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Alternative title 1: Community above the Individual
Alternative title 2: the government has made us all our brothers’ keepers.
That is a political philosophy called Communitarianism. The short definition is a feeling of community but on steroids with the control clamps being brought out of the secret drawers.
There are a few ways to answer the question: Why liberty? There is, of course, Jefferson’s answer: That everyone is born with a right to liberty is self-evident. Not as in ‘obvious’, but as in ‘requiring no justification’.
I’ve said this before but probably not recently. It relates to one of the primary reasons why Democrats hate private gun ownership. Or, at least my armchair psychology opinion on the matter. A theory based on years of observations.
The Declaration is not just chronologically prior to the Constitution, it is logically prior. As Timothy Sandefur writes, the Declaration “sets the framework for reading” the Constitution, so it is the Constitution’s “conscience”: By the terms with which the Declaration articulates the Constitution’s purpose – the purpose is to “secure” unalienable rights – the Declaration intimates … Read more
In the course of coarse discourse, one thing is clear. The only party that wants people to die are Democrats. But there is something they want to kill even more than unborn babies—the Constitution’s power to limit them from confining you at will.
I saw the poll that Ed had commented on before (“Massive Majority in New Hampshire Support Authoritarian Government and Willing to Believe Anything Government/Press Tell Them“) and had basically thrown up my hands in horror.
…which has been tasked on “restarting” the NH economy by “planning” how to “reopen” our economy. George Will: Markets produce many things secondarily, from shoes to trucks to novels, but primarily they produce information, in torrents that no government is intelligent enough to comprehend or nimble enough to respond to. Sure, Government can infringe, hinder, … Read more
The economic paralysis we’re suffering today is catastrophic, but it’s just what the doctor ordered.
Looking back, it’s clear the medical profession was caught off guard by the coronavirus. When it first appeared in China, the medical community here was, at most, cautiously concerned.
One understands the tendency of elected and appointed officials to err on the side of caution when it comes to public policy and pandemics. One also understands the concept of social distancing, quarantines, flattening the curve, and minimizing the risks associated with COVID-19.
It seems that a lot of people never bother to read the first sentence of my bio that appears under every post I write: “Co-founder of GraniteGrok, my concern is around Individual Liberty and Freedom (and how Government is taking that away from us)“. I recently wrote “NH Governor could learn from South Dakota’s Governor: … Read more
While most governmental leaders in the U.S. are imposing lockdowns of one sort or another, Republican Gov. Kristi Noem is refusing to shut down South Dakota. At a press conference Wednesday, Kristi eschewed a one-size-fits-all approach to the pandemic. During this present viral threat, she’s interested in a specific kind of protection — that of individual rights: … Read more
The most important legacy of the New Deal, however, is a certain system of belief, the now-dominant ideology of the mixed economy, which holds that the government is an immensely useful means for achieving one’s private aspirations and that one’s resort to this reservoir of potentially appropriable benefits is perfectly legitimate. To take – indirectly … Read more
Frank Knight could never have joined those of the self-selected elite who, in idea or practice, seek to plan, steer, or direct the lives of those who are excluded. He was a classical liberal, not because he predicted that only with widespread individual liberty would desired results be generated, but because the liberal order is … Read more
It has become increasingly difficult to find subject matter outside the context of that thing we’re all experiencing as a planet. Yes, the Kardashians. No, the other thing. But I’ve been trying. Because all (that thing) and no play makes Blogger a dull boy.
There are many media talking heads spinning the situation but there is nothing new in the new flu. This one is like all the others, some more contagious and some less. Some are more deadly and some are less. In the end, it is another flu.
Here in New Hampshire, we’re on a modified lockdown. All “scheduled gatherings of 50 or more people for social, spiritual, and recreational activities…” are prohibited. This prohibition does not include businesses. The Governor has issued a five-part order.
There is a struggle going on because Trump is dismantling the Leviathan and restoring the American dream. It often doesn’t seem that way listening to the media. Our media, academia and many in politics serially violate traditional, classic liberal standards. They have an obsession over Trump’s blunt personality, lack of verbal sophistication and “nuance.” … Read more
The FISA courts were made to track down bad guys in the wake of 9/11. They were then and they are now, good intentions run amuck. How have they been used in the last few years? As expected, not all that well.
A word to Bruce Currie, a frequent liberal commenter here at the ‘Grok whokeeps on insisting that a marketplace can ONLY exist with Government overseeing and regulating it. So, how is it possible for democracy to conflict with liberty? Democracy is a scheme for governing human interaction. But so is liberty, which is a system … Read more
Given our four day First In The Nation Primary broadcastfest with the 603 Alliance last week and the previous were pretty much a lost cause for blogging for me and I’m still trying to play catch up on some stuff that had caught my eye and I didn’t get the chance to do any writing. So, I’m late on this by a couple of weeks.