From the people who are about to take over healthcare....

Here's a Justice System Update, courtesy of Instapundit:

Man Left in Solitary Confinement for 2 Horrific Years … for Suspected DUI. “After Steven’s arrest on suspicion of DUI and driving a stolen car, he was placed in solitary confinement because because officers felt he might be ‘suicidal.’ There, he was essentially forgotten about by the legal system. He was given no health care. His toenails grew so long they curled around his feet. He developed bed sores. A fungus grew on his skin after being denied showers. He lost a ton of weight. His hair grew long and shaggy — he looks like he just got off a desert island. He descended into madness. And his dental problems grew so severe that he was forced to pull out one of his rotting teeth by himself. Eventually, after 22 months, Steven was released after all charges against him were dismissed.”

The poor guy is now batshit crazy, but has won 15.5 million in a lawsuit.  

"His mental health has been severely compromised from the time he was in that facility. That continues to be the same. No amount of money will bring back what they took away from him," Matt Coyte, Slevin's Albuquerque-based attorney, said on Wednesday. "But it’s nice to be able to get him some money so he can improve where he is in life and move on."

And the people who were running the prison?  Still employed there.
The people who paid the fine?  The citizens of New Mexico.

Wait until the same mindset takes hold in our intensive care wards.
Go here to read occasional updates on Britain's National Health Service.  
Go hear to read about the recently formed political party opposed to any NHS reforms!  (Kinda like postmen forming a union to retain 6-day letter delivery in Merigold MS in the age of email.)
Hey, anybody can make a mistake, right?  

The Pruitt-Igoe....Myth? Tonight at 7:00 p.m.

I've turned this into an recommended event for the Tarrant County Libertarian Party.  Hope to see you there....

The Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth (3200 Darnell St, Fort Worth, TX, in the museum district) is showing the documentary film "The Pruitt Iago Myth" on March 7.  The doors open at 6:30 p.m.  Tickets are free, but on a first-come, first-served basis.  The film begins at 7:00 p.m.

Here's an experiment:  Type "Public Housing Demolition" into Google, and it will auto-complete with "New Orleans".  "Atlanta".  "Chicago".  (It seems that top-down, centrally planned public housing projects generally face the wrecking ball after 20-25 years.)

Type "Public Housing Implosion" into Google, and your computer won't even think twice.  It will take you to the infamous St. Louis Pruitt-Iago Public Housing complex.

Here's what Alexander Von Hoffman of Harvard had to say about Pruitt-Iago:

"St. Louis's Pruitt-Igoe housing project is arguably the most infamous public housing project ever built in the United States. A product of the postwar federal public-housing program, this mammoth high-rise development was completed in 1956.

Only a few years later, disrepair, vandalism, and crime plagued Pruitt-Igoe. The project's recreational galleries and skip-stop elevators, once heralded as architectural innovations, had become nuisances and danger zones. Large numbers of vacancies indicated that even poor people preferred to live anywhere but Pruitt-Igoe. In 1972, after spending more than $5 million in vain to cure the problems at Pruitt-Igoe, the St. Louis Housing Authority, in a highly publicized event, demolished three of the high-rise buildings. A year later, in concert with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, it declared Pruitt-Igoe unsalvageable and razed the remaining buildings.

Pruitt-Igoe has lived on symbolically as an icon of failure. Liberals perceive it as exemplifying the government's appalling treatment of the poor. Architectural critics cite it as proof of the failure of high-rise public housing for families with children. One critic even asserted that its destruction signaled the end of the modern style of architecture."

And yet, the makers of this documentary, and perhaps the city of Fort Worth (official sponsors of this showing !) claim that we shouldn't try to learn too much from this supposedly failed experiment.  Here's some more info from the documentary's official website:

"And yet, despite this complex history, Pruitt-Igoe has often been stereotyped. The world-famous image of its implosion has helped to perpetuate a myth of failure, a failure that has been used to critique Modernist architecture, (and) attack public assistance programs..... The Pruitt-Igoe Myth seeks to set the historical record straight. To examine the interests involved in Pruitt-Igoe’s creation. To re-evaluate the rumors and the stigma. To implode the myth."

