uttles's blog http://www.redstate.com/uttles Wed, 16 Nov 2011 14:26:15 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 Frequently Asked Questions about Capitalism http://www.redstate.com/uttles/2010/01/14/frequently-asked-questions-about-capitalism/ http://www.redstate.com/uttles/2010/01/14/frequently-asked-questions-about-capitalism/#comments Thu, 14 Jan 2010 20:51:56 +0000 uttles (Diary) http://www.redstate.com/uttles/?p=3 This post was copied from my personal blog.

Today I stumbled across a website called Capitalism.org and honestly I’m amazed that I’ve never seen this before. Apparently it’s a function of Capitalism Magazine, which I subscribe to and read quite often. If you aren’t sure what exactly Capitalism is, or if you’ve learned your definition from people who tell you it’s some evil monstrosity where the rich rule the poor, then please take the quick Capitalism Visual Tour so that you can learn the truth for yourself.
Anyhow, the best part about the site, in my opinion at least, is the FAQ:
This is simply a great resource for people to use whenever they have a question as to how freedom (capitalism) would address common societal or personal issues. They cover topics from education to antitrust to war etc. I enjoyed reading through the different topics and I wanted to share some of my favorites as well as some of my comments. So, here are a few selections, but I encourage you to explore the entire thing:

What is capitalism?
Capitalism is a social system based on the recognition of individual rights, including property rights, in which all property is privately owned. Under capitalism the state is separated from economics (production and trade), just like the state is separated from religion. Capitalism is the system of of laissez faire. It is the system of political freedom.

I bet you never heard that definition in school, or in the pop culture, or on any news program, except for maybe John Stossel’s show on Fox Business.

Don’t the antitrust laws stop monopolistic practices?
Absolutely not. Harmful monopolies from the old AT&T monopoly (created by government regulations), to the U.S. Post Office monopoly were created by the state. The U.S. Post Office, for example, maintains its monopoly on the lucrative first class mail market by having the state outlaw its competition.

They also cover Standard Oil and the “robber barons” of the railroads. Government intervention is the only way for a harmful monopoly to exist, period.

What causes inflation?
Inflation is the result of state intervention into the free market for money — specifically the government ‘counterfeiting’ of dollars (also fiat dollars) which compete with your earned dollars for goods and services. As the amount of paper money bidding for goods increases and the amount of goods supplied stays relatively the same, the prices of all goods increase. Inflation is like a secret tax that robs you of the value of your money before you have a chance to spend it.

That reminds me, have you seen Obama’s latest grandstanding about “fat cat bankers?” He plans to tax the big banks to recoup some of the money from TARP. Isn’t that just ingenious? Basically it’s as if Obama sold you a bag full of $100 bills and charged you $20 for it, then went and gave a speech touting the fact that he “taxed” you for $20. Nonsense.- corporation

What is government’s role in regards to corporations?
Government’s job is not to regulate corporations and manage their affairs, but to protect their rights, just as they would any other member of society. Government’s job is to treat a corporation no different than any other citizen, granting it no special favors (corporate welfare is just as wrong as non-corporate welfare).

You have to be very careful here though when you talk about corporate welfare. Bailouts are corporate welfare. When a bank or an airline fail (go bankrupt) they should not get money from the government to save their business. They should file for bankruptcy just like anyone else. However, tax breaks are not corporate welfare. Tax breaks given to certain companies but not other companies are examples of Crony Capitalism, and are evidence that our tax code is immoral and horrendous, not evidence of corporate welfare.- abortion

What is the essential issue concerning abortion?
The essential question concerning abortion is: does the fetus have an inalienable right to be in the body of its’ host against the host’s will?

