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We open with a touching Christmas story shared by Andrew Malcolm in the LA Times. Ronald Reagan is in it.
…One day in the middle of his eight years as governor (1967-75), Reagan received a letter from two sisters — Bertha and Samueline Sisco. According to their story, they had promised their dying mother they would always care for their brother, Buzzy who was, as they phrased it in those days, retarded.
The sisters were seeking guidance to some kind of state help in caring for their 43-year-old sibling and the governor’s office steered them toward it.
But Gov. Reagan heard a about the family’s situation and made some inquiries. He discovered that Buzzy had always wanted a rocking chair to sit in with his teddy bear.
…Shortly before Christmas that year California Highway Patrolman Dale Role delivered a rocking chair to the Sisco home, along with a note explaining that it came from the governor’s personal family furnishings and he wanted Buzzy and his teddy bear to be rocking in time for Christmas. …
In American.com, Arthur Brooks and Peter Wehner discuss how society benefits from capitalism.
…The American founders believed, and capitalism rests on the belief, that people are driven by “self-interest” and the desire to better our condition. Self-interest is not necessarily bad; in fact, Smith believed, and capitalism presupposes, that the general welfare depends on allowing an individual to pursue his self-interest “as long as he does not violate the laws of justice.” When a person acts in his own interest, “he frequently promotes [the interest] of society more effectually than when he really intends to promote it. ”7
…Smith took for granted that people are driven by self-interest, by the desire to better their condition. “It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker that we expect our dinner,” is how he put it, “but from their regard to their own interest. We address ourselves not to their humanity, but to their self-love, and never talk to them of our own necessities but of their advantages.”9
…Advocates of free enterprise believe that creativity, enterprise, and ingenuity are essential parts of human nature. Capitalism aims to take advantage of the self-interest of human nature, knowing that the collateral effects will be a more decent and benevolent society. Capitalists believe that liberty is an inherent good and should form the cornerstone not only of our political institutions but our economic ones as well. …
The Christian Science Monitor editors comment on the individual mandate and the Supreme Court.
…Never before has the federal government tried to punish citizens for not engaging in a private activity. This “individual mandate” is a legal innovation, one now being challenged in several courts. On Monday, US District Judge Henry E. Hudson ruled that the mandate “exceeds the Commerce Clause powers vested in Congress under Article I [of the Constitution].” Two other federal judges, however, recently ruled in favor of the mandate’s constitutionality.
At least one of these cases will probably reach the Supreme Court by 2012. As in many of its decisions, the high court may be split in a 5-to-4 vote. And Justice Anthony Kennedy, as often happens, could be the swing vote and write the majority opinion.
Here is what he may well say – in a layman’s version of arguments – against the mandate…
Thomas Sowell supplies some gift-giving ideas. We highlight a few:
…Among the books I read this year, the one that made the biggest impact on me was “New Deal or Raw Deal” ($10.20; 32% OFF) by Burton Folsom, Jr., a professor at Hillsdale College. It was that rare kind of book, one thoroughly researched by a scholar and yet written in plain language, readily understood by anyone.
So many myths and legends glorifying Franklin D. Roosevelt and his New Deal administration have become part of folklore that a dose of cold facts is very much needed.
…I don’t usually read autobiographical books but two very good ones came out this year. My favorite is titled “Up from the Projects” (34% off) by economist, columnist and personal friend Walter Williams. It is a small book with a big punch. Once you start reading it, it is hard to put down.
“Up from the Projects” is not only a remarkable story of a remarkable man’s life, it is the story of both progress and retrogression in the black community. Everyone wants to take credit for the progress but nobody wants to take the blame for the retrogression.
…My own new books this year are “Intellectuals and Society,” (34% off) an account of another strange and dangerous group of people, and the 4th edition of “Basic Economics,” which is more than twice as large as the first edition. It has been putting on weight over the years, like its author, but the weight is muscle in the case of the book.
“Basic Economics” (38% off) has sold more copies than any other book of mine and has been translated into more foreign languages. Apparently there are a lot of people who want to understand economics without having to wade through graphs and equations.
David Harsanyi shifts gears and comments on movies versus tv.
…Recently in a Wall Street Journal piece, humorist Joe Queenan made a stinging case that 2010 was the absolute worst year in movies — ever. Queenan contends that Hollywood’s historical mission is to provide “a steady stream of engaging movies to generate a continuous sense of excitement” but also to make us “anticipate” and “talk them up long before their release.” But movies for adults rarely generate any excitement. The medium that produces the most conversation and enthusiasm these days is television.
Take “Mad Men.” The highly rated series set in the 1960s focuses on the escapades of Don Draper, creative director for a fledgling Madison Avenue ad firm. Jon Hamm’s acting is as good anything we’re seeing in movies, and the show is crammed with rich characters and provocative story lines. In the real world, “Mad Men” unleashes a massive post-episode conversation that takes place in thousands of discussion boards, blogs, talk shows, offices and newspapers. What movie can claim anything close to that kind of relevance?
…This kind of care often makes television more akin to reading a novel than watching a movie. It does not shy away from the cerebral. Ask David Simon, the Baltimore Sun crime reporter and co-creator of HBO’s “The Wire,” who explained to Newsweek a few years ago that his standard for Baltimore “was Balzac’s Paris, or Dickens’s London, or Tolstoy’s Moscow.” The realism of that show — which spent each of its five seasons dissecting another area of urban life — had the feel of a documentary.
I remember an FBI agent telling me that “The Wire” was the closest thing to police reality he had ever watched. Certainly, the show’s 21st century newsroom — the focus of the last season — was as authentic as any portrayed in film. …
In the WSJ, Lauren Etter writes about how Chicago is making life difficult for their culinary entrepreneurs who operate food trucks rather than restaurants.
…Food trucks—essentially restaurants on wheels—have taken off in cities such as Los Angeles and New York, spurred by the weak economy, trendy fare and the proliferation of social media, like Twitter. Food & Wine magazine voted an L.A. food-truck chef one of its “Best New Chefs” of 2010 and the Food Network has a show devoted to such vendors. But in Chicago, one of the nation’s most progressive culinary cities, the trucks are held back by restrictive rules and operate in a legal twilight zone.
…Unlike other cities, where chefs are free to actually cook inside their trucks, Chicago chefs can’t unwrap or alter the food in any way once it’s on a truck. And food trucks aren’t allowed to park within 200 feet of a restaurant. Such roadblocks have kept all but a few chefs from taking to the streets—even as the food trucks fight to change the rules.
…A food-truck operation can get off the ground for under $150,000, while many restaurants spend more than $1 million on real estate and equipment to open their doors. ..