I took this shot on Thanksgiving day, when a bunch of us went in my aunt’s basement to play pool after dinner. This is my Dad with the break:
Today was a very nice, family-oriented day. I went to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame with Richard and my two cousins in the morning, hung out at home for a little while, then went to dinner with my parents, grandparents, Amanda, and Richard. I need to spend time with family more often.
By the way, The Blind Side is a pretty good movie. I recommend it.
Above: Dad cutting up one of the turkeys for our big family feast.
A quick Thanksgiving history lesson:
The tradition of Thanksgiving as a national holiday started 220 years ago today with a proclamation from President George Washington. Below is a copy of the original text for you to reflect upon as you give thanks today. (Accessed from gwpapers.virginia.eduArchived Link)
—
By the President of the United States of America. a Proclamation.
Whereas it is the duty of all Nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey his will, to be grateful for his benefits, and humbly to implore his protection and favor–and whereas both Houses of Congress have by their joint Committee requested me “to recommend to the People of the United States a day of public thanksgiving and prayer to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many signal favors of Almighty God especially by affording them an opportunity peaceably to establish a form of government for their safety and happiness.”
Now therefore I do recommend and assign Thursday the 26th day of November next to be devoted by the People of these States to the service of that great and glorious Being, who is the beneficent Author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be–That we may then all unite in rendering unto him our sincere and humble thanks–for his kind care and protection of the People of this Country previous to their becoming a Nation–for the signal and manifold mercies, and the favorable interpositions of his Providence which we experienced in thecourse and conclusion of the late war–for the great degree of tranquillity, union, and plenty, which we have since enjoyed–for the peaceable and rational manner, in which we have been enabled to establish constitutions of government for our safety and happiness, and particularly the national One now lately instituted–for the civil and religious liberty with which we are blessed; and the means we have of acquiring and diffusing useful knowledge; and in general for all the great and various favors which he hath been pleased to confer upon us.
And also that we may then unite in most humbly offering our prayers and supplications to the great Lord and Ruler of Nations and beseech him to pardon our national and other transgressions–to enable us all, whether in public or private stations, to perform our several and relative duties properly and punctually–to render our national government a blessing to all the people, by constantly being a Government of wise, just, and constitutional laws, discreetly and faithfully executed and obeyed–to protect and guide all Sovereigns and Nations (especially such as have shewn kindness onto us) and to bless them with good government, peace, and concord–To promote the knowledge and practice of true religion and virtue, and the encrease of science among them and us–and generally to grant unto all Mankind such a degree of temporal prosperity as he alone knows to be best.
Given under my hand at the City of New-York the third day of October in the year of our Lord 1789.
Go: Washington
My friend Richard Amos came home with me for Thanksgiving, and since it was his first time in Northern Ohio, I showed him around. After we took Aaron Mortier to the airport so he could fly to Virginia, we started exploring. First we went to Crocker Park, which was closed still since it was only 8 a.m. So, from there we drove along Lake Erie from Avon Lake to Amherst, stopping along the way. We stopped twice in Avon Lake, then at the Lorain pier and Black River Landing. Even though it was kind of chilly, it was a pretty nice day, and the lake was as smooth as glass. Luckily, the rain held off until late afternoon, so we had clear skies for our adventures.
After wandering along the lake, we made a quick stop at the high school, then went to the new Perk Avenue Coffee Shop in uptown (downtown) Amherst. I am impressed with how nice it looks! Amherst needed a modern coffee shop. Then, we visited Mr. Strohm and Ms. Alexander for a while. It was nice to see and talk to them for a while. Lunch with Sean soon followed. We ate at Ziggy’s, another recently renovated Amherst restaurant, then went back to Sean’s house for a few minutes. We decided then to go to Target to pick up something for Richard. We did not find what we were looking for, but we did find Amanda and her mom, who were also shopping! It was very nice to see the two of them, even if for a minute.
From that point, since we had been up since 6:15 a.m., we were pretty tired, so we came home and took a nap until dinner. The rest of the night was uneventful, except for my grandparents from Tennessee, aunt, and uncle came to visit for a little while. My grandparents are in town for Thanksgiving, and it is always very nice to see them.
I am very grateful to have had a day to take time to relax and spend time with family and friends!
On Day 301, I wrote about getting a moving violation for passing a vehicle on the right. After weighing my options, I decided to challenge it (against much advice to the contrary). The date of my pre-trial meeting with the county prosecutor was today. I took in a highlighted copy of the Michigan Vehicle Code, photos of the spot I supposedly made the violation, a diagram of exactly what happened (including measurements of the lane and paved shoulder), and an outline of my main points about what I wanted to contest.
