Roots of Auto Makers’ failure.. « Fait Accompli’s Blog

Good analysis.

"So, what is the root cause, you ask?"

"Like almost everything else that goes awry in the free market world… The Government!"

Roots of Auto Makers’ failure.. « Fait Accompli’s Blog

As an atheist, I truly believe Africa needs God | Matthew Parris - Times Online

Fascinating testimony.

As an atheist, I truly believe Africa needs God | Matthew Parris - Times Online

Hat tip to copswife comment on Vox Populi blog.

Vox Popoli: Zimbabwe solves the population problem

Saving Us From Snowzilla by Bryan Hyde

Bryan Hyde:

Implicit in every law, ordinance, statute, and code is a mechanism for enforcement which, taken to its logical end, allows the state or municipality to use increasing amounts of coercion up to and including lethal force, if necessary, against the non-compliant. This is worth remembering when government at any level seeks to "protect" us with official actions from "monsters" that seem to exist primarily in the minds of busybodies who are eager to use their power to control, intimidate or inconvenience citizens who dare think outside the box. Safety is fast becoming an Orwellian buzzword for justifying increased government control at all levels.

Saving Us From Snowzilla by Bryan Hyde

Thank Goodness I Live in a Free Country by Don Cooper

Well said.

Thank Goodness I Live in a Free Country by Don Cooper

You Know Chrysler is Toast Because.. « blog maverick

Calling a spade a spade.

You Know Chrysler is Toast Because.. « blog maverick

imagescalvin-20and-20hobbs.jpg (JPEG Image, 900x628 pixels) - Scaled (89%)

Good 15-year-old prediction of the 2008 economy.

imagescalvin-20and-20hobbs.jpg (JPEG Image, 900x628 pixels) - Scaled (89%)

Hat tip to Jesse Newhart on Twitter.

Twitter / JesseNewhart

Free-Market Education - Briggs Armstrong - Mises Institute

Briggs Armstrong: "illustration of one of the ways of providing excellent education without extracting funds by force"

Free-Market Education - Briggs Armstrong - Mises Institute

Habeas Corpus Barely Saved

"Where government can lock people up and throw away the key — answerable to no one at all — there liberty does not dwell."

Habeas Corpus Barely Saved

An Unacceptable Cost « Reclaim Our Heritage

Good pro-life article.

An Unacceptable Cost « Reclaim Our Heritage

The Borrow and Spend Culture | RINO Safari

All U.S. government spending bills originate in the House of Representatives.

The Borrow and Spend Culture | RINO Safari

Hoosiers file suit challenging Obama's birth status | IndyStar.com | The Indianapolis Star

Worked with Steve a few yrs ago. Seemed a decent fellow.

Hoosiers file suit challenging Obama's birth status | IndyStar.com | The Indianapolis Star

Okla. senator slams feds' spending on bike library - The Denver Post

Good cause. Bad forcing non-users to help pay for it.

Okla. senator slams feds' spending on bike library - The Denver Post

Hat tip to John Andrews on Twitter.

Twitter / JohnAndrewsJr

Liquids and Landfills

TSA logic: too dangerous to take aboard planes – but safe enough to donate to the homeless.

Liquids and Landfills

Ron Paul’s Christmas List - 10 reasons Ron Paul makes this a very Merry Christmas | America’s political Chucky.

Nothing to add. Good list.

Ron Paul’s Christmas List - 10 reasons Ron Paul makes this a very Merry Christmas | America’s political Chucky.

The al-Marri Case Affects Us All

Jacob Hornberger writes, "There is no way a society can be considered free when the government wields the power to round up its citizens, incarcerate them without trial, and even torture them. Such power is the ultimate power in any dictatorship. Such rights as freedom of speech, freedom of the press, the right to keep and bear arms, and the right to trial by jury become meaningless in the face of the power of government to simply go to your home, take you into custody, lock you up, throw away the key, and abuse you."

The al-Marri Case Affects Us All

The Austrian Economists: Why Bankruptcy Isn't the End of the World

Steve Horwitz writes:

The key point is that going into bankruptcy does not destroy the firm's capital, both physical and human. As a result, that capital can become available for a new firm, perhaps even a competitor, to purchase at a discount and use more profitably than the bankrupt firm did. In the case of the Big Three auto companies, doing things at lower cost and producing a better product would not be hard.

If they declare bankruptcy and need to liquidate assets to pay off creditors, it's quite likely that other car manufacturers (and let's remember that "The Big Three" are not all of the "US auto industry" as many other firms have plants here) would be interested in buying up their factories and perhaps even rehiring their labor, though certainly with contracts less generous than the UAW's current ones...

Well-functioning markets require that misallocated resources have opportunities to get reallocated to more valuable uses when those mistakes are revealed...

Supporters of the auto bailout could use a refresher course on all of this.

The Austrian Economists: Why Bankruptcy Isn't the End of the World

Ethics and the Holidays - Jim Fedako - Mises Institute

Jim Fedako says, "I do not mind paying for the children's holiday program, but I mind that my neighbor was forced to pay as well."

Ethics and the Holidays - Jim Fedako - Mises Institute

Why We MUST Invoke Our Individual Rights—Now, By Gen LaGreca -- George Reisman's Blog

Practical recommendations for restoring liberties.

George Reisman's Blog on Economics, Politics, Society, and Culture: Why We MUST Invoke Our Individual Rights—Now, By Gen LaGreca

Foundation for Economic Education » Bastiat and Bailout Blunders

William Anderson writes:

Indeed, the “bad” economists have advised short-sighted politicians (Dare I repeat myself?) to do the most visible things. The news cameras will show the autoworkers in Detroit going to work instead of being laid off. When Congress and the incoming presidential administration raise the minimum wage, the news cameras will record the life of a single mother who has received a raise.

