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Friday, July 25, 2014

Miscellany: 7/25/14

Quote of the Day
  • Promise yourself to be strong that nothing can disturb your peace of mind. 
  • To talk health, happiness and prosperity to every person you meet. 
  • To make all your friends feel that there is something in them. 
  • To look at the sunny side of everything and make your optimism come true. 
  • To think only of the best, to work only for the best. 
  • To be just as enthusiastic about the success of others as you are about your own. 
  • To forget the mistakes of the past and press on to the greater achievements of the future. 
  • To wear a cheerful countenance at all times and give every living creature you meet a smile. 
  • To give so much to the improvement of yourself that you have no time to criticize others. 
  • To be too large for worry, too noble for anger, too strong for fear and too happy to permit the presence of trouble.
Millionaire Eagles

Chart of the Day


Pro-Liberty Thought of the Day



Image of the Day
Via Being Classically Liberal
Via Austin Petersen

Tweet of the Day
Remy's Back: Debunking Minimum Wage Nonsense In a Most Delightful Way



Facebook Corner

(LFC). To whoever made this:
So what you're saying is: a sociopathic would-be tyrant, whose failed economic policies prolonged the Great Depression, favored a living wage. And this helps your argument how?
Cheers,
Julian

Because he was an economically-illiterate leftist populist whose policies contributed to, rather than alleviated, unemployment and a bad economy. No freaking demagogue has the moral standing to take away paying work for the unemployed blocked by a pick-a-number-out-of-your-ass politician. FDR is, by any objective analysis, one of the worst, if not the worst POTUS in American history.

(Cato Institute). "The arguments for reforming conservative foreign policy are strong. Voters dislike it, and when they were allowed to test their theories in Iraq, the neocons produced a catastrophe. ...a step in the right direction would be to create some room for moderate voices whose views are grounded in at least a passing familiarity with social science on the subject, and to push away the Liz Cheneys of the world, who have done so much harm to the causes of conservatism and peace without apology or even self-awareness. "
"Interventionism" is NOT conservative; consider the Old Right. Big Government is equally incompetent in domestic or foreign policy. Financial prudence starts with the fact we are a small percentage of the world's population with limited resources. In a certain sense, we need to recognize the need for wisdom, to realize we can't get involved in international disputes, we need to let allies assume regional leadership without morally hazardous policies on our part. We have seen the hubris of thinking we could succeed where others haven't in Afghanistan or could resolve intractable sectarian differences in Iraq.

 Why do the neocons remain in influence after the failures in Vietnam and the Gulf Region? I think it has to do with insecurity, a misguided sense of nationalistic pride in our global leadership, a concern if we don't prop up everything, that all hell will break loose and we'll pay more in the long run.

 I admit I was unduly influenced by the neocons. I had questions about Iraq and Afghanistan intervention, but I convinced myself that our leaders had access to certain information I didn't, and I had concerns in the aftermath of 9/11. When did I lose my religion? When I saw the botched handling after the defeat of the Iraqi army, the incompetent management by the military leadership over the next 3 years, a book by Woodward over that period. I think the fiasco of the economic tsunami in 2008 led me to question my faith in government across the board, and I looked to a more consistent, principled critique of government. I think we have a mirror effect of the leftists' fears of spontaneous order, the invisible hand in the domestic economy, only projected on a global level by related concerns. How do we convince people that letting go is probably almost always the prudent way to go? How do we teach them about abstract opportunity costs, unintended consequences, etc.? I think we start by pointing out that government is a monopoly, has routinely failed almost everything, is financially irresponsible and has a vested class of bureaucrats and political whores. We turn the lights on the cockroaches of government.

(Mercatus Center). With Dodd-Frank, it's time to admit defeat and try a new strategy, argues Hester Peirce: http://bit.ly/1rjSH26
Hobble whom? The parasites on wall street? 
I call it Dodd N. Frankenstein. As to the idiot "progressive troll", the parasites are the government. This is a problem CAUSED by government; they are the ones whom transferred risk to taxpayers. They, like you, are the maggots whom have imposed morally hazardous policies, like deposit insurance. Not to mention dysfunctional bank regulations which, even after the birth of the Fed, lead to chronic bank failures, unlike Canada, which wasn't stupid enough to prohibit branch banking or asset restrictions on reserves.

