In Praise Of Mario Cuomo

Go here to enjoy Samizdata's Perry Metzger opening a can of whoop-ass and sprinkling it on the grave of Mario Cuomo.  "I encourage all to mourn his loss in whatever manner they feel appropriate."

Good job, sir. 

 

The Great Debate! On TCU Campus! Guns In Texas !

TCU's Young Americans For Liberty and The Tarrant County Libertarian Party proudly present "The Great Debate - Guns In Texas".


This event will feature the Democratic Party's State Representative Lon Burnam, Texas House District 90 debating 2nd Amendment activist Scott Harmon, National Rifle Association volunteer coordinator.

These two fine men will be debating some of the central issues of our time - Who can carry a gun? What can we carry? Where should we be allowed to carry a weapon? What was the intent of the founders, and what does the 2nd Amendment mean today?

This promises to be the best discussion you'll hear on this important topic. Patrick Dixon, the Texas LP's State Chair, will be the moderator.

Free Admission - Saturday April 27th, 2:00 p.m.

Brown-Lupton Auditorium on the TCU campus, 2901 Stadium Drive, Fort Worth, TX 76129

Dear Elizabeth....

Dear Elizabeth.....

You seem concerned about an economic issue, and now that you're a senator, this is scary for all of us.

You got elected by standing up for the little guy.  Your idea of accomplishing this, as I understand it, is to throw a check and some food pellets in the little guy's mailbox every month, and also by interfering in the workplace to raise the little guy's pay to a level that is higher than his productivity. (This encourages more automation, outsourcing, unemployment, etc., but that horse has already been beaten to death elsewhere.)

Now....look at this, from The Austrian Economists site:

% Households with:	Poor 1984	Poor  1994	Poor 2003	Poor  2005	All 1971	All 2005
Washing machine	58.2	71.7	67.0	68.7	71.3	84.0
Clothes dryer	35.6	50.2	58.5	61.2	44.5	81.2
Dishwasher	13.6	19.6	33.9	36.7	18.8	64.0
Refrigerator	95.8	97.9	98.2	98.5	83.3	99.3
Freezer	29.2	28.6	25.4	25.1	32.2	36.6
Stove	95.2	97.7	97.1	97.0	87.0	98.8
Microwave	12.5	60.0	88.7	91.2	1.0	96.4
Color TV	70.3	92.5	96.8	97.4	43.3	98.9
VCR	3.4	59.7	75.4	83.6	0.0	92.2
Personal computer	2.9	7.4	36.0	42.4	0.0	67.1
Telephone	71.0	76.7	87.3	79.8	93.0	90.6
Air conditioner	42.5	49.6	77.7	78.8	31.8	85.7
Cellular Telephone			34.7	48.3	0.0	71.3
One or more cars	64.1	71.8	72.8 (2001)		79.5

These increases in productivity seem to have helped "the poor".  What the hell have you risked for the poor, Elizabeth?  Anything?  Ever poured your own money into R&D for something that might not work?

But wait, that's not all!!!
Efficiency and productivity increases help the little guys more than the help the big guys!!!  Mostly because there are more of them !!

I hope this has helped.  And don't feel bad.  As long as Nancy Pelosi and Maxine Waters are alive, you won't be the biggest idiot in Congress.
But Christ Almighty, you are so close.

Quotes from The Reality Based Community

Here are a few quotes from "The Reality Based Community".
Found it at Denny's site.

Wasted Votes Vs. Wasted Time

I live in Texas. 
Mitt Romney is going to carry Texas by something like 9% - 15%. 
That's what's going to happen this year. 

Some Texans will still go to the trouble of voting for Obama, and a vote for Obama isn't a wasted vote.  Their Obama votes still send a signal that they tolerate certain giveaways, particular forms of graft, Middle-Eastern wars, and Prohibition. 
You can say the same for a vote for Romney. 

The election isn't decided by number of votes.  It's decided by which states are carried by each candidate, and their collective Electoral College totals. 

If a Texan voted for Barack Obama in 2008, he sent a signal about his preferences, but had no impact on the election.  If ZERO Texans had voted for Obama, it would've changed nothing.  Texas went for John McCain.  Therefore, 38 Electoral College votes went to McCain.  None went to Obama.

If a Texan voted for John McCain in 2008, he sent a signal about his likes and dislikes, but had no impact on the election.  McCain carried Texas, but lost the Electoral College vote.   

That's what's going to happen this year.  Mitt Romney is going to carry Texas.  As best I can tell, neither Obamney campaign has spent any money here except to raise more money to spend in states that are close.  There are almost no Romney or Obama bumperstickers on Texas vehicles this year.  (I honestly think both sides are embarrassed, but I don't have a dog in their hunt....) 

Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Idaho, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Utah, West Virginia and Wyoming are the states where Romney is so far ahead that there's absolutely no chance of Obama carrying those states.  Those places are redder than my neck.  Georgia, Indiana, Missouri, North Dakota, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee and Texas aren't quite as lopsided, but Obama wins there would be considered a miracle. 

The states that still matter are Florida, North Carolina, Virginia, Ohio, Iowa, New Hampshire, Colorado, and Wisconsin.

So if a voter in a truly "Red" state votes for Obama, is he wasting his vote?  Well, that depends on why he's voting for Obama.  If he's a civil libertarian, he's possibly voting for the party that's supposed to be better on civil liberties, but hell, look at Obama's record.... massive drug raids, domestic spying, Patriot Act, deportations, and allowing corporations to run up massive debts on your bar tab.  He's been horrible.  IMHO, Barack Obama has been our worst president on civil liberties since Nixon. 

I don't think this hypothetical red state voter is necessarily wasting his vote in Texas.  But he is wasting his time.  Yeah, he's sending a signal, but it's a weak one.  There are better uses of his time than sending out a weak transmission that he prefers one Statist over another.  He's using a shovel instead of a bulldozer.  He's drinking from a thimble. 

If you are a Texas (or any other reddish state) civil libertarian, there's really only one way to send a strong signal that you're tired of the domestic spying, the Patriot Act, raids on medical marijuana dispensaries, kids having their lives and educational opportunities destroyed for owning trifling amounts of weed, NDAA, indefinite detention, Monsanto in the FDA, Fast And Furious, and all the rest, I hope you'll consider voting for Gary Johnson. 

Is Gary going to carry Texas?  Hell no. 

Is Obama going to carry Texas?  Hell no. 

That's not the point. 

Please stop voting for the lesser of two evils, and please stop wasting your time.  Send your signal in favor of Gary Johnson.  Hit the link to see Gary's positions on every issue that matters. 

FDR+BHO = SOL

"Like FDR, President Obama inherited a nation in economic crisis. Let us not forget, however, that Roosevelt’s policies converted the crisis into a decade-long full-blown depression. Why anyone would seek to emulate that experience is beyond me." - Alan Blinder, in a letter to the Wall Street Journal

The Government Is The Only Thing We All Belong To

Still kinda busy at work.  Can't blog much. 
And it's just sooo easy to post inspirational Democrat videos without commentary. 

We don't belong to the government.  It belongs to us. 
Confusion on that issue is at the root of most of our problems. 


Lordy have mercy on us all.  The Democrats would be the most tone-deaf party in history if it weren't for the Republicans. 
And here's a fun bumpersticker that summarizes last night's festivites....

Gary Johnson and John Jay Myers, our Libertarian candidates for president and U.S. senate will end as much of this mess as anyone possibly can. 

What Obama Could Do

Long-time readers of these pages and my Facebook rants often assume that I have a deep and abiding hatred of Barack Obama. 
It ain't so. 
Obama promised to "spread the wealth around", and he's done his best to fulfill that promise, even though it has been disastrous for the economy overall.  The Porkulus bill was insane, but it hasn't cost any more than our recent wars against people who didn't attack us. 
I can quibble over Obama's broken promises to shut down Gitmo, his failure to bring home all the troops, and his general squishiness on gay marriage (until recently).

Compared to the Republicans, though, Obama has been a George Washington of honesty.  How the GOP can call itself "small government" after one Reagan and two Bushes remains a mystery.  In 2010, for the offices where we didn't have a Libertarian candidate on the ballot, I voted Democrat.  I'm sick, sick, sick of Republicans giving "small government" a bad name, especially the Republicans who are affiliated with the Religious Right. 

So let me know what you think of these suggestions for next week's Democrat Convention at Bank Of America Arena.  These are listed only as a public service. 

1) Ron Paul supporters are pissed.  I mean they are royally pissed.  They've been kicked out, shown the door and dumped on. 
Ron Paul is anti-war, pro-gay/lesbian marriage, anti-drug war, and anti-Federal Reserve.  It wouldn't hurt Obama to come out swinging against any more overseas adventures, and he could pledge to bring Hillary back to the house.  He could promise to legalize weed.  He could personally invite Ron Paul to speak at the Democrat convention !!  Who knows what would happen??
It would be difficult for Obama to speak out against Bernanke's counterfeiting operation at the Fed, but he could let Biden do it, since nobody takes Biden seriously anyway. 
All of this would be total B.S., but how many pledges and promises made at conventions and State Of The Union events are anything else? 

