Here's an interesting bit from

A Discourse of Trade by Barbon, Nicholas (1640-1698). First published: 1690.

|62|* Of the Chief Causes that Promote TRADE.

THE Chief Causes that Promote Trade, (not to mention Good Government, Peace, and Scituation, with other Advantages) are Industry in the Poor, and Liberality in the Rich: Liberality, is the free Usage of all those things that are made by the Industry of the Poor, for the Use of the Body and Mind; It Relates chiefly to Man's self, but doth not hinder him from being Liberal to others.

6.1
The Two Extreams to this Vertue, are Prodigality and Covetousness: Prodigality is a Vice that is prejudicial to the Man, but not to Trade; It is living a pace, and spending that in a Year, that should last all his |63| Life: Covetousness is a Vice, prejudicial both to Man & Trade; It starves the Man, and breaks the Trader; and by the same way the Covetous Man thinks he grows rich, he grows poor; for by not consuming the Goods that are provided for Man's Use, there ariseth a dead Stock, called Plenty, and the Value of those Goods fall, and the Covetous Man's Estates, whether in Land, or Mony, become less worth: And a Conspiracy of the Rich Men to be Covetous, and not spend, would be as dangerous to a Trading State, as a Forreign War; for though they themselves get nothing by their Covetousness, nor grow the Richer, yet they would make the Nation poor, and the Government great Losers in the Customs and Excises that ariseth from Expence. |64|

The Library of Economics and Liberty is full of these old treatises. Here is their introduction to this one and another similar one. Hmm. I guess I'll have to exerpt it, it won't be on their front page forever.

Ah, it's short:

Featured Books
A Discourse of Trade, by Nicholas Barbon. (1690)
Discourses Upon Trade, by Sir Dudley North. (1691)

These two early works in economics illustrate how well the economics of international trade was understood even in the 17th century. Not only did North and Barbon pre-date Cantillon, Hume, and Smith, but they are worth revisiting today for their delightful, independent insights on the foundations of free trade.

Although Mercantilism persisted until Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations (and continues today in political debates about trade), it was not an idea held lockstep by everyone pre-Smith. Consider this quote from North:

No Man is richer for having his Estate all in Money, Plate, &c. lying by him, but on the contrary, he is for that reason the poorer. (Essay 2, par. 2.5.)

North argued strongly that money is not the same as wealth; and also that encouraging exports merely to accumulate money is not the source of economic well-being, neither for individuals nor for nations. North is mentioned in historical context in Lalor's Cyclopedia, in the article on the Physiocrats.

From Barbon, consider the chapters illustrating benefits of free trade, the ease of slipping into trade wars, and money versus credit. Barbon's book has almost the organization of a modern economics textbook: the definition of goods, real versus nominal values, exchange, trade, applications!

The archaic spellings of these two short books belie their modern writing styles. Both are excellent reminders of how economists struggle to address age-old politically-motivated arguments.

I've found it very easy to read. It's pretty simple, jargon-free English.

There were a few Latin phrases, which I just plugged into Google and usually the translations were right up front. For instance, "'valet quantum vendi potest' - A thing is worth only what someone else will pay for it." Barbon is showing the antiquity of this economic principle by using the Latin. Interesting how close people were to the concepts of subjective value and marginal utility for thousands of years without truly discovering them.

It's kind of interesting to me, as a half-a***d linguist, to see how much English had changed from the time of the publication of the King James Bible in 1605 (if I remember right) until 1690.

Well, the Packers won 45-17

Good thing everybody was focussed on Favre, because the Rams weren't very good.

Najeh Davenport was great - 178 yards rushing. Watch out, Ahman!

Great blocking, Linemen! Talk about making holes!

Favre: another game another couple records. Of course, if that were his attitude, he wouldn't be breaking those records.

OK, Update: Catholic Packer Fan needs a sportswriting gig and don't miss Mr. Pterodactyl's live-blog of the game, for the trivia question, if nothing else.

