MESSAGE INTRODUCTION
True relativists are a dying breed—literally. You cannot live very long thinking that red lights can mean either stop or go, or that rat poison tastes like chocolate. There are grave natural consequences for embracing relativism on any level, and there are spiritual consequences for being a spiritual relativist as well. The law of contradiction, if true, challenges all types of dangerous relativism.
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
1. To sense the dangers of relativism.
2. To understand the existence of certain self-evident properties or assumptions about logic.
3. To understand that natural relativism and supernatural relativism are equally invalidated by the law of contradiction.
QUOTATIONS AND THOUGHTS
What are the two types of arguments? The two types of arguments are deductive and inductive. A deductive argument is an argument such that the premises provide complete support for the conclusion.
An inductive argument is an argument such that the premises provide (or appear to provide) some degree of support for the conclusion.
Deductive arguments prove validity; inductive arguments establish likelihood.
LECTURE OUTLINE
I. What changes have occurred in our society since the mid-sixties?
a) Assumptions about truth have changed. This led to the book The Closing of the American Mind by Alan Bloom. He showed that 95% of high school graduates enter college with a relativistic mind-set.
b) Bloom said: “Then what happens in the following four years is that those assumptions that they come to college with out of high school are now set in concrete because the academic community in modern America has a mind that is closed to objective truth. Truth is now perceived as being subjective, as a matter of preference.”
c) This is bad news and good news.
II. Aristotle and Logic
a) Aristotle (384-322 B.C.) developed theories of physics, chemistry, drama, ethics and biology. As he proceeded, he developed theories of logic that we now call Aristotelian logic.
b) Logic was not a science, but the necessary tool for all scientific inquiry.
c) Illustration: Chalk is NOT chalk
d) Illustration: Salt shaker and non-salt shaker
e) Denials of ideas like the law of contradiction are forced and temporary.
III. Christian Relativism
a) Karl Barth and Emil Brunner were influenced by the philosophical speculation of Soren Kierkegaard. These men have had a profound impact, bringing relativistic, contradiction-embracing thought into theology.
b) The Scriptures teach as early as Genesis 3 that God assumed that mankind understood the law of contradiction.
c) Illustration: Adam as a student of Aristotle and Barth
d) Christians must embrace logic, the means to measure the relationship between premises and conclusions.
IV. Conclusion: God has built the human mind to be rational. The word of God is not irrational. It is addressed to creatures who have been given minds that operate from certain principles, the law of contradiction being one of them.
THE OPEN MIND
Host: Richard D. Heffner
Guest: Milton Friedman
Title: A Nobel Laureate on the American Economy VTR: 5/31/77
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Friedman: But as a matter of practical experience, no complicated society can be run solely on the command principle. It’s just impossible. And therefore, in one sense, the market is essential; there’s no way of avoiding it. Now, you don’t mean it in that sense. You mean another sense. In what sense is it written that the free market is desirable?
HEFFNER: Well, desirable, I didn’t really mean that. NO, I meant in the first instance where is it written that this concept, which I thought was comparatively modern, of the free marketplace…
FRIEDMAN: Well, in the modern version of it it really dates back to Adam Smith in 1776, which is just 200 years. There are precursors to that of course. But as…
HEFFNER: How did we survive? How did we get there?
FRIEDMAN: Well, but you know, ideas, you know about the Frenchman who discovered at the age of 70 that he had been talking prose all his life. Because we can give words to things doesn’t mean that those things didn’t exist before we gave words to them. The free market has been around for thousands and thousands of years. The theory of a free market in a systematic organized way dates back to Adam Smith in 1776. But the free market doesn’t.
HEFFNER: so the answer to the question of where it is written is really in Adam Smith, The Wealth of Nations?
FRIEDMAN: Yes, that’s the first major source. There have been lots since. But that’s still a book worth reading.
HEFFNER: Indeed. You know, I was thinking about, before we began to do this program, I was thinking about where is it written. And I was considering going back to a very ancient civilization, mostly in terms of the reports that we have that you may in your visits to Israel advise the new Israeli government in terms of its economic problems. And I wanted to ask you a question. I wanted to ask you a question about a remark that I had heard you make in connection with this story about the role you might play in relation to the new Israeli government. You said something like this – and to the degree that I’m distorting your words or your thoughts, please correct me – “It is somewhat strange that socialism is supposed to find so many friends, and capitalism so many enemies among Jews when perhaps some people might think that the essence of the Jewish tradition is so alien to socialism and so akin to capitalism.” And I wondered, to the extent that you meant much of that, what you meant by it?
