O'Toole's commentary on Murphy's Law: Murphy was an optimist.
Tweet of the Day
Cherokee Lizzie Warren supports renewing the Export-Import ("Boeing's") Bank, poster child of corporate welfare: you didn't vote for that!
— Ronald Guillemette (@raguillem) July 19, 2014
"The law has been perverted by the influence of two ... causes: stupid greed and false philanthropy." - F. Bastiat http://t.co/ISBI3iQV1a
— Ronald Guillemette (@raguillem) July 19, 2014
"Chris Christie warned against presidential candidates running too soon." His doctors recommend 3-4 hours after a meal before power walking.
— Ronald Guillemette (@raguillem) July 19, 2014
Image of the Day |
| Via Institute for Justice |
 |
| Via Lawrence Reed |
I just published a recent commentary on the highway trust fund and Obama signaling a possible opening towards allowing the states ability to establish (more) tollways on the Interstates. We have a couple of things going on: first, the highway fund has been seriously raided to subsidize public transit; second, many of the roads, bridges, etc., are nearing (if not already there) the end of their design life. There's also a pernicious regressive aspect of fuel taxes, say where yuppie purchases of electric or fuel-efficient hybrids are freeloading on their fair share of road-related taxes/costs. I talked about how all-electronic tolling is one way of a move towards fairer user-based funding (including variable pricing favoring off-peak use); I did not discuss complementary methods, including mileage-based charges (whereby, for instance, you might be assessed a mileage versus fuel-based charges when you next visit your gas station) For electric vehicles, there has been some discussion of pricing, including, but not restricted to registration/title surcharges, odometer readings tied into annual vehicle inspections, electricity-usage surcharges, etc. (Off the top of my head, I could also see built-in transponders that communicate with mileage markers, traffic lights, entries/exits to public roadways, etc.) It's also possible that auto insurers may push smart technology tied to a policy discount as a way of better evaluating driver performance and relevant data could be reported for toll purposes.
But this investment website post points instead of innovative reforms, what happened, knowing things like raising the federal gas tax was not viable in an election year, was typical wheeling-and-dealing from general tax and spend policies, which I object to on the basis of first principle. I don't want the general taxpayer bailing out road or transit users.
A key point in the piece is they are going to engage in an accounting gimmick, known as pension smoothing. It works like this: by deferring company pension expenses, the companies will have lower costs, meaning higher income and correspondingly higher taxes. So this will gather some of the funds needed to shore up relevant highway projects. The problem, of course, is the reverse happens in the future: the company will report higher costs, lower profits: what will the legislators do then? They'll only have a bigger hole to dig out of. Not to mention I don't think deferring pension expenses given the Baby Boomer tsunami is exactly the right message to send, given the sad state of the existing states' pension liability crises.
These fools play the same old same old games, instead of confronting serious problems with innovative policies, privatization, etc. And you wonder why I call them 'political whores'....
Facebook Corner
(Libertarian Republic). Tim Mcgraw Bitch Slaps Woman Who Grabs His Crotch | Liberty Viral http://bit.ly/WnjOjO
No, she did invade his personal space, but he should have let security handle it.
(Ron Paul). Speaker Boehner's lawsuit against President Obama on the Obamacare mandate could have been aimed at a number of other executive orders—from NSA spying to secret prisons, going to war without congressional approval and assassinating American citizens.
Share if you think this lawsuit is a joke, and explain why in the comments below. Listen to what I have to say about it here: http://bit.ly/1sxtODQ
Ron Paul is picking and choosing that he would sue; I agree there are other things that the executive branch has overreached. This is a President whom basically has blatantly ignored a mandate he signed into law, re: the business mandate start date. The House did pass a bill to defer the start date, but Reid refused to bring it up, and The (Lawless) One vowed to veto it calling it "unnecessary". This is an open-and-shut case of the executive branch making law, violating the balance of powers. So whereas I think Paul's general point is correct, but this President has made his lawlessness and abuse of executive order authority standard operating procedure. I think Paul is being hypocritical by criticizing his allies trying to check a power grab by this President, which is really unprecedented: he's made it a standard talking point. Either rubberstamp my agenda, or I will act if I don't get my way.
(National Review). GOP can win over voters by addressing decline in purchasing power. It's called the power of the purse.
At minimum, we need to strip the employment mandate from the Fed, we need to roll back ZIRP policies, we need to stop policies that essentially monetize the national debt, the Fed needs to stop becoming effectively the nation's mortgage banker. Monetary policy at best should be rule-based and not discretionary activity, which violates the rule of law. When, in fact, the Fed's policies have resulted in a 97% purchasing value decline over a century, while the value of the dollar was stable and actually strengthened until the Fed's birth, we need to point out that the loss of purchasing power especially hurts lower-income to middle-class people, and the banker cartel is essentially unaccountable.
(Catholic Libertarian). “Mr. President, when did the Democratic Party declare war on the Catholic Church?” Good question.
