March 2011
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On Public Employee Unions →
I value freedom of association, and non-association, even in ways that are not always popular and often deemed despicable. I support a person’s right to be a member or not be a member of a labor union. From my view, the only controversy regarding unions is what should they be permitted and not permitted to do.
According to the Department of Labor, most union members today work for state,...
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“There can be no liberty unless there is economic liberty.”
– Margaret Thatcher
February 2011
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Next Step for TSA/DHS: DNA "Genetic Patdown" In... →
Related: My Case Against the TSA.
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“There has grown up in the minds of certain groups in this country the notion...”
– Robert Heinlein, Life-Line (1939)
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Obama's War on Whistle-Blowers →
Last April, the DOJ served a subpoena on New York Times reporter James Risen, demanding to know his source for a story he published in his 2006 book regarding a ”reckless” and horribly botched CIA effort to infiltrate Iran’s nuclear program. That subpoena had originally been served but was then abandoned by the Bush DOJ, but its revitalization by the Obama administration was...
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L.A. Liberty: A Personal Note on Unions →
dionthesocialist:
laliberty:
Anyone who’s spent half a minute perusing my blog knows that I loathe unions. Public sector unions in particular are especially ruinous.
You would likely also know that I work in the film and television industry in Hollywood. There isn’t a better city in the world for job opportunities in my…
Dude, the reason why you were paid less before you joined the union...
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Public Union Roundup
In case you haven’t read my personal note on unions, my stance is simple: I loathe them (particularly in government). While I of course agree with Walter Block, one of my intellectual heroes, that one mustn’t side with government - I don’t agree that it’s a choice between government and unions. I am siding with the taxpayers against unions who wield the power of government....
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“Nothing is more dangerous for man’s private morality than the habit of command....”
– Mikhail Bakunin
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“I prefer liberty with danger than peace with slavery.”
– Jean-Jacques Rousseau (via missdaisyvo)
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“A political system based on buying the acquiescence of the voters with...”
– Edward Zehr (via statehate)
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A Personal Note on Unions
Anyone who’s spent half a minute perusing my blog knows that I loathe those government-granted monopolies on labor known as unions. Public sector unions in particular are especially ruinous.
You would likely also know that I work in the film and television industry in Hollywood. There isn’t a better city in the world for job opportunities in my field. Problem is, the industry is rife...
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Top 10 Labor Union outrages →
bushranger:
1. Wisconsin on fire: When the Wisconsin legislature prepared to vote on requiring unionized government workers to increase paltry contributions to their health care plans and pensions, teachers abandoned their classrooms to protest and Democrats in the state senate fled to Illinois to avoid a vote. State workers make an average salary of more than $50,000, with another...
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“96% of Democrats who practiced school choice voted against voucher programs....”
– Freedomain Radio (via evilteabagger)
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“It is in war that the State really comes into its own: swelling in power, in...”
– Murray Rothbard
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Recognizing the Right to Record Cops →
This should be happening everywhere.
Connecticut State Sen. Martin Looney (D-New Haven) has introduced a short bill (PDF) that not only acknowledges the right of citizens to record on-duty police officers, it also provides for a civil action against police officers who violate that right.
That second part is important. A right doesn’t mean much if there are no consequences for government...
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State of the State: California in 2011 →
According to CBPP, California has the highest projected absolute budget deficit in the United States in FY 2012 totaling over $25 billion, and the fifth worst projected relative budget deficit in FY 2012 equaling 29.3 percent of its FY 2011 budget.
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“The communist countries had the worst environmental record in the world; the...”
– NY Times best selling author John Ringo (via nomosshere)
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A Libertarian Antipoverty Agenda →
First, eliminate all minimum-wage and occupational-licensure laws. … These laws cut off the bottom rungs of the economic ladder for those lacking the skills to earn higher wages or the capital to pay for the licensing requirements.
Second, open up the public schools to competition, if not outright abolishing them. Urban public schools are not just ineffective, they are also positively...
Civil Societies Cannot be Built – They Must Emerge →
While we should cheer for liberalization to grow and spread throughout the Middle East, American principles counsel our government not to interfere. One of these principles, after all, is that government (even our own) is an inherently dangerous agent best kept on as short a leash as possible. Another of these principles is that top-down social engineering is bound to have undesirable unintended...
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“A private school cannot force customers to purchase its product, nor can it...”
– Andrew Bernstein, The Educational Bonanza in Privatizing Government School, The Objective Standard (via iosepos)
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“The propensity of our contemporaries to demand authoritarian prohibition as soon...”
– Ludwig von Mises (via statehate)
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Re: Cleaning Out Recyclables? →
laliberty:
Is it worth cleaning that last blob from the jar? Unfortunately, the answer is yes, as Mother Jones magazine discovered. San Francisco’s recycling coordinator says cleaner “bales” fetch more money, which funds most any city’s program.
