My Townhall column, this weekend, is entitled “Diving for Pearls.” Give it a look, why not?
And then come back here to check out these relevant references and links:
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Earlier this week I touched on gasoline prices. One factor I didn’t mention (but which is getting a lot of coverage, now) is the weakening dollar. This humorous video points the finger at “The Bernanke”:
I am not certain about the argument here, though. So I look around for alternatives views. It turns out that David Henderson made the almost same argument as I did: saber rattling is a major factor in the world price of oil, and earlier on EconLog he argued against the inflationary explanation of today’s rising gas prices. (But Henderson assumes that inflation is an equilibrium price phenomenon. As I understand it, the Misesian view of inflation is that the price-upward pressure of inflationary monetary policy proceeds with a lag, and initial price rises tend to be sectoral, so we might expect some markets to be affected by new money first. Like housing was in the last bubble, like stocks are in most bubbles, like . . . gas?)
I am sure of one thing: There is going to be a lot more talk on this subject. I hope some of it is as amusing as the above cartoon.
“I have fought against white domination, and I have fought against black domination. I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons will live together in harmony with equal opportunities. It is an ideal which I hope to live for, and to see realised. But my Lord, if needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die.”
On March 17, 1992, white South Africans went to the polls to vote on a referendum supporting the reforms negotiated by State President F.W. de Klerk two years earlier, in which de Klerk proposed to end the apartheid that had begun in 1948. The vote was nearly 69 percent in favor, leading to the apartheid being ended.
On March 17, 1776, British forces evacuate Boston, Massachusetts, after George Washington and Henry Knox place artillery in positions overlooking the city, thus ending the 11-month Siege of Boston.
On March 17, 461 A.D., Saint Patrick, the Christian missionary, bishop and apostle of Ireland, died.
“Knowledge will forever govern ignorance; and a people who mean to be their own governors must arm themselves with the power which knowledge gives.”
On March 16, 1751, James Madison, known as “the father of the Constitution,” was born in Virginia. Madison went on to draft of the Constitution, record of the Constitutional Convention, author many of the Federalist Papers and serve for two terms as the fourth president of the United States.
On March 16, 1968, a platoon of American soldiers, led by Lieutenant William Calley, killed between 200 and 500 unarmed civilians at My Lai, in a search-and-destroy mission near the northern coast of South Vietnam. Villagers were raped, tortured and dozens of people dragged into a ditch, including children, and murdered in mass. The massacre ended when helicopter pilot, Warrant Officer Hugh Thompson, landed his aircraft between the soldiers and the retreating villagers and threatened to open fire unless the soldiers ended their attack.
Sometimes, before you can progress, you must first take out the garbage.
This is certainly true of America’s vast library of laws and regulations.
The solution? Repeal.
Congress needs to go into a session devoted to repealing existing laws and regulations.
The reasons for such a grand garbage disposal were handily supplied, yesterday, by John Stossel, who argues in “Complex Societies Need Simple Laws,” that we must “end the orgy of rule-making at once and embrace the simple rules that true liberals like America’s founders envisioned.”
Stossel isn’t saying anything new or shocking. The great legal scholar Richard Epstein wrote a book devoted to just this argument, and the classical liberal thinker Herbert Spencer defined the point of view in 1850 — his classic Social Statics derived law from a principle that should remain static, allowing the rest of complex society to develop dynamically from that simple standpoint.
Free societies need understandable, universal laws. As Stossel puts it, “[n]o legislature can possibly prescribe rules for the complex network of uncountable transactions and acts of cooperation that take place every day.”
Oddly, Stossel doesn’t mention the word repeal.
It’s certainly not a word you hear much in the current Republican primary campaigns. Only one current contender for the GOP nomination seems committed to exercising veto power — the illustrious “Dr. No” — and he is not leading in the delegate count. A Dr. Veto as president could cajole Congress into mass repeals.
Which I bet could have mass appeal.
Unfortunately, we’re not going to get this from our current president, or contenders Romney, Santorum and Gingrich, or the leaders of either party in Congress. These politicians know, really, only one thing: Adding to the mess.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
On March 15, 1783, General George Washington surprised an assembly of army officers in Newburgh, New York. Angry that Congress had not honored its promises on pay as well as on covering costs for food and clothing, officers had circulated an anonymous letter condemning Congress and calling for a revolt. Washington told the officers, “Let me entreat you, gentlemen, on your part, not to take any measures, which viewed in the calm light of reason, will lessen the dignity, and sully the glory you have hitherto maintained; let me request you to rely on the plighted faith of your country, and place a full confidence in the purity of the intentions of Congress.”
On March 15, 1939, during a meeting with Czech President Emil Hacha, Adolph Hitler threatened a bombing raid against the Czech capital to coerce Hacha into offering German troops free passage into Czechoslovakia. The same day, German troops pour into Bohemia and Moravia, violating the Munich Pact signed less than six months earlier by Adolf Hitler, Italian Leader Benito Mussolini, French Premier Edouard Daladier, and British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain.
“Guard against the impostures of pretended patriotism.”
In the traffic snarl of political ideas, the liberating concept behind America seems as straightforward as the freeway: The people are the boss, with rights above government, and “That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.”
The people have a green light to pursue happiness, provided that in their liberty they don’t diminish someone else’s equal right. Conversely, government is limited, facing red lights, and flashing yellows, from the people.
In theory.
Too often our judges and our “elected” representatives don’t get it. They shine red lights at the people. Just happened in Washington State on the issue of . . . well . . . red light cameras.
In dozens and dozens of public votes held across the country on the issue of red-light cameras, voters have a 100 percent track record of saying “No,” to those Orwellian contraptions. That’s what happened in Mukilteo, Washington, thanks to a referendum pushed by Tim Eyman. It’s happened in numerous other Washington cities and localities.
So American Traffic Solutions, the company providing this cash-creating “service,” formed a front group and sued to block local citizens from petitioning the issue to the ballot box.
In a narrow 5-4 decision, Justice Barbara Madsen wrote for the majority: “The legislature granted to local legislative bodies the exclusive power to legislate on the subject of the use and operation of automated traffic safety cameras. The legislature’s grant of authority does not extend to the electorate.”
Say, what? The very power granted by the legislature, and now denied the people in court, came from the people. The voters are the ultimate “legislative authority.”
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.