Gary

A snarky curmudgeon with a Libertarian tilt.

Who Refuses to Govern America?

First Principles, Government, Rule of Law, Social Philosophy

Feb 042011

Do we really want self-rule?In the absence of the willingness to self-govern, or to have a conversation about how to be more effective at the little self-governing we actually do, is it fair to look at failing American states and cities as anomalous? Is it reasonable to suppose that they are, at bottom, that much different than Haiti, or Zimbabwe, Argentina or Venezuela? If Democracy is just used as an excuse to use an ignorant, disengaged populace as a path to power, isn’t the inevitable default to a kleptocracy? Were America’s founders wrong, in the end, in misjudging the willingness of enough people to engage in governance to make the American experiment work? If we abandon our responsibility to be informed and engaged enough to monitor and direct those we elect to public office, is a prosperous life under free-market capitalism sustainable? In other words, is the Chicago model of token democracy the default, the natural mode of a society too preoccupied individually to care that they are electing people whose sole incentive is to loot the government and divert the public purse to themselves and their necessary allies (e.g., unions)? Are Ayn Rand’s looters (of the treasury and the productive sector) not necessarily a spiral towards collapse, but a form of stagnation that is sustainable as long as you have enough employers who won’t go John Galt and either drop out or limit their own productivity? After all, Chicago can hollow out its public services with patronage, extravagant contracts, exuberant pensions and sell-offs of public assets. In return, the citizens of that fair city get fifty years of one-party rule and a minimum of actual public service: Poor schools, transport, education and safety – but not poor enough to create demand for change. Just wondering, because it appears that while American constitutional principles are scalable to any population size, the 1787 system designed for their implementation is not. It’s too easy, in a massive population, for the weak and corrupt to hide from citizen scrutiny. It’s too easy for the corrupt to manipulate parts of a large system to continue reading

Opinion: Comunismo y Socialismo

First Principles, Government, Social Philosophy

Dec 072010

por Armando P. RibasFor our Spanish-speakers, here is a provocative essay by the Argentine economic consultant Armando P. Ribas, author of Entre la Libertad y la Servidumbre. This should help clear up some of the confusion between Marxism and Socialism. A very thoughtful piece, contributed to HACER by frequent contributor RCR. So, with a big hat tip to Eneas Biglione, editor of Hacer (Hispanic-American Center for Economic Research), we are pleased to be able to offer this very thoughtful piece. Incidentally, you can sign up for a Hacer weekly e-mail, and I’m sure that, as a non-profit, they would greatly appreciate any small donation you can manage. Lastly, if you want to read this in English, just click on the Translate tab at the top of the page. Enjoy. “No Hay diferencia entre comunismo y socialismo, excepto en la manera de conseguir el mismo objetivo final: el comunismo propone esclavizar al hombre mediante la fuerza, el socialismo mediante el voto. Es la misma diferencia que hay entre asesinato y suicidio”. Ayn Rand “ El egoísmo bien entendido de los ciudadanos es sólo un vicio para el egoísmo de los gobiernos que personifican a los Estados.” Juan Bautista Alberdi La historia reciente del enfrentamiento entre la Rusia Soviética en manos del comunismo, y los Estados Unidos como representante del capitalismo, ha provocado igualmente una confusión en el análisis político ideológico. Conforme a esa alternativa hemos liberado al socialismo de su origen ideológico marxista. Ante tal disyuntiva creo procedente dar honor a quien honor merece y reconocer que fueron Marx y Engels los creadores del socialismo científico. Ya había escrito Karl Marx en su versión de la dialéctica hegeliana que la historia de la lucha de clases partía de la tesis feudalismo- antítesis – capitalismo y síntesis que fuera el socialismo. La llegada del socialismo habría de producirse a través de la revolución, supuestamente generada por la explotación de los trabajadores por los capitalistas, y su teoría de la alienación. Es decir conforme a Marx y Engels, el capitalismo llevaba en sí mismo la génesis de su destrucción. Llevada a cabo la revolución continue reading

