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Wednesday November 25, 2003

Wow, it's been a long time since I've blogged, but sometimes life intrudes. Business, computer problems, etc. have put a serious damper on my activities of late. But, rest assured, I have not given it up. Soooo...back at it.


Thomas Bray has a different take on the Thanksgiving story by highlighting the early victory over communism. Excerpt,

Blaming indolence for the colony's lack of success, Dale installed a strict penal code. But he also allotted three acres to each of the colonists for their own use (requiring in return a month's labor for the common good, essentially a flat tax of about 9 percent).

Previously all land was held in common. Each family was expected to pitch in with planting, tending and harvesting crops. As Tom Bethell, author of "The Noblest Triumph: Property and Prosperity Throughout the Ages," points out, each settler attempted to free-ride on the work of others, and little work got done.

Once the settlers acquired their own property, the famine disappeared. By 1616, one of the original settlers, John Rolfe, recorded: "Whereas heretofore we were constrained yearly to go to the Indians and intreate them to sell us corne, which them esteeme verie basely of us -- now the case is altered; they seeke to us -- come to our townes, sell their skin from their shoulders, which is their best garments, to buy corne -- yea, some of their pettie Kings have this last yeare borrowed four or five hundred bushells of wheate. ..."


I didn't know that blogging could be so dangerous. Of course, the danger is probably directly proportional to the number of readers. I guess I'm fairly safe for now.


Those rascally Iranians just seem intent on producing nuclear weapons. Thank goodness the IAEA is on the case:

The U.N. atomic agency on Wednesday adopted a resolution censuring Iran for past nuclear cover-ups and warning that its activities would be thoroughly policed to put to rest suspicions that the country had a weapons agenda.

The resolution, adopted by the 35-nation board of governors of the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency, did not confront Iran with a direct threat of sanctions - resolving a sticking point between the United States and key European powers over how to deal with Tehran.

Adopted by consensus, the resolution warns against "further serious Iranian failures," saying that could lead the board to consider actions allowed by its statute - shorthand for U.N. Security Council action.

I'm sure the Iranians must be trembling


You would think that with a Republican controlled Congress and a Republican President that there would be some semblance of fiscal restraint. I realize that Republican does not necessarily equal Conservative, but the Republicans as a whole are certainly more conservative than the Democrats. Nonetheless, the willingness of this Congress to spend my money (and my children's and grandchildren's money) is seemingly unlimited. Why then would they increase expenditures for a program that's already overburdened and is already projected to be insolvent in the not to distant future? Answer: Political Expediency. Shame on them. While I admire President Bush and applaud his foreign policy, I believe his domestic agenda is completely wrongheaded.

Here's Cal Thomas on the subject:

The time when the Republican Party stood for something worth standing for is over. The "G" in GOP might as well stand for government. Smaller, less intrusive government with less spending and lower taxes is the stuff of history books and fond memories for a party that once had a purpose. But Republicans, having tasted power, are now drunk with it. Like the Democrats before them who became inebriated with the wine of success, Republicans now seem interested only in preserving their elective offices.