Free kibbles

ECONOMY:

All those leftists who always want America to be more like Europe must be proud of our European-style unemployment rate of 10.2 percent. Countries that refused to implement Obama-style stimulus boondoggles have lower unemployment than us, and a far lower change in unemployment than us. Obama promises and he delivers.

The US is falling behind the world in trade deals, but talking about trade deals is misleading. Governments don't trade. Individuals trade. Businesses trade. I don't need a trade deal to buy goods from a Mexican producer and an Indian doesn't need a trade deal to buy goods from me. If government involves itself in trade, all it can do is hinder the process, make it more expensive and suppress trade to the detriment of us all. Other than regulating the sale of big weapons systems or restricting trade to enemy countries, I don't see why the government should be involved in trade at all.

TAX AND SPEND:

Even the most hardworking, conscientious bureaucrat can't help his fellow men because he doesn't know what they want and what their capabilities are. The government system of force keeps him from doing good unlike a system of voluntary exchange which provides instant feedback on whether or not a producer is providing the quality goods and services the people want. Because the system precludes the angelic bureaucrat from succeeding at his goal of providing quality goods and services, it becomes an inherently frustrating and corrupting job.

"It became obvious to me at the onset that certain individuals remain in government for an extended period of time, forming their own pressure groups to secure their survival. To a great extent, the bureaucrat reflects the will of his political master. In order to move up the hierarchy, he must gain the favor of City Hall. Those that succeed form the bureaucratic core; they attain higher positions and gain the ability to exert undue influence on policy outcomes.
...
My experience is that bureaucratic action is merely the will of political pressure groups. Various groups pressure politicians to enact legislation that benefits them. Those that are successful are able to impose regulations that hinder their competition. The bureaucracy is the principal administrator and enforcer of the regulations subsequently imposed."

The biggest businesses always lobby for more regulations because it hurts their competition more than them, giving them bigger market share and allowing them to charge higher prices.

New York state is on the verge of going California - bankrupt.

HEALTH CARE:

Senate Democrats blames Obama for the failure of health care oppression. While this is certainly hopeful news, don't buy the hype. We knew Obama would split his own party with his radical agenda and thuggery, but health care oppression is not dead. If we get complacent, health care oppression will become law.

I know I'm going to like this essay because it begins with this:

"As an American, I am embarrassed that the U.S. House of Representatives has 220 members who actually believe the government can successfully centrally plan the medical and insurance industries."

I couldn't agree more. I'm quoting that in my next email to my senators.

How Pelosi used our tax dollars to buy the votes of reluctant Democrats to pass health care oppression.

Apparently Big Pharma is not a big loser if Obamacare passes. That's an illusion in the bills meant to satisfy Obama's base, but a back room deal actually takes care of the pharmaceutical companies if they play ball with the administration.

GLOBAL WARMING:

EPA lawyers explain flaws of cap and trade. They're going to get in trouble. Obama has the EPA working to implement "environmental justice" which is just another euphemism for transferring wealth.

The idea of carbon tariffs is gaining steam with Democrats. I'm sure Obama loves this idea because it would accelerate the collapse of the US economy.

FREE SPEECH:

In a story about why the FBI sat on emails between the Fort Hood shooter and radical 9/11 imam, the anchor read a statement from the FBI where the FBI claimed that acting on those emails would have been a violation of first amendment privileges. Privileges. Now we know what happened to our right to free speech while we slept. This isn't the first time the FBI referred to first amendment privileges. Why isn't this the lead story in the news?

And thinking about this, does it make sense that it's illegal to holler "fire" in a crowded theater? Doesn't it make more sense to hold the hollerer accountable for any consequences like paying back the theater for the lost business and if anybody gets hurt than banning the behavior up front?

WAR:

Why is Obama just now considering a compromise that sends 30,000 to 35,000 more US troops to Afghanistan? What has be been doing for months that's more important than saving the lives of US troops and Afghans? And if he's going to send 35,000, why wouldn't he just send the 40,000 the general asked for? He's playing a political game in an attempt to appease both sides, and all it's going to do is anger both sides. If this is what he decides, I'll have to chalk that one up to Obama is dumb. Bring our troops home and stop attacking and making enemies of people who never had any intention of harming us.

This from Jonah Goldberg about the Fort Hood shooter:"[The shooter] demonstrated that being a trained psychiatrist provides no immunity to ancient hatreds and religious fanaticism, nor does psychiatric training provide much acuity in spotting such things in others. For example, the London Telegraph reports that, in what was supposed to be a medical lecture, Hassan instead gave an hourlong briefing on the Koran, explaining to colleagues at Walter Reed Army Medical Center that nonbelievers should be beheaded, have boiling oil poured down their throats and set on fire."If this report is true, all those people in the room should be dishonorably discharged. That a major in the US military could get away with this is unconscionable.

Here's the quote from the London Telegraph:

"Major Nidal Malik Hasan, the gunman who killed 13 at America's Fort Hood military base, once gave a lecture to other doctors in which he said non-believers should be beheaded and have boiling oil poured down their throats.

He also told colleagues at America's top military hospital that non-Muslims were infidels condemned to hell who should be set on fire. The outburst came during an hour-long talk Hasan, an Army psychiatrist, gave on the Koran in front of dozens of other doctors at Walter Reed Army Medical Centre in Washington DC, where he worked for six years before arriving at Fort Hood in July.

Colleagues had expected a discussion on a medical issue but were instead given an extremist interpretation of the Koran, which Hasan appeared to believe."

I find it hard to blame political correctness for this. This is dereliction of duty and the clearest sign ever that the military, even our war fighters, are paralyzed by being part of a huge government bureaucracy. But this quote hints it may be even worse than it seems:

"But General George Casey, the Army's Chief of Staff, said it was "speculation" that military authorities failed to pick up on warning signs. "I don't want to say that we missed it," he said."

What if they didn't miss it? Let's say the army was well aware of his extremism and they allowed him to continue anyway. That's even worse. That makes the army complicit. Who needs to allow a Muslim extremist in their midst to kill 13 people before they can learn not to do that? Normal people know better before that happens? Political correctness is a problem with the reporting of the incident, but this is institutional failure. Or maybe we can say that when political correctness invades institutions, it causes institutional failure. I think there's got to be more to it than that.

Cato on Fort Hood and political correctness. Good point about this being an act of guerrilla warfare, not a terrorist attack.

"It was stated simply in an NPR report yesterday: “A key official on a [Walter Reed] review committee reportedly asked how it might look to terminate a key resident who happened to be a Muslim.” If this isn’t ”political correctness,” nothing is."

So I was right. This was political correctness magnified to the point of institutional failure.

FOREIGN POLICY:

Who needs the UN to foist one world government on us when US bureaucracies like the FTC can do it just by agreeing to work with foreign bureaucracies?

MISC:

Another example of the president usurping the role of priests and preachers.

Lew Rockwell on the implications of the poll showing that only 11 percent of people in the world support free markets. As I wrote when that article first appeared, probably the most successful and dangerous lie told by the haters of free markets like Bush and Obama is that we have free markets today. That lie is powering the west's suicidal spiral into socialism.

"What can we learn? Far from not having learned anything, people have largely forgotten the experience and have developed a love for the ancient fairy tale that all things can be fixed through collectivism and central planning.
...
There is nothing new in this. In the history of the world, freedom is the exception, not the rule. It must be fought for anew in every generation. Its enemies are everywhere, but the leading enemy is ignorance. For this reason, the main weapon we have at our disposal is education."

Picture of the center of the Milky Way.

The Constitution does not give federal courts power to stop states from performing actions like putting a picture of stained glass and a cross on a license plate.