...is sick. Envy is one of the least becoming human traits, and by way of intellectual laziness we have allowed it to become a sharp sword for the political left.
Fact is, there isn't a person out there who wouldn't be thrilled to strike it rich or to win the lottery and thereby join "the rich." Even those few who would reject the lifestyle would happily take the money for the good (or ill) they could do with it.
Wealth is morally neutral. Wealth is also one of the natural outcomes of Liberty and should be revered as such. Class envy - class baiting, if you will - is no more respectable than any other kind of baiting or envy. It's not bank balance but the content of one's character that should occupy us.
This is one of those things that embarrasses the left, when we bother to hold it up for honest examination. Let's do exactly that!
2009/02/28
Go Forth and Nullify!
It was Edmund Burke who observed that "Bad laws are the worst sort of tyranny." It's easy to see the course we're on in America - a path of very bad laws and even worse tyranny - which means we, the people need to step our game in every way we can.
When laws turn against our Liberty, it's unpatriotic to obey them. This quote from Thomas Jefferson says it best: "A strict observance of written laws is doubtless one of the highest duties of a good citizen, but it is not the highest. The law of necessity, of self preservation, of saving our country when in danger, are of higher obligation. To lose our country by a scrupulous adherence to written law would be to lose law itself, with life, liberty, property and all those who are enjoying them with us; thus absurdly sacrificing the end to the means."
Just this week another friend mentioned that she had been summoned to jury duty - a chore that meets with almost universal scorn these days. She had originally intended to try to get out of serving, but I think she changed her mind as we talked. I spent a few minutes teaching what I understood about the role of the juror, and particularly the juror's power to nullify bad laws. She had never heard of the concept of jury nullification, but promised to Google the subject and to go in and serve.
I searched the topic myself and came up with this, right from our own Federal Appellate Court: "If the jury feels the law is unjust, we recognize the undisputed power of the jury to acquit, even if it's verdict is contrary to the law as given by the judge, and contrary to the evidence. If the jury feels that exigent circumstances justified the actions of the accused, or for any reason which appeals to their logic or passion, the jury has the power to acquit, and the courts must abide by that decision." - From a ruling by the 4th US Circuit Court of Appeals (US v. Moylan, 417 F.2d 1006, 1969)
I e-mailed that ruling, along with this quote: "The primary function of the independent juror is not, as many think, to dispense punishment to fellow citizens accused of breaking various laws, but rather to protect fellow citizens from tyrannical abuses of power by government." Think about this, and say a prayer of thanks that the Founders gave us this priceless means of holding government accountable.
Anyway, I pointed out to her that it's a tyrannical abuse of power to post artificially low speed limits, then hide in bushes and write costly speeding tickets to people who are doing nothing unsafe. She agreed, and recounted a couple other recent instances of local petty tyranny that had bothered her. I then told her that ALL gun laws are unconstitutional, as they ALL infringe on our right to keep (own) and bear (carry) arms, and that if we need permission to exercise our rights, to in effect be free, then we're not! She saw the point. We'll see how she does next Tuesday! If there's anything noteworthy, I'll report back.
We should serve on juries at every opportunity, and we should spread the word about this power of the people over the government. They're rapidly seeing to it that we'll ALL be criminals, so we'd best ALL become wise jurors! That, of course, would lead them to try to modify or eliminate our right to jury trial, which is another inviolable line in the sand. There's a lot of power in forcing them to declare themselves in ways like this!
Here are our choices: We either serve as citizens in annoying and inconvenient little ways such as jury duty, or we serve as serfs in the New World Order. Those are our options...
I learned a lot at The Fully Informed Jury Association and you will too.
Go forth and nullify!
When laws turn against our Liberty, it's unpatriotic to obey them. This quote from Thomas Jefferson says it best: "A strict observance of written laws is doubtless one of the highest duties of a good citizen, but it is not the highest. The law of necessity, of self preservation, of saving our country when in danger, are of higher obligation. To lose our country by a scrupulous adherence to written law would be to lose law itself, with life, liberty, property and all those who are enjoying them with us; thus absurdly sacrificing the end to the means."
Just this week another friend mentioned that she had been summoned to jury duty - a chore that meets with almost universal scorn these days. She had originally intended to try to get out of serving, but I think she changed her mind as we talked. I spent a few minutes teaching what I understood about the role of the juror, and particularly the juror's power to nullify bad laws. She had never heard of the concept of jury nullification, but promised to Google the subject and to go in and serve.
I searched the topic myself and came up with this, right from our own Federal Appellate Court: "If the jury feels the law is unjust, we recognize the undisputed power of the jury to acquit, even if it's verdict is contrary to the law as given by the judge, and contrary to the evidence. If the jury feels that exigent circumstances justified the actions of the accused, or for any reason which appeals to their logic or passion, the jury has the power to acquit, and the courts must abide by that decision." - From a ruling by the 4th US Circuit Court of Appeals (US v. Moylan, 417 F.2d 1006, 1969)
I e-mailed that ruling, along with this quote: "The primary function of the independent juror is not, as many think, to dispense punishment to fellow citizens accused of breaking various laws, but rather to protect fellow citizens from tyrannical abuses of power by government." Think about this, and say a prayer of thanks that the Founders gave us this priceless means of holding government accountable.
