Another Dem Avoids Taxes

Now it looks like former Sen. Daschle didn't pay all his taxes until the scrutiny of higher office. It's amazing how many Democrats avoid paying the taxes that Vice President Biden called "patriotic". Does this mean they are unpatriotic by the definition of their own party? It increasingly seems as though senior Democrats don't like paying their taxes. Guess what? No one does. But not everyone votes consistently to raise taxes. It would at least be ideologically consistent for Republicans to avoid paying taxes (though it's been a while since one's been accused). But Democrats claim that taxes are necessary and good, then avoid paying them. Talk about hypocrisy.

Starve The Enemy

The FBI recently reported that 80% of the crime in the US is committed by gangs. Yet, this is coming after decades of astronomical increases in funding for law enforcement, and serious compromises of the Constitution. Indeed, the most powerful weapon in the government's arsenal is RICO, who's constitutionality is, at best, questionable. Still the only solutions ever proposed is more money spent and less rights for everyone.

So what is the solution? The surest way to deprive the gangs of funding. What is their principle form of funding? The illegal sale of drugs. While they may engage in high-profile robberies and other crimes, for the majority of gangs, the bread and butter support is wholesale or retail sale of drugs. Without these profits, the gangs, and correspondingly the crime they commit will shrink. This is on top of the violence that substitutes for the rule of law in the drug economy. When you can't go to a court to enforce a contract, you are forced to go to a gun. With legalization, all of that violence disappears overnight.

The saddest part is that we've already been through this once. Prohibition of alcohol had roughly commiserate effects. The criminals made windfall profits, while crime skyrocketed along the same lines. They caught on more quickly back then, and reversed Prohibition after only 13 years. Here is what one of the most successful men in American history, John D. Rockefeller, who had originally supported Prohibition, said at its end:

"When Prohibition was introduced, I hoped that it would be widely supported by public opinion and the day would soon come when the evil effects of alcohol would be recognized. I have slowly and reluctantly come to believe that this has not been the result. Instead, drinking has generally increased; the speakeasy has replaced the saloon; a vast army of lawbreakers has appeared; many of our best citizens have openly ignored Prohibition; respect for the law has been greatly lessened; and crime has increased to a level never seen before."

Another Reason Not To Eat HFCS

Despite what the cheesy ads say, High Fructose Corn Syrup is not good for you. Aside from common sense telling you something so modified from its original content should be avoided if possible, there are several known health risks associated with HFCS. Most disturbingly, it has been linked to severe liver damage. It has also been linked to decreased leptin production (which can lead to obesity) and a type of compound which is thought to do much of the damage from diabetes. Now, it appears that much HFCS is contaminated with mercury.

HFCS is the result of the high subsidies on corn and the high tariffs on sugar. With corn so much cheaper than sugar, it was cost effective to massively modify corn into sugar. This is also the reason US ethanol sucks, and overseas ethanol works. Ethanol here is made from corn, because it's subsidized. If you make it from sugar, it's much more efficient. One of the cures for HFCS is free trade. Ironically, many of the people most concerned about HFCS also hate free trade. These subsidies and tariffs were efforts by both parties to buy votes. They also illustrate how little difference there is between the parties. But I digress.

The other irony with HFCS is due to people simply hearing that HFCS is bad for them, then embracing the idea without doing their own research (it'd take about 5-10 minutes using Google). The idea that people won't drink soda because it has HFCS but will chug fruit juice all day is the most ironic. First, a good chunk of what people call fruit juice is loaded with HFCS. Second, even if you're getting pure fruit juice, think about what it is. It's all fructose, the very thing you were trying to avoid with the HFCS. It'll have the same effects, or worse, than soda. Fruit contains a multitude of nutritional compounds, many of which are left behind when it's juiced, such as fiber. Drinking juice is very different from eating fruit.

HFCS won't kill you (quickly), but if you're trying to get healthier, it's probably something to avoid.

Assorted News

Not many huge stories these days. Here are a couple that are interesting:

Consumer confidence is as low as it's ever been. That's probably to be expected, though the effects are brutal. Consumers seem to be acting counter-cyclical to how they should for the economy , which is to say they're hoarding cash when it's bad and borrowing too much when it's good.

Mr. Obama and the Republicans are playing nice so far. They may have found a common enemy in the hard left of the Democratic Party that is in power now.

Apparently drug money saved the world banking system.

As always Becky is speaking up for liberty.

