"The social contract exists so that everyone doesn't have to squat in the dust holding a spear to protect his woman and his meat all day every day. It does not exist so that the government can take your spear, your meat, and your woman because it knows better what to do with them."  Dagny at Ace of Spades

My favorite founding father

In 1816, Thomas Jefferson wrote: “To take from one, because it is thought his own industry and that of his fathers has acquired too much, in order to spare to others, who, or whose fathers, have not exercised equal industry and skill, is to violate arbitrarily the first principle of association, the guarantee to everyone the free exercise of his industry and the fruits acquired by it.”

Seems about right

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/germany/8197617/German-man-castrates-teenage-daughters-57-year-old-boyfriend.html

 

"I received a phone call anonymously that my daughter was involved with a guy 40 years older than her. You said you couldn't stop him – so I did.

"I saw it as my duty as a father."

 

Off of Facebook

Yesterday I deactivated my Facebook account. I had tried to use Facebook to publish my thoughts and comments on modern society. Being as ubiquitous as it is, I like Facebook's ability to connect and share. But the format was limited. anything more than a paragraph or two gets overlooked, and most people on Facebook don't want political, economic, or legal commentary. They want Farmville, pictures of friends and famliy, and more light fare.

One of my concerns with Facebook is the tremendous amount of personal data that they collect and store. I may go back and reactivate my account sometime. It may even be soon. But I need to get back to creating more thourough and developed analysis and commentary.

Blogger is it for now, but I have privacy issues with Google too, so who knows.

Mobile blog post via text.

So you want to be a lawyer

Too funny.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nMvARy0lBLE&feature=player_embedded

 

Some of my favorite lines:

 

I want to be a lawyer.  “Why would you do that?”

 

“So you were pre-med and you got a C in organic chemistry?”

 

I love the Constitution.  “if you say it is a living breathing document, I may kill myself.”

 

“Listen, there are like three lawyers in America who argue Constitutional issues.  They all went to Harvard and graduated in the 1970’s. Do you have a time machine to go back to the 1970’s?”

 

The Constitution is so amazing.  “You are going to make me take all my Ambien at the same time.”

 

It must be fascinating to help poor people with their legal problems.  “What is fascinating is that you will be one of these poor people”

 

“Do you plan to get married?  Do you also plan to get divorced?”

 

“Were you aware that you will be spending three years in an environment that in no way, shape, or form, prepares you for anything remotely resembling a law career?”

 

“You realize that all of them are guilty right?  All of them.”

 

What about the guy who was hours away from execution when a DNA test cleared him?   “Science cleared that guy.  A lawyer put his ass in prison.” 

 

 

 

For richer or poorer, in sickness and in health.

I heard Spencer Hughes on the radio yesterday talking about class envy and populism.  He made an analogy between being healthy and being rich.  Basically, if you are sick, you don’t sit around wanting the rest of the world to get sick.  Most people just don’t do that.  Instead they strive to be healthy.  Everyone can be healthy.    One persons health does not come at the expense of another’s sickness.

 

Yet with class and wealth, is it popular to demonize “the rich”.  I hear so much of this talk now that is scares me.  America is the land of opportunity.  People come from all around the world for economic opportunity that we offer.  Yet, “the rich” are accused (falsely) of not paying their fair share.  It is popular sentiment that if someone is rich, it must have come from exploitation of the poor.  I don’t buy this.  I believe that we should admire and respect individuals that have achieved financial success.    We can all be successful and we don’t need politicians and policies that divide us and drum up class envy.