There’s no such thing as a free lunch.
Milton Friedman
[One would think that those people who advocated for the “stimulus package” would have heard of this bit of wisdom before. Some will say overlooking Friedman can be blamed on deficiencies in our public school system. Others will claim many of those pushing the stimulus package know exactly what they are doing — creating a socialist America. I think it is likely they are both correct in their claims.–Joe]
Because the Senate told them they are going to have to abide by the Second Amendment the D.C. City Council now wants the district to become a state. Do they think that will change things? Just because Alabama and Mississippi are states doesn’t mean they can disregard the 13th Amendment.
“That was uplifting.” That was what Barb said after I read this to her:
President Barack Obama has set his course for battle with America’s powerful interest groups over his ambitious, some say radical, spending blueprint that aims to remodel American society.
Even as he has rammed through emergency economic spending that easily could top $1 trillion, Obama has asked Congress to adopt a budget that is ripe with programs to improve the lot of lower- and middle-income Americans at the expense of the wealthy and the farming and industrial complexes under their control.
…
On the budget plan Obama presented on Thursday, the president said it would help millions of people but only if Congress overcomes stiff resistance from well-financed lobbies.
“I know these steps won’t sit well with the special interests and lobbyists who are invested in the old way of doing business, and I know they’re gearing up for a fight,” Obama said Saturday in his weekly radio and video address. “My message to them is this: So am I.”
Under the president’s proposal, America’s wealthiest 5 percent would pay a whopping $1 trillion in higher taxes over the next decade, while most others would get tax cuts. Industries would buy and trade permits to emit heat-trapping gases. Higher-income older people would pay more for government health insurance benefits. Drug companies would receive smaller profits from the government. Banks would play a much smaller role in student loans.
We are living in interesting times.
Sleep well and have a nice day.
Mike Brown is the Idaho Sport Shooting Alliance lobbyist in Boise and he announced, as did the Apex of The Triangle of Death (info on the Triangle of Death), the good guys advanced another few yards in the battle for gun owner rights.
If that passes and is signed by the Governor it will ease some of my Boomershoot worries.
I think contraception is disgusting — people using each other for pleasure.
Joseph Scheidler
Director, Pro-Life Action League
August 11, 1985
Chicago Tribune,
[See also other “interesting” quotes that give credence to The Handmaid’s Tale view of politics.–Joe]
You can’t underestimate the power of fear.
Trica Nixon
[I was inspired to post this one after reading Jeff’s post and this line in particular, “If hoplophobe describes a fear of guns, what’s the Latin word for fear of pro-gun voters?”–Joe]
How would you deal with someone that got everything exactly backward? When they want the car to stop they step on the accelerator and when they want to go they step on the brake. Instead of washing their hands before meals they soil them in the most foul manner possible. They put water on the campfire that is keeping them warm and they put gasoline on the Christmas tree fire in their living room.
I would have to conclude they are insane. And unless there are some sort of drugs or therapy available for their condition they should be locked up for the protection of themselves and others.
But that’s doesn’t appear to be an option in this case where the political leaders of D.C. are demanding Congress commit an unconstitutional law and object to the a law that brings them in line with the constitution on another matter:
D.C. Mayor Adrian M. Fenty (D) and D.C. Council members disagree with that conclusion. They furiously protested the firearms amendment.
“The District of Columbia leadership is fully united in its opposition to unwarranted amendments that would dramatically damage the District’s carefully revised gun law and expose the District to great harm through the undoing of its laws,” D.C. Council President Vincent C. Gray and Council Member Phil Mendelson, chairman of the council’s public-safety commission, said in a letter to Congress released yesterday.
In a statement after the Senate’s vote, Ilir Zherka, executive director of D.C. Vote, a lobbying group, said the city has passed a “significant hurdle in our fight for full democracy for DC residents.”
But he added of the gun amendment: “If anything, this amendment has strengthened our resolve to continue to fight for the rights of Washingtonians. Congress repeatedly treats the District as a testing ground for flawed, dangerous legislation. This has to stop – and we’ll keep fighting to ensure that the bill signed into law is not tainted by this amendment.”
Earlier this month I asked if anyone had questions for Patrick Leahy when he came to speak to people at Microsoft. I then live blogged about his appearance.
Early next month Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal will be speaking to a group I plan to be a part of.