Mutual Corruption with Mexico

Culture, Gangs, Government, Immigration, International Relations

Sep 282010

The U.S. & Mexico Trade Jobs & Cash for Drugs & Votes(Illustration courtesy Photobucket.com and Ronbosoldier.blogspot.com) CORRUPTION FIESTA It’s really hard to tell whose form of corruption is worse, the United States’ or Mexico’s. America (del Norte) wants to influence Mexico’s elections (pliancy), use their cheap labor, and farm their migrants for Democratic votes. Mexico, on the other hand, wants to colonize us, keep expat votes, export violent gangbangers to cities all over America, keep huge remittances flowing, and benefit from our drug dollars. Together, the two countries have created the rather well-deserved appearance that nothing will be done to stop the flow of drugs, gangs or aliens – even as we’ve recently reached a critical mass with all three. Arguably, both countries have (slowly) failing governments, and important elections pending over the next two years. In the meantime, both are losing control over sovereign territory, bodies are piling up in Mexico — with some spillover here — and illegal aliens are being touted here as victimized, legal immigrants. Cartel-related crimes are on the rise in both countries — just ask an Arizonan or Texan — and the response is just expensive, dramatic symbolism. Logrolling gridlock. MUTUAL COMPLACENCY Anything more than casual observation of our “neighbor to the South” must lead to what poet T.S. Elliot referred to in “The Love Song of J.Alfred Prufrock” as “an overwhelming question.” The elusive part of this is that none of the actors involved, on either side of the border, dare ask it. To ask, you see, is for this diversity of actors to risk exposing their own inherent interest in having the chaotic status quo continue. And the question? Quite simply: Where does this lead? With at least 23 of it’s 31 states and the Federal District surrounding Mexico City under siege by DTO’s (Drug Trafficking Organizations — not to be confused with gangs, which are there in abundance and working for the DTO’s) and close to a million of its citizens illegally crossing our border each year, and another half-million or so Mexican gangbangers flooding our cities — why the continue reading

Can Tea Party Patriots Rescue Our Electoral System?

First Principles, Government, Legislation, Rule of Law

Sep 042010

Can Tea Party Patriots Rescue Our Electoral System?

If not us, who? If not now, when?ELECTION MADNESS Never mind the voting machines many states never fixed after the year 2,000 fiasco; or the Motor Voter fraud, or the absentee ballot fraud, or the gerrymandering, or all the ineligible voters left on state voter registration lists, or the shafting of military voters, or the Acorn violations, or the lack of voter fraud prosecutions, or the New Black Panthers lack of prosecution for voter intimidation, or the post-election recount scams. Author John Fund, and others, have written extensively about these very serious erosions of our election system. And there’s always the attempt to rid us of the Electoral College established by the Constitution. No. What I’m talking about right now is Federal. In addition to the items above which can often be addressed at the state level, we need to free ourselves of the madness surrounding our presidential elections. Way too much time; way too much money; primaries that make no sense, and a media influence that borders on the criminal. In addition, we’ve allowed congressional districts to be created that are drawn by race and party, such that there is guaranteed incumbency, and no input from broader constituencies that live in the same area. CONGRESS TRAPPED No point in criticizing Congress at this point; they’re a bit like some medieval armies which, after any given war was over, wandered about the countryside, looting and pillaging towns at random, even those of their own countries. Or at least that’s the perception, which explains the abysmal congressional public-approval ratings (currently at 12%). I have bigger fish to fry. Since 435 Congressmen and 100 Senators have been in some form of disapproval for years, regardless of party affiliation, and despite the heroic efforts of some of their members to behave honorably, it’s past time to wonder if we couldn’t devise a different set of incentives. What’t the point? Isn’t that just rearranging the furniture? If they’re stupid, incompetent or corrupt, you might say, no system will change it. Not at all. This seems to be a dilemma that can be created, over continue reading

Redistribution is Nonsense

Culture, First Principles, Government, Markets, Social Philosophy

Sep 022010

Economic Fishing Lessons Beat Dependency…. Everytime If our economic system doesn’t “distribute” wealth, how in the world can it be “redistributed?” Yet that’s what our happy fisher for tax dollars says he – with the complicity of a ‘Progressive’ Congress – wants to do. In fact, it’s well under way, with gobs more in the planning. Was there a “national conversation” about this? The national conversation about race that Democrats, in particular, seem insistent that we should have…has been incessant for the last thirty years or so. It seems we never tire of talking about race, and the proliferation of communication technologies has exacerbated the exercise. But my concern is not about race, right now, but rather the priorities in our national conversation (whatever that is). We don’t have an honest discussion about the real causes of poverty, or the slow disintegration of our governing institutions. We have just elected an administration that is intent on the redistribution of wealth, but without a conversation about what that means, and to whom, for how long, and with what general consequence. The point of the adage about teaching a person to fish, rather than just giving them a fish, is that – once the fish is gone – the recipient of the fish-charity is right back where they started. The notion of resourcefulness starts with the assumption that you can create or find your own resources, rather than relying on someone else who then has to create resources for both of you. This is why the welfare system failed so badly. Public housing meant to house folks who were temporarily in distress became a multi-generational trap for it occupants. No skills, no incentives, no memory of having to work like their fellow Americans in order to share in the national work ethic; in order to give meaning and dignity to a life enhanced by personal accomplishment. And, following an insanely belated reform, numerous individuals interviewed by the press were elated that their lives had changed in a positive way. So how does redistribution differ from the old welfare trap? Ask any continue reading

Who Will Rule America Next?

