Miscellany: 3/22/14

Quote of the Day
People ask the difference between a leader and a boss. . . . 
The leader works in the open, 
and the boss is covert. 
The leader leads, 
and the boss drives.
Theodore Roosevelt

Obama and Change

Courtesy of the original artist via the Independent Institute

Smart Growth--Gas Taxes Funding the "Progressive" Hubris of Centrally Planned High Density Cities



Water Politics: A Dysfunctional Statist Manipulated Market



Facebook Corner

(from a personal friend). I sent a birthday package to my granddaughter for her upcoming 4th birthday on Wednesday online through the USPS. The message told me it would arrive in Dallas, TX on Friday. They always very kindly send me messages telling me where my package is. Imagine my surprise when I was notified 3 times Thursday night/Friday morning (8:17 p.m., 1:26 a.m., and 2:38 a.m.) that my package had been processed through the USPS sort facility in Philadelphia, PA. It should have gone straight to Dallas. No more messages since then, and no package in Dallas. Thanks, USPS!
I've had multiple bad experiences. In one case, I sent my Mom a jewelry box with some stained glass insides. It arrived with the glass inside shattered. Their response? If you would have paid us more, we would have handled it better. 

In a second case, while I was teaching at UTEP, I had ordered some software sold under a money-back guarantee; long story short, I returned the software, the vendor balked at issuing a refund, claiming they hadn't received the shipment. I went to file for reimbursement of USPS insurance. USPS told me it was my responsibility to get the vendor to sign, under warning of criminal prosecution for perjury, they hadn't received it. I told them, "Here is their letter saying they didn't get the package; the vendor is in Chicago; I can't go there in person." The USPS Latino supervisor told me we couldn't disturb the public and led me down to his office. I noticed a half dozen Latino postal workers file in behind me; I didn't pay attention to them, and the argument continued, when all of a sudden I was sharply punched from behind in the kidney area. I turned around to confront the attacker, when the supervisor and workers played like the 3 monkeys.

In the third case, to provide context, I've repeatedly told my Mom over the years I want my apartment complex managers to sign for my deliveries; it's much faster and convenient for me to get them that way because of my work schedule. My Mom, with typical Mom logic, disregards my wishes. (Example: if I gave my Mom a suggested gift idea of a tie and said, "Whatever you do, don't buy me a red tie; I hate red ties", she'll buy me a red tie and tell me what kind of nice clothes match a red tie...) So she sent me apparently some nice, unique birthday gift with the provision of personal signature only, rationalizing it that she wants to make sure I got it; I've reminded her I always acknowledge her gifts in other ways (emails, calls, letters, whatever). I loathed my MD postal carrier for reasons beyond this post, but let's just say he went out of his way to let me know I couldn't pick up the package at the apartment complex office because of my mother's delivery instructions. I go to the local Baltimore suburb post office (which was a pain because of very limited public parking slots available), wait a half hour just to be told, "Sorry, sir. We don't hold packages here. You'll have to call this number to reschedule delivery." Long story short, they spend a couple of weeks looking for the package and can't find it. I suggest I'll check with apartment management just on the chance the carrier delivered it there even though he told me otherwise. The apartment management misunderstands, thinking an allegation was made they were responsible for losing my package, and their response is, "We don't want to be involved. In the meanwhile, to avoid any future misunderstanding, we won't sign for your packages anymore. Other residents, yes; you--no." The local carrier leaves an "in-your-face" gleeful note of the management's decision; it's like being back in elementary school.

But that's not the end of the story. My Mom has to collect the insurance, right? There were multiple USPS bureaucratic battles. one in Texas (I think my Mom was told she would have to refile at another office) and between Texas and Maryland. It took several weeks for her to collect.

The USPS is sort of a touchy subject. From a political perspective in my blog, I've argued for privatization, and I won't get into that in this post, except to say it's not personal (I've also had airlines misplace luggage). But I've had relatives in my extended family whom have worked at USPS.

Political Cartoon

Courtesy of Gary Varvel and Townhall

Musical Interlude: My iPod Shuffle Series

Dave Mason, "Every World". I think I first heard this tune covered by Mac Davis (I'm a big fan of both singer/songwriters. Mason is probably best known for "We Just Disagree", and I think he recorded the definitive version of "Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow?"--I don't care if he barely touched Top 40; you cannot improve on that performance (go on and click  on that link--you know you want to). Both tunes will make cameo appearances in the countdown.

