Who Belongs On Mount Rushmore?

David Henderson, of The Library Of Economics And Liberty, has made the unlikely claim that Warren Harding belongs on Mount Rushmore. 

In addition to letting Eugene Debs out of prison, Harding also was ahead of his time on racial issues.  Here's a quote from Henderson's post:

Instead of attempting to suppress the black vote, he was a Republican, who, in 1921, made a speech in Jefferson, Ala., supporting the right of black men to vote. 1921!

He said: "Let the black man vote when he is fit to vote; prohibit the white man voting when he is unfit to vote." A reporter said that while the white section of the audience remained silent, the black section cheered.

Hardly enough to justify reshaping a mountain, but a good deed nonetheless. 

Other people have made other suggestions....

There's Reagan, who as best I can tell, had the advantage of not being Jimmy Carter....

And, of course, the Obamessiah, who has had the advantage of being black.  (I hate to go down that road, but if that damn fool's name was Barry O'Brien, and he was a white guy from East Armpit, Illinois, with the same non-achievements, he would've never made it into the Illinois State Legislature.)

Don Boudreaux, of the Café Hayek site, has chimed in with his .02 cents. 

I'd remove from Mt. Rushmore all people who are most famous for holding political office - which is to say, I'd blast off all four of the currently sculpted faces. I'd replace them with images of the faces of John D. Rockefeller, Sr., Gustavus Swift, J.J. Hill (even though he was Canadian!), and either Gail Borden or Steve Jobs - people who really define, and who helped in notable and noticeable ways to sculpt, what is good about America. (If obliged to include a non-entrepreneur among the four, there's no question that the person whose visage I would choose is that wisest of all Americans, H.L. Mencken.)

If the suggestion is to ban politicians from being carved into mountainsides, I'll go with the following:

Sam Walton.  Walton brought more people out of bone-grinding poverty than anyone else in history.  He deserved a Nobel.  His company has provided millions of jobs to employees that you and I and Microsoft and Starbucks and Costco consider unemployable. 

Let's throw Norman Borlaug up there.  He came up with variations on wheat DNA that quadrupled yields.  He's called "the man who saved a billion lives", and because he did so without help from the Lefties, he's been widely criticized for doing so. 

David Koch.  Mostly to piss off the Statists, but also because he was an early, early advocate of ending the Nixon/Obama Drug War, legalizing Gay Marriage, ending the Fed, staying out of other people's wars, and lobbying for a smaller government.  Conde Nast has called him "one of the most generous, but low-key philanthropists in the USA".  Go here for a breakdown of just some of the money this man has given away.  (He's also given lots and lots of money to defeat the Obamacrats.  Unfortunately, all of it went to Republicans.)  The Libertarians ran him for V.P. in 1980. 

Milton Friedman.  He wrote Capitalism And Freedom, plus Free To Choose.  As a bonus, he and his wife Rose brought David Friedman into the world. 

I like those people.  Maybe one day they'll be carved into a mountainside and properly appreciated by a grateful nation. 

 

Whose picture should be on our currency?

Our currency in the U.S. (often known in the black community as "Dead Presidents") honors people who won wars.  Andrew Jackson killed a lot of Indians.  General Grant killed a lot of Confederates.  Franklin Roosevelt killed the economy. 

We should commemorate people who spread liberty and freedom. 

Don Boudreaux (who should be on a commemorative penny, at least) has come up with a list of people who we should honor on our Federal Reserve Notes and our debased coinage. 

Here's his list.  It's greatness.... !

$1 bill: George Washington.  For all of his flaws, Washington was not as mad for power as is the typical politician.  That character trait was enormously beneficial to the early American republic.

Ok.  Agreed.  They wanted him to be king, and he declined.  Although I sometimes think we would be better off with some hereditary despots who relied on promoting freed, as opposed to the current system of beauty contests. 

$2 bill: Henry Ford, for being such a pioneering and innovative producer.

I dunno.  Towards the end of his life, he became increasingly anti-immigrant, anti-Semitic, and anti-liquor, 3 concepts that I like a lot. 

$5 bill: John D. Rockefeller, Sr., for being such a pioneering and innovative producer.

He added hundreds of hours of light (via kerosene) at increasingly lower prices to the common man.  You could make the argument that Rockefeller saved the whales !!

$10 bill: Gustavus Swift, for being such a pioneering and innovative producer.

Ok.  Good choice. 

$20 bill: Norman Borlaug, for saving countless millions of people from starvation.

Excellent choice.  He developed new strains of wheat (and was harshly criticized by many on the left, because it would increase population!) and probably saved a billion (with a "b") lives. 

$50 bill: Sam Walton, for being such a pioneering and innovative retailer.

Wouldn't that make the Statists go just absolutely batshit crazy?  Sam Walton helped bring one million people per month out of bone-grinding poverty in China.  He did more than anyone in history to hold down inflation in the era of the Fed.  He's the reason the jeans I'm wearing now cost less than they did in 1977.  Here's why he deserved a Nobel !!

$100 bill: Benjamin Franklin, for his scientific achievements and his bourgeois wisdom.

Meh.  Interesting guy, but I'd rather see Calvin Coolidge (greatest president) get a spot. 

One-cent coin: Richard Sears, for being such a pioneering and innovative retailer.

Ok.  He changed the world. 

Five-cent coin: Steve Jobs, for being such a pioneering and innovative producer.

Well, he did more good than Roosevelt. 

10-cent coin: John Bogle, for inventing the indexed mutual fund.

Ok. 

25-cent coin: Milton Friedman, for teaching not only the general public, but fellow economists, economics.

