Category: links

As the federal government does its darnedest to prove that class warfare isn’t rich vs. poor, or white vs. black, but, instead, government vs. the people, let’s try to keep our sanity.

Of course, one element of keeping our sanity is to recognize how big a problem it is when those in government are, indeed, “out to get us.” We’re not paranoid; they are craven. For evidence, see this weekend’s Townhall column. And come back here for a full list of references.

First, the ones provided as links in the column in question:

• “The Mysterious Barricades,” Common Sense by Paul Jacob
• “Les Barricades Mystérieuses,” Wikipedia article on the lovely harpsichord piece by François Couperin, referenced in the column
• “Washington Monument Syndrome,” Wikipedia article on the central concept in the column (it also mentions the Firemen First principle)
• “Government shutdown in the United States,” Wikipedia entry
• “Rushmore blockage stirs anger in South Dakota,” Sioux Falls Business Journal
• “A Tale of Two Parks,” by Warren Meier, Political Economy Research Center (splash page for a study presented in PDF)

Then there are the links not provided in the column:

• “NBC: Police Remove Vietnam War Veterans at Memorial Wall,” Weekly Standard
• “Shutdown overreach: More personnel sent to WWII memorial than Benghazi; Park Service closes park it doesn’t run,” Paul Bedard, Washington Examiner
• Quotation is from email sent by Anna Eberly
• Leviathan, by Thomas Hobbes
• Second Treatise of Government, by John Locke

This weekend on Townhall, your Common Sense columnist reacts to a polite rebuff. From a very busy incumbent. Click on over, then back here to read the original correspondence.

Here is the original correspondence sent to Virginia pols: http://www.citizensincharge.org/blog/neal/citizens-in-charge-launches-ir-pledge-in-virginia

Here is the letter I received, but with the delegate’s name and particulars elided:

Want to see who this delegate is? I’ll place the original letter I received up on my Facebook page.

How not to do foreign policy? How it is now done, in Washington, DC.

Click on over to Townhall, where we take the time Putin has given us for calm reflection on the continuing crisis in Syria. Then click back here for more links, for more thoughts, for less of a crisis.

• Common Sense: Atrocity Logic
• Common Sense: Boots on the Ground
• Common Sense VIDEO: War Follies and War Powers
• ABC News: Transcript of President Obama Speech on Syria
• PBS: Rand Paul’s Response to Obama’s Address to the Nation
• PolitiFact.com: President Obama, Syria and the ‘red line’
• FireDogLake.com: Obama Bypasses Terrorism Rule To Give Weapons To Syrian Rebels
• Think Progress: Timeline of Syrian Chemical Weapons Saga
• Huffington Post: June 14 – Obama Steps Up Military Aid To Syrian Rebels
• Washington Post: September 11 – CIA Begins Weapons Delivery to Syrian Rebels
• Anti-War.com: Justin Amash – ‘Gov’t Is Breaking Law’ Sending Weapons to Syria

Over at Townhall.com, this weekend, your Common Sense columnist expands on Friday’s Common Sense. It’s a tricky subject, discrimination. We hope you find it a rounded-out discussion, and worthy of sharing with your friends. The difference between the classical idea of freedom, and today’s rather different notion, is worth exploring.

So, click on over, and come back here for a few additional links:

• Mississippi State Sovereignty Committee, Wikipedia (on state support of discrimination in the South)
• “Two Approaches to Gay Marriage,” Wirkman Virkkala (on the politics of freedom versus the politics of inclusion)
• Economics of Discrimination, by Gary Becker (classic work on the subject)
• Economics of the Colour Bar, by W.H. Hutt (discrimination policies in South Africa from a great economist who urges the classical idea of republican freedom)
• The Case for Discrimination, by Walter Block (here the economics and politics take a more radical turn)

Thomas Sowell on discrimination, an interview with William F. Buckley, Jr.:

Addicts all? No, but as a “body politic” we sure seem addicted to government.

It should come as no shock to realize that this addiction has hit the industry from which the metaphor arises. Take a look at Townhall.com this weekend. Regular readers may notice that the Common Sense column is an expansion of Thursday’s effort. I hope it’s even more clear, more convincing. The reason to oppose Obamacare is not that Obama approved it, or Pelosi pushed it through. It’s just more of the same-old, same-old, and we really could use a better prescription.

Click on over and then come back here, for further doses of reality (hope it’s not too much).

• Lies of Obamacare, Michael D. Tanner (Cato)
• Congress’s Obamacare Waiver, Michael F. Cannon (Cato)
• Obamacare as Big Brother, Michael D. Tanner (Cato)
• The Obamacare Fraud, by Shikha Dalmia (Reason)
• Obamacare Abominations, by John Stossel (FEE)

Over at Townhall, your weekly Common Sense columnist begins by asking whether the Republican Party is about to define itself out of existence, and continues by looking at the long-term ideological polarization that both parties are undergoing. Click on over, and then back here for some back-up:

• EconTalk, with Russ Roberts — Morris Fiorina on Polarization, Stability, and the State of the Electorate
• Reason Hit & Run blog — Peter King: ‘Rand Paul has set the Republican Party back 50 years’
• Politico — Chris Christie: Rand Paul ‘dangerous’
• Common Sense with Paul Jacob — Another Trout in the Milk

This weekend’s Common Sense column takes us back to the question of the minimum wage, and the evil, awful Walmart. But really what it’s about is the vision of market life we see in liberal-progressive ideology. Click on over, then return here. There are links in the column, but it might help to consider a few ideas in addition to those links:

• Thomas Sowell, “‘Living Wage’ Kills Jobs“
• F.A. Harper, “Why Wages Rise” (PDF)
• Jeffrey Tucker, “Jeff’s Story (video)” and “The Basement Beneath the Floor“
• Bryan Caplan, The Myopic Empiricism of the Minimum Wage

For this weekend’s Common Sense column, click on over to Townhall.com for the Obama vs. Snowden showdown. Sneak back here for more intel:

• Transcript of President Obama’s Aug. 9 News Conference
• Washington Post: “Obama announces proposals to reform NSA surveillance”
• Policy Mic: Transcript of Snowden interview with Glenn Greenwald
• Reason: “President Obama Claims He Was Totally Moving Forward on Reviewing Surveillance Operations Before Edward Snowden’s Leaks That Let Us All Know About Them”
• The Guardian: “NSA loophole allows warrantless search for US citizens’ emails and phone calls”
• The Hill: “Obama approval drops to 42 percent”
• Washington Post: “Privacy concerns rise after NSA leaks”
• Cato Institute: “Opposing Bulk NSA Surveillance”
• Townhall: Obama – “We’re going to have some problems here”
• Common Sense: Welcome Debate?
• USA Today: “Mr. President, is NSA debate really welcomed? Our view”
• Washington Post: “Privacy board meets with Obama”