(Bastiat Institute). "Neolibertarians are fiscal libertarians who support a strong military, and believe that the U.S. government should use that military to overthrow dangerous and oppressive regimes."
No, pretty sure those are neoconservatives. But words mean whatever people think they mean. The word "liberal" was lost to the statists. Will the word "libertarian" be lost? Even Sean Hannity is a "libertarian" now
No, there are some neolibertarians as in the Libertarian Republican(.net) website--which derides noninterventionists as "left-libertarian" and has a nativist perspective. I think most of us might dispute some of the categories; for example, I'm more of a classicial liberal/minarchist, open borders type blended with non-government cultural conservatism

(Drudge Report). WHITE HOUSE WARNS ON IMPEACHMENT
Let's get serious here--this is a desperation tactic by a guy whose only talent is political. Even if the GOP takes the Senate this fall, the Dems will hold more than enough votes to block conviction; blacks are the most reliable special interest group in the Dem coalition. Short of a smoking gun, they'll never convict him. And the GOP will get blowback just like they did when Clinton wasn't convicted by the Senate. 

The guy has hubris. Back in 2010, when warned that he could lose the House like Clinton did, he said that he was a better politician than Clinton, and he would hold the House. I like a wounded, unpopular Obama heading into the 2016 which should be a change year. Put Clinton into the political hotspot of being a third term of Obama. You need to look at the big picture, people. I don't like this guy anymore than you do; his "Presidency" is an inkblot on American history. But only a third of the public is behind his impeachment and he has a 42% approval. Those numbers have to seriously change before this is possible.

(Reason). See Bok cartoon below.
Probably for the same reason we did in North Carolina... They want to expand Medicare/Medicaid with one time federal funds. After that, the states have to pick up the tab and most states simply don't have the money.
It wasn't "one time". You conservatives who continue to post on a topic you clearly know nothing about are ridiculous.
Economically illiterate "progressive" trolls. It was a teaser rate that's offered for a short period--which is what the guy meant by "one-time" federal funds. It's like a pusher giving out "free" samples.

(IPI). In a creative-accounting maneuver that would make Wall Street proud, Chicago Public Schools’ leadership fashioned a 14-month year for fiscal year 2015.
CPS is adding 60 days to its 2015 fiscal year, allowing it to “generate” one-time revenues of nearly $650 million – just enough to cover its skyrocketing pension costs and help balance its budget.
If that was confusing, it should be. All good budget gimmicks are.
Deferring the day of reckoning and denying the law of gravity; this is unsustainable.

(Being Classically Liberal). How do you all feel about the death penalty? I personally don't know much on the matter but from what I've read the costs of executing people is enormous. I'm also concerned about the execution of innocent people, which has happened in the past. Albert Camus once wrote:
"Capital punishment is the most premeditated of murders, to which no criminal’s deed, however calculated, can be compared. For there to be an equivalency, the death penalty would have to punish a criminal who had warned his victim of the date on which he would inflict a horrible death on him and who, from that moment onward, had confined him at his mercy for months. Such a monster is not to be encountered in private life."
I happen to agree with him but am open to changing my mind.
I happen to be a pro-life libertarian; I oppose the State intentionally taking lives in any fashion.

More Proposals









Political Humor

The New York Times reports Montana Sen. John Walsh plagiarized at least 25 percent of his master's degree thesis. Walsh denied it and said, "I am not a crook, and ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country. Mission accomplished." - Jimmy Fallon
On NYT accusations of plagiarism, Sen. Walsh said, "Don't tell me words matter; it's not a speech-just words. It's the thought that counts."

Despite the recent unrest in the Middle East, President Obama's approval rating has stayed constant at 42 percent. Wow, he can't even get THAT to change. - Seth Meyers

Asked about further evidence of global warming, Obama pointed at global hotspots like Ukraine and Gaza and his own approval rating over 40%.

Political Cartoon
Courtesy of Chip Bok via Reason
Musical Interlude: My Favorite Vocalists

Billy Joel, "Only the Good Die Young". As a Catholic brother and uncle, I would have knocked Joel's block off if he pulled such cheesy lines on one of the ladies in my family tree... Catchy ditty, but the lyrics suck.

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