Don’t ever let someone pooh-pooh the slippery-slope argument. In California, a democrat has proposed a huge tax on beer,
“The people who use alcohol should pay for part of the cost to society, just like we’ve accepted that concept with tobacco,” Beall said. (LINK)
We have accepted (well, he and his liberal friends have) the concept that government can tax invade our lives and punish us for our sins, and therefore he feels OK to extend the concept of reducing our liberties with more tax. That is the slippery-slope in plain site.
Posted by: The Elephant Owner in
Free Markets on April 11th, 2008
Lindsay Levin is a blogger on Hillary Clinton’s official campaign web site (LINK). She has an new entry to explain Hillary’s plan to cut the murder rate in halve. As is often the case, she used statistics not to enlighten, but to deceive. She makes the charge that
From 1994 through 2000, violent crime fell 29% and the murder rate fell 39%…And in 2005 and 2006, the violent crime rate rose in two consecutive years for the first time since the passage of the Clinton Crime Bill in 1994
This statement is true, buy misleading. Her implication is that violent crime was reduced by the Clinton Crime Bill and that this trend has reversed during George Bush’s tenure.
From the chart below (LINK to stats), violent crime is at a historically low level. Violent crime started to drop long before the Clinton Crime Bill, and violent crime was lower in every year of the Bush administration than it was in any year in the last 20 years. It is true that crime fell quite substantially throughout the Clinton Administration, but you would be hard pressed to show that it was due to the Clinton Crime Bill?
There are probably many factors. Could it be that the effects of the “soft on crime” Burger Supreme court were finally starting to reverse? Could it be the “three stikes” laws that made it difficult for liberal judges to let criminals go free. Could it be that the influence of crack was starting to wane? Could it be that Republicans were winning victories in local jurastiction that actually manage the police?
I don’t think anyone really knows. I am sure that the simplistic view of Hillary’s blog team is way off base.
Posted by: The Elephant Owner in
Common Sense on April 11th, 2008
Are monopolies bad? Before you can answer that question you must consider how monopolies occur. In business, true monopolies are extinct. It is not because of government intervention. The hindrance to monopolies is the free market.
Microsoft was a very strong player in the personal computer market, but they never came close to a monopoly. There has always been alternative (MAC, Linux, Unix). With new technologies and a younger generation that did not grow up learning Word and Excel, dependence on Microsoft is waning. Google has grown to be the big player. Many online tools pioneered by Google are designed to cut into Microsoft market.
There is only one way to create a monopoly in a free market. You need the government to help you. AT&T had a monopoly because the government wanted it that way (REF). The phone System was nationalized during WWI. While under government control, the long distance rates were increased by 20%. After the war, the company was returned to private ownership…the rates remained high and the competition was basically gone.
The AT&T monopoly held back innovation, kept prices high and provided horrible customer service. Phone service has not always been a joy since the breakup of AT&T, but your options have greatly increased.
Monopolies are by nature risk adverse. There is no incentive for a monopoly to take risks. They are also unresponsive to customers needs. Again, the incentive is not there.
Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton are both proposing to create monopolies. They have been stumping Universal Health Insurance. They won’t say it, but they want socialized medicine. If monopolies are bad, then it cannot be a good idea to have one supplier of health insurance.
The Democrats will say that this is not what they are advocating (and they would be correct), but it will be the unintended consequence of their policies. Once the government starts mandating insurance, what incentive is there for a business to supply it. The only reason for business supply it now is because of the poorly devised tax code. Once the government gets involved, business will run for the exits.
The government controlled telecommuncations for one year and it took them 60 years to undo the damage. Now they want to control health care which represents 20% of our economy. That scares the hell out of me.
I have heard on more than one occasion, a conspiracy theory that is totally reliant on the ignorance. Jessie Ventura put forth his opinion on Hannity and Colmes a couple of nights ago. His “common sense” says that a steel grate on your barbecue does not melt when heated by propane. Jet fuel is like propane. Therefore, it does not make sense that the towers collapse.
It is sometime hard to comment on such a statement because he is wrong on so many levels.
First of all, common sense tells me that your barbecue grill is not supporting any significant weight. Even if you put a huge steak on it. Secondly, your barbecue grate does not have a gaping hole in it. There were many floor above the gaping hole caused by the plane.
