My Sermon at the NORML meeting

My buddy Tristan Tucker asked me to speak at the recent DFW/NORML meeting. 
NORML is the National Organization For The Reform Of Marijuana Laws. 

I decided to take on a Southern Baptist Preacher persona and give the smokers and tokers a sermon.  It was well-received. 

BTW, only a Libertarian would selectively edit the Old Testament to improve the flow.  Yes, we really do believe we can improve on stuff supposedly written by God. 

Enjoy. 

My name is the Reverend Doctor Allen Patterson, and I bring you greetings from the First Church Of The Tarrant County Libertarian Party!!  Our text for today is from the Book of 1^st Samuel, Chapter 8.

Look it up on your phone so you won’t think I’m making this stuff up.  Way back in the day, Israel was governed by a small group of judges, and their only job was to intervene in disputes, enforce the laws of the land, and protect the borders. 

Does that sound nice?  Yeah, that sounds nice.  1 Samuel, Chapter 8. 

⁴ One day the people of Israel came to Samuel The Prophet ⁵ and said, “You are an old man.  Now we want a king to be our leader,  just like all the other nations. We want a king!  Choose one for us!”

⁶ Samuel was upset to hear the leaders say they wanted a king, so he prayed about it. ⁷ The Lord answered:

“They aren’t rejecting you and your judges, Samuel.  They’re rejecting me. ⁹ Do everything they ask, but warn them and tell them how a king will treat them.

¹⁰ Samuel told the people who were asking for a king what the Lord had said:

¹¹ If you have a king, this is how he will treat you. He will force your sons to join his army. Some of them will drive his chariots, and some will be in his cavalry.  Your other children will have to farm the king’s land and harvest his crops, or make the king’s weapons and parts for his chariots. <sup>13 

And the people STILL said “Give us a king!”</sup> 

And Samuel said “Your daughters will have to make his perfume or do his cooking and baking.” And the people Still said “Give us a king!”

¹⁴ The king will take your best fields, as well as your vineyards, and olive orchards and give them to his own officials. ¹⁵ He will also take a tenth of your grain and grapes and give it to his officers and his officials.  (Can you imagine the government taking only a tenth??)

And the people Still said “Give us a king!”

¹⁶ And Samuel said “this king will take your best young men and your donkeys and make them do his work. ¹⁷ He will also take a tenth of your sheep and goats. You will become the king’s slaves, ¹⁸ and you will finally cry out for the Lord to save you from the king you wanted.

^19-20 The people would not listen to Samuel. “No!” they said. “We want to be like other nations. We want a king to rule us and lead us in battle.”

²¹ Samuel listened to them and then told the Lord exactly what the people had said.

And the Lord answered. “So…..Give them a king.”

Thus ends the reading of today’s word from the Lord. 

DFW/NORML, for 3,000 years we’ve known how kings and governments behave.  And yet some of us still say “Give Us A King!”  There's a little girl named Emma sitting at this front table.  She's totally innocent.  Never spent a dime in her life.  Our kings and their government and their reckless spending have put Emma $50,000.00 in debt.  If  Emma’s foolish enough to grow up to be a taxpayer, her share of the national debt is $110,000.00

Emma's share of the unfunded retirements, Social Security payments and other liabilities?  ONE MILLION DOLLARS. 

And some of us still say “Give Us A King”. 

The Richard Nixon through Barack Obama Drug War has killed 40,000 civilians in Mexico.  We have as many as 800,000 people in prison for non-violent drug offenses.  It costs 40 to 50,000 each, per year, to keep these people in a steel cage. 

And we still say “Give Us A King.”

George Bush, Bill Clinton, Sarah Palin, Newt Gingrich, Barack Obama, Al Gore, Arnold Schwarzenegger and RICK FREAKIN’ SANTORUM all affirm that they have smoked marijuana, all of them would’ve had their careers ended if they’d been busted as kids, and ALL OF THEM STILL SUPPORT THE WAR ON MARIJUANA.  And their parties still say “Give Us A King”. 

