Chaos!

There is but one description for Robin Williams; CHAOS!!!

Another Star Wars Edit??

Oh no!

Keynesian? Really?

Nick Gillespie over at Reason makes the salient point that current federal spending is not really what John Maynard Keynes had in mind when he suggested that government spending in a down cycle might spur growth.

But Whalen isn't simply dumping on Keynesianism, he's bent on pointing out that even its latter-day adherents are straying far from their master's theory. And in this, he's surely correct. As Allen Meltzer has argued, Keynes was against the very sort of large structural deficits that characterize contemporary federal budgets and policy, believing instead that deficits should be "temporary and self-liquidating." And Keynes believed that any sort of counter-cyclical spending by government should be directed toward increasing private investment, not simply spending current and future tax dollars on public works projects.

Nick quotes Mike Whalen in an article posted at The Washington Times.  Mike suggests...

If the federal government announced a real road map to fiscal soundness, the impact would be truly stimulating. If American businesses and consumers saw that Washington was really cutting, not just reducing future increases, there would be tremendous relief and an increase in confidence across the country. Job creators would sing “hallelujah”; they would get off their wallets, start hiring, and then you’d see that Keynesian multiplier kick in.

Which is a point that the current Administration and their supporters keep passing over as if it did not exist.

A big part of the problem with the sluggish economy is that business owners can see current government spending, and future spending obligations as being capable of turning a sour economy into a really dismal economy.  Greco-Japanese dismal.

When they are convinced that their sidelined capital could be safely invested with the reasonable expectation of making a profit in the bargain, then they will begin investing.

All this talk of raising taxes on "the rich" and passing behemoth federal programs does nothing more than reinforce the idea that they are better off sitting on their cash.

Incivility

The talking heads are all agog over James Hoffa Jr.'s Labor Day pronouncement where he offered the services of organized labor to 'take these son of bitches out.'  The 'son of bitches' being the Tea Party and other fiscally responsible people.

This is Jimmy Hoffa's son!  Is anyone really surprised that he would threaten violence to those that hinder his agenda?

What is disappointing this lack....thus far....of comment from Mr. Obama's administration.  It wasn't terribly long ago when a terrible rampage that resulted in several deaths and serious harm to U.S. Representative Gabby Giffords prompted the same people to lecture the nation...and the right in specific...on the idea of civility and rhetorical restraint.  A simple image using a set of crosshairs within a partisan exhortation to organize voters to vote was deemed too 'extreme' for civil discourse.

One wonders what they think of 'take these son of bitches out.'

Or is this more of the 'do as I say, but not as I do' that has long been the rage among the political class.

More via the Blogfather.

This response from Sarah Palin is spot on:

When big government, big business, and big union bosses collude together, they get government to maximize their own interests against those of the rest of the country.

...

This collusion is at the heart of Obama’s economic vision for America. In practice it is socialism for the very rich and the very poor, but a brutal form of capitalism for the rest of us. It is socialism for the very poor who are reduced to a degrading perpetual dependence on a near-bankrupt centralized government to provide their every need, while at the same time robbing them of that which brings fulfillment and success - the life-affirming pride that comes from taking responsibility for your own destiny and building a better life through self-initiative and work ethic. And Obama’s vision is socialism via crony capitalism for the very rich who continue to get bailouts, debt-ridden "stimulus" funds, and special favors that allow them to waive off or help draft the burdensome regulations that act as a boot on the neck to small business owners who don’t have the same friends in high places. And where does this collusion leave working class Americans and the small business owners who create 70% of the jobs in this country? Out in the cold. It’s you and your children who are left paying for the cronyism of Obama and our permanent political class in DC.

When she talks about small business owners that create 70% of our jobs, I can't help but think about Mitt Romney's attempt at socialized medicine in Massachusetts.   They allowed big business to opt out of the statewide plan.  Big businesses get huge healthcare discounts.  Small businesses need not apply.

Government continually works on behalf of big business while expecting small businesses to foot the bill.  It is all about using political power in support of large....nowhere near 'majority' large....groups at the expense of the individual.

Freedom Of Speech Or Religious Intolerance

From the National Review comes this report about a United Nations initiative to create a framework for limiting any criticism of Islam.

An unprecedented collaboration between the Obama administration and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC, formerly called the Organization of the Islamic Conference) to combat “Islamophobia” may soon result in the delegitimization of freedom of expression as a human right.

...

But thanks to a puzzling U.S. diplomatic initiative that was unveiled in July, Resolution 16/18 is poised to become a springboard for a greatly reinvigorated international effort to criminalize speech against Islam, the very thing it was designed to quash.

Citing a need to “move to implementation” of Resolution 16/18, the Obama administration has inexplicably decided to launch a major international effort against Islamophobia in partnership with the Saudi-based OIC. This is being voluntarily assumed at American expense, outside the U.N. framework, and is not required by the resolution itself.

Will there be any reciprocity?  Will Muslim majority countries stop persecuting those of other faiths?  Will those countries pass laws to protect those that exercise their right to leave Islam, or even convert to another faith, instead of the current practice of prison...or worse?

Will the synagogues that used to exist before the re-creation of Isreal be rebuilt?  Will there the Saudis reform their education curriculum that teaches that polytheists are to be killed, that Christians are enemies, and that Islam should be spread via 'jihad'?

I'm not holding my breath.

This initiative is shaping up to be one-sided. As Akram said, “The Resolution 16/18 was driven more by the kind of discrimination in Europe and the West in general against Muslims.” He added: “I don’t think any country in the Muslim world is deliberately discriminating against minorities.” Ihsanoglu took a similar tack, writing that “the Islamic faith is based on tolerance and acceptance of other religions. It does not condone discrimination of human beings on the basis of caste, creed, color, or faith.”

To be clear, my position is that every person retains the individual right to be criticize every religion that exists, has existed, or ever will exist.  That right greatly supersedes the sensitivities of any religious community.

The UN is no friend of liberty.  It places freedom of speech in second place to the "purposes and principles" of global governance.

(3) These rights and freedoms may in no case be exercised contrary to the purposes and principles of the United Nations.

Happy Birthday, Freddy

You are sorely missed.

Don't miss the thoughts of Dr. Brian May regarding his old friend on what should have been Freddy Mercury's 65th birthday.

Yes? 

Yes, Brian is a doctor.  Astrophysics. "A Survey of Radial Velocities in the Zodiacal Dust Cloud"

Welcome To My Blogroll

Mike Peterson!

Wait.  He was already on there. And now he is on there twice??

Ayuh.

Mike has been writing a couple of different blogs.  I read them from time to time.  His Comic Strip Of The Day continues his habit of insightful and inciting writing.  I have added to this blog to my Google Reader list and anticipate great things in the days to come.

New Blogger Interface

If you blog via Blogger, you may have noticed an offer to use the new Blogger interface.  I did.

Veeerrry interesting!  I can now see how many hits I get per day and who is my biggest referrer.

Speaking of my biggest referrer, thanks Ruth!

And the new interface appears to have all the old publishing features.  I'll stick with it for a while.

Silly Ira!

Don't ever become a pessimist, Ira; a pessimist is correct oftener than an optimist, but an optimist has more fun, and neither can stop the march of events.

-Time Enough For Love, by Robert Heinlein

Leftists Back Cutting Corporate Income Taxes

Which is a bit of a milestone.  But given how little we collect and how much gets spent enforcing and complying with those laws, isn't better to just eliminate the corporate income tax?

That would make the US a tax haven.  Just think of all the money that would be parked here!