George: Gay Marriage, Democracy and the Supreme Court - WSJ.com

George: Gay Marriage, Democracy and the Supreme Court - WSJ.com: "Even many supporters of legal abortion now consider Roe a mistake. Lacking any basis in the text, logic or original understanding of the Constitution, the decision became a symbol of the judicial usurpation of authority vested in the people and their representatives. It sent the message that judges need not be impartial umpires—as both John Roberts and Sonia Sotomayor say they should be—but that judges can impose their policy preferences under the pretext of enforcing constitutional guarantees.

By short-circuiting the democratic process, Roe inflamed the culture war that has divided our nation and polarized our politics. Abortion, which the Court purported to settle in 1973, remains the most unsettled issue in American politics—and the most unsettling. Another Roe would deepen the culture war and prolong it indefinitely."

'Candid and clear-thinking advocates of redefining marriage recognize that doing so entails abandoning norms such as monogamy. In a 2006 statement entitled “Beyond Same-Sex Marriage,” over 300 lesbian, gay, and allied activists, educators, lawyers, and community organizers—including Gloria Steinem, Barbara Ehrenreich, and prominent Yale, Columbia and Georgetown professors—call for legally recognizing multiple sex partner (“polyamorous”) relationships. Their logic is unassailable once the historic definition of marriage is overthrown.

Is this a red herring? This week’s Newsweek reports more than 500,000 polyamorous households in the U.S.

So, before judging whether traditional marriage laws should be junked, we must decide what marriage is. It is this crucial and logically prior question that some want to shuffle off stage.'

Bad Reform Is Worse Than No Reform | Michael D. Tanner | Cato Institute: Commentary

Bad Reform Is Worse Than No Reform | Michael D. Tanner | Cato Institute: Commentary: "If one totals up all the new taxes in the House Democratic health reform bill–the income tax surtax, the penalties on businesses that fail to provide and individuals who fail to buy the governments prescribed health care plan, as well as other frees and taxes–the cost to American taxpayers will top $800 billion. On top of that, studies suggest that the plan could increase insurance premiums by 75-95 percent."

Does Cash for Clunkers Help the Environment? It's Debatable - Political News - FOXNews.com

Does Cash for Clunkers Help the Environment? It's Debatable - Political News - FOXNews.com: "'Disposing of old products, a step required by most incentive and rebate programs, also has environmental costs,' Gwen Ottinger, a researcher at the Chemical Heritage Foundation's Center for Contemporary History and Policy in Philadelphia, wrote in an opinion article published in The Washington Post on Tuesday.

'It takes energy to shred and recycle metals; plastic components often cannot be recycled and end up as landfill cover; and the engine fluids, refrigerants and other chemicals essential to operating products end up as hazardous wastes,' she wrote."

Obamacare Follies: A Perilous Rush | Michael D. Tanner | Cato Institute: Commentary

Obamacare Follies: A Perilous Rush | Michael D. Tanner | Cato Institute: Commentary: "Yes, as Chairman Rangel says, lives are at stake. But even if health-care reform passed tomorrow, most provisions of the bill won't go into effect until 2013. And, if lives are at stake, isn't that all the more reason why Congress should, say, read the bill? Debate it? Get it right?"

Seattle Bank Teller Loses Job After Thwarting Heist - Local News | News Articles | National News | US News - FOXNews.com

Seattle Bank Teller Loses Job After Thwarting Heist - Local News | News Articles | National News | US News - FOXNews.com: "'They tell us that we're just supposed to comply, but my instincts kicked in and I did what's best to stop the guy,' the 30-year-old Nicholson told The Seattle Times. 'I thought if I let him go he would rob more banks and cause more problems.'"

Maybe training the employee to follow the policy better next time would have been better than firing him.

75% Favor Auditing The Fed - Rasmussen Reports™

75% Favor Auditing The Fed - Rasmussen Reports™: "A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 75% of Americans favor auditing the Federal Reserve and making the results available to the public. Just nine percent (9%) of adults think that’s a bad idea and oppose it."

Why Pay with Two-Dollar Bills

Why I Pay with Two-Dollar Bills - Briggs Armstrong - Mises Institute: "I recently decided that I am going to pay for as many things as is practicable using only two-dollar bills."

"Thomas Jefferson is featured on the two, and as all Jeffersonians and Austrians know, Jefferson had a deep hatred of central banks and inflation. (Not to mention that his vice president shot and killed Hamilton.) What's more, two-dollar bills are something of an oddity.

The front of the bill is the oldest design still in production. The reverse features Trumbull's Declaration of Independence. The two-dollar bill serves my purpose well because, as Austrian economists have taught us, price inflation is the result of the Federal Reserve printing money."

