Whenever Jay writes of his visits to Salzburg, it brings back memories of the visit wife and I made back in '98: beautiful town, lovely music, impressive castle. Those pictures are just as we remember it. Of course, as I guy who came from the opposite side of the campus from Jay, I was equally impressed with Salzburg as the birthplace of the great physicist Christian Doppler, as well as good old Wolfgang Amadeus.
... and the candy! My Viennese mother-in-law of blessed memory loved the Mozartkugel of her childhood, each piece a perfect combination of chocolate and pistachios. It was always a treat when we could find them in the US. During our visit back in '98 we purchased a bunch of them to take home in addition to Dopplerkugel, a chocolate wafer confection available only Salzburg, named after its less famous (except for us physicists!) son. All good.
We only had that one visit, and Jay seems to be able to go there every year. Good on you, Jay!
I remember a time some years back when my long-haul flight was delayed, and as we approached my connecting airport (Paris, I think) a flight attendant came to my seat to offer help in making the connection - though it didn't require a special escort, as I recall. I always plan on the possibility of a one-hour delay starting out, but two hours is a bit excessive.
Of all hyper appreciative of art in your surroundings, I cannot believe you passed that beautiful statue a thousand times before stopping to smell the coffee. But, like Zion, I guess there is so much beauty in Salzburg it’s the little things that pass you by.
Anywho, I will always love Gary Larsons cartoon The Farside: “Welcome to Heaven, here is your harp…Welcome to Hell, here is your accordion”. Sorry brother I know it’s un Christian, but I can’t spare you a dime. Onward and Upward ✌🏼❤️
Jay--thanks for posting this. My wife and I (plus the doggies) are taking a road trip from London to Austria and back around Thanksgiving/early December to visit friends and do some Christmas markets. Salzburg is on the list and this post gives me some insights. Thanks again!
Thanks, as always, Jay. You are always a day-brightener.
Have you ever visited Rothenburg, Germany? When I was stationed in Wurzburg in the late 50s, some buddies and I visited there. It was said to have been founded in the 1200s, a town of about 5-6,000 souls, totally encompassed by a high stone wall. No cars were allowed in its narrow cobblestone streets. It was famous for its leaning buildings and clock tower with human-size figures of a young man and woman mounted on a turntable that brought them out for viewing as the bell rang the hour. It was a fascinating visit.
My wife and I had the exact opposite experience in Frankfurt connecting to Prague in May. We had a 1 hr 20 min layover and didn't come close to making it. The European Entry System line took 2 hours to get through. Then Lufthansa put us in another line to get rebooked. We connected through Vienna and arrived in Prague 8 hours later than planned.
And speaking of St John Nepomuk: on that trip we visited the Pilgrimage Church of St John Nepomuk (a UNESCO world heritage site) about 75 miles SE of Prague. Beautiful area.
Jay, myself, and presumably most of the American public, suffer the endless phone trees and inability to speak to a human on customer service. This was brought home to me when I had my cell phone stolen and somebody attempted to steal money from my PayPal and Venmo apps on the phone.
I spent hours, if not days, on the phone unable to speak to anybody and it was even very difficult to cancel my accounts as the thief tried to get my money.
This is where I depart from the Libertarian ethos in government that feels that businesses should not be held accountable through law for these behaviors.
I would suggest laws that force every large company that handles money - your PayPals, Venmo, credit cards, banks, have a rule that any customer can reach a person within x amount of time. Credit cards usually do this but my worst experiences are with PayPal and Venmo and the frustration of only talking to AI and automated phone trees is maddening.
This is where governance can be useful. For example, the cost in time of answering annoying robo calls is likely in the billions, and the modern age is being beset by levels of fraud and scams that call out for policing.
In the conservative/liberal divide my rule of thumb is that if government can make my life easier by eg making a company answer the phone when you have fraud happening, great. It is not a love of the nanny state, and you can go to Reason if you want 10,000 instances of dumb or unnecessary governance, but there are many ways that our lives could also be made better by just outlawing a bunch of stupidities like unwanted cold calls or shoddy toasters. People can use governance to make life better, or worse, it is always a question of balance.
