What Have We Become?

Anwar al-Awlaki was killed this morning. He was a citizen of the USA by birth. He was hit by a missile fired from a drone aircraft. On the one hand it is good news for the USA. But on the other hand and very troublesome indeed is the fact that this man was targeted to be taken out, the first recorded instance where the federal government has issued a death warrant for a citizen without the benefit of a trial of any kind. Apparently the federal government assumes the prerogative to kill any citizen at will. GREAT SHADES OF ADOLF HITLER AND THE NAZIS. We have truly become that which we once hated.

Some Wisdom from Thomas Sowell

Despite the widespread notion that raising tax rates automatically means collecting more revenue for the government, history says otherwise. As far back as the 1920s, Secretary of the Treasury Andrew Mellon pointed out that the government received a very similar amount of revenue from high-income earners at low tax rates as it did at tax rates several times as high.

How was that possible? Because high tax rates drive investors into tax shelters, such as tax-exempt bonds. Today, as a result of globalization and electronic transfers of money, "the rich" are even less likely to stand still and be sheared like sheep, when they can easily send their money overseas, to places where tax rates are lower.

Money sent overseas creates jobs overseas — and American workers cannot transfer themselves overseas to get those jobs as readily as investors can send their money there.

The above was extracted from a column published on 7/29/11. Our politicians should all keep this in mind.

Such a Deal

Let's say you are shopping for a new suit of clothes. You go in store number 1 and see a suit you like for $250. But being a smart shopper you continue to look at other stores for a couple of days. But you decide that the most appropriate deal to be had was what you saw earlier in store number 1 so you return to find the suit marked at a price of $300 with an attached sign that reads: “SALE – 20% off”. So you speak to a salesman and tell him that two days ago the suit was priced at $250 but now it is $300 so that is an increase , not a discount.

The salesman replies that they were going to increase the price to $375 so the $300 price represents a 20% discount.

Would you say that is fair? Is it even ethical? No, I don't think so either.

But that is exactly how Washington is fleecing all of us. The budget was scheduled to increase by 7% bur they are only allowing it to increase 5% with their proposed new law. So that is their reduction. A pox upon all of them!

One Liner

Altruism belongs in church, not the ballot box.

The Government Needs Major Surgery

See http://www.cbo.gov/doc.cfm?index=3521&type=0 . This report by the CBO in 2002 shows the growth of the federal government and its expenses as a percent of GDP. Near the beginning of the 20^th century the federal government was about three percent of GDP in 1925. Today it is about 20 percent and is projected to be about 40 percent of GDP by 2075. This raises a couple of questions: (1) What happened to cause this drastic lurch in size? (2) What could be done to halt the growth of the federal government and reverse this troublesome trend?

What happened is easy enough to understand. The liberals-progressives-socialists took sway around the beginning of the 20^th century. Democrats and Republicans alike abused the constitution’s limitations of the federal government. One of the earliest abusers was Teddy Roosevelt who vowed to take all of the power he could.

What can be done follows – bring the federal government into agreement with the constitution. Article I, Section 8 lists the 18 or so general responsibilities of the federal government such as minting the coinage. Note that nowhere does the constitution mention education, yet there is a whole cabinet level department of education, so abolish it. A similar abolishment is called for such departments as agriculture; eliminate it along with the subsidies it passes out. Really, paying a farmer to not grow cranberries in Nebraska is too much!

On the Casey Anthony Verdict

There have been many pundits on TV and radio lamenting the Casey Anthony verdict, saying she was guilty of murder, even though the jury found otherwise. What the folks overlook (at the potential peril of our society itself) is Blackstone's ratio -- "better that ten guilty persons escape than that one innocent suffer."

The "Wrong" Ideal

It seems that politicians as well as the news readers and commentators have the wrong idea of a preferred political environment. They continually speak of bringing democracy to this country or that and our government seems to want to commit the troops to bring this about (as long as the politicians don’t have to face the enemy personally, it’s okay).

Bring democracy to this country or that country at great expense of blood and treasure seems to be the cause of the day. But is it worth it? Is democracy always a good thing? Recall that Adolf Hitler was democratically elected before you attempt to answer the last question. Democracy can have bad, and even tragic, results.

Instead the better political ideal would be (lassiez-faire) capitalism. Something the progressives are progressing away from.