February « 2009 « Pure Common Sense

Are We on the Road to Privatized Highways?

28 02 2009

The word on the street of Washington DC now states that there is a bill in Congress following up on the REAL ID Act of 2005, which was signed into law by former President George W. Bush. The REAL ID Act established national standards for state-issued driver’s licenses, creating a de facto national ID card, allows for greater targeting of terrorism within the states and tramples over state laws that might interfere with the enforcement of such laws, considered a part of the War on Terror. However, many states responded to this action by citing the 10^th Amendment (which states that any power the Constitution does not specifically delegate to the Federal Government belongs to the states or the people) and refusing to comply with the law. This process resembles the nullification process in the late 1700s when President John Adams passed a law restricting criticism of the Federal Government and individual states nullified the law as unconstitutional.

The new bill in Congress would fight back against states that do not “comply” with the REAL ID Act of 2005 by withholding highway funds. This type of law is called an unfunded mandate. An unfunded mandate is when the Federal Government blackmails the states by withholding money from states that do not do as they please, which undermines a Federalist system of government and moves us in the direction of a Unitary State where the Federal Government makes all the decisions. The unfunded mandate is typically used when there is something the Federal Government wants to do but cannot because it is not within their constitutional limits. In the past this technique has been employed on a number of occasions and the states have complied out of dependency. Read the rest of this entry »

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Categories : Politicians, Sovereignty, States

Redeeming British Lad is now a Dad

27 02 2009

Alfie Patten, a four-foot tall British teen, just became a father in the midst of Valentine’s Day. At 13, he is also just starting to go through puberty. A baby girl named Maisie was delivered at the hospital and now they are Alfie, his girlfriend Chantelle – aged 15 – and Maisie are a family. A very, very YOUNG family. Honestly. This kid is 13 years older than his daughter – that sounds a lot more like an older brother than a father. My brother is 12 years older than me. My grandmother has a sister 15 years younger than her – the same age difference as Chantelle and Maisie. Of course this is a news story now in the scandalous tabloid-driven culture immersed in by those who do not have anything better to do. If you take a look at the picture of the kid, you’ll find he looks more like seven or eight than a teenager. Go figure, at that age a lot of people have growth spurts and development at different times. A junior high school is therefore a strange and lopsided sight. Given, physiologically and biologically speaking this is nothing out of the ordinary. In the days of the cavemen thirteen was the age people were adults and ready to start a family. Look at bar mitzvahs – become a man at thirteen for the boy – and bat mitzvahs – become a woman at twelve for the girl. Jewish tradition is more in touch with biology than our contemporary tradition – not that I’m advocating a return to that. We have just not evolved as quickly biologically as we have culturally.

There has been a lot of onslaught about teen pregnancy in the past few years. There was that movie Juno with Ellen Page and those actors from Arrested Development. There was also the long thought to be good girl younger sister of Brittany Spears – Jamie-Lynn Spears. And last but not least, can’t forget about Bristol Palin, the daughter of former vice presidential candidate and current Governor of Alaska Sarah Palin. Bristol’s case was different from the others in that it became a major political issue and the Palin family fell victim to the vicious attacks of elitist pricks. Alfie is now the latest in a lineup of kids having kids in the media. Today I condemn him and I praise him. Read the rest of this entry »

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Categories : Abortion, Fads, Personal Responsibility

Obama’s First State of the Union

26 02 2009

Barack Obama has given his first State of the Union address…not much to say other than the situation of our country as it was when he took office pretty much. There was nothing that I could comment on extensively since he did not articulate any point or give any insight beyond what is already going on and what he said in his campaign. “Hope.” “Change.” “Yes, we can!” Funny, I don ‘t remember anyone ever saying “no, you can’t!” I am appalled at the thought of reducing politics and public policy to a catchphrase. But perhaps there was some sincerity. He radiated some optimism in tough times that the American people could use. Of course, some actual policy proposals would be nice. After all, that IS his job. And I do not believe the definition of “is” is ambiguous in any way. Frankly, I am disappointed at the way he has handled the economic situation, although the American public is still largely behind him. A troubled economy is a bad thing, but earmarks and pork is far from the solution to the problem.

Giving the response to the speech from the opposing side was Bobby Jindal, the Governor of Louisiana with Indian ancestry. He is seen as a rising star in the Republican party by many. In fact, I believed last summer that John McCain should pick one of two people for VP – Sarah Palin or Bobby Jindal. Both young diverse well-credentialed governors. Jindal might not have had as much controversy, so maybe he would have been a better pick. Anyhow, Jindal seconded Obama’s call for bipartisanship and said Republicans promise to work with Democrats in Congress and the White House alike. Jindal later described the differences of their philosophy to attaining the same goal – the people or the government. Jindal has proven that he is mobile on a national stage and while the times are bipartisan now, in three years the two men could be sparring against one another in the first all non-white presidential election.

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Categories : Obama Administration, Politicians

Physiocracy: Is it Time for the FairTax?