The cameras, however, will not record those millions of people elsewhere who lose their jobs because resources are being diverted from productive uses to the political uses of propping up automobile companies that have been a rendition of the “living dead” for many years

Foundation for Economic Education » Bastiat and Bailout Blunders

A Bogus Libertarian Defense of War

Sheldon Richman: "war fortifies everything libertarians abhor: taxes, debt, jobbery, and violations of civil liberties such as privacy."

A Bogus Libertarian Defense of War

Economic Stimulus Amounts to Central Planning

Sheldon Richman advises, "Better to privatize the infrastructure and let the market’s “wisdom of crowds” make the decisions."

Economic Stimulus Amounts to Central Planning

Bernard Madoff: Another Regulation Success Story

"the dark little secret of government regulation: it doesn’t work."

Bernard Madoff: Another Regulation Success Story

Vox Popoli: College: the bad investment

I ask myself similar questions about ROI for college too.

Vox Popoli: College: the bad investment

Is Capitalism Ruining Christmas? - Jeffrey A. Tucker - Mises Institute

Mr. Tucker writes, "Many Christians are seriously annoyed at the way the holiday season has changed. If you are among them, you are probably already annoyed at this article, because I didn't say Christmas season."

Is Capitalism Ruining Christmas? - Jeffrey A. Tucker - Mises Institute

Miracle in the Trenches: The WWI Christmas Truce

Inspiring history.

Miracle in the Trenches: The WWI Christmas Truce

Security or Liberty: A Logical Fallacy by Jim Fedako

Jim Fedako writes:

government, left to its own devices, provides neither liberty nor security.

Consider this: How many times has someone accosted you, hand on gun, who was not an agent of the state? For me, anyway, the answer is never.

Yes, armed agents have stopped me at roadside checkpoints, but no one else, locked and loaded, has harassed me on the roads. And there is something to consider about that truth.

To believe that the more the state threatens my person, and the more that the state invades my property, the greater my security is to believe the lie central to the state. And to watch fellow countrymen harassed, only to assume that the state must have reason for its harassment is to turn backs on the very same rights expected to protect us in the end...

Liberty provides security, not government.

Security or Liberty: A Logical Fallacy by Jim Fedako

Herod’s Henchmen by Laurence M. Vance

Fiery anti-war sermon.

Herod’s Henchmen by Laurence M. Vance

The Indivisibility of Liberty by Mary Ruwart

Mary Ruwart: "Liberty is indivisible. It’s the one thing we can’t have unless we are willing to give it others. If someone tells you differently, they just don’t know how the world really works."

The Indivisibility of Liberty by Mary Ruwart

Reconsidering 'Honest Abe' - Pittsburgh Tribune-Review

Great interview.

Reconsidering 'Honest Abe' - Pittsburgh Tribune-Review

George Will : The Final Blow Against Congress - Townhall.com

George Will, "History, however, teaches that it is difficult for Congress to be only intermittently invertebrate."

George Will : The Final Blow Against Congress - Townhall.com

Campaign For Liberty — The Irrelevance of Congress

Matt Hawes excerpts George Will: legislative branch allowing itself to be eclipsed by the executive. Sorry thing to watch.

Campaign For Liberty — The Irrelevance of Congress

Congressman Ron Paul - Government and Fraud - Texas Straight Talk

Congressman Paul asks, "How can a government so complicit in mandatory public fraud effectively preempt private fraud?"

Congressman Ron Paul - Government and Fraud - Texas Straight Talk

For how much longer will the UK media and bloggers be able to freely investigate stories like the Bob Quick anti-terrorist policeman / family wedding cars business story ? - Spy Blog - S

How much longer till we'll be asking questions like this in the United States?

For how much longer will the UK media and bloggers be able to freely investigate stories like the Bob Quick anti-terrorist policeman / family wedding cars business story ? - Spy Blog - S

The Old Cause by Joseph Stromberg

Frank Chodorov, Old Right, antiwar, mostly forgotten, conservative.

The Old Cause by Joseph Stromberg

Anti-Positivist: Why I Choose Low-Quality Healthcare

Jim Fedako writes, "I do not want to be forced to conform to someone else's guidelines. I want the healthcare I desire. Call it high quality or low quality; I could not care less. Simply allow me to make my decisions — informed or ill informed — based on my evaluation of the options. Only then am I free."

Anti-Positivist: Why I Choose Low-Quality Healthcare

Captain John Birch: Wise as a Serpent, Harmless as a Dove

"Never famous in life, he became the namesake of the John Birch Society."

Captain John Birch: Wise as a Serpent, Harmless as a Dove

Did the Shoe Thrower Hate America for Its Freedom and Values?

The shoe-throwing journalist, Muntadar al-Zaidi, eloquently summed up the reason for his pent-up anger and rage by what he yelled as he threw his second shoe at Bush: “This is from the widows, the orphans, and those who were killed in Iraq!”

Did the Shoe Thrower Hate America for Its Freedom and Values?

Lee Stranahan: Hey, Ron Paul Republicans!?! It's Time For A GOP Palace Coup!

Lee Stranahan says, "The appeal of Ron Paul was his ideas, not his lovable ole' funeral director looks. So it's time for someone to grab those ideas, grab the organizational skill of herding a bunch of individualists and grab control of the damn Republican party right now..."

Lee Stranahan: Hey, Ron Paul Republicans!?! It's Time For A GOP Palace Coup!

Madoff as Metaphor - Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr. - Mises Institute

Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr. writes, "Most of us like to believe that we wouldn't have been tricked by Madoff. But are you being tricked by the elites who claim that they can conjure up a trillion dollars to stabilize our economy by clicking a few buttons on a computer screen? Most people are. Certainly the press seems to have bought it. Many people were outwitted by Madoff. Many more people are today being outwitted by the government and its central bank. And it will all end in disgrace and disaster, only on a far, far grander scale."

