Every man,
however obscure,
however far removed from the general recognition,
is one of a group of men impressible for good,
and impressible for evil,
and it is in the nature of things that he cannot really improve himself
without in some degree improving other men.
Charles Dickens
Obama Was Spot On--in 2006
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| Courtesy of LFC on FB |
Pro-Liberty Thought of the Day
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| Via Bastiat Institute on FB |
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| Via LFC on FB |
An Act of Terror Against Elderly Visitors to Parks
From the Newburyport Daily News (HT LFC on FB)
Vaillancourt was one of thousands of people who found themselves in a national park as the federal government shutdown went into effect on Oct. 1. For many hours her tour group, which included senior citizen visitors from Japan, Australia, Canada and the United States, were locked in a Yellowstone National Park hotel under armed guard.
The tourists were treated harshly by armed park employees, she said, so much so that some of the foreign tourists with limited English skills thought they were under arrest.
When finally allowed to leave, the bus was not allowed to halt at all along the 2.5-hour trip out of the park, not even to stop at private bathrooms that were open along the route.Welcome to Barack Obama's America and legal thuggery. If it was in my power, I would terminate those rangers so fast, their standard-issue Obama bobbleheads would spin... There is no excuse for this behavior--armed guard over non-violent visitors? Not even letting people go to the bathroom? What kind of collective incivility is this crap? What is wrong with these rangers, so devoid of common sense? Who are they trying to impress, the American taxpayers whom pay their salaries, or the Deadbeat-in-Chief?
It Reminds You of the Berlin Wall, Doesn't It?
Designed to Keep the West From Immigrating to the Workers' Paradise...
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| Via LFC on FB |
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| Courtesy of Cato Institute |
I didn't see this story until Mark Perry of Carpe Diem covered a related WSJ piece on the two Senators' demanding FTC investigation of alleged anti-competitive practices of the favorite Dem scapegoat, the domestic oil industry. Not even Big Banks reach the crony capitalistic excesses of Big Green Energy, which gets ethanol mandates, subsidies and protectionist tariffs. It takes chutzpah for these hypocritical anti-competitive special-interest politicians to engage in such spurious nonsense. Even the environmental patron saint of the Democratic Party, Al Gore, admits that corn-based ethanol is bad public policy. Grassley, no doubt, is looking out for the corn growers in his state; whether Klobucher is motivated by the Dems' anti-fossil fuel agenda or anti-corporate populism, I don't really care; this is an abuse of dubious regulatory authority.
Pelosi and 7 Other Congressional Democrats Arrested;
Charges Don't Include Intergenerational Plunder...
The others Dems included several pieces of work, including Rangel and Ellison. This was an intentional effort to draw media attention to immigration reform. This blog promotes more authentic immigration reform which goes beyond pandering to unauthorized Latino residents for political purposes; it deregulates Statist restrictions in businesses contracting voluntary labor or other resources across borders. I want a more deregulated immigration process like the one that existing before counterproductive, labor-protectionist restrictions were implemented in the 1920's and thereafter. I have written several segments supporting legalization of unauthorized Latino residents in good standing. What I don't like is chronic violations of the rule of law by this lawless Obama Administration, which abuses prosecutorial discretion and executive orders to sidestep bipartisan compromise.
Chalk up a group nomination for JOTY; I don't like manipulative, politically self-serving protests.
It's Yellen! Thumbs DOWN!
Breaking Though the Glass Ceiling at the Fed
But It's the Dollar That's Really Broken
The gold-backed dollar once stood tall
The irredeemable dollar has had a great fall
And all of Yellen's policies
And all the Fed's men
Cannot make a strong dollar
Together again.
Familiar readers know I called this one long before Summers made it obvious by withdrawing his name from consideration. I hope Sen. Rand Paul is a chip off the old block (his dad Ron) and does not let this become a coronation. I consider Yellen part of the Fed problem, not the solution.
You see a lot of polemical pieces out there already, anticipating objections, insisting Yellen is no inflation dove; to cite Obama's favorite saying, "You can put lipstick on a pig, but..." The elephant in the room is dysfunctional activist, manipulative monetary policy, which is a mortal sin against free market principles. But let me quote from the Gray Lady:
But [in July 1996] the Fed’s powerful chairman, Alan Greenspan, saw a chance for the first time in decades to drive annual inflation all the way down to zero. Janet L. Yellen, then a relatively new and little-known Fed governor, talked Mr. Greenspan to a standstill that day, arguing that a little inflation was a good thing. She marshaled academic research that showed it would reduce the depth and frequency of recessions, articulating a view that has prevailed at the Fed. And as the Fed’s vice chairwoman since 2010, Ms. Yellen has played a leading role in cementing the central bank’s commitment to keep prices rising about 2 percent each year.Ah, yes, easy money policies that have resulting in multiple bubbles, all during Yellen's tenure...
