1.6K, Djibouti 1.6K, Philippines 1K ... around 360K in 153 countries (Pat Buchanan's DoR p126).

"Nation-states are self-interested collective organizations, both at home and abroad. As public choice economists tell us, the first interests the state looks after are the state's - not the people's. Quite often, the state's interests are served by war" (and/or inflation)
- Justin Logan in CATO Policy Report May/Jun 08

If you listen to what passes for political discourse these days, you hear alot about why 1) we need more govt 2) one group of people should get preferential treatment over others 3) we should raise taxes on some to pay for special benefits for others 4) we should ignore illegal entry through our borders 5) left-wing bureaucrats should decide what's taught in our schools. Frankly, our founders wouldn't recognize today's America. Politicians climb all over each other to pander to various segments of voters ... no matter if their suggested policies violate our founding principles of equality, limited govt, and personal responsibility ... Reagan: 'Freedom is never more than 1 generation away from extinction' ... Too many of our elected officials have forgotten the fundamental principles of limited constitutional govt, resulting in unchecked govt spending, a loss of individual rights and a weakened national defense ... Politics today is driven by what the Founding Fathers often referred to as 'passion.' But lasting political reform requires a foundation built on reason and solid conservative principles.
- May 08 fundraiser from Brian Kennedy of Claremont for their Publius Fellows program

"Israel's population may be just over 7M. But when you confront terror and evil, you are 307M strong, because the United States of America stands with you"
- President George W Bush to the Knesset, May 2008

War is the health of the state.
- Randolph Bourne 1918

[War is the germ of all evils, the precursor of taxes, armies and all other] instruments for bringing the many under the domination of the few [i.e. centralization].
- James Madison

In "Filth Matters" (NR 2 Jun 08), Jonah Goldberg looks at Hollywood fare: amazing now similar "the highbrow messages are from the lowbrow ones. In the meaty intellectual movies, we get highly polished existentialism, radical autonomy, contempt for tradition and authority, and, most of all, the elevation of youthful passion over reason ... countless respectable films simply recycle the same mulch of Marxist banalities, Rousseauian solecisms, and threadbare insights from The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit ... [one recent line:] 'On our very 1rst day at Harvard, a very wise prof quoted Aristotle: 'The law is reason free from passion.' Well, no offense to Aristotle, but in my 3yrs at Harvard I've come to find that passion is a key ingredient to the study and practice of law - and of life' ... Ever since the days of Captain Kangaroo, kids have been taught that 'the most important person in the whole world is you ... and you hardly even know you' [i.e. self-esteem]. The result has been a confirmed explosion in unwarranted self-esteem among young people ... 'go w/your gut instincts' [is not] a helpful maxim for little kids to live by ... Global-warming themes [in] 'Ice Age' 'Happy Feet' ... [Marxism in] 'A Bug's Life' 'Antz' ... [kids] are taught that they're the measure of their own morality and that truth is a fashion statement ... John Derbyshire [may overstate when he says] 'popular culture is filth' But the truth is that filth matters"

[Obama] can win the Dem nomination the same way McGovern [72], Mondale [84], Dukakis [88], and Kerry [04] did - by appealing to an activist-liberal base [but he'll go down like they did in the general election, since you can't win that w/only 'eggheads' and 'blacks' (Paul Begala's formulation), need 'Reagan Dems' or white working class votes too]
- Victor Davis Hanson in NR 2 Jun 08 (oops, wrong call)

Obama "is a down-the-line liberal partisan who has rarely shown political courage on anything [v. his vaunted image] ... McCain can and should call him on it.
- Ramesh Ponnuru in NR 2 Jun 08

"Koontz became a teacher in the Appalachian Poverty Program. 'I worked for Goldwater in 1964, but my political allegiance had started to drift leftward ... Then it was beaten down by the public school system ... My early novels were very Freudian and full of victimology ... subscribed to the belief that you are what you are because of what your parents or society or capitalism did to you ... [but his father's death caused a rethink] He'd had a wonderful father and turned out rotten. I had a father and turned out all right ... My characters started to become the makers of their own lives, to become who they are through their own choices ... [he rails against utilitarian ethics e.g. Peter Singer] ... Koontz [is a] Catholic convert"
- from NR story on Best-selling author Dean Koontz (2 Jun 08)

Politics is war by other means [also reversible]
- Clausewitz

'An old, mad, blind, despised and dying king'
- Shelley on Geo III

[My] journey took me from high school socialism to NR to where I am today ... a progressive, national greatness conservative in the Hamilton-Whig Party-Lincoln-TR-McCain-Giuliani mold ... tension between immigrant striving for the American Dream and Burkean epistemological modesty ... It's sometimes said you can define a conservative by what year [they] want to go back to. I never wanted to repeal the New Deal [I do]. It was the Great Society that was causing me problems ... The Hamiltonian tradition is now nearly dormant ... they wanted limited but energetic govt to enhance [social] mobility and competition ... Brookings, Robert Rubin, John McCain, Rudy Giuliani, Manhattan Institute.
- David Brooks in 'Why I Turned Right'

Remember, the Good Samaritan had more than goodwill, he had money!
- Margaret Thatcher

[related to Thatcher's quote above is a Christmastime quote by Reagan from PPT to the effect that while we will and should certainly continue to pray for peace (esp. at Christmastime), history has shown that peace will not be achieved by goodwill alone i.e. he's implying that economic and military strength are also required, since there remain strong adversaries in the world to our western (i.e. Christian) way of life e.g. respect for individual dignity/liberty i.e. realism v. idealism]


Daily gold production is 220k oz, silver 1.8M oz. Real production costs are $16.5/oz for silver, $850/oz for gold. Total world investment silver inventory is 440M oz (not incl. private jewelry, etc.). Against this 440M oz, almost 1B oz are held short!? Hmmm, Israel Friedman says 5B oz gold v. 2.5B oz silver (!?).

A bet on gold [and other non-financial hard assets like silver, oil, real estate, commodities ...] is a bet on govt incompetence in managing the money supply, and that is a very good bet!
- Milton Friedman

Inflation is not an accident, but a deliberate govt policy. It can't last. It must either run away or end, thus leading to contraction and a bust. Once the people believe inflation is a policy that won't end, hyperinflation is likely, leading to devaluations for our budgetary and monetary sins, massive cuts in govt spending (e.g. social programs, subsidies, military adventures).
- Ludwig von Mises (paraphrased in James Cook's IRI newsletter, who recommends putting 10% of your wealth in actual silver)


Here are some good quotes from an email from JCS:

A liberal is someone who feels a great debt to his fellow man, which debt he proposes to pay off with your money.
- G Gordon Liddy

Democracy must be something more than two wolves and a sheep voting on what to have for dinner.
- James Bovard, Civil Libertarian (1994)

Foreign aid might be defined as a transfer of money from poor people in rich countries to rich people in poor countries.
- Douglas Casey, Classmate of Bill Clinton at Georgetown U (quoting famous economist Peter Bauer)

Giving money and power to government is like giving whiskey and car keys to teenage boys.
- P.J. O'Rourke, comic libertarian writer

Government is the great fiction, through which everybody endeavors to live at the expense of everybody else.
- Frederic Bastiat, French Economist 1801-50

Government's view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it; If it keeps moving, regulate it; And if it stops moving, subsidize it.
- Ronald Reagan 1986

I don't make jokes, I just watch the government and report the facts.
- Will Rogers

If you think health care is expensive now, wait until you see what it costs when it's free!
- P.J. O'Rourke

In general, the art of government consists of taking as much money as possible from one party of the citizens to give to the other.
- Voltaire 1764

Just because you don't take an interest in politics doesn't mean politics won't take an interest in you!
- Pericles 430 BC

No man's life, liberty, or property is safe while the legislature is in session.
- Mark Twain 1866

Talk is cheap ... except when Congress does it.
- Unknown

The government is like a baby's alimentary canal, with a happy appetite at one end and no responsibility at the other.
- Ronald Reagan

The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of the blessings. The inherent blessing of socialism is the equal sharing of misery.
- Winston Churchill

The only difference between a tax man and a taxidermist is that the taxidermist leaves the skin.
- Mark Twain

The ultimate result of shielding men from the effects of folly is to fill the world with fools.
- Herbert Spencer, English Philosopher 1820-1903

There is no distinctly Native American criminal class ... save Congress.
- Mark Twain

What this country needs are more unemployed politicians.
- Edward Langley, Artist 1928-95

A government big enough to give you everything you want, is strong enough to take everything you have.
- Thomas Jefferson (hmmm, I thot Goldwater originated this one)

... good ones from JCS


We've been here before. In 1936 [Nazi Germany] and 1980 [USSR], as now [China], the Olympics were held in powerful despotic states, which used the games as a promotional spectacle and imposed various restrictions on journalists, athletes, and their own bystanding subjects. Compared w/the great crimes of these regimes, or even their business as usual, their Olympic misdeeds were small potatoes. Compared w/the ideal of sportsmanship, they seem black. Yet the Olympic movement invites these situations. Its structure promotes nationalism, and the cult of fitness and team spirit fits easily w/nationalism and statism of the worst kind. The Olympics has no antibodies for fighting the totalitarian temptation.
- 'The Week' NR 1 Sep 08 p10

Hmmm, here's a warning from a Christian angle similar to Gene Healy's from a libertarian one (cf. his bk The Cult of the Presidency). Gene Edward Veith writes (CT 23 Aug 08 p29) on Obama's 'Messiah Complex', promoted both by him and his supporters, noting that "At Obama rallies, such is the religious fervor that people often pass out, like being slain in the spirit at a Pentecostal revival. Democrats have been warning of the danger of mixing religion and politics. They fear the influence of conservative Christians on a secular state. But influence and mixing is far less of a danger to a free republic than the union of religion and politics in the form of a divinized ruler. Human beings have a tendency to revert to that kind of ruler, as we see in the god-kings of ancient Egypt [and Mesopotamia], the divine emperors of Rome, the divine-right absolute monarchies of early modern Europe, and the cult of the Leader in today's totalitarian states."

Thinking about what to say to [civic] leaders, I recalled a line from the contemporary German philosopher Juergen Habermas: 'Democracy requires of its citizens qualities that it cannot provide.' Politicians can conjure an exalted vision of a prosperous, healthy, free society, but no govt can supply the qualities of honesty, compassion, and personal responsibility that must underlie this vision.
- Philip Yancey in CT Sep 08

In the same connection, the secular, non-believing philosopher Juergen Habermas said elsewhere that 'Christianity, and nothing else, is the ultimate foundation of liberty, conscience, human rights and democracy, the benchmarks of Western civilization ... Everything else is idle postmodern chatter (SoaS p?).

"Governmental principles for consent of the governed, and separation and balance of powers are all logical consequences of a most serious and Calvinian view of the biblical doctrine of the fall of man (17) ... fallen man's propensity to seize, increase, and abuse power (17) ... as anti-Puritanism in theology and morals increased, the theology and practice of divine right kingship and centralized statist control also increased (112) ... Although by no means an exclusively or even originally Calvinist concept, limitation of govt powers generally tended to exist where Calvinist influence had been strong (113) ... perhaps as many as 2/3 of [the original 3M pop. in American colonies by 1776] came from some kind of Calvinist or Puritan connection (120)"
- Douglas F Kelly, ELMW, 1992 [hmmm, looking for specific biblical underpinnings for particular American precepts ... research further later, see br-elmw]

The core religious claim of the West - in Judaism and Christianity - is that our loyalties are to God first and earthly authority only secondarily.
- Robert Sirico (authored op-ed 'Religion a Threat to Authority, Not Liberty' 21 Jul 08)

Just as our current economic problems stem from moral, political, and economic errors, so too are the solutions to be found in the moral, political, and economic realm.
- Samuel Gregg of Acton

Socialism is [unfortunately] becoming more influential in the way we think and in our cultural and religious institutions.
- Michael Miller of Acton (24 Jul 08 address: 'The Victory of Socialism')

"In Sep 1524, Erasmus [reluctantly published a critique of Luther in the form of a tract on free-will] ... In Dec [1525] Luther responded with "The Enslaved Will" [i.e. need for Grace]. This exchange went to the heart of the Reformation debate. With hindsight we can identify it as the point at which Reformation and Renaissance parted company [i.e. today's secular left and religious right] ... Erasmus, the liberal intellectual, found [Luther's] earnestness [and] religious certainty repellent ... seem[ed] arrogan[t] ... [too much] dogma ... [Erasmus'] religion ... was essentially an ethical system: one did one's best to follow the teachings of Christ [and do good works i.e. social gospel]. Luther's heartfelt response was 'been there, tried that, it doesn't work' (205-6) ... Luther's [view] was based on his commitment to the belief that God's will is sovereign ... individual's fate is predestined ... saved or damned .... nothing he can do about it. Such a doctrine appalled Erasmus, nor did Luther fail to appreciate why it should do so ... many theologicans had over the centuries tried to reconcile free humanity w/all-powerful divinity ... all had failed totally, in Luther's opinion, just as Erasmus was failing now (208) ... Luther ... was well aware that humanism, by its very nature, severed the cord of dependence between man and his Creator, restricting the Almighty to the role of audience in a world theatre in which men and women not only occupied the stage but also wrote the script (210)"
- from Derek Wilson's "Out of the Storm: The Life and Legacy of Martin Luther"

Hmmm, here's JRS' list of 'big things' or "cornerstones for effective democracy":
- separation of powers w/
- checks and balances
- fundamental worth of individual
- majority rule w/minority rights
- necessity of compromise (not a weakness, but a strength)

Hmmm, where was the discussion about how Marx represented a reaction by the aristocracy to the new middle class i.e. allied w/proletariat to challenge the new status quo (thot it was Colson in CT or WORLD, maybe 8/08 '60s issue? rats!) [similar to 'man of left' Julius Caesar 's appeal to 'plebeians' against the 'optimates' (i.e. aristocrats)]

In his 4 Sep 08 acceptance speech, John McCain said everyone has something to contribute, he bashed the 'big spending, do nothing, me first, country 2nd' Congress and promised 'change is coming'! He listed things we believe in:
- each has the opportunity to reach their God-given potential
- low taxes, spending discipline, open markets
- reward hard work and risk takers, let people keep fruits of their labor
- strong defense, work, faith, service
- a culture of life
- personal responsibility, rule of law
- judges who dispense justice impartially and don't legislate from the bench
- values of families, neighborhoods, communities
- a govt that releases creativity and initiative of Americans

There is a continuing struggle [culture war] for the heart and soul of America. This struggle involves the Judeo Christian heritage of this country and religious freedom. A growing bureaucratic federal govt is not necessarily [?! definitely not] compatible with freedom, particularly religious freedom. To some extent, this country mirrors the history of Egypt ... [where] the Pharaohs believed they were god ... etched their names on monuments throughout the land ... [but later] Pharaohs chiseled off [earlier] names and inscribed their own, as though they were the ones who'd built the stone relics. Today, the same thing is taking place in America. As bureaucracy continues to grow and the trend toward secularism and PC continues to mount, there's an increasing clash between a secularistic mindset and a Judeo Christian worldview. With the rise of secularism, the god of the state eats away the religious symbols of yesteryear.
- Matthew Staver of LC discussing his book "Eternal Vigilance" (8/08)

Finally, brothers, whatever things are true, noble, just, pure, lovely, of good report, virtu[ous], praiseworthy - meditate on these things.
- Philippians 4:8

Asked if he's concerned about Democrat efforts to win over evangelicals, Ralph Reed responds: You don't win votes by quoting Scripture, but by sharing values! [i.e. which Dems assuredly DON'T!]

Political results are the froth on the surface of an ocean of deep cultural trends.
- Elizabeth Kantor in CBC's 'And Rightly So' Oct 08


4 verses on anxiety (KJV):

Be still and know that I am God.
- Ps 46:10

Behold the [birds] of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much better than they? Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature?
- Matthew 6:26-7

Be [anxious about] nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God, which passes all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.
- Philippians 4:6-7

Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time: Casting all your care upon Him; for He cares for you.
- 1 Peter 5:6-7


A rough checklist of Western values is:
- human rights
- democracy
- toleration
- diversity
- individual freedom
- rule of law
- a fundamental secularism [of govt, NOT society, which is fatal]
(from Anthony Pagden's 2008 "Worlds at War" xvi FHL)

For over 30 years [James R Cook of IRI has] been warning about the consequences of socialistic schemes like runaway govt spending, unsound money, inflating, entitlements, subsidies, trade and budget deficits, high taxes and the cancerous nature of a monolithic state. For the 1rst time, the impact of this govt interventionism has led to a series of watershed events ... crises ... inflating and big govt go hand in hand ... [but] you can't have big govt w/o big problems ... liberals [really socialists] respond to the mess caused by govt subsidies and social programs w/even more [of the same].
- from Jul 08 IRI mailing

Activist Phyllis Schlafley ... once remarked that the conservative movement had [by the 1970s] come to depend on a coalition of disparate ideologies. Year and year, new forces pushed their way into the [GOP] and into conservative politics. By the time [Bush 43] assumed the presidency, what had once been the focus of American conservatism - personal liberty and restrained govt - had almost ceased to exist as a motivating force for the movement. Conservatives had finally attained power, but they had ceased to be conservatives, at least in the uniquely American sense of the word.
- Mickey Edwards in "Reclaiming Conservatism" (Oxford, 2008, 230pp, Mustang, p47)

On p51 (probably Victor Gold's 2007 'Invasion of the Party Snatchers'), he names the 3 major party crashers; "former [George] Wallace-ites [i.e. S racists], members of the Christian Coalition, hawkish former liberals [i.e. neocons]. Hmmm, OK on 1 and 3, but I'd defend 2 by saying that "personal liberty and restrained govt" cannot be maintained w/o widespread Christian belief, and also that conservatives should stand for Truth, the Permanent Things, of which the Bible is the anchor.

