Green cleaning

Even before it was the "popular" thing to do, I've been a fan of ecologically friendly cleaning supplies, relying on some old fashioned ones such as vinegar and baking soda. Now there are a variety of different green cleaning supplies out there on the market. Some make me chuckle a bit considering the price factor, in theory most of the green products should cost less, in practice, many times they are much higher priced than their chemical cleaning cousins. There are however some green products that won't take all of your green ... All that is required from you is a bit of research.

Jesus as a Libertarian

It seems as many political ideologies want to claim Jesus, Libertarians are apparently no different according to Tom Mullen -- Jesus Christ, Libertarian. I'm not sure how I feel about it, beyond pointing it out and suggesting it may create some thought provoking moments. One part:

Jesus was very clear about his views on what would lead to salvation and what would not. Jesus condemned many behaviors, like adultery, that social conservatives likewise condemn. He also said that “no one comes to the Father except through me.” (John 14:6) However, he does not go on to say, “Therefore, if your brother does not come to me willingly, then draw your sword and force him.” Salvation must be chosen; God did not create a race of slaves.

As we celebrate the birth of this great libertarian, let us not forget the lesson of his life and death. Jesus was murdered by the theocratic state for exposing their hypocrisy and resisting their unjust, blasphemous laws. Let us follow his example of speaking our minds according to our consciences but never raising our hand to save our brothers’ souls. Each one of us will ultimately find that our understanding of the will of God is imperfect, as we are imperfect. Therefore, we must follow Jesus’ example of tolerance and forgiveness, lest we find that we ourselves have mistakenly punished the innocent. Our laws should keep us from harming each other, and leave each person’s soul to the judgment of God.

Diet debates

There is quite a bit of debate out there on the topic of hgh human growth hormone and diets. The other day I saw a debate on hgh start on Facebook. One person believed it worked in conjunction with a special diet, one did not. What was interesting about it was each one used different websites to make their points. Which means for those of you looking for information, the challenge is to find a website that provides you with both the pluses and the minuses and drives home the point that you should talk to a health care professional before taking any supplemental product.

Is a Libertarian society a pipedream?

I really enjoy some of the discussion and questions that takes place on the Wall Street Journal discussion forum. At times I wish I had more time to participate, but for now I enjoy reading many of the discussions. This recent one where the question of "Is a Libertarian society a pipedream?" is a recommended one. As always there are some great answers and some not so great answers. One part of a comment that I'm not sure I agree with but really made me stop and think:

"In other words, libertarianism works only in books, on lifeboats or among people stranded somewhere for a length of time not to exceed six months. After that, human nature takes over and anarchy/totalitarianism/starvation and death take over."

Use the Internet to check prices

The way to find the cheapest auto insurance may be just a few mouse clicks away, though some online insurance companies try to make it not quite as easy by expecting you to wait for an agent to e-mail you or call you with a quote. Not all online insurance companies do that, and you can also take advantage of the 1-800 numbers that the companies have to get a quote. Some personal information is necessary to give you a quote, but you are the only one who can determine how much information you want to share. Remember, just because you visit a site doesn't mean you can't just click away ...

Wikileaks: Beyond Good and Evil

One of the better pieces I've read out there on the WikiLeaks story can be found on the Advocate site -- it was written by Advocate Staff and covers a few instances of the differences in media coverage and reaction. One small part:

There is obvi­ously some­thing pro­foundly unde­mo­c­ra­tic about this state of affairs. In order for a democ­racy to func­tion, it is nec­es­sary for the cit­i­zenry to have sig­nif­i­cant access to infor­ma­tion about mat­ters of state. Par­tic­u­larly when it comes to Amer­i­can for­eign rela­tions and Amer­i­can over­seas adven­tures, the cit­i­zens of this coun­try are very much — too much — in the dark (obvi­ously this is gen­er­ally true of every coun­try). Wik­iLeaks or any sim­i­lar orga­ni­za­tion thus car­ries with it a democ­ra­tiz­ing poten­tial whereby infor­ma­tion that has been unnec­es­sar­ily locked away becomes avail­able to the aver­age cit­i­zen. On the whole though, lib­eral and con­ser­v­a­tive elites are united in their belief that this ought not to hap­pen, and thus Wik­iLeaks is either demo­nized or shrugged off as fairly insignif­i­cant. Even some lib­er­als, such as Jon Stew­art, who are pre­sum­ably more skep­ti­cal of Amer­i­can for­eign pol­icy than the aver­age Belt­way insider, don’t par­tic­u­larly know how to react to an orga­ni­za­tion that has the poten­tial to pro­vide the kind of infor­ma­tion that could, the­o­ret­i­cally, inform a move­ment that would seek to utterly trans­form Amer­i­can for­eign pol­icy. Stewart’s scathing, ironic style is absolutely top­ping when it comes to evis­cer­at­ing the pow­ers that be, but it has no idea how to respond to the pos­si­bil­ity of act­ing in a man­ner that would chal­lenge America’s impe­r­ial pres­ence in much of the world, some­thing which is at least made more pos­si­ble by a trans­parency orga­ni­za­tion like WikiLeaks.

