SelwynDuke.com

If I Were a Governor….

By Selwyn Duke

If I were a governor, the first thing I’d do is scrutinize the school curriculum in my state. For the teachings in the schools today will be the ideology of tomorrow, to paraphrase Abraham Lincoln.

I’d review as much of the material as I could myself, and if the volume was too great, I’d appoint like-minded traditionalists to help with the task. But gone would be the revisionist history, radical environmentalism, feminism, multiculturalism, politically correct teaching models, and most other pseudo-intellectual “innovations” of the last century. Tradition would be resurrected and exalted, the classics would be taught, and the moral supremacy of the old Western civilization emphasized. I would be mindful of G.K. Chesterton’s words: “It ought to be the oldest things that are taught to the youngest children, the assured and experienced truths that are put first to the baby. But in a school today the baby has to submit to a system that is younger than himself.”

Bank of America Freezing Gun Manufacturer’s Account

By Selwyn Duke

You might think that a professional outfit such as Bank of America operated based on stated policy and not caprice. But not according to owner of American Spirit Arms Joe Sirochman.  

On his Facebook page, Sirochman tells of his adventures with the banking giant. Like other gun dealers and manufacturers, his business is booming currently — Internet orders are up 500 percent. This caused there to be an unusual number of deposits made to his business’ BoA account via his website’s e-commerce system, triggering an account freeze. This may not seem strange, as banks have security systems that temporarily freeze accounts when detecting anomalous activity. This happened to me once after using my debit card to make an unusual series of purchases; the freeze was irritating, but nothing a few minutes on the phone didn’t remedy. But this is where Sirochman’s story takes a bizarre turn. He writes (edited for style):

After countless hours on the phone with Bank of America, I finally got a manager in the right department who told me the reason that the deposits were on hold for further review. Her exact words were:

“We believe you should not be selling guns and parts on the Internet.”

Obama Supporters are Shocked, Shocked, I Tell You….

By Selwyn Duke

My mother always used to say, “Life is the best teacher.” Sure is — and sometimes it smacks you right upside the head. It appears this has happened with Barack Obama supporters now witnessing their paychecks shrink in the wake of tax increases. And they’re none too happy. In fact, they’re shocked.

Shocked, I tell you.

Providing examples of this liberal anger and angst, Joseph Curl writes:

I’ll See Your Economic Collapse and Raise You National Demise

By Selwyn Duke

Being just weeks away from reaching our debt ceiling and with frightening talk about a fiscal cliff, there’s much sympathy in Washington for tax increases. Even conservatives are wavering. A few Republicans have dumped their anti-tax pledges, and former Nixon official-turned-actor Ben Stein favors taxing the wealthy. He says that we can’t cut our way to a balanced budget and insists that the revenue end must be addressed. But I have news for him: he’ll have a better chance finding Ferris Bueller on his day off than fiscal sanity through tax increases.

Let’s get real. Federal revenue this year will be approximately $2.5 trillion.

In Defense of Price Gouging

By Selwyn Duke

In the wake of Hurricane Sandy, there has been much talk about price gouging. New Jersey is prosecuting some who engaged in it, and pundit Bill O’Reilly has threatened to put offending gas stations in his fearsome Factor pillory. But is this prudent?

To be clear, I personally wouldn’t want to raise prices amidst a disaster were I a provider of products or services. And I’m not alone: After devastating floods struck the Margaretville, NY, area last year and destroyed the local supermarket and drug store, the only remaining mass supplier of food, Dollar General, refused to increase its prices (its nobility earns it a plug). Yet is it beneficial to use government to compel all businesses in disaster-stricken areas to follow suit?

Obviously, there is no action without motivation. If someone provides products or services, he does it for some reason, such as profit, a feeling of gratification, the idea that it’s God’s will, or out of some conception of what’s right. And that there are so many more businesses than charities in the world indicates that profit is a far more common motivator than all the other reasons combined. This is why business owners who would, left to their own devices, hold the line on prices during disasters are probably in the minority.