Miscellany: 3/21/14

Quote of the Day
Too many times we confuse motion with progress.
Cyclops

Pro-Liberty Thought of the Day

Remy's Back With Ironic Feinstein Whom Believes in the Fourth Amendment--When It Comes to Legislators



Choose Life



Facebook Corner

Via LFC

Those "progressives" who don't get to make bad law teach...

(Citizens Against Government Waste). Obamacare has been ruinous for the now 5 million Americans who have discovered that despite President Obama’s promise, they may not keep their healthcare plan, even if they like it. Do you have an Obamacare horror story? Tell us! http://bit.ly/1fML2ll
Why not place the blame squarely on the shoulders of the insurance companies? They have been putting money before healthcare and patient's needs for years.
Because it's the government that has made the costly rules and regulations, health insurance is not really insurance but bundled services, including ordinary expenses, health insurers barely manage to make a profit relative to other businesses, and the vast majority of people in private-sector plans liked them before the Parasites in Congress and the White House outlawed the plans people liked for centrally-planned Frankenstein. Still confused, or do you want a second helping?

Via Illinois Policy Institute

The "progressives" are once again coopting conservative soundbites. Remember how The (Incompetent) One stole FNC's "fair and balanced" promo to character his tax-and-spend budget? Nearly everything out of a "progressive"'s mouth is pure hubris and takes chutzpah: "affordable" health care, "balanced" budget, and "fair" tax. What "progressives" mean as "affordable", "balanced" and "fair" is that they get to spend more of your money on their crony constituents, and your part is to capitulate gracefully to their plunder....


(Drudge Report). Hawaii law lets police have sex with prostitutes...
Paying police to have sex with prostitutes...Doesn't that make them?... It's as if M.C. Escher was a lawyer... If you're looking for wrongdoing behind closed doors, what about investigating backroom political dealmaking?

(Illinois Policy Institute). In Illinois, elected officials and government unions negotiate their contracts completely hidden from the eyes of taxpayers. This means taxpayers end up paying for increases in government workers’ salaries, benefits and other expenses – but aren’t even allowed to see what they’re paying for until it’s too late. Illinois is one of only 11 states that still have completely secret collective bargaining.
It's time to turn the lights on the crony cockroaches: the taxpayers have a right to know what kinds of bad deals at their expense are being cut behind their backs. Better yet, engage in collective bargaining reform and rely on explicit statute for any necessary employee protection and compensation policies.

(Drudge Report). Ellen tells Obama 'everyone's very grateful' for Obamacare! Pelosi: We 'couldn't be prouder'...Administration spends $17 million a month on paid advertising.
Well, she is a comedienne... Either she was telling a joke or she's become her own.

(Illinois Policy Institute). Speaker Mike Madigan issued a statement yesterday calling for more tax hikes in Illinois. The most important line of his statement was this: “individual income up to $1 million would continue to be taxed at the current personal rate.” Madigan is counting on the public to view his proposal as a “tax on the rich.” But his proposal is not just a tax increase on the rich — it’s a tax increase on every single Illinois household.
“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” - Santayana. The year after Maryland enacted its millionaire tax, a third fewer millionaires filed returns in Maryland. (Many migrated to no-state-income-tax Florida.) And instead of gaining $100M in new revenues, MD lost $100M in rich people's taxes. Maryland then showed how it learned its lessons by enacting the half-millionaire tax.... Got it, Illinois? This is from a former resident of both Illinois and Maryland, whom is not a millionaire or half-millionaire but whom knows economically counter-productive policies will not solve bankrupt spending/commitment issues.

Political Cartoon

Courtesy of Nate Beeler and Townhall

Political Humor

The standoff in Ukraine keeps getting worse. But a new poll shows Vladimir Putin's approval rating has actually gone up 10 percent since he sent troops into Crimea. When he heard that, Obama just shrugged and sent troops to invade Canada. - Jimmy Fallon
[I have to admit that the Canadian invasion led by Justin Bieber was very provocative. And the President has to worry about his two daughters...]

President Obama released his March Madness bracket this morning, picking Michigan State to win the tournament. In response, Vladimir Putin started moving troops into Gonzaga. - Seth Meyers
[Obama responded by freezing all Russian basketball assets in the United States and calling for taxes economic sanctions on all Putin's winning bets.]

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg apparently called President Obama directly to complain about NSA and how it spies on ordinary Americans. That’s right, the guy who runs Facebook got mad at the NSA for spying on people. Talk about the pot unfriending the kettle! - Jimmy Fallon
[The NSA responded by hosting MarksLittleBlackBook, and Obama defriended Zuckerberg.]

