The Prism

P Values and more

noreply@blogger.com (Todd C.) — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 03:33:00 +0000

Contracting

noreply@blogger.com (Todd C.) — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 16:17:00 +0000

If you believe as I do, then you believe that individuals entering into voluntary contracts can be very beneficial to both parties. Now, if only we could contract with animals or more specifically insects. While doing some work outdoors recently, I found myself involuntarily donating blood to the local mosquito population. I found myself swatting at them and more than anything, scratching at my new bites! You might think that I am being selfish by not being willing to share my blood with the mosquitoes. Yet this is not the case. I am more than willing to share my blood, I am just concerned about contracting a disease. If I could contract with the mosquitoes and agree to give them a pint of blood per year in exchange for them not biting me for a year. This way the mosquitoes could have the blood that they want and I can avoid the hassle of dealing with mosquito bites. This seems like a mutually beneficial arrangement, unfortunately one that will not being happening any time soon.

Political Correctness

noreply@blogger.com (Todd C.) — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 15:30:00 +0000

Make sure to read about how the PC police feel about those who have unapproved thoughts.
Link to story.

Libertarian Video for Children

noreply@blogger.com (Todd C.) — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 14:08:00 +0000

What you might not know about the war

noreply@blogger.com (Todd C.) — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 14:07:00 +0000

Short History of Iran Video

noreply@blogger.com (Todd C.) — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 18:11:00 +0000

9/11 anniversary coming up soon

noreply@blogger.com (Todd C.) — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 17:13:00 +0000

Privacy Under Attack

noreply@blogger.com (Todd C.) — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 15:53:00 +0000

Political Asylum from the US

noreply@blogger.com (Todd C.) — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 03:13:00 +0000

This is just another example of the US being a tyrannical government. I must admit after reading the article that I am surprised that Kurt Sonnenfeld is still alive. The US government has proved itself time and again to be outright killers. The political fallout must be enough of an inconvenience to let Mr. Sonnenfeld live. I'm glad that Argentina was willing to step up and provide political asylum. If I keep writing blog posts like this, I may "get" to go visit Argentina myself.

Conversation with a Barista in Grand Rapids

noreply@blogger.com (Todd C.) — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 05:16:00 +0000

While visiting Grand Rapids this past week I decided to walk around and explore. I found a locally owned coffee shop and stopped there for breakfast and a cup of joe. Breakfast was good and the Sumatra that was freshly brewed was delicious. I engaged the Barista in some small talk and found out that she is going to the local college, GVSU. Social Work is her major of choice. She plans to go on and get a masters degree before going into the work place. We talked a little bit about her courses and she explained that there were not really any right or wrong answers in her program, "it is all about how you feel" and "your moral compass". It seems that this type of program would lead one to relativism, after all for the last four years she has not been subjected to any objective truths. This poor girl even mentioned that her grades are given according to the moral compass of each professor, which differs. In order for her to receive good grades in all her classes she would have to change her moral stance on issues. What type of mentality is this going to instill in students? Simply change your moral values whenever it may be beneficial to the current situation?

So the plan for the Barista was to finish her B.A. and then go on for her masters in the same field. If you assume that she was 19 when she entered college and completed her degree in four years then finished her masters in another 2 years, she would be a 24 years old with a masters degree and no work experience and likely hired on as a social worker. Can you imagine a 24 year old with relatively no life experience making judgment calls for families about if they can keep their children or not, based simply off of how she feels? Social workers have nearly unlimited amounts of power to ruin families.The only thing scarier than social workers with absurd amounts of power, is 24 year old social workers with little life experience and absurd amounts of power.

The Police State

noreply@blogger.com (Todd C.) — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 16:56:00 +0000

Clean Cars

noreply@blogger.com (Todd C.) — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 07:22:00 +0000

Speaking of driving on the Fabian Highway, we can now have government produced cars to drive or at least government backed warranties. I'll come back to this shortly.

It is interesting to note that I recently had dinner with a friend who is a substitute teacher. He was recently teaching a 7th grade language arts class and mentioned that they were covering the use of pronouns. Which I find interesting because it seems that they would pick that skill up by simply talking to any adult for more than a couple of minutes. How often do we hear people make statements like "The government needs to regulate the finance industry" or "If we didn't bail them out the (insert your favorite industry here), then they would fail and that would bring down the whole economy". Some of the pronouns we use everyday like "government", "the economy" and "us", come quite natural for most Americans. Defining these terms is where it starts to become fun. What is government? What is the economy? One of my favorite definitions of government is this:

government - n.
A coercive monopoly on force, usually in a given geographical area

But, even this fails to break things down in the most basic terms. Government is a group of individuals that exert power over other individuals, with the threat of death backing them up. What I attempted to do with my friend when he made the comment that "the reason the finance industry went amiss is because of a lack of regulation". I tried to do what Stefan Molyneux does in this video, which is to get away from all of the abstract ideas that we use in everyday conversation and get down to the heart of all matters, humans act.

