Go to 3:25 and listen to President Obama speak about the benefits of job creation for a window manufacturer in Philadelphia. (watch about 20 seconds… you’ll get the point)
Then watch this clip about the window manufacturer in Pittsburg.
Lastly, read this essay on a window manufacturer from France. A lot of lessons to be learned…
Here is a great letter to President Obama from Don Boudreaux:
Neither consistency nor sincerity is what they do.
Don
http://www.cafehayek.com/
………………………………….
25 January 2010
Mr. Barack Obama
President, Executive Branch
United States government
Washington, DC
Dear Mr. Obama:
In your weekly radio address on Saturday (Jan. 23) you harshly criticized the Supreme Court’s ruling in Citizens United – a ruling that protects citizens, even when organized as corporations, from government censorship of their political speech. You worry that this decision will allow “unbridled corporate spending” to influence political outcomes.
Now today, the AP reports that “President Barack Obama on Monday offered help for people struggling to pay bills and care for their families…. Among the initiatives: a doubling of the child care tax credit for families earning under $85,000; a $1.6 billion increase in federal funding for child care programs and a program to cap student loan payments at 10 percent of income above ‘a basic living allowance.’
….
“Obama is seeking to offer some attractive options to taxpayers, mindful of the painful implications of the loss of a traditionally Democratic Senate seat in Massachusetts to Republican Scott Brown. White House advisers see Wednesday’s State of the Union speech as a key opportunity for Obama to recalibrate his message and reset his presidency after that stinging setback.”
Interesting. You think it dangerous for the republic when corporations use “unbridled” spending to try to affect political outcomes, yet you yourself don’t hesitate to use unbridled spending (of other people’s money!) to try to affect political outcomes.
Seems inconsistent to me, Mr. President. Don’t you agree?
Sincerely,
Donald J. Boudreaux
Fairfax, VA 22030
During the early 17th century, when King James VI ascended to the English thrown, the Scottish Parliament and Old Scottish Court used “Scots” as their official language. The mark of Scotland seemed enduring and profound. However, after the union of the English and Scottish parliaments in 1707, England began imposing its language through the Scottish educational system on the Scottish Lowlanders. Scottish nobles began recasting their speech in English in order to identify with society in London, and Scottish Enlightenment philosophers took on the mantle of their English conquers. England was imposing a universal standard that threatened Scotland’s national identity of independence and bravery: “for, as long as but a hundred of us remain alive, never will we on any conditions be brought under English rule.” Robert Burns took the stage during the most critical moment and revived Scotland’s heritage of liberty for all time.
Jennifer R. McDermott’s treatment of Burns is the finest I have yet seen (read here). It is a “must read” for all liberty lovers!
E. Wesley – Mackinac Center Intern
Here is a letter I recently sent to the Midland Daily News:
In his recent letter, Scott Miller states, “it appears that some of our legislators are more concerned with profits for big business than the health and future welfare of their constituents. Contact senators Stabenow and Levin and urge them to come together around a bipartisan effort to develop affordable clean energy and climate legislation…” (“Go Green,” Jan. 21).
In one breath, Scott acknowledges that politicians are concerned with pleasing special interests. In his next breath, however, he urges his readers to contact the very class of people he decries in order to create a solution.
I’m puzzled. Is Scott unaware that several large businesses are currently lobbying for clean energy legislation? These large businesses will profit from new regulations that crush their smaller competitors. Once clean energy legislation is passed into law, it would also not be surprising to find that these same large businesses are recipients of special government permits that exempt them from such regulations.
I admire those who seek to reduce pollution. I am saddened by those who are blind to the colossal gap between desired outcomes and the actual outcomes generated by government intervention. Once this gap is recognized, it will become painfully obvious that desirable outcomes will not emerge from encouraging fellow citizens to jump into the slopping pit.
Kurt Bouwhuis
“…the General is a great man for praying night and morning; all times; but when I see him get up in the night and go off to pray, then I know there is going to be an important battle; and I go right straight and pack his haversack, for I know he will call for it in the morning” – Jim Lewis
“Reserve your fire until they come within fifty yards; and then fire and give them the bayonet; and when you charge, yell like furies.” -Thomas Jackson
Read more on Landmarks of Liberty…
E. Wesley – Mackinac Center Intern
Here is an excellent letter to the editor by Don Boudreaux:
14 January 2010
Editor, Washington Post
1150 15th St., NW
Washington, DC 20071
Dear Editor:
Re “Tens of thousands feared dead” (Jan. 14): The ultimate tragedy in Haiti isn’t the earthquake; it’s that country’s lack of economic freedom. The earthquake simply but catastrophically revealed the inhuman consequences of this fact.
Registering 7.0 on the Richter scale, the Haitian earthquake killed tens of thousands of people. But the quake that hit California’s Bay Area in 1989 was also of magnitude 7.0. It, though, killed only 63 people.
This difference is due chiefly to Americans’greater wealth. With one of the freest economies in the world, Americans build stronger homes and buildings, and have better health-care and better search and rescue equipment. In contrast, burdened by one of the world’s least-free economies, Haitians cannot afford to build sturdy structures. Nor can they afford the health-care and emergency equipment that we take for granted here in the U.S.
These stark facts should be a lesson for those who insist that human habitats are made more dangerous, and human lives put in greater peril, by freedom of commerce and industry.
Sincerely,
Donald J. Boudreaux
Professor of Economics
George Mason University
Fairfax, VA 22030
Kurt Bouwhuis, Mackinac Center Intern
“Google Inc. will stop censoring its search results in China and may pull out of the country completely after discovering that computer hackers had tricked human-rights activists into exposing their e-mail accounts to outsiders.”
Read entire article here. More information here
Hat tip to Eric Imhoff
Kurt Bouwhuis, Mackinac Center Intern
Check out the entire essay here.
Among the Founding Fathers of the United States, no name is more recognizable than that of John Hancock. His flair and silver tongue set Boston on fire for liberty. It would be his eye for virtue that would truly show British tyranny in its true light. By 1777, he was the president of the Continental Congress, and also on King George III’s most wanted list.
“Have not our youth forgotten they were Americans, and regardless of the admonitions of the wise and aged, copied, with a servile imitation, the frivolity and vices of their tyrants?..”
Read more on Landmarks of Liberty…
E. Wesley – Mackinac Center Intern
This video has 6 parts. Enjoy!
On January 5, 1779, a future hero for capitalism was born. As a boy, young Stephen Decatur regularly dove off of the tips of jib booms, and at twelve years old saved his mother from a drunken rogue. He later joined the U.S. Navy, and protected United States shipping for more than 20 years. Admiral Lord Nelson called Decatur’s impossible mission to sink the captured USS Philadelphia under Tripoli control, “the most bold and daring act of the age.” Read more on Landmarks of Liberty…
E. Wesley – Mackinac Center Intern
