From the category archives:

Liberty

MSM Condemns Heartland’s Experimental Billboard, Ignores What Climate Alarmists Do Everyday

Marc Morano of Climate Depot — a proud cosponsor of our Seventh International Conference on Climate Change in Chicago May 21- 23 — shared with us today his observations on the mainstream media’s double standard for tolerating provocative communication strategies when it comes to the climate.

Marc’s views are his own — and, as always with him, an invigorating read. Those who are subject to easily getting the vapors over such things should probably not heed the advice “click to continue” below. For the rest, here is the full-and-raw Marc Morano, who called out — and answered — some egregious examples of global warming alarmists using “provocative communications” about skeptics that the MSM seems to have missed:

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If I Wanted America to Fail

A new group has recently released a video advocating free-market policies from a whole new perspective, and the result is very compelling.

The group is called Free Market America, and its stated mission is to defend economic freedom, particularly from environmental extremism.

The video puts the viewer in the perspective of someone who wants to dismantle the country, and walks them though what they would do to accomplish it. Throughout the video, the viewer becomes aware of how many of today’s ideas match the destructive actions learned through this perspective.

What makes this argument compelling is that this sort of connection cannot be built from anything other than concrete evidence. Leaving the viewer to digest the sobering truth once the video ends.

After watching the video, feel free to read the transcript below if you would like a closer look at the video’s points.

If I wanted America to fail …

To follow, not lead; to suffer, not prosper; to despair, not dream — I’d start with energy.

I’d cut off America’s supply of cheap, abundant energy.  Of course, I couldn’t take it by force.  So, I’d make Americans feel guilty for using the energy that heats their homes, fuels their cars, runs their businesses, and powers their economy.

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Must Americans Row Endlessly Toward the Far Horizon for the Government?

The title of this post is an analogy that the Wall Street Journal’s Dan Henninger uses to describe the modern Democrat’s vision of the citizen’s proper relationship to the state. And it’s an excellent one to make in his always must-read regular column.

What prompted that turn of phrase by Henninger was the introduction of the House Republican budget this week by Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) — the most serious budget by Congress in our lifetimes. It is the only budget I have seen that (at long last) takes seriously the fiscal impossibility of continuing an entitlement culture in America — a fantasy that anyone paying attention could see was unsustainable years ago. Ryan is the first House Budget Committee chairman to finally say the truth. That took real political courage. Good for him, and the nation will be better off for it.

But back to Henninger’s theme. Most Americans don’t think of tax policy as defining the character of what this country is about. It’s natural to think: “It’s too mundane. It’s too ‘green eyeshade.’ It’s too hard to understand. Besides, only people with a lot of money care about tax policy. Me? Just give me enough money to buy something nice with my tax return.”

But that view misses the bigger and vital picture. Federal tax policy defines, in the most basic way, the relationship the ruling class establishes with those they govern. And that dynamic, no matter what tax bracket you’re in, matters. A lot. Does your government have first and ultimate claim on your time and labor? Or does your government acknowledge and respect that your finite time and labor are your own — to put toward the advancement of yourself and your family — and seek to only take from you what is absolutely necessary? In short: Who’s aims are paramount? Yours as a free citizen, or those of the state?

Henninger addresses that by quoting Paul Krugman of the New York Times:

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Court Case Shows the Evil of Illinois State Government

Alia N. Bernard

As a lifelong Illinois resident, I long ago came to believe that my state government is more than corrupt, incompetent, inept, wasteful, abusive, etc. It is evil.

Last Thursday I read a news story that convinced me of its evil. I was so bothered by it that I could not bring myself to comment on it until now.

The hard-copy version of the Chicago Sun-Times had an article headlined, “7 years for driver who had traces of pot in her system.” I am looking at it this very second. It’s about a woman, Alia N. Bernard, who reached for her sunglasses while driving. She took her eyes off the road and caused a crash that killed two motorcyclists.

Cops and prosecutors admit she was not under the influence of any substance. But a blood test detected a tiny amount of marijuana from several days earlier. Last April the Illinois supreme court had ruled “prosecutors did not have to prove impairment was a ‘proximate cause’ of a fatal crash but just that defendants have any amount of a drug in their systems,” the Sun-Times reported.

Note: ANY AMOUNT of a substance is enough for the state to level felony driving-under-the-influence charges.

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Amazon.com: The Taxman Cometh

In the midst of state budgetary turmoil, it is not surprising that legislators are turning to unconstitutional regulatory measures in the pursuit of a few extra tax dollars. Arkansas, Connecticut, Colorado, North Carolina, and Rhode Island are among those states that have attempted to force Amazon.com to collect taxes on Internet sales. The tax has become a reality in Illinois, with Gov. Quinn’s signing of the “Mainstreet Fairness Act.” The online retailer has challenged and resisted these attempts at taxation, shutting down its affiliates program in the aforementioned states in retaliation.

