Appalachian Conservative

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2010-02-02T00:23:00.002-05:00

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Obamaspeak

2010-01-30T16:39:00.004-05:00

A helpful guide to understanding the greatest communicator since Julius Caesar.

One reader's response: "And liberals wonder why his nickname is 'The Lyin' King'!"

Sick and broken. And in need of a real adult.

2010-01-30T08:50:00.002-05:00

Peggy Noonan: The Obama Contradiction: Washington is sick and broken -- and it can solve all our problems. She quotes one Republican as saying, "To heal our country we need to get the arrogance out of the White House and the elitists out of the Congress. We need tough love. We need a real adult in the White House because we don't have adults in the Congress.".

Remembering the Challenger 7

2010-01-28T09:30:00.001-05:00

On this day in 1986, the Space Shuttle Challenger exploded soon after take-off, killing all seven astronauts on board.

Ronald Reagan's First State of the Union Address, January 1982

2010-01-27T23:51:00.005-05:00

As you watch, notice that for Reagan, everything is "we" "Americans" and "together". For Obama, it's all "me" and "I". It's very revealing of their attitude toward the office they hold and the nation they lead.

This is not about me.

2010-01-26T22:03:00.000-05:00

Yeah, right.

They just don't get it.

2010-01-26T09:15:00.004-05:00

Word today is that the House Dems will tweak the Senate health care reform bill and then send it back to the Senate and get it passed using reconciliation. They will rue the day they ram this down our throats. I frankly doubt they'll be able to get the votes in either chamber. The original House bill barely passed as it was. And now all the rats are scurrying for the exits. In the Senate, Lord Reid is unelectable. Who's going to walk the plank (again) for this lame duck -- to pass a bill nobody wants? You get the sense that the Dems don't get it -- push this and Obama is finished. You can't save him by passing wildly unpopular legislation. The best thing Obama could do during his State of the Union would be to repent. Take responsibility. Ask forgiveness. Stand up to the Left. Adopt simple, common sense reforms, get it passed with GOP cover and move on. But their arrogance does not allow for contrition, and their "adolescent utopianism" does not allow for common sense.

Looks like Obama's preparing to squander another year.

Obama's Adolescent Utopianism

2010-01-25T20:03:00.006-05:00

A serious examination of Obama's misguided, amateurish and dangerous foreign policy by Dr. Charles Krauthammer.

Barack the Regressive

2010-01-25T20:00:00.002-05:00

Welcome back, Carter!

How to Squander the Presidency in One Year

2010-01-24T10:17:00.007-05:00

You know things are going bad when your biggest supporters are tallying up their list of grievances on the one year anniversary of your coronation and saying things like this...

Barack Obama has now, in just a year's time, become the single most inept president perhaps in all of

American history

, and certainly in my lifetime. Never has so much political advantage been pissed away so rapidly, and what's more in the context of so much national urgency and crisis. It's astonishing, really, to contemplate how much has been lost in a single year.

It's almost as if he were a Republican sleeper politician in some party politics version of the Manchurian Candidate, planted to arise on cue and destroy the Democratic Party from within.

The article here. If you read the entire thing, you'll realize the writer is a leftist loon. But still it does my heart good to know that even the radical left is capable of recognizing that Obama is a complete failure. In fact this guy sounds a bit like Rush "I hope he fails" Limbaugh:

Of course, I don't give a shit about

Barack Obama

anymore, other than my desire that really

ugly things

happen to him as

payment in kind

for the grandest act of betrayal we've seen since Benedict Arnold did his thing.

Wow. That's harsh. I guess everybody's mad as hell. But this guy's a nut, Obama is not failing because he's not 'progressive' enough, he's failing because his socialist, collectivist policies don't square with a nation built on rugged individualism and independence. If Obama had a clue, he'd move to the center. Pronto. But because he's so completely beholden to his fellow Marxists on the far left wing of his party, I don't expect that to happen anytime soon (although he might start talking more like a centrist). This is what happens when you elect a president without a) experience; b) established principles; c) a backbone; d) a knowledge of American history; and e) a dedication to traditional American values. Say what you will about John McCain, while he might not have been our ideal candidate, you can't fault him on any of the above prerequisites for the job.

Mark Steyn has some thoughts on Obama's response to his defeat in Massachusetts - basically saying...You're not gonna be able to talk yourself out of this one, Mr. President. Because nobody's listening anymore.

Conrad Black: Incompetent Obama Teeters on the Edge.

An 'independent' apologizes to the country for voting for Obama. A very sad commentary on our shallow, selfish, snobbish, gullible electorate. The best part: Readers' comments skewering her for her elitist view of Palin.

Liberalism Repudiated.

2010-01-20T08:45:00.005-05:00

Oh the irony! Who would have predicted that nationalized health care would fail because of Ted Kennedy's replacement. What a repudiation of the liberalism, arrogance, and insider politics that he espoused.

George Will: "The essence of contemporary liberalism is the illiberal conviction that Americans, in their comprehensive incompetence, need minute supervision by government, which liberals believe exists to spare citizens the torture of thinking and choosing."

Against all odds

2010-01-16T21:12:00.002-05:00

And this from a Red State reader:

The tree of liberty must be refreshed with the tears of defeated politicians of BOTH parties and at ALL levels over the next few election cycles.
--Rich Tandler

The Pelosi Index

2010-01-15T21:27:00.010-05:00

Click here to see which Dems are in the most trouble come November! (Another list of doomed Dems here).

And if Dems insist on ramming the Pelosi/Reid bill down our throats (especially if they do so with only 51 votes in the Senate) -- they're in for a world of hurt come November. So out of touch, they have no idea how ticked off people are right now. So filled with loathing for individual liberty, free markets and the will of the people, they are leading their rudderless drones in Congress right over the cliff. They have no idea how their arrogance and condescension is being received.

They misread 2008. People weren't voting for a banana republic. They weren't voting to become a stagnant Socialistic European country. They were voting for another kind of change. Voters believed what Obama said about changing the tone in Washington, about transparency, bipartisanship and accountability. They voted for a guy who seemed genuinely concerned about the deficit. Someone who offered hope -- who would bring people together around the table to solve our problems.

What we got was a man who evidences all the worst characteristics of all our worst Presidents. We have a Congress that refuses to listen. America cried out all summer in the town halls, "STOP THE GAMES. Enough with the bullshit. This is not what we voted for."

When stimulus dollars are squandered away as political payback.
When policies are pursued that will "necessarily skyrocket" energy prices.
When we bailout banks and Freddie and Fannie, and don't fix or even acknowledge government's role in the crisis.
When car companies are bailed out, taken over, and run from the Treasury Department.
When the practice of earmarks continues unabated.
When we hear that favored groups, like unions, are exempted from taxes.
When industry groups are pressured to remove ads critical of the administration.
When votes are bought and sold with our tax dollars.
When Chicago-style politics and corruption become the norm in Washington.
When important legislation that touches on the most important and personal aspects of our lives is produced in backrooms.
When indecipherable 2,000 page bills are passed in the middle of the night.
When our representatives lie to us regarding the costs.
When with straight face we're told we'll somehow save money by covering 30 million more people. And that the quality of care will improve.
When they mislead us about whether it will cover abortion. Or illegal immigrants.
When "The People" are ignored, and worse, condemned for dissenting.
When our own President tells us to shut up and sit down.
When we're told that we don't know what's best for us.
When they ram socialized medicine down our throats.
THEN WE REVOLT.

Virgina and New Jersey led the way. Now it's your turn Massachusetts. Show these assholes in Washington that we mean business.

Unspeakable

2010-01-14T11:07:00.001-05:00

Victor Davis Hanson takes on the difficult, unspeakable issues of our day.

Government's Purpose

2010-01-12T08:56:00.000-05:00

"Government exists to protect us from each other. Where government has gone beyond its limits is in deciding to protect us from ourselves."
~ Ronald Reagan

So you want to be a majority party?

2010-01-07T08:27:00.009-05:00

We're all excited about our prospects in 2010 - as well we should be. The President and his far-left operatives in Congress have brazenly overreached. We've seen this play out before - ex. Jimmy Carter setting the stage for a conservative revolution.

Just as we did under Reagan's leadership then, we need to unite around core conservative principles. Here are some thoughts on some important themes as we move forward:

Straight Talk: My fear for 2012 is a third party. We saw this in 1980 with Anderson and again in '92 with Perot. It's very likely in 2012 that a Perot-like figure will emerge and capture the passion of the Tea Party folks who long for an outsider to come and clean up the mess left us by crooked, entrenched, elitist Beltway politicians. People won't want a president who "knows Washington." Republican candidates must respond to the growing anger, doubt and worry. We must become the 'anti-establishment party'. Perot was attractive to many Americans because he didn't talk down to them. He explained the situation. He used graphs and illustrations -- he treated voters like adults. Republicans will do well to follow the Perot campaign style by cutting to the heart of the issue.

Reform: People will not stand for marketing gimmicks and platitudes this time around, they'll demand candidates who have a plan, who stand on principles, and who will completely shake up the status quo in Washington. No more free spending George W. Bushes. No more moderate, do-nothing Dennis Hasterts. Americans do not want any more of the BS that got us into the mess we're in. They don't want Obama-lite, the want the Antiobama. This means Conservatives must start acting like conservatives. If that means voting down and vetoing every piece of legislation that comes out of the Congress, that's okay. If that means shutting the government down in order to get a balanced budget, then so be it. Those who 'go along to get along' will pay a price during the next election cycles. After the Dems bury this nation in red ink, people will want a "Party of No" that will hold the line.

Accountability: Republicans ought to push the Amendments I've written about here addressing the line item veto, earmarks, czars, bailouts, term limits, open meetings, required waiting times before voting or signing legislation, and balanced budgets. It should be the top goal of the Republican Party to make these core principles law. If we're serious about "changing the way business is done in Washington" and shifting power away from Washington to the States and to the People, then we'll push these. Hard. Let's call it the Honesty, Accountability and Transparency in Government Amendment -- and make each Democratic candidate for office at every level respond to each requirement. Back these statist bastards into the corner - and truly change business in Washington forever.

Security. The comparison here is obvious. One party takes the threats seriously, the other does not. One party understands what it means to fight a war, the other only knows how to bestow the cherished rights of American citizens on our worst enemies. The democrats are not a serious party when it comes to our national security. Obama's bowing and apologizing and politicizing have made us weaker. He's put America at risk with his hollow words and his indulgence of every dictator and two-bit thug on the planet. Republicans need to explain how our strength and resolve lead to security and how Obama's doctrine of Wussification threatens the peace.

Liberty. Republican candidates will do well to compare and contrast the Democrat approach to government to the Republican philosophy. We need to explain to the nation, as Reagan did, why we believe in less government. Why we fight for lower taxes and less regulation. How free trade benefits America. This is a philosophical discussion about the meaning of liberty and the role of government. The schools and the media have stacked the deck against us, but the good news is that the American people are waking up and recognizing the disaster created by liberalism. But we need candidates who can effectively articulate our core beliefs.

In short, We the People are tired of the petty, childish games played in Washington. We long for real leaders who stand on enduring American principles, not shallow sentiments and political games. Today, Americans look at Washington and wonder "Where are the adults?" We have a President who is at once both radical and naive, who doesn't seem to understand the genius of America. A Congress which is adrift and detached from the reality of our fiscal and security crises -- and completely detached from their constituents. There is great distrust and resentment of Washington (and many state governments, I might add) - which demands competent, principled, and sincere leaders who will fight for a government befitting a great and free people.

Reagan asked in 1980, "Are you better off than you were four years ago?" Our question going forward should be this: "Are you more safe, more prosperous and more free?"

Proposed: An Open Meetings Amendment to the US Constitution

2010-01-06T09:09:00.009-05:00

In light of the secret negotiations, backroom deals, bribes and vote buying related to the current health care reform legislation, it is time that We the People to demand an Open Meetings Amendment to the US Constitution. The language should be broad and strict - making what Reid and Pelosi are doing right now a crime. The following language is adapted from the Tennessee Open Meetings Law, considered by some to be the strictest of its kind in the nation.

The formation of public policy and decisions is public business and shall not be conducted in secret. All meetings of any public, governing body are declared to be public meetings open to the public at all times.

There would need to be exceptions (i.e. national security), but the presumption should be openness. These so-called representatives think we have no business in their business. But they work for us. We have the right to know what they're doing to us. And they have no right to keep us from discussions and deliberations that will impact our lives and the lives of generations unborn.

Some say such a law would impede and unreasonably restrict government. To which I say too bad. The more this out-of-control, elitist government acts, the more it infringes on our free markets, state sovereignty and individual liberty. I, for one, welcome gridlock. If these rats can't stand a little sunshine and public scrutiny they need to scurry the hell out of Washington (See ya, Senator Dodd).

While we're at it, I have compiled a list of additional proposed Amendments which are needed to rein in our reckless federal government and return it to the people.

Whodathunkit?!

2010-01-02T22:54:00.008-05:00

What's this?! A big, bloated, inefficient government program hurts its intended beneficiaries. [Gasp!] But really, who pays any attention to results? Certainly not the media. After all, Barry meant well. The main difference between the private and public sector? Consequences. Somehow politicians and bureaucrats can make decisions that harm people, destroy communities and wreck havoc on the lives, jobs and savings of citizens -- and yet they're never held accountable (i.e. Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, Barney Frank and Chris Dodd). They're insulated from consequences. They say the culprit is Wall Street greed -- and the pandering media just nod their heads and repeat the lies. After all, those in government are above reproach. They're respected public "servants" after all. And yet they lord over us, telling us that we need some 'skin in the game.' $787 Billion is pissed away on pet projects and the President then has the audacity to tell us everyone needs to sacrifice? Those aren't the words of a servant. They're the words of a tyrant who expects to tell us when and where and what to sacrifice. He's not out to empower us. He seeks to enslave us.

One year into this train wreck and you can't point to a single accomplishment. The so-called Stimulus and Cash for Clunkers were enormous failures -- but you'd never know it from the media reports. We spent billions bailing out banks, homeowners and car makers -- but failed to fix the deeper, foundational government-created problems. The health care reform bill is a disaster for the young, the middle class and for retired Americans. Bowing and kissing up to every two-bit thug and dictator -- and traveling the world apologizing for America's greatness hasn't done a damn thing to make us or the world safer. I guess the Pantybomber didn't get the message that the "War on Terror" is over. Here's another example of the lack of accountability. The TSA and the State Dept. fail to stop a known terrorist from boarding an American airline -- But will anyone be fired? Is anyone in government ever called to answer for their ineptness?