After discussing what happened with the prosecutor’s office, standing my ground, and constantly but politely questioning the prosecutor’s points about why she felt the ticket was legitimate, she finally dismissed the charges against me. I don’t know if she actually bought my arguments, or if she was tired of listening to me, but either way, the case was dismissed. It looks like I am exempt from the state taking my money… at least for the time being. In fact, the money I had to post as bond was given back to me.
The Chicago Water Grill caught on fire and burnt down last night. I did not know about it until long after the fire was under control, but The Collegian and Will Clayton were there!
I went out right before sundown to get some aftermath photos for The Collegian. Check out the corresponding articleArchived Link. Don’t forget to look at some of Will’s excellent photos from the fire!
I often hear individuals on the news or read articles that lament about “U.S. consumerism.”
Today, during a discuss about an economics article with a friend, the question of consumerism came up. After the discussion, as I browsed my bookshelf, I spotted my Pocket World in Figures 2009 edition by The Economist, and thought, “I wonder what the stats show about how ‘consumerist’ the U.S. is compared to other countries?”
Here are some interesting results I found. Take from them what you will:
-The U.S. is not 1st, but 9th in the rankings of highest GDP per head and highest purchasing power per head.
-The U.S. is 12th in the human development index.
-The U.S. is the 3rd least trade dependent nation in terms of trade as a percent of GDP.
-The U.S. is the 2nd largest world exporter.
-On the lists of top consumers in different commodities markets, the U.S. only topped 5/21 lists. (Cocoa, coarse grains, coffee, natural gas, and oil)
-The U.S. is 20th in color televisions per 100 households.
-The U.S. is not even in the top 48 countries for mobile phone subscribers per 100 people.
-The U.S. is 15th in CD players per 100 households.
-The U.S. is 6th in computers per 100 people.
-The U.S. is 24th in daily teenager computer use.
-The U.S. is 16th in number of cars per 1,000 people.
-The U.S. is 5th in music downloads per head.
Conclusion:
I am starting to doubt that the U.S. is the dark pit of consumerism in the world today that it is frequently portrayed as. It looks to me like the U.S. is definitely not the ‘consumerist’ country. I am not disputing that it is there, but it is definitely not as serious as other places.
I realized tonight that there are two different, commonly accepted meanings of “Fair Trade,” and only one meaning I support.
The first type focuses on paying producers a higher price for goods, typically raw materials, raw food, etc. (This is the meaning I am against.)
The second type is against products that use slavery anywhere along the production line.
I am against the first meaning and the first meaning only. The reason I am against the it is because even though it sounds like a noble idea, it actually does more harm than good. First of all, it is based on bad ideas. What is a “fair price”? In the absence of using force in a trade, the notion of a “fair price” does not mean anything. Surely, if someone was using force to make someone accept a low price, that would be wrong and unfair. That is not happening here, though. “Fair Trade” proponents advocate paying producers a higher price when the producers are willing to accept a lower price. Now, before you leave nasty comments calling me a terrible person, let me explain briefly why this is harmful. Prices send signals to both producers and consumers. Artificially bidding up prices sends distorted signals to both groups; essentially telling producers to supply more, and telling consumers to buy less. Also, it encourages other producers to enter the market, which further encourages excess supply. While this might benefit a small group of producers in the short run, in the long run it hurts both them and the entire economy, slowing growth and long-run development. Typically, harmful protectionist (redundancy, I know) legislation is used to encourage “fair trade practices.”
I obviously am in full support of the second type, though, as I believe slavery is always and everywhere wrong.
The only trade I support is free trade: trade without coercion, whether for or against the trade. (The second definition of fair trade falls into this category, the first does not.) I believe you should not be forced to buy or sell anything, nor should you be forced not to buy or sell anything, given that the seller has ownership over the given item.
If you want to help people in developing countries, the best thing to do it get rid of protectionist policies and trade with them. Trade without coercion is always mutually beneficial. Also, check out microlending. This can do a great deal more to help developing countries than the “fair trade” movement can.
(Note: Don’t quote me as being a proponent of “Fair Trade” unless you clarify what meaning of the phrase you are using. It is best to say that I support trade without coercion.)
If you want to discuss fair trade with me, please email me at: cagrimmett@gmail.com
Hillsdale College just had a Liberty Fund Library dedication ceremony today that I attended. Liberty Fund gave the college an entire set of the books it publishes, which is available to students in the Grewcock Formal Lounge.
