tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20704380.post3687297176389775120..comments2024-03-22T17:35:52.045-04:00Comments on Extra Thoughts: Conservatism and caring for the little guyLydia McGrewhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00423567323116960820noreply@blogger.comBlogger9125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20704380.post-82244126299634978022013-01-29T21:28:53.731-05:002013-01-29T21:28:53.731-05:00Thanks Lydia, I appreciate it.Thanks Lydia, I appreciate it.Dominic Bnonn Tennanthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03103838704540924679noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20704380.post-17659605304465566302013-01-29T21:27:07.251-05:002013-01-29T21:27:07.251-05:00Dominic, here is another organization that looks i...Dominic, here is another organization that looks interesting and attempts to apply more entrepreneurial approaches to world poverty:<br /><br />http://www.povertycure.org/<br /><br />Here's a specific article by Jay Richards about how not to help the poor and how to help the poor:<br /><br />http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/2010/06/the-economy-hits-home-povertyLydia McGrewhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00423567323116960820noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20704380.post-20687978974197479402013-01-29T18:57:43.331-05:002013-01-29T18:57:43.331-05:00Dominic, I think it's more important to convin...Dominic, I think it's more important to convince him that socialism is wrong-headed than to convince him that it is unChristian. No doubt he is drawn to it because he thinks it is a way of being concerned for the poor, which is a Christian imperative.<br /><br />I suggest that you start out by informing yourself more about economic issues and the ways in which socialistic policies are harmful to the very people they are meant to help. There are some suggestions along these lines in my post. That's the kind of information your friend needs.<br /><br />One think-tank that might be helpful is The Acton Institute, at acton.org. They publish a journal called Markets and Morality<br /><br />http://www.marketsandmorality.com/index.php/mandm<br /><br />which has some archives on-line.<br /><br />My friend Jay Richards, who used to work for Acton, has several books that would be relevant as well, including<br /><br />_Money, Greed, and God: Why Capitalism is the Solution and Not the Problem_<br /><br />and<br /><br />_Indivisible: Restoring Faith, Family, and Freedom Before It's Too Late_.<br /><br />Here is Jay's author page at the blog of the American Enterprise Institute, another think-tank that is a good resource:<br /><br />http://www.aei-ideas.org/author/jrichards/<br /><br />Sowell's _Vision of the Anointed_ is also very good, though not specifically Christian. <br /><br />The Mackinac Institute is a Michigan think-tank that does a lot of really good on-the-ground work in Michigan public policy showing how more free-market economic ideas work out and how, for example, unions are harming the people they are supposed to serve. Their URL is<br /><br />http://www.mackinac.org/<br /><br />I had a post on one specific issue based on some info. from Mackinac here:<br /><br /><br />http://www.whatswrongwiththeworld.net/2012/10/scummy.html<br /><br />Though perhaps the tone of that is a little strident for where your friend is at right now. :-) I'm glad to say that the ballot measure I was discussing in that post went down to defeat.<br />Lydia McGrewhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00423567323116960820noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20704380.post-51988527545689773172013-01-29T18:56:45.643-05:002013-01-29T18:56:45.643-05:00"On the other hand, is this because he is suc..."On the other hand, is this because he is such a wild-eyed ideologue that somehow he believes it is *right* to harm our country's prosperity?"<br /><br />After 20 years of listening to Jeremiah Wright, that would be my guess, even if it means cutting of his nose (the interests of the African Americans) to spite his face.<br /><br />He doesn't want to let racial tensions of the past go, he'd rather stew in them and have millions of his aggrieved constituents look to him to aid them by fiat.<br /><br />I think a nation where racial tensions were forgotten, a nation full of Herman Cains and Thomas Sowells, would be anathema to him.Robertnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20704380.post-33082245810048301682013-01-29T18:23:10.206-05:002013-01-29T18:23:10.206-05:00Lydia, I have a friend who is both a Christian and...Lydia, I have a friend who is both a Christian and a socialist. Not being very politically savvy myself, I find it hard to know what lines of argument or evidence to use to persuade him that his politics are at odds with his faith. Any suggestions?Dominic Bnonn Tennanthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03103838704540924679noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20704380.post-45050199655191648812013-01-29T14:55:17.674-05:002013-01-29T14:55:17.674-05:00I find it often very difficult to figure out the p...I find it often very difficult to figure out the percentage of malice, non-culpable stupidity, and willful stupidity in the makeup of various liberals. Our President is a particular puzzle to me. On the one hand, it's obvious to me that he hates our country's prosperity and wants to harm it. On the other hand, is this because he is such a wild-eyed ideologue that somehow he believes it is *right* to harm our country's prosperity? I can't fully figure it out. Maybe what happens is that people start out at some earlier point in their lives with truly good and naive intentions and then they come increasingly to accept the destruction of human goods like productivity, prosperity, and so forth as a kind of "collateral damage" necessary for bringing in their own vision of utopia. Once that line has been crossed, they can end up advocating almost anything.<br /><br />I also think there is probably a fair distinction to be made between liberal economic policies such as requiring this or that to be "free," which in the first instance arise from _sheer_ stupidity and a failure even to begin to grasp TANSTAAFL, and environmental policies. The latter often really are based on a directly anti-human ideology--that human beings are a plague on the planet and all of that. It's impossible not to call the latter malicious in and of itself.Lydia McGrewhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00423567323116960820noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20704380.post-32406115683509838852013-01-29T14:30:28.996-05:002013-01-29T14:30:28.996-05:00While the majority of liberals probably mean well,...While the majority of liberals probably mean well, but are naive and uncritical in their acceptance of the liberal party line, I can't help but think that people who run systems like the welfare state, or certain NGOs perpetuate this kind of harm by design.<br /><br />They are like businesses, and human misery is the product that they sell. What business would want to dry up its inventory? So they end up conducting their business in a way that guarantees that human misery will continue or become exacerbated. In Haiti, small businesses are having trouble getting off the ground because NGOs give away food and water for free, and you can't undersell that. Thus by mindlessly throwing money at the problem, people are kept in a perpetual state of independence.<br /><br />I think Lyndon B. "Great Society" Johnson summed up the intent behind the welfare state best, "We'll have those ****s voting Democrat for the next 200 years".Robertnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20704380.post-89317867815246739362013-01-28T20:48:06.354-05:002013-01-28T20:48:06.354-05:00Thanks _very_ much for the hat-tip, Wintery, and t...Thanks _very_ much for the hat-tip, Wintery, and the title is great.Lydia McGrewhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00423567323116960820noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20704380.post-15987179418496636022013-01-28T20:29:22.304-05:002013-01-28T20:29:22.304-05:00I love the post, so I've linked it from here:
...I love the post, so I've linked it from here:<br />http://winteryknight.wordpress.com/2013/01/28/christian-homeschooling-mom-recommends-teaching-kids-to-think-through-policies/<br /><br />Sorry for my title, if you don't like it. I am terrible with titles.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com