So here we are, one year into the Obama Presidency, and the question we Americans must ask ourselves: Are we more safe, more prosperous, more free?

I was taught that if you have to ask the question, you already know the answer.

"It is time to check and reverse the growth of government which shows signs of having grown beyond the consent of the governed."
--Ronald Reagan

Happy New Year! As we awake from our national hangover...

2010-01-01T22:08:00.006-05:00

Reality prevails.

Except Obama's in denial.

Cheney assails Obama's attempt to inhabit an alternate universe.

Steyn: The Joke's on Us.

Throw the bums out

2009-12-31T10:08:00.002-05:00

Ranking the most corrupt politicians in Washington.

How do these corrupt pols survive? They have a willing accomplice: The mainstream media -- which has abdicated its role as watchdog to become cheerleaders for Obama and anyone who supports his radical Marxist agenda.

Flaccid. Meaningless.

2009-12-28T23:28:00.009-05:00

Charles Krauthammer is on fire. His analysis of this president is spot-on (as the Brits would say). Krauthammer calls the president's weak and tepid response to the brutality the world is witnessing in Iran "flaccid words, meaningless words". Watch the video below and then read Krauthammer's powerful analysis of Obama's wasted year. He says of Obama's policy towards Iran, "This is a moment in history, and he's missing it." This president is a disaster for America's security, our sovereignty, our freedom, our economy, our values, our leadership and our future. I never thought I'd ever say these words about anyone: He's worse than Jimmy Carter. Interesting that they would both be hated on the streets of Tehran -- and for the same reason: for supporting and propping up illiberal, illegitimate regimes. Get your head out of the Hawaiian sand, Barry, and take a strong stand for freedom. Quit pandering to the radical left which seeks to weaken America and the cause of freedom around the globe. History shows that the weakness you have projected for the past year only enables tyrants and encourages repression. The Obama doctrine of Apology, much like the Carter Doctrine of Understanding, has been a complete and utter failure. No one outside of Oslo is impressed with your empty words. What we need is an American president who will stand tall and defend our values and who will actively and boldly seek release for those captives living under brutal dictatorships who yearn to breath free.

Click here to read Barry's powerful words to the Iranian protestors: No you can't!

Another Krauthammer video: Obama detached and unconcerned on terrorism.

Change no one can believe in.

2009-12-21T08:17:00.000-05:00

WSJ: "These 60 Democrats are creating a future of epic increases in spending, taxes and command-and-control regulation, in which bureaucracy trumps innovation and transfer payments are more important than private investment and individual decisions."

Grade Inflation

2009-12-17T09:31:00.007-05:00

Rove: B+?

Sullum: Re: Obamaspeak: "From now on, when you hear Obama speak, try replacing 'let me be clear' with 'let me lie to you,' and see if it makes more sense."

Beware of Grinch Reid sneaking into your house this Christmas Eve and stealing your health care, your hard-earned money, your liberty and your children's future.

Goodwin: Shame on me for voting for Obama.

Have you noticed that Obama and the Dems don't like dialog? Whether the stimulus, health debate or Copenhagen, Obama and his minions are always in a hurry and always declaring to the country and the world that the "Time for talk is over". He's like a demanding, egocentric, thin-skinned, impatient child. Does he think that by making such simplistic, arrogant and insulting statements that the opposition will back down and the world will unite around His Excellency? Honestly, who would be afraid of this namby pamby president? He demands action, but doesn't have the first clue as to how to build consensus, how to govern or how to lead. He's increasingly irrelevant to the debate in this country -- and now, around the world. It's very sad when we have to rely on India and China to promote our economic interests by opposing this global warming farce. American leadership under Obama: An empty suit spouting empty words.

Projecting weakness. Obama looks like a little kid explaining to his dad why he deserves a bigger allowance.

Even the radical left is disappointed and disillusioned -- fed up with his blatant lies. The Hopium is wearing off and they're starting to recognize their long-sought messiah is nothing but a lying fascist.

Our Problem.

2009-12-08T08:20:00.001-05:00

“Barack Obama’s policies are not the solution to the problem; Barack Obama is the problem.”

Tell me lies, tell me sweet little lies...

2009-12-04T15:23:00.005-05:00

If you are a senior citizen, this video from Oct. '08 of then-candidate Barack Obama should infuriate you. He rails that McCain's plan would cut Medicare, that it would punish those who've paid into the system and worked hard all their lives, that diminish the quality of medical care for seniors. I watch this and think how gullible that audience, and this country's electorate, was. Fortunately we see signs that the Kool-Aid is wearing off and people are awakening from their hypnotic slumber.

Flashback...An Obama campaign ad warning of cuts in Medicare.

Jobs Wanted

2009-12-04T08:47:00.004-05:00

Interactive Map illustrating the President's misleading claims of jobs 'created or saved' by the Stimulus Bill.

Keynesian Economics Does Not Work

CNS: Obama’s Snub to Chamber of Commerce in Keeping With ‘Job Killing’ Policies

Stossel: Who Creates Jobs?

Sowell, Needlessly prolonging a recession

The glow is gone.

2009-12-03T09:21:00.005-05:00

Noonan: Amateurish.

Der Spiegel: Shackled by the far Left and his Nobel Peace Prize.

Emery: Put him on the clearance rack.

Tear down this wall!

2009-11-09T08:38:00.008-05:00

Reagan's magnificent speech in front of the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin, 1987.

Why won't Obama go to Berlin to celebrate with other Western leaders the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall?

Ed Morrissey suggests Obama won't go because it's not about him. "I think the answer is simpler: Berlin won’t be about Obama. It will honor previous generations of stalwarts against an evil empire that Academia defended for decades..... It’s not that Obama doesn’t think that the fall of the wall is a good thing, but that it has nothing to do with him, and is therefore irrelevant."

Rich Lowry describes Obama's failure to attend the ceremony as the most telling nonevent of his presidency.

Talking Points: Reasons to Oppose ObamaCare

2009-11-05T07:49:00.005-05:00

1. It is unconstitutional.
2. It will add to the deficit.
3. It will lead to rationed care.
4. It will result in delayed care.
4. It will completely destroy the private insurance industry.
5. It will shift control of health care decisions to bureaucrats.
6. It will lead to a shortage of doctors.
7. It will cover (and thus encourage) abortions.
8. There will still be millions of uninsured among us.
9. Medical costs will skyrocket.
10. It does not allow states to continue experimenting with different models.
11. It ignores the failed track record of socialized medicine in various states and countries.
12. It forces young citizens to subsidize the medical care of older Americans and illegal immigrants.
13. It will impose mandates and additional costs on small business and thus cost jobs.
14. It ignores common sense, market-based solutions that would lower insurance costs without jeopardizing quality of care.
15. It will stifle life-saving and cost-cutting scientific innovations from drug and medical-device companies (more here).

Bringing down the cost of medical care?

2009-11-03T08:30:00.005-05:00

Thomas Sowell has recently authored a series of articles entitled The "Costs" of Medical Care that expose the myth that medical costs are reduced by shifting who pays them or by reducing services. What Washington is proposing is simply a "shell game" and, he warns, "What politicians can and will do is continue to drive up the cost of private insurance until it is no longer viable." These articles should be required reading in schools, businesses, and Congressional offices everywhere.

The "Costs" of Medical Care, Parts I, II, III, and IV

Thomas Sowell Quotes

2009-10-31T16:08:00.012-04:00

I recommend Thomas Sowell's recent editorials: Dismantling America, Part I and Dismantling America, Part II. In case you are not familiar with him, Dr. Sowell is an American economist, social commentator, and author of dozens of books. His views on race and economics, poverty and politics are often provocative (see Crippled by their Culture) and inspiring and always deeply rooted in his courageous and honest exploration of life in America. Below are inspired quotes on economics, freedom and government from the brilliant Dr. Sowell.

One of the sad signs of our times is that we have demonized those who produce, subsidized those who refuse to produce, and canonized those who complain.

Socialism in general has a record of failure so blatant that only an intellectual could ignore or evade it.

The most basic question is not what is best, but who shall decide what is best.

The big divide in this country is not between Democrats and Republicans, or women and men, but between talkers and doers.

One of the consequences of such notions as "entitlements" is that people who have contributed nothing to society feel that society owes them something, apparently just for being nice enough to grace us with their presence.

You will never understand bureaucracies until you understand that for bureaucrats procedure is everything and outcomes are nothing.

One of the common failings among honorable people is a failure to appreciate how thoroughly dishonorable some other people can be, and how dangerous it is to trust them.

The first lesson of economics is scarcity: There is never enough of anything to satisfy all those who want it. The first lesson of politics is to disregard the first lesson of economics.

Liberals seem to assume that, if you don't believe in their particular political solutions, then you don't really care about the people that they claim to want to help.

Elections should be held on April 16th- the day after we pay our income taxes. That is one of the few things that might discourage politicians from being big spenders.

The assumption that spending more of the taxpayer's money will make things better has survived all kinds of evidence that it has made things worse. The black family- which survived slavery, discrimination, poverty, wars and depressions- began to come apart as the federal government moved in with its well-financed programs to "help."

Most people who read "The Communist Manifesto" probably have no idea that it was written by a couple of young men who had never worked a day in their lives, and who nevertheless spoke boldly in the name of "the workers".

Despite a voluminous and often fervent literature on "income distribution," the cold fact is that most income is not distributed: It is earned.

It is amazing that people who think we cannot afford to pay for doctors, hospitals, and medication somehow think that we can afford to pay for doctors, hospitals, medication and a government bureaucracy to administer it.

It is hard to imagine a more stupid or more dangerous way of making decisions than by putting those decisions in the hands of people who pay no price for being wrong.

What "multiculturalism" boils down to is that you can praise any culture in the world except Western culture - and you cannot blame any culture in the world except Western culture.

It takes considerable knowledge just to realize the extent of your own ignorance.

Liberalism is totalitarianism with a human face.

Much of the social history of the Western world, over the past three decades, has been a history of replacing what worked with what sounded good.

Mystical references to society and its programs to help may warm the hearts of the gullible but what it really means is putting more power in the hands of bureaucrats.

If you have been voting for politicians who promise to give you goodies at someone else's expense, then you have no right to complain when they take your money and give it to someone else, including themselves.

The welfare state is not really about the welfare of the masses. It is about the egos of the elites.

If you are not prepared to use force to defend civilization, then be prepared to accept barbarism.

Each new generation born is in effect an invasion of civilization by little barbarians, who must be civilized before it is too late.

Freedom has cost too much blood and agony to be relinquished at the cheap price of rhetoric.

If you have always believed that everyone should play by the same rules and be judged by the same standards, that would have gotten you labeled a radical 60 years ago, a liberal 30 years ago and a racist today.

The most fundamental fact about the ideas of the political left is that they do not work. Therefore we should not be surprised to find the left concentrated in institutions where ideas do not have to work in order to survive.

The next time some academics tell you how important diversity is, ask how many Republicans there are in their sociology department.

The problem isn't that Johnny can't read. The problem isn't even that Johnny can't think. The problem is that Johnny doesn't know what thinking is; he confuses it with feeling.

What is ominous is the ease with which some people go from saying that they don't like something to saying that the government should forbid it. When you go down that road, don't expect freedom to survive very long.

To the economically illiterate, if some company makes a million dollars in profit, this means that their products cost a million dollars more than they would have cost without profits. It never occurs to such people that these products might cost several million dollars more to produce than if they were produced by enterprises operating without the incentives to be efficient created by the prospect of profits.

Any politician who starts shouting election-year demagoguery about the rich and the poor should be asked, "What about the other 90 percent of the people?"

The question is not what anybody deserves. The question is who is to take on the God-like role of deciding what everybody else deserves. You can talk about 'social justice' all you want. But what death taxes boil down to is letting politicians take money from widows and orphans to pay for goodies that they will hand out to others, in order to buy votes to get re-elected. That is not social justice or any other kind of justice.

We enjoy freedom and the rule of law on which it depends, not because we deserve it, but because others before us put their lives on the line to defend it.

If you have ever seen a four-year-old trying to lord it over a two-year-old, then you know what the basic problem of human nature is and why government keeps growing larger and ever more intrusive.

Those things that help human beings be independent and self-reliant—whether automobiles, guns, the free market, or vouchers—provoke instant hostility from the anointed.

This must be the golden age of presumptuous ignorance.

American prosperity and American free enterprise are both highly unusual in the world, and we should not overlook the possibility that the two are connected.

The desire of businessmen for profits is what drives prices down unless forcibly prevented from engaging in price competition, usually by governmental activity.

The fraudulence of the left’s concern about poverty is exposed by their utter lack of interest in ways of increasing the nation’s wealth. Wealth is the only thing that can cure poverty. The reason there is less poverty today is not because the poor got a bigger slice of the pie but because the whole pie got a lot bigger—no thanks to the left.

Ayn Rand Videos

2009-10-28T22:57:00.003-04:00

Mike Wallace interview, Part 2, Part 3

Phil Donahue interview, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5

Tom Snyder interview, Part 2, Part 3

Click here for my list of Ayn Rand quotes.

More on The Long Shelf Life of Ayn Rand’s Legacy.

2009-10-24T08:43:00.003-04:00

Not quite understanding the word mandate.

Claim your rubble, Obama.

Unhinged.

2009-10-22T16:36:00.015-04:00

Why has the President lowered himself to name calling with Fox News? Is he so thin-skinned that he can't stand a little heat? You criticize this guy and he flips out. It makes him look like a little man, afraid of criticism -- no, make that an arrogant, pompous ass who thinks he's beyond criticism.

Honestly, this guy is unbalanced. Think Nixon. As I said before, this President has evidenced the very worst qualities of our very worst presidents. In your heart, you know he's nuts.

Hey media...Your role in this society is to criticize, investigate, and raise hard questions -- not to pander, slobber and propagandize. Get with it.

More: Krauthammer, White House tactics go too far.

