Remember when Barack Obama was against all that Bush was for?
Debt limit being raised? Against it. [Though to be fair, every single Democrat in the Senate, every single one, voted against it. And I suspect now that each and every one will vote FOR it. Again, in the spirit of fairness, every single Republican also voted FOR it. Sill y business hits.]
War in Iraq? Against it.
Gitmo? Against it.
Rendition? Against it.
And now this one. Libya.
Posted in Diplomacy, Liberty, Politics: International
Tagged Barack Obama, Egypt, George Bush, Iraq, Libya, Regime Change
My last post in this space demonstrated that the Middle Class in America has gotten larger, not smaller, over time.
I made the point that more and more people are making more and more money even as we keep the dollar values locked into 2008 values:
In 1967 [earliest data available] 83.7% of the families in America made less than $75,000 in constant 2008 dollars.
That percentage in 2008? 59.7%.
In other words, 16.3% of Americans were making $75k or more in 1967. In 2008, better than 4 in 10, or 40% of Americans were making that same money.
And the mean income in 2008? $79,634.00 compared to $49.606.00 in 1967. Not only has the median income gone up, but the % of people making it has gone up as well.
But how does it FEEL today vs. yesterday? Are we able to enjoy a standard of living that is significantly better now than it was then?
Well, I think so:
You know, when I read about the story that suggested parents have their children taken from them if those children are morbidly obese, I recoiled a little bit. I mean, sheesh, have we really come to that? Are we really at the point where the state can take our kids if we aren’t feeding ’em like they think we should?
According to Dr. Ludwig, state intervention would involve placing a child in temporary foster care while his parents were taught about better parenting and weight loss. Removing a child from home would be used as a last resort, reserved for cases where the child has severe obesity-related conditions such Type 2 diabetes, breathing difficulties and liver problems, the Associated Press reports. Rather than place the blame on parents, the goal of state intervention is to act in children’s best interests, and in some cases, it is “the only realistic way to control harmful behaviors,” Ludwig wrote.
Shouldn’t a parent be able to decide what’s best for their children and government be damned?
Then I saw this story:
Raleigh, N.C. — Raleigh police charged a father with misdemeanor child abuse Wednesday after his 3-year-old daughter left home and walked across four lanes of traffic on Lynn Road.
The girl was not injured.
Aaron Harris Rush, 27, of 920 Hearthridge Court, told police that he was home asleep because he “stayed up until 6 a.m. for no reason,” according to court documents. His bond was set at $1,000.
Police said the little girl, Katelynn, crossed Lynn Road and then walked several blocks down North Hills Drive before someone noticed her and called police.
It turns out that parents often times don’t have their kids best interests at heart. For example, thousands of children are born to Democrats everyday!
I kid.
But back to the point. If I wanna catch a fish here in North Carolina, I have to have a license. To catch a fish. Because if I don’t have a license I might…um, well, I might endanger the population of fishes.
If we can arrest parents for endangering their kids, and we rightly should, is it THAT far of a stretch to think that maybe we should require parents to obtain a license to have a child?
The Democratic governor of Minnesota backed down yesterday. Said governor, who claimed to be elected into office with a mandate, has realized that he’s damaging the state of Minnesota. Unlike his election, the election of a republican congress DOES carry a mandate. And that mandate is “no new taxes”. So, after allowing the state to experience a government shutdown for nearly two weeks, the governor accepted a deal that the republicans had offered as far back as June 30.
Despite my serious reservations about your plan, I have concluded that continuing the state government shutdown would be even more destructive for too many Minnesotans,” Dayton wrote to legislative leaders. “Therefore I am willing to agree to something I do not agree with — your proposal — in order to spare our citizens and our state from further damage.
Dayton walked away from the edge. I suspect that he realized his partisan agenda didn’t mesh with the responsibilities of governing a state. And he relented.
This should serve as a guide to national republicans. This is how the debate is to be won.
Posted in Economics, Liberty, Politics: National
Tagged Budget, Democrats, Mark Dayton, Minnesota, Republicans
Ladies and Gentlemen of the Republican Congress,
Congratulations on your efforts to force the liberal leftist Governor into agreeing to your deal.
Now, don’t be asses and insist on your social agenda policies. This is about the budget. Let it BE about the budget.
Love,
Pino
Posted in Government, Liberty, Politics: National
Tagged Budget, Democrat, Mark Dayton, Minnesota, Republican
Wisconsin.
Unions.
Scott Walker.
“This is a disaster,” said Mark Miller, the Wisconsin Senate Democratic leader, in February after Republican Gov. Scott Walker proposed a budget bill that would curtail the collective bargaining powers of some public employees. Miller predicted catastrophe if the bill were to become law — a charge repeated thousands of times by his fellow Democrats, union officials, and protesters in the streets.
Still think so?
Posted in Education, Liberty, Politics: National
Tagged Scott Walker, Unions, Wisconsin
Dan Mitchell has an awesome document that represents the changes to the Declaration of Independence that might be made if the Liberal Elites had their way.
Enjoy:
IN CAMBRIDGE, July 4, 2011.
The unanimous Declaration of the Ivy League,
When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for all peoples to strengthen
political control over rampant individualism, and to assume among the powers of the
earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and Gaia entitle them, a
decent respect to the opinions of personkind requires that they should declare the causes
which impel them to expand government.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all people should be made equal, that they are
endowed by their government with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are jobs,
healthcare and housing.–That to secure these rights, Governments must rule over the
people, deriving their just powers from the consent of the elite, –That whenever the
people becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the Elite to alter or to abolish
it, and to institute more Government, laying its foundation on such principles and
organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect the power
and control of the elite.
Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments should not be reduced or constrained;
and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that personkind are more disposed to suffer,
while capitalism is sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which
they are accustomed. But when a long train of liberties and freedoms, pursuing invariably
the same Object evinces a design to liberate them from the elite, it is government’s
obligation, it is their duty, to impose more Government, and to provide new Guards for
their future security.–Such has been the patient sufferance of the elite; and such is now
the necessity which constrains them to expand their former Systems of Government. The
history of the Founding Fathers is a history of repeated limitations on state power, all
having in direct object the restriction of an absolute Tyranny over the people. To prove
this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.
They refused to facilitate more Laws, based on our evolving definition of what is
necessary for the public good.
They have forbidden the bureaucracy to impose Laws of political importance, unless the
Constituion is amended.
They refused to allow other Laws for the accommodation of dependency among the
people, depriving those people of the right of paid vacations, maternal leave, and cable
TV.
They imposed limitations the power of government that were unusual, uncomfortable to
the ruling class, for the sole purpose of limiting government power.
They restricted the power of Congress repeatedly, thus hindering invasions on the rights
of the people.
They refused for a long time, after such restrictions, to allow courts to create new rights
for Internet access and electric cars to the People at large for their exercise; the State
remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of inadequate power to control
people’s lives.
They endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing
automatic voter registration for illegal immigrants.
They obstructed the imposition of bureaucracy, by refusing their Assent to Laws for
empowering the Judiciary to expand government.
They required Judges to obey the Constitution, instead of treating it as an evolving
document.
They failed to erect a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither inadequate swarms of
Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.
They failed to impose among us, in times of peace, a big enough EPA, BATF, or OSHA.
They affected to render the people independent of and superior to the state’s power.
They combined with citizens to limit the elite with a constitution, making it difficult to
impose our preferred Legislation:
For Quartering large bodies of bureaucrats among us:
For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which
they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:
For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:
For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:
For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:
For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences
For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province,
establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as
to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same
absolute rule into these Colonies:
For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering
fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:
For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with
power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
They limited Government here, wanting the President to get approval before waging War
against Libya.
They made it difficult for us to plunder the seas, ravage the Coasts, burn the towns, and
destroy the lives of people.
They would forbid transporting large Armies of U.N. Mercenaries to compleat the works
of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy
scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a
civilized nation.
They constrained to the federal government so it could not bear Arms against the
Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves
by their Hands.
They failed to allow an income tax until 1913, which delayed our ability to bring on the
inhabitants of our nation, the merciless IRS agents, whose known rule of warfare, is an
undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.
In every stage of these unpleasant freedoms We have Petitioned for Redress in the most
humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A
Constitution whose character is thus marked by every act which may define freedom, is
unfit to enable the enslavement of a free people.
Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our Brittish brethren. We have warned them
from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction
over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement
here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured
them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would
inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the
voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity,
which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies
in War, in Peace Friends.
We, therefore, the Representatives of the political elite, in faculty lounges, Assembled,
appealing to the United Nations for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and
by Authority of government, solemnly publish and declare, That the American people
ought to be governed by the United Nations; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance
to the Constitution, and that all political connection between them and the Founding
Fathers, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as highly-taxed and dependent
States, they have full Power to levy taxes, disrupt Peace, contract new departments and
agencies, regulate Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which the political
elite may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the
protection of the establishment media, we mutually demand your Lives, your Fortunes
and your sacred Honor.
I believe in the nobility and the divinity of the soul.
I feel that all life is precious and a gift given to us by that power which each of us is free to name; or not name.
I understand that part of our responsibility is to provide for the relief of others less fortunate, whether this be in the short term or in the long term.
I am aware that my successes and joys are the result of the sweat and sacrifice of those generations that have come before me. In some cases, these sacrifices were true and terminating; think soldiers dying in war. In other cases, these sacrifices were of labor and drudgery; think the factory worker. And in others, these sacrifices were of joy and celebration; think educators. I stand on the shoulders of giants.
I know that all mankind is obligated to watch and care for his brother. That the joy and peace of my fellowman is a much mine to care for and grow than if it were my own. It is, after all.
When sick, we should heal.
When hungry, we should feed.
When poor, we should enrich.
When tired, we should relieve.
When burdened, we should shoulder.
These are things that I know. And that I hope to be teaching.
After these things, when they have all been satisfied to my ability, I reflect on the worlds view of me. And I am at peace.
However, it causes me no small amount of pain and frustration that because I believe in these things, these things that, when wrapped into one concept which I call Liberty, I am called greedy or callous. That because I believe that the proper and most noble state of man is found within Liberty that I should be thought of as selfish.
As if.
I find it more noble and empowering to “want” in freedom than to “have” in bondage.
There’s an old saying attributed to Benjamin Franklin:
Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Liberty is a well-armed lamb contesting the vote.
When I read it I wrinkled my nose. Lunch is too modern a word and well-armed is too….well, too neo-con.
I like my take better:
Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for dinner. Liberty is a lamb contesting the tyranny of the majority.
Government can not take from me what is not first mine. No matter the tyrant or the number of them.
IN CONGRESS, July 4, 1776.
The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America,
When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.–That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, –That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.–Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.
He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.
He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.
He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.
He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.
He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.
He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.
He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.
He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.
He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.
He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.
He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:
For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:
For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:
For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:
For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:
For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:
For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences
For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:
For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:
For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.
He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.
He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.
He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.
He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.
In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.
Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our Brittish brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.
We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.