Category Archives: Private Property

Update V: Son Of Ron For Senate (Civil Wrongs?)

Constitution, Elections, libertarianism, Private Property, Race, Racism

Mitch McConnell, the Senate Republican leader, endorsed his slick opponent, Trey Grayson, but he won “the Republican nomination for Senate from Kentucky.” He is Rand Paul, son of Ron.

The win “followed the defeat of an incumbent Republican senator, Robert Bennett of Utah, by conservative forces in that state. And it came after the recent decision by Gov. Charlie Crist of Florida to drop out of the Republican primary for Senate in the face of a surge by a Tea Party favorite, Marco Rubio.”

Not wishing to delve into the issues, and say unseemly, hick words such as “Constitution,” the New York Times has chalked the defeat of the establishment candidate to “A strong anti-Washington sentiment.” Of course they would.

Update I (May 19): “March with Martin Luther King, vote with Barry Goldwater.” Rand Paul vacillates about his opposition to the federal regulation of private property wrought by the Civil Wrong’s Act. This is the strict propertarian/libertarain position, apparently “repulsive” to mainstream America, claim NPR and RM. It cannot be denied that Rand Paul comes across as sour.

Part I

Part II

Update II (May 20): SETTING THE RECORD STRAIGHT, somewhat weakly, I think. Backing away from First Principles…

In response to liberal media attacks, Dr. Rand Paul today released the following statement:

“I believe we should work to end all racism in American society and staunchly defend the inherent rights of every person. I have clearly stated in prior interviews that I abhor racial discrimination and would have worked to end segregation. Even though this matter was settled when I was 2, and no serious people are seeking to revisit it except to score cheap political points, I unequivocally state that I will not support any efforts to repeal the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

“Let me be clear: I support the Civil Rights Act because I overwhelmingly agree with the intent of the legislation, which was to stop discrimination in the public sphere and halt the abhorrent practice of segregation and Jim Crow laws.

“As I have said in previous statements, sections of the Civil Rights Act were debated on Constitutional grounds when the legislation was passed. Those issues have been settled by federal courts in the intervening years

“My opponent’s statement on MSNBC Wednesday that I favor repeal of the Civil Rights Act was irresponsible and knowingly false. I hope he will correct the record and retract his claims.”

“The issue of civil rights is one with a tortured history in this country. We have made great strides, but there is still work to be done to ensure the great promise of Liberty is granted to all Americans.

“This much is clear: The federal government has far overreached in its power grabs. Just look at the recent national healthcare schemes, which my opponent supports. The federal government, for the first time ever, is mandating that individuals purchase a product. The federal government is out of control, and those who love liberty and value individual and state’s rights must stand up to it.

“These attacks prove one thing for certain: the liberal establishment is desperate to keep leaders like me out of office, and we are sure to hear more wild, dishonest smears during this campaign.”

Update III: Civil Wrongs: When I allude to the Civil Rights Act, as I have every so often, it never occurs to me that for the reasoning advanced in these posts, I could be construed as a racist. Respectable scholars advance the same arguments: Richard A. Epstein, Forbidden Grounds: The Case Against Employment Discrimination Laws (Cambridge, Massachusetts & London, England, 1995), and Richard Pipes, Property and Freedom: The Story of How Through The Centuries Private Ownership has Promoted Liberty and the Rule of Law (New York, 2000).

I guess what I’m struck by is the incredulity and the indignation the cable cretins are expressing at Paul’s pretty standard, if hard-core, libertarian position. Dare I say that the founders held similar, if not identical, views about the sanctity of private property?

Update IV: Howard Fineman is one of the most detestable journos. Here’s how he turns Rand Paul’s principled defense of private property into something dark and dreadful. This does not take skill, but a wicked sleight of hand:

“…Some of that old-time, race-based attitude—a Kentucky mix of romantic benevolence and cruel disdain (immortalized in D. W. Griffith’s Birth of a Nation)—has seeped into the groundwater of the Tea Party. I attended one of its first rallies, in Louisville more than a year ago, and I saw on the ground some of the anti-busing elements of old there.

If Dr. Rand Paul doesn’t immediately apologize for holding his victory rally at a private club—and doesn’t abandon his opposition to the 1964 Civil Rights Act—then he will not only pollute the Tea Party, he will severely damage the GOP’s chances of winning control of either the House or Senate this fall.”

Update V (May 21): Writes Richard Spencer at AltRight (but what, for heaven’s sake, is HBD?):

As revealed by the above video, Rand is a proponent of a sunny-side up, left-libertarian version of American history.

Racial discrimination within public institutions should be stamped out; discrimination in the private sector, however, probably should not be, as this would entail a prying federal government and likely violations of multiple Constitutional amendments. But never fear! Racial discrimination isn’t just immoral, it’s bad business, and if the government just gets out of the way, all non-economic discrimination will come to an end on its own.

Through Rand certainly goes further than any other politician in criticizing Civil Rights, there’s a lot wrong with his view.

The argument that private businesses are more profitable when they serve everyone is often correct, particularly in a mass consumer society — though one shouldn’t forget that value is ultimately subjective. An entrepreneur might be able to charge higher prices, and receive more personal satisfaction, by operating a restaurant that caters only to whites (or Jews or Chinese or Indians), and he should have the right to do so.

Of course, instances of businesses refusing service are exceedingly rare….

