The Greatest Libertarian Ever

When one considers what it means to believe in liberty we are left with a pretty simple, but powerful, idea that people are born with the right to do anything peaceful. That is to say that as long as our actions do not violate the life, liberty or property rights of another, we are free, or should be free to pursue those acts that we believe will make us happy, prosperous, content, fulfilled, or whatever other word we choose to use.

When Republicans ask me why I am a Libertarian I tell them because Republicans only believe in economic liberty (Goldwater/Reagan/Ron Paul/Paul Ryan Republicans I should say...), but do not seem too thrilled with the idea of social liberty - the rights we have to do things to ourselves, or do things with other consenting adults that do not create negative externalities that are clear and measurable.

Democrats say, "Well, we believe in social liberty, so why not become a Democrat?" That is easy to answer. Democrats, by and large, do not believe in economic liberty. They are mistrustful of mankind's ability to pursue our self interest in a productive manner. They believe in taking from one to provide a living for another. They advocate rules and regulations that prevent people from entering into consensual contracts and on and on and on....

So, as a Libertarian I choose to advocate social and economic liberty - even when people use their liberty to do things of which I disapprove. That is the hard part - and it is why so few people are Libertarians. If I, for example, find it to be morally reprehensible for people to engage in homosexual relationships, I must - if I truly believe in freedom - never support any law restricting the non-violent, consensual acts of homosexuals. In essence, gay people have the same rights I have to marry and have lasting relationships without the tyranny of the majority trampling their rights.

That is why, if we seriously consider which person was the greatest advocate of Libertarian philosophy, we are left with only one true choice....

Jesus.

When you pour through the New Testament you will find multitudinous verses and parables where Jesus supports economic liberty. He never once said government should take away the earnings of one person to give to another. Rather, he clearly said that we have "free will" to give or not give to those in need.

He supported the idea of property, contracts, compensation based on the agreements between labor demanders and labor suppliers, and working for a living.

In the realm of social liberty we are told that "all things are permissible, but not all things are wise." We see in his teachings that people should "pull the plank out of your own eye before you pull a splinter out of a brother's eye" and that people who are without sin should feel free to stone those who do sin.

He never supported homosexuality, drug use or prostitution. He led people by his teachings to repent for our sins and stay away from sin. He warns us about what will happen if we use our free will to keep sinning but he never supports manmade laws to regulate the lives of sinners.

Christians should pray for people who engage in economic greed or moral depravity, but as long as greed and depravity does not involve a forced taking or some other violation of our rights, Christians cannot turn to government to make rich people give or make drug users put down the needle.

Thus, as Christmas approaches, I would like to invite all of you to consider the difference between forced will and free will - and consider what our world would be like if Jesus had never arrived to show us how to use our free will for good.

Merry Christmas.

The Tenacity of Hope

Over the past few days I have had the incredible opportunity to talk with hundreds of Americans via email and telephone in response to my interviews on Fox & Friends, The Neal Boortz Show and other programs. For those of you who are new to my blog I want to thank you for your heartfelt support in the fight to restore liberty in our struggling nation.

As any liberty-lover who has clear vision can see, it is 11PM in our nation's history. World economic history is quite clear as it pertains to the destiny of all nations who have allowed government to gain ground and liberty to yield. That destiny is one of poverty and an arrival at the doorstep of inconsequence as a nation. No country can continue to be ignorant and expect to be free. No country can allow half the populace to plunder the other half without destroying incentives to work, save and produce.

A Cuban refugee once told Ronald Reagan that America must remain a beacon of liberty because if we go away, refugees will have no other place to go.

Think about that. Can we all fit in Hong Kong or Estonia or New Zealand? No, we can't.

Every other empire that died under the weight of bloated government failed to have the one thing we have going for us. When other nations have begun to die, the people in those nations could not look back in their history and see the word "liberty" on their reset button. They all had a history of kings, czars, dictators and emperors so they did not know how to restore what was being lost.

America's reset button has the word liberty on it. We invented the recognition of the concept that all people have a God-given right to life, liberty and property. Therefore, it is possible that we can become the first nation in the history of the world to ascend to the top, begin to die and then prevent that death. All we have to do is continue to teach people about liberty, what it looks like, what the consequences of lost-liberty must mean and we will have a shot to turn this government-led Titanic around before we hit the iceberg of entrenched socialism.

So, to all of you joining my blog, welcome!! I look forward to hearing from you in the future.

Sincerely,
Jack Chambless
http://www.jackchambless.com/

Technology and Stupidity

It is 2:05PM. It is Thursday. It is November 17th. I am sitting in a lab at my place of employment learning about all of the bagillion web-based tools that I am supposed to be using to educate my students. I do not own a cell phone, I have never been on Facebook, sent a Tweet or posted a Youtube clip. I still shop for VCRs at garage sales because I think they might make a comeback. I use Rand McNally instead of a GPS. To me a bluetooth is something you get from drinking a Slurpee.