Timothy Lamer in WORLD (4/11 Oct 2008) gives a very good "Anatomy of a crisis":
1) Trying to avoid a recession brought on by burst tech bubble and 9/11, Fed aggressively eases money; from 2001-6, Fed Funds rates falls from 6 to 1%, a 45yr low
2) Easy money leads to real estate bubble fueled by subprime loans
3) Mortgage lenders repackages loans, sell as MBOs to Fannie, Freddie and others (Dems in Congress had encouraged these 2 GSEs to make loans to low-enders, i.e. secret socialism, which eventually held ~70% of bad loans)
4) w/investment banks using these subprime assets to take on big debt, the financial health of Wall Street was tied to ability of people w/poor (or no) credit histories to make monthly payments (w/vague guarantees that govt would bail out GSEs if necessary)
5) As interest rates rise, housing demand falls, bubble deflates, many defaults, Wall Street and GSEs left holding bag i.e. debt backed by assets w/falling values
6) fearing full-scale collapse, govt passes $700B bailout ("rescue") Lamer sums up fundamental dynamic: Washington/Wall St helped people buy houses they couldn't afford on a scale that was "too big to fail" ... most losses to be "socialized" (while GSE gains were for years privatized), forcing those who exercised restraint during the boom to bail the others out (moral hazard). "That's how it is" (grrrr).

The 'filthy five' that caused the 2008 crash: Fannie ('Phony'), Freddie ('Fraudie'), the Fed, FHA and FASB/SEC (?)

The New [Testament] is in the Old concealed,
The Old is in the New revealed.

In an Oct 2008 issue of USNews, Arthur Laffer is quoted as saying former colleagues like Jack Kemp, Steve Forbes and Newt Gingrich are panicking in the face of the current financial crisis and "going off the [pro-growth] ranch" and that this is "crazy scary" to him. He says we need 4 things: 1) federal spending restraint and low, flat taxes, 2) stable $, 3) low barriers to $/people/material (free trade), 4) minimal regulations, but he fears and believes we're now moving away from all 4 of these (both parties).

Hmmm, put these notes from 4 Nov 2008 mag reading here for now. FDR was 1rst to rely on labor unions as part of his coalition. Sarah Palin could marry pitchfork populism to Christian right, as Pat Buchanan tried in 1990s. Many disillusioned GOPers see Obama as embodying "pragmatism, competence, respect for head v. heart" which they feel has been repudiated by the GOP (Economist).

In the Forbes "Special Market Report" of 10 Nov 2008, Steve Forbes identifies 4 factors. "What started in Aug 2007 was not the failure of free markets [as Dems have alleged] but the outcome of bad govt actions. Greed and recklessness always run rampant during bubbles ... but [the root cause] ... was govt errors - regulatory and monetary." 1) In 2004 the Fed made a fateful miscalculation, thought US economy was weaker than it was, so it pumped out excessive liquidity [printed too much $] and kept interest rates artificially low (then Fed gov. Ben Benanke convinved then Fed chrman Greenspan to do this!) ... causing the US$ to sink v. foreign currencies for nearly 4yrs ... and inflating a real estate bubble ... the Fed and other bank regulators stood by as the bubble ballooned ... not since Jimmy Carter has the US had such a weak-$ admin ... a strong-$ policy would've limited the damage ... the housing bubble burst in 2007 ... Fed responded w/more easy money, creating yet another commodities bubble ... Finally, summer 08 Fed ceased spraying $ like a fire hose (that's why gold didn't go crazy up) 2) Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac GSEs responded to criticism by becoming champions of 'affordable housing', guaranteed $1T of subprime mortgages ... after bubble burst, looked more like 'predatory lending' 3) the 'mark to market' accounting rule became THE weapon of [financial] mass destruction, of the $600B that's been written off so far, nearly all BOOK losses, not ACTUAL CASH losses ... silly ... sank the 2 GSEs summer 08 as govt took them over 4) final factor was short-sellers, summer 07 SEC revoked uptick rule and failed to enforce ban on 'naked' short selling (why?!) which made it much worse. Crisis made worse when Treasury decided to wipe out shareholders of Bear Stearns, GSEs, Lehman, AIG, Wachovia. We've seen how the govt mistakes of 1930s and 1970s can lead to economic stagnation or impoverishment and geopolitical disaster, tho both were blamed on "greedy corporations and economic royalists [TR phrase]." 1930s mistakes led to Hitler's Nazis, 1970s ones empowered Soviet communism and Iranian Islamofascism. Reagan came to the rescue. Forbes' recommendations are 1) strong $ policy 2) after crisis, downsize Fed to focus ONLY on a) stable $ b) dealing w/financial panics 3) cut taxes and regulations (sensible, not punitive), incl. break up, privatize GSEs. Go back to 1980s policies, not those of 1930s, 1970s.

Sad fact of politics: commitment to principle is inversely proportional to political effectiveness. :-( [from Daniel McCarthy in tAC 3 Nov 08 p11]

The 111th Congress (seated Jan 2009) will be the most liberal legislative body in the history of our Nation.
- Mat Staver in Liberty Counsel mailing

Upon these 2 foundations, the law of nature and the law of revelation, depend all human laws; that is to say, no human laws should be suffered to contradict these.
- Sir Wm Blackstone (1723-80), whom everyone used to study if they wanted to be a lawyer in the US (quoted by Mat Staver in the Nov 08 'Liberator')

Also, the ultraliberal 110th Congress (seated Jan 2007) elevated Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA) to chair the House Financial Svcs Committee, which oversees Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, recently taken over by govt and at the very center of our Nation's current economic crisis. Frank is an open homosexual who once ran a male prostitution operation from his Wash., DC apartment. Do we really think we can be blessed economically when our legislature places overtly immoral people in key positions of financial oversight?
- Mat Staver, Nov 2008

In the world of higher education, I'm used to meeting Obama-like people who combine facile intellectualism, pride in high-minded utopian principles, and outright thuggery. They dream of ruling America the way they rule the campuses.
- NAS Exec Dir Peter Wood in tAC, 3 Nov 2008

Bruce Ramsey, in Liberty Dec 2008, says Ron Paul should've endorsed John McCain, which would signal that the GOP must make room for Paul's supporters. In not endorsing McCain, Paul had 'cast himself out' of the big tent, to continue to be marginalized by the party. Unlike Mitt Romney and Mike Huckabee, Paul was not invited to the GOP convention, and held his own alternative convention nearby (sending a message of separatism, hmmm, analogous to fundamentalist v. evangelical dilemma). In mid-Sep, Paul held a press conference w/3rd party nominees Ralph Nader (Independent), Cynthia McKinney (Green) and Chuck Baldwin (Constitution). Bob Barr (Libertarian) was invited but didn't show up. All agreed to "a quick end to the US occupation of Iraq." 2 weeks later, Paul endorsed Baldwin, a preacher. The Constitution Party "agrees w/libertarians on some things - it opposes conscription, a hegemonic foreign policy, and the welfare state - but is also part of the Christian Right, being against abortion, pornography, and any state recognition of homosexual unions." Hmmm, interesting.

The appearance of periodically recurring economic crises is the necessary consequence of repeatedly renewed attempts to reduce the 'natural' rates of interest on the market by means of banking policy.
- Ludwig von Mises (1881-1973) in 1931 [in IRI]

To combat the depression by a forced credit expansion is to attempt to cure the evil by the very means which brought it about.
- F A Hayak (1899-1992) in 1932 [in IRI]

So now we see, at last, that the business cycle is brought about, not by any mysterious failings of the free market economy, but quite the opposite: By systematic intervention by govt in the market process. Govt intervention brings about bank expansion and inflation, and when the inflation comes to an end, the subsequent depression-adjustment comes into play.
- Murray Rothbard (1926-95) in 1969 [foremost US Mises disciple, in IRI]

Gallup polling on public confidence in "the country's major institutions" shows the military coming out on top at 71%, followed by small business 60, police 58, "the Church or organized religion" 48, then "the medical system", public schools, the Supreme Court, TV news, newspapers, the criminal-justice system, labor unions, "big business", and at the very bottom, Congress 12 (the worst rating for any institution in 35yrs of polling, of course, the Founders designed it to be unpopular).
- RJN in FT Dec 2008 pp61-2

Without a relationship with Christ, hope is futile. Self-help philosophies that advocate determination and optimism wear thin when relationships are lost, riches are spoiled, death looms (see Jer. 23:16, 1 Tim. 6:17).
- Patti Bubna in SBC Compass Nov 2008

Responding to David Fitch's Sep article on 'Missional Mistep,' Wallace says "there is a similar tension reflected in the Puritans' writings - between those who emphasized saving faith as continual and those who emphasized it as transactional. [The former] tended to make faith so elusive that seekers became discouraged concerning their prospects [i.e. no assurance of salvation]. Missional churches may find that their discomfort with counting conversions puts them in closer company with John Gill [continual Puritan] than with Andrew Fuller [transactional Puritan]."
- CT Nov 2008, ltr from John Wallace

The problems with evangelicalism that plagued Francis Schaeffer haven't gone away. Because evangelical Christianity's weak ecclesiology persists, evangelicals must find a means beyond church structures to maintain a consensus on Christian essentials. The usual strategies are:

- to defend a particular view of the Bible, as Schaeffer did [premillenialist dispensationalism]
- to privilege experience, or
- to be so busy marketing conversion that the great remainder of Christian life is neglected

The questions of Schaeffer's life - how to balance faith and reason, doctrine and love, engagement and piety - remain at the heart of evangelicalism's dilemmas.
- Harold Fickett on Barry Hankins' book on Francis Schaeffer (CT Nov 08 p74)

In investing money, the amount of interest [return] you want should depend on whether you want to eat well or sleep well.
- J Kenfield Morley in "Some Things I Believe" (quoted Malkiel's aRWdWS)

During the Great Depression [1931], John Maynard Keynes told Americans to spend more, NOT save more, to help America, arguing this would help the economy. His advice "launched a million slips into debt and poverty over the [next] 77yrs ... [but Thrift quotes] T N Carver, who criticized the 'spend to create jobs' concept and said that 'thrift consists in spending money wisely ... in the long run, the thrifty man will spend more, because he will have more to spend than the thriftless man; and the thrifty community will be a community in which more money is spent than in the thriftless community' ... 'the rich rules over the poor, and the borrower is the slave of the lender.'"
- on David Blankenhorn's book "Thrift" (World 1/8 Nov 08 p22)

Though Barack Obama claims to be a Christian, he must be considered one of the secularist crowd, as his proposed solutions are not in line with biblical teaching.
- Janie Cheaney in World 1/8 Nov 08 [noting 3 recent movies illustrate the 3 blocks in America: Scripture, Tradition, Reason]

The bracingly materialist approach - which leads to the inescapable conclusion that trade has always laid the foundation for the exchange of ideas and beliefs, indeed for most cultural transformations - nicely tempers our blather about the power of ideas and the individual.
- comment by Benjamin Schwarz in Atlantic book review (Dec 08 p107 Wow, scarily hopeless outlook, another indication that our Western freedoms depend on Christian faith)

Serious sport has nothing to do with fair play. It is bound up with hatred, jealousy, boastfulness, disregard of all rules and sadistic pleasure in witnessing violence. In other words, it is war minus the shooting.
- George Orwell (1903-50) [quoted by a genealogy poster on one of my weblists]

The 'Magnificat' [aka Mary's Song of Praise while visiting Eliz] is from Luke 1:46-55:

My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for
He has looked with favor on the lowliness of His servant.
Surely, from now on all generations will call me blessed;
for the Mighty One has done great things for me, and holy is His name.
His mercy is for those who fear Him from generation to generation.
He has shown strength w/His arm; He has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts.
He has brought down the powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly;
He has filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich away empty.
He has helped His servant Israel, in remembrance of His mercy, according
to the promise He made to our ancestors, to Abraham and to his descendants forever.

Reason magazine Nov 08 mentions as 'big govt conservatives' Ross Douthat and Reihan Salam (recent co-authors), David Frum, Michael Gerson [i.e. neocons].

Conservatism: the defense of things worth defending against external attack, internal decay.
- 'The Week' NR 30 Jun 08 p14 (theme of Encounter Bks 10yr anniv. symposium)

Poverty requires no explanation. It is the natural state of all of humanity. What is unusual is wealth. It therefore behooves us to understand the conditions required for its creation and growth (i.e. nurturing) [paraphrase, original?]

In the same way, plunder and domination (tribal, thuggish authoritarianism) require no explanation, since they're the natural 'default' in human govt aka the state of nature (Hobbes' human lives 'solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short').

12/30/08: George Will notes in NW the irony that when times are bad economically (recession, like now), voters become much more conservative economically (i.e. with their investments) but 'go the other way' [liberal] politically (demand more govt). We could add the reverse; during boom times they take more personal risks and expect less from govt (conservative politics). Hmmm.

For liberals, history is neither a source of comfort nor a route to greater understanding [as it is for conservatives], but only a nightmare from which they are trying to escape.
- Elizabeth Kantor in CBC

During recessions [like now Dec 08], free markets come under attack. [Even tho] in fact, [they] represent a [the] solution to the problem, and recessions are the worst time to abandon them.
- Fr Robert Sirico in Acton Notes 7/8-08

... romantic appreciation of things religious, medieval and nationalistic ...
- Rick Steves on PBS travel show

The 3 keys to Gothic architecture: lightness, clarity, truth

Similarly, classical music is known for order and clarity

3 groups spend other people's money: children, thieves, and politicians. All 3 need supervision.
- Dick Armey

Hmmm, kind of reminiscent of Kaiser Wilhelm's (or Bismarck's?) quote: 'God has a special providence for fools [or children], drunks, and the United States of America' (br-sp)

I'm a Christian, a conservative, and a Republican, in that order.
- Mike Pence (quoted in World)

Our hearts shall ever restless be,
Until they find their rest in Thee.
- St. Augustine

It is not current tendencies [fads] or majorities that determine whether the fundamental rules of life should suddenly cease to be valid or not.
- Pope Benedict XVI (John Ratzinger)

George Will in NW (Jan 09) lists 'big 6' mistakes by Bush 43 ('intellectual disarmament'):
1) the new prescription drug benefit (Part D)
2) ongoing pork-barrel spending, never vetoed, esp. 2002 farm bill
3) McCain-Feingold, unconstitutional
4) Terri Schiavo attempted intervention, violates limited govt
5) No Child Left Behind, unconstitutional
6) massive late-2008 govt interventions into financial markets

NPV of future unfunded liabilities at year-end 2008: $43T (SS 7T, Medicare 27T, Med D 9T)!? Hmmm, tAC says "a Treasury report released Dec 08 showed the govt's unfunded liabilities at roughly $56T" (so apparently an extra 13T on other programs, then NR c2012 said $130T!?).

RJN's Naked Public Square discusses how, when religion is banished from the Public Square, '7 worse demons' compete for control (Econ 1/17-23/09 obit, scan? Hmmm, what are the 7?)

Growing the govt faster than the economy is a recipe for economic stagnation.
- CATO's Dan Mitchell, Richard Rahn

CATO's Wm Niskanen and several other CATO people met w/Obama's transition team at Treasury and "offered this depressing analysis for them: Hoover and Roosevelt made at least 4 major missteps in fighting the Great Depression which ended up exacerbating and prolonging it. So far Obama has signed off on 3 of them and is likely to be forced to undertake the 4th, as well:

1) strongly anti-free trade e.g. Smoot-Hawley Tariff (Obama wants to 'revisit' NAFTA)
2) raised marginal tax rates significantly (Obama wants to do the same to 'the rich')
3) union-friendly legislation e.g. 1935 Wagner Act (Obama's 'card check' rule)
4) rapid reduction in money supply (all this stimulus will eventually have to be pulled out)

Since 1930 there have been 13 recessions in the USA, the worst 2 were during the 1930s (Great Depression), but there were 5 during the 1950s. [The latest began Dec 2007 and we're still in it. Hmmm, it would be interesting to see a list of these 13, with start/end dates i.e. durations and severities/depths. A recession begins w/2 qtrs of negative growth, and ends w/2 qtrs of growth.]
- Barry Asmus of NCPA/SBC in Jan 2009

1 1932
2 1938
3-7 1952 54 57 59 (5 in 1950s)
8 1973-5 (16mo recession, steepest mkt drop in 40yrs in 1974)
9 1977 (inflation out of control, Paul Volcker soon to fix)
10 1980-2 (16mo recession esp. manufacturing, Reagan shot, worst recession in 40yrs)
11 1990-1 (Iraq war)
12 2001-2 (9/11)
13 Dec 2007 to ? (13mo and counting, mortgage crisis, financials esp. hard hit)

Business expansions don't die; they're killed [nearly always by bad monetary policies].
- Asmus

Interestingly, there's some disagreement among ecomomists on blame for the current housing bubble and resulting credit crisis. Economists David R Henderson and Jeffrey Hummel believe Alan Greenspan was mostly right and maintained a 'tight' money policy, w/low and stable inflation and 'a striking dampening of the business cycle'. But Greenspan critics charge him w/gunning the currency, particularly following the recession of 2001 i.e. held low 2002-4, inflating housing, commodities incl. oil, bubbles. But these 2 argue that these critics make the 'classic mistake' of conflating interest rates w/monetary policy. No, they argue, supply/demand, NOT the Fed, determine rates. Hmmm.

