On the BorderLine » General

Paul asks the $3 trillion dollar question, again…

Flashy — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 15:38:14 +0000

Happy 20th Hubble!
Hubble turns 20 today, and for its own birthday it gives us this very cool video...

Battery Cost Forecasts and The Origin of Specious

kilowatt — Sat, 24 Jul 2010 20:35:37 +0000

Found this article on Battery Cost Forecasts to be quite an interesting read. I thought I should make a post of it just so it would catch Flashy’s eye.

The wheels are coming off of this administration’s train – but then, why should they care when they aren’t on rails to begin with!

Ryan’s Roadmap

Flashy — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 03:53:15 +0000

IOWA Tea Party Removes Sign..

Flashy — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 21:08:58 +0000

One wonders why? This particular sign speaks to a truth that people need to contemplate.. I think it was cowardly and irrational to remove this billboard.

Rand Paul is a coward.
I will have more on this later, but suffice it to say, simply, that Rand Paul is...
Is It a Warning Shot?
On a recent financial statement, Citibank notified customers that effective Apri...
It is Time to use the N-Word
After the United States Senate passed its version of nationalized healthcare, Re...
Observations and Ramblings of a Polar Bear Watcher
Churchill Manitoba, my birthplace, has been my home for most of my fiftysix year...

Spitzer calls for the “s” word.

Flashy — Sat, 26 Jun 2010 23:51:03 +0000

Theres a reason that Spitzer couches his program in the terminology of sacrifice. If he simply said the government should solve our problems by taking more of our wealth and our freedom, he wouldnt win many converts. Sacrifice adds a moral dimension to Spitzers call for government intervention. The purpose is to morally disarm anyone who wants to safeguard his wealth or his freedom by saying, You, youre just being selfish.

Its no accident that dictators throughout history have justified their demands for power by appealing to the duty to sacrifice: freedom is selfish. It is the freedom to do what you want with your wealth and your life, rather than what society, Eliot Spitzer, or Barack Obama wants you to do. As Ayn Rand noted nearly 70 years ago in her novel The Fountainhead:

[J]ust listen to any prophet and if you hear him speak of sacrificerun. Run faster than from a plague. It stands to reason that where theres sacrifice, theres someone collecting sacrificial offerings. Where theres service, theres someone being served. The man who speaks to you of sacrifice, speaks of slaves and masters. And intends to be the master. But if ever you hear a man telling you that you must be happy, thats its your natural right, that your first duty is to yourselfthat will be the man whos not after your soul.

Spitzer speaks of sacrifices. The Founding Fathers spoke of the individuals right to pursue his own happiness. The Founders sought to create a free society. What, then, is Spitzer after?

Full Voices for Reason article here

Confiscation Day Message
Today is April 15th, known as far as I am concerned as Confiscation Day. What i...
Gina Ligget on ‘Fertilized Eggers’
What Have the Personhood Folks Been Up To? By Gina Liggett @ 10:00 AM Link ...
Atlas Shrugged Sets a New Record!
Ayn Rand's great novel, the single most important-and virtually singular-philoso...
Al Gore and Barack Obama
CNN asks the question? More Media BS...
Dated but timely…
In order to survive, man has to discover and produce everything he needs, whi...

You Can Kiss My McNuggets…

Flashy — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 04:31:23 +0000

YTD, the best editorial I have read…

EDITORIAL: Toy story

The pompous fascists at the egregiously misnamed “Center for Science in the Public Interest” resurfaced this week to announce a brand new shakedown of McDonald’s.

Unless the fast-food giant agrees to stop distributing toys with its Happy Meals, the group says it will move forward with a lawsuit charging that the company “unfairly and deceptively” markets its products toward children.

Michael Jacobson, executive director of the Center, says McDonald’s marketing is so powerful that “worn down” parents can’t be trusted to properly monitor their own children.

Why that is any business of Mr. Jacobson and his ilk remains a mystery.

READ THE BALANCE…

h/t to The Objective Standard’s Twitter feed.

Hey You All in St. Croix County… I’m Back
Yes, It's true. I've returned to educate the citizens of St. Croix County about...
Three powerful bits of noggin leakage…
Item one.. this video. Item two, this pdf.. Hence, there are no hi...
The Cloud Mystery – Required Viewing!
The most compelling of all the climate change research yet, in my humble view. T...
Hoaxenhagen – Monckton Innoculates
There is no scientific basis whatsoever for saying there is a 90% probability (I...
The Alarmists are the Science Deniers
Well, this approach of Mr Schmidt might be one of the reasons why his personal...
Judo
"Junk science" is faulty scientific data and analysis used to further a special...