Madoff as Metaphor - Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr. - Mises Institute

Pastor Rick Warren's National Heresy

Paul Benedict writes, "Reverend Warren may disagree with some on the left in a political sense, but Pastor Warren's right to pray or lead prayer in a land were religious freedom is our most precious inheritance should never be impinged. President-elect Obama is correct, Reverend Warren's spirituality and his standing as person whose religious values are sincere should be off the table when it comes to inauguration politics."

Pastor Rick Warren's National Heresy

Obama Service, aka Involuntary Servitude by Chris Brown

Ron Paul: "Conscription is wrongly associated with patriotism, when it really represents collectivism and involuntary servitude."

Obama Service, aka Involuntary Servitude by Chris Brown

Buy American? Sell American! by Barry Loberfeld

Barry Loberfeld says, "If American CEOs don't consider it their patriotic duty to charge lower prices, then it's damn well not our duty to pay higher ones."

Buy American? Sell American! by Barry Loberfeld

Doomed to Collapse? | Ron Paul .com

Excellent advice to Detroit & FedGov from Ron Paul.

Doomed to Collapse? | Ron Paul .com

Frank Chodorov on authoritarianism

Not sure what happened to this post, but I was just thinking the same thoughts while reading the same page of the same book myself.

Quote of the Afternoon
October 28, 2007 – 3:54 pm by murraymises

We are... opposed to communism... no more so than we are opposed to fascism or socialism or any other form of authoritarianism... To stress the threat of communism is to divert attention from the threats of equal potency and nearer to home. We cannot help seeing in the concentration of power in our own Executive an attack on freedom; in the drive for government schooling we see the menance of collectivist indoctrination; in taxation and inflation we recognize the gradual abolition of private property… If under cover of our preoccupation with communism these threats to freedom are permitted to go unchallenged, what is accomplished? –- Frank Chodorov (early 1950s, as quoted in Brian Doherty’s Radicals for Capitalism)

Substitute the word “terrorism” for “communism” and the quote could have been written yesterday. Yes, America is progressing, but toward totalitarianism not freedom.

2007 10 28 Quote-of-the-day-5

Affording Independence

Good article on affording a non-government education.

Affording Independence «

American Thinker: Why the Mortgage Crisis Happened

American Thinker: Why the Mortgage Crisis Happened

Bailing Out Big Media

Selwyn Duke: "Will the failing newspapers be the next industry to receive our tax money?"

Bailing Out Big Media

The Bailout State

Sheldon Richman: Bailouts are the government’s way of violating consumer sovereignty and wasting scarce resources.

The Bailout State

The Real Auto Bailout: A Six Point Plan for Regulatory Relief | OpenMarket.org

Excellent recommendations.

The Real Auto Bailout: A Six Point Plan for Regulatory Relief | OpenMarket.org

Democracy, American-Style

Jacob G. Hornberger writes:

American schoolchildren are receiving some valuable lessons in democracy, American-style...

After all, bribery is the name of the game in U.S. politics. It’s just that we don’t call it that for the sake of appearance and respectability...

How then does the president bail out auto companies when the U.S. Senate has refused to approve the deal? Isn’t that what dictatorship is all about?
...
The Fed takes the position that such secrecy is essential to its operations. The taxpayers, whose money is being used to make such loans, will just have to trust their appointed officials at the Fed. But hey, isn’t that type of secrecy found in communist and other totalitarian regimes?
...
Bush took the position that he could sign the agreement on his own, without the approval of Congress. Isn’t that a strange way for democracy to operate? Doesn’t it seem more akin to dictatorship?
...
Otto von Bismarck once said, “Laws are like sausages, it is better not to see them being made.” The same holds true for politicians and bureaucrats in the U.S. and the dictatorial actions they take.

Democracy, American-Style

Is there a "Bailout Clause" in the U.S. Constitution???

Excellent commentary on bailouts versus bankruptcy.

Is there a "Bailout Clause" in the U.S. Constitution???

Enemy Combatants and Freedom of Speech

Jacob Hornberger writes, "The power to take people people into custody as suspected terrorists, cart them away to some prison camp or dungeon, torture or sexually abuse them, incarcerate them without trial for the rest of their lives, and perhaps even execute them is the most tyrannical power of all. Freedom of speech and other fundamental rights are worthless in the face of such power. As Americans slowly come to that realization, the tendency will be for them to shut their mouths and, even worse, close their minds."

Enemy Combatants and Freedom of Speech

Pro Libertate: "Question 46," Revisited

William Grigg asks, "How many of them would be willing to shoot Americans in order to confiscate their guns if ordered to do so?"

Pro Libertate: "Question 46," Revisited

William Graham Sumner - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

William Graham Sumner, 1840-1910, champion of liberty.

William Graham Sumner - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Forgotten Man - William Graham Sumner - Mises Institute

Excellent (non-politically-correct) ideas here. William Graham Sumner, 1883, writes:

There is an almost invincible prejudice that a man who gives a dollar to a beggar is generous and kind-hearted, but that a man who refuses the beggar and puts the dollar in a savings bank is stingy and mean. The former is putting capital where it is very sure to be wasted, and where it will be a kind of seed for a long succession of future dollars, which must be wasted to ward off a greater strain on the sympathies than would have been occasioned by a refusal in the first place. Inasmuch as the dollar might have been turned into capital and given to a laborer who, while earning it, would have reproduced it, it must be regarded as taken from the latter...

There always are two parties. The second one is always the Forgotten Man, and any one who wants to truly understand the matter in question must go and search for the Forgotten Man. He will be found to be worthy, industrious, independent, and self-supporting. He is not, technically, "poor" or "weak"; he minds his own business, and makes no complaint. Consequently the philanthropists never think of him, and trample on him...

