And only for pandora . . . or anyone else with a conscience . . .

This.

Oh, and this.

Comments

pandora said…

Why do you always assign me homework? ;-)

I'm reading now...

April 16, 2012 at 8:35 AM

Steven H. Newton said…

Because, unlike my students, you will actually do it.

Hopefully because you know that I will only steer you to good things.

April 16, 2012 at 8:39 AM

pandora said…

Oh, wow. Just finished "The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas." Oh, wow.

Initial thoughts - god, I have so many. Can society flourish without the poor, the handicapped, the suffering (the forgotten child)?

Is Omelas truly a happy place? Can you recognize happiness without experiencing sorrow?

Is beauty/happiness real if it's only skin deep - Is it real if its very existence is based on ugliness?

Do Omelas' adults accept the situation because it benefits their children - and their children are their first, and only, priority?

What is the forgotten child worth? Everything - because the child's existence guarantees Omelas' existence? Nothing - in the terms of humanity?

Yeah, I would be one of the ones who walked away - mainly because everything built upon that child is a lie.

April 16, 2012 at 9:09 AM

A reply to Salon's R. J. Eskrow, and his 11 stupid questions about Libertarians

Posts here have been in short supply as I have been living life and trying to get a campaign off the ground. But "11 questions to see if Libertarians are hypocrites" by R. J. Eskrow, picked up at Salon , was just so freaking lame that I spent half an hour answering them. In the end (but I'll leave it to your judgment), it is not that Libertarians or Libertarian theory looks hypocritical, but that the best that can be said for Mr. Eskrow is that he doesn't have the faintest clue what he's talking about. That's ok, because even ill-informed attacks by people like this make an important point: Libertarian ideas (as opposed to Conservative ideas, which are completely different) are making a comeback as the dynamic counterpoint to "politics as usual," and so every hack you can imagine must be dragged out to refute them. Ergo: Mr. Eskrow's 11 questions, with answers: 1. Are unions, political parties, elections, and ...

More of This, Please

Or perhaps I should say, "Less of this one, please." Or how about just, "None of them. Ever again. Please....For the Love of God." Sunshine State Poll: Grayson In Trouble The latest Sunshine State/VSS poll shows controversial Democratic incumbent Alan Grayson trailing former state Senator Dan Webster by seven points, 43 percent to 36 percent. A majority of respondents -- 51 percent -- disapprove of the job that Grayson is doing. Independents have an unfavorable view of him as well, by a 36/47 margin. Grayson has ignored the conventional wisdom that a freshman should be a quiet member who carefully tends to the home fires. The latest controversy involves his " Taliban Dan " advertisement, where he explicitly compares his opponent to the Taliban, and shows a clip of Webster paraphrasing Ephesians 5:22 -- "wives, submit to your husbands." An unedited version of the clip shows that Webster was actually suggesting that husba...

A Libertarian Martin Luther King Jr. Day post

In which we travel into interesting waters . . . (for a fairly long trip, so be prepared) Dr. King's 1968 book, Where do we go from here: chaos or community? , is profound in that it criticizes anti-poverty programs for their piecemeal approach, as John Schlosberg of the Center for a Stateless Society [C4SS] observes: King noted that the antipoverty programs of the time “proceeded from a premise that poverty is a consequence of multiple evils,” with separate programs each dedicated to individual issues such as education and housing. Though in his view “none of these remedies in itself is unsound,” they “all have a fatal disadvantage” of being “piecemeal,” with their implementation having “fluctuated at the whims of legislative bodies” or been “entangled in bureaucratic stalling.” The result is that “fragmentary and spasmodic reforms have failed to reach down to the profoundest needs of the poor.” Such single-issue approaches also have “another common failing — ...

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