2) Trot out Bill Clinton as much as possible.  Clinton (and Gingrich) turned in a few years of balanced budgets.  He semi-reformed welfare.  He introduced NAFTA.  Yeah, he made a few failed stabs at an early version of ObamneyCare, but that was just to keep Hillary out of his hair so he could mess around with interns. 
Al Gore banished Clinton during his presidential run.  But the man has now been reformed and rehabilitated.  We did well while Bill was in office.  Obama should simply pretend that Clinton is the candidate. 

3) Keep Elizabeth ! Warren !! out of the convention hall.  Disinvite the woman from her current prime-time slot.  Obama was channeling Warren when he uttered his disastrous "You Didn't Build That" line.  That stuff probably plays well wherever Warren teaches, but it doesn't resonate with the folks who are having to pay ridiculous taxes to pay government contractors too much money for substandard services.  Have her call in with diarrhea. 

4) IMHO, Joe Biden is now officially stark, raving mad.  Paul Ryan is a bailout loving and TARP loving and stimulus loving Republican who has repeatedly voted for disaster while campaigning for sanity.  All that having been said, nobody cares about those votes except Libertarians. 
Despite his inconsistencies, Paul Ryan is also going to rip Joe Biden's head off. 
It's going to be brutal.  There is no point in it, no reason to broadcast this massacre during prime time when some of our children might still be awake. 
Biden couldn't even put away Sarah Palin. 
The Democrats don't want Biden going up against Ryan.  It's gonna be ugly, ugly, ugly. 

For a while, there was a "Draft Hillary" movement floating around, but she's even more polarizing than Biden. 

What to do, what to do.....

How about this:  Barack Obama should have Biden appear on Day One of the convention, and have him make his standard, goofy speech.  Then Biden should claim that he's been diagnosed with Alzheimer's.  Express regret that he can't continue to carry on the fight against the other side.  The press won't demand a medical diagnosis from anyone; Hell, they print every word that Obama/Biden say without skepticism.  

Day Three: Obama comes out, makes his speech, and declares that ________ __________ is now his choice for Veep. 

I think these four proposals would work for him. 
He'll never do any of this. 
There's no money in it for his supporters/owners. 

So in the meantime, I hope you'll support a candidate who has pledged to give us the small government that Republicans have failed to provide, and the civil liberties that Democrats have failed to provide......

On Olympics uniforms made in China

Here's Don Boudreaux of the Cafe Hayek blog, on purchasing Olympics uniforms from China:

Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV) – a leader of a party whose members publicly preen themselves on their alleged devotion to science and realism – throws a conniption fit because the uniforms to be worn by U.S. athletes at the 2012 Olympics were stitched together in China rather than in America (“Burn US Olympic uniforms because they’re made in China,” July 12).

Mr. Reid’s outburst reveals his ignorance of a foundational conclusion of economic science, namely, that people are enriched when they’re free to purchase from whomever they choose regardless of political boundaries. Yes, there are economists who emphasize (mostly purely theoretical) exceptions to the case for free trade – none of which are relevant here – and even a few fringe economists who reject that case altogether. But economists’ overwhelming, non-partisan, and research-based consensus today is, as it has been for years, that free trade (even when unilateral) is beneficial. Mr. Reid’s temper tantrum proves that he is either inexcusably dimwitted about matters on which he legislates, or interested, not in science and realism and truth, but in scoring political points by appealing to the uninformed emotions of constituents.

If Mr. Reid had announced that locating water in the Mojave is easily done with divining rods, that cancer is best cured with crystals, or that the Senate chamber is haunted by Daniel Webster’s ghost, he’d be laughed out of office. But let him make a similarly laughable remark about trade and he continues to be treated as if he and his opinions deserve respect.

Sad.

Sincerely,
Donald J. Boudreaux
Professor of Economics
George Mason University
Fairfax, VA 22030

John Bryson doesn't need to have seizures to do harm

Authorities are investigating a series of traffic collisions in the San Gabriel Valley involving U.S. Secretary of Commerce John Bryson, authorities said Saturday.

Republicans are offering silent prayers to the ghost of Ronald Reagan, asking that he please, please, please give them a way to prove that Bryson was drunk. 
Democrats are getting indignant because someone at a Karl Rove SuperPac tweeted something snarky about "how do you have 3 crashes in 5 minutes without alcohol not being involved?"

Look, the man had some car wrecks on Saturday.  But he's been known to have seizures.  Four years ago, he apparently passed out in a board meeting and had to be hospitalized. 

It looks he was only in two car wrecks this weekend and chances are the total damage was $15,000.00 or less. 

