Category: links

What Democratic presidential candidate Mayor Buttigieg repeatedly offers as a bold new idea is contradictory, and, because of that, dangerous. 

For your kids’ lives and liberties. Click on over to this weekend’s column.

• “Pete Buttigieg Pushes National Service To Boost National Cohesion” with Rachel Maddow (MSNBC) April 15, 2019
• “Pete Buttigieg: The Most Important Job Of An Elected Leader Is To Bring People Together,” by Tim Hains (Real Clear Politics) March 20, 2019
• Hearings, National Commission on Military, National, and Public Service
• Paul Jacob on the Draft
• Ronald Reagan on the Draft
  
• Ron Paul on the Draft (video)
• “Obama’s New Rite,” by Paul Jacob (Townhall)
• “Dump draft registration, don’t extend it to women,” (SF Chronicle)
• “Leave Those Kids Alone,” by Paul Jacob (Common Sense)
• “Save the Young,” by Paul Jacob (Common Sense) 
  
  

Please give the government a piece of your mind.

Gender equality — a concern that has come to sports. 

Click on over to this weekend’s scoring of arguments, then come back for a few more free throws:

• “Notre Dame women headed back to title game after late rally to knock off Connecticut,” by Mike Bernardino (USAToday, April 4, 2019)
• “This Top Women’s College Basketball Coach Is Done Hiring Men,” by Lindsay Gibbs (ThinkProgress, March 30, 2019)
• “My Kind of Mayor,” by Paul Jacob (Common Sense, April 5, 2019)
• “Muffet McGraw Says She Won’t Hire a Man on Her Coaching Staff. Let Her Tell You Why.” by Kelly Whiteside (New York Times, April 4, 2019)

This weekend at Townhall: real help as more meaningful than political posturing. Click on over, to read Paul’s Sunday column, if you haven’t already. But make sure to come back here, to donate (see below)!

• “DeVos Defends Plan to Eliminate Special Olympics Funding,” Washington Post (March 27, 2019)
• “Betsy DeVos is still struggling to explain cuts to Special Olympics funding,” Vox (March 28, 2019)
• “Special Olympics chairman responds to DeVos, says DOE-​funded work ‘critical’ to education,” USA Today (March 28, 2019)
• “Dick Durbin, Betsy DeVos get in heated exchange over Special Olympics funding,” CBS News (YouTube, March 28, 2019)
• “After Trump Casts Blame for a Special Olympics Cut, Betsy DeVos Flashes Pique,” New York Times (March 29, 2019)
• “Elisabeth Dee DeVos,” Wikipedia
• “Profile: Richard DeVos,” Forbes
• “The New Forbes 400 Self-​Made Score: From Silver Spooners To Bootstrappers,” Forbes (October 2, 2014)

And speaking of real help: you can give, too. Do not let the President’s caving to political bullying dissuade you from contributing to a good cause. Special Olympics is mostly funded voluntarily, by people like me and you.

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Picture credit: ‘One of my all-​time favorite drawings. It is a cherished gift from artist Reginald Coates. I met him doing my “community service” with mentally disabled adults at Arkansas Easter Seals.’ — Paul Jacob

The Democrats have their eyes fixed upon the prize: the Supreme Court. They are even making promises. 

Click on over to Townhall​.com, then come back here for even more of their plans.

• Left-​wing group tries to raise money with a Supreme Court-​packing fantasy, by Philip Wegmann, Washington Examiner
• Meet Pete Buttigieg, Pete for America Exploratory Committee
• O’Rourke says adding SCOTUS justices is worth exploring, by Rachel Frazin, The Hill, March 14, 2019
• 2020 Dems warm to expanding Supreme Court, by Burgess Everett and Marianne Levine, Politico, March 18, 2019
• ‘Court packing’ ideas get attention from Democrats, by Michael Scherer, Washington Post, March 11, 2019
  

The core idea behind the institutions of representative government — state legislatures, city councils, Congress — is that lawmakers, sometimes referred to as “representatives,” should endeavor to implement “the will of the people.”

Right? Stop laughing. 

To be such a ‘servant of the people’ necessarily entails knowing the public’s preferences.

Hmmm. How to find out what people want? Or don’t?

“Dear Fellow Peasant,” by Paul Jacob, Townhall​.com, March 17, 2019

Click on over to Townhall to read the whole column, with information on initiative and referendum controversies in North Dakota, Michigan, Missouri, and Washington State.