Update 11/1/09: Obama stupidly takes on Edmunds.com. Again, we see the WH go into 'hissy fit mode' at the slightest dissent. My advice to President Obama: Unclench. By responding to Edmunds, you only focused national attention on their findings, and in the process you proven yourself to be a cry baby. Cash for Clunkers was a complete waste of taxpayers' money -- you don't create prosperity by destroying wealth. Cash for Clunkers may very well be the dumbest government program ever.

Pay the worker.

2009-10-21T22:40:00.006-04:00

Pay the worker. Interesting that this President assumes it’s his business to tell private firms what they should be paying their CEOs. Where is that power given to him in the Constitution? Who’s next? As we have minimum wages, perhaps we should have maximum wages, too. Since the President is the most important human being on the planet (just ask him), no one should make more than His Arrogance ($400,000). What do you suppose would be the result of setting such a wage ceiling? The problem is that once you reach that wage, you stop innovating. You stop demanding more of yourself and your business. Once you’ve maxed out your income, your drive and ambition plateau. You don’t expand or take risks and you don’t create new jobs.

I’m sure the President would love to implement a wage ceiling. He wants us to have fewer expectations, less wealth, less influence and a lower standard of living. How do I know this? All over the world he apologizes for our wealth and success. During the campaign he routinely complained that we greedy SOBs are only 5% of the world’s population, and yet we consume 25% of its resources. I think it’s fair to assume that he wants to lower our standard of living. Now, he won’t implement an actual wage ceiling, but, like FDR, I believe he’ll tax the crap out of anyone who dares to be successful and productive in this society.

I find this video enlightening. The writer has the audacity to demand that he be paid for his work – After all, who has a right to insist that he should work for free? His rant (and excuse the language) resonates with me because this is exactly what all these socialists demand from us. They would subjugate us and enslave us as laborers of the state. $1.4 trillion this year in debt. Another $1.4 trillion is forecast for next year. This is on top of the $12 trillion we already owe and the looming train wreck of the entitlement programs (which he would accelerate with the addition of another massive entitlement). How will we ever pay for Washington’s greed and recklessness? It will be on the backs of those of us who work, who save, and sacrifice and who have played by the rules. Make no mistake about it, Obama believes that we should work for the common good and not for ourselves; He’s a Marxist after all. And he’s purposefully driving us into further and further into debt, because he knows that ultimately it will mean that punitive taxes will be necessitated and that the rich will be soaked with something like the 91% tax rate imposed from 1942-1964, the equivalent of a wage ceiling. Dear Leader has no interest in growing the private sector or increasing our standard of living; Only in expanding the size and reach of the federal establishment. Who’s the greedy SOB now?

"This year the Congressional Budget Office projects that we’ll add an additional $1.58 trillion to the $11,957,539,759,846.49 we already owe." Visit DefeatTheDebt.com for more information.

Update (10/22): Keynes is still messing up your life.

Defining Conservatism

2009-10-21T18:36:00.003-04:00

Ronald Reagan, 1976:

Let our banner proclaim our belief in a free market as the greatest provider for the people.

Let us also call for an end to the nit-picking, the harassment and over-regulation of business and industry which restricts expansion and our ability to compete in world markets.

Let us explore ways to ward off socialism, not by increasing government’s coercive power, but by increasing participation by the people in the ownership of our industrial machine.

Our banner must recognize the responsibility of government to protect the law-abiding, holding those who commit misdeeds personally accountable.

And we must make it plain to international adventurers that our love of peace stops short of “peace at any price.” We will maintain whatever level of strength is necessary to preserve our free way of life.

A political party cannot be all things to all people. It must represent certain fundamental beliefs which must not be compromised to political expediency, or simply to swell its numbers.

I do not believe I have proposed anything that is contrary to what has been considered Republican principle. It is at the same time the very basis of conservatism. It is time to reassert that principle and raise it to full view. And if there are those who cannot subscribe to these principles, then let them go their way.

Boondoggle

2009-10-18T23:45:00.018-04:00

boon·dog·gle \ˈbün-ˌdä-gəl\ n. a wasteful or impractical project or activity often involving graft.

Take a look at www.recovery.gov[fn1] and see just how effective your federal government is at spending your money to create jobs. $150 million dollars later and how many jobs have been created or saved[fn2] in Michigan, the state with the highest unemployment rate? A whopping 397. $21.6 million dollars later, how many jobs have been created or saved in Illinois? 288. $219.5 million dollars have been spent in South Carolina, how many jobs created or saved? 146. $787 Billion Dollar stimulus. And for what? The highest unemployment in 26 years. Nothing has been stimulated by government spending, except for the federal bureaucracy and its power and control over our lives. It would be laughable if it weren't so extremely sad to think that this money has been confiscated from hard working Americans (and their children and grandchildren). The reckless spending by the Obama administration (and Bush and the rest) is not only ineffective, it is immoral. To pass onto future generations Washington's irresponsibility and the costs for Obama's Marxist agenda is sinful.

Consider this. How many jobs has Obama's so-called stimulus bill created (or saved)? Recovery.gov claims roughly 30,000 (Obama promised 3.5 million). How many jobs will Walmart create in 2009? 22,000. Cost to the American taxpayer. Zero. By creating new stores, Walmart creates jobs, pays wages and benefits, pays real estate taxes, collects massive amounts of sales taxes, and saves consumers thousands of dollars each year. Keep in mind, many of Obama's 'jobs' are either temporary construction jobs (that would have eventually been funded anyway) or are government jobs that will continue to cost taxpayers money while adding to our bloated bureaucracy in perpetuity. Yes, I know it's trendy to bash Walmart... That it doesn't pay this or that its presence destroys that. But why don't these critics ever take on government? How much harm does government do? What are the effects of its policies?

Government does not create. It destroys. It destroys the incentive to work. It destroys wealth and opportunity. It destroys markets and thus consumer choices. It destroys freedom and liberty. It destroys individual responsibility. Said Reagan, "Government is not the answer to our problem. Government is the problem." It is no friend, it is no partner. While government is necessary, its scope should be very much limited -- thus we have a Constitution. It was intended to prevent government overreaching into our lives -- now Washington uses it to limit our freedom. Sigh.

The free markets, on the other hand, create jobs, reward inventiveness and risk taking, spur creativity and entrepreneurialism. The markets create wealth. expand opportunity and are the proven engine for lifting the poor out of poverty. Are there imperfections in the market? Of course. But it is easier to regulate overreaching and graft in private sector than it is to root it out once it becomes entrenched in the public sector. It is difficult to calculate how much misery distant politicians inflict on the lives of ordinary Americans.

Obama's socialism enslaves. Impoverishes. And weakens us. Spreading apathy and malaise. His policies go against human nature, individual liberty and responsibility, by mandating that we work for another and for the glorification of his massive ego. Government doesn't inspire hard work or inventiveness or efficiency. And let us get this straight once and for all. Government. Does. Not. Care. It does not look out for you. It only looks out for itself. To the extent you find government officials looking out for you, I will bet they are in the military or are local officials, not distant federal bureaucrats.

[fn1] Hope you enjoy recovery.gov, it cost 18 million dollars.

[fn2] A compete fiction which allows Obama to artificially inflate the 'effectiveness' of his ineffective and wasteful programs.

Update (10/22): 7 months after the so-called stimulus and 49 of the 50 states have lost jobs. America Now Over 6 Million Jobs Shy of Administration's Projections.

We seem to have forgotten...

2009-10-08T08:23:00.001-04:00

It is not the function of the government to keep the citizen from falling into error; it is the function of the citizen to keep the government from falling into error.
--Justice Robert H. Jackson (1892-1954)

Economic malarkey

2009-10-06T01:07:00.003-04:00

Cash for Clunkers: "One of Washinton's all-time dumb ideas"

Related: It's the Spending, Stupid.

Also: The Doers vs. The Thinkers.

Lap Dog

2009-10-05T20:17:00.006-04:00

Our President: the beta male.

And for the record. The joker poster is not racist. Have you noticed that critics of this poster don't deny the President is a socialist. They can't. All they know to do when befuddled is to cry 'racism.' You know, kids, there was a time when free speech reigned and citizens were allowed to criticize the jokers in Washington. We called them the Bush years.

"The time for talk is over."

2009-09-16T09:03:00.008-04:00

I agree, Mr. President. The debate is over. This article from Investor Business Daily effectively ends the debate and our society's lurch toward socialized medicine. If two-thirds of doctors say they oppose the Democrat's reform ideas, we ought to immediately sit up and recognize that what you are proposing is a horrible idea for Americans and their health care. While the President is busy playing political games, it's clear from this poll that doctors are deadly serious. Nearly half of them say that if Obamacare is passed, they'll consider leaving medicine altogether. According to this poll, nearly three-fourths of American doctors say health care quality would suffer under the President's plan. These are the men and women on the front lines of health care in this country -- and unlike the President, I trust them and honor their work and their opinions. They understand the disastrous consequences of putting more bureaucrats in between you and your doctor.

The President, for his part, continues his attempt to defraud the public and destroy the greatest, most responsive, most innovative health care system in the world. He claims we can cover 47 million more people (oops, I guess even he's lowered his expectations, 30 million people) with the same number of doctors and nurses, not ration care, reduce benefits, or change the current level of service -- and still save money and not add to the deficit. I remember during the campaign, Bill Clinton accused Obama of telling fairy tales and living in a fantasy world. Perhaps the truest words ever spoken by our 42nd President.

Update 11/5/09: WSJ reports of looming doctor shortage: "expanding the number of insured patients but not the number of doctors will only increase the demand for services that already must meet the demands of an aging population."

Obama's War on the American Consumer

2009-09-11T23:38:00.014-04:00

I'm sure the administration would prefer it be called a 'domestic contingency operation'.... In a move calculated to avoid public comment and scrutiny, Obama announced late Friday night (on 9/11 no less) that his administration was slapping a tariff on tire imports from China. While the Chinese may be upset by this amateurish and provocative act -- it will really be American consumers who will pay the price. Make no mistake about it...this is a tax on American consumers. We will pay more regardless of whether we buy Chinese or American made tires because American producers will have no incentives to lower their costs or innovate in order to meet the competition. While American producers seem to be the beneficiary of this policy, the reality is that with protectionism, everyone loses. The president is once again proving his lack of understanding of basic economic principles. Protectionism does not produce wealth -- it produces stagnant, uncompetitive economies with high prices, fewer choices and less innovation. So much for hope and change. Obama is simply repeating the mistake of George W. Bush when he levied a tariff on imported steel back in his first term. Bush ultimately got his hand slapped by the WTO. Obama's move should be recognized and condemned for the brazen political payback that it is to his labor union thugs who've been doing his bidding, attempting to squelch dissent at recent town hall meetings.

This is just the latest chapter in what can only be described as a deliberate shift away from free trade and globalization. We first saw Obama's protectionist leanings with the so-called Stimulus Bill's 'buy American' provisions (which he blamed on Congress ...of course). Then, the administration, urged by its teamster allies, targeted the Mexican trucking industry. Both of these actions resulted in retaliation against American exports by two of our largest trading partners, Canada and Mexico. But again, who pays the price? American consumers and American businesses. You just wonder if Obama ever stops to consider the oh-so-predictable consequences of his actions. I really think he believes he can charm his way out of any situation. What he doesn't realize is that the laws of economics can't be jawboned or stammered away so easily.

Related...The administration is now telling us to expect double digit unemployment for years to come. Heaven forbid we reverse course and put in place policies to spur recovery: lower taxes, less government, less bureaucracy, and reduced barriers to free trade. This isn't rocket science, Barry. But no, we're told we need to double down on all the failed, big-government policies of the past which wage war on productive Americans and individual liberty. Someone tell me, why in the world is this guy called a progressive? There's no progress here, just a re-hash of Jimmy Carter's failed attempts to equalize misery.

Update 1...The REAL (and only) beneficiary of the tire tariff? Barack Obama. Way to stick it to the rest of us, Mr. President. Just wish you'd wage war on our enemies as fiercely as you wage war on us.

Update 2...Our Protectionist President abandons free trade.

Father Barack

2009-09-09T09:03:00.011-04:00

I have found myself returning to reread Mark Steyn's article Live Free or Die in which he warns of the infantilization of America.

What Washington has done is to turn the US into a nanny state -- where ostensibly grown adults start acting as helpless, needy children, instead of responsible, free citizens. Where's my subsidy? Where's my bailout? Shouldn't someone else take care of me? Plan my retirement? Provide my health insurance? Pay my mortgage? Buy my food? and on and on it goes. There's no end to our needs. Thank goodness paternalistic government is there to bear the heavy responsibilities of adulthood for us. I'd hate to think I had to be responsible and live as a free man. I can remember an old skit on SNL where a poor person looked around at all the affluence of the 80s and, exasperated, said "Where's my stuff? I want stuff." We've been well conditioned to turn our eyes on Obama as Savior and Provider. We ask much of him, because so little is expected from ourselves.

I read and saw some of Dear Leader's speech to America's children yesterday. As he told them to wash their hands and stay in school, I thought of Steyn's article. And what Obama said to the kids, we can hear being said to us 'adults': wear your seat belt, don't eat trans fats, and whatever you do, for God's sake, don't leave your cell phone charger plugged in. And oh yeah, and get a tune up for your car. Maybe Obama could be piped into classrooms, shopping malls, elevators and workplaces across the country each day to inspire his children to floss and exercise as we work and dream for a better America. What a perfect Union that would be.

I don't know about you, but my hope does not reside in Washington, D.C.

Update (10/29/09): Check out Reason.tv's Nanny of the month

Neither subject nor servant.

2009-09-07T23:03:00.001-04:00

"The paternalistic 'what your country can do for you' implies that government is the patron, the citizen the ward, a view that is at odds with the free man's belief in his own responsibility for his own destiny. The organismic, 'what you can do for your country' implies that government is the master or the deity, the citizen, the servant or the votary. To the free man, the country is the collection of individuals who compose it, not something over and above them. He is proud of a common heritage and loyal to common traditions. But he regards government as a means, an instrumentality, neither a grantor of favors, and gifts, nor a master or god to be blindly worshiped and served."
--Milton Friedman

Honoring those who Labor

2009-09-04T15:33:00.003-04:00

“You cannot legislate the poor into freedom by legislating the industrious out of freedom. You don't multiply wealth by dividing it. Government cannot give anything to anybody that it doesn't first take from somebody else. Whenever somebody receives something without working for it, somebody else has to work for it without receiving. The worst thing that can happen to a nation is for half of its people to get the idea they don't have to work because someone else will work for them, and the other half to get the idea that it does no good to work because they don't get to enjoy the fruit of their labor."

