Politics

Conservative Environmentalism

Jacques Delacroix Politics , , , ,

Conservatives often affirm that creating alarm over alleged global warming is meant to lead to another attempt at collectivist control of our lives. They say that radical environmentalism is the new communism. This makes sense but I think it misses two marks. First, it makes it sound as if the attempt would be innocent enough if only it failed. Second, it implies a certain conscious cynicism on the part of proponents of the climate change view of the world. I think both assumptions are wrong and that it matters that they are wrong.

The religious cult of climate change generates fervent belief in its followers and it will have done our society much damage even if they fail utterly to impose on us the massive socio-economic transformations toward global poverty they pursue. Its applications are ridden with large, crude errors: Today’s Wall Street Journal (10/29/09) mentions an article in the current issue of Science . The article explains how tax-subsidized ethanol turns out more carbon than gasoline.

My judgment that the climate change movement is a religious cult is based on common, ordinary observations: The forceful denial of contrary evidence, the demonization of non-believers, the attempt to shut up effective contradictors by having them fired, the apocalyptic beliefs, are all religious hallmarks of fanatical religiosity. Accordingly, most of the believers are completely sincere, I think, and all the more dangerous for that reason. It’s a strategic mistake to think they are corrupt. It’s easier to change the minds of the corrupt than of the religiously stupefied.  Continue reading →

Systematic Evil and our Insensitivity to Evil

Jacques Delacroix Current Events, Politics , ,

Conservative circles are celebrating a new, fairly courageous movie about fanatical, primitive Islamist Iran, “The Stoning of Soraya M.” It’s after the true story of the public execution by stoning of a young mother accused of adultery in a backward Iranian village. The movie sounds well made, affecting, but the story is a cop-out.

It turns out the young woman was framed. She was not guilty of adultery but the victim of machination by her evil husband and weak officials. No commentator or critic I have read has asked what are to me obvious questions:

First, I want to know what is the fate in backward areas of Iran of women who are correctly convicted of adultery. Is Iran a society where the penalty for a woman who has sex with a man not her husband is an especially barbarous form of capital punishment?

Second, I want to know whether or not the same could happen in Tehran or in some other of Iran’s major cities. Even the most civilized societies experience occasional barbarous acts in their backward areas. The question is this: Is the Islamic Republic an uncivilized society?

Third, I want to know how the kind of Islamic law that prevails in Iran defines adultery. I ask, because several years ago, in Muslim Nigeria, a young woman was sentenced to death by stoning for becoming pregnant after divorcing her husband. (Her sentence was eventually commuted and the rest of the world lost track of her.)  Continue reading →

Health Care Reform: Paradise Lost

Jacques Delacroix Current Events, Politics , ,

I have been struggling for three days to swim back to the surface and breathe again. Since the monstrous health care bill reform passed on Sunday, furor and something approaching despair have made me numb and mute. As people begin actually reading the 2700 pages, bad news cascade after bad news. I have been looking for the silver lining and found only one: It looks like the portability of health insurance will become a fact. That’s good. It was intolerable that people stayed in jobs they hated and refrained from entrepreneurship because they were too afraid to lose their health coverage. I think that’s all.

The rest of it is a disaster for our future. Note that every other political defeat does not make me feel the way I do now. Alternance in power is a good thing. When the other guys get their way with something I don’t want, I figure it’s the price I pay for stable and peaceful government. Certainly, I don’t want to live in a country where the losers routinely stage coups or start revolutions.

I don’t like most of what I know is in the law. I fear what else is in there that I will only discover later. I am sure the cost of the programs the law creates will undermine severely our future economic development. I suspect hardly anyone one will benefit. Instead, the overall quality of health care will decline. Most of all, I am aggrieved by the process by which the law became law, against clearly expressed majorities of opinion. The process smells of fascism and of the twisted parliamentary (ostensibly legal) methods by which the Communist Party gained control of Czechoslovakia in 1948. Continue reading →

L’administration Obama bat de l’aile

Jacques Delacroix Current Events, Politics

Après moins d’un an, l’administration Obama bat de l’aile. Il ne s’agit pas de l’endettement massif du pays qu’il a suscité car ses dimensions échappent au commun des mortels. Il ne s’agit pas non plus principalement du chômage de 10%, pourtant inhabituel aux Etats-Unis, et encore moins des tergiversations du Président sur l’engagement militaire en Afghanistan. Mêmedeux attentats terroristes en deux mois pèsent assez peu dans la balance, à mon avis.

La tentative de réforme de la santé par un parlement à grossemajorité Démocrate et par le Président sont au coeur dudésenchantement vis-à-vis de ce dernier. De plus en plus de politiciens Démocrates ont deja choisi de ne pas se représenter en Novembre car ils sentent bien la colère montante des électeurs. Une commentatrice du Wall Street Journal parle de “la victoire catastrophique” d’Obama sur ce plan.

