Saturday, February 21, 2009
Someone needed to say it
This press secretary also made the audacious statement two weeks into the Obama presidency that they were running the "most ethical administration in US history".
1. It had only been TWO WEEKS!
2. How many Cabinet nominees and other various appointees have either dropped out due to accepting kickbacks and not paying their taxes, including the HEAD OF THE IRS!?! Who...somehow...someway...still got through. Ethical? You know nothing of ethics as this video also proves. You treat lies as though they are truth. Well done sir. You weaken the country everytime you open your mouth. Sweet dreams.
Thursday, February 19, 2009
Chris Tired
My eyes are close to being shot. They have been twitching all day. I think they are tired of staring at a computer screen which I am doing right now. I need about a week break without a monitor in sight. Unfortunately, that ain't gonna happen. But I might blog a bit less for awhile so prepare for your withdrawal symptoms.
We have lost 6% of our assets in 3 days...and we did that without losing a client. Simple market depreciation. It's not much fun watching your job slide away when there really isn't anything you can do about it. It would be nice if we could just go to cash until all of this passes but we are mandated to stay fully invested.
Good times.
We have lost 6% of our assets in 3 days...and we did that without losing a client. Simple market depreciation. It's not much fun watching your job slide away when there really isn't anything you can do about it. It would be nice if we could just go to cash until all of this passes but we are mandated to stay fully invested.
Good times.
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
Why I Am Libertarian
"The principle of spending money to be paid by posterity, under the name of funding, is but swindling futurity on a large scale." --Thomas Jefferson
"The real destroyer of the liberties of the people is he who spreads among them bounties, donations and benefits." --Roman historian Plutarch (c.45-125 A.D.)
"There's nothing so useless as doing efficiently that which should not be done at all." --Austrian-American writer Peter Drucker (1909-2005)
(Regarding Obama and the Left) "What we have here is not just a profound love of the state; it is a profound confidence in the capacity of the unlimited state to create heaven on earth. How does this square with the idea of human liberty, of social cooperation, and of the rights of all? Herein lies the great mystery of leftism. The Left seems oblivious to the relationship between their chosen means and their ends. It’s not that they hate liberty as such; it is that they believe that it must always take a backseat to other social priorities, like equality. In the end, they have a tendency to build the total state and find themselves taken aback when the whole of society ends up in a cage.
Those Obamaites! So compassionate, loving, universally minded, progressive — except that their ideological cousins managed to starve and destroy whole civilizations. Loyalty to their creed means death, because their ideology is the pathway to the gulag — and for one simple reason: their preferred means of social change is the state. The state is always and everywhere a threat to liberty, and liberty is the basic building block of prosperity and civilization.
Despite the slogans about progress, the upshot of the Obama administration is as deeply reactionary as anything that Bush conjured up. Despite all the hype and hope, what Obama offers is nothing new. It amounts to the robber state and the regimentation of society, a plan that will kill off prosperity and the conditions that allow for it.
The Republicans are right to fight this tendency at every turn, for it represents a radical attack on all things truly American. Worse still, by playing with the printing presses, the policy tendency here is also deeply dangerous. It could destroy the dollar internationally and domestically, igniting a hyperinflation that no one will be able to control once it gets going. One only wishes that the Republicans had been so principled when their president was in charge!"
"The real destroyer of the liberties of the people is he who spreads among them bounties, donations and benefits." --Roman historian Plutarch (c.45-125 A.D.)
"There's nothing so useless as doing efficiently that which should not be done at all." --Austrian-American writer Peter Drucker (1909-2005)
(Regarding Obama and the Left) "What we have here is not just a profound love of the state; it is a profound confidence in the capacity of the unlimited state to create heaven on earth. How does this square with the idea of human liberty, of social cooperation, and of the rights of all? Herein lies the great mystery of leftism. The Left seems oblivious to the relationship between their chosen means and their ends. It’s not that they hate liberty as such; it is that they believe that it must always take a backseat to other social priorities, like equality. In the end, they have a tendency to build the total state and find themselves taken aback when the whole of society ends up in a cage.
Those Obamaites! So compassionate, loving, universally minded, progressive — except that their ideological cousins managed to starve and destroy whole civilizations. Loyalty to their creed means death, because their ideology is the pathway to the gulag — and for one simple reason: their preferred means of social change is the state. The state is always and everywhere a threat to liberty, and liberty is the basic building block of prosperity and civilization.
Despite the slogans about progress, the upshot of the Obama administration is as deeply reactionary as anything that Bush conjured up. Despite all the hype and hope, what Obama offers is nothing new. It amounts to the robber state and the regimentation of society, a plan that will kill off prosperity and the conditions that allow for it.
