Jan

31

Ron Paul - Fiat Money 101

Filed Under Economics, Federal Reserve, National, Ron Paul | 1 Comment

Congressman Ron Paul on the Federal Reserve, banking and the economy.
Watch and learn.

Jan

30

For Those That Fight For Liberty

Filed Under History, National | Leave a Comment

“A general dissolution of the principles and manners will more surely overthrow the liberties of America than the whole force of the common enemy…. While the people are virtuous they cannot be subdued; but once they lose their virtue, they will be ready to surrender their liberties to the first external or internal invader…. If virtue and knowledge are diffused among the people, they will never be enslaved. This will be their great security.” -– Samuel Adams

Sam Adam’s words ring true to this day.
Liberty is a word that has a kind of magical power over an audience when used in oration; it’s no wonder that politicos use it so liberally even when they are proposing to take liberties away. I always look in disgusted amazement when an audience applauds their loss of yet another liberty, when it is done by invoking the word liberty..” Liberty is a word that has been perverted to enable legal theft, it is somehow thought that unconstitutional and immoral schemes like welfare, subsidies, government insurance programs, regulatory agencies, prohibitions, foreign aid, and interventionism somehow enable liberty. It’s as if liberty is no longer a natural right, but something that is handed out or taken away to buy political or economic advantage.
As Edmund Burke said: “The true danger is when liberty is nibbled away, for expedience, and by parts.

Is it not a sign of the loss of principles and virtue as Adam’s wrote about, that too often those that fight against liberty in the name of liberty are looked on with sickening reverence by the masses? How can it be virtuous or even intelligent to have high esteem for men or women who usurp power for powers sake, who regularly empty the public treasury with no regret, who use their office for purely personal gain, and who exempt themselves from the laws that were supposed to bind them from intruding on the liberties of others?

Those that truly fight for liberty are many times marginalized by historians and politicians, they somehow lack the emotional excitement to rile up the masses into a sense of tribal patriotic purpose and subservience to the whims of rulers. Those that truly fight for liberty are those that fight for individual freedom, not for collective slavery.
Maybe it’s time to rediscover the meaning of liberty and study those who fought for it.
Go to the new Libertarian Hall Of Fame.

Jan

25

A Town Driven To The Edge

Filed Under Global | 1 Comment

One thing is for sure, somebody had enough. Enough of taxes maybe, or regulations, law suits or political corruption? Sounds like any big city in America, but no, this is a microscopic hamlet name Fago in northern Spain, its 37 permanent residents ruled by an oppressive mayor named Miguel Grima. Well, no longer ruled, because Mayor Grima’s was ambushed on a lonely country road, his bullet riddled body was found in a ditch on January 13th after he failed to come home from a council meeting the night before, and now the entire population of the village is suspect.

Mayor Grima was like big government concentrated into one single human being, a politico gone wild with power. Take a look at the list of his legal crimes.

    1.) He put a stop to the centuries old custom of herding livestock through village.
    2.) He refused to issue hunting licenses.
    3.) He prevented the village’s only bar from setting out tables on the terrace in summer by imposing oppressive taxes of almost 400 euros a month on those outdoor tables.
    4.) He had taken out injunctions to prevent people from making home improvements.
    5.) He closed down a bed and breakfast because it competed for business with his own establishment.
    6.) He banned basketballs and hoops in the central plaza where the village’s children play, all two of them.
    7.) He prevented a number of people from registering as voters.

Britain’s Telegraph reports that “Santiago Miramar, the only villager who would comment on this week’s events, said there were few in Fago who didn’t consider themselves an enemy of the mayor.” “He was an unpleasant man who ran this place like his personal kingdom. He made life difficult for most of us but for a select few he made life impossible,” he said.” and “Another villager, who refused to be named because he had been told by a judge that no one was to speak publicly while they were under suspicion, said: “Revenge is a dish best served cold. I’m not saying anything more than that.”

Jan

24

Fred On The American Way Of War

Filed Under National | 1 Comment

Fred Reed, ex-military man and expatriate writes a handbook for the Pentagon, or any nation that wants to copy the policies and pitfalls of this think tank of foreign military adventurism.
Fred’s observations of the modern method of U.S. foreign policy and military tactics gives clarity to George Washington’s wise words: “The great rule of conduct for us, in regard to foreign nations, is in extending our commercial relations, to have with them as little political connection as possible.”