Ron Paul's lone no vote gets attention

The article on Ron Paul being the only no vote on a resolution honoring Nobel winner Liu Xiaobo linked here makes a very valid point. If Paul really believed that such resolutions were something that the House shouldn't do, then he should have not voted for any resolutions in the past.

Unless he wants to try to argue that honoring Chi Chi Rodriguez is somehow more important, but then he'd lose that argument once you factor in his voting yes on a resolution about Romanian adoptions.

I personally think all of those sorts of resolutions whether they take place in Congress, a state general assembly or a local council are a waste of time and effort, but once you vote yes? It's hard to later decide resolutions are of no value.

Going cordless

Whenever I see a headset I think of back when I was working in a call center and I had a moment almost like in the movie, "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" when the main character goes to get up from her desk with her headset on and ends up falling on the floor. While I didn't fall, it was all too easy at times to forget I was wearing them to get up or turn too far. Now that's preventable since there are cordless headphones out there that are not that much more expensive than the wired type. Save yourself from being the laughing stock of co-workers.

Liberty Lectures in the UK

Recently in England, the Liberty Lectures were held. Granted most of us can't travel overseas to attend lecture series, but videos of the sessions have been put online. I've watched a few and I highly recommend them to those of you interested in learning more.

Who you can watch:

Dr Tim Evans, President of the Libertarian Alliance, kicked off the afternoon’s lectures with ‘The Importance of Liberty’. He explained the underlying principles of Libertarianism: life, liberty and property and the link between liberty and capitalism. Dr Eamonn Butler, Director of the Adam Smith Institute, then talked on how markets work. He argued that the free market works in mysterious ways and caters to our wants and desires. In contrast to this government is inefficient and the services it offers give little choice and are expensive for the public.

Dr John Meadowcroft then gave a talk on the rather excitingly titled topic of ‘Sex, Drugs and Liberty’. He gave a strong criticism of prohibition and why it is morally wrong as it undermines our individual right to self-ownership.

Dr Mark Pennington gave a talk on public choice theory. Mark highlighted how government intervention is more damaging than an imperfect market, especially as government is controlled by special interest groups. Professor Anthony Evans, from the European Business School, showed how the Austrian school predicted the crash and explained the Austrian theory on the causes of the cycles of booms and busts.

Dr Richard Wellings, from the Institute of Economic Affairs, gave a convincing talk on the role of government, arguing for a limited government whilst highlighting the dangers of big government.

almost everything is wholesale

You can buy almost anything wholesale anymore, even online, from food to clothes to sunglasses even insurance. Insurance you say? Yes, places exist out there like Wholesaleinsurance.net where they state they have wholesale pricing on insurance. As always check the fine print and exactly what each plan offers compared to what you have now, that said, it never hurts to compare prices, you could save money.

Where are the female Libertarians

There are female Libertarians, I've met plenty, but I found it interesting that the question of Where are the female Libertarians was being asked.

Honest answer is that they like Republican and Democratic women don't get the same level of support when it comes to campaigning as men do and the additional hurdle of fundraising that Libertarian candidates face is a problem. There are organized groups out there that try to help women run for office, but most of them are ran by Democratic or Republican organizations.

Think sports items for gifts

Have an NFL or college football fan in your life? Then the easiest way to finish your shopping list might be to consider football gifts to put under that tree. With the huge variety of items out there, it's possible to find something even for the person who has everything on your list. When all else fails? Gift certificates or gift cards never fail.

Why Ron Paul's newfound power both pleases and worries libertarians.

Slate piece on the recent power of oversight of the Federal Reserve ending up in the hands of Ron Paul -- LINK. While I recommend reading it, what I find most amusing is the assumption that if you are a Libertarian you automatically support Ron Paul.

Then again there's the assumption if you are a Democrat or Republican you automatically support everything elected Democrats or Republicans do.

What it will be is interesting ...

Is Christianity compatible with libertarianism

Topic of discussion - Is Christianity compatible with libertarianism - raised on the Wall Street Journal discussion boards. Anytime religion is part of the discussion it typically creates many responses. As you can see it's already up to 82 comments.

One part of one of the comments that I enjoyed:

Of course Libertarianism and Christianity are compatible; or can be compatible; or can be compatible for most Christians most of the time. They are not by definition incompatible, unless you are a particular type of Christian, probably a fundamentalist. A central distinguishing feature of fundamentalism (Christian as well as Islamic) is a search for certainty and a belief that certainty is available to Man. This inevitably leads to choosing positions and judging others. In my view, this is false Christianity and not true to the teachings of Jesus.

Silly marketing ideas

With the movie "Tangled" being popular right now, I couldn't help thinking when seeing this shampoo for thin hair product that a fun, yet probably silly, marketing idea would be to have Rapunzel promote it. It'd be really easy to say, "have hair like me" -- so advertising execs if you are out there? You heard it first here.

:-)