Youtube Video of winning essay speeches
(Note: All 6 winning speeches — 3 Middle School and 3 High School — are contained in the video.)
"Just the facts M'am, Just the facts." -- Sgt. Joe Friday
By Brooks
Youtube Video of winning essay speeches
(Note: All 6 winning speeches — 3 Middle School and 3 High School — are contained in the video.)
By Brooks
By Brooks
We are hyper-legalized and hyper-sensitized. Every deviation from the norm, large and small, becomes the subject of the 24/7 cable news obsession. The unscrupulous politicians are the ones who build each new aberration into scripts that feature their political position tied into the aberration in a causal connection. Could be cause, could be effect, and the script either supports their position, or undercuts their opposition. Integration of the aberration into political scripts occurs after-the-fact of the aberration, when foresight is no longer necessary.
So let’s call the 24/7 coverage the first level of abstraction from the aberration, and let’s call building the aberration into a political context the second level. The third level happens when laws are created at the margins of our liberty, criminalizing the aberration and/or regulating the rest of society in a manner to inhibit conditions that permit the aberration to occur. The legal response tries to protect society, notwithstanding the feasibility of actually accomplishing societal protection. Whatever the outcomes, the political machinery uses the aberrant grist to feed its mill. As the gravity of the causal aberration fades in time, the legal response goes on forever, permanently limiting liberty for the remainder of the law abiding.
While the details can be argued about how terrible events filter through political and legal mechanisms to narrow our American liberties, the general model appears to be well-trod ground. If the exchanges between limiting liberties and public safety were effective, one could argue it’s all worthwhile. But they aren’t good trade offs. The reasonable and justifiable legal responses don’t leave us with an outcome of absolute public safety. They leave us with a myth of safety.
History has shown that there are aberrants in development, waiting in the wings to immortalize their name in the legal record books. Our legal system provides a mechanism to enable and encourage such fools with a path to immortality of a sort. We are a constitutional nation of law, but legalities can only do so much to protect us. Our political and legal system should quit seeking this holy grail. The answer does not appear to lie in the direction of further limits to liberty, especially since the system itself seems to have become a motive.
Look at the long view. Do we really want the parameters of our free life and society to be the sum of responses to an endless parade of psychos, zealots and assorted nutjobs?
By Brooks
Opportunities For Change To Fix The Fiascoes of ‘10 – IBD
IBD – Opportunities For Change To Fix The Fiascoes of ’10
By Brooks
By Brooks
What a system! The earth spins from left to right. Relative to the earth’s surface, weather at the equator backslides while weather at the poles advances in opposite rotations, and the whole thing balances out. That’s so cool!
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Commissioner Shipper presented and end-of-year report from the Elbert County Commissioners. See video of his presentation here.
Senior fellow at the Cato Institute Randal O’Toole gave a thorough presentation on transportation, public planning and government intervention issues. See complete video of his presentation here.
By Brooks
The Federal Estate Tax (aka, death tax) is currently repealed, due to a provision in the 2001 Economic Growth Tax Relief and Reconciliation Act (EGTRRA). However, on January 1, 2011, the tax comes back at the rate of 55 percent on all estates above $1 million.
Estate tax advocates often portray their fight as a struggle for fairness against greedy billionaires and spoiled heiresses, but as this American Family Business Foundation Issue Brief documents, it’s the multi-billion-dollar life-insurance industry who profits handsomely from the tax at the expense of family business owners and farmers, to whom they sell estate tax-related products. [Read more…]
By Brooks
Oklahoma citizens had it right when they voted to prevent Oklahoma judges from using Sharia law to decide Oklahoma cases. Sharia law contradicts rights granted to Americans in the Declaration of Independence and rights protected from government encroachment in the Constitution. When Judge Vicki Miles-LaGrange grants CAIR’s claim that the practice of Sharia law is a constitutional right, she demonstrates ignorance of either the Constitution or Sharia law or both.
The Closing of the Muslim Mind (Robert Reilly) [Read more…]
By Brooks
Republican Jon Kyl of Arizona and Democrat Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas are pushing a compromise that would lower the top rate to 35% with a $5 million deduction.
Current death tax rate is ZERO. In what universe is a “top rate to 35% with a $5 million deduction” LOWER THAN ZERO?