Too bad nobody listens to George Washington any more.

Fred: A True Son of Tzu
Guderian Was the Mother
January 23, 2007
Being a military thinker of the profoundest sort, I offer the following manual of martial affairs for nations yearning to copy the American way of war. Read it carefully. Great clarity will result. The steps limned below will facilitate disaster without imposing the burden of reinventing it. The Pentagon may print copies for distribution.

READ ON AT FRED ON EVERYTHING

Jan

23

Holy Minimum Wage!

Filed Under Economics, Minimum Wage, National | Leave a Comment

George Reisman, author of Capitalism: A Treatise on Economics debunks the minimum wage faith healers and their false religion with this article on mises.org.
To the non-believer in the religion of political economic engineering, Reisman’s scientific logic will be purely academic, but sadly to those that believe Congress can solve our social and economic problems by wielding its magic pen, their faith in phoney elected gods will likely not be shaken.

The State Against Economic Law: the Case of Minimum Wage Legislation

When it comes to matters such as the theory of evolution and stem-cell research, so-called liberals—i.e., socialists who have stolen the name that once meant an advocate of individual freedom—ridicule religious conservatives for their desire to replace science with the dictates of an alleged divine power. Yet when it comes to matters of economic theory and economic policy—for example, minimum-wage legislation—these same liberals themselves invoke the dictates of an alleged divine power. Their divine power, of course, is not the God of traditional religion, but rather a historically much more recent deity: namely, the great god State.

Traditional religionists believe that an omnipotent God came before all natural law and was not bound or limited by any such law, but rather created such natural laws as suited him, as he went along. Just so, today’s liberals believe, at least in the realm of economics, that the State is not bound or limited by any pre-existing natural laws. In the case in hand, the State, today’s liberals believe, is free to decree wage rates above the level that would exist without its interference and no ill-effects, such as unemployment, will arise.

READ ON

Jan

20

Not Fit For Man Nor Beast

Filed Under National | Leave a Comment

It’s easy to see in our time how revolutions are formed, after all how much crap can one take? No one with a brain revolts against liberty, but the mounting insults and transgressions of big government and its intrusive and restraining bureaucracies is enough for any freeman to scream ENOUGH! It’s the cause of tax revolts and political revolts. See 1776.

John Stossel writes about the case of Mary Baker and Ruth Neikirk, two people that share the same passions, they love to cook and they love to feed the needy. And everything was going along fine until some insidious agency called the Fairfax County health department got involved and …

That’s not safe, said the health department. What if there’s food poisoning? Hundreds of pages of regulation say that if you want to serve food to the public, you need a food-manager certificate, a ware-washing machine (with internal baffles), drain boards, ventilation-hood systems, a sink with at least three compartments, as well as a hand-washing sink, can openers with removable parts, and much more, for page after page.

I noticed one other injustice in Stossel’s article:

They’ve never stopped me from eating out of a Dumpster or a trash can,” says James, a homeless man who understands Henry Hazlitt’s “economics in one lesson,” namely, look for the secondary results of government policy. The government can close down church kitchens, but that’ll only send the poor to the garbage cans. Is that better?

This homeless man has more common sense than the health inspector, I would fire the inspector and give the homeless man his job, of which I am sure he would be more competent. Bureaucrats would never purposely harm themselves by their own regulations, but they become completely blind to the harm they inflict on others.

More keen insight from Sage James:

Some of them take their jobs just a little too seriously,” said James. “They got nothing better to do than sit around and write legislation.

Another case in point, D.W. MacKenzie writes on mise.org about Ernest Hemingway’s former home which is now a privately run museum.

Read more

Jan

19

Joiners and Thinkers

Filed Under Global, National | 2 Comments

This episode of Penn and Teller’s show is a classic.
There are far too many people who are ready to join a cause, simply because the intentions of that cause seem virtuous , but few that are willing to think things through, to look at the empirical evidence and lessons history and draw a logical conclusion as to whether their solution will in fact cause good or great harm.
For the unthinking minions, if a cause sounds good, it must be good, and that’s good enough in their own mind to make them experts on what is good and bad for everyone else.
This show was about environmental activists, but look at the other “good causes” that have been imposed by other do-gooders by political means. The war on drugs, the war on poverty, government managed healthcare, government schools, foreign aid, ect…
Certainly none of these “good causes” have resulted in curing social problems or bringing greater equality and justice, in fact most have brought on greater evils than had existed before.

