An explanation, an experiment, and a parable about Milton Friedman's Four Ways To Spend Money

Here's a chart showing Milton Friedman's famous Four Ways To Spend Money. 

Here's a 2004 interview with Friedman, in which he explains the famous Four Ways To Spend Money.  (All government spending is in that nasty bottom right quadrant, BTW.  Any project that is advertised in terms of number of "jobs created" is a waste.  I'm just sayin'....)

There are four ways to spend money. You can spend your own money on yourself. When you do that, why you really watch out for what you're doing, and you try to get the most for your money. Then you can spend your own money on somebody else. For example, I buy a birthday present for someone. Well then, I'm not so careful about the content of the present, but I'm very careful about the cost. Then, I can spend somebody else's money on myself. And if I spend somebody else's money on myself, then I'm going to have a good lunch! Finally, I can spend somebody else's money on somebody else. And if I spend somebody else's money on somebody else, I'm not concerned about how much it costs, and I'm not concerned about what I get. And that's government. And that's close to 40 percent of our national income.

Here's something from MSN Money, posted about a month ago.  It's an experiment that confirms Friedman's hypothesis about the top right and bottom left quadrants of the chart.  If you're helping someone else spend their money, or they're helping you spend yours, more money will be spent, often on silliness....

You and your friends are eating out and you plan to divide the tab evenly. Now you're faced with a dilemma. Do you splurge at the expense of your friend's pocketbook, or do you eat light, knowing you're going to end up paying for your friend's lavish meal? 

This seemingly innocuous event has caused enough consternation that a group of three scientists actually performed field experiments to see how unscrupulous people really are. 

According to io9.com, the experiment went a little like this: A group of strangers gather to eat at a restaurant. The participants are each told how they will pay for their meal. Some will pay individually, some are told they will split the check, and the remaining people are told that the meal will be free. 

The diners then ordered their meals without anyone else seeing what they had chosen.

The results of the dining experience are described by io9.com:

To no one's surprise, the people who paid individually were the most frugal, the people getting the free lunch were most extravagant, and the people who split the bill were in the middle, and therefore slightly unscrupulous.

Some diners were then told that they would have to pay just one-sixth of the cost of their individual meal. There was no difference between what those diners ate compared to those who were told they had to split the bill evenly, according to io9.com.

But what happens when you're in a large group of anonymous people?  Here's something from the immortal Russ Roberts, writing waaaaay back in 1995.  This essay, called "If you're paying, I'll have Top Sirloin", has already made it into the Libertarian Literary Canon.  The entire parable is scraped and reposted here, just to make my point....

As Congress prepares to try to cut spending, I am reminded of an evening last fall at the St. Louis Repertory Theater, our local company. Before the curtain rose, the company's director appeared and encouraged us to vote against a ballot proposition to limit state taxes. He feared it would lead to reduced funding for the company.

I turned to the woman sitting next to me and asked her if she felt guilty knowing that her ticket was subsidized by some farmer in the "boot-heel" of Missouri. No, she answered, he's probably getting something, too. She seemed to be implying that somehow, it all evened out.

I left her alone, but I wanted to say, no it doesn't even out. If it "evened out" for everybody, then government spending would really be depressing: all that money shuffled around, all those people working at the IRS, all those marginal tax rates discouraging work effort just to get everybody to get the same deal.

Here in St. Louis we recently completed Metrolink, a light rail system. It cost $380 million to build. We locals contributed zero out of pocket. It was paid for by the rest of the country. Shouldn't we feel guilty making people in Kentucky, Mississippi and Maine pay for our trips to the hockey arena downtown? No, say the beneficiaries. After all, we paid for BART in San Francisco and MARTA in Atlanta and all the other extraordinarily expensive, underutilized public transportation systems whose benefits fall far short of their costs. It's only fair we get our turn at the trough.

This destructive justification reminds me of a very strange restaurant.

When you eat there, you usually spend about $6—you have a sandwich, some fries and a drink. Of course you'd also enjoy dessert and a second drink, but that costs an additional $4. The extra food isn't worth $4 to you, so you stick with the $6 meal.

Sometimes, you go to the same restaurant with three friends. The four of you are in the habit of splitting the check evenly. You realize after a while that the $4 drink and dessert will end up costing you only $1, because the total tab is split four ways. Should you order the drink and dessert? If you're a nice person, you might want to spare your friends from having to subsidize your extravagance.

Then it dawns on you that they may be ordering extras financed out of your pocket. But they're your friends. They wouldn't do that to you and you wouldn't do that to them. And if anyone tries it among the group, social pressure will keep things under control.

But now suppose the tab is split not at each table but across the 100 diners that evening across all the tables. Now adding the $4 drink and dessert costs only 4¢. Splurging is easy to justify now. In fact you won't just add a drink and dessert; you'll upgrade to the steak and add a bottle of wine. Suppose you and everyone else each orders $40 worth of food. The tab for the entire restaurant will be $4000. Divided by the 100 diners, your bill comes to $40. Here is the irony. Like my neighbor at the theater, you'll get your "fair share." The stranger at the restaurant a few tables over pays for your meal, but you also help subsidize his. It all "evens out."

But this outcome is a disaster. When you dine alone, you spend $6. The extra $34 of steak and other treats are not worth it. But in competition with the others, you've chosen a meal far out of your price range whose enjoyment falls far short of its cost.