But drunk or not drunk, stable or having seizures, stoned or straight, car wrecks aren't why John Bryson should be making the news.  Check out Bryson's requests for spending increases from the Department Of Commerce website:

•Advanced Manufacturing: Advanced Manufacturing: $156 million to expand NIST research in areas such as smart manufacturing, nanomanufacturing, advanced materials, and biomanufacturing, including $21 million for the Advanced Manufacturing Technology Consortia program, which will provide grants to industry consortia to tackle common technological barriers to the innovation and manufacturing of new products.

•Increasing U.S. Exports: $517 million for the International Trade Administration (ITA), including several key initiatives. The Administration requests $30 million for critical investments in trade promotion to help more U.S. businesses reach the 95 percent of consumers who live outside our borders. This proposal also includes $30 million to send Foreign Commercial Service Officers and locally engaged staff to high-growth markets to help support the National Export Initiative to meet the President’s goal of doubling U.S. exports by the end of 2014. The budget also supports a new trade enforcement unit-- the Interagency Trade Enforcement Center (ITEC), which will significantly enhance the Administration’s capabilities to aggressively challenge unfair trade practices around the world (details below).

•Attracting Investment to the U.S.: The $517M for ITA includes $13 million for SelectUSA to encourage, facilitate, and accelerate foreign direct investment in the U.S. to create jobs and spur growth.

God help us all.  I work for a manufacturing company, and Obama's Commerce Secretary wants more funding so he can help manufacturers.  Oh sweet baby Jesus help us all.  Please keep my family in your prayers.  Those folks have a worse financial record than Ed McMahon.

Here's more:

*Additionally, as part of the Administration’s efforts to revitalize manufacturing, the President’s budget proposes $1 billion in mandatory funding to establish a National Network for Manufacturing Innovation (NNMI). Through collaboration between NIST, the Department of Defense, the Department of Energy, and the National Science Foundation, the NNMI aims to promote the development of manufacturing technologies with broad applications.

*When it comes to trade enforcement, as part of the President’s plan to level the playing field for American workers and businesses, the President’s budget will invest $26 million in ITA ($24M) and the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative ($2M) to support a new trade enforcement unit-- the Interagency Trade Enforcement Center (ITEC), which will significantly enhance the Administration’s capabilities to aggressively challenge unfair trade practices around the world, including in China. The ITEC will represent a more aggressive “whole-of-government” approach to addressing unfair trade practices, and will serve as the primary forum within the federal government for executive departments and agencies to coordinate enforcement of international and domestic trade rules.

They pay people to write that drivel.  With your money.  Taken by force.  I know you don't have time to read thast stuff, but they're asking for more money so they can help you get more money to give to them. 
Here's Assistant Commerce Secretary Michael Camunez, writing about a border boondoggle that ate up a couple of his action-filled weeks: 

At each stop, stakeholders repeated the theme that we—government and business—must work together to change the narrative about the border. The goal is not to diminish awareness of the fact that real security challenges exist; rather, we need to increase awareness that there is more to the border story. Both countries are critical to the economy of the other, and one of our goals for this trip was to highlight the fact that new commercial opportunities exist and that the border serves a critical role in facilitating the essential flow of goods and people between Mexico and the U.S.


Our delegation consisted of U.S. and Mexico government officials and members of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. We conducted stakeholder outreach events related to the border trade facilitation efforts under the U.S.-Mexico 21st Century Border Management initiative, which was established by Presidents Obama and Calderon in May 2010 as a vehicle to develop and promote a more secure and seamless border between our two countries. These events provided us with an opportunity to share information with stakeholders about the ongoing work and accomplishments of the initiative and to receive important, on-the-ground feedback from them, which can be incorporated into the 21st Century Border Management work streams.

Facilitating initiatives for stakeholder feedback within work streams outreach for increased awareness of changing narratives for an overview of the critical role of the infrastructure's ability to provide feedback for an increased level of dialogue for....

Hell, if you can read two consecutive sentences of that theft-funded drivel without throwing up in your mouth just a little bit, you're a better man than me. 

What's more offensive?  That John Bryson's assistant, Michael C. Camunez,  was paid to write that stuff, or that he's probably next in line to spend the Commerce Department's loot if John Bryson keeps running into cars? 

Let's keep this incident in perspective, folks.  Bryson may have done $15,000 damage on Saturday.  That's nothing compared to the damage he's done since 2008. 

Shut down the Department Of Commerce.  Fold the weather forecasting functions into the Air Force.  Knock down their headquarters building.  Hell, turn John Bryson loose, and let him knock down the building. 

John Jay Myers for U.S. Senate !!!

