A leader must have the courage to act against an expert's advice.
James Callaghan
Tweet of the Day
What's next? Kids in school will be taught to confess State violations by their parents for benefit of the collective http://t.co/grUOMOHir9
— Ronald Guillemette (@raguillem) September 10, 2014
"If left unchecked, these terrorists could pose a growing threat beyond that region, including the US":Obama doctrine of preventive warfare
— Ronald Guillemette (@raguillem) September 11, 2014
Image of the Day |
| Via Being Classically Liberal |
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| Via Voluntary Virtues Network |
Dick Morris Wins Bad Elephant of the Year Nomination
From the Hill:
During the month of August, the economy added about 659,000 jobs that went to foreign-born Americans (naturalized citizens, green card holders and illegal immigrants combined). At the same time, it lost about 643,000 jobs that had been held by native-born Americans.
Indeed, since President Obama took office, the number of foreign-born Americans who have jobs has risen by 2.9 million while the number of domestically born Americans who are employed has grown by only 1.2 million.
In other words, about three out of four jobs created during the Obama presidency went to immigrants.I mentioned Morris in a recent post, worried that he was headed in this direction. Making this argument is a long-term loser. Remember, Romney's anti-immigration pitch hurt him not only among Latinos, even worse among, say, Asian Americans. Even in a healthy economy, people leave their jobs for all kinds of reasons. Jobs are not widgets; they don't belong to people outside a company. They are a matter of an employer's prerogative to achieve business objectives. There could be a variety of reasons for Morris' figures, even if we accept them at face value--for example, it may reflect a compatibility of immigrant skills with available positions, immigrants may be more willing to relocate for suitable employment, etc. In any event, job growth has been abysmal since at least 2000. The proper policy prescription is lowering the tax/regulatory burden on companies and making them more globally competitive, lowering the cost of hiring employees (e.g., benefit mandates), limit government competition for investment and other resources, etc. A rising tide will raise all boats.
If you are going to criticize Obama and the Dems on immigration, focus on things like
- the violations of the rule of law: Obama's use of executive orders and his abuse of administrative discretion to enforce immigration on an essentially arbitrary, partisan basis
- the failure of immigration policy to address worker gaps needed to achieve business objectives
- inadequate compensation from federal policy failures which have adversely impacted state/local expenditures
- ineffectual, inefficient management and deployment of immigration personnel and other resources.
But the zero-sum politics that Morris seems to present is a penny-wise, pound-foolish policy that has, among other things, ceded the People's Democratic Republic of California.
Anti-Religious Fascism By the US Forest Service
From KIRO-TV, early Aug. 2010, Washington state:
An 11-year-old girl was killed by chunk of falling ice the size of a pickup truck at Big Four Ice Caves in Verlot on Saturday [7/31/10].
KIRO TV's Graham Johnson said the massive chunk of ice struck the child, pinning her to either a rock or a wall of ice.
According to a witness, the girl was sitting on a rock up an incline of the ice cave with her brother when the ice chunk fell. The brother was not hit by the ice.
The witness said the girl was conscious when she was carried down to a safe area, but stopped breathing at some point.
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| Victim Grace Tam via KIRO |
The family of an 11-year-old girl who was killed at the Big Four Ice Caves in Verlot has been forced to take down a cross they placed there in the memory of their daughter. When Grace's family placed a pink cross outside the caves, the U.S. Forest Service told them to take it down because it was a religious symbol and was against regulations.
This is just heartless, not to mention an unconstitutional breach of religious speech. When someone dies on public land, there should be discretion to accommodate a grieving family's remembrance of their deceased loved one. The issue here was not a prohibition of a sign but the symbolic nature of that sign. I don't have the right to object to the fact of a Jewish template or a mosque in my neighborhood; the visibility of the symbols of their faith does not impose a burden on my own ability to practice my Catholic faith. The government forcing a family to choose between their daughter and their faith is unconscionable.
Free Range Kids
First, let us acknowledge tragedies do occur in life, sometimes involving parental negligence. I think, for instance there might be be ways to design gizmos or apps to alert parents of children left in cars or when a parent is some prescribed distance from a child. But it is not the State's responsibility to micromanage parental discretion, like a 9-year-old is alert sitting by herself in a car and doesn't appear to be in distress.
Facebook Corner
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| Via Being Classically Liberal |
(Institute for Justice). Imagine being threatened with arrest for selling food. It’s happening in Chicago.
I wonder when political whores will be forced to be as transparent as food providers. I have more confidence in tamale vendors who must deliver excellent products to win repeat voluntary sales than single-party rule of the local government monopoly.
(Drudge Report). Pelosi wants regulators to have sweeping new powers over Internet...
