24 Sunday Mar 2013
Tags
depression, government corruption, government regulation, ludwig von mises, recession, unemployment
Depression and mass unemployment are not caused by the free market, but by government interference in the economy.
– Ludwig von Mises
25 Friday Jan 2013
Posted in Environment, Politics
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Tags
fema, government corruption, government regulation, housing regulations, new orleans, unintended conequences, zoning laws
“It was just a fire. It can all be replaced,” said Brad Taylor. But it’s not quite that simple in the era of government meddling and mismanagement.
The Taylors bought a house in New Orleans. They’ve been assiduous in paying their mortgage. They purchased proper home insurance. Then their home burned down.
Problem: FEMA has reclassified the land they are on, and now they are required to rebuild to government specifications that are ludicrous, and — as local officials admit — are a de facto moratorium on post-Katrina construction.
Just keep this in mind as the president ramps up his global warming crusade. Like elections, laws have (unintended) consequences.
31 Tuesday Jul 2012
Posted in Politics
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More meddlesome know-nothings…
That’s right $1000 or 6 months in jail if you don’t put your pet in a seatbelt in your car. If we hadn’t had seat belt laws all these years, maybe a few of these prats in government might have died in a car accident and saved us from their reformist nonsense.
Good job, New Jersey.
30 Monday Jul 2012
Posted in Economics, Energy, Environment, Politics
Increasingly, the actions of the political class and the meddlesome Progressive tits they represent are taking a familiar shape. Don’t eat this, don’t drink that, don’t feed your child from a bottle — it’s got to be breast milk or you’re not a real woman (or a responsible parent); you can’t travel without special permission or harassment and now the EU wants to tax international flights to raise the prices and limit your ability to move about the planet; you must conform to increasingly arcane regulation and tax laws that these would-be aristocrats can avoid; you can’t ride in a cheap limo — take the taxi, that’s for plebeians.
Nowhere is this more apparent than the environmental movement, where wealthy and connected folks couple with useful, alarmist idiots to try and “preserve” the planet from the evils of modern civilization. You should live in reasonable sized housing: treehugger.com’s founder tells us 420 square feet is more than enough (if you’re a rich single or couple with no kids, maybe) and we live in far too large domiciles. I have a 1700sf home or so…two adults and a 15 month old tornado barely fit.
Of course, if you don’t have a kitchen full of appliances — like a stove (Why do you need that? You’ll be eating garden fresh home-grown sustainable organic vegetables!) or microwave (radiation!), or a dishwasher…just a small refrigerator should do, right? Bill McKibbben of 350.org would love to see you emulating your 13th Century ancestors, “Forget your computer, your TV, your stereo, your stove, your dishwasher, your water heater, your microwave, your water pump, your clock. Forget your light bulbs, compact fluorescent or not…slash your stock of clothes to a comfortable (or even uncomfortable) minimum.”
Why would you want to have light? To read? You’ll be working in your garden, saving the planet! Computer, TV, stereo…those aren’t for you! Leave that to the important folks running things. You’ll be happy with a slower pace of life and not distractions — like gather ing information to make informed decisions or engage in the political sphere. Clothes!?! Peasants wore a set of clothes, maybe two. They were happy, were they not? (No…they weren’t.) Ride a bike to work, if you must labor outside of your postage-stamp sized croft. Cars are dangerous and dirty (but the politicians will need them to get around quickly — they have much more important work to do!)
Meanwhile, these “experts” and “leaders” spend our hard-earned money on ridiculous programs, projects, in meddling (unsuccessfully) in “investment” of sectors of the economy where their friends and family are ensconced…much like Louis XVI or George III.
But sooner or later, collectivist and statists get the same lesson taught (they never learn from it, mind you): society is made of individuals. And when you piss enough of them off, you’re for the chop.
07 Thursday Jul 2011
How dare you seek to own your own life and work?
20 Monday Jun 2011
A national poll by the Tarrance Group has found that both Republican and Democratic voters realize the “unseen” costs of regulation on the People. As I found out today, the costs of regulation and terrible energy “policies” is steadily hurting the American people — food shopping today showed a 10-20% increase over last week in nearly every product I was looking for (average was about 13%.)
We cannot afford the leeches in Washington anymore — between their shit monetary policies that have degraded the dollar, their profligate spending that will soon turn us into Greece, and regulatory burdens designed to create a massive, overpowering bureaucracy and a boon for trial lawyers — it is time to throw the whole lot out.
13 Monday Jun 2011
Posted in Law Enforcement, Politics
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Tags
dallas, first amendment, government corruption, government regulation, institute of justice, personal property, property rights
First it was a city ordinance that restricted the sorts of signage a business could use (conveniently, this only apply to small businesses.) This includes things like hanging your hours of operation on your door. Then it was a $300,000 fine for daring to take the city to court over this intrusion into personal property.
The ordinance specifies that no sign may appear in the upper two-thirds portion of any window or glass door. In the space that remains, signage may not take up more than 15 percent of the available window space. The ordinance carefully carves out an exemption for artistic and political speech. So a gigantic “Vote Obama” sign is acceptable, but one that states “20 percent off on Wednesdays” is not.
I’m surprised they didn’t use the SWAT team to enforce the ordinance; they could have blown out the offending windows to cost the proprietors more money. Many handcuffed, tasered, or just shot a “threatening” customer?
This is our new America…enjoy the change.
(Looks like the Institute of Justice is getting involved in this. Let’s hope their excellent track record of protecting our rights holds and this law is struck down.)
03 Friday Jun 2011
Posted in Law Enforcement, Politics
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Tags
alameda fire department, alameda police, government incompetence, government regulation, orlando
The Orlando Sentinel brings us a story about homeless activists being arrested for feeding the homeless. “Jessica Cross, 24, Benjamin Markeson, 49, and Jonathan “Keith” McHenry, 54, were arrested at 6:10 p.m. on a charge of violating the ordinance restricting group feedings in public parks. ‘They intentionally violated the statute,’ said Lt. Barbara Jones, an Orlando police spokeswoman.” Maybe because a bad law shouldn’t be honored.
At least the police waited until everyone had been fed before slapping on the cuffs.
This is what government meddling leads to — we’re expected to leave our fellow man to the ravages of government-run charity…and while we’re told to “help our fellow men” and think about the community before ourselves, when we do we wind up in the slam.
Here’s a related story: firefighters and police in Alameda California left an old man to drown because of an idiotic state law that prohibits firefighters from engaging in water rescues; the cops didn’t go in after him because he might be suicidal and armed — in other words, they’re cowards. It took a civilian to jump in after him…because of stupid government laws and cowardice and sloth on the part of the people who are paid to do this sort of work. Which leads me to the same question I have about Congress, which refused to do their primary job of setting out a budget: Why are we paying you? What good are you?
These are the wages of Progressivism.
01 Wednesday Jun 2011
Posted in Politics
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Terry Pierce of North Carolina Pierce recently declared that he would begin enforcing a statute passed almost 20 years ago in his state forbidding restaurants from serving hamburger patties rare.
28 Saturday May 2011
Visit them at ij.org
