Sunday, August 30, 2009

Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose

Milton Friedman on the Economy in 1979 talking with Phil Donahue, followed by more proof government is going the wrong way, and the free market is the greatest cause of happiness in the world.

Part 1:


Part 2:


Part 3:


Part 4:


Part 5:


During part 4, at around the minute and a half mark, Friedman discusses Exxon, and mentions that the government could tell them to not make any money.

Friedman: "Look, if you say to Exxon, one thing we're going to do is to make it impossible for you to make any money producing oil -"

Donahue interrupts, rejecting the idea that the government would destroy an energy company as absurd: "You're going to have a hard time getting the American people to agree with that type of thing."

Oh really?


Part 5 even has a mention about health care... in the exact same way we're facing problems now.

---
Okay, enough of Donahue's big hair - time for a palate cleanser:

A hot chick on a Dodge Challenger RT. And it's all brought to you by the free market, not government.

Friday, August 21, 2009

Brother's Keepers

"These are all fabrications that have been put out there in order to discourage people from meeting what I consider to be a core ethical and moral obligation: that is, that we look out for one another; that is, I am my brother's keeper, I am my sister's keeper. And in the wealthiest nation in the world right now we are neglecting to live up to that call."
- President Barack Hussein Obama, August 2009

Oh really?

Let's remember where his brother is right now.



Meanwhile, multimillionaire President Obama is staying in one of these instead of the White House:


And doing this:


Even if he does throw like a girl.

And that's not even scratching the surface of the Stalinist/Baghdad Bob "Everyone is lying about my program! It is all disinformation! My health care is perfect! Do not question me, you racist! The people opposing me need to shut up and get out of the way!"

Wednesday, August 12, 2009

Prez's Allies Take A Page From... The Joker?

Giving away money

Back to school spree: Billionaire, feds give out $175M to aid neediest students around the state

A $200 back-to-school giveaway for needy kids sparked a mad rush for money on the streets of New York on Tuesday.

"It's free money!" said Alecia Rumph, 26, who waited in a Morris Park, Bronx, line 300 people deep for the cash to buy uniforms and book bags for her two kids.

"Thank God for Obama. He's looking out for us."

Thousands of people lined up at banks and check-cashing shops to withdraw the cash that magically appeared on their electronic benefit cards.

Some rushed out because of rumors the money would vanish by the end of the day.

"Rumors, there's always rumors," said Teresa Medina, who waited four hours at a Pay-O-Matic in Clinton Hill, Brooklyn, to get $600 for her three teenagers - just in case they were true.

The no-strings-attached money went to families receiving food stamps or welfare.

Every child between 3 and 17 was eligible for $200, which worked out to 813,845 kids across the state - including 498,866 in the city.

"Times are really tough right now. The situation is bad with money. So it's easy to want to use the money for other things," said Ana Barcos, 31, of Corona, Queens, where 200 people waited outside a check-cashing business.

"But if the money's supposed to be for my kids, then I will use it for my kids."

--
Sure she will.
--
Billionaire philanthropist George Soros gave $35 million toward the program, with $140 million in federal stimulus funds routed through state government making up the rest.
--
Translated: taxpayer money used as payoffs.
--
Paterson's Republican critics blasted the giveaway, saying he should spend the money to reduce property taxes.

"It is a plan that is ripe for fraud and abuse," said Senate Republican leader Dean Skelos. "This is a totally irresponsible use of federal stimulus money."

--
Stop being a jerk. I'm sure that no-strings attached money given to people who won't get off welfare and get a job will be put to good use. They're unemployed because of the bias inherent in the system, not because they're shiftless and lazy and get rewarded for not working. /s





And now it's time for who do you trust? Hubba hubba hubba! Money money money! Who do you trust?
Me? I've giving away free money!
...
And now comes the part where I relieve you, the little people, of the burden of your failed and useless lives.

But, as my plastic surgeon always said - if you gotta go, go with a smile!




Wednesday, August 5, 2009

Individualism vs. Collectivism Part 5

Part 5 of the series entitled, "The Proper Role of Government."



If you like the series here is the link to the guy who put this all together here.

Saturday, August 1, 2009

Cash For Clunkers*

(*Ruining Used Cars Poorer Folks Can Afford)

http://hotair.com/archives/2009/08/01/just-a-reminder-cash-for-clunkers-requires-destroying-perfectly-usable-cars/

A new, perfectly good Volvo that would make a wonderful, affordable, reliable family car in the used market.

Murdered.

A running, functional, Chevy SUV, perfect for a growing family or even a work vehicle.

Murdered.

http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-2304-DC-Republican-Examiner~y2009m8d1-Video-The-Vaguely-Disturbing-Death-of-a-Clunker

A running, functional Jeep. Beat up, needing new tires, but well within the price range and mechanical ability of someone who needs a good vehicle to get to and from work in the winter.

Murdered.

...

There are families out there that need cars. There are mechanics who work on them that need jobs. There are auto parts stores that exist to keep them running. Environmentally, they're already built, so maintenance work consumes fewer ecological resources than building a toxic-battery death-trap hybrid.

Emotionally (yes, this is very indicative of my age here) this is like watching the Transformers movie as a kid and seeing characters I'd known for years killed. This is like watching Optimus Prime die.

From an objective standpoint, it's like God is tearing pages from Atlas Shrugged and they're coming true. When John Galt says he will "Stop the motor of the world," he means men's minds... and all Galt does is let idiot moocher/looter/statist/leftist barbarians grind the world to a halt as he steps out of the way.

Now we see those same savages sacraficing the progress of thousands of years in the name of their proven-to-be-lies pagan religion of Global Warming. Even that poor Jeep could take a man on a full tank of gas hundreds of miles down the road in a day - further than any ox-drawn cart ever could. It could save huge amounts of labor that could never be done by hand, it could drive faster than any horse can ride and get a wounded man to help or a pregnant woman to a doctor.

Now, it's a destroyed hulk...

Nothing but a shrine to the destructiveness of the filthy statist tyrant philosophy of regression and their primitive sky-worshipping religion.

Each one of these vehicles is a masterwork of engineering - of designers, engineers, chemists, physicists, miners, smelters, oilworkers, assemblymen - all of their collective labor being built into a mechanical triumph. The engineer who designs it, the chemists who make the plastic to make the bodies lighter, the physicists who've designed the smaller generators, the miners and smelters who make the steel, the oilworkers and chemists who make the plastics, and the assemblymen who put it together. From thousands of miles apart, they've worked together to provide a vehicle that transports a man at higher speeds than man has ever seen before - giving mobility and giving freedom to millions! They save lives, they bring lives together... and now...

They're murdered for some regressive quackery religion that masquerades as truth by consensus of lies and attacks anyone who questions it. They're murdered by a government that's become corrupt enough to do quantifiable harm to its own citizens by seizing the money earned by the sweat of their brow and using it to take the very vehicles they seek to own and destroy them. Taxed, destroyed, murdered.

Damn them.

A man on horseback riding all day until exhaustion could maybe manage a hundred miles.

A man in a car can drive a thousand miles in a day in comfort - heat or cool, sitting and resting - and with lights leading his way when the sun goes down. We used to hang horse theives. Now the horse theives tax us to kill our own horses.

Damn them.