Category: Government

But not on guns, on precious metals. Yeah, the tin foil hat crowd is going to love that one.

… is often just plain stupidity. Every town, including the small borough I grew up in, had a cop where everyone thinks, “I can’t believe they let that guy walk around with a gun.” In big cities there are more people, and much bigger departments.

Kevin has a hilarious example. Constitution? I do not think it means what you think it means. The sad part is, I’m going to be willing to bet this person is actually considerably higher on the information rung than your typical low-information voter, but the ignorance of the Constitution burns with the heat of a pool full of Sriracha sauce.

Glenn Reynolds notes the silence from the mainstream media. Most of the media bias comes in what they choose not to cover. I’ve always been a bit ambivalent about right-to-work, because in an ideal world, if employers and employees wanted to get together and negotiate a closed shop, they should be free to do so. But the fact is that Unions enjoy significant government protections. Employers are forced to collectively bargain with employees if employees vote to do so. Without right-to-work, Employees who don’t vote for collective bargaining can be forced into unions under threat of their jobs.

In most right-to-work schemes, which were authorized under the Taft-Harley Act of 1947, employees who opt out of the union are still covered by collective bargaining agreements negotiated by the union, and the unions are required to represent workers who opt out. This is the free rider problem the unions have so eloquently pointed out (with shouting and fists). If they weren’t acting like violent thugs, they might have a point. I tend to think you should not be forced into collective bargaining against your will, and I agree with right-to-work from that point of view. But I also think the unions have a point about the free rider problem. If you leave a union, you should be required to independently bargain with your employer, and the union should have no obligation to represent you as an employee.

Pretty much. The big four items are Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security and Defense. If you’re not talking about cutting any of those you’re not serious about balancing the budget. The solution is probably going to end up being younger workers paying into a system they will never collect from, in order to cover their parents checks and old age medical care.

The problem with that equation is that there are not enough jobs for young people, because the economy is hobbled by a massive government that is doing too much and has become unpredictable. I believe the current debts we’ve already run, including the debts not generally counted (in promises the government has made), will result in a reduced standard of living for the next several generations, as the rest of us pay off previous generations who did not save enough to enjoy the type of retirements they demand, nor have enough kids to make up for not saving.

My real fear is the burden will become substantial enough it will be impossible for younger people to save, and when they hit the point where they can no longer work, the government will be too broke to do anything about it. That will be called Generation-Screwed, and I’m not convinced it won’t be my generation. Hopefully when I get old and grumpy I can vote to kick that can down the road to the Millennials, who had a chance to put a stop to this shit, but decided they wanted eight years of hope and change.

So says an article at LinkedIn. We can only hope. If the Republicans had any guts they’d abolish the agency, along with the entire Department of Homeland Security.

According to CBS DC. I couldn’t really understand why Obama stood by Holder, given what a liability he was. But if we’ll have a new Attorney General second term, at least that will be some improvement in the Administration.

From the Library of Law, W.B. Allen writing, well worth reading in full:

To try to create within oneself that same resonance, one might recall that self government does not mean majority rule – for any of the American Founders. While it certainly does include the processes of majority rule ultimately, that is only a mechanism, a means – not what was being aimed at. What he meant by self government was rather more a moral conception, such as he expressed in his Farewell, when he eulogized the people as “now” loving to be “one people,” and now governing themselves. At that moment, at least, they became in Washington’s eyes a republic, and had also to accept the responsibility for its perpetuation. Washington’s Farewell is truly a masterpiece in literary craftsmanship.

In modern times we have nearly completely lost the idea of republican virtue. It’s not something even really thought about anymore, but the Founders thought it was essential if the United States was going to succeed. You will hardly ever hear politicians use the term “private morality.” Both the left and right believe in public morality, but merely differ in what they believe public morality is. But before libertarians get too pleased, I believe there are many things about libertarian philosophy that the Founders would likewise find to be unvirtuous. Like I said, republican virtue seems to be a bit of a lost concept.