That Disappointment, John Roberts

Scalia Blasts Obamacare Ruling: ‘Words Have No Meaning’

Scott Richert: The Court Saves the Day--for Insurance Companies
Vox Day

ORD, PHX, EWR...

James Howard Kunstler: Forecast 2014 — Burning Down the House

Our popular entertainments are just what you would design to produce a programmed population of criminals and sex offenders. The spectacle of the way our people look —overfed, tattooed, pierced, clothed in the raiment of clowns — suggests an end-of-empire zeitgeist more disturbing than a Fellini movie. The fact is, it simply mirrors the way we act, our gross, barbaric collective demeanor. A walk down any airport concourse makes the Barnum & Bailey freak shows of yore look quaint. In short, the rot throughout our national life is so conspicuous that a fair assessment would be that we are a wicked people who deserve to be punished.

Having been to a few airports in the last few months, I would agree. There are very few good places for people-watching in America - night clubs (which have the problem of immodesty) and upper-end restaurants.

Over at Peak Prosperity: The Disenchantment of American Politics by James H. Kunstler

See also: Obama and the Left

Not a Dead Horse Yet

After This Year’s Mess, Small Is More Beautiful Than Ever by Kirkpatrick Sale

A Glimmer of Hope?

Obamacare Showdown: Missouri Bill to Gut Obamacare, Ban Penalties, Ban Healthcare Exchange; How Would Obama Respond?

Thomas Fleming on Obamacare

An examination of first principles...
Obamacare: Charity or Marxism
Part 2
Part 3
Conclusion

Michael Shedlock: Security Founder John McAfee: "Obamacare is a Hacker’s Wet Dream"

McAfee was on Coast to Coast AM last night.

See also Tips on Navigating Obamacare Costs on HealthCare.Gov - My Personal Experience - Obamashock!

Excommunicate her, already.

Catholic business owners win temporary halt to Obama birth control mandate

Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius expressed disappointment with the decision in a statement.

"This lawsuit was not brought by a religious organization. Rather, it was brought by a for-profit commercial enterprise whose purpose is to sell HVAC equipment," she said, adding that healthcare decisions should be between women and their doctors, not their employers.

"Every American, including family business owners, should be free to live and do business according to their faith," Matthew Bowman, a lawyer for Hercules with the Alliance Defense Fund, said in a statement.

From May: Why Kathleen Sebelius Needs to Speak at Georgetown

Prof. Gutzman on Obamacare

Originalism vs. Obamacare by KEVIN R.C. GUTZMAN The Affordable Care Act goes beyond anything the Founding Fathers envisioned.

What to do about health care insurance?

Where Health Care Can Happen by Peter J. Leithart

Something at Free the Animal that is germane to the question of insurance, and I recently posted this: The Manufactured Debate Over Obamacare, by Kevin Carson.

Relevant posts at Distributist Review.

Health After Oil: Crafting Resilient Health Systems: An Introduction by Dan Bednarz

The Catholic Knight: Only One Solution to Obamacare

BP on Obamacare and a National Health Care System

Commenting at JMG's latest:

Re: Obamacare and electoral politics; actually I think the 5% in the middle who now decide national elections are likely tired of all the health care yammering, and go blank whenever they hear the words "individual mandate" and "job creators." They are going to vote on their gut feelings about the two center-right candidates they are being offered, just as they did in 2008.

You can also forget about the specifics of Obamacare or any other national health care plan; being post-peak oil means we are also post-socialism, whatever your feelings are about the "S" word. Socialism was a response to a time when the sources of inequality were political, financial, cultural, hereditary, etc. It worked when there were fewer people and more resources to go around. Now that "wealth" is imaginary and fundamental resources are truly becoming limiting (and expectations in the western world are for a lifestyle that can not possibly be sustained), socialism no longer has the capability to level the playing field at an elevation that the masses would find acceptable. Socialism was a product of the growth phase of the industrial economy. It is in the process of being disassembled worldwide now, not expanded.