--Adrian Rogers (1931-2005) American pastor, conservative, and author

Government is the problem

2009-08-15T09:26:00.011-04:00

Government can't even waste our money efficiently.

No surprise, pork barrel spending by Congress increased this past year.

And the left bemoans the success and prosperity of some Americans. I guess if I do well, it must at the expense of another. It proves the left's complete ignorance of basic economics and their embrace of the zero-sum fallacy. Rather than celebrate success and achievement, they have to villainize it. Heaven forbid that someone, somewhere is happy, prosperous, hard-working and independent.

And Reagan speaks out against socialized medicine...

Sneering Elitists

2009-08-06T09:11:00.023-04:00

What's really been revealed in the last two weeks is the contempt this President and this Congress have for the American people. Yes, we knew they were arrogant, but now we know how they really feel about us 'ordinary' Americans. They don't like us. They don't like our questions. They don't like how we cling to our liberty and individualism (not to mention our guns and religion). Dissent in the Bush years and you're called a patriot. Dissent in the Obama years and you're part of an unruly Nazi mob. Fare thee well, President Consensus-builder, we hardly knew ye.

This is a sobering and important editorial....makes you wonder what's going on behind the scenes in the Obama White House. Chicago-style politics comes to Washington. God help us.

And then we have Kathleen Sebeius, in one of the most misleading, paternalistic and offensive statements to come from this administration, sounding like an Greyhound commercial, "leave the driving to us." Don't you worry your little head over the complexities of health care reform - We nice folks in Washington will take care of you. Right you will.

And really, how dumb do they think we are? All the sudden it's called "Insurance Reform" and not "Health Care Reform." And instead of a "Public Plan," they now call it "Co-ops". How insulting. Nothing but semantics. Smoke and mirrors. What a bunch of arrogant hucksters! I'd compare this deceptive administration to a bunch of carneys, but that'd be horribly unfair to the carneys.

Update: Bill Maher detests Americans. Notice how the liberal elites always know best how we ordinary people should live, they know best what we need and don't need, and they certainly know best how to spend our money. Have you noticed? Liberals pin every problem (a.k.a. "crisis") on ordinary Americans and our individualism, our 'stupidity', and [gasp] our greed -- they never, ever blame government for its mamoth failures -- nor do they ever acknowledge their own unquenchable greed to control every aspect of our lives. BTW, Maher failed to mention just how stupid Obama voters proved themselves to be.

Update 2: The good news is that the protests are having an impact.

failed experiments

2009-08-03T15:41:00.000-04:00

Click below to watch a video detailing Obama's failed experiments...

Give 'em hell

2009-08-02T17:03:00.017-04:00

“When you can't make them see the light, make them feel the heat.”
--Ronald Reagan

Click here to learn more about an effort to expose just how arrogant, ignorant, and insolent most of our elected representatives really are.

Update: Wow. Check out the video of this democrat congressman being greeted by unhappy constituents as he returns home to his district in Texas. These folks are really riled up. It takes a lot to get conservatives taking to the streets (we have jobs, you know).

Update 2: Sebilius and Specter had a bit of a tough time selling the government takeover of health care -- now that's a real clunker. Videos here and here.

Update 3: They're pissed off at Representative Tim Bishop in NY, too. Isn't is nice to see New Yorkers standing up for freedom? Videos here and here and here.

If you're wondering why everyone's mad as hell...watch this. Regardless of what they now say, their goal is the complete government takeover of our health care system. A single payer system would spell the end of private insurance, consumers would no longer have choices. Say hello to rationed care, long waiting lines, exploding deficits and government control. Some of us think consumer choice, quality service and individual liberty are worth fighting for.

Reagan's First Inaugural Address

2009-08-02T12:02:00.003-04:00

Video highlights of Reagan's First Inaugural Address -- an inspiring, eloquent and timeless statement of conservative principles...

Milton Friedman Quotes on Government, Capitalism and Freedom

2009-08-01T20:24:00.008-04:00

Milton Friedman (1912-2006) was an American economist and recipient of the 1976 Nobel Prize for economics. Friedman advocated limited government, deregulation, privatization, free trade and individual freedom around the globe. His ideas helped lead to thirty years of economic expansion -- a time when more people were lifted from poverty than ever before in world history. Below are some quotes to instruct and inspire...

Click here for links to a series of five excellent videos of an interview with Milton Friedman. Click here to watch his original 1980 classic "Free to Choose" (As well as the 1990 update).

The greatest advances of civilization, whether in architecture or painting, in science and literature, in industry or agriculture, have never come from centralized government.

If you put the federal government in charge of the Sahara Desert, in 5 years there'd be a shortage of sand.

The Great Depression, like most other periods of severe unemployment, was produced by government mismanagement rather than by any inherent instability of the private economy.

Governments never learn. Only people learn.

Only government can take perfectly good paper, cover it with perfectly good ink and make the combination worthless.

Nothing is so permanent as a temporary government program.

There's no such thing as a free lunch.

The government solution to a problem is usually as bad as the problem.

Most of the energy of political work is devoted to correcting the effects of mismanagement of government.

Inflation is taxation without legislation.

Most economic fallacies derive - from the tendency to assume that there is a fixed pie, that one party can gain only at the expense of another.

Many people want the government to protect the consumer. A much more urgent problem is to protect the consumer from the government.

A major source of objection to a free economy is precisely that it ... gives people what they want instead of what a particular group thinks they ought to want. Underlying most arguments against the free market is a lack of belief in freedom itself.

I am in favor of cutting taxes under any circumstances and for any excuse, for any reason, whenever it's possible.

If a tax cut increases government revenues, you haven't cut taxes enough.

Concentrated power is not rendered harmless by the good intentions of those who create it.

History suggests that capitalism is a necessary condition for political freedom.

What kind of society isn't structured on greed? The problem of social organization is how to set up an arrangement under which greed will do the least harm; capitalism is that kind of a system.

Hell hath no fury like a bureaucrat scorned.

Nobody spends somebody else's money as carefully as he spends his own. Nobody uses somebody else's resources as carefully as he uses his own. So if you want efficiency and effectiveness, if you want knowledge to be properly utilized, you have to do it through the means of private property.

The most important single central fact about a free market is that no exchange takes place unless both parties benefit.

The only way that has ever been discovered to have a lot of people cooperate together voluntarily is through the free market. And that's why it's so essential to preserving individual freedom.

A society that puts equality - in the sense of equality of outcome - ahead of freedom will end up with neither equality or freedom. The use of force to achieve equality will destroy freedom. On the other hand, a society that puts freedom first will, as a happy by-product, end up with both greater freedom and greater equality. Freedom means diversity but also mobility. It preserves the opportunity for today's less well off to become tomorrow's rich, and in the process, enables almost everyone, from top to bottom, to enjoy a richer and fuller life.

If the government is to try and ban private consumption of alcohol and tobacco, it must surely ban such activities as hang-gliding, skiing, rock-climbing and so on. Where should it stop? Rugby? American Football? Ice Hockey? Insofar as the government has information not generally available about the merits or demerits of the items we ingest or the activities we engage in, let it give us the information. But let it leave us free to choose what chances we want to take with our own lives.

The long-range solution to high unemployment is to increase the incentive for ordinary people to save, invest, work, and employ others. We make it costly for employers to employ people; we subsidize people not to go to work We have a system that increasingly taxes work and subsidizes nonwork.

I think that nothing is so important for freedom as recognizing in the law each individual’s natural right to property, and giving individuals a sense that they own something that they’re responsible for, that they have control over, and that they can dispose of.

I want people to take thought about their condition and to recognize that the maintenance of a free society is a very difficult and complicated thing and it requires a self-denying ordinance of the most extreme kind. It requires a willingness to put up with temporary evils on the basis of the subtle and sophisticated understanding that if you step in to do something about them you not only may make them worse, you will spread your tentacles and get bad results elsewhere.

I say thank God for government waste. If government is doing bad things, it's only the waste that prevents the harm from being greater.

One of the great mistakes is to judge policies and programs by their intentions rather than their results.

Spending by government currently amounts to about 45 percent of national income. By that test, government owns 45 percent of the means of production that produce the national income. The U.S. is now 45 percent socialist.

The unions might be good for the people who are in the unions but it doesn't do a thing for the people who are unemployed. Because the union keeps down the number of jobs, it doesn't do a thing for them.

The free man will ask neither what his country can do for him nor what he can do for his country.

Political freedom means the absence of coercion of a man by his fellow men. The fundamental threat to freedom is power to coerce, be it in the hands of a monarch, a dictator, an oligarchy, or a momentary majority. The preservation of freedom requires the elimination of such concentration of power to the fullest possible extent and the dispersal and distribution of whatever power cannot be eliminated — a system of checks and balances.

Keynesian economics doesn’t work, but nothing is harder for men than to face facts that threaten to undermine strongly held beliefs.

Keynes was wrong on just about everything, and his followers are wrong on absolutely everything.

Freedom is a rare and delicate flower.

Obama abandons the center

2009-08-01T13:20:00.013-04:00

Six months into his presidency and it's abundantly clear that Obama has no intention of governing from the center. While he often campaigned as a moderate -- talking tax cuts, fiscal restraint, and transparency -- his first six months in office have shown him to be the most radically liberal president in our history. Every day it seems his team is devising creative new ways to restrict liberty, tax productivity, regulate behavior, redistribute wealth, accumulate debt and weaken our national security. The good news for Republicans is that Obama has abandoned the center completely. Perhaps he feels this will protect him from a primary challenge from the left in 2012 -- but my guess is that it won't. Just as Jimmy Carter was challenged by Teddy Kennedy in 1980, Obama will certainly face revolt from within in 2012 -- and of course, the challenger will be none other than Hillary Clinton. It would be an unbelievably risky thing for her to do -- with the very real possibility of fracturing the party and leaving many voters resentful. But if Hillary concludes that Obama's inept, reckless and radical ways make him vulnerable, she will run. She's an opportunist first, a democrat second. It'll be interesting to watch how she positions herself to take down her boss in the next three years. Could there also be a challenger from the center of the democratic party? I doubt it - the Blue Dogs, while they've been showing their strength as of late, don't stand much of a chance in the far-left-dominated democrat primaries.

John Stossel takes a look at Canadian Health Care

2009-07-31T10:30:00.000-04:00

Rep. Ryan 1, MSNBC 0

2009-07-30T15:55:00.003-04:00

Congressman Paul Ryan of Wisconsin is impressive: conservative, articulate, tough, and in command of the issues. He's 39 and already emerging as a future leader of the GOP. After watching the video above, click here for a terrific article in which he discusses the link between health care policy and our national character.

The Crazy-Talk Express comes to Bristol: Taking Questions about Obamacare

2009-07-29T00:01:00.019-04:00

The President travels to Bristol, VA today to try to sell his plan to takeover nearly 1/5th of the US economy. He's staging a town hall forum with union workers at a local Kroger store -- I sure wish they'd ask him some of the questions posed in Dennis Prager's excellent article. Wouldn't it be nice if the mainstream American media would start asking serious questions and demanding straight talk? The President will make lots of promises and claims -- trying to reassure skeptics that government-run health care will somehow magically lower costs, reduce the deficit and increase quality of care. The word 'lunacy' comes to mind. So really all we can expect to hear from BO today are more lies, manipulation and crazy talk. Because, as we've seen, Obama's health care claims cannot be trusted. So sad that 1) our own President lies to us; and 2) it's gotten so bad that even the New York Times has taken notice. Maybe there's hope for American journalism yet.

I sure hope Dear Leader is more eloquent than the last time he was in Bristol (starts 37 seconds into it).

Ronald Bailey argues in favors of real reform: markets, not mandates.

Obama Hypocricy. And a Modest Proposal.

2009-07-28T12:21:00.011-04:00

Click video below to listen to tape of 2004 Obama being very critical of the Bush Administration for rushing through legislation. That's funny, 2009 Obama doesn't seem to have a problem with this practice.

To begin to solve the problems caused by our out of control and excessive government, I propose a Constitutional Amendment that requires each house of Congress to wait 72 hours after the final version of proposed legislation is made available to the public before taking any vote. And a five day waiting period after final passage before the President may sign or veto the legislation. The only exception: declarations of war. (I lifted the five day requirement from Obama's own broken promise of transparency). If we, the people, place this limit on our elite ruling class, there will be a lot less waste, less abuse of power, and overall, less overreaching by Washington. We are tired of the graft, the vote-buying and the secret deals. We deserve transparency and accountability. You gotta love the video of John Conyers, Democrat and Chair of the House Judiciary Committee, saying there's no real reason to read the bills they're voting on because they can't understand them anyway. He complained they only have two days to read the lawmakers' indecipherable dribble -- with my proposed Amendment, we'd generously give them three. Let's force the Senate to once again become a deliberative body. Reestablishing the principle of limited government is not only necessary to secure our liberty, shifting power away from Washington is needed for our prosperity. (read Mark Steyn's response to Conyers).

And while we're at it...
*Section 2 of my proposed amendment would give the President the line item veto power
*Section 3 would outlaw earmarks
*Section 4 would outlaw czars of any kind
*Section 5 would prohibit the government from creating, owning, operating or propping up private, or semi-public entities (ex. the auto and banking industries, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac) or bailing out States (i.e. California). Click here for an excellent article discussing why Washington should not run Detroit.
*Section 6 provides for term limits. No member of the House of Representatives shall serve more than 6 terms in total, and no member of the Senate shall serve more than 2 terms in total. (Twelve years in either house of Congress seems more than enough. These are temporary offices, not lifetime appointments where they can perpetuate their power. This would go a long way to ending the culture of entitlement and returning Congress to the people. Update: Holy Crap! Check out this page which lists members by their longevity of service in Congress. Un-freaking-real.
*Section 7 would mandate Congress pass only balanced budgets. The rest of us have to live within our means, why should reckless government bureaucrats feel they have the right to put things on the next generation's tab. We need this section in order to force Washington to make hard choices and to be responsible. This section would spell the end of Keynesian economics - a failed economic policy that caused untold poverty and misery in the 20th century - it lingers on, not because of its success, but because of it's political efficacy.
*Section 8 would prohibit paycheck deductions, which hide the true extent of our tax burden. Our present system is built around a fiction: that there is such a thing as a social security trust fund or medicare/medicaid lockbox. Taxpayers deserve an honest tax system -- and government should not have a vehicle to obscure their own irresponsibility. If the American people had to write a check to the IRS quarterly, they would immediately call for more limited government. Ending the payroll tax would also spur businesses to hire more employees. Excellent article here.
*Section 9 would contain an Open Meetings requirement, forbidding government officials from conducting public business in secret, closed meetings.

