Faith that the thing can be done is essential to any great achievement.
Thomas N. Carruther
Entrepreneur Quote of the Day:
Government, May I? In the Land of the Free
In the absence of licensure, zoning, and other regulations, how many people would start a restaurant today if all they needed was their living room and their kitchen? How many people would start a beauty salon today if all they needed was a chair and some scissors, combs, gels, and so on? How many people would start a taxi service today if all they needed was a car and a cell phone? How many people would start a day care service today if a bunch of working parents could simply get together and pool their resources to pay a few of their number to take care of the children of the rest? These are not the sorts of small businesses that receive SBIR awards; they are the sorts of small businesses that get hammered down by the full strength of the state whenever they dare to make an appearance without threading the lengthy and costly maze of the state’s permission process. The assistance that small firms receive comes largely at the expense, not of larger firms, but of still smaller firms—or of those who would start such smaller firms if they could. - Roderick Long (HT Chris Mayer)Senate Dems Put a Hold on Thatcher Resolution: Thumbs DOWN!
What can you say about this pathetic snub of arguably the greatest, most influential female leader in my lifetime? She ranks among the twentieth century transformational greats whom championed free market principles and made a difference, like Calvin Coolidge and Ronald Reagan.
Familiar readers know what this means. Until the guilty Senate Democrat(s) come forward, the Senate Democrats as a group join a crowded field for this year's JOTY nominees.
Gun Control Legislation Moves Past Filibuster: Thumbs DOWN!
First, the basic test of any legislation is its purported efficacy. In this context, would the proposed law have prevented almost any massacre, in particular, the Newtown massacre? No. I just regard this whole scenario as the cynical exploitation of a tragedy. Second, I believe that bill passage will raise unrealistic expectations. Third, the real issue is one of government failure; even if you do registrations, etc., those weapons can be stolen or obtained in a black market. The school had security offfiers and a safety plan. So, regardless of what bureaucratic obstacles you place in front of a person's right to self-defense, you can't assume there won't be armed monsters trying to break into a school using vulnerable openings similar to what the Newtown murderer exploited. If Congressmen have addressed these concerns, I haven't heard it in talking points. Finally, it's not clear to me why this this is a federal issue; under the principles of federalism, police power is retained by states
What Is It About Venison That Government Bureaucrats Hate?
My Dad did not hunt and never taught me; Mom never served venison. When I was in my low-carb phase in 2003-2004, I did a lot of research on nutrition and liked the Omega 3 profile of venison as a grass-fed meat. I think I've been able to purchase some in the past at certain Trader Joe's locations, not recently. Around the time of Bush's reelection I had a boss whom was a partisan Democrat (we never talked politics); he was so upset over Kerry's loss, he went out and shot some deer. He brought some venison dish (stew, chili, whatever) to work (in a crockpot as I recall), and you could smell it everywhere in the building.
A few weeks back, I wrote a segment about a Chinese restaurant owner's relative whom brought a roadkill deer back to the restaurant for processing. The restaurant owner denied using the meat for customer dishes, but the restaurant was shut down for a period with mandatory inspection before reopening.
I really have to ask Louisiana Gov. Jindal what is going on. First, in another story I featured, monks were being told they couldn't sell their handcrafted funeral caskets.
Now it seems you literally can't give away nutritious food. Hunters generously donated 1600 pounds of venison to a homeless shelter. No reported issues with the consumed meat. Somehow the state meat inspecting bureaucrats got tipped off about the shelter serving venison. Typical bureaucratic nonsense of not knowing where the wild deer had been, not supervising processing, etc.; they forced the shelter to dispose of the remaining meat, treating it with bleach to make it inedible. This was sheer madness.
David Stockman's Apocalyptic Vision
The former Reagan budget guru wrote an epic rant over Easter in the Gray Lady. I think he delivers a devastating critique of Obamanomincs:
Since the S.&P. 500 first reached its current level, in March 2000, the mad money printers at the Federal Reserve have expanded their balance sheet sixfold (to $3.2 trillion from $500 billion). Yet during that stretch, economic output has grown by an average of 1.7 percent a year (the slowest since the Civil War); real business investment has crawled forward at only 0.8 percent per year; and the payroll job count has crept up at a negligible 0.1 percent annually. Real median family income growth has dropped 8 percent, and the number of full-time middle class jobs, 6 percent. The real net worth of the “bottom” 90 percent has dropped by one-fourth. The number of food stamp and disability aid recipients has more than doubled, to 59 million, about one in five Americans.
Less than 5 percent of the $800 billion Obama stimulus went to the truly needy for food stamps, earned-income tax credits and other forms of poverty relief. The preponderant share ended up in money dumps to state and local governments, pork-barrel infrastructure projects, business tax loopholes and indiscriminate middle-class tax cuts. The Democratic Keynesians, as intellectually bankrupt as their Republican counterparts (though less hypocritical), had no solution beyond handing out borrowed money to consumers, hoping they would buy a lawn mower, a flat-screen TV or, at least, dinner at Red Lobster.Stockman, a former GOP Congressman, is particularly harsh on the GOP and at times resorts to the Left Wing's talking points--he's talking at places about tax giveaways to the wealthy, cuts in the 60% of the budget's mandatory spending on the bottom 99%, Glass-Steagall, those evil bankers, Citizens United, etc. I categorically reject all of these criticisms.
I want to end the Fed, but I can agree with:
It would require, finally, benching the Fed’s central planners, and restoring the central bank’s original mission: to provide liquidity in times of crisis but never to buy government debt or try to micromanage the economy. Getting the Fed out of the financial markets is the only way to put free markets and genuine wealth creation back into capitalism.There are actually a lot of things I agree with in some form, e.g.,: that many of the entitlement cuts being discussed are insufficient and Paul Ryan is delaying serious reforms for a decade, single or limited terms to office, etc. I may analyze this piece in more depth in the future, (Just a passing note about the Fed painting itself into a corner; it's possible for the Fed to swerve us and say, for instance, it had stopped buying bonds months earlier.)
Political Cartoon
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| Coutesy of Bob Gorrell and Townhall |
Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, "Ohio"