Jan

17

Let Them Eat Plastic

Filed Under Buffalo, National, New York State | 3 Comments

I still remember many moons ago when it was politically correct and an accepted scientific fact that eating sticks of butter was bad for you, but eating sticks of margarine (trans fats) was good for you.
Now in our new politico-medical enlightenment, it is the trans fats that are the killers of millions. A world turned upside down.

Ryan at Throwing Stones has commented on an article in the Buffalo News about Demone A. Smith, a new common council member that has parroted the nannyist buffoons in city councils like Chicago and New York City.

Buffalo’s newest common council member has shown his intelligence parallels that of a baloney sandwich. I’m going to send him an entertainment book coupon for a buy-one-get-on-free colonoscopy.

Demone has wasted no time to find a cause to put his name in lights as a champion of the little people by way of a little fear mongering.

Buffalo restaurants would be banned from using trans fats under a law that will be proposed this week by the city’s newest Common Council member.
Eating establishments that use artificial fats are harming people’s health, Demone A. Smith of the Masten District said Tuesday as lawmakers met with a group that is lobbying for the ban.
“It’s like eating plastic,” Smith said of trans fats, which are partially hydrogenated fats.

Mike Rebmann posted his thoughts on Free New York, which are far more lucid than what comes from Demone Smith’s clogged chemical synapses.

Trans-fat bans are nothing more than a veiled attempt by politicians making it look like they are doing something worthwhile. What they are really doing is setting a very dangerous precedent that leaves us open to even more intrusive regulations. At this rate, obesity will become a crime and the fat police will be showing up at people’s front doors with arrest warrants. Even the American Heart Association opposes the ban on trans fats

I say if you want to munch on some Styrene, Styrofoam, or congressionally approved freedom fries, that’s your business. You don’t need any grub-police to tell you what to eat.
I’m completely confident in restaurateurs and food manufactures to heed the desires of the consumers as to what foods they want to buy. McDonalds has heeded consumer signals and is now offering an assortment of chicken salads as an alternative to the traditional greasy hamburgers and fries and other fare. Did they need the advise of paternalistic politicians to come up with that idea?
Let the consumers and producers in a free market decide what is edible and desirable, it’s the parasitic politicians and their special interest cronies that need to be banned.

Jan

17

Ron Paul vs. Hillary Clinton?

Filed Under National, Ron Paul | Leave a Comment

Doug at The Liberty Papers has accused Jim Ostrowski of “hubris”. I know Jim, and believe me, that isn’t the first time he’s heard that.
But maybe Jim has a point, after all who would have thought two virtual unknowns by the names of Jimmy Carter or Bill Clinton would reach the presidency. And they were both southerners too like Ron Paul. Hmm…

The Great Unknown
by James Ostrowski

I got accused of “hubris” for writing that Ron Paul is Hillary’s worst nightmare. I’m not sure that my confidence in the candidacy of another can be considered hubris but I won’t quibble over that.
[Full disclosure. I only met Ron Paul once and am not involved in his campaign in any way. I only know what I read on the web.]
Here’s my point. I warned those leaning to Bush over Kerry in 2004 that a Bush win could put Hillary in the White House for two terms. I’m sure many laughed at that line also. Now, Hillary has to be considered the clear favorite to win the Presidency. She leads the Democratic candidates in the polls and number two is Barack Obama whose entire résumé says: “very good public speaker.” That’s a very good place to be.
(By the way, I’m sure many also laughed when I predicted on December 3, 2003, that John Kerry would be the Democratic nominee.)

READ THE REST OF THE ARTICLE AT LEW ROCKWELL

Jan

15

Ayn Rand On The Welfare State

Filed Under Economics, History | 7 Comments

A young Mike Wallace interviews Ayn Rand in 1959. I’ve got to hand it to the lady, as an escaped immigrant from the Soviet Union, she knew more about American history and economics than the American interviewing her. I don’t think Wallace who seems enamored with 20th century American socialism even truly comprehended what she was explaining to him.

This is part 2 of a three part interview on You Tube.

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