Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
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Some of President Obama’s recent speeches have raised a vital issue that often lies in the background of particular policy discussions. For example, the president has made it abundantly clear that he is a pragmatist, especially about economic matters. And there is a perennial question involved here: Are there any permanent, lasting, stable principles of human life, including ethics and politics? Some, of course, will immediately invoke God and Biblical pronouncements. But this doesn’t settle anything since among human bei... Full story
Some of President Obama’s recent speeches have raised a vital issue that often lies in the background of particular policy discussions. For example, the president has made it abundantly clear that he is a pragmatist, especially about economic matters. And there is a perennial question involved here: Are there any permanent, lasting, stable principles of human life, including ethics and politics? Some, of course, will immediately invoke God and Biblical pronouncements. But this doesn’t settle anything since among human bei...
One recent morning I was checking the news on CNN and happened to tune in just as a woman, about 50, was being forcibly ejected from a Senate meeting discussing reforms in the health-insurance system. As she was led out, she kept shouting, “We want guaranteed health care” and “We have a right to guaranteed health care,” and so on. Not a soul replied, not in the audience nor from the dais. Why is it taken to be a palatable notion that people should get their health care guaranteed? Of course, there are other services treated... Full story
Tibor Machan: FNM columnist One recent morning I was checking the news on CNN and happened to tune in just as a woman, about 50, was being forcibly ejected from a Senate meeting discussing reforms in the health-insurance system. As she was led out, she kept shouting, “We want guaranteed health care” and “We have a right to guaranteed health care,” and so on. Not a soul replied, not in the audience nor from the dais. Why is it taken to be a palatable notion that people should get their health care guaranteed? Of course,... Full story
Ideas do have consequences and this is quite evident with the current administration’s adoption of what has been labeled — or mislabeled — “libertarian paternalism.” Two political economists, Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein,... Full story
Ideas do have consequences and this is quite evident with the current administration’s adoption of what has been labeled — or mislabeled — “libertarian paternalism.” Two political economists, Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein,...
In a series of articles on climate change, the villain is gradually being identified as — you should have guessed it — freedom of thought. Jon Gertner of The New York Times Magazine wrote recently that “What makes CRED’s work (the Center for Research on Environmental Decisions) especially relevant ... is that various human attitudes and responses — How can there be global warming when we had a frigid January? What’s in it for me if I change the way I live? — can make the climate problem worse by leavi...
In a series of articles on climate change, the villain is gradually being identified as — you should have guessed it — freedom of thought. Jon Gertner of The New York Times Magazine wrote recently that “What makes CRED’s work (the Center for Research on Environmental Decisions) especially relevant ... is that various human attitudes and responses — How can there be global warming when we had a frigid January? What’s in it for me if I change the way I live? — can make the climate problem worse by leavi...
If it isn’t the Croats versus the Serbs, the Irish versus the British, the Hungarians versus the Russians, the Indians versus the Pakistanis, and so on and so forth endlessly, ethnic, national or other groups carping about each other based on ancient misconduct, ill feelings, and awful memories that have virtually nothing to do with people alive today, then it is their diplomatic allies that are being urged to keep the flames of the acrimony burning. Why? Because there are many political theorists who insist that “people bel... Full story
If it isn’t the Croats versus the Serbs, the Irish versus the British, the Hungarians versus the Russians, the Indians versus the Pakistanis, and so on and so forth endlessly, ethnic, national or other groups carping about each other based on ancient misconduct, ill feelings, and awful memories that have virtually nothing to do with people alive today, then it is their diplomatic allies that are being urged to keep the flames of the acrimony burning. Why? Because there are many political theorists who insist that “people bel... Full story
Dictionaries aren’t decisive about what the central meaning of terms are; they are mostly descriptions of common usage. For definitions of the meaning of important and controversial concepts — some call them “essentially contestable” ones — it is necessary to read books or encyclopedia entries. This is how I generally keep reasonably well informed and up to date. So not long ago I penned a column in which I identified the economic policies of the Obama administration so far as fascist! In it I said, “Fasc...
John Kenneth Galbraith was a member of Harvard University’s economics department as well as ambassador to India for JFK and a outspoken socialist. His debates with his close friend, the late William F. Buckley, Jr., were famous — and he lost all of them! In his book “The Affluent Society,” he included a chapter, “The Dependence Effect,” on advertising that has been reprinted all over the place, especially in business ethics collections. He argued that corporations create desires in us for their wares and services, and w...
