In an post that puts in sharp relief the timing of American sabre-rattling in the mideast, Dave of Fire makes a great idealink-y connection…
All I can say is, awesome thinking, DoF. Adding a little… OPEC, the monopolistic oil cartel, controls all the oil production in the world. They use the dollar as their standard. Now if an oil-rich country decides to work outside of OPEC, suddenly the monopoly is facing competition. Here’s where it gets kooky: for some reason, it seems that American companies (culture?) hate competition. The competition destroys market dominance, and without market dominance, the rich American economy falters.
No wonder farm subsidies continue. In all honesty, no wonder the American push for free trade has failed – the US government props up American companies and strategic non-American assets to assure market dominance. And the rest of the world sees it and refuses to play along. No wonder electric cars failed as well. But I talked about that topic previously.
In any case, DoF’s less straightforwardly-profit-driven analysis, and more market policy analysis, adds further evidence to the economic motives for a destabilized Middle East with a strong US presence.
Filed under: Politics, Science
… Or “How to Run a School”
Scenario… Public school teacher tells students that they belong in hell if they reject Christianity and accept evolution. Student records conversation. School district bans recording devices.
HUH?!?
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/john-bohrer/student-tapes-teachers-s_b_40221.html
Schools have always been at the forefront of 1st Amendment cases, but the teacher’s action is absurdly in violation of the Constitution. As for recording devices on public property, I can see a case for not wanting them there to protect other students, but to protect a teacher? Having been a middle school teahcer, I sometimes came up against the rules, and have ranted at children. I never crossed the line into acting illegally, or subjecting children to rights-removing action. Teachers are there to enable learning, growth, and civic leadership, not to take a moralistic stand and lecture about the students’ likelihood of damnation. That’s what churches are for.
PS – In the above-linked Barnette case, the best EVER summation of the American experiment appears: “But freedom to differ is not limited to things that do not matter much. That would be a mere shadow of freedom. The test of its substance is the right to differ as to things that touch the heart of the existing order. If there is any fixed star in our constitutional constellation it is that no official, high or petty, can prescribe what shall be orthodox in politics, nationalism, religion, or other matters of opinion.” – Justice Robert Jackson
Filed under: Culture, Philosophy, Politics, Science, Weird/Funny
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