In a welfare-entitlement state such as America today, open borders become even more problematic. Particularly if new immigrants are put on these welfare programs at the time of entry. This puts productive and prosperous citizens in the position of economically supporting mass numbers of people against their will — the antithesis of freedom. In a truly free country, all charity is voluntary.

Libertarians and “Objectivists” arguing for open borders evade the solution they understand better than anyone: repeal the welfare-entitlement state. Phase it out in a defined time period. Even once this happens, you still cannot have open borders. But in an economically free society with no mandated obligations for welfare or “social insurance,” immigration would not be the huge problem it has become in our increasingly socialist society. The immigration policy of an America liberated from its welfare state will be: “Only self-responsible individuals need apply.”

Liberalized immigration isn’t tenable in a socialist society. Don’t blame it on racism or nationalism. Blame it on socialism.

The post Open Borders and Free Countries Do Not Mix appeared first on Michael J. Hurd, Ph.D. | Living Resources Center.

But what about gifts you got, but for which you simply have no use? Of course, it’s the thought that counts, and little voices in our heads caution: “It’s wrong to be wasteful! Waste not; want not! Blah, blah, blah!” The guilt simmers as we agonize over what to do with this post-holiday excess, as the disapproving rants of long-gone fifth-grade teachers echo in our minds.

Let’s be honest. “Wasteful” means to discard something even though it still has potential use. It also means to dispose of your property in the way you see fit. To claim that this is morally wrong suggests that it harms others to throw something out — as opposed to, say, giving it away or allowing it to gather dust in the attic. This erroneous view of morality rests upon the mistaken “zero-sum” premise.

Zero-sum suggests that you’re harming somebody else by having “too much” of something, or by not using what you have. For example, by having lots of money, or, let’s say, cars, you are somehow denying money or cars to others. It’s the twisted premise behind the schoolmarms’ carping, “Don’t throw that sandwich away. Children are starving in Russia!” Really? Children in Russia are in no way affected by my eating — or not eating — that sandwich. It’s nothing more than neurotic guilt – something crafty politicians invoke when they want something (usually more money) from you.

Don’t misunderstand. Guilt is a healthy emotion when applied to things that are actually wrong. An absence of guilt can lead to problems individually and in the social order. But feeling guilty for things over which you have no control accomplishes nothing other than to degrade your mental and physical health. To feel guilty just because you have more than somebody else doesn’t change the fact that you still have more than somebody else. If you really want them to have what you have, then simply give it to them. Generosity is great. But don’t pretend that not disposing of things you don’t need will somehow help somebody else. It just causes stress.

Look at all the holiday clutter you’ve picked up over the years. You HAVE to hold on to it, right? I recently heard an etiquette expert on TV say that there’s nothing wrong with “regifting,” i.e., giving a present, originally from someone else, to a different person. According to the expert, as long as the person who originally gave you the gift doesn’t find out, this is perfectly fine. I agreed with that, but then he blathered on to say that it was “wrong to be wasteful.” It annoyed me that his moralistic prattle might instill unnecessary guilt into his more gullible viewers.

The point of regifting isn’t to avoid being wasteful. It’s simply to leave more space for the things you value. Is giving an item to someone you’re certain will enjoy it better than throwing it out? Sure it is, but only because it makes you happy to make that other person happy. When I moved here many years ago, I discovered clothes I no longer needed. I made a trip to the charity bin because it made me happy to think that someone might enjoy them. If I had reason to believe that nobody wanted them, I would have tossed them out in a heartbeat. I’d never sacrifice my personal space to mindless platitudes like, “Waste not; want not.”

I have a friend who refuses to throw out hotel soaps and shampoos he carts home from vacations. He never throws any of them out — EVER. He doesn’t use them, either. So why keep them? “Because it’s perfectly good soap and shampoo!” The flawed premise is glaringly obvious: “Waste not; want not.” By the way, this same friend spends hundreds on storage units — far more than his stuff was ever worth.

So enjoy the new year and don’t buy into the guilt. Regift with wild abandon while clearing your shelves and your mind. A psychologically healthy life is not a zero-sum game.

The post After the Holidays Letdown … appeared first on Michael J. Hurd, Ph.D. | Living Resources Center.

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Democrats used to pass laws to make illegal anything they dislike. They were usually wrong; but they struggled. Now they just scream what they want, as an emotionally-based entitlement demanding immediate gratification. Trump is in power, and it makes them wild with rage. Not because he’s Trump; but because they feel entitled to have every wish fulfilled immediately and without equivocation. Yes, Democrats are totalitarians and tyrants. But they have the emotional maturity of three-year-olds. They will not sustain a nation or a civilization. They WILL fall, for the same reasons all insanity collapses. The only question: Will the sane permit these psychotic leftists to take us down with them?

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The following is a post by Char Cushman to which I say, Bravo!

For those of you who have read Harry Binswanger’s latest post about ICE. I 100% disagree with him. He completely ignores the entire context.
Culture matters.

Binswanger [of the Ayn Rand Institute] claims we are all tribalists who dislike immigrants because of their color. I wonder what he thinks about Ayn Rand when she called people in the middle east savages.

He defends the rule of law–the aliens broke immigration law. What about that law? Without vetting, immigrants entered here who have harmed American citizens. They have brutally murdered people, raped and murdered women, and have committed massive theft (the Day care fraud and other fraud) from us. And don’t forget that many of them hate our country and wish for our demise i.e. “death to America.” I have heard some say, well, we have criminals too. So? Our criminals should go to jail and criminal immigrants should be deported. Let’s say the rape and murder of Laken Riley was the only crime committed. It was one death too many. It would have never happened if we had protected borders. Tell Laken Riley’s parents, family and close friends that her death by an illegal alien doesn’t matter because we already have criminals here.