I spent 1984-1991 in college. Back then, my professors had a piece of chalk and I had a book. There was no Power Point, no nothing. We used the inter-Library loan when the university library did not have a book. If we were lucky, our professor used colored chalk on occasion.

Funny, but I managed to learn a tremendous amount in this primative setting. So did others I went to college with.

When I became a professor I still had chalk and a book. Maybe a room had a t.v. and VCR but that was it.

20 years ago, 75% of my students passed my classes with a grade of A, B or C. 25% made a D, F or dropped the class. Today, in our world of ....hold on, he is teaching us about Camtasia, Jing, Tubechop, Flickr and other stuff....

O.K., I am back. Today, in our world of endless technology, 25% of my student make an A, B or C. 75% fail or drop my classes. I am a better economist today then I was then. The Law of Diminishing Returns is still years away for me. Yet, my students are dumber than ever.

How can this be? Why do my students who fail no longer make a 50 or 55 when they fail but routinely make grades around a 20 or 25?

I think we have destroyed students with technology. Public schools are a joke. We all know that. But access to free market technology has taken poorly prepared students and given them an entertainment option that takes away valuable study time. In the meantime, professors like me have to spend hours and hours learning about all of the tools we should be using to entertain students. I learned today that by going to Xtranormal.com I can make animated movies of my lectures!

Give me some chalk and I can teach the world. Give me animated movies and I can add to the silliness that has made the world stupid.

It is now 2:16PM. I have 44 minutes of my life yet to be wasted before I can go home.

Goodbye for now.

No more Stupid Texans.....PLEASE!!!!!!

In case you missed it, Rick Perry, his 2.22 GPA, Texas drawl and all, had one of the major mental meltdowns of all-time a few nights ago while debating his Republican counterparts. He insisted, if elected President, that he would abolish three government agencies. Then, he started naming them. The only problem is that he was unable to count to three. He got Commerce and Education. He looked at Ron Paul for help, but Ron told him there are five agencies that need to be axed. Someone suggested the EPA. Yes, thats it! Uh, no....that was not it. He struggled and stared and then said Oops.

Oops.

We have had two other oops moments with Texas Presidents. First, there is Lyndon B. Johnson - my candidate for the second worst president in our nation's history. He gave us "The Great Society" which historians will some day point to as a key variable that ended the United States. He gave us the acceleration of the criminal war called Vietnam, which gutted our credibility around the globe. And, of course, since he is from Texas he gave us an arrogant, "I know everything" big mouth to go along with his policies.

Decades later we got to have 'W' as prez. It would take more words than I have hours this weekend to write about the failures of this relatively unbright Texan who managed to do even more economic and foreign policy damage than LBJ while walking and talking with the same "Everything is Bigger in Texas" swagger.

Now we have another....dare I say....idiot running for President from the Lone Star state. We actually have two, but Ron Paul is actually a bright guy with a big dose of humility in his being. The other fellow - this Perry guy - may be dumber than LBJ and 'W' combined with even more arrogance, since he is the prettiest of the three.

There is a reason Perry could not name three agencies and it had nothing to do with the pressure of a nationally-televised debate. It is because the man does have the core conviction of a Barry Goldwater or Ronald Reagan. He is a used-car salesman with feathered hair and a nice face who appeals to that component of America that uses "American Idol" standards to judge politicians.

Thankfully, his run is now over as he becomes a YouTube sensation.

Hopefully, no more Texans - who act like Texans act - will be in the running again anytime soon.

The Greatest "Community Organizer" in History

As you all know, before President Obama became the most powerful person on the Earth his most significant endeavor came as a community organizer in Chicago, where he worked to get poor folks organized into a larger voting bloc.

Uh-oh...

As we look at the "Occupy America" demonstrations now taking place in cities all over the country we can now clearly say that Mr. Obama is the all-time greatest community organizer in our nation's history.

I thought Thomas Paine, with his book Common Sense was huge, but Mr. Obama's campaign - which could be entitled Common Nonsense is even more significant.

I have told people for years that America will be finished off if (a) the bums out there ever realize that their vote counts the same as Bill Gates, (b) realize that bums outnumber productive people like Mr. Gates and (c) get organized into a mob with voter registration cards.

Occupy America is just that and Mr. Obama is responsible for it. He has, since 2008 whipped up the masses of below-average Americans into a frenzy of hatred towards those of us who are trying to serve our fellow man in return for a return on our hard work. He has made the rich (i.e. the really, really productive people) the enemy and has convinced the people you know to be lazy, stupid and disinterested in obtaining an honest living that they are all victims of Starbucks, General Electric and Toys 'R' Us executives.

Now the bums are organized, angry and literate enough to use all of that time on their hands to make signs that say, "Save trees, burn the rich", "Arrest the 1%" and "Down with Capitalism" to name a few.

