Critics blame George Bush for the court ruling the FCC had no power to regulate the internet. If he's to blame, I say hooray for George Bush for internet freedom.
SOCIALISM:
You know any essay that begins:
"Just about everything that people think they know about labor unions and wage rates is wrong."is going to be good.
FASCISM:
President Obama slips and tells the truth again. This time he said that he thinks at some point people have made enough money, meaning in Obama's vision of the world, he's the guy who will determine that. He must hate when he slips like that. What he doesn't understand is if he tried to put limits on that, the people who had made enough according to him would leave the country. Of course that's why totalitarian countries imprison their citizens and turn them into full time slaves (instead of just part time slaves like we are now), and the US is on that path with its draconian laws about confiscating wealth if an American tries to leave the country.
CEOs of big corporations love Obama. Corporations don't become gigantic in a free market. Fierce competition limits their size, marketshare and profit margins. The only way corporations can become so big and powerful for so long is when government protects them from competition by interfering in the market. CEOs lobby for more government regulation of the marketplace so they can capture the regulations, use them to crush more competitors and have the marketplace to themselves. They can charge higher prices for lower quality goods and services and make money by investing in the political economy than the private economy. Obama is the super-regulator, and CEOs love that. Right up until Obama seizes control of their companies and dictates their salaries or fires them. Only then do they realize their mistake.
Pouring salt in our wounds.
"It almost seems surreal that a government agency would begin to scrutinize the list of ingredients in every single food product in America and then "work with" – that is, force – their manufacturers to ensure that incrementally less salt was added to the foods over time. (What would this agency be called, the Department of HomeBland Security?) Yet, this is the reality with which we are faced."We're the stupidest people on the planet. We do this to ourselves by voting for the same two power-hungry parties every election.
"It is an insult to basic human dignity for governments to declare that they are better off deciding what you and I eat, because we just can’t handle eating the right way by ourselves. After all, if you are what you eat, and someone else controls what you eat, what are you then?"It's not just an insult to human dignity. It's a violation of the right to the pursuit of happiness of both producer and consumer.
ECONOMY:
This guy shares my pessimism about the future of the US and western civilization when he says our imminent big collapse in the next ten years will make the Great Depression look like The Philadelphia Story. Our debt problem is tremendously worse than when I originally wrote that essay.
Video of Barney Frank in 2005 pooh-poohing reports of a housing bubble. And this is one of the main guys, along with Geithner and Bernanke who never recognized the housing bubble either, we empowered to resolve this crisis. How do you think that's going to work out for us? This guy is an embarrassment to the people of Massachusetts and to the entire country.
REGULATION:
How come beef broth tastes like water? You know the answer, but do you know the consequences?
How zoning laws harm communities.
FEDERAL RESERVE:
The Fed buying government bonds with funny-money so Congress can continue spending us into oblivion makes author have nightmares
"I sprinted outside to the bunker door, hurriedly threw it open and ran to the FRA to see what was (pant, pant) happening. My breath coming in ragged gasps, I was horrified to see that they had increased Fed Credit by a staggering $20.5 billion last week! Yikes!
And then, to add insult to injury, the Fed bought up $21.5 billion in US government securities last week, bailing out their slimy buddies, like banks and miscellaneous mortgage holders, and/or monetizing the insane increases in the national debt that Congress is running up, which, at last count, jumped by a hefty $42 billion last week, too!
...
Perhaps it is lack of sleep causing my distress and my recurrent nightmares, or perhaps it is The Economist magazine’s “commodity-price index” that brings on such gruesome “We’re freaking doomed!” thoughts, as their Dollar Index shows the prices of “All items” up a blistering 32.2% over the last year, “Industrials (all)” up a whopping 82%, “Non-food agriculturals” up a staggering 90.1%, metals up a hefty 78.3%, which does not even get into how oil is up 76.8% from last year! Yow! Yow!
Or perhaps it was John Williams at shadowstats.com figuring that overall inflation in prices is running at a terrifying 9.5% that makes my hands tremble so, but whatever it is that is eating me (pun intended), at least I know that it is gold, silver and oil that will save me financially, while this pain inside me is probably just bottled up aggravation that will go away when the kids are old enough for me to legally kick them out."Government loves the invisible inflation tax best of all.
The Fed is offering CDs to banks, so instead of making loans with their new money, they can put the money into CDs at the Fed and earn interest on them. This is to fight inflation, but the Fed wants the banks to make loans, and this will make it less likely they will. What's the point of printing money and giving it to banks if the bank is just going to put in a CD back at the Fed?
