Happy Independence Day!
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The Fourth of July is a day that is usually a time when families get together for sunshine hot dogs, fun, and fireworks. Every American regardless of race, sex, income, and political party celebrates the day that the Founding Fathers signed the Declaration of Independence, spurring the start of the American Revolution.
Like many other national holidays, the meaning can often be lost in the festivities. And so it is up to each of us to, in the words of Jefferson, “Educate and inform the whole mass of the people... They are the only sure reliance for the preservation of our liberty.”
The American system of government, with the Founding Father’s emphasis on “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness,” has inspired almost every country in the world to rise up and take control of their own destiny. Constitutional Republics have spread throughout Europe, and just this year fellow freedom fighters as far away as Iran and as near to us as Honduras are standing up for their own independence much like our Founding Fathers did more than two centuries ago.
This is America’s lasting legacy.
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Viva Democracia!
ALG Editor's Note: The following featured cartoon by William Warren was done especially for the people of Honduras rallying for freedom, and as that battle enters its crucial stage over the next several days, the staff at ALG News hopes it will serve as inspiration for Hondurans, but also put into perspective what is really happening there.
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California: The “Furloughing” Of Common Sense
By Howard Rich
How many California state employees does it take to screw in a light bulb?
We’ll find out soon enough.
After steadily growing both its budget and bureaucratic payroll for years, California’s fiscal house of cards collapsed last year, opening a $24 billion hole in its upcoming budget.
In an effort to save a nickel – or rather, $1.4 billion worth of nickels – Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger proposed last December that state employees take two days worth of furloughs each month, an idea that was roundly rejected by the state’s government unions. In fact, they sued Schwarzenegger – and after losing their case in court they filed an unfair labor practice claim against him.
Earlier this year, Schwarzenegger relented and trimmed the furlough down to one day a month, although both the governor and Democratic lawmakers are moving to restore the second day in the budget for the upcoming fiscal year. Similar plans have stoked union outrage in other states and municipalities – most notably Chicago –but it’s California where the furlough debate has been most acutely focused.
Aside from the predictable partisan hyperbole and hand-wringing from the bureaucrats, the central question seems to be this: What impact, precisely, do furloughs and other government layoffs have on the services currently being provided to California taxpayers?
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Healthcare Reform: Will Obama Let You Into His Lifeboat?
By Victor Morawski
The term “lifeboat ethics” is used to describe ethical issues that arise in situations involving the allocation of limited resources. It originally came out of a landmark 1974 article by philosopher Garrett Harden in connection with ethical questions surrounding the issue of providing food aid to underdeveloped nations.
He pictured wealthier nations as being like so many lifeboats---all with limited capacity, of course---afloat in a sea surrounded by many swimmers who need saving: the residents of poorer nations. His discussion there concerned the ethical guidelines that ought to govern who, if anyone, should be picked up and saved by those in the lifeboats.
The picture of the lifeboat is, quite obviously, an analogy. And from a logician’s perspective, an analogy is a tool used in a particular type of argument. If I am using an analogy to convince you of something, then I am arguing that two things, A and B, are alike in certain important respects, hence they should be seen as being alike in at least one more relevant respect: that which represents the conclusion of my argument. As a logical tool, an analogy works where it works. Its applicability is not necessarily tied down to only one situation or ethical position.
The lifeboat analogy has surfaced in several ways in the Health Care community and is relevant to the current debate over Health Care Reform. Here we are also dealing with the allocation of limited resources.
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ALG in the News: WBT 1110AM
ALG Editor’s Note: In the following featured interview, WBT 1110AM’s Pete Kaliner interviews ALG President Bill Wilson on the suppressed EPA report:
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