How To Create Little Libertarians

A friend of the Tarrant County Libertarian party has invited us to participate in Fall Festival of some sort. We can set up a booth and hand out literature on October 19th, from 10:00 a.m. til 2:00 p.m. for just a $20.00 fee.

There's one other catch....each booth must have a "kid-friendly" activity, like a beanbag toss, duck pond, coloring, face paints, or something similar.

I proposed the following at our recent Exec Committee meeting, and most of the group liked it. I think it will create some future Libertarians. It needs some finesse, though.... Here goes: We make two spinning wheels.

Each kid gets a spin on each. On the first wheel, make it statistically likely that the kid lands on a space where he wins 2 pieces of bite-sized candy. (Either 3,2, or 1 pieces for everyone.) If they land on "Start A Business" they get three pieces of candy. Land on "Create Jobs and Get Rich" they get two pieces of candy. Land on "Work Hard" and get one piece of candy.

But that's not all

... Then the kid has to take a spin on the 2nd wheel. While there is a slight chance that the kid doubles his haul by landing on "Make Friends With A Congressman" or "Start Building Drones" there's an even more likely chance that the kid'll have to give up some candy if he lands on a space reading "war - lose two pieces", or "green energy company - lose one piece", or "pay taxes - lose 1 piece", or "government healthcare - lose your life" (just joking there) or something similar.

Any kid who gets wiped out by this little economy could possibly receive a "bankrupt" spin card or something until he gets at least one piece of candy. And it should be fairly difficult to get that one piece of candy.

Then we give him a bright little piece of paper that says "The Libertarian Party believes that you should share your money and your candy, but it should be your choice, and your parents' choice."

Ideas like this are why I'm probably going to hell. Your thoughts on this?

 

Academics vs Entrepreneurs

Whenever there's an economic meltdown, a drop in employment, or a cosmic shift in trade, I get irked when the news media brings in some random academic to comment on the situation, instead of calling in a business owner or entrepreneur.

Academics, teachers, instructors and schoolma'arms are vital. Ignorance is bad. Knowledge is good. But for reasons I don't understand, someone with a doctorate in, say, Business Administration or Marketing gets more media respect than someone with real-world experience in Business Administration or Marketing.

Here's the difference in the two fields as I understand it.

Academics try to learn all that they can in a given field of study. The course is laid out for them. The path is well-marked. If they can jump a given set of hurdles, they'll receive a piece of paper stating that they successfully jumped the hurdles.

While there are risks involved in academic life, they are minimal. The goal is to reach a state where risk is avoided altogether, a condition known as tenure. All teaching considerations are secondary to getting tenure. Achieve that, and no students, colleagues, or administrators have to be satisfied with your performance, or what you produce. You have one of the most secure situations on the planet.

Entrepreneurs only have a vague idea what hurdles they'll have to jump, and where those hurdles are located. They don't know how much government interference they'll run into, or how much resistance they'll get from competitors. They don't know if their product will sell. No one told them that there would be a guaranteed market for "Product X". The customer generally doesn't know that they want "Product X" until the entrepreneur provides it. The entrepreneur doesn't have to please a committee, a grader, or an evaluator, but has to please millions of customers. (Note: Crony Capitalists are not entrepreneurs. Someone who starts a business because his congressman mandated that all consumers must use "Product X" is just another parasite. The green energy scams are a good example.)

If the entrepreneur is successful, he can't make a career out of providing "Product X" for the rest of his life. Copycats will be there. They'll come up with improvements. Variations. Replacements. Each success is statistically unlikely, but the entrepreneur has to pick up the dice and tries to roll a winner every day. Instead of security or tenure, the entrepreneur lives for risk, and you live a better life because of it.

One other thing.... the vast majority of academics are subsidized by government. Successful entrepreneurs are punished with higher and higher taxes, and have to listen to sermons from leeches about "giving something back". Here's my favorite Robert Heinlein quote:

“Throughout history, poverty is the normal condition of man. Advances which permit this norm to be exceeded — here and there, now and then — are the work of an extremely small minority, frequently despised, often condemned, and almost always opposed by all right-thinking people. Whenever this tiny minority is kept from creating, or (as sometimes happens) is driven out of a society, the people then slip back into abject poverty. “This is known as ‘bad luck.’”

Detroit's academics are doing just fine, thank you. But entrepreneurs are scarce.

Hong Kong vs Detroit

Here's a Canadian writer lamenting the high sales tax in The Frozen Tundra, as compared to that of Hong Kong.  (50 years ago, Hong Kong was a 3rd world slum, but was later set up to have the smallest government possible.) 

“I did a little calculation yesterday,” says Stuart Iliffe, a Canadian working in Hong Kong as chief financial officer of publishing house PPP Co. Ltd.


“If I earned $100,000 [all figures Canadian unless noted] in Canada, after tax I would keep $54,000. If I earned $100,000 in Hong Kong, and made use of the married man’s tax allowance, I would keep $90,100.”“Hong Kong keeps it very simple. There’s no capital gains tax, there’s no dividend tax, there’s no tax on interest, and you are only taxed on income earned in Hong Kong – not overseas. The system here makes people more entrepreneurial. Maximum personal tax is 15 per cent, but there are lots of allowances to get it lower, and corporate tax is set at 16.5 per cent – so people are not spending half their time trying to avoid or evade. You have money in your pocket and you do things with it. You invest. You buy shares or you start second businesses,” he says.

Ayesha Lau, partner in charge of Hong Kong tax at KPMG China, broadly agrees with Mr. Iliffe, but takes the view that low and simple taxation is one among a number of factors that make the city competitive. “Others are the rule of law, respect for private property, freedom from corruption in the business environment, efficient government, the free flow of capital – we have no exchange controls – protection of intellectual property rights, and the strategic location as a SAR which is part of China,” she says.

