John Stossel on Prohibition

Human Health Care vs. Animal Health Care

Tax-Feeders Get a Pay Raise

Unemployment is in the double digits, and yet Washington goes ahead and gives those already living off their fellow citizens a pay raise.

What Our Coins Say About Us

Michael Nystrom reviews Charles Goyette's book, The Dollar Meltdown: Surviving the Impending Currency Crisis with Gold, Oil, and Other Unconventional Investments. He quotes one passage in the book that "poignantly summarizes America's journey though the designs on our coinage":

America's earliest coins portrayed Liberty. Not rulers and politicians. Just Liberty. A symbolic representation of the country's highest ideal. In the beginning, Americans had an affair of the heart with Liberty. She was their muse and they were aflame in their love for her. They talked about her everywhere, in their churches and taverns and town squares.

But she hasn't appeared on our circulation coinage for more than sixty years, not since the beautiful "Walking Liberty" half-dollar. It represented Liberty striding gracefully into the rising sun of the future, arm extended in peace and carrying a bounty of riches. It was a beautiful representation, because abundance accompanies Liberty wherever she goes. Our devotion would be no less if it were not true, but it is one of her secrets: Liberty creates prosperity. ...

... Today's coinage, looking each year more like subway tokens, celebrate the state. Just as words replace deeds and paper substitutes for gold, politicians have displaced ideals. The American state, which was created to serve Liberty, is now commemorated instead.

Read Nystrom's review here.

Archaeologists have long understood the value of coins. The images depicted on them can reveal much about a particular civilization's culture and tradition. It doesn't require much effort to imagine what future generations will conclude about us based on the way our coins idolize the state.

Crime Wave in the "Land of the Free"

The economic downturn has people looking for work anywhere they can get it. As a result, cops find themselves fighting for their lives against some of the most loathsome and despicable criminals in recent memory: unlicensed contractors.


So, America, you can rest well tonight knowing that these brave, armed tax-feeders are doing everything they can to protect the interests of the state and labor union thugs.

The Future of American Health Care

A couple of recent news stories from across the pond paint a frightening picture of what lies in store for America. If we really wish to continue down the road toward universal health care, then we will have to get used to seeing things like an appendix rupturing after it had already been "removed" and a hospital bed shortage forcing thousands of mothers to give birth in elevators, offices, and bathrooms.

That, my friends, is change we can believe in.

The Whole Foods Alternative to ObamaCare

John Mackey, co-founder and CEO of Whole Foods Market Inc., lists in the Wall Street Journal "eight reforms that would greatly lower the cost of health care for everyone":

1. Remove the legal obstacles that slow the creation of high-deductible health insurance plans and health savings accounts (HSAs).
   
2. Equalize the tax laws so that employer-provided health insurance and individually owned health insurance have the same tax benefits.
   
3. Repeal all state laws which prevent insurance companies from competing across state lines.
   
4. Repeal government mandates regarding what insurance companies must cover.
   
5. Enact tort reform to end the ruinous lawsuits that force doctors to pay insurance costs of hundreds of thousands of dollars per year.
   
6. Make costs transparent so that consumers understand what health-care treatments cost.
   
7. Enact Medicare reform.
   
8. Finally, revise tax forms to make it easier for individuals to make a voluntary, tax-deductible donation to help the millions of people who have no insurance and aren't covered by Medicare, Medicaid or the State Children's Health Insurance Program.

For further details, read the full article here.

Why can't we at least give this a shot? These reforms are certainly preferable to wasting billions of dollars and turning the eventual control of our entire health care system over to a swarm of parasitic tax-feeders.

Spending more money and enacting more regulations is a strategy that has been tried countless times before, and not one problem has been fixed as a result. If insanity is defined as doing the same thing over and over again while expecting different results, then perhaps our leaders in Washington should try something they have never tried: just getting out of the way.

The U.S. Postal Service Is in Trouble

The U.S. Postal Service stands to lose $7 billion this fiscal year. So, it is doing what every government agency does when it hasn't been able to balance its bloated budget: It tries to scare us by threatening to cut services that could be provided much more efficiently by the private sector anyway. That means we could see up to 1,000 post offices close nationwide.

Bring it on. I'm sorry, but there is no reason for anyone to ever set foot in a post office. None whatsoever. You can print stamps on your computer. You can even get them from the ATM when you stop to get cash. And if you happen to be mailing anything other than a first class letter (which, by the way, is illegal for any entity other than the federal government to deliver), you're better off going with UPS or FedEx.

It's time this government-created monopoly was forced into the competitive free market. Where's Lysander Spooner when you need him?

