World Bank and Bloomberg look to Mexico for Inspiration

I never imagined the Unites States would ever look to Tepoztlán, Mexico for economic and social advice, but yesterday proved differently. Mayor Bloomberg joined City Hall officials yesterday on a fact finding mission. Oportunidades is a social welfare program, celebrated by the World Bank as successfully aiding the poor and needy. In this Mexican town, women wait for three hours or more for their free money.

Now, suddenly, the World Bank cares?

With suspicion floating around of an agenda in the works for creating a North American Union, yesterday seems a bit suspect.

Regardless, New York is feeling inspired by this social program. According to the Times, “Under the New York plan, which is still being developed, poor families would be paid up to $5,000 a year to meet goals like attending parent-teacher conferences, getting regular medical checkups and holding down a full-time job. Participants would get their money through automatic deposits, not by attending a large gathering.”

Instead of building a healthy economy, I suppose the elites want us to depend on them to help out instead. Without getting into yet another economic and political analysis as to why social programs just do not work, let me say this. At no time in history have handouts ever come from completely innocent intentions from those in power who are providing them.

Does the Emperor have even a G-string ?

I’ve just added that subtitle to my Logic of Liberty article : The War on CO2 ; which I’m preparing for the next issue of Serf City .

And , I just posted the following comment to the Digg of a Vanity Fair article in their current “Green Issue” labeling Warming Denial a “Convenient Untruth” :

• A smug defense by the GW alarmists, but Myron Ebell is right, “Reality will win”.

  In the next issue of the Manhattan Libertarian’s www.SurfCity.US I will be seriously challenging the physics underlying the claim that any sort of filter, which is what the atmosphere is, can cause a sphere to get warmer than the space around it. I was most surprised to learn that James Hansen is a PhD in Physics. I would like to see, both in equation and experiment, a filter which will cause heat to go up hill. If he can, then surely he can calculate to the precision of the measurements of the spectra of the materials exactly what change in mean temperature is caused by a addition of one molecule of CO2 among every 10,000 molecules in the atmosphere.

  Frankly, I think the science I see from the alarmists is pathetic.

  Incidentally, I will be looking for an explanation for the results of an experiment measuring the temperature of white and black ping pong balls suspended in the Colorado sun which I will be posting to Google Video in conjunction with the article

Congress wants you to take a knife to a gun-fight

Rumor has it that the people who want to take away your free speech are at it again.

Of course this doesn’t apply to you if you want to stand idly by while the ruling class decides how you should live your life and who gets a piece of the pork paid for by the money they take from your paycheck.  It’s true, that includes most of us.  But just in case you think your Senators and Congressmen( Congressperson’s?) want to hear from you, you might want to consider Congress’s plan to make it more difficult for you to tell them what you think.

Unfortunately, Congress won’t tell you what their plan is.

Earlier this year Senate Bill 1 was stripped of provisions that would have regulated so-called grassroots lobbying.  S1 -The Legislative Transparency and Accountability Act of 2007, would have imposed regulations on small organizations engaged in political outreach and activism while leaving large lobbyists such as big corporations, unions and organizations like the NRA or AARP unscathed.  Let me see, Archer Daniels Midland can give huge campaign contributions in return for increased farm subsidies but you and I can’t send an e-mail to our friends encouraging them to email their Senator telling them to stop it?  Good plan.

Okay it’s a little more complicated than that.  The defeated grassroots provisions would have applied to paid lobbying, but not to organizations communicating with shareholders, members, etc. So the NRA or Halliburton can engage in paid lobbying for their members or shareholders. But apparently if a few friends get together and pay an intern $25,000 a year to send political e-mails we are to be subject to grassroots lobbying regulation. So what?

Well - our costs go up - and our time spent on productive activity goes down. Who has time these days to stay on top of the reams of legislation coming out of Washington?  Not me - and apparently not our Senators and Congressman - because they don’t read the laws the force on us either.

So Congress wants to make it way more expensive for me to “hire” the lobbyist/s of my choosing by joining an organization like DownsizeDC.org.

These provisions were defeated before and the corporate welfare queens learned from their mistake.  This time they won’t tell us what they are plotting.  There is a big profit in lobbying for the corporate welfare queens who, according to Mark Fitzgibbons of grassrootsfreedom.com, are actually writing the bill.  But I am just trying to hold on to what’s left of my paycheck.