FRIEDMAN: Well, I think I mean, I would endorse certainly that statement as you put it, while going onto say it needs some elaboration in some respects. Let me see if I can put it to you in a sort of a different way. My first visit to Israel was made about 15 years ago. I was there for about three months as a visitor at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. And after I left Israel, I summarized my impressions by saying that I thought that the best way to understand Israel was to recognize that two Jewish traditions were at war with one another in Israel. One of them was a very recent tradition, a tradition of 100, 150 years old. That’s the tradition of socialism. That’s the tradition you referred to in your initial comments, that it is true that on the whole the Jewish intellectuals have been strongly pro-socialist. And that’s contributed disproportionately to the socialist literature. That was the one tradition. The other tradition, I said, was a tradition that was at least 2,000 years old. It was a tradition that had arisen during the Diaspora and as a result of the Diaspora. It was a tradition of how you get around government regulations, how you find chinks in controls, how you find those areas in which the free market operates and make the most of them. It was that tradition which had enabled the Jews to survive during centuries of persecution by the constituted authorities. Once in a while there would be a monarch who would intervene in favor of the Jews. But almost always that was because there had been a Jew who had accumulated enough money through the free market, through capitalism, to have loaned money to the monarch and have him in his debt. The story in the Bible of Esther is not a very usual story. That isn’t usually the way it occurs. Most of the time the Jews have survived despite the opposition of the powers that be, not because of them. And this ancient tradition of 2,000 years is still very much alive in Israel. And what I said at that time was that fortunately for Israel the ancient tradition is strongly renewable.
Now, let me go back to that in a modern context. I believe that there are few people in the world who have benefitted as much from capitalism and free enterprise as the Jews. Suppose you ask yourself in what countries it is that the Jews have been able to survive and thrive. They’ve been able to survive and thrive primarily in those countries that have had capitalism and free enterprise. They haven’t been able to survive and thrive in the socialist utopias of Russia or of Poland. They haven’t been able to, they weren’t able to survive and thrive in the national socialist state of Nazi Germany. They have been able to survive and thrive in places like Great Britain, in Germany when it was capitalist before Hitler, in France which is largely capitalist, and the United States. And more important, in what parts of those economies have they done best? In those parts where government has had the least role to play. You do not find in the United states that the Jews have done very well in large-scale manufacturing or in commercial banking, because those are areas which are very closely intertwined with government. In banking you need a governmental franchise. And there is probably no industry in the United States in which there are fewer Jews, surprising as it may seem, in major positions of responsibility than in the commercial banking industry. Where have they thrived? In the industries which have been most competitive, where there’s been the least monopoly, private or public: retaining, which was open to all; in new industries, in Hollywood. Why? Because it was a new, brand new industry. There were no settled positions of privilege or of power, no government involvement.
So, Jews have done best – and other minorities. I’m not only speaking of Jews. If you look at the Japanese in the United States, if you look at the blacks in the United States, in every case they have done best in those areas where you have had the greatest degree of competition; and they have done worst in those areas where you have had the most monopoly and the most governmental link to government. So on the one hand, there are no people in the world who have benefitted so much from capitalism as the Jews. Look at Israel. Suppose socialism had triumphed in the world. How would Israel have gotten support? Did Israel get support in its early and difficult days from the governments of the world? Or from people? And from what people? From the Jews who had managed to make a little bit of a competence for themselves and accumulated a little funds in the capitalist bastions of the world.
So, the Jews have benefitted enormously from capitalism. And yet on the other side – and that’s the issue you raise – here you have the paradox that the Jews have been among those who have contributed much to undermine the intellectual foundations of capitalism.
HEFFNER: Is this a dichotomy that exists in contemporary Israel too?
FRIEDMAN: Of course. Of course. It has existed.
HEFFNER: Then how will you make a contribution?
FRIEDMAN: Oh, well, you know how it is. I will make a contribution. I would be delighted to if I could. But you know, people ask for advice from people who they know will give them the advice they want to hear. Well, there’s no shortage of good economists in Israel. They are very good economists. They know what to do. And in fact, the economists in Israel have not been in favor of governmental policies in Israel. It’s like it has been in the United States, where the economists have been opposed uniformly to many governmental policies, such as the price-fixing policies I was talking about, such as rent control. Similarly, the economists in Israel have been almost unanimously opposed to some, many governmental controls and regulations. What’s happened in Israel is that you now have a new party that came into power. … It’s a party that proclaims it’s belief in private enterprise. It proclaims its desire to reduce the size of government and to give greater opportunities to individuals. Their objectives are excellent. I hope they achieve them. I’m not wholly confident that they will, in fact. I have many doubts about whether they will succeed. And a reason why they have asked me if I would advise them is because they know that I believe in a free economy and that their policy is my policy. And insofar as I can give any assistance, I am delighted to, both because of my general desire to see freedom prosper, and also because I have a very strong personal sympathy and interest in Israel. I am Jewish by origin and culture. I share their values and their belief. I share the admiration which many have had for the miracles that have occurred in Israel. So if I can make any contribution to a more effective policy for preserving Israel, Israel’s freedom and strength, I would certainly be delighted to do so.
A floor plan to help those plotting an Oceans 11-style raid on Henry’s house (dailymail.co.uk)
Despite living and working an Atlantic Ocean away from England’s capital, Thierry Henry is planning to demolish his $9.5m London mansion in order to build… a slightly different mansion. A significant difference will be a 40ft fish tank, which will be visible on every floor of the property. The Daily Mail reports:
Stretching 40ft from the bottom of his house to the very top, it will take 5,500 gallons of water to fill, house 300 fish and cost a staggering £250,000 [$400,000] to build. His proposals detail the extravagant four-storey aquarium.
As well as the vast cost of construction, the 15ft long by 3ft wide tank will set Henry back £12,000 [$19,000] a year to run, including weekly inspections at about £50 [$80] an hour. The annual bill for fish food alone would be £2,500 [$4,000].