Culture, First Principles, Gangs, Government, International Relations, Rule of Law, Social Philosophy

Jul 272010

Collectivists, Gangsters & Jihadis are the Best Candidates When this supposedly dysfunctional, imperialist nation founded by profiteering, white male slave-owners is finally – however gradually – converted to a truly ‘just society’ that allows all Americans (if that term is still to be used) to live in dignity and comfort — who will be its masters? Who will rule Post-American America? Will it be Transnational Collectivists, Muslim Extremists, or Organized Criminals? Why bother to speculate on something that is unthinkable for a country as strong and resilient as the U.S? We’ll glance at that later; but first, let’s look at our most likely inheritors. And no, it is very unlikely that, as in the good old days, a nation-state will try to overtly invade the US; stealth is back in style, and subversion – on a naïve population – works like any good lie in history. COLLECTIVISTS. We’ve all gotten used to the idea that at every international government or corporate meeting of any supposed consequence, there will be staged demonstrations by the world’s Leftist organizations. Many months of planning will go into the ‘spontaneous’ demonstrations, and pledges of peaceful marching and non-violence will be made to the local government officials. The police will come out with batons and shields and water guns, tear-gas and rubber bullets. The ‘peaceful’ demonstrators will smash retailers’ windows, throw molotov cocktails, taunt the police into reacting violently before the cameras in order to prove to the world that the demonstrators are ‘oppressed,’ and, occasionally, someone will die. They are ‘oppressed’ by Western Civilization, in general, and the United States (Leader of the Free World) in particular. They think of themselves as ‘revolutionaries’ and think that if they get the ‘change’ they seek, it will look something like the Galactic Republic depicted in Star Wars: planets represented at council, rather than (the archaic, destructive idea of) nations.’ They generally refer to themselves as “the movement’ – even though they comprise many distinct movements joined to fight a common foe — Us. They do not feel obliged to respect the voting ‘masses’ they continue reading

Climate Change as Trojan Horse

CO2, Environment, Government, Natural Gas, Oil

Jul 152010

Will You Trade Liberty for Virtue? For Greens to Succeed, America Must Fail Therefore, U.S. Vehicle Emissions Are 5.4% of Total World Man-made CO2 Emissions (The above figure was corrected when we found the latest (?) world vehicle totals (750,000.000) Globally, road transport is responsible for about 16% of man-made CO2 emissions. It is a common misconception that global warming is mainly caused by cars and trucks. It is important to understand that there are other, larger, contributors and ALL sources of CO2 emission must be addressed if the problem is to be solved. The chart is all global man-made CO2 emissions. If, there is, in fact, a problem. The chart is from the International Association of Vehicle Manufacturers, here. If you don’t trust a global professional association that represents evil, polluting corporations, you are encouraged to do what I do: search the internet. I just thought it interesting that, if OICA is right with their chart, it is of more than passing interest that most of us thought vehicles were responsible for a greater share of CO2 emissions. Incredibly, the EPA considers CO2 to be 95% of vehicle emissions. That implies to me, a non-scientist, that either the millions of tons of CO2 being constantly dumped into our atmosphere are having no provable or observable effect, or that there is something wrong with the theory of man-made green house gases causing global warming. It also seems to imply that the 5% of emissions that are sulpher dioxide, nitrogen oxide, ozone, carbon-monoxide, methane, lead and particulate matter have been successfully reduced to a non-threatening state, either to humans or the planet. If humans are only contributing gases to the atmosphere that the planet is easily able to dissipate, and we are not demonstrably harming humans after putting 250 million vehicles on the road in the US alone, why are we being told that it is necessary to replace our entire ten trillion dollar economy with a so-called “Green Economy” – and who benefits from this idea? Why our apparent interest in having eight dollar a gallon gasoline, as in Europe, continue reading

BP Cash Grab Hurts U.S.

Energy, First Principles, Government, International Relations, Oil, Rule of Law

Jun 182010

Slippery Slope to StatismBy now, almost everyone who cares knows that the US President sat down with BP executives and received a commitment to hand over twenty billion dollars towards oil-spill compensation. Also, that there’s no cap on liability and that the criminal investigation of the company will continue. The fund will be run by a Presidential appointee, and the President made it perfectly clear that the $20,000,000,000. fund was only a good-faith payment (in quarterly installments) that does not preclude unlimited liability over indefinite periods of time. Payment to businesses even remotely-related, and inland from the gulf, would not be beyond consideration. Payment for direct income loss, as well as opportunity-costs for those not immediately affected. Compensation to all victims of the President’s moratorium of new, deep-water drilling. Without time or geographic limits. Senior management gave their spill testimony to Congress this past week. The standard ritual-evisceration of the demon-ized executives for the benefit of the angry congressional constituents back home. Some other, related items, received less attention. We’ll attend to those, even as we segue into your favorite blog feature, and ours: FREQUENTLY UNASKED QUESTIONS BP was already paying gulf victims, but slowly, as processing the applications was time consuming. Could the federal government have played a greater role in speeding-up the process? That is, couldn’t a large number of federal employees and volunteers have been marshaled to accelerate a task that a foreign corporation would lack the US resources for? Wouldn’t that have been a sign of the total government dedication the President promised; and wouldn’t it have further assured the American people that the federal government is, in fact, competent, and should be encouraged to take a prominent role in disaster relief? (Note here a recent report that the Justice Department lawyers say they are totally unprepared to respond – as is their mandate – to a national attack.) BP neither explicitly nor implicitly denied liability for the accident or their willingness to pay for all damages. These statements were broadcast repeatedly in interviews with BP executives. That being so, why were all utterances from the continue reading