For those of you not familiar with Liberty Fund, I want to give you a quick introduction in today’s post.
From Liberty Fund’s website:
Liberty Fund, Inc. is a private, educational foundation established to encourage the study of the ideal of a society of free and responsible individuals. The Foundation develops, supervises, and finances its own educational activities to foster thought and encourage discourse on enduring issues pertaining to liberty.
Liberty Fund does this by publishing scholarly editions of classic, hard-to-find, or rare/expensive works pertaining to liberty on multiple fronts: history, philosophy, literature, economics, and law. It makes these high-quality, well-bounded, and durable books available to the public generally at a pretty low price. Liberty Fund is a blessing for cash-strapped students.
L.F. also holds numerous conferences each year.
In my opinion, though, the best part about Liberty Fund is the massive amount of books they have made available for free online at the Online Library of Liberty. The folks at Liberty Fund also have an online library dedicated solely dedicated to economics, where they also provide a huge number of free, searchable books. This is the Library of Economics and Liberty, which is also home to the EconLog.
I highly suggest checking out Liberty Fund‘s multiple online resources. What a wonderful institution!
While on my way to take a photo for The Collegian Tuesday night, I ran into the men of Mu Alpha serenading various women’s dorms. I decided to snap a few shots, as I am friends with and respect many of the Mu Alphans. (For those of you who do not know, Mu Alpha is a men’s music honorary fraternity at Hillsdale.)
First of all, today is Sean Nelson’s birthday. Happy Birthday Sean!
Now, back to the regularly scheduled blog post:
While I was having lunch with Amanda and her friends in Saga today, Maria, the Collegian editor, rushed over to me and announced that there was breaking news happening that instant and I should rush down to the intramural fields with her and Will to investigate and take photos. A helicopter was just seen descending on the IM fields. I was the only Collegian photographer she could get ahold of, so I cut my lunch short, quickly said my goodbyes, literally ran to my dorm to get my gear, and jumped in the car to investigate. There was much adrenaline pumping between the three of us in the car…how often is it that you get to report breaking news on a small college campus?
On the way down to the fields, we saw an ambulance and paramedics carrying someone out of a house on a stretcher. We thought this might be related to the helicopter, since the IM fields is the closest spot a helicopter could land. Could someone be in such bad condition that a helicopter came to fly them to Jackson or Toledo hospital? We intended to find out.
…Well, after waiting by the helicopter for 10 minutes, Maria found out from campus security that the helicopter belonged to a family member of someone on the Board of Trustees, who was on campus today for a Board of Trustees meeting for the Michigan Colleges Foundation. False alarm!
Here are two quick shots I snapped of the helicopter, though:
Richard Brookhiser held a public lecture and book signing at Hillsdale tonight:
Today was a big day for Hillsdale sports!
The football team won 27-24 against Minnesota State in OT at their first ever D2 playoff appearance.
Then, the volleyball team won their GLIAC playoff match against Ashland! They go to the championship tomorrow!
Here are a few shots from the volleyball game. (I was not at the football game, as it was in Minnesota.) Click on the photos to enlarge them.
I went out tonight to do a dry run before the Leonids show up on Tuesday or Wednesday.
Unfortunately, the special battery in my wireless remote died after one shot, and I was limited to 30 second exposures rather than 30 minute exposures. I decided to take a couple photos anyway, and here is one that came out. Click on the photo to enlarge it (recommended!).
I apologize to those of you who have dark monitors. The sky in this photo is supposed to be dark, but not pure black. You should still be able to see it.
Author and journalist Richard Brookhiser has been on campus for the last week giving a journalism seminar, and will be holding a public lecture on Tuesday here on campus.
Today, he met with students in the George Washington Fellowship Program, and I was asked to stop by and take a few photos. Since the photos are for the college, most of them have both Mr. Brookhiser and students in them. When I was going through my photos, though, I found this one, and I like it a lot. I think it really expresses just how much emotion and expression Mr. Brookhiser puts into his lectures. The college probably has no use for this photo, so I decided to show it here.
Even though I’ve been carrying my camera around for the last three days, I haven’t taken any photos for posting. I’ve had close to 30 people to track down over the last three days in order to take their photo in some fashion, so I’ve met people all over campus at any time between 8:00am and 12:00am Monday, Tuesday, and today. I finally got them all finished around 6 this evening, so I am glad that is over. Now it is time to work on my Collegian photos for next week!
For the time-being…
Here is a shot of my friend Paul that I took on Saturday while he was climbing a tree.
