Unbiased Media

Posted on May 2, 2010 by john

Dear Friends,

It seems to me the disinterested media does itself a great disservice by taking sides. Especially considering the side it always takes.

To be unbiased a reporter must believe in total government. Take George Stephanopoulos. He was a member of the Clinton White House. Now he is an unbiased journalist. The average consumer of news is made to believe that he or she can take what he reports at face value. When in fact… that is exactly wrong.

Unbiased journalists deplore entertainers like Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, Howie Carr and others like them. They, according to the unbiased journalist, are biased. In fact they even admit they are biased and as a result let the unwitting consumer of news know the bias and let them consider the information carefully. The unbiased reporter however wants the unwitting consumer of information to be ignorant of his bias. So he can have more sway. Which is more honest?

The unbiased journalist always leans to statism. They are enamored with the potential of government to solve problems. The fact that government only creates more and bigger problems is of no concern. Because they themselves would be far more enlightened. The Elite that control the unbiased press should take heed however.

Look at the state of free speech in Venezuela. Hugo has closed all the media outlets that are unfavorable to him. The last one Hugo sent to jail on some trumped up charge. This could be the fate of the present unbiased media if they keep to the path they have taken.

But they honestly believe that the Statists they help are utterly virtuous. The Elite media, who have the lowest possible opinion of you and I, feel the Elite statist is incorruptible. Ignoring the weight of human history. Just like the muskrat that steps in the #2 leg hold. He has no ability to imagine what is about to happen to him. The Elite media however are not so ignorant. Unless they will it. Some even seem to worship the power of the State. They hold it is the greatest power on Earth.

Now take the average man and woman. He or she is busy producing. The average person only wants the government to keep off his or her back. Being compassionate some misplace their compassion and advocate programs that seem, at face value, to help the poor. But in reality have pernicious incentives that not only lock the poor in poverty but drive an ever expanding impoverished class.

The average person must rely on the unbiased media to glean information. For years there was no alternative to the unbiased media. Very few people had access to less colored (yellow) information. With the rise of new media people are beginning to see that those who call themselves unbiased are in fact insidiously biased.

Look at the coverage of any policy initiative. If it is intended to reduce the power of the State the unbiased media dwell on negative aspects of the proposal. If the initiative increases the power of the State it is welcomed as a much needed breath of fresh air. Absolutely no critical reporting of it is allowed in the unbiased media. Only flowery rhetoric. Costs are of no concern.

The facts the unbiased media do not report are telling. Look at the violence at the US Mexico border. Drug gangs have invaded the US and fired on the US military. Where is the reporting? It would seem this is a news worthy story. At least as news worthy as Tiger Woods infidelity.

With the power of the unbiased media waning they are becoming more radical. They know the are far to the left of the American citizenry. So they pulled out the stops to get the government we have. The vilification of Bush was unending. Regardless of it’s merit. The result is the government we are now floundering with. On Bloomberg Radio the other day I heard a interviewee say that the job situation today at 9.7% unemployment is better than it was under Bush in 2002. “The jobless recovery.” She didn’t mention that the unemployment rate was around 6% then and GDP growing. Yea… much worse.

With this caliber of reporting on the economy I am amazed that ABC, CBS, CNN, MSNBC… etc (unbiased media) are still in business.

Oh, That’s right… I hear viewer ship of the unbiased media is dropping off the table…

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Apperances Trump Reality

Posted on May 2, 2010 by john

Dear Friends,

It seems to me that people the world over, generations from now, will be paying for the poor decisions that the party in power in the United States are making. Decisions that will inevitably lower the lot of Mankind.

Not the least of which is the way the democrats and the administration deals with critics. A question about the costs of a given policy are answered by calls of racism. People who make legitimate policy points about the role of government are called, tea baggers, hate mongers, racists, Nazis, and other such vitriolic names by the unbiased media.

Look at the reporting of race baiting some Senators and Congressmen claimed were made by opponents of the health care bill. Utterly unsubstantiated, no video, no audio, in a place where every person there had a cell phone capable of recording the event. Yet reported as fact… without question.