Let's attend this showing and learn for ourselves if the stories of the Pruitt-Igoe meltdown are lies, legends, or merely a case of bad luck for city bureaucrats.  The City Of Fort Worth's Human Relations Unit will hold a Q&A session afterwards.

Those who don't remember the past are condemned to repeat it.  March 7th, at The Modern.  Show up at 6:30.

Trickle-Down Stimulus

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

"Trickle-Down Stimulus". 

Try it. 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Keynesian Trifecta - Theft, Borrowing and Counterfeiting

To hear Washington tell it, if we cut back on the increase, not the total, but the increase of government spending, we're going to go bankrupt, resort to cannibalism, and start listening to disco again.  30 seconds of video here.  Please watch it.  Who does it remind you of? 



Let's break down the Keynesian Logic (sic) here....

Economies rely on spending. 

I spend a lot, and you spend a lot. 

Government takes money from both of us, and spends it.  This makes it look like government spends even more, and is even more vital.  But it's the same amount of money. 

But even if we weren't spending our money instantly, we would have it in a bank.  The bank attracts our savings by paying interest.  The only way they can generate this interest it by loaning it to other people who want to..... spend it. 

Government takes our money by force.  If the only rationale for this theft is to create jobs and help the economy, we could be doing that without their freakin' help.  I want to create jobs in industries that I like, not necessarily in industries that have given The Teleprompter Jesus a shitload of contributions.  Plus, even though I'm a moral leper, I still don't like giving money to an asshole who blows up children with drones.   

Some of the other money pumped into our economy is borrowed from other nations, other individuals, or from ourselves.  Keynesian economists don't worry about this, mostly because they're not the ones who will have to pay it back. 

The other money pumped into our economy is printed at a facility on Blue Mound Road in Fort Worth TX, or at another facility in Washington D.C.  Nothing is backing it.  Not gold, not silver.  It's just paper. 

Taking money by force is bad.  Printing money out of thin air is bad.  Borrowing isn't necessarily bad in some cases, but if you're putting the loan on the credit cards of 5-year-olds, it's bad.   

If the only things keeping our economy afloat are 1) theft 2) borrowing, and 3) counterfeiting, then we need to re-examine everything we think we know about government, economics, and politics. 

The piper is coming, and he's gonna get paid. 

Robbing Peter to pay Paul. Krugman.

Paul Krugman says that our national debt is not a problem.
Go here for his explanation.  (For those with little time for such, his explanation is "Those who rob Peter to pay Paul Krugman will always have the support of Paul Krugman, especially when Peter is still wearing diapers.")

Here's a handy chart, showing our Fed debt per capita as compared to other countries.

Here are some videos of what's happening in Greece - which doesn't even take the silver or bronze medal in this race.
If you think it can't happen here, you're sadly mistaken.
And this one:
Start saving your metal. The Mormons always put away one year's worth of food. I'm stockpiling Jim Beam and Purina dachshund chow.
 I betcha Krugman's getting nervous too.

Where will you find enough angels? - Milton Friedman

I often find myself surfing the net, reading magazines, listening to the radio, and (when drunk) watching television, and wondering about people.
Yeah, people.
I wonder about all the people who think that our government should "do something".  Take charge.  Regulate.  Otherwise, the big corporations will have their way with us.  Businessmen are only in it for the money, you know....
There are actually people, living, breathing humans, people who can feed themselves with a knife and fork, yet believe that governments should own all of the oil companies.  They believe that our government should set all wages and set price margins.  It really is astounding.

Here's a crusty old exchange between Phil Donahue and Milton Friedman.  I've probably watched the YouTube a dozen times, but this guy blessed us with a transcript.

Enjoy.  And just for grins, I followed it with Wikipedia's links to every Federal-level political scandal going all the way back to the founding of the republic.  Politicians and bureaucrats don't become economic eunuchs when they go in and out Obama's door from business to government.  They're just like you and just like me - providing for themselves and their families first, and then their supporters.  Any other considerations are waaaaaay down the line.  