“You need to be able to make a profit before you pay tax, so the entrepreneurial culture is not driven by tax alone.”

Sounds like a good place to be, right? 

Let's compare that to Detroit. 

[The] per capita tax burden on City residents is the highest in Michigan. This tax burden is particularly severe because it is imposed on a population that has relatively low levels of per capita income.


The City’s income tax… is the highest in Michigan.

Detroit residents pay the highest total property tax rates (inclusive of property taxes paid to all overlapping jurisdictions; e.g., the City, the State, Wayne County) of those paid by residents of Michigan cities having a population over 50,000.

Detroit is the only city in Michigan that levies an excise tax on utility users (at a rate of 5%).

I've heard on the radio that they have the 3rd highest overall tax rates in the USA, but can't find documentation....but I did find this:

A study by the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy looked at effective property tax rates in the 50 largest U.S. cities in 2011. Detroit had the highest property tax rates of all 50 cities on homes, apartment buildings, commercial buildings, and industrial buildings.

What to make of all this? 
Here's a picture of Hong Kong. 

 Here's a picture of Detroit. 

The defense rests.  Keep the thieves from taking the income of the producers, and you'll have a much better chance at prosperity. 

Go here to purchase a coffee table book that documents the effects of letting Statists run your city for 3 generations.  It's called "The Ruins Of Detroit".  Incredible photography.  Treats the bombed-out shell of a city like most artists would treat ancient Rome or Athens. 

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. 

The Rich Are Different Than You And Me. They Read.

Dave Ramsey recently featured a neat list of factoids generated by Thomas C. Corley, author of "Rich Habits".  Here's Corley's list of things that differentiate the wealthy from the rest of us.  I've known a lot of rich folks, and this list rings true. 

Contrary to the belief system of the statists and the redistributionists, it appears that most rich people are rich because they planned to be rich.  Or, to phrase it properly, they had a goal and worked toward it.  The money came later. 

1. 70% of wealthy eat less than 300 junk food calories per day. 97% of poor people eat more than 300 junk food calories per day. 23% of wealthy gamble. 52% of poor people gamble.


2. 80% of wealthy are focused on accomplishing some single goal. Only 12% of the poor do this.

3. 76% of wealthy exercise aerobically 4 days a week. 23% of poor do this.

4. 63% of wealthy listen to audio books during commute to work vs. 5% for poor people.

5. 81% of wealthy maintain a to-do list vs. 19% for poor.

6. 63% of wealthy parents make their children read 2 or more non-fiction books a month vs. 3% for poor.

7. 70% of wealthy parents make their children volunteer 10 hours or more a month vs. 3% for poor.

8. 80% of wealthy make hbd calls vs. 11% of poor

9. 67% of wealthy write down their goals vs. 17% for poor

10. 88% of wealthy read 30 minutes or more each day for education or career reasons vs 2% for poor.

11. 6% of wealthy say what’s on their mind vs. 69% for poor.

12. 79% of wealthy network 5 hours or more each month vs. 16% for poor.

13. 67% of wealthy watch 1 hour or less of TV. every day vs. 23% for poor

14. 6% of wealthy watch reality TV vs. 78% for poor.

15. 44% of wealthy wake up 3 hours before work starts vs.3% for poor.

16. 74% of wealthy teach good daily success habits to their children vs. 1% for poor.

17. 84% of wealthy believe good habits create opportunity luck vs. 4% for poor.

18. 76% of wealthy believe bad habits create detrimental luck vs. 9% for poor.

19. 86% of wealthy believe in life-long educational self-improvement vs. 5% for poor.

20. 86% of wealthy love to read vs. 26% for poor.

On a related note, here's The Whited Sepulchre list for avoiding poverty.  I've seen variations of studies about this all over the 'net, and the documentation should be easy to find.  Poverty doesn't hit people at random.  If you live in the USA, and do the following, it is unlikely that you will end up in poverty. 

1.  Finish high school.

2. Get a job, any job, as soon as legally possible.  Mow yards.  Sack groceries.  Whatever.  Get something, anything, to fill up that "Previous Experience" section of your future job applications. 

3. Don't get pregnant until you are married, and don't get married until you're 21. 

4. Don't become a drug addict. 

5. Vote for Libertarians. 

Guess which shipping company can't get me my stuff?

I've always bought a lot of books, but haven't purchased many at all online.  I like going to Half-Price Books and rummaging around to see if I can locate the titles on my search list.  The chase is almost as good as the capture.  Pointing and clicking on the Ebay, Barnes & Noble, or Amazon sites seems like cheating.  I spent about ten years in the (now dying) bookselling industry, and maybe I just like being surrounded by words and information and paper and book people. 

Plus, those of us with slightly addictive personalities can easily blow a fortune making online purchases. 

I got some B&N gift certificates for my birthday, and decided to pop that online cherry.  I bought four used books through their used and remaindered network.  And they are freakin' awesome!  Here's a picture:

But wait a minute, I can hear you all saying....those are only three books!  Whited, please tell us what happened with book #4?  (It's titled "Forty Centuries Of Wage And Price Controls", BTW.) 

The first three books shipped from bookstores in New Jersey, Arizona, and Connecticut on July 10th.  They went via UPS and FedEx small package, and I had all three of them in my sweaty little hands by July 16th. 

The fourth book didn't go via a private company, but went through other channels.  I've written B&N about it, and they politely stated that I should always give this particular company 10 working days (that's two weeks for the rest of us) to make a delivery.  Even in a case like this one where THE SHIPPER AND I ARE BOTH IN TEXAS !!!! 