My friend John Jay Myers is running for U.S. Senate.  There's a debate tonight at 7:00 p.m., and it's the kickoff event for our Texas State Libertarian Party Convention.  (DFW Marriott South, 4151 Centreport Blvd, Fort Worth TX)


Here's something John Jay wrote several months ago, called "An Open Letter To Democrats":

So you are feeling a little let down? You probably voted for Democrats because you were tired of the endless wars, Gitmo, torture, the Patriot Act and the bad name the Republicans were giving the United States. We are disappointed too.

But come to find out the Democrats have now escalated our current wars, and started new ones. They didn’t close Gitmo and have just approved the Patriot Act yet again.

You may have voted Democrat because you believe that corporations control our country. Well you are right, but they also control the Democrats. Unfortunately the only way to keep from having the government give out larger and larger favors to their corporate sponsors is to limit size and scope of what government can do. Libertarians believe the government should not be giving out favors to corporations. Do you want to see the lobbyists flee Washington? Limit government.

It could be you voted for Democrats because you believe that health care should be a right to all Americans. Libertarians believe health care should be much more affordable, and thus available to a much higher percentage of people. But the Democrats didn’t vote to give everyone free health care, they voted to force everyone to buy a product from their corporate sponsors. Great, the new boss is the same as the old boss.

You may have voted Democrat because you believe that some people don’t get a fair shake in life. Libertarians believe that everyone should get exactly that, a fair shake. Ayn Rand said, “The smallest minority on earth is the individual. Those who deny individual rights cannot claim to be defenders of minorities.” When we try to game the system for anyone we end up adversely effecting others, usually of the same group.

I have a saying that “Democrats are simply one economics lesson away from being Libertarians.” That one economics lesson can be found in the book “Economics in One Lesson” by Henry Hazlitt, in that book Hazlitt talks about the hidden costs of government intervention into the markets, and spells out why there is no such thing as a free lunch.

Libertarians are among the most charitable people on the planet. They just understand that if government can’t balance a budget, why would you want government in charge of your charity?

Especially the Federal government. Let’s take education for example. We know that competition creates better products. So why do we have the Department of Education, an agency 1000′s of miles away from Texas telling us how to run our schools? Why would we take our money, send it to Washington, and then ask them, “Please send us some money?” We are right here. We can spend our own money on our own schools. If we heard Missouri had a program that worked we might be quick to adopt it, but if we hear California is going bankrupt we might be quick to avoid it. The Federal government is destroying education, and competition. Libertarians think that is unfair.

The Libertarian Party is a great blend of sound economics and the idea that you should be free to make your own decisions about your life. You should give us a try. We think you will like us. Lord knows we are light years ahead of the Republicans.

John Jay Myers, Libertarian for U.S. Senate !!!

Elizabeth !! Warren !!!!! broke the color barrier at Harvard

Elizabeth !! Warren !!!!

You can hit the label at the bottom of this post to read more about the excitement, the bed-wetting ecstasy, the thrill, and the Why-Are-We-Allowed-To-Live-On-Her-Planet fawning and slobbering that surrounds Elizabeth !! Warren !!!!!

She's now running for the U.S. Senate, by God.  How long til the offers come in from Penthouse and Hustler? 

Seriously.  We're not worthy !!!!!!! 

Go here to read about a Fordham Law Review piece where Elizabeth !! Warren !!!! was described as Harvard Law's "first woman of color" !!!!!!!!

But open it in a new window, so you can have this Tim McGraw greatness playing in the background.  Crank it up for Elizabeth !!  Warren !!!!!!!!!!

On the Democrat Party mindset

I went to a local Community College Thursday night to hear Hugh Chauvin participate in a candidate forum.  Hugh is running as a Libertarian for Congress in the Texas 6th District. 

Hugh did well, of course.  He's a Libertarian.  His Republican opponent, Joe Barton, was busy in D.C.  His Democrat party opponent wasn't able to stay for the entire forum and had to bail halfway through the event.

Then came the candidates for District 33. 

OMG. 

The Libertarians don't have a candidate running in this new, Gerrymandered district. 

The only Republican running is a pleasant enough chap, but he told the audience that the president he most admired was FDR.  (In the opinion of many, FDR got us through the Great Depression.  In the opinion of others, the best way to prolong a recession is to get the government involved in trying to end the recession.  See: Obama, B. or Carter, J. or Roosevelt, FD.) 

This was the first time for me to observe Democrat Party candidates in the wild, in their natural academic setting.  Their core beliefs, as stated Thursday night, are centered around the following key principles:

1) There is a war on women. 

2) If it weren't for the guiding hand of Dear Leader, the Teleprompter Jesus, none of us would survive. 

