Decline Of Free Speech

Posted on October 14, 2012 by alsanblog

If anyone is looking to be depressed, check out Jonathan Turley’s recent article on freedom of speech, the first line of which is: Free speech is dying in the Western world. Most of his examples come from Europe and Canada, but even courts in the U.S. are siding with those who use or threaten violence (who tend to be Muslims) to silence critics or opponents whose speech is deemed offensive in some way.

It’s further depressing that the Obama administration supported a resolution in the UN Human Rights Council that calls on states to criminalize “incitement to imminent violence based on religion or belief.” As a practical matter, pressure will be on states to accomplish this by restricting speech, although Secretary of State Hillary Clinton pretends that free speech will also be protected. As Turley points out, it isn’t clear how that will work “if the yardstick is how people react to speech.”

That Obama and Clinton are the top two leaders of the Democratic Party does not bode well for the future of free speech in this country. Of course, liberals are not acting on principle here which means restrictions on free speech will be riddled with hypocrisy. For example, as liberals restrict speech, they are unlikely to restrict offensive speech as long as it is directed toward Christians or other groups that liberals don’t like.

So even if liberals impose restrictions on the rest of us, they will continue to defend and even enjoy the bigotry of so-called works of art such as “Piss Christ” or “The Holy Virgin Mary,” and no one need worry that blasphemous Broadway musicals such as the “Book of Mormon” will be outlawed. After all, Hillary Clinton attended a performance of the latter and no one would want to interfere with her social life.

Posted in Politics | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Break Up The Big Banks

Posted on October 14, 2012 by alsanblog

There may be some hope for the economy after all, but only if Romney wins the election and takes George Will’s advice to break up the big banks. The top ten banks now account for 61% of the commercial banking assets in the U.S., up from 26% twenty years ago, and half the assets in the banking industry are concentrated in the hands of only five banks. Reversing the trend toward increasing public and private centralization of the economy will not be easy. Breaking up the biggest banks would be a great start – a genuine move forward quite unlike the reactionary (and illusory) “Forward” of Obama’s liberalism.

Romney just stopped short of calling for the breakup of the big banks in the first debate, so he doesn’t have to move far to get to an explicit endorsement. As Will points out, voters would be grateful for the infusion of a “fresh thought” into the campaign, so hopefully Romney will make that endorsement before it’s too late. And if Romney wins and breaks up the banks, perhaps his administration could then turn to enforcing the antitrust laws in the healthcare industry. Add tax reform and medicare reform to the list of achievements of a Romney administration, and the economy would indeed take off.

Posted in Economy, Politics | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Attacking Paul Ryan

Posted on October 13, 2012 by alsanblog

So now liberals have decided that one way to attack Paul Ryan is to paint him not only as a hypocrite on deficits, but one who is managing to get away with it. For example, Ezra Klein of the Washington Post claims that Ryan’s record on the deficit “was, in the Bush years, as bad as anyone’s in politics.” Yet according to Klein, this hasn’t stopped Ryan from “building a reputation as a deficit hawk in the Obama years.” Klein doesn’t think it unusual that politicians might change their policies over time, but seems to think Ryan’s evolution from deficit nihilist to deficit hawk has occurred too quickly. Hence the implication of hypocrisy.

Klein, however, conveniently forgets to point out that the economic environment is vastly different today than it was during the Bush years (no doubt a completely inadvertent omission). Since Obama took office in 2009, we’ve seen deficits quickly explode to the point where they are multiples of anything seen (or even imagined) during the Bush administration. Not only has Obama blown up the budget, he has failed to offer a plan to solve the problem. Under such changed conditions, neither Ryan nor any other rational person could hardly avoid adjusting their views on the deficit and government spending. It’s a different game now than it was before.

For Klein to attack Ryan for hypocrisy on the deficit as he does would be equivalent to calling someone a hypocrite because he likes apples, but not oranges – another example of non sequitur reasoning from liberals. Just once, though, it would be nice to see Klein write a column in which he actually includes all of the facts and avoids twisting them. That is seemingly beyond his capabilities.