End Game For Israel?

Government, History, International Relations, Israeli-Palestinian Conflict

Jun 102010

Willful Ignorance, Self-Indulgent Gullibility – and Bigotry, Win AgainWell, anti-Semitic fools – it looks like we’re finally approaching the end game for our fascinating, long-running drama fatuously called the Israeli-Palestinian “dispute.” Or is it simply the “Israeli Occupation?” You’ve all fallen hook, line and sinker for the anti-Israel propaganda package sponsored by the Arab League, the Russians and the United-effing-Nations. Sixty plus years worth. You really ought to be ashamed of yourselves for being so naïve and self-indulgent; for letting yourself relax into Jew-hating so you could polish your Leftist virtue up a bit. No problem. They’ll all finally be dead or displaced, so you’ll have your shadenfreude, and then, after a decent interval of, say, a news cycle, you can join the rest of your wad in agreeing that the Jews brought it on themselves, after all. And, yes, it would be nice if there weren’t so many American Jews tsk-tsking the imminent demise of their spiritual homeland, but there it is. There is no longer a U.S. ally – only a piece of paper that will never be honored under this profoundly dishonorable administration. The Turks are gone; not because of the Mavi Marmara incident, but because the Turks have switched from Atatürk to Osama. That was just their official coming out. (And it looks like they intend to keep coming.) The Persian-backed Syrians are ready. Their Hezbollah avatars are bristling with thousands of longer-range rockets; and the rest of the crowd that’s attacked this Chicago Metro-sized (or London) country so often in the past without success, finally has the technology and coordination to finish the job. It won’t be pretty, but to an ahistorical Western World, it will be just another TV drama. OK, maybe a little better because they’ve spent so many years slowly building up their Jew-hatred and resentment that passed so well as objection to the cruelty of Israel to the helpless Palestinian victims. A splendid morality play produced by schemers, for dreamers. There was a time, not so terribly long ago, when I really didn’t give a rat’s ass about this particular morality continue reading

Gulf Oil Jobs Crisis – by Decree

Energy, Government, Labor, Markets, Oil, Transportation

Jun 042010

The Last Time, it Was OPEC; Now it’s Washington If you’ve been following the oil spill, you know the president has declared a six-month moratorium on offshore oil drilling. This is in addition to the existing ban on drilling closer to shore, as well as exploration and drilling on most land-based applications. Jobs will be lost by the thousands, and gasoline prices will soar. As reported in the Inside Louisiana News.com blog, Governor Jindal of Louisiana wrote an alarmed letter regarding the job losses, here. Proof that the economic damage has already begun is illustrated by the invoking of force majeur clauses to cancel existing drilling contracts and ceasing activity until the end of the moratorium, as reported here, on Tom Fowler’s Energy blog. I thought the following comment in the thread that followed was indicative of what we can anticipate: I have to wonder if President Obama and his advisors have thought thru the ripple effects of halting 33 projects in the Gulf of Mexico and putting a 6-month stop on new drilling. Employees of oil and gas operators; employees of drilling rig contractors; employees of multiple oil and gas service companies; employees of crew boat companies; employees of helicopter service companies; vendors who supply fuel and groceries, etc. to rigs….and I’m sure there are more that just haven’t come to mind, who will lose work in a time when, on another hand, President Obama is promoting increased employment and healing the economy. His decision will wreak havoc on Texas and Louisiana economies with ripple effects beyond that. Finally, a little food for thought regarding the importance of oil drilling to our livelihoods. Most of America needs a car to get to work. They also do not have public transportation as a substitute. Not everyone has the year-round weather, safe-paths, or age and health related ability to ride a bike to work. We can’t know how much oil we have domestically until we stop acting as if we can simply will our dependency away. The poor will suffer the most, and the middle-class our administration claims to love and continue reading

