tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-54799582011-04-21T22:24:38.065ZHuman ConductIpse autem rex non debet esse sub homine sed sub deo et sub lege, quia lex facit regemBloggernoreply@blogger.comBlogger2621100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5479958.post-410725267894783552009-01-13T15:43:00.003Z2009-01-13T15:47:53.100ZInauguration Day 2009I'm keeping positive energy about the next 4 years. I'm not sure what is around the corner for us, but I have confidence in President-Elect Obama. I read this in the paper yesterday:Mr Obama said yesterday that he had been working hard on his inaugural speech. He said that every time he reads Abraham Lincoln's second inaugural address - considered perhaps the best in US history - “you start Bloggernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5479958.post-1100704172063226092004-11-17T15:08:00.000Z2004-11-17T15:09:32.063ZColor Me Skeptical
Bloggernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5479958.post-1099771069264204632004-11-06T19:56:00.000Z2004-11-06T20:01:45.513ZMoveOn's backfire
Robert Novak on the failure of MoveOn's activism:
Only four of the 26 Democratic challengers for Congress and governorships endorsed and bankrolled by the left-wing MoveOn PAC were elected Tuesday, but some suffered from that organization's support.
In Arizona, former Flagstaff Mayor Paul Babbitt was embarrassed before his rural constituents in his campaign for Congress when Bloggernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5479958.post-1099160226010159582004-10-30T18:13:00.000Z2004-10-30T18:17:06.010ZKerry more likely to reinstate draft
Bruce Chapman on who is more likely to reinstate a draft:
Of all the upside-down, misreported issues of 2004, the phoniest is the Kerry camp's assertion that a re-elected George W. Bush will bring back the draft. The case is much stronger that John Kerry himself would do so.
(...)
The volunteer military was a political victory by libertarian conservatives Bloggernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5479958.post-1098987962146149352004-10-28T18:11:00.000Z2004-10-28T18:26:02.146ZViva Piñera
Carlo Stagnaro on the necessary reform of Social security systems in Europe:
The vision Europe needs is Jose Piñera's. Dr. Piñera was minister in Chile in the early 1980s. At that time, he pursued an innovative pension reform that transformed Chilean workers into "workers-capitalists". This is a metaphor Piñera likes, and for good reasons.
(...)
Chilean-style reform could succeed Bloggernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5479958.post-1098215910619177942004-10-19T19:56:00.000Z2004-10-19T19:58:30.620ZJohn Kerry, Dead End
Bloggernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5479958.post-1098024854302586202004-10-17T14:24:00.000Z2004-10-17T14:54:14.303ZVote: it’s easier than working
Movimentarian.com has created its very own Rock the Vote campaign:
I’d like to remind everyone that if you don’t vote, then you won’t get your chance to force others around. In fact, you’d have no right to complain when people forced you around, because you forfeited your opportunity to defend yourself or force them to do what you want.
In many other countries Bloggernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5479958.post-1097943967956512582004-10-16T16:21:00.000Z2004-10-16T16:26:07.956ZMedia Bend Over Backwards to Help Kerry
Thomas Sowell on media bias
A joke has President Bush and the Pope sailing down the Potomac on the Presidential yacht. The wind blows the Pontiff's cap off and it falls into the water. President Bush orders the yacht stopped, gets off and walks across the water to retrieve the Pope's cap.
The next day's headline in the New York Times reads: BUSH CAN'T Bloggernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5479958.post-1097794655446133512004-10-14T22:54:00.000Z2004-10-14T22:57:35.446ZNobel laureate calls for steeper tax cuts in US
Wise words by Edward Prescott:
"What Bush has done has been not very big, it's pretty small," Prescott told CNBC financial news television.
"Tax rates were not cut enough," he said.
Lower tax rates provided an incentive to work, Prescott said.
Prescott and Norwegian Finn Kydland won the 2004 Nobel Economics Prize for research into the forcesBloggernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5479958.post-1097597300863042992004-10-12T16:06:00.000Z2004-10-12T16:10:06.393ZLibertarian Party Rothbard Caucus
Home of the Rothbard Pledge.Bloggernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5479958.post-1097514024971260132004-10-11T16:38:00.000Z2004-10-11T17:00:24.973ZKerry's scarlet letter
Robert Novak on the second Bush/Kerry debate:
George W. Bush pulled himself together sufficiently in St. Louis Friday night to avoid losing the presidency to John Kerry on debater's points, and got down to his foremost task. The Republican president concentrated on imprinting the scarlet letter "L" (for liberal) on his Democratic challenger's chest. Whether or not he Bloggernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5479958.post-1097512622228240282004-10-11T16:28:00.000Z2004-10-11T17:07:38.846ZVictory for John Howard
From Reuters:
Conservative Australian Prime Minister John Howard, handed the most powerful mandate in almost a generation, has got down to work with reform of telecommunications, labour and media laws high on his agenda.