The Republicans are right to fight this tendency at every turn, for it represents a radical attack on all things truly American. Worse still, by playing with the printing presses, the policy tendency here is also deeply dangerous. It could destroy the dollar internationally and domestically, igniting a hyperinflation that no one will be able to control once it gets going. One only wishes that the Republicans had been so principled when their president was in charge!"
Monday, February 16, 2009
And about the so-called "Stimulus" Bill
First of all, most experts agreed that a true stimulus bill would include a substantial amount of money for infrastructure spending which would immediately put people to work and edify the decaying roads, bridges and buildings in this country. The final percent of the bill dedicated to this kind of spending? 3.6%.
Now remember that Obama went on prime-time TV and told the American people point blank regarding the stimulus bill, "It also contains an unprecedented level of transparency and accountability so that every American will be able to go online and see where and how we're spending every dime. What it does not contain, however, is a single pet project, not a single earmark, and it has been stripped of the projects members of both parties found most objectionable."
From the National Taxpayers Union website:
Wasteful and Non-Stimulative Spending in the House-Senate Conference Report
•$8 billion for high-speed railway (including an earmark for an Los Angeles to Las Vegas MagLev)
•$1 billion for the “FutureGen” not-ready-for-primetime near zero emission plant in Illinois
•$53.6 billion for the “state stabilization” slush fund
•$1.3 billion for Amtrak
•$24 million for USDA buildings and rent
•$176 million for renovating Agricultural Research Service buildings
•$290 million for flood prevention activities
•$50 million for watershed rehabilitation
•$1.4 billion for wastewater disposal programs
•$295 million for administrative expenses associated with food stamp program
•$1 billion for the 2010 Census
•$200 million for public computer centers at community colleges and libraries
•$650 million for the DTV converter box coupon program
•$360 million for construction of NIST buildings
•$830 million for NOAA research and facilities
•$2 billion for Byrne JAG program
•$10 million to combat Mexican gunrunners
•$125 million for rural communities to combat drug crimes
•$1 billion for the COPS program
•$1 billion for NASA
•$300 million to purchase scientific instruments for colleges and museums
•$400 million for equipment and facilities at the NSF
•$3.7 billion to conduct "green" renovations on military bases
•$375 million for Mississippi River projects
•$10 million for urban canals
•$5 billion for weatherizing buildings
•$2 billion to develop advanced batteries for hybrid cars
•$3.4 billion for fossil energy research (possibly including an earmark for FutureGen)
•$5.1 billion for environmental cleanup around military bases
•$5.5 billion for "green" federal buildings
•$300 million for "green" cars for federal employees
•$20 million for IT upgrades at the Small Business Administration
•$200 million to design and furnish DHS headquarters
•$210 million for State and local fire stations
•$125 million to restore trails and abandoned mines
•$146 million for trail maintenance at National Park Service sites
•$140 million for volcano monitoring systems
•$600 million for the EPA Superfund environmental cleanup program
•$200 million to clean up leaking underground storage tanks
•$500 million for forest health and wildfire prevention
•$25 million for the Smithsonian Institution
•$50 million for the National Endowment for the Arts
•$1.2 billion for "youth activities" (for "youth" up to 24 years old)
•$500 million earmark for NIH facilities in Bethesda, MD
•$1 billion for Head Start
•$32 million for home-delivered nutrition services
•$160 million for volunteer programs at the Corporation for National and Community Service
•$500 million earmark for the SSA National Computer Center in MD
•$220 million for the International Boundary and Water Commission, U.S. and Mexico
Now remember that Obama went on prime-time TV and told the American people point blank regarding the stimulus bill, "It also contains an unprecedented level of transparency and accountability so that every American will be able to go online and see where and how we're spending every dime. What it does not contain, however, is a single pet project, not a single earmark, and it has been stripped of the projects members of both parties found most objectionable."
