Let no man pull you low enough to hate him.
Martin Luther King Jr.
Factually-Challenged Krugman Invents Government Spending Cut Bogeyman
I am making an inference here that Bastiat has never appeared in a Krugman class reading list because I have never heard him discuss the broken-window fallacy or opportunity costs of government stealing spending money from private sector expansion. Krugman clings to the absurd belief that bureaucratic toll collectors and government-raised white elephants create national "wealth".
House Farm Bill Passes 216-208 Thumbs DOWN!
Let me be clear: I'm very much for what every House Democrat voted against--breaking up the unholy bargain between Big Farm and food stamps, the union of farmer welfare and social welfare "progressives". What I object to here is a failure of the House to commit to a phaseout of government intervention in the agriculture sector. As I write here, Justin Amash, who voted against an inadequately reformed farm bill, has not updated his Facebook page; in looking at all the little amendment votes leading to this result, Justin provides a good running commentary of what's going on, and you see how even modest reforms, not just major reforms, are like pulling teeth. I'll paraphrase just one of the votes: he wrote something to the effect that government should not be in the crop insurance business, but at least under this proposal the farmers have to pay premiums versus the taxpayers footing all the risk." Amash is rapidly becoming my favorite Congressman; I would trade all of Maryland's Congressional delegation except Harris to Michigan for him. I'll throw in our good-for-nothing governor and lieutenant governor for free.
Whatever Happened to the Rule of Law? Continuation of Egyptian Aid Is Illegal: Another Ground for Obama's Impeachment
Let me make clear that I don't object to the removal of Morsi, whom had become increasingly autocratic. But the Egyptian military, by executing a coup violated the terms of the US aid, knew the consequences of its actions:
The United States is forbidden by law to give aid to countries where a military overthrow of a democratically elected government has occurred. The administration has maintained, however, that the events in Egypt do not constitute a coup.Whereas it goes without saying I support Sen. Paul's (R-KY) legislation to strip military aid to Egypt and the Obama Administration once again illegally ignores enforcement of laws it disagrees with, I think there should a lawsuit from the Congress against our lawless President. This is yet another example of Obama bringing people together--who would have ever thought McCain and Paul would find common ground on foreign policy?
"Cherokee Lizzie" and McCain Try to Resurrect Glass-Steagall: Thumbs DOWN!
Let's be clear here: the big failures at the start of the 2008 economic tsunami were investment banks, not commercial banks and/or fused banks where investment banks were gambling with government-guaranteed assets. Trying to scapegoat the private sector, instead of government regulatory failure and the moral hazard caused by liberally-granted government guarantees, fits in with analytically-deficient progressive talking points and McCain neo-Teddy Roosevelt style populist progressivism but true reform is to scale back government incompetent intervention, not to expand the government footprint. Make it clear we'll let big banks fail, no more taxpayer bailouts of crony institutions.
I have to say this is yet another in a series of unprincipled stands, like his defense of restricted corporate speech double standards and his relentless neo-con foreign policy that makes me look forward to his retirement; is there a second Jeff Flake in Arizona? One can only hope.....
The Obama Administration's War on Coal
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| Courtesy of Gary Varvel and Townhall |
The Beatles, "Help". One of my all-time favorites--it sounds like no other pop song. The frenetic pacing, the mad lead vocals, the distinctive harmonies and falsettos, the overwrought lyrics (they were young men singing about being so much older and wiser now), etc.
