From LewRockwell.com
Tuesday
Friday
Today's Bumper Sticker
"With Congress - every time they make a joke it's a law.
And every time they make a law it's a joke."
-Will Rogers
Thursday
UPS Loses Billions of Dollars!
With the shipping giant losing 3.5 billion dollars in the third quarter, it's undeniable that UPS is not keeping up with its competition; consumers clearly prefer the alternatives.
They certainly can't keep up operations under such a devastating deficit, so they've determined that, in order to remain in business, they will have to be funded by direct, involuntary contributions, and also scale back service. Perhaps if customers get less of what they want, they'll value the service more and UPS can remain solvent.
What?
Wait. That's USPS, not UPS. OK, that makes sense.
They certainly can't keep up operations under such a devastating deficit, so they've determined that, in order to remain in business, they will have to be funded by direct, involuntary contributions, and also scale back service. Perhaps if customers get less of what they want, they'll value the service more and UPS can remain solvent.
What?
Wait. That's USPS, not UPS. OK, that makes sense.
UPDATE:
I may have gotten a bit carried away with my "sardonic voice" in this post. It was no real error - I was using the comparison to illustrate a point: that government "services" make use of force (especially the power to be funded through taxation and the power to outlaw competition against themselves) in order to enable them to conduct "business" in ways that would have any private enterprise closing its doors for good.
The Post Office is one example of a government "business" that consumers would never tolerate if it were up to them... and so is everything else the State "provides."
The Post Office is one example of a government "business" that consumers would never tolerate if it were up to them... and so is everything else the State "provides."
Surprise!
She "doesn't know" whether we have inalienable rights, but she'll defend her constituency (the Fed State), so she's in!
She "doesn't know" whether we have inalienable rights, but she'll defend her constituency (the Fed State), so she's in!
Global Robbing
The public platform of Our Environmental Betters has thoroughly dropped the phrase "Global Warming" in favor of the manipulatively vague "Climate Change," and has taken on an unapologetic push for The Power to Tax.*
"It will be extremely exciting, dynamic and productive," said British "economist" Nicholas Stern.
I would tend to describe money pouring into my pockets in a similar fashion.
*The Power to Enslave
"It will be extremely exciting, dynamic and productive," said British "economist" Nicholas Stern.
I would tend to describe money pouring into my pockets in a similar fashion.
*The Power to Enslave
Today's Bumper Sticker
With Democrats in power, man exploits man.
With Republicans, just the opposite.
Wednesday
My First Porsche Test Drive
So we purchased a new car (new-to-us car) from a dealer just over a month ago. I head down to the dealer to make our next payment. I see they have a new acquisition for sale: a 2005 Porsche Boxster S approximately $27,000. I've got some extra time and half-jokingly (ok, really only about 5% jokingly) I ask if I could take it for a test drive. The dealer himself was on vacation and his assistant said sure! She asked me a couple times if I was really serious on wanting to drive it. I'm not going to turn down the opportunity to drive a sports car, especially if it's free.
So she had someone get a dealer plate and pulled it 'round front. It's this little tiny 2-seater and I'm practically laying down. In order to even use the clutch my foot is scraping against the side of the well. But I adjust to the cramped quarters quickly.
I've never driven a sports car before. I've sat in a small handful but never driven. I pull gently out of the dealership and I'm now in 2nd gear. Now I know what Porsches are made for: speed. But never having really felt it beneath my right foot before I wasn't really prepared.
My brother told me once that a friend of his took him for a ride in a Porsche. He was told, "Just try to keep your head off of the seat." He was right. From maybe 8 mph in 2nd gear, I'm at 45 before I know it. Unfortunately, that's the posted speed limit and I'm coming up to traffic. Eventually I hit a 35 and I'm not even sure what is the best gear to be in; I've never been in a 6-speed.
Finally, I hit the highway. I slow down and let the traffic thin a bit and I floor it. By the time I looked down, I was in 3rd and doing 80 maybe 5 seconds later! Rather than get pulled over I decide to test the brakes a bit and bring it back to a reasonable 65 (the posted limit).
Now I've heard a lot of bad things about Porsche. Like how it's not really all the sports car that it could be and there's better things to buy with the same money but you know what? I don't care. These are the same people that test Bugatti's, Lambo's, & Ferarri's. I'm sure given the choice they'd look past the little Porsche. I'm also sure that if I had $27,000 of expendable cash (plus another $1 million for insurance, tires, & gas) I'd spend it on something else. But to have the experience of having 280 horses at your disposal is a wonderful thing.
Exposed
Did anyone actually believe the TSA when they claimed they couldn't or wouldn't store nude images of airline passengers? And if so, does the recent admission that this was a lie make those people any more likely to question the statements of government bureaucracies in the future?
ObamaCare = Slavery
While watching this video, all I could think of was, "Zing!"
Basic premise of the title is that if "Health Care" is a right, then someone else is forced to provide health care. Something cannot be a right if it infringes on the right of someone else. Therefore, slavery.
Tuesday
Truth
As the chicken-hawks continue their calls for Julian Assange's head (literally!), the words Ron Paul originally penned regarding the Federal Reserve clearly apply here as well, and ring out with stinging accuracy: "Truth is treason in the empire of lies."
Today's bumper sticker: Killing one
Today's bumper sticker: Killing one person is murder. Killing thousands is foreign policy.
Google Earth Used to Find Unlicensed Pools
In Riverhead, NY on Long Island, the town government is using Google Earth as a tool to find dangerous criminals who failed to get permission to build a pool on their privately owned property.
The chief building inspector in Riverhead, Leroy Barnes, Jr. says, "Pool safety has always been my concern."
Well, of course, sure. That and the $75,000 the town has thus far been able to raise from fines and penalties levied on these scofflaws. But he's only thinking of the children, I'm sure.
The article makes the alternate point that this just an example of "Big Brother using satellite pictures to spy on us. I think that's missing the point. Would it be ok if a town employee drove past the house and looked over the fence to see if you had a pool? Would it be ok if they asked a Census question to see if you have a pool? The point shouldn't be how they get the information but the assumption that the government is responsible for keeping us safe.
If I own a business that installs pools, and I do a shoddy job and someone gets hurt or property gets damaged, I'm responsible. If I want my customers to know that I do good work, I can subscribe to a private third party that will inspect my work when I'm done.
But what about corruption? If the pool instillation company pays the inspector, doesn't that encourage the inspector to give a good rating? After all, that's how the inspector makes his money. However, we already see how the free market deals with these types of situations. There's the Better Business Bureau (BBB), the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), Consumer Reports, and Underwriters Laboratories (UL). These are all private companies that will show the consumer that a product or service is good or safe. These companies have made their money by being honest and trusted. If the BBB or ISO took bribes from companies, the risk of losing the faith of the public (and therefore their business) is far greater than the money they could ever hope to make from bribes.
The government, however, has no risk. We hear about government building inspectors taking bribes all the time from contractors and yet we still trust that since the government said it's ok, it must be.
But back to responsibility. If I make a shoddy product and there is damage done, I'm responsible. That is incentive enough to do a good job. If I'm a homeowner and I want to buy a cheap pool, I understand that it may be a poor product. It could fail and injure someone or damage my, or someone else's, property. The homeowner is certainly free to hire their own inspector to see if the job was done well and take that inspection to the installer if the inspection shows problems.
It has been shown, time and again, people trust certifications. When Consumer Reports says that a car is a good one to buy or not, people believe them. They are still free to buy the bad car, but that is how the free market should work.
If we don't change the nanny-state mindset, "Big Brother" will continue to find ways to "keep us safe" at the same time they line their pockets.
Copy and Paste Kids
The soon-to-be-defunct New York Times hyperventilates: "many students simply do not grasp that using words they did not write is a serious misdeed." No discussion, naturally, of what makes it such a serious misdeed... namely, nothing!
