LibertarianISH's blog
Posted at 2:27am on Jun. 7, 2008 I've Come to Realize Something about Americans on the Economy
By LibertarianISH
Hi. I haven't posted here in a long while...mainly because I'm not a Republican or conservative and don't plan on being either.
That's not to say I don't lean on the GOP/conservatives to serve a purpose in American politics...I do. I count on the GOP to be on the "better side", for the most part, of economic/fiscal/regulatory issues and debates...usually.
Some of my favorite politicians are Republicans. Ron Paul, Jeff Flake and Sununu to name a few.
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Posted at 5:51pm on Jun. 15, 2007 A free market contradiction by Lott, author of Freedomnomics?
By LibertarianISH
I am currently reading a new book by John R. Lott called Freedomnomics.
Lott wrote this book partly to "rebut" the logic of Steven Levitt in his controversial, best-selling book called "Freaknomics". On a side note, I personally don't think there was much to "rebut" in Freaknomics for I never saw it as an anti-market book. I never considered, for example, that an analysis of real estate data in Chicago revealing that agents generally keep their own houses on the market an average of ten days longer for a slightly larger margin to be an attack on free markets. It just shows how, based on commission incentives, an agent is less inclined to do that little extra work to get a slightly higher selling price. The extra few thousand for the seller (only a few hundred for the agent) is demonstrated to not be worth the extra effort. So what? I thought it was just, well, interesting in its look at how incentives and consequences, in specific cases, yield interesting data. No need to quote the Adam Smith's and Friedman's of the world to dispel this little snag. Lott's best, thus far, is when he is speaking about economics and not when he's attacking Levitt. But that's neither here nor there.
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Posted at 5:02pm on Jun. 8, 2007 A complicated and underdiscussed view of immigration....
By LibertarianISH
Keep in mind, folks, as a disclaimer, that I do NOT have strong opinions on immigration. In fact, I think this is my first writing on the matter in all my time here.
The immigration bill could pass, get killed or revamped ala Tancredo and I probably would not fuss over it much...though I think draconian measures are not really practical or healthy...but that's neither here nor there.
What I would like to do is introduce a point of view on the matter that I think makes sense and does NOT come from the Left.
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Posted at 6:34pm on May 31, 2007 The density of some partisan politicos on Star Wars....
By LibertarianISH
Disclaimer: I'm a HUGE Star Wars fan. I love the story, its meanings and find the timeless themes it draws from to be some of the wisest truths of mankind's history as it relates to society and politics. This has been getting a little buzz after the History Channel's "Star Wars, The Legacy Revealed" in honor of the 30th anniversary of the franchise.
Back in the day of Star Wars' novelty, The Empire was immediately linked to the Soviet Union, Nazism and other totalitarian regimes. While this was a truthful connection in one sense, the idea was far from being that narrow or simplistic.
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Posted at 6:04pm on May 26, 2007 A 3rd former CIA analyst comes out in support of Ron Paul.
By LibertarianISH
Michael Scheuer, former head of the CIA's Bin Laden Unit and author of Imperial Hubris and "Through Our Enemies Eyes, came out and spoke in favor of Ron Paul's general position on terrorism and its partial roots in US Foreign Policy during an a lengthy and fascinating interview. [Link forbidden] Sorry.
Scheuer:
“I thought Mr. Paul captured it the other night exactly correctly. This war is dangerous to America because it’s based, not on gender equality, as Mr. Giuliani suggested, or any other kind of freedom, but simply because of what we do in the Islamic World – because ‘we’re over there,’ basically, as Mr. Paul said in the debate.”
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Posted at 8:44pm on May 23, 2007 New Zealand's doing fine (even better) without Agriculture Subsidies
By LibertarianISH
I love these stories. Pejman will love this one too. I love watching bravely defended free-market principles prove true time and time again. And when it happens to an unthinkable "sacred cow" of "needed" subsidies like Ag Subsidies, I feel even more vindicated that my faith in the assertions of Von Mises, Hayek, Adam Smith, Bastiat, Rothbard, Hazlitt and other adherents to economic law (it's not theory!) is not misguided and blindly indoctrinated.
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Posted at 4:31pm on May 23, 2007 This is very troubling by Bush. Do Republicans even care??
By LibertarianISH
This piece of news via WorldNetDaily just came to my attention via an email. Eager to see what the reaction by Republicans was, I came here and was unable to find even one reference to it. This is also troubling though it could just be because no one noticed. so here it is.
President Bush has signed a directive granting extraordinary powers to the office of the president in the event of a declared national emergency, apparently without congressional approval or oversight.