I love you Wolfy, and I do mean it when I say I love your rants jumping on someone else’s train (I am an online hobo too, it is in our nature) while being a part of the Jay Nordlinger Appreciation Society. Like I was trying to tell you in our last “conversation” that went off the rails because you took offense at me calling Sanders, Warren and Trump [Pigs-Three Different Ones…how I still do love Animals, in spite of Pinkie’s revolting political beliefs), the seen and the unseen known, unknowns in supply side economics is it is a given that actual wealth creators produce more good for society than any sincere groupies in Congress tax and spend liberals… who, collectively have a never ending list of progressive beliefs based purely on how they would only be to happy to tax and spend other people’s money for …good, of course, who can argue with that…Libertarians). I respectfully suggest to you that Libertarians are against all types of force and coercion, just as Reason would suggest you switch carriers if you do not like the A.I. answering machine and leave the likes of smug, know it all liars and thieves in Congress out of it if you have a beef with your cell phone company. Therefore, if I see it my way, and not taking the road to hell paved with good intentions way, I will cancel my cell subscription too, because unlike with the current Duma, empowered by the people, I still have a choice in who really controls my phone calls. Gotta run on. Hope that balances it out for ya🍻✌🏼
My business situations don't allow me to not use Venmo or PayPal. I have heard the solutions on Reason, about why I should not like the government laws that make sure that my toaster wont electrocute me, and that instead of having the government enforce those quality controls, I should spend my days researching the wiring diagrams of toasters and checking with underwriters lab, but, simply I just would rather not waste my time because it makes my life easier. I don't mind, indeed like, minimum standards of reliability and safety.
Conflating that to some infringement on liberty just doesn't make sense to me. Governance, your bureau of weights and measures type, is good if it just enforces basic standards where people are not harmed by shoddy unsafe practices.
It can be overdone- I am not a fan of the nanny state. I like that Gov Shapiro in PA opened up the majority of state jobs to people without a college degree because it was an unnecessary restriction, but I have no problem with licensing, where society requires that you know what you are doing before hanging up a shingle - from medicine to hair cutting. my Libertarian foil in our discussion group would always rail about the tyranny of requiring the barber to have some 200 hours of training. But most of those 200 hours were giving haircuts in a barber college with supervision, so I can get a cheaper haircut from somebody who is just learning, and that, otherwise, if I walked into the barber I was assured that I would get a half way decent haircut without a side of lice. Somehow that never rose to the level of my concern for free speech or electoral democracy which I am a 100% absolutist with Kasparov and FIRE and Jay.
Modern industrial society is complicated and if you dig 10 feet into the ground in Manhattan your life likely depends on thousands of rules, agencies, standards, and such that did not exist in 1790. If you have lived in the third world, you know the dangers of poor or little governance, and one of the the beauties of the liberal democracies is that they have complicated laws and standards and agencies that assure that things work well. The argument should be about what works and what is unnecessary, not about the concept of governance.
Fascinating rant Wolfy. There is a lot to unpack here. I do not have enough time in the day to respectfully address the actual “argument” you have with Peter Theil…I kid, I kid, I mean PayPal and the other app behemoth…Who’s powers the be behind the paywall have no doubt tried to create barriers to prevent themselves from being scammed by customers claiming to be ripped off… not to mention, nobody’s perfect in working out one’s own newly created business models employing this funny little thing called “artificial” “intelligence”…leading you to have to climb up one branch after another still trying to reach what only grows on trees in…you guessed it, Congress (Do you ever wonder where inflation really comes from Uncle Milty…). My golden rule of thumb, I mean like my true believer writers at Reason is free minds and free markets are the very reasons why you and I Wolfy live in the richest, most powerful nation in planet earths history…not busy bees like Sandernistas in Washington that would only be to happy to entertain the meaning of what is “x” and should be when they pass that law for you to get your money back, I mean decree how long it should be before you get to talk to a real person, by law…In my life’s first world experience is exactly what every good company, run by your fellow humans, is in the business of doing in the first place, to satisfy customers and not the law…and why I avoid every business that I hear or see steal from its customers like the plague…That risk avoidance is not so easy when it comes to The Law and the current badge of takers megalomaniac populist politicians that are all big ears and gruppy fingers when it comes to what you are advocating here. And with that i respectfully oppose everything you believe in that you believe has made America great. Gotta run on. Thanks for taking my rant 🍻✌🏼
"free minds and free markets are the very reasons why you and I Wolfy live in the richest, most powerful nation in planet earths"
Well I am also a believer in free minds and markets, and since at least TR it has existed along a modern welfare state and regulatory apparatus, which I could just as easily suggest is the reason for its success.
I am not a utopian, of the socialist or the libertarian type. I look at things as they are. Socialism is an obvious failure. But social democracy is an obvious success, and the Chesterton fence suggests that since every democratic country has chosen to go that way, I am not ready to trade it in for some ideal that we can return to pastoral 1790 American. The Communists also believe the state will wither away in their utopias, but I channel the Missourians- Show Me.
As to politicians, I think they are no worse than you or me. Homo Sapiens has its failings. Usually the guy who starts running for the school board and ends up in Congress is fairly civic minded and to begin with. You mention Sanders, but that is not what I am arguing, I am half way conservative - John Kasich R or Bill Clinton D, but I hold that modern civilization is very complicated and requires lots of governance, that some 'lets just chuck it all and everything will be fine is just a cliché" that has no example in real life.
Since at least the 1960s it is easy to dismiss everybody in charge of everything, particularly Washington as the establishment. But I don't know any alternative system that is working better- dictatorship, monarchy?
I love how you take the Libertarian ethos that capitalism and freedom are two sides of the same coin and manage to flip it so it lands sideways…You give credit where credit is do, the nature and causes of the wealth of nations being its people, and then immediately venerate The State, I mean give a shout out to an O.G. Big Government progressive megalomanic T.R. Have it your way and call yourself a Christian Democratic Socialist, I kid, I Kid Rock you. I look at things as you say they are and am forced to having to keep pointing out that everything you venerate politicians for and the so called achievements of The State are because politicians gain the power to take from producers and then get to claim credit for whatever good may be created with other people’s money. I am all for welfare Wolfy. It’s kinda a commandment in The Good Book that I grew up truly believing in…but my parish priest did not have the power to take anything out of my old man’s wallet, just as my dearly beloved Christian gentleman father never once looked the other way when that basketfull was handed down the aisle (and he had eight mouths to feed, not including his own…on a teachers salary and a military pension…that went a lot longer way back in the day then it would now…no thanks to the @#$& in Washington whose welfare state costs only go up since T.R…and never down, speaking of inflation…but I parenthetically digress). Now if you were to catch Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, or Donald Trump on a hidden camera, I believe there is a 100% chance each would make like the Levite in The Parable of the Good Samaritan. The Church I up in has been building modern welfare states since before our Republic…And could have and should have done so much more good for the world of it were not for much worse than politicians, but priests that supposedly had Gods imprimatur praying on peoples desperations…you should have stopped after writing the “S” when opining Homo has its failings. I judge humans individually, not as a race, which has its failings you say. Dah, did you forget that the original comment of yours I was replying to had to do with the clitches in Artificial Intelligence (I trust that Venmo and PayPal have taken care of you, in spite of the law you wish that should be legislated as to how much time should pass before you get to speak to a human!). Ah, the regulatory state you laud, don’t get me started. Empowering bottom feeders megalomaniacs like Sanders and Warren and putting a crimp in the style of actual producers. No insult intended, but I bet yo7 thought masks and the anti social, lockdown orders coming from above were great ideas…In the meantime, remember all the peoples dropping like flies in Newscum’s tent cities because…neither do I …while they did not have masks on, were all huddled tighter likes pigs in a pen, and did not even wash their hands after taking a…but I do not want t9 go on another rant here, for Gavin is the first politician I mentioned that you did not already bring up…but, perhaps you have already forgotten our last “conversation” in which 8 lamented about you literally flipping what believers in supply side economics on its head. As far as cliches go, make fun of me when I employ one, not just as a retort to something I did not say.
I already consider it a given you are civic minded Wolfy, given our both being paying members of the Jay Nordlinger Appreciation Society. Just as I cannot help, again, to lament how you just do not get, let alone believe that the nature and causes of the United States of America becoming the richest and most powerful nation of gods green earth after it’s declaration of war in 1776 is because…Free minds and free markets…not T.R., or the modern welfare state, or the regulatory state…or homo s, I mean politicians…But I will leave yo7 with an aphorism of one of Jays old colleagues (before he sold his soul out to a mobster in the Bada Bing, I mean Oval Office) at the formerly estimable National Review: The Bigger the Government, the smaller the citizen. Thanks for taking my rant. Gotta run on. Peace through superior mental firepower
"how you just do not get, let alone believe that the nature and causes of the United States of America becoming the richest and most powerful nation of gods green earth after it’s declaration of war in 1776 is because…Free minds and free markets…not T.R., or the modern welfare state, or the regulatory state…or homo s, I mean politicians…"
When you say that this country did A and that is why we are successful, you cant just pick out what you like and say that is the reason for our good fortune and ignore what you don't like. I like free minds (I am as adamant as Gary Kasparov) and free markets, too, but I also like sensible regulation because, no, it would not help us if there was more lead dumped in the rivers, or we went back to child labor, or no seatbelts. I dont think pollution or unnecessary traffic fatalities adds to that good fortune.