Capitalism is not to blame for the oil spill

bildanielson — Fri, 04 Jun 2010 15:22:43 +0000

I took a moment recently to read Bob Cesca’s Huffington Post article. Cesca is no different than many who are taking the oil spill as an opportunity for context dropping smears of capitalism and capitalists; the economic system and the risk takers within that provide them the very means to spew their socialist claptrap, not to mention create the highest standard of living in the history of mankind. Such pot shots at capitalism are clearly not helping matters.

The degree of myopic, out of context, drivel spewed by Cesca seemed to know no end, as he apparently has little or no knowledge of history (one wonders if he ever heard of the Santa Barbara spill of 1969, and what ensued on the heels of reaction to it). Mr. Cesca would like us all to believe, just as the proponents of government controlled health care, that there IS a free marketand that this free market is the root cause of the current disaster (just plug in one, it doesn’t seem to matter with this crowd). The same lame argument was made regarding the supposed 40 million people without health insurance, that it was the free market supposedly failing by virtue of the fact some people chose not to purchase health insurance, or simply could not afford the premium charges (let alone purchase care out of pocket). Ergo, it must be the free market, capitalism, that is to blame for this “social injustice” simply because in the present state providers of those services and the insurance companies who pay for it make an accounting profit; as if there is something fundamentally wrong with making a living in the provisioning of health care or insurance to pay for it…

In the same convoluted and out-of-context way energy companies are now being held up as poster children for the failure of capitalism.

Cescas article-and oh so many like it right now-is obtuse on multiple levels, but the principal problem is that he ignores the fact of the reams of regulations the oil industry already deals with; this implicit notion that somehow this current oil spill occurred in a context of true capitalism. Moreover, there are two correlated implications here. First, that the government has had no role in impelling oil companies to explore in deeper and more remote areas. And secondly, in the absence of market forces (total government control) accidents and disasters would never occur. The principle fact is patently untrue, in fact it is the case that due in no small measure oil producers are prevented BY REGULATIONS AND LAWS from drilling in areas that would pose less risk of the very disaster we are dealing with today As a consequence, in addition to incredible demand for their products, they find themselves impelled to go deeper underwater for oil.

As if, for example, oil shale production, tar sands production, drilling in ANWAR, or simply drilling upon the continental shelf are unregulated sources that could be tapped at a moments notice in lieu of drilling under 5000 feet of sea water? As if no American lives (such as soldiers in the Gulf Wars) have been lost because of these regulations and restrictions about the wrists of not just oil producers, but developers of nuclear, and other energy resources? Please note, such longstanding and profound fundamental interventions into the marketplace for energy creates an imbalanced demand for petroleum from unsavory Middle Eastern and South American regimes. Moreover, it impels more government interventions into the subsidization of incredibly inefficient alternatives such as wind, solar, ethanol, etc. Such regulation also increases the cost of the oil they do produce. The reality here is that just as the lack of a truly free market in health care provision by virtue of medical licensing, mandated coverage provisions in insurance, and inane tax law is the root cause of the high cost of health care and health insurance, so too is it the case that decades of regulation (not to mention outrageous hearings in congress) upon the oil producers has resulted in their having to deviate significantly in where and how they source and lift crude oil, and natural gas. The idea that in the absence of profit seeking firms that no disasters would ever occur is a non-sequiter hardly to be matched. Point being, free market? WHAT FREE MARKET?

If market forces are the problem, and more and stricter government regulation is the answer (or, as Mr. Cesca actually suggests, a complete government take-over), then we all should be prepared for far worse disasters than what is occurring right now south of Louisiana. It should be utterly clear that government regulations simply do not work-just look around you! The world you see, the disasters at your doorstep, are in all too many cases products and shining examples of failed government policy, not a failed marketplace. To the degree the marketplace is perceived to have failed, virtually without exception it is linked directly (in fact may be directly the result of) to interference, restrictions, taxation of one degree or another from governments or government sanctioned special interests. Those myriad interventions that are already there mean that there is no such thing as a free market operating – neither in health care or in energy production. To suggest that oil companies have been heretofore unregulated and free to do as they please subject to clear, unambiguous, market signals is a suggestion so bereft of reality that it vies with immaculate conception, seas parting at ones command, and rivers that run with milk and honey. In Cescas myopic world-view, the idea here is ideological; since regulation didnt actually work we must not admit that reality, but rather we need to obfuscate the issue by blaming capitalism and advocate for more regulations (indeed, total takeovers).

So, one may ask, where are the government solutions to this mess? Where are the government engineers and scientists with the savvy to plug the damn hole. Where is Obama and his metaphysical wizardry?? An adult perspective is what is needed here, and a focus on the engineering and science task at hand. To the extent that the market can still work, it will do its job of, yes, cleaning up this mess. BP is clearly a problem-child, and the market place will be very unkind to BP and they know it. This will send unmistakable messages to all energy producers, indeed to producers all over the planet. There are no muted signals right now. BP has huge resources and they will need all of them to first control this spill, and then the costs associated with the clean-up. It is in their best interest, long term and short term, to get this disaster under control as quickly and effectively as possible. Other oil producers see this as well and are likely meeting as I write to develop more robust safety systems. To the extent the market place still operates, that is one of the signals it is broadcasting.

Government can help, and it should. But what it should not engage in are premature lawsuits- that is counter-productive. It should mobilize its resources to the extent it has them, and deploy them to the Gulf of Mexico in efforts to assist the engineers and scientists from BP, their subsidiaries, and partners so that the problem can be solved and drilling operations confidently restored. “What can we do to help you, BP” should have been Obama’s immediate reaction. Moreover, “all hands should be on deck” should have also been Obamas reaction – particularly as regards legitimate federal assistance to the various states where clean-up from this disaster will likely take a long time. But rather, the reflexive response from day one was plug the damn hole, and find a way to sue those profit-seekers.

Government should also learn the key lesson that it shares a great deal of the blame for forcing the hands of energy producers. The Cesca’s of the world didn’t want to see an oil rig from shore, therefore they were banned from the continental shelf. Well, Cesca should take a trip down to the gulf and take a look at his “not in my eyesight” approach – he can see it now, and it’s all over the beaches and covering the feathers and skin of the diversity of flora and fauna all along the gulf’s ecosystem. Something tells me that the Cesca’s of the world wouldn’t know a free market if it bit them on their metro-sexual hind ends.. The real answer, in Cescas mind, is that government should run the show and that there ought not be any profit motive. Good luck, Bob, finding a nice cafe latte in such a realm..

The Austrian View Of Insurance – required reading (especially now..)
It's been some time since I last read this article by Dr. Hoppe, but it is tim...
Atlas Shrugged Sets a New Record!
Ayn Rand's great novel, the single most important-and virtually singular-philoso...
Glen Beck on the history of Progressives
...
Oxymoron of the Decade
Hesdline from a story on CNBC :Obama Calls Intelligence Meeting Over Failed Atta...
Upshot of Senate Health Care Legislation – Lookout Hudson School District!!
One of the provisions of the new health care insurance legislation that has me p...
John Mackey – An American Hero?
I think so.. As much as I detest the Christian News Channel, aka FoxNews (btw, ...

June 14th, 2005

Absolutely Anonymous — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 05:28:48 +0000

A couple weeks will mark the 5th anniversary of the infamous June 14th School Board meeting at Hudson High School where Curt Weese was unceremoniously denied his 1st Amendment Right to Free Speech..

Hudson, Wisconsin, School Board Meeting

June 14, 2005

(Unofficial transcript begins 42 minutes 34 seconds into meeting. Not proofread as of 12:30 p.m. Saturday, June 26, 2005.)

Annette Cook: Next item on our agenda is topics for discussion, Item No. 7, we do not have anything listed there this evening. So we will move onto Item 8, Citizens Request to Speak to the Board on Non-Agenda Items. It is at this time in our meeting that citizens can address the Board on items not listed on our agenda. We would ask these people to come forward again give their name and address for the record and comments this section is limited to 15 minutes total time. The first citizen is Curt Weese.

