Reinke Faces Life

http://www.banthebulb.org/

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A £1 tax on every incandescent light bulb would help to increase the uptake of environmentally friendly technologies, and allow light bulb prices to include more of the environmental costs associated with wasting energy and burning fossil fuels.

Waiving this tax on energy-efficient lightbulbs would also encourage the uptake of existing technologies and drive further innovation.

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On the theory that any idea that increases taxes is a bad one, and on the theory that it's a global world of ideas (i.e., our thieves aka tax collectors will grasp any idea to increase their take), can some one explain to me how giving the government, any government, more of the our sweat of our collective brows will solve this problem.

If we assume that there is a problem as states (i.e., incandescent bulb waste energy and cause all sorts of mischief), then how do we nduce people to change their behavior? Now if we recognize taxes as theft, followed up by men with guns coming to kill us, perhaps we might try some simpler ideas.

Educate people. Work on the economics not by raising the cost of bulbs (i.e., increasing the cost of incandescent bulbs by taxes) but by decreasing the cost of the alternatives. By getting people to look at the total cost of ownership.

AND, by the way, I bet the government, of which the originator seeks to empower with more tax money, probably is the biggest energy waster and incandescent bulb user on the planet.

So much for that good intention paving the way to hell for us.

Fix the government like a cat. Spay and neuter your local politcians!

http://www.smallgov.org/?p=195

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A libertarian is, if nothing else, a person with at least an intuitive grasp of the parameters within which the abstract structures of human society must be limited. A person who at least implicitly grasps that as the seat of human intelligence, the individual must be afforded a maximum of personal freedom in order for the social structure to be consistent with fundamental, immutable human nature. 

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I think I'd prefer the definition "A Libertarian is anyone who believes in the Zero Aggression Principle and acts that way. So I would expect that they would renounce the use of force to achieve social and political goals.

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http://www.siouxcityjournal.com/articles/2006/04/23/news/top/05ab7f414cdfe98886257159000c25b8.txt#blogcomments

Missing 60 years, World War II hero buried with honors
By Dolly A. Butz Journal staff writer

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Staff Sgt. Walter Knudsen, a World War II B-24 gunnery instructor from Sioux City was praised as an American hero at a graveside ceremony with full military honors Saturday at Memorial Park Cemetery.

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We should remember the cost in blood and treasure of all these men and women. Personally, before we dedicate buildings and name streets for politicians, we should have then named for our honored dead. Where is "Walter Knudsen" avenue? In the government skools in Iowa, they should teach about Walter Knudsen. At least, the students would learn that freedom has a price.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,6-2137428,00.html

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Last week I was in a deprived fishing village in Ghana that boasts six flourishing private schools only yards from the state school. A fisherman with an understanding of economics that would put union officials to shame, who had moved his daughter from state to private school, told me that the private school proprietor needed to satisfy parents like him, otherwise he would go out of business. “That’s why the teachers turn up and teach,” he told me, “because they are closely supervised.” His wife, busy smoking fish for sale in the market, concurred. “In the state school, our daughter learnt nothing. Now she’s back on track.”

These parents understand what apparently baffles those in the unions, so used to the dependency culture of the West — that what is handed out for free is likely to be low quality. One father, living in the Kenyan slum of Kibera, summarised it like this: “If you go to a market and are offered free fruit and vegetables, you know they’ll be rotten. If you want fresh produce, you have to pay for it.”

Real privatisation occurs only if the customers of education are empowered, if the educational providers are made accountable to them. We have found a very effective way of doing that over the millennia — it’s called the price mechanism. Only when people pay for something can they be in real control. Poor parents in the developing world recognise this with crystal clarity.

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When the people of this country realize the "Barbara Striesand" that they are being sold, then maybe we will have true Separation of Education and State.

http://www.ncc-1776.org/tle2006/tle364-20060423-02.html

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The public school system—a socialist enterprise that can't seem to teach kids to read, write, or even count, but can shake them down, sample their body fluids, rifle their lockers, rummage through their purses, briefcases, and bookbags, and spy on them cybernetically on MySpace—have made a good start on outlawing knowledge itself, I think.

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Doesn't anyone see the similarities between the State's prisons and its "skoolz"?

http://www.freemarketnews.com/Analysis/180/4578/2006-04-20.asp?wid=180&nid=4578

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Suppose that any of the people at the school that day, had been armed as is/was constitutionally intended? There would have been a far better chance that Harris and Klebold would have been stopped, and quickly.

I contend that it is, in fact, you that needs to learn the true ‘lesson’ of Columbine.

How many people have died, because of being illegally disarmed or prevented from arming themselves for defense? 

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I learned from jfpo http://www.jpfo.org/ the fact that governments kill their citizens. It's almost a fact of nature. Some regimes really do it "right" and wipe out whole segments, generations, ethnicities, or just lots of poor unfortunates. Many regimes at least try to pretend that they want to protect you. In actuality, government is merely a mask for the worst of human nature. It's almost, that by the process of collecting of all our permissions to do "stuff", all of our collective humanity is distilled out of the result. I would no more: torture an enemy combatants; impoverish future generations; or allow any infringement of any human right. So why when our collective will is assembled does it lose any vestige of our inhibitions?

