Monthly Archives: January 2011

THIS.

My apologies (even if you’re not sorry) for the lack of original content at DuelingBarstools. I’ve been slogged of late. Also, my previous post about Nanny-Brit Jamie Oliver seems to have put my lexicon of British jargon at the front of me brain. Speaking of, I love Brits. I lived with dozens of them for various lengths of time whilst in Fiji in 2007 and 2008. Whenever I meet Brits the back of my brain plays a game with itself (if you can’t play with yourself, you can’t play with others – know what I mean?) that wonders what role he or she, based upon his/her respective personality) would have played in the Empire circa 1840. It’s fun. Anyway, here’s some good reading for the weekend (or even this fine Friday evening, if you’re home like me, unfortunately for us):

Some guy I’ve never heard of and whose political compass I’m not sure points towards freedom as I demand of “conservatives” is the new chairman of the GOP. The Republican Liberty Caucus didn’t seem too impressed with him on Facebook today, so while the jury’s still out, meet the new boss. Probably same as the old boss. Unfortunately. Sheesh that was pessimistic.

Comprehensive list of tax increases as a result of Obamacare. Speaking of, the newest meme seems to be that anyone who calls it Obamacare is a moron because it’s not really what Obama wanted but rather is merely insurance reform, so don’t blame it on Obama. I picked up that scent trail on various blogs’ comments, articles, etc. See, e.g., here (a soon to be defunct MMA website – probably the most unlikely of places).

Maine Governor tells NAACP to kiss his ass. To prove we’re not in a post-racial society, the (white) governor made sure to remind all listening that his son “happens to be black” – so don’t hate. Hmmm… “Happens to be.” For the record, I don’t happen to be anything. Happen has nothing to do with it, fool. For instance, I’m definitely Spanish (Punta de Tarifa – Gibraltar, essentially), Hawaiian (Kanaka’oluna ‘ohana, represent!), Portuguese (Madeira / Azores), Scottish (Tulloch, purportedly – there’s good reason to believe he wasn’t actually my great great grandfather), Irish (Abbott, from Cork), English (somewhere gray, no doubt), Norwegian (no clue), Dutch (no clue – but I trust my ancestor(s) tired of plugging the dikes and g(ot)tfo), French-German (Alsace-Lorraine – I know, right, choose your side motherfucker!) and Jewish (from my Mom’s side, so it counts right?). But the only thing that really matters is that I won the global lottery by being born in America (and Hawai’i at that! FBI!). Do I “happen to be” all of that? No. It is what it is. Perhaps it’s semantics. But I’d prefer, Governor, that if you’re going to preemptively use the “I can’t be racist because I adopted a black son” defense, that you’d just say “my son is black.” What’s wrong with that? Nothing. The trouble is that you (probably correctly) feel the need to say so, to CYA with regard to the NAACP. But what do I know, the only American of largely African ancestry I’ve ever pwned pissed off is the managing editor of The Root.

77% of Americans want government to cut spending. The other 23% believe they live in the part of Imaginationland where money (apparently) grows on trees and doesn’t deflate the value of currency.

U.S. Breaks Housing Price Decline Record Set During Great Depression. Beer me.

Finally, GARY JOHNSON is the man. Once again, with feeling: Gary Johnson’s political compass points straight to more individual freedom, now. And he has a proven track record of successfully implementing a Common Sense, Business Approach to Constitutionally Limited, Fiscally Accountable Government.

For those of you who don’t watch South Park religiously, as I do, you may have missed episode 1414 “Creme Fraiche,” in which, among other brilliant satire, Trey Parker and Matt Stone take the piss out of Jamie Oliver. Why Jamie Oliver? Or rather, why am I highlighting South Park’s riff on Jamie Oliver, who occupied a minor role in the episode? Because he’s perfectly happy with using the coercive power of the state to tell others what to put in their body, to his personal, substantial profit, of course. Here’s Reason’s take on Oliver from last March. Read it, and watch the episode. Excerpt from Reason article below:

A less savory Oliver emerged in the middle part of the last decade, by which time he was clearly no longer satisfied with changing only the lives of people who sought his help. Oliver launched the Feed Me Better campaign, which he designed with the admirable goal of getting British school kids to eat healthier food. But while he could have argued in favor of parents or kids packing the cheap, easy, and tried-and-true alternative to school food—brown bag lunches—Oliver opted instead to urge more government control and increased spending on big-ticket items.