Here it is July 23rd.  I really don't expect to see "Forty Centuries Of Wage And Price Controls" tomorrow. 

Is there any doubt in your mind who this Texas bookseller still uses for shipping?

Go here if you are very, very young, or if you just can't figure it out.   LOL. 

The picture I used at the link came from the "Think Progress" website.  LOL.  Again. 

If Barack Obama Were To Enter My Department Store

It looks like it's going to be "All Trayvon, All The Time" through the November 2014 elections.  We're going to be overlooking the tragedy, and the easily preventable causes, of thousands of black kids murdered by other black kids every year (see previous post) and concentrate on the one black kid who was murdered by a Hispanic guy who was also partly black and part white.  I think. 

I'm so sick and freakin' tired of political hacks dividing us into Hutu's and Tutsi's.  But if you had Obama's track record to defend, you'd talk Trayvon too. 

Therefore, it's time to start ridiculing every statement that the President Of The United States makes on the subject of race.  He gave a shameful speech the other day, in which he identified with the black kid who had the Hispanic guy on the ground, pounding his head into the curb.  There was no indication that this shooting was a "hate crime", but that's the direction that Obama, going off-teleprompter, chose to take it. 

There are very few African-American men in this country who haven’t had the experience of being followed when they were shopping in a department store. That includes me.

Oh, sweet mantle of victimhood !! 

Barack, if you think people were following you around before you were president, wait until you see what happens afterwards.....

The actor James Woods recently tweeted that they only reason they've ever followed you was to make sure you wouldn't raise their taxes. 

I can top that.....  If Barack Obama were to enter my department store, I'd have him followed to make sure he wasn't going to break my windows.  The "broken windows" parable of Frederic Bastiat really does appear to be his dominant economic misunderstanding. 

If Barack Obama were to enter my department store, I'd have him followed to make sure he didn't take what wasn't his.  I've never known a human who was so enthusiastic about taking money from Person A to give to Person B, but not before raking some off the top to give to his Washington flunkies in Group C. 

If Barack Obama were to enter my department store, yeah, I'd have him followed.  "You Didn't Build That" isn't that much of a leap from "You Don't Deserve That", followed closely by "I Know Some People Who Could Use That And They All Voted For Me".

If Barack Obama were to enter my department store, well, I gotta be honest.....  I'd ask him for a subsidy.  I'd point out my Green Energy Perpetual Motion Machines that are invisible to the naked eye, I'd show him the documentation that the entire store is heated and cooled by Compressed Green Fairy Flatulence, and I'd agree to change the name of my website to "The Greened Sepulchre".  And, like so many of his other green energy subsidy benefactors, I might get a buncha money that I could walk away with before letting the thing go bankrupt. 

If Barack Obama were to enter my department store, I'd ask him to simply buy it.  Then I'd watch him destroy it, the way we shamefully destroyed all those cars during the "Cash For Clunkers" debacle. 

If Barack Obama were to enter my department store, I wouldn't insist on a cash payment.  Hell, there's no telling how much more of the stuff was printed while his limo waited in the parking lot.  I wouldn't want a check.  All of his post-dated checks are going to be bouncing soon.  I would want his credit card.  Please dear God, I know that I'm a sinner, but let me get my hands on that damn fool's credit card.  Whatever he bought, I'd add $51,000.00 to the total charge.  That's the additional amount that he's put on mine. 

Let's Have A National Dialogue About Race

For the last week, we’ve been plagued by Talking Heads and politicians wanting to have “a national dialogue about race”.

That’s a great idea. We’ve got good people of all races in the U.S. I just finished putting in a long weekend’s work with a crew of mostly black guys who went at it so hard that I almost wept out of gratitude. So let’s start with this. Black folks are only 14% of our population in the U.S., but make up almost 40% of the prison population. The overwhelming majority of these incarcerations are because of the NixonObama Drug War. We could end this war tomorrow if we had the political will. But there are more than one million government employees and contractor employees who would lose their jobs if we were to do so.

Many of these people are behind bars because they consumed or sold marijuana. Have you ever seen the black street gangs who support themselves by selling Budweiser, Jim Beam or Coors Light? No? Well, neither has anyone else for the last 90 years. We ended Prohibition, and we ended the violence.

I know a lot of black guys who like to smoke weed. Unless they’re driving one of my forklifts, or semi-tractors, their habits are none of my business. Or your business. Or Barack’s or Boehner’s or Rick Perry’s. I do know that “stoned” drivers are safer than drunk drivers, but that’s beside the point. If someone isn’t hurting you, he should be left alone to live life as he pleases, and not hectored to death by a gaggle of Washington puritans and their prison contractors.

Let’s have a national dialogue about race.

Let’s talk about black education. Young black males, depending on who you talk to, are dropping out of school at a rate somewhere around 50%. This is not an act of despair on their part. In many cases, it’s a calm rational response to what they (and many others) perceive as a total waste of time. I often meet and hire high school graduates who can’t read a tape measure, can’t do long division, and can’t spell well enough to fill out their own job applications.

But why should someone put in “seat time” in an institution that is failing in its mission? (And “seat time” is how our government schools are ranked for funding.) If black families were given a choice in where their education dollars go, like we are currently given a choice in where our grocery dollars go, we would see a revolution in minority education and minority achievement. This is a solved problem. But can you imagine the wailing from the Department Of Education if, say, Texas were to institute a 100% school choice/school voucher system? Can you imagine how far that would go toward ending white flight from our cities and into the suburbs?

Let’s have a national dialogue about race.