Phil Donahue: When you see around the globe, the mal-distribution of wealth, a desperate plight of millions of people in underdeveloped countries. When you see so few “haves” and so many “have-nots.” When you see the greed and the concentration of power. Did you ever have a moment of doubt about capitalism and whether greed is a good idea to run on?

Milton Friedman: Well first of all tell me is there some society you know that doesn’t run on Greed? You think Russia doesn’t run on greed? You think China doesn’t run on greed? What is greed? Of course none of us are greedy, it’s only the other fellow who is greedy. The world runs on individuals pursuing their separate interests.

The great achievements of civilization have not come from government bureaus. Einstein didn’t construct his theory under order from a bureaucrat. Henry Ford didn’t revolutionize the automobile industry that way.

In the only cases in which the masses have escaped from the kind of grinding poverty you’re talking about – the only cases in recorded history – are where they have had capitalism and largely free trade.

If you want to know where the masses are worst off, it’s exactly in the kinds of societies that depart from that. So that the record of history is absolutely crystal clear that there is no alternative way so far discovered of improving the lot of the ordinary people that can hold a candle to the productive activities that are unleashed by a free enterprise system.

Donahue: But it seems to reward not virtue as much as ability to manipulate the system…

Friedman: And what does reward virtue? You think the Communist commissar rewarded virtue? You think a Hitler rewarded virtue? You think – excuse me – if you’ll pardon me – do you think American Presidents reward virtue ?

Do they choose their appointees on the basis of the virtue of the people appointed or on the basis of their political clout ?

Is it really true that political self-interest is nobler somehow than economic self-interest ? You know, I think you’re taking a lot of things for granted. Just tell me where in the world you find these angels who are going to organize society for us ? Well, I don’t even trust you to do that. 

1 Scope and organization of political scandals

2 Federal government scandals

• 2.1 2009– Obama Administration
  • 2.1.1 Executive Branch
  • 2.1.2 Legislative Branch
  • 2.1.3 Judicial Branch
• 2.2 2001–2009 George W. Bush Administration
  • 2.2.1 Executive Branch
  • 2.2.2 Legislative Branch
• 2.3 1993–2001 Bill Clinton Administration
  • 2.3.1 Executive Branch
  • 2.3.2 Legislative Branch
• 2.4 1989–1993 George H. W. Bush Administration
  • 2.4.1 Executive Branch
  • 2.4.2 Legislative Branch
  • 2.4.3 Judicial Branch
• 2.5 1981–1989 Ronald Reagan Administration
  • 2.5.1 Executive Branch
  • 2.5.2 Legislative Branch
  • 2.5.3 Judicial Branch
• 2.6 1977–1981 James E. Carter Administration
  • 2.6.1 Executive Branch
  • 2.6.2 Legislative branch
• 2.7 1974–1977 Gerald Ford Administration
  • 2.7.1 Executive Branch
  • 2.7.2 Legislative Branch
  • 2.7.3 Judicial Branch
• 2.8 1969–1974 Richard M. Nixon Administration
  • 2.8.1 Executive Branch
  • 2.8.2 Legislative Branch
  • 2.8.3 Judicial Branch
• 2.9 1963–1969 Lyndon B. Johnson Administration
  • 2.9.1 Executive Branch
  • 2.9.2 Legislative Branch
  • 2.9.3 Judicial Branch
• 2.10 1961–1963 John F. Kennedy Administration
  • 2.10.1 Legislative Branch
• 2.11 1953–1961 Dwight D. Eisenhower Administration
  • 2.11.1 Executive Branch
  • 2.11.2 Legislative Branch
• 2.12 1945–1953 Harry S. Truman Administration
  • 2.12.1 Executive Branch
  • 2.12.2 Legislative Branch
• 2.13 1933–1945 Franklin Delano Roosevelt Administration
  • 2.13.1 Legislative Branch
  • 2.13.2 Judicial Branch
• 2.14 1929–1933 Herbert Hoover Administration
  • 2.14.1 Legislative Branch
• 2.15 1923–1929 Calvin Coolidge Administration
• 2.16 1921–1923 Warren G. Harding Administration
  • 2.16.1 Executive Branch
  • 2.16.2 Legislative Branch
• 2.17 1913–1921 Woodrow Wilson Administration
  • 2.17.1 Executive Branch
• 2.18 1909–1913 William Howard Taft Administration
  • 2.18.1 Legislative Branch
  • 2.18.2 Judicial branch
• 2.19 1900–1909 Theodore Roosevelt Administration
  • 2.19.1 Legislative Branch
• 2.20 1878–1898
  • 2.20.1 Executive Branch
  • 2.20.2 Legislative Branch
• 2.21 1869–1877 Ulysses S. Grant Administration
  • 2.21.1 Executive branch
  • 2.21.2 Legislative branch
  • 2.21.3 Judicial branch
• 2.22 1865–1869 Andrew Johnson administration
  • 2.22.1 Executive branch
• 2.23 1861–1865 Abraham Lincoln administrations
  • 2.23.1 Executive branch
• 2.24 1857–1861 James Buchanan administration
  • 2.24.1 Legislative Branch
• 2.25 1849–1850 Zachary Taylor administration
  • 2.25.1 Executive Branch
• 2.26 1829–1836 Andrew Jackson administrations
  • 2.26.1 Executive Branch
• 2.27 1817–1824 James Monroe administrations
  • 2.27.1 Legislative Branch
• 2.28 1801–1808 Thomas Jefferson administrations
  • 2.28.1 Executive branch
  • 2.28.2 Judicial Branch
• 2.29 1797–1800 John Adams administration
  • 2.29.1 Executive Branch
• 2.30 1789–1796 George Washington administrations
  • 2.30.1 Legislative Branch
• 2.31 1777–1788
• 2.31.1 Executive Branch

