Writes JB in response to this article:

Seems the hypocritical conservatives are at it again in Kentucky.  On Friday night [6/19/09] many of those tea party attending conservatives will be forking over the big bucks for Trey Grayson, who will likely be Rand Paul's main opponent in the Republican senate primary.  When Rand came to this area to speak, not one local member of the Republican county committee showed up.  Yet when Grayson (a former Democratic delegate for Bill Clinton) shows up, these supposed champions of small government line up to meet him.

Before Rand Paul got the treatment on 6/19, JB had written me earlier about Paul's treatment in Kentucky:

Well we haven't been three weeks removed from that GOP pep rally, or Tea Party, where the Republicans told us they were opponents of big government and deficit spending, and the Republicans in Paducah and all across Kentucky are showing their true colors.

Read the rest of this entry »

Al Franken was finally declared the winner in his campaign against Norm Coleman for the U.S Senate seat in Minnesota. Norm Coleman conceded indicating that he won't drag out the eight-month recount any longer.

The ritual behind the concession is an interesting one. Any time there is a close (essentially tied) election, the perceived loser after the initial count can concede or he may call for a recount or for a series of legal challenges. He does this in the hope that enough of the opponent's votes might be invalidated or enough of his votes might be "discovered" during the recount process.

The idea that "counting every vote" provides a definitive conclusion to an election is one of the many great myths and gossamer clouds upon which democracy is perched.

Read the rest of this entry »

PRI's "The World" reports on a crackdown on a factory in Spain. The lead-in states that Chinese laborers in a "sweat shop" were freed/liberated by police. Then notes the surprising turn of events when the laborers protest the crackdown - they want their jobs back. The story continues to pose a question that Spaniards and the police are presumably asking: "Why would anyone want to return to an illegal and exploitive sweatshop?" The working conditions were described as slave-like by a bureaucrat.

By framing a situation with words such as free, liberate, slave, exploit, and sweat shop, even though the words are not very accurate, the stage is already set. I've never taken a journalism or public policy class, but this has got to be 101 stuff. The media, politicians, and bureaucrats know what they are doing when they use words in this way.

I keep hearing that California "may have to start paying bills with IOUs." A friend who lives there sent me to the state Controller's office that explains a little about how the IOUs work and what "may" means. Basically, after tomorrow, people who are not receiving SS or unemployment checks, may get an IOU from the state that can not be redeemed until after Oct 1st (and then, only if the state has the money to pay). Any wagers on whether the state will be able to pay after Oct 1st?

The three best-read yesterday were: Christopher Wanjek on the dangers of cow milk; Bill Bonner on hyper-deflation or hyper-inflation; and Charley Reese on his basic premises.

Do you know these gems, the 10 best-read last month? Have you read them all, for an A+, or none, for an F-, or someplace in between for a gentleman's (or gentlewoman's) C? What's your grade?

From the Massachusetts Department of Revenue:

That’s right; it’s probably not the first thing teens are thinking about. But teenagers work too — even if only at an after-school, weekend or summer job. And like everybody else, they need to know the basics to understand how their tax system works.

With that in mind, DOR announces the first release in a new “Teens ‘n’ Taxes” video series designed to educate teenagers about their tax responsibilities. The first video is set on a teenager’s first day on the job — and discusses the Form W-4, Employee Withholding Allowance Certificate, she needs to fill out.

As part of the department’s mission to educate younger residents about the tax system, Teens ‘n’ Taxes — like the successful DORM (Department of Revenue Media) video series for college students, — will be distributed to Massachusetts schools and posted on YouTube, Twitter and other social networking sites.

Nothing like teaching kids that they, too, shall be subjected to the same tyranny. Equality for all!

Update: Here's the video.

The political establishment's response to the global warming doubts raised by EPA researcher, Alan Carlin, is remarkable. The mantra chanted by one EPA official - and dutifully echoed across the media - is that Mr. Carlin "is not a scientist." This fact, of course, has not kept Al Gore from becoming the patron saint of the environmental religion. (Gore received his PhD in which of the recognized sciences?)

An assertion of this sort is evidence of the anti-intellectualism that has metastasized across academia and spread to other venues of expression. Universities have become so dominated by an insistence upon the inviolability of the "turfs" of various disciplines as to make one unworthy to speak on matters of which he or she has not been certified to utter opinions by fellow academics. There was once a time - many decades ago - when a "liberal arts" education was regarded as a means of introducing people to a wide range of subject areas that would permit them to think and speak intelligently on various matters affecting their lives. Collective thinking - which now permeates college campuses - rejects such an idea, conferring subject matter monopolies according to one's acknowledged "expertise."

When my "In Restraint of Trade" book was first published twelve years ago, an academic reviewer from a respected history department spent most of his time acquainting his readers with the fact that I taught in a law school and not a history department. The review ended up being little more than a strident defense of turf, and a condemnation of my efforts to focus attention on matters unfamiliar to historians.

I enjoy watching Jonathan Hoenig every Saturday morning on Fox News' "Cashin' In" program on investment analysis. He is a consistent advocate of free-markets, individual liberty, and private property. He recently stated that humans "must think in order to survive," but that we have recently been "outsourcing" this function to others. Such a practice now prevails on university campuses, and helps to explain why academia is a source of so little original and meaningful thinking. Don't wonder about what anything means: the "experts" whose jobs are dependent upon advancing the agendas of the political establishment will explain it all to you!

The U.S. Dept. of Agriculture is planning on telling us to eat more goat meat.  I can just see the USDA-approved commercial, with smiling children sitting down at the dinner table saying, "pass the goat meat, please."  And, "can I have a hoof, dad?"

The latest poll shows "political unknown" (though actual man of substance) Peter Schiff almost tied with long-term, corrupt senator and hollow man Chris Dodd. And the poll does not take into account the national fundraising ability of Schiff among smaller donors, and his national volunteer-attracting capability. Dodd is supported only by rich people on the federal dole, and paid campaign workers. (Thanks to Travis)