The secret to instant wealth is to spot a mass delusion and bet against it. The Tulip Craze. Florida swamp land.
Getting the timing right is tricky, but we are blessed with an overload of mass delusions. You can pick your own favorite. Delusional bubbles have to pop at some point, because the people who are paying for them eventually figure out that they’ve been had.
If I am pessimistic about the future of liberty, it is because I am pessimistic about the strength of the English-speaking nations, which have, in profound ways, surrendered to forces at odds with their inheritance. “Declinism” is in the air, but some of us apocalyptic types are way beyond that. The United States is facing nothing so amiable and genteel as Continental-style “decline,” but something more like sliding off a cliff.
For nearly 20 years now I’ve been a conservative, which means that for nearly 20 years I’ve watched the hopelessly corrupt mainstream media do their dishonest dirty work on behalf of their allies on the left. And I would love to say that what happened over the weekend surprised me, but as soon as I learned of the tragic shootings, I knew exactly what was coming because we’ve seen it all before. Those of you old enough to remember the assassination of President Kennedy also remember the media blaming a murder committed by an openly Marxist Castro supporter on right-wing anger. I, of course, remember a mercenary President Clinton attempting to use the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing to silence his own political enemies. And it’s worth remembering that these witch hunts were all successfully accomplished with the help of a complicit media that was then able to drown out reason and truth with their monopoly on the narrative.
We must re-define the scope of government. The original idea of America was to have a strong but very limited in scope Federal Government. The Constitution laid out clearly what the scope was to be and it is a small fraction of what it has evolved into today.
There is no question that as time goes on there are new issues that arise because of new problems and technologies, but the inherent and legal philosophy can and should still be used to make the determination on whether it fits into the federal government’s proper role to manage these things. If it is something that falls outside of what the constitution allows, they either must not do it or we change the constitution to accommodate this new responsibility. The reason this is so important is not just because one is a stickler for the letter of the Constitution but because Governments, unless strictly held in check, only grow over time.
The cost of illuminating your home is about to go up significantly. Most Americans take for granted that when they flip a switch, darkness immediately gives way to a warm, natural light. That’s no longer possible in California, where a regulation that took effect Jan. 1 only allows the sale of harsh, cold compact fluorescents above a certain wattage. Unless the new Congress takes action, the same rules will apply to the rest of the country, beginning next year.
The prohibition on buying real light bulbs follows from the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007, signed into law by then-President George W. Bush. The measure gave bureaucratic zealots in the Golden State permission to embark on their confiscatory policy a year early. Of course, in true Orwellian fashion, the California Energy Commission strongly denies it’s doing anything to prohibit consumers from buying the type of bulbs they prefer. “You can still buy any type of light bulb you like, the only difference is that the new bulbs will use less energy and cost less money to operate,” the commission’s website explains. Left unsaid is that it’s a crime to sell newly manufactured cheap bulbs that produce a pleasing, natural light of 100 watts or more.
Finally, here is an edition of Road to Serfdom that does justice to its monumental status in the history of liberty. It contains a foreword by the editor of the Hayek Collected Works, Bruce Caldwell. Caldwell has added helpful explanatory notes and citation corrections, among other improvements. For this reason, the publisher decided to call this “the definitive edition.” It truly is.
New York Congressman Anthony Weiner is making a name for himself.
He wants taxes raised on wealthy Americans and is one of the more vocal opponents to the deal that would retain current tax rates for everyone.
“An estate tax cut for millionaires adds exactly zero jobs. A tax cut for billionaires – virtually none,” says the congressman.
But what does Weiner know about job creation, about work, about being an entrepreneur?
The State of Israel is a modern incarnation of one of the ancient sources of today’s civilization. Our civilization — Western Civilization — traces its origins to the confluence of Judaic, Hellenic, and Roman cultures in what eventually became Christian Europe.
A 21-year-old woman walks into a police headquarters, a normal occurrence most days, except for this one. Thirteen pounds of explosives and a detonating device are attached to her body underneath her clothes. But before she has the chance to blow herself up along with the building and everyone in it, she is, fortunately, apprehended.