I will never put my name on a product
that does not have the best that is in me.
John Deere
Pro-Liberty Thought of the Day
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| Via the Independent Institute |
Jesus Is the Reason For the Season:
Obama Lacks the Testicular Fortitude to Combat Political Correctness
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| Via HuffPost |
To Barry: I'm going to leave a lump of coal in your stocking, and not the clean kind.... Santa Claus
PS for the last time, the elves are little people, not children working in a sweatshop....
The Class of Bush 43
Alabama placekicker Cade Foster missed decisive 3 field goal attempts in the defending NCAA football champion's recent unexpected loss to arch-rival Auburn. Foster got an encouraging note from a fellow #43:
The House Passed the Ryan-Murray Budget Compromise: Thumbs DOWN!
I'm not happy with this deal which seems to restore roughly two-thirds of hard-won sequester cuts next year for a somewhat higher amount of promised savings over the coming decade. I'm particularly unhappy with Speaker Boehner whom spend time bashing Tea Party/conservative groups and colleagues. I understand that he is not happy with having the target on his back over the shutdown debacle that hurt the GOP, at least temporarily and risking control of the House at the mid-terms, and I don't underestimate the difficulty in getting any kind of a meaningful spending cut out of the spendthrift Dem-controlled Senate. I need to know more about the details of the deal; I do understand pension reform is part of the package (the devil is in the details). I did not like way that many Republicans were playing Chicken Little over military sequester cuts. The Pentagon hasn't even had a decent audit in years, and several days back I referenced a series of examples of wasteful spending, like additions to inventory already stockpiled. The current bill comes across to me as "a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush".
Facebook Corner
A Stossel Thread Revisited. When I thought about what else I can do to spread the message of small government and personal liberty, I wrote this book. It would mean a lot to me if you help spread the message! Give someone this book for Christmas: http://bit.ly/NoTheyCantBook
OMG, I'm from Argentina (a socialist country). I just moved to the US. I'm so happy to watch someone that think like me! I felt living in Argentina like I was the only one that think that free markets is the key. If everybody in Argentina could understand you.... Please don't turn USA in a socialist country!!! We have free health care, everything controlled by government and this is a TOTALLY MESS!!! I always freak out when I watch on TV the decision the government are making in the US... You're a great man, I hope someday meet you!! Regards!!
Just curious what you think of Pope Francis' attacks on capitalism....
Pope Francis is doing a great job in Rome, but he was raised in a socialism country and have no IDEA about markets. I don't blame him, but I know my people and most of them don't realize how the things works. He is saying what the 90% of Argentinian says (about capitalism).
(John Stossel). This month in Portland, Oregon, an 11-year-old climbed trees to pick mistletoe, which she then tried to sell to help pay for her braces. Authorities stopped her. It’s one more way that America's piles of regulations make practicing capitalism very difficult. And they keep passing MORE rules. STOSSEL tonight at 9pm on Fox Business Network.
It will NEVER STOP, unless we replace the two CORRUPT POLITICAL PARTIES (which are working in collusion). WAKE THE HELL UP!
What the hell makes you think the GOP wants to crack down on child entrepreneurs? This happened on the Left Coast... No doubt the leftists would argue the government should pay for her braces and argue that the girl shouldn't be climbing trees or forced to work...
(The Independent Institute). ""The more the state 'plans' the more difficult planning becomes for the individual." —F.A. Hayek
But for the power of the State, corporations would have no power over a single area of public policy. Expecting the government to end corporate entitlements is sheer folly.
The State uses tax incentives and regulation to manipulate the economy. Expecting the State to relinquish its powers willingly is unrealistic.
Sigh. Corporations own the government because the government is made up of men who are owned by the corporations. The government now exists only to provide an environment wherein the corporations can thrive.
What is it about crackpot conspiracy theories? Here's a clue: corporations can't cast a single vote, and corporations typically have conflicting goals; for example, sugar producers want subsidies, tariffs and/or quotas; sugar consumers want more competition.
Government needs to be big enough to stomp corrupt corporations in the dirt. This anti-big government propaganda was brought to you by (guess who) corporations.
More crackpot theories blaming corporations; it's intellectually shallow and dishonest; Statists love to scapegoat corporations, but corporations are merely a whipping boy, a pretext for Statists to rationalize expansion of the bureaucratic empire.
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| Via Bastiat Institute |
'Racism' is a pejorative used by the feeble-minded. They cannot handle constructive criticism or analyze complex situations, so they resort to baseless ad hominem attacks,
(Lew Rockwell). "The evil Colin Powell is selling death again. This time it’s Soviet healthcare. Conservatives must be so proud," says Travis Holte.
Colin Powell's analysis is shallow and superficial, and he is not giving a balanced picture.
This is from a former military dependent (admiral's daughter/Navy officer wife): [Whereas it is "free"] "the military healthcare system has been confusing, inefficient and short on options.It is a complicated balance of entitlement, subsidies and bureaucracy."
She said as an admiral's daughter, she got expedited/better treatment; she routinely has to wait, non-emergency care like tonsillectomies may be backlogged for months, has limited choices for treatment, and mistakes happen--like duplicated shots. She ends her post, reminding people that nothing in life is ever free--you get what you pay for.
