Independence Day 2008

Since LB and I are ruefully commemorating our sixteenth annual missing of OCON (we are determined to go next year in Boston - then again, we say that every year), I thought I would link to an old video of John Ridpath defending capitalism.  During the one and only time I attended OCON, in 1992, Professor Ridpath made perhaps the most moving speech I’ve ever heard, on the topic of the Founding Fathers and the principles of America.

I wish there were a YouTube video of this particular speech, but the one below aptly demonstrates John Ridpath’s amazingly sonorous voice, eloquence, and the workings of his great mind.

Below is a recent release of the Ayn Rand Institute.  In it, Michael Berliner makes a wonderfully cogent statement for Independence Day.  We should recognize and celebrate the fact that reason and individual rights are the founding principles of this nation.

Cool Digital Pens

I know that pen-and-tablet input devices for computers have been around for a long time.  I even had one maybe about ten years ago that I never really used a lot.   But here's a cool product that I've never seen before - a digital pen.  Actually, there are two of them: the Mobile Digital Scribe and the ZPen.

the Mobile Digital Scribe by IOGEAR 

Basically there are two parts to the system: the pen itself and a receiver that you clip to the top of the sheet you are writing on.  You don't need any special paper or tablet.  As you write, the receiver captures your handwriting and stores it.  (The exact mechanism for the capture is not made clear by the product web sites.  Something optical, maybe?)  When you are done, you simply plug the receiver into the USB port of your computer and you can dump the memory into a file.  

Cool.

For an amusing review of these digital pens, check out David Pogue's short film on the New York Times video site.

The End Times

In the Wall Street Journal article I referred to in my post on faith-based initiatives, there was an interesting though slightly off-topic paragraph that aptly demonstrates how far our culture has drifted away from reason and into mysticism. Referring to how some religious American voters regard Senator Obama with suspicion, the Journal writes:

On a recent night in a small chapel 10 miles outside Chillicothe, Glenda Kinzer,
41 years old, led a discussion group with a half-dozen young adults. The
topic: the End Times – and whether Sen. Obama’s candidacy might be a fulfillment
of the biblical prophecy leading up to the end of the world and the second
coming of Christ. Mrs. Kinzel says that “a lot of people are talking about
how [Sen. Obama] fits the description” of the Antichrist, a reference to
biblical prophecies about a person who will oppose Christ. The office
manager says she plans to vote for Sen McCain.(Note 1.)

Seriously?

Naturally, I don’t think for a minute that this is necessarily a mainstream point of view… yet. (At least, I hope it is not.) However, the fact that an ordinary, middle-aged office manager in a 21st-century industrialized nation will sit around with a group of her friends and treat the second coming of Christ as a serious possibility - and a significant factor in determining whom to vote for - is extremely disturbing. It is hard enough to convince essentially rational people to reject the altruist premises that have been foisted upon them; it will be far more difficult if basic rationality is not even a starting point.

Interestingly, if one strips away the superstitious, prophetic aspect of the notion, the “End of Times” may indeed be an all-too-appropriate label for this chapter of American history. I don’t recall ever being quite so pessimistic about an election or about the general discourse over issues. I cannot point to a single characteristic of either candidate that sheds a glimmer of hope. Furthermore, I have not seen any significant issue emerge as pitting good versus evil. Every issue is evil versus evil, each side differing only in degree, not in kind. We have one form of sacrifice versus another; one form of welfare statism versus another; one form of environmentalism versus another; one form of pragmatism versus another.

Having said this, I don’t want to carry the “End of Times” idea too far; it sounds too much like the execrable views of Pat Buchanan. Still, though, I have the sinking feeling that the American spirit – the world’s last best (to borrow Lincoln’s phrase) beacon of liberty – is not merely being choked off to a few burning embers but is being snuffed out completely, extinguished. Overall, I retain optimism that reason will prevail – and I’m committed to that fight – but in the short term I think things will get worse before they get better. It may no longer be a matter of fanning a dying flame to revive it; the torch may need to be lit again. (And this time, let us identify in explicit terms the fuel that keeps the flame burning.)


NOTES
1. Wall Street Journal, Obama Courts Religious Vote in Appalachian Ohio, 2 Jul 2008, p. A-5.

Faith-Based Initiatives

As yet another example of the convergence of the Republican and Democratic platforms, we now see Barack Obama proclaiming his support of “faith-based initiatives.”

While the Republican candidate John McCain enthusiastically draws from the Democratic playbook – for instance, offering $300 million of other people’s money as a prize to develop a “better car battery” – the Democratic candidate Barack Obama is jumping on the Republican’s evangelical bandwagon, offering $500 million per year (again, of other people’s money) to fund “faith-based service programs across the country and help send one million disadvantaged children to summer sessions run by religious groups.”(Note 1.)

That’s right. The Democratic candidate is advancing the very policy that President Bush introduced almost the instant he became President, the centerpiece of his “compassionate conservatism.”

photo from The New York Times

The name of Mr. Obama’s plan is the “Council for Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships,” a title that nicely draws together the religious (“faith-based”) and the tribal/collectivist (“neighborhood”) premises that underpin the policy. There’s even a hint of the notion – one that I would call “friendly fascism” to play off of Mr. Bush's “compassionate conservatism” – that a proper society represents a “partnership” between the government and private groups. “I know there are some who bristle at the notion that faith has a place in the public square,” said Mr. Obama, “but the fact is, leaders in both parties have recognized the value of a partnership between the White House and faith-based groups.”(Note 2, emphasis mine.)

Too true. Both parties have indeed plunged headlong into breaking down the barriers between the church and the state.


NOTES
1. Wall Street Journal, Obama Courts Religious Vote in Appalachian Ohio, 2 Jul 2008, p. A-5.
2. New York Times, Obama Wants to Expand Role of Religious Groups, 2 Jul 2008.