HEALTH CARE:
States opting out of Obamacare provision, and Democrats blame Republicans, not one of whom voted for the bill. That cracks me up.
POLICE STATE:
250th person falsely convicted of rape exonerated by DNA. Untold thousands or more are still imprisoned because prosecutors refuse to allow testing. That's because prosecutors don't care about justice. All they care about is getting re-elected, and that means they don't want their phony convictions publicized. Unless you're rich and famous, the justice system is a railroad.
I never said Arizona's illegal immigration law wouldn't be effective. Oppression tends to be effective when the target is highly visible like day workers. It's the supposedly unintentional consequences like the abuse and subsequent beating of US citizens that's the problem. But this won't boost Arizona's economy. The people who leave will take their spending and savings with them, making Arizona poorer.
Terry stops happen all the time. Police just lie about them. They get away with illegal searches by claiming, "I patted down the suspect for my own safety." Cop after cop after cop parrots this same line word for word. It's obvious they've been instructed to memorize that line and say it on the stand no matter what. They also claim they searched with the back of a hand or a flat hand just as they've been instructed to claim even though there's no way they could have identified something as illegal drugs by doing so (you're allowed to have a pebble or baggies in your pocket). If you watch three or four drug trials, it's so obvious that it would be comical if it wasn't so corrupt. It's like they're reading verbatim from an instruction manual - which they probably memorized. Prosecutors and judges are in on the corruption and rubber-stamp this lie even though the only people who have reason to fear for their safety are the so-called suspects invariably surrounded and outnumbered by armed cops who regularly get away with beating and shooting people. With a wink and nod, the suspect gets prosecuted and convicted even though the search was illegal. This is how cops, prosecutors and judges get around the higher standard of probable cause. The lower reasonable suspicion standard in this Arizona law gives cops more justification to harass everybody, citizen or not, Hispanic or not, and the result will be more police violence against citizens and more corrupt prosecutions.
Victor Davis Hanson completely ignores the reason I'm against this Arizona law. I wonder if he ignored it on purpose or if it never crosses his mind that police, prosecutors and judge are corrupt. His comparison between presenting ID for a voluntary transaction that he can walk away from and government agents forcing an American citizen to show ID at the point of the government's gun is inexcusable. The former is normal American life. The latter is fascism.
I often wondered about this myself, but never questioned that it means the federal government should secure the border. That was lazy of me.
"That ragged, toothless old document, the US Constitution, authorizes Congress only one duty remotely related to immigration…with only seven words. Article I, Section 8 says: "(Congress shall have the power) To establish a uniform Rule of Naturalization.""That isn't a power to secure the border. That's just to write laws for citizenship. That means the power to secure the borders belongs to the states.
"In 1875 the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that immigration was a federal responsibility. Then the Immigration Act of 1891 established an Office of the Superintendent of Immigration within the Treasury Department. A "head tax" of fifty cents per person was assessed on each immigrant."The Constitution is the highest law of the land, not the Supreme Court. Imagine how much better immigration enforcement would be if the states controlled it themselves. Texas, Arizona and New Mexico would get the job done. California wouldn't let immigrants flood through their gates, suck up California resources, then move on to greener pastures in other states.
Reason understands the problem:
"One of the dictionary definitions of "contact" is "immediate proximity," which suggests that anytime a possible illegal immigrant comes in sight of a cop, the cop has a legal duty to check her papers.
Law professor Miller says "lawful contact" could also mean any normal interaction a cop has with ordinary people. If a Hispanic asks a patrolman for directions, she could expose herself to immigration questions. If an officer walks up to someone and starts a conversation without detaining him—something police are allowed to do—he may have established "lawful contact."
...
Of course, even if they have reason to pull someone over, police are not supposed to demand documents unless they have "reasonable suspicion" that someone is here illegally. But—aside from instances of guys hiding in trunks—what does that mean if it doesn't mean checking anyone who looks or sounds Latino? Illegal immigrants don't normally wear shirts that say "Fence Jumpers Local 302."
Given that even the governor doesn't know what an illegal immigrant looks like, police may often have trouble articulating a reason for interrogating someone. In that case, the law may be largely irrelevant. If the most obvious grounds for reasonable suspicion are race-based—and thus illegal—cops may elect to do nothing more often than not."A corollary to "Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely" can be stated "If a law can be abused by government agents, it will be, and the more easily a law can be abused by government agents, the more it will be." This law not only can be abused, it's begging for cops to abuse it, and they will.
