Federal Land grab

So, it seems the federal government is trying to take yet more state land. This land grab is unconstitutional. Article I of the constitution requires state permission to take land; the state should sue.


For your edification
The relevant clause in Article 1 Section 8 of the constitution:
"To exercise exclusive Legislation in all Cases whatsoever, over such District (not exceeding ten Miles square) as may, by Cession of particular States, and the acceptance of Congress, become the Seat of the Government of the United States, and to exercise like Authority over all Places purchased by the Consent of the Legislature of the State in which the Same shall be, for the Erection of Forts, Magazines, Arsenals, dock-Yards, and other needful Buildings; "

Do elected officials not read the constitution anymore?

Best analogy of why the republicans lost in 2006.

"The republicans are like a Knight in Shining Armor. They rode into town in 1994 and promised to sleigh the Dragon. They then proceeded to make a Deal with the Dragon that when Marauding the dragon would spare each farmhouse One Cow and One Building. Then the Knight is confused why the farmers are upset with him."

From JD

He is Us.

Freeman, you are wrong. He is coming. He is here. He is us. You and I and all of us are him. This shift is different than previous ones, before we have had some leader to lead us towards freedom, now its our turn to do it for ourselves.

New Age Healing and Prayer Therapy

Apparently the new health care bill it 'would prohibit discrimination against "religious and spiritual healthcare."'
This means that New Age healing, crystal therapy, and Christian Science 'prayer therapy' would be paid for under the new Democrat health plan.

hat tip: LA Times

Spending is the Problem.

"Do shocks to government spending raise or lower consumption and real wages? Standard VAR identification approaches show a rise in these variables, whereas the Ramey-Shapiro narrative identification approach finds a fall. I show that a key difference in the approaches is the timing. Both professional forecasts and the narrative approach shocks Granger-cause the VAR shocks, implying that the VAR shocks are missing the timing of the news. Simulations from a standard neoclassical model in which government spending is anticipated by several quarters demonstrate that VARs estimated with faulty timing can produce a rise in consumption even when it decreases in the model. Motivated by the importance of measuring anticipations, I construct two new variables that measure anticipations. The first is based on narrative evidence that is much richer than the Ramey-Shapiro military dates and covers 1939 to 2008. The second is from the Survey of Professional Forecasters, and covers the period 1969 to 2008. All news measures suggest that most components of consumption fall after a positive shock to government spending. The implied government spending multipliers range from 0.6 to 1.1. " (emphasis mine)

This means that at best government spending is more or less a net wash, and at worst it causes actual damage to the economy. I've said it before, elsewhere, government spending crowds out individual spending.

Hat tip: Kids Prefer Cheese

Here is the actual paper.

Crime, Certainty, Immediacy

In terms of crime deterrent from a state point of view, this is brilliant.
I have been saying, to friends and family, for a long time that immediacy and certainty matter a lot more than the severity of the punishment. From a non-state view, this sugests that violent crime would go down if more people were willing to use force to protect their fellow man.

Also, from this we can conclude that if people fought back against muggers, rapists, thieves, etc, we would see a lot less of that sort of crime.

The March of Time

they claim to know the future
they claim to know your past
but when we are done here
its all just put to rest
and time marches onwards
to its steady, steady drum
and time marches onwards
to its steady, steady drum

they wanna turn
they wanna fight
and then they wanna run
but time marches onward
to its steady, steady drum
and time marches onwards
to its steady, steady drum

The fires burn
across the land time forgot
black wheels turn
bringing fire in the sky
so time marches onwards
to its steady, steady drum