New York Times Columnist Hits the Nail on the Head

Thumbing through the NY Times, I stumbled across this article.

Perhaps the best defense of free trade and outsourcing I've heard in quite a while.

-kg*m/s

Dear Freedom Lovers

We're going to be having a Libertarian "party" tomorrow, Thursday the 17th at Super Taco at 6:30 to be followed by a screening of some sort of Liberty-minded documentary at a location to be determined (We know, we just don't want to tell everyone yet). We'll be talking about some ideas we have for the organization but it'll be very informal, so feel free to come for whatever political discussions come up. We'll also probably talk about having official meetings and where they'll be, but anything else that comes up you will definitely be hearing about here (and via email).

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adam

South Carolina Still Thinks Personal Liberty is a Pretty Darn Good Thing

A Greenville law has come before the South Carolina Supreme Court that, if overturned, will give private property owners in South Carolina at least some of their rights back.

Charleston.net: High Court to Hear Smoking Ban Case

Most of the debate surrounding smoking bans in bars and restaraunts center around people who are smokers and people who are not smokers, and which rights should be allotted to which of those two groups. Often, the private business owners are left out! What rights do they have concerning which types of people they do business with?

To more socialistic states like Florida or New York, the answer is that private businesses only have the rights that the state government lets them have. This flies in the face of the ideals that this country was founded upon. Governments are instituted to protect liberty, not to protect health.

We can only hope that the South Carolina Supreme Court judge upholds personal liberty with regard for private business owners and that all smoking ban advocates move to a nanny state like New York that doesn't care as much for property rights.

-kg*m/s

Global Warming

John Tierney over at the New York Times has a great article on Global Warming - summing up my beliefs in a nutshell. Read it here.

A notable excerpt:

Slow warming doesn’t make for memorable images on television or in people’s minds, so activists, journalists and scientists have looked to hurricanes, wild fires and starving polar bears instead. They have used these images to start an “availability cascade,” a term coined by Timur Kuran, a professor of economics and law at the University of Southern California, and Cass R. Sunstein, a law professor at the University of Chicago.

The availability cascade is a self-perpetuating process: the more attention a danger gets, the more worried people become, leading to more news coverage and more fear. Once the images of Sept. 11 made terrorism seem a major threat, the press and the police lavished attention on potential new attacks and supposed plots. After Three Mile Island and “The China Syndrome,” minor malfunctions at nuclear power plants suddenly became newsworthy.

The only people who really don't believe in Global Warming are those who have no scientific reasoning skills. The problem, rather, is with the fear-mongering Al Gore technique. Many politicians, as a result, will use the Global Warming scare to gain more power and regulate more aspects of our life.

What's really unfortunate through this whole deal is how much good hasn't been done because of Government intervention. Look at ethanol. It's expensive, it's not profitable, and it's making food prices rise. Want to see a real reversal of a climate degradation? Let the market decide.

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adam

The Wall between Church and State

Thomas Jefferson was a huge advocate of the separation of church and state (along with many religious leaders of the time). Unfortunately, 200+ years later, Americans have regressed into intolerant religious fanatics attempting to legislate morality in the name of Jesus (not Allah!). Remember, separation exists to protect religion from the state just as much as to protect the state from religion. Anyways, I figured Ron Paul was a big supporter of a secular state, so I was thrilled to find this interaction:

Here's the transcript, of Ron Paul's reaction to Mike Huckabee's Christmas ad, given a short while ago on Fox News:


STEVE DOOCY: Mike Huckabee has started running an ad in Iowa, where you're at right now, also in New Hampshire and South Carolina, and in the back, it's a windowpane but it also looks a lot like a cross. And, and, we had a guest a little while ago who said it was inappropriate to be using religion for political purposes. Congressman, I'm just curious what you think?

RON PAUL: Well, I haven't thought about it completely, but you know, it reminds me of what Sinclair, uh, Lewis once said, he said 'when Fascism comes to this country, it will be wrapped in the flag, carrying a cross.' I don't know whether that's a fair assessment or not, but you wonder about using a cross like he is the only Christian, or implying that subtly. So, uh, I don't think I would ever use anything like that.

DOOCY: So, uh, Congressman— you know, uh, Governor Huckabee is not selling fascism. He's — simply sending out a Christmas message, anyway, just curious how you felt about that. Congressman, if you would sit right there in Des Moines just for a moment, we're going to take a quick time out...

Source

For more information (recommended reading, really) click here

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adam

Polar Opposites: The President and The Constitution

This is old news by now, but is still worth a mention because of the irony.

CBS reported that President Bush told General Musharraf of Pakistan that he could not be "the president and the head of the military at the same time."

Contrast this position with Article II, Section II, Clause I of our own Constitution:

The President shall be Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States, and of the Militia of the several States, when called into the actual Service of the United States; he may require the Opinion, in writing, of the principal Officer in each of the executive Departments, upon any Subject relating to the Duties of their respective Offices, and he shall have Power to grant Reprieves and Pardons for Offences against the United States, except in Cases of Impeachment.

-kg*m/s

Huckabeesuckinaspresident!

With the surge in polls of Arkansas' former populist governor Mike Huckabee, the GOP is basically saying:

"Screw you fiscal conservatives and lovers of rationality."

If he ends up receiving the nomination, libertarian minded citizens will fully divorce themselves from the Republican party.

A few months ago, Huckabee spoke about being the "President of Main St. not Wall St." (He's anti greed! Ayn Rand, now's your turn to shiver!). Also, Mike Huckabee doesn't believe in Evolution.

Hey: The 1600s called. They want their geocentric thinker back.

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adam