Anything else you'd like to add?

Let's just call this the Honesty, Accountability and Transparency in Government Amendment. If the oath to uphold and defend the Constitution meant anything to those in power such an amendment would not be needed. Ours was to be a government of limited powers. The framers knew that a powerful and unchecked government is a danger to the people and their liberty.

“In the legislature, promptitude of decision is oftener an evil than a benefit. The differences of opinion, and the jarrings of parties in that department of the government, though they may sometimes obstruct salutary plans, yet often promote deliberation and circumspection; and serve to check excesses in the majority.”
--Alexander Hamilton

Michelle Malkin takes on Obama Corruption

2009-07-27T13:59:00.002-04:00

Video interview of Michelle Malkin as she launches her book "Culture of Corruption: Obama and His Team of Tax Cheats, Crooks, and Cronies." Order the book here. Visit Michelle's excellent blog here.

Must reads...

2009-07-26T11:53:00.006-04:00

Fred Barnes: Evidence mounts that Dear Leader is economically challenged.

Shelby Steele: Affirmative action is a distraction. The real problem is not discrimination, but underdevelopment.

America's Health Problems

2009-07-23T11:16:00.017-04:00

Before we embark on a wholesale, radical and complete takeover of our health care system by bureaucrats, let’s step back and size up the problems we are seeking to address with reform. Ask the average American, “What’s wrong with our current health care system?” The answer is usually two-fold: too many without insurance and skyrocketing costs. Let’s look at each of these issues:

1. 47 million uninsured. The president and the media love to throw this number around as the main reason to upend our current system. But let’s look at who is uninsured…
a. Experts say 10 million non-citizens, illegally residing in this country, are without insurance. We’re told this is an issue of compassion and social justice. This from the same president who says we spend too much in the last year of life and that we must ‘encourage’ people to enter hospice. Honestly, is that compassionate? In essence, what the President is proposing is to ration the care of senior citizens, denying them end-of-life options and care, and redistribute those resources and care, in large part, to provide health care service to non-citizens illegally in this country. Is that justice?
b. According to the census bureau, 17 million (38 percent) live in households with an income of over $50,000 per year. Nine million live in households with a combined annual income of over $75,000. My guess is that a substantial share of these households could afford insurance, but have made the decision no to.
c. Over 18 million (40 percent) are between the ages of 18 and 34, who, as a group spend four times as much on entertainment as they do on out-of-pocket health care expenses. Many of these young people have decided they are invincible and made the choice to pursue other spending priorities. Obama would have us subsidize their irresponsibility.
d. Approximately 14 million people (31 percent) of the uninsured already qualify for government health insurance programs but choose not to sign-up. Would creating another vast, complex bureaucracy that they won't sign up for matter to this group of people?
e. The CBO says that 45 percent of the uninsured will be insured within four months.
f. And here’s a shocker, CBO analysis concluded that 36 million people would remain uninsured even if the Senate’s $1.6 trillion health care plan is passed.

As we see, the claim of 47 million uninsured is inflated and misleading. This isn’t to say that many are without insurance, but that isn’t the same as being without access. The liberals act as if the uninsured are left dying in the streets. They aren’t. They already have free health care that the rest of us pay for. By law hospitals are required to serve those who show up at their door. Do we need to address the problem of expensive insurance and expand access to health care, yes. But we don’t need a national takeover of our health care system to do it.

2. Costs are too high. I think we can all agree on this one. But in economic terms, how do you address high costs? Is it through more government intervention, more interference, more control? Or is it through greater competition and expanded services? When Obama says he’s going to decrease costs, he can do so only in one of two ways: price setting and rationing care. Price fixing always has the effect of diminishing available services – which means longer lines and worsening care. Rationed care is a frightening concept – it means that bureaucrats in DC will make health care decisions for individuals, rather then their doctors. It would be the greatest of intrusions into our private, personal, family decisions to date. Is there a way to reform health care that will empower consumers, expand services and lower costs? Yes, we can! Click here and here and here for more.

Even if you are not inclined to embrace free-market solutions, consider these questions…
* Will the Obama plan lower costs? Government intervention never leads to greater efficiencies and reduced costs. Have Medicare and Medicaid had the effect of lowering costs and improving service? Absolutely not. And yet, the President’s plan is modeled largely after Medicare – a program set to go bankrupt in a few years. Has the Tennessee’s TennCare experiment worked? No, TennCare would have bankrupted this state if it weren’t for Gov. Bredesen taking drastic action of cutting people from its rolls. Has Romney’s experiment of mandated insurance worked in Massachusetts? The shortcomings of that reform have led to people questioning his chances in 2012. You cannot say we will expand coverage to 46 million people and reduce costs. It’s impossible. And once you put a sign out that says ‘free’ – you better believe the system will immediately be overwhelmed as everyone will be lining up for the handouts in greater and greater numbers. Without the free market functioning freely, there will be no constraints on costs, on consumer behavior, and no incentives for better quality care.
* Will the Obama plan expand coverage? Yes – but only marginally. Millions will still be left uninsured (36 million under the Senate plan!) Is this minimal expansion of service worth the cost of rationed, lower-quality services to everyone?
* Will consumers have better service with more choices and control? Absolutely not. Since when does the government deliver services well or efficiently? What Obama is proposing to do is limit or ration care so that we can provide service to more people. He would basically put a government bureaucrat in between you and your doctor and limit your choices.

In short: the President’s plan would reduce choice, increase costs, and decrease quality. If 85% of us are now satisfied, why would we jeopardize our entire health care system, which is the envy of the world? We've already seen how Obama's health care claims cannot be trusted. Let’s reform health care, but only in a way that empowers consumers – and not Washington.

Click here for a very thoughtful and compelling article by Congressman Paul Ryan of Wisconsin.

Walter Williams and the Danger of Good Intentions

2009-07-22T20:45:00.002-04:00

Click here to watch a brilliant series of classic videos by economist Walter Williams as he discusses the devastating impact of well-intentioned government policies.

Newt Gingrich Addresses National Security

2009-07-21T10:06:00.003-04:00

If you care about this nation's security, you need to watch this...

The Road to Obamunism

2009-07-10T10:59:00.022-04:00

Here are seven easy steps that even the most unprepared president could take to ruin an economy and undermine individual liberty:

1. Talk down the economy.
2. Spend like there's no tomorrow.
3. Steal from future generations.
4. Tax all productive activity.
5. Regulate everything that moves.
6. Nationalize giant swaths of the economy.
7. Repeat.

We're now seeing the Obama administration for the first time on it's heals. The jobs numbers are much worse than anticipated and team Obama is getting defensive. People are finally beginning to have doubts about the competency of these loons. But I don't for a minute believe Obama's concern lies so much in the unemployment figures. No, he's worried about the future of his socialist agenda -- specifically his Cap and Trade (a.k.a. Tax and Kill) legislation and the left's dream of nationalizing health care.

Let's be honest. This has never really been about improving the economy. If it were, why would the stimulus bill be designed to only spend $50 of $787 billion on stimulus projects in the first year? Even the CBO said the stimulus package would do more harm than good. My guess is that Obama is pleased the economy is shrinking. After all, he continuously rails against America and our selfish consumption of 25% of the world's resources while being only 7% of the world's population. If our over consumption is such a problem, it stands to reason he intends for us to liver poorer, less comfortable lives. So our shrinking wealth and power must delight Obama -- his policies are working according to plan.

For this administration, it's really about growing the state, enlarging the bureaucracy, and furthering government's power and control over every aspect of American life. Can you think of a single instance where Obama has loosened government's grip on the economy, shifted power from the public to the private sector, or empowered the individual?

Obama is driven by hatred, power and ideology -- reality and history have no place in this administration. Now, when I say hatred. I don't mean he hates people necessarily. But I will say this: Obama hates the America I love. He hates our past, our power, our wealth and our individualism. He hates our 'flawed' Constitution and our history of state sovereignty. He is a firm believer in the preeminence of the collective and of 'equality' -- that we should all subordinate our individual desires for the sake of the collective good. On the surface that sounds, ok. But in practice, the demands of the collective, of mandated unity, results in the loss of individual liberty and self-determination -- foundations of our civilization. At its core, Obamunism is a frontal assault on American exceptionalism, the American dream, and the Protestant work ethic.

When the Berlin Wall came tumbling down in 1989 and the West was given their first look inside at the economies of Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union, what they saw was shocking. The state of their controlled, collective economies was even worse than economists predicted. What they saw was the result of central planning -- in essence it was a shortage economy, where next to nothing was being produced, store shelves were bare of even essential items, infrastructures rotting, poverty, despair and hopelessness rampant. We had a 45 year experiment, with a bright line drawn down the map -- and we can now look back and compare the performance of each system. How often in history do you get a perfect side-by-side comparison of two completely different political and economic systems?

And so we can look back and ask... Where did you find widespread hunger, misery and oppression? Which side produced the most goods? Which created the most jobs, the most wealth and opportunity? Which economic system was more innovative and technologically advanced? Which best empowered its citizens to dream and stretch and achieve? Which side best promoted and guaranteed civil rights and liberties? Which system best protected and promoted human dignity?

Answer this...Can you name a single ground-breaking drug or medical treatment or device that was developed in a controlled economy? If socialism is so wonderful, why aren't Americans risking their lives to swim to Cuba to take advantage of their cutting edge health care system -- or jumping the fence to enter the Mexican paradise for their shot at the Mexican dream? Why aren't the South Koreans demanding to live like their brethren to the north? These questions are ridiculous -- isn't it sad that they need to be asked today?

I say all this in an effort to point out that the road Obama is taking us down has been traveled before. Never successfully. In each instance, a heavy price was paid in terms of opportunity, liberty and human dignity.

The hardest thing to explain is the glaringly evident which everybody had decided not to see.
--Ayn Rand

Give ‘em some rope…

2009-06-25T14:23:00.002-04:00

“I have no intention of leading the Republican Party into next fall’s election on a platform of higher taxes and cut-rate defense. If our opponents want to go to the American people next fall and say, ‘We’re the party that refused to cut spending, we’re the party that tried to take away your tax cuts, we’re the party that wanted a bargain-basement military and held a fire sale on national security,’ let’s give them all the running room they want.”

“The challenge is now. It’s time we stopped looking backward at how we got here. We must ask ourselves tonight how we can forge and wield a popular majority from one end of this country to the other, a majority united on basic, positive goals with a platform broad enough and deep enough to endure long into the future, far beyond the lifespan of any single issue or personality.”
–Ronald Reagan, Remarks at a Conservative Political Action Conference Dinner, February 26, 1982

Two things I’d like to point out: First, notice Reagan’s confidence in conservative values and ideals — at a time of severe recession when there were doubts within his own party and constant attacks from the liberals and the media. He stood strong in the face of those who would have him turn back and ‘moderate’ his beliefs.

Second, notice his humility. This isn’t about one personality. He basically was saying, “This isn’t about me. We aren’t a cult of personality like other revolutions in the world. Our is a revolution of ideas, of common sense, of traditional American values that have stood the test of time.” How vastly different from the Cult of Obama and the complete arrogance and condescension we see in our Dear Leader.

Karl Rove on Conservative Revival

2009-06-23T13:08:00.002-04:00

If you are a Conservative, you need to watch this...

And now a message from our Supreme Leader…

2009-06-21T14:18:00.005-04:00

To those in Iran yearning for democracy, freedom and rule of law, I say to you, ”No, you can’t!”

For those who protest against murderous, repressive, and corrupt regimes? I say, “No, you can’t!”

Do you want change and hope and a new beginning? “No, you can’t!”

Do you want a better life for you and your children? “No, you can’t!”

To those looking to the West to fight oppression and tyranny, I say, “No, you can’t!”

Do you want to turn away from radicalism and terrorism? “No, you can’t!”

Do you want the right to protest peaceably, to worship freely, to speak openly? “No, you can’t!”

To those who want to come out from behind the shroud, join the modern world and the ranks of peace-loving nations, I say clearly, “No, you can’t!”

There are those on the right saying “Yes, you can”, but I’m here to tell you that these ideologues, these radical defenders of liberty and human rights, have no place in this administration. Gone are the days when America attempted to wield its influence to free the enslaved from the iron grip of tyranny. No, a new day has come. And so I say loudly and clearly to all the world, ”No, you can’t!” No you can’t count on America to stand for freedom. No you can’t count on us to speak boldly against oppression and violence. No you can’t look for moral clarity from this White House. No you can’t expect anything from America, because we expect nothing from ourselves. No you can’t expect us to lead the free world, that torch has been dropped.

In conclusion, as I watch your nation “work things out” in this “vigorous discussion,” I can’t help but think of protesters past: Budapest, Selma, Prague and Tienamin. All starry-eyed dreamers who didn’t know their place. How dare they challenge authority or the status quo — how dare they dream of a better life? You fall into this same sorry category. It’s not your time, Iran. I join a long history of nay-sayers in his country and in world history, who tell those yearning for the full blessings of liberty, “No, you can’t. You need to wait.” A weakened United States, with no moral authority, resolve or backbone, will not stand by your side in your hour of need. But this I promise you: I will continue to steadfastly blame the United States of America for all that is wrong in your world.

“No, you can’t, Iran. No, you can’t.”

[The best coverage of the Crisis for Freedom in Iran of any network, newspaper or other media outlet has been on the Gateway Pundit.]

Fiscal Child Abuse

2009-06-04T14:02:00.006-04:00

“We know some of this money is going to be wasted.”

This from our vice president letting us know how the spending of the $787 billion “stimulus” package is going so far. (Note: it’s not really ’stimulus’ when only 23% will be spent this year).

“There are going to be mistakes made,” said Biden. “Some people are being scammed already.”

Yeah, like the 67 million people who voted for you clowns. But you aren’t fooling all the people.