Pourquoi cette querelle interne devrait-elle intéresser lesétrangers? La raison est simple: Le secteur santé recouvre 17% du PNB américain. Il atteindra 20% prochainement. Or, et contrairement a une impression répandue, l’Amérique, même enétat de crise, demeure la locomotive de l’économie mondiale. Il n’y a pas de solution de rechange. Le PNB de la Chine, par exemple demeure de plus de quatre fois inférieur au PNBaméricain. Quand l’Amérique a la migraine, le reste du monde s’allite. Continue reading →

Islamophobia (Part 2 of 2)

Jacques Delacroix Current Events, Politics , ,

In Part 1 of this essay, Islamophobia, I recounted some facts about terrorism that seems linked to Islam and I made some hypotheses about how Muslims in general array themselves with respect to this terrorism. In this second and last part, I divulge some of the bases of my worst suspicions regarding moderate Muslims.

I wish someone with credentials would help me disentangle who is what and in what proportions among Muslims in connection with the varying degrees of rejection of violent jihad described above. In the meantime, I feel intellectually free to speculate within reason and on the basis of other information I have, factual information, that is, not hearsay.

The first helpful element in my speculation is that, of course, I understand violent Muslim fanatics well. Anyone reasonably well versed in European history would, My ancestors used to be just like them. I never tire of repeating on this blog and elsewhere that the First Crusade (1099) massacred everyone there after taking Jerusalem. That massacre followed acts of cannibalism during the siege. And more recently, it’s clear that tens of thousands of witches were burned at the stake in Europe. (Note: The figure of millions advanced by feminists is silly propaganda bullshit.) Violent jihadists and other fanatics hold not mystery to me because I used to be they. Used to be. Continue reading →

Fwd: Warren Buffet’s Idea for Passing the Budget

Brandon Christensen Current Events, Law, Politics , , ,

Dr. Delacroix recently e-mailed me the following chain. I thought I’d reproduce it here since most of my e-mail contacts are from school and I use it get laid rather than to argue about politics. I don’t agree with everything Buffet says, of course, but when somebody says something smart or thoughtful, I’ll take it into consideration no matter which quadrant of the political section it comes from. The chain is below the fold. Continue reading →

States and Secession: Lamenting the Failure of the Euro Zone

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

The Guardian has a so-so map on secessionist movements in Africa that’s worth checking out. I say it’s only so-so because it doesn’t really cover all the secessionist movements in the region, just the violent ones or the ones favored by Western diplomats.

I’m interested in secessionist movements because of the effects that they have on nationalism, one of the most dangerous ideologies to haunt mankind since the industrial revolution. Nationalism is probably worse than racism, or at least on par with it, when it comes to ideas gone horribly wrong.

That’s why I support free trade between states, and the deeper the better. The true tragedy of the EuroZone crisis is not the inevitable and predictable collapse of the euro but the fact that anti-liberal policies like the central bank and more political integration between states (and away from the people) are being misconstrued as liberal, in the classical sense.

The smaller the states the better, and the freer the trade the better. Mexicans should be able to travel and live in the US and Canada the same way that Nevadans are able to travel and live in California. The EuroZone could have been beautiful, but the pressure for a central bank and more control from a center, in Brussels, has probably ended it. It’s a good primer on how beautiful ideas often don’t pan out the way people would like them to.

Here’s how to fix the EuroZone crisis:

  1. Eliminate the monopoly of the central bank on creating money and credit.
  2. Open up the EuroZone market to more goods from the rest of the world (especially agricultural products from developing states).

I also think it’d be a good idea to keep Brussels as limited as it is. Doing so will not only allow more room for local policies to be experimented with and tested against other policies, but it will continue to erode the nation-state as well. What we were seeing prior to the crisis in the EuroZone is more calls for autonomy from state capitals throughout the EuroZone,  and a powerlessness on the part of states to do anything about it.

So instead of France and Spain, two states, the world may have seen up to five or six states in their stead, all interacting with each other economically while retaining nominal political independence from each other.

What a shame.

US Military Spending

Brandon Christensen Current Events, Politics , ,

Over at Democracy in America, Roger McShane wonders aloud:

But I say the situation may be worse on the left, because if Democrats do not make the case for seriously cutting back military spending, who will?

He is speaking of course, of the so-called “cuts” to spending undertaken by the Obama administration. I put “cuts” in quotes because, well:

The cuts Barack Obama has pushed (outside of sequestration) are meager, despite what you may hear from Republicans. They are cuts to a ten-year plan that assumed annual increases. As Christopher Preble of the Cato Institute notes, “Over the next decade, the Pentagon’s annual base budget (which excludes most war costs) will average $517 billion in constant 2012 dollars, 11 percent higher than what Americans spent during the George W. Bush years.”