It would be interesting if someone started printing "Google: Why Pay with Two-Dollar Bills" on the two dollar bills.

Green Baptists Preach Salvation by Breaking Car Windows - Tyler A. Watts - Mises Institute

Green Baptists Preach Salvation by Breaking Car Windows - Tyler A. Watts - Mises Institute: "Who could possibly claim that buying up drivable used cars at prices far in excess of their market value, for the express purpose of destroying them, will be beneficial for the economy or the planet? You guessed it: a combination of economy-saving politicians and earth-saving green activists are peddling the wonders of a new government program popularly known as 'Cash for Clunkers.' The Consumer Assistance Recycle and Save Act of 2009 has the two ostensible goals of jump-starting the stalled automobile industry and combating global warming (or climate change, or whatever they're calling it these days) by replacing old, gas-guzzling smog machines with new, more fuel-efficient, cleaner cars."

"To highlight just one instance of the outrageous economic distortion this silly program is sure to bring, consider the fact that most of the clunkers that qualify for the program are driven by relatively poor folks, people who are not very likely to be in a position to buy a new car even with the help of government refunds. I would venture to guess that these people rely on clunkers to a much greater extent than upper-middle-class suburbanites who can afford more reliable cars and who might own a clunker here or there as a spare, seldom-driven car. Yet these upper-income folks are far more likely to cash in on the artificial government refund value of clunkers, thus withholding their vehicles from the used car market and raising their prices. In the limit, clunker prices will climb as high as the potential refund value minus registration, insurance, and miscellaneous transaction costs, thus making basic transportation more expensive for the poorest elements of society."

The Most Destructive Disease | Richard W. Rahn | Cato Institute: Commentary

The Most Destructive Disease | Richard W. Rahn | Cato Institute: Commentary: "Those infected tend to lose judgment, values, principles and sense of honesty as well as common sense. They say silly things like, 'I will vote for (or support) this (1,000-page) bill because it is absolutely necessary to protect the American people and we must do it now' — having never read the bill, having only a vague idea of its provisions, having no idea whether it will do more good or harm and having no idea of what a billion dollars is, let alone a trillion dollars."

'A leading orthopedic surgeon, Dr. Robert P. Nirschl, wrote: "... the House version of health reform is in direct opposition to the Hippocratic Oath. The Obama pledge that patients can still see their own doctor is a blatant mistruth and irrelevant as the doctor will no longer be free to act in the best interest of the patient. The AMA endorsement of the bill as drafted is astounding and does not represent the position of most physicians in clinical private practice."'

'President Obama often exhibits Washingtonosis, as illustrated by his contradictory claims that his health care proposal will: save money (despite the fact that the Democrat-controlled Congressional Budget Office finds the opposite), provide top-quality care for everyone, not impose health care rationing, not require tax increases on the middle class, and not blow another billion-dollar hole in the budget. As Lawrence A. Hunter, former staff director of the Congressional Joint Economic Committee and now chairman of the Social Security Institute, has noted: "The circle cannot be squared; it is a logical impossibility." Mr. Hunter also said: "At its inception in 1966, Medicare cost $3 billion per year. At that time, the ... U.S. House of Representatives projected 'conservatively' the program would cost approximately $12 billion a year by 1990. In 1990, the cost of Medicare was actually $107 billion, nine times higher than estimated."'

You Can't Print Production and Prosperity - Doug French - Mises Institute

You Can't Print Production and Prosperity - Doug French - Mises Institute: "Now the word is that zero-percent interest rates are just too darn high. That's why we haven't seen a reinflation of bubble America. The Financial Times reports the existence of a Federal Reserve staff memorandum that makes the case for a negative-five-percent federal-funds rate. Meanwhile, Japanese authorities are toying with the idea of outlawing cash in their country. Despite using every fiscal trick in the book and keeping interest rates at zero percent for a decade, that economy has been mired in a postbubble depression. So the current theory 'would suggest that nominal interest rates of [negative four] percent might be closer to what is required to rescue the economy from another deflationary spiral,' reported the Times Online."

'But as economist Frank Shostak explains, it is savings — not demand — that enables the expansion of production of goods and services. "In short, no effective demand can take place without prior production," Shostak writes. "If it were otherwise, then poverty in the world would have been eradicated a long time ago." In other words, you can't print production and prosperity, much as the Fed may try. And Ben Bernanke is trying.

For those not familiar with Krugman's policy suggestions, he wrote back in August 2002 that "[t]o fight this recession, the Fed needs more than a snapback; it needs soaring household spending to offset moribund business investment. And to do that, as Paul McCulley of Pimco put it, Alan Greenspan needs to create a housing bubble to replace the Nasdaq bubble."

Sir Alan followed Krugman's advice, and look where we are now. More of the same will only create more financial pain.'