Any questions you want asked? This is assuming I’m aggressive enough to get my question(s) presented.
Background on Governor Jindal:
See also Say Uncle’s comments about him as well as Tam’s.
Update: After thinking about it while I was taking a shower if I were fairly certain he would get the reference to both books I would be inclined to ask Tam’s question:
Why does the GOP insist on offering me The Handmaid’s Tale as its cheery alternative to the Democrat’s promise of 1984?
Update2: This post is being attacked via spammers every few minutes. I’m turning off comments for now. Send me an email if you want to make a comment and I’ll post it for you.
Update3: The meeting has been canceled for now:
We received word this weekend that President Obama is travelling to Louisiana on March 5th – to meet with Gov. Jindal and tour Katrina recovery efforts. This unfortunately means that he will not be able to travel to the NW for meetings this week. Governor Jindal is very sorry to make this last-minute cancellation, but we look forward to working with his staff to find a new date for his visit in the future.
Idaho has this reputation for being a bunch of anti-federal government crazies, but I don’t think that’s particularly deserved. I mentioned last February that Montana officials had warned the Supreme Court that Montana joined the Union on the understanding that the Second Amendment protected an individual right, and they might have to rethink that situation if the Court ruled wrongly on D.C. v. Heller (2008). Fortunately, the Court got it right, so there was no need for Montana to seize the Air Force missile silos there, and become the world’s lowest population and density nuclear power.
Anyway, it appears that the Montana legislature is preparing for the Obamination of restrictive federal gun control laws.
…
Adding to the amusement of this is that those who were upset about the Raich decision (and they were right to be upset, even if it was for a very stupid cause: marijuana) will have to admit that if California has the right to legalize marijuana that doesn’t move across state lines, free of federal intervention, then Montana has a similar right to tell the federal government that guns made in Montana are exempt from federal rules.
Clayton Cramer
February 25, 2009
Those Pesky Montanans
[Although I probably am as amused about this as Clayton people don’t “have to admit” anything. I literally know a person that will insist to your face that “the fence line is over there and has always been over there” even though you could break a leg stepping into the ancient fence post hole in front of you and get tangled in the rusty barbed wire as you fell. This same person also convinced a judge that it was legitimate self-defense after a neighbor caught him sitting on his ex-wife pounding on her face who was flat on her back on the sidewalk (had it been me that caught him the judge would not have been required to make a decision). Some people are just reality impaired and/or have an infinite capacity to lie.–Joe]
As you all know the downturn we are operating in is more severe and global than anything we have seen before.
We are in the midst of a phase of history in which nations will be redefined and their futures fundamentally altered. Many people will be under extreme pressure and many companies mortally wounded.
Rupert Murdoch
February 24, 2009
Peter Chernin’s little shocker
[Risk and opportunity abound. Keep your eyes open for both. I’m listening to The Black Swan which appears to be applicable to the times as well.–Joe]
From our friend Howard in Israel. Saturday, Feb. 21;
Friends:
Winter wind and rain have returned, but so far not as harsh as predicted. And, knock-on-wood, no electric power outages.
John Kerry is here. He lied about getting a letter from Hamas to deliver to President Obama. Senator Kerry lied? Go figure!
Under cover of bad weather (fog up north) two Katusha rockets were fired at northern Israel from within southern Lebanon. One hit an Israeli target and three civilians were wounded. The UN forces and Lebanese (now spelled Hezbollah) army are at a loss to find the terrorists who launched the attack. True to form the EU quickly condemned Israel for violating Lebanon’s sovereignty by firing several artillery rounds at the location from which the Katushas were launched. Hezbollah said, “Katushas? What Katushas, we no nut-in about no Katushas.”
I would tell you that Kassam missiles and mortar bombs continue to fall in the Negev, but saying so would simply be redundant and repeating the obvious. Last week a Kassam took out three cars by my younger daughter’s (going to college in Sderot) apartment. Hope she brings me some pieces of the Kassam next time she comes home.
Tomorrow Bibi starts trying to really form the next Israeli government. When you hear that Liberman’s party wants the Ministry of Police and that they also want the present Minister of Justice (an Olmert appointee) to be reappointed and the anti-Lieberman forces say he is trying to gain control over the ministries pursuing the criminal investigations about him remember two things. Being “under investigation” is about as close to a condition precedent to being an Israeli politician as there is. Second, the investigations in Lieberman have been ongoing for 10 years…and counting.