Mexican Immigration Muddle

Culture, Gangs, Government, History, Immigration, Legislation, Police

May 042010

Groundhog Day, aka AmnestyHere’s the controversial Arizona law, SB 1070. The following is just the first paragraph; the actual statute is 17 pages long. What’s important to note, though, is that in the public conversation about this, THERE IS NO LAW; there is only the perception of a law. The perception varies widely depending on group identification. Opponents of immigration laws claim they are inherently racist because, well, their sponsors are racists. A charge of racial profiling follows, borrowed from the worst experiences of African-Americans, who are not, in fact, illegal immigrants. The problem is that linking historical racial strife with the word “profiling” delegitimizes the act of profiling, which has been an essential part of legitimate police work forever. An explanation, here, from author Paul Schlicta, writing for The American Thinker. Since there was widespread public concern that the law permitted some form of racial profiling (by being ambiguous), a second draft allayed those fears. There will always be lingering doubt, do to the human factor, but the law very closely parallels existing Federal legislation. Here’s an excerpt – regarding the changes to the law – from the PolitiFact blog, in case you wish to read in its entirety: Critics had said that the original version of the law permitted racial profiling. But the changes signed by Brewer on April 30 were intended to blunt those charges. The new version of the law says: “A law enforcement official or agency of this state or a county, city, town or other political subdivision of this state may not consider race, color or national origin in implementing the requirements of this subsection except to the extent permitted by the United States or Arizona Constitution.” The prior version had said that an official “may not solely consider race” in such circumstances. (“Solely,” above, was removed in the final bill.) S.B. 1070 – 1 – 1 Be it enacted by the Legislature of the State of Arizona: 2 Section 1. Intent 3 The legislature finds that there is a compelling interest in the 4 cooperative enforcement of federal immigration laws throughout all of 5 Arizona. continue reading

Slander Goldman To Avoid Scrutiny

Government, Legislation, Markets

Apr 292010

Those are YOUR Junk Mortgages, Senator April 27, 2010 The Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations Comedy Gold as Senators (Levin, Collins, Kaufman,McCaskill,Coburn,McCain) pretended to be conducting a serious inquiry into the market practices of Goldman, Sachs. They obstinately refused to recognize that the mortgage CDO managers were not, in fact, financial advisers to their clients. Goldman’s job is to engage parties on both sides of future transactions in assembling a package on which they agree to…yes, bet. If Goldman subsequently decides to take a position on the CDO, it is not in regard to either supporting or betraying a client, but to managing their own risk regarding that deal, their current inventory of other instruments, and the market environment as it changes. Their function is to create an instrument that can be used by both buyers and sellers, without regard to the quality of the underlying assets or the intentions of the investors on each side of the market. (There is a price at which even the worst assets will be attractive to some professional investors – cheap enough for the longs and overpriced enough in the opinion of the shorts.) Our elected heroes were not about engaging that idea, i.e. ‘reality.’ They had already assembled a narrative that must be supported: that Goldman and its operatives were betraying the trust of their “clients.” This clash between the fantasy political agenda – (aimed at bolstering a Democrat financial reform bill) and technicians calmly explaining how their roles were not supportive of those assumptions – would have been more amusing if it were not a cynical attempt by the Senators to divert responsibility for the financial collapse from themselves (government creating the housing bubble) to Wall Street. It’s probably worth noting that most Senators are lawyers who operate in a different mental paradigm than business or financial people. In the lawyers’ world, transactions are about warrantying merchantability, the seller honestly representing the good or service sold, otherwise a fraud has occurred. It’s an adversarial world in which such matters don’t come to their attention until the fraud is at least suspected. continue reading

US Citizens Unprepared for Crises

Culture, Government, History, Military, Police

Apr 242010

Real Threats Require Real Preparedness This blog post is a cheat! It’s my intention to do everything possible to avoid scouring the internet for source material and supporting opinions. My intention, instead, is to get some of my security concerns off my chest, because there seem to be large gaps in both policy and public understanding of our vulnerabilities. CIVIL PREPAREDNESS. During the Cold War, which – for those of you who were either too young or self-deluded at the time – was a real war, the national leadership thought it prudent to warn everyone to take steps against a nuclear attack. We had children ducking under desks at school, lectures on blast and radiation, and instructions on how to build a bomb shelter. If you were unfortunate enough to be away from a bomb shelter during an attack, there were widely-published directions on where your nearest refuge might be. The entire society, in other words, took the threat of attack and possible annihilation seriously. It’s been almost nine years since 9/11, yet the notion that citizens should be making any preparations for another attack is conspicuously absent. Yes, there have been some reported drills by First-Responders, but no “Civil Defense Corps” or other organized attempt to have people know what their options are in case of a calamitous attack. Where are emergency supplies stored within walking distance of most people? What, if any, are the communication options? If land lines and cell phones are inoperable, is there a plan that can be broadcast on radio? What medical aid can be expected, in order to allow citizens to cope with each type of attack? Where are the instructions for understanding the nature of the attack that is underway? What will be done to control panic? Looting, rape and robbery? Is drinking-water available? What about antidotes to biological attack? Treatment against chemical attack? Quarantine, if the attack is a deliberate spread of deadly virus. Weapons training, authorization and supply in case of urban guerrilla warfare that overwhelms the police and National Guard. (Deputation and a standing, back-up militia may be necessary.) continue reading