But economist Lawrence H White blames 'flawed institutions and misguided policies':
- govt encouraged expansion in risky mortgages (e.g. NINJA loans)
- strengthened CRA led to growth of 'creative' subprime mkt (e.g. Novastar)
- FHA loosened downpayment standards
- HUD pressured lenders to loan to subpar borrowers
- Meanwhile, Fannie/Freddie accumulated 1/2 of $12T mortgage mkt
- Congress pointedly refused to moderate moral hazard of implicit guarantees, or otherwise reign in hyperexpansion, instead promoting 'affordable housing'
- credit for all this was provided by loose Fed policy, esp. 2002-4 (stayed at 1% for a yr)
- set off what Steve Hanke called 'the mother of all liquidity cycles and yet another massive demand bubble'
- So in summary, the actual causes of our financial troubles are NOT 'deregulation, unfettered capitalism, greed' but 'unusual monetary policy moves and novel federal regulatory interventions. These poorly chosen policies distorted interest rates and asset prices, diverted loanable funds into the wrong investments, and twisted normally robust financial institutions into unsustainable positions.'
(from CATO clippings Nov/Dec 08)

CATO "stands firmly on the principles of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, and on the bedrock American values of individual liberty, limited govt, free markets, and peace" (Policy Report Jan/Feb 09, hmmm, substitutes 'peace' for Heritage's 'traditional American [i.e. Christian] values' and 'a strong national defense'). Hmmm. They worked w/Clinton on free trade, welfare reform, and a few tentative steps toward SS reform; w/Bush 43 on tax cuts, the initial response to 9/11, health savings accounts, immigration reform, and [private] SS accounts; they hope to find ways to work w/Obama to advance peace, freedom, and prosperity.

It is a myth that unregulated financial capitalism failed and new regulation is needed. Aside from health care, financial services is the most heavily regulated industry in the economy [education is up there too].
- CATO's Gerald P O'Driscoll Jr

Tho my friends and I have argued that the Bible supports racial justice, gender equality, peacemaking, and care for the environment [the left still hates us and lumps us in with 'fundamentalists']
- Richard Mouw, Pres. Fuller Seminary (NW 2/9/09)

John Updike (1932-2009) explained that his (and Dad S's) generation was:
"too young to be warriors,
too old to be rebels"
(NW 2/9/09)

"The current crisis was created by a perfect storm of mutually reinforcing trends and policy mistakes:

- loose monetary policy (years of negative real interest rates in a growing economy)
- socially engineered housing policy (CRA, Fannie/Freddie, HUD's no-$-down mortgages)
- rapid growth of leverage, opaque and technically deficient derivatives, shadow banking sys
- fragmented regulation, lax diligence, poor governance, fraud
- and an oil price shock

The result: a housing bubble bursting into recession.
- Michael J Boskin in Hoover Digest Winter 09

The GOP's 3 main incarnations:
- 1850-1900 antislavery
- 1900-1950 antitariff, pro-growth economics
- 1950-2000 triad of lower taxes, anticommunism, restrained federalism [i.e. econ, fp, social cons]
- next? (Bill Whalen in Hoover Digest 1/09)

Hmmm, similarly, Ed Crane says that for much of the 19C the Dems were the party of limited govt, then in early 20C that shifted to the GOP (as Dems embraced Progressivism), and again in the early 1960s thru 1988 the GOP stressed limiting govt. Now its hard to say which party favors limiting govt (CATO Policy Report Nov/Dec 2009)

Limited govt and a free market economics are the 'spinster aunts' of the GOP i.e. plenty of good wishes but unclear how many voters would really support those things if it meant giving up other priorities.
- source?

In an article explaining the complex leadup to WWII, author Nicholas Siekierski explains that during the Spanish Civil War, the nationalists (i.e. govt forces under General Fransisco Franco) were supported by Hitler's Germany (and the German Condor Legion), while the republicans (rebel forces under ?) were supported by Stalin's USSR (which had drained the Spanish republic's gold reserves while carrying out terrorism via the NKVD). Spain was thereby bled dry. Most terrible, in terms of lives lost and damage done, was the Sino-Japanese War, which raged from Jul 1937 to Aug 1945 (and included 'Rape of Nanking' which killed >300k, and happened before WWII's outbreak on 1 Sep 1939, w/Germany's naval attack on Poland's Danzig). If there was one moment which allowed WWII to attain its colossal scale, it was surely the late-Aug 1939 signing of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact. Hoover set up the Library (late the Institution) to understand WWI and thereby avoid another such devastating conflict. But by the end of 1919, after it had become evident that WWI was only the beginning of dramatic changes in the intl landscape, he expanded its scope to also study newly emerging movements e.g. communism, fascism, Nazism.
- Hoover Digest 1/09

Another interesting [c2005] Hoover article noted that WWI destroyed the German, Russian and Ottoman empires, meaning we'd face these demographic forces again in the form of WWII, the Cold War and now the war on Islamic terrorism. This confirms the saying that 'you can't kill a nation ... they'll be back'.

US govt spending as a % of GDP was <10% until WWI (except Civil War spike), then crept up to ~20% by WWII (spiked to ~50%), then crept from 20% to 35% by 1990. NW article says EU avg is 47%, 14 points above US, and predicted we'd rise toward their level as a result of the 08 financial crisis (40% expected in 2010).

NW 2/9/09 mentions Forbes' list of top-75 richest in all history, w/#1 Rockefeller, #2 Carnegie, #8 Crassus, #12 Egyptian Pharaoh Amenhotep? ... (get this list).

Japan's stock market (Nikkei) is STILL [c2010] ~1/2 its high of 20yrs ago. Wow, stagnant due to unwillingness or inability to clear out problems, 'lose face', deal w/it!?

8 pillars of Greek wisdom (from book of that title at B&N):
- humanism
- the pursuit of excellence
- the practice of moderation
- self-knowledge
- rationalism
- restless curiosity
- the love of freedom
- individualism

Interesting contrast is provided by a cartoon in CRB (Winter 08/09 pp36-7 insert), showing Uncle Sam climbing a staircase of books labelled 1776, Individualism, Historicism, Progressivism, Socialism ... (they're stacked w/each offset, meaning the 'higher' he climbs, the more unsteady the base, scan?).

Ken Stern's 1999 book "Secrets of the Investment All-Stars" includes:
- Harry Markowitz (invented Modern Portfolio Theory [MPT] i.e. asset allocation)
- John Bogle of Vanguard (index funds)
- Mario Gabelli (value)
- Marty Zweig (don't fight the Fed, tape)
- William J O'Neil (IBD Canslim i.e. momentum investing)
- Ron Elijah of Robertson Stephens
- Foster Friess of Brandywine
- Louis Navellier of MPT Review
- Don Phillips of Morningstar (Mutual Funds survey)

Peter Krass' 1999 'Book of Investing Wisdom' includes:
- 1 Nuts and Bolts of Analysis (Warren Buffet b1930, Philip Fisher, Henry Clews 1834-1923, Arnold Bernhard 1901-87 (fnded VL 1936), Paul F Miller Jr, Jim Rogers b1942, Peter Lynch b1944)
- 2 Attitude and Philosophy (Adam Smith b1930, Ellen Douglas Williamson 1905-84, John Moody 1868-1958, John C Bogle b1929, B C Forbes 1880-1954, Fred Schwed Jr 1901-66)
- 3 Strategy (Edw C Johnson II 1898-1984, Peter L Bernstein, Sir John Templeton, Mario Gabelli, Gerald M Loeb, Philip Carret 1896-1998)
- 4 Market Cycles (Charles H Dow 1851-1902, Wm Peter Hamilton 1867-1929, Roger W Babson 1875-1967, Bernard M Baruch 1870-1965, Abby Joseph Cohen b1952, Joseph E Granville b1923, Arthur Crump, Robert R Prechter b1949)
- 5 Views from the Inside (W W Fowler 1833-81, Edw H H Simmons 1876-1955, Otto Kahn 1867-1934, Charles E Merrill 1885-1956, Michael H Steinhardt, Laura Pedersen)
- 6 Lessons from Notorious Characters (Daniel Drew [by Bouck White] 1797-1879, Richard Whitney 1888-1974, T Boone Pickens Jr b1928, James Grant)
- 7 Crash and Learn [v Burn!] (Frank A Vanderlip 1864-1937, Edwin Lefevre 1870-1943, J Paul Getty 1892-1976, George Soros b1930)
- 8 Beyond Your Average Blue Chip (Leo Melamed b1932, Stanley Kroll, Benjamin Graham 1894-1976, Martin E Zweig b1942, Donald J Trump b1946)

Globally, there are only 14 AAA corporate borrowers, including MSFT, JNJ, Novartis. There are about 350 rated A or above [hmmm, get AAA list, VL1 list As? Hmmm, this from c2000, fewer now].

The paradox of libertarianism [conservatism]: The more wealth we have, the more govt we can afford i.e. liberty promotes prosperity, and prosperity promotes the growth of govt (which then limits liberty).
- Tyler Cowen (CRB Winter 08/09 p4)

Middle class fears: the mob at the gate and the rot at the top!

"I should sooner live in a society governed by the 1rst 2k names in the Boston telephone directory than in [one] governed by the 2k faculty members of Harvard University ... Not, heaven knows, because I hold lightly the[ir] brainpower, knowledge, generosity, even affability ... but because I greatly fear [their] intellectual arrogance ... a distinguishing characteristic of the university which refuses to accept any common premise ... respect the laws of God [or] the wisdom of our ancestors ... [instead] to the extent that they believe in God at all, tend to believe He made some terrible mistakes which they would undertake to rectify; and ... [view] our ancestors ... with ... condescension toward those whose accomplishments we['ve] long since surpassed" (WFB Jr quoted in CRB Winter 08/09 p6).

History shows that people who save and invest grow and prosper, and the others deteriorate and collapse.
- Jim Rogers

Ken Fisher's 2009 book "The 10 Roads to Riches" (FHL) lists:
1 start a successful business - the richest road!
[Have a compelling vision? Leadership skills? An understanding spouse? You just might be a visionary founder.]
2 become CEO of an existing firm and juice it - a very mechanical function
[Responsibility and running things come easy? But you're no visionary founder? Maybe the corner office is in your future.]
3 hitch to a successful visionary's wagon and ride along - high value added [sidekick]
[Good at picking winning horses? Think being boss is tough? Your destiny could be to ride along.]
4 turn celebrity into wealth - or wealth into celebrity and then more wealth!
[Seeking fame and fortune? Don't mind abdicating privacy? Try cruising the rich-and-famous road.]
5 marry well - really, really well
[a rich man is like a pretty girl; wouldn't marry for JUST that, but it sure helps!]
6 steal it legally - no guns necessary! [lawsuits i.e. legal piracy]
[Ever wish you could just take the money? Would you like some to see you as a hero? And others fear you? This is your road.]
7 capitalize on OPM - where most of the mega-rich are
[Like telling folks what to do? Have nerves of steel? OPM may fit you fine.]
8 invent an endless future revenue stream - even if not an inventor! [gadget,book,song...]
[Have a wild imagination? Or none at all? This could be your road.]
9 trump the land barons by monetizing unrealized real estate wealth! [real estate]
[Dream of building skyscrapers? Collecting rent? You could be a land baron.]
10 go down the Road More Traveled - save hard, invest well - forever! [most common]
[Like boring, predictable paths? The sure and steady way could be yours.]

Ken's father Philip (famous investment advisor and economist?) was very smart but had Asperger's Syndrome, a form of near-Autism, ultra-high IQ, great w/math, verbal, written skills (analytic), but poor social skills. Typically physically twitchy, pace the floor, can't stop tapping fingers, have almost no ability to fathom how others feel [empathy], like a vacuum in the feelings dept. Usually spend LOTS of time alone thinking, great thinkers, but just don't feel much. Love to sit around thinking, hours on end in solitude. Ken agrees that actions determine feelings, not vice versa. Do the right things, you feel better; do the wrong things, you feel worse. Dale Carnegie and Napoleon Hill got this; Freudian psychoanalysts didn't. For 40yrs our society has focused too much on feelings - too touchy-feely for its own good! (p25-6). Ken's gfather was Dr. Arthur L. Fisher, Arthur's father was Philip I. Fisher, who worked his whole life for Levi Strauss. Hmmm, wonder if any relation to economist Irving Fisher, contemporary of John Maynard Keynes (see recent Economist article 3/09).

Liberty Counsel advises Christians to pray for:
- those in authority (1 Tim 2:1-2)
- righteousness in civil govt (Rom 13:1-7)
- such things as lead to peace and salvation in our Nation (Rom 1:16)

There are ~100T microbes in the human body, v. ~10T cells, and the typical microbe or bacterium is 1/1000 the size of the typical cell (Forbes 3/30/09). Researchers have ID'd 1000s of bacteria, but have merely scratched the surface. Ov avg, any 2 people share only 30% of their bacterial strains. Most strains are either neutral free riders or helpers that digest food, protect us from bad germs, but some are (obviously) negative. Wow, lots to learn! US Govt has already deciphered the DNA of ~600 well-known strains. In contrast to our 23k human genes, there are ~10M genes associated with these organisms. On every surface of a human there are 100s of 1000s of different species of bacteria, viruses, fungi and God knows what else. A big breakthru was 20yrs ago when Australian scientists discovered that stomach ulcers were caused, not by stress, but by the bacterium 'Helicobacter pylori.' But it was later found that this bacteria help fight childhood asthma!

Same issue pictures billionaire investors George Soros, James Simons, John Paulson, Philip Falcone, and Kenneth Griffin, called to testify before Congress.

Many have noted the Fed's loose money policy from 2002-5 as a prime factor in the 2007-9 bust, but only a few have noticed the added factor of a growing ocean of intl money e.g. SWFs and private savings generated by those new to the middle classes i.e. > 1B lifted from poverty during the boom. This money is 'sloshing' around the world seeking good returns.

The perennial task of Christians is to find a way to be 'in the world but not of it' - to provide both a witness and a vocabulary that can aid in the achievement of an approximately just public order w/o confusing any public order with the Church, never mind the promised Kingdom of God. This is the task to which the recently deceased Rev. Richard John Neuhaus devoted himself in his final - and perhaps finest - book, "American Babylon: Notes of a Christian Exile" (from CBC mailer).

Only with original sin can we at once pity the beggar and distrust the king.
- G K Chesterton (hmmm, profound, discussed in Alan Jacobs' bk 'Original Sin')

Benjamin Wiker's book "10 Books That Screwed Up The World: and 5 others that didn't help" includes Machiavelli's 'The Prince', Karl Marx's 'The Communist Manifesto', Alfred Kinsey's 'Sexual Behavior in the Human Male', ... (find a list)

4 federal economic policies transformed the Hoover recession into the Great Depression: higher tariffs, stronger unions, higher marginal tax rates, and a lower money supply. President Obama, unfortunately, has endorsed some variant of the 1rst 3 of these, and he will face a critical choice on monetary policy in a year or so [Bernanke's term expires Jan 2010, Nov 2010 midterm elections, unlikely to see rate increases before then, inflation?].
- Wm Niskanen in CATO Policy Report Mar/Apr 2009

Jonah Goldberg in 'Liberal Fascism' notes that fascism has historically received the support of the so-called 'helping professions' (nursing, caregivers, ...) [get ref]. OK, on p297ff, he's discussing the Nazi Gleichschaltung, "a political word borrowed - like so many others - from the realm of engineering, it meant 'coordination' ... [i.e. all working together to abolish boundaries] ... Fascism is the cult of unity ... desperate to erode the 'artificial' legal or cultural boundaries between family/state, public/private, business/public good ... [same goal as Jacobinism, but w/o radical start-over] ... [all is] politicized ['the personal is the political'] ... Nazi 'war on cancer' ... alcoholism ... [junk food] ... The Nazis - always disproportionately supported by bureaucrats in the 'helping professions' - benefited from particularly eager accomplices in the health-care industry. In a nation where democracy and civil liberties were swept aside and experts - doctors, regulators, and 'industrial hygienists' - were promoted to positions of unparalleled authority, the Nazis offered a much-yearned-for opportunity to 'get beyond politics'" [Wow!].

In the 20C, both socialism and the centrally managed pseudo-capitalism of John Maynard Keynes were tested and found wanting.
- Robert Sirico in an Acton update

Despotism can govern w/o faith, but liberty cannot. How is it possible that society should escape destruction if the moral tie is not strengthened in proportion as the political tie is relaxed? And what can be done with a people who are their own masters, if they are not submissive to the Deity?
- Alexis de Tocqueville

Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? [Who will watch the watchers?]