It is always a balance.
I find it kind of a simplistic populist trope to gripe about the government and the establishment as if ipso facto they are idiots. If they are idiots, then we are the idiots who elect them . If you attest some difference in our leaders from the common sins of the species, then what would you suggest. Democracy is messy, but I dont prefer any other system, so we will continue to elect Donald Trumps, but in a way like they always say capitalism is terrible, but better than any alternatives, and I am a die hard capitalist, just not a laissez faire.
Lastly I have heard the argument from Kevin Williamson and the other principled conservatives that the proof of the failure of the welfare state is seen by the US, which curiously is a welfare state, maybe not as intense as the Nordics, but no objectivist paradise, does so much better on gdp or median income. Yes, for many reasons, like much more resources, common language, and perhaps not as gung ho on welfarism, but Man doth not live by bread alone, and I challenge gdp as that important the metric. It is very important not to be impoverished but whether your median income is 80K or 60K is not a dramatic difference From a spiritual view perhaps poverty levels, how the least of us fare, is more important or violent deaths or life expectancy or vacation time is more important (if you adjust gdp per hours worked the Europeans do much better, they like the beach over the office)
I am neither an advocate for regulation or markets, social welfare or individual responsibility, the devil is always in the details and each issue has its pros and cons.
What we can agree on is that individual liberty is essential and unequivocal and neither support the Trump authoritarians or the socialist authoritarians.
Whenever Jay writes of his visits to Salzburg, it brings back memories of the visit wife and I made back in '98: beautiful town, lovely music, impressive castle. Those pictures are just as we remember it. Of course, as I guy who came from the opposite side of the campus from Jay, I was equally impressed with Salzburg as the birthplace of the great physicist Christian Doppler, as well as good old Wolfgang Amadeus.
... and the candy! My Viennese mother-in-law of blessed memory loved the Mozartkugel of her childhood, each piece a perfect combination of chocolate and pistachios. It was always a treat when we could find them in the US. During our visit back in '98 we purchased a bunch of them to take home in addition to Dopplerkugel, a chocolate wafer confection available only Salzburg, named after its less famous (except for us physicists!) son. All good.
We only had that one visit, and Jay seems to be able to go there every year. Good on you, Jay!
Thank you, John. Right this second, I can see Christian Doppler's birthplace, maybe 100 yards from me (in Markartplatz).
I remember a time some years back when my long-haul flight was delayed, and as we approached my connecting airport (Paris, I think) a flight attendant came to my seat to offer help in making the connection - though it didn't require a special escort, as I recall. I always plan on the possibility of a one-hour delay starting out, but two hours is a bit excessive.
A I vs AI is why sans serif fonts, to put it distinctly, suck.
Of all hyper appreciative of art in your surroundings, I cannot believe you passed that beautiful statue a thousand times before stopping to smell the coffee. But, like Zion, I guess there is so much beauty in Salzburg it’s the little things that pass you by.
Anywho, I will always love Gary Larsons cartoon The Farside: “Welcome to Heaven, here is your harp…Welcome to Hell, here is your accordion”. Sorry brother I know it’s un Christian, but I can’t spare you a dime. Onward and Upward ✌🏼❤️
Jay--thanks for posting this. My wife and I (plus the doggies) are taking a road trip from London to Austria and back around Thanksgiving/early December to visit friends and do some Christmas markets. Salzburg is on the list and this post gives me some insights. Thanks again!
Thanks, as always, Jay. You are always a day-brightener.
Have you ever visited Rothenburg, Germany? When I was stationed in Wurzburg in the late 50s, some buddies and I visited there. It was said to have been founded in the 1200s, a town of about 5-6,000 souls, totally encompassed by a high stone wall. No cars were allowed in its narrow cobblestone streets. It was famous for its leaning buildings and clock tower with human-size figures of a young man and woman mounted on a turntable that brought them out for viewing as the bell rang the hour. It was a fascinating visit.