Facebook Fodder For Libertarians

For everyone who wants to put liberty-oriented conversation starters on Facebook every day of their lives, here are a few resources:

All American Blogger has a selection of 99 Great Libertarian Quotes.  Here's a sampling.

1. A government which robs Peter to pay Paul, can always count on the support of Paul. – George Bernard Shaw
2. America needs fewer laws, not more prisons. – James Bovard
3. War is just one more big government program. – Joseph Sobran
4. Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide. – John Adams (1814)

5. They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety. – Benjamin Franklin
6. One of the greatest delusions in the world is the hope that the evils in this world are to be cured by legislation. – Thomas B. Reed (1886)
7. If you are not free to choose wrongly and irresponsibly, you are not free at all. – Jacob Hornberger (1995)
8. Giving money and power to government is like giving whiskey and car keys to teenage boys. – P.J. O’Rourke
9. The more corrupt the state, the more it legislates. – Tacitus
10. Government is not reason; it is not eloquence; it is force. Like fire, it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master. – George Washington

The other 89 are just as good.  

Artist Dan McCall creates some of the greatest posters, prints, t-shirts, and blog illustrations on the Net.  

Go here for generic Free Stuff like this.

Or free desktop wallpaper like this:

And then there's his art and print gallery.  There's probably something in here for everybody.  That doesn't mean everybody will like this one.....

Dan also puts some of his work-in-progress on Facebook.  He's a great guy.  Friend him.  

And then there's Reddit.  

Reddit is a place where, no matter how much of an individual you think you are, you can find a few hundred people just like.....you.  

Here's a link to Libertarian Reddit.  Browse the top articles.  Facebook 'em.  Tweet 'em.  Email 'em.  

I hope you have fun with this stuff.  

Try to remember this one important rule:  "Polite People Never Change Anything".  

You might be a Libertarian....Part Deux

I posted some of this back in 2010.  Here it is again with quite a few updates.  Enjoy!!

If you've ever waited at a stoplight and wondered how much more efficient it would be if stoplights were privatized, you might be a Libertarian. 

If you've ever wondered who told Papa Smurf that he could boss around all the other Smurfs, you might just be a Libertarian.

If you know how to pronounce the name "Ludwig Von Mises", you might be a Libertarian. 