This week the White House said the economy is continuing to pick up steam, but then went on to say that the unemployment rate is still “unacceptably high.” Incidentally, being unacceptably high is also a big reason many people are unemployed. - Jimmy Fallon
[The White House responded by saying it's still cracking down on potheads in 48 other states.]

The average American citizen — you hear the statistic all the time — works six months out of the year for the government. That's how difficult the taxes are in this country. We work six months out of the year. Government employees don't even do that.  - David Letterman

[The Obama Administration responded by noting since its economic policies have reduced median household income, people have less taxable income to report.]

The Obama administration announced it is going to require colleges and vocational schools to demonstrate that they are properly preparing students for jobs after college. So don’t be surprised if your chemistry class tomorrow is all about how to make a cappuccino. - Seth Meyers

[And your math test is filling out Bill Gates' tax return.]

Musical Interlude: My iPod Shuffle Series

Rolling Stones, "If I Was a Dancer (Dance Pt. 2)"

Miscellany: 3/20/14

Quote of the Day
I like a man who grins when he fights.
Winston Churchill

Speaking Truth to Power

See here for more

Let the Market Decide the Number of Cabs
(But Lifting the Existing Cap is a Baby Step Forward)



Facebook Corner

(Tom Woods). While I was in the hospital with my wife, a neocon attacked me repeatedly on my blog. I honestly thought he was a progressive. Turns out he's a neoconservative. When it comes to centralization and nationalism, it's impossible to tell them apart. Neocons = progressives without the sandals.
You aren't the only one. Cato Institute recently published a couple of mildly toned pieces on the Crimea kerfuffle, and the neo-cons went apeshit. I felt alone battling a sea of interventionists. The late Robert Taft, one of the leading authentic voices for conservatives, warned us against meddling in European politics and the provocative nature of NATO. How ironic NATO would be a factor over Crimean secession.
 Paleoconservatism (sometimes shortened to paleocon) is a term for a conservative political philosophy found primarily in the United States stressing tradition, limited government, civil society, anti-colonialism and anti-federalism, along with religious, regional, national and Western identity.[1] Chilton Williamson, Jr. describes paleoconservatism as "the expression of rootedness: a sense of place and of history, a sense of self derived from forebears, kin, and culture — an identity that is both collective and personal".[2] Paleoconservatism is not expressed as an ideology and its adherents do not necessarily subscribe to any one party line[3] although critics have disputed this.[4]


Paleoconservatives in the 21st century often highlight their points of disagreement with neoconservatives, especially regarding issues such as military interventionism, illegal immigration and large amounts of legal immigration, multiculturalism, affirmative action, and foreign aid, to which they are opposed.[1] They also criticize social welfare and social democracy, which some refer to as the "therapeutic managerial state",[5] the "welfare-warfare state"[6] or "polite totalitarianism".[7] They see themselves as the legitimate heirs to the American conservative tradition.[8]
Paleocons are protectionists and anti-immigrant. Although Rothbard endorsed Buchanan in 1992, I suspect he saw him as less objectionable than Bush or Clinton. Unlike Buchanan, Rothbard was no tariff-monger. I will admit that people Woods admires, like Rothbard, Mises and Ron Paul, had more nuanced positions on immigration, especially later in their careers, than your typical free market advocate, such as myself. Rothbard and Rockwell considered themselves more as paleo-libertarians and eventually convinced themselves Buchanan was a little too Statist for their tastes.

Any compromise of another's natural right to life undermines our own unalienable rights.

(Illinois Policy Institute). Today the Illinois Supreme Court struck down the state’s “eavesdropping” law, which had been widely criticized as the most unfair, overbroad law of its kind in the country.
Under Illinois state law, recording someone else’s words without his or her consent was a felony. The law was supposedly intended to protect people’s private conversations, which may seem reasonable enough. In practice, however, the law was often used to stop people from recording and publishing their interactions with government officials. 
It's almost a relief to see any court fulfill its primary directive of defending individual rights instead of defining them as ever thinner exceptions to Statist domination. The idea that state officials can use "individual rights" to defeat accountability and transparency is an unconscionable abuse of power and violation of the rule of law and equal protection, the establishment of an untouchable American aristocracy of "civil servants".

