Liberty over Equality

• Over himself, over his own body and mind, the individual is sovereign.
  The sole end for which mankind are warranted, individually or collectively, in interfering with the liberty of action of any of their number, is self-protection. That the only purpose for which power can be rightfully exercised over any member of a civilized community, against his will, is to prevent harm to others. His own good, either physical or moral, is not a sufficient warrant. He cannot rightfully be compelled to do or forbear because it will be better for him to do so, because it will make him happier, because, in the opinions of others, to do so would be wise, or even right. These are good reasons for remonstrating with him, or reasoning with him, or persuading him, or entreating him, but not for compelling him, or visiting him with any evil in case he do otherwise. To justify that, the conduct from which it is desired to deter him, must be calculated to produce evil to someone else. The only part of the conduct of any one, for which he is amenable to society, is that which concerns others. In the part which merely concerns himself, his independence is, of right, absolute. Over himself, over his own body and mind, the individual is sovereign.
  
  Jon Stuart Mill - "On Liberty"
  
  
  
  
• The Same Old Equality of Result
  RealClearPolitics - The Same Old Equality of Result
  
  

  Brillian piece by Victor Davis Hanson...........
  

  American vs. French

  The notion of freedom then butts up against equality, as if they are as often antithetical as symbiotic. (NB: note the French Revolutionary sloganeering of "fraternity" and "egalitarianism" versus the American Revolutionary emphasis on "Give me liberty, or give me death", "Don't Tread on Me!", "All men are created equal" [by opportunity rather than by result]. And note Obama's references to the French ideal.)

  In response, the state has two choices to preserve its original ideal of equality (and we see elements of this further debate voiced in the Old Oligarch, Aristolte Plato, Hobbes, Hume, etc, as well as in histories of the middle and late Roman Republic).

  One, the state and culture at large can be coercive to ensure a equality of result-in the modern liberal world by high redistributive taxes, generous means-tested entitlements, inflationary monetary policies to diminish the power of capital (in the ancient world by forbidding the alienability of land, mandating the maximum size of estates, coining cheap bronze/silver coated money in vast amounts, redistribution of property, cancellation of debt, etc.).

  Such efforts at commonality are what we are now witnessing with income take hikes, $1.7 trillion dollar deficits, inflationary federal spending and borrowing, along with huge new entitlements. Its extreme form is the European Union, its extreme, extreme manifestations are the failed -isms and -ologies of the bloody 20th century where authoritarian elites broke the requisite eggs for the omelet of "for the people" and in service to "equality."

  
  
  
  
• Prager University: The American Trinity
  Love this idea. Dennis Prager will be posting short (5 min.) webcasts at Prager University going over the great issues in life. This first one is about the "American Trinity" and what makes the US different from Europe (and the rest of the world, for that matter).
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Geithner: The Fox Guarding the Henhouse?
  "What is going on in this country? The government is about to take over GM in a plan that completely screws private bondholders and favors the unions. Get this: The GM bondholders own $27 billion and they’re getting 10 percent of the common stock in an expected exchange. And the UAW owns $10 billion of the bonds and they’re getting 40 percent of the stock. Huh? Did I miss something here? And Uncle Sam will have a controlling share of the stock with something close to 50 percent ownership. And no bankruptcy judge. So this is a political restructuring run by the White House, not a rule-of-law bankruptcy-court reorganization."
  
  --Larry Kudlow
  
  
  
  
  
• Crowds gather in Madison, Milwaukee for tax protests - JSOnline
  Crowds gather in Madison, Milwaukee for tax protests - JSOnline
  
  We had a great time at the Tea Party today. There were well over 5000 people at the capital. Something is big building. Hopefully conservatives can take advantage of this anger with out of control taxing AND spending.
  
  
  
  
• The smallest minority on earth
  

  "The smallest minority on earth is the individual. We are all different. We are all individuals. We are being told to sacrifice our individuality. We're being told we must assemble in other groups of victims. Well, not all of us because some of us are the victimizers. The smallest minority on earth is the individual and thus those who deny individual rights cannot claim to be defenders of minorities. This administration claims to be a minority administration, first black president, historical nature. This administration is out to destroy the whole concept of individual rights under the guise of sacrifice, pay equalization, equalization of outcomes in other areas. But the smallest minority on earth is you, as an individual. You have individual rights, as granted by God, who created you, and our founding documents enshrine them: Life, liberty, pursuit of happiness. Those rights don't come from other men or governments or women. They come from our creator, God. Higher power, whatever, however you want to look at it.