Thx for the tip, JHM!
My wife and I had the exact opposite experience in Frankfurt connecting to Prague in May. We had a 1 hr 20 min layover and didn't come close to making it. The European Entry System line took 2 hours to get through. Then Lufthansa put us in another line to get rebooked. We connected through Vienna and arrived in Prague 8 hours later than planned.
And speaking of St John Nepomuk: on that trip we visited the Pilgrimage Church of St John Nepomuk (a UNESCO world heritage site) about 75 miles SE of Prague. Beautiful area.
Jay, myself, and presumably most of the American public, suffer the endless phone trees and inability to speak to a human on customer service. This was brought home to me when I had my cell phone stolen and somebody attempted to steal money from my PayPal and Venmo apps on the phone.
I spent hours, if not days, on the phone unable to speak to anybody and it was even very difficult to cancel my accounts as the thief tried to get my money.
This is where I depart from the Libertarian ethos in government that feels that businesses should not be held accountable through law for these behaviors.
I would suggest laws that force every large company that handles money - your PayPals, Venmo, credit cards, banks, have a rule that any customer can reach a person within x amount of time. Credit cards usually do this but my worst experiences are with PayPal and Venmo and the frustration of only talking to AI and automated phone trees is maddening.
This is where governance can be useful. For example, the cost in time of answering annoying robo calls is likely in the billions, and the modern age is being beset by levels of fraud and scams that call out for policing.
In the conservative/liberal divide my rule of thumb is that if government can make my life easier by eg making a company answer the phone when you have fraud happening, great. It is not a love of the nanny state, and you can go to Reason if you want 10,000 instances of dumb or unnecessary governance, but there are many ways that our lives could also be made better by just outlawing a bunch of stupidities like unwanted cold calls or shoddy toasters. People can use governance to make life better, or worse, it is always a question of balance.
I love you Wolfy, and I do mean it when I say I love your rants jumping on someone else’s train (I am an online hobo too, it is in our nature) while being a part of the Jay Nordlinger Appreciation Society. Like I was trying to tell you in our last “conversation” that went off the rails because you took offense at me calling Sanders, Warren and Trump [Pigs-Three Different Ones…how I still do love Animals, in spite of Pinkie’s revolting political beliefs), the seen and the unseen known, unknowns in supply side economics is it is a given that actual wealth creators produce more good for society than any sincere groupies in Congress tax and spend liberals… who, collectively have a never ending list of progressive beliefs based purely on how they would only be to happy to tax and spend other people’s money for …good, of course, who can argue with that…Libertarians). I respectfully suggest to you that Libertarians are against all types of force and coercion, just as Reason would suggest you switch carriers if you do not like the A.I. answering machine and leave the likes of smug, know it all liars and thieves in Congress out of it if you have a beef with your cell phone company. Therefore, if I see it my way, and not taking the road to hell paved with good intentions way, I will cancel my cell subscription too, because unlike with the current Duma, empowered by the people, I still have a choice in who really controls my phone calls. Gotta run on. Hope that balances it out for ya🍻✌🏼
Thanks for the affections.
My business situations don't allow me to not use Venmo or PayPal. I have heard the solutions on Reason, about why I should not like the government laws that make sure that my toaster wont electrocute me, and that instead of having the government enforce those quality controls, I should spend my days researching the wiring diagrams of toasters and checking with underwriters lab, but, simply I just would rather not waste my time because it makes my life easier. I don't mind, indeed like, minimum standards of reliability and safety.
Conflating that to some infringement on liberty just doesn't make sense to me. Governance, your bureau of weights and measures type, is good if it just enforces basic standards where people are not harmed by shoddy unsafe practices.
It can be overdone- I am not a fan of the nanny state. I like that Gov Shapiro in PA opened up the majority of state jobs to people without a college degree because it was an unnecessary restriction, but I have no problem with licensing, where society requires that you know what you are doing before hanging up a shingle - from medicine to hair cutting. my Libertarian foil in our discussion group would always rail about the tyranny of requiring the barber to have some 200 hours of training. But most of those 200 hours were giving haircuts in a barber college with supervision, so I can get a cheaper haircut from somebody who is just learning, and that, otherwise, if I walked into the barber I was assured that I would get a half way decent haircut without a side of lice. Somehow that never rose to the level of my concern for free speech or electoral democracy which I am a 100% absolutist with Kasparov and FIRE and Jay.
