What school of economics teaches this logic?

In his book “Capitalism and Freedom” (1962) Milton Friedman (1912-2006) advocated minimizing the role of government in a free market as a means of creating political and social freedom. Friedman was perhaps our country’s leading economist. Here’s an excerpt from a 1979 interview with Phil Donahue:

Those basic principals of sound economics stand in sharp contrast to the big government in store for us today. It pains me to see how far we as a nation are straying from the basic philosophy of capitalism. I hope we see the error in our ways before it’s too late.

Snowmen from across the nation gather at the Washington Monument to protest global warming.

WASHINGTON, DC—Braving balmy temperatures and sunny skies, millions of scarfless snowmen and snowwomen gathered in cities across the world Monday to raise public awareness about the heavy toll global warming is taking on their health and well-being.

According to organizers of marches in Washington, Atlanta, Montreal, Berlin, London, Reykjavik, and Moscow, global warming is the primary cause of the steep reduction in the snowman population throughout the Northern Hemisphere. Demonstrators worldwide called on their governments to take more aggressive steps to reduce the effects of climate change.

Organizers estimated the crowd at more than 375,000, but D.C. Police Commissioner Charles Stacey estimated turnout at 30,000 whole snowmen, with scattered rounded abdomens accounting for an additional 5,000. Atlanta organizers and police agree that all demonstrators had melted by 11 a.m.

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After years of liberal spending, the Golden State is on the brink of financial disaster. California lawmakers, responsible for getting us into this mess, are once again unable to pass a budget—Democrats want more taxes to keep their pet programs afloat, while Republicans insist spending be brought under control without further taxing already burdened citizens during tough financial times.

So California Senate leader Darrell Steinberg vowed yesterday to keep legislators locked up until he gets the one Republican vote Democrats need to “have it their way”. He’s “appalled” that Republicans disagree with ever higher taxes to pay for historic overspending.Dems like to claim they want to “reach across the aisle” in the spirit of bi-partisanship but, when they do, they expect Republicans to acquiesce. And that’s the way it’s gone for years. But now it’s come down to a fundamental difference in core values and basic philosophy—Democrats want to pay for past overindulgence by double dipping into taxpayers’ wallets, while Republicans want a budget that stays within the State’s means.

I’m waiting to see if the old “What have Republicans got against starving children and helpless old women” lament still works…

According to this AP article, here’s how the economic stimulus plan will affect Americans. Worth a read.

“Never let a serious crisis go to waste. What I mean by that is it’s an opportunity to do things you couldn’t do before.”

So said White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel in November, and Democrats in Congress took his advice by creating the 647-page, $825 billion House legislation that was sold as an economic “stimulus”. But when Democrats finally released the details, we better understood Rahm’s point. It managed to spend money on just about every pent-up Democratic proposal of the last 40 years.

Just scratching the surface exposed $1 billion for Amtrak, the federal railroad that hasn’t turned a profit in 40 years; $2 billion for child-care subsidies; $50 million for that great engine of job creation, the National Endowment for the Arts; $400 million for global-warming research and another $2.4 billion for carbon-capture demonstration projects, even $650 million on top of the billions already doled out to pay for digital TV conversion coupons.

House Republicans and even some Democrats argued that the Democrat appropriations bill disguised as a stimulus bill was heavily laden with pork and pet projects that had little to do with stimulus or job creation and demanded they be trimmed. Some were, although an outraged Nancy Pelosi wanted them added back in when the Senate came to bat. And so the Bill moved on to the Senate which, with the help of three RINOs (Sens. Susan Collins, Maine, Arlen Specter, Pennsylvania and Olympia Snowe, Maine), passed their version. Now dems in both bodies will feign due diligence before presumably reaching a compromise.

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Bad news for those of us who were counting on applying it liberally this year as we prepare our own tax returns…

Got this from Mike, James, Michael and Frank. It shows the photographic morphing of G.W. Bush into Barack Obama. The middle image will likely give liberals and Bush fans a few nightmares!

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This series of photos has apparently gone viral; it’s all over the ‘net. I’m sure someone will create, if they haven’t already, an animated GIF showing the same morphing. I thought this series was particularly effective, though. Even the necktie maintains its basic design. Pretty nice work! But nothing is as scary as this!

I haven’t been to Funny or Die in a while, but Jamie at Perr Bear has, and she grabbed this mini-musical skit protesting the passage of Proposition 8, the California ballot measure in last year’s general election that defined marriage in California as between a man and a woman.

Written and co-produced by Marc Shaiman (on the piano), the cast includes Jack Black, Neil Patrick Harris, John C. Reilly and other celebrities.

Law suits seeking to overturn the measure abound and the California Supreme Court has accepted three, with oral arguments and a decision expected later this year.

From James along with the lyrics. Go ahead, sing along…

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“While Americans were asleep at the wheel, a faction of our government was planning the nation’s shift to socialism, a drastic move calculated to preserve their power after their brutal rape of the treasury had rendered the country technically insolvent. Liberal lawmakers, and those that influence them, had been moving in that direction for years. Now, with control of both houses and the strategic placement of Barack Obama as president, they were ready to move to the final phase…”

Sounds like the plot of a Michael Crighton doomsday thriller, doesn’t it? But it’s not as far fetched as you might think. We’re already quasi-socialists. Socialized medicine is next, to be followed by our government taking larger portions of our incomes for redistribution to others. We’ll become increasingly dependent on government for more and more services, surrendering more of our incomes for redistribution until, finally, we’re a nation of socialists with government “sharing” all wealth - yours and mine - for the good of the state.

How did we allow this to happen? Well, the GOP put us here by giving us eight years of George W. Bush and then, when Romney could probably have beaten Obama by a good 20 points, backing over-the-hill war hero John McCain instead. Don’t get me wrong, I like and respect John McCain, but he was the wrong choice for such an important campaign.

But I’m through licking my political wounds. Now I’m bracing for eight years of well orchestrated programs and tax initiatives aimed at advancing us from “closet” socialism to “naked” socialism. That’s the “change” Obama promised, what his political upbringing taught him was needed in America, and what he and political adviser Robert Reich, along with other socialists like Charlie Rangle, are already working hard to implement. Get used to social engineering the likes of which this country has never seen. It’s going to be a bumpy ride.

Got this from several readers and it clears all the smoke and mirrors Congress has put up to divert blame and responsibility for this mess from the real culprits - them.

“Mortgage backed securities are like boxes of chocolates. Crooks on Wall Street stole a few chocolates from the boxes and replaced them with turds. Their criminal buddies at Standard & Poor rated the boxes ‘AAA investment grade’ chocolates and they were sold to investors all over the world. Eventually, somebody bit into a turd and discovered the crime. Then nobody trusted American chocolates anymore.

Hank Paulson thought it would be good if American taxpayers bought up all the boxes of chocolate turds for $700 billion and held them until a market for turds developed. Meanwhile, Hank’s buddies, the Wall Street crooks who stole all the good chocolates, aren’t being investigated, arrested, or even indicted.

It’s like Mama always says: ‘Sniff the chocolates first, Forrest’”.

To add insult to injury, Fannie Mae has the cajones to be a double dipper. They asked for “expect” another $16 Billion to keep them afloat! (Freddie wants another $35 Billion!) Shouldn’t they both have already been flushed?

From Denny Wilson…

I don’t know how long this podcast will stay up, but Sacramento morning drive talk radio personalities Armstrong and Getty offered a hilarious take yesterday on what is apparently the transcript of a taped telephone conversation between Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich and Barack Obama’s newly appointed chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel.

Jump ahead to about half way through the podcast. Like I said, it’s hilarious!