“Ovens, grills, and cooks drive up costs tremendously,” former Reason Editor in Chief Virginia Postrel wrote in a 1995 piece on school lunches. Oliver did just that, seeking and then winning hundreds of millions of dollars in new British government spending on school lunches, cafeteria-worker training, and kitchen equipment.

Negative reaction to the British government’s nationwide implementation of Oliver’s school-lunch recommendations was swift and widespread. Parents, some of whom labeled Oliver’s food “low-fat rubbish,” pulled 400,000 kids from the school-lunch rolls, choosing to brown bag it rather than have their kids eat Oliver’s “healthier” options. Parents opposed to Oliver’s scheme handed food to their kids through the gates of schoolyards. Some vendors and parents set up shop outside schools and sold food to students. Enterprising students, in turn, sold food to peers in schools, which led to suspensions for pupil transgressions as absurd as “crisp dealing.” … [Emphasis added in salute those students.]

Full South Park episode summary below via Wiki – no link to Wiki because Wiki, like other “major” websites, refuses to list the websites that link to it:

Randy has taken an erotic interest in cooking thanks to TV programs on the Food Network. Spending whole nights watching these shows inspires him to replicate the recipes and serve them to his family but leave the task of cleaning to them. Sharon becomes fed up with Randy’s behavior, and assumes his fetish for cooking must be because she has become unattractive to him. Encouraged by Sheila Broflovski and TV commercials for the Shake Weight exercise equipment, she eventually buys one with a digital voice which constantly advises, flatters, and instructs her during exercises. In line with the general parody of this device seen in United States popular culture since its debut, exercise with the Shake Weight blatantly resembles a handjob — complete with “release” of a “cooling fluid” on the exerciser’s face when “done.” Sharon’s Shake Weight also dispenses “cab fare” into her palm and goes to “sleep mode” (resembling a flaccid penis) at workout’s conclusion. At one point it coaxes Sharon into sticking her finger into a backside receptacle, ostensibly to take her pulse, as described on TV.

At South Park Elementary, Randy is discovered to have taken over as cafeteria chef (embracing his predecessor’s mannerisms), having quit his job to do so. Ignoring the planned school lunch menus, Randy cooks a variety of extremely gourmet food dishes clearly both too complex for, and not to the liking of, the students. Randy then forces Stan, Kyle, Cartman and Kenny to film himself as if he were on his own cooking show. Cartman attempts to impersonate chef Gordon Ramsay to try and discourage Randy’s passion for cooking, but the plan falls apart when various celebrity chefs such as Jamie Oliver and Bobby Flay arrive in the cafeteria to start a new competitive cooking show, entitled Hell’s Kitchen Nightmares Iron Top Chef Cafeteria Throwdown Ultimate Cookoff Challenge.

Sharon is increasingly drawn to her Shake Weight and takes a vacation to a beach resort to exercise with it in private. A short time later however, the cleaning lady in Sharon’s hotel room is caught exercising with the Shake Weight, and Sharon is angry and calls the Shake Weight company headquarters to return it.

Back at the cafeteria, where students have waited 12 hours for a meal after the kitchen was taken over by the chefs, Randy eventually leaves for home when he cannot find his key ingredient, crème fraiche. Sharon coincidentally returns home determined to resolve whatever is wrong with their marriage thanks to Randy’s obsession with cooking. When Randy mentions he has not slept for several days, Sharon offers a solution, using her experience handling the Shake Weight to give Randy an “old fashioned”. Afterwards, Randy becomes tired and falls asleep in bed, having lost all interest in cooking, and promises to get his job back the next day. Later that night, Sharon thanks the Shake Weight, having figured out its true purpose as a marriage saver. Saying that its work is done, the Shake Weight bids farewell and shuts itself off.

In light of the fact that smart people tend to drink, more, the following scholarly article should dovetails nicely with DuelingBarstools’ demographic:  ‘Tavern Talk’ & the Origins of the Assembly Clause: Tracing the First Amendment’s Assembly Clause Back to Its Roots in Colonial Taverns. Via Reason. Abstract below:

The First Amendment to the Constitution is “a cluster of distinct but related rights.” The freedom of assembly protected therein is one right that Americans exercise every day. With perhaps the exception of speech, assembly is the most widely and commonly practiced action that is enumerated in the Bill of Rights.