Vilifying political enemies is old hat. But in the past in the US once a party is in power it lowers the rhetoric to maintain a sense of propriety. This group has taken political rhetoric into the gutter. The constant ad homonym attacks come like bullets from a gattling gun. They have taken it to the point where they even call opponents potentially violent. Intimating the use of the State monopoly on violence to their political end.

Like the arrests on the Hutaree. I hope and pray they are glistening turds. Because the alternative is so alarming. The arrests send a message to opponents. That message is, “You better watch out, we control the apparatus of power, and we are not afraid to wield it.”

The history of the twentieth century and the beginning of the twenty first, teaches us that violence comes from the left… not the right. Look at Europe during their recent troubles, (any meeting of international leaders). Youths wearing communist red and carrying communist banners burned businesses and threw Molotov cocktails at riot police. How may times have you seen references to this behavior in the press. The unbiased media are loathe to focus on violent demonstrations that come from the left.

Earth First is a violent faction that is responsible for bombings and arson in the US. Millions of dollars of damage to business and infrastructure have been destroyed at their hands. William Ayres of the Weather underground is responsible for murdering a police officer in a terrorist attack… IN THE US! Yet he walks free, due to a technicality, and is a big supporter of President Obama. In fact the President announced he was running for the US Senate from Ayres home. Could Mullah Omar be released on just such a technicality?

Now if I associated with a known, admitted and unrepentant violent terrorist, society would shun me. I would be ineligible for political office. I would be watched and monitored by the FBI. If, God forbid, I got mad and ranted on a tapped phone line I would do such and such. I would be arrested just like the Hutaree. Yet the American people have elected a president that is exactly such a man (is best friends with an American home grown terrorist). Lets file this under, no way that could go wrong… like setting off a cherry bomb in your underwear.

The unmitigated expansion of government, the party in power proposes, is staggering. The last bill they passed is the biggest intrusion in the personal lives of it’s citizens the US government has ever made… (and withstood constitutional muster). But what they have done is the tip of the iceberg. What they want to do is alarming. They want to set up nothing short of a command and control economy. They know once an entitlement is started it is never stopped. Like the Mohair subsidy, (for World War One uniforms).

Some people might be thinking, “Too bad for Americans.” But, think of this. If the American economy’s growth slows a mere 1%. (And that is the best case). That translates into slowed growth for the rest of the world on the order of 1%. If this is the case that slowed growth will lower the income of people for the next few generations and possibly for eternity. Cumulatively a small drop in GDP growth over time is what made Argentina go from parity with US citizens in 1900, change to the Argentinean citizens personal GDP of $7,508.00 to the US Citizen’s $46,716.00 (measured in US dollars) in 2009. This small difference in GDP growth compounded over a century has amounted to this wide disparity.

Imagine the choices of the party in power in the US will amount to this same drop in the growth of the world economy. Not only the great grand children of US citizens will be greatly harmed but those of the African, European, Asian and South American will be harmed as well.

But… he does speak well… and he got a Nobel Prize.

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Gridlock is good

Posted on May 2, 2010 by john

Dear Friends,

It seems to me that the best thing to come out of the healthcare bill was the gridlock that prevented the government from enacting even more statist policies.

Progressives, socialists and communists are Statists. They believe that the State should make decisions for the people. That is at the core of their belief system. It is obvious in every policy and law they propose. From putting sterilants in our drinking water to control our population to seatbelt laws their philosophy is that the State must make every decision for the people. Peter Shumlin, a Progressive candidate for Vermont governor said on VPT, “What the legislature does best is make the decisions for the people…” What does this statement say of this candidates attitude to his constituents?

Government always makes decisions at too high a level. It is the nature of government. Political appointees need cronies. Cronies need henchmen and henchmen need something to do. Since they are usually half wit cousins of the Elite they are incompetent. That is why they have been given cushy government jobs. So some half witted incompetent, who knows nothing of what the people do under him do, decides how many paper clips to put on a piece of paper.