Howard described his Liberal/National coalition's crushing win over centre-left opposition Labour in Saturday's election as remarkable. He now has a Bloggernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5479958.post-1096893322587180902004-10-04T13:08:00.000Z2004-10-04T12:37:16.823ZMiami Vices
Julian Sanchez on the presidential debate:
Surely it's important that Kerry is perceived as the winner in a debate on a subject - international relations and the War on Terror - where Bush's perceived advantage is greatest. The group for which the debates had the biggest impact will likely be the sizable swath of voters who've soured somewhat on Bush but found Kerry an uninspiring Bloggernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5479958.post-1096384574838534792004-09-28T15:14:00.000Z2004-09-28T15:18:25.683ZThe Cult of Che
Paul Berman reviews The Motorcycle Diaries:
The cult of Ernesto Che Guevara is an episode in the moral callousness of our time. Che was a totalitarian. He achieved nothing but disaster. Many of the early leaders of the Cuban Revolution favored a democratic or democratic-socialist direction for the new Cuba. But Che was a mainstay of the hardline pro-Soviet faction, and his Bloggernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5479958.post-1096124253209661722004-09-25T14:08:00.000Z2004-09-25T15:02:04.476ZImmigration debate
Recommended reading:
Go Ahead, Leave the Door Open, by Brian Doherty
In the Free Market, May a Businessman Hire Any Immigrant He Chooses?, by Hans-Hermann Hoppe
Prof. Hoppe still wrong on immigration, by Joshua Holmes
Give Me Your Elitist, Aristocratic, White Europeans, Yearning To Breath Free, by Micha Ghertner
An Immigration Policy that Would Exclude Its Author, by Tom Bloggernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5479958.post-1095620993965964792004-09-19T19:06:00.000Z2004-09-19T19:09:53.966ZIs Kerry moving left?
Robert Novak on Kerry's apparent move to the left:
To the astonishment and dismay of Democratic politicians, John Kerry over the last weekend appeared to have forgotten his opponent for president. He did not seem to realize that he was running against George W. Bush, not Howard Dean. That was an understandable conclusion to be drawn from the Democratic nominee's course Bloggernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5479958.post-1095096729155203382004-09-13T17:29:00.000Z2004-09-13T17:42:42.243ZA Curious Case for Interventionism
Tom Palmer demolishes Max Borders' case for military interventionism and a "libertarian" hawkish foreign policy:
Borders does not deal with the core classical liberal position that there is a general presumption against waging war. There is a very large and impressive tradition governing the waging of war ("just war theory") and one of the important pillars onBloggernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5479958.post-1094992338367676482004-09-12T13:26:00.000Z2004-09-12T12:32:18.366ZBundesbank attacks Brussels' euro reform plans
The Bundesbank speaks out against the possible weakening of the stability pact:
Commission proposals to reform the rules underpinning the euro today received heavy criticism from Germany's Central Bank, the Bundesbank.
"The Bundesbank is of the opinion that the proposed changes will not strengthen but weaken the stability pact", said the Bank, Bloggernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5479958.post-1094568027165595622004-09-07T14:31:00.000Z2004-09-07T14:40:27.166ZBush's advantage
Robert Novak on John Kerry's campaign performance:
President Bush's advisers cannot believe their good fortune of how badly John Kerry and his campaign have performed the past month. What's more, that assessment is shared by many Democrats outside the Kerry campaign.
The Republican National Convention here did everything intended, climaxed by President Bush's competent though Bloggernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5479958.post-1094315834185603142004-09-04T16:35:00.000Z2004-09-04T16:37:14.186ZDemocrats for Bush
Thomas Sowell on Kerry's strategy:
Some media pundits say that Senator Kerry's poor showing in the polls is due to his having followed the wrong political strategy in this campaign. They say he put too much emphasis on his Vietnam war record.
But what else did he have to put emphasis on?
Can you run for office during a war on terrorism by citing a voting record that Bloggernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5479958.post-1093783540812664672004-08-29T12:45:00.000Z2004-08-29T12:45:40.813ZBloggernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5479958.post-1093651946618086492004-08-28T01:10:00.000Z2004-09-04T16:28:50.420ZPolitical veteran for censorship
Jacob Sullum notes George W. Bush and John Kerry have at least one thing in common:
Observers dismayed by the bitter partisanship of this presidential campaign should be happy now that George W. Bush and John Kerry finally agree on something: It turns out they both believe in using the government to silence their critics.
Kerry has filed a complaint with the Bloggernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5479958.post-1093560530528031842004-08-26T22:43:00.000Z2004-08-26T22:48:50.526ZWhy those swift boaters want Kerry to sink
Article by John O'Sullivan:
If the Bush campaign could be convicted of secretly "coordinating" with the swift boaters on evidence like that, the Kerry campaign might end up being held responsible for the vastly larger $60 million ad campaigns organized by independent organizations against Bush -- and for the publication and distribution of the New YorkBloggernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5479958.post-1093380583188140832004-08-24T20:47:00.000Z2004-08-24T20:52:51.723ZTime To Clear the Board
U.S. troop realignment: a good start
Charles V. Peña, director of defense policy studies at Cato, argues that reducing U.S. troop deployments in Europe and Asia is a good start:
The Cold War is over and Europe no longer faces the threat of Soviet tanks rolling across the Fulda Gap. And the combined economies of the European countries are healthy and strong enough for Bloggernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5479958.post-1093024301316328812004-08-20T17:50:00.000Z2004-08-20T17:51:41.316ZAlan Keyes in Illinois: Part II
Thomas Sowell on the Illinois race between Alan Keyes and Barack Obama:
Keyes is a dynamic speaker whose confrontational style and strong rhetoric have turned off some people, even as they have inspired others. Barack Obama has cultivated a much smoother, moderate-sounding style. But his track record shows him to be at least as far to the left as Alan Keyes is toBloggernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5479958.post-1092787584023021742004-08-18T00:02:00.000Z2004-08-18T00:06:24.023ZPrice Gouging Saves Lives
David Brown explains:
If we expect customers to be able to get what they need in an emergency, when demand zooms vendors must be allowed and encouraged to increase their prices. Supplies are then more likely to be sustained, and the people who most urgently need a particular good will more likely be able to get it. That is especially important during an emergency. Bloggernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5479958.post-1092261965252967032004-08-11T22:02:00.000Z2004-08-11T22:07:32.053ZThe Soul of John Kerry
Joseph Sobran on John Kerry:
Recently a group of Catholic Democrats in Congress objected to any move by the hierarchy to discipline pro-abortion politicians. Considering their own party discipline, this was rich: the Democrats tolerate no real disagreement on abortion, and won’t allow anti-abortion speakers at their own convention.
