arcana imperii

Stand Back

2012-05-28T20:20:00.003-03:00

2012-04-23T15:30:00.002-03:00

My dearest and beloved Father has passed away. His body has been donated to medical science for research into neurodegenerative diseases. At the conclusion of these studies, His remains shall be interred in the Family Mausoleum. Thank you all for your sympathy, condolences and best wishes. My Father passed without discomfort nor pain. We are all at Peace. My best wishes and again, deepest gratitude to all.

Ash Wednesday 2012

2012-02-22T21:29:00.000-04:00

Ha!

Quotation of the Week

2012-01-22T17:21:00.002-04:00

«We do not see what we love, but we love in the hope of confirming the illusion that we are indeed seeing anthing at all.»
~Paul de Man

BLACKOUT: OPPOSE SOPA and PIPA

2012-01-18T10:56:00.000-04:00

Paint It Black: 7 Ways You Can Protest SOPA and PIPA

Right Now the US Congress is considering legislation that could fatally damage the free and open Internet. For at least twenty-four hours, TO RAISE AWARENESS, I will remain offline, and ask you you to do the same. Phone people; don't use email. Don't browse. Don't click on ads. Don't shop. TRY TO REMAIN OFFLINE.

Quotation of the Week

2012-01-06T10:46:00.000-04:00

«It may be that the old astrologers had the truth exactly reversed, when they believed that the stars controlled the destinies of men. The time may come when men control the destinies of stars.»
~Arthur C Clarke, First on the Moon, 1970

¡Feliz Día de Reyes!

2012-01-06T10:42:00.000-04:00

Happy Three Kings Day and a Happy Belated Birthday to HM King Juan Carlos I de Borbón who turned 74 yesterday!

Here's to 2012 CE

2012-01-01T00:28:00.002-04:00

Happy New Year!

31 December 2011

2011-12-31T15:36:00.000-04:00

And 2011 is finally coming to an end. Time again for renewal, adventure, more love, friendship, good health, prosperity, success, mystyery and peace in our lives. Leave your 2011 baggage behind said Greg M. to the world earlier today! Words of Wisdom indeed! Let's party!

Quotation of the Week

2011-12-28T17:53:00.000-04:00

«In the first place, God made idiots. That was for practice.
Then he made school boards.»
~Mark Twain

It's Time To Kill The "Robin Hood" Myth

2011-12-28T17:47:00.001-04:00

The following essay appeared on the Forbes Magazine Website on either 06 May or 05 June and it hits the proverbial hammer on its head. It's spot on regarding the myth and horrific insanity known as Robin Hood, who represents not virtue, but crime and theft and looting. The essay by "The Objectivist" --members of the Ayn Rand Centre covering economics and liberty, with Yaron Brook and Don Watkins, Contributors.

If you were to judge by the rhetoric, you might think that Paul Ryan’s plan for reducing the federal deficit slashed the government’s budget by 90%, and funded the killing of kittens to boot. E.J. Dionne, for instance, calls it “radical,” “irresponsible,” and “extreme,” and asks, is this “the end of progressive government?” The truth is that Ryan actually proposes increasing government spending in the coming years–just at a lower rate than current projections. So why are Ryan’s critics so up in arms?

Because Ryan’s plan dares to touch (albeit, merely to scratch) the untouchable entitlement state. Ryan’s plan would, among other things, trim and reorganize Medicare and Medicaid and reduce federal support for education. To the plan’s critics, this amounts to “reverse-Robin Hood redistribution,” as former vice chairman of the Federal Reserve Alan Blinder put it. “[A]bout two-thirds of Mr. Ryan’s so-called courageous budget cuts would come from programs serving low- and moderate-income Americans, while the rich would gain from copious tax cuts.”

The “reverse-Robin Hood” line suggests that Ryan’s plan robs from “the poor” and gives to “the rich.” But cutting entitlements is not robbery–and cutting taxes isn’t a gift.

Entitlements are essentially government handouts: the government takes money from some people in order to finance other people’s retirements, doctor’s visits, and whatever else the government deems worthy. They are unearned benefits. It is shameful that in a civilized society we have to say this, but getting less loot is not the same thing as being robbed.

A tax cut, meanwhile, is not a government handout–it is a reduction of how much of your income the government takes. Whether you’re a millionaire, billionaire, or an ambitious stock boy, a tax cut means you get to keep more of what you earn.

In this context, consider president Obama’s recent budget speech, in which he criticized Ryan’s plan for implying that “even though we can’t afford to care for seniors and poor children, we can somehow afford more than $1 trillion in new tax breaks for the wealthy.” When Obama speaks of what “we” can afford, he is obviously smuggling in the premise that all wealth rightfully belongs to society and that the government–as society’s representative–will dole out that wealth as it sees fit.