Self-restraint goes unrewarded. If you go back to ordering your $6 meal in hopes of saving money, your tab will be close to $40 anyway unless the other 99 diners cut back also. The good citizen feels like a chump.

And so we read of the freshman Congressman who comes to Congress eager to cut pork out of the budget but in trouble back home because local projects will also come under the knife. Instead of being proud to lead the way, he is forced to fight for those projects to make sure his district gets its "fair share."

Matters get much worse when there are gluttons and drunkards at the restaurant mixing with dieters and teetotalers. The average tab might be $40, but some are eating $80 worth of food while others are stuck with a salad and an iced tea.

Those with modest appetites would like to flee the smorgasbord, but suppose it's the only restaurant in town and you are forced to eat there every night. Resentment and anger come naturally. And being the only restaurant in town, you can imagine the quality of the service.

Such a restaurant can be a happy place if the light eaters enjoy watching the gluttony of those who eat and drink with gusto. Many government programs generate a comparable wide range of support. But many do not. How many Americans other than farmers benefit from the farm subsidy programs? How many Americans other than train riders derive benefit from the Amtrak subsidy?

People who are overeating at the expense of others should be ashamed. That shame will return when others are forced to cut back too. This requires deep cuts and an end to the government smorgasbord where the few benefit at the expense of the many.

There you have it.  The original Milton Friedman theory, a real-life experiment, and a Russ Roberts parable, all illustrating why government spending is generally a disaster. 
If you want someone to do a better job of pulling all this together, go elsewhere.  This is the best I can do. 
Here are some more charts, extravagantly posted on my site for your benefit, because I downloaded them from elsewhere at no expense to myself (ahem). 

The Progressive Art Of Single-Entry Bookkeeping

Dan Mitchell, at the International Liberty Blog, has written the best summary I've ever read of the failures of Keynesian economics. 

Go here. 

A slice....

To explain how this works, let’s briefly digress and explain Keynesian economics. This is the theory that you can jump-start a weak economy by having government borrow a lot of money and then “inject” this money into the economy. And that’s precisely what Obama did with the stimulus, mostly with more spending, but also with some tax cuts for favored constituencies. According to the theory, the money that is being spent by the government (and the recipients of tax cuts) will goose growth and create a ripple effect as producers hire people to deal with the increase in “aggregate demand.”

The Keynesians basically assume that there are no “opportunity costs” when government borrows money and spends it. That’s a bit of economic jargon, but it’s simply a way of saying that Keynesians think that money, for all intents and purposes, will sit idle and gather dust during an economic downturn in the absence of government.
 

This is a very nice theory…but only on a blackboard.
 

In reality, there is an “opportunity cost” when government borrows money and spends it. Resources are diverted from the productive sector of the economy. This might not be a problem if government spent money wisely, but stimulus schemes tend to reward interest groups with the most political clout. So instead of outlays for physical and human capital, which at least theoretically might improve the economy’s productive capacity, the White House directed the bulk of the stimulus to redistribution programs and handouts to state governments.

Yeah.  What he said.  Everything looks rosy as long as you restrict your analysis to what Kevin Williamson recently called "The Occult Art Of Single-Entry Bookkeeping". 

 

Why Guns Make You Safer

I'm shamelessly ripping this off from the Lew Rockwell website for future reference.   
Written by Michael Snyder.  It's a brilliant collection of links about gun control. 

18 Little-Know Facts That Prove Guns Make Us Safer

#1 Over the past 20 years, gun sales have absolutely exploded, but homicides with firearms are down 39 percent during that time and “other crimes with firearms” are down 69 percent.

#2 A study published in the Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policydiscovered that nations that have more guns tend to have less crime.

#3 The nine European nations with the lowest rate of gun ownership rate have a combined murder rate that is three times greater than the nine European nation with the highest rate of gun ownership.

#4 Almost every mass shooting that has occurred in the United States since 1950 has taken place in a state with strict gun control laws…

With just one exception, every public mass shooting in the USA since at least 1950 has taken place where citizens are banned from carrying guns. Despite strict gun regulations, Europe has had three of the worst six school shootings.

#5 The United States is #1 in the world in gun ownership, and yet it is only 28th in the world in gun murders per 100,000 people

#6 The violent crime rate in the United States actually fell from 757.7 per 100,000 in 1992 to 386.3 per 100,000 in 2011.  During that same time period, the murder rate fell from 9.3 per 100,000 to 4.7 per 100,000.

#7 Approximately 200,000 women in the United States use guns to protect themselves against sexual crime every single year.

#8 Overall, guns in the United States are used 80 times more often to prevent crime than they are to take lives.

#9 The number of unintentional fatalities due to firearms declined by 58 percent between 1991 and 2011.

#10 Despite the very strict ban on guns in the UK, the overall rate of violent crime in the UK is about 4 times higher than it is in the United States.  In one recent year, there were 2,034 violent crimes per 100,000 people in the UK.  In the United States, there were only 466 violent crimes per 100,000 people during that same year.  Do we really want to be more like the UK?

#11 The UK has approximately 125 percent more rape victims per 100,000 people each year than the United States does.

#12 The UK has approximately 133 percent more assault victims per 100,000 people each year than the United States does.

#13 The UK has the fourth highest burglary rate in the EU.

#14 The UK has the second highest overall crime rate in the EU.

#15 Down in Australia, gun murders increased by about 19 percent and armed robberies increased by about 69 percent after a gun ban was instituted.
 

