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David Hume, the most gregarious of philosophers (he was often referred to as “Good David”), often had Benjamin Franklin as a house guest when Ben was in England. Imagine being a dinner guest one of those evenings when Hume and Franklin were discussing philosophy and Adam Smith dropped over to show off his latest chapter in “The Wealth of Nations”.

Hume also provided a refuge for the foul wretch Jean-Jacques Rousseau when he had to flee the Continent. Rousseau, true to his vile nature however, responded to Hume’s benevolence with charges that Hume was part of a conspiracy to silence him. Hume was forced to publish his correspondence to refute Rousseau’s lies and the two men’s relationship ended in bitter acrimony [at least on Rousseau's part].

The relationship between Rousseau and Hume has always for me symbolized the differences between the cold, inhuman rationality of the French enlightenment, which ended in revolutionary terror and tyranny, and the much more humane and generous Scottish enlightenment which contributed greatly to the Anglo-American tradition of liberal tolerance. [I mean "liberal" in its classic form]

Americans For Prosperity are sponsoring a ‘Save My Ballot’ Tour across Pennsylvania. I was happy to have the opportunity to catch one of these gatherings and am excited to share the video of Pat Toomey’s speech with you all!

Don’t forget to check out Pat’s organization ‘Club For Growth’!

FYI for tech geeks: The video was taken with a Canon HG10 AVCHD and edited using Sony Vegas 8.0. Today I received my Flip MinoHD and will post a Vlog using the video camera in a day or two.

With 100% of precincts reporting in the special election in New York’s 20th Congressional District, the Democrat is ahead by 65 votes – that’s a 0.04% lead. There are supposedly thousands of absentee ballots to count, and then after those are counted, we’ll almost certainly see this go to court for weeks and weeks. Isn’t our electoral system wonderful?

The good news: Military absentee ballots should favor the Republican.

The bad news: We all know that the longer they have to “count” the votes, the more votes Democrats manage to “find”.

More bad news: The Republican is supposedly only somewhat conservative in the first place. Still, him winning means the Democrats lose, so that’s the better outcome.

Update

A little more bad news: After doing a bit of research I find that Democrat candidate Scott Murphy is an extremist liberal on just about every issue except for guns. National security, the economy, the environment, right to life, you name it – he’s a big time lefty who can’t wait to start asking Obama how he should vote. Fantastic.

I don’t know who said it on talk radio yesterday, but it makes perfect sense to me:

If you’re going to depose the head of an organization that’s repeatedly failed our economy, why not get rid of the head of the NEA?

Oh, yeah-h-h,…the NEA poured millions into your coronation,…campaign, Can’t bite the hand that feeds, even if it kan’t reed!

State Sen Greenleaf wants beer kegs to be tagged in order to identify the adult who purchased the beer, theoretically deterring adults from buying kegs or underage drinkers.
(h/t grassrootspa)

Whose first illicit beer was from a keg? Does it matter?

Isn’t it easier for kids to hide bottles of liquor or beer rather than giant metal barrels?

I don’t recall New York’s keg tag laws deterring much underage drinking when I was attending college, not even from kegs.

Tracy Collie of Bucks Co. MADD: “Prior studies have shown the public would support this.”

How about some studies showing a positive impact on underage drinking? Or on deaths from alcohol poisoning? Or anything at all that goes beyond making some people feel good and actually impacts human behavior? Then maybe, MAYBE, we’ll talk about adding some nuisance regulation.

Or better yet, why don’t we decriminalize and demystify the consumption of alcohol, at least down to age 18? With all the rampant European-ization of America going on right now, why don’t we try that one?

Barney Frank is vying for that title as well.

Washington Examiner reports Frank’s committee has approved the “Pay for Performance Act of 2009,” a bill that goes way beyond the AIG bonuses to regulate all pay for all employees of companies receiving government money:

It would, like the tax measure, be retroactive, changing the terms of compensation agreements already in place. And it would give Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner extraordinary power to determine the pay of thousands of employees of American companies.

All companies with gov’t money, retroactively, against all employees, at the discretion of the Treasury Secretary.  Sounds swell.  I think Geithner needs a few more projects to work on… he’s not busy enough right now.

In addition, the bill gives Geithner the authority to decide what pay is “unreasonable” or “excessive.” And it directs the Treasury Department to come up with a method to evaluate “the performance of the individual executive or employee to whom the payment relates.”

Frank has previously expressed an interest in regulating all executive pay, regardless of government involvement.

As one might assume, there’s a better way to address “excessive” executive pay than to have Barney Frank figure it out. We could fix corporate governance, as activist investor Carl Icahn has been saying for a long time.

Why don’t we listen to the guys with some skin in the game?  Why don’t we give shareholders the power to be a check on the companies they ostensibly own?

As far as GM goes, it’s hard to defend Wagoner, but there’s little reason to think that the new CEO will do any better.  Obama firing Wagoner was a strategic move to pave the way for more bailout money by throwing somebody into the volcano to appease the gods electorate.

I realize that Chris Matthews isn’t running for Senate, but still..

What a dick….

…. it runs in the family.

Glenn Beck took the Conn. AG to the woodshed, deservedly so, over the Federal Government’s violation of contract with AIG – more commonly known as teh AIG bonus scandal.  He asked the most important question that no one, has asked those who swear an oath – “What law did they break?”  The AG is a disgrace.  Our elected officials need to be hounded more, not just from people like Glenn Beck – especially if they are violating their oath of office.

In the wake of the ouster of General Motors’ CEO earlier this week, one thing is plainly clear: The President of the United States  is now the de-facto CEO of the auto industry, banking and lending industry, and of AIG. During this past week, we witnessed a string of government power grabs that has led us closer to an economic system of socialism than at any time in our history.

We witnessed the US Treasury print $1 trillion in new money to partner with investors to buy toxic assets from ailing banks. We saw the White House empower itself to take over banks, financial lenders, and insurance companies at the stroke of the President’s pen. We watched dumbfounded as President Obama fired Rick Wagoner and ordered the Chrysler board of directors to merge with another company by month’s end or face complete government takeover.

All this from a man who has NEVER run so much as a lemonade stand in his entire life.

When did we become Venezuela, Jr.? And when will the American people take notice that their freedom is being stolen right out from underneath them?

David Hume was a Scottish philosopher during the 1700′s, otherwise known as the Scottish enlightenment.  Adam Smith, who wrote the Wealth of Nations, another Scottsman, was a friend of his and Smith was most likely influenced by Hume.  These were true intellectuals, not dolts who were made to look intelligent by reading from a teleprompter.  Here’s what he said about public debt (Part II, Essay IX, paragraph 5 of Hume’s Political Discourses, published in 1752):

It is very tempting to a minister to employ such an expedient, as enables him to make a great figure during his administration, without overburthening the people with taxes, or exciting any immediate clamours against himself. The practice, therefore, of contracting debt will almost infallibly be abused, in every government. It would scarcely be more imprudent to give a prodigal son a credit in every banker’s shop in London, than to impower a statesman to draw bills, in this manner, upon posterity.