HELL TO THE YES.  YES, YES, YES!!

50-cent coin: Gail Borden, for being such a pioneering and innovative producer.

Ok. 

$1 coin: Andrew Mellon, a productive financial genius

And the opposite side of the Andrew Mellon coin should show Franklin Roosevelt burning in hell.  Read Amity Shlaes great account of The Roosevelt-induced Depression "The Forgotten Man" for details of how FDR persecuted this great man. 

That's Don Boudreaux's list.  You probably have your own. 

Nelson Mandela - R.I.P.

Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds and shall find me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.

  - William Ernest Henley

Often recited by Nelson Mandela to other prisoners on Robben Island in South Africa. 

 

Thanksgiving and gratitude: Tell me I'm a good man

I've been thinking a lot about Thanksgiving and gratitude for the last few days. 
Here's one of my favorite snippets of movie dialogue ever. 
It's from the Spielberg classic "Saving Private Ryan", which ends with the following exchange between James Ryan (as an old man) and his wife. 
They're standing at the grave of one a WW2 soldier who sacrificed himself so Ryan could live. 

James Ryan: Tell me I have led a good life.
Ryan's Wife: What?
James Ryan: Tell me I'm a good man.
Ryan's Wife: You are.

Ryan knows that a squadron of soldiers sacrificed themselves to keep him alive.  He wants reassurance that he's lived a life worthy of that sacrifice. 

*******

Tell me I'm a good man.

Nathan Hale, a soldier in the Continental Army during the American Revolution, volunteered for a spying mission.  He was captured by the British, and hanged.  His last words were:  "I only regret that I have but one life to give for my country."

Tell me I'm a good man.

William Tyndale dared to translate the bible from Greek and Hebrew into English.  His work revolutionized theology, education, and the English language, and was probably instrumental in toppling the concept of the "Divine Right Of Kings".  He lived most his adult life hunted like an animal all over Europe.  After being convicted of heresy, he was strangled, and his body was burned at the stake. 

Tell me I'm a good man. 

In 2012, CIA employee, NSA specialist, and computer programmer Edward Snowden became one of the nation's most notorious whistleblowers, leaking over 200,000 classified documents to journalist Glenn Greenwald, among others.  His disclosures revealed an out-of-control government conducting warrantless surveillance of emails and phone calls.  He will probably live out the rest of his life as a political refugee in the Soviet Union. 

Tell me I'm a good man. 

Fannie Lou Hamer grew up picking cotton near Ruleville, Mississippi.  She helped found the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party, and organized the Mississippi Freedom Summer.  After being arrested on false charges near Winona, Mississippi, police officers almost beat her to death.  Shortly afterwards, she got under Lyndon Johnson's skin on national TV with a speech that included the following line:  "All of this is on account we want to register, to become first-class citizens, and if the Freedom Democratic Party is not seated now, I question America. Is this America, the land of the free and the home of the brave where we have to sleep with our telephones off the hooks because our lives be threatened daily because we want to live as decent human beings - in America?"

 Tell me I'm a good man. 

In 2010, U.S. Army Intelligence Analyst Bradley Manning downloaded more than 400,000 military documents to Wikileaks, including video of airstrikes killing Iraqi civilians and journalists.  His whistleblowing activity was met with a conviction for treason.  Manning will probably spend the rest of his life in a cage. 

Tell me I'm a good man.  Tell me that I'm living a life worthy of this kind of sacrifice. 

On November 9, 2012, Malala Yousafzai, a 15-year old Pakistani girl, was shot in the head by the Taliban.  She had been an advocate of education for girls and women. 

Tell me I'm a good man. 

Irwin Schiff, father of investment guru Peter Schiff, repeatedly and eloquently made the claim that the U.S. tax code is unjust and unconstitutional.  In 2005, he was convicted of willfully failing to pay income tax, and will be in a Fort Worth, TX federal prison until sometime in 2017. 

Tell me I'm a good man.  Tell me that I don't ever take any of these sacrifices for granted.  Remind me that there will always be evil men who want to use political power and force for their own advantage.  Tell me that I'm the kind of person who will stand up to the bullies of the state.  Tell me that I'm living a life that would make these people proud. 

Tell me I'm a good man. 

In Praise Of Walter Williams

I was looking through WikiQuote this morning when I stumbled across the Walter Williams collection of outstanding utterances. 

Lord have mercy, what a man.  I've always admired his economic statements, but knew nothing of his background until this morning.  Here's some more Wiki-stuff, interspersed with some of my favorite Williams quotes.

Walter Edward Williams (born March 31, 1936) is an American economist, commentator, and academic. He is the John M. Olin Distinguished Professor of Economics at George Mason University, as well as a syndicated columnist and author known for his libertarian views.

Williams's family during childhood consisted of himself, his mother, and his sister. His father played no role in raising either child.  He grew up in Philadelphia. The family initially lived in West Philadelphia, moving to North Philadelphia and the Richard Allen housing projects when Williams was ten. His neighbors included a young Bill Cosby. Williams knew many of the individuals that Cosby speaks of from his childhood, including Weird Harold and Fat Albert.

Williams was a talented high school student who displayed a very inconsistent performance in his studies. Following high school he came out to stay with his father in California, and attended one semester at Los Angeles City College, in regard to which he would later state that he was not ready yet to be a serious student. 