#16 The city of Chicago has some of the strictest gun laws in the United States.  So has this reduced crime?  Of course not.  As I wrote about recently, the murder rate in Chicago was about 17 percent higher in 2012 than it was in 2011, and Chicago is now considered to be “the deadliest global city“.  If you can believe it, there were about as many murders in Chicago during 2012 as there was in the entire nation of Japan.

#17 After the city of Kennesaw, Georgia passed a law requiring every home to have a gun, the crime rate dropped by more than 50 percent over the course of the next 23 years and there was an 89% decline in burglaries.

#18 According to Gun Owners of America, the governments of the world slaughtered more than 170 million of their own people during the 20th century.  The vast majority of those people had been disarmed by their own governments prior to being slaughtered.

Good stuff. Go here to read Snyder's intro and conclusion. 

Who makes more from a gallon of gas - Exxon or Barack??

This guy is awesome, and needs to be the next chairman of the Fed. 
Watch it on Youtube to see the rest of his stuff. 

"Violence is No Way For Civilized People to Get Their Revenue"

From Mark Hinkle, Libertarian Party National Chair:

“While everyone needs revenue, only criminals and politicians insist that they have to get it through violence. The criminals, however, do not pretend they're doing it in order to serve the public, and taxes make politicians public masters rather than public servants.

“Certainly, the present size of government at all levels depends on taxation – not only the explicit kind, but the invisible kind that the Federal Reserve System imposes through inflation of the money supply. People probably wouldn't voluntarily pay to bomb, invade, and occupy other countries, bail out large banks and other corporations, and try to dictate the personal choices of others. Good riddance! Government-monopolized services such as education and health care could be provided for less than half the cost if they could be returned to the voluntary sector of society with cost-raising regulations abolished and incentives restored. Both mutual aid groups and charitable donations filled gaps prior to the rise of the Welfare State for those in need with an efficiency that is impossible when those in charge of aid get more money and power for themselves the worse the job they perform. We’ll have to take some personal responsibility for our own lives and stop using the excuse Ebenezer Scrooge made that his taxes supported institutions for the poor so he could ignore them.

“It is obscene for those claiming to protect life, liberty, and property to obtain their revenue by violating life, liberty, and property. There are plenty of ways to obtain revenue without force: insurance, user fees, advertising, lotteries, and donations are already used by many local and state governments for a good portion of their revenue. Let them be true public servants and live within the means that these sources provide. People might even pay more voluntarily once they're no longer forced to turn over 1/3 to 1/2 of their wealth to governments.

“Ultimately, it is about the type of society we want to have. We can accomplish a lot voluntarily when we mutually respect each other's lives and property. It begins by respecting the right of people to keep the fruits of their labor. A good start would be the abolition of the personal income tax, which only adds insult to the injury of theft by invading every part of the taxpayer's privacy as well as making the second week of April a misery instead of a time to enjoy the early spring.”

P.S. If you have not already done so, please join the Libertarian Party. We are the only political party with a mission to give voters a choice to downsize Big Government, to do so in the most humane way possible, to greatly reduce taxes, and to slash high government spending. You can also renew your membership. Or, you can simply make a contribution.

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. 

Reinventing the already invented

Go here to learn about The Department Of Energy's exciting contest for app developers!!!  The D of E wants  you to start developing a phone app to monitor energy usage !!!! !! ! !!!!

YOU COULD WIN....ONE HUNDRED THOUSAND DOLLARS ! 

Go here to see Facebook's and OPower's already existing app that already accomplishes the same goal, and that was developed without taxpayer money.  Unfortunately, it does nothing to keep D of E lifers busy. 

The government uses force and the threat of violence to take money away from you to pay for this redundant crap.  (Unless you are part of the .0001% who voluntarily contribute more than the enforcers demand.)  Unbelievable. 

Coming soon:  A Department of Transportation contest to develop solid circular objects that can be fitted onto axles to expedite movement.  They want to call it "The Wheel". 

Pic of wheel came from here. 
A fresh coat of Whitening to Paul Conner for the links. 

Stop Adjusting For Inflation

Statists and their apologists often claim that government spending isn't out of control if you adjust for inflation. 

Bullshit. 

Inflation is nothing more than government spending without legislation. 

Every penny lost from these 1947 dollars was lost because of government-sponsored inflation.  They printed more and more money.  Flood the market with dollars, and dollars will purchase less and less. 
In an honest accounting system, any record of government spending would include the amount stolen from these dollars. 

Go here to see the source for the chart.  Interesting post. 

Fort Worth might get a Flood Control Drive-In Theatre !!!

I've long thought that the purpose of government projects is to transfer money to donors. 
The project needs to have some feasibility, but not much else.  Just get the taxpayer money into the hands of your friends without causing too much of a fuss. 

It's getting ridiculous. 

Arlington built George W. Bush a stadium to his exact specifications.  He moved his baseball team in, and then sold the team for far more than he paid for it.  (86 million purchase price, 250 selling price.)  The difference?  His almost-free stadium.  (Taxpayer subsidy of 205 million.)

  Well done, thou good and faithful servants. 

Arlington built Jerry Jones a stadium to his exact specifications, and then leased it to him.  I don't remember Jerry saying "Thank You", or mailing me some tickets to games.  Oh well. 

Iron Horse Motorcycles of Fort Worth went bankrupt several years ago.  The city is stuck with their manufacturing facility for reasons that I don't quite understand. 

