Mary's Library

Sunday, May 09, 2010

Americans have always hated bureaucracy. One of the charges against King George III in the Declaration of Independence was that he “has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.” Who wants to be ruled by a national DMV? It is costly, inefficient, and, well, bureaucratic.

“It is not by the consolidation, or concentration of powers, but their distribution, that good government is effected,” Jefferson warned. “Were we directed from Washington when to sow, and when to reap, we should soon want bread.” - Matthew Spalding, The New Despotism of Bureaucracy

Jefferson on Big Government

"Congress has not unlimited powers to provide for the general welfare but only those specifically enumerated."-- Thomas Jefferson

Friday, May 07, 2010

Duh!

. . . when you have a situation where a government is spending four trillion dollars, but only taking in two trillion in revenue, basically, you’re telling the rest of the world you’ve no intention of paying that off ever, and the rest of the world eventually figures that out. - Mark Steyn

Wednesday, May 05, 2010

The Past

"We predicate things now in the schools on race, class, and gender, and we do it as remedies for present angst, and anxieties, and controversies. So history's become melodrama rather than tragedy. That's too bad because we're not fair to the past at all." -- Victor Davis Hanson

Tuesday, May 04, 2010

And still no need to use the word Muslim

The latest story in the NY Times on the arrest of the terrorist who tried to blow up Times Square.

Equality

David Brooks in today's NY Times talks about the fact that Asians in New Jersey live an average of 26 years longer and are 11 times more likely to have a college degree than an American Indian in North Dakota:

When you try to account for life outcome differences this gigantic, you find yourself beyond narrow economic incentives and in the murky world of social capital. What matters are historical experiences, cultural attitudes, child-rearing practices, family formation patterns, expectations about the future, work ethics and the quality of social bonds.

Equality of opportunity will never result in equality of outcome until the culture of every ethnic group changes. Or the government adjusts every outcome, as some folks would dearly love to do.

Why is the press afraid to use the word Muslim?

As in this op ed piece . . .