If recyclables are indeed worth more to the city clean, then the city should clean them.
If the city performed a cost-benefit analysis and found...
Recommendations
If you haven’t already, I kindly request you recommend a libertarian to the Tumblr directory.
There’s evilteabagger, who was kind enough to go on a “recommend LA Liberty” spree last week. Also, statehate, hipsterlibertarian, and coeus are highly recommended.
And while you’re at it, check out missdaisyvo, jayfarmington, crankyminarchist, and 12onpaul.
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“The very atmosphere of firearms anywhere and everywhere restrains evil...”
– George Washington
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“Firearms stand next in importance to the Constitution itself. They are the...”
– George Washington (via evilteabagger)
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An End to Foreign Aid →
Virtually every story you read about Senator Rand Paul’s plan to cut foreign aid mentions Israel first and foremost. Never mind that Paul has proposed that we cut all foreign aid—which means literally every single country we currently subsidize. Never mind that Paul points out that although we give $3 billion to Israel annually, we also inexplicably give about $6 billion to countries that...
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Cleaning Out Recyclables? →
Is it worth cleaning that last blob from the jar? Unfortunately, the answer is yes, as Mother Jones magazine discovered. San Francisco’s recycling coordinator says cleaner “bales” fetch more money, which funds most any city’s program.
If recyclables are indeed worth more to the city clean, then the city should clean them.
If the city performed a cost-benefit analysis...
The Presidency and Mythology →
(Judge Andrew Napolitano’s closing remarks on last night’s President’s Day episode of Freedom Watch.)
Does the government work on behalf of the people or do the people exist for the benefit of government? Is history a recollection of things that have actually happened, or a narrative deployed to legitimize power and the crimes that led to the acquisition of that power? …
...
Democracy Versus Liberty →
It is truly disgusting for me to hear politicians, national and international talking heads and pseudo-academics praising the Middle East stirrings as democracy movements. We also hear democracy as the description of our own political system. Like the founders of our nation, I find democracy and majority rule a contemptible form of government.
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Big Brother's Social Network Presence
Forget (for the moment) the government takeover of the internet euphemistically known as “net neutrality” or the 84,000 websites the government shut down ‘by mistake.’ Big Brother is climbing in your Facebooks, snatching your privacy up.
First, there’s this:
“A privacy watchdog’s freedom of information request has revealed a government memo encouraging agents to...
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Unions and Government Shouldn't Mix
Hopefully the situation in Wisconsin serves as a bellwether about the danger of unions within the government sector. Elected officials have fled the state and government workers have been striking instead of working (Though their general productivity has probably only just barely dropped. Funny how that works…). Doctors have even joined the crowd to hand out fake doctor’s notes in...
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38 Years for a Crime He Didn't Commit →
Stopped by police in Palm Beach County, Brown and his friends were arrested and jailed in connection with a 1969 rape and robbery. He was brought to Miami-Dade County, tried in juvenile court and acquitted — the victim couldn’t identify him despite numerous lineups and an appearance on the stand.
Somehow, he was put on trial again, despite the constitutional prohibition against double...
A Real Revolution →
It is one thing for Tunisians to topple a government with not much of an army, and another for Egyptians to take on a state where the loyalty of the army was uncertain (and largely pro-people). But the Libyans have taken on a state that was willing and able to shoot back (much like the shia of Bahrain), even to the point of using anti-aircraft guns and artillery against demonstrators, and it...
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“As someone told me years ago, you can’t fight city hall, but you can pee on the...”
– Gary North
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“It’s amazing to me how many people think that voting to have the government give...”
– Penn Jillette (via statehate)
Medicare Fun Fact of the Day →
In 1965, government experts projected that in 1990, on an inflation-adjusted basis, Medicare would cost $12 billion. In reality, Medicare in 1990 cost $107 billion. Oops.
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“If NASA engineers had evidenced the same level of forecasting skill as our top...”
– Peter Schiff
Wireless Taxes and Fees Keep Rising →
Wireless users, on average, now face a combined federal, state and local tax and fee burden of 16.3 percent, a rate two times higher than the average retail sales tax rate and the highest wireless rate since 2005. …
Targeting wireless consumers, however, disproportionately effects poorer families and may have ramifications for long-term state economic development and growth. Higher taxes...
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There Goes That Violent Tea Party Again
Oh, wait…
No, this is just a little “Organizing for America”-sponsored union civility.
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Democrats want to ban the term "ObamaCare" (in the... →
evilteabagger:
anxiousweasel:
After two House Republicans called it “ObamaCare,” Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.) asked the chairman whether these “disparaging” remarks should be allowed on the House floor.
“That is a disparaging reference to the president of the United States; it is meant as a disparaging reference to the president of the United States, and it is clearly in violation...