 

In 1959 he was drafted into the military, and served as a Private in the United States Army.  While stationed in the south, he "waged a one man battle against Jim Crow from inside the army. He challenged the racial order with provocative statements to his fellow soldiers. This resulted in an overseeing officer filing a court-martial proceeding against Williams. Williams argued his own case, and was found not guilty.  While considering filing countercharges against the officer that had brought him up for court martial, Williams found himself transferred to Korea. Upon arriving there, Williams marked "Caucasian" for race on his personnel form. When challenged on this, Williams replied wryly if he had marked "Black", he would end up getting all the worst jobs. From Korea Williams wrote a letter to President John F. Kennedy denouncing the pervasive racism in the American government and military, and questioning the actions black Americans should take given the state of affairs, writing:

“Should Negroes be relieved of their service obligation or continue defending and dying for empty promises of freedom and equality? Or should we demand human rights as our Founding Fathers did at the risk of being called extremists ... I contend that we relieve ourselves of oppression in a manner that is in keeping with the great heritage of our nation.”

He received a reply from the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense, Alfred B. Fitt, a response which he termed "the most reasonable response that I received from any official."

 

Following his military service, he re-entered college as a far more motivated student. Williams earned a Bachelor's Degree (1965) in economics from California State University, Los Angeles. He earned both his Masters Degree (1967) and his Ph.D. (1972) in economics from the University of California, Los Angeles.

Speaking of his early college days, Williams says "I was more than anything a radical. I was more sympathetic to Malcolm X than Martin Luther King because Malcolm X was more of a radical who was willing to confront discrimination in ways that I thought it should be confronted, including perhaps the use of violence. But I really just wanted to be left alone. I thought some laws, like minimum-wage laws, helped poor people and poor black people and protected workers from exploitation. I thought they were a good thing until I was pressed by professors to look at the evidence."

While at UCLA Williams came into contact with economists such as Armen Alchian, James M. Buchanan, and Axel Leijonhufvud who challenged his assumptions. Never one to be over-awed by others, Williams regularly challenged his professors as well. But on examining the evidence of actual outcomes he came to believe such programs were abject failures. "I learned that you have to evaluate the effects of public policy as opposed to intentions."

While at UCLA, Thomas Sowell arrived on campus in 1969 as a visiting professor. Though he never took a class from Dr. Sowell, the two met and began a friendship that has lasted to this day. In the summer of 1972 Sowell was hired as director of the Urban Institutes Ethnic Minorities Project, which Williams joined shortly thereafter.  Correspondence between Sowell and Williams appears in the 2007 "A Man of Letters" by Sowell.

********

Long-time readers of this blog know that I believe Thomas Sowell is the smartest man alive, now that Milton Friedman is dead. 

I hope you'll check out the Williams Wikiquote page.  Pure, undiluted greatness.  Here's a taste:

"...there's the claim that this or that price is unreasonable. I used to have conversations about this claim with Mrs. Williams early on in our 44-year marriage. She'd return from shopping complaining that stores were charging unreasonable prices. Having aired her complaints, she'd ask me to go out and unload a car trunk loaded with groceries and other items. Having completed the chore, I'd resume our conversation, saying, "Honey, I thought you said the prices were unreasonable. Are you an unreasonable person? Only an unreasonable person would pay unreasonable prices." The long and short of it is that the conversation never went over well, and we both ceased discussions of reasonable or unreasonable prices. The point is that whatever price a transaction is transacted at represents a meeting of the mind of both buyer and seller. Both viewed themselves as being better off than the next alternative -- not making the transaction. That's not to say that the seller wouldn't have found a higher price more pleasing or the buyer wouldn't have been pleased with a lower price."

 And another:

What human motivation is responsible for getting the most wonderful things done? I would say greed. When I use the term greed, I do not mean cheating, stealing, fraud and other acts of dishonesty, I mean people seeking to get the most for themselves. One might be tempted to use “enlightened self interest” but I like greed better. Unfortunately, many people are naive enough to believe that it is compassion, concern, and "feeling another's pain" that's the superior human motivation. As such we fall easy prey to charlatans, quacks and hustlers.

Walter Williams - A life well-lived. 

 

Time magazine covers, then and now

Here's the cover from Time magazine's "Person(s) Of The Year" award issue from 2003.  Two corporate whistleblowers and a lady from the FBI who thought the Feds could've done more to prevent 9-11. 

Flash forward ten years.  Bradley Manning.  Edward Snowden.  Julian Assange.  Now THOSE are some whistleblowers.  All three have done incredibly important things for the cause of liberty, and at great personal risk.  They make the three ladies shown above look like mid-level managers who finally had the courage to use the company Suggestion Box. 

 Manning will probably die in a cage and Snowden and Assange can't travel freely. 

Here's to Time magazine going the way of Newsweek.  Sooner, not later.  Good riddance. 
Die quickly, mainstream media.  Die quickly. 

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. 

John Mackey of Whole Foods Market on Capitalism

Go here for the video....

Capitalism is the greatest creation humanity has done for social cooperation. It has lifted humanity out of the dirt. In statistics we discovered when we researching the book, about 200 years ago when capitalism was created, 85% of the people alive lived on $1 a day. Toady, that number is 16%. Still too high, but capitalism is wiping out poverty across the world. 200 years ago illiteracy rates were 90%. Today, they are down to about 14%. 200 years ago the average lifespan was 30. Today it is 68 across the world, 78 in the States, almost 82 in Japan. This is due to business. This is due to capitalism. And it doesn’t get credit for it. Most of the time, business is portrayed by its enemies as selfish and greedy and exploitative, yet it’s the greatest value creator in the world.

If you buy what I'm selling, you get something worth more to you than your money.  If you give me your money, I get something worth more to me than what I'm selling. 

People prosper just a tiny bit more every time that happens. 
The purpose of the Statists is to ensure that it happens less and less and less. 