Why should my elected representatives want to put me at a disadvantage compared to the corporate welfare queens?  Ok that’s a stupid question and the answer is pretty obvious.  This trick is as old as civilization itself. First conquer your subjects either by sword or by ballot box - and if the ballot box approach looks a little iffy - control political communication to make sure only your side of the story gets out.  Then tax everyone enough to keep them working so hard they have no time to fight back. Then make it impossible for them to combine resources. 

Choose your weapon - you get the pea-shooter and Halliburton gets the assault rifle.  And that’s exactly the way Congress - and the corporate welfare queens want it.

Nanny Spitzer targets video games

 

Now that Goveror Spitzer has lots of time on his hands — having changed everything in Albany on day one — he will now focus on new legislation to keep violent video games out of the hands of kids.

To quote The Onion, “If only there were some people around whose job it was to raise these children.”

Hat tip: Knickerbocker Blog

Fanatics who threaten our way of life

The following article was sent to me this morning.   Please read the whole thing before you make a judgement, then read my response at the bottom.

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 THE PEACEFUL MAJORITY - by Wm Haynes

 I used to know a man whose family was German aristocracy prior to World War Two. They owned a number of large industries and estates. I asked him how many German people were true Nazis, and the answer he gave has stuck with me and guided my attitude toward fanaticism ever since

 “Very few people were true Nazis “he said,” but many enjoyed the return of German pride, and many more were too busy to care. I was one of those who just thought the Nazis were a bunch of fools. So, the majority just sat back and let it all happen. Then, before we knew it, they owned us, and we had lost control, and the end of the world had come

 My family lost everything I ended up in a concentration camp and the Allies destroyed my factories.”

 We are told again and again by “experts” and “talking heads” that Islam is the religion of peace, and that the vast majority of Muslims just want to live in peace

 Although this unqualified assertion may be true, it is entirely irrelevant. It is meaningless fluff, meant to make us feel better, and meant to somehow diminish the specter of fanatics rampaging across the globe in the name of Islam. The fact is that the fanatics rule Islam at this moment in history

 It is the fanatics who march. It is the fanatics who wage any one of 50 shooting wars worldwide. It is the fanatics who systematically slaughter Christian or tribal groups throughout
Africa and are gradually taking over the entire continent in an Islamic wave. It is the fanatics who bomb, behead, murder, or honor kill. It is the fanatics who take over mosque after mosque. It is the fanatics who zealously spread the stoning and hanging of rape victims and homosexuals. The hard quantifiable fact is that the “peaceful majority” is the “silent majority” and it is cowed and extraneous

 Communist Russia comprised Russians who just wanted to live in peace, yet the Russian Communists were responsible for the murder of about 20 million people. The peaceful majority were irrelevant.
China’s huge population was peaceful as well, but Chinese Communists managed to kill a staggering 70 million people

 The average Japanese individual prior to World War 2 was not a warmongering sadist. Yet, Japan murdered and slaughtered its way across
South East Asia in an orgy of killing that included the systematic murder of 12 million Chinese civilians; most killed by sword, shovel, and bayonet. And, who can forget
Rwanda, which collapsed into butchery. Could it not be said that the majority of Rwandans were “peace loving”?

 Japan murdered and slaughtered its way across
South East Asia in an orgy of killing that included the systematic murder of 12 million Chinese civilians; most killed by sword, shovel, and bayonet. And, who can forget
Rwanda, which collapsed into butchery. Could it not be said that the majority of Rwandans were “peace loving”? History lessons are often incredibly simple and blunt, yet for all our powers of reason we often miss the most basic and uncomplicated of points:

 Peace-loving Muslims have been made irrelevant by their silence. Peace-loving Muslims will become our enemy if they don’t speak up, because like my friend from
Germany, they will awake one day and find that the fanatics own them, and the end of their world will have begun

 Peace-loving Germans, Japanese, Chinese, Russians, Rwandans, Serbs Afghans, Iraqis, Palestinians, Somalis, Nigerians, Algerians, and many others have died because the peaceful majority did not speak up until it was too late

 As for us who watch it all unfold; we must pay attention to the only group that counts; the fanatics who threaten our way of life

 Lastly, I wish to add: I sincerely think that anyone who rejects this as just another political rant, or doubts the seriousness of this issue or just deletes it without paying heed to it, or sending it on, is part of the problem. Let’s quit laughing at and forwarding the jokes and cartoons which denigrate and ridicule
America. WHO may be the last hope?

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 My reponse…..I think that article hits the nail on the head. It’s usually a very small majority with a lot to gain from tyranny who create it. But it’s not just the Muslims and the Nazi’s and the Imperial Japanese. Let’s look honestly in the mirror and see the country that has used war and covert operations to overtrhow country after country in the last 100 years and put brutal dictators in charge.  If you think for a second that’s not accurate check out Overthrow by Steve Kinzer.   Hey neo-cons - this means you.  Look at the country that props up dicators in Saudi Arabia, who supported Sadam and who overthrew the democratically elected president of Iran and replaced him with the muderous Shah. Look at the country that felt as Truman said, the Viet-namese were ” not ready for independence”.  I believe in self-defense, but that’s a small part of what our govenrment does with it’s war machine.  I know you neo-cons will say I am blaming America first.  I say blame America when we deserve it.  The vast majority of American’s don’t deserve that blame- not directly anyway - but the government does.  Just like the Muslim fanatics or Nazi fanatics,  the fanatics that run our government, and have for at least 100 years,  rely on our apathy so they can pursue their statist agenda.  A neo-con agenda that is working so well for us, creating such a world of peace and freedom and small government.

I agree with the writer that America may be the last hope for freedom.  But that hope is fading.  It fades a little more every time a new law dimishes our free speech, or creates a new federal bureaucracy or bans some politcally incorrect behavior.  It fades a little more every time congress shirks it’s responsibility by voting to give a clue-less president de facto power to decalre war.  It fades a little more every time we pay nearly half our ouput to the statist-class war-machine.

It fades a great deal more every time we let fear and greed and racism and bigotry justify our unwillingness to live up to standards of peace and freedom and limited government that made this country great in the first place.  How do those few fanatics get control of so much power?  They get it because that power is centralized in the first place.  They get it because we accept the lies they tell us.  The get it because we allow them to take it.

So if the writer is worried about those “fanatics who threaten our way of life”  he need look no further than  City Hall, or Albany or Washington D.C.

 Ron

Dear F.B.I.,

Since you enjoy spying on American citizens, I figure I’ll just go ahead and address this post to you.

In today’s New York Times Magazine, the section ”The Way We Live Now” focuses on the Bush administration’s latest “post-9/11 civil-liberties abuse(s),” in the article “Who’s Watching the F.B.I.?” by Jefferey Rosen. According to last month’s report from the inspector general of the Justice Department, the F.B.I’s power to issue national-security letters after the Patriot Act was enacted, has increased exponentially. The number is up to over 140,000, “many involving people with no obvious connections to terrorism.”

These letters allow the F.B.I. to collect personal data about anyone whom they deem suspicious, and/or linked to terrorism. Which, in a nutshell, means whoever they feel like. Domestic surveillance is swell and all, if those who are watching us can provide reasonable suspicion and evidence to justify doing so. However, post-Patriot Act national-security letters are immune to independent review.

Evidence, shmevidence. Who needs it? The F.B.I. and the Bush administration clearly just need to do their job, and we should just step aside and allow them to do so. They should be able to read our emails, listen to our phone calls, and watch us shower.

After all, terrorism can only be stopped if our administration knows what underwear we’re wearing.

Petitioning relief… oh please, oh please, oh please!

Generally I can assume I’m against any new bill introduced in Albany without even reading it, but I’ll make an exception in this instance. Senator DeFrancisco has introduced a bill, S29, which would reduce by half the number of signatures required for designating petitions and independent nominating petitions across the board.

Anyone who has ever collected signatures for a candidate — especially for a candidate who is not running on a major-party line — knows that it can make a root canal feel like a day at Astroland. Since the Libertarian Party doesn’t have official ballot status, our petitioning period comes at the hot, sticky end of the summer, and the number of sigs we have to collect just to get on the ballot is daunting. All too often, I’ve seen our candidates burn out by the end of petitioning season and have nothing left in the tank for the prime fall campaign season.

I’d love to see this bill get some traction, although I don’t see what incentive Joe Bruno (or Shelly Silver in the Assembly) has to get behind it. The full text of the bill after the jump:

Can you spare some…cops?