I think "we" agreed to give them a building if they would bring X number of jobs to Fort Worth.  If you need a free building, forcibly funded by taxpayers, you might not have a good business model.  I looked at leasing the Iron Horse factory for my employer last year, but the dock locations in the building were all wrong for us.  Getting new docks added would require the permission of several layers of city government, so we declined the opportunity.  Whether you know it or not, you own an abandoned motorcycle factory. 

Does anyone out there remember the Fort Worth Rail Market?  It was supposed to be a downtown Farmers' Market, luring downtown shoppers into the rail area to pick up tomatoes and onions before they went back home to Mira Vista. 

Part of it was supposed to get funded through transportation money.  (Yes, Kay Granger was involved.  I think that Railroad Produce Stands were a primitive ancestor of Flood Control BarBQ restaurants.)  The thing is now closed.  Shut down.  Abandoned.  It never made a dime.  Go here for an analysis of the boondoggle. 

How about The Mercado de Fort Worth? 

This was a Northside con job that was supposed to be the crown jewel of Cowtown. 

When the Mercado itself last made news, it had just landed its first tenant after more than five years of sitting empty and neglected.

What was supposed to be the pillar of a $6.5 million Northside redevelopment – an authentic Mexican marketplace – had failed to ignite the expected growth along North Main Street.

....It seemed like a good idea at the time: Bring economic development to Fort Worth’s near Northside by developing an area of shops, restaurants and stalls – a Mercado, reflecting the heritage of the mostly Hispanic residents of the neighborhood – and, in the process tie the touristy Stockyards District to downtown.

It started with a sidewalk, an expensive three-block-long sidewalk, in the alley between the mostly dilapidated buildings in the 1400 block of North Main Street and the houses that backed up to them. The plan was for local merchants to set up stalls to sell their goods to tourists who would make their way from the Stockyards area, several city blocks away. The city spent about $1.5 million to pave the alley and renovate the Rose Marine Theater.

Then came the Mercado de Fort Worth building, the brainstorm of local developer Deyla Guadiana. It was supposed to be a 58,000-square-foot, Mexican-style marketplace three stories high that would be the focal point of the Mercado area. Guadiana got a $3.1 million loan from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and construction began in 2003.

The city tried to spur interest in both the walkway and the Mercado building by offering low-interest loans and a building site to anyone willing to take a risk. They didn’t find many takers.

Guadiana defaulted on the loan after failing to come up with the private financing to cover the remainder of the construction costs and the city took back the property, taking over the note and spending $1.3 million from a special economic development fund to finish the building.

Finding a buyer took years. 

 And I hope the cashier remembered to give him his change back after the purchase.  The Mercado isn't quite as empty as the Garden Tomb in Jerusalem, but it's close. 

If I steal money from your wallet, and use it to buy jewelry and cocaine and cars from my friends, it's going to cause a temporary increase in prosperity for the jewelers, coke, and car dealers.  But it will never last.  It always seems to require an additional theft, doesn't it? 

I could go on and on, but here's the latest....from the Star-Telegram, which reported this with no irony or sarcasm, which might explain why newsstand sales are declining:

FORT WORTH -- The Tarrant Regional Water District next week will consider entering into a lease with Dallas-based Coyote Theaters for a drive-in theater on vacant land near LaGrave Field.
The drive-in would be there for about 10 years, potentially drawing 300,000 patrons a year to Trinity Uptown. It would also net the water district about $1.7 million in rent, according to information filed with the district.

And wild monkeys will fly out my rear end and put on an amateur production of "A Chorus Line".  I'd bet that every Texas drive-in combined doesn't draw 300,000 patrons a year.  For those of you new to the Trinity River development controversy, Congresswoman Kay Granger and her son J.D. are trying to pump a bunch of money into a flood control scam that involves million-dollar BarBQ restaurant giveaways and now, drive-in theatres.   

The drive-in would be called Coyote Theater in Trinity Uptown and would be on part of the 34 acres that the water district bought in 2010 from LaGrave Field owner Carl Bell. The site is near North Calhoun and Northeast Fifth streets, north of downtown Fort Worth.
"Drive-ins are making a comeback with a 20 percent increase in the number of venues since 2007," a district memo says. "The nostalgic outdoor theater is being reintroduced by Coyote as a high-quality, state-of-the-art, family-friendly entertainment option."

Drive-ins couldn't compete with indoor air-conditioned theatres.  Theatres in small towns couldn't compete with television, and almost all of them closed.  Theatres in cities are having a hard time competing with DVD's.  But J.D. Granger is going to reverse the trend, because this drive-in will be for.....flood control. 

The theater would have three or four screens, show first-run films and offer food, the memo says. The movies would be in English and Spanish.
J.D. Granger, Trinity River development director for the water district, could not be reached for comment Friday. The district is scheduled to consider the proposal Tuesday.

I cannot wait to post J.D. Granger's comments, if he ever has the nerve to make any.  I cannot wait.  I have no doubt that this project will be approved, and that it will quickly go broke as the Ten Commandments.  All I ask is an opportunity to post The Granger Gang's comments on building a new drive-in with your money, in the year of our Lord 2012.  Please, please, please Dear God, let me have his comments. 

Drive-ins.com lists 17 drive-in theaters in Texas, including one in Ennis and one in Granbury.
Not much is known about Coyote Theaters, but the Fort Worth site will apparently be its first location. The company does not have a listed phone number.
Coyote Theaters filed incorporation papers with the Texas secretary of state's office Aug. 2 and lists its management as Todd Minnis, Brady Wood, Scott Wilson and Glenn Solomon.

