Positive Liberty

There’s an email making the rounds called, “The Ant & the Grasshopper in 2008.” The person who sent it to me is a Republican. Perhaps you’ve seen this GOP joke. Well, I’ve edited it, just a bit, to achieve greater accuracy, and to provide a much more helpful moral.

Old Version: The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long, building his house and laying up supplies for the winter.

The grasshopper thinks the ant is a fool, and laughs and dances and plays the summer away.

Come winter, the ant is warm and well fed. The grasshopper has no food or shelter.

The grasshopper dies out in the cold. Continue Reading »

In a recent post to this blog, Jason Kuznicki made the point that we should oppose national service plans…

even if nice people like… Barack Obama are the ones holding the whips. Barack Obama? Yes indeed. He touts a “universal voluntary public service.” Right on his website. But if it’s voluntary, it won’t be universal, and if it’s universal, it won’t be voluntary. The plan is self-contradictory right down to the details…

I usually pass up opportunities to criticize Obama because most people assume that means I’m supporting someone else in the race, like McCain. But I’m not.

Obama is, despite the swooning, just a politician — nothing more.

A couple of months ago I heard him close a nationally-televised speech saying something along the lines of, “We live in the greatest country on Earth, and if you join with me, we’ll work together to fix it.” Huh?

Now, I have a theory about this odd, seemingly contradictory behavior. Continue Reading »