If one of your buddies once "reluctantly called the Fire Department", he might be a Libertarian.

If your dogs know to run out of the room when someone on CNN says the word "stimulus", you might be a Libertarian.

If you think the funniest three words in the English language are "Small Government Republican", you might be a Libertarian.

If you've ever gone camping on Halloween, under a full moon, next to a cemetery, and waited til midnight to build a campfire so you and your buddies can sit around it and read Obama's Jobs Bill, you might be a Libertarian.

If you can't see a Broken Window without thinking of a dead French economist, you might be a Libertarian.

If you can explain why Ben Bernanke should be prosecuted as a counterfeiter, you're a Libertarian.

If you've ever stood behind a podium and boasted that "Our candidate broke 5 percent !", you might be a Libertarian. 

If the audience started applauding madly, they were all Libertarians. 

If you've ever had a dream where you were locked in a room with Alexander Hamilton, a rabid dog, one gun, and two bullets, and in your dream you shot Alexander Hamilton twice....you might be a Libertarian. 

If you win a celebrity lunch with someone named "Hayek" but are secretly disappointed that it is Selma and not Friederich, you're a Libertarian.

If your top three baby names under consideration are Cato, Dagny, and Atlas, you might be a Libertarian. 

If you've ever wondered why we're spending money to have our navy defend Japan and Taiwan from China, using money that we're borrowing from....China, you just might be a Libertarian.

If you root for certain sports teams because they don't play in publicly funded stadiums, you might be a Libertarian.

If you know how many ounces of silver any of your friends own, you might be a Libertarian.

If you've ever been to a Tea Party rally, a NORML meeting, a Gay Rights parade, a Peace Run, and helped staff a gun show all in the same month?  You're probably me.  And you're a Libertarian. 

If you've ever paid twice as much for a black leather jacket instead of a similar brown one, because black is what Nick Gillespie wears, you might be a Libertarian.

If you didn't have to hit the link in the previous joke, you're a Libertarian.

If you think that Barry Goldwater was too soft on Communism, you might be a Libertarian. 

If you think that Karl Marx's quote "From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs" is a great way to encourage people to hide their abilities and publicize their needs, well, you might be a Libertarian.  (I don't know where I first heard that.  Will give attribution if someone will tell me.)

If you've ever Googled the words "John Stossel DVD Boxed Set", you might be a Libertarian. 

If you think the phrase "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" should apply to almost everything, because after all it's nobody else's damn business as long as nobody else gets hurt, you might be a Libertarian.

If you've ever broken up with someone because she wouldn't say "Federal Reserve Note" instead of "Dollar", you might be a Libertarian. 

If you've ever spent an entire damn day going through damn job applications looking for a decent damn employee, and wondered why the damn public schools can't produce graduates who can write or spell, but the Catholic and other parochial schools don't have that damn problem???  You might be a pissed off Libertarian who wishes he didn't have to pay the damn schools to produce more damn illiterates.  Dammit.

If you've ever carried a pistol because policemen are just too damn heavy, you might be a Libertarian. 

If you not only believe that marijuana should be legalized, but that morphine sulfate should be available in five pound bags at the supermarket for a couple of bucks, like sugar... but probably in a different aisle, to avoid confusion, well, if you go that far with it, you're probably a Libertarian. 

If you've ever gone into a singles bar thinking that The Nolan Chart would be a good conversation starter, you just might be a Libertarian. 

If you've ever officiated at a wedding, and began the ceremony by making fun of the marriage "license" concept, you might be a Libertarian.

If you followed that with a refusal to say "by the power vested in me by the state of Texas", you might be a Libertarian.

If everyone in the wedding party and congregations laughed like hell, they were all Libertarians.

If you own one of the rare Milton Friedman action figures, you might be a Libertarian.

And last, but not least, if you understood everything I just wrote, you might be a Libertarian. 

Go here to join the party ! !

