Redeeming Economics, Revisited

This past January we posted our reasons for not wanting to read Dr. John Mueller’s opus, Redeeming Economics.  Subsequently we were manipulated into reading it, and have made other comments on what we see as very, very serious problems with the book, but a peregrinus who came across our January posting evidently didn’t bother to see if we’d said anything else.  Anyway, the wanderer told us off in what he presumed was fine style for daring to express our opinion on our own blog:

News from the Network, Vol. 6, No. 39

No, we’re not “All Sheen, All the Time.”  It just sort of worked out that way this week.  We have been getting a lot of very positive comments, too, as well as some good reviews on Amazon.  Remarkably, there have been only two negative reactions.  The first was from a reviewer who got a flawed copy and thought the book was supposed to be like that.  We advised him to return it where he got it for a refund or replacement (he wanted a replacement).

The Foundation of Decay

A very short time ago, someone made a comment on our Facebook page to the effect that the decay of modern civilization began in the 1990s, with the abrogation by American politicians of fundamental principles of morality.

Clash of the Clueless

It’s being built up as a “Clash of the Titans,” but ultimately is little more than an ineffectual “More of the Same, Only More So.”  “It” is an upcoming debate under the heading “Argument of the Month™” between Michael Voris of Church Militant TV, and Mark Shea of the National Catholic Register.  The event is sponsored by the “The Mens [sic] Forum for Catholic Apologetics,” and is described as “Mark Shea vs. Michael Voris: One Night.  One Fight. Who’s Got It Right?”

Expanded Capital Ownership and the Catholic Church, II: The Proposal

As we noted yesterday, the Catholic Church made two omissions in its social teachings.  One was to fail to remind people that (everything else being equal), future as well as past savings can be used to finance new capital.  The other was that the principles of economic justice, while implied, are not explicit.

Expanded Capital Ownership and the Catholic Church, I: The Situation

The Catholic Church has always defended the natural right of every human being to be an owner of capital. The social, political, and economic necessity of this, however, was not made explicit until Pope Leo XIII issued Rerum Novarum in 1891. The goal was to counter the rapidly spreading socialist error that justice requires the abolition of private property. The pope clearly explained that, far from abolishing private property in capital, justice and respect for human dignity require that “The law . . . should favor ownership, and its policy should be to induce as many as possible of the people to become owners.” (§ 46)

News from the Network, Vol. 6, No. 38

Some pundits are claiming that Americans are accepting greater government control over their own lives in order to avoid “another meltdown.” This is news to us.  We weren’t aware that the first meltdown had managed to cool and congeal.

The Question

Today's posting is from a guest blogger/poet, who knocked out a vignette in verse for us the other day.  Rather than get into a long introduction and deep analysis of the piece (and whether there should be more or fewer commas), here is, in its first public appearance, "The Question":

Abortion, Slavery, and Private Property, IV: The 14th Amendment

Picking up where we left off on August 15, following the Civil War and the abolition of chattel slavery, the Congress realized it was essential to overturn Scott v. Sandford — the Dred Scott case.  The ruling of the United States Supreme Court, that no human being of African birth or descent, slave or free, was a person as that term was used in the Constitution, could not be allowed to stand.

Glad You Asked That (I Think . . .)

Every once in a while we get a real interesting question.  Maybe a little offbeat, but interesting.  Sometimes it actually has something to do with the Just Third Way.  It might be a very little, but it’s still something.  This question actually relates (distantly) to the question as to whether the rich (or anybody else) are inherently evil, or whether all the hate that is spewed out against them is just envy.

The Vocations Crisis

This actually has something to do with the Just Third Way.  Someone recently started a thread in a Facebook discussion about the “vocations crisis” in the Catholic Church.  Some people gave one answer, others another.  Most bemoaned the fact that there weren’t enough ordinations.  While I don’t have an answer, I thought I’d add my two cents, anyway.

