September 2011
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August 2011
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Babysitting bill in Calif. Legislature →
How will parents react when they find out they will be expected to provide workers’ compensation benefits, rest and meal breaks and paid vacation time for…babysitters? Dinner and a movie night may soon become much more complicated.
Assembly Bill 889 (authored by Assemblyman Tom Ammiano, D-San Francisco), will require these protections for all “domestic employees,” including nannies,...
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Round Two: Does America need FEMA?
dcdecoder:
GOP presidential candidate Ron Paul says federal disaster managers should get out of the way of state and local governments. He’s got an unlikely co-religionist, to a certain extent: Federal Emergency Management Agency Administrator Craig Fugate (at left).
In the second of two parts of Decoder’s look at FEMA (see part one here), Fugate’s public statements on FEMA’s mission and...
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“When the freedom they wished for most was freedom from responsibility, then...”
– Edward Gibbon
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Ron Paul Can Win →
It’s hard to tell if the idea that Ron Paul cannot win in 2012 is more ignorant, in its complete lack of historical sophistication, or more arrogant, in its claim to certainty amid all the complexity of 300 million lives and the myriad issues that affect them. …
Specifically, on all the metrics that a year ago everyone accepted as useful indicators of political standing, Ron Paul is...
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hipsterlibertarian asked: A toaster oven takes more than big-screen tvs, mac server, laptops, refrigerator, washer/dryer, and dishwasher combined? Just...how? And if so, wouldn't that make a full-size electric oven off the charts expensive? Also, just out of curiosity, how do you figure out what appliance is the biggest part of your bill? Do they break it down for you?
“In a sense there have always been but two political philosophies: liberty and...”
– David Boaz, Executive VP, Cato Institute (via crankyminarchist)
A lot of people make the claim that the Cato Institute is just another conservative think tank that has the same beliefs as people like the Koch brothers or Citizens United. But the Cato institute is really a very libertarian group....
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Drug Decriminalization Has Failed? →
Michael Gerson, former speechwriter for President George W. Bush and now a columnist for the Washington Post, has denounced libertarianism as “morally empty,” “anti-government,” “a scandal,” “an idealism that strangles mercy,” guilty of “selfishness,” “rigid ideology,” and “rigorous ideological coldness.”...
The Broken-Window Fallacy →
The Keynesians assume that a market economy can get stuck in a “liquidity trap” in which mutually advantageous gains from trade are not occurring. The possible benefit of alien invasions and terrorist strikes, in this view, comes from their ability to jumpstart the private sector out of its funk.
Yet for those economists who reject such a notion and instead think that markets can...
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David Gordon on Nick Gillespie's and Matt Welch's... →
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Genuine (and Subversive) Support
The Coffee Bean is currently running a “Support from Home” initiative that sends bags of coffee and tins of tea to troops stationed overseas. Customers who purchase a bag or tin for this purpose may then write a short message on the back.
Might I recommend the following message:
Vote Ron Paul. He’ll bring you home from these pointless wars quickly.
(Though I’m sure...
“European welfare states have been in place for decades now, crushing private...”
– Warren C. Gibson
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First Circuit Affirms Right to Record the Police →
Gathering information about government officials in a form that can readily be disseminated to others serves a cardinal First Amendment interest in protecting and promoting “the free discussion of governmental affairs.” Moreover, as the Court has noted, “[f]reedom of expression has particular significance with respect to government because ‘[i]t is here that the state has a special incentive to...
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The Failure of Energy Policy is a failure of... →
Federal energy policy is being driven by the failure of neo-Keynesian economic policy.
Stimulus spending was supposed to end the Great Recession and transform tax expenditure into additional tax revenues. Instead, we are left with both recession and broke government. Obama borrowed from the future and made the present worse. George W. did his share too.
Keynesian economics failed during the...
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I hate ATF Form 4473
“Race (Ethnicity)” is never optional.
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Integrity Redux
amazingatheist:
“So it turns out that Paul Krugman never even said that controversial quote that was floating around yesterday.”
—
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/08/24/paul-krugman-impersonator_n_935186.html
I’m sure all your “Libertarian” scumfucks will apologize.
You mean like that time you posted a quote that was beyond any doubt not by Jon Stewart yet you...
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On the Cause of Unpaid Labor →
So playing college sports is not a unique “student-athlete experience.” It’s a job like any other job. Just like in any other corporate job, you go to work every day for a stress-sick executive who needs you to bust ass 24 hours a day to save his neck and stave off his aneurysm.
Unlike any other job, though, you don’t get paid, because the company you work for, the NCAA, has cleverly designed a...
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Republican Party Dream Candidate →
The Republican Party is desperately seeking a candidate who can unseat Barack Obama.
What qualifications would the ideal candidate have? How about these?
1. He should bring to mind popular past Republican presidents and leaders, to prove his authenticity and excite the Republican base.
2. At the same time, he should be able to win the support of a large number of Independents and disaffected...
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“What is an anarchist? One who, choosing, accepts the responsibility of choice.”
– Ursula LeGuin
“The U.S. Government loves to demand that other countries hold their political...”
