Monday, June 22, 2009

Obama’s Health Care Words Have No Meaning

Words have meaning, but not the words emanating from the mouth of Obama.

Obama et al are pushing a health care plan/reform which, like the auto industry “plans” and financial industry “plans,” further nudge the United States of America towards socialism.

Obama’s most recent words regarding the administration’s “plans” for health care, uttered a mere week ago, are now being re-interpreted/clarified, so that the faithful and socialist leaning do not fall under the impression that he meant what he said.

Less than 24 hours after Heritage Foundation President Ed Feulner questioned the veracity of President Obama’s persistent claim that, under his health care proposals, “if you like your insurance package you can keep it”, the White House has begun to walk the President’s claim back. Turns out he didn’t really mean it.

According to the Associated Press, “White House officials suggest the president’s rhetoric shouldn’t be taken literally: What Obama really means is that government isn’t about to barge in and force people to change insurance.”

Obama Walks Back Promise On Keeping Your Private Insurance

It’s all part and parcel of the new era of transparency, if you can see through the opaqueness.

Linked via a Jim Lindgren post at The Volokh Conspiracy via a Reynold’s post.

Posted by John Venlet on 06/22 at 05:19 AM
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Rothbard Summer University 2009

I received an email from Tuur Demeester, who is the Convenor of the Rothbard Summer University, asking if I would post a link to an invitation to the Rothbard Summer University 2009, and I am pleased to oblige.

Dear student of the Austrian School of Economics,

The long expected bursting of the global bubble is a fact. The illusion of paper created wealth is coming to an end. Millions of people are losing their jobs, businesses and careers are failing and families are fighting to keep their head above water. Most of this, as you well know, is the result of a certain way of thinking about the role of banks, the nature of money, and the tasks of government. The above quotation of Keynes gives us at least one thing for him and us to agree on: the crucial role of ideas. Wrong ideas, as is painfully apparent today, can lead to tremendous social suffering. Hence the great importance of correct theory, identifying harmful illusions and fallacies, while at the same time showing the way towards a realistic picture of freedom and prosperity. 

The focus of the Rothbard Summer University is exactly this: discerning and sharing correct theory that matters. This is where we build on the tradition of Mises, Rothbard and other intellectual giants. Topics to be treated on the Rothbard Summer University include economic theory, the current crisis, philosophy of law, political theory and proposals for concrete reforms. Aside from the aim of mastering and sharing established theory, there will be room for proposals and discussion on how to further refine it. The Summer University, in the sheltered environment of the Old Abbey of Kortenberg (near Brussels), also offers time for leisure and a lot of opportunity for input from the participants. 

You’ve mastered the basics of Austrian Theory and seek to expand your horizon? Then the Rothbard Summer University is the place to be: no retreat in the ivory tower of academics, but an opportunity to contribute to the much needed paradigm shift in economic and political science. 

You are still a beginner in Austrian Theory? Then the Rothbard Summer University offers you a unique chance to learn from and engage with expert scholars in the field. Aside from refreshing insights in politics, economics, money, law, and banking, you will gain essential knowledge about the greatest crisis of the century: what its causes and cures are, and what can be done to prevent it from ever happening again.

Yours in liberty, 

Tuur Demeester
Convenor, Rothbard Summer University

Additional information can be found here.

Go forth and learn.

Posted by John Venlet on 06/22 at 04:01 AM
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Sunday, June 21, 2009

The Demise of Private Planes, Winging Your Way

In response to individuals who warn of the continued erosion of freedom within these United States, only the uninformed, the apathetic, the fearful or cheerleaders of the State will respond by calling such individuals paranoiacs.

The individuals who tally up and protest against each additional State intrusion into Americans’ private lives, in addition to being labeled paranoiacs, in all likelihood end up on the Department of Homeland Insecurity’s “right wing extremist” list, or may be labeled as low-level terrorists.

Where will the instrusion of the State stop?  When will intrusion of the State stop?

The most recent intrusion of the State is into private planes.

Utilizing their seemingly unfettered authority to do anything that strikes their fancy without oversight by anyone, Homeland Security has instituted a requirement that private aircraft operators seek government permission each time we propose to take off if we are planning to depart for Canada, Mexico or the Caribbean. We must provide advance detailed information about where, when, and who, including the names, social security numbers, addresses, etc., of all persons who will be in the aircraft. The justification for this, they say, is that we, our spouses, family or friends might be on their mysterious and top secret “No Fly List.” The most significant aspect of this is that Homeland Security has indicated that this is a preliminary step toward their ultimate objective of requiring this data submission prior to EVERY aircraft takeoff in America, regardless of destination. Keep this in mind as we continue.

The remainder of the email from which the above quote was gleaned can be read at Transterrestrial Musings.  The post is titled From A Concerned Pilot.

When will you show concern about the continued erosion of freedom in these United States?  When it is too late?

Posted by John Venlet on 06/21 at 11:51 AM
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Saturday, June 20, 2009

Camouflage Your House

I’m not a fan of vinyl siding, but I sure got a boot out of finding out about WildSide Camo Siding.

Style Crest has licensed the Mossy Oak® Obsession pattern and developed WildSide camouflage vinyl siding. Now avid outdoor enthusiasts can display their passion for nature – on their sheds, hunting cabins, shooting houses, blinds, and barns and they can even bring their passion for hunting home with residential accents. “While we would be thrilled to see a whole sub-division of homes in WildSide siding, we are focused on the outdoor enthusiast who has been hunting for a way to showcase their love of the outdoors on a grander scale,” said Brad Johnson, Vice President, Marketing, Style Crest Building Products.

Posted by John Venlet on 06/20 at 04:08 PM
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Friday, June 19, 2009

M2 Full Auto Raffle

Bill, at Free In Idaho, reminds us that “The Idaho Automatic Weapons Collectors Association is raffling off a very nice little Winchester M2 Carbine.”

Indeed, the M2 looks like a “very nice little” piece.

M2 Raffle ticket available here.

Posted by John Venlet on 06/19 at 10:00 AM
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Word to the Wise

The blog American Mercenary, which is run by an active duty military individual, offers some advice in response to The Modern Militia Movement report.  The post is titled Mental Training.  The advice.

However, private citizens who are being spied upon by their own government probably should be forming the militias that the government is spying on them for belonging to…

If I were to start a militia, I wouldn’t start by stockpiling weapons and ammunition. After all all the people I would contact via face to face already have plenty of both. I would do my damndest to stay away from all electronic communications. A “platen code” is old school tech, but it works. If had to send electronic mail, there are options to encrypt your transmission, the purpose of this post isn’t to go into detail on secure cell communications, but it can be done, after all we haven’t caught Bin Laden yet…

Blending in, living as an upstanding citizen in your private life and electronic activities is probably the best way to avoid infiltration by government agents. Or at least from “Fusion Cells” looking to target “right wing extremists”.

Carry on.

Posted by John Venlet on 06/19 at 08:31 AM
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Obama Love and the Oft-beaten Girlfriend

Good read posted at the blog The Return of Scipio titled Their Master’s Voice.  From the piece.

...One odd fact about Obama—there are many odd facts about Obama—is that his most rabid supporters know he lies and do not mind at all that he lies. One must delve rather deeply into the realms of psychology to understand such folks. One is reminded of the woman who is regularly beaten by her boyfriend but refuses to press charges against him. She loves him, you see.

And that sort of “love” is unworthy of a people whose heritage is the Declaration, the Constitution and the Republic created by them. Simply stated, when such folks control the destiny of a nation, that nation will ooze into dictatorship…

Posted by John Venlet on 06/19 at 08:21 AM
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On Personal Freedom and Public Policy

Wendy McElroy comments on the issue noted in the title to this post in a piece titled There Ought Not To Be A Law.  From Wendy’s piece.

Today, the distinction between personal morality and public policy is collapsing. Much of the blame rests with political correctness. This evolved form of liberalism declares that certain ideas and attitudes are improper and, so, should be prohibited by law. For example, because it is improper to view women as inferior to men, discrimination against women should be prohibited. The law should encourage correct attitudes and discourage incorrect ones.

Political correctness stands in sharp contrast to the traditional American value of legally respecting, not restricting, everyone’s right to their personal beliefs. The beliefs may be accurate or false, virtuous or vicious, but everyone has the right to use their own judgment to arrive at their own conclusions.

Read the whole thing.

Linked via a post at Rashy Null Planet titled Clockwork Morality.

Posted by John Venlet on 06/19 at 07:58 AM
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Don’t Include Me in Your “Collective” Apology

Slavery, is an abomination.  Men throughout the world have been enslaving their fellow men for thousands of years, and it continues today.  Slavery today can be somewhat more humane, as individuals throughout the world are allowed to vote for the degree of slavery under which they suffer, though the form of slavery much decried from days past still exists also.

The United States Senate yesterday passed a resoultion to apologize for the slavery which occurred here in America.  Various individuals, both in the halls of power and out on the street, are unhappy, or will be unhappy with this apologetic resolution.

I am unhappy with this resolution for the following reason, and it is based on the following comment uttered by Senator Tom Harkin (D-Iowa).

“It is important to have a collective response to a collective injustice.”

Do not include me, or my family, in your “collective response” to a “collective injustice,” Mr. Harkin.  I and my family had nothing, nothing, to do with slavery.  We are Dutch immigrants who arrived in America decades after the abomination of slavery was finally culled from society.  Am I supposed to “feel” guilt for actions done by individuals for whom I have no responsibility?  Am I supposed to “feel” responsible for cretins who rationalize themselves so superior to other individuals that it gives them a “right” to enslave them?  I think not.

Senate Backs Apology for Slavery

Posted by John Venlet on 06/19 at 07:33 AM
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United Nations Fail - Again and Again

I have never been a supporter of the United Nations.  It is an ineffective body, posturing about by sending letters of reprimand, which read good to the masses, but which mean nothing to pretenders to power in various countries which fall under the United Nations stern, but vacuous gaze.

Billions and billions of dollars are suborned by the United Nations from its member countries, acountability for which is next to nil, and if accountability for these billions is taken seriously, invariably what is accounted for is as follows.

In the last two decades, the world has spent more than $196 billion trying to save people from death and disease in poor countries.

But just what the world’s gotten for its money isn’t clear,...

In one paper, WHO researchers examined the impact of various global health initiatives during the last 20 years.

They found some benefits, like increased diagnosis of tuberculosis cases and higher vaccination rates. But they also concluded some U.N. programs hurt health care in Africa by disrupting basic services and leading some countries to slash their health spending…

Experts said that in some cases, the U.N. was propping up dysfunctional health systems. “If you’ve got rotten governments, no amount of development aid is going to fix that,”...

“Funds in global health tend to go to whichever lobby group shouts the loudest,...

But the last paragraph in the article noting the ineffectiveness and wastefulness of the United Nations humanitarian health spending is the most telling, as it stipulates what I consider to be the only fucntion of the United Nations, no matter what program they are funding with their suborned dollars.

“The public health community has convinced the public the only way to improve poor health in developing countries is by throwing a ton of money at it,” Stevens said. “It is perhaps not coincidental that thousands of highly paid jobs and careers are also dependent on it.”

$196 billion; little proof UN health programs work

Posted by John Venlet on 06/19 at 07:04 AM
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Thursday, June 18, 2009

Get Paid to Care for Your Own Children

In the socialist, dead broke, republic of California, which supposedly is even considering cutting welfare to make ends meet, LA county officials are suggesting that CalWORKS pay parents to care for their own children.  I wonder if the proposed program will have as large as a loophole as Wisconsin’s program?

...a young woman has tapped into a home-based money-making operation that netted her and her three sisters more than half a million in taxpayer dollars since 2006.

And they did it with the blessing of the state.

All four had been in-home child-care providers. Collectively they have 17 children. For years, the government has paid them to stay home and care for each other’s children.

Nothing illegal about it under the rules of Wisconsin Shares, the decade-old child-care assistance program designed alongside Wisconsin’s welfare-to-work program.

The Los Angeles Times report on this story is titled L.A. County officials offer a novel idea to save millions

Posted by John Venlet on 06/18 at 03:23 PM
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David Mayo Injustice

I’ve mentioned the story regarding Grand Rapids Press reporter David Mayo a couple of times here.  My first post was titled Need Hydroponic Growing Equipment? - Pay Cash or Get Busted, and I firmly stand behind that advice.  My second post regarding Mayo was titled Indoor Growing Equipment Invoice Bust of David Mayo - Operation Green Thumb, and I mused at the end of that post that all charges should be dropped against Mayo and his wife, based on the methods the police utilized to obtain their warrant, and stated that we should soon find out if the charges would be dropped.