Indeed, a chief difference between theBloggernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5479958.post-1091647374810974242004-08-04T19:20:00.000Z2004-08-04T19:22:54.810ZHow to Maximise Your Expenses: Advice to new Members of the European Parliament
From The Social Affairs Unit:
Dear Colleague,
Welcome to Brussels! Less than half of those eligible to vote in the June 10th elections to the European Parliament may actually have done so - despite the fact of compulsory voting in three EU countries. So not exactly a great victory for European democracy. Bloggernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5479958.post-1091461502369471812004-08-02T15:39:00.000Z2004-08-02T15:46:13.806ZThe Fraud at Fleetcenter
Pat Buchanan on the Democrats and Iraq:
"We will win this war," Edwards said. Kerry has said he would be willing to send additional U.S. troops.
But what if Kerry and Edwards win in November and it becomes clear that for America to win in Iraq will require more than the 140,000 troops already there? Will Kerry, who would then be leading a nation that already believes Bloggernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5479958.post-1091288043944968342004-07-31T15:32:00.000Z2004-07-31T15:41:47.836ZLiability Matters
Fr. Robert A. Sirico on John Edwards and trial lawyers:
Why does it matter that John Edwards has spent his career as a trial lawyer who raids deep pockets on behalf of complainants? It makes him a lifetime participant in one of the most destructive of American pastimes: litigation.
On the day that Edwards was introduced as John Kerry's running mate, I got a call from a doctorBloggernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5479958.post-1091135169409618032004-07-29T22:05:00.000Z2004-07-29T21:06:09.410ZKerry has Muffed the War Issue
Article by William A. Niskanen:
Senator John Kerry has made increased international support for the security and reconstruction of Iraq the primary theme of his speeches on this issue. For the following reasons, however, Kerry's position is not likely to have any significant effect on U.S. policy toward Iraq:
1. The Kerry position does not now differ much from Bloggernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5479958.post-1090971060329789162004-07-27T23:26:00.000Z2004-07-27T23:31:00.330ZIf You Have To Vote for a President
Walter Block argues that the Libertarian Party is the only choice:
Fortunately, however, our choice is not limited to the Demopublicans, or the Repblicocrats. There is a third option: the Libertarian Party. On the issues, whether economic, social or foreign policy, the LP is, of course, pretty hard-core libertarian. Yes, there might be a legitimate quibble Bloggernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5479958.post-1090514241747442442004-07-22T16:36:00.000Z2004-07-22T16:37:21.746ZTall Poppies
Cox & ForkumBloggernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5479958.post-1090250718113077032004-07-19T15:23:00.000Z2004-07-19T15:25:18.113ZWhat's Fair About a Draft?
Michael Kinsley on the draft:
During Vietnam, the columnist Nicholas von Hoffman wrote, "Draft old men's money, not young men's bodies." His point was that in America, when you want more of something -- even soldiers -- the way to get more is to pay more. A draft allows the government to pay less for soldiers than they would cost in the free market. It is, in essenceBloggernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5479958.post-1090187877077868442004-07-18T21:55:00.000Z2004-07-18T21:59:07.543ZTen Reasons to Fire George W. Bush
And nine reasons why Kerry won't be much better
Article by Jesse Walker:
10. He's making me root for John Kerry. I haven't voted for a major party's presidential candidate since 1988, and I have no plans to revert to the habit this year. The Democrats have nominated a senator who - just sticking to the points listed above - voted for the war in Iraq, the Bloggernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5479958.post-1089993461539177062004-07-16T15:56:00.000Z2004-07-16T15:58:43.596ZA contest between big spenders
Jeff Jacoby argues that the coming election presents a depressing choice for fiscal conservatives:
In the Republicans' corner is George W. Bush, who presides over the most bloated federal budget in US history. Bush's profligacy has left in tatters the traditional GOP claim to fiscal rectitude. He has uncomplainingly signed into law every pork-stuffed Bloggernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5479958.post-1089280522585814112004-07-08T09:53:00.000Z2004-07-08T09:56:33.850ZWe Shall Not See His Like Again
Pat Buchanan on Ronald Reagan:
In the crushing defeat of Barry Goldwater in 1964, Reagan’s speech of blazing defiance vaulted him into the leadership of the conservative movement. And after Watergate and the loss of Vietnam, with the Soviet Empire rampant and America held hostage, the country, unready for Ronald Reagan or conservatism in 1964, took a chance in Bloggernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5479958.post-1088289395267663752004-06-26T22:34:00.000Z2004-06-26T22:36:35.266ZUnfairenheit 9/11: The lies of Michael Moore
Christopher Hitchens on Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11:
To describe this film as dishonest and demagogic would almost be to promote those terms to the level of respectability. To describe this film as a piece of crap would be to run the risk of a discourse that would never again rise above the excremental. To describe it as an exercise in facile Bloggernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5479958.post-1087919510918733542004-06-22T15:50:00.000Z2004-06-22T15:53:51.040ZEU Referendum
Recommended blog: EU ReferendumBloggernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5479958.post-1087236894577453252004-06-14T18:11:00.000Z2004-06-14T18:14:54.576ZIn Reagan’s Shadow
Compassionate conservatism vs. the shining city.
