Friday, January 30, 2009

Bailouts and Profits

Obama calls $18B in Wall St. bonuses 'shameful'
"There will be time for them to make profits, and there will be time for them to get bonuses. Now is not that time." -President Obama

I oppose bailouts -- but: What is the purpose of a government bailout if not to make a failing business profitable?

The irony:

Reduced Wall Street Bonuses Cause Deficit

Bloomberg to announce $1 billion in cuts to NYC services.

Friday, January 23, 2009

The Health Adventure


The Health Adventure
Cumberland Ave Asheville NC 28801
(Broadway@Catawba)

SITE PLAN: http://snipr.com/ahsa4
ILLUSTRATION: http://snipr.com/a18wf
PIN: 9649-09-05-0760 DB 3540, PG 0243
PIN: 9649-09-05-4447 DB 4427, PG 0241
ZONING: INST-CUZ
TOTAL AREA: 8.78 acres

Annual Report 2007:
http://snipr.com/alicf [www_thehealthadventure_org]

Weblog:
http://constructioncommunication.blogspot.com/

Momentum website:
http://www.momentumscience.org/joomla/

RESOLUTION NO. 04-67 - RESOLUTION AUTHORIZING THE MAYOR TO ENTER INTO AN AGREEMENT WITH THE HEALTH ADVENTURE TO TRANSFER 1.14 ACRES OF CITY-OWNED PROPERTY LOCATED AT THE CORNER OF CATAWBA AND BROADWAY IN EXCHANGE FOR AN .89 ACRE GREENWAY EASEMENT AND CONSTRUCTION OF A GREENWAY ACROSS THEIR PROPERTY (March 23, 2004)
http://snipr.com/aliaz [www_ashevillenc_gov]

RESOLUTION NO. 07-85 - RESOLUTION AUTHORIZING CONVEYANCE OF PROPERTY AT CATAWBA AND BROADWAY TO HEALTH ADVENTURE FOR PUBLIC PURPOSES (April 17, 2007)
http://snipr.com/aliab [www_ashevillenc_gov]

Trees come down at Health Adventure site, rankling neighbors
Rebecca Sulock | Mountain Xpress | 01/21/2009
First the chainlink fences and No Trespassing signs went up. Then the trees came down.

Tree Slaughter: An Asheville Health Adventure?
Clare Hanrahan | Asheville on the Ground | January 12, 2009
I guess it was just all in a day's work for the men who woke up this morning with the task of cutting down scores of large trees in an urban forested area bounded by Cumberland Ave. and Broadway.

Maudlin home movie [video]
Narration: Cecil Bothwell, 2009 city council candidate. Soundtrack: Miles Davis.

Hippies cry for dead trees [video]

Wednesday, January 14, 2009

LTE: Let's Hear It For Capitalism

Let’s hear it for capitalism
by Tim Peck | Mountain Xpress | 01/14/2009

I applaud Western Carolina University for their wisdom in accepting the very generous donation from BB&T, a successful financial institution that practices what it preaches ["Capitalism on Campus"]. And I applaud BB&T for [requesting] as a condition of their generosity that WCU include Ayn Rand’s remarkable novel Atlas Shrugged in their required reading list and teach the substance of her political philosophy of capitalism in their business school. Capitalism is superior among all systems of social organization.

Capitalism says that you have the right to live your life freely, to contract with others without interference, to form associations of your own choosing, to engage in commerce and trade with others for mutual profit, and to travel wherever your heart desires – so long as you do not injure anyone else's right to do the same.

Capitalism says that you have a right to own property and to use and dispose of that property as you see fit, in both private and business spheres – so long as you do not injure anyone else's right to do the same.

Capitalism says that you are the captain of your own destiny and that you are permitted by right to seek and sustain life-supporting values – so long as you do not injure anyone else's right to do the same.

Capitalism says that governments are established to protect your inalienable rights through a secular constitution, adherence to a rule of law, enforcements through police and courts, and a vigorous national defense. And furthermore, that there should be a strict wall of separation between economy and state.

Unregulated laissez-faire free-market Capitalism is the political-economic social system of freedom and is the only system that recognizes, respects and actively seeks to protect our rights and minds from predation, force, and fraud, from whatever source, whether it be our neighbor, hostile nations, or our own government. This country needs and deserves Capitalism now more than ever and I am hopeful that this can be achieved in our own lifetimes – and for the first time.

There is, and has long been, a preponderance of instruction in colleges and universities across our country teaching, and even promoting, the pernicious principles and practices of Socialism, Marxism, and other various statist hybrids, including our own political-economic system of Interventionism.

