About Socialism and Socialists

How does one acquire power in a country ruled by popular suffrage? By promising the electorate all their hearts desire and by being more profligate with promises than the opposition. Thus, socialism has become mere welfarism, and with welfarism comes control of the national economy. But, while Marxism aimed to control the economy for the purpose of destroying capitalism, modern socialism seems bent on controlling the economy for the sake of control; even advocating something called a "mixed" economy, partly free and partly controlled.

http://mises.org/daily/4932

6 Myths about oil

Every American consumes an average of three gallons of oil a day. Republicans and Democrats call this reliance on oil an “addiction”—an irrational, self-destructive habit that must be broken as soon as possible. This year's BP oil spill disaster is only making the chorus to “end our addiction to oil” louder. But if we examine the most common arguments for this idea, we see that they are myths. Oil is a vital, viable, and desirable part of our energy future.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2010/12/29/myths-oil/#ixzz19bYjZSPV

Quotes for the day

"There ain't no ticks like poly-ticks. Bloodsuckers all."
-- Davy Crockett (1786-1836) American hunter, frontiersman, soldier and politician

"A democratic despotism is like a theocracy: it assumes its own correctness."

-- Walter Bagehot (1826-1877)

The top 10 violations of the Constitution by Obama and the 111th congress

At the close of the 111th Congress, America is deeply in the bog of Thomas Jefferson’s prophetic warning: “The two enemies of the people are criminals and government, so let us tie the second down with the chains of the Constitution so the second will not become the legalized version of the first.”

http://dailycaller.com/2010/12/27/the-top-10-violations-of-the-constitution-by-obama-and-the-111th-congress/

US Debt

New year, new debt

Ethel C. Fenig

The departing 111th Congress left you and your descendants a Christmas gift unlike any other--a gift that will keep on taking from you long after the donors are gone. Debt. Massive debt reports Terence P. Jeffrey of CNS.

The federal government has accumulated more new debt--$3.22 trillion ($3,220,103,625,307.29)-during the tenure of the 111th Congress than it did during the first 100 Congresses combined, according to official debt figures published by the U.S. Treasury.

That equals $10,429.64 in new debt for each and every one of the 308,745,538 people counted in the United States by the 2010 Census.

Adding the above new debt to the old debt

The total national debt of $13,858,529,371,601.09 (or $13.859 trillion), as recorded by the U.S. Treasury at the close of business on Dec. 22, now equals $44,886.57 for every man, woman and child in the United States.

And not so incidentally this last Congress, like the formerly highest debt ridden 110th, was controlled by Democrats in both the Senate and House of Representatives.

[T]he $3.22 trillion in new debt accumulated during the record-setting 111th Congress is more than three times the $1.054 trillion in new debt accumulated by the last Republican-majority Congress (the 109th) which adjourned on Dec. 8, 2006.

And a very happy, healthy (Obamacare begins to kicks in) and uhm debt free new year 2011 to you.

What's so bad about big government?

My indictment of big government is that it is bad because it attacks liberty, prosperity, progress, harmony, and morality. Thanks to big government, we have significantly less of all of those good things than we would if we had been able to keep government right-sized. Big government is cancerous. Like a cancer, it hurts the body and tends to spread, doing more and more harm as it grows. It is time for some radical surgery.

http://www.thefreemanonline.org/featured/whats-so-bad-about-big-government-anyway/

Just a Thought

In the coming new year, both Groundhog Day and the State of the Union address occur on the same day. It is an ironic juxtaposition of events: one involves a meaningless ritual in which we look to an insignificant creature of little intelligence for prognostication....while the other involves a groundhog.

What's America's moral ideal?

“From each according to his ability, to each according to his need.” That was Karl Marx’s summary of communism, written back in the nineteenth century. Now, according to a recent Harris poll, it turns out that 42 percent of Americans mistakenly believe those words are contained somewhere in America’s founding documents, the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. Read the 12/23/2010 posting from http://blog.aynrandcenter.org/ .

Wal-Mart and the Department of Homeland Security Partnership

Am I being paranoid or is this a legitimate concern? You will need to decide for yourself. Get on YouTube and check out all the commentary. Below is a typical posting. 1984 revisited?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xqx5ZwKN8no&NR=1

Green Power generated Red Ink

Global warming and the "Green" movement is more about a political philosophy than an energy policy. Wind and Solar initiatives can't be sustained without subsidies. Here is a nice summary from the Carbon Sense Coalition chairman Viv Forbes.

"It's time to end the mollycoddling of wind and solar energy toys before this stupidity does irreversible damage to Australia’s electricity supply and costs.

"The mindless green dream of producing serious base load power from whimsical breezes and intermittent sunbeams has caused a halt to new low-cost coal power, a boom in expensive gas power, a national debate about nuclear power and no effect at all on global climate.
"The frivolous wind and solar generators already installed have caused a surge in electricity prices, a bonanza for Chinese manufacturers and well founded doubts about our future ability to keep the lights on.
"Provision of cheap reliable energy is a basic requirement for modern civilisation and is the engine that lifts people from poverty. It is far too important to be left to green dreamers, anti-industrial zealots, vote seeking politicians, engineering illiterates and guilt-ridden millionaires.
"It is already obvious from Denmark, Spain, California and Germany that subsidising green power creates very little power but much red ink in the accounts. It always causes massive burdens for tax payers, electricity consumers and industry. Tax payers and investors will rue the day they allowed politicians to waste their savings on chimeras.
"Get rid of all the mandated markets, subsidies and tax breaks for all energy generators, and leave power engineers and business managers to work out how best to supply our future energy needs in a free competitive market.
"Subsidised power must collapse under its own dead weight. But every day's delay increases the eventual cost. "

Socialism in the Classroom

An economics professor at a local college made a statement that he had never failed a single student before, but had once failed an entire class. That class had insisted that Obama's socialism worked and that no one would be poor and no one would be rich, a great equalizer.
The professor then said, "OK, we will have an experiment in this class on Obama's plan."

All grades would be averaged and everyone would receive the same grade so no one would fail and no one would receive an A. After the first test, the grades were averaged and everyone got a B. The students who studied hard were upset and the students who studied little were happy.
As the second test rolled around, the students who studied little had studied even less and the ones who studied hard decided they wanted a free ride too so they studied little.
The second test average was a D! No one was happy. When the 3rd test rolled around, the average was an F. The scores never increased as bickering, blame and name-calling all resulted in hard feelings and no one would study for the benefit of anyone else. All failed, to their great surprise, and the professor told them that socialism would also ultimately fail because when the reward is great, the effort to succeed is great but when government takes all the reward away, no one will try or want to succeed. It could not be any simpler than that.