Spiveypalooza

Thousands of Tarrant County bureaucrats, jailers, drug warriors and regulators, feeling a sudden decrease in pressure, slowed down to a crawl, thought about putting their feet on their desks, but then realized they might once again be able to go about their burdensome jobs in peace….


Somewhere in the dark satanic entrails of the Trinity River Vision Authority, J.D. Granger felt a disturbance in The Force. The immense boondoggle known as the Trinity River Vision/Lake Granger just came a little closer to happening…

Ben Bernanke’s printing press on Blue Mound Road, also known as the U.S. Bureau Of Printing And Engraving, started churning out counterfeit currency a little bit faster….

Fort Worth’s big government Republicans and anti-civil liberties Democrats popped corks and proposed toasts….

And Lady Liberty shed a tear, knowing that one of her most devoted sons was moving on to fight elsewhere….

John Spivey is moving to Colorado.

I repeat….John Spivey is moving to Colorado.

We’re going to celebrate the work he’s done with the Tarrant County (and State) Libertarian Party on Tuesday, October 2nd, at the Zio Carlo Brewpub, from 7:00 until they run out of beer. They’re located at 1001 West Magnolia in Fort Worth.

John Spivey was Tarrant County LP Chair from 2006 to 2012. He’s served on the State Libertarian Executive Committee. He put together our recent LP Presidential Debate. We’re going to thank Spivey for taking us to a place where we now have one of the most active counties in the state. And we’re going to keep on going and growing. After all, Barack Obama has almost run out of other people’s money.

We’re going to hand out additional quantities of yard signs and door hangers.

We’re going to discuss how many Cabinet-Level Departments that Mitt Romney has pledged to close as compared to Obama (none).

We’re going to rant about the Federal Reserve, the Drug War, the Porkulus Package, the bans on Gay and Lesbian Marriage, your right to carry a pistol, ObamaCare, Eminent Domain, Gary Johnson, the National Debt, the Constitution, Ron Paul, and everything else that somebody wants to talk about. We’re going to laugh. We’re going to cry. Because John Spivey really is moving to Colorado.

John Jay Myers is now polling at 6%. Gary Johnson is anywhere from 4-7%. Republicans and Democrats are now fighting to keep us off what they think of as “their” ballots. Ken Stanford might win his race for Tax Assessor! Gary Johnson just might take New Mexico away from one of the Obamneys !!

A lot of this can be laid at the feet of John Spivey. Come say goodbye to this fine, fine man with us on Tuesday night, October 2nd. Zio Carlo Brewpub. 7:00 p.m. 1001 West Magnolia in Fort Worth.

“Before Elvis, there was nothing.” – John Lennon

Real Men Of Genius: Calvin Coolidge

The 1920's "roared" partly because Calvin Coolidge was president. 
Calvin didn't get involved with much.  Stayed home a lot. 
Didn't preach for anything but less government involvement. 
Told the lobbyists for the first Farm Bill to shove it. 
Supported Civil Rights for blacks and immigrants. 
He cut taxes and spending to the point that by 1927, only the top two % of earners paid any income tax.  He slashed the national debt by 1/4.  

That's really all he did to create one of the most prosperous times in U.S. history. 

It was called "The Roaring Twenties".

If he'd been president at the beginning of the the stock market crash of '29, I suspect we wouldn't have seen a Great Depression. Calvin would've ignored it.

Whited's Law: A depression is a recession that the government tried to kill. 

Where's Calvin now that we really need him? 

Happy Birthday, Milton Friedman !!!

From The Wall Street Journal:

It's a tragedy that Milton Friedman—born 100 years ago on July 31—did not live long enough to combat the big-government ideas that have formed the core of Obamanomics. It's perhaps more tragic that our current president, who attended the University of Chicago where Friedman taught for decades, never fell under the influence of the world's greatest champion of the free market. Imagine how much better things would have turned out, for Mr. Obama and the country.

Friedman was a constant presence on these pages until his death in 2006 at age 94. If he could, he would surely be skewering today's $5 trillion expansion of spending and debt to create growth—and exposing the confederacy of economic dunces urging more of it.

In the 1960s, Friedman famously explained that "there's no such thing as a free lunch." If the government spends a dollar, that dollar has to come from producers and workers in the private economy. There is no magical "multiplier effect" by taking from productive Peter and giving to unproductive Paul. As obvious as that insight seems, it keeps being put to the test. Obamanomics may be the most expensive failed experiment in free-lunch economics in American history.

Equally illogical is the superstition that government can create prosperity by having Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke print more dollars. In the very short term, Friedman proved, excess money fools people with an illusion of prosperity. But the market quickly catches on, and there is no boost in output, just higher prices.

Next to Ronald Reagan, in the second half of the 20th century there was no more influential voice for economic freedom world-wide than Milton Friedman. Small in stature but a giant intellect, he was the economist who saved capitalism by dismembering the ideas of central planning when most of academia was mesmerized by the creed of government as savior.

Some words to remember from the middle of the article, on school choice, and why raising taxes on anybody is a bad idea:

The issue he devoted most of his later years to was school choice for all parents, and his Friedman Foundation for Educational Choice is dedicated to that cause. He used to lament that "we allow the market, consumer choice and competition to work in nearly every industry except for the one that may matter most: education."


As for congressional Republicans who are at risk of getting suckered into a tax-hike budget deal, they may want to remember another Milton Friedman adage: "Higher taxes never reduce the deficit. Governments spend whatever they take in and then whatever they can get away with."

