Throwing Promises Off The Cliff | Campaign for Liberty

Throwing Promises Off The Cliff | Campaign for Liberty: "Contrary to what many may believe, the pledge is not an oath to Norquist or to Americans For Tax Reform – it is a promise to the constituents of the lawmaker’s district. "

Ownership of the Product by Capitalists - Murray N. Rothbard - Mises Daily

Ownership of the Product by Capitalists - Murray N. Rothbard - Mises Daily: "The capitalists, therefore, made an essential contribution to production. They relieved the owners of the original factors from the necessity of sacrificing present goods and waiting for future goods. Instead, the capitalists have supplied present goods from their own savings (i.e., money with which to buy present goods) to the owners of the original factors. In return for this supply of present goods, the latter contribute their productive services to the capitalists, who become the owners of the product. More precisely, the capitalists become the owners of the capital structure, of the whole structure of capital goods as they are produced. "

Can We Become Americans Again? | Nat Hentoff | Cato Institute: Commentary

Can We Become Americans Again? | Nat Hentoff | Cato Institute: Commentary: "On Sept. 12, 2001, President George W. Bush assured us: "We will not allow this enemy to win the war by changing our way of life or restricting our freedoms."

The enemy has certainly tried, but it was President Bush, following the advice of Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld, who began the extensive attack on our individual liberties through the Patriot Act, which passed on Oct. 26, 2001.

Then, President Barack Obama went far beyond his predecessor's administration to become the most destructive uprooter of our Constitution in our nation's history."

"But never did I even imagine that an American president, without insuring due process in a court of law, would — as Obama does — use a kill list to target suspected terrorists for assassination. So far this list has also included three American citizens."

"throughout the long, fiercely divisive presidential and Congressional campaigns, there were hardly any references to Obama's persistent contempt for the Constitution. This was the case among loyal Obama Democrats, of course, but also among Republicans and independents."

Texas burglary suspect calls 911 on homeowner with gun | Fox News

Texas burglary suspect calls 911 on homeowner with gun | Fox News: "the suspect, later identified as 41-year-old Christopher Lance Moore, also called for help while sitting in his pickup truck.

"I'm out in the country somewhere and some guy's got a gun on me," he said on the call.

When deputies arrived they arrested Moore for burglary of habitation, a second-degree felony."

Four Easy Ways for Republicans to Attract Immigrant Voters | Jim Powell | Cato Institute: Commentary

Four Easy Ways for Republicans to Attract Immigrant Voters | Jim Powell | Cato Institute: Commentary: "Consider that in the decade between 1900 and 1909, a near record 8.2 million immigrants arrived at our shores. About the only immigrants denied entry into the United States were those believed to have a disease or a criminal record."

What happened "Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"?

Why don't we freely open our doors to those looking for freedom?

Federal food law has some Oregon school cooks steaming | Fox News

Federal food law has some Oregon school cooks steaming | Fox News: "Cooks are spending more time on the paperwork that reports the nutritional content of their meals and less time at the stove.

The Eugene Register-Guard reports that at the McKenzie Elementary School in rural Lane County, the cook is offering fewer options in entrees and is probably going to use more heat-and-serve meals rather than those cooked from scratch."

Can you say "unintended consequences"?

Misdiagnosing the Stagnation | Richard W. Rahn | Cato Institute: Commentary

Misdiagnosing the Stagnation | Richard W. Rahn | Cato Institute: Commentary: "he is ignoring the fact that much, if not most, of government spending does not meet the test of the highest and best use for the money. It does not even meet a much lower standard of spending benefits exceeding their costs."

"There is an enormous body of empirical evidence from around the globe showing that a country or a state cannot tax itself to prosperity, but many continue to be deaf to these lessons."

"mortgage rates have been driven down to the point where a 15-year mortgage can be acquired for an interest rate almost identical to the rate of inflation. In other words, the money is, in effect, free to the borrower, who also gets to deduct the interest cost from his taxes.

On the other side of the equation, those who are responsible and save are receiving virtually nothing on their savings accounts, money market funds, etc. The 10-year government bond is now providing a return of only 1.6 percent, well under the rate of inflation. Artificially low interest rates for savers engineered by the Fed have the same destructive effect as a high tax rate on savings. Homebuyers are being subsidized at the expense of those whose savings ought to be more productively invested in new technologies and new jobs."

Obama's Soak-the-'Rich' Tax Hikes are Worse than the Fiscal Cliff | Daniel J. Mitchell | Cato Institute: Commentary

Obama's Soak-the-'Rich' Tax Hikes are Worse than the Fiscal Cliff | Daniel J. Mitchell | Cato Institute: Commentary: "The good fiscal cliff is the so-called sequester, which is the inside-the-beltway term for automatic spending cuts. These aren't really spending cuts, just reductions in the growth of spending. If the sequester takes place, total federal spending will climb by $2 trillion over the next 10 years instead of $2.1 trillion."

Cops to Congress: We need logs of Americans' text messages | Politics and Law - CNET News

Cops to Congress: We need logs of Americans' text messages | Politics and Law - CNET News: "State and local law enforcement want wireless providers to store detailed information about your SMS messages for at least two years -- in case they're needed for future criminal investigations."

"In one 2009 case in Michigan, wireless provider SkyTel turned over the contents of 626,638 SMS messages, a figure described by a federal judge as "staggering." "

"Some providers, like Verizon, retain the contents of SMS messages for a brief period of time, while others like T-Mobile do not store them at all."

"as of 2010, AT&T, T-Mobile, and Sprint did not store the contents of text messages. Verizon did for up to five days, a change from its earlier no-logs-at-all position, and Virgin Mobile kept them for 90 days. The carriers generally kept metadata such as the phone numbers associated with the text for 90 days to 18 months; AT&T was an outlier, keeping it for as long as seven years, according to the chart."

The Privatization of Space - Timothy D. Terrell - Mises Daily

The Privatization of Space - Timothy D. Terrell - Mises Daily: "jobs are not the goal of the economy. We want the output from jobs, not the jobs themselves. This distinction is important, because any policy that subsidizes an industry in the effort to make sure that the industry hires workers is inevitably promoting a misallocation of those workers' skills. Superseding market prices for labor means that the other industries that had a more productive use for those workers (maybe in space flight, maybe not) must forego those workers. This reduces economic growth."