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Tuesday, January 20, 2015

Miscellany: 1/20/15

Quote of the Day
Behind an able man there are always other able men.
Chinese Proverb

NOTE To Readers: Due to time constraints and need to access the transcript, I'm not reviewing the State of the Union speech in detail in this post. I will review the address in one or more upcoming one-off posts. Suffice is to say that there was almost nothing in the entire speech I could agree with.

Guest Rant of the Day: The Real Charlie Hebdo "Humor": "Free Speech" in a Politically Correct World

When David Cameron announced on Twitter that he was joining that vast rally in Paris “to celebrate the values of Charlie Hebdo”, one wondered whether he had even previously heard of that little magazine, let alone looked at its pages. Did he really wish to celebrate crude cartoons showing a naked Mohammed with a star coming out of his bottom, captioned: “A star is born”? Or another, captioned “The film that embraces all the Muslim world”, showing a naked Prophet holding a camera to his bottom, saying: “And my ass? You love my ass”?
Did our Prime Minister really want to applaud a picture of the Pope, scantily clad as a Rio prostitute, saying: “Ready for anything to win some clients?” Even these are only among the images available online. A friend living in France tells me of others even more dubious, showing Jesus masturbating, or the Virgin Mary engaging in sexual acts. 
 In a time when there is such pressure to prevent people saying things that do not conform with group-think – when every kind of “political correctness” rules; when Christians are arrested for quoting the Bible in the street, for fear of giving “offence to minorities”; when boarding-house owners are prosecuted for not wishing to let rooms to gay couples; when there are calls for “climate change deniers” to be sacked or put on trial; when judges repeatedly threaten people with imprisonment for trying to expose the travesties of justice in their “child protection” system – who really knows what “freedom of speech” is any longer? - Christopher Booker

Image of the Day

Courtesy of FEE on Spooner's birthday


Chart of the Day

Via Reason
 
Via Cato Institute

Tweet of the Day

Rand Paul's Response to the SOTU Address



Rant of the Day: Justin Amash

The essential error of the Obama presidency is an unfounded belief that greater government power—in our pocketbooks, in our private lives—will make America more prosperous and free. President Obama's faith in concentrated power was on full display in tonight's State of the Union address.
Working families feel squeezed by higher health care costs and tuition bills. Those fortunate enough to hold steady jobs haven't seen a raise in years. They worry about their children's future and their country's.
The president seems to have only one answer for them: enlarge the size and scope of the federal government. To help middle-class Americans, the president demands more than $300 billion of tax hikes and a new round of stimulus spending. To rein in education costs, the president creates a federal education entitlement, the type of which led to skyrocketing tuition in the first place. To fix our health care system, the president touts the same law that has caused prices to rise and stripped families of access to their doctors. To make the financial system more stable, the president threatens to veto reforms to Dodd-Frank, his law that made banks bigger than ever. And to protect Americans' privacy, he offers yet another report instead of reining in his own spies.
Higher federal taxes, more federal spending, and greater federal control of our lives haven't worked over the past six years. Our country is beginning to turn the corner not because of government but in spite of it. Instead of faith in Washington, let's put faith in Americans to determine their own lives. Let's give liberty a chance.

Spot on; note that he said NOTHING about $93.5 unfunded entitlements; he hasn't noted that our economic growth is choking under high debt overhang and a $1.8T regulatory regime. We need a sound money policy and need to audit and downsize the Fed's mandate to maintaining currency stability.

Bad Judge of the Year Nominee: Federal District Judge Mark Goldsmith

Goldsmith mocks Jesus; no further comment necessary:
A U.S. District Judge mocked the Bible in a decision that validated 300 same-sex "marriages" that took place in Michigan last year.
"In these circumstances, what the state has joined together, it may not put asunder," said Judge Mark Goldsmith in his Thursday decision. The ruling came after nearly a year of uncertainty regarding same-sex couples who were "married" the day after a different judge said Michigan's marriage law was unconstitutional.

Fascialism

I cited a DiLorenzo piece in yesterday's Brill article review (i.e., how private hospitals have basically been replaced for the most part by federal intervention in healthcare). DiLorenzo wrote a brilliant essay on economic fascism which I have often referenced over the life of the board; it should be pointed out that we are not discussing the political ideology, including the racism, genocide, etc., but the relation of the State and the economy. Under traditional socialism, the State owns production; alternatively, under fascism, if you want private companies, you can have private companies, so long as  they are subordinate to the rules and regulations of the common good, i.e., the State. Hayek argues that redistribution policies through income/wealth taxes and the modern welfare state is an alternative approach to socialism ("From each according to his ability, to each according to his need"). DiLorenzo sees the current system as a fusion of fascism and socialism. (Note the essay was written during the first year of Obama's Presidency when Obama was the senior "partner" in a relationship with car companies, banks, AIG, and the GSE's.) The following discussion is my own, drawing on DiLorenzo's distinctions. An example of fascism is Obama's declaration of the auto industry or presence in the solar power industry as strategic industries. So were the GSE's, highly dependent on cheap government funds. Of course, loans which were converted to government-owned majority stakes also made for partial State ownership, old-school socialism. More direct forms of socialism might be nationalization of industries, e.g., college loans and up to over 90% of home mortgages going through some government/affiliated entities, e.g., FHA and the GSE's (which technically are now in the private sector--their stocks are actively traded, although essentially the government strips profits without sharing them with stockholders). Note in the healthcare delivery system we have a mixture, e.g., government-owned/operated facilities like the VA hospitals, county hospitals, etc. and government control through strings attached to disbursements of Medicaid, Medicare, SCHIP. Certainly Pelosi's cherished "public option" of health insurance would have made for a mixed system. Of course, the federal government with almost an infinite checkbook could gain market share at will against the real competition, not unlike how the GSE's expanded from a minor foothold in the secondary home mortgage market to a dominant duopoly by 2008.