Updated: Begging For Muslim Sensitivity

IMMIGRATION, Islam, Israel, Jihad, Multiculturalism, Private Property, Religion

THE LATEST IN THE ANNALS OF DHIMMITUDE. The American Society for Muslim Advancement (very literally) plans to erect a “Mega-Mosque” at Ground Zero. They say (taqiyya anyone?) that this is a peace offering—a center intended to foster Muslim tolerance and temperance.

I agree with the apoplectic activists: this amounts to lording it over the dhimmis-in-training. It is a triumphant act of supremacy, as the erection of minarets and the mosques has been throughout the annals of Islam. This is a bitch slap to the subjugated population.

However, as much as I approve of the activists (and I do not mean to be cynical), theirs is nothing more than frenetic cry-baby Brownian motion. There is no intellectual force, much less real force, behind a demand for sensitivity from those you believe to be worse than insensitive.

Such activism reminds me of the victim impact statement in our Courts. How humiliating and futile is it to plead for contrition and kindness from entities incapable of such sentiment.

When you’re reduced to asking a cunning conqueror to be nice; you’ve been bitch slapped good. Besides, ask yourself, “Why the distrust of fellow Muslims?” The Muslims in question say they are sincere in their endeavor; why doubt them?

Activists are acting out of emotion and have failed to examine what they’re really saying and, then, say it out loud.

Restricting acquisitive property rights in a free society should never be entertained. I’ll fight you if you try! But what other course of action are these emotion-driven protests hoping for? Again: what the activists are ludicrously requesting is kindness and consideration from those they regard as conquistadors—for they refuse to go straight to the heart of the matter and address the only legitimate, if incremental, course of action:

I hope I don’t have to spell it out for you. See:

“Beck, Wilders, and His Boosters’ Blind Spot”
“Jews Jeopardized By Muslim Immigration”
“Minarets No More”

And much more (use the search facility on this site, and on IlanaMercer.com, please).

Update (May 17): Myron’s interesting comment down here seems to imply that unless the Ground-Zero controversy passes the Israel-parallels test, it is deserving of no more than a dismissive shrug. Well, I’m an American commentator, first; making sure that every American dilemma passes the fairness-to-Israel test is not the mandate I’ve accepted or will ever pursue. I’ll leave that “yente,” “boba,” neocon kvetching to others (my “Holocaustism” comment applies here).

The Dome of the Rock and the Al-Aqsa Mosque examples Myron brings support the point of historical conquest, plonked as they were on Jewish sacred sites. But because Americans don’t know or care about them, Myron dismisses the concerns expressed by misguided, hysterical activists, to which “Begging For Muslim Sensitivity” gives voice (but slams).

Again: We disagree about the Israel Test.

Moreover, building the Mosque on the site of an Islamic victory against the West is symbolic—and a harbinger of things dhimmi to come. There is something nihilistic, atomistic, and effete in dismissing, even accepting, what I believe is a bitch slap from Islam’s messengers. It is the hallmark of the liberal, Western man. Muslims are too macho to dismiss insults and one-upmanship from “our side.”

I more than approve of Myron’s refusal to turn “the Towers into the Beit Hamikdash (Temple of Jerusalem).” It fits right in with my anti-hysteria, anti- 9/12 projects sentiments—these are designed to sustain the state of heightened emotional arousal that arose in the aftermath of 9/11.

And emotional arousal does nothing for clear thinking (although it helps in bed).

‘Strategic Defaulters’

Business, Debt, Economy, Ethics, Federal Reserve Bank, Law, Morality, Private Property

Defaulters or deadbeats? As I’ve explained, “You don’t have a property title in the perceived value of your property. Nobody does.” You do, however, have an obligation to honor a contract. These borrowers think otherwise and are proud of themselves for being thieves.

NPR’s Paul Solman tells the story of some homeowners who have stopped paying their mortgages even though they can still afford them: “‘Strategic Defaulters’ Skip Mortgage Payments as Home Values Tumble.”

Update II: Boycott The Republican Party (Buy Arizona)

Federalism, IMMIGRATION, Private Property, Republicans, States' Rights

When your city is buckling under the weight of mandated diversity—crime, illiteracy, crumbling and crowded schools, closing hospitals—what do you do? Launch a boycott against a state, Arizona, that is attempting to ward off the same fate.

“The Los Angeles City Council passed a resolution Wednesday that cuts some of its business ties to Arizona.”

Most repugnant is that the party that “needs not a bigger tent, but a giant tin-foil hat” HAS “unanimously recommended Tampa as the site of the 2012 Republican National Convention,” when Phoenix was a contender.

Slimer Steele, the attention seeking RNC Chairman, assured the WaPo it “was a business decision.”

That’s the extent to which the GOP is attuned to the passions and interests of its base.

Boycott the Republican Party.

Boycotts are the prerogative of private property owners; as their patronage, or lack thereof, affects only those within their economic sphere. LA City pols should go back to doing what they were hired to do: pick up trash, give permits for Gay Pride parades, etc.

The GOP ought to have quietly given a nod to its base and the plank they claim to support—law and order, the right to repel invaders, self-defense—and plonked their pampered behinds in Phoenix. I am sure there are plenty stripper clubs that meet Steele’s exacting standards in that city.

Update I: DICKING AROUND. Is Dick Morris for real? The guy makes Steele look like a man of integrity. His site: there is nothing worth reading there, except for numbers, stats and other probabilities which can be had at Gallop. But Republicans buy his books in the millions.

Update II (May 13): Back to LA-Council clowns. A city that is bankrupt boycotting a state that isn’t—how rich is that? And how well they are serving their constituents!?

If I haven’t yet issued this cri de coeur: Buy Arizona. And write in to tell us what products to look out for.