On a more technical level, it is estimated that at one point, the temperature inside the tower reached 1400 deg F. The yield strength of the steel will start to decrease above 800 deg F.
What does that mean?
The chart below (LINK) shows that the yield strength of steel in the fire was reduced to about 20% of its room temperature condition. The yield strength is the force/area on a structural member. The force was created by the massive weight of the upper floors. The area of the structural members does not change. If anything, it gets smaller as the steel starts to “neck”. As the temperature increases, the yield strength decreases. Eventually, the force from the pressure of the upper floors exceed the yield strength and the members became permanently deformed.
Over a long period of time, the deformation continues to worsen until the structure fails. All it took was one floor to fail. Its failure cause a shock load to the already weakened floor below it causing it to fail. This caused the domino effect was witnessed on that awful day.
Skepticism is fine. The news has taught me not to believe what other take as fact. I would implore people to look very closely at the source of the skepticism though. If Jessie Ventura was an engineer, I would take his claim very seriously. Is there one serious engineer who agrees with Jessie Ventura? His assertion that he knows about demolition from his Seal training falls flat. Knowing where to stick the dynamite is not an indication that you understand how material react under extreme conditions.
Posted by: The Elephant Owner in
Common Sense on April 10th, 2008
According to Al Gore, the debate about global warming is over. Yup, there are millions of web pages that say otherwise. Let’s just call these web pages “hysteria offsets”. Al Gore is in a hurry to declare the debate over so that he can begin the call to action.
Christine Stewart is the former Canadian Minister of Environment. She is quoted in the Calgary Herald as saying,
No matter if the science is all phony, there are collateral environmental benefits…Climage change (provides) the greatest chance to bring about justice and equality in the world. (LINK)
The debate is over so that Liberals can show us the way to “justice and equality”. That is one honest (and stupid) enviornmentalist. Didn’t she get the liberal memo? Do NOT tell the common folk what liberals really think? It will scare the hell out of them.
Karl Marx circa 1875:
From each according to his ability, to each according to his need.”
Yesterday, Michelle Obama told a group of women
“The truth is, in order to get things like universal health care and a revamped education system, then someone is going to have to give up a piece of their pie so that someone else can have more.” (link)
From the ACLU Web Site:
Public schools themselves should not, however, be in the business of promoting particular religious beliefs or religious activities. While it is permissible for public schools to teach about religion, it is not permissible to promote particular religious beliefs. While public schools should not be leading children in prayers or religious ceremonies, they should be respectful of the religious beliefs of students. Further, public schools should protect children from being coerced by others to accept religious (or anti-religious) beliefs. Public schools should seek to create an environment conducive to learning by all students and not act as vehicles proselytizing for religious or anti-religious beliefs. (LINK)
 hey are constantly fighting against Christian influence in public schools. Are they interested in Muslim influence? At a “school assembly” in Minnesota,
“teachers led the kids into the gym, where a man dressed in white with a white cap, who had been at the school all day,” was preparing to lead prayer. Beside him, another man “was prostrating himself in prayer on a carpet as the students entered.”
After school, Getz’s fifth-graders stayed in their classroom and the man in white who had led prayer in the gym came in to teach Islamic Studies (LINK)
Where is the ACLU? This looks to be a clear case of public funding for a religious education. It is clear to me that the ACLU is not interest in fighting religion in school. They are interest in promoting tearing down American traditions and morals which has been a high hurdle to their liberal agenda.
Patty Murray (D-Washington) speaking of Osama Bin Laden
why is this man so popular around the world?…He’s been out in these countries for decades, building schools, building roads, building infrastructure, building day care facilities, building health care facilities, and the people are extremely grateful,
Rahm Emanuel (D-Illinois) speaking of the money spent in Iraq
While we are building 6,700 schools in Iraq and training 60,000 teachers in Iraq, the president’s budget here at home cuts funding for education and teacher-training programs and reading programs (LINK)
Being a Democrat means never having to be consistent.
Solution to CO2 build up. Cut down 1/2 the trees and make lumber for homes! Let’s start with all the trees in Vermont. New ones will grow back and your home will be a carbon storage facility. Instead of fiberglass insulation, we could build walls from 6″ of solid wood.
I think Al Gore should pay me for all the carbon in my house.