To those of you out there who think this is going to go away soon, you should recall the year 1917. The leaders of Russia did not take the rise of Communism seriously either. Oops. This is only the beginning of a revolution that will play out in the streets and eventually, the voting booth.

I think I will open up my gun cases tonight to make sure my guns are in good working order....

Rise of the Planet of the Hyenas

A few weeks ago I ventured out to a place I rarely go (a movie theater) to watch, "Rise of the Planet of the Apes". When I was a kid back in the 70's I loved the Planet of the Apes movies and actually entertained the thought that something like this could happen some day.


Now that I am grown up I now realize that it is not likely that apes will take over the Earth. After all, the apes simply wanted liberty from the tyranny being imposed by humans.

What is far more likely to occur this century is for the hyenas - in human form - to take over the planet.

If you have ever watched a nature show where the lives and habits of hyenas are depicted you will notice that hyenas always lie around in the grass or under a shady tree waiting for hard-working lions or cheetahs to productively hunt down and kill some other animal. After the lion or cheetah has finished the hard work, the hyenas move in as a group, gang up on the individual that killed the antelope, chase them away and eat, without working, the meal that some other animal originally acquired.

Look around America today (and Greece, and England and more..) at all of these "Occupy America" protests. What you will see, if you look very closely, is a bunch of hyenas demanding to take away the productive efforts of the rest of us.

It could be argued that if Steve Jobs had been a cheetah he would have been one of the fastest, most agile cats on the plains of Africa. He would have had the best food and strongest skill set. As a human, his skill set meant thousands upon thousands of jobs for other people around the planet, incredible devices (that many of the protesters are using today) for the rest of us human beings and riches for himself.

For this, the hyenas line up and demand to take what he created without ever inventing anything of any use to anyone.

The Irony of Idiocy

As this is being written, anti-capitalism protests are taking place in New York City. The September 30, 2011 Orlando Sentinel reported that "Zuccotti Park is festooned with placards and anti-Wall Street slogans. People sleep wrapped in blankets or sleeping bags, some with donated mattresses. There is a makeshift kitchen and library, and celebrities like Michael Moore and Susan Sarandon have stopped by to show support."

I was just wondering where the blankets, sleeping bags, mattresses, food for the makeshift kitchens, kitchen supplies, books for the library, pens for the placards and the placards came from? Could it possibly be that all of the supplies the protestors are using - including the clothes they are wearing - came from some capitalist seeking the very profit they despise? Is it possible that Michael Moore and Susan Sarandon rely on movie-making equipment that was created by those who would desire monetary gain?

Hmmmm....

Warren Buffett..

The Obama Administration is now setting tax policy based on Warren Buffett's belief that he does not pay enough in income taxes. Lovely. If Warren Buffett is undertaxed he can stop claiming the deductions that have lowered his effective tax rate and he can look at line 75 of his tax return that allows him to send in extra money if he wants to.

Mr. Buffett claims he and other millionaires do not need the money. He could also give that money he does not need to charity or to a new business that is struggling to get started.

Mr. Buffett - and by extension, Barack Obama - should understand that different people derive different 'utility' from each dollar earned. If Buffett has very little utility for his extra dollars that does not mean the millionaire next to him has the same utility for their dollars.

To impose, unilaterally, a new tax increase that presupposes all millionaires are the same and that all millionaires do not need the money and that all millionaires would not put their money to productive use is not only patently stupid but indicative of the fact that President Obama is economically ignorant on a scale we have not seen since FDR.

One Question...

Are the citizens of the United States more free, less free or as free as we were 10 years ago? Your answer and comments are greatly appreciated.

Why I should be Commissioner of the NFL

Finally, thankfully, the NFL season is upon us. After seven long months of golf, NASCAR, the NBA, the endless baseball season, tennis, debt ceiling debates and Casey Anthony, we can finally return, as Americans, to a sense of normalcy as we turn the page to that glorious month called September.

That said, I am increasingly displeased with the National Football League and the way it is run. As an old-school football fan there is much to complain about when examining todays game. Thus, I would like to offer up what I would do if the NFL owners decided to make me the next commissioner of the NFL.

1. Haircuts. Today's game looks like girls running around in shoulder pads. I would go to every training camp in July with a ruler and a pair of scissors. All hair 2" below the bottom of your helmet would be cut off. The removed hair would be bagged up, tagged and sold on eBay to raise money for what comes next....

2. Pink in October. Instead of letting the players look even more like girls by wearing pink during Breast Cancer Awareness Month I would take the proceeds from the haircut auction (Tom Brady's hair alone should raise enough money to cure breast cancer...) and put it towards this worthy goal. However, any player caught wearing pink in October would be fined and forced to watch 100 straight hours of Julia Roberts movies.

3. Cheerleaders. NONE, ZERO, ZIP. Football has no place for strippers on the sidelines. Only a handful of teams in the NFL (Steelers and Bears for example) do not allow cheerleaders to parade around. Under my rule there would be zero cheerleaders ever again so that we can maintain the integrity of the game.