Read the rest here.

Losing the Future: The Fiscal-conservative Fantasy

By Selwyn Duke

With the loss of the 2012 election, there is much talk of how the Republican Party must do some soul searching. How will the GOP wage successful campaigns when demographic and cultural changes favor the opposition? Increasingly, the answer is that the party’s party is over, that it must move into the future or be relegated to the past. “Dispense with the social issues!” we’re counseled. “Don’t trouble over abortion or faux marriage and instead just focus on fiscal matters.”

Barack Obama: Anatomy of an Ideologue

By Selwyn Duke

As with G.W. Bush before him, much time is spent arguing about Barack Obama’s character. Does he mean well and just not govern well, or is it something else? What can be missed during this debate, however, is that most damage is done in the name of doing good.

Consider, for instance, a Muslim parent teaching his child to engage in violent jihad. Like any parent, he almost surely wants his child healthy and successful. Like any wise parent, though, he also may believe that if he had to choose between his child being healthy and successful, and being good, he’d have to choose goodness. After all, what does it profit a man to gain the world but to lose his soul? Only, he defines “good” differently than you do.

Similarly, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is a leader who expressed willingness to sacrifice half Iran’s population to wipe Israel off the map. Does this mean he doesn’t care if his nation is healthy and successful? More likely, he considers those priorities secondary to what is good, which he defines much, much differently than you do.

Read the rest here.

Should Sandy’s Victims Get Your Tax Money?

By Selwyn Duke

Living near the coast in the Northeast, I see the devastation wrought by Hurricane Sandy firsthand. Many have been without power for days; there are long lines at gas stations; some supermarket shelves are bare; and, more to the point here, some in vulnerable areas lost their homes. And because the storm is such a horrible, high-profile disaster, government aid to rebuild is in the offing. But should it be?

This question may seem heartless. And, don't worry, you won't hear a politician asking it anytime soon, as doing so might very well cost him the next election. But political expediency isn’t always synonymous with fairness.

Let’s start like this: On the day Sandy struck and every day since, there surely have been low-profile disasters in other parts of the country. Perhaps someone’s home was struck by lightning and burned down, maybe an anomalous and isolated flood destroyed a lonely hinterland abode, or it could have been something else. This is a big country and many things happen.

And the question is, if you suffer such a disaster and have no insurance, will Uncle Sam ride to the rescue with tax dollars? We know the answer. But why the different treatment?

Read the rest here.

Why Accept Contraception as a Women’s Issue?

By Selwyn Duke

While many points have been made about this campaign’s contraception controversy, there’s one that I haven’t yet heard anyone mention.

Why do we accept contraception as a women’s issue?

Election 2012: Sound Bites vs. Reality

By Selwyn Duke

Any good advertising man knows that a catchy slogan is worth a thousand words. A lot more customers are won by “Coke is It!” or “Just Do It” than are lost by the tedious expositions on side effects rendered at the end of drug commercials. Unfortunately, sound bites, true or not, are also effective in politics. They can even trump reality.

Consider, for instance, the rallying cry “A woman makes only 72 cents on a man’s dollar!” This is a  compelling message even though it’s wholly deceptive. As I explained here, if you dig into the statistics behind that statistic, you learn that this disparity is explained not by unjust discrimination but by career and lifestyle choices the sexes make, such as entering different occupations, working different numbers of hours, and taking on different amounts of responsibility. But digging is difficult and people’s attention spans are short; thus, even conservative politicians choose to mouth platitudes about women’s rights rather than dare explain the truth on the wage gap.

Another sound bite bandied about this election cycle is that Mitt Romney pays only 14 percent in tax, a class-warfare message that’s supposed to make us believe the rich don’t pony up their “fair share.” What this bit of propaganda confuses, however, are income-tax rates with the capital-gains tax rate.

Read the rest here.