Debate

We talked previously and in emails about having another debate. What about global warming. I think this reading can start us off on the right track.

Talk amongst yourselves....

Public Choice

The bootleggers and baptists are up to their old games again. This time some other baptists are the whistle blowers.
World magazine (www.worldmag.com) is an evangelical weekly magazine, published in Asheville. They have brought to the evangelical community's awareness an interesting story.
Jack Abramoff, of the Indian Casino scandals, gave Ralph Reed, former Christian Coalition president and Religious Right poster boy, nearly a million dollars to influence pastors and their congregations into voting against a law that would legalize gambling in Texas. Abramoff's goal was to protect his clients' monopoly. Reed's motive was to prevent gambling... uh... and to get paid.
The interesting part that World brought out was that Reed asked Abramoff for more money and said that he could get Focus on the Family's James Dobson to speak out against the gambling law on his popular and influential radio show.
This caused something of a rift between World and Focus. A Focus VP got upset that Focus was implicated by World in the scandal and wrote a letter to the editor that World refused to publish, and then he read it on the air.
Focus' Dobson, and World's Editor, Marvin Olasky, have both managed to keep a cool head about the matter, both of them backing their own employees, but at the same time identifying the real source of the problem: Ralph Reed.
I hope that someday Christians will realize that legislating morality does not affect societal norms, but merely supports bootleggers. In other words, I hope that they will learn some economics. And I hope that economists will learn some ethics. And I hope that the law can be decontaminated.
Nathan
Read more about this at:(http://www.worldmag.com/articles/11489) original article in World.
and (http://www.worldmag.com/webextra/11574) World's explaination of the behind the scenes stuff between World and Focus, along with a list of checks received by Reed from Abramoff.

Not Yours To Give

Here's a link to Davey Crockett's Speech about the government's involvement in charity. It's an easy read and tells a good story. The fact that the speech had the desired results makes it more important. This speech should be read aloud in Congress everyday in place of whatever prayers are offered publicly.
http://www.house.gov/paul/nytg.htm
Nathan

The Economy

So why does everybody keep saying that the American economy is so bad?
Look Here.

Violence

When is it 'okay' to use violence? Is there such a thing as a "Just War"?

Epistimology

First knowledge determines the way we understand everything. This is difficult because we sometimes have to try to understand someone with different first premises than our own. Semantical collisions become legion.
Right now I am trying to understand Keynes. Well, at least McElroy's reading of Keynes.
A few questions for anyone out there who might have insight. Please help me.

What is "a limiting point of the possible positions of equilibrium."? This is McElroys quote of Keynes contention with Classical economics.
Is he talking about looking at the long term?
How much did Keynes assume a civil law framework with government deliberately shifting interest rates and money supplies (inflation)? Is this what led him to these conclusions?
In other words, is the special case in which Classical Economics works, according to Keynes, the case where government is restrained to its proper role? All other cases, where government encroaches upon its citizens, being the case which we are actually in, and ought to remain?
Nathan

Keynes Detox

Anybody know a way to deal with a heavy Keynsian hangover? I've got
y=u(z+g-ct)-u(i+x)r doing laps around my head like those birdies in the cartoons. None of it makes any sense! Well, I guess it does... but it presupposes that the government will get involved (because it was, but it shouldn't have been) and maybe that's why it did even more. It's difficult to learn something that runs contrary to your nature.
Nathan

Philanthropy II

The economics of charity are an interesting topic, but I'd like something more empirical for the time being. Do YOU give to charity? Do you give regularly? Do you have a plan as to how much you will give and to whom? What do you think happens to money you give to charity? What motivates your giving? Is it guilt, or pleasure?
Nathan

The Wage Slave

Are Anti-Strike laws slave labor?