Quotes from The Reality Based Community

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

On Milton Friedman's Barking Cat

Let's start off with some vintage Milton Friedman:

 In a recent column (Newsweek Jan 8, 1973), I pointed out that approval of drugs by the Food and Drug Administration delays and prevents the introduction of useful as well as harmful drugs. After giving reasons why the adverse effects could be expected to be far more serious than the beneficial effects, I summarized a fascinating study by Prof. Sam Peltzman, of UCLA of experience before and after 1962, when standards were stiffened. His study decisively confirmed the expectation that the bad effects would much outweigh the good.    The column evoked letters from a number of persons in pharmaceutical work offering tales of woe to confirm my allegation that the FDA was indeed "Frustrating Drug Advancement," as I titled the column. But most also said something like, "In contrast to your opinion, I do not believe that the FDA should be abolished, but I do believe that its power should be" changed in such and such a way - to quote from a typical letter.    I replied as follows: "What would you think of someone who said, " I would like to have a cat, provided it barked"? Yet your statement that you favor an FDA provided it behaves as you believe desirable is precisely equivalent. The biological laws that specify the characteristics of cats are no more rigid than the political laws that specify the behavior of governmental agencies once they are established. The way the FDA now behaves, and the adverse consequences are not an accident, not a result of some easily corrected human mistake, but a consequence of its constitution in precisely the same way that a meow is related to the constitution of a cat. As a natural scientist, you recognize that you cannot assign characteristics at will to chemical and biological entities, cannot demand that cats bark or water burn. Why do you suppose that the situation is different in the "social sciences?"

In other words, to wish for an efficient, non-corrupt, economical government service is to wish for a "barking cat".  

Now let's go to something more recent, from the UK's Mail Online.  Britain's dreaded National Health Service has killed something like 1,200 people through sheer godawful neglect, and the government flunkies have responded by (pick one) simply 1) firing those responsible 2) privatizing their system 3) vowing to keep government out of citizens' lives, or 4) paying whistleblowers to shut the hell up.  

Hit the link.  Check out the comments.  A good number of the Brits are saying sensible things, but far too many are wishing for a barking cat.  And there's no such thing as a barking cat, no matter how you design it, or what was intended.  Sad.

If these idiots spent the money on 750 nurses, they probably won't need to gag any one !

The original principle was beyond reproach but sadly I believe it has lost it's way, been allowed to get too big, and 'governed/controlled' by self serving idiotsIf the government was serious about tackling this abuse of power, they would declare all these gagging clauses null and void. Also they would take steps to ensure that the authoritarian, bullying managers who are responsible for this state of affairs, are sacked.

Revelation after revelation but what will be done ? NOTHING ! What will change ? NOTHING ! It never does. This would be bad enough if it was confined to the NHS but it isn't ! Every public sector departments are riddled with overpaid, 3rd rate middleweight, incompetent managers who are never held responsible for their failures as they would be in the private sector. They demand to be paid the going rate for a first class manager but none would last 5 minutes in the real world. There needs to be a complete pay and conditions restructuring from the top down in all departments not just the NHS. Without this things will only get worse !

Being open and honest and fully accountable about problems and accepting and recognising there is a problem is the first step to resolving the problem. Preventing legitimate organisational operational concerns and problems being discussed, resolved and publicly available lead to the same problems being repeated and cause serious problems for patient's blighted by hospital blunders and mistakes. Only by learning from previous mistakes and taking real decisive action to prevent repeating mistakes with a genuine will, can the preventable suffering of future patients be avoided. It does not take a consultant to work this out do why does continue to be the case inquiry after inquiry for decades? The culture of secrecy surrounding mistakes needs to stop now and the superiority culture of the medical hierarchy that say they are always right must end.

Sorry boys.  You can fire all the government managers, you can re-structure your government programs, and you can rant and moan and express your outrage in the comment fields of your newspapers all you want.   

You can't make a barking cat.  

One day, one year, the glass will be half-full

Marvel Variants stopped scamming comic book collectors long enough to send me this helpful chart. 
It shows the "recovery" projections done each year by the Congressional Budget Office. 

If we just keep pulling money out of the productive part of the economy and putting it into the unproductive part, the economy will eventually take off.....