Jonah Goldberg compares George W. Bush with Ronald Reagan:
Discussing the importance of dogma, William F. Buckley wrote in 1964, "If our society seriously wondered whether or not to denationalize the lighthouses, it would not wonder at all whether to nationalize the medical profession."
Reagan's rhetoric and actions moved Bloggernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5479958.post-1086812578913715042004-06-09T20:17:00.000Z2004-06-09T20:23:55.683ZNo Accidental Leader
Lee Edwards on Ronald Reagan:
Ronald Reagan was not an accidental leader. He possessed certain personal characteristics that set him apart from other seemingly as talented and ambitious men and women. Physically, he had remarkable vitality and stamina. He did not need energizer batteries to keep going through crises and challenges that would have hospitalized the rest of usBloggernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5479958.post-1086568906384632442004-06-07T00:37:00.000Z2004-06-07T00:48:00.540ZReagan and Capitalism
Article by Jay Bryant:
It is being restated over and over again in these days of remembrance that Ronald Reagan brought about the collapse of Communism, and there can be no serious doubt that the policies he pursued with regard to the Soviets worked. Neither the mass demonstrations against him in Europe, the carping of his domestic enemies, nor the softer temptations of Bloggernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5479958.post-1086101932250292422004-06-01T14:56:00.000Z2004-06-01T14:58:52.250ZConstitutional scholar Badnarik gets presidential nomination
From the Libertarian Party press release:
Badnarik, 49, of Austin, Texas, won 423 votes -- or 54 percent -- from delegates at the Libertarian Party's national convention in Atlanta on Sunday. Coming in second was movie producer Aaron Russo, followed by longtime radio talk host Gary Nolan.
(...)
According to many political analysts,Bloggernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5479958.post-1085795160709484072004-05-29T01:29:00.000Z2004-05-29T01:47:34.186ZLibertarians and Communists
Very good post by Don Boudreaux at Cafe Hayek, commenting a forthcoming article that tries to show libertarianism as some new form of communism:
Lawler’s most significant misrepresentation is his accusation that, like Marxism, libertarianism promises "a life constrained by nothing but personal choice." Ugh! Barf! Arghh! Every libertarian whom I know has as part of Bloggernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5479958.post-1085327660930868202004-05-23T15:49:00.000Z2004-05-23T15:57:24.843ZBush's Third-Party Threat
David Paul Kuhn on the possible libertarian threat to Bush in the 2004 election:
With conservatives upset over the ballooning size of the federal government under a Republican White House and Congress - and a portion of the political right having opposed the war in Iraq from the start or else dismayed at how it's being handled - the Libertarian nominee, who will be on Bloggernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5479958.post-1085169132166970462004-05-21T19:37:00.000Z2004-05-21T19:53:14.503ZBush caves to Democrats....again
Neal Boortz on Bush's stance regarding the confirmation of judicial nominees:
When the Democrats lost control of the Senate in the 2002 elections they decided that a simple majority vote would no longer be good enough to confirm a judicial appointee. Over the years leftists have depended on judicial activism and fiat to enact much of their agenda. The future Bloggernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5479958.post-1084631109608112392004-05-15T14:07:00.000Z2004-05-15T14:25:09.606ZPure Politics: There's always another campaign finance loophole
Jacob Sullum on "campaign finance reform" and freedom of speech:
In a speech last month, Sen. John McCain said Bradley Smith is unfit to head the Federal Election Commission because his principles prevent him from properly enforcing the nation's campaign laws. At the same time, the Arizona Republican suggested that Smith has no Bloggernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5479958.post-1084115647544938522004-05-09T15:14:00.000Z2004-05-09T15:18:40.356ZKerry's Class Warfare: "Working Families" vs. "The Privileged"
Joseph Kellard comments John Kerry's class warfare strategies:
In his victory speech at the Iowa caucus, John Kerry uttered a line that exquisitely captured a staple of his Leftist politics -- class warfare. "Count the cost that working families are paying while the privileged ride high and reap the rewards," he said. Yet Kerry's Bloggernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5479958.post-1083774711112440302004-05-05T16:31:00.000Z2004-05-05T16:37:59.340ZBlock, Epstein will duel over domain
Walter Block and Richard Epstein will have a debate on eminent domain at the University of Chicago Law School, May 10, at 12:13 p.m.
The event is the result of the 'entrepreneurial' efforts of J.H. Huebert:
The debate revolves around the question: Should government have a right to take anyone’s property for less that what the owner would freely and Bloggernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5479958.post-1082851414582503672004-04-25T00:03:00.000Z2004-04-25T00:06:36.233ZD-Day in Pa.
William F. Buckley Jr., in support of Pat Toomey:
Pat Toomey is a vigorous figure who battled for the House seat in a heavily Democratic district in Pennsylvania and won. He did his three terms and then quit-as he had promised to do, believing in term limits. Toomey is a resolute conservative whose votes, on economic and social issues, have earned him high regard as a brainy and Bloggernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5479958.post-1082376658180999262004-04-19T12:10:00.000Z2004-04-19T12:14:33.420ZThank you for choosing United, Mr. bin Laden
Ann Coulter on the 9-11 comission:
Last week, 9-11 commissioner John Lehman revealed that "it was the policy (before 9-11) and I believe remains the policy today to fine airlines if they have more than two young Arab males in secondary questioning because that's discriminatory." Hmmm ... Is 19 more than two? Why, yes, I believe it is. So if two Bloggernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5479958.post-1082301430824207312004-04-18T15:17:00.000Z2004-04-18T15:20:05.890ZWhat's Wrong With Paternalism?