This freedom is also one of our least understood and least considered rights. Sometimes ignored and other times grouped with other freedoms, the right of those in America to come together peaceably deserves to be studied, respected, and celebrated.

To better understand the freedom of assembly in America, one must explore and understand its origins. Tracing the evolution of the freedom of assembly requires placing this freedom “within the context of culture.” Exploring the origins of the freedom of assembly in the context of culture requires tracing the right – as practiced – back to its fundamental situs, a term that can be used to ground rights in their proper place or places.

The proper situs of the Assembly Clause, research reveals, is in its birthplace: colonial America’s taverns. Colonial taverns served not just as establishments for drinking alcohol but as vital centers where colonists of reputations great and small gathered to read printed tracts, speak with one another on important issues of the day, debate the news, organize boycotts, draft treatises and demands, plot the expulsion of their British overlords, and establish a new nation.

In Part II I trace the early history of taverns in colonial America. In Part III I discuss the role that colonists assembling in taverns played both in fostering the freedom of assembly and in combating growing British attacks on the rights of American colonists. In Part IV I analyze the brief but informative legislative history of the Assembly Clause. In Part V I describe how tavern talk places the situs of the freedom of assembly squarely in taverns. In Part VI I conclude that in taverns and tavern talk are the origins of the Assembly Clause.

By Sean Malone of Citizen-A Media.

Here’s Peter Schiff ripping the Beltway political establishment a new arsehole:

Contempt of the political game, as it has been played for generations, instantly qualified me as a laughingstock in Mr. Rothenberg’s eyes. Although I never met him again, he regularly dashed off barbs about me in his reporting, and just recently he dubbed me “the Cockiest Candidate of 2010.” In giving me this dubious distinction, he noted that I “had no experience in politics yet figured he knew everything and was smarter than anyone else in the room.”

To be clear, I admitted to Mr. Rothenberg that my approach would be fraught with obstacles and would be unlikely to succeed. In other circles, such a commitment would elicit grudging respect. But for Mr. Rothenberg, it was simply evidence of my arrogance. Because commitment to politically unpalatable principles is so rare in Washington, it’s no wonder Mr. Rothenberg was shocked by it.

This is how the game works in big-time politics: A potential candidate hires a polling firm to create a strategically written and scientifically executed poll to discover the buzzwords and simple campaign themes that “resonate” among voters. Consultants then boil down the poll results to a few “winning” message points and strategies. At that point, the modern candidate simply hammers away again and again at those sound bites. Winners are those who stay “on message” while knocking their opponents “off message.” It is of little consequence to the professionals that this process produces the kind of vacuous, unprincipled leaders who have brought our country to the doorstep of economic ruin.

I told Mr. Rothenberg that I planned on campaigning on economic reality as I saw it and that I would level with voters about how the size and scope of our current government was unsustainable. I would tell them that their benefits would go down and that they would have to make do with less. I would not offer any easy government solutions to combat the economic crisis. The only thing I would offer would be a chance for Americans to regain the economic and personal liberties that once distinguished the United States and permitted us to rise to heights never before attained by any nation.

Read the whole thing. Really.

We’ll restore the full measure of our natural right self-preservation and control over our bodies. Sixteen part video tribute / series here. Part one embedded below. I don’t have time to watch them all, so let me know what you think.

Join hundreds of pro-liberty activists this February 10-12 at CPAC, the largest annual political conference in the country. Buy your tickets right now at a discounted rate: http://garyjohnsoncpac.eventbrite.com/

Last year, attendees heard from speakers such as Judge Andrew Napolitano, Tom Woods and Gary Johnson. And of course, this year is expected to be even bigger as activists take part in an important 2012 Presidential straw poll. All stripes of conservatives will be at CPAC and it is important that pro-liberty advocates have a strong presence.

Come to CPAC and make a statement about America’s future. Bring your friends, classmates and fellow activists to this exciting event. Recruit from liberty groups, friends, and campus organizations. Ask them to buy their ticket online: http://garyjohnsoncpac.eventbrite.com/

You can also RSVP via our Facebook link, but will still need tickets to attend the events: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=163666773672326

The liberty movement is sure to have a strong presence and this conference is crucial to shaping the conservative movement. Our America Initiative will also host a very special event that will be announced soon.