Right? 

Anybody?  Yes?  Dr. Krugman? 

I think I'm going to "rebuke" Obamacare

The video is only 60 seconds long. Watch it. Then, everybody, on the count of three.... "I REBUKE THEE, I REBUKE THEE, I REBUKE THEE, OBAMACARE!!!"

Food For The Machine - Anger Management Edition

We worked last Saturday (yesterday) .
One of my temp employees asked if he could leave at 9:30 in the morning.  It seems that he has to go to a series of  court-ordered "Anger Management" sessions on Saturday mornings.

Any time the government mandates that someone do something for his own good, I'm automatically skeptical, so I asked the kid if the meetings were worthwhile.  Here's what he said:

Well, you have to pay this lady $15.00, and then we sit around and smoke for about the first 30 minutes because it never starts on time.  Then this dude comes in and we sit in a circle and bullshit for a while, then somebody tells about how he was in this bar a few days ago and somebody bumped him, and how before the meetings he woulda kicked that dude's ass, but now that he's going to the meetings he didn't.
And we'll all start clappin' and shit, and some other dudes will start crying, and the counselor dude says that's really good and how we all need to keep it up.
You don't have to talk or even be awake.  The main thing is giving that lady $15.00.  

This kid could've spent most of his morning building displays for grocery stores.  Instead, he had to give his time and money to a couple of government lifers.

The more I learn about our government, the greater the likelihood that I'll be going to the Anger-Management sessions.  Sheesh.

The Real Cost Of Shrinking Government

The New York Holy Times is having a conniption fit over the slight chance that government spending will be cut.
Most of this "sequester" spending cut is bullshit.  It's a cut from the rate of increase, not a "cut" in the sense that you use the word.
Here we go....

In less than two weeks, a cleaver known as the sequester will fall on some of the most important functions of the United States government. About $85 billion will be cut from discretionary spending over the next seven months, reducing defense programs by about 8 percent and domestic programs by about 5 percent. Only a few things will be spared, including some basic safety-net benefits like Social Security, as well as pay for enlisted military personnel.

Considering that we need to cut by about 50%, and then go further, this is a good thing.

The sequester will not stop to contemplate whether these are the right programs to cut; it is entirely indiscriminate, slashing programs whether they are bloated or essential. The military budget, for example, should be reduced substantially, but thoughtfully, considering the nation’s needs. Instead, every weapons system, good or bad, will be hurt, as will troop training and maintenance.

I've been through these types of cutbacks before with various companies.  It's fairly easy.  It hurts, but it's easy.  However, John Boehner has been confronted with a 3 billion dollar cut to an aircraft engine program in his district.  Defense Secretary Gates said we didn't need the engines.  Boehner said that the military did indeed need them.
That's why you'll never see "thoughtful" cuts.  We need slash and burn.  Your share of the debt (if you're a taxpayer) is more than 50K.

These cuts, which will cost the economy more than one million jobs over the next two years, are the direct result of the Republican demand in 2011 to shrink the government at any cost, under threat of a default on the nation’s debt. Many Republicans say they would still prefer the sequester to replacing half the cuts with tax revenue increases. But the government spending they disdain is not an abstract concept. In a few days, the cuts will begin affecting American life and security in significant ways.

Horseshit, horseshit, horseshit.  If Washington is putting their Corvette and caviar purchases on maxed-out credit cards over and over again, no sane economist would claim that their stopping would cost the economy more than one million jobs.
If taxpayers don't have to pay for pork projects, they'll use the money for other things - things that they choose, not what Washington and The New York Holy Times choose.  I'd like to buy another Ford F-150 instead of another F-16.  

While some departments may have exaggerated the dire effects of their reductions, Congressional budget experts say they have little doubt that the size and pervasive nature of the sequester will inflict widespread pain. Here are some examples from the government departments most affected:

They go on to list, department by department, the horrific outcomes we should expect from any cutbacks at all.  Most of these departments should've been privatized years ago.
Don't believe what they're selling.  They're partying their butts off on your dollars.
How long are you going to tolerate it?  

