A Second Hand Conjecture

New Deal policies signed into law 71 years ago thwarted economic recovery for seven long years.

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What’s this? Bob Barr wanted Ronpaul as his veep? Take your eyes off the Libertarian Party for a minute and you miss a lot of foolishness. Our old friend Steve Newton fills us in on the amusing drama that ensued (Ronpaul said no BTW).
Now, I had been under the impression that Barr already had a [...]

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Todd Zywicki, of the Volokh Conspiracy, takes a look at libertarianism in the McCain/Palin ticket and notes a distinct western vibe to the first all-western ticket in our history. He had an interesting observation that I think captures a lot of our hesitation about McCain.
The only caveat to this is that McCain’s westernism is tempered [...]

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From the Onion.
(1995–2007) Trying to control the faith, sexuality, reproduction, drug use, and national allegiance of every single American.
(2007–) Aw, F–k it.
H/T: Reason

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Newmark’s DoorWe can’t enact or enforce enough laws to manage ethical behavior.
“Goo-goos”–good government advocates–have been fighting corruption in government through endlessly tweaking campaign financing reform laws and ethics laws for at least 40 years.
Senator Stevens is the latest case and even though he may have been up to no good, Newmark thinks it will be [...]

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Michael F. Cannon at Cato blogs about a NYTimes article on the rife fraud found and covered up at Medicare. A confidential draft of a federal inspector general’s report claimed that the behavior they found at the Medicare Administration was rife with irregularities.
Medicare reported to Congress that, for the fiscal year of 2006, AdvanceMed’s investigations [...]

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L.A. Police have started cracking down on hotdog carts selling grilled bacon wrapped hotdogs. Confiscating all equipment and trashing all food on site. As always, nanny knows best.

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Many of us, when we hear the phrase “risk and reward” think of Wall Street.  Or business in general.
But in reality, “risk and reward” affect us throughout our lives.
Our parents take a risk when they conceive us.  They hope that we will provide them with more joy and satisfaction than heartache and pain.  They [...]

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Because of my background in working with emotionally disturbed, learning disabled, and generally abused kids, I am often to drawn to stories about the results of extreme neglect of children. I saw some awfully hard cases with some of the kids I worked with, including a kid who was found as a toddler scrounging [...]

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Jordan Page (who is a kind of Ronpaulist Joan Baez) reflects on the “Revolution March,” a July 12th Ron Paul protest rally in Washington DC, in part organized by Adam Kokesh (who of late believes the Washington police are involved in a clandestine conspiracy against him).
Now, I grew up in the libertarian movement such [...]

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Taking fecklessness to new levels of embarrassment, the Libertarian Party of Kentucky is now considering rescinding its unanimous de-endorsement of genocidal fantasist Sonny Landham, and formally renominating him as its candidate for US Senate.
“We’re really stuck,” said Libertarian Party chair Ken Moellman. “We don’t necessarily want to kick him off the ballot.”
[...]
“Our goal was [...]

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Looks like the Libertarian Party of Kentucky has dumped Sonny Landham, previously their clinically insane pick for US Senate. Good for them. Even if given the psychopathic nature of Landham’s views, I feel a little like I’m congratulating them for breathing.
While the Obama campaign might like to think that the LP could pose a serious [...]

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Ah, the Libertarian Party. I wish I could call it home, but like all parties animated by ideals, it is susceptible to grievance mongers who latch themselves onto the rhetoric to justify disgusting views. The Republican Party of La. had the good sense to repudiate David Duke, can the Libertarians manage to distance themselves from [...]

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While my opposition to modern liberal left politics is pretty clear, I generally feel that name calling is rarely needed, or warranted. I certainly do not believe that any particular ideology is more or less likely to have virtuous people, whether we are speaking of kindness, generosity, bravery or integrity.
I also don’t believe that any [...]

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Peg pointed me this way, and I really enjoyed nodding in agreement. Of course, I have long nodded in agreement with Megan. Especially on these:
2) Gay marriage. I’m basically pro, but I take the Burkean arguments seriously.
3) Immigration. Again, I’m pro–but while I think the anti-immigration side makes often ridiculously ahistorical arguments about [...]

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Libertarian Party candidate Bob Barr is doing very well in the latest Zogby poll Eric Dondero at Libertarian Republican informs us. The poll has Barr at 6% in Texas and Florida and a pretty impressive 10% in New Hampshire.
State: Texas
Summary:
McCain - 42%
Obama - 39%
Barr - 6%
Nader -2%
Someone else - 4%
Undecided - 7%
Over 3,200 were surveyed [...]

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The idea of state funded and administered universal health care is a bugbear of libertarians everywhere, and especially those who are subjected to such a system as a matter of course. Routinely held up as one of the worst of the lot of state-run systems is Britain’s NHS. Now, direct from the trenches [...]