Because of the war on marijuana, Barack Obama has more black men living in cages than Jefferson Davis and the Confederacy did at the start of the Civil War.

And the people still say “Give Us A King”. 

Church family, my brothers and sisters at DFW/NORML, we are all sinners.  There is none who is righteous, no, not one.  We have all, in our sinful pasts, voted for Republicans and Democrats, the people who got us into the mess predicted in the Book of First Samuel 3,000 years ago.  We’ve all done it. 

But there is a way out.  And it’s called The Tarrant County Libertarian Party.   Are you ready to end the war on marijuana?  Are you ready to get the government out of your life?  ARE YOU READY? 

Brother Ken Stanford is waiting at the table in the back, along with the rest of our trained counseling staff.  Though your sins be as scarlet, we can make them white as snow.  Though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.  There is no other way, there is no other path.  If the other parties could get you out of this hole you’re in, they would’ve done it by now instead of digging it deeper. 

ARE YOU READY TO MAKE A DECISION FOR CHRIST???

So….

May the Lord Bless you and keep you, May the Lord make his face to shine upon you, and be gracious unto you.

May God give you the grace never to sell yourself short;

Grace to risk something big for something good

Grace to remember that the world is now too dangerous for anything but truth and too small for anything but love and tolerance for all….

So may God take your minds and think through them,

May God take your lips and speak through them,  And may God take your hearts, and set them on fire. 

Amen. 

Small businesses can now cut every expense but labor.

Every day, I become more and more convinced that we are being governed by idiots, and that Barack Obama is their king. 

As anyone who has ever run a 5-employee coffee bar knows that businesses have an income and businesses have expenses. 

Expenses are coffee, cups, cleaning supplies, cash register tape, stir sticks, flavor for shots, milk, chocolate and, yes, employee labor. 

Income is income.  It could be dollars, or it could be javelins, Coca-Colas, gasoline, eggs, butter, ammunition or anything else you would swap for a double-espresso.   It's what people swap for your coffee, cups, cleaning supplies, cash register tape, stir sticks, flavor for shots, milk, chocolate and, yes, employee labor.

Let's pretend that you have a chain of coffee bars, and you have 100 employees.  If so, you're going to be hit with Obamacare costs.  But if you have 99 employees, you can avoid that expense for another year. 

Any sane human will find a way to avoid that expense.  All sane humans will avoid that expense, if at all possible. 

If the costs of cups goes up, they will try to find a cheaper cup.  Ditto for coffee or cash register tape.

So if expenses go up to the point where costs have to be cut (whether it is in cups, labor or chocolate), how will Obama's Mouth-Breathers protect their reputations? 

They will make it illegal to reduce the number of employees.  I swear to God, they're going to make you swear to them that you didn't cut payroll to avoid paying the Obamacare shakedown tax. 

 Consider what administration officials announcing the new exemption for medium-sized employers had to say about firms that might fire workers to get under the threshold and avoid hugely expensive new requirements of the law. Obama officials made clear in a press briefing that firms would not be allowed to lay off workers to get into the preferred class of those businesses with 50 to 99 employees. How will the feds know what employers were thinking when hiring and firing? Simple. Firms will be required to certify to the IRS – under penalty of perjury – that ObamaCare was not a motivating factor in their staffing decisions. To avoid ObamaCare costs you must swear that you are not trying to avoid ObamaCare costs. You can duck the law, but only if you promise not to say so.

If you've ever run anything and tried to make a profit by doing so, you know that this is lunacy.  Labor is the same as cups, coffee, or chocolate. 
If you aren't making money, you have to cut where you can.  Anywhere you can. 

Godalmighty, I'm ready for the Rodham Administration to take over. 

Statist Bingo

I spend way too much of my life arguing with the servile, the subjugated, and the lovers of enslavement.  Sometimes in bars, sometimes on Facebook, and sometimes via email.  The only thing that keeps me going at it is a) knowing that I'm right, and b) that it eventually shuts down my opponents, and c) knowing that I'll never, ever convert these boot-lickers, but that I've converted TONS of bystanders to the discussion. 