In my opinion this is an error in identification. The fundamental issue concerning abortion is the definition of a human life and more specifically when a human life beings. It’s not about fetus rights but about human rights, and so we must define objectively the beginning of a human life. After that point, there can be no moral grounds for the destruction of that life. The authors go on to state two definitions: One that a human is defined as a rational animal, in that it uses its mind to survive, and two that a fetus isn’t a human until it is outside of the mother’s womb. Those two definitions offer a stark contradiction. Studies have shown time and time again that the fetus is fully developed with a functioning mind after the first trimester, and that these “feti” actually attempt to fend off the instruments of the abortion doctor in a futile attempt to stay alive. It is simply impossible to rationally escape the conclusion then that a fetus becomes a human the moment it develops brain function, and it should so be illegal to murder the fetus after that point.- profit

What is not profit?
Stealing wealth from others, through fraud or force, is not profit, but theft (an initiation of force). Whether that theft is called a mugging, welfare, or “voluntary” taxation [a contradiction in terms], it is still theft and is always evil. Theft, like loss, is destruction; trade, like profit, is creation. To pursue profit is to pursue creation. It is an act of virtue and not a vice.

Your profit is the symbol and reward for the value of your creation, as judged by the mind’s of others who have freely-given given their wealth to you in exchange for it. Do not let the leftist intellectuals who infect our universities persuade you from thinking otherwise. In truth, it is those altruists who condemn the profit motive, who are guilty of evil.

How will one support government without taxation?
The removal of all taxation would be the last step to implement in the transition to a free capitalist society.The costs of a proper government — with an army (engaged only in self-defense and not imperialism), a court system, and a police force — are very small, and easily paid for by voluntary financing methods. Such methods are used by nonprofit agencies, like churches, to raise billions of dollars. Observe how one “know nothing capitalist” Ted Turner recently gave a billion dollars to a useless, anti-capitalist organization like the United Nations.

As an intermediate step toward no taxation, I support the Fair Tax. It’s not truly voluntary: every time you buy something new or purchase a service, you are forced to pay a percentage in taxes. However, you can choose to not buy new things, but buy used things, and you can choose to trade work for work instead of using money to buy services. I believe such a system would free up so much capital by removing all of our existing ridiculous taxes that it is really the only way to save us from total collapse and have a peaceful transition towards Capitalism and Freedom. Otherwise… well there is Secession… but then why secede as a state if your state government is just going to govern under the same premises as the federal government does now?
This is why it is important to educate as many people as possible in the principles of freedom and capitalism. One way or another the fascist empire called the United States of America is going to collapse. I hope we can accomplish a peaceful transition from fascism to capitalism, or that we can peacefully separate like they did in the USSR, so that we can establish capitalism in as many states as possible. If we stick with the ideas of altruism, collectivism and statism though, the collapse will have no chance of occurring without war and bloodshed.
]]> This post was copied from my personal blog.

Today I stumbled across a website called Capitalism.org and honestly I’m amazed that I’ve never seen this before. Apparently it’s a function of Capitalism Magazine, which I subscribe to and read quite often. If you aren’t sure what exactly Capitalism is, or if you’ve learned your definition from people who tell you it’s some evil monstrosity where the rich rule the poor, then please take the quick Capitalism Visual Tour so that you can learn the truth for yourself.
Anyhow, the best part about the site, in my opinion at least, is the FAQ:
This is simply a great resource for people to use whenever they have a question as to how freedom (capitalism) would address common societal or personal issues. They cover topics from education to antitrust to war etc. I enjoyed reading through the different topics and I wanted to share some of my favorites as well as some of my comments. So, here are a few selections, but I encourage you to explore the entire thing:

What is capitalism?
Capitalism is a social system based on the recognition of individual rights, including property rights, in which all property is privately owned. Under capitalism the state is separated from economics (production and trade), just like the state is separated from religion. Capitalism is the system of of laissez faire. It is the system of political freedom.

I bet you never heard that definition in school, or in the pop culture, or on any news program, except for maybe John Stossel’s show on Fox Business.

Don’t the antitrust laws stop monopolistic practices?
Absolutely not. Harmful monopolies from the old AT&T monopoly (created by government regulations), to the U.S. Post Office monopoly were created by the state. The U.S. Post Office, for example, maintains its monopoly on the lucrative first class mail market by having the state outlaw its competition.

They also cover Standard Oil and the “robber barons” of the railroads. Government intervention is the only way for a harmful monopoly to exist, period.

What causes inflation?
Inflation is the result of state intervention into the free market for money — specifically the government ‘counterfeiting’ of dollars (also fiat dollars) which compete with your earned dollars for goods and services. As the amount of paper money bidding for goods increases and the amount of goods supplied stays relatively the same, the prices of all goods increase. Inflation is like a secret tax that robs you of the value of your money before you have a chance to spend it.