We reject that premise. On our view, you earned your wealth and it belongs to you, and no politician has any business talking about how much of your money he can “afford” to let you keep. What is true is that government is running deficits. It is spending (and has promised to spend) much more than it is taking in through taxes. Much of that spending, Obama admitted, is going toward entitlements.

What, then, did Obama propose as his solution to this spending binge? According to the president, the solution can’t be to stop doling out entitlement checks. That would be “abandon[ing] the fundamental commitment this country has kept for generations.” Instead, we must raise taxes on productive American citizens. (What about the Founders’ view that America’s “fundamental commitment” was to protect every individual’s inalienable rights, including his right to the fruits of his own labor? Obama didn’t say.)

The message was plain: It is necessary and perhaps noble to deprive a person of what he has earned, but it would be morally monstrous to deprive a person of the unearned. You created wealth? Big deal. You have a need you can’t fulfill? You have a right that nothing on earth can supersede.

It is fitting that those pushing this doctrine should invoke Robin Hood. When people hail the man who “robbed from the rich and gave to the poor,” it is normally on the grounds that the need of Robin Hood’s beneficiaries justified the looting of his victims. Stealing is wrong–if you’re serving your own “greed.” But if you’re serving others’ need? Anything goes.

It is also fitting that at the same time the debate over entitlements was going on, Ayn Rand’s 1957 novel Atlas Shrugged was jetting to the top of the Amazon bestseller list. In Rand’s novel, the mysterious Ragnar Danneskjöld declares, “I’m after a man whom I want to destroy. He died many centuries ago, but until the last trace of him is wiped out of men’s minds, we will not have a decent world to live in... Robin Hood.”

According to Danneskjöld, Robin Hood “is held to be the first man who assumed a halo of virtue by practicing charity with wealth which he did not own... He is the man who became the symbol of the idea that need, not achievement, is the source of rights, that we don’t have to produce, only to want, that the earned does not belong to us, but the unearned does.”

This is why, contrary to the rhetoric, the “cuts” proposed by Republicans have been puny to non-existent: the Republicans share the Robin Hood morality. However much they decry taxes, however much they recognize that entitlements are leading us toward bankruptcy à la Greece, they agree that need does entitle people to others’ wealth. And so Paul Ryan and all the other Republicans hasten to assure the world that they would never be so cruel as to cut entitlement redistribution schemes: their only goal is to save them. Their message is: Obama’s goals are noble; only his means are open to criticism.

Instead of ducking charges of “reverse-Robin Hood,” defenders of limited government should follow Danneskjöld’s example–they should fight with full moral confidence against any scheme to take earnings from some in order to lavish others with the unearned.

Robin Hood, rest in peace.

Holiday Laughter

2011-12-24T20:06:00.000-04:00

Do take a moment and have a look at this phlog post and have a good laugh with the links back here to arcana imperii.

Cheers!

Happy Holidays to all!

2011-12-24T20:02:00.002-04:00

bon nadal i feliç any nou!
god jul och gott nytt år!
god jul og godt nytt år!
glædelig jul og godt nytår!
gleðileg jól og farsælt komandi ár!
hyvää joulua ja onnellista uutta vuotta!
maligayang pasko at manigong bagong taon!
nollaig chridheil agus bliadhna mhath ùr!
nadolig llawen a blwyddyn newydd dda!
nollaig shona agus blian nua fe mhaise!
fröhliche weihnachten und ein gutes neues jahr!
joyeux noël et bonne nouvelle année!
¡feliz navidad y próspero año nuevo!
noeliniz ve yeni yiliniz kutlu olsun!
buon natale e felice anno nuovo!
prettige kerstdagen en een voorpoedig nieuwjaar!
kellemes karácsonyi ünnepeket és boldog új évet!
feliz natal e bom ano novo!
mele kalikimaka me ka hauoli makahiki hou!
koa kirihimete a kia hari te tau hou!

«idah saidan wa sanah jadidah»
«de christmas akhtar de bakhtawar au newai kal de mubarak sha»
«meri kurisumasu soshite akemashite omedeto!»
«christmas-e-shoma mobarak bashad va sâle-no mobârak»
«chag molad sameach veshanah tovah»
«shub naya baras»

καλά χριστούγεννα και καλή χρoνιά πολλά!
C Pождеством Хpистовым и Лучший Новый Год!

natale hilare et annum faustum!

Happy Winter Solstice 2011!

2011-12-21T21:25:00.000-04:00

NOTE: Please have a look at THIS ENTRY.

