I got out the day the blizzard started. Anina was trapped at my family home. Roads were closed for 5 days.
Worcester MA January 1978
Year: 2020
Local Solutions
from the Wall Street Journal 12/23/2020
Local Solutions Are Better Than Bureaucracy in D.C.
How very refreshing to read Gerald Seib’s “Far From Washington,
Americans Are Finding Solutions”
(Review, Dec. 12). It is preposterous
to believe the large, sclerotic, bureaucratic government in Washington can understand, let alone solve,
the problems of 330 million citizens,
50 states and countless counties, cities and towns therein. Many will remember Ronald Reagan’s rousing
declaration: “The nine most terrifying words in the English language
are: I’m from the government, and
I’m here to help.”
JACK LOCHRIE
Farmington Hills, Mich.
Rulers by Chance
Would people demand that the government have less power if its leaders were selected by chance? If the President, and Congress members were selected by lot the public would never know who would be in charge. It is the power that we have given to the government that is the problem. Most people think that if we could only elect the right people we would have good government.
There is no free lunch
Recently our chief news scout, Barbara Scolnick, forwarded a link to The Commonwealth Fund report How the Biden Administration Can Act to Strengthen Medicaid | Commonwealth Fund
Reviewing their suggestions for the Biden Administration, we didn’t see any policy recommendations that would reduce federal government spending.
Whenever more spending is recommended, the protagonists should either indicate where spending should be reduced, or what taxes should be raised or if they support growing the federal government debt.
Setting priorities and using them to live within your means is what grown-ups are supposed to do.
About the TPI
This site was previously titled “From the Desk of Ben Bachrach”. On December 19, 2020, the name was changed to Tranquility Policy Institute.
This change was made to recognize that in today’s culture, individual’s are mostly no longer significant – everyone needs an organization or better yet be considered an institution.
The Tranquility Policy Institute’s mission is to promote policies that will increase both domestic and worldwide tranquility.
Sounds Right to Me
“Being a victim of the state in no way entitles someone to use the state against anyone else.” – Walter Block 2007
Understanding Others
Tom Woods posted on Facebook
“Ever notice that progressives think you “hate the poor” or you “hate the environment” or you “want people to die”?
And they genuinely have no idea what you believe and why you believe it?
Jonathan Haidt of NYU has found that in general, progressives don’t understand conservatives (or libertarians, for that matter) nearly as well as conservatives understand them.
That’s pretty obvious.
I can explain the entire progressive worldview to you without snark or dismissiveness, and I can explain precisely why progressives favor each plank.
Can progressives do the same for my views?
In my experience, they’re barely able to concede that their opponents are even human.
So they tend not to spend much time figuring out what the other side is saying.
The other side, after all, is a bunch of “racists” and “sexists” who don’t deserve to exist, and whose economic views show them to be lackeys of the so-called idle rich.”
Session 5 and 6
Link from Jonathan about Environmental Paving
Let benbachrach@gmail.com know if there is anything else you want posted here.