• “Don’t weaken voters’ use of initiatives,” Bismarck Tribune, March 10, 2019
• “These ND legislators don’t trust voters. Don’t let them succeed,” Forum Editorial Board, Fargo Forum, January 6, 2019
• “North Dakota Measure 1, Ethics Commission, Foreign Political Contribution Ban, and Conflicts of Interest Initiative (2018),” Ballotpedia​.org
• “Opponents of ND constitutional amendment proposal lambaste ‘arrogant’ attempt to shift power,” John Hageman, Grand Forks Herald, January 10, 2019
• “House Republicans pass bill making it harder to get proposals on ballot,” Kathleen Gray, Detroit Free Press, December 13, 2018
• “Arkansas House, Senate pass ballot initiative bills,” Hannah Grabenstein, Ozark Radio News, February 26, 2019
• “Legislation Aims to Make Petition Process More Difficult,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch 
• “James Madison on the only legitimate fountain of power,” CQ Livingston, American Conservative Movement, March 7, 2019
• “Reservation of power to enact and reject laws,” Missouri Constitution, Article III, Section 49, November 14, 2016
• “Is it time to drive a stake through the heart of Idaho’s initiative process?” Jim Jones, Idaho State Journal, March 9, 2019
• “Senate State Government, Tribal Relations & Elections Committee,” TVW, February 1, 2019

This weekend at Townhall: The rise of self-​proclaimed socialists within the ranks of the Democrats is alarming. But is it only tragic? Might not it be a little bit comic?

Here you can find some context:

• Human Freedom Index (Cato Institute)
• Bernie’s Bogus “Medicare for All” (Common Sense), Paul Jacob (January 19, 2016)
• Greenlighting Socialism (Common Sense), Paul Jacob (February 15, 2019)
• Don’t Interrupt the Democrats (Townhall), Paul Jacob (February 17, 2019
• Elizabeth Warren’s Theory of Capitalism (The Atlantic), Franklin Foer (August 28, 2018)
• The Trouble With Elizabeth Warren’s Child-​Care Plan (The Atlantic), Reihan Salam (February 26, 2019)
• Warren’s No Socialist (Common Sense), Paul Jacob (March 1, 2019)
• Why socialist utopias always get hijacked(Common Sense), Steal This Meme (April 21, 2017)
• The Socialist Pledge (Common Sense), Steal This Meme (July 22, 2018)
• The Clinton-​Era Roots of the Financial Crisis(U.S. Policy Metrics), Phil Gramm and Mark Solon
• Thomas Sowell: Regulators Started Housing Crisis (Newsmax, May 17, 2009)
• Credit Rating Agencies and the Financial Crisis: Less Regulation of CRAs Is a Better Response(Journal of International Banking Law and Regulation), Lawrence White
• The Subprime Crisis (The Quarterly Journal of Austrian Economics), Adrian Ravier and Peter Lewin (Spring 2012)
• Meltdown: A Free-​Market Look at Why the Stock Market Collapsed, the Economy Tanked, and Government Bailouts Will Make Things Worse (Regnery), Thomas E. Woods (February 9, 2009)
• “The Good Kind of Socialism” (Common Sense), Steal This Meme (January 15, 2017)
• “9 Dangers of ‘Democratic Socialism’” (Common Sense), Steal This Meme (February 16, 2016)

Socialism depends for its increasing support upon widespread ignorance of economic reality. That it keeps creeping back into politics may not seem strange. What may seem strange is that a major business enterprise would also not understand that reality. But that appears to be the case. More at Townhall. And yet more below:

• The company? Panera Bread.
• It’s a franchise operation.
• The Blaze reported on its “Panera Cares” experiment going “belly-​up.”
• But for the full comedy, try NPR’s Planet Money podcast.
• For the Pareto-​Schmoller tale, you could read Vilfredo Pareto’s Mind and Society. Or just check out this blogpost.
• For why socialism cannot work like socialists say it can work, you might try Ludwig von Mises’ classic Socialism: An Economic and Sociological Analysis. (Pareto wrote a two-​volume work of a similar nature, but it has never been translated into English!)

Socialism depends for its increasing support upon widespread ignorance of economic reality. That it keeps creeping back into politics may not seem strange. What may seem strange is that a major business enterprise would also not understand that reality. But that appears to be the case. More at Townhall. And yet more below:

• The company? Panera Bread.
• It’s a franchise operation.
• The Blaze reported on its “Panera Cares” experiment going “belly-​up.”
• But for the full comedy, try NPR’s Planet Money podcast.
• For the Pareto-​Schmoller tale, you could read Vilfredo Pareto’s Mind and Society. Or just check out this blogpost.
• For why socialism cannot work like socialists say it can work, you might try Ludwig von Mises’ classic Socialism: An Economic and Sociological Analysis. (Pareto wrote a two-​volume work of a similar nature, but it has never been translated into English!)