Fantasy, Let Me Introduce You to Reality

Fantasy, Meet Reality
This is a great read, and a great opening photo, both worth indulging in.  Sad?  Yes, it is that when fantasy is revealed and hope for long delayed suffering arrives.  These are great examples of why as little as possible should be entrusted to the feeble human minds of those who would be the leaders of a coercive monopoly state.

Can't Anyone Help? You Can? Nevermind

http://www.salon.com/news/economics/index.html?story=/politics/war_room/2011/04/19/economic_recession_liberal_conservative_plan_obama
Ms. Lind is funny.  First she asks if anyone can help fix the economy.  Then she points out that if fixing the economy means reining in the insanity of the entitlement programs, she doesn't want the economy fixed.  Heck no - let's just ride this insolvency/government dependency thrill ride as far as it will go!!!

Classic Quotes, Ts-an

If you want the truth to stand clear before you, never be for or against.  The struggle between "for" and "against" is the mind's worst disease.
--  Sent Ts-an, c. 700 CE

Devil's In The Details

http://www.sbisvcs.com/Brochures/The%20Worst%20Study%20EVER%20by%20Scott%20W.%20Atlas.pdf
Does the US spend more than any other nation but get worse health care outcomes?  Is the US really ranked 37th in healthcare in the world?

That's what the World Health Organization said, and the data the WHO published has been used by the President to good effect in the battle over whether the government should run our health care via coercion, rather than allowing liberty and choice to decide how we get cared for.

Bottom line - it reminds one of the old saw about "lies, damned lies, and statistics."

Classic Quotes, Browne

We must ask of every politician, "Where in the Constitution does it give you the right to decide how people must spend the money they've earned with their own sweat and blood?  Who decided that you're so smart that you can decide for all of us the most intricate questions involving life and death?"  Harry Browne, Liberty A To Z

Palin Driving the Left Batty

That sounds like Sarah Palin's new plight. She's running fifth in the 2012 presidential polls, and that's just among Republicans. Sixty percent of Americans view her "very unfavorably." She's getting close to being politically radioactive.

How could such a star burn out so fast? Two reasons: She started out with a lot to learn about national and international affairs, and she didn't bother. And she's got a mean streak.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/chapman/chi-sarah-palins-selfdestruction-20110408,0,1812061.story?obref=obinsite

Was she ever really a star?  I couldn't believe how afraid of this lady the left was, now it's still a surprise to see how they are enjoying what should have been an obvious and mediocre appeal as a presidential candidate. 

I was one of many who enjoyed her nomination, but primarily, because of her contrast to both McCain and her opponent - Veep nominee Biden.  I'd take her in a heartbeat over him if that were the choice.  But I never thought, and have never been able to see why others thought, she would be a standard bearer for the GOP.  If I were her though, I'd be happy about that - could there be a fate worse than being elected President?  TV news gal or President - TV news gal wins on all counts except that I think TV news folk are more encumbered by their sense of their own significance.

The left should be celebrating that their neanderthal opponents on the right are finally shedding their desire to send women back to the kitchen barefoot, but instead they have worked themselves into a lather over Ms. Palin.  Weird.

Hurts the Most Vulnerable

Deep Budget Cuts Hurt Most Vulnerable

This is the hole card of the statists.  And who could deny it after all, once you make entire classes of folk dependent upon political largesse, their fates are certainly impacted by 'cuts.'  This is, however, a truth of no consequence.  The most vulnerable are damaged by almost all unpredictable events, as they have fewer means to adapt.  They are hurt by overbearing regulations that make it hard to hire unskilled, less capable folks.  They are hurt by all manner of government interventions - the artificial currency fluctuations, the uncertainties in operations that reduce the capitalists' inclination to take risks, etc etc etc.  In other words, this "budget cuts hurt the most vulnerable' is another proof of the broken window fallacy and its primary lesson - that economists, or any truth seeker, must consider not only what is seen (eductions in the rate of increases in federal spending, what is know in the political vernacular as a "cut") but what is unseen: poverty caused by offenses to liberty via overbearing government being the first and largest sinner.