(Illinois Policy Institute). Like so many promises made to the American public while promoting ObamaCare, the promise that the new health-care overhaul would save the average family $2,500 per year turned out to be false.
Let's recall this economically illiterate nonsense began under the clueless FDR Administration which was pursuing other economically illiterate policies, i.e., wage/price controls. What everyone with even a modicum of economics understands is what is relevant is total compensation but FDR put up the facade of a workaround to wage controls. The real effect to interventionist policies in the healthcare sector has been to exacerbate sector cost pressures by lessening consumer skin in the game, shifting costs to a shrinking private sector, and discriminately subsidizing (through tax policy) business-sponsored insurance. They want you to believe that through the provably grand illusion of central planning and economies of scale (and "no profits") they can "improve" on the free market and its natural discipline of competition and creative destruction.
But it was just swell when it was Mitt Romney's plan..
Now this is just idiotic. First of all, no conservative Republican ever supported RomneyCare. Second, the whole reason for RomneyCare came into existence had to do with threatened cutoff of federal Medicaid money (the Bush Administration thought non-Medicaid patients were being subsidized). What Romney did was take state contributions to hospitals to reimburse unpaid care and convert them into subsidies for individual policies with a mandate. Romney was between a rock and a hard place--the alternatives were the Feds blowing up Massachusetts state budget or the "progressives"' economically insane single-payer system. It was brilliant from the standpoint of political tactics but unforgiveable from a principled, economics standpoint. But, no, the plans are apples and oranges, including the aggressive expansion of Medicaid, the raiding of Medicare funds, new benefit mandates and taxes, etc. Not to mention Massachusetts was already the poster child for overpriced insurance, having enacted budget buster policies of guaranteed issue and community rating and less than 10% of the population was uninsured before the "reform"--well below the national percentage. And, as everyone know, newly insured patients tend to exacerbate sector price pressures as they tend to consume more health goods and services. Next time do some research before plagiarizing some fascist talking points.
And still the Republican Party of NO has yet to still come up with a viable alternative, oh wait now that it has been chopped apart from its original terms they don't have to. You can NO everything and win
Another clueless "progressive" troll. You idiotically assume the supremacy of a central plan. We no more need the incompetent meddling of federal bureaucrats and politicians. The plan is for the government to get the hell out of the way of the free market and engage in genuine interstate commerce reform, breaking open state regulatory cartels, allow groups to self-insure across state lines, allow nurse practitioners to handle routine health matters, allow insurers to write on risk, not irrational policies of becoming a middleman for ordinary expenses, etc. Only someone of very limited knowledge cannot see the superiority of the free market to decades of government failed policy in this sector.

Political Cartoon

Courtesy of Jerry Holbert and Townhall

Musical Interlude: My iPod Shuffle Series

Cat Stevens, "Randy". To begin with, Randy is a common given name for both genders; for girls, it's a variation of 'Miranda', "worthy of admiration". Some people will interpret the forbidden love theme in a different way than Cat Stevens, now a devout Muslim, married with children, intended. I think of it as being in love with someone your family and/or friends disapprove or don't understand, maybe much younger, or a different race or ethnicity.... My beautiful third sister loves this song, and I think of her every time I hear it... (My favorite Stevens' song is "Remember the Days of the Old Schoolyard", coming up later in the countdown.)

Miscellany: 3/19/14

Quote of the Day
Murphy's First Law:
Nothing is as easy
as it looks.

Entertainment and Public Choice Theory



Facebook Corner

(Illinois Policy Institute). Low-performing schools aren’t a Chicago-only phenomenon – the city is home to only 45% of the state’s lowest-performing elementary schools and high schools. More than half of the state’s lowest-performing schools are outside of the city’s borders.
Replace the flat tax with the fair tax and Illinois will not only be able to pay it's bills it will be able to live up to it's state constitutional obligation to fund public schools properly. We'll have better schools and the state won't be broke anymore.
The only "fair" tax is a flat tax that doesn't punish you at the margin. When you raise the price of anything, you get less of it; that's Econ 101. As far as I'm concerned, corrupt political promises to crony union supporter have no protections beyond what your corrupt leaders actually invested; expecting future taxpayers to pay off the bills run up by Ponzi schemer politicians is someone whom is in a state of denial. The corrupt union leadership looked the other way as their bought-and-paid-for politicians failed to kick in adequate funding.

(Illinois Policy Institute). The Illinois establishment is out of touch and out of ideas. The question now is: Are Illinoisans mad enough to do something about it?
What we see in Illinois and much of America has been a living experiment in failed interventionist policies and nothing to show for it except for the same old same old excuses and billions in unpaid-for promises to crony political supporters... If we had just thrown in a little more good money after bad (out of other people's wallets, of course), those hapless kids could be following Barry's example into Columbia and Harvard.. What Illinois needs is a moratorium on new bills, a government that lives within its means, a more competitive, streamlined tax and regulatory business environment, and feasible caps on individual benefit outflows, including any pension benefits.