I put all this in, because, eventually, Haloscan will wipe out the older comments.

Oops! I meant to say Catholic Packer Fan and Mr. Pterodactyl.

This Issue Deserves the Respect of a Separate Post

I haven't said anything about this because it pains me so greatly.

The killings north of Rice Lake, WI... I didn't know what to say until I heard a guy on the radio, Lew Freeman, commenting this morning. Lew's a former head of the Minnesota NAACP with military experience, a Republican, moderate. I respect him greatly, though I often disagree with him.

He was asking whether the attention paid to this crime would be so great if it had been committed in a crack house in North Minneapolis with an "automatic" pistol. But he had more questions than just that. He made the great point that The Media immediately went to the highest-ranked Hmong politician, Saint Paul City Councilwoman Mi Mua, for comment. Nobody asks a white community representative for comment when a white guy commits a crime, it is racist to ask for "their leaders'" opinion when a "person of color" does so.

Separating out the individual criminal is the means by which Western Civilization has managed to reduce crime, blood-feud and warfare in our countries. It is when we fail to do so that the trouble explodes.

I am pleased that the Assault Weapons Ban died, but I have some recommendations for the DNR:

1. We have magazine limits for goose hunting. Let's have some for deer hunting as well.

2. Background checks for hunting licenses. If you have a violent background you don't get to wander around with a loaded weapon. A hunting license IS a license to carry a loaded weapon, with no further questions asked. I don't want further questions asked, I want to know that they've been asked and answered satisfactorily already when I see a guy with that tag pinned to his back.

3. Require a test for hunting licenses, including several questions about property rights matters and trespassing.

I grew up in sticks, where you could pull out your gun and shoot off a couple thousand rounds in the backyard any time you wanted to EXCEPT DURING DEER SEASON, at which time, it was a good idea to stay indoors unless you were actually out, rifle in hand, to get a deer. With a license.

Our neighborhood was kept pretty clear of all game by our gigantic german shepard, so we were safer than most (though she wasn't), but it was still a good idea to keep your head down.

Supposedly, only one of the shooting victims had a hunting rifle. I guess I don't understand how all those people could be wandering around the woods unarmed. Here's an interesting article on a similar problem in South Dakota which kicks over another whole can of worms.

It's not about assault weapons per se, and it's not about race.

I think I'll probably be updating this.

Too Much to Say for One Post

Consider it an outline with a few amplifications.

So it doesn't get lost, here's the link Steve gave me: A Century of Lawmaking for a New Nation: U.S. Congressional Documents and Debates, 1774 - 1875. It looks like the kind of cool stuff I like to read.

Oop. Favorite song playing in the background: Bread's Look What You've Done. [Scroll down for samples.]

LibertyBob wanted to know what I like in modern music. Shania Twain's Up. Everything on it. I expecially like the irony of "What A Way To Wanna Be!" It's just a tad hypocritical for her to recommend that women be happy with how they look because "nobody's perfect."

Yeah, right, babe! Seems like that advice has to be a little hard to take, comin' from the hottest fox on the planet.
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So, anyway...

We've been watching the Minnesota State

High School Football Championships all day. Right now they're playing the final game, the AAAAA [stupid class name, they were double-A in my day, and the triple-A class would have been Class B--Superior was AA back then; or Class A in Wisconsin] Championship between two neighboring Minneapolis suburbs, Wayzata and Minnetonka. I don't know who I'm rooting for; whoever is making the best play right now, I guess. In all classes, it's been amazing to see the quality of play. I'd rather watch this than college ball any time. It stacks up well against the Bowl games.

Happy Thanksgiving!

AAagh! Gotta run help the wife. I'm looking at this, thankful for having grown up right near there. I always went there to clear my mind after my travels. Whatever is wrong with me now can be traced to not getting back there much since I moved down here.

And check out the meaning of Thanksgiving here.