NANDO'S Advert pulled in South Africa

2011-12-02T15:19:00.000-04:00

The arm of ANC's censorship in South Africa is reaching farther and farther into the daily life of South Africans. Nando has been forced to pull this brilliant advert, further decimating Freedom of Expression. Enough to send anyone into a thirty-day rage! Via SW.

WORLD AIDS DAY 2011

2011-12-01T17:50:00.000-04:00

Renée Fleming Returns in «Rodelinda»

2011-11-16T16:13:00.002-04:00

I can't wait to see this! 03 December 2011. Just a few days to go!
Renée Fleming Returns in ‘Rodelinda’ Opera - Review - NYTimes.com

via Blog this

STOP THE WORLD: I'M OUT OF COFFEE!

2011-11-07T21:37:00.000-04:00

This is one of the most delicious blends of coffee I've ever tasted and I'm happily in the habit of drinking it twice daily. The second time in the form of a Carajillo (with B&B, spiced rhum, or espresso vodka, among other options).
I've just run out!

Happy Hallowe'en 2011!

2011-10-31T19:33:00.000-03:00

«Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary,
Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore,
While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,
As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door.
"'Tis some visitor," I muttered, "tapping at my chamber door —
Only this, and nothing more."»
~From The Raven by Edgar Allan Poe

Quotation of the Week

2011-10-27T13:04:00.000-03:00

«Truth is generally the best vindication against slander.»
~Abraham Lincoln

Amy Winehouse death: Alcohol Poisoning

2011-10-26T14:08:00.001-03:00

Amy Winehouse's death was the result of the singer drinking too much alcohol. Shame on the enablers around her and those close to her who failed to provide the required help.

BBC News - Amy Winehouse death: Coroner records misadventure verdict.

'via Blog this'

Quotation of the Week

2011-10-17T12:47:00.002-03:00

«Read, every day, something no one else is reading. Think, every day, something no one else is thinking. Do, every day, something no one else would be silly enough to do. It is bad for the mind to be always part of unanimity.»
~Christopher Morley

Quotation of the Week

2011-10-13T20:27:00.002-03:00

«Show your sheep-biting face, and be hanged an hour!»
~Taken from: Measure for Measure

12 October: Fiesta Nacional

2011-10-12T13:32:00.003-03:00

¡Qué viva España!

Op-Ed: Obama 'Devastating' For Civil Liberties

2011-10-12T00:47:00.001-03:00

This is an incredible interview. Please have a listen or read the transcript at NPR. The link, further information and a brief excerpt follows.

Op-Ed: Obama 'Devastating' For Civil Liberties : NPR: «Jonathan Turley argues in a recent op-ed in the Los Angeles Times that "the election of Barack Obama may stand as one of the single most devastating events in our history for civil liberties." He says President Obama has continued many of the most controversial Bush administration programs.»

«President Obama is a perfect nightmare when it comes to civil liberties. He not only adopted most of President Bush's policies in the civil liberties areas when it comes to terrorism, but he actually expanded on them. He outdid George Bush.

And they range. His position on torture and refusing to have people investigated or prosecuted for torture, on privacy lawsuits. He pushed aggressively for the dismissal of dozens of lawsuits brought by private interest organizations. He's for immunity for people who engaged in warrantless surveillance. He has fought standing for people even to be able to get courts to review his programs, much like George Bush. He kept military tribunals and the authority to make the discretionary choice of sending some people to a real court, some people to a military tribunal. He has asserted the right to kill U.S. citizens based solely on his own discretion, that he believes them to be a threat to the country.

His administration has, once again, as with the Bush administration, cited secret law, that - and including a case of assassinating citizens - a law that we're not allowed to see, but we have to trust them.»

'via Blog this'

arcana imperii

Stand Back

Ash Wednesday 2012

Quotation of the Week

BLACKOUT: OPPOSE SOPA and PIPA

Quotation of the Week

¡Feliz Día de Reyes!

Here's to 2012 CE

31 December 2011

Quotation of the Week

It's Time To Kill The "Robin Hood" Myth

Holiday Laughter

Happy Holidays to all!

Happy Winter Solstice 2011!

NANDO'S Advert pulled in South Africa

WORLD AIDS DAY 2011

Renée Fleming Returns in «Rodelinda»

STOP THE WORLD: I'M OUT OF COFFEE!

Happy Hallowe'en 2011!

Quotation of the Week

Amy Winehouse death: Alcohol Poisoning

Quotation of the Week

Quotation of the Week

12 October: Fiesta Nacional

Op-Ed: Obama 'Devastating' For Civil Liberties

Renée Fleming Returns in «Rodelinda»