Fearless Philosophy Blog Post of the Month (July 2005)

The Carnival of Liberty turned out some outstanding posts in the month of July. I decided to choose from the carnivals to make my selections for July’s Fearless Philosophy Blogpost of the Month. For those of you who are new to my blog, click here for the criteria I’m looking for in a winning post. Because my resources are limited, I figured the carnivals would be a great place to start. Bloggers submit the posts to the carnival posts that they are particularly proud of. Three posts stood out above the rest covering three entirely different topics. Here are this month’s results.

Third Place goes to Shamalama of Common Folk Using Common Sense with a post titled: Will Someone Please Explain This To Me? Shamalama wants someone to logically explain the grounds Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence could use to sue a gun store owner for selling a gun that was later used in a violent crime. According to the article, the original gun store owner did all of the proper background checks but afterwards was bought and sold several times over on the black market until finally it found its way in the hands of a teenage boy who accidentally shot his friend with it. The victim’s family and the gun store owner reached an $850,000 settlement. Shamalama does a great job of explaining the absurdity of this logic. Rather than lift any excerpts from this short but effective article, go read it for yourself and you may also want someone to explain this to you.

Second Place goes to R.G. Combs of Combs Spouts Off with his article Why the Left Blames Us. I’m guessing that by ‘us’ he means America and the civilized world. Combs explains:

Liberals and leftists are determinists. Fundamentally, they're not comfortable with the concept of moral agency -- the idea that individuals are autonomous, that we control our own lives by choices that we make. To most liberals and leftists, human beings are rats in a Skinner box. Our actions are determined by the external stimuli to which we're exposed.

According to Combs, Leftists tend not to believe that the individual is ever responsible for his or her own actions; this is apparent in many of the positions the Left holds today. Combs might be on to something here.

And the winner is…

The Fearless Philosophy Blog Post of the Month of July goes to Brad Warbainy of The Unrepentant Individual with his post America: The Ideal. Brad has just returned home from his European vacation; rather than conquering France, he decided to come back home and reflect on what the ideal of America is. So often, those of us who love liberty find it very easy to look at the negative aspects of life in America. At times we would like to throw up our hands and say ‘I give up.’ If you are in this mode of thinking now or would like to read something truly inspiring, I highly encourage you to read this post. Here is just a sample:

“The American Dream” is more than three little words. It is the idea that if you put your mind to something, the only thing that will cause your success or failure is the strength of your idea and your work. The government, ‘the man’, isn’t going to keep you down. The American Dream is an expression of the triumph of human potential. It is, in three little words, the idea that you can be all that you desire and more.

It only gets better from there folks, so what are you waiting for? Read this post and it will remind you why America and its ideals are worth fighting for.

Past Winners:
June 2005
May 2005
April 2005
March 2005