“The collection of taxes which are not absolutely required, which do not beyond a reasonable doubt contribute to the public welfare, is only a species of legalized larceny.”
Calvin Coolidge, President of the United States
Category: Libertarianism
Friday Quote- P. J. O’Rourke
“It’s not an endlessly expanding list of rights – the ‘right’ to education, the ‘right’ to healthcare, the ‘right’ to food and housing. That’s not freedom. That’s dependency. Those aren’t rights, those are the rations of slavery – hay and barn for human cattle.”
P.J. O’Rourke
Michael Shermer Blasts Lack of Ideological Diversity in Social Sciences
His article in Sci-Am is worth a read.
Shermer begins with saying the insanity taking place on college campuses can be laid at the feet of having no other ideologies to act as a reality balance. Locked in an echo chamber, it’s a race to the extremes – kind of like a primary race.
Then Shermer lays out that bias affects not only the descriptive terms used during studies (conservative values as indicators of mental disorders), but in how the data is interpreted.
RTWT
Friday Quote- Neil deGrasse Tyson
Politicians lie, not because they’re evil, but because they say what the voters want to hear. So, it’s we who are the problem.
Neil deGrasse Tyson
Another good restatement of we have the government we deserve.
Rand Paul Suspends Campaign
According to multiple sources, Rand Paul is suspending his campaign.
Expected, but still disappointing. At least we should have him in the Senate.
Friday Quote- Dr. Martin Luther King
Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed.
Dr. Martin Luther King
Florida’s Death Penalty- Right Ruling, Wring Reason
The US Supreme Court ruled Florida’s death penalty unconstitutional.
The justices on Tuesday ruled 8-1 that the state’s sentencing procedure is flawed because juries play only an advisory role in recommending death while the judge can reach a different decision.
I oppose the death penalty. I’m not morally opposed to the concept, but I don’t trust those entrusted with the power.
Primarily, I don’t trust the prosecutors. There’s been too much evidence that prosecutors have concealed exculpatory evidence during trials and commenced with all sorts of shenanigans during and after trials to ensure that they get they conviction for their record. No, it’s not all prosecutors, but it’s enough. Even more than bad cops, bad prosecutors are tolerated and promoted by their peers and superiors. That’s bad enough when they can take away years of a person’s life, but so much worse when they’re trying to take all of the person’s life.
So, I’m glad that the USSC struck down the death penalty, but I wish it had been to address prosecutorial misconduct.
Friday Quote – E. Lovejoy
As long as I am an America citizen and American blood runs in these veins, I shall hold myself at liberty to speak, to write, and to publish whatever I please on any subject.
E. Lovejoy
Friday Quote- Henry David Thoreau
There will never be a really free and enlightened state until the state comes to recognize the individual as a higher and independent power, from which all of its own power and authority are derived, and treats him accordingly.
Henry David Thoreau
Friday Quote- Rothbard
The man who puts all the guns and all of the decision-making in the hands of the central government and then says “Limit Yourself”; it is he who is truly the impractical utopian.
Rothbard