Black teenage unemployment is at 50%, the highest it has been since World War II. Why? Because our government has priced black teenagers out of the market.

Arthur Laffer has written that “The minimum wage is the black teenage unemployment act. The guaranteed way of holding the poor, the minorities and the disenfranchised out of the mainstream is to price their services too high.” Our first minimum wage law, the Davis-Bacon Act, was written for the sole purpose of guaranteeing full white employment at the expense of blacks. It was openly debated in those terms in Congress. Here’s Walter Williams (a brilliant economist who just happens to be blacker than both Barack Obama and George Zimmerman combined) explaining why this law, unlike so many other social engineering schemes, has been uncommonly successful:

“Put yourself in the place of an employer and ask: If I must pay to whomever I hire $7.25 an hour, plus mandated fringes such as Social Security, vacation, health insurance, unemployment insurance, does it pay me to hire a worker who is so unfortunate so as to have a skill level that allows him to contribute only $5 worth of value an hour? Most employers would view hiring such a person a losing economic proposition.

Therefore, the primary effect of a minimum wage law is that of discrimination against the employment of low-skilled workers.

Teenagers tend to be low skilled. They lack the experience, knowledge and maturity of adults. That means they will be the primary victims of a minimum wage law. But why are black teens more heavily impacted than white teens? Black teens are far more likely to come from broken homes and attend some of the worst schools in the nation. Therefore, a law that discriminates against the employment of low-skilled workers will have a greater impact on black workers. Moreover, the minimum wage subsidizes racial discrimination. After all, if you must pay $7.25 an hour to whomever you hire, you might as well hire people you like the most, even if they are of identical skill.

The little bit of money a kid could earn after school and on the weekends is not nearly as important as the other benefits from early work experiences. Any kind of job, paying any wage, teaches a youngster that he must be on time, respect supervisors, develop good work habits, plus there's the self-esteem and pride that comes from being at least financially semi-independent. Early work experiences benefit any kid but are far more important for kids from broken homes, who reside in crime-ridden neighborhoods and attend rotten schools. If they are to learn anything that will make them a more valuable employee in the future, it will have to come from work; they won't learn it at home or in the schools. For Congress to enact higher and higher minimum wages, to benefit their union supporters, is shameful and cruel.”

Well said, sir. (BTW, Williams put that bit about the union supporters in there because many government labor contracts are expressed in multiples of the current minimum wage.)

So let’s have that national dialogue about race. Let’s talk about the incredibly destructive (but profitable for government employees) War On Drugs. Let’s talk about the dismal failures (with incredible pensions and job tenure) in our public schools. Let’s talk about the economic apartheid enforced by our government.

Yeah. Let’s have that national dialogue about race. But instead of watching politicians digest the news and shit platitudes, let’s really start talking about how to improve things.

So where should we start?

Economic Freedom In 60 Seconds

I've been working all day, helping the guys at my largest warehouse get some rush orders moving out to one of the world's largest retailers. 

The drivers of these "hot-shot" vans are, without exception so far, immigrants.  They're from The Ukraine, Turkey, the former Yugoslavia, Albania and Russia (so far).  All of them are in the process of buying their own van, if they haven't so far.  The ones I've asked have said that they want to start their own trucking companies. The only exceptions are the older guys, and they want to help their sons start trucking companies.  

I don't think people are that ambitious when they move to, say, Cuba.  Or even Sweden, which has a relatively high level of freedom.  People come to the USA to make stuff happen. 

Here's something from the Charles Koch Foundation called "Economic Freedom In 60 Seconds".  I love it, love it, love it.  If you get a chance, watch it on Youtube and read the comments.  It has the Statists in a mad, frothing rage.  You know, "How can the Koch brothers say these things when 25% of Americans are in the lowest quartile, and only one American out of a hundred gets to be in the Top One Percent, and blah blah blah". But not a word to contradict the video.  

Enjoy. 

Stuff saved from reading the Internetz

I've been too busy making a living to write anything.  I hope you enjoy all of these in the meantime! 

Our First ObamaCare Meeting

My employer, known on this site as Jukt Micronics, had its first real ObamaCare meetings today. 

Fun, fun, fun.  Lots of Democrats, in Nancy Pelosi's immortal phrase, found out "what's in the bill". 

The good parts, in order.....

1) The rep from the insurance company explained that for the 1st time since 1984, the year of Jukt Micronics' founding, our employees would have to pay for part of their insurance coverage.  Up until The Year Of Obama 2013, we've had 100% of our coverage paid by Jukt Micronics.  That pissed 'em off. 

2) Then they explained that the government (i.e. - The White House) had decided to ignore the law of the land and push back the employer mandate to provide coverage, but did NOT push back the individual mandate to purchase coverage.  The employer mandate doesn't kick in until January 2014.  That pissed 'em off. 

3) Then the poor bastards from the insurance company had to explain that if you didn't purchase their product (or that of a competitor), you had to pay a $95.00 fine, or pay 1% of your income to Obama at tax time.  ($95.00 or 1%.  Whichever is greater.)  And the 1% penalty increases rapidly over the next few years.  That pissed 'em off. 

4) I couldn't help myself.  I asked for some clarification on the pre-existing conditions bidness, the part where insurers can't turn anyone away, and where individuals can sign up for insurance in the ambulance on the way to the hospital, which negates the purpose of insurance.  That pissed 'em off (the insurance reps, not the dumbass Democrats). 

5) They explained that the pre-existing conditions bidness doesn't kick in until January of 2015.  That pissed 'em off. 

You get what you vote for.  Unless, of course, it turns out to be very unpopular.  Then, you get what you voted for, but not until after the November 2014 election cycle. 

