“A nation of sheep will beget a government of wolves.”
Categories
Categories
The Bill of Rights becomes law
On Dec. 15, 1791, Virginia’s ratification made the Bill of Rights, the first ten amendments to the U.S. Constitution, the law of the land. Anti-Federalists, such as Patrick Henry, had pushed for the Bill of Rights to protect from encroachment on the rights of the people and the states from a federal government they believed the Constitution made too powerful.
In Suffolk County, Massachusetts, a new wrinkle on the old Producers-like scam hit the spotlight as a grand jury indicted Daniel Adams, a film impresario with several films under his belt, on ten counts larceny and false claims to the state in the financing of two movies set in the Cape Cod area, The Golden Boys (2008) and The Lightkeepers (2009).
According to Boston.com, Adams is charged with taking “advantage of a state incentive that allows film makers to apply for a tax credit equal to 25 percent of eligible production expenses. But prosecutors said he deceived the state about his expenses, claiming, for instance, that he paid [actor Richard] Dreyfuss $2.5 million, when in fact he paid him only $400,000.”
Adams has pleaded not guilty, and his legal standing is for a jury to decide.
More important is the general policy — funding movies is just not a legitimate use of tax money.
The only possibly legitimate argument for taxation is that the forcibly extracted money serves all the people it’s extracted from, by fulfilling very general, truly public interests. Making movies is not that.
One wag notes that “[t]he real crime is that a movie starring Richard Dreyfuss ever qualified for taxpayer funds in the first place.” That sounds almost like a criticism of Dreyfuss. Hey, I like the actor.
The point is that no film, either starring the greatest of greats or the least of unknowns, should be financed with conscripted money.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
Michigan has a recall law. Citizens can toss out an unrepresentative representative before you can say Ypsilanti — even if that politician hasn’t committed a crime or tweeted lewd photos of himself.
Well, maybe not Ypsilanti-simple: one must gather enough signatures to reach 25 percent of the contested office’s vote in the previous election.
Since 1954, when the recall provision was added to the Michigan Constitution, only three legislators have been successfully recalled. The first two were Democrats, back in 1983. The third happened just last month. Republican State Senator Paul Scott’s recall was placed on the ballot, largely through the efforts of the state teachers union, and he was voted out.
I wouldn’t have supported Scott’s ouster, but I support the right of citizens everywhere to oust away.
Michigan State Senator John J. Gleason disagrees. To Gleason, three recalls in 57 years are three too many. The Democrat introduced Senate Bill 629, which would gut the right to recall by disallowing it unless the legislator has gone on a crime spree or piled up serious ethical violations.
Just voting our liberties away wouldn’t qualify any longer.
“Nothing unites lawmakers more than making it easier to stay in office,” wrote Mackinac Center for Public Policy President Joe Lehman in the Detroit Free Press. “The voters’ right to recall lawmakers, for expressly political reasons, is a potent check against government overreach that the people should jealously guard irrespective of party.”
Joe’s talking Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
Categories
George Washington
“Government is not reason, it is not eloquence, it is force; like fire, a troublesome servant and a fearful master. Never for a moment should it be left to irresponsible action.”
Categories
First Wright brothers flight attempt
On Dec. 14, 1903, the Wright brothers made their first attempt to fly at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina.
On Dec. 14, 1825, Russian liberals rise up against Tsar Nicholas I in the Decembrist Revolt in St. Petersburg and are put down.
On Dec. 14, 1799, George Washington, the first president of the United States and the father of his country, passed away at his home at Mount Vernon.
For nine years, from 1999 until 2008, Newt Gingrich worked helping Freddie Mac, the government–created, bubble-creating housing corporation. Newt’s outfit, The Gingrich Group, knocked down more than $1.6 million dollars in consulting fees during that time.
Newt says he warned the government-sponsored giant that the bubble it was busy blowing up would burst badly.
For all those years? He was either mind-numbingly repetitive or must have really drawn out his words. He is from Georgia, but still.
Folks at Freddie tell a different story. They say former Speaker Gingrich helped “build bridges” to Republicans on Capitol Hill, hoping to prevent congressional efforts to rein in the mortgage giant. Those efforts proved successful — there was no powering down of the Frankenstein mortgage monster. The Gingrich Group’s contract wasn’t canceled until the 2008 crash, when the U.S. Treasury took control of Freddie Mac and his sister housing financier, Fannie Mae.
In last weekend’s GOP presidential debate, Congressman Ron Paul argued that Newt Gingrich’s position with Freddie Mac is “something people ought to know about.”
“While he was earning a lot of money from Freddie Mac,” explained Rep. Paul, “I was fighting, over a decade, to try to explain to people where the housing bubble was coming from.”
Newt responded that, like Dr. Paul, he wanted to audit the Fed. As for his Freddie role, “I offered strategic advice,” claimed Newt, adding, “I was in the private sector.”
Laughter erupted throughout the hall. Even Mr. Gingrich couldn’t keep a straight face.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
Categories
Rape of Nanking
On Dec. 13, 1937, Japanese armed forces entered Nanking, the capital of China, and General Matsui Iwane ordered that the city of Nanking be destroyed. Much of the city was burned, and Japanese troops launched a campaign of atrocities against civilians in what became known as the “Rape of Nanking.” The Japanese butchered an estimated 150,000 male “war prisoners,” massacred an additional 50,000 male civilians, and raped at least 20,000 women and girls of all ages, many of whom were mutilated or killed in the process. After the end of World War II, Matsui was found guilty of war crimes by the International Military Tribunal for the Far East and executed.
Categories
George Orwell
“The nationalist not only does not disapprove of atrocities committed by his own side, but he has a remarkable capacity for not even hearing about them.”
Some “unintended consequences” aren’t.
The order of the market is an unintended consequence of market participation. By buying and selling, we’re just trying to get what we want. But we also send signals that help other folks accommodate our values and plans, which then allows markets to form some semblance of orderliness.
In government, on the other hand, laws get advanced to help this person or that, or whole groups of people. But economists often note that the actual consequences of many policies are at great variance with their advertised benefits. These often negative outcomes we term (following F.A. Hayek) the “unintended consequences.”
It’s worth noting that sometimes politicians do intend those hidden, bad consequences.
Economist David Henderson brings up an instance of this:
One insurance agent I spoke to speculated that politicians and other government officials who support these regulations not only understand these effects, but also like them. Why? Because they cause more people to go without insurance and thus create a demand for government-provided insurance.
Henderson then cites a provision of Obamacare, now kicking in: Regulations mandating medical insurance companies to spend a prescribed percentage of premiums “on actual medical care.” The result will be, almost certainly, the demise of whole hunks of the health insurance industry.
Thereby increasing political demands for government-provided insurance.
Some of the folks who concocted this regulation, and some who voted for it, certainly knew the likely result. And welcomed it.
Politicians are not equally clueless.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.