CPAC 2011 is February 10 – 12 at the Marriott Wardman Park Hotel in Washington, DC. One student ticket costs only $11.

These discounted ticket prices are only available through Our America Initiative: http://garyjohnsoncpac.eventbrite.com/

See you at CPAC!

Gary Johnson 2012

“The budget should be balanced, the Treasury should be refilled, public debt should be reduced, the arrogance of officialdom should be tempered and controlled, and the assistance to foreign lands should be curtailed lest Rome become bankrupt. People must again learn to work, instead of living on public assistance.” – Cicero – 55 BC.

My page titled Freedom Animates Me begins with:

I care about individual freedom – economic, civil, and political liberty.  I wish to preserve and expand these values because history is clear that the absence of freedom is grim. Whatever freedom’s consequences, I accept.  Freedom animates me.

That’s big talk, considering individuals are capable of heinous crimes such as Laughner’s, and regularly commit atrocities against others such as pedophilia, rape, serial killings, and so forth. Yet I maintain an unshakable preference for and belief in individual freedom, and pledge to accept its consequences. I wholly reject statism in its many forms and incarnations because over the course of recorded history, states have proven capable and willing of committing atrocities far worse than an individual or group of individuals ever has or could commit.

However, I have not yet – and may I never – had the misfortune of personally bearing the consequences of an act of individual violence such as the parents and family of the nine year old girl Laughner murdered. So I’ve talked the freedom talk, but not yet walked it. With that in mind, listen to and read what the father of the murdered nine year old had to say on the Today show in regard to his daughter’s murder. Watch it at Reason or HotAir. Here’s a quote from the father:

“We’re going to remember her for the nine years we had her,” says Green, who continues:

This shouldn’t happen in this country, or anywhere else, but in a free society, we’re going to be subject to people like this. I prefer this to the alternative.

Mr. Green, I don’t have the words. But I thank you.

Glenn Reynolds aka Instapundit (this time in the WSJ):

To be clear, if you’re using this event to criticize the “rhetoric” of Mrs. Palin or others with whom you disagree, then you’re either: (a) asserting a connection between the “rhetoric” and the shooting, which based on evidence to date would be what we call a vicious lie; or (b) you’re not, in which case you’re just seizing on a tragedy to try to score unrelated political points, which is contemptible. Which is it?

Ross Douthat had a doozy too:

This is the world that gave us Oswald and Bremer. More recently, it’s given us figures like James W. von Brunn, the neo-Nazi who opened fire at the Holocaust Museum in 2009, and James Lee, who took hostages at the Discovery Channel last summer to express his displeasure over population growth. These are figures better analyzed by novelists than pundits: as Walter Kirn put it Saturday, they’re “self-anointed knights templar of the collective shadow realm, not secular political actors in extremis.”

This won’t stop partisans from making hay out of Saturday’s tragedy, of course. The Democratic operative who was quoted in Politico saying that his party needs “to deftly pin this on the Tea Partiers” was just stating the obvious: after a political season rife with overheated rhetoric from conservative “revolutionaries,” the attempted murder of a Democratic congresswoman is a potential gift to liberalism.

But if overheated rhetoric and martial imagery really led inexorably to murder, then both parties would belong in the dock. (It took conservative bloggers about five minutes to come up with Democratic campaign materials that employed targets and crosshairs against Republican politicians.) When our politicians and media loudmouths act like fools and zealots, they should be held responsible for being fools and zealots. They shouldn’t be held responsible for the darkness that always waits to swallow up the unstable and the lost.

Found an excellent website tonight – Hawai’i Liberty Chronicles – covering many of the important issues affecting Hawai’i (e.g. the elevated, steel on steel rail fiscal disaster). Bookmark it. The website is self evidently legit because Ken Schoolland writes there. As such, Hawai’i Liberty Chronicles is hereby admitted to DuelingBarstools’ Magna Cum Blogroll.

Fyi, Ken Schoolland is the pimp-daddy behind The Philosophy of Liberty, which is the best primer on freedom you could watch or recommend your friends watch. It’s available in 39 languages, so you (probably) don’t have an excuse not to disseminate it en masse to everyone you know.