Article by Arnold Kling:
There are three layers to the argument against paternalism. The first layer is purely libertarian, which says that government compulsion of individuals is always wrong. The second layer is utilitarian, which says that, contrary to the intuition of Steven Weinberg and others on the left, we are better off with a larger private sector and a Bloggernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5479958.post-1081866449546217762004-04-13T14:27:00.000Z2004-04-13T14:30:56.436Z(Class) War Won’t Work
John Samples on Kerry's strategy:
Take Kerry's tax proposal. He plans to raise taxes for those who make over $200,000 a year while retaining Bush's tax cuts for everyone else and adding tax credits for middle-class families. Kerry has apparently learned the 1984 lesson of Walter Mondale who promised to raise taxes for everyone if elected president. Kerry too promises to Bloggernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5479958.post-1081506463449121042004-04-09T10:27:00.000Z2004-04-09T10:31:30.483ZEnding Farm Subsidies Wouldn’t Help the Third World? It Just Ain’t So!
E. C. Pasour explains how farm subsidies in the "first world" produce great damage in low-income countries:
Both the EU and the United States maintain programs to directly subsidize exports of farm products. The EU spends about $3.3 billion per year doing this. That gives EU goods an artificial advantage in international Bloggernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5479958.post-1081420722719230932004-04-08T10:38:00.000Z2004-04-08T10:41:27.246ZKerry Is Backwards on Taxes
Bruce Bartlett on the distribution of the tax burden:
All of those in the middle 3 quintiles paid less in 2001 than they paid in 1984. In other words, between 1984 and 2001, average tax rates for the wealthy substantially increased while at least 80 percent of households paid considerably less. Progressivity rose as the wealthy now pay about 6 times more than the Bloggernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5479958.post-1081208194811199712004-04-05T23:36:00.000Z2004-04-05T23:39:16.903ZA bill full of pork
Robert Novak on conservative outrage at the recently passed "highway" bill:
Rep. Sue Myrick of Charlotte, N.C., a conservative star of the famous Republican congressional class of 1994, has just about had it with the way the world works on Capitol Hill. "It makes you not want to be here. It just makes you want to leave," she told me Friday morning before the House passed theBloggernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5479958.post-1081170792172821822004-04-05T13:13:00.000Z2004-04-05T13:17:08.810ZProperty Rights Champion Hernando de Soto Wins Friedman Prize for Liberty
Hernando de Soto, author of the influential Mystery of Capital and founder of the Institute for Liberty and Democracy has won the 2004 Friedman Prize for Liberty.
Rare is the economist who finds himself the target of terrorist bombings and assassination attempts, but Hernando de Soto is no ordinary economist. Beginning Bloggernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5479958.post-1080739669202645272004-03-31T13:27:00.000Z2004-03-31T13:42:19.326ZThis Land Is Mine
Roderick Long in favour of unencumbered private property rights in land:
Your right to control your own body surely includes the right to control the particles currently composing your body. (You didn’t create them, but then you didn’t create yourself either.) Now most of the particles in your body are not particles you were born with (since if you’re like most of us, your Bloggernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5479958.post-1080506503147480472004-03-28T20:41:00.000Z2004-03-28T20:44:16.983ZA Welfare State for Aggrieved Market Losers
Robert Levy on the European Union's antitrust ruling against Microsoft:
Triple jeopardy. That is the net effect of the European Union's order imposing additional antitrust sanctions on the world's leading software maker. Microsoft must pay about Euros 500m (Pounds 335m) in fines, disclose more of its programming code so that rivals' server computers Bloggernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5479958.post-1080153900547252182004-03-24T18:45:00.000Z2004-03-24T18:48:23.560ZA Billion Reasons to Raise Your Taxes
Thomas E. Nugent on the reasons why some very wealthy people favor raising taxes:
Did you ever wonder why George Soros (the billionaire who is doing all he can to defeat George Bush), Warren Buffett (the billionaire from Omaha who continues to argue for the repeal of tax cuts), John Kerry (the candidate for president who married into the billion-dollar Bloggernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5479958.post-1079982882330088612004-03-22T19:14:00.000Z2004-03-22T19:18:34.890ZReactionary Prophet
Christopher Hitchens on Burke's Reflections On The Revolution In France:
Three questions will occur to anybody reconsidering the Reflections today. Was it a grand and prophetic indictment of revolutionary excess? Was it the disdainful shudder of a man who despised or feared what at one stage he described as the "swinish multitude"? And did it contain what we would now termBloggernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5479958.post-1079539619034033932004-03-17T16:06:00.000Z2004-03-17T16:11:42.543ZGibson breaks Hollywood's 10 Commands
Martin A. Grove explains:
Because "Passion" will be timely to re-issue theatrically at Easter for years to come, it has the potential to wind up as the biggest grossing film in movie history -- at least if you calculate that record on the basis of the cumulative gross from multiple releases of the same film. To do so, it will have to overtake "Titanic's" Bloggernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5479958.post-1079460056209181062004-03-16T18:00:00.000Z2004-03-16T18:04:23.576ZThe Explanatory Power of Economic Logic
Robert P. Murphy on Thomas Sowell’s latest book Applied Economics: Thinking Beyond Stage One:
Sowell’s overall message is that "thinking beyond stage one" is necessary to understand the true causes (and cures) of social ills. Whether the issue is housing, health care, or Third World development, Sowell shows that the traditional government "solutions" areBloggernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5479958.post-1079370987781342662004-03-15T17:16:00.000Z2004-03-15T17:18:48.873ZEnough Talking about Fiscal Responsibility -- Let's Cut Spending
Article by Veronique de Rugy, fiscal policy analyst at the Cato Institute:
End corporate welfare. As former Budget Director Mitch Daniels noted: "It was not the federal government's role to subsidize, sometime deeply subsidize, private interests." He's right. Unfortunately, there is at least $90 billion of corporate welfare in Bloggernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5479958.post-1079314708916797022004-03-15T01:38:00.000Z2004-03-15T01:40:49.216ZRed Spanish Ayes
Samizdata's David Carr has an interesting viewpoint on the possible significance of the Spanish election results for Al-Qaeda:
But in one sense, it may not matter why Aznar and his centre-right government lost. If Al-Qaeda did orchestrate the Madrid attack (and it appears increasingly likely that they did) then they will chalk this up as a major success. In their own minds, Bloggernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5479958.post-1078932029950111462004-03-10T15:20:00.000Z2004-03-10T15:27:26.903ZPrejudice Against Business
Tibor Machan on the bias against business and commerce:
Everyone knows that there will be bad apples in any profession. And where the press is concerned, everyone accepts that such bad apples must be reprimanded from within and the government is required to stay out of whatever mess happens to occur there. (Where were all the calls for Congressional oversight of Bloggernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5479958.post-1078713275730779052004-03-08T02:34:00.000Z2004-03-08T02:36:49.106ZVenezuela: The Next Cuba
Paul Crespo on Hugo Chavez and socialism in Venezuela:
There is no doubt that Chavez - with Fidel Castro's help -- is creating a Cuban-style socialist state in Venezuela. Scholar Maxwell Cameron calls it the world's first "slow-motion constitutional coup." In the process, Chavez also is breathing new life into Fidel Castro's dying and decrepit dictatorship. But what's Bloggernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5479958.post-1078356727207055862004-03-03T23:32:00.000Z2004-03-03T23:35:46.090ZHealth Care in Prison
William L. Anderson on socialialized medicine:
To justify his claims that government medicine would be a social panacea, Krugman cites "a recent study" which claims "that private insurance companies spend 11.7 cents of every health care dollar on administrative costs, mainly advertising and underwriting, compared with 3.6 cents for Medicare and 1.3 cents for Canada's Bloggernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5479958.post-1078332997150244362004-03-03T16:56:00.000Z2004-03-03T17:00:15.186ZIsrael Frenzy
William F. Buckley on neocon policies and Israel:
It is being claimed, ever more widely, that neocon policies are determined by the advantages they bring, manifest or putative, to the State of Israel. Patrick Buchanan, in the current American Conservative, believes this ardently, while the most quoted advocates of neocon militancy, Richard Perle and David Frum, go further than Bloggernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5479958.post-1078159134004933262004-03-01T16:38:00.000Z2004-03-01T16:41:00.920ZTax Cuts Do What?
Why it's important for economists to combat public ignorance.
Thomas Sowell on the importance of educating the general public on basic economics:
Some years ago, the distinguished international-trade economist Jagdish Bhagwati was visiting Cornell University, giving a lecture to graduate students during the day and debating Ralph Nader on free trade that evening. During his Bloggernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5479958.post-1078011053997732942004-02-28T23:30:00.000Z2004-02-28T23:32:59.280ZConfessions of a Welfare Queen
John Stossel on welfare for the rich:
In 1980 I built a wonderful beach house. Four bedrooms -- every room with a view of the Atlantic Ocean.
It was an absurd place to build, right on the edge of the ocean. All that stood between my house and ruin was a hundred feet of sand. My father told me: "Don’t do it; it’s too risky. No one should build so close to an oceanBloggernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5479958.post-1077737371486647412004-02-25T19:29:00.000Z2004-02-25T19:32:11.390ZOld-fashioned views
Taki on John Kerry:
Did he or didn’t he? Get Kerry-ed away and have it off with an intern. It’s either one or the other, and I guess we have to take Alexandra Polier at her word and believe he didn’t. Kerry is one bad dude, and I don’t mean just because he didn’t do it. I mean his lifelong habit of getting a rich woman to pick up the tab. I know I’m being old-fashioned and Bloggernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5479958.post-1077639977005305342004-02-24T16:26:00.000Z2004-02-24T16:28:17.950ZPrivatize program now
Michael Tanner on the need for Social Security reform:
Social Security reform cannot be put off. In less than 15 years, the national retirement program will begin to run a deficit, spending more on benefits than it takes in through taxes. The IOUs in the Social Security Trust Fund are merely a claim against future taxes, not real assets that can be used to pay benefits. Bloggernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5479958.post-1076953665983338832004-02-18T13:23:00.000Z2004-02-18T13:27:29.186ZThe Opium of the Professors
Edward Feser on contemporary academy:
The civilization of which I speak is, of course, Western civilization, whose origins lie in Greece, Rome, and ancient Israel, and whose characteristic modern elements include the Judeo-Christian religious tradition, the political ideals of individual rights, limited government and the rule of law, and a free-market or capitalist Bloggernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5479958.post-1076880165301800942004-02-17T12:22:00.000Z2004-02-17T12:31:56.860ZThe Lie of Egalitarianism
John Kekes interviewed by Jamie Glazov in FrontPage magazine:
Frontpage Magazine: Mr. Kekes, welcome to Frontpage Interview. Let me begin with your argument that the absurdity of egalitarianism is, among many other things, its flawed premise that justice requires overlooking whether individuals deserve what they have and whether they are responsible for what they do Bloggernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5479958.post-1076879938983617272004-02-16T17:49:00.000Z2004-02-16T17:53:12.356ZRacial preferences more harmful than legacy policies in college admissions
Jonah Goldberg on racial preferences and legacy policies:
Now, personally, I don't care very much if schools drop their legacy policies. But let's be honest about what's really going on here and what isn't.