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Posted at 3:06pm on May 18, 2007 Ron vs. Rudy: One Libertarian's Perspective
By LibertarianISH
Michael Tennant over at Lew Rockwell offers his thoughts on the Rudy /Ron exchange at the recent GOP Debate. While Tennant's views can seem a bit hyperbolic, I think he makes some worthwhile points to interject into this discussion.
Gregory Scoblete makes a similar point with an even better article over at TCS Daily. Both articles are worth a read in full.
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Posted at 4:10pm on May 17, 2007 Petition for Ron Paul to the RNC. Support dissent on the status quo and please sign!
By LibertarianISH
follow this link
to support the further inclusion of REPUBLICAN Ron Paul in future debates. Being that this is a GOP blog, I feel it is appropriate to ask for help even though his foreign policy views clash with the establishment and many RSers (while his economic, monetary and fiscal views are the stuff of dreams for most of these RSers!) If my petition is out of line, let me know. I don't think it is.
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Posted at 7:19pm on Apr. 3, 2007 Why not Ron Paul? The War? Is that it?? Come on, guys.
By LibertarianISH
OK. Disclaimer: I'm not a Republican. My user-name pretty much says it all. However, I share many ideals, important FUNDAMENTAL ideals, with conservatives (voters, that is, NOT the elected officials)(at least I THINK I do.)
They are:
Federalism.
Limited government
Respect for the Constitution
Low Taxes
Limited Spending
Free Markets (including monetary policy)
The GOP has mixed voting groups who don't always share these ideals...but most do. I would hope.Posted in 2008 — Comments (33) / Email this page » / Read More »
Posted at 4:48pm on Dec. 4, 2006 The overlooked component of "Limited" Government? Ignoring part of the Contract.
By LibertarianISH
Paul Jacobs with Americans for Limited Government www.limitedgov.org writes an article on
Free Liberal drawing from a piece by Andrew Cline in the American Spectator that tries to dispense with all the post election analysis and look at one small but hugely influential part of the Contract with America that has been ignored:
More than any other point in the Contract With America, the promise of term limits showed how serious these reformers were about changing the culture in Washington.”
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Posted at 3:25pm on Dec. 3, 2006 Nevermind Hitler. The Real Lesson is from the German People.
By LibertarianISH
The Nazis are indeed a favorite object for taking jabs at your political opponents. Both sides do it for diferent reasons. Most, if not all, of it is silly hyperbole with a shallow and often exaggerated message. No need to explain there.
Yes, there are good lessons to be learned from Hitler and his party and we should be be wary of anything even remotely similar making its way into the mouths and minds of our elected officials...remember Hitler was elected.
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Posted at 1:10pm on Nov. 29, 2006 Well at least jobs aren't "being shipped overseas"...the dark side of "protecting jobs"
By LibertarianISH
This is a short diary. It's mainly just a snear at Lou Dobbs, Pat Buchanan, John Edwards, and any protectionist Democrat, Republican, journalist or pundit who makes political/emotional hay about losing jobs to "cheaper labor", seeing jobs get shipped overseas to plants in Mexico, China or anywhere and any grim news about plants closing down to go on the protectionist war path about "protecting" American workers and their jobs with some silly "noble sounding" plan:
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Posted at 2:27pm on Nov. 24, 2006 Pew Typology Test: A Simple Calculator Trying to do Geometry
By LibertarianISH
In response to the blog on the Pew Typology Test http://typology.people-press.org/typology/ that others have taken via this blog http://www.redstate.com/blogs/joliphant/2006/nov/22/whereisyourplaceintheconservative_universe
I said that the test is very inadequate and incomplete and thus produces answers that are not only misleading and dishonest but answers that fail to indentify just how varied people are in their views.
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Posted at 11:24am on Sep. 8, 2006 CATO thought experiment on pork and extra spending.
By LibertarianISH
a Cato writer, Tom Firey, has been doodling with a thought experiment on pork spending and other types of "socially beneficial projects".
First he cites the dynamic which inherently puts the taxpayer and average citizen at disadvantage when it comes to politics and fiscal policy. In summarizing Mancur Olsen from "The Logic of Collective":
"the disparity in incentives between taxpayers and what we now call “special interests” results from an inherent disadvantage of the larger group (i.e., taxpayers) compared to the smaller group (i.e., recipients of public dollars) in its ability to organize to defend its interests. It is this inherent bias in favor of the small special interest groups that provides a very robust explanation of why we still have Big Government, even though many taxpayers would prefer smaller government. “It would be in the best interest of those groups who are organizing to increase their own gains by whatever means possible,” writes Olson. “This would include choosing policies that, though inefficient for the society as a whole, were advantageous for the organized groups because the costs of the policies fell disproportionately on the unorganized.”"
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