A Free Market This is Not…

The time has come for us to stop with the constant bashing of the concept of a free market by using the current status of the United States market as an example of its failings. While I will freely admit that the US market is one of the more free markets in the world (#5 according to the study shared the other day), to claim that this is a free market is naive at best and reprehensibly dishonest at worst. The reality is that the inequity in America, the faults of the American markets, and the examples thrown up as “proof” of free-market failure all have a single thing in common…

Capitalism v Communism

In having some discussions with people over the last few days it has blossomed in my mind the idea that many of those who so vehemently lambast capitalism have no understanding what capitalism actually is. As a result they attack and attack using examples and historical incidents as justification for ending capitalism when those examples are no such justification. So I feel like I have to write this article to clarify that point, to help those who are floundering with those conversations gain some understanding of what my belief is in capitalism. Further it will help those who attack it understand why I refuse to accept the idea that some form of communism/socialism/fascism because it is not only immoral, but is also far worse for any people who aspire to live free.

New Era of Financial Responsibility: Day Two

I am going to be trying this particular tactic out for a couple of weeks and see how it works out. As it typically has worked out these days, I write my article, fully hoping to engage in discussion, only to go to work the next day and not be able to discuss the topic that I wrote about! For example the only comment I got in today was a response to Charlie during my lunch break. So what I am going to do is take two days for the discussion from Monday morning. As it stands I have been posting an article Monday morning around 2:00am and then allowing discussion for two days and doing open mic Wednesday morning. Rather than post no article on Monday night / Tuesday morning, I am going to write a follow up that answers some of the comments from the discussion of that day. Since the Monday morning article is usually the “heavy” one for the week, it will help to ensure that I continue to follow up on my thoughts and engage those of you that take the time to comment on my articles. Plus I can take a bit more time and answer a thought or two more thoroughly. I will start tonight with the idea of de-regulation.

A New Era of Financial Responsibility

Whew… A long week for me last week. Traveling, working, and spending time with my son. It left me little time to pursue my passion of writing here at SUFA. But now I am back to work on the site for a couple weeks until I have to travel again for two weeks. Tonight I want to talk about something that I have been wanting to talk about all week. I want to tread into the realm of financial reform and financial responsibility as put forth by our federal government. This article is going to address some things, mostly done by the Obama administration, but really simply pertains to our federal government in general. To be honest, the words fiscal and responsibility should not even be allowed to be used in the same sentence with federal government, unless it is done to point out a lack of it. The sheer magnitude of fiscal ineptitude displayed by the federal government is staggering, and it has now pushed us both to the edge of financial disaster and to the brink of full government control over the private industry in the United States. This is both infuriating and scary as hell. And I have to say that I have taken one step closer to believing a rebellion is the only answer.

Much Criticism… But Is There a Solution?

I was reading yet another article this evening on the Chairman of the Federal Reserve and his ranting about increasing regulations in order to limit the ability of speculators to create a bubble that can throw the economy into crisis. As many of you can guess, I am almost never in favor of increasing regulations on anything. I think the government uses the words regulation to mean control, and not in a good way. And hearing the FED Chairman talk about it, as if the FED had nothing to do with the housing troubles we saw, was nothing more than another level of the blame game in my opinion. As I have often stated here, I am a smart guy, but I am not an economist. I understand economics, and my common sense fills in for those big words. But there are those who understand it better than I do on this site, so I hope they will offer their thoughts as well. The big question that I have at this point is whether there is a good solution to the problems we see in the economy?

Spend, Tax, Cut, Save, or Give Up?

I was thinking yesterday about the statement made to me that I needed to understand Keynes and his macro-economic model in order to understand why spending is what the government must do in order to get us out of trouble. I have always whole-heartedly disagreed with that statement. As I often have acknowledged, I am not an economic guru, but I think I am a pretty smart fellar. I am well educated (as far as formal schooling) and well read (my friends all say I spend too much time with my head in a book). I try to take a realistic look at the situation and see where it makes the most sense to make a move. Now, our invited guest, who yesterday for some reason did not come and reply back to what I had written, obviously thinks this makes me dumb. But I think on a “macro” level, we might all benefit from having this conversation. I am not going to research out the wazoo for this, I am going to simply say what is on my mind, and let everyone have at it.

Health Care Part 3: The President’s “Plan”… Taking Things Too Far

As the next section of the health care series I wanted to take a moment and touch one of the the three promises that President Obama made during his joint session of Congress “Infomercial” the other week. I remember watching the speech, and thinking to myself that the man really is such a gifted speaker. If only he had something worth saying, these speeches wouldn’t be a complete waste of my time. But, alas, he often doesn’t have anything to say, but he sure does say nothing far more eloquently than the other politicians out there do (although it was fun watching him get punk’d by George Stephanopolous on the Sunday morning infomercial circuit today). What struck me the most about that speech to Congress was the reaction the next day from many of my liberal friends to a few key things that the President offered as cornerstones to the “plan”. Because I don’t see them as valid positions to take, at least not in a free society.