For our present purpose it is most important to notice that if we lift any man up we must have a fulcrum, or point of reaction. In society that means that to lift one man up we push another down. The schemes for improving the condition of the working classes interfere in the competition of workmen with each other. The beneficiaries are selected by favoritism, and are apt to be those who have recommended themselves to the friends of humanity by language or conduct which does not betoken independence and energy. Those who suffer a corresponding depression by the interference are the independent and self-reliant, who once more are forgotten or passed over; and the friends of humanity once more appear, in their zeal to help somebody, to be trampling on those who are trying to help themselves...

A trade union raises wages by restricting the number of apprentices who may be taken into the trade. This device acts directly on the supply of laborers, and that produces effects on wages. If, however, the number of apprentices is limited, some are kept out who want to get in. Those who are in have, therefore, made a monopoly, and constituted themselves a privileged class on a basis exactly analogous to that of the old privileged aristocracies. But whatever is gained by this arrangement for those who are in is won at a greater loss to those who are kept out...

Almost all legislative effort to prevent vice is really protective of vice, because all such legislation saves the vicious man from the penalty of his vice. Nature's remedies against vice are terrible. She removes the victims without pity. A drunkard in the gutter is just where he ought to be, according to the fitness and tendency of things. Nature has set up on him the process of decline and dissolution by which she removes things which have survived their usefulness. Gambling and other less mentionable vices carry their own penalties with them.

Now, we never can annihilate a penalty. We can only divert it from the head of the man who has incurred it to the heads of others who have not incurred it. A vast amount of "social reform" consists in just this operation. The consequence is that those who have gone astray, being relieved from Nature's fierce discipline, go on to worse, and that there is a constantly heavier burden for the others to bear...

The industrious and sober workman, who is mulcted of a percentage of his day's wages to pay the policeman, is the one who bears the penalty. But he is the Forgotten Man. He passes by and is never noticed, because he has behaved himself, fulfilled his contracts, and asked for nothing...

The Forgotten Man - William Graham Sumner - Mises Institute

Pro Libertate: Flying Shoes, Bursting Bubbles

Excellent observations from William Norman Grigg.

Judge Richard Sanders: "... we must speak our conscience in moments that demand it, even if we are but one voice."

Or, for that matter, if we have only one set of shoes to hurl at the Emperor.

Policymakers, from the Dear Leader on down, are hermetically sealed off from dissent of any kind. On those rare occasions when frustration and moral outrage find a fissure in that bubble and the serenity of a political celebrity is disturbed, the result is usually a prominent display of some kind of corrective violence directed at the dissident.

Because he's a sitting judge, Sanders won't be punished in any way for his eruption. A private citizen almost certainly would face some kind of reprisal: That, after all, is what Tasers are for.

Pro Libertate: Flying Shoes, Bursting Bubbles

Campaign For Liberty — "Hamilton's Counterfeit Capitalism"

Good perspective on Alexander Hamilton.

Campaign For Liberty — "Hamilton's Counterfeit Capitalism"

Congressman Ron Paul - Economic Freedom or Socialist Intervention? - Texas Straight Talk

Ron Paul reminds us, "It is not the job of government to sustain business. The government should get out of the way..."

Congressman Ron Paul - Economic Freedom or Socialist Intervention? - Texas Straight Talk

The Practicality of Libertarianism

Jacob Hornberger explains why libertarianism is an eminently practical philosophy.

The Practicality of Libertarianism

The war on drugs is a war on common sense - Just Say No ... More - Views - Jack Hunter - Charleston City Paper - Charleston

Jack Hunter writes, "In my own experience, I don't think I've ever had a conversation with a police officer who actually believes the war on drugs is sensible or successful on any level. It's a waste of time for law enforcement, a waste of money for the taxpayer, and a waste of dignity, reputation, and possibly freedom by those who choose to use a drug that arguably is no worse than alcohol."

The war on drugs is a war on common sense - Just Say No ... More - Views - Jack Hunter - Charleston City Paper - Charleston

Daniel-in-the-Den: Liberalism is a Mental Illness

Eric Daniel Brown writes, "It is worth getting upset when someone abuses their own animals. But it just seems like the level of outrage is vastly disproportional to the deafening silence and inaction to stop the murdering of unborn human beings."

Daniel-in-the-Den: Liberalism is a Mental Illness

AFP: Bush says sacrificed free-market principles to save economy

Very sad legacy for Bush.

"I've abandoned free-market principles to save the free-market system," Bush told CNN television, saying he had made the decision "to make sure the economy doesn't collapse."

AFP: Bush says sacrificed free-market principles to save economy

Freedom Communications, Inc. - History

Interesting biography of libertarian newspaper publisher Raymond Cyrus (R.C.) Hoiles.

First heard of him today in "Radicals for Capitalism" by Brian Doherty.

Freedom Communications, Inc. - History

Disloyal Opposition: Cops still don't dig cameras

I agree with J.D. Tuccille, "Arresting people for recording the police is ridiculous and contemptible. Law-enforcement officers, drawing tax-funded paychecks, wearing officially issued uniforms, and wielding vast powers that can be (and have been) misused against the public, should be subject to recording at all times, for the safety of the public. Officers unwilling to have their actions preserved in video and audio form probably ought not be carrying guns and badges."

Disloyal Opposition: Cops still don't dig cameras

Who's Losing the U.S. Car Business? - TCS Daily

Larry Kudlow writes:

You have to ask this question: If the Detroit carmakers are in dire straits, going broke in two weeks, right now in late 2008, how can the UAW wait until 2011 to make its concessions? The financial problem is today, not two years from today. The threat of liquidation, with perhaps a few million autoworker, supplier, and car-dealer jobs lost, is today's threat, not a 2011 threat. So what's the UAW waiting for?

