Current Events

From the Comments: Red State Blue State Edition

Brandon Christensen Comments, Current Events, Politics , , , ,

Now that I have a trusty laptop again, I can answer questions and discuss comments a bit more efficiently. Hank Moore asked the following question in response to a link I provided on Left-wing secessionist sentiment:

That California piece was good. What’s your take on the whole red states mooching off the blue states thing? I keep hearing this whenever the secession question comes up. Those few libs who don’t want to confiscate Texas from the Texans say “good riddance, you’re a tax burden anyways!”

It doesn’t quite fit into my version of the conventional wisdom for some reason. [1] Are the blue states paying more than their “fair share” simply because they are underrepresented and thus the fault is the constitution, or [2] is it because they already have large populations they naturally attract big businesses in spite of the fact they aren’t as friendly to free enterprise, and because of this there is more tax revenue to be collected? [3] And then there’s the fact that some red states may in fact still be feeling the effects of being on the losing side of the Civil War (scorched earth warfare, unconditional surrender, reconstruction). These are the three possible explanations that fit with my way of thinking. Maybe its just that I’m cherry-picking “evidence” for a conclusion I’ve already arrived at.

Any thoughts?

All three of Hank’s reasons are good, but I’d like to zoom in on the last one about the Civil War. I think has the gist of why many red states are poorer than blue states, but with a couple of tweaks. Continue reading →

Santa Brought Me A Laptop

Brandon Christensen Current Events

…so expect more posts from yours truly this year. In case you guys didn’t know, I was robbed over the summer while living on the streets and attending summer school. It was a tough situation, but I’m on track to graduate debt-free from school, so boo-freaking-hoo for me.

I hope you guys stick around for another year. We launched this consortium just under a year ago and we’re excited and proud of what has become of it so far.

Take a look at the recommendations page, as it just received (another) overhaul. Also be on the lookout for more bloggers this year. We’ve got a bunch of academic economists, a historian, a law professor and an academic psychologist-turned-anarcho-feminist who have expressed interest in our humble project.

The most popular blogger (at least in terms of views) was Dr. Delacroix. Here are three of our readerships favorites (again, at least according to views):

  1. Guns and Truth
  2. Pure Racism and Chinese Dining
  3. Karl Marx Was Right (Pretty Much)

Rounding out the Top 5 Most-Read Blog Posts were “Celebrating Chevron’s Profits” by Dr. Gibson and “Colonialism: Myths and Realities” by yours truly.

I’d also like to extend my sincere gratitude to Hank Moore for helping the consortium to launch its Facebook page. Without his support we wouldn’t be where we are today.

I’d like to thank everybody who has chimed in and added his or her own two cents as well. I know you certainly help me flesh out my thoughts on everything. Here’s to an amazing 2012 and a rollicking 2013.

America and Firearms (Explained to Overseas Readers)

Jacques Delacroix Current Events, History, Law, Liberty, Politics , , , , , , , , , , ,

The other day, I am watching the news on TV5, the international French language network. I am doing this to get away from the spectacle of the impending economic disaster in the US where I live. This is shortly after the massacre of school children in Connecticut. One item draws my attention: The cute, airhead French female announcer (or “anchorette”) states that last year about 28,000 people in the US lost their lives to guns.

Here we go again, I think. More half-assed information that is worse than no information at all. I have witnessed European media disseminating misleading information about the US for more than forty years. This time again, I have to intervene to help overseas of observers of the international scene who want to know about reality and who might happen to read this blog.

I can’t tell you how often I have witnessed the following: European commentators making sarcastic, superior comments about some American event or custom, or some American way of doing things and then, their society adopting uncritically the same American event, or custom, or way of doing things ten years later, or even later. Right now, for example, I would bet you anything that one of the novelties on French radio is 1990s American popular music. That would be especially true on the channel that calls itself without batting an eye-lash, “France culture.”

The tendency of Europeans to copycat the United States is so pronounced that it even affects social pathologies, the last thing you should want to imitate. Accordingly, it seems that the French expression for “serial killer” is: “serial killer.” N.S. ! (Would I make this up?) Continue reading →

Forward to the Failed Past

Fred Foldvary Current Events, History, Politics , , , , , ,

Some politicians like to use the slogan, “forward.” Sometimes it is more emphatic: forward!