I think it's more complicated although some industries like banking and healthcare delivery are more regulated than others (e.g., high tech). But make no mistake--the government octopus spreads its tentacles throughout the economy through mercantilistic policies, subsidies, quotas, insurance, loans, etc. That's why when I encounter leftist trolls in Internet forums who try to scapegoat "the free market" when government engage in morally hazardous policies like providing insurance where losses are assumed at the expense of the taxpayer (the leftist mantra of privatizing gains and socializing losses), I have to roll my eyes--these programs were all progressive policies to begin with, and the progressives want to blame businesses for failed policies...


"The First Thing We Do, Let's Kill All the Lawyers"



 Facebook Corner

(Reason). Obama administration did almost nothing to lower oil and gas prices.
The Saudi's are lowering the prices to stop us from extracting oil from shale. Those companies are already talking about layoffs because of falling oil prices. They are being duped. By the end of the year, gas prices will be back up to $4 a gallon. We need to keep drilling and keep fracking.
A lot of the discussion in this thread is nonsense. Saudi Arabia is not the current top producer. The issue has more to do with a sluggish global economy. US technology is driving down shale costs, Saudi Arabia can only modestly expand capacity and any expanded demand from lower prices, strengthening global growth or say supply disruptions in a volatile global region will lead to a price recovery--and US shale properties will be increasingly viable.
(separate)
To the OP: it's more complicated than US shale producers. Saudi Arabia is defending market share, which it has been losing to Russia and the US. Plus, it is not happy with Iran and Russia, both heavily dependent on resource exports. Also, the Saudi economy is also heavily dependent on oil revenues, so it's a double-edged sword. Let's just say, the US economy can weather an oil correction better than OPEC nations. If I'm a betting man, the Saudis will blink first.
 Oil is cheap because american drilling is higher now than foreign oil imports. Also the Fed is tapering and OPEC is weakening.
 No. Too many things wrong with this. We still import about 30%. Price drop has more to do with a faltering global economy. Capital flows have more to do with lack of competitive currencies and global economic uncertainty, a promise to raise rates (which I don't believe Yellen will do as exporters like JNJ are getting hurt and some deflationary pressures). OPEC is losing market share to producers like Russia and the US.

(NRSC). Join Senator Ernst and the Senate Republican team!
Plenty of money for corporate welfare and tax cuts for corporations and the ultra wealthy.
It's ludicrous that the same Democratic political whores that wrote and VOTED FOR said laws want to have it both ways. The same "Progressive" economic illiterate ignores the fact that 70% of swindled revenues go for domestic individual entitlements--including Medicare and other forms of government fraud. Not one business can cast a vote in Congress.

(Rand Paul). Mr. President, you can't wave a magic wand and declare something free. Someone has to pay for it!
I noticed that he said nothing about balancing the budget, paying down the $18T debt, fixing our $93.5T unfunded liability problem, auditing the Fed, restoring the privacy rights of US citizens, releasing the $1.8T regulatory choke hold on the economy, regaining our leadership in economic liberty

(Reason). The radar devices can detect whether anyone is inside of a house, where they are and whether they are moving.
Simply unconstitutional. This is little more than a fishing expedition, not unlike the Riley v. CA decision, restricting cellphone searches. If there is a legitimate reason for use of this technology, take it to a judge.

(Rand Paul). Please leave your thoughts in the comments on what you feel the President should address in tonight's State of the Union.
balancing the budget and paying down the debt

(Sick of Lawsuits). Ever missed a party that you RSVP'd for? This 5 year-old did and now he may be sued. Outrageous? Tell us what you think!
When I was a boy, parties didn't have $25 cover charges.

(Reason). What do the past two weeks of President Barack Obama's ‪#‎SOTU‬ spoilers mean for our annual State of the Union drinking game? We're all about to get really, really drunk
Damn. I was going to watch, but I think my favorite Seinfeld rerun is going to be on tonight.
 A tough choice: a show about nothing or a President whose speeches mean nothing.

(Reason). The neoconservative Washington Free Beacon has discovered some amazing inside information relating to Sen. Rand Paul's likely presidential run: some of Sen. Paul's supporters—get this—oppose endless military intervention.
After Barry Obama took the oath of office, we now expect a libertarian staffer to take a pledge to say the Pledge? With or without "under God"?

(National Review). The mayor of Paris says she intends to sue Fox News for having “insulted” the city last week with its use of “no-go zones” in the area.
Breaking news: the socialist mayor of Paris hates Fox News. Apparently, all insults must be spoken or written in French like Charlie Hebron. Send them a white flag for when Judge Andrew Napolitano goes there...

Political Cartoon

Courtesy of Gary Varvel via Townhall
Musical Interlude: My Favorite Vocalists

Céline Dion, "My Heart Will Go On". Undoubtedly her signature song and biggest commercial hit.

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