Posted in Economy, Politics | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Liberals Unhinged

Posted on October 11, 2012 by alsanblog

Chris Matthews leads the spittle flying liberals (at least among the MSM crowd) as they attack Republicans for being racists and conducting a racist campaign. But now Matthews is facing competition from Slate’s Ron Rosenbaum who is establishing himself as the “journalist” version of Matthews. No doubt the spittle still flies, but in Rosenbaum’s case, it sprays his computer screen rather than a television camera. In particular, Rosenbaum embarrasses himself in a Bizarro world type of article, in which he brands Romney and the Republican party as “neo-racists,” even associating them with Nazis.

Rosenbaum asserts that the Republican party is a viable entity only because of Southern racism, is “cravenly unashamed to base its existence on the backs of slaveholder states,” and is not a “morally legitimate” entity. Moreover, he demands that journalists start “telling the truth about the GOP,” because otherwise they will be complicit in the Republican charade. Rosenbaum insists that his conclusion about the Republican party is a “fact” and “really, just about everybody knows this.” Indeed, his certainty is disturbingly similar to the certainty exhibited by Taliban misogynists in Pakistan.

SIDEBAR:  Rosenbaum claims that Romney’s campaign ad that accused Obama of gutting welfare work requirements is false. But knowledgeable liberals, such as Mickey Kaus, understand that Obama’s action indeed has gutted the work requirement, so the ad is correct. Rosenbaum’s refusal to admit that the ad is accurate serves as a “canary in the coal mine,” giving us an early warning that Rosenbaum is perhaps not playing with a full deck.

According to Rosenbaum and other liberals, racism today is no longer openly practiced, but is secret. Republicans blow something that liberals call “dog whistles,” which only racists are able to hear and understand. Liking the sound of the dog whistles, racists then vote for Republicans. It’s hard to understand, however, why racists would vote for a party because of racism if the party in question does not follow racist policies in the first place. If the policies aren’t racist, then the party cannot be racist, no matter who votes for it, and liberals who insist otherwise are not thinking coherently.

Rosenbaum presents several specific pieces of evidence that the Republican party is racist. First, he seems to believe that accusing Obama of “gutting welfare” (which Obama in fact is doing) is racist because many welfare recipients are black. Second, he seems upset that Republicans who support displays of the Confederate flag tend to win elections more often than opponents who vacillate on the issue. In addition to these rather paltry examples, Rosenbaum also refers in his article to some “recent research.”

But anyone who scans the research and considers Rosenbaum’s “evidence” will begin to see what the liberals are all about:  If you believe that the condition of black people who live in poverty today is not the result of discrimination, but may have other causes, then liberals will label you a racist. In another example, if you agree that it may be time to end racial preferences in education and hiring, then liberals again will label you a racist. Yet whether or not such beliefs are racist is precisely the question, so liberals are simply assuming what they purport to prove.

But, congrats to Rosenbaum, he’s well on his way to becoming the liberals’ new spittle king.

Posted in Politics | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Liberals’ Non Sequitur Reasoning

Posted on October 8, 2012 by alsanblog

Steven Pearlstein fires off another shot in the liberals’ war on decentralization and freedom. Evidently, the “services” sector of the economy does not develop as efficiently as the manufacturing sector, which may lead to relatively higher prices for services. Although he initially makes a big deal about this, Pearlstein ultimately admits that we shouldn’t be concerned because this is how the economy works. Yet in a remarkable display of non sequitur reasoning, Pearlstein has thought to use the relative inefficiencyof services to push for more government spending and control over the economy.

Here is Pearlstein’s argument:  the services sector progresses less efficiently than other sectors, prices tend to be relatively higher in the services sector, and the services sector includes healthcare and education, therefore government spending “must grow as a percentage of the economy.” Huh? This conclusion doesn’t follow from the premises. It would work only if society had already determined that government must provide or finance services such as healthcare and education. Whether or not we should continue down that road is precisely the question, especially with respect to healthcare.

