Politics

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 →

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 →

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 →

How I Know What I Know. How Do You Know What You Know?

Jacques Delacroix Current Events, Politics , , ,

Everyday life requires me to make decisions about many topics. In most cases, I have either a superficial understanding of the issue or no understanding at all. Yet, I manage and I have always managed, somehow.

The problem of my ignorance becomes even more acute when it comes to making the simplest of political decisions such as choosing to support a candidate against all other choices. To decide who I want to be President of the United States, I would have to know a great deal about arcane details of the political process, macro-economics, foreign policy, and the conditions in a dozen countries, at least.

Even today, when the Internet has made much knowledge enormously more accessible than it was only a few short years ago, those tasks are daunting. For one thing, there is the issue of specialized language, jargon one must tackle in every field of knowledge. Why, I don’t even know the language of the insurance companies on which my safety and my health rely! Continue reading →

Secession within the EU?

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

While I’m on the topic of secession, I thought I’d point readers to the upcoming vote in Catalonia to see if they want to secede from Spain. Central to my arguments for secession is the role that new states would have within a broader free trade zone (like the U.S. or the E.U.). For Catalonia, the British paper Telegraph reports:

Catalonia wants to collect its own taxes, to control how they are spent and it seems prepared to break away from Spain to do so.

But with a clear road map yet to be outlined the process of separating from Spain promises to be burdened with hurdles.

While Catalans prize their role as citizens of Europe, EU officials have warned that membership of the union won’t be automatic. Instead Catalonia would have to gain admission, joining the queue of a list of new European nations seeking membership, and the process would likely be blocked by a vengeful Spain.

This is key to not only Catalonia’s success, but also the success of secessionist movements everywhere. If regions within current states want independence, they have to be sure to not confuse political independence with economic independence. The latter will only lead to poverty. I highlight this point because new states formed during the beginning of the post-colonial revolution of the 60’s and 70s thought that economic independence was the key to liberty. How wrong they were. Continue reading →

Le nouveau mandat d’Obama

Jacques Delacroix Current Events, Politics

Selon ce que j’ai entendu à la télé française pendant la campagne, les Francais ont souvent du mal à comprendre le sytème électoral américain. Celui-ci est, à vrai dire, assez peu accessible à l’intuition.

Voici une précision sur l’élection présidentielles de 2012 qui aura échappé, je crois, à tous les commentateurs Francais. Obama l’a emporté en Floride, après un comptage épuisant, par 50% contre 49,15% seulement. Au plan national, Obama a gagné les élections de façon décisive avec 332 voix de grands électeurs contre 206. Cependant le proche examen du vote populaire impose une interprétation divergente du mandat que lui aura octroyé cette élection.

Un court article du Wall Street Journal du 14/11/12 fait observer qu’il aurait suffit de 333.000 votes supplémentaires pour Romney, répartis sur seulement trois états, pour que ce dernier l’emporte. Ceci pour un total de suffrages exprimés dépassant 120.000.000 (cent vingt millions), ou donc une proportion comme ceci: 333/120.000.

Je répète qu’Obama a indubitablement gagné. Cependant, il n’est pas possible de considérer sa victoire comme écrasante.

Ce fait explique en partie pourquoi beaucoup des conservateurs défaits par cette élection, moi y-compris, se prononcent déjà pour que le Parti Républicain se serve de sa majorité à la Chambre des Représentants pour faire de l’obstructionisme vis-à-vis des politiques fiscales à venir du président re-élu.

[Editor’s note: this essay first appeared on Dr. Delacroix’s blog, Facts Matter, on November 14th 2012]

Foldvary on the Concept of “Forward”

Brandon Christensen Current Events, Economics, History, Politics ,

Co-editor Fred Foldvary has an excellent post on the historical meaning of the Obama campaign’s choice of the word “Forward” as its political slogan. He writes:

The issue here is not about any political campaign, but the social concept of “forward.” Socialism is, first of all, a family of concepts. Some socialists seek greater statism, the control of society by the state. Other seek “social democracy,” whereby people vote on the major policy options. There are also socialists who seek to put the means of production, land as well as capital goods, in the hands of worker cooperatives.

Usually the “forward” thinkers seek, if not as an ultimate goal, then as the instrumental goal, a governmental control at least of the “commanding heights” of the economy: the financial system, the highways, education, medical care, and retirement pensions. Socialists seek strong controls on the remaining private production, and they also seek an equalization of wealth through a massive redistribution, with highly progressive taxation.