I saw this thing on Reddit, and had to laugh.  I can't wait to use it.  Save this link.  If I could change something on this card, the "Free" space would read "You just want to ______"  (turn back the clock, put black people in chains, see children die, give lots of free stuff to rich people, or any of the other stuff Obama is currently doing.) 

My new goal is to get an Obamaphile to score 5 in a row.  Hey, it's not really a game if you don't keep score. 

Who's to say that Libertarian politicians, over time, wouldn't become Statists?

I get variations on this all the time:  "Who's to say that your Libertarian candidates wouldn't start spending and regulating like Statists if they stayed in office long enough?"

My answer  "If you left mulitiple generations of them in office long enough, without changing any of the rules of the game, or changing the worldview of the electorate, they probably would become Statists."

People are people.  They don't become cherubs when they win the beauty contests that we call "elections".  I'm sure that Ron Paul could be swayed by flattery and donations.  Ditto for Gary Johnson.  Judge Jim Gray is one of the finest men I've ever met, but I bet if you agreed to fund one of his favorite causes, he'd be willing to consider using a few taxpayer dollars to build that new stadium, or blow up some brown people overseas, or throw some stimulus in the right direction. 

This is why it's so important to have a government that is as small as possible.  Government is force.  The power to take other people's stuff and redistribute it.  The power to throw your enemies into steel cages.   I honestly don't know anyone that I would trust with that power for a long period of time. 

Here's some vintage Milton Friedman:

The important thing is to establish a political climate of opinion which will make it politically profitable for the wrong people to do the right thing. Unless it is politically profitable for the wrong people to do the right thing, the right people will not do the right thing either, or it they try, they will shortly be out of office.

I believe that Libertarian candidates are the most likely to do the right thing.  But it's even more important for you to be aware of the right thing - stopping redistribution, ending privacy violations, curbing the spending and ending the wars. 

In the meantime, we're getting the government (and the wars, and the debt, and the wealth transfers, and the black incarceration rate, and the taxes) that we deserve. 

Slave Of The Week

A bar friend of mine that I frequently debate on Facebook recently posted the following definition:
He's a good guy, fun to play guitar with, loves his kids, etc. 
But what in the world could make a rational human being agree with that statement?  Somewhere out there, someone is spreading the idea that Big Business and Big Government don't love each other.  This person must be found and stopped. 

Are citizens worried that in a libertarian society, private insurance companies would force individuals to purchase their product?  i.e. ObamaCare?

Do you think that libertarians want bankrupt auto manufacturers to steal your money for bailouts? 

Does anyone honestly believe that Monsanto could enforce their seed monopolies without tender, loving help from the U.S. Department Of Agriculture? 

I know this has been a staple of TV shows and bad movies for decades, but who all thinks that private businesses can be successful by killing their customers? 

I really don't believe that The Evil Koch Brothers are going to chase me down the street and force me to read The Old Testament. 

Does anyone believe that, in a small government society, automakers would steal your money, use it to purchase old cars, destroy the old cars, and give customers a check for a new car?  i.e. Cash For Clunkers?

This isn't the dumbest thing I've seen a Statist post on Facebook, but it's in my top 20. 

Hope you've had a good weekend.  I'm gonna go make sure that Starbucks hasn't put poison in my espresso, and that Ford hasn't put a bomb in my gas tank. 

Trickle-Down Stimulus

This is the phrase you must use twice in any debate with members of The Statist Flock.  Three little words. 

"Trickle-Down Stimulus". 

Try it. 

"I don't believe in any kind of Trickle Down Stimulus." 

"Reagan proved it.  Trickle Down Stimulus doesn't work." 

They're accustomed to sprinkling their political arguments with key words and phrases.  George Bush !  Sarah Palin ! Greedy Corporations !  A decent society should take care of it's ....! and finally, without even thinking, they're going to say "Trickle-Down doesn't work". 

