Your Computer Is Federal Property

No, really. Glenn Beck explains:

(Video reposted 8/26/09)

Beware Universal Health Care

According to British physician Anthony Daniels, the U.K. has the "the dirtiest, most broken-down hospitals in Europe." He writes in the Wall Street Journal:

The question of health care is not one of rights but of how best in practice to organize it. America is certainly not a perfect model in this regard. But neither is Britain, where a universal right to health care has been recognized longest in the Western world.

Not coincidentally, the U.K. is by far the most unpleasant country in which to be ill in the Western world. Even Greeks living in Britain return home for medical treatment if they are physically able to do so.

The government-run health-care system -- which in the U.K. is believed to be the necessary institutional corollary to an inalienable right to health care -- has pauperized the entire population. This is not to say that in every last case the treatment is bad: A pauper may be well or badly treated, according to the inclination, temperament and abilities of those providing the treatment. But a pauper must accept what he is given.

And the paupers here tend to accept what we are given. The only way to combat the chaos of universal (i.e. government-run) health care is to exercise what remains of our liberty and vote the control freaks out of office.

If, however, universal health care is forced upon us, I would hope that freedom-loving doctors, patients, insurers, and employers will choose to ignore the dictates of Washington. Since neither the president nor members of Congress have the constitutional authority to manage our health care, we are under no moral obligation to comply. That's easier said than done, but perhaps we Americans have had it too easy for too long.

Squandering Our Inheritance

Benjamin Franklin once said, "It is every American's right, and obligation, to read and interpret the Constitution for himself." Wise words from a wise man, spoken during a time when people actually had the ability to think for themselves. I believe this is an ability U.S. citizens have lost since the Constitution was ratified, resulting in the systematic erosion of our individual liberties.

(Read the rest at Examiner.com.)

Free Bernie Madoff

I agree with the Mises Institute's Jeffrey Tucker:

What, then, precisely, is the point of jailing him? He is no direct threat to anyone. Society would not be safer because he is in the slammer. He is not going to rob people or beat people up. He might write a book and donate the funds to charity or make some restitution to his victims. I, for one, would like to read that book.

Instead, taxpayers will be forced to pick up the tab for his living expenses. Victims get nothing. That's not justice. That's inhumane for both sides of the transaction: Bernie and us. ...

... So let us ask the unaskable: Just how unusually evil were Madoff's actions? Not that unusual. In fact, the whole notion of paying off past investors with the funds of present investors is at the very core of the Social Security system. At least Madoff sought the consent of his investors who let him care for their money based on their own volition. And at least he didn't attempt to defend himself with the claim that he was conducting wise public policy.