Don't Know Much About Capitalism

Here is a great article by Tom Woods which answers the Left's (and mainstream media's) assertion that capitalism and deregulation is the cause of our economic woes.

Newsweek Ignorance

As I sat down in the lobby at the Red Cross over lunch today, the March 23 cover of Newsweek caught my eye.

Naturally this was like cat nip for me so I picked it up to pass the time.

http://www.newsweek.com/id/189232

What an amazingly inaccurate and mindless pile of incoherent drivel. How can such scripted diarrhea be passed off as real journalism? Are there no prerequisites to getting into the field of journalism? Have once-respected major news outlets borrowed a staffing page from the military human resources manual and implemented IQ caps?

And the funny thing is that I was so distracted by the free chocolate chip cookies they give out, that I didn’t notice until I drove away that I walked out with the magazine. Part of me considered turning around to give it back, but in light of another brilliant revelation found on the cover of Newsweek…
















…I decided it was for the “greater good of all” that no one else read it. It remains in my car.

Pastor Beaten by Border Patrol

This video will make your blood boil.

Tea Parties revisited

Here is a great article from Don Cooper about the "tea parties".


ARE YOU KIDDING ME?

I watched closely all the tea parties all over the country Wednesday. What a showing of national pride and solidarity. What a showing of subservient compliance and casual indifference. What a joke.

In Lafayette Park, Washington D.C., of all places to protest, the plan was to dump one million tea bags in the park, but the brave dissidents never did it because they forgot to get the proper permits. Are you kidding me? What is civil disobedience without civil disobedience? They even went so far as to say that they were willing to put down plastic tarps and clean up after themselves.

That’s like saying we don’t agree with your oppressive, unconstitutional despotism of our nation and to show our ire in no uncertain terms we’re going to break public law and disrupt the peace so take that, nah- nah-ne-boo-boo. But don’t worry because we’ll put everything back when we’re done as if nothing happened cuz we don’t want any trouble!

[read the rest of the article here]

Tea Parties

Corresponding to national tax day yesterday, there were numerous "tea parties" throughout the US protesting the massive spending spree the government has undertaken. A friend emailed me today to get my thoughts on these tea parties. I post our conversation because it sums up my thoughts.

-----MESSAGE-----
FROM: JASON
TO: JAKE
SUBJECT: TEA PARTIES
Hey boss,
So today a bunch of law students were heading up Tuscaloosa's "TEA party." I was curious what you thought about these? Anyway, I hope things are going well for you. 24 days until I graduate!
-Jason

-----MESSAGE-----
FROM: JAKE
TO: JASON
SUBJECT: RE: TEA PARTIES
My first impression is that I would give more credence to the idea of the tea parties if the Republicans in attendance gave an unconditional mea culpa for the past 8 years. My problem is that all of a sudden the conservatives have crawled out of the woodworks to now instantly become fiscally responsible. These are the same jackholes who wage perpetual war against any and all nation states (or collection of disorganized freedom fighters ["terrorists"]) and pin the debt on our posterity.

Yet when Obama spends, borrows, and prints money, NOW that is unconstitutional and they want the country back. To be sure, they ARE correct - Obama is awful. But they all are awful.

In the end, I am happy that they are taking place and I think for them to be successful, all partisan politics must be checked at the door. There must no longer be Republicans and Democrats. They must all be collected together in the spirit of freedom.

Out of curiosity, where do these law students typically stand ideologically? Do you see many liberals?
-Jake

-----MESSAGE-----
FROM: JASON
TO: JAKE
SUBJECT: RE: TEA PARTIES
The law students that were behind the tea party were all very Republican. And I use that word instead of conservative on purpose. Many of them have worked in Alabama or D.C. For senators, etc. and are very much in the political arena.

As for the law school in general, it is probably evenly divided or slightly leaning right as a whole. Obviously this is a very different makeup than most law schools.
-Jason

-----MESSAGE-----
FROM: JAKE
TO: JASON
SUBJECT: RE: TEA PARTIES
Ask them where they've been for 8 years. I have no tolerance for these beltway Republicans. I find them more repulsive than Democrats even though I find more collective common ground with the GOP (or the OLD GOP). With Democrats, I know what I'm getting. I'd rather be punched in the face than stabbed in the back.
-Jake

-----MESSAGE-----
FROM: JASON
TO: JAKE
SUBJECT: RE: TEA PARTIES
I completely agree with you. However, my discussions generally don't get far with them because many of them still feel like Iraq is/was the right choice. I am not only dealing with Republicans, but southern Christian Republicans that believe America does no wrong when it flexes its muscles in other sovereign nations. It's America's (or better yet God's) calling.
-Jason

-----MESSAGE-----
FROM: JAKE
TO: JASON
SUBJECT: RE: TEA PARTIES
I was listening to Jamie Allman's morning radio show earlier this week. I don't know if you ever listened to him while you were here, but he is a Bush Religious Republican to the T. I'm not sure why I was listeningto him - maybe I'm just a glutton for pain.

Allman was going on and on about how Obama is creating massive amounts of debt for our future generations to pay off. He is right about that. But he excused the past 8 years of foreign spending because Bush was "making an investment" for our future generations since he was "eradicating Islamo-fascism". You gotta love that term, BTW. Add fascism to the end of anything and it sounds bad.