Now back to the government backed warranties of cars. Apparently Obama claims that the government will back the automakers warranty. This is designed to give the consumer more confidence when purchasing a car, because even if the manufacturer goes under, their warranty will still be honored. Can you just imagine the quality of the repairs at a government owned and run car dealership?

Obama was quoted by the AP as saying:

"I am absolutely committed to working with Congress and the auto companies to meet one goal: The United States of America will lead the world in building the next generation of clean cars"

Can you identify the pronoun that is not usually defined in the above quote? If you guessed "The United States of America" then you are correct, give yourself 200 bonus points. Who exactly are the people that make up the US? In the context of the quote it should have something to do with those involved in the auto industry and the consumers who demand US made cars. Of course this does not just mean consumers who live in the US that demand US made "clean cars", but everyone in the world that demands this product. The problem here is that Obama wants to make American car manufacturer's make cars a certain way ("clean"), even if individuals don't want to buy them.

Which of course we (everyone who demands clean cars that are produced in the US) don't want or we would already have them. That is what the market does, it provides the goods that are demanded. Even a market that has a death grip on it by the government through regulation, taxes and safety standards, still attempts to give consumers what they want the best it can.

[For those of you who are wanting to hit me with a stick for using the term "the market", subtract 500 bonus points. Yes, "the market" is another concept that exists only in our minds. The market is merely made up of many different individuals making exchanges, ie. I'll give you $5 for that book.]

There are a couple of things that are occurring. One, Obama presumes to have the knowledge to be making such a decision, which is not even possible. (To read more about the knowledge problem, I suggest Hayek, The Use of Knowledge in Society).

Also, the taxpayers are being forced to pay for Obama's desire to see "clean cars" made in the US. If you are not sure why taxpayers are going to be responsible for this, keep reading.

Just for quick review, let's go over how the government can finance things.

1. Tax (which is theft)
2. Borrow (the promise to steal)
3. Inflate the currency (this is theft, by stealing value from people)
4. Receive donations

Normally this list does not include number 4, but it should since this is the only way the State can receive funds without using coercion. If you are thinking that donating to the State would be an immoral thing to do, then give yourself 1000 bonus points. The always fun to read Walter Block, has written on this issue of donating to the State. A "presumption of guilt" should exist for those who have donated to the State when they are tried at the Libertarian Nuremberg Trials. Here is a short sample from Block:

Consider the case of a long time libertarian professor who donated a large sum of money to a state university. We begin our analysis with the presumption that he is guilty of a crime against libertarian law.

Make sure to take the time to read the whole article by Block, it's worth your time.

The other three ways that the government can finance it's plan to force the automakers to make "clean cars", involves stealing from you!

So in the end, those who wield the sword are going to plunder the defenseless so "clean cars" may be produced in the US.

Safer Food through government regulation?

noreply@blogger.com (Todd C.) — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 19:57:00 +0000

Not likely. Infringement on individual rights, you bet!

Stage 2

noreply@blogger.com (Todd C.) — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 20:43:00 +0000

The Government's view of business can be summed up as this, "If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. If it stops moving, subsidize it" (Ronald Reagan). You are of course suppose to subsidize while continuing to tax and regulate. Well, it is safe to say that we are moving into phase 2 for the financial industry, regulate it. Here are some of the highlights from the new Secretary of the Treasury, Timothy Geithner. These are suppose to be some of the new "rules of the game".

• Imposing tougher standards on financial institutions judged to be so big that their failure would represent a risk to the entire system.

• Extending federal regulations for the first time to all trading in financial derivatives, exotic financial instruments such as credit default swaps that were blamed for much of the damage in the meltdown.

• Requiring hedge funds and other private pools of capital, including private equity funds and venture capital funds, to register with the Securities and Exchange Commission if their assets exceed a certain size. The threshold amount has yet to be determined.

• Creating a systemic risk regulator to monitor the biggest institutions. Geithner did not designate where such authority should reside, but the administration is expected to support awarding this power to the Federal Reserve.