That's easy. Gettelfinger is waiting for President Obama and a Senate with 58 Democrats. He also was playing a game of bluff with President George W. Bush. He knew Bush had $15 billion of TARP money ready to go, meaning the TARP was Gettelfinger's trump card. The tough-minded union leader never believed the White House would let GM sink and possibly force millions of job losses in the middle of a recession.

So while Sen. Corker was negotiating in good faith (even with the support of Democratic big-wig Chris Dodd), Gettelfinger doomed the deal, knowing full well that the Democratic Senate conference would never walk away from the UAW.

Who's Losing the U.S. Car Business? - TCS Daily

Don't Cave! by Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr.

Lew Rockwell writes:

You don't have to be a technician to know that foreign makers – whether building abroad or residing in the United States – make a superior car at a better price, no matter how much the "Big 3" waste on hopped-up advertising campaigns. In fact, we should welcome their complete bankruptcy. Maybe they can regroup or maybe they can't. That's for the market to decide.

In the meantime, not cranking out these endless cars would be a welcome relief, freeing up labor and capital for more economically useful purposes.

To bail them out with tax dollars is an amazing insult to American consumers. What Americans have chosen not to buy, the government is now effectively forcing them to buy. You want a Toyota and paid for it with your money but your government is now saying that you should have bought a Pontiac, so it is tapping into your bank account to make it happen – and then not even giving you a car for your money!

Don't Cave! by Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr.

HoosierAccess » Blog Archive » Looks Like We Have Our Work Cut Out For Us

What a telling map of the political landscape, 18-to-29-years-old demographic.

HoosierAccess » Blog Archive » Looks Like We Have Our Work Cut Out For Us

Campaign For Liberty — Jim Rogers: Most U.S. big banks bankrupt

"What is outrageous economically and is outrageous morally is that normally in times like this, people who are competent and who saw it coming and who kept their powder dry go and take over the assets from the incompetent," he said. "What's happening this time is that the government is taking the assets from the competent people and giving them to the incompetent people and saying, now you can compete with the competent people. It is horrible economics."

Campaign For Liberty — Jim Rogers: Most U.S. big banks bankrupt

The Austrian Economists: Crisis? What Crisis?

Steve Horwitz says, "If the crisis really isn't there, then these bailouts look more and more like early Christmas for lots of folks."

The Austrian Economists: Crisis? What Crisis?

How Ron Paul Wins in 2012: Step One « Doug Wead The Blog

Hope this works. Sure would be good for the country.

How Ron Paul Wins in 2012: Step One « Doug Wead The Blog

Pro Libertate: Leviathan Devours a Family

Excellent and thought-provoking commentary from William Norman Grigg on the tragic loss of four civilian lives in the crash of a crippled military aircraft.

The pilot’s value is a product of his humanity, not a function of the job he has chosen or the clothing he wears to work. The same can be said of Yoon’s wife, Yong Mi; his daughters, 15-month-old Grace and 2-month-old Rachel; and his mother-in-law, Suk Im Kim. Each of them was a treasure of incalculable worth...

None of these individual human lives should have ended on that morning. But if one couldn’t be spared, it was the moral duty of the pilot to sacrifice his own – assuming, of course, that there is a coherent moral code underlying the institutions of American militarism...

This lieutenant thus confronted that rarest of things, an opportunity for a member of the US Armed Forces actually to defend the lives of American civilians. In this case, he could have done so by turning around and attempting to make it back to the Abraham Lincoln, rather than flying over a heavily populated area aboard a stricken fighter jet...

Had he done so, he may have had to ditch his plane in the ocean and dying at sea. But he would have protected the civilian population, which is supposedly the reason our government has a military in the first place...

I do not mean to suggest that I wish this young man had died... I am underscoring the fact that it would be ethically perverse to suggest that the proper course of action was to sacrifice the lives of four civilians in order to save the life of a Marine...

I am very concerned, however, that Yoon’s generous gesture will help fortify an already widespread, and thoroughly pernicious, assumption – namely, that those wearing government-issued uniforms are more valuable than the population at large, and should be protected at the cost of civilian lives...

The only morally sound answer to this predicament is that the military officer must sacrifice himself on behalf of the civilian. That, after all, is what he was trained to do, what he had promised when he enlisted. To do otherwise would be to nullify the entire stated purpose of having a military establishment in the first place. Any other conclusion would be based on the assumption that the civilian population exists to defend the military, rather than the reverse...

Rather than forcing civilians to sacrifice their lives for the military, conscription forces civilians to surrender their lives to protect the State and those who control it...

Although we’re rarely told that our rulers assume we exist to protect them and serve their needs, that assumption is infused into the warp and weave of the Regime...

The unadorned truth, however, is that Yoon's family was taken from him needlessly, killed as collateral damage in the routine operations of the Leviathan State.

Pro Libertate: Leviathan Devours a Family

Cargo Cult Economics by David Calderwood

David Calderwood writes, "When I go to the store to buy something with money, the only reason I have money to spend is because someone paid me to produce what it is I do at work. My job lasts only so long as I produce in value for my employer more than I cost to employ, and my job’s security exists only so long as my employer’s production is profitable."

Cargo Cult Economics by David Calderwood

Campaign For Liberty — House Approves Automaker Bailout: 237-170

I just e-mailed my Senators (Lugar and Bayh) asking them to support a filibuster.

I am opposed to the government trying to exempt certain businesses from the natural regulation of the free market.