Anyway, I pointed out to her that it's a tyrannical abuse of power to post artificially low speed limits, then hide in bushes and write costly speeding tickets to people who are doing nothing unsafe. She agreed, and recounted a couple other recent instances of local petty tyranny that had bothered her. I then told her that ALL gun laws are unconstitutional, as they ALL infringe on our right to keep (own) and bear (carry) arms, and that if we need permission to exercise our rights, to in effect be free, then we're not! She saw the point. We'll see how she does next Tuesday! If there's anything noteworthy, I'll report back.
We should serve on juries at every opportunity, and we should spread the word about this power of the people over the government. They're rapidly seeing to it that we'll ALL be criminals, so we'd best ALL become wise jurors! That, of course, would lead them to try to modify or eliminate our right to jury trial, which is another inviolable line in the sand. There's a lot of power in forcing them to declare themselves in ways like this!
Here are our choices: We either serve as citizens in annoying and inconvenient little ways such as jury duty, or we serve as serfs in the New World Order. Those are our options...
I learned a lot at The Fully Informed Jury Association and you will too.
Go forth and nullify!
2009/02/27
Revenge of the Octogenarians
Little did I know what awaited this afternoon as I stopped at a local hardware store to have a key made. Two old guys were standing just outside the door, and as I walked past one was saying "I have enough ammo to shoot every Democrat I know." He was so angry he was shaking.
An American! I'd stumbled on an American! I felt the thrill of discovery and such a wave of relief that I almost burst out laughing...
They were gone when I came back out. Crud! I would have bought them both coffee just to revel in their company for a few minutes. As I drove away I reflected on the experiences those old guys had lived through - from the Great Depression to World War II, the atomic bomb, the 60's, Viet Nam, Carter, the Reagan years, then through Clinton and now the Obamanation - from raising kids, to grandkids and probably great grandkids to watching the country they loved - and no doubt fought for - now being destroyed.
Poignant. Really poignant. I'm not ashamed to admit started to tear up a little at the thought. After all, this was America, which was once a free country. No wonder he was so pissed...
Forget the garden-variety democrats and save your ammo for the blue helmets - and may God bless you! You made my day, you old coot!!
An American! I'd stumbled on an American! I felt the thrill of discovery and such a wave of relief that I almost burst out laughing...
They were gone when I came back out. Crud! I would have bought them both coffee just to revel in their company for a few minutes. As I drove away I reflected on the experiences those old guys had lived through - from the Great Depression to World War II, the atomic bomb, the 60's, Viet Nam, Carter, the Reagan years, then through Clinton and now the Obamanation - from raising kids, to grandkids and probably great grandkids to watching the country they loved - and no doubt fought for - now being destroyed.
Poignant. Really poignant. I'm not ashamed to admit started to tear up a little at the thought. After all, this was America, which was once a free country. No wonder he was so pissed...
Forget the garden-variety democrats and save your ammo for the blue helmets - and may God bless you! You made my day, you old coot!!
Taxing The Wealthy (or "Who Really Pays Taxes Anyway?")
The messiah wants us to believe that we can have "free" health care, painless pork and massive bankster bailouts simply by turning him loose to tax the wealthy. This pitch only works on the economically illiterate, who I don't really expect to be reading this. I'm preaching to the choir, I know, but if you've never crunched them, the hard numbers are fascinating. I hope they make good ammunition for you.
The rich don't have anywhere near enough money to feed our ravenous leviathan government. If you confiscated Bill Gates' entire net worth (I'm using the $58 billion figure from Forbes last year) it would pay for just six days of federal government under Benito's 2010 budget. Six days! In fact, if the government took every last penny from the Forbes 400 wealthiest individuals (2008 figures) there would not be enough money to eliminate next year's proposed deficit!
That's right - one year's federal deficit is now more than enough to wipe out the 400 wealthiest people in America! If anyone was destructive enough to actually do this to the wealthy, the immediate impact on employment would be devastating. I believe it would usher in a much deeper depression than we suffered in the 1930's.
Fact is, everyone's income is down - even the wealthy. Everyone's net worth is shrinking. If you raise taxes on the wealthy at a time like this, you are not just keeping new jobs from opening up - you are destroying existing jobs that would otherwise be perfectly stable. Private sector jobs only exist (and new ones are only created) because there's a demand for the goods produced or the services rendered - in other words, there's money to be made providing for the needs and wants of others. Those demands tend to be ongoing, so a private sector job created is usually a permanent addition to the economy. (At least that's how it works if you're smart enough to not screw up the economy!)
On the other hand, new government jobs tend to be the result of an added imposition on society - a additional and often perpetual burden. The money to pay these workers isn't earned in a win-win voluntary exchange - it has to be forcibly taken from the people who actually produce! This extraction must recur year after year if that government worker is to remain employed. Thus it is that economically literate people cringe at the claim that government creates jobs.
