Category Archives: culture

The End of Free Speech

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At least in Europe.  The European Court of Human Rights ruled last Thursday that it’s impermissible to make crude remarks about Islam’s Muhammed if those remarks fall outside what Government deems acceptable.  It seems that, in the course of a 2009 seminar, a woman commented on Muhammed’s marriage to his child bride:

[Muhammed] liked to do it with children…. A 56-year-old and a six-year-old? … What do we call it, if it is not pedophilia?

The ECHR ruled that remark unobjective, lacking historical background, and intended to disparage Islam.

Government will decide what parameters must be present in “free” speech—here, objectivity, with Government defining that parameter—Government will decide the environment and context within which “free” speech must be made.  Government has decided that rude speech is verboten.

The answer to bad speech is not more speech, but—in Europe—no speech other than that which is Government approved.

Somebody Wants a UBI

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This is a Progressive-Democrat dream, but Andy Kessler centered it on Silicon Valley in his op-ed in Sunday’s Wall Street Journal.  He’s not far wrong, but aside from limiting the idea’s core constituency, he also only described part of the reason why a Universal Basic Income is a bad idea.

He did a good job of laying out the costs of paying for a UBI—the charges to those with earned income or profit—and how those costs cap what the earners and producers can do, but there’s the outcome of the demand side, too, that must be factored in.

What determines the price of any good or service? Of course, one component is the cost of its production. If the price doesn’t cover the cost, it won’t get produced. But that’s only a floor; the driver of cost is the demand for the good or service. That demand, though, isn’t measured by the number of folks wanting the thing, it’s the amount of money available to pay for the thing. More money means more demand, and more demand means rising price if the demand rises faster than production.

Now give everyone a UBI. Demand just inflated by the amount of the UBI, and the price of goods and services just went up to absorb that demand—every single dollar of it.

But wait—rising demand means rising production. Yep. And rising production means rising demand for labor—and rising labor costs. Rising production means rising demand for production input materials—and rising prices for those inputs.  And so rising threshold prices for the output good or service to cover those rising costs.  The minimum price for producing the good or service is above the income available, even after the UBI; the range of goods and services available is at least as limited from the perspective of the impoverished as it ever was.

The buying power of the UBI was just driven to zero, and the value of a person’s total income in real terms is just the same as it was before the UBI was instituted.

But it’s not just a zero-sum outcome; it’s a negative-sum matter.  Recall Kessler’s thesis that the cost to the earners/profit-makers of providing the UBI limited their output.  There’s a net reduction for everybody of goods and services to be had.

That’s a net reduction in the real value of income for everyone.

Vast Right Wing Conspiracy

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In the wake of a series of explosive devices being sent to or received by Progressive-Democrats and others of the Left like George Soros, ex-President Barack Obama (D), ex-Progressive-Democrat Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, Congresswoman Maxine Waters (D, CA), Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D, FL), CNN offices, and others we get this:

Senate Democratic Leader Charles Schumer and House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi issued a joint statement…”Time and time again, the President has condoned physical violence and divided Americans with his words and his actions….”

This comes against the backdrop of Obama’s ex-Attorney General Eric Holder encouraging Leftists to kick Republicans and Conservatives when “they go low,” Waters encouraging Leftists to harass Republicans wherever they might be, Senator Spartacus encouraging Leftists to “get up in the faces of some Congresspeople,” Progressive-Democrat supporters attacking two Republican candidates in Minnesota (one got a concussion), the Left sending allegedly ricin-laced letters and other death threats to Senator Susan Collins (R, ME), the Left’s Antifa attacking anyone in Portland, Clinton calling 63 million Americans irredeemably deplorable racists, and on and on and on.

And: lots of bombs, and all of them intercepted.  Does anyone really think that’s plausible?  Most of them being intercepted, certainly; our guys are that good.  But 100% success?  None of them went off, too.  Does anyone think the bomber or bombers really are that incompetent?  Most not detonating, perhaps.  But 100% failure?

Maybe Schumer and Pelosi have given the game away.  At the very least, they’re demonstrating breathtaking and despicable cynicism with their jumping on the chance to make personal political hay out of all of this.

The New Left

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The modern Left and their Progressive-Democratic Party are showing their true heart, and there’s no room for freedom in it; there’s not even room for disagreement.

The Progressive-Democrat movement already has attempted to mass murder Republican Congressmen gathered for a baseball practice, nearly succeeding in the case of Steve Scalise (R, LA).

Now we have two Republican candidates for Minnesota state office being assaulted.

One suffered a concussion from his assault; the other was assaulted as she (!) tried to prevent the theft of campaign yard signs already erected in yards.

The campaign manager—another woman—for the Republican candidate for Nevada Governor was physically assaulted and held against a wall by a George Soros (a Party-approved 1%-er)-backed PAC employee after the thug had forced his way into a private room where a conference was in progress.  This same person had previously physically assaulted the Interior Secretary’s press secretary—still another woman (is there a pattern here?), and she filed criminal charges right after—so the Progressive-Democrat-supporting PAC knew who they were hiring.

Any one of these could easily have been written off as the isolated attacks of Left-wing loons.  But together they aggregate into the Party’s true attitude: they all come on the heels of attempts to intimidate Presidential Press Secretary Sarah Sanders, Senator Ted Cruz (R, TX); Senator Mitch McConnell (R, KY); Secretary of Transportation Elaine Chao; and many other Republicans with loud, deliberately disruptive protests designed to completely prevent them from going about their personal business in restaurants, even walking to their cars, milder intimidation attempts that failed.

This all comes, also, against the backdrop of Congresswoman Maxine Waters (D, CA) and Senator Spartacus (D, NJ) calling for people to harass Republicans wherever encountered or to come up in their faces, Party queen Hillary Clinton saying civility with Republicans is impossible and ex-Attorney General Eric Holder (D) calling for Republicans to be kicked when they “go low.”

This all comes, also, with the Left’s Antifa taking over the streets of Portland or assaulting those whom they simply don’t like.

This all comes with Progressive-Democrat billionaire Tom Steyer (another of the Party-approved 1%-ers) looking to buy a House impeachment claque.

This all comes with some members of the Progressive-Democratic Party leadership mildly calling for (their version of) civility but doing nothing to back their empty rhetoric, or others of that leadership remaining altogether silent.

Keep this in mind as you decide for whom to vote.  And do go vote.

The EU and National Sovereignty

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Poland enacted a law at the start of the year that lowered the mandatory retirement age of all of its judges from 70 to 65.  This resulted, among other things, in the required retirement for 27 of the nation’s 72 Supreme Court judges (a too-big Court, anyway IMNSHO, and they ought not be replaced, but that’s a separate story).

The ruling Law and Justice (PiS [Prawo i Sprawiedliwość]) party says the changes are necessary to a justice system they say is controlled by an untouchable “caste” of judges steeped in communist-era mentality.

The European Union has demurred.

The Luxembourg-based European Court of Justice said Friday that Poland must delay implementation of a law that came into force earlier this year requiring early retirement for nearly 40% of the court’s judges. Poland could face fines if it doesn’t comply, but more significantly such a move would represent an unprecedented threat to the authority of the bloc’s top court.
The Polish judges sent into retirement must be allowed to return to work, the ruling said.

That supposed threat to the ECJ may, in fact, be the crux of the matter: the EU must reign supreme over the member nations.

Whether retiring the judges is a good idea or not is a good idea or not, it’s an internal, domestic affair for Poland to decide.

Joining the EU plainly requires the surrender of a potful of national sovereignty far beyond such outward looking matters as national borders, trade rules, and the like.