Taken from this AP article.

Does anyone else think that awarding the Fed with the power to monitor and regulate risk for private companies is a bad idea? After everything the Fed has done to cause the current mess that were are in, these people want to give them more power to harm? These are some sick (some are just mislead) people. If America really doesn't want to be a big player in the financial world anymore, these steps are perfect.

This should be enough to put the American financial system in a strangle hold. Perhaps the next administration will come along and "help" the financial industry by subsidizing it (read large amounts of sarcasm). This is just another (large) step down the road to Socialism. As Mises tried to warn us, Middle of the Road Policies Lead to Socialism, and this is not even a middle of the road policy!

So onwards we continue, in public transportation, speeding down the Fabian Highway with a final destination of Socialism City. Someone needs to commandeer the bus and make a U-turn, changing the destination to the City of Financial Freedom. Of course, no one person can change the destination of the bus. It will take many individuals standing up and fighting for freedom before the bus will alter it's course. This requires those who understand that economic freedom can not separated from individual freedom, to stand firmly for what they believe and also to educate those who are willing to learn. It is not going to be easy, but it is necessary.

The Radical Remnant

noreply@blogger.com (Todd C.) — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 05:58:00 +0000

Due to formatting issues I have been experiencing with Blogger, this post is going to be available as a pdf.
The Radical Remnant

Killing Palestinians

noreply@blogger.com (Todd C.) — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 05:42:00 +0000

One of the most disturbing quotes from the article:

"When we entered a house, we were supposed to bust down the door and start shooting inside and just go up story by story... I call that murder. Each story, if we identify a person, we shoot them. I asked myself - how is this reasonable?", an Israeli soldier said.

For all those who made statements like "I don't know why HAMAS thinks they can launch missiles at Israel and not have any consequences" and others who have made similar claims of the murder that Israel has visited upon the Palestinians is self-defense. How do you explain the above quote?

Calvinism Changing the World?

noreply@blogger.com (Todd C.) — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 20:50:00 +0000

Is Calvinism one of those ideas that is currently changing people's minds, attitude and behavior? I wouldn't have guessed so, but according to Time magazine it is one of the 10 ideas changing the world right now.

The Government's Black Hole

noreply@blogger.com (Todd C.) — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 16:48:00 +0000

America is number one! (at least in prisons populations). It should be pointed out that this is not just for per capita but also for overall totals as well. Many different places are experiencing overcrowding in their prisons, the state of California is one of these places. Prison of course is not a desirable place to be. Stefan Molyneux refers to prisons as "dungeon rape rooms" , which of course they are. There are people in these horrible places that don't belong there. Some, are not even charged with crimes.

Just imagine how many more people the State will be able to put in schackles once they start making use of the FEMA camps. The Military Commisions Act of 2006 basically revoked haebus corpus. All of this and more is covered in the article by William Grigg which I recommend, called "Sentence First, Trial Never".

My favorite part:
"Federal prosecutors, it shouldn't be necessary to point out, are formed from the congealed scum that suppurates out through the cracks of our most prestigious law schools."
Click here to read the full article.
Happy reading.

noreply@blogger.com (Todd C.) — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 22:04:00 +0000

I love how he refers to the "Stimulus Package" as the "Economic raping of the unborn".

Blissful Ignorance

noreply@blogger.com (Todd C.) — Sun, 08 Mar 2009 03:11:00 +0000

I just read a great article on Lewrockwell.com and wanted to share. Here is a sample to whet your appetite.
"I once spent part of a Ron Paul event drinking and smoking with some bearded kid who was dressed as a giant purple dinosaur. We leaned against the bar, he was trying to sell me on the merits of "riding out the coming storm" in Quito, Ecuador and the female bartender delivered every shot with an accompanying warning about One World Government. I couldn’t help to feel a bit like a lunatic."
Click here for the full article.

Cat Hearding

noreply@blogger.com (Todd C.) — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 21:16:00 +0000

Global Warming?

noreply@blogger.com (Todd C.) — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 17:29:00 +0000

Sowell Article

noreply@blogger.com (Todd C.) — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 17:24:00 +0000

Thomas Sowell has an article talking about de-programming people. I just wanted to pass it along.

noreply@blogger.com (Todd C.) — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 22:46:00 +0000

This is unfortunately, quite appropriate:
http://contest.newyorker.com/CaptionContest.aspx?id=173

Gitmo Story

noreply@blogger.com (Todd C.) — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 18:30:00 +0000

Watch CBS Videos Online