That seems like an awful lot of money for fancy fish. If Henry wanted to see something witlessly float around without achieving anything, he should just watch some of Andrei Arshavin’s recent highlights.
Unnecessarily large aquariums are all the rage among footballers: David Beckham, Joe Hart and Micah Richards all have them, and according to The Daily Mail, Stephen Ireland is planning “a shark tank under his kitchen floor”. Presumably, the plan is to instal a trap door and then invite Steve Staunton over for drinks.
Injured NFL star Peyton Manning proudly showed off his adorable eight-month-old son Marshall yesterday clad in a mini Manning jersey.
The sidelined quarterback for the Indianapolis Colts and his son visited his team’s locker room after they lost to Carolina.
Manning carried Marshall as he gave an interview with reporters about Marvin Harrison’s inclusion in the Colts Ring of Fame.
Little Manning: Peyton and his son Marshall talk to reporters after the Indianapolis Colt lost to Carolina on Sunday in Lucas Oil Stadium
Mischievous Marshall tried to grab the television microphones during his first ever appearance in front of the press.
The toddler and his twin sister Mosley arrived at the stadium after a baptism ceremony attended by Coach Jim Caldwell and offensive coordinator Clyde Christensen.
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Peyton Manning gets a kiss from wife Ashley Manning after the win. The Indianapolis Colts host the New England Patriots at the RCA Dome in Indianapolis, IN on Sunday, Jan 21, 2007 for the AFC Championship game. The Colts won the game 38-34. (Sam Riche / The Indianapolis Star)
I have also listed below the other posts I have on the Mannings. Injured Peyton Manning shows off his adorable baby son (at least one of them is in uniform!) By Daily Mail Reporter Injured NFL star Peyton Manning proudly showed off his adorable eight-month-old son Marshall yesterday clad in a mini Manning jersey. […]
Peyton Manning holds his son, Marshall following the Colts-Panthers game, Sunday, Nov. 27, 2011. Provided by Fox-59 __________ Did you know that Peyton and Ashley Manning had kids? I did not know that and I thought that I kept up with news items like that. Here is an article that tells all about them: As […]
s See larger AP Photo / Darron Cummings Indianapolis Colts quarterback Peyton Manning (18) greets New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady (12) on the field after Indianapolis defeated New England, 35-34 in an NFL football game in Indianapolis, Sunday, Nov. 15, 2009. From this video you can tell how much the Mannings wanted to stay […]
Photo by Saul Young The fears surrounding the week after Alabama were realized in 2005 when the Vols lost to South Carolina on a night when the jersey of former Tennessee quarterback Peyton Manning, center, was retired. _________________ “It wasn’t his decision. It wasn’t my decision. Circumstances kind of dictated it,” Manning said. Manning did […]
See larger Photo by Jim Mone / AP Photo Indianapolis Colts quarterback Peyton Manning celebrates his touchdown pass to wide receiver Reggie Wayne in the fourth quarter of an NFL football game against the Minnesota Vikings Sunday, Sept. 14, 2008 in Minneapolis. The Colts came from behind to win 15-12. ______________ I remember like yesterday […]
In the debate of job creation and how best to pursue it as a policy goal, one point is forgotten: Government doesn’t create jobs. Government only diverts resources from one use to another, which doesn’t create new employment.
Video produced by Caleb Brown and Austin Bragg.
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Keynesian Catastrophe: Big Money, Big Government & Big Lies
Based on a theory known as Keynesianism, politicians are resuscitating the notion that more government spending can stimulate an economy. This mini-documentary produced by the Center for Freedom and Prosperity Foundation examines both theory and evidence and finds that allowing politicians to spend more money is not a recipe for better economic performance.
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Obama’s So-Called Stimulus: Good For Government, Bad For the Economy
President Obama wants Congress to dramatically expand the burden of government spending. This CF&P Foundation mini-documentary explains why such a policy, based on the discredited Keynesian theory of economics, will not be successful. Indeed, the video demonstrates that Obama is proposing – for all intents and purposes – to repeat Bush’s mistakes. Government will be bigger, even though global evidence shows that nations with small governments are more prosperous.
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Big Government Is Not Stimulus: Why Keynes Was Wrong (The Condensed Version)
The CF&P Foundation has released a condensed version of our successful mini-documentary explaining why so-called stimulus schemes do not work. Based on a theory known as Keynesianism, politicians are resuscitating the notion that more government spending can stimulate an economy. This mini-documentary produced by the Center for Freedom and Prosperity Foundation examines both theory and evidence and finds that allowing politicians to spend more money is not a recipe for better economic performance.
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Eight Reasons Why Big Government Hurts Economic Growth
This Center for Freedom and Prosperity Foundation video analyzes how excessive government spending undermines economic performance. While acknowledging that a very modest level of government spending on things such as “public goods” can facilitate growth, the video outlines eight different ways that that big government hinders prosperity. This video focuses on theory and will be augmented by a second video looking at the empirical evidence favoring smaller government.