U.S. Prepared to Strike Iran? Shocking!
From Drudge today: the U.S. has a contingency plan for a military strike on Iran.
If this news surprises you, let me clarify: by "U.S." I mean United States of America. Make sense now? I thought so.
Which country don't they have such plans for? Presumably, they have military bases in over 150 countries for some reason. Of course, this isn't just any country we're talking about; this is Iran, the rogue nation, outside of the Holy American Empire, and they've threatened to attack us!
...if we attack them first. Much like how we've threatened to attack them if they attack us first, with the significant difference being that, by comparison with the behemoth U.S., Iran doesn't have a military!
Of course, the Crazy Conspiracy Theory view would be that this news story - whose content has probably been true for years - is only being released now as a way to gauge the people's progressing opinions as the Pentagon pushes toward its coming-soon war.
I'm going with the Crazy Conspiracy Theory on this one. As usual.
If this news surprises you, let me clarify: by "U.S." I mean United States of America. Make sense now? I thought so.
Which country don't they have such plans for? Presumably, they have military bases in over 150 countries for some reason. Of course, this isn't just any country we're talking about; this is Iran, the rogue nation, outside of the Holy American Empire, and they've threatened to attack us!
...if we attack them first. Much like how we've threatened to attack them if they attack us first, with the significant difference being that, by comparison with the behemoth U.S., Iran doesn't have a military!
Of course, the Crazy Conspiracy Theory view would be that this news story - whose content has probably been true for years - is only being released now as a way to gauge the people's progressing opinions as the Pentagon pushes toward its coming-soon war.
I'm going with the Crazy Conspiracy Theory on this one. As usual.
Monday
Non-Aggression
The primary principle to which all libertarians - and, in our humble opinion, all persons - must be at all times committed is the principle of non-aggression. This is simply the conviction that all persons have rights, and that no person has the prerogative to violate the rights of anyone else. Bastiat argued that there are three fundamental human rights, from which all others derive. First and foremost is the right to life, an extension of which is the right to liberty, and the third, arising from the exercise of the first and second, is the right to property.
There is no excuse to violate another person's life, liberty, or property, ever. Self-defense, it may reasonably be argued, is not in fact a violation but an effort to prevent violation, or to restore rights once violated. In the context of this basic statement, however, let us leave aside the question of what types of actions may be justified as self-defense. It is sufficient to say that in the first place, no one ought to kill, injure, enslave, or rob from anyone else, and that this principle is the foundation of libertarianism.
Violations of people's rights come in a wide array of forms, in this dark and sinful world. Not only outright murder and slavery, but also coercion by threat of such harm, and all kinds of restrictions on the freedom of thought, word, choice and action, are so thoroughly ubiquitous that quite possibly no one has been entirely secure in his or her rights, ever!
Yet, we would like to work toward a free society. We are not Utopians, as we know our only hope for true freedom is in the Kingdom that is not of this world. Yet we do want to limit the power that people can have over each other, that is, by definition, the power to violate others' rights. This is why we are opposed to centralized, State power. It is not so much that we are anti-government, at least not as a first principle. Rather, it is that we are anti-violence, anti-force, anti-coercion, anti-theft, and anti-war. In short, we are anti- all the things the State does best, and in fact depends on for its existence. We have been accused of promoting chaos, revolution, and all manner of violence. It cannot be denied that pretenders to our philosophy have engaged in these wretched acts, but let us be clear: our first principle is non-aggression, and so we resolutely disown all aggression as patently unrelated to our cause.
Welcome to the new blog. Truth Liberty Peace. I hope we can speak the truth in love, help in a small way to advance the cause of liberty, and uphold a thoroughgoing commitment to peace.
