Chuck Grimmett

Archives

Month: June 2008

  • Personal Beliefs vs. Political Beliefs

    ,

    I have been thinking about this for a while.

     

    I think it is important when talking about legislative policy and our beliefs to ask ourselves this question:

    Do I actually believe in this strongly enough to force it upon others through legislative action, or is it just a personal belief?

     

    I am okay with someone believing anything he or she wants to. When that person (or group of people, for that matter) starts to force it upon others through legislative action, however, that is when I start having a problem with it. 

     

    To quote Leonard Read, “Let anyone do anything, so long as his actions are peaceful; limit government to keeping the peace.” Let’s do away with all of this nonsense legislation that does not have to do with peacekeeping. (Though, admittedly, I am willing to take it farther than that, but I will leave that for another time.)

  • Lessons from FEE

    I am learning a lot from the seminars at FEE that I have been attending. I plan to overview some of the lessons from the seminars on here this week. They will be in no particular order.

     

    Aggregates

    We should all do our best not to speak in aggregate terms when we actually mean some individuals that make up that group. That is, saying the name of the group (such as “the government”) when we mean a few select senators or other elected individuals. Using aggregate terms when talking about where a decision came from or who enacted a regulation only muddles the picture and makes it difficult to get a clear answer to a problem that deals with that. Why? Because only individuals purposefully act. Groups cannot act. There are hundreds of situations where this can come into play. Think about it for a while. 

    Of course, the broader lesson of this is that we should be as precise as possible with our terms when speaking and writing. Without clear terms, it becomes very difficult to solve problems and nearly impossible to build a stable foundation for any system (in FEE’s case, economics).

    Use clear terms. I am going to try my best to do this, too. If I start getting sloppy, call me out on it.

  • Layout Issues

    I was just informed that I have a few layout issues in IE and Firefox. I am going to continue to try and fix them. The layout is supposed to look like this:

     (click the image)

    If the layout does not look the same on your computer, please take a screenshot and email it to me. cagrimmett@gmail.com 

    Thanks!

  • FEE, NYC

    So last week and this coming week, I have been right outside of NYC attending seminars at the Foundation for Economic Education (FEE, henceforth). The first week was Freedom University and next week is History & Liberty. FEE has brought in some great speakers for the week: Gene Callahan, Sheldon Richman, Paul Cwik, Ivan Pongracic, and Burt Folsom to name a few.

    I had the weekend in-between the seminars to do what ever I wanted, so I took the opportunity to explore the area and then travel into Manhattan. I got to see Central Park, Times Square, Grand Central Station, and the Apple Store on Fifth Avenue. I also walked around the city of Irvington (where FEE is located). Between the cities of Irvington and Tarrytown lies a historic gothic-style mansion named Lyndhurst. I toured it on Saturday. Very neat place. ( http://www.lyndhurst.org )

    I am used to having a vehicle, so walking everywhere is still a little strange to me. I will probably get used to it by the end of the week. I have had a great time so far. 

    I left my camera at home, but I have my dad’s camera, so I have some photos for everyone to look at. I will put some more updates up this following week. Click the photo below to see my photos so far:

    (The Apple logo at the flagship store on Fifth Avenue)

  • Fusionman

    Yes, that is actually a person flying through the Swiss Alps. He calls himself Fusionman. He is the first man ever to successfully fly with wings, powered by four engines on his back. Click on the photo to view more photos from Reuters.

    Fusionman

  • O brave new (blog), That has such (posts) in it!

    Okay, okay, so it does not exactly match that famous line from The Tempest, but you get the idea. Yes, this is the new blog. And yes, it actually works and will be updated, unlike the old one.

    This blog fulfills two things: First, my site needed a facelift. Second, I wanted a place to write down some of the ideas in my head as well as a place to document what is going on in my life. Expect to read about my thoughts on economics, liberty, photography, and recent events in my life. I hope you enjoy my blog and maybe, just maybe, that you will subscribe to the feed or leave some comments.