4. Fan behavior. I no longer go to NFL games because getting beaten, shot at or cursed like I am a dog is something I am fond of. Some fans (Oakland, Miami) are the worst. Going to a Dolphins game is like sitting with 70,000 convicts who are on leave for the weekend - and that is being unfair to convicts. I have seen grandmothers drop the 'F'-bomb on their grandsons during games. My policy would be simple. All stadiums would have mixed martial arts fighters, bouncers, NAVY SEALS (retired) and assorted folks who are good with their fists and/or guns and/or bricks to patrol the stands looking and listening for drunks, bad language or pending physical confrontations. My security staff would beat senseless all fans who are suspected of any transgression that could not have been shown on a 1950s television program.

5. Kickoffs. The NFL has moved kickoffs to the 35-yard line to reduce the number of violent collisions and thus injuries by encouraging "touchbacks". Sissy stuff! The kickoff should be moved back the the 20-yard line with legal wedges like the old days.

6. Speaking of the old days. No longer would quarterbacks be given invisible dresses to wear. They are men, treat them like it. It would be legal to smash them - and other offensive players - like the 1970s. Helmet to helmet contact? Yes, that is called football.

7. Commercials. This is a game kids should be allowed to watch without commercials depicting murder, rape, robbery or porn.

8. Celebrations. Any endzone celebration would mean the loss of the touchdown and a 20 yard penalty. Any moron who dances around or beats his chest for "doing his job!!" by making a tackle or gaining seven yards on a slant pass would be penalized 20 yards and would be required to do pushups with John Madden standing on his back during halftime.

9. Uniforms. Knee pads must cover the knees. Pants cannot fit to make it appear you are nude. No players can wear gloves (use your hands, you sissy...) and helmets would have facemasks with one bar made out of balsa wood.

10. Super Bowl Sunday - back to the last Sunday in January, during the day with no halftime show other than the local high school band.

That is all. Enjoy the season.

Come on Irene, there is a Recession to end!

It is about time we had a disaster (other than the election of President Obama) to celebrate. Hurricane Irene has got to be the Keynesian economists dream come true. Think about it. When President Obama announced the $862 billion stimulus bill in 2009 it came on the tailwinds of Larry Summers and other White House economists claiming that the bill would create a 'mulitplier effect' of 1.5. That is to say that for every $1 spent the GDP would rise by $1.50, leading to an estimated $1.3 trillion boost to the economy, a sound recovery and unemployment rates by 2011 of less than 7%. Go look it up for yourself. The Wall Street Journal is filled with valuable articles from that year that put forth the Keynesian plan to end the last recession and have us growing like gangbusters by now.

Oops. Here we are nearly in September of 2011 and all signs are pointing to a 'double-dip' recession. So much for Lord Keynes.

But wait! Now, riding to the rescue will be one of the great opportunities to test another part of the Keynesian orthodoxy - that is that destruction leads to growth when government spends money to fix, among other things.....broken windows.

You remember this, don't you? During WWII Keynes said that, "If expenditure on armaments leads to economic progress, a grand experiment has begun...." What he meant, of course, was that war is good for the economy to the extent that militarism, destruction and rebuilding equates to future government outlays that will boost the economy.

This is why every Keynesian worth his or her salt has to be praying (if they pray) that Irene does not deviate from the path that has it going through Washington, D.C., New York and Boston. Imagine - 60 million residents, fully one-fifth of the nation - lives in this corridor. If we (Keynesian-speaking) can have say, $40 billion in damage, ruined vacations, injured humans and more, then the hospital bills, clean up and post-hurricane rebuilding will help this enormously important region grow by more than the $40 billion in damage - assuming government takes an active role, in all of its wisdom, in channeling tax dollars to non-PORK projects.

As an Austrian economist and follower of folks like Bastiat, I would gladly entertain any Keynesian out there willing to admit that they are hoping for the worst outcome of Irene so that we can get the "best" government has to offer.

I hope to hear from you soon.

Taking a break from not doing much...

Before I take the rest of the summer off I thought I would leave you with a few thoughts. I realize I have not been faithful in blogging as often as the Tweeting/Facebooking/Texting crowd is used to but I have a good reason - apathy with a little bit of indifference mixed in...

Anyway, we have been told that our government will default on its debt obligations on August 2nd unless the $14.29 trillion debt ceiling is raised. It is pretty basic stuff. For every $1 the government spends it has to borrow about 40 cents. So, on August 2nd the government will have 60 cents in tax dollars but will have "promised" another 40 cents in spending for interest on the debt, welfare, the military and so forth. Someone on August 2nd will have to be told, "No money for you." The Bush-type Republicans are willing to work with Mr. Obama to raise the ceiling, keep spending and allow for some minor revenue adjustments primarily from repealing a few tax deductions here and there. The Tea Party people do not want any compromise that comes with tax hikes or without massive Paul Ryan-type spending cuts. Of course the liberals want to save every program, add new ones and soak small businesses (70% of which are in the $250,000 in income per year crowd) for more money.