I honestly don't know if "Trickle-Down" works or doesn't work.  I do know that it's not our damn government's job to try to make the economy work, though, and I'd rather live in an era when government didn't even pretend to be competent enough to manage money.

The more I read about the Reagan era, the more I see "Trickle-Down" as an unfortunate marketing term for whatever Reagan did.  But the Statists associate the phrase with breaks for the rich.  But here's the Oxford English Dictionary definition:  "Trickle-down, adj., of or based on the theory that economic benefits to particular groups will inevitably be passed on to those less well off...; orig. and chiefly U.S."

If the U.S. has ever experienced an outright gift from the taxpayers to the wealthy, it was in Obambi's stimulus package.  Lord have mercy, what a porkfest.    So don't hesitate to make it known.  

"I supported Obama until he introduced that Trickle Down Stimulus bill."    

Trickle Down Economics Doesn't Work

Between bars, taverns, restaurants, Facebook, McDonald's drive-thru's, and work, I somehow find myself in arguments with lots of Statists. 

After they get through saying GEORGE W. BUSH!!!! and SARAH PALIN!!! they will usually say something about the need to protect us all from Big Bidness.  I usually hit that one out of the park.  Big Bidness doesn't send me an invoice for a huge chunk of my income every year. 

If the discussion goes on long enough, Obama's Representative Of The Sheeple will then go waaaaay back into his talking points database and triumphantly say TRICKLE DOWN ECONOMICS DOESN'T WORK !!!!!!!!!, and then sit down, exhausted, the way Leonard Bernstein used to crumple at the podium after conducting Beethoven's 9th, letting the waves of adoration and applause wash over him. 

Here's how you respond:

Sir, I agree somewhat, but would like to expound on that a bit.  "Trickle Down Economics" isn't an economic phrase, it was just a marketing phrase for a government policy.  "Government Involvement In The Economy" is what doesn't work. 

When Barack Obama, Harry Reid, and Nancy Pelosi gave out billions and billions and billions to big banks and big corporations in the form of The Stimulus Package (instead of just cutting a check to each of us little people for $6,000.00), it was because they believed that "Trickle Down Economics" works. 

Same thing for what The Fed is doing with the money supply. 

Neither of those is working. 

You're right, sir.  "Trickle Down Economics" doesn't work.

The Statist will act like he didn't hear a word you said, and will then reply "But Who Will Build The Roads?" 
Keep fighting the good fight, folks !!!

On Price Controls At The Olympics

To charge fair market value for something like the Olympics would be unfair. 
Therefore, price controls were put in place. 

Here's the great Tom Woods, star speaker at the Texas Libertarian Party's recent State Convention, on why you've got empty seats:

The British Olympic organizers restricted ticket purchases, rewarded corporate purchases but not corporate use, imposed price controls on tickets available to the public and state violence against the resulting scalpers (touts) — and are distraught and surprised over the empty seats that characterize so many of the Olympic events so far. To reduce the embarrassment and sense of scandal, organizers have carted in British troops–dressed in their camo!–to fill seats at gymnastics events, while other easily manipulated, low-time-cost groups on the government’s payroll are also being bussed in to other sparsely-attended venues.

Meanwhile, many thousands willing to pay market prices to attend Olympic events are told to bugger off.

And they always act "surprised", don't they? 

Glenn Reynolds of Instapundit has been having fun for the last 5 years or so, working the word "unexpectedly" into the reports of markets and prices reacting to incentives in ways that surprise the Statists but not many other people.  Go here for a sampling....

Stephanie Cutter is a racist. There is no other explanation.

I got onto a bunch of mailing lists during the 2008 elections.   That's why this letter from a silly twit named Stephanie Cutter was in my inbox last week. 
She thinks she's attacking Mitt Romney (a worthy goal), but this drivel coulda been written by a Mississippi Klansman who struggled to finish the 8th grade. 