Anti-Capitalism as Climate Agenda

Culture, Energy, Environment, Government, History, Legislation, Natural Gas, Oil, Solar, Wind

Apr 232010

Tell the Greens We’ve Had Enough Al’s Better Environment THE CLIP BELOW SHOWS our Socialist Climate Czar, appointed by President Obama without Senate confirmation. Wanting World Government is fine if your job isn’t to advise the chief executive of only one of those governments. Our government. Unless, of course, her boss also wants a world government. JANUARY, 2011 UPDATE: Socialist Climate Czar Browner finally exits the Obama administration. Alright! We’ve now sat out our Earth Hour in the dark, partied our way through Earth Day celebrations (champagne, horns and confetti) and we’re careening our way toward the grand climax of Earth Month. It just doesn’t get much better. Meanwhile, out in media-land, drums of ink have been slathered, billions of electrons exhausted and countless events attended, all to congratulate ourselves on our obsession with a wholesome environment. It’s the 40th year of a movement kicked off by an ambitious Democratic Senator trying to get out in front of the nascent protest movement manned by hippies, Marxist academics and assorted Nativists (see Rousseau, Thoreau, Marx). Little did Senator Gaylord Nelson realize that the war protesters, collectivists and amateur anthropologists of then would evolve into an environmental movement that has a realistic goal of controlling the earth’s ecology through control of world government. Like you, I am more than enthusiastic about natural conservation; about clean air and water and preservation of resources. Where we part company is when these common-sense measures become a matter of personal virtue for some, and a pathway to political power for others. (The latter, if you haven’t noticed, sets the agenda for the former.) And having that agenda dictating measures to be taken in their private lives is welcomed by the faithful because it enhances their sense of virtue. Intellectually lazy and dependent on propaganda from the movement leaders, they and their friends practice Environmentalism as a New Age religion, while the distant theoreticians scarcely feel the need to share where their group allegiance will take all of us. I feel threatened by the movement because of where its leaders want to go, and why. They surely know, as we all should by continue reading

Poisonous Political Violence Talk

Government

Apr 212010

Consequences beyond the ballot box Well, we’ve all seen the many articles lately expressing concern by Leftists that Rightwing violence is on the rise, and that the current political atmosphere is reminiscent of that preceding the Oklahoma bombing of the Murrah building by Timothy McVeigh. Any act of violence that can possibly be attributed to a right-wing attitude is being exhumed from the news files and trotted out as either a trend, or something to keep in mind when we see these crazy “Tea-Baggers” on the tube. Former President Clinton, sitting proudly astride this particular hobby-horse, may or may not be aware that McVeigh was a devotee of the “Turner Diaries,” a Neo-Nazi screed. In other words, McVeigh was a large-government Leftist. (I know…the Nazis were supposed to be right wing screwballs, but they weren’t. ”Nazi” is a German acronym for the “National Socialist Party” that Hitler rode to power. So, what’s going on? Well, the most plausible reason would be that our very own, would-be Democratic Socialist Party (Democrats, to you), certain to take a good ass-kicking in the fall, is lashing about for one or more narratives that will help to stanch the bleeding. They tried branding their fellow citizens who were crazy enough to attend “Tea Partys” as racist, homophobic morons.” Aside from seeming to always be obsessed with race, attributing every criticism or slight to it, they only had partial, temporary success with a race-bating narrative that usually works pretty well for them (white guilt and all). They’ve also, for some time, been leaking out concerns that critics of the President’s policies (who just happen to be utterly fed up with Congress, as well), are either creating a climate that would be conducive to the attempted assasination of the President, or may even attempt it themselves (in the case of ‘militias.’) And let’s face it: most militias are just gun clubs with an attitude. They have no intention of attacking anybody – unless maybe Bill Clinton and Janet Reno show up at their doorsteps with tanks and machine guns. Now, setting aside that every President gets continue reading