So a multi-star general, like Powell, gets great care? No kidding. I'm sure he knows what a buck private goes through. I remember when I was an active-duty ensign with a severe ear infection; I had to wait the better part of an hour to be seen because Orlando retirees were ahead of me.
The fact that Powell is looking through the prism of his own anecdotal experience--and looks at government as the "solution", not part of the problem, speaks volumes. Have government health programs ever stayed within budget? Has government price-fixing and bureaucracy made providers willing to take on more government program patients? What about things like VA Hospital scandals and a fraud-prone system leads to Powell's confidence? Can we trust unaccountable monopolist healthcare elitists any more than the monopoly intelligence led to tragic decisions of involvement in Afghanistan and Iraq?
What is it about healthcare that requires government intervention any more than we need micromanagement of the high tech industry, supermarkets, department stores, whatever? We have arguably the most innovative, highest quality healthcare system in the world; the vast majority of policyholders liked their healthcare when the Dems decided to ram a corrupt, unpopular healthcare bill down the nation's throat. The government has transformed health insurances into an ultra-expensive prepaid health services bundle, with tax breaks only for those getting it through an eligible employer.
Powell's idea is to imitate the mediocrity of other Western country failed Statist health systems, to surrender American leadership in healthcare quality. He never thinks to ask how Americans managed to survive before FDR decided for a healthcare tax break as a workaround to economically illiterate wage/price controls... Instead of recognizing that the country is already all but insolvent, Powell's idea is to swallow up the rest of the health care sector? No thanks...
I don't get the conservative comment - I never thought of Powell as a conservative. I am not at all surprised at his calling for a solution that grows the state.
You are correct. To be honest, no conservative I know respects Powell's political views: he's pro-choice, pro-safety net and, of course, endorsed Obama twice. I think most liberal New England Republicans try to posture themselves as fiscal, military and/or small business conservatives
Some Holiday Cable Movie Favorites
- Fallen Angel. A Maine cottage is the setting which features the return of estranged son of a recently deceased caretaker and the daughter of a man whom was involved in a bad winter weather fatal accident and, overcome with guilt, abandoned his family. The children had known each other before the girl's mother got divorced and moved away. The young woman, who doesn't recall her childhood at the cottage, has come back, now the single mother of an adopted blind girl; she had been coordinating her return with the caretaker, and the two reunite, the lawyer immediately recognizing her. He has also run into the missing, presumed dead father, doing odd jobs under an alias, and hires him and others for property repairs. A romance ensues, and the lawyer struggles with how to reunite the father and daughter.
- Catch a Christmas Star. Imagine a Christmas variation of 'A Star is Born' with a 'Notting Hill' twist. Two high school sweethearts broke up after graduation as the star baseball player's professional career was unexpectedly cut short while the cheerleader's singing career (in country music) took off. The retired player got married and had 2 kids, a now tweenage girl and her younger brother. The wife/mother died a few years earlier (how many of these Christmas romances feature widowers and/or widows?) The country star is the daughter's favorite singer, and when she hears that the singer was her dad's first love, she decides to play the improbably matchmaker and tries to meet her idol at a CD signing appearance at a music store. It turns out that the star is unaffected by her success and still carries a torch for her first love. The plot is a little far-fetched in spots, a couple of good lines (the girl tells the star that her dad (truthfully) said, "Everything about [you] is beautiful"), and the girl talks back to her dad and gives him relationship advice, but I think the movie just works...
- A Very Merry Mix-Up. This is a highly improbable Christmas romance. An antique dealer, a young woman who inherited the shop from her late father, is engaged to a yuppie businessman. She is supposed to come home with him to meet his folks, but for business reasons he's held up and she agrees to go ahead without him and he would catch up after tying up loose ends. At the destination she meets Matt,someone with the same surname--and has a brother with a similar given name. The young man is unaware that his brother was engaged, but escorts her home to meet the family. Alice and the family hit it off immediately, and the "brother" and Alice are clearly attracted to each other. It turns out the missing brother is not Alice's fiance. Alice and the real fiance reunite, but she can't get Matt and his family out of her mind, and there is no connection with her own fiance's family. There are a few annoying moments; Alice laughs a little too much at the end of the movie, and I'm not sure how fast two people can fall in love so fast, but I do find the flick charming.
Neil Diamond, "Morning Has Broken". I was unfamiliar with this traditional tune until Cat Stevens, a fellow talented singer/songwriter, notably hit the charts with his version in the 1970's. Diamond consistently hit the charts with his own material, although he also did a terrific cover of "He Ain't Heavy....He's My Brother", which the Hollies had earlier taken to #7 (see below for an alternative cover). Neil's distinctive baritone, backed by a gospel choir, makes for my favorite version; he completely owns it.
In 1884, James Wells, Moderator of the United Free Church of Scotland, in his book "The Parables of Jesus" tells the story of a little girl carrying a big baby boy. Seeing her struggling, someone asked if she wasn’t tired. With surprise she replied, “No, he’s not heavy; he’s my brother.”This charity version by the Justice Collective hit the top of the British Christmas charts last year:
