Monday, February 16, 2009

Cripple the Businesses that Keep America Great

Small businesses, with less than 100 employees, make up a large percentage of businesses here in the United States.  With big businesses having been run into the ground due to State interferences over the years, and the gradual nationalization of businesses of all types currently under way here in the United States, the federal government, and state and local governments, are diligently seeking ways to confiscate additional monies in order to turn all Americans into welfare recipients.

Here is the most current eggregious example of the greed rampant around us in government as the United States sinks further and further into socialist ideology.

Outrage brewing over proposed 1,900% beer tax hike

Posted by John Venlet on 02/16 at 04:16 PM
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Attention Holocaust Denying Bishop Richard Williamson

Here you go, holocaust denier Bishop Richard Williamson.  Holocaust-denying British bishop says he will ‘review the evidence’ - and orders a book about Auschwitz

Auschwitz plans put on display in Berlin

Posted by John Venlet on 02/16 at 09:22 AM
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Are You “Hiding in the Back?”

Bill H, at Free In Idaho, has a essay post up titled Uncomfortable Questions which is worth a read.  The conclusion of Bill’s post.

Can your spouse say the things you believe in?  If I asked them, would they tell me they’re afraid you really believe it?  Or would they tell me they’re proud of you because they know you do?  Do your kids know the difference between conservative and liberterian, progressive and fascist, free man and serf?

Are you eager to speak about liberty?  Or do you avoid letting folks know what you believe?

Did you know that what’s happening today was planned years ago and brought about by true believers?

Do you truly believe in anything?  Can anyone tell?  And how will you know when the line is crossed from “it’s not bad enough yet” to “it’s too late”?

More and more voices asking uncomfortable questions right now… no hiding in the back.

Posted by John Venlet on 02/16 at 08:45 AM
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Reach Out and Touch Someone

Pictured: The supergun that kills from a mile - and the camouflaged crackshots using it against the Taliban

The British-made L115A3 Long Range Rifle.

Posted by John Venlet on 02/16 at 08:21 AM
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Get the Hell out of the Way, Government

Did politicians rumble the trade? Did governments, or international forums or symposiums, provide the sharp instrument? Did academic research and expertise expose the dodgy product? Did statutory regulators apply the pin? No, the free market wised up and pricked this bubble. Politicians and finance ministers (if they had had the power) would have tried to keep it inflated. The market puffed itself up, and then, without intervention - despite intervention - the market let itself down. The speed with which this has happened has been awful, but however inconvenient for many or catastrophic for a few, correction is not a failure of the market, but a success.

The above quote is from a piece in The Spectator, written by Matthew Parris, titled O ye of little faith! This economic crisis is evidence that the market is working.

Indeed.

Via Samizdata.

Posted by John Venlet on 02/16 at 08:12 AM
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Reality Matters Not to Obama’s Agenda

The Wall Street Journal publishes an op-ed today, written by Barry Schiller, titled Obama’s Rhetoric Is the Real ‘Catastrophe,’ wherein Schiller notes that Obama is, and has been since the campaign, hard selling economic fear.

President Barack Obama has turned fearmongering into an art form. He has repeatedly raised the specter of another Great Depression. First, he did so to win votes in the November election. He has done so again recently to sway congressional votes for his stimulus package.

I’ve stated the same thing here.

Schiller then goes on in his piece and states the following historic data.

This fearmongering may be good politics, but it is bad history and bad economics. It is bad history because our current economic woes don’t come close to those of the 1930s. At worst, a comparison to the 1981-82 recession might be appropriate. Consider the job losses that Mr. Obama always cites. In the last year, the U.S. economy shed 3.4 million jobs. That’s a grim statistic for sure, but represents just 2.2% of the labor force. From November 1981 to October 1982, 2.4 million jobs were lost—fewer in number than today, but the labor force was smaller. So 1981-82 job losses totaled 2.2% of the labor force, the same as now.

Job losses in the Great Depression were of an entirely different magnitude. In 1930, the economy shed 4.8% of the labor force. In 1931, 6.5%. And then in 1932, another 7.1%. Jobs were being lost at double or triple the rate of 2008-09 or 1981-82.

This is not “good politics,” as Schiller states at the beginning of the above quote.  In fact it is high irresponsibility on the part of Obama, and displays Obama’s total lack of rational observation in his cocoon of ideology.

Posted by John Venlet on 02/16 at 07:54 AM
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