But one may well ask, forward to what? Time and the current of events are always moving us forward already, so evidently the forward-seekers want to change the existing flow sideways. The slogan “forward” has often been used by those who seek greater state-imposed collectivism. As propaganda, “forward!” sounds better than “leftward!” or “towards ever greater statism!”

Several publications of socialist parties during the 1800’s were titled “Forward.” Lenin continued this tradition when he founded the Bolshevik newspaper “Vpered” (or “Vperyod”), which is “forward” in Russian. German socialists had already published the periodical “Vorwärts,” and the German national socialists continued the use of the slogan. Several communist and socialist parties still use “Forward” as the title of their publications. Continue reading →

The Pigou Club

Fred Foldvary Current Events, Economics , , ,

Professor N. Gregory Mankiw of Harvard University initiated and hosts “The Pigou Club” of economists, journalists, and politicians who have favorably written about pollution levies as an efficient way to reduce emissions. Arthur Cecil Pigou was the economist who was the first to deeply analyze externalities (uncompensated effects on others) in his 1920 book The Economics of Welfare.

Pigou proposed a levy on negative external effects equal to the social cost, so that buyers and users pay the full social cost of products. The most common applications are tolls to prevent traffic congestion, parking meters that vary by time of day, and pollution levies.

The policy of charging those who create negative externalities is named Pigouvian, or Pigovian. Mankiw advocates higher gasoline taxes, but that would also tax those car owners with cars that run quite cleanly and are driven in roads that are not congested. The best Pigovian policy is to focus the charge on the negative element such as harmful emissions.  Continue reading →

Around the Web

Brandon Christensen Current Events, Links
  1. The Case to Keep Dividing Africa
  2. The Cato Institute recently held its 30th annual monetary conference, and the Economist reports
  3. Gun Control’s Racist Origins
  4. The Past is Gone: Why Liberals Should Rethink States’ Rights
  5. Republicans Must Get Real on Foreign Policy

Leaving the Left: Three Dangerous Features I Left Behind

Brandon Christensen Current Events , , , , , , ,

The blatant hypocrisy, the obstinate ignorance and the penchant for authoritarianism within the American Left today are the three reasons why I left the Left in the first place. Riffing off of my recent post on Leftist thought and its major deficiencies, I thought I’d point out a few more recent examples.

Remember, Leftists by and large don’t realize that what they are doing is a) hypocritical, b) ignorant, and c) authoritarian. It is, as Brian Gothberg pointed out, more of a cognitive block than anything. However, there is really no excuse for this cognitive dissonance once it has been explained. Perhaps I need to work on doing a better job of this, but I suspect, as does Dr. Delacroix, that most of it is simply obstinate ignorance and a failure by Leftists to actually read what their opponents are writing.

Writing over at EconLog, David Henderson points out the blatant hypocrisy of the Left in regards to freedom of speech. He draws readers to the attention of calls for solidarity by Leftist academics blogging at Crooked Timber (it’s to the right, on our blog roll, and has been for quite some time) for one of their own after he was targeted by Right-wing groups for his vile thoughts on the NRA’s CEO (a Mr. Wayne LaPierre). Henderson writes: Continue reading →

No Upticks in Mass Shootings…

Brandon Christensen Current Events, Liberty, Politics

…so, what is to be done?

Brad Plumer of the Washington Post has a graph up on mass shootings:

Mass Shootings in the US 1980-2010

Plumer explains:

Mother Jones found that 24 of the last 62 worst mass shootings have taken place in the past seven years alone. That seemed like a clear increase.