Given the dominant ideology [liberalism] and the political institutions that now exist, economically rational public policy is incompatible with political viability.
- Robert Higgs in Reason

At less than full employment, the Keynesian stuff works ... [but once] we return to almost-full employment, which will happen pretty quickly in the recovery ... the [Keynesian] stimulus will merely crowd out private investment [stunting growth and giving undue credit to Dem stimulators].
- Deirdre McCloskey in Reason

Thomas S Rogoff of Harvard and Carmen M Reinhart of U of MD wrote a working paper for the NBER (soon to be expanded into a book called "Its Different This Time" on 8 decades of booms/busts). They distinguish typical recessions from more serious structural ones like what we're in now, which tend to be 'grim and long-lasting'. On avg, RE falls 35%, equities 55%, unemployment up 7% over 4yrs, output (GDP) fell 9% over 2yrs, and govt debt rose 86%. In the current recession, RE is already down >2x Depression drop, but so far output and unemployment hasn't been as bad. They advise caution in assuming we're smarter now, since just a year ago most would've thought the current situation impossible i.e. we've 'tamed the business cycle and limited the risk of financial contagion' [Wow, sobering].
- Reason May 09

Economics is the dismal science.
- Thomas Carlyle

I like Milton Friedman and George Stigler and the other economists at the U of Chicago ... but I fear that they're insufficiently impressed by the mysteries of life [e.g. passions, envy, greed, the mischievous 2nd hand undoing what the invisible hand did].
- Edward Shils, quoted by Joseph Epstein in NW 3/16/09 (i.e. this is the 'animal spirits' argument [big 5: confidence, fairness, corruption, money illusion, 'stories'] of Robert Shiller and George Akerlof, but caution, this 'irrational investor' theory is useful to politicians seeking 'parental' power)

Ironically, faith in draconian regulation is strongest at the bottom of the cycle, [just] when there is little need for [it] ... [and] the misconception [?] that markets will take care of themselves [i.e. laissez-faire] is most widespread at the top of the cycle, at the point of most danger to the system. So one economist suggests designing a more automatic corrective system (politically hard, since brakes are seen as unnecessary when applied).
- Economist mag 4/11/09

The institutions of the free society and free markets were the essential condition necessary to bring about the flowering of modernity, which is a system of economic organization that miraculously supports a human population of 6B people. There is no system other than the market that is capable of doing so. Anyone who flirts w/some other idea - whether fascism, socialism, distributivism, or the hunter-gatherer system imaged by modern Manicheans - is really flirting with mass extermination. I know those are harsh words but this is the reality we must confront.
- Rev Robert Sirico in Acton Notes

He also explained "there is a real deception in the flurry of books and articles blaming the free market for the current economic crisis. They redefine the common meaning of the term in order to serve an ideological agenda of expanding state power ... [proper meaning is] the social matrix of [VOLUNTARY] cooperation, competition, and emulation that occurs through the unhampered exercise of human volition. The old classical liberals called it the 'natural society' ... What is NOT [included] are all attempts by govt to distort and shape it, subsidize ... punish producers/consumers for failing to advance political goals, cutting off avenues for exchange or production domestically or intlly, or generate artificial credit flows to bolster one sector at the expense of another [e.g. banks, autos] ... These [latter] have bad consequences ... introduce inefficiencies or unsustainable patterns of production i.e. don't work long term e.g. welfare state, protectionism, loose money, all are distortions of the free market, can't be corrected by further intervention, current policy path is driving us further into recession.

We can't spend and borrow our way to prosperity!

Apr 2009 Liberator (Liberty Counsel): Deut 28:12 says a righteous nation has money to lend w/o borrowing i.e. our national financial crisis is inexorably related to our national moral crisis (esp. abortion). America's treasure isn't limited to financial strength and the success of our political economy. Our real treasure is found in our Christian heritage and national calling to live according to God's principles (hmmm, maybe God is testing us to see which we're REALLY relying on).

The essence of our contemporary application of Keynesian economics is best described by analyst Michael Metrosky:
- Spend all the money you have.
- When you run out of money, borrow all you can and spend that too.
- When nobody will loan you any more money, just print [more] and keep spending.
(quoted in IRI newsletter, calling it "a fitting epitaph for an economy in the process of being killed by Keynesians like Paul Krugman and the past 5 administrations [Obama, Bush 43, Clinton, Bush 41, Reagan?)

The verse that saved Dave Winer: Isaiah 9:6; 'For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given. And His name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, the Mighty God and everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace.'

Politics reflects, not directs, cultural trends ... what happens in NY (finance), Hollywood (entertainment), Silicon Valley (tech) and Miami (fashion) has a far greater impact on how our culture thinks about reality than what happens in Washington DC (politics).
- Tullian Tchividjian, gson of Billy Graham and pastor replacing D James Kennedy at Coral Ridge Presb. Church in FL

Ed Crane of CATO writes that Obama is a statist [fascist], not a socialist; maybe the worst in US history, and w/[TR], Wilson, FDR and LBJ, that's saying something! He says conservatives have made 3 strategic errors; 1) following advise of supply-side guru (and big-govt Dem) Jude Wanniski to not talk about spending cuts, much less proper role of govt, substituting economic growth for individual liberty as the rallying cry of far too many GOPers. 2) neocons, mostly statists, should never have been accepted into the fold. They only gave us wars and 'national greatness' ideas like travel to Mars. 3) social agenda of [anti] gay marriage, [anti] flag burning, [pro] school prayer [and abortion] and focus instead on federalism. Politics is about man's relationship to the state i.e. minimal is healthiest.

RJN in FT (Feb 09) notes Jeffrey Tulis' 1980s book 'The Rhetorical Presidency', which says TR was the 1rst to break w/past minimalist 'admin' role of president in favor of 'father' or 'fuhrer' figure (Lincoln saw his expanded role as 1-time, emergency-only, temporary). 'The founders believed that an admin republic wouldn't need great ldrs' but TR and others since hated that. TR and many since have therefore 'attempted to rally the family to emergencies w/o end'.

Aleksandr Solzhenizten was one of the 1rst to show that communism and nazism were but 2 sides of the same evil coin.
- FT Feb 09 p70

Heroes of economic conservatism are [Smith,] Friedman, Hayek, Mises; of political theory [Burke,] Kirk, Voegelin, Kendall, Strauss, Oakeshott; of the Old Right H L Mencken, A J Nock, Rose W Lane, Isabel Paterson, Garet Garrett, Lysander Spooner, Wm Graham Sumner; of religious conservatism Jerry Falwell, James Dobson, Billy Graham; movement builders WFB, Kirk, James Burnham (tAC 4/20/09 p32, rvw of Greg Schneider's bk 'Conservative Century').

'Low church conservatism' has 5 characteristics: 1) values faith over works (-> good intentions over outcomes), 2) anti-clerical, anti-elitist, anti-intellectual, Rush Limbaugh over Russell Kirk, 3) tends toward cultural separatism, abhors mainstream, 4) eschaton is imminent (if not immanent), every political battle is a clash of titanic principle, every tin-pot dictator a potential Antichrist, 5) right makes right, a naive belief that nothing should stand in the way of applying morality, i.e. idealism v. realism (perfection possible). Values 'Truth' over order or liberty. In summary, low church politics dissolves hierarchies and structures, proceeds w/self-assurance of the elect, while high church politics works w/in system, gradualist, self-questioning (perfection not possible). e.g. low-churcher Irving Kristol thot Michael Oakeshott's philosophy 'irredeemably secular, impossible for any religious person', too ritualistic, while Burke, Coleridge, Matthew Arnold were high churchers. Hi churchers value works (outcomes, prudent policies) over faith (intentions), defer to hierarchies, institutions, distrusting popular movements and enthusiasm, leery of eschatological (and other) passions, above all avoids schism, seeks to preserve the fabric of society, works w/in mainstream to preserve/elevate culture. Values order over liberty or 'Truth'. Hmmm, RJN was a hybrid i.e. a high-church neocon. Hmmm; Scripture ~ Truth (lo church), Reason ~ Liberty (personal autonomy), Tradition ~ Order (hi church)?
- tAC 5/4/09

In a tAC article on left-liberal Eric Foner (w/whom neocons are sympathetic!), Foner characterizes his conservative adversaries as 'entrenched in the views that human nature is immutable, hierarchy inevitable, equality impossible, the desire for personal autonomy pernicious'.
- tAC 5/4/09


Peter D. Schiff in his book 'The Little Book of Bull Moves in Bear Markets' (2008, FHL) says the main inputs to determining a country's currency value (v. others) are inflation, debt, and trade deficit (i.e. exports - imports) [but later also loss of industrial base, decay of infrastructure, consumer debt, and huge trade and current acct deficits]

He says 1rst pick nations/currencies that will gain purchasing power as US$ declines, 2nd pick industries, last stocks.


Margaret Sanger founded Planned Parenthood, a racist eugenics group ... to rid the world of blacks, Catholics, and Jews. The Black Panthers were originally formed to oppose PP abortion clinics from infiltrating black neighborhoods.
- Liberty Counsel u/d 6/09

I still think Bush [43] was a decent person. He didn't know much about anything, he certainly didn't understand what was going on around him, but he was not a bad person. Obama is not a decent person. He only cares about the power of Barack Obama [Hentoff keeps a file on his flip-flops and says its getting thicker every day i.e. this is a proxy for power-seeking v. principle].
- 84yo Nat Hentoff (in tAC Sep 09)

5 famous sentences:
- You can't legislate the poor into prosperity by legislating the wealthy out of prosperity.
- What one person receives without working for, another must work for without receiving.
- The govt can't give to anybody anything that the it doesn't first take from somebody else.
- When half of the people get the idea that they don't have to work because the other half is going to take care of them, and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work because somebody else is going to get what they work for, that my dear friend, is the beginning of the end of any nation.
- You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it."
[Adrian Rogers, 1931]

You cannot help the poor by destroying the rich.
You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong.
You cannot bring about prosperity by discouraging thrift.
You cannot lift the wage earner by pulling the wage payer down.
You cannot further the brotherhood of man by inciting class hatred.
You cannot build character and courage by taking away people's initiative and independence.
You cannot help people permanently by doing for them what they could and should do for themselves.
- Abraham Lincoln

Ronald Reagan blithely told his barber that he'd accomplished only 4 of his 5 goals; 1) lowering taxes, 2) liberating the economy from a burdensome govt, 3) increasing defense spending, and 4) checking Soviet power, but admitted to rank failure at 5) actually restraining spending and balancing the budget.
- quoted in NR 2 Nov 2009 p56

40 years ago [late 1960s] Britain had to slash its global military presence to match its diminished economic status.
- Economist 9/26/09 p30 (reduced to a late 1970s IMF bailout! :-( )

For [Ayn Rand], govt was nothing more than licensed robbery and altruism just an excuse for power-grabbing. Intellectuals and bureaucrats might pose as champions of the people against the powerful. But in reality they were mere empire builders motivated by a noxious mix of envy and greed.
- Ayn Rand (quoted in Economist 10/24/09)

Ayn Rand's main insight in Atlas Shrugged: society can't thrive unless it's willing to give freedom to entrepreneurs and innovators.
- Economist 10/24/09

Conservatism is protean [i.e. unstoppable, a force of nature]
- Paul Johnson in Forbes 11/16/09

Usually, the 3-way conservative coalition is said to be between economic (libertarian, free-mkt, classical liberal), foreign policy, and traditional (or social: anti-abortion, anti-gay marriage, pro-gun, tradition biblical values) conservatives. Paul Johnson says there are the traditional ('throne and alter', change only when unavoidable), reactionary (Thatcher, i.e. reacting to postwar leftist nationalizations w/privatizations), romantic (Burke, WFB, see their views as creative, imaginative, happy for change if it enhances security, stability of society), and economists (Friedman, Hayek, who basically identify conservatism w/capitalism). The instinct to resist change, recover the past, or romanticize it are part of human nature and will always find political expression.

In the "20C, the public, conditioned by the media's relentless focus on presidential action, came to view the chief executive as a national father-protector, with a purview far broader than the limited role the Constitution sets out for him [i.e. 'faithfully executing the laws and protecting the country from foreign attack]"
- Gene Healy in CATO pub, 10/09 (he refers to "Obama's incontinent approach to presidential responsibility" :-) e.g. 'steaming pile' $787B 'stimulus' [porkulus])

Pastor Jaime mentioned 'the 22 spiritual gifts' mentioned in the NT (claims HE has ldrship, teacher). Hmmm, an online search led to Lambert Dolphin (ldolphin.org/spgifts.html) saying there's some dispute as to the exact number, but his 20 are: 1 apostle 2 prophet 3 evangelist 4 pastor-teacher 5 admin 6 ldrship 7 faith 8 knowledge 9 wisdom 10 exhortation 11 discernment 12 ministering (i.e. supplying needs) 13 service 14 giving 15 tongues 16 interpreting tongues 17 miracles 18 healing 19 mercy 20 hospitality.

Bill Watterson, the cartoonist behind Calvin and Hobbes, named his characters after John Calvin (boy) and Thomas Hobbes (tiger), Bouma thinks because those thinkers best understood the perversity that afflicts the hearts and minds of humans. Bouma's fave is when Calvin uses 'Bambi eyes' on his Mom to try to get her to buy him a flamethrower for his bday!
- Director Rolf Bouma in Fall 2009 Inklings, the newsletter of UofM Campus Chapel Ministries

On 19C Methodism and the Great Awakening: "A piety of emotion and sudden conversion collided with a piety of doctrine, nurture, and order"
- Joel Beeke, 'Living for God's Glory: Intro to Calvinism' [Wedge's book] p241

Men seek sex, money, power (women: family, security, prestige). These must be held in check by marriage, market, and law. This latter insight was inspired by Bonner/Wiggins EoD p339: 'We're all greedy SOBs, but the worst is the guy whose greed - whether for power, money, or love [sex] - is not held in check by his wife, the market, or the law'

Insight from 'The Economist' (4/6/10): In the West, God is over Nature and Man, but in the East (Japan), Nature is over 'gods' and man.

Politics is the domain of the Big Boys ... skilled in persuasion and the judging of others, single-minded in pursuit of dominance, deft at hiding ruthlessness behind idealism. Intellectuals don't perform well in this hyper-worldly zone.
- John Derbyshire NR 4/5/10 p50

Thomas Sowell's 1987 'A Conflict of Visions', 1995 'The Vision of the Anointed' and 2010 'Intellectuals and Society' contrast 2 approaches to human affairs; the constrained vision, which ack's our limitations (conservatism), and the unconstrained, which believes us to be perfectible (liberalism). He calls these the 'tragic vision' and the 'vision of the anointed'. The 2nd view is what leads so many very smart intellectuals into folly. Instead of verification thru logical proof (math) or empirical observation (science), these intellectuals get away with only "self-congratulation, the blithe ignoring of unwelcome facts, the pathologizing of disagreement, her behavior, and the fatal talent of verbal virtuosity. e.g. Head Start, 'root causes' theory of crime, gun control, peace movements in the 1920s, 60s, 2000s. Advisors to rulers used to be accountable e.g. Daniel, Confucius, Machiavelli, Locke, but now that 'public opinion' has emerged, they can use MSM to push their causes w/o accountability, which leads to irresponsibility and much silliness i.e. disconnection from reality.
- John Derbyshire aka 'the old Derb' in NR 4/5/10 p47

From birth to age 18, a girl needs good parents,
from 18 to 35, she needs good looks,
from 35 to 55, she needs a good personality,
from 55 on, she needs cash!

Similar to '1 [marriage] for the money, 2 for the show, 3 to get ready and 4 to go'

6/4/10: read amzn rvws of [English Jewish neocon?] Melanie Phillips' 2010 bk 'The World Turned Upside Down: The Global Battle for God, Truth, and Power'. Sounds good. She says 'it was Christianity and the Hebrew Bible that gave us our concepts of reason, progress and an orderly world on which science and modernity are based [i.e. foundational]. One rvwr called this foundation the 'immutable universal absolutes' supplied by Judaism, while Greece gave us philsophy and Rome law, order and imperial governance. Another said Judaism gave us ethics, Greece aesthetics, Rome statecraft. Another noted that nationalism isn't necessarily bad, but merely neutral e.g. a tool, while its 'manner of expression' is subject to moral judgment.