This site is now healed

I think, hope, and pray that this site is now healed, and the bugs and viruses are gone....
I can now write on the "compose" page of this thing. 
Can I post pictures? 

Yep.  Looks like I can post pictures. 
Dammit, I just got an error message.  Something about the "autosave" feature not working properly. 

Oh well.  It's free. 

Why stuff you pay for is always better than free stuff

In my quest to read every Pop Economics book ever written, I've come across numerous discussions about why items you pay for are better than things that are free.

Look at the mess going on with Britain's National Health Service. Thousands of patients have needlessly died, but the NHS is "free". Nobody is interested in making a profit, or pleasing customers/patients. The priority is to maintain one's place within the NHS hiearchy by following certain rules. No more, no less. Medical staff don't work for the patients, they work for Her Majesty's Government.

Or try this... Next time Facebook goes through one of its new format changes, try griping to the owners about it. They don't care. You're not a customer. You're a "user".

I got royally pissed when Fox Business cancelled John Napolitano's show. Fox Business doesn't care about my opinion, because I never paid anything to watch Fox Business.

Google's Blogger/Blogspot program is free. Doesn't cost me a dime. I make a trifling amount of money for Google (and myself) with the ads, but Google has bigger fish to fry. They don't care that I can't write anything on the "compose" page. And they shouldn't, even though it's frustrating the crap out of me. I don't send them a check for this thing every month. But if Google's Blogspot staff were a car dealership, I would've driven this thing through their display window sometime yesterday.

That's why Socialism doesn't work, and Capitalism does.

Sorry for turning my little 1st World Problem into a gripe and moan session. I grew up Baptist, spent about 3 decades listening to Baptist sermons, and I now see everything that I experience as a parable.

Best Rothbard Quote EVER

Since I can't type anything at length because of this f***ing Blogger/Blogspot problem, here's a great Murray Rothbard quote.

Debating a change

I'm still having problems with this G***D*mn Blogger/Blogspot program. It won't let me write anything on the "Compose" page. Everything has to be done in HTML. That's good practice, but Lord have mercy, I'm slow at it. Time for a change, I think.

Jim Oliver - Outrageous, Infuriating, and Unacceptable ??

The Fort Worth Business Press (which is now running neck and neck with the FW Weekly to be the paper-of-record in Fort Worth) recently ran this editorial about the difficulties my friend Mary Kelleher is having with the Tarrant Regional Water District board.

It's called "Outrageous. Infuriating. Unacceptable."

Enjoy. This thing is getting good. Pass the popcorn.
"Outrageous. Infuriatin...g. Unacceptable." Those words are among the correct answers to this question: How would you describe water district general manager Jim Oliver’s recent behavior?

The top administrative official at the Tarrant Regional Water District has made a spectacle of himself lately, first with classless email insults hurled at a candidate for the water district’s board of directors and now with a rude and disrespectful response to board member Mary Kelleher when she requested access to information and documents that any board member should have a right to see.

Kelleher isn’t just any board member, of course. She’s the newly seated director who ousted incumbent Hal S. Sparks in the May 11 election. Kelleher’s arrival on the scene was not welcomed, to say the least, by Oliver or Kelleher’s board colleagues, who were perfectly content with the private party they had going at TRWD’s Fort Worth headquarters on East Northside Drive. Rarely has a public agency, even in closed-door meeting-addicted Cowtown, been so successful at shielding its machinations from the public and avoiding accountability for its actions. Public impatience with the board’s penchant for secrecy surfaced before the election when a coalition of candidates that included Kelleher and meteorologist John Basham made it a hot-button campaign issue.

A lawsuit challenging the district’s right to claim private land for a planned pipeline has raised the issue of transparency in the board’s decision-making. None of that has much to do with Oliver’s reckless pre-election emails calling Bassham a “loser”, among other insults. The incident is nonetheless informative when it comes to evaluating Oliver’s suitability in terms of temperament and professionalism to serve as the water district’s top executive.

The question of transparency, however, has everything to do with Oliver’s uncooperative, confrontational response to Kelleher’s request for information about water district business, including minutes and other records related to committee meetings and executive sessions conducted by the board. The general manager’s reluctance to provide the information – expressed, according to Kelleher, in a way that at best might be described as combative – went a long way toward confirming widespread suspicions that Oliver and the water board have something to hide.

It is understandable – reprehensible, but understandable – that Oliver and board members would attempt to keep the general public in the dark about their activities. The public, i.e., the taxpayers, pay the bills. If the water district is spending money in ways that would upset the taxpayers, district officials would prefer to keep that information beyond the public’s reach – not a good idea, obviously, yet not surprising.

But Mary Kelleher is not some random citizen who strolled into the water district office and demanded to examine its files. She’s a duly elected member of the board, chosen by voters who clearly believe it’s high time they demanded transparency and accountability from a public agency that by virtue of its involvement with the Trinity River Vision project has far exceeded its intended mission of public water management and become a surrogate for economic development in Fort Worth.

For the district’s top executive to behave as if this new board member has no right to pursue her constituents’ agenda – or for him to try to steamroll her efforts to pursue it – is, yes, outrageous, infuriating, and unacceptable. The other four board members were not pleased when Kelleher displaced their cohort Sparks, but that was the voters’ decision to make, not the board’s. And certainly not Oliver’s.

If Oliver cannot accept that reality, if he cannot bring himself to work with Kelleher as a fully vested member of the governing body that represents his employers – the taxpayers – he should resign immediately. And if he persists in behaving like an unprofessional lout, the board should fire him.

Mary Kelleher is gonna rip the lid off this thing. Stay tuned, folks....