Samizdata's Quote Of The Day

I've long admired the Samizdata blog.
Every now and then, they admire this site.

Go here for their quote of the day.  Check out the comments, when time permits.

Thanks for all the traffic, Perry !!

Reaction Wordcloud to the State Of The Union speech

Go here. 
This is the worldcloud of responses to last night's State Of the Union address.  From USA Today. 

Does Barack Obama hate black people??

Here's the late senator Jacob Javitz on why he supported minimum wage legislation:

"I point out to Senators from industrial states like my own that a minimum wage increase would also give industry in our states some measure of protection, as we have too long suffered from the unfair competition based on substandard wages and other labor conditions in effect in certain areas of the country – primarily in the South.
....Although probably no northern senator today would dare admit it, many who vote for increases in the minimum wage understand that one consequence will be to destroy  jobs for the least skilled workers, a disproportionate number of whom are black.”

And now, thanks to the good intentions of our government, we now have a black teen unemployment rate of  40%.

Here's a summary of the situation....  I can teach you how to play a piano, but if you pay me more than $7.00 an hour, you're getting ripped off.  I'm not much of a piano player, or teacher.  But if I had to, I could make some money teaching piano for $7.00 an hour.

My neighbor down the street is a really good piano teacher.  She gets $10.00 an hour.  One street over is another guy who gets $15.00 per hour.

If you raise the minimum wage for piano teachers to $12.00 an hour, who does it help?  Me or my neighbors?

It helps my neighbors.   I ain't worth $12.00 an hour as a piano teacher.  Nobody will ever pay me that, because I'm not worth it.  All it will do is guarantee full employment for my neighbors.

That's what happens to inexperienced and low-skilled labor when a Washington Messiah raises the minimum wage.  They get priced out of the market.  Just hide and watch what happens to the black teen minority unemployment rate if The Teleprompter Jesus gets his way with this proposal from his Union Of The Statists speech last night :

"Even with the tax relief we’ve put in place, a family with two kids that earns the minimum wage still lives below the poverty line. That’s wrong," Obama said. "Tonight, let’s declare that in the wealthiest nation on Earth, no one who works full time should have to live in poverty, and raise the federal minimum wage to $9 an hour. This single step would raise the incomes of millions of working families.

Never mind the question of WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING WITH TWO KIDS IF YOUR SKILLS AREN'T WORTH MORE THAN MINIMUM WAGE????
The real question is this....

Why does Barack Obama hate black people?

Don't get me wrong...I love the minimum wage, because I'm white.  My daughter is white, and also has established plenty of work experience.  She was offered jobs at more than 40K per year at the age of 20.  Minimum wage legislation will ensure that we're the last to be laid off.  We got skills!!!  

But does Barack Obama really hate black people?  Or is he just not very smart?

No live-blogging tonight. Check @Whited79 and #BarackIsMyBroker

I can't handle the thought of live-blogging, drunk-blogging, weed-writing, or even meth-typing another Barack Obama State Of The Union speech.
Give me a choice between listening to Yoko Ono screeching vs. Barry reading, and I'm probably going with Yoko.
But duty calls....
I've been enjoying the Twitter account, so I'm going to go that route tonight.  Follow along @Whited79   All the Tweets show up on Facebook, for those who go that route.

Since it's likely to be nothing but a laundry list of GOODIES FOR CONTRIBUTORS "investments", I'm going to see how many times I can use this hashtag:

#BarackIsMyBroker

Should be fun.
But Godalmighty, I dread listening to that man's voice for an hour.

The ObamaCare Poster Contest Winner

This one is beautiful, ain't it? 
Go here to see the other contestants. 
Go here to see what that photogenic idiot is likely to accomplish for medicine in California. 

On Obama's unnecessary trip to Chicago

Barack Obama is going to Chicago to talk about ending the gun violence.  Chicago has one of the nation's highest gun-crime rates.

This trip isn't necessary.  Chicago has some of the strictest gun control laws in the nation.  They already have the signs in place.  Most of the potential victims are already disarmed.