Outside The Asylum

Robert Oak of Economic Populist often gets on my back for what he calls "Economic Fiction". I think I finally realized what he means by that. He means anything outside of the axioms of economics taught by Keynes, Roosevelt, and Smith- the axioms and theories that classic economics is built on. I don't hold to those as the founding documents for my economics. Instead as a good Catholic should- as ANY good Catholic should- my economics is built on Rerum Novarum from Pope Leo XIII, Quadragesimo Anno from Pope Pius XI, Mater et Magistra from Pope John XXIII, and of course John Paul The Great's Centesimus Annus . In these, work is held as a holy good in and of itself; the product of work destined for charity to oneself, one's family, and one's community. Private property is acknowledged, but limited to doing good rather than the freedom to do evil. The power of the corporation in capitalism and the power of the state in communism or socialism is restrained...

A very good article on the main thing that is wrong with the WTO and a major cause of current US Stagflation . It's much nicer than I would have been, for instance: The failure to properly classify VAT rebate schemes as an unfair subsidy within the context of the GATT has proven to be a monumental error on the part of U.S. trade negotiators. No, the failure to properly classify VAT rebate schemes as a subsidy within the context of the GATT is TREASON on the part of US trade negotiators and should be punished as such. Based on this, I propose two potential solutions more in keeping with the progressive nature of the United States: 1. An ITYT- Intermodal Transfer Yard Tax. This would be an indirect volume/mile tax on all shipping that goes through an intermodal transfer yard. It'd be much like a national sales tax, but *local* products shipped *locally* would be exempt. It would cover *both* imports and exports equally, but create jobs in the United States by creating taxat...

Two heretical doctrines, at least from a Catholic Standpoint. Yet 500,000 modern Protestants stick to them like glue. There's been a ton of problems with the arrogant belief that God speaks directly to a given individual- this is cult-land after all- without a touchstone of *rational* thought. And worse yet, Islam is beginning to imitate the same mistake, in Bin Laden's Wahabbist doctrine of Sola Jihad- the requirement of any believer to commit himself to violence when justice is threatened. They say you can see a false teaching by it's fruits- and certainly, the fruits of the spirit of the Reformation have been anything other than a Holy Spirit. I contend that absent of a strong hierarchy and strong tradition, a religion that relies *ONLY* on a priesthood of believers is like a science that has no peer reviewed journals- it can only produce biased bunk.

Last week, and this coming week and the next week (depending on if you're on the Julian or Gregorian Calendar), the Catholic Church as a whole celebrates Ascension Thursday and Pentecost Sunday, 40 and 50 days after Easter. What many people don't understand is this is the celebration of the official start of the Hierarchy- the point at which Jesus stopped reappearing to convince people he was alive, and ten days later, when he sent His Holy Spirit to transform 11 Aramaic and Jewish fishermen, tax collectors, and other relative outcasts into the first set of Christian preachers the world ever saw. And these weren't your ordinary preachers- internal to the Bible we only have one book about them, the Acts of the Apostles, and in there you've got plenty of miracles, from speaking in tongues to healing the sick to raising the dead. External to the Bible, we have the legends of the Eastern and Western Catholic Churches about how the Patriarchs (starting with James in Jerusa...

Yet that is *exactly* what the emergence movement says to me. They've finally got rid of Sola Scriptura, they're realizing that they've thrown out the baby with the bathwater in the Reformation to begin with, they realize that schism is evil. But they don't seem to realize that the Kingdom of God is a Kingdom, or that the Community of Saints exists. Sure, we've got three districts in the Kingdom- the Church Militant, the Church Suffering, and the Church Triumphant. And the Vicar in Rome only has leadership over the Church Militant. Our once and future King is with the Church Triumphant. I think, what it comes down to, is fear. Fear of the hierarchy, fear of tyranny, fear of losing their freedom in submission to Christ. I don't know how to get past that fear. Anybody have any ideas?

The April Seasonally Adjusted numbers are in and the only good news is that NEW unemployment is slowing down. U6 for Oregon is pushing 20%- Great Depression numbers, except during the great depression we weren't releasing U3 instead of U6 in a blatant attempt to lie with statistics. But remember folks, PROSPERITY IS JUST AROUND THE CORNER. The question being, Which Corner? So for your entertainment, a few depression era music videos: And finally for comparison, one modern one:

John Paul the Great used to say "I'd rather be right and the leader of only a church of 1000, than wrong and the leader of a billion." One of the big reasons I'm still Catholic is because that isn't just a saying- there's a real system behind it. Long before anybody ever imagined the scientific method, we had the Councilar method. Unlike some other more modern Christian sects, for Catholics (both Orthodox and Latin) Doctrine Develops. Dogma is set in stone, but doctrine develops, and discipline (which the Councilar method also affects) is temporary. Theology is in fact logical, despite what some atheists will want to tell you. But one big difference between the Councilar method and more modern theologies and philosophies; it's slow. So slow in fact that it took more than 1200 years for one theological theory (the Immaculate Conception of Mary) to move from first being written down, to being believed by the whole church, to being preached from the See...

First, we'll see how well I can cut and paste a chart here: President Jobs Created Tax IDs issued Population Growth Total percentage George HW Bush 2,500,000 1,802,000 12,500,000 34% George W. Bush 3,000,000 5,875,000 22,000,000 40% Gerald Ford 1,800,000 2,434,000 5,100,000 83% John F. Kenedy 3,600,000 3,256,000 8,200,000 84% Dwight Eisenhower 3,500,000 15,987,000 23,300,000 84% Richard Nixon 9,400,000 3,689,000 12,300,000 106% Bill Clinton 23,100,000 3,756,000 25,200,000 107% Lyndon Johnson 11,900,000 400,000 11,300,000 109% Ronald Reagan 16,000,000 4,216,000 17,300,000 117% Jimmy Carter 10,500,000 1,374,000 9,800,000 121% Ok, slightly messed up. I wonder if I'll do better in creating a chart in any other editor. At any rate- as you can see from this chart, aside from Bill Clinton's years, we've got a very bad growth rate- and Bill Clinton's 107% really wasn't enough to make up for Bush I's 40%. There were some surprises there- the amazing number of new b...

I've spent the last 25 years or so with homophobia and a fear of gender segregated team sports, because I've been mislabeling idiot jocks as homosexuals (due to certain behaviors common in my high school when it came to team razing and initiation ceremonies). So first, to all homosexuals out there who aren't predatory and don't bother the people around you, I'm sorry for misjudging you. For all of the jocks I misjudged- you might want to look at some of those team rituals with a critical eye towards how they might look to the kid you're bullying just because he's weird. And finally, to all parents of autistic kids- you might want to have a talk with them about stereotypes and how being bullied has affected the way they see the world.