Bill's Comments

[This post will remain at the top until the end of July. Please scroll down to check for new material.]

I have purposefully stayed away from blog advertising. I am very jealous of the content of my blog and want total control over what is said. I am a bit less restrictive on comments because that is where new ideas are presented, other than mine. However, I am going to make an advertisement at this time, or, if you will, an appeal for money (also known in some circles as begging). [No, Hell has not frozen over, nor has the Earth stopped and started spinning the other direction. The Sun will rise in the East tomorrow.]

The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society is a wonderful cause. I know of an acquaintance whose daughter-in-law has leukemia, and he has told me of all they have done to help her, her husband and her family. My wife's best friend died at a much too early age from non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, a killer for which there is no cure, only remission. My wife has joined Team-in-Training, an organization that enters endurance events to raise money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, and only that organization. She will be running in the LaSalle Bank Chicago Marathon, October 7, and has to raise $2800 before the race.

To help raise the money she has set up a web site with the assistance of Team-in-Training. I am asking you to go visit her web site and if at all possible, please donate. Also return from time to time as she will be posting pictures from her training.

The website is: Running4Debbie

If you do not wish to use a credit card, send me an email and I will provide a snail-mail address for checks and money orders, which should be made out to: The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society.

As a side note, she and I have already done six hours at a booth at the Taste of Cincinnati, the tips and hourly wage to go to the cause, and she will be having a local spaghetti dinner to also raise funds. She is totally dedicated to this cause, and plans to do a tri-athelon after the marathon, also with Team-in-Training. Any money in excess of the $2800 will go to help another team member, who is my wife's running partner, meet her $2800 requirement. If both exceed their goals, the money goes to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.

To any of you that donate, God bless you, and, if you cannot donate, please remember her in your prayers.

From Fox News comes this story of a woman who went to jail for failing to water her grass.

There are multiple facets to this. First of all there is something seriously wrong with a community that passes a law saying that people have to water their grass. It is worse than a tax. It says that someone must spend money on a non-essential activity to their survival, that may take money away from essentials. The woman was 70 years old and on a fixed income. She did not have $50 per month to pay for the water to have a green lawn.

Second it is an abrogation of property rights to say a person has to water their lawn. It is their lawn and therefore they should have the right to say whether it is watered or not.

Third, the police treated her like it was a felony instead of a misdemeanor. They had no patience, forced her out of her home, tripped her, skinned her nose, handcuffed her and put her in jail for two hours. For once I hope an ambulance-chaser talks her into a law suit.

One of the things about government regulations is that they are far less forgiving than businesses. If a government provides your water, they will shut it off in far less time than a business would be allowed to for non-payment. Governments will not work with citizens when they owe money. It's pay now or forfeit, and pay ALL of it now.

Over the years I see more and more of this kind of micro-regulation of our lives. Sometimes it is obvious, such as the various no-smoking laws. Other times it is like the case seen here. Slowly but surely we are criminalizing our choices to the point that there will be no freedom, and like the boiled frog, we never knew until too late.

Today, I read a column produced either yesterday or the day before by Michael Gerson, called "Where the Avatars Roam". It described the overall nature of a virtual world that was as completely libertarian as possible. The result?

But the main result is the breakdown of inhibition. Second Life, as you'd expect, is highly sexualized in ways that have little to do with respect or romance. There are frequent outbreaks of terrorism, committed by online anarchists who interrupt events, assassinate speakers (who quickly reboot from the dead) and vandalize buildings. There are strip malls everywhere, pushing a relentless consumerism. And there seems to be an inordinate number of vampires, generally not a sign of community health.

So perhaps conservatism really is a better value system. It implies that libertarianism, like today's version of liberalism, leads primarily to license not freedom with responsibility. The only difference I can perceive is that modern liberals want to add government regulation into the mix.

Go read the whole thing.

Thanks to The Jewish World Review for the link.

.....is nothing like utopia.