Now, a zinger of a quote (bolded for good measure) via Hawai’i Liberty Chronicles:

My grandchildren are growing up in a world where they have a 1 in 100,000 chance (give or take) of having the quality of their lives negatively affected by a terrorist act. They have a 1 in 1 chance of having their lives negatively affected by the spending cokeheads in the U.S. Congress. A note to conservative shepherds. If you want real conservative sheep to listen to you, then show some horse sense. Stop saving the flock from the flies, and think more about the wolves.

~ Douglass Wilson, from A New Perspective on (Ron) Paul

by Alex Fidel

Cost/benefit analysis FTW.

The Jones Act. John Carroll lays down the smack here:

BY JOHN CARROLL – The people of Hawai’i must be made aware of the damage the Jones Act shipping restrictions are inflicting on Hawai’i’s economy and the harm they will bring into the lives of each and every one of you.

But don’t just take my word for it.  According to a recently published article in the Star Advertiser newspaper, since 2003 increases in ocean freight rates, terminal handling costs, fuel surcharges and government fees amount to a 50 percent jump in the price of shipping a container of produce to Hawaii from California.

A walloping increase like that will affect every person sitting in this room.  Plans for future happiness will have to be postponed, or even cancelled.  University education may even become unaffordable for some children.

That compares with a 27 percent increase in Honolulu’s consumer price index during the same period.

An estimated 80 percent of what is consumed in Hawaii is imported, and 98 percent of that comes by sea.

Both Matson and competitor Horizon Lines recently announced increases in shipping rates, effective Jan. 2.

These shippers will raise their ocean freight charge, or base rate, by an average of 3.8 percent. The rates will vary depending on the items being shipped. The terminal handling charge, which is a flat rate, will increase by 19.4 percent.

According to Matson, in 2003 a container of produce shipped to Hawaii had a surcharge of only $240.  As of Jan. 2 it will soar to $1,075

This statistic alone will give you a glimpse of your future economic condition.

,Matson has increased the handling charge more than fivefold since 2003. By comparison, the base rate for a container of produce is up 14.9 percent to $4,592 during the same period.

Young Bros. of the interisland shipping market sought approval from state regulators last week to raise rates by an average of 24 percent next year. If approved, it will be the sixth increase in seven years.

Containers bringing household goods from the West Coast used to go back full of pineapple and raw sugar, providing an efficient use of cargo space. But with the decline in those agricultural products, many containers now go back to California empty. As a result, the companies shipping goods end up subsidizing the cost of the empty containers.

In 1979 for every three westbound containers we had one eastbound container. The ratio is now about 10-to-1. The major beneficiaries are protected union workers, ILWU, Sailors’ Union of the Pacific, Horizon Lines, Alexander  & Baldwin and Matson Navigation Companies.

The fundamental purpose of the commerce clause  of the United States constitution is, among others, “…to assure the unrestricted flow of commerce throughout the several states,” and “…to assure to the commercial enterprises in every state substantial equality to access to a free national market”.

Since Hawaii is separated by 2,300 miles of ocean and has no highways, railroads or pipe lines from the continental United States, it is almost fully dependent on ocean shipping for at least 90 percent of every substance used and consumed in the state.

The Jones act opposes Article 1 Section 8 Clause 3 of the United States Constitution “the commerce clause”

The Jones Act adds restraints and obstructions to free trade to and from the State of Hawaii; therefore the provisions applied and enforced are unconstitutional and violate the Commerce Clause as well as the 5^th and 14^th Amendments of the United States Constitution.

Thanks to the Jones Act the state of Hawaii is denied access to about 90% of all available shipping in the entire world.

Restrictions imposed by the federal Jones Act have virtually destroyed Hawaii’s agricultural economy.

The loss of dairies, poultry farms, vegetable production, even banana plantations have declined or been eliminated because of the intolerable costs of farming and shipping in Hawaii.

The cost of agricultural production is prohibitive, not only because of the cost of fertilizers, herbicides, and farm implements, but also the cost of outbound shipping of locally grown fruits, livestock and ornamental plants to any destination other than the West Coast of the continental United States.

A class action lawsuit on behalf of all the people in the state of Hawaii asking the U.S. federal court to eliminate the Jones act restrictions as they relate to the state of Hawaii as well as the states of Alaska, Washington, Oregon, and California could be filed by our State’s Governor right now.

Unfortunately Governor Abercrombie, along with the entire Congressional delegation all favor and have supported the Jones Act restrictions. These restrictions require a ship to be American owned, manned by 70% American crew, flagged and maintained in America.  It protects the ship builders, union seaman and most of all the American owners such as Alexander and Baldwin.

