Random Posts (An alternate to side discussions)

[SteveChandler]

I would have said "fools don't need advice, wise men will take it" but that likely will not be remembered long after I'm gone.

[PaulG.]

I'm still forming an opinion of B. He certainly laid an egg with his choice of VP. 

[JW-JnJ]

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@Hornless.Rhino wrote:

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@Ben wrote:

I believe it was the former CEO of Gulf Oil (or was it Shell?) that I heard reporting that his attempts to talk to B about energy where dismissed with B saying "I plan on green energy." and walked away.

Ben

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Wise men don't need advice. Fools won't take it.
Benjamin Franklin

Read more at http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/keywords/wise_2.html#45XPfIXzhCfw70r4.99

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It's my opinion that you can never truly be smart. Every time I find a find an answer, I also get 50 more questions.

There is also a strange relationship between intelligence and wisdom. The more you learn, the more you tend to be right and it eventually gets to your head. I think the key to knowledge is to know you can still be wrong, continually question yourself, and learn from it.

I doubt you'll find this sort of philosophy in any job like a CEO or president. You get to that sort of position by being a decision maker and being confident in those decisions. People would never elect someone who took time to decide and didn't look confident. Me? I tend to leave the president alone because I would buckle in a day with that job. Too many options and opinions to consider with the weight of the world on your shoulders.

[Ben]

"A wise man goes into his storehouse and brings forth wonders both old an new." (Proverbs?)

Wisdom is not an attribute I would assosiate with insidousB.  In his book Dreams from My Father he spoke of his father's fight against colonialism. I believe insidiousB is fighting his father's battle. He seems to operate on the same old ideas and is not willing to consider alternatives.

Dinesh Desouza explained as such.

Imagine the coach of the Lakers thought they were arrogant and need to be taken a notch. in the interest of "fixing" them he would take action to ensure they would loose and fix their attitude.

Now attempting to cast that thought on a world stage;

If one looks at the question "how do we get all people in the world to experience the same quality of life?" we can approach it in two ways, pull-up those that are below the mean or drag down those that are above.

If we hold a world view that there is a lmited amount wealth in the world then the answer is to transfer from those that have to much to those that have little.

If we hold the view that wealth is created by our actions the answer is to encourage those activites that produce wealth so all those who engage in that activity benefit. I personally am in this camp and believe that anytime a "fair" trade is made between two people, they both benefit and create wealth by doing so. I don't think insidous has a full understanding of the nature of wealth based on his "you did not build that" remark where he attributes the accomplishment to the roads or bridges but fails to recognize the roads were built using taxes paid by those that were engaging in the creation of wealth.

I get the impresion that insidousB feels wealth is a limited comodity and in the interest of doing "right" in his world view means to take down those that are gready and hording. So he feels he is doing a noble thing. He spoke to this point in his "Joe the plumber remarks" when he said "spread the wealth around."

But regarding leadership...

In my book a leader is first a servant to others. It is only by serving that we learn to lead. The principal person being served by insidiousB's actions seem to be himself. Of partilar concern was the remark made to Mevedev when he thought he was not being recorded saying (paraphrased) "Tell Vlaramere, I will have greater flexibility after the election." SInce the election would be the last chance for the American people to check his actions, I am concerned where he could take us and what ype of plays he would call knowing that he is free to act as he chooses.

But insidious is not the whole problem!

When we fail to participate in our own soverignty both personally and communally, we are accepting whatever results. What congress has done over that past 50-100 years is shameful. Their lack of backbone has resulted in passing laws that transfer their authority to the executive branch little by little. it is no suprise that congrees has now reached an approval rating of 10%.

I am sure something in that rambling mess did not make sense or is unjustified.

Please feel free to comment and share your thoughts. I hold that be the free exchange of thoughts that we all benefit and accumulate a wealth of ideas.

Humbly submitted for your consideration,

Your brother in wires and life,

Ben

[jcarmody]

[...]

My favorite analogy is this: The sum of my knowledge is like a flashlight. I'm in a darkened warehouse, the sum of all knowledge, and I can tell from echoes and such that it's really big, but my flashlight is obviously far short of illuminating to the walls and ceiling. When I learn more, my flashlight gets brighter. This creates a problem. As I illuminate more space around me, my sense of the size of the total warehouse grows exponentially. I still can't see anywhere near to the walls or ceiling. In other words, the more I know, the more I realize that the sum of what I know is pitifully small compared to the sum of all knowledge. The more I know, the more I realize that the sum of all knowledge is astronomically immense (and this doesn't even address the likelihood that some of what I think I know just ain't so).

[...]

Who among us could seek office if we understood and grasped the complexity of the real world and our own profound and unavoidable lack of knowledge, that our dictates would be likely (if not certain) to be categorically wrong and do more harm than good?

[...]

Every candidate is one of two things, a profoundly ignorant fool, or a knowledgeable sociopath.

http://www.lewrockwell.com/calderwood/calderwood46.1.html

[SteveChandler]

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@Ben wrote:

If we hold the view that wealth is created by our actions the answer is to encourage those activites that produce wealth so all those who engage in that activity benefit. I personally am in this camp and believe that anytime a "fair" trade is made between two people, they both benefit and create wealth by doing so. I don't think insidous has a full understanding of the nature of wealth based on his "you did not build that" remark where he attributes the accomplishment to the roads or bridges but fails to recognize the roads were built using taxes paid by those that were engaging in the creation of wealth.

I have not heard or read the "you didn't build it" comment. First I am going to respond then I am going to find the speach on youtube and respond again after watching it.

Response before checking youtube: Wasn't that was his point, that we need to pay taxes to create an infrastructure for success?

Ok, going to youtube. Be right back...

.......

I'm back

All right I just watched the comments on youtube. Here is my reply after watching.

That was far from his best speach. He ruined it when he said "If you got a business.. that.. you didn't build that! Someone else made that happen!". He didn't give credit at all to the person who built the business except in the very beginning "If you've been successful, you didn't get that on your own" The tone was condescending. But I think it was aimed at a certain group that feels they owe nothing to the country that made their success possible. The part about "There was a great teacher somewhere in your life" is presumptuous if he meant professional teachers at school. If he meant teachers in general then he is right. The truly great teachers in my life did not do it as a profession and I would not be where I am today without them.

Even though it was not a good speech I think most people agree that it is not possible to build a business without using resources that were paid for using taxes. Tax is not evil. The waste of money collected through tax is evil.

[PaulG.]

Ask any immigrant why they are coming to the US. They will tell you: "Because of your roads and bridges!" ?? 

[jcarmody]

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@Steve Chandler wrote:

[...] Tax is not evil. The waste of money collected through tax is evil. 

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Tax is theft. 

As defined by Rothbard, a state is an organization

which possesses either or both (in actual fact, almost always both) of the following characteristics: (a) it acquires its revenue by physical coercion (taxation); and (b) it achieves a compulsory monopoly of force and of ultimate decision-making power over a given territorial area. Both of these essential activities of the State necessarily constitute criminal aggression and depredation of the just rights of private property of its subjects (including self-ownership). For the first constitutes and establishes theft on a grand scale; while the second prohibits the free competition of defense and decision-making agencies within a given territorial area—prohibiting the voluntary purchase and sale of defense and judicial services (pp. 172–73).

[SteveChandler]

What would it look like to have no tax and no government?

[jcarmody]

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@Steve Chandler wrote:

What would it look like to have no tax and no government?

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Answer 1: 'No tax' doesn't imply 'no government'

Answer 2: Read the rest of The Ethics of Liberty.

Answer 3: I don't know.

Answer 4: Obomney would have starved to death by now 😄