Selected Blogs
- Details
- Written by: Alex Pugliese
- Category: Selected Blogs
On March 19th, two Chicago Alderman (Anthony Beale in the 9th Ward and John Pope in the 10th) announced plans to propose an ordinance that would deputize private security officers working on the south side and elsewhere, to write summonses and tickets from speeding on down. This ordinance was inspired by an experiment that occurred in Marquette Park, Illinois where private property owners paid security to secure and police their areas. The experiment has proved to be successful.
- Details
- Written by: Sean Colon
- Category: Selected Blogs
The Congressional Budget Office has projected that the deficit from 2010 to 2019 will be $9.3 trillion, 2.3 trillion higher than previously estimated by Pres. Obama's administration. What a big surprise, Obama underestimated his spending when he plans to increase the size government to the largest it has ever been in US history. This should have not been a shocking revelation to anyone. If you add up the costs of the bail out, continuing troop deployment, his universal health care plan, education reform, energy programs, blah de blah blah then it should be easy to understand why the deficit is going to be huge.
You can find the article here.
- Details
- Written by: Sean Colon
- Category: Selected Blogs
President Obama has finally done something right. Attorney General Eric Holder has announced yesterday that the Justice Department will no longer be raiding Medical Marijuana dispensaries. The bad news is that this is being done to focus more on other aspects of the drug war such as going after the dealers who are selling Marijuana illegally (as defined by state and federal law). Pres. Obama took a very small step in the right direction but for the wrong reason. He should not be stopping the raids because he needs to redirect his Justice Department resources but rather because it was a flawed policy to begin with.
You can find the article on here.
- Details
- Written by: Sean Colon
- Category: Selected Blogs
I know that this sounds like something The Onion would write as a satire in one of their articles but it is horrifyingly true. NJ officials are proposing to ban Brazilian wax jobs which are a waxing of the genital region. Why are they doing this? Because two clients were injured at a salon in NJ. Hmmmm... I guess that makes sense. I got cut shaving yesterday, they should ban that. I tripped over a curb a week ago, they should ban those.
The NJ Board of Cosmetology and Hairstyling has stated that it has always been illegal though it is not stated in the current regulations. Is this a good excuse? No! That is not a reason for banning anything.
You can find the article here.
- Details
- Written by: Alex Pugliese
- Category: Selected Blogs
In New Jersey and elsewhere, if a person wanted to enter a profession or a field, one has to be licensed by the state or the federal government. If one wanted to get into, for example, the financial services industry or the real estate industry, one has to be licensed by the state. If one wanted to participate in the import/export business, one has to be licensed by the federal government. If one wanted to braid hair,one,in Washington, D.C., has to be licensed by the local government there. It goes on and on, ad infinitum.
- Details
- Written by: Alex Pugliese
- Category: Selected Blogs
Over the years, on issues such as abortion, doctor-assisted suicide, euthanasia, infanticide, human experimentation and others, I have been struck by proponents arguments. I mostly been fascinated by the statements and arguments they use, particularly when they state that "You Should Not Legislate Morality," and "Society Cannot Impose Morality." I find these statements and arguments weak and flawed for the reality of the matter is that society and government legislate morality all the time. They legislate little else. The question becomes Whose Morality and What View Of Morality becomes dominant. What it all comes down to is the ideas and the pressure groups involved, and whether or not those pressure groups are strong enough to influence the legislative and executive branches of government.
- Details
- Written by: Alex Pugliese
- Category: Selected Blogs
There are many politicians and others, liberal, "moderate," and conservative, that take the position that if a particular legislative action or policy has failed, the people should judge them by their "good" intentions and not if the action or policy is successful. They will say that their "motives" were "good," That their "idea" was "good,"That their "belief" was "pure," no matter if the policy or action has caused hardships and difficulties for individuals. It is a way to excuse it all and not do much else. This often causes problems for society at large.
- Details
- Written by: Webmaster
- Category: Selected Blogs
 Michael Beitler (pronounced Bite-ler), Ph.D., CPA, is the host of "Free Markets With Dr. Mike Beitler," a libertarian internet-radio talk show, and the author of Rational Individualism: A Moral Argument for Limited Government & Capitalism. Mike was the CFO of a profitable bank for more than ten years. |
Originally published at Campaign For Liberty
Fannie Mae reported a loss of $25.2 billion for the fourth quarter of 2008 (losses of $58.7 billion for full-year 2008). Total nonperforming loans were $119.2 billion at year-end. Fannie is requesting additional capital from the U.S Treasury. The other gargantuan government-sponsored enterprise, Freddie Mac is likewise running up billions of dollars in losses. Freddie is preparing to ask for additional capital from the U.S Treasury of $35 billion.
Why should you, the taxpayer, be concerned? Isn't the Federal government using bailout funds allocated by Congress to clean up the mess?