The basis for this  suit should be the clear cut violation of the provisions of the commerce clause of the U.S. constitution which guarantees “equal access to interstate commerce among the States, Foreign Nations and Indian tribes”.

President Obama is criticizing South Korean restrictions on trade with the US while the US law will not permit a South Korean vessel from unloading cargo in Hawaii and proceeding to any other State in the Union without stopping at a “foreign port” before proceeding to the next port of call in the US.

Concerning legality, these restrictions are violative of the earliest Supreme Court holdings regarding impairing interstate commerce.  In Gibbons versus Ogden (1824), it was found by the court  “…no preference shall be given, by any regulation of commerce or revenue, to the ports of one state over those of another… nor shall vessels bound to or from one state, be obliged to enter, clear or pay duties in another.” (22 U.S. 1, 73)”.

In Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Co. v. Cottrell (1976), the court held that “…”[reciprocity requirement was] precisely the kind of hindrance to the introduction of milk from other states…condemned as an ‘unreasonable clog upon the mobility of commerce…” (424 U.S. 366, 367).  These are just two examples of several cases in which the court acted in the defense of fair trade and commerce. Singapore has free trade, open ports and about 250 square miles of land.  Hawaii has closed ports, terribly limited shipping and about  eleven thousand square miles of land.  Hawaii’s gross domestic product is roughly sixty four (64) billion dollars annually, the bulk of which is either government spending or tourism. Tiny Singapore with its 250 square miles generates in excess of 200 billion dollars per year, GDP.

The net effect of this single change in the law should open free trade to Hawaii.

The positive impact on the gross domestic product of decreased shipping costs and access to foreign markets for Hawaii’s unparalleled agricultural products, mango, papaya, lilikoi, pineapple, sugar, banana,  lamb, pork and beef, will be….significant.

These changes could  drastically alter Hawaii’s  economy and, hopefully, eliminate joblessness  altogether, and drastically reduce the homelessness population and sustain wages.

Sharp declines in the sugar and pineapple industries with be dramatically reversed.

The ratio of inbound containers to outbound containers will be brought back to parity and the subsidized costs of the empty containers will be significantly lowered.

The cost reduction benefits will be greatly increased by elimination of  monopolistic shipping laws and thus tapping into the advantages of competition and free trade.

Agriculture, aquaculture, and a Singaporean economic model will be a solution in reviving our economy. Due to the imposition of the Jones act, the state of Hawaii has suffered excessive economic injury, the result of artificially high prices on all commodities used or consumed locally. These high prices, which are not found anywhere else in the entire nation, are brought on by the restrictions on ocean shipping.

Because of Hawaii’s geographical location, the Jones act restrictions have created an environment in which a commercial monopoly can operate and thrive legally under federal law requiring vessels that engage in domestic trade to be U.S. built and U.S. manned and owned is a frivolous obstruction to interstate commerce to the state of Hawaii.

It is frivolous because it causes far more harm than any benefits it was originally intended to create

The net effect of the Jones Act on the State of Hawaii is harmful in the extreme. The unconstitutional enforcement of the Jones act restrictions must be stopped so that the people of Hawaii can also enjoy the benefits of the Commerce Clause, currently enjoyed by every other state in the nation.

Thanks to certain groups, the protection intended  by the Jones Act has, in our case, been transformed into a sort of economic imprisonment, where, as in medieval Europe, taxes were extorted from the common people, the working man, for the enrichment of those in power.

In the U.S. there is very little political appetite for free trade; hence the slow development of bilateral free trade agreements and the World Trade organization.  Quoting the Singapore Prime Minister from yesterdays Star Advertiser article.

However the renegotiated free-trade agreement between South Korea and the U.S. was settled recently.  President Obama was critical of South Korean resistance to the US proposals.

The U.S. is one of nine Asia-pacific countries negotiating a trans-pacific partnership, which will be a pathway to free trade area of the Asia-pacific region.

Hawaii can serve as a central hub for this trans-pacific partnership with the elimination of the Jones Act. Hawaii’s political leaders must act decisively to make Hawaii part of international “Free Trade” initiatives.

Governments must continue to promote global trade to broaden economic growth to foster long term prosperity for all.