Did anybody actually check out

that Holy Crap! post a couple days back? It was a tornado that formed in the middle of a soccer game in Japan. I know I got it from a porn purveyor (pretty much - don't click any of his links, unless you like adware) but that's no excuse to avoid it.

Have I provided a sufficient number of contradictions yet?

I can't say I've been slackin' on the blog

because I've been terribly busy in the rest of my life. We've had a lot of company and it's unbelievable how quickly the place gets messy. Plus it's been catch-up time at work which calls me into play. [Doing what? Why serving customers, of course.] Then there've been Rosie's activities and Laurie's conferences and the fact that I hit the wall on the late night blogging (again). I've been able to absorb but not produce. I still don't have any wrinkles, but that $#:+ might get 'em started.

I've mostly been absorbing the productions of the guys I link. Go down the list and pick one. I haven't seen any stuff lately that I thought sucked. I hit the Next Blog button a minute ago and saw this. I hope he gets better; this ain't a promising start.

But who am I to talk, eh? We'll check back in a day or two and see if he learns how to spell "encyclopedia."

Lance reminded me that I wanted to post this map

here. I just think it's pretty. I got it from the Mises people.



Lance's article is sad news. I still have a soft spot for Republicans (Obviously, since I voted for Bush and not Badnarik) and Wisconsin and I want my old friends to get along.

Lance also links a story, via Grandpa John's, that shows how libertarian the world of JK Rowling's Harry Potter is.

The Cascade Policy Institute may deserve a link from me, along with The Pacific Research Institute and The Mackinac Center for Public Policy.

Oh, and I really want to add The Taxpayers' League of Minnesota.

Packers Win 16-13 With Last Second Field Goal!

They beat the Vikings the same way last week. Mr. Favre pulled it together the last quarter and ended up completing 33 of 50 passes for 383 yards. I gave Donald Driver my vote for MVP of the game for his 10 pass receptions for 148 yards and one touchdown. I was pretty miffed about their second to last drive when Driver pushed off the defender and got an offensive pass interference penalty, followed by Favre throwing an interception, but at least it wasn't much worse than a punt. That was followed by Houston going 3 and out, setting up the Pack for that last good drive and the field goal.

They're making it way too exciting.

I don't have cable, so I had to listen to the game on the radio and follow the stats on NFL.com, but that's kind of fun in its own way.

Oh, God, it's beautiful!

Here's a quote from the Manifesto of The Capitalism Party that many of you won't read enough of to see:

No Force or Fraud is Needed

Nearly all past revolutions required initiatory force or fraud. Many consisted of the violent overthrow of existing regimes in order to replace one set of murderous leaders with another set of murderous leaders. But today’s intellectual revolution does not require any force or fraud. In fact, it does not require the sacrifice of anyone for any reason. Acts of initiatory force, fraud and sacrifice are tools of the incumbent power system. The new power system does not require and cannot function through initiatory force, fraud and sacrifice. It survives through competition.

This might seem odd to the average person who tries to live normally within today's power system. After all, the average person has been exposed to multiple instances of compulsion, fraud and calls for sacrifice. Who has not been urged to sacrifice himself or herself for some higher good? Those are acts of the current power system.

For admirers of John Stuart Mill:

Looking back in time reveals that classical liberals were among the best and brightest of mankind's intellectuals regarding the realm of political economy. Yet with the onslaught of bad philosophy, classical liberals could not defend their position until the last of them, John Stuart Mill, surrendered his position and became a socialist. With the once-respectable liberal name vacant, intellectual carpetbaggers moved in and inverted the liberal name by linking it to its opposite tenets. Modern liberals in America represent the antithesis of what the founders of classical liberalism articulated.

He uses the phrase "controlling the future" a bit too much for my taste. I would like to think I understand what he means, but if you ask me, creating such an unrealistic expectation in general terms sows the seeds of counterrevolution.

But, as I say, I think I understand what he means. In very limited, focussed activities it is possible to control enough of the variables of chance to effect the consequence you desire. Physics experiments and technological inventions are obvious examples.

