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Wednesday, February 11, 2015

Miscellany: 2/11/15

Quote of the Day
The truth doesn't hurt unless it ought to.
B. C. Forbes

Tweet of the Day
Do You Know the Way to San Jose's Pension Reform?



Choose Life: Memories for Families with Dying/Dead Babies



Congress Overwhelmingly Approves Keystone Pipeline: Thumbs UP!

We have literally thousands of oil/gas pipelines crossing the states with rights-of-ways on private property (it's a sore point with me--many disingenuous opponents are calling it eminent domain abuse for compensated access, typically 4 feet underground, doesn't affect plowing, etc.) but this one causes a kerfuffle because it crosses the border. The President has been playing politics with this one: his union constituents want it, his environmentalist allies reject it. Note that we already import oil from Canada and have for years under different, less environmentally-friendly means (rail, tankers, etc.) I've debated this in numerous Facebook threads over the past several weeks/months, and it's been a rare point of disagreement between Congressman Amash and myself (e.g., see below). I probably wouldn't support a one-off bill like this under normal circumstances, but Obama has totally politicized the process.

Obama Requests Formal Authority For ISIS War, Including Possible Ground Troops: Thumbs DOWN!

I do not believe that ISIS is a credible threat to the US, and I believe that unilateral US moves are morally hazardous, preempting necessary regional leadership to contain the threat. It's time to stop being the world's policeman.

Facebook Corner

(Justin Amash). The latest ‪#‎KXL‬ bill combines the cronyism of previous bills—specially exempting one private company from the laws and regulations that apply to all other companies—with new, unrelated sections empowering the EPA and the federal government with respect to local energy efficiency. I voted no.
As a fellow pro-liberty conservative, I reluctantly have to say Justin is wrong on this issue. This has to do with Obama stonewalling approvals. If Amash had been sincerely interested in the rule of law, he would have established a workaround to Obama. But Keystone did comply with existing regulations--that's the point. As for legislative sausage making, this happens all the time, Justin. Stop looking for excuses to rationalize a negative vote. Not a single other pro-liberty member of Congress followed your vote, including Massie, Jones, Sanford, Sen. Paul, Lee.

(Cato Institute). Three weeks ago, Cato EVP David Boaz gave the very first copy of his new book, The Libertarian Mind: A Manifesto for Freedom, to Senator Rand Paul. You can get yours here: http://j.mp/16KMojr
Why is Cato pushing Rand Paul? He's not a libertarian. He's a conservative with a couple libertarian ideas.
What self-contradicting libertarian decides exactly who is a libertarian? Some idiot Paul-bashing fool as usual, and I for one am sick and tired of you jerks. Probably no 2 libertarians have the same positions on all issues. Rand Paul, and to a lesser extent Justin Amash, is the only one who has pushed libertarian ideas to the foreground; he is simply a more politically savvy politician than his Dad.

(IPI). If you don’t want to be in union, or pay dues to a union, you shouldn’t be forced to do so in order to keep your job.
Our Vice President of Communications, Diana Rickert, and the Liberty Justice Center’s Senior Attorney, Jacob Huebert, joined Chicago Tonight to discuss Gov. Rauner’s executive order eliminating “fair share” fees for government employees in Illinois.
Watch the full panel discussion here: http://illin.is/1Fzif2R
that may be your opinion but unions continue to set the standards i suppose you think that all these big corporations continue to pay overtime and holiday pay out of the goodness of their hearts. so i also would assume you believe its ok for a corporation to make billions in profits but yet pay wages so low that the taxpayers have to pick up the bill for the employees food stamps and medical cards love them or hate them unions are needed
So many economically illiterate "progressives" in this thread. I admire IPI for restraining themselves. The freeloader issue is not relevant because state government is a monopoly; any state employee has the right to petition for his own compensation. Moreover, the real test is whether state positions go unfilled or whether there's a surplus of qualified applicants: I randomly checked and saw this notice from the Dept. of Corrections: "Due to an excess of pending applications for the Correctional Officer Trainee title, the Illinois Department of Corrections (IDOC) is suspending acceptance of additional applications for that title until further notice." Usually when there is a shortage, it has more to do with compensation divorced from market supply/demand--say, paying a science teacher the same as a history or English teacher under union compensation rules.

 As for the idiotic leftist corporation-bashing, the OP is clueless. Only about 1 in 20 private sector jobs are union jobs, and yet something like 98% of jobs pay above the minimum wage--vs. about 92% back in 1979. And many of the lower-paying jobs are in struggling smaller businesses which are hurt most (besides younger/inexperienced job seekers) by higher minimums, often endorsed by larger businesses--so long as they aren't singled out unconstitutionally.
(separate comment)
Let's be clear: this mentally retarded talking point about WalMart and other corporations "being subsidized" by government benefits aimed at lower-income citizens is illogical. Just to give one example: lots of teens/young adults or spouses are dependents from upper middle-class income families and do not qualify for said benefits. All the corporations are paying is a competitive wage--if they weren't, their employees would be working elsewhere. The government doesn't pay a dime to corporations to hire a lower-end job seeker--and you would think that corporations would load up on lower-wage workers if there was a subsidy. But only about 2.6% of jobs are minimum-wage--which means wages above the minimum. 
But I'll agree with you leftist hypocritical bastards--let's eliminate food stamps and Medicaid and see if the corporations respond by raising compensation, as your point seems to suggest. I bet nothing changes

(IPI). The logic is simple, respect for rights.
Illinoisans aren’t used to seeing from their state government, so perhaps it’s understandable that some are having trouble understanding what Gov. Rauner’s executive order has done and why he has done it.
Say good bye to the rest of the middle class. Wonder who will pay the taxes when all the good paying Union jobs are gone! Is there enough McDonald and nursing home jobs for everyone?
The middle class has done just fine without unions, thank you. As per Mark Perry: " The share of lower-income families fell over time by 4.2 percentage points, from 22% of all US families in 1967 to only 17.8% of all US families in 2009, while the share of middle-income families decreased by 18.6 percentage points during that period, from 61.8% in 1969 to 43.2% in 2009. So where did those 22.8% of families go that disappeared from the lower income and middle income categories in the 42-year period between 1967 and 2009? They “disappeared” into the upper-income category of incomes above $75,000, which increased by 22.8 percentage points, from a 16.3% share of American families in 1967 to a 39.1% share in 2009. " I'll point out unionization has DECLINED during said period.

Political Cartoon

Courtesy of Chip Bok via Townhall
Musical Interlude: My Favorite Vocalists

James Taylor, "Sweet Baby James"

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