There is no excuse to violate another person's life, liberty, or property, ever. Self-defense, it may reasonably be argued, is not in fact a violation but an effort to prevent violation, or to restore rights once violated. In the context of this basic statement, however, let us leave aside the question of what types of actions may be justified as self-defense. It is sufficient to say that in the first place, no one ought to kill, injure, enslave, or rob from anyone else, and that this principle is the foundation of libertarianism.
Violations of people's rights come in a wide array of forms, in this dark and sinful world. Not only outright murder and slavery, but also coercion by threat of such harm, and all kinds of restrictions on the freedom of thought, word, choice and action, are so thoroughly ubiquitous that quite possibly no one has been entirely secure in his or her rights, ever!
Yet, we would like to work toward a free society. We are not Utopians, as we know our only hope for true freedom is in the Kingdom that is not of this world. Yet we do want to limit the power that people can have over each other, that is, by definition, the power to violate others' rights. This is why we are opposed to centralized, State power. It is not so much that we are anti-government, at least not as a first principle. Rather, it is that we are anti-violence, anti-force, anti-coercion, anti-theft, and anti-war. In short, we are anti- all the things the State does best, and in fact depends on for its existence. We have been accused of promoting chaos, revolution, and all manner of violence. It cannot be denied that pretenders to our philosophy have engaged in these wretched acts, but let us be clear: our first principle is non-aggression, and so we resolutely disown all aggression as patently unrelated to our cause.
Welcome to the new blog. Truth Liberty Peace. I hope we can speak the truth in love, help in a small way to advance the cause of liberty, and uphold a thoroughgoing commitment to peace.
Today's bumper sticker: It's Not
Today's bumper sticker: It's Not the Left vs. the Right; It's the State vs. YOU!
Sunday
Leaking Blood
So little Liz Cheney would like to argue that WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange "clearly has blood on his hands." It's a lot clearer to me that Daddy Dick has blood on his hands.
Did Assange knowingly lie to millions of people to drum up support for a military invasion? Did Assange promote and defend the use of brutal acts of torture? How about the slaughter of defenseless people as collateral damage in that invasion?
What's really clear is that Assange's "crime" consists in shining the light of truth on the blood that Cheney & Co. have on their hands. Seriously, what is clear about Julian Assange having blood on his hands? The fact that he exposed the truth and evidence of war crimes? The fact that he wants to see an end to these crimes?
In what way does the witness to a murder become a guilty party? By NOT telling about what he saw, right?
Did Assange knowingly lie to millions of people to drum up support for a military invasion? Did Assange promote and defend the use of brutal acts of torture? How about the slaughter of defenseless people as collateral damage in that invasion?
What's really clear is that Assange's "crime" consists in shining the light of truth on the blood that Cheney & Co. have on their hands. Seriously, what is clear about Julian Assange having blood on his hands? The fact that he exposed the truth and evidence of war crimes? The fact that he wants to see an end to these crimes?
In what way does the witness to a murder become a guilty party? By NOT telling about what he saw, right?
Wake up, Neo. The State has you.
The State is everywhere. It is all around us. Even now, in this very room. You can see it when you look out your window or when you turn on your television. You can feel it when you go to work.. when you go to church.. when you pay your taxes. It is the world that has been pulled over your eyes to blind you from the truth... That you are a slave, Neo. Like everyone else you were born into bondage. Into a prison that you cannot taste or see or touch. A prison for your mind.
What is the State? Control. The State is a computer-generated dream world built to keep us under control in order to change a human being into *this.*
The State is a system, Neo. That system is our enemy. But when you're inside, what do you see? Businessmen, teachers, lawyers, carpenters... And many of them are so inured, so hopelessly dependent on the system, that they will fight to protect it.
As long as the State exists, the human race will never be free.
What is the State? Control. The State is a computer-generated dream world built to keep us under control in order to change a human being into *this.*
The State is a system, Neo. That system is our enemy. But when you're inside, what do you see? Businessmen, teachers, lawyers, carpenters... And many of them are so inured, so hopelessly dependent on the system, that they will fight to protect it.
As long as the State exists, the human race will never be free.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)