Laissez-faire

Surveillance cameras capture a Chicago police officer repeatedly punching a man in a wheelchair, at a hospital. A Cook County Judge ruled that he cannot be fired!

This is a film about the unsustainable economic policy embraced by this country and its political leaders:

As the economy worsens it seems that people are starting to take Ron Paul more seriously. After all, he has been right. He has been trying to warn us for years now. He even introduced legislation many years ago, attempting to stop the policies that he knew were creating the financial bubble that led to the current economic crisis.

Yesterday was a big day for Dr. Paul. He lambasted Bernanke during a Financial Services Hearing, and actually got him to admit that inflation is a tax. That was followed by three major network appearances. And everyone seems to be agreeing with him now. There is a good summary of the appearances, complete with links to all the youtube videos, at the Campaign for Liberty blog. The interview on Glenn Beck was missing, but it is here.

As Glenn Beck said of Dr. Paul; He’s been right on finances, and America is just catching up to him.

The following videos of the Revolution March were taken in Washington DC this past weekend.

It was pretty amazing. More than a month after Ron Paul withdraws from the presidential race and the movement he helped spark is as big and energetic as ever. Meanwhile, I have yet to see a single McCain sticker, button, or yard sign; even after driving to DC and back.

Hopefully I’ll get my own photos of the march and the rally, up soon. I’ll also try to post some of the speeches.

I heard an interview on the radio with a representative for the IRS, discussing a recent email scam. The scam involves solicitation of personal information by claiming the email is being sent from the IRS. The representative said, (paraphrasing) “We would never solicit personal information from anyone. Think of it this way: we’re the IRS — we have all your personal information.” At least they admit that we have no privacy.

My concern is not that an agency/organization has access to our personal information; it’s that we have no choice in the matter.

John McCain, is proposing a $300 million prize to anyone who creates an automobile battery with significantly greater efficiency than those that currently exist. This would be his way of contributing to the goal of weening us off foreign oil. Well, his way of forcing taxpayers to contribute. And, of course the idea is ludicrous, regardless of where the money is coming from.

It should be abundantly clear by now, that McCain is not a believer in free market economics. If he was, he would understand that the incentive for developing the battery he desires, is already inherent in a free market. Besides that, who says that a battery will be the next big breakthrough in alternative energy? It’s that kind of government meddling that distorts the market and leads to mis-allocation of funds.

Money and attention that might be focused on more feasible solutions is often diverted by false incentives created by government subsidies, and other harebrained ideas like McCain’s. McCain, and most other politicians aren’t scientists and don’t have these answers. These technological advancements should be left to people who know what they’re doing, not people who pretend to know what they’re doing.

John McCain is making a big fuss about Obama’s flip-flop on accepting public campaign funding. I find it ironic that a so-called fiscal conservative (which, he is not) is criticizing a liberal for not taking millions of dollars in taxpayer money to fund his campaign. McCain has accepted public funding of his campaign.

I realize this is not a principled move on Obama’s part. He clearly changed his mind after realizing that he could raise a lot more money from voluntary, private contributions. Accepting public funds would require him to forgo private funding. It was a strategic move, as is McCain’s. McCain needs the public funding, and doesn’t care that it is money that has been coerced from taxpayers.

McCain has a lot of nerve criticizing Obama for flip-flopping on this issue. Not only did McCain flip-flop on this issue during the primary, he broke the law in doing so: The — anti-First-Amendment law that he was partially responsible for.

According to North Carolina Supreme Court Judge, Robert Hodge, “there is no fundamental right for a voter to vote for the party of their choice.” The Libertarian and Green parties were challenging North Carolina election laws that kept them off the ballot. The judge threw out the challenge, arguing that having too many names on the ballot would cause confusion.

According to a recent Canadian Community Health Survey, 1 in 5 Canadians can’t find a doctor. That is over 4 million Canadians without a doctor.

Health fascism is also failing to accomplish its supposed goal: “Despite government-imposed smoking bans and a heightened social stigma, the number of Canadians who smoke has not decreased over the last couple of years, the report says.”

This is not a failure by the people in charge of the Canadian health care system. It’s a failure inherent in the system itself, which relies on central planning. Why so many people in the United States desire universal health care (socialist health care) is beyond me. Government interference has undoubtedly led to problems in our health care system here in the US, but further involvement will only worsen the situation.

In his recent column, John Stossel summarily debunks a few of the myths associated with drugs and the drug war. It’s a bold statement, but one must keep in mind that it is not an endorsement of drugs. Rather, it is an endorsement of a policy change that is founded in the belief that we are the sole owners of our bodies, and maintain the ultimate responsibility for what we do to, and with, ourselves.

If drug use leads a person to violate the rights of another, then action should be taken in a manner no different than if the violator had not used drugs. And if drug use leads to a decline in a person’s health, they should be free to do so, just as a person is allowed to damage their health with poor nutrition, an unhealthy lifestyle, or dangerous hobbies. That is a fundamental right.