Go here to read the whole thing.  Here are the closing paragraphs: 

In a recent tribute to Friedman in the Journal of Economic Literature, Harvard's Andrei Shleifer describes 1980-2005 as "The Age of Milton Friedman," an era that "witnessed remarkable progress of mankind. As the world embraced free-market policies, living standards rose sharply while life expectancy, educational attainment, and democracy improved and absolute poverty declined."

Here's an idiotic stencil from the "Occupy Wall Street Folks" who don't quite understand that increased trade and freedom are good things:

Well over 200 million were liberated from poverty thanks to the rediscovery of the free market. And now as the world teeters close to another recession, leaders need to urgently rediscover Friedman's ideas.

I remember asking Milton, a year or so before his death, during one of our semiannual dinners in downtown San Francisco: What can we do to make America more prosperous? "Three things," he replied instantly. "Promote free trade, school choice for all children, and cut government spending."

How much should we cut? "As much as possible."

One other thing...Friedman was much criticized for advising some of the regime of Pinochet in Chile.  Protesters met him at the airport, etc.  (No one said anything about him advising China's murderous commie regime, since the Communists were thought to have pure intentions.) 

I'm sending shipments to Chile and China in the next few weeks.  Since Friedman's consultations, these nations have gone from 3rd World Shitholes to prosperous places to live.  They can afford to purchase fruitstands made in the USA.  Chile now afford to purchase entire grocery stores worth of USA-manufactured displays. 

North Korea and Cuba are not yet customers.  Come back, Milton!  We need you !!!

For Henry and Patricia

Will Campbell is the author of "Brother To A Dragonfly", which won the National Book Award in 1978. 

He was the inspiration for Reverend Will B. Dunn in the Kudzu comic strip. 

He earned a Doctorate from the Yale Divinity School. 

Any of those three things would be enough to earn some serious respect.  Campbell was also a civil rights worker in the Deep South during the 60's.  He spoke out against the Viet Nam war when almost everyone around him disagreed.  This was back in the day when "liberals" were against any war, not just Republican wars.  They didn't trust the government, no matter which team was running it. 

Heck of a guy, that Will Campbell. 

My friends Henry and Patricia are getting married this weekend in New Orleans.  I was planning to be there.  They even asked me to get ordained so I could perform the marriage ceremony.  (I got 'er done through the Universal Life Church.)  Because of some personal complications, I'm going to have to think about Henry and Patricia from afar during their wedding. 

Had I been able to be there, my part of the service would've been along these lines, boiled down and condensed considerably.....

Here's Will Campbell, writing about marriage in "Brother To A Dragonfly".  The italics are mine:

If there is a body, a community, which is truly Church, or even claims to be Church, why should it be the executor of Caesar’s documents? What is a marriage license but a legal contract? And what does any legal contract promise and offer except the right to sue one another at another time and place before another of Caesar’s agents? Perhaps such contracts are socially necessary but what does that have to do with us? And even if we are not Church now but want to become Church, free from the demands and legality of Caesar, why not start by returning all of his documents and refusing ever to do it again? “No, Mr. Caesar, that is not our understanding of what marriage is all about. If you must protect yourself and your citizenry in this fashion you may continue to do so. But not with our help and blessing. Let the faithful come before the altar of the One we must serve rather than, and before, you. And acting on His, and only His, authority we will pronounce them man and woman, husband and wife.”

Too Libertarian?  Probably.  Did Henry and Patricia know that's what they'd get if they asked me to do their wedding?  Probably. 

Back to Will Campbell:

I was never again to say, “By the authority vested in me by the State of Tennessee.” If my authority as a priest comes from the State, then I have no authority at all. From that time on, I began all weddings by saying, “Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s. If you have a license, we will sign it at this time.” And then saying to the couple, “Now what we have just done is to endow you with a legal contract. It has nothing to do with Christian marriage. It is nothing more than a contract between you and this state which gives you the right to sue one another if you should ever desire to do so.” And the document is tossed casually, and sometimes contemptuously aside. “Now, the passage which begins ‘Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s continues. ‘And render unto God the things that are God’s.’ And the wedding begins at this point.”

Lord have mercy, I would have enjoyed contemptuously casting that document aside.  Especially during Jazzfest in New Orleans.  Oh well.  Back to Will Campbell:

Maybe one day I will yet follow my conscience and refuse to sign that document at all, ask the couple to have a Justice of the Peace sign the Contract of Caesar. And on a number of occasions there have been no such documents. And by the authority vested in me by Almighty God I have pronounced them man and woman, husband and wife. And I defy Caesar to question that they are married. But those without the document are required to spend an extended amount of time with me and with one another in making sure they are ready for such radical trust and commitment. For they do not have the protection that the legal contract would afford them. They cannot sue one another. They have only themselves, the community if there be one, and the source of the authority which so joins them. Those who have come with no license have not come flaunting liberation but bearing witness to servanthood. They are not products of a new morality but an anachronism of an old morality, a testimony to “Jesus Christ is Lord. Hallelujah!” (from Brother to a Dragonfly, 213-214)

You get the idea. 

Henry Farrish, my friend since the 4th grade, and Patricia Starnes, my friend since freakin' kindertgarten, would've come away from the ceremony knowing that they were by-God married.  I would've tied that knot and yanked on it in front of the entire Ninth Ward to make sure it was going to hold. 

Henry and Patricia have spent 40 to 45 years with me, and I am assured that they are ready for this type of radical trust and commitment. 

They don't need the protection of a legal contract.  Anyone who hangs out with them needs diabetes medication to keep from going into insulin shock. 

They will not sue each other. 

They have something that so many people do not have.
 
I do so wish them all the best. 

