Archive | December, 2011

Folks may know how I like to pick on the cupcake craze because I see it as just one of many boom-bust absurdities that were born during the years of excess spawned by government monetary policy that encouraged and triggered credit addiction and high time preferences. During the boom years, we saw the rise of the cupcake craze, just one of many infantile fads that attract people driven to excess by cheap money and the have-pulse-will-loan mentality of the boom years.

In reaction to this story, “Security Theater” TSA Confiscates Woman’s Frosted Cupcake,” a reader shares his thoughts on my Facebook page: “KDC’s worst nightmare–which enemy does she side with??!!!“ While the story seems hilarious at first reading, it is indicative of the much larger problem of the government’s $20 billion industry of terror that has spawned the TSA, Homeland Security, and the militarized police state.

A Massachusetts woman who flew home from Las Vegas this week says an airport security officer took her frosted cupcake because he thought its vanilla-bourbon icing could be a “security risk.”

…“The TSA supervisor, Robert Epps, was using really bad logic – he said it counted as a gel-like substance because it was conforming to the shape of its container.”

In this case, it is easy to side with the helpless and peaceful cupcake, as opposed to our enemies and oppressors in the government terror industry.

The FDA has asked a sperm donor to cease-and-desist in the case of his community service, er, um, sperm donation. Trent Arsenault, a minister’s son from the San Francisco Bay area, just wants to help women who cannot afford governmentized sperm donor banks. Trent has fathered 14 children in five years and has four more bunnies on the way.

The case of Trent Arsenault of Fremont has drawn attention to the practice of informal sperm donation, which physicians and bioethicists call unsafe but some people say is a civil liberties issue.

…The U.S. Food and Drug Administration sent Arsenault a cease-and-desist letter late last year telling him he must stop because he does not follow the agency’s requirements for getting tested for sexually transmitted diseases within seven days before giving sperm.

Violators of FDA regulations on human cells and tissues face up to a year in prison and a $100,000 fine, according to guidelines published on the agency’s website.

I can’t help but note how the article makes a point that the FDA’s rules and regulations will make it impossible for Trent ”to keep offering his sperm for free.” That leads me to post this quote from the article: Continue Reading →

by Harry Browne

Editor’s Note: This article was originally published in December, 2002. A previous version of it was published on December 25, 1966, dedicated to Harry’s then 9-year-old daughter.)

It’s Christmas, and I have the usual problem of deciding what to give you. I know you might enjoy many things – books, games, clothes.

But I’m very selfish. I want to give you something that will stay with you for more than a few months or years. I want to give you a gift that might remind you of me every Christmas.

If I could give you just one thing, I’d want it to be a simple truth that took me many years to learn. If you learn it now, it may enrich your life in hundreds of ways. And it may save your having to face many problems that have hurt people who’ve never learned it.

The truth is simply this:

No one owes you anything.

Significance

How could such a simple statement be important? It may not seem so, but understanding it can bless your entire life.

No one owes you anything.

It means that no one else is living for you, my child. Because no one is you. Each person is living for himself; his own happiness is all he can ever personally feel.

When you realize that no one owes you happiness or anything else, you’ll be freed from expecting what isn’t likely to be. Continue Reading →

The Angel Gabriel appeared to Mary with a simple salutation.

“Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.”

But Mary didn’t react with joy to the celestial message. In fact, Luke says, “Mary was greatly troubled by his words…”

Greatly troubled.

Doesn’t that seem to describe the state of America today?

We have become a people driven by fear. I was reading a discussion thread on foreign policy the other day, and despite all of the rational reasons one person gave to avoid war with Iran if at all possible, the other party to the discussion continued to advocate for an aggressive intervention.

“I’m afraid Iran will nuke us.”

Signs of fear surround us. Just listen to supporters of the Patriot Act. Go through security at the airport. Read through the thousands of laws on the books meant to protect us from ourselves.

Politicians love fear. In fear, they find power. A scared population will forsake all kinds of liberty in the name of security. And when citizens cede their liberty, the politicians gain power.  Government stands ready to assuage our fears. But first, it must stoke them, and it seems they’ve discovered the perfect bellows. Continue Reading →

The office of Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK) has released the 2011 edition of its annual “Wastebook.” The document spotlights 100 particularly ridiculous expenditures of taxpayer money from the past year. From an entertainment standpoint, it’s pure gold. But it’s also infuriating, depressing, and a painful reminder of what happens when politicians and bureaucrats spend other people’s money.