As a factual matter, government plays a major role in healthcare and education, but you wouldn’t know that from Pearlstein’s discussion. Nowhere in his column does he even wonder whether the government’s involvement in healthcare and education (i.e., throwing money at everyone) might be the cause of the relative price increases. This failure pretty much proves that Pearlstein is not serious in his thinking on the subject.

Pearlstein’s lack of seriousness doesn’t stop him from claiming that Republicans who want to hold government spending to some “historical average” as a percentage of the economy ignore the reality of economics. In fact, Republicans are only ignoring his non sequitur reasoning and failure to consider the role of government in these things. Pearlstein’s column is very misleading, but hopefully this is not intentional. After Obama’s recent debate performance, however, liberals may be more desperate than ever.

Posted in Economy, Politics | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Facts Don’t Matter

Posted on October 7, 2012 by alsanblog

The editorial board of the Washington Post is very impressed with last Friday’s jobs report. According to the editors, the economy is “on the move” and Obama has “reason to crow” (as no doubt do the editors). The unemployment rate in September dropped 0.3 percentage points, from 8.1% to 7.8%. As one of the Post’s own writers has pointed out, however, the unemployment rate dropped “dramatically” although the economy only added a “modest” 114,000 jobs during the month (which is based on a survey of business).

The 114,000 number is interesting because the unemployment rate is determined not by the business survey, but by a survey of households, and that survey showed an increase of 873,000 jobs for the month. This contradiction is significant and raises legitimate questions about the actual unemployment rate, yet no mention of it is made as the Post praises Obama. By the way, the increase reported by households also just happens to represent the largest monthly increase since 1983, and amazingly enough, it came just in time for the election.

So, we see that facts are irrelevant to the Post’s editors. They ignore a major discrepancy in the unemployment numbers, swoon over the 7.8% figure, and repeat a worn out recitation of Obama’s “achievements” with the economy:  the auto bailout, financial-sector rescue, and the stimulus. And of course, without any evidence at all, the editors proclaim that “unemployment probably would have been worse” in the absence of Obama’s brilliance. The idea that Obama’s ideology might have inhibited private activity to the point of offsetting Obama’s actions doesn’t occur to them. Rather, private sector risk aversion is due to the fiscal cliff created by Washington gridlock (i.e., due to the Republicans).

The Post’s editorial is another example of how, after sacralizing Big Government, liberals have no room for either facts (even the facts presented by their own reporters) or reason, and have no misgivings about misleading the public. All that counts for these guys is their ever enduring faith in Big Government.

Posted in Economy, Politics | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

More Liberal Thinking

Posted on October 6, 2012 by alsanblog

We can always count on Ezra Klein, one of the Obama propagandists at the Washington Post, to give us great insights into the liberal mind whenever he writes (and not in a good way). In a recent column he argues that there are no huge philosophical differences between Obama and Romney. According to Klein, the differences between the two candidates are simply technocratic in nature, which is to say that the differences are differences in degree only, not kind.

Obviously, Klein wants to downplay the choice voters face in this election because he no doubt believes such a strategy will help Obama get reelected, which would then clear the way for America’s continued movement toward the centralized, authoritarian “vision” of liberals today. But is Klein serious when he claims that the difference between Obama and Romney on healthcare is a “technocratic disagreement” over whether you get better results through federal or state policies? He is either clueless, which I doubt, or he is intentionally misleading readers.

The difference between regulating anything on a federal or state level is not merely a  technocratic disagreement, but goes to the very heart of how a society chooses to organize itself.  Everybody prefers a society that is prosperous for as many people as possible. To get there, we can either adopt a more centralized approach (which in many respects is where America is now), or we can choose an approach where economic and political power are decentralized. Because decentralization and the freedom that accompanies it work best, we generally should prefer markets and competition over central planning, and state control over federal control (although federal control is necessary in certain, dare I say, enumerated instances).

