Libertarianism Is Real Conservatism

What has come to be known as American "conservatism" has its roots in libertarianism. Those on the right who dismiss libertarianism, such as Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity, fail to understand what American conservatism really is and where it came from. Perpetual war and the expanded state that keeps it going is anything but conservative, but don't tell Rush this.

This is a great article click HERE to read it.

Where is the economy headed? Oil, gold, and silver

Cut Pay For Government Workers

Great article from Forbes calling for a 10% pay cut for federal workers.

I live in the federal workers paradise that is Northern Virginia and I can tell you that the culture of entitlement in Washington DC runs very deep.

If you're a fed you make on average twice what a similar worker in the private sector does. Thanks to the unions you can basically never be fired. You get every federal holiday off. Your health care is top notch and will be with you for life. After you "retire" you can look forward to a generous pension paid for by the US tax payer.

Every federal worker has a story about so and so who didn't do their job and so was moved to a desk out in the hallway where the worker in question just whiled away the hours reading novels until they came up for retirement. You think I'm exaggerating but I'm not.

These people are the regulators, the bureaucrats, the people who could not build a better mousetrap and so found shelter under the wing of Big Brother. OK that was a bit nasty and not entirely fair. But you get my point.

I wouldn't have as much of a problem with the bureaucracy if it were not for the supreme arrogance exhibited by the people who populate it.

In a time when this country is littered with economic carnage federal workers are getting a 2% raise this year. We are bleeding economically and the regulators, the rule makers, the people who do not contribute to the growth of our economy get a 2% raise?

And they are complaining about it! It's not enough for them.

Please read the attached article, but even more importantly please read the comments attached at the end. Read what some of the federal workers have to say about the thought that they should take a 10% pay cut. See if you think the federal bureaucracy is disconnected from reality.

We need to do something about the federal bureaucracy now. This is where the money is wasted. This is where the Republic is abused. It is the nameless bureaucrats, getting paid $100,000 a year to make life more difficult for those of us that are trying to start and run businesses, that are killing this fine country. And they will kill it, softly and slowly, until America is no longer America. So far they are doing a pretty good job.

Cut Pay For Government Workers

Who are the communist the USA or China?

Where is your tax money going? Suprise, the weathiest counties in the US surround Washington DC

This is an absolute travesty. The 3 wealthiest counties in the US surround Washington DC, led by Loudoun County with a median income of over $100,000.

I live outside of Washington. There's no recession here. The parasites are sucking up your hard earned tax dollars and redistributing them to their pockets. Everyone here knows the deal. Get on the government payroll. Get a good paying job, with every federal holiday off, retire with a lavish pension. Thats the deal folks. For those of you who have no idea what the Washington burocratic class is about its called THE GRAVY TRAIN.

Durring the recession pay has gone up not down in the leafy suburbs of Washington DC. You think the Federal Government is disconnected from the average citizen? You have no friggin' idea.

Below are 2 links. The first is the Forbes article. The next is a post I did some months back on this issue.

Americas Richest Counties

Goin' Back to DC Blues

Practical Libertarianism (Part 2)

In the ensuing years I became a big fan of William F. Buckley and Jack Kemp. I cheered on the “Republican Revolution” of 1994, though it was no revolution. I liked Gingrich. The whole bit.

I argued that any party that was for smaller government was a friend of the American people. I could see that higher taxes stifled individual creativity in the economy. I came to see that it was a great privilege to live in a country where ones paycheck could be defined by individual initiative. I saw the Republicans as the ones who sought to unleash this huge human potential. The GOP, though stodgy, was the grown up party, whereas the Dems seemed perpetually locked in an adolescent world view.

But as the 1990s moved along, the “revolutionaries” of 1994 became fat and happy. Gone was the idea that the federal government needed to be curtailed. It was replaced instead by a party of social conservatism, with a real evangelical bent, that appealed in no way to me. It seemed that the Republican Party was very quick to embrace the state and quickly forgot why they were there, which was to increase freedom and to reduce the scope of the state.

It turned out the GOP was no better at denying the temptations of centralized power than the Dems. This was very disheartening to those conservatives who had dreamed of a GOP Congress and the possibility of finally cutting the size of government. The Republican Revolution was betrayed.

Then Darkness At Noon, the election of George Bush II.

The man draped himself in the language of conservatism but as we were soon to find out had no problem with the massive expansion of the state.

September 11th changed everything and ushered in the era of GWB as a “war president.”

More to come…

José Piñera discusses privatizing social security on FBN

Practical Libertarianism: An Ongoing Essay (Part 1)

What does it mean to be a libertarian?

I believe anyone who believes in the Golden Rule, that is, to do unto others as you would have done unto you, is basically a libertarian. Don’t dump your leaves in my yard and I won’t dump mine in yours. Don’t steal from me and I won’t steal from you. Respect my privacy and I will respect yours. My rights end where yours begin and vice versa. Simple.

But many people who believe that they live by the Golden Rule would consider themselves anything but libertarian. Why is this?

First, for many on the “right” the term libertarian sounds just a little too much like liberal. It also sounds like the word “libertine,” which congers images of the Marquis De Sade and depraved orgies and stupor inducing drug use. Some frown on orgies and heroin. I understand.

Some also believe that to be a libertarian necessitates a rejection of God. Though it is true that Ayn Rand, often referred to as a libertarian though she rejected the title, was vehemently atheist, this is certainly not true of all or even most libertarians.

You can be pro-life and be a libertarian. Many are.

You can make a very good case for the limitation of immigration as a libertarian.

You can even be a pro-military (that’s military, not military adventurism) libertarian.

Libertarians simply recognize that each individual is worth respect and so should not be subject to violence or fraud perpetrated by anyone or any group, even the state.

As a kid I grew up in a military household. We lived on base. I had posters of submarines and air craft carriers. F-14 models hung from my ceiling. I was as vehement a cold warrior as a 10 year old could have been. But I remember one of the first times I realized that the state perhaps wasn’t all it was cracked up to be.

I remember watching something about the draft on TV and asking my mother what she would want me to do if I was drafted. I remember her saying that she hoped that I would do my duty and serve.

I remember laying in bed that night thinking about it and wondering why in a country that was free did the government have the right to send me off to war?

This was my first real libertarian inkling.

More to come…

They're freakin' out man! Tea Partiers banging on the gates.

Both the Dems and the GOP don't like the Tea Party and what it may mean for the political establishment.

IMF wants a new reserve currency