Adrian Murray and Ron Paul

A friend of mine from the Conservative/Republican side of the spectrum was at the Ron Paul event at the Will Rogers auditorium in Fort Worth last night.  Adrian Murray is one of my Hometown Heroes, and I was delighted to see him at that event. 

Here's Adrian Murray, writing on Facebook about his experience there:

COULD I BE SECRETARY OF DEFENSE?

Sometimes I think this whole world
Is one big prison yard
Some of us are prisoners
Some of us are guards

Bob Dylan

Having lost my preferred choice for a presidential candidate on Tuesday, I determined that after a suitable period of mourning and reflection the only viable option was to shake it off and begin the search anew, the presumptive, media-anointed frontrunner not being desirable or acceptable.

Last night, as part of this Quixote-like quest, I ventured into the heretofore unexplored dimension of a Ron Paul rally and was witness to something that can only be described as all parts exhilarating, befuddling, encouraging, depressing, moving, maddening and, ultimately, inspiring. More on all that later.

Over the years I have been to more political rallies, events, forums, roundtables, discussion groups, debates and whatever than I care to remember. While a whole range of adjectives from boring to thrilling could be used to describe these events, I have never before been moved to use contradictory metaphors for the same event. Attending a Ron Paul campaign rally is a singularly unique experience. I have never seen anything like it before. Perhaps phenomenal is the word that comes closest in accuracy, not in the ordinary “awesome” sense, but in the other-worldly, spatiotemporal sense.

A little truth in advertising first: I come from an old school of conservatism, a hodgepodge of Strauss, Kirk, Buckley, Reagan and a smattering of other modern day conservative thinkers who shaped my thinking while coming of age in the midst of a persistent nuclear threat during the so-called Cold War, replete with duck and cover, fallout shelters and a young girl sitting in a meadow picking the petals off a daisy. One is shaped by the world one is raised in and then, if playing the game right, uses those experiences to shape the world for those who will inherit it.

The purpose of this piece is not to analyze Mr. Paul’s specific policies, although my worldview does not coalesce with his on many fronts. I do not write this piece from the point of view of a longtime Paul devotee, many of whom (and you know who you are) I have exasperatingly debated over the fallacies I see in some (not all) of his positions. Over the years, though, I have learned (much to my surprise and dismay) that not everyone will agree with my positions on all things and I often frustratingly find myself having internal disagreements with my own stated beliefs. Such is the nature of evolving thought.

I have spoken before a lot of groups in the last several years as we have all grappled with the seeming dissolution of our country. I have half-jokingly said on many of these occasions that the other side doesn’t really have to defeat us politically, they just have to wait for us all to die off so they can implement their plans. My point has been that the greatest issue facing the conservative cause is a demographical one, a lack of diversity that will shortly render the conservative message irrelevant. Where are the youth? I and others have asked. Where are the people of color? Why doesn’t the conservative message resonate?

The answer to where they are could be found last night at the Will Rogers Auditorium. Often at political events there is a sense of excitement, anticipation, a certain buzz in the audience while waiting for the main event. Excitement, anticipation and buzz are weak and inadequate words to describe the pre-rally crowd last night. Energy is even inadequate. What undulated through the thousands who thronged outside before the doors opened last night was a kinetic power, the power of hope, the power of liberation, the power of anger at a system turned upside down, the power of liberation and, yes, the ultimate and emancipating power of freedom. You had to be there to understand it.

Once inside, for the only time in my politically active life, I was transported to a world I had not seen before. There was enough energy in that room to power a skyscraper. Teenagers, college students, whites, Hispanics, African Americans, Asians, middle-aged, elderly, every racial, ethnic, socio-economic, cross cultural ingredient of the American melting pot was there. The auditorium was a cauldron of American citizens who understand and have grasped the true nature of the tyranny which has befallen this nation, a conflagration, if you will, of passion and anger and joy and determination. This is where the fire starts this time. The eruption when Mr. Paul took the stage was deafening.

While I didn’t find much to cheer about on the foreign policy portion of his speech, it is on domestic policy that I find much agreement with Ron Paul. In fact, he could have lifted whole tracks of his speech from my book, Common Ground America. Foreign policy, while a crucial element of any president’s agenda, has slowly shifted from my center of attention to domestic policy, I having long come to the conclusion that the greatest threat to American freedom comes not from foreign governments, but from our own. Sadly, America has become one of the least free nations on earth. Increasingly, everything in our lives is being regulated by a faceless bureaucracy, to a degree that neither Orwell nor Huxley could have imagined. Want to add a room onto your house? Get permission. Want to get married? Get permission. Want to open a business? Get permission. Want to fly a flag in your front yard? Get permission. Want to own a gun? Get permission. Want to open a lemonade stand? Get permission. Want to play Frisbee on the beach? Get fined. Want to preach politics from the pulpit? Get fined. Want to protest your government without permission? Get arrested.

We have become a nation of regulations and licenses and permits, fines and punishment and intimidation by a remorseless, uncaring government. We have become, as Dylan sang in 1971, “One big prison yard”, in which our guards are always watching, always monitoring, always snooping, always threatening, always ready to swoop in with a fine or a cuff or a taser or a bullet should we wander outside the boundaries of what is allowed. The IRS can now revoke your passport should you owe too much on your taxes, making you not just a literal prisoner but a figurative one as well. It has been so long since we were truly free that we don’t even recognize it anymore. Freedom is slowly being snuffed out in American.

Obamacare is only the latest affront to freedom. While lawyers and pundits debate the constitutionality of this provision or that, what goes unstated is the insidious evil of the bill itself. Your very body, your existence, you own life will now belong to the state should Obamacare stand. If your physical body belongs to the state, how then is American freedom defined?