21 02 2009

I’ve been reading up lately on 18^th century French history and economic theory. Can what was happening back then have relevance today? I think so. I believe this sheds light on different sectors of the economy, as well as how to treat common occurrences such as production and consumption. The remedy for many of our woes today requires a neo-physiocratic solution.

The Physiocrats were a branch of economic thought that emerged during the Age of Enlightenment prior to the American and French Revolutions. This was in the time when France was still under the archaic feudal system and the entire country was basically a basket case. Agriculture was backwards with small plots of land and behind-the-times technology. While England mass-produced similar goods at the time, France had several different goods varied by region. The whole country was developing unevenly…the North of France was a total economic wasteland. In the late 1710s and early 1720s Scottish economist John Law acquired shares in the Mississippi Land Company and wooed investors to finance what became the Mississippi Bubble. Stocks rose thirty-fold then fell thirty-fold. The resources were overestimated and the big losers were: the government, the banks and private investors. This goes to show that finance is not enough – the possibility for production must also be there. Which leads me to the work of Francois Quesnay. Read the rest of this entry »

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Categories : History, Taxes and Spending, Theory

Great Quotes

20 02 2009

“Nothing worthwhile is ever gained without risk.”
-Anonymous

“Extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice, and moderation in the pursuit of justice is not a virtue.”
-Barry Goldwater, Cicero

“If you are not free to choose wrongly and irresponsibly, you are not free at all.”
-Jacob Homberger

“A liberal is someone who feels a great debt to his fellow man, which debt he proposes to pay off with your money.”
-G. Gordon Liddy

“Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I’m not sure about the former.”
-Albert Einstein

“God is a comedian playing to an audience too afraid to laugh.”
-Voltaire

“When one gets in bed with government, one must expect the diseases it spreads.”
-Congressman Ron Paul (R-TX) Read the rest of this entry »

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Categories : Uncategorized

Facebook “Privacy” Hype

19 02 2009

The CEO of the popular social networking site Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, has released a statement regarding the organizations privacy policy which is already causing paranoia in a host of crazed individuals – some even closing their accounts in outrage. Okay, well he did not really “release a statement” per se. The changes were made overnight and others publicized the information. Those “others” include extreme consumerists who claim that Facebook has no right to the information posted on their own website. They also go as far to make one believe Facebook is going to go around now handing out the private information and funny pictures that people post on their networking site. First off, Facebook is a for-profit corporation and I doubt that they would risk losing valuable customers to get a couple laughs (yes, I can see how you might object to me calling the users “customers” since it’s free for them, but Facebook makes its money off of advertising and the more users they have, the more money they make.) Second off, the exaggeration of this concern has been declared by Zuckerberg himself: “Our philosophy is that people own their information and control whom they share it with. When a person shares information on Facebook, they first need to grant Facebook a license to use that information so that we can show it to the other people they’ve asked us to share it with. Without this license, we couldn’t help people share that information.”

I recall when the fact that employers could access your Facebook or Myspace account first hit the headline. I heard all the complaining about how the Right to Privacy was being violated and that information was not intended for certain eyes. I feel as much sympathy now as I did then – none. First off, the “Right to Privacy” as it is used today, is a mockery falsely claimed to be a Constitutional right that has been used to hand down activist court cases by hoards of runaway judges which mutilate our Constitution. Now, I believe in privacy, of course, in certain times and places. In fact, the Constitution protects privacy in fundamental cases. But if you sign up for a social networking site and post information there, then you are (A) posting it on THEIR PROPERTY and (B) posting it where other people can easily view it (on a side note, if you do not wish for it to be seen by everyone in the world, Facebook is generous enough to offer enhanced privacy settings at no [extra] charge.) 150 million people use Facebook and it is only natural to believe that people are going to see whatever information you post. One should expect you to have “Common” Sense about what you put there. My profile does not say my actual address – just my neighborhood (although, to be honest, that probably makes little-to-no difference since if someone was that determined to stalk me they could obtain that through some other directory.) Read the rest of this entry »

Comments : 4 Comments »

Categories : Internet, Personal Responsibility

Rob Wants…to Give You…a High Five!

18 02 2009

Rob wants to give you a high five. Yeah! So who is Rob and why in the world would he want to give people he doesn’t know a high five? I was coming back from a camping trip up in New Hampshire this past weekend and on the way home my friends told me about some of their favorite humorous phenomena on the internet. Some guy named Lathan – apparently “Rob” sounds better for someone trying to give people high fives – went to a crowded escalator in New York around rush hour and stood at the top ready to give people high fives as they came by. Not only that, but he had some of his fellow “agents” holding signs to prep the routine-driven crowd for the high five. He ended up giving 2,000 high fives that day.

Rob and the rest of the “agents” are part of a group called Improveverywhere. They are based in New York and do several different stints like this – including wearing no pants on the subway, a game of poker in a swimming pool – “oops, my deck’s floating away” – and having twins sit opposite from each other in the same cloths to create a real life mirror image. I am going to start following these guys for a number of reasons. I think they’re wicked funny – that’s for sure. I also like seeing people leave traditional comfort zones and breaking the routine of “normalcy” – its weirdness like this that makes life interesting. I’m kind of bummed they’re only in NYC though, wish they had a Boston chapter – maybe I can start one – haha!