(Cato Institute). "Had the U.S. been so foolish as to bring Ukraine into NATO Washington would have a treaty responsibility to start World War III. Today’s game of geopolitical chicken might have a nuclear end."
Once again, Cato Institute provides a necessary voice of reason against the tide of irrational neo-con rants. For those who can't understand how foreign policy fits into "individual liberty, limited government and free markets", government competes with the private sector for resources, and we spend far more than the next several countries together, much more than we need to meet the threats of invasion from Mexico or Canada. What part of losing over 8000 promising lives and over a trillion dollars we don't have in dubious Gulf Region mission is difficult to understand? What about arbitrary interventions in international markets (e.g., economic sanctions, embargoes, etc.), which are de facto acts of economic warfare?

We cannot be held hostage by morally hazardous alliances and the unpredictable, risky moves by allied leaders; what exactly do we get from these allies in return? To underwrite their own defense bills? Their help against a penetrating invasion from Canada?

There's a reason why our founding fathers debated the very wisdom of having a standing army and one of our greatest generals and a President himself warned against the military-industrial complex.

(Drudge Report). PRINCIPAL FIRED OVER 'SPEAK ENGLISH'
The salient issue here is the principal went beyond the classroom and was dictating rules over other conversations on campus, which obstructed children's attempts to converse in a fashion comfortable to them. Kids can pick up English very quickly; I know--my first language was French, and I went to an English-speaking kindergarten. There is absolutely nothing wrong (and much to admire of) with kids that can speak multiple languages, and educators should be ashamed of themselves for intimidating kids from communicating in a way totally natural for them. We should never forget we are a melting pot of immigrants. Celebrate the true diversity of fellow Americans....

Political Cartoon

Courtesy of Michael Ramirez and Townhall

Musical Interlude: My iPod Shuffle Series

Peter Frampton, "I Can't Stand It No More"

Miscellany: 3/18/14

Quote of the Day
All big things in this world are done by 
people who are naive 
and have an idea 
that is obviously impossible.
Dr. Frank Richards

I Smell the Need for a Change in Washington....

A Fair and Balanced Judge



Talking About My Generation



Facebook Corner

(Cato Institute). "A smaller army will have less ability to occupy another state that resists, like Syria, Iran or Pakistan. Given our recent experience with such wars, that is a benefit. If these cuts make us less likely to launch such military adventures, then we should cut more."
Wow, I've never seen a Cato piece attract so many neo-con readers... Anyone unaware of the tremendous, unsustainable cost in blood and treasure our international meddling has cost us is not paying attention. We celebrate our freedom and values through win-win trade, not by casualties resulting from the unnecessary wars of meddling politicians disingenuously hiding behind flags and stirring military marches. We do not have the resources or the moral authority to micromanage the rest of the world's problems, when we have so many more pressing problems at home, with an unprecedented debt and vast entitlement spending; the "Land of the Free" imprisons more people than any other advanced nation. Stop listening to crackpot conspiracy theories; I promise you if we start minding our own business, the rest of the world will muddle through. Let not one more American family unnecessarily lose a son because of some demagogue's hubris.

(Libertarian Republic). Millionaire gay couple is suing to force a church to hold their wedding http://bit.ly/1iAgb0G
Using the legal monopoly to impose one's own views on others lacks any moral authority. They are millionaires; let them create their own gay religion and construct their own Phallic Cathedral...

Via Catholic Libertarians

Can't you just hear a modern-day Scrooge: "A contribution for a charity hospital? Is there no Medicaid, SCHIP, Medicare, BarryObamaCare? Guaranteed issue and community rating? Don't we have laws saying hospitals must admit, without demonstrated ability to pay? Haven't my taxes paid my fair share of subsidies for these?"

Political Cartoon

Courtesy of Michael Ramirez via Townhall

Musical Interlude: My iPod Shuffle Series

Johnny Cash, "Hurt"

Miscellany: 3/17/14

Quote of the Day
The best thing we can do for ourselves and the people in our lives is

• to love them unconditionally
• forgive them without reservation and 
• to accept them exactly as they are.

