Trans-Weather
(02/04/23)
Although originally
assigned to the category “in danger from global warming,” much of the Northern
Hemisphere now identifies with freezing from record-setting cold.
This blog is a commentary on contemporary business, politics, economics, society, and culture, based on the values of Reason, Rational Self-Interest, and Laissez-Faire Capitalism. Its intellectual foundations are Ayn Rand's philosophy of Objectivism and the theory of the Austrian and British Classical schools of economics as expressed in the writings of Mises, Böhm-Bawerk, Menger, Ricardo, Smith, James and John Stuart Mill, Bastiat, and Hazlitt, and in my own writings.
Western Culture is in its greatest decline since the 3rd Century, when the Graeco-Roman culture of the Ancient World began its descent into the Dark Ages. Self-made sub-morons declare that men can have babies and that one cannot say what a woman is without a degree in biology.
Instead
of being justly ridiculed and booed out of the Senate hearing room, one such
moron was made a member of the US Supreme Court a few months ago. Why? Because
her being a woman[?!] of color was thought essential to prove that the Court
did not regard race or sex as essential.
What was
proved, of course, is that a majority of the present US Senate is a pack or
racist fools who tripped over a glaring contradiction that they hold, the
contradiction between their alleged opposition to racism and their obvious
racism.
They were
racist in insisting that the candidate belong to a favored race, and also
“sexist” in demanding that she belong to the favored female sex, which, unlike
even a very small child, some of them can’t define.
Contemporary
culture, the cultural “mainstream,” is a cesspool of absurdities and
contradictions. It needs to be replaced.
One
source of replacement is the inspiration that can be gained by studying works
of the past. As the men of the Renaissance were inspired by the works of Antiquity,
so too, we can be inspired the works of the more than 25 centuries that
preceded us.
But there
are some very recent authors, up to now largely ignored, who have a great deal
to say that can be of great value in changing our cultural “mainstream,”
particularly in the areas of philosophy and economics. They are Mises, Rand,
and Reisman.
Mises’s Socialism
and Human Action, Rand’s Atlas Shrugged, and Reisman’s Capitalism
are four of the most essential books of
this kind.
Reisman’s Capitalism contains an extensive bibliography of books including, in addition to all of the works of Mises and Rand and the leading works of the enemies of capitalism, such as Marx and Keynes, the leading works of all lesser supporters of capitalism.
(Search respectively
under Ludwig von Mises, Ayn Rand, and George Reisman in the category “All.”)
The Civil Rights Act of 1964 makes it illegal to discriminate on the basis of race. Yet that is exactly what Pres. Biden is doing on behalf of his nominee to the Supreme Court. Republicans should name this fact repeatedly in the hearings and otherwise refuse to participate.
Today,
February 22, is Washington’s Birthday. For most of our history, it was
celebrated as a national holiday and deserves to be again. Lincoln’s Birthday
can be combined with that of Martin Luther King and celebrated as “Black Freedom
Day.”
However
great the merits of Martin Luther King may be, they do not outweigh those of
the Father of Our Country, which is what Washington was. Yet this is what is implied by giving King a national holiday but not Washington.
The
communists, socialists, and progressives who attack Washington for owning
slaves have no solid ground on which to do so, for, unlike Washington, who
sought the end of slavery and ultimately freed his slaves, they seek the reimposition
of slavery—for everyone.
Socialism
requires that everyone work for the government, for whatever pittance the government
chooses to pay. This is slavery.
A commonality of skin color and associated facial features is as nothing compared to the fact that human beings of all races share the faculty of reason. The former may allow for an interesting group photo once in a while.
The
latter is what underlies the accumulation and application of knowledge and
gives to the members of all races the ability to produce the goods and services
that the members of all races need and desire.
Every day
the members of all races benefit from the work of the members of all other
races in that greatest phenomenon of voluntary social cooperation, the division
of labor and capitalism.
For
elaboration, read my Capitalism. It’s available in Kindle, hardcopy, and a
two-volume paperback edition at Amazon.com:
george reisman, capitalism a treatise on economics
Commentators on Fox News have rightly said that the various leftist networks make a major contribution to rioting and civil unrest by creating a false narrative on important events, which is then disappointed, seemingly with no explanation but some nonsense such as “white racism.”
Fox can
do something about this. For one thing, it should post on YouTube such decisive
commentaries as its showing how the prosecutor in the Rittenhouse case actually
made the case for the defense.
Amazingly,
he called one witness after another who testified that Rittenhouse was the
victim of aggression, not the aggressor.
Fox
should also post on YouTube all of its series of snippets showing one after
another of the leftist commentators using the identical key words in their
commentaries, as though they had all been briefed beforehand by the Ministry of
Propaganda.
Finally, Fox should consider advertising on the other networks by showing how it differs from them, in not following a leftist party line, and catching them up in their lies, such as creating the impression that the men Rittenhouse shot were black.
An income tax
audit is essentially a search. Why, consistent with the Fourth Amendment to the
US Constitution, doesn’t it require a search warrant signed by a judge?
Since income-tax audits sometimes lead to criminal prosecutions and jail sentences, why is it not a requirement that anyone whom the IRS wishes to audit, first be given a “Miranda Warning,” with its notification of the right to remain silent and to have an attorney present?
Why isn’t the 5th Amendment to the US Constitution and its protection against self-incrimination a routine basis for the refusal to submit to an audit, thus requiring the IRS to make its cases without the cooperation of citizens forced to help in their own incrimination?