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Over the weekend I read with fascination William Saletan’s review of the new offering from George Lakoff, “The Political Mind,” and was struck by the remarkable similarities between it and the revolutionary syndicalism espoused during the prior fin de siècle.
In particular, Saletan summarizes Lakoff’s principal idea as the need for progressives to recapture [...]

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I’ve always loved that quote from Charles Austin Beard about earning a reputation as a “dangerous citizen” by quoting the founding fathers. This quote is from the man who made the “dangerous citizen” a cinematic icon, including in one of my all time favorite movies The Outlaw Josey Wales:
I don’t pay attention to either [...]

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Libertarian Party candidate Bob Barr appeared on the Colbert Report last night. Check out the video after the jump. Some commentary from the American Spectator here.

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Some political chaos going on in the Nevada Republican Convention. Ron Paul supporters amassed at the convention in hopes of taking it over and electing their own people as delegates.
Outmaneuvered by raucous Ron Paul supporters, Nevada Republican Party leaders abruptly shut down their state convention and now must resume the event to complete a list [...]

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Following up on Jon’s post a few weeks ago on the group dancing at the Jefferson memorial, we have some more information. A group of friends and other people at the incident have set up a web page. Free the Jefferson 1. The girl was arrested at the incident for “interfering with an agency function,” [...]

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John McCain was one politician I admired greatly. While I still believe that the man is a true hero, and while I still do applaud some of what he does, the veil has been lifted from my eyes for one major reason: McCain-Feingold.
Although I, like so many others, wish that we lived in [...]

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Dale Franks honors the story of how the fight for our Independence began on April 19th, 1775. McQ ponders how we got to where we are today, drawing from the great T Harry Williams, and Jules Crittenden has a roundup of first hand accounts of what took place.

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There seems to be some confusion on the part of some as to exactly what sort of place ASHC is:
I was rather surprised to read this dubious and scornful appraisal of Michael Yon’s Wallstreet Journal editorial at A Second Hand Conjecture, a heretofore conservative site.
The post Mick Stockinger is referring to was created by Joshua [...]

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As much as I tend these days toward international interventionism, I see a real danger in the simple acceptance of the idea of international law. That, itself, is more of a threat to sovereignty than armies could ever be. It gives it up without a fight and without a thought. Opens the door to tyrants [...]

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Over at Where the Buffalo Roam Peter gives us Charlton Heston’s 1999 NRA Convention Keynote Speech in Denver, which was scheduled shortly after the Columbine shootings in Colorado. A perfect reminder of what he stood for, and against.
Update: Here he is speaking in 1989 on the animating issue of his later life, the Second Amendment.

[...]

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Due to free markets, capitalism and freedom in general, the world is getting wealthier.

The last quarter century has witnessed remarkable progress of mankind. The world’s per capita inflation-adjusted income rose from $5400 in 1980 to $8500 in 2005.Schooling and life expectancy grew rapidly, while infant mortality and poverty fell just asfast. [...]

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As Ron Paul’s more disturbing and radical views are emerging, especially how closely he has associated himself with the Mises Institute, it might behoove those of us who consider ourselves on the libertarian side of things to more closely examine who these radicals are.
Certainly we have to understand we have many areas of agreement, but [...]

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For a couple of years now, Porkbusters has been on the warpath against wasteful spending in Congress, and although it has had some notable successes (e.g. the “Bridge to Nowhere”), it’s mostly been treading water. The latest battle, dubbed a “Blogger Revolt” by the Club for Growth (via Instapundit) was ignited by the appointment [...]

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This is an extension of the commentary from this post from MichaelW.
Have you heard the truism that a person is smart, but people are dumb?
On the one hand it’s profoundly true. On the other hand we fail to understand that the opposite is also profoundly true. A person [...]

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Via Glenn Reynolds, Wired posts an article describing the fight to include evolution in the science curriculum for students in Florida and Texas:
Charles Darwin was born 199 years ago Tuesday, but the debate he ignited about the origins of species rages on. Florida’s department of education will vote next week on a new science curriculum [...]

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For your viewing pleasure, watch Ayaan Hirsi Ali effortlessly dismantle the typical leftist tropes thrown at her in an interview with Avi Lewis (Naomi Klein’s husband). The quote serving as the title comes across as venomously pointed when read, but when Ali delivers it towards the end of the interview it sounds perfectly reasonable [...]

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(Originally posted at What if?)
From the moment I purchased “Managing Your Money” software many years ago, I realized that Andrew Tobias is a very smart and very amusing fellow. Later, I discovered that Andy is also warm, friendly and has a huge heart. Despite being a huge business and DNC celebrity (he’s the [...]