Just watch out about giving your lingo to the politicos.

Update: compare to this. Nice of 'em to give us as ready made strawman, eh?

I was just watching Carly Fiorina

on Charley Rose. I think she's sexy. I was raised by and around strong women, and she's got it all: looks, knowledge (it shows), strength and, frankly, money (and it shows that she came by it through her own effort).



I wonder if she could use a butler.

Do you need more reason to love her than this:

CARLY FIORINA, CHIEF EXECUTIVE, HEWLETT-PACKARD

"The art of war," by the ancient Chinese general Sun Tzu, is a favorite book of Carly Fiorina's.

Perhaps with good reason. Few have faced the challenges Ms. Fiorina has since Hewlett-Packard Co. in 1999 made her its first chief executive to be chosen from outside the company. Her appointment sent a thunderbolt through H-P and through the corporate world, where ascensions of female executives to top jobs were still relatively rare.

Five years later, the shock waves are still coming as Ms. Fiorina struggles to fulfill both the promise of her own career and the ambitious goals she set for her company, now a tech behemoth after its bitterly contested $19 billion acquisition of Compaq Computer Corp. in 2002.

Once installed at H-P, Ms. Fiorina immediately introduced a plan to centralize its dispersed corporate structure, cutting down its 83 business units to just a handful. And she quickly proclaimed that H-P would deliver growth of 12 percent to 15 percent a year. But by late 2000, she found herself steering the company through one of the roughest periods in high-tech history.

This article includes this (to me) tantalizing tidbit, "She attended Stanford University, graduating with a degree in medieval history."

Oh, baby...

I was working for HP as a contractor when she was chosen, and my first thought was that she was a "token woman" to assuage the political correctness that was even more rampant in 1999 than it is now, but she has proven to be far more than that. I wish her well.

I think she can do it.

I get my marching orders from Thomas Sowell.

I think his article at Townhall.com today is one of his most important ones.

At least as far back as the 1930s, the intelligentsia and others have warned against military spending as setting off an "arms race" in which each side escalates its military buildup in response to the other, making the whole thing an expensive exercise in futility. The same notion was repeated throughout the long years of the Cold War.

Today's version is that, no matter how many Middle East terrorists we kill, new ones will take their place and we will have nothing to show for all our efforts and sacrifices. People who talk this way are completely undaunted by the fact that Ronald Reagan proved them wrong during the Cold War.

President Reagan understood that the Soviets did not have unlimited resources -- and in fact their resources were far more limited than ours. Going directly counter to those who wanted a "nuclear freeze" or other weapons limitations agreements, Ronald Reagan began a military buildup that kept upping the ante until the Soviets had to throw in their hand, ending the Cold War.

When Reagan ordered a bombing of Libya in retaliation for Libyan terrorism, the immortal fallacy was immediately voiced by former President Jimmy Carter, who declared that this would only make matters worse and bring on more terrorism. But Libya toned down its terrorist activities.

Khaddafi has proven himself to be a rational man, but he wouldn't have if we'd let him continue on the path he'd begun. Most psychos can be "turned from their wicked ways" if you expend the energy to do it. They have to be shown that success is not to be found on the path of destruction.

I'd like to quote more of Sowell's article here, but I'd be pushing the copyright "Fair Use Doctrine" in which I have been trained. Suffice it to say that Sowell explains our situation very clearly: the terrorists WISH they could fight an endless Jihad against us, but the fact is that they can't. Energetic opposition will bring their activities to John Kerry's level of "nuisance". Passivity would allow them to regroup and rebuild into a serious threat to the Western World.

I think our Fallujah action has dealt them a crippling blow from which they won't soon recover. Congratulations, US Marines.

Holy Crap!!

This'll ruin your ball game!

Thanks to my Brazilian pal Omedi.

Note to self

read this post.

Here's another email making the rounds.

I thought I'd clean it up and make it presentable.
I'd also like verification, if anybody knows. I will check it out myself, after a while.

Subject: Fw: Tomb of the Unknown Soldier

Tomb of the Unknown Soldier

1. How many steps does the guard take during his walk across the tomb of the Unknowns and why?

21 steps. It alludes to the twenty-one gun salute, which is the highest honor given any military or foreign dignitary.

2. How long does he hesitate after his about face to begin his
return walk and why?

21 seconds for the same reason as answer number 1

3. Why are his gloves wet?

His gloves are moistened to prevent his losing his grip on the rifle.

4. Does he carry his rifle on the same shoulder all the time and if not, why not?

He carries the rifle on the shoulder away from the tomb.

After his march across the path, he executes an about face and moves the rifle to the outside shoulder.

5. How often are the guards changed?

Guards are changed every thirty minutes, twenty-four hours a day, 365 days a year.

6. What are the physical traits of the guard limited to?

For a person to apply for guard duty at the tomb, he must be between 5' 10" and 6' 2" tall and his waist size cannot exceed 30."

Other requirements of the Guard: They must commit 2 years of life to guard the tomb, live in a barracks under the tomb, and cannot drink any alcohol on or off duty for the rest of their lives. They cannot swear in public for the rest of their lives and cannot disgrace the uniform {fighting} or the tomb in any way. After two years, the guard is given a wreath pin that is worn on their lapel signifying they served as guard of the tomb. There are only 400 presently worn.

The guard must obey these rules for the rest of their lives or give up the wreath pin.

The shoes are specially made with very thick soles to keep the heat and cold from their feet. There are metal heel plates that extend to the top of the shoe in order to make the loud click as they come to a halt.

There are no wrinkles, folds or lint on the uniform. Guards dress for duty in front of a full-length mirror.

The first six months of duty a guard cannot talk to anyone, nor watch TV. All off duty time is spent studying the 175 notable people laid to rest in Arlington National Cemetery. A guard must memorize who they are and where they are interred. Among the notables are: President Taft, Joe E. Lewis {the boxer} and Medal of Honor winner Audie Murphy, {the most decorated soldier of WWII} of Hollywood fame.

Every guard spends five hours a day getting his uniforms ready for guard duty.


ETERNAL REST GRANT THEM O LORD,

AND LET PERPETUAL LIGHT SHINE UPON THEM.

In 2003 as Hurricane Isabelle was approaching Washington, DC, our US Senate/House took 2 days off with anticipation of the storm. On the ABC evening news, it was reported that because of the dangers from the hurricane, the military members assigned the duty of guarding the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier were given permission to suspend the assignment. They respectfully declined the offer, "No way, Sir!" Soaked to the skin, marching in the pelting rain of a tropical storm, they said that guarding the Tomb was not just an assignment, it was the highest honor that can be afforded to a serviceperson. The tomb has been patrolled continuously, 24/7, since 1930.

A Public School Teacher Sent Me This

Tim Wilson, comedian, had this to say about Martha Stewart:
"Boy, I feel safer now that she's behind bars. O.J. & Kobe are walking around, Scott Peterson's going to be soon, but they take the one woman in America willing to cook and clean and work in the yard and haul her ass to jail."

And these headlines from

> The year is 2029-----
>
> Ozone created by electric cars now killing millions in the seventh largest country in the world, Mexifornia formerly known as California.
>
> White minorities still trying to have English recognized as Mexifornia's third language.
>
> Spotted Owl plague threatens northwestern United States crops and livestock.
>
> Baby conceived naturally . . scientists stumped.
>
> Couple petitions court to reinstate heterosexual marriage.
>
> Last remaining Fundamentalist Muslim dies in the American Territory of the Middle East (formerly known as Iran, Afghanistan, Syria and Lebanon).
>
> Iraq still closed off; physicists estimate it will take at least 10 more years before radioactivity decreases to safe levels.
>
> France pleads for global help after being overtaken by Jamaica.
>
> Castro finally dies at age 112; Cuban cigars can now be imported legally, but President Chelsea Clinton has banned all smoking
>
> George Z. Bush says he will run for President in 2036.
>
> Postal Service raises price of first class stamp to $17.89 and reduces mail delivery to Wednesdays only.
>
> 85-year, $75.8 billion study: Diet and Exercise is the key to weight loss.
>
> Average weight of Americans drops to 250 lbs.
>
> Japanese scientists have created a camera with such a fast shutter speed, they now can photograph a woman with her mouth shut.