Justifying the selective elimination its affiliates, Amazon points to the economic losses that are starting to add up as a result of these regulations. In a letter sent to its affiliates in Arkansas and Connecticut on June 10 2011, the company asserted that the increased regulatory efforts are the work of “big box retailers” hoping to harm the competition:

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How Freedom Solves What Government Cannot: Milton Friedman’s Government

On February 10th, 1999, world famous economist — and good friend of The Heartland Institute — Milton Friedman spoke on then-television show (now Web series), Uncommon Knowledge with Peter Robinson.

In this episode, which you can view at the bottom of this post, Friedman underscores the importance of freedom and liberty to be the foundation of a prosperous society. Moreover, Friedman states how individuals should be free to live their lives so long as they do not infringe upon the freedom of others.

So, to what does this criteria translate? To find out, Robinson cites the federal executive departments of the United States government and asks the Nobel Laureate which departments should be kept and which should be abolished. The results are recorded below.

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Dr. Seuss Conveys Importance of Individual Liberty

The story of “Thidwick the Big-Hearted Moose” by Dr. Seuss takes place near the fictional Lake Winna-Bango, where a herd of moose line up to graze the moss along the northern shore. Along the way, a “Bingle Bug” notices the large antlers of Thidwick (the last moose in line) and asks if he can live in them since Thidwick is not using them. Thidwick accepts and word is immediately spread.

Consequently, many more animals move into Thidwick’s antlers without his notice, seeking to take advantage of his free resource. Thidwick first becomes bothered when a “Zinn-a-zu bird” painfully yanks Thidwick’s hair right off his head to use to build a nest. The bird is unfazed by Thidwick’s concern, reassuring “You can always grow more!”

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Paul Krugman, Occupy Wall Street, and the Never-Ending Push to Tax the Rich

Last week in the New York Times, economist Paul Krugman called for higher taxes than the Clinton era, citing how increased revenues need to be in the picture and not just spending cuts.

Krugman writes:

The long-run budget outlook has darkened, which means that some hard choices must be made. Why should those choices only involve spending cuts?

Some conservatives would respond by saying the outlook has darkened because of spending. Intuitively increased revenue would just encourage inefficient government. But let’s give Krugman the benefit of the doubt by accepting his point that a combination of increased revenue and lower expenditure will yield a more expedient strategy to lower the deficit.

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A Response to Steven F. Hayward Essay: ‘Modernizing Conservatism’

(NOTE: I submitted this reply to Steve Hayward’s recent piece for Breakthrough Magazine on “Modernizing Conservatism.” I did not hear back from the publication, so I publish it here, instead.)

While I agree with Steve Hayward that means-testing of entitlement programs is going to be an important bargaining position to bring liberals and conservatives together to cut spending, I found the rest of the article to be inaccurate, superficial, and just plain wrong (“Modernizing Conservatism,” Breakthrough Journal, No. 2, Fall 2011). Hayward is pretty good when he writes about climate change and Ronald Reagan, but on the “state of the conservative movement,” he’s a bonehead.

Near the end of this essay, Hayward writes:

I have written this paper in the hopes that my fellow conservatives will recognize the need for a conservative reformation.

Nice that he didn’t capitalize “conservative reformation,” but actually, his purpose is much more modest than he claims. It is to argue for higher taxes and (something he dare not say in so many words) ending the tax deduction for mortgage interest, which he calls a “middle-class entitlement, which represent[s] the lion’s share of federal spending.” (Just connecting the dots here, since nothing else constitutes a “middle-class entitlement” worth going after.)

Everything else in this essay is just puffing and jazz. Like most neocons, Hayward is comfortable with the welfare state, income redistribution, and public investment in “public goods,” and even advocates for more of all of these. United Republican opposition to higher taxes, something conservatives and libertarians have worked to achieve for 40 years, is the main obstacle to this agenda, and he knows it.

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Missouri’s Mel Hancock, Friend to Taxpayer, Advocate of Freedom

Many politicians, especially at election time, say they believe the size and power of government should be limited. Rare is the politician who both says it and means it.

Mel Hancock of Missouri was one of the rare ones. He served as a member of Congress from 1989 to 1997 but is probably better known to Missourians as the author of what has come to be known as the “Hancock Amendment” to the Missouri Constitution. That amendment limits state tax collections and has put money back in the pockets of millions of taxpayers since Missouri voters approved it in 1980.

Hancock died this week in Springfield, Mo., at the age of 82.

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