By Brooks
The Closing of the Muslim Mind (Robert Reilly)
– Highlight Loc. 2001-83
Dehellenization of Islam
The “intruding sciences” would intrude in Islam no more. They were expelled. As a result, notes Professor Joel Kraemer of the University of Chicago, “the assimilation of the Greek heritage in the Orient may be termed a ‘tragic sterility.’”10 professor of Arabic and Near Eastern studies G. E. von Grunebaum stated, “The far-reaching importance of the Greek contribution to Islamic cultures should not lead one to suppose that it effected a fundamental change in its vitality or its concept of man. There are few traces of the Greek spirit in the human ideal within even those sects which, like the [Shiite] Isma’iliyya, were most open to the influence of the Greek element in the interest of its own theologico-philosophic system.” Thus, he concluded, “The fundamental structure of Islamic thinking has been left untouched by Hellenistic influence.”11 [Read more…]
By Brooks
WikiLeaks and a fragile community – David Brooks NYT Opinion
Consider the effect computers have had on the insurance industry, and consequentially, on all of the risks (health, life, fire, accident, loss) funded by the insurance industry. Prior to computers, the historical price for an insurance provider to cover a beneficiary was the product of static market conditions. Insurance is a financial service product based on knowledge of risk, and the knowledge of various risks to beneficiaries had been stable for many years. With the advent of computerization, beneficiaries and risk could be correlated in the machine so that insurers could now choose which beneficiaries were least likely to cost them benefits. Computer correlation of beneficiary data fundamentally shifted the bargaining power between insurers and beneficiaries, and as we can see with health insurance, the consequences to this radical shift are still playing out in a myriad of market and government reactions. [Read more…]
By Brooks
It is passing strange, to use one of George Will’s expressions, that so many voices trumpet the rule of law with espionage charges against WikiLeaks, while remaining silent on the constitutional 1st Am. protection of the free press to publish in America. Their silence on the fundamental constitutional question speaks more loudly than their proposed enforcement of the rule of law over the very narrow espionage charge.
The taboo lies in the unsubstantiated conclusion that America’s interests have been harmed by these leaks. This is not a proven conclusion. It is unsubstantiated fear mongering. Sure, diplomats feelings have been hurt. America’s true interest lies with informed citizens who now have an opportunity to see the world their unfettered executive branch diplomats have been screwing around with overseas. Diplomats are embarrassed by this disclosure and they should be. The solution is not to censor the internet, as the executive branch has now begun doing. It is not to fortify and further enable a secret domain where unelected functionaries pursue their personal prescriptions for America’s interests, as this Post article calls for. The solution is to raise the bar – the standard against which diplomacy is measured, and hold the executive branch to that higher standard in all diplomatic matters.
By Brooks
These pictures from Dusseldorf and Cologne, except for one, were taken with a Sigma DP1 camera on a small tripod that I carry in my pocket. [Read more…]
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So, what is it that the Nation of Islam followers see in Islam anyway?
‘Al-Ghazali puts these words into the mouth of God: “These to bliss, and I care not; and these to the Fire, and I care not.” As disturbing as this expression of divine indifference may seem, it is clearly based on a supporting Hadith: “Abu Darda’ reported that the Holy Prophet said: Allah created Adam when He created him. Then He stroke his right shoulder and took out a white race as if they were seeds, and He stroke his left shoulder and took out a black race as if they were charcoals. Then He said to those who were on his right shoulder: Towards paradise and I don’t care. He said to those who were on his left shoulder: Towards Hell and I don’t care.”‘
Robert R. Reilly, THE CLOSING OF THE MUSLIM MIND, 2010, p 80.
Metaphysical justice would not appear to be part of the deal.
By Brooks
Awad vs. Oklahoma State Board of Elections
Islam is a religion, a political system, and a legal system. These three Muslim domains are intertwined and inseparable.
Plaintiffs repeatedly argue that Muslims require a Sharia legal system in order to practice their religion. American law cannot incorporate a Sharia legal system into its jurisprudence since doing so would also incorporate Islamic political and religious tenants into its constitutional common law. This would plainly violate the Establishment Clause of the Constitution.
Therefore this claim pleads for an unconstitutional remedy on its face and should be denied.