Campaign For Liberty — House Approves Automaker Bailout: 237-170

Congressman Ron Paul - Gun Control: Protecting Terrorists and Despots - Texas Straight Talk

Ron Paul writes, "Gun control advocates tell us that removing guns from society makes us safer. If that were the case why do the worst shootings happen in gun free zones...? It bears repeating that an armed society truly is a polite society... Gun control makes violence safer and more effective for the aggressive, whether the aggressor is a terrorist or a government... if a government is going to kill its own people, it MUST disarm them first so they cannot fight back. Disarmament must happen at a time when overall trust in government is high, and under the guise of safety for the people, or perhaps the children... In our own country, we should be ever vigilant against any attempts to disarm the people, especially in this economic downturn... Your safety has always, ultimately been your own responsibility, but never more so than now. People have a natural right to defend themselves. Governments that take that away from their people should be highly suspect."

Congressman Ron Paul - Gun Control: Protecting Terrorists and Despots - Texas Straight Talk

AbolishTheFederalReserve.com » Change.org Censoring ALL Ideas Related to Ending the Federal Reserve

"Yesterday I posted an “Idea” to Change.org in an attempt to promote the issue of ending the Federal Reserve System. There were already about 5 other similar proposals, some with almost 100 votes, but I posted mine anyway. Today, ALL of those Ideas are gone."

AbolishTheFederalReserve.com » Change.org Censoring ALL Ideas Related to Ending the Federal Reserve

Swat Team conducts food raid in rural Ohio

Very scary. Our public "servants" out of control.

"The search warrant is reportedly suspicious-looking. Agents began rifling through all of the family’s possessions, a task that lasted hours and resulted in a complete upheaval of every private area in the home. Many items were taken that were not listed on the search warrant. The family was not permitted a phone call, and they were not told what crime they were being charged with. They were not read their rights. Over ten thousand dollars worth of food was taken, including the family’s personal stock of food for the coming year. All of their computers, and all of their cell phones were taken, as well as phone and contact records. The food cooperative was virtually shut down. There was no rational explanation, nor justification, for this extreme violation of Constitutional rights."

Swat Team conducts food raid in rural Ohio

Trust In the GOP? by Butler Shaffer

Butler Shaffer writes:

There is no mention, however, of the one essential ingredient to the Paul phenomenon that is missing in the Trust's memo: the commitment to consistent philosophic principles that united so many behind Ron's campaign...

Where were these concerned "Trustees" when their GOP president, George W. Bush, was engaging in wars that put billions of dollars into the pockets of their corporate friends, and led this same president to state, to members of Congress, that he would declare martial law if they did not pass legislation bestowing hundreds of billions of dollars of largesse upon Wall Street banking interests? Is the GOP so hopelessly bankrupt that some of its members must resort to a distinction without meaning that condemns state socialism while ignoring its own contributions to the state-sponsored economic destruction emanating from a Republican White House?
...

Ron Paul’s success has been due to a growing awareness – particularly among young adults – of the fundamental distinction between the "free market" and the "business system."
...

Members of the next generation – those capable of and having an incentive to do the math – have figured out that the present system will prove a disaster for them. With a population of approximately 300,000,000, the anticipated $7,600,000,000,000 corporate bailout will, by itself, cost a family of four some $100,000...

As the last eight years have confirmed, conservatism in general, and the Republican Party in particular, have long been morally, spiritually, and intellectually bankrupt...

For more years than I can recount, we have long had a one-party system in America, disguised in the form of two branches that owe their allegiances to the country’s corporate owners, and who espouse minor variations on the same establishment-serving themes...

James Wolcott: "To stop being conned, stop conning yourself."

Trust In the GOP? by Butler Shaffer

Obama: School Choice for Me, But Not for Thee -- Liberator Online - December 5, 2008

Cato Institute's Andrew J. Coulson has pointed out that Washington's failing and downright dangerous government schools, among the very worst in America, spent about $25,000 per child in the 2007-08 school year -- enough to buy a Sidwell-type education for every kid.

Liberator Online - December 5, 2008

WendyMcElroy.com: Will the American military fire on American citizens?

Wendy McElroy writes, "I believe the federal government is anticipating a drastic deterioration of the economy and, so, civil society. When average Americans become angry or hungry enough, the main question I raise may cease to be a theoretical one: will the American military fire on American citizens?"

WendyMcElroy.com: Will the American military fire on American citizens?

Milwaukee’s Monetary policy « Leaning Right

Good vintage video of Ron Paul with dark hair. I like the idea of breaking the idea of the government monopoly on the money supply.

Milwaukee’s Monetary policy « Leaning Right

10 Reasons I Don’t Like Most Christians | TonyMorganLive.com

Convicting thoughts for Christians.

10 Reasons I Don’t Like Most Christians | TonyMorganLive.com

Depression Deceptions - by Rev. James Winsor

The Rev. James Winsor writes, "Depression does that to and for you. It leaves you with nothing to hang onto, but Jesus. When you're depressed, you can't find anything inside to place hope in. All that exists is darkness and emptiness. You come to find your hope in something outside of you: Christ and His cross and pardon. That's not a detour from the Christian life. That is the Christian life, God has you right where He wants you."

Depression Deceptions - by Rev. James Winsor

Russia and Georgia: Ron Paul is right again « Doug Wead The Blog

Doug Wead writes, "And the point that Congressman Ron Paul is making is sound. American involvement in these conflicts does not make us safer. It not only makes the world more dangerous, it makes us hated by millions of new people who might have been our friends. And it is all costing us billions of dollars which we are borrowing from China."

Russia and Georgia: Ron Paul is right again « Doug Wead The Blog

Congressman Ron Paul - The Neo-Alchemy of the Federal Reserve - Texas Straight Talk

Congressman Ron Paul writes, "The updated total bailout commitments add up to over $8 trillion now. This translates into a monetary base increase of 75 percent over the last two months. This money does not come from some rainy day fund tucked away in the budget somewhere – it is created from thin air, and devalues every dollar in circulation. Dumping money on an economy, as they have been doing, is not the same as dumping wealth. In fact, it has quite the opposite effect."