That reminds me, have you seen Obama’s latest grandstanding about “fat cat bankers?” He plans to tax the big banks to recoup some of the money from TARP. Isn’t that just ingenious? Basically it’s as if Obama sold you a bag full of $100 bills and charged you $20 for it, then went and gave a speech touting the fact that he “taxed” you for $20. Nonsense.- corporation

What is government’s role in regards to corporations?
Government’s job is not to regulate corporations and manage their affairs, but to protect their rights, just as they would any other member of society. Government’s job is to treat a corporation no different than any other citizen, granting it no special favors (corporate welfare is just as wrong as non-corporate welfare).

You have to be very careful here though when you talk about corporate welfare. Bailouts are corporate welfare. When a bank or an airline fail (go bankrupt) they should not get money from the government to save their business. They should file for bankruptcy just like anyone else. However, tax breaks are not corporate welfare. Tax breaks given to certain companies but not other companies are examples of Crony Capitalism, and are evidence that our tax code is immoral and horrendous, not evidence of corporate welfare.- abortion

What is the essential issue concerning abortion?
The essential question concerning abortion is: does the fetus have an inalienable right to be in the body of its’ host against the host’s will?

In my opinion this is an error in identification. The fundamental issue concerning abortion is the definition of a human life and more specifically when a human life beings. It’s not about fetus rights but about human rights, and so we must define objectively the beginning of a human life. After that point, there can be no moral grounds for the destruction of that life. The authors go on to state two definitions: One that a human is defined as a rational animal, in that it uses its mind to survive, and two that a fetus isn’t a human until it is outside of the mother’s womb. Those two definitions offer a stark contradiction. Studies have shown time and time again that the fetus is fully developed with a functioning mind after the first trimester, and that these “feti” actually attempt to fend off the instruments of the abortion doctor in a futile attempt to stay alive. It is simply impossible to rationally escape the conclusion then that a fetus becomes a human the moment it develops brain function, and it should so be illegal to murder the fetus after that point.- profit

What is not profit?
Stealing wealth from others, through fraud or force, is not profit, but theft (an initiation of force). Whether that theft is called a mugging, welfare, or “voluntary” taxation [a contradiction in terms], it is still theft and is always evil. Theft, like loss, is destruction; trade, like profit, is creation. To pursue profit is to pursue creation. It is an act of virtue and not a vice.

Your profit is the symbol and reward for the value of your creation, as judged by the mind’s of others who have freely-given given their wealth to you in exchange for it. Do not let the leftist intellectuals who infect our universities persuade you from thinking otherwise. In truth, it is those altruists who condemn the profit motive, who are guilty of evil.

How will one support government without taxation?
The removal of all taxation would be the last step to implement in the transition to a free capitalist society.The costs of a proper government — with an army (engaged only in self-defense and not imperialism), a court system, and a police force — are very small, and easily paid for by voluntary financing methods. Such methods are used by nonprofit agencies, like churches, to raise billions of dollars. Observe how one “know nothing capitalist” Ted Turner recently gave a billion dollars to a useless, anti-capitalist organization like the United Nations.

As an intermediate step toward no taxation, I support the Fair Tax. It’s not truly voluntary: every time you buy something new or purchase a service, you are forced to pay a percentage in taxes. However, you can choose to not buy new things, but buy used things, and you can choose to trade work for work instead of using money to buy services. I believe such a system would free up so much capital by removing all of our existing ridiculous taxes that it is really the only way to save us from total collapse and have a peaceful transition towards Capitalism and Freedom. Otherwise… well there is Secession… but then why secede as a state if your state government is just going to govern under the same premises as the federal government does now?
This is why it is important to educate as many people as possible in the principles of freedom and capitalism. One way or another the fascist empire called the United States of America is going to collapse. I hope we can accomplish a peaceful transition from fascism to capitalism, or that we can peacefully separate like they did in the USSR, so that we can establish capitalism in as many states as possible. If we stick with the ideas of altruism, collectivism and statism though, the collapse will have no chance of occurring without war and bloodshed.
]]> http://www.redstate.com/uttles/2010/01/14/frequently-asked-questions-about-capitalism/feed/ 0 Environmentalism now has a book of Revalation http://www.redstate.com/uttles/2008/12/17/environmentalism-now-has-a-book-of-revalation/ http://www.redstate.com/uttles/2008/12/17/environmentalism-now-has-a-book-of-revalation/#comments Wed, 17 Dec 2008 17:26:26 +0000 uttles (Diary) http://www.redstate.com/uttles/?p=1 Here’s my review for “The Day the Earth Stood Still”:

THE CHURCH OF ENVIRONMENTALISM HAS A “REVELATION”

 

Like any good religion, Environmentalism has come up with their own prophetic vision of the end of the world: their own “Book of Revelation” if you will. The name of this story: “The Day the Earth Stood Still”

Spoiler alert: this movie sucks, so I’m just going to tell you what happens.

“The Day the Earth Stood Still” is a remake from a 1951 movie about an alien that is sent to earth to destroy the human race as it has been deemed that we are too destructive for the safety of the galaxy. The original centers around nuclear proliferation with the basic premise that we are eventually going to destroy the entire planet. This premise alone is kind of silly; I mean a civilization that is advanced enough to build a spacecraft that can warp the fabric of space-time should have no problem coming to Earth and educating us humans or even simply removing all of our nuclear weapons but instead they decide to just kill us all to keep us from… killing us all. That seems pretty hypocritical. Either way, with the modern day Islamic Conquest going on and fears of terrorist nations like Iran gaining nuclear weapons they had a lot of material to work with to make this a relevant and interesting remake…

Unfortunately, they decided instead to turn the story into an Environmentalist end-of-days myth. Instead of nuclear proliferation, in this movie the alien is all pissed off about global climate change as brought about by human-caused CO2 emissions. He arrives in his spacecraft (originally presumed to be an asteroid on a collision course) which descends from the heavens above Manhattan in an angelic energy orb that emits brilliant rays of light. Clearly this is Jesus returning to the earth to take his believers up to heaven, but unfortunately the writers decided that we Americans would react extremely violently and the alien was greeted with all sorts of military vehicles and personnel, including a sniper that decides to shoot the alien in the chest for no reason whatsoever. It is such a typical cliche about the military and Americans that it’s just boring, and a really idiotic turn in a sequence that started out with tremendous potential.

As a quick aside, I really do hope that we as a society have come to the realization that if a civilization is so advanced that they can travel among the galaxies then they are also sufficiently advanced to both stay hidden from us and destroy us at their whim. Which means that if we ever do have aliens land their spacecraft in a crowded area and then come on out to meet us then they are trying to make contact peacefully; otherwise we’d all be dead before we saw them.

Anyway back to the movie: after Jesus, er, I mean Klaatu gets shot there emerges from the orb a giant, laser-eyed robot that immediately disables all of the weapons and somehow brings Klaatu back to life. If he’s not a sci-fi version of an arch-Angel, then I don’t know what is. The robot then deactivates and the military whisks Klaatu and the scientists away to some installation where they hope to probe and interrogate him. During the surgery to remove the bullet, they discover that this alien has taken on the form of a human body so they try to use evil torture methods like a lie detector test (again with the ridiculous cliche) but the main human character to this point (Dr. Helen) helps him get away. Shortly thereafter Klaatu and Helen meet up and she decides to help the kind alien evade the authorities while on his still undefined mission.

Along the way Klaatu has a meeting with another alien in human form and we learn the details of his mission: to decide if we humans can change our dirty polluting ways and if not, destroy us all. At this point, the aliens are decidedly anti-change (how ironic,) and Klaatu sets in motion the process of “saving the planet” from us humans. Dr. Helen then takes him to his next destination (she still has no clue what’s going on) which is in a wooden area with a pond, where the alien then brings up a smaller orb that’s apparently been hidden there, collecting animals from the local ecosystem. This is where Klaatu actually starts the process of renewing the earth as he sends a signal to all of these orbs around the planet to gather up their animals and leave. They do so in spectacular fashion, ascending up into the heavens as magical balls of light. So, instead of Jesus saving the believers as in the Christian Revelation, enviro-Jesus is saving all the animals. 

