Nathanael D Snow

Please bring your guns to class. Many of you have concealed weapons permits. Use them. We must take a stand against maniacs and terrorists everywhere and rearm the common man. The facts are simple. If any one of the victims at Virginia Tech had been carrying a weapon there would be 2 people dead now instead of 33. If any one of the victims on each of the 9/11 airliners had been carrying a weapon there would be a handful of dead terrorists instead of 4000 innocent men, women, and children. Bad people will always get guns. The only way to curb their violence is to be prepared to respond in a timely manner, to be equipped to defend yourself and the innocents around you. I unconditionally abhor the initiation of violence, but I likewise detest that evil is allowed to roam licentiously unchallenged. I personally have brandished a weapon on two separate occasions, both with the result that an evildoer was brought swiftly to ju...

Again I say, "Pay your taxes, just don't expect them to do any good." Which is what I think Jesus was saying. We pay our taxes because it is strategic. We are not to fight for political victory, but for the victory which transcend politics. We are to demonstrate the emptiness of political achievements by achieving more outside of and despite the political process. Does the state promise you bread and circuses? Demonstrate the emptiness of that promise by providing the bread of life and the adventure of discipleship. Does the state promise protection from foreign enemies. Demonstrate the emptiness of that promise by loving your enemies and praying for them, settling peacefully with them when possible, and winning your brother over. Does the state promise welfare for the poor? Demonstrate the emptiness of that promise by giving sacrificially and voluntarily and helping to restore dignity for invalids by providing them a way to serve. Does the state promise an educatio...

Go see Yoram Bowman's stand up routines. He mocks Mankiw, Bumper Stickers, and Chickens. Lots of fun.

First ten songs when iPod set to shuffle: 1. One Piece at a Time - Johnny Cash 2. Fire - Randy Stonehill 3. O How the Mighty Have Fallen - The Choir 4. I Remember You - Gene Eugene 5. Go With God But Go - Mike Roe 6. Spirit In the Sky - Larry Norman 7. Pin Your Wings Down - Copeland 8. It Takes A Lot of Love - The Waiting 9. Listen For The Laugh - Bruce Cockburn 10. Precious Jesus - Leigh Nash, Derri Daugherty .... 11. It's Alright Blondie - Starflyer 59

The Reader's Digest Condensed Version of this book by Hayek, including a comic-strip version at the end is available in pdf online here. Also available is the comic strip version set to music here.

The religious right needed to be exposed for the rent-seeking, special interest, manipulative, exclusive ideologues that they are. Their appeals to patriotism and nationalism in the name of God were misplaced. The license granted to Israeli Zionists to commit violence without just cause departs from the unique ethical mandate entrusted to followers of Christ. Violence is only justified for Christians in order to halt aggressors and protect innocents. Secular nations may do what they will, but it is the responsibility of the Church to work for social justice. We can petition those who hold the sword to punish evildoers, but there is no mandated role for the state to go beyond this into the unique realm of the Church: charity. If there is good to be done it must be done voluntarily by willing agents. The Church is the proper institution for organizing, equipping, covering, confirming, and channeling such agents to those who are in need. We must recognize this and keep from falling i...

Another clever heptagram from Indexed . She's such a card. Where's Constitutional Republic?

Someone is stealing Baltimore's aluminum . Light posts, that is. Some econ inspired questions: How long until Baltimore starts using wooden poles again? Aluminum obviously has a more highly valued use. 1. Would stiffer penalties for stealing publicly owned infrastructure deter these crimes? The current interest rate on crime is obviously too low. 2. Is the activity gang-related? Is this a lower-risk revenue source than selling drugs? Would legalizing drugs increase/decrease the number of poles stolen?!? 3. What is the lag time for decision makers to stop using aluminum and employing some alternative? What are the net welfare losses? 4. What alternative materials might be more cost-effective? 5. Would it be cheaper to just fill the light-posts with concrete to deter theft? 6. What if a monitoring device were attached randomly to various poles? How many devices would be required to insure eventual detection (statistically)? 7. What are the chances that the city of Baltimore hasn...

My new friend, Anthony Bradley , has a conversation running on his blog about how tiresome it can be to be a black man in a white church. It tiresome for white guys, too.

It's a joke, people.