Reportaje de una Decada de Hugo Chavez

Culture, Government, History

Apr 162010

Watch Socialismo Destroy a DemocracyFor our Spanish speakers, a timely review of the last decade of societal destruction by Hugo Chavez Frias. It’s a report put together by 21 Latin American Institutions and presented on the blog titled Andes Libres.com. English speakers should feel free to hit the translation button in the right sidebar, or go directly to Andes Libres and use the translation button there. I’m pulling part of the introduction and the conclusion. If you wish to dig deeper, by all means take yourself to the blog site of another freedom-loving South American. Here are the creators of the report: Venezuela: Una década de Revolución Chavista Firmantes: Álvaro Vargas Llosa, Independent Institute, Estados Unidos Carlos Alberto Montaner, Internacional Liberal, Cuba Carlos Ball AIPE, Venezuela Rocio Guijarro, CEDICE Libertad, Venezuela Cristián Larroulet, Libertad y Desarrollo, Chile Martín Krause, ESEADE Argentina Gerardo Bongiovanni, Fundación Libertad Argentina Oscar Ortiz, Fundación Nueva Democracia, Bolivia María Luisa Brahm, Instituto Libertad, Chile Miguel Flores, Fundación Jaime Guzmán, Chile Marcela Prieto, Instituto de Ciencia Política, Colombia Margaret Tse, Instituto Libertade, Brasil Dora Ampuero, Instituto Ecuatoriano de Economía Política, Ecuador Carlos Sabino, Universidad Francisco Marroquín, Guatemala Guillermo Peña, Instituto Veritas, Honduras Rolando Espinosa, Centro de Estudios en Educación y Economía, A.C. Academia de Investigación Humanística A.C, México Edwar Enrique Escalante, Andes Libres, Perú Enrique Ghersi, CITEL, Perú Ian Vásquez, CATO Estados Unidos Julian Morris, International Policy Network, Gran Bretaña Otto Guevara, Movimiento Libertario, Costa Rica Introduccion La causa esencial de la Revolución Bolivariana es buscar más y mejor nivel de vida para todos, en la lucha por instalar en Venezuela un nuevo sistema social, económico, político: el socialismo criollo, a lo venezolano. — Hugo Chávez Frías Al asumir Hugo Chávez la presidencia de Venezuela, hace ya más de una década, se comprometió con la puesta en marcha de un proyecto nacional, regional e internacional de izquierda radical, bajo la consigna de conformar una gran nación latinoamericana, “como lo soñara Simón Bolívar”. En ese entonces, Chávez se presentó como un antisistema y prometió terminar con los vicios de la política tradicional venezolana, pero tras diez años no ha hecho nada para resolver los problemas del continue reading

Tea Party Nation

Culture, Government, History, Taxation

Apr 162010

It’s Our ‘Movement’ versus Their ‘Movement’A FEW WORDS ABOUT TEA PARTIES: It’s not about race. It’s not about political party. It’s not transitory. We could add that they’re also not about ideology, but that would be a lie. The ideology is Americanism: an abiding belief in the founding principles and that the current ‘regime’ has violated them. Many pundits have already pointed out the disgrace of our government denouncing its dissenting citizens as “racists, homophobes and morons.” With the cooperation of the usual suspects in the media, they’ve desperately tried to paint us (yes, I have attended) as violence-prone crazies, not unlike the fringe-ier militias. More recently, as similar to the bombers of the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma in ’95, or the guy who recently attacked an IRS office building with his private plane. This is an old Saul Alinsky tactic, based on an old Marxist tactic: tell a lie often enough and it becomes recognized as the truth. Well, not only is the public catching on to this nonsense faster than these (unimaginative morons) would like, but their ‘movement,’ the one we foolishly elected, is now looking at our ‘movement.’ Ours started in 1776; theirs in 1917. They want to use their revolution to defeat ours; they are counter-revolutionaries. They have history on their side when they assume that we can be dismissed; that we’ll get tired or distracted and go away. Wrong. Not this time. The election of their movement and its attempt to collectivize our society in contravention of our society’s basis in the protection of the individual has gotten our attention. We are focused and angry. And how could our focus on Washington not reveal the open fester that is the bazaar our precious system has gradually become? How could we not notice when our more candid elected officials tell us that it is no longer possible for them to change this disaster from within. The very ‘Cui Bono’ politicians who are most profiting from the status quo are the one’s asked to change it. And who can blame them. They’ve each overcome great continue reading

Hidden VAT Tax Punishes Poor and Middle-Class

Government, Taxation, VAT (Value Added Tax)

