Year: 2015

Sanders and Trump Agree

Alex Nowrsteh in a Cato Liberty Blog, A Poor Defense of Bernie Sanders, rips Richard Eskrow’s defense of Bernie Sanders support for immigration controls.

Excerpt about immigration effects sovereignty:
The laws of economics limit the ability of governments to arbitrarily set price controls, too, so does that mean the United States is not a sovereign country? Will we not be a “sovereign people” until we declare our independence from scarcity, gravity, mortality, psychology, and all of the other inconvenient limitations on human behavior?

Trump and Sanders

Steven Horwitz explains Why the Candidates Keep Giving Us Reasons to Use the “F” Word

Excerpt:

So what does this have to do with Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump?

I would argue that they are both “nationalist socialists.” That is, they both embody key elements of fascism. They both think the nation comes first, and they both think the United States is an organization (not a spontaneous order) that should be under someone’s control.

The difference is that Sanders sees both the problems and the solutions from the workers’ perspective, so he’s focusing on both the exploitation by capitalists and keeping immigrants out to protect the wages of US workers. The losses to US workers matter more than the large gains to foreign-born workers coming here.

Trump sees all of this from the CEO/owner/capitalist perspective. He thinks the United States is, or should be, like a big firm where we all work together for a common goal. He envisions himself as the CEO, negotiating deals with other countries as if they, too, were just big corporate firms. But nations are not firms — they are spontaneous orders.

Judicial Activism

A recent article in the Huffington Post reminds me that the practice of majority rule by the Supreme Court is flawed. If 9 trained lawyers cannot agree on the constitutionality of a law than either the law or the constitution is ambiguous, and at least one or both should be amended before legislation becomes enforceable law.

We would have more respect for both the law and the Supreme Court if unanimous decisions were required, just like criminal juries.

 

Value of Philosophy

Philosophy professor Jason Brennan provides a summary on the usefulness of various branches of philosophy in a short essay.

Excerpt:
This is all in good fun. Don’t take it too seriously.

We don’t need metaphysics. If we want to know what the fundamental nature of reality is like, we’ll ask the physicists.  read more

Fatal Conceit Revisited

Jeffery Tucker reminded us of  the the final part of F.A. Hayek’s Nobel speech in 1974:

If man is not to do more harm than good in his efforts to improve the social order, he will have to learn that in this, as in all other fields where essential complexity of an organized kind prevails, he cannot acquire the full knowledge which would make mastery of the events possible.

He will therefore have to use what knowledge he can achieve, not to shape the results as the craftsman shapes his handiwork, but rather to cultivate a growth by providing the appropriate environment, in the manner in which the gardener does this for his plants.

There is danger in the exuberant feeling of ever growing power which the advance of the physical sciences has engendered and which tempts man to try, “dizzy with success”, to use a characteristic phrase of early communism, to subject not only our natural but also our human environment to the control of a human will.

The recognition of the insuperable limits to his knowledge ought indeed to teach the student of society a lesson of humility which should guard him against becoming an accomplice in men’s fatal striving to control society — a striving which makes him not only a tyrant over his fellows, but which may well make him the destroyer of a civilization which no brain has designed but which has grown from the free efforts of millions of individuals.

Lilyan Bachrach
January 7, 1917 – July 28, 2015

The Enamel Arts Foundation displays some of Lilyan’s work in their Los Angeles Museum, and include her on their website.

View T&G article about establishment of Scholarship Endowment Fund

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Worcester Telegram

Worcester – Lilyan (Zelman) Bachrach, was born in New Haven, CT, 1/7/1917, and died at the Jewish HealthCare Center, 7/28/2015. She grew up in Lowell and moved to Worcester in 1936 with her parents, Benjamin & Rae (Kan) Zelman, and her sister, Elaine. She attended Boston University and as an adult student graduated from the Worcester Art Museum School. Throughout her life, she took courses in various techniques of art, enameling and metalsmithing.

A professional craftsman, artist and entrepreneur, Lilyan considered herself fortunate to have grown up in a family with a strong work ethic and enjoyed working in several fields with her many talents and skills. Beginning as a young teen, Lilyan worked for her father in his drapery and slipcover business, everything from sewing to window dressing. A problem solver, she always looked for a “better way,” a characteristic she attributed to her father, who regularly asked her whether she had found one in addition to whether she had oiled her sewing machine. She remained analytic, determined and good-natured throughout her life.

While her husband served in Europe during WWII and she was raising their two small children, Lilyan organized a cottage industry to make smocked dresses for little girls, Lilyan Frocks; she trained women to do the smocking and sewing. An ardent, occasional local champion golfer, she co-developed another business to produce Golfpacs, a comfortably-sized belt pocket for paraphernalia. For 60 years, Lilyan created and sold nationally Bachrach Art Enamels and commissions. Her work was also exhibited in galleries and museums. She taught enameling at Night Life for several years and in her home workshop for many years. In her 80s, Lilyan edited two books on enameling, “Enameling with Professionals” and “Contemporary Enameling: Art and Technique.” The Enamelist Society awarded her the W. W. Carpenter Award for “currently working to benefit the world of enameling” in 2005.

A board member of the League of Women Voters and Worcester Center for Crafts, she also was active with her husband of 50 years, the late Samuel Bachrach, M.D., in many civic organizations, which included United World Federalists, the establishment of The Age Center, Forum for the Study of Values, The Poetry Association, and political campaigns. She also served as Sam’s office manager and personal secretary. Lilyan appreciated and enjoyed her many friends and family members. She leaves four children and their spouses: Barbara B. & Edward M. Scolnick, Wayland, Robert Z. & Andrea M. Bachrach, Burlingame, CA, Benjamin & Anina Bachrach, Estero, FL, Elizabeth Bachrach Tan & Barrie Tan, Amherst, 11 grandchildren and 10 great-grandchildren, all of whom loved and admired her greatly.

Funeral services were held at Mercadante Funeral Home, Thursday, July 30, 11:30 a.m., and burial folllowed at B’nai Brith Cemetery. In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be sent to Worcester Center for Crafts, 25 Sagamore Rd. Worcester MA 01604.