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Keynesian Economics Is Wrong: Economic Growth Causes Consumer Spending, Not the Other Way
Politicians and journalists who fixate on consumer spending are putting the cart before the horse. Consumer spending generally is a consequence of growth, not the cause of growth. This Center for Freedom and Prosperity video helps explain how to achieve more prosperity by looking at the differences between gross domestic product and gross domestic income. www.freedomandprosperity.org
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Deficits, Debts and Unfunded Liabilities: The Consequences of Excessive Government Spending
Huge budget deficits and record levels of national debt are getting a lot of attention, but this video explains that unfunded liabilities for entitlement programs are Americas real red-ink challenge. More important, this CF&P mini-documentary reveals that deficits and debt are symptoms of the real problem of an excessive burden of government spending. www.freedomandprosperity.org
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Now that I have been critical of the Democrat President, I wanted to show that I am not concerned about taking up for Republicans but looking at the facts. President Clinton did increase government spending at a slower rate than many other presidents. Here are two videos that praise both Reagan and Clinton for both accomplished this feat.
Spending Restraint, Part I: Lessons from Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton
Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton both reduced the relative burden of government, largely because they were able to restrain the growth of domestic spending. The mini-documentary from the Center for Freedom and Prosperity uses data from the Historical Tables of the Budget to show how Reagan and Clinton succeeded and compares their record to the fiscal profligacy of the Bush-Obama years.
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Spending Restraint, Part II: Lessons from Canada, Ireland, Slovakia, and New Zealand
Nations can make remarkable fiscal progress if policy makers simply limit the growth of government spending. This video, which is Part II of a series, uses examples from recent history in Canada, Ireland, Slovakia, and New Zealand to demonstrate how it is possible to achieve rapid improvements in fiscal policy by restraining the burden of government spending. Part I of the series examined how Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton were successful in controlling government outlays — particularly the burden of domestic spending programs. www.freedomandprosperity.org
Lawmakers are considering extending temporary payroll tax cuts. But the policy is based on faulty Keynesian theories and misplaced confidence in the government’s ability to micromanage short-run growth.
In textbook Keynesian terms, federal deficits stimulate growth by goosing “aggregate demand,” or consumer spending. Since the recession began, we’ve had a lot of goosing — deficits were $459 billion in 2008, $1.4 trillion in 2009, $1.3 trillion in 2010, and $1.3 trillion in 2011. Despite that huge supposed stimulus, unemployment remains remarkably high and the recovery has been the slowest since World War II.
Policymakers should ignore the Keynesians and their faulty models, and instead focus on reforms to aid long-run growth…
Yet supporters of extending payroll tax cuts think that adding another $265 billion to the deficit next year will somehow spur growth. That “stimulus” would be on top of the $1 trillion in deficit spending that is already expected in 2012. Far from helping the economy, all this deficit spending is destabilizing financial markets, scaring businesses away from investing, and imposing crushing debt burdens on young people.
For three years, policymakers have tried to manipulate short-run economic growth, and they have failed. They have put too much trust in macroeconomists, who are frankly lousy at modeling the complex workings of the short-run economy. In early 2008, the Congressional Budget Office projected that economic growth would strengthen in subsequent years, and thus completely missed the deep recession that had already begun. And then there was the infamously bad projection by Obama’s macroeconomists that unemployment would peak at 8 percent and then fall steadily if the 2009 stimulus plan was passed.
Some of the same Keynesian macroeconomists who got it wrong on the recession and stimulus are now claiming that a temporary payroll tax break would boost growth. But as Stanford University economist John Taylor has argued, the supposed benefits of government stimulus have been “built in” or predetermined by the underlying assumptions of the Keynesian models.
Policymakers should ignore the Keynesians and their faulty models, and instead focus on reforms to aid long-run growth, which economists know a lot more about. Cutting the corporate tax rate, for example, is an overdue reform with bipartisan support that would enhance America’s long-run productivity and competitiveness.
If Congress is intent on cutting payroll taxes, it should do so within the context of long-run fiscal reforms. One idea is to allow workers to steer a portion of their payroll taxes into personal retirement accounts, as Chile and other nations have done. That reform would feel like a tax cut to workers because they would retain ownership of the funds, and it would begin solving the long-term budget crisis that looms over the economy.