I hope our government defaults on August 2nd. If it results in Greek-style riots so be it. I want to see real spending cuts and massive crackdowns on the people who make up the welfare class. Do you realize that in 1983 around 29% of the American people received welfare of some sort? Did you know that over 44% get your money today? 47% of the American people do not pay income taxes anymore. Once we get to 51% receiving the property of other people and 51% not paying anything to the treasury it is all over for our country. Better to see shocking acknowledgment of impending bankruptcy as the clock strikes 12:00 on August 2nd than to see the real pain of gradualism that will come from band-aid solutions that completely destroys our economy and our republic 20 or so years from now. I say that Rome can and should burn to the ground now - and rebuilt with fiscal austerity and limited government. If we let Rome smolder until the Baby-Boomers and growing welfare class have pushed us past the point of no return then we will never turn things around.

Second thought.... I am very interested in the candidacy of Michelle Bachmann. I think she understands the case for real liberty. Even with some missteps in her campaign she could be the candidate to pose a great challenge to President Obama. How is Mitt Romney going to debate Obama? He started forced health care purchasing in Taxachusetts. He has no leg to stand on.

Third thought... President Obama last week said that unemployment benefits are a boost to the economy because it helps people demand the goods and services our businesses produce. Yes, he said it. So, if we gave the people who make up our 9.2% unemployment rate $100,000 per day, wouldn't that, under his logic, boost aggregate demand enough to end the sluggish recovery and help our nation's economy soar?

Speaking of the unemployment rate, get used to it being high for a long, long time. Yes, uncertainty over the cost of Obamacare; his push for tax hikes in 2013; bloated debt and rising regulations have all created a poor environment from which businesses can hire people. But, the bigger issue is this. The last recession has created massive structual changes, along with ongoing uncertainty that has led many businesses to downsize permanently. Many firms are doing more and more with fewer people and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future. I would expect unemployment in excess of 7 - 8% for the rest of this decade. This is what Western Europe has been forced to accept. Our march towards the socialism that destroyed much of Europe, along with rising structural unemployment will mean that the days of 4% unemployment may well be over.

Speaking of Europe, I have been shocked and am quite proud that the government of my country of birth - Germany - has pushed for cuts in government spending, tax and regulatory reform and has refused to engage in Keynesian nonsense for the past two years. This has lead to a falling unemployment and the fastest economic growth in Europe. The Germans are now lecturing us on how to move towards Hayek.

One more thing - and this is the good news. Notice that unemployment is rising at the same time more and more businesses are announcing upcoming price hikes to pay for rising commodity prices and other input costs impacted by regulations, health-care mandates and more. This is called stagflation. The last time we had the worst of both worlds was in 1979-80. Stagflation ended the FDR/Lyndon Johnson/Jimmy Carter era and ushered in Reaganomics. Let's hope that stagflation - as bad as it is - will be with us long enough to end the great Hope and Change experiment or at least forces Mr. Obama to act like Bill Clinton was forced to act in his second term (economically, not morally).

Enjoy the rest of your summer. That is all for now...

Minnesota needs to get meaner (and so do the rest of us)

In case you missed it, the state of Minnesota closed all state parks and stopped all other non-essential functions as the governor and state legislature failed to reach a budget agreement by the new fiscal year (July 1st).

Allow me to say a few things here.

First, as many of you know, I consider Minnesota my second home. I try to get away to the Land of 10,000 lakes as much as I can with my family. This is a state filled with natural beauty, quiet and people who are actually enjoyable to be around. Now, my plans for this summer have potentially been thwarted by politicians who would rather preserve the welfare state than have state parks.

This is the problem. I - and other people - work hard for the money I earn. I like to spend part of that money on vacation. I like to vacation in many of the parks in Minnesota. Now I can't. At the same time, people in Minnesota who do not work hard - or at all - will still receive welfare checks, housing assistance, medical assistance and more on my back and the backs of my fellow sufferers. The bums get paid, the productive people get closed camp grounds.

Do you see the bigger picture here? Flash forward 20 years from now. The baby boomers -in Minnesota, Florida and the other 48 states - will get their money, along with the younger welfare cases, while the rest of us will be expected to work, and pay, for their sloth. Those of us who work for a living rather than vote for a living will probably see other cuts in the services we pay for so that more and more Americans can feed at the public trough.

It is time for this country and the 50 states in it, to get mean. What would that look like? It would look like a line drawn in the sand by taxpayers who tell politicians that we will not continue to pay for the comforts of those who are being insulated from economic natural selection. If more and more states, along with the federal government, refused to expand the welfare state we would first see rational geographic mobility to the states that still pay handsomely for laziness. As those states become fewer in number we would see fewer births, less immigration (by immigrants who have learned about our welfare offices) and more people striving to take care of their own affairs.

In the long run we might even see places like France become the destination of choice for Americans who have run out of welfare havens to hide in.

I say good riddance - and open the camp grounds I am willing to pay for!

Vancouver...

I love Canada. I love the Canadian people and I love Vancouver, British Columbia.

I don't love watching "people" with no regard for private property rights, the right to life or liberty engage in the type of behavior we saw a few days ago.

As someone who has spent a great deal of time in and around this city I want to be the first to say that you cannot find nicer, more civilized people perhaps anywhere in the world. If you spend any time in Western Canada you will not be able to help falling in love with the place.

It needs to stay that way and I have a suggestion.

The police - should this happen again - need to stop fooling around with tear gas, batons, shields and bullhorns.

All it would take is for one or two or twelve of these unemployed losers who are setting fire to cars or smashing windows to be shot dead right where they are lighting the match and you would see a drastic change in the cost-benefit calculation of rioters.

That's right. I am suggesting that the police start shooting rioters to stop rioting.

It is highly unlikely that any of these rioters - had they been finished off - would have been terribly missed by the rest of the planets inhabitants. It is highly likely that many more lives could be saved and millions in property spared if law enforcement could use deadly force in protection of people and property after the next sporting event ends.

Things that should be illegal

As a Libertarian with anarchist sympathies I must always tread carefully when suggesting government intrusion into our lives. Afterall, government is force and force ultimately gets used for evil. However, there are some missed spots in our society where I would welcome the use of force to bring out greater civility, common sense and economic efficiency. So here is my list of what ought to be curbed, altered or stopped by the use of the law.

1. Universal voting rights. It should be illegal for people to be allowed to vote just because they are 18 and are non-felons. The new law would make it legal to vote once you can cite the 27 grievances the Founders listed in the Declaration of Independence; explain, with at least 90% accuracy the original intent of the Founders as declared in our Constitution and pass with a grade of at least 80% an economics exam the covers the basics of cost-benefit analysis, the various economic systems and the workings of supply and demand. If this means that only 419 Americans would be allowed to vote in the next election so be it.

2. Public education. Taking money from one person (who might be childless) to give it to someone else that that the party receiving the forced aid can send their kids to a government school is not only receipt of stolen goods but a recipe for a stupid nation. Along with abolishing taxpayer-financed education would come the elimination of school districts. All education should be privately run and a parent living in Orlando should be allowed to drive their kid to Memphis every day if they want to. The poor would no go without an education any more than they go without food, shoes or toothpaste. The market would find a way to cheaply sell a better product than the garbage schools we have now.

3. Train horns on automobiles. Every time I am driving down the road and hear one of these go off I almost wreck my car. Trucks are not trains and should not sound like them. These rednecks who must announce their existence to the world with train horns are creating a negative externality that poses a hazard to the rest of us. They should be forced to have horns that go "toot toot".

4. Athletes wearing pink. O.K., I am hoping breast cancer is eliminated some day just like everyone else. But, having football players in particular and other athletes in general wearing pink socks and wristbands or swinging pink bats is absurd and only accelerates the sissification of America. The new law would allow female athletes to wear pink. Men would be stoned with blue rocks if they do so.

5. Using the phrase, "At the end of the day...." If I hear this one more time I am going to take a pink train horn and smash the offending person in the head. How in the name of God's green Earth can people keep using this maddening phrase in every paragraph?? "So and so is facing a tough decision about blah, blah, blah, but at the end of the day he has to...." New law: $1 tax for every time this phrase gets used. Use the money to pay China to slow down the rate at which her citizens take away the math and science jobs in America.

6. The word "like". There should be a law stating that if you use the word "like" inappropriately (for example, "My professor told me to read 2 pages to get ready for the next class, and I was like, you know, texting at the time so I did not hear him.") you would pay a $5 tax. This should be enough to pay off the Obama/Bush debt in about a week and a half. All remaining money would be used to create offsetting cuts in income taxes.

7. Back to cars for a moment. It should be illegal for cars driven by non-police officers to be made to look like unmarked cars. You know what mean - the extra spot light mounted near the driver's window, no hubcaps and plain white or black in color. For those of us who need to get to where we are going by fudging on the speed limit and squeezing yellow lights we don't need fake cops behind us preventing us from productively arriving at our destinations.

8. Light beer. Even women should not drink light beer and no man should. How can we expect to defend our nation from future attacks if we drink light beer while wearing pink wristbands?

9. Texting. I do not mean texting while driving. I mean texting. To do that I want the texting devices banned to. That means no cell phones. But cell phones are mutations of regular phones so those need to go to. New law: Smoke signals. That would reduce all human contact to only the most important interactions. Everything else is overrated and needs to go away.

