Monthly Archives: September 2008

Quote of the Day:

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“Americans just want us to… not be concerned if they can be constitutionally justified… Why, if we had to do that we could not pass most of the laws we enact around here.”
:::– Sen. John Glenn

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Subject: The Unknown Holiday

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Today is Constitution Day. Few Americans know this. Neither banks nor government offices will be closed. And most of us will go to work today, spending nearly half our time laboring to pay taxes to the various levels of government. In this sense today is no holiday at all. It’s merely a designated spot on the calendar during which Americans are to . . .

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Do what?

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The politicians won’t take notice of the day, though we’ve joined with the Liberty Coalition to encourage McCain and Obama to discuss Constitutional issues on the campaign trail. We won’t be holding our breath in expectation that they will do so.

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It remains to us, as individuals, to do something meaningful with the day.

QUOTES OF THE DAY:

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 “The real problem for me is that my farm’s focus is in producing food locally, but the laws are designed for giant, impersonal businesses that deliver food across the globe.” – Paul-Martin Griepentrog

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“The USDA claims that ‘animal identification helps document the information necessary for age, source, and processed-verified animals’ but fails to explain why the federal government should intervene in a free market system that already provides age, source, and processed-verified animals as determined by competitive market forces. – R-CALF

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SUBJECT:  What NAIS Is Really About

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The National Animal Identification System (NAIS) is hitting a few snags: lawsuits, anti-NAIS bills in state legislatures, low registration rates, backlash from small farmers. This is not surprising, because NAIS would invade the privacy of small farmers and overwhelm them with fees and paperwork.

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On the surface, however, NAIS sounds reasonable. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) says NAIS is necessary to “protect the health of U.S. livestock and poultry and the economic well-being of those industries.”

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But consider:

Quote of the Day:
:::“Solar cells generate at least ten times more power when attached to the concentrator.”
:::– MIT researcher, Marc Baldo, inventor of a new technique to make solar power cheaper

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Subject: Should we trade increased drilling for increased taxes?

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Congress may vote this week to allow expanded offshore drilling. But if they do so the bill is likely to include increased taxes for oil exploration companies.

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The Democrats don’t want increased drilling. The issue is killing them in the polls. It could cost them both the White House and, amazingly, the House of Representatives. Recent polls show the public leaning back in the direction of the Republicans for Congressional races. Democratic opposition to drilling seems to be one of the main reasons. Congressional Democrats are trying to remove this issue from the elections by allowing for expanded offshore drilling, but at a price . . .

After a great tragedy a brief period of mourning is always needed and always appropriate. But what would we think of a person who continued to be emotionally obsessed with a tragic event years later, and who, year after year, sent out emails to people reminding them of the anniversary of their loss? We would probably say that it was long past time for that person to move on. What then should we think of the continued wallowing in grief of our politicians, the media, and many of our citizens, over the events of 9-11?
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:::I think we’ve overdone it, too much, for too long. I also think that the terrorists are winning yet another victory when every anniversary of 9-11 finds us still in public mourning. It’s time to grow up and move on. It’s time to stop advertising a terrorist act. It’s time to recognize and remember that our emotional over-reaction to 9-11 led to the death of 100,000 innocent Iraqis whom we do not pause to mourn for even a second. It’s time to get our emotions under control so that we can no longer be manipulated into doing stupid things.
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:::There’s nothing wrong with America that a little maturity wouldn’t go a long way toward fixing.

Quote of the Day:
:::”A billion here, a billion there, and pretty soon you’re talking real money.”
:::– attributed to Senator Everett Dirksen

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Subject: Can the government save you money by taking donations?

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Courtesy of Radley Balko we learn that . . .
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* The marble on the Tomb of the Unknown Solider has been cracked and needed replacing for 18 years!
:::* It cost the federal government $80,000 just to seek bids to do the job
:::* The total price for the bidding, purchase, transportation, sculpting, and replacement of the marble comes to a whopping $2.2 million

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Meanwhile . . .

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John Haines, a retired car dealer, has acquired the needed marble from the same quarry as the original marble, and arranged for donated transportation, for a mere $31,000. He wants to donate the marble, so that the only thing the federal government would need to do, using YOUR tax dollars, is pay for the sculpting and the installation. But there’s one problem . . .

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The most recent report to Congress on the marble replacement project does not include Haines’s donated marble. Instead, the report proposes the full $2.2 million price tag.