POLITICS:
Some American Thinker guy presents a watered down version of what I've been saying about government in general and Obama specifically. He calls Obama a foreigner in our midst and compares the Obama administration to a foreign occupation. I've been saying our government - under both parties - is conquering us for quite a while. The difference between Bush and Obama is Bush looted the country on behalf of mainstream American interests like the oil business, Christians and the military-industrial complex. Those things are as American as apple pie, but that looting is just as destructive as the Democrats' looting. Obama is looting and oppressing all Americans on behalf of Bill Ayers, Rev. Wright, Marxists and Black Liberation Theologists. Those are more like Soviet interests than American, and that's why his government feels so much more foreign. But if we don't wake up to the realization that both parties are working together to divide and loot our country into oppression and abject poverty for their personal gain and the gain of their cronies and that who the cronies are don't matter, our country is doomed.
Arizona legislature drops bill demanding presidential candidates produce birth certificates. They have this backwards. They should have made this bill law but not the illegal immigration bill.
Here's a little bit of good news. The Governor of the Bank of England predicts:
"Whichever party wins the election faces electoral disaster, the Bank of England governor has warned.
“It will have to impose such severe spending cuts and tax rises that it will be kicked out at the first opportunity and stay out of power for a generation, says Mervyn King."Spending cuts are always good.
Can Ron Paul (or Sarah Palin, God forbid) pull a Goldwater, and if so, will the establishment Republicans sabotage him (or her, God forbid) the same way they sabotaged Goldwater? That's a good reminder that Republicans will sell the country down the river in a heartbeat if somebody tries to take away their power. That's what passes for patriotism in the Republican party.
"Mitt Romney should be the next Republican nominee. No less than 81 percent of Republican "insiders" say that Romney is the "most likely" to challenge Barack Obama in 2012, according to a January National Journal poll."If Republicans nominate Mitt Romney, conservatives should start a new party to replace the Republicans the way the Republicans replaced the Whigs.
"Romney attempted to follow this same game plan. He dropped out in 2008 and soon became a strong advocate for McCain. He is currently campaigning and raising money for 2010 Republican candidates."Romney's playing the game the way it's long worked for Republicans.
"Goldwater's day was different. The establishment ran away from "grotesque burlesque of the conservative," to quote The Saturday Evening Post. Today's Republican establishment is running towards its conservative wing. In recent weeks Dick Cheney, Eric Cantor and Romney have all endorsed Rubio.
The establishment's move nearer to its grassroots has paid dividends within the party. Only 63 percent of Republicans favorably rated their party in spring 2009. That rating rose above 80 percent by autumn and has since steadied."So the establishment Republicans are effectively co-opting the tea partiers. This is very bad news. Ousting a few Republican incumbents won't change anything worth nothing. It's going to take a wholesale turnover of Republican incumbents and the ousting of many Democrat incumbents, and I don't see that happening. The tea parties are too little, too Republican and too late.
"Today's activism does not approach the political significance of its 1960s counterpart (one reason: the modern GOP establishment is far nearer to Goldwater than the midcentury Republican old-guard)."That's quite a declaration. I'm skeptical.
MISC:
Epic mobile home commercial.
How can anybody who signs a petition expect privacy?
UN puts Iran on Commission for Women's Rights. I guess they want to export the stoning of women all around the world.
Being a fatist is not like being a racist. Being fat is a choice. It's the result of behavior. It tells you something about the character of the individual.
Obama bans new US drilling as if one accident proves all oil platforms are unsafe. This is keeping every kid from recess because one kid skipped school.
As if the volcano in Iceland didn't cause enough problems, a volcano in Guatemala erupted.
As the US descends into economic madness, El Salvador (yeah, that El Salvador) has a thriving economy.
"Since entrepreneurs here can pretty much locate a business wherever they please, these malls are all located next to one another along the Pan-American Highway, the major artery that bisects El Salvador. As one could imagine, this proximity caused a traffic nightmare. Not content with the state’s timetable on traffic improvements, the mall owners themselves paid for an ingenious series of bridges and overpasses that relieved the congestion. State highway workers performed the actual construction but it was a round-the-clock operation that could have taken years to finish without private intervention."That could never happen in the US. Thanks to our oppressive government, even the old Marxist banana republics are doing better than the US. This shows you the transformative power of economic freedom which we are rapidly surrendering.
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