Lord have mercy, what a jingoistic woman. 
And The Teleprompter Jesus should be ashamed of himself for all this racket about The Yellow Peril. 
Here goes....

Whited --

The Washington Post reported this morning that "Mitt Romney's financial company, Bain Capital, invested in a series of firms that specialized in relocating jobs done by American workers to new facilities in low-wage countries like China and India."

This is the same guy that goes around the campaign trail talking a huge game about being able to protect American jobs by standing up to foreign countries like China. But now we know that Romney and his partners made millions while sending American jobs overseas.

Where to begin, where to begin.  The computer you're reading this on was made in a foreign country.  Some of the people who made it weren't event Baptists !!!!   They worship strange Gods !!!!  
Look, I've beaten the Free Trade horse to death more times than I care to remember or regurgitate.  Here's a Don Boudreaux argument:

In fact, the critical assumptions on which the economic case for free trade rests are highly descriptive of reality: (1) the ultimate justification for economic activity is to improve living standards for consumers; (2) producers facing competition serve consumers better than do monopolists; (3) each party to a voluntary trade is generally made better off by such trades; and – most importantly – (4) the first three assumptions aren’t nullified merely by putting a national political border between consumers and producers.

The lines of latitude and longitude of the factory don't matter to anyone but Statists collecting payoffs from Crony Capitalists.  Do you really want to ensure that your child has a factory job putting plastic cases on iPhones???  I don't.  And you don't. 

Are you willing to pay 50% more for a lawnmower made in your hometown?  Home state?  Nation?  Continent?  Hemisphere?  Who is going to make the rules for protecting your job?  Who are these angels who are going to ensure that your neighbor gets paid what you think he's worth? 

Ok, back to Stephanie Cutter's plea for racial protectionism.  (Sorry, but I've got to call it racism.  Read it a couple of times.  There's no other explanation that makes sense.)

This is a critical point, and we need to make sure everyone knows it. Check out this video I recorded today, and share it far and wide:



Romney's support of outsourcing didn't just happen in the private sector. As governor of Massachusetts, he vetoed legislation that would have banned companies from shipping state jobs overseas -- and he actually outsourced state jobs to a call center in India.

On shipping state jobs overseas.....If we can save .50 cents an hour on the money stolen from me to pay for "state jobs", we should send those jobs overseas.  Now.
If people were given a choice on their ballots, they would vote for the same thing.  Seriously.  If you could lower your tax bill by, say, 30% by sending all state activity overseas, would you do so? 
Hell yes, you would. 

In contrast, President Obama has a jobs plan that could put up to a million people back to work -- including teachers, cops, firefighters, construction workers, and veterans -- help small businesses create jobs right now, and help to put an end to American jobs being shipped overseas.

Here's the problem with putting American teachers, cops and firefighters back to work.  You have to pay them a ridiculous amount in retirement benefits.  Some who are barely older than me are already retiring.  
That ain't sustainable.  
And did you notice how Stephanie wants to help "small" businesses create jobs, but not McDonald's, IBM, or Amazon?  What's up with that?  

He's also fighting for tax breaks for companies that bring jobs back to America.

Who is going to define what is an American job? 

Mitt Romney is fighting for tax breaks for companies that ship jobs overseas -- the type of companies he ran in the private sector.

This isn't just a policy position for Romney, it's his economic philosophy -- and it's his record.

Read the article, watch the video, and share them both far and wide -- doesn't get a lot more important than this one.

Thanks,

Stephanie

I'm going to call in sick today so I can spend the morning praying for Stephanie Cutter to get a freakin' clue. 

Rick Santorum on Libertarians

Now that Bachmann, Cain, Perry and Gingrich have had their day in the sun, it's Rick Santorum's turn.

Here are the Republican Flavor Of The Month's quotes on the concept of government leaving people alone.  This is from an excellent rant in Reason magazine:

In a Pennsylvania Press Club luncheon in Harrisburg last summer, Santorum declared, "I am not a libertarian, and I fight very strongly against libertarian influence within the Republican Party and the conservative movement."


