dereksinsanelyirrationaluniverse asked: Just curious if you've checked out the Mises institute.... I found your bog and instantly fell in love with it. Keep spreading the real facts :)

I am indeed quite familiar with Mises.  I link to them fairly often when I cover economics, though foreign policy stuff certainly takes up a larger portion of my current interest (and thus blogging habits).

P.S. Thanks!

  6:52 pm  |   February 8 2012   |  3 notes  

“While Brazil and European countries are much freer than the US concerning behavioral things like alcohol and sexual behavior, the US has much more economic freedom than Brazil and a lot of European countries. But is liberty in economic exchanges offensive for the jihadists? If so, Hong Kong or Switzerland will suffer terrorist attacks soon? And why not Bahrain, ranked 12 in the index of economic freedom, and also an Islamic country!?

Are the underlying causes for radical Muslim groups’ actions restricted to religious and lifestyle disagreements? Why are they not aiming at the Vatican or trying to kill the pope?

Finally, if for some obscure reason the terrorists wanted to attack the US, why didn’t they attacked Las Vegas, the only place in the US where people drink alcohol openly on the streets, gambling (another offensive behavior for Muslims) is everywhere, and is, in fact, notoriously known as the Sin City? […]

The answer to all these questions is plain and simple: the war propaganda is an overt lie. The motivation for terrorist attacks has nothing to do with some anti-Western ideology. “They hate us because our freedom”? What freedom?”

— Fernando Chiocca

  4:07 pm  |   February 8 2012   |  70 notes  

  2:38 pm  |   February 8 2012   |  14 notes  

conza replied to your photo: GPOYW. In other me-related news, I’m training for…

Treadmill. Laptop. Tumblr. Problem solved.

Come on, now, treadmill running doesn’t count.  Inside air = sucky and the machine’s doing half the work for you!  The ground isn’t going to conveniently move underneath me when I’m running that half marathon XD

  12:51 pm  |   February 8 2012   |  5 notes  

GPOYW.

In other me-related news, I’m training for a half marathon!  The race isn’t for a couple more months, but I’m about half way through training — my latest long run was 8.4 miles.  I’m pretty excited about this, though the early bed times it necessitates are taking time away from tumblr :(

  11:22 am  |   February 8 2012   |  28 notes  

(Source: victorianroom)

  10:57 am  |   February 8 2012   |  27 notes  

rachellewhite:

Ok so I really like this room but someone please kill the putting-fluffy-things-on-furniture trend.

(Source: districtofchic)

  10:52 am  |   February 8 2012   |  19 notes  

(Source: cavyaday, via guineapiggies)

  6:43 pm  |   February 7 2012   |  116 notes  

“I think we all understand that these values cannot truly find voice in our politics and our policies unless they find a place in our hearts. The Bible teaches us to “be doers of the word and not merely hearers.” We’re required to have a living, breathing, active faith in our own lives. And each of us is called on to give something of ourselves for the betterment of others — and to live the truth of our faith not just with words, but with deeds.

So even as we join the great debates of our age — how we best put people back to work, how we ensure opportunity for every child, the role of government in protecting this extraordinary planet that God has made for us, how we lessen the occasions of war — even as we debate these great issues, we must be reminded of the difference that we can make each day in our small interactions, in our personal lives.

As a loving husband, or a supportive parent, or a good neighbor, or a helpful colleague — in each of these roles, we help bring His kingdom to Earth. And as important as government policy may be in shaping our world, we are reminded that it’s the cumulative acts of kindness and courage and charity and love, it’s the respect we show each other and the generosity that we share with each other that in our everyday lives will somehow sustain us during these challenging times. John tells us that, “If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth.”

—

Barack Obama, 2012 National Prayer Breakfast

As you have probably figured out if you’ve been reading this blog for long or have checked out my other tumblr, I’m a Christian.  Perhaps it’s for that reason that I find this excerpt in particular and the President’s whole prayer breakfast speech in general so interesting, strange, and sad.

On the face of it, there’s so much here which is excellent.  I can’t judge Barack Obama’s heart, and I won’t presume to say whether he is or is not a Christian — or what percentage of this speech is sincerity and what percentage is tradition, politicking, and top notch speech writers.  There is no doubt some of both.

However, in this selection in particular, we’re faced with a horrible irony:  This is the same President who has supported indefinite detention, waged open-ended war with huge losses in civilian life, failed to close Gitmo, assassinated an American citizen without trial, and generally evinced a disregard for human life (especially Middle Eastern human life) and value which belies this talk of living an expansion of the kingdom through love.  This sounds a lot more like a faith of words than deeds.  This doesn’t sound like being good neighbors — and remember Jesus’ definition of “neighbor.”  Tightening sanctions on Iran — sanctions which will have no effect on the ruling class while increasing the sufferings of Iran’s poor — doesn’t sound like taking pity on the brother in need.

I must pause to note that my intention in this post is NOT to say that my politics are somehow more “Christian” than the President’s.  I believe very firmly that it is inappropriate to claim a Christian mantle for any set of political beliefs.  Jesus came to build a kingdom not of this world, and explicitly rejected the opportunity to advance his cause through political power.  

That said, Jesus is entirely unambiguous in his requirement that his followers actively pursue peace and love:

The love of those who follow Jesus is supposed to be different from the “common sense” love typically shown by people in the world, for our love is to be extended even to our enemies. Note that Jesus includes doing good to them — lest anyone follow Augustine’s misguided teaching that one can “love” an enemy in their heart while killing him for religious or national purposes. It’s also important to note that the enemies Jesus was talking about included enemies who would, before too long, burn alive the family members of some of the people he’s talking to.

To return to the matter of Obama’s Prayer Breakfast speech vs. his actions, James chapter 3 puts it better than I can:

With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse human beings, who have been made in God’s likeness. Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers and sisters, this should not be.

  6:25 pm  |   February 7 2012   |  43 notes  

(via christina-marie-o)

  4:26 pm  |   February 7 2012   |  70 notes