There’s news of the inane everywhere. All you gotta do to find it is speak a little Latin
There’s stupidity out there, and it’s our job to find it and expose it for everyone to see.
The first stupidity I want to talk about this week concerns an eighth-grade girl named “Angela” (Latin for “Angel”) living in Vermont who thinks that state should declare the Latin phrase “Stella Quarta Decima Fulgeat” one of its state mottos (Latin for “motts.”) This has rightly caused an uproar in Vermont.
Never mind that the point of the motto, that we should replace our perfectly good system of quids and quarters and tuppence with a monetary system using decimals, is not appropriate for any state. OK: It actually means “Let the fourteenth star shine,” since Vermont was the 14th state to join the Union.Regardless, what critics are upset about is the idea that Vermont should have a Latin motto at all. As many have said, “We talk American here, we don’t talk Latin,” and “If Latins want to live somewhere that talks their language, they should go back to Latin Land.”
Which reminds me. Why do they call it Latin America? It should be Latin Not-America.
Another couple of stories that caught my eye this week show that many people still don’t understand how capitalism works. Here’s how it works: Say I have capital. I get to do anything I want with my capital. That’s how it works.
There’s this whole flap over in North Carolina about it. North Carolina has capitalism, you know. One of its two Republican senators. Sen. Tom Tillis, was questioned about what it meant to support capitalism in regard to hygiene regulations. He stated the opinion that if Starbucks didn’t want to make its employees wash hands after using the bathroom, that was its business, and the only regulation should be that Starbucks alert the public about it. Because, as long as the Green Mermaid did so, the public could then decide whether the business should continue, by freely choosing whether or not to patronize such an establishment.
Now, I don’t know why he picked Starbucks for his example. Maybe he’s courting Starbucks, trying to get it to move its headquarters to North Carolina. He’s making a sweet offer there. “Come to our state, we’re not only a right-to-work state, you don’t have to install sinks or soap in the employees’ bathrooms. Think of the savings.”
I can’t imagine any right more fundamental than the right to urinate on one’s own hands (It’s my body) and then to immediately serve food or drink in a consensual capitalistic relationship. Businesses thrive in freedom like blackberries thrive near a broken septic tank.
Speaking of thriving, our third example of stupidity is all the consternation going on because ISIS is using some Iraqi children as suicide bombers and selling surplus Iraqi children “into slavery.”
Good grief. What part of capitalism don’t people understand? What do they think, that capital is only money? Capital is any renewable economic resource that can be exploited for economic gain. isis has a steady supply of Iraqi children. Capitalism says it’s their business if they want to sell them.
The group isn’t really selling them into slavery. That is so harsh and unfair. isis is selling the children to its customers to use as they wish. If the customers want to use them as slaves, that’s on them. If they want to bronze them, decorate them and use them as lawn furniture, that’s on them. If they want to turn around and retail them to be adoptees of American movie stars, that’s on those customers.
It’s just like the example of letting baristas urinate on their hands and serve you espresso. It’s ok as long as it (isis) lets everyone know what it’s doing. And guess what? Everyone knows. I found out by reading the newspaper. It’s not a secret.
Let the market decide. Is it wrong to sell Iraqi children? If so, then, don’t buy any. Is it wrong to use purchased Iraqi children as slaves? Well, then, don’t buy any goods from companies that use purchased Iraqi children as slaves.
People need to get educated about capitalism.