Dan Mitchell discusses the effectiveness of the stimulus Uploaded by catoinstitutevideo on Nov 3, 2009 11-2-09 When I think of all our hard earned money that has been wasted on stimulus programs it makes me sad. It has never worked and will not in the future too. Take a look at a few thoughts from […]
Government Spending Doesn’t Create Jobs Uploaded by catoinstitutevideo on Sep 7, 2011 Share this on Facebook: http://on.fb.me/qnjkn9 Tweet it: http://tiny.cc/o9v9t In the debate of job creation and how best to pursue it as a policy goal, one point is forgotten: Government doesn’t create jobs. Government only diverts resources from one use to another, which doesn’t […]
In his recent article Ernie Dumas sticks to his guns that we should balance the budget without being forced to with a “Balanced Budget Amendment,” but I wonder how well that has worked so far? I have made this a key issue for this blog in the past as you can tell below: Dear Senator […]
(Picture from Arkansas Times Blog) When I think about all the anger and hate coming from the Occupy Wall Street crowd, I wonder if they have read this story below? Solyndra: Crooked Politics or Just Bad Economics? Posted by David Boaz Amy Harder has a good take on the Solyndra issue in National Journal Daily […]
Dear Senator Pryor, why not pass the Balanced Budget Amendment? (Part 13 Thirsty Thursday, Open letter to Senator Pryor) Office of the Majority Whip | Balanced Budget Amendment Video In 1995, Congress nearly passed a constitutional amendment mandating a balanced budget. The Balanced Budget Amendment would have forced the federal government to live within its […]
Andrew Demillo pointed this out and also Jason Tolbert noted: PRYOR OPPOSES THE OBAMA JOBS BILL THAT HE VOTED TO ADVANCE Sen. Mark Pryor has been traveling around the state touting a six-part jobs plan that he says “includes a number of bipartisan initiatives, is aimed at creating jobs by setting the table for growth, encouraging new […]
Is a lack of money the problem for our public schools? Everything You Need to Know About Public School Spending in Less Than 2½ Minutes Posted by Adam Schaeffer Neal McCluskey gutted the President’s new “Save the Teachers” American Jobs Act sales pitch a good while back, as did Andrew Coulson here. Thankfully, it seems […]
PETERSON: Well, let me ask you how you would cope with this problem, Dr. Friedman. The people decided that they wanted cool air, and there was tremendous need, and so we built a huge industry, the air conditioning industry, hundreds of thousands of jobs, tremendous earnings opportunities and nearly all of us now have air conditioned homes and cars and offices. Then the people decided they wanted clean air, and they couldn’t buy it in the marketplace, so they voted at the polling place. They got elected representatives to go to the Congress and say, we are going to have clean air. Now, overnight there was a new market, and the free enterprise system responded to that, and now there’s a big environmental industry making earnings, providing jobs, but also serving this public need to have the freedom to breathe clean air.
FRIEDMAN: You grossly underestimate the extent to which the private market is able to do it. It’s not an accident that the air, before you had any of this legislation, air and water were cleaner in the United States today than they were in the United States a hundred years ago. You know the automobile added one kind of pollution, but it eliminated a far worse kind of pollution. If you consider what the streets of New York would look like today if you were still transporting people by horse-drawn vehicles, you would have pollution on a scale that would stagger you. In the same way, it’s not an accident that the air is cleaner and the water purer in those countries today that are the most advanced, than they are in the backwards country. It’s not been in Afghanistan that you find clean air and water. It’s in the advanced countries. So the market is a very much more subtle mechanism than people give it credit for being.
HARRINGTON: I would like to get this back to the real world, because in the real world there is no possibility that American business, which is a welfare dependent business system, is going to adopt these ideas. What these ideas function as in the real world is a rationalization for the myth of free enterprise which disguises the fact of state capitalism as an argument against social intervention, in a society that does intervene on behalf of the steel industry very quickly. Finally in terms of the American political process, I don’t believe that the political process is so simple as having the people elect the government. The fact is that when a Jimmy Carter is elected President on a relatively liberal platform, he then has to win business confidence, because of the control of the investment process by corporate power. And I think that fact, corporate power, rationalized by free enterprise myths, is the central problem of freedom in our time, and that’s what has to be attacked.
McKENZIE: Before we come to Milton again __
FRIEDMAN: No, no. I’ve got to comment on this, because I think we mustn’t let words get in the way of what really is the case. I take it you think we don’t have socialism. I would say to you that 46 percent of every corporation in this country is owned by the U.S. Government. That’s the corporate income tax, that means out of every dollar of profit the corporation makes, 46 cents goes to the U.S. Government. The actual tax is far higher than that because you tax that doubly when it comes to the individual. The extent to which corporations control their investment decisions has been increasingly reduced. The government is dictating what they spend their investment funds on in the name of pollution control, in the name of other things. It’s a myth to suppose that there is some kind of a big corporate power over here. There was a time when corporations were more influential than they are now, but at the moment I think they’re a beleaguered minority rather than a dominant majority.
McKENZIE: I’d like to take the others into this for a moment. What is the process, for those of you who want to roll back the state, or to push back governmental influence, on the operation of the economy? Before we let Milton in on that, what would you do as an active politician, as another politician, and a businessman?
CONABLE: Well, I personally think we ought to restrain the growth of government in the future.
McKENZIE: How?
CONABLE: By putting some sort of limit on government expenditures. I would like to see a Constitutional Amendment doing that, otherwise we’re going to continue to have the government growing faster than the economy, and thus pushing more and more of the gross national product through the tin horn of government. I think that would be a mistake. It’s a difficult thing to do. I hope we can find some way to do it without making ourselves less free in some way.
McKENZIE: Governor Peterson, can it be done?
PETERSON: Yes, I think we can make substantial headway by furthering our pluralistic society, by encouraging educating more people to think comprehensively. I think one of the big problems in our world is that leaders in government and in industry are shortsighted. They don’t look at the long-term impacts of their decisions. And in a democracy such as ours, the power is with the people, just like the textbooks say, and if they get this more comprehensive understanding and knowledge, they’re gonna see to it that the special interests of the elected officials will be in tune, again reelected, and they will look at the long-term views just like the citizenry is. So I am all in favor of an all out push to get this freedom to vote in the polling place, added to the freedom of the marketplace, because that’s a potent combination.
FRIEDMAN: But voting in the polling place is a very different kind of freedom than voting in the marketplace. When you vote in the polling place, it is important, but it’s very different. When you vote, you vote for a package. And, if you are in the minority, you lose. You don’t get what you want. When you vote in the marketplace, everybody gets what he votes for. If you vote for a __ I vote for a green tie, I get a green tie. You vote for a blue tie, you get a blue tie. If we do that in the polling booth, if 60 percent of us vote for a green tie, you have to wear a green tie.
