Posted on By: Fred

Who wouldn’t enjoy firing these people?

Earlier this week, Mitt Romney got into trouble for saying, “I like being able to fire people who provide services to me.” To comprehend why the political class reacted as if Romney had just praised Hitler, you must understand that his critics live in a world in which no one can ever be fired — a world known as “the government.”

(And a tip for you Washington types: Just because a person became rich without working for government doesn’t mean he is “Wall Street.” A venture capital firm in Boston that tries to rescue businesses headed for bankruptcy, for example, is not “Wall Street.”)

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Posted on By: Fred

To Get Ron Paul’s Insanity, You Have To Understand Libertarianism

To “get” Ron Paul you have to understand libertarianism — an ism every bit as delusional as Marxism. The National Libertarian Party, which first ran a presidential candidate in 1972, hasn’t had many wins — electing 4 state legislators in as many decades, as well as a planning commissioner here and an alderman there. Ron Paul is its greatest success.

The Texas congressman is far and away the most prominent proponent of what I like to call rightwing utopianism. Libertarianism is to authentic conservatism what Barack Obama is to 19th century liberalism.

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Posted on By: Fred

Hey, remember this guy?

With all eyes on the Republicans and their presidential-nomination donnybrook, behind the scenes President Obama is still busy with the “fundamental transformation” of the US that he promised during the 2008 campaign.

While analysts have been chewing over Rick Santorum’s surprise near-victory over front-runner Mitt Romney in the Iowa caucuses last week, the real action has been going on under the media radar in Washington, where:

Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/opedcolumnists/hey_remember_this_guy_L7HnrH4rTOZHgR4vwjCrYI#ixzz1isd3LUid

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Posted on By: Fred

They Mean Well. Really?

For the life of me, I can’t figure out why conservative pundits, even such stalwarts as Rush Limbaugh, when discussing the virtually inexhaustible supply of liberal follies and blunders, hasten to express their confidence that the perpetrators are “well-intentioned.” Why do conservatives hew mindlessly to the conventional line that far-left radicals are necessarily high-minded and motivated by the best of intentions?

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Posted on By: Fred

Craving Another Great Depression

Pushing his agenda for higher taxes on “the rich,” President Obama kicked off his December 6 speech in Kansas by saying his Kansas grandparents “shared the optimism of a nation that triumphed over the Great Depression.”

In fact, the 1929 stock market crash turned into the long-running Great Depression because the counterproductive soak-the-rich policies of the federal government hadn’t “triumphed” in reversing the downturn.

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Posted on By: Fred

Five Big Lies in Obama’s Economic Fairness Speech

Election ’12: One thing is certainly true about President Obama — no matter how many times people point out the falsehoods in his speeches, he just keeps making them. Case in point: his latest “economic fairness” address.

In that speech Tuesday, Obama once again tried to build a case for his liberal, big-spending, tax-hiking, regulatory agenda. But as with so many of his past appeals, Obama’s argument rests on a pile of untruths. Among the most glaring:

• Tax cuts and deregulation have “never worked” to grow the economy. There’s so much evidence to disprove this claim, it’s hard to know where to start. But let’s begin with the fact that countries with greater economic freedom — lower taxes, less government, sound money, free trade — consistently produce greater overall prosperity

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Posted on By: Fred

Politically, Steve Jobs Was Pure Microsoft

The recently deceased Apple honcho Steve Jobs had a Manichean take on the digital marketplace. As he saw it, Apple — with its closed systems; its elegant simplicity; and its organic, innovative thoroughly integrated hardware and software — reflected the good, spiritual world of the light.

On the dark, material side of the digital divide — with its open operating systems, all promiscuously licensed, and its imitative, inorganic content and applications — loomed Microsoft.

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Posted on By: Fred

Bloomberg’s Broken Windows

In 1982, two social scientists—George L. Kelling and James Q. Wilson—published an article in the Atlantic in which they argued that a city window left broken is an invitation to further disorder. Their message was as simple as it was unconventional. Sweat the small stuff (graffiti, aggressive panhandling, petty crime) and you’ll stop problems before they grow bigger.

In the three decades since, mayors and police chiefs across America have transformed their cities by taking the broken-window message to heart, especially in New York. Now Occupy Wall Street has taken a high-profile part of Manhattan and turned it into an anarchist campground worse than the Tompkins Square Park of the 1980s, when it stood for the worst of New York—encampments of the homeless and a haven for drug dealing. The OWS protesters seem to have no fear of Michael Bloomberg: A sign at one entryway warns hizzoner that if he tries to interfere, he will be the one arrested.

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Posted on By: Fred

New York couple tries to trademark ‘Occupy Wall St.’

A Long Island couple wants to trademark the slogan “Occupy Wall St.” with the intent to sell sweatshirts, T-shirts, bumper stickers and hobo bags, among other merchandise.

“I’m no marketing genius, but when you got something that’s across 50 states, it’s a brand now,” said 44-year-old Robert Maresca of West Islip, New York.

Maresca’s wife, Diane, filed a trademark application with the United States Patent and Trademark Office on October 18 and paid a fee of $975.

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