Elimination of Jones Act Restrictions is vital to Hawaii’s entry into world wide “Free Trade.”

John Carroll is a Honolulu attorney and former state Senator

by Alex Fidel

A 68-year-old grandfather was shot and killed during a drug raid by a SWAT team, as Reason reported recently. The man had no drug charges levied against him:

Eurie Stamps was not the target of the search warrant, according to the Middlesex District Attorney’s Office, and his death at the hands of police is under investigation.

Authorities said Stamps lived at the house with a woman whose son and another man were arrested in the raid on drug charges…

The War on Drugs is an atrocity. And that’s an understatement… Let’s end it already.

“Socialism: philosophy of failure, creed of ignorance, & the gospel of envy.” – Winston Churchill

Which is a better way of saying that the problem with Socialists is that they believe they can or should collectivize and control individuals by directing and proscribing their actions, in order to effect a promised but yet to materialize future undesired by most, and which depends upon inherently coercive and previously failed principles without adequately explaining why this time will be different.

Nick Gillespie’s title to the following excerpted article says it all: Memo to Speaker Boehner: If You Won a Congessional Majority Because You Pledged to Cut Spending and You Can’t Think of a Single Program to Cut Now, Please Go Home

From an interview with NBC’s Brian Williams:

WILLIAMS: Name a program right now that we could do without.

BOEHNER: I don’t think I have one off the top of my head.

Emphasis Added.

Someone get Gary Johnson on the phone with Speaker Boehner – immediately. Gary knows what federal programs to eliminate, and why. It’d be a short phone call that might go something like this:

Hi Speaker Boehner, how are you? I understand you’re calling with regard to your interview where you couldn’t think of any unnecessary federal programs. [Crickets... on Boehner's line].

Cut the DOE, HUD, FCC, and end the war on marijuana. There’s a few hundred billion alone. If you count the pernicious market distortions caused by federal subsidies in education and housing, which you should – and by the way, you should end agricultural subsidies too – you’ll be into trillions of dollars of savings.

Have a nice day.

Gary Johnson is probably too gracious to remind Boehner that a talking point on what to cut would be a good idea, and not just because the promise of decreasing the size and scope of government persuaded Americans to hand the federal pocketbook back to Republicans. It’s also a good idea because it might limit the extent to which Boehner et al. expose themselves as a RINOs come lately to the common sense, business approach to Constitutionally limited, fiscally accountable government bandwagon that Gary Johnson’s been driving since the early nineties.

Laying it down, as usual:

“America has a debt problem and a failure of leadership. Americans deserve better. I therefore intend to oppose the effort to increase America’s debt limit.” — Senator Barack Obama, March 16, 2006, when he voted against raising the debt ceiling.

What a difference four years and a different job make. The president was absolutely right four years ago. For far too long, Congress has not taken the statutory debt ceiling seriously, spending with abandon in the knowledge that increasing the nation’s credit limit would be a matter of perfunctory routine.

Today, though, the White House is accusing those opposed to raising the debt limit of playing chicken and threatening dire consequences if it isn’t raised. To them, I say: Whatever those consequences are, they are no greater than continuing to spend ourselves into economic oblivion. American families, businesses and virtually every state in the Union are right now having to deal with and manage the consequences of an economy brought to its knees by bad policy. It’s time for Congress and the administration to face those consequences, and if it takes turning off the credit spigot to force the budget into balance, then so be it.

The debt ceiling vote, when it occurs, will be a great test of the resolve of the new Congress. Either it will be business as usual — lip service and pretending to control spending — or it will serve as a perfect opportunity for Congress to finally bring the spending insanity to an end.

How much more does the US need to borrow to not default this year? Well, cut spending by that much – now. Is that so hard? HUD – gone. That’s a start. DOE – gone. There is no Constitutional authority for federal involvement in education. If you’re worried about the creeping establishment of religion in public education, litigate in the courts. Sorted.

Is this Hitler? If so, is either of the women Eva Braun? (Via GoodShit, naturally)

Brian Doherty at Reason skewers Ezra Klein here:

Meanwhile Ezra Klein at the Washington Post reports from an alternate universe apparently without loose Federal Reserve monetary policy, revolving doors between big finance and big government, and a history of “too big to fail bailouts.” And in a further sci-fi twist that really starts to get a bit much, it’s simultaneously a world where the government doesn’t spend half of health care dollars, doesn’t shape the costs or extent of insurance coverage with its tax laws and regulations, doesn’t artificially limit the number of people who can sell medical services, and where people buying health care know or even have any way of knowing the costs of what they are paying for beforehand.

