...the myth of socialism is far stronger than the reality of capitalism.
That is because capitalism is not really an ism at all.
It is what people do if you leave them alone.
Arnold Beichmen
Image of the Day
This Economic Illiterate is Running Against Hillary Clinton? A Pox on Both Your Houses
Facebook Corner
(Reason). "You don't necessarily need a choice of 23 underarm spray deodorants or of 18 different pairs of sneakers when children are hungry in this country." - Sen. Bernie Sanders
But who is saving the children from economically illiterate Bernie Sanders' poverty-sustaining socialist policies? The Venezuelan socialists can't even keep one brand, never mind 23, of toilet paper in stock.
(Rand Paul 2016). The artist who created that Obama “Hope” poster now says the president is a failure
It took him 7 years to figure that out.
(IPI). Good news for lovers of cheap booze: Chicago could be getting its real happy hours back.
Well, I would prefer the Illinois legislature to get out of the business of micromanaging the operational policies of bars, period, not 4-hour exemptions, etc., but at least this is a step in the right direction.
(Reason). Sen. Bernie Sanders' misguided understanding of economics and why "Made in America" isn't always the best slogan to get behind. [See above video.]
"Made in America" doesn't necessarily mean quality. Case in point, one Bernie Sanders, made in America, but recycling tired old failed European socialist ideas.
(Cato Institue). "If taxpayers suddenly stopped subsidizing Amtrak, what would happen?"
Amtrak is the poster boy for government operational hubris and incompetence. Never mind it was government policy that effectively hastened the day of reckoning for private-sector, taxing them (unlike the public highway system), establishing barriers to exit of unprofitable lines, etc. (Cato Institute has a good retrospective on these issues.) The inevitable happens when Statist demagogues and bureaucrats enter the equation; every political whore wants a depot in his home neighborhood, etc., never mind the passenger load won't pay its way and it has to be massively subsidized. The only real solution is to privatize it; let businesses run without corrupt political/special-interest influences or burdens (taxes, regulation, etc.)
(The Hill). "The callous use of general warrants and the disregard for the Bill of Rights must end," Rand Paul said in a statement. "Forcing us to choose between our rights and our safety is a false choice and we are better than that as a nation and as a people. So tomorrow, I will force the expiration of the NSA illegal spy program."
The so-called Patriot Act was a case of an authoritarian power grab at the expense of individual liberty in the aftermath of the 9/11 tragedy, trying to deflect attention away from failed public policy.. You cannot treat the whole American people as suspects; you do not make America safer by pursuing aggressive interventionist foreign policy.
(FEE). If enforcement of minimum-wage policies were carried out in practice by policing low-skilled workers rather than employers – if these policies were enforced by police officers monitoring workers and fining those workers who agreed to work at hourly wages below the legislated minimum – would you still support minimum wages?
Would you be good with police officers arresting those workers who, preferring to remain employed at sub-minimum wages rather than risk losing their current jobs?
Who SHOULD be arrested are those authoritarian bastards, many of them spamming this thread, who attempt to obstruct, even make illegal, the voluntary contracts between those low-experienced/skilled workers and those businesses willing to employ, many of them small with limited operating budgets. Political whores picking a number out of their asses are not only economically illiterate but are basically pricing a significant percentage of prospective workers out of the labor markets; the same hypocritical "progressives" who claim to be non-racist ignore the disparate adverse effects of counterproductive wage policies on urban minorities and young people. A minimum wage policy is, de facto, a punitive tax on low-income workers and their employers; if these idiots really wanted a less damaging, more coherent redistribution policy, they might look at an earned income credit vs. social welfare programs.
(National Review). The government is not listening to your phone calls, but you wouldn’t know that from what Patriot Act opponents say.
The government has no intrinsic right to know or to obtain personal data in a glorified fishing expedition. If the government has a genuine need for specific purpose, let it go through due process. Under no circumstance can the government treat all citizens as suspects.
(National Review). Alternatives to it are not less cruel.
Premeditated murder is not morally justifiable even when endorsed by majoritarian tyranny or State authoritarians.
(Reason). Freedom of speech. Happening now in Phoenix.
Under what perverse leap of logic is incivility to others a litmus test for free expression? If I call your mother a slut, is that part of the free market of ideas? Whether you libel/slander someone's reputation affecting their ability to make a living, try to incite a life-threatening panic in a public facility, spread lies about someone's sexual health, any and all forms of verbal aggression, it's not in the same category as a scientist expressing a theory challenging the status quo.
I'm not excusing physically violent, even fatal attacks in response to obnoxious behavior. I'm not in favor of Big Nanny government washing your mouth out with soap. There are social tactics to dealing with difficult people, such as the silent treatment or shunning,
Personally I feel that these protesting jerks in Phoenix are looking for attention, and I would suggest that Muslims not dignify this obnoxious behavior by giving them what they're looking for.
Musical Interlude: My Favorite Vocalists
Cat Stevens, "Can't Keep It In"