Censorship in "Liberated" Iraq

The current Iraqi regime now wants to start censoring material it deems harmful. The New York Times reports:

The doors of the communications revolution were thrown open in Iraq after the American-led invasion in 2003: In rushed a wave of music videos featuring scantily clad Turkish singers, Web sites recruiting suicide bombers, racy Egyptian soap operas, pornography, romance novels, and American and Israeli news and entertainment sites that had long been blocked under Saddam Hussein's rule.

Now those doors may be shut again, at least partially, as the Iraqi government moves to ban sites deemed harmful to the public, to require Internet cafes to register with the authorities and to press publishers to censor books.

The government, which has been proceeding quietly on the new censorship laws, said prohibitions were necessary because material currently available in the country had had the effect of encouraging sectarian violence in the fragile democracy and of warping the minds of the young.

"Our Constitution respects freedom of thought and freedom of expression, but that should come with respect for society as a whole, and for moral behavior," said Taher Naser al-Hmood, Iraq's deputy cultural minister. "It is not easy to balance security and democracy. It is like being a tightrope walker."

It seems Iraq is becoming more like America every day.

Brave Senator Wants to Ban Tobacco

Those of us who view smoking bans as draconian affronts to private property rights have often asked, "If tobacco is so destructive, why not ban it altogether?" Admittedly, we aren't all that sincere when we ask that question. We all know the reason tobacco hasn't been banned is because the unhappy souls who despise smokers are greedy unhappy souls, and they need the revenue generated by that evil plant to fund their misguided crusade to shape the rest of the country in their own image.

Well, wouldn't you know it? Some principled idealist is actually talking about banning tobacco -- and he happens to be a Republican. Newsmax.com reports:

Sen. Tom Coburn, who is also a medical doctor, is calling for an outright ban on the sale of cigarettes and other tobacco products.

"What we should be doing is banning tobacco," the Oklahoma Republican declared on the Senate floor during a debate on a tobacco regulation bill.

"Nobody up here has the courage to do that. It is a big business. There are millions of Americans who are addicted to nicotine."

So, Senator Coburn fancies himself as someone with courage. Well, since he wants to use the most powerful government in the world to crack down on private businesses and consumers, he can afford to be brave.

Too bad he hasn't the cojones to take his oath of office seriously and actually abide by the Constitution he swore to support and defend. I guess there's a fine line between being brave and just plain insane.

Cheerios Is Now a Drug

The (unconstitutional and tyrannical) Food and Drug Administration is treating America's favorite breakfast cereal as a drug. Why? It seems General Mills has been making certain claims the FDA believes "indicate that Cheerios is intended for use in lowering cholesterol, and therefore in preventing, mitigating, and treating the disease hypercholesterolemia. Additionally, the claims indicate that Cheerios is intended for use in the treatment, mitigation, and prevention of coronary heart disease through, lowering total and 'bad' (LDL) cholesterol." Naturally, General Mills received a friendly letter that threatened legal action if the company didn't cease making such claims in compliance with the FDA's (unconstitutional and tyrannical) regulations.

What's next? DEA raids on kitchen pantries across America to make sure that middle-aged men who just got their cholesterol test results back aren't consuming Cheerios for the wrong reasons?

Better get used to the idea. The government is going to take care of you whether you like it or not.

(HT: Chris Knight)

Atlas Shrugged Finally Headed for the Silver Screen?

It seems so. From Risky Biz Blog:

After decades in development hell, Ayn Rand's capitalism-minded "Atlas Shrugged" is taking new steps toward the big screen -- with one of the film world's most prominent money men potentially at its center.

Ryan Kavanaugh's Relativity Media is circling the Baldwin Entertainment project and could come aboard to finance with Lionsgate, which got involved several years ago.

Rand's popular but polarizing book -- it's derided by many literary critics but has a huge public following -- tells the story of Dagny Taggart, a railroad executive trying to keep her corporation competitive in the face of what she perceives as a lack of innovation and individual responsibility. ...

... "This couldn't be more timely," said Karen Baldwin, who along with husband Howard is producing, with film industry consultant John Logigian advising on the project. "It's uncanny what Rand was able to predict -- about the only things she didn't anticipate are cell phones and the Internet." Baldwin may be on to something -- love it or hate it, "Shrugged" is seeing a resurgence, with book sales spiking as debates rage in Washington and around the country about the government's role in a faltering free-market economy.

Feds Try to Crack Down on Small Farms

From WorldNetDaily:

House Resolution 875, or the Food Safety Modernization Act of 2009, was introduced by Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., in February. DeLauro's husband, Stanley Greenburg, works for Monsanto -- the world's leading producer of herbicides and genetically engineered seed.