After seeing the orb ascend into Heaven Dr. Helen asks Klaatu what is going on, but before they can get into it they are interrupted by a highway patrolman that has been tipped off as to their location. The patrolman tells them all to “stick-em up” but Klaatu decides instead to smash him in-between two cars and then bring him back to life. Not exactly the most logical actions for such an intelligent being but a great opportunity for the writers to make another Jesus alliteration. Enviro-Jesus is just like regular Jesus except he really, really cares about CO2.

Having seen this Dr. Helen can take no more and she demands to be told what is happening. Klaatu informs her of his green mission and Dr. Helen pleads with him to give us dirty humans a second chance. He tells her he wants to go talk to the UN (haha) but she informs him that they’ve all panicked and left so she takes him to her Nobel Prize-winning buddy’s house to try and change his mind. Meanwhile, a horde of futuristic silicon-based sci-fi locusts has been released by the giant robot and they are devouring everything man-made (including people) in their paths. The rest of the movie is filled with touching moments where the alien really gets to know the humans and he sees just how loving and sweet we really are. Finally he decides to stop the process of human slaughter and touches the giant orb which releases an Electro-Magnetic Pulse that disables all electronics around the entire globe, including the silicon-based sci-fi horde of locusts. Hilariously, (or extremely boringly) the entire EMP scene is filled with visions of environmentally evil devices ceasing to work, such as oil rigs, oil tankers, power-sucking city light grids, etc.

So, as you can see, I was thoroughly disappointed by this movie. I thought it would be entertaining but it just turned out to be more Algore inspired propaganda: this time with all the parallels to the Revelation. 

More disturbingly though, I believe this movie illustrates the principle problem with the environmentalists: rather than spend their time educating us all about actual environmental problems instead of myths like global warming; they are instead trying to scare us all into giving the government authoritarian power in order to “fix” the “damage” we’ve done. So instead of helping us all to learn to conserve and change the world in actual beneficial ways, they are using the authoritarian, forceful option of empowering the “all-knowing” force of government. Rather than helping us to change, and therefore hold the free-market accountable for any polluting practices with our choices, they are going to kill us all by crippling the economy via government control in the name of “saving the world.”

]]> Here’s my review for “The Day the Earth Stood Still”:

THE CHURCH OF ENVIRONMENTALISM HAS A “REVELATION”

 

Like any good religion, Environmentalism has come up with their own prophetic vision of the end of the world: their own “Book of Revelation” if you will. The name of this story: “The Day the Earth Stood Still”

Spoiler alert: this movie sucks, so I’m just going to tell you what happens.

“The Day the Earth Stood Still” is a remake from a 1951 movie about an alien that is sent to earth to destroy the human race as it has been deemed that we are too destructive for the safety of the galaxy. The original centers around nuclear proliferation with the basic premise that we are eventually going to destroy the entire planet. This premise alone is kind of silly; I mean a civilization that is advanced enough to build a spacecraft that can warp the fabric of space-time should have no problem coming to Earth and educating us humans or even simply removing all of our nuclear weapons but instead they decide to just kill us all to keep us from… killing us all. That seems pretty hypocritical. Either way, with the modern day Islamic Conquest going on and fears of terrorist nations like Iran gaining nuclear weapons they had a lot of material to work with to make this a relevant and interesting remake…

Unfortunately, they decided instead to turn the story into an Environmentalist end-of-days myth. Instead of nuclear proliferation, in this movie the alien is all pissed off about global climate change as brought about by human-caused CO2 emissions. He arrives in his spacecraft (originally presumed to be an asteroid on a collision course) which descends from the heavens above Manhattan in an angelic energy orb that emits brilliant rays of light. Clearly this is Jesus returning to the earth to take his believers up to heaven, but unfortunately the writers decided that we Americans would react extremely violently and the alien was greeted with all sorts of military vehicles and personnel, including a sniper that decides to shoot the alien in the chest for no reason whatsoever. It is such a typical cliche about the military and Americans that it’s just boring, and a really idiotic turn in a sequence that started out with tremendous potential.

