Free kibbles

ECONOMY:

While economic freedom continues to rise in the rest of the world, it continues to fall in the US which dropped to sixth in Cato's 2009 ranking of economic freedom. I still think this overrates the US. Our government does $7 trillion of damage to our economy every year because we pay for every dollar government spends twice - once in taxes and once in misallocation of resources in the economy. Sure, that leaves us with a $6 trillion economy, but when more than half of our economy is perverted by the government, you can't say our economic freedom is that high. It seems to me that on a scale of 1 to 10, we couldn't possibly reach 5 because of that. I guess there would be some overlap between what we would do voluntarily and what government forces on us - like charity versus welfare for the needy. But still, that put the number between something under 5 and something under 7.5 - much closer to 5 - just based on government spending. Every regulation, mandate, etc. Would lower it more. Every failure of the rule of law would lower it more. Every government interference in a contract would lower it more. Inflating the money supply would lower it more. Etc. This scale is too optimistic, imo.

In 1975, Chili was ranked 71 out of 72. Today it's ranked fifth, above the US. That's the kind of trajectory we need to return to.

"This revolution not only doubled Chile’s historic rate of economic growth (to an average of 7% a year, 84-98), drastically reduced poverty (from 45% to 15%), and introduced several radical libertarian reforms that set the country on a path toward rapid development; but it also brought democracy, restored limited government, and established the rule of law.
...
In a sense, it all began in Chile. In the early 1970s, Chile was one of the first economies in the developing world to test such concepts as deregulation of industries, privatization of state companies, freeing of prices from government control, and opening of the home market to imports. In 1981, Chile privatized its social-security system. Many of those ideas ultimately spread throughout Latin America and to the rest of the world. They are behind the reformation of Eastern Europe and the states of the former Soviet Union today… which demonstrates, once again, the awesome power of ideas."

That's what economic freedom produces. Reducing economic freedom leads to serfdom and totalitarianism, and that's the path we're on.

TAX AND SPEND:

The 2009 budget deficit is $1.4 trillion. According to the articles, Republicans pounced on this news to criticize Obama. Who are Republican to criticize Obama over this deficit? Sure Obama added a couple of billion to it. Sure Obama plans to add a trillion to it every year for the next 10 years. Sure, we should fight Obama's increases in spending tooth and nail just like we should have fought (and many of us did, but not very many) Republican spending tooth and nail. But nearly every bit of that budget deficit was set up while Bush was president and Republicans controlled both houses of Congress. The aristocrats of both parties are a bunch of destructive, self-serving pieces of crap. I heard John Boehner on the radio today acting like he was some supporter of fiscal discipline. Listen to this load of crap from Boehner:

""This new CBO data makes it clear that our children and grandchildren will end up buried under a mountain of debt if we continue taxing, spending and borrowing at these dangerous levels," House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, said. "How many alarm bells have to be set off before Washington Democrats get serious about tackling dangerous budget deficits?""

Like Republicans have a record of fiscal discipline. It's just that Democrats are so terrible that Americans have already forgotten that Republicans are just a hair less bad. I haven't forgotten, and I'm sick to my stomach over the thought that even worse Democrats are re-empowering terrible Republicans just like the terrible Republicans empowered even worse Democrats. One thing is constant though: whichever party is in power, we all lose.

And what's this about history not being kind to presidents who tackle the deficit? The reason these presidents were punished is they raised taxes to cut the deficit. If they had cut spending to cut the deficit, they would have become more popular.

WAR ON DRUGS:

Outrage that people are being arrested for buying too much Sudafed.

"To get the real stuff, you have to go to a drug store, not just the convenience store. Then you have to ask. Then you have to show your license. Then they ask how many you want and you get the sense that you are begging like an addict. Then you sign some national registry. Then later, one presumes, you are checked to make sure that you are not buying more than your officially allotted amount.
Don't lose what you have because then you can't get more. Nor can you keep some at the office, some in the car, and some at home. No, you must guard the stuff with your very life, lest you run out and are denied more by the Stuffy Nose Czar."

Excellent rant.

WAR:

Terrorist bomb kills 17 outside Indian embassy in Kabul.

Details of Gen. McChrystal's request for more troops.

ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION:

The federal government has stripped Sheriff Joe Arpaio of his power to arrest illegal immigrants because he was doing it, and the Obama administration has decided to house illegal immigrants in hotels on taxpayer dime instead of jails. Sheriff Joe says he'll continue arresting illegal immigrants anyway. This may set up a perfect opportunity for Arizona to step up and nullify the federal government.

MISC:

Gun sales continue to skyrocket after Obama's election even leading to ammo shortages.

Hacking robots.

Government lovers divided again: patent could block import of Toyota hybrids.

Obama's FCC chairman worries about bandwidth for mobile devices. Central planner wonders how to solve that problem. A free market would solve that problem before it ever arose, but government can't.

Why does the federal government own 50,000 homes?