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ideological culture national politics & policies

What Neighborliness Is Not

In a late July mass videochat session, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz did not in any way acknowledge the cringe in the name of the “White Dudes for Kamala Harris” fundraiser. 

But the governor did advise his supporters to at least talk to their political opponents. 

“Look, I got a Florida Man as a brother,” Kamala Harris’s VP sidekick said. “We all have him in our families, but these are our neighbors and our relatives, and at heart, they’re good people. They’re not mean-​spirited. They’re not small. They’re not petty like they hear on stage.”

But what are these MAGA folk? How does the governor who signed a bill directing public schools to freely distribute tampons in boys’ restrooms as well as girls’ characterize people disinclined to approve of such a thing? “They’re angry, they’re confused, they’re frustrated, they feel like they got left behind sometimes.”

Somehow, Walz neglects how they feel betrayed by past representation, and are aghast at the craziness of … Tim Walz … who tells his fellow “white dudes” to “reach out, make the case.”

So, a case for what? Tampons everywhere?

Well, socialism. “Don’t ever shy away from our progressive values,” Walz said. “One person’s socialism is another person’s neighborliness.”

That’s where I bet he loses his “Florida Man” brothers. 

A politician talking up socialism is never pushing “neighborliness.” Such politicians are always pushing increased expropriation (taxes), increased regulation, and massive subsidy. 

Most who feel “left behind sometimes” are not asking for subsidies, much less the “neighborliness” of regulators and taxmen. And when they hear the word “socialism,” their trigger fingers itch. They know that over a hundred million people were killed, last century, by self-​described “socialist” leaders, outside of war.

Killing fields do not make good neighbors.

Meanwhile, one of the most important critiques of socialism is that of Ludwig von Mises, who showed that without markets in capital as well as consumer goods, chaos and poverty reign. Without price signals, goods can only be misallocated.

Like putting tampons in boys’ bathrooms.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob. 


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Thought

Marcus Aurelius

A man should be upright, not kept upright.

Emperor and Pontifex Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, Meditations (c. AD 121 – 180), Book III, §5.

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Today

Leclerc at Alençon

On August 12, 1944, French forces under General Philippe Leclerc de Hauteclocque liberated Alençon from Nazi rule — the first city in World War II France to be rescued by the French themselves.

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FYI

Body Snatchers?

A multi-​province illegal trade in cadavers has been uncovered in China. “Between 2015 and 2021, Li Zhiqiang, a doctor at The Affiliated Hospital of Qingdao University, allegedly sold around 10 cadavers to Shanxi Osteorad, with the price ranging between 10,000 yuan ($1,395) and 22,000 yuan ($3,070),” The Epoch Times tells us.

“This is something very strange,” explains U.S.-based China commentator Tang Jingyuan, quoted in the article. “In theory, even if the cadavers were from organ donors, Li doesn’t have the right to decide what to do with them, they belong to the families.…

“What’s more, Li dismembered the bodies, froze body parts, and sold them illegally and in secret. Both the bodies and their death were suspicious. How did they die? Why there were no families to claim the bodies?” 

But this appears to be not a story of just one culprit: “Between January 2015 and July 2023, Shanxi Osteorad Biomaterial Co., previously a state-​owned company, and an affiliated firm, allegedly acquired more than 4,300 human cadavers from several funeral homes, a transplant center, and a medical university, to make bone grafting materials.”

Life may be cheap in China. But death apparently pays — third parties?

Note: Image, above, from Robert Wise’s 1945 motion picture, The Body Snatcher, starring Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi.

Categories
Today

Vietnam

On August 11, 1972, the last of American ground combat troops exited South Vietnam.

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Thought

Tim Walz

And for one thing, don’t ever shy away from our progressive values: one person’s socialism is another’s neighborliness.

Minnesota Governor Timothy James Walz on a group fundraising chat dubbed “White Dudes for Kamala Harris” (July 29, 2024). Gov. Walz is the recently-​selected running mate of current Vice President Kamala Harris, who usurped the re-​election campaign of President Joe Biden. All three belong to the Democratic Party and both candidates on the current slate appear to be socialists of some sort.