NY Senator Silliness

After much speculation and suspense, the replacement for Sen. Clinton has been announced. There are a couple of interesting aspects here. Caroline Kennedy did not get the job, shockingly, even though the Democratic party, as much as they claim to be against privilege, have even more nepotism than the Republican party, possible due to their political machine roots. Kennedy apparently also had tax problems, which is endemic to the Democratic party these days. Apparently that's why they don't mind raising taxes, they just use their political connections to avoid paying them. Seriously, the list is getting kinda long. Rangel, Geithner and Kennedy so far have all had similar issues, and I think there is a least one more that is slipping my mind right now.

The position instead went to yet another moderate Democrat. While I am personally pleased with this(she was endorsed by the NRA), I wonder when the real consequences for the Democrats are going to start piling up. There have already been signs of it, but the fault lines for a real split are there.

I'd love to see the moderate parts of both parties form a unity party, like Kadima in Israel, the left start calling themselves what they are, socialists, and for the right wing of the Republican party join with the Libertarians, though I'd be shocked to see that actually happen.

It will be interesting to see if President Obama does face a rebellion in is own party, and if so, how he deals with it.

Terrorists Wiped Out By Plague?

So apparently an Al-Queda group has been wiped out by the Black Death/the Plague. What is curious is the article is basically optimistic about the situation, portraying it essentially as divine judgment. It would seem to me that the most likely reason for the terrorists being exposed to it would be an attempt to weaponize it, which, though the plague can be treated, should hardly be downplayed.

Why You Don't Mess With Israel

Copious Dissent posted a video of an Israeli defending himself from a grenade by throwing the grenade thrower onto it. I have no idea if it's verified, but either way it's pretty cool.

Global Warming Or New Ice Age

As many of my readers know, one of the few things I am ambivalent about is Global Warming. I think there may be climate change going on, but I don't know how much humans have to do with it. Talk about wishy-washy. The current weather isn't helping much. It is historically cold in much of the nation. The Russians think we are entering into a new Ice Age, but then again, they also think the US is going to split into six countries.

It is likely that the recession and the cold winter will put a damper on the talk of Global Warming. If the proponents of it are smart, they will fully switch to climate change. After all, only thirty some years ago we were talking about global cooling.

Many of the solutions proposed to fight global warming are foolish, extreme or will choke out business. However, many are good ideas regardless of the climate change impact. Hopefully, the new administration will be able to divine the difference.

Links

Just wanted to post two links I enjoyed from other blogs:

Becky, one of my favorite bloggers, writing about the War On Liberty/Drugs, one of my favorite topics.

Copious Dissent posted a video by Thomas Sowell, who has an interesting take on public schools.

US Declined To Back Bombing Iran

So, as I expected, Israel wanted to bomb Iran before the end of the Bush administration. President Bush declined support due to possible backlash in Iraq. Instead, he assured them that the CIA was undermining Iran's nuclear program.

This is classic US policy in the Middle East. Aside from being an easy way to shift blame away from their failures, why did the phrase "Death to America" originate in Iran? Because of the American government's support of CIA action in Iran, suppressing dissent. Intervention in other countries, more often than not, results in unintended consequences. It should be done only when there is absolutely no other choice. It remains to be seen what consequences will result from the intervention in Iraq.

If military intervention is going to be taken, it would seem that a good reason for it would be that a country with the slogan "Death to America" is going to produce a nuclear weapon. It will be interesting to see how Mr. Obama handles the situation, and perhaps even more interesting to see how his handling is perceived.

Craziness

Two random news stories caught my eye today.

First, virtually all of the flu in the US is immune to Tamiflu, the drug most commonly used to treat it. Obviously, this is not good. More interestingly, this did not occur due to overuse of the drug(for once) but just a random mutation of the virus. I'll resist the urge to get out my preventive medicine soapbox on this.

Second, Alaska is having a winter so cold it blows my mind. It's staying at -60 for weeks at a time, so cold that engines won't run. You know it's bad when Alaskans are complaining about the snow. My first thought was, of course, so much for global warming. My second thought was, how do you deal with that kind of crazy cold? I'm not particularly cold-sensitive, I'll wear shorts and a hoodie on 0 degree windchill days if I'm just driving somewhere. But its my understanding that at -40, if a part of your body is uncovered, you lose it. -60 is hard to fathom.

Dem Unity Straining?

