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
Image of the Day
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| Via Independent Institute |
A Picture Is Worth 1000 Words
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| Renata Teodoro Meets Her Mother Gorete Borges Teodoro via WBUR Arizona/Mexico Border |
You would have to have a heart of stone to not be moved by this. I've mentioned before that I went on 2 business trips to Brazil in 1995, and one should be careful never to generalize based on anecdotal experience, but the Brazilians I met were warm, beautiful people. Like much of South America, they are mostly Catholics, with a strong work ethic and family values. How Republicans, who preach family values, cannot feel for mother and daughter torn apart from each other in favor of some arbitrary, inhumane law is beyond me. If the GOP cannot understand how politically toxic this worship of unreasonable immigration policy is, there will be consequences.
Quite frankly, I cannot relate to the anti-immigration zealots; this is not to say I have approved of the way Obama and the Dems have handled the issue. The unions worry that immigration will drive down wages; I see the Senate bill as totally political and opportunistic, a balance between two rival Dem constituent groups. I object to what I see as Obama's violation of the rule of law and unconstitutional violation of the balance of powers. I strongly favor a more open, liberalized immigration reform.
A Couple of Author Notes
I usually don't go back to check on any feedback to my reprinted Facebook comments, but I did write a recent commentary reflecting on evidence that the Pearl Harbor attack was to some extent anticipated on deciphered Japanese intelligence; FDR was looking for a pretext to engage on the Western front, and Japan's military alliance with Germany was useful. There are consequences for doubting the official story, and not all libertarians are skeptical: a recent post at the free banking blog chronicled in detail Japanese military aggression stemming from the early twentieth century. I noted in my commentary that the Japanese attack was unprovoked and unacceptable.
Still, I was a little annoyed by a discussant decided to call a similar commentary "revisionist" (an academic pejorative, e.g., changing an historical account for political or other reasons). I snapped back that official accounts were self-serving. Someone didn't understand my point, so the original discussant said something to the effect it was an erudite way of saying "it's America's fault". Not true (I was amused), but there's a lot of evidence that FDR engaged in provocative policies and wanted to intervene.
On a bookkeeping note, my business schedule could change at any time; if I travel out of state, I expect to have Internet service wherever I stay, but the nature and extent of my posts may change in the duration. I will try to be more specific as my travel plans are more specific.
Facebook Corner
Reprise and Thread Extended
(LFC). I commonly hear the argument that without government intervention in the economy, monopoly businesses would take over. Think about this for a second. The government itself if nothing more than a monopoly. The idea we need a monopoly to prevent monopolies from taking over is absurd.
Only government can use force to restrict competition, and government has a vested interest in its own survival.
Only Government can use force to restrict competition??? You might want to tell that to the mafia.
The government hates competition. The Mafia is competition. I did not say others don't have access to weapons or use them against others (including competitors in black markets); my meaning is clear in context: only the government is authorized to use force. I can't keep a competitor out of the market, but the government can enforcing various restrictions (business permits, occupational licensing, zoning, environmental impact, price floors, sales restrictions, whatever).
[Bastiat Institute].According to Ludwig von Mises, private property is a pleonastic expression. "State socialism" is also pleonastic. The state is the foundation of socialism. This might imply state services that could otherwise be handled by the market and the free association of people are rooted in socialism. What services paid for by the state meets this criteria? Eg. defense, security, medical care, etc.
Some muddled conceptual thinking in this thread, confounding the concepts of mutualism and socialism. Beito, a recent guest on the Tom Woods podcast, published an important book in 2000 about how support systems existed prior to the welfare state, e.g., fraternal societies based on rights, not handouts. Clearly almost anything involving a handout can and should be privatized.
There are some some interesting examples of mutualism in the public sector, beyond the obvious example of collective bargaining. As a former military brat, I knew about the support system for families when my Dad went TDY. The military has its own culture: one's buddies, "no man left behind". The military ensures that personnel are fed and sheltered, a generous pension plan. There are clubs for enlisted and for officers and spouses (my first college scholarship was awarded by an officers' wives club)--and once you leave, there are the VFW's and the American Legion. Could this be privatized? Remember the role that Hessians played during the Revolutionary War?
[Illinois Policy Institute]. Office Depot said Tuesday it has chosen Florida for its new headquarters over Naperville.
Office Depot completed its merger with Naperville-based OfficeMax last month, but the pair hadn't yet announced where the combined company would be based.
The companies asked for tax breaks from both states, but no decision from either had been made.
Read more: http://illin.is/1hKwOre
fair is fair. NO special concession or tax breaks. We should all pay the same RATE, no special deals for some companies.
If the companies leave, blame folks who believe in higher taxes, blame public unions for raising the illinois income tax from 3% to 5%. Blame those same folks want to raise income taxes on ALL of us again.
No special tax LOOPHOLES for businesses. If loop hole is granted then blame the democratic majority in Springfield, and the public unions puppet masters.
