So long as I am acting from duty and conviction,
I am indifferent to taunts and jeers.
I think they will probably do me more good than harm.
Winston Churchill
Funniest Politically Correct Holiday Greeting of the Day
Please accept with no obligation, expressed or implied, my best wishes for an environmentally conscious, socially responsible, low-stress, non-addictive, gender-neutral celebration of the winter solstice holiday, practiced within the most enjoyable traditions of the religious persuasion of your choice, or secular practices of your choice, with respect for the religious/secular persuasion and/or traditions of others, or their choice not to practice religious or secular traditions at all. I also wish you a fiscally successful, personally fulfilling, and medically uncomplicated recognition of the onset of the generally accepted calendar year 2015, but not without due respect for the calendars of choice of other cultures whose contributions to society have helped make America great. This is, of course, neither to suggest nor imply that America is necessarily greater than any other country; also, this is not to imply that "America," as noted herein, is the only America in the Western Hemisphere. May these heartfelt wishes be received with equal intensity regardless of distribution of individual wealth, documented carbon footprint, or perceived social privilege among the wishees addressed herein. This wish is made without regard to the race, creed, color, age, physical ability, religious faith, or sexual preference of the wishee.Chart of the Day: New Year's Resolutions for Promoting a Pro-Liberty Agenda
Image of the Day
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| Now this is just mean to the Speaker Via Dollar Vigilante |
First of all, I am no advocate of welfare programs, and I think recreational drugs are a terrible way to abuse one's body; I certainly don't want tax dollars subsidizing someone's addiction. Michigan tries to pass constitutional muster by using some unspecified (in the news account) suspicion-based criterion, but we already know from Florida and other programs, only a very low (barely significant) percentage of those tested got a positive reading. This may be very good for lab testing companies, but I don't see this as serious, cost-effective public policy.
Twelve Days of Yellen
Entertainment Potpourri
It just struck me this year that I have watched absolutely no network prime television this fall season. American Idol should be starting up again in a couple of weeks; the big news during the off season is that it looks like they are doing away with the results show, which I refused to watch last season. I would hope that they include some train wreck acts during the auditions, one of my favorite features in the early years. I think we are nearing the end of the run; last season's winner, Caleb Johnson, barely sold some 11,000 copies of his debut album, without a single track hitting the hot 100 (assuming his Wikipedia discography is reliable).
The holiday movie season is drawing to a close; Hallmark is still running its holiday movies through this weekend; I'm still puzzled because they haven't played this season, as far as I know, some staples from the past like "A Christmas Visitor", "Fallen Angel", "November Christmas", "The Christmas Card", "Silver Bells", "Angel in the Family", and others. The one I liked from this season the most is "Angels and Ornaments". I've ventured off Hallmark over the past week-plus; I did manage to catch "It's a Wonderful Life", "Miracle on 34th St." and "White Christmas" a few times, and "Love At the Christmas Table" is always a special treat.
Facebook Corner
(IPI). A single mother with two young children in Cook County could lose about 1/3 of her total social assistance resources if she were to get a raise or find a higher-paying job that increased her pay to $18/hour from $12/hour.
It's time for Illinois to re-evaluate and overhaul the entire safety-net infrastructure.
Morally hazardous status quo. Obviously people respond to incentives, and the welfare cliff drop-off perpetuates a vicious cycle of government dependency. I think the welfare net should be limited-term in nature, and we should look at incentives (e.g., earned income credits) to offset losses in public assistance. Clearly the welfare net needs to be consolidated, streamlined, and made more transparent; IPI's reforms are a good start.
(Lawrence Reed). "Unlimited tolerance must lead to the disappearance of tolerance. If we extend unlimited tolerance even to those who are intolerant, if we are not prepared to defend a tolerant society against the onslaught of the intolerant, then the tolerant will be destroyed, and tolerance with them. [...] We should therefore claim, in the name of tolerance, the right not to tolerate the intolerant" -- philosopher Karl Popper in "The Open Society and Its Enemies" (1945). He was a co-founder of the Mont Pelerin Society with F. A. Hayek, Milton Friedman and Ludwig von Mises.
The problem is the fact that the politically correct have used the same rationale to censor others, including the exceptions of several "liberal" democracies (e.g., Canada) for "hate speech", etc.
(Reason). Once again, good times for liberalism may be on the verge of ending. After Democrats' recent sag in the polls, the party turned once more to President Bill Clinton.
The myth of "Democratic centrism" is much exaggerated. Recall that the top 2 domestic initiatives leading to the landmark 1994 election were HillaryCare and the class warfare tax hikes; government deficits were projected to stretch well into the future. The Congressional leadership wing is dominated by "progressives" and so-called moderates are only useful in occupying seats in place of the opposition. The nostalgia for Bill Clinton is based on two factors: (1) he inherited a strong economy despite of and not because of his policies, and (2) he had a pragmatic side, unlike Obama, for dealing with an opposition Congress. Hillary is not a centrist by her own record and lacks Bill's political charisma (recall the vast right-wing conspiracy nonsense?) What I think might emerge can be seen in the context of Schumer's mea culpa on the 111th Congress on ObamaCare; I could see a more centrist/populist movement splitting off from the Dems and GOP, say a merge of Northeast moderate Republicans and the dying blue dog Dems.
True liberals have left the Democratic Party. They can haul out Clinton zombies all they want. (Bill was HUGE part of the problem and set up our economic woes along with Reagan. anyone still falling for him is uninformed. )
It's hilarious seeing "progressive" trolls reinvent the Clinton Presidency. First, one of the trolls incorrectly fails to note that the Senate was controlled by the Dems with a 50/50 split after the 2000 elections and Jeffords' quick defection from the GOP caucus. The control the GOP had during the Clinton/Bush era was never a supermajority, e.g., they were never able to rollback Clinton's economy-damaging class warfare tax hikes. Second, the scapegoating of the Financial Modernization Act is pure economically-illiterate leftist crap. The banking industry has been among the most heavily--and wrongly--regulated industries in American history (consider, for example, that branch banking is only a more recent phenomenon; other countries, like Canada, had a more resilient banking industry). There were anachronisms hampering the international competitiveness of American firms facing global competitors facing no such obstacles (and hardly laissez faire); these reforms were phased in over a series of steps and had bipartisan appeal, especially in a state with an open Senate seat the First Lady was eying. There were issues of commission in fiscal and monetary policy (i.e., the government is to blame), including government-insured deposits, implicit guarantees of mortgage-backed securities and a history of government bailouts/interventions. A free market would not have made good on Goldman Sach's AIG swaps; if GS had unduly relied on a vendor with inadequate reserves or liquidity for its swaps business, it made a business mistake.
Musical Interlude: Christmas 2014
Trans-Siberian Orchestra, "Christmas Canon Rock". Just perfect... Exquisite arrangement, beautifully blended vocals... An all-time favorite.