But is this the right way of looking at things? Over at Reason, Jesse Walker criticizes my post and points to data from James Allan Fox, a criminologist at Northeastern, who has found that there’s been no discernible increase in mass shootings since 1980 […]

Why the difference? Fox is looking at all mass shootings involving four or more victims — that’s the standard FBI definition. Mother Jones, by contrast, had a much more restrictive definition, excluding things like armed robbery or gang violence. They were trying to focus on spree killings that were similar in style to Virginia Tech or Aurora or Newtown. The definitions make a big difference: On Fox’s criteria, there’s no uptick. On Mother Jones’, there’s a clear increase […]

So, duly noted. One final point, though: Even if mass shootings are simply staying constant, and not actually increasing, that might still be of interest given that the overall rate of gun violence and homicide in the United States appears to be on the downswing.

So, not only have mass shootings not increased, but violence overall in the US is decreasing as well.

Every time something horrific happens, be it mass shootings, a collapse of the financial sector, a terrorist attack, whatever, there are calls from the people for the government to “do something.” These calls do not emanate from the Left alone.

The Austrian (and Austrian School) economist Ludwig von Mises recognized this nearly a century ago. I understand why there are calls from people for their government to “do something” after something awful happens. I understand why politicians respond to such calls. I always feel awful when I read about things like some psychopath gunning down little children at school or people losing their homes in an economic downturn.

Also, I always feel a little bit awkward standing athwart these calls waiving cold, hard evidence around that states disasters are extremely rare, and that passionate calls for more government intervention in our lives when there is absolutely no need for it is an invitation for more trouble, not less.

(h/t Tyler Cowen)

On another note, Pierre Lemieux and Jacques Delacroix have comments on guns and psychopaths. Both are worth reading.

The Fiscal Cliff

Fred Foldvary Current Events, Economics, Politics , , , , , , , ,

The “fiscal cliff” is the economic plunge that will occur in the U.S.A. if Congress does not change the big tax hikes and spending reductions that will otherwise start on January 1, 2013. The income tax rate cuts enacted at the beginning of the ozo years (2000 to 2009), as well as the payroll tax cuts that followed the Crash of 2008, were temporary and are scheduled to expire at the close of 2012.

Congress enacted the Budget Control Act of 2011 to require “sequestration” – automatic sharp spending reductions in 2013 – unless it enacted the recommendations of a “supercommittee,” which then failed to achieve a consensus on raising revenues and cutting spending.

Now in mid November 2012 the economy is a train heading towards the cliff, and if Congress does not lay down a track to make the train veer off to the side, the economic train will plunge into another depression. Continue reading →

Guns and Debate: An Issue Within An Issue?

Brandon Christensen Current Events, Liberty, Politics

I’ve been making the rounds on Facebook in regards to the inevitable catcalls for more gun control. Two things have jumped out at me.

1) The people who are calling for more gun control (whatever that means) are not very good with numbers. I suspect this ignorance is of the obstinate kind.

For example, when I politely pointed out to a friend-of-a-friend that, statistically-speaking, gun-related violence amounts to almost nothing, he responded with a half-assed blog post by a DC policy wonk with a title that read something like “9 Things You Need to Know About Gun Control.” There were at least 12 things on the list. Continue reading →

End Prohibition on Self-Defense in Schools

Warren Gibson Current Events, Liberty , , ,

Of all the reactions to the horrible shooting at Stony Ridge Sandy Hook, this one from the Libertarian Party is the most sensible thus far.  It focuses on the federal Gun Free School Zone Act which prohibits firearms in schools.  It goes on to cite incidents where armed citizens have been able to stop or cut short these sorts of shootings.  Hat tip: Jeff Hummel.

No, Thanks.

Jacques Delacroix Current Events , , , ,

I am not much on my blog these days because I am still trying to recover from the defeat. It’s not going well. As you can imagine, mine is not a case of doomed man-love for Gov. Romney. I am not Chris Matthew with the thing, the tingle, going up his leg when he thinks of Barack Obama, and the Governor is not Mr Obama.

I am musing about re-emigration. It’s ridiculous at my age, as well as impractical. Still, there is the strangest turnabout since the Soviet Union took Pres. Reagan’s invitation to get lost: Canada is doing better than the US economically as well as according to several of my values. I am remembering that treaty that put and end to the French and Indian Wars. I think it left the back door open for speakers of French.