The time to institute a national health care system in the U.S. passed decades ago. We no longer have the surplus wealth (of the non-imaginary kind) for this sort of thing, no matter how you design or attempt to fund it. We'll be lucky to keep our existing (and highly popular) socialist programs afloat for another generation.

Meanwhile, the true believers still believe: Why national health care is necessary to a sustainable food system (EB) by Sharon Astyk

A healthy, sustainable food system might actually obviate the need for a national health care system as she imagines it, if many of our health problems (including those of "aging") are linked to our diet. How many of the peoples with traditional diets, as surveyed by Weston Price, needed extensive health care? And what if first aid going beyond putting on band-aids and CPR were taught to the masses? (A medic or two in every neighborhood?) Kevin Carson's elimination of monopolies would be a better approach as it is compatible with relocalization, but hasn't every example of a national health care system so far gone in the direction of greater monopoly and not less?

Distributism and the Health Care System by John Médaille

Items of Interest, 29 June 2012

Thomas Storck, Corporate Personhood and 14th Amendment Rights
World made by hand by Lindsay Curren (EB)
Ruthless extrapolation by Tom Murphy

MATT VIDAL, Apple’s American Workforce And The Service Economy

PAUL CRAIG ROBERTS, It Came From Washington

Peak Oil and Energy:
Peak Traffic
John Michael Greer, The Cussedness of Whole Systems
Peak Oil Exhorts Us to Reflect (EB)
Björn Lindahl , Svenska Dagbladet / Aleklett's Energy Mix

Natural Resources:
Waste Not by Jo Homan (EB)
Thirst for power: How coal, nuclear and gas waste our water (EB)
by Wendy Wilson, Travis Leipzig & Bevan Griffiths-Sattenspiel
Drip irrigation expanding worldwide by Sandra Postel
Schools in Transition: mapping watersheds by Isabel Carlisle

Obamacare:
Jerry Salyer on the Fortnight of Freedom Campaign: Freedom is Not the Good
The Day After: A Declaration of War by Christopher Manion
Cardinal Dolan: Freedom is Rooted in Human Dignity

Six Takeaways from the Supreme Court’s Obamacare Ruling

Kevin Carson, The Manufactured Debate Over Obamacare

The Myth of the Free-Market American Health Care System

From the left:
DAVE LINDORFF, Why The ObamaCare Ruling Stinks
MARK DUDZIC, Supreme Court Ruling Means Health Care Remains A Commodity
CLARK NEWHALL, MD, ObamaCare As Corportists United
ANTHONY DIMAGGIO, Health Care And The Hollow Hope
FRANK SMECKER, Why The ObamaCare Ruling Was A Victory For The Corporate Right

Catholic:
Let’s Raise a Glass to the Bad Popes! by Donald Prudlo
Archbishop Fulton Sheen Becomes "Venerable"

Getting a Grip on Envy by Paul Kokoski

Is Nice a Vice?

The Voices of 20th-Century Chinese Martyrs (via Insight Scoop)

Misc:
Wonder Girls _ Like this _ FLASHMOB & MINI EVENT

Thomas Fleming on the Chief Justice

Dr. Fleming, John Napoleon Roberts

This has been a glorious week for the Supreme Court, as the majority brushes aside the rights of the states, the Constitution, and the rule of law. In the welter of revolutionary decisions, it is easy to overlook the six to three decision striking down the Stolen Valor Act.


The Act was a typical piece of American political silliness that allows politicians to pretend they are real patriots who care about our fighting girls and boys. Essentially, this federal law made it a crime to make false claims about receiving military medals and decorations. A California politician who told self-serving lies about his military service challenged his conviction on the grounds that he was being deprived of his free speech rights. The leftists on the court--led by the Republican justices Anthony Kennedy and John Roberts--agreed.