It is all coming to a head right now - we are living in very interesting and pivotal times right now. Talks of secession are becoming more popular. One of your neighbors to the west is already considering it - the Texas governor has come out and openly considered it in the news. My prediction: Obama (who idolized Lincoln and was even sworn in on his Bible) will step in and prevent any secession movements from happening, just like the bearded tyrant of the 1860s. The empire only EXPANDS, not contracts. Who will pay the king's blood money?
-Jake

Obama Wants Another $83 Billion for Iraq and Afghanistan

Yes, the leader of the "party of peace" has requested more money from Congress to ensure the killing can continue. But I thought that Obama was going to bring the troops home?

Despite the rhetoric, Obama's foreign policy agenda might be worse than Bush's because not only does he have an insatiable desire to police the world, he has the political support of the domestic and international sheep AND - even more devastatingly - the congressional purse.

Study: Drug Legalization Could Save UK $20 Billion

Not only is the War on Drugs morally abhorrent, it has devastating financial implications as well. A study performed by Transform Drug Policy Foundation suggests that a legalized, regulated market could save the UK around £14 billion ($20 billion). [full report here]

As I have previously written, marijuana should be completely decriminalized and legalized. How amazingly shallow, yet realistic, that policy shifts are controlled more by economics than by their root in liberty.

A Nation of Jailers

Here is a great article by Glenn Greenwald detailing the stupendous number of Americans sitting in prison, using quotes from Virginia Senator Jim Webb's speech on the senate floor two weeks ago, including the following:

Let's start with a premise that I don't think a lot of Americans are aware of. We have 5% of the world's population; we have 25% of the world's known prison population. We have an incarceration rate in the United States, the world's greatest democracy, that is five times as high as the average incarceration rate of the rest of the world. There are only two possibilities here: either we have the most evil people on earth living in the United States; or we are doing something dramatically wrong in terms of how we approach the issue of criminal justice. . . .

Home Prices Falling

The pathetic collection of beltway zealots have pursued their crusade to make home prices "affordable", but their idea of affordability has been to depress interest rates while promoting inflated home prices. This effort to win the support of their constituency is carried out by keeping home owners happy since the increased home price ruse can continue, while making buyers more dependent on the benevolent Fed by means of their depressed interest rates. This encourages individuals to purchase their over-priced home through debt financing instead of buying a reasonably-priced home by means of personal savings.

Just the same way the laws of gravity cannot be repealed, the laws of economics can also not be repealed, as evidenced by the reality of long-overdue falling home prices.

This is a rare case where the perspective taken by the media is that of the buyer, and gives a much-needed mainstream news article that does not perpetuate the falling price fallacy.

Mexico Doesn't Have a Drug Problem...

...Mexico has a United States problem.

The following is a great article written by Fred Reed about the futility of the War On Drugs and how America have moved the battle from our soil to Mexico's. (read his blog)

La Rubia y La Droga
March 30, 2009

I read with horror that Hillary Clinton, posing as the Secretary of State, has been in Mexico talking with Felipe Calderon, Mexico’s president, about “the problem of drugs.” Horror is the reasonable response whenever an American official is allowed to pass beyond the beltway. Or stay within it. They never know what they are doing. Oh god.

In fairness, I have to concede that Ms. Clinton is well qualified to talk to Calderon, since he speaks…English. Further, I concede that she does have a grasp of things Latin American, engendered by many years in…Arkansas. Aaagh.

May I suggest that the former First Basilisk had no idea where she was or what she was doing? Oh god, oh god. Oh god.

To show that utter futility can, if not be fun, at least serve to pass an idle hour, let me express the common Mexican and indeed South American view of the, oh god, War on Drugs. It goes thusly:

[Read the entire article here]

Cop Murders Teen Then Plants Gun

[Note: the child cop image above is a representation of the collective level of maturity and intelligence found in our police departments. These "men" (and women) deserve our scorn, not our respect.]

The handgun found near a teenager shot and killed by a Minneapolis police officer in 2006 could not have been carried by the teen, new court documents allege: It had last been in possession of police before it was found next to the body of Fong Lee.

To see a security camera video of the chase before the shooting, click here.

The court filings in a lawsuit filed by Fong Lee's family against Minneapolis police and the officer who fired the fatal shots, along with a review of police reports, witness statements and other documents, raise the possibility that Fong Lee was unarmed when an officer shot him eight times — and that the pistol that officers said they found near his body was placed there after the shooting.

The gun in question had been recovered earlier after a burglary and turned over to police, who kept it as evidence and had never returned it to its owner.

Moreover, Minneapolis police "may have tried to deliberately alter history by writing new reports indicating the gun recovered near Fong Lee's body was not the same gun" that had been recovered after the burglary, according to Richard Hechter, a lawyer representing Fong Lee's family, wrote in an affidavit filed in U.S. District Court on Monday.

"The evidence supports a claim of planting a gun, especially since irrefutable video evidence and eyewitness accounts establish Fong Lee did not have a gun at the time he was killed."

UPDATE: Officer Tickets Driver While Rushing to See Dying Relative

UPDATE: The police parasite who stopped Ryan Moats last week has resigned. Given his limited skill set and level of intelligence, his next place of employment should logically be with the FBI or DEA.