2010-08-06

Eat it Chopra!



It's always fun to watch a relativist hoisted on his own petard.

Yes we can


But should we?

From politics to science to economics to religion, the ability to do something doesn't mean that it is right for us to do something. To often, drunk with our own power, we rush to do something simply because we can - rather than thinking through why the limitation was there in the first place. Chesterton put it this way:
"In the matter of reforming things, as distinct from deforming them, there is one plain and simple principle; a principle which will probably be called a paradox. There exists in such a case a certain institution or law; let us say, for the sake of simplicity, a fence or gate erected across a road. The more modern type of reformer goes gaily up to it and says, "I don't see the use of this; let us clear it away." To which the more intelligent type of reformer will do well to answer: "If you don't see the use of it, I certainly won't let you clear it away. Go away and think. Then, when you can come back and tell me that you do see the use of it, I may allow you to destroy it."

-- The Thing, in "The Drift from Domesticity" (1929)
California, I'm looking at you.

2010-08-05

The American Dream

From Salon.com

For a generation, most Americans have been told by left, right and center that they would be failures if they ended their educations with high school, worked hard, saved cash for emergencies and bought modest homes they could afford. They have been told that to succeed in life they need to ape the lifestyles of the upper middle class that provides most of America’s politicians, pundits and scholars.

The result has been an experiment in social engineering that has gone horribly wrong: the creation of a faux mass upper middle class. Millions of Americans who by objective standards belong to the working class or lower middle class have persuaded themselves that they are part of the professional-investor elite, because they have worthless degrees from diploma mills, negligible amounts invested in stocks, and suburban trophy houses they cannot afford. For the college graduates at Starbucks working to pay off student loans for degrees that they will never use, as for the millions of Americans who are now "underwater," owing more on their mortgages than their houses are worth, the American dream has turned into a nightmare.

Read it all here...

2010-08-02

Why we need vouchers



I'm a homeschooler. Our current tax code doesn't let me deduct a single penny for educational expenses; nor is there a penny of help. (And obviously, we don't get a child care deduction or credit because my wife is home.)

How much education could YOU buy in your area if you had even $5000 to spend per child?e

2010-08-01

Happy Lammas Day!

Today is either Lammas Day, the Feast of St. Peter's Chains, or the commemoration of Joseph of Arimathea...depending on your churchmanship and culture. Whatever else it is, today is the Lord's Day. Rejoice and be glad in it! (Psalm 2)