It is not fair to buisnessed that can not leave illinois,
It is not fair to businesses that compete with office and office, that do pay illinois income taxes.
[Discussant], how about this. Eliminate the state income tax, and instead raise the state sales tax to around 8.25%. Florida doesn't have a state income tax, and it seems that Illinois is being nickeled and dimed to death with increased fees and everything else that's not a "tax".
In theory, user services should not be funded out of general revenues, although one might wonder if some of those functions can't be outsourced or privatized. All those nickels and dimes are taxes, no matter the nomenclature used by legislators to mask tax revenues.
I don't blame Office Depot for trying in a weak economy and given Illinois' abysmal financing problems, even contribution margin revenue is better than no tax revenue.
I don't speak for [discussant], but many people would prefer to starve the Springfield beast. (I'm a former Illinois resident.) I see the progressives are once again at trying to flip Illinois' flat income-tax system, which would be a huge anti-growth, noncompetitive mistake. I would rather see a VAT implemented with lower, flatter business and individual income taxes.
I do concur with [discussant's] argument that state wheeling and dealing special tax incentives merely, and unfairly, redistributes the tax burden onto other taxpayers.
(Cato Institute). "The GOP appears willing to give away the sequester’s real and meaningful spending restraint and replace that fiscal discipline with a package of gimmicks and new revenues."
The Fiscal-Conservatives-In-Name-Only will face a primary election day of reckoning. This economically illiterate, morally hazardous, bankrupt idea that trickle-down government borrowed-money spending can "grow" the economy is fundamentally unacceptable. Paul Ryan should know better than to appease the Wicked Witches of the West Coast.
(Reason Magazine). French Court Rules E-Cigarettes are a Tobacco Product, Even Though They Contain No Tobacco
That's E-Justice for you....
(Cato Institute). "We shouldn’t worry about 'diminished productivity' in Washington if it means fewer bad laws. That being said, we’ll never fix a corrupt tax code or reform bankrupt entitlement programs unless there are new laws to replace old laws that created bad policy."
Anytime you can run out the clock on spendthrift megalomaniac Statists without their scoring, it counts as a win on my scorecard...
(Learn Liberty). What's the best class you've taken in college, and what made it so great?
It was my first philosophy course, on metaphysics. It was as much about process and rigor as about content (from the ancient Greeks to the modern era). My professor used to grade every essay question on a tough 4-point scale (which means I had to organize, write succinctly but comprehensively), and she readily admitted to holding me to a higher standard because she expected the quality of work I was capable of doing. When I started teaching college 10 years later, I learned to adjust my expectations: students were poorly prepared, showed little initiative, and were more interested in getting their job ticket punched and getting undeserved high marks for minimal effort.
(Reason Magazine). While some government officials insist that the flightless birds harm the community, how much harm could the ban do to this child? [Florida city council bans autistic boy's pet chickens.]
Common sense and compassion suggest flexibility in dealing with pets serving special-needs people, like a guide dog. Maybe they can find an acceptable alternative pet, like a dog or guinea pig. I do appreciate Mayor Garcia's support for individual rights.
(Justin Amash). I voted yes on H R 2728, Protecting States' Rights to Promote American Energy Security Act. The bill prohibits the Department of the Interior from enforcing federal hydraulic fracturing regulations in states that already have such regulations and recognizes states’ authority to regulate this type of activity. It passed 235-187.
[Responding to a progressive environmentalist troll in opposition:]
Propagandists spreading their pseudo-scientific crap alarmism as usual...
(Catholic Libertarians). "There's a grand history of Catholic anarchism that dates way back. Anarchism is always slightly beneath the surface of the Catholic faith." ~ Jeffrey Tucker (http://youtu.be/QK-KP8e-UcM)
Thanks for posting this. I am interesting in some links for the Catholic anarchism he speaks about that exists in Catholic history. Any clues as to what he is talking about?
There's a Wikipedia article on Christian anarchy. A lot of it stems from Jesus' response to the question on the payment of imperial taxes, persecutions of early Christians, Christ's moral teachings, etc.; you might want to read up on mutualism.
(Reason Magazine). What might have happened to that money, those resources, those skills, those people, if they had not been diverted by government action? No one knows, or will ever know, and the government would prefer you not think about it. [Talking about the government's bailout of GM; the below is in response to Chicken Little discussants defending the bailouts.]
GM was in trouble years before the bankruptcy. We still had Ford and multiple foreign auto plants. Of course, no one was going to buy into a company with an unsustainable business model; that's what bankruptcy is for. Some of the fear-mongering propaganda, like the Grey Lady piece above, is ludicrously absurd. Car demand was dropping because of the general economy; but if and when demand picked up, the suppliers would do better business, regardless of the nameplate, assuming they were diversified.
Political Humor
Professional Wrestling and Immigration
Political Cartoon
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| Courtesy of Eric Allie and Townhall Remember Hillary Clinton's Christmas Ad? |
Musical Interlude: My iPod Shuffle Holiday Series
Amy Grant, "Grown-up Christmas List"