DeLauro's act has 39 co-sponsors and was referred to the House Agriculture Committee on Feb. 4. It calls for the creation of a Food Safety Administration to allow the government to regulate food production at all levels -- and even mandates property seizure, fines of up to $1 million per offense and criminal prosecution for producers, manufacturers and distributors who fail to comply with regulations. ...

... Another "food safety" bill that has organic and small farmers worried is Senate Bill 425, or the Food Safety and Tracking Improvement Act, sponsored by Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio.

Brown's bill is backed by lobbyists for Monsanto, Archer Daniels Midland and Tyson. It was introduced in September and has been referred to the Senate Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry Committee. Some say the legislation could also put small farmers out of business.

Like HR 875, the measure establishes a nationwide "traceability system" monitored by the Food and Drug Administration for all stages of manufacturing, processing, packaging and distribution of food. It would cost $40 million over three years.

In a country that treats raw milk (you know, that stuff humans have been consuming for thousands of years) like crack cocaine, this doesn't come as a surprise.

Opening Relations with Cuba?

The Obama administration may move to ease trade and travel restrictions with Cuba. But don't be looking for any big changes yet. As one diplomat put it, "It just takes us back to the 1990s."

What a Monopoly Looks Like

A monopoly typically cannot occur simply because free market forces enable a particular company to flourish, as the FTC has implied in the Whole Foods case. A true monopoly involves a company that requires government interference on its behalf -- like Monsanto.

FTC Bullies Whole Foods into Submission

Here in America, you'd think that we would value free market capitalism, especially when it comes to something as fundamental as feeding our own families. Not so. The market doesn't determine where you shop for food; the federal government does.

After being harassed and threatened with lawsuits for violating (unconstitutional) anti-trust laws, Whole Foods Market Inc., the nation's largest organic foods chain, has caved to pressure from the Federal Trade Commission rather than risk bankruptcy by being dragged into a kangaroo court battle. The company has agreed to sell 13 stores after the FTC challenged its $565 million purchase of Wild Oats Markets, its largest competitor. Whole Foods will also sell leases and assets of 19 Wild Oats stores that have already closed.

Why the bullying? Federal regulators were worried that the buyout would create a natural-food monopoly. A "monopoly"? The federal government is the very definition of a monopoly. But they know what's best, right? If the feds were so concerned about the effect this transaction would have on the economy, one wonders why they didn't just offer to bail out Wild Oats Markets in the first place.

Whole Foods did try to fight back by filing a lawsuit against the FTC in December, claiming that its due process rights had been violated (which they were). The company refiled the case in January with the U.S. District Court of Appeals in Washington in hopes of getting an expedited decision, but that motion was denied.

The settlement currently is awaiting approval from the thugs at the FTC. The stores now up for sale had recorded sales of $31 million in the fiscal first quarter of 2009, but Whole Foods will end up with no more than about $19 million once they are sold.

This is American "free enterprise" in action.

Just Say "No" to Universal Health Care

Last year, Sven R. Larson, PhD., wrote an article for the Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons entitled "Lessons from Sweden's Universal Health System: Tales from the Health-Care Crypt." Scary stuff.

Read it here (PDF).

Ron Paul on Bill Maher's Show

Talk About Free market

Mises.org is going open source.

Obama's Politics of Fear

Forget the message of hope Barack Obama preached during his campaign for the presidency. He's in the White House now, which means he can let his true colors begin to show. So, it was no surprise when he used his first press conference to spread a message of fear.

And what a dismal picture he painted. People can't pay their bills. They aren't spending, and businesses are being forced to lay off workers as a result. He drew attention to the fact that last month we lost 598,000 jobs (or 500 million, according to Nancy Pelosi). Everywhere you look it's doom and gloom.

But wait...there may be hope for the economy after all. Why not let the government kiss it and make it better? The president didn't mince words, saying that "at this particular moment, with the private sector so weakened by this recession, the federal government is the only entity left with the resources to jolt our economy back to life." Oh, yay. We're saved.

Interestingly, no mention was made about what these "resources" are or where the nearly $1 trillion will come from to pay for this pork-filled spending package. That's because the federal government has no resources of its own. It produces nothing. It must borrow the money from foreign sources and increase the national debt, print more money and further devalue the dollar, or simply steal it from productive citizens, which defeats the whole purpose of trying to get people to consume more.

The fact of the matter is that this "stimulus" package is nothing more than a wealth redistribution scheme, the largest in our nation's history. But it will sell because people are gullible when they're afraid.

Just as Dubya frightened people into thinking that it was a good idea to send teenage girls overseas to keep us safe from the Axis of Evil, Obama is scaring people into believing that spending money we don't have (i.e. doing exactly what got us into this mess in the first place) will actually prevent economic collapse. Either our new president is pitifully ignorant, or he thinks we are. But one thing is certain: you can count on him exploiting our fears for as long as he can.