Congressman Ron Paul - The Neo-Alchemy of the Federal Reserve - Texas Straight Talk

Thomas Sowell : Freedom and the Left - Townhall.com

Excellent comments from Thomas Sowell.

Most people on the left are not opposed to freedom. They are just in favor of all sorts of things that are incompatible with freedom...

Freedom ultimately means the right of other people to do things that you do not approve of...

The arrogance of commandeering young people's time, instead of leaving them and their parents free to decide for themselves how to use that time, is exceeded only by the arrogance of imposing your own notions as to what is or is not a service to the community...

You can make anything an "entitlement" for individuals and groups but nothing is an entitlement for society as a whole, not even food or shelter, both of which have to be produced by somebody's work or they will not exist...

What "entitlements" for some people mean is forcing other people to work for their benefit. As a bumper sticker put it: "Work harder. Millions of people on welfare are depending on you."
...

The most fundamental question is: What in the world qualifies teachers and members of college admissions committees to define what is good for society as a whole, or even for the students on whom they impose their arbitrary notions? What expertise do they have that justifies overriding other people's freedom?
...

What lessons do students get from this, except submission to arbitrary power?
...

In other words, people on the left want the right to impose their idea of what is good for society on others-- a right that they vehemently deny to those whose idea of what is good for society differs from their own.

The essence of bigotry is refusing to others the rights that you demand for yourself. Such bigotry is inherently incompatible with freedom, even though many on the left would be shocked to be considered opposed to freedom.

Thomas Sowell : Freedom and the Left - Townhall.com

How Can You Love a Country?

Sheldon Richman offers some great food for thought.

For better or worse, a country is in large part its government. Thus for most people, loving one’s country means, among other things, feeling a sense of loyalty to and even reverence for its government. That doesn’t mean that people never criticize “their” government. But for the person who thinks of himself as patriotic, the criticism never reaches down to the core; it’s usually directed at specific politicians...

In the United States, the idea of self-government is reinforced by state schooling and the news media, which plant the message that if one doesn’t like the government, one has only oneself to blame...

Yet the word “patriotism” doesn’t really get at what underlies the suspicion we’ve seen expressed. “Nationalism” better captures the phenomenon, because it connotes something like a religious attitude toward the nation, as though it were a transcendent mystical entity, an object of worship, with the government its material representative. That explains why the flag is treated as something sacred. Why else would people force their kids to pledge allegiance to it (with a Nazi-style salute in the early 20th century), fear its touching the ground, or want a constitutional amendment forbidding the burning of it?
...
This highlights one of the contradictions in conservatism. Most conservatives pay lip service to free people, free markets, and small government while simultaneously singing the praises of government activism in foreign policy...

An earlier generation of conservatives, who really were skeptical of state power, opposed foreign intervention...

For the current crop of conservatives, nothing provides the opportunity for “America” to show its greatness and leadership as do foreign policy and, most especially, war. In reality, what they actually provide is an opportunity for self-serving, ambitious presidents to create legacies and funnel citizens’ wealth to government contractors — Eisenhower’s military-industrial complex...

Worship of the nation and its government is in fact inconsistent with America’s founding ideals. Thomas Jefferson said the appropriate attitude of a free people toward the government is “jealousy” not “confidence,” much less adoration. He spoke of the need to keep it caged. He was right, but if he were around today, conservatives might accuse him of not loving his country. Stripped of its incidental characteristics, government is nothing but physical force. So government, even under the best of circumstances, must always be eyed with suspicion. No Jeffersonian can be comfortable with government activism in foreign affairs. Appeals to security are to be met with high skepticism, for it’s too easy a cover for political intrigue...

That conservatives relish almost any foreign activism shows how un-Jeffersonian they are. They are nationalists and state-worshipers. For them, to love America is to love the government...

There certainly are things about America to love. The philosophy expressed in the Declaration of Independence tops the list... Any dedication to liberty and resistance to tyranny are worthy of admiration...

But for that very reason, so much about “America” deserves not love or pride but contempt. From the start, people in power have sought to nullify the ideals that distinguished America from other countries. The record of U.S. interventionist foreign policy, which has required coercion of the American people and others, is a record of shame. American presidents have supported and even installed dictators to advance the U.S. government’s imperial agenda. Their military policy has regarded civilian lives as expendable in the pursuit of an international regime amenable to the American ruling elite’s mercantile interests. Of course, that was justified as spreading freedom and democracy, a charade that fooled far more Americans than foreigners...

Capitalism in practice has meant a system of mercantilist privilege for wealthy interests, with harmful consequences at home and abroad. That is not something to be proud of. It is something to be condemned...

To neutralize dissent, the government and its “private sector” clients have inculcated an ethic extolling “service to our country,” especially military “service.” We are asked to believe that every American soldier sent to intervene in a foreign land was “defending our freedom.” A largely uncritical populace accepts this view, and even when people grow tired of a military operation, they rarely entertain the thought that the politicians and military personnel responsible for it are guilty of crimes...

Insisting on the alleged virtue of loving one’s country mainly serves to give those in power a blank check. The alternative, though, is not to hate one’s country, for that would merely be the other side of the same fallacy. A country per se should be an object neither of love nor of hatred.

How Can You Love a Country?

Is Ron Paul too old to run for president? « Doug Wead The Blog

Doug Wead writes, "Age is not the problem. Getting the issues right and having the courage to take a stand is the problem. And Ron Paul has proven to be up to both."

Is Ron Paul too old to run for president? « Doug Wead The Blog

Ron Paul for President in 2012 « Doug Wead The Blog

Doug Wead writes, "Ron Paul’s arguments were breathtaking. He was reading the collective minds of millions and saying publicly what they were barely able to admit to themselves, let alone to a spouse or a friend. It came as relief to find that these instinctive feelings, these unconscious worries, rested on a bedrock of principle that someone had been tending and fussing over for years."

