". . . a republic, if you can keep it."
Protesters / Liberty Lovers:
STOP TAKING OUR MONEY!!! WE WANT FREEDOM!!!
FOX:
They said stop taking their money.* (*for anything except war, empire, bank bailouts, domestic spying, homeland security, welfare, UN, IMF, World Bank, Israel’s occupation, the Federal Reserve . . .)
ABCNNBCBS:
They hate black people, those racist, tea-bagging, wacko red-necks!!!
See Also: Protesters confront bias CNN reporter.
See Also: The so-called Right’s hypocrisy.
Ron Paul: “Some may notice that the neo-conservatives who masterminded the policy of global interventions are not complaining about the level of military and foreign spending. This is because rather than drawing down our costly interventions, Obama is largely staying the course on these issues. In fact, this week a group of leading neoconservatives met to discuss how best to support the President on foreign policy! I am disappointed and concerned that, in spite of a change in leadership, we will remain the policeman of the world, placing ourselves at grave danger in many ways.”
(Read more from campaignforliberty.com)
See Also: Caller to C-SPAN: Why Do You Keep Bringing These Neocons On?
“President Obama’s White House has tightened the cloak of government secrecy still further, saying in a letter this week that a discussion draft of the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement and related materials are ‘classified in the interest of national security pursuant to Executive Order 12958.’
Excuse me? A copyright agreement is a matter of ‘national security’? By what possible stretch of the imagination can only 10 pages of the 806-page treaty be free for citizens to read? Will the Defense Department be prosecuting copyright cases now?” (Read more from wendymcelroy.com)
Yes we can!
By Eric-Charles Banfield • February 1995
“Back when first cutting my teeth on the concepts of free-market economics, I was impressed by the argument that business firms have to satisfy their customers to survive. Firms have strong, natural disincentives against performing poorly or acting immorally because they would risk losing customers and going out of business. For some time thereafter, I defended ‘business’ on those grounds. Business is not an evil, I argued; indeed, businesses are almost ‘slaves’ to the shifting and elusive passions of the sovereign consumer.
But over the years, I found myself forced to refine my views regarding business firms. Three lessons stand out. First, being ‘pro-business’ is not the same as being ‘free-market.’ Second, regulation, which presumably works ‘against’ business, goes hand-in-hand with special privileges and artificial protections ‘for’ business. Third, the phenomenon of active and routine collusion between business and government made the business world seem less than the pure and benevolent social agent I once perceived. In short, I began to recognize that the concept of ‘the corporate welfare state’ goes a long way to describe some of the problems we observe in the complex nexus between the market sector and the government sector. All too often, businesses lobby government for special privileges they would not have in a true, free market.” (Read more from thefreemanonline.org)
The worst thing that might come from this crises is a loss of faith in free markets because of business-government collusion.
Occasionally, an AdSense advertisement (see sidebar) shows up which is completely contrary to this website. I’m banning them, one by one. That’s where I found letsactnow.org.
I’ll admit, they are acting rationally for people who believe the end of the world is nigh, but the shrill cries against hamburgers terrify me. Bad science always results in bad public policy, and good science usually results in bad public policy.
From their website:
Although upgrading appliances at home, installing solar panels on the roof, and switching to a hybrid car will surely reduce our contribution to global warming, not all of us are able to do that right away. So, what can we do? Wait for politicians to pass laws to save the planet? Hope that someone else will take care of the problem? Isn’t there something we can all do now to make a BIG difference?
“YES WE CAN! ACT NOW. TODAY”
Which do you think is more responsible for global warming: a gas-guzzling SUV, or a hamburger?
Surprise! It’s the burger! Hard to believe? A United Nations report demonstrated that raising animals for food generates more greenhouse gases than all the cars, trucks, SUVs, trains, planes and ships in the world combined. How much more? An impressive 40% more.
Hmmm. “Wait for politicians to pass laws to save the planet?” Between the appeal to government as the solver of problems, and their fear of hamburgers, I would expect complete fascism should these people ever gain power.
Pollution is best handled as a tort.
Here’s their sensationalist video:
“Your diet has a direct effect on the environment, on wildlife, on people, on water, on the weather, and on the overall health of planet Earth . . . and every time you masturbate, God kills a kitten.”
“Increased use of ethanol was responsible for about 10 to 15 percent of the rise in food prices from 2007 to 2008, but reduced greenhouse gas emissions from the transportation sector by less than 1 percent, according to a Congressional Budget Office report released this week.” (Read more from thehill.com)
Made possible by global warming hysteria?
The following is excerpted from mises.org:
Lincoln Memorial – Erected during the Progressive Era, the idea here is to entrench the perception that the consolidated state is irreversible, not only in fact but also as a matter of faith. Note that this is the “temple of democracy,” but the man is featured with his hands on the fasces.
The Vietnam Memorial – It is a rare case of a monument that isn’t designed to extol the glories of the state. Quite the opposite in fact.