During the Second World War the Soviet Army launched a counter attack on the city of Khrakov. The Soviet forces had detailed plans. They were told to be at certain locations at these times… else be shot. The Soviet Army Launched the attack with overwhelming forces.

As the Plan rolled out opportunities that presented themselves were not taken advantage of. Flaws that presented themselves were not repaired on the scene. The plan was the plan and they had to stick to it.

The Germans however were not so tied to their plans. As opportunities presented themselves officers on the ground took them. As flaws were shown officers on the scene closed the flanks. The result was the loss of 207,000-240,000 Russian soldiers lost killed or wounded to 20,000 German. The efficiency of the use of the forces was what made the difference.

Illustrating in human lives the difference in efficiency of what level of management decisions are made. Yet Statists staunchly disregard history and empirical facts and kneel to their religion. A religion of the State. They worship the power of the State. They seek to wield it’s power as theirs.

They all believe that if only…

The “right” people are put in charge it will work great…

The if the people have the “right” attitude to government guidance it will work great…

The “Right” Elite and or the “right” people do not exist… and never will. The congenital nature of man is evil. Yet we all have within us a seed of goodness. As Mencius said. “there is no one who is not disturbed at seeing a child fall into a well.”

History shows that there is no bridge Statists will not cross. Just communists, according to the Black Book On Communism, have murdered between 80 million to 100 million people in the 20th Century. The Progressive Adolph Hitler was responsible for another 60 million human lives. Statists have spilled much blood in the name of the State. Why would anyone think that a movement that is responsible for so much violence in the past is not capable of it now?

Early 20th Century Progressives in the USA cheered Mussolini and Hitler and the feelings were mutual. The writers on American text books praised the new Communist government in the USSR. Eugenics was in vogue in the USA under the Progressive philosophy.

The nut is that to have the basic philosophy of the Progressives, Communists and Socialists you must believe that your fellow man and indeed yourself are nothing but lab rats for the Elite to experiment on as they see fit. Without oversight…

No way that could go wrong… Again…

So the longer they are gridlocked the better.

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Healthcare Bill… Constitutional?

Posted on May 2, 2010 by john

Dear Friends,

It seems to me that the question of the constitutionality of the new health care overhaul will be a litmus test of where our constitutional republic stands.

The part about government forcing the people to buy a product stands out. Regardless of the merit of the product this power is not given to government by the Constitution. If the Supreme Court gives government the ability, to order the people to purchase whatever the government sees fit… liberty is lost. There is no end to the mischief that government can do with this draconian power.

To take an extreme example, what if the president started a company, Obama’s cookies. Then the Democratically controlled congress and Senate passed a law ordering every citizen to purchase an Obama cookie every day else be fined. Lets further say that Obama cookies are the most healthy food made on Earth. And they cancel out the negative effects of cigarette smoking. Would this pass constitutional muster in your mind?

We allowed the cookies to have great merit. We allowed the cookies to have great positive externalities. But most reasonable people would still argue that the Obama cookie scheme is unconstitutional. But if the Obama cookie scheme is unconstitutional how can forcing every US citizen, (Except the people who passed the law and their cronies), to buy insurance else be fined, be constitutional? In fact if the health care overhaul is constitutional so will be the Obama cookie fiction.

The Supreme Court has made the precedent that it can bring in extra national laws to apply to the interpretation of the US constitution. So given this precedent, why not use a segment that works from the Venezuelan Constitution? Or the North Korean for that matter. I am absolutely sure some constitutionally allowed power can be gleaned from the Saudi Arabian Constitution that would work in this situation.

If a Constitution does not give a power to government explicitly then government does not have that power. That was how constitutions were supposed to stop the propensity of government to become tyrannical over time. We are seeing that even this protection is being undermined by calling it “living breathing.”

Until some government institutes a NUMA we will continue to have this problem. (Government becoming tyrannical over time). This has been the underlying theme of political reform over the millennia. From Socrates, Mo Ti and Confucius to Ronald Reagan, Margaret Thatcher and Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev, government has been evolving towards liberating the people. Shackling government with a constitution was genius and a giant leap forward.

