Free Market Capitalism and Christianity are different things. Though many of us cling to both with a tenacity of conviction that, if justified, certainly should reflect a united base of values, they are not, in themselves, actually united.
As a Christian and a Free Market Capitalist I have long believed that the revelation of the one and the philosophy of the other do in fact have a united base of values, like different poems recited from the same inhalation.There is no question thatfreedom from the bondage of sin and law and freedom from the yoke of violence and coercion are liberties of disparate magnitude. Yet are justice and grace merely spiritual necessities? Can we as Christians treat them as personal solvents only? Do they not, when applied naturally, sum to a social order of some kind? Are the Fruits of the Spirit actually, as it were, seedless?
Even as many would agree with me that Christian doctrine does prescribe a set of related virtues that, when applied, do in fact produce a social order of a kind, many of that many also hold diverse, exclusive visions of what a social order thus produced would look like.Diversity aside, those visions are being challenged by the current economic climate and the events leading up to the recession. As political parties polarize the issue, reducing it to talking points and bulletin points, and public apathy turns to populist rage, many Christian Free Market proponents find themselves strangely conflicted and frustrated.
Palestinians who sell their property to Jews are committing a crime punishable by the death penalty, the Palestinian Authority warned...The punishment also includes being ostracized by community and family.
"See that lonely corpse over there? Guilty of holding an equal opportunity yard sale!"
And here's the thing: a source with knowledge of the real numbers tells us we're so low in our estimate of the Times's printing costs that we're not even in the ballpark.
But seriously, get the Wall Street Journal instead.
The terror attack in the Bat Ayin settlement, in the West Bank, which killed a 13-year-old and injured a 7-year-old boy, was simply a natural response to the Israeli "occupation," a Hamas spokesperson said on Thursday.
After succesfully knocking a woman down from behind, this valiant man expressed his opposition to Israeli injustices by hacking a 13 year old boy to death. He proceeded to injure the prone woman's 7 year old son and chased him down the street until he was intercepted by a malicious unarmed civilian in mid-chase.
This is a natural reaction This attack was committed in the framework of the resistance...especially against the backdrop of Israel attacks. We are a people occupied, and it is our right to defend ourselves...
Ayman Taha, Smuggler, Spokesman for 'Legitimately Elected' Palestinian Government
The details of the attack are very professionally sandwiched between two very relevant paragraphs:
JERUSALEM — Avigdor Lieberman, the new foreign minister of Israel, was questioned under caution by the national fraud squad for more than seven hours on Thursday, according to a police spokesman, as part of a longstanding investigation into suspicions of bribery, money laundering and breach of trust.
Also Thursday, a Palestinian wielding a pickax killed an Israeli boy, 13, and wounded another, 7, in a Jewish settlement in the West Bank before fleeing, witnesses and the Israeli authorities said.
Israeli officials said that the father of the wounded 7-year-old, Ofer Gamliel, is serving a 15-year prison term for planting a bomb outside a Palestinian girls’ school in Jerusalem in 2002.
Oddly enough, Israel seems to frown on terrorism and murder no matter which ethnic groups or nationalities the perpetrators/victims originate from. How novel!
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So what's going to happen to all of that corn the government has decided not to force down the throats of the oil companies? Maybe Mexico will still take them:
Mexico will not include rice, corn, beans or wheat among imports from the United States facing increased tariffs in a dispute over trucking, a spokesman for the Mexican economy ministry told Reuters on Monday. "It won't be any of these products because Mexicans are sensitive to them," the spokesman said. Mexico's government will likely announce on Wednesday what 90 industrial and agriculture goods will face higher tariffs in reprisal for U.S. cancellation of a pilot cross-border trucking program, the spokesman said.
(Reuters)
Sort of an overreaction for just a pilot cross-border trucking program, isn't it? Think again.
From Mary O'Grady at the WSJ:
In violation of the North American Free Trade Agreement, the U.S. last week again closed its southern border to any Mexican trucks additional to those with existing permits. It did so on the usual grounds that Mexican trucks are unsafe, even though that hoary claim has been demolished by extensive testing. But Congress and President Barack Obama are catering to the Teamsters union, which has spent more than a decade lobbying to keep Mexican competition off U.S. highways.
So while the drastic price impacting combination of American demand for narcotics and their illegality make Mexican crime lords rich, at least the American labor unions can rest easy that legitimate Mexican enterprise won't be able to compete with them. GO USA!
Yes, let's solve all of our financial problems and distribute the wealth of the nation in a fair and equitable manner, Let's abolish inequality and greed by appropriating funds from the oil companies that have ravaged our beautiful planet....It's not like they can just pick up and move!
Over the past six months companies including offshore drilling contractors Noble Corp and Transocean, energy-focused engineering group Foster Wheeler and oilfield services company Weatherfield International have all announced plans to shift domicile to Switzerland.
At least 3 percent of District residents have HIV or AIDS, a total that far surpasses the 1 percent threshold that constitutes a "generalized and severe" epidemic, according to a report scheduled to be released by health officials tomorrow...
William Tucker from terrestrialenergy.org has motivated me to bone up on the nuclear energy debate with his excellent article over at the WSJ about the controversy surrounding Yucca Mountain. Mindful of the incredible benefits of nuclear power, I’ve always viewed the disposal of waste products as nothing more than a nasty necessity and defended Yucca Mountain as an acceptable solution, the alternative being to roll back the US’ already insufficient nuclear production. Well now the Obama administration is pulling the plug on the “accident waiting to happen” that diverse environmentalist groups have been railing against for years.
The author seems to think Reagan was in poor taste and should have kept all that eternal life to himself.
It was during the first one-on-one session in Moscow that Reagan engaged in a bold but questionable endeavor well beyond his mandate as president of the United States.
And this is just from my enthusiastic recommendations!
Sales of Ayn Rand’s “Atlas Shrugged” have almost tripled over the first seven weeks of this year compared with sales for the same period in 2008. This continues a strong trend after bookstore sales reached an all-time annual high in 2008 of about 200,000 copies sold....
George Lakoff, a professor at the University of California at Berkeley, recently stated that “the moral mission of government is simple: no one can earn a living in America or live an American life without protection and empowerment by the government.”
Thirty-four percent (34%) of voters nationwide agree with Lakoff’s assertion while 46% disagree in a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey. Twenty percent (20%) are not sure.
"...the moral mission of government is simple: no one can earn a living in America or live an American life without protection from empowerment by the government.” FIXED!
It is difficult to describe what it is like to witness perpetual decline and not know that what is being witnessed is in fact decline. Somehow the ever narrowing scope of personal freedoms and financial opportunities has always been cause for concern and yet, simultaneously, it has felt like the natural progression of California culture.