News from the Network, Vol. 6, No. 37

The big news this week (actually, pretty much the only news) is the very positive reception for the Just Third Way Edition of Fulton J. Sheen’s Freedom Under God.  So far we’ve only had two reactions that were less than positive.  The first was from someone who said he hadn’t read the book, and didn’t want to.  He just knew he hated it.  The second was that somebody got a copy that had a binding error: during the binding process part of someone else’s book was included.  (We advised that the customer return the book and get a good copy.)

Obama and Napoleon

No, we don’t think that President Obama has gone around the bend and now thinks he’s the Emperor Napoleon, or even a pastry or snifter of cognac.  It’s just that someone asked us recently whether there were any parallels in history to the way the Russians and the Chinese seem to be moving in a way almost calculated to force Obama to act out of ego and pride instead of reason.

Impeach Obama?

One of the more shrill and vociferous demands that floated around during the presidency of Bush the Younger was that Bush should be impeached for [fill in the blank].  Now, as some people become a trifle disenchanted with President Obama, demands are shifting from he prove that he wasn’t born outside the U.S. (it is logically impossible to prove a negative in any event), to that he be impeached for [fill in the blank].

The Problem with “Social Credit”, II: The Responses

Not surprisingly, the individual who made the comment we reported in yesterday’s blog posting on “Social Credit” had something to say about the fact that we had managed to critique his comment so rapidly.  The response, however, did not actually address the critique we made.  It simply make an assertion that the commentator seemed to believe said everything, when, in fact, it said nothing:

The Problem with “Social Credit”, I: The Critique

In response to a recent “plug” for Capital Homesteading we inserted in a FaceBook posting about “living wage” legislation now before Congress, somebody responded, “What we need is Social Credit and the Universal Unconditional Basic Income Guaranteed.”

News from the Network, Vol. 6, No. 36

We’re having a little trouble trying to figure out why the stock market is up in light of the poor jobs data, the whole Syria thing, and just about anything else you care to mention.  On the plus side, Freedom Under God has been released and is now available for bulk/wholesale (i.e., ten or more copies) sales. [UPDATE: NOW AVAILABLE ON AMAZON] [FURTHER UPDATE: NOW AVAILABLE ON BARNES AND NOBLE]

The Fulton Sheen Guy

Thanks in large measure (read “due completely to his efforts”) to Guy Stevenson, the Project Manager of “The Fulton Sheen Project,” Economic Justice Media’s “Just Third Way Edition” of Freedom Under God, Fulton J. Sheen’s “long lost” work on the importance of private property in capital was published on Labor Day, September 2, 2013. [UPDATE: NOW AVAILABLE ON AMAZON] [FURTHER UPDATE: NOW AVAILABLE ON BARNES AND NOBLE]

Invented Crimes

It’s increasingly common in our day and age, when the State has (to all intents and purposes) achieved the status of a god, to use the coercive power of the State to get whatever you want.  This, of course, is the exact opposite of the “act of social justice,” by means of which ordinary people organize to effect positive change in the institutions of the common good.

Lord, Save Us From the Relativists

Recently a Pro-Life activist, Austin Ruse (which for who knows how long this writer read as “Astin Rose”) wrote an article claiming that the “purists” were undermining the Pro-Life movement with their rigidity, especially in Ireland.  It’s all in this article in Crisis magazine.

“Long Lost” Book by Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen Rediscovered

Arlington, Virginia, Monday, September 2, 2013. In 1940, on the eve of the United States entry into World War II, the late Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen (1895-1979) published Freedom Under God. The all-volunteer interfaith Center for Economic and Social Justice (CESJ) has republished a new, annotated version of this neglected classic under its “Economic Justice Media” imprint, complete with an in-depth foreword written especially for this edition, as well as a bibliography and index not included in the first edition.  [UPDATE: NOW AVAILABLE ON AMAZON] [FURTHER UPDATE: NOW AVAILABLE ON BARNES AND NOBLE]