I couldn't find anything on them either.  That is the nature of the coyote.  Go in, feast on the rotting carcass, and get out in a hurry.  We'll see if the name fits, won't we? 

Wood, who was involved in some West Seventh Street corridor projects with the development group Incap Fund, was the only person to attend a tour and pre-proposal conference last month at the project site. Minnis is head of Arrow Retail, a sister company of Dallas-based Cypress Equities, which developed the West 7th office, retail and residential project.
Last month, the water district requested proposals from developers who would want to use the land temporarily. The theater proposal was one of two submitted. The district said it would like to see a project under way by May.
The $909 million Trinity Uptown project will feature a town lake and 12 miles of waterfront development.

See you at the drive-in !   You might as well go, since you're going to pay for it. 

I couldn't find a picture of a Flood Control Drive-In, so I had to make do with a picture of a flooded drive-in.  My apologies.  The picture came from here.  The other pics came from this website, or the official websites most associated with the ripoffs. 

Everything was clean and green....

...except for their balance sheets. 

Go here to see a list of ELEVEN more Solyndra-like companies to whom Barack Obama gave your money.   

If all of them go under, and it's looking like they will, Obama will have blown 6.5 billion dollars of your money, money that he took from you by force. 

Barack Obama is my broker

From ABC News:

The Obama administration has defended its decision to allow Fisker Automotive to assemble its high concept electric sports sedan, the Karma, in Finland, even though U.S. taxpayers had made a major investment in the car's development -- saying none of the American money was spent on the car's overseas assembly.

That is not the scandal.  What they did with the money doesn't matter.  What matters is that they took the money from you and gave it to their friends.  No matter how many green smiley faces they slap on the sides of those cars, it was a theft.  The cars could've been built in your back yard, and it would still be a theft. 
Plus, the green companies give this money back to The Teleprompter Jesus in the form of campaign donations.  Everything else surrounding the theft is wholesome, green camouflage.
He took your money and spent it on things and people that he liked.  They'll give some of it back to him. 

But Republican critics this weekend challenged the administration's explanation, saying federal loans should have only supported applicants who would be building their cars on American soil.

No, no, no, dammit, no.  If the car manufacturer has a good plan, he can attract private capital from people who are prepared to take the risk and take the losses.  The "stimulus" system is just a wealth transfer.  Nothing more.  I would've been just as happy if Fisker had outsourced the work to elves at the North Pole. 

"The Department of Energy and Fisker executives are splitting hairs about where the money went," said Rep. Tim Murphy, a Pennsylvania Republican who sits on the House committee that has been investigating the Obama Administration's "green energy" loan program. "Ultimately, American taxpayer dollars went to a Finnish automaker to build high-end luxury automobiles for Hollywood."

That doesn't matter.  The location or eventual use of the stolen money doesn't matter.  The theft is what matters.  This is what happens when you allow a Community Organizer/Law Professor to act as your stockbroker. 

The criticism came on the heels of online reports published Thursday by ABCNews.com in partnership with the Center for Public Integrity's iWatch News, and a Friday report on ABC News' "Good Morning America" about Fisker Automotive, the recipient of a "green energy" loan in 2010. The reports quoted auto industry experts who said Fisker's loan invited comparisons to the ill-fated Energy Department loan to Solyndra, because delays and obstacles have hampered progress on the luxury electric car, called the Karma. Solyndra, a solar panel manufacturer that received $535 million in taxpayer support, declared bankruptcy earlier this year. That federal loan is now the subject of investigations by the Justice Department and by inspectors general from the Energy and Treasury departments.

Speaking of Solyndra....
I go to lots and lots of auctions, and this one will be great. 
They're going to auction off the "Solyndra - Made In America" banner that was used as a backdrop for the Teleprompter Jesus when he announced that he was investing half a billion dollars of your money in that company.  Hit the link. 

I must own it. 
I want it soooo bad. 
I've picked out the spot in the warehouse where it's going to hang. 

You MIGHT Be A Fleabagger....

I've been kinda busy and haven't had time to comment on the Occupy Wall Street groups, and that has been frustrating.  As far as rationality goes, these characters make the occasionally confused "Keep Government Out Of My Medicare" Tea Partyers look like Mr. Spock.


Yeah, there's some bad stuff going on, and Washington is stealing from the middle to protect the top.  So why aren't they protesting in front of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue in D.C.?
 
Good Lord in heaven, what a crew.  Anarchists for Big Government.  Privileged Ivy Leaguers rioting for free tuition, supplied by working plumbers, retailers and electricians. An uprising against theft, but with nary a word spoken about the thieves in Washington who do the stealing.  And they have to pay Mexicans to show up to protest !!!   This is not the diversity we were promised !!!!

I mean, these children do know who Wall Street supported in the last presidential election, right?


And they do know who has given Wall Street its money's worth in bailouts and handouts, right?

Incredible.


For those who are interested, here's a sampling from the rolling Twitter Feed at #YouMightBeAFleabagger.  Constantly updated, of course, so hit this link.   

If you think everybody should have a job, as long as nobody gets rich enough to hire anyone, #YouMightBeAFleabagger

If you think the only reason you aren't receiving a government handout is because of those "Zionist bankers". #YouMightBeAFleabagger

If you hid your North Face jacket in the back of your Prius & bought a ragged Hoodie at Goodwill to protest in #YouMightBeAFleabagger

If you think sleeping in a park really changes the world #YouMightBeAFleabagger

#YouMightBeAFleabagger if you protest for "justice" at the same time you demand other people's money.