In the case of the USA we now see the age limit of constitutional government to be around two hundred years. Not bad. But wait…there’s more… Most constitutional republics don’t last two hundred years. To date only the USA has been a constitutional republic for two hundred years (other than Rome). Most last less than one hundred years. Some only last a few days. The life span of a constitutional republic is related to the conditions under which it came into being, the caliber of men who wrote the constitution, the quality of the men who interpret it and the fidelity of the people to it.

With the introduction of a NUMA perhaps the life expectancy of constitutional republics can be stretched out. The Elite being incapable of controlling themselves. Ask them, any time they are caught in some scandal, that you or I would go to jail for, they were tempted by that evil lobbyist, that evil special interest or that evil constituent… They are never to blame for their actions it is the tempters. You and I however do not have that luxury. We are held to the highest standard of conduct. And it is enforced.

Every McDonalds I have been in lately has video monitoring of every employee. They make little over minimum wage and they are constantly monitored for quality, productivity and security. Yet we must expect far far less from our elected employees? Who we pay far far more? They have been caught in every possible scandal yet they still have no oversight… except themselves. Well I say if it is good enough for the government it should be good enough for McDonalds!

Lets see… What if we eliminated all the managers from McDonalds and all the video equipment. Stop counting the cash registers at night and keeping track of how much supplies are ordered. How long do you think McDonalds would stay in business? Even though there has never been a scandal at McDonalds like selling votes for refrigerated cash. What if we pay the McDonalds employees $250,000.00 a year to be honest. Still with absolutely no oversight. Would that keep them honest… or make them more dishonest?

There is essentially no limit to the power of government today. The old shackles of the Constitution are being re forged to shackle the people instead of the government. We are being told that it is for our collective best interests… even as the newly forged shackles are being placed on our hands and feet. All that remains is for the Supreme Court of the United States to place the lock.

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Ideas Create Reality

Posted on May 2, 2010 by john

Dear Friends,

It seems to me the that, when someone has an idea and wills it forth, it can benefit Mankind or injure Mankind. The act of creation being crucial in the development of humanity. We advance and learn from the accumulated knowledge and inventions of those who have lived before us. The aggregate of their invention has raised our lot. There have been a few that have dramatically lowered the lot of Man but most have raised it.

Ideas and their offspring can be utile. Like a piece of furniture. A woodworker comes up with an idea for a new piece of furniture that will fill a need. Then he decides what wood to use, how it should be constructed and finished. (The utility f the item was decided when the person saw the need and answered it in his idea). Then he or she builds the piece. It may be effective at filling the need it was built for, it may be ineffective at filling the need it was built for or it may be found to be effective at filling some other need that was never envisioned. The idea is utile in that it fills a need that can be filled with a piece of furniture.

The utility of an idea may be in it’s entertainment value. Many people have become wealthy by filling people’s need for distraction. The need for distraction grows as free time grows. Movies, television, and any of a host of things fill this need.

Ideas may be utile only in their luster. Creating a new type or style of jewelry for example. Inventing a new setting for stones that is cheaper, stronger or better in some way than existing means of setting stones in jewelry.

Other utilities can be supposed. But in order to be beneficial to Mankind an idea and it’s outcome should be utile. If it is not utile market forces will quickly make it extinct. The market can be reliably counted on to be pragmatic. Let people assign a value to a creation and vie for market share. The market will determine it’s utility.

Unfortunately this is not the case. Market forces are not always used. In fact Government often undermines or warps outcomes to achieve some political end. (Some politically powerful group is benefited). Ideas are subject to increasing scrutiny as the person having it is lower on the societal scale.

I forget what philosopher said this, but, one of them said that; Appearances are more important than facts. Take a person giving a speech. Lets give him a lisp. Further lets make him very homely. A nice hump on his back and a nasally tone to his voice. Though he is a fountain of wisdom he will be ridiculed a fool. Derided as too stupid to walk among men. But take another person hansom and articulate. A tone to his voice that gives one shivers up his leg. And no matter the drivel he vomits he will be idolized and deemed a genius.

