Free kibbles

FREEDOM OF SPEECH:

New edition of Huckleberry Finn to be censored for political correctness.

ECONOMY:

Production and profits create jobs, not government.

TAX AND SPEND:

The case for repudiating the national debt. Here's a little injection of reality about Reagan:

"In the spring of 1981, conservative Republicans in the House of Representatives cried. They cried because, in the first flush of the Reagan Revolution that was supposed to bring drastic cuts in taxes and government spending, as well as a balanced budget, they were being asked by the White House and their own leadership to vote for an increase in the statutory limit on the federal public debt, which was then scraping the legal ceiling of one trillion dollars. They cried because all of their lives they had voted against an increase in public debt, and now they were being asked, by their own party and their own movement, to violate their lifelong principles. The White House and its leadership assured them that this breach in principle would be their last: that it was necessary for one last increase in the debt limit to give President Reagan a chance to bring about a balanced budget and to begin to reduce the debt. Many of these Republicans tearfully announced that they were taking this fateful step because they deeply trusted their President, who would not let them down.

Famous last words. In a sense, the Reagan handlers were right: there were no more tears, no more complaints, because the principles themselves were quickly forgotten, swept into the dustbin of history. Deficits and the public debt have piled up mountainously since then, and few people care, least of all conservative Republicans. Every few years, the legal limit is raised automatically. By the end of the Reagan reign the federal debt was $2.6 trillion; now it is $3.5 trillion and rising rapidly [ed. note: $10.5 trillion, Oct. 23, 2008]. And this is the rosy side of the picture, because if you add in "off-budget" loan guarantees and contingencies, the grand total federal debt is $20 trillion."

Some revolution. Look at that $20 trillion number. That's including Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and everything else. This was written in the nineties, but today that number is over $200 trillion. To be fair, it's not that government spending has increased that much in real terms. Much of the difference is because of the Fed's inflation.

REGULATION:

How corporations capture regulations for their advantage and to the disadvantage of their competitors. Of course the regulatory agencies only negotiate with the corporations with the best political connections,

"Think Goldman Sach's relationship with the Treasury and the Fed."

and in this case:

"So who has this oligarchic type power to get the deal done, with the result that most others fall in line?

Flint Hills Resources is the refining arm of the billionaire Koch Brothers."

Regulations are immoral because they're forced on others at the point of a gun, and everything that flows from them is necessarily corrupt. This example illustrates one way regulations are counter-productive. Regulations are enforced by a criminal gang that rewards the most successful looters, and that's the bureaucrats who work with the plutocrats, not against them. Even if regulations were written by angels, they would become out of date the moment the ink was dry because the market advances so much faster than government and the biggest corporations would turn them into weapons to be used against their competition. But there are no angels in government or anywhere else. All regulations are tools for the plutocrats, aristocrats and bureaucrats to loot the people. It can't be any other way.

But you can't blame the corporations for this. They have to do the best they can to profit in the environment they operate in. It would be the height of stupidity for the managers of these big corporations not to capture the regulations, and these guys didn't rise to the top by being stupid. That's why the only solution to this problem is to take away the government's regulatory powers.

EDUCATION:

Government schools handing out iPads. Apple is partnering with government on another looting scheme. I understand how computers with internet access can be wonderful education aid, and as North points out, it shows the schools themselves are worthless. But doesn't it make more sense to hand out netbooks, which have keyboards and full computer functionality, at half the price? This is a looting scheme by Apple. I know Apple makes cool products, but I think libertarians should do a much better job of illustrating the Apple is an agent of government and a partner in looting. And you know many students will sell, lose or break these iPads too.

GLOBAL WARMING:

Paper shows there's no connection between global warming and hurricanes. In other words, there's more factors that go into hurricane formation than warm water. Duh.

Solar activity is still under establishment projections.

It turns out the floating garbage pile in the Pacific has been grossly exaggerated. Who would have guessed? Still, if environmentalists really cared about this, they would offer a prize to an entrepreneur to clean it up. But they don't want it cleaned up. They want it to grow as a tool they can use to promote their anti-progress agenda.

POLICE STATE:

I'm not surprised that many Americans are speaking out against random bag searches in the D.C. metro. I firmly believe that the great mainstream of America still has a wide libertarian steak in them. It's just hard to find because there's nobody out there to help bring it out in them. I'm always surprised at the way people bow down to government, for example the way they continue to allow themselves to be abused at airports.

WAR:

Government hires Gen. Petraeus's wife. I guess that's extra incentive to keep him from going public with his claim that the war in Afghanistan can't be won.

FOREIGN POLICY:

Fundamentalist policeman on security detail assassinates moderate Pakistani politician. And we expect Pakistan to tow the American line.

MISC:

Beautiful picture of the sun partially eclipsed by the moon and with the international space station in transit. I wonder if the ISS is the single most expensive example of government looting ever.