Category Archives: Regulation

Rand Paul: ‘If You Like Your Privacy You Can Keep It’ (NHAHAHAHAHAHA!)

Barack Obama, Constitution, Homeland Security, Regulation, Terrorism, The State

It is not about calibrating the NSA’s infractions on the right to privacy, it’s about keeping that right.

Sen. Rand Paul’s description (the line above is my own) of the gist of Obama’s tweaks to the National Security Agency’s surveillance program should be punctured by maniacal, loud laughter, the kind used by your vintage movie villain: “NHAHAHAHAHAHA!” In essence, intimated Sen. Paul, Obama is promising that, “If you like your privacy you can keep it.”

On the odd occasion that he’s good, Rand is very good. “It’s not about who holds it,” he continued, “I don’t want them collecting the information.”

That’s all there is to it.

Then Paul went and spoiled it all by saying something stupid like, “Obama’s heart really is in the right place,” and that his “motives are not bad.”

Full Text of Obama’s Speech on his plans for “Surveillance With A Smile.”

Surveillance With A Smile

Barack Obama, Homeland Security, Regulation, The State

Barack wants to win Boobus back with his trademark bedside manners. The president still thinks that a slushy speech is all it’ll take to get Boobus Americanus to submit again—and who can blame Obama? It’s worked so far.

We’re talking about the “National Security Agency’s bulk collection of telephone data from millions of people.”

“In August, media-enabled megalomaniac Obama told a rapt press corps that, in his magnanimity, he’d be prepared to ‘jiggle’ his surveillance apparatus here and there to better allay unnecessary fears (‘provide greater assurances,’ as the president put it).” Recent contradictory court rulings (detailed in “Quacking Over Ducksters As Freedoms Go POOF”) have sped things up. The Dictator will issue his NSA decree tomorrow, Friday.

Via the AP:

On Friday, Obama will unveil a much-anticipated blueprint on the future of those endeavors. His changes appear to be an implicit acknowledgement that the trust he thought Americans would have in the spy operations is shaky at best. His focus is expected to be on steps that increase oversight and transparency while largely leaving the framework of the programs in place.
The president is expected to back the creation of an independent public advocate on the secretive Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, which approves the bulk collections and currently only hears arguments from the government. And seeking to soothe international anger, Obama will extend some privacy protections to foreigners and increase oversight of the process used to decide on foreign leader monitoring.
In previewing Obama’s speech, White House spokesman Jay Carney said Thursday that the president believes the government can make surveillance activities “more transparent in order to give the public more confidence about the problems and the oversight of the programs.”

The offending party (BHO and his bandits) gets to nominate an advocate to advocate for the victim (the spied upon).

Sounds fair.

Can Freedom Lovers Chill In Chile?

America, Britain, Free Markets, GUNS, Private Property, Regulation, Taxation

After watching a property search on House Hunters International, I fell in love with Chile.

Life in certain parts of the country offers quite a few of the prerequisites on my list:

* A cold climate: I detest the heat; the brain functions optimally at 65 degrees.
* Beautiful landscapes.
* Very little crime (because of the country’s demographic make-up).
* Wonderful value (in this episode, home hunter “Michelle” purchased upwards of 20 acres of lake view in Panguipulli, for under US $200,000).
* Gun ownership. While it is not “a constitutional right, personal firearm ownership is permitted in Chile.”

Can Chilean property taxes be higher than in the Evergreen State, where, in order to keep up with the price of the miseducation of the effing kids by their unionized educrats, rates increase irrespective of property value? I doubt it. Considering how cheap property is in Chile, taxes on it are likely lower.

I have twice written positively about Chile: “A Vote For Chile’s President” (a column) and “Chile Is No Haiti” (a blog post).

As if to confirm my positive impression of the country, released today by the Heritage Foundation and The Wall Street Journal is “the 2014 Index of Economic Freedom.” Chile is said to “excel in Latin America.”

Overall, the country ranks number 7 with the US falling behind to number 12.

… The U.S. and the U.K, historically champions of free enterprise, have suffered the most pronounced declines. Both countries now fall in the “mostly free” category. … But as the U.S. economy languishes, many countries are leaping ahead, thanks to policies that enhance economic freedom—the same ones that made the U.S. economy the most powerful in the world. …
… Hong Kong continues to dominate the list, followed by Singapore, Australia, Switzerland, New Zealand and Canada. These are the only countries to earn the index’s “economically free” designation. Mauritius earned top honors among African countries and Chile excelled in Latin America. Despite the turmoil in the Middle East, several Gulf states, led by Bahrain, earned designation as “mostly free.”
… A realignment is under way in Europe, according to the index’s findings. Eighteen European nations, including Germany, Sweden, Georgia and Poland, have reached new highs in economic freedom. …

MORE.

On Health Care & ‘Homo Economicus,’ And The Spoils Of Entrapment & Political Predation

Economy, Government, Healthcare, Media, Politics, Propaganda, Regulation, Terrorism

Health Care & ‘Homo Economicus. Even the pro-Obama socialist youth of America act as “Homo Economicus”: they know they are young and healthy and unlikely to fall ill. Why should they partake in a scheme that financially punishes them for this natural advantage? Millennials want us to pay for them, not the reverse.

“Federal Health Care Enrollees: Older Outnumber Younger”:

.. more than 2 million people who have signed up for private [it’s not private: “A healthcare cauldron of Obama’s creation, government-run exchanges constitute a planned economy, not a market economy”] health insurance through the exchanges set up by the federal government. … Of those who signed up in the first three months, 55 percent are age 45 to 64, officials said. Only 24 percent of those choosing a health insurance plan are 18 to 34, a group that is usually healthier and needs fewer costly medical services. People 55 to 64 – just below the age at which people qualify for Medicare — represented the largest group, at 33 percent.”

Speaking of the Dah Factor, or of the news newsmen were not anticipating (but you were):

“Review Of Terrorism Cases Finds NSA Spying Helped Very Little”:

Surveillance programs run by the National Security Agency helped very little when it came to cases brought against individuals the United States says were linked to al-Qaida. …

A great deal of efforts of our spymaster “protectors” go into entrapment; concocting elaborate traps to ensnare potential “evil doers”; “setting swarthy simpletons up and then nabbing them in a so-called terrorism sting.”

More non-news:

“Majority In Congress Are Millionaires”: Of course, the reporter doesn’t tell us how the predatory political class has acquired wealth, for he doesn’t think that it’s important, nevertheless:

For the first time in history, more than half the members of Congress are millionaires, according to a new analysis of financial disclosure reports conducted by the non-partisan .
Of the 534 current members of the House and Senate, 268 had an average net worth of $1 million or more in 2012 – up from 257 members in 2011. The median net worth for members of the House and Senate was $1,008,767.

Rep. Darrell Issa notwithstanding—he made his fortune, if I am not mistaken, in business, before joining the parasites in Congress—“The political class and its sycophants utilize the political means to earn their keep. As libertarian economist Murray Rothbard reminded, these ‘are two mutually exclusive ways of acquiring wealth”—the economic means is honest and productive, the political means is dishonest and predatory…but oh so very effective.'”