Modern industrial society is complicated and if you dig 10 feet into the ground in Manhattan your life likely depends on thousands of rules, agencies, standards, and such that did not exist in 1790. If you have lived in the third world, you know the dangers of poor or little governance, and one of the the beauties of the liberal democracies is that they have complicated laws and standards and agencies that assure that things work well. The argument should be about what works and what is unnecessary, not about the concept of governance.
Fascinating rant Wolfy. There is a lot to unpack here. I do not have enough time in the day to respectfully address the actual “argument” you have with Peter Theil…I kid, I kid, I mean PayPal and the other app behemoth…Who’s powers the be behind the paywall have no doubt tried to create barriers to prevent themselves from being scammed by customers claiming to be ripped off… not to mention, nobody’s perfect in working out one’s own newly created business models employing this funny little thing called “artificial” “intelligence”…leading you to have to climb up one branch after another still trying to reach what only grows on trees in…you guessed it, Congress (Do you ever wonder where inflation really comes from Uncle Milty…). My golden rule of thumb, I mean like my true believer writers at Reason is free minds and free markets are the very reasons why you and I Wolfy live in the richest, most powerful nation in planet earths history…not busy bees like Sandernistas in Washington that would only be to happy to entertain the meaning of what is “x” and should be when they pass that law for you to get your money back, I mean decree how long it should be before you get to talk to a real person, by law…In my life’s first world experience is exactly what every good company, run by your fellow humans, is in the business of doing in the first place, to satisfy customers and not the law…and why I avoid every business that I hear or see steal from its customers like the plague…That risk avoidance is not so easy when it comes to The Law and the current badge of takers megalomaniac populist politicians that are all big ears and gruppy fingers when it comes to what you are advocating here. And with that i respectfully oppose everything you believe in that you believe has made America great. Gotta run on. Thanks for taking my rant 🍻✌🏼
"free minds and free markets are the very reasons why you and I Wolfy live in the richest, most powerful nation in planet earths"
Well I am also a believer in free minds and markets, and since at least TR it has existed along a modern welfare state and regulatory apparatus, which I could just as easily suggest is the reason for its success.
I am not a utopian, of the socialist or the libertarian type. I look at things as they are. Socialism is an obvious failure. But social democracy is an obvious success, and the Chesterton fence suggests that since every democratic country has chosen to go that way, I am not ready to trade it in for some ideal that we can return to pastoral 1790 American. The Communists also believe the state will wither away in their utopias, but I channel the Missourians- Show Me.
As to politicians, I think they are no worse than you or me. Homo Sapiens has its failings. Usually the guy who starts running for the school board and ends up in Congress is fairly civic minded and to begin with. You mention Sanders, but that is not what I am arguing, I am half way conservative - John Kasich R or Bill Clinton D, but I hold that modern civilization is very complicated and requires lots of governance, that some 'lets just chuck it all and everything will be fine is just a cliché" that has no example in real life.
Since at least the 1960s it is easy to dismiss everybody in charge of everything, particularly Washington as the establishment. But I don't know any alternative system that is working better- dictatorship, monarchy?
