In the old days, people who did things for love of their community, for idealism, or for a cause they believed in, were in it just for that. They deserved the respect they got. Today, volunteer work has been festooned with all kinds of goodies, and, not unnaturally, it’s drawing people more interested in the goodies than the good. And not unexpectedly, the king of “doing well by doing good” – Goldman Sachs – is in the thick of it. Continue reading
Category Archives: Ideology
Mark Twain’s Battle Hymn Of The Republic
The Battle Hymn of the Republic Updated
by Mark TwainMine eyes have seen the orgy of the launching of the Sword;
He is searching out the hoardings where the stranger’s wealth is stored;
He hath loosed his fateful lightnings, and with woe and death has scored;
His lust is marching on. Continue reading
Is The Flotilla Story About Perception Or Reality?
“The bid to shape global perceptions by portraying the Palestinians as victims of Israel (my emphasis) was the first prong of a longtime two-part campaign. The second part of this campaign involved armed resistance against the Israelis.”
— Stratfor (George Friedman) cited by John Mauldin’s Outside the Box Continue reading
Citigroup Fires Banker For Being Too Hot
Update:
Ms. Lorenzana apparently had some pictures of herself on facebook…Doesn’t sound so professional…
And Citi seems to be claiming that her allegations are false. The ostensible reason for her firing is that she was incompetent – behind on sales.
So let’s wait for more information… Continue reading
We’re Too Broke To Be This Stupid
“The Spanish government pays over $800,000 for every “green job” on a solar-panel assembly line. This money is taken from real workers with real jobs at real businesses whose growth is being squashed to divert funds to endeavours that have no rationale other than their government subsidies—and which would collapse as soon as the subsidies end. Yet Tim Flannery, the Aussie climate-alarmist who chaired the Copenhagen racket, says we need to redouble our efforts. “We’re trying to act as a species,” he says, “to regulate the atmosphere.” Continue reading
Was Atheism The Source Of Communist Cruelty?
Peter Hitchens, brother of Christopher, the well-known journalist and professional atheist, reflects on the role of religion in restraining human beings from evil actions (Daily Mail, March 15, 2010):
“Left to himself, Man can in a matter of minutes justify the incineration of populated cities; the deportation, slaughter, disease and starvation of inconvenient people and the mass murder of the unborn. I have heard people who believe themselves to be good, defend all these things, and convince themselves as well as others. Quite often the same people will condemn similar actions committed by different countries, often with great vigour. Continue reading
Rudolf Steiner On Why Plutocrats Love Democracy
“It is interesting that the excellent statement was made in 1910 [by Francis Delaisi, La Démocratie et les Financiers, 1910]: ‘… that big capital has succeeded in creating out of democracy the most wonderful, the most effective, the most flexible instrument for the exploitation of the population as a whole. Continue reading
Socialists For A Theocratic Economy: Where’s The ACLU When You Need Them?
“All the major religions held in common at one point or other was opposition to the charging of interest. Judaism called for Clean Slates (Leviticus 25), and Christianity banned interest outright, citing the laws of Exodus and Deuteronomy.”
— Michael Hudson
At all other times, of course, any invocation of religion, references to Jesus, God, and the like, would be treated as prima facie evidence of intellectual puerility by the socialists. But now a medieval ban on interest is dispositive. Continue reading
Rand Paul: More Conservative Than Libertarian? (Updated)
Update: The Daily Bell very kindly cites this post in their analysis of the reaction to Rand Paul (Rand Paul Disappoints):
“In any event, having decided on our topic, we went looking for more information about Rand Paul’s various political positions, only to discover that estimable feedbacker Lila Rajiva had beat us to it. After quoting the Time article (excerpted above) she writes the following on her mindbodypolitic.blog: Continue reading
John Hussman: Not Concerned About Inflation
“The bottom line is that we can expect real wages to stagnate for several years, as a predictable reflection of slack capacity in the labor market. While credit concerns will be helpful in augmenting the demand for U.S. government liabilities as a default-(food poisoning)-free alternative to other assets, there is a continued prospect for significant price inflation beginning in the second half of this decade. With the ECB surrendering monetary discipline for the sake of short-term expedience, that prospect has become even more hostile. Continue reading