Apr 132010

Paying for Hope n’ Change, One Purchase at a TimeOK, Here’s a Chicago Tribune Op-Ed by Consultant Dennis Byrne and his take on the European-style VAT sales tax that surfaced last year via Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi. A tax that has been bandied about as a possibility to sop up the massive deficits that an already-broke federal government will need to add to our existing tax burden (Income, property, gasoline, entertainment, restaurant, etc.). Now, former Federal Reserve Chairman and present Obama Administration financial consultant Paul Volcker allows as how it’s “not a toxic idea.” This is a standard-length newspaper column, but in case you don’t get to the Trib’s site, I’ve pulled what look like the – literally – ‘money’ quotes for your instant edification. Of greater surprise and importance about Democratic interest in the VAT is its punitive effect on poor and middle-class Americans. Liberals — at least old-school ones — long opposed sales taxes because the poor and middle class pay a greater percentage of their income for it than the rich. To put it bluntly, the regressive VAT leaves the poor and middle class holding the bag. Here’s how: The tax is levied at each stage of production. A knitting mill, for example, pays a yarn-maker $1 for the yarn in each sweater. The mill then sells each sweater to Kmart for $3. The value added is $2 per sweater. If the VAT is 10 percent of the added value, the sweater-maker pays a 20-cent tax. Now comes the hitch: The sweater-maker may not have to pay the full 20 cents; when he pays his tax, he can deduct whatever everyone upstream in the supply chain, including the yarn-maker, paid in the VAT. For example, if the yarn-maker paid 10 cents for the value he added to the product, the mill can deduct that from the 20 cents he must pay. Confusing, yes. But here’s how to keep it simple: Guess who pays the full cost of the VAT? The “end user.” That’d be you, the consumer. Unlike manufacturers, you can’t deduct the VAT paid continue reading

Why Size Confounds Governance; Why Democracies Die

Government

Apr 062010

Why Size Confounds Governance; Why Democracies Die

Glen Reynolds Explains Washington Paralysis; British School Indoctrination as a Warning to UsHere’s a really thoughtful -as usual – piece by law professor/blogger Glen Reynolds of Instapundit and PJTV. It cries out for reading because it aptly describes the knowledge problem that Congress has, with particular reference to the new health care reform. Enjoy. In drafting the Obamacare bill they tried to time things for maximum political advantage, only to be tripped up by the complexities of the regulatory environment they had already created. It’s like a second-order Knowledge Problem. Possibly this is simply because Waxman and his colleagues are dumb, and God knows there’s plenty of evidence that Congress isn’t a repository of rocket scientists. But it’s just as likely that adding 30 or 40 IQ points to the average congressman wouldn’t make much difference. The United States Code — containing federal statutory law — is more than 50,000 pages long and comprises 40 volumes. The Code of Federal Regulations, which indexes administrative rules, is 161,117pages long and composes226volumes. No one on Earth understands them all, and the potential interaction among all the different rules would choke a supercomputer. This means, of course, that when Congress changes the law, it not only can’t be aware of all the real-world complications it’s producing, it can’t even understand the legal and regulatory implications of what it’s doing. http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/columns/Sunday_Reflections/Progressives-can_t-get-past-the-Knowledge-Problem-89780997.html#ixzz0kNgOdeTA Another read, perhaps even scarier, is a longish essay that describes the politically-correct hell that Great Britain has formed for itself, with special attention to its education system. Our kids are already getting quite a bit of this, but the essay is a cautionary tale re where this can all lead if we continue to ignore the problem. And thinking we ought to just leave it to the parents and their teachers is just what the baddies would like us to do. I’ve pulled out a few paragraphs below. You can read the whole thing at Gates of Vienna. Warning! Gates is all about excoriating Jihadis, so if you still think people who attack us for religious reasons shouldn’t have their values discussed, continue reading

Irresistible Social Decay

Culture, Government, History

Apr 062010

It’s fine to be railing against the threat of socialism, fascism, statism, progressivism, or whatever collectivist, authoritarian description fits your temperament and sophistication. The problem is that the train has pretty much left the station. We have gotten so used to treating our political system frivolously, and churlishly adapting ourselves to the lousy consequences – repeatedly- that when the time finally came to deal with something too serious to finesse, we just stuck to our bad habits. Habits, incidentally, that power-hungry, authoritarian statists have been all too happy to encourage. As a result, we have half the American population feverishly focusing on the significance of having – in the last two national elections – installed officials who are dedicated to overturning the American Revolution: for the common good, of course. We elected a movement, and we’re fast in its (lying) grip. Americans of all backgrounds, it seems, would much rather deal with clashes of personalities and group conflict than tutor themselves on social movements, or take seriously the historical effects of those movements on other societies. It’s appalling to me that the lesson we seemed to take away from our war with a Germany run by the National Socialist Party is that appeasement is bad and people should be careful not to elect populist demagogues. Well, they’re right on both counts, but seem to totally ignore the many years of debilitating dependency on central leadership that preceded it. Many leaders of this country actively admired Adolph Hitler and his regime. FDR’S cabinet was in awe of Fascist dictator Benito Mussolini, who had convinced everyone that his formula for government-directed( but not controlled) industry was the “third way” between Communism and Capitalism. Both Hitler and Mussolini started their careers in the communist labor movements of the time, in societies that were already socialistic. They broke off with the Communists and used them as foils in building their own power structures. But all three were authoritarian collectivists. The Russians planned their economy; the Germans and Italians planned the planners. The workers triumphed…if they cooperated. And sometimes, they were disposed of regardless. By continue reading

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