Jul 29

Announcing new symposium: “Despotism and Defiance,” Saturday, Aug. 12, Las Vegas, NV

Lysander Spooner University proudly announces a new scholarly symposium tentatively scheduled for Saturday, August 12 at “Camp Liberty Annex,” 1217 4th Street, downtown Las Vegas, NV.

Stimulating lectures, debates, and networking.

Speakers to include:

* Maureen Peltier, freedom activist

* James “Jamie” Landin,

* Dr. Roger Roots

* (others to be announced).

Tentatively scheduled for 6:30 p.m.

Bring your lawn chairs and your open minds; and prepare to be inspired and informed!

Unlike many modern, government-supported universities, Lysander Spooner University will never impose a speech code.

$7 at the door much appreciated.

Jul 28

Congress passes “bipartisan” bill to grow government by subsidizing hearing aids

Republicans have been winning elections for years with promises to limit government. They now control the majority of legislatures and governor’s mansions across the country as well as both branches of the U.S. Congress, the presidency and (arguably) the majority of judgeships (at the state levels, at least).

The people want cuts in government, taxation, and regulation.

Yet “Last week, a Hearing Aid Bill passed in the house and the Over-the-Counter-Hearing Aid Act of 2017 has been presented in the Senate.” See here.

This bill will subsidize hearing aids. Although it is presented with claims that this will bring prices down, THE MOST BASIC LAWS OF ECONOMICS HOLD THAT IT WILL MAKE HEARING AIDS MORE EXPENSIVE.

Just like Medicare, Medicaid and other laws which subsidize “health care,” this proposal will increase demand without increasing supply, causing prices to rise. People who would not otherwise purchase a hearing aid will line up to get them. Manufacturers will have a new captive market, and will lose incentives to produce cheaper, high-quality products.

Jul 26

Government’s War on the Poor: More than 1/3 of Households have No Savings

Government policies punish savers so much that it is utterly foolish to save even a penny. Near-zero interest rates. “Social Security” payroll taxes. Medicare and Medicaid. Obamacare. Market-entry barriers such as occupational licensing laws.

Government policies incentivize Americans to work less, build less, create less, save less, be unhealthy, sick and weak.

“Nearly 20 million U.S. households (16.9 percent of the total) have zero or negative net worth. That means they owe more than they own.”

See here.

Jul 23

Collapsing Chicago Public Schools Seeking to Force Rural Illinois Property Owners to Pay $17 BILLION Debt

The Chicago Public School District is $17 BILLION in debt. (That figure is greater than the annual State budgets of numerous entire states combined; Chicago’s “teachers” often retire as multimillionaires in a state that has experienced years of declining household incomes.)

Years of corruption and government central planning have taken their toll. (And all measurements of school output show Chicago’s expensive schools are among the nation’s worst.)

The City’s longsuffering taxpayers have already been taxed at levels rarely seen in a modern democracy.

So to pay off the School District’s outrageous debts, a government-loving legislator is proposing a bill to force property owners in suburban and rural Illinois (who are also longsuffering) to pay. Their children do not reap the “benefits” of the Chicago public schools at all. See here.

The entire State of Illinois is in undeclared bankruptcy due to government overspending and regulation.

Property values inside the City are the HIGHEST IN THE ENTIRE MIDWEST, while those in rural and suburban Illinois are much lower. Per-capita incomes are also LOWER in many rural Illinois counties than in the City.

Stay tuned.

Jul 23

Google’s new “guidelines” call for the company’s programmers to optimize websites that represent “well established scientific consensus” and to downgrade those which are skeptical

The world’s most frequently-visited search engine, Google, has produced “guidelines” for its programmers.

Interestingly the guidelines tell programmers to optimize “High quality information pages on scientific topics” which represent “well established scientific consensus on issues where such consensus exists.” (Section 3.2)

But writer Leo Goldstein reminds us that “the allegations of “scientific consensus” are made only in one field – climate alarmism.”

In fact, everywhere else, “’Scientific consensus’ is almost an oxymoron.”