As a quick aside, I really do hope that we as a society have come to the realization that if a civilization is so advanced that they can travel among the galaxies then they are also sufficiently advanced to both stay hidden from us and destroy us at their whim. Which means that if we ever do have aliens land their spacecraft in a crowded area and then come on out to meet us then they are trying to make contact peacefully; otherwise we’d all be dead before we saw them.

Anyway back to the movie: after Jesus, er, I mean Klaatu gets shot there emerges from the orb a giant, laser-eyed robot that immediately disables all of the weapons and somehow brings Klaatu back to life. If he’s not a sci-fi version of an arch-Angel, then I don’t know what is. The robot then deactivates and the military whisks Klaatu and the scientists away to some installation where they hope to probe and interrogate him. During the surgery to remove the bullet, they discover that this alien has taken on the form of a human body so they try to use evil torture methods like a lie detector test (again with the ridiculous cliche) but the main human character to this point (Dr. Helen) helps him get away. Shortly thereafter Klaatu and Helen meet up and she decides to help the kind alien evade the authorities while on his still undefined mission.

Along the way Klaatu has a meeting with another alien in human form and we learn the details of his mission: to decide if we humans can change our dirty polluting ways and if not, destroy us all. At this point, the aliens are decidedly anti-change (how ironic,) and Klaatu sets in motion the process of “saving the planet” from us humans. Dr. Helen then takes him to his next destination (she still has no clue what’s going on) which is in a wooden area with a pond, where the alien then brings up a smaller orb that’s apparently been hidden there, collecting animals from the local ecosystem. This is where Klaatu actually starts the process of renewing the earth as he sends a signal to all of these orbs around the planet to gather up their animals and leave. They do so in spectacular fashion, ascending up into the heavens as magical balls of light. So, instead of Jesus saving the believers as in the Christian Revelation, enviro-Jesus is saving all the animals. 

After seeing the orb ascend into Heaven Dr. Helen asks Klaatu what is going on, but before they can get into it they are interrupted by a highway patrolman that has been tipped off as to their location. The patrolman tells them all to “stick-em up” but Klaatu decides instead to smash him in-between two cars and then bring him back to life. Not exactly the most logical actions for such an intelligent being but a great opportunity for the writers to make another Jesus alliteration. Enviro-Jesus is just like regular Jesus except he really, really cares about CO2.

Having seen this Dr. Helen can take no more and she demands to be told what is happening. Klaatu informs her of his green mission and Dr. Helen pleads with him to give us dirty humans a second chance. He tells her he wants to go talk to the UN (haha) but she informs him that they’ve all panicked and left so she takes him to her Nobel Prize-winning buddy’s house to try and change his mind. Meanwhile, a horde of futuristic silicon-based sci-fi locusts has been released by the giant robot and they are devouring everything man-made (including people) in their paths. The rest of the movie is filled with touching moments where the alien really gets to know the humans and he sees just how loving and sweet we really are. Finally he decides to stop the process of human slaughter and touches the giant orb which releases an Electro-Magnetic Pulse that disables all electronics around the entire globe, including the silicon-based sci-fi horde of locusts. Hilariously, (or extremely boringly) the entire EMP scene is filled with visions of environmentally evil devices ceasing to work, such as oil rigs, oil tankers, power-sucking city light grids, etc.

So, as you can see, I was thoroughly disappointed by this movie. I thought it would be entertaining but it just turned out to be more Algore inspired propaganda: this time with all the parallels to the Revelation. 

More disturbingly though, I believe this movie illustrates the principle problem with the environmentalists: rather than spend their time educating us all about actual environmental problems instead of myths like global warming; they are instead trying to scare us all into giving the government authoritarian power in order to “fix” the “damage” we’ve done. So instead of helping us all to learn to conserve and change the world in actual beneficial ways, they are using the authoritarian, forceful option of empowering the “all-knowing” force of government. Rather than helping us to change, and therefore hold the free-market accountable for any polluting practices with our choices, they are going to kill us all by crippling the economy via government control in the name of “saving the world.”

]]> http://www.redstate.com/uttles/2008/12/17/environmentalism-now-has-a-book-of-revalation/feed/ 1