It must be because the wielder of the collective power get intoxicated and forgets that they themselves are human. Power corrupts. Absolute power corrupts absolutely. It's like a brain disease.

The solution is to keep power in very small boxes. Tightly bound with our feedback. Delimited by "rights". Restricted to very limited situations. With horrendous retribution for transgressing.

The Intelligent Designer given right to life, recognized in the Constitution by the Second Amendment, says to me, that if I'm alive, I have "right", nay an affirmative duty, to stay alive. No person or group can deprive me of that right.

I can exercise that right to the extent that it does not interfere with the rights of others. For example, if I'm dying of organ failure, I can't kill you for your organ. My right to life ends where your right to life begins.

So, I have a right to defend myself. No law, person, or government can tell me I can't.

Seems so elementally simple.

Columbine would have been stopped by one armed teacher. There is at least one school shooting that was stopped when a teacher went to his car, returned with his weapon, and ended the rampage. 

The value of concealed carry is that you don't have to carry to receive a benefit. If a criminal has 100 potential victims, then he has to pick one. If out of that hundred people ten are packing, then the criminal has a 10% chance of facing an armed victim. "God made men and women; Sam Colt made them equal." Hmmm says the criminal who should I pick? The gay guy. Ever hear of the pink pistols? The thin spindly blond woman. Agggg, that's Paxton Quigley and she's describing what a center of mass is to me. I know the squat little brownish guy with the big mustache, looks like an mexican arab. Ohhh, good day Mr. Massad Ayoob. Yes sir, I'd be happy to put my hands up. See the unarmed sheep are protected when we "salt" the flock with a few armed sheep. The criminal has to guess. Sometimes they will guess wrong …  dead criminal! Don't have to worry about recidivism then.

Libertarians believe in Zero Aggression Principle; not the do what you want with me "I am a Victim" principle.

So politicians think that they can disarm us? I don't think so.

Part 5 Medical Coding: Compliance Penalties

http://docisinblog.com/archives/2006/04/19/maze-pt-5

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In August 1999, Dr. Robert Gervais, a cataract surgeon practicing in Arizona, was invited to a public meeting on a HCFA project. Federal agents were hiding behind a one-way mirror at this public meeting to see which doctors were making negative comments about HCFA and the project. Dr. Gervais was critical. A little more than a month later, Dr. Gervais’ clinic was subjected to a “surprise” inspection, where federal authorities found “deficiencies” in his documentation. Dr. Gervais’ plans to remedy the “deficiencies” in the time HCFA required (6 days) were deemed unacceptable, and his clinic was then “de-listed” by Medicare.

In another case, in February of 1999, 37 armed, flak-jacketed agents carried out a Medicare raid on East Tennessee Woods Memorial Hospital, a 72-bed hospital in Eastern Tennessee. The invading army of armed federal agents stomped into the hospital, trampling through sterile areas, forced employees into a small room and held them.

In another case, at Dr. Danny Westmoreland’s office in West Virginia, three armed federal agents invaded and held everyone at gunpoint, including the physician, his wife, patients, and children.

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Now I see Medicare, distantly, thru the eyes of three retirees, whose affairs I somewhat manage. It's a disaster. Paperwork is a blizzard. I have to believe care is substandard. I've identified a few docs that are what I call "medicare farmers". When I have time, I'll detail my favorite example, but let's just say that: it's a system that is ripe for and full of abuse.

In the old days, you went to the hospital or doc if you could afford it. You paid him (I only knew "him"s in those days!) and that was it. You went to the hospital and on the way out the door you settled up. Like a hotel.

Now, with the federal government intimately involved in everything, insurance companies, and all manner of computer systems, you could tell what you are paying for.

We need to stop the insanity. Separation of Healthcare and State. Now!

http://www.lewrockwell.com/hornberger/hornberger82.html

The Separation of Charity and State
by Jacob G. Hornberger

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The primary function of the federal government these days is to help out others with federal welfare assistance. The assistance is dispensed in a variety of ways – directly, in the form of a money payment (Social Security); indirectly, by helping people with payments to third parties (Medicare and Medicaid); subsidies to government entities and private organizations (grants to public schools or corporate welfare); and in-kind benefits, such as housing or food. After the recent Hurricane Katrina disaster, federal officials even went so far as to disburse bank debit cards to hurricane victims.

Federal welfare assistance to Americans has become such an ingrained part of our lives that most Americans hardly give it a second thought. While “waste, fraud, and abuse” have become a standard part of the welfare-state lexicon, the answer for many is simply, “The system needs reform.”

Yet when recommended reforms are instituted, “waste, fraud, and abuse” inevitably rear their ugly heads again, which then generates the call for new reforms, perpetuating an endless cycle of problems and reforms.