  "The smallest minority on earth is the individual, and I dare say that in this country today there's no one looking out for the individual, other than me. Nobody is looking out for the individual. In fact, in this country, just as it happened in Soviet Russia, just as it happens in North Korea, as it is happening in Venezuela, and as it happened in Cuba, the individual must be stamped out, the individual must be stomped upon, the individual as a concept must be done away with, and, as such, there go individual rights. You don't have individual rights nearly to the degree that you once did, not when you have been forced by either guilt or stigma to buy a car that you don't really want. When you're buying a car because you think it will get you less criticism, when you buy a car because you think people will think you're wonderful, but not because you want that car, you have sacrificed your individual rights. You have said, "My worth as an individual, my worth as who I am doesn't count anymore. I am going to define my worth by what somebody thinks of me. I'm going to define my worth by how little criticism I will get. I'm going to define my worth by how much I can make people think I care," based on the tug of popular sentiment each and every day. When any of you decide to do away with pursuing what you want in your best self-interest, you are sacrificing who you are. You are giving up control of your essence, and you are saying, I would rather be a member of a group that is approved by people so that I don't get criticized or so that I'm thought of as enlightened or so that I'm thought of as advanced. In the process, you are helping to destroy the very foundational building blocks of the greatest country on earth, the country in which you happen to be born and the country in which you happen to live. So giving up your individual identity, giving up who you are, sacrificing your passions and your desires and your own self-interests for the so-called common good, who gets to define the common good? I would define the common good as everybody acting as an individual, born as he or she is, pursuing self-interest. That's the common good. That built cities; that built a great country; that built railroads and engines. It built airplanes. It built everything. People denying who they are did not. When you deny your individuality, when you give it away for acceptance into a subgroup of people, you are harming the country; you are letting the country down; you are not pulling your weight. You are seeking approval, self-love and acceptance from all of the wrong sources. You're giving up the greatest gift you ever had, and that's who you are. And we have an administration that wants you to willingly and excitedly, eagerly give up who you are for a common good they define, a common good that requires you to deny who you are, your individuality, what makes you different from everybody else, whether you're not as good or whether you're much better at certain things. You will become a number. You will become a robot who can be programmed and inspired and motivated to behave in approved ways, and you will be taught to think you are virtuous when doing so, when all you've done is sold yourself and your country out. You give up your individuality, you sacrifice who you are, you allow that to be taken away for some mythical status as a member of a group, you are giving up your passion to become a moderate, or worse. People without passion never built anything. People without passion never got one thing done. People without passion are drags on achievement and accomplishment. That's what this administration wants you to become. "

  
  
  
  
• Obama's Ultimate Agenda
  Charles Krauthammer - Obama's Ultimate Agenda - washingtonpost.com
  
  

  "Obama is a leveler. He has come to narrow the divide between rich and poor. For him the ultimate social value is fairness. Imposing it upon the American social order is his mission.

  Fairness through leveling is the essence of Obamaism. (Asked by Charlie Gibson during a campaign debate about his support for raising capital gains taxes -- even if they caused a net revenue loss to the government -- Obama stuck to the tax hike "for purposes of fairness.") The elements are highly progressive taxation, federalized health care and higher education, and revenue-producing energy controls. But first he must deal with the sideshows. They could sink the economy and poison his public support before he gets to enact his real agenda"
  

  "The reordering of the American system will come not from these temporary interventions, into which Obama has reluctantly waded. It will come from Obama's real agenda: his holy trinity of health care, education and energy. Out of these will come a radical extension of the welfare state; social and economic leveling in the name of fairness; and a massive increase in the size, scope and reach of government.

  If Obama has his way, the change that is coming is a new America: "fair," leveled and social democratic. Obama didn't get elected to warranty your muffler. He's here to warranty your life."

  
  
  
  
• Falling prices are not delfation but the antidote to deflation
  George Gerald Reisdsman is Professor Emeritus of Economics at Pepperdine University.
  His blog can be found here.
  
  "...deflation is not falling prices but a decrease in the quantity of money and/or volume of spending in the economic system. To say the same thing in different words, deflation is a general fall in demand. Falling prices are a consequence of deflation, not the phenomenon itself.
  
  Totally apart from deflation, falling prices are also a consequence of increases in the production and supply of goods, which are an essential feature of economic progress and a rising standard of living. In such circumstances, falling prices are not accompanied by any plunge in business sales revenues or profits, by any increase in the difficulty of repaying debt, or by any surge in bankruptcies. All of these phenomena are the result purely and simply of deflation, not falling prices."
  
  "...there is no good way out of the present crisis other than by meeting it through the free-market’s means of a fall in wage rates and prices, mitigated to the maximum extent possible in ways consistent with the principle of economic freedom. What is required is a way out that once and for all ends the boom-bust cycle of inflation and credit expansion followed by deflation and contraction. The free market, a freer market than we have had up to now, is the only such solution.
  
  Economic freedom and economic recovery both require that prices and wage rates be free to fall and that all legal obstacles in the way of their falling be immediately removed. In order for that to happen, as many people as possible must understand that falling prices are not deflation but the antidote to deflation."
  
  
  
  
• Dear A.I.G., I Quit!
  Part of me feels empathy for AIG employees, part of my wants to say, "You took government money and you expected no strings to be attached? How naive!"
  Here is the letter:
  Op-Ed Contributor - Dear A.I.G., I Quit! - NYTimes.com
  
  HT: Brian Bies
  
  
  
  
• The Europe Syndrome and the Challenge to American Exceptionalism
  If you take failure out of the equation, how can a person enjoy there true successes? We seem to be going down a different path now....but this IS the change people voted for, and have been voting for quite some time now. Do we want to be like secular Europe? Read on....................
  
  The Europe Syndrome and the Challenge to American Exceptionalism — The American, A Magazine of Ideas
  
  
  
  

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