I think that the "progressives" see that self-professed Catholics have challenged the Church's moral stands on abortion and traditional marriage, in particular, high-profile Catholics like Pelosi, Biden, Cuomo, Kennedy, etc. Many of those with a more traditional perspective are concerned of a post-Vatican II drift, away from focus on prayer and repentance, spiritual development and discipline to appeasement to become more relevant with the popular culture, to focus on more "progressive" social equality policies, etc. Politicians perceive that the Church leadership, exposed by the sex abuse scandals, etc., is seen as reactionary, corrupt or irrelevant to the majority of practicing Catholics, whom are seen as being with them on most issues (and helped elect Barack Obama, whom single-handedly blocked implementation of the Illinois Born Alive Infant Protection Act) that they aren't afraid of taking on Church leadership on these policy differences.
(Reason). Vote to Apply Sentencing Change Retroactively Could Let Nearly Half of Federal Drug War Prisoners Go Free Early
It's about time we take concrete steps to reduce incarceration rates in line with the rest of the civilized world. We need to complete the job, not just on the federal, but state/local level, and stop prosecuting people for victimless crimes.
This is a classic symptom of an economic fascist regime, enabled by a lawless Administration: you can have your private-sector business so long as you agree to our arbitrary rules. FedEx is simply a delivery service engaging in voluntary transactions. The federal government wants to use the company as an extension of its information gathering which is a de facto extension of a generalized warrant.
(Judge Napolitano). EPA to Garnish Wages?! Judge Nap Says Proposal 'Blatantly Unconstitutional' Fox & Friends
As Judge Napolitano points out, there is no due process, which violates the Constitution (fifth and/or fourteenth amendments). This is just another case of an emboldened bureaucracy run amok under a lawless President, in this case trying to deliver on corrupt political promises to special-interest environmentalists.
(Bastiat Institute). "The law has been perverted by the influence of two entirely different causes: stupid greed and false philanthropy." – Bastiat. Stupid greed is starting a compulsory union, pushing wages up, then losing your job because wages were pushed above market levels and the company went bankrupt. False philanthropy is a rich man with a big house fighting against development. [Climate change advocates use more electricity.]
I think you and many of the people in the thread have confused Bastiat's distinction between stupid greed and false philanthropy; I double-checked The Law before writing this. 'Stupid greed' is like special-interest cronyism and/or protectionism. So say you artificially restrict the labor force (e.g., professional cartels) to artificially increase wages. It's a deadweight loss to consumers, and it merely delays the day of reckoning for the privileged class. Take, for instance, the greed of public sector unions and unsustainable pension liabilities.
In the case of false philanthropy, Bastiat clearly has in mind what we call today the positive right/liberty problem, i.e., the government has to provide us an attorney, a "free" education, a pension benefit, "free" healthcare, unemployment benefits, etc., i.e., "full equality". The problem is, first of all, there's an infinite wishlist, second, we have a scarce resource problem; third, it's morally hazardous to private-sector initiatives--think of Scrooge's rebuke to those soliciting Christmas charity: are there no workhouses, prisons? Don't I already pay for this through my taxes?
No dah--- look at al gore
http://www.aei-ideas.org/2010/03/everything-that%E2%80%99s-wrong-with-al-gore-in-a-single-graph/
(IPI). The Illinois Department of Public Health is posed to release new, stricter regulations on the sale of raw milk in Illinois this month. But many small-farm operators are concerned they won’t be able to meet the new standards.
Raw milk sales have only been growing more popular in recent years, and for many customers, drinking raw milk has become a way of life.
But the Illinois Department of Health, along with federal agencies like the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, disagrees.
Buying raw milk at retail is legal in 11 states and on farms or through herdshares (you buy the cow and pay someone to manage and milk the cow) in all but 17 no-raw-milk states (a few states limit raw milk to goats and/or sheep). The point being, any health risks have been overhyped. In fact, humans have been consuming raw milk products for thousands of years, before refrigeration. Many of us fed on breast milk as babies, another form of raw milk. My Dad during his teen years used to work on a relative's Massachusetts farm and drank it all the time, swearing by it. Farmers know better than to sell milk from an ill cow, but the fact is you are far more likely to get ill from salads than any form of milk. But don't confuse the rulemakers with the facts...
More Marriage Proposals
This girl is so adorably happy; what a sweetie!
Power Humor
Chris Christie warned against presidential candidates running too soon. Then earthquake experts warned Chris Christie against running at all. "Cities just aren't equipped to deal with it." - Jimmy Fallon
"Chris Christie warned against presidential candidates running too soon." His doctors recommend 3-4 hours after a meal before power walking.
Today is the 30th anniversary of the National Minimum Drinking Age Act, which raised the drinking age to 21. Also turning 30 today: a 16-year-old boy, according to his fake ID. - Seth Meyers
He also learned how to build a moonshine still from the Internet.
Political Cartoon
 |
| Courtesy of the original artist via Patriot Post |
 |
| Courtesy of Nate Beeler and Townhall |
Anne Murray, "A Little Good News". One of my favorites...