I didn't mention that it was a woman teacher who sent me this.

> Massachusetts executes last remaining conservative.
>
> Supreme Court rules punishment of criminals violates their civil
> rights
>
> Average height of NBA players now nine feet, seven inches.
>
> New federal law requires that all nail clippers, screwdrivers, fly swatters and rolled-up newspapers must be registered by January 2036.
>
> Congress authorizes direct deposit of formerly illegal political
> contributions to campaign accounts.
>
> Capitol Hill intern indicted for refusing to have sex with
> congressman.
>
> IRS sets lowest tax rate at 75 percent.
>
> Florida Democrats still don't know how to use a voting machine.

Thinking I'd just add another link to the old link-bar

I discovered what promises to be a good bit of Sci-Fi online: The Great Explosion, by Eric Frank Russell.

Here are the first three paragraphs of the

PROLOGUE

WHEN AN EXPLOSION takes place lots of bits and pieces fly all over the scenery. The greater the wallop the larger the lumps and the farther they travel. These are fundamental facts known to every schoolchild old enough to have some sneaky suspicions about the birds and the bees. They were not known or perhaps they were not fully realized by Johannes Pretorius van der Camp Blieder despite the fact that he was fated to create the biggest bang in human history.

Johannes Etc. Blieder was a lunatic of the same order as Unk (who first made fire), Wunk (who designed the wheel), Galileo, Leonardo da Vinci, the Wright Brothers and many others who have outraged orthodoxy by achieving the impossible. He was a shrimp of a man with a partly bald head, a ragged goatee beard and weak, watery eyes hugely magnified by pebble-lensed spectacles. He shuffled around on splayed feet with the gait of a pregnant duck, had been making glutinous sniffs since birth and never knew where to put his hand on a handkerchief.

Of academic qualifications he had none whatever. A spaceship bound for the Moon or Venus could thunder overhead as such ships had done for a thousand years and he would peer at it myopically without the vaguest notion of what pushed it along. What's more, he wasn't the least bit interested in finding out. Four hours per day, four days per week, he sat at an office desk. The rest of his time was devoted wholly and with appalling single-mindedness to the task of levitating a penny. Wealth or power or shapely women had no appeal to him. Except when hunting a handkerchief his entire life was dedicated to what he deemed the ultimate triumph, namely, that of being able to exhibit a coin floating in mid-air.

Now you know almost as much as I do. It won't take you long to pass me, since I don't have a whole lot of spare time these days, and I haven't mastered photoreading yet (assuming it's possible).

It's time for some more non-original material

[My March archives are hosed-up. Anybody notice that? I see that it works fine if I shrink the text size a notch. I fixed the oversized pictures in April, so that will work better now.]

I find that I'm still tired of the Hindu stuff. How about a little Confucius?

THE HUMANISTIC STANDARD

Confucius said: "Truth does not depart from human nature. If what is regarded as truth departs from human nature, it may not be regarded as truth. The Book of Songs says: 'In hewing an axe handle, the pattern is not far off.' [Seems kind of incomplete.] Thus, when we take an axe handle in our hand to hew another axe handle and glance from one to the other, some still think the pattern is far off. Where fore the moral man in dealing with men appeals to the common human nature and changes the manner of their lives and nothing more.

"When a man carries out the principles of conscientiousness and reciprocity he is not far from the moral law. What you do not wish others should do unto you, do not do unto them.