Legitimate [political] institutions are forged over time as culture and belief systems [i.e. cults], interacting with events and personalities, produce identity, consensus, and stability ... underpinnings of civil order ... [balance liberty and order ... i.e. there may remain significant social / economic / ... inequalities]
- tAC article on Thailand (June 2010 p31)

Ronald Bailey discusses a recent study of libertarians, which finds them generally to be dispositionally more rational, less emotional, scoring lower than conservatives or liberals on agreeableness (indicates lack of compassion and a proud, competitive, skeptical nature), conscientiousness, and extraversion. Like conservatives, libertarians are not generally neurotic, tending to be emotionally hardy. But like liberals, libertarians scored high on openness to new experiences, indicating broad interests. Libertarians scored lower than liberals and (esp.) conservatives on sensitivity to disgust (esp. social/sexual issues). Libertarians tend to be systemizers v. empathizers, where the former are driven to understand the underlying rules that govern behavior in nature and society and the latter identify with another person's emotions. They note liberals have the most 'feminine' cognitive style, while libertarians have the most 'masculine'. Libertarians are less flummoxed by moral dilemmas, tending to maximize utility (utilitarian, e.g. fewest hurt, most helped). In summary, libertarians score high on individualism, low on collectivism, and low on all other traits that involved bonding with, loving, or feeling a sense of common identity (solidarity) with others. They tend to like classical liberty emphasis on the superordinate value of individual liberty, but feel little attraction to modern liberals' emphasis on altruism and coercive social welfare policies. Just as they tend to 'tune in' to libertarian philosophy for psychological comfort, liberals do so by moralizing their empathy and conservatives their connection to their groups. Bailey reminds us that Western Civ's libertarian founding allowed us, unlike all others, to escape our natural state of poverty based on primitive moralities like left-liberal universalist collectivism and conservative tribalist collectivism, toward rule of law, freedom of speech, religious tolerance, prosperity (peace, prosperity, liberty). Liberals and conservatives may love people more than do libertarians, but love of liberty is what leads to true moral and economic progress.
(Reason 2/2011 p47)

More on above topic, in CATO article by Gene Healy he discusses this recent study of libertarians, saying we tend to be dispassionate and cerebral, less likely to moralize based on gut reactions like disgust ... rely on reason more - and emotion less - that either libs or cons ... unlike Clinton, we don't 'feel your pain' ... don't rely on peripheral clues like a speaker's attractiveness or credibility, but on their relevant arguments ... on self-reported happiness, tho, cons beat libs who beat libertarians :-( ... less satisfied w/our lives, possibly due to lower social connectedness and/or lower status for our views in society, i.e. not backed up by 'enlightened opinion' (libs) or tradition (cons). His friend John Hasnas' essay "What It Feels Like to Be a Libertarian' sums it up: 1st line: 'I'll tell you: It feels bad'. We're doomed, Cassandra-like, to predict the disastrous effects of govt policy. Its human nature [for others] to want to shoot the messenger, so we suffer scorn and derision, despite being inevitably proven correct by events (we're not so modest either). Gene has found that a dark sense of humor makes an effective coping mechanism. As Elvis Costello says: 'I used to be disgusted / Now I try to be amused'. So, tho we're often cantankerous and sarcastic, anything but huggable, sometimes seemingly cold and aloof, we're firmly reality-based and good at facing hard truths. Maybe that's why more folks are listening to our warnings about the fiscal crisis.

From Econ 4/30/11: If English intellectuals hate their own country, as George Orwell wrote, the feeling is mutual. Abstract thot is seen as suspiciously continental in a land that has a whole lexicon for deriding 'eggheads' in 'ivory towers' who are 'too clever by half'. British politics is marked by this anti-intellectualism. The most successful party in Britain's history is that of the proudly practical Tories, the 'stupid party' of John Stuart Mill's snooty caricature ... hard to understand radical Islamists, who really are driven by religion-as-ideology (usually try to see the 'root cause' as poverty or discrimination, etc.) ... but Britain's preference for common sense over deep thinking has served it well ... never fell for fascism or communism like Europe. There's wisdom in its reluctance to take ideas too seriously, maturity in its grasp of how little we can ever know ... but lately David Cameron's Tories have been more open to ideas. Message to Left; you can only win by being in the vanguard of new ideas (my msg to Tories; stick w/'tried and true' [Permanent Things] v. 'fresh and new' [When Libs look for Truth, they always find Fashion]).

7 films chronicling America's 'happiness implosion' i.e. the collapse of 1960s idealism
(in the form of Criterion's 'America Lost and Found: The BBS Story')
1 Head 1968
2 Easy Rider 1969 (blkbuster)
3 Drive, He Said 1970
4 5 Easy Pieces 1970 (blkbuster, made Jack Nicholson famous)
5 A Safe Place 1971
6 The Last Picture Show 1971 (blkbuster)
7 The King of Marvin Gardens 1972
(tAC July 2011)

In a free society the state does not administer the affairs of men.
It administers justice among men who conduct their own affairs.
- Walter Lippman (quoted in CATO's 2010 Annual Report)

Giving money and power to govt is like giving whiskey and car keys to teenage boys.
- P J O'Rourke

Lead me, follow me, or get [the h--l] out of my way!
- WWII Gen George S Patton

Max Weber in the 19C was the 1rst to observe that the essense of govt is 'monopoly on [legitimate] physical coercion [force]'.

It is only the narcotic of historical distance that allows us to regard [English history i.e. clashing warlords] as a kind of romance ... the more one knows about it the more difficult it is to romanticize ... govts are the result of the very thing they promise to protect us against: the arbitrary use of violent means in the pursuit of narrow, self-interested ends ... govts act like gangsters because they ARE gangsters! (45) ... Tho most Americans are [rightly?] suspicious of Big Business, they mostly romanticise govt (62)'
- Kevin Williamson in 'The End is Near' p47 [Augustine, Thomas Paine, Albert Jay Nock also made this observation]

In their bk 'Bootleggers & Baptists' Adam Smith and Bruce Yandle note that US social regulation happens when its demanded by both 'bootleggers' w/an economic interest and 'baptists' w/a moral stake.

The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it w/an endless series of hobgoblins, most of them imaginary.
- H L Mencken

Foreign aid amounts to forcing poor people in rich countries to send money to rich people in poor countries!
- Lord Peter Bauer

In CATO bk 'Fragile By Design' Chas Calomiris and Stephen Haber say 'the well-being of a banking sector depends on the ability of political institutions to limit rent-seeking by populist groups' and, unfortuately, that's not happening enough currently in the USA.

3 early US pol parties committed suicide partly due to their intransigent nativism: 1 the Federalists turned against Irish and French immigrants in the late 18C, who then turned against them, thus eroding their support in NE cities. 2 the Whigs self-destructed over opposition to immigrationn and disagreements over slavery. Then in the 1850s the nativist 3 American Party (aka the Know-Nothings) quickly rose but failed after a few successful elections. Lincoln rejected that strain when he helped build the GOP and many recent German immigrants side w/him against the nativists.

In order for communism to succeed, 3 things must be destroyed; religion (esp. Christianity), traditional values (esp. marriage) and capitalism (esp. property rights).
- Friedrich Engels (Karl Marx' sidekick)

We must consider first and last the American national interest. If we don't, if we construct our foreign policy on some kind of abstract theory of our rights and duties, we shall build castles in the air. We shall formulate policies which in fact the nation will not support with its blood, sweat and tears.
- Walter Lippmann, 1943 (quoted in RNE p367)

A foreign policy consists of ... [basic idea is to balance the nations goals w/its resources, a dynamic process, PatB's point is America's current objectives far outweigh its fp resources i.e. American people will NOT support many 'lib intl' goals w/their 'blood and treasure' ... like castles in the air]
- PatB in SoaS p373

The species of oppression by which democratic nations are menaced ... [involves] the supreme power ...cover[ing] the surface of society with a network of small, complicated rules, minute and uniform, through which the most original minds and the most energetic characters cannot penetrate to rise above the crowd ... Such a power does not destroy, but it prevents existence; it does not tyrannize, but it compresses, enervates, extinguishes, and stupefies a people.
- Alexis de Tocqueville's amazing prophecy (on 'soft despotism, democracy's drift', quoted in CRB Summer 2015)

The 3 'intellectual' presidents: Jefferson, Wilson, Obama (all early in the new centuries, Morton Keller)

The 6 'indelible stamp' presidents: Jefferson, Jackson, Lincoln, TR, FDR, RR (Clintonista Sean Wilentz)

The US Constitution's provisions limiting govt were basically gutted during the 6 years from 1937 (Helvering) [via '38 Carolene Products ...] to 1942 (Wickard) ... creating an unqualified triumph for the previously furtive idea of an unlimited federal spending power ... the SC's decisions and the ensuing revolution in federal regulation and litigation transformed the nation ... then in the early 1970s - following a 30yr gestation period - the corruption potential of unlimited federal power suddenly chrysalized in every corridor of govt and politics ... fleets of reg agencies ... lobbyists [1st firm '75, now >10k registered lobbyists] ... the govt today is a 'sophisticated kleptocracy' ... govt of the factions, by the factions, for the factions ... a problem more of corruption than tyranny.
- Christopher DeMuth Sr rvwing Chas Murray's bk 'By the People' (CRB Summer 2015)

The best argument against democracy is a short conversation with an average voter.
- Winston Churchill

If you're young and not a liberal you have no heart,
if you're old and still a liberal you have no brain.
- Winston Churchill

Shut up, he explained.
- Ring Lardner

The people have spoken, the bastards!
- congressman ? after he lost an election

Govts emerge when roving bandits realize they can prosper by becoming stationary ones and penning in their victims.
- Alfred J Nock in the 1930s, later Mancur Olson (on the true nature of govt)

A people generally get the govt they deserve [... good and hard].
- H L Mencken of Baltimore 1930s

A nation of sheep will get a govt of wolves.
- Edward R Murrow

A liberal is a man so open-minded he refuses to take his own side in a debate.
- H L Mencken?

The 2 biggest left-wing lies are 1 man is basically good, and 2 he doesn't need revelation (can just use his mind) to solve his problems (how's that working?).
- ?

How small, of all that human hearts endure,
That part which laws or kings can cause or cure!
- poet Oliver Goldsmith at the behest of his friend Samuel Johnson

Life offers more to endure than enjoy.
- Samuel Johnson (less cheerful but more more plausible than glib-libs)

Brutal autocracies have a peculiar fascination for certain liberals ... just as Walter Duranty once spun paeans of praise for Stalin's USSR (won a Pulitzer) ... Thomas Friedman now does for China ... the key appeal of totalitarian systems for libs is, in a nutshell, empowering enlightened elites [like themselves] to impose policies upon the masses w/o havint to deal w/voters or 'rule of law'!
- Arthur L Herman in NR (24 Aug 2015) bk rvw of Daniel Bell's 'The China Model'

Ever since progressives renamed - and misnamed - themselves 'liberals', what we call [American] 'liberalism' has been the respectable face of socialist ideology ... i.e. by refusing to commit to any limiting principle on what govt can do, while simultaneously advancing the socialist cause piecemeal, libs get to pretend they subscribe to a different dogma ... [that's the carrot] but there's also a stick ... their 'pragmatism' should be called 'appeasement', since they like to point to the mob and say 'Give them something or it'll be the fire next time' ... Churchill saw this tactic for what it was: the art of feeding the alligator one limb at a time.
- Jonah Goldberg in NR (24 Aug 2015)

You say that its your custom to burn widows. Very well. We also have a custom: When men burn a woman alive, we tie a rope around their necks and hang them. Build your funeral pyre; beside it, my carpenters will build a gallows. You may follow your custom. And then we will follow ours.
- Sir Charles NAPIER, brit cmdr in India, faced w/native practice of 'suttee' i.e. the Hindu tradition of burning widows on the funeral pyres of their husbands, and their plea to allow it as 'local custom' :-) impeccably multi-culti 'touche!' (beat'em at their own game)

When left-liberals talk of 'empathy', beneath the mushy emotional talk lies the old-fashioned, muscular exercise of POWER!
- NR 17 Dec 2012 issue (likely Jonah Goldberg's back page column, noted in Tu 10 Feb 2015 DayTmr)

Corrupt politicians make the other 10% look bad.
- Henry Kissinger

When buying and selling are controlled by legislation, the first things to be bought and sold are legislators.
- P J O'Rourke

A gaffe in Washington DC is when a politician accidentally tells the truth.
- unknown (politician?)

Belief in the 'liberating' power of social science expertise [i.e. social engrs c1900] was a great contributor to the lexicological crime that resulted in progressivism's being called 'liberalism' ... the masses were feared and 'tradition' was seen as 'ignorant and backward' [allowing elites to appear to using 'science' to design 'a new society'].
- Jonah Goldberg in NR 28 Jan 2013 issue

Of all the enemies of true liberty, war is, perhaps, the most to be dreaded, because it comprises and develops the gem [germ?] of every other.
- James Madison

The welfare-warfare state wants to spend your money (and your life).
- me

He who has a why can bear almost any how.
- Friedrich Nietzsche

No country or civilization can last unless it is founded on Christian values.
- SCJ Tom Clark 1950

We are a Christian nation.
- SC CJ Earl Warren 1954 (at Natl Prayer Breakfast)

Hippocrates ('father of W medicine' 460-377 BC) devised a way to categorize human personalities using the 4 body fluids known in his time: phlegmatic (phlegm; calm, self-contained), sanguine (blood; warm, dynamic), melancholic (ylw bile; depressed, introspective) and choleric (blk bile; anxious, irritable).

The Myers-Briggs personality test (dev. by USN) is 4 letters: [I]ntrovert v. [E]xtrovert, I[N]tuitive v. [S]ensing, [T]hinking v. [F]eeling, [J]udging v. [P]erceiving.

The ancient Greeks noticed that there are 4 basic personality types, speculating that each was based on a body fluid: sanguine (blood), phlegmatic (pleghm), melancholy (yellow bile) and cholic (black bile).

The '5 C's' AZ industries:
- Citrus yr?
- Cattle
- Copper
- Cotton
- Climate

The 4 AHE factions (seemingly universal):
- traditional 300 AD - (i.e. Christendom)
- nationalist 1648- (Peace of Westphalia)
- liberal 1776- (Adam Smith)
- communist/socialist 1848- (Marx' Comm. Manifesto)

Same idea w/twist from CATO Policy Rpt Mar/Apr 2013 (cf May '13 DayTmr) article by James Buchanan. Of the 4 main AHE parties:

1 RCC oldest, traditional 'throne and alter' conservatism, 'Christendom'
2 nationalism, after 1648 'Peace of Westphalia'
3 classical liberalism, Adam Smith's 1776 'Wealth of Nations'
4 communism/socialism, Marx/Engels' 1848 'Communist Manifesto' (others on defense after that)

'Soul' of these 4 ideologies: 1 God's order, top down, authoritarian ORDER; 2 'nation' (volk); 3 individual; 4 collective (hmmm, deciding 3 didn't work, reaching backward?)

Cognitive Psychologist Jonathan Haidt's description of W civ (compared to other societies) as WEIRD (Western Educated Industrialized Rich Democratic) [we could add secular-progressive], humorously countering the notion that we're normal and everyone else is strange.

In Heaven there's God's order, on earth sinful, rebellious chaos. We need to accept the chaos [unlike Dems who try to 'fix' it], but try to live by God's order [unlike GOP who try to pretend market chaos 'is good'].
- PatB in Tim Snyder's bio (cf bl-elop notes)

I curse this century above all things for its having given all sentient beings very little alternative than to occupy themselves with politics.
- WFB Jr 1965 (quoted by Wm Voegeli in 60th anniv. NR, lamenting that while the space needed for a life well lived is made possible BY politics, it shouldn't necessarily be devoted TO politics.

People like Woodrow Wilson were the first Americans to imagine that they should use force to improve others without their consent.
- Angelo M Codevilla in CRB Spring 2015

The above quote is in AC's rvw of Kissinger's bk 'World Order' and (surprisingly for what I thot was a neocon publication) also is quite critical of HK as, in effect, the 1st neocon. AC says 'there is no world order because nobody really wants one - except for some Americans [Wilsonian lib-intls incl. neocons] ... the main point of WO is making 'a plea to Americans to act for all mankind by (re)constituting WO from World Chaos. But why should we do that, and what kind of order might that be? AC says HK's answers are not compelling'.

The anti-war movement is often seen as the archetype of 1960s generational protest - a model for other clashes over race, sex, free speech, and poverty. This is a false impression. Most confrontations of the time pitted customs deemed bigoted or inefficient against the energetic application of up-to-date principles, undertaken by bureaucratic or corporate visionaries. Viewed this way, it was the war itself, not the opposition to it, that was the modern thing: the 'leading experts' were on the war's side, at least in the beginning.
- Christopher Caldwell in his rvw of 'American Reckoning' re Vietnam, same issue of CRB

Liberty, the rule of law, and high cultural standards aren't inevitable or even natural, at least to judge by the experience of most of human history ... always under threat ... Our defense of them should be high-spirited - always clear-eyed, but never depressive. WFB Jr liked to say that to despair is a sin.
- Rich Lowry in 60th anniv. NR (19 Nov 2015)

Conservatives need to treat liberal claims to speak for history and progress with the contempt they deserve.
- Yuval Levin (in 60th ann. NR)

The lawyer and commentator Philip K Howard, writing from the political center, put it harshly but accurately: "A group that no longer shares basic values with the society is categorized by sociologists as a 'deviant subculture.' Washington DC has become a deviant subculture.
- quoted by Chas Murray in 60th ann. NR (recent bk 'By the People: Rebuilding Liberty w/o Permission')

Jonah Goldberg (in 60th ann. NR) says Murray Rothbard in 1968 hoped to fuse 'Old Right' w/'New Left', and lamented (in the leftist 'Ramparts') that recent 'conservatives [had rejected a fight for] individual liberty v. state, free market v. govt intervention; seeing the real problem as preserving tradition, order, Christianity and good manners against the modern sins of reason, license, atheism and boorishness (wow!).