Tuesday Night Open Mic for July 28, 2009

Well, I enter the regular Tuesday Night Open Mic weathered and worn. A teenage son that actually wants to hang out with and do things with his dad is a beautiful, albeit tiring endeavor. Add to that work and a blog, and I sometimes feel I am burning the candle at both ends! Add to that more character attacks to defend against, and I am downright worn out. But it’s all good, folks, that’s what I signed up for when I began writing this blog many months ago (Hard to believe I have been at this for 9 months already). Lots of stuff going on out there. I am finding that I tend to tackle things in the open mic that I don’t want to dedicate an entire article on. It is like Open Mic allows for the distracting stuff, so that we don’t let it get in the way of the important stuff the rest of the week. And that is a nice freedom to have during at least one night of the week. So without delay, I offer my Open Mic Topics and look forward to yours!

Let’s Just Clear A Few Things Up Shall We…

You know, I found myself arguing back and forth with Ray and Todd yesterday, trying to make my point. At some point I crossed a threshold and realized that I was writing another damn article just to make my point. That isn’t to knock those two. I love to be challenged. They were doing exactly what I want people to do. But there seems to be some sort of misunderstanding about where I stand on the issues and where I lean politically. More important, there seems to be some misconceptions about this site in particular and what I created it to do and what I hope it will become. So let’s just take some time to address those particular questions, shall we?

Class Warfare.. A Liberal Chess Game

Chris brought up some issues about fairness in one of his recent comments and it got me thinking. He stated that he absolutely promotes class warfare, because it is warranted. We are rapidly approaching a breaking point in this country that has been driven by the politicians in Washington. They have promoted class warfare as a tactic to gain power. And they are furthering that tactic as a means to intrude further and further into private industry and take away the rights of American citizens. They do it by making people think that life isn’t fair, and government is going to even things up for you. Well, I will not be fooled by yet more government claims of their willingness to help Americans. I didn’t buy it from the Republicans when they ran things, and I certainly refuse to buy it from the Democrats now.

So What is All This Tea Party Hoo-Ha?

Being the informed readers that you are, you have already heard about the planned tax day tea parties that are being planned across the country. Over the last week or two I have seen several comments about them. Some feel that they are a good idea. Some feel they are a bad idea. Some feel that while a good idea, they will not be all that effective. In reading it all I came to the conclusion that many people simply don’t know enough about what is happening to be able to either support or oppose them. So I figured that maybe it was time to bring in an expert who would be able to answer the questions, both yours and mine. Fortunately for all of us, we have a subject matter expert on the subject right here in our readership….

Because We Cannot Let Maureen Dowd Suffer

I think you all know what I think of the Main Stream Media. All of them are biased. Most, but not all, of them are biased to the left. I chuckle at the sheer stupidity of anyone who attempts to make the claim that this isn’t true. They point to Fox News, but in reality Fox does pretty unbiased news during the day and freely admits that they turn the station over to conservative hosts at night. But it is far too easy to point out MSNBC, CNN, NBC, CBS, The New York Times, Chicago Tribune, LA Times, Keith Olberman, Katie Couric, and the wonderful Mrs. Dowd…. you get the point. The fact is that the news simply is not the news any more.

Further Assaults on the Free Market

I have to make that statement about “further assaults on the free market” with a bit of a grin on my face. Because there is nothing free about the market anymore. Government has gotten its corrupt little hands into just about every facet of the free market and regulated and taxed and controlled it to death. But as we sit here watching the demise of the business world as we know it, I still find myself stunned at some of the moves. I wasn’t surprised when Team O’prompter used every miniscule misstep in the private industries to seize control and get government’s foot in the proverbial door. After all, that is what they do…. lie and get the American people fired up against a business and tell you that you need them to control this out of control company or industry….

Failed Republican Economic Plans…

I couldn’t help myself with this one. You know, we have listened to the the Democrats get on their soap box for the last 3 months and tell us how the Republicans and their flawed economic policies have been exposed, and the Democrats are “through with listening to their failed ideas”. As may of you know I am not a member of the Republican party, but I still didn’t like hearing it from the Democrats on this one, because I am a fiscal conservative. I believe that the economic policies of the GOP are far better than those of the Democratic party. Sure, neither of them would be nearly as good as the policies me and BF would implement, but given the choice of the two parties in power’s economic ideals, I will take the Republican plan every time. 

