The attacks on capitalism and freedom have hit an all-time high, and part of the problem seems to be - NOBODY IS WILLING TO STAND UP FOR CAPITALISM!
So in light of this, I'd like to start this post off with a 2 1/2 minute video of Milton Friedman being interviewed by Phil Donahue. Maybe we should all email a copy of this to our representatives.
As Ken Kurson says, "We're Losing Our Religion."
[Rudy Giuliani would often talk] about how capitalism has ... done more to lift people out of poverty than any other economic system. The line was usually greeted by polite nods or even raised eyebrows, especially in Western Europe and the bluer precincts of the United States. But when I saw him deliver it in Poland and Russia, it killed.
In those former Communist countries, people burst into furious applause ... Having lived under centralized economies, they get it. We don't.
What's far more disconcerting is how quickly Americans seem willing to throw off our last few vestiges of freedom and adapt a nationalized, Washington ...
So why are Americans-the inventors of Google, the assembly line, and the Pocket Fisherman-suddenly so willing to ditch all we've known and put our trust in Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid?
... because no one is really standing up for capitalism ... And when someone does try to stand up for freedom, he ... is called a Paultard (or some other schoolyard taunt) ...
As part of the "stimulus" bill that we don't have time to debate (or we'll lose 500 billion jobs per month), President Obama is pushing for a new bureaucracy - the National Coordinator of Health Information Technology.
Oh, goodie! This way, the government can monitor treatments to make sure your doctor is doing what the federal government wants. Hey, they did such a great job with central banking ... I digress.
Sounds like rationing to me. Or, as Radley Balko so eloquently explains ... "Because Nothing Stimulates an Economy Like Stifling Innovation?"
The bill is vague about what sort of penalties will be imposed on doctors who don't abide by the recommendations, as well defining the minimum threshold of participation in federal programs that would require a doctor to abide by them.
The goal, Daschle's book explained, is to slow the development and use of new medications and technologies because they are driving up costs.
But wait ... there's more!
The cops are gearing up for something "stimulating" too ... as Balko puts it, "Any Taxes You Pay Can and Will Be Used Against You."
Trey Garrison looks at the stimulus wish lists of cities in Texas, and finds lots of toys for cops:
• Frisco wants $125,000 for an armored vehicle and $200,000 for a mobile command vehicle. You know, for all that gang tank warfare going on up in Frisco.
• McKinney wants $5 million for SWAT toys ...
• North Richland Hills wants $51,000 for volunteer patrol volunteers. Let's throw in $10 for a dictionary so they can look up the word "volunteer."
• Irving wants $5 million for biometric scanners, digital cameras, RFID scanners - nothing Big Brother there.
• Arlington wants $1.6 million for ... military grade carbines, $625,000 for unmanned aerial surveillance drones, and $130,000 for "covert ops" ...
Other examples:
• Sparks, Nevada wants $600,000 to purchase a "live fire" house its SWAT team can shoot up, and another $420,000 for a SWAT armored vehicle.
• Pleasanton, California wants $250,000 to buy a vehicle for its SWAT team.
• Gary, Indiana wants $750,000 for a host of "modernization" upgrades ... including "sub-automatic machine guns" and an "armored vehicl" [sic].
• Hampton, Virginia wants a whopping $3.5 million for "Air Tactical Unit Support and Equipment"
• Ottawa, Illinois (population: 18,307) wants ... "tactical entry rifles."
The debate over Left vs. Right, or Democrat vs. Republican is over. It's time "we the people" wake-up, brush the sleep from our eyes, and accept that we're right back where we started, thus declaring:
When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another ...
An important first step in the right direction, is to realize how important it is to oppose the Obama Administration's "stimulus" bill. Nick Gillespie helps, giving us "Three More Reasons to Oppose the Stimulus Package, Based on Statements By One of Its Supporters."
1. Any spending bill this Mama Cass-sized should first be read by the people voting for it in Congress and by the people who will spend the rest of their lives paying for it.
2. Because it's all about giving aid to other levels of government, the stimulus will create a ton more jobs in state and local level, which means that state and local governments will be even more on the federal teat than they are now.
3. The stimulus, assuming it's an equal mix of spending and tax cuts, will really help people out sometime after the recession has already ended.
Saul Alinsky has taken the White House!
[...] A Reason(ed) Look at Stimulus [...]