Jacques Delacroix seems to believe otherwise. In March of this year, he wrote:

In connection with Pres. Obama’s then-recent speech on cutting the US military budget, Paul also said clearly that those are cuts in increases to military expenditures, not absolute cuts. As one who has been reading the Wall Street Journal for the past thirty years and also for the past thirty days, I tell you that this is not true. I think it sounded good at the time so, the Congressman just said it, irresponsibly.

Dr. Delacroix is a numbers man (that’s how he earned his infamy), but with his track record on foreign policy I’d take his argument with a grain of salt.

At any rate, it’s nice to see the non-interventionists on both the Left and the Right get a shout out from the Economist (a supporter of the Second Gulf War), too:

And while the Republicans at least humour the Ron Paul-wing of their party, the Dennis Kucinich-wing of the Democratic Party has no voice in Charlotte.

Imperialism: the bane of free trade and individual liberty. Is it any wonder that Washington has so many enemies these days?

Sex: Real Dopes

Jacques Delacroix Current Events, Liberty, Politics ,

The arrest of international banker Dominique Strauss Kahn on several charges amounting to sexual assault has occasioned more discussion of sex on the airwaves than I have heard for many years. Some of the statements I hear are absurd or annoying. Others are downright dishonest. I am trying to sort out the most salient points.

Warning: If you are prudish, don’t read what follows. If you are under fifteen, read at the risk of undermining your healthy sexual development.

First things first: A couple of days ago, the Spanish minister of economy and finance, I think, was one of many female commentators committing a deeply immoral amalgam. One the one hand, she said, there is the presumption of innocence, on the other hand, the charges are so serious, so awful. It’s common thinking in academia among bureaucrats in charge of hunting down sexual harassment, sex discrimination, and in the end, sex differences.

Here is a reminder, girls: The seriousness of an alleged crime, whatever great, has no influence on innocence. Those are separate things completely. Get this: Continue reading →

The Economic Recovery: Jobs Edition

Brandon Christensen Current Events, Economics, Politics , , ,

Economist Mark Perry has a great take on the current sluggishness of the jobs rate over at Carpe Diem. He brings our attention to the following graph:

His observations:

Most of the weakness in the U.S. labor market, the stubbornly high unemployment rate, and the slow rate of overall job creation can be traced to the ongoing decreases in government jobs, see chart above, especially at the local level […] Perhaps the significant downsizing of government at the state and local level is a positive development for the future growth of the U.S. economy, and one benefit of the Great Recession.  But we should also pay some attention to the fact that one of the reasons for the disappointing monthly employment reports is the persistent weakness in the public sector employment, which is offsetting the relatively healthy increases in private sector hiring.

This is a damn good point: unemployment rates have remained high because of losses in the public sector, not the private sector (which has been steadily growing). As Dr. Perry observes, this is good for long-run growth, but I can’t help but lament the fact that cuts in government spending have not been deeper and more robust. Imagine what the economy would look like if if deep cuts had been made six years ago.

As always, it is important to look at what the graph does not tell us. The graph explains that government jobs have been decreasing, but tells us nothing about expenses for current and retired government employees. Federal and state employees have gained notoriety for their lavish retirement packages (especially in California!), and none of this is covered in the graph. Public sector pension reform is still a vital issue that needs to be solved.

One other lament that I feel I must make pertains to the bank and auto bailouts of 2008-09. Although the bailouts don’t have any casual correlation to the graph I reproduced, I don’t think it is hard to image, again, what the economy would look like today if there had been a rigorous separation between business and state.

Friedrich Hayek: Champion of Liberty

Brandon Christensen Current Events, Economics, Links, Politics , , , , ,

From Richard Epstein:

Thus Hayek’s 1940 contribution to the “Socialist Calculation” debate debunked the then-fashionable notion that master planners could achieve the economic nirvana of running a centralized economy in which they obtain whatever distribution of income they choose while simultaneously making sound allocations of both labor and capital, just like in Soviet Russia.

Hayek exposed this fool’s mission by stressing how no given individual or group could obtain and organize the needed information about supply and demand conditions throughout the economy. The virtue of the price system was its use of a common unit of measurement—money—to allow various actors to compete for a given resource without having to lay bare why they need any particular good or service. The seller need only accept the highest bid, without nosing around in other people’s business. The interaction between buyers and sellers allows for constant incremental adjustments of both price and quantity. Old information gets updated in a quick and reliable way, thereby eluding the administrative gauntlet of the socialist state.

This essay, which y’all should read, was sparked by the attacks on Rep. Paul Ryan’s supposed intellectual influences F.A. Hayek and Ayn Rand.

The Oppression of American Labor

Brandon Christensen Current Events, Liberty, Politics , , , , ,

Over at the Real-World Economics blog, economist Edward Fullbrook presents a graph of labor’s demise in the United States as well as an article from Al-Jazeera English titled America in Denial that promotes Fullbrook’s new book.

Fullbrook brings it to the attention of work-weary Americans that they work far too many hours per year compared to other rich societies in the West (there are, of course, no rich societies outside of the West, but that’s a different blog for a different day).

Behold! The cold, hard facts informing American workers of their own oppression! Continue reading →

Breakfast Spoiled by “Liberal” Paean

Warren Gibson Politics , , , , ,

This morning’s Wall Street Journal had an op ed piece (may be gated) by one Alan Colmes whose book “Thank the Liberals for Saving America” is just now coming out.  It’s a paean to the “liberal” policies of Lyndon Johnson and his successors, featuring a big photo of LBJ and Lady Bird under a “great society” banner.  I had to turn the page quickly as I was in the middle of breakfast, but have now reopened and read the whole thing.  Since the chances of the Journal publishing a rebuttal from me are essentially nil, I decided to inflict my response on my readership.  Both of you.

The piece brought back memories of the visceral disgust I used to feel at the sight of LBJ when he was in office even though I wasn’t much attuned to politics in those days.  I would be hard pressed to say who’s worse, Obama or Johnson.

To begin with, Johnson was a blatant criminal.  He and his wife got rich by manipulating radio and television licenses in Texas.  He stole the primary election in 1948 which got him into the Senate.  He may have been complicit in stealing Texas electoral votes in 1960.

But what of the article?  Most of it is a recitation of the accomplishments of “liberal” programs including food stamps, health care, bailouts, marriage equality, and women’s rights.  In essence, he tells us that the beneficiaries of “liberal” welfare programs benefited from them, and they’re not all lazy bums.

Well, duh.  This is the sort of shallow thinking that characterizes “liberal” discourse.  No recognition of short-term or long-term consequences.  No acknowledgement of public-choice insights into the perverse incentives of welfare administrators whose primary motive is to retain and expand their empires.

An overlooked consequence: the erosion of incentives to take responsibility for one’s own life; instead these programs have instilled a world-owes-me-a-living attitude which by now spans multiple generations of welfare recipients.

An overlooked consequence: the massive buildup of debt.

An overlooked consequence: the loss of personal freedom that must follow the loss of economic freedom as Hayek so eloquently showed in “The Road to Serfdom.”

An overlooked consequence: the insight of Mises that interventions invariably lead to outcomes contrary to the intentions of the intervenors, who then call for yet more interventions.  In our mixed economy, a blend of free markets and government force, markets take the blame for every problem.  And so the market takes the blame for everything.  As Jeff Hummel says, market failures are to be cured by more government; government failures are to be cured by more government.

Thanks to the “liberals” and the conservatives who have failed to mount a principled opposition in domestic affairs, and thanks to both parties who have launched disastrous foreign wars, we are hurtling toward an American brand of fascist dictatorship.

Fact-Checking Politicians

Brandon Christensen Current Events, Politics , , ,

I know the last thing everybody wants to hear is another political rant, but I’m going to give it to you anyway.

Has anybody noticed the recent slew of “fact-checking” sheets and reports that have come out since Paul Ryan’s VP speech at the GOP convention*?

Does it really come as a shock to people to find out that politicians lie? I can’t wait to see the other side come out with the same kinds of reports after Joe Biden and the current demagogue-in-chief give their speeches.

Politicians lie? Really? Who would’ve thunk…

Here’s my two cents: Democrats lie more often than Republicans. Hands down. There are always exceptions to the rules, and being more honest than the Democratic Party is not exactly a milestone achievement.

Many people said this race might be the most interesting in a while (thanks to the protection of free speech that Citizens United upheld), but Continue reading →

Class Warfare, Then and Now

Brandon Christensen Current Events, History, Politics , , , ,

These recent developments in labor relations show how changed market conditions offer welcome correctives to the New Deal approach. It is just these changes that are at risk under an Obama administration whose main agenda tracks Roosevelt’s early one: Vilify the rich as unproductive ciphers of society and work toward a progressive tax rate structure; be hostile toward the growth of international trade by denouncing firms that outsource jobs as the enemies of domestic labor; continue to work in favor of extensive agricultural subsidies for ethanol and other farm crops, no matter how great of a disruption these impose on domestic and foreign food markets; and insist upon a rich set of unsustainable healthcare benefits through Medicare and Medicaid.

This is from Richard Epstein. Okay, so Obama is a demagogue, a thief and a murderer. Is Mitt Romney really any better? Really?

I’m voting for Gary Johnson (if I vote at all).