This explains why many great ideas have fallen by the wayside, While others that lower the lot of Man have been elevated. If an idea or invention helps the people but in some way damages the interests of the Elite it will be vilified and reviled by beautiful people. The person who can get just the right quiver in his voice will sway the masses… to their own injury. The unbiased media is complicit. They studiously avoid telling the whole story… About anything.

I am given hope by the rise of new media. New media has already caught unbiased reporters fabricating from whole cloth hit stories about politicians they dislike. There is nothing more destructive of liberty than a biased media that claims to be unbiased.

With “new” media creating supply (of content), demand has shown itself to follow Say’s Law… and grows. “Supply drives demand.” the old classical economist maxim. This new content (like you are reading now) opens the ocean of ideas to the valley of demand for them. Filling this valley will raise everyone’s boat. Even if it is a life vest.

Unfortunately the US and other government’s are looking to clamp down on the free flow of ideas that the internet represents. They see people being empowered as a threat. Rightly so. Tyrants that world over quiver at the thought of an informed populace. Look at the lengths China has gone to. I would bet if you typed in “International Capitalist Party” (without quotation marks) in a Chinese search engine you wouldn’t get a single link to this sight. (Like Bing).

As government puts the brakes on the flow of information through the internet the economies of the world will inevitably suffer. GDP will be lowered for generations. But really, isn’t that a small price to pay, so that the Elite can keep oppressing people?

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Government as the Provider of Services

Posted on May 2, 2010 by john

Dear Friends,

It seems to me that all legislation that makes the citizen get services from government are like poison ivy in our economic and legal gardens. It takes up space but produces nothing of value. It is intractable and very hard to eradicate. And whenever anyone brushes against it they sustain injury.

The faction in power in the USA today follow Machiavelli’s maxim that, “The wise Prince makes his people depend on him for everything and in every way, thus he will insure the loyalty of the people.” As the Elite make more and more people dependant on government they make more people dependant on their benefactors in government. The vote of a dependant is assured. The democratic system can and has been, (many times), undermined buy this very tactic. Many people have happily voted in their tyrants.

The legal system is under attack in such a case. Government does not allow itself to be sued unless the Elite have a political agenda and allow it. So if government does not deliver on planned services there is no legal recourse. Moreover if those that need the services that by legislation only government can provide, but government is not providing, have no recourse at all. Unless they find a political patron. Those that run afoul of bureaucracy find it increasingly stubborn as they place more pressure. There is simply no leveraging a bureaucrat. Except with a political patron.

The unwise politician who correctly sees the natural weaknesses in government delivered services, that dares threaten the gravy train, is always wounded… sometimes badly. All government programs set up current flows. Like water current these capital currents form a channel. It forms to the level of the capital and then simply moves funds along it‘s course. Trying to change the course of water… or largess, is difficult and dangerous.

Anytime any legislation that moves government in that direction is dangerous and should be though through very carefully. Stopped if possible. Especially under a government that has no NUMA. As we have mentioned above, when government delivers services, and they are delivered poorly or not at all, there is no recourse. Couple this with the fact that, like poison ivy, this type of legislation is very hard to get rid of, anyone who wants to spread this must be nuts.

The Healthcare legislation is the worst manifestation of this principle possible. It is nothing but two thousand pages of seeds to be planted in everyone’s backyard. They will have ten tears to sprout and grow before we will reap their real fruit.

Trying to get healthcare will be like mowing a lawn infested with poison ivy. The results will be similar. Elevated blood pressure. Elevated temperatures, Elevated pulse rate, a stinging rash and time spent with sticky ointments (bureaucrats).

The Elite keep trying to convince us that it will be great when the government runs our lives. Healthcare is the narrow end of the wedge. Let it in and there is a whole wedding party behind. The mess will be left for our children and grandchildren to clean up.

We need to ask ourselves… How much closer do we want to get to 1984? Or are we already there and just don’t know it?