Well, the charges against Mayo and his wife have not been dropped, which shows terrible judgement on the part of the judge involved in the case, Kent County Circuit Judge Dennis Leiber.

The case against Mayo was predicated on the obtaining of invoices, from some shadowy organization called Operation Greenthumb, which allegedly show that David Mayo purchased indoor, hydroponic growing equipment.  Based on this information, the police obtained Mayo’s electrical bills, which I assume they obtained with a warrant, and noted that Mayo’s home appeared to have mold growing on the exterior, and based on this information, a search warrant was issued against Mayo’s home.

This shadowy Operation Greenthumb, for which there is no Google link, unless you’re interested in community garden projects, is evidently funded by a Office of National Drug Policy Control program called the High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area Program, but I am unable to definitively state if this is so.

It is a travesty that this case against Mayo is moving forward.  When judges are walking hand in hand with the police, there is no justice.

The most recent Grand Rapids Press article in regards to Mayo is titled Judge denies Press sports columnist David Mayo’s effort to discredit police marijuana search.

Posted by John Venlet on 06/18 at 01:35 PM
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I’m Just a “Low Level Terrorist”

From a Pentagon exam for Deparment of Defense employees.

“Which of the following is an example of low-level terrorism?”

— Attacking the Pentagon

— IEDs

— Hate crimes against racial groups

— Protests

And the answer is?  One would think, that so called “hate crimes” would be the correct answer, as attacking the Pentagon or planting an IED would definitely be high-level terrorism, but here is the correct answer.

The correct answer, according to the exam, is “Protests.”

So, all you tea party protestors and what not, you are now officially known as low-level terrorists.  Plan your day accordingly.

Pentagon Exam Calls Protests ‘Low-Level Terrorism,’ Angering Activists

Linked via Reynolds.

Posted by John Venlet on 06/18 at 12:41 PM
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“The New Orwellianism”

Victor Davis Hanson in a post at The Corner.

We use Orwell, Orwellian, and Orwellianism loosely a lot these days, but what is going on in the Obama administration is beginning to get a little creepy and resembles a lot of things Orwell wrote about in 1984.

When in, Soviet fashion, a critical overseer is dismissed as being “confused” and suffering mental problems in carrying out the law, as Gerald Walpin probably did in uncovering waste and possible fraud in connection with the mayor of Sacramento; or when the government begins to create new words like “overseas contingency operations” and “man-made catastrophes”; or when Justice Sotomayor says that a Latina is inherently a better judge than a white man — and then says she does not mean what she says — or that a female-only club that has no males does so because no males apparently applied (using the argument of pre-Civil Rights Southern country clubs); or when the president begins nationalizing companies because he has no interest in the federal government interfering with private enterprise or swears that he is going to uncover waste and insist on financial sobriety as he runs up a nearly $2 trillion deficit, we see a creeping Orwellianism everywhere. Bush (and “Bush did it”) has become the proverbial enemy at large, sort of playing the role of Trotsky in the Soviet 1930s, or the face on the big screen we are supposed to hate — alternately demonized and airbrushed (when Obama adopts his policies like military tribunals, Iraq, or renditions). Newspeak has even proclaimed our president a “god,” and a journalist has adopted proskynesis in his presence.

There’s a bit more to Hanson’s post, but the above is the meat of the post.

Posted by John Venlet on 06/18 at 10:34 AM
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New Car Company or Future Acquistion Target for Government Motors?

Via Drudge, we are informed that a new car company is forming, to be located in Monroe, LA, which will be partially funded by venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, which Al Gore recently joined as a partner.

According to an article in Daily Finance; In midst of auto crisis, Al Gore backs a new car company in Louisiana; the company, V-Vehicle Company (VVC), for which I cannot find a website, the company’s car will still feature a combustion engine, but one that is “high mileage.”

Some additional information on V-Vehicle Company (VVC) can be found at the Louisana Economic Development website, which also informs us that “some of the most revered names in the business have joined together to help build the next great American car company.”

This is a big announcement, complete with job creation predictions, 1,400 new jobs, and income predicitions, average pay $40K per year, but I am rather skeptical.  I think that V-Vehicle Company (VVC) will, like many businesses today, soon be appealing to the federal government for funds to achieve their lofty goals and stated job creation and income predictions, which would not be so great.

Posted by John Venlet on 06/18 at 10:08 AM
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