Iyanla Vanzant

Trolls on Facebook and Elsewhere

It might surprise readers to know I don't really go back to see how many "like's" my comments pick up; in fact, it could be possible I've gotten responses and don't know (it often depends on the placement of the comment). But apparently some get some very positive feedback; I think I had something like 10 like's for a comment I made in response to a Goodman piece via the Independent Institute. (Goodman is a healthcare policy expert I've cited several times over the tenure of ObamaCare.) Sometimes I poke at bears with sticks, which I usually don't republish in the blog. For example, there's this one progressive troll whom for God knows what reason spends a lot of time at the Illinois Policy Institute page. The editors are admirably very patient with the guy; you can almost hear the other commenters roll their eyes, "There he goes again!" I'm more patient with people whom are genuinely confused, less so with people whom are simply trying to stir the pot.

I did get a couple of contacts over the weekend. One was a flame from someone whom didn't like my comment about privatizing the education market. Really, now, I taught for 8 years in academia; I once saw a note of a student fantasizing about my demise... Out of curiousity, I wanted to see if he was some crony public  educator. Worse than that, I found that he had taken a quote from Bastiat, the famous nineteenth-century French free-market advocate and foe of socialism and anti-property anarchists, out of context. When Bastiat refers to plunder, he is talking about Statist parasites stealing from productive workers and businessmen; it was clear from context this "progressive" troll thought that Bastiat was bashing corporations. It's one thing to insult me, but to insult a great French thinker's memory is blasphemy...

One blog reader reached out to me sometime back because I did a Cole Porter series in my musical interlude feature. More recently I got a friend  request from some lady whom apparently is a big fan of Bill Clinton. (Talk about you don't know me...) I have relatives with hundreds of FB friends but most of mine are relatives, not even academic or professional contacts--and I'm selective about my relatives. I don't think I've set up my FB account for followers. I do have a Twitter account but have yet to send out my first tweet.  If I  start tweeting I'll probably announce it in the blog.

Time to Cool the Rhetoric on Crimea

We have to understand Russian sensitivity over concerns that Ukraine might one day be part of NATO. After all, JFK almost went to war over Soviet missiles in Cuba.  Now, personally, I share the late Robert Taft's concerns with NATO. Personally, I think Putin's concerns about European expansion are overblown; the Europeans have enough problems of their own with high unemployment, low growth, and massive unfunded liabilities. And I think people are wisely skeptical over a vote taking place on Crimean desires to rejoin Russia while Russian troops are occupying the peninsula.

But economic sanctions are a lose-lose proposition and further destabilize the situation. I, of course, reject the strident rhetoric of the neo-cons and the feckless foreign policy of this Administration under Clinton and now Kerry. Clinton comes under scrutiny here for her amateurish, irresponsible comparison of Putin with Hitler.

Facebook Corner

(Illinois Policy Institute). No matter how you feel about government spending, most of us agree that the people have a right to know how their tax money is being spent. This means that before a local government raises taxes on their citizens, it should be transparent about how current tax dollars are being spent.
Unfortunately, most of Illinois’ 6,963 local governments are not transparent about how they are spending taxpayer dollars. Only 53 local governments in Illinois have won our Sunshine Award.
Tax hikes without transparency might happen in the Tuesday primary elections, as residents across the state will be voting on 117 local tax increase referendums in 57 different Illinois counties.
Everyone knows that the cockroaches scatter when we turn on the light... But at least two other things before you even consider putting economy-killing tax hikes on the table: (1) insist on a multiple of spending cut dollars before any new tax dollars and (2) EVERYBODY must get taxed, no exceptions. Everybody must be vested in wasted legislator spending. No self-serving hypocritical reaching into other people's wallets.

(Illinois Policy Institute). The progressive income tax is being sold as a "tax on the rich." The truth? The progressive tax would hike taxes on hardworking families in Illinois. ...
Anyone who believes there are enough stupid rich people in Illinois able or willing to fulfill Statist spending fantasies and empty promises (like fully funded public pensions) has forgotten Martin Niemöller's famous lesson ("first they came...") and is in a state of denial.

(Cato Institute). "It is clear that minimum wage laws kill jobs."
The Cato Institute is just a shrill propaganda machine that supports the interests of regressive billionaires who have enough wealth to fund this type of information polution for 100 generations. I follow them because I like to know my enemy.
"Progressive" trolls have a problem with math, Somewhere around 2% of jobs pay minimum wage, and many of those are young, inexperienced workers not heads of household; these are often starter jobs that often provide training and experience which lead to higher pay within a short period of time. Most minimum wage workers don't work for billionaires, and I don't think billionaries see much to gain from squeezing low-wage workers. The issue is freeing workers and employers to come to a win-win agreement without a third party sabotaging it.
Despite dire warnings by the reality-challenged Tea Party, projected job losses total an approximate 500,000 workers, or a .3% flux in employment numbers. Note the decimal, which may confuse Tea people, being math and all. The report makes it clear that while the losses could be more, there is a significant chance it could be a lot less. This supports the findings of seven Nobel Prize winners and 600 economists, who concluded a minimum wage increase would have little to no influence on job numbers.
Even 600 economists are not in a state of denial about the law of supply and demand, and this includes labor prices. What this economic illiterate troll doesn't point out is the reason there is a modest effect is because somewhere around 2% of jobs are minimum wage. What he also fails to point out is that starter jobs tend to progress organically in compensation with the worker's value/productivity. All that minimum-wage laws achieve is cutting off win-win opportunities for other prospective workers, which we believe is grossly unethical.

