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folly general freedom ideological culture meme nannyism national politics & policies too much government

Ignore Those Pesky Extremists!

We have nothing to fear from BIG GOVERNMENT!


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Thought

Sinclair Lewis

“I hate your city. It has standardized all the beauty out of life. It is one big railroad station — with all the people taking tickets for the best cemeteries.”


Sinclair Lewis, Babbitt, 1922

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links

Townhall: The Democrats’ Steady SuperPAC

Marco Rubio said something more than a little true about his opposition party, the Democratic. It had to do with the media. But that truth explains a whole lot more than just the mechanics of the much-ridiculed presidential debates. Click on over to Townhall. Then come back here for more reading . . . and viewing.

 

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Thought

Smedley Butler

“War is a racket. It is the only one international in scope. It is the only one in which the profits are reckoned in dollars and the losses in lives.”


Smedley Butler, War Is a Racket, 1935

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meme term limits

We already have term limits, you moron…

Uhmmm,Yeah. So…how’s that Been working out for you?

(Public Approval Rating for congress: 15% | Re-election rate for congress: 90%)


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Photo credits (endorsement of this message is not implied): cc Randy Stern on flickr / cc Raelene Gutlerrez on flikr

 

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video

Video: Don’t Let “Fun Burglars” Ruin Halloween!

There are a lot of adults who want to ruin a fun time for your kids — and you. But you can fight back, without harm to anyone!   From The Rebel Media:

Categories
folly general freedom moral hazard nannyism

A More Perfect Turkey

Let’s talk Turkey. Not the bird, the country. America has fallen behind in yet another category: preposterous promises by politicians.

It’s becoming clear that Bernie Sanders, Vermont’s independent “democratic socialist” U.S. Senator and now Democratic Party presidential contender, is a piker, a penny pincher, a cheapskate, a tightwad, a Scrooge. At least, by comparison.

It’s one thing to promise free stuff — say, zero-priced college for everyone! — but is the generous senator willing to give entrepreneurs $100,000 to start a business?

Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu is.

Well, 100,000 Liras anyway.

In the run-up to Sunday’s Turkish election, the fearless leader of the Justice and Development Party announced his plan to subsidize new businesses.

And so much more. And why not? “Once you have a job, salary and food. What is left?” Davutoğlu rhetorically asked last week, answering, “A wife.” He told male citizens: “first consult your parents and, God willing, they will find you a suitable one. If they don’t, you can come to us.”

Meanwhile, no U.S. candidate proposes any government support whatsoever for men seeking wives. Or women seeking husbands . . . or wives. Or men seeking husbands. Etcetera.

No dating subsidy, either, or help with high wedding costs — not even a Costanza regulation to protect brides from the dangers of deadly wedding invitation envelopes.

Of course, government big enough to give folks everything they desire is also big enough to take everything — including free speech — away. This week, Turkish police stormed two “opposition” TV stations taking them off the air days before the vote.

That could never happen here, though . . . could it?

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.


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Accountability Common Sense folly free trade & free markets general freedom meme

Progressive Logic

Government is so corrupt that its power to intervene in the market can be bought and sold by the rich…

…Therefore government should be bigger and more powerful.


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progressive logic, crony capitalism, corruption, big government, government power, meme, illustration, photomontage, Jim Gill, Paul Jacob, Common Sense

 

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Thought

Smedley Butler

“There are only two things we should fight for. One is the defense of our homes and the other is the Bill of Rights.”


Smedley Butler, War Is a Racket, 1935

Categories
free trade & free markets general freedom national politics & policies

Why Protectionism

Why do so many people (especially politicians) favor high tariffs, “managed trade,” embargoes and domestic subsidies, all of which — first as “mercantilism” and then as “protectionism” — have been debunked, repeatedly (demonstrated as ineffective economic policy), since Adam Smith’s famous 1776 attack?

Economist Donald Boudreaux, in an excellent defense of economic principles, explains why the Bernie Sanderses and Donald Trumps of this world support anti-free trade nostrums — out of sheer ignorance:

The typical politician opposes free trade because he . . . doesn’t understand that the purpose of trade — any trade — is to enrich people as consumers and not to enrich people as producers. He doesn’t understand that exports are a cost and that imports are a benefit; he thinks that it’s the other way ’round. He doesn’t understand that the specific jobs lost to imports are not the only employment consequences of trade; he doesn’t understand that trade also “creates” jobs in the domestic economy. . . . He, in short, doesn’t understand the first damn thing about the economics of trade.

But what protectionists do understand are direct appeals to “good results” (like more and better high-paying jobs). The fact that their proposals throw a monkey wrench into the diverse mechanisms of trade, yielding worse results?

They just don’t see them.

Why? Because real economies are complex, and protectionists lack the science that would help them trace the consequences of their policies.

The fact that they’ve focused their whole attention on the business of “governing,” and making simplistic, direct appeals to people who are also uneducated in economic principles, doesn’t help.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.


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