Guest Commentator… You Won’t Believe It

I have bumped this post back up a bit so that some of the new readers that join can partake in what BF added to the economic discussion. This article was originally posted on February 8. OK, I am going to take a bit of a risk here. As the hundreds of you who have followed this blog for the last couple of months are well aware, there have been some rather uncomfortable comment exchanges between myself and one of the more frequent commenters on Stand Up For America. We often disagree on well… just about everything. I have generally simply quit debating him. I have tried to be clear that it isn’t personal. I simply won’t debate when it devolves into lack of respect or any type of circular argument that doesn’t give me the courtesy of benefit of the doubt on my morals or principles. However….

Good… Now Both Parties Have Lied to Us Equally

I was perusing the news again tonight as I often do when I a) don’t know what I want to write about or b) Have some subjects in mind but don’t have the time to fully research those and write them so I have to find something with a little less research. Tonight was B. I have lots to say but not tons of time to research tonight and I wanted to point out this little piece of heaven. I felt it was a lie when John McCain said it back in September. So the Republicans were lying to me then. Now, after mocking Republicans for it on the campaign trail, the Democrats are now telling me the same lie because it fits their current agenda. The point is… I think they are both lying rather than Democrats finally admitting Republicans were correct.

Nancy Pelosi… Embracer of Republican Ideals

I was going to take the night off tonight as I was working on schoolwork and trying to find a way to bed at a decent hour. But I was looking at some news sites and ran across this article and I was so stunned by the headline that I couldn’t stop laughing. Imagine my surprise when I saw a headline that read “Nancy Pelosi denies she is Partisan”. WHAT!?!?!? The queen of the liberal movement is trying to claim that she is not biased? I started to scan the room, looking for the hidden camera. Then I looked for the headline that would read “Black Flag embraces government and their new tax increases”. Surely that had to be there if this ridiculousness was there about Pelosi. Had I stumbled into some alternate reality? Was Bizarro-Nancy now on the loose?

Taxes Part 2… How Do We Fix It?

In part one about taxes I took the time to discuss my views on taxes; Which ones were constitutional in my view and which ones were not. And I am writing this one simultaneously. What is right and what needs to be the way forward are two different discussions in my opinion. So I wanted to keep them separate from one another. That thread for discussion of what taxes are constitutional and this one for what might be a better way to incorporate taxes in the government as I would attempt to run it today. So here goes…

My View on Taxes… Part 1

I hate taxes. I think we can all agree with that statement. I don’t go as far as calling all taxes theft. But that doesn’t mean that I am OK with all of the taxes that we pay. Black Flag and I had  this mini discussion a month or two ago and I said then I would write about taxes when I had a chance to clarify where I stand on them. And it is a harder piece to write than I would have figured, only because I had to really think about a lot of them and consider whether they are fair or not, whether they contribute to the greater good or not. But since I write about politics, I do feel this is an important thing to ferret out.

Personal Responsibility… The Lost Virtue, Part I

OK, let’s just be honest with what we are going to do here in this post. I am going to begin the post by framing this in a political way that literally makes fun of the economic stimulus bill. But them I am going to turn and cross over at some point to the lambasting of something that is a personal pet peeve of mine. As many of you know I am a big fan of personal responsibility.

Using Fear to Get Government’s Way

So how many of you read that headline and said, so he is going to write about Bush and his use of terrorism as a fear mechanism to take our rights away? Well he did, but there is no point in writing about him now. Instead we are going to talk about how Barrack Obama and his party are doing the same. Using your fear around the economy to get you to buy in to the economic stimulus plan. This is a sham and should have Americans rioting in the streets. Unfortunately too many of you will be hearing this for the first time. Shame on you… now pay attention class. This will be a long lecture….

Libertarian Party Act IX

Well we are finally out of the holiday season for me. And that means we can get back to business. The next to last section of the Libertarian Platform. We have certainly covered a lot in all of the first 8 acts, and we now near the finish line. But we aren’t done yet. There are some inportant areas still to be covered and analyzed. I look forward to your thoughts on these three areas…

Let’s Discuss a Free Market

As we have worked our way through the Libertarian platform and subsequent topics that involve government, we have discussed many different areas where there are disagreements about whether government should be involved, and if so, at what level. One of the most interesting to me and the most relevant to today’s current events is the idea of a free market. So I figured that it would be a good time for us to talk about how it can work, or how it cannot, depending on your position.

Dissecting the Libertarian Party… Act II

So Today we move on to the second half of the Statement of Principle from the Libertarian Party platform. I got some good feedback on the first half and some spirited conversation around it. So now let’s look at the second half before we start moving on to specific issues on the platform…