Forward Vision

Jackson, Hamilton, Wilson, or Jefferson?

December 10, 2009
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Just read a dated but amazing article by Daniel McCarthy on the philosophical undercurrents of the Bush era (and American history). Helps explain the population segment that supported Bush and is now the Tea Party / “True Conservative” movement. They’re Jacksonians, according to the schema laid out in Walter Russell Mead’s book “Special Providence”.


FW: The Daily Bell

November 17, 2009
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If you’ve already deprogrammed yourself, then you will enjoy the Daily Bell as it tracks the evolution of the “monetary elite” and “dominant social memes”. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, then this pub is probably not for you. Try Reason Magazine.

Here is the Daily Bell’s analysis of Lou Dobbs’ dismissal from CNN:

“If CNN truly wanted to offer an alternative to Fox (which wishes to use the power of the state for military and domestic intel purposes) and MSNBC (which wishes to use the power of the state for further socialist leveling purposes) it would position itself as a free-market libertarian alternative … But instead, CNN’s idea of “neutrality” is to position itself BETWEEN Fox and MSNBC … in such a way as it seems less EXTREME than either of the other networks. CNN will then characterize this position as neutrality. It is not.”

While Dobbs is no friend of liberty (especially if your skin-tone happens to be brown), the Daily Bell is correct that his dismissal is not a positive sign for CNN.

Those who have broken free from the left-right mentality do not always do so in a libertarian directions. From Mike Bloomberg to John McCain to Olympia Snowe to Joe Lieberman, we find that being neither Red nor Blue can sometimes mean turning Purple — the worst of both worlds.

(Classical) Liberalism is an ideology; it just happens to be the right one. Being bi-partisan does not a liberal make. Being opposed to coercion in all its forms does a liberal make. We don’t need a bi-partisan news channel on cable, we need a truly liberal channel. Oh, and in case you are so uninformed as to suggest MSNBC is the ‘liberal’ channel, check the dictionary — they are socialists.

So far, it seems Fox Business is the best candidate for a libertarian partisan outlet. And for actual neutrality, Bloomberg News. Kudos to them.

 


Hamiltonian Empire Halfway to Outlawing Voluntary Healthcare

November 9, 2009
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It’s a little hard to describe how I’m feeling as the Hamiltonian Empire moves toward prohibiting outright the free exercise of medicine across the 50 states. What I want to know is: in a world of such willing slaves, where is a freeman safe? To which land am I expected to retire in lieu of this — the original land of liberty?

If my simian contemporaries cannot perceive their own chains, how can I begin to teach them to pick the lock? The voter seems satisfied with the notion that there is a healthcare “crisis” and without an Imperial intervention, there would be people dying in the streets. Will anyone ask why the governments of our sovereign states cannot handle the matter? Surely because they would not come to such a coercive conclusion! The states are in a market, competing amongst themselves. The Commonwealth of Massachusetts has preempted this drive to ‘universal healthcare’ and is suffering the consequences. Costs are rising, care is suffering, and desirable residents are leaving for other states. Coercionists always seek the highest plane of power to project their edicts because they know that individuals have a natural drive to be free. The other advantage is that the citizens are more easily duped by matters ‘elevated’ to ‘national’ level. They can be convinced that the sound rules of interpersonal respect — do not hit, steal, or murder — no longer apply. They can be convinced that there are complexities to the issue that can only be understood by the likes of Nancy Pelosi.

Until you morons of the left and right figure out that “federal law” is just another way to say “no escape,” you will continue to sink into poverty and despair. And worse, you’ll drag the innocent and enlightened down with you.

I often wonder, at moments such as these, whether the classical liberal tradition was too hasty in embracing another universal — suffrage.


FW: Gun Control Kills

November 6, 2009
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If this video doesn’t make you cry, you may be a tin man:

I found the video through ‘Austin Gun Rights Examiner’ Howard Nemerov’s article about how gun control at Fort Hood allowed Nidal Hasan to take so many lives.


Climate & Culture

August 31, 2009
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I stumbled upon a very interesting article on a hypothesis I’ve ruminated upon for some time: the idea that climate and geography profoundly affect culture. It may seem obvious, but few thinkers allow its implications to color their judgments.

America is a great case-in-point. Founded under a universalizing, Enlightenment-era liberal ideology, Americans have internalized a peculiar lack of attachment to place. (For more on this, visit the wordsmiths at Front Porch Republic). However, I have noticed in my late-night, pajama-clad research sessions, that warm States are different than cold, and coastal States different than inland.

I determined that despite my love of warm weather, the trade-offs were intolerable: high crime, corruption, dishonesty, and disease.

Meanwhile, coastal areas appear to be wealthier, more sophisticated, and to have a certain je ne sais quoi that makes their cultures widely envied and imitated.

Anyway, making such generalizations is certainly a troll-baiting exercise, but it’s just food for thought.

For the record, I admire the politics of the Mountain West, which is not coastal, and Texas, which is not cold. But we’re looking for tendencies here…


Attention, Libertarian!

August 11, 2009
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The sage Lew Rockwell wrote this piece in 1996, during another one of those tribal conflicts we call federal presidential elections.

It is important reading for those of us who quickly call ourselves ‘libertarians’, accepting the pessimism and hopelessness that hangs on that label. It reminds us that we are part of a proud tradition that has proven its success and popularity worldwide since the Age of Enlightenment, and even back to antiquity: liberalism. (more…)


Forward: Why I Prefer Two-Dollar Bills

July 30, 2009
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The $2 Bill

The $2 Bill

Briggs Armstrong, a student at Auburn University, came up with a great way to raise awareness about the harm done by the Federal Reserve: pay only in $2 bills.

Here’s why I prefer $2 bills:
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Religion: Friend or Foe?

September 6, 2008
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Is religion a friend or a foe?

Watching the movie Traitor this afternoon, I gained new insight into the value of religion, in this case Islam. While in a Yemeni prison, the protagonist gives a fellow inmate his rations after a bully had thrown the other man’s rations onto the ground. The bully then confronts the protagonist, telling him “I decide who eats and who starves.” The protagonist fights the bully and his gang alone and, though adept at combat, is overwhelmed. However, other inmates notice his good deed and his daily prayers. The next time the gang confronts the protagonist, the other Muslim inmates come to his aid, and he is left alone.
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The Western Standard of Secession

August 27, 2008
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The Western Standard, a Calgary-based journal of libertarian and conservative thought, wrote an article on the conflict in South Ossetia and Abkhazia. It brought to light the fundamental issues of the caucasian conflict. My comment, lengthy enough to be a post itself, is reprinted here:
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Forward: A Sane Voice on Travel Security

August 5, 2008
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The National Post’s editorial board wrote a piece that pretty well elucidates my response to the Greyhound Bus attack in Manitoba.

I’m glad someone in this nutty world isn’t calling for more ’security measures’ every time something bad happens.

Why are the NDP wrong on every issue? I hear they now want to take ownership of your organs, unless you specifically opt-out.

Don’t get me started on the issues down south. Have you ever heard of millimeter wave scanners? They’re coming to an airport near you to digitally expose your spouse’s and children’s naked bodies. Someone ought to arrest those creeps at the TSA, each and every one of them. More on that later.


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    About This Site


    Mike Vine is a classical liberal / libertarian, anti-federalist, secular humanist, and distinguished caretaker of the Remnant.

    Forward Vision is meant to be a catalyst for human progress.

    From kindergarten, most of us are conditioned to accept the status quo, keep our heads low, and go with the flow. This is your one-stop-shop for a whopping dose of "snap out of it!"

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