What exactly is our national security securing? Certainly not our liberty. We have been sacrificing ever larger chucks of our liberty to the gods of security for decades now and in the interests of securing our liberty have given it all away. Go to an airport if you want to witness the loss of liberty in all its glorious humiliation. One wonders if we actually were taken over by another power and our Constitution dismantled what exactly could they do to restrict our movements, monitor our activities and control our actions that would be any worse or oppressive than what our own government is doing right now?

This part of Mr. Paul’s message, if I have interpreted it correctly, is what resonates with me. All the other things pale in contrast to our becoming a nation of slaves.

Can Mr. Paul become the next president of the United States? At the risk of inflaming his supporters, I must say I doubt it. The media’s message is that he no longer exists, the question is settled and Mr. Romney is the Republican nominee. It is true Mr. Paul’s most ardent supporters are strenuously working at the precinct level to tilt the delegate count at the Republican convention in his favor. Do they have the numbers to pull that off? I don’t know. But knowing the ones involved locally I would guess their chances are better than 50/50. Will that type of organized effort be successful in enough states nationwide to put Mr. Paul over the top? Your guess is as good as mine. I’m not even going there.

So what did I come away with last night? It can be captured in one picture. Before Mr. Paul was introduced, part of his family took the stage: his wife, one of his sons, a smattering of cousins, nieces and nephews. That picture tells us all we need to know. They are us. They weren’t pulled from central casting, exquisitely coifed and finely tailored, prepped and ready for the cameras. No. They are a family. They are us.

Where personally do I go now? As I said, I have more internal debates than an outwardly sane person should admit. For over three years now I have been looking for an army - an army to take on the anti-Americans, the Communists, the statists, the outright criminals running our government. An army of citizens fiercely devoted to liberty and the founding principles of America. One rose up three years ago but slowly faded away. As I looked around the room last night, I saw a lot of faces I recognized from the past, from the ghost army that either became dispirited or no longer believed in the message. So this is where you all went….

The flame of liberty’s torch is no longer just slowly being extinguished. Each day brings new Executive Orders, new laws, new regulations, each more ominous than the last. Corruption in our government and our financial markets is rampant. The disease of dependency is infecting every layer of society. America is dying. We need an army of citizens, motivated and committed, to restore liberty in America, to breathe new life, new vibrancy into a nation on life support. We will not return our nation’s vitality with lawyers. We will not be prescribed the cures for our ailments by opportunistic politicians pedaling the latest edition of What Will It Take to Buy Your Vote. We simply will not. America is on the brink of flatlining.

Which logically only leads to one question:

Is there a doctor in the house?

Which logically only leads to one answer:

Ron Paul 2012

Adrian Murry has now been exposed to The Gateway Drug.  We all know what the next step is for him, don't we?  The man is too well-read and too smart to be in any party except.....

On Unpopular Opinions

Hey, Libertarians ! Getting tired of being called "outside the mainstream"? Or too radical?

The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the unreasonable man. - George Bernard Shaw

Fox News to cancel Freedom Watch !!

Fox Business News Network has announced plans to cancel Judge John Napolitano's Freedom Watch program. 

This is not a good thing. 

With the exception of John Stossel's show, there is no other program on TV devoted to Libertarian issues, and Stossel's program suffers from the same problem as this blog.....How many times and how many ways can you prove that the government is totally screwed before you get tired of the project?  How many wars?  How much debt?  How many drug war prisoners?   How many insane giveways to insiders?  How many illiterate and innumerate high school graduates?  How many generation of a family have to be on welfare?  What is it going to take?   

You've got the Welfare/Warfare Statists on Castro News Network and MSDNC.  You've got the Warfare/Welfare Statists on Fox News.    Napolitano is passionately anti-corporate welfare, anti-military industrial complex, anti-drug war, and anti-nanny state.  He found a home for several years on Fox Business, and has spent the last few months exposing the fundamental silliness of the Mewts and Santorum. 
 
Well, that explains the parent Fox network cancellation, doesn't it? 

Here's a video of someone discussing the issue with Wayne Allyn Root, the Las Vegas Libertarian oddsmaker.  (John Spivey and I once had a pleasant evening drinking most of the beer that was iced down in Root's hotel suite bathtub.) 

Fox Business has the right to broadcast whatever they choose to broadcast. (Some might say they have some responsibility to show some diverse viewpoints because of government licensing of the airwaves, but that's another conversation for another time.)

However, customers of the network's advertisers, and the suits who sell advertising for Fox need to know that some viewers aren't happy with this decision. Here are the people to contact:

FOX News Digital
Digital Media Sales
1211 Avenue of the Americas, 22 Floor
New York, NY 10036
(212) 301-5473

Fox Business Network
John McCann
VP, Advertising Sales, FBN
(212) 301-5009

Direct Response/Paid Programming Sales
Lisa Bortolato
Director, Direct Response
(212) 301-5418

Political and Issue Advertising
Digital Media Sales
John McCann
VP, Political Advertising Fox News Networks
(212) 301-5009

Email Fox Business at:
advertise@foxbusiness.com

A touching moment from Camelot

For one brief shining moment, that was here in Camelot....

Go here. 

I know that the New York Post isn't the most respected news source.  So go here for the book from which the quotes are taken.  The book is published by Random House. 

Please, please, please remember this one thing when dealing with all things political:  Politicians shouldn't be our "leaders".  They shouldn't be seen as heroes or role models.  They aren't supposed to run the country.  They are ordinary humans just like you and me.   

