Very Romantic Valentine Traditions

From History.com

While some believe that Valentine's Day is celebrated in the middle of February to commemorate the anniversary of Valentine's death or burial — which probably occurred around 270 A.D — others claim that the Christian church may have decided to celebrate Valentine's feast day in the middle of February in an effort to 'christianize' celebrations of the pagan Lupercalia festival. In ancient Rome, February was the official beginning of spring and was considered a time for purification. Houses were ritually cleansed by sweeping them out and then sprinkling salt and a type of wheat called spelt throughout their interiors. Lupercalia, which began at the ides of February, February 15, was a fertility festival dedicated to Faunus, the Roman god of agriculture, as well as to the Roman founders Romulus and Remus.

To begin the festival, members of the Luperci, an order of Roman priests, would gather at the sacred cave where the infants Romulus and Remus, the founders of Rome, were believed to have been cared for by a she-wolf or lupa. The priests would then sacrifice a goat, for fertility, and a dog, for purification.

The boys then sliced the goat's hide into strips, dipped them in the sacrificial blood and took to the streets, gently slapping both women and fields of crops with the goathide strips. Far from being fearful, Roman women welcomed being touched with the hides because it was believed the strips would make them more fertile in the coming year. Later in the day, according to legend, all the young women in the city would place their names in a big urn. The city's bachelors would then each choose a name out of the urn and become paired for the year with his chosen woman. These matches often ended in marriage. Pope Gelasius declared February 14 St. Valentine's Day around 498 A.D. The Roman 'lottery' system for romantic pairing was deemed un-Christian and outlawed. Later, during the Middle Ages, it was commonly believed in France and England that February 14 was the beginning of birds' mating season, which added to the idea that the middle of February — Valentine's Day — should be a day for romance.

Are we there yet?

It really is amazing how close we are to communism here. I don't imagine the next four years are going to help any.

10 Planks of the Communist Manifesto

1. Abolition of property in land and application of all rents of land to public purposes.
2. A heavy progressive or graduated income tax.
3. Abolition of all right of inheritance.
4. Confiscation of the property of all emigrants and rebels.
5. Centralisation of credit in the hands of the State, by means of a national bank with State capital and an exclusive monopoly.
6. Centralisation of the means of communication and transport in the hands of the State.
7. Extension of factories and instruments of production owned by the State; the bringing into cultivation of waste-lands, and the improvement of the soil generally in accordance with a common plan.
8. Equal liability of all to labour. Establishment of industrial armies, especially for agriculture.
9. Combination of agriculture with manufacturing industries; gradual abolition of the distinction between town and country, by a more equal distribution of the population over the country.
10. Free education for all children in public schools. Abolition of children's factory labour in its present form. Combination of education with industrial production,

Obamas Healthcare

I glanced briefly at Obamas plan for healthcare tonight. Here are some of the highlights of the plan followed by my thoughts.

1. Invest in IT: Wow invest 10 billion and save 77 billion. I'm sure that hospitals have never thought of that or done a cost benefit analysis. But I'm sure Obama's people know more than the hospital administrators about how to run a hospital.
2. A. Support Disease Management program, B. Ensure Quality Care: A. Wait you mean that I am going to have to pay for some fat dudes gym membership? B. I'm sure the constant threat of litigation and ridiculous legal awards are not incentive enough for doctors and hospitals to do everything in their power to ensure quality.
   
3. Lower costs by taking on anti competitive action in the drug industry: Do you mean ignore their patents? By all means get us lower prices now at the cost of future advances. Brilliant. Also he wants to increase competition. If your ultimate goal is a single payer system where is the competition.
   
4. Reduce cost of catastrophic illness for employees and employers: His plan is to pay employers who have an employee with a catastrophic illness. And this money is going to come from...?
5. Lastly, affordable and accessible health care for all: And you wonder why I think he's a communist.

Lastly if you want to know why health care is so expensive it is pretty simple, it is the best in the world. I know, I know. You thought Cuba had a better health care system. Well try this little test. You are seriously ill and need an operation. You can go anywhere in the world, even Cuba, and money is not an option. Where do you go?
It reminds me of a sign I saw in a barber shop once. You can get a hair cut: Fast, Good, Cheap. Pick two.

The Law

I just finished reading The Law by Frederic Bastiat. Its pretty dang good. It clearly illustrates what the limits of government should be.
I was pretty intrigued with his idea of false philanthropy. This false philanthropy is essentially forced charity where one group is forced to provide for another group. I have always thought it would be far better to replace things like Social Security, Medicaid, and other welfare type programs with churches and other charitable organizations. I imagine that if I received a 15.4% raise, by eliminating just social security and medicare taxes, I could contribute far more to my church. They then could use this money to help the poor and the needy. I would also argue that they could operate it far more efficiently and with far less waste then the current bureaucracy operates.

Happy Holidays Fred Thompson Style

Farm Subsidies in Your Area

This website is pretty interesting. Its kind of like the opensecrets.org of farm subsidies.

Keynesianism Stinks

A 7 minute video on why government spending doesn't help the economy.