"There are four things in the moral life of a man, not one of which I have been able to carry out in my life. To serve my father as I would expect my son to serve me: that I have not been able to do. To serve my sovereign as I would expect a minister under me to serve me: that I have not been able to do. To act towards my elder brothers as I would expect my younger brother to act towards me: that I have not been able to do. To be the first to behave towards friends as I would expect them to behave towards me: that I have not been able to do.

"In the discharge of the ordinary duties of life and in the exercise of care in ordinary conversation, whenever there is shortcoming, never fail to strive for improvement, and when there is much to be said, always say less than what is necessary; words having respect to actions and actions have respect to words. Is it not just this thorough genuineness and absence of pretense which characterizes the moral man?"

All right! That's the kind of thing I'm looking for. Straight-forward talk about how to live. Anything new here?

Since I haven't done this in a while, I guess I should tell everybody that this comes from a long out-of-print book called The Wisdom of India and China, edited by Lin Yutang. Nobody had it available, last time I checked. Others of Lin's books are available, like The Importance of Living.

I found this one at a used-book store.

Let's go ahead and finish the section:

The moral life of man may be likened to traveling to a distant place: one must start from the nearest stage. It may also be likened to ascending a height: one must begin from the lowest step. The Book of Songs says:

"When wives and children and their sires are one,
'Tis like the harp and lute in unison.
When brothers live in concord and at peace
The strain of harmony shall never cease.
The lamp of happy union lights the home,
And bright days follow when the children come."

Confucius, commenting on the above, remarked: "In such a state of things what more satisfaction can parents have?"

The moral man conforms himself to his life circumstances: he does not desire anything outside of his position. Finding himself in a position of wealth and honor, he lives as becomes one living in a position of wealth and honor. Finding himself in a position of poverty and humble circumstances, he lives as becomes one living in a position of poverty and humble circumstances. Finding himself in uncivilized countries, he lives as becomes one living in uncivilized countries. Finding himself in circumstances of danger and difficulty, he acts according to what is required of a man under such circumstances. In one word, the moral man can find himself in no situation in life in which he is not master of himself.

OK, I find that rather less enlightening. So you have to go outside of Confucius' works to find the paths to propriety in those cases.

In a high position he does not domineer over his subordinates. In a subordinate position he does not court the favors of his superiors. He puts in order his own personal conduct and seeks nothing from others: hence he has no complaint to make. He complains not against God, nor rails against men.

Thus it is that the moral man lives out the even tenor of his life calmly waiting for the appointment of God, whereas the vulgar person takes to dangerous courses, expecting the uncertain chances of luck.

Confucius remarked: "In the practice of archery we have something resembling the principle in a moral man's life. When the archer misses the center of the target, he turns round and seeks for the cause of his failure within himself."

I'd like to see a bit more of that going on.

Ah! ARI weighs in on Arafat's death:

Dear Editor:

At long last, Arafat is dead. Unfortunately, the mass murderer responsible for decades of terrorism died of a health problem, not an act of justice

But why did Arafat survive to old age? Why didn't his victims--Palestinians, Israelis and Americans--kill him long ago?

Palestinians, who lived for years in fear under his tyrannical regime, didn't strike him down, because their desire to exterminate Jews was greater than their desire for freedom. Israelis, who lived for years in fear of Arafat's terrorist attacks, didn't kill him, because their desire to satisfy "world opinion" was greater than their desire to live. Americans, who saw their fellow citizens murdered by Arafat's orders, didn't touch a hair of Arafat's, because their desire to appease the "Arab street" and hostile Arab regimes was greater than their desire for justice. Palestinians, Israelis and Americans paid dearly for their cowardice.

Should we draw a lesson? Yes, that freedom, justice and life are worth fighting for--and killing for. Hopefully, Americans will have the moral courage to kill Bin Laden and his associates--and not wait until they too die of disease or old age.

David Holcberg, Ayn Rand Institute

2121 Alton Parkway #250, Irvine, CA 92606

(949) 222-6550 ext. 226