More Independence Day musings

Very appropriately, while enjoying the long weekend, I’m reading the classic apologia of Milton and Rose Friedman, Free to Choose. The Friedmans systematically debunk the tenets of the liberal mindset in a most concise and readable way. They point out how, under the big-government model we have been enduring for decades, we lose many of the freedoms our founders fought for, and which we celebrate on Independence Day. Though the cases in point were different thirty years ago than they would be if the book were written today, the principles hold. Highly recommended reading, especially for you liberals who have so much trouble understanding what makes us free market conservatives tick. I regret not getting to meet Milton and Rose during my three years in Hyde Park.

Can we stop yet with the Casey Anthony trial coverage? Here’s yet one more sad young woman who acted out in a most regrettable way; even more regrettably, her daughter paid the price. Lock her up and move on already.

I’m getting closer to a decision on a master’s degree program specializing in nursing informatics. The last week has seen me do lots of information gathering and phone conversation with advisors at various schools. It’s interesting that three of the four institutions on my short list are private, for-profit entities. There are critics who wrongly label all such schools “diploma mills” though that appellation is deserved by only a minority of bad apples in the private barrel. Can it be more of the statist mentality that profit is bad, and by extension government-supported is good? Hmmm….

Finally, the GOP Presidential sweepstakes is starting to come into focus. Some started with high expectations but have failed to move the needle (Pawlenty, Gingrich), others have had trouble gaining any traction at all (Cain, Huntsman). So far I am not seeing an ideal candidate out there. That said, one flawed entrant I’m beginning to warm to is Michele Bachmann. (As I told my Facebook friends and Twitter followers last evening, it sure doesn’t hurt to hear that her favorite composer is J.S. Bach, as revealed in the National Review cover story just out.) For me, much more important than her social conservatism is her conviction that when it comes to the national government, less is more; those who make and execute the laws need to be closer to and more accountable to their electors. Yes, her political résumé is a bit thin, owing to her getting into politics relatively late in life and almost literally by accident. So her list of accomplishments in Washington is meager. And she does occasionally make a misstatement or two. Funny though, how the B in BDS no longer stands for Bush. The media are so quick to slam Bachmann for every syllable they take to be inaccurate (even when she’s right and they’re wrong), yet the incumbents in the highest offices in the land suffer no such slings and arrows from the mainstream press. This could be an interesting run.