The three conservatives--Scalia, Thomas, and Alito--had little trouble shredding the argument. The dissenters are wasting their time. In the kingdom of lies, deceit is highest virtue. The Court has made it official: lying to deceive others is protected by law, particularly if the lies are crafted to serve the ambitions of politicians. Even the politicians who drafted the law must be somewhat gratified by the result.

John Roberts: What a Disappointment

After playing taxi driver this morning, I went back to sleep and woke up to bad news.

Mish: Obamacare Upheld; What Should Romney, Republicans Do?
Huffington Post

Ron Paul (statement)
Earl Warren Rides Again by Scott P. Richert
Quick Thoughts on the Supreme Court by Tom Piatak
Our nationalistic Supreme Court
How’s That John Roberts Appointment Looking to You Now?
Vox: Supreme Court: Obamacare is constitutional
Obamacare Upheld — Should We Be Shocked?
John Roberts Is One Clever Dude
Mother Jones
David Walker
Wesley J. Smith

From the left: JOHN STAUBER, Obamacare Wins, We Lose

Should We Be Suspect of the ‘Fortnight for Freedom’? by Andrew Haines

There are at least two definitions of religious liberty that come to mind. The first has to do with one’s ability, as a voluntary agent, to pursue unencumbered and freely the eternal truths that he or she deems most appropriate. Another concerns the license that one might be granted under law to pursue those truths even in the face of opposing religious convictions, held by other citizens or even by the state, itself.

License granted by the law? Or a right protected by law? Are there limits to the freedom of conscience? How is freedom of conscience to be balanced by the demands of law or right authority?

Items of Interest, 14 April 2012

KunstlerCast #201: Listener Mailbag (mp3)
Light Pollution, the Printed Page v. the Screen & More

Commodification and consumerism: Who stole fun? by Lisa Meekison (EB)

Liberty with a Backbone

Peter Hitchens, 'Cushty, easily done!' A criminal's mocking words that sum up our injustice system

Relocalization:
Going Local in an Age of Globalization (with Michael Schuman)

Is it too late for sustainable development?

Counterpunch:
ALEXANDER COCKBURN, Farewell Gastro-Porn: Is the Foodie Frenzy Finally Fizzling Out?
PAUL CRAIG ROBERTS, World’s Apex Bully Leads World Into Lawlessness
GARETH PORTER, U.S.-Israel Deal to Demand Qom Closure Threatens Nuclear Talks

Catholic:
Cardinal Burke: Employers who Provide Contraceptives Cooperating with Sin


Partisanship and Religious Freedom
The Bishops' Statement on Religious Freedom and Widespread Misunderstanding of the State of Free Exercise



Feminism:
Feminism is failutre
The career neg
Why Rosen's remark was significant
Down with Gender Studies!

doug111:

I’ve always thought that feminists trying to make a moral issue out of the basic nature of males’ sexual attraction to females particularly on first impression by calling it “objectification” was utter nonsense. Yeah we’re attracted by the visual, in particular young, 0.7 or lower waist to hips ratio, symmetrical and healthy looking beauty. We have individual preferences particularly at the higher levels of beauty but also a whole lot of commonality in what men find most attractive. Trying to shame that by calling it “objectifying” women is just absurd. Men are different from women, and no that’s not mostly a social construct.

Retrenched:

Yep. It’s not really “patriarchy” that feminists hate, it’s maleness itself.

Given the role that the male plays in courtship (as the pursuer) it makes sense that he would rely on visual cues to determine first of all whether a woman is healthy and fertile before choosing her as a possible mate?