Barack Obama isn't The Chosen One who will save us all.  George W. Bush wasn't "The Decider".  Ronald Reagan wasn't The Great Communicator.  (Hell, all he did was talk small and spend big.)  Ron Paul has obvious virtues, chief among them a consistent voting record for small government, but he's just a good guy.  Nothing less, but nothing more. 

Politicians aren't the quarterbacks.  They are supposed to be referees for the game.  They should provide some security for the players and fans.  If they want to be cheerleaders, that probably doesn't hurt anything.  But the minute they start designing plays, picking winners and losers, or God help us, trying to run a few plays, they screw up.  We pay the price for their mistakes.  They almost never do.   

YOU are the quarterback. 

Is Washington having to deal with any problems that weren't created by Washington? 

Electing a president should be no more important than choosing a new lawn and garden service.  If it really matters who wins your elections, then your government has gotten too big. 

Here's Richard Harris, now better known as the first guy to play Albus Dumbledore in the Harry Potter movies, singing about Camelot.

Barack Obama is the greatest president ever.

Barack Obama, if judged by current standards, is the greatest U.S. president EVER. 
I've made that proclamation before, but it was premature.  That was nothing more than a wild prediction based on incomplete evidence. 
Obama is the greatest.  There is no competition. 

George W. gave the military industrial complex a beautiful gift in Iraq and Afghanistan.  If your aircraft, helicopter, defense contractor, or bomb-making company gave to George W., he gave back to you.   

Clinton, if judged by those standards, was a total failure.  I challenge anyone to name a major boondoggle that Clinton gave a supporter.  (To qualify as major, it has to be tens of millions, BTW.)

George the 1st had a preliminary Iraq excursion, but it was in-and-out and over too quickly.
 
Reagan spent money like a drunk cowboy, with the stated goal of bankrupting the Soviets.  He did well for his supporters.  He gets an honorable mention, but was no more than a John The Baptist wandering in the wilderness telling the politically connected to get ready for the real thing. 

Carter?  He created the Department Of Energy, which is a sort of venture capital firm that loans out your money to companies willing to paint their machinery green.  Carter truly paved the way, rolling out the red carpet for the Teleprompter Jesus.  Carter is first runner-up. 

But Obama has retired the trophy. 

If politicians are to be judged by the pounds of pork, slop, loot and graft they can hand a supporter, and this seems to be the standard for most voters, then Barack Hussein Obama is the greatest president who ever lived. 

Go here.  Hit that link.  It's beautiful.  (And green.)  Fans of Chicago-style graft, kickbacks and corruption will get down on their knees and thank God they were alive to experience something like this.  Seriously.  Here's THE LINK again.  Hit it. 

The definition of a boondoggle came from here.  The picture of a boondoggle came from here. 

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

Charlie Robison at 8.0's in downtown Fort Worth

Because God loves me, and wants me to be happy, I got to hear one of my heroes do an all-acoustic show at 8.0's in downtown Fort Worth last night. 
Yes, Charlie Robison took on human flesh and dwelt among us. 

Thanks to the generosity of The Aggie, I'd heard him with his new band about a month and a half ago, for something like the 12th time.  But this was the first time I'd been to an all-acoustic show. 

The hairy guy backing Charlie up was excellent. 
The sound system was excellent. 

Charlie did all of his standard schtick: Lots of Fake Irish Dancing in the crowd for "John O'Reilly", inviting some ladies to sing with him on "The Wedding Song", and and getting the crowd to sing along during "Loving County". 

In the middle of everything, just to prove that he could, he threw in a couple of Steve Miller songs. 

I was close enough to the stage to touch the hem of his garments. 

It was a great, great time.  Charlie's music makes me glad to be alive. 

Here's Mr. Robison doing an acoustic version of "John O'Reilly".

Some tax advice for Stephen King

Here's one of my typing heroes, Stephen King, on the tax code, compliments of a link from Don Surber:

Some of the highlights:

Now you might say, what are you doing up there? Aren’t you rich? The answer is: thank God, yes. Because I grew up poor. I lived in a family where my mother asked donated commodities from a Republican administration and got turned down. That’s where I came from. And you know what, as a rich person I pay 28% tax.

What I want to ask you is why am I not paying fifty?

The answer, Mr. King, is that you have chosen to pay less.  Just like Warren Buffett, Bill Gates, John Kerry, Barack Obama, Nancy Pelosi, Michael Moore, Harry Reid all pay less than they could.  Why do they pay less than they could? 

Because none of them are idiots, and because all of them pay accountants to ensure that they pay less. 
Stephen King, unless he's a total idiot, has a tax advisor.  This person works very hard to see to it that Stephen King's money isn't wasted. 

If Stephen King wants to pay more, he can write a check to:

Gifts to the United States

U.S. Department of the Treasury
Credit Accounting Branch
3700 East-West Highway, Room 622D
Hyattsville, MD 20782

From the emails of The Blogfather

From an email sent to Glenn Reynolds....

Reader Geoff Lackey emails: “You’ve been writing about this lately, so I thought I’d pass this on: Yesterday, about a week after Verizon announced its iphone data plans, AT&T notified me that the size of my data plan was now doubled (2GB up to 4GB) with no rate increase. Wow, this free-market competition stuff kinda works. Someone tell Obama.”

Is there any doubt that opening up the medical/pharmaceutical monopolies to some unregulated competition would help with costs?  Give me a choice between something that Joehn Boehner and Barack Obama have regulated and a product with an "unregulated" sticker on it at a lower price?  Guess which one I'm picking. 

Lord have mercy, I love Glenn Reynolds' site (Instapundit).  From now on, Mr. Reynolds shall be known as "The Blogfather".