Ouch. That's gonna leave a mark.

Testing. 1,2,3 Testing

Testing. 1,2,3 Testing. I've had a problem with Google's Blogger/Blogspot program for the last few days. Couldn't post. My apologies to regular readers. I'm still pissed about lots of things. For instance, why can Barack and The Dems pass a horrible, horrible law, then decide that they won't abide by it, and then act like they're in a snit because their opposition won't help them fix it? Testing. 1,2,3 Testing. Looks like we're good to ago. Regular programming will begin shortly.

Calvin Coolidge on Independence Day

I hope everybody had a good July 4th. 

Note to everyone in England:  When we think of The Obamessiah, some of us get downright nostalgic for George III.  I think we coulda learned to live with him. 

Here's some Calvin Coolidge, holding forth on our recent holiday. 

About the Declaration there is a finality that is exceedingly restful. It is often asserted that the world has made a great deal of progress since 1776, that we have had new thoughts and new experiences which have given us a great advance over the people of that day, and that we may therefore very well discard their conclusions for something more modern. But that reasoning can not be applied to this great charter. If all men are created equal, that is final. If they are endowed with inalienable rights, that is final. If governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed, that is final. No advance, no progress can be made beyond these propositions. If anyone wishes to deny their truth or their soundness, the only direction in which he can proceed historically is not forward, but backward toward the time when there was no equality, no rights of the individual, no rule of the people. Those who wish to proceed in that direction can not lay claim to progress. They are reactionary. Their ideas are not more modern, but more ancient, than those of the Revolutionary fathers.

Yeah.  Go Calvin.  Here's something else from Silent Cal on a different tangent. 

Happy Independence Day ! - (let's start another government)

237 years ago, a bunch of farmers and politicians got together and told King George III of England that he wasn't getting the job done, and that they were going to start a new organization (the USA) with a new set of bylaws (the Articles of Confederation, followed by the Constitution). 

Overall, it has worked well.  The USA has been the envy of the world. 

Here's how the founders phrased their Dear John letter to Dear George, complete with a translation:

July 4th, 1776

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

Dear George,
We've been together a long time, but we've got to break up.  Our situtation has become intolerable.  For the sake of our friends and families, we feel obligated to explain the reasons for our separation. 

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.

We think it's obvious that we have the right to our lives, our freedom, and our right to pursue our own happiness.  "I own me.  You own you."  We wanted to think that you were there to protect those basic rights, and we gave you that authority.  You weren't born with that authority.  We gave it to you, and we're taking it away. 
George, we're just not happy.  We're going to form a government that will let us be happy as a pig in shit.  Happier than a tornado in a trailer park.  Because you see, George, it's not about you and what you want. 

Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed.

We've thought about this for a while.  We've watched government grow from less than 1% of the economy to more than 42%, and we've seen your plans to take over even more areas, like healthcare.  Thank God Almighty that Edward Snowden showed us what all you were.....
Wait a minute....
I switched tyrants in mid-rant.

Sorry about that.  Back to the original document. 

But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.--Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government.

In short, George, we're going to form a new government - a government centered around us and not you.  It will be based in the USA and not in London. 

The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

Just to remind you what we're talking about, here's the short list.  It doesn't include unconstitutional boondoggles like Cash For Clunkers, The Stimulus Package, ObamaCare and taking over the auto industry.  You're lucky that we're just leaving, and not arresting your criminal ass. 

Oops.  I did it again.  Switched tyrants in mid-stream.  The list comes from here. 
“The sequester is not something that I’ve proposed. It is something that Congress has proposed.”
Politifact.com
“We got back every dime we used to rescue the financial system”
cbsnews.com
Benghazi violence was caused by an internet video & demonstrations
State Department
Because of Obamacare, “over the last two years, health care premiums have gone up — it’s true — but they’ve gone up slower than any time in the last 50 years.”
politifact.com
“I think it’s important for us to understand that the Fast and Furious program was a field-initiated program begun under the previous administration”
abcnews.com
Romney and Ryan will gut pell grants for low-income college students.
Factcheck.org
My budget will cut the deficit by $4 Trillion over 10 years.
Factcheck.org
“I am told that Governor Romney’s new running mate, Paul Ryan, might be around Iowa the next few days,” he said while in Council Bluffs, Iowa. “He is one of the leaders of Congress standing in the way. So if you happen to see Congressman Ryan, tell him how important this farm bill is to Iowa and our rural communities.”
House passed bill on August 2, 2012 (Paul Ryan voted yes)
The American automobile industry has come roaring back…So now I want to say what we did with the auto industry, we can do it in manufacturing across America. Let’s make sure advanced, high-tech manufacturing jobs take root here, not in China. And that means supporting investment here. Governor Romney … invested in companies that were called ‘pioneers’ of outsourcing. I don’t want to outsource. I want to insource.Forbes- Outsourcer-In-Chief: Obama Of General Motors
“You Didn’t Build that”A few examples