Most people go to hospitals and physicians that are located close to where they live, so healthcare is a local activity. Even if society chooses not to do healthcare through markets and competition, anyone can see that controlling healthcare on the state level would be the next best choice. Operating on the state level would be, let’s see, oh yeah, examples of “self-government” and “self-determination.” For those who, like Klein, have forgotten the concept, this would be where citizens in each state get to decide on their own how to provide a local activity.

Freedom would allow states to experiment in order to find what works best for them. And if citizens in any one state didn’t care for the approach taken in their state, they could “vote with their feet” and move somewhere else. Such freedom would not exist on the federal level, and the philosophical difference between state and federal policies is not a matter of degree. Liberals like Klein worship Big Government and are beyond understanding freedom, but hopefully there will be enough voters on November 6 who do understand.

Posted in Economy, Healthcare, Politics | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Healthcare Efficiencies

Posted on October 2, 2012 by alsanblog

According to Matthew Yglesias, Slate magazine’s central planning enthusiast, healthcare accounts for a large and increasing share of the overall labor force. He seems to suggest that increased efficiency in the healthcare sector (which he evidently expects as a result of the impending government takeover) could generate problems, because the displaced healthcare workers would have nowhere to go.

Does Yglesias actually believe that government control over healthcare will increase efficiency? If so, then I have some land in Florida that I’d like to sell him. In any event, Yglesias’ puzzlement of where the healthcare workers would go illustrates liberals’ lack of imagination. Not lack of imagination in thinking about where the workers would go so much as lack of imagination about how society works.

The economist, Friedrich Hayek, pointed out that “it is because freedom means the renunciation of direct control of individual efforts that a free society can make use of so much more knowledge than the mind of the wisest ruler could comprehend.” Because Yglesias’s one limited mind doesn’t see where healthcare workers would go, he’s decided that efficiency is no longer important.

Yglesias’ conclusion is a nice illustration of the mind of the central planner as well as the limitations of central planning, and further demonstrates his ignorance of why freedom is important to a society. If Yglesias could only understand Hayek’s point, his mind would no doubt be eased over the efficiency question. But we probably shouldn’t hold our breath waiting for him to come around.

Note: Some people seem to think that health systems in European countries show that centrally planned healthcare is efficient. But this confuses efficiency with overall costs. Any two-bit authoritarian government can control overall costs without efficiencies:  impose price controls, restrict access (e.g., make patients wait two years for the hip surgery), and you’re done. Of course, what you’ll have after this is inferior service and a stagnant society.

Posted in Economy, Healthcare, Politics | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

The Central Planners Are Coming

Posted on September 27, 2012 by alsanblog

Most people use hospitals and see doctors that are located within a few miles of their homes. That is, healthcare is a decidedly local activity. So why are liberals continuing to force a centrally planned system on 315 million Americans spread across fifty states covering 3.7 million square miles? Market economies perform better than those that are centrally planned, but instead of possibly calling for market reform, liberals cling to weak arguments for a central government takeover of healthcare. Arguments which, if not rejected by Americans, will surely lead to stagnation and decline for almost 20% of the economy.

In many instances, liberals’ arguments are not arguments so much as evasions and distortions of the healthcare debate. We see this in a recent Wall Street Journal piece written by a trio of central planners. Responding to conservatives who claim that we face a choice between government control and individual choice, the central planners argue that the “real choice” is between encouraging providers to be more efficient and innovative or paying higher prices for healthcare. But this is not a choice, it is just another way of stating a preference for lower prices, which is everyone’s preference. It hardly tells us how to achieve the efficiencies that would bring about the lower prices.

Claiming there is no evidence that competition would contain costs, the central planners offer big government as the answer. In fact there is plenty of evidence showing that markets generate efficiencies and contain costs better than centrally planned economies. We only need remember the failed societies of last century that tried the top down, centralized approach (evidently liberals have forgotten a thing called the “Soviet Union”). Not to mention we have more than 200 years of economic theory and analysis explaining why markets beat central planning.

It is true that healthcare markets in some instances may not be as competitive as they could be. The government controls a large segment of the market in the form of Medicare and Medicaid, and in the private sector, there are too many geographic markets controlled by dominant providers or insurance companies to the extent that competition beneficial to consumers is restricted. Rather than justify a government takeover of healthcare, such facts justify a renewed commitment to markets, including more enforcement of the antitrust laws.

