Some links to start your week with, ObamaCare still looming as topic one:
LinkSwarm for November 18, 2013
November 18th, 2013Meet the New Obama Navigators: Same As the Old ACORN
November 15th, 2013James O’Keefe is exposing the “ObamaCare Navigators” the same way he exposed ACORN. Indeed, I strongly suspect they;’re the same people.
And both those videos were filmed in Texas.
Once again, both the Obama Administration and the Democratic Party seem remarkably comfortable aiding and abetting the willful defrauding of the American taxpayer. Just as they were for the Pigford scandal:
It’s obvious that more than just ObamaCare needs to be repealed…
Another Roundup of the ObamaCare Festival of Fail
November 14th, 2013I keep trying to cover other things, and ObamaCare keeps being such a wondrous disaster for Democrats (and the nation) that I keep getting more than enough links of interest to keep throwingthem up here.
"I wonder if he has the legal authority to do this." — Howard Dean, in response to POTUS just now on MSNBC
— Kathryn Jean Lopez (@kathrynlopez) November 14, 2013
When you’ve lost Howard Dean…
Obama’s promise that if you liked your health care, you could keep it “was willfully, knowingly false.”
Dear Undergraduates: Communism Doesn’t Work In the Real World
November 13th, 2013Because our great nation is constantly producing new crops of naive undergraduates, it occurs to me that it might be time to explicate what is painfully obvious to even the most casual observers outside the self-delusional circles of college bull sessions, academic Marxists and Occupy Wall Street. Namely:
The theory of communism goes something like this:
Communism + Imagination of True Believer = Magical Working Utopia
You know what tiny piece of evidence refutes this theory? It’s called “The 20th Century.”
The actual practice of communism works more like this:
Theory of Communism + Human Beings = Totalitarianism
Don’t place trust in human beings. Human beings are not reliable things.
When capitalism falls short of the platonic libertarian ideal, the result is Switzerland.
When communism falls short of the wondrous utopia existing in true believers’ heads, the result is Pol Pot’s Cambodia.
These two failure modes are not identical.
The persistent belief that communism can work is sort of like the “No True Scotsman” fallacy, only worse. At least you can find Scotsmen that actually fit the definition. The “No True Communism” fallacy substitutes an idealized successful communist state that only exists in people’s heads for dozens of catastrophic real-world examples.
No dictatorship of the proletariat is possible, because the heady violence of revolution always brings the strongest and most ruthless revolutionaries to the top of the new social order. And these are the precise individuals who entrench and extend their power by means of purging their potential rivals (see also: purge of the Mensheviks), suppression of dissenting opinions (see: Kronstadt rebellion) and establishment of a ruling elite nomenklatura with personal loyalty to the dictatorial leader.
(Hint: If you didn’t know the words Menshevik, Kronstadt rebellion and nomenklatura before you stumbled on this page, you shouldn’t be arguing about communism over the Internet. Actually, the last nine words of that preceding sentence probably apply universally as well…)
Thinking communism might work in the 21st century is like thinking that this time, spraying gasoline over it will finally put out that fire. If a surgical procedure is inevitably 100% fatal to the person being operated on, doctors stop performing it. And no, the magical cash free utopia some time in the distant past you have vague anecdotal evidence of doesn’t count.
You can no more separate communism from totalitarianism that you can separate your own shadow from your body. The two always go together.
Give it up.
Abbott Comes Out For Stronger Privacy Laws, Open Carry, Property Rights to Your Own DNA
November 12th, 2013Texas Attorney General and 2014 Gubernatorial candidate Greg Abbott unveiled a number of “We the People” policy initiatives last night at the Northeast Tarrant Tea Party geared toward strengthening the rights of individuals against the power of the state. I was on a teleconference with Abbott Sunday in which he previewed the policies to bloggers with the caveat we’d wait until after the speech to talk about them.
The in-depth document is here.
Taken individually, some may seem like welcome, small-ball approaches to protecting individuals from various avenues of government overreach. Taken together, they constitute an interesting, possibly far-reaching template for guaranteeing individual rights, and give Abbott a serious claim to being not only a small government conservative, but one favoring individual rights over the convenience of big business as well.
The brief overview of Abbott’s proposals:
- Recognize a property right in one’s own DNA.
- Make state agencies, before selling database information, acquire the consent of any individual whose data is to be released.
- Prohibit data resale and anonymous purchasing by third parties.
- Prohibit the use of cross-referencing techniques to identify individuals whose data is used as a larger set of information in an online database.
- Require disclosure by all legislators, statewide elected officials, and gubernatorial appointees of any contract, subcontract, or paid relationship with a public entity, including the state and political subdivisions, held by those individuals or their spouses. Violation of this requirement would be a Class A Misdemeanor.
- Prohibit legislators from voting on legislation from which they may financially benefit by closing loopholes in the Texas Government Code, and providing options for both criminal and civil suit to ensure the enforcement of these provisions.
- Prohibit the use of tax dollars for the purpose of engaging a registered lobbyist to lobby on the behalf of a school district or the board or association thereof.
- Prohibit legislators and statewide elected officials who are licensed by the State Bar of Texas from earning referral fees or receiving any benefit from legal referral. Violation of this requirement would be a Class A Misdemeanor.
- Amend the Texas Election Code to require quarterly reporting of campaign financial data by legislators, statewide elected officials, and political action committees.
- Within the last 30 days before an election, impose a requirement that no funds received from a single person or entity above $5,000 may be expended by a campaign or political action committee until those funds have been reported to the Texas Ethics Commission and posted on the campaign or political action committee website.
- Allow voters in counties and municipalities the option to repeal red light camera ordinances and operations by voter-initiated referendum.
- Allow CHL holders to openly carry handguns.
- Allow CHL holders to carry weapons on campus at institutions of higher education, subject to appropriate limits, at the option of the boards of regents of public institutions of higher education, and the internal decision-making of private institutions of higher education.
- Texas should prohibit the state government from enacting a “healthcare exchange” under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA).
- Pass a state law providing that state resources shall not be expended and state personnel shall not be employed in enforcing or implementing the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.
No Republican is going to object to the anti-ObamaCare plank.
I predict that the red light camera plank will be profoundly popular across party lines.
The Open Carry plank is a bold Second Amendment statement on Abbott’s part, considering he’s not facing any serious primary opposition. It might also lure Wendy Davis into pumping up the volume on her opposition to gun control, which will no doubt endear her to no Texas outside he far left-wing base.
Abbott’s plank on property rights to your own DNA is the plank with the last immediate effect and possibly the most profound long-term consequences.
This is just a few preliminary impressions. I want to give the document another going-over and contemplate the implications.
Texas vs. California Roundup for November 11, 2013
November 11th, 2013Time for another roundup of Texas vs. California:
Ted Cruz’s Apperance on The Tonight Show
November 9th, 2013You can check out Ted Cruz’s performance on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno yourself:
Ted Cruz Will Appear on The Tonight Show Tonight
November 8th, 2013If you hadn’t heard, Ted Cruz will be chatting with Jay Leno tonight, November 8, 2013.
Obama’s promises were going to appear, but they all had to cancel at the last minute.
I wonder what the over/under is for Cruz guest-hosting Saturday Night Live.
LinkSwarm for November 8, 2013
November 8th, 2013Time for another LinkSwarm, still top-heavy with ObamaCare failure news:
*Real Fascist, not just in the liberal name-calling sense.