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(Cross Posted at Whatif?)
When John McCain and George W. Bush were vying for their party’s nomination, I was a McCain fan. How could a person not be impressed by the man who refused to leave Vietnam’s prison camp to stand by his men?
As time has progressed, however, my admiration for McCain lessened. [...]

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(Cross Posted at Whatif?)
The next time one of your liberal associates begins to rail about how conservatives are selfish and don’t care about the less fortunate among us - you show them this.
Chicago is gearing up for another round of tumult from the closing of possibly more than a half dozen failing schools. Whatever the [...]

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That’s part of Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius’ response to the SOTU last night.
Jim Hoft’s reaction: “Huh?” and drawing the obvious comparison to another famous redistributionist.
My first thought was: “Ask? Well I’d be much happier if they’d ‘ask’; that implies I can say no. Instead they all seem to pretty much insist [...]

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Commenting on Bill Gates’ advocacy for “kinder capitalism,” Steven Bainbridge notes:
But when did Bill Gates ever believe in capitalism? He’s an inveterate monopolist and has been since the beginning. Monopolists hate real capitalism, precisely because they hate competition. Monopolists love corporate social responsibility because it creates barriers to entry. So of course Bill Gates is [...]

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Maybe that’s overstating things a bit, but probably not by much. My parents experienced a similar cascade of events when my grandmother was injured in December of ‘06, and died several weeks later. Even before then, her treatment was one of visiting any number of specialists with problems never being resolved completely.
When consumers [...]

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From Peter Gordon:
This morning’s WSJ op-ed (“Gas Taxes Are High Enough”) by Mary E. Peters, Secretary of Transportation, suggests that this appointment belongs on the plus side of the ledger. She is the highest-ranking federal transportation official to openly embrace electronic road tolls on major highways. Highway congestion is often cited as a market failure [...]

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It is a very beneficial habit. Steve Newton has really gotten the bug, and has a startling one showing the difference between North and South Korea. Looking at it reminded me of one I posted about a long time ago. So, being a fan of recycling posts, I thought it should be reprised:
**************************************************************************************
Spontaneous order can [...]

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This is a stunning statistic:
…the annual expansion in China’s trade has been larger than India’s total annual trade during last several years.
Tyler Cowen hones in on this point, amongst a bounty of good points:
The most important factor that still holds back large [Indian] firms from entering these products is a set of draconian labour laws [...]

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From the “Holier Than Thou” department comes this interesting photo taken by Larry Fink for Wired Magazine. (link to larger photo)

What’s that he’s reaching for with his right hand? Why, it’s a Cheez-ItTM!
After gaining national media attention for spearheading an almost total ban on trans fats in city restaurants starting last July, Bloomberg [...]

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One of my favorite bloggers has resurfaced, and I am hurt, hurt, hurt that D. A. Ridgely didn’t let his fans (okay, me) know to where he had disappeared. He is now blogging at Positive Liberty, and the blogosphere has now gone from diminished by his absence to a place where civil, insightful cultural and [...]

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Over at the Wall Street Journal’s Wealth Report, Robert Frank notes:
Government outlays on physical infrastructure have declined to 2.7 percent of the gross domestic product, he says, from 3.6 percent in the 1960s. Philanthropic giving, in contrast, has jumped to nearly 2.5 percent of GDP.
This leads him to wonder:
With privatization all the rage, why not [...]

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Happy New Year! To start off the year right, let’s have a look at a mock-up of a debate between Naomi Klein, reporter-activist extraordinaire, and Milton Friedman, king of economic liberty (via Instapundit).
This video was put together by Devil’s Advocate at Copious Dissent, where you can find the others in this series.
This [...]

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As told by Mother Jones … so yeah, it’s a little, umm, “slanted.” My favorite distortion:
1977: The Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank, is founded in San Francisco with funding from oil baron Charles G. Koch. The name comes from Cato’s Letters, newspaper articles written by two Englishmen using the pen name Cato the [...]

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Thaddeus Tremayne sees potential legal troubles for St. Nick in the UK:
A frosty reception awaits Santa Claus in Britain this year. It seems that the much-loved benefactor of children everywhere is, in fact, suspected of being guilty of a number of illegal practices.
The jolly fatman’s employment practices are demanding particular scrutiny:
The Equality Commission has also [...]

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In case you haven’t already seen it, go ahead and read this journalism professor’s condescending look at blogging. Prepare to wretch.
Supporters of “citizen journalism” argue it provides independent, accurate, reliable information that the traditional media don’t provide. While it has its place, the reality is it really isn’t journalism at all, and it opens [...]

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Amen.
One of the reasons I abhor communitarianism (and tend to see my political philosophy as the opposite of that) is because it vests communitarian thinkers with the self appointed power to tell me (and others) what to do. Provided, of course, that they come up with a claim to do so in the name of [...]

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