But the world has already experienced the results of “forward” policies in the failed economies of the old USSR, the China of the 1950s and 1960s, Cuba, North Korea, and Eastern Europe. The “forward” socialists seek a progression to the failed past. Of course they claim that their brand of socialism is different from that of the collapsed USSR, but the evidence of history reveals what was attempted in practice world-wide, even when it differs from hypothetical doctrines.

And this, too:

Instead of “forward,” a better metaphor may be “upwards.” Upward takes us to a higher place, and also to the origin of a flow such as a river. But how do we know which way is “up”?

Do read the whole thing, and what do you guys think of Dr. Foldvary’s suggestion of moving “upwards”?

Brandon Vindicated (and Relieved!)

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

I read a lot of blogs in my spare time, and one of my favorites is the Monkey Cage, a blogging consortium made up of technocratic, internationalist-minded Left-wing political science professors. They rarely disappoint. I know what you’re thinking, but if I could choose which faction of the left I would want opposing libertarian policies it would be the technocratic Left. It a movement that has individual liberty in mind and is, as I mentioned, internationally-minded.

Notice also how I take into account the fact that an opposition to my own views are a necessary component of my utopia. Too many advocates of liberty don’t realize this when they argue about politics. Which factions would play the role of opposition in an anarcho-capitalist paradise, for example? It seems to me that the quality of one’s perfect opposition is actually quite a good gauge for measuring the quality of one’s political ideal (if I do say so myself!).

Anyway, Patrick Egan, of NYU, has a new post up explaining that the economy was indeed the central issue of the election, and then busts out the data to back up his argument (and help me save face!). I think this is an important point because I’ve already made the rounds around the blogosphere and many otherwise smart, competent people seem to want to chalk up Obama’s victory to something other than the economy.

From Egan’s post: Continue reading →

From the Comments: Social Conservatives Need to Go

Brandon Christensen Comments, Current Events, Politics

Longtime reader –Rick observes:

The Republicans need to re-brand and delete all social conservative positions from their platform. If the God freaks don’t like it, too bad. Let them stay home, vote Democrat or Republican as they wish. So called conservatives should be concentrating on small government, a strong military, a philosophically principled foreign policy, and a secular judiciary that ignores all religions and judges based on the facts and the rule of law.

Their new platform needs to be more inclusive, particularly with Hispanic concerns, not out of a sense of pragmatics, but if America is to develop an expanded trade relationship with Hispanics, how willing will their governments be to participate with radical xenophobes who treat their southern neighbors with disdain in juxtaposition to the favorite status given to our neighbors to the north?

It’s economics. They need jobs, we need workers and an expanded tax base as well as new trading partners. Let the Xenophobes vote with the KKK as a bloc. Their absence won’t be missed. The Constitution states that all men were created equal – not just U.S. citizens and Canadians.

However, I won’t get my hopes up that the leadership will suddenly turn rational and see the possibility of gaining 2 or 3 new voters for every one bigot they ignore in constructing their philosophical/political planks.

I couldn’t have said it any better myself. The sooner the GOP turns its back on social conservatives, the sooner it can get back to being a national political party again. Be sure to check out –Rick’s blog here.

Obama: Any Silver Lining?

Warren Gibson Current Events, Politics , , , ,

So it’s four more years of Obama.  What can we expect?

Obama makes me, a libertarian these last 40 years, nostalgic for the sort of “liberals” who until recently dominated the Democratic Party.  At least those folks have some respect for facts and tolerance for other points of view.  Obama is different.  I know longer think it an exaggeration to say that Obama hates America, as Rev. Wright preached to him for twenty years.  I have a new understanding of Obama thanks to Dinesh d’Souza’s book “Obama’s America.” Barack Obama had an epiphany at the grave of his father, a man who was a leader among the anti-colonialists of Kenya.  The man was a no-good drunkard who deserted and abused more than one wife and child, yet Barack was able to put aside these faults and hitch his star to his father’s cause. His first term in office gave us numerous actions that exemplify his quest to bring America down.  He likes to stir up class hatred.  His tax proposals are all about fairness, as defined by him, of course, and never mind the ensuing economic damage.  That they punish the most productive among us is all to the good; that they damage all of us in the long run doesn’t matter. He has seized control of health care.  He has acquiesced in a brutal war on medical marijuana patients, waged by his Northern California District Attorney and others.  He has ordered assassination of U.S. citizens and condoned domestic spying.  The CIA continues its massacre of civilians in Pakistan, a supposed ally.  All of this would make a high-class liberal like Adlai Stevenson gasp with horror.