– Glenn Greenwald (via azspot)
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Breaking Down the Bernanke Speech →
Ben Bernanke may, or may not be, clueless about the exploding money supply (now 9% plus). But he sure wants to keep the focus away from money supply, since he doesn’t even mention the topic in his speech. Got that? The one thing the Fed does control is the money supply and Bernanke doesn’t mention the accelerating growth in his speech. Bernanke is one tricky dude. Watch the numbers...
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“I won’t perform in Cuba until there’s no more Castro and...”
– Pitbull
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“Don’t you think it is a bit odd for the White House to send out an appeal to...”
– John Goodman on the incredibly low number of people enrolled the President’s pre-existing condition insurance program. (via evilteabagger)
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“The Austrian view is that recessions are the consequence of preceding...”
– Steve Horwitz - Letter to the Washington Post (via evilteabagger)
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On War, Obama Has Been Worse Than Bush →
The total number of troops fighting wars under Obama has been higher than it was under Bush except at the end of Bush’s term. At the first half of the Bush administration, which is when there were people in the streets shouting, “Bush is a war criminal” — when the Left was correct about something — there were fewer troops.
There were more US fatalities in Iraq under Bush,...
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“Libertarianism is not and does not pretend to be a complete moral, or aesthetic...”
– Myth and Truth About Libertarianism, by Murray N. Rothbard (via conza)
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Government is inherently bureaucratic →
Limited-government libertarians believe that government should only do those things that on net promote the general welfare and that [they believe] could not be done voluntarily. These tend to be very big projects such as national defense because large-scale financing is usually the main problem; and they tend to be a monopoly ultimately under the control of government at some level.
Ludwig von...
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Lemmingly, We Roll Along →
When soldiers die, the politicians who sent them to their deaths typically use euphemisms and circumlocutions — like “lost,” “fallen,” or “ultimate sacrifice.” On one level, the avoidance of blunt language can be seen as a sign of respect, but on another, it is just one more evasion of responsibility for the snuffing out of young lives. …
The president’s and Defense Secretary Leon...
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Re: We are the Rope →
The following comment was left at the above-linked post (“We are the Rope,” please read for context).
Putting aside your improper categorization of the United States as a democracy, it seems you are the one with issues in reading comprehension since calling something “circuitous pretzel illogic” is not the same as calling it incomprehensible. It’s abundantly clear...
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FBI organizes almost all terror plots in the US →
The Federal Bureau of Investigation employs upwards of 15,000 undercover agents today, ten times what they had on the roster back in 1975.
If you think that’s a few spies too many — spies earning as much as $100,000 per assignment — one doesn’t have to go too deep into their track record to see their accomplishments. Those agents are responsible for an overwhelming amount of terrorist stings...
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Rasmussen: Obama 39%, Paul 38% →
Legal Obedience →
Decent people should not obey immoral laws. What’s moral and immoral can be a contentious issue, but there are some broad guides for deciding what laws and government actions are immoral. Lysander S. Spooner, one of America’s great 19th-century thinkers, said no person or group of people can “authorize government to destroy or take away from men their natural rights; for...
Everything good for government and public... →
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“The individual must choose between two monstrous packages of services every time...”
– Gordon Tullock
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“I do not believe in the death penalty. 68% of the time they make mistakes — and...”
– Ron Paul
Tumblr’s left-wing hacks won’t reblog this because it doesn’t fit the trite narrative of Ron-Paul-is-a-white-supremacist-lol. Also because they seem to not give a shit about anything that actually matters.
(via statehate)
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We are the Rope
In a post up today at the Huffington Post (no, not The Onion), former Rep. Paul Kanjorski (D-Pa.) had a few things to say about the relationship between corporations and government. First, this:
“Because [corporations] have become so international and global in nature, it’s highly questionable whether governments can actually control corporations to a sufficient degree to prevent...
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Libertarianism
zenlikeme:
A normative theory that sees people as good and rational and able to judge good ideas from bad.
Incorrect. Please see here.
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"Serve and Protect" or "Conquer and Command"? →
The paramilitary approach to law enforcement flies in the face of the idea that the police and the citizens are on the same side. Officer Friendly, strolling the block in a blue uniform and playing a paradiddle with his baton on a white picket fence, looks like he is ready to help carry groceries for the little old lady who lives on the corner. A cop in combat gear with an assault rifle slung...
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Dear Anti-war Progressives: We Are With You →
statehate:
“The boring and hackneyed ‘Glass-Steagall’ myth [goes like this:] that the repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act, which prevented the commercial banks that hold the savings of ordinary Americans from engaging in speculative investment, was the reason for the 2008 crash. This is only true in the narrowest of senses — you have to ignore the entire body of US regulation and the actions of...
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“If the government told you tomorrow that it was going to choose for you where to...”
– Everyday Anarchy, Stefan Molyneux. (via libertarians)
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Ron Paul on The Illusion of Safety →
[G]overnment cannot protect us. No matter how many laws we pass, no matter how many police or federal agents we put on the streets, a determined individual or group can still cause great harm. Both Norway and England have strict gun control laws, and London in particular has security cameras monitoring nearly all public areas. But laws and spy cameras are useless in the face of lawless mobs or...
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