Comment on Belmont Club "I Talk to the Trees - then and now"

The problem with the Earth First crowd is that like all terrorists, and they are, they are profoundly selfish. They are consumers. They are consumers of nature who contribute nothing to preserving or maintaining any form of life. They are vampires.

Many many years ago a girl that I probably should have married told me that her plan was to buy 100 acres in Indiana and plant it with Black Walnut trees in the expectation that our grandchildren then would not have to work. That is wisdom. It is the opposite of the “Hooking Up” culture that Amy Alkin defends.

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@Doug (a BC poster),
Jamie Gorelick having destroyed the foundations of capitalism at Fannie Mae and the foundations of national security at Justice, leading to both the housing meltdown and looming Depression as well as 9-11 and global war, moved on to Schlumberger. Where do I turn to for protection as I believe she is to her vast profit stalking me?

Dec 14, 2008 - 9:51 am

Comment on Belmont Club "The Age of Pyramids and the power of illusion"

“The Law in its infinite majesty forbids the rich man as well as the poor …”

Why does the GOP get blamed for this? All the evidence is that the Democrats are the party of the very rich and of people who derive incomes from services and rentiers, as well as the clueless rented. The Republicans are the party of small business and skilled labor.

Dec 11, 2008 - 11:47 pm

Comment on Belmont Club "Disappearance of the future"

Marriage rates should be for % of adult population. Given that the population has doubled over the last 60 years it sure looks like a declining rate to me.

Adam Smith was a Professor of Moral Philosophy. Really that meant that he taught 4 year long courses to what we could consider very hard working under 20 secondary school students. We have a compilation from his first year Ethics course in The Theory of Moral Sentiments. He makes it clear that the cultivation of “sympathy” is essential for all further social activity. That would include his subsequent lecture courses in Rhetoric, Jurisprudence and Political Economy. We do not have his work for the middle two subjects. The Wealth of Nations is of course the culmination of both his life’s work and of what was intended as a systematic train of thought based on a moral perspective.

Dec 10, 2008 - 9:23 pm

Comment on Belmont Club "Rules for radicals"

Islamism is different. Islamist schools are different. The threat from Islamist subversion is different and it is real. Given that how do we respond? You can go with fred (a poster on BC) and call for mass expulsion and bloodshed or you can think of what actions to avoid, because they increase the threat as creating a seperate Islamic educational system will, and what actions to encourage, such as a range of other vibrant religious and secular institutions..

Dec 2, 2008 - 10:16 am