10. Lastly, there should be a law that requires all environmentalists to walk everywhere they go without the use of any clothing except for fig leaves and/or the bark from dead trees. The first law of Thermodynamics states that energy is neither created or destroyed. This means all energy creates some form of pollution or negative environmental consequences. Therefore, to avoid being hypocrites, all "Green people" should be banned from using energy. That not only means walking around with oak bark underwear and dried leaf shoes but it also means eating only dirt, never using a light bulb and never again using fuel-powered boats to chase whaling ships. They could swim out to the ships and throw seaweed at the offenders. That would be fine.

I welcome any suggestions to my list. As you can see, I am bored today.

Etc.

One of my liberal colleagues at Valencia emailed to fuss about my infrequent posts over the past couple of months. He almost suggested that I am lazy. Being called lazy by an Obama-supporter is like being called stupid by Donald Trump (more on him later...) so I thought I should post something today, even though I would rather sit on my couch and stare out the window.

First, is the War on Terror over now? I was just wondering because, after all, we did finally kill the economist who started all of this. No, I do not mean Milton Friedman.

As many of you know, Osama had a degree in economics and used it very, very well. Mark Zandi - one of the more reputable economists in America - has estimated that the full cost of September 11th - counting the destruction, the wars, the inflated interest payments from the accelerated debt obligations and the opportunity cost of the War on Terror - is around $2.5 trillion over the last ten years.

If someone came to Osama an hour before he was shot and said, "Was your investment of time, money and capital worth it?" he would have said, "Let's see....we spent a few hundred million dollars to bring down the Twin Towers, kill 3,000 people that day - and thousands of American troops since then; led our enemy into two wars - one of which (Iraq) largely destroyed America's credibility around the globe and cost upwards of $1 trillion; led to the signing of the Patriot Act which basically caused the American people to turn their government against their liberties; led to a massive reallocation of tax dollars away from productive economic pursuits (like not taxing the money away to begin with); helped cause massive debt which will be repaid with even higher taxes in the future; caused incredible delays in airports while watching people who barely graduated from high school grope 103 year old - and 3 year old - potential terrorists; all while helping to recruit more people into this Jihad than we had on September 10, 2001. "Yes, as an economist, I would say our resources were allocated in an efficient manner."

Oh, for you Republicans out there who would say, "But we have not been attacked since!" I would argue this: Why would they need to attack us again? One attack did enough damage to last two decades or more. In one area alone - America's perception of the tradeoff between liberty and security - the damage was enough to lead many people to conclude that Osama won.

Now to Donald Trump. As of a few weeks ago he was leading potential Republican candidates for President with 16% support. I have always wondered if post-Reagan Republicans were stupid. Now, I am sure of it. Add it up folks.... DONALD TRUMP + SARAH PALIN + MITT (I believe in national health care too) ROMNEY + NEWT ( I believe in government subsidized ethanol and don't like Paul Ryan) GINGRICH = Barack Obama needing to spend around $3.17 to win in 2012. For you Republicans who keep harping on where President Obama was born, I am sorry that Mr. Trump has left the building. Can I, as a Libertarian, ask you people a question? Do you know how dumb you are? I mean, do you really care if he was born in Hawaii, Indonesia or on Mars? Do you think he is going to resign after admitting he was born in some remote village in Kenya? Wouldn't it make more sense to find a candidate who actually focused on something like, you know, our bankrupt country as their key issue rather than some idiotic 'Birther' question?

I MIGHT EVEN VOTE FOR OBAMA IF THIS IS THE BEST YOUR PARTY CAN DO!

Not really - I will vote for Ron Paul again. After all, I keep sending him money that he refuses to use to run an effective campaign with, so I might as well vote for him to at least feel like I am getting a little return on my investment - all while waiting for the Paul Ryan/Marco Rubio ticket in 2016.

Until 2016 I think I will go back to what I wanted to do this morning in the first place - stare out of my window and wonder why people believe in Darwin's theory of evolution, when one study of our collective brains would prove that Americans are devolving as a species. If I were a monkey I would be insulted to be compared to American humans with voter registration cards.

Why I do not expect to live a long life...

I am grading final exams this week. The second essay question on my macroeconomics final exam reads: "What caused The Great Depression? Fully explain the Keynesian solution for this problem."

Here is an answer I just read. It has not been edited.

"The Great depression was caused by World War II and the major increase on taxes to be able to afford it. The was a low unemployment rate during that time mainly becauses businesses couldn't afford to pay people to work. their are always consequences to decisions the Gov't make. Keynesian would have suggested that we bring the Gov't into this and let them help. Put caps on whatever he wanted to make sure it was at a price the people could afford. Never mind the fact that there will be major shortages and companies will probably collapse. This approach would not be smart at all; I may be helpful to the people, but only temporarily because once their is a shortage either the prices are going to increase massively or the business would close."

Folks, it is answers like this that are all too common in my classes today. With every passing semester of reading this __________ I age more rapidly. At this pace I think there is a reasonable chance that I will die - while grading exams - sometime in the next semester or two.

At my funeral, please tell people that I tried to help.

Thank you. Now, back to my grading...