Ron Paul for President in 2012 « Doug Wead The Blog

Congressman Ron Paul - The Bailout Surge - Texas Straight Talk

Congressman Ron Paul reminds us, "We must remember that governments do not produce anything. Their only resources come from producers in the economy through such means as inflation and taxation. The government has an obligation to be good stewards of these resources. In bailing out failing companies, they are confiscating money from productive members of the economy and giving it to failing ones. By sustaining companies with obsolete or unsustainable business models, the government prevents their resources from being liquidated and made available to other companies that can put them to better, more productive use."

Congressman Ron Paul - The Bailout Surge - Texas Straight Talk

HOW TO: Build Community on Twitter

Very good tips here for those (like me) new to Twitter.

HOW TO: Build Community on Twitter

Rod Dreher: Ron Paul, if only we listened | News for Dallas, Texas | Dallas Morning News | Columnists: Rod Dreher

Excellent!

Rod Dreher writes, "Lord knows there was no Republican in the 2008 campaign who talked straighter... Ron Paul, who has always stood against U.S. imperial overreach, was right about the Iraq war. And that's not the only thing he saw that most Republicans did not... But the truth is, if U.S. economic policy looked a lot more like Ron Paul's ideal than what we've had these past decades, the nation wouldn't be tottering on the financial abyss... The same GOP establishment that mocked and reviled Dr. Paul now lies shattered. Who believes in this Republican Party anymore? The party destroyed itself with its own unprincipled recklessness, both in foreign and fiscal policy. And it has ruined its reputation among the young – the most ardent of Dr. Paul's supporters..."

Rod Dreher: Ron Paul, if only we listened | News for Dallas, Texas | Dallas Morning News | Columnists: Rod Dreher

If It’s Not Paid For, It’s Not Yours | The Sundries Shack

Jimmie writes, "Those homes are not “their” homes. They belong to whomever holds the mortgage. The people who live in those homes only do so because they continue to fulfill the contract the made with the mortgage holder. Once they default on that contract, the owner of the home can claim it back... When you buy on time, what you have isn’t your until you pay for it. Thsoe who are having mortgage problems right now haven’t paid for their homes, thus the homes are not “theirs”. Anyone who says otherwise is playing political games with you and wants to drum up sympathy for those who got into foolish mortgages. They’re not necessarily acting in your best interest."

If It’s Not Paid For, It’s Not Yours | The Sundries Shack

The Force Is With Us - Mises Economics Blog

The free market at work. "What consumers need to spend is a solid inducement, one that coordinates financial responsibility with their material needs. And the retailers are there to provide it. Thus are prices being chopped from one end of the country to the other."

The Force Is With Us - Mises Economics Blog

Pledge of Allegiance: Patriotic ritual or loyalty oath? | ScrippsNews

Ran in our paper today. I think Mr. Crisp raises some good questions.

Pledge of Allegiance: Patriotic ritual or loyalty oath? | ScrippsNews

Militarizing the homeland « Leaning Right

Leaning Right Blog says, "The reason that we do not traditionally have the US Military walking the streets and writing speeding tickets is because of a law passed after reconstruction, called the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878. The law generally prohibits the military from interfering in public matters and was enacted as a result of military occupation of the South following the Civil War. Today, it prevents a KGB or Gestapo like force from emerging in this country."

Militarizing the homeland « Leaning Right

Learning for Liberty by Thomas E. Woods, Jr.

What a bibliography!

Learning for Liberty by Thomas E. Woods, Jr.

Don't go to business school

Interesting proposal from Seth Godin.

"I's simple: if it were easy to change, people would do it. It's the pushing and the coaching and the daily expectations that help the change occur."

Don't go to business school

Hat tip to James Dickey for the tweet.

Twitter / jamesdickey

Why Are Wages Low in Developing Countries? - Art Carden - Mises Institute

Art Carden explains why wages are low in developing countries.

[I]t stands to reason that if workers in developing countries are underpaid and exploited, a profit-seeking businessperson would be able to reap immediate profits by hiring the workers away from their current occupations and re-employing them elsewhere.

If people pass on the opportunity, Caplan argues, then they implicitly accept the tragic-but-nonetheless-real fact that workers in very poor countries simply are not very productive. Low wages, then, are not the product of exploitative multinational corporations but of extremely low productivity...

[T]he textile sweatshops derided by rich westerners offer higher wages and better working conditions than the alternatives in very poor countries. People in developing countries need more sweatshops rather than fewer.

Regulation also will not change the productivity of very poor workers...

Can companies "afford to pay more?" Again, the answer is no. Firms might be able to pay above-market wages in the short run... In the short run, we can improve standards of living for some people. In the long run, this illusory prosperity comes at the cost of increasing future poverty...

The idea that expanding and integrating the global marketplace exploits the poor is a myth that causes avoidable misery. Protesting and trying to slow the advance of international capitalism is not the solution. Encouraging the development of institutions in which the world's poor can increase their productivity is.

Why Are Wages Low in Developing Countries? - Art Carden - Mises Institute

Taki's Magazine: The Decline and Rise of the Alternative Right

Paul Gottfried writes, "My repugnance for their shallow ideas and grubby personalities has always been mixed with deep admiration for how they stick together like a band of brothers. It is this side of neoconservative history that we must keep in mind and imitate if we intend to climb out of the oblivion into which they have cast us. Our enemies may be vulgar but they are surely not fools. And their indubitable successes have much to teach anyone who hopes to supplant them—ultimately to do to them what they have done to us."

Taki's Magazine: The Decline and Rise of the Alternative Right

The Free Liberal: Fear of Falling

Paul Jacobs writes, "So remember: Propping up prices in the past didn’t work. They won’t work now with housing."

The Free Liberal: Fear of Falling