The Russians are planning naval exercises with the Venezuelans in the Caribbean. Both countries have a need to posture. The need is especially acute with the Russians, who feel hurt that they’re no longer “important.” But naval exercises off our coast won’t make them any more “important.” Russia has a GDP the size of New Jersey and a worthless navy. It would be nice if the Russian’s had something real to feel proud about, but they don’t, so they feel an emotional need to engage in cheap theatrics. This is false pride, and the planned naval exercise is real stupidity.
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:::Should the U.S. respond? Republican pundits like Larry Kudlow think we should conduct our own exercise in the same area at the same time. Sigh. I love guys like Kudlow when they’re talking about economics and financial issues. They tend to get it right. But they tend to go all silly whenever it comes to the military and foreign policy. The adult thing to do would be to ignore the Russian navy, especially since you would need a microscope to find it.
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:::We Americans should be proud that we have the economic power to be militarily invulnerable to pathetic little countries like Russia and Venezuela. We shouldn’t tarnish ourselves by engaging in the real stupidity of waving our weenie in front of the Russian navy.

Quote of the Day:
:::”The GSE structure serves to privatize profits and socialize losses.”
:::– Arnold Kling, The Cato Institute
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:::Subject: Kill Fannie-stein and Freddie-stein
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:::Politicians and bureaucrats have a good sense of timing for announcing bad financial news. The ideal time to deliver bad news is either on a weekend, or when the media is obsessing about other things, like hurricanes, political conventions, and vice presidential choices. So it was this last weekend when federal officials announced their intention to nationalize Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
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:::No one knows what the cost will be yet. It could be small. It could be large. It could be astronomical. But whatever the price tag, YOU will pay the bill. The good news is that the news isn’t all bad. Both companies have been stripped of their lobbying arms, the stockholders of both have been wiped out, and the current plan is to start selling off the portfolios of each company. Now here’s the bad news . . .

Jim Babka will be making three talk-radio appearances today (Wednesday). Details below the signature. 
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:::Quote of the Day:
:::”Accusation raises the defenses. Question pricks the conscience.”
:::- William J. Olson
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:::Subject: Wrong People Are NOT the Enemy, Wrong Ideas Are
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:::It is easy, in this political season, to get caught up in the partisan personality contest: To check, who is up and who is down… who is clever or who is dull… which is the lesser of evils.
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:::If you take this election too seriously, you’ll begin to think that people are your enemy — that we don’t have freedom because the people are stupid, or worse, evil.
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:::Friends, Republicans are not your enemy. Democrats are not your enemy. Independents, Libertarians, Constitutionalists, and Greens are not your enemy. The neighbor that doesn’t even vote isn’t your enemy either.
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:::But their wrong ideas have consequences:

QUOTE OF THE DAY:
:::“The consequences of USDA – and now the courts – denying voluntary BSE testing effectively shield the less innovative, less nimble and less responsive beef processors from the competitive capacity of cutting-edge beef processors like Creekstone.” – Blll Bullard

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SUBJECT: The Cure For Mad Bureaucrat Disease

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Of the 35 million cattle slaughtered each year, the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture (USDA) tests about 1% for BSE, or Mad Cow Disease. But Creekstone Farms wants to test 100% of the cattle they process, at their own expense.

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The USDA won’t let them, and the USDA’s rule has been backed by the federal courts. You see, if Creekstone tests all its beef and boasts of it in its marketing, their larger competitors could feel obliged to do the same, and this additional expense may lower their profit margins or raise the price of beef.

Quote of the Day:
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:::“The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed, and hence clamorous to be led to safety, by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.” – H.L. Mencken
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:::Subject: The Five Fatal Flaws of ANY ID Card Scheme
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:::A few weeks ago we introduced Lowell Rogers to you. He’s a tugboat engineer. His employer is about to be brought under a security/identity scheme — a Real ID card of sorts for maritime employees. It’s called the Transportation Worker Identification Credential (TWIC).
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:::Apparently, since the Department of Homeland Security can’t get Real ID implemented, due to the largest state rebellion since the Civil War, they’ve decided to pick us off — one occupation at a time.
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:::TWIC will snag 700,000 to 1,000,000 workers.
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:::But Lowell Rogers won’t take the card. He’d sooner give up his job. He wants to take a stand. But he can’t do it alone.
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:::And Lowell Rogers shouldn’t have to take the card. ID card schemes just don’t work. These showy security plans have five fatal flaws . . .