McKENZIE: Oh, but the 40 percent don’t just shut up. They can try to influence decision making to their own.
FRIEDMAN: They can try to influence __
McKENZIE: Yeah.
FRIEDMAN: __ but it’s a very different and less efficient mechanism__
McKENZIE: Yeah.
FRIEDMAN: __ for matching performance, matching results, to individual taste and preference.
VOICE OFF SCREEN: Whatever kind of car I buy, I still get dirty air.
GALVIN: There are good people running this society, and most of the people that we’re talking about work someplace, and they know that their company is doing something pretty good, or trying to do something pretty good. I think the people are going to start telling the leaders where they’ve gone wrong and start to redress it by the direction of the ballot box.
HARRINGTON: The people in general are more conservative and in particular are more liberal. That is to say, if you ask the people in general, what do you think of government, “Get it off my back, less taxes.” If you ask in particular what about health, national health; what about full employment, government is the employer of last resort. What about pollution, do something about it. Everett Ladd had an article in Fortune about a year ago, which is hardly a radical left wing journal, showing this contradiction. And I think that there is in the United States today a rapid movement to the left, right and center, which I, obviously, hope will be resolved not by an across the boards cut aimed primarily at poor and working people, but by an increasing democratization on economic power, and an increasing democratization of the government. I think that in this complicated society of huge institutions and bureaucracies, if we talk about freedom, one thing that I would like to see would be a law providing funds for any significant minority to buy the research to counter the majority.
Peyton Manning holds his son, Marshall following the Colts-Panthers game, Sunday, Nov. 27, 2011. Provided by Fox-59
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Peyton upstaged by son
Uploaded on Nov 27, 2011
Peyton Manning talks about Marvin Harrison but gets upstaged by his son.
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Did you know that Peyton and Ashley Manning had kids? I did not know that and I thought that I kept up with news items like that. Here is an article that tells all about them:
As long as she isn’t with her husband, Ashley Manning can usually stroll down Indianapolis streets without drawing much attention.
The 37-year-old mother of two (twins Marshall and Mosley, who are nearing their first birthdays March 31) has, so far, managed to maintain a low-key public persona, despite her considerable celebrity as the wife of Colts quarterback Peyton Manning, who was released by the team Wednesday.
That’s by design.
Manning is fiercely private, which was evident last year when her children were born before most people even knew that she was pregnant.
Craig Huse, co-owner of St. Elmo Steak House and Peyton’s business partner in the Harry & Izzy’s restaurants, remembers Ashley disguising her baby bump one time with her husband’s sport coat at a dinner party and another time by wearing a coat inside her house when Huse delivered some food.
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DURHAM, NC – MARCH 8: NFL quarterbacks Peyton Manning and Eli Manning watch the game between the Duke Blue Devils and the North Carolina Tar Heels at Cameron Indoor Stadium on March 8, 2008 in Durham, North Carolina. North Carolina defeated Duke 76-68. (Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images)
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“It was cool,” he said of the Mannings’ ability to keep their pregnancy news a secret until Marshall and Mosley were born.
Even so, Ashley, who smiles easily, reportedly has a head for business and maintains the Southern manners that came with her upbringing, is a recognizable face to the leaders of local charities.
They love to see her name on guest lists. That isn’t just because she can sign her name to hefty donation checks. She’s also fun to have around.
In fundraising here over the years, Manning has participated in everything from bowling and modeling to dining and socializing in fashionable clothes (my favorite outfit is a Cinderella-like Carolina Herrera gown and crystal-covered Jimmy Choo heels that she wore to the Peyton Manning Children’s Hospital at St. Vincent gala in 2010).
Ashley couldn’t have been nicer when she turned up with model Elaine Irwin at the Christamore House Guild’s first-ever boxing-themed gala in 2010, according to Anne-Marie Dezelan, who was president of the guild that year.
“Naturally, the Christamore House Guild was thrilled that Ashley attended our event,” Dezelan said. “But what made us even more delighted was to see how genuine she was. She was completely present at our event, intently watching the kids walk through the aisles of The Conrad and into the boxing ring (for a sparring competition). She stood up and cheered for them, smiling the whole night.”
So, when Peyton and Colts owner Jim Irsay announced the end of the Manning era with the football franchise, fundraisers hoped it didn’t mean the end of the Mannings as local philanthropists.
Peyton, whose signed memorabilia is regularly auctioned off at numerous Indianapolis fundraisers, assured the public that isn’t the case during Wednesday’s news conference.
Shortly after it ended, the leaders at St. Vincent held their own meeting with the media to tell the public that plans for the 5th Annual Celebration of Caring Gala, which benefits Manning’s children’s hospital, is well under way, and — just as they always have — the Mannings will serve as honorary chairs of the gala, scheduled for May.
“Ashley has been the co-chair with Peyton every year we have had the gala,” said Kevin Speer, system vice president and chief strategy officer for St. Vincent Health.
This year is no different, he said.
The date and location of the event for about 800 haven’t been nailed down, Speer said.
It’s unlikely Ashley has determined what she’ll be wearing to the gala, either. But, for fashionistas, it’ll be worth going just to check it out.