From that world, he blames libertarianism for the financial crisis and out of control health care costs.

Klein does know–mentions it four times in about 800 words–that rich people and their influence are benefiting from and pushing libertarian ideas in that world, and I suppose this one as well. I feel for him: If only, if only, there were any power and money pushing the idea that government should spend more and do more. Well, that could make an interesting little sci-fi story in and of itself, I guess.

by Alex Fidel

Yahoo/Drudge reports that the FCC is asking app developers to create apps that help users see if their internet service provider is blocking content:

“Our goal is to foster user-developed applications that shine light on any practice that might be inconsistent with the free and open Internet,” FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski said.

The challenge also tries to boost useful research into ways to measure, preserve and track the openness of the Internet.

The FCC said apps could provide real-time data to an individual experiencing a slow Internet connection speed, test networks for Internet service providers and aggregate network data for academics and policymakers.

Now if only there was an app showing when the government blocks websites thanks to new FCC net neutrality regulations…

Steve Sailer has an interesting take on the copyright issue (whether to grant / enforce them, and if so, for how long):

It seems to me that a lot of the anti-copyright enthusiasts are stuck in an adolescent fan-boy stage where you just want to remake your favorites and you don’t feel worthy of making up your own stuff.

I’m reminded of this story that Keith Richards likes to tell about how the early Rolling Stones just wanted to perform cover versions of American songs, but manager Andrew Oldham kept telling them about how much money there was in writing original songs. So, he locked Mick and Keith in a kitchen until they’d written a song. After they’d eaten all the food in the kitchen, they decided they might as well try writing a song. So they came up with “As Tears Go By.”

Warning: not all of Keith Richards’ memories are wholly reliable.

by Alex Fidel

I’m sure some of you are familiar with the RLC. Well, I decided to start up the RLCCA SD. Basically the duty includes showing up to Republican Party meetings and affecting change. If you are a registered Republican in San Diego County, you can vote on measures, bylaws, and whatever those stuffy establishment types do at those meetings.

The Republican Party of San Diego County meets at the Town & Country Resort in San Diego on the second Monday of every month at 7 PM. For January, that would be the 10th. I’m going to be there.

A lot of Libertarian Party people would consider this taboo. But think of it this way- do you make a bigger statement by talking to a small group of libertarians who already agree with you or by talking to party-line Republicans and social conservatives who never really hear clear and concise arguments for liberty? I would think the latter. Besides, I would get a kick out of making party-line Republicans feel uncomfortable. And who knows, you might even be able to change some minds.

Please follow the RLCCA SD Facebook page, and if you can, show up to the meeting on the 10th. You don’t even have to be a Republican, but if you want to vote on things, you have to be registered Republican in San Diego county.

I’ll be increasingly busy until at least March, so original posts on DuelingBarstools may be few and far between. Here’s two good articles to begin your week:

Please Stop Helping Us: How Consumer Protection Laws Harm Consumers:

Rethining Redistribution, by Jeffrey Miron (Libertarian, Harvard economist, Economic advisor to Gary Johnson)

Enjoy.

by Alex Fidel

Found this article whilst snowboarding in CO, but due to limited internet access couldn’t post it here until now.

It states all the intertwining between cartels and governments, such as the Taliban:

A March report by our government’s Congressional Research Service (CRS) noted that the number of “foreign terrorist groups” involved in the global narcotics trade “jumped from 14 groups in 2003 to 18 in 2008.”

The Taliban, which is not on the State Department terrorist list but is at war with the U.S. in Afghanistan, has alliances with narcotics traffickers, although al-Qaeda does not appear to sanction such connections, according to the CRS.

This is all the more reason to legalize drugs. If we allow these substances to be prohibited, the black market will be the distributor of the product, instead of the free market. Because of moralism, the Taliban is making money in the black market instead of aspiring entrepreneurs and business people in the (sort of) free market.

Narco-cartels in Mexico have corrupted almost every level of government.

No surprise there. It’s factoids like these that make me agree oh so much with Judge Jim Gray when he said the War on Drugs is the second worst thing in American history, right below slavery.

(Happy Belated New Years to all the DB readers!)