John Kenneth Galbraith was a member of Harvard University’s economics department as well as ambassador to India for JFK and a outspoken socialist. His debates with his close friend, the late William F. Buckley, Jr., were famous — and he lost all of them! In his book “The Affluent Society,” he included a chapter, “The Dependence Effect,” on advertising that has been reprinted all over the place, especially in business ethics collections. He argued that corporations create desires in us for their wares and services, and w... Full story
As one who tasted a bit of Nazism and communism, today’s economic fiasco strikes me as relatively mild as human disasters go. For starters, many in America remember the Great Depression and World War II, both of which devastated millions of lives, destroying the bulk and arresting even more. The concentration camps, the gulags, the bombings and the wreckage left in their wake across the globe simply aren’t anything like what we are experiencing now, economically mostly, but not exclusively. And the fallout from the loss of... Full story
As one who tasted a bit of Nazism and communism, today’s economic fiasco strikes me as relatively mild as human disasters go. For starters, many in America remember the Great Depression and World War II, both of which devastated millions of lives, destroying the bulk and arresting even more. The concentration camps, the gulags, the bombings and the wreckage left in their wake across the globe simply aren’t anything like what we are experiencing now, economically mostly, but not exclusively. And the fallout from the loss of...
Most top executives draw pretty reasonable salaries, maybe up from $250K to several million per year. This isn’t unlike how professional baseball and football players are hired and compensated, especially the stars among them. Some people are sought out eagerly and promised exorbitant pay, including bonuses above the regular salary, and all this is agreed to from the outset, after heavy negotiation. Contracts usually specify the terms, some of them unconditional. If bonuses are promised no matter how the company is doing, t...
Most top executives draw pretty reasonable salaries, maybe up from $250K to several million per year. This isn’t unlike how professional baseball and football players are hired and compensated, especially the stars among them. Some people are sought out eagerly and promised exorbitant pay, including bonuses above the regular salary, and all this is agreed to from the outset, after heavy negotiation. Contracts usually specify the terms, some of them unconditional. If bonuses are promised no matter how the company is doing, t...
As I drive to work in the morning, I pass a community college. For years now I have been struck by its opulence. This facility looks like a palace built for pharaohs, not a supplementary educational institution helping people with a few under-division college courses each term. California has several such fabulous schools — I recall Foothill College in the Bay area, which matches some of the best endowed private universities in its architecture, as well as Santiago Canyon or Santa Barbara City College. These and others...
As I drive to work in the morning, I pass a community college. For years now I have been struck by its opulence. This facility looks like a palace built for pharaohs, not a supplementary educational institution helping people with a few under-division college courses each term. California has several such fabulous schools — I recall Foothill College in the Bay area, which matches some of the best endowed private universities in its architecture, as well as Santiago Canyon or Santa Barbara City College. These and others...
At a recent demonstration outside the Earl Warren Building in San Francisco, someone was waiving a sign that read: “A moral wrong can’t be a civil right.” Well, in fact, it can. A simple case in point is when someone writes something that is immoral or produces pictures or movies that are morally corrupt, or writes a book that praises Hitler or Stalin or Pol Pot (Khmer Rouge). In America, one definitely has a legal or civil right to do all this, even though it’s all arguably morally wrong. And all human beings have this ri...
At a recent demonstration outside the Earl Warren Building in San Francisco, someone was waiving a sign that read: “A moral wrong can’t be a civil right.” Well, in fact, it can. A simple case in point is when someone writes something that is immoral or produces pictures or movies that are morally corrupt, or writes a book that praises Hitler or Stalin or Pol Pot (Khmer Rouge). In America, one definitely has a legal or civil right to do all this, even though it’s all arguably morally wrong. And all human beings have this ri...
Often I check out newscasts from several sources, not just in print and on the Internet but also on radio and TV. One place I check regularly is Public Broadcasting Service TV’s “NewsHour with Jim Lehrer,” mainly because I am curious how a program funded to a considerable extent from money taken in taxes handles controversial topics. After all, the taxes are taken from all Americans who have a wide variety of viewpoints about the news while the “NewsHour” has limited resources and time and obviously cannot give all these vie... Full story
Often I check out newscasts from several sources, not just in print and on the Internet but also on radio and TV. One place I check regularly is Public Broadcasting Service TV’s “NewsHour with Jim Lehrer,” mainly because I am curious how a program funded to a considerable extent from money taken in taxes handles controversial topics. After all, the taxes are taken from all Americans who have a wide variety of viewpoints about the news while the “NewsHour” has limited resources and time and obviously cannot give all these vie...
The social science of economics became distinct when several French intellectuals and Scottish moral philosopher Adam Smith isolated the field for special study. For a long time thereafter certain assumptions underpinned the discipline, mostly about human behavior. These assumptions arose from the work of English philosopher Thomas Hobbes, who believed that all people are motivated to act so as to seek power over their environment. Even the contemporary idea that everyone is a profit or utility maximizer derives from this...
The social science of economics became distinct when several French intellectuals and Scottish moral philosopher Adam Smith isolated the field for special study. For a long time thereafter certain assumptions underpinned the discipline, mostly about human behavior. These assumptions arose from the work of English philosopher Thomas Hobbes, who believed that all people are motivated to act so as to seek power over their environment. Even the contemporary idea that everyone is a profit or utility maximizer derives from this...