"The executive branch of the U.S. government has to take decisive and credible steps to avoid a default on its Treasury bonds," said [Chinese Vice Finance Minister] Zhu Guangyao in a statement yesterday. " “It is important for the US economy as well as the global economy... We hope the United States fully understands the lessons of history," Mr. Zhu sternly cautioned. China is "naturally concerned about developments in the U.S. fiscal cliff."It's embarrassing that a Communist has to lecture a social liberal like Obama on fiscal policy...
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| Courtesy of Agora Inc. |
From CNN:
As the [HHS Secretary Sebelius] sat down to begin the segment, Stewart opened a laptop on his desk. “I’m going to attempt to download every movie ever made, and you’re going to try to sign up for Obamacare, and we’ll see which happens first.”[Sebelius lipsynced a Beatles' tune:
]
When asked how many individuals had signed up for insurance so far, Sebelius admitted, “I can’t tell you, because I don’t know ... we will be giving monthly reports.”
“If I’m an individual that doesn’t want this, it would be hard for me to look at a big business getting a waiver," Stewart said. "I would feel like you are favoring big business because they lobbied you ... but you’re not allowing individuals that same courtesy.”
After pressing her further on the issue to no avail, a somewhat exasperated Stewart finally smiled and asked, “Am I a stupid man?”Let's be clear; Stewart does not favor health care reforms restoring economic liberty to the sector; he favors an even more Draconian megalomaniac solution, single-payer. But especially note Sebelius' disingenuous, defensive, pathetic response. Now every weekend film producers know how well their latest blockbuster films have done, without waiting for monthly batch reports of theater receipts; we know fairly quickly how Black Friday sales receipts add up. But somehow this engineering feat of wonder of the ObamaCare exchange application systems can't give fairly simple, predictable questions like Stewart asked; I bet even a class of college students whom have never taken an economics course would have asked that question. The fact that she had to dodge simple questions speaks volumes about the program as a whole.
From Libertarian Republic:
When [ACA supporters] Cindy Vinson and Tom Waschura] received their bills for medical insurance last week, they noticed their policies were replaced with more expensive versions in order to conform to the new health care law. Vinson now pays $1,800 more a year while Waschura will pay $10,000 more a year for his family of four. Needless to say they weren’t too happy.
“I was laughing at Boehner — until the mail came today,” Vinson said. ”I really don’t like the Republican tactics, but at least now I can understand why they are so pissed about this. When you take $10,000 out of my family’s pocket each year, that’s otherwise disposable income or retirement savings that will not be going into our local economy. I’m not against Obamacare,” Waschura said. “It’s just the initial shock. I’m holding out hope that there will be a correction over a handful of years.”So much for the oxymoronic "Affordable Care Act". When healthcare was traditionally regulated by state, it was more difficult for special-interests to attach costly new mandates--they had to win over dozens of states. What we libertarian-conservatives wanted to do was to provide more of competitive marketplace across states where policyholders could shop for "just the basics" healthcare policies; since the mandates would add costs, putting in-state insurers at a competitive disadvantage, and you would see states scaling back these mandates. Democrats understand this concept, which they've derided as a "race to the bottom".
When you centralize something, you're doing the exact opposite of the engineering principle of compartmentalization: "general technique of separating two or more parts of a system to prevent malfunctions from spreading between or among them." Take, for instance, a rudimentary ship; if the boat experienced a leak, the whole ship could sink. But imagine you could plug or at least contain the leak in one sealed compartment of the vessel. By centralizing the rules, regulations, and mandates of healthcare policies, the federal government, as always, simplified life for the corrupt, influence-seeking special interests. (Just a minor example: I'm sure psychologists would benefit from any mandates covering their services.) You have a single point of contact. On the other hand, RomneyCare might have worked in Massachusetts with less than 10% uninsured, but it was less of an option in Texas with a much larger population and perhaps triple the uninsured rate. If RomneyCare was such a wonderful thing, we might see Texans relocate to Massachusetts; Texas might reform its insurance market to be more competitive. That's the beauty of a free market. The Democrats don't want or trust a free market; they want to demonize health insurers as corrupted by the profit motive. Apple makes much higher margins than any health insurer, but no one demonizes Apple for being profitable. The complaints I've heard have more to do with things like lifetime caps on catastrophic expenses. I might be willing to consider a case for catastrophic coverage, but I don't want government covering ordinary out-of-pocket medical expenses like doctor visits or birth control; I don't want the feds micromanaging my doctor. It makes no sense for a health insurer to mark up a package of Bandaids, which I can easily shop for on my own. If my doctor doesn't think an issue requires an expensive overnight stay in a hospital, I don't want the feds second-guessing him.
So it's not surprising, along with cross-subsiding people in poor healrh, that the ACA is not so "affordable". The other is really an informal type of punitive redistributive taxation on healthier and/or younger people. It would be better if the government was more honest and direct with taxation.
Facebook Corner
LPC: What does capitalism mean to you? Why do you support it?
It empowers individuals and their free associations to contribute to the wealth of nations. The market rewards mutually beneficial exchanges, while holding principals accountable for unsatisfactory endeavors.
Political Cartoon
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| Courtesy of Gary McCoy and Townhall |
Jr. Walker and the All-Stars, "Shotgun"