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The Congenital Nature of Government

Posted on March 21, 2010 by john

Dear Friends,

It seems to me that the congenital nature of government is evil. But before we can consider that government is evil we must first consider what definition of evil we will use.

In this instance we are not arguing that government is demonic. Or that it is controlled by some supernatural malevolent force. In this instance we are using secular definitions of evil only. The malevolent force is human.

Hsun Ching argued the congenital nature of Man is evil. His definition of evil was that evil is chiefly characterized by profound selfishness and self centeredness. He went on in his logic to claim the goodness in us is a learned trait. His definition will work quite well for our usage. In the case of the congenital nature of government we will define evil as pure self centeredness. Without regard to others.

How is government born? Almost every government that has ever come into existence has done so by violent means. Non violent revolutions are very infrequent and often are short lived before some strong man takes over… violently. People not used to liberty quickly vote it away for mere baubles.

Government is born of violence and government exists by violence. That creational violence is always followed by reprisals for past violence. Government uses violence so much we don’t even notice. Every police action is violent at it’s soul. Government sponsored violence. Violence done to the individual for some perceived societal good. Seldom are other enticements offered by government. Violence is the main tool in government’s tool box.

What if you or I refuse to pay taxes? If we are adamant about it we will have our homes assaulted in the middle of the night by armed government agents. Like in New Hampshire. Violent means will be used on our person to extract money for government to use to some other evil end. Committing violence on some people on the other side of the world.

Even when government seems to be benign… it is evil. Government will “help” this or that group that the Elite want to garner political favor. How does government do this? By violently taking the property of one and giving it to another.

If it is wrong for an individual to put a gun in my face and force me to give money or property… why is it good for government to do worse? One black dot being seen as black but many black dots seen as white. Are our collective eyesights that bad?

Those that advocate for total government, progressives, communists and socialists, always want a draft. They love the idea of coerced servitude to government in the form of military service. They decry a volunteer force. Because a general requirement for military service gives them colossal powers. Power to defer politically connected sons and daughters from service (to political ends). Power to threaten anyone with forcing their son or daughter into military service if they don’t do as ordered. There is no end to the mischief that can be done when the Elite have a general draft.

Moreover I never understood and still don’t, how a person can have a pitifully low opinion of his fellow man. Such that they believe that he should not be trusted with arms. His free speech should be limited by a fairness doctrine, his decisions should be made for him by government, and that he is so corrupt he cannot be trusted in any way without government oversight… can possibly believe that people in government can be trusted at all? How does that jibe? If all people are corrupt, stupid and menacing, how can you believe that people can be trusted with unlimited power in government? These people always protect the caprice of power. They defend corruption in government but decry it in the private sector.

Government holds others to a much higher standard then it does itself… in every way. Not only in outright corruption but in personal behavior as well. Politicians daily get away with personal conduct that would land you or I in jail. Running a prostitution ring from one’s apartment for example. Ignorance is no excuse under the law… unless you write that law.

What is more selfish than holding others to a much higher standard than oneself? Therefore, what, is more evil?

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Ideas and Their Free Flow

Posted on March 17, 2010 by john

Dear Friends,

It seems to me the that, when someone has an idea and wills it forth, it can benefit Mankind or injure Mankind. The act of creation being crucial in the development of humanity. We advance and learn from the accumulated knowledge and inventions of those who have lived before us. The aggregate of their invention has raised our lot. There have been a few that have dramatically lowered the lot of Man but most have raised it.

Ideas and their offspring can be utile. Like a piece of furniture. A woodworker comes up with an idea for a new piece of furniture that will fill a need. Then he decides what wood to use, how it should be constructed and finished. (The utility f the item was decided when the person saw the need and answered it in his idea). Then he or she builds the piece. It may be effective at filling the need it was built for, it may be ineffective at filling the need it was built for or it may be found to be effective at filling some other need that was never envisioned. The idea is utile in that it fills a need that can be filled with a piece of furniture.

The utility of an idea may be in it’s entertainment value. Many people have become wealthy by filling people’s need for distraction. The need for distraction grows as free time grows. Movies, television, and any of a host of things fill this need.