Thank God we still have a Republican House and a Senate where they can filibuster.  Gridlock will probably prevent any new atrocities of the scale of Obamacare.  But the door remains open for a great deal of evil-doing.

First off, there will be at least three Supreme Court appointments in the next four years.  It’s a sure bet that Obama will appoint “social justice” types, the sort who have no concept of the Constitution as a document intended to limit the powers of government.  These are life appointments so the new appointees could be wreaking havoc long after Obama is gone.

Second, the President has a great deal of latitude in foreign affairs. Just look at the damage George Bush inflicted on the world with his senseless wars in terms of casualties, hatred of America, and insolvency.  But there is a ray of hope here.  The warmongering neo-cons are on the sidelines and Obama’s ineptness in foreign affairs may spare us some future dustup that Romney might have provoked.

This isn’t the silver lining I had in mind, however.  I present here, with misgivings, a viewpoint suggested by my colleague Jeff Hummel. He likes Obama’s victory because he thinks it will hasten our Götterdämmerung – the collapse of Social Security and Medicare and default on Federal debt.  Out of the ashes will come a new order in which Social Democracy has been rooted out of the polity, as the paroxysm that was the Civil War put an end to slavery.  This is a viewpoint with which I have a great deal of sympathy while continuing to hope for some sort of “soft landing” instead.

Social Democracy is the idea that individual choices of all sorts must be decided by voting and enforced by the government, the agency of compulsion and coercion as Mises called it.  I wouldn’t contest the proposition that Social Democracy is a cancer on our society that ranks with slavery in its banefulness. I dearly hope that a future upheaval might root it out but I’m not so sure.

I hasten to emphasize that I say “ashes” metaphorically.  We will survive the demise of the Federal government.  The sun will still rise and physical assets will remain in place.  The damage done to the social fabric will be lessened if people see the collapse coming.  That private individuals can and do step in when government collapses was illustrated on a small scale by a recent incident involving the California park system.  A list of parks scheduled for closure was published and it looked like private groups had raised enough money to keep at least some of them open. (Then some bureaucrat found $50 million lying around in the Parks Dept. and the private groups gave up in disgust.)

I confess to being a bit more conservative than Jeff Hummel.  I’m slightly older and may have more to lose as things get worse.  I continue to hope that libertarian ideas will continue to infiltrate the public discourse and that the respect for productive people that is still held by a substantial though declining segment of the population will rein in Obama and his hangers-on.

The End of the Conservative Media? Or Why Brandon Was Right (Sorta)

Brandon Christensen Current Events, Politics

Conservatives should be familiar with its contours. For years, they’ve been arguing that liberal control of media and academia confers one advantage: Folks on the right can’t help but be familiar with the thinking of liberals, whereas leftists can operate entirely within a liberal cocoon. This analysis was offered to explain why liberal ideas were growing weaker and would be defeated […]

Conservatives were at a disadvantage because Romney supporters like Jennifer Rubin and Hugh Hewitt saw it as their duty to spin constantly for their favored candidate rather than being frank about his strengths and weaknesses. What conservative Washington Post readers got, when they traded in Dave Weigel for Rubin, was a lot more hackery and a lot less informed about the presidential election.

Conservatives were at an information disadvantage because so many right-leaning outlets wasted time on stories the rest of America dismissed as nonsense. WorldNetDaily brought you birtherism.Forbes brought you Kenyan anti-colonialism. National Review obsessed about an imaginary rejection of American exceptionalism, misrepresenting an Obama quote in the process, and Andy McCarthy was interviewed widely about his theory that Obama, aka the Drone Warrior in Chief, allied himself with our Islamist enemies in a “Grand Jihad” against America. Seriously?

Conor Friedersdorf has more here. Do read the whole thing.

I was wrong in my prediction that Romney would win, but only because I hadn’t been paying attention to the most recent jobs reports. Unemployment rates are low enough for Obama to win re-election. So my overall point that the economy trumps everything else is still spot on. Can you imagine Obama winning re-election with unemployment at 8.5%? Me neither.

The GOP could have taken a lesson from Tocqueville’s Democracy in America, though, and realized that while Americans respect wealthy people more than most other societies, such respect hardly ever translates into political success (rich people already boss us around at work, why would we want them bossing us around in the political arena as well?).

And, in case you are wondering, I didn’t vote. If I had, I would have voted for Gary Johnson, “no” to tax increases and “yes” to abolishing the death penalty.

Any Thoughts on the Election?

Brandon Christensen Politics

I made my predictions earlier this year. I stand by ’em.

Jacques Delacroix shares his thoughts here.

What about you guys?