If you think that only 1% of the population should carry the other 99% #YouMightBeAFleabagger

If you think government corruptly hands taxpayer money to preferred corporations, and the answer is more government, #YouMightBeAFleabagger

If you think the 90% unemployment rate amongst post-modern, bi-sexual haiku majors was caused by Goldman Sachs #YouMightBeAFleabagger

If you think the immigrant guy who owns the convenience store should pay for your interpretive dance studies, #YouMightBeAFleabagger

#YouMightBeAFleabagger if U blame Jooooooooooos instead of Dodd/Frank Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

If you're paying $50k/year for a college degree that will qualify you for a $20k/year job, #YouMightBeAFleabagger

If your idea of a "good time" is spitting on women Coast Guard officers... #YouMightBeAFleabagger #fb http://nation.foxnews.com/occupy-boston/2011/10/14/occupy-boston-protesters-spit-coast-guard

* If you enjoy the smell of destitution in the morning and want the rest of the world to embrace it as well... #YouMightBeAFleabagger *

#YouMightBeAFleabagger if your Messiah Obama raised the most money evah from Wall Street donors.

If you think Obama is part of the problem...but you're probably going to vote for him anyway #YouMightBeAFleabagger

If your Mom urges you go out and protest so she can have a chance to clean the basement #YouMightBeAFleabagger

#YouMightBeAFleabagger if you say you are for the environment and then trash and defecate in parks.
38 minutes ago »

If you use the iPhone 4 your parents gave you to send anti-corporate tweets from the park you've turned into a dump, #YouMightBeAFleabagger

If you think you're cleaning up Wall Street by taking a dump in the middle of it, #YouMightBeAFleabagger

If you hate Nestle Corp but plead for hot chocolate on #needsoftheoccupiers, #YouMightBeAFleabagger

If you hate cops but love IRS agents, #YouMightBeAFleabagger

And in closing, if you can watch this tragedy without laughing, you have a heart of stone.

Detroit Lions 34, Dallas Cowboys 30

I played left guard for one year at North Sunflower Academy.  I was in the 9th grade.  That's enough to qualify me to comment on this issue. 

Lord have mercy, what an ugly game.  The Dallas Cowboys got spanked, and I mean spanked by the newly revived Detroit Tigers, 34-30.  Another Dallas Cowboys FAIL. 

Can you believe that Buffalo is actually looking forward to playing us? 

What needs to happen?  Well, let's look at some history. 

The Cowboys franchise got its start in 1960.  Tom Landry was head coach.

When Landry was fired by Jerry Jones, he had a career record of 270-178-6.  However, Landry (before the start of the 1989 season) had not won a playoff game since 1983.  That's five years.  It was probably time for a change. 

When Jerry Jones purchased the team, he made himself General Manager.  He has supposedly been in charge of all personnel decisions since 1989. 

Jerry put the great Jimmy Johnson in as head coach.  Johnson had been coaching at the University Of Miami, and was familiar with many of the players soon to be drafted by the NFL.  We'll never know who made the decisions that led to the Cowboys era of greatness in the 1990's, but my money is on Jimmy. 

Jimmy Johnson coached his Cowboys to Super Bowl victories in 1992 and 1993.   But he couldn't get along with Jerry and left after the 1993 season.  

The details remain shrouded in a late-night haze, but it seems the trouble started when Jones toasted the Cowboys and was offended when Johnson reciprocated but did not invite Jones to join his table. A few hours later, Johnson alleges, Jones told a group of reporters in a bar that he planned to fire Johnson and replace him with Barry Switzer, an old foe of Johnson's from his college coaching days.

Then General Manager Jerry Jones....

....appointed Barry Switzer as Cowboys head coach. 

Using Jimmy's players, Switzer was able to win a playoff game in 1994, and he won the Super Bowl in 1995. 

The Cowboys won a single playoff game in 1996 (a year soon to be known as "the good old days), but went a disappointing 6-10 in 1997. 

General Manager Jerry Jones.....

....knew he had to do something after his head coach didn't win a playoff game in 1997.  He fired Switzer, and replaced him with Chan Gailey. 

Gailey went 10-6 in 1998, and then 8-8 in 1999.  He didn't win any playoff games. 

So then, Jerry Jones, who was supposedly still making all of the personnel decisions....

 ...fired Chan Gailey and replaced him with Dave Campo. 

Campo was head coach in 2000, 2001, and 2002, and had a won/loss record (respectively) of 5-11, 5-11, and finally, 5-11.  No playoff wins. 

So General Manager Jerry Jones, who was still in charge of ALL personnel decisions....

....fired Campo and replaced him with Bill Parcells. 

Despite winning a couple of Super Bowls with the Giants, and an AFC Championship season with The Patsies, Parcells was unable to do anything with Jerry's Kids in Dallas.  There were lots of discussions about "They want you to cook the dinner, at least they ought to let you shop for some of the groceries."  Some former Parcells players got signed, and Parcells had some small authority over the team. 

From 2003 through 2006, the Dallas Cowboys went 10-6, 6-10, 9-7, and 9-7.  They didn't win any playoff games. 

(It was at the beginning of the Parcells era that I discovered that God hates Jerry Jones, and I started making a small fortune betting against Dallas.  That has nothing to do with the matter at hand.  I wasn't worth a crap at left guard at North Sunflower Academy, but I can tell who God doesn't like.)

