$ymbol of $overeignty

The current example of Greece is illustrative in so many ways. German sociologist Max Weber famously defined a sovereign state as "a human community that (successfully) claims the monopoly of the legitimate use of physical force within a given territory." In Greece, that monopoly is being presently being challenged by the people of Greece themselves. Whether or not the presence of some foreign army will one day be necessary to restore, or impose, order remains to be seen.

But while the efficacy of an armed force may indeed be the ultimate test of sovereignty, it's not the only one. In the case of Greece, Anne Applebaum illuminates yet another by asking whether it's still meaningful for that country to claim sovereignty when the other countries of the European Union can effectively impose such severe financial restrictions upon it.

A relatively precise way to determine the fact of sovereignty is to note the coining of money. Absent the practice, the claim of sovereignty is questionable. Greece no longer coins its own money. Is it still sovereign? Is it still master of its own fate? Does is it remain the ultimate authority and final arbiter within its own territory?

The price of sovereignty is steep. The cost of selling it is steeper still. Here endeth the lesson.

I See Dead People

Among the many inevitable consequences of government-run healthcare is rationing. And rationing will end just as inevitably in the "duty to die." Over at National Review Online, Thomas Sowell makes the point simply and poignantly.

Dig This

I have a good friend who owns a small but successful landscaping business in South Carolina and he confirms every aspect of this article. Even closer to home, my wife works at a small clothing store and she reports that people routinely stop by to ask whether or not there are any job openings. There are none, which of course they know even before they ask. You see they don't really want the job, they just want to fill the square of having asked so they can continue to draw unemployment. They're very upfront about this with her.

Only a liberal will be surprised by these anecdotes. Surprised because he naively thinks the average Joe above such behavior. Or surprised because he contemptuously thinks the average Joe simply too stupid to play the game in this fashion.

When a real job pays only marginally more than either welfare or unemployment compensation, what fool would take it? Well, this fool would. But our numbers are dwindling.

Back to Good and Evil

Psychological studies on infants and toddlers at Yale University seem to confirm something we already knew, but pretended hard, very hard, not to know. That is, that there exists an innate moral sense.

It is not just that we are a species hard-wired to construct moral codes and then by and with them make moral judgments. Rather, it is that we are hard-wired already to know good from evil. It's there from the beginning. To be sure, it can, and should be developed, improved, and refined. But we can no longer pretend to understand a human being as a tabula rasa upon which we can create the stuff of morality ex nihilo.

What does this say about the larger Enlightenment project of conquering or simply ignoring nature? Might we finally be awakening from the twisted dream that is trying to live Beyond Good and Evil?

I doubt it.

Just Say "I Do"

Four of ten children in the U.S. are now born without married parents. Four of ten! Let's face it, that also means that nearly four of ten children will be reared without a father as well. If this is not already a disaster, it's a disaster waiting to happen...and soon!

In the name of compassion, not to mention the frisson experienced with the shedding of those dreadful puritanical sensibilities, we've removed virtually every cost once associated with unwed pregnancy. We've lowered, in some cases eliminated altogether, the material, social, and moral price one used to have to pay for bearing or fathering a child out of wedlock. Is the word "bastard" even in the dictionary anymore? You'll not find Hollywood using it, and they usually revel in being as inventively potty-mouthed as possible.

And to think I was told (am still told, in fact) that the pill and condoms in the classroom will solve all this.

The Great Reckoning

Our current economic predicament is beginning to look to me less and less like the Great Depression, or even the Great Recession that some have labeled it. Rather, our times seem increasingly to carry with them an undeniable element of justice. Hence, The Great Reckoning. Is it upon us at last?

The Dow's 1000+ point swing yesterday made everyone nervous...again, even if it could be explained away in part by a "fat finger". (I'm sceptical, by the way.) Meanwhile, the editors of Spiegel Online have penned a long piece about the state of the Greek, European, American, and world economies. You need to plow through it. While the tone of the article manages to remain mercifully this side of Gotterdammerung, it's still quite frank and quite sobering.

But does any of this really surprise us? I mean really? You need no advanced degree, nor long experience in Big Business or Wall Street to know the simple truth that you can't forever spend that which you don't have. So, I ask, "Has the bill arrived at last?"

Plagued with the leadership of hapless dilettantes for far too long, it is my great hope and fervent prayer for our country that men and women of good will, sharp minds, strong courage, and unyielding backbone will finally step forward and assume command. I remain convinced that trying times like these serve best to reveal such people. Our roll is to recognize them and then encourage them when we do. Fortunately for us, we have a great opportunity to do just that from now until this November. Let's not squander it.

Fear not!

"Weaknews" For Sale

I toyed with "Newsweek, R.I.P." as a headline instead, because the weekly news magazine is dead, "...morally, ethically, spiritually, physically, positively, absolutely, undeniably, and reliably- dead!"

A dwindling audience due to Left-wing bias aside, in a country where even those counted by the government as living below the poverty line enjoy easy access to both cable/satellite television and the Internet, the days of successful mass print news, balanced or not, are numbered.

Over the course of a career in the Air Force, my family and I have lived in many different places across the country and we have always had the local paper delivered to our home. While no one would have expected us to be as interested in the local news as the natives, we still wanted to know when and where the sales, the movie schedule, the weather forecast, etc. But no more. Since we moved back to North Carolina about three years ago, only my wife reads the local paper, The Mount Airy News, and even she reads it on-line.

Don't misunderstand. I find no joy in reporting this. I'm a dinosaur who still enjoys some familiar, tactile pleasure when holding paper of some kind in my hands as I read. It also, for no doubt snobbish reasons, makes me feel smarter than and superior to the herd. (It's easier on my eyes as well.)

Nevertheless, look for the "For Sale" sign currently posted in front of Newsweek's HQ to be replaced in short order by a tombstone. And it won't be long before the spreading epidemic makes victims also of Time, The Washington Post, and even the venerable, but definitely graying lady, The New York Times. "She's not only merely dead, she's really most sincerely dead!"