If I have ever made any valuable discoveries,
it has been owing more to patient attention
than to any other talent.
Isaac Newton
Tweet of the Day
Why is @realDonaldTrump so obsessed with what foreigners think of American leadership? We need principled, optimistic, confident leaders.
— Ronald Guillemette (@raguillem) September 10, 2015
What will make America great again is our return to principles of limited government, open immigration,markets,trade, NOT @realDonaldTrump
— Ronald Guillemette (@raguillem) September 10, 2015
The Anti-Iran Nuclear Agreement RallyFamiliar readers know that I'm opposed to economic sanction which I consider a form of warfare. The rhetoric, of course, is over the top.
Tell Me Lies, Political Whores
Facebook Corner
(responding to pro-Davis troll on my comment and/or a complimentary response to Independent Institute thread earlier this week, 9/7)
my original response: The author doesn't seem to know that the County Clerk is an elected position; she's not a civil servant. In fact, failing to fulfill her duties is a misdemeanor and grounds for impeachment. The Kentucky governor and attorney general have told her to resign or comply with the law. She also refused to allow her 6 deputy clerks to process the paperwork, so this is not simply an issue of religious accommodation but she's obstructing the law, a violation of the rule of law.
What law?
522.020 Official misconduct in the first degree.
(1) A public servant is guilty of official misconduct in the first degree when, with intent(Jeffrey Tucker). Practically overnight, the GOP has embraced the dumbest form of nativism and (real) isolationism. It's completely out of control. The more "right wing" the opinion, the more it embraces this path. Who was it who imagined that the Tea Party was essentially libertarian?
to obtain or confer a benefit or to injure another person or to deprive another person
of a benefit, he knowingly:
(a) Commits an act relating to his office which constitutes an unauthorized
exercise of his official functions; or
(b) Refrains from performing a duty imposed upon him by law or clearly inherent
in the nature of his office; or
(c) Violates any statute or lawfully adopted rule or regulation relating to his
office.
(2) Official misconduct in the first degree is a Class A misdemeanor.
Effective: January 1, 1975
History: Created 1974 Ky. Acts ch. 406, sec. 187, effective January 1, 1975.
No, you're wrong. I do think that nativists have attempted to co-opt the Tea Party movement and are certainly very vocal. But according to Pew Research in a 2014 post, about 40% were hardliners on immigration (and about 75% of those favor the deportation route), but 60% favored a path to citizenship. Me, I'm not formally part of the movement, but the founding of the movement was based on the concept of limited government (yeah, I know--you're an AnCap). I'm pretty much an open-markets/trade/immigration guy. (Let's also note the Hoppe-wing libertarians are also restrictionists, and Rothbard famously contradicted himself in the 1990's,)
This is sort of the political equivalent of concentrated benefits and diffuse costs. I notice whenever Reason or Cato Institute posts a pro-immigration piece. I feel like I'm the only one out there. Restrictionists spam the threads and attack the few of us out there who are pro-immigration.
I'm probably one of the most prolific anti-Trump Twitter contributors out there, but not even one of those tweets have been favorited or retweeted. There's a disturbing cult like thing going on out there, and he has had a nearly 50-point turnaround in his unfavorability numbers. I don't get it, and I find it very alarming. It's like the American people are tired of political uncertainty and think this economically illiterate, ill-tempered, unprincipled, incompetent, unqualified, self-serving jerk speaks for them. I've never seen anything like it.
http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2014/06/11/tea-partiers-are-not-all-immigration-hawks/
(separate comment)
Just a separate comment about the politics. I think the 16 other candidates are trying to figure out how to play this. Right now Trump is besting the two most prominant immigration reformers, Bush and Rubio, in their own state of Florida. I think the others don't want to alienate Trump if and when his campaign falters; Cruz is the most transparent of these. If I'm in the Congressional GOP leadership, I think the best thing I could do is to finally pass immigration legislation.
(Proud to be an American). Do you agree or disagree with the majority of Americans on this?
I definitely agree. She took an oath of office to carry out the law. If she felt that doing her job compromised her religious liberty, she should have resigned from office. She can't have her cake and eat it, too
(Libertaran Catholic). Interesting take on #KimDavis. "There really ARE two kinds of people in the world: those who will go to jail rather than do what’s wrong and those who will send them there."
Badly written piece, period. There's not even a religious conscience issue here; she was processing license/certificate paperwork--she wasn't performing a ceremony. Five of her 6 deputy clerks (by statute, they can sign) were willing to comply with the law, but she was blocking them from doing so. This constitutes official misconduct under Kentucky law. She could also be charged on federal grounds (e.g., 18 USC § 242), (She was jailed by a federal judge in a civil rights suit filed by the ACLU on behalf of Rowan County gay couples.)
Ms. Davis, if she had any integrity, would have resigned. As for this ludicrous op-ed, you would think that any elected public official is above the law given a slippery slope argument. I'm attaching one list of of convicted state and local officials--including judges!
What about the right of the couples to have their union recognized by the government ?
There's no such thing as a positive (State-conferred vs. natural/negative) right.
(FEE). “Food insecurity” is a new statistic designed to mislead.
There's a touch of Big Nanny in this piece I don't like. I don't mind a discussion of, say, limiting the nature and extent of food stamp distribution, but the part about making food choices for others (e.g., obese people) is fundamentally Statist and paternalistic.
(National Review). The Words Trump Doesn’t Use
Of course you won't hear hear 'liberty' or 'freedom' from an ill-tempered, incompetent, self-serving, unprincipled, unqualitfied right-fascist demagogue like Donald Trump.
Political Cartoon
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| Courtesy of Glenn McCoy via Townhall |
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| Courtesy of the original artist via Independent Institute |
Musical Interlude: My Favorite Vocalists
Lionel Richie (with Diana Ross), "Endless Love"
