Looks like the stimulus did more to expand government and save government jobs than it did for the private sector.
Basically, government took more money from us in order to save their own jobs.
Nice.
"The price of freedom is eternal vigilance."
Stimulus Saved Thousands of Jobs — in Government
November 4th, 2009, 8:47 am by Thomas J. Lucente Jr.
Global Blog Action Day— on Climate Change
October 15th, 2009, 4:10 pm by Brian CalleToday is global Blog Action Day so I thought it only fitting I would make today my debut blog for Orange Punch.
If you haven’t heard about it, Blog Action Day is an annual event seeking united bloggers around the world to talk about one topic. I like the idea. This year’s topic is climate change.
What I like about this event is that it does not call for a specific viewpoint on the issue, just an ongoing, web based dialogue on a hot topic. Anything that gets people talking and debating an issue is a good thing in my book. So I encourage everyone to post a blog on the topic.
My thoughts on climate change are pretty straight forward:
It seems logical that people have an impact on the climate. But I am not convinced that the situation is a dire as some activists want us to believe. This is an important issue to a lot of people, and I think those people should take action for themselves. For example, do everything you possibly can to make your life cleaner, greener, leaner, and meaner, if this is your cause…and you want to.
But at the same time, don’t try and force your will on others. Or legislate other people to live in the manner you do. That is the problem. Individuals are the solution–not asking government to put mandates on your neighbors.
Personally, I think if you are a climate change advocate you should commit to being a vegetarian. A recent study demonstrated that if everyone gave up one meal of meat a day it would have more of an impact on the environment than if everyone drove a hybrid!
When Al gore becomes a vegan, that is when he will have my full attention!
‘Obama Is A Stinkin’ Liar’
October 6th, 2009, 7:47 pm by Thomas J. Lucente Jr.
Big Bird calls it like he sees it.
I like that bird.
To whom does Polanski owe a debt?
October 2nd, 2009, 3:57 pm by by Alan Bock, Register editorial writerI kept having mixed feelings about Roman Polanski, but Don Boudreaux, chairman of the econ dept. at George Mason University has helped to clarify my thinking. Polanski doesn’t owe a “debt to society” but a debt to the person he wronged. My understanding is that he has reached a private settlement with her. Here’s Don:
Wondering if Roman Polanski’s rape of a 13-year-old girl in 1977 should be forgiven because of the tragedies that Polanski himself has suffered, Meghan Daum notes that “Part of what makes the Polanski case fascinating - as well as repugnant - is that it’s infused with these sorts of existential questions about what evens the scales” (”Polanski’s pain isn’t penance,” Oct. 1).
Here’s one thing that does NOT “even the scales”: imprisonment. Imprisonment is justified to restrain violent persons, and perhaps also to serve as a deterrent to others who might commit serious crimes. Contrary to popular myth, though, being imprisoned does not amount to “paying one’s debts” to society. Imprisonment isn’t a process whereby prisoners compensate their victims.
Furthermore, Polanski’s victim isn’t society; it’s Samantha Gailey. He damn well owes HER something - and if she wants, she should collect. But let’s be clear that imprisoning Polanski would in no way promote the worthy goal of having him pay for his crime with compensation paid to his actual victim.
Sincerely,
Donald J. Boudreaux
Professor of Economics
George Mason University
Fairfax, VA 22030
What do you think?
Cato Lawyer Slams ACLU Lawyer in Race Debate
October 1st, 2009, 8:19 pm by Thomas J. Lucente Jr.
I sat through a debate Tuesday afternoon at the University of Toledo College of Law in Toledo, Ohio, between Mark P. Fancher, staff attorney and director of the Racial Justice Project at the American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan (standing at lectern), and Ilya Shapiro, the senior fellow in constitutional studies at the Cato Institute (sitting). (Please forgive the photo quality, I took it with a low-quality cell phone.)
The debate, interestingly enough, was titled “Affirmative Action vs. Reverse Discrimination” and centered on the Supreme Court’s ruling earlier this year in Ricci v. DeStefano, the affirmative action case involving a promotion test given to New Haven, Conn., firefighters. (For more background on the case, click here.)
Essentially, the city determined that the examination was racist because statistics showed that not as many minorities as whites passed the test. Therefore, the city threw out the test and refused to promote the whites and one Hispanic who passed the test.
The white firefighters sued.
The appellate court, in an opinion written by now-Justice Sonia Sotomayor, sided with the city in ruling the test as unfair to minorities. The Supreme Court overruled and found for the white firefighters.
In the debate, Fancher, who is black, took the position that the test was obviously racist because of the disparate impact to blacks.
State Sovereignty Movement Growing With Ohio Vote
September 29th, 2009, 7:17 pm by Thomas J. Lucente Jr.
The Ohio Senate on Tuesday struck a victory for states’ rights, constitutionalism and federalism.
The Senate passed 19-12 Senate Concurrent Resolution 13: “To claim sovereignty over certain powers pursuant to the Tenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States of America, to notify Congress to limit and end certain mandates, and to insist that federal legislation contravening the Tenth Amendment be prohibited or repealed.”
Wow!
Basically, the Ohio Senate just told the U.S. government, in legislative jargon, to “Butt out!”
Unfortunately, most Ohioans did not hear about it because there was very little media coverage of the vote, probably because most reporters do not understand what it means.
The governor’s reaction? He issued a press release praising the selection of Cleveland as the site of the 2014 Gay Games.
A Valuable Lesson From Long Ago
September 29th, 2009, 1:12 pm by Thomas J. Lucente Jr.
Came across this great quotation from Frederick Douglass. He seems to be anticipating the idea of affirmative action and soundly rejecting such a thing. While he is talking specifically about the plight of blacks and the impending end of slavery, his words can apply to us all and are especially apt today when we have a president and Congress trying to help us all with cradle-to-grave government services:
“[I]n regard to the colored people, there is always more that is benevolent, I perceive, than just, manifested towards us. What I ask for the negro is not benevolence, not pity, not sympathy, but simply justice. The American people have always been anxious to know what they shall do with us. … I have had but one answer from the beginning. Do nothing with us! Your doing with us has already played the mischief with us. Do nothing with us! If the apples will not remain on the tree of their own strength, if they are worm-eaten at the core, if they are early ripe and disposed to fall, let them fall! … And if the negro cannot stand on his own legs, let him fall also. All I ask is, give him a chance to stand on his own legs! Let him alone! … [Y]our interference is doing him positive injury.”
- “What the Black Man Wants”: An Address Delivered in Boston, on 26 January 1865, reprinted in 4 The Frederick Douglass Papers 59, 68 (J. Blassingame & J. McKivigan eds. 1991) (emphasis in original).
Uncle O
September 29th, 2009, 1:06 pm by Thomas J. Lucente Jr.From my friends at PatriotPost.us:
And another one:
