January 31, 2010

The IPCC fudges it again

Posted by Dr. Roy Cordato at 9:13 PM

This time it's claims about the rainforest.

Linkable Entry

Shhh — Don’t Tell Anyone

Posted by John Hood at 8:17 PM

In my view, once you read this account of the back-channel negotiations underway among Democratic leaders and special interests to pass ObamaCare against the manifest will of the American people, you know pretty much all you need to know about the extremists involved. A revealing quote:

"In a 24-hour news cycle, with the Internet and bloggers and cable news, sometimes a lot more can be accomplished, especially with healthcare, when it happens behind closed doors," said Drew Altman, a healthcare policy expert who heads the nonprofit Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation.

Just imagine if any Right-leaning foundation president had similarly argued that major legislation ought to be fashioned in secret and enacted through parliamentary tricks, in order not to alert any pesky “bloggers and cable news.” The political class would have (properly) erupted in anger.

As should you.

Linkable Entry

If you don't like what the Constitution says, amend it

Posted by Rick Henderson at 5:10 PM

The Constitution does not permit. It does not dispense rights. It grants limited powers to the various branches of government and then provides checks and balances. Such as Article 1, Section 8: "The Congress shall have power to ..."

The Bill of Rights does not grant rights, either. Those 10 amendments limit the power of government to encroach on the rights presumed to belong to all of us.

The Founders were students of the proponents of natural law, especially John Locke and his treatises on government. For the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson drew from Locke's argument that government must protect the people's life, liberty and property or it may be legitimately overthrown.

James Madison embraced Locke's concepts of checks and balances in the Constitution. Madison even thought the Bill of Rights unnecessary because such rights are presumed.

Linkable Entry

The Obama/Bernanke plan: increasing exports with a hidden "weak dollar tax"

Posted by Dr. Roy Cordato at 08:32 AM

In his State of the Union Address President Obama said that, as part of his plans to "create jobs" his focus was going to be on increasing exports. Of course our exporting industries cannot sell anything that foreign consumers aren't willing to buy. So how do we insure that products made in the US are competitive in foreign markets? Well it appears that Obama's plan is to continue the Fed's inflationary weak dollar policy, a policy that the he endorsed by reappointing Ben Bernanke as Fed Chair. The weaker the dollar is against foreign currencies, the cheaper US goods are in foreign markets. It is in essence a subsidy to foreign consumers paid for with a tax on American consumers. This is because the weaker dollar makes imports, and therefore the American made products that compete with them, more expensive to Americans. It lowers the cost of living for foreigners and raises the cost of living for Americans. American producers could truly become more competitive internationally by increasing the efficiency of production. But this is obviously not what the president has in mind. In fact most of what he has done and proposes to do will dramatically increase the cost of production in the US--this includes the cap and trade tax, the government takeover of health insurance, and increased unionization through card check. The Obama/Bernanke weak dollar policy may increase imports but only by imposing a hidden tax on American consumers and, in the long run, by reducing the real competitiveness of American industry.

Linkable Entry

<< Last Entry