The following is just a little briefing that focuses our attention on some important recent issues (or at least what I think is interesting): Full disclosure: I am not a prolific user of social media, and I sometimes look down (secretly) on those who are—maybe I am really just jealous and I certainly am technologically […]
Archives
-
Some News of the Day/Week
19 May 2016
-
A major part of the Dodd-Frank bill that Mr. Obama and the Democratic congress of 2009-2010 was the creation of an agency to protect consumers, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). Dodd-Frank was troubling enough; I’ll not delve too deeply into that murky mess other than to note the irony of the financial reform bill […]
-
This is Not a Shampoo Commercial: It’s Worse
07 May 2016
I read another article today on the evils of occupational licensing, this one coming from Tennessee, which requires 300 hours of approved training to (get this) shampoo hair. And the so-called shampoo degree coats upwards of $5,000 to $12,000! (see The Daily Signal of ma2, at http://dailysignal.com/2016/05/02/it-takes-300-hours-to-become-a-shampooer-in-tennessee). After reading the entire article I was just […]
-
Bathroom Bills and Transgender Rights
21 Apr 2016
My previous post proposed a legal test for deciding cases involving individuals who claim their conscience does not permit them to sell goods or provide services to someone from the LGBT community who seeks a service or good directly related to their claimed status. I ignored the “bathroom bill” in North Carolina, which has caused […]
-
Happy Tax Day (Late)
19 Apr 2016
Below is a chart comparing categories of income tax between 1913 and 2016, published by Americans for Tax Reform. Note the categories labeled “Top Tax Bracket Threshold” and “Family Standard Deduction,” both adjusted in terms of today’s dollars. Our tax liability now begins at 25 times the amount it began at in 1913. Our deduction […]
-
Since President Obama has nominated someone for the Supreme Court vacancy, it is tim we took a look at his judicial philosophy. First, a little about him personally and professionally. Judge Merrick Garland was born in Illinois, raised near Chicago, received his law degree from Harvard, one of the usual cast of schools from which […]
-
Taxes Versus Spending
02 Mar 2016
The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, a DC group, had this to say about Ted Cruz’s campaign proposals: “Republican presidential candidate Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) has, by our count, put forward seven sets of policy proposals on his campaign website covering areas such as immigration, military spending, and tax reform. By our very rough […]
-
There was a time, way back in the eighteenth century, and as recently as the nineteenth century in the United States, that a person who owned land possessed legal title (in so-called “fee simple,” the normal way people own land unless they lease it) to it from the “center of the earth to the zenith […]
-
“The Immense and Tutelary Power”
22 Feb 2016
I think I quoted this passage from Alexis de Tocqueville’s Democracy in America, last year, but have enlarged the context. Is this a description of the centralized command and control bureaucratic government that we [sic] have been creating over the past 100 years or so? And is Tocqueville on to something? Feel free to comment. […]
-
At the Democratic candidate debate last week, Bernie Sanders was asked how big government should be. His response was illuminating, as was Hillary Clinton’s response to Sanders’ answer. Here is part of what he said: WOODRUFF: “And, welcome back to this PBS Newshour debate, Democratic debate, here in Milwaukee. Let’s get right to the questions. Senator […]
Bert Wheeler
Jeff Haymond
Marc Clauson
Mark Caleb Smith
Tom Mach