(Cato Institute). Later this month, the Supreme Court will hear arguments in a case that has arisen as society tries to reconcile corporate rights with religious liberty. Brush up on your legal arguments with the newest Cato Institute ebook, Sebelius v. Hobby Lobby, a comprehensive primer on religious accommodation in the context of the Affordable Care Act's contraceptive mandate: http://store.cato.org/sebelius-v-hobby-lobby
I am opposed to many, if not all, the wars I have paid taxes to support. Why should hobby lobby be allowed to play the religion card and not me?
Are you seriously comparing Hobby Lobby, which cannot force its customers to transact, to the State which forces you to pay taxes and obey laws? And the last time I checked there was a conscientious objector status for pacifists with respect to drafts. Hobby Lobby pays its employees money which their employees can spend as they please, including on uncovered health services/products. They are being forced to directly sponsor things against matters of conscience. They are willing to sponsor health insurance--just not certain new mandates. One can argue you share in the benefits of a common defense (even if you don't agree with certain interventionist missions) but the State has no business in intervening in the voluntary contract between employer and employee.

Political Cartoon

Courtesy of Lisa Benson and Townhall

Musical Interlude: My iPod Shuffle Series

Linda Ronstadt, "Dreams to Dream". One of my favorite compilations is a Linda Ronstadt "Very Best"--but 3 of my favorite performances are missing: "Someone to Lay Down Beside Me", "How Do I Make You", and this tune, which is her second hit from the Fievel cartoon movies.

I've mentioned and/or cited it in multiple posts, including on Barry's first inaugural. But I attribute my love for the track to my beautiful niece Megan, whom was entranced by Fievel's tales as a youngster; I remember buying a small Fievel collection for her. Every time I hear the two Ronstadt tunes, I think of my beautiful niece...

Miscellany: 3/16/14

Quote of the Day
If you are not an idealist 
by the time you are twenty 
you have no heart, 
but if you are still an idealist 
by the time you are thirty, 
you don't have a head.
Randolph Bourne

Pro-Liberty Thought of the Day

How Crony Big Shipyards Hurt Consumers of American and Imported Products



NSA's Foothold in Oakland



Facebook Corner

(Illinois Policy Institute). Thousands of Illinois students are trapped in failing schools. These schools fail at their most basic task: providing students with the knowledge and skills they need to succeed in the future.
72% of students at Illinois’ lowest-performing elementary schools failed to meet standards in math. 53% are one grade level behind, and 19% are two or more grade levels behind.
Even given this startling data, legislators have taken recent steps to prevent new, innovative and quality schools from opening.

This has more to do with powerful teacher unions which have a vested interest in maintaining the status quo and see competition from charter schools in zero-sum terms. We are never going to be able to tweak ourselves into a more competitive education market; we need to think bolder and privatize lower education.

(Catholic Libertarians). I can't even think of a good comment to add here. Feel free to add yours below... To what god are they even praying? ~Mark
« Iowa Democrat gubernatorial candidates Tyler Olson and Jack Hatch joined abortion activists in an extended prayer that repeatedly celebrated abortion rights. Excerpt: "...We give thanks, oh Lord, for the doctors, both current and future, who provide quality abortion care ... We pray for increased financial support for low-income women to access contraception, abortion and childcare ... Today, we pray for women in developing nations, that they may know the power of self-determination. May they have access to employment, education, birth control and abortion ... Today we pray for the families who have chosen. May they know the blessing of choice..." 
Their god is the ideology of political correctness; if this is God, I'm an atheist.

We sort of answered that question in 1865.
Killing hundreds of thousands of fellow Americans, wanton destruction and regional subjugation resulted in over a century of divisive policies to what end? The use of force didn't change hearts and minds--and isn't that Thoreau's very point?