Cardinal Dolan on Face the Nation

CBS: Cardinal Dolan: Contraception debate not over

Ron Paul at CAL

another (in 3 parts)



So I went to see a politician instead of attending Maundy Thursday Mass. The organizers had to move the rally from Zellerbach to Memorial Glade because of the number of people expected to attend. A typical campaign speech for the good doctor? The beginning was federalist in its rhetoric, which would appeal to those who believe that the Federal Government no longer complies with it and that the power of the Federal Government needs to be curbed in accordance with that document. But he shifted to his libertarian message, which dominated the rest of the speech. He was, after all, introduced by the founder of one of the campus libertarian student group. Talk about freedom and liberty would appeal to many; the crowd was rather diverse, and there were some Muslim students. Talk about liberty may appeal to those who want to be left alone so they can do their thing, but it does't advance a program for redirecting society towards the good. Dr. Paul does believe in state sovereignty and that states have the right to regulate morals, so how should we understand his unabashed espousal of (paleo)libertarianism and his pitch to the youth? Does he think that it would be better if the states themselves become more "libertarian"? It would seem so.

Ron Paul is Right (as Usual) about Judicial Review and the Commerce Clause
Ron Paul Addresses Government Controlled Health Care, the Dangers of Judicial Review and America’s “Intellectual Revolution”

Related:
Healthcare for all in the U.S? by Mary Logan (EB)
The Supreme Court and Obamacare

The Meaning of Liberty During the American Revolution (Part II) by Bradley J. Birzer

Items of Interest, 4 April 2012

Mark Signorelli, A Burke for our Times, Part 3

Thomas Fleming, The Nerve of the Turks

Chris Hedges Challenges NDAA in Court

A Conversation with Wendell Berry

Peter Hitchens, Do this in Remembrance

Florida's Self-Defense Laws (contrast with the combox ford Dreher's post)
Patrick J. Buchanan, A Nation Arms Itself — For What?

James Antle, Obama's Preemptive Strike on the Supreme Court

Judge Napolitano Blasts Back at Obama Predicting of the Uphold of ObamaCare Says “He Know This is Our System”


The Supreme Court and Obamacare

Paul Gottfried, Obama Mobilizes His Leftist Base

Jim Bovard, 95th Anniversary of Horrendous American Wrong Turn: World War One

Subsidiarity and Libertarian “Small Government” by James Baresal

Chinese women are killing themselves at astronomical rates: is the one-child policy to blame?

Putin’s Philosophy by Paul Robinson

Interview with Jack Donovan (mp3)

Gene Logsdon, Nature's Promises Kept Again

Economics and Relocalization:
Commodification: the essence of our time by Colin Leys and Barbara Harriss-White

“The first question should always be “how are we going to work together?” rather than “what are we going to do?” by Rob Hopkins

Can There Be “Good” Corporations?
Collaboration is Key to Small Business Success

A new film from REconomy: The Totnes Local Entrepreneurs Forum

Back to the Land

Permaculture thinking on the farm: going beyond tradition by Rebecca Hosking

Energy and Sustainability:
Dealing with energy shock in Japan (mp3
Timeline: How We Learned to Love—and Hate—Natural Gas
Does the U.S. really have more oil than Saudi Arabia?
Tom Murphy, Heat those Feet!
Review of Lt. Col. Eggen’s thesis, Impact of the Peaking of World Oil Production on the Global Balance of Power by Rick Munroe
1970’s Study Predictions Are Still on Target for 2030’s Decline of Humanity
Expanding our moral universe by Joy Merwin Monteiro (EB)
True sustainability solutions by Gail Tverberg (EB)
Peak oil denial: How does this help? by Rich Turcotte (EB)

Diet and Health:
The LLVLC Show (Episode 564): Stefani ‘Paleo Pepper’ Ruper Brings A Refreshing Irreverence To The Paleo Community (mp3)

Ask The Low-Carb Experts (Episode 11): ‘Saturated Fat Is Good For You?’ | Dr. Jeff Volek (mp3)

How giving up sugar can take 20 years off your looks

MDA: Is Eating Meat Ethical?