The Left is focusing on the rights of the immigrants. Those who commit crimes have given up their rights. Besides, what about our rights? We don’t have any? We work and pay the taxes, but we don’t get a say on who can come here?

There is NO RIGHT to go where ever you want to in the world. To say it is a right means that others have to provide you entrance no matter where you go, no matter who you are. Criminals do not have a right to go where ever they want. That is one reason why borders need to be protected so that the good immigrants can be distinguished from the bad.

Another crucial point is that we are now a welfare state which was not the case in the early years of our country. How many people can we support on welfare before the United States collapses?

Don’t listen to ARI (Ayn Rand Institute). They are traitors to our country.

… I would add to this that the protestors are not peaceful. Blocking traffic, spitting on officers, throwing bricks at them, surrounding their cars, breaking their windows, breaking into their cars, and stealing items such as guns from police cars is not peaceful. Plus, there is evidence that they are paid to protest. My only complaint about them is that they are being too soft. From the get go, they should have been arresting them and putting them in jail or spraying them with pepper spray or cold water.

By all means, read and discover the ideas and contributions of Ayn Rand. As for the people peddling leftism and subjectivism at ARI, run for your life.

As a reader commented on Facebook, “I’m totally flabbergasted at the turn ARI has taken in the last ten years — maybe longer, but I didn’t notice it until the 2016 election cycle, when they went off the rails.”

My reply: When you think about it, the people at ARI are making a career living off the work of another person, i.e., Ayn Rand. They’re the very kind of people she wrote about as the mediocrities in her novels. From what I can see, the leadership there hasn’t changed for two decades or more. It seems like this would have to be a symptom of something. The great thing about Ayn Rand’s ideas is that they will matter, and they will always matter somewhere, to somebody; ARI will be forgotten when it eventually runs out of other people’s money.

The post Ayn Rand Was Not a Woke Leftist appeared first on Michael J. Hurd, Ph.D. | Living Resources Center.

Socialists are like the 30 year old son or daughter who won’t move out of the parents’ house, and who lectures the supporting parent on the evil of his or her ways. The great irony? Only capitalism and freedom of speech could have spawned the socialist, because without the luxury and comfort of a free society, the socialist could not survive five minutes. The even greater irony? Socialism will destroy the good life of capitalism and return humans to a state of Nature. The glowering, pedantic, mean-spirited Socialists will be the first to perish. There is justice in nature, even if not in socialism.

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Thornton on The Joe Rogan Experience Podcast on Friday suggested that both political parties in America do not make sense, and that it should be “pretty easy to figure out.”

Rogan Responded by suggesting the country needs a “non ideologically captured party”.

Joe Rogan gets it wrong again. I don’t think the solution to our problems is to eradicate ideology. Why not? Because ideas are inescapable. Ideas are implicit in every thought, every emotion and every action. A government either bases its policies and legitimacy on the ideas of freedom, individual rights — or on the idea of controlling everyone. Think about it. Would you support a political party or candidate who states: “I have no ideas”? Of course not. The only question is: which ideas? Or whose ideas?

I will always support the candidate closer to the spirit and specifics of America’s founders: the Bill of Rights, due process, private property and individual rights. Today, President Trump and the better Republicans are the only people on earth, of those running for office, who stand for anything like those ideas. Democrats running for office are rabid, psychopathic totalitarians hellbent on implementing the worst ideas ever conceived by human beings. If you think you can escape ideas in politics (or any other realm of human significance), you’re fantasizing.

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Whether the report is true or not, it points out: Police really can have a lot of influence. If they simply “shrug” — abandon the cities and states run by politicians who are totalitarians at war with their own citizens, then it might cause enough upheaval that people like Tim Walz and that freaky little twerp mayor of Minneapolis will be run out of town (not to mention arrested for fraud or treason).

If the voters in places like Chicago, New York, Portland, Minneapolis, L.A. and the like don’t want police protection, then fine — your law enforcement will abandon you. And if you do want civilization restored, then pretend it’s 1850 or 1880: Take matters into your own hands, so that there’s hope of restoring some kind of rational government not at war with its own people. Perhaps the police should defund themselves, walk away — and let’s see what happens.

Most members of the Democratic Party in office are literally insurrectionists and have declared war on the Constitution. Essentially, they have concluded THEY are the Constitution and their Party is the rule of law. So if you have a law they don’t like, they ignore it. Recent examples: The Governor of Colorado, brazenly ignoring a presidential pardon … Other examples: The Governor of Minnesota, the mayor of Minneapolis, the terrorist mayor of New York City, the Governor of California, the Governor of Illinois, the mayor of Chicago, the mayor of Seattle, and many other examples. They are refusing to uphold not only federal immigration law, but their own laws against violent crime. The mayor of New York promised in his campaign to open up Rikers, the nation’s most dangerous prison, and let out violent offenders.

I would support President Trump arresting all of them immediately and charging them with treason, at a minimum. If we ignore this open insurrection, then our Constitution and Bill of Rights becomes officially null and void, which is what the Democrats obviously want. They are seeking a one-Party socialist-fascist dictatorship and will get it one way or another–and if we don’t at least try to stop them, the United States will not be the place you have known it to be for much longer. President Trump is a great President and I believe he is heading in this direction. The media and the Democratic Party psychopaths will scream bloody hell, and you can be sure, when they do so, we are exactly on the right track.

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