Amy Denton has an op-ed at NCUS's Technician today. I have a response: Amy Denton might be wrong about Hillsborough Street. She cites the money already spent, says businesses would survive longer, and eatery variety would improve by installing the proposed roundabouts. She neglects the costs. The $260,000 already spent, ought to be considered a sunk cost. Suppose you drove to the movies to see the Greatest Movie Ever. When you got there it wasn’t playing. Instead This Movie Sucks was showing, and cost $20 a ticket. You already suffered the expense of getting to the theater, so shouldn’t you still see what’s showing? No, and neither do past expenses justify future ones on Hillsborough Street. Second, the proposed changes may subsidize some businesses at the expense of others. For example, there are two florists located on Hillsborough Street. If the changes do improve commerce for these florists we should be happy, right? But there’s another florist just a few blocks aw...

Forty or fifty years ago the size of families tended to be a little larger. Sure, there was less birth control, but people also seemed to want to have more kids than they want today. Smaller families are a luxury good, like clean water and air. Half a century ago futurists dreamed of agricultural methods that would produce huge vegetables, genetically modified, on minimal land capable of feeding multitudes. Today we eschew genetically modified foods, etc. in favor of organic foods, even when we have no naging reason for doing so. Organic foods, are indeed a luxury good, just check their prices.

Indexed shows us all how it ought to be done, a must read for every into econ student. Nod to Cafe Hayek .

I'm now helping some Ap Micro students. This is our blog.

My good friend Br. Chris Coucheron-Aamot has written a wonderful paper on Justin's Apology . I thoroughly enjoyed every word of it, but especially appreciated this paragraph. Philosophers then contain some truth, but can't be wholly trusted. They are like witnesses who can be trusted in a few areas, but not in others. This is consistent with the paradigm of a legal defense: one doesn't ask an expert witness questions that are outside of his area of expertise because he is not authoritative outside of his area of expertise. Philosophers, then, are authorities on matters that can be deduced from the world by properly applied exercise of the intellect without the benefit of special inspiration. These matters can be surprising, such as the Stoic belief in the destruction of the world, or Menander's comedy against the worship of crafted idols. It seems like much of that truth which is learnable is accessible through Reason; the exception being truth that concerns the nature...

Thomas Sowell provokes us to ask: are you greedy? If I offered you $100 right now would you take it? What if I offered you $200? Well, shucks, looks like you are greedy. Or maybe you just aren't stupid. What about me, the guy offering you the money, am I greedy? Am I stupid? Which brings us to Sowell's point, "Why do other people choose to pay corporate executives so much?" Because there's a competitive market out there for guys who can earn companies millions of dollars, and as long as the wage doesn't exceed diminishing marginal returns it will be paid. He goes on to remind us how it is that we all got so wealthy, by specializing in those activities in which we enjoy a competitive advantage.

The Wall Street Journal has had a short series of op-ed pieces by CHarles Murray discussing education this past week here , here , and here . Similarly, Newmark's Door linked us to a couple of essays by Arnold Kling. One quote, " My recollection from my career in government and business is that written communication skills still matter. Out of over 100 students in my class at George Mason, no more than a handful could function in any capacity in a job that required writing a memorandum. Over half of the students are utterly incompetent when it comes to grammar and syntax." This is why some of us will always be able to get a job. Together these articles mean that some people are just smarter than others. I could never be a quantum physicist. Well, maybe I could. But there are lots of people I know who couldn't, and shouldn't even try. All this struck terribly close to home at the beginning of the school year. The younger younger Snow (to borrow from Mungowitz)...

Walter Williams latest here. My favorite part: The kind of rules we should have are the kind that we'd make if our worst enemy were in charge. My mother created a mini-version of such a rule. Sometimes she would ask either me or my sister to evenly divide the last piece of cake or pie to share between us. More times than not, an argument ensued about the fairness of the division. Those arguments ended with Mom's rule: Whoever cuts the cake lets the other take the first piece. As if by magic or divine intervention, fairness emerged and arguments ended. No matter who did the cutting, there was an even division.

You may have seen this one already. But now you need to see this.

Tomorrow is the 100th day of school for my daughters. Teacher asked them to bring in 100 things to count. This was fun, and it gave me an idea for all you out there. Find 100 things in your house that you can do without. Stuff you don't want back. Put it in a bag. Then throw it in the trash. Repeat. Variation: Trade bags with someone else. Throw it in the trash. Repeat.