And then, if I am going to live under statism why not do it under those who have much practice at it, and who also cook much better than Mexicans? (I am referring here to American restaurants here, obviously) I wonder if the French would take me back? Perhaps, if I promised to keep my mouth shut about the quality of French popular music? Some of you have noticed that I keep up with my French, just in case. That’s my Vichy side. (Look it up.)

This immigrant does not find much to be thankful for this year, for the first time ever. I think an economic disaster is coming to the USA. I hope I am simply wrong. By the way, where are my liberal critics who are always so eager to prove to me how completely and utterly wrong I am when I need them?

The Israeli-Palestinian Mess: Some Historical Context

Brandon Christensen Current Events, History, Liberty, Religion , , , , , , , , , , ,

I just finished up an anthropology course on the Middle East as a culture area, and for reasons beyond my explanatory power, I got to look at the Israeli-Palestinian conflict a bit more in depth. A brief narrative of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict follows.

The historical context of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict can best be understood by breaking it up into three separate but interrelated segments: the collapse of cosmopolitan empires, the emergence of nation-states, and seismic shifts in demography that accompanied collapse and rebirth.

The post-World War I era can be defined largely in terms of the collapse of the cosmopolitan Austro-Hungarian and Ottoman empires. The spectacular collapse of these centuries-old empires has been attributed to the policies of democrats in western Europe and the President of the United States at the time, Woodrow Wilson, by a number of historians. The underlying idea being promoted by Western elites for central and eastern Europe was that of national self-determination, a belief that each ethnic and linguistic group should have the right to govern itself within a free and democratic state. The movement was intended to break the back of “despotism” in eastern and central Europe (as well as the Near East), but the policies unleashed instead a hotheaded nationalism amidst pockets of power vacuums prevalent throughout the now-dead empires. Continue reading →

The Disaster: A Teenage Victory

Jacques Delacroix Current Events, Politics , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Last Tuesday (11/6/2012) there was a vote about the future and the teenagers won. They now have the keys to the family car.

I have never in my life so wanted to be wrong in my judgment. Here it is: President Obama’s re-election is an even worse disaster than his election was. Do I think that many of the people who voted for him gave serious thought to the giant national debt, to the impending entitlement implosion, to the tepid economic growth, or even to the unusually high rate of unemployment? No. Do I think a sizable percentage did? No. Do I think a few did consider all or any of this? I am not sure.

President Obama won re-election decisively. His margin in the popular vote was nearly three million votes. Apparently* there were none of the gangsterish electoral tactics that marred his 2008 election. This makes the results worse as far as I am concerned.

President Obama is still not a monster. It’s possible that he is manipulated by a brand of leftists we thought had disappeared long ago. It’s also possible that someone like me will nurture in his brain paranoid notions at a time of major anxiety, such as now. Continue reading →

From the Comments: Foreign Policy and the Rule of Law

Brandon Christensen Comments, Current Events , , , , , , ,

This excerpt comes from a debate I had with Dr. Delacroix on his main blog awhile back. It pretty much made me a star within Santa Cruz libertarian circles (i.e. four people now know my name). Behold:

The idea – nay wish! – that the newly liberated people of the Arab world will somehow elect secular, Western-friendly governments after 50 years of oppression by regimes that were perceived by the Muslim public to be secular and Western-friendly belongs to be filed under the category of ‘fantasy’, not foreign policy.

and this:

I think Egypt and Libya are going to be just as bad as they have been, if not worse. Only Tunisia, which did not rely on foreign support AND recently elected Islamist parties to their new government, will come out of this for the better. I hope I’m wrong, of course, but libertarians rarely are!

and finally this:

The idea that Paul knows everything about anything is one that sure does look a lot like dogmatism at first glance. But Ron Paul will be the first to claim that he does not know everything. That’s why he insists that everything go through the Constitutional process – including overseas activities. That is to say, Ron Paul’s idea of dogmatism is to adhere to The Rule of Law. Imagine that!

I highly, highly recommend reading through the whole exchange (it starts after a few other comments in the thread; just scroll down, you won’t regret it, and don’t forget the popcorn!).