And, for sports fans, well, Peyton is expected, too.
He’s thoughtful, on and off the field
When Peyton Manning pulls a piece of paper out of his pocket, it means the star quarterback has a few questions. Or perhaps some ideas. Or both.
On the field with the Colts, Manning was known for being meticulous.
Notes in hand, Manning is that way off the field, too — at least according to Kevin Speer, of St. Vincent Health, and Huse, of St. Elmo Steak House and Indy’s three Harry and Izzy’s restaurants, the local high-end eateries that Manning has an interest in.
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CHARLOTTE, NC – MAY 02: Sergio Garcia of Spain poses with his caddie Glen Murray alongside Indianapolis Colts quarterback Peyton Manning and Cooper manning during the po-am at the Wachovia Championship at Quail Hollow Country Club on May 2, 2007 in Charlotte, North Carolina. (Photo by Scott Halleran/Getty Images)
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“He’s a very hands-on guy,” said Speer, who recalled watching Manning scribble notes at the first Celebration of Caring Gala for the Peyton Manning Children’s Hospital at St. Vincent.
Then, Speer thought the notes were for a speech he planned to give at the gala. The next day, he learned differently. They were a list of ideas for the next year’s event.
“He had taken two pages of handwritten notes during the gala about his thoughts,” Speer said.
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The Mannings: Clockwise from top: Archie (QB, Saints; retired); Peyton (QB, colts); Eli (QB, Giants); Cooper (high-school star; now in finance).
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Huse saw another set of notes come out at Oceanaire in 2006, when he and Manning were discussing a partnership in the then-fledgling Harry & Izzy’s business.
“He had a sheet of paper with, like, 30 questions,” said Huse, who added that Manning went through the sheet a couple of times to make sure he had gotten everything addressed. “I think that’s how he treats everything in life. Very thoughtful.”
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7/13/02. The Mannings, from left, Eli, Cooper, Peyton, and their father, Archie, clown around for a photographer’s picture during a break in the action on day two of the three day camp. The Manning Passing Academy is open to high schoolers and is run by the Manning brothers, Peyton, Cooper and Eli, and their father, Archie. Held at the Southeastern Louisiana University campus in Hammond, LA. (Robert Scheer Photo), w/chappell story, file 72798
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Peyton Manning gets a kiss from wife Ashley Manning after the win. The Indianapolis Colts host the New England Patriots at the RCA Dome in Indianapolis, IN on Sunday, Jan 21, 2007 for the AFC Championship game. The Colts won the game 38-34. (Sam Riche / The Indianapolis Star)
I have also listed below the other posts I have on the Mannings. Injured Peyton Manning shows off his adorable baby son (at least one of them is in uniform!) By Daily Mail Reporter Injured NFL star Peyton Manning proudly showed off his adorable eight-month-old son Marshall yesterday clad in a mini Manning jersey. […]
Peyton Manning holds his son, Marshall following the Colts-Panthers game, Sunday, Nov. 27, 2011. Provided by Fox-59 __________ Did you know that Peyton and Ashley Manning had kids? I did not know that and I thought that I kept up with news items like that. Here is an article that tells all about them: As […]
s See larger AP Photo / Darron Cummings Indianapolis Colts quarterback Peyton Manning (18) greets New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady (12) on the field after Indianapolis defeated New England, 35-34 in an NFL football game in Indianapolis, Sunday, Nov. 15, 2009. From this video you can tell how much the Mannings wanted to stay […]
Photo by Saul Young The fears surrounding the week after Alabama were realized in 2005 when the Vols lost to South Carolina on a night when the jersey of former Tennessee quarterback Peyton Manning, center, was retired. _________________ “It wasn’t his decision. It wasn’t my decision. Circumstances kind of dictated it,” Manning said. Manning did […]
See larger Photo by Jim Mone / AP Photo Indianapolis Colts quarterback Peyton Manning celebrates his touchdown pass to wide receiver Reggie Wayne in the fourth quarter of an NFL football game against the Minnesota Vikings Sunday, Sept. 14, 2008 in Minneapolis. The Colts came from behind to win 15-12. ______________ I remember like yesterday […]
Omaha, NE CenturyLink Center (Formerly the Qwest Center)
Creighton University
2012 NCAA Tournament Regionals
The 2012 Sweet Regional Play to include the 2012 Sweet 16 and Elite 8 moves to Boston, Phoenix, Atlanta, and St. Louis on March 22nd, 2012. Boston College, ASU, Georgia Tech, and St. Louis University serve and the college hosts for 2012 regional play. Hosting the South Regional this season is considered to be a warm-up for the Georgia Dome which will serve as the host venue for the 2013 NCAA Basketball tournament.
31 March/April 2, 2012
Superdome
New Orleans, LA
Tulane
2012 will be the fifth time that the NCAA Final Four has been played in the Superdome. The venue is home to Tulane football, the NFL’s New Orleans Saints, the Sugar Bowl, New Orleans Bowl, and every 4th year the BCS National Championship game. Fans considering attending the 2012 NCAA Final Four do need to act quickly on making hotel reservations that are a convenient travel to the Super Dome to avoid expensive cab rides or drives to and from the games. A fan favorite, of course, is letting the traffic die down while visiting the world-famous Bourbon Street after game play is finished for the night.