Listen, just leave the money with the people who earn it. Who work hard, who save, who sacrifice. Quit redistributing and squandering our hard earned money. Is this what we work so hard for, so dolts like Reid, Pelosi, Biden and Obama can waste it? No, we work to better our own lives — not the political stature of these statists.

The really sad thing (as if this disastrous administration isn’t sad enough) is that they aren’t even spending our money. They’re spending our children’s money, and their children’s money. They’re stealing from America’s future in order to finance their free-spending, reckless ways and avoid the tough decisions needed today. What they are doing is not only shameful, but sinful. It is morally wrong to run up these enormous deficits and pile this unbearable debt on the backs of our children. Project out into the future... Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and now, Obamacare...all will bankrupt us unless we reverse course today. But damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead. Obama continues to push for more and more 'irreversible' entitlements, more ballooning deficits, more crushing debt, more crippling regulations and more punitive taxes. This administration, if it continues on this reckless and destructive path, will do more long-term damage to this society than any axis of evil ever dreamed of doing. It is time to put our economic house in order and for common sense to return to Washington.

Milton Friedman says there are four ways to spend money:
1. You spend your own money on yourself.
2. You spend your own money on someone else.
3. You spend someone else’s money on yourself.
4. You spend someone else’s money on someone else.

This seems to be a message lost on the elite ruling class in Washington. Watch, learn and tell a friend.

The Problem with Empathy

2009-05-17T13:57:00.001-04:00

Like the rest of America, the Constitution must be flawed in BO’s view — because it, too, needs to be remade. We don’t need justices who merely interpret the law after all — we need justices who are empathetic and responsive to the American people. Appointing a politician who can help the Court reach ‘consensus’ is also important to this president. At the outset, I want to acknowledge that empathy and consensus-building are important personal traits. However, neither of these should be stated as requirements of Supreme Court Justices — because neither trait is needed or relevant for jurists in a Constitutional democracy. Let me explain...

To be an empathetic justice means that one would feel his or her way to the correct decision. This approach is abhorrent to our history, the notion of limited government, and of Constitutional democracy. Feelings are not necessarily bad — don’t get me wrong — it’s just that you cannot have a society whose supreme law is built upon the feelings of nine unelected and unaccountable justices. To say that these justices should apply their personal feelings, their empathy, individual sympathies and ‘caring’, means that the desires of the people, expressed in legislation voted on by their elected representatives should take a back seat. For too long we’ve allowed the Court free reign. The other branches have no constraints on them so why should the Court? We have become unmoored from our founding principles. And BO is pushing us further out to sea. It’s much easier, after all, to push his agenda through an empathetic Court than through the legisltive process — and easier to grab more power when you have a Court that doesn’t insist on adhering to the Constitution.

The law, and specifically the Constitution, is meant to change very slowly. Dramatic shifts undermine the order and stability necessary for citizens to plan their lives and affairs. Change is intended to come, not through judicial fiat, but through the legislative branch — and then only in areas the Constitution allows the government to act. We have entered into a dangerous era where government is unlimited. Where power flows not from the people to the government, but from the government to the people. No longer is it true that ‘We, the people” set the parameters for government — more and more it is government telling We, the people, how to live. Dear Leader likes it this way. And so, too, do the fawning media and the 53% of citizen-children who like paternalistic and ‘caring’ government to take over more and more of their lives.

Souter was a horrible Supreme Court Justice. He had no judicial philosophy – no respect for stare decisis, federalism or our Constitutional form of government. I’m glad to see him go — George HW Bush’s greatest mistake. But I fear that in his place a much more dangerous man or woman to our liberties will be seated on the Court and told by the President to ‘do justly’ which is now interpreted not as fidelity to our law, stare decisis, our traditions and blind justice, but to pick winners and losers based on so-called caring, compassion and empathy. If Obama has his way, he will appoint someone who will undermine our Constitution and liberties for years to come.

The Primacy of Property Rights

2009-04-24T13:47:00.000-04:00

When most Americans speak of personal liberties, they tend to think only in terms of First Amendment rights. However, it is important that Americans recognize that property rights are just as essential and, in many ways, foundational to all other rights. The right to earn and buy and own and use and dispose of private property as one sees fit is presently being gutted by this regime. We see government telling companies what they can and cannot do, what they can and cannot pay, and what products they may and may not produce. Hard working citizens are seeing more of their wealth being confiscated by a repressive and irresponsible government to benefit wasteful pet causes or redistributed to increasingly dependent citizens. Dear Leader believes he, and only he, knows best — that as a supremely enlightened being, he and his cronies can best pick the winners and losers in society and can best allocate its limited resources. The market and individual investors and consumers cannot be trusted they say – only elite government bureaucrats know best. History is not on their side. Here are some quotes to help remind us of the importance of our right to private property. As the 5th Amendment of the Constitution says, “No person shall…be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.”

Government has no other end than the preservation of property. –John Locke

The reason why men enter into society is the preservation of their property. –John Locke

Ultimately property rights and personal rights are the same thing. –Calvin Coolidge

If government have a right of demanding ad libitum and of taxing us themselves to the full amount of their demand if we do not comply with it, this would leave us without anything we can call property. –Thomas Jefferson

The Right of property is the guardian of every other Right, and to deprive the people of this, is in fact to deprive them of their Liberty. –Arthur Lee

Among the natural rights of the colonists are these: First a right to life, secondly to liberty, and thirdly to property; together with the right to defend them in the best manner they can. –Samuel Adams

Property is surely a right of mankind as real as liberty. –John Adams

Just as man can’t exist without his body, so no rights can exist without the right to translate one’s rights into reality, to think, to work and keep the results, which means: the right of property. –Ayn Rand

Next to the right of liberty, the right of property is the most important individual right guaranteed by the Constitution and the one which, united with that of personal liberty, has contributed more to the growth of civilization than any other institution established by the human race. –William Howard Taft

No power on earth has a right to take our property from us without our consent. –John Jay
The moment the idea is admitted into society that property is not as sacred as the law of God, and that there is not a force of law and public justice to protect it, anarchy and tyranny commence. –John Adams.

Among the natural rights of the colonists are these: first, a right to life; secondly, to liberty; thirdly to property; together with the right to support and defend them in the best manner they can. –Samuel Adams

Democracies have ever been spectacles of turbulence and contention; have ever been found incompatible with personal security or the rights of property; and have in general been as short in their lives as they have been violent in their death. –James Madison

… whenever the Legislators endeavour to take away, and destroy the Property of the People, or to reduce them to Slavery under Arbitrary Power, they put themselves into a state of War with the People, who are thereupon absolved from any farther Obedience … [Power then] devolves to the People, who have a Right to resume their original Liberty, and, by the Establishment of a new Legislative (such as they shall think fit) provide for their own Safety and Security, which is the end for which they are in Society. –John Locke

All men are created equally free and independent, and have certain inherent rights, of which they cannot, by any compact, deprive or divest their posterity; among which are the enjoyment of life and liberty, with the means of acquiring and possessing property, and pursuing the obtaining of happiness and safety. –George Mason

As long as our government is administered for the good of the people, and is regulated by their will; as long as it secures to us the rights of persons and of property, liberty of conscience and of the press, it will be worth defending. –Andrew Jackson

The system of private property is the most important guaranty of freedom, not only for those who own property, but scarcely less for those who do not. —Fredrich Hayek

Private property was the original source of freedom. It still is its main bulwark. –Lippmann Walter

A people averse to the institution of private property is without the first elements of freedom. –Lord Acton

Life, liberty, and property do not exist because men have made laws. On the contrary, it was the fact that life, liberty, and property existed beforehand that caused men to make laws in the first place. — Frederic Bastiat

[A] private property regime makes people responsible for their own actions in the realm of material goods. Such a system therefore ensures that people experience the consequences of their own acts. Property sets up fences, but it also surrounds us with mirrors, reflecting back upon us the consequences of our own behavior. –Tom Bethell

That the sole object and only legitimate end of government is to protect the citizen in the enjoyment of life, liberty, and property, and when the government assumes other functions it is usurpation and oppression. –Alabama, Declaration of Rights Article I Section 35

No man’s life, liberty or fortune is safe while our legislature is in session. –Author Unknown

Property is a central economic institution of any society, and private property is the central institution of a free society. –David Friedman

Freedom conceives that the mind and spirit of man can be free only if he is free to pattern his own life, to develop his own talents, free to earn, to spend, to save, to acquire property as the security of his old age and his family. –Herbert Hoover

The essential characteristic of socialism is the denial of individual property rights… –Ayn Rand

If history could teach us anything, it would be that private property is inextricably linked with civilization. –Ludwig von Mises

The best way to put more money in people’s wallets is to leave it there in the first place. –Edwin Feulner

So Long, Cowboy

2009-04-21T13:44:00.001-04:00

To those who march for peace, my heart is with you. I would be at the head of your parade if I believed marching alone could bring about a more secure world. … Those who advocate that we unilaterally fore-go the modernization of our forces must prove that this will enhance our security and lead to moderation by the other side — in short, that it will advance, rather than undermine, the preservation of the peace. The weight of recent history does not support this notion.
–Ronald Reagan, Address Before the Bundestag in Bonn, Federal Republic of Germany, June 9, 1982

Happy trails, Cowboy. Welcome to the wussification of America. We’re metro now — and oh, so cool. We reek of tolerance and understanding. Want nukes? No problem! Want to destroy Israel and deny the Holocaust? Who are we to judge?! Go ahead, imprison political foes and reporters, steal elections, repress your people. We no longer stand for human rights. Or democracy. Or freedom. Or hard work. Or free trade. We don’t pressure closed societies to open. Or radical countries to knock it off. No, that would be intolerant. After all, America, you are to blame for all that is wrong in the world.

We’ve elected an individual who has no problem intimidating and subduing dissent here in America, yet can’t seem to raise his voice to defend his country, our values, our Constitution or our history. He seems quite comfortable listening to dictators as they wag their fingers at America — and routinely apologizes for our wealth, our power and our freedom. America once again assumes “a defensive crouch.” He's worse than Jimmy Carter. And that, my friends, is saying something.

Dear Leader, stop insulting this nation. And stop apologizing. Stand up for America! We are the most generous nation on earth. No nation has ever sacrificed more for the freedom of strangers than this nation. No nation in the history of mankind has liberated more men and women than this nation. Here in this land we lit a torch for freedom, which lights the world. Americans changed the world, not by being passive and brooding. But by standing tall and leaning forward. We aren’t like other nations — no other nation has done or would do what we have done for “the survival and defense of liberty.” They talk. We act.

Or we used to act. Time was when America could be counted on to stand up for freedom and for those suffering under human rights abuses. There was a time not long ago when Presidents refused to meet with tyrants because to do so would harm freedom’s cause and send messages to other thugs that they were on equal footing with the greatest country in the history of mankind. You ask us to apologize, sit down and quietly take our place among the former powers of the world. You say we haven’t lived up to our values. Please tell us, Your Majesty, what are our values? To coddle dictators and bow before tyrants– to ignore human rights abuses — to pursue policies of collectivism — weakness — less opportunity, less prosperity, less security? It is your values, Dear Leader, that are out of step with America. Teddy Roosevelt said, “Speak softly and carry a big stick.” Here’s BO’s version…”Uh..uh…stammer apologetically, and…uh…lay down your…uh…sticks.”

As an aside. I love this photo and the quote by Reagan above. He spoke those words when tens of thousands of well-intentioned idiots were marching for peace in Europe and in the United States. When he was being pressured to unilaterally freeze the growth of our nuclear arsenal. When he was being burned in effigy. He UNAPOLOGETICALLY said no to the freeze movement. We will pursue peace, but through strength. And not unilaterally. It is when America seeks to appease that we are most vulnerable and peace is threatened. It is American weakness that tempts aggressors — it is American strength that makes all them think twice. We’ve been down this road of detente before — it leads to oppression, insecurity and a loss a freedom around the globe. Reagan was right. And because he led, stood tall and leaned forward, the Cold War ended. It didn’t end because he played nice with our enemies and sought ‘understanding’. It ended because he called them out as the evil empire they were and backed the communist bastards into the corner. Reagan famously said that the Soviets were “the focus of evil in the modern world.” I shutter to think that what you are doing, Dear Leader, is turning that around and declaring that the United States is the focus of evil in the modern world. You are a traitor to this country and our values. Shame on you.

Let’s talk about Reagan and human rights. I’ll put Reagan up against this BO anytime. Reagan by his policies and through his determined leadership freed the citizens of Soviet Union, Eastern Europe, and Central America from the iron grip of communism. His revolution led to 25 years of the most prosperous time in the history of mankind — where more people were pulled out of abject poverty than in any other period in human history. BO will leave in his wake trillions in deficits, lost freedom, lost democracy, national and global insecurity, war and poverty. You wait — this president is a disaster. And this country and the world will pay an enormous price for his arrogance and ignorance. The world will again long for an American president to come riding in on a white horse – to speak to our hopes and not our fears, and to lead those in tyranny to freedom.

It’s about our Values, Stupid.

2009-04-11T13:39:00.000-04:00

Many of us are just now waking up. Eighty days into this train wreck, and we’re finally looking up and realizing something precious, something fundamental, is being slid out from under us. It is like we’ve lost our moorings. The shining city on a hill seems adrift. Our Dear Leader has promised to remake America. But what is immediately clear listening to BO and watching his actions, is that he’s never really understood America, nor her genius. I’d venture to guess that he looks at America like other liberals – as a collection of various interest groups, races and classes all working together for the common good. The defining characteristic of America to the ‘progressive’ liberal is the government. Government programs specifically. We make progress as a nation, say the progressives, by empowering government. So in their view, we are a government that has a nation. A nation to take care of us, to socially engineer us, and to re-make us. So what makes a person an American, in the liberal’s way of thinking, is that he or she resides here and be under the government’s “care.”

As Reagan said, “We are a nation that has a government — not the other way around. And this makes us special among the nations of the earth. Our government has no power except that granted it by the people.” Our Constitution begins with the words, “We, the People…” It is “We, the People” who tell government what to do. It is “We, the People” who put limits on government – not the other way around. An American is not defined by government programs or classifications. We aren’t a race, or an ethnic group. Nor a collection of such. What makes us Americans are our belief and commitment to shared values. Our society is not just an amalgam of fractured interest groups united together in seeking to empower Washington to take care of us. What makes us Americans is our commitment to specific, fundamental principles and values.