All this fiddling avoids the central issue: Why not separate charity and the state, in the same manner our ancestors separated church and state? Why not get government totally out of the charity business? I’m suggesting that we do much more than simply repeal all welfare-state programs. I’m suggesting that we go further and elevate our vision to the same level as that of our American ancestors when they separated church and state. I’m suggesting the following amendment to the Constitution: “The federal government shall not provide any subsidy, grant, welfare, aid, loan, or other special privilege to anyone.”

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A GREAT idea. We have seen the deleterious effects of federal "welfare". I'd assert that goes for corporations as well. One of the reasons that we are in the fix we are in is that we have removed market discipline from both individuals and corporation.

The market place rewards individuals and corporation who satisfy humna needs. It also severly punishes those that do not by withholding those rewards. When the federal government steals from Peter to pay Paul, Paul is taught that failure is rewarded. Nanny 911! And, Peter is demotivated from doing his best.

Personal experience. In my own consulting business, had an extra contract for work to be done. I had no time to do it. It couldn't be time shifted. I COULD have hired someone to do it, taken all the risks, and taken a cut. I did NOT do it because the rewards would have been mostly to the employee and the government. I figured my profit from all this work was 7%. I decided to read a book instead.

When the federal government bails out companies like Chrysler, we teach corporate executives that they can be "to big to fail".

The 82 year old chairman of Ikea flies coach. He's sending a message.

We need to send DC a message. With tar and feathers! Pitchforks and axes.

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http://www.city-journal.org/html/16_2_new_jersey.html

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Jersey taxpayers are discovering that, since the last big taxpayer revolt of the early 1990s, their opponents, especially the public-sector unions, have grown stronger and smarter, making ad hoc citizen anti-tax campaigns more difficult. Aided by the courts and the vast expansion of budgets during the flush 1990s, New Jersey’s tax eaters have little by little created a full-fledged example of the kind of regional government that the Left touts these days—a government that forces businesses and residents who have fled the dysfunction of the cities to pay the tab for those urban problems, whether they like it or not.

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It would seem that the taxpayers need another revolt, but this one has to be more successful. If I was founding a new "hands across new jersey", then I would use the Libertarian party. We have demonstrated that at a Federal and State level neither the Democrats not the Republicans can be trusted to deliver "smaller government". When I worked on Wall Street, each year we started out budgeting from zero. Everything was up for grabs. What do you have to do and why? That was the first question. Wall Street also loves to drive costs to the unit that benefits from them. It would seem that the "government" needs to learn that lesson.

Now, the state pensions are really bugging me. Probably more than "state cars"! And that is going some. I remember when they kept whining that they need pensions and benefits to recruit. Now state workers have better pensions and benefits than the taxpayers. So I propose that pensions become 401Ks and benefits are 100% employee funded. Then they will be on a level playing field.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2006-04-14-bear-attack_x.htm

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The 350- to 400-pound bear attacked the family at a waterfall near a campground after several adult visitors tried to drive it off the trail, Hicks said.

The bear bit the boy's head, then went after the child's mother after she tried to fend off the attack with rocks and sticks, Hicks said. The animal picked up the woman with its mouth and dragged her off the trail.

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Stinnett, a county fire and rescue chief, said he approached and was about 25 feet away when the bear charged him on all fours. He said he fired at the bear twice with his .380-caliber pistol, scaring it off.

"I know I hit it," Stinnett said. "It reared up on its hind legs. It was as big as you and me."

Authorities said they didn't know whether it was wounded.

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Trying to drive off a crazed animal with sticks. Or even a 380? A nice 1911 on every Mom's hip would put a quick end to rogue bear, child molesters, and all sorts of other ne'er-do-wells. Lest the reader think Gun Fight At The OK Coral, I would refer to Florida's relaxed concealed carry law. Their experience shows that people are very reasonable.

Now envision this poor woman trying to defend her "cubs", she draws her 1911, operates the slide, thumbs the safety, and proceeds to put 9 rounds into said threatening bear. She then, as is taught in most self-defense classes, drops the clip, inserts a new one, and readies the weapon. She stands in her Weaver stance until she is certain that the threat as passed.

I don't care how crazed that bear was. Nine in the center of mass and it's not going anywhere. It's dead.

Now the woman may have a sore wrist, shoulder, or feel badly about the bear. But she and her "cubs" would be safe.

I don't understand people. Yup, guns are a dangerous TOOL. One should treat them with the care accorded any powerful tool like a car, a chainsaw, or a chipper. BUT, they are just that a "tool". Tromping about in the woods, you need the proper tools.

http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2006/04/12/families_pay_price_of_faulty_policies/?rss_id=Boston+Globe+–+Op-ed+columns

It's clear that our politiicans have made a mess out of another relatively simple thing. (1) Statue of Liberty sets the policy. (2) No social benefits for immigrants. It was that way before and it ensured that only the properly motivated came here. Clearly, there's a reasonable exception for emergency care, but that should be minimal. And, possibly billable. [How do other countries deal with traveling Americans?] (3) Then we need to dismantle the underground economy of "day laborers" with respect to taxes. Seems fair to me?