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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.

Tuesday, June 18, 2013

The new Iranian president

It seems that the Iranian people have resoundingly elected Hasan Rowhani as president — he received an absolute majority, which in an election with so many candidates is an amazing result. Since Rowhani was the most nearly moderate candidate of the bunch, the fact that the Iranian people chose him so overwhelmingly is good news. But the bad news is that no truly moderate candidate was even allowed to run, and that the Iranian president has no real power if the Supreme Leader wants to do otherwise from what he wants. So the election really doesn't let the Iranian people control their destiny.

Unless they have a counter-revolution, though, this is the best news we can hope for from Iran.
Posted by Opinionator at 8:02 PM Labels: ,

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