04.18.06

Carnival of Liberty XLI

Posted in Essays at 6:11 am by LeftBrainFemale

Alrighty! Let’s flip the switch and get the rides going - it’s time for the Carnival of Liberty to begin! Presented for your delight and edification in no particular order:

First we come to Dave at TuCents who’s cooked up a top-ten list in The 10 Most Harmful Government Programs.

“Human Events Online has their list of The 10 Most Harmful Government Programs with a bit of history and explanation. I think their list is a bit off, so here’s mine.”

Now that you’ve had a bite to eat, why don’t we take a ride down the giant slide? Let’s go join The Radical Libertarian with Why should we have to justify anarchy? TRL presents a convincing argument -

As long as the validity of belief in government is not demonstrated, anarchy must be considered the default. It is the statists who need to justify themselves. Statists must be made to account for all the evils that governments are promoting at this very moment. It will simply not do, for example, for statists to fret about the possibility of intestine warfare in anarchy when it is government which made large-scale war possible in the first place.

Let’s go pick up some little yellow ducks from the duckpond now and visit with Homeland Stupidity who joins in with Government drives milk prices up again. Yes, the little guy does get lost in the pond with all the bigger duckies:

On Tuesday, President George W. Bush quietly signed into law S. 2120, the so-called Milk Regulatory Equity Act of 2005, a carefully crafted piece of legislation which was aimed squarely at preventing Hettinga’s dairy farm from offering milk at lower prices than Dean Foods and other large milk distributors such as the Dairy Farmers of America.

Now turn around and we’re headed for the hall of mirrors. Ogre’s submission is a *simple* list of Today’s Taxes. Taxes are pretty much smoke and mirrors as shown in this list, and as Ogre comments:

Not one of these taxes existed 100 years ago and our nation was the most prosperous in the world, had absolutely no national debt, had the largest middle class in the world and Mom stayed home to raise the kids.

Anyone for a ride on the Scrambler? Let’s go see Michael over at Stingray: a blog for salty Christians for A different take on the Dallas illegal immigrant protest. Michael points out that much of the Hispanic culture does not try to assimilate into the US because it does not value education - particularly for women. It’s a good and thought-provoking read.

There are third-generation descendants of Mexican immigrants who are still not fluent in English — or don’t know English at all — because their families never made it a priority. They’ve brought the bondage of Mexico with them and kept it here.

Say, I think it’s about time for some Cotton Candy! Let’s trot on over to The Richmond Democrat with his post Classic RD: Major Parties Plan Historic Exchange of Intellectual Property. At first glance, I thought his post written very tongue-in-cheek - but upon further examination, I’m not so sure!

“We’re planning massive media buys in all major markets,” said a highly placed Republican strategist on condition of anonymity (it was Karl Rove), “we want to make certain that our message comes through loud and clear without any ambiguities.” According to Democratic commentator J.C. Wilmore: “The two parties have undergone a classic shift in focus, the kind of shift that occurs every forty to fifty years: it’s a normal part of the political process and, in a wider sense, Karl Rove is a soul-less, amoral bastard.”

Moving right along, we’ll go throw some darts and see if we can hit a balloon or two. Stephen Littau links with a Fearless Philosophy Flashback: We Can Make April 15th Just Another Day

The most important part of this legislation will require repealing the 16th Amendment, which would make federal income tax unconstitutional. Also, after viewing the Fair Tax congressional scorecard, most of our representatives in congress have not made a commitment one way or another. This means that most of them are unaware of this legislation, have an incomplete understanding of the bill, are waiting to hear from their special interest groups, or hopefully, waiting to hear from their constituents. Whether your representative is for, against, or undecided on The Fair Tax, we all need to let them know what we want.

Let’s visit a sideshow and see the man with two faces - this time written about by Peter Porcupine in his submission Eminenza?

There is nothing intrinsically wrong with this stance. He is a Prince of the Roman Church, and as such should demand that Catholic members follow its teachings. Yet - he has never publicly rebuked such prominent pro-choice Catholic legislators as John Rogers, Frank Hynes, Doug Peterson or John Kerry - no, the public humiliations are only for the females.

Next, doing an impression of the classic carnival barker we join Michael over at Police State USA with his post on Presidents Lie; People Die.

The American Left, always proud of its flair for poetry (Hey, hey, LBJ! How many kids did you kill today?) has coined the slogan “Bush lied; people died.” They seem to think that Americans should be especially outraged because Republican President Bush lied America into war. But Howard Zinn, author of A People’s History of the United States, points out that George W. Bush is only the latest in a long line of Presidents who lied us into war.

The Atlantic Review team leads us to the 20-ton-whale sideshow with a post from their archives: The US-Saudi relationship: Oil supply at the expense of US security and moral values

Oil, however, fuels the United States and Europe’s foes as well. In August The Atlantic Review wrote that SUV drivers undermine US foreign policy by strengthenening anti-American and anti-democratic forces in oil rich countries. Europe and the US seem to be addicted to oil and unable to pursue their national interests and moral principles in regard to oil-rich countries.

