The FedGov, under the Constitution of 1787, established enumerated (specific) and limited powers, with the 10th Amendment explicitly stating that everything else – EVERYTHING ELSE – was reserved to the States or to the people themselves.
How well is DC – the FedGov – doing here in 2021?
READ ON!
Again this year, we see government – and all the enemies of liberty – eating their own. One of the latest examples of seeming cannibalism in the beloved Centers for Disease Control and its Director, Dr. Rochelle Walensky. Even NPR was there for a serving, attacking Walensky as a “bad communicator.”
Continue readingYears ago I knew an Army First Sergeant who rejected one of the most common informal names for the people in his position. He refused to be called “Top” or “Top Soldier” because, he was fond of saying, “scum rises to the top.”
His truism was again proven true, (hardly the millionth time since I heard it from him) this time in the UK. Prime Minister Boris Johnson again begged forgiveness and promised an “internal investigation” of an open-air party at 10 Downing Street in May of 2020, with nearly a hundred invited bureaucratic and parliamentary guests, during the peak of the Lockdown for the Pandemic Panic there in London.
Continue readingGareth was the first person to bring this idea to the attention of the rest of us here at The Price of Liberty. Readers should consider it – fun and with at least some utility.
The shopping cart assessment (SCA) is an attempt to help figure out what individuals are able to govern themselves and do not need involuntary control by government(s). In other words, people who are really adults: who take responsibility for their own actions AND the consequences of those actions. (And work to make those consequences be good ones.)
To put it another way, are they a person who insists that they must have a law (and the force behind that law) to make them do the right thing?
What is the SCA? Simply, at a store: do you return the shopping cart you used to a cart corral or to the store cart area? Or do you leave it outside, in a walking area or empty stall, or – worse, push it off somewhere in the distance? Some people claim it is the ultimate litmus test for those who call ourselves self-governors. Others claim it can help us identify who is a decent member of society. (And others believe it is yet another reason “there oughta be a law.”)
It is simple and can be done in virtually every city and town in the Fifty States with more than a couple of thousand people. All you need is a supermarket or grocery store or dollar store with a paved parking lot and shopping carts. (FYI, it won’t work at an Aldi because you put a deposit on their carts to use them and get it back. Or maybe I should say it won’t work as well.)
There are sometimes it will give a false value of “N” (No) for a few reasons: some severely and physically handicapped people and sometimes when someone has an emergency phone call or an incident that disrupts their normal routine.
Returning a shopping cart is an easy, convenient task (for 99% of us) and one which we all recognize as the correct, appropriate thing to do.
To return the cart is objectively right. There is no religious or political argument over doing so. There are no situations (other than dire emergencies or physical handicaps, generally easily decerned) in which a person is unable to return their cart.
But at the same time, it is not illegal to abandon your shopping cart.
So the shopping cart presents itself as the peak example of whether a person will do what is right without being forced to do it. No one will punish you for not returning the shopping cart: no fines, no jail, no notices of violation for not returning the shopping cart. (You might get some nasty looks, of course.)
But in real terms, you gain nothing by returning the shopping cart. You are doing so out of the goodness of your own heart. You return the shopping cart because it is the right thing to do. Because it is correct. Yes, even for people who have OCD.
To many people, a person who is unable to do this is no better than an animal. Either they are an absolute savage who will only do the right thing by being threatened. Or they are so arrogant and unthinking that they leave it to “menials” (the cart tenders) to do it.
So tell us, is it true that a Shopping Cart is what determines whether a person is a good or bad member of society?
PS: If someone DOES say, “there oughta be a law” and not just saying so in a teasing manner, what does that make them?
There may be a trend of coming up with ways to excuse dear Uncle Joe for all the bad stuff that is happening on his watch in the White House. Other than he’s old, tired, needs to sleep a lot, and loses track of things.
Perhaps the excuse of “It’s all Trump’s fault” is wearing thin?
Continue reading(Thanks to David Wojick for the title and subject of this commentary.)
One of the recent trends in world affairs is the rise of “silly science” and its adoption by more and more of the world’s educrats AND government goons.
David Wojick first used the label to address “manmade global warming and what he calls “climate alarmism” – one of the great fear producers of the last three decades, in a great and very readable article here. He concisely points out the absurdity of the claims that the hundreds of government agencies united in this vast con job which has already stolen billions and billions of dollars from tax- and rate-payers and the future.
But there are more fields of silly science for the woke and social justice warriors and the con artists to use to suck still more money – and instill more fear – among the masses.
Continue readingIn California, I understand that a new constitutional amendment (expected to pass) is intended to double State tax revenue. According to National Review (hardly an enemy of big government), income taxes would increase for the highest bracket to a tax rate of 18.05%. There would also be a payroll tax – like Medicare and Unemployment, paid by the employer. Of about 2%. AND a “gross receipts” tax of 2.35% on all revenue received by a company – whether they make a profit on not. And that would be basically a sales tax on ALL transactions: wholesale and retail. Again, paid by the seller, supposedly.
Of course, all these taxes ultimately are paid by the consumer and the wage/salary earner. All told, California wants $163 billion dollars a year INCREASE – double current State theft – beginning in 2023. If this insanity passes. And as I hear, it is expected to pass.
Why?
Continue readingA good reader/correspondent just sent me this little tidbit of a news story (on a late Friday afternoon).
Justice Sotomayor claims to not understand, on Yahoo News,
“S” told me: How did she even graduate high school let alone make it through law school? Check out the story in the link. If this does not leave you shaking your head at the utter STUPIDITY I will be shocked….
Where is a brick wall to hang my head?
With many thanks to Paul Rosenberg of FreemansPerspective.Org, who first developed most of these ideas. These are things which apply to all children, but especially to those we are attempting to raise as lovers of liberty able to be responsible adults who are self-governors.
Although there are always times of crisis and danger, what we in the States and around this planet have faced for two years is NOT normal and not right: it is wrong. We must tell them this and help them see through the propaganda (from ALL sides) that they are deluged with daily.
So here we have thirteen concepts about “wrong” that we should teach our children while they are young:
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The Price of Liberty 
Both the old parties are bad, but…
There IS a difference, at least in 2022. (At least in some leaders/members/supporters of each party.)
Let me explain. For years and years, many Libertarians – especially during political campaigns, have gleefully pointed out that “there ain’t a dime’s difference between the GOP and Democrats.” I’ve done it myself. And in many ways, that was true then – and is now.
They are, among other things, BOTH bad for liberty, for prosperity, and for peace. They are both bad when it comes to growing government, increasing totalitarian control by government, and making the whole planet a mess. They are the two wings of the evil predatory scavenger Americans chose instead of a turkey as the “national bird.”
BUT…
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