Thursday, July 19, 2007

New York Still After That $500 Million

The last editorial I read in the New York Times, regarding the scheming going on in the state to get their hands on $500 million dollars of federal monies, fleeced from each and everyone of us, the editors stated that this $500 million was “free money.” In response to this, I stated There is No Such Thing as Free Money.

Today, the NYT editors are once again shilling for the $500 million, but now they are recommending brown nosing as the means of procuring these ill gotten gains.  I’m uncertain how the brown nosing competition will be judged.

Make Nice, Win Up to $500 Million

Posted by John Venlet on 07/19 at 05:07 AM
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Virginia's "Civil Remedial Fines" Saga Continues

I first mentioned the State of Virginia’s newest taxpayer threshing machine legislation here, and then followed that up with this post, and now this morning, in the New York Times, I read this.

“You have no idea how angry people are,” said Delegate Robert G. Marshall, Republican of Prince William County, who did not vote for the bill that included the new fines and is leading the call for a special session.

C’mon, Mr. Marshall, I’m pleased to see you did not vote for this legislation, but you cannot seriously state that Virginia delegates had “no idea” individuals living in Virginia would be angered by this legislation.

Though I’m incredulous of Mr. Marshall’s statement, above, I will give him a passing grade for stating the following.

“Criminal and civil penalties shouldn’t be created for raising money,” Mr. Marshall said,...“You don’t want to turn our police into gun-toting tax collectors. They’re supposed to be officers of the peace, nothing else.”

Of course, we cannot leave David B. Albo (R-Fairfax), one of the main proponents of this egregious legislation, and potential private profiter from this legislation, out of this post, as he always is spouting off some ridiculous statement, or inadvertantly highlighting a reason why political groups are so dangerous to us all as individuals.

Delegate David B. Albo, Republican of Fairfax County, a main proponent of the high fines, said that a one-cent increase in the gasoline tax would generate about $50 million a year, but that replacing the fines with a higher gasoline tax would undermine the transportation financing bill that was passed.

“It took two years to get all the different groups, from Realtors, to developers, to citizens groups, on board,” Mr. Albo said. “If you take away one of the fees from one group, every other group is going to start saying they want the entire transportation bill reconsidered.”

Do you fully grasp the implications in that last statement?  I do, and I stated the following in a recent unrelated post.

When individuals deal with one another on strictly an individual to individual basis, in most cases peaceful transactions result.  Yes, this is not true when an individual robs another individual, whether at gunpoint or via dishonest actions, but in the main, individual to individual transactions yield peaceful results.  It is only when individuals group up, and cast aside their individuality in favor of group think, that conflict occurs.

Good luck, Virginians.

High Fines for Speeding Anger Virginians

Posted by John Venlet on 07/19 at 04:34 AM
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Mething With You

So, you walk into your local CVS drugstore to purchase some cold medicine, say a box of Sudafed, and the clerk ringing up your purchase requests to see your ID card, because, ya know, the war on drugs, and specifically crystal meth, mandates that the box of Sudafed cannot be sold to you unless you’re at least 18 years old, and, the state wants to track how much Sudafed you actually purchase, just in case you may be taking your Sudafed home and cooking it up, like Mickey Rourke’s character, The Cook, in the movie Spun.

You’re not feeling real well, because of your cold, and you find this a bit intrusive, and think about giving the poor CVS clerk a piece of your mind regarding this stupid intrusion, while the clerk dutifully swipes your ID with its handy magnetic strip into the CVS computer system, but you don’t, because you don’t feel up to it, so you pay for your purchase and head home, doctor yourself up and throw yourself back down on the couch.

After lying on the couch for 15 minutes or so, you’re starting to feel a bit of relief from your congestion, thanks to those good ol’ Sudafed, and you’re just about to doze off, and, bam, your door is broken down and the local swat team cops are pounding round your house searching for the meth lab that isn’t there.

Do you think that this could not happen?  Then read this.

Detective Brian Lewis returns to his desk after lunch, scanning e-mails he missed.

One catches his eye: It says a suspected member of a methamphetamine ring bought a box of Sudafed at 1:34 p.m. at a CVS pharmacy.

Minutes later, Lewis is in his truck, circling the parking lot, searching for the woman.

And this.

Tracking systems like the one in use in Kentucky, MethCheck, automatically collect the buyer’s name, address and age with a swipe of a driver’s license or state-issued ID card.