Curt Weese: My name is Curt Weese, and I live at 613 Cedar Drive North, a letter was written to the Star Observer this past week berating taxpayers for asking for information. The board member who wrote this letter seems to feel that he should be able to determine which information is useful and which is not. Let me remind that board member that this is not his function, nor should it be. Let me also remind this board member that no publicly, that to publicly ridicule those asking for information flies in the face of what the open records law is meant to do. Let me also remind this board member of a few items that were discovered via the open records law. It was discovered through an open records request that we have a huge fund balance which this year should top $17 million. Where was this board member during that time? He was a member of the Finance Committee and made no effort to inform the public of this reserve balance. In addition, he allowed a vote to be taken on a $25 million referendum in 2003 without disclosing this to the public. It was discovered through an open records request that we indeed have no space crunch at the Middle School and will in fact have fewer students there this year than two years ago. Where was this board member during that time. He was allowing Ron Bernth to mislead the public through a mailing and misinformation presented at the October 2002 School Board meeting that stated otherwise. It was discovered through an Open Records request that the Teachers Union refuses to allow the district to bid out health insurance. Where was this board member during that time? He voted to allow the Union to take us to referendum in 2001 for a teachers pay levy override, and he voted again in 2004 to go above and beyond the qualified economic offer.

Annette Cook: Mr. Weese, excuse me, Im sorry for interrupting but youre bringing up a lot of different topics, and your request to speak was on Request for Information so it asks you to,

Curt Weese: Thats what Im talking about

Annette Cook: Rather than going off on all different topics, and if you have a particular

Curt Weese: Do you have a, Am I being limited to my right to speak?

Annette Cook: Mr. Weese, I was not finished speaking.

Curt Weese: Neither was I.

You can review the balance of this tawdry episode of government hacks verses a local citizen HERE.. And after you have read through the transcript please bear in mind that in the back of the auditorium an armed police officer forced Curt Weese, who was doing nothing at the time other than sitting listening to Mark Pribonic and Marion Shaw, to leave the premises… I have a hard time referring the police officer as such, he was a pathetic punk …. can’t even remember the fool’s name!

Just who is Jim B (Bob Muchlinski)?
Welcome to the readers of the HSO website. We are going to be spending the next...
Quote of the Day
"Lord knows, all these administrators are hard workers and probably deserve more...
Crimmins Crying in her doughnut crumbs
As if Cindy Crimmins hasn't wasted enough of the Hudson taxpayers' money, she ha...
Photo: Hudson School Board
Hudson School District officials wear eye protection to match the ear plugs ...
Crimmins, How does it feel to wake up next to this?
Last week it was divulged that good ole' happy days star, Scott Baio had called ...
Upshot of Senate Health Care Legislation – Lookout Hudson School District!!
One of the provisions of the new health care insurance legislation that has me p...

Hillary Spews Her Sophistry (again)

donttreadonme — Fri, 28 May 2010 15:01:23 +0000

Sophistry: a plausible (to an ignoramus) but erroneous (seriously, in this case) argument.

Thunder thighs said this recently:

The rich are not paying their fair share in any nation that is facing the kind of employment issues that confront the United States and other nations, whether it is individual, corporate, whatever the taxation forms are.

Then she offered up an example. Brazil has the highest tax-to-G.D.P. rate in the Western hemisphere. And guess what? Its growing like crazy. The rich are getting richer, but they are pulling people out of poverty. There is a certain formula there that used to work for us until we abandoned it to our regret, in my opinion. My view is that you have to get many countries to increase their public revenues.

Someone needs to inform this ignorant nitwit that real economic growth-real wealth creation-is not and cannot be created merely by increasing the level of confiscatory taxation on whomever you deem as “rich.” The only thing that grows under that misguided paradigm is government and those beholding to more and higher degrees of redistribution.

If what Mrs Clinton is actually referring to is more government employment, well then let’s run the table and define the “rich” as anyone who earns more than $99,999, and tax them at 100% of their earnings over this imaginary point of total sufficiency.. Let’s just see what happens, shall we?

In reality, increased levels of confiscatory taxation impel the propensity for government employment, and government entitlements, to grow, and for more and more far reaching control over the lives of individuals and businesses. But such is only a short run effect, in the long run you actually end up not with Brazil, or with sustainable full employment, but rather Greece! That’s the real axiom, madame. That is the actual lesson of history. Ignore it at your (and sadly, our) peril.

As for Brazil.. please. Here are the actual tax rates for Brazil: http://www.worldwide-tax.com/brazil/brazil_taxe…

Something tells me this is not what Mrs Clinton is advocating for here (essentially, Reaganomics). She is merely commenting on the Brazilian effects of essentially implementing laffer-curve taxation, but this is nothing to crow about nor can it be the cause of whatever real wealth creation is taking place in Brazil. The mere fact that their “tax to GDP” is relatively high is a non-sequitur.

