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The principles that rule this blog

Principles that will govern my thoughts as I express them here (from my opening statement):


  • Freedom of the individual should be as total as possible, limited only by the fact that nobody should be free to cause physical injury to another, or to deprive another person of his freedoms.
  • Government is necessary primarily to provide those services that private enterprise won't, or won't at a price that people can afford.
  • No person has a right to have his own beliefs on religious, moral, political, or other controversial issues imposed on others who do not share those beliefs.

I believe that Abraham Lincoln expressed it very well:

“The legitimate object of government is to do for a community of people whatever they need to have done, but cannot do, at all, or cannot
so well do, for themselves — in their separate, individual capacities.”


Comments will be invited, and I will attempt to reply to any comments that are offered in a serious and non-abusive manner. However, I will not tolerate abusive or profane language (my reasoning is that this is my blog, and so I can control it; I wouldn't interfere with your using such language on your own!)

If anyone finds an opinion that I express to be contrary to my principles, they are welcome to point this out. I hope that I can make a rational case for my comments. Because, in fact, one label I'll happily accept is rationalist.

Wednesday, June 25, 2008

Real issues and fake issues

It doesn't take fake issues to demolish Barack Obama as a reasonable candidate for the presidency. Real issues will do. For example, why try to claim that Obama is really a Muslim? — clearly he isn't, and in fact Muslims should be OK as candidates, if their principles are consistent with the U. S. Constitution, but what kind of a Christian is he? He was baptized into the Christian church by none other than Jeremiah Wright, who also married him to his wife, baptized their children, and ran a church that Obama attended for two decades. Obviously Obama's idea of what Christianity means cannot be too different from Wright's, despite what he might claim now in 2008!


Similarly, it is perfectly all right for Obama to decline public financing if he feels he can run a better campaign that way. What is not acceptable is to make lots and lots of speeches defending public financing, promise to run a publically-financed campaign, and only when it becomes obvious that you can do better by declining to participate, reversing such an oft-proclaimed position.

Barack Obama's radicalism, his hypocrisy, and his near-total lack of sufficient experience: these are the real issues on which Barack Obama's campaign will falter.

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