Ideas may be utile only in their luster. Creating a new type or style of jewelry for example. Inventing a new setting for stones that is cheaper, stronger or better in some way than existing means of setting stones in jewelry.

Other utilities can be supposed. But in order to be beneficial to Mankind an idea and it’s outcome should be utile. If it is not utile market forces will quickly make it extinct. The market can be reliably counted on to be pragmatic. Let people assign a value to a creation and vie for market share. The market will deturmine it’s utility.

Unfortunately this is not the case. Market forces are not always used. In fact Government often undermines or warps outcomes to achieve some political end. (Some politically powerful group is benefited). Ideas are subject to increasing scrutiny as the person having it is lower on the societal scale.

I forget what philosopher said this, but, one of them said that; Appearances are more important than facts. Take a person giving a speech. Lets give him a lisp. Further lets make him very homely. A nice hump on his back and a nasally tone to his voice. Though he is a fountain of wisdom he will be ridiculed a fool. Derided as too stupid to walk among men. But take another person hansom and articulate. A tone to his voice that gives one shivers up his leg. And no matter the drivel he vomits he will be idolized and deemed a genius.

This explains why many great ideas have fallen by the wayside, While others that lower the lot of Man have been elevated. If an idea or invention helps the people but in some way damages the interests of the Elite it will be vilified and reviled by beautiful people. The person who can get just the right quiver in his voice will sway the masses… to their own injury. The unbiased media is complicit. They studiously avoid telling the whole story… About anything.

I am given hope by the rise of new media. New media has already caught unbiased reporters fabricating from whole cloth hit stories about politicians they dislike. There is nothing more destructive of liberty than a biased media that claims to be unbiased.

With “new” media creating supply (of content), demand has shown itself to follow Say’s Law… and grows. “Supply drives demand.” the old classical economist maxim. This new content (like you are reading now) opens the ocean of ideas to the valley of demand for them. Filling this valley will raise everyone’s boat. Even if it is a life vest.

Unfortunately the US and other government’s are looking to clamp down on the free flow of ideas that the internet represents. They see people being empowered as a threat. Rightly so. Tyrants that world over quiver at the thought of an informed populace. Look at the lengths China has gone to. I would bet if you typed in “International Capitalist Party” (without quotation marks) in a Chinese search engine you wouldn’t get a single link to this sight. (Like Bing).

As government puts the brakes on the flow of information through the internet the economies of the world will inevitably suffer. GDP will be lowered for generations. But really, isn’t that a small price to pay, so that the Elite can keep oppressing people?

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Poison Ivy in our Gardens

Posted on March 15, 2010 by john

Dear Friends,

It seems to me that all legislation that makes the citizen get services from government are like poison ivy in our economic and legal gardens. It takes up space but produces nothing of value. It is intractable and very hard to eradicate. And whenever anyone brushes against it they sustain injury.

The faction in power in the USA today follow Machiavelli’s maxim that, “The wise Prince makes his people depend on him for everything and in every way, thus he will insure the loyalty of the people.” As the Elite make more and more people dependant on government they make more people dependant on their benefactors in government. The vote of a dependant is assured. The democratic system can and has been, (many times), undermined buy this very tactic. Many people have happily voted in their tyrants.

The legal system is under attack in such a case. Government does not allow itself to be sued unless the Elite have a political agenda and allow it. So if government does not deliver on planned services there is no legal recourse. Moreover if those that need the services that by legislation only government can provide, but government is not providing, have no recourse at all. Unless they find a political patron. Those that run afoul of bureaucracy find it increasingly stubborn as they place more pressure. There is simply no leveraging a bureaucrat. Except with a political patron.

The unwise politician who correctly sees the natural weaknesses in government delivered services, that dares threaten the gravy train, is always wounded… sometimes badly. All government programs set up current flows. Like water current these capital currents form a channel. It forms to the level of the capital and then simply moves funds along it‘s course. Trying to change the course of water… or largess, is difficult and dangerous.