(Reason). Russia isn’t the only country that regards its "backyard" as its playground. The U.S. acts the same way.
what a crock. When did we invade Canada? Mexico? Cuba? You are so full of $h..
Even a basic understanding of Crimea would begin with the facts that Crimea is an autonomous region in Ukraine and about 60% of the inhabitants are ethnic Russian. (It was part of Russia for nearly 200 years through Stalin.) I do not approve of Putin's intervention, but America has in fact intervened multiple times in the America's. Going beyond the annexation of my own home state of Texas, we can think of more recent interventions in Haiti, Grenada and Panama (Wikipedia has a thorough timeline of American military operations).

(LFC.) "Restricting the number of fast-food outlets around offices and homes could help combat the obesity epidemic....Measures to restrict access, such as not opening [takeout] restaurants near schools, may help...Several local authorities have introduced restrictions on fast-food outlets, around schools or in places where there are already lots of [takeout food]." When buns are a crime, only the criminals will have them.
Oh, yeah, that'll work. It's not like you can binge on carbs at home... Next thing you know, they'll be zoning parking away from buildings and banning lower-level elevators....

(Reason Magazine). re: yesterday's embedded video. "If Cesar [Chavez] were here today, he certainly wouldn't be supporting what's being done now, which is a union trying to impose itself on employees."
Unions, of and by themselves, when they are voluntary in nature, competitive, and do not receive special privileges by the State, are not inherently evil. But in a world of instant communication, where good, productive workers are in demand, bad employers find it hard to recruit and retain talent. Unions are increasingly anachronistic, making it difficult for management to control costs and maintain a viable business model, as in the case of the auto industry. They essentially tax the earnings of fellow workers to maintain their bloated overhead and fund political causes which member may not share and resent being forced to contribute.

(Illinois Policy Institute). Wherever there is innovation, our local and state governments rush to prohibit and harass under the guise of protecting the “public interest."

 "Regulation" is typically a stealth anti-competitive weapon; companies, unions and other special-interest groups require force by the State to achieve what they can't win in a free marketplace, in defense of their vested interests in the status quo. Consider, for instance, Chinatown intercity buslines, with its innovative ultra-cheapfare, curb-to-curb (vs. hub) service, which took nearly two-thirds of Greyhound's market share in the Northeast in a decade. Greyhound in part fought back with its own curbside service. But a statistically insignificant couple of sensationalized accidents in 2011 were all that were necessary to set off indignant populist rants from the likes of Senator Schumer, despite the fact that that Chinatown buses have very competitive overall safety records. Nevertheless, the Feds have pursued a discriminatory purge of over 2 dozen bus companies. What we don't see are the costs of regulation; politicians are very fond of telling other people what to do, but they don't have to pay the costs of compliance, never mind the deadweight loss to consumers when innovative companies are harassed out of business.

Via We the Individuals

Parasites. It's not like administrations, staff and professors volunteer their time in the classroom, and the buildings and grounds are funded and maintained by other volunteers. If students don't have skin in the game, what incentive do they have to ensure their degrees are marketable? Or even finish their degree?

Political Humor

Via Right Wing News

Yesterday Washington had a big power outage. And I thought: Well, wait a minute, I think the Obama administration has been without power the entire second term. - David Letterman

[Actually, Obama has been in the dark for years now...]

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un won re-election with 100% of the vote. They say that when the absentee ballots are counted the percentage could go even higher. - David Letterman

[Former Chicago Bulls player Dennis Rodman was an election observer. Kim Jong Un said that he was grateful for his late uncle's absentee vote.]

President Obama has unveiled his budget for 2015. He's referring to it as a road map for creating jobs. And young people said, “A what for creating what? Road map? Job? I've never had either of those things.” - Jimmy Fallon

[But who will build the roads???? This coming from a back-seat driver whom doesn't know his way around DC and won't stop to ask for directions... His GPS edition comes preconfigured with driving directions to your local election precinct and voting instructions.]

After hearing that he has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize, Putin said, "Tell me who the other nominees are — and I will eliminate them." - Conan O'Brien

[Obama responded, "You can only approve kill lists AFTER you win the Nobel Peace Prize..."]

Pope Francis told the press today that the Catholic Church could tolerate same-sex civil unions. You know, I think lately when people say, “Is the Pope Catholic?” they’re actually asking. - Seth Meyers

[But if the Pope chooses to call himself a Catholic, who am I to judge?]

Political Cartoon

Courtesy of Jerry Holbert and Townhall

Musical Interlude: My iPod Shuffle Series

Del Shannon, "Runaway"