Freedom and equality are sworn enemies, when one prevails the other dies.
- Will/Ariel Durant in 'Lessons of History' (SoaS p207)

Tho most focus on the $700B TARP of 2008-9, much more significant was the $9T that went out the 'back door' of the Fed to just 3 financial institutions, loans of avg 22mos at low[er than market] rates (i.e. too big to fail).
- Dec 2015 CATO Policy Report

Sir Edward COKE believed that England's 'ancient constitution' i.e. 'rights and liberties of Englishmen' had been given to England by King Edward the Confessor (M38 Anglo-Saxon b. c1004 KoE r1042-66)
- CATO Policy Report

All horse thieves are Democrats, but not all Democrats are horse thieves.
- FDR's grandfather!

When P J O'Rourke asked his Mom what's the difference between Dems and GOPers, she responded 'Democrats rent' (and Commies rent and are in arrears).
- from 'Why I Turned Right' book

States emerged from protection rackets in which a gang monopolizing violence demanded payment of goods and services - taxes - in exchange for promises to defend local farmers and artisans from predation by rival gangs [under threat of predation by themselves]. Tudor monarchs and the Taliban are cut from exactly the same cloth. But in the 18C, the fractured polities of W Europe provided an open, speculative space where novel ideas about property rights, free trade, freedoms of religion and the press, and limits on govt could mutate and grow. Where those ideas took hold, technological innovation, GDP growth and civil liberties followed ... So far liberal societies are outcompeting - in the sense of being richer and more appealing - those polities that are closer to the original protection rackets (but maybe not forever).
- Ronald Bailey rvw of Matt Ridley's 'Evolution of Everything' in Reason Jan 2016

Middle East constants: tribalism, poverty, statism, authoritarianism, anti-semitism, religiouis/cultural intolerance.
- from a recent VDH article in NR mag

A refusal to accept what experience teaches is the mark of an ideologue.
- SoaS p220

Margaret Mead's quote on how we WANT to believe in equality, but reality says NO.
- SoaS p223

PatB explains that the 'equality game' is really about 'the transfer of wealth and power [by elites] from one class to another [to themselves], quoting Sam Francis '... the real meaning of the doctrine [of equality] is that it serves as a political weapon. PatB observes that 150yrs earlier Tocqueville had also seen thru egalitarianism - to the drive for power that lay behind it i.e. 'the sole condition required to succeed in centralizing the supreme power in a democratic community is to love equality, or [at least] to get men to believe you love it. Thus the science of despotism, which was once so complex, is simplified, and reduced ... to a single principle'.
- SoaS pp224-5

Soviet [now Chinese] leaders act as they do because they're communists, and therefore reserve to themselves the right to lie, cheat and steal! (i.e. that's why you can never trust or negotiate w/them).
- Ronald Reagan on Soviets (noted 12-17-15 in DayTmr after reading NR?)

Nations can have only 2 of the following 3 goods at one time: democracy, sovereignty, free trade (globalism)

Dutch philosophical expert Schiller? concludes Nazism has same roots as Marx-Engels (FT, DyTmr 9/15/14, source?)

Ike was the last president born in the 19C and also (not coincidentally) the last to actually believe in the Constitution (source? PBS Roosevelt program?)

Religion, art, study, family, country, friends, music, fun, duty ... all the joys and riches of experience (rich or poor) are all higher on the scale than their handmaiden, the political struggle
- tAC Sep/Oct 2014 art. on Brit Tory MP Lord Hailsham aka Quintin McGarel Hogg

Govt chain of cmd: Pres, VP, SoH, Pres pro-tem Senator, SoState, Treas, Def, AG, Int, Agric, Comm, Labor, HHS, HUD, Trans, Energy, Educ, VA, HS

When govt fears the people, there is liberty
when the people fear govt, there is tyranny

When a person fears man (worries what they'll think), there is tyranny
when he fears God, there is liberty (can be fearless toward mankind)

(nice symmetry)

3 of the 4 ass. presidents have been GOP (16 Lincoln, 20 Garfield, 25 McKinley v. 35 JFK)

CA is the granola state; full of fruits, nuts and flakes!

From 1946 to 2014 the number of sovereign states went from 76 to 197

Ashkenazi Jews (from NE Europe e.g. Poland, Lithuania) are thot to be descended from Ashkenaz, descendant of Noah and said to be the progrenitor of the Northern peoples (-> Thusco). Sephardic Jews are so-called since 'Sepharad' is Hebrew for Spain, from which they were exiled in 1492.

Leo Strauss bk p17 mentions 'the interconnected realms of religion, history, art, philosophy, science and politics' (and culture, all interests of mine).

Rosslyn Chapel S of Edinburgh was begun in 1446 by Sir Wm St Clair (Sinclair), but only the 'choir' was built (of Templar importance, rcv'd tourist millions after Dan Brown's bks)

Douglas Groothuis' 2016 bk 'Philosophy in 7 Sentences' looks at 7 pivotal sentences in the history of W philosophy:
1 The unexamined life is not worth living, Socrates.
2 You have made us for yourself, and our hearts are restless until they rest in you, Augustine.
3 I think, therefore I am, Descartes.
4 The heart has reasons, that reason knows nothing of, Pascal.
5 ?, Protagoras.
6 ?, Aristotle.
7 ?, Kierkegaard.

James W Sire's 'The Universe Next Door' was pub'd 198? and looks at 9+1 worldviews: theism, deism, naturalism, Marxism, nihilism, existentialism, Eastern monism, New Age philosophy and postmodernism (Islam added recently).

Religions data from Rodney Stark's 2011 ToC pp390-1 (worldwide):
- Christian 2.2B (41% of 7B)
- Muslim 1.4B (27%)
- Hindu 1.0B (19%)
- Buddhist 290M (5%)
- Secular 241M (5%)
- Others 119M (2%)
- Jewish 13M (-%)

Then he lists 'active' (practice it seriously):
- Chr 42% or 1.3B (44% of 2.9B total active, which is 55% of all)
- Mus 40 858M (29%)
- Hin 43 579M (20%)
- Bud 55 131M (4%)
- Sec 90 24M (1%)
- Oth 50 60M (2%)
- Jew 64 5M (-%)

Top-10 GDP (2016 Econ World, cf br-bal and gdp):
[Asia 25T]
[Europe 23T]
1 China 21.2T
2 USA 18.7T
[ME/Africa 10T]
[Latin Amer 9T]
3 India 8.6T
4 Germany 3.9T
5 Russia 3.6T
6 Brazil 3.2T
7 Indonesia 3.0T
8 UK 2.7T
9 France 2.7T
10 Mexico 2.3T
[Italy 2.2T]

Top-10 'geopolitical power' (cf gdp2014, cf br-bal):
1 USA 1704
[Europe 1329]
2 China 828
[Asia 780]
[ME/Africa 381]
3 Germany 251
4 Japan 241
[Latin Amer 208]
5 UK 166
6 India 151
7 S Arabia 144
8 France 126
9 S Korea 119
10 Canada 113

Great Powers thru History:
1 Sumer 3500-2004 BC (sacked by Elamites, Gilgamesh/Nimrod 2311-1878 Ussher)
2 Egypt OK 2686-2125 BC '1st Grt Human Empire' Bal p145
3 Akkad 2340-2285 BC (Sargon I 'the Mag', later Gudea c2144-24)
4 Minoans 2160-1500 BC
[5-10 4 corners plus NC rivalry, took turns dominating region]
5 SW Egypt MK 2040-1640 (Hyksos to 1550)
6 SE Old Babylon 1950-1651 BC (Hammurabi c1792 fndr, lasted to c1350 sack by Assyrians)
7 NC Mitanni 1850-1750 (key city Nuzi)
8 Egypt NK 1600-1300 (#1 Rev 17 nation)
[1600-1300 Old Babylon fading, NK Egypt rising]
9 NW Hittites 1344-22 BC (defeat Mitanni)
[key battle Kadesh 1300 BC Egypt v. Hittites, draw]
10 NE Old Assyria 1300-1000 BC
11 Israel 1000-586 BC (God kept others down via Sea Peoples c1200 BC invasion?)
[then rest of Rev 17 nations]
12 Assyria neo 859-605 (#2 Nebuchadnezzar)
13 Babylon neo 605-539 BC (#3 gold head)
14 Persia 539-330 BC (#4 silver chest)
15 Greece 330-100 BC (#5 bronze torso)
16 Rome 100 BC - 475 AD (#6 iron legs, E continued to 1453)
[5C Byzantium, Parthia, India, China]
[6-7C Byzantium, Persians, China, Merovingians]
[7-8C Tang China 618-907 60M, Umayads 36M, Byz 13M, Franks 10M]
[8-9C Charlemagne's Franks, Byz, Islam, China]
[10-11C HRE, Viking invasions, Bulgars rise 9-10C]
[12-3C Crusades, Byz peaks c1200, Venice v Genoa 12C til frmr t/o Malacca -> I P D B]
[13C Mongols sweep into E Europe, largest emp by land ever]
[14C Ming China 1368-1644 Zheng He voyages, W Europe]
[14-5C Renaissance, top 4 Ottoman, Ming, Mogul, Europe]
[15C Portugal, China, Islam (rising)]
[16C Spain/HRE (and rising Italian city-states) v Ottoman peak 1566]
[17C The Dutch Republic]
[18-9C UK 1759-1945, Russia, Prussia, AHE to WWI, France to 1759]
[20C USA 1945-now]
[IB revived HRE/RCC? ...]

At the opening of the 20C there were 5 great Western empires - the British, French, Russian, German and Austro-Hungarian - and 2 emerging great powers: Japan and the USA. By century's end, all the empires had disappeared. How did they perish? By war - all of them (RNE p3).

GOP: govt can't control them, so mustn't care about [be responsible for] them.
Dem: govt must care about [b r f] them, so it must control them.

The world's 1st Christian kingdom was Osrhoene, capital Edessa (today's Urfa, Turkey) c200 AD. #2 was neighboring Armenia (capital Ani), still Christian to this day. In 4C Persians k. 16k Chr in 40yrs (LHC p54).

Its not enough for me to win, others must lose (Gore Vidal)
Its not enough for me to succeed, others must fail (David Merrick)
(sadly true observations of human nature)

I don't understand how Nixon won. Nobody I know voted for him!
- Pauline Kael, exposing her parochialism in the face of RMN's 49-state '68 landslide


3 Men in a Tub; or the Perils of Progressivism

A man's rights rest in 3 boxes; ballot, jury and cartridge.
- Frederick Douglass (FHT)

The '5 Cs' of AZ
1 cattle, brot late 17C by Spanish, but dev. post-Civil War
2 copper, by 1863 (terr. AZ) 1/4 wrkrs in mining, init. gold/slv, but as they fell (↓) copper rose (↑)
3 citrus, 19C made use of canals built 1kya and sunshine
4 cotton, c1910 Egyptian cotton banned (tariffs) -> AZ Pima (style wool ->) cotton
5 climate, c1900 Drs recommend AZ dry climate for TB, then retirement from cold ...

1 Mercury (my)
2 Venus (very)
3 Earth (earnest)
4 Mars (mother)
5 Jupiter (just)
6 Saturn (served)
7 Neptune (nine)
8 Uranus (uncooked)
9 Pluto (pizzas, demoted 2006)

1-4 terrestrial (rocky)
5-6 gas giants
7-8 ice giants

In CRB, the pro-Clinton Sean Wilenz says there've only been 6 'indelible stamp' presidents: Jefferson, Jackson, Lincoln, TR, FDR and RR

In CRB, Morton Keller quoted as having said there've been 3 'intellectual' presidents, all at the start of new centuries): Jefferson, Wilson, Obama [all 'messiah'-complex?]

In CT, J I Packer discusses the 5 'wisdom' books; Pslams (teaches us how to worship), Proverbs (behave), Job (suffer), SoS (love) and Ecclesiastes (live). Latter is by Qohelet (Hebr for 'gatherer', related to Grk 'ecclesia' for 'assemblyman'). These bks cured JIP of his youthful cynicism, pessimism, bitterness, low expectations, disillusion, discouragement ... [Yukon list] (like Dave Anderson). And how should we live? w/realism & reverence, humility & restraint, cool & content, in wisdom & joy (in little things), 'fear' God (trust, obey, honor), recognize that all the good in life is from Him, and remember that God judges our deeds.

In order of rising strength: terrorism, guerrilla war, army, politics ... [con artistry?]

Of ~220M Americans elibible to vote, only ~130M actually do (of 330M pop., Sep 2015)

Out of the crooked timber of humanity, no straight thing was ever made.
- German philosopher Immanuel Kant 1724-1804

The American people have been divided between those that work for a living and those that vote for a living.
- H L Mencken in the 1930s of FDR's New Deal

'Bad boy' poets are Rimbaud and Baudelaire (composer Boulez d2016 was a fan).

Mentally, I'm assembling a raft - with which I can negotiate the heavy seas, rocks and currents of modern thought. From it arises a mast - flying a flag labeled Jesus Christ. It's He who must occupy the center and direction of my entire understanding. But then the actual raft itself is composed of 4 great planks. These are the unchanging truths that undergird the whole Bible. They need explaining, for today we in the West have lost the firm biblical scaffolding that built our entire civilization. This has to be recovered [and retained by Christians]. 1 Creation, 2 Fall, 3 Redemption and 4 Final Triumph.
- Richard Bewes in Decision Feb 2016, describing his worldview

Until Aug 1914, a sensible, law-abiding Englishman [or citizen of most any Western nation] could cheerfully grow old and hardly notice the existence of the state'.
- A J P Taylor in 'English History: 1914-45' quoted by Christopher Sandford

Nov 2014: there are ~57k politicians in the USA, of which ~10k are up for re-election

Social Gospelers rejected a focus on personal salvation and instead taught that true redemption could only come about VIA collective action. Rauschenbusch ... described this as 'the adjustment of the Christian message to the regeneration of the social order' ... The ultimate end of the Social Gospel, of course, was the use of state power to promote collectivism.
- Wm J Watkins Jr in Chronicles Sep '13

History is a clash of wills out of which there emerges something that no man ever willed.
- Herbert Butterfield

Hmmm, closely related: A man who does what he likes usually ends up not liking what he's done.

The Bebbington Quadrilateral: i.e. the 4 'marks' of an evangelical, biblicism, cruci-centrism, conversionism and evidence of faith (e.g. piety, evangelism, missions, activism ...)
- (I 1st saw it in his article in a '96? bk called 'Evangelicalism'; they cite his '89 bk 'Evang. in Modern Britain: A History from the 1730s to the 1980s')

Wow, by Nov 2014, fully 1/2 of ALL downstream internet traffic comes from just 2 cos; [GOOG's] Youtube and Netflix. 'Net Neutrality' is about only ~10 cos.

Philip Rieff's (d2006) 1966 bk 'The Triumph of the Therapeutic' (tho an unbeliever, concerned re de-Chr, knew that religion is key to understanding any culture i.e. the 'cult' at the heart of culture, need a sense of sacred order, a cosmology that roots moral demands w/in a metaphysical framework).

1963 prayer in school banned, uh oh, beginning of [culture war] troubles

The Chinese Communist Party is the world's largest explicitly atheistic organization, with ~87M members (likely ~same or more Chinese Christians, mostly evangelical Protestants).
- Economist magazine Nov 2014

Same issue of Econ. notes Americans still think the US govt can be fixed e.g. they want WA DC flags and take their kids for visits there. If they truly believed Congress was irredeemably corrupt, a den of criminal oligarchs who sneered at visitors, they wouldn't.

By Nov 2014, Pastor Jamie had owned 47 cars, 10 in last 8yrs since moving to AZ (curr 350Z, he wants to sell, she doesn't)!

Glasnost was political reform, perestroika was economic opening

There are no easy answers, only intelligent choices.
- from an early 1970s CAT ad (made sense to teenage me, early step in lib->cons path)

maybe make an S-R-T (Scripture-Reason-Tradition) chart w/various triads e.g. Truth, Justice, Freedom (fnds of USA) ...

Freedom is the opportunity for self-discipline.
- Ike in 1-10-57 SotU speech

Liberty is under siege. More than 320 depts and agencies at the federal level publish more than 70k pages of new and proposed regulations every year, and about 2k new units of state and local govt are created every decade. Federal, state and local agencies run by anonymous ofcls tell us how to live our lives, routinely denying Americans the most fundamental aspects of what it means to live as free and responsible individuals. The need for constitutional limits on govt power has never been more urgent. That's where the Institute for Justice comes in ...
- Wm H 'Chip' Mellor, Pres. and Gen. Counsel, IJ (Aug 2014 fundraising ltr)

Given their high ideals Americans can cope w/the gap [w/reality] in any of 4 ways:
- the hypocrite ignores the reality
- the cynic dismisses ideas as, at best, useful myths
- the complacent just admits the gap and moves on ('whatever!')
- the moralist seeks to narrow it thru religious uplift or social reform

But whichever mood may be prevalent, every era of American history is defined by disharmony: 'America isn't a lie, its a disappointment. But it can be [that] only because its a hope' (p16 quote from [Sam] Huntington).
Related: D G Hart's BGSP says evangelicalism's 'moral idealism' doesn't fit well w/the 'sober realism' of traditional political conservatism.
- From Walter McDougall's 2004 bk 'Freedom Just Around the Corner' [fjac]

From JtB (Simon Sebag Montefiore's Jerusalem: The Biography):
Muhammad 570-632 AD
Umayyads of Damascus 660-750
Abbasids of Baghdad 750-969
Fatimids of Cairo 969-1099
[Crusades 1099-1187 Hattin]
Saladin Dynasty (Damascus) 1193-1250
Mamluks (Baibars) of Cairo? 1250-1517 (decl. 1339-)
Ottomans (Suleiman) of Turkey 1517-1917

'Yankees' was a put-down by non-Dutch i.e. 'Jan Kees'

Dr Ted George's 2013 bk 'Untangling the Mind' discusses a newly discovered brain area called the PAG (PeriAquaductal Gray) which appears to take inputs from the amygdala and outputs the 'big 4' behaviors and responses (rage [fight], panic [flight], depression [shutdown] and no-emotion [predation]). PTSD would be when more than 1 fires at a time (see Anxiety.txt). These 'pegged on' emotions take normal ones (anger, fear, sadness, focus) meant to help us and turn them into unhealthy, debilitating ones.

