These are in the order of priority from most to least important. Every one is critical for the health of the nation as a whole.

1. Education
2. Tax system
3. Two-party system
4. Dietary habits
5. Television habits
6. Tolerance for lobbyists and lawyers
7. Dependence on social services
8. Idolization of idiots (Paris Hiltonitis)
9. Overmedication
10. Concept of personal responsibility

What ten things would you change?

The video song has been taken down. I don’t know the reasons, but I can certainly guess. The author’s eloquent response to criticisms of his product is still worth reading. Author “Patrick Henry” contacted me yesterday and stated that he wouldn’t do an e-mail interview with me out of concerns about the safety of his family. You might be able to watch the video here.
Watch the (possibly offensive) video song “It’s in the Koran.”

Then read the creator’s comments:

Until now I haven’t answered the criticisms people have made of my song. My reason was that I doubted that the critics would understand my answer any better than they understand the song. But I’ve decided to try to explain myself once, after which I won’t intrude again.

Many commenters argue that the Koran doesn’t say what the song claims the Koran says. To everyone who holds this view, I answer — and this is very important, so I’ll state it again below — I agree with you. I agree that the Koran says what you claim it says. Islam is one of the world’s great religions, and I don’t believe that billions could have followed it if it weren’t, at its core, beautiful and life- engendering.

What book is is important enough that I read it once a year? The Law by Frederic Bastiat. Written in 1848 as a response to socialism in France, this book essay is just as relevant today as it was then.

What, then, is law? It is the collective organization of the individual right to lawful defense.
Each of us has a natural right–from God–to defend his person, his liberty, and his property. These are the three basic requirements of life, and the preservation of any one of them is completely dependent upon the preservation of the other two. For what are our faculties but the extension of our individuality? And what is property but an extension of our faculties?
If every person has the right to defend — even by force — his person, his liberty, and his property, then it follows that a group of men have the right to organize and support a common force to protect these rights constantly. Thus the principle of collective right — its reason for existing, its lawfulness — is based on individual right. And the common force that protects this collective right cannot logically have any other purpose or any other mission than that for which it acts as a substitute. Thus, since an individual cannot lawfully use force against the person, liberty, or property of another individual, then the common force — for the same reason — cannot lawfully be used to destroy the person, liberty, or property of individuals or groups.
Such a perversion of force would be, in both cases, contrary to our premise. Force has been given to us to defend our own individual rights. Who will dare to say that force has been given to us to destroy the equal rights of our brothers? Since no individual acting separately can lawfully use force to destroy the rights of others, does it not logically follow that the same principle also applies to the common force that is nothing more than the organized combination of the individual forces?
If this is true, then nothing can be more evident than this: The law is the organization of the natural right of lawful defense. It is the substitution of a common force for individual forces. And this common force is to do only what the individual forces have a natural and lawful right to do: to protect persons, liberties, and properties; to maintain the right of each, and to cause justice to reign over us all.

My copy of The Law is filled with highlighted yellow phrases. Among them:

But, unfortunately, law by no means confines itself to its proper functions. And when it has exceeded its proper functions, it has not done so merely in some inconsequential and debatable matters. The law has gone further than this; it has acted in direct opposition to its own purpose. The law has been used to destroy its own objective: It has been applied to annihilating the justice that it was supposed to maintain; to limiting and destroying rights which its real purpose was to respect. The law has placed the collective force at the disposal of the unscrupulous who wish, without risk, to exploit the person, liberty, and property of others. It has converted plunder into a right, in order to protect plunder. And it has converted lawful defense into a crime, in order to punish lawful defense.
How has this perversion of the law been accomplished? And what have been the results?
The law has been perverted by the influence of two entirely different causes: stupid greed and false philanthropy. Let us speak of the first.

Every legislator should be forced to read Bastiat’s The Law once a month for their entire term and write a synopsis of how they have upheld the ideas contained within it. The tome should be taught in our school systems. It should be drilled into every citizen’s head from birth until death.

Thanks a generous reader, the essay contest prize is now $300. I have only received two entries to date, and the deadline for receiving entries is Feb. 15, about two weeks away. So encourage someone you know who has been to Iraq or is in Iraq serving with the coalition military to submit an entry.

To all of you who made the contest possible through your donations, thanks so much. The same goes to those of you who have posted links back to the contest page. If you can post a link or banner, please do so. Instructions are here.

I’m implementing a new feature called Feed of the Week. This week’s selection: Winds of Change. Last week’s is still up as well. Go read.

If you haven’t noticed, there is a link the The Basement in the top menu bar. You’ll see some nifty words fired out of the “assault weapon.” Every word goes somewhere neat. Explore.