Red meat has many benefits for athletes, magazine says

Robb Wolf, MovNat & Erwan LeCorre – Episode 126 (mp3)

Catholic:
First Chrism Mass of UK Ordinariate at St. James, Spanish Place (more photos)
Christendom: Va. Attorney General Cuccinelli Exhorts Students to Get Involved (lecture at itunes)
Contemporary Byzantine Icons Exhibition to be Presented in Trieste

History:
Foundation of the Renaissance: The Civic Culture of Early Italian Humanism

Feminism:
Sex and the modern girl: Are we witnessing a new age of female sexual assertiveness?
I dated 50 men in six months (and STILL didn't find love)

Guys, 'Girls,' online porn and the younger generation

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Dalrock Responds to Darwin Catholic: What, Me Worry?

The Corruption of Christianity

Steve Sailer, Mortal Combat From a Feminine Perspective

Music:
Scruggs funeral audio available online - Eddie Stubbs’ On-Air Tribute to the late Earl Scruggs

Harmonia Time Capsule: 1618 by Laura Osterlund

Punch Brothers cover The Cars

Punch Brothers cover The Cars

Hollywood:
Jef Costello, Breaking Bad: A Celebration

More weirdness from the master of weirdness?
David Lynch - "Crazy Clown Time" (Official Video)

5.11 Tactical Paragon Softshell Jacket


NRA American Warrior #7

Items of Interest, 28 March 2012

Club Orlov: A Modest Health Care Proposal
Michael Shedlock, "Healthwreck": Obamacare May Go Down Entirely; Medicaid Funding in Question; Justice Scalia Joked Reading Entire Bill Would be "Cruel and Unusual Punishment"; Wrecking Operation or Salvage Job?
Amicus Curiae of Senator Rand Paul

Conservatism or Liberty? by Nikolai G. Wenzel
A Guiding Principle Revealed by David Schaengold

The War on Guns by Frank Borzellieri

Jack Donovan, The Trouble with Squares
Interview with Andy Nowicki (alas, hosted at a WN website)

10 Places to Meet Women Other Than a Bar or Nightclub
Location does matter, but they have to be very specific in order for one to find a woman of compatible cultural background and character. Is AoM too beta?

Relocalization and Sustainability:
Dave Pollard, How many circles does it take to make a community? (EB)

Translating Transition: from small town to mega-city by Joanne Poyourow (EB)
But if nothing can make an alternative arrangement sustainable, wouldn't it be better to leave?

Together: The Rituals Pleasures and Politics of Cooperation (book review) by David Bollier (EB)

New Urbanism Now

Farming:
Watching Hens Eat by Gene Logsdon (EB)

Energy:
The Phantoms I’ve Killed by Tom Murphy (EB)

The solar envelope: how to heat and cool cities without fossil fuels
by Kris De Decker (EB)

Christian:
Improperia: Popule Meus for Good Friday

A more "Eastern" version:
Reminds me of what the SSJ did with the use of organum. That group was such a disappointment, to put it mildly. The Archaeological Evidence For Jesus (PHOTOS) The Real Persecution Today If We Mock the Sacred We Will Have No Future Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia Islam: Hijab – the Islamic dress code: its historical development, evidence from sacred sources and views of selected Muslim scholars Diet and Health: Robb Wolf, The Paleo Diet Budget Shopping Guide Paleo Women are Phat I’m Calling for a New Paradigm Music: Alan Lomax's Massive Archive Goes Online (here) Two Requiems by Wendy Gillespie TV: Gillian Anderson on ‘X-Files,’ ‘Downton Abbey,’ ‘Great Expectations’ MODERN-DAY BATTLE AXE (includes a photo of United Cutlery M48 Hawk (top) and Smith & Wesson SW671 Tomahawk) ZT Knives at SHOT Show 2012 (source) Soompi's 14th Birthday Celebration!

Items of Interest, 27 March 2012

Thomas Fleming, Lynching George Zimmerman
Clark Stooksbury, Idiot Wind, Blowing Every Time You Move Your Mouth . . .