Hillary would never admit this, but the fact of the matter is that lowered marginal tax rates (please note that dividend income is not taxed in Brazil) coupled with taxing low income people (which she would never advocate for here in the U.S.), has resulted in significant inflows of earned income to the state. While a greedy statist might see this as virtuous, anyone with an iota of respect for individual rights sees this as an abomination. It was an abomination when Reagan and the Bush’s promoted it, it is an abomination in Brazil as well.

The real question is what would have been the case in Brazil WITHOUT, for example, marginal rate surtaxes on corporations or lowered taxation international investments and investors?

To argue that the tax revenues which have flowed into the statist realm of Brazil are due to confiscatory taxing of the “rich” is simply sophistry. Don’t be suckered into this one..

Dr. Danielson fires back at supporter of the vicious Amazon Tax..
The Denver Post published a slew of letters on the "Amazon Tax" today, the lead ...
Flexing States Rights
More states flexing their States rights. This week in the Missouri state Ca...
Hey You All in St. Croix County… I’m Back
Yes, It's true. I've returned to educate the citizens of St. Croix County about...

Eye Catching..

Flashy — Wed, 26 May 2010 07:24:51 +0000

h/t to Drudge

Truth in bailing (-out, that is)

Flashy — Tue, 25 May 2010 00:45:02 +0000

Rand Paul is a coward.

Flashy — Sat, 22 May 2010 13:46:22 +0000

I will have more on this later, but suffice it to say, simply, that Rand Paul is a coward. He was asked point blank about the EPA and Minimum Wage laws. In both cases his incredibly evasive answers reflected cowardice and an utter lack of principle. He claims to be a defender of laissez faire – bullshit! Oh, wait, he does have principle – the principle of self-sacrifice… More on this later, but if the Tea Party Movement is represented by the likes of Rand Paul and Sarah Palin then it is an utter waste.

IOWA Tea Party Removes Sign..
One wonders why? This particular sign speaks to a truth that people need to con...
Is It a Warning Shot?
On a recent financial statement, Citibank notified customers that effective Apri...
Flexing States Rights
More states flexing their States rights. This week in the Missouri state Ca...
Reflections Upon Haiti
Haiti is a country choked full of mystics including Roman Catholics (the officia...
It is Time to use the N-Word
After the United States Senate passed its version of nationalized healthcare, Re...
[AP News] Apparently dePressed
Below we find the words of the AP. SIOUX CITY, Iowa (AP) - Former Republican vi...

A fellow climate rationalist speaks out.. Must view video..

bildanielson — Wed, 05 May 2010 14:00:30 +0000

Hoaxenhagen – Monckton Innoculates
There is no scientific basis whatsoever for saying there is a 90% probability (I...
Insanity and the Great Depression
The recent series of financial bubbles beginning with the technology stocks nine...

Obama the obfuscator: It’s a matter of scale!

Flashy — Sat, 01 May 2010 14:00:49 +0000

Wetbacks to march on L.A.

donttreadonme — Sat, 01 May 2010 12:58:27 +0000

Tens of thousands of illegal immigrants, aka wetbacks, are planning on marching in L.A. Methinks herein lies a great opportunity for a good ole fashioned round-up..

Honest Americans should not have to listen to this crap! Lasso these Latino law breakers and ship em south!

Story

Jim B. (aka Bob Muchlinski) a drain on the Hudson taxpayers
Since Jim. B. (aka Bob Muchlinski) continues to berate citizens on the Hudson St...
Only in Washington…
can you spend for six years, and use tax revenues over ten years, and call this ...
Breakthematrix
"But to our pessimistic commenters, we offer some additional thoughts. Some ...

On the BorderLine » General

Paul asks the $3 trillion dollar question, again…

Related Posts

Battery Cost Forecasts and The Origin of Specious

You might like these.

Ryan’s Roadmap

You might like these.

IOWA Tea Party Removes Sign..

Related Posts

Spitzer calls for the “s” word.

Related Posts

You Can Kiss My McNuggets…

Related Posts

Capitalism is not to blame for the oil spill

Related Posts

June 14th, 2005

Related Posts

Hillary Spews Her Sophistry (again)

Related Posts

Eye Catching..

You might like these.

Truth in bailing (-out, that is)

You might like these.

Rand Paul is a coward.

Related Posts

A fellow climate rationalist speaks out.. Must view video..

Related Posts

Obama the obfuscator: It’s a matter of scale!

You might like these.

Wetbacks to march on L.A.

Related Posts