POLICE STATE 2011: Government Bureaucrats Steal Basketball Hoops In Dela...

Your thoughts?

The U.S. has no Business in Libya

Here we go again....

Now that a Middle-East dictator has finally decided to fight back against those who seek to change their government, the United States is once again taking up the moronic position of being the "Great Interferer" in the soverign affairs of another nation.

It seems we will never learn. Pick your police action in this week's survey as the dumbest one we have ever pursued. The list is a long one and it never goes well.

It does not matter what the price of oil rises to or how many Libyan protestors die in their revolt. This is THEIR revolt. The only thing the U.S. can possibly gain for creating 'No-fly' zones, or from bombing runways or from aiding the revolutionary forces in any way is to once again prove to the world that we arrogantly reserve the right to fix things for other nations - especially if gas prices rise above $3.50 while we are in the process of not fixing other nations.

If the Libyans want to recruit Americans to fight along side them, that is fine. If they want to buy guns from us, that is great - we have plenty. If they want us to verbally support their cause, Amen to that to. But, not one dime, or one American drop of blood needs to be spent or shed during this uprising.

Random musings concerning the world around us...

My apologies for being "out of the loop" for more than two months. I have been re-writing my textbooks and, as you might imagine, there has been a great deal to write about since the last editions came out two weeks before Mr. Obama took office.

I thought I would use this posting to share some thoughts on a few issues that have been in the news lately.

First, have you noticed that no matter what happens to prices liberals are not happy? When gas prices increased to over $4 per gallon in the summer of 2008, liberals took to the airwaves to denounce the greed of 'Big Oil' and chronicled the meteoric rise in the profits of BP, Exxon-Mobil and the rest of the den of thieves. Then, when prices fell to less than $2 per gallon in 2009, liberals cried that lower prices would cause us to go back to gas-guzzling trucks and SUVs, which would cause more global warming.

When housing prices skyrocketed a few years ago, NBC, CBC, ABC and the left-leaning newspapers cried about the poor and middle class families that were priced out of the market. When home prices collapsed they cried about the poor and middle class families that could not afford to stay in the homes they should not have bought to begin with.

Please ask your friendly neighborhood liberal exactly what they want when it comes to the invisible hand then let me know what they say.

Now to Egypt. Please calm down with all the talk that this is July 4, 1776 for the Middle East. Egypt ranks 96th in economic freedom according to the Heritage Foundation's annual rankings. Egypt has 35% of its labor force working for the government. This percentage has artifically fueled public wages to well above what the private sector in Egypt can pay. Therefore, potential businesses are crowded out of the labor market and unemployment - especially for college graduates - is rampant. Unless Egypt fixes that, along with corruption, lack of tranparency in regulations and taxes and other growth-killing rules we will simply see one lousy dictator replaced with another one. But.....just in case I am wrong, please don't gripe about rising gas prices stemming from the growing rebellions. Remember, the price of tea increased when the colonists began fighting against our king.

Heading west to Wisconsin, bravo for the governor of the Badger state. It is time for public sector unions to die. Period. There was once a good reason for private sector unions. Long ago working conditions were horrible for millions of American workers. If you were treated badly, tough - it was you against the company. Unions were a natural reaction to corporate abuse and greed. Then, decades later, JFK legally recognized public unions and it has been the bullet train to bankruptcy for the states ever since. It is simply ludicrous that teachers, firefighters and other public sector workers received the budget-busting European-style retirement benefits that they enjoy. It is time to do away with $100,000 -plus pensions, double-dipping and the other practices that will kill our states one by one. As a 20 year veteran of Florida's retirement system I have been asked to contribute exactly zero pennies towards my retirement fund. Our new governor wants me to kick in 5% of my annual pay to help towards my retirement. My reaction? "What took you so long..."

Now to the National Football League. The billionaire owners want the players to play 18 games and take a nearly 20% pay cut while imposing a rookie wage scale. The millionaire players want to keep the status quo. The owners will get their t.v. money even if there is no season. The players spend money like drunk 2 year old children in a candy store. Kiss the 2011 season goodbye and enjoy college football next year. I should mention, as a Miami Dolphins fan since 1975 (translation - I have never seen them win the Super Bowl), it gives me great pleasure knowing that I will be put out of my misery this fall.

Let's go over to the White House for a moment. President Barack Clinton is finally getting it. He signed off on keeping the Bush tax cuts and lowered our payroll tax from 6.2 to 4.2% for this year. Thank you, Ronald Obama. It is about time you took a look at the playbook from Clinton's last 6 years. If you keep it up, you might be able to beat Sarah, "I have no ideas, but I am kinda cute" Palin, or 109 year old Ron Paul.

I almost forgot the upcoming baseball season. Red Sox over Phillies in 7 games. New York Yankees (Satan's team) fails to make the playoffs.

O.K., that is enough for now. I hope you all are doing well. If you are not, make sure you blame it on global warming.