I love how you take the Libertarian ethos that capitalism and freedom are two sides of the same coin and manage to flip it so it lands sideways…You give credit where credit is do, the nature and causes of the wealth of nations being its people, and then immediately venerate The State, I mean give a shout out to an O.G. Big Government progressive megalomanic T.R. Have it your way and call yourself a Christian Democratic Socialist, I kid, I Kid Rock you. I look at things as you say they are and am forced to having to keep pointing out that everything you venerate politicians for and the so called achievements of The State are because politicians gain the power to take from producers and then get to claim credit for whatever good may be created with other people’s money. I am all for welfare Wolfy. It’s kinda a commandment in The Good Book that I grew up truly believing in…but my parish priest did not have the power to take anything out of my old man’s wallet, just as my dearly beloved Christian gentleman father never once looked the other way when that basketfull was handed down the aisle (and he had eight mouths to feed, not including his own…on a teachers salary and a military pension…that went a lot longer way back in the day then it would now…no thanks to the @#$& in Washington whose welfare state costs only go up since T.R…and never down, speaking of inflation…but I parenthetically digress). Now if you were to catch Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, or Donald Trump on a hidden camera, I believe there is a 100% chance each would make like the Levite in The Parable of the Good Samaritan. The Church I up in has been building modern welfare states since before our Republic…And could have and should have done so much more good for the world of it were not for much worse than politicians, but priests that supposedly had Gods imprimatur praying on peoples desperations…you should have stopped after writing the “S” when opining Homo has its failings. I judge humans individually, not as a race, which has its failings you say. Dah, did you forget that the original comment of yours I was replying to had to do with the clitches in Artificial Intelligence (I trust that Venmo and PayPal have taken care of you, in spite of the law you wish that should be legislated as to how much time should pass before you get to speak to a human!). Ah, the regulatory state you laud, don’t get me started. Empowering bottom feeders megalomaniacs like Sanders and Warren and putting a crimp in the style of actual producers. No insult intended, but I bet yo7 thought masks and the anti social, lockdown orders coming from above were great ideas…In the meantime, remember all the peoples dropping like flies in Newscum’s tent cities because…neither do I …while they did not have masks on, were all huddled tighter likes pigs in a pen, and did not even wash their hands after taking a…but I do not want t9 go on another rant here, for Gavin is the first politician I mentioned that you did not already bring up…but, perhaps you have already forgotten our last “conversation” in which 8 lamented about you literally flipping what believers in supply side economics on its head. As far as cliches go, make fun of me when I employ one, not just as a retort to something I did not say.
I already consider it a given you are civic minded Wolfy, given our both being paying members of the Jay Nordlinger Appreciation Society. Just as I cannot help, again, to lament how you just do not get, let alone believe that the nature and causes of the United States of America becoming the richest and most powerful nation of gods green earth after it’s declaration of war in 1776 is because…Free minds and free markets…not T.R., or the modern welfare state, or the regulatory state…or homo s, I mean politicians…But I will leave yo7 with an aphorism of one of Jays old colleagues (before he sold his soul out to a mobster in the Bada Bing, I mean Oval Office) at the formerly estimable National Review: The Bigger the Government, the smaller the citizen. Thanks for taking my rant. Gotta run on. Peace through superior mental firepower
"how you just do not get, let alone believe that the nature and causes of the United States of America becoming the richest and most powerful nation of gods green earth after it’s declaration of war in 1776 is because…Free minds and free markets…not T.R., or the modern welfare state, or the regulatory state…or homo s, I mean politicians…"
When you say that this country did A and that is why we are successful, you cant just pick out what you like and say that is the reason for our good fortune and ignore what you don't like. I like free minds (I am as adamant as Gary Kasparov) and free markets, too, but I also like sensible regulation because, no, it would not help us if there was more lead dumped in the rivers, or we went back to child labor, or no seatbelts. I dont think pollution or unnecessary traffic fatalities adds to that good fortune.
It is always a balance.
I find it kind of a simplistic populist trope to gripe about the government and the establishment as if ipso facto they are idiots. If they are idiots, then we are the idiots who elect them . If you attest some difference in our leaders from the common sins of the species, then what would you suggest. Democracy is messy, but I dont prefer any other system, so we will continue to elect Donald Trumps, but in a way like they always say capitalism is terrible, but better than any alternatives, and I am a die hard capitalist, just not a laissez faire.
Lastly I have heard the argument from Kevin Williamson and the other principled conservatives that the proof of the failure of the welfare state is seen by the US, which curiously is a welfare state, maybe not as intense as the Nordics, but no objectivist paradise, does so much better on gdp or median income. Yes, for many reasons, like much more resources, common language, and perhaps not as gung ho on welfarism, but Man doth not live by bread alone, and I challenge gdp as that important the metric. It is very important not to be impoverished but whether your median income is 80K or 60K is not a dramatic difference From a spiritual view perhaps poverty levels, how the least of us fare, is more important or violent deaths or life expectancy or vacation time is more important (if you adjust gdp per hours worked the Europeans do much better, they like the beach over the office)
I am neither an advocate for regulation or markets, social welfare or individual responsibility, the devil is always in the details and each issue has its pros and cons.
What we can agree on is that individual liberty is essential and unequivocal and neither support the Trump authoritarians or the socialist authoritarians.
A magnificent closing scene, Jay: Jesus removed from the cross, over casual strollers in shorts, and see-throughs, and formals.
Readers, don’t skip the link to the story about Marko Feingold.
Zufall✌🏼❤️