I will end this post by noting that we have hit multiple milestones now. As Rob got his 2,000^th high five I have now posted my 50^th post on this blog.

Comments : 1 Comment »

Categories : Craziness, Fads, Internet

Discriminatory College Admissions are not “Affirmative” Actions!

16 02 2009

When the term “affirmative action” was first used in the mid-1960s, it was used to describe action by the Federal Government to ensure that individuals have a right to equal opportunity without being judged by their race or ethnicity. I would be an enthusiastic supporter of that affirmative action – mostly because it means pretty much the opposite of what we call affirmative action today.

Affirmative action is wrong quite simply, because it is discrimination. It runs contrary to the ideal of a colorblind society while wearing a disguise as an agent of racial equality. Some proponents of affirmative action call it “positive discrimination” since it “makes up for” discrimination in the past and assists in “leveling the playing field.” There is no such thing as positive discrimination – it is a loaded term to give it a positive connotation, like it’s a special kind of discrimination that is ok. I also do not like “reverse discrimination,” since it separates out affirmative action from other kinds of discrimination. Discrimination is discrimination, whether it favors or disfavors whites, blacks, hispanics or asians. And no form of it deserves to be tolerated.

Not only is affirmative action morally wrong, but it is ineffective at its mission of “leveling the playing field” by helping underprivileged minorities. Raising up minorities by lowering standards for admission has only given them higher drop-out rates and lower graduation rates. The Detroit News found from seven Michigan colleges which held affirmative action policies, 40% of black students got their diploma after six years. Clearly, the system is not working.

Underprivileged minorities should be helped by going to the heart of the problem, which is before college in grade schools. James Q. Wilson, a UCLA public policy professor, said “you only need to do three things to avoid poverty in this country: finish high school, marry before having a child and produce a child after the age of twenty.” This is a remarkably successful litmus test: 8% who follow these are in poverty as opposed to 79% of those who do not. Finishing high school can be accomplished with better quality high schools. Programs such as School Vouchers gives students an opportunity to attend improved private schools and also improves public schools through introducing competition into the school system. Read the rest of this entry »

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Categories : Collectivism, Common Sense, Personal Responsibility

Bailout Passes, Stocks Plummet and Uncertainty Remains

12 02 2009

The Obama-backed controversial bailout package was just recently passed. Meanwhile, the stock market has taken a sharp downturn – maybe in reaction to the plan and its implementation. The bailout plan had generated quite a bit of controversy from the large amount of pork-barrel spending that was included in the bill. Another issue is that while people may have more money to spend in the next couple of years, will they have the confidence to spend it if the market does not bounce back? James Cox of Harris Financial Group said “The good news is they are going to spend a trillion dollars, the bad news is they don’t know how.” The banks are getting a slice of the pie with a massive bailout package heading their way. Banks and creditors are generally the first sector of the economy to recover once recovery is on the way. Unfortunately for me and several other people, Bank of America, where I keep most of my savings, checking and credit, is diving fast. For Obama, “hope” is no longer his catchphrase – it’s his crutch – the hope of many people was behind the success of the stimulus package.

The Dow is down 4.6 points as of when I am writing this post and recovery is nowhere in sight. On the other hand, the dollar is gaining in value relative to other currencies around the world – making it a good investment once again. Perhaps there is genuine hope for America out there. On the other hand, the press and the politicians have the potential to spin this in a dangerous way. They could call it a failure of Capitalism and turn their back on the markets that have allowed this country to grow and innovate throughout its rich history. There have already been talks of government buyouts of major industries and nationalizing healthcare when we should leave them up to private markets to innovate and prosper. The best way to help someone is to allow them to help themselves – perhaps we should keep that in mind in the coming years. It’s an important lesson to learn but not an easy one to hold.

Comments : 3 Comments »

Categories : Obama Administration, Taxes and Spending

Proposition 8: A Look Back Analysis

11 02 2009

“We’re here. We’re queer. We’ll strike your heart with fear and make you shed a tear!” That’s the message an unruly mob of gays sent to Mormons in Castro County, California after the final vote had been tallied and the scared, but dignified Christians required a police escort to escape from the pack of savagely-acting sore losers after they had lost the right to wed in the Golden State. They have chosen to take their anger out in an inhuman and un-American manner. When I think of the Mormons who are on the receiving end of such horrific harassment, I think about what their reaction to the whole ordeal is. They reacted with dignity against the tidal wave of hate from the intolerant homos, and remained calm and silent even after they drove away while being jeered by angry queers. I don’t generally like the idea of lumping people into groups, but Mormons are generally pretty nice, hard-working and decent people. They also live extremely healthy lives. I could not imagine them doing anything close to what the gay mob did. I expect they would have held their head high and got on with life, as those in the mob should have. After all, we live in a democracy. Read the rest of this entry »

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Categories : Craziness, Religion

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