In that regard, Santorum has a pretty impressive record. By voting for the No Child Left Behind Act, he helped give President Obama the power to micromanage the nation's schools from Washington; and by supporting a prescription drug entitlement for Medicare, he helped saddle the taxpayers with a $16 trillion unfunded liability.

Well, at least his votes are consistent with his beliefs. 

"This idea that people should be left alone, be able to do whatever they want to do," Santorum complained to NPR in 2006, "that we shouldn't get involved in the bedroom, we shouldn't get involved in cultural issues ... that is not how traditional conservatives view the world."

Getting involved in everybody's beds, bongs, bullets and babies would take a HUGE fat honkin' government, wouldn't it?  Yes it would. 

Santorum voted for the 2005 "bridge to nowhere" highway bill, has backed an expanded national service program, and his compassionate conservatism has the Bono seal of approval: "On our issues, he has been a defender of the most vulnerable." Rick Santorum: He's from the government, and he's here to help.


Santorum's 2012 campaign platform even includes a pledge to "re-direct funds within HHS, so it can create public/private partnerships ... for the purpose of strengthening marriages, families, and fatherhood."

Anyone who thinks that giving the Department of Health And Human Services another dime?  That person is not a Libertarian.  That person is an Obama wannabe.  Rick Santorum doesn't want to turn the car around.  He just wants to drive it and stop at different restaurants than the Democrats. 

But his words and his beliefs are consistent.  That counts for a lot. 

Wikipedia and Reddit go Galt.

Go to Wikipedia.  They've shut it down. 
Go to Reddit.  They've shut it down. 
Go to Google.  It's still up, but they have a black "Censored" bar over their logo. 

In protest against Texas Republican Lamar Smith's anti-piracy law, these companies have "Gone Galt".  (If you're not familiar with the Galt concept, look it up on Wikipedia tomorrow.  Not today.  Wikipedia has gone Galt. 

This is what democracy looks like. 

Here's a link to Lamar Smith's website.  He's the author of the now-infamous SOPA bill (Stop Online Piracy Act.)  Piracy being potentially defined as stuff the government doesn't like. 

As of January 18th, there's some hilarious crap on Smith's site about job creation: "We know what will help create jobs in this country –lifting the burden of regulations that is strangling small businesses."   Good work today, Lamar. 

Here's a link to the site of the Libertarian who ran against this Statist last time.  James Strohm. 

Sign came from here. 

An open letter from Rick Santorum's nephew

Here's an open letter from Rick Santorum's nephew, courtesy of The Daily Caller. 
I think the boy is a Libertarian. 

If you want another big-government politician who supports the status quo to run our country, you should vote for my uncle, Rick Santorum. America is based on a strong belief in individual liberty. My uncle’s interventionist policies, both domestic and foreign, stem from his irrational fear of freedom not working.

It is not the government’s job to dictate to individuals how they must live. The Constitution was designed to protect individual liberty. My Uncle Rick cannot fathom a society in which people cooperate and work with each other freely. When Republicans were spending so much money under President Bush, my uncle was right there along with them as a senator. The reason we have so much debt is not only because of Democrats, but also because of big-spending Republicans like my Uncle Rick.

It is because of this inability of status quo politicians to recognize the importance of our individual liberties that I have been drawn to Ron Paul. Unlike my uncle, he does not believe that the American people are incapable of forming decisions. He believes that an individual is more powerful than any group (a notion our founding fathers also believed in).

Another important reason I support Ron Paul is his position on foreign policy. He is the only candidate willing to bring our troops home, not only from the Middle East, but from around the world.

Ron Paul seems to be the only candidate trying to win the election for a reason other than simply winning the election.

This year, I’ll vote for an honest change in our government. I’ll vote for real hope. I’ll vote for a real leader. This year, I will vote for Ron Paul.

John Garver is a 19-year-old student at the University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown. John is a strong supporter of Ron Paul despite his love for family member Rick Santorum.

