Welcome to another edition of The Mueller Report!
Updates
Several months ago I was elected chairman of the Lake County Republicans. In thinking about taking the position, I was drawn to three particular elements. First was simply the chance to improve the direction of government in Leadville and Lake County. There are several areas I want to see reform locally:
Fiscal Responsibility: Stopping government growth, reducing local tax burden, focusing on core government functions, clearer accountability and communication
Rule of Law: Simple clear rules, less discretion; open competition/free enterprise; broad permitting and building rules reform
Citizen Participation: Everyone should pay taxes; self-governance and problem-solving; civil society solutions
Schools: Focus on education, not welfare, handouts, redistribution, or social ideology
Limited Governments: Get the government out of housing, out of the grant business; and out of the nonprofit business
I also took the position as a means for meeting and befriending more folks in the community. It’s a kind of forcing function in my life to be less insular. And related to that, I took the position in order to increase community engagement and education. Elections don’t come around that often and, in a small place like Lake County, we don’t need a huge election machinery. So a lot of what I hope we will do will be social and civic in nature rather than strictly political.
I also finished training and examinations for eldership this month and was voted in yesterday. This is another role I am excited to step into. There will be a lot of work to do developing precedent since the church hasn’t had elders before. I think we will also spend a big chunk of our time developing the “trellises” of the church; the structures that will make it easier to carry out ministry and to expand ministries. Of course, most fundamentally, the role will entail more prayer for, and shepherding of, the congregation.
I wrote a lot of this newsletter on a plane (again) coming home from Orlando. I attended a conference of State Financial Officers who deal with ESG distractions and fiduciary responsibilities every day. It was interesting (and encouraging) to hear how state treasurers and state auditors were using their positions to benefit their fellow citizens. I also learned, in passing, how badly Nevada is gerrymandered in favor of Democrats. Apparently just a few years ago the Republicans won the popular vote state-wide while Democrats won a supermajority in the state house or senate….
Writing
I had two pieces come out last week. The longer piece at Law and Liberty explained how business and free enterprise contribute to human flourishing: Business and Human Flourishing. Several of my former professors emailed me about that piece. I conclude:
Markets, trade, and business exist to enable people to satisfy their desires. They satisfy not just desires for status or comfort, but desires to build schools and churches, to play sports and music, to cure diseases, throw parties, and to fix problems. In short, profitable business supports human flourishing. It makes flourishing possible.
Heavily constrained markets don’t just make people poorer; they also stifle people’s creativity and frustrate their plans (noble and ignoble). That’s why, when it comes to the economy, promoting free markets and free enterprise ought to be government officials’ north star.
I also wrote a short column about the surprising fact that most Americans do not get any federal tax benefits from their charitable giving: What Scrooge Effect?
An excerpt:
From a benefit standpoint, your qualified expenses, including your charitable giving, must add up to more than the standard deduction before you receive any tax advantage. Suppose someone takes the entire $10,000 state and local tax deduction (SALT) and comes up with $5,000 more in other qualified expenses. They would still be $14,200 short of the $29,200 standard deduction for a couple. This means that any of their charitable giving, up to $14,200, does not render them any benefits on their federal taxes.
Seventy percent of American households earn less than $127,000 before taxes. So $14,200 would mean donating more than ten percent of their pre-tax earnings before they saw any advantage from the giving being “tax-deductible.” For most Americans, the “tax-deductible” element of charitable giving is practically irrelevant. Yet they give anyway.
Bookshelf
I recently finished a scathing book about DEI in academia. The author pulls no punches. He thinks DEI is literally a fraud and a scam on a truly incredible scale. From my review:
Ridgley points out the egregious case of the University of Michigan. From the launch of its DEI programs in 2016, UM has spent a mind-numbing two hundred and fifty million dollars on its diversity programs according to an expose by the New York Times Magazine. Although UM may be the most prominent example of DEI grift, there are plenty of other shocking examples. “UVA pays more than $1 million in salary and benefits to its top two DEI sinecures….By comparison, Virginia’s governor Glenn Youngkin is paid $175,000.” (emphasis original). At Ohio State, over thirty DEI positions were paid between $100,000 and $300,000. To add insult to injury, Ridgley goes into what these universities get from their highly paid DEI bureaucrats: zilch and a headache to go with it.
According to Ridgely, DEI advocates and officers are merely grifters living large off the money they get from their “Marks.” He’s basically right. A substantial portion of DEI officers spend their time justifying their position and drumming up instances of racism. This has contributed to a significant uptick in racial hoaxes that are eaten up by gullible administrators looking to confirm their oppressor-oppressed narratives. In some cases this has led to steep costs for the university – such as Duke paying out $60 million in damages to three falsely accused lacrosse players and Oberlin College paying out many millions to a local bakery for false defamation.
Reflection
You can tell how natural a lifestyle change is by how long it takes to feel normal again. Natural doesn’t necessarily mean good – some bad things come very easily and some good things take intensity and effort – but for our bodies and the material elements of our lives, some activities cut with the grain and some cut against the grain.
This may be especially true when it comes to exercise and dieting. Of all the different kinds of exercising one can do (weightlifting, running, walking, biking, swimming, HITT, etc.) which ones start to feel “normal” quickest? Obviously habits and discipline matter, and can affect how “normal” things feel, but some kinds of exercise just naturally suit our bodies and our season of life better than others.
I’ve also noticed this naturalness in the fasting mindset I described a few weeks ago from Jay Richards’ book. One of the most shocking things is how much easier it has gotten to fast and how natural it feels to do so. Jay’s book combines the science of nutrition and energy with Christian liturgy and history with deeply practical suggestions. For me, it has reshaped how I think about food and about eating.
Game Corner
I learned a new game last week: Dune Imperium. A friend brought it over and played it with me and the boys. The game is obviously themed along the Dune story. The best way to describe its dynamics is a cross between Dominion deck-building and Agricola-style resource optimization.
There is a board with different sector areas and factions that you can devote a worker to if you have the right card to play. These areas give or require different resources (water, spice, money, etc.) and can help you in various ways – getting resources, intrigue cards, recruiting armies, etc.
Then you have your hand and your deck that you use to purchase better cards and to trash less valuable cards. Victory points can be scored by reaching certain benchmarks or milestones, influencing various factions, winning combat, completing contract cards, or by buying victory point cards. The game has a nice mix of individual play/maximization and player interaction dynamics. I’m not sure I’m ready to go buy it myself, but I would be quite happy to play it again.
Have a good rest of your week!