By Brooks
Ideas of the Enlightenment: Their Contemporary Relevance
The French Enlightenment & its Implications for Liberty – Professor Alan Charles Kors
Jurisprudential Legacy of the Enlightenment – Professor Suri Ratnapala
Lessons from the Scottish Enlightenment – Professor James R Otteson
Towards a New Enlightenment: Understanding Human Nature
After Freud: What do neuroscience advances tell us about human nature? – Provessor Peter Whybrow
Building Political Structures with the Crooked Timber of Humanity – Professor Denis Dutton
The Modular Account of Open and Closed Societies – Dr Laurence Fiddick
Reconciling The Traditional with the Modern in a Liberal Society
Reconciling Modernity with Tradition in a Liberal Society – Professor Chandran Kukathas
Reconciling the Traditional with the Modern – Dr Lindsey Te Ata o Tu MacDonald
Externalities: Beyond Coase, Williamson and Ostrom
The Problem of Social Cost: What Problem – Professor Harold Demsetz
Coase Rules OK – Professor Jeff Bennett
If Hayek and Coase were Environmentalists – Professor Terry Anderson
GFC: What have we learnt from the 2008-09 event? A Stocktake
Been There Done That – Professor Peter Boettke
After the Fall – Professor Deepak Lal
The Global Financial Crisis and the Efficient Market Hypothesis – Professor Ray Ball
Australia – A Generation of Economic Reform
A Generation of Reform – Professor Wolfgang Kasper
A Generation of Reform – Paul Kelly
New Threats to Liberty and the Private Sphere – Nannies and Busybodies,Tax Harmonisation and the Surveillance State
Surveillance State – John Kampfner
Tax Harmonisation: A Threat to Liberty – Professor Sinclair Davidson
Nannies and Busy Bodies – Dr Eric Crampton
New Developments in Economics: A Sceptical View
The Use of Happiness in Society – Dr Jason Potts
The Economist as Guru – Professor Geoffrey Brennan
Science, Scepticism and the Future
Constructive Dissent – Professor Steven Schwartz
What Does Climategate Say About Science? – Professor Terence Kealey
Freedom vs Authority – What Path to Development? The Story of India and China
Paths Towards Development – Dr John Lee
The New World Order: Importance of China and India – Surjit S Bhalla
Washington Concensus – Professor Xiannon Xu
History, Culture and the Language of Liberty
The Language of Liberty – Professor James Allan
Individualism and its Contemporary Fate – Professor Kenneth Minogue
Calvin Coolidge and the Language of LIberalism – Amity Shlaes
By Brooks
Dan Maes thinks he saved the Republican Party in Colorado from minor party status and future obscurity and that he is a hero. He probably also thinks that his heroism was aided by divine intervention.
Colorado Tea Party people who supported Dan Maes think they saved the Republican Party too. They bought the myth fed to them during last Spring’s precinct caucuses that they represented the people of Colorado, and all the higher ideals of our constitutional representative system of government were invested in them. Trouble is, the people of Colorado never give their consent to be represented by the caucus system or those individuals who just show up one night in April to take charge of the caucus system. So, armed with a myth, Maes-supporting Tea Partyers soldiered on and now feel like heroes too.
Republican Party leaders appeared to sit the whole thing out. They watched from the sidelines while Maes and Buck worked the idealistic Tea Party types to their own advantage. All they could muster was a hope that the Tea Party wouldn’t fragment the Republican party. So, obsessed with their own political survival, they neglected to defend Jane Norton, or Josh Penry, and they left Tom Tancredo adrift–the only ones who really did embody Tea Party ideals.
They kept the Tea Party under the Republican umbrella all right, but threw out any candidate who actually walked the Tea Party walk. That left them with remainders who could be manipulated–the 11% who bought them a narrow dodge of minor party status in Colorado in an historic Republican wave that washed over the entire country. How they managed to avoid queering the Colorado statehouse turnover is kind of a mystery.
On the issues we had key government-limiting tax and debt measures to win, the death cult of abortion to defeat, immunity from Obamacare to enact, and the Republicans stood by and watched it all go down.
They really earned minor party status in my book. There are no heroes in this election in Colorado.
By Brooks
German-American Partnership Program – Elbert County host families needed!
The Elizabeth High School Foreign Language Department is seeking Elbert County host families for German exchange students who will be visiting for 3 weeks in April 2011. The students will attend school while here, and will have the opportunity to participate in the host families’ daily lives. There will also be planned activities involving all the students and their host families. This is a great opportunity to share the hospitality of our beautiful county, to develop life-long friendships, and to learn more about other cultures.
For more information please contact Elyse Coberly at (303) 646-4616, ext. 8024 or ecoberly@ehscardinals.com.
"It is error alone which needs the support of government. Truth can stand by itself." Thomas Jefferson