Unintended consequences of the war on warming

The following post makes no sense.  I'm trying to make some kind of point about all the contradictions in various government ripoffs.  The task is so huge that I can't quite get my arms around it.  Oh well. 

They have finally backed themselves into a corner. 
The New York Holy Times, apologists for The Teleprompter Jesus and all his works, came up with a great excuse for last month's anemic job growth.

The snowstorms in January probably had some effect on the anemic job growth, given that the transportation and warehousing sector and the construction sector both shed jobs.

Here's a CNBC video on the same topic.  The cold weather is killing us. 

So....here's a shout-out to all my guys driving trucks and working in warehouses.  Don't even THINK about shutting your rigs off at lunch or break time.  Let those bad boys idle.  Forklift drivers, let your machines run all night. We have a planet to warm.  Heck, that's what they're paying us to do, right?  Hit this link to see that, yes, they really are paying us to run the forklifts all night.  Otherwise, we wouldn't be able to prove that we needed the forklifts through a Cash For Clunkers-type boondoggle.  But we're doing it to fight Warming.  We supposedly want Cooling.   

It all gets really confusing when the government gets involved in anything but Defense, Enforcing Contracts, and Intervening In Disputes. 
Doesn't it? 
Think about how freakin' great it would be if the government just sat back and stopped trying to save us by fighting warming, cooling, unemployment, wealth, poverty, weather, Arabs, enemies of favored dictators, The Non-Existent Soviet Union, imports, exports and unclean African genitals?
Think of all the money we could save if they just....stayed.....home. 

A modest proposal for Brian Schoenjahn, who wants to ban mixtures of alcohol and caffeine

From The Des Moines Register, with a fresh coat of Whitening to Hit'n'Run:

A sweeping ban on alcoholic beverages that contain caffeine is the first bill in the Iowa Senate this year.

The proposal would prohibit the sale or possession of such drinks, as well as ban transporting or distributing them. Senate File 1 was filed by Sen. Brian Schoenjahn, D-Arlington.

A violation would be a simple misdemeanor punishable by 30 days in jail and a fine of between $65 and $625. Anyone with a liquor license would have their permit revoked.

Here's more from Hit'N'Run:

The bill defines "caffeinated alcoholic beverage" as "any beverage containing more than one-half of one percent of alcohol by volume, including alcoholic liquor, wine, and beer, to which caffeine is added." Hence it apparently applies not only to drinks with a noticeable caffeine kick but also to coffee-flavored liqueurs with detectable amounts of the stimulant, such as Kahlua or Tia Maria, and any cocktails made with them, such as a Black Russian or a Mudslide. In addition to jail time and fines, violators would face revocation (not just suspension) of their liquor licenses, and therefore loss of their livelihoods—a pretty harsh penalty for following the instructions in a Mr. Boston book.

Here's some non-violent (but uncivil) rhetoric on the issue from Popehat:

“Why can’t you mind your own damn business, you nasty, officious, grasping little nanny-state twit?
.... Available press reports do not make it clear whether Brian Schoenjahn (1) only wanted to ban caffeine-enhanced canned drinks marketed to younger people like Four Loko, but was too stupid to draft a bill tailored to that end without outlawing a vast swath of traditional alcoholic beverages and cocktails, or (2) genuinely believes that it’s the rightful place of state government to ban Irish Coffee and Kahlua because Iowans are too stupid to drink it responsibly."

Meanwhile, please remember that thoughtful and important people want you to know that libertarianism is a fringe belief and that legislators are just regular folks whose service ought to be respected.

Yeah.  Well.... If the purpose of government is to protect people like me from our bi-weekly Bourbon And Coke for our own good, I have another proposal for the Iowa Senate. 

Check out these pics of a random Iowa Senate committee. 

Which individual needs to be forcibly restrained from making any more trips to the "All You Can Eat Chomp'n'Chew Buffet" in Des Moines?