Milton Friedman (perhaps #1 of 20C) Prize for Advancing Liberty (hosted by CATO)
2002 Lord Peter BAUER (late British economist)
2004 Hernando de SOTO (Peruvian economist and author)
2006 Mart LAAR (frmr PM of Estonia)
2008 Yon GOICOECHEA (ldr of pro-democracy student movement in Venezuela)
2010 Akbar GANJI (Iranian writer/journalist)
2012 Mao YUSHI (Chinese economist and human rights activist)
2014 Leszek BALCEROWICZ (Polish economist and frmr dep. PM of Poland)
2016 ?

To be deep in history is to cease to be a Protestant.
- Cardinal John Henry Newman (Brit, converted from Anglican to RCC in 19C)

Francis Fukuyama is a neo-Wilsonian (i.e. a liberal internationalist), has tacked left since 2006 (dispute w/Bush 43 and neocons)

From Eyewitness to History bk p641, the 11 Nazi ldrs condemned to die at Nuremberg:
1 Hermann Goering (cheated via suicide by cyanide, all others hanged)
2 Joachin Ribbentrop
3 Wilhelm Keitel
4 Ernst Kaltenbrunner
5 Alfred Rosenberg
6 Hans Frank
7 Wilhelm Frick
8 Fritz Sauckel
9 Alfred Jodl
10 Julius Streicher
11 Arthur Seyss-Inquart

Globetrekker 12-28-14: 12 sentenced to die (above + Martin Borman? Krupp?), 7 to long prison terms (Hess, Doenitz, Funk, Neurath, Schirach, Speer, Raeder), 3 acquited (Schacht, [Hans] Fritzsche, von Papen), so 22 total.

On 26 Dec 1991 when the USSR died, a unipolar world was born for the first time since the fall of Rome c475 AD (CK TTM).

Phoenix metro is 4.4M pop. by Dec 2014. AZ registered voters total 3.253M (Apache 47k [E/NE, Springerville], Cochise 70k [SE Tombstone, Sierra Vista, Ft Huachuca], Coconino 67k [Flagst], Gila 30k [Payson], Graham 18k [ESE, Safford], Greenlee 4.5k [Hannagan Meadow], LaPaz 9.1k [W, Quartsite], Maricopa 2M [GOP 710k 36.2%, other 699k 35.6%, Dem 534k 27%, Lib 17k, Am El 200], Mohave 114k [Lake Havasu City, Kingman], Navajo 59k [Heber, Showlow, Holbrook and N], Pima 483k [Tucson], Pinal 161k [Casa Grande, Oracle, Florence], Santa Cruz 24k [Nogales], Yavapai 123k [Prescott], Yuma 82k).

TDN p20 Fr 30 Jun 1559 KoF Henri II has a jousting accident, spear pieces his skull and brain, allows drs to learn things about how brain works (see br-tdn), d. soon after

Real-life 'Winnie' from Wonder Years (name?) says adults refer to 'puppy love', but kids REALLY feel (no walls yet) love, fear, sadness, anger ... (insightful)

Dec 2014, Forbes says 'gaming' is 47% sports betting, 21% casinos, 16% lotteries and skill games, 10% poker and 6% bingo

Annunciation Day is 3/25 i.e. 9mos before Jesus' b. 12/25!

Econ 3-12-16 on Indian 'faith industry gain[ing] corporate smarts and pol. clout' i.e. new, more sophisticated crop of 'godmen', as India's press calls these proliferating spiritual entrepreneurs ... seeking corporate-style synergies between religious messaging, personal celebrity, commercial success and political influence' (wow, lots of those in America and elsewhere too :-( )

Rexford Tugwell, one of the principal architects of the New Deal, put it plainly some 30 years after the court had completed its revolution with U.S. v. Carolene Products Co. 1938. In a 1968 essay entitled Rewriting the Constitution, Tugwell declared: 'To the extent that these New Deal policies developed, they were tortured interpretations of a document intended to prevent them' (quoted by CATO's Roger Pilon, cf br-pt).

If men were angels, no govt would be necessary;
if angels ruled, no limits would be necessary.
- James Madison

Politics = poli (poly) meaning many + tics (ticks) which are small, blood-sucking creatures

The past isn't over. It isn't even past.
- Wm Faulkner

Govt is, essentially, men with guns.

The 9 most dangerous words: I'm from the govt and I'm here to help you

TANSTAAFL: There ain't no such thing as a free lunch!

The greatest question of our time isn't East v. West, North v. South, capitalism v. communism ... It is can man live without God? (the West is trying, but the answer is no)
- Will DURANT (quoted in Decision mag Dec 2015)

Liberalism is one aspect of what GKC called 'Christian ideas gone mad' (others are fascism, nazism, communism, welfare-statism ... quoted in Chron May 2016)

Since FDR only Nixon and RR have won landslides, by successfully hijacking FDR's New Deal coalition, which rested on Northern ethnics making common cause w/white Southerners. Clinton, Bush I/II and Obama never came close to this consensus i.e. sustained, broad support (from tAC mag Nov/Dec 2014, likely not Trump either)

FT article on % of 'middle class' folks in world (i.e. $10-$100/day): ~1/3 in 1990, ~1/2 in 2005, ~60% in 2009 (wow, mainly due to China's opening to W capitalism)

Maimonides' 13 Principles of Judaism:
1 to know the existence of the Creator
2 the unity of God
3 denial of God's physicality
4 God's antiquity
5 God is worthy of our service, worship, obedience, glorify and make known His greatness
6 prophecy
7 Moses as prophet
8 Torah is from God
9 Torah is complete
10 God sees ALL of man's actions [and thots, feelings, attitudes ...]
11 God rewards, punishes
12 Messiah is coming
13 resurrection of dead

To be deep in history is to cease to be a [liberal] Protestant.
- Cardinal John Henry NEWMAN (hmmm)

To live in the presence of great truths and eternal laws, to be led by permanent ideals, that's what keeps a man patient when the world ignores him and calm and unspoiled when it praises him.
- Stoic philosopher Epictetus

Christopher Lasch and Robt Nisbet are 'heirs' of Emile Durkheim ... Modernity intensifies expectations and the quest for intimate relationships which, it is hoped, will compensate for the loss of community [solidarity] and a stable worldview ... Romantic love is made to pull more weight than it ever had to before, or indeed than wiser souls ever would've assigned to it.
- notes on Paul Hollander's bk 'Extravagant Expectations' rvw'd in NR 8-15-11 issue by Mary Eberstadt

Burke's conservatism depends [only] on contextrual continuities v. the continental conservatism of [for e.g.] de MAISTRE, which depends on metaphysical universals [e.g. 'throne and alter'].
- quoted in FT

Socialism always kills its mother, the republic, as well as its sister, liberty.
- Balzac

The Revolution always devours her children [e.g. many French Rev leaders lost their heads at the guillotine]

The essence of tragedy is that human beings have to pay for their mistakes ... our culture is full of bitterness, sarcasm [and cynicism] and lack of fellow feeling (solidarity).
- NR 8-25-14 issue

James SIRE's 'Universe Next Door' bk c1980s discusses 1 theism 2 deism 3 naturalism 4 Marxism 5 nihilism 6 existentialism 7 Eastern monism 8 New Age philosophy and 9 post-modernism

Cognitive psychologist Jonathan HAIDT writes in Reason of his WIERD acronym: Western, Intellectual (or Industrialized), Educated, Rich, Democratic countries and how their way of thinking is NOT the global norm. Related is a recent FT comment that Locke et al 'denatured' Christianity and religion generally in order to allow the (secular) state and mkt to flourish and get more power. The trouble is that rel. is NOT this way (compartmentalized) by nature, so this 'secular' realm is an artificial creation of modernity, an estranged stepchild of Christianity.

Foreign Policy 'realism' began as a reaction to Wilsonianism, its 4 basic postulates:
1 (geopolitical) power is the driving force in the world
2 the intl system is impossible to harmonize
3 stability requires a balance of power
4 no country is innocent

Above from Ross Douthat's bk 'Bad Religion', Americans and esp. Christians often find realism blasphemous, certainly Wilson would've. RD says Chr realism is neither innocent nor cynical (p30). Above 4 are v. idealism i.e. 1 ideals, high principles; 2 all can agree on universal 'ideals' and 'norms'; 3 'intl law' can use used to achieve stabily based on those universals; and 4 God is on our side, we're the 'good guys'. But unfortunately, idealistic intentions and motives often yield horrible results e.g. WWI.

Reminds me of WFB's quip; idealism is fine, but as it appraches reality its costs become prohibitive.

He who marries the spirit of the age is soon [left] a widower.
- Ralph INGE

If there happens to be a trough, there will be pigs.
- Russian poet Alexander PUSHKIN 1799-1837 37yo k. in duel

Rhetoric is the art of probing what men believe they ought to believe.
- Wayne BOOTH

Work of Mancur OLSEN sees modern states as 'highly developed mafia orgs' :-) ... Murray Rothbard had made this basic point in his 1962 book Man, Economy, and State' ... 1st 2 necessities are physical security and food e.g. WmConq's England was divided into 2 groups; soldiers and farmers (like today's Afghan ...) ... Jonah Goldberg wrote in NR that Walking Dead's Negan represents an archetypal 'stationary bandit' referring to Peter Kurrild-Klitgaard and Gert Tinggaard Svendson's 2003 'Public Choice' essay 'Rational Bandits: Plunder, Public Goods, and the Vikings' expanding on MR's/MO's thesis that all states have their origin in plunder and conquest ... key idea is that 'people are a resourse' (NR 6-11-18).

There are 2 basic parties; the evil party (Left) and the stupid party (Right). Occasionally they ally themselves to pass legislation that is both evil AND stupid!
- George ORWELL From Edw Feser's bk, the 5 historically most important but in recent yrs largely neglected proofs of God's existence, compiled [but not all originated] in TA's 13C Summa Theologica:
1 Aristotelian (arg from motion aka 'unmoved mover')
2 Neo-Platonic (arg from causation aka '1st cause')
3 Augustinian (arg from contingency aka 'only non-perishable')
[1st 3 are 'cosmological arguments']
4 Thomistic (Aquinas, arg from degree aka 'only perfect, unblemished, all other exhibit only degrees of truth, goodness, nobility ...)
5 Rationalist (Leibnitz, arg from telos or design aka only source of purpose, direction)
(apply names; from design, 1st mover ...)

4 ingredients of American literary sensibility:
1 Puritan ethos (& revivals)
2 harsh natural world
3 Renaissance
4 Enlightenment
- NR

You will never find peace and happiness until you are ready to commit yourself to something worth dying for.
- Jean-Paul SARTRE 1905-80 74yo, French existentialist philosopher (quoted by Billy Graham in 1964 sermon discussing how youth have been failed i.e. he spoke to them at Daytona Beach, they didn't mock or heckle, listened ... he thot to himself someone's failed these young people, govt? home? schools? church? Decision mag Jun 2016)

Jordan Peterson's [b1962] 12 rules:
1 Stand up straight w/shoulders back
2 Treat yourself like someone you're responsible for helping (client)
3 Make friends w/people who want the best for you
4 Compare yourself w/who you were yesterday, not someone else today
5 Don't let your kids do anything that makes you dislike them
6 Set your own house in perfect order before criticizing the world
7 Pursue what's meaningful v. expedient
8 Tell the truth, or at least don't lie
9 Assume the person you're listening to must know something you don't
10 Be precise in speech
11 Don't bother kids when they're skateboarding
12 Pet a cat when you encounter one on the street

2017:
- Baby Boomers b1946-64 25% of workforce
- Generation X b1965-83 33%
- Generation Y b1984-2002 35% (aka millenials)
- Generation Z b2003-21 5% (they said >96 but ?)

From the 8C BC Aramaic became the lingua franca of the ANE, and w/the rise of Christianity the dialect of Aramaic aka Syriac became a major literary language in E Christianity -> 'Syrian mileau of the Koran' (cf also Philip JENKINS' 'The Lost History of Christianity' br-lhc)

Democracy (a liberal society) requires Christian morality, which alone among religions preaches 1 the equality of man, and 2 the infinite worth of each individual.
- Economist mag 8-30-18

Sources of God's direction: Scripture (S), inner voice/light (R) and community (T) (many other SRTs in br-pt i.e. 'big 3' rel. faith (S), traditional family (T) and a sense of mystery, that we can't figure everything out new in each genearation (R humility))

The story of conservatism ... is a long one ... [beginning 2.5kya w/] the Ancient Greeks ['1st people to depend totally on Reason' quote from here?] ... a fascinating people, gregarious, curious, disputatious. They studied everything, and had theories about everything, many of which were horribly [wrong], but that didn't stop them arguing about them ... begins w/Socrates, who said 'doubt everything ... take nothing on authority' ... then ancient skeptics ... [Aristotelian empiricism 'if it works its true' v. Platonic idealism 'if its true it works'] ... then Chr sidelined skepticism ... then Renaissance ... esp. Montaigne ...
- Kieron O'Hara in 'After Blair' 2005

The quickest thing you get when you worship nature is an attraction to the unnatural
- G K Chesterton (cf Greeks ... pagans ... 21C West ...)

Liberalism is one aspect of what GKC called 'Christian ideas gone mad' (others are fascism, nazism, communism, welfare-statism ... quoted in Chron May 2016)

Terror attacks can make it appear at times like an evil flood. Yet, historically, all these terror groups must eventually disappear - destined to end up coughing in the exhaust of the ongoing church. The conflict between good/evil is about power. We see this in Christ's wilderness temptations. Its the cross that supremely demonstrates 2 completely opposite approaches to power. With the devil, its grab; with Jesus, its grace ... hate/love ... taking/yielding power and shedding blood. Its the blood of Christ that Satan can't stand - it undermines the powers of darkness. Its as we hold to the message of the cross that we can outface evil - and discover that even former terrorists can be redeemed by Christ.
- Richard Bewes (Decision Jul-Aug 2017)

We're living at at time where we dare not set a tepid Christianity beside a scorching paganism ... we can't be saved by the wisdom of this world or by the firepower of the flesh, only by the salvation of the Savior.
- Ravi Zacharias (Decision Jul-Aug 2017)

I once asked a univ prof what he thot our greatest need was. He said he could mention tax relief ... to disarmament, but, tho not a religious man, believed it to be a spiritual awakening that will restore individual and collective morals and integrity thruout the nation ... [BG continues] to bear the name 'Christian' isn't enough ... attending church isn't enough ... a hostile world is seething w/hatred, intrigue, lawlessness and godless aggression ... the heart of the world is aching for peace, reality and God ... Hab. 3:2 says 'O Lord, revive Your work in the midst of the years!' and that's the heart cry of 1k's of people everywhere, its our greatest need ... Spiritual revival has been key to the USA ... God's blessings came not just from a few pilgrims praying a Plymouth Rock ... we've been favored because periodically as a nation we've returned to God is repentance and corrected our manner of life before the hand of judgment fell ... too little noted in secular histories ... a group of people prayed in New England for revival, and in 1734 at Northampton, MA, Jonathan Edwards preached his famous sermon [Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God] and 100s responded at that service, leading quickly to nearly 1/6 of the nation's pop. being won to Christ ... then in 1783 liquor makers began their work in the US, saloons sprang up everywhere, home life degenerated, morals plunged, gambling was widespread, infidelity thrived and corruption was prevalent in high places ... but in Richmond, VA prayer mtgs broke out ... revival fires began to burn across the land ... 1k's of lives transformed ... US-based foreign missions were born in this [2nd Grt] awakening ... WW once said 'America was b. a Christian nation for the purpose of exemplifying to the nations of the world the principles of righteousness found in the Word of God'. John Adams said 'the destiny of America is to carry the Gospel of Jesus Christ to all men everywhere'. And FDR once said 'I doubt if there's any problem, social, moral or political, that couldn't melt away before the fire of spiritual awakening'. These ldrs put God and spiritual revival at the center, where they belong ... so what are the steps to it? ... 1 earnest prayer ... 2 forsake our sins ... 3 God must be real to us ... if Christianity is important at all, its all-important; its its anything at all, its everything; its either the most vital thing in your life, or it isn't worth bothering with ... [invitation]
- Billy Graham 1964 (Decision Jul-Aug 2017)

Commies force Christians to listen to an atheist 'sermon' of ~1hr? ... then commisar 'magnanimously' allows a 5 minute response ... pastor says 'I don't need 5 minutes', then stands up to give the traditional E Orthodox 'Paschal Greeting' (i.e. related to Passover) 'He is Risen' and congregation responds 'He is Risen Indeed!', repeated 2 more times and done ... cool story re immovable faith even in the face of opposition ... like they were saying 'yeah, whatever' to the commies, and 'we still believe' [Christianity as the 'anvil that's worn down many hammers']
- Source? (FT)

Where men are forbidden to honor a king they honor millionaires, athletes, or film-stars instead; even famous prostitutes or gangsters. For spiritual nature, like bodily nature, will be served; deny it food and it will gobble poison
- C S Lewis in The Spectator 1943 (NR 2-11-19 not all K's are good, not all others are bad)

In Acton Notes May/Jun 2018, Pres. Robt SIRICO discusses Edmund BURKE's 'little platoons' (in his 'Reflections on the French Rev'). The French Rev was among the 1st uprisings against oppressive regimes that resulted in something worse than what it sought to replace. Anarchy, chaos and cruelty became the order of the day. The disordered passions of humankind violently surfaced as the Reign of Terror displaced the promise of ordered liberty. 'Turbulent, discontented men of quality, in proportion as they are puffed up w/personal pride and arrogance, generally despise their own order', writes BURKE. 'One of the 1st symptoms they discover of a selfish and mischievous ambition is a profligate disregard of a dignity which they partake w/others'. So it was in 1790s France as it is thruout the world today. Forces w/a variety of agendas attempt to trample our hard-won liberties in pursuit of vaguely defined goals claiming egalitarian outcomes. This ignores ample empirical evidence that humans thrive most when left in large part to their own devices in an ordered society that protects basic freedoms of speech and religion as well as property rights. The statist impulse thrives and must be fought at every turn. 'The little platoon we belong to in society is the 1st principle (the germ as it were) of public affections; the 1st link in the series of by which we proceed towards a love of country and mankind. The interest of that portion of social arrangements is a trust in the hands of all those who compose it; and as none but bad men would justify it in abuse, none but traitors would barter it away for their own personal advantage' says BURKE.