Parcells retired. 

Then Cowboys General Manager Jerry Jones, who hadn't won a playoff game since 1996....

...thought that he could improve the situation by bringing in Wade Phillips. 

Maybe Jerry Jones had discovered the source of his problems.  Maybe this coach would be the one who could properly use Jerry's draft choices. 

The first year, 2007, it almost worked.  The Boys went 13-3, but didn't win a playoff game. 

The next year, they went 9-7, but didn't make the playoffs. 

In 2009/2010, perhaps to illustrate the old proverb that "even a blind hog can sometimes find an acorn", Jerry's draftees went 11-5, and beat the Philadelphia Eagles in a playoff game.  The curse was lifted. 

The next week Minnesota beat the tar out of them 34-3. 

This year, the mighty Dallas Cowboys have started the season with two wins and two losses.  They just finished losing to Detroit.  Yes, Detroit.  The freakin' Lions.   

Jerry Jones and the city of Arlington have taken people's homes by force, bulldozed them, and built the greatest sports facility on this planet on the site of their theft.  All to host this mess.  That was like tearing down the Taj Mahal to put up a movie theatre that only shows "Sex And The City". 

That's the history of the Dallas Cowboys coaches and their playoff wins.  If current trends continue through this year's playoffs, Jerry's Kids will have won a single playoff game in FIFTEEN years. 

Let's hope that Cowboys owner Jerry Jones, who is a brilliant businessman, can figure out the root cause of his problems.

How could something like this happen?  Against The Detroit Unholy Lions??  I mean, what are the freakin' odds?  What could cause Tony Romo to throw 3 picks against DETROIT???? 

It's very simple, folks.

God hates Jerry Jones. The Lord God Jehovah hates Jerry Jones with the white hot passion of a thousand dying suns. And Jerry must atone. Now. Unless he wants to spend another decade with fewer playoff wins than any current NFL General Manager over a ten year period.

Here's the Old Testament prophet Ezekiel, speaking out on the subject of Jerry, The Cowboys, and Arlington:

Ezekiel 22:29 The people of the land have used oppression, and exercised robbery, and have vexed the poor and needy: yea, they have oppressed the stranger wrongfully.

Ezekiel 22:31 Therefore have I poured out mine indignation upon them; I have consumed them with the fire of my wrath: their own way have I recompensed upon their heads, saith the Lord GOD.


I don't think there are any Eagles, Redskins, Giants, or Packers fans who could've said it any better.

So what do we do?

Here is a purification ritual that Jerry could undergo. This comes from the Holman Bible Dictionary.

A cleansing agent (to atone for sin) was required: water, blood, or fire (Numbers 31:23). Water, the most common purifying agent, symbolized cleansing and was used in the rituals related to a waiting period. The person was to wash the clothes and bathe the body (Leviticus 15:7). Blood was used to cleanse the altar and the holy place (Leviticus 16:14-19). It was mixed with other ingredients for cleansing from leprosy (Leviticus 14:1) and contact with the dead (Numbers 19:1).

The final element of the ritual of purification is sacrifice. Purification from discharges required two pigeons or turtledoves, one for a sin offering and one for a burnt offering (Leviticus 15:14-15,Leviticus 15:29-30). A lamb and pigeon or turtledove were offered after childbirth (Leviticus 12:6). Sacrifice in the purification ritual for lepers was quite complicated, indicating the seriousness of leprosy as a cause of impurity (Leviticus 14:1). The priest also touched the person's extremities with blood from the offering and with oil, cleansing and life-renewing agents. The poor were allowed to substitute less valuable animals for use in their sacrifices.


To cut to the chase: If we're ever going to have a succesful NFL franchise in Tarrant County, Jerry Jones must strip down to his skivvies, wash one of his suits on the 50-yard line of his gaudy Temple Of Baal, mop the field with the blood of Jason Garrett, and perform a ritual sacrifice by slaughtering some of his worst draft picks in the City Of Arlington's luxury suite.

That should do it.

But what about all the little people, Jerry's victims, the refugees who were dispossesed by Eminent Domain ?

Once again, let's see what the Holy Scriptures have to say:

Leviticus 6: 1-7 : "The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, “If anyone sins and commits a breach of faith against the Lord by deceiving his neighbor in a matter of deposit or security, or through robbery, or if he has oppressed his neighbor or has found something lost and lied about it, swearing falsely—in any of all the things that people do and sin thereby— if he has sinned and has realized his guilt and will restore what he took by robbery or what he got by oppression or the deposit that was committed to him or the lost thing that he found or anything about which he has sworn falsely, he shall restore it in full and shall add a fifth to it, and give it to him to whom it belongs on the day he realizes his guilt... "

It's fairly simple, isn't it? Jerry and Arlington must determine the current value of the stadium, the parking lot, the team, along with the value of having God on their side. They must give that amount of money, plus 1/5th, to the people they stole the land from.

Until that happens, we will labor under an Old Testament curse.

YOU HAVE VIOLATED THE DECREEES OF GOD, JERRY JONES, AND.... YOU.... WILL..... ATONE !!!!!

The Little Pink House, Kelo v. New London, stealing stuff, and government incompetence

In 2005, the Supreme Court handed down its decision in Kelo v. New London, using the powers of eminent domain to seize property from one private owner and hand it over to another private owner -- a developer who promised more than 3,000 new jobs and $1.2 million in tax revenue.