From the National Taxpayers Union website:
Wasteful and Non-Stimulative Spending in the House-Senate Conference Report
•$8 billion for high-speed railway (including an earmark for an Los Angeles to Las Vegas MagLev)
•$1 billion for the “FutureGen” not-ready-for-primetime near zero emission plant in Illinois
•$53.6 billion for the “state stabilization” slush fund
•$1.3 billion for Amtrak
•$24 million for USDA buildings and rent
•$176 million for renovating Agricultural Research Service buildings
•$290 million for flood prevention activities
•$50 million for watershed rehabilitation
•$1.4 billion for wastewater disposal programs
•$295 million for administrative expenses associated with food stamp program
•$1 billion for the 2010 Census
•$200 million for public computer centers at community colleges and libraries
•$650 million for the DTV converter box coupon program
•$360 million for construction of NIST buildings
•$830 million for NOAA research and facilities
•$2 billion for Byrne JAG program
•$10 million to combat Mexican gunrunners
•$125 million for rural communities to combat drug crimes
•$1 billion for the COPS program
•$1 billion for NASA
•$300 million to purchase scientific instruments for colleges and museums
•$400 million for equipment and facilities at the NSF
•$3.7 billion to conduct "green" renovations on military bases
•$375 million for Mississippi River projects
•$10 million for urban canals
•$5 billion for weatherizing buildings
•$2 billion to develop advanced batteries for hybrid cars
•$3.4 billion for fossil energy research (possibly including an earmark for FutureGen)
•$5.1 billion for environmental cleanup around military bases
•$5.5 billion for "green" federal buildings
•$300 million for "green" cars for federal employees
•$20 million for IT upgrades at the Small Business Administration
•$200 million to design and furnish DHS headquarters
•$210 million for State and local fire stations
•$125 million to restore trails and abandoned mines
•$146 million for trail maintenance at National Park Service sites
•$140 million for volcano monitoring systems
•$600 million for the EPA Superfund environmental cleanup program
•$200 million to clean up leaking underground storage tanks
•$500 million for forest health and wildfire prevention
•$25 million for the Smithsonian Institution
•$50 million for the National Endowment for the Arts
•$1.2 billion for "youth activities" (for "youth" up to 24 years old)
•$500 million earmark for NIH facilities in Bethesda, MD
•$1 billion for Head Start
•$32 million for home-delivered nutrition services
•$160 million for volunteer programs at the Corporation for National and Community Service
•$500 million earmark for the SSA National Computer Center in MD
•$220 million for the International Boundary and Water Commission, U.S. and Mexico
Happy President's Day
"Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, Religion and morality are indispensable supports. In vain would that man claim the tribute of Patriotism, who should labor to subvert these great Pillars of human happiness -- these firmest props of the duties of Men and citizens." - George Washington, Farewell Address, September 19, 1796
Also worth reading:
"Six years ago I wrote a book called 'Uncle Sam's Plantation.' I wrote the book to tell my own story of what I saw living inside the welfare state and my own transformation out of it. I said in that book that indeed there are two Americas. A poor America on socialism and a wealthy America on capitalism. ... A benevolent Uncle Sam welcomed mostly poor black Americans onto the government plantation. Those who accepted the invitation switched mindsets from 'How do I take care of myself?' to 'What do I have to do to stay on the plantation?' Instead of solving economic problems, government welfare socialism created monstrous moral and spiritual problems. The kind of problems that are inevitable when individuals turn responsibility for their lives over to others. The legacy of American socialism is our blighted inner cities, dysfunctional inner city schools, and broken black families. Through God's grace, I found my way out. It was then that I understood what freedom meant and how great this country is. I had the privilege of working on welfare reform in 1996, passed by a Republican congress and signed into law by a Democrat president. A few years after enactment, welfare roles were down fifty percent. I thought we were on the road to moving socialism out of our poor black communities and replacing it with wealth producing American capitalism. But, incredibly, we are going in the opposite direction. Instead of poor America on socialism becoming more like rich American on capitalism, rich America on capitalism is becoming like poor America on socialism." --columnist and black woman, Star Parker
Also worth reading:
"Six years ago I wrote a book called 'Uncle Sam's Plantation.' I wrote the book to tell my own story of what I saw living inside the welfare state and my own transformation out of it. I said in that book that indeed there are two Americas. A poor America on socialism and a wealthy America on capitalism. ... A benevolent Uncle Sam welcomed mostly poor black Americans onto the government plantation. Those who accepted the invitation switched mindsets from 'How do I take care of myself?' to 'What do I have to do to stay on the plantation?' Instead of solving economic problems, government welfare socialism created monstrous moral and spiritual problems. The kind of problems that are inevitable when individuals turn responsibility for their lives over to others. The legacy of American socialism is our blighted inner cities, dysfunctional inner city schools, and broken black families. Through God's grace, I found my way out. It was then that I understood what freedom meant and how great this country is. I had the privilege of working on welfare reform in 1996, passed by a Republican congress and signed into law by a Democrat president. A few years after enactment, welfare roles were down fifty percent. I thought we were on the road to moving socialism out of our poor black communities and replacing it with wealth producing American capitalism. But, incredibly, we are going in the opposite direction. Instead of poor America on socialism becoming more like rich American on capitalism, rich America on capitalism is becoming like poor America on socialism." --columnist and black woman, Star Parker
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