3) The best way to get money into the economy is for government to take it from the wealthy, take a cut off the top for themselves, then give some of the money to favored contributors and constituencies.  (There is a competing, less popular, Libertarian theory that says if the wealthy are allowed to keep more of their own money, they'll leave it in banks to earn something called "interest".  The only way the bank can pay this "interest" is to loan it to people who are working in the economy.  This method allows fewer opportunities for graft and cronyism, and therefore is unacceptable.) 

4) The Affordable Care Act will decrease the cost of healthcare, simply because that is the stated goal of the program. 

5) The best way to create jobs is through government programs. 

6) In a debate or forum setting, it's best not to mention government programs that are bankrupt, ineffective, or failures.  This limits the discussion to government programs that have not yet been implemented. 

7) Government seldom spends money.  Government invests. 

8) The solution to our energy woes is through sunshine and algae. 

In the late 1970's, I saw the original Alien movie on the big screen.  Ditto for Friday The 13th and Halloween.  None of those films were as scary as this political event. 

We don't have a Libertarian candidate in this race.  If I lived there, I'd probably go for Pastor Kyev Tatum (D).  I disagree with the guy on a lot of issues, but he had some good things to say about education. The only Republican seemed out of his depth, plus the last thing we need is Republicans who think that more government involvement is the best way to grow the economy. That's an ender.
Sheesh.

Go here to visit Pastor Tatum's website.

Why do you do claim tax deductions?

I'm gathering receipts so I can use them for tax deductions. 
I'm going to claim every deduction that I can possibly find. 

I think I'm the one who makes the best use of my money.  There are some charities that get a substantial chunk of the household income, but I like being able to choose which ones.  Knowing that I have a choice helps keep them honest. 

It irks the heck out of me that my employer has to act as tax collector, child-support gatherer, healthcare provider, and immigration status verifier.  I wish they could hang out a sign that says "Will swap money in exchange for labor" and go on with their business of making fruitstands.  Think of the administrative savings!!

 If we all had to write a check to Uncle Sam every month or every quarter, instead of having the money withheld, support for Mr. Obama's Dirty Little Wars on Brown People, Drugs and Prosperity would plummet.  Collecting taxes should be John Boehner's job, not the job of someone you swap your labor with.

Government is the worst possible way of getting most things done.  Possible exceptions are roads and other infrastructure, providing a courts system to enforce contracts and take care of externalities, and defending the borders (ours, not Korea's).  I think that delivering the mail, education, jobs, healthcare, energy, innovation, and spreading Democracy are jobs best left to the private sector.  (See: Eastern Hills High School, VA Hospitals, Solyndra, LightSquared and Iraq, Afghanistan, etc.) 

A lot of my statist friends fight tooth and nail to avoid paying any more than required.  I respect them for that more than they'll ever know.  I wish that I had the courage to take Uncle Sam to court. 

Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway fund owes taxes going back to 2002.  Buffett could simply do what he advocates: Write the government a check for 1.2 billion.  I don't think he'll do that.  IMHO, Warren Buffett believes that he and his shareholders will use the 1.2 billion more wisely than John Boehner and John Cornyn. 

Anyway, back to my point.  Those are my reasons for claiming every deduction that I can find. 

If you disagree with me, what are your reasons for doing the exact...same...thing? 

The income tax bumpersticker came from Richard Forsythe's truck.  The pic of Buffett morphing back and forth between Capitalist Robber Baron and Capitalist Robber Baron Who Makes Pleasing Sounds For Obama came from here. 

The Democrat Party's War On Women !!!

The Democrats are promoting a Republican War On Women meme, when they should be pumping out a Republican War On Freedom, Fiscal Sanity, and Stability meme.   
From Rand Simberg:

It should be shocking, by the conventional narrative, that the White House of a “liberal” president would be a hostile work environment for women, but it is not at all a surprise to anyone familiar with the history of the Democrats and the Left, going back at least to the 1960s, when a prominent Democrat politician got a pass from the media for abandoning a young woman (possibly pregnant by him) to drown in his car. The same man went on to later fame as the top slice of bread in a “waitress sandwich,” and yet was so lionized by the Left that not that long ago, at the time of his death, a woman(!) wrote that Mary Jo Kopechne might have been happy to undergo the terror as her lungs filled with the brackish water of Martha’s Vineyard had she only known what a great legislator he would turn out to be.

To see similar hypocritical Leftist misogyny, we need only go back to the last time a Democrat was in the White House. Whenever a woman came forward with allegations of inappropriate sexual conduct by Bill Clinton, the response of the Clinton defenders, both in and out of the media, was to attack her credibility, character, and virtue. Advisor James Carville famously said of Paula Jones (the young Arkansas state employee whom Clinton as governor had his state police guard procure to his hotel room for the purpose of orally pleasuring him), “Drag $100 bills through trailer parks, there’s no telling what you’ll find.”