In other words, someone's campaign contributor wanted some land, but didn't want to sell at the price the contributor wanted to pay.  Favors were called in.  Strings were pulled.  Stuff was stolen.  Nothing more to it than that. 

This is from the Gideon's Trumpet blog:

As regular readers of this blog know, the redevelopment project that gave rise to the wretched U.S. Supreme Court decision in Kelo v. New London, never came about. In spite of the city’s boasting about the quality of its plans, nothing was ever built on the Fort Trumbull site from which the city displaced an entire unoffending, well maintained lower middle-class neighborhood. Though the formal taking took place in 2000 and the U.S. Supreme Court gave its approval to it in 2005, the city’s project has been a failure, with 91 acres of waterfront property sitting there empty and overgrown by weeds.

Now, we learn from the local newspaper, The Day, that following the hurricane Irene, the city has designated the Fort Trumbull redevelopment site as a place to dump vegetation debris. For a video of locals dumping that stuff on the site, click here.

Connecticut taxpayers have thus been soaked tens of millions of dollars, not just for nothing, but for making things worse — for transforming a nice local neighborhood into a dump.

Here's a video of citizens hauling their post-storm crap to what was once a nice little neighborhood:

The best book on the Kelo vs. New London case is Little Pink House. 

Here's a summary, from Amazon.com:

Suzette Kelo was just trying to rebuild her life when she purchased a broken-down Victorian house perched on the waterfront in New London, CT. The house wasn't particularly fancy, but with lots of hard work Suzette was able to turn it into a home that was important to her, a home that represented her new found independence.

Little did she know that the City of New London, desperate to revive its flailing economy, wanted to raze her house and the others like it that sat along the waterfront in order to win a lucrative Pfizer pharmaceutical contract that would bring new business into the city. Kelo and fourteen neighbors flat out refused to sell, so the city decided to exercise its power of eminent domain to condemn their homes, launching one of the most extraordinary legal cases of our time, a case that ultimately reached the United States Supreme Court.

In Little Pink House, award-winning investigative journalist Jeff Benedict takes us behind the scenes of this case -- indeed, Suzette Kelo speaks for the first time about all the details of this inspirational true story as one woman led the charge to take on corporate America to save her home.

I'll never understand what makes voters believe that their city councils, governors, state reps, congressmen, or presidents have a clue about economic development.  Why?  Because they don't have a clue. 

And even if they did, it wouldn't justify theft.  Here's some John Mellencamp, on the joy of owning a Little Pink House, and not having to worry about Fascists stealing it. 

This means you, Jerry Jones. 

Charlotte Gore commits Heresy, ThoughtCrime, HateSpeech, and also points out the obvious....

From Charlotte Gore, via David Thompson:

....But consider: Say I steal £1 off 100 people and give you the £100. Should I do it a second time? Apparently refusing to do it a second time is a greater crime, because I’m denying you £100 that you’re now expecting. The poor suckers who are losing the £1? It’s only £1 isn’t it? Hardly worth getting in a flap over.

If they knew how much you really really needed that money, they’d be happy to cough up, right?

See, whilst many (most of them apparently on Twitter) are psychologically able to ignore, or excuse, or basically discount altogether the taking money from people bit of public spending, there are some of us that just can’t.

One day it occurs to ask the question, “What exactly gives them the right to help themselves to whatever they want?” and the answer turns out to be because they can. Then you get a bit angry and frustrated, feel almost entirely helpless then, just to make things that little bit worse, everyone else in the world comes and slaps you in the face for even daring to consider such heretical notions.

The taking from me bit doesn’t count. I don’t matter. It’s the no longer giving bit that counts. Think about how people feel! Think about all the things they could do with that money, or that job, or learn from those people or achieve with the support of those others! Don’t you understand? Have you no feelings?

Apparently not. I just keep thinking, “But it’s not your money. How can you live with yourselves taking it?”

Go to Charlotte Gore's site to read the whole thing. 

Tennessee Titans 34, Dallas Cowboys 27, and The Tower Of Babel

Please gather around, boys and girls.  Our children's sermon today is the sad story of The Dallas Cowboys, The Tennessee Titans, and the recently constructed Tower Of Babel.  Did you know that the Tennessee Titans just beat the Dallas Cowboys 34-27 ???  
Children, have you heard of the Tower Of Babel?  The Tower Of Babel is in Arlington, Texas.  I'll show you pictures of it in a few minutes.
This story is in a book that we call "The Bible", and this little story is from the Bible's book Of Genesis, Chapter 11.

1 Now the whole world had one language and a common speech.

2 As men moved eastward, they found a plain in Shinar and settled there.

3 They said to each other, "Come, let's make bricks and bake them thoroughly." They used brick instead of stone, and tar for mortar.

4. Then they said, "Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves....

and not be scattered over the face of the whole earth."

5 But the LORD came down to see the city and the tower that the men were building.

6 The LORD said, "If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them.

7 Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other."

8 So the LORD scattered them from there over all the earth, and they stopped building the city, (and they also stopped any plans for being in a hometown Super Bowl).

9 That is why it was called Babel —because there the LORD confused the language of the whole world. From there the LORD scattered them over the face of the whole earth.

And that, boys and girls, is what happens if you steal peoples' homes to build a sports arena.  God gets angry, and your team loses.  

Pics for this epic came from here and here and here and here and here and here and here.