Anytime any legislation that moves government in that direction is dangerous and should be though through very carefully. Stopped if possible. Especially under a government that has no NUMA. As we have mentioned above, when government delivers services, and they are delivered poorly or not at all, there is no recourse. Couple this with the fact that, like poison ivy, this type of legislation is very hard to get rid of, anyone who wants to spread this must be nuts.

The Healthcare legislation is the worst manifestation of this principle possible. It is nothing but two thousand pages of seeds to be planted in everyone’s backyard. They will have ten tears to sprout and grow before we will reap their real fruit.

Trying to get healthcare will be like mowing a lawn infested with poison ivy. The results will be similar. Elevated blood pressure. Elevated temperatures, Elevated pulse rate, a stinging rash and time spent with sticky ointments (bureaucrats).

The Elite keep trying to convince us that it will be great when the government runs our lives. Healthcare is the narrow end of the wedge. Let it in and there is a whole wedding party behind. The mess will be left for our children and grandchildren to clean up.

We need to ask ourselves… How much closer do we want to get to 1984? Or are we already there and just don’t know it?

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Obama Care

Posted on March 10, 2010 by john

Dear Friends,

It seems to me, the two thousand page bill before congress, (that is to be passed without the usual vetting process of a sixty vote majority in the Senate), has to lower healthcare costs… After all, it not only creates more paperwork for doctors to do. It puts restraints on doctors ability to treat patients,. It lowers Medicare and Medicaid payments to doctors. It forces insurance companies to take on unparalleled adverse selection. While forcing insurance companies to submit to onerous regulation. At the same time forcing anyone who has opted not to get insurance to pay to get insurance else be fined… No perverse incentives there.

This healthcare debate has been hanging over the heads of the American people and business like a sword of Damocles. Held by one blond strand. No knows on who’s head it will fall on when it becomes law. We do know this administration has invested too much political capital to let it fail. So fall it must.

Insurance companies seem to be in the crosshairs but if you think about it for a minute we are the ones actually in the cross hairs.

When medicare and Medicaid is cut, but the rolls are enlarged, the extra costs will be born by those that have private insurance. Doctors will have to shift their extra costs of making out paperwork to prevent Medicare/Medicaid fraud. Their costs will necessarily go up. They must recoup them or go out of business. Insurance companies are the ones carrying that water today and it looks like they will be tomorrow too.

When insurance companies pick up the slack for government programs it is like a hidden tax on that industry. Taxes are costs and costs are passed to consumers. The same law that forces us all to be consumers will also force insurance companies to accept very sick people (adverse selection). Further driving up costs.

Moving them from government’s books to the private sector’s books. But the economy is like a pair of pants. No matter what pocket you take money from it must have been put there.

The people who do most of the putting in are the workers of society. Martialed into productive effort by capitalism. We are the workers. So all of us must necessarily pick up the costs government wants to obligate the insurance industry (us) to. Especially those of us who have opted, as self interested maximizes, not to buy insurance and to use the money, (in what they see) as more productive efforts. They will be forced to redirect their revenue stream into what they see as a less productive course or be subjected to fines. Their free will is overridden by the power of the State to compel action.

We, my friends, are they. Some us reading this have opted not to buy insurance. Partially because of the cost. Maybe because we are gamblers and are betting we will have good health. If this passes, we will not only be forced to buy insurance, but, insurance rates will necessarily go up. Our real disposable income will be greatly reduced. The stream of money flowing to the healthcare industry will turn into a torrent. This law will open all of our wallets to the vacuum of unrestrained spending.

But the administration, counter to popular opinion, has been cagey in debating healthcare instead of the economy. Because every thing they propose to restart the economy will choke it. (Especially this health care bill).The administration’s Keynesian economic policies are undermining the economic growth that would be necessary to provide the updraft to float this lead balloon. So any diversion from jobs and the economy helps this administration… politically. Us on the other hand…

When Obama, Biden, Pelosi, or Clinton go to Canada to have surgery I will have much more faith in government run healthcare. But as long as Stephen Harper keeps coming to the US for surgery…

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