We need to return to our first things. For too long we’ve allowed the left to undermine our traditions and our values; To destroy our institutions which foster and secure these values; and to belittle and harass those whose “values sustain our national life” (Reagan, 1st Inaugural). So what are these values? As a starting point, let me suggest the following as fundamental…

1. Individual Freedom. This is fundamental. Paired with this, and equally important, is Individual Responsibility. You cannot have one without the other. This is where the left gets it wrong. They want a nation built on the concept of individual freedom (which they loosely define as smoking pot, aborting children, engaging in prostitution, and entering into gay marriage), without any responsibility. You think I’m kidding, just look at our President. His entire philosophy of government could be summed up as follows… “Your money’s no good here. I got this.” This approach is foreign to our values as Americans. And we need to say so. LOUDLY. His solution to each ‘crisis’ is immediate government action. And each time the government acts, individual liberty is infringed. We say that each person can rise as high and as far as his individual initiative and talents will take him. We can’t and won’t guarantee results. But we will guarantee opportunity. Dignity comes, not from government, but when free people use their freedom responsibly.

2. Respect for Law. We are a nation of laws, not of men. When our elected officials take office, they raise their hands and pledge allegiance, not to a crown, but to the Constitution of the United States — the supreme law of this nation. Contrary to popular belief, it doesn’t create our rights. Our rights come from God, not our Constitution. The Constitution exists to define and limit the powers of government — and prohibits government from infringing upon the enumerated rights. We oppose tyranny and mob rule — that is why our Constitution is filled with check and balances. It seeks to limit government power on the one hand and yet keep the majority from trampling the rights of the minority on the other. We respect law, because we know that law is “the great leveler in our society” (to quote Atticus Finch). A fundamental value we share is that each person is accountable to the law, be he Joe the Plumber or Timmy the Treasury Secretary.

3. Hard work and sacrifice. Isn’t it interesting that BO is now complaining about all the hard work he’s having to do. This from a man who’s never worked a day in his life. And what’s curious is that he’s not actually having to make hard decisions. All he’s doing is writing checks. But it’s tough being Santa Claus. He has to pretend to listen and then dole out the goodies to those he deems nice. Real Americans value real work, hard work. We honor those who built this nation by the sweat of their brow. We believe that those who work should reap the rewards of their labor — not to be compelled to deliver the fruits of their labor to the government so it can redistribute them to those who do not work. Government is not a charity. It was not created to be a social service agency. Its role in our lives should be very small. It’s not that Americans are not generous. It’s just that we believe in individual charity and sacrifice, not forced giving. Now when I use the word sacrifice, I mean sacrifice for one’s family. One’s neighbors. One’s church. One’s country. But I don’t mean paying taxes. Although we recognize paying taxes is our legal duty. We don’t consider that a sacrifice. A sacrifice is something voluntarily done for the benefit of another. Not something compelled. There is more to being a patriot, Mr. Biden, than paying your taxes.

Of course there are more…but this gets us started. And I’ll continue on with this another time. Let me close with two more quotes from our 40th President, Ronald Reagan:

“The family has always been the cornerstone of American society. Our families nurture, preserve and pass on to each succeeding generation the values we share and cherish, values that are the foundation for our freedoms.”

“Why should we be frightened? No people who have ever lived on this earth have fought harder, paid a higher price for freedom, or done more to advance the dignity of man than the living Americans, those Americans living in this land today.”

Ronald Reagan Quotes on Government and Liberty

2009-04-04T13:35:00.001-04:00

Inspirational words from the greatest President of the 20th Century:

Concentrated power has always been the enemy of liberty.

Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn’t pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same.

Freedom prospers when religion is vibrant and the rule of law under God is acknowledged.

Government always finds a need for whatever money it gets.

Government does not solve problems; it subsidizes them.

Government exists to protect us from each other. Where government has gone beyond its limits is in deciding to protect us from ourselves.

Government is like a baby. An alimentary canal with a big appetite at one end and no sense of responsibility at the other.

Government’s first duty is to protect the people, not run their lives.

Government’s view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it.

History teaches that war begins when governments believe the price of aggression is cheap.

Man is not free unless government is limited.

No government ever voluntarily reduces itself in size. Government programs, once launched, never disappear. Actually, a government bureau is the nearest thing to eternal life we’ll ever see on this earth!

Of the four wars in my lifetime, none came about because the U.S. was too strong.

Republicans believe every day is the Fourth of July, but the democrats believe every day is April 15.

The best minds are not in government. If any were, business would steal them away.

The nine most terrifying words in the English language are: I’m from the government and I’m here to help.

The problem is not that people are taxed too little, the problem is that government spends too much.To sit back hoping that someday, some way, someone will make things right is to go on feeding the crocodile, hoping he will eat you last – but eat you he will.

We must reject the idea that every time a law’s broken, society is guilty rather than the lawbreaker. It is time to restore the American precept that each individual is accountable for his actions.

Welfare’s purpose should be to eliminate, as far as possible, the need for its own existence.

All of us should remember that the Federal Government is not some mysterious institution comprised of buildings, files, and paper. The people are the government. What we create we ought to be able to control.

Because we’re a great nation, our challenges seem complex. It will always be this way. But as long as we remember our first principles and believe in ourselves, the future will always be ours.

Common sense told us that when you put a big tax on something, the people will produce less of it. So, we cut the people’s tax rates, and the people produced more than ever before.

We are learning that the way to prosperity is not more bureaucracy and redistribution of wealth but less government and more freedom for the entrepreneur and for the creativity of the individual.

The historian Edward Gibbon wrote about ancient Athens, the first democracy and the fountainhead of Western culture. He wrote that when the Athenians finally wanted not to give to society but for society to give to them, when the freedom they wished for was freedom from responsibility, then Athens ceased to be free.

Unless bureaucracy is constantly resisted, it breaks down representative government and overwhelms democracy.

The federal government has taken on functions it was never intended to perform and which it does not perform well. There should be a planned, orderly transfer of such functions to states and communities and a transfer with them of the sources of taxation to pay for them.

Government is never more dangerous than when our desire to have it help us blinds us to its great power to harm us.

We are going to put an end to the notion that the American taxpayer exists to fund the federal government. The federal government exists to serve the American people.

The other party exploits the natural division between business and labor. Republicans are trying to bring all our citizens together in a campaign for economic progress.

Here in this land, for the first time, it was decided that man is born with certain God-given rights. We the people declared that government is created by the people for their own convenience. Government has no power except those voluntarily granted to it by we the people.

I will not stand by and watch this great country destroy itself under mediocre leadership that drifts from one crisis to the next, eroding our national will and purpose.

America must remain freedom’s staunchest friend, for freedom is our best ally and it is the world’s only hope to conquer poverty and preserve peace.

The Founding Fathers established a nation under God, ruled not by arbitrary decrees of kings or the whims of entrenched elites but by the consent of the governed. Theirs was the vision of a striving, God-fearing, self-reliant people living in the sunlight of justice and breathing the bracing air of liberty.

We are taxing ourselves into economic exhaustion and stagnation, crushing our ability and incentive to save, invest and produce. This must stop.

There’s a clear cause and effect here that is as neat and predictable as a law of physics: As government expands, liberty contracts.

Our Founding Fathers devised a system of government unique in all the world – a federation of sovereign States, with as much law and decision-making authority as possible kept at the local level.

When we deprive people of what they have earned, or take away their jobs, we destroy their dignity and undermine their families.

Freedom is the recognition that no single person, no single authority or government has a monopoly on the truth, but that every individual life is infinitely precious, that every one of us put in this world has been put there for a reason and has something to offer. It´s so hard for government planners, no matter how sophisticated, to ever substitute for millions of individuals working night and day to make their dreams come true. The fact is, bureaucracies are a problem around the world.

I think the best possible social program is a job.

Our federal tax system is, in short, utterly impossible, utterly unjust and completely counterproductive, [it] reeks with injustice and is fundamentally un-American… it has earned a rebellion and it’s time we rebelled.

The federal government has taken too much tax money from the people, too much authority from the states, and too much liberty with the Constitution.

Our natural, inalienable rights are now considered to be a dispensation from government, and freedom has never been so fragile, so close to slipping from our grasp as it is at this moment.

Extreme taxation, excessive controls, oppressive government competition with business, frustrated minorities and forgotten Americans are not the products of free enterprise. They are the residue of centralized bureaucracy, of government by a self-anointed elite.

Nations crumble from within when the citizenry asks of government those things which the citizenry might better provide for itself. … [I] hope we have once again reminded people that man is not free unless government is limited. There’s a clear cause and effect here that is as neat and predictable as a law of physics: As government expands, liberty contracts.

Republicans believe the best way to assure prosperity is to generate more jobs. The Democrats believe in more welfare.

The West won't contain communism, it will transcend communism. It won't bother to dismiss or denounce it, it will dismiss it as some bizarre chapter in human history whose last pages are even now being written.

Gentlemen and ladies, I hate inflation, I hate taxes, and I hate Communism. Do something about it. [At his first Cabinet meeting]

Government is not a solution to our problem, government is the problem.

Ayn Rand Quotes on Capitalism, Government and Liberty

2009-04-03T13:33:00.004-04:00

Quotes from conservative philosopher Ayn Rand to inspire and embolden…

It only stands to reason that where there’s sacrifice, there’s someone collecting the sacrificial offerings. Where there’s service, there is someone being served. The man who speaks to you of sacrifice is speaking of slaves and masters, and intends to be the master.

Run for your life from any man who tells you that money is evil. That sentence is the leper’s bell of an approaching looter.

We are fast approaching the stage of the ultimate inversion: the stage where the government is free to do anything it pleases, while the citizens may act only by permission; which is the stage of the darkest periods of human history, the stage of rule by brute force.

A government is the most dangerous threat to man’s rights: it holds a legal monopoly on the use of physical force against legally disarmed victims.

Civilization is the progress toward a society of privacy. The savage’s whole existence is public, ruled by the laws of his tribe. Civilization is the process of setting man free from men.

Government “help” to business is just as disastrous as government persecution… the only way a government can be of service to national prosperity is by keeping its hands off.

I swear, by my life and my love of it, that I will never live for the sake of another man, nor ask another man to live for mine.

Capitalism demands the best of every man – his rationality – and rewards him accordingly. It leaves every man free to choose the work he likes, to specialize in it, to trade his product for the products of others, and to go as far on the road of achievement as his ability and ambition will carry him.

The spread of evil is the symptom of a vacuum. Whenever evil wins, it is only by default: by the moral failure of those who evade the fact that there can be no compromise on basic principles.

Capitalism is the only system that can make freedom, individuality, and the pursuit of values possible in practice. When I say ‘capitalism,’ I mean a pure, uncontrolled, unregulated laissez-faire capitalism – with a separation of economics, in the same way and for the same reasons as a separation of state and church.

The [U.S.] Constitution is a limitation on the government, not on private individuals … it does not prescribe the conduct of private individuals, only the conduct of the government … it is not a charter for government power, but a charter of the citizen’s protection against the government.

The uncontested absurdities of today are the accepted slogans of tomorrow.

Every government interference in the economy consists of giving an unearned benefit, extorted by force, to some men at the expense of others.

There’s no way to rule innocent men. The only power any government has is the power to crack down on criminals. Well, when there aren’t enough criminals, one makes them. One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible for men to live without breaking laws. Who wants a nation of law-abiding citizens? What’s there in that for anyone? But just pass the kind of laws that can neither be observed nor enforced nor objectively interpreted and you create a nation of law-breakers.

The difference between a welfare state and a totalitarian state is a matter of time. The essential characteristic of socialism is the denial of individual property rights…

Whoever claims the right to redistribute the wealth produced by others is claiming the right to treat human beings as chattel.

When you see that trading is done, not by consent, but by compulsion – when you see that in order to produce, you need to obtain permission from men who produce nothing – when you see that money is flowing to those who deal, not in goods, but in favors – when you see that men get richer by graft and by pull than by work, and your laws don’t protect you against them, but protect them against you – when you see corruption being rewarded and honesty becoming a self-sacrifice – you may know that your society is doomed.

The hardest thing to explain is the glaringly evident which everybody had decided not to see.

I say that man is entitled to his own happiness and that he must achieve it himself. But that he cannot demand that others give up their lives to make him happy.

We are now moving towards complete collectivism or socialism, a system under which everybody is enslaved to everybody.

I am opposed to all forms of control; I am for an absolute laissez faire, free, unregulated economy. I am for the separation of the state and economics, just as we had separation of state and church, which led to peaceful coexistence among different religions...so the same applies to economics. If you separate the government from economics, if you do not regulate production and trade, you will have peaceful cooperation, and harmony and justice among men.

All depressions are caused by government interference and the cure is always offered to take more of the poison that caused the disaster. Depressions are not the result of a free economy.

The smallest minority on earth is the individual. those who deny individual rights cannot claim to be defenders of minorities.

In the name of the best within you, do not sacrifice this world to those who are its worst. In the name of the values that keep you alive, do not let your vision of man be distorted by the ugly, the cowardly, the mindless in those who have never achieved his title. Do not lose your knowledge that man's proper estate is an upright posture, an intransigent mind and a step that travels unlimited roads. Do not let your fire go out, spark by irreplaceable spark, in the hopeless swamps of the approximate, the not-quite, the not-yet, the not-at-all. Do not let the hero in your soul perish, in lonely frustration for the life you deserved, but have never been able to reach. Check your road and the nature of your battle. The world you desired can be won, it exists, it is real, it is possible, it's yours.

our present troubles

2009-03-08T13:27:00.003-04:00

“It is no coincidence that our present troubles parallel and are proportionate to the intervention and intrusion in our lives that result from unnecessary and excessive growth of government.”
–Ronald Reagan, Inaugural Address, 1981

I don’t think BO actually cares about growing the economy, he’s given no indication that creating private wealth and opportunities are important goals of his administration. He seems much more concerned with thwarting entrepreneurship and crushing American enterprise. Fast. But if he did care about the private sector and creating new jobs (rather than the temp jobs of his so-called stimulus package), the first thing he should do is ask the country to retrace its steps, to go back to the beginning of our problems. Bailing out a sinking boat doesn’t work unless you plug the leaks first, no matter how many billions you spend. This is common sense stuff, Barry. So let’s start at the beginning. The current economic crisis is a result of government interference in our banking industry. Try hard to dispense with your immediate liberal, knee-jerk reactions for a moment. Yes the banks and Wall Street played a role, but let’s be honest, this house of cards was encouraged, and in a very real way, mandated by government policy.

