Holy Smokes, after many moons an new edition of Audition is up!

Get it here.

This issue of Audition features an interview with Japanese-American painter Makoto Fujimura.

Got to admit, at first glance an interview with a painter doesn’t seem that appealing to me, but who knows, maybe.

Technorati Tags: Ken Myers, Mars Hill Audio, Audition, Makoto Fujimura

The Real Lincoln: Dr. DiLorenzo interview on C-SPAN

If you have not heard of Dr. DiLorenzo this interview on C-SPAN is worth watching.

Technorati Tags: History, Thomas DiLorenzo, Lincoln

In His Image (Quote)

From “In His Image” by Williams Jenning Bryan

When I see ministers of religion finding fault with the Scriptures, it makes me think of a fortress terrifically bombarded, and the men on the ramparts, instead of swabbing out and loading the guns and helping to fetch up the ammunition from the magazine, are trying with crowbars to pry out from the wall certain blocks of stone, because they did not come from the right quarry. Oh, men on the ramparts, better fight back and fight down the common enemy, instead of trying to make breaches in the wall. – Rev. T. De Witt Talmage

Bob Dylan the Apocalyptic Poet

I love these short videos from the Rutherford Institute, this one is on Bob Dylan. I have a friend who is pretty big on Dylan and has encouraged me to dive into his rather large body of work. I think I will.

Technorati Tags: Bob Dylan, Rutherford Institue

Americanism

I now see the full-blown puerility of Americanism for what it is: nothing but a big absurd lie which, by its own vanity,
ends in a cataclysm of bondage and destruction. “Do as we say – or else! Dare you question the American way of life?”

Source: Dave Black Online

Not the sort of math they teach you at B.F. Skinner Elementary

Source: Marginal Revolution

Advocates of trade restrictions often argue that protection will save jobs. Since we can observe price and cost increases associated with trade restrictions, we can estimate how much it costs to save each job in a protected industry. According to the NPR story, there are roughly 30,000 dry cleaners in the U.S., and on average, each pays an additional $4,000 per year due to the hanger tariff. This indicates an average annual cost of 30,000 firms x $4,000 per firm = $120 million. According to the U.S. International Trade Commission’s report, U.S. employment in wire hanger manufacturing was 564 workers in 2004 and fell to 236 workers by 2006. Let’s assume that employment in this sector would have fallen to zero in the absence of the tariff, and that with the tariff, employment will recover to 2004 levels. In other words, assume the tariff “saves” 564 jobs. Dividing the cost of the tariff to U.S. dry cleaners ($120 million year) by the number of jobs saved (564 jobs) indicates that each job saved costs about $212,765 per year. Keep in mind that the typical full-time worker in this sector earns about $30,000 per year. Even if we assume that industry employment doubles, the cost of the tariff is still roughly $120,000 per job.

Technorati Tags: Economics, Education

Knowledge Puffs Up

From the latest Basement Tape.

“Young men know all the rules, old men know all the exceptions.”

Technorati Tags: Quotes, Wisdom

Philip Greenspun’s Economics 101

Source: Philip Greenspun

The prevailing wisdom at the New York Times (editorial) seems to be that our economic future will be assured if we start selling houses to each other at ever-higher prices. All we need to do to grow our economy is build more and larger houses and sit inside them watching big-screen TVs that we import from Asia, occasionally getting up to drive our imported car to the supermarket to buy more chips and beer, stopping on the way home to fill up with imported oil.

Given all of the burdens that the American worker has to shoulder compared to his counterparts in younger countries, could the truth be a lot more frightening? Might we have to work harder? Study at night instead of watching TV?

Technorati Tags: Economics, Recession

There are no “good” numbers

The numbers go on and on and on. Let me put it this way. There are no “good” numbers. None. Absolutely none. If you want to believe Wall Street and the pumpers on TV, you are failing to accept reality. It gets scarier by the day. – Mike Morgan

Source: Dry Creek Chronicles

I believe it.

The Food Issue and My Garden

Source: Chalcedon

Photos of my garden. Year #2, still learning.

SEN DORGAN: THE AMERICAN PEOPLE SHOULD NOT STAND FOR THIS!

Enough to make you sick. Senator Dorgan documents some examples of rampant waste, fraud and abuse.

Source: Chalcedon

FBI Bullet Lead Analysis…whoops.

Guess this is old news but new to me. Amazing this went unnoticed for 40 years.

Tobin says the Quantico lab was the only place in the country that did bullet lead analysis, and the assertion that you could actually match a bullet fragment to a specific batch or box of bullets went unchallenged for 40 years — until Tobin retired in 1998 and decided to do his own study, discovering that the basic premise had never actually been scientifically tested.

Technorati Tags: Government, Justice

“Sweet” Farm Bill

How do they come up with this stuff (source)?

New sugar program: The bill would make the government buy sugar for 2X the world price, store it, then resell it at about an 80% loss to the taxpayer. Sugar sells for about 11¢/lb on the world market. The US government would have to buy sugar for about 22¢/lb, store it, and then auction off the excess to ethanol plants. We estimate that such an auction would net the government about 4¢/lb. In addition, this new provision would require the government to guarantee that domestic sugar producers get 85 percent of the domestic sugar market.

Technorati Tags: Government, Taxes

This American Life: The Giant Pool of Money

This is really worth listening to if you want to understand the housing crash.

A special program about the housing crisis. We explain it all to you. What does the housing crisis have to do with the collapse of the investment bank Bear Stearns? Why did banks make half-million dollar loans to people without jobs or income? And why is everyone talking so much about the 1930s? It all comes back to the Giant Pool of Money.

Technorati Tags: Economics

Trinitarian Politics

Excellent post here from Doug Wilson.

Now this next distinction is crucial. The fact that secular conservatives can see it and so express their support for things like pro-life legislation or marriage protection laws does not mean that they are capable of helping us out when it comes to the more complex, systemic and corporate issues we must face. The fact that they can read the big E on God’s eyechart for mankind does not mean that they can see the lowest line.

Technorati Tags: Doug Wilson, Politics