The problem is the Federal government is on the brink of bankruptcy itself. The U.S. government is $11 trillion dollars in debt. (That figure does not include tens of trillions of dollars of off-balance sheet, unfunded liabilities.) Congress has no "money to allocate" to Fannie, Freddie, or anything else. You, the taxpayer, are on the hook for these massive obligations.
Go back to the first paragraph and substitute "additional taxpayer money" for "additional capital."
- Details
- Written by: Alex Pugliese
- Category: Selected Blogs
There are many people in the United States that have this belief that society, government or other "owes us." This belief came to fruition in the late 1890s and early 1900s. It was made famous men such as William Jennings Bryant, Theodore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, Eugene Debs, Franklin Roosevelt as well as others. This belief goes by names such as "soak the rich" and, my favorite. "compassion." What thsi belief really entails is the punishment of achievement and the promotion of class envy. It is the belief of pitting one group against another.
- Details
- Written by: Alex Pugliese
- Category: Selected Blogs
Published on cnn.com:
CAMBRIDGE, Massachusetts (CNN) -- When libertarians question the merit of President Obama's stimulus package, a frequent rejoinder is, "Well, we have to do something." This is hardly a persuasive response. If the cure is worse than the disease, it is better to live with the disease.
In any case, libertarians do not argue for doing nothing; rather, they advocate eliminating or adjusting policies that are bad for the economy independent of the recession. Here is a stimulus package that libertarians can endorse:
American Business Has Sold Its Soul to the Devil: Exhibit A- Obama Warns Companies Not to Book Event
- Details
- Category: Selected Blogs
Government is filled with people who couldn't get a job in the private sector. Why on earth would we put them in charge of our economy? If they knew anything about running a business, they'd be running a business. George W. Bush was a failure at virtually everything he ever did in the business world- except buying the Texas Rangers. He succeeded at that because of his family connections and wealth. Anyone could make money buying a baseball team- if you have the connections and millions of dollars necessary to buy one in the first place. Then Bush proved his lack of business skills by running our country into the ground, ruining our economy, and increasing our debt dramatically.
- Details
- Written by: Alex Pugliese
- Category: Selected Blogs
For most people, the term "moderate" means someone who is "middle of the road," a "centrist" or a "pragmatic." It also is described a person who "avoids extremism" or "extremes." After doing research and after watching so-called "moderate" politicians and others in action, sort to speak, I come down to a conclusion that they stand for nothing at all. If they did, they would only stand for themselves and nothing else. I seen this when "moderate" politicians like Arlen Spector, Susan Collins and Olympia Snowne who voted for the $800 billion dollar "stimulis" plan in Congress. I saw it also when "moderate" Justices like Anthony Kennedy and Sandra Day O'Connor sided with the majority on the court in the Kelo decison as well as in the Campaign Finance Reform decision. They stand not for the plain words of the Constitution, nor good fiscal policy and when it comes to individual rights, they think that those can be "compromised" as well. They stand for statism.
When it comes to "extremism," I have come to the conclusion that "moderates" regard that as "one who stands for his or her principals." If that is the case, then there should be more extremists around. They would be blessed. They would stand more for freedom than a "moderate" would.
- Details
- Written by: Alex Pugliese
- Category: Selected Blogs
Published on townhall.com
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, or SEC, was set up to combat fraudulent practices. The SEC's website explains that "Ponzi schemes are a type of illegal pyramid scheme named for Charles Ponzi, who duped thousands of New England residents into investing in a postage stamp speculation scheme back in the 1920s." It goes on to say, "Decades later, the Ponzi scheme continues to work on the 'rob-Peter-to-pay-Paul' principle, as money from new investors is used to pay off earlier investors until the whole scheme collapses." That is how the SEC described the recent Bernard Madoff $50 billion Ponzi scheme, "a stunning fraud that appears to be of epic proportions."
A Ponzi scheme does not generate any wealth whatsoever; that is why it ultimately collapses. As Circuit Judge Anderson said in the 1922 Lowell v. Brown case, the Ponzi scheme was "simply the old fraud of paying the earlier comers out of the contributions of the later comers." So long as the number of late comers – you might call them suckers – grows, the fraudulent scheme has life.
- Details
- Written by: Webmaster
- Category: Selected Blogs
Originally published at http://lp.org
The Wall Street Journal's Daniel Henninger doesn't point out congressional Republican voted against the stimulus, not out of opposition to Big Government, but in spite of it. They simply wanted their pork included.
But Henninger does ask the question no one on Capitol Hill wants offered -- if this $1.2 trillion Frankenstein's monster of wealth transfers and exploding spending is supposed to create jobs and help families, why then does it do more for Pennsylvania Avenue than for Main Street? And he takes Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell to task for playing along with Obama's dreams of exponentially-expanding government.