This is how I am thinking about Isaiah Berlin's Two Concepts of Liberty.

Daily vocation: #1

To make other men stronger.

To make other men stronger.

What is the World's Story about?

Burdens on the Youth

Back in the 1930s, FDR started up this thing called Social Security. Some would call it a pyramid scheme. And the pyramid is estimated to break in 2037 when there won't be enough youth to pay for the old.

Today, the news is filled with big plans for health care reform. With the federal budget already broken, any reform will have to pay for itself. Guess who is going to end up paying for it? Healthy people will be subsidizing the sick.*

Another burden on the youth. Call me a pessimist with a callous attitude toward the old and the sick.

* Two ways of financing the health care reform are a) taxing employer-sponsored benefits and b) mandating all citizens buy health insurance (Kennedy plan). The insurance companies appear likely to go along with a mandate for every citizen to buy health insurance. Needless to say, the above claim remains pure speculation on my part.

Daily question: #3

Sometimes, I look around and wonder, how do you know it hasn't all been a dream up to this very point? How do you really know?

Sometimes, I look around and wonder, how do you know it hasn't all been a dream up to this very point? How do you really know?

Daily question: #2

When you go on Wikipedia to look up some information, do you leave the website once you found what you wanted, or do you keep on clickin'?

When you go on Wikipedia to look up some information, do you leave the website once you found what you wanted, or do you keep on clickin'?

Daily question: #1

I wonder how many jokes George Washington used to tell?

I wonder how many jokes George Washington used to tell?

Letters

This one's for ellie.

"[t]he last of them," you think?

Theirs Truly: The Lowell-Bishop Letters