It is well past time for grant-making foundations to offer and for our educational institutions to expose our young adults to some measure of intellectual diversity in an academic setting, however slight (as indeed this is), as a gesture of respect for their capacity for independent thought and rational judgment, which supposedly have been inculcated in them throughout the course of their formal education.






RELATED

Capitalism on campus, WCU follows profitable trend
by Nelda Holder | Mountain Xpress | 12/23/2008

Capitalism on Campus
by Tim Peck | Et in Arcadia ego | 12/23/2008 - 12/30/2008

Capitalism on campus
by Tom Sullivan | Mountain Xpress |1/7/2008

Ayn Rand—still a bad idea
by Tom Coppola | Mountain Xpress | 1/7/2008

What’s ethical about egoism?
by Thad Eckard | Mountain Xpress | 1/7/2008

Capitalism and the Moral High Ground
Craig Biddle | Objective Standard | Winter 2008
Concretizes the selfishness-enabling nature of capitalism and shows why this feature makes it the only moral social system on earth.

Atlas Shrugged: From Fiction to Fact in 52 Years
By Stephen Moore | WSJ | Jan 9, 2009
Many of us who know Rand's work have noticed that with each passing week, and with each successive bailout plan and economic-stimulus scheme out of Washington, our current politicians are committing the very acts of economic lunacy that "Atlas Shrugged" parodied in 1957, when this 1,000-page novel was first published and became an instant hit.

American Academia and the Survival of Marxist Ideas
Darío Fernández-Morera | 1996

Political Correctness — The Revenge of Marxism
by Baron Bodissey | June 14, 2006

Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Make Work

The government cannot create jobs.

It can only use coercive force to move wealth from one sector of the economy, where it belongs, to another sector of the economy, where it does not belong, by means of subjective and improper political calculation instead of objective and proper market calculation.

Ultimately, government interference in the free market destroys liberty and wealth.
"Every government interference in the economy consists of giving an unearned benefit, extorted by force, to some men at the expense of others."
-Ayn Rand

Debunking Keynesianism



Schiff vs Obama





RELATED

Why Government Spending Does Not Stimulate Economic Growth
by Brian M. Riedl | Heritage Foundation | November 12, 2008
This is not the first time government expansions have failed to produce economic growth. Massive spending hikes in the 1930s, 1960s, and 1970s all failed to increase economic growth rates.

Paving Projects Won’t Boost Economy
William F. Shughart II | Independent Institute | Jan 6, 2009
The truth is government cannot “create” jobs or wealth in one sector of the economy without destroying them in others.

Obama’s Backward Economics
Yaron Brook | January 9, 2009
Obama-nomics couldn’t be more wrong.

Stimulating Our Way to Rock Bottom
Ron Paul | January 12, 2009
The truth is our economic problems are due to loose monetary policy, central economic planning, and the parasitic expenses of government. Unless we assess these problems honestly, we unfortunately have a long way to go until, like the junkie, we hit rock bottom.

The Obama Stimulus Plan Won’t Work
Dominick T. Armentano | Independent Institute | Jan 22, 2009
In theory, the money to fund the stimulus will have to come from either massive federal borrowing, substantial tax hikes, or pure money inflation by the Federal Reserve. But none of this can remotely promote recovery in the private sector of the economy.

There Is No Santa
by Walter E. Williams | January 28, 2009
Imagine you see a person at work taking buckets of water from the deep end of a swimming pool and dumping them into the shallow end in an attempt to make it deeper. You would deem him stupid. That scenario is equivalent to what Congress and the new president proposes for the economy.

Public Works Mean Taxes
Economics in One Lesson by Henry Hazlitt
There is no more persistent and influential faith in the world today than the faith in government spending

Saturday, January 03, 2009

Religion v. Government

It's time for action on the abortion issue
Diana Ronald-Szabo | AC-T | January 3, 2009
"Also based on a lie is the phrase 'separation of church and state.' ”

MY RESPONSE:

So, the strict wall of separation between religion and government is little more than a nasty little lie.(The Taliban would be proud.)

Folks, here you have it, unapologetically, in a nutshell. This is the object that the theocrats are seeking: a 'de facto' merging of church and state in order to coercively impose the peculiar faith-based values of the religionist on everyone else in a pluralistic society by force of law.

All attention and vigilance is needed to keep these religious bigots in their cage.

I am pro-life. That's why I believe in an already-living woman's inalienable right to choose her own right to life and personhood over against a developing organism entirely dependent on the living, breathing, eating woman for its life, which would obtain the potential moral and legal status of personhood only after having been carried and delivered by birth and by breath into the life of the mind, the heart, and the soul.