Today is Amanda’s Birthday!
For those of you who don’t know her, she is a beautiful, wonderful, smart young lady, and she has been a blessing in my life. If you have a chance to get to know her, I suggest you do. You won’t regret it.
In fact, I wish you could all get to know her and find out what a beautiful person, both inside and out, she is.
Here is a photo of her from a few days ago, taken on my phone:
Happy Birthday, Amanda!
Today, the Classical Liberal Organization (a group at Hillsdale I am the president of) organized a speaker panel on the topic: “The Fall of the Berlin Wall: Past, Present, and Future.” The CLO set up this panel to bring to light the reality of communism and how it affected the entire world. For far too many students today who did not live through the Cold War era, communism and its end can become just another set of historical facts. We don’t want this to happen here.
Here are the three speakers we had:
Dr. Bradley Birzer, History:
Dr. Charles Steele, Economics:
Dr. William Morrisey, Political Science:
We had a great turnout. Around 65 people showed up and filled the room we were in, even though today was a busy day at Hillsdale. The talks were excellent, and provoked some thoughtful questions. The event was a success!
If you have time, read this post Dr. Birzer had yesterday at De Regno Christi, entitled “The Priest, the Prophet, and the King.”
My friends Paul, Joe, Forrest, Richard, and Seth (L-R in the top photo) have a band named “The Gentiles,” and they are competing in Hillsdale’s Battle of the Bands next week.
…one of many that took place during the 59 Hillsdale-24 Tiffin game this afternoon.
Dr. Wenzel, an economics professor here at Hillsdale, occasionally gives his students an atypical assignment: Do nothing for 15 minutes. Turn off the cell phone, computer, music, television, etc. Get rid of all distractions, even books. Just sit on the edge of your bed in silence and think for 15 minutes. That’s all.
I tried it this evening, and it is relaxing, calming, and wonderful. Life can get so filled with things to do and deadlines to make that we never stop to actually think. Think and nothing else. After a stressful week, it was nice to reflect for a while.
Though I am, in terms of technology, an unapologetic modern, I still find value in turning some things off for a little while and having uninterrupted thought, free from the distractions of the modern world. If I knew I would not miss something important, I would like to turn my phone off and stop checking my email for a few days. The only problem I have is that technology is so ingrained in my life that if I shut off my phone or email, over 90% of my communication would be cut off. Perhaps this is a good thing, but not something I can do during school. Maybe I will give it a try over Christmas break or the summer.
Has anyone else tried this? How did it go? I am interested…let me know in the comments.
Tonight, Richard Ebeling travelled to Hillsdale to give a thought-provoking and engaging lecture, titled “Why the Berlin Wall Came Down and Socialism Failed: Ludwig von Mises and the Power of Ideas.”
Dr. Ebeling is a prolific author, former president of the Foundation for Economic Education, and professor of economics at many different institutions, including Hillsdale from 1988-2003. In 1996, he and his wife, Anna Ebeling, obtained the lost papers of Ludwig von Mises, which had been kept in a formerly secret KGB archive in Moscow for 50 years. Dr. Ebeling is now on the faculty at Northwood University in Midland, MI.
If you are interested in what Dr. Ebeling had to say tonight, read this article he wrote yesterday.
Have some spare time (unlike me)?
Read these articles. They are very good. I had to read three of them recently for class, and the fourth I came across a little over a week ago.
Menger: On the Origins of Money (PDF)
Hayek: The Use of Knowledge in Society (PDF)
Horwitz: Subjectivism (Google Book)
Buchheit: Applied Philosophy, a.k.a. “Hacking” (HTML)
I apologize for the lack of new photos and decent thoughts this week. I plan to get out and take some photos this weekend, when I won’t have more exams hanging over my head.
The only worthwhile thought I have right now (worthwhile to this blog, that is) is that you should not trust the hype about the 3.5% increase in GDP last quarter. Do some research and see where it actually came from. I will give you a hint: Individuals’ consumption levels stayed roughly the same, investment stayed roughly the same, and net exports roughly stayed the same. What changed? Government spending! Does this mean things are getting better? No. In fact, unemployment went up last quarter.
Beware of Christina Romer going on national news and trying to convince you that things are a lot better since GDP went up 3.5%. “It just ain’t so!”
– – – –
Exams finished this week: 2.
Exams left this week: 1.
Days to study left: 2.
Oh, and I decided to fight the ticket I talked about a few days ago. My court date is set for Nov. 24, three weeks from today.