Controversy over the Obama CIA appointment before he has even been inaugurated is the latest sign of Democratic unrest. Fault lines in the part have been showing ever since the DNC's strategy of using DINO candidates in 2006. The infighting between the Obama and Clinton campaigns didn't help a bit. In the debate on the bailout, party lines were muddled. Now, with Mr. Obama moving increasingly towards the center, he may be forced to contend with a situation that also faced another young, idealistic Democratic Senator turned President, that of dealing with a fractured party in addition to an official opposition. Mr. Obama's play to the center may reduce direct friction between the factions, but will also win him few allies. One interesting thing to watch will be the response of the Republican party if the Democratic Divide does emerge. They would be wise to stay out of direct conflict and instead build the image of their party which has been so damaged of late. Their choice may shape the Republican party for some time to come.

Innovation Over Handouts?!

Once again, an Asian car company has come up with an innovation to drive sales. Hyundai has a new promotion where, if you lose your job, you can return the car. This is aimed at people who still have a job, yet are too anxious to buy a car due to the economic downturn. It is still too early to tell if this will be a successful strategy, however, it highlights something severely lacking in today's economy. Everyone has been focused on getting government handouts and "managing expectations". However, two sure keys to success in the free market are quality and innovation. Hyundai has these down. They have chosen to at least try to determine their own destiny, rather than depend on charity. Regardless of success, kudos to them for trying to make something happen, rather than sitting around and whining.

Components Of Stimulus Emerging

Some of the components being discussed for the upcoming stimulus package are interesting. Most intriguing of all is that Mr. Obama apparently wants to pass his plan with over 80 votes in the Senate. How? Something for everyone. Big tax cuts and up to 600,000 new government jobs. This seems to be a continuation of the theme of his Presidency so far: Unity at any cost. The Republicans are being bought off at great expense, and the Democrats are getting only a fraction of what they want.

This is a strange reversal of the campaign, where the right(and myself) warned that we didn't know anything about Mr. Obama, and that he might be a closet socialist. Well, we were right and wrong. Nobody did know what Mr. Obama would do, but apparently he was a closet moderate republican! Even more bizarrely, much of what he looks likely to propose is right out of the things he criticized about the McCain campaign.

Though it is still extremely early, it looks as though the Obama presidency may be the exact opposite of what was expected: ambivalence.

Rush Job On Stimulus?

While at this point no one except anarcho-capitalists(not that there's anything wrong with that) opposes some form of stimulus package, the trickier question will be what's in it. However, carrying over from the Bush administration, we may not know until after it's passed. It now looks likely to race through the House before going into the pork-stuffing plant of the Senate, where the Democrats will need to buy some votes.

Most of the measures being discussed are not that objectionable so long as they are temporary. The follow up question will be what will be done to ensure long term growth? The two policies are very, very different, and the proposals seen so far by the Obama campaign are not the most encouraging. Raising taxes and imposing red tape is hardly the way to ensure a thriving economy.

Until this country renounces it's policy of bubbles, it will have one crisis after another, as that is what it is set up to do. There are worse things than continual rises and falls in the market. However, when every fall is an excuse to spend money we don't have, the rising will eventually slow or stop.

War In Gaza

The reason why I have not yet written about the Israeli offensive into Gaza, besides the fact that it's the holidays and I've been spending time with loved ones, is because, unusually for me, I don't have a clear cut answer. However, since the story is growing rather than going away, with the latest twist being that Israel's nuclear plant may be a target, I thought I would offer my two cents.

Let me start by saying I generally side with the Israelis. They have acted with much greater restraint than I would have in their situation. However, they hurt their cause so much with their poor PR. This may be helped with the new IDF youtube channel. It certainly is a unique perspective. However, it will not address the basic issue that Israel will always struggle as long as it tries to be both victim and victor. If you're going to attack, completely destroy your enemy. Mercy merely provides them the continued existence to regroup. If you need to deport everyone in Gaza to the West Bank in order to be safe, do it. Half measures only make you appear to be the bad guy while not solving the issue.

The Palestinians squander so much of the slanted press coverage they get. They have understandable grievances. If they made clear, reasonable demands and used civil disobedience only, they would have prevailed long ago. Instead, they resort the terror, which de-legitimizes them.

The worst part of watching this mess is knowing it will likely not be solved in our lifetimes. We are doomed to watch the same battles over and over with only the details changing. I sincerely hope that I am wrong in assuming this.