I love reading! Now that might not seem crazy to you but to know me growing up it would sound a bit off edge. I never read growing up. I would read a newspaper article about my schools sporting events but rarely anything else. In fact I am embarrassed to say that I rarely read the required reading from high school classes. But now that I am a smarter or more intelligent person, I will let you know that I love reading. Here are some books that you should consider reading if you like or somewhat are interested in where I get many of my ideas and joy of our great country.
For starters lets begin with interesting readings that might contradict ideas we believe to be common sense.
More Liberty Means Less Government- Walter Williams
-This book is one of if not my favorites.
Liberty Versus the Tyranny of Socialism- Walter Williams
-This is much like the first book
-Both these books are a collection of his articles so there are plenty of places to stop reading and pick back up when most convenient.
Economic Facts and Fallacies- Thomas Sowell
-This is a very interesting book by a great writer.
After reading those books which should be interesting reads you might be open and would love to learn a bit about economics. Especially for you young people who are still considering a degree. Economics is needed and a great background for a future lawyers who might want to get into politics at some point.
Basic Economics- Thomas Sowell
Applied Economics-Thomas Sowell
You will learn all you have to know about economics from these two books. You won't be an economist but you will know whether you want to pursue further education. These books also do the best job of explaining a subject that most people believe is very confusing
For you who love history and want to learn more about our history and specifically an overview of our nation. These two books will go through our complete history and be like a survey of American History.
America: The Last Best Hope Volume I and II- William Bennett
For you who love specific history and more details of certain people or events read anything by the author David Macullough
Sunday, March 14, 2010
Wednesday, March 3, 2010
Crazy Ideas
Keep in mind that some crazy ideas did not seem so crazy at one point in our history and some ideas that people had years ago would be deemed to be crazy today. In fact it was crazy to imagine a world without slavery just over 150 years ago. But we know today that with the cheapest of labor the southern states were still worse off than the northern states who mostly did not use slaves. Today we would think it crazy to think the U.S. should bring slavery back.
There is no guaranteed right to vote even though there is an amendment that gives women the right to vote. Early in our history it was crazy to think that women or that men without ownership of land should be allowed to vote. Today many believe it would be crazy to say that some should vote and not others. I don't know about that. Our founding fathers were very scared of the idea of democracy. George Washington, John Adams, and the founder of the Federalist Party, Alexander Hamilton all feared democracy because they doubted the intelligence of all the masses of American people. Of course we know this was the thinking while they were losing power to the Republicans lead by Thomas Jefferson who loved Democracy. But lets think about it today. Should a Middle school basketball coach and substitute teacher's vote count the same as Bill Gates' vote? I would argue probably not. And that is using me as an example much less the hundreds of thousands of drug addicts and alcoholics that can vote. Would it be a crazy idea to limit who can and cannot vote? Just a thought.
Finally, it could be considered crazy to revamp our education system and allow parents to take their children anywhere they want for school. I mean you would have schools doing everything they could to get those kids there and coaches would recruit athletes from other high schools and schools would recruit good students to their school so the school could get more money. It would be like a feeding frenzy! Crazy! And yet that would be much like our colleges today. You know the colleges that are ranked in the top of the world while our secondary education system is not even close to there. Crazy!!!
There is no guaranteed right to vote even though there is an amendment that gives women the right to vote. Early in our history it was crazy to think that women or that men without ownership of land should be allowed to vote. Today many believe it would be crazy to say that some should vote and not others. I don't know about that. Our founding fathers were very scared of the idea of democracy. George Washington, John Adams, and the founder of the Federalist Party, Alexander Hamilton all feared democracy because they doubted the intelligence of all the masses of American people. Of course we know this was the thinking while they were losing power to the Republicans lead by Thomas Jefferson who loved Democracy. But lets think about it today. Should a Middle school basketball coach and substitute teacher's vote count the same as Bill Gates' vote? I would argue probably not. And that is using me as an example much less the hundreds of thousands of drug addicts and alcoholics that can vote. Would it be a crazy idea to limit who can and cannot vote? Just a thought.
Finally, it could be considered crazy to revamp our education system and allow parents to take their children anywhere they want for school. I mean you would have schools doing everything they could to get those kids there and coaches would recruit athletes from other high schools and schools would recruit good students to their school so the school could get more money. It would be like a feeding frenzy! Crazy! And yet that would be much like our colleges today. You know the colleges that are ranked in the top of the world while our secondary education system is not even close to there. Crazy!!!
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