Here are my five “favorites”:

• $10 million for remake of “Sesame Street” for Pakistan (U.S. Agency for International Development). Osama bin Big Bird?
• $350,000 for an international art exhibit in Venice, Italy (State Department). To really appreciate this one, check out the pictures on page 21.
• An additional $175,587 to the University of Kentucky to study how cocaine enhances the sex drive of Japanese quail (National Institutes of Health). My guess: American quails couldn’t be used because the females are prone to getting a headache at the most inconvenient time.
• $592,527 for a study on why chimpanzees throw feces (National Institutes of Health). Perhaps NIH can fund a study on how cocaine affects the chimps’ aim.
• $150,000 for the American Museum of Magic in Michigan (Institute of Museum & Library Services). It ought to be relocated to Washington given the city’s unrivaled ability to make money disappear.

Yes, the money involved here amounts to pocket change in comparison to the $3.7 trillion the federal government spent last year. But as Coburn asks in the introduction, “Do these initiatives match your understanding of the role of the federal government as outlined by the Enumerated Powers of the U.S. Constitution?” Worthy or not, very little of what the federal government spends money on comports with the Founders’ vision of a national government that was to be strictly limited in its scope. That the money is often poorly spent is proof that their intentions were wise.

Check out DownsizingGovernment.org for more information on many of the agencies and programs cited in the Coburn report.

Sen. Coburn’s 2011 Wastebook is a post from Cato @ Liberty – Cato Institute Blog

Benton McMillin? What, you never heard of Benton McMillin? Well, in order to find out who he is, lets start with some recent catch phrases and work our way back. I’m sure we have all heard the battle cry of our progressive leaders in Congress and the White House of “spreading the wealth” and the “wealthy among us should pay their fair share”. After all, it is only fair that “wealthy” people step up and do their patriotic duty by paying more taxes, putting more money and control into the hands of the federal agencies and letting Washington, DC determine how to spend our money. They know what’s best for us, right? But these rallying cries are far from new and have been used before-used to implement that dreaded amendment, the 16th: “The Congress shall have the power to lay and collect taxes on incomes, from whatever source derived, without apportionment among the several States, and without regard to any census of enumeration”. Yes, a direct attack on the sovereignty of the several States, making them beholden to an ever expanding and powerful Federal Government.

To understand this amendment and its attack on the States, we must go back to Article I, Section 8 – The Congress shall have the power to lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts and excises, to pay the debts and provide for common defense and general welfare of the United States; but all duties, imposts, and excise shall be uniform throughout the United States

This provision, however, works in conjunction with Section 9: “No capitation or other direct tax shall be laid, unless in proportion to census or enumeration herein before directed to be taken” and also the 5th Amendment: ”nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation”. Continue Reading →

The Congress and the president have come up with yet another temporary “fix” to the latest funding extension to a budget that hasn’t been passed in over two years plus. It seems we are always scrambling to avoid another federal government shutdown. Well I say let the place shut down. Then at least we will know we are saving some money. The problem with the shutdown for government types is as long as Social Security checks go out, no one will notice the shutdown!

Here is my proposal for these incompetent lawmakers: if all you can pass is temporary measures then we will pay you temporary wages. How about you come to congress for two months a year, do the business of the people and go home. This way we can eliminate the high pay, fabulous benefits and permanent pensions. I think it’s a win for the American people. Continue Reading →

If you’re a taxpayer and you like beef jerky, I have good and bad news. The good news is that Jack Link’s is expanding the production facilities at its corporate home in Minong, Wisconsin. The bad news is the expansion is being “made possible” with a $365,000 federal grant to Minong for infrastructure upgrades.

The money comes from the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Community Development Block Grant program. Curiously, the state’s Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation doesn’t mention in thepress release that the money is coming from federal taxpayers: Continue Reading →

KIZERS, Pa. – The U.S. Food and Drug Administration ratcheted up its war on Amish raw dairy farmers on Dec. 6, filing a “motion for summary judgment,” with Pennsylvania judge Lawrence Stengler, asking for a permanent injunction against dairy farmer Dan Allgyer. If granted, the injunction would forbid him from selling fresh milk to out of state customers, according to the Farm Food Freedom Coalition.

FDA regulation 21 CFR §1240.61 criminalizes the sale of unpasteurized milk intended to cross state lines. But Tenth Amendment Center director Michael Boldin says banning the interstate sale of raw milk does not even fall within the powers of the federal government under the Constitution. While the FDA goes to great lengths to point out it only regulates interstate distribution, leaving intrastate regulation of raw milk to the states, Boldin says the FDA position still stretches the meaning of the commerce clause beyond the breaking point.

“If, like any legal document, the words of the constitution mean today the same as they meant the moment the people ratified it, we need to understand the meaning of the word regulate, in regards to commerce, from the time of the founding,” he said.  “And regulate most certainly did not mean control, prohibit, mandate, or ban.” Continue Reading →