Peter Hitchens, Psychiatrists Snatching Our Children

Paul Craig Roberts, How the New American Empire Works

The Religion of Money by Stratford Caldecott

Conservatism Revisited: The Revolt Against Ideology

Rediscovering Christopher Dawson | An Interview with Dr. Bradley J. Birzer

Blessed Karl von Habsburg by Denis Kitzinger

Vox Populi: Housing Can't Bounce Back

The Iraq We Leave Behind
Top 10 Lessons of the Iraq War

Obamacare versus the U.S. Constitution By Alan Caruba
Randy E. Barnett: Vindication for Challenger of Health Care Law

Peter Daniel Haworth: Newman, MacIntyre, Aristotle, and Tradition in ANAMNESIS

From December of last year: 14 United States Governors : Prepare State Militia Defenses, To Be Ready Against Obama’s Rogue Federal Forces!

Get Ready for the Crackdowns by Kelley B. Vlahos

Club Orlov: Trained for Success, Bred to be Eaten

Bill Gross: "The Game As We All Have Known It Appears To Be Over"

Sandra Postel, Reflections on a Thirsty Planet for World Water Day

Gene Logsdon's newest - Now Available: A Sanctuary of Trees!

"Being Southern…"

Relocalization:
Rethink & Relocalize by Alex Smith (EB) (alt)

Strengthening Local Economies: Michael Shuman on Investing in Small Businesses (mp3)

Shannon Hayes, Bees, butterflies and beneficials

Ackerman and McPherson dialog: Practical paths to a post-carbon lifestyle

A DIY Civilization by Colleen Shaddox
Can we create the machines of modern life sustainably, cheaply, and close to home?

The Wealth of Networks (pdf)

Local Food

On being in time for Transition by Sharon Te Apiti Stevens (EB)

Farming:
Perennial Crops, Sustainable Agriculture: A 21st Century Green Revolution

Catholic:
Chant tradi- Vierge des Francs
The Greatest of All Things


LCs:
Letter from a victim-survivor

Ratzinger in Mexico

Those millions of Mexicans who could care less for the Catholic Church – and there are more than would likely admit it – might also have asked Ratzinger to comment on the slew of sex-abuse complaints made against members of the country’s clergy. In fact, the papal visit coincided with the launch of a book by a group of priests who in 1998 brought charges against Legion of Christ founder Marciel Maciel for having abused them when they were seminarians. “La voluntad de no saber” (“The Will not to Know”) includes powerful evidence that the Vatican knew of the notorious Maciel’s altar-ego – drug addict, paedophile – decades before it acted. Maciel was “disciplined” by Joseph Ratzinger in 2005 and died three years later.


Not all of Mexico’s clergymen are pederast, pro-militarization fanatics, however. Since the earliest days of the Spanish conquest, the Mexican church has been littered with rightly-celebrated dissident voices; from Bartolome de Las Casas, who stood up for indigenous rights in the 16th century, to Bishop Samuel Ruiz Garcia, a liberation theologian who risked his life by sympathizing with the Zapatista rebels in the 1990s.

Feminism:The Volokh Conspiracy: "Slut" and Postmodern Me

Jack Donovan’s The Way of Men by Jef Costello
Review at Amerika.

Diet and Health:
James Howard Kunstler, Matrix of Rackets

Is Your Baby a Good Baby? by Heather M. Carson (via Thinking Housewife) - see The Baby Book by Dr. Sears

The LLVLC Show (Episode 560): Dr. Peter Attia Has Declared ‘War On Insulin’ (mp3)


Chris Masterjohn, Good Fats, Bad Fats: Separating Fact from Fiction

MDA: Dear Mark: Food for Skiing, Menstrual Carb Cravings, a Stubborn Teen, and More

Exercise Your Eyes

Learning MovNat is Making Me a Better Strength Coach: Guest Post by Jeff Turner

History:
The Roman elite and the power of the past: continuity and change in Ostrogothic Italy

Hoard of Roman Coins Found in England

Men in Poufy Trousers

Military:
Special forces are special, not magical

Movies:
Politically incorrect film reviews – Coriolanus

TV:
'Mad Men' Creator On What's Next For Don Draper