Then the system notifies detectives via e-mail when a customer has exceeded the purchase limit. It also allows law enforcement to quickly spot suspicious patterns — for example, someone who might be trying to skirt the purchase limits by going from pharmacy to pharmacy and buying a few packages at a time.

An updated version of MethCheck eventually will enable law enforcement to track purchases by neighborhood or street. That could help detectives spot instances in which a meth chemist enlists others in the neighborhood to buy pseudoephedrine for him, Lewis said.

It’ll happen, just you watch.

Buying cold meds? Meth cops may get e-mail

Posted by John Venlet on 07/19 at 03:47 AM
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Wednesday, July 18, 2007

Ridicule Them, They Deserve It

The war on terrorism.  Do those words actually have much meaning?  No, they are too generalized.

When we read accounts of terrorist atrocities committed, supposedly for the greater glory of Islam, we read “Islamic Jihadists,” did such and such, rather than “cowardly cold hearted bastards, under the tutelage of mis-guided charlatans of the Islamic faith, once again slaughtered a score of innocent individuals in Iraq.”

Politicians especially, in addition to most major media outlets, offer up concilatory phrases, because, you know, “we” don’t want to offend Islamic sensibilities.

A couple of pieces I’ve read today comment on this subject, noting that ridicule should be utilized in this struggle against the “scum” of Islam.  And if you cannot deduce the difference between the scum of Islam, and the neighborly of Islam, well, I’d say your moral compass is just plain broken.

The Chronicle published one piece I read titled If We Don’t Call Them Names, the Terrorists Win, which was written by Carlin Romano.  From Romano’s piece.

Yet the vast majority of statesmen believe in purely operational talk after terrorist acts. On July 4, Franco Frattini, the EU’s top justice official, announced a wide array of new antiterrorist measures, including an EU-wide passenger-data-recording system, and criminalization of bomb-making instructions on the Internet. “We will find a better way to discourage and detect terrorists,” Frattini said.

Why does such a better way not include a call for sterner moral judgment, forcefully expressed?...What might we argue in favor of calling terrorists names?

Let’s mention just one key goal: the education of the world’s Muslim youth. Instead of hearing moral praise and encouragement for terrorism from jihadists, which then gets mixed in their minds with the nonjudgmental, tactical talk of Western officials and media, they’d have to absorb a steady stream of insults of terrorists’ intelligence, morality, decency, and reasoning. Young Muslims would have to get used to hearing jihadist heroes described as savages, scum, and uncivilized losers, along with the reasons why. It would intellectually force them, far more than they are forced today, to choose between two visions of the world.

The second piece I read today is actually an online book, in pdf format which I magnified to 130% for easier reading, under the title Fighting the War of Ideas Like a Real War.

This 148 page book, written by J. Michael Waller, and published by The Institute of World Politics Press, also notes that words should be utilized as weapons against those bastardized sons of Islam who, like a pack of wild dogs, kill and maim indiscriminately.  A quote from Waller’s book regarding the use of ridicule.

Ridicule is an under-appreciated weapon not only against terrorists, but against weapons proliferators, despots, and international undesirables in general. Ridicule serves several purposes:

• Ridicule raises morale at home;
• Ridicule strips the enemy/adversary of his mystique and
prestige;
• Ridicule erodes the enemy’s claim to justice;
• Ridicule deprives the enemy of his ability to terrorize;
• Ridicule eliminates the enemy’s image of invincibility; and
• Directed properly at an enemy, ridicule can be a fate worse
than death.

Ridicule away.

Link to Waller’s book via the Chicago Boyz.

Posted by John Venlet on 07/18 at 06:17 AM
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Celebrate Lysander Spooner, Write a Paper

Next year, 2008, marks the 200th anniversary of the birth of Lysander Spooner (1808-1887) – abolitionist, anarchist, postal entrepreneur, and the leading legal theorist of 19th-century libertarianism...In honour of the upcoming Spooner bicentenary, the Journal of Libertarian Studies is planning a special symposium issue on Spooner. Submissions dealing with any aspect of Spooner’s life and thought are hereby solicited. Articles may be historical, interpretive, or critical; comparisons of Spooner to other figures are also welcome. Submissions should be sent to JLS@mises.org by 1 April 2008.

Via Roderick T. Long’s website Austro-Athenian Empire.

Posted by John Venlet on 07/18 at 04:55 AM
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Butt Out

This morning, the editors at the Boston Globe are shilling for the FDA to be put in charge of the tobacco industry.  That’s just what America needs, a FDA approved cigarette, and another level of government bureaucracy to fund.