Indianapolis Colts quarterback Peyton Manning (18) greets New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady (12) on the field after Indianapolis defeated New England, 35-34 in an NFL football game in Indianapolis, Sunday, Nov. 15, 2009.
From this video you can tell how much the Mannings wanted to stay in Indy.
AP Photo / Darron Cummings
Indianapolis Colts quarterback Peyton Manning throws against the Tennessee Titans in the first quarter of an NFL football game in Indianapolis, Sunday, Dec. 6, 2009.
Indianapolis Colts’ Peyton Manning answers questions during a media availability, Thursday, Feb. 4, 2010, in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. Indianapolis will face the New Orleans Saints in the NFL football Super Bowl XLIV Sunday.See larger
Photo by Haraz N. Ghanbari/Associated Press
Indianapolis Colts quarterback Peyton Manning, right, and his wife Ashley walk through the Booksellers Area as they arrive for the State Dinner in honor of Queen Elizabeth II and her husband Prince Philip, Monday, May 7, 2007, at the White House in Washington.
FILE – In this Dec. 2, 2011 file photo, Indianapolis Colts quarterback Peyton Manning talks to reporters in the locker room at the NFL football team’s practice facility in Indianapolis. The Peyton Manning era in Indianapolis is expected to end, according to a report. Citing anonymous sources, ESPN reported Tuesday, March 6, 2012, that the Colts plan to hold a news conference Wednesday to announce the long-expected decision. Manning is expected to attend. (AP Photo/Michael Conroy, File)
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I remember like yesterday coming up to Nolan Rollins who was a minister on the staff at the First Baptist Church of Little Rock and saying to him, “I got to see your Tennessee Vols play in person the other day.” He turned around and looks happy and then I told it was in Memphis and his expression changed. That night Tennesse lost 21-17 for the first time ever to the Tigers.
I have also listed below the other posts I have on the Mannings. Injured Peyton Manning shows off his adorable baby son (at least one of them is in uniform!) By Daily Mail Reporter Injured NFL star Peyton Manning proudly showed off his adorable eight-month-old son Marshall yesterday clad in a mini Manning jersey. […]
Peyton Manning holds his son, Marshall following the Colts-Panthers game, Sunday, Nov. 27, 2011. Provided by Fox-59 __________ Did you know that Peyton and Ashley Manning had kids? I did not know that and I thought that I kept up with news items like that. Here is an article that tells all about them: As […]
s See larger AP Photo / Darron Cummings Indianapolis Colts quarterback Peyton Manning (18) greets New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady (12) on the field after Indianapolis defeated New England, 35-34 in an NFL football game in Indianapolis, Sunday, Nov. 15, 2009. From this video you can tell how much the Mannings wanted to stay […]
Photo by Saul Young The fears surrounding the week after Alabama were realized in 2005 when the Vols lost to South Carolina on a night when the jersey of former Tennessee quarterback Peyton Manning, center, was retired. _________________ “It wasn’t his decision. It wasn’t my decision. Circumstances kind of dictated it,” Manning said. Manning did […]
See larger Photo by Jim Mone / AP Photo Indianapolis Colts quarterback Peyton Manning celebrates his touchdown pass to wide receiver Reggie Wayne in the fourth quarter of an NFL football game against the Minnesota Vikings Sunday, Sept. 14, 2008 in Minneapolis. The Colts came from behind to win 15-12. ______________ I remember like yesterday […]
But we also know that it is difficult to convince politicians to do what’s right for the nation. And if they don’t change the course of fiscal policy, and we leave the federal government on autopilot, then America is doomed to become another Greece.
The combination of poorly designed entitlement programs (mostly Medicare and Medicaid) and an aging population will lead to America’s fiscal collapse.
This testimony was delivered on September 20, 2011.
America Has a High-Spending and High-Debt Government
Some analysts say that America can afford to increase taxes and spending because it is a uniquely small-government country. Alas, that is no longer the case. Data from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) show that federal, state, and local government spending in the United States this year is a huge 41 percent of GDP.
Figure 2 shows that government in the United States used to be about 10 percentage points of GDP smaller than the average government in the OECD. But that size advantage has fallen to just 4 percentage points. A few high-income nations — such as Australia — now have smaller governments and much lower government debt than the United States.
Historically, America’s strong growth and high living standards were built on our relatively smaller government. The ongoing surge in federal spending is undoing this competitive advantage we had enjoyed in the world economy. CBO projections show that without reforms federal spending will rise by about 10 percentage points of GDP by 2035. If that happens, spending by American governments will be more than half of GDP by that year. That would doom young people to unbearable levels of taxation and a stagnant economy with fewer opportunities.
American government debt has also soared to abnormally high levels. Figure 3 shows OECD data for gross government debt as a share of GDP.3 (The data include debt for federal, state, and local governments). In 2011, gross government debt is 101 percent of GDP in the United States, substantially above the OECD average of 78 percent.4
3 Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, “Economic Outlook Database,” September 2011, Annex Table 32. 4 This is a simple average of OECD countries. The OECD publishes a weighted average, but that figure is, of course, heavily influenced by the United States.
Little Manning: Peyton and his son Marshall talk to reporters after the Indianapolis Colt lost to Carolina on Sunday in Lucas Oil Stadium
The Daily Hatch 