The ultimate result of shielding men from the effects of folly is to fill the world with fools.
- Herbert Spencer

Cognitive psychologist Jonathan HAIDT writes in Reason of his WIERD acronym: Western, Intellectual (or Industrialized), Educated, Rich, Democratic countries and how their way of thinking is NOT the global norm. Related is a recent FT comment that Locke et al 'denatured' Christianity and religion generally in order to allow the (secular) state and mkt to flourish and get more power. The trouble is that rel. is NOT this way (compartmentalized) by nature, so this 'secular' realm is an artificial creation of modernity, an estranged stepchild of Christianity (cf DayTmr June 2014 end pages)

Above cf DayTmr July 2012 end pages, looks l got this from Ross Douthat's bk 'Bad Religion', Americans and esp. Christians often find realism blasphemous, certainly Wilson would've. RD says Chr realism is neither innocent nor cynical (p30). Above 4 are v. idealism i.e. 1 ideals, high principles; 2 all can agree on universal 'ideals' and 'norms'; 3 'intl law' can use used to achieve stabily based on those universals; and 4 God is on our side, we're the 'good guys'. But unfortunately, idealistic intentions and motives often yield horrible results e.g. WWI.

Reminds me of WFB's quip; idealism is fine, but as it appraches reality its costs become prohibitive.

There are 2 basic parties; the evil party (Left) and the stupid party (Right). Occasionally they ally themselves to pass legislation that is both evil AND stupid!
- George ORWELL

Democracy (a liberal society) requires Christian morality, which alone among religions preaches 1 the equality of man, and 2 the infinite worth of each individual.
- Economist mag 8-30-18

There's no such thing as a Lost Cause, because there's no such thing as a Gained Cause.
- T S Eliot

PC-ism [woke-ness] is just fascism posing as manners
- comedian George CARLIN (wow, he NAILED it)

The [13] core tenets of Edm BURKE's 'Reflections on the Rev in France' 1790:
1 the dangers of abstract reason
2 the fallible nature of man ('dim view of humanity' aka Augustinian view)
3 the distilled wisdom of the ages
4 the perils of leveling society
5 the menace of social engineering
6 the virtue of prudence
7 the complexity of circumstance
8 the sanctity of property
9 the hazards of fiat money
10 the balance between conservation and reform
11 the limits of voluntary contracts
12 the intergenerational responsibilities of civil society
13 the depth of the human soul lies beyond human measurement
- Gregory M COLLINS in 65th Anniv issue of NR 12-17-20

Democracy is the theory that ordinary people know what's good for them, and they should get it good and hard
- H L Mencken

What does the LORD require of you but to do justice, love kindness [mercy] and walk humbly with your God
- Micah 6:8

... live peacefully, mind your own business, and work with your hands
I Thes 4:11

We can't really break God's laws, we can only break ourselves AGAINST His laws.
- Cecil B DeMILLE Director of the 1956 movie 'The 10 Commandments' and many other epic productions

Education without values, as useful as it is, seems rather to make man a more clever devil.
- C S Lewis

It is undoubtedly the case that a good number of Americans have swallowed whole the idea that classical liberalism is a smokescreen for all sorts of insidious 'isms [woke- prog- social- commun- left- ...]
- from 'Our Illiberal Moment' by Chas C W COOKE in NR 2-22-21

Politics is show-biz for ugly people!
- source?

Politics is entrepreneurship for people who prefer power to money.
- NR

Good fences make good neighbors.
- Robt FROST

Corollary: Good boundaries (borders, chks & bal, lmt'd govt bal of pwrs, 'pol. inst's and pol. actors, bound by law, convention and practice' ...) make good civilizations
- John HILLEN in 7-1-21 NR

For every complex problem there's an answer that's clear, simple and wrong [i.e. recommended by ideologues trapped in 'the clean, well-lit prison of a single idea']
- H L MENCKEN c1920

Rationalism = the clean, well-lit prison of a single idea.
- G K CHESTERTON

Core tenets of lib-ism (and its dau 'antiracism') Diversity, Equity, Inclusion (DEI) [w/similar results on civ e.g. DIE!]
- FT Jun/Jul '21

We are a free people whose institutions presuppose a Supreme Being.
- SCJxx Wm O DOUGLAS in yr

The problem isn't what people DON'T know, its what they THINK they know that's false!
- 40th US Pres Ronald REAGAN

If America wanted to be ruled by men in robes, they should've stuck with George III!
- Mark Steyn on SCOTUS

Internationalism is to patriotism what free-love is to clean, honorable, dutiful family life.
- Teddy ROOSEVELT (A World Restored p433)

Democracy is inherently 'untidy'
- Donald RUMSFELD

3 key evidences that America has become decadent
- 2-tier or double-standard 'justice' v. 'equal protection' [blind justice, 'freedom for me, NOT for thee', '20 Antifa riots 'mostly peaceful' v. 1/6 'insurrection' ...]
- fake news v. unbiased fact-based media
- rigged v. 'free and fair' elections
- Mark STEYN Jul 2021 on Tucker CARLSON's show on FoxNews

Economic problems are really [boil down to] political ones, political ones are really philosophical ones, philosophical ones are really cultural ones, and cultural ones are really religious [spiritual] ones.
- Irving BABBITT 1924, even then a rare conservative on the Harvard faculty

Freedom isn't simply the right of intellectuals to circulate their merchandise. Its above all the right of ordinary people to find elbow room for themselves and a refuge from the rampaging presumptions of their 'betters'.
- George GILDER quoting Thomas SOWELL in NR 11-1-21

No society can survive if the moral tie isn't strengthened in proportion to the political tie being relaxed [i.e. moral authority replaces pol. auth.]
- Alexis de TOCQUEVILLE

Tories since THATCHER have concluded not only that market-1st policies don't always lead to conservative solutions, but also that unleashing market forces leads to lost manufacturing jobs and factories and a move leftward in both academia and legal professions e.g. universities' embrace of CRT (and woke-ism) and lawyers striking gold in human-rights law (and victimhood)
- Bagehot in Economist magazine late 2021

Liberals are attracted to global 'solutions' and social engineering due to the moral, ethical ... disorder [chaos] in their OWN lives!
- Jordan PETERSON

Hispanics are Republicans, they just don't know it yet.
- Ronald REAGAN

An even split among hispanics [or blacks] between Dems and GOP would be an extinction-level event for Dems.
- CRB (DayTmr 3-1-22)

If liberals [actually fascists but whatever] don't enforce the borders, fascists [actually conservatives but whatever] will
- source? (a lib)

Scot scholars like Adam SMITH and Wm ROBERTSON began using the term 'liberal' in the 1770s to refer to our natural rights and liberties, while on the continent it more often referred to 'constitutional reform and political participation' ... Whig Party of Engl -> Lib Party e.g. LOCKE, SMITH, JEFFERSON, J S MILL ... encyc: protecting/enhancing freedom of individual ... but then c1900 the term underwent a change -> activist govt, in theory to help poor and middle class via prog taxes, xfr programs, regulation ... economist Joseph SCHUMPETER quipped 'as a supreme, if unintended, compliment, the enemies of private enterprise have thought it wise to appropriate its label' ... so older lib-ism came to be known as classical lib-ism or libertarianism ... today its threatened by authoritarian populism on both right and left [GOP natl-ism, protectionism, using state pwr to hurt Left ... Dems open socialism, illiberalism toward free speech and dissenting ideas, CRT racism, sexism, rel bigotry, heterophobia ... inst-ized hatred of white, male, straight Christians ...]
- David BOAZ in CPR Jan/Feb 2022

Every great cause begins as a movement, becomes a business, and eventually degenerates into a racket
- American sage Eric HOFFER

We are merely thinking God's thots after Him.
- astronomer Johannes KEPLER

Fascism is banding together to WIELD power v. American system of banding together to RESTRAIN power (lmt'd govt, sep/bal of pwrs, natural ind rights, no tax w/o rep, pwrs not named devolve to states or people ...)
- Tucker CARLSON 4-22-22

[George] SANTAYANA believed, with good reason, that chaos [like poverty] is the natural state of mankind, and tyranny the usual remedy. That's why 'perfect order is so rare and precarious' and why the few islands of permanence and beauty that exist must be closely guarded lest they too become engulfed.
- H Scott TRASK in Chronicles mag c. Dec 2021 (quoted in Jan '22 issue)

FT Aug '22: a letter to the editor mentions 'the Four Causes that have grounded rational thought for thousands of years and would grant us now a more noble compass with which to navigate the current state of society i.e. we can pursue science to develop our understanding of the body (Material Cause), while also reverencing the unity of our spiritual nature (Formal Cause, spirit) embedded in a created objective order (Efficient Cause [logos, mind]) for a purpose (Final Cause [soul]).

FT Jun/Jul '22: Ross DOUTHAT's call for 'A Gentler Christendom' (i.e. we've lost the culture wars), integralist Edm WALDSTEIN's response 'All We Need is Everything' (under God's authority), makes the interesting point that 'the twin foundations of the Enlightenment philosophy, which had such great influence on the social, economic and technological changes of modernity [but are now breaking down, or at least the Left is no longer following them like before?], are the rejection of teleology in nature and the rejection of the authority of the church [as God's representative]. To oppose one [RCC ldrshp given its internal divisions, failure to respond effectively to social/econ/tech chgs, theol. civil wars (lack of unity) and failures of ldrshp and egregious scandals e.g. priest predators] without opposing the other is to fight with one hand tied behind one's back ... these 2 fndns remind me of the 2 main lies of modernity: 1 people are basically good, and 2 we don't need God, church or Revelation, just use our minds ... these seem parallel to his 2 i.e. rejecting teleology is accepting whatever goals people seek i.e. all equally OK, all cultures equally valuable = NO standards or objective moral order ...

Hans-Hermann HOPPE noted regarding Francis FUKUYAMA's '92 bk 'End of History' that it didn't mark the victory of laissez-faire capitalism over communism and fascism, but rather of social democracy over all 3. Big Govt and Big Capital had reached a final rapprochement. Their love embrace is now called 'woke capitalism' ... [its] what happens when social democracy grows to such proportions as to make it nearly impossible to earn a profit w/o pol. approval
- Michael RECTENWALD in 'The Failure of Lib-ism and the Cons Crisis of Faith' (a crisis of faith stemming from the failure of classical lib-ism and resultant politicization of economy) in Chron, Jul '22

Brit tech lawyer Jamie SUSKIND's book 'The Digital Republic' seeks to 'restrain the unaccountable power' of 'those autocrats of information' (amazingly prescient phrase of 19C coding pioneer Ada LOVELACE) 'much as 18C democrats [especially American Fndrs] did for the state and 19C reformers [classical libs] for corporations, his idea is to apply the principles of republicanism to IT (Econ 7-2-22)

Chronicles mag Jun 2022: lead article 'Russia, Ukraine and the Return of Natl-ism: The Russia-Ukr War has become a proxy fight between Amer-led globalism and the alternative: a multipolar world of nation-states free from Amer hegemony" by Christopher ROACH pvt FL atty and Amer Grtness author ... mentions 'globohomo' for New World Order, rules-based intl order, globalism ... W Europeans shed most of their natl-ism in wake of WWII. While Soviets blamed 3rd Reich on 'capitalism', the W pinned it on natl-ism [both wrong, real cause was/is leftist ideology aka lib. fascism] ... quotes NATO's 1st Sec'y Gen Lord Ismay: NATO's purpose is to keep USSR out, Amer in and Germany down ... the Ukr-ians, while they believe they're fighting for and animated by their own distinctive natl-ism, are only being celebrated in the West [by left] as foot soldiers for globalism ... tragic: even if Ukr manages to kind of win, any sought-after indep, once achieved, will be erased by its marriage to the EU and a new invasion of W grifters [NGOs], 3rd World migrants and the suffocating tentacles of hostile bureaucrats [same ones harassing Poland, Hungary, Czech aka 'visigrad' and any other holdouts to LGTBQ rights, gay m. ... next art. by Edw STAWIARSKI on 'For. Pol. as Spiritual Warfare: A Conversation w/Aleksandr DUGIN' key advisor to PUTIN, phil, mystic, radical bohemian, geopol. guru ... brot up Chr, wandered, returned to Orthodoxy, key infl Julius Evola 1898-1974, Rene Guenon 1886-1951 'esoteric trad-ism' (JE a fascist Italian thinker) ... says 'everything anti-modern is good, which w/diff rel. trads allowed Dugin to reconcile non-Chr and non-Orth trads ... says Chr civ unfortunately no longer exists, destruction began w/Grt Schism of 1053, later indiv-ism -> lib-ism ... because US cntl's overwhelming force, we're in unipolar world, bad, this hegemony must be broken up to allow 'poles' of world civ (competition) e.g. Islamic, Eurasian (Russian), Chinese, so alt to globalism, allowing sociological diversity, end pol. absolutism in favor of cult. relativism ... later art. by Grant HAVERS on Canada's loss of 'sanity' and give-in to globhomo, 1965 bk 'Lament for a Nation: The Defeat of Canadian Natl-ism' by late Geo GRANT ... already in 1835 Tocqueville noticed how dissenting from 'elite consensus' in America was dangerous i.e. modern 'cancel culture' already active then, tho for much more cons consensus ... DeSANTIS v. DIS 'chose not only to defend the interests of his constituents but to attack their enemies, which as it turns out, is a winning strategy' (natl GOP should try it sometime) ...

There is a great deal of ruin in a nation.
- Adam SMITH 1777

With much wisdom comes much sorrow; the more knowledge, the more grief.
- Ecclesiastes 1:18

Perhaps change 'homo sapiens' to 'homo snafupians'?

If you put the federal govt in charge of the Sahara Desert, in 5 years there'd be a shortage of sand.
- Milton FRIEDMAN quoted in EdChoice mailing

The purpose of our education system is for the A students to teach the B students how to work for the C students.
- source? :-)

Men do not make laws, they do but discover them.
- Calvin COOLIDGE in a direct rebuttal of then-SCJ Oliver Wendell HOLMES

If there happens to be a trough, there will be pigs.
- Russian poet PUSHKIN

Faith without Reason leads to superstition,
Reason without Faith to nihilism (i.e. 'the ruin of all values').
- Pope JPII

The facts of life invariably DO turn our to be conservative.
- Margaret THATCHER as ldr of oppo before she won her 1st general election in 1979 (quoted in CRB Fall 2023 by Chas MOORE as confirming 'the routing of the woke bankers' in the Nigel FARAGE case ...

... the strange beauty that arises from a commitment to purer things ...
- FT Dec 2023

Of all tyrannies, [those] sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive ... [T]hose who torment us for our own good will [do so] without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.
- C S LEWIS quoted in Imprimis Dec 2023 by Sen Rand PAUL R-KY

Russell KIRK 1918-94 famously dismissed libertarians as 'chirping sectaries' who are 'metaphysically mad' and 'so repellent'. 'With friends like those, who needs enemies?' he wrote. The great division in modern politics is NOT libertarianism v. authoritarianism but rather the divide 'between all those who believe in some sort of transcendent moral order, on one side, and on the other side all those who take this ephemeral existence of ours for the be-all and end-all to be devoted chiefly to producing and consuming'. Real conservatives reject the notion that a country is simply a market and its citizens a mass of deracinated [interchangeable] consumers.

Hard times create strong men.
Strong men create good times.
Good times create weak men.
Weak men create hard times.
- prescient formula for people/nations by ancient Greek philosopher Polybius