Category: links

The most ludicrous suggestion of last week deserves a column this week (yes, it’s based on a segment of ABC’s “This Week”). Click on over to Townhall. Then click back here, for more fuel to your incredulity and ire.

• ABC‘s This Week: Obama’s ‘My Brother’s Keeper’
• The Fatherless Generation: Statistics
• Kathleen Parker column: A nation can’t flourish without fathers to raise their children
• National Journal: Full Text: President Obama’s Remarks on Trayvon Martin
• Manhattan Institute bio for Heather Mac Donald
• Wikipedia: Van Jones
• The President’s ‘My Brother’s Keeper’ remarks

The Sacramento stadium subsidy scandal, touched upon on Thursday, should be a bigger story in the news and with the commentariat. So click on over to Townhall, and share. Then come back here for some more reading:

• Sacramento Bee: Judge tosses out STOP arena lawsuit
• Merced Sun-Star: Why agribusinessman is bankrolling fight against Sacramento arena subsidy
• Sacramento Bee, letter to the editor: “A Libertarian argument against the city’s subsidy for a downtown Sacramento arena,” Chris Rufer
• Field of Schemes: Sacramento council approves Kings arena term sheet, as watchdog group calls it “horrible deal for taxpayers”
• The California Fix: Scent of the City
• Sacramento News Review: Kings-arena shenanigans, sleaze on the rise as county nears completion of petition count
• Sacramento Bee: Kings arena subsidy foes sue city to get measure back on ballot
• Townhall Column: Subverting Democracy to Subsidize Billionaires
• Facebook: Stop Arena Subsidy

This weekend’s Townhall column is, of course, an expansion of Thursday’s Common Sense. There was one small error in that outing, so the column sets the record straight.

Finally, on the matter of the immorality of subsidy, where to begin? Probably with “The Law” by Frédéric Bastiat. There are many inexpensive editions about, and, on the Net, many free sources as well. For the past few weeks This is Common Sense has included a lot of “Thoughts,” to the right of each daily post, that are from Bastiat. Those will likely continue for at least another week. He was a great writer.

The term Bastiat used for what is happening in Sacramento, and which forms the basis for many a politician’s “ideology,” is LEGAL PLUNDER.

Government is very efficient at taking from some and giving to others. So, no wonder that when politicians aim to create a better “business environment,” they hurt most businesses in the process. Standard operating procedure.

This weekend’s columnar outing for Common Sense is over at Townhall. Go there. Read. Come back. Read more:

• StartUpNY website
• StartUpNY FAQ
• New York Times: “The New New York Ad Campaign“
• New York Times: “Ad Effort Selling State as a Business Haven Is Criticized“
• Tax Foundation: “2014 State Business Tax Climate Index“

And do a little viewing:

Give people money, or services free of charge, and (shock of all shocks) they will do things with them … and even go so far as to change their behavior to keep getting more and more freebies. Click on over to Townhall.com, for this weekend’s dosage of Econ 101 — or would that be Incredulity 101? Come back here for a few links, a few more thoughts.

• Washington Post: “They quit their jobs, thanks to health-care law,” by Sandhya Somashekhar
• Washington Times: “Federal judges backs Obamacare subsidies in win for administration,” by Tom Howell, Jr.
• US News: “How New Health Insurance Subsidies Will Work,” by Philip Moeller
• Cato Institute: “Obamacare Subsidies,” by Michael Cannon
• Cato Institute: “Congress’s Obamacare Waiver,” by Michael Cannon

Over at Townhall this weekend, the subject is one we have tracked closely here at Common Sense. The IRS appears to have been captured by the Democratic Party, and now serves not the citizenry but that wing of government. Click on over, but come back here for source material. And consider sending links to your friends on Facebook, Google Plus, and Twitter. Just how bad our current batch of politicians are needs to be more widely known.

• The Obama/O’Reilly Super Bowl interview
• Food stamp fraud
• GAO finding on dead pensioners paid
• “IRS’s Targeting Was Targeting,” Common Sense by Paul Jacob
• “The Enemies List,” Common Sense by Paul Jacob
• “Protecting the Guilty at IRS,” Common Sense by Paul Jacob
• “IRS Is the Worsening Emblem of Big Dirty Government,” IBD Editorial

The latest database on U.S. citizens, prying into our private lives, and it wasn’t perpetrated by the NSA!

Click on over to Townhall.* Then back here. For, we’ve got some links for you. But hey: First things first: Read the Townhall piece. It’s short! (And easy to share. If you weren’t aware of this chunk of our Surveillance State, sharing links is more than in order.)

For the Doris Day reference, see The Man Who Knew Too Much, by Alfred Hitchcock.

For the King of Siam reference, see The King and I, with that great starring role by Yul Brenner.

For more on the new database, see

• Washington Examiner: “Federal consumer bureau data-mining hundreds of millions of consumer credit card accounts, mortgages”
• Washington Examiner: “CFPB HQ rehab to cost more than Trump Towers”
• Washington Examiner: “Consumer agency FOIA officers help employees hide work calendars”

* The column was published Monday, February 4, one day later than intended. Sorry for any confusion.

Equality. We’re all equal, even if we’re all different. So maybe harping on real-world inequality is not to the point of justice, eh? Click on over to Townhall, then back here for some further linkages of ideas:

• Reason: “Why President Obama Is Wrong on Inequality” by Ronald Bailey
• Mercatus Center: Millionaires Unlikely to Stay Millionaires for Long
• Lawrence O’Donnell’s MSNBC Promo
• Common Sense: “Society’s Interest“

This weekend at Townhall.com? Arkansas’s GOP-unified legislature has initiated a constitutional assault on Arkansas citizens.

Expect them to be called out. Click on over, then back here, for more reading.

• AR Legislative Digest Blog: “Oops — the three proposed constitutional amendments referred by the 2013 legislature are now in limbo”
• Arkansas Times: Term limit advocates form group to fight constitutional amendment
• Save Arkansas Term Limits
• Arkansas Democrat-Gazette: Outrage of the year (And it snuck right past us)
• Sen. Warwick Sabin (D-Little Rock): Unethical Attack Against Term Limits
• Arkansas Times: Regnant Populus ethics group renews canvassing for initiated ethics law
• Common Sense: The Natural State of Politicians

Ah, it’s a hot topic, because the President wishes it so — because, above all else, he must deflect attention from his failures regarding Obamacare and everything else. So of course it deserves our attention.

Maybe even embracing! Click on over to Townhall; return here for some more links to click, for background.

• Washington Post: “Washington Cashes In,” by Charles Lane
• Cato: “The Work versus Welfare Trade-Off: 2013,” by Michael D. Tanner and Charles T. Hughes
• CRP: Millionaires Club
• Common Sense: Against Innovation in Ohio
• Common Sense: Copper Tubes in Alabama
• Common Sense: You Ignorant Fool
• Common Sense: Unlimited Entitlement

Head on over to Townhall, where voter fraud and voting reform is the hot topic. Come back here, for the background stories:

• Denver Post: “New El Paso County resident Jon Caldara turns in blank recall ballot”
• Denver Post: “El Paso County Democrat asks DA to investigate Jon Caldara’s vote”
• Denver Post: “Colorado AG: No criminal charges in Jon Caldara’s voter registration”
• Wikipedia: “John Morse (politician)”
• Independence Institute website
• Jon Caldara
• Common Sense: “A Voter Revolt”
• Common Sense: “Two-Way Communication“