No, we don't need the fascist "net neutrality" pretext to rationalize government empirebuilding on the Internet. The Internet market has developed and innovated without the burdensome overhead of parasitic regulators and political whores. Listening to gullible IT students whose profs would have flunked my courses parrot economically illiterate propaganda is bad enough. ISP's have done a brilliant job presenting a vast array of information and services, much of which is freely available and/or expands consumer choices.
Now not interfering in an ISP's ability to market consumer segments in a flexible manner enables them to invest the capital needed to service resource-intense data (say, multimedia) with long-term benefits to all consumers. Telling ISP's they are prohibited from engaging in voluntary mutually beneficial transactions is as economically illiterate as price caps, rent control or high-end progressive income tax rates; it's as clueless as socialism being fine with everyone equally poor.
(separate comment)
I have to respond to other equally illiterate comments here. First of all, the Internet provided an already dizzing array of content without government regulation; heck, one of the earliest, most lucrative Internet markets was pornography--the kind of stuff professional censors live for. We never had this "net neutrality" government savior. Second, there are already multiple access paths to Internet services--cable, fiber, dial-up, wifi, satellite, etc. I guarantee if there is a market niche that one ISP is allegedly not servicing, there are alternatives. That's the way capitalism works--entrepreneurs find a niche or product not currently available. This whole "we need government to ensure a free market" is ludicrous; all government does is create obstacles for competition. Tell me, how has government improved anywhere where it has prohibited or undermined the private sector? Education, healthcare, college loans, mortgages? How many of these segments do you see vast unfunded liabilities, massive losses--at taxpayer expense, limited alternatives, skyrocketing inflation? And your "solution" is to bring the same disastrous meddling to the Internet?
(IPI). From the Chicago Tribune: "The former CEO of Chicago's fired red light camera vendor pleaded not guilty today to federal charges she helped orchestrate a decade-long $2 million bribery scheme to win and grow the largest automated traffic enforcement program in the nation."
Cronyism and corruption. Who would have guessed the taxpayer gets screwed in this red light district?
(Stossel). Maybe it’s time for America to stop taking the bait. Islamic militants do monstrous things all over the world. We cannot stop it all. http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2014/09/10/attack-isis-hold-on-mr-president/
With a $17.5T debt and an anemic economy, it's time to declare an end to International Whac-a-Mole and nationbuilding.
(Drudge Report). 'HOMELAND' TELLS RETAILERS TO WATCH CUSTOMERS
Next thing you know, kids in school will be indoctrinated to confess State violations by their parents for the good of the collective...
(Reason). What happened to the anti-interventionist moment?
This is part and parcel of the Dems' use of cruise missiles and USAF bombing raids as if it's not a real war if you don't have boots on the ground. I haven't changed my opinion; I think George Will made the point recently there are more than enough ground troops and planes in the region to fully offset the 20,000 or so ISIS combatants. I think the sympathetic stories of starving or persecuting Christians and other minorities, not to mention public executions of a few Americans have given the neocons propaganda talking points.
(Being Classically Liberal). Alright everyone, it's time for a vote. Do we keep Friedman as our profile picture or choose someone else? Here some alternatives:
Hayek
Mises
Bastiat
Hazlitt
Smith, Ricardo, etc.
Vote!
It's Bastiat's turn!
(Reason). Republican Senator Rand Paul expressed support for President Obama's latest round of military action against terrorist state ISIS while insisting that the operation is nevertheless technically unconstitutional.
Rand Paul needs to rethink his incoherent foreign policy. Our taking the lead in other global regions is morally hazardous. There are enough regional neighbors with a direct stake in ISIS expansionism, we should not be intervening.
(Drudge Report). GUARDIAN OF THE GALAXY!
Some idiotic trolls don't understand the difference between negotiations and ultimatums--or else I'll have a temper tantrum if I don't get my way. "Bush did it and nobody bitched... Wah-wah!" Except some demagogue won the Presidency over having the judgment to give a speech in 2002...which he has contradicted by his actions in office. It goes beyond hypocrisy....
(separate comment)
He SHOULD go through Congress for any military action not involving a direct military threat against the US. He had CONSTANTLY evaded getting Congressional approval for any of his Middle East/Gulf region adventures, drone attacks, clearly unconstitutional and something the hypocrite constantly criticized Bush over. The Congress SHOULD be held accountable if they approve this interventionist madness.
Proposals
Political Cartoon
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| Courtesy of the original artist via IPI |
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| Courtesy of Lisa Benson via Townhall |
Barry Manilow, "Could It Be Magic". Hands down, my favorite Manilow tune, based on chord and melodical progressions of Frédéric Chopin's Prelude in C Minor, Opus 28, Number 20. I love the mad driving percussion, but I want it to go through the ceiling. 'Melissa' is a tribute to singer Melissa Manchester.