Deficit spending increases the national debt, which increases the interest payment on that debt, which is paid with your income taxes. Last year, interest on government debt was enough to eat up all the income tax we paid! Then there's inflation - the cruelest tax of all. Inflation is what you get when you print up more fake dollars and add them to the existing supply of fake dollars, and it's how you get away with taxing the daylights out of the middle class without them catching on to who's robbing them.
As the burden of government grows, we pay a lot more than just taxes for the show. Every job not created is a cost borne by the middle class. Every regulatory expense imposed on business must be passed on to consumers or that business won't survive. Larger deficits are a given as government grows, meaning higher taxes and soaring inflation. Those taxes crush the economy, and rampant inflation robs entire generations of their efforts, investments and retirement.
One way or another, these costs are passed along to the consumer - in the form of higher prices paid, opportunities lost and Liberty extinguished. It's a mathematical fact that one way or another the consumer pays for everything. No exceptions. Everything.
If only the populace would figure this out - we could solve our problems at the ballot box!
The rich don't have anywhere near enough money to feed our ravenous leviathan government. If you confiscated Bill Gates' entire net worth (I'm using the $58 billion figure from Forbes last year) it would pay for just six days of federal government under Benito's 2010 budget. Six days! In fact, if the government took every last penny from the Forbes 400 wealthiest individuals (2008 figures) there would not be enough money to eliminate next year's proposed deficit!
That's right - one year's federal deficit is now more than enough to wipe out the 400 wealthiest people in America! If anyone was destructive enough to actually do this to the wealthy, the immediate impact on employment would be devastating. I believe it would usher in a much deeper depression than we suffered in the 1930's.
Fact is, everyone's income is down - even the wealthy. Everyone's net worth is shrinking. If you raise taxes on the wealthy at a time like this, you are not just keeping new jobs from opening up - you are destroying existing jobs that would otherwise be perfectly stable. Private sector jobs only exist (and new ones are only created) because there's a demand for the goods produced or the services rendered - in other words, there's money to be made providing for the needs and wants of others. Those demands tend to be ongoing, so a private sector job created is usually a permanent addition to the economy. (At least that's how it works if you're smart enough to not screw up the economy!)
On the other hand, new government jobs tend to be the result of an added imposition on society - a additional and often perpetual burden. The money to pay these workers isn't earned in a win-win voluntary exchange - it has to be forcibly taken from the people who actually produce! This extraction must recur year after year if that government worker is to remain employed. Thus it is that economically literate people cringe at the claim that government creates jobs.
Deficit spending increases the national debt, which increases the interest payment on that debt, which is paid with your income taxes. Last year, interest on government debt was enough to eat up all the income tax we paid! Then there's inflation - the cruelest tax of all. Inflation is what you get when you print up more fake dollars and add them to the existing supply of fake dollars, and it's how you get away with taxing the daylights out of the middle class without them catching on to who's robbing them.
As the burden of government grows, we pay a lot more than just taxes for the show. Every job not created is a cost borne by the middle class. Every regulatory expense imposed on business must be passed on to consumers or that business won't survive. Larger deficits are a given as government grows, meaning higher taxes and soaring inflation. Those taxes crush the economy, and rampant inflation robs entire generations of their efforts, investments and retirement.
One way or another, these costs are passed along to the consumer - in the form of higher prices paid, opportunities lost and Liberty extinguished. It's a mathematical fact that one way or another the consumer pays for everything. No exceptions. Everything.
If only the populace would figure this out - we could solve our problems at the ballot box!
Another day in the neighborhood...
Headlines:
DOW closes down nearly 2% - the worst February since 1933 - now down 50% since all-time high in 2007. (The NASDAQ hit the 50% level day before yesterday, the S & P fell to that mark last week.)
S & P closed down over 2% on the day - its worst February ever and an 11 year low.
Economy shrinking at fastest rate in nearly three decades - Commerce says "oops" - GDP actually declined at 6.2% annualized in Q4 '08 rather than the 3.8% reported earlier this month.
Citigroup essentially belly-up - - about to be nationalized.
GE cuts dividend - by 2/3 - the first cut since 1940.
Prechter of Elliott Wave International predicts deeper bear market and tougher economy than the 1930's.
"Other than that, Mrs. Lincoln, how did you like the play?"
DOW closes down nearly 2% - the worst February since 1933 - now down 50% since all-time high in 2007. (The NASDAQ hit the 50% level day before yesterday, the S & P fell to that mark last week.)
S & P closed down over 2% on the day - its worst February ever and an 11 year low.
Economy shrinking at fastest rate in nearly three decades - Commerce says "oops" - GDP actually declined at 6.2% annualized in Q4 '08 rather than the 3.8% reported earlier this month.
Citigroup essentially belly-up - - about to be nationalized.
GE cuts dividend - by 2/3 - the first cut since 1940.
Prechter of Elliott Wave International predicts deeper bear market and tougher economy than the 1930's.
"Other than that, Mrs. Lincoln, how did you like the play?"
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