Evan Thomas of Newsweek dutifully complemented the slander by declaring her on national television “just some sleazy woman with big hair coming out of the trailer parks,” though he later was compelled to apologize in print. (One wonders how residents of trailer parks felt about that, but I guess empathy for them is for the little people.) When Kathleen Willey accused the president of groping her in the White House, and was physically threatened for her trouble, feminist icon and (former) scourge of sexual harassers Gloria Steinem said that it was no problem — he was entitled to a freebie, after which Cathy Young of Reason magazine reported on “the death of sexual harassment.”

Remember the outrage from NOW in response to all of this?  That's funny.  I don't either. 

It got worse. As the Paula Jones lawsuit progressed, and the president committed acts of obstruction of justice (federal felonies) by perjury and subornation of perjury through threats and bribes, the White House was prepared to go after Monica Lewinsky, the woman about whom he engaged in such obstruction. She was bribed with jobs, and urged to in turn suborn perjury from her confidante Linda Tripp, by implying threats against her family. If the incriminating blue dress hadn’t turned up, their plan was to continue to cover up and lie, and accuse Lewinsky of being a crazy stalker. The White House orchestrated the leak of the personnel files of Pentagon employee Linda Tripp, the only person in the entire fiasco who told the truth, in an attempt (sadly quite successful) to discredit her. This included a mistaken felony arrest record that had been sealed since she was a teenager. She was vilified and maligned in the media, with late-night comedians mocking her physical appearance. It’s unlikely that many of these people were either conservatives or Republicans.

Or Libertarians. 
I don't think that Lee Wrights or Gary Johnson will kill any women if elected. 

I don't care who you are, this is funny

A Hypothetical Question About The Nobel Peace Prize

The last three Democrat adminstrations have produced three Nobel Peace prize winners.

Carter/Mondale - Carter won it, and then went off into full-time Foreign Policy interference. 

Clinton/Gore - Gore won it, and then went off to be a Green Scam Billionaire. 

Obama/Biden - Obama won the Peace Prize, and then went off to bomb the crap out of Libya, get involved in Pakistan, and then carefully maintain the other wars that we had on our plate. 

So....There's long been talk of replacing Biden on the 2012 ballot with someone who is marginally sane.  Now there's talk of replacing Obama on the 2012 ballot with someone who is marginally electable. 

If this happens, and the new Democrate Duo happens to win, is the Nobel automatically awarded to one of the new Statists?  Should it be, just to save time? 

Just wondering. 

A reaction to the Jobs Speech

I didn't get to listen to Obama read his Jobs Speech.  I've read most of the transcript. 

Libertarians generally believe that the purpose of the Democrat and Republican parties is to ladle massive amounts of pork to their supporters. 

They've done it for so long that our debt level is killing the economy.  Entrepreneurs are worried about starting anything new, not in this climate of debt and inevitably higher taxes.  Nobody from anywhere else on the planet is very interested in starting a business here. 

The purpose of the Democrat and Republican parties is to ladle massive amounts of pork to their supporters.  They'll always find a good reason to do so. 

Judged by that standard, Barack Obama, because of Porkulus, Cash For Clunkers, multiple wars, spending levels that make Imelda Marcos look like a medieval hermit, and this latest appeal for more slop to be dumped into the communal troughs, I'm preparted to say that....

BARACK OBAMA IS THE GREATEST PRESIDENT EVER. 

We will never see another one like him, and we should enjoy this while it lasts.  We are like beginning musicians getting to watch Beethoven compose symphonies, or amateur artists watching Van Gogh paint.  Because you are lucky enough to be alive at this moment, you can tell your grandchildren that you got to watch Barack Obama hand out money. 

Robert Reich is a racist

Robert Reich was Secretary of Labor in the Clinton administration. 

As best I can tell from his Wikipedia entry, he's never done anything but teach school, practice law, or help screw up the country as a government employee.  I don't think he's ever manufactured anything but regulatory burdens. 

Reich recently came up with a list of things that The Teleprompter Jesus could do to create jobs.  Half of the suggestions were the standard "give employers a tax credit for doing things that their Lords And Masters like".  The other half were the standard "take money from one group that I don't necessarily like (rich people, unborn fetuses, banks, etc.) and give it to another group". 

