12-13-2016, 11:45 AM
And one more:
Americans were so generally embarrassed by sex in the early part of this century that sex statutes still standing in some of our states do not even define the behavior or activity they prohibit. The legislators were seemingly able to spell out fornication and/or adultery with only an occasional blush, but when they moved into the slightly more exotic areas of fellatio, cunnilingus and pederasty, it appears that some of them broke into a cold sweat and were just too intimidated by the entire subject to explain what offenses the laws were intended to cover. Thus, in place of the specific, the state statutes prohibit "vile and contemptible crimes against nature."
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Interesting too that this commentary is interwoven with a lot of championing of capitalism like this:
Maurice Stans, president of the nation's largest bank holding corporation, and author of a nationally syndicated newspaper column on business and government, recently wrote: "What we have in American free enterprise is an almost perfect blending of the forces that motivate people. It combines equality of opportunity and freedom of choice with our dominant individual traits of acquisitiveness and competitiveness."
If we were looking for additional evidence of the merits of the free enterprise system, we couldn't ask for much more dramatic proof than East and West Berlin today. The contrast between the two halves of that once whole city -- one rebuilding under a democratic free economy and the other under Communist socialism -- says more than any business or financial expert ever could. And so do the East Berliners scrambling to escape over and under the hated wall that separates the two sectors.
There's another bit of negative evidence here in the U.S. that deserves a comment, too. During the Depression of the Thirties, this country came as close to socialism as it ever has, with the government creating hundreds of thousands of jobs for the unemployed. During that period, the optimism, initiative and competitive spirit that supply a unique spark to our free enterprise system disappeared. As a result, this country literally stood still for ten long years and dragged its heels for another ten -- not just economically, but in almost every area of activity. We're feeling the effect of it now in the race for space. Russia used that generation to pull ahead of us in missile research and to shorten the gap between the two countries in many other areas. Where socialism has failed her -- as it has in many areas -- Russia has introduced various capitalistlike incentives. But one thing Russia has been unable to supply to its program is the spark that only a free society has. It can make the difference.
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Obviously I disagree with that economic analysis.
Americans were so generally embarrassed by sex in the early part of this century that sex statutes still standing in some of our states do not even define the behavior or activity they prohibit. The legislators were seemingly able to spell out fornication and/or adultery with only an occasional blush, but when they moved into the slightly more exotic areas of fellatio, cunnilingus and pederasty, it appears that some of them broke into a cold sweat and were just too intimidated by the entire subject to explain what offenses the laws were intended to cover. Thus, in place of the specific, the state statutes prohibit "vile and contemptible crimes against nature."
****
Interesting too that this commentary is interwoven with a lot of championing of capitalism like this:
Maurice Stans, president of the nation's largest bank holding corporation, and author of a nationally syndicated newspaper column on business and government, recently wrote: "What we have in American free enterprise is an almost perfect blending of the forces that motivate people. It combines equality of opportunity and freedom of choice with our dominant individual traits of acquisitiveness and competitiveness."
If we were looking for additional evidence of the merits of the free enterprise system, we couldn't ask for much more dramatic proof than East and West Berlin today. The contrast between the two halves of that once whole city -- one rebuilding under a democratic free economy and the other under Communist socialism -- says more than any business or financial expert ever could. And so do the East Berliners scrambling to escape over and under the hated wall that separates the two sectors.
There's another bit of negative evidence here in the U.S. that deserves a comment, too. During the Depression of the Thirties, this country came as close to socialism as it ever has, with the government creating hundreds of thousands of jobs for the unemployed. During that period, the optimism, initiative and competitive spirit that supply a unique spark to our free enterprise system disappeared. As a result, this country literally stood still for ten long years and dragged its heels for another ten -- not just economically, but in almost every area of activity. We're feeling the effect of it now in the race for space. Russia used that generation to pull ahead of us in missile research and to shorten the gap between the two countries in many other areas. Where socialism has failed her -- as it has in many areas -- Russia has introduced various capitalistlike incentives. But one thing Russia has been unable to supply to its program is the spark that only a free society has. It can make the difference.
*****
Obviously I disagree with that economic analysis.
JOHN ROBERTS: From time to time in the years to come, I hope you will be treated unfairly so that you will come to know the value of justice... I wish you bad luck, again, from time to time so that you will be conscious of the role of chance in life and understand that your success is not completely deserved and that the failure of others is not completely deserved either.