When Jimmy Carter signed the Community Reinvestment Act, he created the situation that led to the mortgage crisis — this law encourages banks to grant loans to people with low income and little credit. Carter didn’t intend to ruin our economy or our retirements, but then again, Carter didn’t know what the hell he was doing. You cannot tell the banks to make bad loans. Again, Barry, this isn’t complicated. The goal of government at this time should be to encourage banks to go back to the basics — you don’t make risky loans unless you attach a high interest rate and demand lots of collateral. Carter’s plan undermined this common sense approach to banking — it forced banks to make bad loans to people who could not pay them. In essence it was a bill that forced the banks to fail. Bill Clinton also played a role in this creating this crisis when he expanded the Community Investment Act in 1995. According to Senator Richard Shelby (R-AL), “Federal policy, not free market decisions, fueled risky loans to unqualified borrowers.” It was George Bush and John McCain who warned of an impending housing disaster if steps were not taken to reform the system. Representative Barney Frank and Senator Chris Dodd failed to respond to these warnings.

We act as if the borrowers of these funds themselves have no responsibility for their own situations. If I took out a loan I could not pay back, I’d have no one to blame but myself. If you’ve ever bought a house, you know all of the disclosures mandated. These are adults, not children. So let’s stop the whole paternalistic BS. They can read. If they can’t understand what a variable interest rate is, then they shouldn’t be signing the papers or buying a house in the first place.

What the government has done is undermine the very foundation of free enterprise, the private banking system. Nationalizing the banks isn’t the solution. Crony capitalism doesn’t work — just ask Japan. You don’t want your banks and your politicians in bed together — that’s how we got into this mess. Thus the policy of interfering in the normal process of granting mortgages based on income and risk needs to end. Banking regulations need to be stiffened. Homeowners must have verifiable income, must bring a significant down payment to the table, and variable interest rates need to be the exception, not the norm. I opposed the initial $700 billion bailout in September because it just threw money at failing banks without addressing and undoing the underlying cause of their failure. People should not be given loans for homes they cannot afford and cannot pay back. Not everyone will own a home in our society. And that’s not cruel to say. Not everyone is responsible. Not everyone is hard working or able to stick to a budget. Yes we hope that most Americans will be homeowners, it is part of the American dream. But that dream must be attained by hard work, thrift and personal initiative, not by government fiat.

Required reading: Thomas Sowell’s brilliant article, Subsidizing Bad Decisions.

Update (10/22/09): Haven't we learned anything from the real estate meltdown?

Thug Life

2009-03-07T13:18:00.001-05:00

He’s either completely nuts or hellbent on destroying this country. I’m not sure there’s any other explanation for BO. Think of it, who would propose restricting tax deductions for charitable contributions at a time of economic collapse when charities and their beneficiaries are struggling more than ever? Shouldn’t government encourage charity? Why is BO so threatened by private acts of charity? Perhaps it’s because his Marxist mentors taught him to distrust private charity, because they believe private giving causes society to ignore social problems. Did you know the Bidens gave an average of only $369 per year to charity– only 0.2% of his income — over the last ten years. What generosity! Thanks, Joe. What kind of a man is he? And his boss — placing disincentives on giving during a time of crisis– thus placing charities in a choke-hold? What a thug!

Who would propose massive tax increases in a time of recession? Talk down the economy as the markets crumble? Who would say no to new drilling, refineries, coal plants and nuclear plants at a time when we’re tying to decrease our reliance on foreign oil and keep energy costs low? Who, in their right mind, would propose a $787 billion stimulus package that contains only $50 billion in actual stimulus? A stimulus package the CBO says will do more harm than good to the economy — who would propose such a bill? Who would promise bipartisanship and the end to politics as usual and then not allow Republican input or public debate on such a massive spending program? Who would propose a budget during a recession that calls for spending more in 20 months than were spent in the entire 8 years of the Bush administration?

He argues for more regulations on the auto industry even as they are on the verge of bankruptcy. He refuses to veto nearly 9,000 in earmarks but yet has no problem cutting the school voucher program for 1,700 of DC’s children. He announces the closure of Gitmo without a clue about what happens next. He sets a date certain for withdrawal from Iraq and thus sends our enemies the message that if they just wait us out, they’ll win. He promises deep cuts for the military during a time of war and yet he sought to spend 11 billion on new helicopters for the White House fleet.

He rails against greed, but he’s greedy for power. He disdains the power of Wall Street and corporate America, but he lusts for control over every aspect of our lives. With a straight face, he scolds state mayors and governors not to waste the money coming to them in the stimulus package, and yet he already is the most wasteful spending president in our history. This president has no clue how to create wealth — he only knows how to redistribute it. This isn’t the change America voted for this fall. He acts like November ‘08 was a mandate on capitalism, as if his Marxist agenda was what people were cheering for. Looking back, I’m not sure what they were cheering. An arrogant, know-nothing candidate, with zero experience, who hates the America I love, and who is now doing everything he can to destroy what is best in this society — from charity, to education, to energy, to the economy, to health care, to our retirements.

Forty-six days into this administration. Our economy in shambles. Our deficit soaring. Taxes and unemployment sky-rocketing. Our enemies are the only ones universally celebrating the change that has come to Washington.

Thomas Jefferson Quotes on Government and Liberty

2009-03-05T12:41:00.001-05:00

Quotes to enlighten and inspire from our third president, Thomas Jefferson (1743 – 1826):

A government big enough to give you everything you want, is big enough to take away everything you have.

The issue today is the same as it has been throughout all history, whether man shall be allowed to govern himself or be ruled by a small elite.

I am not a friend to a very energetic government. It is always oppressive.

The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not.

The natural progress of things is for liberty to yield and government to gain ground.

I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty than to those attending too small a degree of it.

Experience hath shewn, that even under the best forms (of government) those entrusted with power have, in time, and by slow operations, perverted it into tyranny.

We hold these truths to be self evident: that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.Whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it, and to institute new government…

A wise and frugal government, which shall leave men free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned – this is the sum of good government.

All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to remain silent.

Every government degenerates when trusted to the rulers of the people alone. The people themselves are its only safe depositories.

I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them.

It is incumbent on every generation to pay its own debts as it goes. A principle which if acted on would save one-half the wars of the world.

My reading of history convinces me that most bad government results from too much government.

Rightful liberty is unobstructed action according to our will within limits drawn around us by the equal rights of others. I do not add ‘within the limits of the law’ because law is often but the tyrant’s will, and always so when it violates the rights of the individual.

Timid men prefer the calm of despotism to the tempestuous sea of liberty.

To compel a man to furnish funds for the propagation of ideas he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical.

We may consider each generation as a distinct nation, with a right, by the will of its majority, to bind themselves, but none to bind the succeeding generation, more than the inhabitants of another country.

When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty.

Whenever the people are well-informed, they can be trusted with their own government.That government is best which governs least, because its people discipline themselves.

I think we have more machinery of government than is necessary, too many parasites living on the labor of the industrious.

If a nation expects to be ignorant and free in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be.

You made me promises, promises…

2009-03-05T12:33:00.003-05:00

At some point, a label will attach to this president. Nixon was a crook, Ford a klutz, Carter inept. Reagan was a cowboy. Bush 41 was out of touch. Clinton was slick. Dubya a dufus. And BO? Well, he’s a fraud. As far as I can tell, that will be his label. Not that the others never lied or defrauded, that’s not my point. But he seems to be surpassing them all when it comes to deceit. He's a compulsive liar. His first instinct when cornered, is to lie. He talks about shooting straight with the American people, but that statement is itself BS. Nothing is ever ’straight’ — everything is ’spin’. Every time he appears in public, I can almost guarantee he’s going to attempt to mislead and deceive the American people. Lying politicians are nothing new to American politics, but when he promised to bring change to Washington and end the political games, you better believe the American people are going to hold him to a higher standard. But by any standard, BO has a very difficult time telling the truth.

Watch when he talks down our economy. This is not the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, but it will be if you don’t change your misguided policies. He said the other day that we are faced with sky-rocketing interest rates. What is he snorting? Interest rates are some of the lowest I’ve ever seen. He said he’d end earmarks. Lie. That he’d appoint persons of the highest ethics. Lie. That he’d reach across party lines to reform Washington. Lie. That he’d end the political bickering and bring a new tone to Washington. Lie. That he wouldn't sign legislation until after five days. Lie. That he wouldn’t raise taxes on those making less that $250k. Lie.

And in his lies, he demonstrates his contempt for the American people. He demonstrates the complicity of the American media, who never call him out. BO is destroying what little trust remained in government at a time when we desperately need confidence, when we need straight talk. I don’t think this can go on much longer. For soon the Congress will get sick of being lied to. The media will call his bluff. Foreign leaders will not put much weight in this lying amateur’s words. And the American people will see him for what he is and always has been, a fraud.

Some terrific, recent editorials from Karl Rove…Presidential Bait-and-Switch and Obama’s Straw Men

Even the liberal media is calling Obama out for not living up to his promises…Maureen Dowd, Stage of Fools

the worst of the worst

2009-03-04T12:27:00.003-05:00

On election night I remember saying, we’ve just elected another Jimmy Carter. And I thought the pattern fit. We had just come from a wildly unpopular presidency similar to Nixon’s (which left the GOP ‘brand’ severely damaged) and on November 2008 our choice was between a moderate, safe-bet, experienced, well-respected Republican (a Gerald Ford figure) and a far-left unknown, untested ‘populist’ candidate (like Carter). And the country once again chose the novice candidate. Little did they know that they were electing a person with the very worst characteristics of not only Carter, but LBJ, FDR — and, yes, Nixon. No Lincoln is he. He is Carter the Keynesian and Master of Malaise. LBJ the bureaucratic Great Society builder with a dangerous foreign policy. FDR the statist.*

And Nixon. There are times when BO completely creeps me out. I don’t know if I can put my finger on it, but I’ve felt for awhile now that BO is psychologically unbalanced. He doesn’t know who he is. Born black and raised by his white grandmother in a white community. It happens to many boys who are essentially abandoned by their fathers. There is this deep desire to be liked, and respected. To be someone. But there can also develop an underlying anger and resentment. I see in BO the same callousness, detachment, secrecy, disingenuousness and calculating, power-grabbing ways as Nixon. He’s an arrogant imperialist. With no patience for dissent. Or questions. No tolerance of debate or public scrutiny.

Look at the way his campaign removed from the press corp news organizations that didn’t endorse him. Watch how his campaign attempted to personally destroy Joe the Plumber. Look at the contempt he exhibits for reporters (there are still one or two left) who attempt to ask hard questions. The arrogance and hypocrisy of BO in taking away school vouchers from disadvantaged minority students in DC — compelling them to attend failed public schools he would NEVER send his precious daughters to. Never reaching out to the GOP (besides watching the Superbowl). His snide, arrogant explanation for it all is “I won.” Like a spoiled, coddled, cry-baby child. You watch…for there is now in Washington a hell of a lot of power residing at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. And where there’s unchecked power, there is (and will be) corruption and abuse of that power. He’s only been in office six weeks, and already he has evidenced the very worst qualities of our very worst presidents. God help us.

*Statism, the ”concentration of economic controls and planning in the hands of a highly centralized government.”

Update 7/1/09: Even Helen Thomas agrees, Obama Worse than Nixon

Update 7/23/09: Even Chris Matthews agrees, Obama Should Support School Choice in DC

And so it begins...

2009-03-03T12:19:00.001-05:00

So how did this happen? How is it that a freshman senator with no experience in anything became president? You know, I blame it all on George Ryan. He single-handedly destroyed the Republican Party in Illinois with his corrupt practices while governor. So soundly were the GOP Republicans demoralized that an out-of-state conservative, Alan Keyes, was tapped to run against Obama. His lead in the polls so impressive, he was invited to speak at the Democrat’s Convention that summer. Basically BO got a free pass to the US Senate and won in a landslide 70-27%. If it wasn’t for stupid Ryan, we’d all be a lot better off right now.

But while I blame Ryan most, there’s plenty of blame to go around for this unfolding catastrophe. I also blame Billary for their arrogance. She had the nomination – but Bill just couldn’t keep his fat mouth shut, and Hillary just didn’t seem to understand that her experience message just wasn’t going to cut it.

Then there’s the media. Slobbering, shivering, lap dogs. They simply took all of BO’s press releases and read them on air immediately. No need to fact check. No need to dig. Why bother? This is historic, after all. Oh, I’ve just got thrills running up my leg! Never mind that he was unqualified and the most radical leftist in the Senate (which is really saying something).

Bush and McCain deserve blame, too. For they set the stage for this disastrous presidency. Bush by running as a conservative and governing from the left. McCain by running as a moderate and never putting pressure on BO or distinguishing himself from BO. When the housing crisis hit in September, it was game over. Not because of the crisis, per se. But because McCain said, “Me, too” to the bailout. He said “Me, too” in blaming Wall Street ‘greed’. “Me, too” — I’m just like Bush and Obama, there’s not a speck of daylight between any of us. Stupid McCain. He had the golden, absolutely perfect opportunity to distinguish himself from BO and Bush — and he punted. He could have played the role of ultimate Maverick. Of the Outsider. The Reformer. Instead, he blamed the markets. And went along with the bailouts. Dumbass.

Then of course there is the 52.9% of the electorate who elected this Marxist. They were played for fools – and like the media, lapped up whatever BS BO served to them. Tax breaks for the middle class – yippee! (It doesn’t matter that it’s really welfare). Change! – woo hoo! (Who cares what kind of change!). Palin was completed raked over the coals over nonsense. The press spent more time digging for trash in Wasilla and talking about her wardrobe than in questioning BO’s disturbing associations. And in the end, is there any doubt that Palin was much more qualified to bring real change and actual, needed reform to Washington? What evidence of reform did BO have? None. His resume was a joke. His campaign, while brilliantly staged, was completely without substance. But you know, in the end, we get the leaders we deserve. We’re lazy, apathetic Americans who foolishly assume the best in people and who take our liberties for granted – gone are the days of the cowboy staring out across the table demanding the cards be cut. Gone are the days of limited government and check and balances. Now we’re all a bunch of metrofied wusses. It’s no wonder who our leader would be.