Science IS SKEPTICISM. And no “vote” can ever establish a scientific rule or fact.

Thus, it appears that Google is actively seeking to promote the government’s manmade-climate-change-by-CO2 theory, and seeking to bury skeptical information.
See here.

Jul 23

A scam collapsing before our eyes: Global warmists appear to have removed links to “data” which showed Greenland glaciers retreating

A few years back a guy named James Balog started “the Extreme Ice Survey.” He produced an award-winning video, “Chasing Ice,” which featured him cramponing around the glaciers of Greenland and Alaska with sad piano music in the background.

Balog’s theme was that he wanted to video and photograph the glaciers before they melted away.

At one time, the “Extreme Ice Survey” website had “data” locked behind a paywall, which a visitor could check out after paying by credit card.

But the website now seems to have no “data” tab. It now stresses the “art” behind its photographs, rather than its science.

Here is a report by Tony Heller about Greenland’s glaciers in 2017. THEY ARE GROWING, NOT RETREATING. (In fact, Greenland’s glaciers have been growing since 2013.)

Jul 22

Tesla: the Lobbying Firm Masquerading as a Car Maker

Governments worldwide propose “energy policies,”–subsidizing some energy firms while taxing and overregulating others. Picking winners and loses by obstructing free markets.

For decades, U.S. lawmakers have been subsidizing “alternative energy” schemes that would never work without government support. “The first justification was that internal combustion engines polluted too much. But emissions steadily declined, and today’s cars emit about 3% of what their predecessors did.”

See here.

“In recent months, Tesla sales plunged to nearly zero in Hong Kong and Denmark, as huge government subsidies were eliminated.”

The same thing will soon happen in the United States, so some government bodies (such as the California legislature) are seeking to maintain massive artificial supports for Tesla and other electric “car makers.”

A 2015 study found the richest 20% of Americans received 90% of hundreds of millions in taxpayer EV subsidies. Thus, such subsidies represent a massive transfer of wealth from poor people to rich people.

Jul 19

US Postal Service gave time off and benefits to postal workers who campaigned for Hillary

“Campaign finance reformers” often depict (private sector) funding of political ads as an overwhelmingly influential factor in elections.

But there are many ways that people and institutions influence election outcomes. Government agencies have numerous means of trying to influence the political sphere.

Now the Washington Post reports that the US Postal Service gave time off and other benefits to Postal employees who campaigned for Hillary in the 2016 presidential election. See here.

This practice of the Postal Service apparently reached a massive scale.

Jul 19

Bob Barr: the Nightmare of Single Payer Health Care

Baby Charlie, a British infant suffering from an incurable disease, has been ordered to be “humanely” killed by British courts.

This is against the wishes of his parents who are desperate to explore all options to extend his life.

In the words of Bob Barr, “In the healthcare system in a free society, the ability to seek treatment for a seriously ill infant would not even be a question for debate. However, in a government-run healthcare system like that in the UK, resources are rationed, with government bureaucrats serving as all-powerful gatekeepers, whose decisions are backed by black-robed judges whose allegiance is to the system and not to human beings.”

Jul 18

Socialism lowered life expectancy in Venezuela while capitalism raised life expectancy in Chile

Many government lovers condemn and criticize the rightist regime that took over Chile in the 1970s.

Naomi Klein’s book “The Shock Doctrine” begins with a (mostly false) story that Chile’s Pinochet adopted free-market policies and followed the guidance of free-market economist Milton Friedman.

But while Chile under Pinochet was hardly the free-market model its enemies depicted, the country did make some good movements toward lower taxes and some pro-business reforms.

At the time of Pinochet’s “rule,” Chileans were poorer and had lower life expectancy than nearby Venezuelans who were the wealthiest people in Latin America.

But now after 15 years of Venezuealan socialism and relative capitalism in Chile, Chile has HIGHER LIFE EXPECTANCY, better average health, higher per capita wealth and income, cleaner air, cleaner water, and fewer problems with disease than Venezuela. See here.