Enjoy your weekend.
Howard
Sure there are dishonest men in local government. But there are dishonest men in national government too.
Richard M. Nixon
[Nixon was right–examples abound from Chicago to the Whitehouse (have you paid your taxes recently?). And as a country that celebrates diversity we elect them to office to represent us.–Joe]
May your trails be crooked, winding, lonesome, dangerous, leading to the most amazing view. May your mountains rise into and above the clouds.
Edward Abbey
(1927 – 1989)
[For some reason this struck me as perhaps describing our political and economic future. Dangerous but yet full of opportunity.
But then on a physical front I’m suspicious that our universe is actually a black hole with an event horizon several billion light years across and we are rushing toward the singularity at the speed of light on the time axis. So, in the long run, it doesn’t matter even if we do get off this planet and out of the solar system everything we know will be ripped apart down to the sub atomic particle level eventually anyway.
Have a nice day.–Joe]
Via the Triangle of Death:
Today, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled unanimously in support of allowing employees to store legally owned firearms in locked, private motor vehicles while parked in employer parking lots. This decision upholds NRA-backed legislation passed in 2004.
“This is a victory for the millions of American workers who have been denied the right to protect themselves while commuting between their homes and their workplace,” said NRA Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre. “This effort was aimed at skirting the will of the American people, and the intent of legislatures across this country while eviscerating Right-to-Carry laws. This ruling is a slap at the corporate elitists who have no regard for the constitutional rights of law abiding American workers.”
Keep in mind this only applies to states that have passed such laws. Currently that is only a handful of states.
I have mixed feelings on this. It’s a balancing act between property rights and gun owner rights. Generally I just remain silent rather than cheer for either side. But I have to admit it makes it more publicly acceptable to be a gun owner. Just as requiring a license to carry wouldn’t be necessary in a Utopian world it did make it more acceptable to the general public.
Right now the Washington economic stimulus team is putting on their Scuba gear and diving down to the engine room to try to invent a way to get a diesel engine to run on seawater. They spoke of change, but in reality they are terrified of change and want to cling with all their might to the status quo. But this game will soon be over, and they don’t have any idea what to do next.
Dmitry Orlov
February 13, 2009
Social Collapse Best Practices
[I found eight quotes for my database so far and I’m only about half way through his post.–Joe]
Mike reports:
If this and this (both via Say Uncle) pass and the Feds don’t bring in their lawyers and thugs I hope they soon start selling variants built on this:
Picture also from Say Uncle.
California, Kansas (another H/T to Say Uncle), Washington State and many other government entities are in or near economic crisis mode. If the Feds think it is politically unacceptable to allow banks and automakers to go bankrupt what are they going to think about states going bankrupt? Bailouts for local governments must be in discussion behind closed doors if not openly.
But the Feds are broke too. It just doesn’t show up quite a readily because they own the money printing presses. President Obama says he “will pivot quickly to address a budget deficit that could now approach $2 trillion this year” (H/T to Tam and pdb). That can mean little more than increased taxes. If history from other countries in similar situations is any guide when things get bad enough you can expect direct confiscation of your retirement funds and savings as well as nationalization of various industries who remain profitable. The rational used will be something along the lines of “the government must not fall so anything we do to prevent it is justifiable”. They have guns and they won’t be afraid to use them to take whatever they think they “must” have. The U.S. Constitution was written with enumerated powers granted to the government but court rulings early in the last century shattered those walls. The Federal government will attempt to get more and more “control of the situation”. More planning and “guidance” from the “central committee” such as the “car czar” and more regulations for the banks (which helped bring them down to begin with) will fail in a big way. Many of the politicians and “intellectuals” have no industry (real world) experience. They have been living off of the public dole where money is obtained via the point of a gun (taxes) and they don’t have a clue (see also this comment clues, lack thereof) as to how reality really works. Obama is believed to be the savior of the world (see the I Love You Obama Woman, the response from France, as well as all the other adoration such that we have never in our lifetime seen for a U.S. president–only dictators in other countries). To the best of my knowledge he is the most inexperienced president our country has ever known, he is facing the biggest crisis our country has seen in 80 years, he is a socialist, and his advisers are socialists. His solutions are all going to involve more power and control for the Feds. More power and control in the hands of those that have only the flimsiest of connections to the real world and no experience. It’s a recipe for disaster.