Let the FDA butt in

Posted by John Venlet on 07/18 at 04:17 AM
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Tuesday, July 17, 2007

20,000 Percent Tax Increase

Congress is considering raising the taxes on a single cigar from a nickel ($0.05), to ten dollars ($10.00), for the children of course.  That’s a possible increase in taxes on cigars of 20,000 percent.  Punch it into your calculator and see for yourself, just like Eric Newman did.

Mr. Newman, whose line of cigars I happen to particularly enjoy, especially the Arturo Fuente family of cigars, notes this aggregious development and states the following.

"I’m not sure in the history of man, since our forefathers founded the country in 1776, that there’s ever been a tax increase of 20,000 percent,” said Newman, who runs the Tampa business founded by grandfather Julius Caesar Newman. “They had the Boston Tea Party for less than this."

Mr. Newman is correct, the Boston Tea Party was instigated for less.  Sadly, the days when action taking individuals would defy the government are long gone, as today a vast majority of individuals vote for the continued swelling of the state, because the state hands out lots of goodies, never considering, nay ignoring, that those goodie handouts are paid for by the monies they bitch about not having in their paychecks.

I guess I better liquidate some assets, build a walk in humidor, and stock up on my favorite cigars.

Cigarmakers in a panic

Posted by John Venlet on 07/17 at 09:46 AM
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Euphenism for Socialism

The State of Massachusetts, which for the past 30 years has fully regulated automobile insurance rates for private individuals, has made the decision to give individuals “a taste of auto insurance competition.” The state’s auto insurance politburo commissioner, Nonnie S. Burns, calls this “managed competition,” which is simply a euphenism for socialism.

The Governor of Massachusetts, Deval Patrick, states he supports Burns’ indecision for an actual free market in auto insurance, in the following convoluted manner.

"I am confident that she will keep a steady hand on this process as it moves forward to ensure that all Massachusetts consumers realize the benefits inherent to this transition,”...

I wonder if there will be a discount for being a party member?

State to let drivers shop for best rates

Posted by John Venlet on 07/17 at 05:05 AM
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Backpedaling in Virginia, for the Votes

Back on June 24th, in a post I titled Profiting From His Own Legislation, I noted the State of Virginia’s creative attempt to fill the state’s coffers with fresh money via what the state was calling “civil remedial fees,” for “bad” drivers.

Today, we read the following about Virginia’s so called bad driver civil remedial fees legislation.

An online petition against Virginia’s steep new “abusive driver” fees neared 100,000 signatures Monday, accelerating lawmakers’ calls for the General Assembly to rescind them before voters go to the polls Nov. 6.

Pointing up the political power of the issue, at one point Monday more than 1,000 people an hour were signing the petition demanding that lawmakers repeal the fees—some of which can top $1,000—or risk being voted out of office.

Note that the lawmakers are not calling to rescind the legislation because it is abusive to the individuals living in Virginia, but because they are concerned about being booted out of office.

One of the main sponsors of the bill, David B. Albo (R-Fairfax), who had laughably stated that the fees were “basically a voluntary tax,” and whose private law firm, which just happens to specialize in criminal/traffic law, potentially could have profited from drivers’ needs for legal representation because of the legislation, had this to say about the recent developments.

Albo said opposition to the fees has been intense because many people do not understand them.

I think individuals living in Virginia understand the fees only too well.  It’s the Virginia lawmakers who don’t understand that individuals are fed up with being shaken down for dollars every time they turn around.

Va. Driver Fees Now Election Weapon

Posted by John Venlet on 07/17 at 03:44 AM
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Monday, July 16, 2007

Profitable Coinage

When is an Indian one rupee coin worth thirty-five rupees?  When it is turned into razor blades.

"Our one rupee coin is in fact worth 35 rupees, because we make five to seven blades out of them,”...

Enterprising merchants in India, who deal in products which tend to produce alot of pocket change for their tills, are taking the coin of the realm received in payment for their goods, which I must consider as being sold at a profit, and further profiting from the exchange either by selling the coins received as payment for goods at a profit, or, by melting down the coins and turning them into razor blades.

This is, of course, upsetting Indian officials, who have decided to crack down on this practice, just as the United States has done when it made it illegal to melt coins, or to carry more than a certain amount of coins out of the country back in December 2006.

