Archive for January 27th, 2007
I said it here, here and here. President Bush is getting ready to attack Iran. He may try another all out “preemptive” strike or he could goad Iran into firing the first shot. Either way, Bush’s plans will be realized.
The American public and the US Congress are getting their backs up about the Bush Regime’s determination to escalate the war in Iraq. A massive protest demonstration is occurring in Washington DC today, and Congress is expressing its disagreement with Bush’s decision to intensify the war in Iraq.
This is all to the good. However, it misses the real issue – the Bush Regime’s looming attack on Iran.
Rather than winding down one war, Bush is starting another. The entire world knows this and is discussing Bush’s planned attack on Iran in many forums. It is only Americans who haven’t caught on. A few senators have said that Bush must not attack Iran without the approval of Congress, and postings on the Internet demonstrate world-wide awareness that Iran is in the Bush Regime’s cross hairs. But Congress and the Media – and the demonstration in Washington – are focused on Iraq.
Source: Bush Is About To Attack Iran by Paul Craig Roberts
[tags]Iran, President, George Bush, war, foreign policy, libertarian, preemptive, strike, aggression[/tags]
Bill Online Easily, Fast & Free with PayPal. No Software Needed. Sign Up Now!
Eliot Spitzer proposes “free” health insurance coverage for 400,000 uninsured children in the State of New York. He admits that government involvement in health care has led to the sad state of affairs we have today.
“What went wrong is that health care decision-making became co-opted by every interest other than the patient’s interest,” he told a group of health care industry executives in Albany on Friday. “Government abdicated its responsibility to set standards, demand results and hold institutions receiving billions in state tax dollars accountable to the state and to the people those institutions serve.”
It makes absolutely no sense to increase the amount of government involvement. The result will be even higher costs overall to taxpayers for health care services. I am sick and tired of politicians increasing the commitment to failed government programs.
Source: Buffalo News - Spitzer vows health insurance for state’s children
[tags]Eliot Spitzer, health, care, insurance, children, New York, libertarian[/tags]
Netflix Delivers DVDs to your home. NO LATE FEES. Try for FREE!
New Orleans is now undergoing an unprecedented murder rate, even for the Big Uneasy. How can we dig our way out of this morass?
The usual suspect solutions have all been tried, have not worked in the past, and will not help us now. According to the conventional wisdom, the way to stop people from shooting at each other is to improve our public schools, promote day care, stop the drug trade with stiffer sentences, start midnight basketball leagues, bring in the social workers, promote religion, subsidize parenting skills, introduce citizenship and ethics classes in high school, this list of ineptitude goes on and on.
These “remedies” are either focused way too far in the long run to be even relevant to our critical short-run problems, or never have addressed and cannot solve such challenges, or are actually counterproductive: exacerbating murder rates, not diminishing them.
The solution isn’t confined to New Orleans, it will work anywhere, including Buffalo, New York.
Why? If marijuana, heroin, etc., were legal, it would be sold in ordinary legitimate stores such as pharmacies. These would replace the present fly-by-night murderous operators. Customers would simply rather purchase brand name cocaine, replete with labels, money back guarantees in case of defective products, as in the case of all other consumption goods. Standard business ventures have a comparative advantage over hoodlums whose only specialty resides in violence.
It is no secret that the recent spate of violence and murders in Buffalo are drug related. Mayor Brown and the Police Chief have both attested to this fact. The only thing they haven’t advocated is a real solution. Last year we were wooed with Operation Shock and Awe. The only people shocked were a couple of children who witnessed their pet dog being shot to death by the police. (click for larger version)
If you want the violence and the murder stopped the only solution is to make it unprofitable for criminals to engage in drug trafficking.
People claim they want to help the druggies so they don’t use drugs. That doesn’t work. But we continue with the same failed program that kills and maims people, innocent people. Then there are the people who get caught up in the criminal “justice” system and are branded as felons for life. Often times these people aren’t even dealers or hardcore drug users, just in the wrong place at the wrong time. The rest of their life goes down the drain because they are not societal deviants branded as a felon. So much for all that compassion about wanting to “help” the drug users.
Read the rest: Drug Legalization: How to Radically Lower the Number of Murders in New Orleans by Walter Block
[tags]war, drugs, legalize, violence, murder, robbery, burglary, libertarian, lewrockwell.com[/tags]