According to the Associated Press, Mayor Bloomberg was asked on April 11th, by the Secretary General of the United Nations, Ban Ki-moon, if New York City could spare any NYPD cops for global peacekeeping missions. The article states that, “the U.N. peacekeeping department said 321 American police officers are currently involved in missions abroad, primarily training local police.” But, as the piece states, NYPD recruitment has been low, so there may be few, if any, cops to spare.

 Although the number of officers quoted as working abroad seems suspiciously low, the fact still begs the question; since when are police officers qualified or even desirable for peacekeeping missions? And why the NYPD?

I’m no International Affairs expert, but to me the equation is a bit disconcerting: More U.S. military + more U.S. police officers around the globe= good intentions? Maybe. But history would argue otherwise.

Mayor Bloomberg left the meeting without speaking to reporters, so perhaps we are only left to wonder.

Let Them Eat Cake

                                                                    

Don’t worry, kiddies. Momma Government will take care of you. You’re getting fat, you have high cholesterol, and your arteries are clogged. Tsk, tsk. She may tell you over and over again to quit eating junk food, but you don’t listen. So now she has to take it away.

The Board of Health in New York passed a ban in December of 2006 on the use of artificial trans fats in restaurants. An MSNBC article outlines the pros and cons of this ban, especially considering the deadline is the summer of 2008. All restaurants in New York City are required to comply. This ban is yet another example of government interference in petty individual choices. There is an ample amount of information out there on nutrition and health. It is very possible, and quite easy (libraries are free!) to educate oneself about ones choices. As long as, in this case, a restaurant isn’t lying about or hiding their use of trans fats, they should be free to continue using them. It’s not as if the New York City consumer has a shortage of options.

Any educated person knows that eating the greasy burger is not as healthy for them as a salad. They must pay the consequences for the choice they make. If a person chooses not to educate themselves, and goes on eating junk foods…well…that’s not the government’s problem.

By creating a blanket ban on a thing, such as smoking indoors, or trans fats, New York City is setting a disturbing precedent. A better solution, for example, may be to have designated smoking areas, or restaurants, so that the smoker still has that option. Every restaurant doesn’t have to allow smoking, but it isn’t necessary for none to allow it either.

Trans fats, as well as smoking, can be avoided with just a little initiative and reason by those who do not wish to partake in them. These arguably petty negatives or annoyances don‘t need a blanket ban. No one that I know of has ever died from smoking one cigarette or an order of onion rings. The negative effects add up over time; the length of which is certainly adequate enough for one to learn about the dangers before experiencing dire or irreversible consequences.

And if, after realizing the negative consequences, one makes the choice to continue the activity or consumption, then so be it. That’s their prerogative. The responsibility rests with the individual, not Momma Government.

This is not your father’s anarchist philosophy

Speaking of the Anarchists Book Fair, lots of people think of Anarchists as bomb throwers and leftists but that’s not philosophically accurate and there is a reason why libertarians should study anarchist philosophy.  I understand that Murray Rothbard, major hero of a great many libertarians, declared himself anarchist when confronted with the following dilemma.  He was pressed by left-liberal friends to explain why, under his philosphy, citizens could choose a minimalist government but they could not choose a larger, or very large government.   Sort of “where do you draw the line?”  As I understand it Murray saw that drawing that line was impossible and realized that (my words not his) Anarchism is the inevitable result of the search for libertarian truth.  I must confess I had a pretty hard time with ideas like an anarchist court system but once you hear the logic it’s pretty hard to refute.  By the way, it turns out there is a lot of historical precedent.  The idea works and has worked in the past. For lots of excellent, well thought out theory and perspective check out the Mises Institute at www.mises.org.  They have an incredible wealth of info in their media archives.  My treo is pretty filled up with this stuff and I walk around all day listening to the mp3s.  Until they ban walking around with an mp3 player.  Some people listen to smooth jazz or hip hop. I listen to anarchist theory and austrian economics.  On that topic - check out a new book - http://Anarchy and the Law by Edward Stringham.

Im not sure how many attendees at the event will be post-libertarians.  The film fest appears to be located at the Yippie Museum.  That sounds like a load of fun, but I suspect it’s not populated with a lot of libertarians.

At any rate I think the Anarchist Book Fair and mises.org are not to be missed.