Free to Choose Friday (Part 9)

Posted on March 7, 2014 by The Political Hat

     Each Friday for the past few months, an episode of Milton Friedman’s ten-part Free to Choose will be posted.

     The ninth episode: How to Cure Inflation

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California Democrats Protect Their Felonious Own

Posted on March 6, 2014 by The Political Hat

     California Democrats currently have super majorities (over 2/3 in each house), and hold that super-majority in the state Senate by two seats. Democratic state Senator Ron Calderon was indicted for allegedly taking $100,000 in bribes. His seat is likely safe for Democrats, but would temporarily lower their numbers in the State Senate, though keep it above the threshold for a supermajority. This is why the state Senate President Steinberg has called on Calderon to resign or “take a leave of absence“.

     So, when Steinberg has already called upon a state Senator simply accused of crimes to step down, why is he protecting a state Senator who has been convicted of EIGHT FELONIES?

     Perhaps because it would deny the Democrats of 2/3 of the forty state Senate seats, thus allowing the Republicans to block what few actions that still require a 2/3 majority (the barrier for passing budges was lowered to 50% recently, thus denying the Republicans, a minority in the state Senate since 1970, any power to block it)?

     Both state Senators have taken a “paid leave of absence” which means they retain their paycheck without having to actually do their duty as legislators AND are able to come back anytime they want if the Democrats really need those extra votes. The “loss” of the supermajority is superficial.

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American Flag Banned in America

Posted on March 5, 2014 by The Political Hat

     American public schools can prohibit students from wearing the American flag because anti-American thugs were likely going to silence those students with violence anyway:

“The court points out that the rights of students in public high schools are limited — under the Supreme Court’s decision in Tinker v. Des Moines Indep. Comm. School Dist. (1969), student speech could be restricted if “school authorities [can reasonably] forecast substantial disruption of or material interference with school activities” stemming from the speech. And on the facts of this case, the court concludes, there was reason to think that the wearing of the T-shirts would lead to disruption. There had been threats of racial violence aimed at students who wore such shirts the year before”

     If the situation had been reversed, and students attacked others who happened to wear a Mexican flag on Cinco de Mayo, would such a decision by the courts have been allowed to stand?

     UCLA law professor, Eugene Volokh, finds this problematic:

“Yet even if the judges are right, the situation in the school seems very bad. Somehow, we’ve reached the point that students can’t safely display the American flag in an American school, because of a fear that other students will attack them for it — and the school feels unable to prevent such attacks (by punishing the threateners and the attackers, and by teaching students tolerance for other students’ speech). Something is badly wrong, whether such an incident happens on May 5 or any other day.

“And this is especially so because behavior that gets rewarded gets repeated. The school taught its students a simple lesson: If you dislike speech and want it suppressed, then you can get what you want by threatening violence against the speakers. The school will cave in, the speakers will be shut up, and you and your ideology will win. When thuggery pays, the result is more thuggery. Is that the education we want our students to be getting?”

     Ironically, in California, students have even greater free speech protections than the 1st Amendment provides.

     Of course, in schools it seems that “some are more equal than others,” those who wish to indicate their patriotism are one of those who are not.

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California Attorney General Kamala Harris is Hypocrisy Personified

Posted on March 4, 2014 by The Political Hat

     Elected officials of a state are bound by their state’s Constitution.  It is usurpation when they arbitrarily and capriciously decide to conspire to destroy some provisions, while protecting illegal statutes!

     Proposition 8, which defined marriage as a union between a man and a woman was struck down by a Federal judge, and due to both Governor Moonbeam and Attorney General Kamala Harris refusing to defend the California Constitution, the ruling of a biased judge was upheld by the Supreme Court of the United States.

     This provided a blueprint for elected officials to overturn the restraints and obligations they do not care fore.  This has recently been shown to be the case when GOP Gov. Brian Sandoval and Attorney General Catherine Cortez Masto refused to defend their own state Constitution, despite the fact that same-sex marriage would have likely been the law of the land through completely constitutional means within a few years.

     There is no provision of the United State Constitution which overrules the California Constitution, or the Nevada Constitution, on this point.  Yet, these Attorneys General conspired with their Governors’ and a willing judge to eliminate these provisions without consent of the people, and while denying the people a right to appeal the law of the land according to their state Constitution.

     Yet Gerechtigkeit Führer Kamala Harris does not consistently lay down and take whatever a Federal Judge decrees, as the recent ruling regarding concealed weapons permits by a Federal judge demonstrates.