RELATED

Coalition for Secular Government

Friday, January 02, 2009

Obama and FDR

American finance in crisis: Can Obama reverse the trend?
Dr. Lloyd Stover | AC-T | January 2, 2009

"President-elect Obama has ready announced plans for a large public works program, in hopes of creating millions of jobs and stimulating the economy. It appears reasonable to presume that investments in green technology, education and infrastructure could lead to increased productivity, which will in turn stimulate economic growth. . . He may want to review lessons learned from another great American steward: FDR."

MY RESPONSE:

The government does not have money. It does not produce anything of value. It only has the coercive power to move value from one market-determined sector (where it belongs) to another politically-determined sector (where it does not belong).

Fans of FDR mistakenly credit him with helping the economy during the depression. What that diminishing fan base apparently does not yet understand is that it was the meddling interventionist policies of Hoover and FDR that turned a mild, government-caused recession into a disastrous and painful decade-long GREAT DEPRESSION. In a natural and unhampered economy, the recession ends in well under three years.



RELATED

New Deal or Raw Deal?: How FDR's Economic Legacy Has Damaged America
by Burton W., Jr. Folsom | November 4, 2008
In this shocking and groundbreaking new book, economic historian Burton W. Folsom exposes the idyllic legend of Franklin D. Roosevelt as a myth of epic proportions...

Book Review: "New Deal or Raw Deal?"
Reviewed by Eric Daniels | Objective Standard | Winter 2008
As the Obama administration begins to implement its economic plan, Americans would do well to reexamine the history of the original New Deal and its effects. Though most historians rank FDR as a great president, some, including Burton Folsom Jr., boldly dare to ask if “the New Deal, rather than helping to cure the Great Depression, actually help[ed to] prolong it” (p. 7). According to Folsom, a professor of history at Hillsdale College, the answer is clearly the latter.

Book Review: "New Deal or Raw Deal?"
by David Gordon | The Mises Review | Fall 2008
Government spending, if it takes place through the expansion of bank credit, will, if "successful," result in another artificially created boom. The recovery thus generated will result in the long run in even worse economic distress, once that new boom in turn collapses. Nor can a policy of further monetary expansion indefinitely postpone disaster. Eventually people's confidence in the monetary system will crumble, and a hyperinflation will result...

FDR's Folly: How Roosevelt and His New Deal Prolonged the Great Depression
by Jim Powell | September 28, 2004
In FDR's Folly, historian Jim Powell argues that it was in fact the New Deal itself, with its shortsighted programs, that deepened the Great Depression, swelled the federal government, and prevented the country from turning around quickly. You'll discover in alarming detail how FDR's federal programs hurt America more than helped it, with effects we still feel today...

Great Myths About the Great Depression
by Thomas Sowell | October 10, 2003
That description would apply to many of the others around FDR, including his ... In "FDR's Folly," author Jim Powell spells out just what the Roosevelt...

Another Great Depression?
by Thomas Sowell | Dec 22, 2008
With both Barack Obama's supporters and the media looking forward to the new administration's policies being similar to President Franklin D. Roosevelt's policies during the 1930s depression, it may be useful to look at just what those policies were and-- more important-- what their consequences were...

The Fraud of Government Intervention
By Robert Tracinski | December 31, 2008
The top story of 2008 is undoubtedly the revival of the left. After nearly two decades on the defensive following the collapse of the Soviet empire--the definitive example of the failure of socialism--advocates of a government-controlled economy are trying to make a comeback. How brazen has this leftist revival become? It has gotten so far out of hand that some on the left are openly defending central planning. Yes, comrades, you read that right...

The Forgotten Man: A New History of the Great Depression
Amity Shlaes | June 12, 2007
Campaign 2008 is in its way a campaign of despair, at least when it comes to domestic policy. Democrat or Republican, candidates must address the same problem: on the one hand, voters have enormous faith in the private sector; on the other, they expect government to provide them with ever more generous entitlements. In The Forgotten Man, Amity Shlaes takes us back to show us how the roots of our disillusionment can be found in a single election year, 1936.

Interview with Amity Shlaes [video]
Economics expert, New York Times bestselling author of "The Forgotten Man: A New History of the Great Depression." Shlaes discussed some of the causes that led up to the Great Depression and how people were affected by the catastrophic economic conditions of the time.
INTERVIEW: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8

Obama's team polishing economic stimulus measure
Andrew Taylor | Associated Press | January 2, 2009
"My main worry is whether or not we can find enough places to responsibly put money so that you have a big enough effect to correct the problem or at least mitigate the problem," said House Appropriations Committee Chairman David Obey, D-Wis.