Oil hit another record high of $139.89 today, even after news of Saudi Arabia’s plans to increase output.

“Oil has doubled in the last year and risen 40 percent since the start of this year, boosted by expectations that supply will struggle to meet demand from newly industrializing countries such as China and India.

“The weak U.S. dollar and investment inflows have contributed to oil’s advance to a record of nearly $140 a barrel this month.”

Ron Paul ended his campaign for the presidency but there is still much being done to advance his causes and continue the movement that he helped start. He made the announcement at a rally in Texas yesterday and he has a short “thank you” message at his former campaign website.

Aside from continuing his efforts in congress, the remaining $4.7 million from his campaign will be used to fund his new Campaign for Liberty; an organization designed to perpetuate the r3VOLution. (Note the photo on the home page: It was taken at a rally in Ann Arbor last summer)

The Mission:

The mission of the Campaign for Liberty is to promote and defend the great American principles of individual liberty, constitutional government, sound money, free markets, and a noninterventionist foreign policy, by means of educational and political activity.

Paul will also be holding a rally along side the Republican National Convention on September 2nd, where he has been virtually shunned:

On July 12th, supporters will take part in a “Revolution March” in Washington DC. Many prominent speakers (including Ron Paul, himself) and performers have already been confirmed for the event.

Plus, much more to come, I’m sure.

And — big surprise — Romney plans on flip-flopping.

I keep hearing reports of Bernanke’s inflation concerns intensifying, or something similar to that. It’s like a child who breaks his mother’s lamp, and then out of guilt, tells her that there may be something wrong with the lamp.

The Federal Reserve has added billions of dollars to the economy to bailout banks and artificially lower interest rates. That IS inflation! When you inflate a balloon, you do so by putting more air into it. The economy is inflated by putting more money into it. The rise in prices that we are beginning to experience, is simply the logical result of inflation. As the abundance of something increases, its value decreases. The decreased value of the dollar, in turn, causes producers to require more money for the same products and services.

He has a very good reason to be concerned about inflation. That’s exactly what he has been doing!

Detroit police raided the Contemporary Art Institute of Detroit on May 30th during a reoccurring event they call “Funk Night.” According to the website, The CAID, one of the few decent things in Detroit, is “a community based non-profit organization. CAID fosters and promotes the essential link between contemporary arts and contemporary society through its exhibitions, performances, critical and public discourse and the funding of contemporary arts and art related activities.” They often host an event where people come and dance to old funk music.

Since Detroit police don’t have much crime to tend to, they decided they would crack down on people dancing. That’s right, people are being robbed, raped, and murdered; and Detroit police are arresting people for dancing without a permit.

“The cops yelled at the patrons to hit the floor. Witnesses said some officers used their feet to force down a couple of people who failed to move fast enough or asked too many questions.”

Whose side are they on, anyway?

Chinese police broke up protests at a school that collapsed due to last month’s earthquake. The protesters were parents of students who died in the school, angry with the poor construction of the government buildings.

Lew Rockwell explains why this specific tragedy (the building collapse) is largely the result of socialism. A common attribute of governments with socialist policies, as in this case, is the lack of accountability. It is no wonder that police are attempting to silence protest.

Rockwell asks, “What if the resources aren’t available? What if the workers lack the skill to accomplish the task? What if the machines that are to build them do not work properly and lack replacement parts? What if resource supply should be allocated differently according to the needs of the people? Under socialism, economics is beside the point. The schools must appear. This is the way the system works.”

As for the need for building codes:

And what about building codes and their enforcement? It is a great myth that these are somehow responsible for the soundness of our buildings. Private enterprise meets the demand for safety as well as it meets any consumer demand. Your house doesn’t fall in because of building codes but because the builders are liable for mistakes and because there is competition among them to build better buildings. What’s more, private enterprise regulates itself, with a vast array of regulatory codes that are self-enforcing (Underwriters Laboratory, for example, is entirely private). So why do the government codes exist? Mostly they are used by large companies to erect barriers to entry by smaller firms.

“Another undeclared failed foreign war endorsed by the peace candidate,” writes Jim Ostrowski.

Barack Obama, in a speech last week, expressed his desire to continue US involvement in the failed war on drugs in South America. As with other wars, there is a cost in human lives and American tax money (over $20 Billion this year so far alone). And in this case, as well as with other illegitimate wars, all of this is exchanged for little, if not counterproductive results — the end certainly not justifying the means. A true peace candidate would not support an unjust war such as this.

More on why the war on drugs is a failure and an atrocity from:
Cato - Rethinking the International Drug War
Milton Friedman - The Drug War as a Socialist Enterprise
William F. Buckley - The War on Drugs is Lost
Reason - The Drug War’s Souther Front