Every election cycle we get the same line from politicians. They promise to tackle our budget problems by reducing waste and fraud. It is empty rhetoric because nothing ever happens. John McCain has been a pork watcher for years, but it has not gotten any better during his time in the Senate. He has made no real difference. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama both claim to be fiscally responsible while proposing program after program. With the exception fo the Iraq War, I have never once heard them speak of eliminating a government program.
The GAO has released a new report on waste at the hands of government issued credit cards to federal employess. (LINK). I for one am not surprised.
The review of card spending at more than a dozen departments from 2005 to 2006 found that nearly 41 percent of roughly $14 billion in credit-card purchases, whether legitimate or questionable, did not follow procedure — either because they were not properly authorized or they had not been signed for by an independent third party as called for in federal rules to deter fraud
Over 5 billions dollars worth of purchases “did not follow procedure”. Health care costs where $2.3 trillion dollars. Do we want to spead such waste and fraud to 17% of the economy.
Posted by: The Elephant Owner in
Health Care on April 8th, 2008
Riddle me this.
The people who screamed loudest about FEMA after hurricange Katrina are also the people that want to take over the US Healthcare system. They blame George Bush, but do they really think such a large organization will perform better in a crisis under the watchful eye of Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama? Why? Neither Democrat has been part of the management team in a large organization. Neith candidate has experience in crisis management. They are on the Demcoratic Senate Debating team.
The people who screamed loudest about the Walter Reed Hospital conditions are also the people that want to take over the US Healthcare system. They blame George Bush, but do the really think Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama can remove the politics that led to such a mess? Why? Does anyone believe the Democrats are above politics, cronyism and corruption? When Hillary became first lady, she fired the White House travel staff (non-partisans) and replaced them with friends from Arkansas. Barack Obama joint a church that espouses Black Liberation Theology, not because he believes it, but because they were an intergral part of the community. These decisions were political in nature. Can they set up a system that will take over 1/5 of economy without stepping on land mines.
The people who screamed loudest about the poor planning of the Iraq War are also the people that want to take over the US Healthcare system. They blame George Bush, but do they really think Hillary Clinton ro Barack Obama could plan for something with as many unknowns as a war…a new type of war where the enemy does not wear a uniform. I am sure there are many unknowns with government health insurance and many problems to be solved. Will their answer be to get people hooked and then run away when the going gets tough.
There is an easy way to be consistant on all of these issues. Start off with the premise that the federal government is ill equipt to handle problems on a national scale. It is too complex to write rules that both solve the problem for every situation without leaving gaping holes for corruption. Big problems don’t require big solutions…they require millions of small solutions.
Posted by: The Elephant Owner in
Health Care on April 8th, 2008
Don’t worry if your bank is hounding you for your next mortgage payment and you are concerned that your career may stumble in the looming recession. Our Venetian friends are there to help. (LINK)
“Harry’s Bar of Venice, in an effort to make the American victims of subprime loans happier, has decided to give them a special 20 percent discount on all items of the menu during the short term of their recovery.”
Are “victims” of subprime loans really traveling to Italy to drink in one of the most expensive bars?
a full meal with wine at his Venice restaurant could set someone back more than 200 euros ($314.5).
Well, there is only one thing to do. The government should help those poor victims while they struggle to make ends meet. I for one am willing to release my “Bush Tax Cut” back to the government so that people traveling in Europe don’t lose their house.
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Thomas Sowell is one of my favorite authors. Every once in a while he will post “Random Thoughts” (LINK). Here’s one that strikes close to home:
Senator John McCain could never convince me to vote for him. Only Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama can cause me to vote for McCain.
Posted by: The Elephant Owner in
Election on April 8th, 2008
Congratulations to the Kansas men’s basketball team. That was an exciting finish!
Posted by: The Elephant Owner in
Uncategorized on April 8th, 2008
Barack Obama has inherited more than the color of his skin from his father. His father was a proud, uncompromising socialist (LINK). There are too many socialist ties in this man’s past to just write it off as inconsequential.
I have never been influenced by the color of his skin. I have always been turned off by what little substance he has to offer. All his prescriptions seem to involve more government and less freedom.
The question should not be; is this country ready for a black president?
We should be asking; is this country ready for the son of a socialist? Is this country ready for Black Liberation Theology? Is this country ready for higher taxes? Are we ready to run from a fight with terrorists? Are we ready to turn back the clock to the liberal policies of the 1960′s?
Posted by: The Elephant Owner in
Election on April 7th, 2008
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