     The 9th circuit Court of Appeals declared the requirement that a person seeking a concealed weapons permit show “good cause” to exercise their inalienable 2nd Amendment right.  Despite the fact that this did not involve overthrowing the will of the Californians via the invalidation of a state Constitutional provision repeatedly approved by the people of California, which Harris seemed all spiffy with, she has decided to fight this ruling and re-impose a restraint which a Federal court has declared Unconstitutional.

     Why the double standard?  A single biased judge was allowed to overthrow the state Constitutional provisions regarding marriage, with Harris’ and Gov. Moonbeam’s acquiescence.  Yet, despite the state Constitution not being voided, and just restrictions imposed by a county, Harris’ has found the willpower to challenge not just a single Federal Judge, but the 9th circuit itself!

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Tears of Unfathomable Sadness as UCLA

Posted on March 3, 2014 by The Political Hat

     The UCLA undergraduate student association council (USAC) had a vote on demanding divestment from Israel.  It failed 5 to 7.  This resulted in a divestment activist having a full-on mental breakdown.

     While UCLA would not have paid attention to the USAC vote, it is nonetheless surprising that they would vote against divestment from Israel.

     The meltdown:

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News of the Week (March 2nd, 2014)

Posted on March 2, 2014 by The Political Hat

 

News of the Week for March 2nd, 2014


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A Warning to the Slackers Out There

Posted on March 1, 2014 by The Political Hat

     A warning to the slackers out there…


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Free to Choose Friday (Part 8)

Posted on February 28, 2014 by The Political Hat

     Each Friday for the next few months, an episode of Milton Friedman’s ten-part Free to Choose will be posted.

     The eighth episode: Who Protects the Worker

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A Grinding Inexorable Decline

Posted on February 27, 2014 by Guest Poster

     The following is from commentator “non-purist” on the Ace of Spades HQ:

     I think the Tea Party and Scott Walker may well end up as speed bumps and footnotes – but my crystal ball also does not contain any spectacular or kinetic melt-downs. Remember the sheer inertia of the US economy, the wealth that has been created (by a system now being systematically strangled), the vestigial/inertial levels of order, control, etc.

     I think CA is a fairly good model to use. The place has been turned from the most dynamic and important economic/social engine of innovation on Earth into an insolvent, poorly and nastily run place with cooked books and lawlessness reaching histrionic proportions (the full usual menu re illegals including drivers’ licenses, but now a ridiculous minimum wage and “gender optional” rules for school kids).

     But no collapse. Too much good stuff that is mostly inertia – or favored sector. IT and biotech and fake, er “green” energy are favored areas of enterprise, and thus not persecuted or strangled (forestry, much commercial fishing, mining/real energy, small manufacturing, large manufacturing, certain forms of agriculture). They are profitable enough to provide some revenue; the “entertainment” sector provides some, and the “climate and beauty tax” on the prosperous who choose to live her to enjoy the spectacular natural attractions provides some more.

     So no collapse. Just a grinding, inexorable decline in many respects. A hollowed out social structure with idiotic “educated” Coastal Clueless libs at the top (favored sectors, or members of the unbelievably pampered over-paid nomenklatura, which now includes not just teachers/professors and bureaucrats but even law enforcement/emergency types). In the middle – not much, a rapidly disappearing small ag and manufacturing sector. At the (explosively growing) bottom: illegals, non-assimilating Hispanic immigrants, a debilitated hard-core urban underclass to rival anything in the east or upper Midwest).

     Just as the EU and really the US have been, for some time, insolvent – yet in a position to magically cook the books and print money to avoid collapse – CA has done so (no need to print money when you can violate the state const. at will, cook the books, stiff creditors, game the future liability calculations, etc.). No collapse.

Photo from blogger 'zombie' - tinyurl.com/kb3boy6

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The Second Time As Farce

Posted on February 26, 2014 by The Political Hat

     Julius Caeser was assassinated because his dictatorship, in part, was seen as a grab for ultimate, and royal, power.  Augustus succeeded where Caeser did not because he kept the pretense of the Republic while consolidating power far in excess of what Caeser did.  Subsequently the Roman Emperors increasingly assumed absolute power, with Domitian being a textbook example of where this leads.

     While there are many parallels between Ancient Rome (and it’s eventual decline and fall), and modern day America, the analogy is not perfect.  Though while history may not repeat, it does rhyme.

     The exercise of arbitrary and capricious power by Barack Obama is manifest to everyone, excepting the lap dog media.  His most notable illegal suspension and delay of the law that he is mandated to follow has been with his signature legislation: Obamacare.  His actions have now reached to the threat of unilateral relaxation of sanctions on Iran — without consent or approval of Congress.

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