Federal Trade Commission Statues – Hear a private talk about the true story behind the remarkable statues of “Man Controlling Trade.” The horse, you see, represents trade. And who trades? Well, we trade. That’s what the whole of society does, every day. Trade means that people cooperate to their mutual benefit. But look what happens. Some guy comes along and wrecks everything, stagnating progress and bullying us into not trading with each other. And this is supposed to be a great thing? From the government’s point of view, yes. Note that this statue went up in 1942, when prices were fixed, rationing was in effect, and people were being drafted as fodder for the state’s war.
Ronald Reagan Building – Everyone thinks that Ronald Reagan cut the state’s size. He is known as a champion of minimal government. But, of course, they know otherwise in the Beltway. He zoomed up the welfare and warfare state as never before, bringing boom times to the state, and it was especially impressive that he did it even while claiming to do otherwise � and being denounced for doing otherwise. In this building, we have truth telling. It is the most gargantuan monstrosity to ever visit the vast real estate of the Imperial City.
Random Congressional Subcommittee Meeting – Visitors have been known to experience severe bouts of boredom.
HUD and The Department of Labor – We visit the massive buildings that � unlike Congress, the capitol, and official seat of the government � house the institutions that are running the country on a daily basis.
Palaces of the World Bank and IMF – We visit the several palaces of the World Bank and IMF. We discuss the details of the employees’ very high and completely untaxed salaries.
Iwo Jima Memorial – Some are under the illusion that this memorial praising the United States’ offensive invasion force was a memorial for those defending the country. Fortunately the memorial brilliantly lists practically every country the US military has ever invaded, etched around the sides.
The Receptions – What never fails to make the biggest impression are the receptions. The lavish receptions are elaborate, decadent, and � most important �free to anyone with an attitude. One need never pay for a meal, and free scotch and shrimp are promptly available at 3:30 to anyone who knows where to go. This just doesn’t happen in the real world. For these events, tour members are encouraged to wear a jacket or suit and to exude the air of entitlement of a mid-level bureaucrat, party apparatchik, lobbyist, media member, think tank resident, or congressional staffer.
This brief lecture by the Mises Institute’s director of editorial affairs offers a fantastic glimpse at the long struggle for truth by economists of the Austrian School.
“But ‘without a clearer explanation’ about parts of the program, ‘it is not possible to exercise meaningful oversight over Treasury’s actions,’ said Elizabeth Warren, a Harvard Law School professor who leads a special congressional oversight panel monitoring the TARP program. Her comments came in a Senate Finance Committee hearing on the bailout program.” (Read more from mcclatchydc.com)
Of course government can’t regulate Wall Street. Instead of giving them our money, just let them fail! The best (only) way to regulate Wall Street, is to expose banks to the consequences of their irresponsibility. The irresponsible/incompetent ones go bankrupt. Instead we’ve taken money from the competent and given it to the incompetent.
“Mr. Summers, the former Treasury secretary and Harvard president who is now the chief economic adviser to President Obama, earned nearly $5.2 million in just the last of his two years at one of the world’s largest funds, according to financial records released Friday by the White House.
Impressive as that might sound, it is all the more considering that Mr. Summers worked there just one day a week.” (Read more from nytimes.com)
The crooks are in charge.
“In the face of a growing number of deaths and cases of HIV linked to drug abuse, the Portuguese government in 2001 tried a new tack to get a handle on the problem—it decriminalized the use and possession of heroin, cocaine, marijuana, LSD and other illicit street drugs. The theory: focusing on treatment and prevention instead of jailing users would decrease the number of deaths and infections.
Five years later, the number of deaths from street drug overdoses dropped from around 400 to 290 annually, and the number of new HIV cases caused by using dirty needles to inject heroin, cocaine and other illegal substances plummeted from nearly 1,400 in 2000 to about 400 in 2006, according to a report released recently by the Cato Institute.” (Read more from sciam.com)
“Joaquin ‘El Chapo’ Guzman Loera reported head of the Sinaloa cartel in Mexico, ranked 701st on Forbes’ yearly report of the wealthiest men alive, and worth an estimated $1 billion, today officially thanked United States politicians for making sure that drugs remain illegal. According to one of his closest confidants, he said, ‘I couldn’t have gotten so stinking rich without George Bush, George Bush Jr., Ronald Reagan, even El Presidente Obama, none of them have the cajones to stand up to all the big money that wants to keep this stuff illegal. From the bottom of my heart, I want to say, Gracias amigos, I owe my whole empire to you.’ According to sources in the Mexican government, President Calderon is begging American officials to, in the words of reggae great Peter Tosh, legalize it.” (Read more from huffingtonpost.com)
Excerpted from nytimes.com by mikecann.net: “And with marijuana sales central to the drug trade, Mr. Holder said he was exploring ways to lower the minimum amount required for the federal prosecution of possession cases.”
(See the Prison Population post below)
Yes we can!