Time for another ride - lets go check out the Tilt-A-Whirl with Jack Cluth at The People’s Republic of Seabrook where we read his take on the topsy-turvy world of the BATF inThank God for the brave jack-booted thugs at ATF who keep us safe from the threat of ninjas

Yes, if you want to know why the US hasn’t been hit with another terrorist attack since 9.11, you need look no farther than the brave, dedicated souls at ATF for whom every day is a rerun of “Reno 911”.

Okay, So I’m Not Really a Cowboy invites us to the funhouse to read his submission On Human Rights.

What can be seen from the revisionist definition is that, rather than being qualities of a passive nature, rights are dependent upon the active participation of government and other men. Leftists cling to the belief that–as in their stance on positive and negative liberty–actively granted privilege and passively extant rights go hand in hand, seeing no inherent contradiction. However, this contention should immediately strike one as contradictory; the granting of ‘modern’ rights requiring the coercion of others through artificial limitations on behavior, control and redistribution of the individual’s material wealth, and otherwise delineating and circumscribing how one may act beyond such actions that would infringe upon another’s sphere of autonomy.

Let’s go test our strengths now with the big hammer and see if we can ring the bell! Combs Spouts Off leads the way with Fiscal Optimism.

The explanation for this potentially fortuitous development is simple: Once again, tax cuts are working exactly as supply-siders predicted. Contrary to the critics, we don’t have to figure out how to “pay for” the Bush tax cuts because they’re more than paying for themselves. GDP and tax receipts are both growing significantly faster than spending, and thus the deficit is shrinking rapidly.

Carola Von Hoffmannstahl-Solomonoff of deep qt invites us to a stage show with EDA’s Follies: Part Three in a tale of eminent domain in Hoboken.

Though it may seem odd that in 1998, any part of Hoboken could still be counted among New Jersey’s “most distressed urban neighborhoods”, it’s even stranger that in 2006, the Northwest Redevelopment Area is considered appropriate fodder for eminent domain. But it’s important to remember not all people share the same idea of “public use”.

On to the House of Horrors we go with Liberty Corner who posits Let the Punishment Fit the Crime. In fisking a favorite economist-blogger who “fancies himself an expert in the ‘game’ of sentencing” LC says:

I find it hard to believe that Boudreaux believes this. If he does, it’s because he’s been locked in the ivory tower for too long. For one thing, not all criminals are capable of or interested in committing all crimes; a pickpocket, for example, isn’t necessarily a repressed murderer. For another thing, criminal law, which varies from State to State, is roughly calibrated “to let the punishment fit the crime.” The kind of precision posited by Boudreaux simply doesn’t exist.

Taking a ride on the Merry-go-round we’re back at Homeland Stupidity again with two additional submissions titled ISPs to be required to spy on customers and Advanced online privacy protection.

Congress has been considering requiring Internet service providers to record the activities of their subscribers, store the data and make it available to government officials upon request.

Dragging out the “child porn” red herring again, the Bush administration and Republican members of Congress are pushing for requirements for ISPs to store data on subscribers, all the way up to recording everything each subscriber does online.

Just imagine the recordkeeping and storage necessary for all that fol-de-rol! Anyone recall the witch-hunts of daycare centers in the late 70’s early 80’s?

Now lets go see a magic lantern show linked by Mensa Barbie in Hitler and the Palestine Plan.

“On Feb. 1, 2006, the Israel Police were ordered to demolish nine Jewish homes in Amona, near Ofrah, 12 miles north of Jerusalem. In the video documentary” . . . “police were filmed using excessive force against hundreds of youthful protestors, over 200 of whom were injured and taken to hospitals for treatment.”

Hey, we just passed the guy who guesses ages and weights! Turn around and check out The London Fog’s submission Determining the value of human commodity: May 16th is Census Day

Canadians are increasing warned of the dangers of identity theft, and yet it is mandatory by law, that one adult per household fill out the 2006 census form asking for personal information which includes the sexual preferences of those in the household, their income, their religion, race and ethnicity, childcare choices, education level and occupational habits. One in five households are burdened with a longer questionnaire than others.

Okay, so it’s almost time to go home, but first lets take a moment to think about how much it cost us to get here as The Pubcrawler takes on Government Price Fixing especially regarding Gas pricing!

So we have two choices here. We can let the market continue and it will eventually correct itself. Or we can have government intervene with short term relief and horrific long term consequences. It really is up to us to decide.

And finally, as we pass the ticket window on the way home, my own submission to the Carnival - a So long and thanks for all the fish (thanks to Douglas Adams - whose Hitchhikers Guide did NOT translate well to film) to Eric, esteemed founder of LLP and The Liberty Papers as he transitions away from Blogging in a career move that we all hope will bring him great rewards!

Hope you’ve enjoyed your visit to Carnival of Liberty XLI, don’t forget, next weeks Carnival of Liberty XLII will be hosted by Peter Porcupine of the Cape Code Porcupines - so y’all come back now, y’hear?!

TTLB Link

Permalink