Nathanael D Snow

The name of Christ will remain in the public square as long as it is profitable. My children are in the next room watching the Charlie Brown Christmas special. Why is there a Charlie Brown Christmas Special? Because it sells. If we were to be honest, we would make overt efforts to prevent the commercialization of His name. Instead we slap it on T-shirts, wristbands, bumper stickers, and ipods dowloaded with Brittany Spears and Justin Timberlake. What is vanity? Jesus was and is the Prince of Peace. He brought peace between God and man. He never implied that he would bring peace between nations. He did nothing to prevent war between Jews and Romans. He could have pulled the ultimate Jimmy Carter then and there, but He didn't. He came to free us from allegiance to all other entites but Himself. Servitude to a central government is pagan worship. Practicing the methodologies of political mechanism is witchcraft. We are free from these to imitate Christ instead, and in so...

I recommend going to every Library Book Sale you can make it to. Today's bounty: Free to Choose: Rose and Milton Friedman The Fountainhead- Ayn Rand The Tempting Of America- Robert Bork Principles of Economics- Carl Menger*** wow! A Choice Of Days- HL Mencken a Jan Karon novel Essentials of Economics- Faustino Balive (a FEE book) Self Reliance and Other Essays- Emerson a Walt Whitman anthology The Virtue of Selfishness - Ayn Rand All for 8 bucks! I'm going back tomorrow for $5 a box day.

Jim Wallis was giving his platform on Voting God's Politics before the midterm elections. I offered an alternative: The religious right has made manipulation of the political mechanism a priority. The fault does not lie with their particular set of policies, but with the decision to employ coercion in achieving their ends. The proper response is not to provide an alternative set of policies that likewise require the use of force, but to work towards the abolishment of force altogether. As Christians we can reform social welfare programs by assuming full responsiblity for caring for the least of these. Unless one's behavior is in response to the call of Christ there is no virtue in it. Forcing unbelievers to give of their wealth to help others through taxation is devoid of virtue. Only Christians can give meaningfully and freely to others because we alone recognize that all we have has been given to us. As Christians we can change the face of healthcare by supporting chuch hos...

My letter to the editor in today's Technician: Capital pubishment misses target Jeff Gaither's satire of lethal injection makes a legitimate point, but focuses on a symptom instead of the problem. Capital punishment by the state assumes that the debt a criminal owes is to society or the government rather than to the victims. When such a criminal is executed no retribution, save psychological, is made to the victims. The loss has not been repaid, and now a second loss, the life of the criminal, has been incurred. For example: Mary's husband John has been murdered by Bob. The state has tried and convicted Bob and he is set for execution. Mary is now poor and destitute without John's income. Yet she continues to pay taxes, her share of which may be wholly absorbed by the cost of incarcerating Bob until his execution, which will also be costly. How has Mary been helped? How has justice been served? She may feel a good deal safer, but she is much the worse off. How much bet...

1. What is your occupation? Student (NCSU Economics) 2. What color are your socks right now? Grey fuzzy slippers. 3. What are you listening to right now? My wife and her friend talking about the Sopranos and Survivor. 4. What was the last thing that you ate? Potato Chips 5. Can you drive a stick shift? Yup. 6. If you were a crayon, what color would you be? Blue, boring. 7. Last person you spoke to on the phone? Telemarketer. 8. Do you like the person(s) who sent this to you? Yeah! 9. How old are you today? 30 10. Favorite drink? Good beer. 11. What is your favorite sport to watch? College basketball (Go Duke!) 12. Have you ever dyed your hair? No, but I have shaved it all off. 13. Pets? We’re babysitting a guinea pig this weekend… 14. Favorite food? Vinegar, I like things with vinegar in them. 15. What was the last movie you watched and did you like it? Hole In the Head, Frank Sinatra. 16. Favorite month? April. The fish really start biting. 17. What do you do to vent anger...

How much are you worth? How wealthy are you? I've decided upon a new measure of wealth. Wealth is how far you can see into the future, your "time horizon". If you are working at a dead end job and barely making ends meet, if you have no plan for the future other than to do more of the same, you are poor. No matter how much you earn at your job, you are poor. If you apply yourself every day, even if you earn little, but you aquire skills and develop talents. If you are collecting tools. If you have a vision for the future and are building towards it, though you may be in debt, you are working toward wealth. Murray Rothbard tells a story about a man stranded on an island where the only food for him to eat is berries. He must eat 200 berries a day to keep from being hungry, and it takes him 10 hours a day to collect this many berries. He then imagines a tool, a sort of stick, that would help him to collect berries by shaking the bushes in such a way that in 10 hours he...

May Dad is a U.S. Marine. He trained near the end of the Vietnam era, and recieved a medical discharge after serving for almost three years. He gave his knees for his country, and I am proud of him. It's taken me a while to reconcile my libertarian-leaning opinions with his sacrifice. I feel like I've learned a few things that have changed the way I think. The country is not the government. Dad served his country, not some politicians in Washington D.C. He was not thinking of Gerald Ford or Jimmy Carter when he volunteered for the Marine Corp. Nary a soldier was thinking of how much they loved Roosevelt or Truman as they pounded the beaches of Imo Jima. They did it out of love for their country, love for their moms and dads and sisters and brothers. Aunts and Uncles, cousins, grandparents, friends, co-workers, girlfriends, wives, sons and daughters. For their comrades and for freedom, for the American way of life, which was still relatively free in the 1940's. Vete...