Brian Schoenjahn,  the nasty, officious, grasping little nanny-state twit, has more chins than a Chinese phone book.  He wants to deprive me of my bi-weekly Bourbon And Coke, should I ever go back to Iowa for another auction. 
Therefore, I propose that the citizens of Iowa adopt The Schoenjahn Neckline Reduction And Cardiac Arrest Prevention Bill of 2011.  The rough draft reads as follows: 

This bill prohibits the manufacturing for sale, or keeping for sale, importing, distributing, transporting, or possessing of any carbohydrates intended for the gaping Statist maw of Brian Schoenjahn. The bill defines a carbohydrate as any consumable likely to in crease Brian Schoenjahn's shirt size.  Appropriations will be made at a later date to hire regulators to follow Mr. Schoenjahn from Luby's to Captain D's to McDonald's, an activity which will surely save and create jobs for Iowans. 
  A violation of the bill’s provisions is subject to the penalty provisions of Code section 123.50. A violation constitutes a simple misdeameanor punishable by a fine of at least two Wendy's Gift Certificates but not more than four WhatABurger Gift Certificates. If found in violation of this statute, Mr. Schoenjahn will also endure 30 days hard labor at a Bally's or L.A. Fitness Center on a treadmill.  The bill additionally provides that a violation shall result in the immediate revocation and surrender of Mr. Schoenjahn's Senate seat and his Cheesecake Factory Club Card. The bill will take effect upon enactment.

It's for his own good.  He'll thank me one day. 

A hypothetical question about our Statist friends

Why do so many of our Statist friends fear large corporations (a large group of people looking out for the interest of the organization, rather than individuals), but have a deep and abiding love of Big Government (a large group of people looking out for the interest of the organzation, rather than individuals)? 

The Political Spectrum Quiz

There is a new political quiz floating around on Facebook.
Go here to take it.
I am shocked at my results. Shocked.

My Political Views
I am a far-right social libertarian
Right: 9.53, Libertarian: 9.18

Political Spectrum Quiz

The Statist Sincerity Detector

There are people of good will and good sense who disagree with the Libertarian desire for a smaller, less costly government. 
They see government spending as a net good, they see central control as a benefit, and elected authority as a comfort. 
I don't get it. 
I win some arguements with these folks, some arguments end prematurely, and some taper off into the weeds and thickets of guns and ObamaCare and that single mother with 5 kids who just can't make it on the minimum wage paid by greedy corporations. 
In my way of thinking, I'm the best judge of how my money should be spent.  And if I'm going to take someone else's money by force, it better be for a great cause.  I have lots of friends and meet lots of people who don't see it that way, though.   

Well, there is now an online "sincerity detector" that will be useful in these little spats.  Anyone with an iPhone, iPad, or a laptop can see if their Statist friends are truly committed to the cause.  (Most of the time, they're just posturing.) 

If someone claims that the government is the best judge of how to spend money, send them here. 
Step back. 
Ask them to put up or shut up.

Dear statists - do you take any tax deductions?

April 15th is approaching.  If you're reading this from outside the U.S., that's the day when Americans pay their income taxes. 
I ask these questions online about twice a year.
I challenge people on these any time politics comes up in a conversation.
 
As has been widely discussed elsewhere, 47% of us, with earned income tax credits and other deductions, wind up paying no income tax at all.  The top 25% of taxpayers pay 85% of the taxes. 

If you're a Statist/Democrat, and truly believe that government is the best distributor of assets and that government makes the best choices about how our money should be spent....

....do you ever claim ANY income tax deductions?  Do you feel guilty about not allowing Tim Tax-Dodger Geithner to make even more of your spending decisions for you? 

Do you ever add a couple of thousand dollars to your initial involuntary contribution every April 15th, ? 

Do you ever wonder how many Democrats hire tax attorneys? 

Please....start putting your money where your mouth is.  Add a significant amount of money to your income tax return.  Write a letter to the editor, saying you've done so, and why. 

Everyone you know will think you've lost your mind.