Miscellany: 6/11/13

Quote of the Day

When you think of the long and gloomy history of man, 
you will find more hideous crimes have been committed 
in the name of obedience than 
have ever been committed in the name of rebellion.
C. P. Snow

Rant of the Day

I'm not familiar with Adam Kokesh (the video was in my Youtube suggestions queue), but this is a classic example of crony government protecting its own turf  (where have you gone, Al D'Amato [Sen. Pothole] a nation turns its lonely eyes to you...):

A group of Southwest Portland residents decided they were tired of neighborhood potholes...[The residents] told KGW that when they spoke with city officials about the improvements they were told it would cost each homeowner about $20,000.

Instead the homeowners decided to take matters into their own hands. Last October they hired a paving company to do the job for only about $1,000 per resident.

But just last week they received letters from the City of Portland, stating that because the homeowners and the paving company did not get the proper permits, they are now liable for any run-off, flooding or environmental problems their unauthorized paving may cause.

A Couple of Videos From Prager University

"The only thing we have to fear is government itself."

I'm not the first to coin this obvious twist on FDR's signature line, so I won't include it on my quotes webpage.

We've debunked the myths that FDR's policies and/or WWII snapped us out of the Depression; even Newt Gingrixh has perpetuated the myth (to be fair, Gingrich's area of specialization was Euopean history), but let's outline the nonsense of this orthodox myth. As Higgs notes:

There's no doubt that Roosevelt changed the character of the American government--for the worse. Many of the reforms of the 1930s remain embedded in policy today: acreage allotments, price supports and marketing controls in agriculture, extensive regulation of private securities, federal intrusion into union-management relations, government lending and insurance activities, the minimum wage, national unemployment insurance, Social Security and welfare payments, production and sale of electrical power by the federal government, fiat money--the list goes on

Let's not forget: FDR pulled off the worst bait-and-switch in American history:

In fact, as many observers claimed at the time, the New Deal did prolong the depression. Had Roosevelt only kept his inoffensive campaign promises of 1932—cut federal spending, balance the budget, maintain a sound currency, stop bureaucratic centralization in Washington—the depression might have passed into history before his next campaign in 1936. But instead, FDR and Congress, especially during the congressional sessions of 1933 and 1935, embraced interventionist policies on a wide front. With its bewildering, incoherent mass of new expenditures, taxes, subsidies, regulations, and direct government participation in productive activities, the New Deal created so much confusion, fear, uncertainty, and hostility among businessmen and investors that private investment, and hence overall private economic activity, never recovered enough to restore the high levels of production and employment enjoyed in the 1920s.

As Bob Boudreaux might say, "Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose."  Government responds to crises with crackpot theories and pushing-on-a-string policies, bureaucratic empire-building, etc. Back in the 1930's we saw policies that attempted to stop deflation (i.e., confusing symptoms with the disease) through economic state-of-denial policy madness: wage floors, price floors, and nationalizing the gold supply and by fiat raising the price of gold, i.e., devaluing the dollar. Granted, modern-day Democrats think they are more subtle, clever: they work on the stealth benefit side of compensation, business regulations and mandates, "free" birth control, physicals, etc. There are very real compliance and benefit costs.

I like the pithy explanation of the UCLA economist in the first video whom argues from simple supply and demand curves the counterproductive nature of FDR's policies.

The second video provides a clear explanation of the First Amendment; recall that Great Britain had--and still has--a state religion. The US government did not initiate or adopt a state religion; this has somehow morphed into censorship of even symbolic religious speech from the public arena. I oppose the government showing undue deference to a religious perspective, I have no objections to limited or general religious speech in the public arena; I have no problems acknowledging the important significance of religion and religious tolerance throughout American history.





Obama is Morphing into Bush on Civil Liberties

(HT Gary North)



Proactive Security?

I remember in the aftermath of 9/11, so much attention and resources were focused on passenger qualification, I naturally wondered about other things. My Dad in one point of his career was involved in aircraft maintenance, which is directly related to flight safety; obviously the flight crew is a key concern: there's also what I consider an obvious concern about military antiaircraft technology being directed at commercial aircraft. A link I got through Drudge raises the possibility that Al Qaeda units may have access to dated antiaircraft technology which is controlled for in current military aircraft but not commercial aircraft. Obviously some commercial aircraft may need some safety upgrades...

Military Family Reunions








Political Cartoon

Courtesy of Eric Allie and Townhall

Musical Interlude: My Favorite Groups Redux

Simon & Garfunkel, "Mrs. Robinson"