First of all, the ones who benefit most from legacy policies are the schools and the other non-rich students. The Bloggernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5479958.post-1076880413488456552004-02-15T21:26:00.000Z2004-02-15T21:28:45.653ZWhat's Wrong with Monopoly (the game)?
Benjamin Powell and David Skarbek explain what's wrong with Monopoly:
That's the real world. In the game Monopoly, owners of land and houses and hotels, though acquiring their possessions by luck, are flattered into believing they are masters of the universe, extracting profits from anyone who passes their way. There is no consumer choice and no consumer Bloggernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5479958.post-1076441268048519692004-02-15T11:59:00.000Z2004-02-15T12:26:10.013ZThe States and Outsourcing
Radley Balko on jobs, outsourcing and state's economic and regulatory policies:
Protectionists often bring up Ohio as the prototype of a hard-working, breadbasket state whose manufacturing sector has fallen victim to free trade. But Ohio's also a case study in how a state government hostile to business pushes jobs to more hospitable locales. You've read the numbers Bloggernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5479958.post-1076601345634549782004-02-12T15:55:00.000Z2004-02-12T16:00:41.373ZThe New Intellectuals
Lew Rockwell on the present intellectual environment:
The best journals today are not published by universities or large publishing houses, but by non-profits such as the Mises Institute, the Independent Institute, the Acton Institute, and many, many others. These are journals that seek to make a difference in the world. They aren't just manuals for state planning, as Bloggernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5479958.post-1076364909777837912004-02-12T15:38:00.000Z2004-02-12T15:47:38.530ZPoliticians' Rhetorical Ploys
Tibor Machan on how politicians manage to avoid though questions by using rethorical tricks:
It is the right time now to check in on how politicians and their staff try to hoodwink us all. It isn’t just candidates but a great many public policy celebrities who resort to various ploys-as when they are asked about how they would handle this or that eventuality, andBloggernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5479958.post-1076343640025618262004-02-11T17:56:00.000Z2004-02-11T17:59:28.140ZLong Lines and Cleared Markets
Good advice from Thomas DiLorenzo to all economists who study pricing practices:
It is sometimes said that long lines at theaters, sports events, and amusement parks are signs of a market that is not clearing and that prices should be raised. In fact, people pay in a combination of money and time costs, that's all. With a moderate-income clientele it makes sense Bloggernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5479958.post-1076441640857515352004-02-10T19:34:00.000Z2004-02-10T19:38:37.046ZSpending Like a Drunken Democrat
Peter Eavis on Bush's spending record:
Forget the liberation of Iraq, George W. Bush will be remembered as the president who bankrupted America.
Every president of the past 40 years has contributed to the dire fiscal problems from which the United States now suffers. Bush, however, by massively increasing government spending and doing nothing to reduce the Bloggernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5479958.post-1076344425310585952004-02-10T17:33:00.000Z2004-02-10T18:22:18.856ZUnsustainable spending will force tax increases
Bruce Bartlett on federal spending and future tax increases:
I believe that taxes will probably rise by an amount at least equal to the projected rise in entitlement spending. The two largest components of this are Social Security and Medicare. President Bush talks a great deal about the need to reform Social Security, but the budget makes clear Bloggernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5479958.post-1076267858311938962004-02-08T19:17:00.000Z2004-02-08T19:19:54.280ZFor Bush, It's Game Time
George F. Will on Bush's performance as president:
After the war, in May, on Polish television, President Bush said, "We found the weapons of mass destruction. You know, we found biological laboratories." No, we did not. "So what's the difference?" said the president in December about the failure to find WMDs, because "if [Saddam Hussein] were to acquire weapons, he Bloggernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5479958.post-1076244168395487942004-02-08T12:42:00.000Z2004-02-08T12:44:33.013ZKerry-Edwards?
Article by Robert Novak:
High-ranking advisers to Sen. John Kerry privately say Sen. John Edwards has to be considered the top candidate for vice president on a Kerry-led ticket.
While Kerry and Edwards battle each other in Democratic presidential primaries and publicly disagree over international trade, they also are pulling their punches against each other. North Carolinian Bloggernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5479958.post-1075862152264336372004-02-04T02:35:00.000Z2004-02-04T02:37:32.390Z'Special interests'
Thomas Sowell writes about how every candidate is opposed to 'special interests':
This election year we are sure to hear a lot about "special interests." Candidates of both major parties, as well as candidates of third or fourth parties, are sure to denounce special interests both hotly and repeatedly.
The secret of these verbal fireworks from all parts of the political Bloggernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5479958.post-1075682365514013462004-02-02T00:39:00.000Z2004-02-02T00:41:03.530ZRelease dates for The Passion of Christ
Canada 25 February 2004
New Zealand 25 February 2004
USA 25 February 2004
Greece 27 February 2004
Poland 5 March 2004
Portugal 11 March 2004
Ireland 12 March 2004
Hungary 26 March 2004
Norway 26 March 2004
UK 26 March 2004
Finland April 2004
Spain 2 April 2004
Russia 4 April 2004
Italy 7 April 2004
Argentina 8 April 2004
Bloggernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5479958.post-1075333889982675122004-01-28T23:51:00.000Z2004-01-29T03:50:55.686ZClint Eastwood interview in USA Weekend
(via Tom Palmer)
Do filmmakers have a responsibility when it comes to violence? Doesn't endless, gratuitous blood and guts contribute to actual violence?