I will walk on that picket line with you, if workers are denied the right to bargain.
Youtube
In his 2012 State of the Union Address, President Obama said that American oil production is the highest that it’s been in eight years.
www.breitbart.com
I’ve done more for Israel’s security than any President ever
Obama aided Islamic Extremists take over of Egypt/ Libya – Weapons pour into Gaza
Virtually every Senate Republican voted against the tax cut last week
Examiner
“Every idea that we’ve put forward are ones that traditionally have been supported by Democrats and Republicans alike.”
Like Raising taxes?
Obama met highly qualified out of work teacher Robert Baroz
He wasn’t out of work and Obama never met him.
GOP Responsible for Obama Jobs Bill Not Passing
Dems Rejected Jobs Bill
You have 80 percent of the American people who support a balanced approach. Eighty percent of the American people support an approach that includes revenues and includes cuts. So the notion that somehow the American people aren’t sold is not the problem
Gallup Poll: Only 69%
These are obligations that the United States has taken on in the past. Congress has run up the credit card, and we now have an obligation to pay our bills.
Looks like it’s been incurred mostly in the years of Obama
Jobs Bill Paid for
Seems not so much Paid for
Then you’ve got their(GOP)which is dirtier air, dirtier water, less people with health insurance
Barack Obama, campaiging in Asheville, NC, 10/17/11
I cannot guarantee that those checks go out on August 3rd if we haven’t resolved this issue. Because there may simply not be the money in the coffers to do it.
American.com
USA producing more oil than ever before
Petroleum Insights
Fence between US and Mexico is “Practically Complete”
Department of Homeland Security says 5%
Rich doesn’t pay their fair share.
National Taxpayers Union
Mitt Romney would deny gay people the right to adopt children.
Cnn Interview
Obama claimed the SCOTUS decision in Citizens United v. FEC, “open[ed] the floodgates for special interests — including foreign corporations — to spend without limit in our elections.
nationalreview.com
No signing statements to nullify or undermine congressional instructions as enacted into law
Obama Lies to Keep Czars
No “boots” on the ground Libya
Anyone that has worked with the AC-130 gunship can tell you, you need spotters to let aircraft know where the targets are. Usually it is Special Forces, Rangers etc trained for this mission. It’s CIA Agents in Libya on the ground
Reform will also rein in the abuse and excess that nearly brought down our financial system. It will finally bring transparency to the kinds of complex, risky transactions that helped trigger the financial crisis.
Obama Lies About Financial Reform Bill
All Americans WILL BE were, “surprised, disappointed and angry” about lockerbie bomber
Obama Memo
I will not rest until the BP Oil Spill stops
Obama’s Schedule
The health care bill will not increase the deficit by one dime.
Campaign and Presidency
If you like the health care plan you have you can keep it
TownHall
“Under our plan, no federal dollars will be used to fund abortions, and federal conscience laws will remain in place.”
U.S. Capitol, Washington, D.C., September 9, 2009.
ObamaCare Fee is not a new tax
Obama denies healthcare is a new tax on all Americans
We have run out of places in the US to drill for oil.
Obama’s oval office speech in June 2010
Now suddenly if you don’t have your papers and you took your kid out to get ice cream, you can be harassed, that’s something that could potentially happen.
Arizona Immigration Law
Doctors choose amputation because they get better compensation. Greedy Doctors taking out tonsils for more money.
Claims never documented
The Health Care Package will pay for itself
Time
Republicans don’t have a single idea that’s different from George Bush’s ideas — not one.
Hmm Immigration?
We shouldn’t Mandate the purchase of health care
Democratic Debate Lies
Obama says he’ll save average family $8,000 in gas
Video Proof
I am immediately instituting PayGo “Pay as you go”
Said during a speech immediately after the Trillion Dollar “Shovel Ready” bill.
I got the Message from Massachusetts
Daily Bail

We began by passing a Recovery Act that has already saved or created over 150,000 jobs.” – caught cooking the books and now changed to ‘jobs supported’ versus ‘created/saved’
AP fact Checker

Number one, we inherited a $1.3 trillion deficit. … That wasn’t me.” – Congress, under Democratic control in 2007 and 2008, controlled the purse strings that led to the deficit Obama inherited.Obama supported the emergency bailout package in Bush’s final months — a package Democratic leaders wanted to make bigger.
AP fact Checker
Collective salvation
Obama calls himself a Christian
I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.
Obama Inauguration. 20 Jan 2009
Cut Deficit in Half by end of first term
Associated Press Video
Health Care deals will be covered on C-span
Obama Lies
As President I will recognize the Armenian Genocide
ABC
Recovery Act will save or create jobs
ABC News
Unemployment rate will be 8.5% without stimulus.
Obama Lies
No Earmarks in the $787 Billion Stimulus
CNN
I happen to be a proponent of a single payer universal health care plan
Specator.Org
We have launched a housing plan that will help responsible families facing the threat of foreclosure lower their monthly payments and refinance their mortgages.
Obama Lies
I am not somebody who promotes same-sex marriage.
NPR
Guantanamo bay to be closed within a year
Council on Foreign Relations.
Won’t Raise taxes on those making less than 250,000 per year.
Businessweek: Obama Agnostic on taxes
List of Tax Promise Violations

I will walk the picket line with you, if workers are denied the right to bargain
Youtube

No more wiretapping of citizens
Youtube
Mr. Ayers as “a guy who lives in my neighborhood,” but “not somebody who I exchange ideas from on a regular basis.
News Busters
I had a uncle who was one of the, who was part of the first American troops to go into Auschwitz and liberate the concentration camps
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Obama campaign would accept public funding
ABC
Minimum Wage will increase to $9.50/hr
A Socialist
Ann Dunham spent the months before her death in 1995 fighting with insurance companies that sought to deny her the coverage she needed to pay for treatment.
Mounting Heath Care Lies
Didn’t know Jeremiah Wright was Radical
Dreams of My Father – A radical Socialist.
Would have the most transparent administration in History
Cato Institute
We will go through our federal budget – page by page, line by line – eliminating those programs we don’t need, and insisting that those we do operate in a sensible cost-effective way.
Boston Globe
I have visited all 57 states.
Snopes
I’ll get rid of earmarks
Source: Any bill passed during presidency
When a bill lands on my Desk, The American people will have 5 days to review it before I sign it.
Campaign Speech
My father served in World War II.
The Videos and the Facts
Have troops out of Iraq by March 31, 2009
News Video
Seniors Making less than 50,000 will not have to pay taxes
YouTube
Would not vote for any bill supporting troop funding without a firm withdrawal commitment from the Bush Administration.
He has done nothing but continue the Bush admins strategy and to explain how the “surges total failure” has now become his greatest achievement.
Present Votes Are Common In Illinois
NPR
I Won Michigan
Huffington Post
I won Nevada
The Nation
I don’t Have Lobbyists
US News
My Campaign Had Nothing To Do With The 1984 Ad
Crooks and Liars
I Have Always Been Against Iraq
Washington Post
My Wife Didn’t Mean What She Said About Pride In Country
CNN
Barack was never an ACORN trainer and never worked for ACORN in any other capacity.
Obama Campaign Video
I Barely Know Rezko
Sun Times
My Church Is Like Any Other Christian Church
ABC News

