The recent SCOTUS ruling on gay marriage has the very real effect of forcing States, Counties, Cities, Townships, and other political bodies to license and recognize same-sex marriages within the United States. Is it not conceivable that this ruling will also force non-political bodies to recognize same-sex marriages? Bodies like businesses and churches. Should it?…
Category: Two Cents
On SCOTUS
Those that feel anything toward the SCOTUS ruling on so-called “gay marriage” feel quite strongly one way or the other. Many are lamenting the decision, while many others are celebrating it. Frankly, I’m disgusted by both sides. Why shouldn’t gays be allowed to marry? Mind your own business, I say. Just as importantly, why should…
On Transacceptance
Want to change hair color? Want to change genders? Want to change races? Want to change species? I really don’t care. All I care about is: What value can you bring to my life? What can you sell me? What can you offer me? In a world where we aren’t forced to relate with or…
On the Nauglers
Having participated in the support effort for the Joe and Nicole Naugler family, whose ten children were kidnapped by sheriffs and then passed off to child protective services, and followed online discussions of the ongoing incident, it seems to me that, like all controversial topics, this is a battle of ideologies. The ideological battles that…
On the State II
When one party is accusing another party of wrongdoing, for who should the benefit of the doubt be afforded? I’d say, the weaker party. Why? One reason: the stronger party holds more power. An example: the state is the most powerful party in any accusation. It has the power to destroy lives, families, and entire…
On Negotiation
Negotiation seems to me to be the greatest tool ever invented for the creation and maintenance of peaceful association. While engaged in negotiation, each party necessarily affords every other party certain considerations, which include: respect, equality, and justice. If these concepts are of value to you, then the use of negotiation should pattern your every…
On Anarchy V
Anarchy is the absence of rulers, but what “ruler” means depends on one’s theory of rulers. Likewise for theories of property, authority, coercion, autonomy, occupancy, use, abandonment, appropriation, and on and on. What’s important, I think, is to remember that for whatever our theories of these concepts amount to, rather than imposing them on others,…
On Occupancy-and-Use II
I have no quarrel with the occupancy-and-use property norm espoused by left anarchists so long as that entails what I consider reasonable theories of occupancy, use, abandonment, and appropriation. These are: 1) occupancy consists of possession by the owner or his agent, 2) use consists of deploying occupied property as a means of accomplishing a…
On Capitalism II
Capitalism as “the private ownership of the means of production” is defined as such in contrast to Socialism, “the public/state ownership of the means of production.” Therefore, when the means of production (capital) are privately owned by either individuals, partnerships, families, groups, co-ops, communes, or syndics, they are a type of capitalism. Without a state,…
On Capitalism
Capitalism is “the private ownership of the means of production.” Does any parsing of that definition equate capitalism with statism? Let’ see. Statism is the doctrine that a person or group of persons may justifiably monopolize the provision of law and order, that is, be allowed to use coercion to prevent and/or regulate the provision…