I grew up watching Bogart and Cagney. Did their violence make me want to shoot somebody? No. To the healthy mind, it doesn't do anything. Those Columbine guys? They were sickos to begin with. You could Bloggernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5479958.post-1075311188128502482004-01-28T17:33:00.000Z2004-01-28T17:34:41.936ZBloggernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5479958.post-1075311110144355812004-01-28T17:31:00.000Z2004-01-28T17:37:38.293ZHow the Hulk exploded in Iowa
Mark Steyn on Howard Deans's performance in Iowa:
A little over a month ago, in the Wall Street Journal, I wrote that Governor Howard Dean looked ‘like Bruce Banner just before he turns into the Incredible Hulk, as if his head’s about to explode out of his shirt collar’. On Monday night, Dean, a front-runner in the polls only a week ago, placed a very poor third inBloggernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5479958.post-1075253957726710782004-01-28T01:39:00.000Z2004-01-28T01:41:45.000ZThe Case for Dictatorship
David Gordon reviews The Modern Prince: What Leaders Need to Know Now, by Carnes Lord:
Lord wastes no time in letting us know where he stands. Machiavelli must be our guide. In particular, we must learn from him that the supreme form of political leadership consists of founding "new orders." The founding prince molds his society according to his ideas: "Listen to Bloggernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5479958.post-1075164277953237722004-01-27T00:44:00.000Z2004-01-27T00:56:57.733ZThe trial-lawyer populist
Rich Lowry on John Edwards:
The wunderkind former trial lawyer with the gorgeously hair-sprayed bangs and soft, winning Southern accent combines the synthetic sincerity of Bill Clinton and the condescension of Al Gore. He is the most insulting of all the Democratic presidential candidates, both as a matter of presentation and of substance.
He believes that voters are Bloggernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5479958.post-1075079517404537182004-01-26T01:11:00.000Z2004-01-26T01:13:28.826ZWhat Wasn't Said
James Pinkerton analyses president Bush's state of the union address:
Of all the speeches a president delivers, his state of the union address is the speech that is subject to the most behind-the-scenes wrangling. Because nothing gets in to that oration by accident, one can learn a lot about a president's priorities by what's said -- and not said.
Inaugural addresses might beBloggernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5479958.post-1074107733419650502004-01-14T19:15:00.000Z2004-01-14T19:17:25.216ZWe have never been closer to state control of the press
Article by Stephen Glover on how Ofcom may be a threat to freedom in the U.K.:
Ofcom’s draft document shows that it will take a minute interest in the content of newspapers. Where two groups propose to merge, the regulator will require detailed information about ‘column inches dedicated to advertising, regional/local stories, sport, human Bloggernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5479958.post-1074010101438063632004-01-13T16:08:00.000Z2004-01-13T16:09:40.686ZConsumer Freedom
(via Ibergus)
From The Center for Consumer Freedom:
Bloggernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5479958.post-1073926171430832342004-01-12T16:49:00.000Z2004-01-12T16:50:49.140ZA Reply to Schumer and Roberts
Excellent article by George Reisman on the benefits of free trade:
To understand what is present, all one need do is to generalize the situation. Imagine that in case after case Americans are confronted with lower-cost competitors, which causes a decline in their money incomes. But the decline in their money incomes is always less than the reduction in costs Bloggernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5479958.post-1073847147330960772004-01-11T18:52:00.000Z2004-01-11T18:54:24.326ZThe last refuge of the defeated
Mark Steyn on the Democratic party's primaries:
The trouble is the unDean is different everywhere you look. In the Granite State, Laura and co. reckon the unDean is Kerry. In Iowa, it’s Dick Gephardt, the soporific 1970s union throwback. In Arizona, it’s General Wesley Clark, the pantomime stalking-horse entered by the Clintons. In South Carolina, it seems to be Bloggernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5479958.post-1073597102074777012004-01-08T21:25:00.000Z2004-01-08T21:26:16.343ZThe criminal raid on Social Security
Michelle Malkin on the illegal immigration amnesty plan:
According to Rep. Clay Shaw, R-Fla., chairman of the House Ways and Means subcommittee on Social Security, benefits paid to retirees will exceed revenues in just 15 years. The pay-as-you-go system could go belly up as early as 2030. These projections don't take into account the economic impact of the Bloggernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5479958.post-1073476624214301062004-01-07T11:57:00.000Z2004-01-07T14:02:54.436ZLysander Spooner: Libertarian Pietist
Rothbard introduction to "Vices are Not Crimes: A Vindication of Moral Liberty":
We are all indebted to Carl Watner for uncovering an unknown work by the great Lysander Spooner, one that managed to escape the editor of Spooner's Collected Works. Both the title and the substance of "Vices are not Crimes" highlight the unique role that morality and moral Bloggernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5479958.post-1073326783340204182004-01-05T18:19:00.000Z2004-01-05T18:23:05.250ZPaul Krugman's Credibility Recession
(Thanks to JPS for pointing out this article to me)
In short, Krugman’s claim that an unusually large number of people have given up looking for work, and the current unemployment figures are therefore "funny," is false, and would be known to be false by any competent economist.
What about Krugman’s second claim, that "many of those who say they have jobs Bloggernoreply@blogger.com