Have a good 4th, everybody !!  And to those reading this in England, Australia, and elsewhere, I hope this helps explain what we're all about - the pursuit of happiness.  Mine.  My family's. My projects and dreams.  I own me, you own you. 

But it creates jobs....

I got into an interesting conversation at the bar with an electrical contractor while I was celebrating my birthday last night.  (52nd birthday, BTW.) 

We were talking about building inspectors, corrupt building inspectors, and the people that most regulations are written to benefit.  (Hint:  It ain't you.)

The guy was obviously a skilled electrician.  Plenty smart.  But then he let loose with this statement:  At least all those rules and regulations create jobs and help the economy. 

I couldn't help myself.  Like I said, I was celebrating my birthday with plenty of Jim Beam and wasn't capable of self-censorship.  I remembered the Milton Friedman "spoons" story.

The story goes that Milton Friedman was once taken to see a massive government project somewhere in Asia. Thousands of workers using shovels were building a canal. Friedman was puzzled. Why weren’t there any excavators or any mechanized earth-moving equipment? A government official explained that using shovels created more jobs. Friedman’s response: “Then why not use spoons instead of shovels?”

So I said "If the goal is to create jobs and help the economy, why not use lanterns instead of electricity?"  I don't remember his response, if there was one. 

Here's something I found on the Forbes website while I was looking for the "spoons" story. 

Economies prosper when multitudes of ordinary people are motivated to make improvements. This is because information and insights needed to make an economy prosper are widely dispersed. There’s far more than could ever be centralized, validated and updated in a place like the federal government. The most reliable way to motivate people? Harness their self-interest: let them try making a profit by starting a business based on their information and insights. Government can best promote prosperity by, among other things, maintaining equal rights, low taxes, free trade, sound money, predictable laws and protection against force and fraud. Government should let consumers render their verdicts in open markets – no subsidies, special favors or bailouts.

Creating artificial hurdles, and then paying government bureaucrats to monitor the hurdles, does not help an economy.  It's all about production, baby !! 

I had to get that out of my system.  Have a good day, and be thankful for the electrical contractors who bring power to your laptop/phone/ipad/ipod/Blackberry reading device IN SPITE OF the electrical code, and not because of it. 

Quote of the decade, from Wes Benedict

The Libertarian Party of Texas recently sponsored a tax debate.  "Low Taxes vs. No Taxes"

Former LP Chair Wes Benedict, defending the "No Taxes" side, let loose with this gem:

"I'd rather see my dollars burned then see them go to the government." 

Wow. 

But think about it.  How do you feel about sponsoring the following:

The NSA

The Department of Energy

Lois Lerner

George W. Bush

The war in Afghanistan

Barack Obama

The war in Libya (yeah, there is one)

Aid To Families With Dependent Children (only pays if one parent leaves)

Social Security (totally mismanaged, and as broke as the 10 Commandments)

The war in Iraq

Jimmy Carter

The war in Yemen

Waste and inefficiency

Elaborate parties and conferences for the IRS and GAO

The Federal Reserve banking system

The place on Blue Mound Road in Fort Worth where the Fed prints is increasingly worthless paper money

Wiretaps

The 2nd highest corporate tax rate in the world, exceptions to which are sold like Big Macs

The Drug War

Providing 46% of the world's military spending, therefore encouraging terrorism

John Kerry

Hillary Clinton

Condi Rice

Support of Teachers' Unions

The Texas Department of Transportation

FEMA

Insane tariff and quota regulations which do nothing but add overhead

I'm typing as quickly as I can, and have to start work soon.  I bet I could go all day.  I repeat.... Here is the quote of the decade, from Wes Benedict of the Libertarian Party.  If you disagree, I've got some farmland in the Everglades I'd like to sell you.....

"I'd rather see my dollars burned then see them go to the government."

A brief word on committees....

The only hope for America is the Libertarian Party.  We're the only ones truly standing up for economic and personal freedom.  (The Republicrats and Demoblicans talk about both, but don't make much progress.) 

We're the party in favor of LESS REGULATION. 

I'm in a State Libertarian Executive Committee meeting.  It's mostly about regulations and rules. 

All I'm gonna say is God help us all. 

But since Obama has daughters, they look a lot like....

A Question About "Quantitative Easing"

Ben Bernanke and the boys at the Federal Reserve have been printing an extra 85 billion dollars per month.  All in the name of "stimulus". 

North Korea has been printing a couple of million dollars per month.  In their case, it is called "counterfeiting". 

Both sets of printing press owners, Bernanke's and North Korea's, are churning out bills for themselves and their buddies - the people who get to spend them first. 

But let's assume that "stimulus" of this sort is a good thing. 

Does it matter where the stimulus is printed?