But the tenth proposal perfectly reflects the lunacy to which we've all descended, and that's the one that got my blood boiling.  Here goes:

10. Impose a "severance fee" on any large business that lays off an American worker and outsources the job abroad.

Before I unload on this Statist sonofabitch, let me get in some full disclosure.  I'm proud to work for an American manufacturer.  We make things in the United States, which, considering the regulatory environment, is just about impossible.  We also outsource some work to China.  We're warehousing some stuff in Canada.  We're about to get something big going with a manufacturer in Brazil. 

But in addition to bringing things in from other places, I routinely ship our American-made (and outsourced) products to stores all over the world.  Before my vacation this past week, we loaded out 5 full-sized shipping containers of freakin' fruitstands to Chile.  Yeah.  Fruitstands.  You can make fruitstands anywhere, but people in Chile like ours.  So do our customers in Mexico, Canada and Colombia.  "Trade" works both ways. 

Before we started bringing some of the simpler products in from China, our company had 300 employees in the United States.  And less than a decade after "outsourcing these jobs", in Reich's phrase, to China, we had....

600 employees. 

Yep.  We started making some things in China and this allowed us to double our U.S. workforce.  (We've cut back to around 500 since our peak a couple of years ago, but then, there's a madman in the White House.) 

To what degree should we be punished?  And who will decide how much we should have to pay for sending work to Chinese People and then hiring more American People in the United States as a result of our increased efficiency? 

Let's get to the next bit o' goofiness in Reich's proposal...   I once spent a phenomenally dull Spring welding these weld nuts into 7 3/4 lengths of steel tube. 

Before long, we had doubled the size of our metal shop, and instead of 4 employees, we had 8.  Somebody else welded those things into the steel tubes.  Then 3 people welded them.   

Next thing you know, we've got 3 shifts and 90 people working in our metal shop.  We don't have room to breathe. 

But at the same time, customers decided that they didn't want any more weld nuts tacked into 7 3/4 lengths of steel tube.  Instead of 3 people welding the things, we cut back to just one person doing the job.  Then, for a brief period of time, we occasionally set up a robotic welder to do it. 

Now we order a couple of thousand of the things from China a couple of times a year. 

How is the law firm of Reich, Rodham, and Reid going to determine what "severance fee" we should pay?  And to whom?  Especially since the metal shop has grown to 150 employees since we sent the simpler stuff to China and since no one purchases enough of them to keep an American busy full-time? 

I bet Uncle Sam would have to hire 5 Regulatory Gremlins to monitor our company alone, which is probably the goal of Reich's proposal.  Who knows.  Moving on....

Let's assume that we're succesful in our attempt at manufacturing fruitstands in Brazil.  Let's also assume that Robert Reich persuades The Teleprompter Jesus to slap a "severance fee" on any company that manufactures anything overseas. 

Do you really think that our customers in China, Colombia, Chile, Canada and Mexico will be able to continue ordering things from me at the same price?  Or will their governments turn around and slap a "severance fee" of some sort on manufacturers who purchase my component parts and complete products?

Remember, Robert Reich was educated/indoctrinated at Oxford and Yale.  He's one of the brightest and best.  God help us all. 

Next, put yourself in a company owner's position.  If there was even a remote chance that a new product could be made in China, would you ever consider making it in the U.S. if doing so meant you might one day be required to pay a "severance fee"? 

Hell no, you wouldn't. 

You would keep your U.S. workforce on your old product line.  The new product would be made exclusively in China from Day One so no one at Reich, Rodham, and Reid could ever accuse you of laying off someone and sending that job to China.  

Finally, let's get to the racial issue.  We recently put up a new Martin Luther King Memorial on the National Mall in D.C.  Here's a quote from the base of the statue:

"our loyalties must transcend our race, our tribe, our class, and our nation; and this means we must develop a world perspective."

Yeah.  What King said. 

I don't give a rip about the lines of latitude and longitude where something is manufactured.  Robert Reich wants to take that into account when HE decides what HE will allow in and out of what HE thinks of as our little cage.

I don't care about the nationality of the people my employer sells to, or the arbitrary borders on a map that show where they were born.  The ones I've met have been good folks, almost without exception.  I can say the same thing about the people oversease who we purchase from.  Robert Reich thinks that nationality matters more than "the content of their character".   

I don't give a rip about the skin color of the people making my fruitstands.  Robert Reich appears to be obsessed with it.  I wonder if Reich is disturbed that the MLK statue was outsourced to a Chinese dude....

I see no other explanation than to say that I believe Robert Reich is a racist of the worst possible sort.  (And an economic idiot.)  

From the CBS News website Gift Shop

Obama, Obama, Obama, Obama, Obama, Kennedy. 

'Nuff said. 

Die quickly, Mainstream Media.  die quickly.