The only bright spots I see are some states, such as Montana, Tennessee (see the first two links in this post), Arizona, Washington, Oklahoma (via Sebastian), and New Hampshire (via Sebastian and email from hunter006) are thinking about going all Ninth and 10th Amendment on us. There could be some serious cracks appearing in the creeping Federal tyranny we have been experiencing. Within a few years we could be (almost for certain?) looking at some new form of government. What will it be? The Orwellian vision of a a boot stamping on a human face … for ever? Or something else as certain states and people take a successful stand against the socialists?
I’ve been thinking for a long time that the world is due a new form of government. Tribal leaders, witch doctors, kings, dictators, democracies, republics, and others have all had their day (and dark nights) in the limelight. But instantaneous communication and near instantaneous travel makes for some interesting thought experiments. I’m not sure The Probability Broach type world is practical but there may be something else that is. This crisis may be the impetus to figure it out.
For the economy in general, doing nothing is vastly preferable to doing the stimulus package, but doing nothing is not a political option; indeed, it would be political suicide. Given the dominant ideology and the political institutions that now exist, economically rational public policy is incompatible with political viability…. Having hit bottom, the politicians can only do one thing: keep digging. If Hell is down there, they’ll reach it, sooner or later.
Robert Higgs
Senior Fellow at Independent Institute
The Lighthouse Volume 11, Issue 7: February 16, 2009
[I was tempted to just use “rational public policy is incompatible with political viability” as the QOTD, but the mention of politicians attempting reach Hell was just too appealing.–Joe]
11:08 AM. The senator is late. He had another meeting in the building and it went over.
11:15 AM. Still no senator. Supposedly he was “on his way” five minutes ago. It’s not that big of a building. I’m close enough to the podium that he could easily read my Barrett Firearms shirt. I wonder if he will notice.
11:20 AM. I’m beginning to think the senator stiffed us. But what do you expect from a politician?
11:22 AM. He is being introduced now. He is in the room.
11:23 AM. He says the sound system here is better than in the Senate.
11:25 AM. He is telling stories about the wonders of the Internet.
11:27 AM. The changes going on in America are unique.
11:28 AM. He is telling us how wonderful it is that France likes the changes.
11:30 AM. There is an opening, an opportunity, to reintroduce America to the world.
11:31 AM. Opening the floor to questions. First question is from someone from Vermont who asks, “What is in the stimulas package for Vermonters?”
11:32 AM. Answer is bridge maintance, Internet access in rural areas.
11:33 AM. Someone else is asking if he is going to go forward with the Truth Commission.
11:34 AM. Telling us about previous attorney general being forced out of office. Options for now are 1) Ignore it. 2) Prosecution which could take 15 years. 3) He proposes a middle ground which is offer immunity to those that come forward and tell the truth. He compares it to the Church committee of the 70s.
11:38 AM. I don’t jump in quickly enough. Other people start asking the next question before I even realize there is an opening coming up.
11:43 AM. He says Secretary Clinton is good at building bipartisan support. Context was “truth commission”.
11:44 AM. Question and answer about judical pay raise. Probably not going to happen in this economic situation.
11:47 AM. Q: What is the exit strategy for getting out of the “business” of nationalizing banks, insurance companies, etc.?
11:49 AM. A: Make them pay back the loans as soon as they are on their feet. Hope we don’t nationalize our industries.
11:50 AM. Suggestion for a “postmortum” on what went wrong with some legislation or other government activity. Senator says they do that frequentl but it doesn’t get any press coverage.
11:52 AM. Q: What do you think of the anti-trust action against Microsoft by the European Union? A: I hope they get those Microsoft guys! THAT WAS A JOKE! I don’t know if there is press in the audience, but that was a joke.
11:55 AM. Continuing on EU answer. He says protectionism benefits never last.
11:56 AM. They ended the meeting early.
Rest assured, there will be a great majority who will not stand against
tyranny. Those who have “gone along to get along” and those who have
continually voted for the “lesser of two evils” will capitulate and surrender
their weapons, as cowards normally do. They will rue the day they failed to
support those who stood for liberty such as Ron Paul. Remember, they were
offered liberty, but chose instead to support the status quo, because, in
their eyes, liberty could not be elected.
Michael Gaddy
Buy, Buy, Buy
January 5, 2008