The central planners also tell us that Medicare’s costs have increased less than the costs of private insurance over the last decade, which apparently supports their love of big government. But this comparison is flawed and meaningless because government controls Medicare prices and providers simply shift their costs to private insurers in response to government action on prices. No matter, the central planners still love big government and promise even better results through their plans to reform Medicare and healthcare.

The ObamaCare plan calls for hospitals and physicians to “coordinate” their care of patients. Instead of fee-for-service, providers will receive a fixed amount for each patient and the idea is that providers then will craft the right care for their patients (at lower cost). People might recognize this as the “managed care” model from the 1990s that liberals deplored, but managed care evidently is back in favor, at least as long as authoritarians are in charge. In an Orwellian example of doublethink, at the same time the central planners validate managed care, they also demonize a market approach as one that will “return us back to the managed care days of the 1990s.” Huh?

Because the government will control all healthcare, it is unlikely that the “reforms” envisioned by the central planners will generate any cost savings. And even if they did, the savings would not be passed along to consumers in the absence of competition. The natural inclination for the central planners at that point will be to impose price controls and restrict access. And that would give us stagnation, eventual decline, and who knows what else. After all, our present employer-based system, disliked by many, is a result of employers getting around wage controls imposed by government during the Second World War.

As the central planners reject competition and outline the new managed care vision, they show their ignorance of markets and competition. They claim that Romney’s approach (i.e., competition among insurers) “fragments Medicare, placing millions of people into a variety of insurance plans.” According to them, “no single insurer would have sufficient market share to catalyze changes in the way health care is paid for and delivered.” This is more nonsense, as large market share is not required for firms in competitive markets to introduce efficiencies and innovations. “Fragmentation” is just another way of saying decentralization of power and that is a good thing.

The economist Friedrich Hayek observed: “All political theories assume, of course, that most individuals are very ignorant. Those who plead for liberty differ from the rest in that they include among the ignorant themselves as well as the wisest.” The central planners writing in the WSJ don’t include themselves among the ignorant, and the power they would wield in the coming economy combined with such arrogance is very scary. Rather than subjecting almost 20% of the U.S. economy to the authoritarians, it’s time to emphasize markets and competition and undertake the reforms necessary to make competition work.

Posted in Economy, Healthcare, Politics | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Cycling And Democracy

Posted on September 24, 2012 by alsanblog

This Slate article is an example of arrogance and self-absorption that I suspect belongs to a liberal. It also illustrates the liberals’ tactic of labeling as crazy anyone with whom they disagree. The tactic is especially odd in this instance because, more than once, the writer essentially boasts about being a jerk or an a**hole. On the basis of such boasting, one might conclude that it is the writer who perhaps has one or more psychological issues.

Anyway, the most likely reason that motorists aren’t cheering at the sight of cyclists is that there isn’t enough room on the roads for both groups. We’re not exactly living in Saigon in the 1940s. The roads have become crowded to the point where cyclists are on the verge of shutting down entire lanes of traffic. The result is greater congestion:  people spending more time in cars and wasting more gas, which is another way of saying that cyclists (a sliver of a fraction of the population) in many cities are lowering the quality of life for the vast majority (i.e., over 99%).

How is this possible? Why are those who govern crowded municipalities promoting cycling? It doesn’t help the environment because the number of people turning to cycling is too small to make a difference (not to mention the gas that the additional congestion wastes). And it obviously can’t be due to health reasons because people who are likely to take up cycling are those who are already physically fit.

City managers and bureaucrats (mostly liberal) undoubtedly sympathize with the OWS crowd and join in the mockery of the so-called 1%. But they trip over themselves rushing to provide special treatment to the commuting version of the 1%. The liberals’ push for even more cycling on the crowded streets has to be one of the most anti-democratic and incoherent policies devised by them.

Posted in People, Politics | Tagged , , | Leave a comment