People who melt pennies or nickels to profit from the jump in metals prices could face jail time and pay thousands of dollars in fines, according to new rules out Thursday...Under the new rules, it is illegal to melt pennies and nickels. It is also illegal to export the coins for melting. Travelers may legally carry up to $5 in 1- and 5-cent coins out of the USA or ship $100 of the coins abroad “for legitimate coinage and numismatic purposes."

What’s that old saying, “Penny Wise, Pound Foolish?”

Story regarding India’s profitable coinage is titled Sharp practice of melting coins. Story regarding the United States’ legislation making it illegal to melt coins, or travel with more than a prescribed amount of coins, is titled New rules outlaw melting pennies, nickels for profit.

Linked via Marginal Revolution.

Posted by John Venlet on 07/16 at 06:52 AM
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Visa Checkcard Commercials

Recent Visa Checkcard teevee commercials supposedly display the efficiencies achieved by paying with plastic, rather than cash.

There undoubtedly are efficiencies gained by utilizing plastic to pay, and I utilize a debit card myself quite frequently, but one aspect of these Visa commercials which I find unsettling is the pariah status with which the commercials tend to paint a cash paying customer.  Clerks and customers look askance at the cash paying customer, while the cash paying customer sheepishly fumbles for a few dollars and cents to settle up the bill.

The commercials tend to make me want to only pay cash.

Here’s a YouTube example of one of the recent Visa Checkcard commercials for you to view for yourselves.

Posted by John Venlet on 07/16 at 05:12 AM
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Sunday, July 15, 2007

John Stossel Comments on His Interview with the Sicko

The Union Leader has an interesting piece up written by John Stossel wherein he comments on an interview he conducted with Michael Moore which will be shown on 20/20.

Stossel’s piece is titled Freedom, benevolence go together and is worth a read if only for the following quote from Ludwig von Mises.

"What makes friendly relations between human beings possible is the higher productivity of the division of labor. . . . A preeminent common interest, the preservation and further intensification of social cooperation, becomes paramount and obliterates all essential collisions."

Via the Ludwig von Mises Institute Mises Economics Blog.

Posted by John Venlet on 07/15 at 09:51 AM
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Mary Gauthier

A good friend recently dropped Mary Gauthier’s newest CD on me, Mercy Now.

The disc actually came out in 2005, of which I was unaware, and has been touted by notables such as Bob Dylan.

While Dylan’s plug is definitely noteworthy, any individual who enjoys solid lyrics, acoustic guitar, and the raspy drawl of a southern female’s voice may find this disc a nice addition to their musical library.  I know I did.

Posted by John Venlet on 07/15 at 07:54 AM
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Butt Out, Great White Hope

Africa, the “dark continent” individuals are led to believe, needs saving, and the great white hope which is the West is always sallying forth with their life ring of aid ready to be tossed to the poor teeming masses of Africans.

Rock stars, movie stars, ideological college students, and of course Western politicians, all clamor for more, more, more aid for whatever crisis they perceive Africa is currently undergoing, which is akin to giving one dose of medicine to a patient for an illness which actually requires an extended course of treatment.

Uzodinma Iweala, an actual African, opines on this subject in a piece published by the Washington Post titled Stop Trying To ‘Save’ Africa. From Iweala’s piece.

...the West has turned to Africa for redemption. Idealistic college students, celebrities such as Bob Geldof and politicians such as Tony Blair have all made bringing light to the dark continent their mission. They fly in for internships and fact-finding missions or to pick out children to adopt in much the same way my friends and I in New York take the subway to the pound to adopt stray dogs.

And this.

...News reports constantly focus on the continent’s corrupt leaders, warlords, “tribal” conflicts, child laborers, and women disfigured by abuse and genital mutilation. These descriptions run under headlines like “Can Bono Save Africa?” or “Will Brangelina Save Africa?” The relationship between the West and Africa is no longer based on openly racist beliefs, but such articles are reminiscent of reports from the heyday of European colonialism, when missionaries were sent to Africa to introduce us to education, Jesus Christ and “civilization."

Iweala ends his piece by noting that Africa can save itself through global business partnerships.  The question is, though, will the great white hope of the West, instead of throwing a life ring, bring them a business contract and a pen?

Posted by John Venlet on 07/15 at 07:00 AM
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Saturday, July 14, 2007

Saturday Morning Quote

"Political tags-such as royalist, communist, democrat, populist, fascist, liberal, conservative, and so forth-are never basic criteria. The human race divides politically into those who want people to be controlled and those who have no such desire."

-- Robert A Heinlein

Posted by John Venlet on 07/14 at 06:34 AM
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